Worked Hard With ‘Weird Mob’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31318, 14 March 1967, Page 2

Worked Hard With ‘Weird Mob’

Girls who have the opportunity to work with film companies often want their jobs to go on for ever—but Miss Cheryl Mooney, a Christchurch girl who was secretary to “They’re A Weird Mob”, was glad when the shooting ended.

"They say the film life gets you but It didn’t get me,” she said in Christchurch yesterday. When Miss Mooney went to Sydney she lodged her name with an agency which hired temporary secretaries, and one of the positions offered was secretary to the company filming "They’re a Weird Mob.”

"Panic from beginning to end,” was her description of the job. It was her duty to be “secretary to anyone who walked in the door.” But she found the company pleasant and respectful. The author, John O’Grady, who published his book under the nom-de-plume Nino Culotto, was on the set constantly during the six weeks of filming. I He was remarkable in that a | pair of shorts and a sports I shirt were his habitual dress.

“He even wore them to our Christmas party,” said Miss Mooney. The stars, Walter Chiari, Chips Rafferty and Clare Dunne, were all easy to get on with.

One job which fell to Miss Mooney during her 12-hour day, six-day week working schedule was to type the call list, stating when the east had to be on the set, report for make-up and so forth.

Everybody, but men in particular, had to spend hours being made up, said Miss Mooney. “It was nothing for men to spend two hours having their face and hair done for filming.” Men had to have their hair set, combed and lacquered, and even although most had tans, they had to have layers of tan make-up before filming. In some scenes, the Italian star, Walter Chiari, had to have special effects for a "perspiring look,” and all had to have character lines drawn on their faces. For the women, false eyelashes were essential, but this was not surprising as they were almost a “must” for glamour after dark in Sydney, said Miss Mooney. “Some of the models wear three pairs at once, but they are all different lengths.” Between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. each evening the company could watch the “rushes” of filming from the day before. The cast would sit with the producer, who would make comments and arrangements for refilming “bad bits.” After this, Miss Mooney was allowed to go, but some of the cast who had already been working at least 12 hours would work three br four more hours. Apart from her job with

“the weird mob,” the agency kept Miss Mooney in constant “temporary” secretarial work for six months.

“An agency like that is fine for New Zealand girls who do not want permanent jobs. So many of them have spoilt the position themselves by undertaking work on the condition they stayed three years and leaving after three months. “Work is not difficult to find but it is better to state your position and then the employer or your agency knows exactly where she stands,” said Miss Mooney. After her secretarial jobs Miss Mooney was accepted as an air hostess trainee for the Trans Australian Airlines. She graduated from the school with the impressive title of “the hostess with the mostest”—a vote from the other trainees, who regarded her as "the girl most likely to succeed." TAA was a wonderful training line, but hostessing was "exhausting,” said Miss Mooney. Jet flights from Sydney to Melbourne took 55 minutes flying time, equivalent to 40 minutes “hostessing” time. The five hostesses had to serve meals to the first-class passengers, tea or coffee to the economy class, and drinks to anyone who asked for them.