Patrick White

Why not filmed? 

1956 Tree of Man read on ABC - see here

Nov 1959 - writes letter to SMH worried about state of music see here. Same month talk Ham Funderal done on Broadway see here.

April 1961 Hutchison was part of the decision to not put on The Ham Funeral at the Adelaide Festival.

It went on another production at Adelaide Uni and was a success. Hutchison asked for the rights to the play for the Trust.

Dec 1961 Neil Hutchison announces that The Elizabethan Theatre Trust wants to put on The Ham Funeral. It was put on at Palace Theatre in July 1962. Zoe Caldwell agreed to appear in this and The Season at Sasparilla. 

March 1962 his novel Riders in Chariots was discussed in ABC show The Critic - see here.

Jun 1962 Robert Hughes does joke verses between Hutchison and White see here.

Sept 1962 Season at Sasparilla has world debut - articles here.

1963 Night on Bald Mountain

1964 onwards apparently White didn't want his plays performed in Australia any more. 

Aug 1964 Riders of Chariot discused on ABC radio see here.

July 1965 The Bulletin reports

Searching through manuscripts with a fine-tooth comb may sometimes make the ABC forget to do the obvious thing. Mr [James] Pratt and Mr [Philip] Mann said no approach had ever been made to Mr Patrick White, the most interesting and prolific local playwright of the past few years. Mr White may not want his plays on tele vision, but he has never been asked. “I believe he won’t have as much as a comma altered,” Mr Pratt said. “And, of course, that would never do for television.”  

1966 A Cheery Soul adapted for British TV on the BBC. Film rights purchased in Nov 1965.

ABC filmed Big Toys in 1980. The Age reported this was the first time White had allowed one of his plays to be filmed for TV. Is this true?

In the 1963 Vincent Report Max Harris and Dorothy Underhill said that they didn't think White would work for the ABC. But was this true?

He called Neil Hutchison "fat boy" ... see below. 

Season for Sasparilla.

1969 Eric Tayler approaches and Patrick White rejects harshly. So they did try. Sept 1969 article here.

1978 he paid for ads defending ABC see here.

1983 ABC adapts Tree of Man for radio serial see here.

Thoughts on the plays

The Ham Funeral - plot lite. Man lives with two landlords. He, Will Lusty, dies. They have a funeral. Mother goes for the guy. Lots of talk. I didn't like this.

Letters of Patrick White

David Marr's bio on Patrick White

David Marr's bio on Patrick White

David Marr's bio on Patrick White

The Bulleting Feb 1962