WHAT'S THE YEAR?
Alwyn Brice looks back on a specific year and asks "what's the year?"
The US seemed to dominate the news this year. Initially 3,500 American soldiers were going to be sent to Vietnam, to assist in the conflict there, in the wake of the French withdrawal. NASA launched the Pioneer 5 Space probe this year, travelling between Earth and Venus. And an act of segregation in the US was declared illegal by the courts when an African-American student tried to order in a “whites only” restaurant: the victory would pave the way for a more liberal society. Meanwhile on television, the first live Presidential debate between Kennedy and Nixon was aired.
In the literary world, Harper Lee published To Kill a Mockingbird: ironically, this famous secondary school text has now been declared unsuitable for study by some UK institutions. As for sport, Cassius Clay won his first fight – in Kentucky.
Over here in the UK it was all about nuclear disarmament. In April, 100,000 people joined a ‘Ban the Bomb’ rally in London, just a year after the famous Aldermaston march. There was also drama in Scotland when a scotch whisky factory in Glasgow exploded, burying 20 firefighters. The massive blaze, caused by approximately 1m gallons of the spirit, took a week to extinguish.
Italy was in the news since this year it hosted the summer Olympics; this was notable in that it was the first time that the games were to be televised.
In France, the new Franc appeared, which doubtless caused some ‘ooh la la’. The French also conducted two atomic bomb tests, both in the Sahara.
There was plenty of independence going on, also: Cameroon, Togo, the Central African Republic, the Ivory Coast, Chad, Mauritania and Senegal all gained their freedom.
In the hit parade the Shirelles were asking Will you love me tomorrow; Chubby Checker was getting all in a twist; and our very own Shadows came up with arguably their best instrumental ever, Apache.
In terms of the cinema, it was a year bursting with varied screenplay: Spartacus (with Kirk Douglas) ruled the roost, grossing US$14m; but there was Hitchcock’s Psycho (which did little for shower curtain salesmen); Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine had fun in The Apartment; the nitty gritty of Alan Sillitoe’s northern life was portrayed by Albert Finney; while for arty types, Frederico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita brought some Italian style to the local fleapit.
As for toys… girls were in raptures over the Chatty Cathy doll from Mattel. Pulling a string on her back allowed her to exercise her vocal chords. How realistic was that? More Chatty offspring would follow. For the males, though, it was definitely Dinky and Corgi. Old established Dinky brought out a very dated looking Job’s Dairy milk float whereas Corgi triumphed with the iconic Chipperfields circus range: colourful and with huge play value, it was a best seller, and would gain accompaniments as the years rolled on.
So... what was the year?