Vaudeville and television comedian. Born 1915. Died
Leongatha, Victoria, December 24, aged 84.
Though Joff Ellen's name would ring few bells to anyone
outside Victoria, particularly those under 40, he can be
credited (or blamed) for bringing vaudeville humour to television,
giving our early variety shows a cheeky style that set them
apart from their British or American counterparts. In the
days before network television, it made him one of Melbourne's
most popular stars.
He also nurtured some important personalities, including
a fresh-faced Graham Kennedy. While many people have claimed
a role in the "discovery" of Kennedy, the proclaimed
"King of Australian television", most witnesses
will agree that Ellen was a major influence. "Graham
learned most of his comedy expertise from Joff," recalls
TV veteran Pete Smith. "He was young and inexperienced.
Joff took him under his wing."
Ellen himself had been inspired to enter comedy as a teenager,
after watching such comics as Roy Rene, George Wallace and
Hector St. Clair at Melbourne's Tivoli Theatre. He made
his start on the vaudeville stage, but also performed some
of his bawdier material in local nightclubs.
Performing in a concert party during World War II, he was
noticed by a talent scout from Melbourne radio station 3XY.
Knowing how much a comedian could help their ratings, they
hired him for Calling the Stars, a Sunday night variety
program, broadcast live from the Princess Theatre.
By the early 1950s, he had a regular show at the Plaza Northcote,
performing familiar routines. "In those days there'd
be a stock company, and they'd say 'What are you going to
do?' And you'd say, 'Coffin Street, I'll Take Her Back in
Two Parts and The Nudist Colony.' And they knew it... They
knew all the sketches."
He also appeared in the obscure 1952 film Night Club, playing
a variety artist named "Joss". Four years later,
he starred with Noel Ferrier and Frank Rich in Take That,
Australia's first television drama series - a live, 15-minute
classroom sitcom.
Easily adapting to the new medium, Ellen did the occasional
comedy sketch the next year on GTV-9's late-night variety
show In Melbourne Tonight. IMT (as it was often known) was
compered by Kennedy who, like many early TV personalities,
had been drafted from radio, and whose new television gig
was perhaps an intuitive move by GTV-9 general manager Colin
Bednall; Kennedy was a likable but inexperienced personality.
On television, however, he seemed to be a natural.
Kennedy's desire to learn comedy gave Ellen a regular TV
job for 11 years. By 1962, their routines were broadcast
nationally. They were soon joined by other comics (including
Bert Newton, Toni Lamond and Rosie Sturgess, Ellen's feed
in the Northcote show), to lighten the load of five nights
a week.
Ellen was so popular that he was even allowed to say the
word "bloody" once a fortnight, using it as a
fallback during slow sketches. (Such an expletive would
win laughs for its vulgarity.) Once, when he said the word
twice in a single night, Bednall received enough complaints
to call him into his office.
"I'm going on holidays for two weeks," protested
Ellen. Bednall decided this was a fair excuse and ended
the meeting.
Such language would never be heard from Joffa Boy, Ellen's
regular character in the children's series The Happy Show,
whom he would play a few hours before IMT. His greeting
- "Howdy doody, boys and girls!" - became the
the show's most popular line. Twenty years after his retirement,
he would still be greeted in the street with calls of "Howdy
doody".
IMT was cancelled in 1969 when Kennedy decided it was time
for a change. "[Channel 9] had promised me that I would
be staying forever," Ellen recalled, but with the end
of IMT, they gave him a day to pack his bags and leave the
studio.
In 1976, he, Kennedy, Norm Spencer and others won a licence
for a new, youth-based radio station, 3MP, also serving
on the original board of directors. Within a few years,
it was top of the Melbourne ratings.
His retirement was spent in South Gippsland, occasionally
doing comedy routines at the local football club.
According to Smith, he was "a knockabout comedian
who I'm sure most of today's stand-up stars could have learned
a lot from." Sadly, as much of IMT was not videotaped,
most of his jovial humour will only exist in the memories
of his audiences - and of course, in the styles of the many
he influenced.
He is survived by Bernadette "Bernie" Ellen, his
wife of 53 years, and his son.
