AustLit logo
The Gender Politics of Underbelly Razor single work   criticism  
Issue Details: First known date: 2012... 2012 The Gender Politics of Underbelly Razor
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'In the 1990s I was spending a lot of time right smack in the middle of notorious Razorhurst, the area of Darlinghurst and East Sydney where, in the 1920s and 1930s, the razor gangs waged war, as the vice queens Kate Leigh and Tilly Devine vied for their share of the working man's earnings through sly grog, cocaine and prostitution. It was more of a triumvirate of crime bosses - Leigh, Devine and Phil "the Jew" Jeffs - but the women were the ones who ruled the Sydney underworld roost. The Melbourne upstart Norman Bruhn who took on the triumvirate in 1927 didn't last long. At the time, I had no idea just how close I was to the history of the birth of organized crime in Australia. Larry Writer's book, Razor, about "this wild, romantic, dreadful period in Sydney's history" wasn't published until 2001 and Screentime's television adaptation of Writer's book, Underbelly Razor, aired in 2011...' (Soure: Introduction)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Southerly vol. 72 no. 2 2012 Z1930923 2012 periodical issue 2012 pg. 9-24
Last amended 1 Jun 2018 11:23:03
9-24 The Gender Politics of Underbelly Razorsmall AustLit logo Southerly
Informit * Subscription service. Check your library.
Subjects:
  • Underbelly : Razor Peter Gawler , Felicity Packard , Michaeley O'Brien , Jeff Truman , 2011 series - publisher film/TV
  • Sydney, New South Wales,
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X