Leita and the Summer of ‘67

From Tauranga City Library’s archives
A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection

“B1164 4/1/67 Leita Lawn & Elizabeth Robertson resting at Soundshell”
Glassine envelope and 120-format cellulose acetate film negative
Bay of Plenty Times/Gifford-Cross Collection, Tauranga City Library

Leita – it was the name scribbled in green pencil on a crumpled glassine envelope that jumped out at me. For the last eighteen months I have been engaged part-time as a contractor, working through boxes of negatives from the Bay of Plenty Times/Gifford-Cross collection in the Tauranga City Library, rehousing the negatives in archival enclosures, transcribing metadata from the envelopes and digitizing the photographs. After digitization and processing, the images eventually appear online as the Gifford-Cross Collection on the Library’s web site Pae Korokī.

After handling many thousands of envelopes one could be forgiven, perhaps, for becoming a little jaded and glossing over much of the content, but this first name is pretty unusual. I’d only ever come across one “Leita” and she was a friend of my brother’s in Zimbabwe, half a world and half a lifetime away. So my eye was drawn to it, and then I saw her surname – “Leita Lawn.” She was married but I also knew her brother, and thus that her maiden name was Lawn. Likewise I was aware that her brother was originally from New Zealand, and had returned here. Could it be the same person?

Leita Lawn & Elizabeth Robertson after a performance at the Tauranga Soundshell, 3 Jan 1967
120-format film negative, Gifford-Cross Collection (Ref. gca-14151), Courtesy of Tauranga Library

To cut a long story short, I got in touch with Leita through my brother, sent her the digitized image, and she confirmed that she was indeed one of the two girls pictured.

“I was one of Max Cryer's first batch of singing children. I'll forward this to Elizabeth and the others. Two years after this my family had settled in what was then Rhodesia. Not long after Max died, I listened online to a radio interview given by someone who was on that tour with us.  Such a blast from the past - like your photo!”

Print from microfilm, Bay of Plenty Times, 4 Jan 1967, Courtesy of Tauranga City Library

A quick look at the Bay of Plenty Times on microfilm at the Library revealed the photograph was one of several taken that day at the Mount 5000 Club talent quest semi-finals at the Tauranga Soundshell. Other acts included the Nicholas Sisters (winners of the second heat, instrumental medley), Bill Swinton (second placed, vocal solo) and David Pearson and Peter McGregor (third, piano accordion and double bass duet).

Town Cryer, LP by Max Cryer and the Children (Leita Lawn, Judy Waite, Elizabeth Robertson, Sonia Carter, Bruce Matthews, Garth Jacobsen, Graeme McMahon, Neil Rowlands) (Spotify)

Max and the children, Auckland, 1966
Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections Footprints Ref. 06997

Leita continued:

“I'll attach a photo of us recording that Town Cryer album - one of me looking cross-eyed, Elizabeth just behind me. We only ever did one or two takes - all in one go, sharps and flats included ... I feel sad when I look at Sonya and Graeme in that photo. My mum and I went to Sonya's funeral not a year later after she drowned during a fishing trip with her father and his friend. And then Graeme died just a few years later.”

The caption for the photograph in the Auckland Libraries Heritage Collection includes a reference to the planned tour which would include the appearance in Tauranga:

Entertainer Max Cryer and his group of young singers from Otāhuhu record 'Eidelweiss' for the Zodiac label at Stebbing Recording Studios in Auckland. The soloist at the microphone with Max is Neil Rowlands. The group had been asked to record songs for an LP, 'Town Cryer', after a successful appearance at the TV Festival Review earlier in the year. Future plans included an appearance on the Christmas edition of Revue 66 and a tour of beach carnivals over the New Year holidays. Photograph published in the South Auckland Courier Central Edition, 30 November 1966, p. 26

Max Cryer and the Children on Revue 66, Auckland Town Hall, NZTV, 1966
Photo courtesy of Max Cryer Collection and audioculture.co.nz

Cryer, who died in August last year, recalled to Audioculture in 2017:

“Suddenly everyone wanted to know. We were hired by big department stores, shopping malls, beach carnivals, movie premieres and TV shows. Of course, as time moved, the children grew up and were gradually replaced. But each and every one of them was a cheerful singer, lively but well-behaved not precocious, and never nervous. Over time, we recorded nine albums with hardly ever a studio second take.”

Reunion of Max Cryer and “the children,” Bombay Hills, 2011
(Leita with her hands on Max’s shoulder)
Photo courtesy of Bruce Matthews

“We old ‘children’ from the original group had a lovely reunion with Max about ten years ago at Bruce’s alpaca farm in the Bombay Hills.”

Leita now lives in a Bronte-like cottage in the English North Pennines.

References

Geraden Cann & Glenn McConnell (2021) Max Cryer remembered as ‘showbiz through and through’ after dying at 86, on Stuff, 26 Aug 2021, https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/300392377/max-cryer-remembered-as-showbiz-through-and-through-after-dying-at-86

Gareth Shute (2019) Max Cryer, published on Audioculture, 4 Jul 2019 https://www.audioculture.co.nz/profile/max-cryer

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This archival item has been digitised and will be available to view on Pae Korokī. For more information about this and other items in our collection, visit Pae Korokī or email the Heritage & Research Team: Research@tauranga.govt.nz

Written by Brett Payne, Digitisation Contractor at Tauranga City Library