Showies (not ‘carnies’, it’s an Americanism) who work on sideshow alley at the Royal Canberra Show see a lot of different faces on the rides, but sometimes, if they spot a famous face, it can be lucrative.
Just ask life-long showie Elwin Bell, of Bells Amusements, who one summer spotted Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban sharing a kiss at the Batemans Bay carnival (Batehaven) so he snapped a photo that sold to a tabloid for $28,000. Nice work if you can get it.
Elwin has spent his life on the road touring 50 shows a year, and he’s just kicked off his first show at Crookwell after spending six weeks of summer at the South Coast (like the majority of Canberra).
When I rang Elwin, he was navigating Clyde Mountain with his convoy of trucks (about 30) and he’s looking forward to this weekend’s Royal Canberra Show, which slots neatly between the Gundagai and Goulburn Shows.
When gently prompted, Elwin can do some impressive name-dropping.
“I got a photo of [Nicole Kidman] kissing Keith and it was at the time when [tabloids] were saying that he was cheating and had another girlfriend and they were getting divorced. No-one was there to take photos; the bodyguards wouldn’t let anyone. I got her on the ride, and I hid behind the carriage and took a photo as they were going around. I ended up selling it to New Idea for $28,000.”
When you’re on the road for as long as the Bell family (they’ve just racked up 100 years in the business) you’re bound to see some well-known faces.
“Elle Macpherson gave my daughter Ellie twenty dollars and my daughter took her kids on the rides,” Elwin said. “We’ve seen Kostya Tszyu and Tim Tzu with his brother.”
Canberra celebs are in short supply here at the Royal Canberra Show, but Elwin has looked after plenty of local footy legends, including Ken Negas and Mal Meninga.
He’s yet to have Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on a carnival ride but he has had former MP Bill Shorten on the dodgem cars. “He had a few prangs,” Elwin said.
On the rare occasion Elwin stops touring, he’s based on 150 acres at Queanbeyan’s Ridgeway Estate but mostly, he “follows the sun” so he rarely sees a winter.
“The only time we’ve ever spent winter in our Queanbeyan home was over COVID and that’s the first time,” Elwin said. “Other than that, we’ve been to Darwin [Show] every year. It was actually nice at home. We loved it. We did a lot of work, a lot of maintenance and rides if needed and we just kept ourselves busy.
“We realised one thing, when you’re not travelling, it costs you not much money to sit around. All our expenses in travelling, you know, so we’d be spending on all the big trucks and all the regos and insurance and everything else that goes with it, diesel and tyres and oil. It was really good staying home.”
The sixth-generation showie family continues to keep Australia’s oldest show on the road. Elwin’s grandfather, Roy Bell, began the business in 1924 with a travelling boxing tent. His father, Elwin Sr, took over the family business and retired the boxing tent to invest in a custom-built mechanical amusement ride, the Cha Cha, in 1968. The ride is still in working order.
“All the rides are my favourites but my most favourite one, the most memories are made on the Cha Cha ride,” Elwin said. “Everybody loves the Cha Cha, we’ve had it for 56 years and it’s still one of our most popular rides wherever we go because everybody rides it, your grandmothers included, they all used to ride it.”
Despite all the modern smart phones that young people are addicted to, Elwin said carnival rides would never go out of fashion.
“Every kid’s got a telephone, they’ve all got iPads, they’ve all got the gaming they’re playing and all their money’s getting tied up in that stuff before they even get to the show, but once they get there, some things never grow old,” Elwin said. “They still love a good ride. They know when I’m in town, it’s show time.”
The Royal Canberra Show is on at Exhibition Park from 21-23 February. Tickets: canberrashow.org.au
