The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • 71

Cockington MENTAL AS ANYTHING In the 1950s an Australian couple were wireless stars with a bizarre ESP show Now Radio National has made a documentary about their popular act his wife Lesley Pope were among the biggest stars of Australian and British stage and radio Their act consisted of simple but dramatic The Amazing Piddingtons may sound like a good title for a Goon Show but for a brief period after the war Sydney Piddington and The Piddingtons: hang on coming to me EVENTS JAZZ The Anita Thomas Quintet perform on Sunday as part of Drummoyne free summer entertainment program Drummoyne Park Bayswater Street 5pm Take picnic rug and chair CHINESE NEW YEAR A throng of performers take to the streets on Sunday to welcome the Year of the Dragon There will be dragon and lion dances street performers and traditional costumes It moves off from Sydney Square at 11am travelling along George Street into Liverpool Street then Sussex Street to finish near the Sydney Entertainment Centre television a decade before it began here Despite their popularity the Piddington Show was not without its critics Some saw it as an attempt to deceive the public Piddington never claimed to be psychic describing his act as per cent entertainment of a thought-provoking Sydney and Lesley returned to Australia in 1952 and retired from show business having already earnt a small fortune Sydney Piddington later worked in advertising sales then became tourism manager for The Blue Mountains region An attempted comeback in the mid 70s only proved that live variety of this nature had had its day He died in 1991 Lesley is still living in Sydney and was interviewed for the program What is most amazing is that despite their incredible fame little is known today of The Piddington phenomenon Michelle Rayner and Jennifer Cornwall from Radio Hindsight claim to be the first to have compiled a doco on this couple While none of their 2UE broadcasts appear to have survived Rayner and Cornwall have managed to locate some rare excerpts from the original BBC programs as recorded by the Piddingtons themselves As Sydney might have said you be the judge The Amazing Piddingtons can be heard on Radio National's Hindsight this Sunday at 2pm It will be repeated on Thursday at 1 lam demonstrations of ESP mental telepathy if you prefer To add to the suspense Lesley was placed in increasingly remote locations submerged in a diving bell seated in an airliner yet still managed to pick up her thoughtwaves This amazing story to be documented on Radio National this Sunday begins in Changi Prison After being captured by the Japanese Sydney Piddington an amateur magician was reading about ESP in an old copy of Reader's Digest as one tends to do in prison camps He experimented with the concept and by the time he was released had already developed an act well suited to the booming medium of radio He began here on 2UE always performing live for added drama After the war the couple moved to Britain and became the first Australians to score a contract with the BBC They also performed at the London Palladium (the first Australians to top the bill) then appeared on the strange new medium of Piddington never claimed to be psychic describing his act as per cent entertainment of a thought-provoking AND PRIVATE TUITION COURSES ALUMNI Include Whitelev Dobell JULIAN ASHTON ART SCHOOL DAYEVENING CLASSES and HOLIDAY COURSES PAUL DELPRAT PRINCIPAL Enrolling Now 9241 1641 also Life drawing nights wkend ASTROLOGY classes for 36 weeks beginning Monday 14th Feb 7 Dm at Mystervs Bookshop Balmain Tel (Mvstervs) 9818 2274 BUSHWALKING Long established bushwalking club offers a Three Stage Course covering Day full pack Weekend Wilderness walking The full course consists of a carefully graded program across 7 weekends between March and September For Information ring 9718 2229 Or 9660 8896 COFFEE SCHOOL Be a cafe bar person get a fun job' Complete course S49 Phone 9552 6771 IF YOU CAN TALK YOU CAN SING Intn'lly trained 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