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Thursday 29 June 2017

Web Page  No 2384

1st July 2017

Top Picture: Curtain behind the door
 Second Picture: Welfare Orange juice

 Third Picture: Interior of Ford 100E
Forth Picture: Omo advert






Growing up in the 1950s
Another set of 1950s memories that I have recently been sent, it will drag up some long forgotten things I suspect.
Everybody who grew up in Fifties Britain will have his or her own indelible memories of their childhood, from the first taste of welfare orange juice to the birth of rock' n’ roll. The nation was recovering from the ravages of the Second World War and the camaraderie of wartime was still evident throughout the country.
Despite the difficulties of day-to-day living people had great pride in and loyalty to their country and seemed to share a common purpose in life. Families stayed together through the hard times and everybody knew their neighbours and had a sense of belonging. They would routinely leave their door on the latch and hang a key on a piece of string behind the letterbox when they were out for their children to come and go as they pleased.
Children waking up on Christmas morning in 1952 had experienced rationing of food and clothes all of their lives. It was quite normal to go without the sweets, biscuits, crisps and fizzy drinks that would be taken for granted by future ­generations. Before sweet rationing ended in February 1953 the most prized thing in your Christmas stocking would have been a small, two-ounce bar of chocolate.
You probably didn’t get your first black and white television set until the late ­Fifties. After all, only three million British households had one by 1954, with numbers increasing to almost 13million by 1964.
But it didn’t matter if you had no television because you could play in the streets without the fear of traffic or the obstruction of parked cars. Buses and bicycles were the most popular modes of transport. In 1950 there were just under two million cars in Britain, with only 14% of households owning one. The most ­popular models in the Fifties included the Ford Prefect 100E and the Austin A35 saloon.
Many of us who grew up then have memories of houses that were draughty in winter with curtains hung behind the street door to reduce the flow of cold air and frost that formed overnight on the inside of bedroom windows.
The larger urban areas suffered with dense, yellowish smogs – known as pea-soupers – caused by fog combining with coal fire emissions. In 1952 a particularly thick smog shrouded London and caused the deaths of an estimated 12,000 people.
However, life was certainly not all doom and gloom. You grew up in a much safer environment than we can ever imagine these days. Children were able to enjoy the freedom of outdoor life. They played lots of rough-and-tumble games, got dirty and fell out of trees. The purple stains of iodine were always evident on the grazed knees of boys in short trousers.
There was no such thing as health and safety or children’s rights. We were taught discipline at home and at school and ­corporal punishment was administered for bad behaviour.
There was no mugging of old ladies and people felt that it was safe to walk the streets. There was very little vandalism and no graffiti. Telephone boxes were fully glazed and each contained a set of local telephone directories and a pay-box full of pennies.
Youngsters respected people in authority such as policemen, teachers, and park keepers, knowing that they would get a clip around the ear if they were caught misbehaving. Home life was much different from today. Everyone seemed to have a gramophone, an upright piano and a valve radio in their front room and there were ticking clocks all around the house.
The kitchen was filled with products such as Omo washing powder and Robin starch and a whistling kettle was a permanent fixture on the kitchen stove.
Most adults smoked and there were ashtrays in every room, even in the bedrooms. We still managed to eat lots of wholesome food, which was always freshly cooked, and mums seemed always to be ­baking and though many of us didn’t have a fridge and went shopping for ­groceries every day. Perishable foods were bought in small amounts – just enough to last a day. It was quite usual to buy a single item of fruit.
On Sundays everyone had a roast dinner and leftovers were made into stews and pies to eat later in the week. In 1950, 55% of young children drank tea with their meals. Bread and beef dripping was standard fare, that was even worse than the daily spoonful of cod liver oil many of us had to consume.
Boys and girls played street games together, such as run outs, hopscotch and British bulldog. In the playground schoolgirls practised handstands and cartwheels with their skirts tucked up under the elastic of their navy blue knickers, while the boys played conkers.
We travelled in third-class compartments on train journeys to the seaside and at the seaside you wore a knitted bathing costume on the beach.
Do you remember Pathé News at the cinema? Going to the pictures was everyone’s favourite outing, with all those wonderful stiff-upper-lip British film stars such as John Mills, Jack Hawkins, Kenneth More and Dirk Bogarde and great war films such as The Dam Busters, epics such as Ben-Hur and comedies such as The Belles Of St Trinian’s. When the film ended everyone stood for the National Anthem and stayed until it finished playing.
For children the Saturday morning pictures provided the best fun. Every week, 200 to 300 unruly children would descend on a cinema for a couple of hours of film and live entertainment. It was controlled mayhem with the stalls and circle filled with children cheering for the goodies and booing the baddies. It introduced us to The Lone Ranger and Zorro and the slapstick comedy of Mr Pastry and Buster Keaton.
Dusty, old-fashioned sweetshops had high wooden counters jam-packed with boxes of ha’penny chews and other sweet delights. Then there were those Smith’s potato crisps. The salt was in a twist of blue paper and you always had to rummage around for it at the bottom of the bag.
It was the decade of skiffle with Lonnie Donegan and of the start of rock' n’roll with Bill Haley, Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard. Cliff’s first hit Move It is credited as being the first rock'n’roll song produced outside the United States. While everyone now remembers rock'n’roll, in reality the record buyers were suckers for ­ballads and throughout the Fifties homegrown ballad singers had ­British girls swooning in the aisles .
It is hard to identify the Britain of today with how it was back then. The whole appearance of the country has changed, particularly in inner cities where so much building and development work has been done over the years. The war torn dilapidated houses, derelict land and bomb are now long gone.
There was something cosy about growing up in the last decade in which most children retained their childish innocence to the age of 12 or 13 and enjoyed a carefree life full of fun and games. The stresses of adolescence and then adult life could wait. We were lucky and we all managed to pass exams without the aid of Google!
Keep in touch
Peter


On this day 1st July 1960-1965

On 01/07/1960 the number one single was Three Steps to Heaven - Eddie Cochran and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the week was Neale Fraser wins Wimbledon men's singles.

On 01/07/1961 the number one single was Runaway - Del Shannon and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Harpers West One (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the week was Author Ernest Hemingway commits suicide.

On 01/07/1962 the number one single was Come Outside - Mike Sarne with Wendy Richard and the number one album was West Side Story Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 01/07/1963 the number one single was I Like It - Gerry & the Pacemakers and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 01/07/1964 the number one single was It's Over - Roy Orbison and the number one album was Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones. The top rated TV show was Club Night (BBC) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the week was President Johnson signs Civil Rights Act.


On 01/07/1965 the number one single was I'm Alive - Hollies and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions

Thursday 22 June 2017

Web Page  No 2382

24th June 2017

Top Picture: The Ronson Cadet
 Second Picture: The Queen Anne Table Lighter

Third Picture: The Ronson Butane Lighter
 Forth Picture: Ronson Lighter Fuel





Ronson Lighters

When we kids practically everybody’s father smoked and carried a lighter and you could almost guarantee that the lighter was a petrol Ronson. My father smoked and has a Ronson lighter in a little leather case in which he kept a silver threepenny piece to undo the screw on the bottom to refuel it.

The Ronson lighter company started as The Art Metal Works in 1897 and was incorporated on July 20, 1898, by Max Hecht, Louis V. Aronson and Leopold Herzig, in Newark, New Jersey.
Louis V. Aronson was a huge creative driving force for the company; and, with a few business adjustments, including the addition of Alexander Harris (1910-11) as Business Manager, the company soon became World Famous!
Louis Aronson was a gifted man, who at 16 years old set up a money-making shop in his parents' home - before receiving a U.S. patent for a commercially valuable metal-plating process he developed when he was just 24 years old. He sold half the rights while retaining the Right to Use and later used part of the proceeds to open the Art Metal Works in Newark, New Jersey. Soon the company was producing a variety of high-quality Lamps, book ends, art statues and other decorative items, things much prized today.

Aronson had established himself as a safety-match development pioneer with his inventions of the "Non-Toxic Match" and the "All-Weather Match" in the 1890s. Another invention was the wind-match, for which he applied for a patent in December 1896. He found a chemical combination which insured combustion in the highest wind, a boon to the tourist as well as to the explorer and the hunter. The patent was granted October 26, 1897 and a testimony to its merits is shown by a letter written by the former scientific chemist to the Royal Society of Great Britain in response to an inquiry of as to the chemical and commercial importance of the match:
In the investigations for improving this Windmatch, Aronson discovered the method for making a white phosphorus-free match. The Belgian government had offered a prize of 50,000 francs in a competition open to the world and this had stirred up scientists and chemists to redouble their efforts to produce such a match, and many came very near. The prize was, however, awarded to Mr. Aronson, he being judged the only one to produce an absolutely non-phosphorus match, and to have complied entirely with the conditions of the contest.
Ronson lighters
Whentechnological advances were developed to allow for the manufacture of a safe flint in 1906, Louis Aronson's ambition for an automatic pocket lighter soon became a reality. In 1913, he applied for a patent for a Liter (lighter), which was approved. In 1926 he released a new "automatic operation" Banjo lighter, which lit and extinguish in a single push. It was a great success, demand shortly exceeding supply, spurring Aronson to Patent it and design other products around the invention, which were marketed under the Ronson brand name. 
Under his leadership, the Art Metal Works began designing prototypes, and patented several generations of Igniting-Apparatus. Ronson received an exclusive patent, in 1926, for a new automatic lighter that worked with one hand, and in 1927 Ronson began marketed it as the Ronson De-Light Lighter with the slogan "A flip - and it's lit! Release - and it's out!" Ronson's new lighters were an overnight success worldwide and soon the company offered a variety of lighters for all tastes.
Looking like a long-barrel pistol, the Ronson Pisto-Lighter was shown at the 1912 Olympia (UK) car show on the Klaxon stand. It consisted of a file-like piece which was drawn up the barrel of the pistol against a strong spring, and when the trigger was pressed it was released rubbing against a 'flinty substance' contained in the cap where the front sight of the pistol would be. This action was said to produce a constellation of sparks sufficient to light an acetylene lamp in the wildest wind. At the time acetylene lighting was standard for motor vehicles.

In the early 1930s Art Metal Works, began to manufacture a new line of Touch-Tip table lighters which became hugely popular and many stylish Art Deco designs were produced.
After the war, Ronson turned to producing lighters, then branched out into domestic goods such as electric shavers and cooking appliances. The company expanded to include England and Australia.
In the early 1980s, high costs and the advent of cheap disposable lighters forced closure of its production facility at Leatherhead here in England. Now, a European branch at Long Buckby in Northamptonshire sells a range of lighters.
In February 2010, Zippo acquired certain assets of Ronson (lighters and lighter fluid products) in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Today, Ronson remains a strong brand in the U.S. and Canada. Ronson pocket lighters are available in both disposable and refillable versions. Several models of multi-purpose lighters and a touch-utility lighter are also marketed. Ronsonol lighter fluid and Multi-fill butane fuel have a sizable share of the market.
Ronson International Limited sells Ronson branded gift and everyday lighters, gas and fuel, and smoker's requisites internationally with the exception of Australia, Canada, Japan and USA. Ronson Internataional Limited headquarters are located in Northampton, England.
The best known lighter here in England and the one my father had was the Cadet. This silver coloured and durable square lighter was brought out to the public in 1959. It was made in three variants and they were made exclusively in England.


Keep in touch
Peter


On this day 25th June 1960-1965

On 24/06/1960 the number one single was Three Steps to Heaven - Eddie Cochran and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 24/06/1961 the number one single was Surrender - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Harpers West One (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 24/06/1962 the number one single was Good Luck Charm - Elvis Presley and the number one album was West Side Story Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 24/06/1963 the number one single was I Like It - Gerry & the Pacemakers and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 24/06/1964 the number one single was It's Over - Roy Orbison and the number one album was Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 24/06/1965 the number one single was I'm Alive - Hollies and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.


Thursday 15 June 2017

Web Page  No 2380

17th June 2017

Top Picture: Jewel and Warriss
 Second Picture: Nearest and Dearest

Third Picture: Ben Warriss Grave
 Forth Picture: Nearest and Dearest film poster






Jimmy Jewel and Ben Warriss

For most of our younger lives and into the 1980s the comedy team everyone looked up to was Morecombe and Wise but before them there was another double act Jewel and Warriss.

Jewel and Warriss were first cousins and were brought up in the same household, even being born in the same bed (a few months apart) at 52 Andover Street, Sheffield. Jimmy Jewel worked as a solo act until 1934, when he formed an enduring double act with Ben Warriss initially at the Palace Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne. They toured  Australia and America, as well as appearing in the 1946 Royal Variety Performance and five  pantomimes for Howard & Wyndham Ltd at the Opera House, Blackpool.

A major success of their partnership was the very popular BBC radio series Up the Pole which began in October 1947. The premise of Up the Pole was that Jewel and Warriss were the proprietors of an Arctic trading post. Each episode included a musical interlude, and this sometimes featured the young Julie Andrews.

The pair were top of the bill in two London Palladium shows - Gangway (1942) and High Time (1946) and went on to make regular television appearances in the 1950s and 60s. The duo also had the lead roles in the short-lived 1962 comedy series It's a Living.

Ben Holden Driver Warriss  was born on 29th May 1909, he was the son of Benjamin Holden Joseph Warriss, an insurance company inspector and his wife, Mary Ann, née Driver, Jimmy Jewel's mother's sister. He first performed on the stage in 1930. Their double act achieved seven Royal Variety Performances and 12 Blackpool summer seasons. Around 1966, the two went their separate ways, with Ben Warriss performing on stage and Jewel moving into television.

In the 1970s Ben Warriss was the resident compere at the Cala Gran club in Fleetwood.. In 1988 he played the Emperor of China in the first of the newly reopened Hackney Empire pantomimes, Aladdin. He was still performing in pantomime in his eighties. The character Parker from the 1960s TV series of Thunderbirds is said to have been based upon his appearance.

His first wife, whom he married on 22nd September 1934, was Grace Mary Skinner a dancer and teacher of dancing and daughter of a master mariner. This marriage had ended by 1940 and two years later Ben Warriss married the entertainer Meggie Easton. His third marriage, which took place about 1960, was to Virginia Vernon. He died in 1993 at Brinsworth House, Staines Road, Twickenham, and is buried in the same section of Streatham Park Cemetery, London, as comedian Will Hay
.
James Arthur Thomas Jewel Marsh, known as Jimmy Jewel, was born on 4th December 1909. He was the son of a comedian and actor who also used the stage name Jimmy Jewel, the young Jimmy made his stage debut in Robinson Crusoe in Barnsley, at the age of four, performed with his father from the age of 10 and subsequently became stage manager for the family show.

When young Jimmy started his own act, his father refused to let him use his stage name 'Jimmy Jewel', so he performed as Maurice Marsh. He made his first London stage appearance at the Bedford Music Hall, Camden Town in 1925.

After splitting from Ben Warriss in 1966, and having done a stint working as joiner and bricklayer, He appeared in a Comedy Playhouse and two ITV Playhouse productions. He also played a murderous quick-change vaudeville artist in a 1968 episode of The Avengers. He then starred in the sitcom Nearest and Dearest with Hylda Baker as bickering brother and sister pickle factory owners Eli and Nellie Pledge from 1968 to 1973, including a film version of the series in 1972. Although their characters hurled insults at each other onscreen, the insults would continue offscreen as well as the two actors allegedly detested each other. (An ex girlfriend of mine actually had a very minor part in this film, she played Scarlett O’Hara and had three words to say ‘Yes Miss Pledge’).

While Nearest and Dearest was running, he had a regular role in the short-lived 1969 sitcom Thicker than Water and made an appearance in the 1970 film The Man Who Had Power Over Women. He also starred in the comedy series Spring and Autumn (1972–76) as retired railway worker Tommy Butler. In the early 1980s, he made appearances in Worzel Gummidge and two Play For Today episodes. In 1981 he starred in Funny Man a series about a family music hall act, on his father's company in the 1920s and 1930s. In the 1990s, then in his 80s, he continued to make appearances in film and television. He was married to Belle Bluett with whom he had a son and an adopted daughter. In 1985 He won a Variety Club of Great Britain Special Award. He died on 3rd December 1995, the day before his 86th birthday, and was cremated and interred at the Golders Green Crematorium, in London.

I remember being taken to see them at Southsea Pier when I was a nipper, they were second on the bill, Arthur English was top.

Keep in touch
Peter

On this day 17th June 1960-1965

On this day 17th June 1960-1965
On 17/06/1960 the number one single was Cathy's Clown - Everly Brothers and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Sunday Night at the London Palladium (ATV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 17/06/1961 the number one single was Surrender - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Probation Officer (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 17/06/1961 the number one single was Surrender - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Probation Officer (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 17/06/1962 the number one single was Good Luck Charm - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Brazil wins World Cup Final.

On 17/06/1963 the number one single was From Me To You - The Beatles and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Conservative Party Political Broadcast (all channels) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Prince Charles (14) buys cherry brandy.
On 17/06/1964 the number one single was You're My World - Cilla Black and the number one album was Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 17/06/1965 the number one single was Crying in the Chapel - Elvis Presley and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.