It says it all about the man Bert Newton was.
Respected entertainment reporter Peter Ford, a longtime friend of the Newton family, shared on Sydney’s 2GB radio on Monday, November 1, that Bert once gave one of his Gold Logies to a complete stranger dying from AIDS-related illness.
Peter told 2GB that, around 30 years ago, his friend was dying from AIDS. In a bid to cheer him up, he approached multiple celebrities to sign cards and notes, which they did within a week. Except Bert.
“But about five days later I went to the hospital and as soon as I walked in, there was this buzz,” said Peter. “The guy at the front desk said: `You’re not going to believe it – Bert Newton has been here for the last two hours and has visited every patient’.”
Peter then went to his friend’s room to discover Bert had given him one of his Gold Logies.
“I rang Bert and he told me: `You can never report this until I’ve carked it’.”
But the legend of Bert Newton is as one of our most iconic and well-loved entertainers and now the last of the pioneers of Australian-made TV content.
He died on Saturday evening, October 30, in a Melbourne palliative care clinic. He had suffered years of health problems, including a quadruple bypass and diabetes, which culminated in him being admitted to hospital in May with a toe infection so severe and painful, doctors recommended a partial leg amputation.
They urged it was “a life-or-death decision” to give him more time with his beloved wife of 47 years, Patti, daughter Lauren and son-in-law Matt Welsh, and his six adored grandchildren. He chose that extra time with them. (Son Matthew has long lived in New York and would Face Time Bert regularly.)
Patti is convinced Bert waited to die until after her last visit, so she didn’t have to witness it. She received a call from the hospital 12 minutes after she had left Bert’s bedside to say he had gone.
Ahead of his State funeral (date to be confirmed) it’s a good time to reflect on what Bert Newtown mean to the Australian entertainment – and, in particular, TV – industry.
His death has heralded the end of an era; the last of the iconic “founding faces” of Australian television – the likes of Graham Kennedy, Don Lane, Bernard King, Noel Ferrier and Stuart Wagstaff.
They led Australia through the early days of TV – its inception was in 1956 – on a diet of frothy, “Vaudevillian” entertainment. TV came from these roots because all these men started in theatre or radio, or both, which then still bore Vaudevillian traits.
Vaudeville was a popular entertainment genre around the Western world from around the late 1890s to early 1930s, featuring unrelated acts such as acrobats, comedians, trained animals, jugglers, singers, dancers and light musical drama.
Many future stars were developed under the Vaudeville system – for instance, W.C. Fields, juggler and comedian, Will Rogers, cowboy and comic, and legendary actor/comedian Bob Hope.
Around Europe and in the US, for instance, it translated into different things. In Australia, the term connoted a light variety entertainment.
“Back in the day”, when the likes of Bert Newton and Graham Kennedy were among the big radio names, a typical broadcast day would consist of irregular times devoted to talk, music, or comedy in a largely unplanned fashion, each lasting for however long seemed “right”.
When they were deployed to the new medium of television in the mid-50s they transferred these skills to the screen with stellar success.
Bert’s own TV career had several distinct phases, but most notable were his long partnerships with Graham Kennedy and Don Lane (the so-called Lanky Yank) on a variety of quiz and variety shows over several decades. Including In Melbourne Tonight.
With Graham Kennedy he was happy to play the role of “second banana”, while with Don Lane he was the comic “barrel boy”, often dressing in outlandish costumes. Don nicknamed him “Moonface” – a monicker that stuck throughout the rest of his career.
Bert’s friendships with the two endured in life.
He also launched several eponymous TV talk shows and appeared on stage in various productions, including three years with the musical Wicked. He featured in four films, wrote an autobiography and recorded several singles, as well as The Bert and Patti Family Album in 1977.
In 1979, Bert was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire and, in 2006, a Member of the Order of Australia.
But he may well be most remembered as …
Bert Newton: Lord Of The Logies
Bert’s natural charm, humour, down-to-earth niceness, ability to adlib and perform for three hours of live, unscripted television and spark conversation with any of the award recipients and presenters and overseas guests, no matter how difficult they may have been, was as if he’d been born for the role of hosting the annual Logies.
It saw him shoot the breeze with a bevy of international stars including Muhammad Ali, Rock Hudson, Roger Moore, Farrah Fawcett and John Wayne.
But not all his appearances were well-received, with one of his more awkward faux pas still among Australian TV’s most talked-about decades later.
It was an infamous Logies exchange between Bert and American boxer Muhammad Ali in the late 1970s, when a slip of the tongue almost derailed Ali’s acceptance of the ceremony’s top award.
He had had made a guest appearance to present the Gold Logie, that year won by Bert himself, and the two conversed at the lectern to applause and cheers when Newton responded to an Ali joke by saying “I like the boy”.
The term has negative racial connotations for many black Americans.
It appeared Bert wasn’t entirely aware of his mistake at the time, swiftly apologising. The tone of the award presentation then shifted. All appeared to be forgiven.
While Bert won four Gold Logies over his career and was inaugurated into the Hall of Fame, the Logies also signalled the end of his era.
In 2018 and amid the #MeToo movement, Bert was vilified for inappropriate on-air comments about Graham Kennedy and Don Lane and for referring to himself using a gay slur.
He was to host The Logies from 1967 a record 20 times.
Indeed, legendary US actor/comedian and longtime host of The Oscars, Bob Hope, once described Bert as “the Bob Hope of Australia”.
In his 2014 biography Bert, actor Graeme Blundell described Bert as “a jester in a well-cut dinner suit”, and his hosting of the awards as “something remarkable”. One later host, comedian Wendy Harmer, realised how hard to gig was, comparing the experience to “chainsawing off an arm”.
Thrive 50Plus will bring more stories about Bert’s career and the loves of his life – his wife, children and grandchildren – over coming days.
