I’ve mentioned before that Australians
have always been madly in love with America and Americans. This love affair with America causes
Australians to consider anything and everything American superior in every way
and highly desirable. Before the advent
of visiting superstars and million dollar concerts, that perception extended to
the local entertainment industry.
The
Embers, was a newly opened nightclub in a near city suburb. It was popular because it was the only real
nightclub at that time in Melbourne. The club, complete with romantic lighting, a
small stage for entertainment, and an equally small dance floor, was the
epitome of what Australians had seen in all the movies coming out of Hollywood. It was a huge success.
To propagate the illusion of
American-ness, the owner of the club, decided to hire a cigarette girl. Cigarette girls in the movies of the day,
were pretty young things who dressed in short skirts, fishnet stockings and
carried a tray hung from their necks filled with the most popular brands of
cigarettes. It must be remembered that
everyone smoked in those days.
Particularly young people who thought cigarettes gave them an air of
sophistication.
I was offered the job of cigarette
girl at The Embers as a result of the owner having seen me doing
my bit on a daily TV variety show. The
‘bit’ was probably me standing like a palm tree next to the host, but who
cared. I had a regular evening job which
is what I’d been looking for for a while.
Of course the club’s owner was completely unaware of my very young
age. After all, I looked closer to 22
than 17 and I wasn’t about to discourage anyone from thinking I was a mature
adult.
I thoroughly enjoyed my job. At first, since I was working on commission,
my pay packet was a little lean. But I
convinced the owner that he should allow me to sell fresh flowers as well as
the cigarettes to increase my profit margin.
Since it would also increase his profit, he agreed and each evening I
loaded up my tray with not only cigarettes but also lovely fresh gardenias.
It was easy to sell the flowers. After all, what man trying to impress a new
girlfriend is going to say ‘no’ when asked if he’d like to buy a gardenia for
his lady? On slow days when there
weren’t enough couples to sell flowers to, I’d approach a table of men and ask
them to buy me a gardenia which I
would pin to my neckline. Some evenings
I had a complete lei of gardenias pinned around my neckline.
During the months I worked at The Embers, I saw many talented American
performers. Billy Eckstine, Bobby Van
and Ricky Nelson were some of the bigger names.
Of course there was the has-beens and the never-were’s from the US as well, but
since we didn’t know or care, they all seemed like stars to us.
The
Embers had two levels. The ground
floor room as well as a more private room at the side separated by a heavy
velvet curtain and a sort of mezzanine room three steps up and over a
fishpond. More seating and the dance
floor, was on the mezzanine section which also had a square counter at the side
with an open barbeque style cooking area.
Here the Chefs’ would dump large steaks and customers could watch them
sizzle to their required done-ness.
On a particular night as I passed the
barbeque grill counter, the flames from the sizzling steaks were leaping and
jumping like wild things. I recall
saying to the Chef that he should watch it.
The flames were really getting too high.
 | |
| As a blonde and skinny (sigh) in my 'cigarette girl' outfit |
Part II will appear next week.
