Saturday, 26 October 2013



In past posts on Adelaide Remember When we've remembered some of the TV shows and personalities we grew up with, here's just a few;

Remember Kingswood Country the Australian sitcom that screened from 1980 to 1984 on the Channel 7? Some of Ted Bullpit's sayings included; "The Kingswood! You're not taking the Kingswood!”, "Bloody woman! “Pickle me grandmother!", "Don't 'dad' me I'm your father!" Ted was the main character; he was a bigoted white Australian WWII veteran who loved his greyhounds, his garden statue of Neville the Aboriginal, his chair in front of the telly worshipped his Holden Kingswood and hated the 'bloody' nuns. The show centred on the conflict between the conservative sexist & racist Ted & his progressive children with his poor long suffering wife Thelma stuck in the middle. His daughter’s husband, Bruno, was the son of Italian immigrants and Ted objected to him completely; referring to him as that ‘bloody wog’. I'll bet they couldn't play it on TV these days, but it was real Aussie humor and a very funny show.




Mike Smith on ABC Drive last night had Mal Leyland as his guest, remembering the very successful TV series "Ask the Leyland Brothers". The show ran from about 1976 to 1980, and again from 1983 to 1984 and provided most Australian viewers with their first look at outback Australia. I seem to recall it was on Saturday or Sunday evening at around 5.30 and it was a great show for the family and of course educational for adults as well as kids. The format of the show was driven by people writing in to Mike and Mal and asking a question about a part of Australia which the brothers would then drive to and answer the question. They did their own filming and took their wives and children with them on most occasions. It was like watching a home movie and would probably never work on TV today but back in the 70's it was a huge hit with audiences of several million watching every weekend. Mike, sadly died a few years ago. 



Just recently someone asked for a photo of Winky Dink. This is from Adelaide's Channel 9 kid's Super Cartoon Show. It's 1975 and this is Winky Dink, a duck with attitude. The Show's hosts at the time were Helen Woods and Dean Davis



.Remember Channel 10 for years had Fat Cat saying goodnight to the children at 7.30pm. I can't remember when they stopped it exactly but it was the time when the channel drew a line and said the programmes after this may not be suitable for children. And from memory, the kids used to go to bed when Fat Cat went too





Saturday, 19 October 2013



Apollo Stadium
Remember when we used to have all our big concert acts at Apollo Stadium in Richmond?


Apollo opened in 1969 and was first and foremost a sports stadium but I believe the first concert held there was Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong, probably in 1970, (not sure of the date). The beauty of it was that it was just 5 minutes from the city and there always seemed to be plenty of parking. The stadium had a seating capacity of almost 4,000 and was actually named after the Apollo moon landing that took place in July 1969.
There were many top class acts representing the best talent in the world at the time including Queen, Wings, AC/DC, Cold Chisel, U2, The Easybeats, Police, Ike and Tina Turner, INXS and Beach Boys, to mention but a few.

Right throughout the 70’s and 80’s Apollo Stadium continued as our main Adelaide concert venue but in 1991 it was superseded by the new 12,000 seat Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Port Road and in 1992 the new venue for basketball and netball, the Clipsall Powerhouse was opened with seating for up to 8,000 people
Apollo then became a church for a few years but it was eventually sold and demolished, with the site redeveloped for a housing estate.

Can you recall some of the concerts you went to at Apollo Stadium?

Friday, 18 October 2013


The Old Advertiser Soundshell in Elder Park

Shane Chinca shared a photo on Adelaide Remember When; "My father took this photo in the 50's. I don't know where it is and what it is called, Does anyone know?




Both Stevo Terry and Chris Warren identified it as the Advertiser Sound Shell in Elder Park. According to The Advertiser, the Sound Shell "was officially handed over at 3 pm  on 18th of December 1954 in front of 500 official quests and hundreds of members of the public. They then enjoyed a 45 minute concert by the SA Symphony Orchestra and the Adelaide Singers conducted by Henry Krips. Then, at 3.45 p.m., the chairman of directors of Advertiser Newspapers Ltd (Sir Lloyd Dumas ) formally handed over the Shell to the Lord Mayor (Mr.Philps), who accepted it on behalf of the council.



Right throughout the 50's and through to the 80's, Carols by Candlelight was held every year at the old Sound Shell and many of us would have spent that special Sunday night before Christmas, dressed in our pyjamas, with our family and friends, watching the flickering light of the candle and singing and listening to the performers presenting the carols. I think it was the only time, other than Guy Fawkes night, when we were allowed to be so close and to play with fire. So it was pretty exciting! 

There were also many other concerts held there throughout the years and Chris Warren has "photos of Zoot playing there in 1967 and Kamahl also sang there. It was just in front of the now Festival Theatre Ampitheatre. To the left was King William Street and to the right, the River Torrens, where the Popeyes were moored". Thanks Chris


What are your memories of the old Advertiser Soundshell?












Sunday, 13 October 2013

Amscol and Adelaide




Amscol gets lots of mentions on our Facebook page and it seems there are many people who remember it as an important part of their growing up in Adelaide. AMSCOL stands for Adelaide Milk Supply Co-Operative Limited and the factory was situated in Carrington Street. There are lots of memories shared about the products including Eskimo Pies, Berry Bars and the original 'brick' of ice cream in waxed cardboard. Amscol opened in 1922 and were eventually taken over by Streets in the mid to late 80's. There was also Alaska Ice Cream and Golden North which mainly supplied country SA. Our photo of the Amscol factory in Carrington Street in Adelaide (above) is from the 50's and is from the State Library of SA collection.



Recently there was some debate about whether it was Amscol or Peters who produced 'dandies'. We found a sign from Loxton Historical Village that clearly shows Amscol as the original maker of 'dandies' The sign also advertised 'bricks', dairy chocs, hi tops and twin chocs and carried the famous Amscol slogan "It's a Food, Not a Fad" I'm not sure of the date of the old advertising sign but I thought Amscol bricks were first sold when fridges were introduced, maybe mid 50's? Up until then we had an ice chest, but when the first fridges were released, they had a small rectangular freezer inside the body of the fridge and the Amscol brick fitted neatly inside.




When regular poster Andrew Heslop posted a photo of Amscol Berry Bars many of our regular readers recalled just how really delicious Amscol ice cream was. Alaska, the other big brand of Adelaide ice cream, had their factory in Thebarton and were most remembered for their ice cream delight 'Eskimo Pies' which we would have when we went to the pictures on a Saturday afternoon.