Manor Court Update

Tuesday, 28 February 2012

Web Page 1020

Top Picture: Mark Wynter EP cover

Second Picture: Rebuilding Commercial Road in the 1950’s

Mark Wynter

Mark Wynter is one of the few 1960,s pop artists who have maintained a career in show business. He was born Terence Sidney Lewis on 29th January 1943) and is now known as an actor and former singer, who had four Top 20 singles in the 1960s, including "Venus in Blue Jeans" and "Go Away Little Girl". He enjoyed a lengthy sucessful career in the pop world from 1960 to 1968 but later veered off into a acting in films, musicals and plays.

Upon leaving school, young Terry Lewis started work as a shop assistant. However, he was also an enthusiastic singer and his strikingly good looks helped him make the transition in this sphere from part-time amateur to full professional. His rendition of the teenage ballads of the era proved popular- particularly with female record buyers- and he managed to reach the UK top twenty with his first release; 'Image Of A Girl' on Decca. He followed this with the Lionel Bart penned 'Kickin' Up The Leaves' and a stream of further minor hits and misses- punctuated by a change to the Pye label during mid-1962. His first release for the new company was a cover version of the US Jimmy Clanton release 'Venus In Blue Jeans' and, in common with his other releases on Pye, benefited from its arrangement by Tony Hatch. This song is now easily his most memorable hit and was sufficiently popular to earn him a UK no 4 chart spot, whereas the Clanton original went almost unnoticed in Britain.

With his early musical career established he decided to change his name to lessen the confusion with the American comedian, Jerry Lewis. His manager suggested Wynter sounded more commercial, and the complete name change was later made official by deed poll.

He was entered as one of the contenders for the UK's place in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1961, with "Dream Girl", but only finished fourth behind The Allisons.
His cover version of the American hit by Jimmy Clanton - "Venus in Blue Jeans" (1962) - was his biggest success. Although he recorded a number of singles for the Decca and Pye labels in the UK, he made very few albums. Some recorded material came to light in 2004 when he discovered old tapes, they have subsequently been remastered and are now available as four CDs.

One event in his life is not well known for in 1968 he escorted a dazed young girl away from a burning BOAC aircraft, flight 712, upon which he had been a passenger.
By the early 1970s he had moved in pop stardom to a stage career in the West End of London.

He played the leading role in Conduct Unbecoming for more than a year at the Queen's Theatre in London, and for six months in Australia. He appeared with Julia McKenzie in On the Twentieth Century, and in Charley's Aunt. He also starred in Side By Side By Sondheim in Toronto, Chichester, and on the UK tour. In the 1982 Chichester Festival season he acted in several plays including On The Rocks and Henry V, and also sang in Valmouth. His other work in musicals during the 1980s included the role of the King in a revival of The King and I, the title roles in Hans Andersen and Barnum, the 1986 revival of Charlie Girl with Cyd Charisse and Paul Nicholas in London, and the part of Robert Browning in Robert and Elizabeth. During the 1990s he spent two years in Cats, and was also seen as the Phantom and M. Andre in The Phantom of the Opera, and starred as Vittorio opposite Bonnie Langford in the 1998 West End revival of Sweet Charity. He has appeared frequently in the provinces and portrayed Emile de Becque in a UK national tour of South Pacific. In 1994 he created the role of Van Helsing in the studio recording of the opera/musical "Nosferatu" by Bernard J. Taylor.

He was still working actively and successfully in theatre throughout the world well into the 1990s. In 2000 Castle Communications released Go Away Little Girl: The Pye Anthology, a double album compiling his complete output. In 2007 he toured the UK in a number of plays and musicals.

He now lives in Sussex, and tours the country with an Agatha Christie theatre company. He is married to Emma, and has three children; Barnaby, Josh and Darcey.
Stay in touch,

Yours,

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

You Write:

Stephen Writes:-

Forgetter Be Forgotten? 
My forgetter's getting better, 
But my rememberer is broke 
To you that may seem funny 
But, to me, that is no joke
For when I'm 'here' I'm wondering 
If I really should be 'there' 
And, when I try to think it through, 
I haven't got a prayer! 
Oft times I walk into a room, 
Say 'what am I here for?' 
I wrack my brain, but all in vain! 
A zero, is my score. 
At times I put something away 
Where it is safe, but, Gee! 
The person it is safest from 
Is, generally, me! 
When shopping I may see someone, 
Say 'Hi' and have a chat, 
Then, when the person walks away 
I ask myself, 'who the hell was that? 
Yes, my forgetter's getting better 
While my rememberer is broke, 
And it's driving me plumb crazy 
And that isn't any joke. 

News and Views:

Singer/songwriter Dory Previn-- one-time wife of composer/conductor Andre Previn-- who gave us the lyrics for Dionne Warwick's hit, "Theme From The Valley Of The Dolls" and the Oscar-nominated "Come Saturday Morning" from the movie "The Sterile Cuckoo" (a hit for the Sandpipers), died on Tuesday (February 14) at her home in Southfield, Massachusetts at the age of 86. Dory was nominated for two other Academy Awards-- for "Farway Part Of Town" from "Pepe" in 1960 and for "Second Chance" from "Two For The Seesaw" two years later.

On this day 2nd March 1960-1965

02/03/1960

the number one single was Why - Anthony Newley and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was not listed and the box office smash was Some Like It Hot. 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

02/03/1961

the number one single was Walk Right Back/Ebony Eyes - Everly Brothers and the number one album was Tottenham Hotspur. The top rated TV show was The Army Game (Granada) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada).

On

02/03/1962

the number one single was Rock-a-Hula Baby/Can't Help Falling In Love - 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

02/03/1963

the number one single was The Wayward Wind - Frank Ifield and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. The top rated TV show was Labour 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.

On 02

/03/1964

the number one single was Anyone Who Had a Heart -Cilla Black and the number one album was With the Beatles - The 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On

02/03/1965

the number one single was I'll Never Find Another You - Seekers and the number one album was Beatles For Sale - 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 Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

Tuesday, 21 February 2012

Web Page 1018

Top Picture: Andy Capp

Second Picture: Snoopy and Woodstock

Strip

When we were little our Dads always read the daily newspapers and that if we ever got hold of the paper it was a rare event as they were not classed as suitable reading for children. And this is before the advent of page three. But what I do remember from sneaking a look at my fathers Daily Mirror are the strip cartoons. These cartoons were many and various covering everything from comedy, to gardening tips, household tips and political satire.

Let me start with the odd ones. Gardening; now who remembers the strip that went under the title of Mr Digwell. Mr Digwell was a classic Victorian gardener with string tied around his trouser legs and he gave horticultural tips for use at home. Another of these gardening sages was Old Adam, whoever he was! Barry Bucknell had a strip for home maintenance as did a couple of other early DIYers, but I seem to remember these died out when magazines such as the Practical Householder hit the streets. There were adventure strips Garth, Dick Tracy, Tarzan, Romeo Brown and for the space enthusiast Dan Dare.

Mention strip cartoon and you have to mention Jane with her little dog Fritz. What ever the adventure it always seemed that Jane would loose her clothes at the drop of a hat and would be left standing in her underwear complete with stockings and suspenders. I can assure all you ladies out there that none of us lads had the good fortune to meet up with a Jane in our youth. If we did I think we would have run a mile! Although she did have a rival at one time Tiffany Jones but who remembers her?

The main stay of the strip cartoon were the comic strips. Here are a few I am sure you will all remember.

Andy Capp and Florrie, probably one of the most successful comic strips of all time even though the creator Reg Smythe died in 1998 the cartoon still continues now being drawn byRoger Mahoney and written by Roger Kettle.
The Perishers, another highly successful cartoon strip featuring Wellington, Maisie, Marlin, Boot the dog and the ‘Eyeballs in the Sky’. This started in the Daily Mirror in 1959 and continued until 2006 and then after a gap of four years reprints of the original strips were introduced again by the Daily Mirror.

Peanuts, is very probably the best known cartoon strip of all. Drawn by Charles M Schulz it ran from 1950 ( although it started in America in 1947 until Schulz death in 2000 although reruns can still be found in some publications. Who can forget Charlie Brown, Lucy, Pigpen and of course Snoopy and Woodstock. A typically American cartoon but it was a big hit here in the UK.

Another American import was Blondie. On February 17, 1933, after much fanfare and build-up, Blondie Boopadoop a carefree flapper girl who spent her days in dancehalls. marries her boyfriend Dagwood Bumstead, the son of a wealthy industrialist. Unfortunately, Dagwood's upper-crust parents strongly disapprove of his marrying beneath his class, and disinherit him and the Bumsteads are forced to become a middle-class suburban family. Blondie’s marriage marked the beginning of a change in her personality. From that point forward, she assumed her position as the sensible head of the Bumstead household. And Dagwood took over as the comic strip’s clown. The strip ran from 1930 to 2005, one of Dagwood’s obsessions was the giant Dagwood sandwich and recently a chain of Dagwood sandwich shops has opened in the USA.

For us children Rupert the Bear was one of the most popular cartoons. Running from 1920 to 2005 and encompassing books, annuals, TV series and even Sir Paul McCartney Rupert has been one of the most successful cartoons of all time despite being politically incorrect with its characters and I bet you did not know that there was a Rupert Bear Museum in Canterbury.

Not exactly a strip cartoon writer I cannot ignore Ronald "Carl" Giles who died in 1995 aged 80 he was always referred to simply as Giles whose work appeared for years in the Daily Express. His cartoon style was a single topical highly detailed panel, usually with a great deal more going on than the single joke. Certain recurring characters achieved a great deal of popularity, particularly the extended Giles family, which first appeared in a published cartoon on 5 August 1945 and featured prominently in the strip. Of these, the most famous is the enigmatic matriarch of the family, known simply as Grandma. Another recurring favourite was Chalkie, the tyrannical school teacher who Giles claimed was modelled on one of his childhood teachers, and Larry, the mop-haired child from next door, often seen with a camera, who, it is said is the alter ego of Giles himself.
There were many, many others Flook, Denis the Menace, Garfield, Tin Tin, Pop, Wack, The Larks, The Fosdyke Saga and Fred Bassett.

I am sure that I have forgotten some and I am sure that you will all let me know which ones. I look forward to hearing from you.
Stay in touch,

Yours,

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

You Write:

Jonathon Writes:-

Just for your interest, Marks and Spencers branded themselves
Woolworth's in South Africa as they wanted to do lucrative business in South African High Streets and shopping malls without appearing to be supporting South Africa. So throughout the Apartheid years they were busy here supplying goods which in some cases (especially clothing) had M and S labels.

With the ending of Apartheid, they maintained the Woolworth's branding and are still here today. So my wife can still say I'm popping out to Woolworths.....they are bound to have some.

We noticed when we came back to work in Reading in 2006 for a couple of years that Woolworths had really gone downhill in the UK it certainly was not the organisation we left when we emigrated 30 years previously.

News and Views:

Gary Glitter's "Rock & Roll Part II," which is played at many sports arenas to fire up the crowd, has been banned from the Super Bowl. The New England Patriots traditionally use the song to celebrate touchdowns. It was felt to be inappropriate to reward Gary Glitter with tens of thousands of dollars in royalties in light of his past child sexual abuse convictions.

On this day 26th February 1960-1965

On 28/02/1960 the number one single was Why - Anthony Newley and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was not listed and the box office smash was Some Like It Hot. 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 day was USSR wins Winter Olympics

On

26/02/1961

the number one single was Sailor - Petula Clark and the number one album was Tottenham Hotspur. The top rated TV show was The Army Game (Granada) 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. The big news story of the day was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada).

On

26/02/1962

26/02/1963

26/02/1964

the number one single was Diane - Bachelors and the number one album was With the Beatles - The 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On

26/02/1965

the number one single was I'll Never Find Another You - Seekers and the number one album was Rolling Stones Number 2 - The Rolling Stones. 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.The big news story of the day was Goldie the Eagle escapes London Zoo.

Tuesday, 14 February 2012

Web Page 1016

Top Picture: The last six days of Woolworths in Cosham High Street

.
Second Picture: Southsea Woolies

Woolworths

Over the years I think that I have only recommended one book to you all and that was ‘Babycham Night’ as it dealt with a young lad’s life as he lived with his father who ran the dancehall on the end of Ryde Pier in the early 1960’s. But I am now going to recommend another book, ‘The Wonder of Woolies’ by Derek Phillips, memories from both sides of the counter. Even though this book deals with Woolworth stores all over the country, our local one in 29-31 in Cosham High Street gets quite a few mentions as do the London Road, Commercial Road, Havant, Gosport and Southsea stores but strangely there is only a passing reference to the Fareham store.

This book takes you on a real wander down memory lane. There are certain things that the customers all seemed to remember, the Pick & Mix counter, the slabs of Sharps toffee with the little silver hammer, the sweet scales which would measure out 1oz of your favourite sweets and the packs of broken biscuits. Embassy records, Christmas decorations and presents, Easter Eggs and being able to buy a yard of material, a pack of buttons and in the homewear department Fablon by the foot, single fuses, brackets and nails, bulb holders and switches.

The electrical counter was the bain of the shop girl’s life as every light bulb had to be tested before being sold as did all the electrical fuses and the testing machine was always very temperamental.

Now looking at the Cosham store who remembers some of these products Woolies sold. Fresh fruit, plants and rose trees, hot salted peanuts, (they were only kept hot by an electric light bulb underneath the display until and this was turned off every night so the nuts were never really very hot), toys, dolls, airfix models at the very end of the store. Here in Woolworths our mothers bought baby clothes and medical requisites and we bough toy guns, skipping ropes, dolls and cowboy outfits. For many years Woolworths was the place to go to buy lampshades and in the middle of the store was a large counter with lampshades displayed from an overhead rack as well as on the counter.

One of the most popular counters with the girls was the make up counter where one of the displays was always Rimmel products whose slogan was ‘ Beauty on a budget tray’ and my wife informs me Revlon was also another popular brand on sale. Another popular item were fragrances and I think we can all remember someone buying ‘Evening in Paris’ or ‘Tweed’ or the like.

Cigarettes and tobacco was also another mainstay of the stores turnover and just inside the door was the tobacco counter selling all makes of cigars, cigarettes, pipes, pipe cleaners, matches lighters (petrol no gas lighters in the 1950’s) and even snuff. Here you could buy your Dad a pipe rack for Christmas or his birthday.

One of the other seasonal counters were fireworks and as kids we could only stand and stare at the Catherine Wheels, Sky Rockets, Twisters, Golden Rain and coloured matches. Only stand and look as we were too young to buy any of the products.

The look of the store was distinctive and it was the corporate look across the whole of the country. The red facia board with the bright gold lettering FWW Woolworth across the front of the store, what a shame it was when they changed to white fascias with plain red lettering! Wooden floors and counters which were sectioned off by using glass and chrome fittings, and who can forget those enormous metal cash registers with the bell on the end to summon the Supervisor?

Just inside the door of almost every store was a penny weighing machine which would display your weight to everyone on an enormous dial. On the ceiling for many years until a complete refurbishment took place the Cosham store, and many others, retained the old gas lights, mantles and glass shades, just in case!!! And there was also a very distinctive aroma to the place.

Woolworths were not the best payers in the world, £3 a week for a shop girl in 1958, but it was better pay than the Coop but worse than Marks and Spencers. The uniform was not popular with the staff and as far as I can remember there were three different colours depending on which counter you worked, cream with red lettering for all food products, green for hardware and red or everything else. But whatever the colour of the uniform there was always one thing in common, all the pockets were sewn up to prevent pilfering!!

Woolworths were well known for offering part time employment and in fact would employ girls and boys of just 14 years of age as Saturday workers providing they their application form signed by their head teacher. Looking back that I really do not remember any of my school friends working in the Cosham store or even applying for a job there.

None of us would have dreamt when we were teenagers that such an institution as Woolworths would totally disappear from our High Strees. How many times over the years did we hear our mothers say, ‘I’ll just nip into Woolies a minute, they are bound to have one’.

But unfortunately no longer!

Stay in touch,

Yours,

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

You Write:

Peter Writes:

NO NURSING HOME FOR me!!! No nursing home for us. We'll be checking into a Holiday Inn!
With the average cost for a nursing home care costing £188.00 per day, there is a better way when we get old and too feeble.
I've already checked on reservations at the Holiday Inn.
For a combined long term stay discount and senior discount, it's £59.23 per night.
Breakfast is included, and some have happy hours in the afternoon.
That leaves £128.77 a day for lunch and dinner in any restaurant we want, or room service, laundry, gratuities and special TV movies.
Plus, they provide a spa, swimming pool, a workout room, a lounge and washer-dryer, etc.
Most have free toothpaste and razors, and all have free shampoo and soap.
£5 worth of tips a day you'll have the entire staff scrambling to help you.
They treat you like a customer, not a patient.
There's a bus stop out front, and seniors ride free.
For a change of scenery, take the airport shuttle bus and eat at one of the nice restaurants there.
While you're at the airport, fly somewhere. Otherwise, the cash keeps building up.
It takes months to get into decent nursing homes. Holiday Inn will take your reservation today.
And you're not stuck in one place forever -- you can move from Inn to Inn, or even from city to city.
Want to see Scotland ? They have Holiday Inn there too.
TV broken? Light bulbs need changing? Need a mattress replaced? No problem.. They fix everything, and apologize for the inconvenience.
The Inn has a night security person and daily room service. The maid checks to see if you are ok. If not, they'll call an ambulance . . . Or the undertaker.
If you fall and break a hip, NHS will pay for the hip, and Holiday Inn will upgrade you to a suite for the rest of your life.
And no worries about visits from family. They will always be glad to find you, and probably check in for a few days mini-vacation.
The grandkids can use the pool.
What more could I ask for?

So, when I reach that golden age, I'll face it with a grin.
AIDS WARNING!
To all of you approaching 50 or have REACHED 50 and past, this email is especially for you......
SENIOR CITIZENS
ARE THE NATION'S LEADING CARRIERS OF AIDS!
HEARING AIDS
BAND AIDS
ROLL AIDS
WALKING AIDS
MEDICAL AIDS
GOVERNMENT AIDS
MOST OF ALL,
MONETARY AID TO THEIR KIDS!
Not forgetting HIV
(Hair is Vanishing)

I'm only sending this to my 'old' friends.

News and Views:

Dick Kniss, bassist with Peter, Paul & Mary for most of their musical career died late last month.

On this day 20th February 1960-1965.

On

20/02/1960

20/02/1961

the number one single was Are you Lonesome Tonight? - 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

20/02/1962

the number one single was The Young Ones - Cliff Richard & the Shadows 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. The big news story of the day was Unknown Sean Connery cast as 007 in Dr No.

On

20/02/1963

the number one single was Diamonds - Jet Harris & Tony Meehan and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. 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 Liz Taylor films Cleopatra.

On

20/02/1964

the number one single was Diane - Bachelors and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Steptoe & Son (BBC) 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.The big news story of the day was Malcolm X visits Cassius Clay's training camp.

On

20/02/1965

the number one single was Tired of Waiting For You - The Kinks and the number one album was Rolling Stones Number 2 - The Rolling Stones. 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.

Tuesday, 7 February 2012

Web Page 1014

Top Picture: Christophers shoe shop in Cosham High Street

Second Picture: The Chelsea Boot with Cuban Heels.

Put Your Best Foot Forward

Whilst I appreciated the time and effort that many of you girls went to just to look fashionable and attractive when we were all in our teens and as I cannot pretend to be a ladies fashion guru but have you thought about us blokes? Men’s fashion at that time was another matter specially shoe styles and here I apologise in advance to Mary Ann Christopher if she reads this as she is still very much in the shoe trade in the shop her grandfather father started in 1910 in Cosham High Street.

Well, just looking back to the ‘60’s I started to realise what difficult decisions we had to make as what to wear on our feet; it certainly was not a case of trainers everywhere. Actually back then we did not call them trainers, they were plimsolls or gym shoes and no one would have even considered wearing them out socially, they were just for games and sports at school.

I suppose we lads first became aware of men’s shoe fashions when the Winkle Picker shoes first hit the streets. These shoes were accompanied by warnings from the older generation that they would cramp the toes, give us bunions and generally give us all terrible feet in the future, but we ignored the advise and persisted and even today both men and women can still buy high fashion Winkle Picker shoes. However, galling as it is, I think we all have to admit that maybe some of the older generation were right because now 50 years later many of our contemporaries suffer from cramped toes, bunions and generally terrible feet .

The next movement in shoe fashion was the chisel point shoes, these being wider and cut off at the end were far kinder on the feet and gave your toes room to move and so were far more acceptable to our parents (especially mine, I was never allowed to buy Winkle Pickers). This logic also applied to the resurrection of the Chelsea Boot (it was originally an Edwardian fashion). Here we had two basic types available the zip sided, which I preferred and still prefer and the elastic sided whose draw back was stretched elastic after a time which made the shoes floppy. These styles were fine until the advent of the Cuban heel and once again the argument about these sorts of shoes being bad for the feet emerged but this time the supposed fact that these high heels were bad for young men’s backs and hip joints was circulated but as far as I can remember this had no effect on our purchasing plans what so ever.

For time suede shoes in varying styles were all the rage and this is when the Hush Puppies Company really came into its own. I remember having a grey pair of suede shoes of which was inordinately proud!!! But I never actually owned a pair of genuine Hush Puppies.

High sided Desert Boots were popular as were sandals and as many of you know sandals are still my favoured form of footwear and have been for decades!

All this was well before the popularisation of Doc Martens with Airwave soles and other semi industrial shoes which suddenly broke onto the fashion market and definitely well before the platform shoes of the 1970’s, now those really were dangerous!!!

So ladies I hope that you can see that it was not just you who had to make decisions about shoe styles. Granted we did not have to decide between stiletto heels of varying heights or the more practical and comfortable kitten heels. We had our problems too!!!!

Stay in touch,

Yours,

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

You Write: Ferry Memories

Anida Writes:-

Seeing your pictures of the IOW ferries reminded me about those tin strips that you would punch out your name on. The machine was like a large clock with the letters of the alphabet instead of numbers and you turned the large steel pointer to each letter and stamped it on the tin strip. There was one on Ryde pier which kept us amused whilst waiting interminably for the ferry home. What was the purpose of those things who really wanted or needed a piece of tin with your name (usually misspelt) on it!! Ah well, little things........

Still those long days on the beach at Whitecliff Bay were worth the wait for the ferry at the end of the day. I also remember the wash created by the paddle steamer calling at South Parade Pier, a highly prized event when bobbing about in the water in the huge rubber inner tube! Happy days.

Dave Writes:

It was good to see that picture of the PS Ryde, the photos I have seen lately show her to be a derelict. From 1966 to 1968 I worked on the Isle of Wight ferries and during the summer I crewed on the Ryde as the bow rope man. Because she was a paddle driven vessel, when she was going astern I and the ordinary seaman would have to man a wheel in the bows that worked the bow rudder, the rudder at the stern didn't have enough effect to turn her. We used to get passengers from all over the world come and sail on the Ryde because steam ships were becoming a rarity by then. I had many happy times working on her.

By the early 70s it was going to be scrapped but someone purchased her and moored her at Binfield on the Isle of Wight and she became a night club. In the late 70s there was a fire on board, and, soon after the night club closed. She has been left there ever since and is rotting so badly that there is no chance of rescuing her now.

The time I spent working on the Isle of Wight ferries were good times and I made some life time friends amongst the crew. During the summer on a Wednesday night there was a service called the Beat Cruise. We would take on passengers at the Hard in Portsmouth and the pier at Ryde and then sail the MV Shanklin up and down the Solent until 1 or 2 in the morning. We had a DJ and two good bands on board, (on a site called Portsmouth Music Scene they state that it was a radio 1 DJ, I don't think that is likely), I seem to remember Procul Harem, Amen Corner and Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Titch. Does anyone else remember these cruises?

News and Views:

Bobby Rydell has just announced a new series of tour dates in the USA and Australia.

On this day 12th February 1960-1965.

On

15/02/1960

15/02/1961

15/02/1962

15/02/1963

the number one single was Diamonds - Jet Harris & Tony Meehan and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. 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 Liz Taylor films Cleopatra.

On

15/02/1964

the number one single was Needles & Pins - Searchers and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Steptoe & Son (BBC) 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

15/02/1965

the number one single was You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' - Righteous Brothers and the number one album was Rolling Stones Number 2 - The Rolling Stones. 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. The big news story of the day was Canada's Maple Leaf flag raised for first time

Tuesday, 31 January 2012

Web Page 1012

Top Picture: The magazine Jackie

Second Picture: 1960’s BSR record deck with auto changer!!!

Things Ain’t What they Used to Be

After I looked around at the teenagers locally the other evening walking along with their ipods, computers and other such gismos I got to thinking about how we spent some of our evening when we were teenagers in the early 1960’s.

I suppose that when I was 15 or so after the obligatory homework had been completed my time was our own, well at least until 10.30 or so, my folks were very strict on time, so what was there to do? Records were the big thing and several of us collected in my living room (or someone else’s living room, NEVER the bedroom that was unheard of) and listened to records and discussed what we could do that evening. Even arranging this was difficult as none of us had a telephone at home so we had to settle the arrangements before we left school and make sure we had all our school work done before we could get together. The process was always very academic as we always ended up by walking into Cosham and up and down the High Street to see who was about and then walk back home again. Isn’t it funny that in our memories the weather was always fine one those evenings, it never rained! After the walk back, (it was not until a year or so later that we ventured into pubs), we settled down to listen to the pop music being broadcast by Radio Luxemburg and getting frustrated as the signal faded in and out always cutting off the best bit of the record.

Some evenings some of us went to the Manor Court Youth Club which was open six evenings a week with records being played for most evening but live music was the attraction on a Saturday evening. But there were two golden rules NO ALCHOL and NO SMOKING IN THE CLUB. The strongest drinks we could get was coffee and draught coke. This was quite a social centre and people from all over Portsmouth used to come however we always went as a group of lads so we could met up with the girls there.

Some of us also spent time in Scout troops or the ATC but all the this ended when our first girl friend came on the scene and then there was yet another decision to make. You naturally wanted to spend time alone together, you daren’t take her home, Mum might not like it; so it was back to walking through Cosham, around Hilsea Lido or up onto Portsdown Hill. This was really great but you did miss the company of your mates sometimes but on the other hand you really did want to show her off.

It was strange but the mornings and afternoons over the weekends and holidays were always reserved for mucking around with your mates, exploring, cycling, fishing or another similar activity BUT as we got older the evenings at the weekends were reserved for taking your girlfriend out. That is not to say that there was not times when we took them out during the week, these could vary, but especially Saturday Night was the courting night. Happy memories! Even today I can walk past a lady and get a whiff of her perfume and it will whisk me back to the 1960’s and I can usually remember who used to wear that perfume and where we went.

One other thing that is very different today. In our day money was tight some of us had paper rounds or part time jobs that paid but very little. So taking a girl out meant saving up maybe you would go to a dance or to the cinema or if someone was having a party that would be great as it only meant buying a large bottle of cider which would act as an entry ticket. We never actually had enough money to take a girl out to a club like the Pomme d’or for even just a simple meal. Here I must now apologise to any of my ex girl friends that read this, I am sorry that we never shared a meal togethetr, all I can say is if I had the money we would have gone out for a meal and not just shared a bag of greasy chips on the way home.

Ah! Well I still have happy memories of those times and would not change them for the world. Maybe you have some memories similar to these, if so write in and share them with us.

Stay in touch,

Yours,

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

You Write:

Martin Writes:

That little story about Lulu stirred a memory or two. I was working Reception for what was then the Britannia Hotel across from the American Embassy. shared a dinky little flat with two other chaps off of Sloan Street in a little mews called Kinnerton Place. I believe a Sheraton Hotel now occupies what was that little part of Belgravia. Anyway just around the corner there was a little deli type place small but on Saturdays always all kinds of folks were coming and going. So there we are one sunny Saturday slurping frothy coffee and in walk Lulu and Maurice the two them sat across from us so we said hello and how is it going and had a good old chat. They lived across Belgravia Square in the pop star expensive flats. Wesaw them a few more times there after that also Barry Gibb and his wife Molly met his brother there once also.

News and Views:

Lead singer of the Troggs Reg Presley, who was hospitalized with his second stroke in December. He has announced that he has been diagnosed with lung cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy. And, as 70 year-old Reg put it, "I've had to call time on the Troggs and retire." Get Well wishes can be sent to Reg care of his fan club secretary at:
Jacqueline Ryan
56 Waite Davies Rd.
London SE12 OND
Great Britain

On this day 5th February 1960-1965.

On

05/02/1960

05/02/1961

05/02/1962

05/02/1963

the number one single was Diamonds - Jet Harris & Tony Meehan and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. 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 Liz Taylor films Cleopatra

On

05/02/1964

05/02/1965

the number one single was You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' - Righteous Brothers and the number one album was Beatles For Sale - 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 Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

Tuesday, 24 January 2012

Web Page 1010

Top Picture: Top of the Pops 1960

Second Picture: The Temperance Seven today

No 1.

To be a hit a record really had to reach No 1 and in the first three years of the 1960 40 different artists held the No1 position, try counting them!!!

The first No1 of 1960 was What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For by Emile Ford & The Checkmates, this was their only No 1 and it stayed in the No 1 position for 6 weeks. This was followed for one week by Michael Holliday with Starry Eyed but by the beginning of February Anthony Newley knocked him off the top and stayed there for a whole month. March saw Adam faith with Poor Me up there but for only one week and he was followed by Johnny Preston with Running Bear for a fortnight. Then skiffle made an appearance when Lonnie Donegan sat on the No 1 spot for four weeks with My Old Man’s a Dustman.

April saw the 100th No1 hit but again this only lasted for a single week and was Do You Mind by Anthony Newley. Now comes a selection of long reigning hits The Everly Brothers with Cathy’s Clown for 7 weeks, Three Steps to Heaven by Eddie Cochran for 2 weeks, the Jimmy Jones for 3 weeks with Good Timin’ and Cliff Richard for 4 weeks with Please Don’t Tease.

Then in August came Johnny Kidd & The Pirates who were Shakin' All Over for 1 week the Apache by The Shadows for 5. Ricky Valence asked us to Tell Laura I Love Her for 3 weeks and Roy Orbison stayed at the top for 2 weeks with Only the Lonely. Now comes the first really big with Elvis’ Its Now or Never which stayed at the top for two whole months, only to be knocked off by Cliff Richard with the 1960 Christmas No 1 I Love You.

In January Johnny Tillotson sang of Poetry in Motion for 2 week and for the next month Elvis asked Are You Lonesome Tonight? Petula Clark hit No1 in February for 1 week with sailor the The Everly’s were back for 3 weeks with Walk Right Back but Elvis was not to be denied and on 23rd march he reached No1 with Wooden Heart and it stayed there for 6 weeks. Two very different records then took over the No1 slot both for just one week, Floyd Cramer with On The Rebound and then The Temperance Seven with You're Driving Me Crazy. But Elvis was soon back with Surrender which sat at the top for 4 weeks.

Now followed a selection of hits that only lasted 1,2 or 3 weeks. Del Shannon with Runaway for 3 weeks, the Everly Brothers held Temptation on the No1 spot for a fortnight, the Eden Kane said Well I Ask You for just 1 week followed by Helen Shapiro with You Don’t Know which sat at the top for 3 weeks only to be knocked off by John Leyton who stayed at the top for 4 weeks with Johnny Remember Me.

Shirley Bassey, The Shadows and The Highwaymen all sat at the top for just 1 week each with Reach For The Stars, Kon Tiki and Michael Row the Boat Ashore. Then, to me came a surprise Helen Shapiro with Waking back to Happiness which reigned from 19th October until 9th November ( I always thought this came before You Don’t Know!) . It was up to Elvis to remove Helen from the top with His Latest Flame another 4 week hit for Elvis to be followed by a Tower of Strength by Frankie Vaughn for 3 weeks and the 1961 Christmas No1 was Moon River by Danny Willams.

The first 18 weeks of 1962 were dominated by Cliff with The Young Ones (6 weeks), Elvis with Can’t Help Falling In Love (4 weeks) and The Shadows Wonderful Land for an incredible 8 weeks. These long lived hit changed when the one hit wonder of Bee Bumble and the Stingers, Nut Rocker, came along on 17th may 1962. But Elvis was soon there again for 5 weeks with Good Luck Charm. The came one of the strangest No1 of all time by Mike Sarne and Wendy Richards as Mike asked Wendy to Come Outside a record that stayed at No1 for 2 weeks in June.
For the next 25 weeks only five different artists took the number one spot Ray Charles for two weeks with I Can’t Stop Loving You, Frank Ifield with I Remember You for 7 weeks, Elvis with She’s Not You for 3 weeks, Telestar stayed at the top played by the Tornados for 5 weeks the Frank Ifield was back again this time with Lovesick Blues for 5 weeks. Finally the year ended with Elvis having the Christmas hit, Return to Sender which stayed at the top from 13th December through to the New Year.

The first three No1’s in 1963 all had some relation to each other. Firstly Cliff with Bachelor Boy for 3 weeks, the Dance On by The Shadows for a single week and then Diamonds by Jet Harris and Tony Meehan for three weeks up until Frank Ifield returned with The Wayward Wind for another 3 week run. Not be out done the old firm were soon back Cliff with Summer Holiday for 3 weeks and The Shadows then took over for a week with Foot Tapper.

April marked a milestone in pop history when the first Merseyside groups broke through to No1. Gerry and the Pacemakers with How Do You Do It? for 3 weeks in April then followed by From Me To You by the Beatles for 7 weeks after which Gerry was back again for a month with I Like It. This brought us up to mid July which is when Frank Ifield had his last No1 Confessin’ which saw the month out to be replace for just one week by Elvis with Devil in Disguise.

The next 6 No1’s covering 23 weeks were all Merseyside groups except for one. The Searchers held the top spot for 2 weeks with Sweets For My Sweet, Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas with Bad To Me for 3 weeks, The Beatles She Loves You for 6 weeks, Brian Poole and the Tremeloes sang Do You Love Me at No 1 successfully for 3 week. Gerry was back with You’ll Never Walk Alone in November and this stayed at the top until 12th December when the Beatles took over with I Want to Hold Your Hand and this lasted right through until 16th January 1964.

Stay in touch,

Yours,

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

You Write:

Colin Writes:

Sadly Brian Fitzgerald died in Queen Alexander Hospital a couple of weeks ago after a long battle with Cancer. Brian left Manor court in 1972 and stayed in the Portsmouth area.

News and Views:

Congratulations also to Rick Wakeman of Yes. The 62 year-old keyboardist was quietly married to his 37 year-old girlfriend December 14. They've known each other for eight years.

On this day 28th January 1960-1965.

On

28/01/1960

the number one single was Why - Anthony Newley and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was not listed and the box office smash was North by Northwest. 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 day was Call for higher police pay.

On

28/01/1961

the number one single was Are you Lonesome Tonight? - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was The Russ Conway Show (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £ 13.25. The big news story of the day was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada).

On

28/01/1962

28/01/1963

the number one single was Dance On - The Shadows and the number one album was Out of the Shadows - Shadows. The top rated TV show was The Prime Minister (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.

On

28/01/1964

the number one single was Glad All Over - Dave Clark Five and the number one album was With the Beatles - The 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.

On

28/01/1965

the number one single was Go Now! - Moody Blues and the number one album was Beatles For Sale - 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 Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

Tuesday, 17 January 2012

Web Page 1008

Top Picture: Lulu and The Luvvers, a backing group she soon dropped.

Second Picture: The cast from ‘Thank Your Lucky Stars’

Lulu

I cannot believe that I have been writing this blog for over ten years now and I have never done a page on Lulu, so I will rectify that right now.
Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie, is known to us as ‘Lulu’, her name now is Lulu Kennedy-Cairns, was born on 3rd November 1948 in Glasgow. At the age of 13 she had started singing and had a manager who approached a band called the Bellrocks seeking a singer. She appeared with them every Saturday night and even then her voice was unbelievable.

At 15 she signed to Decca, it is then that her version of "Shout", reached the UK charts. Marion Massey, her manager, guided her career for more than 25 years, for most of which time they were partners in business. Massey's husband, Mark, wrote many of Lulu's hits. In 1966 Lulu toured Poland with The Hollies and she was the first British female singer to appear live behind the Iron Curtain. In the same year she recorded two German language tracks, "Wenn du da bist" and "So fing es an" for the Decca Germany label. All of Lulu's Decca recordings were made available in 2009 on a 2-CD entitled Shout!

She left Decca in 1966 and signed with Columbia to be produced by Mickie Most. In April 1967 Lulu returned to the Charts reaching number 6 with The Boat that I Row and all seven singles she made with Mickie Most made the UK Singles Chart. In 1967 she made her debut film in To Sir with Love with Sidney Poitier. She had a major hit with the title song reaching number one in the US. In the UK, it was released on the B Side of "Let's Pretend" and reached No 11 sold over a million copies and was awarded a gold disc. In the meantime she continued her pop career and had several television series of her own. After appearing on the BBC in the 1967 series Three Of A Kind, Lulu was given her own TV series in 1968, which ran annually until 1975 under various titles including Lulu's Back In Town, Happening For Lulu, Lulu and It's Lulu.

On 29 March 1969, she represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest performing "Boom Bang-a-Bang and won and in 1975 Lulu herself hosted the BBC's A Song for Europe in which The Shadows performed six short listed songs.
Weeks before her Eurovision appearance Lulu married Bee Gee Maurice Gibb, their Mexican honeymoon had to be postponed because of Lulu's Eurovision commitment. Their careers and his heavy drinking forced them apart and they divorced, childless, in 1973 but remained on good terms.

In 1970 Lulu scored a US Top 30 hit, "Oh Me Oh My (I'm a Fool for You Baby)". She appeared on the highly rated review of the sixties music scene Pop go the Sixties performing "Boom Bang-A-Bang" live on BBC1 and she was one of the main artists invited to appear on the BBC's anniversary show Fifty Years of Music in 1972. The same year she starred in Peter Pan in Manchester and repeated her performance at the London Palladium in 1975, and returned to the same role in different London based productions from 1987 to early 1989. In 1974 she performed the title song of the James Bond movie The man with the Golden Gun.

In 1977 she married her hairdresser but they separated in 1991 and divorced in 1995. They had one son.

She was associated with Freemans fashion catalogue during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In late 1979 she was in a car accident that nearly took her life, colliding head-on with another car.

She won the Rear of the Year award in 1983 and re-recorded a number of her songs. These included "Shout," which reached the Top 10 in 1986 in the UK. In 1993 she made a recording comeback with the single "Independence" which reached number 11 in the UK charts. This was the title track from the Independence album, all four singles from this album reached the UK charts, as did two later singles released in 1994.
In 1999, she co-wrote and recorded a duet with UK pop singer Kavana entitled "Heart Like The Sun", but it was not released until Kavana's 2007 "greatest hits" collection.

Now known as Lulu Kennedy-Cairns, in 2000 she was awarded an OBE. In 2004, she released the album Back on Track and went on a UK-wide tour to celebrate 40 years in the business. In late 2004 she returned to radio as the host of a 2-hour radio show on BBC Radio 2, playing a blend of music from the 1950s to the 2000s. In 2005, Lulu released A Little Soul in Your Heart, a collection of soul classics.

Lulu has continued to act occasionally and she has more recently appeared in a BBC reality TV show in 2006 as a judge and in late June and early July 2006 appeared on Take That's UK tour to perform their song "Relight My Fire". In November 2008 Lulu was one of a number of Scottish celebrities that featured in the advertising campaign for Homecoming Scotland, a year-long event to encourage people around the world with Scottish heritage to return to Scotland.

In January 2009, she began a four week stint as an advisor/coach on the BBC show Eurovision: Your Country Needs You, helping to choose the singer to represent the UK at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.

After appearing at an Abba tribute concert in Hyde Park during September 2009, Lulu announced that she would be touring the UK and a second tour was announced in 2010. In early 2010, Lulu performed the theme "The Word Is Love" to the movie Oy Vey! My Son Is Gay!! In November 2010 she hosted the BBC TV series "Rewind the 60s". Each episode focused on a year during the 1960s highlighting the social and political issues of the decade as well as music and interviews with personalities from the decade and on 26th February this year she appeared in the second heat in the third series of Let's Dance for Comic Relief.
So all that is left to say is ‘Weeeellllllll ………………’
Stay in touch,

Yours,

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

You Write:

No mail this week!!

News and Views:

Harry Fowler, 'Cheeky cockney' character actor has died aged 85, he never attained star status but created a gallery of characters, including minor villains, servicemen, reporters and tradesmen enriched by a cheeky smile and an authentic cockney accent. On television, he could be seen in Dixon of Dock Green and Z-Cars, but his big break came with three years in The Army Game (1959-61) and later as Harry Danvers in Our Man at St Mark's (1965-66). He accepted cameo roles in films, including Doctor in Clover (1966), recalling the advice that "each appearance was an advertisement for the next". He turned up as a milkman delivering to a home tyrannised by Bette Davis in The Nanny (1965), drove a cab in Lucky Jim (1957), and featured in the film of George and Mildred (1980), as he had in the TV series.

On this day 21st January 1960-1965.

On

21/01/1960

21/01/1961

the number one single was Poetry in Motion - Johnny Tillotson and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Sunday Night at the London Palladium (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On

21/01/1962

the number one single was The Young Ones - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was The Young Ones - Cliff Richard. 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

21/01/1963

the number one single was The Next Time/Bachelor Boy - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was Out of the Shadows - Shadows. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was 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

21/01/1964

the number one single was Glad All Over - Dave Clark Five and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Steptoe & Son (BBC) 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

21/01/1965

the number one single was Yeh Yeh - Georgie Fame and the number one album was Beatles For Sale - 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 Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

Tuesday, 10 January 2012

Web Page 1006

Top Picture: Captain Pugwash and Cut Throat Jake
Bottom Picture: Canoe Lake in 1950

Captain Pugwash

Now here is a character from our childhood, Captain Pugwash as we all know he is a fictional pirate who starred in a series of British children's comic strips and books created by John Ryan. The character's adventures were adapted into a TV series, using cardboard cut-outs filmed in live-action (the first series was performed and broadcast live), also called Captain Pugwash. He first appeared on our screens in 1957 and a series using the traditional form of animation was first aired in 1998.

Our hero – Captain Horatio Pugwash – sailed the high seas in his ship called the Black Pig, ably assisted by cabin boy Tom, pirates Willy and Barnabas, and Master Mate but as I expect we all remember his mortal enemy was Cut Throat Jake, captain of the Flying Dustman.

Actually Captain Horatio Pugwash is almost as old as us as he made his debut in a comic strip format in the first issue of The Eagle in 1950, then appeared regularly as a strip in the Radio Times. In 1957 the BBC commissioned a series of short cartoon films. John Ryan produced a total of 86 five-minute-long episodes for the BBC. He used a real-time technique of animation in which cardboard cutouts of the characters were laid on painted backgrounds and moved with levers. The characters' voices were provided by Peter Hawkins. The last series of Pugwash shorts by John Ryan was in 1975.

The book The Battle of Bunkum Bay gives some useful clues as to the era in which the stories are set. In this book, the King of Great Britain strongly resembles George 1 and the King of France resembles Louis XIV, suggesting that this story took place in 1714–15. However, one of the few direct references to a date is in the original TV series is the episode 'Pirate of the Year' where Pugwash enters the "Pirate of the Year contest 1775"

A number of spin-off books were written by John Ryan, and in the 1980s he drew three new Pugwash comic strip storybooks: The Secret of the San Fiasco, The Battle of Bunkum Bay and The Quest for the Golden Handshake.
Prior to the 1974-1975 series, the first Generation of Captain Pugwash episodes were filmed in black and white and were first shown on British TV, between 1957-1966. These early episodes, number a total of 87 episodes, with the producers using the production codes of CP001 to CP087, respectively. These earlier episodes are in addition to the later 30 episodes, from second generation of the series, which was produced in colour, during 1974-1975. Captain Pugwash also sold overseas, to various TV stations, including Australia’s ABC Television. There the show was screened by the ABC, during weekday afternoons, in the 1970s and 1980s.
Now who do you remember?

Captain Pugwash
The pompous but likeable captain of the Black Pig. Although he boasts of being the "bravest buccaneer", he is actually quite cowardly and stupid. His greed often gets him into trouble. Despite all this, he usually wins the day – either with the help of Tom the Cabin Boy or through sheer luck. Strangely enough, despite being a pirate, he is rarely seen committing any acts of piracy.

Master Mate
A dopey character, who has a tendency to use the wrong word at times and to mispronounce common words. He has a teddy bear in his bunk and is quite mild-mannered. It is not clear why he is the mate, as he does not appear to have any authority over the rest of the crew. He was present in the first ever Pugwash story, in which he was depicted as being constantly sleepy.

Seaman Barnabas
The most aggressive of the pirates, but in reality just as harmless. He is quite rebellious and grumpy, and is perhaps marginally more intelligent than Willy, the Mate or the Captain. He was not portrayed in the 1997 series.
SeamanWilly

A simple sailor from Wigan. He appears to be the youngest crew member (apart from Tom). He is gentle and against using violence. He does, however, have the occasional brainwave and has been the crew's saviour (admittedly sometimes more by luck than by design).

Tom the Cabin Boy
It might be argued that without Tom, Pugwash would have been sunk long ago. He is the most intelligent and resourceful member of the crew, the only one who can cook and the only one who can actually sail a ship. Although Pugwash would never admit it, Tom's ability to think up schemes is probably the only thing that prevents him from being a total failure as a pirate. Tom is an expert concertina player and part of his repertoire is The Trumpet Hornpipe (the Captain Pugwash theme). He was portrayed with a Home Counties accent in the first television adaptation, and with an Irish accent in the 1997 series.

Cut Throat Jake
Captain Pugwash's fearsome arch-enemy, captain of the Flying Dustman. When he is not scheming to bring about Pugwash's downfall, he is a rather more competent pirate than his enemy and always seems to have plenty of treasure. He speaks with a West Country accent and is easily recognisable by his eye patch and enormous black beard.
[edit] Characters added in the later series

Jonah
This character replaced pirate Barnabas, who featured in the older series. His catchphrase is "No good will come of this, mark my words!" Jonah appears to be of a Jamaican origin. He is the tallest of the crew as he often hits his head on the ceiling of the ship's lower deck. He is also one of the strongest of the crew as he serves as the Black Pig's carpenter.

Pugwash was well known for what can only be called Pugwashisms
"Dolloping doubloons or Dolphins" "Coddling catfish!" "Lolloping landlubbers!" "Suffering seagulls!" "Staggering stalactites!" “Nautical nitwits!" "Plundering porpoises!" "Kipper me capstans!" "Tottering turtles!" "Dithering dogfish!" "Scuttling cuttlefish!" "Stuttering starfish!" "Blistering Barnacles!"

Cut-Throat Jake has occasionally been known to utter the similar exclamation, "Scupper me skull and cross bones.”

The series had a memorable signature tune The Trumpet Hornpipe which was played by accordionist Tom Edmundson. He had learned the tune from Jimmy Shand and it appears to have been popular from the mid-19th century, but its composer and country of origin are unknown. In the United States it is known as the Thunder Hornpipe. Other background music was provided by renowned BBC music arranger and pianist, Johnny Pearson.
That’s all me hearties take care
Yours,

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

From the Web Page 10 years ago, another of those occasional look backs.

The Power of the Pound in the days when LSD was cash!

Things were different in a lot of ways when we were at school especially at home in the day to day life, the age of the convenience food had not really arrived quite yet, but Mrs Perfect Housewife in an Ideal Home had according to the advertisers in the magazines. Whilst sorting through a drawer recently I can across a lot of things from my teenage years and earlier. Letters (you’ve got to be a romantic to keep them!), my ration book made out in my name and registered in Parry’s stores on the Havant Road in Farlington, my National Identity Card, my grandmothers tobacco coupons and the weekly shopping book that once belonged to my father in law. Do you remember that your parents made out a shopping list in a book each week and then took it into the local shop and then a couple of days later it was delivered it to your door, either by bicycle, a la Arkwrights or in Parry’s case a rickety old green Morris van. The book I found was dated 1967, a little later than our school years but still close enough for us to get the feel of the economy and the cost of things, so most of the prices I quote come from that little hand written book.
What we bought:

The ‘in’ drink for the smart set at this time was most certainly Babycham (I’d love a Babycham) but there were other products that tried to get in on the action and tried to be adopted by the smart set. Remember Pony (the little drink with the big kick), Cherry B (what did the B stand for?) and Schweppes Bitter Lemon at just 11d. per bottle. Still on the alcohol front there were those TV ads featuring a set of cartoon country yokels, all singing ‘Coates comes up from Somerset where the cider apples grow’, other Cider brands were Woodpecker and Gaymers. For the younger set there was Corona in the distinctive wire clasped bottles, in some areas, ours being one, Corona was delivered once a week from a specially converted and angled flat bed Bedford lorry. There was Tizer (the appetizer), Cidrax and Peardrax, Kiaora squash and a new brand range of cordials under the Tree Top label. This brand was unusual because it not only came in the usual flavours of orange and lemon but also some strange exotic ones like passion fruit and mango! Or you could go and get a carton of milk (plain or strawberry flavoured) from the Milk Machines that were sited around the area, our local one was outside Fishy Francis’ Chip shop in Drayton.
Maybe you knew someone who was old enough to drink and fancied a beer, the drink to have then came from the Brickwoods Brewery in Queen Street, one of their Sunshine Ales range perhaps, a Little Bricky, or even a glass of Watneys Red Barrel. After a few of these you would then need a Disprin at 9d a packet to fight off the hangover.

Some dehydrated and ready prepared food had already found its way onto the market; Vesta Beef or Chicken Curry at 3/- maybe a Paella or the eastern dish Chow Mein at 2/9d. Talking of eastern things there was always the exotic promise from Fry’s Turkish Delight from Big Fry and washed down with some Schhhh Tonic water advertised by William Franklyn. These were the days that saw the introduction of products such as Milky Way (the snack you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite) and Smash potato flakes with their little robot men, plus Homepride flour with its little bowler hated flour graders. Also being very politically incorrect in our modern times was the golliwog on the jars of Robertson’s jams and marmalades.Birds Eye and Findus introduced frozen peas and then frozen runner beans at 1/2d, broad beans at 1/5d and brussel sprouts at 1/9d. Maybe for a pudding your mother would buy a Quick Jel at 6d, a flan case at 1/6d and tinned strawberries at 2/2d so you could make a make a sponge flan with tinned cream, which cost 9d. Or maybe a Birds Instant Whip was more convenient. In the kitchen your mother probably did the weekly wash using Daz 2/1d or Lux Flakes 2/11d, she cleaned the floors with Flash 1/11d. and did the washing up with Squeezy 1/2d. but don’t forget that a bottle of 1001 carpet shampoo cleaned a big, big carpet for less than half a crown. In the bathroom could be found bars of Lifebuoy soap, 11d, and for the ladies Camay (you’ll feel a little lovelier each day…..) at 1/4d, those were the days of the introduction of designer aftershave, stand clear of the Hi Karate and Brut !!! and can you remember those terrible Izal and Bronco toilet rolls?

It only cost us 4d to post a letter and 1/6d to get into the cheap seats at the cinema and a ticket for a pop concert at the Guildhall was about 5/-. To buy a daily local paper it cost 4d for the Evening News or if you wanted the weekly publication the Hampshire Telegraph that was also 4d an issue. We were still in the hey day of coach excursions and I recently came across an advertisement from Southdown Motor Services promoting day trips to Warwick Castle and Coventry for 25/6d and Bournemouth for 11/6d.

Looking back at these products and prices I fear I am getting to sound rather like my grandmother did, but then she always added ‘but those were the days’, I now know exactly how she felt.

You Write:

Jonathon Writes:

You remembered all the Solent Road School Masters and Mistresses except one. I wonder if it was because she was so awfully terrifying that you blanked it out for the sake of your sanity. What about Miss Moore............she used to take the 11 + class and was an absolute tyrant. She scared people into passing the 11+. I think she probably had the highest pass rate in the iniquitous history of the system that caused so much grief to hundreds of thousands of kids of that era. The 11+ shaped your whole future and if you were a bit off on the day of the test......tough. There was no real redress. My own wife Carol was one of those that failed the 11+..She is extremely bright and can do "killer" Sudokus of stated required 2 hours 30 minute duration in less than half an hour.......they take me days and I got distinctions in A level maths.

Back to Miss Moore....a lady who wore lacy shirts and a grey hair bun. She would cane at the drop of a hat. She made us learn our tables up to 16 times tables. She would stand us all on our chairs and strut around the class firing 5 X 13, 6 X 9 etc into your face. If you got it right you sat down. If not you stayed stnding on your chair, Eventually there was always one last quivering wreck who was faced with a wrath filled Miss Moore firing ridiculously difficult requests into their face. Some of the unlucky remainders of this treatment are probably still suffering nightmares to this day. I remember we used to write with red painted wooden pens, the nibs of which were removable for cleaning. We took them home on Fridays for such cleaning and brought them back on Mondays. I remember an occasion when Jon Caple forgot to bring his nib. He was too frightened to tell Miss Moore that he tried to write with a milk straw. Miss Moore caught him of course...........not surprising as after a few minutes there was ink everywhere.........he was dragged by his hair to the front of the class. What followed would today be on Sky News.

She scrabbled on top of "The Cupboard" for her three canes, a thick one, a medium one and a wickedly thin whippy one. She brandished them in his face screaming "which one do you want!!!!!!!" The poor lad weepingly chose the medium one and received SIX cuts on his hand in front of us all. I would guess the readers of this letter will scarce believe me but it happened, my God it really happened.

News and Views:

Ronald Wolfe writer of Educating Archie, The Rag Trade and On The Buses has died aged 89 after a fall, he was a cousin of the actor Warren Mitchell. He worked as a radio engineer for Marconi before contributing scripts to BBC radio series and writing material for Beryl Reid's stage shows. In 1953, a year after she joined Educating Archie he was asked to produce scripts for it and eventually became head writer. The programme also featured Ronald Chesney performing his "talking harmonica" novelty act and at times included Benny Hill, Dick Emery and Bruce Forsyth. Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney continued in the same roles for a 1956 BBC television special and the 1957 series Archie in Australia but, when ITV launched Educating Archie (1958-59) on television, Ronald Chesney abandoned performing and worked on scripts, doing the same for the final two radio series, finishing in 1960.
Chesney and Wolfe then created another BBC radio series, It's a Deal (1961), for Sid James, the The Rag Trade, Meet the Wife (1963-66), The Bed-sit Girl (1965-66), Sorry I'm Single (1967), with Derek Nimmo as an eternal student; and Wild, Wild Women. Then there was Romany Jones (1972-75and Yus My Dear (1976). But Ronald Chesney and Ronald Wolfe enjoyed huge success with On the Buses. Originally turned down by the BBC the idea appealed to Frank Muir, head of entertainment at the newly launched London Weekend Television and the rest is history.

On this Day 14th January 1960-1965

On 14/01/1960 the number one single was Why - Anthony Newley and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was not listed and the box office smash was North by Northwest. 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 day had been Elvis promoted to sergeant in US Army.

On 14/01/1961 the number one single was Poetry in Motion - Johnny Tillotson and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Sunday Night at the London Palladium (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 14/01/1962 the number one single was The Young Ones - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was The Young Ones - Cliff Richard. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street 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 14/01/1963 the number one single was The Next Time/Bachelor Boy - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was Out of the Shadows - Shadows. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street 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 14/01/1964 the number one single was Glad All Over - Dave Clark Five and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Steptoe & Son (BBC) 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. The big news story of the day was forthcoming trial of the alleged Great Train Robbers.

On 20/01/1965 the number one single was Yeh Yeh - Georgie Fame and the number one album was Beatles For Sale - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street 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.

Tuesday, 3 January 2012

Web Page 1004

Top Picture: The poster for the 1948 Olympic Games.

Bottom Picture: The ‘state of the art’ television cameras which were used to televise the events.

Happy New Year Everyone

Well here it is at last, Olympic Year 2012 so I thought I would just take a look back to the last time the Olympic Games were held in this country. I know that 1948 is quite a few years outside my normal remit but I will justify it by saying that actually a lot of us had been born by this time and some of us were all of just over 2 years old! As all the pieces start to fit together for this years massive event just take a look at the arrangements that were undertaken in 1948 and then compare them to all the razzamatazz and security being undertaken this year.
The 1948 Olympic Games in London.

Though World War II had been over for three years, Great Britain and Europe was still suffering very badly from the aftermath of war. When it was announced that the Olympic Games would be resumed, there were many heated and emotional debates as to whether it was wise to have a festival such as this when many European countries were still in ruins and in some cases the peoples were near to starvation. It was decided that to limit the United Kingdom's responsibility to feed all the athletes, it was agreed that the participants would bring their own food with them and that any surplus food after the seventeen day event would to be donated to British hospitals.

There was no money and no spare labour in the country to build any new facilities for these Games, but as Wembley Stadium had survived the war almost it tact, it was judged to be more than adequate for the need so the Stadium was adopted to be the home of these Olympics. No fancy Olympic Village was erected; the male athletes were housed at an army camp in Uxbridge and the women housed at Southlands College in dormitories and they were all bussed in every morning.

Logically enough it was decided that neither Germany nor Japan who were the aggressors of World War II, were to be invited to participate.

The Games ran well but there was one major controversy in the relay race. Though the United States had won the 400-meter relay by a full eighteen feet, a judge ruled that one of the U.S. team members had passed the baton outside of the passing zone. Thus, the U.S. team was disqualified. The medals were handed out, the national anthems were played. However the United States representatives officially protested against the ruling and after a careful review of the films and photographs taken of the baton pass, the judges decided that the pass had actually been completely legal; thus the United States team was the real winner. This started a chain of events which involved the British team having to give up their gold medals and receiving silver medals (which had been given up by the Italian team). The Italian team then received the bronze medals which had been given up by the Hungarian team.
As I said earlier on there had been much debate as to whether or not to hold the 1948 Olympic Games, however as the Games continued it became very obvious that they were turning out to be very popular and after all a great success. Approximately 4,000 athletes participated, representing 59 countries.
Some little known facts about the 1948 Olympics:-

These were the very first Olympic Games to be televised and broadcast to be shown on home television sets. The problem was that very few people in Great Britain actually owned television sets and the strongest signal was only to be found in the London area so reception in the Home Counties and beyond was poor.

During this Olympiad a women’s canoeing event was held for the very first time and it was won by Karen Hoff from Denmark.

After much discussion starting blocks to facilitate the start for athletes in sprint races ( the 100m to 400m) were allowed to be used for the first time.
The Empire Pool was the first covered Olympic pool in history. The Empire Pool (now known as the Wembley Arena) was built for the 1934 Empire Games and originally housed a swimming pool, as reflected by its former name, "The Empire Pool". The staging of the swimming events for these Olympic Games was the last time that the pool was to be used as a swimming venue.
Many countries, including Burma, Ceylon, Lebanon, Puerto Rico, Syria and Venezuela, were represented for the first time. On the other hand, there were no athletes from the USSR.

How things have changed!!!!

Stay in touch,

Yours,

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com
Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

You Write:

Peter Writes:

I've discovered the players who came to perform at Manor Court. They were the Isiris Players , Britains first all female professional theatre company. The company was founded in 1927 and was led by Nancy Hewins. In 2004 Imogen Stubbs performed a fictional version of the companies wartime story at the Gielgud theatre.

News and Views:

Great news for the lovers of the childhood favourite Creamola Foam, Barry has put me onto a company who are now producing it. Creamola Foam (often mis-spelled Cremola Foam) was a drink produced from the 1950s up until 1998 in Scotland. It was very popular in Scotland and Northern Ireland where it was sold and there has been a huge demand from the public to bring it back. The drink was supplied in tins and was made by adding water to the powder causing the mixture to froth up. It was available in orange, raspberry, lemon, and cola flavours. Recently a sweet maker in Dunbartonshire recreated Creamola Foam despite the fact that the original recipe has been forgotten. It has been suggested that an old tin was found in a shop in Orkney during renovation and that he had it analysed to find out the secret ingredient that caused the mixture to fizz up. This has resulted, so far, in six flavours of Kramola Fizz (orange, raspberry, lemon, lime, cherry, and cola) which taste very much like the original. It is only being sold in a dozen shops in Scotland which sell out of it very quickly making it difficult to get hold of. It is, however, also available to buy online from fizzshop.co.uk.

On this day 7th January 1960-1965.

On

07/01/1960

the number one single was Why - Anthony Newley and the number one album was South Pacific.The top rated TV show was not listed and the box office smash was North by Northwest. 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 0

7/01/1962

the number one single was Moon River - Danny Williams and the number one album was Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street 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. The big news story of the day was Avalanche had buried 16 villages in Peru and rescue work was proceeding slowly.

On

07/01/1963

the number one single was The Next Time/Bachelor Boy - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was Black & White Minstrel Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street 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

07/01/1964

the number one single was I Want to Hold Your hand - The Beatles and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Steptoe & Son (BBC) 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. The big news story of the day was Anti-US demonstrations over Panama Canal.

On

07/01/1965

the number one single was I Feel Fine - The Beatles and the number one album was Beatles For Sale - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street 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.

Children at Court Lane

Top Row - Fay Thompson - Ian Sellars - Ann Morris - Rob Passmore - Shiela Vidler - Roger Cloony and Christine Lemuri.2nd Row - Carol Chapman - Peter Brown - Deborah Coates - Geoff Norman - ? - Carole Silver and Wendy Dunnaway.3rd Row - Judith Blake - Geoff Gruber - J Hemphill - Mrs. Uden - Angela Drummond - Mike Pappa and Janet Froud. 4th - Row - Pauline Hare - Pauline Brown - John Bishop - Jean Brown - Tim Craggs - Susan Jones - Martin Watts and Pricilla Maunder.Front Row - Martin O'Brien - Pamela Williamson - Steve Talbot - Maureen Waite - Gary Lucas and Linda Fulstow.

Manor Court Update

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