The now demolished Hotel Australia in Collins Street, Melbourne showing the steps where radio personalty, Don Baker led the donkey for a drink of beer in the 1940s.
A 1941 self portrait of Don Baker.
Don Baker*, radio comedian, who led a black donkey down Collins st and up the steps of the Hotel Australia on October 21, was fined £3 by Mr Mohr, SM, in the District Court yesterday.
But he is £2 in pocket over the publicity prank, as he had made a bet that he would “pull the stunt.”
At the top of the hotel steps the donkey had been given a glass of beer.
“I hope it could walk straight on the way back,” said Mr Mohr yesterday.
Baker assured him that it did.
– The Argus (Melbourne, Vic.) Friday 2 December 1949
* Don Baker was a Canadian born entertainer who came to Australia in 1939 and made quite a name for himself on radio in Melbourne during the 1940s.
Bob Dyer, Diana Goller and Don Baker rehearsing in an ABC radio programme in the 1940s.
Categories: Melbourne Hotels, Victoria hotels
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