Some footage of a ‘fun run’ in the streets of Stockport in 1959 organised by the landlord of the Golden Lion, Middle Hillgate, show two teds congratulating the more casually dressed ‘cool’ winner of the run. There are two teds, one on the left in a rough-and-ready mode (I can’t make out whether he has […]
The Golden Era
1959-70 Gene Vincent and the French
Apart from Elvis who was an unavoidable fixture from 1956 onwards, the British rock’n’rollers were particularly enamoured of Bill Haley, Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis, all of whom conducted tours of Blighty. However, in France it is Gene Vincent who became the rock’n’rollers’ idol and where he is to this day still affectionately known […]
1959 pre-rock’n’roll Parisian youth styles
My uncle from Oldham near Manchester had danced to rock’n’roll in his teens in the early-to-mid 1950s and on his many travels through Europe during the 1960s (he had by then become a university physics lecturer) he was left with the distinct impression that there existed no youth culture in France or anywhere else in […]
1958 dancing to rock’n’roll at home in the East End
Taken from a short 1958 documentary ‘The More we are Together’ on the extended Gladden family of Bethnal Green. We can see an excerpt showing young girls and their parents amusing themselves dancing to rock’n’roll tunes at home.
1957 Blackpool holidays
This 1957 colour film ‘Holiday’ is a great illustration of the traditional holiday season in Blackpool. 1John Taylor, the director was shooting a standard 1950s travelogue of the Lancashire Coast for British Transport Films and ‘Holiday’ was created from the spares by editor Ralph Sheldon who had established a reputation for setting pictures to music. This […]
1959 BBC documentary on New York youth gangs
https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/panorama-new-york-juvenile-delinquents/z7yn2sg