Cookery Nook [advertisement]

A surreal slice of life from the 1930s, this advertisement was possibly the second sound cartoon ever made in Australia (an advertisement for Shell Oil, Percy Perplexed, being the first). Both films were made by the same production house, Melbourne’s Australian Sound Films, and animator, Dick Ovenden. His work as an illustrator was well known to Australians through his work in newspapers and magazines. Both Percy Perplexed and Cookery Nook were produced at a time when sound films were changing the face of cinema. ‘Cookery Nook’ may have been screened in the Dried Fruits van that toured the country promoting dried fruits to community and mothers’ groups. In a newspaper article from the same year, JM Balfour, Chair of the publicity committee, emphasised ‘the desirability, both in the interests of health and for the sake of hundreds of growers, that more raisins and sultanas should be used in Australia” (see also: The Sydney Morning Herald, 8 July 1931). [Source: Beth Taylor and Sally Jackson.]