Dancing Man

The film and stills from it have taken on iconic status in Australian history and culture, and symbolise joyous elation to the war's end.

Frank McAlary, a retired barrister, claims that he was the man photographed pirouetting in Elizabeth Street, Sydney, on 15 August 1945.

A Queen's Counsel, Chester Porter, and a former Compensation Court judge, Barry Egan, both claim to have seen McAlary being filmed dancing.

[1] The television programme Where Are They Now?, produced by Australia's Seven Network, attempted to solve the mystery of the dancing man's identity.

The Royal Australian Mint, however, chose to portray Ern Hill as the dancing man on a 2005 issue $1 coin commemorating 60 years since the World War II armistice.