2 posts tagged “obituaries”

Marcel Marceau

Sometimes the universe works in a strangely symmetrical fashion.

Yesterday's newspapers report the passing of 2 men who were at opposite ends of the vocal spectrum - Marcel Marceau and Frank Hyde.

A letter-writer to a British newspaper (I lost the citation - sorry!) suggests that we all observe one minute's noise to mark the passing of Marcel Marceau.

Seeing Marceau live was extraordinary.  I was lucky enough to see him twice - i nSydney in 1977 and in Wollongong (of all places) in the early 1990s).  For the length of each item. those invisible walls, flowers and strong men became real.

And as for Frank Hyde ... well, when radio in its truest form is described as "theatre of the mind", Frank must have been a 5-star director in that theatre.

Frank Hyde

His famous call - "It's long enough - it's high enough - and it's STRAIGHT between the posts" was the inspiration of a rather short-lived goal-kicking career for me as I had the misfortune to play rugby league at school in the 1970s.

More importantly, he was one of the few influences on me tha tsaid it was good to use your imagination.  radio in its truest form makes you use your imagination because of the lack of pictures - hence the "theatre of the mind" label above.

I think that Mr Hyde must have understood this at some level, die to the way he described rugby league on radio.

So I here publicly record my debt to these 2 gentlemen, for showing me that there is more to life and imagination than what you see on TV.

Steve Irwin

Steve Irwin was a character that I found somewhat baffling.  Why would someone want to wrestle a crocodile?

Although I (and many of my countrymen and women) were not fans, I fully recognise that he was a great communicator; he grabbed people's attention, and then used that attention to promote conservation and wildlife causes.

TAFE New South Wales (my employer) likes its teachers to grab students' attention before getting them through their courses.  In this regard, he was infinitely superior to many of the so-called professional educators I encountered at school.

He also had a far bigger impact than the dreary wildlife programs of my childhood.  Utter the words "Leyland Brothers" to any Australian my age and watch them tremble in fear.  Then there was that truly Wild Kingdom on Channel 10 (or "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" as they unfathomably announced on the program), with the high-voiced bloke in a safari suit in a faux-hunter's den, holding stuffed birds and droning on and on (much like my writing).  And then, of course, there was the famous Alby Mangels, who was a lot like Tom Sellick - outdoors-ish male model good looks instantly undone whenever he spoke, revealing an odd high-pitched voice.

Steve Irwin was not as popular in Australia as he was in the USA, but he was certainly big in the Australian State of Queensland.  His giant billboard image advertising his zoo & reptile park, Australia Zoo (link to a cached page by Google),  followed us about wherever we travelled on our holidays on the Sunshine Coast in south-east Queensland.

The circumstances of his death were desparately unlucky.  He is only the 3rd Australian and either the 17th or 30th person worldwide (depending on which newspaper you read)  to meet his fate in this way.

And of course, the other people desparately unlucky with this event are his wife and 2 young children.  I'm sure that I speak for Pauline and for all Chronicle readers as much as for myself in saying that our thoughts and prayers are with them at this very sad time.

Several weeks ago I mused in the California Chronicle about the transcience of life, after hearing of the death of a teaching colleague in a traffic accident about 30 minutes after I farewelled her for the winter vacation.   I have cause to engage in such musings again, especially since no one could imagine this sort event a mere 24 hours ago.

The quotation at the head of this post is by Russell Crowe; it is as good an epitaph - involving role modelling for young people an, indeed, for one's fellow citizens - as one could aspire to receive.

• Obituary in News.com.au (linked in NewsVine)
• The picture at the top of this post is from C BBC.