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(317)

This Week in 1929: The Blind Digger – Part One

This Week in 1929: The Blind Digger – Part One

Terribly wounded on 25 April 1915 at Gallipoli, AIF Private Frank Downes would be celebrated as The Blind Digger. After returning home on the first hospital ship from Egypt, he was an Anzac hero, a pa...

23 Huhti 202549min

This Week in 1904: Rampaging Percy Ramage – Part Two

This Week in 1904: Rampaging Percy Ramage – Part Two

Did you have to be crazy to take on 10 cops at once? Was Percy Ramage 'perfectly insane'? The question was key but Melbourne’s best and brightest just couldn’t agree. Percy cashed in on his notoriety ...

19 Huhti 202546min

This Week in 1904: Rampaging Percy Ramage – Part One

This Week in 1904: Rampaging Percy Ramage – Part One

In Melbourne and Geelong from the 1890s, Percy Ramage saw red whenever he saw the cops. Known as 'The Policeman Puncher', he was such a 'human tiger' that no-one knew where his badness ended and his m...

16 Huhti 202550min

Short: Cocaine Kurtz

Short: Cocaine Kurtz

This German-born thug's misadventures included shooting his dad in the butt, taking to the bush as an escapee, doing time in a POW camp, selling cocaine in Sydney and dicing with the Razor Gangs. But ...

11 Huhti 202514min

This Week in 1978: Dead End – The Bloody Last Stand of a Brazen Bank Bandit

This Week in 1978: Dead End – The Bloody Last Stand of a Brazen Bank Bandit

A Brisbane armed robber had hit three banks in twelve months. In the second week of April 1978, the cops had laid a trap he couldn’t escape. Until he did. What followed was an extraordinary car chase ...

7 Huhti 202545min

This Week in 1953: One Murderous Cop, Two Serial Killers & Roy Cohn Runs Riot Against the 'Reds'

This Week in 1953: One Murderous Cop, Two Serial Killers & Roy Cohn Runs Riot Against the 'Reds'

It was a big week for true crime and the Red Scare. In Sydney, Roger Rogerson’s future hero, Detective-Sergeant Ray ‘the Gunner’ Kelly, was in court and explaining how and why he’d shot another crimin...

31 Maalis 202556min

This Week in 1928: Cocaine Raids, Razor Gangs, Racist Orgy Conspiracies and Girl Bosses vs Man Worms!

This Week in 1928: Cocaine Raids, Razor Gangs, Racist Orgy Conspiracies and Girl Bosses vs Man Worms!

In a bumper episode brought to you by the newfangled "Electric Newspaper" of 1928, Sydney and Melbourne cops carry out spectacular public raids to save white women from the evils of cocaine and Africa...

24 Maalis 202555min

Short: Murder at the Melbourne Races

Short: Murder at the Melbourne Races

In 1906, when a young bookie tried to cheat his customers, he died as the very public victim of a bloodthirsty mob of Melburnians. His murder left the city searching for his killers – and for answers ...

23 Maalis 202520min

Suosittua kategoriassa Historia

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