Table Talk (magazine)

Table Talk: A Journal for Men and Women, was a weekly magazine published from 26 June 1885^[1] until September 1939 in Melbourne, Australia.^[2] It was established in 1885 by Maurice Brodzky (1847–1919), who obtained financial assistance^[3] to start his own publication after resigning from The Herald.^[2]

Table Talk was a social magazine that catered for both male and female readers.^[4] It included articles about politics, finance, literature, arts and social notes.^[4] Its gossip style attracted readers with articles about local notables and famous people from overseas, commenting on, among other things, their fashions, relationships, and social engagements.^[4] It was most popular during the 1880s Land Boom in Melbourne.^[2]

In 1893, trade unionist Frederick Bromley sued Brodzky after Table Talk drew public attention to the link between himself and George Sangster, who had illegally used union funds. The jury found for Bromley, awarding him £500 damages,^[5] and Brodzky left for America. G. V. Allen took over as proprietor and publisher, to the disgust of at least one commentator.^[6]

In 1899, the format of Table Talk changed to include photographs and different font sizes.^[7] It had a folio-size format, and initially was 16 pages, increasing to 20 pages by 1885, and was 24 pages by 1888. It was initially sold for threepence but the price had increased to sixpence by 1903.^[8]

In September 1924, Table Talk was sold for a reported £15,000.^[9] In 1926, it absorbed the illustrated magazine Punch.^[10] The last issue was dated 7 September 1939.^[11]

"Prominent Persons"

"Prominent Persons" was a long-running feature on currently notable people: a biography or character study accompanied by a commissioned portrait, often caricature, by a Melbourne artist, usually Will Dyson or L. F. Reynolds.

see article Caricatures from Table Talk magazine

Personnel

• Eugenia Stone, was a reporter and poet. She married Sir George Doughty on 16 August 1913.
• George Vesey Allen (died 14 November 1913), educated at Prince Alfred College, worked as a journalist with The Daily Telegraph (Melbourne) and The Age before becoming proprietor and publisher in 1905. After quitting journalism, he was the organiser of the Bendigo Exhibition and Launceston Exhibition, before working in the administration section of the Neglected Children's Department of the New South Wales Government. He was author of Sinbad the Sailor, a pantomime.^[12]
• Charles Richard Bradish (21 April 1884^[13] – 28 July 1961), journalist, was born in Ballarat, a son of John Richard Bradish (died 1923) and Susan Doorne Bradish, née Olney (died 1943), who married in 1883, and brother of Percy Albert Bradish. In 1933 he was appointed to the Victorian Railways Publicity department. He married Ida Louise Mitchell on 25 March 1913. They had a home on Bailey Crescent, Rippon Lea, Victoria, later 37 Wellington Street, Kew, Victoria.