As the nation says goodbye to Don Lane, we remember the entertainer we took into our hearts.
Don Lane came to Australia for a six-week stint as a TV host and stayed a lifetime. His contract was immediately extended to 40 weeks, when Nine Network executives recognised his talent as an all-round entertainer who could sing, dance and tell jokes.
Australia fell in love with Don Lane, and he fell in love with us. His popularity was monumental, and for many years he was our highest paid entertainer.
Along with performing, Don was a fervent supporter of the South Sydney Football Club. Once, when asked to address the team before a vital first grade game, Don became so excited he used his arms like windmills to make a point – and his expensive watch came off his wrist and crashed to the dressing room floor.
As Don remembered it years later, “I knew in a flash that I could either stop talking and lose the momentum with the team I had been building up, or I could do something else.
“I stamped on the watch, breaking it with my shoe. It was wrecked, but I kept the team’s attention.”
Don, born Morton Donald Isaacson in New York on November 13, 1933, changed his name to Don Lane when he went into show business.
He was working at the Copacabana in Hawaii when he was recruited by a man who would become his closest friend, producer John Collins. John had been searching for someone to take over the Tonight show in Sydney and asked Las Vegas performer Wayne Newton for advice.
“Only one man for the job,” Wayne said. “A man called Don Lane, who is working in Honolulu.”
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