By Benjamin Millar
When the stars of long-running British television serial Coronation Street hit Kingsville, bedlam ensued.
On March 24, 1966, Arthur Leslie (Jack Walker), Doris Speed (Annie Walker) and Pat Phoenix (Elsie Tanner) arrived on the real-life Coronation Street to find 700 fans had defied inclement weather and crowded on to the cordoned-off street.
Several residents had prepared welcome banners and signs and there was amusement as the actors met their namesakes, including an Annie Walker, of 90 Coronation Street, and a Jack Walker who also lived in the street.
Observing that most of the crowd were women, Footscray mayor Matt Harris said it was a pity that the “menfolk” were at work and unable to greet the visitors.
The details of the visit and the remainder of a 17-day Australian sojourn that took in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide have been painstakingly detailed by St Albans researcher Adrian Schober for an article in The La Trobe Journal, the official journal of the State Library of Victoria.
Mr Schober said he learned of the visit from his grandmother, who was living in Kingsville’s Coronation Street at the time of the 1966 visit, which coincided with the height of the serial’s popularity in Australia.
“My grandmother was an important eyewitness – she described how the whole street was over-run with people,” he said.
Curious to discover more, he went in search of more witnesses and news reports from the day, unearthing details about visits to Coronation streets in Kingsville and Sunshine North.
Mr Schober said he also received very useful input from 3AW radio host Philip Brady, who had helped with the tour in his capacity as a Channel Nine personality at the time.
“I have shared my article with a few elderly people who watched the television serial, and there seems to be great nostalgic interest in the event,” he said.
Mr Schober said the reception for the actors on all their stops echoed the kind of adulation usually reserved for music stars like The Beatles.
“Coronation Street was extremely popular at the time – there was very little local competition in terms of Australian drama,” he said.
Mr Schober’s article is available online at slv.vic.gov.au.
