Remember the 60's E-Book

Michael Heatley

• Herausgeber: G2 Rights Ltd
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

A decade of ground breaking cultural and social change, the 60s is famously recalled with the oft quoted statement "If You Remember the '60s, You Really Weren't There" First published in 2006 and edited by Michael Heatley, this nostalgic look at the best music, movies, TV programmes and events of the swinging 60s is now available as an ebook. Illustrated with fantastic colour and black & white photos, including posters and other archive material, this is a great purchase for both collectors of nostalgia and those who lived through and want to recall the 60s.

Leseprobe

Green Umbrella Publishing in 2006 ©

G2 Rights Ltd.

All rights reserved, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission of the Publisher

eISBN 978-1-78281-947-9

The views in this book are those of the author but they are general views only and readers are urged to consult the relevant and qualified specialist for individual advice in particular situations.

G2 Entertainment Limited hereby exclude all liability to the extent permitted by law of any errors or omissions in this book and for any loss, damage or expense (whether direct or indirect) suffered by a third party relying on any information contained in this book.

All our best endeavours have been made to secure copyright clearance for every photograph used but in the event of any copyright owner being overlooked please address correspondence to: G2 Entertainment Ltd, 16a Beaufort Road, Reigate, Surrey, RH2 9DJ

CONTENTS

1960

1961

1962

1963

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969

1960

FASHION, CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Ben Hur wins record 11 Oscars

This 1959 film won 11 Oscars in 1960, including: Best Actor, Charlton Heston; Best Director, William Wyler; Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Hugh Griffith; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Colour; Best Cinematography, Colour: Best Costume Design, Colour; Best Effects/Special Effects; Best Film Editing; Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy; Best Picture and Best Sound.

With a budget of $14.5 million, although the final cost was $15 million, it was at the time the most expensive movie ever made and it was set to make or break Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Shooting of the epic began in Rome in May 1958 and took nine months to finish on the largest outdoor set ever built at the time.

Chariton Heston the star of Ben Hur and also pictured steering his chariot in the classic race from the film.

The story centres around Judah Ben-Hur, played by Charlton Heston, who lives as a rich Jewish prince and merchant in Jerusalem at the beginning of the first century. Having been happily reunited with his old friend Messala, who arrives as commanding officer of the Roman legions, he is angry to find that their political differences pull them apart. An unfortunate incident sees Messala send Judah to the galleys and his family to prison - however, Judah vows to take revenge.

With his chiselled features, Charlton Heston was the obvious choice for the title role, and with the exceptional abilities of director William Wyler this epic film was set for success. Wyler, at the time of his death in 1981, was considered by his peers as second only to John Ford. His directorial career spanned 45 years from silent pictures to the cultural revolution of the 1970s. He was nominated 12 times for an Academy Award and won three during his career. He was also the fourth recipient of the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Elvis wearing his US Army uniform.

Elvis visits the UK

Having been promoted to US Army Sergeant in January 1960, rock’n’roller Elvis Presley left Germany on 1 March on his way back to New Jersey where he was officially discharged from active duty on 5 March. The only time he set foot in the UK was when the plane from Germany landed at Prestwick Airport, 32 miles from Glasgow. During the Second World War, Prestwick Airport developed into a major airport particularly for the delivery of American aircraft under the Lend Lease programme, up to 300 aircraft arriving daily for onward delivery.

Elvis served his country like any other Gl and had no special privileges during his time in the Army. He had worried that the two years of national service would damage his musical career, but in late March 1960 he had his first post-Army recording session - some of the work was for the album ‘Elvis Is Back!’ Later that same month, Elvis taped a special Welcome Home, Elvis edition of Frank Sinatra’s ABC-TV variety show. He was paid $125,000, a record sum for such an appearance.

His fifth (and first post-Army film), Gl Blues began filming in late April 1960 for Paramount with co-star Juliet Prowse. The film is a light comedy melodrama with lots of singing from Elvis who spends most of the movie in uniform. The soundtrack album for the film entered the US chart in October 1960 and soon went to Number 1. It stayed at the top spot for ten weeks, but remained on the chart for 111 weeks and was the most successful album of Elvis’s entire career on the Billboard charts. In November 1960, Gl Blues opened across America to big box office sales and warm reviews. It was among the 15 top grossing films of that year.

Doctor Martens

In 1945, medical doctor Klaus Maertens injured his foot while skiing in the Bavarian Alps. The injury gave him the idea of developing a shoe with an air-cushioned sole to provide extra comfort for his sore foot. This simple, yet effective design was to cause a fashion avalanche.

Dr Herbert Funck developed the idea with an old college friend and, by the late 1950s, the Dr Marten shoe was selling well under the name of Dr Maertens in Germany. The shoes were named 1460s because the first pair walked off the production line in Wollaston on 1 April 1960 after Northamptonshire-based company R Griggs & Co bought the global rights to the air-cushioned sole.

Dr Martens, Docs, or DMs as they are also known have been closely linked to more musical movements than any other item of fashion. Some of the most celebrated feet in the music industry have owned a pair - Billy Bragg, Pete Townshend, Noddy Holder, lan Dury, Joe Strummer, Madness, Sinead O’Connor and John Peel, to name but a few. A crack SAS team wore them during the Falklands War and even Pope John Paul ll owned a white pair.

Elvis on the set of ‘Gl Blues’.

A pair of DMs.

American entertainers Allen Funt and Arthur Godfrey talk on the set of ‘Candid Camera’.

Candid Camera

Candid Camera, titled because it caught people candidly or off guard, featured real people reacting to set-up situations. It started long before the rise of reality TV in the 1990s and continued on and off over 45 years. Although it was first screened in the late 1940s, its huge popularity started during 1960 when it was revived for a seven-year run on TV.

The programme was the brainchild of Allen Funt, a radio writer and producer. His idea was simple. It was in part a psychology experiment but was also a practical joke. Funt would set up an odd situation, and then film people’s reactions to it. He guessed that the way people reacted to unusual situations would be highly entertaining and he was proved right.

The show was intended to be good humoured and never set out to humiliate or hurt anyone’s feelings. If he deemed a reaction unsuitable he would not air the tape. Often, actors would be hired to play small roles in the gags and Funt himself was prone to playing a character. At the end of each gag, Funt would reveal the set up and say ‘Smile you’re on Candid Camera’, letting the unsuspecting person know where the hidden camera was located.

A child playing with Lego in a department store.

Lego

Lego was first seen at the Brighton Toy Fair in 1960. The model kits were not available until the mid-1960s, but the bricks themselves immediately sold by the bucket-load. Lego was developed by a poor carpenter from Denmark, Ole Kirk Christiansen, who together with his son Godtfred turned what was a family furniture-making business for local farmers in Billund into one of the most successful toy companies in the world.

Originally Christiansen’s toys were wooden, he moved with the times and started making plastic toys when that medium started enjoying widespread use. The name was coined by Christiansen from the Danish leg godt which means ‘play well’.

Godtfred saw the immense potential in Lego bricks as a system for creative play, but the bricks still had some technical problems as their ‘locking’ ability was limited. Bricks were eventually improved with hollow tubes on their underside to allow support in the base and better locking ability.

In 1960 wheels were introduced to the system which gave it the potential for building cars, trucks and other vehicles. The Lego Group as it had become, introduced toys specifically targeted towards the pre-school market and there were more than 50 sets of bricks in the Lego System of Play by this time.

MUSIC

March

Skiffle pioneer Lonnie Donegan, a major influence on the Beatles and other British rockers with his acoustic-based music, registered his first Number 1 single in 1957. But March 1960 saw him back on top of the UK charts for the third time with ‘My Old Man’s A Dustman’, his modernised version of a traditional song sung by World War I troops. It was the first ever single to enter the chart at the very top, and stayed there for four weeks.

Lonnie Donegan performs with his band and poses with his guitar.

Donegan had recorded it at his record company’s request the previous month at the Gaumont cinema in Doncaster but it was his typically irreverent performance on TV showcase Sunday Night AT the London Palladium that sent it into sales orbit. The refuse disposal union complained, but the public was clearly amused. Lonnie continued to perform the irritatingly catchy ditty until his death in 2002, explaining with a smile ‘It pays the mortgage.’

Eddie Cochran performs on the set of ‘Go Johnny Go!’.

April

More popular in Europe than at home, US rock’n’rollers Gene Vincent and bosom buddy Eddie Cochran co-headlined a package tour of England’s ‘scream circuit’ with a supporting bill that included Billy Fury, Vince Eager and other vocalists on the books of the celebrated pop svengali Larry Parnes. After the performance at the Liverpool Empire, local agent Allan Williams arranged another Merseyside spectacular with Parnes on 3 May for the two Americans - but Eddie never made it. En route by taxi from the Bristol Hippodrome to London on Sunday 17 April, a tyre burst on the A4 through Chippenham, and the speeding driver rammed a lamp post. From the back seat between his fiancee - songwriter Sharon Sheeley - and Vincent, Cochran was hurled against the roof and then out of the door.

Vince Eager.

Awaiting his destiny as a mid-1960s pop star, Dave Dee, who was then a police cadet, was on station duty that night, and was responsible for the deceased’s possessions - including his guitar - until their removal to the USA. As the ‘Man Who Killed Eddie Cochran’, the chauffeur - on top of being fined and banned for dangerous driving - was, reputedly, beaten up regularly by West Country Teddy Boys.

Though a flop in the States, Cochran’s forthcoming single, ‘Three Steps To Heaven’, was to be a posthumous UK Number 1. He was also to be the subject of a hit tribute disc, 1963’s ‘Just Like Eddie’ by Heinz.

Moreover, despite fractured ribs and collarbone injuries to his already calipered left leg, Gene Vincent, with characteristic obstinacy, had honoured remaining British dates in 1960, using the microphone stand as a surgical support and paying respects to his friend with a heavy-hearted ‘Over The Rainbow’. Years later he would be heard backstage addressing an unseen Cochran. When called to go on stage, he would reply sadly, ‘Tell Eddie I’ll be right out.’

Music impresario Larry Pames.

Rock’n’roll singer Johnny Kidd with his wife Jean Heath.

August

Johnny Kidd and the Pirates topped the UK charts for a week with the climactic ‘Shakin’ All Over’. One of the few home-grown rock’n’rollers who never tried to evolve into an ‘all-round entertainer’, Kidd could work up a sweaty intensity known but rarely in British pop before 1962. This was enhanced by a theatrical stage act, complete with Captain Pugwash costumes, an impressive cutlass and a galleon backdrop. Moreover, he and the group’s trove of hits - notably ‘Please Don’t Touch ‘ and ‘Shakin’ All Over’ - equalled anything from the annals of US classic rock.

Johnny and the Pirates were innovative too for their sparse line-up. After the wife of one of the guitarists decided she wanted him home in the evenings, Kidd did not seek a replacement, preferring the simpler expedient of continuing with just bass, drums and one guitar. In doing so, a prototype was patented - because the Big Three, the Who, Led Zeppelin, Motorhead, the Sex Pistols and other diverse entities reliant on an instrumental ‘power trio’ were all traceable to the Pirates.

September

It is interesting to note how often the Grim Reaper made the charts, and the vast number of artists who released a ‘death disc’. One of pop’s hardiest forms, it is also perhaps the most comic - though much of the humour is unconscious, most conspicuously in the kitsch melodramas of the early 1960s.

Television actor and pop singer John Leyton.

In summer 1960 - probably the optimum moment in this golden aeon of death discs - ‘Tell Laura I Love Her’ swept into international Top Tens, either in original form by Ray Petersen or via a plenitude of indigenous covers. The lyrical thrust was that Laura’s boyfriend Tommy - the first-person narrator - wants to give her ‘everything’, namely ‘flowers, presents but most of all a wedding ring’. In hopes of affording these, he enters a stock-car race for a cash prize, but dies in a subsequent smash-up - but not before imparting giving the sentiments of the title to his beloved.

Petersen’s version of the song wasn’t issued in Britain after an excerpt was played on a BBC news programme to illustrate the furore in the US ‘Bible Belt’ by those who considered it un-Christian. However, an arrangement by Welshman David Spencer eclipsed one by John Leyton to reach Number 1 after Spencer renamed himself ‘Ricky Valance’ (to remind consumers of Ritchie Valens, killed the previous year in the same crash landing as Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper), and despite the BBC refusing airplay in view of a spate of recent British motor-racing fatalities. It was to be David-Ricky’s only hit.

Johnny and the Hurricanes in classic 60s pose.

An ‘answer’ to record Tell Laura I Love Her’ was to be heard before 1960 was out in a certain Marilyn Michaels’ desperate ‘Tell Tommy I Miss Him’ - also recorded by Laura Lee and, in 1961, Skeeter Davis - which places our grieving heroine in the chapel in apparent spiritual communication with Tommy.

November

For one week, instrumentals filled an unprecedented nine positions in the UK Top 30. At Number 5, ‘Rockin’ Goose’ by Ohio’s Johnny and the Hurricanes featured the apposite if technically unchallenging squawk of a saxophone mouthpiece. Other chart-riding North Americans included Duane Eddy booming the melody of ‘Because They’re Young’ solely on the lower strings of his ‘twangy guitar’; the Piltdown Men with horn-laden ‘Macdonald’s Cave’, follow-up to their robust overhaul of Rossini’s ‘William Tell Overture’ (as ‘Piltdown Rides Again’), and the Ventures, fighting the John Barry Seven’s treatment of their ‘Walk Don’t Run’ magnum opus.

The most omnipotent British instrumental group, The Shadows, were represented by ‘Apache’, slipping from the chart after a long reign at the top, but set to be voted Top Record of 1960 in the annual New Musical Express readers’ poll, and destined to remain evocative of the era’s provincial youth clubs with soft drinks, ping-pong and with-it vicars.

American rock’n’roll guitarist Duane Eddy.

SPORT

Rome Olympics

While the first Olympic Games of the modern era were held after an interval of more than 1,500 years in Athens in 1896, the games held in Rome could claim to be the first truly modern spectacle due to the coverage by more than 100 television channels that brought it to a worldwide audience.

Making the most of the country’s rich history, the wrestling competition was held in the Basilica of Maxentius with other ancient sites hosting gymnastics (Caracalla Baths) and the finish of the marathon (the Arch of Constantine).

Held in the Mediterranean summer heat against medical advice, the Games were not without controversy. Danish cyclist Knut Jensen collapsed and died during a road race and was later found to have taken a stimulant. These were also the last games that South Africa was allowed to participate in due to Apartheid (they were re-admitted in 1992).