The Australian National Film & Sound Archive has information on the 1932 On Our Selection movie directed by Ken G Hall. This film is credited as being the first successful Australian ‘talkie’, possibly even rescuing the languishing Australian film industry during The Great Depression. It cost 6,000 pounds to make and returned 70,000 pounds to the distributor, so could only be described as being amazingly financially successful. [1]
On Our Selection is a series of stories written by Australian author Steele Rudd, the pseudonym of Arthur Hoey Davis, featuring the characters Dad and Dave Rudd. Towards the end of 1895 Davis sent to The Bulletin magazine a sketch based on his father’s experience. The sketch was published on 14 December 1895.
Davis continued the series of sketches set against the backdrop of the Australian landscape. These are tales about an unconventional farming family trying to carve out a living in the backblocks of the country which capture the indomitable will of the people who stand in face of extreme adversity. He based them on his own upbringing on a homesteading farm in rural Queensland.
The Bulletin magazine went on to publish the illustrated collection of 26 stories in one volume as On Our Selection which has been called an Australian classic. Within four years 20,000 copies had been printed. Afterwards it appeared in numerous editions and by 1940 the number of copies sold had reached 250,000. These stories have value from a historical point of view, but the tales have not aged well and now don’t generally appeal to 21st-century readers.
The 1912 Australian play, and 1920 silent movie of the same name, and 1932–1952 radio series, Dad and Dave, helped turn the characters into Australian cultural icons. Further screen adaptations followed in 1932 and 1995.
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