Web Page No 2710

8th August 2020

 

1st Picture. Packet of Brooke Bond Dividend Tea

2nd Picture. Dividend Stamp

3rd Picture. Dividend Stamp collecting card

4th Picture. Brooke Bond tea cards

 

Brooke Bond Dividend Tea

 

Tea helped ease the financial hardships of the working classes in the pre and post-war years and evolved into the beverage of choice for an motor racing champion in the 1970s but Brooke Bond Dividend, latterly known as Brooke Bond D, died a quiet death at the age of 83 in 2011, almost entirely unnoticed.

 

Brooke Bond Dividend Tea was launched in 1935 as the company’s value product to compliment the mid-market PG Tips, which it began producing five years earlier in Manchester. Each packet contained a picture card and a cut-out stamp, with 60 needed to fill a book that could be redeemed for cash or gifts. For many years, a full book of 60 stamps could be exchanged for 5/- cash or groceries from retailers.

 

The blend of the nation’s favourite tea and an incentive to save money proved a hit with the working classes. By 1939, the brand was firmly established, and a series of newspaper adverts appeared with advice from a fictional, caricatured ‘Dr Jollywell’, who praised the tea’s qualities for helping the digestive system. In one advert, the doctor told readers: “Take care of your digestion. Drink the digestive tea that gives you FLAVOUR. Brooke Bond Dividend Digestive Tea has a flavour all can enjoy – and it pays a dividend. Brooke Bond Dividend Digestive Tea is blended with expert skill. It gives you your full moneys worth, in favour and digestibility – and the dividend saves you 4d on every 1lb you buy.”

 

The same year, ‘The Brooke Bond Programmes’ aired on Radio Luxemburg and Radio Normandy  six mornings per week. But storm clouds were gathering for dividend stamp collectors with the outbreak of World War II and when rationing was introduced in 1940, tea was restricted to 2oz per adult, per week.

 

Tea rations gradually increased in the years after the war and had reached the pre-war consumption level of 3oz per head before restrictions were lifted on 3rd October 1952. The same year, Gerald Brooke, son of company founder Arthur, retired as chairman, under whose tenure the company’s tea packet trade had multiplied 20 times, helped in large part by Brooke Bond Dividend’s reputation for striking a balance between affordability while maintaining quality with a blend of 30 teas.

 

Gerald was succeeded by his high-powered son John, and the company turnover exceeded £68 million in 1954, with the majority of sales coming from quarter pound packets of tea, of which one thousand million were sold globally throughout the year, and three years later, the company was probably the largest in the world, with a one third share in both the British and Indian tea markets.

These were the boom times for Brooke Bond. In 1958, the head office moved to Cannon Street, London, and by 1963, the company owned 30,000 acres of tea plantations in India, Ceylon and Africa, employing 50,000 people.

 

The tea bag was created by accident in 1908, when New York tea merchant Thomas Sullivan began shipping Indian and Chinese tea to his customers in small silk sample packages. Assuming they were supposed to submerge the entire bag into boiling water, his customers unintentionally revolutionised tea drinking for at least the next 100 years, and in the 1920s the fabric was changed to gauze, though it took until 1953 before Tetley, one of Brooke Bond’s biggest rivals, brought the concept to Britain.

 

To begin with, tea bags were regarded as a gimmick by most in the industry and Brooke Bond resisted the temptation to follow until well into the 1960s, when it became clear that the concept was here to stay. The company went from strength to strength, and in 1968 it merged with Liebig, owners of food brands including Oxo and Fray Bentos.

 

When Britain ‘went decimal’ in February 1971, a completed card of 60 dividend stamps could be exchanged for 25p in cash or groceries at stores that sold Brooke Bond D. Twelve months later, Brooke Bond’s share of the British tea market had grown to 40%. The midmarket PG Tips was brand leader with 20%, while Dividend was 12%.

 

Dividend tea remained popular throughout the 1970s, but by the middle of the decade a giant ‘D’ covered most of the packaging, with the word ‘dividend’ reduced to smaller lettering. The brand’s prominence was maintained by regular newspaper and TV adverts, including one featuring Formula One world champion Jackie Stewart and his wife Helen based around the ‘A Nice Cup of Tea’.

 

As the 1970s gave way to the 1980s, the dividend stamp scheme came to an end and the tea was rebranded ‘Brooke Bond D’. Throughout the 1980s, attempts were made to give the brand a cooler edge. Brand loyalty was maintained with incentives such as the ‘Brooke Bond D – Reviving Stuff’ series of cassette tapes featuring classic chart hits, which could be redeemed for coupons on the back of packets, and in the first half of the decade, computer graphics were used in its TV advertising campaign, remember ‘The Tea With the 3D Taste?

Brooke Bond was subject to a hostile takeover by Unilever in 1984, and two years later, Brooke Bond D’s longest-running and best-remembered advertising campaign began with Madeline Bell providing the vocals to ‘I Could Do with a D’, which had varying lyrics to fit the accompanying pictures. A non-PC advert from 1986 featured ‘Only Fools and Horses’ actor John Challis, an early 1990s version Jane Cunliffe as an ever-busy ‘mumsy’ figure to a family with young children, with new lyrics to accompany the by-then familiar tune. There was also a ‘How Many Ds in Match of the Day?’ advert that aired around this period.

 

The 1990s heralded the end for Brooke Bond D. It lived on for another two decades, but its gradual demise was underway. The TV adverts came to an end in the mid 1990’s.

The brand was no longer one of Unilever’s priorities, so the licence to produce Brooke Bond D and Brooke Bond Choicest Blend was sold to Gold Crown Foods Ltd, who produced rival brand Typhoo .

 

The company (now trading as Typhoo Tea Ltd) removed the words ‘Brooke Bond’ from the packaging. The Brooke Bond brand quietly disappeared from the UK, but it lives on in other countries, including Pakistan, where ‘Brooke Bond Supreme’ is the market leader.

During the 2000s and into the 2010s, D Tea, was increasingly regarded as a ‘budget’ tea, sold mainly in local convenience stores and in pound shops, Perhaps this was, in a sense, a return to its ‘dividend’ roots and a ‘tea of the people’.

Typhoo ceased production in 2011. The death knell finally sounded in with the demise of Poundworld, which was the last major retailer with reserve supplies of D Tea.

 

We are now a country that drinks twice as much coffee as tea however, the tea bag won’t be disappearing any time soon.

 

 

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Peter

 

gsseditor@gmail.com

 

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On this day 08th August 1960-1965

 

On 08/08/1960 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 Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the week was Castro nationalises all US property.

 

On 08/08/1961 the number one single was Well I Ask You - Eden Kane 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 08/08/1962 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 08/08/1963 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.

 

On 08/08/1964 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 08/08/1965 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 £08.69 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

 

 

 

 

Web Page No 2708

1^st August 2020

1st Picture. Steptoe and Son

 2nd Picture. With Hercules

 3rd Picture. Galton and Simpson

 4th Picture. Filming in the house

Steptoe and Son 

This must be one of the most enduring British sitcoms. Written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about a father and on rag-and-bone business based in Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush.Four series were broadcast by the BBC from 1962 to 1965, followed by a second run from 1970 to 1974. The popular theme tune, "Old Ned", was composed by Ron Grainer and the programme was so popular   It was remade in the United States as Sanford and Son, in Sweden as Albert & Herbert, in the Netherlands as Stiefbeen en zoon, in Portugal as Camilo & Filho, and in South Africa as Snetherswaite and Son. Two film adaptations of the series were released in cinemas, Steptoe and Son (1972) and Steptoe and Son Ride Again (1973).

In 2000, the show was ranked number 44 on the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes compiled by the British Film Institute. In a 2001 Channel 4 poll Albert was ranked 39th on their list of the 100 Greatest TV Characters.

Many episodes revolved around the disagreements between the two men, Harold's attempts to bed women and the hope of finding something valuable on his round. Harold was continually thwarted (usually by the Albert) in his attempts to better himself.

Albert almost always comes out on top, and proves himself superior to his son whenever they compete, such as when they played snooker Scrabble and badminton. Harold takes these games extremely seriously and sees them as symbols of his desire to improve himself, but his efforts come to nothing each time. His father's success is partly down to greater skills but is aided by gamesmanship and undermining of his son's confidence.

Harold was infuriateed by these persistent frustrations and defeats, even going to the extent in "Divided We Stand" (1972) of attempting to partition the house so that he does not have to share with his father. However, in bad situations, Harold sticks by his father.

The 1974 Christmas special ended the run and it first appears Harold is once again at the bad end of poor planning, when he books a Christmas holiday abroad, but then finds his passport is out of date. His father must go alone, and Harold, tearfully it seems, waves him off to enjoy a potential good time without him. Harold trudges away, only to jump in a car with a woman to drive off on his own holiday, revealing that he had engineered the whole situation from the beginning.

The show had its roots in a 1962 episode of Galton & Simpson's Comedy Playhouse. The fourth in the series, "The Offer", was born both out of writer's block and budgetary constraints. Earlier shows in the series had cost more than expected, so the writers decided to write a two-hander set in one room. The idea of two brothers was considered but father and son worked best. Ronald Fraser was second choice for Harold, which would have produced a totally different character.

The series' title music, "Old Ned", won its composer Ron Grainer his second successive Ivor Novello award. The series had no standard set of opening titles but the opening sequences would often feature the Steptoe's horse, Hercules. Outside filming of the Steptoes' yard took place at a car-breakers' yard in Norland Gardens, London W11, then changing to Stable Way, Latimer Road, for the later series. Both sites have subsequently been redeveloped with no evidence now remaining of the entrance gates through which the horse and cart were frequently driven.

Steptoe and Son is unique among 1960s BBC television programmes in that every episode has survived, despite the mass wiping of BBC archive holdings between 1967 and 1978. However, all the instalments from the first 1970 series and all but two from the second that were originally made in colour only survive in the form of black and white domestic videotape recordings.

Fifty two episodes were remade for BBC Radio, initially on the Light Programme in 1966–67 and later Radio 2 from 1971 to 1976.

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Peter

grseditor@gmail.com

Griff Writes:-

A few weeks back I wrote an article on my 1960's Fidelity record player and Dansette record players of the 1960's. To follow that nostalgic article up a bit more I will talk about and show you my 1939 Little Maestro radio.  

 

These wooden case radios cost 5 gns. back then which for most people would have been a weeks wages and probably a bit more. Just imagine a family huddled around this little radio listening to Winston Churchill's latest war updates and Germany's propaganda minister Lord Haw-Haw during WW 2. 

 

The Little Maestro production fitted with wooden cases was stopped in 1940 due to the shortage of wood (can you believe that) and manufacturing continued with moulded bakelite cases.

 

This radio came into my possession a few years ago now. It had been fully restored to factory standard by a radio enthusiast and to this day it still looks like new and is in full working order. 

 

I should point out I have no knowledge of radio repairs at all but I have always had an interest in antiques and collectables which remains to this day. I am a mechanical engineer by profession so it's all magic to me how radios work.......lol    (Think... two empty tin cans and a long piece of string.)

 

So the burning question you are all wanting to know perhaps is:  What's it worth?  (for those of you who watch the Antiques Roadshow).  A Little Maestro radio in this excellent working condition would be worth around £125 to a serious radio collector. There are still some of these Little Maestro radios being discovered in loft clear outs and garden sheds but generally speaking they are in very poor non-working condition and the sale value can be as low as £10.  I would imagine that over the years as people died and houses cleared out the radios would have ended up in a skip. Spare parts like valves and circuit diagrams can still be found though through the many online radio repair organisations that flourish throughout the UK.

 

Regards to Everyone Melvyn ( Griff ) Griffiths.

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On this day 1st August 1960-1965

On 01/08/1960 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 01/08/1961 the number one single was Well I Ask You - Eden Kane and the number one album was Ipswich. The top rated TV show was Harpers West One (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £not very interesting and 13.25 were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. he big news story of the day was No Hiding Place (AR).

On 01/08/1962 the number one single was I Remember You - Frank Ifield and the number one album was West Side Story Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. he big news story of the week Marilyn Monroe dies.

On 01/08/1963 the number one single was (You're the) Devil In Disguise - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. he big news story of the day was Computer will predict chances of marriage success.

On 01/08/1964 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 01/08/1965 the number one single was Help - The Beatles and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Riviera Police (AR) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions

Web Page No 2706

25th July 2020

1st Picture. David Bergalss

2nd Picture. In Brighton 1957

#
 3rd Picture. With Ruth his wife

4th Picture. Marvins Magic Set

David Berglas MBE (born 30 July 1926)

There was a time in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s that Davis Berglas the magician and mentalist was for ever on our screens. His secret technique of locating a particular card within a pack has been described as the Holy Grail of card magic. He was one of the first magicians to appear on UK television.

He was educated in several different European countries being of the German-Jewish faith he had escaped to Britain from Germany, aged 11. At 16 he wanted to become a Spitfire pilot. He lied about his age and managed to join the RAF. When his true age was discovered he was not allowed to complete his training.

Still keen to be part of the war, he discovered that the American Army was urgently looking for suitable recruits for an important role in the denazification of Germany. The requirements were quite stringent. They had to have some previous military training, and to be able to pass strict physical and mental tests. Most importantly they had to speak two languages besides English, one of which had to be fluent German. The required minimum age was 21. He explained that he was only 19 but could meet all the other qualifications. He was accepted into the Intelligence Service of the US Army, serving an 'adventure filled' 18 months at the end of WWII. He then attended Bradford Technical College to study textiles with a view of joining his family business based in Wyke.

He first became interested in magic in 1947, through a chance meeting with magician Ken Brooke. Magic became an all-absorbing hobby for five years, during which time he studied psychotherapy, specialising in medical hypnosis. Although never performing as a stage hypnotist, his demonstrations gave him the experience of standing in front an audience and handling volunteers on stage. This gave him the confidence when he became a professional magician in 1952, working nightclubs and then in 1953 appearing at the Windmill Theatre, performing 6 times a day, 6 days a week, for 6 weeks. This was followed by an extensive tour of all the leading variety theatres and night clubs.

He devised numerous unique and entertaining sales presentations and product launches for household name brands. His specialised seminars included personal development, motivation, and memory systems.

David Berglas is the father of Marvin Berglas of Marvin's Magic, the world's largest supplier of professional magic sets. He is also uncle of South African cartoonist Zapiro.

In the 1950s, he had created what is now referred to as the "Holy Grail" of card magic, known as "The Berglas Effect",in which a magician appears to allow someone to freely name any playing card and freely select any position in a deck ("any card at any number"), and the specified card is found at the specified position in a random deck. The effect was first named "The Berglas Effect" by Jon Racherbaumer in his 1984 book At The Table.

The British Magical Society is the oldest magic club in the UK. It presents 'The David Berglas Trophy' annually (since 1988) to leading British magicians.

In 1999 he established a non-profit organisation called the Foundation for Promoting the Art of Magic (FP-AM). The Foundation presents "The David Berglas International Magic Award" annually at the International Magic Convention in London. In 2008 the award went to to Uri Geller (Israel), to David Copperfield (USA) in 20090 to Juan Tamariz (Spain) in 2010 to Derren Brown (UK) in 2011 to Jeff McBride (USA) in 202 and in 2013 Lu Chen (Taiwan)David . In 2014 the award was given to Berglas himself. The Award Committee had led him to believe that the award was being presented to Dynamo. Dynamo presented the award to him but used sleight-of-hand to change the engraved plaque on the award to Berglas' name.

He has been involved with numerous major films, acting as a creative consultant and technical advisor

He actually first became a household name in Britain through his regular performances on BBC radio, an unusual role for a magician. He conducted what he called "Nationwide Psychological Experiments", involving millions of listeners in their homes. This part of the show required listeners to write in to confirm their reaction. To this day the BBC's archives have recorded this as being the largest collection of fan mail ever received. During the show's run it was not unusual for him to receive 3000 – 4000 postcards or letters per week.

His weekly broadcasts included sensational stunts, including hanging a box over Regent Street, London for a whole week. It had been officially sealed by the Diplomatic Corps of the Admiralty, and when opened, it contained the passport of a randomly selected member of the studio audience, sitting in the Playhouse Theatre by the Embankment. The passport had disappeared just moments before.

He appeared on radio, on and off, for about 17 years and when commercial radio first started he had a regular phone-in programme, late at night on LBC which started in 1973.

He was one of the first magicians to appear on British television with his own show Meet David Berglas in 1954, which regularly attracted audiences of over 19 million viewers. Numerous other television series followed and were highly acclaimed in the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Germany. Commercial television started in the UK in September 1955 and the first ever series was presented by Berglas on Associated Rediffusion called Focus on Hocus.

In the 1970s he presented a one-hour television special from Las Vegas and in the UK he caused a sensation with his Channel 4 series The Mind of David Berglas (1985–1986) where he interviewed and entertained celebrity guests including Omar Sharif, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, Peter Cook, Graham Chapman and Max Bygraves.

In 1967, after his popular Dutch television series 'OPUS 13', he was named "Television Personality of the Year", the first time it had ever been awarded to a foreign celebrity. In 1979 he was voted "King Rat" of the Grand Order of Water Rats, the world's leading show business charity organisation. He is a past President of The Magic Circle (1989–1998). On Christmas Day 1991 he was surprised by Michael Aspel when he became the subject of television's This Is Your Life.

The Magic Circle presented him with the coveted "Gold Medal" in the 2000 (which at the time had only been presented six times before, since 1926). In 1995 he received The "Maskelyne Award" for outstanding contribution to British magic and in October 2011, received The Magic Circle's highest international award, The David Devant.

He has also been honoured internationally including the "Gold Plaque" in Sweden, 1980 and the prestigious gold "Grolla" in Italy, 2008. The Academy of Magical Arts, Hollywood, awarded him a "Special Fellowship" in 2000, and the "Masters Fellowship" in 2004. In 2008 he was bestowed the "Griffin Award" and named "Grand Master of Mystery" by PSYCRETS (The British Society of Mystery Entertainers). He was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Session Convention in Gloucester, January 2011. At the Edinburgh International Magic Festival in 2013, he was the recipient of The Great Lafayette Award. In 2014, he was awarded The International Magic Award, at the International Magic Convention, London 

He received an MBE in the 2019 New Year Honours List.

He has been married to Ruth Shiell since October 5, 1956. They have three children.

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Peter

grseditor@gmail.com

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On this day 25^th July 1960;1965

On 25/07/1960 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 Plastic carrier bags introduced.

On 25/07/1961 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 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 Berlin Wall erected.

On 25/07/1962 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

On 25/07/1963 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 Coro nation 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 25/07/1964 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 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.The big news story of the day was Portabl e TVs launched.

On 25/07/1965 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 £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 Riviera Police (AR)".