More Info →Madge Allsop granted the (21st) key to Palmerston North

Description

Mayor Paul Rieger awards Madge Allsop the 'key to the city of Palmerston North'.

Madge Allsop - the fictional character created as the 'straight-woman' to Barry Humphries' outrageous female impersonation act Dame Edna Everage - was embodied by English Actress Patricia 'Emily' Perry.

In 1994 while on tour with Humphries, Perry accepted an offer to return to her fictional hometown. A staple of the television celebrity talk show in the 1980s and 1990s, Viewers of the Dame Edna Everage show (and its variants) all knew about her 'sad, po-faced bridesmaid, 'Madge from Palmerston North'.

Emily remained in character for her seven-hour visit, where a 'Madge' company bus acted as her chauffer between the children’s ward at the hospital and a public reception outside Downtown in Broadway. The Rescue Helicopter then took her out to Linton Military Camp where she christened and Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) bound for Bosnia with the name ‘Madge’. Finally, a visit to the residence of Brightwater Home was capped off with Emily pressing her hands into a square of concrete which was to go on display in Broadway.

Emily Perry retired as 'Madge' in 2003, and died in England in 2008 aged 100.

Identification

Object type

Image

Archive

Manawatu Evening Standard Negative Collection

Date

June 20, 1994

Digitisation ID

2024N_2017-20_042897_012

Format

Colour negative