Brushing up on our OAMs
IF you thought 30 Jewish Australia Day award recipients was impressive, think again. The AJN has learnt of two more members of the community who received an OAM when the honours were announced last month.
Step forward veteran children’s TV writer Marcia Hatfield (pictured), who said she was “overwhelmed” at news she had been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for her lifetime contribution to keeping youngsters entertained in front of the tube.
Also an acclaimed author and publisher of children’s books, she is best known for her TV creation The Toothbrush Family, which began as a tale she spun to her young son about toothbrushes coming alive in the bathroom overnight after he refused to brush his teeth.
The Toothbrush Family eventually became a long-running segment on the American children’s TV series Captain Kangaroo. Hatfield was also the creator of Eddie’s Alphabet – a TV series than ran in New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore – a rendition of The Pied Piper for primary schools through the Australian Theatre for Young People and other projects.
She authored My Book of Ballet Shoes and numerous youth titles.
Hatfield was a scriptwriter on landmark Australian TV shows such as Certain Women, Homicide, Number 96 and Divorce Court.
After six decades of writing, the former member of the Emanuel Synagogue and grandmother of three remains active and is currently planning an online version of The Toothbrush Family.
Meanwhile, Melbourne lawyer Raymond Kingsley Davis received an OAM for service to the community through youth and heritage organisations and for service to the law.
The Melbourne barrister joined the legal profession in 1967 and was admitted to the Victorian Bar two years later. Davis volunteers as a coordinator and lawyer at the St Kilda Legal Service.
“There are a lot of people who can’t afford access to the law, sometimes [they are] in very destitute circumstances, and at the legal service they can get advice and can get referrals to solicitors,” he told The AJN.
PETER KOHN
Children’s TV writer Marcia Hatfield.
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