Raking over the memories far back in my brain.....Knock & Kirby had a chain of hardware stores around Sydney (not many stores, in the early days but did have more in the 70s) Joe Sando was "the gadget man" and showed all types of new fangled "toys for women" in the kitchen. He would be on for about a quarter of an hour at lunch time on Saturdays followed by Andy (I think that was his christian name) Waugh. He was a "grand fatherly" type bloke who wore a dust coat. He would demonstrate small jobs on the program and keep "returning to the job card". I would guess he was an old carpenter by his manner of working. You know, I can't remember what he demonstrated, but I do remember being a very keen viewer.
My Dad worked for Knock & Kirby in the early 60s. He said that Joe The Gadget man would wander around the kitchen department seeing what was on display with a view to include a demonstration on the TV show. He also did demos in store. He had an ability to "play up to the audience" and was very entertaining and well liked by the women folk. Dad recalled one demo where Joe had a plastic spout the you would push into an orange then squeezed it to get the juice to run down the spout and into a glass. He had a gift of the gab and was talking all the time. Anyway, he was extolling the greatness of this gadget and its portability when a woman from the audience said that she had an electric mix-master that could do the same job and quick as a wink Joe came back with "you would look pretty silly with a mix-master on Bondi beach". He was an expat pom and had a pin on mic to amplify his voice.
My brother was given a small metal lathe with the initials cast into the bed N&K. He researched a bit and found that Knock & Kirby did sell their own branded tools for a while.
