Hamilton

My Dad was born George Reynolds Reid on June 8th 1912 to Bernice (Reynolds) Reid and George Albert Reid. He was a very small baby, possibly premature, and weighed just over a pound at birth. Dad, and his sister Doris (born 1902), were the only two children out of the 12 born to Bernice and George who survived to adulthood. Dad, as a baby, had lovely golden curls and his mother doted on him; as a baby he was one of the series of Arnotts Biscuit Tin Babies when the company used to put a picture of a baby on each tin of biscuits.

Dad was born at Kogarah and then spent his childhood at at Auburn where he attended the primary school ‘whenever he felt like it‘ as he used to say. He was given his first violin by his mother at the age of eight and took lessons but preferred the modern style of the times - jazz, country/bluegrass. His very first job playing the fiddle at the age f 15 was standing in the foyer of the old Mayfair Theatre in Sydney and playing to patrons as they arrived for the movie matinee. He was drawn to showbusiness it seems from a young age and chose to make the stage his life. He joined a group calling themselves The Hillbilly Boys and they played regularly at venues such as the Old Tivoli in Sydney.

In 1937 at the age of 25 Dad married a girl, Hilda Fitton, and they had three children together: Faye, Pamela and Lawrence. Dad joined the RAF during the war and was based at Lithgow where he met several people who would become lifelong friends including Alec Cuthbertson (Cuthy) a jazz pianist. During the day Dad and his friends would carry out their usual duties and at night they would meet in the Mess for music and Jamming sessions.

After the war Dad felt extremely restless and decided to pursue a career fulltime in showbusiness. In 1946 Dad played the role of Scottish aviator James Mollison in the Australian film about Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, ‘Smithy’ .  It was just after this time that Dad decided to end his marriage to Hilda. This decision caused bad feeling between Dad and his father but nevertheless in 1948 Dad left his young family at Auburn and moved to Brisbane to become a professional entertainer. Dad’s father, George Albert Reid, died soon after. His mother Bernice remained living in the family home at Auburn.

Dad arrived in Brisbane at a time when the Gold Coast and Surfers Paradise was being developed as a holiday destination. He counted among his friends the local personality and property developer, Bernie Elsey. Dad played double bass in the band at the well known Cloudland Ballroom in Brisbane with Bill Smith (Bandleader) and Jack Thompson (piano). From 1950 onwards he lived in Surfers Paradise and played in a group at the Surfers Paradise Hotel with John Goldner (piano), Frank Sampson (clarinet) and John Sangster. 

These were the halcyon days of the Gold Coast when families would come up from NSW and Victoria for their holidays; the well-heeled would stay at the hotel and the working man and his family would stay at one of the many guesthouses along the beach. Dad also said many high profile politicians made Surfers Paradise their refuge and would point them all out on the TV news saying…‘That bloke, he had a girlfriend in Surfers and a wife in Canberra’.  Moving in the circles that he did Dad saw and heard enough to have penned a book or two regarding the activities of many politicians and prominent names who were supposedly family men…

Dad was a very handsome and charismatic man, very popular with the ladies and enjoyed a wide circle of friends from the well known to the infamous. In 1954 Dad met a young woman, June Hopkins, holidaying with some friends in Surfers from her NSW home town of Willoughby and who was doing some part time modelling as well. She caught his eye from the very start; 17 years younger than Dad, they made a very attractive couple and soon after June left her home in Willoughby and moved to the Gold Coast to live with Dad. June is my Mum.

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