Golf store supremo Ray Drummond’s hairy beginnings

HE’S a household name thanks to his golf store empire, but Ray Drummond’s chubby cheeks and curly locks were already famous when he was just a bub.

1939 ad for Curlypet. Source: Australian Women's Weekly, National Library of Australia collection.

HE’S a household name thanks to the golf store empire that bears his name, but his chubby cheeks and curly locks were already famous when he was just a bub.

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It turns out Ray Drummond — the man behind Ray Drummond Golf stores — was also the face of “Curlypet” lotion in the late 1930s.

Ray Drummond now.

His photo appeared both on the product and in newspaper and magazine ads, in which Ray’s parents credited Curlypet for him winning the Open Championship at the Sydney Baby Show.

Curlypet, the bane of many of our readers’ lives when they were kids, was marketed to mums as a sure-fire way to make their babies’ hair turn curly.

Ray, who sold his business years ago and now runs a golf course near Toowoomba, says his parents entered him into many shows when he was young.

“As I grew up they were taking me to shows everywhere,” says Ray, 81, who grew up in Sydney and opened his first golf store in Bendigo in 1974.

“There were cups and everything. They had me dressed up as a rooster once for a fancy dress thing. I think I won that one!”

In this hilariously quaint ad from the Australian Women’s Weekly from August 12, 1939, Ray’s parents say Curlypet turned their son’s straight hair curly.

“Baby now has a mass of curls greatly admired,” they were quoted as saying.

“At baby shows, the judges always remark on his hair, and we feel this has been one of the reasons towards his repeated successes.”

Ray, who sold his golf stores several years ago, remembers his mum regularly applying Curlypet to his hair to keep it curly.

“It definitely worked because I had very curly hair then — but I don’t now!” he says.

Sadly, Ray never saved one of the Curlypet bottles that bore his face — if you have one or even a photo we’d love to hear from you.

Check out In Black & White in the Herald Sun newspaper Monday to Friday for more stories from our readers.