Beefing Up The Bourbon

The legendary Bourbon & Beefsteak in Kings Cross has re-surfaced with a swell opening party and endless Laurent Perrier. As The Bourbon, it looks like they got it right. A friendly atmosphere, good food and drinks and a great layout with live bands 7 days of the week brings back the old days when the Bourbon was the place to end a night in Sydney, usually at around 3am when you could party on until the morning.

Kerry Chikarovski & Peter McGauran

long legs at The Bourbon

 Opened in 1967 by the mysterious Bernie Houghton who arrived in town with a suitcase full of cash, for the next 40 years the B&B reigned supreme with visiting celebs like Frank Sinatra, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie and Madonna taking advantage of it's 24 hour license. One night cricketer Ricky Ponting even danced with drag queen Carlotta. Houghton said he was an ex-US Air force man but many claimed he was a CIA agent or ran Air America in Vietnam : whatever his background he was the perfect host.

He managed to secure a permanent visa via ASIO  for services rendered. Houghton had connections and the B&B became a hang-out for holidaying CIA agents and local mobsters. Amongst it's bizarre decor with stuffed bears, monogrammed Zippo lighters, Confederate flags and Indian mementos was Houghton's own M16 which he claimed saved his life many a time in  S.E.Asia.
The Bourbon is now owned by Coogee Bay Hotel  owner Christopher Cheung who snapped up the derelict property ( Houghton died in 2005) for 22M.

dance partners

Bernie Houghton

Vale Edwin Duff 1928-2012

He was regular sight around Kings Cross where his name is immortalised in stone on the footpaths- the diminutive jazz singer Edwin Duff who passed away last Monday at a nursing home in Vaucluse at the age of 84.

Barry Crocker & Edwin Duff

Edwin emigrated from Scotland in 1938 at the age of 10 as a 'ten pound Pom". On board the ship he won a talent quest impressing the audience with his soulful voice. One of those in the audience was associated with the Melbourne radio station 3KZ. He invited Edwin to sing on air with a group of children and he was such a success that he was soon invited to sing in variety concerts. leaving school at the age of 14 he became a regular entertainer in coffee shops, restaurants and clubs.

During the 1960s and 70s Edwin was part of trio of singers who appeared regularly on TV shows including Graham Kennedy Tonight in Melbourne and the Don Lane Show in Sydney. One of the them, Norm Erskine became a club regular while the other Tony Monopoly went to the UK where he found fame as the winner of the Opportunity Knocks talent quest. All 3 teemed up for Edwin's 60th birthday in 1988 for a concert at the East's Leagues Club.

Edwin was small in stature at 5'3" but his smooth jazz vocals made him a popular act around the smarter Sydney nightclubs like Quo Vardis, Abe Saffron's Roosevelt Room and Denis Wong's Chequers where Duff crooned one night for an hour along with Frank Sinatra. And at the age of 72 he hired the Darlinghurst Theatre and appeared for 5 nights to a capacity audience. Today he was cremated with singers Barry Crocker and Delilah officiating at the service.
Here is Edwin singing with Peter Kaye, host of the show Saturday Night Live.

Drag Star Carmen Laid to Rest

Some mourners flew across the Tasman for her funeral as the legendary drag star and Kings Cross identity Carmen Rupe was laid to rest today at Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney.

Carmen died last week of kidney failure at the age of 75.
At her service at the Sydney Anglican Maori Church in Redfern almost 250 mourners crammed in to celebrate Carmen's life and were treated to same memorable stories.

Such as when Carmen was summonsed by the New Zealand Parliament in 1977 to explain herself for for claiming on a TV chat show that there were many gay New Zealand MPs. How times have changed. Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark sent a letter of condolence and NZ television was there to record her funeral.

Lifetime friend Jacquie Grant, looking out across the congregation said "this looks like the best drag show in town"
Jacquie described how during the 1960s and 70s she and Carmen were hauled in by the Kings Cross police many times when they were spotted walking down the street in drag. Sometimes the police were brutal, sometimes very very friendly, but the 2 spent many stints out at Long Bay Jail.

Koko D'Vyne

Ribena arrives

Friend Ribena said "Carmen's life was theatre in action, so her funeral was always going to be a colourful event."
Said friend Koko D'Vyne:“It is a very sad day because who else do we know that was able to do things that Carmen did? Who was bold enough who was strong enough?”
Famous Oxford Street cabaret star Monique Kelly said :“I used to say ‘you’re to blame for all this influx of drag queens from New Zealand’,”
Carmen joined Abe Saffron's Les Girls in the 1950s and was a popular performer there during the 60's and 70s.

not all tears

 She was way ahead of her time and when she stood for mayor of her home town Wellington in the 1970s she advocated for gay and indigenous rights, legalised prostitution and abortion. Along the way she met Frank Sinatra's granddaughter Deana who became a pal.


As the mourners formed a guard of honour, commandeering the street and stopping traffic, Carmen's bright red casket slowly disappeared from view in a white hearse for her final trip to Rookwood to a rousing cheer and a soloist singing her favorite song Le Vie En Rose.

Finally : Why Cranky Frankie Spat The Dummy

Frank & Barbara

It was 1973 and Frank Sinatra had arrived in Australia for a tour. Within a day all hell had broken loose and Frank suddenly found himself holed up in the presidential suite of the Boulevard Hotel in Kings Cross.

Unions around the country had joined forces and refused to service Sinatra's tour which included stage hands and local musicians.  Airline refuelers refused to service Sinatra's jet and traffic controllers said they would walk off if his jet attempted to leave . Taxi drivers. limousine drivers even the hotel staff including room service refused to attend to Sinatra's needs.

Dennis Hopper as Sinatra

Frank Sinatra was stranded in Australia for the foreseeable future. 

The previous night Sinatra had given a concert and began to discuss the Australian media with the audience. He called female reporters "$2 hookers" and that's when the ban began. The incident was made into a film - The Night We Called It a Day produced by Oscar winner Emile Sherman with the late Dennis Hopper playing Sinatra and Joel Edgerton the young show biz promoter who lured him to the Antipodes.

Bob Hawke

Eventually the trade union boss and later prime minister Bob Hawke brokered a deal after a day's drinking with Sinatra and his manager Mickey Rudin (with the Boulevard's room service attendants relenting to deliver liqueur at Hawke's request). Sinatra agreed to give a charity concert and apologise. He gave the concert but not the apology and when his jet taxied down the Mascot runway the following day traffic controllers ordered "abort abort" but Sinatra ordered his pilot to ignore them and the jet departed for San Francisco.

Sinatra's widow Barbara Sinatra ( played by Melanie Griffith in the film) has finally told her version of the story in her book My Life With Frank Sinatra and  revealed new details although they have been hinted at for years but never before written about.. And it appears Frank may have had good reason to insult journalists.

A female writer for a popular magazine  talked hotel staff into letting her into Sinatra's suite claiming she was Barbara Sinatra. She confronted Sinatra in his bedroom while he was resting and fired off numerous questions while trying to take a photo on a small camera. Sinatra went ballistic and yelled at her to get out of the room.

As the journalist later told friends he said "I didn't order a fucking hooker and if I had it wouldn't be a dog like you now get the fuck out of here ". The hackette said "you may as well answer a few questions now I'm here" at which Sinatra yelled "you're nothing but a godadammned cheap hooker" and flung some notes from his pocket at her. The journalist, now realising retreat was the only option grabbed one note as a souvenir-an Australian $2 note-briefly wondered if he would autograph it but thinking better of it, stuffed it in her pocket and fled.

That night she witnessed the storm she created when Frankie went on stage and referred to her (and others) as "$2 hookers!"

Here is some rare footage of the media chasing Frank :


Here's Old Blue Eyes with The Lady Is A Tramp :

Everything Old Is New Again

"Everything old is new again" goes the line from the late Peter Allen song. Always has been really. A great example-in the last ten years Playboy Clubs have been closing down across the USA but in London, a new Playboy Club has just opened.

It reminds the Shuttle of the heyday of the Playboy Clubs. We've only been to two.  Arriving at the New York club once with 3 friends for a party thrown by Hugh Hefner we were mistaken for Abba. We also attended a few product launches at the former London Playboy Club in Mayfair run by Victor Lownes and once visited the Playboy Mansion in LA.

Probably the biggest ever Playboy party was the 25th year anniversary party thrown by  Lownes at the Playboy mansion Stocks House in Hertfordshire. It went for 3 days and many guests were ferried in by helicopters. Victor Lownes ran the European Playboy operations for Hefner but had a falling out with him in the '90s and was fired.

He was always good at the required quips. Once asked what a playboy was he said "someone who is probably having more sex than you". It was all a fantasy of course but the whole charade worked during the Playboy hey days from the 60's through to the 80's.

Stocks in Hertfordshire

The LA Playboy Mansion which can now be rented out for corporate parties was even more of a fantasy. Hefner boldly sold a dream built on tack and the idea if you could only crack the inner circle sex was yours for the taking. Once you did get 'in' the Bunnies were very prudish and strict rules prevented them from fraternising with guests on pain of sacking.

The LA mansion was like a Disneyland  ride-looked exciting from the outside but disappointing once you got up close and the cracks were revealed. It was full of dreadful reproduction antique furniture of the worst taste. The rocks in the grotto swimming pool seemed to be fake. The whole place was tired and grubby looking.

At the UK 25th anniversary party every hotel, motel and boarding house in the surrounding area of Stocks was booked out by guests. Not that the rooms were always used. At the party there were a series of marquees- permanent food tents, a champagne bar and a non stop discotheque. They were open for the entire 3 days. Most of it passed in a blur and the Shuttle never made it back to our booked rooms. We collapsed in Stocks living room for a few hours kip at a time.

There was always a two tier guest regime at Stocks. The general party goers had the run of the house and grounds while a handful of honoured guests were entitled to visit the upstairs floor.

A Bunny Re-union

And they weren't always celebrities who made it upstairs to drink with Lownes or Playboy boss Hugh Hefner who only stayed for one day.

Amongst business cronies of Lownes, Tony Curtis and Rod Stewart would be Upstairs while Downstairs were newer stars of the day including Star Wars' actor Mark Hamil. who the Shuttle shared a spa bath with along with half a dozen bunnies !
Not very PC but who cares ?

## "The Boy From Oz " was a huge Broadway hit and made Hugh Jackman into a star. Based on the life of Australian singer Peter Allen it captured the exciting performances of Allen who was always over the top and as camp as a pink Koala Bear. A big favourite with other celebrities his shows were packed out with performers like Elton John, Barry Manilow and even Frank Sinatra who came to paid homage to one of the US top live performers. Here is his big hit 'I Go To Rio"

Partying at Swifts, Babs & Frank Sinatra

To Swifts-the spledifourous folly of a mansion in Darling Point.

Nearby Wolesley Road in Point Point  may well be the  "9th most expensive street in the world"  but Swifts is the most valuable private home on the continent.

It was for sale about 10 years ago for $40M with no takers. It's valued at around $85M today, clipping home loan's boss John Symonds recently built Point Piper house that cost a whopping $70M.

 It comes with several acres of park lands and a  mansion that has it's own ballroom with a Juliet balcony. Swifts is owned by the Moran family who have a nursing home empire. Doug and Greta Moran paid a lazy $12M for the property in 1997 and spent another ten restoring the derelict house.

 Our spy disguised as a potted aspidistra tells us the house has been divided into 4 apartments with the feuding family members living in the different quarters. The Morans have had their family disputes but at least they have a nice pad and the kids haven't left home.

Swifts was built in 1841 by the Eton educated Sir Robert Tooth who made his fortune from brewing beer in the colonies. He wanted a bigger ballroom than the NSW Governor and he got one. Sir Robert eventually retired to London where King George V created the Tooth baronetcy in honour of the families charitable works. Tooth was also one of the first to give his employees paid holidays, sickness pay and a whole range of benefits. 

The wonderful hand-painted on glass adverts for Tooth's beer that adorned hundreds of pubs (above) were mostly destroyed during the 1970's-the few remaining ones are worth a fortune.

Edmund Resch,an Austrian born brewer purchased the property from Sir Robert but never quite enjoyed the social cache of the Tooths. Edmund was considered rough and common.  It eventually became the home of the Catholic Archbishop before falling into ruin and being rescued by the Morans.



singer Wes Carr & Charlotte Gregg

On Friday the Cornucopia Committee held their annual charity garden party at Swifts. These 'society' charities are often given a rough time in the media but they really do good works. Everything is donated- from services to food, alcohol (Pommery champagne) and the committee ladies work really hard raising hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to go towards child protection.

The wonderful opera singer Mark Vincent sang (as did Maria Venuti) racing identity Angela Belle McSweeney MC'd and Texan born designer Charlie Brown organised a fashion show. A rain shower failed to dampen spirits although the ballroom furniture supplanted around the garden was hastily brought inside.



a sun shower

Nor was there a faux pas like the one in 1994 when the Cornucopia's honorary international ambassador Barbara Sinatra was presented to an audience on a boat cruise.

Babs was in town with her husband Frank Sinatra when she agreed to speak on a summer day cruise around the harbour. She was well known for her charity work in the USA and Australia especially for raising funds to help abused and neglected kids.

As she sat at the head table on the boat the time came for Mrs Sinatra to give her speech. The MC, a rather dotty lady got up to announce her and after shushing the audience said :

"I would now like to introduce Mrs Barbara Sinatra. Barbara and Frank Sinatra have been heavily involved in child abuse all their lives "!!



Will Oscar Be Kind to Emile ?




Emile Sherman (second left) collects a Bafta for The Kings Speech

 

While the hopes of locals are centred on Geoffrey Rush and Jackie Weaver at today's Academy Awards event, one family is hoping The King's Speech comes up trumps for their boy.

Emile Sherman produced the film and was behind a number of Australian films many of which sank from the box office without trace. While Rabbit Proof Fence did well in the European markets, others like $9.99, Candy, The Kings of Mykonos went straight to video after a short theatrical release.

The disastrous The Night We Called it A Day which starred Dennis Hopper as Frank Sinatra and was based on a real life incidence when Cranky Franky was holed up in a Sydney hotel unable to leave after unions put a blanket ban on his movements when he publicly insulted female journalists, was a major box office bomb.

Sherman is the son of noted Sydney philanthropists Brian and Gene Sherman and Emile runs his production office out of mum Gene's Sherman art gallery in Paddington.



Emile's parents- Gene & Brian Sherman



The family are all vegetarians, a trend begun by sister Ondine when she discovered at age 8 that meat came from animals. She refused point blank  to ever eat it again and the family soon followed suit.

Brian Sherman who sold his Equitlink, the biggest private investment company in Australia for billions of dollars  in 2000 now concentrates on charitable ventures and in particular animal causes. He donates millions of dollars to Animal Liberation.

Brian, Gene and Ondine will be watching this morning to see if Emile makes that winning walk to the Oscar's stage.

                                        ********************************
Stop Press : the whoops of joy emanating from the Sherman Galleries in Paddington could be heard from streets away this afternoon as a small family gathering watched the Academy Awards  as Emile Sherman proudly collected an Oscar for The King's Speech.

5 Australians collected Oscars and it's a toss up whether director Tom Hooper should be regarded as one-he collected an award for Best Film with The King's Speech -he's a dual citizen with an Australian mother -who, as in the tale he recounted at the ceremoney was the inspiration behind the film.

exclusive : Mardi Gras Singer Update



Chris Crocker

While the Daily Telegraph brings us the news that Rhianna won't be appearing at the 2011 Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras (just as Dame Nellie Melba and Frank Sinatra won't either) the Shuttle can tell you who will be appearing at the March 5th after-parade party.

US singer Alexis Jordon will be the star attraction . Jordon first found fame on the 2005 America's Got Talent.

As we reported recently, drag star Courtney Act will also appear as will the Internet sensation Chris Crocker.

Fear & Loathing in Oprah Land

She swept into Australia and took the country by storm. Well certainly the media that is who all sang from the one song sheet as the Oprah Winfrey tour Downunder descended upon the nation with over 300 guests and 200 staff (and Gayle of course) and spread to points all over the land while the collective readers of the nation's tabloids were treated to every thrilling encounter with a wallaby, barbecue or rutting Koala and so on.

No-one could possibly deny that Oprah did the country proud with her TV specials recorded at the Sydney Opera House which were broadcast in the US last month. It remains to be seen if the expected tourist flow-on is forthcoming and certainly having what could be the world's most powerful media personality spruiking for Australia has to be seen as a major publicity coup.

But can one image what it's like when that  power is turned against you ?.

The writer Kitty Kelley found out when she published her best selling book Oprah : A Biography. Doors slammed shut all over the place as she details in this piece just published in The American Scholar titled  Unauthorised But Not Untrue:

 "I had felt the chill of media disdain when my publisher began booking my promotion tour. Larry King barred the door to his CNN talk show because, he said, he didn’t want to offend Oprah. Barbara Walters did the same thing, proclaiming on The View that the only reason people wrote unauthorized biographies was to dig “dirt.” There was no room for me at Charlie Rose’s roundtable and no comfy seat next to David Letterman. The late-night comic had recently reconciled with Oprah after a 16-year rift and did not want to risk another. On my 10-city tour I made few, if any, appearances on ABC-owned-and-operated stations because most of the stations that broadcast The Oprah Winfrey Show are owned by ABC or its affiliates. No one wanted to displease the diva of daytime television"

There is much much more in her article as Kelley writes about researching biographies of the Bush family, Frank Sinatra, Jacqueline Kennedy and more. Read the full story here.

courtesy Kitty Kelley (c)

Oscar winner at the Bob-a-thon

Only ex-Prime Minister Bob Hawke could draw an Oscar winning actor to a book launch. Geoffrey Rush confirmed he had always been a Hawke fan. It was also an opportunity to meet for the first time the new Prime Minister Julia Gillard-a smaller, prettier woman in real life with amazing white porcelain like skin

PM Julia Gillard with Bob'n'Blanche

Hawke, The Prime Minister  is the next instalment on Hawke's life covering his 9 years as PM and is written by his wife, Blanche d'Alpuget. Her first biography of  Hawke remains the best selling political biography of all time in Australia.

Hawke fan

Hawke is a unique creature almost universally loved even by his political enemies. At 81 he still draws an admiring crowd anywhere he goes. When Bob gets out on the hustings for the Labor Party during an election campaign it can be pandemonium. With the image of the average Aussie, Hawke is anything but. 

After attending 3 universities including 2 years at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, Hawke went straight into the top spot at the ACTU without ever having to hustle for a job He became the unionist's hero when unions  were the most powerful force in the country. 

An example of his power was when Frank Sinatra visited Australia for concerts in 1972 and referred to female reporters as "$2 hookers". Unions closed ranks and refused to re-fuel Sinatra's plane. Frank found himself stuck in the penthouse suite of the Boulevard Hotel without even room service while his manager Jilly Rizzo fumed. Hawke was called into conciliate and told Cranky Frankie that of he didn't have wings he'd never leave the country without apologising first.

Peter Garret at the book launch

B1 & B2

Over a day long drinking session a deal was thrashed out with Sinatra agreeing to give 2 charity performances.
Later Sinatra was to tell friends "that Hawke could have given the guys in Chicago lessons".

The episode was later made into a film-The Night They Called It A Day with the late Dennis Hopper playing Frank.

Hawke's forte was conciliation. Preventing strikes before they happened whilst getting wages up. Big Business loved him and got behind him in his election campaign for PM. Along the way he saved huge swathes of Australia and Antarctica as national parks, was instrumental in ending war in Cambodia, formed APEC, sent troops to the first Gulf War, actively opposed the later invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

An example of Hawkie's amazing charisma was at an American Australian Association dinner about 8 years ago. Then PM John Howard was the guest of honour. When Hawke walked into the room it was electric. He was quickly surrounded by ambassadors from all over Asia. The US Ambassador, a George Bush Jr pal warmly embraced him. When Howard arrived he was like any other guest. A waiter with  a plate hors d'œuvre would have gained more attention. As the politician Gareth Evans once said scathingly-"when Howard walks into a room, it's like he just walked out of another one". No wonder the cricket world wants anyone but him to be the new boss.

Next Sunday in the Hawke-a-thon is the premiere of Hawke, the Movie. A gripping look at the tussle between he and Paul Keating who eventually deposed him in a party room coup, just like Julia Gillard who launched the book, did with Kevin Rudd.

And on facebook you can join the Bring Back Bob Hawke page.

Hawke The Prime Minister is published by Melbourne University Press


Hawke (the film) starring Richard Roxburgh premiers on Sunday night at 8.30pm on the Ten Network