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Clip description
A glimpse of the British performer’s ‘audition tape’ shows why Mavis Bramston (Noeline Brown) will not be the star of The Mavis Bramston Show after all.
Curator’s notes
In this clip the joke in Mavis Bramston’s title is revealed. The alleged star of the show turns out to parody the tendency at the time to import performers from America and the UK to star in local productions. Mavis is a C-grade ‘star’ with a decidedly lacklustre career behind her. Her audition tape reveals a vapid, arrogant and flamboyantly talentless creation. Nonetheless, the audience must sit through her excruciating rendition of ‘I could have danced all night’ (from My Fair Lady, 1956).
After co-host Gordon Chater declares that this is one ‘terrible naff imported artist we don’t have to cope with’, the show continues with Chater, Carol Raye and Barry Creyton and regular guest star June Salter at the helm. Despite her ‘sacking’, Mavis continued to make occasional appearances throughout the series run to reinforce the joke.
Curiously, she was also very popular with the show’s sponsors and often made live promotional appearances. Mavis was initially played by Noeline Brown, then a series of other performers, including Maggie Dence, stepped into her shoes. Bramston’s over the top ‘60s glamour also gave the show its look. Each segment is introduced with an illustrated still of Mavis in a different pose, with titles like ‘Mavis Bramston’s Viewpoint’.
The mention of Judy Garland is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Garland’s disastrous 1964 Melbourne concert, in which she was booed and heckled by the audience after arriving on stage late and apparently drunk.
