Please join us for a very special presentation with author and researcher Jacqx Melilli at our Port Macquarie Library on Saturday 2nd May at 2.00pm.
Jacquelin (Jacqx) Melilli is an author, playwright, and writing coach. She has a Master of Arts degree in Writing and Literature from Deakin University. In 2002, she founded her copywriting and editing business, Jacq of all Trades, Master of Writing, and now runs memoir and creative writing workshops. Her published works are influenced by her involvement in film, television and theatre. These include the educational book series Lights, Camera, Action on filmmaking and theatre production, one-act plays, short stories, and her Australian historical novel, When The Glitter Fades. Jacqx will be sharing her research journey for her novel, which spans from the 1920s to the 1950s and is loosely based on Alf Broadway’s Pantomime Players and the challenges they faced surviving the Great Depression.
Jacqx met Alf’s daughter, Shirley Barnett (nee Broadway) when they were both involved in community theatre in Coffs Harbour. Shirley shared her story about being a child vaudeville performer and later working with Bert Newton and Graham Kennedy in the early years of Australian television. This inspired Jacqx to preserve these great Australian stories by merging true events with fiction to create an engaging generational saga, love triangle revenge story for her debut novel, When The Glitter Fades. Her research journey included three trips to Victoria to visit the State Library, the Melbourne Arts Centre, interview comedy writer Hugh Stuckey, and retrace one of the troupe’s touring circuits where the devastating ‘accident’ happened. The presentation will include photographs and interview snippets of Shirley Broadway’s life as a child performer and Frank Gasser
WHEN THE GLITTER FADES
Vinnie, a criminal on the run, finds refuge in a travelling show. He sets up his own vaudeville troupe just as the Great Depression hits Melbourne. Smitten with Belle, his star performer, a battle for her love ensues when Artis, his protégé, lays eyes on her.
Lured with promises of fame and fortune by both men, Belle joins Artis’s new showbiz venture, leaving Vinnie hell-bent on revenge.
A marriage of convenience provides Vinnie with the funds and power he needs to destroy Artis’s business and win Belle back. But when Vinnie makes a deal with the mob, it ends up costing him everything when a blackmail letter gets into the wrong hands.
Is Belle playing Artis and Vinnie in her quest for fame? Can her love be trusted? Is she a pawn in a twisted game, or the mastermind behind the curtain?
Will a love child be the ultimate undoing in their bitter feud?
When the Glitter Fades encapsulates Australia’s entertainment history, from the Association for the Advancement of the Blind concert’s variety acts to vaudeville, burlesque, and circus life. The story is loosely based on true events of Alf Broadway’s Pantomime Players and spans from the 1920s to the 1950s, ending just as Australian television was being established. The novel also incorporates the polio pandemic and the controversial therapies used by Sister Elizabeth Kenny
JACQX WILL BE SELLING AND SIGNING COPIES OF WHEN THE GLITTER FADES AT THIS EVENT.
