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THE LOVES OF ARNOLD FEATHER: CARLOTTA |
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- Carlotta: the legend of Les Girls - |
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Contents |
After Arnold Feather
arrived in Number 96 in 1972 the recurring theme of many of his
storylines would become apparent. As a mild-mannered and well-behaved young
man with a rather puny physique, it was inevitable that, in point of actual fact, young
Arnold would be beset by a constant stream of glamorous young women falling
at his feet. One early romance
was with Dorrie Evans’ voluptuous niece Georgina
Carter (Sussannah Piggott) while he later became
entrapped by his sophisticated catering-school teacher Marion Carlton (Lorrae Desmond.) This second assignation ended with a
hasty getaway when Marion’s husband called from the airport to say he was on
his way home so Marion helpfully calls a taxi. ARNOLD: “Do you think
it will come quickly?” MARION: “Well if the
rest of the evening has been anything to go by it should be here before
you’ve got your tie on!” No sooner was this
drama in hand when Arnold embarked on a new romance with lovely blond
showgirl Miss Robin Ross, played by a glamorous newcomer named Carolle Lea. After a rather serious albeit brief romance
Arnold was surprised to learn Robin had been born male and was a transsexual.
In a daring and provocative move, the makers of Number 96 had
secretly cast Carlotta, the long running star of all-male revue Les Girls, in the role. CARLOTTA
AND LES GIRLS
Performed entirely
by males impersonating elaborately costumed showgirls, Les Girls was by then a veritable King’s Cross institution with its big
production numbers and impossibly gorgeous performers in glittery (and brief)
costumes. Launched in 1963 the show was initially popular with the arty-crowd
and attracted such visiting celebrities as Shirley Bassey,
Vincent Price, Peter Allen and Liza Minnelli. Les Girls - along with its transgendered star
Carlotta - quickly became legend. Carlotta had
appeared in the very first Les
Girls performance. The
leggy brunette started out as a chorus girl but eventually emerged as the
show’s star, and, armed with a talent for improvising and a portable
microphone, she also became the show’s witty compere,
often from within the audience. She returned from an
engagement in Hong Kong with silicone enhanced breasts and later went blond.
On her return to Sydney after her Hong Kong sojourn Australian newspapers
erroneously reported that she had had a complete “sex change” [a] operation there, when in fact she had only
had breast implants. Carlotta would later undergo complete gender affirming
surgery in Sydney. Carlotta was in fact
one of the three initial people to have gender affirming surgery performed in
Australia. It was performed by a British surgeon at the Prince of Wales
Hospital in the Sydney suburb of Randwick. Carlotta
was the only celebrity of the three initial patients and her story made
headlines. She paid just $5 for the procedure - the figure was to cover the
costs of the legal documents that Carlotta signed, waiving any right of
recompense from the hospital should the operation go wrong. Carlotta happily
went under the knife, the operation was a success, and she never regretted
it. Carlotta cannot
recall the exact date of the surgery, believing it occurred either in 1973 or
1974. She continued with Les Girls after the operation, ultimately chalking up
a whopping twenty-six total years service with the
revue. By the time she left for the final time in 1992 the show had long been
a standard for suburban mums and dads and a regular stop for giggly hen’s
party groups. Carlotta was by that stage famous for strolling through the
audience between the big production numbers and ruthlessly sending-up anyone
who made the fatal mistake of laughing too loud, dressing badly, or foolishly
trying to heckle the great star.
CARLOTTA IN
NUMBER 96
Carlotta appeared in
just six episodes of Number 96, which aired February-March 1973. In the
autobiographical 1994 book He Did
It Her Way: Carlotta, Legend of Les Girls, the celebrated showgirl recounts her
experiences in the then top-rated soap: “I worked with Abigail on Number 96 when
I was cast as Arnold Feather’s new girlfriend, Robin Ross. The joke was that
Arnold fell in love with me without realising I was
a man. He thought I was a genuine showgirl. I remember Abigail used to turn
up to work in these baby doll nighties. She was
always getting into trouble for being late, but she was so pretty, the
tiniest little face and that mass of thick hair. I don’t think the camera did
her justice. “Number 96 was my first real acting job and I was petrified. What made it worse was
they kept me locked up on set because my true identity was supposed to be a
secret. Pat McDonald, who played Dorrie Evans, was
wonderful. She would pick me up in the mornings and tell me to just be
myself. The funniest scene from Number
96 was when they had me
in the dressing room and my flatmate walked in and
caught me shooting up with this hypodermic needle that must have been
fourteen inches long. And she asked me if I was a drug addict and I said ‘No,
I’m just injecting some hormones’. Which I thought was hysterical because the
only hormones I ever took came in pill form. “Eventually Arnold
Feather asked Robin to get married so it was essential to the plot that I
revealed that I was a tranny. The way they did it
was for Arnold to put his hand up my dress and say ‘Miss Ross, I mean, Mister
Ross’. It was quite scandalous for its time. As soon as that episode finished
the phones didn’t stop ringing with people complaining. “The original ending
would have shocked them even more. It was planned that I would be in the
bathtub when Arnold walked in so I stood up in surprise. They were going to
film me from behind so you’d see Arnold having a look and then fainting. It
would have been a better ending but you might have had half the viewers
fainting as well. Fred Nile would have had a coronary. “Because my identity
had to be kept a secret they locked me in this very small dressing-room on
set. I called it a cupboard, it was so small. When it was time to film one of
my scenes they would order everyone out of the studio except the crew and the
actors involved. At lunch breaks I would have my meals sent in to my room,
while all the others went out to eat. It wasn’t exactly fun. I’d have to be
there at 7 am, you’d stay there till 6 pm, then I’d have to run off and do my
show at Les Girls. “Abigail once said
that she thought I had better tits than she did, but hers were pretty damn
good, and they were real. She had trouble relating to me as a man (this was
before my sex change) so she always referred to me as a she.” [1] Viewers of the serial had first learned that Robin was transgendered in the aforementioned scene with Terri Sandford (Bernadette Hughson) and the hormone injection. Producer Bill Harmon had always insisted that Carlotta’s true identity be absolutely kept secret, to the extent that Carlotta’s contract specified she could not reveal her involvement with the show to anyone - not even her closest friends. TV Week reported that the day after the revelation that Robin was transgendered the switchboard at Channel Ten was jammed by amazed viewers wanting confirmation as to whether Robin’s portrayer was male or female. The morning after the bombshell aired Carlotta told TV Week “I’m not at all surprised that nobody guessed who I was because we tried so hard to keep it a secret. I had always thought it would be divine to act in Number 96 so I went and saw my friend Gordon Chater who knows absolutely everyone in show business. He spoke to Bill Harmon and suggested that I could be written in to the show. Mr Harmon wasn’t too enthusiastic at first, but he asked if I could appear on the show on the condition I didn’t tell a soul. I was really thrilled.” Carlotta says she was pleased that the script was not in poor taste and did not ridicule “female impersonators”. “I was delighted when I saw how beautifully the writers handled it. Various ways of revealing my true identity were discussed. But the final outcome was that I would confess to Arnold - an ending I much prefer. Although I only appeared in six episodes I wasn’t ‘killed off’ so there is always a chance that I might be used again. If the audience response was good they might even use me a lot. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.” [2] Sadly even Number 96 was not ready for a transgendered character full time, and Robin made no returns to the story. Carlotta nevertheless enjoyed her stint and found the other cast members friendly and helpful. “They all knew I hadn’t acted on television before and they were really wonderful to me. Pat McDonald was so nice. She helped me learn all my lines. I was a little nervous that the kissing scenes with Arnold might be embarrassing, but he behaved like a true professional. I was so concerned about the clause in the contract that says I could be asked to strip - but they didn’t ask me. I wouldn’t mind doing a nude scene but I would like it to be done tastefully.” After her brief stint went to air Carlotta found strangers in the street were approaching her asking if she was Robin Ross, and a group of eager school children stopped her for her autograph. “Although I love stage work I would really love to be given a chance as a serious actress. People like me are seldom given an opportunity to prove themselves on television and I think Number 96 has been a real breakthrough. I’m hoping now that other doors will open for me. I wouldn’t mind playing a female impersonator, but naturally I would prefer to play a straight female role.” [3] |
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Originally uploaded June 2000 Last updated 27 July 2008 |
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