Australia’s infamous “Grim Reaper” campaign aired on television for the first time on this day in 1987.
The clip depicted everyday Australians as bowling pins while the messenger of death knocked them down with a bowling ball symbolising HIV. At a time when there were no successful treatments for the virus and infection rates were rising, the Australian government pushed for a campaign that would cut through public complacency.
The advertisement was part of a larger campaign that included print materials explaining the realities of HIV and preventative measures in greater detail. The ad was commissioned by Bill Bowtell, a senior adviser to health minister Neal Blewett. It was created by advertising executive Siimon Reynolds and featured voice‑over artist John Stanton.
The campaign had an unintended consequence when the Grim Reaper character became associated with gay men living with HIV, provoking negative reactions toward LGBT+ communities. It has also been suggested that it left a generation of Australian youth terrified of sex.
Australia’s response to the HIV pandemic has been internationally praised, and the country has been regarded as a world leader in preventative campaigns. While the Grim Reaper advertisement was originally intended to air for six weeks, it was pulled after just three. Its impact — both positive and negative — has lasted for decades.
In 2012 the Queensland government launched a new HIV education campaign that brought the Grim Reaper imagery back. When the Newman Liberal government came to power the number of new diagnoses of HIV in the state was rising, and they responded by making an ad that threatened the “return” of the Grim Reaper’.
The new ad campaign was criticised for being simplistic and failing to reflect the advances that occurred in HIV treatment at the time.
The ABC TV series In Our Blood dramatises Australia’s response to the early days of the AIDS crisis. Rather than portraying the real people who lead the charge such as Neal Blewett, Bill Bowtell and Ita Butrose – the story uses fictional characters.
The final episode of the series depicts the creation of the Grim Reaper campaign.
Poet Allen Ginsberg died on this day in 1997
Allen Ginsberg was one of the most well‑known poets of the 20th century. He was close friends with authors Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, and together they formed the core of the Beat Generation literary movement.
Ginsberg’s best‑known work is Howl, published in 1956. The poem sees Ginsberg denounce the destructive forces of capitalism and conformity in the United States. He is also overt about his homosexuality and his relationships with several men, including his long‑term partner Peter Orlovsky. The book was challenged by authorities and became the centre of an obscenity trial in 1957. At the time, anal sex was illegal in every state in the USA.
Ginsberg continued writing throughout his life and was a visible supporter of many political protests and causes. He collaborated with a wide range of artists, including Philip Glass and Bob Dylan.
In 1996 he found a new generation of fans with the song Ballad of the Skeletons. The track saw him team up with Glass and ex‑Beatle Paul McCartney. It received significant airplay on Australia’s youth station Triple J and reached number eight on that year’s Hottest 100.
At the end of his life, Ginsberg suffered from congestive heart failure. He died at his home on 5 March 1997. In the days leading up to his death, he reportedly called everyone in his address book one by one to say goodbye. He wrote his final poem a few days before he passed; it was titled Things I’ll Not Do (Nostalgias).
At the time of Ginsberg’s death, he had been with his partner Peter Orlovsky for 43 years. Orlovsky passed away in 2010.
Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe portrayed Ginsberg in the 2013 film Kill Your Darlings.
In 1964 George Cukor won an Oscar for My Fair Lady
At the Academy Awards in 1964, George Cukor took home the Best Director statuette for his film adaptation of the musical My Fair Lady.
The awards night was also a triumph for Julie Andrews. Andrews had found fame in the Broadway production of My Fair Lady, starring opposite Rex Harrison, and the pair also delivered a long run of the show in London’s West End. When it came time for the film version, however, producers decided to cast Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle. Andrews had the last laugh — she won the Best Actress award for her debut film role, Mary Poppins.
Winning the Best Director award was a case of “fifth time’s a charm” for Cukor. He had previously been nominated in 1932 for Little Women; in 1940 for The Philadelphia Story, which lost to Rebecca; in 1947 for A Double Life; and again in 1950 for Born Yesterday.
It was an open secret in Hollywood that Cukor was gay. His Sunday afternoon parties were legendary, and he was regarded as a central figure in Los Angeles’ gay subculture. In the Netflix mini‑series Hollywood, Daniel London played a fictionalised version of Cukor.
Lukas Ridgeston will be 51 today
The name Jan van Huig is not well known, but his screen persona Lukas Ridgeston might be more recognisable. The Slovak adult entertainer was born on this day in 1974.
Ridgeston found fame in 1990’s as the most recognisable face of the Bel Ami adult film studios. He appeared in popular films including Boytropolis, Lucky Lucas, Lukas’s Story and Frisky Summer.
Sir Nigel Hawthorne was born on this day
Actor Nigel Hawthorne is best known for playing Sir Humphrey Appleby in the television series Yes Minister, which ran from 1980 until 1984, and its sequel Yes, Prime Minister, which ran from 1986 until 1988.
Aside from playing the bureaucrat who is the master of manipulation and obfuscation, Hawthorne had a celebrated career in theatre and film.
Hawthorne was born on this day in England in 1929 but grew up in South Africa after his family emigrated when he was a young child.
He returned to the United Kingdom in the 1950s to pursue his dream of becoming an actor. While much of his early career consisted of character roles, it was after he found success on television in his fifties that larger roles opened up for him.
He appeared in Sir Richard Attenborough’s biopic Gandhi, opposite Clint Eastwood in the Cold War thriller Firefox, and later alongside Sylvester Stallone and newcomer Sandra Bullock in the sci‑fi action‑comedy Demolition Man.
His most acclaimed performance came in Alan Bennett’s play The Madness of King George III, for which he received an Olivier Award. He reprised the role in the film adaptation and was nominated for the Best Actor award at the Oscars. He later appeared in the Steven Spielberg film Amistad.
Hawthorne kept his personal life private and was involuntarily outed during the publicity surrounding his Academy Award nomination. He met his partner Trevor Bentham in 1968, and they remained together until Hawthorne’s death in 2001.
He died of a heart attack aged 72, although he had been receiving treatment for pancreatic cancer at the time. Nigel Hawthorne was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1987 and was knighted in the 1999 New Year Honours.
OIP Staff, This post was first published in 2020 and has been updated.
