Jeanne Little
Jeanne Little is best known for her outrageous personality and outfits, but few are aware of the hard work that has been the hallmark of her life. From her early work as a stuttering secretary for the Attorney General, she made a name for herself as a couturier, in television and then on stage - supported by her constant partner of 37 years, her interior designer husband, Barry.
Barry: "Jeanne and I met as teenagers. I was a single child much protected by my mother. When I introduced Jeanne to Mum and said she was the one I was going to marry, Mum just said I can always get a divorce. We have now been together 37 years!"
"The day everything changed was when the Assistant Director of the Mike Walsh Show saw some photos of Jeanne in the paper when she was eight months pregnant and wearing one of her maternity outfits with an elephant on it. They asked her to do a segment on the show and she was an instant sensation. The switchboard was inundated with calls; Jeanne had polarized the audience - they loved her or they loathed her. It has taken 20 years to break that response down but along the way she won a Gold Logie."
Jeanne: "I didn't ever try to be in show business at all. But I have always been a bit crazy. My mother had seven children in quick succession and I am the youngest. She used to be a tailoress and that is where I learnt to make clothes. She was a remarkable woman; very creative and empowering, which I suppose she has passed on to me. She started her own ornamental ironwork business with the help of my two brothers. She did some remarkable things like all the ironwork on Old Parliament House. I remember her doing the designs on the kitchen table!"
"I still make all my own costumes and most of my clothes. I have always loved making outrageous fashion. There is hardly anything in the shops that I like. One of my first encounters with Barry was at a fabulous party that I attended in a see-through plastic dress with strategically placed daisies. I even made matching boots. It was a stinking hot day and the outfit turned out to be a complete disaster. The daisies slipped off and my boots filled with perspiration, so I had to make a quick exit. It can't have been all bad; Barry and I ended up getting married in 1971."
"When I was working on the Mike Walsh Show I had to dream up all these outrageous things for my segment. They said: ‘Just be mad, it doesn't matter what you do.' I had wanted to wear a shiny black leather dress for one segment but couldn't justify the cost for the 12 minutes airtime. I was in the supermarket when the shiny plastic garbage bags were staring me in the face and I decided to make a dress out of them."
"The Glad Bags phenomenon is one that I have never managed to escape - even now. I did a cabaret show one day and up the back were a group of ladies who came in garbage bag dresses especially for me. The idea became so popular that the managers of Glad asked us to develop it as a promotional campaign. We held a fashion show and can you believe there were 30,000 entries? People made all kinds of wonderful things including bridal dresses and tuxedos."
"My theatre career kicked off 15 years after the Mike Walsh Show. John Frost asked me to audition for a role in his musical production Jerry's Girls. At that point, I hadn't even stepped on a stage. I told him he had the wrong person because I didn't know one song the whole way through. And I had never touched my toes, let alone learnt how to tap dance."
"On the day of the audition, I turned up and sitting in the front row waiting to try out were the top singers in Australia - Debra Byrne, Marcia Hines - and I thought, ‘What am I doing here?' But my Mum always used to tell me as a child: "Not failure, but low ambition, is a crime." I got the part and was prepared to work like a dog to be fabulous and prove I wasn't an amateur. I remember being out in the back yard till 3 a.m. rehearsing my tap dancing routines. It was a lot of fun."
"After a successful three year run with Jerry's Girls, it was suggested I do a cabaret show. I thought I could never be alone on stage for an hour-and-a-half, but I had nothing to lose so Barry devised the show, I gave it a go and we became hooked."
"But touring can be very hectic, considering there are 20 to 30 songs in each show. We are always working on something because I am a restless person; I love being busy. Barry is also writing a historical novel set in the fourteenth century. Penguin in London have been enthusiastic about it, but time is an issue. It is something that he has been working on for the last 30 years. You see, we never have nothing to do."
