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11/08/2005: "SIDESHOW ALLEY .......Royal Easter Show in Sydney"
A professional diver (BC) gave me the job he didn't want. That of an attendant in a sideshow called TERRORS OF THE DEEP (Live Exhibits).
See Marbuk the Killer Crocodile, giant sharks AND MONSTERS OF THE DEEP!
Inside the tent was a small tank of baby crocodiles, everything else was stuffed! (Plaster casts actually).
I was the only person in the tent. Well paid, but the only target for regular abuse from disgruntled punters who obviously expected a huge aquarium of live monsters.
It was a ten-day long education and experience. I was being paid about double what other sideshow workers seemed to be getting.
The cash was needed to buy myself a brand new Rolleiflex camera in an underwater Rolleimarin housing.
Kai Hansen, a crocodile farmer, was the owner of the show. After a few days they made him remove the live baby crocs as it was against showgrounds policy.
One disgruntled couple were lawyers who threatened to sue for false presentation or something.
I entertained them by pointing out they should watch the faces of people entering the tent....all the girls laughed and smiled at the con while the boys were grumpy at having 'wasted' cash. (To be expected at many sideshows).
In the end it was so busy nobody took any notice of me in a corner. I was being paid to stand there!
Soon afterwards I became a 'professional underwater photographer' with large sized transparencies that were then essential for magazine covers and inside pages.
It would be several years before 35mm transparencies could be used in magazines as new printing techniques were introduced.
Fathom (an underwater) magazine was at the front of this revolution with printing made in Hong Kong, and magazines shipped to Australia and later USA for distribution.
We avoided publishing a date on the magazine cover as wharf worker strikes were common back then.
