Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows silent, colour home movie footage of the centre of Melbourne decorated for the 1956 Olympic Games. The opening scene, filmed at street level, gives a view down Collins Street, followed by a sequence showing the decorations hung across the streets and on the exteriors of major department stores, including Coles, Georges and Myer. Bustling street scenes are shown from above and then at pedestrian level. The final shot is of a gas-lit Olympic torch decoration in Flinders Street.

Educational value points

• The 1956 summer Olympic Games were held in Melbourne from 22 November to 8 December, the first time the Games had been held in the southern hemisphere. Although the city was determined that they be a success, the years immediately preceding the Games had been difficult ones. Melbourne had won selection by only one vote over Buenos Aires, 21 votes to 20 and as late as 1954 some members of the International Olympic Committee thought the Games might need to be relocated to Rome because of construction delays. The equestrian events was relocated to Sweden owing to Australia’s strict quarantine regulations.

• The home movie from which the clip is taken was filmed by Ken Syme, one of the many thousands of Australians who visited Melbourne between 16 November, when the city’s Olympic lighting was switched on, and 8 December, the date of the closing ceremony. Fewer than 10,000 overseas visitors purchased tickets to the Melbourne Games, chiefly because of the high cost of air travel in the 1950s and the time required to make the journey.

• The department store decorations illustrated in the clip were the result of an appeal by Melbourne’s Lord Mayor, Sir Frank Selleck (1895–1976, in office 1954–57). Selleck requested that businesses in the city centre paint and decorate their buildings and that the municipal councils put up decorations. He was impressed by the result, stating on 16 November, 'In no field of endeavour has cooperation been greater than in the planning, design and erection of our Olympic decorations’ (www.150.theage.com.au).

• Coles department stores displayed some of the best decorations erected in Melbourne to celebrate the Olympics. One store entrance shown in the clip was extensively decorated with flags and hoardings. Another entrance, on Bourke Street, featured a large diorama depicting Australian pioneering scenes. Coles had a close connection to the Olympics in that Sir Arthur Coles, one of the founders of the stores, was the Chairman of the Melbourne Olympic Games Committee in 1952 and 1953.

• Temporary sculptures of male athletes were a feature of the city’s and the department stores’ decorations. These are illustrated in the clip by the decorations of the Myer and Georges stores, which perhaps utilised store mannequins. The Myer decorations show athletes in various sporting poses, while the Georges decorations show a medal ceremony with the words 'We Salute the Victor’. The absence of any female or Indigenous representations reflects both the attitudes of the times and the composition of the great majority of the 1956 Olympic teams.

• The highlight of Melbourne’s Olympic decorations was a huge torch suspended above the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets, shown in the final scene of the clip. Designed by architect Peter McIntyre, the torch was around 22 m high and was shaped like a giant ice-cream cone. One spectator described its impact: 'It shivered and rustled and twittered and jiggled and sparkled and flamed’ (www.architectureaustralia.com). McIntyre was a young architect at the time and along with Kevin Borland and John and Phyllis Murphy won the competition to design Melbourne’s Olympic Swimming Pool with a very modern plan. He was also involved in the design of Parliament Station and the Melbourne Arts Centre spire, and was Professor of Architecture at Melbourne University.

• The silhouettes and abstract shapes strung across the streets reflect modernist art styles and were part of a concentrated effort to present Melbourne as a modern, contemporary city. Buildings in the central business district were repainted in fashionable pastel shades and Melbourne City Council removed the Victorian lacework and verandas from buildings along main streets.

• Although the cinematography is amateur, consisting mainly of fixed shots from various angles, it reflects what impressed the home movie maker, not only in the decorations and lighting, but also in the bustling Melbourne streetscapes. Much of the enduring value of home movie footage lies in its personal view of historical events and its depiction of everyday life.