Bert remembers the days with ‘Belvedere’ & Moira
"He was the floor manager and we made a star out of him," remembers Bert.
- Published by David Knox
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TV nostalgia fans can read a lovely yarn from Luke Dennehy on Bert Newton’s days hosting Good Morning Australia.
He reflects on the 13 years hosting the 10 show with music director John Foreman, floor manager Rob ‘Belvedere’ Mascara and advertorial queen Moira McLean.
“I had great back up with Belvedere, he was the floor manager and we made a star out of him,” Newton told news.com.au
“He’s someone I’m still in contact with and now in his forties. Apart from the fact he was good fun and he was willing to learn, he was a devotee of television.
“He was one of those young people who knew exactly where people like I had come from, and there was a lot of respect but also a lot of laughs.”
Newton says at one stage the advertorials, led by Moira McLean, were raking in $70 million for Network 10.
“I think the important thing to remember always about advertorials, and this is still true, they are basically paying for the program,” he says.
“I can’t remember what precise year, but at one stage I think it was a difficult year for 10 and we were providing something like $70 million per annum in advertising.
“That in itself is a good safeguard when contract time comes around!”
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4 Responses
This brought memories flooding back. I used to watch GMA all the time. Bert was obviously devastated when the show ended. RIP Bert, you will be very much missed. I thought you’d live forever. 😓
I loved Bert’s GMA. Even the advertorials were watchable, especially when Bert wandered onto the ad set and sent them up. I’ll never forget when he was making the point that GMA was totally live and joking that Mornings with KAK was prerecorded. He dropped his trousers in front of a TV showing Mornings and pretended to moon her…” See, if she was live she’d react, obviously prerecorded ” he joked.
Wonder how many viewers this show used to get back in the day?
There was a box next to Berts chair with all kinds of nic naks and I used to notice that he would push a button in there just before crossing to a package or an advertorial and wondered if the button was to cue the director.