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1963

Social History 1963 #63

Saturday 28 December 1963

Sixteen people were taken to hospital last night after twelve vehicles crashed in thick fog on the M1, near Hemel Hempstead. One ambulance-man said later, “It was shocking to see the disregard passing motorists were showing. Some were doing quite 50 mph.” Mr Gordon Wilcox, a motorist, said, “It was like something from an ‘X’ film. People were groaning from their injuries and vehicles were ablaze.”

The mystery of the snakes that are terrorising the town of Maidstone, Kent, deepened last night. The remains of pythons or boa constrictors have been found in eight Maidstone homes. Now people fear that other snakes may be hibernating in the area.

Mr and Mrs Jack Smith were driving home from a party in Exmouth, Devon when they saw a penguin. They turned around to double-check and discovered that the penguin was accompanied by a cat.

The Duke of Edinburgh and five other “guns” killed 200 pheasants yesterday on the Royal Estate at Sandringham. There will be another shoot today.

Kalanag, the last of the great stage illusionists, has died. He was a professional magician for 42 years. His magic library of 20,000 books is the largest in the world. Mr Francis White, President of the Magic Circle, said, “His death marks the end of an era.”

Mrs Barbara Daly, wife of John Thomas Daly, one of the accused in the Great Train Robbery case, has given birth to a baby boy.

Football. Forty-eight hours after the Boxing Day games, the fixtures will be reversed and the teams will play each other again. There are fears that some players will be out for “revenge” and will deliberately injure their opponents. There is a suggestion that these reverse fixtures at Christmas should be scrapped because they have a history of causing trouble.

Television highlights: Dr Who – The Survivors. That Was The Year That Was – final fling with David Frost and Co. The Avengers – Dressed to Kill.

Radio highlights: Association Football Summaries. Take Your Partners.

Weather: mostly cloudy with coastal and hill fog. Outlook – rain or drizzle. 9c, 48f.

Sunday 29 December 1963

Where did The Beat come from? In racing terms you might say it was skiffle out of jazz. It surged up out of the art colleges and was grabbed by the kids who were lost and lonely. They heard The Beat and suddenly they belonged. They were welded into a great freemasonry that had no barriers of class, money or speech. And people in the know say that it has not even reached its peak.

Women in Stroud, Gloucestershire have been invited to visit the local police station and claim the 186 items of women’s clothing that are on display – bras, panties, petticoats and nightdresses. The items were all stolen from washing lines in the district.

“Who is the greatest menace on the roads today? The safety-belt car driver. Eighty percent of them think that when they are strapped behind their wheels nothing can happen to them. How false!” – G Gooday, Enfield, Middlesex.

An engineer, Mr Robinson, inspected a hole in Normandy, Surrey, and drove into it. He was unhurt, but it took four men to get him and his car back on the road.

Doctors are warning of outbreaks of typhoid in South-East Essex.

More was spent on records in Britain in 1963 than ever before. The figure – £33,000,000, up £5,500,000 on last year. Some 80,000,000 discs were pressed, a quarter of them long-players. And the ten number one hits of 1963 were all home-grown.

Listen out for the Aces. They might do for Hull what the Beatles have done for Liverpool.

Football Results: First Division – Aston Villa 2 Wolves 2, Birmingham 1 Arsenal 4, Blackburn 1 West Ham 3, Ipswich 4 Fulham 2, Manchester United 5 Burnley 1, Spurs 0 West Bromwich Albion 2. Top three – Blackburn, Spurs, Liverpool.

Television highlights: No Star on the Way Back – Contemporary Nativity. Sunday Night at the London Palladium – all-star show organised by the Stars Organisation for Spastics. Play – One Night of the Year with Kenneth Cope and Warren Mitchell.

Radio highlights: The Countryside in December. The Trigger – serial.

Weather: fog patches, sunny spells later.

Monday 30 December 1963

An inquiry into the Christmas road death toll of 120 is anticipated. It’s suspected that many of these deaths were due to drivers being incapacitated by alcohol. The use of “breathalyser” drunkenness detectors is a popular proposal. However, Transport Minister Ernest Marples has been reluctant to implement road safety measures in the past.

Charlie Ashby, 73, was trying to remove a jackdaw’s nest from a neighbour’s chimney when he got stuck. Neighbours pulled Mr Ashby’s ankles, but they could not free him, so they called the fire brigade. The Bromley brigade arrived, dismantled part of the chimney and freed Mr Ashby. The jackdaw’s nest remains in place.

A family was covered in soot in Oldham, Lancashire when a balloon got stuck in a chimney pot. A fireman climbed on to the roof and burst the balloon.

At a restaurant in Reading, a man placed his thumb in a radiator and it got stuck. After an hour, police and firemen freed him.

A prediction for 1964: bedrooms will become more feminine with four-poster beds and brass bedsteads. Also for 1964, loose covers in flecked stretch fabric that will fit any armchair.

Hip words for 1964. Thread – dress. Short – car. Boss short – big car. Crumb-crusher – child. To be put down – to be insulted. To be shot through the grease – to be made a fool of. To jump salty – to get angry.

Football: In Division Two, the top of the table clash between Sunderland and Leeds United was a brutal affair. Two forwards kicked each other while another kicked an opponent in the back. A Sunderland player punched a Leeds forward. Two rugby scrimmages broke out in midfield. A Sunderland forward was kicked to the floor by a Leeds defender. A Leeds forward was punched in the face. Sunderland won the match 2 – 0.

Television highlights: The Hoot’nanny Show. Goldenhair – film from Czechoslovakia. Play of the Week – Three Roads to Rome with Deborah Kerr.

Radio highlights: Let’s Get Away From it All. The Pop Art of Soccer.

Weather: sunny then rain. Outlook – rain then sunny. 8c, 46f

Tuesday 31 December 1963

The gayest New Year Ball in London tonight will be at the Royal Albert Hall where stars of stage, screen and television will join thousands of revellers in a six hour non-stop greeting to 1964. The stars include Billy J Kramer, Kathy Kirby and Sid Phillips and his band. Tickets from 30s each.

1963 was a year of industrial peace. In the first eleven months just over 1,500,000 working days were lost because of stoppages – the lowest total for ten years. Over the same period last year 5,750,000 working days were lost. The lost time equates to only 29 minutes per worker in Britain.

Mr and Mrs Average Briton are spending more and more. The weekly budget stands at £18 7s 6d a week. The previous budget stood at £17 0s 6 1/2d. The biggest single item – £1 2s 3 1/2d is spent on cigarettes and tobacco.

A study of 90,000 patients who were first taken into mental hospitals in England and Wales during 1954 and 1955 shows that bachelors had the highest admission rate.

An outbreak of typhoid has been traced to a 93 year old woman who has been carrying the infection since 1917. Experts believe that between two and five percent of people who catch the disease become carriers. Medical checks are complicated because not all carriers develop typhoid.

“Giant rats” – coypus – are on the run in London. Hooligans released them from London Zoo. The coypus have been spotted in Regents Canal, where conditions are ideal for them to breed.

Nona Gaprindashvili, 21 from Georgia, is the first woman ever to qualify to compete with men at the Hastings International Chess Congress. Nona, the world’s woman chess champion, said, “Oh, I love chess. It is the most important thing in my life. Far more important than boyfriends and romance. Chess is my life. I shan’t be thinking about husbands and babies for a long time yet.”

Television highlights: This Wonderful World. A New Year Party from Scotland with Andy Stewart. Last Programme: At the Turn of the Year – Hope.

Radio highlights: Big Ben – Welcome to the New Year. Music For Your Party.

Weather: sunny periods. Outlook – changeable. 7c, 45f.

Wednesday 1 January 1964

Screenshot

Using a sack and an umbrella, John Watson and Ken Brightwell captured two of the coypus that had escaped from London Zoo. They captured the coypus when someone spotted the 2 foot long rat-like animal running along a girder 20 feet above a canal at Maida Vale. A third coypus is still on the loose.

Racing driver Roy John James’ fingerprints were found on a cat’s food dish at the Great Train Robbers’ hideout, Leatherslade Farm, a court was told yesterday. The fingerprints of antiques dealer John Thomas Daly were also found, on a Monopoly game. Eighteen other men and women will also face trial in connection with the robbery.

Police have warned that a highly poisonous Indian plant has been found growing in Canterbury, Kent.

Cricket captain Frank Worrell, whose West Indies team brought verve and gaiety to last summer’s Test matches in England, was knighted in the New Year’s Honours List. Frank, his men and their supporters lifted cricket out of the doldrums with their gay performances in 1963.

Ron Grainer, the Australian composer who has written theme music for a number of television programmes, is leaving Britain for a villa in Lisbon. Working under artificial light has affected his eyes and a specialist has recommended that he should work in bright sunlight.

The Beatles won Melody Maker’s best LP of the year award with Please, Please Me. They also won the single of the year with From Me to You.

Charlie Chaplin’s 38 year old film The Gold Rush won Christmas’ biggest TV audience the BBC claimed last night. The film – the first Chaplin has allowed to be shown in full on TV – was seen by 20,600,000 viewers. The BBC also claimed that during 11am and 11pm on Christmas Day 80 out of 100 viewers watched their programmes, the highest number since the start of the ITV network.

Television highlights: International Ski Jumping from Bavaria. New Year’s Day Concert from Vienna. Top of the Pops – new pop music show.

Radio highlights: Revolution, Change and Marxism. Old Prison Letters. 

Weather: mainly dry, sunny intervals, mild. Outlook – mild, showery, sunny intervals. 9c, 48f.

Thursday 2 January 1964

A firebug is on the loose in the West Country. Over the past eighteen months he has raided at least twenty-four top floor flats, robbed them and set them ablaze. The raids have been in Exeter, Newton Abbot, Plymouth, Weymouth, Dorchester, Gloucester, Exmouth and Clevedon. The firebug is about 5 foot 8 inches tall, between 45 and 50, has receding brown hair and wears horn-rimmed glasses.

Hopes of a breakthrough in the dispute that has closed the giant Port Talbot steelworks crashed last night. A union official said, “The company has rebuffed our gesture. We are back where we started.” The union wants a pay increase, justified by the company’s profits.

Cadbury’s chocolate is to cost more from Monday. General increases include an extra penny for the quarter-pound bar (now 1s 2d), and 3d on a box of Milk Tray (now 3s 6d). A spokesman for Cadbury’s said, “Practically everything you can think of has gone up. We staved off putting up our prices for as long as we could.”

After a bumper 1963 in Discland, what will happen in 1964? We asked Parlophone boss George Martin, the man who produces all the Beatles’ hits. He said, “I don’t think there will be much of a change. The Beat mood will continue and spread more widely. The trend towards Beat will become part and parcel of the music scene. At the same time, there will still be the good ballads. There will be more groups too, but only the good ones will break through.”

Everton, the “soccer millionaires”, whose fans are often accused of unruly conduct, have had their headquarters smashed up – by a gang of hooligans. In the New Year’s Eve raid, the hooligans wrecked the players’ and trainers’ rooms causing £1,000 worth of damage. Everton, in an effort to beat the hooligans, made British soccer history by putting up special barriers behind each goal.

Football Results: Scottish First Division – Celtic 0 Rangers 1, Dundee 1 Aberdeen 4, Hibernian 1 Hearts 1, St Johnstone 2 Dundee United 2, St Mirren 1 Kilmarnock 3.

In the 3.15 at Liverpool, Tear Gas beat Saucy Song by a short head.

Television highlights: Tonight with Cliff Michelmore. Canada Playdate – The Looking Glass World, science drama. Road Works Report.

Radio highlights: The Authorship of Shakespeare. The Novel Today.

Weather: cloudy and mild. Outlook – no change. 9c, 48f

Friday 3 January 1964

A team of psychologists will be employed by Associated TeleVision to answer questions such as: should TV heroes have mistresses? Should heroines be blondes or brunettes? The answers will help programme makers to give viewers what they really want.

Scientists have been trying out plastic bags that can be used to take a sample of breath from drivers suspected of having had too much to drink. Drivers would be asked to breathe into one of the bags. The breath would then be analysed by a breathalyser – an instrument that measures the amount of alcohol in the breath.

The Rev Anthony Hart-Synnot, an Old Etonian, has been accused of removing lead from the vicarage roof, thus causing wilful and malicious damage. The vicar explained that he turned his vicarage into a refuge for homeless families. Later, he wanted to evict them, but they refused to move out, so he instructed builders to remove the lead from the roof.

Best buys this week: apricots, plumbs, peaches and indoor rhubarb. Tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce are also good value. Vegetables are cheap. New Zealand lamb is currently cheaper than English. Best fish buys are cod, haddock, plaice and sprats.

Ranks, who run the Odeon and Gaumont cinemas, are to raise their admission prices. The increases will affect 190 out of 390 Rank cinemas. Granada are also putting up their prices to 2s 9d, 3s 9d and 4s 9d. A spokesman for ABC (280 cinemas) said, “We have no plans to raise our prices.”

Exhibitions: camping at Olympia, 3 – 11 January.

More than 46,000 people bought television licences last November, bringing the total to 12,777,635.

Television highlights: Gala Performance – music, opera and ballet. It’s Dark Outside – new thriller series. Comedy Playhouse – The Mate Market with Lance Percival.

Radio highlights: German for Beginners. Readings on Record.

Weather: cloudy, dry. Outlook – cloudy, mainly dry. 4c, 39f.

Available for order and pre-order, my Swinging Sixties Mystery Series

https://books2read.com/u/bMqNPG

Categories
1963

Social History 1963 #61

Saturday 14 December 1963

A rush-hour train, packed with commuters, crashed yesterday. The train left Liverpool Street, London at 5.29 pm for Gidea Park, Essex, but as it pulled out of the station, the last coach ran off the rails. A woman was killed, thirty-four people were injured, and another girl was trapped in the coach. Police, firemen and medical teams worked for two hours to free the girl. Their efforts were successful and the girl was taken to the London Hospital on Whitechapel Road.

The Beatles are going to court. They are seeking damages for alleged libel and injurious falsehood from two Blackpool companies for misuse of their name.

The film studios at Shepperton, Middlesex will close down tonight for four months. There are no bookings until April. One hundred and eighty men have been made redundant.

Police in Birmingham are on the hunt for Joey the monkey. Joey escaped from his owner, Mr Basil Morgan. He leapt in and out of houses, startled women and evaded the men who chased him. He also leapt through a window and stole 70 year old Mrs Rosina Studley’s dinner. Escaping over the rooftops, Joey was still free last night.

“We girls started a ‘Sneeze Box’ in our work room at the beginning of the year. We put a penny into the box every time we sneezed and after 2,736 sneezes have collected £11 8s for your Christmas Appeal.” – Nine Sneezers, Richmond, Surrey.

The Football Association may close Goodison Park after continuous trouble at Everton’s home games. The latest incident involved stones being thrown at Chelsea manager Tommy Docherty. Meanwhile, Arsenal are to lay a £10,000 “electric blanket” beneath the turf at Highbury so that, should we get snow like last winter, the pitch will remain playable.

Snow fell in Sussex, Kent, Bedfordshire and Hampshire yesterday, the coldest day since February 25.

Television highlights: Dr Who – science fiction series – The Firemaker. The Avengers – Don’t Look Behind You. That Was The Week That Was.

Radio highlights: Record Roundabout. Memory and Imagination.

Weather: snow and sleet, cold. Outlook – sleet. 3c, 37f.

Sunday 15 December 1963

The Home Secretary has refused to reprieve Dennis John Whitty, 22, and Russell Pascoe, 23. The men murdered Cornish farmer William Rowe, 64. Whitty will hang at Winchester and Pascoe at Bristol.

It was Shiver Saturday throughout Britain yesterday with snow and ice reported over most of the country. In London the temperature fell to zero for the first time this winter. The heaviest snowfalls were in Kent and Sussex. Icy roads are making driving dangerous and motorists have been urged to take extra care.

Alfred Hitchcock’s favourite plot: you are in a vast, echoing assembly car plant, walking slowly beside a chassis as it takes shape. You follow it as it grows, piece by piece, towards completion. And then, as the finished car rolls off the line, a door swings open and a body falls out. “All I have to do is explain how it happened and I have a helluva story,” Mr Hitchcock said.

Kathy Kirby has been voted Britain’s number one girl singer in a pop magazine national poll, ahead of Cleo Laine, Shirley Bassey and Dusty Springfield.

“This year, some children are asking for colour television sets,” said Father Christmas at Selfridges. 

“I wonder how many children had nightmares after watching Dr Who? If this tale of suspense and horror was shown in the cinema, I’m sure it would receive an “X” certificate.” – T Anderson, Exeter.

Football Results: First Division – Fulham 2 Everton 2, Liverpool 1 Blackburn 2, Manchester United 3 Sheffield Wednesday 1, Spurs 2 Stoke 1, West Ham 2 Chelsea 2, Wolves 2 Arsenal 2. Top three – Blackburn, Spurs, Arsenal.

Television highlights: Sunday Night from the Prince of Wales with Gerry and the Pacemakers. Play – A Local Boy with Jack Hedley. Play – The Swindler with Ronald Lewis.

Radio highlights: Join in and Swing. The Reith Lectures.

Weather: cold but mainly dry with sunny spells. Outlook – heavy snow showers.

Monday 16 December 1963

Women who live in Folkestone, Kent have been accused of being too snooty to work at a factory. The accusation comes from Mr J H Miller, the owner of a knitwear factory. He was offering jobs for 270 women, but only 130 applied. Mr Miller will now open a plant in Glenrothes, Scotland.

For twenty minutes last night planes could not land at Manchester Airport. Cows had wandered onto the runway, where they quietly munched away. Farm hands, police and airport officials chased the cows. Eventually, the cows were rounded up and the planes landed safely.

“Blaming women drivers for problems on the roads is wrong. The real trouble is caused by “weekend drivers” who keep their cars as status symbols.” – J G, Gainsborough, Lincs.

“Don’t keep your van doors unlocked in Clacton. I made this mistake and discovered that everything – Christmas presents, cakes, puddings and groceries had been stolen. It is not a friendly place.” – P Wilson, Newhaven, Sussex.

Personal Advertisements: “Ern, come home for Christmas,” – Love, Doris. “Yvonne, please come home for Christmas,” – Mum.

For three years Dave Clark, leader of the Dave Clark Five – London’s answer to the Mersey sound – resisted offers to turn professional. But now he’s accepted a £50,000 contract. The group will tour nationwide in March.

Football: Everton, who have been in trouble this season because of their fans’ misbehaviour, have accused Fulham’s fans of throwing objects at their players. Derek Temple, Everton’s left winger, claimed that a Fulham fan used a catapult to attack him during the 2 – 2 draw at Craven Cottage.

Television highlights: Come Dancing – Central London v East Midlands. Play of the Week – The Teachers starring Judi Dench and Peter Sallis. Discovering Japanese Art.

Radio highlights: Those Record Years – 1933. Requests. 

Weather: rain or sleet showers. Outlook – mainly dry. 5c, 41f.

Tuesday 17 December 1963

By eight votes to six the council at Paignton, Devon voted to ban bikinis from bowling greens because the bikinis make it difficult for the serious player to keep his eye on the ball. Councillor George Cornelins said, “It’s distracting to bowlers when a stout female wears shorts or a bikini which amplifies outstanding features of the body.”

Every year in Britain, one-tenth of the population moves to a new address. To keep track of this trend a mini census, covering a tenth of the population, will be conducted in 1966. This census is required to help local authorities with their planning.

Britain’s car production this year is expected to reach a record total of 1,600,000 vehicles. This compares with the previous record of 1,400,000 set in 1960 and 1,249,000 last year. Home sales have rocketed to 1,000,000.

After thirteen stormy years, the Tomato and Cucumber Marketing Board has been disbanded. Growers voted against it by 1,190 to 637. Critics claim the Board was ineffective because of too much bureaucracy.

Will we have a White Christmas? Experts at the Meteorological Office will not say yes with any certainty, but believe that it is reasonable to expect some falls of snow.

Only a Super League of sixteen teams can save soccer. Two-thirds of league clubs pay out more in wages than they take through the turnstiles. This is not sustainable. The idea of a Super League including Scottish clubs has been dismissed because the idea “has too many snags”. 

Television highlights: Tonight in Person – Nina and Frederik. Fascinating Facts with Lance Percival. Watch With Mother – the Woodentops. 

Radio highlights: Shakespeare’s Rhetoric. Have a Go!

Weather: cold with showers of sleet or rain. Outlook – showers. 6c, 43f.

Wednesday 18 December 1963

Questions will be asked in Parliament about why a £15,000 train robbery was kept secret. And why didn’t the Post Office ask the police to take any action? The theft occurred nine weeks ago from a train travelling from Haverfordwest to London. Labour MPs want to know why no public statement was made about the robbery.

Research has shown that the wearing of a seat belt in a car can reduce slight accidents by half and serious ones by four-fifths. However, a large proportion of drivers don’t use them. And, at the moment, there are no plans to make seat belts compulsory.

The Queen’s Christmas message will not be broadcast by Granada TV. Granada is the only ITV company that does not broadcast the National Anthem each evening. Instead of the Queen’s Christmas message, Granada will broadcast an old film, Storm Over the Nile. The Queen’s Christmas message was recorded in sound only this year because she is expecting her fourth child early next year.

This year, three people certified dead were found to be alive. The Earl of Arran will raise the matter of being buried alive in the House of Lords.

Britain is to have more new towns – but they should be smoke-free. Instead of coal fires, local councils should now give financial help to the development of homes with electric, gas and oil heating.

Auburn-haired actress Jane Asher is dating Beatle Paul McCartney. Jane’s mother said, “There is nothing unusual about them being together. They see quite a lot of each other. I wouldn’t say there was anything extraordinary-special about their friendship. Paul is one of Jane’s many friends.” Paul and Jane denied that they were planning to marry.

Television highlights: I Hear the Blues with Memphis Slim and guests. Here and Now – a coal-mining village. What Next in Lighting? – discussion.

Radio highlights: The Dispossessed. Population and Society.

Weather: sleet or snow showers. Outlook – snow at times. 3c, 37f.

Thursday 19 December 1963

Transport Minister Ernest Marples warned motorists not to drink and drive. He was hammering home the point that most Christmas accidents are caused by drink. Last year, 147 people were killed and 1,709 seriously injured during the six days of the holidays.

Scotland Yard issued a warning to bank managers, postmasters and others who carry the keys of business premises. The warning follows the kidnapping of sub-postmaster Eric Christopher in Willesden last night. Four men used his keys to grab £1,275 in cash and postal orders. They released Mr Christopher unhurt.

Agony Aunt: Judy writes, “My husband told me off because I served red wine with chicken instead of white when friends came to dinner. He said I showed him up. Did I?” Jane Adams’ reply, “Your husband is talking nonsense. Serve what pleases you or your guests.”

Jane Adams writes, “Recently, I implied that the perfect husband did not exist. I have received scores of letters from women claiming that they have the perfect husband. Let us raise our Christmas glasses to these happy wives – and their husbands!”

“When my three-year old cousin arrived in Southampton from South Africa last Friday, it started snowing. He had never seen snow before, so he said to his mother, ‘Look, mummy, it’s raining ice cream!’.” – Keith Goldane, Maidstone, Kent.

The Mersey Sound of the Beatles and Gerry and the Pacemakers drowned out all competition in the Top Ten of 1963. The final line up gives the Beatles three of first four places in the all-star Top Ten. Also in the Top Ten: Cliff Richard, the Shadows, Frank Ifield, and Jet Harris and Tony Mehan.

Television highlights: Buddy Greco Entertains. Sports Review of 1963 Featuring the Sportsview Personality of the Year. Gallery – political review of 1963.

Radio highlights: The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes. Of Birds and Beasts – Madrigals.

Weather: snow showers, sunny intervals, cold. Outlook – similar. 2c, 35f.

Friday 20 December 1963

Your Christmas turkey has started a war in the High Street. Fine Fare, the supermarket chain, are now offering turkeys at 3s 9d a pound – with the firm’s pink trading stamps. Their announcement is a slap in the face for Sainsbury’s, the anti-stamp firm. Sainsbury’s are selling oven-ready birds for 3s 10d a pound, their lowest price since the end of the war.

Despite the cheaper turkeys, this looks like being the costliest Christmas of all time. That is the verdict of the Bank of England. Britons have a record £2,598,000,000 worth of banknotes in their pockets – £145,000,000 more than a year ago.

A gang of safe blowers raided Walton Jail in Liverpool, yesterday. They blew a safe thinking that there was £10,000 inside – double wages for the 300 prison officers. However, the wages were in a different safe. 

Twenty-two SS men are due to stand trial in Frankfurt tomorrow accused of helping to murder millions of men, women and children. About 250 witnesses will testify. There is no death sentence in West Germany, so if the men are found guilty it will probably mean life imprisonment and death behind bars.

Mrs R L of Leeds writes, “Outside my front door, carol singers gave a lovely rendition of We Three Kings. I opened the door and found three lads with Beatles haircuts, drainpipe trousers and elastic-sided high-heeled boots!”

West Bromwich Albion players plunged their club into another sensation yesterday when nineteen players refused to train in shorts in the freezing cold. The players walked out of the training ground when told that they could not wear tracksuit trousers. Skipper Don Howe said, “No other club in the country forces its players to train in shorts in this cold.”

Paper sacks will replace dustbins in all of Bedford’s 20,000 homes the town council decided last night.

Television highlights: Ready, Steady, Go! with Dusty Springfield. Roving Report – winter in Norway. Hobbies Club.

Radio highlights: A Good Man Feelin’ Bad – blues records. Late Victorian Christmas.

Weather: cold with long sunny periods. Outlook – similar with severe frost at night. 2c, 36f.

Available for order and pre-order, my Swinging Sixties Mystery Series

https://books2read.com/u/bMqNPG

Categories
1963

Social History 1963 #55

Saturday 2 November 1963

Army corporal Roy Blake indulged in an “orgy of marriage”. He has wives in Germany, Holland and England. And he was planning to marry again. His legal marriage is to a German woman. Sent for trial accused of bigamy, he said, “I don’t know why I have done these things. I think it was because my first marriage was in such a mess.”

The execution of Edgar Valentine Black, who was sentenced to death for the murder of Richard Cook, has been fixed for 21 November at Cardiff Prison.

An article in Dental News states that dentists suffer a lot more than their patients. “The muscular strains suffered by a dentist during the course of his work are considerable,” the article said. “These strains plus unnatural postures mean that the dentist is literally killing himself while curing the patient.”

Members of the Women’s Institute were angry when the BBC’s radio serial The Archers presented them as only being interested in making jam and lampshades. A spokeswoman explained, “We do a great deal of serious social work to help the old, the young and the sick.” A BBC spokesman said they would highlight the welfare schemes in future episodes.

Sport is no longer enough to the public in these enlightened days. You must have a gimmick to go with it. Coventry City put on a forty-five minute radio show before each game. Manchester United parade drum majorettes, and other clubs are thinking of doing the same. And tonight, at the Empire Pool, Wembley a full house will watch an ice hockey match but, more importantly, listen to Beatle music during two fifteen minute intervals.

Television highlights: Comedy Playhouse – The Plan starring Peter Cushing. The Avengers – November Five. Espionage – spy series with Billie Whitelaw.

Radio highlights: Music While You Work. Compline. 

Weather: rain or drizzle. Outlook – similar. 13c, 55f.

Sunday 3 November 1963

Views on people and countries. Nicest people – the Poles. Least friendly – the Swiss (unless you have money, they are not interested in you). Most beautiful country – Norway. Prettiest girls – Sweden. Warmest-hearted girls – Poland. Least friendly girls – Italy, Greece, Spain. Best food – France. Best beer – Denmark. Worst beer – Spain. Worst roads – Yugoslavia, England. Best roads – Italy and Germany. Happiest people – Poland and Denmark. Unhappiest people – Ireland and Sweden. Shrewdest – the Scots. Most naive – the Americans. Best dressed – the Hungarians. Worst dressed – the Danes. Most arrogant – the French. Most humble – the Spanish. Noisiest – the Italians. Quietest – the Finns. Friendliest – the Tunisians. Most organised – the Dutch. Most disorganised – the Belgians. Most rebellious – young Germans. Most dishonest – the Italians. Most honest – the English.

Lord Robens, chairman of the National Coal Board, appealed to Britain’s coalminers to join in a voluntary “Big Dig” on six Saturdays before Christmas in order to avoid a coal shortage this winter.

Fancy being a Poppy Day collector next Saturday? The British Legion are appealing for volunteers. They are hoping to reach a donation target of £1,250,000.

The big showbiz bombshell this year was the break-up of the Springfields. And the big question was what would Dusty Springfield do next? I’m tipping her first solo disc, I Only Want To Be With You to make her the number one British singer in 1964.

Football Results: First Division – Blackburn 1 Sheffield Wednesday 1, Blackpool 1 Everton 1, Chelsea 2 Birmingham 3, Liverpool 0 Leicester 1, Sheffield United 2 Arsenal 2, Stoke 4 Burnley 4, West Ham 4 WBA 2, Wolves 2 Manchester United 0. Top three – Sheffield United, Spurs, Manchester United.

Television highlights: Play – Veronica with Billie Whitelaw. Billy Cotton Band Show. Pinky and Perky.

Radio highlights: Around the World in a Bowler Hat. The Jazz Scene.

Weather: sunshine and heavy showers. Warm.

Monday 4 November 1963

Mr Sidney Silverman, Labour MP for Nelson and Colne, appealed to the Hone Secretary to reprieve Edgar Black, who has been sentenced to hang at Cardiff Prison on 21 November. Black was sentenced after shooting his wife’s lover. His appeal against conviction was dismissed.

Two men have been sentenced to death at Cornwall Assizes for murdering farmer Wiliam Rowe. The men are Dennis Whitty, 22, and Russell Pascoe, 23.

There are 11,000,000 vehicles on Britain’s roads today. By the end of the century there will be 33,000,000 – Government Road Research Estimate.

The British Boxing Board of Control are to probe allegations of a monopoly syndicate headed by a mysterious “Mr X”.  Rumours of “dubious practices” have riddled boxing for months.

Happiness is…by Daily Mirror readers: When my baby budgie says “Pretty Bobby”. When the wife keeps her mouth shut. Being free from the Beatles. A ticket for the Beatles. A slimming diet with sticky buns. Eight draws on the pools. A television and wife – both working! When someone takes the spider out of the bath.

Where will the Beatles and the other Liverpool lads be this time next year? Most predict that they will still be riding high. However, some pop makers, like the Fourmost, are holding on to their day jobs, in case the Mersey roar becomes a whisper. This week’s number one, You’ll Never Walk Alone by Gerry and the Pacemakers.

Television highlights: The Way We Live – family relationships. Panorama – a report from Bournemouth on lonely old people. Jane Eyre – episode six.

Radio highlights: Tonight’s Topic. The Sense of the Future.

Weather: Bright spells, showers, mild. Outlook – similar. 13c, 55f.

Tuesday 5 November 1963

A storm is blowing up over reports that council workmen have been given a list of “amorous wives”. The wives in question live in Frimley and Camberley. Mr William Morris, chairman of the Tennant’s Association has arranged a special meeting to discuss the list. Airline pilot John Jeffrey, chairman of Frimley and Camberley Council, is also looking into the matter.

A family yesterday moved into Britain’s first “instant” skyscraper home. The eleven-storey building was built in twenty-eight weeks, half the time normally taken. This was possible because contractors used the “critical path” computer system employed to produce Polaris missiles. 

“If I had a large amount of money to spend, I would not spend it on trying to get to the Moon, I would spend it on trying to double the agricultural production of the World.” – Dr Alexander Todd, winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, 1957.

Dennis Whitty, 22, and Russell Pascoe, 23, sentenced to hang for murder, have appealed against the sentences. The men blame each other for Wiliam Rowe’s death.

Shoe prices are expected to soar next spring. Hide prices have increased by 30%. The rising costs will not affect the current stocks of shoes and boots.

Half of Britain will have no trains on Christmas Day this year. British Railways said that a steady drop in Christmas Day travel has made many services uneconomical.

Television highlights: World in Action – the electrical family. Emergency Ward 10 – bonfire night. Five O’Clock Club – Freddie and the Dreamers.

Radio highlights: Keep Up Your French. The Power of Evil.

Weather: sunshine and showers. Outlook – rain at times. 14c, 57f.

Wednesday 6 November 1963

Fighting broke out between women on a council estate in Frimley where twelve housewives are said to be too amorous. The twelve are on a secret list issued to council workmen. There are demands for the women’s names to be made public. For their safety, council workmen are now working in pairs. Mrs Moria Spencer, a 25 year old mother of seven, said, “We have our own ideas about who should be on that list. I used to make a cup of tea for the workmen, but never again.”

Police in three counties and the London area are searching for four men who hijacked a lorry on the M1 near Crick, Northants. The driver was bound and dumped 13 miles away. The lorry contained £5,000-worth of hair cream.

Fifty year old Lady Campbell told a court that she had “two really stiff gins” before driving off to keep a dinner date. On the journey, she crashed into a coach. She added that she was used to stiff drinks because she had been an alcoholic. Lady Campbell was fined £40 and banned from driving for two years.

“I believe Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale is soon to be tied to a railway track in an episode of The Avengers. I believe this is a good thing to happen to self-reliant females. Can we have a picture of her tied to the rails printed in your newspaper?” – P.R., Trinity College, Oxford.

A waterspout, forty yards high, knocked over seven beach huts in Exmouth. It also damaged a roof and a porch. Engineer Mr Charles Tighe said, “It was like a tall white cloud. It moved in very fast.”

Television highlights: Sportsview – the All Blacks, boxing and figure skating. Boss Cat. What Next in Beds? with Barbara Cartland and Stirling Moss.

Radio highlights: Play – The Bedmakers. Makes a Change.

Weather: sunny spells, showers. Outlook – similar. 14c, 57f.

Thursday 7 November 1963

A suspicious wife hid under the bed in the daytime because she thought her husband was having an affair with one of her friends. The friend told a divorce court that nothing more than “mild horseplay” had occurred and that she’d met the husband to discuss chrysanthemums because they were both keen gardeners. The judge concluded that that was an unlikely story. Divorce granted on the grounds of adultery.

Edgar Black, sentenced to hang a fortnight today at Cardiff Prison, was reprieved yesterday. Black killed his wife’s lover with a sawn-off shotgun and will now serve a life sentence. Mrs Black expressed her relief at the decision and vowed that she would wait for her husband.

Big Tony Mella, the Soho nightclub owner shot dead in January, left £17,809 – but no will. Letters of administration have been granted to his widow, Mrs Peggy Mella. 

Stolen cars and parts of stolen cars worth over £250,000 were recovered in London last year. The “Big Boys” pay drivers £25 to steal a car and £1 a mile for delivery. The crooks have workshops that can change the look of a car within a few hours. But they frequently miss small identifying marks which can put the police on their track.

“Really, I’m a misfit. I haven’t got a pop face or a pop voice.” So says Dusty Springfield, who begins life as a solo artist in Discworld with I Only Want to Be With You. Tomorrow, she begins a nine-day stage tour. “I shall feel very odd and strange indeed. On stage, I shan’t know what to do with my hands.” She sings of love, but has no thoughts of marriage. “It wouldn’t be fair. In fact, it would be downright stupid.”

Television highlights: Miss World 1963. This Week – Beatle-mania. My Favourite Martian – new comedy series.

Radio highlights: The Rise and Fall of Poliomyelitis. Concerts on Records.

Weather: sunny spells, showers. Outlook – rain at times. 13c, 55f.

Friday 8 November 1963

Police swooped and seized 4,000 copies of a book that was due to be re-issued as a paperback. And Scotland Yard warned that anyone selling copies of the book will be prosecuted. The book, first published 200 years ago, is Fanny Hill by John Cleland. A spokesman for the publisher refused to comment until they have taken legal advice.

Cockney singer Joe Brown will not appear on the television programme Thank Your Lucky Stars because his version of George Formby’s Little Ukulele has been banned by the Independent Television Authority. The ITA said the song was “too suggestive”.

Marijuana – the drug used in the illegal “reefer” cigarettes smoked by some young people on the fringe of the beatnik movement – might be given the same social status as beer and whiskey. An article in the Lancet stated that the drug encourages passivity and is not addictive.

Monty Sunshine, the jazz clarinetist, had his honeymoon interrupted by the police. Someone had tipped the police off that Monty was Roy “The Weasel” James, wanted for questioning in connection with the Great Train Robbery. Satisfied that they had the wrong man, the detectives allowed Monty to continue his honeymoon with his bride, Jacqueline Lucy.

Miss Jamaica, Carole Joan Crawford, is the new Miss World. Second was Miss New Zealand, Elaine Miscall, and Miss Finland, Marja-Liisa Stahlberg was third. Fourteen million television viewers watched the contest.

Television highlights: Hobbies Club – embroidery and model boats. Dylan Thomas – a tribute introduced by Richard Burton. Pie in the Sky – comedy with Keith Barron and Diana Coupland.

Radio highlights: Continental Cocktail. Friday Spectacular.

Weather: showers. Outlook – showers. 11c, 52f.

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Categories
1963

Social History 1963 #53

Saturday 19 October 1963

A man without a face has been smuggled into 10 Downing Street and made premier-designate of Great Britain. The long-suffering public has been invited to go into battle led by a cipher – a man existing solely in the imaginations of the posher members of the Tory hierarchy and a handful of knicker-bockered, pheasant-shooting cronies. The arbitrary elevation of Lord Home to prime minister is designed to hide the cracks in the Tory Party. Lord Home is smiling tonight. But the man in Great Britain with the biggest grin is Labour leader Harold Wilson.

Ronald “Buster” Edwards and his wife June, sought by Scotland Yard in connection with the Great Train Robbery, are believed to be in Norway where employees at a hotel recognised them. The employees noticed June because she changed her hair colour from jet-black to vivid red.

Beauty specialist Micheline Lugeon wanted racehorses to boost her business, she told a doping-plot trial jury yesterday. The idea was to name racehorses after her beauty creams, she claimed. Miss Lugeon denied having anything to do with the doping of racehorses. The case continues.

Meat prices are easier this week, but fish prices are high because of the bad weather. There are very few plumbs about and those available are not nice enough for dessert. Vegetables are rather dreary this week, but leeks are good value at 8d. Cucumbers are up to their highest price yet – 2s 6d.

Mexico City will stage the 1968 Olympics, the International Olympic Committee announced today. It will be the first time the Olympics will be held in Latin America. The committee will vote today to exclude South Africa from the Olympics because of racial discrimination.

Television highlights: Juke Box Jury with Susan Hampshire and Dusty Springfield. The Avengers – The Nutshell. Robin Hood – The Truce.

Radio highlights: Old Time Music. Pop Track.

Weather: sunny spells. Outlook – rain at times. 18c, 64f.

Sunday 20 October 1963

Lights low, excitement high, and 500 youngsters standing toe to toe, shaking in a delirium of rhythm. Nothing special, really, just another jump night on Eel Pie Island. Eelpiland – as the kids have shortened it – an island on the Thames near Twickenham – is the place for the with its. It’s further out than far. It’s the living end.

Beauty Queen Maureen Gay lifts the lid on the beauty queen business. “In a contest in the north, a judge said to me, ‘You have a smashing chance tonight. I think I could guarantee it if we had lunch, just the two of us…’ I thanked him sweetly and said no. If you want the big money, you’ve got to go along with them, or you don’t stand a chance. Some of the contests are rigged. It’s a fact, and all the girls know it.”

A queue nearly a mile long was waiting when doors opened for the Motor Show at Earl’s Court yesterday. Some local residents complained that they could not get out of their houses. By noon, 117,501 people had paid for admission. A final attendance figure of over 500,000 is anticipated, reflecting the enthusiasm and optimism of the car industry.

Britain is experiencing its biggest ever boom in home movies, a fast-growing world of zoom lenses, pistol grips, blower coolers and projectors. Sales of cine-cameras have zoomed from 10,000 in 1959 to 150,000 last year. And this year they will top the 200,000 mark. 

Football Results: First Division – Aston Villa 2 Arsenal 1, Chelsea 1 Sheffield Wednesday 2, Liverpool 1 WBA 0, Nottingham Forest 1 Manchester United 2, Sheffield United 3 Birmingham 0, West Ham 4 Everton 2. Top three – Manchester United, Spurs, Sheffield United. The top ten teams are still within two points of each other.

Television highlights: Keeping Fit. Auto-Mechanics – carburettors. Play – Funny Noises With Their Mouths featuring Michael Caine. 

Radio highlights: Salute to Nelson. Concert – Beethoven. 

Weather: cloudy at first, brighter later.

Monday 21 October 1963

Other countries have industrial riots and army revolts. Britain has Beatle drives. This crowd gathered outside the TV studios in Birmingham where the Beatles were recording next Saturday’s Thank Your Lucky Stars. The crowd, mostly girls, chanted, “We want the Beatles!” They screamed every time a face appeared at an upstairs window.

The Tory Party’s joint-chairman, Mr Iain Macleod, has refused a seat in Prime Minister Lord Home’s new Cabinet. So has Mr Enoch Powell. The refusal of Mr Macleod in particular has thrown the Tory Party into complete disarray. Both men felt that it was wrong to select a prime minister from the House of Lords.

Postman John Smith rang the church bell at Llangendeirne yesterday to raise the alarm about an invading army of officials, and the villagers duly rushed to their stations, barricading the main road. This “war” is over a plan to build a reservoir above the village. On this occasion, with old farm machinery and bales of hay, the villagers blocked the land surveyors, and they vowed to “resist to the end”.

Communist East Germany went to the polls yesterday to select a new People’s Chamber of 434 deputies. There were no opposition candidates.

Personal Advertisements: Margs come home, all forgiven – Bri’s. Sheila Crall – please write, Ken and Vic. 

Television highlights: The Sound of Brass – National Brass Band Festival. Play of the Week – The Funambulists with Judi Dench and Francis Matthews. The Plane Makers starring Patrick Wymark and Patrick Magee.

Radio highlights: Paul Temple and the Jonathan Mystery. Men of Brass.

Weather: sunny spells, rain, windy, rather warm. Outlook – similar. 18c, 64f.

Tuesday 22 October 1963

The big beat of the Beatles, Merseyside’s top pop group, has been blamed by a college headmaster for a slump in homework standards. Mr Alfred Stevenson of Adelaide Private College, Ilfracombe  has appealed to all parents to switch off the pop music programmes on Radio Luxembourg so children can do their homework in silence.

Thirteen people were injured when two cars collided at Middleton Dale, Derbyshire yesterday.

It has taken two years, a musical sex-change and the emotional impact of Miss Shirley Bassey to get it into Britain’s top ten disc bestsellers – a doleful, soulful song called I (Who Have Nothing). Many have recorded the song, but it’s Miss Bassey, the stormy songstress from Tiger Bay, who has “got inside it” and with the assistance of Mr George Martin, a slim and talented music man, produced the definitive version.

Three out of every four homes in Britain now receive ITV programmes. Of 17,017,000 homes 12,814,000 now have two-channel televisions. And 83% of British homes now have a television set.

From the supermarket shelves: bread without holes – manufacturers say that the holes let the air in and the flavour out. Instant milk – just stir white powder into cold water (like wartime rations). Quick-frozen crepe suzettes – two plastic bags containing the crepes and their sauce are plunged into boiling water for ten minutes.

Television highlights: Badger’s Bend. World in Action – housing. University Challenge.

Radio highlights: Let’s Take a Spin. Dancing Party.

Weather: rain at times. Outlook – changeable. 15c, 59f.

Wednesday 23 October 1963

Labour MP Michael Foot is seriously ill in hospital after a car accident. Doctors and nurses are fighting to save his life. Mr Foot’s wife, Jill Craigie, who was driving the car when it crashed at a notorious black-spot, is said to be in a satisfactory condition.

London County Council will spend £2,000 on teaching machines for experimental use in schools.

Agony Aunt: “Cautious” from Liverpool writes, “About a year ago, I had a very big win on the Pools. I told no one, except my immediate family. I kept my job, and apart from a new home and car, we live modestly. Now, my teenage children are pressing me for all sorts of expensive things. I believe that they should continue with their jobs and not let the money make any difference to their way of life. Since the Pools win, our family has been at loggerheads.” Jane Adams’ advice, “Seek expert advice, and give your children a chance to develop their personalities, broaden their minds, and learn the value of money.”

Agony Aunt: “Young Husband” writes from Croydon, “I’m fond of my wife, but she drives me wild at mealtimes with her constant chit-chat. I wish she’d shut up.” Jane Adams’ reply, “Mealtime chit-chat is a part of family life. It sounds as if you need a landlady, not a wife.”

An unknown comedian has been invited to appear on Sunday Night at the London Palladium. He is Jimmy Tarbuck, who sports a Beatles-style haircut. From Liverpool, Mr Tarbuck went to school with George Harrison and John Lennon of the Beatles.

Television highlights: Attenborough and Animals. Home and Away – FA Centenary Film. Talent of Tomorrow – the Robbins Report on Higher Education.

Radio highlights: Round Britain Quiz. Aspects of the Renaissance.

Weather: rain or drizzle. Outlook – changeable. 16c, 61f.

Thursday 24 October 1963

British women will go on wearing stiletto heels – because they have short legs. Colonel Geoffrey Noakes, president of the National Association of Shoe Repair Factories, made this comment at the International Shoe Repairers’ Congress in Blackpool. He added, “Women want to be propped up in the air. The good news is, new materials have the ability to stand up to the strain of buxom females.”

The condition of Mr Michael Foot MP, seriously injured in a car crash, remains unchanged.

Seven cases of typhoid were confirmed in the Bedford area yesterday. Four families are affected. A health spokesman said, “There is no cause for alarm.”

Sheep rustlers have stolen about 2,500 sheep from North Riding farms over the past year.

A West Berliner, who climbed over the Wall into East Berlin after a quarrel with his wife, was sent back by the Communists the next day.

The Beatles have left for a five-day tour of Sweden, which means a well-earned respite for our police forces because wherever the Beatles go screaming teenagers and police officers are sure to follow. Meanwhile, a tv programme featuring the Beatles, The Mersey Sound, will be repeated to all regions on Wednesday, November 13, at 7.40pm.

Television highlights: Amateur Boxing – Scotland v Bulgaria. The British Association Granada Lectures. Crackerjack.

Radio highlights: Top of the Form. International Concert for United Nations Day.

Weather: warm and sunny, mist and fog early and late. Outlook – mainly dry. 18c, 63f.

Friday 25 October 1963

The Ancient Britons used Stonehenge as a “robot brain”, an American scientist has claimed. Professor Gerald Hawkins of Boston University said that Stonehenge enabled Ancient Britons to predict the seasons and the eclipses of the Sun and the Moon. Furthermore, for this purpose Stonehenge was extremely accurate.

Chemists are about to abandon their scruples, for the centuries-old method of weighing medicines by scruples, grains, drams and ounces is to be abolished and replaced by metric units. 

The price of sugar hit a new post-war record yesterday – £102 10s a ton. Shop prices are expected to rise to around 2s per 2lb bag. Storms in Cuba are responsible for the sugar crisis.

Mr Michael Foot, Labour MP for Ebbw Vale, who was badly injured in a car crash on Monday, was said to have “slightly improved” in hospital at Hereford.

Guests at today’s oyster feast in Colchester will eat turkey, ham, beef and pork because oysters are in short supply at the moment.

Ten town criers will roam towns in the West Country for three weeks shouting out the night’s programmes for Westward television.

Juke Box Jury is losing viewers. In October, 3,222,000 homes tuned into the programme compared with 4,314,000 homes in January this year.

Television highlights: The Rare Ones – the last strongholds of the great mammals. Richard the Lionheart. Supercar.

Radio highlights: El Alamein Reunion. Pick of the Week.

Weather: dry, cloudy. Outlook – no change. 14c, 57f.

Available for order and pre-order, my Swinging Sixties Mystery Series

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Categories
1963

Social History 1963 #51

Saturday 5 October 1963

Giving evidence at Christine Keeler’s perjury trial, her former business manager Robin Drury said that he had a tape recording in which she talked of her life experiences. On the tape, Christine said that she was being blackmailed by a man named “Watt”, also known as Fenton. She also said that Lucky Gordon had not hit her, despite her previous claim that he did. Instead, a woman hit her after  five people were involved in “some sort of sex orgy”. The case continues.

One of the Great Train Robbers told train driver Jack Mills, “When this is over, I’ll send you a few quid. You should keep your mouth shut. They are right bastards here.” Mr Mills, an engine driver for twenty-two years, was giving evidence at Aylesbury, Bucks where twelve men and three women faced charges arising from the robbery. Mr Mills, who was assaulted during the robbery, is still too ill to return to work.

Flying Officer Anthony Northmore, who broke his neck in a flying accident in Honolulu, was transported back to Britain yesterday in a special RAF flight over the North Pole. It was the first time that a mercy flight had been made over the North Pole, which cuts the journey by 3,000 miles.

It’s nearly bedtime for Britain’s thousands of pet tortoises. To protect your tortoise it’s important to tuck them up before the first winter frost appears. Ideally, they should be placed in a cold room or cupboard, in a bed of hay or dry leaves. Warm weather might disturb your tortoise, so check on him to see if he needs food or water.

The controversial BBC show That Was The Week That Was took a knock last weekend. ITV’s thriller series The Avengers starring Honor Blackman came out on top in the fight for viewers in the London area. The viewing figures: The Avengers 1,163,000 homes, TW3 905,000 homes.

Television highlights: The Telegoons – new puppet series. The Avengers – The Undertakers. Comedy Playhouse – Underworld Knights.

Radio highlights: Florence Nightingale. Play – She Shall Have Murder.

Weather: Drizzle. Outlook – cloudy with bright periods. 14c, 56f.

Sunday 6 October 1963

Old diseases, thought banished forever in Britain, are making a comeback, and nutrition is largely responsible. Cases of rickets, polyneuritis and scurvy are increasing. People, especially the elderly, are relying on tea, biscuits and tinned food instead of fruit and vegetables.

Colin Jordon, Britain’s number one Nazi, married Francoise Dior yesterday. Jordan and his bride greeted onlookers with Hitler salutes. The onlookers responded by showering the couple with stink bombs, rotten fruit, eggs and pieces of turf. To boos and jeers the couple, unhurt, hurriedly drove away in a taxi.

Jack “Spot” Comer, one-time “king” of London’s underworld, claims that the Mafia are controlling crime in Britain. “I know their identities,” he said. “I know I’m sticking my neck out by revealing the truth, but if hired thugs beat me up, the Mafia will be admitting their guilt.” Comer added that fruit machines – one-armed bandits – are the racketeers big source of income. The Mafia also control betting shops, amusement arcades, casinos and some race-course bookmakers. However, a Scotland Yard spokesman disputed Comer’s claims.

You can now buy a coloured bath for the same price as a white one. The new vitreous-enamelled steel baths cost under £20. They won’t lose their initial gloss and are harder to chip. Also, laboratory tests have scotched the theory that steel baths cause burnt or chilled bottoms.

Football Results: First Division – Arsenal 6 Ipswich 0, Birmingham 0 Everton 2, Chelsea 3 Stoke 3, Liverpool 5 Aston Villa 2, Sheffield United 3 Spurs 3. Top three – Manchester United, Spurs, Sheffield United.

Television highlights: Fireball XL5 – The Ghosts of Space. Home Dressmaking. Dig This Rhubarb.

Radio highlights: Pick of the Pops. The DJ Show.

Weather: cloudy with drizzle, sunny spells later.

Monday 7 October 1963

Former club boss Ronald “Buster” Edwards and his wife June Rose, both wanted for questioning about the Great Train Robbery, might be hiding in London. It is thought that they have altered their appearances with dyed hair and glasses. Scotland Yard reminded the public that there is a reward for Great Train Robbery convictions.

Max Mosley, son of fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley, is to appear before his Territorial Army commanding officer this week. So are six fellow fascists in the Independent Parachute Brigade. Army regulations forbid any political activity.

Nottingham fire brigade want to put an end to back garden bonfires on Guy Fawkes night. Instead, they want organised displays on selected sites. A fire service official said, “We hope to educate people into realising that fires and fireworks in careless hands are a real danger.”

A power station explosion caused electric burglar alarms to ring all over Liverpool yesterday.

A £350 guitar belonging to George Harrison, one of the Beatles pop-song group, was recovered by detectives yesterday after it vanished from a car in Glasgow. Two youths will appear in court today.

Britain’s top guitarist Jet Harris has quit. He said, “Tell them I’m out of show-business for good.” His girlfriend, Billie Davis said, “Jet can’t take it any longer. He’s just been pushed too hard.” Jet caused a sensation on Friday when he walked out of a recording of Ready, Steady, Go!

Television highlights: World in Action – 21st birthday of Oxfam. The Plane Makers – factory series. Naked City – police series.

Radio highlights: Play – Women Beware Women. Good Points of Husbandry.

Weather: drizzle then brighter. Outlook – rain at times, bright intervals. 14c, 57f.

Tuesday 8 October 1963

Gerry and the Pacemakers have been banned from Glasgow’s concert hall because of what happened when the Beatles appeared there on the weekend. While the Beatles punched out their pop music, a teenaged girl punched her fist through a wall. The balcony swayed alarmingly as beat fans stamped to the rhythm. Council member Dick Buchanan said, “The audience members were semi-savages. We’re not taking any chances with this other lot.” A spokesman for Gerry and the Pacemakers said, “We’ll get another hall.”

The Space Age got a foot in the pub door yesterday. An “electronic barmaid” was demonstrated at the Casino Hotel, Hampton Court, Middlesex. It can fill six half-pint glasses in 25 seconds without spilling a drop. Cost – £150.

The gas cooker of tomorrow might not have an oven. With frozen foods and dehydrated meals becoming more popular, and the trend towards packaged meals, in twenty-five years time we might no longer use an oven.

Railway bosses are meeting this week to decide if they should ban all Football Specials from Liverpool. This is because Everton fans wrecked ten out of eleven coaches on Saturday. A British Railways spokesman said, “We have had enough. We are fed up with these vandals wrecking the trains. We’ve warned them, but they take no notice.”

Football Results: First Division – Aston Villa 0 Everton 1, West Ham 1 Burnley 1.

Television highlights: Kindly Leave the Stage – variety with the Mitchell Minstrels. The Rag Trade. The Five O’Clock Club with the Dave Clark Five.

Radio highlights: Folk Songs of Australia. Come Up the Hard Way.

Weather: mostly cloudy with drizzle. Outlook – changeable. 15c, 59f.

Wednesday 9 October 1963

At their party conference in Blackpool, the Tories will debate hanging and flogging. Despite liberal-minded speeches in recent years, the subject has come up again by special ballot motion. The conference will also discuss allowing votes to be cast by post.

After thirteen years of existence, the Tomato and Cucumber Marketing Board is set to end. The Board sought extra powers to regulate trade, but a poll of 5,000 producers failed to sanction those powers.

Christopher Hall admitted breaking into a butcher’s shop where he stole two white coats, a stitching skewer, a knife, an air bed and three frozen chickens. He told Leicester Magistrates, “When I realised I was going to be caught, I threw most of the stuff away and ate the chickens – it wasn’t much fun.” Hall was fined £15.

Hurricane Flora has destroyed a quarter of Cuba’s sugar crop. On the London market the price of sugar jumped from 30s to £78 then £80 a ton. The price is expected to rise further.

Miss Ellen Dart, believed to be England’s oldest inhabitant, died yesterday. She would have been 109 on 1 November.

Discussing the disbanded pop group The Springfields, blonde songstress Dusty Springfield said, “Sorting out our souvenirs, I’ve kept all our press cuttings while my brother Tom has settled for the memory of the money we made.”

Television highlights: The Mersey Sound – documentary. Football Special – Real Madrid v Glasgow Rangers, highlights. The Troubles – the story of the Irish rebellion.

Radio highlights: Parade of the Pops with Matt Munro. Book at Bedtime.

Weather: dry with sunny periods. Outlook – mainly dry with sunny periods. 16c, 61f.

Thursday 10 October 1963

Detectives are investigating a case of a man who had a two-inch nail driven into the top of his head. The man had a headache and the nail was driven into his head as a cure at a Black Magic party. Surgeons later operated on the man, 40 year old seaman Michael Fish. Mr Fish told doctors, “I don’t want to talk about what happened.”

In private, top Tories are saying that, for health reasons, prime minister Harold Macmillan should resign within a month. Lord Hailsham’s supporters were very active lobbying at the Tory Party conference. Lord Hailsham has been described as “ebullient, erudite and erratic.”

Scientist Dr Linus Pauling won the 1962 Nobel Peace Prize yesterday. The 1963 prize went to the international and Swiss Red Cross organisations.

Vicars in Berkshire have been told to keep a careful eye on their church organs because someone is stealing parts. So far, 87 pipes have been stolen. Police are working on the theory that the thief is trying to build his own organ.

Agony Aunt: New Town Wife writes, “My husband does not drink, smoke or gamble, and never swears. He gives me his wage packet to divide between us. He’s considerate and kind. But he’s so dull.” Jane Adams’ reply, “Quit moaning. You don’t deserve the husband you’ve got.”

Football Results: First Division – Blackburn 3 Bolton 0, Liverpool 3 Sheffield Wednesday 1, Sheffield United 3 Ipswich 1, Stoke 1 Arsenal 2. Top three – Manchester United, Tottenham, Blackburn.

Television highlights: Crackerjack – with Mr Pastry. Champions on Ice – international ice cabaret. Space Patrol.

Radio highlights: The Million Sellers. Integration – a Slow Process. 

Weather: dry and sunny after early morning fog. Outlook – mainly dry and sunny. 17c, 63f.

Friday 11 October 1963

Britain will have a new prime minister in a matter of days. This became clear after the sensational announcement that Harold Macmillan is to resign. Rab Butler is the favourite to replace him, although Reginald Maudling, Lord Hailsham and Lord Home are also in the running.

Gas that cannot kill will be fed into people’s homes next week, making Tamworth the safest town in England as far as gas is concerned. The gas is called Lurgi gas. The extraction process, removing the poisonous qualities from Lurgi gas, leaves it without the characteristic smell of town gas, so a chemical is added to give it the normal gas smell.

We are eating more bacon than ever – 94,000 tons more in the past eight years, an average increase of 1,800 tons a week. We are also becoming more adventurous with bacon. We glaze and garnish our bacon with treacle, cloves, honey, sugar, cranberries, mustard, prunes and ginger. Despite this, the traditional British breakfast is giving way to a bowlful of cereal and a cup of coffee.

Two dozen copies of What About Us by Liverpool beat group the Undertakers have been ordered by a jukebox operator in Iceland.

Welsh girls wearing their national costume can now show a leg – hemlines on their skirts can rise by four inches! And they can throw away their woollen stockings and wear black nylons instead! The changes were agreed by the Welsh Tourist Board. However, the tall black hats and flannel petticoats will stay. And a plea for plunging necklines, made by Councillor Harry Parry, was rejected.

Television highlights: The Marriage Lines – domestic comedy. The Story of a Jazz Musician. The Rare Ones – the land of the antelopes.

Radio highlights: In Your Garden. Play – Under Milk Wood.

Weather: generally dry. Outlook – continuing dry. 17c, 63f.

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