COLUMN
Stories from GG’s Toy Box
By Grahame Grassby
Story 15 — The Wiggles in Wagga Wagga
The second International Bananas in Pyjamas Conference was held in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia in November 1995 and was attended by a select group of international visitors and around fifty Australian licensees.
The conference began in Sydney and before arriving in Melbourne, the international guests were taken, unexpectedly for them, by a small twin propellor plane to an Australian country town called Wagga Wagga where they witnessed children’s band The Wiggles play Live in Concert at the Wagga Wagga Returned Servicemen’s Leagues Club (RSL).
The Wiggles were just starting out on their musical career – a career that would see them become the world’s most successful and recognised children’s band for the next 30 years.
So there we were in Wagga Wagga – the Bananas in Pyjamas International licensing agent Fred Gaffney, the legendary US TV syndicator Jerry Sachs and his business manager Barbara Schweke, US licensing Agent Sid Kaufman, President of US Tomy Toys Bill Carlson and his wife Sharon, Grant Irwin from Canadian toy company Irwin Toys, NZ Licensing Agent Louise Coburn, two Australian licensees, Dennis Callaghan from Tree Toys and Anna Addicoat from ACME Clothing, the ABC’s Licensing Manager Merryl Mills and myself.
All of us happy little campers to be a part of the growing Bananas in Pyjamas success story.
We arrived in Wagga Wagga late in the afternoon and after checking into the hotel it was time for dinner and we were all off to a “cook your own steak” pub restaurant.
This is where we learned that the concept of a cook your own steak on the BBQ was a step too far for our American guests who could not for the life of them understand why you would ever consider paying to cook your own dinner – fair point, I guess.
The next morning, we visited the Wagga Wagga Zoo and I’m not sure what was in the air that morning but all the Aussie animals were being exceptionally amorous with one another and they put on an unforgettable show of fornicating — as Barbara Schweke succinctly summed it up, “Oh my! Oh my goodness!”
And then it was on to the Wagga Wagga RSL Club to see The Wiggles perform live in concert to a packed house of the under sixes and their mothers.
The concert was a raging success with The Wiggles playing all their hit songs including Hot Potato, Yummy Yummy, Big Red Car and Here Come The Wiggles.
And finally, it was straight back to the Wagga Wagga airport where an even smaller twin-propellor plane was waiting to fly the Bananas entourage to Melbourne.
We were all strapped in and ready to take off but there was one small problem – the weight of all the overseas luggage combined with the weight of the various menfolk who had occupied the back seats of the small plane meant that the plane was so back-heavy that the front wheel of the plane was actually off the ground.
The flight attendant of the plane spoke as loudly as she could over the din being made by the Bananas party, “Would all the men move to the front of the aircraft and would all the women move to the rear of the aircraft – Please!”
The flight attendant’s instructions were dutifully carried out, except by Fred Gaffney, who was so busy in the backseat on his mobile phone imparting therapy on some poor licensee, that he had failed to notice the major seating rearrangement taking place around him.
Jerry Sachs, seeing the need for leadership, responded, ‘hey, Fred, move your ass up to the front seat!’ Fred dutifully relocated himself up front and sure enough, we were ready for take-off.
The flight attendant confirmed with the pilot that the front wheel was now back on the ground and there we were in this tiny plane hurtling down the runway which was saying to itself “I think I can, I think I can” and with everyone holding their breath up we went turning right to fly south to Melbourne and letting out a huge cheer when the international Bananas in Pyjamas team landed safely in Melbourne.
This article originally appeared in Edition 16 of The Toy Universe Magazine
