Lord and Lady Mountbatten at Manly

On 31 March 1946 Lord and Lady Mountbatten paid an informal visit to Manly Beach. They attended an impromptu surf carnival arranged by Manly Life Saving Club. Lady Mountbatten had an unfortunate mishap and fell in the water up to her knees when disembarking at the wharf from the official launch, but laughed it off. The Mountbattens were on separate missions for much of the period immediately after the war, and their meeting in Sydney was due to a chance alignment in their diaries - they had been apart for many days prior to this. Their programme in Sydney was very busy, and Lord Mountbatten attended many functions in connection with disabled servicemen and prisoners of war. This interlude at Manly Beach must have been welcome relief. The photograph above is not captioned, and as yet we do not know the names of the other members of the party. A couple of girls in rather daring two-piece costumes can be seen, top right.

John MacRitchie.

Beware the giant soccer ball

Mr Tom Miles has forwarded this clever photo of the cylindrical gasometer at Balgowlah Road, taken in 1978. In 1964 the gasometer was painted to resemble a giant golf ball, and the paint job lasted into the 1970s, but by the time this photo was taken, it had reverted to an unpainted condition. Disconcertingly, it now resembled a giant soccer ball. You can imagine the keeper facing into the glare when a corner came over from his right. Perhaps that's why he is wearing the bunnet. Mona Vale United is one of the teams playing here in a Premier League game at the L M Graham Reserve.

Ena Gregory of Manly

Strikingly beautiful Ena Gregory was one of the first Australian actresses to make a career in Hollywood. She was the daughter of Arthur and Jessie Gregory, who married in 1901. Ena's birth was registered at St Leonards, Sydney in 1907. Internet sources invariably give her date of birth as 18 April 1906, which is curious.

By 1915 the Gregory family were living at 'Sans Souci', 48 Sydney Road, Manly, on the block between Birkley and Parkview Roads. Ena may well have attended Manly Village School. her father journeyed overseas on business, including to California. Ena, a precocious child talent, followed in his footsteps. She made an impression on Hal Roach, who cast her in numerous two-reel features, including a very early Stan Laurel movie, The Soilers, in 1923, when she can only have been 15 or 16. Success came with The Calgary Stampede (1926), which was advertised in Australia as featuring "Ena Gregory of Manly". She then appeared in The Bushranger (1929), the first "all-Australian" movie to be made in Hollywood, which also involved the brothers Frank and Snowy Baker. However this film was widely panned.

She was advised to change her name, and became 'Marion Douglas', the name a blend of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, two of the most powerful figures in Hollywood. Movies in which she appeared as Marion Douglas included Shepherd of the Hills (1928) and Aloha (1931).

She featured in a diminishing number of movies in the early 1930s. In a turbulent personal life she married and divorced twice. She quit the business, and became a real estate agent instead.

She died at Laguna Beach, California, on 13 June 1993.

Turn Back Time

If you have been watching the entertaining series Turn Back Time: The High Street on ABC, you may be hankering for some of the old-fashioned customer service which shops used to provide - weighing out the goods, bagging them up, and delivering them to your home. These two photos, taken around 1965, show Mr Eric Jones and his grocery store at 26 Darley Road, Manly. Mr Jones began his store in the mid 1920s, and it was still going strong into the early 1980s. The shop is vividly remembered by many of his former customers. Pictuerd outside the shop are Ken Jones, Eric Jones and Rodney Nicholson.

John MacRitchie