"Little Black Bastard"

An eagle-eyed regular Whisper's reader (we have thousands) draws our attention to the photograph we published of the late Stephen Hawkings (with walking stick) marching to protest the Vietnam War with Vanessa Redgrave, writer Tariq Ali and others in the late 1960s.
Directly behind Hawkings and holding the banner is a very young Australian dancer, actor, director and choreographer Noel Tovey.
Tovey is part Aboriginal and enjoyed a very successful theatre career in the UK including teaching at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre and the world famous RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art). At one stage he also ran a successful Art Deco antique store in London.
His autobiography Little Black Bastard is recommended reading.
The title refers to an earlier life as a teen in Melbourne when he worked as a male hustler for a time . The insult was hurled at him by coppers as they shoved him into a cell after arresting him.
By co-incidence Whispers just borrowed Tovey's second book And Then I Found Me from the local library.

The last time Whispers encountered Noel was at an event at the Sydney Town Hall where the guest of honour was then PM John Howard. As Howard got up to speak Tovey hurled some choice insults at Howard over the Iraq War, and then stormed out of the building.

Vale Stephen Hawking

OK he's not a "social" figure as such but he's the real Mr Universe. It's heartening to read the numerous tributes to Stephen Hawking who was so inspirational for so many given his physical limitations.
 Whispers never actually met him but we did once attend a presser for him. It's very hard to describe the feeling of being in the same room as Hawking. It's not something you ever forget.What can we say..others are saying it so much better.
Here is one our favourite pix of the great scientist. It's Stephen Hawking (with the walking sticks) before he was confined to that wheel chair. He was attending a protest about the disastrous Vietnam War in the 1960s.
# As a callow youth Whispers wagged school to attend a similar anti-Vietnam War demonstration in Sydney as the visiting US President Lyndon Baines Johnson was to drive by. The then NSW (corrupt) premier Robin Askin had coined the phrase "all the way with LBJ" and accompanied the President in his limo. As the US President's motorcade sped down College Street a bunch of us demonstrators surged out onto the road and temporarily stopped the President's car.
Askin ordered his driver to "drive over the bastards !". Fortunately he didn't but it became a small moment in history.
# Note: the very beautiful actress Vanessa Redgrave on the right.