The Olympic Choir - Melbourne Olympic Games (part 1)

Recently I received an enquiry as to whether I had any additional information on the Olympic Choir that performed at the Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956. Some years ago I gave a series of talks about my father's involvement as a sports journalist at the Olympic Games and at each talk people attending often provided additional information about involvement of their family members. At one of the talks I was given information about the Choir that sang at the Opening and Closing ceremonies.

The Official Report of the Organising Committee for the Games of the XVI Olympiad Melbourne 1956 provides come information about the Choir:

The Choir comprised members of the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Society, City of Brighton Philharmonic Society, City of Camberwell Philharmonic Society, Royal Victorian Liedertafel, Myer Choral Society, Choral Association of Victoria and Melbourne University Choir, totalling 1,200 - sopranos, 600; altos, 200; tenors, 200, bases, 200. (page 226)

Opening Ceremony

The choir was placed in the main outer stand opposite the Royal Box and the rostrum. Immediately in front of the stand was a platform which accommodated the band of the Royal Australian Airforce under its Commanding Officer, Squadron Leader L H Hicks. The choir and band were conducted by Sir Bernard Heinze, Ormond Professor of Music, Melbourne University. The trumpeters of the Royal Australian Air Force band played also the Olympic fanfare for the raising of the Olympic flag. The fanfare was composed for the occasion by Squadron Leader Hicks. (page 226)

After the athletes from all the competing countries had entered the MCG during the Opening Ceremony, the Olympic Hymn was sung by the choir, accompanied by the band. The Dedication Address followed before the choir sang the Hallelujah Chorus. The flag bearers from competing countries formed a semi-circle around the rostrum where the oath was taken by John Landy. The National Anthem was played by the RAAF band and sung by the choir before the teams left the ground. (summary from pages 235-236) 

Closing Ceremony (pages 716 - 727)

An Australian Rules Football match was held on the MCG before the commencement of the Closing Ceremony. Before the football began the choir and the RAAF band were placed in the position they had occupied for the Opening Ceremony.

 During the Closing Ceremony the Olympic Hymn was sung by the choir while the Olympic flag was lowered. As the athletes left the ground the choir sang the Song of Farewell. Athletes from all nations inter-mingled, some of them walking rather than marching out of the vast Stadium to the lingering lilt of the old bush air and its cry of Good-bye Olympians followed by Will ye no' come back again?, taken up, still with emotional tremor in their voices, by the scores of thousands of spectators. 

Sir Bernard Heinze had suggested that the words of Waltzing Matilda should be adapted for the Song of Farewell (page 716).

Homeward, homeward, soon you will be going now;
Momok wonargo ora go-yai,
Joy of our meeting, pain of our parting,
Shine in our eyes as we bid you good-bye.

Good-bye, Olympians; good-bye Olympians,
(On comes the evening, west goes the day.)
Roll up your swags and pack them full of memories,
Fair be the wind as you speed on your way.

Blessings attend you, Fortune befriend you,
All good go with you over the sea.
May the song of our fathers - 'Will ye no' come back again?'
Sing in your hearts thro' the years yet to be.

Come to Australia, back to Australia,
(Mist on the hills and the sun breaking through)
With the sliprails down and the billy boiling merrily,
Wide open arms will be waiting for you.

A digital copy of The Official Report of the Organising Committee for the Games of the XVI Olympiad Melbourne 1956  is available online

 The Olympic Choir - Melbourne Olympic Games (part 2)

Olympic Games, Melbourne, 1956

The Olympic Choir - Melbourne Olympic Games (part 2)

In June 2013 Lloyd Jenkins wrote an account of his memories of his experiences of being in the Melbourne Olympic Choir in 1956. Lloyd gave me a copy of his notes in 2019. Below is a summary of Lloyd's experiences with the choir.

Twenty-four year old Lloyd Jenkins was one of the ten members of the Ballarat Choral Society selected to take part in the 1,200 member Melbourne Olympic Choir. Lloyd was one of the younger choir members. Choir members were expected to attend the four rehearsals held in Melbourne over several weeks before the Games began. Lloyd  travelled from Ballarat to Melbourne on a 1952 BSA 250 motor cycle.

The first rehearsal was at Wilson Hall, Melbourne University. The choristers sat in blocks - 600 sopranos, 200 contraltos, 200 tenors and 200 bass. On arrival they were told the pieces that would sing at the Opening and Closing ceremonies and eventually the appropriate sheet music was distributed. The choristers were also told that attendance at rehearsals was compulsory and a cardboard choir pass was issued with holes to be punched in it at each rehearsal. Squadron Leader Laurie Hicks was the rehearsal leader.  Eventually the choir would sing with the RAAF band but for this rehearsal they were accompanied by a pipe organ. At the first rehearsal the choir learned the Olympic Hymn.

Rehearsal number two was held at the Royal Exhibition Building where the choir members were seated on raked seating and were accompanied by an electronic organ. At this rehearsal the choir rehearsed the five items to be sung at the Olympic Games - God Save the Queen, the Halleluja Chorus, the Olympic Hymn, Waltzing Matilda (with new words) and Will Ye No Come Back Again?.

Back to the Exhibition Building on 9th November for rehearsal number three and this time the choir was able to practise with the RAAF band.To quote Lloyd, 'A choir of that size with a full sized Concert Band performing indoors makes an amazing sound.' For Lloyd, this rehearsal 'was the high point of the whole Olympic Choir experience... The sound within that building was unforgettable.'

On Sunday 18th November the fourth and final rehearsal was held at the MCG. This time 'Sir Bernard Heinze took the podium, a small platform there on the grass, facing the Band and the Choir.'  As Lloyd noted, 'the singers needed the experience of performing in that particular setting, mainly to build up confidence at pressing on against their own amplified sound from around the whole complex'. This rehearsal was not just for the band and the choir - 'the sound engineers and radio broadcast teams needed the experience as well'.

Thursday 22nd November 1956 was a warm sunny day in Melbourne - perfect for the Opening Ceremony. For Lloyd, 'perhaps the biggest moment was to see Australian Junior Mile Champion, Ron Clarke, enter the arena carrying the Olympic torch.' In summing up the day he concluded that the '110,000 spectators, and athletes, and the various officials and performers all had a day to remember forever.'

However it was the Closing Ceremony that created the greatest impression on Lloyd. 'If the Opening Ceremony was memorable, what about the amazing Closing Ceremony. The word amazing is not used lightly. Something happened at the Closing Ceremony that was not predicted. How could it have been predicted!. Neither could it have been orchestrated. It was spontaneous, a product of mass emotion.'

Traditionally at opening and closing ceremonies, teams entered and left the arena as separate nations however in Melbourne at the Closing Ceremony the athletes entered the stadium mixed together. They left in the same manner, walking, not marching. 'As the athletes left, the choir was singing its way through Waltzing Matilda and Will Ye No come Back Again?, two songs of farewell. 

We went straight from one into another, no break at all. Not all the athletes had left the Arena when the two songs were completed.' The conductor signalled for the songs to be repeated. As the words to the songs were printed in the  programme, 110,000 spectators gave full voice to their emotions as they sang with the Choir and the Band. 'A huge wave of emotion swept across the Stadium as the people sang and waved, and as the athletes marched and sang and waved.' 

'Magic moments like that take on a life of their own and any person who was there that day will understand what I am trying to describe' concluded Lloyd.

This account by Lloyd Jenkins of his experience of being a member of the Melbourne Olympic Choir at the Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956 demonstates the ability of the power of music to add to the atmosphere of an event.

The Olympic Choir - Melbourne Olympic Games (part 2)

Olympic Games, Melbourne, 1956

Melbourne Olympic Games - 1956

I recently gave two more talks about the Melbourne Olympic Games where I have met many people with memories and family involvement with the games.

When I showed a slide of a picture of the Opening Ceremony on the cover of the Australian Women's Weekly a gentleman at one talk asked me to stop at the picture and pointed out two white squares in the picture. The two white squares are the Melbourne Olympic Choir.

He was a member of a combined community choir - the Melbourne Olympic Choir - that sang at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. Lloyd gave me notes that he had written about his experiences with the choir which consisted members of community choirs throughout Victoria. As well as singing at the Opening Ceremony the choir performed at a number of events including the Closing Ceremony.

Other people at the meeting were Betty who, as a member of the St John's Ambulance Brigade, attended many of the events working with that organisation.

Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences

Presentation books showing pictures of Melbourne and surrounding areas were presented to members of the Olympic Committee who would eventually vote for the city to host the 1956 Olympic Games. Three special invitation books with lambs’ wool covers decorated with jewels were presented to three people including the King of England and the President of the OIC. Other copies were also covered with lambs’ wool and decorated with an enamelled emblem. Copies were also covered with suede plus enamelled emblems. The books were presented to member of the International Olympic Committee in 1948 and also to local supporters of the project. The company that printed the books was Spicers & Detmold in Coburg and one of the ladies present at the meeting was a daughter of one of the printers who made the books.

A copy of the book with the invitation

The Melbourne Invitation Committee extends a most cordial invitation to the esteemed International Olympic Committee to celebrate the XVI Olympiad in Melbourne, Australia, in 1956. 
A second book, published as a supplement to the first book, was published in January 1949 and was posted to all delegates of the Olympic Committee who would decide who would host the Games in 1956.
 
Another lady told us that her mother helped make the presentation cushions used for medal presentations at the Melbourne Olympic Games.
 

Official Report of the Organising Committee for the Games of the XVI Olympiad Melbourne 1956

When we were discussing who attended any events at the Olympic Games one couple laughed and the husband said that he went to the Closing Ceremony because the soccer final was played before the ceremony and he is a soccer fan. Meanwhile his wife stayed home and looked after the baby.

Program for the Closing Ceremony

Another connection to the Melbourne Olympic Games was one lady who said that she trained in athletics with Betty Cuthbert. At the Melbourne Olympic Games Betty Cuthbert won the 100m and 200m and was in the Australian 4 x 100m relay team which also won gold.

Marlene Matthews with Betty Cuthbert

The water polo incident in the Hungary and Russia  match was also mentioned in the game. The book by Harry Blutstein, Cold War Games, covers this unfortunate incident. This incident was later referred to as 'blood in the water'.

Blood in the Water

At the second talk the father of one lady was involved in the printing of the tickets for the Melbourne Olympic Games.

The three talks that I have given have provided additional information about the Melbourne Olympic Games.

Olympic Games 1956 - more memorabilia

In preparation for another talk about the Olympic Games held in Melbourne in 1956 I now have some more memorabilia relating to the Melbourne Games and to my father.

Journalists reporting on the Melbourne Olympic Games were issued with a pass allowing them entrance to all venues during the period of the Games.

The Olympic Village Official Information Book provides basic information about the accommodation for those those staying at the Olympic Village in Heidelberg.

Click on image to enlarge

The information in this booklet provides examples of living in the 1950s with instructions for the use of bath heaters, gas coppers and other appliances. I also thought that it was interesting that steam irons and washing machines were only available in the Women's Quarters.

The Official Guide to the Olympic Games was published by the Organising Committee for the Melbourne Games. The guide contained a brief history of the Olympic Games, information about the Modern Games , venues, a programme of events, ticket prices, maps of venues plus information for tourists including information about transport, restaurants, sights to see, banking, postage etc.

The 1956 edition of The A T F S Olympic Handbook produced by the Association of Track and Field Statisticians was the third edition of this publication. It contains the official world track and field records for events from 1896 until 1952 as well as an all time world list for athletic events stating name,time, place and date event occurred. There is also  list if the world's best performances of all time.

The General Rules and Special Sports Regulations for the XVI Olympiad is a well used publication in my father's collection. It contains a detailed program for all events, maps (including gradients) for events held outside stadiums, general rules relating to the staging of the Games plus detailed regulations for individual sports.

The Melbourne Olympic Games were held from Thursday 22 November to Saturday 8 December. No events were held in Sundays. Programs were produced for each event for each day of competition. So far we have found programs for swimming, cycling and boxing among Dad's collection. I am still looking for the Dad's copy of the program for the Opening Ceremony.

In 1957 a booklet containing Australian Team Reports of the Olympic Games Melbourne 1956 was published. As well as lists of officials there was a general summary report followed by more detailed reports, often with photographs, for individual sports. There was a list of all the Olympic champions for the Games plus a list of Olympic placings by Australian representatives since the first Olympic Games in 1896.


These items, together with information on other posts on the Melbourne Olympic Games in this blog, help tell part of the story of an important sporting event in Melbourne's history.

Olympic Games Melbourne, 1956 - memories

This afternoon, as part of History Week,  I spoke at Ivanhoe Library about the Melbourne Olympic Games in 1956, particularly the involvement of my father, Ken Moses, who was a sports journalist on The Argus at the time.

Opening Ceremony ticket

During and after the talk a number of those present shared their memories and experiences of the Olympic Games. Some members of the audience brought along their mementoes of the 1956 Olympics - books plus a ticket to see events on the 23 November. This ticket cost 11/- compared to the £1 / 1/- for the Opening Ceremony ticket shown above.

I had brought one of my father's scrap books plus copies of The Argus published during the games, a copy of the Australian Women's Weekly from December 1956, a selection of programs prepared for individual events for each day of competition and the Official report of the Organising Committee for the Games of the XVI Olympiad Melbourne 1956.

I have a partial collection of copies of The Argus published during the Melbourne Olympic Games but one gentleman brought in a full set of this newspaper published during the games period that his mother had kept.

As the Olympic Village was constructed in neighbouring Heidelberg a number of audience members had memories of growing up near the village.

Raymond Morris Collection, National Museum of Australia

Comments were made about the Olympic Rings which were displayed near the entrance to the village. Apparently these rings are now back on display in the area.

Raymond Morris Collection, National Museum of Australia

One gentleman remembered watching the construction of the village and he used to play on the foundations of the buildings - once the builders went home -  during the early stages of construction. There were also memories of wandering through the village after school - security wasn't a major concern - and waving to and / or chatting to athletes. I was also told that a number of athletes stayed with families in private houses and that the families drove those athletes to the venues to participate in their events.

Winner's medal

One of the ladies in the audience told me that her mother was a seamstress who made the cushions used for the medal presentations at the Olympic Games in 1956.

The Olympic Torch Relay is an important event in the build up to an Olympic Games and I met one gentleman who told me that he had been one of the torch bearers in the 1956 Torch Relay.

This was a great session to share experiences and memories of events that occurred 60 years ago as we remembered the 1956 Olympic Games - an important event in the history of Melbourne.

Other posts on this topic:
Olympic Games Melbourne, 1956 - Media
Olympic Games Melbourne, 1956 - Challenges for host city
Sepia Saturday 316 - Movie cameras
Olympic Games Melbourne 1956 - view post

Olympic Games, Melbourne 1956 - Media

The organisers of the 1956 Olympic Games faced a number of challenges not faced by the organisers of  previous games. Suitable facilities for the general press needed to be organised however the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne was the first to be extensively covered by film, along with some limited television coverage. This created new logistical problems for the organisers.

Press facilities at the MCG

Press covering events needed space for their typewriters or room to take notes using pen and paper. Telephones were provided and some journalists used tape recorders. Reports on the Olympic Games were also presented on radio. The press stand at the MCG was the largest used for the games but temporary press stands also had to be provided at other venues.

Television
Television was launched in Australia just before the Olympic Games. A subcommittee was therefore established to oversee conditions for providing television coverage.
Local television stations in Melbourne could televise events at venues where seating was sold out such as events at the main stadium. Each evening a 16mm film was sent to television stations in Sydney.
Each night was despatched each night to various overseas destinations. Six half hour television programs were made for American syndicated television. Arrangements with airlines were made for quick transportation of film.
A major discussion point was the charges asked for by the Olympic Committee to televise Olympic Games events.

National Museum Australia has this page on TV and the Melbourne Olympics

Film
As described in a previous post restrictions were placed on the use of movie cameras by non-accredited persons as the Australian Olympic Committee had commissioned a French company to make an official film of the Olympic Games. However the restrictions were relaxed as a number of films of the Olympic Games taken by individuals exist. Three of these home movies taken by Bruce Beresford, Mile Leyland and Sir Robert Menzies can be viewed online via the National Film and Sound Archive website.

Camerman from French film company on right

The official film was released in May 1957. The Australian Women's Weekly attended the launch and reported on the event in the 20 May 1957 issue. Members of the Australian Olympic Team attended the premier.

The staging of the Olympic Games in Melbourne was also seen as an opportunity to promote Melbourne, Victoria and Australia to the rest of the world.

The black and white images in this post are from the the Official report of the Organising Committee for the Games of the XVI Olympiad Melbourne 1956. This publication is available online.

Olympic Games Melbourne, 1956 - challenges for host city

Hosting an Olympic Games is a major undertaking and many challenges can arise. In the lead up to most Olympic Games we learn of problems in meeting deadlines, financial issues, construction concerns and sometimes threats to move the games to another location. The recent Olympic Games in Rio de Janerio is a prime example and reports have already begun circulating about the problems in staging the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020. The lead up to the Melbourne Olympic Games also experienced many problems.

Argus 11 April 1896

The above statement was the first suggestion that the Olympic Games might one day be held in Melbourne. In 1906 Richard Coombes also informed Baron de Coubertin that Australia should host the Olympic Games.

The Victorian Olympic Council (VOC) was formed on 21 June 1946 and an item on the agenda was Discussion of Olympic Games for Australia. The  Australian Olympic Federation (AOF) endorsed the bid. At the 1948 Olympic Games in London Australian delegates promoted Melbourne as a venue. The vote on the city to host the 1956 Olympic Games was held in Rome in April 1949. There were six contenders - four cities in the USA, Buenos Aires and Melbourne. Melbourne won by one vote.

 The Organizing Committee for the Melbourne Olympic Games was established in November 1949. Eleven subcommittees were also established to assist in the organisation of the Olympic Games. These subcommittees were Technical, Finance and General Purposes, Construction, Housing and Catering, Press and Publicity, Film and Television, Communications, Transport, Reception, Medical and Fine Arts.

Venues
A variety of venues were required in order to host the Olympic Games. These included a main stadium, smaller stadiums / ovals, a pool, velodrome, boxing stadium, venues for fencing, shooting events, modern pentathlon, cycling, basketball plus water sports such as rowing, canoeing and yachting. Due to Australia's strict quarantine laws, equestrian events were held in Helsinki instead of in Melbourne - an issue not mentioned in Melbourne's submission to host the Olympic Games.

Indecision would be a key word to describe the initial planning for the venues for the various sports. There were also prolonged discussions as to the extent the Federal or State Governments would assist in funding the Olympic Games.

Seven sites were discussed as possibilities for the main stadium - the Showgrounds, Carlton Cricket Ground, Olympic Park, Albert Park, St Kilda Cricket Ground, University of Melbourne Sports Oval as well as the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). It was not until February 1953 that the MCG was confirmed as the main stadium. Part of the problem had been the reluctance of the Melbourne Cricket Club to make the ground available as it would disrupt the normal use of the ground.

Alterations needed to be made. The surface of the MCG had to be regraded and a new stand was built after an old stand was demolished following the Royal Visit in 1954. The upgrades would mean that the MCG would be able to accommodate more than 100,000 people. As well as a venue for cricket the MCG was used for Australian Rules Football so it was not until after the 1955 VFL Grand Final that the turf on the ground could be removed and stored, the ground regraded and drainage pipes installed in time for the staging of the 1956 VFL Grand Final. The running track was then laid. During 1955 work banns delayed work at the MCG between August and October.

The second major venue was the Olympic Park Complex. This was to include the building of an Olympic Pool, the Olympic Park stadium, a second oval plus a veledrome. Olympic Park was situated close to the MCG.

Choosing the location for rowing and canoeing also took considerable time. Sites considered included Lake Bullen Merri, Hopkins River, Barwon River, Lake Learmonth and Lake Wendouree. Ballarat Shire did not want Lake Wendouree to be used and it was not until June 1955 that they finally agreed to the use of the lake for Olympic rowing and canoeing events.

Another challenge was to find suitable accommodation for the athletes and officials attending the Olympic Games. Once again a number of locations were considered including Prahran, University of Melbourne, Albert Park Barracks, Carlton and Heildelberg. The decision to build the village at Heidelberg was finally made in September 1953.

While Melbourne decided on the location of new venues and required alterations for existing structures, some members of the International Olympic Committee, particularly Mr Avery Brundage, began suggesting that the Olympic Games should be relocated to another city, probably one of the cities in the USA who had also applied to host the 1956 Olympic Games. It was eventually decided that the 1956 Olympic Games would remain in Melbourne.

Argus 4 February 1953

Boycotts
 Ninety-one countries were invited to attend the Olympic Games in Melbourne. Seventeen countries declined or withdrew for a variety of reasons. The Olympic Games had always been held in the Northern Hemisphere and some countries decided it was too far to travel so declined the invitation or, if they accepted the invitation, only sent small teams.

A month or two before the Olympic Games were due to begin seven countries boycotted the Melbourne Olympics due to political events. Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq boycotted the games due to the Suez crisis in October 1956. The Hungarian Uprising on 4 November 1956 caused Spain, The Netherlands and Switzerland to boycott the games though Hungary still sent a team. The People's Republic of China announced that they were boycotting the games in November 1956 because Taiwan (Republic of China) had accepted an invitation to attend. These boycotts created additional challenges for those trying to organise events and accommodation, especially as they occurred so close to the commencement of the Olympic Games.

The final number of countries attending was sixty-seven.

Australian Women's Weekly 5 December 1956

Despite all these challenges the 1956 Olympic Games were held in Melbourne from 22 November to 8 December and they were declared a great success.

The following article looks at the venues used for the Melbourne Olympics and what happened to them after the games - Mixed Fortunes of Melbourne's 1956 Olympic Venues.

The book, Australia and the Olympic Games, by Harry Gordon (1994) contains chapters on the Melbourne Olympics including "A grenade called Brundage" (chapter 14) and "When the magic came to Melbourne" (chapter 15)

Official report of the Organizing Committee for the Games of the XVI Olympiard Melbourne 1956 is available online.

Search Trove for articles published in The Argus and The Age about the preparations for the Melbourne Olympics as well as the staging of the games in Melbourne from 22 November to 8 December 1956.

Sepia Saturday 316 - Movie cameras

The Sepia Saturday Post 316 shows a cameraman on Bondi Beach in 1951 shooting film. This brought back memories of my father, Ken Moses, and his adventure with his 8mm movie camera which he brought back to Australia in 1956 after a trip to the USA.

Ken Moses at Olympic Park 7 Nov 1956

This photograph appeared in The Argus on 8 November 1956 (thank you Trove) and shows Dad, with camera over his shoulder, having a discussion with an official at Olympic Park, Melbourne. This was three weeks before the Olympic Games and Dad, as a sports' journalist for The Argus, had gone to Olympic Park to cover a training session. He took his new toy with him and was told people carrying movie cameras attempting to enter Olympic premises would not be admitted unless thay carried a pass permitting them to enter with a camera. The Olympic Committee had hired a firm to make an official (16mm) film of the Olympic Games and other cameras were not allowed.

Needless to say this incident became the feature of an article written by my father and published in The Argus. A footnote stated that: "The secretary of the Australian Olympic Federation, Mr. Edgar Tanner, in a recent letter to the president of the Federation of Amateur Cine Societies, said every facility would be given to amateur movie fans to take films in training."

My father did contine to take his camera with him and filmed a number of the events that he covered during the Olympic Games.

Dad also used the camera to take a film of a holiday on my grandparents' farm in Queensland. I can remember him filming us swimming in the creek and also of my younger sister plucking a chook. My mother recalled a section of the film showing my sister on a horse while she was mouthing the words, "let me off". Film nights when Dad showed his movies on the projector were part of family entertainment.

Good family memories however the family film has disappeared. Dad lent it to someone who was out from England to show him what the Australian bush was like. The film has not been seen since. I guess that this story illustrates how important it is for us to keep copies / back up our files.

Postscript: I have just visited my sister who says that there are cans of film in a cupboard and she is sure that one of them contains the Olympic Games film. If so, we will have a DVD made from it. She confirms that the family holiday film has definitely gone.

Olympic Games Melbourne 1956

Thursday 22 November 1956 saw the opening of the Olympic Games in Melbourne. The games continued until 8 December. As a child sitting in one of the stands of the MCG watching the athletes from 67 countries march into the arena was a wonderful, colourful experience.

The Argus Friday 23 Nov 1956

Digitised copies of The Argus are now available on Trove so it is possible not only to read about the Olympic Games in Melbourne but also events leading up to the running of the games. 

The women in the Australian Team marching into the MCG

The men in the Australian Team marching into the MCG

 The organisation of a successful Olympic Games is a mammoth task and it took four years to organise the Melbourne Games. The Official Report of the Organising Committee for the Games of the XVI Olympiad Melbourne 1956 can now be viewed online. The report consists of more than 700 pages and includes reports of all the sub-committees as well as the main committee including the report of the Press and Publicity Sub-Committee pp138-160. This sub-committee was established in January 1954 and monthly meetings were held.

One of the members of the Press and Publicity Sub-Committee was Ken Moses, a sports journalist for The Argus newspaper, who had attended the London Olympic Games in 1948.

The main role of the committee was to ensure that suitable arrangements were in place for members of the international press who would be in Melbourne to report on the Games and also to ensure that they had information about what to expect when they were in Melbourne. The press attending the Melbourne Games would not only be from print organisations but also radio and the new communications media - television.

Ken Moses is seated in the front on the left side of the table

Articles were circulated to the overseas press, particularly in the United States, such as this article entitled Are you going to the Melbourne Games? A group of journalists travelled overseas in the year before the Olympic Games to publicise the Games and Melbourne. On 10 June Ken Moses, with Harry Gordon from the Sun News Pictorial,  left for California for five weeks to promote the Games and to also report to readers on the selection of American athletes who would be coming to Australia. Ken sent regular reports back to The Argus.

The day after the Opening Ceremony the following article - 'You - the man in the street - made it tick' - appeared in The Argus congratulating the people of Melbourne for their contribution to make this sporting event occur in their city.

In the run-up to the staging of the Olympic Games in Melbourne there were many challenges to overcome, however the Games themselves generally ran smoothly and by the end of the competition they were known as the friendly games.

Melbourne Olympics - State Library of Victoria

Melbourne Olympics Committee - Melbourne Museum

Melbourne Olympic Games - Australian Olympic Committee