
Introducing the Tyroleans, performing music from the Austrian Alps on a 1974 episode of the Australian variety show It’s Magic. They pull singer Colleen Hewett up for a rendition of ‘Edelweiss’, a song from The Sound of Music – played entirely on cow bells.
Hewett, twice crowned TV Week’s Queen of Pop, doesn’t get to sing a note, but makes up for it with a virtuoso performance on Littlest Bell.
It’s Magic tailored the whole of its set to the theme of its numbers. Even though the Tyroleans were a specialty act, they got a cosy hearth, spruce trees and an applauding audience dressed in aprés-ski turtlenecks and scarves. This attention to detail transported the viewers at home through different destinations and moods with each number, making for a true variety show.
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.