John O'Grady (Nino Culotta) was born in Waverley on 9 October 1907. He wrote for most of his adult life, but did not publish a book until he dreamed up They're a Weird Mob to win a bet. He was fifty when it came out. It remains one of the most successful titles in Australian publishing history. In 1959 he published his famous comic poem 'The Integrated Adjective', better known as 'Tumba Bloody Rumba' in the Bulletin. He died in Sydney in 1981.
