Kommotion in the 21st Century.
I am amazed that there are still so many people who remember this 1960’s TV show in a positive manner, this is highlighted by a photo on EBAY asking for $6K!! (Ebay Link) The budget for new sets each week was only $10, yes hold your hands up and count 8 fingers and two thumbs $10. Today TV shows waste that on a useless item that will do zip for any TV show.
The Kommotion Team ( a phrase I coined) was simply that, a Team, some stood out but in the main it was a well disciplined Team, held together by the late Bert Shaw ( chorographer). Bert took no prisoners and rehearsed and worked the dancers and mimers into a state of professional performers. His energy and insistance on discipline paid off and the fan mail arrived in huge bags at ATV Melbourne and other stations around Australia. No social media or email back then, just plain old snail mail letters in envelopes and the viewers had to be answered. I heard from one who used an excuse to come to my home and wash my car so he and his friends could ask questions and get answers after they had sent many letters. Yes they washed the car, did a top job and I gave them ‘in his terms’ a very generous amount towards their pocket money fund.
In some ways Kommotion and JBSNight have a familiar and similar feel. The questions and support is amazing. We get asked all sorts of interesting trivia questions at JBSNight, some we can answer, some we can’t, like: “who is the girl sitting on top of the Ghost Train ride at Luna Park singing?” Now that opens a slight can of worms, which Luna park Sydney or Melbourne? plus the only TV Music show I recall being filmed at Luna park Sydney was a Channel 10 Johnny O’Keefe show and that footage is now long gone. But I will continue to look for it.
From the Kommotion days when the show was aired in the USA, a gal from Texas wrote and said she was surprised that I spoke English. I suppose the Australian accent sometimes doesn’t sound like we’re speaking English?! I Still have that letter somewhere in my memorabilia file.
In the sixties I read a magazine article “You never know who’s listening” referring to Radio and that is spot on. In TV, many at the top and performers should take note “that you never know who’s watching!” Sure you get some misguided time wasting trolls on social media, but, in the old days we had a section in Listener IN TV (Melbourne) called Brick bats ( stand to be corrected on title). Here viewers opened up their positive and negative thoughts and gave many of us a broadside or two.
So back to Kommotion – Who was your favourite Kommotion Dancer or Mime artist? and why? let us know in the comments below –
