Summary

Album of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical 'South Pacific'. It consists of a vinyl record in its original paper sleeve within the album cover. It was made in Australia by Music for Pleasure Pty Ltd and released in 1965. Lindsay and Sylvia Motherwell both enjoyed a variety of music, from jazz to musicals. They met through the Eoan Group's 1968 production of 'South Pacific', when Lindsay was in the orchestra and Sylvia was in the chorus.

Sylvia Boyes (a South African-born orphan) and Lindsay Motherwell (a Melbourne-born drummer) met in Cape Town, South Africa in 1967 through their theatre connections. They fell in love but due to apartheid laws were forced to leave South Africa to marry in London. They subsequently relocated permanently to Melbourne in 1970.

Physical Description

A 12" record in its original paper sleeve within a cardboard album cover. The front cover is a photo of palm trees on a beach, in front of a sun setting behind an island on the ocean. In the top right hand corner is the a blue box containing information about Music for Pleasure, Paul Hamplyn Pty Ltd and the stereo/mono style record. Beneath this box, across the width of the whole cover, is the title "south pacific" in white text. The back of the album is white, with credits for the people involved, the songs and singers which are featured on each side of the record and a blurb about the musical which takes up the lower half of the cover.

Significance

Statement of Historical Significance:
This collection provides a significant opportunity to represent political and personal freedom as a motivation for migrating to Australia within the international context of both apartheid in South Africa and the end of the White Australia policy in Australia. The personal narrative is well documented and the objects provide a material way to follow the lives of both Lindsay and Sylvia, both separately and where they coincide in South Africa and onwards together to Melbourne. While this is ultimately a love story, it plays out through the collection against the backdrop of apartheid South Africa, sixties London and an increasingly multicultural Australia.

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