A Ginger Meggs exhibition will be appearing at the Worlds Funniest Island comedy festival on Cockatoo Island in Sydney this weekend.

Visit www.worldsfunniestisland.com.au for details.

It would appear Ginger Meggs (ie. Jimmy Bancks) coined the term Ocker!

From Meggsie’s biggest collector, Barry Gomm:

Today’s discovery makes me a firm believer in Kismet, or is it the fickle finger of fate. I was at the Public Library in Melbourne today, confirming a couple of dates that are in my book. By mistake, I selected a reel of microfilm dated Jan, 1954 instead of Jan.1957 out of the Herald drawer – I was doing research on car related material for late 1954 and early 1957.

After I loaded it and revolved the spool to get an image, up popped an entertainment page for January 6, 1954 and there in front of me was this (attached) entry in the entertainment section.

After more research, I found that the pantomime ran from the last week of December 1953 to the third week of January 1954. There MUST be some memorabilia still around, the search begins. I have two flyers about Ginger Meggs pantomimes but they are not for this one; they were suburban productions.

If we’ve learnt anything from all this hoopla about people painting their faces black and performing on stage, it’s that yes, we’ve changed.

An obvious statement, of course – but one that probably should have been considered before airing a skit featuring 6 people painting their faces with boot polish.

To be fair, 5 of the 6 performers were ethnic Australians – so it wasn’t some kind of ‘white vs black’ statement, nor was it as much a consideration for them if a group of Anglo-Australian performers did it, but the point remains that whilst that may have been acceptable even 20 years ago (as was their explanation for doing the skit) it isn’t necessarily acceptable now.

Ginger Meggs reminds me of this all the time – if you look through the back catalogues of Ginger Meggs circa 1924-1993, you’ll find almost weekly mentions of Mr. Meggs giving Ginger ‘a flogging’ or ‘a strapping’. (Similarly, the musical written some 20 years ago was performed in Canberra this week – and runs the line “After work, Dad hits the pub, then he hits the road, then he hits me!”)

If I were to write John Meggs beating Ginger in a strip today, I’d be drawn and quartered, and pilloried for promoting domestic violence. -I even get emails from readers now, giving me grief about how Tiger Kelly and Jugears Johnson still bully Ginger, even though (apparently) “bullying has been abolished in the school yard.”

The image above is from a famous Martin Sharp painting of Ginger Meggs from the 40’s. (titled: “Ginger Meggs sings Mammy at School Concert”). The original image (top) was re-drawn (bottom) as the logo for a contemporary Australian Actors Guild.

The image is clearly of a white, Anglo-Australian boy painting his face black to perform as a minstrel. Perfectly fine for the time, the social context, and the culture. Were it published now, many people would be shaking their fingers in disgust.

There are strips right up to the 80’s where Ginger Meggs pokes fun at Asian tourists. Again, completely unacceptable in 21st century Australia.

Needless to say, I think it’s obvious for any kind of humour – written or performed – to consider the contemporary social context in which it’s being published/performed/broadcast.
It’s not rocket science – I wouldn’t get on stage now and do a bit about ‘niggers’, much less use the word, but there was a time when that was perfectly fine for a white man to do so. (Michael Richards found that out the hard way.)

All of the above said, all I’ve read, heard and seen in the last 24 hours has been from incensed Americans saying “That would never have gone to air in America”.
But let’s not overlook the blatantly obvious fact: it didn’t. It aired in Australia. And wasn’t intended for the US audience. That doesn’t mean it won’t offend Americans, nor does it mean it won’t be deemed ‘racist’, but we don’t take ourselves as seriously as Americans, nor do we adhere to the same degree of political correctness.

With the greatest of respect for our allies across the pond, we have a different culture, so that’s why the audience were laughing. That’s always a pretty good gauge.

If they were booing, or worse, silent; different story.

This week sees the Canberra opening of the Ginger Meggs Musical, ‘Ginger Meggs and the Missing Link’ – Click the image above for details.

If you’re in Canberra tomorrow, here’s where I’ll be lurking:

8:30
Arrive Canberra Airport

9:15
Arrive Theatre
Swanson Crt Belconnen

10:00
Media call; Ginger Meggs
Jason and cast on stage
Jason, Dianna and cast

11:00
1st performance
Jason in audience

11:50
End of first act
Depart To National Library

12:00
Meeting Library
Collection tour and Lunch at Bookplate

14:00
Radio Interview
2xx Griffin Centre Civic
Presenter: Sylvie Stern art’n soul with Vivienne, Jason and Joshua

15:15
Radio Interview
ABC 666 Wakefield Ave Dickson
Presenter: Chris Coleman with Vivienne, Jason and Joshua

15:45
Radio Interview
2CC via landline at MFE

16:00
National Museum, Meeting with Curator
Greg & Jason 30 National Circuit, Forrest

18:15
Pick up -Opening GM
Forrest Apartments to Belconnen Theatre

18:30
Arrive Theatre
Swanson Crt Belconnen

19:00
Opening night show
Belconnen Theatre

21:00
Opening Concludes
Post show drinks

(From News.com.au)
RESIDENTS of Sydney and parts of New South Wales have awoken to scenes likened to “armageddon”, with limited visibility and orange skies – and Queenslanders will soon get much of the same.
Large areas have been shrouded in a blanket of red dust as the two states experience severe winds and unseasonably warm temperatures. Sydneysiders woke up to eerie red skies this morning, which is expected to clear later today.

News is coming through of a possible cause for the red skies…

return to www.gingermeggs.com

I’ll be heading to Canberra next week for the opening of the Ginger Meggs musical “Ginger Meggs and the Missing Link”.

Details below – click the image to enlarge. Come along!

My friend Ivan Dixon just came across this doll in an art exhibition in Canberra recently.

UNKNOWN ARTIST

Working Australia 1960s

Ginger Meggs doll c.1960
wool and acrylic
43.2 (h) x 27.4 (w) x 9.1 (d) cm
Gift of Diana Cameron 1988
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
NGA 1988.452

‘A knitted toy of Australia’s most beloved comic strip character is available for the first time. He’s bound to be the most popular present you could give at any time, and he’s definitely a new toy.’[1]

Ginger Meggs is indisputably one of Australia’s most popular and enduring fictional characters. From his first appearance in the inaugural 1921 Us fellers comic strip, the rakish redhead appears to have been highly desirable. Those who could not afford commercially manufactured dolls sought an alternative in knitting patterns which featured instructions to create ‘your very own’ Ginger Meggs as early as the 1930s. So let’s start: take some 4-ply Super Scotch Fingering wool (3oz red, 2oz pink, 1oz black, 1oz white), and a pair of No 10 needles…

A squishy, floppy infant slumped in a vitrine masquerading as soft sculpture? Is this a quirky joke? Ginger Meggs is somewhat slapdash, yet lovingly made, but he looks out of place―especially in a ‘boutique’ of multiples and other small sculpture, in an art gallery surrounded by the work of internationally renowned artists. Wild red hair ablaze, mischievous Ginger looks at us with a mad look in his hand-stitched eyes. He wears his signature vest―black at the front and striped like a football jersey at the back―but where on earth are his pants? Cast on 60 stitches, using red wool, knit 3, knit 2, knit 8, repeat ….

The humble doll makes no grand artistic statements. It represents the continuation of the ‘make do’ attitudes which have breathed life into Australian folk and popular arts during times of hardship and poverty. In contemporary practice we see the revival of the knitted toy. In Luke Roberts’s All souls of the revolution 1976–94, over 300 soft toys are tacked to the wall in the manner of insects in a museum, a fate which Ginger Meggs has avoided by his status as an Australian folk object rather than a cast-off toy.

Niki van den Heuvel
Exhibition Assistant, International Art
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

[1] Sheelah Lyle, Knitted toys: introducing the popular Ginger Meggs, Gerry the Giraffe, Gwenda the Doll, Humpty Dumpty, Rajah the Elephant and Harry the Horse, Associated Newspapers Ltd, Sydney, [no date]; the instructions are from this pattern