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Showing 1 - 11 of 11 items
By Jennie Rowley Lees. 1997
From an early age Franquin had been fascinated by hypnotism and, like his gypsy mother, had an uncanny knack of…
reading people's minds. With these talents and his showmanship he developed an entertainment that excited the curiosity of thousands. As a master showman, keeping up a ceaseless flow of speech, he enthralled his audiences with mind reading, memory skills and hypnotism. This is a fascinating book that describes a remarkable life and recreates the era of a great showman.By Cunxin Li. 2003
In 1961, three years of Mao's Great Leap Forward - along with three years of poor harvests - had left…
a rural China suffering terribly from disease and deprivation. Li Cunxin, his parents' sixth son, lived in a small house with twenty of his relatives and, along with the rest of his family, subsisted for years on the verge of starvation. But when he was eleven years old, Madame Mao decided to revive the Peking Dance Academy, and sent her men into the countryside searching for children to attend. Chosen on the basis of his physique alone, Li Cunxin was taken from his family and sent to the city for rigorous training. What follows is the story of how a small, terrified, lonely boy became one of the greatest ballet dancers in the world.By Michael Scott. 1991
Michael Scott, firmly entrenched in the world of opera, offers us a biography that not only details Maria Callas' personal…
life but critiques her artistic life as well. Drawing on his memories of her performances and interviews, and her recordings, he offers penetrating, sometimes controversial insights into her genius.By Mike Willesee. 2017
Mike Willesee has been Australia's most revered television journalist for over fifty years. And behind the lens, a businessman, powerbroker,…
trailblazer and enduring enigma. Son of a minister in the Whitlam cabinet, Willesee was a football star before finding fame as a crusading journalist, and Vietnam War correspondent, for This Day Tonight and Four Corners. Later, as creator of A Current Affair, his interviews became news in themselves, attracting blockbuster ratings, wielding huge political power and transforming him into an icon. In life, Willesee was a husband and father of six. He made a fortune in radio and television then lost it saving the Sydney Swans and battling his demons. After a live on-air interview with gunmen secured the release of two children being held hostage, Willesee left ACA. He made acclaimed documentaries on subjects as diverse as stigmata and ancient tribes. He survived a plane crash, found God and fought cancer. But he never stopped seeking truth. Memoirs is that truth -- the extraordinary story of Mike Willesee's epic life.By John Laws. 2017
John Laws is acknowledged as the greatest radio broadcaster Australia has produced. For more than 60 years he has ruled…
the airwaves, making the 'talk back' genre his own and inspiring a raft of imitators. Still going strong into his 80s, so much has been written about his life Laws, for the first time, tells his remarkable story in his own words. In Conversations with John Laws, 'The King of Radio' addresses the critics and controversies, his success and his radio rivals, and the famous and infamous people he met along the way . Johnny Cash, Roger Miller, Kerry Packer, John Singleton and a host of prime ministers and politicians. Not bad for a Depression-era kid evacuated to Sydney from Papua New Guinea during World War II; one who suffered from polio as child (and again as an adult), was a loner at school and then lost his father when he was just 15 years old. From this 'nothing', as Laws saw his early life, he made something special.By Kitty Flanagan. 2018
One of Australia's favourite and most multi-talented entertainers, Kitty Flanagan, provides hilarious and honest life advice in this candid collection…
of cautionary tales. Kitty Flanagan has been locked in an industrial freezer in Western Australia, insulted about the size of her lady parts in Singapore and borne witness to the world's most successful wife swap in suburban Sydney. It's these valuable lessons from The University of Life that have taught her so many things, including the fact that cliches like 'The University of Life' are reeeally annoying. In these funny, true stories, Kitty provides advice you didn't even know you needed. Useful tips on how not to get murdered while hitch-hiking, how to break up with someone the wrong way, and the right way, why it's important to keep your top on while waitressing, and why women between the ages of thirty-seven and forty-two should be banned from internet dating.By Amanda Keller. 2015
By turns hilarious and moving, Amanda Keller takes us on a nostalgia filled journey through her life. From her childhood…
in sunny Brisbane to her daggy teen years in suburban Sydney. Then onto heady college days in Bathurst, where wine was called 'claret' and came in a box, and finally to establishing a stellar career in TV and radio. Along the way she falls in love with 'a nice Kiwi boy' who becomes her husband and she tells the story of the arrival of their two hard-won sons. But without too many icky bits. Amanda also takes us behind the scenes of her TV career - from the challenge of turning on a typewriter at Simon Townsend's Wonder World! to the fun of travelling the globe for Beyond 2000, despite having no scientific background and absolutely no sense of direction. More recently she was able to officially represent an entire generation on Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation and share a couch with three blokes and the odd snake on The Living Room. Amanda loves 'the wireless' and looks back on twenty years of radio. From sharing a mic with Andrew Denton on Triple M to topping the breakfast show ratings with Jonesy on WSFM. Vivid, funny and hugely entertaining, Natural Born Keller will have you laughing out loud, nodding in recognition and occasionally bawling uncontrollably - in a cathartic sort of way.By Dean Murphy, Paul Hogan. 2020
Paul Hogan first appeared on our screens in 1971 as a 'tap dancing knife thrower' on channel 9's New Faces.…
The then father of four and Sydney Harbour Bridge rigger from Granville did it as a dare, but when the network's switchboard lit up, he was invited back. So popular was he with viewers, Hogan became a regular on Mike Willesee's A Current Affair. The rest, as they say, is history. In collaboration with his business partner and best friend John Cornell (who played his sidekick, Strop), he went on to become Australia's favourite TV comedian. His hugely popular comedy shows and appearances in unforgettable and ground-breaking ads for cigarettes, beer and tourism, came to personify Australia and Australians here and overseas, helping to change the perception of who we are as people and as a nation. Then, in 1986, Crocodile Dundee, the movie he conceived, co-wrote and starred in, became an international smash, grossing more than a billion dollars in today's money and earning its star an Oscar nomination. Despite the fact Hoges claimed to be 'retired', many more movies followed, including Crocodile Dundee II, Lightning Jack, Almost an Angel and Charlie & Boots. But even as his star rose ever higher, he always expected someone to grab him by the arm and say, 'What are you doing here? You're just a bloody rigger!' The Tap Dancing Knife Thrower is a funny and candid account of the astonishing life of 'one lucky bastard', as Hoges describes himself.By Maggie Kirkpatrick. 2019
What happens when you take a half-orphan from Newcastle with stars in her eyes eventually give her the chance to…
play a sadistic, psychopathic prison guard in a cult TV series for 389 episodes? She turns into a household name, that's what. But there's so much more to Maggie than Prisoner's favourite freak Joan Ferguson. Over an acting career that spans almost six decades Maggie Kirkpatrick has established herself as one of Australia's most respected actors with highlights that include war survivor Bridie Cartwright in Shoehorn Sonata and master-manipulator witch Madame Morrible in Wicked. She's also been a political activist, wife, mother, grandmother and friend to some of the most renowned professionals in the entertainment industry in Australia and the U.K. Maggie also shares publicly, for the first time, the full story of her very public legal battle and the consequences of that battle that she's still living with today. The Gloves Are Off is an engaging, amusing and sometimes harrowing tale from one of the grand old dames of the Australian acting scene.By Graeme Blundell. 2003
Graham Kennedy, the King of Comedy, reigned over Australian television for forty years as talk-show host, game-show presenter and iconoclastic…
jester. He shared the microphone with Nicky Whitta on Melbourne’s favourite radio program, Nicky and Graham, in the 1950s, then went on to become the shining light of Australian TV, hosting In Melbourne Tonight, Blankety Blanks and Coast to Coast. Looking for a new challenge, Graham Kennedy moved into films and starred in Don’s Party and The Club among others. Graeme Blundell traces the career of the star from working-class Melbourne, who tilted Australia’s television to an unforgettable angle with his disrespectful buffoonery, then mysteriously disappeared into the Southern Highlands of New South Wales.By Johnny Ruffo. 2022
A rags-to-riches memoir of a cheeky tradie who stole Australia's hearts on The X Factor and Home and Away, then…
faced the biggest battle of his life: brain cancer. Johnny Ruffo came to Australia's attention when he entered The X Factor in 2011. A concreter with a cheeky smile and long-held passion for music, he won millions of hearts and eventually placed third. Sony Music rushed to sign him up and he was offered a guest spot on Australia's favourite soap, Home and Away, which turned into a three-year role. But the sudden rise to fame took its toll. Johnny found it hard to resist the weekend-long parties, drugs, alcohol and fair-weather friends that came with the territory. He had started suffering from severe headaches when his girlfriend, Tahnee, noticed something was also wrong with his speech. Johnny was rushed to hospital, where doctors prepped him for immediate surgery to deal with a 7-centimetre-long tumour. Johnny was ultimately diagnosed with a rare brain cancer, with which - despite a period of remission, he still battles today. But in a strange way Johnny thinks the cancer actually saved his life ...