Clyde Packer

He was named for his paternal grandfather, Robert Clyde Packer (1879–1934), who had established the Packer media dynasty.

Clyde's father was Sir Frank Packer (1906–1974), a media proprietor who controlled Australian Consolidated Press and the Nine Network.

His mother, Gretel Joyce née Bullmore (1907–1960), was the daughter of Herbert Bullmore (1874–1937), an Australian-born physician and rugby union player who represented Scotland.

Robert Clyde Packer (22 July 1935 – 8 April 2001), usually known as Clyde Packer, was the son of Australian newspaper magnate Frank Packer and the elder brother of media baron Kerry Packer.

Clyde Packer was born Robert Clyde Packer on 22 July 1935.

His younger brother was Kerry Packer (17 December 1937 – 26 December 2005).

During their early childhood Clyde and Kerry were cared for by a nurse, Inez McCracken, whom Clyde described as a "surrogate mother" who made "an unbearable childhood tolerable".

Packer was a boarder at Cranbrook School in Sydney and then Geelong Grammar in Victoria.

He took part in various sports at school, including boxing, cricket, and rugby.

In the early 1950s, instead of attending university as he wished, Clyde Packer heeded his father's directive "You go to work for me ... You'll learn far more in the school of hard knocks".

He joined Australian Consolidated Press (ACP) as a journalist and sub-editor of its flagship, The Daily Telegraph.

For six months he worked at the Daily Mail in London.

In 1954 ACP launched a magazine, Weekend, with Donald Horne as editor and Packer on staff.

By 1956 Packer was a director at ACP, Frank purchased the rights to Sydney TV station TCN-9 – the first Australian station to begin regular broadcasting.

By 1957 Weekend employed Lillian Roxon as a journalist and later a sub-editor.

When Queensland authorities wanted to ban the magazine Packer and Horne successfully fought the injunction in court.

ACP followed, in February 1958, with the launch of The Observer, an "intellectual magazine" where Horne was editor and Packer was his boss.

Packer allowed Horne to hire various contributors including Peter Coleman, Michael Baume, Bruce Beresford, Robert Hughes, Barry Humphries, and James McAuley.

Packer was later the talent manager for Humphries.

In 1958 Packer had hired Francis James of Anglican Press to print The Observer but after three years and a run of "broken deadlines, overcharges, misprints, [and] slow deliveries" Horne and Packer had taken that job away.

In 1960 ACP were involved in a commercial rivalry with Rupert Murdoch's News Limited, over interests in print media in Sydney.

ACP had made an offer to buy Anglican Press when it was placed in receivership so that they could publish suburban newspapers in opposition to Murdoch's recent acquisitions.

In June 1960 the rivalry between the two groups turned into a physical brawl where men hired by Murdoch fought with Packer, Kerry and their associates over the control of Anglican Press building.

The Murdoch group had a photographer take evidence of the fracas and their afternoon newspaper, The Daily Mirror, ran a front-page article headlined "Knight's Sons in City Brawl" with a photo of Packer ejecting the manager of Anglican Press, John Willis, into the street.

Also that year Frank bought majority interests in Melbourne TV station GTV-9 which was combined with TCN-9 to form Australia's first national network, Nine Network.

During the late-1960s Packer took on more of the administration of Network Nine while Spin Records continued to release singles and albums by various Australian artists.

In 1961 Packer was promoted to assistant general manager of ACP.

During that year two ACP publications Weekend and The Australian Woman's Mirror were merged to form Everybody's with Horne editing and Packer as its manager.

From 23 April 1964 to 22 April 1976 he was a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council for the Liberal Party.

In 1965 Packer was made general manager of ACP and founded a record label also called Everybody's as a joint venture with Harry M. Miller (New Zealand-born promoter) and Nat Kipner (record producer and former co-owner of Sunshine Records).

However Sydney radio stations were reluctant to play singles issued by that label due to the promotion of ACP's magazine.

In January the following year the label was re-launched as Spin Records with Kipner as house producer.

During that year Spin Records signed The Bee Gees and issued their hit single, "Spicks and Specks", which reached No. 4 on the Go-Set National Top 40.

Among his many business activities, Packer founded the independent Spin Records label, which released many successful singles and albums from 1966 to 1972, including The Bee Gees' "Spicks and Specks" (1966) and the original Australian cast recording of the rock musical Hair (1969).

In June 1969 Miller produced the Australian stage version of Hair, a rock musical.

Spin Records issued the soundtrack, Hair – Australian Cast Soundtrack, by the end of the year, which was banned in Queensland and New Zealand.

In 1970 Clyde Packer became joint managing director of Nine Network with his father, Frank.

Packer was originally intended to be his father's heir before a falling-out in 1972 resulted in Kerry inheriting the family business in 1974 upon Frank's death.

In 1976 Packer relocated to the United States, initially living in Los Angeles before moving to Santa Barbara, California.

Robert Clyde Packer died of heart and lung failure on 8 April 2001, aged 65.