Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith, nicknamed Smithy, was an Australian aviation pioneer. He piloted the first transpacific flight and the first flight between Australia and New Zealand.
Smithy is a 1946 Australian adventure film about pioneering Australian aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith directed by Ken G. Hall starring Ron Randell. It was Hall's last feature film as a director.
Cinesound Productions Pty Ltd was an Australian feature film production company. Established in June 1931, Cinesound developed out of a group of companies centred on Greater Union Theatres that covered all facets of the film process, from production to distribution and exhibition. Cinesound Productions established a film studio as a subsidiary of Greater Union Theatres Pty Ltd based on the Hollywood model. The first production was On Our Selection (1932), which was an enormous financial success.
Charles Thomas Philippe Ulm was a pioneer Australian aviator. He partnered with Charles Kingsford Smith in achieving a number of aviation firsts, serving as Kingsford Smith's co-pilot on the first transpacific flight and the first flight between Australia and New Zealand. He and two others disappeared near Hawaii in 1934 while undertaking a test flight for an air service between Australia and the United States.
Charles James Melrose was an Australian aviator who held a number of flying records, and was the youngest and only solo flier to finish the Melbourne (MacRobertson) Centenary Air Race in 1934.
Frank Harvey was a British-born actor, producer, and writer, best known for his work in Australia.
Raymond Longford was a prolific Australian film director, writer, producer, and actor during the silent era. Longford was a major director of the silent film era of the Australian cinema. He formed a production team with Lottie Lyell. His contributions to Australian cinema with his ongoing collaborations with Lyell, including The Sentimental Bloke (1919) and The Blue Mountains Mystery (1921), prompted the Australian Film Institute's AFI Raymond Longford Award, inaugurated in 1968, to be named in his honour.
The Flying Doctor is a 1936 Australian-British drama film directed by Miles Mander and starring Charles Farrell, Mary Maguire and James Raglan. The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia operate in the Australian Outback. Noted as Australia's first "sound" feature film, The Flying Doctor was also the country's first feature-length film based on aviation.
Arthur Shirley was an Australian actor, writer, producer, and director of theatre and film. He experienced some success as a film actor in Hollywood between 1914 and 1920.
Strike Me Lucky is a 1934 Australian comedy musical film starring popular stage comic vaudevillian Roy Rene in his first and only film. It was the fourth feature film from Cinesound Productions but proved a box office disappointment. Director Ken G. Hall claimed it was the only one of his features not to go into profit within a few years of release, although the film eventually covered costs.
Albert Edward Bailey, better known as Bert Bailey, was a New Zealand-born Australian playwright, theatrical manager and stage and screen actor best known for playing Dad Rudd, in both mediums, the character from the books penned by Steele Rudd.
Frank Beaumont "Beau" Smith, was an Australian film director, producer and exhibitor, best known for making low-budget comedies.
A Ticket in Tatts is a 1934 musical comedy film starring popular stage comedian George Wallace as an accident-prone stablehand. It was the last of three films Wallace made for F. W. Thring.
The Hayseeds is a 1933 Australian musical comedy from Beaumont Smith. It centres on the rural family, the Hayseeds, about whom Smith had previously made six silent films, starting with Our Friends, the Hayseeds (1917). He retired from directing in 1925 but decided to revive the series in the wake of the box office success of On Our Selection (1932). It was the first starring role in a movie for stage actor Cecil Kellaway.
The Cup Winner is a 1911 Australian silent film directed by Alfred Rolfe. It is set against a backdrop of horseracing and the finale involves real footage from the 1911 Melbourne Cup.
The Old Bus is a 1934 Australian documentary film about Australian contributions to flying, focusing on aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, and derived from his 1932 book of the same name. The film takes its title from his famous Fokker F.VII/3m monoplane aircraft, The Southern Cross, that Kingsford Smith nicknamed "The Old Bus".
Rushcutters Bay Studio was an Australian film studio built by Charles Cozens Spencer in 1912 at Rushcutters Bay, Sydney.
Keith Vincent Anderson was an Australian pioneer aviator. In 1927 Anderson and his co-pilot, "Bobby" Hitchcock, undertook a round-Australia flight. Anderson and Hitchcock died in 1929, after a forced landing in the desert, during the search for Charles Kingsford Smith and his crew, who had been forced to land in Western Australia on the first leg of a flight in the Southern Cross aircraft to London.
Julian Augustus Romaine Smith F.R.P.S. (1873–1947) was a British-Australian surgeon and photographer.
Marie Alice Bremner was an Australian soprano, remembered for performances in Gilbert and Sullivan operas. She became a favorite performer in musical comedy, first on stage, then revivals and variety shows on broadcast radio. She was popular with producers for her ability to take on key roles at a moment's notice and draw "rave" reviews. Her accompanist husband Ewart Chapple became a senior executive with the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
