A colleague sent me an email that Frank McAlary had died. I believe that my colleague sent that message because McAlary had, in his day, been a well known and highly respected QC.
He also had another claim to fame, that of being the person most likely to be the Dancing Man, the man filmed by Movietone News dancing in Sydney’s George Street on 15 August 1945 to celebrate the end of WW2.
Although there have been other contenders to the title, various persons (including at least one barrister and one judge) have sworn that they were with McAlary at the time of the display of happy footwork. Forensic analysis for the TV show Where Are They Now? further supported McAlary as the likely candidate.
Mr Chester Porter, QC, said: "Blind Freddy could see it's Frank McAlary. We were together in third-year Law School in 1945. VP Day opened as an ordinary working day but was suddenly declared a public holiday. Frank was an exuberant character and was dancing around. He'd had nothing to drink. A cameraman said, 'Sonny, that's pretty good. Would you mind doing it again so we could film it?'. He did."
The clip can be viewed at the website of the National Film & Sound Archive at:
http://aso.gov.au/titles/newsreels/movietone-special-peace/clip2/
