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Thursday 14 November 2013

Post 476 - Tony Monopoly – The Girl I’ll Never Know – Love And The World Loves With You

Born Antonio Rosario Monopoli in Adelaide, Australia, he was a regular on the national radio show Kangaroos on Parade at the age of nine. At the age of sixteen he became a Carmelite monk and remained in the order for five years. He was appearing at Caesar's Palace in Luton when he auditioned for Opportunity Knocks, a British television talent show, which he won on six consecutive occasions in the 1970s. By the early 1980s, Monopoly was frequently obliged to display his talents aboard cruise liners. "I lived on one yacht for a year," he said. "I went to 56 countries. I had champagne for breakfast. But I hated it" When fulfilling his increasingly rare engagements on dry land, he divided his time between Australia and the UK. He was headhunted for a musical while appearing in Cinderella at Hanley, near Stoke-on-Trent. Monopoly starred - in drag - in Moby Dick, the inaugural production at the newly refurbished Old Fire Station Theatre in Oxford. The show's success prompted Cameron Mackintosh to mount a 1992 West End production, that opened to scathing reviews and promptly closed, after which Monopoly portrayed Old Deuteronomy in a UK tour of Cats. Here to download is a single by Tony “The Girl I’ll Never Know” b/w “Love And The World Loves With You” (EA-9666) recorded for H.M.V. Records and produced by Howard Gable. I searched the net but can’t seem to find what year this was released. Monopoly died in Brighton, England on 21 March 1995.

2 comments:

Unc said...

HMV EA-9668 was Johnny Farnham and Allison Durbin's Baby Without You, in 1971. HMV EA-9665 was Lovelace Watkins' Now You're Gone c/w a Blood Sweat and Tears combo -- the UK version (on York) was Oct 71. So I reckon 9666 looks like 1971.
I'm intrigued to read that he was in Moby-Dick in drag. I expect that would have been dangerous, but how do you do it? They're in the middle of the Pacific, with no women for thousands of miles?

Anonymous said...

And 9654 was a Moody Blues 45 released 23/09/1971.

So I reckon this one would be October 1971.

cheers

smithy