''Palace of Dreams'' is a 1985 Australian fictional mini series about a Jewish family running a hotel in working class inner city of Sydney in the 1930s.Ed. Scott Murray, ''Australia on the Small Screen 1970-1995'', Oxford Uni Press, 1996 p221

Sandra Levy Sandra Elizabeth Levy (born 3 December 1965 in Kingston, Jamaica) is a former field hockey player, who represented Canada at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea and the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. The Toronto, Ontario nativ ...

conceived and produced the series, based on her experience of living in a similar hotel run by her Russian Jewish mother during the Great Depression. The main set of the series is Dundee Palace (formerly the Olympic Hotel), on the corner of Regent Street and Moore Park Road,

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddi ...

). It was advertised in newspapers of the time as 'A story of belonging'. It included historical events such as the popularity of

Donald Bradman Sir Donald George Bradman, (27 August 1908 – 25 February 2001), nicknamed "The Don", was an Australian international cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time. Bradman's career Test batting average of 99.94 has bee ...

and aviation achievements of

Bert Hinkler Herbert John Louis Hinkler (8 December 1892 – 7 January 1933), better known as Bert Hinkler, was a pioneer Australian aviator (dubbed "Australian Lone Eagle") and inventor. He designed and built early aircraft before being the first person ...

and

Charles Kingsford Smith Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith (9 February 18978 November 1935), nicknamed Smithy, was an Australian aviation pioneer. He piloted the first transpacific flight and the first flight between Australia and New Zealand. Kingsford Smith was b ...

. It also showed archival footage of the opening of the

Sydney Harbour Bridge The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, spanning Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour from the Sydney central business district, central business district (CBD) to the North Shore (Sydney), North Shore. The view of the bridg ...

. The

Fryer Library The University of Queensland Library (UQ Library, founded in 1910) provides library access to students of the University of Queensland in Brisbane. It developed from a small provincial university library into a major research library.East, John ...

at the University of Queensland holds the show's manuscripts in the Hanger Collection of Australian Playscripts.

Premise

The series is based on a hotel owned by the Russian Jewish emigrant family, the Mendels. Parents Chana and Mick Mendel live at the hotel with grandfather, and children Joseph, Ruth and Miriam. Writer Tom Raynor (Michael O'Neill) moves from the family farm and grows close to the Mendel family.

Cast and crew

Episode writers

Awards and nominations

In 1985, the show was a winner in the annual Television Society of Australia Penguin awards. In 1986, Deirdre Rubenstein won best actress for her role in the show.

References

{{reflist

External links

''Palace of Dreams''
at

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

''Palace of Dreams''
at

Australian Screen Online The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national co ...

1980s Australian television miniseries 1985 Australian television series debuts 1985 Australian television series endings 1985 television films 1985 films English-language television shows Films scored by Chris Neal (songwriter)