Patricia Crocker

Patricia Anne Crocker (1929 – 15 March 1992) professionally known as Patti Crocker (no relation to entertainer, Barry Crocker), was an Australian actress associated with the "golden days of radio in Australia", who also appeared in theatre and on television, primarily in soap opera and commercial advertisement's. She was the author of a memoir detailing her life and career on both radio and subsequently on television.

Patti Crocker
Born
Patricia Anne Crocker

1929
Bankstown, New South Wales
Died15 March 1992 (aged 62–63)
Leura, New South Wales
Occupation
  • Actress (radio, theatre, television) & author
Years active1940s – 1980s

Early life

Crocker was born in Bankstown, Sydney, the daughter of Edna May Crocker (née Dingwall 1905 – 18 November 1992) and upholsterer Roy Samuel Crocker (28 February 1906 – 1980).[1] She was educated at Bankstown North Public School and Meriden Church of England Girls Grammar School, Strathfield. At her parents' insistence, she entered the stream for the academically inclined and passed her Leaving Certificate exams in 1948, though without distinction.[2]

Her mother was anxious that she not inherit her own shyness, and accordingly received elocution training from Grace Buist and Harry Thomas and studied piano under Eileen Hanley. She entered, or was entered for, eisteddfods from the age of eight, usually for "humorous recitation",[3] or piano solo,[4] culminating in that of 1941, when she won "Best Entertainer" at an eisteddfod in Sydney[5] against adult performers, and received high praise from the judge.[6]

Radio

In 1941 she was a guest on the Youth Show, sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive, which first went to air on radio 2GB on 27 July 1940, and became a regular shortly after, with Peggy Hamilton as a comedy duo "Null and Void".[7]

Her first radio acting job was as "Dolly" in the serial Budge (later Budge's Gang) for the Australian Broadcasting Commission's Children's Session from around June 1942,[8] followed by juvenile roles in The Poltergeist and Christa Winsloe's Children in Uniform, which won the Macquarie Award for Catherine Duncan.[9]

She also played stage parts: as "Agnes" in William Saroyan's The Beautiful People at Bryant's Playhouse in 1946 and "Adela", the headstrong youngest daughter in Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba, at the Metropolitan Theatre in 1951.[10]

Her most enduring role was as "Mandy Gordon", the cheeky youngest daughter of "Dr Neil Gordon" in Gwen Meredith's Blue Hills, the long-running serial on ABC radio. Her part ran from to 1949 to 1952, when her character married "Dr Frobisher", played by Max Osbiston, and never reappeared. In real life she was about to sail with Ruth Cracknell to London,[11] but from her return to Australia in 1953 she made frequent guest appearances in a variety of minor roles, and was one of the few (with Queenie Ashton and Osbiston) who played in both the first and last episodes (28 February 1949 and 30 September 1976).

Another radio play of note in which she appeared was White Coolies (1955), by Betty Jeffrey, adapted in 52 episodes by Gwen Friend, sister of Donald Friend, and starring Ruth Cracknell and June Salter.[12]

Television

With the advent of television in Australia in the mid-1950s, sponsorship for quality radio drama dried up, and radio stations moved to quiz shows, talkback, and popular music programming. Local TV production at first centred on advertising, of which lucrative market Crocker had her share, but success in drama largely eluded her, perhaps on account of her diminutive 150 cm (4 ft 11 in) stature, until she was cast as "Eileen Chester", a woman with two errant daughters, Debbie and Jane Chester (Dina Mann and Suzanne Church) in serial Number 96. Her character's life ended after being attacked by a shark. Other TV credits included the serials The Outsiders, Luke's Kingdom, Matlock Police, Homicide and Riptide, as well as the TV movie White Man's Legend[13]

Film production

In the early 1980s Crocker was involved as a producer on Jess, a movie that was to star (by then expatriate) Australians Diane Cilento[14] and Ed Devereaux.[15] It was to be set in the Depression and drought years of 1930s Australia. Financed by the Film Finance Corporation Australia and with European funding, the movie was never made.

Family life

Crocker married David Davies in 1958 and the couple had a son Michael in 1960. Patricia Davies died in Leura, New South Wales, in 1992.[16][17]

Publications
  • Crocker, Patti (1989). Radio Days. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0731800982. This important collection of anecdotes makes no claim to being a definitive history of the Australian entertainment industry but provides background on those involved. It throws light on the work of actors such as Peter Finch, Bill Kerr, Michael Pate, Leonard Teale, Rod Taylor, John Meillon, June Salter and Ruth Cracknell, comedians George Wallace, Roy Rene and Jack Davey and variety hosts Bob and Dolly Dyer. The book has a foreword by Queenie Ashton AM with whom Crocker performed on radio serial Blue Hills.[18]

This book has been used as a source for much of this article.

References
  1. BDMs NSW Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  2. "Leaving Exam. Results". The Daily Telegraph (Sydney). New South Wales, Australia. 13 January 1949. p. 14. Retrieved 12 January 2020 – via Trove.
  3. "Lakemba Eisteddfod". The Sydney Morning Herald. New South Wales, Australia. 9 August 1937. p. 5. Retrieved 11 January 2020 – via Trove.
  4. "Eisteddfod". The Sydney Morning Herald. New South Wales, Australia. 8 December 1938. p. 13. Retrieved 11 January 2020 – via Trove.
  5. Jeffrey, Brian (20 January 1990). "Reliving the golden days of radio in Australia". The Canberra Times. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. p. 20. Retrieved 11 January 2020 – via Trove.
  6. "Eisteddfod "find"". The Sydney Morning Herald. New South Wales, Australia. 26 August 1941. p. 9. Retrieved 11 January 2020 – via Trove.
  7. "Radio Round-up". The Sun (Sydney). New South Wales, Australia. 17 July 1947. p. 6. Retrieved 12 January 2020 – via Trove.
  8. "The Young Patriot's Predicament". The Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser. New South Wales, Australia. 29 May 1942. p. 12. Retrieved 12 February 2020 – via Trove.
  9. "Radio Acting Awards". The Sydney Morning Herald. New South Wales, Australia. 7 April 1947. p. 3. Retrieved 12 January 2020 – via Trove.
  10. "No temperament in all-woman cast". The Sun (Sydney). New South Wales, Australia. 15 November 1951. p. 31. Retrieved 12 January 2020 – via Trove.
  11. "Sydney Actress". The Sydney Morning Herald. New South Wales, Australia. 11 November 1952. p. 8. Retrieved 13 January 2020 – via Trove.
  12. "More Grace Gibson radio classics on CD". ATV Today. 5 July 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  13. IMDB Patti Crocker Actress Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  14. "Diane Cilento: Fresh from the success of a London show". The Australian Women's Weekly. Australia. 31 December 1980. p. 4. Retrieved 20 January 2020 – via Trove.
  15. "Ed's Fit After Rare Surgery". The Australian Women's Weekly. Australia. 25 February 1981. p. 18 (TV WORLD). Retrieved 20 January 2020 – via Trove.
  16. Ryerson Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  17. Sutherland Shire Historical Society Quarterly Bulletin Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  18. Crocker, Patti (1989), Radio days, Simon & Schuster Australia, ISBN 978-0-7318-0098-8
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