Total Pageviews

Translate

Thursday 28 August 2014

Web Page 2082

24th  August 2014


Top Picture: Ike




Second Picture: Liz taylor

Third Picture: Frankie Avalon

Forth Picture: Traditional Coke Bottles


The 50s . For sentimental !!

1950's version of an E-mail


I have no idea who put this together, but it is good !! Thanks to Steve for sending it in.


Long ago and far away, in a land that time forgot,
Before the days of Dylan , or the dawn of Camelot.
There lived a race of innocents, and they were you and me, 

For Ike was in the White House in that land where some were born,
Where navels were for oranges, and Peyton Place was porn. 

We longed for love and romance, and waited for our Prince,
Eddie Fisher married Liz , and no one's seen him since. 

We danced to 'Little Darlin,' and sang to 'Stagger Lee '
And cried for Buddy Holly in the Years That Made Me, Me. 

Only girls wore earrings then, and three was one too many,
And only boys wore flat-top cuts, except for Jean McKinney .

And only in our wildest dreams did we expect to see
A boy named George with Lipstick, in the Land That Made Me, Me. 

We fell for Frankie Avalon , Annette was oh, so nice,
And when they made a movie, they never made it twice. 

We didn't have a Star Trek Five, or Psycho Two and Three,
Or Rocky-Rambo Twenty in the Land That Made Me, Me. 

Miss Kitty had a heart of gold, and Chester had a limp,
And Reagan was a Democrat whose co-star was a chimp.

We had a Mr. Wizard , but not a Mr. T,
And Oprah couldn't talk yet, in the years That Made Me, Me.
We had our share of heroes, we never thought they'd go,
At least not Bobby Darin, or Marilyn Monroe.

For youth was still eternal, and life was yet to be,
And Elvis was forever in the Years That Made Me, Me. 

We'd never seen the rock band that was Grateful to be Dead,
And Airplanes weren't named Jefferson , and Zeppelins were not Led.
And Beatles lived in gardens then, and Monkees lived in trees,
Madonna was Mary in the Years That Made Me, Me.

We'd never heard of microwaves, or telephones in cars,
And babies might be bottle-fed, but they were not grown in jars.

And pumping iron got wrinkles out, and 'gay' meant fancy-free,
And dorms were never co-Ed in the Land That Made Me, Me.
We hadn't seen enough of jets to talk about the lag,
And microchips were what was left at the bottom of the bag. 

And hardware was a box of nails, and bytes came from a flea,
And rocket ships were fiction in the Land That Made Me, Me.

T-Birds came with portholes, and side shows came with freaks,
And bathing suits came big enough to cover both your cheeks. 

And Coke came just in bottles, and skirts below the knee,
And Castro came to power near the Land That Made Me, Me. 

We had no Crest with Fluoride, we had no Hill Street Blues,
We had no patterned panty hose or Lipton herbal tea

There were no golden arches, no Perrier to chill,
And fish were not called Wanda , and cats were not called Bill ..

And middle-aged was 35 and old was forty-three,
And ancient were our parents in the Land That Made Me, Me

But all things have a season, or so we've heard them say,
And now instead of Maybelline we swear by Retin-A. 

So now we face a brave new world in slightly larger jeans,
And wonder why they're using smaller print in magazines.
And we tell our children's children of the way it used to be,
Long ago and far away in the Land That Made Me, Me.


If you didn't grow up in the fifties, you missed one of the greatest times in history,

Hope you enjoyed this read as much as I did.

 Stay in touch

Peter
DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

You Write:

News and Views:

On this Day 24th  August 1960-1965

On 24/08/1960 the number one single was Apache - The Shadows 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 Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 24/08/1961 the number one single was You Don't Know - Helen Shapiro and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was Burma becomes world's first Buddhist republic.

On 24/08/1962 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.

On 24/08/1963 the number one single was Bad to Me - Billy J Kramer 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.

On 24/08/1964 the number one single was Do Wah Diddy Diddy - Manfred Mann and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. 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 Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 24/08/1965 the number one single was I Got You Babe - Sonny and Cher and the number one album was Help - The Beatles. 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.



Thursday 21 August 2014

Web Page 2080

17th  August 2014






Top Picture: Florence Ballard
Second Picture: Mary Wilson

Third Picture: Betty Travis (sorry I cannot find a better picture of her)

Forth Picture: Diana Ross
Girls!!!
I must admit that when I hear the phrase Boy Bands or Girl Bands these days it does rather annoy me. To me a band, be it male or female, actually play instruments, but not todays band, it is just another phrase for singing groups.
Putting all that aside lets look at the girl groups of our youth.

A girl group is by definition an act featuring several young female singers who generally harmonise together. The Andrews Sisters were the most successful of the early girl groups but I suppose that  The Supremes were the most successful of the wave of girl groups of the 1960s, holding 12 number-one singles.
The Chordettes, The Fontane Sisters, and The McGuire Sisters were popular from the dawn of the rock era, if not earlier, with all three acts topping the pop charts at the end of 1954 to the beginning of 1955. In early 1956 the Bonnie Sisters were a one-hit wonder with "Cry Baby", as were The Teen Queens with "Eddie My Love". The Bobbettes lasted for 5 1/2 months with "Mr. Lee" in 1957, and The Chantels were charting from 1957 to 1963 (including 1958's "Maybe" and 1961's "Look In My Eyes"). 
However, the group often considered to have started the girl group genre is The Shirelles, who first reached the Top 40 with "Tonight's the Night", and in 1961 became the first girl group to reach number one with "Will You Love Me Tomorrow.  The Shirelles solidified their success with five more top 10 hits, most particularly 1962's number one hit "Soldier Boy", over the next two and a half years.
Songwriters and producers quickly recognized the potential of this new approach and recruited existing acts (or, in some cases, created new ones) to record their songs in a girl-group style. Phil Spector recruited The Crystals, The Blossoms, and The Ronettes, while Gerry Goffin and Carol King handled much of the output of The Cookies. Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller would likewise foster The Exciters, The Dixie Cups, and The Shangri-Las. Motown labels also masterminded several major girl groups, beginning with The Marvelettes and later with Martha and the Vandellas, The Velvelettes, and The Supremes. The Gypsies, later renamed The Flirtations, sounded like The Supremes but were nowhere near as good. The Paris Sisters had success from 1961, especially with "I Love How You Love Me", to 1964. The Sensations and The Chiffons,were also prominent in the early 1960s. One-hit wonder The Jaynetts' "Sally Go 'Round the Roses" achieved a mysterious sound quite unlike that of any other girl group. In 1964 one-hit wonder The Murmaids took "Popsicles and Icicles" to the top 3 in January, The Carefrees' "We Love You Beatles" scraped the top 40 in April, and The Jewels' "Opportunity" was small in December. Except for a small number of the foregoing groups and possibly The Toys and the Sweet Inspirations, the only girl group with any significant chart presence from the beginning of the British Invasion through 1970 was The Supremes.
The Supremes were the premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s. Founded as the Primettes in Detroit in 1959, the Supremes were the most commercially successful of Motown's acts and are, to date, America's most successful vocal group. Most of their hits were written and produced by Motown's main songwriting and production team, Holland–Dozier–Holland. At their peak in the mid-1960s, the Supremes rivaled the Beatles in worldwide popularity and their success made it possible for future African American R&B and soul musicians to find mainstream success.
The founding members were Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, Diana Ross, and Betty McGlown. They formed the Primettes as the sister act to the Primes (with Paul Williams and Eddie Kendricks, who went on to form the Temptations). Barbara Martin replaced Betty McGlown in 1960, and the group signed with Motown the following year as the Supremes. But Barbara Martin left the act in early 1962, and Diana Ross, Florence Ballard, and Mary Wilson carried on as a trio.

During the mid-1960s, the Supremes achieved mainstream success with Diana Ross as lead singer. In 1967, Motown president Berry Gordy renamed the group Diana Ross & the Supremes, and replaced Florence Ballard with Cindy Birdsong.

Diana Ross left to pursue a solo career in 1970 and was replaced by Jean Terrell, at which point the group's name reverted to the Supremes. After 1972, the line up changed more frequently; Lynda Laurence, Scherrie Payne, and Susaye Greene all became members of the group during the mid-1970s. The Supremes finally disbanded in 1977 after an 18-year run.

What happened to the original group members?
After being dropped Florence Ballard struggled with alcoholism, depression and poverty for a period of three years. She was making an attempt for a musical comeback when she died of cardiac arrest in February of 1976 at the age of 32

Today, Mary Wilson is increasingly noted for her critically acclaimed jazz and blues cabaret show and vocal appearances in The Lena Horne Story, an international touring work about the life of America's famed first African American musical movie star.

While all four members sang lead on stage, it is only the other three members who ever had leads on studio recordings. Betty McGlown eventually became Mrs. Betty Travis and left the Primettes in 1960 to concentrate on her new marriage. Betty McGlown-Travis died of diabetes in January, 2008 at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan at the age of 66.

Diana Ross was named the "Female Entertainer of the Century" by Billboard magazine. In 1993, the Guinness Book of World Records declared her the most successful female music artist in history due to her success in the United States and United Kingdom for having more hits than any female artist in the charts with a career total of 70 hit singles with her work with the Supremes and as a solo artist. She has sold more than 100 million records worldwide when her releases with the Supremes and as a solo artist are all tallied. In 1988 Diana Ross was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as member of the Supremes alongside Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson.

She is the recipient of the Kennedy Centre Honours in 2007 and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.
Stay in touch

Peter
DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

You Write:

News and Views:

On this Day 17th  August 1960-1965

On 17/08/1760 the number one single was Please Don't Tease - Cliff Richard & the Shadows 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 Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 17/08/1761 the number one single was You Don't Know - Helen Shapiro and the number one album was Black & White Minstrel Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. 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 Ipswich were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 17/08/1762 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.

On 17/08/1763 the number one single was Sweets For My Sweet - Searchers 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.

On 17/08/1764 the number one single was Do Wah Diddy Diddy - Manfred Mann and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was Conservative Party Political Broadcast (all channels) 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 17/08/1765 the number one single was Help - The Beatles and the number one album was Liverpool. 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 were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. Watts race riots in US and the big news story of the day was Riviera Police (AR)




Wednesday 13 August 2014

Web Page 2078

10th  August 2014


Top Picture: A typical Merit Chemistry Set



Second Picture: Jars and other glass items which were needed.

Chemistry

A chemistry set, we were told, was an essential educational toy allowing the user (typically a young male teenager) to perform simple, non-dangerous, chemistry experiments at home by himself or with his friends. Mind you in our case the aim always was to make something that smelt terrible, went bang or changed the properties of something. It was much more fun than study!

A typical Chemistry set of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s consisted of a small collection of chemicals in little glass  phials or test tubes and some of the associated scientific apparatus usually made of glass (no plastic for us!), which was designed for the user to perform their own, unsupervised experiments. Usually the recipient of a gift of a Chemistry set was a young man, and often came as a birthday or Christmas gift from a well meaning Uncle or Aunt (very rarely the Parents) and the intention was that the child should have some educational fun and hopefully learn some of the mysteries of the world of science. However adults also sometimes enjoyed playing with chemistry sets or other scientific kits but this never happened in my case.

The best known Chemistry sets were produced by a company called Thomas Salter Science and they were manufactured in Scotland, this company later became Salters Science. Then come the 1960’s another firm,  MERIT, started to produce the sets that most of us remember. Dekkertoys was another make and they also created a range of sets which were similar to the others mentioned and like them they came complete with glass test tubes of dry chemicals.

For the serious student a GCSE equipment set was specially produced offering students much better quality equipment and a greater range of chemicals and equipment.

By far the biggest complaint in modern times about chemistry sets from people of our age is that they are now only a shadow of what they were only a couple of decades or so ago - the contents are now so safe that the range of interesting or spectacular experiments has been drastically curtailed - some would say, beyond the point of all reason. Several social commentators noted that from the 1980’s onwards, concerns were started to be raised about them being used to produce illegal drugs at home and this has led to the chemistry sets becoming increasing bland and very unexciting.

But for many of us who had a chemistry set and we wanted to either extend our range of equipment or chemicals it was onto our bikes and pedal down through North End to Glanvilles, the chemist, on the corner at 160 Kingston Road. This dispensing chemist stocked all sorts of scientific equipment, chemicals, crystals and powders in small jars much of which was on display in the right hand shop window. As the customer entered the shop, on the right hand side was a myriad of glass wear and tubing, more than you were ever likely to need or want. The shop also sold retorts, gauzes and spirit and Bunsen Burners. However under a glass-topped counter were all kinds of jars and packets of different chemicals and ingredients already to be bought, taken home in the saddle bag and put to work in the shed laboratory.

A typical schoolboys shopping list would include: beakers, conical flasks, filters and funnels, glass tubing and rubber bungs, pipettes, test tubes and racks, litmus paper and to clean all that special equipment special small brushes.

The choice of chemicals was almost endless Copper Sulphate, Alum, Cobalt Chloride, Ferrous Sulphate, Iron Filings, Magnesium, Potassium, all the Sulphur and Sodium derivatives and Zinc plus many, many more.
Now I bet there are some things on the lists above, which has made your mind travel back through the decades and you are saying “I had forgotten that!”

We all played around with these chemistry sets and as far as I am aware none of us was ever seriously hurt whilst conducting our experiments. But whether it was just by luck or chance I don’t know. All I have to say is that I never did succeed in blowing up my fathers garden shed, big holes in the mud on Farlington Marshes yes, but our shed always stayed in tact! 

Stay in touch

Peter
DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

You Write:

John remembers:-


I liked your article on the Gentleman of the Road which            brought  back a memory of a tramp who was admitted to my     hospital ward in Chichester back in the late 70s, this man was   admitted directly to a side ward as he was suffering from an      unknown chest complaint and he was also infested with lice and other creepy crawlies. So we nursed him in isolation to protect  the other patients.

When I and another nurse started to remove his very dirty grubby and smelly clothes we found over £8000 in various locations within his clothing. The hospital bosses decided to destroy his    clothing by burning them.

On his discharge from hospital this gentleman was very             annoyed that the hospital used some of his money to purchase   new clothes, the ungrateful old sod threatened to sue the            hospital but reluctantly accepted the situation. He then went onhis merry way never to be seen again.

Mary remembers:-

Did enjoy last weeks blog as I remember seeing tramps walking along the Havant Road at Farlington.  My mother would give them something to buy a cup of tea and she would tell us that these men weren`t not to be frightened of. Many years later I was living in Devon and sometimes tramps would come through the village where I lived.  I was told that they walked to Buckfastleigh where they spent the night under shelter. I had an Austrian student staying in my house and one morning there was a knock at the door. It was a tramp, so following my mothers example, I made some tea and hastily made sandwiches. He had a Billycan and poured the tea in it. I grabbed some fruit and chocolate biscuits and handed it over. He seemed pleased and was extremely polite. Off he went and my daughters were quite surprised but even more amazed was my Austrian student who said he was going to tell my husband  that I had a boyfriend! I did come in for a bit of criticism from two of the neighbours who said we`d be inundated by tramps  but we weren`t. I was supported by another neighbour who said these people ask for nothing really and don`t cost the country anything. There was a tramp who lived in a cave up Haldon Hill near Exeter and he was there for some years. People would leave stuff for him in a quarry type place where he lived. Eventually he was taken ill and went into hospital. After that he went into care quite happily, apparently enjoying his food, central heating , clean clothes and a hot bath! He was very popular with the staff who doted on him. He spent his remaining time with them. 

Chris responds to my query about Colyers Pit.


I remember that guy in the chalk pit too. I can recall a waft of smoke coming out of the chimney in cold weather. No idea what his name was, but he used to scare me and my mates off as well! In those days Upper Drayton Lane was open at the top too, not a dead end as it is today.

I wonder if we ever met years ago, in the area of that chalk pit was one of the main places I used to go. I was quite fond of catching lizards and slow worms on that part of the hill, a little farther up and to the east, near the fort, we used to catch adders too. Wonder we never got bitten!!


I had a mate Michael Harrison who used to live in Hilltop Crescent in those days, his Father was a woodwork teacher. Would love to know where he is now, we lost touch early 1960s sadly.

News and Views:

On this Day 10th  August 1960-1965

On 10/08/1960 the number one single was Please Don't Tease - Cliff Richard & the Shadows 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 Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was First communications satellite launched.

On 10/08/1961 the number one single was You Don't Know - Helen Shapiro and the number one album was Black & White Minstrel Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Top Secret (AR) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 10/08/1962 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.

On 10/08/1963 the number one single was Sweets For My Sweet - Searchers 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.

On 10/08/1964 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. The big news story of the day was Novelist Ian Fleming dies.

On 10/08/1965 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. The big news story of the day was First woman High Court Judge.




Wednesday 6 August 2014

Web Page 2076

3rd August 2014


Top Picture: Portrait of a Tramp


Second Picture: The most famous ‘Little Tramp of All’ Charlie Chaplain

Tramps



One of the things that I remember from my youth, especially during the summer time, is the regular appearance of the Tramp. Those gentlemen of the road, they were normally men although there were a few ladies who adopted this life, who would wander the countryside living rough and working on the land as and when they could.

The one I remember always looked the same, a very battered black fedora hat, lank greasy hair and unkempt beard, an old Royal Naval great coat tied in the middle with thick sisal, trousers with string around the calves and battered Army boots. All his worldly goods were either hanging from his waist or rammed into an ex government knapsack over his shoulder and there was always a bundle in one hand. In his other hand would be a walking staff cut from the hedgerows and was obviously a good and trusted friend. He would pass our house on the main road every Spring and pass back again in late summer, where he went to or where he came from I have no idea and sad to say it was years before we realised that we had not seen him for some time, we assume that he died somewhere on his regular circular route.

From what I can understand there were two main types of tramp, those with a beat or circuit and those who just wandered the countryside as the whim took them. Those with a circuit would have a regular walk getting to know the people and places on the way. They got to know where they were welcome and where they were safe, those who would give them temporary work or a handout and those who would allow him to stay in an outhouse or barn. The work would involve some form of harvesting apple picking, pea picking, hop picking or the like, all of which has now been superseded by harvesting by mechanical means. Some tramps developed a talent for hedge laying or ditching and other country crafts but again all these tasks are now either defunct or done mechanically.

The wandering tramp was totally different they would wander the whole country wherever the fancy took them. These were the ones who would use the secret signs we have all heard about to inform fellow tramps of friendly or hostile areas. They had no set route and were almost impossible to track.

Most of the tramps, but not all, were ex-servicemen who, after demobilisation found it difficult or impossible to resume the life they had before their military service and had nowhere else to go. Even though I say servicemen there were a small number of lady tramps, it has been estimated that there were about two women tramps for every male tramp. The history of these women can only be guessed at.   

One thing that a tramp was very definite about is that they were the Gentlemen (or Ladies) of the Road and not gypsies or Romany’s, these nomadic peoples were most certainly not part of the tramps way of life.

The derivation of the word ‘tramp’ is interesting, it comes from the Middle English as a verb meaning to "walk with heavy footsteps" (as in the modern English trample) probably from the German language. This was later converted into use as a noun to describe a particular sort of person.
The author George Orwel made this comment about tramps in the 1930’s:-
A tramp is typically English and no one knows how many individuals make up the tramp population but it was particularly bad in England and Wales when unemployment was bad during the Depression. To assist him, the authorities at that time created asiles (workhouses) where they could find food and shelter. They were about fourteen miles apart and no one could stay for more than one night, but they were fed and provided with somewhere to sleep with a roof over their heads, but they had to seek a new resting-place every night.
With a modern society we hope not to see tramps around any more although, despite the fact that I have not seen one personally for years, I have no doubt they are still around somewhere roaming around the countryside and living off their wits.

 Stay in touch

Peter
DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

You Write:

News and Views:

On this Day 3rd August 1960-1965

On 03/08/1960 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 03/08/1961 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.The big news story of the day was No Hiding Place (AR).

On 03/08/1962 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.The big news story of the day was Marilyn Monroe dies.

On 03/08/1963 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.The big news story of the day was Computer will predict chances of marriage success.

On 03/08/1964 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 03/08/1965 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.