18 Nights of One Night Stands
by Dorlores Dunbar
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Long ago in Far North Queensland, a tiny exotic girl named Dolores twirled
between tamarind trees and on tabletops. She sang as she skipped and whirled in
the tropical sunshine, a vocal gift inherited from her opera mother Kay Zammit,
a celebrated radio and Tivoli Circuit soprano.
Kay was the eldest of ten offspring of Maltese 'Sugar King' Paul Zammit and
his wife Pauline, who had landed on these sunburnt shores with zilch and pioneered
a cane sugar industry.
Their family had grown such that, for some of their scion's households, cash
got tight. But they scraped by without much need of pounds, shillings and pence
in this mid-century lucky country.
They were tough but rosy times. Cairns, now a major tourist destination,
was a sleepy hollow without so much as a tourist bureau.
Mum Kay had married war veteran Bill Ernst, father of the author Dolores
Ernst, eldest of five, who grew up seeking not fame nor fortune and without
delusion of grandeur. Just that yearning to stand on a stage and feel the joy
of applause.
She loved climbing trees, picking avocados, romping in sand with cousins,
searching for pearl shells, fishing, catching mud crabs in mangroves and
listening to the Bakelite radio. But her passion from the get-go was
ballet, from age four.
Any Australian showbusiness insider worth their salt knows of this
stalwart. Her motto, 'happy to be here, easy to work with' has ushered in
countless foot lit journeys.
At an astonishing 'eighty years young', Dolores Dunbar invokes the might
to proffer this charming tome. Penned without literary trickery, her
candour and humility strike at the heart.
Her anecdotal tenderness cloaks a theatrical behemoth. We
embrace her trusty voice with its sprinkle of wry musings.
Dolores. Here is her tale:
After a strict yet blissful Catholic girlhood, her grownup action
kicks off at the dawn of '60s. Word is out that country music legend Slim Dusty
needs a girl to sing and dance in his roadshow, doubling as a magician's
'boom ching girl' alongside a rope-spinning cowgirl and bikini-clad juggler.
Teenage Dolores is up for this, anything for a foot in the door to
her dream. And bravo, she gets the gig. Hence the title '18 Months of
One Night Stands'.
So ensues a muddy 18-month convoy. Through outback bush
tracks, backwoods and boondocks beyond the proverbial black stump. Townships
with no building in sight.
Their loyal audiences comprise cattlemen, miners, barefoot desert
folk squatting on floors with suckling babies and nary a word of English. Parched
of entertainment in dusty one-horse-towns without so much as a communal TV, mobs
hear via bush telegraph and show up in droves, waving 20-pound notes at the
window when booked out. Some even muck in.
Galvanised iron venues with bare earth floors. Stages strung
from painter's planks across 44-gallon drums. 100-watt bulbs as overheads. Old
halls. Amp leads crossing streets from ramshackle pubs. Torch-shining crowds.
Spot the loo if you can.
Showbiz apprenticeship in all its stark glory.
We feel their enterprise, sweat and camaraderie. The remoteness
of a wide brown land at the end of the earth, before mass commercial travel or
imponderables like internet or smartphones.
This isolation simmers in Dunbar's subtext, aglow with nostalgia
and no hint of grievance.
Braving the city smoke, she does those humdrum jobs in this quest for the footlights, 'paying one's dues', biding her time, eyeing
what chances arise.
In a doctor's office. The handkerchief section at McWhirters
store in Brisbane. Sportswear at Bolands in Cairns. Does shows with Cairns
Choral Society.
Tries varying posts, feeling misplaced here and
there. But tenacity is paramount. It's the end goal that counts.
Ambitious if homesick, she settles on a commission desk post in
the hairdressing salon of Sydney's Farmers department store.
A kindly supervisor's social connections lead to formal singing
lessons from famed contralto Evelyn Hall de Izal, which in turn lands an audition
for fabled producers J.C. Williamson's, known as The Firm or J.C.W.
Her first musical is in the ensemble of Funny Girl at Sydney's
ornate old Theatre Royal. She discovers the not so ornate cold, grubby dressing
rooms and bathrooms of the era.
Dolores cuts her teeth and earns her stripes the way it was done
then. Show boys drill her on greasepaint, eyelash glue and where to pin
hairpieces. The hoofer sisterhood helps too.
Funny Girl runs forever, moving to
Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth.
At Her Majesty's Melbourne, as their companies co-dine between
shows, she meets fellow Queenslander Rod Dunbar from Oliver! across the
road at the Comedy Theatre. All of pop and TV know this handsome ex rock singer,
a onetime regular on Channel Seven’s Sing Sing Sing. Expanding into
musical theatre, Rod is already in principal roles.
They marry and stay together for life, until Rod dies aged 77,
meanwhile welcoming a beautiful son into the world.
The pair deftly manage separate stage careers some of the time.
Dolores appears sans hubby in My Fair Lady, Applause,
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Les Miserables. In her
widowed 70s, she joins a luminary line-up in musical comedy Half Time
at Sydney's Hayes Theatre, alongside the venue's eponymous star Nancye Hayes
herself.
Throughout her career, she portrays everything from a Ziegfield
Bride to a mouse. Crones, whores, Disney creatures, Litle Miss
Sunshine, Wonder Woman, a Fairy Godmother. She choreographs shows and
events, does Company Management roles, the lot.
But the duo also becomes known as a team early on, appearing in
shows together. Even before marrying, they are in Fiddler on the Roof, Dolores
as daughter Tzeitel and Rod as The Fiddler.
They reunite in Godspell, with Rod as Jesus. In Chicago
Rod is MC, Dolores merry murderess Mona (Lipshitz). They become Johnny
O'Keefe's parents in a tour of Shout.
In Bye Bye Birdie they team up as Mayor and Mayor's Wife.
This tradition helps them through a life few theatrical marriages
survive. But true love is their bond.
And just when you think this old hand may retire, she embarks on
quarter-century encore career teaching Dance and Musical Theatre at the
McDonald College of Performing Arts, directing extravaganzas like Copacabana,
Grease and Fame.
In this 'giving back' incarnation, her passion and energy
drive future talents. She takes student groups to the USA to perform, join
classes and see hit shows of Broadway, LA and Vegas – even to China! And not
just once or twice. She pioneers this McDonald custom that lives on in her wake.
Then she gets to work on this book.
She outlines highpoints, hallowed theatres and sellouts. Marvels
at the stars, directors, designers and choreographers she's known. And drolly dismisses
the less-than-kind ones.
The torrent of names along this Australian journey is
eye-popping. Greats like Jill Perryman, Gloria Dawn, Bobby Limb and Dawn Lake, Betty
Pounder, Toni Lamond, Bruce Barry, June Bronhill, Hayes Gordon, even Hollywood
favourite Eve Arden.
Others are Lorraine Bayly, Normie Rowe, Jeanne Little, Richard
Wherrett, Judi Connelli, Roger Kirk, Colette Mann, John Waters, Donna Lee, Ross
Coleman . . .
Well sure, headliners may put bums on seats, but there would be
no show without the all-dependable, ever-reliable trouper.
Keeping things real, the author peeps into those lesser ventures
vital to most thespians: cruise ships, cabaret hecklers, bawdy theatre restaurants.
Wherever there's a buck to keep the wolves from the door. Graft the theatregoing
hoi polloi rarely hear of and the soulless sniff at from their 9-5 abyss.
The madness, slog, frantic tours, fluffed lines, dodgy scenery,
missed cues, last minute stand-ins, stages the size of postage stamps.
Theatrical digs from the dubious to the idyllic.
Career hiccups, injuries, bomb scares, fires and flops. Some catastrophic,
others plain farcical. All part of the merry-go-round. Guessing what zenith
waits round the next corner.
History is marked where she plays on historic events, like John
F. Kennedy's assassination, the Six-Day-War and Australia's Whitlam Dismissal.
This astonishing soul then shares secrets and tips to aspirants
and aficionados, those who crave the Razzle Dazzle, those seeking inspiration
whatever their dream, and we who just love an enchanting memoir.
Here's the crucial yarn of one who never sought acclaim but was just
there. A formidable legacy. Look at that cover, check the blazing smile. Showbiz
personified.
A raconteuse extraordinaire. If only there were more Dolores
Dunbars.
100% must read for all humans.
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