Shepparton claimed a first in being one of the initial few rural Australian centres to have television broadcasts, the first transmission from GMV6 television on December 23, 1961 from a studio in Shepparton and a transmitter at Mt Major near Dookie.
The advent of the ‘goggle box’ box in black-and-white swiftly become the primary focus of in-home entertainment.
But balls for music and dancing held their own and were still de rigueur across the town.
One such gala ball arranged by the Shepparton Agricultural Society in the mid-1960s and held at the civic centre was somewhat more notable because of the ‘entertainment’ arranged by a town official.
When the dignitaries and assorted others mustered at the venue in their finery, a five-piece band struck up playing and out came a comely performer, it was supposed, to sing.
The performer, known only as Autumn Leaves (because she ‘dropped everything’), began her stripping routine.
Aghast, reddened faces turned away and the organiser, masterfully faking shock, looked to clear from the room.
In the ensuing days and weeks, letters to the editor of The News from the more pious and straight-laced ball-goers called for full repentance and official apologies.
They never got this.
But the organiser was not invited to provide entertainment in future years, and the society’s ball wasn’t held again for some time.
