The Fifties

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

January 23 – The Sutton Coldfield rail crash killed 17.
March 20 – Evan Hunter’s movie adaptation of the novel Blackboard Jungle premiered in the United States, featuring the famous single, Rock Around the Clock, by Bill Haley (pictured) and his Comets. Teenagers jumped from their seats to dance to the song.
April 5 -  Winston Churchill resigned as Prime Minister.
April 6 – Anthony Eden became the Prime Minister.
May 5 – West Germany became a sovereign country  recognised by important Western foreign countries, such as France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States.
June 11 –  Le Mans disaster: Eighty-three people were killed and at least 100 were injured after two race cars collide in Le Mans, France.
July 13 – Ruth Ellis (born 1926) was hanged for murder in London. She was the last woman ever to be executed in the United Kingdom, as of 2009.
July 17 – The Disneyland Amusement Park opened in Anaheim, California.
August 27 – The first copy of a Guinness Book of World Records was published.
September 30 – The actor James Dean (pictured) was killed when his automobile collided with another car at a highway junction near Cholame, California. Dean was just 24 years old.
October 20  – The first footage of Elvis Presley was filmed as part of a film short about the Cleveland, Ohio.
December 31 – The General Motors Corporation became the first American corporation to make a profit of over one billion dollars in one year.

Births
January 6 – Rowan Atkinson, comedian and actor
January 18 – Kevin Costner,  actor
March 19  – Bruce Willis, actor
May 16  – Olga Korbut, gymnast
October 28  – Bill Gates, software entrepreneur
November 24 – Ian Botham, cricketer

Deaths
April 18 – Albert Einstein, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1879)
August 5 – Carmen Miranda, Portuguese singer and actress (b. 1909)

Top hits of 1955
Ain’t That A Shame – Pat Boone
Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White  – Perez Prado
Cool Water – Frankie Laine
Cry Me a River – Julie London
I Hear You Knocking – Gale Storm
Maybelline – Chuck Berry
Memories Are Made Of This – Dean Martin
Rock Around The Clock – Bill Haley & His Comets
Rock And Roll Waltz – Kay Starr
Sixteen Tons – Tennessee Ernie Ford
The Yellow Rose Of Texas – Mitch Miller and The Gang

 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.