The "Bing Boys" Ball...

An advertising placard published by the Australian Comforts Fund (ACF) to promote a fundraising Ball. The " Bing Boys" Ball was held on Thursday 6 June 1918 in the Melbourne Town Hall. The theme refers to the popular musical hit of the London stage "The Bing Boys", the first of a series of revues which played at the Alhambra Theatre, London during the last two years of the First World War. The popular musicals featured the London adventures of brothers Oliver and Lucifer Bing. The advertising placard is text only printed in red, white and blue. The Australian Comforts Fund (ACF) was first formed in August 1916 from a number of individual state based organisations that had been created at the beginning of World War I to send comfort to the troops. Many local women's groups formed early in the war to provide various 'luxury items' to supplement the Australian soldier's army rations and personal kit. The Australian Comforts Fund quickly grew into a fundraising, collecting, sorting and distributing machine which rivalled the scope of the Red Cross. At the conclusion of World War I, the ACF officially dissolved. However it was revived in 1939 with the outbreak of World War II to provide comforts to a new generation of soldiers. It ceased operation again on 27 June 1946.