Web Page 1064


4^th August 2012




Great News my booklet ‘The time of Our Lives’ a Portsmouth Childhood 1950-1970 will be available at the end of the week and costs just £2.95 plus P&P . If you would like a copy please forward a cheque to the value of £3.95 along with your address to me at 19 Lyndhurst Road Gosport PO12 3QY or maybe we could meet up and save the postage.
Look forward to hearing from you soon.  Peter 

Top Picture: Gene Autry

Bottom Picture: William Boyd , Hopalong Cassidy

The Shooting Stars

On a Saturday morning as the curtains parted in the cinema, all hell let loose. Cries of "Whoopee" came out of the darkness. Then suddenly, there he was our hero. White Stetson, flashing teeth, Gene Autry and his horse Champion. Gene Autry starts to sing something like "I'm riding, on my pony or I'm heading for the old Bar-X" when Suddenly, an Apache arrow hits him in the back. Gene glances round to see three thousand Apache galloping across the prairie towards him. He speeds off on Champion to seek safety in a nearby gulch, but upon reaching it he finds he has ridden into the camp of Mexican bandits! Bullets hit him in the shoulder another hits him in the thigh and yet another in the arm and back! He falls off Champion. He tries to get up just one last hope, he purses his lips and produces the whistle that only Champion knows. The gallant steed comes to his master, lowers his head and hoists our hero onto his back, then gallops off into the sunset! But the evil Black Jake has doped Champion's horse feed back in Deadwood Springs. The horse with his master stumbles blindly on. "Look out" we cry from our seats. But too late, horse and rider go over the edge of a cliff, doomed to destruction 500 feet below!  Hundreds of little faces look on in horror. Our hero is dead, and we will see him no more! The King of the Cowboys is Dead! Suddenly, a voice yodels out loud and clear. "I'm riding, on my pony it's him, he's alive! And his white hat has not got a mark on it. Good old Gene!

We burst out of the cinema and into the daylight the lads leap into doorways or behind dustbins, pointing their loaded fingers at each other and shooting. Those days are now in the distant past. Never more will we see the like of those celluloid heroes who appeared to make more films before lunchtime, than Clint Eastwood did in a year! They turned out hundreds and we never tired of them.

They all appeared to use the same formula, clean-cut quick-on-the-draw always smiling cowboy hero generally accompanied by an old gent who in reply to "Howdy, Old-timer" would go into a lengthy dialogue about the Winter of '83, or how he had beaten 100 Comanche’s single handed! Another constant companion was his horse, all who appeared to have the knack of understanding their master's whistle, galloping onto any scene from out of the blue to rescue the hero and they were also able to untie knots with their teeth.

Another ingredient was the baddie who were sure to produce boos and hisses from most audiences. Many of the stars of Hollywood began their film careers by playing baddies. A young Clark Gable was brought to justice by Hopalong Cassidy, another of Hopalong's favourite pastimes was slamming a young Robert Mitchum against a wall in several of the early epics.

Cowboy heroes very seldom had time for the opposite sex and normally showered more affection on their four-legged friends. But if a western gal did happen to attract their attention, she was nearly always the local school teacher never the good-hearted tart who lived in The Golden Nugget. These parts were generally played by unknown actresses but one perfor­mance that sticks out is that of Marlene Dietrich in Destry Rides Again when she slinked down the saloon staircase singing "See what the boys in the back room will have".

Let us have a brief reminder of three of gun-twirling great who swept across the prairie.

The name associated with Hopalong Cassidy is William Boyd, and with his premature white hair and his horse Topper he struck fear into many a baddie's heart, although one does have to stretch the imagination with the sight of him throwing Robert Mitchum all over the place. Off screen he collected wives but on the screen he was a clean living guy, never swore, smoked or drank, and rarely gave kisses except to Topper. He was often aided by Andy Clyde as the "Old Un", and Jimmy Ellison as the "Young Un". Although he died in 1972 aged 77 because of the showing of his old films on television he was still a hero to a new generation of youngsters, and I am sure Hopalong Cassidy will ride the range in our minds for many years to come.

Although Gene Autry was not the first singing cowboy, he is the one we will most remember for singing at the drop of a hat. Gene was as popular on the radio as he was on the screen with his famous mount was Champion. In later years when he formed a television production company, "Champion the Wonder Horse" was one of his shows. Up to the war Gene Autry was the King of the Cowboys, in 1942 enlisted but paid dearly for it for when he returned from the war a new "King" was on the cowboy throne; Roy Rogers.

Roy Rogers was born Leonard Franklin Slye in Cincinnati, Ohio, where his family lived in a tenement building Dissatisfied with his job and city life, Andy Slye, Leonards father, and his brother Will built a houseboat from salvage and in July 1912, the family floated off towards Portsmouth, Ohio. In 1919, the Slyes purchased a farm near Lucasville, 12 miles north of Portsmouth. They built a six-room home here but Leonard's father realized that the farm would provide insufficient income for his family so he took a job at a shoe factory. He lived away during the week and returned at weekends, bearing gifts for the family following paydays. One notable gift was a horse on which Leonard learned the basics of horsemanship. When he was 17, Leonards family returned to Cincinnati, where his father began work at another shoe factory. Leonard soon decided he had to help his family financially, so he left school, joined his father at the shoe factory.

Leonard and his father felt imprisoned by their factory jobs. In 1929, his older sister, Mary, moved to California with her husband. Father and son decided to quit their jobs and the family packed their 1923 Dodge to visit Mary and stayed four months before returning to Ohio. Almost immediately Leonard had the opportunity to travel through California with Mary's father-in-law, and the rest of the family followed in the spring of 1930.

The Slyes rented a small house near Mary and father and son found employment as truck drivers for a road construction project. They reported to work one morning to learn their employer had gone bankrupt. This was the time of the Great Depression and they found themselves traveling from job to job picking fruit and living in worker campsites. One day, Andy Slye was told of a shoe factory hiring in Los Angeles and asked Leonard to join him in applying there for work. Leonard, having seen the joy that his guitar and singing had brought to the destitute around the campfires, told his father that he was going to pursue a living in music. With his father's blessing, he and cousin Stanley Slye went to Los Angeles and worked as The Slye Brothers.

In 1932, Leonard, now known as "Len," met Lucille Ascolese. That same year, a palomino gave birth to a foal named "Golden Cloud" and later renamed "Trigger" and in 1938 after he was acquired by Len. In May 1933, Len proposed to Lucille then went on tour with the "O-Bar-O Cowboys" and in June 1933 met Grace Arline Wilkins in New Mexico. By August 1934, Len and Lucille had separated, she was tired of being a musician's wife. Having corresponded since their first meeting, Len and Grace Arline Wilkins were married on June 11, 1936.

In 1941, the couple adopted a girl, Cheryl Darlene. Two years later, Arline bore a daughter, Linda Lou. By this time Len had changed his name to Roy Rogers and he and Arline had a son, Roy Jr. ("Dusty") in 1946, but Arline died of complications a few days later. Roy had met Dale Evans in 1944 when she was in a movie with him. Roy Rogers proposed to her during a rodeo at Chicago Stadium. They married on New Year's Eve in 1947 at the Flying L Ranch in Oklahoma, where a few months earlier they had filmed Home in Oklahoma. Rogers and Evans remained married until Roy's death in 1998.

Roy Rogers was an idol for many children through his films and television shows. Most of his postwar films were in Trucolor during an era when almost all B-movies were black-and-white. Some of his movies would be animal adventures, in which Trigger would go off on his own for a while, with the camera following him.

With money from not only his films but his own public appearances going to Republic Pictures, Roy brought into the studio so he would have the right to his likeness, voice and name for merchandising. There were Roy Rogers action figures, cowboy novels as well as a comic strip, a long-lived Dell Comics comic book series and a variety of marketing successes. Roy Rogers was second only to Walt Disney in the amount of items featuring his name. In August 1950, Dale Evans and Rogers had a daughter, Robin Elizabeth, who had Down Syndrome and died of complications with mumps shortly before her second birthday. Roy and Dale were also well known as advocates for adoption and as founders and operators of children's charities. They adopted several children and both were outspoken Christians.

His and Evans's famous theme song, "Happy Trails", was written by Dale Evans; they sang it as a duet to sign off their television show. He made numerous cameo or guest appearances on popular television shows, starring as himself or other cowboy-type characters

In 1968 he licensed his name to the Marriot corporation, which converted its Hot Shoppes locations to Roy Rogers Restaurants, with which he otherwise had no involvement.

When he died on July 6, 1998, he was living in Apple Valley, California. He was interred at Sunset Hills Cemetery in Apple Valley, as was his wife, Dale Evans, three years later.

Here I must declare an interest in that I remember in 1952 at the tender age of six my mother and grandmother took meto see Roy Rogers at the Holborn Empire. 

YEEEE HAAAA

Yours,

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

You Write:

Hilary asks:-


Hello - I was googling Nelson Trowbridge and your site came up? Can you help us track him down? He was a friend of my parents (Margaret and Ernest Tranter of Copnor) and his Mum used to look after me and my sister when we were nippers. Sadly my dad and Mum have passed and my sister and I wondered if we could find him. We also found a clipping from the Evening News where Nelson won 3rd prize of a photo of us! If you can help we would be very grateful - all the best

News and Views:


The "Queen of Counry Music," Kitty Wells (nee Muriel Deason) passed away Monday July 16th in Nashville at the age of 92.

On this day 4th August 1960-1965

On 04/08/1960 the number one single was Shakin' All Over - Johnny Kidd & the Pirates and the number one album was Elvis Is Back - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Rawhide (ITV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 04/08/1961 the number one single was Well I Ask You - Eden Kane and the number one album was Ipswich. 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 £not very interesting and 13.25 were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. he big news story of the day was No Hiding Place (AR).

On 04/08/1962 the number one single was I Remember You - Frank Ifield 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 Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. he big news story of the week Marilyn Monroe dies.

On 04/08/1963 the number one single was (You're the) Devil In Disguise - Elvis Presley 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. he big news story of the day was Computer will predict chances of marriage success.

On 04/08/1964 the number one single was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. 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 Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 04/08/1965 the number one single was Help - The Beatles and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Riviera Police (AR) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions

Web Page 1062
28^th July 2012




First I have had a good response to the publication of the memories booklet so I will go ahead with it and send it to print this week. It will be A5 size with 48 pages and over 50 photographs. It should be ready by next week when I will let you all know the details for obtaining a copy.


Peter

Top Picture: Front cover of the Eagle.

Middle Picture: The Dandy.

Bottom Picture: Front cover of the Girl.

The Eagle takes off

Over sixty  years   ago   on   14^th April, 1950, a new kind of children's comic for boys came on to the market with a splash of colour, quality and gloss.

It was edited by a Liverpool vicar, the Revd. Marcus Morris and was called the Eagle. This was different from other comics and with its clean-cut contents it soon became the favourite reading with children, their parents, and their teachers alike, and it became the top-selling young people's paper. Marcus Morris edited a parish magazine called The Anvil, but felt that the church was not communicating its message effectively. He was also disillusioned with contemporary children's literature, and with The Anvil artist Frank Hampson created a dummy comic based on Christian values. He hawked the idea to several Fleet Street publishers, with little success, until Hulton Press decided to take it on.

What everyone remembers about the Eagle were the Ashwell Wood's detailed cutaway drawings of ships, planes, and cars, and the superb artwork of Frank Hampson, which brought to life the character we all remember and who is still a cult figure even today, he was Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future.

The paper hit the streets at a time when there was a national bid among worried parents and teachers to stop the import of the American "horror" comics, and it certainly found an instant market and acceptance.

Following a huge publicity campaign, the first issue of the Eagle was released in April 1950. Revolutionary in its presentation and content, it was enormously successful; the first issue sold about 900,000 copies. Many of the children who had bought the first edition found they had to queue for Number 2, as demand had exceeded supply. Many were disappointed, although the publisher very soon rectified the problem by printing more copies.

An Eagle Club was formed and young people were proud to wear their Eagle Club badges, and to work hard for the various awards that were available and a range of related merchandise was licensed for sale.  As the Eagle's popularity increased, the demand for a Christmas Special or Annual grew stronger and stronger and by 7th September 1951, the editor used his regular editorial page to his young readers to break the good news saying, "Many of you have written in during the past year suggesting the Eagle should have an annual of its own," he wrote. "To meet this demand we have had a very exciting annual printed which contains all your favourite regular Eagle characters. All the pages with these characters in them are entirely new, and there are some fine pages which are printed in colour."

At 8/6d (42'/2p) it was an instant success, as were the issues that were to follow in succeeding years. The annual with its bright red cover and the black eagle motif became almost mandatory Christmas reading for boys from eight to eighty. All the favorites were there -Dan Dare and his arch-enemy, the Mekon; Harris Tweed; Luck of the Legion; P.C.49; Jeff Arnold and Luke; and of course pages and pages of factual features. The only thing missing were the short stories, which were put in to the originals by the editor to make the annuals a "worthwhile read."

Amidst a takeover of the comic's publisher and a series of acrimonious disputes, Marcus Morris left in 1959; Frank Hampson followed shortly thereafter. Although the Eagle continued in various forms, a lowering of editorial standards preceded plummeting sales, and it was eventually subsumed by its rival, the Lion in 1969. Howver the Eagle was relaunched in 1982 and ran for over 500 issues, before being dropped permantly by its publisher in 1994.

The Eagle had a terrific influence on many people and it was the launch pad for artists such as Gerald Scarfe and David Hockney who were both first published in the Eagle. Tim Rice also cites the stories printed in the Eagle as helping "me in my story-telling efforts through musicals many years on."^[ Professor Stephen Hawking, when asked about the influence Dan Dare had on him, replied: "Why am I in cosmology?" and Kenny Everett chose an Eagle Annual as his book on Desert Island Discs.

Girl

Girl was the sister publication to the Eagle and the 'older' sister publication to two other girl based comics the Swift and the Robin. But unfortunately there appears to be very little historic information about the publication. However for a teenage girl growing up in 1950s' Britain, the Girl was as essential reading for the lasses as the Eagle was for the lads. Each week in the Girl there'd be another gripping instalment of Susan of St Brides: Nurse of the Year; advice column 'Mother Tells You How' would provide wise words on how to care for goldfish; 'Concerning You' would reveal how to choose spectacles that suit your face and the Girl picture gallery of lovely paintings to cut out and keep would feature pin-ups of the day such as Humphrey Littleton, Princess Margaret and various garden birds.

In 2006 Carlton Books published The Best of the Girl and described it as a fascinating window on this hilariously wholesome bygone age of fine upstanding virtue for those too young to remember it, and a completely compulsive nostalgia trip for those who aren't.

I naturally never read the Girl and for some unknow reason I could never get on with the Eagle bu I know that there were thousands of boys who read it every week.

Take care

Yours,

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

You Write:


Ray Writes:


A little point, if it is of any interest to you. As an adjoiner to your reference of the Air-raid sirens being regularly checked; living in Plymouth we still hear the Warning siren being activated for checking at 1130 every Monday forenoon.  It is sounded from within the Dockyard at Devonport and living very close to that part of the City, I can actually see into the mid. part of the Dockyard from my front bedroom window, and can see a couple of the housings for these sirens  on buildings roofs within the dockyard confines. 

News and Views:

Elvis Presley's crypt was not auctioned after all. The crypt at Forest Hills Cemetery in Memphis where Elvis was entombed-- until his and his mother's bodies were buried at Graceland for security purposes-- was scheduled be auctioned off June 23 and 24. The auction company says it will not auction it "until Forest Hills finds a plan that best suits the interests of the fans while respecting and preserving the memory of Elvis Presley." Fans had objected to the sale. The crypt has remained empty since an ill-fated attempt to steal his body in 1977 forced relocation.

On this day 28th July 1960-1965

On 28/07/1960 the number one single was Good Timin' - Jimmy Jones and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Rawhide (ITV) 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 28/07/1961 the number one single was Temptation - Everly Brothers 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 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 28/07/1962 the number one single was I Can't Stop Loving You - Ray Charles 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 28/07/1963 the number one single was Confessin' - Frank Ifield 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 28/07/1965 the number one single was Mr Tambourine Man - Byrds 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.

Web Page 1060
21^st July 2012

Top Picture: The SWS sign still to be seen in Langstone Road.

Second Picture:  A wartime parafin heater

Third Picture: Paulsgrove Prefabs

After the Battle

Luckily most of us are just that little bit too young to remember the horrors of the Second World War, BUT if you are like me I can still remember the destruction and the buildings and other things that were left over from the war.  Things such as the first picture the SWS sign painted on the wall to indicate to the fire brigade where there was a Static Water Supply if they should need it if the water main was fractured. These supplies could have been purpose built reservoirs, large garden ponds or swimming pools, they all had their uses.

Most of us can remember air raid shelters the one in our garden was demolished before I can remember but our next door neighbour still had a purpose built brick one where he kept his crop of apples and my Grandfather had two! A brick built one for himself and my Grandmother and an Anderson shelter for his children, he was a vry strange man.! I have heard from amny of you over the years who remember their parents using the air raid shelter as a shed, or a stor, or a chicken run or any number of uses. Whatever it was used for after the war I am sure during the hostilites our parents would have loved to have a parafin heater as shown in the seond picture to heat the shelter, but there again parafin would have been hard to come by.

What else? Ah the air raid siren which was run up and tested every Monday morning at 10.00. Our local one was sited behind the New Inn in Drayton. This went on well into the 1960’s and in fact the ones in the Dockyard were still tested regularly up until a few years ago.

Nissan huts. Who remembers them? They seemed to have sprouted up all over the town to house the military when they were stationed in Pompey. I remember rows of these thngs in Rugby Camp in Hilsea and in fact I think they wre used well into the 1970’s as an overflow teaching centre for Highbury College.

Looking at Portsdown Hill today, apart from the Forts the other wartime site lies just to the west of Fort Purbrook, this is the gun inplacement. It is still there rotting away it was something that I could look out at as I lay in bed at home more than 50 years ago.

I think I am right in saying that we no longer have any Prefabs left in Portsmouth and I know there was a great affection for these modular buildings to replace bomb damaged housing. I know that several of you had experience in living in one after all there were so many. Some on Highbury, some on King George V playing Fields and some in Paulsgrove. In fact some of the two storied Paulsgrove Prefabs which were built as a temporary solution to the housing problem are still in situ 50 years on as people will not leave them, such is their attachment for them. See the bottom picture.

Other, much smaller things were still around when we were young and for the adventurous boy (or should that be nosy?) there was a wealth of stuff to be picked up on the Farlington Marshes. Shell and bullet cases (most discharged but we did find the odd live bullet and tried to set it off. We must have been mad!), rusty ammunition boxes, gas masks, discarded pieces of military hardware and even odd bits of metal with writing or numbers on and if you found a piece with German writing you were a real hero. 

Other items could be bought from the three ex government supplies shops in town but I spoke of those only a few weeks ago.

Wherever we went in Portsmouth in the 1950’s there were bomb sites and some of these were still there in the 60’s. Whole areas in central Portsmouth were flattened and  lot of Lake Road and Arundel Street was wired off with large bomb holes or unsafe houses behind the wire. I am just glad that I do not remember and bomb damage around the area I played in.

Before finishing I cannot fail to mention the war injured men and women around when we were kids. We did not realise what they went through, for example my father in law was a POW in Japan and I cannot even start to comprehend what he went through.  Sometime we would see someone in a long black invalid carriage which was propelled by chain driven handles and the injured man mad his way along the pavement, these vehicles were improved on and soon an electric version was seen about and then the ‘Noddy Car’ was developed. We had no understanding of the pain and hurt these folks had suffered. Very occasionally in Commercial Road there would be a man who had had to resort to begging to live and would be sitting there with a sign saying ‘ex service please help’. At least we don’t see that these days.

Wartime memorabilia is big business today, if only some of us had hung on to the things we found as kids or the war trophies our fathers brought home with them, we would be sitting on a fortune right now. But I am extremely glad that I am just that little bit too young to remember the war!

Stay in touch,

Yours,

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

You Write:


Mary Writes:-

Re the Brickwoods article, I went to Brankesmere, a large house in Southsea, for social services meetings, training etc until Portsmouth Social Services upped and moved. It was a beautiful old house wth lovely grounds  including a huge fishpond with some very big goldfish. I was told that it was built by a member of the Brickwood family for a girlfriend. 

News and Views:


Maria Cole, mother of Natalie Cole and widow of Nat "King" Cole, died Tuesday in a Boca Raton, Florida hospice from cancer at the age of 89. Maria was a singer herself, front bands with Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Benny Carter before marrying Nat.

Cliff Richard carried the Olympic torch on its journey from Greece to the London Olympics. Sir Cliff ran his stint on Saturday night June 30 in Birmingham.

On this day 21^st  July 1960-1965

On 21/07/1960 the number one single was Good Timin' - Jimmy Jones and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Rawhide (ITV) 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 21/07/1961 the number one single was Runaway - Del Shannon and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Labour Party Political Broadcast (all channels) 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 21/07/1962 the number one single was I Can't Stop Loving You - Ray Charles 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 21/07/1963 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 21/07/1964 the number one single was House of the Rising Sun - Animals and the number one album was Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones. The top rated TV show was Labour Party Political Broadcast (all channels) 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 21/07/1965 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. he big news story of the week was First Mariner 4 photos of Mars received.

Web Page 1058
14^th July 2012

Top Picture: Woolworths wall of glass at the back of the Commercial Road store.

Second Picture:  The front of the store in the 1950’s


Before we start on this weeks page just a look back at last weeks. I asked if anyone would be interested in a nostalgia booklet. I have had a great response and so I will go ahead. The book is being proof read at the moment and so should hit the streets in about a fortnight. I anticipate the price to be in the region of £2.75 +p&p but I will be in touch soon.


Peter

The Wonder of Woolworths.

Although not strictly in our time scale but I have come across this fascinating history of the post war Woolworths in Commercial Road. After all we all went to Woolies.

The original Woolworth store in Commercial Road, Portsmouth was destroyed by enemy action on 11 January 1941 so the business was transferred to the branch in nearby London Road, Fratton. After the end of the war Woolworths Management Board decided to top up the Government's rebuilding grant and to commission a store in Portsmouth large enough to the stock their entire product range. The company architect, Harold Winbourne, adapted the modern design that he had used for other blitz reinstatements so as to incorporate a large curved wall with glazed panels at the back of the premises. The spectacular glazed window provided natural light and panoramic views to the customer restaurant in the new Store. The pictures and subsequent Woolworths pictures featured on this site were all taken by the Construction Department's own photographer in the autumn of 1952.

Later, this panoramic view from the building disappeared when the store was adapted in the Eighties when the land behind was made into a shopping centre, losing the back section, but it still stands today. This new store traded as a Woolworth superstore from 26 October 1950 until 27 December 2008.

 Woolworths own construction team built the store from the foundations up and the company announced that the phoenix rose from the ashes of the original premises destroyed by enemy bombing on 11 January 1941.

The was completed in Autumn 1952. The sheer scale of the Woolworth store compared to the neigbouring shops was not immediately apparent from the frontage. When the store first opened in 1950, building work on the upper floors and rear of the sales floor was still continuing but the whole store was not completed on schedule in 1953.

 What was on sale in this new store? After years of austerity, 1949 marked the official end of clothes rationing in the UK. Woolworth had started to build its fashion range during the war after dropping its sixpenny maximum in 1940.
Clothing was identified as a potential growth area for the Fifties.  In the new Portsmouth store the company executives allocated a whole island counter to Clothing whilst the product selection included tights, stockings and underwear, along with children’s clothes ad a limited range of ladies blouses and pullovers for men and women. Even extension pieces were fixed to the counter tops to allow some of the garments to be displayed hanging. Previously Woolworths had arranged all of its products between glass dividers on the counter top.

Early fashion sales were encouraging. When the Portsmouth store was extended in 1953 the range was given a lot more space. The clothing counters had almost a quarter of the ground sales floor. By this time the displays included a whole island counter for kidswear, another for ladieswear and a third for menswear.
To complete the offer there was also a comprehensive range of lingerie, hosiery and belts. Prices were kept competitive with most garments selling for five shillings (25p) or less. A few items were offered at higher prices of up to 17/6 (seventeen shillings and sixpence or 87½p).

By 1955 the positive customer reaction to the clothing ranges had encouraged the company to experiment. They extended the range of higher priced lines and pushed ahead with more up-to-date display ideas. New lingerie ranges were also displayed hanging. A long-standing Leicestershire supplier made the range, which was of much higher quality than any Woolworth store had offered before. The 8/11d (44½p) price was very competitive.

The final wave of rebuilding saw the opening of an upper sales floor, with a customer restaurant and a large new clothing department. Garments were displayed hanging on the walls. The shop fittings included new spotlighting to give extra prominence to the feature. For the first time customers were invited to select for themselves from the displays rather than asking an assistant for help. The product selection included a number of garments costing between twenty and forty shillings (£1 to £2). Product quality was upgraded and the company Buyer chose a number of Ladybird garments. Woolworth insisted that their name rather than Ladybird should appear on the product labels.

 By the end of the 1950’s the new upmarket clothing ranges were offered in more than a dozen stores. Sales had grown steadily.The Woolworth Board was confident that they would be able to overtake Marks and Spencer in the Sixties, as more stores were modernised and the range was extended across the chain. But M&S had other ideas!

Showcases were a new feature at the Portsmouth store they were built into the back of the front windows and were used to display perfumes, fancy goods, clocks and jewellery. The displays normally included small sign cards indicated the counter number in-store where the item could be purchased.

 In the 1950s most large city centre Woolworth stores offered hot meals and drinks throughout the day. Where space allowed they had a large restaurant, which some stores called the Cafeteria. If space was tight they had a smaller Tea Bar. These were the equivalents of what the Americans called the Woolworth Lunch Counter or Soda Fountain. For many shoppers this was an oasis in the midst of a day's shopping.

In Portsmouth a spectacular curved staircase with huge picture windows,
led up to a large, modern Restaurant on a mezannine floor. The balcony had views across the sales floor below. Customers would help themselves to a tray and make their selection from the wide range of hot and cold meals that were on offer. Meals were served throughout the day, with the bacon and egg breakfast for one shilling and ninepence (about 9p) a firm favourite.

The large seating area was only ever seen empty before the store opened in the morning. Customers were allowed into the restaurant an hour before the main store opened, with the first service at 8am each day. For a spell the restaurant even opened on a Sunday, while the main store remained closed. By 8.30am customers struggled to find a seat for their cooked breakfast in the early 1950s! Further waves of customers crammed the restaurant for coffee and teacakes from 10.30 and for lunch from noon. Many people made the Woolies Restaurant a meeting point in Portsmouth. I am one of those who visited this restaurant with my Mum .Were you there too?

  Stay in touch,

Yours,

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

You Write:

Christine Writes :


Loved the Brickwoods article........my Mum was secretary to the chief architect at Brickwoods for many years in the 70s and 80s and my husband "enjoyed" plenty of holiday jobs whilst at university, labouring in the Brickwoods yards and delivering beer to the surrounding pubs. He met some real characters there, some who could not read or write but could throw a heavy barrel onto the lorry with great ease!


Griff Writes: 


The aircraft you show on the side bar is a De Havilland Dove  and the 4 engine version was the DH Heron. The 2nd aircraft photo is a Vickers Varsity and the photo was taken at Thorney Island (and not Portsmouth Airport) when Thorney was RAF No.2 Air Navigation School .....about 1956/7

News and Views:

Eric Sykes has died at the age of 89 after a short illness. In wide-ranging career, he will be remembered best for the long-running and widely acclaimed Sykes And A... TV series with Hattie Jacques. He also wrote scripts for stars such as Peter Sellers, Frankie Howerd and Stanley Unwin. His manager, Norma Farnes, said: "Eric Sykes, 89, star of TV, stage and films died peacefully after a short illness.

Also Oscar-winning film star Ernest Borgnine has died at the age of 95.

On this day 14^th July 1960-1965

On 14/07/1960 the number one single was Good Timin' - Jimmy Jones and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Rawhide (ITV) 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 14/07/1961 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.

On 14/07/1962 the number one single was I Can't Stop Loving You - Ray Charles 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.

On 14/07/1963 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. The big news story of the week was UK Ministry of Defence proposed.

14/07/1964 the number one single was It's All Over Now - Rolling Stones and the number one album was Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones. The top rated TV show was Labour Party Political Broadcast (all channels) 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 14/07/1965 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. The big news story of the week was Mont Blanc Tunnel officially opened.