Sunday, February 22, 2015

Holy go-go boots, Batgirl!

Stumbling upon this mind-blowingly groovy quartet of Bat-babes during my cyber-wanderings recently, I thought all my blogmases had come at once. Not only did the photo date back to 60s Melbourne, but it had a Batman theme - could the planets align any more perfectly?

But there's always a catch, isn't there?

Much like Jan Stewart, the mystery model I posted about last year (a helpful reader informed me that she ended up marrying Ian Turpie!), I encountered a big fat dead end when I tried to investigate these gorgeous Bat-chicks further. But here's the little that I do know...

This photo appeared in the 27 September 1967 issue of Go Set magazine, and was taken at the Coburg Town Hall, at a Saturday-night dance called 'Swinger'. Can't you just imagine the search results that Google threw at me when I tried to look into that?!

The Coburg Town Hall was a popular live music venue during the 60s, hosting everyone from The Strangers to Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs and The Masters Apprentices. And sometimes the occasion would be Swinger...


I don't know how long Swinger lasted, but if the advert above is any indication, it was Melbourne's own 'big established fun centre'. Indeed.

And the Batgirls? I have a suspicion they were go-go dancers and seem to remember once seeing a photo of Denise Drysdale shakin' it with some Batgirls (that's not her on the left of the image above, is it? There's a certain likeness but I'm not convinced), but can't find anything to either support or refute this notion.

I do know that the character of Batgirl was introduced in season three of the original Batman TV series, which went to air in - you guessed it - 1967. 

If there's anyone out there who knows anything else about this photo (including the name of the photographer and who the chicks are), the Swinger dance, or even just what it was like going to gigs at the Coburg Town Hall, please get in touch and put me out of my misery!

2 comments:

  1. oh The Vibrants. they were from NZ and very bluesy and cool. DingDong is innocent I think. None of those Batgirls is her, although the one with long blonde hair may be Fran Hastings who was high profile on the disco scene and also in a crazy TV show as a football-goalpost cheerleader.
    Your informant on Mrs Turpie apologises for tangling her Jans. It was not Melbourne model Jan Stewart it was Melbourne model Jan Hamilton. It wasn't Melbourne model Janni Goss either.
    Thanks for the Batfun

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. From your description, Ann, The Vibrants sound worth investigating. I shall look into them. I'll also see what I can find out about Fran Hastings - she sounds worthy of a blog post in her own right! And no need to apologise about muddling up your Jans - happens to the best of us! Personally, I get all today's Botoxed Hollywood stars mixed up on a regular basis (and they don't even share the same name)...

      Delete