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In Melbourne Tonight - Pancake tossing
Title:
In Melbourne Tonight - Pancake tossing
NFSA ID
1035069
Year
1965
Courtesy
Nine Network
Graham Kennedy and assistant Miffy Marsh promote Nestlé Sunshine Milk Powder in this segment of In Melbourne Tonight from February 1965. A sponsored slot paid for by the food company, this nightly segment ran for two weeks and offered contestants the chance to show off their ability at flipping pancakes. Here Mrs Philpott of North Balwyn demonstrates her technique, followed by Graham's own attempts.
Graham's ability to create mayhem out of these regular advertising spots was central to IMT's appeal. Advertising agency principal Peter Clemenger told Kennedy's biographer Graeme Blundell, 'it was the mainstay of the program. Advertising was the reason people turned on; to see what was going to get the Kennedy treatment that night.'
Miffy Marsh was one of the many resident sales assistants (colloquially known as 'floggers') employed by GTV9 to help advertise the numerous products sold each night on the program. Of the dozens of floggers across IMT’s history, among the best known were Rosemary Margan, Hal Todd, Judy Ann Stewart and Pete Smith. Graham's mention of himself being a 'primary producer' referred to his purchase of a 100-hectare dairy farm in Longwarry in South Gippsland the year before.
Graham had reduced his nightly hosting commitments several years earlier, giving others their opportunity in his chair. At this point in 1965, he fronted the Monday to Wednesday editions, with Jimmy Hannan on Thursdays and Noel Ferrier in charge on Friday. IMT celebrated its 2000th episode four months later.
This sequence is not believed to have been re-screened since its original broadcast.
Notes by Simon Smith
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.