From delivering an iconic line in an Australian classic to working with some of Australia’s greatest radio talent, Monty Maizels has had a life and career like no other.
Celebrating his 102nd birthday on Thursday 26 June surrounded by family in Kilsyth, Monty’s mind and cheeky smile remain as sharp as a tack.
Admitting that he’s “never not been an actor”, fooling everyone at birth, Monty’s earliest memory of acting was at the age of eight when he played Jack in Jack and the Beanstalk for a local production in London.
Fast forward to 1997 and Monty would be cast as another character named Jack but this time in one of Australia’s most notable films: The Castle.
As the neighbour of the Kerrigans, Monty’s character Jack gets to deliver the line “yeah, f*** ‘em’ – a line that would become well-known among film buffs.
“It’s the first time I ever heard him swear,” Monty’s son Andrew said.
One day on the set of The Castle, in between scenes, Monty was left in the company of famed actor and director Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell, known for roles in Breaker Morant and Ned Kelly, getting to chat and natter about everything and nothing.
While acting was a hobby for Monty, his career in radio began decades before.
Born in 1923 “upstairs at my grandmother’s hat shop” in Shoreditch, London, Monty spent the first 15 years of his life growing up in England.
But in 1939, his father, who had heard rumblings of Hitler’s movements in Europe through business contacts, decided to emigrate the family overseas.
“The original plan was to go to Canada, for some reason, but we had my father’s aunt’s cousin or something like that in Brisbane and they sponsored us as 10-pound Poms,” Monty said.
“Imagine getting a cruise, a six-week cruise from London to Brisbane, stopping in all these exotic ports for 11 pounds.”
With an 18-month-old sister and twin brothers who were three years younger than Monty, the family boarded the ship, landing in Melbourne for a day on Monty’s 16th birthday.
“It was a complete change of things. I mean, half a world away, and it was a changing economic world,” he said.
“I left as a school boy and arrived as someone ready for the workforce.”
Sponsored by David and Sid Moses, furrier importers and sellers, it was just by chance that Sid also had connections with 4BC, who at the time were looking for radio assistants.
“My mother spoke to Sid and he said he couldn’t do anything about influencing the outcome, but he would get me an early interview with 4BC and I got the job,” Monty said.
“I was half a world away, and within six months, I was in radio myself as a production assistant, which means playing the music for all the programs.”
From there, his career developed exponentially, seeing him move into writing programs, curating the voiceovers and advertising.
“I wrote a 30-minute program, the cast of which was every top person in radio commercials, so everyone who was a top voiceover. This was in 1958,” Monty said.
“I’d come into work on the tram and I’d be scribbling something because I knew a certain person would be coming into record one of the jobs. I knew what talent was about and I’d write something which was appropriate to them.”
Monty’s career in radio saw him work with the biggest names in broadcasting, one such person was Monty’s good friend Pete Smith, known for his role as announcer on Sale of the Century.
Other times, he’d bring in his children to do voiceovers for a bit of pocket money.
“It was always exciting and fun,” Monty said.
Had Monty and his family not moved to Australia, he said he doesn’t think radio would have ever been an option for him.
“I would never have thought of it in England, you’d have to be terribly, terribly la de da, very BBC, which I wasn’t.
“I do consider the British Broadcasting Corporation as my cultural nanny, I was brought up with it.
“But I never would have dreamed of being in radio in England.”
Until the age of 101, Monty lived in his own home and even composed an entire symphony using his computer, which was performed last year.
Now he enjoys a good game of carpet bowls with his fellow residents at MiCare in Kilsyth.
