| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Australian Dictionary of Biography |
| Editors | Tiping Su |
| Place of Publication | Xian, Shaanxi |
| Publisher | Shaanxi People's Publishing House and the Australian Studies Centre at the Xi'an International Studies University |
| Pages | 1-4pp |
| Volume | 5 |
| Edition | 1 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9787224135534 |
| Publication status | Published - 2015 |
Abstract
Coral Magnolia Lansbury (19291991), radio scriptwriter, academic, and novelist, was born at St Kilda, Melbourne, in 1929, second child of Australian-born Oscar Vincent Stephen Lansbury, and his English-born wife May, née Morle. Corals parents were London stage actors who toured New Zealand and Australia in 1928 and 1929 with a production of The Vagabond King before joining the cast of Show Boat; auspiciously, they gave Coral the second name Magnolia for the precocious heroine of the musical. The family settled in Sydney after the cast disbanded there in December 1929. By 1933 Oscar had taken a job as a radio sound-effects officer with the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC). Coral once told an interviewer that she detested her mother and revered her father, who introduced her to Dickens and Thackeray to keep her quiet backstage.