Rock 'n' Roll (1959 film)

Johnny O'Keefe performing at the Sydney Stadium while being filmed for the documentary Rock 'n' Roll

Rock 'n' Roll is a 1959 Australian film directed by Lee Robinson. While often referred to as a documentary, it is essentially a complete filming of a rock concert held in October 1959, at Sydney Stadium. The film was commissioned by Lee Gordon to promote a string of 1959 shows entitled Lee Gordon's 1959 Rock'n'Roll Spectacular, mainly showcasing Australian and New Zealand artists. While the show was largely based around native talent, the headline act was the American singer and pop idol Fabian. However, soon after the films release, all of the Fabian footage from the film was ordered to be removed by his manager Bob Marcucci, due to copyright violation. This cut footage included an interview with Fabian and his arrival at Essendon airport, where he was mobbed by 2,000 teenagers and had to be spirited away on the platform of a forklift truck lifted above the crowd.^[1]

While it remains unconfirmed how many copies of the film were copied from the master, the widely held view was that there were no more than 2 produced. It has been confirmed by researchers that Lee Robinson lost his own copy of the film in the 1970s, while moving out of his home. Whether this copy was the master, or a copy, remains unclear.

Up until 2020 Rock 'n' Roll was classified as a lost film by the NFSA and rested in their 'most wanted' list for decades. Its recent discovery by a collector based in Melbourne is arguably the most important Australian cultural artefact recovered in the last 50 years, due in no small part to the fact that Rock 'n' Roll was the only 35mm feature-length film of a live Rock 'n' Roll concert ever made in the 1950s, anywhere in the world. Moreover, it is arguably the only piece of 35mm Rock 'n' Roll live footage from the 1950s in existence, since The Pied Piper of Cleveland (the only other 35mm live film shot in this decade) is considered to be lost by many researchers.

The first showing of Rock 'n' Roll was in Newcastle, NSW in December 1959. It is believed soon after the premiere the film was found to be in breach of copyright, due to the performance of Fabian (an American pop idol at the time) being included in the footage. The film was hastily edited to remove Fabian's performance and airport arrival footage. It is unclear whether audiences in Sydney and Melbourne ever got to see the original version in the screenings that followed the Newcastle premiere. However, since the copy recently discovered in Melbourne turned out to be the edited version, it seems likely Melbourne film audiences never got to see the full version.

Another important stage in the evolution of the film is that the footage of Johnny O'Keefe performing on the night was a filming of a re-staged performance at the Sydney Stadium several days later. It seems logical that Johnny O'Keefe, and the promoter Lee Gordon, sought to provide future audiences of the film with an enhanced focus on O'Keefe with this re-take, but the reason for the re-take remains unconfirmed. The O'Keefe performance of "Shout" in this re-take was thought to be one of the few surviving pieces of footage until recently. This "Shout" footage has been used in the opening credits of ABC Australia's music show Rage since 1987.

After very limited showings in Melbourne and Sydney, the film disappeared from the public eye. Apart from a stint in New Zealand, it was not shown in any other country.

Ever since the Lee Robinson copy vanished, many researchers and collectors had spent years trying to track a copy down. Some warm leads about a copy finding its way to New Zealand eventually went cold. Only a small 9 minute salvaged portion of the film containing the opening credits and Fabian at the airport (both with no sound), along with a poor quality copy of the 'Shout' performance in the film by O'Keefe, was thought to have survived. But in March 2020, almost 50 years on from when the only surviving copy disappeared, a full copy of the film surfaced in Melbourne, Australia. This sole surviving copy is reported to be in excellent condition for its age, with the image quality far surpassing any existing footage of this era. This was in no small part due to the equipment used for the filming, and that the film was shot on 35mm safety film.

Rock 'n' Roll is a unique and priceless piece of Australiana and Rock 'n' Roll history. Having been filmed by arguably Australia's most important pioneering director, Lee Robinson, it is also, just as importantly, a treasured record of Australia's cinematic past. The film's worth is also enhanced by the fact that the sound and camera technology used for its filming was ahead of its time. 7 cameras were used to film the wild scenes that evening at the Sydney Stadium, capturing the essence of the Australian/International Rock 'n' Roll scene in the 1950s like no other.

In early 2021, a short clip from the documentary was posted onto YouTube, featuring Johnny O'Keefe performing "Swanee River". Follow this link.

The film screened at ACMI, Melbourne for the first time in over 50 years on 6 December 2021.

Featured acts[]

• The Rebels – without Johnny Rebb
• The Delltones – backed by The Rebels
• Fabian – backed by The Graduates^[2]
• Lee Gordon
• Col Joye and the Joy Boys
• Johnny Devlin and the Devils
• Lonnie Lee
• Johnny O'Keefe and the DJs
• Warren Williams
• The Delltones
• The Crescents
• The Graduates with Nancy Eichorn

References[]

External links[]

• Rock 'n' Roll at IMDb
• Rock'n'Roll at National Film and Sound Archive