{"id":163,"date":"2017-11-26T18:55:39","date_gmt":"2017-11-26T08:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/?page_id=163"},"modified":"2017-12-19T12:28:11","modified_gmt":"2017-12-19T02:28:11","slug":"163-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/national-film-and-sound-archive\/163-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Latvia to Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is part of an interview Series for the National Film and Sound Archive Aural History Programme by John Fife.<\/strong><\/p>\n

My name is John Fife (JF<\/strong>) and I have with me Morrie Pilens (MP<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Morrie is a television news cameraman, for many years.\u00a0 First as a stringer cameraman and then worked for mainly channel 0\/10.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure his story will enlighten us all today.<\/p>\n

Morrie, there are a few things that I just need to do formally and that is to ask you if you have in fact read the terms and conditions of the interview and that you understand them.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yes I have read the terms and conditions and I agree with them, and I give my full consent to be used for whatever they want.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 That\u2019s great.\u00a0 I know that the people at the National Film and Sound Archive have been really eager that we get this into the can, because they obviously appreciate your time as well, and the role that in fact you played in the creation of television news here in Australia.<\/p>\n

Just for formal identification, I need you to tell me your date of birth as well.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 My name is Morrie Pilens.\u00a0 I\u2019m born 13\/6\/1928 in Riga, Latvia.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Latvia?\u00a0 That\u2019s probably a nice place for us to start the whole interview.\u00a0 \u00a0Tell me a little bit about your background and your upbringing.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Well, I was born in an ordinary family.\u00a0 My father was a seaman and my mother was just home duties, a little bit of part time work.\u00a0 My education is roughly about 6 years in primary school, which was interrupted by whatever happened in Europe at the time.\u00a0 Laughs.<\/p>\n

My association with films began early in my life, because as a kid after school I used to go and distribute flyers and put them in letterboxes on behalf of the local cinema, advertising the next attraction – for which as a 13\/ 14 year old I could watch any movie I want from anywhere at all.\u00a0 If it was an adult movie and you couldn\u2019t sit in the cinema, I was sitting behind the screen.\u00a0 The only obstruction being a great big square loudspeaker in the middle of the screen.\u00a0 Anyway, that\u2019s the start of my association with film!<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 So you had an interest in film really from childhood?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yep.\u00a0 Eventually \u00a0\u2013 the fellows that ran the projectors are a pretty lazy bunch and they used to play cards \u2013 so as a kid I sort of graduated to run the projectors as well.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 What age are you now?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 I am 81 now<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 No I mean at the time\u2026<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 I would have been roughly 14.\u00a0 The interesting thing was that we had films in various languages and when the films were projected, you had to run a little spool of subtitles which were separate and those had to be run by hand to correspond with what they were talking on the film.\u00a0 So basically that helped me pick up a little bit of German and a little bit of Russian \u2013 by running the subtitles.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 How did you know where to put a particular subtitle at a particular point in the film?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Well, firstly the first projection was done by the chief projectionist.\u00a0 And we would all sit and watch.\u00a0 And you just had to remember when it happened \u2013 but after a while you sort of understood what was going on, really.\u00a0 You can almost lip read and that sort of thing.\u00a0 So that graduated me from there, from running film reels up and down, picking them up and delivering to cinema and what have you.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Had you left school at this stage?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 No \u2013 at this time I was still at school.\u00a0 When I left school I got myself a job through this connection, I got myself a job with a Latvian film company called Riga Film, as a cadet.\u00a0 And I was supposed to be still going to school but school sort of disappeared by then.\u00a0 And I worked for the film company cleaning rusty tins and stacking stuff.\u00a0 Laughs.<\/p>\n

The most memorable job was working in film processing.\u00a0 Film was processed in a dark room and as it was coming out through a slot in the wall to be put on a great big wooden drum, we had to clean it which was half methylated spirits and half water, and a piece of chamois that you put in your hand and the film came through.<\/p>\n

So after about 20 minutes doing this you were as drunk as a skunk because the fumes of the methylated spirits really impressed you!\u00a0 Eventually I assisted a film cameraman \u2013 one particular one which I would have to mention because he was part of the film industry.\u00a0\u00a0 I can\u2019t remember his Christian name but his name was Stanke.<\/p>\n

In good mood he was telling us stories how he worked for the Russian film industry that was developing in Russia, and he was one of the cameramen that had a camera filming Battleship Potemkin, in (Sergei Richard) Eisenstein\u2019s classic.\u00a0\u00a0 This is even admired today for its innovations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 So what were Riga films making?\u00a0 What kind of films?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Riga films actually made two films in Latvian language which was absolutely a stunning success because one was \u2018Son of the fisherman\u2019 (titled \u2018The Fisherman\u2019s Son\u2019 in interview notes) \u2013 nothing to do with religion, this was a fishing village story.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And the other one was \u2018Kauguriesi\u2019 which showed life in the village when Latvia was still under Russian influence and Russian was coming in, picking up young men for their army.\u00a0 It was a beautifully done *film, especially the celebrations in Yaanni ?\u00a0 journeys day?\u00a0 The change of the season allows the peasants to celebrate and this particular celebration \u2013 it may be an old pagan festival, I don\u2019t know \u2013 *and they\u2019re drinking and singing.\u00a0 It\u2019s a traditional festivity.\u00a0 It\u2019s like zonner main?\u00a0 Like\u2026 dancing the maypole or what have you.\u00a0 That sort of celebration.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 So Riga are making movies.\u00a0 Are they making documentaries as well?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yes, they were making documentaries.\u00a0 We made documentary on \u2013 I particularly was IN, working in one documentary which was the Latvian ballet.\u00a0 Laughs.\u00a0 From all the things they were filming \u2018Don Quixote\u2019 \u2013 which Helpmann did in Australia years and years and years later.\u00a0 And I participated as an assistant cameraman in that particular one.<\/p>\n

As an assistant I used to work in a studio. The sound system was such that there was a great big roll of film put on a turntable, which was enclosed in a glass box and that was the recording sound on film.\u00a0 And you were sitting there and watching, making sure – you don\u2019t really have to do anything, it was working like tape recorder, because they didn\u2019t have a tape recorder, this particular film was exposed on the film track.\u00a0 Made the dialogue on the film or a conversation in the film which was outside the box.\u00a0 So the assistant\u2019s job was to sweat and lose weight in this contraption!<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 So you\u2019re starting to handle all kinds of flim equipment at that time?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Oh Christ yeah.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Have they let you loose with a camera at that point?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 I did have a chance of shooting I think about 20 seconds of \u2018salut\u2019 fired for an officer that had been killed in fighting in the Eastern Front.\u00a0 But otherwise we had to clean cameras, take them apart, clean and put them together again.\u00a0 I got into trouble.\u00a0 I cleaned a reflection and left too much oil on it.\u00a0 OOOH!! That wasn\u2019t very funny.\u00a0 But that\u2019s alright, things like that happen.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 But that\u2019s why you started at the bottom and that\u2019s the grounding for the industry.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Well, that was the grounding for the industry THEN.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what it is now but that\u2019s what you were doing.\u00a0 You didn\u2019t have cars so you carted all the equipment in a two wheel cart, to the location where you were going to work.\u00a0 You did everything.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Is this a small town or a large town?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 This is Riga, capital city of Latvia.\u00a0 Latvia has population of 2 million people.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how many people would be living in Riga.\u00a0 Anyway.\u00a0 After the Soviet Union was driven out of Latvia by the Germans, Riga Film continued as a unit and by 1943 it was taken over by Dr (Joseph) Geobbels\u2019 Propaganda Unit and we were all put in uniforms.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 So now let me work this out<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yeah, I\u2019d be about 15.\u00a0 Yeah, so I was in SS uniform by the time I was 15.\u00a0 And a month after I got put in uniform we went out \u2013 the front was coming closer and closer and closer \u2013 I went out with my cameraman to a specific area just outside Latvia to do some filming where the Latvian units were, but we got separated and I got sort of left in one place and he disappeared somewhere else.<\/p>\n

I had with me a tripod, a 12 volt car battery and 2 magazines which I had to look after.\u00a0 Laughs.\u00a0 You know, you\u2019ve got to be a pretty strong little kid to cart all this around.\u00a0 Anyway, we got trapped in an encirclement, separated, I was somewhere and he was somewhere else, and I was able to guide the German unit that I was left with, out of that particular encirclement.\u00a0 So I got out and got back to Riga.<\/p>\n

I decided to take a couple of days off \u2013 and meanwhile everybody was looking for me.\u00a0 They thought I was lost.\u00a0 Laughs.\u00a0 Anyway, I turned up a couple of days later and everything was alright.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Then you came out of filming<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 \u00a0Oh, yeah.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 What else were you doing then, for the Propaganda Unit?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 For the propaganda unit we did all sorts of things.\u00a0 I remember there was this little Jewish fellow who was in SS uniform, supposedly being looked after as a mascot for one Latvian army unit.\u00a0 I think I have filmed that, I just can\u2019t remember quite clearly.\u00a0 But this sort of thing.\u00a0 Also, opening factories and what have you.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 And you got to see a bit of war action as well?<\/p>\n

*MP:\u00a0 Yes yes yes.\u00a0 I did go and get onto the war front.\u00a0 I think we went into Koolzeb?\u00a0 The Russians took over, and then they got kicked out and when we got in back there we filmed it, and we filmed a situation where they had really gone through like diahorrea.<\/p>\n

They raped people, – nuns, they even got stuck into a TB hospital \u2013 the nurses and women that were violated in there.\u00a0\u00a0 It was quite an impression to me, as to what\u2019s happening.\u00a0 As a young kid I was still about 15 or 16.\u00a0 From then, I can\u2019t remember the sequences somehow.<\/p>\n

Oh, that\u2019s right.\u00a0 Yes yes.\u00a0 The Latvian 15th<\/sup> division to which the film unit belonged, which was 6th Latvian War Correspondent Division \u2013 was sent to Pomerania.\u00a0 The 15th<\/sup> Division had a recuperation because they\u2019d been on the front line for quite a long time, so this was reorganising and what have you.<\/p>\n

*We finished up in a place called Sofianwold in Poland.\u00a0 We filmed some training \u2013 we filmed some exercises of how to destroy tanks and what have you.\u00a0 Bloody camera we had was a great big Debrie.\u00a0 A French camera which is a quite a heavy thing, so guess who\u2019s carrying it around?\u00a0 (Me) Laughs.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Are we talking 35 mm?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yes that\u2019s right, there was no 16 then.\u00a0 The Yanks were the ones that brought in 16mm with their 16 mil combat cameras for the army.\u00a0 Up til then in Germany everything was in 35 mil.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Was it hard work?<\/p>\n

*MP:\u00a0 Yeah it was hard work.\u00a0 Hard yakka.\u00a0 Carting around \u2013 if he had an Arriflex that was no problem, that was terrific, marvellous.\u00a0 But they had a lot of other cameras that they confiscated, you know, French and Italian cameras and what have you.\u00a0 But I hadn\u2019t had much to do with them.\u00a0 I\u2019d worked with this particular Debrie. \u00a0And it was bloody hard work anyway.\u00a0 Laughs.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Morrie you were telling me about all of this heavy equipment and so on.\u00a0 What\u2019s the next move for you?\u00a0 You\u2019re still with the Propaganda Unit?<\/p>\n

*MP:\u00a0 Yes, we\u2019re still there, we\u2019re in Sofianwold? , we are in Poland and filming exercises, help to destroy tanks and that sort of thing.\u00a0 And then all of a sudden the unit\u2019s going to be disbanded.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 The Propaganda Unit?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Chop chop!\u00a0 Things are tough, people are getting sent to combat units and god knows where.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 How many people were in the unit altogether?<\/p>\n

Well, in that particular unit we were about 12.\u00a0 But in the meantime Riga film has been evacuated lock stock and barrel, to Germany in Tieringen.\u00a0 To establish operation in a village called Talberger. \u00a0A niel *colsstas? factory in yenna?\u00a0 To make more propaganda films \u2013 but I don\u2019t think they put everything together in time.\u00a0 Laughs.\u00a0 Befofre the war finished anyway.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 So Riga films have moved, and your Propaganda Unit is being disbanded.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yes.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 What happens to Morrie Pilens?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Morrie Pilens got sent to Tieringen to join up with Riga film.\u00a0 BUT over Berlin – I got sent to Berlin, they were losing cameramen, pretty hectic \u2013 the lifespan of the cameramen was about 18 months, so Morrie Pilens got sent to Berlin to SS Standarte Kurt Eggars –\u00a0 the headquarters of Dr Geobbels\u2019 Propaganda Unit.\u00a0 And I got sent there to be trained in taking over a camera.\u00a0 By this time I was about 16, 17 – but you teamed up with somebody.<\/p>\n

And this training college \u2013 there were people from all over the world.\u00a0 In my particular squad was somebody from Finland, somebody from Norway, and I think a Frenchman and two Deutchmen\u2026<\/p>\n

A helicopter flies overhead<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 We might just hang on there morrie, Mr Geobbels has come looking for you.\u00a0 That\u2019s a helicopter!<\/p>\n

Both laugh.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yeah oh yeah.\u00a0 Been there done that!<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 And we were just sort of being physically trained as well.\u00a0 Everybody was equipped with guns and ammunitions, and we were psychologically trained \u2013 nobody took any notice of that bloody thing because they were already grown up journalists or photographers or radio guys.\u00a0 We just had to go along with it.<\/p>\n

One of our jobs was, when Berlin got bombed, we got sent in to Berlin to assist.\u00a0 There were people you know, evacuated and dug out which we had to help.\u00a0 When the fire bombing started there were 4 tins of phosphorous got chucked down and whatever stuck to somebody would just burn right through and the army\u2019s job was that if people are injured in such away that you could see they were being burned alive, the army\u2019s job was to shoot them to put them out of misery.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t done that, I didn\u2019t do it but it happened \u2013 I saw it happen.\u00a0 Where a man runs around like a flaming torch covered in phosphorous and just being picked up like a running around rabbit, you know.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 You\u2019re helping with this and also still doing a bit of filming?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 No, not at this time \u2013 well, it\u2019s training filming.\u00a0 We just go out and pretend we do this and pretend we do that.\u00a0 What was interesting was that we were shown American war correspondent films.\u00a0 We saw the sinking of the aircraft carrier by Japanese kamikazes, and we sort of all said well how the bloody hell can we cover all that?\u00a0 You can\u2019t cover all this.\u00a0 Your gear is just too inhibitive.\u00a0 And then it came out, the Yanks were using 16 mm cameras and colour.<\/p>\n

We said \u201cOh, well, give us a go mate!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But we didn\u2019t do any actual filming, we were just sort of working on it.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 When you said before that you were in Geobbels\u2019 unit, did you actually get to see him?<\/p>\n

*MP:\u00a0 Nah!\u00a0 NO!\u00a0 Don\u2019t be silly.\u00a0 No.\u00a0 You\u2019re just a number.\u00a0 But the SS Standarte Kurt Eggers – Press or Propaganda or what have you, that was it.\u00a0 You had radio guys down there, you had journalists, you had camera men, you had writers there .\u00a0 Everybody was under this particular standard, you know.\u00a0 But if you were Latvian you were in the Latvian section, if you were Dutch, you were in Dutch.\u00a0 If you were French, you were in French.<\/p>\n

You were still under SS Standarte Kurt Eggers but you do whatever nationality your unit belonged to.\u00a0 So it was pretty privileged I tell you.\u00a0 You could go anywhere you wanted once you had a licence.\u00a0 Being war correspondent, nobody stopped you filming anything.\u00a0 There was no censorship.\u00a0 You just film and shoot anything and talk to anybody \u2013 BUT you seal your can, and the can goes to Berlin.\u00a0 (Prengant pause)<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 AAAh !\u00a0 Both laugh.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 But you can do whatever you want \u2013 photograph whatever you want.\u00a0 Seal your can, sign and stamp it.\u00a0 Off to Berlin.\u00a0 That\u2019s the last you see of it.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Okay.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 It\u2019s good, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Both laugh again<\/p>\n

*It\u2019s better than embedded in lynch? Isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 At least it all got filmed, but where it all ended up\u2026.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Well, it\u2019s still all there and they\u2019re using a lot of material from\u2026\u00a0 Look, where do you think they got all those (images) of war in Pacific, and war in thingy a me bob or war somewhere else?\u00a0 That was all in the can \u2013 all stored on film that hasn\u2019t disappeared.<\/p>\n

If it was on tape you wouldn\u2019t have it now, but on film for another 100 years it lasts.\u00a0 If you want it go look for it.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 So you\u2019re still in Berlin\u2026<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yes I\u2019m still in Berlin.\u00a0 And things get crook.\u00a0 Get a bit tighter and everybody getting nervous.\u00a0 And luckily, I don\u2019t know how it happened, I don\u2019t know who did it, but I got orders to go to Tieringen to join Latvian\u2019s Riga film.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Oh.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 And this is 2 or 3 months before Berlin fell.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m given a couple of parcels to deliver in Tieringen, and put on the train.<\/p>\n

\u201cBye bye Morrie, you can joint your Latvians!\u201d<\/p>\n

So I arrived there and of course the Latvian film company hadn\u2019t established itself yet, everything\u2019s still in the packs and what have you, and anyway, Riga Film remembered me and said \u2018Oh, we want him \u2013 he\u2019s ours\u201d<\/p>\n

We went in there and the war sort of hurried on, AND the Red Army arrived.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 You actually see them arriving?<\/p>\n

*MP:\u00a0 Oh yeah, they stopped there for a while.\u00a0 Turned the turret one way and went BOOM! And hit a *hill.\u00a0 Turned the turret the other way and went BOOM!\u00a0 Hit the hill.\u00a0 Nobody answered them.\u00a0 They turned around, drove away.\u00a0 A couple of tanks.\u00a0 An hour later a tank and a lorry full of soldiers arrived\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026 \u00a0But before that, about 3 days before that, we did some plundering!\u00a0 We got onto a storage \u2013 a *luftwafer? storage place that had champagne from France, and cognac, and sugar and uniforms, and boots and you know\u2026 so we did some good plundering!<\/p>\n

And we hid some of it in the potato cellar and some of it at home.\u00a0 I had a case of brandy at home and a couple of bottles of champagne.\u00a0 The brandy was Hennessy but I don\u2019t remember what the champagne was.<\/p>\n

Anyway.\u00a0 So the army arrive.\u00a0 They\u2019ve discovered that there\u2019s no resistance from this particular little village so they come in, turn up.\u00a0 All males in Latvian film company are rounded up.\u00a0 Put in the truck and taken to the Red Army headquarters for demilitrification.<\/p>\n

So we arrive there at the hotel they confiscated .. so they\u2019re feeding us and what have you, and they call us all in.\u00a0 \u201cLook, we know who you are, we know what you\u2019re doing, we\u2019re going to take you back, just carry on\u201d<\/p>\n

This was the sum of it!<\/p>\n

This was the sum of the demilitrification!\u00a0 Red Army people.\u00a0 They knew who we were. \u00a0They knew that we weren\u2019t bloody Nazis.\u00a0 Anyway.\u00a0 We all go back to Talberger.\u00a0 So we decided to shout them a party.<\/p>\n

So we turn on a party.\u00a0 We turn on the drinks, THEY turn on the food.\u00a0 In comes the 6 parcels with food and commonwealth wine and the Yanks bring some German girls from up there, and we had this big room which was supposed to be a studio \u2013 and the party goes on for about a week.\u00a0 Grog\u2019s flowing and food\u2019s flowing and everybody\u2019s happy.\u00a0 The Yanks are coming and going and you know, it\u2019s just a big party.<\/p>\n

*Anyway, I think one night they ran out of grog.\u00a0 So one of Fallgusy\u2019s? amazing bastard, got onto a Yank sergeant who said \u2018Come on, we\u2019ll go in a jeep and pick up some grog.\u201d\u00a0 They\u2019d seen to the potato cellar!\u00a0 So that party continues, that\u2019s okay, everybody\u2019s drunk.\u00a0 The next day we\u2019ve gotta go and clean up, so we better bring the grog in.\u00a0 We go up to the potato cellar.\u00a0 All gone!\u00a0 Cleaned out!\u00a0 Just the straw covers from champagne bottles left!\u00a0 That was the end of the party.<\/p>\n

JF: \u00a0\u00a0And really, coming up to the end of your war?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 My war\u2019s finished!\u00a0 That\u2019s no problem.\u00a0 Except all of a sudden the Yanks turned up and said \u201cLook, you\u2019ve got 24 hours to pack everything.\u00a0 We\u2019ll bring you the trucks.\u00a0 Because the Russians are taking over this area.\u201d<\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t know the partition was going to be and what have you.\u00a0 So Tieringen was going to be under the Russians.\u00a0 We pack everything we had on the back of the trucks and just off we go to Vienna.<\/p>\n

As we\u2019re going to Vienna one way, the Russians coming in from the other side and we crossing\u2026 they in their horse and cart drawn vehicles.\u00a0 So the Yanks loaded us on the train and took us off.\u00a0 We finished up in the so called British zone which was Blomberg, which was turned into a displaced persons camp.\u00a0 Which Riga Film established itself, reinvented itself.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s another story.\u00a0 If you want to carry on with it?\u00a0 When we finish up with Blomberg.<\/p>\n

And Blomberg finished up as the artists\u2019 colony of that particular British realm \u2026 we had singers, dancers, film directors, dancers, painters, sculptors, musicians, soloists.\u00a0 It turned into a complete artists\u2019 colony.\u00a0 Now Riga Film was doing bit of\u2026 we did one film for the British Control Commission, but mainly we did concerts for them.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Morrie doing concerts?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yes, Morrie\u2019s doing concerts!\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s alright, don\u2019t worry about Morrie doing concerts!<\/p>\n

We had a very famous Latvian string quartet which the British really enjoyed\u2026 we had a company that was putting on opera, I was in it as an extra, singing, playing with the girls!\u00a0 This sort of thing was sort of happening there.\u00a0 We had a drama studio which I attended, run by \u2013 I\u2019m name dropping now \u2013 by one of *Stanislavski\u2019s original students, yannis coutter(?)<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Wow.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 So there\u2019s another little bit of name dropping.\u00a0 Association with early theatre.\u00a0 Yeah, I\u2019ve been in a couple of plays \u2013<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 So you\u2019ve<\/p>\n

MP: \u00a0Hang on one minute, I\u2019ll tell you just a bit more.<\/p>\n

*So we\u2019re having fun and games, it comes up johnny\u2019s day ? \u00a0You know, johnny\u2019s day mentioned about *the film \u2018Calgary\u2019?\u00a0 So we get drunk and carry on.\u00a0 One of the young fellows borrowed his father\u2019s car \u2013 *at those times a car was something that was out of the ordinary.\u00a0 His father was laprim x? who was the Latvian film director.\u00a0 So we having a party, we run out of grog, so we go to buy some home made grog.\u00a0 *I wasn\u2019t driving, he was driving, and ah, we got t boned by a taxi!\u00a0 So, we \u2013 Loch? was driving \u2013 took off.<\/p>\n

Didn\u2019t see him for a week!<\/p>\n

*Morrie said \u201cI can fix that\u201d.\u00a0 So I go home and eat half a tube of toothpaste, and then go and tell Loch\u2019s father.\u00a0 (Laughs).\u00a0 I stink like a bloody toothpaste factory; he\u2019s screaming his bloody head off! \u00a0\u00a0And I said \u201cDon\u2019t worry, I\u2019ll fix it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, I did!\u00a0 There was this old guy who was in his 80\u2019s \u2013 so am I now, 80\u2019s \u2013 that\u2019s been working as a body builder all his life.\u00a0 I don\u2019t mean muscle body builder, I mean steel body builder.<\/p>\n

So I got him some coffee, I got him some grog, some sugar, little bits and pieces\u2026<\/p>\n

He said \u2018Yeah, but I need help.\u00a0 I can\u2019t do all by myself.\u2019<\/p>\n

*So between him and me it took us over a month to straighten this bloody thing.\u00a0 The car *was an Ardler.\u00a0 Which is similar looking to the Citroen lite 15 \u2013 same bit of mudguard and what have you.<\/p>\n

Couldn\u2019t get any paint so we got some army paint and he mixed some stuff in it.\u00a0\u00a0 We painted with a vacuum cleaner.\u00a0 Wasn\u2019t any wet and dry paper so he ground some glass and something, and with that we put a coat on and wait a couple of days, put a coat on and wait a couple of days \u2013 and it looked like a bloody new car!\u00a0 Laughs<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s my starting in panel beating.\u00a0 Ah HA!!!\u00a0 Laughs<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 And this in later life is going to be very important.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yes, it comes in very handy actually!<\/p>\n

JF: \u00a0\u00a0Later in your career \u2013 and we\u2019ll talk about this \u2013 it leads to a chance meeting in Australia of course, your ability to panel beat, so I understand now the significance of that story.\u00a0 So what happened?\u00a0 You\u2019ve sorted out the car\u2026.<\/p>\n

MP: \u00a0\u00a0We\u2019ve sorted out the car and then I\u2019ve been doing bit of theatre, bit of singing.\u00a0 I learn how to sing there because I had a lovely little tenor voice \u2013 a beautiful tenor voice except I was smoking and drinking and womanising.\u00a0 The teacher one day said<\/p>\n

\u2018Morrie, do you really want to sing?\u2019<\/p>\n

I said \u2018Yes of course I want to sing – oh yeah – but can I be as big as Caruso?\u2019<\/p>\n

She said \u2018Well, if you really try you may be as big as the Caruso, maybe even bigger.\u00a0 But you have to give up smoking.\u00a0 You have to give up drinking.\u00a0 You can\u2019t go out all night running around with girls and what have you.\u2019<\/p>\n

And I said to her, \u2018You know what, I think I\u2019d better live.\u2019\u00a0 And that was the finish of my singing career!<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 So are you telling me that your selfishness to want to be with the women and the booze and the smoking, robbed the world of something better than Caruso!<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Oh YES!\u00a0 Laughs.\u00a0 For sure!\u00a0 For sure!<\/p>\n

But anyway.\u00a0 After a while there was an offer from the Poms, from the First Royal Tank Regiment, which was in Dartmoor, which was a little bit further away from there, for a job as batman.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know what a bloody batman is for heaven\u2019s sake!\u00a0 But I thought I\u2019d have a go at it.\u00a0 I\u2019m sick of all this, I want a change you know.\u00a0 So I got a job \u2013 me and three other guys got a job with First Royal Tank Regiment in Dartmoor as batmen.\u00a0 And so we got instructed what a batman is.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 \u00a0I hope you\u2019re going to tell me!<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Yeah.\u00a0 (Pause).\u00a0 A batman is an officer\u2019s \u201cHey, you, kid!\u201d<\/p>\n

You spit and polish his boots, \u00a0you iron his pants, procure his women, do anything that he wants!\u00a0 So I was there for about a year and a half or so.\u00a0 It was alright.\u00a0 A couple of officers had, one of them was *McCcune?\u00a0 \u00a0His father was a politician or something \u2013 he was a First Lieutenant.\u00a0 The other guy was the ballet dancer Fonteyn\u2019s cousin, had lived in Riga, we had a little bit in common.<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t speaking in English, I couldn\u2019t speak English \u2013 somehow we could understand each other and it\u2019s alright, you know.\u00a0 So, one and a half years later, I had some problems because we were a bit involved *with the black market you see.\u00a0 Like flogging a few cigarettes \u2013 it took one big stange?\u00a0 Two of those to have a suit made.\u00a0 So the officers will go back to England to have a holiday, come back with the material, take your officer to the bloody tailor with the cigarettes \u2013 chop a third off which is your commission, and he gets a suit made.\u00a0 So all my officers were very well dressed!\u00a0 Laughs.<\/p>\n

So I had a couple of pieces of length left over so I was well dressed too!\u00a0 But I don\u2019t think the hierachy in the First Royal Tank Regimen were very happy about what was going on.\u00a0 So we were released back to Blomberg.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 \u00a0How does all this eventually get you to Australia?<\/p>\n

MP :\u00a0 \u00a0I\u2019m coming there!\u00a0 Heading back to Blomgerg, to Riga Film, and there\u2019s a lot of immigration going on.\u00a0 Riga Film has got a portable picture theatre, a movie theatre.\u00a0 So I\u2019m running one of those in camps *\u2013 in one camp for a week, and another camp for a week.\u00a0 I finished up in Billifeld?\u00a0 With a picture theatre.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 \u00a0They\u2019ve actually got into 16mm by now you were telling me?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yeah, this is a portable 16mil projection.\u00a0 That\u2019s a different thing.\u00a0 Of course you set up your movie theatre and you need some usherettes!\u00a0 I got a couple pretty girls from the camp, one was taking the money and the other was showing the people around.\u00a0 I\u2019m projecting the film.<\/p>\n

One of the usherettes was Olga – I fell for her.\u00a0 She\u2019d just got rejected from going to Canada because the selectors thought \u2013 she was supposed to go to Canada as a domestic \u2013 the selectors thought she needed a domestic herself because she was a well kept, well groomed, beautiful woman.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 So of course I was sorry for her and what have you.\u00a0 So we decided that we were going to come to Australia.\u00a0 So we come to Australia!<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 You and Olga?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 Bathurst.\u00a0 My first job in Australia was cleaning a pigsty for a pound a week.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0\u00a0 So you\u2019ve left the film unit, you\u2019ve fallen in love\u2026 were you given a choice where to go?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 No no \u2013 we couldn\u2019t go to Canada, we couldn\u2019t go to Venezuela, I don\u2019t think America was possible because I was in the British army \u2013 so there was three places to go to.\u00a0 And you had selectors come down and talk to you and select you and then the political interview and you were sort of selected if you were good enough, white enough, healthy enough.\u00a0 Then it was \u201cOh yeah, we can use you.\u00a0 To the cane fields, chop chop!\u201d<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 You didn\u2019t end up in the cane fields?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 No, I finished up in bloody Tasmania which was even worse!\u00a0 Laughs.\u00a0 I supposedly finished up in Rosebury.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 How old were you when you arrived in Australia?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Almost 20.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 And at this point the skills that you\u2019ve got to your hands are, you\u2019ve got some film background and a bit of a panel beating background as well.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 That\u2019s what you came to Australia with, at 20.<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 Any money in your pocket?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 2 pounds 5 shillings.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 What would that have bought?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Nothing!\u00a0 Laughs. \u00a0No,\u00a0 of course then when I landed in Bathurst we arrived with the ship early in the morning, we were all loaded into a train in the dark, and the train went clickety clickety clickety click, and the light\u2019s just coming up and we think \u201cShit, where the bloody hell is this?\u201d\u00a0 There\u2019s absolutely nothing.\u00a0 Not a tree in sight.\u00a0 Just dead trees.\u00a0 Big pot holes, not a blade of grass and millions of rabbits.\u00a0 In the train for hours.\u00a0 From Sydney to Bathurst.\u00a0 NOTHING but a moonscape.<\/p>\n

And you sit there after coming from Europe which is beautiful, you know, and you think where the bloody hell is this?\u00a0 Where have I come?\u00a0 What am I going to do?\u00a0 It\u2019s absolutely culture shock and when it hits you, you don\u2019t know whether to talk or not to talk, whether to think or not to think.\u00a0 Absolutely frightening.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 You\u2019ve come to this, but do you know that this is where your future is \u2013 that there\u2019s no going back?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 No no you don\u2019t, you just go along and see what happens.\u00a0 Because you always have an out.\u00a0 You always have an out.\u00a0 See what happens and there will be an escape route somewhere.\u00a0 You don\u2019t say this is it and there\u2019s nothing I can do about it.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 That set you up in life as a cameraman as well, didn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yeah, because there\u2019s always a way out.\u00a0 One way or another.\u00a0 You can always do something else.<\/p>\n

So from Bathurst we get to the dining room on the first morning, and I can smell it as soon as I open up *the back door \u2013 it\u2019s tutu\u2019s lamb?\u00a0 Half cooked \u2013 you can smell it for a bloody mile.\u00a0 You know lamb chops are beautiful to eat but this stuff\u2026 there\u2019s piles of half cooked bloody chops on the dining room table and you couldn\u2019t eat it, you got sick.\u00a0 Couldn\u2019t eat it.\u00a0 And you\u2019ve been on the starving diet on the boat for a month, you know, and you couldn\u2019t go to the dining room because you can smell it a mile off.\u00a0 Anyway.<\/p>\n

So I got a job working in the pigsty for one pound a week, it was alright, it was good fun.\u00a0 And then they started to hand out work \u2013 they don\u2019t offer you jobs, they tell you \u2018you go there and you go there.\u2019\u00a0 Some people were sent to Queensland to cut cane and others were sent to work on the railway, as a *matter of fact well known real estate agents called Injun brothers?\u00a0 were sent to middle Australia to work on the railway \u2013 well they\u2019re back in Melbourne and they\u2019re bloody millionaires!\u00a0 Laughs<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 You ended up in Melbourne but not a millionaire!<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0\u00a0 Anyway, they\u2019re going to send me to Rosebury to work on roads.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know what Tasmania was.\u00a0 I inisisted that my wife \u2013 I wasn\u2019t married then – but that she comes with me.\u00a0 This was a bit of a problem but okay, fine.<\/p>\n

So we finished up in Melbourne on the way to Tassie and I\u2019m walking past one of those delicatessens that has that beautiful sausage \u2013 I salivated looking at it \u2013 I had some money that I saved from my pigsty, so I went and bought this sausage and bought a roll, and I went across to the gardens and sat down.\u00a0 I can just taste it in my mouth, how it\u2019s going to go, how I\u2019m going to enjoy it.\u00a0 So I break the bread, and I cut the sausage and I take one bite of the sausage, and I spit it out.\u00a0 It was what\u2019s known as saveloy.\u00a0 Which is a badly cooked, badly smoked meat sausage.\u00a0 It looks like a continental sausage but it\u2019s an imitation that you couldn\u2019t possibly eat cooked or any other way.\u00a0 Saveloys are still available now but I couldn\u2019t eat it so I just fed that to the seagull.<\/p>\n

By the time we ended up in Tassie it was close to Christmas, so everything was closing down.\u00a0 We were settled into a centre where we were going to stay temporarily, and I started to work in the summer.\u00a0 The workers were sort of sniggering at me and I couldn\u2019t figure out what was going on.\u00a0 We were in this long hut \u2013 half the boards in the hut were brand new, and the others were black and \u2026\u2026\u2026.\u00a0 What it appears is that they have had a long open drop toilet that, once the trench was full, is shifted somewhere else.\u00a0 So this time instead of shifting to another trench they put another floor in, take the seat bar off that you were sitting on, \u201cAh, it\u2019s good enough for the wogs\u201d\u2026 laughs.\u00a0 So we were sleeping on the loo.\u00a0 The smell\u2019s still there!<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 And these are the good old days?<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Oh, these are the good old days.\u00a0 This is you and me.\u00a0 You come to us we do anything for you.\u00a0 You come to us, we have the same rights, everything.\u00a0 Anyway.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 How\u2019s your English at that point?<\/p>\n

MP: \u00a0\u00a0Not very good.\u00a0 I\u2019ll come to that.\u00a0 Anyway, they said there\u2019s nothing to do for two weeks.\u00a0 But if you want a job there is one at the green pea factory \u2013 it\u2019s green pea season \u2013 if you want to work.\u00a0 So I said okay, fine no problem.\u00a0 So you start at seven o\u2019clock in the morning, you finish at 8o\u2019clock at night.\u00a0 You work Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays, Christmas day, Boxing Day, New Years day, and guess what?\u00a0 You bloody rich!\u00a0 Because I never had so much money in my bloody life!!<\/p>\n

So next thing I said \u2018Okay, I\u2019m going to Melbourne\u2019.\u00a0 Well they weren\u2019t really happy about that, because you were supposed to have a twelve month contract to go and work where they tell you to, and then they extended that to two years.\u00a0 My twelve months were up and I said \u2018Right, that\u2019s all there is to it, and I\u2019m not going to stay.\u2019<\/p>\n

In the meantime I got onto my Lutheran pastor who was in charge of Victoria and Tasmania, called *Pastor Peck.\u00a0 We got on very well, he was speaking a little bit of German, and somehow we got on really well.\u00a0 He did help me.\u00a0 Anyway I finished up buying tickets.<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 So you\u2019re about to leave Tasmania and to my line of thinking you were walking in saw mill\u2026<\/p>\n

MP: \u00a0Yeah, I was working in the saw mill.\u00a0 Before that I made all this money working in the pea factory, feeding the hopper and steaming things and what have you.\u00a0 So I\u2019ve got dough, boy!\u00a0 I\u2019ve got money.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So I went and bought a ticket just in time\u2026<\/p>\n

Because I was living in a boarding house by this time and I wasn\u2019t supposed to take accommodation away from an Australian.\u00a0 So I was living in the boarding house which was costing 5 pounds a week or something, and my wife was working as a domestic in a boarding house further down the road, so she didn\u2019t have to pay her accommodation.<\/p>\n

I said, \u201cCome on, we\u2019re going!\u201d – and I buy the tickets and come back.<\/p>\n

And one of the fellows in the boarding house comes up to me and says \u201cGee you\u2019re lucky, the minute after you bought those tickets the man in charge of that told us not to sell you any!\u201d<\/p>\n

So he was on the gangway when we were walking up and I just waved to him and said \u201cSee you later mate!\u201d<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 This was the guy from the Migration Department?<\/p>\n

MP: \u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s not quite the migration department \u2013 there was a name for it\u2026<\/p>\n

JF: \u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m getting this right?\u00a0 You\u2019ve escaped Europe\u2026<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yes<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 You\u2019ve escaped Tasmania\u2026<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0 Yes<\/p>\n

JF:\u00a0 By the skin of your teeth\u2026<\/p>\n

MP:\u00a0\u00a0 Yes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is part of an interview Series for the National Film and Sound Archive Aural History Programme by John Fife. My name is John Fife (JF) and I have with me Morrie Pilens (MP). JF:\u00a0 Morrie is a television news cameraman, for many years.\u00a0 First as a stringer cameraman and then worked for mainly channel … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Latvia to Australia”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":167,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-163","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":384,"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/163\/revisions\/384"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pilens.com.au\/modris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}