MAIDS PART OF SURFERS

JUST as Shakespeare wrote that “the course of true love never did run smooth’’, the Gold Coast’s infatuation with the Meter Maids has been a bumpy ride.

The tourism icons have survived enough ructions to keep a soapie’s scriptwriters employed for several seasons, and it seems another dark cloud is forming on the Maids’ horizon.

Having offered to walk alongside surf lifesavers at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games as recognised images of a city built on sun, surf, sand and tourism, the Maids – via owner Roberta Aitchison – now say they have been snubbed.

A snub is a snub by any other name but as the Bulletin reports today, what has them talking about lawyers is a comment in the rejection note from Merryn Hughes, of production company Jack Morton Worldwide, that says “the services of the current Gold Coast Meter Maids’’ are not required at the opening or closing ceremonies.

What’s in a word? Ms Aitchison certainly wants to know, and the Meter Maids organisation is preparing to protect its brand, fearing the use of the word “current’’ in the knockback may imply an alternative use of bikini-clad ambassadors.

There will be those who will side with the Meter Maids, arguing that despite the highs and lows of a tourism service, they have done more than enough to warrant their place in any tribute to the city’s history.

And there will be those who remain upset at what many believe was the fork in the road when, in 1990, Ms Aitchison and fellow Meter Maid Melinda Stewart posed for a nude spread in Penthouse magazine. The decade that followed involved plenty of angst as rival operations struggled for Meter Maids supremacy.

The service began in 1964 with the sort of brilliance that turns adversity into a positive. A council decision to introduce parking meters caused uproar and as the town feared a tourist backlash, millionaire Berney Elsey stepped forward.

Elsey started the Meter Maids service, employing young women to wear their distinctive gold outfits and parade the streets, feeding 5c pieces into expired meters and posing for photos with tourists.

The Maids at the Games deserve some historical nod to their role in promoting the early years of tourism here.