Andrew's Stories

The very next month, Melbourne hosted the 1956 Summer Olympics—the first in the Southern Hemisphere. What a spectacle that was! You could feel the excitement in the air, and for us at GTV9, the pressure was on. We had a grand total of two television cameras available to cover the opening ceremony. Yes, you heard me right—two! Bulky contraptions, those were, and it took two of us to lift them onto a tripod. Getting them into place was like trying to navigate a whale through a china shop. Compare that to the recent Paris Olympics, where they had over a thousand cameras. A thousand! It’s a wonder they didn’t run out of things to film!

And then there was that infamous water polo match between Hungary and the Soviet Union. You couldn’t make it up if you tried. The Soviet Union had just crushed a Hungarian revolution, and tensions were running higher than a kangaroo on a pogo stick. When Hungary’s Ervin Zádor took a punch to the face from a Soviet player, all hell broke loose. The pool looked like a scene out of a Bond film—blood in the water, fists flying, and the crowd ready to jump in and finish the job. The police had to intervene to keep the spectators from turning the whole affair into a brawl. Eventually, they called the match off and declared Hungary the winner, just because they were ahead at the time. I tell you, that was a bit of sporting drama you wouldn’t forget in a hurry.

Now, looking back, it’s incredible to see how things have changed. The technology we have today would have seemed like science fiction back in ‘56. I sometimes wonder what that younger version of me would think of today’s world—of smartphones, the internet, and more TV channels than you can shake a stick at. He’d probably say something like, “Blimey, what do you need all that for?” But that’s progress for you. You start with two cameras, and before you know it, you’ve got a thousand. Ah, how times have changed!