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1963

Social History 1963 #1

Tuesday 1 January 1963

Welcome to 1963! The Daily Mirror’s Man of the Year – John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

The Helicopter Heroes of the White Death battled through raging blizzards on mercy missions yesterday. An airlift rescued seventy coach passengers stranded at a Dorset cafe. They rescued twenty elderly people and dropped fodder for thousands of trapped animals.

Thousands of milk bottles are buried under the snow leading to a milk bottle shortage and crisis. Roads and railways are blocked, and villages in the West Country are running out of food.

Hide your braces, Britain’s middle-aged men were told yesterday, and Britain will regain the respect of the world. Mr M K Reid, secretary of the Clothing Manufacturers’ Association, advised older men to ask their teenaged sons for hints on how to build up a wardrobe.

Television sets, radios, gramophones, discs, and cosmetics are about 2s in the pound cheaper this morning because of a cut in purchase tax. Television sets £64 down to £58, radios £15 down to £13 10s, long-player discs at £2 will drop by 4s, cosmetics – 6d off a 5s 6d lipstick and 2s off a 19s 6d bottle of perfume.

Television highlights: International Ski-Jumping from Bavaria, New Year’s Day Concert from Vienna, The 625 Show – talent show featuring The Belltones, The Sunrays, The Honeys and The Eagles.

Radio highlights: Chubby Checker Time, Mystery Playhouse.

Soccer: George Eastham, Arsenal’s £47,500 inside-forward said, “Wage freedom must stay if players are to have incentives to play at the top, even if it means creating a Super League.”

Weather: snow or sleet, strong winds reaching gale force. Outlook – very cold with frost and snow. Maximum temperature 2c, 36f.

Wednesday 2 January 1963

Worst For 82 Years. More Snow To Come. That was the grim picture in southern Britain last night as fresh blizzards swept in from the sea. “The snowfall on Boxing Day will be child’s play compared with this,” said a spokesman from the Meteorological Office.

Dozens of West Country villages cut-off by 20ft snowdrifts face new peril from the approaching blizzards. Roads are blocked and train services will be slashed today. Thousands of factory workers are idle, and there is a threat to the milk supply because of a milk bottle shortage.

The BBC last night claimed a sweeping victory over ITV for its Christmas Day television audiences. BBC statisticians estimate that Billy Smart’s Circus attracted an audience of 20,600,000 – the biggest of the day. The Queen was seen by 20,100,000 on the BBC and 5,400,000 on ITV. Another 9,000,000 heard her speech on sound radio.

Along with woolly tights, furry hats, woolly bloomers, Wellington boots, sleighs, sleds and toboggans, Britain’s shops are running out of woolly vests.

Television highlights: I’m Going To Be…careers advice. West End – variety show. Holidays 1963.

Radio highlights: Teen and Twenty Disc Club, Test Match Cricket from Melbourne.

Football: Birmingham are using a pitch-clearing machine in the hope that their Third Round FA Cup tie with Bury can proceed. The machine’s makers claim that in ten minutes it can clear an area of the pitch that would take twenty-five men four hours.

Weather: more snow in most places. Very cold with strong winds reaching gale force. Outlook – very cold, more snow.

Thursday 3 January 1963

It’s Grim! There’s still no sign of a thaw in shivering Britain. The icy grip will continue until the weekend, at least. Meanwhile, housewives face a food crisis as the Big Freeze hits supplies sending prices soaring. Vegetables are expected to double in price, and the weekend joint may be dearer too.

Cabbage is almost the only green vegetable in the shops. Spouts and cauliflowers have been hit by the snow and those that are available have doubled in price. Potatoes are expected to go up 1d to 5d a Ib.

Britain is having a boom in babies – and that’s official. The number of babies born in Britain has soared from 675,000 a year in the mid-fifties to 842,000 in 1962. Earlier marriages is one explanation for the boom.

Television highlights: Tubby Hayes Plays Standards, Moment for Melody, Gay Cavalier.

Radio highlights: Music While You Work, Use Your Italian.

The Tornados have now sold over 2,000,000 copies of their disc Telstar, and netted royalties of £20,000.

Cliff Richard starts the new year at number one with The Next Time/Bachelor Boy. Seven of the top ten are British artists. The top thirty includes the Beatles at number twenty-one with Love Me Do and the Springfields at number thirty with Island of Dreams.

Weather: more snow in most areas. Very cold. Strong winds. Outlook – similar.

Friday 4 January 1963

Telstar, the American TV satellite in space, is back in business again after a six -week “radiation sickness”. In the four months it sped around Earth, Telstar handled forty-seven Transatlantic telecasts – five of them in colour – and hundreds of phone calls.

Agony Aunt: Johnny writes, “My dad is about my size and for years he has borrowed my shirts, socks, ties and sports jackets. Now, he wants to borrow my best suede shoes. Your advice please.” Jane Adams’ reply, “Put a lock on your wardrobe and the key in your pocket.”

More problems: “I have proposed to my girlfriend 117 times in the past three years and I’m still waiting for a ‘yes’.” Jane’s reply, “Stop proposing for a while and then she may begin to get worried.”

Food: apart from English beef, which is very scarce and expensive, meat supplies are fairly good. Prices – leg of pork, 3s 6d, leg of lamb 3s 10d, chops 4s 6d, sirloin 5s 8d, stewing steak, 4s.

Television highlights: The Woodentops, Richard the Lionheart, Television Playhouse.

Radio highlights: The Night Sky, The Bands Play On.

Football: Alf Ramsey is England’s new manger. He will leave Ipswich Town and take over at the FA on May 1st.

A European conference will be held on the use of drugs in sport. It follows a lap of the Tour de France race, which ended with many cyclists too ill from the effects of “pep pills” to continue.

Temperatures should rise above freezing point today for the first time since Boxing Day. Meanwhile, in Oxfordshire nine-tenths of the roads are unusable, and Gatwick Airport is at a standstill.

Weather: snow, sleet or rain. Outlook – more snow. Maximum temperature 3c, 37f.

Saturday 5 January 1963

He’s amazing! Fabulous! The golden boy of British show business – Cliff Richard. He is Britain’s most popular star, in films and on discs. Now, he’s TV’s singer of the year, topping the Mirror readers’ national awards poll.

Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell returned to hospital yesterday. He was confined to hospital in mid-December. The exact nature of his condition has not been revealed.

There is now one betting shop for every 3,846 people in Britain. Top of the list: London, Cardiff, Warrington, Wigan, and York. Bottom of the list: Plymouth, Exeter and Lincoln.

A total of 21,356 East Germans asked for political asylum in West Berlin in 1962.

Television highlights: The Rag Trade, Weightlifting, Ghost Squad.

Most popular TV programmes this week: 1. Coronation Street 2. Take Your Pick 3. Emergency Ward 10.

Radio highlights: Saturday Club, Twenty Questions.

Today’s football pools have been cancelled, for the second week running. In all, twenty-seven third-round FA Cup ties have been postponed – an all-time record. All major Rugby Union and Rugby League games are off too.

Weather: cold but above freezing. Outlook – uncertain. Maximum temperature 2c, 35f.

Coming soon, Songbird, my novel set in the winter of 1962-63

https://books2read.com/u/bMqNPG

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Categories
1962-63

Social History 1962-63 #5

Thursday 27 December 1962

Boxing Day Rail Disaster – Express Ploughs Into Crowded Train. Seventeen Killed. Fifty Injured. The Glasgow to London train ploughed into the back of a mainline train. The crash came in a snow storm near Wingsford, Cheshire. An inquiry is ongoing.

The holiday road death toll was down 25%, but heavy snow, ice and slush brought new dangers last night. The RAC said, “There were few cases of bad driving and the 50mph speed limit has been observed.”

Nineteen football matches were called off and three abandoned because of frozen pitches. All ten Rugby League and most of the Rugby Union matches were called off.

Salvation Army bandsmen playing Christmas carols in Sunderland had to stop because of frozen trombones.

The disc they can’t forget – Frank Ifield’s I Remember You, which has just been voted the single of the year by disc columnists in a poll organised by Melody Maker. Acker Bilk came second with Stranger on the Shore. Let There Be Love by Nat Cole and George Shearing was third.

The women of Dungeness, Kent defeated their menfolk in the village’s annual tug o’ war.

Television highlights: Sooty and Sweep, Professional Boxing, The Royal Ballet.

Radio highlights: Housewives’ Choice, Smash Hits.

Weather: mainly cloudy with rain and sleet. 3c 37f.

Friday 28 December 1962

No Let-Up in White Nightmare. The Big Shiver Goes On Today. Threat To Sport at Weekend. The Big Freeze kept a firm grip on slip-slide Britain last night. And there is NO SIGN of a thaw. The roads were grim and grisly with snow up to a foot deep. The trains ran late with restricted services. A spokesman said, “We are in dire trouble.” And sport is faced with a big fade-out at the weekend.

The Duke of Windsor said “No comment” about his reported talks with Nazis in the mid-1930s. In official documents published today the Duke apparently spoke well of Hess and wished to meet Hitler. He disapproved of Britain siding with the French.

Television highlights: Johnny Mathis, A Suspicion of Poison – Chemical Fertilisers and Food, Gardening Club with Percy Thrower.

Radio highlights: Folk Weave, Time For Old Time, Refugee Conversations.

Agony Aunt. Is my husband right when he says that most men sleep on the left-hand side of the bed? Jane Adams’ reply: He’s wrong. Most men sleep on the right-hand side of their wives.

After being delayed on his journey from Merthyr to London, Howard Winstone, British featherweight champion, enjoyed a double-quick win over American Teddy Rand last night. It was all over half-way through the third round. I have never seen the Welshman in such a devastating mood. 

On tour in America, singing star Shirley Bassey, 25, has lost her voice. Her friend, model Hazel Graham said last night, “It’s this wretched central heating. It’s not the temperature so much as the dryness.”

Weather: more snow, cold. Outlook – continuing cold with further snow.

Saturday 29 December 1962

There’s no sign of a let-up in the Big Freeze. Water shortages are expected and people are being warned to keep off the ice.

Days lost to strikes in 1962: 5,717,000. Days lost to strikes in 1961: 2,970,000.

A nightclub guitarist stopped at customs had 1 1/4 lb of Indian hemp – worth £500 – sewn into his waistcoat a court heard yesterday. The guitarist, Peter Watson, told the court: “I was bringing it in to sell in coffee bars.” He was fined £200, or four months in prison.

Between 1950 and 1961, the number of women working part-time in industry rose by nearly 100,000 to a total of 390,700 the Labour Ministry said. Most of these women were married.

One in every eight babies born in London last year was illegitimate. The number has soared over the past six years to reach 7,632 in 1961. This is twice the rate for the rest of the country. A London welfare worker blamed drink and higher incomes for the illegitimate births. “There are too many girls living in bedsits and throwing bottle parties,” she said.

Three masked men in shortie raincoats snatched about £1,100 in a raid at London’s docks yesterday. However, the gang missed a box containing a larger sum of money.

Television highlights: 77 Sunset Strip, The Adventures of Jane, Have Gun Will Travel.

Radio highlights: Requests, Transatlantic Tops.

It looks like being a weekend for the can opener as far as vegetables are concerned. The bad weather means that most greengrocer’s shelves are now bare. 

Only nineteen matches in the four English football leagues have survived the weather – and some of them might be called off.

Weather: Very cold with snow and fog. 0c 32f.

Sunday 30 December 1962

Snow, ice, fog, frost, freezing rain. The old, cold year of 1962 is slipping and slithering out. The whole of Britain is in deep-freeze with every county hit by snow and ice. Last night, Devon Police were planning a helicopter drop of bread to Dartmoor Prison, which was cut-off by snow drifts. The River Thames was frozen for a quarter of a mile at Windsor, the first time such a stretch has been frozen since 1947. 

At La Roche-sur-Yon in western France they had pink ice. A tanker overturned and 1,500 gallons of wine flowed into the river, turning the water pink. 

Lessons on income tax and higher purchase agreements will be given to secondary school children next year. The aim of the lessons is to help older children with money matters and make them aware of the dangers of never-never agreements.

From Tuesday it will be illegal to keep mink without a £5 licence.

Television highlights: Z Cars. Sunday Night at the London Palladium with Vera Lynn. Music For Dreaming.

Radio highlights: Pick of 1962 Pops. Top Twenty.

Football: 42 matches called off. Only two games played in Division One: Burnley 4 Sheffield Wednesday 0, Nottingham Forest 3 West Ham 4.

Weather: cold or very cold with snow.

Monday 31 December 1962

Day of the Cruel Snow. Blizzard-lashed Britain is tackling the snow and ice chaos that has brought the country to a freezing halt. “It’s going to be grim,” say the AA. “Leave your car at home.” British Railways warn, “Expect delays and cancellations.”

The White Horror blocked 95,000 miles of road yesterday. Motorists abandoned snow-bound cars and many villages were cut-off. The heroes of the snow were still working early today – helicopter pilots, road rescue teams, ambulancemen, railmen and milkmen.

One fire in every seven is caused by an unstubbed cigarette end. Mr Denis Lawson, director of the Fire Research Station at Elstree said, “The burning cigarette end is certainly the villain of our piece. We don’t know why, but smokers appear to be increasingly careless with their butts.”

I spent half an hour yesterday cleaning the snow from my car – then I discovered that it belonged to the guy next door.

Television highlights: New Year Party at the White Heather Club, Hogmanay, Sing in the New with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger.

Radio highlights: Big Ben at twelve. New Year Revels.

Sixty-seven football league games were knocked out of the programme between 22 and 29 December, and more than a million fans got the cold shoulder from the postponements. Now, another week of chaos threatens soccer. Should clubs install under-soil heating? Or is summer soccer the answer?

Weather: still cold with snow at times.

Coming soon, Songbird, my novel set in the winter of 1962-63

https://books2read.com/u/bMqNPG

New Release

Hollywood, 1948

My name is Dana Olsen. In my early twenties, I arrived in Hollywood with dreams of becoming a screenwriter. Instead, I found myself attached to a leading movie producer, running errands. Then, when a famous movie director was murdered, events embroiled me in the murder enquiry, and thrust me into the arms of a handsome detective who was investigating the case.

The murder enquiry was the sensation of the age, and its solution threatened to tear down the foundations of Hollywood itself.

***

For Authors

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Categories
1962-63

Social History 1962-63 #4

Wednesday 19 December 1962

Miners from the Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire pits dug out 1,038,566 tons of coal during Christmas bull week, a record for the East Midlands.

The Frighteners of Soho, gangsters who use terror as a weapon, walked in fear themselves last night as they discussed a grim warning given by Judge Maude at the Old Bailey a few hours earlier. The judge, who jailed four protection racket men for a total of twenty-one years, said, “Woe betide anyone who tries to do this sort of thing again in the heart of London. The next time, the sentences will be doubled.”

So far this year, beer drinkers have downed 23,451,242 barrels – 153,000 more than a year ago.

A number of British companies have been registered to operate pay-as-you-view TV. The government has only approved the sending of pay-as-you-view TV by wire. No decision has been made on what kind of system – coin in the slot or monthly bills – will be used.

Television highlights: Sports Review of 1962. Like…Music, featuring Billy Fury, The Tornadoes and Eden Kane. Zoo Time with Desmond Morris.

Radio highlights: Morning Story, On Your Farm.

Weather: Cloudy, rain, changeable. 9c 48f.

Thursday 20 December 1962

The population of England and Wales at the end of June was 46,669,000. This was 503,000 up on the previous year  – the highest increase ever recorded. The number of births – 822,000 – was the highest for fifteen years.

The BBC’s That Was The Week That Was received the green light from the government yesterday to ignore protests about its content. However, ITV cannot make satirical fun of people because it goes against their Charter. Therefore, their programme, What The Public Wants, will be dropped.

Television highlights: Perspective – can one learn to be a social success? The Desert and the Dream – Argentinian gauchos descended from the Welsh. Here and Now – St Paul’s carol singing.

Radio highlights: Semprini Serenade, Marcel Marceau – a mime artist on the radio, obviously essential listening.

Patrick Doncaster predicts that the first hit of 1963 will be Diamonds by ex-Shadows Jet Harris and Tony Meehan. Other likely hits: The Alley Cat Song – David Thorne, The Hipster – Cyril Stapleton.

Suggestions to brighten football: three points for a win, one for a draw. Play internationals on Sundays. Offside in the final third of the field only (I’ve suggested that one myself; it would open the play up more).

Meccano announced a slump in toy sales last night. Hornby Trains are also suffering because of a swing in demand for cheaper toys.

Weather: cloudy with rain. 8c 46f.

Friday 21 December 1962

It’s official – Christmas 1962 has sparked the biggest spending spree Britain has ever seen. The Bank of England reports that the value of notes in circulation has reached £2,453,000,000. Which means that over the past seven days £26,000,000 has poured into circulation.

Before the war, Christmas cards were selling at the rate of 47,000,000. In 1961 that figure was 600,000,000. This Christmas it is expected to exceed 610,000,000.

Seven people, six men and a woman, were held in a CID Soho raid. The CID also uncovered sixteen guns and 6,500 rounds of ammunition. The guns included two big-game rifles, three automatic pistols, three revolvers and five shotguns.

Television highlights: Tales of the Riverbank. Yogi Bear, Television Playhouse.

Radio highlights: Mr Piano Plays, Friday Night is Music Night.

Agony Aunt: Joyce writes: All my boyfriends have had different hobbies. Now I’m going out with a chap who loves ancient history, which bores me stiff. Should I start a course in ancient history as he suggests? Jane Adams replies: Put your foot down. This bloke is soon going to be ancient history himself as far as you’re concerned.

Weather: sunny periods, showers. Colder. 7c 45f.

Saturday 22 December 1962

Mistletoe is in very short supply this Christmas. The price, when you can find it, is 1s a bunch. Christmas trees are dearer than they’ve ever been, some shops are charging 12s 6d. It’s a vintage year for holly berries – prices 2s a bunch.

No cases of polio were reported in England and Wales last week – the first clear week since 1945.

Shots were fired yesterday as an armed gang made lightning raids on two banks only a short distance apart. One bullet hit a policeman’s shoe. The total haul was less than £500. The robbers escaped in a high speed car.

Labour MP Tam Dalyell, a former school teacher, said that TVs should be used in schools to make up for the shortage of teachers. Christopher Chataway, Minister of Education, said no decision would be made at the moment.

Television highlights: Grandstand featuring boxing, swimming, horse racing, snooker and rugby union. The Avengers. Christmas Eve (1947 film).

Radio highlights: Bandstand, Top Discs.

Stanley Matthews returns to the Stoke City attack against Swansea today after a two-week lay-off because of injury. It will be his thirtieth soccer Christmas.

Weather: cloudy, sunny periods. 7c 45f.

Sunday 23 December 1962

The past week’s Christmas spending spree led to £46,818,000 being drawn from National Savings. This was £7,733,000 more than the week’s new savings, which totalled £39,085,000.

Banks have been asked by the Royal Mint to persuade shopkeepers and employers to draw more shillings – to avoid a shortage of coins for gas and electricity meters this winter.

Television highlights: The Canterville Ghost with Bernard Cribbins. Fireball XL-5. Wagon Train.

Radio highlights: Melody on Strings. Tune a Minute.

Football: eighteen fixtures fogged off. Eight abandoned. It was the worst football hold-up of the winter. Highest scoring games – Motherwell 6 Clyde 2, Forfar 2 Ayr 6, Tottenham Hotspur 4 West Ham 4. 

Stoke City 0 Swansea Town 0. The forty-one minutes of this game was the farce of the season. Thick fog blanketed the pitch to make the issue a blind man’s bluff game for the players. The spectators gave up all hope of getting their eye on the ball and streamed home in their thousands.

Weather: It will be dry and sunning today after fog patches have cleared – but also rather cold. Outlook for Christmas – mainly dry, rather cold, with frost and fog patches. BUT NO SNOW (their capitals). Talk about getting it wrong…

Monday 24 December 1962

If you drink, don’t drive…if you drive, don’t drink.

Neath, Glamorgan, Wales. A young girl wrote a letter to Father Christmas, enclosing a shilling postal order: “My father told me you were going to bring me a bike. Now, he says you have too many already ordered, so I will have skates instead.” The letter found its way to Cefn Coed Colliery where the coalminers arranged a collection, raising £30 for the young girl and her six brothers and sisters.

“Drive safely on milk.”

The BBC will not be preceding the Queen’s Message with the National Anthem this year. However, it will be played at the end. ITV will play the Anthem at the start, showing pictures of Buckingham Palace.

The lounging shirt, a cross between a nightie and a housecoat, is the smartest and most comfortable way to spend an evening around the house. More feminine than trousers and a sweater and more becoming than a dressing gown, the lounging shirt promises to be the popular at-home fashion in 1963.

Television highlights: A Christmas Carol – opera. The Mikado – operetta. Carols Across Europe.

Christmas Day Television: Christmas Night With the Stars – variety show. Hayley Mills in Disneyland. Scrooge (1951 film).

Radio highlights: Sing it Again. Music by Candlelight. Swoon Club.

Weather: cold and mainly dry with sunny periods. Severe night frost in many areas. 0c 32f.

Coming soon, Songbird, my novel set in the winter of 1962-63

https://books2read.com/u/bMqNPG

For Authors

#1 for value with 565,000 readers, The Fussy Librarian has helped my books to reach #1 on over thirty occasions.

A special offer from my publisher and the Fussy Librarian. https://authors.thefussylibrarian.com/?ref=goylake

Don’t forget to use the code goylake20 to claim your discount 🙂

Categories
1962-63

Social History 1962-63 #3

Thursday 13 December 1962

Transport minister Ernest Marples announced a new 50mph speed limit over the Christmas period, when driving at night, and a clampdown on drunken motorists.

The Mona Lisa is going to America despite a storm of protest from French art lovers. The painting will travel aboard the liner France in a first-class cabin, reserved for £157.

Pat Simmons, 42, will be the new voice of TIM, the telephone clock. Pat was picked from six finalists, five of them women. She will receive £100 for winning the contest, and £25 for being a finalist.

Television highlights: Rag, Tag and Bobtail. Popeye. Double Your Money.

Radio highlights: Woman’s Hour, Brian Matthew’s Pop Parade.

In the Top Thirty this week: The Loco-Motion – Little Eva, Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree – Brenda Lee, Love Me Do – The Beatles.

Sportsman of the Year: Brian Kilby, a marathon runner who won gold at the AAA Championship, the European Championship, and the Empire Games.

Weather: snow, sleet, high winds. 3c 37f.

Friday 14 December 1962

The British press has grown timid, writes Mr Cecil H King, chairman of the Daily Mirror Group. Frequently, the Official Secrets Act is used as a threat or to deny information on matters not remotely connected with security. He added, “The present bias and unfair operation of the laws against the press reflects no credit on British justice.”

A new bid to get a forty-hour working week is to be made by the leaders of three million shipyard and engineering workers. Their chairman George Doughty said last night that the ultimate aim was a thirty-five-hour week.

Marie Cartnell, dance director at Radio Luxembourg, stated that the Twist, Madison and Shake would soon disappear and be replaced by the Beege, whose steps are not unlike an orangutang taking a shower on a rolling log.

A ban on BBC satirical programmes, such as That Was The Week That Was, will be discussed in the House of Commons next week.

ATV will insist on having the same access as the BBC to the new 625 lines transmission system.

Television highlights: Tales of the Riverbank, Gardening Club, Robin Hood.

Radio highlights: Friday Night is Music Night, Any Questions?

Agony Aunt Jane Adams: Question – My husband is a milkman and his women customers are always inviting him in for cups of tea. Jane’s answer: Who’s complaining – you, your husband, or his customers?

Weather: mostly cloudy with rain. Some frost. 7c 45f.

Saturday 15 December 1962

Christine Keeler, 20, a model, and Marilyn Davies, 18, an actress, leaned out of the window of a mews luxury flat yesterday and screamed as shots were fired. Neither girl was hit. One of the girls phoned Dr Stephen Ward, who has his surgery in nearby Devonshire Street. Dr Ward later said, “She gave me a running commentary on what was happening. I immediately telephoned the police.” Last night, a man was charged with intent to murder Christine Keeler.

Unemployment in Britain increased by 40.6% over the year. According to the latest figures, 544,451 people are now out of work.

Blonde Mrs Majorie Hutchinson, it was said yesterday, hired an assassin to murder her husband. The motive: sexual passion. Mrs Hutchinson pleaded “not guilty”. The case continues.

Green vegetables are in much better condition this weekend and prices are low for this time of year – potatoes 4d per pound, leeks 10d, turnips 8d, parsnips 8d, carrots 4d, lettuce 9d each.

Television highlights: Grandstand featuring boxing, snooker and motor racing. Boss Cat (this is Top Cat – the BBC insisted on a name change because of the cat food brand Top Cat). The Billy Cotton Band Show.

Radio highlights: Pops at the Piano, Transatlantic Tops.

Weather: mainly cloudy with rain and drizzle. Mild. 9c 48f.

Sunday 16 December 1962

The average British woman owns five bras and three girdles. Four years ago she possessed only three bras and one girdle. Now, a new man-made yarn called Spandex should increase sales further.

Party sandwich suggestions: liver paste mixed with fried bacon and sliced mushrooms. Hard-boiled egg with caviar. Meat and onion spread with horseradish. Pork luncheon meat with mustard and chopped pineapple.

Nearly 12,500 men at one of Britain’s biggest steelworks may be out of work by Christmas Eve because of a strike by 320 bricklayers. The strike, at the Abbey Steelworks, Port Talbot, was called on Friday. The bricklayers’ union called the strike after management suspended a bricklayer for not obeying a “normal instruction” – replacing twelve bricks in a hot open hearth furnace.

Football highlights: Everton 3 Burnley 1 (Everton remain top of the league). Manchester City 3 Wolverhampton Wanderers 3. Birmingham 0 Tottenham Hotspur 2 (Spurs remain in second place).

Television highlights: Cheyenne, Maverick, Bugs Bunny.

Radio highlights: Top Twenty, Sing Something Simple.

Weather: showers. Sleet and snow over high ground.

Monday 17 December 1962

American space scientists switched off their faltering communications satellite Relay. Relay, launched last Thursday, was supposed to have replaced Telstar as a radio and television link, but its power supply went wrong.

The government has promised ITV colour television, and a second television channel to match the BBC’s. BBC2 will start in April 1964. However, no start date has been announced for ITV2.

Dozens of cars got stuck last night on a main road flooded with treacle. The treacle had poured from a tanker, which turned over after a collision in Hardwick near Gloucester. Nobody was badly hurt.

Television highlights: What’s My Line? Huckleberry Hound. Discs-A-GoGo.

Radio highlights: Inspector Scott Investigates. Marching and Waltzing. German for Beginners.

Joe Mears, Chelsea’s chairman, wonders if his £59-a-week footballers will like being paid by cheque in future. “I’m not sure the idea will be popular with them,” he said. “They like to have their pay handed to them in hard cash.”

Weather: rain at times, mild. Outlook – colder. 11c 52f.

Tuesday 18 December 1962

“The Frighteners” are stalking Soho again. Yesterday, a jury convicted four protection racket men who tried to get money from a Soho nightclub owner. Such rackets were common a few years ago, then they disappeared. Now, they have started up again.

Thousands of hosiery workers will be off work for ten days this Christmas, and only paid for two of them. This is because of a sharp fall in the nylon stocking trade.

Television highlights: Polish cartoon. Beat Your Neighbour. Danger Man.

Radio highlights: Pop Corn. Workers Playtime.

Pop singer Billy Fury left hospital after a kidney operation. Earlier this year he suffered bouts of bronchitis and measles. His best disc, Because of Love, was listed twenty-fifth in the Top Fifty.

Football: a proposal to scrap injury time – play ninety minutes and then call time.

Halifax Town, already several thousand pounds in the red, calculated that they lost £420 on Saturday’s home Third Division match with Crystal Palace. The gate, the lowest in the league, was 1,886. After paying their opponents, referee, linesmen, police and gatemen they had £60 left – to meet their weekly wage bill of £480.

Weather: sunshine and showers. Outlook – changeable. 9c 48f.

Coming soon, Songbird, my novel set in the winter of 1962-63

https://books2read.com/u/bMqNPG

For Authors

#1 for value with 565,000 readers, The Fussy Librarian has helped my books to reach #1 on over thirty occasions.

A special offer from my publisher and the Fussy Librarian. https://authors.thefussylibrarian.com/?ref=goylake

Don’t forget to use the code goylake20 to claim your discount 🙂

Categories
1962-63

Social History 1962-63 #2

Friday 7 December 1962

The Great Smog should vanish today. This was the heartening forecast last night after three days of death and chaos in Britain. Over the past three days, sixty-seven people have died.

Four gibbons escaped across a frozen moat surrounding their artificial island in Whipsnade Zoo. They climbed nearby trees and were captured by the zoo keepers.

The government is to be asked to ban completely cigarette advertising on television. The request will be made to the Home Office next Thursday by a deputation from the National Society of Non-Smokers.

‘Agony Aunt’ Marjorie Proops’ CHRISTMAS. C is for Cash – where does it all go? H is for Hints – get the right presents. R is for Roulette – you can’t learn to gamble too young. I is for Indigestion. S is for Sex, Sin and Sausages – all in their way delicious. T is for Tibetan Lamb – a snug outfit that costs 45 guineas for the jacket and 5 guineas for the hat. M is for Men – I don’t need mistletoe or an excuse for kissing. A is for Apprehension – so far, I’ve only bought one present. S is for more Sausages – chipolatas for the Christmas dinner.

Television highlights: Captain Pugwash, Dr Kildare, Take Your Pick.

Radio highlights: Take Your Partners, Parliament, Smooth ‘n’ Swinging.

Frost threatens the horse racing meetings at Lingfield, Newcastle, Chepstow and Uttoxetter. 

Football League Cup semi-final draw – Aston Villa v Sunderland, Birmingham or Manchester City v Bury.

Weather: hazy sun, some rain. Outlook – persistent fog unlikely. Rain in most places.

Saturday 8 December 1962

London breathed a sigh of relief as the Great Smog lifted yesterday. However, nearly 1,000 people were taken to hospital, and 116 people died.

Autolite Ltd have created cigarettes that light themselves. They light when you rub the end against a striking surface on the packet. The cigarettes will be on sale early in the new year, cost 4s 6s for a packet of twenty.

Hitler’s deputy, Martin Bormann, who vanished in 1945, died in Paraguay three years ago, a French news agency reported yesterday.

There’s a battle of the sexes every time the television is switched on at Dinsdale Lodge Retirement Home. The women want to watch travel, fashion and Coronation Street while the men prefer Westerns, boxing and football. The residents asked the council for a second television set, but they said “no”.

Best weekend buys: sprouts 10d, swedes 4d, bananas 1s 4d, Spanish oranges 3d each, Belgian hothouse black grapes 5s.

Television highlights: The Lone Ranger, Laramie, That Was The Week That Was.

Radio highlights: Variety Playhouse, World of Books, Honey Hit Parade.

Today’s rugby: Lancashire v Yorkshire, Cornwall v Gloucestershire, Harlequins v Cardiff. Varsity match: Oxford v Cambridge at Wembley.

Weather: dry and cloudy, mild.9c, 48f

Sunday 9 December 1962

Thieves stole 400 Christmas trees from an estate in Wiltshire.

Chris Preece of Shropshire, tired of his rugby injuries, took up soccer – and dislocated his arm. Now he’s taken up darts…

Agony Aunt Column: Sue writes from Merseyside – “My fiancé was horrified when I told him that I wear hair curlers in bed. He said I must never wear them when we are married, but my hair will look terrible. What should I do? Jane Adams’ advice – Settle for straight hair. He’ll love you all the more.

Agony Aunt Column: “Modern Miss” writes from North London – “I spend many weekends at my boyfriend’s flat. After six months of intimate living, I’m still not sure if we are suited for each other. What should I do? Jane Adams’ advice – I suggest you go home for the weekend for a change, and put this affair in cold storage.

Christmas gift ideas: Revlon’s Cleopatra-inspired milk bath that turns ordinary bath water into a mass of foaming milky-white bubbles. 29s 6d.

Television highlights: Indoor Soccer, Sunday Break – Love, Sex and Marriage. Sunday Night at the London Palladium with Lonnie Donegan.

Radio highlights: Gardening, Thinking Aloud, Reith Lectures.

Weather: sunny spells and showers. Strong winds reaching gale force.

Monday 10 December 1962

A whirlwind roared through Redditch yesterday leaving a one and a half mile trail of havoc. And in three minutes it damaged sixty houses, blew the roof off a prefabricated school, uprooted trees, and carried parts of garages into neighbours’ gardens.

Nearly a thousand viewers jammed the BBC switchboards yesterday in response to That Was The Week That Was. The satirical show lampooned prime minister Harold Macmillan and religion. In one sketch, Millicent Martin told a man in a restaurant that his fly buttons were undone.

According to the magazine Films and Filming, seven of this year’s top ten films are British. The top three: 1. The Guns of Navarone 2. Dr No. 3. The Young Ones.

Television highlights: What’s My Line? Panorama, Professional Boxing. 

Radio highlights: Melody on the Move, The Dales, Democracy in America.

Sue Dexter (pictured), 24 year old wife of England cricket captain Ted Dexter said. “I’ll guarantee that the press will blame me if Ted does not do so well.” Sue arrived in Sydney to join Ted and his team on their Test Match tour of Australia.

Weather: bright at first, rain later. 8c, 46f.

Tuesday 11 December 1962

The Minister of Health, Enoch Powell, yesterday gave local councils the go-ahead to add fluoride to drinking water supplies.

Ninety-seven-year-old Dr William George was preaching at the evening service at a chapel in Criccieth when suddenly two windows shattered and a bullet whistled overhead. Carnarvonshire police are looking for the gunman.

Soccer: seventy-four out of eighty-four of Algeria’s referees have gone on strike because the “don’t shoot the ref” rule was ignored on the weekend. At several matches, referees had to run for their lives to avoid being shot. Meanwhile, in world football, English referees are no longer considered the best.

Manchester City’s goalkeeper Bert Trautmann broke a bone in his left thumb at West Bromwich on Saturday. His regular deputy, Harry Dowd, is also nursing a broken finger.

Television highlights: Soccer – the second half of the European Cup Winners’ Cup tie, Glasgow Rangers v Tottenham Hotspur. Andy Pandy. Compact. 

Radio highlights: Movietime, Bing Sings, Time for Laughter.

Weather: rain and drizzle. Outlook – rather cold, with showers. 9c 48f.

Wednesday 12 December 1962

Bing Crosby has sold 12,000,000 records with White Christmas. Now he has another likely super-seller with Little Drummer Boy.

Nottingham Police plan to frighten motorists into good driving with a Ghost Squad – a fleet of all-white vehicles.

A jury awarded a jilted woman £850 for breach of promise. She was also allowed to keep the £522 engagement ring.

Elastoplast reported £2,217,000 profits for the first nine months of 1962, up £263,000 on last year.

Television highlights: Bucknell’s House – DIY, In or Out? – a panel discuses the Common Market, Take a Letter – crossword game with Bob Holness.

Radio highlights: Postal Bingo, Teen and Twenty Disc Club, Get With It.

Football: Best home record – Everton, 27 games since a defeat. Best away record – Stoke and Celtic, 8 games since a defeat.

Results: Birmingham 6 Manchester City 0. Two own goals, one by goalkeeper Steve Fleet, helped Birmingham into the League Cup semi-finals.

European Cup Winners’ Cup: Glasgow Rangers 2 Tottenham Hotspur 3 (aggregate 4 – 8).

Weather: sunny intervals, showers, high winds. Outlook – little change. 7c 45f.

Coming soon, Songbird, my novel set in the winter of 1962-63

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