Well known personalities who have passed away recently (Renamed)

[red750]

Pixie Skase, widow of controversial businessman Christopher Skase, dies age 83

 

She died on November 15, her daughter Amanda Larkins confirmed on Tuesday night.

 

Ms Skase was one of Melbourne's best known and most glamorous socialites in the 1980s.

 

She was known for hosting extravagant parties, her big blonde hair, shoulder pads and love of the finer things in life such as flashy diamonds and French champagne.

 

Her husband died from stomach cancer in 2001 and Ms Skase returned permanently to Australia in 2009, where she mostly kept a low profile.

[onetrack]

The original drummer for the Bee Gees, Colin "Smiley" Peterson, has died, aged 78. There's only one of the Gibb brothers left alive now - Barry - he's the last surviving member of the Bee Gees.

Colin Petersen was drumming at public performances, as recently as last Saturday. He gained the nickname "Smiley", because he was the child actor of that name in the 1956 film, which also starred Chips Rafferty.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-19/bee-gees-drummer-colin-smiley-petersen-dead-at-78/104618874

 

Amazingly, Dennis Bryon, who was also a Bee Gees drummer after Petersen left, also died just five days ago, on the 14th November 2024.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/18/arts/music/bee-gees-drummers-dead.html

 

Edited Tuesday at 01:41 PM by onetrack

[old man emu]

I always thought that the Ronnie Burns 1969 song, Smiley, was about the character from the movies, Smiley (1956) and Smiley Gets A Gun (1958). Smiley, you’re off to the Asian war/ And we won’t see you smile no more…

 

The boy, Smiley, in those movies would have been of an age in the late 60s to be called-up for National Service and  to go to Vietnam. The name ‘Smiley’ in Ronnie Burns’s record would have resonated with Australian audiences. Whether or not writer Johnny Young intended this, it added to the song’s theme of lost innocence by bringing to mind the carefree 1950s childhood of that earlier Smiley.

 

When Johnny Young wrote the song, he had in mind Australian pop star and Vietnam War conscript Normie Rowe: Before he left, he was really happy-go-lucky, fun-filled young fella. When he came back, he changed.