What dance was banned from the Port Albert Mechanics Institute in the 1960’s? Did a hermit really used to live in the roof? Is a Juvenile Fancy Dress Ball just adults dressed up as kids? We prise the hall door open to answer these and many other questions as Hall Stories comes in with the tide to Port Albert.
(Thanks to the Wedge Theatre, Sale & the Wellington Shire Council, for making this leg of the Hall Stories tour possible)
Check out the the ABC News story about The Stomp that was referenced in the podcast.
While The Stomp began in the USA, it was only in Australia where it became a social phenomenon. At its peak, a National Stomp Dance Competition took place at Lane Cove in Sydney, attracting 45,000 people.
(John O’Callaghan (drums) with his brother Bob (saxophone) & his dad (magazines). This was John’s first proper drum kit.)
(John O’Callaghan with the surviving piece of the drum kit that his dad made him in 1944. It was cut from an old Mallee Heater)
(The Rebels - John, Bob, Jane & Noel. This was in the 1960’s heyday of John’s own band)
(Carole & Wynne Hobson at their Port Albert home, overlooking the car park where they first met)
( John in full flight on stage at the Port Albert Hall Stories show. Thanks to the Rotary Club Yarram for giving him a lift)
(Preparing the locals to recreate the ‘Port Albert Stomp Incident’ of 1963)
(The Stomp re-enactment was so good, we danced the HDMI cable out of the projector)
(The author with Wynne & Carole Hobson after the show)
(The author’s brothers Paul & Chris, broke up their South Gippsland golf trip with a night out at the Port Albert Mechanics Institute)
(Port Albert Regatta)
(The hall as it is today, looking towards where the stage used to be)
(Similar view when the stage was still in place. No sign of the murals … or the hermit. Note the metal poles that claimed many hapless victims during the modern waltz)
(The author, front row second from the left, during his school days at Alberton West State School)
