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BOB JONES CORPORATION, 1960s

Rock n'' Roll Dances

The ‘old’ Bob Jones Corporation (BJC) was initially formed in 1960 as a ‘Rock and Roll’ Promotions Company; this was in competition to the ‘Big Three’ promoters Ivan Dayman, Brian D’Coursey and the infamous Ian Jones ‘Capri Circuit’.

Bob Jones’ (no relation to Ian) first endeavour was a Friday night dance held at the Olympic Village Hall, Heidelberg (built for the residence of international competitors of the 1956 Olympics), named the ‘BIG ROCK DANCE’ after the very successful ‘BIG ROCK TOUR’ in the USA that played multiple dates right across North America, packaged together by New York disc jockey turned promoter, Allan Freed in 1955-6 promoting black music played for the first time by white boys.

A second dance was soon established out at Eltham on Sunday afternoons and was titled the ‘LOOKOUT’.

Shortly afterwards a third Bob Jones promotion was held at Coburg Town Hall on Saturday nights (right out front of the then Old Pentridge Gaol) titled ‘JAIL HOUSE ROCK’ coinciding with the release of the Elvis Presley film of the same name.

Due to undesired circumstances, with compliments of one or more of the above mentioned ‘Big Three’, these dances were abruptly closed down and in 1963 the Bob Jones Corporation became a security company specialising in dance hall crowd control.

This simple beginning would eventually lead to the control of almost every dance, pub and club within every state of Australia and New Zealand under the BJC security banner.