The Mayor Of Tiny Town vs Australia's Shiftiest Showman – Part One

The Mayor Of Tiny Town vs Australia's Shiftiest Showman – Part One

From a digitised formerly secret Australian military intelligence file comes one of Forgotten Australia’s strangest stories.

In 1911-1912, from Sydney to Brisbane, Perth to Melbourne, and all points in between, Australia was enthralled by the little people entertainment troupe known as Tiny Town.

Everyone was especially fond its undisputed star, 'The Mayor of Tiny Town', aka 'The Turkish Tom Thumb', the incomparable small-man performer Hayati Hassid.

Yet how did this beloved celebrity - who also acted as editor of 'The Tiny Town Times' - become designated an enemy alien after the Great War broke out?

What did this dark twist have to do with showman and self-professed father of Australian aviation Frederick Hooper Jones?

And just where do genocidal Turkish sultan Abdul The Damned, legendary escapologist Harry Houdini and Aussie rock band The Angels fit into this picture?

Join me for a four-part deep dive that takes us from the harems of the dying Ottoman Empire to the roller-skating-mad London vaudeville scene, from a forgotten antipodean box office blockbuster to the controversial very earliest days of Australia aviation.

You won't believe your ears.


Apple - http://apple.co/forgottenaustralia

Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/ForgottenAustralia


My new book Hanging Ned Kelly is out now and will make a cracker of a Christmas present.

You can read a free excerpt here - and get 26% off the RRP: https://affirmpress.com.au/publishing/hanging-ned-kelly/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jaksot(316)

In Conversation - I Did Work Experience on Apollo 11

In Conversation - I Did Work Experience on Apollo 11

At the age of 17, Robert Brand did work experience at the Overseas Telecommunications Commission’s station in Paddington, Sydney, where he played a small part in ensuring the television images of Neil...

20 Heinä 201941min

Unfriendly Fire: The Murder Of Cathy Wayne

Unfriendly Fire: The Murder Of Cathy Wayne

Just hours before Apollo 11 landed on the moon on 20 July 1969, young Australian pop star Cathy Wayne was shot dead on stage while performing for American Marines in Vietnam. Yet Cathy hadn’t been kil...

14 Heinä 201942min

Murder On The Dance Floor: Part Two

Murder On The Dance Floor: Part Two

There was no doubt Audrey Jacob had shot Cyril Gidley dead in front of hundreds of people during a charity dance at Perth’s Government House. But why had she killed him and was she guilty of murder? T...

7 Heinä 20191h 1min

Murder On The Dance Floor: Part One

Murder On The Dance Floor: Part One

In 1925 beautiful young Audrey Campbell Jacob shot a young man dead in front of hundreds of revellers during a charity dance in the ballroom of Government House in Perth — and the court case that foll...

29 Kesä 201947min

Australia's Most Vicious Gunman: Part Three

Australia's Most Vicious Gunman: Part Three

Back in Melbourne in early 1954, James Robert Walker is hellbent on murdering The Brain and The Thing. But after he reluctantly casts himself in the role of protector to a damsel in distress, the vete...

23 Kesä 201938min

Australia's Most Vicious Gunman: Part Two

Australia's Most Vicious Gunman: Part Two

Having spent half of the 1930s behind bars, murderous gunman James Robert Walker moves back to Melbourne to start a new life on the straight and narrow. There, he meets the sultry Rita, the love of hi...

18 Kesä 201934min

Australia's Most Vicious Gunman: Part One

Australia's Most Vicious Gunman: Part One

Charismatic crook and killer James Robert Walker pretty much wrote the playbook that Mark “Chopper” Read would later follow. Finally convicted of murder in Melbourne in 1953, he made headlines by dema...

16 Kesä 201937min

Bonus Episode — Australia's Original Radio Bad Boy

Bonus Episode — Australia's Original Radio Bad Boy

Long before Mick Molloy or Kyle Sandilands, Arundel Nixon ripped up the radio waves as the risqué “King of the Cads”. For a decade the Cad worked for —and was sacked from — hit stations in Sydney, Mel...

26 Touko 201945min

Suosittua kategoriassa Historia

olipa-kerran-otsikko
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
mayday-fi
totuus-vai-salaliitto
huijarit
mystista
tsunami
konginkangas
rss-subjektiivinen-todistaja
rss-ikiuni
sotaa-ja-historiaa-podi
rss-i-dont-like-mondays-2
rss-peter-peter
rouva-diktaattori
tiedetta-ja-sirkushuveja-vanhojen-aikojen-podcast
rss-kirkon-ihmeellisimmat-tarinat
romani-podcast
rss-iltanuotiolla
rss-sattuu-sita-suomessakin
rss-outoja-uutisia-pohjois-suomesta