Denise Drysdale on mentor Ernie Sigley’s fight with Alzheimer’s

TV STAR and multiple Logie winner Denise Drysdale has paid tribute to her great mate and mentor Ernie Sigley as he battles Alzheimer’s, saying she owes her success to him.

TWO-TIME Gold Logie winner Denise “Ding Dong” Drysdale has paid tribute to her great mate Ernie Sigley, saying she owes her success to him.

Sigley, 79, is battling Alzheimer’s disease and struggles to recognise or remember Drysdale, with whom he created one of Australian TV’s most successful and enduring partnerships.

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Denise Drysdale with Ernie Sigley during their madcap times together on Australian TV.

“I went to see him a couple of months ago and I sang him the whole of Hey Paula (their duet that went to No. 1 in 1974). He stood and looked at me, got a bit emotional and gave me a big cuddle,” said Drysdale, who lives in Queensland.

“Then I was sitting with him about 10 minutes later and he said, ‘God, you ­remind me of somebody’.

“I said, ‘Delvene Delaney?’ and he said, ‘No, not her’. I said, ‘Denise Drysdale?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, that is who you remind me of’.”

Drysdale and Sigley, who starred together on The Ernie Sigley Show, won Gold Logies in 1974 as TV’s most popular personalities and Drysdale won again in 1975.

Now a regular panellist on Studio 10, Drysdale said she was deeply saddened by Sigley’s struggle with Alzheimer’s, a disease which slowly destroys an individual’s memory. He is being cared for in Melbourne.

“The man had the most amazing brain,” she said. “He knew so much about people whether they were an artist, a politician, a sportsman.

“He could recall the most extraordinary things and he never forgot. He really had an amazing mind.”

Sigley and Drysdale at the 1975 Logie Awards.

Drysdale said she owed her Logies to Sigley and his generosity as a performer. “I would not have won them without Ern. He was fantastic to work with and we just clicked straight away,” she said.

“You can’t manufacture what we had together, we just flourished and he was very generous. As long as they (the audience) were laughing he did not care who got the laugh.”

Their golden run came to a crashing halt in 1976 when Sigley was sacked by Channel 9’s then owner Kerry Packer for making a disparaging comment about Packer’s new sporting love, cricket.

Denise Drysdale and Ernie Sigley.

“After the second Gold Logie I got a three-year contract with Channel 9, and the first night of the third year (of their show) when we went back, it was night cricket and we had to finish early so the cricket could go to air.

“And Ernie went on and said, ‘Who wants to watch night cricket anyway?’ Well, Mr Packer did, and he flew to Melbourne the next day and told Ernie he was gone.

“I was at Channel 10 filming Bluestone Boys and I came out of the studio and there was a camera there going, ‘What do you think about Ernie getting the sack?’ I said, ‘I think I better make a phone call’.”

Drysdale said she was very proud of her Logies but felt Sigley deserved more credit for his TV career.

The 60th Logie Awards will be presented on July 1, on the Gold Coast for the first time.