Dixie Dean – His Story

Comedy/Audio/Theatre/Tasmania celebrated its second birthday with the launch of its first short film production and company name Home Brew Studio.

Made here in Hobart, the film on Facebook Online and You tube is a profile of William Ralph (Dixie) Dean.

Dixie Dean, filmmaker Matt Dean’s grandfather, was a footballing legend in his heyday. He played for England and Everton and holds the world football record for 60 goals in one season.

The film is composed of old journalist interviews with Dixie Dean, archival film footage, narration in silent movie style and music composed by Matt Dean.

Matt Dean said the idea started to form in the back of his mind when he went to Liverpool in 2006 to teach and play music and got in touch with his family past.

He said that while in Liverpool he was working with writer John Keith researching a movie or documentary. Then the global financial crisis hit and after 2010 he decided to come back to Australia.

“One faction of the family have been announcing about making a movie for years,” he said. “This is a soap opera in itself. I do not think this will happen and most of the family do not support the story.”

So, in lockdown he  decided to have a go at making the film himself or at least a short film.

“I have read much and talked to many people including my father, DD’s first born son,” he said.

“I wanted a film made about him, telling his story and about him. Because he was playing in an era before TV many people in the world do not know about his record which is amazing. The short film is using old footage and audio, and I added my own personal touch.”

He said his famous grandfather struck him as a simple man.

“My grand-dad earned eight pounds a week. People lay wreaths for their dads and grandfathers at his statue when they lose a loved one.

He was a very humble man, very working class, not poor but very attached to his roots and family.”

“To start with he didn’t like it (the nickname),” he said. “He was known as ‘Our Billy’ or William. He hated all the fuss and pomp etc. One theory is that as a kid it was Digsy from playing tag. The second is that one part of his family were Bretts and might have been from Romany Gypsies. None of this is proven. He would go very dark after being out in the sun. So the nickname has the old dixieland label. He didn’t like that label at the time but learnt to live with it.”

According to Matt, Dixie was very anti-racist for his day. “He took the Everton side on a tour of Germany in 1932 as Hitler was rising,” he recounted. “They played a game in Dresden with Hess, Goering and a few others there. The Everton team were ordered by the UK consulate to Heil Hitler. As captain he refused…they got some trouble for that.”

“I would like to make a longer film but would have to be over there to do it and would need much more funds and crew etc. This is at least a decent effort to tell his story. But there is so much more to tell.”