SMOKY DAWSON A LIFE (Page 223-227− Smoky & Kellogg's)

Review copy only. Please do not share. www.imprint-inprint.com SMOKY AND KELLOGG’S Cover of the complimentary book Smoky did with Kellogg’s Australia during the heyday of his radio serial, which is celebrated on the next four pages

Review copy only. Please do not share. www.imprint-inprint.com SMOKY AND KELLOGG’S SMOKY AND KELLOGG’S Smoky and Kellogg’s went together like milk and The episodes were written by Peter Yeldham, cornflakes, due to Kellogg’s sponsorship of The Smoky who became an acclaimed screenwriter for motion Dawson Show, a decade of radio serials which were a pictures and television, a playwright and a novelist, and phenomenal success nationwide. also by Don Haring, an expatriate American who was one of the chief writers of the Larry Kent detective The first serial, The Legend of Jindawarrabel series of pulp novels published in Australia in the (1952-55), was followed by The Adventures of Smoky 1950s. Dawson, a series that went to air for seven years (1955- 1962). As well as entertainment, the show aimed to The template for The Adventures of Smoky provide children with important moral lessons and Dawson was American, borrowing elements from Gene wholesome values approved by both Smoky and Autry, who was known as “America’s Favourite Singing Kellogg’s. Cowboy”, and Roy Rogers, who earned the title “King of the Cowboys” for his popularity in films, on They were encouraged to join the Kellogg’s Wild television and radio, and in personal appearances. Both West Club and live by Smoky’s “Code of the West”. A these entertainers had radio shows featuring a horse, a young Paul Keating was a Deputy Sheriff in the club. sidekick (Smoky’s was Jingles) and a song or two. There were three primary rules: Come to the Despite the American influences, Smoky’s show table when first called, with clean fingers and a was very Australian in terms of story and cultural clean mind; Be a good sportsman; and Help your references, and most of the plots revolved around the neighbour in need and honour your flag and mythical Jindawarrabel Station, an idealised property your country. whose location was kept vague to appeal to listeners in all states. Smoky’s program was wildly popular. It went out in prime time on Sydney’s 2GB and across the We can single out Smoky Dawson and the Macquarie network, eventually to sixty-nine stations, Singing Bullet (1955) as one of the classic episodes. and made him a household name and a national Smoky’s old enemies, Grogan and Gilmore, kidnap celebrity. Flash, his prized “Wonder Horse”, became young Billy to draw Smoky into an ambush. Smoky almost as well known. And the theme song for the show, outwits them with a song from his specially modified Riding with a Smile and a Song, became one of Smoky’s guitar – the one with a rifle built in! most loved numbers. 224

Review copy only. Please do not share. www.imprint-inprint.com Syndicated radio shows peaked just before finding gifts inside and on the packets, Kellogg’s television hit Australia. Following the demise of the breakfast foods must have raced off the shelves, with popular Dad and Dave serial in 1953, after a run of sales also supported by Smoky and Flash doing sixteen years, The Smoky Dawson Show went on to countless public appearances, sometimes four a day. became the most widely distributed, and one of the last to end in the early 1960s. Together, Smoky Dawson and Kellogg’s created a cultural and marketing phenomenon unlike anything The Adventures of Smoky Dawson were framed seen before in Australia, with Kellogg’s employing around Smoky’s real-life skills and genuine persona: successful sales techniques from their American that of an honourable man, an Outback stockman, a playbook. As the images on the following pages singer, guitar player, whip-cracker, knife-thrower, indicate, Smoky and Kellogg’s were extremely savvy mimic of bush and animal sounds, and expert partners in a sophisticated rollout of merchandising, horseman. A youngish Bud Tingwell, who went on to advertising and promotion built upon the astonishing appear in more than a hundred movies and TV popularity of Australia’s very own singing cowboy. programs in Australia and the United Kingdom, was a regular on the show as the local policeman. This article about The Smoky Dawson Show has been mainly compiled from two primary sources: the curator’s notes An extraordinary total of around one million written by Paul Byrnes for Australian Screen, a website of the youngsters became members of the Wild West Club National Film and Sound Archive; and information on Ian after receiving an official envelope containing a letter Grieve’s Australian Old Time Radio website. In addition, the of welcome from Smoky Dawson. The letter set out the supplementary images for this section were sourced criteria for membership, which included a thirty-day courtesy of both Ian Grieve and Paul Kelly, who has an probation period and a check list for parents to tick off outstanding collection of Australian Country Music in tracking the youngsters’ good behaviour. When the memorabilia. parents were satisfied that they had met the Code of the West, the child’s name was filled in on a special certificate, earning the right to wear the treasured Deputy Sheriff badge. Kellogg’s hit the jackpot with the Wild West Club, despite the substantial cost of running it. With kids all over Australia sending in coupons from cereal packets to earn other radio premiums, as well as 225

Review copy only. Please do not share. www.imprint-inprint.com

Review copy only. Please do not share. www.imprint-inprint.com