Demolition Reveals 1911 Garage Wall Ad, King Street Newtown

This Tuesday’s and Saturday’s Phantom Dancer features Spotlight Bands’ ‘Band of the Week’ for 31 January 1942. It’s Sammy Kaye, over the Blue Network

His best-selling record that got him the ‘Band of the Week’ gig? A ditty entitled ‘Remember Pearl Harbour’

Turns out NBC interrupted a Sammy Kaye program to break the news of Pearl Harbour being bombed, 7 December 1941. Hence the message song. And like all message songs, well – you be the judge

See the full play list for this week’s Phantom Dancer after these exciting pics

That’s right, photos. Instead of a Video of the Week, I’m posting some exciting archeological photos I took for you just a few hours ago.

There was a fire near me recently. A dry cleaners burnt to the ground. The building has been demolished. And behind a demolished wall a well-preserved painted advertisement has been revealed

I guessed by the artwork and fonts that the ad was from 1911. A quick look at the Sands Directory tells me I’m about right. The Sands Directory was an annual listing of everyone who lived in Sydney with their addresses and occupations. The last Sands was published in 1932

In 1910, according to Sands, the site of the demolished dry cleaners was the Newtown Carriage Works — Arthur Dunn, proprietor. In 1911, it became H. Phippen’s motor garage. He was a motor engineer. By 1912, Phippen had left and Arthur Dunn’s Coachbuilding business had returned. Or, perhaps, between 1911 – 1914, the site was shared between the coach building and garage businesses – new technology piggybacking on the old. By 1915 the site was occupied by an upholsterer

Because of a locked wire gate I couldn’t get a full shot of this huge, vibrant ad from the street. So below is a series of shots covering the entire wall I took from the footpath. In this first photo, note ‘Cars for Hire’ and ‘Waratah Motor Spirit’. What would have been the demand for Car hire in 1911? Was H. Phippen ahead of his time? Did low demand beat his business? It’s not listed in the Sands Directory for 1912

1911 Garage Wall Ad - King St, Newtown

Waratah Motor Spirit appears to have still been around in 1925 when you could buy it from twelve outlets around Sydney, according to an ad in the Sydney Morning Herald dated 28 Jan 1925. As you can see in the bottom of the wall ad, Waratah, was a product of the Neptune Oil Company. Neptune Oil began in Australia in 1905. A motoring website says Neptune’s Waratah brand was introduced in 1917. This ad proves the motoring historian wrong. The site became an upholsterers in 1915. An upholsterer wouldn’t be putting up an all-weather sign visible to passing motorists for Motor Spirit

Perdriau Tyres Sign - is this the earliest extant?

Perdriau Tyres? Henry Perdriau entered the rubber importing business in Sydney in 1888. His Perdriau Rubber Co. Ltd. started manufacturing rubber parts in 1904 and finally merged with Dunlop in 1929 to form Dunlop Perdriau Rubber Co. Ltd. Could this be the earliest Perdriau wall sign extant? A Perdriau glass lantern slide ad from 1924 – 29 exists in the ANU Digital Collection in Canberra

Detail of the Waratah Motor Spirit sign

It’s hard to see in the photo below, but on site I could just make out the phone number L1905. L stood for 5 and was the area prefix for Newtown and surrounding Inner West Sydney suburbs. Sydney phone numbers used one and two letter prefixes until the mid-1960s. The code was: A = 1, B = 2, F = 3, J = 4, L = 5, M = 6, U = 7, W = 8, X = 9, Y = 0

Garage and Phone Number L1905

Some more pics. The sign-writing is of an extremely high standard. The Waratah is a beautiful piece of commercial art. The amount of effort involved in sign writing such a huge space by hand is quite extraordinary, especially if they used, as my grandfather did about the same time as a house painter, individually mixed paints. My grandfather would crush blocks of pigment with a mortar & pestle and mix the powder with linseed oil and I guess some kind of fixer. I particularly like the blue used in the top band of the sign. It’s a colour you don’t see now. The uneven durability of hand-made paint is revealed in the preservation of the different colours. The green lettering for the phone number and the red fill for the Waratah are the most deteriorated

Having been protected by the sun and weather for almost a hundred years by a brick wall, this is a most amazingly intact piece of commercial pre-WWI art

A new building will be erected on the site. Will the sign survive another 100 years? After the photos you’ll see the play list for this week’s Phantom Dancer on 2SER

1911 Garage Wall Ad – King St, Newtown

Perdriau Tyres Sign – is this the earliest extant?

Detail of the Waratah Motor Spirit sign

Garage and Phone Number L1905

Here’s this week’s Phantom Dancer play list. Enjoy the show on your radio!

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney
Tuesday 29 November 2011 12 noon – 1:30pm (+11 hours GMT) Live stream on 2ser.com
Saturday 3 December 2011 12 noon – 1:30pm (+11 hours GMT) Live stream on 2ser.com
The Wireless	Lobby Lud	www.myspace. com/lobbylud
Set 1
Theme (I’ll See You In My Dreams) + Got The Sun In The Morning	Leighton Noble Orchestra (voc) Helen Lynn	‘One Night Stand’ Starlight Roof Waldorf Astoria Hotel AFRS Re-broadcast 21 Jun 1946
Moonlight Serenade (theme) + At Sundown	Glenn Miller Orchestra	Glen Island Casino New Rochelle WEAF NBC Red NY Oct 1939
Intro + Careless Hands	Frank Siantra and the hit Paraders (voc) Axel Stordahl Orchestra	‘Your Hit Parade’ KFI NBC LA 20 Apr 1949
What Will I Tell My Heart? + Blue Skies (Close)	Jo Stafford (voc) Victor Young Orchestra	‘Your Melody Hour’ NBC/AFRS 5 Aug 1951
Set 2
Maramao, Perche Sei Morto?	Maria Jottini & Trio Lescano with Orchestra	Rome 1939
Comes Love	Paul Whiteman Orchestra	‘Chesterfield Show’ WABC CBS NY 9 Aug 1939
Birmingham Special + Theme	Glen Gray & The Casa Loma Orchestra	‘GI Jive’ AFRS Hollywood 1944
Blue Skies + Close	Bob Chester Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Panther Room Hotel Sherman AFRS Re-broadcast 8 Oct 1944
Set 3
Open + Elmers Tune + Let’s Have Another Cup Of Coffee + Remember Pearl Harbour + Close	Sammy Kaye Orchestra (voc) Band & The 3 Kaydettes	‘Spotlight Bands’ Blue Network Washington DC 21 Feb 1942
Set 4
Blue Room Jump	Count Basie Orchestra	Blue Room Hotel Lincoln WABC CBS NY May 1944
Honeysuckle Rose	Harry James Orchestra (g) Allen Reuss	Palladium Ballroon KNX CBS LA 1943
1-2-3-4 Jump	Woody Herman Orchestra	‘Woody Herman Show’ WABC CBS NY 27 Sep 1944
Flying Home	Benny Goodman Quintet	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 1948
Set 5
Eine Insel Aus Traeumen Geboren	Hans Rehmstedt Orchestra (voc) Rudi Schuricke	Comm Rec Berlin Dec 1938
Bewildered	Les Brown Orchestra (voc) Billy Eckstine	Radio Transcription Hollywood Sep 1949
Ain’t Got Nothin’ But The Blues	Lena Horne (voc) Fletcher Henderson Orchestra	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 1944
To Each His Own	Claude Thornhill Orchestra	Steel Pier Atlantic City NJ NBC 24 Aug 1956
Set 6
Confirmation	Ben Webster Quintet	Aircheck 1962
C Jam Blues	Duke Ellington Orchestra	‘Date With The Duke’ Paradise Theatre ABC Detroit 19 May 1945
Four	Buddy Rich Quartet	Birdland WRCA NBC NY 7 Nov 1958