A 1960s Childhood: From Thunderbirds to Beatlemania (Childhood Memories)

by Feeney, Paul

  The Post Office introduced the two-class postal system on 16 September 1968.

  Winston Churchill’s Funeral

  Saturday 30 January 1965, a televised state funeral was held at St Paul’s Cathedral in London after Churchill’s body had lain in state for three days. The funeral was attended by many of the world’s leaders.

  First Moon Orbit

  Sunday 3 April 1966, Luna 10, the Soviet spacecraft, became the first unmanned space probe to enter orbit around the moon.

  England Win the FIFA World Cup

  Saturday 30 July 1966, England beat West Germany 4–2 after extra time at London’s old Wembley Stadium in front of a 98,000-strong crowd, to win the final of the 1966 FIFA World Cup and the Jules Rimet Trophy, thereby becoming the first host nation to win the tournament since Italy in 1934. Managed by Alf Ramsey (knighted in 1967), the England team for the final was Gordon Banks, George Cohen, Jack Charlton, Bobby Moore (c), Ray Wilson, Nobby Stiles, Alan Ball, Bobby Charlton, Martin Peters, Geoff Hurst and Roger Hunt. The England goal scorers were Hurst (3) 18’, 98’, 120’ and Peters (1) 78’. The German goal scorers were Haller (1) 12’ and Weber (1) 90’. The other eleven members of the England squad who helped get England to the final were Jimmy Armfield, Peter Bonette, Gerry Byrne, Ian Callaghan, John Connelly, George Eastham, Ron Flowers, Jimmy Greaves, Norman Hunter, Terry Paine and Ron Springett.

  Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

  Thursday 1 June 1967, The Beatles released their famous Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album.

  Bank’s First ATMs

  Tuesday 27 June 1967, the world’s first electronic ATM (automated teller machine) was installed at a branch of Barclays Bank in Enfield, north London. Reg Varney, star of the On the Buses television comedy series, fronted the advertising campaign for the new machine. (In 1939 there had been a one-off tryout of an ATM by the City Bank of New York, but that ATM was removed after six months due to lack of customer acceptance.)

  Heart Transplant

  Sunday 3 December 1967, the first human-to-human heart transplant operation was performed by South African cardiac surgeon, Dr Christiaan Barnard.

  Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr

  Thursday 4 April 1968, the American Civil Rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr, was assassinated in Memphis Tennessee, USA, at the age of 39.

  Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy

  Wednesday 5 June 1968, the United States Senator, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated in a crowded kitchen passageway as he made his way out of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. He was 42.

  First Manned Orbit of the Moon

  Tuesday 24 December 1968, Apollo 8, the American space mission, with astronauts Lovell, Anders and Borman, became the first manned space mission to orbit the moon.

  Concorde’s First Flight

  Sunday 2 March 1969, the turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner, Concorde, made its first flight. However, it didn’t begin passenger service until 21 January 1976 (retired from service on 26 November 2003).

  London’s Victoria Line Opens

  Friday 7 March 1969, the Queen officially opened the London Underground’s Victoria Line at a ceremony that took place at Victoria Station in London.

  It was on 21 July 1969 that man first walked on the moon.

  First Man on the Moon

  Sunday 20 July 1969, Apollo 11, the American space mission, with astronauts Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin, became the first manned space mission to land on the moon, and Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on its surface – Wednesday 16 July 1969 (launch), Sunday 20 July 1969 (Eagle landed), Monday 21 July 1969 (moonwalk).

  Woodstock Festival

  The world-famous three-day peace and music event was held at Max Yasgur’s 600-acre dairy farm near the rural village of White Lake, Bethel, Sullivan County, New York, over the weekend of 15–18 August 1969.

  Vietnam War

  This military conflict took place in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia throughout the 1960s (1959 to 30 April 1975). The war was fought between the communists of North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the United States and some other member nations of the South-East Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO). Britain didn’t enter into the Vietnam War, but the war got a lot of news coverage here, and there were several anti-war demonstrations held in London from 1963–68.

  Eleven

  WHATEVER HAPPENED TO?

  Adam Faith. He had twenty-three hit singles from November 1959 to June 1965, including eleven top-ten hits, of which two reached number one, What Do You Want in November 1959, and Poor Me in January 1960. In the late 1960s he turned to music management and acting, getting the starring role in the 1970s television series, Budgie, and roles in several films, including Stardust, McVicar and Foxes. He continued to do work for television and in 1992 got the starring role in the television series, Love Hurts. In the 1980s he got involved in the world of finance and became a financial investment adviser and financial journalist whist continuing with his acting work. He suffered with heart problems and, in 1986, underwent surgery. In 2001, his financial investments failed and he was declared bankrupt. He became ill after his stage performance in Love and Marriage at Stoke-on-Trent and died of a heart attack early the following morning on Saturday 8 March 2003, aged 62.

  Alan ‘Fluff’ Freeman. He started his British career as a disc jockey on Radio Luxembourg in the late 1950s, but achieved nationwide fame when he joined the BBC Light Programme in 1961 and began presenting Pick of the Pops, which he continued to present after Radio 1 replaced the old BBC Light Programme in 1967. He presented Pick of the Pops off and on until 1972, and then stayed with Radio 1 until 1979, when he went to work for London’s Capital Radio until 1988, returning to BBC Radio 1 for the period 1989–93. He then did work for several other radio stations before returning again to the BBC to work on BBC Radio 2 from 1997–2000, by which time he was 73. In 1998 he was appointed an MBE, and in 2000 he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Sony Radio Awards in London. In later life he suffered badly from arthritis and was forced to use a walking frame. He died on 27 November 2006 after a short illness at Brinsworth House, Twickenham – a retirement home for members of the acting and entertainment professions. He was 79. His many memorable catchphrases included ‘Hi there, pop pickers!’, ‘Greetings, music lovers!’, ‘Alright? Stay bright!’ and ‘Not Arf!’.

  Billy Fury. He had twenty-three hit singles in the early to mid-sixties, including ten top-ten hits, but he suffered from heart problems and was forced to become much less active. Despite ongoing trouble with his heart, he continued to work through until his death in 1983. Sadly, on 27 January that year he collapsed after returning home from the recording studio, and died the next morning at the age of 42.

  Cathy McGowan. She came to fame in 1964 when, as a 19-year-old from Streatham working as a £10 a week junior in the fashion department of Woman’s Own, she beat hundreds of other ‘typical teenage’ girl applicants to become an adviser on one of the top British pop music and ‘cult-mod’ television shows of the 1960s, Ready Steady Go! She was soon installed as the show’s co-presenter, eventually presenting it on her own. Her fashion sense, streetwise knowledge and girl-next-door presentation style proved to be popular with teenage mods who were big followers of the show, which regularly featured many of their favourite groups and artists, including the Small Faces, the Spencer Davis Group, the Rolling Stones, The Who, Dusty Springfield, Dionne Warwick and Marvin Gaye. Mods regarded Cathy as one of them and she soon became known as ‘Queen of the Mods’. She continued to present RSG until it ended on 23 December 1966. During the sixties, Cathy also worked in journalism, did modelling and presented a show on Radio Luxembourg. In 1970 she married actor Hywel Bennett, but the marriage was dissolved in 1988. She joined the board of London’s Capital Radio when it started up in 1973. In the late eighties she worked as an entertainment journalist for the
BBC’s Newsroom South-East, interviewing celebrities, including the singer/actor Michael Ball who was to become her long-term partner. She has continued to do journalistic and broadcasting work, but mainly helps with the career of her partner and does charity work. Cathy, an icon of the 1960s, is now a grandmother in her 60s, but still looks fabulous and remains ‘Queen of the Mods’.

  Cathy McGowan on the cover of TV Times in March 1965, and Vanessa Redgrave with Simon Dee on the cover of The Simon Dee Book in 1968.

  Charlie Drake. One of Britain’s best loved comedians, known for his catchphrase ‘Hallo, my darlings!’ He made his name in the 1950s as a comedy actor, singer and writer on stage and in film and television. His slapstick style of comedy continued to be popular throughout the 1960s and, apart from a two year enforced break early in the decade, as a result of serious injuries he suffered while performing a slapstick sketch and a later car accident, he remained on our television screens throughout the rest of the sixties in shows like The Charlie Drake Show, The Worker and Who is Sylvia? He also co-wrote and starred in four sixties films: Sands of the Desert (1960), Petticoat Pirates (1961), The Cracksman (1963) and Mister Ten Per Cent (1967). He released eleven records during the 1960s, but only two made it into the UK top twenty, Mr Custer reaching number twelve in 1960 and My Boomerang Won’t Come Back reaching number fourteen in 1961. He continued to be successful in television comedy throughout the 1970s, but in the 1980s he turned to straight acting, appearing in such plays as Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker and BBC’s adaptation of Dickens’ Bleak House. In the 1990s, he appeared with Jim Davidson in the adult pantomime SINderella. In 1995 he retired after suffering a stroke and then stayed at Brinsworth House, Twickenham – a retirement home especially for members of the acting and entertainment professions. He died on 23 December 2006 following a long illness. He was 81.

  Donovan. A singer-songwriter and guitarist icon of the mid-to-late 1960s, Donovan was first discovered by ITV’s pop music television show, Ready Steady Go! He came to fame following a series of live performances on the show and soon became internationally famous for his folk/pop style of music, and was recognised for dressing halfway between the beatnik and hippie styles of fashion. Donovan was one of the leading British recording artists of the late sixties, with eleven hit singles from 1965–69, including seven UK top-ten hits. His biggest hit record was Sunshine Superman, which reached number two in the UK and topped the charts in the USA. He also had several hit albums both in the UK and in the USA. Donovan’s hits dried up after he split with record producer Mickey Most in late 1969, after which he left the music industry for a while. His style of music fell from favour in the 1970s and ’80s, and he only performed and recorded occasionally during that period. Greatest hits and tribute albums continued to be released throughout that time and in the 1990s and 2000s. He released a new album, Beat Café, in 2004. In 2005 his autobiography The Hurdy Gurdy Man was published. In 2007 he released his first ever DVD, The Donovan Concert Live in LA. In the 2000s Donovan has continued to tour and perform live concerts in the UK and USA, and he is currently working on a new album, which is said to have the working title, Ritual Groove.

  Harold Wilson. British Labour party politician who became leader of the Labour Party following the death of Hugh Gaitskell in 1963. He won the general election in 1964 and was Prime Minister from 1964–70. He regarded himself as a ‘man of the people’ and usually looked the part, often seen smoking a pipe and wearing a Gannex raincoat. His time as Prime Minister was problematical, with his imposition of strict wage controls and prices, raised taxes, the devaluation of the pound in 1967, the failed reform of the House of Lords and unsuccessful attempt to enter the European Community (EC). In 1966 Wilson got a mention in The Beatles’ song Taxman, from the Revolver album, with the lyrics ‘Don’t ask me what I want it for (Taxman Mister Wilson)’. In June 1970 he was defeated in the general election by the Conservative Party, led by Edward Heath. Wilson continued as leader of the Labour Party in opposition and in 1974 he became Prime Minister for the second time. However, on 16 March 1976, at the age of 60, he announced his resignation as Prime Minister and was succeeded by James Callaghan. Later that same year he was awarded a knighthood. Wilson remained MP for Huyton until he retired from the House of Commons in 1983, when he was made Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, after Rievaulx Abbey in his native Yorkshire. Following his retirement, he suffered with Alzheimer’s disease and soon withdrew from public life. He died of colon cancer in May 1995 at the age of 79. His memorial service was held at Westminster Abbey on 13 July 1995 and he was buried in a simple ceremony at the nineteenth-century church of St Mary the Virgin, St Mary’s, the largest of his beloved Scilly Islands, off England’s south-west coast, where he had regularly holidayed.

  Helen Shapiro. Given the nickname ‘Foghorn’ by her school friends because of her deep tone voice, Helen was just 14 years old when she first topped the UK charts with Walking Back to Happiness and she is still the youngest female artist to have reached number one in the UK charts. When her first record was released early in 1961 she was unable to play it at home because her family didn’t have a record player, and she had to go round to a neighbour’s to listen to it. Helen had ten top-forty hits in the early 1960s, including two number ones, You Don’t Know (1961) and Walking Back to Happiness (1961), and three others that made it into the top ten: Don’t Treat Me Like a Child (1961), Tell Me What He Said (1962) and Little Miss Lonely (1962). Most of her recording sessions were at the famous EMI Abbey Road studios in London (before The Beatles). In October 1961 she topped the bill on ATV’s Sunday Night at the London Palladium, and was still back at her school desk on the Monday morning. The Beatles were among the list of supporting acts on her national tour of 1963. In 1964 Helen’s popularity began to wane as newer female singers like Dusty Springfield, Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw and Lulu became popular, and she was seen as being old fashioned and not part of the new ‘swinging sixties’ music scene. By then she had already started to branch out doing the jazz music she had always loved. She later moved into acting, both on stage and on television, and in the 1980s played Nancy for a year in the West End production of Oliver! She joined up with Humphrey Lyttelton in the 1980s and they toured together for seventeen years in a series of ‘Hump and Helen’ jazz concerts. During that period she also toured with her own show, Simply Helen. In 1993 her autobiography was published, and in 1995 she was the subject of television’s This is Your Life. Helen became a believer in Jesus in 1987. In 2002, after a total of forty-two years of touring, she retired from showbusiness to concentrate on her Gospel Outreach work, which she is scheduled to continue with in 2010.

  Helen Shapiro, the early 1960s schoolgirl chart-topper, seen here on the front page of the New Musical Express in June 1961. She later had The Beatles as one of her supporting acts on her national Helen Shapiro Tour of 1963

  Monica Rose (Double Your Money). The petite ‘chirpy cockney’ and former accounts clerk from White City in London came to fame in 1964 when, as a 16-year-old, she appeared as a contestant on ITV’s Double Your Money quiz show and proved to be so popular with the audience and the show’s host, Hughie Green, that she was invited to become a regular hostess. She stayed with the show for three years, returning for a short time in 1968 before the show was finally axed. In 1970 she was reunited with Hughie Green when they co-hosted a new ITV television game show, The Sky’s the Limit. She then went into cabaret where she performed a singing and comedy act, and she also appeared in pantomime. In 1977 she left showbusiness and three years later was admitted to hospital, suffering from depression and nervous exhaustion. In 1982 she married Terry Dunnell, a Baptist lay-preacher. She subsequently became a Christian and took a job as a checkout operator in a supermarket near her home in Leicester. However, she continued to suffer with ill-health and on 4 February 1994 she died in her sleep at home. She was 45.

  Muriel Young. Appointed by Associated-Rediffusion as the first continuity announcer for t
he new ITV commercial television channel when it started up in 1955, Muriel Young became one of the most recognised faces on television in the 1960s. The former model and actress did a broad range of television presenting and interviewing work, but she is best known for the six years she spent presenting ITV’s children’s television shows alongside Wally Whyton and Bert Weedon. Known affectionately as ‘Auntie Mu’ to her young fans, she presented shows including Small Time (1959–66) with glove puppet Pussy Cat Willum, Tuesday Rendezvous (1961–63) with glove puppets Ollie Beak and Fred Barker, Five O’Clock Club (1963–65) and Ollie and Fred’s Five O’Clock Club (1965–66). She also worked as a disc jockey on Radio Luxembourg in the early sixties. Late in the decade she set up a children’s department for Granada Television, and in the 1970s she produced a series of successful pop programmes for younger viewers. In 1972 she devised and produced Granada Television’s long-running film magazine programme for children, Clapperboard, hosted by Chris Kelly. She was also a regular judge on the 1970–80s television talent show, New Faces. In 1983–84 she produced and presented two series of Ladybirds, a Channel 4 programme made by Mike Mansfield’s independent company, in which she interviewed popular female singers of the day. Muriel retired in 1986 after more than thirty years in television, and moved with her husband, Cyril Coke, back to County Durham where she was born. In retirement, she spent more time on her hobby of oil painting, and exhibited her work, mainly landscapes, locally and at Liberty’s in London. Muriel Young died on 24 March 2001 at Stanhope, County Durham. She was 72.