“A lively fifth form student with noteworthy eyes.”
That was how a 15-year-old Olivia Newton-John was described in the student newspaper of University High School, the small public school in Parkville, Melbourne, that helped transform a wannabe star into the icon she eventually became.
Olivia Newton-John in a play at University High School, 1964.
Before high school Newton-John went to primary school with another famous Australian musical icon, Daryl Braithwaite, but it was at University High where her musical and acting talent became obvious. Interviews with the star’s classmates and friends at the high school, which Newton-John attended for four years from 1961 to 1964, paint a clear picture of a girl who was deeply passionate about music and theatre from a very young age, and a school that nurtured her talent at every opportunity.
Newton-John joined the school as a 13-year-old in 1961. The child, anonymous in the school’s dark green tunic with shirt and tie, was set on a career in drama and music, said Glenda Johnston, who began a few years before Newton-John, but noticed her in plays and school life.
“At school it was evident, when she was young, that she was a very talented, pretty young girl,” Johnston said.
“She was talking about how she wanted to be a famous singer,” she reflected. “We were a very academic school and we thought, ‘What’s she on about?’ Did we have to eat our words!”
University High catered to students in the final four years of their education and is remembered by alumni of the same era as a nurturing school that delivered high-quality teaching and fostered the talents and aspirations of students.
“At Uni High there were many literary and artistic rebels,” Johnston recounted. Notable people from Newton-John’s era included Crocodile Dundee director Peter Faiman, performance artist Stelarc, and the playwright David Williamson.
Judee Horin, a singer and University High alumnus, recounted the great lengths to which the school went to cater to student’s interests. Every Thursday students would have a “hobby period” where they could pursue creative interests such as music, theatre, or photography.
“It was one of the top schools [in Melbourne],” she said. “Though it was a government school, it was a little bit elite, and you had to be in the top of your class to get in.”
Olivia Newton-John as a 16-year-old, about to leave for England.Credit:University High School
Stelarc, now an “extreme performance artist”, worked on sets for drama productions at the school, and worked with Newton-John on various plays. He recalls that the productions they participated in were “not so much as a stage production but more like 3D” and interactive.
A performance by Newton-John in The Admirable Crichton, a romantic comedy play put on by the school’s drama club, was reviewed by the school paper Ubique (still active in various forms until around 2018). The paper described it as “an evening of top performances” and singled out Newton-John’s performance. “Olivia, in line with her character Lady Mary, literally dripped sarcasm at every opportunity,” the review said.
Stelarc said he had fond memories of working with Newton-John in the performances. He was similarly praised in the student paper for his “set design and construction and his unusual, yet clearly set-out, programme design”.
A 1964 yearbook entry congratulated Newton-John on her winning of “a trip to England following a competition involving young talent of Australia.” The trip, of course, cemented her journey to stardom when she went on to record her first single Till You Say You’ll Be Mine, released two years later in 1966.
University High School, attended by Newton-John, in the 1960s.Credit:University High School
“From the scholastic angle,” the entry read, “Olivia is doing a humanities course, including music, which will prove to be a boon in later life when, as is hoped, the stage becomes no longer a pastime but a [career for] this remarkable, talented girl.”
An interview with the then 16-year-old revealed she also had strong opinions on the popular music of the day. When asked for her thoughts on The Beatles she said they were “Sweet, but nothing to go pieces over,” promising to send John, Paul, George and Ringo the school’s regards when she would meet them in the UK.
University High was also the setting for Newton-John’s first crush. One alumnus told The Age and the Herald that Newton-John had eyes for classmate Graeme Holdsworth. According to school rumours Holdsworth was apparently “more interested in football” than Olly, as some classmates called the rising star, and was the “one that got away”.
The rumour was confirmed in an iconic 1983 interview with Joan Rivers and John Travolta, where a now well-known Newton-John confessed her crush.
“He didn’t want to know about me,” she told Rivers. This masthead tracked down the “tall, blonde, surfer-type schoolboy”, a retired architect who is now a mental health and suicide awareness advocate. Holdsworth said he and Newton-John knew each other well, and he walked her home many afternoons.
He even recalled meeting her parents – but said that they were just good mates and part of a large friendship group.
“We were all keen on her!” he joked. “She was one of the cutest girls in the school.” But, as is often the case among teenagers, he had no inkling of the rising star’s interest in him at the time.“I was surprised she remembered me,” he said.
But, Holdsworth said, reflecting on his time with her: “She was something special”.
Additional reporting by Marta Pascual Juanola
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