Terry Scanlon

Scanlon toured North Africa, Cyprus, Malta and Germany entertaining US troupes stationed there. He also performed in Bimbos, a famous nightclub in San Francisco and then left the US for more work in the UK. He also entertained the troupes in Vietnam. During that engagement, he performed with other artists including Lucky Starr. Scanlon was awarded a certificate of appreciation from General William Westmoreland, the General of the United States army in 1967. He was a keen golfer and played on the famous St Andrews golf course in the UK. And when in the United States played and met one of the all time golf greats, Ben Hogan, on his own course in Fort Worth, Texas.

Scanlon had his own television show in the late 1960s, The Terry Scanlon Show, running on channel 9 in Melbourne. He also made guest appearances on the Stuart Wagstaff show there. He also had his own show in Sydney on Channel 7 and a guest appearance on The Bobby Limb Show on Channel 9. However, Scanlon preferred the warmth of live audiences. With the closure of the Tivoli and other live variety theatres due to the advent of television, RSL and other clubs were a source of work in the precarious world of show business. During the 1960s, Scanlon became very ill. He had glaucoma, heart problems and was diagnosed as manic-depressive.

Scanlon also worked in night clubs including Sydney's "Sammy Lees" and "Jo Taylors." He performed pantomime. He was famous as "Buttons" in Cinderella. He did Vaudeville, variety and revue. He even played the pivotal part of Lord Fancourt Babberley in Charley's Aunt, staged by the Tivoli in Adelaide. During the 1950s, Terry toured England with the Empire Theatre circuit, working in Scotland and Ireland. He played the then famous Collins Music Hall in Islington, London, where he topped the bill and was the only Australian to do so. He also did six seasons at the racy Windmill Theatre.

Scanlon left school at the age of 13 and his elderly adoptive parents had died in 1928 while he was in his early teens. He had no family but his burning ambition to become a comedian and perform in the east of Australia sustained him. He was still touring mainly around Perth and Fremantle at this time with William (Billy) R. Heaton. He began touring with Mrs Teague's Concert Party, performing in jails, hospitals, asylums and at Cottesloe beach, performing in the show "Sleepy Time Down South" while doubling as a waiter in a guest house. Still in his late teens he continued learning his craft with great enthusiasm; touring with vaudeville shows, visually impaired shows, community concerts etc.

Scanlon was born at the Salvation Army home, Mount Lawley, Western Australia. In 1918 he was formally and legally adopted by the midwife who had delivered him and taken care of him since he was 3 days old, Harriet, and her husband Maurice Scanlon. They lived in Charles St, West Perth. He started performing professionally at the age of 9, touring with YAL (Young Australia League), which also produced the talented Colin Croft and internationally known Rolf Harris. Jack Cox, an English producer/director, taught Terry the basis of comic routines. Terry refined his craft through years of touring through West Australia, South Australia and Victoria during the 1930s.

Terry Scanlon (5 July 1913 – 21 August 1996) was an Australian comedian and pantomime artist. He was one of Australia's top comedians; he worked with some of the early greats of Australian comedy, including Roy Rene and George Wallace. In the 1930s, however, he was one of the vanguard to modernise comedy out of baggy suits, funny face make up and slapstick into the more modern stand up style comedian - in a tailored suit, the only prop a cigarette in hand, delivering gags. His role in the evolution of Australian comedy was acknowledged in a tribute by Joe Martin when he was honoured as a life member of the "ECHINDAS" by his peers years later.