Olivia Newton-John & Pat Farrar from The Merv Griffin Show in December 1983.
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00:00in Koala Blue, is also your singing partner when you started out.
00:05Yes, when I went to Australia, excuse me, I went from Australia to England on this competition.
00:11I was there for about a month, and Pat Farrah, she was then Pat Carroll, who was a friend of mine,
00:17wrote to me and said that she had also won a contest on a radio station, and she'd been sent to England
00:22with a contract to work in England, so she came to stay for one night with my mother and I in our apartment,
00:28and she ended up staying always, and we joined up as a double act.
00:31Like a sister singing group?
00:33Yeah, Pat and Olivia, we were called. She's very original.
00:36A lot of jobs.
00:38Actually, I'd like to introduce you to her, so she can explain a little bit.
00:41I would love to meet her.
00:42Pat Farrah.
00:43Hello.
00:44Nice to know you.
00:45Nice to know you, too.
00:46And how pretty, I love that sweater.
00:47Thank you.
00:48Another Australian fashion.
00:49Yes, a Jenny key.
00:51Tell me about those early days, Pat, what were they like?
00:54We had a lot of fun.
00:55We traveled a lot.
00:56We didn't have very much money, and I remember once we went to Europe for two weeks working,
01:00I think we took about 50 pounds sterling, which is about $100 each.
01:04Came back with change.
01:07We'd stay in these little hotels, and we'd eat the bread and cheese for breakfast,
01:10and we'd have bread and jam, and then we'd take the bread rolls,
01:13and we'd go and buy a block of cheese to save money and eat that for lunch,
01:16and of course, we were two young, lonely girls, and we did get a lot of people to take us out.
01:21To dinner.
01:23Came back and served, mainly.
01:25That's become a lot of doggy bags, hasn't it?
01:27Yeah, it did.
01:28But it was good fun.
01:29Some struggle, sounds like it.
01:31Yes, we did a lot of hard slugging, a lot of hard work.
01:34We'd get on trains, and we'd travel all over the country and work hard,
01:38and we'd do shows till 2, 3 in the morning for little money,
01:41but we always had fun with it, and we loved it.
01:43Did you have a recording contract at all?
01:44Yes, we made some records together.
01:46We'd loan television together, but the act broke up because my visa in England expired,
01:51and I had to go back.
01:52So half of your act was ordered out of the country, right?
01:55Yes.
01:56It was kind of mean, actually, because we'd been working for the English troops, hadn't we, in Europe?
02:00In Cyprus, yes.
02:01In Cyprus, and we came back on a military plane,
02:03and as we came through and Pat showed her passport,
02:05he stamped it with a black stamp, said,
02:06Be out in six weeks.
02:07And they wouldn't give her an extension.
02:09It was really very...
02:10So it got to a very strict period at that time.
02:12I think they're a little bit more lenient now, but it was really tough,
02:15and it was bad for me at the time.
02:16Was that stamp the moment of decision to break up the act, then?
02:19Well, we had no choice.
02:20Well, we thought we'd go back to Australia, that's right, and work together,
02:24but Olivia had fallen in love in England at the time,
02:27and had a bit of a heart throb over there.
02:29That'll break up any act.
02:31And I couldn't be in England, and she wanted to be in England with her boyfriend,
02:35and so we had to call it a day, which is a shame,
02:38but then I met my husband-to-be again, and...
02:42And he has produced you.
02:44He produces for you.
02:45Yes, he is.
02:46So you really all stayed in touch over the years?
02:48We've been together for like 20 years, so...
02:50But that's nice.
02:5120 years!
02:5220 years, Olivia.
02:54Yes.
02:55But that gives a nice, solid feeling to whatever you do,
02:59because it's very easy to come to this town and pick up all new friends,
03:02but it's great to have the ones you kind of grew up with.
03:04Pat Jenner always there, and I wouldn't have gone into business with anyone
03:07if it hadn't been for her, I'm sure, because I wouldn't trust anybody else.
03:10She does look trustworthy.
03:12And kind.
03:13Let's show the audience a clip of...
03:18I want to get the billing right.
03:19Was it known as Pat and Olivia, or Olivia and Pat?
03:21But once, I must tell you, once we were...
03:24We did a television show in England, the Dick Emery series,
03:26and the producer said,
03:27Now, I think Pat and Olivia, it's not a terribly exciting name,
03:30I'd like to change your name.
03:31You know what he changed it to?
03:32What?
03:33Liza and Jane.
03:35Better than Laurel and Hardy.
03:38Liza and Jane.
03:40Let's see a clip with Pat and Olivia and their early act.
03:48The boat ride we would take
03:53The moonlight on the lake
03:56The way we danced and hummed our favorite song
04:01The things we did last summer
04:08We'll remember all winter long
04:16That was at a time when they were taking songs that were much older
04:20and putting a modern beat to them, and a cha-cha, and all kinds of stuff.
04:23Yeah, well, we didn't have any hits of our own,
04:26so we had to do our own Beatles songs.
04:28Yeah.
04:29We used to do some Beatles songs, but a little bit cheaper than that.
04:31Yeah, yeah.
04:32That was just a bit of a medley.
04:34So now you're together in a wonderful business here in Hollywood.
04:37Mm-hmm.
04:38Something you dreamed about a long time, Pat?
04:40No, not really.
04:42I've been a mother for five years,
04:44and I've got a beautiful child who you're going to see later.
04:46And when it came to the stage of being five and being at school all the time,
04:51I really felt like I wanted to work again,
04:53because I haven't sung for about five years.
04:54I gave that up.
04:55And I've just always loved fashion.
04:58And so it's really only come to us about, well, 18 months ago,
05:01I started thinking about doing something like this.
05:03I never dreamed I'd do this.
05:06But a lot of it.
05:07I love it.
05:08She hadn't called me and said, let's do it.
05:10I had to push her a bit.
05:12Who gets to go on the buying trips to Australia?
05:15We both do.
05:16Do you both buy for the store?
05:17Yeah.
05:18We first went on a reconnaissance trip the first time.
05:20We went to see all the designers.
05:22I don't think anyone believed us out there that we were going to do it.
05:25And the second time, Pat went.
05:27And then I went out on a family visit,
05:29so I went around to check up on all the orders that we'd done
05:31and bought a few extra things.
05:32And Pat just went last time.
05:33So we'll take it in turns.
05:34We have very good people working with us, too,
05:36that help us a great deal.
05:38And we trust their taste.
05:39Yeah, that's good.
05:40Okay, we have a video of your new hit, Twist of Fate.
05:45And we all love videos.
05:47Is this an exciting one?
05:49Yeah, I think it's kind of a different look for me.
05:51You had the first really famous one, Let's Get Physical.
05:54I mean, really, that started the video craze, I would think.
05:57Yeah, people were doing them before that,
05:59but I think it caught quite a sensation at the time.
06:02And then became a whole special, as I remember.
06:04Yeah, it started from one and grew into a whole special.
06:07This is the movie that I've just completed with John Travolta,
06:11which comes out December 16th.
06:13Keep your fingers crossed.
06:14It's not a musical, but there's a soundtrack to the movie,
06:17and this is the video of one of the songs on the soundtrack,
06:20which is Twist of Fate.
06:21Here's Olivia Newton-John's new video called Twist of Fate.
06:24Watch.