Web Page No 2734

 

22nd November 2020

 

1^st Picture: Vic Oliver

 

2^nd Picture: The Vic Oliver Orchestra

 

3^rd Picture; With Bebe Daniels

 

4^th Picture; With Barbara Lyon, Richard Lyon, Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels Lyon.

Vic Oliver

 

Or Victor Oliver von Samek which was his real name was a comedian and actor from the golden age of radio comedy. He was born on 8^th  July 1898 in Vienna into a Jewish family, the son of Baron Viktor von Samek but professionally became known as Vic Oliver.

 

He had studied medicine at Vienna University but abandoned it for his first love, music and for a time he studied under Gustav Mahler. During the First World War he served in the Austrian Cavalry and  after the war he worked as a banker and a textile manufacturer before returning to music. In 1926 he visited the United States as a conductor and violinist.

He discovered his gift for comedy purley by chance when he had to apologise to his audience for something. A new career as a comedian took him all over the United States. He reached the Palace Theatre, New York in 1929 and the London Palladium two years later. This established him in the United Kingdom and, with his deferential, modest humour, he became very popular. He was kept busy in musical revues, variety and pantomime.

He was Roy Plomley's very first 'castaway' guest on Desert Island Discs, on 29^th  January 1942. This lost broadcast was recalled in 2012 in a BBC radio documentary about Vic Oliver's life in Britain. The script still remains.

He starred in the BBC radio show Hi, Gang that ran from Sunday 26 May 1940 until 1949, featuring Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels. A sequel to this domestic sitcom, was Life with the Lyons, which debuted on BBC radio and television in November 1950. Vic Oliver also appeared with many other stars of the time including Cicely Courtneidge and Jack Hulbert. He played the violin (deliberately badly in his shows) and had aspirations as a conductor and founded the Vic Oliver Concert Orchestra which gave light classical concerts as well as complete opera performances. In 1953 he established Variety Playhouse as a primetime radio show featuring music, comedy and light drama. He was also a regular on Henry Hall's Guest Night and Workers' Playtime .

In his youth he played tennis, football and hockey  and became junior tennis champion of Austria in 1914. After arriving in the United Kingdom in 1936 he became a supporter of First Division club Brentford and was vice-president of the club in the early 1950s. He later became president of the Brentford Supporters' Club.

As a Jew, his name was reportedly listed on a Nazi blacklist of people to be arrested (and killed) immediately in the event of a successful German invasion of Britain.

He married Winston Churchill's daughter, Sarah, in 1936. They had become secretly engaged when they were appearing together in a revue. Winston Churchill did not approve of him. There was nothing whatever against Oliver's character but he had been divorced at least once, possibly twice. Some thought there was negativity also towards those involved with music halls and their folk. There is an anecdote that, at a dinner party at which Vic Oliver was present, Winston Churchill was asked whom he most admired. Churchill replied, "Mussolini". When asked why, he replied, "Because he had the good sense to shoot his son-in-law!" Vic Oliver and Sarah divorced in 1945 and it was noted that he never played on his relationship with Churchill despite attractive offers. A year later he married Natalie Frances Conder in 1946 in Westminster, London and they had one daughter.

He continued to play in big venues and appeared on radio, even up to 1962 when he appeared in sitcom Discord in Three Flats. He died in Johannesburg on 15^th  August 1964 aged 66.

From humble beginnings as a trainee doctor and then a theatre pianist, he had become one of radio's most recognisable voices in an era when variety stars were household names.

 

Peter

 

gsseditor@gmail.com

 

Griff Writes about Bonfire Night:-

 

Flint House big bonfire night was always a must place to be for me with my 2/6d worth of Mighty Atom 1d Bangers ( 30 of them ).

 

 

News and Views:

 

On this day 22^nd September 1960-1965

 

On 22/09/1960 the number one single was Apache - The Shadows and the number one album was Down Drury Lane to Memory Lane - A Hundred and One Strings. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was Parking tickets and traffic wardens introduced in London

 

On 22/09/1961 the number one single was Johnny Remember Me - John Leyton and the number one album was Ipswich Town. The top rated TV show was "Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £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 Take Your Pick (AR)".

 

On 22/09/1962 the number one single was She's Not You - Elvis Presley and the number one album was West Side Story Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

 

On 22/09/1963 the number one single was She Loves 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

 

On 22/09/1964 the number one single was You Really Got Me - Kinks and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

 

On 22/09/1965 the number one single was (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - Rolling Stones and the number one album was Help - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Web Page No 2732

 

15^th November 2020

 

1^st Picture: Qualcast Mower

2^nd Picture: Fire Engine Bell

3rd Picture: Steam Train whistle

4^th Picture:  Air Raid Siren

 

 

The Sound of Silence

 

Well not exactly silence as in the 1965 song written by Paul Simon and performed by Simon and Garfunkel, more the missing sounds from the 1960’s.

This came to mind in the garden today when all I could hear were the whirring noises from several different electric lawn mowers as people in my road cut and trimmed their lawns. Where, I wondered had the clattering sounds of the hand pushed Qualcast cylinder mower that held sway before Black and Decker invented the electric mower. Gone to Other gardening sound that has been usurped are the electric hedge trimmer replacing the gentle slicing sound of a well sharpened pair of shears and the strimmer stridently doing the job of the edge trimmers of years ago.

This got me wondering about other sounds that we all took for granted as we grew up. We must all remember the rapid ringing of the electrically powered warning bells mounted on the front of police cars and ambulances. However, fire engines were very different, these bells were larger, were rung by hand by a fireman and had that distinctive clang as the fire tender rushed by.

There were bells everywhere we went as kids, bells ringing on cash registers, bells for attention on counters, the school bell at the start of the day, the play time and going home bell, this was probably the most popular of all. Also, nowadays where we no longer have open platformed buses with conductors we no longer hear the bell rung by that conductor as a message to the bus driver to start or stop. I also remember a rag and bone man coming around with his horse and cart ringing his hand bell to attract attention.

Luckily one audible warning sound has not completely disappeared and that is the whistle, these can still be heard on railway stations used by platform staff as the trains get ready to be dispatched. Although a sound from the past does sometime come to our ears on very rare occasions, when there is a visitor in the area that we hear the mournful sound of a steam train whistle!  

With modern car and van reliability we very rarely hear the laboured throwing over of a car when the battery is flat and the resultant rattling noise as the starting handle was inserted through the grill to hand start the engine.

Bicycle bells and battery hooters were heard every day, but there was one noise that was only heard at 09.30 on the first Monday of the month. This was the Air Raid Siren as the Civil Defence tested them on a regular basis. Our local siren was sited on a pole behind The New Inn and near what was Futchers School in Drayton but I never actually remember being around it when it was set off but I can vividly remember hearing it all over Drayton and Farlington. This rehearsal continued until the late in 1968 when the Civil Defence Corps was disbanded and the practice discontinued.

However, there is still one siren which is still in use in Portsmouth. The one in the Naval Base.

The wavering tone of the siren sounded last February from Portsmouth Naval Base at 9.30am and lasted for about a minute. The test was part of the nuclear accident response plan for the naval base and is in accordance with Portsmouth and Gosport councils’ nuclear safety plan. Every year the siren is sounded three times, once in February, June and October. The tests take place on Wednesday mornings at 09.30am where the sound – a wavering/two tone siren and last for one minute.

Peter

 

gsseditor@gmail.com

 

Griff Writes about Bonfire Night:-

 Flint House big bonfire night was always a must place to be for me with my 2/6d worth of Mighty Atom 1d Bangers ( 30 of them ).

 

News and Views:

 

On this day 15th September 1960-1965

 

On 15/09/1960 the number one single was Apache - The Shadows and the number one album was Down Drury Lane to Memory Lane - A Hundred and One Strings. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was MoT test introduced.

 

On 15/09/1961 the number one single was Johnny Remember Me - John Leyton and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

 

On 15/09/1962 the number one single was I Remember You - Frank Ifield and the number one album was Pot Luck - 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 Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

 

On 15/09/1964 the number one single was You Really Got Me - Kinks and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was Conservative Party Political Broadcast (all channels) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

 

On 15/09/1963 the number one single was She Loves 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 Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was 35 British tourists die in Pyrennees plane crash.

 

On 15/09/1965 the number one single was (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - Rolling Stones and the number one album was Help - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

 

 

 

Web Page No 2730

 

8^th November 2020

 

1^st Picture: Fish and Chips in Newspaper

 

2^nd Picture: Job Done sticker Bob-a-Job week

 

3rd Picture: Airwick bottle

4^th Picture:  Wash boards

 

 

 

Just for fun

Are you older than the hills?

Here are 50 things from our youth so how many do you remember?

1.    When Fish and Chips were served in newspaper

2.    Glass bottles had a refundable deposit especially at the off licence

3.    All records revolved at 78rpm and broke very easily when dropped

4.    Party phone lines (not us we never had a phone)

5.    Milk was delivered in glass bottles to the doorstep (ours still is)

6.    Television was only in black and white

7.    We saw beat policeman pass by both day and night

8.    The coalman carrying sacks on his back

9.    Shilling in the slot utility meters

10.    Your GP made house calls

11.    You could rent a TV set or even a washing machine

12.    Bob-a-Job Week

13.    The cinema programme had a newsreel, cartoon, adverts, a secondary film and the main feature

14.    The was only one TV channel

15.    Conductors on buses

16.    Usherettes in the cinema

17.    The drink on a stick

18.    The Betterware Man

19.    Smoking sweet cigarettes or coconut tobacco

20.      Telephones with little drawers underneath

21.    Spam

22.    Black Jack Chewing Gum

23.    Pull up Airwick air freshener

24.    The Corona Lorry

25.    Seeing the King

26.    Post Office Saving Stamps

27.    The Coronation

28.    Handstands and Cartwheels

29.    Lucky Bags

30.    Broken biscuits from the grocers

31.    Milk Jellies

32.    Pontefract cakes

33.    Fly papers

34.    Playing Old Maid

35.    Charles Atlas

36.    Davy Crocket hats

37.    Wash Boards

38.    Paraffin heaters

39.    Candlewick bedspreads

40.    Lifebuoy Soap

41.    Gaberdine Macs

42.    The 11-plus

43.    Half day closing

44.    Lord and Lady Docker

45.    Five Boys Chocolate

46.    The Teddy Boy

47.    British Pathe Newsreels

48.    The gas poker

49.    The Twist

50.    Having your own desk at school

51.    Junior School class Christmas Party

52.    Start-Rite shoes

53.    Pepsodent tooth paste

54.    Cremola Foam

55.    Cigarette holders

56.    Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson

57.    Home Made paper chains at Christmas

58.    The diabolo

59.    School Caps and berets

60.    Looking forward to the school holidays

If you remember twenty of the above you are officially just a whippersnapper

If you remember thirty of the above you are officially getting there

If you remember forty of them you are officially over the hill

If you remember all of them, you are officially a Grumpy Old Person but you still have a good memory!

 

Peter

 

gsseditor@gmail.com

 

You Write:

 

News and Views:

 

On this day 8th November 1960-1965

On 08/11/1960 the number one single was It's Now Or Never - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Tottenham Hotspur. The top rated TV show was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £ and 13.68 were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was Conservative Party Political Broadcast (all channels).

 

On 08/11/1961 the number one single was Walkin' Back to Happiness - Helen Shapiro and the number one album was Twenty One Today - Cliff Richard. The top rated TV show was The Royal Variety Performance (ATV) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 08/11/1962 the number one single was Telstar - The Tornadoes 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 Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 08/11/1963 the number one single was You'll Never Walk Alone - Gerry & the Pacemakers and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was The Royal Variety Performance (ATV) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was US recognises new regime in Saigon.

On 08/11/1964 the number one single was (There's) Always Something There to Remind Me - Sandy Shaw and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 08/11/1965 the number one single was Get Off Of My Cloud - Rolling Stones and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.