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2 October – 15 October 2012
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Radio broadcast alarmed the world IN an Australian radio first, the peninsula’s community station RPP-FM will recreate the legendary War of the Worlds radio broadcast on Halloween, Wednesday 31 October. Helping promote the broadcast will be one of the stars of the 1953 movie, Ann Robinson, who will be interviewed this week on RPP’s Friday on My Mind program, hosted by Phil Wall and John Wells. On Sunday 30 October 1938, millions of American radio listeners were shocked when radio news alerts announced the arrival of Martians. They panicked when they heard about the Martians’ ferocious and seemingly unstoppable attack on Earth. Many ran from their homes screaming and others packed up their cars and fled. What listeners heard was a portion of Orson Welles’s adaptation of the book War of the Worlds by H G Wells. This was before television – radio was the main form of entertainment with millions of people sitting around their radios listening to drama, comedy and music shows. Shocked a nation: Ann Robinson, the female lead in the original 1953 Paramount Pictures movie of War of the Worlds. Inset, Gene Barry and Ann Robinson in a scene from the movie.
Seventy-four years after the Halloween blockbuster sent shock waves across America and the world, RPPFM will faithfully recreate the historic radio drama. The show will be a special event from the Friday on My Mind team, who earlier this year presented a Cop Shop reunion show. “The Halloween broadcast will be amazing,â€? Phil Wall said. “It will be in front of a live audience in the station’s BlueScope performance studio and we have a great director in Colin Budds as well as John Orcsik and his team from The Australian Film and Television Academy. “On Friday morning we’ll be joined live from Hollywood by Ann Robinson, the female lead in the original 1953 Paramount Pictures movie version of the story. “It will be incredible having Ann on the show. She was a member of one of the most iconic War of the Worlds episodes,â€? John Wells said. Ann Robinson was a stunt horse rider and then actor whose first leading role was as Sylvia Van Buren in the War of the Worlds. Other films followed and she also starred opposite Jack Webb in the radio and television series Dragnet, between 1947 and 1970. ď Ž Friday on My Mind is on 9-11am Fridays on RPP-FM 98.7 and 98.3.
Outbreak of democracy By Mike Hast DEMOCRACY is alive on the Mornington Peninsula with 43 candidates vying for places in the shire’s six wards at this month’s election. It’s a far cry from the previous election in 2008 when six of 11 seats were uncontested, with five councillors returned unchallenged and one, this year’s mayor Cr Frank Martin, not even facing the voters. Cr Martin took over from the retiring David Jarman in Red Hill Ward and was not opposed. The 43-candidate list is vindication of
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the Victorian Electoral Commission’s decision to redraw the ward boundaries and create three multi-councillor wards from eight single-councillor wards on the more populous, Port Phillip side of the municipality. Of the 43 candidates, 33 are standing in the three new multi-councillor wards between Portsea and Mt Eliza (see map on Page 5). Nepean Ward between Portsea and Rye has eight candidates seeking the two seats. Seawinds Ward between Tootgarook and Safety Beach has 14 candidates
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going for three seats on the council. Briars Ward between Mt Martha and Mt Eliza has 11 people chasing three seats. The three wards on the Western Port side stay as single-councillor areas. The Victorian Electoral Commission in January recommended the changes, which were accepted by the state government. The changes were designed to ensure “fair and equitable representation�, according to VEC boss Steve Tully. Mr Tully telegraphed the changes last October during a public hearing
into the electoral structure of the shire. He had expressed concern over the uncontested seats in 2008, revealing the shire had six of 45 in Victoria, 13.3 per cent of all uncontested wards across the state’s 79 municipalities. During a vigorous lobbying campaign, the shire council, led by CEO Michael Kennedy with the full support of all 11 councillors, said the six uncontested seats were proof the single-councillor system was working. Many residents disagreed, saying dislodging sitting councillors was a difficult task and getting action from
existing councillors was sometimes a problem. Despite 2008 having only five contests, four new councillors joined the shire – Frank Martin replaced David Jarman at Red Hill, Lynn Bowden replaced the retiring Aldona Martin in Watson Ward (Somerville and Tyabb areas), Graham Pittock replaced the retiring Dave Gregan in the Dromana area, and Leigh Eustace replaced Reade Smith, who moved from Mt Eliza Ward where he had been since the 2000 election. Continued Page 4
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