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Canberra Today 14°/18° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Ellis: the King and I

Bob Ellis... an O’Malley expert.

WHY did Canberra Museum and Gallery invite Bob Ellis to open its new exhibition about maverick politician King O’Malley?

Well, apart from the maverick coincidence, there’s the fact that back in 1970, he co-wrote, with Michael Boddy, “The Legend of King O’Malley”, one of Australia’s most-loved yet, strangely, least-performed plays.

Back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, nobody but Boddy had ever heard of O’Malley. But on a chance visit to John Bell, the actor-director, fresh back from seven years in England, told the pair, “it could be a play”.

Now Ellis is an O’Malley expert.

He pauses to read a passage he’s written about the real O’Malley who, back in the US when he founded of a religion, had an assistant called Mr Angel (really) who set fire to magnesium on top of a hill so that mountains could “burst into flame”. They were eventually outed as frauds.

The CMAG show confirms that such trickery was indeed part of O’Malley’s profile.

Nobody can ever be sure whether he was really born in Canada, as he claimed, making him a British subject.

CMAG shows that O’Malley was pretty good at putting himself centrestage, arranging a special laying of the foundation stone for the national capital just ahead of the official opening.

A lifelong wowser, he was nonetheless fast and loose with the truth, so much so that the curator of the exhibition, Rowan Henderson, had difficulty in establishing just how old he really was.

And what of Ellis, a “truth-teller” from way back? He’s busy authoring a mini-series about Rupert Murdoch, co-writing with Damian Spruce a book called “The Year it all fell Down” (this year), and writing speeches for Bill Shorten. Just imagine the fun he’d be having if O’Malley were still around.

“King O’Malley”, Canberra Museum and Gallery, Civic Square, until March 12. Monday-Friday 10am-5pm, weekends 12pm-5pm.

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Helen Musa

Helen Musa

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