One of the organisers of this event – in the middle of rural Lincolnshire –  was none other than  film star Stanley Baker.  Not one of his better ventures as it turned out – it was held over the Spring Bank Holiday Weeked at the end of May 1972 – we always think that is a weekend and week that can usually be relied on to give some good sunny and warm weather.

Sadly that was not the case this time as the event coincided with torrential rain and high winds

Personally I cannot remember this event at all but a friend of mine can. It seems, from what I have managed to glean,  that Stanley Baker was there for all of the FOUR days

Bardney is a village in the heart of Lincolnshire East of Lincoln. Tupholme is a hamlet nearby – and Tupholme Airfield is a former RAF wartime base. Not sure but I wonder if the event took place on the disused airfield – however with the description used of  festival site as a ‘muddy marsh’  maybe not.

Early in May 1972, with the festival less than three weeks away, Stanley Baker and Lord Harlech flew to Bardney by helicopter from London. ABOVE PICTURE

The Vicar of Bardney, the Rev Peter Clarke, receives a £10,000 bond from Lord Harlech against any damage caused by his company’s pop festival just outside Bardney. Also pictured from left: Festival director Barry Spikings, actor Stanley Baker and land owner Bill Hardy

The Festival featured the Spencer Davis Group, Lindisfarne, the Beach Boys, Genesis, Sly and the Family Stone, Slade, Faces (with lead singer Rod Stewart), Helen Reddy, Strawbs, Vinegar Joe (with lead singers Elkie Brooks and Robert Palmer), Sha Na Na, Don McLean, Joe Cocker, Status Quo and a host of others introduced by John Peel and Whispering Bob Harris.

At its peak, there were 50,000 people there – in torrential winds and rain!

It was amazing that the festival even happened in the first place as there was a lot of opposition from officials and locals who wanted to ban it.

The biggest threat turned out to be the weather. The night before the festival was due to begin, the site was battered by gale force winds which smashed up the stage and wrecked marquees and fan’s tents.

Organisers worked through the night to ensure the show would go on but the weather was dreadful.

Twenty-four hours into the event, one local Newspaper  reported: “The mammoth pop festival site is a muddy marsh. There has been rain, cold and high winds. But nothing can stop the fans pouring in.”

By the time the music started, several hundred fans had been treated for exposure – many fans had arrived on the site already exhausted from their long trek from Lincoln.

Actor Stanley Baker, of Zulu fame, one of the leading lights behind the festival, was cheered by around 40,000 when he followed Slade on to the stage to thank the fans for turning up and behaving themselves.

Many local Bardney businesses admitted they had had a bumper weekend and apart from just a few exceptions, it seemed fans had been well behaved.

Another venture for Stanley Baker – he along with others purchased British Lion Films and Shepperton Studios – and also he financed films not all doing anywhere near as well as Zulu. It does seem that his venture into the business world was not a success.

Maybe he should have stayed with acting – he did continue acting of course but ended up in making some inferior films because he needed the money.

 Then of course he died at a young age leaving a wife and children.

He made some memorable films – I think that in the last day or two – or maybe still to come  – Talking Pictures are showing ‘Hell Drivers’ one of his early ones – and it will be in a restored version.

I did an article on this Radio Actress a few months ago having acquired quite a bit of information from a Magazine article that Ellis Powell – famous as Mrs Dale on Radio –  had given.

Other that that, there is very little information on this actress who had the leading role in a very famous Radio show throughout the fifties and into the sixties.

It is the manner of her departure from that role that seems to have been reported more than anything.  

In the article she said that she had a son Clive, about the same age as the fictional Mrs Dale’s son Bob who was in his early twenties in 1954.

I have come across this photograph of Ellis Powell attending the marriage of her son Clive in 1960 SEE ABOVE

Clive Roman and Myra Vaughan wedding 1960

How he comes to have the surname Roman I don’t know unless Roman is his second name. We assume also that his father was Ralph Truman who Ellis Powell was married to from 9th March 1928 – but all is speculation.

Ellis Powell died in 1963 aged 59

That wonderful Television channel we have here in England Talking Pictures has certainly been a great hit with us Film fans of those classic film years.

Today they showed a film I have featured on here a few times before – Duel In the Jungle – and that was followed by the late great Billy Fury in Play It Cool.

ABOVE – a scene from the film’s climax – this is the studio set bit that was used along with African Location filming

Duel In The Jungle 1954 – was a quite big budget production in Colour – and much of it shot on location in Africa

I have seen information on imdb that Duel In Tne Jungle  was produced by Donna Reed and her husband Tony Owens – with their production company Todon  – but I can find no reference to Todon – so have no idea of the other similar films they financed. Todon, a company of Tony Owens and his wife Donna Reed which produced The Donna Reed Show for Television some years later.

‘Play It Cool’ was directed by Michael Winner who had a great respect for Billy Fury who was not a trained actor but did extremely well in this very much ‘above average’ film of it’s type.

This was one of if not the best pop music films to come out of 60s Britain with Billy Fury

It is true that many very poor pop music films were produced in Britain in the early 1960s. Play It Cool is not, however, a poor film. It has a charm, drive and integrity that singles it out from the dross. Billy Fury never claimed to be a natural actor. In interviews, he said repeatedly that he was keen to take cameo roles that gave him the opportunity to focus with intensity on his character.

ABOVE – A Publicity Still from ‘Play it Cool’

However, Play It Cool placed on his shoulders the responsibility of accepting the entire focus of the plot, and he brought energy and imagination to the role. Michael Winner has often remarked on the respect he felt for Billy Fury in accepting a star role in a medium that was so foreign to him, and in delivering such a performance.

His next film ‘I’ve Gotta Horse’ was made in 1965 and then came  That’ll Be The Day – quite a bit later -where Billy has a cameo role as Stormy Tempest a singer at a holiday camp. That one had Ringo Starr as well as David Essex.

ABOVE Anna Palk

In ‘Play it Cool’ Billy’s girl in the film was Anna Palk who I remember well from the Television Series ‘The Main Chance’ with John Stride.  Sadly she died quite young in 1990 aged only49.

I am reminded of this early Pop Singer – after seeing the film version of ‘Six Five Special’ last weekend on Talking Pictures. 

It featured quite a lot of singers of the day. One of the artist featured was this man Russ Hamilton who  was , in a way unique.   

He had a really big hit in the UK in 1957 with ‘We will Make Love’ and the B Side of this called ‘Rainbow’ virtuallu topped the US charts. Unheard of in those days.

ABOVE: Russ Hamilton with Billy Fury

In 1957, several years before the British beat invasion of America, a young singer-songwriter from Liverpool, Russ Hamilton, made the US Top 10 with “Rainbow”. In Britain the song was the B-side of Hamilton’s hit “We Will Make Love”, which came close to the top of the UK charts in August that year.

We Will Make Love and Rainbow – were recorded on the Oriole Label ABOVE

The newspapers of the day were full of Hamilton’s success and he was in buoyant mood, planning to buy a car and hoping to give his parents a weekly allowance – once his royalties came through. He would sing “We Will Make Money” to reporters, but despite having a Top 10 record in Britain and America he made very little money.

He offered young musicians this advice: “Never give anyone your power of attorney.”

Russ Hamilton was born Ronald Hulme in Liverpool in 1932. In his early twenties, he fell in love with Pat Hitchin, a girl from Blackpool, and when she jilted him he consoled himself by writing a romantic waltz, “We Will Make Love”.

Despite the title, the lyric was very innocent, and the song was literate with good imagery. Hulme had a dreary job as a cost clerk and, in 1956, he became a Redcoat at Butlin’s in Blackpool, where, as Uncle Ronnie, he organised parties and treasure hunts for children. He offered “We Will Make Love” to Frankie Vaughan, but Frankie  wasn’t interested. 

Hulme then formed a skiffle group, which entertained Butlin’s staff at the Royal Albert Hall. Billy Butlin suggested that they made a record to wake up the campers.

This was arranged with a small independent label, Oriole, and while in the studio, Hulme asked if he could also sing “We Will Make Love”, which he would pay for himself.

Oriole’s musical director, Jack Baverstock, urged the label’s owner, Morris Levy, to sign him. A recording session was arranged in March 1957 with the Mike Sammes Singers and the Johnny Gregory Orchestra.

Oriole thought he should have a new name: Hamilton Square was nearby and Hulme added “Russ” as it sounded American.

During the winter months, the newly named Russ Hamilton was working for Butlin’s at the Ocean Hotel, Brighton, entertaining honeymooners who wanted the tax advantage of marrying before the end of the financial year.

One guest star, the singer Michael Holliday, offered to record “We Will Make Love”. When Hamilton told him it was being released on Oriole, Holliday pooh-poohed its chances as the label had had so few hits, but with Butlin’s publicity, Hamilton secured appearances on BBC TV’s Six-Five Special.

The single climbed the charts, although Scottish sales were split with Kathie Kay’s cover version.

After 11 weeks it reached the No 2 slot. Elvis Presley’s “All Shook Up” had been on top for four weeks and Russ Hamilton was set to replace him.

Russ Hamilton ABOVE – Looks like he is at Butlins here where he worked for quite a time.

However  on 2 August 1957, Oriole Records placed an advertisement in the music press: “This week and next our factories are closed for the annual holidays. Our presses are at a standstill. Large supplies of this record built up prior to the close-down have been exhausted and for two weeks you may have difficulty in buying Oriole CB. 1359 – which is, of course, Russ Hamilton’s ‘We Will Make Love’.” The ad concluded: “We know that this disc will be a Number One… and it will be up there very soon after supplies start rolling again.”

The huge success of Hamilton’s record had taken Oriole by surprise. The following week, “We Will Make Love” slipped to No 4, and it faded away as Paul Anka’s “Diana” took over from Presley instead. Hamilton was touring Butlin’s camps, judging skiffle contests and singing with the winners: for all he knew, he could have been performing for the workers at the pressing plant. The B-side of the single, “Rainbow”, was a whimsical ballad.   

The A-side was published by Dave Toff but the B-side belonged to Robbins Music, who pushed it hard in the US, securing cover versions from Bill Darnel and Bobby Breen. Hamilton entered the US charts and went to No 4 during a four-month stay. Because of commitments to Butlin’s and Six-Five Special, an appearance on Patti Page’s The Big Record Show had to be postponed until October and by then, the moment had passed.

Using the old adage that any publicity is better than none stories were made up, one was that he that I had won a Purple Heart in Korea and had bought Hitler’s yacht for £100,000.

At the time he didn’t even own a Cycle.

His follow-up, the engaging “Wedding Ring”, scraped into the UK Top 20. I

I  can remember also the next record he had which was “Little One” –  later recorded by Ruby Murray and Houston Wells – it made the sheet music sales charts.

Russ Hamilton made an LP for Oriole and his 12 singles for the label include standards (“Tip Toe Through the Tulips”, “September in the Rain”) as well as an answer song, “The Reprieve of Tom Dooley”.

He did record for other labels, notably “Gonna Find Me a Bluebird” with the Jordanaires in Nashville, and a remake of “We Will Make Love” for Embassy, but he was disheartened. As he said, “I was going round the world singing my head off and I was swindled out of a fortune. I never even got my gold disc.”  

Talking of Golden Discs – another Pop singer of a similar time was Terry Dene  PICTURED ABOVE – who starred in a film directed by Don Sharp called The Golden Disc in 1958 – quite a low budget film from Butchers Films who tended to specialise in crime dramas with some success.

I don’t thin I ever saw the film but as it is or has been shown on Talking Pictures I may get to see it.

Terry Dene,  at times very reminiscent of Cliff Richard, had 3 top 20 hits between 1957 and 1958. Cliff Richard had his first hit in 1959.  Terry Dene is also still performing.

One event I remember clearly was when Terry  Dene got called up to the army for his national service.  However  when he joined up, his arrival was greeted by maximum media coverage, the red carpet and preferential treatment.

This alienated his fellow recruits who bullied him unmercifully and, within two weeks, Terry Dene had a nervous breakdown and was discharged.

All kind of abuse followed and, just as quickly as he had risen to the top, so he descended to the bottom of the heap.

Failure was something that Dene had to get used to over the next 20 years. The bookings dried up and, when he played, he had to endure the mindless taunts about his past fame, discharge from the army and break-up of his marriage to Edna Savage.

Then came a transformation –  it came  when he walked past the Mobile Evangelistic Crusade Mini Van in Trafalgar Square and at that point Terry  decided to follow Jesus Christ.

He became an evangelical singer and, through this, he was able to find some sort of inner peace. How good that was for him.

Terry Dene married another very popular singer – the lovely Edna Savage ABOVE.

Edna was born in Warrington, then in Lancashire  on 21st April 1936. She had an elder sister, Alice and another sister, Hilda. Her father was a landscape gardener.

Leaving school at 15 Edna trained as a GPO telephonist which was then regarded as a secure job. It wasn’t long before she was able to ‘give up the day job’ as bt then she had got  BBC and Parlophone contracts.

In 1954 after two auditions with the BBC came her first radio broadcast with Alan Ainsworth and The BBC Northern Variety Orchestra.

In the 1956 film ‘It’s Great to be Young’ she dubbed the voiceover for Dorothy Bromiley. Ruby Murray sang the number in the opening credit 

Edna had four marriages and divorces, the first beingTerry Dene the Rock and Roll singer and later Douglas Wilkes guitarist with the Shondells with who she  had twin daughters, Allison and Samantha and lastly Dennis Plowright her pianist.

She spent the later years of her life bringing up her two daughters and grandson.

 Edna died in Ormskirk Hospital on 31st December 2000 at age of 64

Well, this goes right back to the days of Radio and the late forties / early fifties when this very popular radio drama held our attention each evening – always finishing with a ‘cliff-hanger’ situation and then the stirring title music – leaving us, so as we had to tune in the next evening.

Because of the show’s impact, it was decided that there should be a film version – and in fact in all there were three films. When we saw them on the screen however, Dick’s sidekicks Snowy and Jock did not seem to be as we imagined and a friend of mine made this point – they just weren’t right.

I always am of the opinion that there was also a serial version using the same formula and I seem to remember seeing it when we had a regular visiting cinema come to our village many years ago – but I can’t seem to find any reference to this serial at all.

I have it in my mind that one of the episodes had Dick Barton standing at a bar and then we see from a hidden point someone with a blow pipe loading a poison dart and aiming at our hero. He gives a sudden blow – then the episode ends and we await to see how Dick escapes from this one – but the visiting cinema people never came again –  they had been coming for a few years – so I never saw the outcome and yet, to this day, I sometimes think of that and can still see the scene in my mind.

Going back to the Radio Serial even though I would be very small I can still remember the names Noel Johnson played Dick Barton and after he left Duncan Carse took the role. Someone else did towards the end of the series but I have only just discovered that and do not remember him.

Noel Johnson above – the Radio Dick Barton in action

Duncan Carse – the second Radio Dick Barton – I remember him

Hammer Films made three Dick Barton films – so they must have had success and they were planning another when the actor who played Dick on screen, Don Stannard was killed in a car crash   on July 9 1949 at Cookham Dean in Berkshire.

I did have it in my mind that the American Actor Bonnar Colleano who had s film cereer over in England died in the same car crash but that is completely wrong. He did die in a car crash in 1958 though

I liked this film and do remember seeing it at the local cinema. It was certainly action packed at the end with a realistic re-inactment of the D Day Landing which we have just been watching today as we honour those who took part at the commencement of the Liberation of Europe.

Another big-budget WWII adventure, filmed in colour and widescreen by Fox released in the UK on 15 October 1956.

The film has a climatic  battle sequence, while quite well done. The film stars American Robert Taylor and British Actor  Richard Todd and Dana Wynter. T

he  film  remains highly watchable. It would be good to see it again on the Cinemascope Screen.

This man ABOVE – Richard Todd of course would know all about D Day the Sixth of June – he was involved in it and was one of the first – if not the very first – to parachute into Northern France from a Glider in an attempt – which proved successful – of taking and holding Pegasus Bridge

Actions Shots from the Film

 RICHARD TODD – D DAY – The First Paratrooper to land in the invasion.

In June 11 th 2009 just about 7 months before he died a  group of friends put on a lavish birthday party at Grantham House in Lincolnshire. “They’re keeping it all very secret, but I know many senior military and RAF officials are attending, as well as the three county Lord Lieutenants,” he said at the time. Trained at Sandhurst, Todd volunteered for army service in the autumn of 1939, just as his acting career was beginning to take off.

After the war, he became a household name, starring in more than 20 box-office successes including The Dam Busters, Robin Hood and Hasty Heart, in which he played alongside Ronald Reagan. However, the role he cherishes most is the one he played in the British Army’s 6th Airborne Division. During the Normandy invasion in June 1944, his unit was put in charge of securing the east side of the beach landing areas and opening up communication routes for the rest of the Allied troops.

Todd was the first to jump out of the plane. “That wasn’t my idea,” he recalls, “I was supposed to be on plane number 33, but when I got to the aircraft I discovered the pilot was extremely senior and one of the most experienced there. He wanted to go in first, because he had the creme crew.

My immediate thought was: ‘Oh Lord, I’m going to be the first on the ground.'” His moment came at 0040 on Tuesday 6th June. “As I parachuted down, the noise became more overwhelming – machine-guns, shells and mortars. It was impossible to tell who anyone was. I could see shapes but didn’t know if they were the opposition. By luck, the place where I actually dropped was the very track that led to our battalion rendezvous.

So I had no trouble finding it. Other chaps were dropped miles away, in areas inundated by Germans. Some landed in the flooded marshes and drowned. “I was looking back at the incoming aircraft and realised a lot were getting knocked shot down all over the place. If I had been in plane 33 as planned, there was definitely more chance I wouldn’t have survived.”

More than 600 men in the 6th Airborne Division, from the 7th Parachute Batallion, jumped from planes that night, but according to  Richard Todd, only around 160 made it to the RV. From there, they were led by commanding officer Lt Col Geoffrey Pine-Coffin towards the bridges over the river Orne and the Caen canal. “We lost a few more en route, and then even more getting from one bridge to the other. It was swampy ground, and a lot of chaps were caught out in the floods and mud.” The bridges had already been seized by a glider force, led by Major John Howard.

The task for  Richard Todd and his team was to stop the German forces getting reinforcements to the beach. “We got to Pegasus Bridge at the same moment as the German reaction opened up. There was a lot of firing and we lost another 65 men on the bridges.” Exhausted, they carried on fighting for 21 hours and weren’t relieved until 10pm the following night.

Eighteen years after the events at Pegasus Bridge, Todd went on to play Major Howard in the 1962 war film, The Longest Day, alongside John Wayne, Richard Burton and Robert Mitchum.

He has strong feelings for how the world’s largest single-day amphibious invasion was depicted on screen. “I think I prostituted myself a little bit with my role in that. I’m very glad I did it, but like many blockbusters, drama gets added. The set was very realistic which made it emotional, but my main gripe is that in the film, the gliders got too much kudos and not enough was given to the Paras. Too much credit went to Major Howard when the real hero of the day was our commanding officer, Lt Col Geoffrey Pine-Coffin.”

Richard Todd above with Madame Arlette Gondrée at Pegasus Bridge. She had been a little girl and her family owned the café close to Pegasus Bridge when he first met them after the bridge had been recaptured. They were in fact re-united on the ‘This Is Your Life’ show with Richard Todd the subject in 1988 when it was recorded at The Theatre Royal,  Windsor where Richard was touring with a stage production.

This picture ABOVE was taken in 2005

ABOVE – At Pegasus Bridge again – in more peaceful times

This legendary meeting has been done on film so many times – with the best ever being Richard Todd and James Robertson Justice in The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men 1952.

However just a little later we have the famous Television Series with Richard Greene – and in this the third episode in the series entitled ‘ Dead or Alive’  the confrontation on the bridge is quite well staged with Archie Duncan as Little John.

I was alerted to this by a regular reader of this Blog, David , who did give me the episode details from the series – he has all the episodes. He has lso contributed more information over the last few years which is very much appreciated.

This famous scene was filmed out of doors and not using a stage set-  the disappointing thing to me is that it has been done in late winter so we do not have the green leaves on the trees and everything looks bare. I would guess this may have been done in late March or early April.  Other than this it is well done. 

I must say that when Richard Greene plunges into the water, it must have been very cold indeed – it may just have been a stunt man doing this though as we did not get a clear picture of Robin in close-up.

This Television Series of the mid 50s was extremely popular both her and in the USA.

R

ichard Greene played Robin Hood and Patricia Driscoll was Maid Marion. ABOVE   Archie Duncan made a very good Little John and this role was a big break for him as an actor.

Above: Richard Greene with Alexander Gauge who made an excellent Friar Tuck.

Again back to the Monster Movies of the late fifties , this one saw a spaceship return to earth with an alien that grows in a gigantic creature.

A spacecraft returns from a trip to Venus ( much the same story as The Quatermass Experiment at this stage ) but it crashes into the sea just off the coast of Italy. Local fishermen rescue two of the occupants who are still alive. One of them dies just after and the other is taken to a local hospital.

Then, a small boy finds a canister containing a strange jelly substance and takes it to a visiting circus to see what it is. The owner of the circus takes charge of the jelly and a eventually a strange creature  emerges from it. The following day, the creature has grown into a giant – it escapes and goes on the rampage, eventually ending up in Rome.

The Military are called in to try and capture it, but they are unable to.

In  Rome, the Creature is put in the zoo as a tourist attraction –  it escapes from there, fights and kills an elephant and climbs the Colosseum, we have the exciting climax to the film.

The Film Trailer BELOW :-

I have to admit I was drawn to this because it was set in Sicily, but they really never got far from Rome. It is a significant film for the fact that special effects were done by Ray Harryhausen, who has a cameo role in the film (watch for the man feeding the elephant at the zoo.).

William Hopper, who played Perry Mason’s assistant Paul Drake, will be a familiar face for those who grew up during the 50’s and 60’s. Joan Taylor was also on TV a lot during those years. They both have a  sci-fi history in films like Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, “Men Into Space”, and Conquest of Space.

The  Godzilla-like monster from Venus is the focus of the film as they try to find and capture it. An enjoyable reach into the past with a film that entertains after you have adjusted to the special effects style of the day.

In the day, this sort of Summer Show would do great business – and this one in the summer of 1956 would be no exception. Tessie O Shea seemed to be topping the bill with Nat Jackley – Rubberneck – and also I noticed the Television Toppers – also there was Comedian Albert Modley and Sabrina

There was a 45 minute programme on BBC Television on 29 June 1956 which was an excerpt from this show and billed as follows :- An excerpt from Tom Arnold’s show at the Hippodrome, Blackpool. With Tessie O’Shea, Nat Jackley, The Nitwits, Marianne Lincoln, Margo Barry, Arthur Worsley, Alan Modley and Company, Sabrina. The Television Toppers Directed by Leslie Roberts