The Queen rebuked Princess Margaret for attending a performance.

Mount Isa, with no disrespect to the Mother Country, embraced it and wondered what all the fuss of immorality was about.

It was the Arthur Miller stage play, ‘A View From The Bridge’ which was brought to the Outback by the Arts Council of Australia within months of the Princess being chastised in the London newspapers, in late 1959, for being irresponsible to have joined a private theatre club to watch a performance.

‘A View From The Bridge’ resonated with the Mount Isa audience not for its perceived immorality but the ‘slice of life’ type of play that local residents understood.

The storyline was that of a lawyer whose infinite understanding of hardship and tragedy was gleaned during a life time of listening to the problems of poor people.

For the local audience, it was a plus that the playwright was at that time married to the curvaceous pin-up poster ‘gal’ and American actress, Marilyn Monroe.

The play was a step-up and a step-closer to Hollywood and all the better that there was a right royal scandal to enhance the publicity trail and garner larger audiences.

Unlike most other towns and cities, Mount Isa with its high incomes attracted any number of miners from various nationalities all of whom bought snippets of their own cultural and morals to town.

So when the New South Wales State Opera Company was invited to perform enroute to the Arts Festival in Darwin, there was standing room only at Henderson Hall - for ‘Carmen’ was in town.

However culture had to take a back seat to the rough and tumble sport of rodeo, in 1964, when the Elizabethan Theatre Company’s performance dates of ‘And the Big Men Flew’ clashed with the 5th Annual Mount Isa Rotary Rodeo.

Advertised to feature on the same night, locals were perplexed why the Elizabethan Theatre Trust would be entering a rider in the feature bull ride. 

Or was it to be a man vs beast/man vs football feature?

Either way, both events were popular on alternate weekends to the delight of both rodeo and VFL sports fans with the latter lining up at Henderson Hall to be entertained with a satirical play on their beloved football.

And while it may be considered that adults were the main advocates of culture, children were regularly entertained by travelling educational shows which performed at Henderson Hall, St Joseph’s Hall and the AWU Hall.

Long before Mount Isa had television or Jim Henderson’s Muppets became popular there was the Griffiths Marionette Theatre which travelled and performed extensively throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Such was their emphasis on spreading the good word on education that the Queensland Director General of Education, Sir Herbert Watkins, gave permission for primary school times to be adjusted to allow children to attend these matinees.

As Freda Griffiths said, “While the puppets themselves belong to the world of make-believe, the emotions they personify so vividly are as old as Man himself.

The sixties may have been the decade of live bands such as The Jaguars, The Midnighters and The Four Squares but it also saw the emergent folk scene gain popularity.

And controversy was not far behind when Dennis Gibbons, a folk singer from Melbourne, made national headlines for his comment on bringing a singer from so far away, ”The ygo for the grand gesture in Mount Isa.”

Rather perturbed at such an inference, the local branch of the Arts Council quickly admonished the Melbourne Sun about its columnist’s surprise at there being such a branch in Mount Isa.

Fortunately, Miss Anne McCosker, was more refined with her ballet performance at Hilton Hall.

Having studied at the Royal School of Ballet in London for several years, she gave a performance of excerpts from Swan Lake, Gizelle and Les Sylphides before dancing her own piece of choreography which she had performed for television in Portugal.

So taken with local hospitality, she extended her visit to her sister Mrs Ian Johnson of Third Avenue, and accepted an invitation from local ballet teacher, D’Esley O’Shea to conduct advanced ballet classes for her senior dancers.

However, controversy was never been far from the Mount Isa culture scene, as was evidenced when ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ was scheduled to be performed in the North West.

The Cloncurry Shire Chairman, Cr R C Katter described the play as lewd while the McKinlay Shire Council chairman, Cr E Netterfield said that it was in the shire’s best interests not to show the play in Julia Creek.

“It is nothing but blasphemous and truly revolting immorality,” Cr Katter said.

Acting President of the Mount Isa branch of the Arts Council, M Belcher, was prepared to stage the controversial play saying, “... it was up to the individual whether he wanted to see it.”

“I don’t think Mount Isa people will take a prudish attitude towards the play,” he said.

The only problem he could see was finding a suitable hall; Henderson Hall and St Joseph’s Hall were deemed inappropriate for their religious connections while Hilton Hall and the AWU Hall were too small to even consider building a temporary stage.

By the time Jim Smith Snr did build a full stage under the movie screen in his Star Picture Theatre, locals knew who Virginia Woolf was (courtesy of the later MGM film starring Elizabeth Taylor) and were no longer interested in learning of her foibles much to the relief of the constrained few who for political reasons followed the party lines of Crs Katter and Nettlefield.

Both Princess Margaret and Mount Isa may ridden the controversial waves of culture, in all its forms, but neither then nor now, could you call either prudish.

Researched and written by Kim-Maree Burton  

www.kimmareeburton.com

Information sourced from Cloncurry Advocate, Mt Isa Mail, Brisbane Courier Mail.