"A Theme Park For Every Human Desire"

 The title is a quote from broadcaster Philip Adams about Sydney's Kings Cross where he partied in the 60s and 70s with the late media mogul Kerry Packer. Bizarrely, the Coca Cola sign that signals the beginning of 'The Cross' is now  National Trust listed.

Playwright and author Louis Nowra who has lived there for yonks has written a superb history of Kings Cross, a place he says : "attracts the sane and the mad… but that at times it’s hard to tell the difference."
The Cross is a no-holds barred place -backpackers, prostitutes, strippers, chefs, mad men, poets, beggars, booksellers, doctors, gangsters, sailors, musicians, drug traffickers, movie stars, eccentrics, judges and artists and a former Prime Minster (Paul Keating) live side by side in elegant terrace houses and cheap flats. And slam bang in the middle are George Miller's studios were he filmed Babe and Happy Feet.

Part flaneur, part historian and part eyewitness, Louis Nowra is the best possible guide to a place both real, and a state of mind. The Cross attracts hordes of tourists from all over Australia and the world. It's history began as a sort of melting pot for European expats- there are still gracious old Art Deco buildings lining Macleay Street packed with little old Hungarian and Polish ladies who fled from WW2. During the 20s it became the night time entertainment area offering every conceivable sin man desired- from strip clubs to bordellos, gay bars and 24 hour drinking clubs, illegal gambling casinos and even a few opium dens. The legendary Razor Gangs fought duels in the back streets over the cocaine trade.
 The illegal casinos were frequented by visiting celebrities and  local politicians including premier Sir Robert Askin who like a character out of Casablanca would have his winnings thrust into his hand and be ushered out a side door just before his own cops would raid the joint (mainly to collect bribes).

Norton & Goossens

The list of memorable characters is too long to chart: like the practising witch Rosaleen Norton who became entangled with the British conducter Sir Eugene Goossens (he attended her orgies) whose career crashed when he was stopped at customs retuning from the UK with a suitcase of porn for Ms Norton.

Mr Sin- Abe Saffron

 And Mr Sin Abe Saffron who came from humble beginnings to dominate The Cross for 40 years like an Antipodian Al Capone- just as powerful and deadly and finally like Capone, they could only get him for tax evasion. Owning a string of strip joints and the all male revue bar Les Girls and with a finger in every club and bar in the area, Abe made an art of bribing politicians and police including the Commissioner. And he saw off the US Mafia when they tried to muscle in on the action. When Saffron died he left around $30Million but it's rumoured there was another 30 or 40 hidden away.

Louis Nowra & wife Mandy Sayer

                                                                                                             
Things began to change in the 1960s with the mass influx of US  soldiers on 'R&R" leave from Vietnam and the appearance of Bernie Houghton reputedly the former boss of the infamous Air America who arrived with suitcases stuffed with cash and a new passport courtesy of his spook friends in ASIO. And with the opening of his Bourbon & Beefsteak 24 hour nightspot came hard drugs.

The unexpected can still happen in Kings Cross. Two years ago the Shuttle witnessed an impromptu one hour performance by comedian Robyn Williams at the Kit & Kaboodle when he arrived with actor Elijah Wood for dinner. The Beach Haus club became Leo Di Caprio and his entourage's favourite club of choice as he nightly commandeered 6 tables (leaving about 3 ).  And actor Russell Crowe could be often found popping in to the Portuguese Chicken bar around midnight after a munchies attack.
There's more, much much more in Nowra's book

The Kings Cross Harlot's Ball

We didn't make it to the Harlot's Ball but more of that later.

writers Louis Nowra & Mandy Sawyer

The Shuttle did however attend the launch of Mandy Sayer's latest work of fiction : Love In The Year Of Lunacy. It was held at an appropriate venue, the re-vamped Swans Club in Kings Cross in their bar, a haven of leather arm chairs and zebra print cushions.Mandy Sayer was brought up around the Cross and Darlinghurst-her dad was a jazz musician. She's married to writer Louis Nowra and together they make one of Australia's most formidable writing teams.

Nowra is the author of some of our most respected plays  The Marvellous Boy and The Emperor of Sydney and he's either won a host of awards or been nominated for them including the Miles Franklin. He's also written quite a few screenplays including the Hollywood epic K19 The Widow Maker and 2 of the top Australian films Cosi and Map of The Human Heart.

The Shuttle has only read one of Mandy's books-Velocity published in 2005-but it was hard to put down once started. Velocity was her second no-holds barred memoir and detailed life with her mother and her mum's abusive relationships and attempted suicides tinged with some wonderful and tender moments.

Love In The Year Of Lunacy is set in and around Kings Cross and Woolloomooloo during the 1940s and is described as:  "a moving, tender and compelling story of forbidden love set amid the devastation of war". After snapping up a copy at the launch we're looking forward to a jolly good read.

And the Harlots ?.

Our latest Hollywood discovery Jackie Weaver who is a pal of Sayer was to launch the book but got a sudden call to Los Angeles to sign for her first leading role starring opposite Rhys Ifans.

Into the breach stepped Australian folklore historian and musician Warren Fahey who can liven up any setting. As Mandy's book is set in the '40s Fahey sang us a ditty which he swore is from the era. It's full of dirty words but good fun. Listen below:

Love In The Year Of Lunacy is published by Allen & Unwin and is in book stores now.