1960’s

The Times They are a Changin’

How did Australia change in the 1960’s?

Why did society change reasonably quickly compared to previous decades?

1950’s and 1960’s advertisements for breakfast cereals offering new fast food convenience with freebies that appealed to children

Children were now directly targeted by advertisers to influence their parents choices at the supermarket.

Free toys to encourage children to influence the purchase of foods higher in sugar.

Busy parents also liked these new convenience foods as they were easy to prepare for breakfast.

Today we accept cereals as normal everyday breakfast foods.

American fads increasingly influenced young Australians.

Swap cards, toys and weekly collections all successfully influenced spending patterns of parents.

New Technology

• Communications - telephone

- faster overseas travel

• Entertainment - photography

- electric music amplifiers

- LP records

- Reel to Reel tape recorders

• Televison

Long distance telephone calls could be connected with the operators assistance from 1962.

S.ubscriber

T.runk

D.ialling or STD

was still another few years away.

This 1950’s American ad promotes their long distance phone companies. We followed later.

First telephone conversation from Melbourne to Sydney.Source: The Age Research LibraryDate: 9 Apr 1962

Photography was now even more accessible to a new consumer market as cameras were now easy “point and shoot” not complicated SLR’s.

Developing this film was still a long and relatively expensive process and slides, not prints were the more common viewing medium until the mid 1970’s.

Jack Brabham leaves for Italy on a Qantas jet plane at the Kingsford-Smith Airport on the 15 March 1960.

He was one of the world's best racing drivers in the 1950's and 1960's, winning the world championship three times

1960’s

New music

The Beatles

New fads, fashions and trends.

“Mop Top” Hairdos

Stovepipe trousers

New electrical equipment

Amplifiers

Television

TV Week front page story of 1960 Gold Logie winner Jimmie Hannon.

Note the men’s fashionable hair style.

A typical TV studio of the 1960’s.

This studio TV camera would now be about one third the size due to microchips and digital format.

TV WEEK GOLD LOGIE WINNERS

1959: No Gold Awarded. 

Graham Kennedy wins "TV Week Awards' Star Of The Year"

1960: Graham Kennedy (In Melbourne Tonight, GTV9)

1961: Bob Dyer (Pick A Box, ATN7)

1962: Lorrae Desmond (The Lorrae Desmond Show, ABC)

1963: Michael Carlton (Four Corners, ABC)

1964: Bobby Limb (The Mobil Bobby Limb Show, Nine)

1965: Jimmy Hannan (Saturday Date, Nine)

1966: Gordon Chater (The Mavis Bramston Show, Seven)

1967: Graham Kennedy (In Melbourne Tonight, Nine)

and Hazel Phillips (Girl Talk, 0-10)

1968: Brian Henderson (Bandstand, Nine)

1969: Graham Kennedy (In Melbourne Tonight, Nine)

Who won the Gold Logie 3 times and was Star of the Year once in the late 1950’s and throughout the 1960’s?

Graham Kennedy on IMT (In Melbourne Tonight) promoting Alka Seltzer.Source: The Age Research LibraryDate: 13 Mar 1968

1960: Graham Kennedy (In Melbourne Tonight, GTV9)

• Very popular (deservedly so too) nightly variety show which made Graham Kennedy a major player in Aussie TV thanks to his quick witted often almost offensive remarks. Revived twice (as The Graham Kennedy Show) in 1972-73 and in 1975 with Ernie Sigley as host. When Kennedy departed before the show ended other hosts (including Mike Preston, Stuart Wagstaff and Ugly Dave Gray) were tried but couldn't match his success.

Fashion

English model Jean Shrimpton, then 22, in the famous mini-dress she wore to the 1965 Victoria Derby in Melbourne, outraging society matrons who also complained she wore no hat or gloves.

Photographer: Clive MacKinnonSource: © The AgeDate: 30 Oct 1965

Dressed appropriately for Fashions on the field, from left, Stephanie Meurer, Terry Wong, Mary-Louise Lewis, Carolyn Dartnell, Jeni Kins and Karen Papworth step out to the Melbourne Cup.

Source: © The AgeDate: 4 Nov 1969

Home Entertainment

• LP records

• Reel to Reel tape recorders

• Wireless radios

Vinyl LP records made pre-recorded music cheaper and easy to listen to in your own home.

Before these modern 33 &1/3 RPM LP (long play) records which had 12 to 20 songs on two sides there were 45RPM or the even older 78’s.

These older records or ‘singles’ usually contained less songs and therefore had to be changed more often.

Compare this technology to a 3000 song capacity ipod of today

Electric record players were very desirable and became common household appliances in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Cassette tapes took over in the 1970’s and CD’s in the 1980’s

Modern wireless radios of the 1960’s

Note the “high tech” reel to reel tape recorder

used during this audio interview in the mid 1960’s

First portable domestic recording devices were called “reel to reel” recorders for the obvious reason.

1965 - Reel to reel tape was a new audio development that came before cassette tapes.

Unlike vinyl records (45rpms or the older format 78’s) these reel to reel tape machines allowed easy home recording for the first time.

Today a MP3 player does the same job in pocket size format.

Leisure time and Spending Patterns

• The milk bar and surf scene

• Pop Bands touring such as the Beatles

• Fads and Toys

A Typical beachside “milk bar” as general stores were commonly known in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs.

Source: The Age Research LibraryDate: 1969

Emotional fans welcome the Beatles in Melbourne.Source: The Age Research LibraryDate: 1964

The Seekers, Australia's own singing group.

From left: Athol Guy, Judy Durham, Keith Potger and Bruce Woodley with the EMI Gold record award for "The Carnival is Over".

Source: The Age Research LibraryDate: 1966

The softer side of JoK the Wild One

What Made the News Headlines ?• Berlin Wall Goes Up

•Man in Space•Opera House

• Protests• Capital Punishment

• Vietnam•Better Working conditions

•Higher wages•Assassination attempt

•Prime Minister Holt disappears

31 Aug 1961

Berlin Wall rises as Cold War tensions between the east (communism) and west (democracy) escalates

20 Feb 1962

US puts astronaut John Glenn into space.

The “space race” was another example of east west tensions during the Cold war era of 1945 to 1991

22 Nov 1963

US President JF Kennedy

assassinated in Dallas, Texas

Construction of Sydney Opera House.Source: The Age Research LibraryDate: 24 Jul 1966

Waterside workers, among others, march to Parliament House to protest against the state governments decision to hang convicted murderer Ronald Joseph Ryan.Source: © The AgeDate: 29 Jan 1967

Demonstrators, all members of Melbourne pop groups, form a picketline outside the John Batman Motor Inn to press for higher wages and better working conditions. The musicians hold placards. The men they were picketing – promoters were in the motel attending the annual conference of the Promoters Association.Source: © The AgeDate: 10 Jul 1968

Infantrymen from Puckapunyal leave Seymour for Sydney on the first leg of their journey to Vietnam.Source: © The AgeDate: 7 Apr 1967

Pop singer

Normie Rowe (centre) is off to Vietnam for 12 months.

Pictured with mates Trooper Rod Beazley and Lance Corporal Bill Thomas.

Source: The Age Research LibraryDate: 13 Jan 1969

The L1A1 is the Australian version of the Belgian FN FAL rifle. It entered into service with the Australian Army in 1959. The L1A1 was a reliable, hard-hitting, gas-operated, magazine-fed semi-automatic rifle, with a maximum battle range of 300 metres and a practical rate of fire of 20 rpm. In Vietnam the L1A1 was the standard personal weapon of the Australian soldier. With a full 20 round magazine it weighed 4.96Kg.

7.62 mm L1A1 SLR  (Self Loading Rifle)

M60 General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG)

The 7.62mm M60 Machine Gun entered service with the Australian Army in 1960. Gas operated, air cooled and belt fed, with a quick change barrel to counter overheating during sustained fire. The rate of fire was 550 rounds per minute (cyclic), with a muzzle velocity of 860 metres per second. Maximum effective range, 860 metres bipod and 1800 metres tripod. Ammunition fired; ball, tracer, incendiary and armour piercing. In South Vietnam it was the main firepower of the infantry rifle section.

Viet Cong Tunnel System This illustration gives you a general idea as to what you might expect when entering a village searching for VC. One had to search every nook and cranny as 'Charlie' was an ingenious fellow when it came to digging hides and tunnels

M18A1 Anti-Personel ( Claymore) Mine

The M18A1 was used in ambushes and perimeter defences. The Claymore Mine comprised of a curved rectangular cast-iron box with spikes fitted to the base. inside were 700 steel ball bearings in a bed of plastic explosive. it was detonated by remote control using an electric circuit; spraying its contents in a 60 degree arc and was lethal to a range of 50 meters.

M79 Grenade Launcher Resembling a sawn-off shotgun, the grenade launcher was designed as a close-support weapon for the infantry. It plugged the gap between the maximum throwing distance of a hand grenade and the lowest range of supporting mortars. The M79 was a single shot, shoulder-fired weapon which broke open for loading into the breech. It fired a 40 mm grenade and had a killing range of 5 metres. Its weight loaded, was 3Kg, with a muzzle velocity of 75 metres per second and a maximum range of 400 metres.

Assassination attempt on Arthur Calwell in Sydney. The window of Mr Calwell's car was shattered.

Source: The Age Research LibraryDate: 22 Jun 1966

1 Jan 1968Prime Minister Harold Holt disappears in the surf at Cheviot Beach, Portsea

Prime Minister Harold Holt disappears in the surf at Cheviot Beach, Portsea.Source: © The AgeDate: 17 Dec 1967

21 Jul 1969

US astronauts Neil Armstrong and "Buzz" Aldrin become the first men on the moon

5 May 1970Massive Anti Vietnam war Moratorium held in Melbourne.

Well over 100,000 Australians protested that day

1 Jun 1971 2nd Vietnam moratorium held in Melbourne

3 Dec 1972

Whitlam Labor government wins after 23 years in opposition

Prime Minister Gough Whitlam surrounded by microphones in 1972

17 Oct 1973Queen Elizabeth II joins Prince Philip in Australia for the opening of the Sydney Opera House