Anyone who has looked at each page of this site and the internet knows how difficult it is to get an idea of how things really were in the 1950s, especially as regards ordinary fans. Only rediscovered in 2020 and broadcast on YouTube in 2024, American film producer Lee Gordon’s offering gives us – in […]
The Golden Era
The early 1960s Rockers in ‘Quadrophenia’ (1979)
The film’s protagonist is Jimmy (Phil Daniels), a young mod, in 1964. Kevin (Ray Winstone), his rocker friend. Cons: – Kevin disappears from the film after the above mentioned chase scene. I think this character could have been used towards the end of the film, so we could further see the extent Jimmy’s actions have had […]
1956 ‘Sunshine in Soho’ (colourised)
There was nowhere as cosmopolitan in 1950s Britain as Soho, the night-life and coffee-shop capital of London. This half-hour film ‘Sunshine in Soho’ explores the markets and speciality shops of Soho, a long excerpt on the carnival, before turning to the coffee shops towards the end. It’s as good a portrait as we will ever […]
1957 ‘The Square’
Here’s Michael Winner’s short film ‘The Square’ shot in King’s Cross, London, in 1957 (it went unreleased at the time). = Argyle Square (says one commentator) The skiffle band are none other than Rory McEwan singing ‘it takes a worried man’ and ‘crawdad hole’ while the local inhabitants jive. The members of the group – […]
1958 Lancashire Teds
‘Morning in the Streets’ a 35-minute poetic depiction in film giving an “impression of life and opinion in the back streets of a Northern City in the morning”was directed by Denis Mitchell & Roy Harris in 1958 by the BBC’s Northern Film Unit (although not broadcast until 25 of March 1959). The city in question […]
1958 Notting Hill Riots, London
Lasting less than a week at the end of the summer of 1958, the riots that erupted between Friday the 29th of August and Friday the 5th of September in London’s Notting Hill district proved to be a turning point not only in race relations but in perceptions of the teddy boys. Here’s a nice […]