An unconventional life

An unconventional life

Sharon Greally talks to a Mount Victoria local whose unconventional life has included being a showgirl, a celebrity chaser, and a feather boa aficionado.

“Isn’t it fun?” This favourite catch phrase sums up Margaret Austin’s life, which has been one full of drama, intrigue and fun.

From the not so glitzy Palmerston North, where she performed as the pantomime boy at the local repertory theatre to the outrageous stage of the Folies Bergère, this once

Sunday school teacher has lived an unconventional life on her own terms.

University helped her find her thespian bug and tribe. “Once it bites you, that’s it for life. And you can get away with things you can’t get away with other people!”

When her initial marriage ended (deciding its confines were not for her) at 29 she decided to set out to explore the world. In the 70s she jumped on a passage liner set for Europe and her ‘Grand Tour.’

But after finding London dark and dismal she hightailed it for Amsterdam where she found her vibe.

“I had no one to help me – or the hinder me! There was something special in the air”, she remembers. “It wasn’t dope, there was something promising about this place”.  She spent four years there, working as a waitress. One day, she remembers, “in swanned a black American”. With his swagger, poncho, jeans and earrings, she was intrigued. Her life was about to change. They became great friends. He was there to teach and choregraph jazz dance at a sex theatre, using loads of shoulders and hips. “I didn’t know I had shoulders and hips!” she quips.  Margaret decided she needed to join – as a dancer. “It was theatre darling!  Little flat breasted me garnered a huge laugh” but her long legs were a great asset. “It was all very safe. All the drug dealings and prostitution around us - I had a great group of friends. It was mind blowing.”

Tired of being cold in Amsterdam, the group decided to hit Athens.

But after liberal Amsterdam, Athens was too narrow minded for Margaret who hightailed it to Paris. “It was cold, haughty, and said ‘prove yourself.’”

At a local bar, asking about dance work, she got a tip off about the Folies Bergère. “The next night I gatecrashed the world’s most famous Music Hall”. She spent a year there as a chorus girl, wearing nothing but a G string, huge feather boas, false eye lashes, and high heels. She says she had never felt “more fully dressed in my life!”

But it was time for a new adventure, and Margaret decided to become a journalist. Her new beau was a well-known investigative journalist and he taught her the basics.

Hanging out as a bar fly at the types of places celebrities like to hang out, she managed to get a few interviews, and sell them to English magazines. “One was an Irish woman, Miss Bluebell who was famous and in charge of the Bluebell Girls at the Lido, a fellow music hall to the Folies Bergère, and Alexander of Paris who was hairdresser to Princess Anne.”

As a freelance writer chasing celebrities, she ended up in Cannes looking for stars. A chance opportunity got her the chance to interview none other than Anthony Hopkins, who indeed dazzled her like the star he is.

Then it was time to write a book, published in 1988  by Hodder and Stoughton,  ‘Amsterdam Affair’, but it meant returning to New Zealand to edit.

“I was interviewed by Paul Holmes about my book. For my next book ‘Dancing Naked’ published by Random House, [Radio New Zealand’s] Kim Hill gave me a backhanded compliment and refused to interview me! They weren’t sure how to take me. Some people don’t like me for what I’ve done.

“Sadly my heel got caught, and I ended up staying. I was bored and frustrated. So I did the most conservative thing available, and joined a Toastmasters Club!” There she unexpectedly met her future partner, Anthony Catford, the self-styled ‘Duke of Wellington’. After a beautiful courtship (they were partners in light heartedness, she says) and she became a ‘Duchess’.

Margaret loves living in Mt Vic. “The warmth that hits your back as you approach the ‘mount’. The couple of cats on Austin St who like me so much they roll over. And of course, the short walk to the action on Courtenay Place.”

These days, Margaret still writes, mostly poetry, about her extraordinary life. “It’s an appropriate medium for philosophical thought, and I like the idea of taking an unconventional path through life.”