Remember The Eagle?
It was launched in April 1950 and for a generation of boys became THE weekly bible.
The Eagle, the brainchild of its first editor, Marcus Morris, was revolutionary so far as comic publishing was concerned.
Its front page, featuring the legendary “pilot of the future” – Dan Dare – was created by Frank Hampson and has gone down in comic book history as a classic.
Eagle’s other heroes included Storm Nelson, Luck of the Legion, investigator Harris Tweed and cowboy Jeff Arnold of the 6T6 Outfit.
 The centre section of each edition was for its time innovative and exciting – cutaway drawings showing how trains, aircraft and ships were built.
Eagle lasted in a variety of formats until interest ran out and it faded away, a shadow of its former self.
This was a comic loved and remembered by tens of thousands, essential playground reading and a trendsetter in comic style and presentation.
*Did you have a favourite comic, one you still remember buying and enjoying in the Fifties? E-mails please.
A fabulous reminder of the fabulous Fifties

They go to school in luxury these days – by car.
The school run is a part of almost every family’s day. Long gone are the times when you walked to school whatever the weather – and regarded it as a part of your young life.
Seeing lines of cars on both sides of the road at leaving time at a local school today brought back the memories of getting to lessons half a century ago.
Ok, so the Fifties were a great time in which to live – providing you were old enough to enjoy what they had started to offer. For the very young school life could be pretty tough.
There was no being taken to the school gates in mum’s four by four or people carrier in those days.
Remember setting out from the warmth of home on a cold, rainy and windy winter’s morning, with rubber Wellingtons chapping your legs? By the time you arrived at school you were wet through and thoroughly miserable, leaving your coat on a peg in a dismal cloakroom to retrieve it still damp hours later.
Many will recall also the “dick nurse” on her regular visits to check young heads for lice?
Or perhaps the worst school experience of the lot – the visit of the dentist.
Ours came in a small caravan and us youngsters waited in fear for the classroom door to open and our names to be called.
Imagine the uproar today if a child went home having undergone the torture of having a thick black rubber mask held over their face while gas poured out of it and sent them to sleep.
But it happened and no questiones were asked.The offending tooth removed, the victim was issued with a swab and allowed to partially recover before being sent back to lessons.
Years later many of us look back on experiences such as that and still fear and hate a regular visit to our dentist.
Discipline ruled at school and you obeyed the rules or else.
How many of us still remember having to hold out a trembling hand to have it slapped hard by a ruler wielding teacher? Or – just as painful – having bare legs slapped, a tactic which today would bring prosecution and compensation payments.
Yet despite these happenings school life was on the whole good.
Teachers were generally kind and patient, Schools did their best with limited resources to shape our young lives.
Times were hard in the early years of the 1950s and the effects of the war were still very much with us.
The happiest days of our lives?
What do you think?

In the years of innocence they remained boys and girls until the day they legally became adults.
By then they were 21 years old.
For the average youngster there was little to celebrate. Life was pretty hard for most families, money was often short and luxuries were few.
With little to tempt them most young people approached adulthood quietly, without fuss.
Then came rock and roll.
As Britain shrugged off he effects of World War 11 a new era began to dawn. Growing up would never be the same for any future generation.
The post-war years brought major lifestyle changes which saw young people enjoy more freedom and have more money than any of their predecessors. They had their own music, they frequented youth clubs and coffee bars and it was not long before they drove their own vehicles, usually motor scooters
And with this came a revolution in the way they dressed.
Many of our readers will no doubt recall sporting the latest in Fifties fashions when they went out on the town on a Friday or Saturday night.
For the girls Fifties fashion included those full dirndl or circular skirts which could prove an embarrassment when they sat down as the front always seemed to resist staying down. And any girl about town would never even think of leaving home without a bouffant underskirt often made of paper nylon or net. Then there were those rather smart tight pleated skirts usually made from a new material known as Terylene which helped keep the creases in.
Rock ‘n’ roll fans loved tight pants which were cut off below the knee and usually sported cardigans worn back to front . Other dance hall favourites in fashion included shirts, often worn with a scarf knotted in a style favoured by cowboys at the side of their neck.
Teddy Boys in their Edwardian style gear were trendsetters in their own right – remember those drape jackets with velvet collars and cuffs and shirts worn with bootlace ties? – but most lads still plumped for more traditional gear, usually sports jackets, white shirts and ties.
The “Teds” also had their own favourite footwear. The age of the “brothel creeper” had arrived.
Any self-respecting Fifties teenage lad also looked after his hair and barbers were inundated with requests for a “Tony Curtis” the style being copied from that sported by one of the biggest film stars of the day.
Quiffs were popular, too, usually being Brylcreemed into place.
Miss Trendy probably had her hair in a pony tail.
But there were rebels.
Remember the scruffy black leather look adopted by many young lads and based on the style sported by Marlon Brando (pictured) in the hit movie On the Waterfront?
And in the later years of the decade came the scruffy look favoured by those who delighted in calling themselves beatniks. They sported oversized chunky long sweaters, with their girls adding huge cowl collars worn over slim fitting pencil skirts or slacks with stirrups.
All very trendy. And looking back all now very old fashioned.

They were the days when to own a car made you someone rather special.
But times were changing fast and motors for the working man were at last becoming affordable.
The year was 1954. And a car for “the masses” was rolling off the Ford production line. Who remembers  the famous Popular?
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At the time it was Britain’s lowest-priced car bringing affordable motoring to the working man and combining roominess with lively top gear performance.
It had no claim to refinement and was said to offer top gear acceleration superior to that of almost any other “economy” car.”
This was the Ford Popular in 1954, which would set you back just £275 plus purchase tax of £115 14s 2d, a total of £390 14s 2d for a car said by The Motor magazine to bring new car ownership within the reach of many people who could only afford a motorcycle or the uncertainties of purchasing a send-hand vehicle.
It went on “as a knockabout vehicle to be left always out of doors and used mainly for short runs in town or as a farmer’s car with external carrying capacity and with ample weight on the driving wheels the Popular has merits quite independent of its low cost.”
The car was developed out of the earlier Ford Anglia which was converted to the Popular in 1953. The original 933cc engine was replaced with the 1.172cc size and it could hit 60mph.
The Motor Road Tests of 1954 cars said: “The Popular is very far from extravagant as is indicated by out overall consumption figure of 36.4mpg which covers a proportion of quite hard driving – even 10mpg better economy would only save 24s per 1,000 miles on petrol cost.”
The review went on enthusiastically: “The fact that this model which is being made in very large numbers, is more than able to keep up with other traffic, accelerating briskly even without skilled use of the gearbox, is important in these days of congested roads on which too-slow vehicles can be obstructions.”
The car was Spartan to say the least. The basic model had no heater, glove locker, sun visors, warning lights, ashtrays, radio or map pockets. But it did come with a starting handle and you could buy it in black Bristol fawn, Winchester blue or Dorchester grey.
The Motor said: “Orthodox simplicity characterises the interior and exterior furnishings and decoration of the Popular.
“Externally, a very few parts such as the door handles and bonnet hinge are chromium plated. Inside the body there is conventional trimming in relatively inexpensive leathercloth and fabric and conventional wind-down windoews in the front doors (it came with two doors only).
Elbow width for two people was said to be “quite adequate” and the rear seat headroom and knee room were amply even for tall men.
Basic is probably the kindest way of describing the car as indicated by this:
“Although quite comfortably, the front and rear seats do feel slightly ‘cheap’ in respect of skimpy padding over their internal springs.”
Great play was made of the car’s performance in top gear. The Motor said: “Top gear performance is what really gives this model its character and makes it unexpectedly attractive despite its rather austere specification.
“Below 15mph in top gear snatch in the tgransmission can set in and above 50mph the acceleration tails off rapidly towards rthe top speed of a mile a minute, but between these speeds there is a fine surge of power available.
“It is very rarely necessary to change out of top gear on a hill and to quote a specific example, three people and their weekend luggage were taken up the sharp hill which climbs out of the city of Winchester towards Alton in top gear despite a starting speed of little more than 20mph. When pulling at such low speeds, however, the car pinked quite considerably on the standard-grade fuels.”
There was a word of warning about driving fast with the windows closed which was said to produce a slightly oil smell inside the car. But in 800 miles only one pint of oil was used.
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The Popular came after the Anglia, which in turn came was the post-war version of the Ford 8 of the 1930s.
According to the book The British Motor Car 1950/51 by AH Lukins the Anglia was “avery robust piece of motor engineering incorporating many modern refinement.”
The Anglia cost £329 2s 9d including purchase tax.

January 7– President Harry S. Truman announced that the United States had developed a hydrogen bomb.
January 19 – 68 per cent of all television sets in the United States were tuned in to I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.
January 20 – Dwight D Eisenhower succeeded Harry S Truman as President of the United States.
January 28 – Derek Bentley was executed for murder in HM Prison Wandsworth.
January 31 – February 1 – The North Sea flood killed 1,835 people in the southwestern Netherlands (especially Zeeland), 307 in the United Kingdom and several hundred at sea.
February 18 – The first 3-D film, Bwana Devil, opened.
March 1 – Joseph Stalin (pictured) suffered a stroke and collapsed after an all-night dinner. The stroke paralysed the right side of his body, and he died a few days later after 31 years as Russian leader.
March 14 – Nikita Khruschev was selected First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.
March 26 – Jonas Salk announced his polio vaccine.
April 13- Ian Fleming published his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale.
May 29 – Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
June 2  – Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey.
August 8 – Soviet prime minister  Georgi Malenkov announced that the Soviet Union had a hydrogen bomb.
November 25 – England lost 6-3 to Hungary at Wembley Stadium, their first ever loss to a continental team at home.
December 1 – Hugh Hefner published the first issue of Playboy Magazine; it sold  54,175 copies.

Births
January 10  -Pat Benatar, rock singer
February 26 – Michael Bolton, pop singer
March 23 – Chaka Khan, soul singer
April 19 – Ruby Wax, comedienne
May 6 – Tony Blair
May 15 – Mike Oldfield, composer
May 16 – Pierce Brosnan, Irish actor
May 19 – Victoria Wood, actress
June 22 – Cyndi Lauper, singer
August 11 – Hulk Hogan, professional wrestler
August 15 – Carol Thatcher, television personality, daughter of Margaret Thatcher. Mark Thatcher, British businessman, son of Margaret Thatcher

Deaths
January 1 – Hank Williams, musician (b. 1923)
June 1 – Alex James, Scottish football player (b. 1901)
June 19  – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, American communist spies (b. 1918 and 1915) (executed)
October 8 – Nigel Bruce, character actor (b. 1895)
October 8 – Kathleen Ferrier, contralto (b. 1912)

Top hits of 1953
Answer Me, O Lord – Frankie Laine
Bye Bye Blues – Les Paul and Mary Ford
Changing Partners – Patti Page
The Gang That Sang Heart Of My Heart – The Four Aces featuring Al Alberts
The Kid’s Last Fight – Frankie Laine
Secret Love – Doris Day (pictured)
That’s Amore – Dean Martin
Three Coins In The Fountain – Frank Sinatra

January 9: United Nations headquarters opened in New York.
January 15 – Ilse Koch, The “Witch of Buchenwald” (pictured), wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, was sentenced to life imprisonment in a court in West Germany.
March 7 –In Korea, United Nations troops led by General Matthew Ridgeway began an assault against the Chinese “volunteers.”
March 29 – Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. On April 5 they were sentenced to receive the death penalty.
March 29 – Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I opened on Broadway and ran for three years. The show made a star of Yul Brynner.
April 11- After its removal from Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1950, the Stone of Scone resurfaced on the altar of Arbroath Abbey.
May 3 – King George VI opened London’s Royal Festival Hall. The Festival of Britain opened.
May 25 – The first atomic bomb “boosted” by the inclusion of thermonuclear materials, was tested on Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands by the US.
July 26 – Walt Disney’s 13th animated film, Alice in Wonderland, premiered in London.
September 8 -In San Francisco 48 nations signed a peace treaty with Japan to formally end the Pacific War.
September 10 – The United Kingdom began an economic boycott of Iran.
October 15 – I Love Lucy made its television debut in America.
December 24 – Libya became independent from Italy.

Births
January 30 – Phil Collins,  rock musician and producer (Genesis)
February 14 – Kevin Keegan, footballer and football manager
February 15 – Jane Seymour, actress
February 20 – Gordon Brown, Prime Minister.
March 4 – Kenny Dalglish, footballer and football manager
April 13 – Peter Davison, actor
June 8 – Bonnie Tyler, singer
June 14 – Paul Boateng,  politician
July 8 – Anjelica Huston, actress
September 5 – Michael Keaton,  actor (Batman)
September 7 – Chrissie Hynde, rock singer (The Pretenders)
November 19 – Lord Falconer of Thoroton,  politician
December 8 – Bill Bryson, author

Deaths
March 6 – Ivor Novello, actor, musician, and composer (b. 1893)
April 14 – Ernest Bevin, politician, and statesman (b. 1881)
August 14 – William Randolph Hearst, American newspaper publisher (b. 1863)

Top hits
If – Perry Como
Be My Love – Mario Lanza
How High the Moon – Les Paul and Mary Ford
Too Young – Nat King Cole
Come On-a My House – Rosemary Clooney
Because of You -Tony Bennett
Cold, Cold Heart – Tony Bennett
(It’s No) Sin – Eddy Howard
Cry – Johnnie Ray (pictured)