Happy Hammond

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Harold "Happy" Hammond (1917?-1998) was an Australian comedian and children's TV show compère.

Happy was famous for clicking his fingers musically and wearing a "test pattern" suit and tartan hat that clashed awfully in real life but worked well on black and white TV (which was then being broadcast in Australia). He started in radio in Melbourne and hosted the Happy Show a children's program which first started on Melbourne's HSV 7. The program switched to GTV 9 in the late nineteen fifties and was later sponsored by Tarax soft drinks, becoming "The Tarax Happy Show" and later still, "The Tarax Show". The program was only ever seen in Melbourne. Happy worked previously on stage where he performed a musical finger clicking routine which he brought to television. Other performers on the Tarax Show included Melbourne ventriloquist Ron Blaskett and his mischievous doll, Gerry Gee and Susan-Gaye Anderson.

Happy was a keen supporter of the Victorian Football League (subsequently Australian Football League) Geelong Football Club. He was accorded the honour of running through the banner with the Geelong players on Grand Final day 1963.

His program won a Logie award in 1959 for Most Popular Children's Show. Hammond, himself won a Logie in 1963 for Outstanding Contributions to Children's Entertainment.