The Dame Edna Story
According to Dame Edna’s autobiography, and to statements she has made, she was born Edna May Beazley in the rural city of Wagga Wagga, and started her stage career on 19 December 1955 as Mrs. Norm Everage, an “average Australian housewife” from Moonee Ponds, a Melbourne suburb.
Barry Humphries cites Peter Cook as being instrumental in launching Edna’s UK career. In 1972, she appeared as Barry McKenzie’s “Aunt Edna” in the film, The Adventures of Barry McKenzie and its sequel Barry McKenzie Holds His Own. It was during this time that she was “knighted” by then Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, becoming “Dame Edna”.
As Dame Edna, Humphries has written several books and hosted various television shows (on which Humphries has also appeared as himself).
Edna made a brief cameo appearance in the 1978 film Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Dame Edna became notable in the UK throughout the 1980s and early 1990s for her semi-regular television shows. She became popular with broadcaster ITV after her performance on An Audience With Dame Edna in 1980.
In 2000 and 2004, Dame Edna appeared on Broadway. These were ostensibly not “performances”, but rather “appearances”, with Dame Edna giving monologues and interacting with audience members.
During 2001 and 2002, Dame Edna appeared in the fifth season of the television show Ally McBeal playing the guest role of Claire Otoms, a client of the show’s law firm who later became a secretary at the same firm.
In the summer of 2006, Dame Edna appeared on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show alongside Billy Crystal. On 23 September 2006, during an interview on Parkinson, she revealed that she would be returning to ITV in 2007 to host another comedy chat-show called The Dame Edna Treatment, a similar format to The Dame Edna Experience from 20 years earlier.
The series once again boasted a collection of top celebrity guests such as Tim Allen, Mischa Barton, Sigourney Weaver, Debbie Harry, and Little Britain stars David Walliams and Matt Lucas.
On 7 March 2007 her home town (Melbourne) re-named a city street in her honour: Dame Edna Place, formerly Brown Alley off Little Collins Street, was officially opened by the Lord Mayor of Melbourne.
Dame Edna Place is opposite Royal Arcade and The Causeway, between the major roads, Elizabeth Street and Swanston Street; it was, until its renaming, a service alley for adjoining buildings.
Madge Allsop, Dame Edna’s former sidekick and silent foil was played from 1987 by Emily Perry. Madge was only known to speak on one occasion, when she sang and danced on a special Comic Relief sketch in the UK. When Christiaan Barnard performed a face lift for Madge on The Dame Edna Experience. After the surgery, Madge was played briefly by Anne Charleston.
When Edna met Sharon.
It takes a lot to make Sharon Osbourne blush but Dame Edna did it on U.S. television.
Humphries’ numerous television appearances in Australia, the UK and the USA include The Bunyip, a children’s comedy for Channel 7 in Melbourne. In the UK he made two highly successful series of his comedy talk show The Dame Edna Experience for London Weekend Television.
Sir Les Patterson is the other Humphries character still current, though mainly as pre-recorded segments in Dame Edna’s show. He is the opposite of Dame Edna, uncouth and coarse.
Episode one, the pilot of Dame Edna Everage’s first American talk show from her Bel Air Mansion, with Cher, Bea Arthur, Jack Palance, Mel Gibson, Larry Hagman, Doc Severison & of course Madge Allsop, was a good, strong funny show, and an excellent inroduction of the brilliant Dame Edna to American viewers.
On 16 June 2007, Dame Edna’s alter-ego Barry Humphries became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to entertainment.
To commemorate Dame Edna’s 50 years in show business, the Victorian Arts Centre in Melbourne Australia has created an amazing retrospective in ‘ Virtually Edna Virtually Edna, ‘ complete with podcasts.
Dame Edna’s Coffee Table Book: A guide to gracious living and the finer things of life by one of the first ladies of world theatre.
