Madge Allsop - Appearances - in Print

In Print

Madge Allsop has been referenced in a number of books written by Barry Humphries since the mid-1970s. Photographs of Madge (as portrayed by Madeleine Orr) appeared in Dame Edna's Coffee Table Book (1976) and The Sound of Edna: Dame Edna's Family Songbook (1979). Because of Orr's death from cancer that same year, Madge was subsequently portrayed in Humphries' next book, Dame Edna's Beside Companion (1982), by an unidentified stand-in, whose entire head was concealed by bandages. For the purposes of the narrative, this was explained away by the claim that "Madge" had recently undergone cosmetic surgery.

The character of Madge Allsop figured prominently in the book My Gorgeous Life (1989), which, although written by Humphries, was purported to be an autobiography of Dame Edna herself. The book provides much background to Madge and Edna's ongoing friendship, and includes a detailed account of the death of Madge's husband, Douglas Allsop, whilst on their honeymoon in Rotorua. In the line drawings that illustrate the book (drawn by John Richardson), the young Madge is depicted as a recognizable caricature of Emily Perry.

Since the 1980s, theatre programmes for Barry Humphries' one-man shows have frequently included photographs of Madge Allsop (as portrayed by Emily Perry) alongside those of Dame Edna and Sir Les Patterson. For example, the glossy souvenir programme for Humphries' Australian tour, Dame Edna: Back to my roots and other suckers included depictions of Madge in her pink frilly “Edna Loves Me” apron, dancing with Dame Edna while wearing a Vivienne Westwood outfit, shopping with Dame Edna in an exclusive boutique, posing mournfully along Errol Flynn's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and being attacked by a giant prop shark in Edna's swimming pool.