Bondi Surf Club Annual Ball, 1939

This image from the Tom Lennon Photographic Archive is one of the more interesting party images from that collection.

Described as The Bondi Surf Club annual ball at the Mark Foys ballroom on April 29, 1939, this photograph may depict the dancers who were part of, or the inspiration for, The Bondi Surf Club Ballet performance at the Trocadero’s Honolulu Ball a few weeks later, on May 17.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, The Bondi Surf Club Ballet’s humorous interpretation of Hawaiian dancing was the most popular item of the Honolulu night. Music was contributed by the Trocadero’s forty member Hawaiian Club. The proceeds from the ball went to the Surf Life Saving Association of Australia. The function was also an opportunity to farewell some members of the team of surfers and swimmers who had been selected to represent Australia for the Hawaiian tour.

Tom T. Lennon was a commercial photographer whose studio was at 64 Victoria Road, Drummoyne. The 1796 negatives in the Powerhouse Museum Tom Lennon archive include images of balls and dinners held in Sydney, weddings, funerals, work events, parties, portraits, pets, fashion, horse races, musicians, dance bands and various places and events 1927-1949. Many images from the Tom Lennon archive have been posted previously on Photo of the Day.

Post by Kathy Hackett, Photo Librarian

Photography by Tom Lennon

No known copyright restrictions

Tags: costumes, dancers, parties, surf clubs

The Powerhouse Museum's Photo of the Day blog features a new image each day, chosen from the Powerhouse Photo Library.

The majority of these images have been taken by Museum photographers for a variety of purposes such as for exhibitions, of objects in our collection, events, behind-the-scenes and location shots. We also feature many images taken by our Flickr community and from our visitors. We hope you enjoy the photographs and stories.

The licensing of each image varies however we are trying to release as many as possible under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.1 license.