Web Page No 2488

30th June 2018

Before we start, I know I said Drayton Final will be the last book but more info has come in and I am three quarters of the way through Drayton Observer but I need your help. I know of the Kindergarden and Dancing School run by Miss Dorothy Palser of 53 Sea View Road but that is about all I know of it. Can anyone help with info about the dancing schools in the area?

1^st Picture: Billy Cotton in Wakey Wakey pose

2^nd Picture: Billy Cotton Racing Driver

3^rd Picture: Bill Cotton Junior

4^th Picture: Cathy Kay and Alan Breeze

Wakey, Wakey

For several decades Billy Cotton was a household name in Britain, as a band leader, radio and TV presenter. But there was a lot more to him than met the eye. Billy Cotton was showbusiness for at least two decades after the war.

His Sunday lunchtime radio show - which transferred to television in 1956 - was heralded with his trademark catch phrase "Wakey wakey" and became a staple for millions of households between 1949 and 1968.

One of Billy Cotton's band's most famous songs was "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts" his appeal was always "broad brush" and never "vulgar".

What many people did not realise was that despite being a band leader and arranger he could not play an instrument or read a note of music.

At its peak in the early 1960s the show had an audience of 20 million and regular guests included Dionne Warwick, Cliff Richard, Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw, Adam Faith, Tom Jones and Lulu.

And many, like Tom Jones and Russ Conway, got their big break on the show.

He was 50 when the programme first aired, but he had packed an awful lot into those 50 years and his life sounds like something out of Boy's Own.

Billy Cotton was born on 6^th  May 1899 and was the youngest of 10 children in a close-knit, working class family in Smith Square, Westminster, which was a very different place from what it is today. He joined the army at the age of 15 - his dad threatened to "send him to bed" when he found out he had joined up - and served at Gallipoli in World War One.

Later he became a pilot for the Army Flying Corps, but crashed his plane and was nearly killed on the same day the Royal Air Force was created. After the war he took up boxing as a welterweight for London Polytechnic and played football briefly for Brentford - scoring on his debut against QPR. Later he turned out for non-league Wimbledon. At this time he was working the 4am shift in an east London factory and married Mabel Gregory in 1921.

When Mabel fell pregnant Billy Cotton got a job as a bus conductor, and played the drums in a band at Ealing Palais from 7pm until midnight. He later got a job fronting the London Savannah Band. The band, who started out playing in Brighton and then Southport, made it big in the 1930s when they moved to Ciro's club in London's West End and recruited singer Alan Breeze and here Billy Cotton developed his signature tune "Somebody Stole My Gal".

He loved speed and danger and in September 1936 he tried to break the world land speed record on the sands at Southport. In his memoirs, he joked that the car had two speeds - "fast" and "stop". He did not break the record but his 121.5mph was a very impressive speed. He raced at the British Grand Prix at Donington in 1938 and finished his racing career in 1949 at the Silverstone International Grand Prix, coming fourth.

He was a life-long Charlton fan and his recording of Red Red Robin is still played at The Valley before the team's matches. His love of speed, danger, sport and fun made him a "bloke's bloke", according to Michael Grade, whose father Leslie was his agent.

During World War Two he entertained the troops with his band and despite the demise of the variety scene in the late 1940s, he bounced back with The Billy Cotton Band Show.

Billy's youngest son Bill Cotton - later a TV producer and BBC executive - "worshipped" his father, but was no doubt affected by the way his mother was treated by his womanising. Bill Cotton bore a remarkable resemblance to his father and even took over the Billy Cotton Band Show when his father was ill.

In the early 1950s Mabel moved into a house in Sandbanks, near Bournemouth, while he rented a flat in London.

In 1955 he hit the buffers, suffering a nervous breakdown because he was working too hard. But he soon bounced back and transferred the show successfully to television. In 1962 he suffered a stroke but made a remarkable recovery, which he put down to a psychic healer brought to the hospital by his then lover Kathy Kay. That same year he was crowned Showbusiness Personality of the Year by the Variety Club of Great Britain.

He enjoyed giving young singers a break. In 1968 Sandie Shaw was one of those and she remembers him as a "very sweet" man who soothed her nerves.

He worked right up until his death. On 24 March 1969 he sang "Maybe It's Because I'm a Londoner" at a charity function. The following night he keeled over and died while at the Empire Pool in Wembley watching a heavyweight boxing match between Billy Walker and Jack Bodell.

His funeral was at Westminster Abbey, which is around the corner from the house where he was born.

Fearne Cotton, the TV presenter, his great niece says: "His life is such an amazing story. I am so happy to say that I am part of the Cotton clan

Keep in touch

Yours

Peter

gsseditor@gmail.com

You Write:

News and Views:

On this day 30th June 1960-1965.

On 30/06/1960 the number one single was Three Steps to Heaven - Eddie Cochran and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 30/06/1961 the number one single was Surrender - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Harpers West One (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 30/06/1962 the number one single was Good Luck Charm - Elvis Presley and the number one album was West Side Story Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 30/06/1963 the number one single was I Like It - Gerry & the Pacemakers and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 30/06/1964 the number one single was It's Over - Roy Orbison and the number one album was Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 30/06/1965 the number one single was I'm Alive - Hollies and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

Web Page No 2486

23rd June 2018

1^st Picture: Terry and Lennie

2^nd Picture: Terry and Lennie

3^rd Picture: Terry’s wife and sister

4^th Picture: Blue Plaque at his childhood home

Terry Hall and Lennie the Lion

Terence "Terry" Hall (20 November 1926 – 3 April 2007) appeared regularly on television with his puppet, Lenny the Lion Terry Hall is credited with having been one of the first ventriloquists to use a non-human puppet.

Terry Hall was born in Chadderton, Lancashire, on 20^th November 1926, but Lennie was not created until 1954.

Lenny the Lion, was a puppet that he made himself from papier-mache, draped in an old fox fur and with a golf-ball for a nose. Lenny was actually created after a visit to a zoo during the Blackpool summer season of 1954 inspired the ventriloquist.

Two years later, Lennie and Terry Hall appeared on BBC television alongside Eric Sykes in a one-off variety show called Dress Rehearsal. The following year saw the introduction of The Lenny the Lion Show which became a TV fixture, at a time when large swathes of the British public were still tuning in to ventriloquists on the radio - notably Peter Brough and Archie Andrews in Educating Archie.

Plenty of other ventriloquists were to follow the animal example - Keith Harris made his name with a duck called Orville, Roger de Courcey with Nookie Bear and Rod Hull with his belligerent Emu. Lenny the Lion, by contrast, was a peaceable soul. He never roared or growled aggressively. Terry Hall had tried a tooth-baring routine earlier in his career but found that it frightened some children in the audience. At that time, he was sharing a Blackpool bill with the singer Anne Shelton, who suggested maybe a softer approach.

Lenny became an unlikely lion insofar as his stage persona was very shy, gentle and lisping with a high-pitched voice and a slight speech impediment. His catch-phrase, "Aw! Don't embawass me," delivered with a paw covering his face, endeared him to audiences, young and old, on both sides of the Atlantic. In fact in1958, they even appeared in the United States on the Ed Sullivan Show.

It must have seemed a long way from Oldham, where Terry attended St Patrick's school and De La Salle College, Salford. His parents ran a working men's club in Oldham and, at the age of just 15, he won a talent contest with Bert Williams his first dummy which he had acquired for £2.10s. He went on to join the touring Carroll Levis Discoveries stage show, and a variety career beckoned. He could entrance audiences by drinking a pint of water and smoking a cigarette while projecting his voice on to his companion.

Terry and Lennie’s television career blossomed in the early 1960s, the Beatles even appeared on the programme Pops and Lenny in May 1963, singing their number one hit, From Me to You, and its predecessor, Please Please Me, before joining Lennie and Terry Hall in a rendition of After You've Gone. One strange fact to come out of this show was that David Bowie's father, Hayward Jones, was working on the programme at the time and he launched the Lenny the Lion Fan Club because his son was an avid fan.

Although they would never have their own show again, Terry Hall and Lenny remained a pull at local theatres and especially at the seaside and they guested on TV variety shows like Big Night Out, David Nixon's Comedy Bandbox, The Blackpool Show and the iconic children's show Crackerjack. In the 1970s, variety was in sharp decline but, against the trend, they made of a comeback on the ITV children's educational series called Reading with Lenny. The programme came with an accompanying series of storybooks, written by Terry Hall and featuring a character called Kevin the Kitten. There were twenty-eight, ten minute, episodes and this series ran from 1977 to 1980 and was often repeated right up until 1982.

In 1980 Terry married his second wife, Denise "Dee" Francis, a dance teacher, and settled in her home town of Coventry.

He remained a popular figure locally all his life until Alzheimer's disease blighted his final years. He is survived by his wife, and two daughters from his first marriage. He is remembered in Coventry as a true gentleman.

Keep in touch

Yours

Peter

gsseditor@gmail.com

You Write:

News and Views:

On this day 23rd June 1960-1965.

On 23/06/1960 the number one single was Three Steps to Heaven - Eddie Cochran and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 23/06/1961 the number one single was Surrender - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Harpers West One (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 23/06/1962 the number one single was Good Luck Charm - Elvis Presley and the number one album was West Side Story Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 23/06/1963 the number one single was I Like It - Gerry & the Pacemakers and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Kennedy declares Ich bin ein Berliner

On 23/06/1964 the number one single was It's Over - Roy Orbison and the number one album was Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 23/06/1965 the number one single was I'm Alive - Hollies and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

Web Page No 2484

16th June 2018

1^st Picture: The small surgery attached to Dr. Cheyne’s house can still be seen just over the fence

2^nd Picture: Drayton Surgery today

3^rd Picture: Hand written prescription

4^th Picture: 1950’s Doctors Bag

Going to the Doctors

My earliest recollection was walking along the Havant Road with my mother to visit Dr. Watson Cheyne in the small surgery which was an annex to his house. This must have been sometime in the early 1950’s. The surgery consisted of two rooms, a consulting room and a waiting room. There was not the luxury of a reception desk or receptionist, it was just a case of turn up and wait and try to remember who was in the waiting room before you so you knew when it was your turn. Likewise, when my mother and I reached the consulting room Dr. Cheyne, normally dressed in tweeds, would make his way over to the filing cabinet to extract you file and the consultation would begin. Luckily my mother understood him because I could not make head or tail of his Scottish accent.

Having had the consultation if the doctor did not dispense a cure from his small chemist shelves and he had written up a prescription, as there was no Pharmacy in Farlington, this involved a mile walk back along the Havant Road, passing our house on the way, to one of the two Pharmacies in Drayton. Dr. Cheyne did have partners in the practice at this time but during the war years he was on his own until he was called up. The people of Drayton and Farlington were so enraged at loosing their only doctor that they wrote, as a body, to the War Office asking if he could be excused military service as he was a vital part of the community. The answer they received took them all by surprise because the powers that be declared that there was a surgery in Widley and that the seven mile return walk, up and down Portsdown Hill, was not unreasonable!!!!

Sometime in the early 1960’s things changed, the Medical Practice was extended to take in some of Cosham and Highbury, a surgery being opened on in a house on the Highbury estate and a brand-new surgery being built in Drayton where it is today. Unfortunately this involved the demolition a small number of house, my Uncle Will’s being one of them!

This new surgery was state of the art at that time, with a Reception area and receptionist where the patients booked in and were given a plastic call number. A large waiting room and four consulting rooms. Not only had the practice area grown, so had the number of doctors. Those I remember are Cheyne, Martindale, Kenyon, O’Connell and Russell the surgery was also home to the local District Nurses, not that I remember any of them.

The call system here was better than the old surgery because a call bell rang in the waiting room and an indicator vibrated to call in the next patient. All very high tech at the time.

One of the big advantages of this new surgery, apart from the facilities was that it was only about a 50-yard walk to the nearest Pharmacy.    

I note today that the Drayton surgery has almost doubled in size reflecting the increase of the population in the area. Looking back Dr. Cheyne had a large catchment area but nowhere near the number of patients. The Naval Estate had not been built, neither had Copsey Grove and in the early days the area around Grant Road and Galt Road was still being developed. How things have changed!!!!  

 Keep in touch

Yours

Peter

gsseditor@gmail.com

You Write:

News and Views:

On this day 19th June 1960-1965.

On 16/06/1960 the number one single was Cathy's Clown - Everly Brothers and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Sunday Night at the London Palladium (ATV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 16/06/1961 the number one single was Surrender - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was 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 16/06/1962 the number one single was Good Luck Charm - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions

On 16/06/1963 the number one single was From Me To You - The Beatles and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Conservative Party Political Broadcast (all channels) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was USSR puts first woman in space.

On 16/06/1964 the number one single was You're My World - Cilla Black and the number one album was Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 16/06/1965 the number one single was Crying in the Chapel - Elvis Presley and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

Web Page No 2482

9th June 2018

1^st Picture: The sheet music to Johnny Remember Me

 2^nd Picture: From The Great Escape

3^rd Picture: John in 2013

4^th Picture: Johnny Remember Me on Top Rank

Remember John Leyton?

John Dudley Leyton was born 17th February 1936 in Frinton-on-Sea and was best known as a singer for his hit song "Johnny Remember Me" which reached Number 1 in August 1961 despite being banned by the BBC for its death references. His father owned cinemas and theatres, and his mother was the actress Babs Walters, but they split when he was six. 

Alongside singing, he also had an acting career which saw him appearing in television and films throughout the 1960s. His films included The Great Escape, Guns at Batasi, "Von Ryan's Express" and Krakatoa, East of Java. In 2009 he also had a small part in the film Telstar, a biopic based on Joe Meek's life in which he himself was portrayed by Callum Dixon.

He was educated at Highgate School and after completing his national service, he studied drama, paying his way through drama school with bit-part roles in films and on television. His first major acting role was his portrayal of Ginger in a 1960 Granada TV adaptation of Biggles, which earned him a large following of young female fans and led to the formation of a John Leyton fan club.

Following the success of Biggles, he was persuaded by his manager,  to audition as a singer for Joe Meek, and subsequently recorded a cover version of "Tell Laura I Love Her", which was released on the Top Rank label. In 1961 the Top Rank label was taken over by EMI who then issued his records on their HMV label. EMI had already released Ricky Valance's version of the same song so John Leyton's recording was withdrawn from sale, whilst Ricky Valance's version reached Number 1.

His second single - "The Girl on the Floor Above" - was released on the HMV label, but was not a success. However, his first big hit, "Johnny Remember Me", coincided with his appearance as an actor in the popular ATV television series Harpers West One, in which he played a singer named Johnny Saint Cyr and he performed "Johnny Remember Me" during the show (backed by the Outlaws), and the single subsequently charted at Number 1  His next single, "Wild Wind", reached number 2 in the Charts but later singles only achieved lower chart positions. On 15th April 1962, he performed at the NME Poll-Winners Concert at London's Wembley Pool. But in 1963 his association with Joe Meek ended and that, combined with the British beat boom, cast him adrift, although he found a lot of acting work in television and film to keep him busy. Despite trying to give his music more of a 'group' sound by giving him a backing group, 'The LeRoys', his chart career faded out by the beginning of 1964.

By this time he had become a familiar face in film and television. He played himself in the 1962 Dick Lester film It's Trad, Dad!, performing his latest single "Lonely City" in a radio studio. In The Great Escape (1963) he played tunnel designer Willie Dickes, one of the only three characters who successfully make it to freedom.

From 1966 to 1967, he played the lead role as SOE Royal Navy Lieutenant Nicholas Gage, an expert in demolitions, in Jericho, an American TV series about espionage in the Second World War.

He returned to Britain in the early 1970s and unsuccessfully attempted to re-launch his singing career in 1973. In the mid 1970s, more acting as he starred in the ITV television series, The Nearly Man. Acting roles became fewer during the 1970s, and by the early 1980s, he was no longer active in show business.

In the 1990s he began performing in the 'Solid Gold Rock 'n' Roll Show', appearing with artists such as Marty Wilde and Joe Brown. The autumn 2004 tour featured John Leyton, Showaddywaddy, Freddy Canon and Craig Douglas. He also returned to acting, with a cameo appearance in the 2005 film, Colour Me Kubrick.

In May 2006, it was back to the recording studio and he released "Hi Ho, Come On England", a re-working of  "Hi Ho Silver Lining", to coincide with the World Cup in Germany. During the summer of 2007 he filmed a cameo appearance for the film, Telstar and he also topped the bill at the Theatre Royal, Windsor, along with 1960s stars Jess Conrad and Craig Douglas at a concert named "'60s Icons".

He continues to tour the UK and Scandinavia performing his hits and can boast an internet following with his official website. He is now 82and lives with his wife, Diana, in Suffolk

 Keep in touch

Yours

Peter

gsseditor@gmail.com

You Write:

News and Views:

On this day 9th June 1960-1965.

On 09/06/1960 the number one single was Cathy's Clown - Everly Brothers and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Wagon Train (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 09/06/1961 the number one single was Surrender - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was 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 09/06/1962 the number one single was Good Luck Charm - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 09/06/1963 the number one single was From Me To You - The Beatles and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was 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 09/06/1964 the number one single was You're My World - Cilla Black and the number one album was Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions

On 09/06/1965 the number one single was Long Live Love - Sandie Shaw and the number one album was Bringing It All Back Home - Bob Dylan. 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.