Web Page 1046


2nd June 2012

Top Picture: A typical front room shop somewher in the north of England

Second Picture: A very organised wool shop not like the one in Drayton
,

.

Third Picture: The Wool counter in Woolworth's in Commercial Road 1956


Forth  Picture: Drayton shops in 1965

Corner Shops

When we were young there seemed to be a corner shop on almost every corner, then the supermarkets moved in and they all disappeared but now with the growth of the local Cooperative and Tesco stores they all sem to be coming back.



But what I remember are the shops which seemed to have bee opened in the front rooms of people in ordinary houses not in purpose built shops. For example at number 28 Station Road in drayton was a small shop run by Mrs. E Clark. On entering the shop, through the front door of the bungalow on turning to the left you were presented with what mst have been originally the front room of lounge of the house but it was now kitted out with shelves, a counter, a till and a miriad of grocery products all served to you by Mrs Clrk herself. I do not know when she closed to shop but it was still there in 1964. Next door in Central Road was Davies’ but this was a purpose built extension.



Two roads along from Mrs Clark was Lealand Road and opposite Keith Conlon’s house at number 17 was Mrs Bannisters shop which again, like Clarks, was the front room of a bungalow. The shop was registered in the name of Albert Bannister but when he died his wife carried on serving for several years and when sh did close I hear that she lived off the tinned stock for quite some time.



Another front room shop, this time at number 268 Havant Road was Hyman Levy the tailor who had been in business on these premises for many years. In fact it was to him my father took me to have my very first suit made. This tailors shop was a a real study in tayloring history. Mr Levy was of the Hebrew faith and on the door post when you entered was a mizuzah contain holy texts. The whole of the front room of the house was taken up with his workshop and the hallway was his cloth store. In the middle of the room was a very large woolen, fabric covered work table and in the bay window were a pair of very old treadle sewing machines. All around the room were the tools of his trade, boxes of triangular shaped chalk, taylors tongs, scissors in varying sizes and styles, flat irons heated on a gas ring which were installed in the hearth and were fed with gas by two red rubber hoses. The table, over which hung two light bulbs fed with maroon cotton covered cable from one central ceiling rose, from one of these light fixings hung an adaptor I nto which Mr Levy plugged in his one and only elctric iron !!!!!! The table was covered with boxes of needles, reels of cotton, stiff clothes bushes and piles and piles of cloth samples (the bolts of cloth were stored floor to ceiling in the hallway). Every surface was dusty from the cutting sewing and brushing in this workshop and that was not all the wall paper was ancient and very heavily patterned and the paint work was brow making the whole place dark and gloomy. As a traditional Jewish taylor Mr Levy worked in the traditional way and very often could be found sat cross legged on the large table when a customer walked in. Mr Levy must have given up by 1967 as when I came to hhave my wedding suit made he was no longer in business!



Three doors down from Mr Levy was another fascinating front room shop but this one not only took up the front room but the outside porch as well. This was next door to Mr Levy at number 270 Havant Road and this was the wool shop. Unfortunately I cannot remember the name of the lady who ran the shop but I know that the shop had gone by 1964 and had been converted to The Glen Coffee Lounge. The wool shop was a sight to behold because everywhere in the porch and front room were bags and skeens of wool from floor to ceiling. Just inside the door was a small counter which was stacked high with knitting patterns, knitting needle, croquet hooks, pins, cottons and colour charts. Both my mother and grandmother were regular customers in this shop and what always baffled me was that they (and many other ladies) had wool put by to pick up the odd ball at a time but somehow the lady who ran the shop always knew where it was and how many balls the customer had left. I wish I could rmember the name of the lady who ran the shop can anyone out there remember?



I will mention just one more shop and this is not a front room shop but a back room and conservatory shop. This was run by Mr Le Shaw from a house at 71 Solent Road with the entrance round the corner in Highlands Road. As I have said befor this was the pace to go and spend your pocket money on sweets, gob stoppers,home made ice lollies, home made pop, cap bombs and guns, goggles and flying helmets in fact everything a boy could want! The shop also sold groceries and friut and vegetables which our mothers found useful but when you are 10 years old these things did not bother you. As I sid earlier I have dealt with Shaws befor so I will leave it ther.



However, if you have any memories of shops in front rooms send them in so we can all share in them.



Ah well more memories from the past!

Stay in touch,



Yours,





Peter



DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk



You Write:



Christopher Writes:



I recently came across your Manor Court blog and what wonderful memories it brought flooding back. Thank you. I attended Court Lane Infants until the 11+ then spent two years at the Technical High before I left for Malta in 1962. I remember many of the folks in the photographs, and although I have been living in America for the last 27 years I still keep in regular contact with Robert Webster and Christine Miles (nee Budd). We all lived in Kinross Crescent at the time.



Thank you for the trip down memory lane



News and Views:

The Internal Revenue Service quietly revoked its claim that Dionne Warwick owed $2.2 million in unpaid federal taxes on. The IRS says it made an accounting mistake and Dionne only owes less than one million

On this day 2nd June 1960-1965



On 02/06/1960 the number one single was Cathy's Clown - Everly Brothers and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Wagon Train (ITV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Filming of Spartacus was about to begin.



On 03/06/1961 the number one single was Surrender - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Probation Officer (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25.



On 03/06/1962 the number one single was Good Luck Charm - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the week was Boeing crashes on take-off in Paris killing 130.



On 02/06/1963 the number one single was From Me To You - The Beatles and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the week was Pope John XXIII dies the next day.



On 02/06/1964 the number one single was You're My World - Cilla Black and the number one album was Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.



On 03/06/1965 the number one single was Long Live Love - Sandie Shaw and the number one album was Bringing It All Back Home - Bob Dylan. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

Web Page 1044

Top Picture: Victor Sylvester

Second Picture: Gang Show Scouts in the late 1950’s





Things gone by



Whilst thinking back the other day several odd thoughts and names came to mind. Names and events from our younger days, names and things we do not hear of any more.



To start with from the good old days of Victor Sylvester and Come Dancing do you remember the Frank and Peggy Spencer Formation Dancing Team? They always seemed to be appearing on the show. For years I thought that Frank and Peggy were a husband and wife team but actually they were actually brother and sister in law. Whose home territory was the Royston Ballroom in Penge.



Another name that came to mind was Tom Arnold. He was know in the entertainment world at the pantomime king but I will remember him for his fantastic ice shows at the Haringey Ice Rink. As far as I can remember I was only taken to the Ice Show once back in 1951 but for years afterwards my parents would receive free ticket through the post every December, I know not why.



No Bank Holiday was complete without Disney Time for the kids at 5.00pm and later in the evening a Whitehall farce with Brian Rix. Sir, (later Lord) Brian Rix was the actor-manager who produced and acted in farces at the Whitehall Theatre and also appeared in farce on TV and in films. Much of his work from the Whitehall Theatre also feature two other well known actors of the time Larry Noble amd Leo Franklin. After his retirement Brian Rix became much involved in charitable works. He married Elspet Gray in 1947 and it is a partnership that still survives.



Anyone involved with Scouting or Guiding will remember the name of Ralph Reader. This ex USAF wartime flyer after a show business career in the USA returned to the UK where he choreographed dance routines in West End Shows and staged big events at the Royal Albert Hall. Became well known for producing 'The Gang Show', the annual Boy Scouts shows for which he wrote many of the songs, while continuing to stage other productions. He died in 1982



Ronnie Ronalde was a famed whistler from the days of music hall who first broadcast in 1947 on radio's 'Variety Bandbox' and also in 'The Voice Of Variety'. He made many records which sold well. 'In A Monastery Garden' was his most popular tune and also remarkable for his bird whistles and he was a regular performer on Workers Playtime on the Light Programme.



Having mentioned Workers Playtime what do you know or remember about it? The programme began before we were born on May 31st. 1941. It was a revolutionary new show and was meticulously planned and organised but no-one was to know where it was to be broadcast from or who was appearing in it. It was secret and it was always broadcast live. It was actually a simple comedy and music programme and it became part life in England from the days of the Blitz right up until the mid 1960’s. It was one of the very first touring variety shows on the BBC and was scheduled to run for 6 weeks but went on broadcasting for 23 years. It was one of the longest running radio shows in history.

It started out on the BBC Home Service and was broadcast live from a factory canteen "Somewhere in Britain". It had the support of the Government with the Ministry of Labour choosing which factory canteens the show would visit.

Throughout the War the Minister of Labour and National Service, would appear on these shows from time to time to congratulate the workers. When the War ended it was realised that the show had worked and it was agreed that Worker's Playtime would continue to raise the morale of the workers, whilst the Government rebuilt Britain and the British economy. The BBCwere very happy to continue with a show which had proved a national success even if it did mean moving the technical crew, cable, microphones, two pianos, a producer, two pianists and a troupe of variety artists and musians up and down the country three times a week. On 1st. October 1957 the programme switched to the Light Programme. For all 23 years of its existence, the producer was Bill Gates and he would always finish each programme by wishing "Good Luck All Workers!".

Many famous variety and comedy artists appeared over the years such as Charlie Chester, Peter Sellers, Tony Hancock, Frankie Howerd, Ann Shelton, Betty Driver, Eve Boswell, Dorothy Squires, Julie Andrews, Morecambe and Wise, Peter (the voice of them all) Cavanagh, Janet Brown, Bob Monkhouse, Peter Goodwright, Percy Edwards, Ken Dodd, Ken Platt, Cyril (odd ode coming up) Fletcher, Elsie and Doris Waters and many, many more. The programme became an institution and a way of life.

Ah well more memories from the past!

Stay in touch,



Yours,



Peter



DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk



You Write:

Steve Writes:-


I REMEMBER THE CHEESE OF MY CHILDHOOD


And the bread that we cut with a knife, When the children helped with the housework, And the men went to work not the wife.

The cheese never needed a fridge, And bread was so crusty and hot, The children were seldom unhappy And the wife was content with her lot.

I remember the milk from the Billy, With the yummy cream on the top, Our dinner came hot from the oven, And not from the fridge; in the shop.

The kids were a lot more contented, they didn't need money for kicks, just a game with our mates in the paddock, And sometimes the Saturday flicks.

I remember the shop on the corner, Where a pen'orth of lollies was sold Do you think I'm a bit too nostalgic? Or is it....I'm just getting old?

I remember when the ‘loo’ was the ‘ dunny’, And the pan man came in the night, It wasn't the least bit funny
Going out the back with no light. The interesting items we perused, From the newspapers cut into squares,
And hung on a peg in the outhouse,

It took little to keep us amused.
The clothes were boiled in the copper,
With plenty of rich foamy suds
But the ironing seemed never ending As Mum pressed everyone's ‘duds’.
I remember the slap on my backside,
And the taste of soap if I swore
Anorexia and diets weren't heard of
And we hadn't much choice what we wore.

Do you think that bruised our ego?
Or our initiative was destroyed

We ate what was put on the table
And I think our life was better enjoyed.



News and Views:

Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb died on the 20th May following a lengthy battle with cancer.In a statement, Gibb's family said they were announcing his death with "great sadness".He had undergone intestinal surgery, notched up dozens of hits with brothers Maurice and Barry - as performers and writers - and sold more than 200 million records.


 
On this day 26th May 1960-1965

On 26/05/1960 the number one single was Cathy's Clown - Everly Brothers and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Wagon Train (ITV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the week was Stirling Moss wins Monaco Grand Prix.



On 25/05/1961 the number one single was You're Driving Me Crazy - The Temperance Seven and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada) 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 25/05/1962 the number one single was Good Luck Charm - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.



On 25/05/1963 the number one single was From Me To You - The Beatles and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show of the week was Conservative Party Political Broadcast (all channels) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story was Manchester Utd had won FA Cup.



On 25/05/1964 the number one single was Juliet - Four Pennies and the number one album was Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.



On 25/05/1965 the number one single was Where Are You Now (My Love) - Jackie Trent and the number one album was Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the week was Muhammed Ali floors Sonny Liston

Web Page 1042

Top Picture: The Hair Tonic Vitalis

Second Picture: David Frost in his ‘That was the Week That was’ days.



Hair Today

Now lads do you remember those far off days when you first started to shave and you pinched some of dads After Shave and foolishly thought no one noticed? Well chaps we were in at the start of the men’s toiletries revolution. Back in those far off post war days the most exotic fragrances we came across was Cussons Imperial Leather, a brand that goes all the way back to 1768 when a Russian nobleman Count Orlof commissioned a brand of perfume from Bayleys of Bond Street in London. The perfume was called 'Eau de Cologne Imperiale Russe'. In 1921 Bayleys was acquired by Cussons Sons & Co, but it was not until some years later in 1938 that Alex Cussons used the original perfume and created Cussons Imperial Leather soap and other toiletries. The soap was initially called 'Imperiale Russian Leather', but was soon renamed to Imperial Leather.

Then there was the famous Yardley Men’s Y Range and the origins of this particular company went back just as far as Cussons but somehow managed to get Royal Patronage much earlier.

But if you were feeling rich or maybe just old fashioned Old Spice was certainly the product for you. The Shulton Company, original producer of Old Spice, was founded in 1934 by William Lightfoot Schultz. The first Old Spice product was actually for women and was introduced in 1937. Old Spice for men followed a year later in 1938. The men's products were dominated by shaving soap and After Shave lotion, all marketed with a nautical theme. The original ships used on the packaging were the Grand Turk and the Friendship. Other ships used on Old Spice packaging include the John Wesley, Salem, Birmingham, Maria Teresa, Propontis, Recovery, Sooloo, Star of the West, Constitution, Java, United States, and the Hamilton. Proctor & Gamble purchased Old Spice from the Shulton Company in June 1990. The clipper ship was replaced by the present yacht logo in February 1992. In the late 2000s, Procter & Gamble introduced many forms of deodorant sticks in several scents all under the Old Spice brand.

But these were all old hat to us teenagers because Our ‘enry had persuaded us all to ‘Splash it all Over’ with a new masculine product Brut. Brut was the brand name for a line of men's fragrances first launched in 1964 by Faberge, packaged in a green glass bottle with a silver-coloured medallion, it is still, believe it or not, sold today. However Hi Karate is a very different matter. Pfizer (famous today for producing Viagra) developed Hai Karate after shave lotion which came with its own 'self-defence' instructions to help you fight off the hordes of women attracted by the scent. "Don't dare use Hai Karate without memorising them: these instructions will help you to defend yourself from women in case you apply an over dose of Hai Karate. It then gave three simple steps to 'remove' the offending women. This never seemed to work for me though, I was never chased by hordes of women!!!

Hair preparations were another area which changed whilst we were teenagers. Gone was the thick glutinous whit gloop called Brylcreme, or its Boots equivalent Ship Shape and in came Trugel; the first of the hair gels and it was supposed to give your hair a controlled but non greasy look. Out went the old fashioned Bay Rum and in came Vitalis Hair Tonic, gone was the sticky, lavender scented, Pomade so beloved by some hairdressers and for the really vain we saw the first ever hair spray just for men, Cossack. By using Cossack we could get our hair to curl up and stay there, just like David Frost.

Now hands up if any of you used any of these products from Mr Hember’s (Sylvia’s dad) barbers shop in Drayton which many of us seemed to frequent!

But the definitely you knew that you had really grown up when after having your hair cut in those days the barber quietly asked you ‘anything for the weekend Sir’. I just wish!!!!! But they were innocent days then and despite all our bravado it was mostly just wishful thinking!

Stay in touch,



Yours,



Peter



DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk



You Write:

John Writes:-

Hi Peter


Back in 1967, I joined the Army Cadet Force (ACF) at the ACF Hut inside the grounds of the TA Centre on Tudor Crescent.

In 1973 I joined the Territorial Army (TA) as a Private Soldier in the Royal Army Medical Corp (RAMC) at the TA Centre on the other side of Ports Creek on Perrone Road.

Now after 39 years to the TA and the RAMC I am to be officially retired from the TA at a TA Centre in Nottingham in the rank of Sergeant.

Its been a long and rewarding journey from my days as a 17 year old young man from Highbury to a 57 old man now living in Chesterfield.

I would be interested to know of the other young men from the Cosham area who also joined the TA and where they are now and especially those who were at Manor Court.

from Editor: If you would like to get in touch with John please email me. Peter





John Lockwood




News and Views:

Bobby Vee announced that he was diagnosed a year ago as being in the mild stages of Alzheimer's Disease. His wife of 48 years, Karen, continues to wait for a lung transplant. He has recorded a CD of favorite tunes that are due out soon.






On this day 19th May 1960-1965



On 19/05/1960 the number one single was Cathys Clown by the Everly Brothers and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Wagon Train (ITV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth 13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.



On 19/05/1961 the number one single was Blue Moon - The Marcels and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada) 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 19/05/1962 the number one single was Wonderful Land - 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.



On 19/05/1963 the number one single was From Me To You - The Beatles and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Liberal 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 19/05/1964 the number one single was Don't Throw Your Love Away - Searchers and the number one album was Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones. The top rated TV show was Conservative Party Political Broadcast (all channels) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth 12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.



On 19/05/1965 the number one single was King of the Road - Roger Miller 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.

Web Page 1040


12th April 2012

I cannot believe it but today marks the 10th Anniversary of the Blogg !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Top Picture: The Osiris Players load their Rolls Royce

Second Picture: The old school hall in 2010



The Osiris Players

The above picture from a newspaper several years ago of a group of women loading hampers into a Rolls Royce Silver Ghost and I have to thank Peter Westcott for dircting me to it. You may remember he asked some time ago if anyone else remembered a troupe of actresses coming to the school to give a performance of Macbeth. All Peter and I could remember was that they travelled in two Rolls Royces (one being an old hearse and both vehicles towed trailers with their props and costumes in them.

Peter suggested I look on the internet for the details of these women and here is what I found. These seven women were the Osiris Players - a troupe of semi-strolling players, led by a Miss Nancy Hewins, who travelled across Britain taking theatre to people who otherwise had no access to the arts at all or to schools and educational establishments. Between 1939 and 1945, the women travelled tens of thousands of miles, giving 1,500 performances from a repertoire of more than 35 plays - and playing every role, including the great male leads themselves. The company was founded in 1927 and was led, until the early 1960s, by an indomitable director, Nancy Hewins. Before and after the war, Osiris travelled in two Rolls-Royces, one cream and white, one sheer black (the ex hearse), because Hewins maintained they were the only vehicles that could carry the scenery and the costumes. During the war, Osiris battled on with horse and dray, when petrol was no longer available and on one occasion using a canoe. TheTheatre Museum luckily has retained the records of the company in five boxes of appointment books, programmes, photos, reviews, lighting plans - everything intact. And at the bottom was an unpublished autobiography of the indomitable force behind the whole enterprise: Nancy Hewins.

Nancy was a great pioneer when it came to theatre as education and from unpromising and often farcical beginnings, she developed a company that became a force to be reckoned with. She thought of herself as an "Awakener" - someone determined to stir people's faith in humanity.

Clearly, the themes of gender held no fears for them and their priority was to convey the immediate dramatic interest. Nancy Hewins looked on the arts as both our history and our heritage, and perhaps our horoscope, too. She felt that, through the power of storytelling, you could change society by touching people individually and harnessing the power of collective imagination.

She was lucky enough to witness the arrival in 1945 of the reforming government of Attlee and Bevan. She was there for the creation of the most enlightened welfare state, the NHS, the Arts Council and the expansion of the BBC.

They performed on improvised stages in village halls, schools and munitions workers' canteens. In fact, the Osiris Players, Britain's first all-female professional theatre company, appeared more or less everywhere in the country apart from the West End. The war was Hewins's finest hour. Osiris put on 1,534 performances of 33 plays, 16 of them Shakespeare. For reasons of economy, the company was never larger than seven women. Everybody did everything: acting, props, cooking, changing tyres. On stage, scenes were cut and transposed to make the doubling work. At school they performed Macbeth where Hewins played Lady Macbeth in a ferocious red wig, changing her make-up at top speed so that she could become the Porter within a few lines. By the time the company closed, in 1963, Hewins reckoned she had taken 129 parts herself, in 55 plays.

According to Jane Freeman, a former Osiris Player, the company created "theatre for the people". It certainly created a passion for theatre in innumerable young people, Judi Dench among them. Hewins and Osiris were in the direct line of descent from strolling players. But their reputation suffered from doing their main work in "the provinces". Hewins never featured in any official record. When she died in 1978, just before her 76th birthday, her death was barely noticed.

A small core of two or three actors stayed with Osiris for many years. But it was tough going, and few lasted long. The women slept where they could, in barns, on school floors, even in a park cafe. They worked without subsidy and pay was frugal. The out-of-town tours began in Wolverhampton, and they celebrated their 21st anniversary at a women's institute in Kent, with Twelfth Night in the morning, Everyman at lunchtime, Macbeth in the afternoon, Shaw's Captain Brassbound's Conversion after tea, topped off by Badger's Green, a comedy about village cricket, in the evening.

A truly unique group who we were privilaged to see , if only we knew it at the time!

Stay in touch,



Yours,



Peter



DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk



You Write:

Christine Writes:-

Hi Peter




Just to let you know, I love reading your old memories of school and vaguely remember the javelin incident. I think Robert Webster (who lived 2 doors down from me and was one of the "older" boys) told me it was John Mortimer who threw it............but it was a long time ago. I think Robert reads your blog so perhaps he can confirm these dastardly rumours!

Re the old jobs that no longer exist.........when we first moved to Kinross Crescent (around 1952/3) the vegetables were delivered by horse and cart (Madgwicks) and the co op bread was in a sort of pull along vehicle that the baker walked through the streets. I remember the old baker having a few too many sherries at Christmas courtesy of his customers one year and weaving all over the place with this strange vehicle. It sure was a long time ago!

News and Views:

Despite protests by some students and even the faculty who object to his right-wing Christian values, Pat Boone delivered the commencement address and received an honorary degree Adrian College, Michigan. Pat had offered to cancel his appearance but the college’s president declined the offer.

On this day 12th May 1960-1965



On 12/05/1960 the number one single was Cathy's Clown - Everly Brothers and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Wagon Train (ITV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.



On 12/05/1961 the number one single was Blue Moon - The Marcels 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 12/05/1962 the number one single was Wonderful Land - 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 Film star Emilio Estevez born



On 12/05/1963 the number one single was From Me To You - The Beatles and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was 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 12/05/1964 the number one single was Don't Throw Your Love Away - Searchers and the number one album was Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones. The top rated TV show was Conservative Party Political Broadcast (all channels) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.



On 12/05/1964 the number one single was Don't Throw Your Love Away - Searchers and the number one album was Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones. The top rated TV show was Conservative Party Political Broadcast (all channels) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.



On 12/05/1965 the number one single was Ticket to Ride - The Beatles 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.

Web Page 1038

It’s 10 years since we all attended the Reunion, where have those years gone.

Top Picture: Night Watchmans hut



Second Picture: Lamp lighter

Long Gone Jobs

Have you ever stopped and wondered just how many dozens of jobs or positions which we all took for granted when we were kids but we see no more? No! Well how about these three?



That hole in the ground by the road works (like the ones sung about by Bernard Cribbins) was never left to its own devises when we were kids. More often than not there would be a little green canvas or wooden shelter, normally ex government, in which the Night Watchman, normally an elderly ex service man trying to stretch out his pension, sat there all night long making sure that the wicks on the paraffin lamps were neatly trimmed and so were showing a bright red light to warn motorist, cyclists and pedestrians of the danger behind the barriers around the road works. The watchman was also responsible for the tools left on site and had to guard them against thieves who would have a ready market for good quality shovels and pickaxes. It also seemed to me that whatever the time of year these night watchman fellows always had a coal brazier burning in front of shelter throughout the night for warmth and brewing tea and cooking on, at least I assumed that he sat there behind the brazier all night, I was never allowed up late enough to find out if that was true. The night watchman on road works have long gone but I understand that some lasted at least to 1960.



Another unusual job was that of lamp lighter. Now I know within the Cosham, Drayton and Portsmouth areas gas lights were most certainly a thing of the past but I can remember gas lights still in use in London. My Grandmother lived in the Gate Lodge on Hyde Park Corner and the official Park entrance and the gates were lit by gas lights at least until 1952 when my Grandmother moved to Portsmouth. We visited my grandmother regularly and as a young boy I vividly remember watching the lamplighter with his long pole lighting those lamps. In a different sphere but still with gas lamps I remember Pam’s Grandmothers house in Ringwood only had gas lighting in the kitchen right up until 1975 when they moved. (There was electricity downstairs but the power upstairs was fed from a wandering lead up the side of the staircase.



Another long disappeared job is that of Park Keeper and his assistants. The Head Park Keeper were the terror of all kids who wished to play in the formal gardens in Victoria Park or the Rock Gardens. One small misdemeanour meant a stern voice shouting out either ‘pick that up’ or ‘get off the grass’ or ‘if I catch you my lad…..’ Many of these Park Keepers were ex service and proudly wore medal ribbons on their official uniforms. I do not remember the names of any of the park keepers in Portsmouth but I know that here in Gosport the name Parky Brown was enough to send a shiver down the spine of many a young lad for several years. But what I do remember about those park keepers and their assistants was that they always seemed to carry a bag with them and a long stick with a spike on the bottom so they could spear waste paper and sweet wrappers.



Other jobs also have gone and several years ago I spoke on this blog of the fishmongers van doing its rounds along the streets as did the Smith and Vosper or Campion bread van, the Cornona van, the Ice Cream van and believe it or not the paraffin van this was a Bedford van which had an enormous tank in the back full of paraffin this would be drained off from a tap at the bottom by the driver who always seemed to be smoking!!!!



Another job that now really does seem to have disappeared completely is the milkman’s lad. From when I was fourteen onwards I went out with our local Gauntlett and Walker milkman Roy and helped with the Saturday deliveries. This covered an area from Drayton right up to Forty Acres at Bedhampton and took in houses on both sides of the Havant Road. This was a real eye opener, not only did I get paid by Roy but I could drink as much milk as I liked. After a time I also got to help him in the holidays and it always amazed me how trusting people were then. Milk money was left on the step, or in a flowerpot or under the milk bottle. Some places I would have to place little cups over the bottles to stop the Blue tits pecking into the milk, other places the milk had to be put into custom built little cupboards in porches or under special bushes and at least two different houses in Hilltop Road, I remember I had to go round the back of the house, open the back door, cry out milk and then put it in the fridge and leave. I cannot ever remember seeing anyone in the kitchen when I delivered I only ever heard a voice from somewhere in the house reply ‘Thank you milky’ . My, my it really was a different world then.



Stay in touch,



Yours,



Peter



DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

From the files ten years ago, first published in the blog of 25th August 2002.



That Sporting Life

Sport at school was never one of my major priorities and apart from remembering that I was a member of Masefield House whose house colour was green, not a lot immediately comes to my mind on this subject. The only sport I pursued for a time was swimming. I, along with many others, was taught to swim in the Hilsea Lido outdoor pool by Mr Young. My, that place was certainly cold even in the height of summer. Then in the winter we were taken by bus down to the old Victoria baths in Park Road that had the distinction of being situated right next door to the City Mortuary (very handy). Does anyone else remember those beach hut type changing rooms that were built along the side of the pool? Rooms with half saloon type doors, giving very little privacy and very little elbow room, it was here we had to change and then dry ourselves off as quickly as possible so we could get back on the bus to return to school. This pool was the home of the Northsea Swimming Club, which I joined and trained with for a few years and eventually became fairly proficient in middle distance swimming almost reaching County standard but not quite. The funny thing is that I now hate anything to do with swimming and would not go willingly to a swimming pool if you paid me.

I was also never very keen on football but somehow I was picked three times for the School team and played outside left and, as far as I remember, and made very little contribution to any of the games I played in. Some of the names I remember from the team are Steve Carter in goal, Alan Clarkson, David Harris, Phil Ward, Morrell and Frankie Howells. But as I said I only every played three times and that was all in one season. For some reason I also seem to remember playing in an all boys netball team whilst still at Solent Road Junior School.



Sports lessons now come to mind. Hoards of us climbing into a Corporation bus outside Court Lane School and being driven, whilst changing into sports kit, to and from East Lodge (are the playing fields still there? I believe they are), to spend the afternoon at our sporting pursuits. Most of this is just a blur, and I have very vague memories of cricket and field sports. However I do remember one particular day when we had an ambulance roar onto the playing fields because one lad had thrown a javelin at another and it lodged in his foot. Here I, and my memory, need a little help from you out the, can anyone remember who the two lads were? and why the javelin was thrown. (E-mailed answers please).



I also remember a sports day or maybe it was two that were held on the running track in Alexandra Park at Tipner, why it was there and if I took part in anything I just cannot remember. But I do remember it was a windy and cold spot which seemed miles from anywhere and we were glad to go home.



However I do remember that I enjoyed, and was reasonably good, at cross country running and came in third on two separate occasions in the School cross country championships no medals, no prizes but just very surprised looks from several teachers. No I did not take a short cut or get the bus! But Mervyn O’Donnell and Melvyn Bridger were the stars at this particular sport and when they met again after many years a few weeks ago this was one of their topics of conversation.



Then there were the sessions in the hall on the various instruments of torture that were produced from the equipment cupboard, the vaulting horse and the box to name just two. I could never get on with either of these items, likewise the wall bars, and I could not climb a rope to save my life. After an hour of strenuous activity came the march back to the changing room and in the boys section at least those ghastly walk through communal showers. As you can read from above I was never a very sports minded person, I was more interested in the social life after school and such like, unlike the people who were good at sport. People such as Larraine who tells me that she was well into the Sporting Life of the School and far too busy to attend things like the Dancing Lessons mentioned a few weeks ago so no memories of Wheels Cha Cha for her!!!!



One cannot mention sport at school without mentioning Jim Fox, the Olympic Pentathlon Champion, who won a gold medal at the Montreal Olympics. Jim was a couple of years younger than us but I dimly remember him in my role as a Prefect/Deputy Head Boy taking late duties and minding classes when the teacher was absent, and also as a Patrol Second at Scouts. But neither I, nor our old Scout leader at the time Skipper Bill Mustoe, remembers Jim ever showing any leaning to sporting activities whatsoever. It just goes to show how wrong you can be but I do wonder if any of the sports teachers noted that potential in Jim all those years ago.



I am sure that a perspective of the Sports Scene from the female point of view would be interesting to us lads, so come on girls, put pen to paper.

You Write:

News and Views:



Bobby Rydell was 70 this week.

On this day 5th May 1960-1965



On 05/05/1960 the number one single was Do you Mind - Anthony Newley and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Wagon Train (ITV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the week was Soviet Union shoots down American U2 spy plane flown by pilot CG Powers



On 05/05/1961 the number one single was Wooden Heart - 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. The big news story of the week was Castro makes Cuba Socialist.



On 05/05/1962 the number one single was Wonderful Land - 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.



On 05/05/1963 the number one single was How Do You Do It? - Gerry & the Pacemakers and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. The top rated TV show was Conservative Party Political Broadcast (all channels) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Churchill retired.



On 05/05/1964 the number one single was A World Without Love - Peter & Gordon 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 05/05/1965 the number one single was Ticket to Ride - The Beatles 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.

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Web Page 1036

Top Picture: Ben Lyon & Bebe Daniels plus Richard and Barbara

Second Picture: Vic Oliver

From Across the Pond

BBC radio relied heavily on many American comedians during and after the war. Lets look at just three of them.



Ben Lyon was born in Atlanta on February 6, 1901 and died on March 22, 1979 he was a well known American film actor and a 20th Century Fox studio executive. He entered films in 1918 after a successful appearance on Broadway. He was in the highly successful film Flaming Youth (1923), and steadily developed into a leading man and was successfully paired with some of the leading actresses of the silent era. His greatest success as an actor came in 1930 with the film Hell's Angels. The film was a major success and brought Jean Harlow to prominence. For the ten years he was constantly in demand, but his popularity began to wane by the early 1940s. By the mid 1940s he was working for 20th Century Fox. In 1946 he met a young aspiring actress named Norma Jeane Dougherty. He organised a colour screen test for the actress, renamed her, and finally signed her as Marilyn Monroe to her first studio contract. In 1930 he had married the actress Bebe Daniels. Together they were a notable couple in show business society, and sometimes acted together. This is where we first come across this couple on British radio in the long-running radio show Hi Gang. Hi Gang was succeeded in 1950 by Life With The Lyons, which also featured their real life son Richard and daughter Barbara, and had a run on BBC and ITV from 1954 until 1960. When Bebe Daniels's health declined during the 1960s following a series of strokes, Ben Lyon cared for her until her death in 1971. He then married the actress Marian Nixon. But when on the QE2 near Honolulu, Hawaii, when he suffered a heart attack and died.




Bebe Daniels was born Phyllison Virginia Daniels (Bebe was a childhood name) onJanuary 14, 1901 and died on March 16, 1971, she was an American actress, singer, dancer, writer and producer. Her father was a theatre manager and her mother an actress. The family moved to Los Angeles in her childhood and she began her acting career at the age of four. That same year she also went on tour in a stage production of Richard III. She began her career in Hollywood during the silent movie era as a child actress, became a star in musicals like 42nd Street, and later gained further fame on radio and television in Britain. In a long career, Bebe Daniels made over 230 films. In the 1920s, Daniels was under contract with Paramount Pictures. She became an adult star by 1922 and by 1924 was playing opposite Rudolph Valentino in Monsieur Beaucaire. Following this she was cast in a number of light popular films, Paramount dropped her contract with the advent of talking pictures. She was hired by RKO and RCA Victor hired her to record several records. Radio Pictures starred her in a number of musicals Warner Brothers realized what a box office draw she was and offered her a contract which she accepted. She retired from Hollywood in 1935. With her husband, Ben Lyon, and they moved to London. The Lyons' then moved into radio most notably, the series Hi Gang, continuing for decades and enjoying considerable popularity during World War II. Bebe Daniels wrote most of the dialogue for the Hi Gang radio show. The couple remained through the days of the The Blitz. Following the war, Daniels was awarded the Medal of Freedom by Harry S. Truman for war service. In 1945 she returned to Hollywood for a short time to work as a film producer for Hal Roach and Eagle Lion. She returned to the UK in 1948 and lived there for the remainder of her life. On March 16, 1971, Daniels died of a cerebral hemorrhage in London at the age of 70.



Vic Oliver was born Victor Oliver von Samek on 8 July 1898 and died on 15 August 1964. He was born in Vienna, the son of Viktor von Samek and came to England via America. He starred in the BBC radio show Hi, Gang! along with Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels; and appeared in many others. He was the first castaway on Roy Plumbley’s Desert Island Discs. He was also a skilled musician and played the violin (badly in his shows). He had aspirations as a conductor and founded the Vic Oliver Concert Orchestra which gave light classical concerts along the south coast. His theme tune was Prelude to the Stars. He was a regular on Henry Hall's Guest Night and Workers' Playtime and has been considered a precursor of Victor Borge. As a Jew, his name was listed on a Nazi blacklist of people to be arrested (and killed) immediately after a successful invasion of Britain. He married Winston Churchill's daughter, Sarah, in 1936, but was divorced in 1945. He died in Johannesburg, in 1964. Stay in touch, Yours, Peter DUSTYKEAT@aol.com Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

Jonathan Writes: On the subject of house costs, here are some interesting numbers that show the almost impossible task of a young person today wanting to enter the bottom rung of the housing ladder. When I left University in 1970 I was fortunate to be able to get a job at £1250 per annum with the British Oxygen Company in the Midlands and able to buy my first three bedroomed semi detached house on an estate for £4250 i.e. 3.4 times my salary. Even then it was a stretch for the Building Society rules of the time and I had to include Carol's earnings as a bank secretary. That same graduate today is probably going to get a starting salary of say £25 000 (excuse me if I am a bit out of touch with UK starting salaries) but his or her three bedroomed semi is going to cost up to £250 000 or TEN times the starting salary. Their only solution is to hope that their kind parents can give back on their demise from the estate. In more recent times electronic goods price de-escalation can be brought into focus with these figures.... My first microwave oven bought in the late 70's cost a month's salary,that same article's price can be earned in well under an hour. The same goes for the original home personal computers. My first £ 286 bought in 1987 with a black and white monitor and dot matrix printer cost more than a month's pay but today a really super home PC with large colour LED monitor, and printer/fax/scanner will cost less than a week's pay. I am lucky to live in South Africa where beer/ wine and spirits cost less in the store than duty free at the airport but I stopped smoking long ago and took up running.

News and Views: Bert Weedon has died aged 91. He influenced the first generation of British pop musicians through his Play In A Day. He was an unassuming man with great technical playing ability. Many figures in rock music including Keith Richards, Pete Townshend and Eric Clapton started with Bert’s teach-yourself method. His manual first appeared in 1957 and introduced aspiring musicians to the three basic chords of most of the rock and roll hits and explained what to do next. Play In A Day sold two million copies. Its sequel Play Every Day, and updated video and DVD versions continued to provide him with an income well into his old age. He was born Herbert Maurice Weedon in East Ham. His father, a tube train driver on the District Line and performed an amateur song-and-dance act with the guard of his train, under the name of Weedon and Walmisley. When Bert was 12 his father bought him his first guitar, from Petticoat Lane Market, for 15 shillings . Having started playing in the classical style, he moved to the popular repertoire of the 1930s, forming his first dance band with a group of friends in 1934. His big break came after the war, when he joined Stephane Grapelli’s as a replacement for Django Reinhardt. By the early Fifties, he was resident guitarist with the BBC Showband and worked on regular radio sessions. He was in demand as a session guitarist, backing David Whitfield and Alma Cogan, as well as Frank Sinatra, Nat “King” Cole and Judy Garland. With the coming of rock and roll, he recorded with Laurie London, Marty Wilde and Cliff Richard. Although Parlophone released five of his solo guitar singles during 1957 and 1958, none reached the charts. His fortunes improved when he switched to Top Rank in 1959, his version of the Guitar Boogie Shuffle reaching No 7. Further releases fared less well until, in August 1960, his version of Apache reached No 24. He became a prolific broadcaster, appearing on children’s television shows as well as on radio and fronting his own long-running ITV series. For many years he was an active member of the Grand Order of Water Rats, and was King Rat in 1992. He was appointed OBE in 2001. He had two sons from his first marriage, and lived in Buckinghamshire with his second wife, Maggie.

On this day 28th April 1960-1965 On 28/04/1960 the number one single was Do you Mind - Anthony Newley and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Wagon Train (ITV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. On 28/04/1961 the number one single was Wooden Heart - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada) 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 28/04/1962 the number one single was Wonderful Land - 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. On 28/04/1963 the number one single was How Do You Do It? - Gerry & the Pacemakers 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 28/04/1964 the number one single was A World Without Love - Peter & Gordon 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 28/04/1965 the number one single was Ticket to Ride - The Beatles 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. On 28/04/1963 the number one single was How Do You Do It? - Gerry & the Pacemakers 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 28/04/1964 the number one single was A World Without Love - Peter & Gordon 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 28/04/1965 the number one single was Ticket to Ride - The Beatles 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.

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Top Picture: John Perfumo





Second Picture: Christine Keller


The Scandle that rocked a Government

Brigadier John Dennis Profumo, 5th Baron Profumo CBE was informally known as Jack Profumo His title, 5th Baron, which he did not use, was Italian. Although Profumo held an increasingly responsible series of political posts in the 1950s, he is best known for his involvement in a 1963 scandal involving a prostitute. The scandal, now known as the Profumo Affair, led to Profumo's resignation and withdrawal from politics, and it may have helped to topple the Conservative government of Harold Macmillan.

After his resignation, Profumo began to work as a volunteer cleaning toilets at Toynbee Hall, a charity based in the East End of London, and continued to work there for the rest of his life. Eventually, Profumo volunteered as the charity's chief fundraiser. These charitable activities helped to restore the fallen politician's reputation; he was awarded a CBE in 1975, and in 1995 was invited to Margaret Thatcher's 70th birthday dinner. [edit] Early life and career.

He was born in Kensington, the son of a diplomat and barrister of Italian origin, who died in 1940. He was educated at Harrow School and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he read law. On 1 July 1939, he was commissioned into the Royal Armoured Corps as a Second Lieutenant. He had previously been a member of the Officer Training Corps and a Cadet Sergeant while at Harrow. He served in North Africa with the Northamptonshire Yeomanry as a Captain where he was mentioned in despatches. He landed in Normandy on D-Day and was engaged in the subsequent fierce fighting to secure that region of France. His final rank in the British Army was Brigadier.
Major Profumo was awarded an OBE "in recognition of gallant and distinguished service in Italy".

In 1940, while still serving in the army, he was elected to the House of Commons as a Conservative MP for Kettering. Profumo was well-connected with a good war record, and was highly regarded in the Conservative party. These qualities helped him to rise through the ranks of the Conservative government of 1951. He was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation in November 1952, Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation in November 1953, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies in January 1957, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office in November 1958, and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in January 1959. In 1954 he married the actress Valerie Hobson. In July 1960 he was appointed a Secretary of State for War, (outside of the cabinet) and a member of the Privy Council.

But it is for the more unsavoury side of his life that he is most remembered. In July 1961, at a party at Cliveden, home of Viscount Astor, he met Christine Keeler, a model with whom he began a sexual relationship. Profumo ended it after only a few weeks but rumours about the affair began to circulate. Since Keeler also had sexual relations with Yevgeni Ivanov, the senior naval attaché at the Soviet Embassy, the Profumo Affair took on a national security dimension.

In December 1962, a shooting incident in London involving two other men who were involved with Keeler led the press to investigate Ms Keeler, and reporters soon learned of her affairs with Profumo and Ivanov. But the British tradition of respecting the private lives of British politicians was maintained until March 1963, when the Labour MP George Wigg, claiming to be motivated by the national security aspects of the case, taking advantage of Parliamentary Privilege, referred in the House of Commons to rumours that Profumo was having an affair with Keeler. Profumo then made a personal statement in which he admitted he knew Keeler but denied there was any "impropriety" in their relationship.

Profumo's statement did not prevent newspapers publishing stories about Keeler. On 5 June 1963, he was forced to admit that he had lied to the House, he resigned from office, from the House and from the Privy Council. Before making his public confession Profumo confessed the affair to his wife, who stood by him. It was never shown that his relationship with Keeler had led to any breach of national security. The scandal rocked the Conservative government, and was generally held to have been among the causes of its defeat by Labour at the 1964 election.

Profumo maintained complete public silence about the matter for the rest of his life, even when the 1989 film Scandal and the publication of Keeler's memoirs revived public interest in the affair.

Shortly after his resignation Profumo began to work as a volunteer cleaning toilets at Toynbee Hall, a charity based in the East End of London, and continued to work there for the rest of his life. All this work was done as a volunteer, since Profumo was able to live on his inherited wealth. His wife, the actress Valerie Hobson, also devoted herself to charity until her death in 1998.

Jack Profumo was awarded a CBE in 1975, which he received at a Buckingham Palace ceremony from the Queen signalling his return to respectability. In 1995, former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher invited him to her 70th birthday dinner, where he sat next to the Queen. He appeared only occasionally in public, particularly in his last years when he used a wheelchair. His last appearance was at the memorial service for Sir Edward Heath on 8 November 2005.

On 7 March 2006, he suffered a severe stroke and died two days later surrounded by his family. He was 91. In the immediate aftermath of his death, most commentators said that he should be remembered as much for his contribution to society after his fall from political grace as for the scandal of 1963 which caused that fall.
Stay in touch,

Yours,

Peter

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

You Write:

Last month, nine days into a scheduled three-week trial, P.J. Proby was acquitted on benefit fraud in Worcester when the prosecution dropped its case in light of newly-discovered evidence. He had been accused of gaining over £46,700 in benefits between 2002 and 2008, while claiming he had just £5.00 in his bank account.

News and Views:

There's more health troubles for Robin Gibb. The Bee Gee is reportedly battling pneumonia in a London hospital while recovering from emergency intestinal surgery. Brother Barry has returned from America to be by his brother's side, his family are also there.

On this day 21st April 1960-1965

On 2

1/04/1960

the number one single was My Old Man's a Dustman - Lonnie Donegan and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Armchair Theatre (ABC) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.


On

21/04/1961

the number one single was Wooden Heart - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada) 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

21/04/1962

the number one single was Wonderful Land - 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.


On

21/04/1963

the number one single was How Do You Do It? - Gerry & the Pacemakers 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

21/04/1965

the number one single was Ticket to Ride - The Beatles and the number one album was Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

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Top Picture: Titbits




Second Picture: 1960’s portable TV










What price nostalgia?


The price of things nowadays! Why, I can remember when ten shillings would buy you four pints of bitter, a fish supper, a packet of fags and you would still have change for the bus ticket home." How often have we heard this sort of thing from some people usually a bit older than ourselves? And if we are being really truthful we sometimes find ourselves saying, or at least thinking the same sort of things don't we? But just how cheap were things?


Wages were much lower but the buying power of the florin (that's 10p to anyone reading who can't remember the pre-decimal days) was a lot more than it is today so making a comparison is difficult. That was until I discovered a rather nifty calculator on the internet which gives us the real price of things back then, compared with today and vice-versa. Because of something called Resale Price Maintenance, the prices in shops were much the same wherever you went. So the price of baked beans in Tesco for example was the same as it was at the corner shop (in theory). So a way to give customers more value was through Green Shield stamps which could be saved up to be redeemed for other goods was introduced.


There are few things more fascinating than old advertisements in newspapers, especially for products that are no longer around. But even for products that are still with us, how can we tell, for example, whether the price of 58 guineas for a portable television in 1960 was a good deal by today's standards or not? A guinea, as most people will remember, was the equivalent of twenty one shillings or a pound and five pence to the uninitiated, it was a posh way of quoting prices, pounds were considered 'common' for high ticket items in those days. So we can easily work out that 58 guineas was £60.90 for a black and white portable television with a 17 inch screen and amazingly, a thirteen channel dial. Why there was a thirteen-channel dial we can only guess, because there were only two television stations in 1960, perhaps they were expecting more. So £60.90 doesn't sound too bad for a television does it? Mind you this 'portable' TV weighed in at 31 pounds so you needed to be on a Charles Atlas course before you could start shifting your 'portable' television around. It was all the valves and capacitors, resistors, accumulators and transformers packed inside the mahogany effect bakelite casing. The equivalent television today weighs just 5 pounds. But what about the cost? Priced at just £60.90 it sounds quite reasonable compared with £99.99p (or less) for a 17 inch LCD from Argos today, but is it? If you were getting £1,000 per year back then you were doing well, so even £60.90p was quite a chunk of money to spend. However, thanks to the nifty little calculator on the internet, we discover that £60.90 in 1960 actually has the value today of an astonishing £980.60p. A television costing nearly a grand these days comes all singing, all dancing in surround sound and with so many channels and catch-up TV options you not only have no idea exactly how many channels you have, you can watch whatever you like anytime whether it is being broadcast now or not. In 1960 it was two channels in black and white and that was yer lot! And there was a good chance that it would breakdown because one of the valves would go, no wonder people were more likely to rent their sets back then.

Let's turn it on its head, how much would £99.99p today be worth in 1960? Well the magic calculator tells us that it was just £6.22 or £6-4s-5d in pre-decimal money, imagine buying a television for that price back then! So as we can see 58 guineas was an incredible amount of money to splash out, which meant that most people rented their televisions, because the option of renting your set for just nine shillings and six pence per week (47p) certainly made sense. For that weekly cost you also got free maintenance, free insurance and a free ITA aerial. "If a breakdown should occur your viewing is usually restored the same day," promised the advertisement for Rentaset who had a team of "experienced engineers". This indicates just how unreliable televisions were in those days, so nine shillings and six pence per week seemed like a good deal. However, the equivalent of 47p per week in 1960 by today's values is £7.57, which is not bad I suppose, but these days most of us budget monthly which would mean a monthly outlay of £30.24 which is about the same as renting SKY which would also include your phone, internet and more channels than you can shake a stick at. So maybe 47p was not such good value for money back then after all.

If you were a teenager in the 1960s and spending your hard earned paper-round money on the latest single buying an album was a major event and until I had a look at the magic calculator I always assumed it was because I had so little money then, that it took weeks to save up for an album. But in fact these records were an astounding amount of money by today's standards. For many years in the mid 1960s the cost of an album was 32 shillings and sixpence (£1.62) and the cost of a single was six shillings and eight pence (33p) but let's just take 1965 as an example. The price of an album was the same wherever you went, it was 32s/6d take. I don't know about you, but to me it represented a huge outlay, so buying a new album was a really big event. And what is today's equivalent of £1.62 in 1965? Believe it or not it is £21.93p! No wonder we only got these vinyl albums at Christmas and birthdays. A single such number one hit in 1965 would set you back the equivalent of £4.50, but the song only ran for two and a half minutes and the 'b' side was 15 seconds shorter, so less than five minutes of music for £4.50...hmmm.

Were cars more expensive back in 1960 or cheaper? This is difficult because we expect more in specifications from a car now than were available back then and not only that, but most of the makes available then no longer exist. But let's have a look at a four-door saloon, the Riley 4 sixty eight. This had a 1485cc engine and a three-speed gear box, and it was considered to be in the top of the middle range of saloon cars, maybe a bit like a Ford Mondeo today. A brand new 1600cc Mondeo, would not leave you not much change from £20,000 while a Riley 4 sixty eight would have cost you £725 plus £303 'purchase tax'. That is a 41% tax rate and we moan about VAT at 17.5% today, so the total cost was £1028 to drive it away in 1960. That means that the equivalent price today would be £16,552, not bad, but there was no radio, no power steering, no electric windows, no heated rear window, no air conditioning and not forgetting just three gears?

But back to the household. Remember twin tub washing machines? What a pain in the neck they were. If yours was stored under a work surface then every washday (remember when we had such things) the twin tub had to be dragged out with all its wires and tubes trailing behind. And you couldn't just switch it on and leave it, you had to stand over it and transfer the clothes from the washer to the spinner while being sprinkled water from the kitchen tap through a hose, which would keep coming off. The kitchen would soon be awash with water. A twin tub would cost 52 guineas in 1960 and believe was considered a bargain Today's equivalent? £879.16. You can get an Indesit automatic washing machine from Comet today for £225 which does the washing all by itself, that would have been the equivalent of £14 in 1960.
But what about everyday items? The latest in frozen foods, which was still quite a novelty in 1960, were two succulent steaks of whole fish from 'Eskimo' which would set you back one shilling and ten pence but reduced on special offer for your first pack to just one shilling and four pence (7p). In today's prices that's £1.13p which compares with £3.00 for four frozen cod fish fillets from Birds Eye at ASDA so that's £1.50 for two. But the 1960s advertisement does not make clear what sort of fish it is.

Then there were cigarettes, which nearly every adult smoked before it was realised that they killed you. Cigarettes were everywhere and were advertised frequently. Take 'Full Strength Capstan' with 'man-size flavour', probably with enough tar per packet to re-surface sizable sections on the A27. A packet of twenty 'full strength smoking' cigarettes would cost you three shillings and eleven pence or just under 20p in 1960, that equates to £3.22p much cheaper than the average of around £5.20 today. And the price of a pint of beer in 1960 down the pub was about one shilling and three pence, which is about £1.25 today. So it is clear that drinking and smoking was much cheaper in those days and it is things like that that we tend to remember.

Magazines and newspapers were priced at under a shilling, as was 'Tit Bits' a pre runner to 'OK', 'Hello' or 'Chat' magazine. It was priced at four and half pence and an advertisement for it said that its readers had already won £519,944 on the Pools, the National Lottery of its day. A Yorkshire housewife £152,319 on the Pools in 1961, which prompted her to say famously 'I'm going to spend! spend! spend!' A win today on the National Lottery of £152, 000 although very welcome would not be exactly life changing or even in many cases come close to paying off the mortgage. But her win was the equivalent of £2,452,615 now. And the £519,944 in pools wins for readers of Tit Bits amounts to over £8 million today.

So we can see that prices for everyday items like frozen food, cigarettes and beer were somewhat cheaper in real terms and even a family saloon was cheaper albeit without our modern extras, but electrical goods were unbelievably expensive. You will have noticed that I haven't mentioned house prices, the reason being that property prices have inflated out of all proportion so a real equivalent could not be made, but just for a laugh (or cry) let's have a quick look. A 'pleasing modern' semi-detatched house with three bedrooms was on sale for £2,750. That is the equivalent of, wait for it... just £44,280 today. Nowadays you would not be able to buy one for much under £190,000 in the same area, in 1960 that would have been £11,799. No wonder young people find it difficult to get on the property ladder. If you have enjoyed this trip down the shopping receipt of time unfortunately the web site I found has now been taken down.
Stay in touch,

Yours,

Peter

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

You Write:

I overheard a discussion the other day between two people of our age who were discussing what the routine was at the end of term at their junior schools and I came to realise that we did the same sort of things at our Junior school. Term always finished on a Thursday afternoon, I don’t know why it not Friday maybe it was something to do with giving the teachers a long weekend!


News and Views:

Cilla Black hosted "Cilla's Unswung Sixties" on March 19th on the Yesterday channel. The documentary is said to "reveal what the great British public was really wearing in the 1960s, what records they bought and what they liked to do at the weekend." Strange programme!

On this day 14th April 1960-1965

On

14/04/1960

the number one single was My Old Man's a Dustman - Lonnie Donegan and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Wagon Train (ITV) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.


On

14/04/1961

the number one single was Wooden Heart - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was The Budget (All Channels) 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

14/04/1962

the number one single was Wonderful Land - 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 Georges Pompidou becomes French Prime Minister.


On

14/04/1963

the number one single was How Do You Do It? - Gerry & the Pacemakers 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.


On

14/04/1964

the number one single was Can't Buy Me Love - The Beatles and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was The Budget (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.The big news story of the day was Telstar broadcasts live TV pictures to UK from Japan


On

14/04/1965

the number one single was The Minute You're Gone - Cliff Richard 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.