Although Roy Rene was Australia's most successful vaudeville and variety star for three decades, he is best remembered for the work he did on radio in the last years of his life.
Rene went into radio in 1946, performing sketches in a Tuesday night program with the Colgate-Palmolive Radio Unit titled 'Calling the Stars'. In 1947 his segment of the program became a regular 12 minute spot called 'McCackie Mansion'. It ran for almost three years. Rene's character was Mo McCackie, a devious, ingratiating battler. Absurdly obsequious to people's faces, Mo would mutter things about them behind their backs, often making figures in authority look ridiculous.
'McCackie Mansion' was broadcast live from a radio theatre before a studio audience. This is the reason Mo continued to wear his white-faced make-up and vaudeville-style costume of baggy trousers, an undershirt buttoned at the neck with sleeves ending at the elbow and top hat with a lopsided brim. The formality of the top hat is undermined by its worn exterior.
The white face and battered hat were Rene's trademarks, along with his catchphrases such as 'Strike me lucky', 'Cop this, Young Harry', 'You little trimmer', 'I'm a wake-up', 'One of my mob', 'Don't come the raw prawn with me', 'Fair suck of the sav', 'You filthy beast' and 'I don't know whether to kiss him or kick him'.
Radio exposed Mo to a huge new audience. It was largely because of radio that so many people remember these catchphrases. Listeners who would never go to see him on stage because they regarded him as risque and vulgar became ardent fans of his radio program.
This hat was made by Woodrow Hats of the United Kingdom.
This hat was used by Roy Rene during the run of the radio show, McCackie Mansion, which began in 1947 and ran for three years.
The hat was worn by Roy Rene (1891-1954) for the character, Mo McCackie, in the very successful radio program, McCackie Mansion.
Roy Rene was born in Adelaide and moved to Sydney at age 19. Highly successful as a vaudeville actor, his characters included Queen Elizabeth, the virgin Queen, Henry VII and a variety of henpecked husbands and lowlife men. After great success at the Tivoli he joined the Colgate-Palmolive Radio Unit and soon became famous as Mo McCackie. Living at 13 Coffin Street, Mo was the suburban householder whose life was made miserable by relatives, neighbours and friends. He was the quintessential Australian clown, playing the underdog with lashings of sentimentality. 'McCackie Mansion' ran for three years and had the largest listening audience of any show in Australia. Ralph Peterson wrote in 1949 : 'At eight-fifteen on a Tuesday evening, every week of the year a strange phenomenon takes place. Regardless of strikes, famine, plague or drought, the majority of Australian people snap on radio receivers, automatically swing the dial to a network and listen ... It is fifty-six year old Roy Rene, Mo to you, culminating a career which has embraced vaudeville, musicals, straight plays and one-night stands of variety.'
Owned and used by Roy Rene as Mo McCackie in 'McCackie Mansion'. Donated to the Sydney Opera House by Mo's stage son, Young Harry, who was played by Harry Griffiths. Transferred to the Powerhouse Museum in 1997-1998.
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