Category: 1963

Monday 1 April 1963

Sir Edmund Hillary has halted his latest Himalayan climbing expedition and ordered his whole team to help fight a smallpox epidemic that is sweeping through Sherpa villages. Doctors are already in the district and vaccines will be flown in.

“There’s too much pop music on the radio. Two hours are devoted to it every Saturday morning and an hour every Sunday morning followed by more in the afternoon. And in the mid-week we have programmes like Get With It and Go Man Go. I’m all for music, but not this stuff.” – (Mrs) F Hall, Folkestone, Kent.

Stanley Baker, now producing and starring in Zulu in Natal, South Africa is making sure his film crew do not get too homesick. “I have built a replica of a London pub,” he said. “It is called the Pig and Whistle – and it has darts and shove ha’penny to go with the beer.”

A £10,000 film about Dylan Thomas, made by TWW, has been rejected by the ITV network. Instead, it will be shown on the BBC. Richard Burton appears in the film and speaks the commentary. The film has been selected as Britain’s documentary entry for the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Traffic Wardens Wanted. Age range: 25 – 55. Pay: £658 – £731 a year. Training with pay. Uniform provided. Opportunities for permanent pensionable appointment. Send a postcard to Secretary, Room 565, New Scotland Yard.

Television highlights: World in Action – a report from Zermatt on the typhoid crisis. Blue Peter. What’s My Line?

Radio highlights: Memory, Dreams and Imagination. Talking About Music.

Weather: sunny, warmer. Outlook – mainly dry. 11c, 52f.

Tuesday 2 April 1963

Colour TV tests with a French system called SECAM will be started by the BBC this month. ABC television, who have been testing this method for two years, will give a demonstration in Birmingham next month.

Medical “identity cards” giving details of blood group, allergies and a short medical history may be issued to everyone in Britain to carry at all times. Already, 25,000 cards have been issued in Scotland as an experiment. A Heath Ministry spokesman said, “The results of the experiment are now being carefully studied.”

Office workers are pouring into London at the rate of 30,000 a year. Nearly one-third of the population of England and Wales now live in London and adjacent counties. A report says it is uncertain how long the mushrooming requirements of work, traffic and living can all continue to be met in central London.

A 100mph Mini has arrived. The Mini-Cooper S will top 100mph with ease and with further tuning it will go even faster. The S will be a real challenger to the Lotus Ford, which has a maximum speed of 115mph. However, production will be limited. Prices: £575 basic, £695 7s 1d with purchase tax.

South Vietnam has banned Twist music because it “stirs up base passions.”

Message flashed on a local cinema screen: will the owner of number 158 BRA please remove it.

Television highlights: Torchy. Professional Ballroom Dancing – England v Germany. The 625 Show – Artists of the Future: Gerry and the Pacemakers. 

Radio highlights: Ballet Music. Family Favourites.

Celtic and Rangers could meet in the Scottish FA Cup Final for the first time since 1928. Semi-final draw: Celtic v Raith. Rangers or Dundee v Queen of the South or Dundee United.

Weather: sunny and rather warm. Outlook – mainly dry. 14c, 57f.

Wednesday 3 April 1963

Women who want to “spend a penny” in public conveniences will soon be freed from the tyranny of the turnstiles installed by many local councils. However, sixty-nine councils have so far refused to agree to the government’s suggestion of removing the turnstiles while eighteen councils are undecided.

Leaders of the major churches in Britain hit out at a proposed alteration to the law to allow “divorce by consent” after a seven year separation. The State laws of marriage have been framed on the assumption that marriage is a life-long covenant. Church leaders believe that if divorce by consent is allowed couples will not take their marriage vows seriously.

Two British submarines were back in home waters last night after carrying out an exercise more than 30 miles under the Arctic ice pack at depths of more than two miles. The submarines, 295 feet long, both have seventy-one man crews, bunks with foam mattresses, a cinema projector, and a tape recorder.

Last month, a record 24,600 cars were sold on hire purchase, 10.000 more than a year ago, and 57,580 refrigerators were bought in February, 2,800 more than last year.

Two demolition workers who found £5,728 in an old safe on a building site are to receive £600 each. The men handed the money to the police and it was never claimed. After making a claim at the High Court, the men received their reward.

Television highlights: The Budget. I’m Going to Be…careers advice on becoming a footballer with Tommy Docherty and Terry Venables. Here and Now – folk singers.

Radio Highlights: Parade of the Pops. Music We Love.

Weather: sunny and warm. Outlook – continuing sunny and warm. 16c, 61f.

Thursday 4 April 1963

On the menu, radishes, mustard and cress, grown on a submarine that cruised for fifty miles under the Arctic pack-ice. After the meal, the submarine surfaced and the crew played football on the pack-ice (📸 below).

Scotland Yard detectives are studying at the Metropolitan Police Detective Training School. They are learning how to go over the scene of a crime like scientists, and spot clues that can trap a criminal. In recent years, forensic science has bounded forward. However, the probing skills of a good detective are still required.

A £1,000,000 television deal was announced yesterday by Mr Lew Grade, Associated TeleVision’s managing director. Under the deal, Associated TeleVision, the London week-end and Midlands week-day programme company will go into co-production on a new series with America’s National Broadcasting Company. The series will be called Espionage. Its 26 hour-long films, costing £45,000 each, will tell the stories of British and Allied agents during World War II.

John Barry, the music man who guided Adam Faith to disc fame, has just landed a big job – writing the score for the new James Bond film, From Russia With Love. He is also likely to have a hit on his hands with the TV theme The Human Jungle.

London has displaced Paris for the dubious honour of being Europe’s number one sin city, says the News Call Bulletin newspaper.

Football result: Home Nations Championship – Northern Ireland 1 Wales 4. Hockey result: RAF 2 Army 3 – Army win the Inter-Services Championship.

Television highlights: The Kilt is My Delight – Scots Songs and Dances. Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Table Tennis.

Radio highlights: The Twenties to the Twist. Disc Break.

Weather: bright spells then showers. Outlook – cold with rain. 9c, 48f.

Friday 5 April 1963

Not so long ago wearing an ankle bracelet meant that you were either a film starlet with an eye for a publicity gimmick, or a woman who put impact before good taste. But today things are changing fast and rings on her toes are just as acceptable as rings on her fingers. Foot jewellery is selling fast and likely to become a fashion trend.

Many modern chairs look good, but just try sitting on one for half an hour. They are uncomfortable. The loudest complaints come from women. Many feel that modern chairs are designed with men in mind. And that should come as no surprise because out of 59 designs submitted to a competition organised by the  British Latex Foam Manufacturers’ Association only three were by women.

Most motorists are wearing out their cars by not driving them enough. Two-thirds of Europe’s motorists use their cars on journeys of eight miles or under. And that is wearing out the engines. Why? Because the engine never gets to its proper working temperature and therefore never works efficiently. A car thrives on a good long run whereas stop-and-start motoring has the opposite effect.

There’s a drive to persuade us to eat turkey for Easter, not with quite the same abandon as at Christmas; just a modest turkey dinner. Oven-ready mini-turkeys weighing between 4lb and 6lb, and costing 23s, are available this weekend. Don’t expect quite the same succulent flavour of a big bird, but with the right trimmings they do make a change.

Abolish the policeman on the beat and replace him with patrol cars, says a report in Police Review. A criminal can evade a constable on the beat, but a police car is better equipped to give chase.

Television highlights: Gardening Made Easy. Donegan’s On Again! with Lonnie Donegan. Close-Up – Peter Sellers’ films.

Radio highlights: The Navy Lark. Latin-American Music.

Weather: cold and cloudy with showers. Outlook – little change. 7c, 45f.

Available for pre-order, Songbird, my novel set in the winter of 1962-63

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For Authors

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Wednesday 27 March 1963

The Battle at the Commons: Mounted Police Stop Invasion. Five hundred police fought a bitter battle yesterday with 3,000 protesters who tried to invade the House of Commons. Men and women chanted, “We want work! Tories out! Mounted police were sent in and the protesters engaged in a sit-down. Eventually, a delegation was allowed in to meet ministers.

Britain is changing fast. Tomorrow, Beeching will announce his blueprint for the revolution of the railways. Attitudes towards intimate relationships are changing. And the BBC has awoken from its long slumber and is knocking hell out of the Establishment. Now, a radical thought: the playing of God Save the Queen should be abandoned at the end of public meetings and entertainments. Instead, the anthem should only be played when the Queen is present.

Purple Heart tablets, a stimulant drug, are eaten like sweets in some East End cafes, a detective said yesterday. Purple Hearts are habit forming and the medical dose should never exceed one taken three times a day. Carmelo Brincat, 22, of Islington was fined £5 for unlawfully possessing 90 tablets.

In a few weeks time, tens of thousands of Easter motorists will be battling with frost damaged roads, and potholes, for Britain’s roads have still not recovered from the Big Freeze. Reduced speeds, down to 10mph, are now common on many trunk roads. Some of these roads were built hundreds of years ago. They are relics of the past that were never meant to take today’s heavy traffic.

British Railways laid on a train yesterday for one man. He turned up at Rochdale to catch the 5.44 am to Manchester. But he missed it. The train was not announced and the platform indicators were not working, so a diesel was put on to take him the ten miles to Manchester.

Television highlights: Your Life in Their Hands – slipped discs and sciatica. Let’s Dance. Tubby Hayes Plays.

Radio highlights: Round Britain Quiz. Duane Eddy.

Weather: sunshine and showers. Outlook – similar. 10c, 50f.

Thursday 28 March 1963

Beeching’s Blockbuster. The Railway Revolution. 2,228 Stations to Go. Dr Beeching proposes to close half of the country’s railway stations and rip up 5,000 miles of track. London fares will go up 2s in the pound and some season tickets will be stopped. One of the stations to close is the Welsh station of Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch.

Britain’s new £52,000,000 atomic power station at Bradwell, Essex has made certain that hundreds of thousands of gourmets will be able to enjoy oysters later this year. Warm water pumped out of the station protected the Blackwater Estuary’s oyster beds during the winter. Many oysters elsewhere were killed by the cold.

Twelve US Treasury Bonds worth $3,000,000 are feared stolen. If true, this would be the single biggest theft in American history. A spokesman in Washington said, “This looks like an inside job.”

In the average household, £23 worth of food gets thrown away every year because it has gone bad. Only three homes in Britain have a fridge, so why don’t more people buy one? Housewives reply: “There’s not enough room in the kitchen.” “Cool larders are good enough.” “Too expensive.” Manufacturers should listen to women and discover what they want out of a refrigerator.

Football: Gordon Banks, the Leicester goalkeeper, will win his first cap against Scotland. The rest of the team – Armfield (captain), Byrne, Moore, Norman, Flowers, Douglas, Greaves, R.Smith, Melia, Charlton. Reserve – Milne.

Television highlights: Amateur Boxing – Midland and Western Counties v Wales. Road Works Report. Robin Hood.

Radio highlights: Use Your Italian. Smash Hits.

Weather: showers, some heavy. Outlook – similar. 9c, 48f.

Friday 29 March 1963

Anyone who tries to escape from a new skyscraper prison in Stuttgart, West Germany will be seen on television. For a tv escape detector is one of the startling innovations at the jail. The whole of the inner-prison wall is covered by a photo-electric cell ray, which, once broken, lights the area, switches on the television screen and spotlights the departing jailbird for the warders. 

The Swiss TV service has protested to the BBC over the result of Saturday’s Eurovision Song Contest. They say that there was a muddle over the voting and that the result should be declared a draw. Denmark won by two points. The BBC said this was a matter for the European Broadcasting Union to resolve.

Mungo David Malcolm Murray, seventh Earl of Mansfield, believes that prisons should bring back the treadmill. “I totally disagree with the modern theory that punishment should be of a reforming nature,” he said. However, the Earl believes that reintroducing the cat-o-nine-tails would be too brutal.

Independent Television has got into a terrible rut with its seven – nine evening shows, complained Mr Donald Chapman, MP. “I don’t want to be thought a spoilsport, but for years we have had these awful Emergency Ward 10, Double Your Money, and Bootsie and Snudge programmes,” he said.

Television highlights: Comedy Playhouse. Television Playhouse. Richard the Lionheart.

Radio highlights: Fats Domino. Pick of the Week.

Football: the Scotland team to face England: Brown, Hamilton, Caldow, Mackay, Ure, Baxter, Henderson, White, St John, Law, Wilson. Reserve: McNeil. Dave Mackay replaces Pat Crerand. The last time Mackay played for Scotland, on 15 April 1961, they lost 9-3 to England, but he is certain they will not lose by that margin this time.

Weather: sunshine and showers. Outlook – similar. 10c, 50f.

Saturday 30 March 1963

Detectives wearing grass skirts arrested a rock singer. The detectives, who were also carrying mouth organs, called on American rock singer and band leader Jimmy “Baby Face” Lewis. They were there for an interview, but instead charged Lewis with peddling drugs to other entertainers. A list of 100 customers, including prominent show people from Hollywood, was found.

The government has ordered a team of top scientists to produce, by autumn, plans for a series of robot post offices to be set up in space. Plan 1 calls for the launching of a dozen satellites about 8,000 miles above the Earth. Plan 2 calls for the launching of three or four satellites 23,000 miles above the Earth. Mr Roy Mason, Labour MP, warned that Britain should not be dependent on America for satellite links.

The special levy on the advertising of Independent Television companies may rise to £4 in every £10. Their first £1,250,000 a year gross advertising revenue will be free of any special levy. But on the next £8,000,000 22 1/2 percent will have to be paid, and above £9,250,000 the levy will rise to 40 percent.

The Goons are to appear on BBC television, in a series of 26 puppet shows lasting 15 minutes each. The BBC is believed to have bought the British rights for more than £150,000. The last radio Goon show was in 1959.

Grand National favourites: Springbok 10/1, Loving Record 12/1, Dagmar Gittell 14/1, Owen’s Sedge 16/1, Kilmore 16/1. Only four clear favourites have won this century.

Television highlights: Juke Box Jury with Hattie Jacques and Eric Sykes. Saturday Sport – the FA Cup and Grand National. The Third Man – new series of adventures.

Radio highlights: Shanty Time. Motoring.

Weather: rain, sunny intervals. Outlook – warmer. 6c, 43f.

Sunday 31 March 1963

Dr Beeching, the man who axed the railways this week, was stopped in Totnes and informed that his Road Fund Licence expired in February.

Craftmaster are producing oil painting by number sets featuring Adam Faith and Acker Bilk, amongst others. Cost : 30s. A pocket-sized Dictaphone is now available in Britain – it plays back at normal speaking volume. Stick-on shelves – you moisten the edge with water and they stick on to any surface. The shelves are of unbreakable white plastic.

In less than five seconds smash and grab raiders got away with diamond rings worth £10,000. A blue Ford Consul pulled up outside a jeweller’s in Regent Street, London. A lounge-suited raider leapt out of the car and swung a heavy car jack at the shop window. The three-quarters of an inch glass shattered, the man grabbed a tray of diamond rings and jumped into the Ford Consul, which roared away.

Slim – no dieting, no exercise, no drugs. A slim, trim figure can be yours. Simply wear a Slimwear slimming garment over the areas you wish to slim and the fat just disappears.

Pop Charts: This week’s top three – 1. Foot Tapper by The Shadows 2. Summer Holiday by Cliff Richard and The Shadows 3. Like I’ve Never Been Gone by Billy Fury.

Television highlights: Chess Masterpieces. Songs of Praise. Comedy Hour.

Radio highlights: Gardeners’ Question Time. Pick of the Pops.

Grand National: winner – Ayala 66-1, second – Carrickbeg, third – Hawa’s Song. One horse died – Avenue Neuilly.

FA Cup Sixth Round Results: Coventry 1 Manchester United 3; Liverpool 1 West Ham 0; Norwich 0 Leicester 2; Nottingham Forest 1 Southampton 1.

Weather: dull with drizzly showers. Brighter later.

Available for pre-order, 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 🙂

Friday 22 March 1963

More babies are born in March than any other month of the year. Over the past ten years, the pattern of March babies has changed only once, in 1953 when May was the biggest month for babies. Why March? One theory states that couples recapture their honeymoon magic on summer holidays. Another theory states that couples plan their babies for March as a beat-the-tax plan – a baby born in March gives its parents a tax-rebate on the child allowance.

Half the world’s population – 1,500 million people – are desperately hungry this morning. Three out of every twenty are starving. Show-business personalities are backing the Freedom From Hunger campaign. They include Sheila Hancock, disc jockey Brian Matthew, Acker Bilk and pianist Mrs Mills. They have set a target to raise £2,500,000 for the campaign.

As the number of typhoid cases in Britain claimed to 35 yesterday, a restaurant and coffee-bar were closed by order of Dr Parker, Brighton’s medical officer because a man employed at both establishments has developed typhoid. Customers are being traced, including students at the University of Sussex and Brighton Technical College.

This week, 7,260 workers at Kodak will share a bonus of £1,216,000. The annual share-out was started in 1912, and was missed in only one year – 1943.

London Transport are to test an automatic underground train driver system on the District Line next month, but drivers will still go along in case the robots fail. The robots control the trains by electrical signals fed into the rails and read by electronic equipment in the cabs.

Television highlights: Royal Shakespeare Company – As You Like It. The Perfect Horse with David Attenborough. What’s New with Peter West.

Radio highlights: Piano Party. Announcements.

Weather: cold and cloudy with some snow. Maximum temperature 5c, 41f.

Saturday 23 March 1963

The cost of living has gone up nine tenths of a point to 103.6, says the Ministry of Labour. The rise is mainly due to dearer vegetables and eggs.

Gold and jewels worth £4,000,000 lie buried in the wreckage of King Saud’s Comet, which crashed on the snowy Alpine peak of Monte Matto – the Mad Mountain. Among the jewels is the famous £30,000 Wells of Love diamond, which is said to carry a curse. Now Italian authorities are afraid looters will steal this fortune before official search parties find the plane.

Tomorrow is Mothering Sunday. Flowers – for best value go for daffodils, narcissi and tulips. Large quantities of these are being sent over from the Sicily and Channel Islands. Snowdrops are also delightful, so are violets, but they are very expensive. For those buying potted plants, choose cyclamen. If carefully looked after they should flower again next year.

Music teacher Christabel Carlisle, 24, from Kensington, London is now a racing motorist. She will make her debut driving a works MGB in the Sebring races in Florida. She made her name driving Minis faster than most of her male competitors.

Boxing: the Mineworkers National Championship saw wins for K.Tate (flyweight), W. Williams (bantamweight), T. Halpin (featherweight) and A. Rae (lightweight).

Top five television shows: 1 and 2 tied – Coronation Street (March 11 and 13) 3. Take Your Pick 4. I Can’t Bear Violence 5. The Cruel Kind

Television highlights: Juke Box Jury with Jane Asher and Henry Mancini. Eurovision Song Contest – Ronnie Carroll sings for Britain. Maverick.

Radio highlights: Late Night Saturday Records. Football Commentary – the second half of a leading match.

Weather: cold and mainly cloudy. Outlook – mainly dry, sunny intervals. 6c, 43f.

Sunday 24 March 1963

What is Britain’s number one status symbol in 1963? Forget the fridge, hi-fi, washing machine and car. The number one status symbol is the garden mower. Petrol, battery-operated or electric powered, at £24 these mowers are superseding the £8 push mower.

How to succeed in a man’s world. My best nine-guineas-an-ounce French perfume is known to the men I work with as ‘Midnight in Grimsby’. This means they like it. A woman’s perfume should not distract a man at work. Furthermore, if she swears, she’s likely to be accepted. So, men, I’m about to light my first cigar of the day, trot out a few vulgar words, and get on with the job. – Sylvia Lamond. 

Penny-in-the-slot central heating and hot water for some old-age pensioners and council tenants may be operating within a year thanks to tests ongoing at a National Coal Board scientific unit in Newcastle Upon Tyne. If successful, these tests could revolutionise central heating.

An electric cigarette lighter with a built-in battery that can be re-charged from a domestic power point will be on sale soon.

Executives are wearing cuff-links and tie-pins stamped with the initials TGIF – Thank God It’s Friday.

Police set up road-blocks after a man leapt from a car in Canterbury, Kent, snatched a woman’s handbag containing £4 10s, and escaped in the car.

Television highlights: Fireball XL5. Play – Too Late for the Mashed Potato. The Billy Cotton Band Show with Frankie Howerd and Adam Faith.

Radio highlights: Down Your Way. Top Twenty.

Weather: dry with sunny spells, warmer.

Monday 25 March 1963

Tory councillor Alan Riley believes that more canings are needed. “More whippings would do a lot of good,” Mr Riley said. He thought that some teachers were too scared to use the cane because of the risk of legal proceedings against them.

Wallpaper that is sound and not seriously discoloured can be given a new look. The old method was to use stale bread or stiff flour dough. But you can now buy a plastic dough that does the job much better. Cost 2s 6d for a moderate-sized room.

Thousands of people in Cumberland and Westmorland got up an hour early yesterday, by mistake. Local newspapers printed that Summer Time would begin on March 24, corresponding with Summer Time in 1962. But this year, Summer Time begins next Sunday.

Classified advertisements: JT (260) phone 26th, 9pm, STA 1147. PAP – D & C in a home.

On the stage: Ménage a Trois – Phyllis Calvert, Elizabeth Shepherd and Marius Goring in an eternal triangle with a new twist – the wife and mistress fall in love.

Denmark won the Eurovision Song Contest with 42 points. Switzerland were second with 40 points and Italy third with 37. Britain, who have never won the ten-year-old contest, came fourth with 28 points.

Television highlights: World in Action – a report on gambling. Panorama – an investigation into fluoride. Come into the Garden.

Radio highlights: The Archeologist. Kenny Lynch.

Weather: dry with occasional rain later. Outlook – showers. 12c, 54f.

Tuesday 26 March 1963

The Conservative government intends to impose a 5s minimum to send a telegram. Labour MP William Warbey slammed the plan. He said telegrams were a vital emergency service for people who could not afford telephones.

Because of the drop in fatstock prices, housewives are now paying between 2s and 6s less for their meat. Farmers are dissatisfied with the current meat pricing system, but the government insisted that it is working well.

Four more typhoid cases were confirmed in Britain yesterday, bringing the total to forty-three. The source of the outbreak, the Swiss resort at Zermatt, has been closed down.

Football. Discussions are ongoing to introduce eight new clubs to the league and create five divisions. Blackpool’s idea for summer soccer has been kicked into touch. However, something must be done because the game is in a sad state.

Actress Patricia Phoenix, who plays Elsie Tanner in ITV’s Coronation Street, is engaged to be married. But Patricia, 39, is keeping her fiancé’s name a secret. She receives more than 200 marriage proposals a year from men who watch the programme.

Television highlights: Sabotage in South Africa – life in South Africa today where criticism of the government is considered an act of sabotage. International Concert Hall with the London Symphony Orchestra. Here and Now – a marbles and tiddley-winks challenge.

Radio highlights: Boxing – Henry Cooper v Dick Richardson. Pete Murray.

Weather: cloudy with rain. Outlook – showers, bright periods. 12c, 53f.

Available for pre-order, 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 🙂