1962RTF documentary on Square Saint Lambert, where the ‘blouson noir’ phenomenon was born 4 years earlier. What a young bloke likes: “Le madison, le twist, le rock, tout ce qui est à la mode” ‘Tout naturellement on va au cinéma, tout naturellement on choisis les films de violence” 0:31 Armés de barres de fer et… […]
The Golden Era
Hector, the French Sutch
Is there such a thing as a Screamin’ Lord Sutch in any other country but England ? Apparently, yes, and in France he went under the name of Hector, his backing band being the Médiators. Of course, both Lord Sutch and Hector were inspired by the original schlock rocker, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. Born in Paris […]
Americanisation, processed food and obesity since the 1940s
In the present day, using body-mass index (BMI) measurements, the medical profession distinguishes between classifying human bodies which are described as ‘fat’ in everyday speech as technically – in ascending order – as ‘overweight’ > ‘obese’ > ‘morbidly obese’. In 1962, only 13% of Americans were obese, by 2016 that figure had increased to over […]
1956 ‘My Teenage Daughter’
Opening in May 1956, the British film ‘My Teenage Daughter’ was Britain’s answer to ‘Rebel without a Cause’. It was considered a hit at the time but is a much tamer affair and has less to say about teenage culture in general than its. Director and producer Herbert Wilcox whose wife Anna Neagle) would also […]
1958 Tail-end teds
The classic ted was characterised by his hairstyle and the long drape jacket with velvet trimmings. By the late 1950s, there was a growing fashion for hair not to be greased or combed back which was to predominate at the time of the mods and the Beatles about 1963. In the intervening period, between 1958 […]
1963 Rockers in the mod era
The provenance of the following video from film-cans from the Pinewood stock is unknown. It is dated by British Pathé to 1963. This 24-hour jiving marathon with £20 prize money took place in Barry, near Cardiff, in 1960 (ITV Wales archive). Note some out-and-out teds in the audience. The film gives us a glimpse of […]
