Identity
There has been much debate as to the identity of the dancing man. The identity commonly accepted, though, is that he is Frank McAlary, a retired barrister who claims that he was the man photographed pirouetting in Elizabeth Street, Sydney, on 15 August 1945. A Queen's Counsel, Chester Porter, and a former Compensation Court judge, Barry Egan, both claim to have seen Mr. McAlary being filmed dancing.
The television programme Where Are They Now, produced by Australia's Seven Network, attempted to solve the mystery of the dancing man's identity. The network hired a forensic scientist who examined the film reel and picture and came to the conclusion that it was indeed McAlary.
The Royal Australian Mint, however, chose to portray Ern Hill as the dancing man on a 2005 issue $1 coin commemorating 60 years since the World War II armistice. Mr. Hill has made a statement that, "The camera came along and I did a bit of a jump around." The coin, sculpted by Wojciech Pietranik, does not bear any name.
Rebecca Keenan of Film World Pty. Ltd., says the dancer may be one Patrick Blackall. Mr. Blackall has claimed, "I'm the genuine dancing man," and has signed statutory declarations that he is the man in the film.
Read more about this topic: Dancing Man
Famous quotes containing the word identity:
“Let it be an alliance of two large, formidable natures, mutually beheld, mutually feared, before yet they recognize the deep identity which beneath these disparities unites them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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“One of the most highly valued functions of used parents these days is to be the villains of their children’s lives, the people the child blames for any shortcomings or disappointments. But if your identity comes from your parents’ failings, then you remain forever a member of the child generation, stuck and unable to move on to an adulthood in which you identify yourself in terms of what you do, not what has been done to you.”
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