Shirley Conran celebrity print 1978

Summary

This concrete handprint was formerly located as a part of the iconic McEwans celebrity pavement. Between 1972 and 1994, scores of celebrities had their handprints and footprints immortalised in cement at the entrance to the McEwans hardware store on Bourke Street. The City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection acquired a number of these impressed concrete slabs from the original celebrity pavement in 2005.

"British journalist Shirley Conran (born 1932) was in Melbourne to promote the Australian edition of her best-selling 1975 book, ‘Superwoman: Everywoman’s guide to household management’. Purporting to free women from domestic servitude by showing how chores might be streamlined – or eliminated – the book coined the feminist slogan, ‘Life’s too short to stuff a mushroom." - Robyn Annear, 2023