CHOICE of "Bambi" as winner of "Model of the Year" was made by Sydney commercial artist, from a number of photographs of different models which they themselves collected and assembled for criticism. Grouped round president of Black and White Artists Association, Stan Cross, pointing to photo, are: Syd Miller, Dorothy Wilson, George Aria, Trevor Wilson, Bob Whitmore, Charles Whitman, James Oink, Eric Langker, Emile Mercier and Eric Jollife.

The following article featured in Pix Magazine September 7 1946.

Artists Award "Oscar" To Model Of The Year

SCULPTURED by well known Sydney artist Lyndon Dadswell, a replica "Oscar" will be awarded annually by NSW black and white artists to the girl who, in their opinion, best merits the title of "Model of the Year." Winner of 1946 artist's model stakes is 19-year-old Patricia Tuckwell, violinist in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, whom flautist Neville Amadio has nick-named "Bambi" for her lustrous brown eyes and fawn-like grace. Presentation of the "Oscar," which will be a design based on similar lines to well-known Hollywood Academy Award, will be an annual event, scheduled to take place at yearly Artists' Ball, the first of which will be held at the Trocadero on September 10. Proceeds of Ball will be used by the sponsors to establish a Graphic Arts Centre in Sydney for the education and encouragement of progressive young illustrative artists. Winning models each year will retain her "Oscar," a duplicate being competed for in the following competitions.

CONCENTRATING on model "Bambi," a quintet of distinguished Sydney artists settles down to record individual ideas of the 1946 "Model of the Year." From left they are: Lahm, creator of “Snifter “; WEP, creator of "In and Out of Society"; John Baird, magazine and newspaper illustrator; popular "Sun" artist Jimmy Bancks (standing) father of the lovable "Ginger Meggs" comic strip; Will Mahoney (right foreground), cartoonist, magazine and commercial illustrator.

Aussie (1918- circa 1929) was a commercial magazine of opinion, review and entertainment published in France after World War One and edited by Phillip Harris for a couple years on a small printing press that Harris brought with him to France. Aussie's print run started with 10,000 copies, but soon reached 60,000 and later 100,000.

In the early twenties Phillip Harris produced a monthly in Sydney and renamed it Aussie: the Cheerful Monthly from 1920 which lasted for several years and published major Australian writers and cartoonists of the day. Aussie included material to celebrate soldiering life as well as returned servicemen acclimatising to life back in Australia.

A New Zealand edition of Aussie was published in Wellington featuring Australian material and a New Zealand supplement edited by journalist Pat Lawlor, featuring work by New Zealand writers and cartoonists including Marcus King, Noel Cook and Len Cornwall Mitchell.

Source: Museum Victoria.