FOR a time in the 1950s he was an English motor racing superstar, inconsistent, maybe, but a worthy champion nontheless.
The racing career of Mike Hawthorn ended immediately when he became World Champion and announced his retirement from Forumla 1.
But still he dogged the headlines, but only for a short time. Within months of taking the title Mike Hawthorn was dead.
*John Michael Hawthorn was born in Mexborough, Yorkshire on April 10, 1929.
*As a racing driver he was in the same British elite group that included Stirling Moss and his great friend Peter Collins, who would die in the 1958 German Grand Prix. Hawthorn went on to become Britain’s first World Champion.
* He was a flambuoyant character who wore a bow tie and a broad smile – even when driving.
*Educated at public school, Hawthorn started to take an interest in racing when he was nine years old – his father owned a garage near the Brooklands race track. His racing career really got under way in 1950. By 1953 he was driving for Ferrari.
*His first full Formula 1 season was in 1953, but success eluded him – he had only one championship victory. It came in the French Grand Prix at Reims when he crossed the line a fraction of a second in front of Argentininian ace Fangio
*Bad publicity surrounded him when it was claimed he had avoided National Service. The reason he did not serve later came to light – a kidney ailment rendered him ineligible.
*Hawthorn left Ferrari to drive for Vanwall and BRM teams. In 1955 he was competing in the Le Mans 24 Hour Race when one car crashed killing over 80 people.
*Mike Hawthorn was winner of the 1958 Formula One Championship. After winning the title, Hawthorn immediately announced his retirement from Formula One.
*The same year he became champion Hawthorn saw his great friend Peter Collins killed at Nurburgring in Germany
*Mike Hawthorn was engaged to well known fashion model Jean Howarth.
*He died on January 22, 1959, near his home in Farnham when his Jaguar skidded off a wet corner. He was 29 years old.
*In his career Mike Hawthorn started 47 races, had 17 podium finishes and six fastest laps. His last Grand Prix was in Morocco.

For many years these two women were among the best loved entertainers in Britain.
They were Elsie and Doris Waters, better known to millions as Gert and Daisy. And they had an equally famous brother – Jack Warner, much loved as TV’s Dixon of Dock Green, a major hit in the Fifties.
The characters Gert and Daisy were created in 1930 and soon achieved success mainly on radio, but went on to be huge stage stars too, being described by one writer as “ the most successful female double-act in the history of British music hall and variety.”
They would talk about anything and everything, but especially their fictional husbands Bert and Wally.
Gert and Daisy, once described as “perhaps the most influential social satirists of the period,” were regulars on the hugely popular radio show Workers’ Playtime.
Throughout their careers they wrote almost all their own comic songs and sketches.
TV work came late and only after they were seen in a commercial and offered their own show, a sitcom which was named after them and screened in 1959.
In it they played former show business performers who ran a theatrical guest house.
But it was not the success producers had hoped for, the sisters being unaccustomed to performing material written by someone else – Ted Willis, who also wrote the Dixon series.
Only one series of six episodes was made.

She was a British singing superstar, as famous in the 1950s for her extravagant hooped skirts as she was for her voice.
Today, over half a century later, Alma Cogan is still fondly remembered by an army of fans.
Born Alma Angela Cohen in Stepney in May 1932, she was encouraged to go onto the stage by her mother and while still a child auditioned with Ted Heath, the well known bandleader.
This did not lead to anything, however and it was a record company executive who spotted the teenager and realised her potential. For a time she sang for diners at London’s Cumberland Hotel but in 1952 began her recording career with To Be Worthy of You backed by Would You.
Then came the break which would lead to her becoming famous. When Joy Nichols left the radio show Take It From here Alma stepped in as resident singer. In 1954 her recording of Bell Bottom Blue made the hit parade.
Always glamorous she became one of the best known faces on TV, her gowns, often sequined, becoming her trademark.
Billed as “the girl with laughter in her voice” Alma was popular for her up-beat ballads and novelty songs, but also changed her style as music itself changed even including rock and roll in her repertoire.
Even today many of her songs are fondly remembered – among them This Ole House, I Can’t Tell a Waltz From a Tango, Never Do a Tango With an Eskimo and Snakes and Snails and Puppy Dogs’ Tails.
Alma Cogan died of cancer at the age of 34 on October 26, 1966.

January 6 – Elvis Presley appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show for the third and final time. He was only shown from the waist up, even during the gospel segment, singing “Peace In The Valley”.

January 9 – Prime Minister Anthony Eden resigned.

January 10 – Harold Macmillan (left) became Prime Minister.

January 16 – The Cavern Club opened in Liverpool.

February 16 – The “Toddlers’ Truce”, a controversial television closedown between 6 and 7.00 pm, was abolished.

March 25 – The Treaty of Rome established the European Economic Community (EEC).

April 9 – Egypt reopened the Suez Canal to all shipping.

May 15 – Stanley Matthews played his final international game, ending an English record international career of almost 23 years.

August 21 – US President Dwight D. Eisenhower (left) announced a two year suspension of nuclear testing.

September 4 -   The Ford Motor Company introduced the Edsel.

October 2 – David Lean’s film The Bridge on the River Kwai opened in the UK.

October 4 – Space Age – Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth.

October 11 – The Jodrell Bank Radio telescope opened in Cheshire.

November 3 –The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2, with the first animal in space (a dog named Laika) on board.

December 4 – The Lewisham train disaster in the UK left 92 dead.

Born in 1957

January 11 – Bryan Robson, footballer

February 9 – Gordon Strachan, Scottish footballer and manager

March 10 – Osama bin Laden, Saudi-born Islamic extremist

April 9 – Severiano Ballesteros, Spanish golfer

April 25 – Eric Bristow, darts player

May 10 – Sid Vicious, rock bassist (Sex Pistols) (d. 1979)

July 18 – Nick Faldo, golfer

August 22 – Steve Davis, snooker player

They died in 1957

January 14 – Humphrey Bogart, American actor (b. 1899)

May 16 – Eliot Ness, American policeman (b. 1903)

June 1 -  Jimmy Dorsey, American jazz musician (b. 1904)

August 7 – Oliver Hardy, American actor (b. 1892)

October 29 – Louis B. Mayer, American studio mogul and former head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (b. 1885)

As musicians go he was talented but never brilliant. As for singing he could cope but you’d hardly rate him as anything above average.

To look at he was certainly no Adonis, more a Mr Average, thinning on top and slightly overweight.

For years he eked out an existence with his fellow musicians known as The Saddlemen, playing popular music around the States.

It was all unremarkable stuff, mundane and un-extraordinary.

But then Bill Haley found the winning formula.

It really began in 1953. Shortly before then Haley and The Saddlemen had started using numbers with a rhythm and blues influence as a result of Haley noticing that white teenagers were tending to favour black music.

Such a mixture went down well and The Saddlemen achieved growing popularity.

After a successful first record in 1951 Haley-  born William John Clifton – longed for a second and  two years later made Crazy Man, crazy, the title being taken from a popular catchphrase used by  teenagers. It proved a hit and was later hailed as the first rock and roll record to enter the charts.

But another two years would pass before Bill Haley was to earn himself a place in pop history as the man who led a teenage revolution.

The song which catapulted him to international fame was a number issued on two previous occasions. Rock Around the Clock failed to take off – until it was included in a film called Blackboard Jungle.

Then –suddenly – the song was in demand and not only in America. Teenagers throughout the world flocked to buy it, the disc selling millions of copies. The record became the theme song of rock ‘n’ roll and Bill Haley its founding father.

Haley’s life at the top, though, was to be short lived – only about two years. But that one hit song lived on and on. In Britain alone it entered the charts on no less than eight occasions and even today is still regarded as the rock classic.

And the man himself?

He said of the rock ‘n’ roll movement: “We gave the teenagers something of their own, something that was strictly theirs.”

Following on from Rock Around the Clock Haley had several hits, although none ever attracted such hysteria. These included classics like Shake Rattle and Roll, See You later Alligator, R-O-C-K, Saints Rock ‘n’ Roll and Rip It Up.

Haley played on for many more years after his initial success, but had little else to offer.

As the years passed he faded from the scene, becoming increasingly reclusive and in his later years living in seclusion in Harlington, Texas, refusing interviews or to make a comeback performance.

But for many the memories created by the man they called he father of rock ‘n’ roll were still brought flooding back whenever that first hit record was played.

And the man himself?

He died following a heart attack at the age of 53 on February 9, 1981.

They were the days before the politically correct brigade moved in with their wrecking tactics, the times when  being young meant playing out – and being competitive.
None of the claptrap about no-one being allowed to lose in case it affected them for the rest of their lives in those days.
You took part and if you lost then it was just too bad.
Part of this was that annual event loved by kids and parents alike – the school sports day.
And always (or so it seemed) the event was graced with good weather.
Whether you could run or not didn’t matter. But taking part did. And that was what the annual primary school sports day was all about.
Go back to the Fifties and remember those events in which you once took part.
Like, for instance, the egg and spoon race. There you were lined up with your classmates hand trembling as you clutched the spoon and watched the egg wobbling as the whistle went.
What the actual origins of this were are lost in the mists of time, but in those hard post- war times in the early to mid-Fifties wasting real eggs was just not on. The school had pot ones which were brought out once a year for sports day.
Remember also the three legged race, allegedly a test of co-operation between two partners as much as a contest involving how fast you could run while tied together.
A lot depended on your partner. Why was it that the small kids always finished up strapped to the biggest ones?
Then there was the good old favourite, the sack race.
Like the eggs the sacks were produced once a year and then stored away again.
Clutching the top of the sack you hopped your way towards the finish, usually filling down in the process while your classmates roared encouragement. All good harmless fun, but today more than like to be frowned for some health and safety reason.
Most primary school sports days did not let the parents get away scot-free. Hence the parents race, generally believed to be organised just to embarrass those mums and dads who dared volunteer.
The fun races, though, were just part of an afternoon of competition which saw youngsters running their hearts out for small prizes – often few sweets.
All good fun and happily remembered by those who took part.
How sad, therefore, that so many schools have now removed the annual sports day from their calendars on the grounds that they are too competitive and could damage the self esteem of the youngsters taking part.
Looking back did they do you any harm?

A COUPLE of pennies were all that were needed for a phone call in the late Fifties.
Many will recall the A-button boxes in use at the time. You put the money in, dialled and on hearing the phone answered pressed button A. On no reply or engaged, pressing button B saw your money returned (if you were lucky).

REMEMBER the orange juice from your local clinic?
It came in glass bottles, was horrible stuff to drink and extremely sticky!
Also freely available for youngsters was cod liver oil.
Both were distributed by the Government as part of a children’s health supplement.

THE COST OF LIVING
In 1958:
*A Belling cooker cost £43 19s. It was said to “…really look after itself. It will switch itself on, keep the oven at exactly the right heat and then switch off when the meal is cooked even though you’re miles away at work or shopping.”
*Park Drive “the really good” tipped cigarette cost 1s 3d for a packet of 10.
*Householders were urged to burn “clean, smokeless” gas coke, 16cwt of which it was said, gave as much warmth as 20cwt of coal. And to get the fire going you could use a gas poker – “it’s as easy as lighting your cigarette.”
*A TV set complete with 17ins tune was offered for rental at 11s a week. A similar sized model was on sale for 67 guineas.

In 1959:
A Hoover steam dry iron cost £4 12s 1d.
*Spring interior mattresses which were guaranteed for five years cost 50s.
*You could buy a cottage suite, said to be ideal for the smaller room, for £17 10s.
*Farley’s Rusks for babies cost 9d or 1s 5d a box at Boots the Chemist.
*Cleaner cooking was offered with a Belling cooker in which the oven lining ame out in one piece. It cost £36 6s.
*A new Standard 10 car cost £624 9s 2d.
*A Portarack car roof rack cost from £2 17s 6d to £14 17s 6d

OH BOY…REMEMBER THESE?

Emile Ford
Michael Holliday
King Brothers
The Mudlarks
Vince Taylor and His Playboys
Tommy Steele

SMOKING was considered sophisticated in the Fifties.
Most young lads enjoyed a crafty drag at around 11 or 12 years of age. Cigs gave a boy man appeal – or so it was believed.
Just what you smoked reflected your status. At the cheap end of the market were Turf cigarettes produced by Carreras, and Wild Woodbines from WD and HO Wills.
In some shops you could buy a packet of five “Woodies,” the packs being of paper rather than thin card.
And a few good newsagents would even supply youngsters with one or perhaps two cigarettes, plus a couple of matches to light them with.
Who remembers Craven A, with their cork tips, Senior Service, Black Cat and, of course the “real man’s” smoke – Capstan Full Strength?
Many Sixty  or so’s of today will remember being caned at school for having a smoke? At some schools three strokes of the cane were a common punishment for such an “offence.”

 For women the Fifties brought a fashion revolution.

Out went the dowdy dresses of wartime Britain, in came a brighter, more adventurous, excitingly stylish look.

The Forties had spawned the short skirt and wide shouldered look. The Fifties saw the arrival of the hourglass figure , pencil skirts for older women, bolero jackets And styles changed more rapidly than before helped later in the decade by mass-manufactured, off-the-peg clothing granting the general public unprecedented access to fashionable style.

The younger Fifties woman wore under tight sweaters bras which were rigidly conical in shape, padded, wired, and unnaturally uplifted. Pencil slim, figure hugging skirts were eventually replaced in 1958 by the arrival of the sack dress which as its name implied was similar in style to a sack. That same year skirts began creeping up once again having remained knee length for some time. Tights were for the future, smart young women wore stockings.

In summer, dresses in floral fabrics were popular and fitted tops and full skirts were essential for the well dressed young woman. Fashion conscious women wanting to look their best in the “new” styles of the early 1950s had to work hard at it, for the effects of war and a scarcity of materials made being “trendy” difficult. The trendy Fifties woman wanted styles with man appeal.

The impact of what were described by Dior as the “new look” fashion collections was tremendous. They came in 1949 at a time when Britons still only too clearly remembered the austerity of wartime clothing coupons and clothes made of inferior and poor quality materials. The “new look” included the covering of the knees as hemlines fell dramatically to about 13 inches from floor level. This led to improvisation among those who could not afford to go out and buy the latest creations.

Many will still remember their mums stitching deep frills around the hems of dresses, probably inserting bands of different coloured fabric in the skirts of last year’s coats. And it was not only the so called “working class” who resorted to such tactics. Even Princess Margaret was pictured wearing an obviously lengthened coat. Fabrics were still below standard, and a 1951 a fashion expert on the radio show Woman’s Hour told listeners: “When buying a coat the secret is to hold the fabric up to a strong light. As much as you can see through it so can the wind blow through it.”

Whatever the designers came up with, though, the fashion conscious Miss or Mrs still refused to give up wearing trousers, although by today’s standards they could hardly be considered smart. They did, however, infiltrate into evening wear with wide trousers and tops (soon to be styled into the complete trousers suit outfit) becoming acceptable for a night out on the town

By today’s standards it was pretty tame stuff.
But when comedian Max Miller took to the stage the censors sat up with blue pencils poised.
Known as “the cheeky chappie” Miller’s jokes were probably no more risque than a seaside postcard, but over three decades, the last being the Fifties,   he lived on the edge, always under the threat of being banned from broadcasting by the then only broadcaster in the country, the BBC.
Max Miller was born Thomas Henry Sargent in Brighton in November, 1894 and was for years the country’s best known “blue” comedian, a sort of Roy Chubby Brown of his day, only a whole lot milder.In fact  Brown’s jokes would have landed Miller in court.
During his act, though, Miller did his best to dodge the  authorities latching onto the idea of stopping the joke before the end but leaving enough so that the audience knew exactly what the punchline was.
This gave him the chance to tell the audience that  it was all in their “dirty” minds, reflected in one of his catchphrases – “it’s people like you who get me a bad name.”
Miller served in the army in World War 1, passing some of the time entertaining his comrades and on leaving the forces joined a concert party as a song and dance man.
On stage he dressed in an over-the-top flashy suit and his comic timing and delivery were said to be the role model for all other stand-up comics.
The 1930s saw him rise to fame and he played all major variety theatres, among them the London Palladium walking on stage to his signature tune Mary from the Dairy.
The BBC had little time for him, once banning him from the air for five years. He also appeared on the big screen and between 1933 and 1942 made 14 feature films.
A private man when not on stage he was said to be happiest when at home in Brighton. Offstage in theatres he was puritanical, not allowing anyone to swear in his presence.
Max Miller died at home in May 1963.
A bronze statue of him was unveiled in Brighton in 2005 by Roy Hudd, George Melly, June Whitfield and Norman Wisdom on behalf of the Max Miller Appreciation Society.

January 26 – The 1956 Winter Olympic Games opened in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
February 11 – British spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean resurfaced in the Soviet Union after being missing for five years.
February 16 – The film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, starring Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones, was released.
February 22 – Elvis Presley entered the United States music charts for the first time, with Heartbreak Hotel.
February 23 – Norma Jean Mortenson legally changed her name to Marilyn Monroe.
March 13 – Elvis Presley released his first Gold Album titled Elvis Presley.
March 23 – Pakistan became the first Islamic republic.
April 14 – Videotape was first demonstrated  in Chicago.
April 19 – British diver Lionel Crabb dived into Portsmouth harbour to investigate a visiting Soviet cruiser and vanished.
April 19 -Actress Grace Kelly married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco.
April 27 – Heavyweight boxing champion Rocky Marciano retired without losing a professional boxing match.
June 3 – British Rail renamed ‘Third Class’ passenger facilities as ‘Second Class’ (Second Class facilities had been abolished in 1875, leaving just First Class and Third Class).
June 28 – MP Sydney Silverman’s bill for the abolition of the death penalty in the UK passed the House of Commons.
June 29 -  Marilyn Monroe (pictured) married playwright Arthur Miller.
July 10 – The British House of Lords defeated the abolition of the death penalty.
July 24 – At New York City’s Copacabana Club, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis performed their last comedy show together (their act started on July 25, 1946).
July 26 – Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizsed the Suez Canal sparking international condemnation.
July 31 – Cricket: Jim Laker set an extraordinary record at Old Trafford in the fourth Test between England and Australia, taking 19 wickets in a first class match (the previous best was 17).
September 13 – The hard disk drive was invented by an IBM team led by Reynold B. Johnson.
October 15 – The RAF retired its last Lancaster bomber.
October 23 – The Hungarian revolution broke out against the pro-Soviet government.
October 26 – Red Army troops invaded Hungary.
November 4 – Hungarian Revolution: More Soviet troops invade dHungary to crush the revolt .t Thousands were killed, more were wounded, and nearly a quarter million left the country.
November 23 – The Suez Crisis caused petrol rationing in Britain.
December 19 – John Bodkin Adams was arrested for the murder of  two patients in Eastbourne.

Births
January 3 – Mel Gibson, Australian actor and director.
January 17 – Paul Young,  musician
January 21 – Geena Davis,  actress
January 31 – Johnny Rotten, punk musician and TV personality
April 19 – Sue Barker, tennis player and television presenter
May 17 – Sugar Ray Leonard, boxer
May 29 – La Toya Jackson, singer
June 3 – George Burley, football manager
July 9 – Tom Hanks,  actor
September 14 – Ray Wilkins, footballer and coach
September 16 – Mickey Rourke,  actor
October 10 – Amanda Burton,  actress
November 20 – Bo Derek, actress

Deaths
January 31 – A. A. Milne,  author (Winnie The Pooh) (b. 1882)
March 25 – Robert Newton, film actor (b. 1905)
August 16 – Béla Lugosi, Hungarian-born film actor (Dracula) (b. 1882)
November 19 – Francis L. Sullivan, English actor (b. 1903)
November 22 – Theodore Kosloff, Russian-born ballet dancer, choreographer and actor (b. 1882)
November 24 – Guido Cantelli, Italian conductor (b. 1920)
November 26 – Tommy Dorsey, American trombonist and bandleader (b. 1905)
November 27 – Hugo Ballin, American artist, film production designer, and director (b. 1879)
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Top hits of 1956
All the Way – Frank Sinatra
I Walk the Line  – Johnny Cash
Any Way You Want Me – Elvis Presley
Be-Bop-A-Lula – Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps
Blue Suede Shoes – Carl Perkins
Blueberry Hill – Fats Domino
Don’t Be Cruel – Elvis Presley
Don’t Forbid Me  – Pat Boone
The Great Pretender – The Platters
Heartbreak Hotel – Elvis Presley
Hound Dog – Elvis Presley
I Want You, I Need You, I Love You  – Elvis Presley
I Was the One – Elvis Presley
It’s Almost Tomorrow – The Dream Weavers
I’ve Got You Under My Skin – Frank Sinatra
Just Walkin’ in the Rain – Johnnie Ray
Long Tall Sally – Little Richard (pictured)
Memories Are Made Of This – Dean Martin
My Blue Heaven – Fats Domino
My Prayer – The Platters
Roll Over Beethoven – Chuck Berry
See You Later Alligator – Bill Haley and His Comets
Singing the Blues – Guy Mitchell
Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera) – Doris Day
Why Do Fools Fall in Love – The Teenagers featuring Frankie Lymon