Dear Michal ...

With regards to the statement you are doing your article on, there is another factor to consider apart from our predominately British heritage ...

Yes, we tended to regard "imported" entertainment as best, though our own homegrown entertainment stars always did well.

There was also the tyranny of distance, so we had to develop a lot of our own entertainers, as the British and Americans didn't want to travel this far.

JC (James Cassius) Williamson, who was our first and probably grandest entrepreneur, was actually American, who started JC Williamson Theatres in 1876 and staged Shakespeare, Opera, Comedy plays, Gilbert and Sullivan, and Ballet all around the country in a network of his own theatres. He gave birth to many permanent companies still around today.

We also had a very healthy variety circuit before WW1.

But it really was feature film where we led the world ... the world's first 11 feature-length films were made in Australia while Hollywood was still an orange grove. The fact that 5 of those 11 were about bushrangers (bandits) maybe says something about our roots.

We have always been an amalgam of both British and American Entertainment. Our country was settled/invaded as a result of the American revolution in 1776 and we, too, were a dumping ground for the detris of the British Empire.

We were a "frontier" colony and only really accellerated when gold was discovered at almost the same time as the big California gold rush. In fact, many Australians went there ... it was closer than the UK ... and a lot of Americans came here. There are a lot of parallels between Australia and America in that respect.

I would say today our entertainment culture is a lot more American influenced than British ... this will get me into trouble ... and some of the most popular radio, stage and TV stars who settled here came from the US.

I hope these comments will stimulate debate, Michal, but I'm sure it will add to your body of research!

Cheers,

Randall Berger
Melbourne