The making OF MOONFACE

INSIDE THE ILLUSTRIOUS CAREER OF A TELEVISION PIONEER

Born in Fitzroy, Melbourne on July 23, 1938, Albert Watson Newton appeared destined for the spotlight from an early age.

At 13, Bert scored his first professional gig on local radio station, 3XY. He voiced an on-air advert during a broadcast from his scout hall.

Bert quickly became a fixture on the radio network’s Saturday morning children’s show. By 1954, at the age of 15, he was employed as a junior announcer and it appeared that, even at such a tender age, Bert’s potential was already being recognised.

Small-screen opportunities soon came knocking, which Bert jumped at. Believing he no longer had a voice for radio, he made his first foray into television as a host on Channel HSV-7’s variety show, The Late Show.

“Back in the ’50s, first up you had to sound quite British on Australian radio. But all of a sudden overnight, you had to become American … ‘Oh baby hey, ready to rock’ and it wasn’t me,” Bert told ABC Radio in 2013. “I thought, ‘I can just see myself being taken off-air.’ Television came along, and thank God!”