Sir Frank Packer KBE (1906–1974), media proprietor, started as a cadet journalist on the Daily Guardian, which was part-owned by his father. He subsequently became advertising manager at Smith's Newspapers and in 1933, in partnership with Edward Theodore, published the first edition of the Australian Women's Weekly. After inheriting the bulk of his father's media interests, he formed Consolidated Press, launching the Daily Telegraph in 1936. His company Television Corporation was one of the first to hold a commercial television licence in Australia, with TCN-9 beginning test transmissions in July 1956. Packer was knighted in 1959. By the early 1960s, Women's Weekly had grown to a circulation exceeding 800,000, helping Australian Consolidated Press (as it was known from 1957) become the largest magazine publisher in the southern hemisphere by the time of Packer's death.
A keen art collector, Packer supported artists through the Women's Weekly art prizes. Judy Cassab won the women's section of the Weekly's portrait prize in 1955 and 1956, leading to the creation of this portrait of Packer. It was acquired by ACP some years later. Packer's widow and second wife, Florence, Lady Packer, recalled that it had 'lived mainly in Frank's favourite place: the office'.
Gift of the Packer family 2006
© Judy Cassab/Copyright Agency, 2024
Lady Florence Packer (2 portraits)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Aimee Board traces Judy Cassab’s path to the Australian outback, arriving at the junction of inspiration and abstraction.
The oil portrait of Sir Frank Packer KBE by Judy Cassab was gifted to the National Portrait Gallery in 2006.
