Strangest story of the week

Broadcaster Phillip Adams who chairs the Late Night Live program on the ABC's Radio National is a particular favourite of Whispers. Each day when we are traveling by car we avidly listen to Adam's show when it is re-broadcast. His mixture of guests with their take on world affairs is always fascinating as is Adam's presentation.

But now word reaches us the Adams and an ABC crew have been banned from visiting India. They have been denied visas after planning the trip for weeks. Why? This is a real mystery. Many consider Adams a bit of an old 'lefty'. Indeed former Prime Minister John Howard on one of his regular attacks upon the ABC and the (ill-conceived) view it was too "left wing" famously pondered "where is the right-wing Philip Adams.?"
Australia's media seems to have ignored this bizarre insult which can only be political but India's Hindustan Times has the scoop.

Whispers has spotted Adams around town in the past but he now appears to have retired to the country after selling his magnificent Paddington home. On one memorable occasion we attended a party in Queen Street Woolahra for the launch of the famed Prince Lorenzo Montesini's (left) autobiography, wittingly launched by Philip.

"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

What Happened To Madame Arcati ?

She was there one day-the next she had simply vanished into cyberspace.
For 5 years the Madame Arcati blog spot has been a thorn in the side of the British publishing world and such a success that the blog drew an envious 6000 readers a day (the Shuttle hovers around 1200-1800).

Madame Arcati cast a cynical eye over the often pompous print world of UK newspapers and magazines and it's fair to say she would have had a healthy club of critics but they were outweighed by a significant fan base around the world that included some of Britain's top writers and journalists.

The man who some say held control over Madame Arcati's career, writer and film critic Victor Olliver  (right) isn't saying much but he has in the past expressed some dissatisfaction with the world of blogging and twice shelved the blog for long periods. But now the whole thing has vanished seemingly along with it's extensive archives.

On his website Olliver says : "The old Madame Arcati site on Blogger is no more. Duncan Fallowell wrote me earlier today asking whether MA had been censored again because he couldn't find it. I had no idea. Blogger/Google sent no warning or explanatory note. So, all of Madame's musings since 2006 now reside in the colon of some beardie's worst imaginings somewhere across the Atlantic."

Sceptic

"Two days ago I set up a new Madame Arcati here - is this not a marvellous display of intuitive timing? How could have I 'known' that the old Madame was about to shoot up the astral colon?" 
                                                                               
The Shuttle team  (bar the office moggie Mildred Pierce) are firm believers in all things esoteric. Soon we will be commissioning a chart based on the stars from Mr Olliver. It will make a good dinner table topic for the next get-together with our favourite ABC Radio broadcaster but confirmed sceptic Phillip Adams.

Madame Arcati can still be read on the excellent British website Anorak.co.uk or in England's oldest and continuous published magazine The Lady.

Visit the Victor Olliver Astrology website here.