This is a story that has nothing to do with Sheep, Wool or Shearers.
It is a story best categorized as ’interesting people I have met’.
It is 1949, I was just a boy, and wealthy Marple relative, Cliff Cooper, the man who invented Cooper Louver windows, has just posted our family a cheque to cover the costs of return airfares to Sydney.
Cliff had the inspiration to pay for all the Australian Marple relatives to meet up in Sydney with the view of ‘getting together’.
Our family knew of Cliff, but had not previously had contact with him.
So off we set to Essendon Airport bright and early one Saturday morning – my father, Edwin Balfour Marple; Marion Joan, my mother; my sister Yvonne and eight year old me. We caught an Australian Airlines plane, a twin engine D-C-3 made by the McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Company, USA.
The family had great expectations of a fantastic flight and a capital city awaiting us with open arms. However, what really happened was that we arrived in Sydney in the semi-darkness due to a coal miners’ strike. Sydney relied on coal fire generated electricity, so street lighting was at a minimum and I remember the main city area having a browny glow.
The next day we arose to see this bustling city of around one million people, our next stop for the day was to meet and greet Cliff Cooper. We caught a taxi out to Dee Why and found Cliff’s house. To our surprise his house was without a garden or any other adornments. I asked my Mother what had happened to the garden – I think my father indicated that Cliff had drunk the proceeds of his invention.
I anticipated, as an eight-year-old, that Cliff would be an effervescent business man in a shiny suit, but on the contrary he was hung over and a little worse for wear! He lived alone apart from a live in Nurse. That was also a mystery – the Nurse could have well been a sexual companion. I was only eight at the time, so I wouldn’t know about that!
We returned to our hotel in Sydney to get ready for our trip to Cliff’s beach house at Ettalong Beach. The hotel had shared bath rooms. This was the first shared bathing arrangement I had ever encountered, with people’s shaving gear and stuff I had never seen before – deodorant, mouthwash, scent – it was all too much for me!
Tomorrow came – whacko! Off to the beach! I remember my parents’ advice to my sister ‘Don’t talk to strange men’.
Beach houses at Ettalong Beach would make one to two million dollars for even the cheap ones, so Cliff had really hit the jackpot with his invention. All he had done was to have the glass panels of a sleep out or ventilator converted into equal panels, connecting a housing to a lever mechanism that would open or shut to keep the rain and other stray objects out. That mechanism* made Cliff absolute millions. He sold the patents to, I think, Wunderlich and other window manufacturing companies.
It is a story best categorized as ’interesting people I have met’.
It is 1949, I was just a boy, and wealthy Marple relative, Cliff Cooper, the man who invented Cooper Louver windows, has just posted our family a cheque to cover the costs of return airfares to Sydney.
Cliff had the inspiration to pay for all the Australian Marple relatives to meet up in Sydney with the view of ‘getting together’.
Our family knew of Cliff, but had not previously had contact with him.
So off we set to Essendon Airport bright and early one Saturday morning – my father, Edwin Balfour Marple; Marion Joan, my mother; my sister Yvonne and eight year old me. We caught an Australian Airlines plane, a twin engine D-C-3 made by the McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Company, USA.
The family had great expectations of a fantastic flight and a capital city awaiting us with open arms. However, what really happened was that we arrived in Sydney in the semi-darkness due to a coal miners’ strike. Sydney relied on coal fire generated electricity, so street lighting was at a minimum and I remember the main city area having a browny glow.
The next day we arose to see this bustling city of around one million people, our next stop for the day was to meet and greet Cliff Cooper. We caught a taxi out to Dee Why and found Cliff’s house. To our surprise his house was without a garden or any other adornments. I asked my Mother what had happened to the garden – I think my father indicated that Cliff had drunk the proceeds of his invention.
I anticipated, as an eight-year-old, that Cliff would be an effervescent business man in a shiny suit, but on the contrary he was hung over and a little worse for wear! He lived alone apart from a live in Nurse. That was also a mystery – the Nurse could have well been a sexual companion. I was only eight at the time, so I wouldn’t know about that!
We returned to our hotel in Sydney to get ready for our trip to Cliff’s beach house at Ettalong Beach. The hotel had shared bath rooms. This was the first shared bathing arrangement I had ever encountered, with people’s shaving gear and stuff I had never seen before – deodorant, mouthwash, scent – it was all too much for me!
Tomorrow came – whacko! Off to the beach! I remember my parents’ advice to my sister ‘Don’t talk to strange men’.
Beach houses at Ettalong Beach would make one to two million dollars for even the cheap ones, so Cliff had really hit the jackpot with his invention. All he had done was to have the glass panels of a sleep out or ventilator converted into equal panels, connecting a housing to a lever mechanism that would open or shut to keep the rain and other stray objects out. That mechanism* made Cliff absolute millions. He sold the patents to, I think, Wunderlich and other window manufacturing companies.
The highlight of the visit to Ettalong Beach was Cliff driving us there in his latest car, a huge blue Nash which could pass anything on the road. I particularly remember a round knob fitted to its steering wheel so Cliff could hold a beer bottle in one hand and steer. This brought a new meaning to the phrase ‘drinking and driving’!
The roads around the Hawkesbury River in the late 1940’s were extremely dangerous with curves and unsealed roads. My mother travelled to Ettalong with Cliff, but declared that she would not drive home with him due to his erratic driving - she did not want to die in the car with her son (that’s me, Godfrey)!
*'Cliff Cooper's louvre mechanism'... still being sold today...
The roads around the Hawkesbury River in the late 1940’s were extremely dangerous with curves and unsealed roads. My mother travelled to Ettalong with Cliff, but declared that she would not drive home with him due to his erratic driving - she did not want to die in the car with her son (that’s me, Godfrey)!
*'Cliff Cooper's louvre mechanism'... still being sold today...
Source: http://www.ullrich.com.au/louvrewindows.php accessed 21/9/2016
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