The Happy Hippopotamus

The Happy Hippopotamus is a 1953 Australian radio play that aired as an episode of The Rola Show.[1]

The Happy Hippopotamus
Genredrama play
Running time30 mins (8:00 pm – 8:30 pm)
Country of originAustralia
Language(s)English
Home station2UW
StarringBruce Stewart
Alexander Archdale
Recording studioSydney
Original releaseMarch 2, 1953 (1953-03-02)

It was a rare Australian play of the 1950s that touched on aboriginal themes.[2]

Premise

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According to ABC Weekly it was the "story of a scientific expedition that went to Kati Tanda (Lake Eyre) to try to capture a huge animal the blacks said would come there to die. When the party found it they were amazed, but only Jack Barton and Kathy Wells could see it as it really was, a creature of the past, piteous in its life of loneliness and terror, stumbling and half blind."[3]

References

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  1. ^ "Plays and Players". The Sun. No. 13, 433. New South Wales, Australia. 27 February 1953. p. 10 (LATE FINAL EXTRA). Retrieved 10 October 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ^ Rees, Leslie (1953). Towards an Australian Drama. p. 188.
  3. ^ "Commercial", ABC Weekly, 15 (9), Sydney, 28 February 1953, nla.obj-1686447111, retrieved 10 October 2023 – via Trove