Skip to main content
Menu

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

The Gallery’s Acknowledgement of Country, and information on culturally sensitive and restricted content and the use of historic language in the collection can be found here.

Graeme Blundell (on bike as Alvin Purple)

c. 1973
Rennie Ellis

type C photograph on paper (sheet: 62.0 cm x 47.0 cm, image: 44.0 cm x 29.3 cm)

A sequence of Alvin at school in which schoolgirls fight for his attentions and run after him as he flees on his bike sets up the film’s premise: described in Man magazine as the ‘hilarious adventures of a male stud, Alvin . . . a fairly ordinary and inoffensive sort of bloke, except that . . . women find him irresistible’. Made possible by a change in censorship laws, Alvin was a hit. Documentary photographer Rennie Ellis was also on hand to capture the film’s climatic chase sequence in which a bevy of ‘hot-eyed damsels’ chase Alvin, wearing nothing but a wig and his underpants, through Melbourne’s CBD. Post-Alvin, Blundell found himself an unexpected pin-up, and was pursued in the streets by fans.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2006
© Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive
www.RennieEllis.com.au

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. Works of art from the collection are reproduced as per the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The use of images of works from the collection may be restricted under the Act. Requests for a reproduction of a work of art can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

Artist and subject

Rennie Ellis (age 33 in 1973)

Graeme Blundell

Subject professions

Performing arts

© National Portrait Gallery 2024
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia

Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

This website comprises and contains copyrighted materials and works. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with the National Portrait Gallery and other copyright owners as specified.

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. The use of images of works of art reproduced on this website and all other content may be restricted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Requests for a reproduction of a work of art or other content can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

The National Portrait Gallery is an Australian Government Agency