15.9.67 - Not listening to good advice

Sydney 15.9.67 (Noon)

Pencil economy! Not really – just haven’t a pen. Hullo! Have recovered my usual buoyant sense of humour (probably as a result of enjoying Fiddler so much, and because it’s so warm, and because I’m going quite well with my German – if I can keep it up.)

It’s a funny sort of day. Sort of diffused – if you know what I mean – there’s a haze over the city, but the sun is filtering through – and my left arm is feeling, and looking, rather burnt. I’m sitting in one of about a dozen parks (small) in KC, just down the road from the Hotel. These parks (even the very smallest) seem to have fountains and trees and shrubs, and there are any number of seats – in fact there are seats all over the city, and parks!

[back in ink again]

LATER Got a letter from me mother! Hurray! I laughed at it all the way up in the lift (otherwise empty) and along the corridor and into my room. Looks like I’d better take my umbrella into town with me tonight – it’s been raining most of the afternoon – should be okay – the repair job seems to be all right.

MICHAEL CROWL – MUSICAL DIRECTOR, No, no. MUSICAL DIRECTOR ----! That’s totally funny – I’d probably be awfully inept at it. [Not sure what the reference here is; probably my mother trying to cheer me up. 2018: anyway, I’d done musical directing in various ways before I’d gone to Oz, so I’m not quite sure why I found it so funny.]

I’m going to ring the Trust in about half an hour and see if I can get some satisfaction. Hope that today I’ll know what the future will be. I haven’t gone anywhere much for the last couple of days; it’s been sort of frustrating to have to sit round and wait like this. Can’t even book me flight home. And I’ll have to go easy on the old pocketbook, too, if I’ve got to stay on a bit longer. Anyway, I’m determined to come home with something left over. I would have had a lot more if the Hotel bill had been what I expected. (Don’t be surprised if every now and then you find nouns with capital letters in the middle of a sentence. In German all nouns have capitals and the ones that I know in German I’m inclined to put down with a capital! Silly, isn’t it?)

I’ve spent most of this arvo in the little library round the road reading Tobias and the Angel, a comedy on the Bible story, by James Bridie. The Aussies don’t seem to be able to put books in order. It’s awfully hard trying to find anything in the 2 libraries I’ve so far been in. The Main one in town has only a vague order. Nothing is alphabetical as far as I can see, so how they ever find anything! [Still griping about libraries 25 years later.]

LATER I’m really beginning to think that I need a business manager or something – I, myself, must be handling things wrongly – or something! Just rang the Trust, again, and now we’ve got to wait till Mr Krug gets himself moving re the Ballet Co. He’s their conductor. (P. Schwartz apparently stayed in Sth America or somewhere obscure – how odd!) [Peter Schwartz was a chain-smoking Austrian conductor who’d made his home in NZ; he was involved in the Summer Schools in Dunedin where I met him, where he was very encouraging in terms of my accompanying. I hadn’t heard of him since for years until I became involved in the brass band movement, and there he was conducting a band as one of the many strings to his bow. 2018: I wonder if I intended the wordplay/pun?] So they were going to wait till Tuesday, but I said that my time was limited (so it is; I’m fed up with waiting around for them) and so I’ve got to ring them on Monday at lunchtime. Heavens, they do muck around, don’t they! They must surely know whether they’ve got room for an extra pianist, or not – their excuse, according to the (not so) charming Miss Swan is that they’ve got people dotted all over the country just now. Marvellous!

I don’t know what to do about Pikler, now. Doubt if he can do much at this stage, and anyway, the place he’s mainly concerned with is the Conservatorium, and I’ve been there! And that other fellow that Cecil introduced me to, John Hammond, reckoned if he were in my shoes he’d get a job, any job, just to be on the spot. [A sound piece of advice which I obviously wasn’t hearing.] I’m inclined to think I’ll get as much musical experience back home – (where I’m obviously appreciated – heh, heh) and where I won’t have to pa out exorbitant amounts for lodgings. Look out, I’m going to scream – [printed very large:] AAAAGH!

That feels a lot better.

Courtesy Creative Commons

Better go, got all me packing to do tonite – go to Anne’s tomorrow. Mary Williams, who was also in Fledermaus, a cellist (whose flat Claude and I went to for tea, remember?) is coming over for the afternoon, on Sunday, so we can have quite a chat. [Claude was a genuine Frenchman [2018 I’m not sure why I wrote ‘genuine’], a clarinettist. There was some relationship between him and Mary but I’ve no idea how serious it was. I seem to recall Claude mooning around after a fairly disinterested Mary. My one other great memory of Claude, who was an excellent clarinettist, is that he couldn’t get a single note out of a clarinet I owned, and which I took on tour with me round NZ, and could actually play!] My poor old left arm’s burnt nearly through, while the right is only red.

Oh, well, see ya, love Mike.

8.9.67 Making contact

Postmarked 8 Sept 67

SYDNEY! (Though except for the doubledeckers it could be home.) [Good grief!]

Courtesy Ferdous

Well, the weather here hasn’t so far been all it should – it’s been alternately hot and raining all day. And guess what – I now have a Saul – and like his counterpart he’s been misbehaving – in the first real gust of wind he blew himself inside out!!  [Presumably an umbrella but why a 'Saul' is now lost in the mists of time.] And broke two of the little hinges off. I’ve fixed one, I think, (now that I’m back at the hotel) but the other has lost the bit that holds it together – may be able to use a bit of cunning - we’ll see. Felt a bit silly walking along with along with a slightly flattened umbrella – but it’s only been necessary in the dark after the pictures and anyway it was better than getting soaked, which almost happened at lunch-time.

A long and busy day. Rang up Lovejoy (Glenda’s friend) and he wasn’t in till 11.00 (but made friends with his (middle-aged) secretary and we had a bit of a chat. [Lovejoy was my ‘contact’ in Oz to try and put me onto the ‘right’ people. Glenda Ferrall was my friend from the NZ Opera Company’s Die Fledermaus tour.] Rang Anne [Newbury, the oboist I later stayed with] but she was out too. Rang Cecil – I never thought that he would be one of these slow, slow, speakers. (One of the kind that has never finished when you start talking.) [Cecil Purdy, one of my father’s best and oldest friends and supporters. A top chess player in Oz.] However, we had a bit of a yarn, and he said to call in and see him if I was going to be in town. Went exploring around here again – constant delights at every turn, plus sudden downpours! I’m just a wee way from Elizabeth Bay, five minutes’ walk in fact, and when it was sunny this morning, it was beaut. The sun always dried me out, anyway. Rang back Lovejoy, appointment for 4.30 this arvo. Went into town (after nearly forgetting letter to Lovejoy) and finished up having a long leisurely lunch with Mr Purdy. He’s got a cute wee shop up on the second floor – you probably know it [she probably didn’t, since she had lived in Melbourne] - and I met his secretary and his junior girl. The secretary, Mrs Shiel (a Dooley [Catholic], so Cecil informs me) was very pleasant and we three had quite a chat both before and after lunch (which Cecil paid for, in spite of my arguments.) He’s a nice old fellow when he gets talking, which we did. We rang up Pikler, and I’ve got to get in touch with him on Saturday. [Robert Pikler, a contact at the Sydney Conservatorium.]

Went to the Massive Public Library (after going round and round in circles, in and out of arcades, into two parts of the David Jones Ladies' shop, trying to get an umbrella), after lunch. It’s tremendous, in every sense, but seems to have a lack of system. [I didn’t understand it, more likely.] Upstairs there’s a part called the Mitchell Library, housing old prints and pictures and original diaries and letters etc. There were several Brothers (Christian) there and one of them was the brother of a boy I went to school with – name of Vincent (I went with Colin – but don’t know this one’s name). He’s the fellow whose face was all scarred and burnt – but I introduced meself (never actually met him before) and we had quite a wee chat! Isn’t it funny?

Finally got out to the University where Lovejoy is, after dying a thousand deaths, and being late – the bus took much longer than planned – and this was where me umbrella blew up! Anyway, he was busy with some people, so I talked to his secretary again, Miss Lonsdale, she is, until he was ready. [Seem to make a habit of this on this trip – the confidence of youth.] [2018 – or it could be that this was a useful trait: getting to know people.]

He was very helpful; besides giving me a list of names – ‘tell them Jack sent you’ so to speak, of others that might be useful for jobs, he personally rang Stephen Hall, who was the guy I’d been writing to, and passed him onto me. I audition on Monday, playing the pieces, probably, and possibly doing a bit of sightreading for some singers who are going to audition. So!! Here’s hoping. There seems to be plenty of things going on here, even if I don’t get in with the Trust meantime, so here’s hoping I’ll be back here soon! [Elizabethan Theatre Trust, which also covered opera at that time.]

Went to a terrible movie – a Walt Disney, too! Called The Ugly Dachshund – and it was too terrible. Everybody looked slightly bored, including the animals, (who had to create one horrible unfunny mess after the other). UGH! [1966 move with Dean Jones and Suzanne Pleshette, the staples of Disney movies of that period. Leonard Maltin thinks it is ‘silly’ too.] In the first half was the Winnie the Pooh film which was only about 20 minutes long – it wasn’t terribly successful either, but still a Disney cartoon. Must go XXX See ya, Love to you and Fred. Mike

These letters are indexed here

This is a bit strange...

Still catching up on emails that have information in them that I haven't yet posted here.
Nola Marshall wrote to me back in March about this rather strange situation in the family.

I am fascinated by the thought that Francis Hannagan had two families at the same time. Do you know if Catherine was in Melbourne with him in the 1850s? I have found him on the 1856 Electoral Roll living in a house off Little Lonsdale Street. Occupation Tailor. As you are aware three children were born in Australia, the mother being Mary Ann Kearns (Cairns). Another daughter was born in NZ just prior to Catherine having her last child. It begs belief that the women did not know of each others existence. Do you have any family knowledge of how this arrangement worked?

There are several photos of Martin John and Frank Hannagan and the tailoring business in Mt Gambier at the following sight.

Google Mt Gambier Library and Click on Photographic section. Type in Hannagan and the relevant photos should come up. [The first time I tried this I got two pages of photos; today I can only get four.]

My mother was Nola Rita Hannagan, youngest daughter of William Francis Hannagan, born 17th Feb 1883 and Aileen Todd.

William Francis Hannagan (1860) and Frances Hargreaves settled in Victoria.

William had a tailoring business in Brighton and his son William took over the business after his fathers' death in 1918.