Celebrity meant something very different back in the 60s
» SNAPPED in the 1960s, the famous faces you see here all appeared on the pages of The Citizen during that so called swingin’ decade.
If you were in the Girl Guides and are of a certain vintage, you may remember the rally at Kingsholm in Gloucester when Olave, Lady Baden Powell, Britain’s first Chief Guide came to the city.
The Citizen reported that almost every one of the county’s 6,000 guides were in attendance to meet and greet her for what must rate as one of the greatest hand shaking marathons in local living memory.
Continuing the Scouting theme, an unexpected celebrity guest in the shape of Max Bygraves dropped into rehearsals for the 1962 Gloucester Gang Show to join the cast in a rousing chorus or two of “Ging gan goolie”.
The star of many hit radio and TV programmes, Max Bygraves was in Gloucester for six nights with his show at the ABC Regal in King’s Square supported by Lionel Blair and his dancers.
Mr Bygraves was a hot property, not only as a comedian, but also as a singer with such notable chart records under his belt as “You’re a pink toothbrush I’m a blue toothbrush” and “Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen By The Sea”.
The word celebrity meant something different all those years ago, of course. In the 1960s a celebrity was someone who achieved fame by being able to do something. It’s with the advent of reality TV that we’ve become used to people with no discernable talent becoming household names.
Roger Moore was a heart throb in 1963 as the star of the popular TV show “The Saint”. So imagine the excitement Pamela Russo must have felt when upon winning the Miss Gloucester title at that year’s summer carnival she received, as part of her prize, a visit to Elstree Film Studios to meet the suave actor who played Simon Templar.
As you can see from the photo of the two of them, Miss Gloucester posed for the camera perched on a bar at the early stage in the James Bondto-be actor’s career before he’d fully mastered his signature raised eyebrow.
In September 1963 Anna Neagle, for over 20 years a female lead, big name box office attraction in British films, opened the Gloucester Operatic and Dramatic Society’s New Olympus Theatre in King’s Barton Street.
You can see her here pictured in large black hat being shown round by the Duchess of Beaufort in smaller black hat.
A glimpse at back issues of The Citizen from 1960 reminds us that Wall’s ice cream factory at Barnwood began manufacturing its chilly delights in July of that year. So great was the number of job vacancies in Stroud that the manager of the Employment Exchange said there was little chance of meeting the demand for workers “unless more can be brought in from other districts”.
Sadly the Forest of Dean had no such story to tell as coal mining went into continued decline with the closure of Cannop Colliery.
Other notable events included the introduction of radar speed checks by the police, the opening of Chosen Hill School in Churchdown and Archway School in Stroud and the arrival of Dr Barbara Moore in Gloucester on her trek from John O’groats to Lands End.
Being the 1960s there were no hunt saboteurs or anti blood sports protesters in the grounds of Standish Hospital when the Berkeley Hounds met there. One of their number was Jimmy Edwards, star of such radio shows as “The Glums”, TV’S “Whacko” and films including “The Plank” alongside Eric Sykes.
Pictured here in September 1963 is Harold Wilson, then leader of the opposition, later Prime Minister, at the Feathers Hotel in Lydney where he addressed 500 of the party faithful.
If you remember the children’s TV programme “Tales of the Riverbank” you’ll recall that John Morris was the man who put the voices to Ratty, Hammy Hamster and the cast of animals. He also presented “Animal Magic”, the early evening natural history TV show that endeared him to youngsters across the country.
He’s photographed here at Gyde House, Painswick in 1967.
Just three years before, pop singer Shane Fenton appeared at the Lister Hall in Dursley. The Citizen photographer’s camera clicked on the scene after the performance when Shane was signing autographs for a group of fans who for an unknown reason look less than delighted.
Perhaps that’s why the singer reinvented himself for the glam-rock era as Alvin Stardust.