Tag: Music

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1963

Social History 1963 #3

Friday 11 January 1963

Police are hunting a gang of thieves who broke into a former jail, blew a safe and escaped with £1,200 of prison officers’ wages. One police theory is that an old lag helped to plan the raid.

The men’s beauty business has never really got off the ground in Britain. This is why: most men don’t like scents and colognes because it’s just not natural for men to play about with their masculine odour. Eighty percent of men’s scents and colognes are bought by women for men at Christmastime.

Nine percent of the babies born in Birmingham in 1961 were illegitimate, a rise of 2% on 1960.

Television highlights: Choice – consumer programme. Dr Kildare. BBC 1 – 10.50 pm News, Weather, Closedown.

Radio highlights: Smooth ‘n’ Swinging, Go Man Go.

Chalk-up “Summer Holiday” as yet another success in the remarkable story of young Harry Webb who as Cliff Richard has become Britain’s standout challenger to Elvis Presley.

Soccer is heading for another Saturday “whiteout” with only five games still on, at Swindon, West Bromwich, Barnsley, Brighton and Bristol Rovers. 

Weather: very cold with scattered snow showers and sunny periods. Outlook – remaining cold with severe frost and snow. 0c, 32f.

Saturday 12 January 1963

The lights of Britain dimmed last night as voltage cuts hit the entire country. The cuts are due to a work-to-rule by power station workers over pay. The workers want an extra 3d an hour, but electricity chiefs are resisting.

Today is the worst Saturday for soccer since the Football League began seventy-five years ago. Only five of forty-six scheduled matches have a chance of going ahead. For the third Saturday running the football pools have been cancelled. Most horse racing meetings and rugby matches have also been called off. Snowed-up and struggling clubs were offered a £500 loan by the Football Association.

Fresh Food. Prices are still high – potatoes 6d a lb, leeks 1s 3d, swedes 8d, parsnips 10d, mushrooms 1s 3d a quarter.

TV viewers awards: Best Actor – Elvis Presley. Best Actress – Hayley Mills. Best Film – The Young Ones.

Top television shows this week: 1. Coronation Street 2. Hancock 3. Take Your Pick.

Television highlights: Stereophony – no pictures, sound only, Juke Box Jury with Sian Phillips, Pete Murray and Una Stubbs, The Rag Trade.

Radio highlights: Dancing, From Our Own Correspondent.

Weather: snow, continuous frost, colder. Maximum temperature -4c, 25f.

Sunday 13 January 1963

A ten-foot iceberg floated in the Thames near Greenwich yesterday – the eighteenth day of the Big Freeze. Along the French Channel coast the sea froze to depths up to two feet. Coldest spot in Britain – Ross-on-Wye -17c, 2f. All roads in all fifty-three counties were affected by hard-packed snow, or fresh snow and ice.

Electric scissors will be on sale soon. You simply press a button and guide them – £4 15s. Dehydrated hamburgers are now on sale in America. For fast meals simply cook in water and they fatten out. 

The semi-detached mums of Britain’s new young middle class in private housing estates tend to feel lonely, insecure and maybe guilty, so says Miss Sonia Preece, a Health Visitor, in Nursing Times. By contrast, her counterparts in council flats are more easy-going and relaxed. 

New demands for the raising of the school leaving age from fifteen to sixteen will be made when parliament returns next week. This would help to ease the problem of the “Leanagers” – the youngsters who cannot find jobs, but will not stay on at school.

Pat Moss, “The Greatest Woman Driver in the World” reckons that a breaking reaction time of 0.16 of a second is ideal. Any slower, and you are day-dreaming. Any faster, and you are mind-reading.

Sylvia Lamond’s beauty advice: feet – have a wardrobe of shoes of varying heel heights. Change frequently each day from elegant stilettos into medium heels, flatties and slippers. Spray ‘Foot Fresh’, 7s 9d, through your stockings.

Television highlights: Billy Cotton Band Show with Acker Bilk and the Springfields. The Avengers. Football – Ipswich Town Reserves v Nottingham Forest Reserves.

Radio highlights: Naturalist, Juke Box.

Weather: fog patches, then clearer spells. Very cold.

Monday 14 January 1963

Put off Monday wash day until later in the week, said a spokesman for the Electricity Board. The appeal followed a day of power cuts due to the Big Freeze and the power workers’ go-slow. Complete blackouts may be more widespread at morning and evening peak periods.

It was so cold in Ice-Box Britain yesterday that even the sea froze. At Herne Bay, Kent, a mile-long sheet of ice stretched 100 yards out from the beach. At Torquay, Devon, waves froze as they crashed on to the promenade. The RAC said ice or snow was affecting every mile of Britain’s roads. Nearly 100,000 miles of roads have disappeared under the snow.

Shirley Bassey has a problem – what to wear when she sings for President Kennedy. She’s debating between a pale-blue slinky gown, a champagne dress with a long train, and a yellow dress with a fishtail back. “I might buy a new one in New York and wear that,” Shirley said.

Eight weeks into its run, That Was The Week That Was is still receiving complaints. Anglican Canon John Duffield suggested that people should, “Storm the BBC and make them drop this horrible programme.”

Television highlights: Come Dancing, Their Kind of Music, Panorama.

Radio highlights: Hit Parade, Folk Songs of New Zealand.

International Rugby Union: France 6 Scotland 11. Groundsmen set fire to the pitch two hours before kickoff. They sprinkled petrol over the straw then ignited it until the pitch became a giant smoking crepe suzette. 

Weather: below freezing in most areas. Outlook – little change. Maximum temperature -1c, 31f.

Tuesday 15 January 1963

The famous lights of Piccadilly Circus and other West End bright spots went out last night for the first time since the war. The lights were switched off voluntarily in response to Sunday’s appeal by the electricity board to relieve pressure on supplies during the freeze-up and the power men’s go-slow. 

A High Court judge, Mr Justice Winn, said that people have a greater chance of meeting a better type of partner waltzing or doing the slow foxtrot than by doing the twist. However, dance maestro Victor Silvester said, “Socially, the twist is an ideal dance. In fact, if a person doesn’t dance the twist, he is a real square.”

The Flying Scotsman moved out of London’s King’s Cross station yesterday for its last official run. However, the Flying Scotsman service between King’s Cross, London and Edinburgh will continue to run – pulled by diesel locomotives.

From 1 March, manual workers in Britain will be able to have their wages paid by cheque, if they wish.

A recent theory suggests that the person who posed for the Mona Lisa was a man.

Television highlights: International Concert Hall, Father of the Bride, Song Album.

Radio highlights: Pop Inn, Woman’s Hour.

Weather: temperatures above freezing point. Outlook – less cold, but frost at night. Maximum temperature 3c, 37f.

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

https://books2read.com/u/bMqNPG

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Categories
1963

Social History 1963 #2

Sunday 6 January 1963

We may have coloured roads one day. A reflecting surface, which can be coloured, has been developed in America. The road surface shows up with the same brightness at night as during the day.

National Savings were up 13% on 1961 at £247,000,000. But they fell well short of the 1960 record of £343,400,000.

Dr Adenauer, the West German Chancellor, was 87 yesterday.

The top-selling hat of the season, say the milliners, is the bowler, in soft felts and furs. Women can add a spray of feathers for the “Wicked Lady” look.

The Light and Home Service of the BBC have forty-seven disc programmes this week – that’s 1,937 minutes of records and the essential chat before and after. However, columnist Bernard McElwaine is not happy. “The gramophone record is the most irritating invention since the telephone and the dentist’s drill,” he said.

DIY advice. If you have a door that sticks or won’t stay closed, just tighten the hinge screws. This is often sufficient. When an outside door sticks, it might be necessary to plane the edge or the bottom. But don’t do this in damp weather.

My young daughter was given a large dolls’ house for Christmas. After peering in every room, looking for the people, she asked, “Well, where are they all – watching television?”

Television highlights: Land of Song, Rejoice and Sing, Motor Cycle Scrambling.

Radio highlights: Melody on Strings, Richard Attenborough.

Football: FA Cup Third Round – only three games out of thirty-two played because of the snow: Preston 1 Sunderland 4, Plymouth 1 West Bromwich Albion 5, Tranmere 2 Chelsea 2.

Weather: very cold, snow, frost.

Monday 7 January 1963

Over a thousand trapped and starving animals were rescued from the snow yesterday. More than 100 people took part in the rescue on Dartmoor, Devon. And a new hazard – potholes. The Big Freeze has cracked many roads. A very slow thaw is expected to continue. But there may be more snow tomorrow.

Dozens of families in Hornchurch, Essex only get a two-and-a-half-inch picture. This has been going on for two years and it’s driving the locals crazy. There is insufficient voltage to power their television sets.

Hoover announced that the cost of their Hoovermatic combined washing-machine and spin-dryer was being cut by £6 6s to £82 19s.

Television highlights: University Challenge – Nottingham v Swansea. Discs-A-Go-Go. Leave it to Beaver.

Radio highlights: Folk Songs. A Book at Bedtime.

Two television sketches that drew scores of protest are to go on long-playing record today. The sketches are from That Was The Week That Was. They include an Army officer issuing instructions to his men by mixing Bible quotations with battle orders. And a woman telling his boyfriend that his fly buttons are undone.

Football: So far, 135 matches need to be rearranged. And the League are budgeting for at least one more bad weekend before the end of the season. An extension to the season is planned, but this will not affect the FA Cup Final.

Weather: continuing cold with frost. Outlook – similar.

Tuesday 8 January 1963

Because of the snow, only Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion cleared the FA Cup Third Round hurdle. Nevertheless, the Fourth Round draw went ahead as scheduled.

Safety belts will be compulsory in all cars in France, possibly next year. All the belts must be tested by the French Works Ministry and carry its seal of approval.

A thief stole skis, value £10, from outside the back door of Miss Phyllis Iles’ home in Ashstead, Surrey.

Girdles and bras of man-made elastic will sell at more realistic prices this year. One advantage of this elastic is that it gives light-weight control. Another advantage is that it wears longer.

In furniture, 1963 will bring an ever-increasing swing to the Scandinavian Look, with its stark lines and unpolished woods. Teak will be the mainstay of the Scandinavian Look, and varnished finishes are out.

In the kitchen, non-stick pans will become more popular, now that their special finishes have been perfected.

Eighty-year-old Christopher Stone, the first-ever BBC disc jockey, slipped and cut his face on an icy footpath in Eton, Bucks, high street yesterday.

Television highlights: Bookstand, Tonight with Cliff Michelmore, Treasure Hunt.

Radio highlights: Family Favourites, Big Ben Banjo Band.

Weather: snow showers, very cold. 0c, 32f.

Wednesday 9 January 1963

The threat of power station strikes is still on. If the strikes go ahead, many regions can expect blackouts.

Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell’s condition was improving, the Middlesex Hospital said last night. His four doctors said that he had a more restful day. Mr Gaitskell is suffering from pleurisy and pericarditis.

The bosom is about to make a comeback. designer Marc Bohan of Dior said, “The accent on the bust will be the strongest impact of my line.” The new look will also feature deep necklines and more emphasis on the legs, although hemlines will remain the same – just below the knee. Lipsticks will be bright red and the top fashion colour will be white.

To meet the need for television dinners, furniture manufacturers will be making supper tables 20 inches high. Coffee tables are usually 16 to 18 inches high.

Television highlights: Les Comediens-Mimes de Paris, Look – wildlife series, Cubism and After – modern art.

Radio highlights: Come into the Parlour, The Big ‘O’ Show.

Football: 145 out of 211 fixtures have now been postponed. Sunderland are the only club who have not experienced a postponement.

Weather: scattered snow showers. Outlook – very cold with further snow at times. Maximum temperature 1c, 34f.

Thursday 10 January 1963

The first transatlantic telecast by Relay – the telecommunications satellite that is four-times stronger than Telstar – was a success yesterday. Mr Martin Pulling, the BBC’s assistant director of engineering, predicted around-the-world live TV via satellites within the next five years.

Fiction and Fact. Fiction: “He awoke to find her still asleep beside him, her shining dark hair tousled…her skin soft and gently flushed…a little smile curving her mouth. He leaned over and kissed her and she opened her eyes in renewed wonderment of their love.” Fact: “He awoke to find her still asleep beside him, her dark hair screwed into rollers and tied up in a net…her skin still sploshed with last night’s beauty cream…her mouth wide open. He leaned over and dug her in the ribs and she unglued her eyes and said, ‘S’your turn to make the tea’.”

A father of eight who fell “terribly in love” married his mistress, thus committing bigamy. He was jailed for six months after a hearing at the Old Bailey.

Fights over the blankets, open and closed windows, and where to place the hot-water bottle – couples are being advised to think carefully before taking the marital plunge.

Television highlights: Criss Cross Quiz, Hancock, Amateur Boxing – Scotland v England.

Radio highlights: Have a Go! Railway Roundup.

In the Top Thirty this week: Guitar Man – Duane Eddy, He’s a Rebel – The Crystals, Globetrotter – The Tornados.

Weather: very cold, snow showers. Outlook – no change. 0c, 32f.

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

https://books2read.com/u/bMqNPG

For Authors

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Categories
1963

Social History 1963 #1

Tuesday 1 January 1963

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

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

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

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

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

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

Radio highlights: Chubby Checker Time, Mystery Playhouse.

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

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

Wednesday 2 January 1963

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday 3 January 1963

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday 4 January 1963

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday 5 January 1963

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

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

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

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

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

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

Radio highlights: Saturday Club, Twenty Questions.

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

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

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

https://books2read.com/u/bMqNPG

For Authors

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Categories
1962-63

Social History 1962-63 #5

Thursday 27 December 1962

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Radio highlights: Housewives’ Choice, Smash Hits.

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

Friday 28 December 1962

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday 29 December 1962

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Radio highlights: Requests, Transatlantic Tops.

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

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

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

Sunday 30 December 1962

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

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

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

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

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

Radio highlights: Pick of 1962 Pops. Top Twenty.

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

Weather: cold or very cold with snow.

Monday 31 December 1962

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Weather: still cold with snow at times.

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

https://books2read.com/u/bMqNPG

New Release

Hollywood, 1948

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

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

***

For Authors

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

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

Categories
1962-63

Social History 1962-63 #4

Wednesday 19 December 1962

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

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

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

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

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

Radio highlights: Morning Story, On Your Farm.

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

Thursday 20 December 1962

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Weather: cloudy with rain. 8c 46f.

Friday 21 December 1962

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday 22 December 1962

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

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

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

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

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

Radio highlights: Bandstand, Top Discs.

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

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

Sunday 23 December 1962

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

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

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

Radio highlights: Melody on Strings. Tune a Minute.

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

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

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

Monday 24 December 1962

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

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

“Drive safely on milk.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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