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Archive | November, 2014

There were picture theatres in every suburb. This is the Ozone on Kensington Road at Marryatville, later known as the Chelsea and now the Regal

Saturday Arvo at the Pictures

An important tradition of growing up in Adelaide from the 50s was the Saturday afternoon pictures at the local picture theatre, town hall or flea pit. There were always two full length pictures, an episode of the serial, a cartoon and a Pete Smith Special to watch while eating your Jaffas, Fantales or a Dandy […]

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Photo from ABC TV. Why Is It So? known for its "cool experiments, interesting science, and the professor's fantastic hair”

Why Is It So?

“How do you do, ladies and gentlemen, and boys and girls. I am Julius Sumner Miller, and physics is my business”. Remember the TV show “Why Is It So?” which was broadcast from 1963 to about the mid 80’s? It became an instant hit known for its “cool experiments, interesting science, and the professor’s fantastic […]

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Photo courtesy of State Library of SA. The Grand Central Hotel in 1924, a truly magnificent building

Adelaide’s Lost Buildings

Whenever the discussion turns to beautiful old buildings that have been lost to our city over the years, the first one that comes to my mind is the South Australian Hotel which stood proudly on North Terrace for almost 100 years.  The ‘South’ opened in 1879 and represented the finer things in life. In 1964 […]

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Photo from the Advertiser. There were always lots of other kids to play with. This picture from 1956 shows some boys sharing rides in a Cyclops pedal car

Childhood Memories of The Neighbourhood.

When fences were lower, fruit and veg was currency and kids just roamed free How different to today was your neighbourhood and the neighbours as you were growing up? I was a child in the 50s and neighbourhoods were mainly made up of working class families. Some fathers worked in offices or ran a small […]

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Photo courtesy of Dale Sanders. An original radiogramme with automatic record changer

From the Radiogram to the Walkman.

Vinyl records, radiograms, transistors and cassette recorders … what fun we had before computers! Vinyl record sales in Australia have increased by almost 100 per cent this year. It seems a younger generation has rediscovered the world of “fantastic black plastic” in the digital age. I asked one of  my (much) younger colleagues why he […]

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Photo courtesy of Mary MacTavish on Flickr and from the book Adelaide Remember When".  Dazzleland’s signature attraction was Jazz Junction

What a Fabulous Adelaide Memory is Dazzeland!

Do you recall the huge two-storey indoor amusement park that occupied the top levels of the REMM Myer Centre in Rundle Mall? Dazzleland was a theme park, developed as part of the original centre itself, built between 1988 and 1991 at a cost of $1 billion. It was sold some years later for just $140 […]

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Photo from Wikipedia. , Australia’s ‘micro car’, manufactured by Lightburn industries, the Zeta Sedan

Adelaide’s Other Car, The Lightburn Zeta.

I must confess to some fascination about Adelaide’s ‘other car’ the Lightburn Zeta. As a city we have a proud reputation in automotive production with Holden and Chrysler cars but back in the 60s, there was also a third car, Australia’s ‘micro car’, manufactured by Lightburn industries which had, until 1963, manufactured tools, cement mixers, […]

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