Cruise Ship A Floating Stage

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32032, 5 July 1969, Page 2

Cruise Ship A Floating Stage

The cruise ship Angelina Lauro is like a floating stage presenting an all-star revue. Headed by Maggie Tabberer, a top Australian television personality, the supporting cast on the Pacific voyage has included many of the country’s best-known entertainers. In the “1969 T.V. Cruise Spectacular” entertainment crew are Ronnie Fraser, John Foster, Dorothy Baker and Noeline Brown, favourites of Australian viewers. Sean McEwen, the English actor who played the lead role in the banned Australian film, "The Set,” is aboard. Doug Owen and his folk singers are in the act; the village Gentry, a musical group, and the Ram Jams, a beat band, complete the cast Maggie Tabberer was not aboard when the ship berthed at Lyttelton yesterday. She had to leave the cruise in Wellington to fly to Sydney to keep television commitment* on Monday morning. “We knew the entertainment aboard would be good, but- war did not expect the bonds we got,” one of the 800 passengers said yesterday morning. “It’s been great to meet the people you’ve been watching on screen at home.” Tape Session ; Today, when the ship is' heading back to Sydney, the Village Gentry and the Ram Jams will put on a special performance for passengers to keep on tape. “We estimate that there are nearly 500 tape recorders on the ship. The owners will be able to have a field day with them,” Mr Stan Higgs, the liaison officer for the television production team, said. Television films taken on the cruise, with interviews done in ports of call and aboard ship, were sent back as completed to A.T.N. Channel 7 in Sydney. These will be presented in a few weeks on Miss Tabberer’s programmes, which have a viewing audience of about 1J million from 14 stations. The idea behind the television cruise was to give Australians an intimate picture of ports of call,; which have included Noumea, Savusavu, Lautoka, Suva, Auckland, Wellington, and Lyttelton, and the people who live there, Mr Higgs said. .

films, he added. These shots were taken around the ship and in the ship’s own television studio.

Long Planning

Settling down to a morning oft, after passengers and the television team had left for sight-seeing tours in the snow, Mr Higgs said the 18day cruise had been planned for eight months. Mr Higgs, who is promotions consultant for the shipping line, Flotta Lauro in Sydney, and public relations officer on the cruise, said it had not been difficult to keep the 800 passengers occupied and amused for 16 hours a day when at sea. There had been plenty of entertainment for them—some of the best that could be provided from Australia. “But in a floating world only 600 ft long and a full complement of passengers aboard you must expect a few problems, such as people wanting to change their accommodation. Once-you start that it becomes like a game of musical chairs which ends in chaos,” he said, “The organisation has been very smooth, however, this time.” 7 But not so the seas. “It has been a bit bumpy, with a few head seas. The 24,400-ton ship’s stabilisers can eliminate roll, but not pitch. Quite a few passengers have been seasick,” Mr Higgs