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1952 - Bernice Kopple was the famous snake-lady of Vaudeville who had been booked by Hoyts for one night only to appear on the Lygon stage to support the Peter Lorre classic “The Beast With Five Fingers”

Bernice Kopple was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1930 and migrated to Melbourne onboard the ship New Australia in 1950. She was nineteen years old and travelled alone, her mother and three siblings following later.

Bernice had won five beauty pageants in Scotland and was crowned Miss New Australia during the voyage, and went on to be Miss Torquay at the Sun Beach girl contest in Torquay, Victoria, 1951. These activities led to modelling and show businesses opportunities but her passionate interest in animals led to her work as both an animal handler and a notable career as a ‘snake dancer.’

Working Life: Bernice was employed as a receptionist and learned python snake-handling for public performances at the Koala Park in Adelaide. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s Bernice worked as a model, entertainer, showgirl and animal handler on entertainment circuits around Australia and New Zealand. She was a ‘Nudie’ in the Folies Bergere and joined the Tivoli circuit. As public nudity debates accelerated, Bernice modelled bikinis for ‘Prudence Jane’, a Melbourne firm introducing the bikini to Australia and became a focus for the public moral outrage, particularly in ‘The Australasian Post’.

Bernice was simultaneously pursuing her passion for animals as a keeper at the Melbourne Zoo, lecturing on wildlife in schools and on television and developing her snake act in theatres, clubs, tent shows and drive-in cinemas.

At this time, Bernice was partnered both personally and professionally with pianist Frank Appleton, an arrangement which concluded in the 1970s. Bernice was engaged twice but never married.

In the 1970s, Bernice moved from Melbourne to Adelaide and worked as a mature model for daywear, bikinis and lingerie. She toured Australia with her dog and caravan, cultivating her reputation as a modern, independent woman, mustering, cooking and jillarooing in the Northern Territory and becoming manager at the Cairns Oceanarium.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Bernice continued with modelling work and animal care in Adelaide until 2002 when she moved to a nursing home in Castlemaine in central Victoria. Her love of animals continued through her involvement with the RSPCA.

Bernice Kopple died in 2011 but is always remembered for her energy, beauty, wit and pride in her Scottish heritage.

Contributed by Greg Lynch -