Olivia's Aussie Shop
By Lindsay Scott
Dudley Moore and girlfriend Susan Anton, Gene Kelly, Christopher Atkins, producer Allan Carr, Helen Reddy, Debby Boone and Jane Seymour were among the celebrities who defied threatening storm clouds, which turned into a downpour late in the evening. They swallowed plenty of Fosters and munched on meat pies and lamingtons in the large courtyard behind the bright, spacious store.
After Dame Edna’s stirring speech, Pat and Olivia christened the store by breaking a huge jar of Vegemite against the wall. Billy Thorpe, Toni Lamond and Tristan Rogers (now America’s hottest daytime TV star in General Hospital) were among the smiling expatriates who came along to reminisce and gloat over the Arnott’s biscuits, Violet Crumble bars, chocolate creams and Vegemite which line the shop’s freshly painted shelves.
Visiting Aussie guests included members of Men At Work, Mental As Anything, Glenn and Gaynor Wheatley and two members of the victorious Australia II squad Glen Read and Hugh Trehane. Designers Prue Acton, Stuart Membery and Mark and Geoffrey flew in to launch their clothing lines, which will be sold exclusively at Koala Blue.
Pat and Olivia hit on the idea of introducing indigenous Australian food and clothes to America a year ago, but getting the shop open was more frustrating than they expected. ‘We had trouble finding the right location,’ Pat told TV WEEK. The store is in the heart of what some people call the ‘Sunset Strip Of The Eighties’, Hollywood’s trendiest street, Melrose Avenue.
It was Olivia Newton-John who attracted Los Angeles trendies to the opening of Koala Blue, her new all-Australian store in Hollywood. But it was that shameless upstager Dame Edna Everage who stole the show. In a yellow dress with a koala motif and a purple beehive wig, the housewife superstar wowed the 300 Australian and American guests with a poem she wrote specially for Olivia and Pat Farrar, Olivia’s childhood friend and now her partner in the ambitious store.
Dame Edna’s poem went:
Tonight I really feel terrific, Australian culture has crossed the Pacific.
And thanks to Olivia, my promising niece, everyone here can buy a piece.
Here are gorgeous frocks by top designers and opals dug up by dusty miners
And there’s food that’s been passed by our health authorities and the odd artefact by ethnic minorities.
Woollen sweaters as soft as a cockatoo’s tuft and cuddly koalas humanely stuffed.
For here in L.A. is a colorful corner inspired by Australian flora and fauna.
Fur and claw and beak, if it comes from Down Under it’s bound to be chic.
I know shoppers will flock here from New York to Dallas to buy things from the land that makes everyone jealous.
I hear people whisper, as they wander through, is there nothing on earth that Australia can’t do?
It’s so safe there and sunny, we don’t have to think, our bodies are brown and our Government’s pink.
The Australian male is a gorgeous hunk, in defeat he’s modest, in victory, drunk.
Our women folk are, I’m sure you’ll agree, as talented and tasteful as Livvy and me.
So welcome to Koala Blue, it ‘s the biggest thing since Australia II.