Web Page  No 2112

6^th December 2014

First Picture: Cornish Ware

 Second Picture: Gas Iron

 Third Picture: Traditional Clothes Horse

In the Kitchen

During a conversation the other evening Pam and I got to talking about the kitchens we had at home when we were kids. The first thing to come was the green and cream kitchen cabinet with the etched glass doors at the top and a drop down enamel surface as a work surface in the middle and ventilated doors to the cupboards underneath for storage. Actually we did not have one of these at home as our cabinet was built in by a previous home owner years before but Pam’s family did have one and so did the two of us when we moved into our very first home, a furnished flat in North End Avenue when we were first married, that was back in 1967.

The conversation soon led onto comparing the Cornish Ware that our mothers owned. Every home seemed to have these they were china storage jars with lids and decorated with stripes usually blue and white with the words of the contents on the side in black lettering. This was supplanted by the modern pottery Hornby wear for the storage of tea sugar and coffee etc. These items usually came in either green or tan with black leaf and branch design. They were a popular wedding present in the mid 1960’s so we all had almost a complete set of these! Other items from our first home included a complete set of Homepride Flour Grader men (large and small), a Horlicks mug complete with blue night cap top, various spice racks and in our case when we got married five different cheese boards.

Back to our life at home when we were young; we both discovered that our mothers owned enamel bread bins with lids that were lifted off from the top and with the word Bread written in shadow letters on the front. But this was not the only piece of enamel ware in the kitchen because lurking somewhere in the cupboards were enamel saucepans, pie dishes, metal plates and kitchen utensils all chipped with nasty flaked pieces of enamel around the edges.

Both of our grandmothers owned that terrifying piece of apparatus known as the gas iron. My grandmothers was green with a black wooden covered handle and once lit it coughed and spat the whole time she used it and it scared the living daylights out of me. My mother was more modern she had a Swan electric iron which she plugged into the bulb holder hanging from the ceiling, this had an adaptor in it so the iron could be used at the same time that the light bulb was turned on. Scares you to death now doesn’t it but it was normal practice then, you all must have seen it.

For the average housewife all kitchen tools, knives, strainers and mashers were all made by just one company, Prestige, they were attractive, colourful, affordable and mostly of poor quality, the knives never keeping their cutting edge for more than just a few days. But then she could always sharpen it on the Prestige knife sharpener which always seemed to strip off shards of metal from the knife every time it was used. For the home baker there was another name to look for, the Tala Range of kitchen utensils. This company specialized in cake tins and tray, piping bags and icing nozzles in fact most items required for home baking. Another weapon in the kitchen armoury was the rotary egg whisk which replaced the old traditional hand balloon whisk. Something else that my mother owned, but never used as far as I know was a strange glass tube like item with a plunger and whisk which was supposed to be a cream maker. I am sure she had no idea how it worked and neither did I, I still don’t.

Wash day in our house was always a time consuming period. My mother never, ever owned a washing machine which meant that any whites to be washed had to be place in a large galvanised pan, normally made by Beldray, which was then placed on the gas stove and filled with water and there it boiled away quite happily with a bar of Sunlight Soap in it until the clothes were deemed to be white enough. Once washed and rinsed it was then time to place all the washing in the now emptied pan and then to carry it out into the garden shed where the mangle lived, but I know I have spoken about these instruments of torture before so I will leave it there. Then it was time to peg out all the items onto the washing line and then to wait for the longed for drying wind. If the day was overcast it meant adopting the indoors drying methods which meant that every open fire in the home would be found with a wooden clothes horse (these made great tents to play in when out of use) placed in front of it with many various items laid out on it to dry.

There we go another wander down Memory Lane it really is amazing to think that most of the above happened over sixty years ago.

Take care

Stay in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

You Write:

Mary Writes:

 I can remember the field where the circus always was. It was long before a road went in and blocks of flats were built. Sometimes several carthorses were tethered in the large area. I did go there with my mother to see the circus and it was supposed to be a treat. My mother thought it would be a good idea for the 2 of us to go. I had just acquired a brother and it was a mother and 1st child bonding time. I was not 4 and when the circus band struck up the noise horrified me. My mother said I shouted that it would wake my baby brother up. He was safe at home with my grandparents.  At some stage my shoe came off and as we were on the raised area my mother had to get a member of staff to retrieve it. I don`t suppose I was very popular that day! We did go again over the years and enjoyed it. We always had the circus on TV for Christmas Day too. Times have changed and so have ideas on animal performances so there are only a few circuses in the UK.

News and Views:

On this day 6^th December 1960-1965

On 06/12/1960 the number one single was It's Now Or Never - Elvis Presley and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Armchair Theatre (ABC) 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 06/12/1961 the number one single was Little Sister/His Latest Flame - Elvis Presley. 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 Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Sunday Night at the London Palladium (ATV)".

On 06/12/1962 the number one single was Lovesick Blues - Frank Ifield and the number one album was On Stage with the Black & White Minstrels - George Mitchell Minstrels. 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 Heavy smog kills 55 in London.

On 06/12/1963 the number one single was She Loves You - The Beatles 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 06 /12/1964 the number one single was Little Red Rooster - Rolling Stones 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 06/12/1965 the number one single was The Carnival is Over - Seekers 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

Web Page  No 2110

29th November 2014

First Picture: Lady Saunders ( Katie Boyle) with her new Triumph Herald

Second Picture: Lady Isobel Barnett with TV actress Eleanor Sommerfield

Celebrity

The cult of celebrity is nothing new, in fact it was rife on television during our formative years but then the Celebrities were all titled personages. Do you remember these two well known ladies?

Katie Boyle, Lady Saunders was born Caterina Irene Elena Maria Imperiali di Francavilla on 29th May 1926 and is an Italian-born British actress, television personality, and game-show panelist, well known for appearing on TV panel games such as What's My Line? and for presenting the Eurovision Song Contest in the 1960s and 1970s. She was also a former agony aunt, answering problems that had been posted to the TV Times by readers.

She was born in Florence and is the daughter of an Italian marquis (the Marchese Demetrio Imperiali di Francavilla) and Dorothy Kate Ramsden. She came to Great Britain in 1946 and started a modelling career, which included work for Vogue. She also appeared in several 1950s films, the first being Old Mother Riley, Headmistress, (1950) followed by The House in the Square (1951), Not Wanted on Voyage (1957), The Truth About Women, Intent to Kill (with Richard Todd ) in Les Carnets de Major Thompson/The Diary of Major Thompson (1955), with Jack Buchanan.

Having been an on-screen continuity announcer for the BBC in the 1950s in the 1960s she became a television personality regularly appearing on panel games and programmes such as What's My Line? and Juke Box Jury. She was the presenter for the 1960, 1963, 1968 and 1974 Eurovision Song Contests, all hosted in the UK. According to some sources she hosted the 1974 contest minus her underwear, which was cut off from under her satin dress moments before the broadcast began. She also hosted the UK qualifying heat, A Song for Europe, in 1961.

In 1982 she played herself in the BBC radio play The Competition, which told the story of a fictitious international song contest being staged in Bridlington. Katie Boyle was guest of honour at the Eurovision fan club conventions staged in 1988 and 1992.

She appeared at the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest held in Birmingham as a special guest of the BBC. Her other work has included theatre, television and radio. In 2004, she was a guest on a special Eurovision-themed celebrity version of The Weakest Link on BBC1, hosted by Anne Robinson. In a unique moment, she became the first, and to date the only, contestant ever to vote herself off the programme.

In 1947 she had married Richard Bentinck Boyle, 9th Earl of Shannon but the marriage was dissolved in 1955. The same year she married Greville Baylis, a racehorse owner, who died in 1976. In 1979 she married theatre impresario Sir Peter Saunders, who died in 2002. There were also rumours that she had a long-standing relationship with Prince Philip in the 1950s.

She is a lover of animals, especially dogs she now lives just off East Finchley's prestigious Bishops Avenue.

Isobel, Lady Barnett (30^th  June 1918 – 20^th  October 1980) popularly known as Lady Barnett,  she was a radio and television personality during the 1950s and 1960s.

She was born Isobel Morag Marshall in Aberdeen, the daughter of a doctor. She went to the independent Mount School in York and, following in her father's footsteps, studied medicine at Glasgow University. She qualified as a doctor in 1940, and married solicitor and company director Geoffrey Barnett the following year. He was knighted for political and public services to the city of Leicester in 1953. Lady Barnett gave up her medical career in 1948 and for the next twenty years was a Justice of the Peace.

In 1953 she arrived on BBC television as one of the original panel members of What's My Line? This made her a household name. She actually appeared on the programme for ten years. Elegant and witty, she was regarded by audiences as the epitome of the British aristocracy (although her title actually came from the fact that her husband had been knighted she was not an aristocrat, nor had she married into the aristocracy). She also made regular appearances on the long-running BBC radio series Any Questions?, on the radio.

The crystal-clear voice and discreet and engaging smile also made Lady Barnett greatly in demand as an after-dinner speaker, a role into which she slipped confidently, always delivering a highly amusing and perfectly polished speech.

When the more informal culture of the 1960s and 1970s brought an end to her television career, she became a reclusive and with an eccentric existence. In 1980, she was found guilty of shoplifting, being fined £75 for stealing a can of tuna and a carton of cream worth 87p from her village grocer. This brought her briefly back into the public eye; just four days later, she was found dead, when an electric fire was found in her bath with her.

Her story was sensitively recounted by several of her friends and colleagues in a 1991 BBC Radio 4 documentary in the Radio Lives series, which confirmed that she gave no indication whatsoever to any of her friends that she was planning to take her own life, and that she kept up a façade of "business as usual". She had one son, Alastair (born 1944). Her husband Sir Geoffrey died in 1970.

Stay in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

You Write:

News and Views:

On this day 29^th November 1960-1965

On 29/11/1960 the number one single was It's Now Or Never - Elvis Presley and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Take Your Pick (AR) 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 29/11/1961 the number one single was Little Sister/His Latest Flame - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Another Black & White Minstrell Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Sunday Night at the London Palladium (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 29/11/1962 the number one single was Lovesick Blues - Frank Ifield and the number one album was Out of the Shadows - Shadows. 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 29/11/1963 the number one single was You'll Never Walk Alone - Gerry & the Pacemakers 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 29/11/1964 the number one single was Baby Love - Supremes 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 29/11/1965 the number one single was Get Off Of My Cloud - Rolling Stones and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Take Your Pick (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  No 2108

22nd November 2014

First Picture: Lord Rockingham’s XI

Second Picture: Record label featuring Jack Good

Third Picture: Cherry Wainer and Don Storer

Backing Bands

There were a number of backing bands around in the late 1950’s but there was one definitive band at that was Lord Rockingham's XI who were the house band for the TV pop show Oh Boy!, which, as most of us remember, was one of the first dedicated pop music shows on TV in the late '50s. Jack Good, who controlled the Oh Boy! TV show, wanted a band to work with the various guest stars and also to provide a raucous instrumental backing for them. He already had the band's name, Lord Rockingham's XI which was based on a play on the words "rocking 'em" -- and he hired musical arranger Harry Robinson to get the band together.

Knowing the sort of sound that Jack Good was looking for, Harry Robinson put together a large collection of session musicians including Red Price and Rex Morris on tenor sax, Benny Greene and Cyril Reubens on baritone sax, Ronnie Black on double bass, Cherry Wainer (from South Africa) on organ, Bernie Taylor and Eric Ford on guitars, and Don Storer (he later married and toured with Cherry Wainer) and Reg Weller on percussion. The eleven of them produced an instrumental wall of sound and a stomping beat that quickly became synonymous with the show. The band would not be complete without the addition of backing singers and the originals were Marty Wilde and Cuddly Dudley.

Cherry Wainer was the eye catching organ player who. for most of the sessions, played the lead or melody line whilst sat in front of the band. Her Hammond organ was quilted in pink buttoned leather and she well known for wearing Alma Cogan type dresses.

Benny Greene, one of the baritone sax players, would go on to have a very long-lasting career on the jazz scene, but in the late 1950s rock & roll was all the rage. Despite the guest appearances by the likes of Billy Fury the most popular part of Oh Boy! was often the Lord Rockingham's XI interludes as they played a brand of rocking saxophone-dominated instrumental rock & roll that would go on to greatly influence the likes of Johnny & the Hurricanes.

Amazingly there were only 38 episodes of Oh Boy! and Lord Rockingham's XI appeared in 35 of them, although virtually none of the performances survived on videotape into the modern era.

A talking point among viewers was "just who is Lord Rockingham?," but he did not really exist and later on there was a legal battle between Jack Good, who invented the name, and Harry Robinson, who created the band and therefore the sound. The demand for their music exceeded the show's output and it was agreed that Jack Good should retain the name for the Oh Boy! show and the recordings, and Harry Robinson should have the rights for the live tour that took place throughout cities in the U.K. in the late 1950s. Indeed, you may well remember that on the record labels, they recorded for Decca, the name of the act was actually credited as Jack Good Presents Lord Rockingham's XI. See second picture.

They released their first single which was a double-A- sided record "Fried Onions" backed with "The Squelch," but despite their TV popularity, it was not a hit; but that all changed with the release of their second single, "Hoots Mon," a track based on the traditional Scottish song, "A Hundred Pipers." This raucous instrumental track soared all the way to number one in November 1958, selling over half a million copies, although the band members reputedly received only six pounds each session fee. Although nominally an instrumental, there were some Scottish-sounding words and interjections at the end of each chorus. They followed this massive hit early in 1959 with a lesser-selling title, "Wee Tom," but despite several further releases including "Ra-Ra Rockingham," "Farewell to Rockingham," and couple of  twist songs, "Newcastle Twist" and "Rockingham Twist," in 1962, none of their music hit the charts again. At the end of the rock & roll era, the group disbanded and all the members went their own way.

In 1968, EMI attempted to resurrect the band with an album, directed by Harry Robinson, titled The Return of Lord Rockingham, which included their number one hit "Hoots Mon" and versions of contemporary 1968 hits "Lady Madonna," "Yummy Yummy Yummy," "Mony Mony," "Baby Come Back," "Simon Says," and "The Son of Hickory Holler's Tramp," an album described as ideal music for parties, dances, or even listening to on your own. The album did not sell well and failed to chart, and Lord Rockingham's XI were consigned to an era in time associated with the fun and extravagance of rock & roll.

There was a very brief revival of their very first single when "Fried Onions" was used in a television advertisement for Options Indulgence hot chocolate drink which was first shown on UK TV in December 2011.

Stay in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

You Write: re Buffalo Bill

Maureen Writes:

Yet again thanks for your Manor Court Update - I look forward to it every week. I see that you have an enquiry about Buffalo Bill. My grandmother always said that she saw Buffalo Bill when she was a little girl on the Common. I found this website

http://www.buffalobill.org/pdfs/buffalo_bill_visits.pdf

which gives the dates of his shows in Portsmouth as Oct 3 -10 1891 and August 10-12 1903. The latter date would have been when Grandma saw him, as she was born in 1898. In 1903 she would have been living in Prince Albert Street, so it was probably Southsea Common that she was referring to.

Griff Writes:

In reply to Steve's article I have visited Buffalo Bill's grave on Lookout Mountain near Denver, Co. The grave is on top of the Rockie Mountains with outstanding views across the plain of Denver. I visited his grave when staying with my Daughter who was living in Colorado a few years back. It has become a Shrine really to the memory of Buffalo Bill.

With reference to Portsmouth North possible location the circus and travelling fairs were held in Cosham where the A27 now cuts West through to Paulsgrove from the big roundabout that takes you North up Portsdown Hill.  I can remember these circus's ( Oh! Dear! ) having been taken there as a very young Lad back in the very early 1950's by my Mum.

Buffalo Bill gave the last performance of his Wild West Show at Portsmouth, Virginia where he became ill with a cold and headed for his Wyoming ranch.  He stopped off at Denver to visit his sister but died suddenly from uremia on January 10, 1917.  Although Buffalo Bill left a will stating he wished to be buried on top of Cedar Mountain about five miles west of his town, Cody, Wyoming, his family changed those plans and after his remains lay in state in a bronze casket in the Capitol Rotunda in Denver, a service was held, and his body was placed in a temporary vault while a permanent tomb could be cut out of the solid granite atop Lookout Mountain about 18 miles west and south of Denver.

News and Views:

On this Day 22nd November1960-1965

On 22/11/1960 the number one single was It's Now Or Never - Elvis Presley and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Take Your Pick (AR) 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 22/11/1961 the number one single was Little Sister/His Latest Flame - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Another Black & White Minstrell Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Sunday Night at the London Palladium (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 22/11/1962 the number one single was Lovesick Blues - 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 22/11/1963 the number one single was You'll Never Walk Alone - Gerry & the Pacemakers 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was Socialists win Dundee West by-election.

On 22/11/1964 the number one single was Baby Love - Supremes 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 22/11/1965 the number one single was Get Off Of My Cloud - Rolling Stones 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 £not very interesting and 11.69 were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was Take Your Pick (AR)".

W   Web Page  No 2106

15^th November 2014

First Picture: Goon Show Days

Second Picture: Inspector Closeau

Third Picture: With Sophia Loren

Peter Sellers

After all this time I have come to realize that I have never dealt with one of Portsmouth’s famous sons, Peter Sellers. He was incredibly versatile, playing Chief Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther films with as much ease as Clare Quilty in Lolita. He was known as a Master of Mimicry and it was on this platform that he came to fame.

He was born on 8^th September 8, 1925 in Portsmouth as Richard Henry Sellers. He was literally born into show business. His parents were Music Hall performers, and he arrived while they were appearing at the Kings Theatre in Southsea, in fact he made his stage debut at the Kings Theatre when he was two weeks old. He began accompanying his parents in a variety act that toured the provincial theatres. He went on to study dance as a child before attending St. Aloysius’ Boarding and Day School for Boys in Islington, this was strange as this was a Roman Catholic school and his father was Protestant and mother Jewish!

As a teenager, he learned to play the drums and played with jazz bands and toured England as a member of the Entertainments National Service Association.

At the age of 18, he joined the Royal Air Force during World War II. There he became part of a group of entertainers who performed for the troops. As well as playing his drums he also did impersonations of some of the officers.

After the war, he struggled to launch his comic career, this was a hard road but after several previous attempts, he managed to land work with the BBC by winning over radio producer Roy Speer during a phone conversation. His impressive impersonations helped make him a beloved radio comedian. In 1951, Sellers joined fellow comics Spike Mulligan, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine and The Goon Show was born.

The success of The Goon Show helped Peter Sellers break into the film industry. After appearing in Down Among the Z Men (1952) with his radio colleagues, he managed to land a small part in the comedy The Ladykillers (1955) with Alec Guinness, a film which was destined to become a British Film classic. His career really took off in 1959 with I’m All Right, Jack and The Mouse That Roared. In The Mouse That Roared, he played three characters, including a duchess and X. This successful film helped introduce Peter Sellers to American movie-goers.

The Goon Show ended in 1960, but the program proved to be a strong influence on British comedy. It paved the way for such future comedy shows as Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Peter Sellers hit his stride in the early 1960’s with two of his most famous roles. It was at this time that he introduced audiences to the world’s most bumbling detective, Inspector Jacques Closeau, in Blake Edwards’s The Pink Panther (1963). The film proved to be such a huge success that it was quickly followed by the sequel A Shot in the Dark (1964).

Moving on he starred in Stanley Kubrick’s war satire Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), he once again showed his ability to tackle multiple characters, including the title role.

In 1964, he had his first heart attack. He was reportedly clinically dead for two and a half minutes before being revived. This incident marked the beginning of his heart troubles, and he later had a pacemaker installed to help manage his heartbeat. Making a full recovery, he continued to work in films but his films of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s had some decidedly mixed results.

It was his famed character Inspector Closeau that gave Peter Sellers a boost at the box office with 1974’s with The Return of the Pink Panther. This latest hit spawned three more Pink Panther movies. His best performance, however, was yet to come.

He earned rave reviews for his subtle, understated turn as the simple gardener in the film Chance in Being There. His character spouts ideas and comments based on his years of television-watching, which are confused by others as words of wisdom. For this he earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance.

He also had a reasonably successful recording career with albums such a Songs for Swinging Sellers and The Best of Sellers but who can forget the classic recordings with Sophia Loren (the only women that he said he truly loved). What can I add to that just to say Goodness Gracious Me!

After making this his career seemed to be on an upswing. But he never lived to realize this new wave of potential. He died in London hospital on July 24^th , 1980, after suffering another heart attack. He was survived by his fourth wife Lynne Frederick, and three children from previous marriages. His son Michael and daughter Sarah came from his first marriage to Anne Howe and daughter Victoria came from his second marriage to actress Britt Ekland. He was also briefly married to Miranda Quarry from 1970 to 1974.

Stay in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

You Write:

Steve Asks:-

A few years ago we were in the Buffalo Bill museum in Cody Wyoming ,the towns named after him.On his visits to England I noticed he put on shows in Portsmouth. North End was mentioned but I don't know if they meant the village as it would have been or north of the island ,either way it would need a large space. Any ideas?


 News and Views:

Acker Bilk dies. 

Acker Bilk who personified the trad jazz revival of the 1950s and '60s, has died after a lengthy illness at the age of 85.His most famous song Stranger on the Shore was the UK's biggest selling single of 1962 and made him an international star.

He was born Bernard Stanley Bilk, he changed his name to Acker - Somerset slang for "mate" - after learning to play the clarinet in the Army. His last concert was in August 2013.

Born in Pensford in Somerset, he tried a number of careers before borrowing a clarinet and copying recordings of famous jazz musicians while in the Army. He formed his first band in Bristol after his demobilisation. Known for his goatee, bowler hat and fancy waistcoat, he was awarded an MBE in 2001 for services to the music industry.

He was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2000 but recovered and continued to play concerts, the last of which was at the Brecon Festival last year.

He leaves his wife Jean, daughter Jenny and son Pete.

On this Day 15th November1960-1965

On 15/11/1960 the number one single was It's Now Or Never - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Tottenham Hotspur. The top rated TV show was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £ and 13.68 were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was Conservative Party Political Broadcast (all channels).

On 15/11/1961 the number one single was Little Sister/His Latest Flame - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Another Black & White Minstrell Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was The Royal Variety Performance (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 15/11/1962 the number one single was Lovesick Blues - Frank Ifield and the number one album was Out of the Shadows - Shadows. 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 15/11/1963 the number one single was You'll Never Walk Alone - 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 15/11/1964 the number one single was (There's) Always Something There to Remind Me - Sandy Shaw 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 15/11/1965 the number one single was Get Off Of My Cloud - Rolling Stones and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was The Royal Variety Performance (ATV) 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.