JF:\u00a0 Morrie, thankyou very much for coming back.\u00a0 We\u2019ve certainly taken a long journey with you.<\/p>\n
MP:\u00a0 (Laughs)\u00a0 \u2026 a long life!<\/p>\n
JF:\u00a0 Well that\u2019s true, and an eventful one too.\u00a0 I wanted to go back.\u00a0 A couple of weeks ago we were talking about the Ronald Ryan hanging.\u00a0 Can you paint a picture for me as to what the atmosphere was like on that day?<\/p>\n
MP:\u00a0 Well at the hanging itself there were some people outside protesting.\u00a0 Having covered many protest demonstrations in Melbourne, I recognised quite a few of the rent a crowd there!\u00a0 Lefties that used to go around shouting \u2018we want it now\u2019 and jumping up and down.\u00a0 Generally it was a small minority that you wouldn\u2019t bother worrying about.\u00a0 There wouldn\u2019t have been more than a hundred people outside Pentridge.\u00a0 A fraction of what was supposed to be there.<\/p>\n
JF:\u00a0 How was the media side of it handled?<\/p>\n
MP:\u00a0 There were selected people allowed inside to witness the actual hanging.\u00a0 Barry McQueen from channel 10 \u2013 I can\u2019t remember who else was let inside.\u00a0 They sat in while he was actually hung, then they came out and retold the story in front of the camera with Pentridge in the background for news coverage.<\/p>\n
JF:\u00a0 I\u2019ve see Barry McQueen\u2019s footage of that \u2013 was that a very spontaneous thing, was it the kind of thing you could do more than once?<\/p>\n
MP:\u00a0 Yeaaah, you could do more than once but it\u2019s\u2026\u00a0 I suppose\u2026 I don\u2019t think there was more than one take\u2026<\/p>\n
JF:\u00a0 It seemed pretty sincere.<\/p>\n
MP:\u00a0 Yeah, I think he just came out and he was a bit upset, yeah, of course.\u00a0 Because he hasn\u2019t seen dead bodies and so you\u2019re upset.\u00a0 And of course you introduce a little bit of drama into your presentation whether you want it or not.\u00a0 I can\u2019t really comment about it.\u00a0 I thought it was just another news job.<\/p>\n
JF:\u00a0 A milestone really in Victorian history.\u00a0 And yet for you it\u2019s another day at the office.<\/p>\n
MP:\u00a0 It is another day at the office.\u00a0 It\u2019s just another news job, that\u2019s all.<\/p>\n
JF:\u00a0 Were you there when Ryan was arrested?<\/p>\n
MP:\u00a0 No, but I was chasing him all over the place.\u00a0 He escaped!\u00a0 I worked for ATN7 Sydney.\u00a0 They equipped me with a Pro 600 which is a huge bloody camera, plus a silent camera, and I was doing their reporting for Melbourne which was out of Melbourne\u2019s bureau.\u00a0 But at the same time at that stage, channel ATN7 Sydney was trying to soften up ATN7 Melbourne.\u00a0 And my job was to be nice to them.\u00a0\u00a0 Do whatever I can to facilitate that they unite as a network.\u00a0 So whatever I shot I gave some to channel 7.<\/p>\n
When the escape was on and when the shooting took place, I was up at Pentridge (afterwards) and I set up a Pro600, and of course for Sydney I needed a voice report.\u00a0 So I grabbed one of the Age police *reporters, Jack Barnaby(?) and gave him five quid to do a stand up for me.\u00a0 Told him what to say and he did that.\u00a0 Then I shot some extra stuff which I provided for channel 7 Melbourne and that was my job.\u00a0 To soften them up.<\/p>\n
JF:\u00a0 That equipment that you mentioned, you\u2019d actually put something together hadn\u2019t you, to record sound and film?<\/p>\n
MP:\u00a0 No no no, that\u2019s Pro 600.\u00a0 That\u2019s just straight sound and film.\u00a0 What you\u2019re talking about is that I bought a little Phillips cassette tape recorder that just came on the market.\u00a0 And we were covering the arrival of Red Adair in Sale.\u00a0 And I shot that with a Bell and Howell which is a silent camera, and a tape recorder.<\/p>\n
JF:\u00a0 Oh right, we discussed this \u2013 with the door.<\/p>\n
MP:\u00a0 Yeah, with the two doors going in sync.\u00a0 But THAT was Pro 600 \u2013 an obsolete old bloody camera – copy of the big Mitchell film studio cameras.\u00a0 And you needed more than one man to operate because of the optical amplifier.\u00a0 I was doing it by myself anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
JF:\u00a0 Morrie, thankyou very much for coming back.\u00a0 We\u2019ve certainly taken a long journey with you. MP:\u00a0 (Laughs)\u00a0 \u2026 a long life! JF:\u00a0 Well that\u2019s true, and an eventful one too.\u00a0 I wanted to go back.\u00a0 A couple of weeks ago we were talking about the Ronald Ryan hanging.\u00a0 Can you paint a picture for … <\/p>\n