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With stints as an All Black, Springbok triallist, sports presenter, National MP, and sometime celebrity chef, Grahame Thorne has experienced his share of fame. But perhaps his hottest 15 minutes came after he dared to present the sports news one day in 1983 ... with a perm. The ensuing national trauma inspired headlines, irate phonecalls, and “curls are for girls” banners at rugby games. Sadly the perm’s freshest incarnation is lost to the archives, and this slightly grown-out version is the only extant evidence of a key moment in Kiwi fashion history.
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What was he thinking, lol!
Not long after he turned up at Lancaster Park to do comments on a rugby match and walked out in front of the infamous No 5 stand with Kieth Quinn to do a 'stand up' There wasn't a lot of respect shown by the Canty students on the bank to a 'permed' former All Black' the commotion ruined the whole live cross with bottles and jeering. Thorny would do anything for publicity..then and now.
I named my curly haired dog after him.
I remember the furore - and ridicule - over Graeme's perm. Hard to believe it's nearly three decades ago. A few years ago while working as a journalist I rang Graeme for a comment on an unrelated story, but wisely decided against asking him about "that hairstyle."
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Short Film, 1966 (Full Length)
Doco about rugby made shortly before Thorne's All Black debut
NZ ON SCREEN 2013
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Bernie
Posted at 10.41PM - 12.03.2013
Hehe