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Robert Clyde Packer (22 July 19358 April 2001), usually known as Clyde Packer, was the son of Australian newspaper magnate Frank Packer and the elder brother of media baron Kerry Packer. From 23 April 1964 to 22 April 1976, he was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council, representing the Liberal Party. Packer was originally intended to be his father's heir before a falling-out in 1972 resulted in Kerry inheriting the family business upon Frank's death in 1974.
Among his many business activities, Packer founded the independent Spin Records label, which released many successful singles and albums from 1966 to 1972, including Bee Gees' "Spicks and Specks" (1966) and the original Australian cast recording of the rock musical Hair (1969). In 1976, Packer relocated to the United States, initially living in Los Angeles before moving to Santa Barbara, California. Robert Clyde Packer died of heart and lung failure on 8 April 2001, aged 65.
During their early childhood Clyde and Kerry were cared for by a nurse, Inez McCracken, whom Clyde described as a "surrogate mother" who made "an unbearable childhood tolerable". Packer was a boarder at Cranbrook School in Sydney and then Geelong Grammar in Victoria. He took part in various sports at school, including boxing, cricket, and rugby.
In February 1958, ACP followed with the launch of The Observer, an "intellectual magazine", of which Horne was editor and Packer was his boss. Packer allowed Horne to hire various contributors including Peter Coleman, Michael Baume, Bruce Beresford, Robert Hughes, Barry Humphries, and James McAuley. Packer was later the talent manager for Humphries. In 1958, Packer hired Francis James of Anglican Press to print The Observer but, after three years and a run of "broken deadlines, overcharges, misprints, and slow deliveries", Horne and Packer took that job away.
In 1960, ACP was involved in a commercial rivalry with Rupert Murdoch's News Limited, over interests in print media in Sydney. ACP had made an offer to buy Anglican Press when it was placed in receivership so that they could publish suburban newspapers in opposition to Murdoch's recent acquisitions. In June 1960 the rivalry between the two groups turned into a physical brawl where men hired by Murdoch fought with Packer, Kerry and their associates over the control of Anglican Press building. The Murdoch group had a photographer take evidence of the fracas and their afternoon newspaper, The Daily Mirror, ran a front-page article headlined "Knight's Sons in City Brawl" with a photo of Packer ejecting the manager of Anglican Press, John Willis, into the street.Paul Barry (2025). 9781863253314, Bantam Books / ABC Books (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). . ISBN 9781863253314 Also that year Frank bought majority interests in Melbourne TV station GTV-9 which was combined with TCN-9 to form Australia's first national network, Nine Network.
In 1961, Packer was promoted to assistant general manager of ACP. During that year, two ACP publications Weekend and The Australian Woman's Mirror were merged to form Everybody's with Horne editing and Packer as its manager. In 1965, Packer was made general manager of ACP and founded a record label, also called Everybody's, as a joint venture with Harry M. Miller (New Zealand-born promoter) and Nat Kipner,a record producer and former co-owner of Sunshine Records. However Sydney radio stations were reluctant to play singles issued by that label due to the promotion of ACP's magazine. In January the following year the label was re-launched as Spin Records with Kipner as house producer. During that year Spin Records signed Bee Gees and issued their hit single, "Spicks and Specks", which reached No. 4 on the Go-Set National Top 40. (1999). 9781865080727, Allen & Unwin. ISBN 9781865080727
During the late-1960s, Packer took on more of the administration of Network Nine while Spin Records continued to release singles and albums by various Australian artists. In June 1969, Miller produced the Australian stage version of Hair, a rock musical. Spin Records issued the soundtrack, Hair – Australian Cast Soundtrack, by the end of the year, which was banned in Queensland and New Zealand.
Their public falling-out followed years of tight control by Frank. According to Paul Barry, "Clyde Packer ... was also frequently dressed down and abused in public by his father, Sir Frank. Into his late thirties, Clyde was still treated like a stupid, disobedient little boy, until he could take no more and rebelled against such tyranny, splitting clearly and completely with his father". On his father's death in May 1974, the family estate, valued at A$100 million passed directly to Kerry. In 1976, Clyde sold his quarter-share of the family business for A$4 million to Kerry, who went on to become Australia's richest man.
Packer was the Honorary Treasurer of the Children's Surgical Research Fund, a member of New South Wales Society for Crippled Children and New South Wales Committee Council for Civil Liberties. Although a conservative politician, Packer supported freedom of speech, and he voted against a bill to ban pornography. During early 1974 he worked with New South Wales Premier, Robert Askin, to develop a series of ads run by John Singleton's agency against the incumbent Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, and his Australian Labor Party in the lead up to the federal election in May. (2025). 9780522853827, The Miegunyah Press. ISBN 9780522853827
He moved to California in 1976 and rarely returned to Australia thereafter. In America, he pursued interests in film, surf culture, and magazine publishing. He bought Surfing Magazine in 1976 and, during the mid-1980s, he expanded his interests by establishing the sister magazines, Bodyboarding Magazine and Volleyball. In 1984, Packer released a book, No Return Ticket, in which he interviewed nine fellow Australian expatriates: Robert Hughes, Gordon Chater, Graham Fraser, Judith Anderson, James Wolfensohn, Germaine Greer, Maxwell Newton, Zoe Caldwell, and Sumner Locke Elliott. According to Mark Thomas of The Canberra Times, the book was a "quirky, frothy anachronism", in which the interviewees "whinge about the Australian cultural cringe in terms which no young Australian would find comprehensible".
Also during 1984, the Costigan Commission issued a draft report into its investigation into the Painters and Dockers Union which implicated a prominent businessman, codenamed the "Goanna", in tax evasion and organised crime activities. In September that year, news reports published leaked case summaries and Kerry outed himself as the "Goanna" but denied all allegations. When Clyde Packer was contacted he observed that his brother "had his rights trampled on and his name defamed". The Costigan Commission had also contacted the FBI and DEA to investigate Clyde Packer's own activities, after a US surfing official claimed that one of Packer's local magazines was a front for drug-trafficking. He was never officially accused of any wrongdoing related to those investigations. Later, he was publicly exonerated and it was revealed that the FBI questioned the evidence that the commission provided.
In January 1987, Packer told Ali Cromie of The Sydney Morning Herald that he had left Australia because he "would have a better future in America than Australia". Initially Packer had made documentaries but most of his subsequent work was in publishing. He also ran a consultancy business, Magazine Investment and Management. Of Clyde's relationship with his brother Kerry, Cromie wrote: "They got on well without being especially close. He disputes reports that portray their relationship in any other way. 'I had animosity with my father – never with my brother'".
Packer had relocated to Los Angeles by 1976 where he married his second wife, Kate Clifford, a former model from Brisbane, on 7 July 1977. By 1987, Clyde and Kate were living in the Santa Barbara suburb of Montecito. Clyde developed heart and kidney problems. He was on a dialysis machine for treatment and had a kidney donated by his architect. From 1999, he had been bedridden for two years. (His brother Kerry also had heart and kidney problems and obtained a new kidney from his helicopter pilot.) Robert Clyde Packer died of heart and lung failure on 8 April 2001, aged 65. A memorial service for him was held in Sydney on 16 May 2001, including a eulogy, "Dear Clyde", written by Barry Humphries and read by Packer's son, Francis. Other speakers at the memorial were John Laws, Harry M. Miller and Peter Coleman.
In the TV mini-series, (September 2013), Clyde Packer was portrayed by Alexander England.
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