Daddy Cool

With special guest:

• Darleen Bungey
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

A real feature of the show today is when we go back to 1957 to hear the golden voice of Lawrie Brooks.

Lawrie was born in the United States where he had been named Robert Cutter. But Robert became the most popular singer in Australia under another name, Lawrie Brooks. How he came to wear the new name is a story in itself and just part of the fascinating history told in Darleen Bungey’s book about her father called Daddy Cool: Finding my father, the singer who swapped Hollywood fame for home in Australia.

This is a story that has to be told. Darleen’s father was a big star in Hollywood and Hawai’i but his personal life created enormous problems that lead to scandal and to him permanently leaving his country of birth. Born within a year of the San Francisco earthquake it seemed that Lawrie’s life would always be turbulent and stressful. His older brother died at a young age and in his parents’ eyes Robert was an inadequate replacement for this much loved first child.

When Lawrie was only four years old his parents went to court seeking a divorce. When they were both found guilty of moral turpitude, custody of Robert was granted to his maternal grandparents. Most likely filled with a sense of abandonment he never lived with his parents again.

Sadly when a child was born to Darleen’s father and his first wife the marriage ended and he did not see his daughter again for some forty years after failing in his application for custody. But the adventures continued. There were three more marriages and eventually two more children when he met the love of his life in Sydney. In the meantime he had joined the Australian Army in World War 2 and become well known as a singer in Australia.

We get to listen to Robert (now called Lawrie) when at the age of 50 he is still hitting those high notes and causing a few listeners to swoon over this handsome and charismatic man who despite so many troubles in his life was never known to complain. In Daddy Cool we get to hear what he told his prospective wife number 4 about his past life. Darleen’s mother decided to go ahead with the marriage anyway and we get to hear the story from their daughter, an award winning author. What a story it is.

Darleen Bungey

Darleen Bungey is a multiple award-winning author. Her first book, Arthur Boyd: A Life, was the 2008 Australian Book Industry Association’s Biography of the Year and was joint winner of the FAW Melbourne University Publishing Award in the 2007 National Literary Awards. It was also shortlisted for the 2008 Queensland Premier’s Literary Award for Non-fiction and the 2009 Dobbie Literary Award. Her second book, John Olsen: An Artist’s Life, won the 2015 Prime Minister’s Literary Award and was shortlisted for the 2016 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards and the 2015 Nib Literary Award. Daddy Cool is her third book.

Song selection by our guest: Peg O’ My Heart by Lawrie Brooks with the Jim Gussey Orchestra

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