Slim Dusty saw major metropolitan music radio stations abandon support for country artists, and despite record sales in the multimillions, after the 1950s, Dusty was rarely heard on-air outside regional centres in Australia. Dusty's 1957 hit "A Pub with No Beer" was the biggest-selling record by an Australian to that time, the first Australian single to go gold and the first and only 78 rpm record to be awarded a gold disc. (The "Pub with No Beer" is a real place, in Taylors Arm, not far from Kempsey where Slim was born.) In 1959 and 1960, Dutch and German cover versions of
The Slim Dusty Movie his 106th album for EMI Records. His wife Joy McKean and children Anne Kirkpatrick and David Kirpatrick are all accomplished country music singers who perform in the film on stage with Dusty. A number of Dusty's song writers and old friends appear in the film, including Stan Coster and Gordon Parsons. Directed by Rob Stewart (whose credits include 1983's For the Term of His Natural Life) and with cinematography by David Eggby (Mad Max, 1979), the film features Australian landscapes prominently and is essentially a biographical documentary. Shot in diverse locations, it includes live performances at the Sydney Opera House,