Portrait – Moomba Queen Mother – Dame Edna Everage 1983

VAN DER TOORREN, Bob

Registration number

1283638

Artist/maker

VAN DER TOORREN, Bob

Title

Portrait – Moomba Queen Mother – Dame Edna Everage

Production date

1983

Medium

photographic paper

Dimensions (H x W x D)

56 x 43.5 cm (framed)

Credit line

By courtesy of Bob VAN DER TOORREN Hon. L.M. A.I.P.P. A.R.M.I.T. of Block Arcade Studios
City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection

Keywords

Moomba, Queen Mother, Portrait, Dame Edna, Barry Humphries, 1983

Summary

Framed colour portrait of 1983 Moomba Queen Mother, Dame Edna Everage Bob van der Toorren, who photographed many of the Moomba kings and queens, took this photograph in the Town Hall’s Lady Mayoress Room (now named the Melbourne Room). The room has a piano – and a private ensuite powder room and bathroom for the lady mayoress – and given that the portrait took a fraction of the 45 minutes allowed, Dame Edna went on to play several numbers for Bob and one or two others. At some point, Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress Curtis joined the party. ‘Time for a toilet inspection’, said Everage grabbing the lady mayoress by the arm and whisking her off to inspect her private ‘loo'. with this humiliation over, Dame Edna then asked the lady mayoress in front of the others how she’d enjoyed her lunch. ‘But I haven’t had my lunch yet’ she protested. ‘Yes you have’, replied Dame Edna, ‘I can smell the fish on your breath.’