the book review 

Reviewer: PJ

Like any autobiography it’s the stuff they choose not to tell you that you actually want to read, having said that Barry Crocker attempts to be honest in the telling of his life story but falls down in the area surrounding the break up of his marriage and the years spent apart from his wife as he travelled the world building a career for himself.

The best parts of the book are where Bazza talks about growing up  in Geelong in Melbourne, his teenage years where with two friends he garnered himself a reputation as a ladies man with the young ladies of the town and the numerous jobs he had before deciding on a showbusiness career, working for a tile company where he was bullied mercilessly by some of the hands there.

It was only when his future wife Dene came on the scene and he joined a local amatuer dramatics company that she was in (to try and win her heart) that Barry realised his future lay in entertainment.

Probably most well known for his role as Barry MacKenzie in the two hit seventies films and latterly for writing the theme tune to Neighbours, Barry has certainly had an action packed career and has worked with all the greats not just at home with the likes of Bert and Graham but also overseas with the likes of Sinatra and for a period in the late sixties was one of the burgeoning Australia TV scenes guiding lights.

Crocker is currently touring with a one man production of the life of Banjo Patterson.

All in all a welcome addition to the neglected area of the Australian entertainment biography.