Web Page No 2612

31st August 2019

1st Picture. Donald Duncan

 2nd Picture. Traditional Yoyo

3rd Picture. Butterfly Yoyo

4th Picture. Yoyo in Space

The Yoyo

You must have had one as a child, we all did, but what do you know of its amazing history

The American D.F. Duncan Sr. was the co-patent holder of a four-wheel hydraulic car brake and the marketer of the first successful parking meter. He was also the genius behind the first premium incentive where you sent in two cereal box tops and received a toy rocket ship. However, Duncan is best known for being responsible for promoting the first great yo-yo fad in the United States and then onto the UK.

He was not the inventor of the yo-yo; they have been around for over 2500 years. In fact, the yo-yo or yoyo is considered the second oldest toy in history, the oldest being the doll. In ancient Greece, the toy was made of wood, metal and terra cotta. The Greeks decorated the two halves of the yo-yo with pictures of their gods. As a right of passage into adulthood Greek children often gave up their toys and placed them on the family altar to pay homage.

Around 1800, the yo-yo moved into Europe from the Orient. The British called the yo-yo the bandalore, quiz, or the Prince of Wales toy. The French used the name incroyable or l'emigrette. However, it is a Tagalog word, the native language of the Philippines, and means "come back". In the Philippines, the yo-yo was used as a weapon for over 400 hundred years. Their version was large with sharp edges and studs and attached to thick twenty-foot ropes for flinging at enemies or prey.

People in the United States started playing with the British bandalore or yo-yo in the 1860s. It was not until the 1920s that Americans first heard the word yo-yo. Pedro Flores, a Philippine immigrant, began manufacturing a toy labeled with that name. Flores became the first person to mass-produce toy yo-yos, at his small toy factory in California.

Duncan saw the Flores toy, liked it, bought the rights in 1929, and then trademarked the name Yo-Yo. Duncan's first contribution to yo-yo technology was the slip string, consisting of a sliding loop around the axle instead of a knot. With this revolutionary improvement, the yo-yo could do a trick called "sleep" for the first time. Duncan introduced the butterfly shape, a design that reverses the halves of a traditional imperial yo-yo. The butterfly allowed the player to catch the yoyo on the string easily, good for certain tricks.

Donald Duncan also worked out a deal with the newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst to get free advertising in Heart's newspapers. In exchange, Duncan held competitions and the entrants were required to bring a number of new subscriptions for the newspaper as their entry fee.

The first Duncan Yo-Yo was the O-Boy Yo-Yo Top, the toy with a big kick for all ages. Duncan's massive factory produced 3,600 of the toys every hour making the factory's hometown of Luck, Wisconsin the YoYo Capital of the World.

Duncan's early media blitzes were so successful that in Philadelphia alone, three million units sold during a month-long campaign in 1931. In general, yo-yo sales went up and down as often as the toy. One story tells how after a market dip in the 1930's the Lego company was stuck with a huge inventory, they salvaged the unsold toys by sawing each yo-yo in half, using them as wheels on toy trucks and cars.

Yo-yo sales reached its highest peak in 1962 when Duncan Yo-Yo sold 45 million units. Unfortunately, this 1962 hike in sales led to the end of Donald Duncan's Company. Advertising and production cost far outstripped even the sudden increase in sales revenues. Since 1936, Duncan experimented with parking meters as a sideline. Over the years, the parking meter division grew to become Duncan's main money maker. This and bankruptcy made it easier for Duncan to finally cut the strings and sell his interest in the yo-yo. The Flambeau Plastic Company bought the name Duncan and all the company's trademarks, they began producing their line of all plastic yo-yos soon after. The yo-yo continues today, its latest honour is being the first toy in outer space.

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On this Day 31^st  August 1960-1965

On 31/08/1960 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 31/08/1961 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 31/08/1962 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 31/08/1963 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 31/08/1964 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 31/08/1965 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.

Web Page No 2610

24^th August 2019

The Dalai Lama

1st Picture. The Dalai Lama on the trek

 2nd Picture. The Potala Palace in Lhasa

3^rd Picture. With Neru

4^th Picture. The Dalai Lama today

Here’s the story of the epic journey from Tibet to India of the Dalai Lama, a journey that took him across some of the most rugged terrain in the Himalayas. The year was 1959 and guerrilla war had been raging for years between Tibetan rebels and the Chinese forces in Tibet, a land that China considered to be its territory. On March 10^th , the Dalai Lama, received a seemingly innocuous invitation: Chinese General Zhang Chenwu asked if the 14th Dalai Lama would like to see a performance by a Chinese dance troupe. Soon after, he received a message asking him to come to the Chinese military headquarters without soldiers or armed bodyguards.

The Tibetans, who had already been suspicious of the sudden friendly overture, sensed a trap. On the day of the performance, thousands of Tibetan protesters surrounded Norbulingka (part of Potala Palace, Dalai Lama’s residence in Lhasa) to keep their young leader from being abducted, arrested or killed. As a cautionary measure, Dalai Lama’s closest advisers also asked him to escape from Tibet. Filled with despair, he eventually did.

On the night of March 17th, 1959, Tibet’s 23-year-old spiritual and political head disguised himself as a soldier and quietly slipped through the crowds surrounding his summer palace a place that he would never see again. Accompanying him were 20 of his officials and his mother and younger siblings.

Thus began his perilous journey to asylum. Traveling only at night to avoid detection by Chinese sentries, the group made their way across the Himalayan region on foot, included a crossing the 500-yard-wide Brahmaputra river. During the day, they would hide in tiny villages and encampments of the native Khamba tribe. For the next two weeks, there was no word of the Tibetan leader and people around the world feared that he had been killed. In Tibet, rumours floated about that the Dalai Lama “had been screened off from the view of Chinese planes by mist and low clouds conjured up by the prayers of the Buddhist holy men.”

Meanwhile, back in Lhasa, the Chinese had imposed a curfew and nearly 2000 lives were lost in the ensuing battle between the locals and the Chinese forces. Soon after, close to 800 artillery shells were fired into Norbulingka. A day later, China dissolved the Tibetan governing body and announced the establishment of a Tibetan autonomous region within the People’s Republic of China. By this time, furious Chinese troops were in hot pursuit of the escaping Tibetan leader. They had gradually started closing on him when on March 26th, 1959, his fleeing caravan finally reached Lhuntse Dzong — a few days march from the McMahon Line, the border between India and Tibet.

From here, he sent an urgent letter to Jawahar Lal Nehru (the then-Indian Prime Minister) seeking refuge in India. Forewarned, the Indian government immediately took measures to welcome and ensure the protection of Dalai Lama and his party. From Lhuntse Dzong they passed to the small village of Jhora and from there to the Karpo pass, the last before the border. Just as they were nearing the highest point of the track they received a bad shock. Out of nowhere, an aeroplane appeared and flew directly overhead. It passed quickly – too quickly for anyone to be able to see what markings it had – but not so fast that the people on board could have missed spotting the party.

If it was Chinese there was a good chance that they now knew where the party were. With this information they could return to attack from the air, against which there was no protection. India was their only hope.

On March 31^st , 1959, the Dalai Lama fought his way through wind-whipped peaks and snow-covered plateaus. Clad in weather-beaten clothes yet instantly recognizable among the small entourage, the Tibetan leader was welcomed by Indian officials who handed him a telegram from the Indian Prime Minister Neru.

Soon after, the Dalai Lama and his family were escorted to Tawang to rest and recuperate. A few weeks later, the Dalai Lama travelled to Mussoorie, where he was met by Nehru who formally welcomed him and offered him asylum. The two of them also discussed the future of the nearly 80000 Tibetan refugees who had followed their leader into exile.

Soon after, the Dalai Lama established the Tibetan government-in-exile. For the Tibetans who had followed him, it was a bittersweet moment they would remember for a long time, they had escaped Chinese occupation but had also lost their beloved homeland.

The rest, as they say, is history. The Dalai Lama has since never gone back to Tibet and continues to be the centre of the Tibetan community, the person to whom the Tibetans look for guidance in practically all matters. Even today, visitors to Lhasa report that the residents turn south and bow to offer salutations to their revered leader.

As Dalai Lama himself has often pointed out, he is the “longest guest of the Indian government.”

Interestingly, during his visit to northeast India in April 2017, the 81-year-old Dalai Lama came face to face with 79-year-old Naren Chandra Dasan, an Indian soldier who had been a part of the team that escorted him to safety inside India. Thanking the former soldier for his assistance nearly 60 years ago, he said, “Looking at your face, I now realise I must be very old too.”

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On this day 24^th 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 week 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.

17th August 2019

Web Page No 2608

 1st Picture. Diana with Richard Dawson

 2nd Picture. Her record’ So Little Time’

 3^rd Picture. Early pin up picture

4^th Picture.  Diana visiting Gomer Junior School in Gosport in the early 1980’s

Diana Dors

Diana Dors was born Diana Mary Fluck on October 23rd, 1931 in Swindon. She and her mother both nearly died from the traumatic birth. Because of the trauma, her mother lavished on Diana anything and everything she wanted--clothes, toys and dance lessons were the order of the day. Diana's love of films began when her mother took her to the local cinemas. The actresses on the screen caught Diana's attention and she said, herself, that from the age of three she wanted to be an actress. She was educated in the finest private schools, much to the chagrin of her father (apparently he thought private education was a waste of money). Physically, Diana grew up fast. At age 12, she looked and acted much older than what she was. Much of this was due to the actresses she studied on the silver screen and Diana trying to emulate them. She wanted nothing more than to go to the United States and Hollywood to have a chance to make her place in film history. After placing well in a local beauty contest, Diana was offered a role in a thespian group (she was 13).

The following year, Diana enrolled at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA) to hone her acting skills. She was the youngest in her class. Her first fling at the camera was in The Shop at Sly Corner (1947). She did not care that it was a small, uncredited role; she was on film and at age 16, that's all that mattered. That was quickly followed by Dancing with Crime (1947), which consisted of nothing more than a walk-on role. Up until this time, Diana had pretended to be 17 years old (if producers had known her true age, they probably would not have let her test for the role). However, since she looked and acted older, this was no problem. Diana's future dawned bright in 1948, and she appeared in no less than six films. Some were uncredited, but some had some meat to the roles. The best of the lot was the role of Charlotte in the classic Oliver Twist (1948). Throughout the 1950s, she appeared in more films and became more popular in Britain. Diana was a pleasant version of Marilyn Monroe, who had taken the United States by storm. Britain now had its own version.

Diana continued to play sexy sirens and kept seats in British theatres filled. She really came into her own as an actress. She was more than a woman who exuded her sexy side, she was a very fine actress as her films showed. As the 1960s turned into the 1970s, she began to play more mature roles with an effectiveness that was hard to match. Films such as Craze (1974), Swedish Wildcats (1972), The Amorous Milkman (1975) and Three for All (1975) helped fill out her resume. After filming Steaming (1985), Diana was diagnosed with cancer, which was too much for her to overcome. The British were saddened when word came of her death at age 52 on May 4, 1984 in Windsor, Berkshire, England. She represented that period between the end of the war and the coming of Lady Chatterley in paperback, a time when sexuality was naughty.

But there was a local connection. In 1959 she married Gosport resident Richard Dawson. He had joined the Merchant Navy, became a boxer, returned to his home town of Gosport working as a Provincial bus conductor and living in the council estate of Bridgemary, and this is where he set up home with his new wife Diana. Later on he found a new life in entertainment in comedy, hosting game shows, acting and eventually a presenter of his wife’s show The Diana Dors Show on ATV and in the US during the 1950s and 1960s.’

The couple had two sons, and divorced in 1966/67.

Diana apparently carried on visiting Gosport into the early 1980s until her death in 1984. They were both very much a double act at one time and very popular entertainers.’

There were always rumours surrounding her life, she was famous for her parties and at 20 she was the youngest owner of a Rolls Royce and as far as I am aware there is still a lot of controversy involving the whereabouts of her fortune, it is supposed to be locked away under a secret code in a Portsmouth bank.

Peter

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On this day 17^th August 1960-1965.

On 17/08/1960 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.

On 17/08/1961 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 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 17/08/1962 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 Mont Blanc tunnel completed

On 17/08/1963 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. The big news story of the day was Great Train Robbery.

On 17/08/1964 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 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 17/08/1965 the number one single was Help - The Beatles and the number one album was Help - The Beatles. 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 No 2606

10th August 2019

The Navy Lark

1st Picture. Leslie Phillips and Heather Chasen recording the Navy Lark

 2nd Picture. Ronnie Barker and Tenniel Evans as ‘Fatso’ Johnson and ‘Taffy’ Goldstein

 3^rd Picture. The entire crew

4^th Picture. Poster for the disastrous film version of the programme

For 15 series Tommy Reilly's playing of the Trade Wind Hornpipe on the harmonica heralded 30 minutes of naval mayhem in and around Portsmouth aboard the fictional frigate HMS Troutbridge.

 'The Navy Lark' was first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme. Created by Lawrie Wyman listeners entered a world of comradeship, wheeling and dealing, innocence, and incompetence. The humour drew on relationships. The characters muddled through life in a carefree way. HMS Troutbridge was crewed by incompetent men and the regular cast of 9 would voice up to 22 different parts for a single show which ultimately totalled 560 characters in the show’s run.

Alastair Scott Johnston, the producer, secured the go ahead for The Navy Lark in early 1959. Original proposals for a `services` inspired show included 'The Air Force Lark'  and `The Army Lark`. However, as Alastair had served in the Army, Lawrie Wyman, the script writer, had a brief spell in the Air Force they choose the Navy because it was reasoned that the sailor could be forgiven every shortcoming because he would have spent long periods at sea.

The original cast included Michael Denison, Leslie Phillips, Jon Pertwee and Thora Hird and it was intended to introduce big names from time to time.

By the time the show went to air Dennis Price, Leslie Phillips and Jon Pertwee were variously described as the 'stars' by the BBC announcer in the programme's introduction and end credits. This was a pre-requisite of the show so avoiding the idea that it was a single person’s show with a supporting cast. The cast name order rotated each week.

In the first season Dennis Price played `Number 1`, Troutbridge's senior officer whilst CPO Pertwee, believed HM stores were there for his benefit rather than the Navy’s. Unfortunately, the lure of Hollywood and a film career meant that Dennis Price left after the first season. Stephen Murray then joined the cast as `Number 1` in October 1959 and was to remain resident aboard Troutbridge for the next 17 years.

Leslie Phillips' contribution was invaluable. Sub Lt. Phillips displayed a sense of innocence, naivety and an incompetence together with navigational mayhem. He personified ineffectiveness. He was vain and oblivious to what others thought of him. His exploits gave us various memorable phrases none more so than "left hand down a bit".

Jon Pertwee’s ability to mimic frequently drew upon real characters he had encountered. It is interesting to note that in real life his cousin was a crew member of HMS Troubridge which became the fictional HMS Troutbridge.

Richard Caldicot played the harassed Commander (later Captain) Henry Povey. Heather Chasen was THE female actor of the show. Already an established radio and stage performer, it fell on her to voice every female character in the show for many years until Judy Cornwell joined the cast. Tenniel Evans never missed a broadcast as the old soak Sir Willerby Todhunter-Brown he would stumble through speeches without any appreciation of lucidity. Tenniel’s best-known character was that of Able Seaman (later Leading Seaman) Goldstein, constantly radioing messages to the bridge and reminiscing about Wales.  Michael Bates delivered a wide range of characters but his memorable creations include the ship's padre and the persistently sneezing Captain Acheson. A struggling young actor Ronnie Barker successfully transferred from the theatre to a `minor` Navy Lark role. Listeners were impressed at his ability to create voices and personalities. Everyone who listened was entertained by Lt. Cdr. Stanton’s incompetence as a senior officer with a passion for fishing. But, for many his best comic inventions were those of Troutbridge’s hopeless Chief Engineer Lt. Queeg and the sardonic MOD official who would telephone Troutbridge and say in a very lewd and inappropriate voice " Intelligence speaking" His most famous role was that of AB ‘Fatso’ Johnston.

Such was the success of the programme a film version was commissioned as soon as  series 1 came off air. The only cast member to transfer from radio was Leslie Phillips and the film was not a success.  The Navy Lark was the last radio series to transfer to the silver screen.

ITV made a television version of the show featuring Richard Caldicot and Frank Thornton which ran for 26 shows in 1964. The entire series which was filmed at sea with studio work at Pinewood all episodes have  been but rumours abound of the existence of one show survives somewhere.

The whole radio cast were called back to Troutbridge on July 16 1977 for the Queen's Silver Jubilee, and a final Troutbridge reunion with a reduced cast was broadcast on Boxing Day in 1992.

The Navy Lark has left us with over 120 hours of radio fun continues to deliver as much joy now as it did 53 years ago.  Two Christmas episodes were recorded especially for the Antarctic scientific survey teams in 1962 and 1965 but were never broadcast in the UK.

Peter

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Maureen Writes:

Why were our geography lessons so boring? Todays blog was very interesting, as you say Rockall is known to all who listened to the shipping forecasts, but never knew any of its history.  Great job, Thanks

News and Views:

On this day 10^th August 1960 -1965

On 10/08/1960 the number one single was Shakin' All Over - Johnny Kidd & the Pirates 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 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.The big news story of the day was Britain applies to join EEC.

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.

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.