Stephen Maclean papers relating to Peter Allen

Stephen Maclean, 1950-2006, was a writer, screenwriter and film and television director. In 1995 he directed ‘The Boy From Oz’, a television documentary on Peter Allen, and a year later he wrote the biography, ‘The Boy From Oz: The Peter Allen Story’. This collection contains his research material on Peter Allen, including papers, ephemera, photographs and videocassettes.Peter Allen, Australian singer, songwriter and entertainer, was born Peter Richard Woolnough in Tenterfield, New South Wales, in 1944. In the late 1950s he teamed with Chris Bell to form ‘The Allen Brothers’. In 1964, while touring in Hong Kong, they were spotted by Judy Garland, who became their manager and flew them to London. Allen married Garland’s daughter, Liza Minnelli in 1967. In 1969, Allen and Minnelli separated, and in 1970 he started his solo career in the United States. During the next decade he had numerous songwriting hits including ‘Tenterfield Saddler’, ‘I Honestly Love You’ and ‘I Go to Rio’. In 1982, with fellow songwriters Christopher Cross, Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager, he won an Academy Award for Best Song for the theme for the movie ‘Arthur’. Allen's musical 'Legs Diamond' opened on Broadway in 1988, but it was not a great success and closed after 64 performances. Allen continued to perform both in Australia and overseas until his death in 1992. He was posthumously inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1993.