Just ten weeks after Whitlam was elected, the ABC’s This Day Tonight program telecast Smacka Fitzgibbon singing a song titled The Adventures of Edward Gough Whitlam.
The song was a take-off of The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, a hit movie of 1972 that starred Barry Crocker. The title song, sung by Fitzgibbon, reached Number 22 on the Australian Singles Chart.
Graham Francis (“Smacka”) Fitzgibbon was a well-known entertainer who opened Melbourne’s first jazz restaurant in Kew. He died of a cerebral haemorrhage on December 15, 1979 aged just 49.
- Listen to The Adventures of Edward Gough Whitlam (3m)
- Watch an extract of Fitzgibbon singing the song (82s)
- Watch The Adventures of Barry McKenzie (3m)
