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Hollywood George Edser

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reng View Drop Down
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    Posted: 31 May 2012 at 12:31pm
Can anyone recall when he died?  Perhaps between 1988 (there is a photo of him taken in this year) and 1991?


The problem with Opportunity is that it wears overalls and looks like work.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote reng Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31 May 2012 at 9:12pm

Brilliant portrait photo here taken in 1988:  http://www.progroupracing.com.au/horse-racing-articles/hollywood-george-edser  

The problem with Opportunity is that it wears overalls and looks like work.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote max manewer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Jun 2012 at 9:35pm
Amusing to read in that article that he took a spare shirt to change into, to the races ! From what I recall of packed betting rings full of smokers, the casualy rate of shirts having holes burnt into them, was high. George could have been in a position to 'do his shirt' twice !
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lord Hybrow Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Dec 2018 at 11:30pm
Originally posted by reng reng wrote:

Can anyone recall when he died?  Perhaps between 1988 (there is a photo of him taken in this year) and 1991?



Your answer, albeit a tad late.....he died on 4th August 1990.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote maccamax Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Dec 2018 at 2:44am
I saw him a number of times .       . Certainly an upstanding specimen of a Man .     I don't recall seeing him around the courses , after mid 1980's.

   I think Tommy Smith , Shane Dye and Myself were the stars of the show by 1990.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Carioca Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Dec 2018 at 11:13am
Warned off by the AJC early 60s, drank at the Royal Oak Hotel in Double Bay , got shot in the arse by someone around about that time ( allegedly lol) in Captain Pipers RD. Vaucluse ( either robbing the till or doing someone else's homework lol) as I recall, a scallywag and manipulator but the racing media loved him for a story, backed the programme at Newcastle early 50s and away he went , chronic gambler who just couldn't help himself , owned a speedy horse called The Corsican in Sydney ( handy) was an absolute ring in for Allen Lad the film star hence the Nic by a certain bookie he drove mad one day , last time I saw him near a racecourse was early sixties, he was on a ladder watching over the fence ( barred) in Wansey RD. Randwick I was riding a horse home to the stable after it raced, I knew him so I asked "how's the punt" he replied " I'm off the grass and onto the lettuce if this wins I'm on the asparagus"..lol , never forgot it, smart man but forever the villain, he even knew what horse I was on.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Passing Through Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Dec 2018 at 11:21am
Did he live in Vaucluse carioca? I used to see him, or mostly his glamorous wife every day in Rose Bay TAB. He would double park the silver-grey Rolls out the front and send her in to put his literally thousand quinella and trifecta tickets on every day. Never parked the car even though there was a car park directly opposite. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Whale Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Dec 2018 at 11:29am
Interesting read  :


"I've had 60,000 pounds in the bank on Friday night and awakened on Sunday morning with nothing," Hollywood George related. "Money means nothing to me on the racecourse. You could say I was a different person. I forgot my family. If I have money I bet with it until every penny is gone . . . "

In good times, Hollywood George won £50,000, a fortune, when Tudor Hill won the 1959 Doncaster. Earlier, he had plucked £24,000 off bookmakers when Prince Morvi triumphed in the 1953 AJC Derby.


Image result for hollywood george edser


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Carioca Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Dec 2018 at 11:37am
Not sure about where he lived PT, but could well have, certain that's where he copped the bullit but, during a break from racing I lived with my Aunty in Vaucluse ( old south hd. road) so remember the story , he did drink at that hotel I mentioned though as I went with a bunch of mates in the mid sixties to that pub hoping out of curiosity to spot him but one of the few times he wasn't there.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Carioca Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Dec 2018 at 12:12pm
I'm thinking he may have lived in Point Piper PT.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Passing Through Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Dec 2018 at 12:35pm
Originally posted by Carioca Carioca wrote:

I'm thinking he may have lived in Point Piper PT.

Just saw this in Whale's article. May both be right. I am sure during the 70's when I saw him he lived at the bottom of the rise to Vaucluse on New South Head Road.

Alas, being a down-and-out, even with considerable flair, can hardly sustain a television series. At 41 he confessed to "looking for a job" but was never really successful. Hollywood George had to downsize from Point Piper to Rose Bay. He was raided in 1966 by police, who found stolen booze.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Carioca Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Dec 2018 at 1:47pm
Was going to mention the city Tatts robbery but thought better of it, now it's been mentioned in the above story he was rumoured to be tied in somewhere in my early days, wouldn't be the first pro-punter to take the knock but what really put the cat among the pigeons he started to handle a few top apprentices to " go the other way" by that I mean "to hoist them", the AJC got wind of it and jumped on him, although one top apprentice was going to have weight problems down the track George just hastened his demise by sneaking him out night clubbing and showing him another side of life the kid knew nothing about, Tudor Hills jockey was a sad case of what can happen , the AJC were tough but if you went about things the right way you had no worries.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Carioca Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Dec 2018 at 12:38pm
Hey PT, digressing a little you mentioned the rise coming up to Vaucluse on new south head road from Rose Bay , did you know the trams use to run on that route too and terminate at Watsons Bay, many a time in the hols. got of at the small shopping centre on new south h.rd. and walked around the corner ( old South head rd) to my aunties, we lived right opposite Diamond Bay , there was a milk delivery cart working the district too, did you ever have a beer at the Watsons Bay hotel or had a great fish n chip meal on the foreshore , mate of mine was bar manager there in the 80s John Hamilton ( champion.)
cheers mate.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote acacia alba Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Dec 2018 at 12:46pm
Carioca, who had the milk cart there ?  Was it a horse drawn one ??
animals before people.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Passing Through Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Dec 2018 at 12:52pm
I certainly did carioca and actually did a few casual days work in the kitchen at Doyles at Watsons Bay and Rose Bay in 1975-8 when I was a struggling apprentice needing to supplement my pitiful apprentice's wages. Great spot at the Watsons Bay Hotel and a short walk to magnificent South Head.

I was told that  lines along New SH Road were filled in tram tracks but was never sure to believe it or not as it was discussed over a long afternoon at the Rose Bay pub at the bottom of that hill.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Carioca Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Dec 2018 at 1:51pm
Originally posted by acacia alba acacia alba wrote:

Carioca, who had the milk cart there ?  Was it a horse drawn one ??

Yep horse drawn AA, very early 50s   50/51, my uncle had the paper run on Sundays, he had a little black MG canvas top we'd go shooting around delivering Sunday papers , him on the right ..me on the left hurling out , faboules fun, can't recall whose milk run it was.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote maccamax Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Dec 2018 at 2:26pm
Great days , The Military Road Pub.     Always a story from there .

Croc . Dundee (actor) had his own seat at the bar.      Later a rather Bizaar murder happened outside the Pub.      I lived down in Gerard St until about 10 yrs ago.       .   Top area , Climate .   
Lucky Gattelari did his bit to put the area on the map.        . Only a small one ( contract killing )   
Ohhh for the good old days.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Passing Through Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Dec 2018 at 2:37pm
In the late nineteenth century a tram line was added to New South Head Road. The Watson's Bay line began at Wynyard and reached New South Head Road at its starting point in Rushcutters Bay, where a tram depot serving the line was located on the north side of the road. The line was expanded along New South Head Road to Edgecliff in 1894 and reached Watson's Bay in 1909. The line left New South Head Road in Vaucluse as it became a single track down to Watson's Bay. The track was centralized in the late 1920s and early 1930s with the widening of New South Head Road. In 1949, the line from Rose Bay to Watson's Bay was closed, but reopened due to public protest in 1950, though was later along with the rest of the line permanently closed in 1960.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote acacia alba Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Dec 2018 at 3:38pm
Originally posted by Carioca Carioca wrote:

Originally posted by acacia alba acacia alba wrote:

Carioca, who had the milk cart there ?  Was it a horse drawn one ??

Yep horse drawn AA, very early 50s   50/51, my uncle had the paper run on Sundays, he had a little black MG canvas top we'd go shooting around delivering Sunday papers , him on the right ..me on the left hurling out , faboules fun, can't recall whose milk run it was.


Wouldnt have been Jack Peel would it Carioca ?
animals before people.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Carioca Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Dec 2018 at 4:35pm
Coulda been John Peel lol for all I know AA as I was only about 8 or 9, but I can tell you we even had chooks in the back yard, I remember even the phone numbers in Vaucluse started with 2 alphabetical letters, ours started with the letters FU lol, my cousin when he told me the number to ring he said "now it starts with that rude word " so funny when I think about it now, FU 8159 that was our number would never forget it.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote maccamax Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Dec 2018 at 7:49pm
Originally posted by Carioca Carioca wrote:

Coulda been John Peel lol for all I know AA as I was only about 8 or 9, but I can tell you we even had chooks in the back yard, I remember even the phone numbers in Vaucluse started with 2 alphabetical letters, ours started with the letters FU lol, my cousin when he told me the number to ring he said "now it starts with that rude word " so funny when I think about it now, FU 8159 that was our number would never forget it.


Mine was ===   AND U2
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Carioca Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Dec 2018 at 8:17pm
Originally posted by acacia alba acacia alba wrote:

Carioca, who had the milk cart there ?  Was it a horse drawn one ??

Peels dairy rings a bell AA , I think your right.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote acacia alba Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Dec 2018 at 9:34pm
Yeah, I do think it was Peels.  They had dairy runs around the place and I seem to recall that area was one. 
animals before people.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Carioca Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Dec 2018 at 9:45pm
Originally posted by acacia alba acacia alba wrote:

Yeah, I do think it was Peels.  They had dairy runs around the place and I seem to recall that area was one. 

Cheers mate.
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