Web Page 3073 2nd June 2023 First Picture: Front Page TV Guide

Second Picture: Arch in The Mall

Third Picture: Review of the Fleet

Forth Picture: Model Coronation Coach

Fifth Picture: Me, bottom right with the bare knees, as a herald at the Coronation Pageant

Sixth Picture: Maureen’s Coronation certificate

Coronation If one event summed up the hope and aspirations after the World War, it was the Coronation of the late Queen. The nation had been shocked by the early death of her father King George VI in 1952. He had been an immensely popular man The Coronation was eagerly anticipated. People planned trips to London to join the crowd of well-wishers, while others arranged street parties and celebrations at home in their local communities. Woolworth had spotted the opportunity and its Buyers had surpassed themselves. They had cleverly held the price of decorations artificially low, offering Gold Foil Crowns (measuring about 12.5 x 7.5 cm) selling for just 3d (1½p), the royal coat of arms for 9d (4p) and an alphabet of gold letters, including the obligatory E and R, at 6d (2½p) each. Shoppers were encouraged to display their own special messages. Other souvenir items including flags, bunting, tablecloths, mugs, glass plates, china teapots special bars of chocolate were offered at regular prices to balance the margin. The offer as a whole helped to establish F.W. Woolworth as the Coronation store, and secured its reputation with a new generation. Very detailed instructions and photographs were issued to stores, showing how to lay out the windows. Each item was numbered in the photographs to match it to the stock in-store. Each ticket in the picture was left blank, as the prices were kept secret right up to the day when the windows were built. Setting up the displays took each store's window dresser a whole day per window. Everyone agreed it was time well spent, as the results were stunning! Sales of the Coronation Ranges exceeded even the most optimistic expectations at headquarters. From the stockroom to the boardroom, everyone was proud to play a part in the celebrations. Many remember 1953 as the happiest year of their careers. "In a Golden Coach (There's a Heart of Gold)" Words and Music by Ronald Jamieson was a Woolworth customers' favourite. The sheet music was offered in store for two shillings (10p). Almost a million copies were sold. On disc the song became a number one hit for two artists Dickie Valentine and Teddy Johnson. I remember my father decorating the front of our house with flags and bunting. It never crossed my mind as to where the decorations came from until I wrote the above. Stay in touch Peter gssedtor@gmail.com ________________________________________

Web Page 3071 25th May 2023 First Picture: Portrait

Second Picture: Grave in Somerset

Third Picture: As Lurcio

Forth Picture: In Carry on Doctor

Francis Alick Howard OBE was born on 6th March 1917 and died 19th April 1992),was better known by his stage-name Frankie Howerd, was an English actor and comedian. He was the son of soldier Francis Alfred William and Edith Florence Howard in York. His mother worked at the Rowntree's chocolate factory. For his first two and a half years, He later said he had only one memory of living in York and that was of falling down the stairs, an experience which left him with a life-long dread of heights. His family moved to Eltham, London when he was young, and he educated at Shooter's Hill Grammar School. His first stage appearance was at age 13 but his early hopes of becoming a serious actor were dashed when he failed an audition for RADA. He began to entertain during World War II in the Army. In 1944 he became a bombardier in Plymouth, was promoted to sergeant, and on 6th June 1944 was part of the D-Day effort but was stuck on a boat off Normandy. Despite suffering from stage fright, he continued to work after the war, beginning his professional career in the summer of 1946 in a touring show. His act was soon heard on radio, when he made his debut, in early December 1946, on the BBC's Variety Bandbox programme with a number of other ex-servicemen. He then toured the Music Hall circuit with an act including what became his standard catch-phrases such as "titter ye not". He also became a regular in the 1950s editions of the weekly hard-copy comic Film Fun. In 1954 he made his screen debut opposite Petula Clark in The Runaway Bus, which had been written for his comic talent. Filming took five weeks, with a budget of £45,000. He then experimented with different formats and contexts, including stage farces, Shakespearean comedy roles, and television sitcoms. At the start of the 1960s, he began to recover his old popularity and was boosted by success on That Was the Week That Was in 1963 and on stage with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1963–1965), which led into regular television work. In 1966 and 1967, he co-hosted a 90-minute Christmas show called The Frankie and Bruce Christmas Show with Bruce Forsyth, featuring many top acts of the day. He was known for his seemingly off-the-cuff remarks to the audience, especially in the show Up Pompeii! (1969–70. His television work was characterised by direct addresses to camera and by his littering monologues with verbal tics such as "Oooh, no missus" and "Titter ye not". A later sale of his scripts, however, showed that the seemingly off-the-cuff remarks had all been meticulously planned. He appeared as Francis Bigger, one of the lead characters in 1967's Carry On Doctor. The success of the film version of Up Pompeii in 1971 saw British exhibitors vote him the ninth most popular star at the British box office that year.. He was awarded an OBE in 1977. In 1978, he appeared in the Hollywood musical Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band playing Mean Mr Mustard. After six years without a regular television show he returned to TV screens in 1987 in the Channel 4 show Superfrank!. In the last years of his career, he developed a following with student audiences and performed a one-man show at universities and in small theatrical venues. Throughout his career, he hid his homosexuality from both his audience and his mother. In his early career, he suffered from a stutter, which caused him some distress, but which he turned to an advantage in developing his delivery style as a comic For the last 20 years of his life, he and his partner lived in Wavering Down, a house in the village of Cross, Somerset. Having contracted a virus during a Christmas trip to the Amazon in 1991, Frankie Howerd suffered respiratory problems at the beginning of April 1992 and was taken to a clinic in London's Harley Street, but was discharged at Easter. He collapsed and died of heart failure two weeks later, on the morning of 19th April 1992, aged 75.[Two hours before he died, he was speaking on the telephone to his TV producer about new ideas for his next show.[He died the day before fellow comedian Benny Hill. His grave is at St. Gregory's Church in Weare, Somerset. Stay in touch Peter GSSEDITOR@gmail.com

Web Page 3069 18th May 2023 First Picture: Portrait

Second Picture: With Hattie Jacques and Eric Sykes

Third Picture: With Marilyn Munroe in The Prince and the Showgirl

Forth Picture: With Eric Sykes

RICHARD WATTIS Richard Wattis was a British character actor who for over 40 years was the face of pompous officialdom whether he was portraying a civil servant, a secretary, or clerk. He was the man who began a sentence with a rather disinterested "Can I help you?", would listen to you explain your predicament and then frustrate you with an equally dispassionate "I'm awfully sorry, there's absolutely nothing I can do to help you." He was the man who would look down his nose at you with an air of superiority and dismissive-ness in the safe knowledge that the wheels of bureaucracy would always turn in his favour.. Richard Cameron Wattis was born on 25th February 1912 in Wednesbury and was moved to Walsall at the age of four. His uncle was MP for Walsall in the mid-1920's and as a child Richard Wattis became star-struck, idolising the screen actor Robert Donat who he frequently wrote to asking for advice on acting. He attended King Edward's School, Birmingham and Bromsgrove School, and upon finishing his education went to work for the family electrical engineering firm. It is doubtful that he ever showed any interest in the job and he soon left. Having avoided one lacklustre career he then managed to manoeuvre himself away from chartered accountancy and secured a position (on the advice of Robert Donat) at Croydon Rep in 1935. Here he learned his craft with the likes of John Barron, John Le Mesurier, Jon Pertwee and Dennis Price. By the end of the decade he was acting regularly on stage as well as producing and also appeared on the BBC's pre-World War II television broadcasts. One of the first actors to do so. He made his big-screen debut with a role in the 1939 feature A Yank at Oxford with Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor, but like most in his profession his career was interrupted by the the war serving in the Royal Medical Corp., as a Second Lieutenant. Upon being demobbed he returned to acting and soon found himself much in demand, first on radio and then in films, playing "pompous, dry, deadpan authority figures, snooping civil servants, and other comical pests."¹ During the 1950s he starred in numerous Ealing comedies as well as the St Trinian films. He also appeared in Around The World in 80 Days and made his international debut in The Prince and the Showgirl. Later he appeared in ‘Carry On's,’ Norman Wisdom films, and starred in over 100 films in all. On television he became a comic foil for Tony Hancock, Dickie Henderson and other comedians of the day. When Eric Sykes made his first television sitcom, he wrote a character called Mr Brown; a next-door neighbour who, far from being neighbourly, was snooty, pompous and fastidious. When casting the series Eric Sykes made it quite clear that he wanted no one else but Richard Wattis. In return, Richard Wattis was delighted to be given the part, because as he developed the role, Mr Brown became much more vulnerable and amiable than the type of character he usually played. Richard Wattis was far removed from his screen persona: "A cheerful, somewhat camp and relatively worldly bon vivant, he was a great thrower of parties and frequenter of high-class restaurants, and an avid student of history, the arts and literature. He was also quite mischievous and a good sport." For the second series of Sykes and A... his agent asked for Richard's fee to be increased. The BBC's reaction was to ask Eric Sykes to write Mr Brown out of the series. This request was. In his autobiography, Eric Sykes wrote "...it is my firm belief that you can't buy talent on the cheap, so my cast remained unchanged, and I made sure that Richard was with us until the day he died many years later." Richard Wattis died of a heart attack whilst dining in a Kensington restaurant on 1st February 1975, just three weeks before his 63rd birthday. His Memorial Service was held at St Pauls Church in Covent Garden (The Actor's Church), where there is a plaque in memory of him not far from his friend and colleague Hattie Jacques. Stay in touch Peter gsseditor@gmail.com

Web Page 3067 11th May 2023 Bernard Miles First Picture: As Nat Titlark

Second Picture: As Long John Silver with Spike Milligan

Third Picture: Mermaid Theatre

Forth Picture: Portrait

Bernard James Miles, Baron Miles, CBE was born on 27th September 1907 and died on 14th June 1991. He was an English character actor, writer and director He opened the Mermaid Theatre in London in 1959, the first new theatre that opened in the City of London since the 17th century He was known for playing character roles that usually had links to countrymen. His strong accent was typical of rustic dialects associated with the counties of Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. His pleasant rolling bass-baritone voice made him a regular presence on the stage and in films for more than fifty years. In addition to his acting, he was a voice-over artist and published author. He was educated at Uxbridge County School, Pembroke College, Oxford and the Northampton Institute (later City University of London) in London.. In 1946 his comedy about the Home Guard Let Tyrants Tremble! was staged at the Scala Theatre in the West End, with Bernard Miles in the cast. By the 1950s, he had started to work in television. In 1951 he played Long John Silver in a British TV version of Treasure Island. A decade later he reprised the role for a performance of Treasure Island at the Mermaid Theatre in the winter of 1961–62, where the cast included Spike Milligan as Ben Gunn. Bernard Miles was always keen to promote up-and-coming talent. Impressed with the writing of English playwright John Antrobus, he introduced him to Spike Milligan, which led to the production of the one-act play The Bed Sitting Room. It was later expanded and staged by Bernard Miles at Mermaid Theatre on 31th January 1963, with critical and commercial success. He was also known for his comic monologues, often delivered with a rural dialect, which were issued on record albums.Nathaniel Titlark (1956–1957, Woodsman, There were only 10 Episodes, broadcast by BBCTV. But all are now lost He had a Long-running ITV commercial advertisement in the 1960 with him drinking and recommending Mackeson as a beverage that 'Looks good, tastes good and, by golly, does you good'. He married the actress Josephine Wilson, with whom he had two daughters and one son, the racing driver John Miles, in 1931. She co-founded and was involved actively with him in the Mermaid Theatre. She predeceased him on 7 November 1990. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1953, was knighted in 1969, and was created a life peer as Baron Miles, of Blackfriars in the City of London, on 7th February 1979. He was only the second British actor to receive a peerage, after Laurence Olivier. He survived his wife by only six months and died in June 1991. He had been born in the same year, and died on the same day, as the actress Peggy Ashcroft

Web Page 3066 4th May 2023 First Picture: Marion Ryan

Second Picture: With Paul and Barry Ryan

Third Picture: Spot the Tune

Forth Picture: With Jackie Rae

Marion Ryan Marion Ryan was born on 4th February 1931 and died on 15th January 1999 she was a British singer in the 1950s in the early years of British Independent Television. She was once called "the Marilyn Monroe of popular song". Marion Ryan was born in Middlesbrough, North Riding of Yorkshire, England, where she attended Notre Dame Collegiate School for Girls in Leeds, now Notre Dame Catholic Sixth Form College. She was working in a hosiery shop in Leeds and broke into show business when she approached Ray Ellington who was performing at the Locarno in Liverpool in July 1953 and asked to sing with his quartet. He allowed her to do so and the audience reaction was so good he signed her up to work with the quartet. She made her debut with them at the Locarno, Glasgow in September 1953. Her first radio appearance took place on the show "Stepping Out at Radio Roadhouse" on the Light Programme on October 27, 1953 when the Ellington quartet were the guest band She continued to tour with Ellington until 1957 and made further radio appearances with them including the popular Goon Show. She began recording for Pye Nixa in 1956 and mainly made cover versions of American hits. Her version of "Love Me Forever" peaked at number five on the UK Singles Chart in 1958. Her first LP "A Lady Loves" was released in 1959. Beginning in June 1956, she was the regular singer in the popular musical quiz Spot the Tune[ on Granada Television for seven years, with a total of 209 half-hour programmes, which featured several star hosts including disc-jockey Pete Murray, the Canadian pop singer Jackie Rae, and the comedians Ken Platt and Ted Ray, and also Peter Knight and his orchestra. The show re-emerged in the 1970s as Name That Tune. Marion Ryan went solo in 1957 and undertook her first variety tour[ and then went on tour with Cyril Stapleton and his Show Band. She made six appearances in BBC's Six-Five Special in 1957 and 1958 and she appeared in the Royal Variety Performance in 1959. She appeared on Sunday Night at the London Palladium in 1963 and made one brief appearance as herself in the film It's All Happening, with singer Tommy Steele the same year. She had important guest spots on The Bob Hope Show in 1958 and The Bing Crosby Show in 1961. Her first marriage at the age of 17 was to Lloyd George Frederick Sapherson (known as Fred) (1913-2001) in the second quarter of 1948.] They had twin sons, Barry and Paul (born Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, 24 October 1948). In 1969 she married the show business agent Harold Davison (1922-2011) and they had a daughter named Caroline. After which she gradually eased herself into retirement. She died from a heart attack at age 67 in Boca Raton, Florida, United States. Stay in touch Peter