Born Frank Hatherleigh Matters in Semaphore, a coastal suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, my father was the third of four children to Richard Matters, a shopkeeper (‘ironmonger’), and Emily Williams, both second generation Australians. His elder siblings were girls – Rosa and Gladys — and a younger brother was to follow eleven years later, Arnold Hatherleigh Matters.

Why Hatherleigh was given as middle name to the two boys is not known, though it can be spotted once previously on the family tree, and once later as middle name of a younger cousin. Perhaps the connection is with the village of Hatherleigh in Devon, England.

His early years are now documented solely by surviving magazine interviews from the 1930s and 40s. He told Radio Pictorial of Australia (1 May 36) that he won a bursary from his state school to the private Pulteney School, and a later bursary to the strongly religious Prince Alfred College.

His first job out of school was as a commercial traveller, selling wholesale ‘softgoods’ — clothing and furnishings — in south-east South Australia. Handsome, with a ‘melodious voice’, his interest soon turned to theatre, acting in particular. Cast as the hero in a production of the classic melodrama ‘East Lynne’, Frank returned his samples and began touring as a professional actor.

The tour was a flop, and he claimed to have lost 280 pounds, his entire savings, which he had been required to invest in the company. During this time he elected to become know as Frank Hatherley, a contraction of his given middle name. Perhaps his sober parents disapproved of their acting son and he was making a clean break.

By 1914, at 23, Frank Hatherley was touring Australia as support actor and Assistant Stage Manager with the British stage and early film actress Muriel Starr for J.C. Williamson productions.

A relationship with Florence Myee Dean (b 1895), resulted in the 1918 birth of Frank Arnold Hatherley who was ‘given away’ before Florence left the hospital. Extraordinarily, this was followed a year later by the birth of twins, Rex and Richard Hatherley. Rex was stillborn. Richard eventually took over his lost twin's name and was known to all as Rex. This time the baby was taken home, though the circumstances, perhaps like many at that time, are unknown. Florence, it was said, joined a song and dance troupe touring India and ‘The Far East’, and was never heard from again; though unexpected recent research (in 2008) has shone new light on her later life. Frank looked after Rex in difficult circumstances for a touring actor.

When Frank met 20 year old pianist Clarice Kingsley (b 1904, 14 years his junior) in 1924 he had 6 year old Rex ‘in tow’. She agreed to consort with him on the condition that Rex be given up for adoption. The boy was given to a New Zealand acquaintance named Green and Rex spent the rest of his life in New Zealand as a Hatherley-Green. There are many descendant Hatherley-Greens.

Clarice toured widely with Frank in a 1925 return JCW season with Muriel Starr. This time Frank was listed as Stage Manager: Clarice made an impression in small, bright ingénue roles.

Making his Stage Manager’s report to the J.C. Williamson management in Melbourne one day in 1925, Frank had to report to the JCW-owned radio station 3LO, which had started broadcasting only months before. The Manager, Major Condor, was clearly impressed by the dashing actor. “He asked me if I knew anything about radio,” Frank told the Radio Pictorial, “and I told him I’d never even listened to it.”

After a voice test, he was hired as an announcer and, soon after, with only three minutes warning, replaced the ill conductor of the station’s weekly community singing session. He stayed with 3LO for the next five years (it became part of the Australian Broadcasting Commission in 1928) and his reputation grew.

‘Story readers’ were an important part of early radio, especially for children, and all the 3LO announcers adopted child-friendly aliases – Billy Bunny, Miss Kookaburra, Plain Peter, etc. Frank’s self-chosen alter ego was Bobby Bluegum, a name that was to stick with him for the rest of his life.


Community Singing grew greatly in popularity now that it was being regularly broadcast, and large crowds gathered at the Melbourne Town Hall and His Majesty’s Theatre to be conducted by Frank, ‘the man with a smile in his voice’. His at-first controversial idea to sing at least one hymn like ‘Abide With Me’ each program proved canny. Legions of new ‘radio fans’ responded with gusto.

In 1930 Frank moved to the brand new ABC radio station 2FC Sydney as ‘Announcer and Community Singing Conductor’. ABC history states: "At 8.00pm on 1 July 1932, the Prime Minister Joseph Lyons launched the ABC, the national broadcaster, and opening day programs on the wireless included the first Children's Session with Bobby Bluegum." Ever larger audiences sang along to popular songs whose words were projected on to a big screen. Frank’s broadcast sessions moved from the old Opera House (later renamed the Tivoli Theatre) to the cavernous Sydney Town Hall, and from once to twice a week.

Also closer to hand was Clarice Kingsley, and the two married in 1930.


For 2FC, Frank created The Sunshine Soldiers, a radio club for children dedicated to bringing ‘sunshine’ to mums and dads, and to less fortunate children. When you joined, you got a certificate from Bobby Bluegum stating that “you are accepted with pleasure into the BIG ARMY that promises at all times to SPREAD SUNSHINE”. The club, forerunner to The Argonauts (formed 1940), was a huge success and did much to establish the Bobby Bluegum name.

A son — Robert Charles Hatherleigh Matters on his birth certificate — was born in 1932. Obviously Frank had never thought to legally change his name. By this time, Frank’s younger brother Arnold Matters was making a considerable name in the opera world with his rich, baritone voice. Arnold went on to fame in London in the 1950s, playing Verdi’s Falstaff in a notable Tyrone Guthrie production at Sadler’s Wells.

The diary of Edna Fittell recorded on the internet includes this entry for 24 December 1934. "Went to Woolworths and bought frying pan, mugs, plates etc, then amid the jingle & clatter of this paraphernalia paid a visit to Bobby Bluegum who was at the time telling bedtime stories through 2FC in the No1 Studio."

Frank and Clarice (now Bobby and Betty Bluegum) toured NSW and Victoria with their ‘Community Vaudeville Night’ in 1934/35, playing over 250 one-night stands. ‘Bobby and Betty in new screaming absurdities’ said the poster, and ‘Frank himself in a series of delightful monologues’. The highlight was the rollicking community singing.

Frank returned to Sydney radio in 1936, first doing a stint with 2UW and then another with 2KY. Teleradio (28 May 1938) reported: “When a Sydney radio journal conducted a competition to discover the most popular radio announcer in Australia, Frank Hatherley walked away with it.”

He moved to 4BH Brisbane in 1938 as ‘Host’ or ‘Chief Announcer’. Frank and Clarice were settled enough to have a second son, also christened Frank (b1941). It seems reasonable to deduce from this that Clarice knew nothing of her husband’s already existing son, also named Frank (now aged 20 and about to join the army).

The legit family returned to Sydney in 1942 when Frank rejoined commercial station 2UW with whom he worked for the next 14 years, doing the afternoon announcing stint, writing and hosting the ‘Children’s Hour’ (theme song: ‘Hello, Bobby Bluegum, Hello!’), and conducting lunchtime community singing at the ‘2UW Theatrette’ in Market Street. For many years he conducted the annual Carols by Candlelight concert in Hyde Park.

Frank’s star career dwindled into daily rostered radio announcing on 2UW. Community singing fell out of favour after the war, ‘children’ turned into 1950s ‘kids’ and ‘teenagers’, and his lifetime of cigarette smoking landed him with cancer.

He died in 1956 at the age of 66. As he said at the end of every Children’s Hour broadcast: “Nightie night and sleep tight”.


FH, April 2006