From tragedy to triumph... a new life for the lucky few
THE MOST famous Littlewoods winner certainly put the “Viv” in vivacious.
When Vivian Nicholson and husband Keith scooped £152,319 in September 1961, the blonde and bubbly mother-offour told reporters they intended to “spend, spend, spend”.
And they did – on expensive sports cars and holidays, their own bungalow with lavish furnishings, boozy open-house parties for cronies, jewellery and fur coats...and lots and lots of champagne.
Viv, then 25, had been raised in extreme poverty.
The daughter of a sick Yorkshire miner, as a child she had scavenged for coal to help heat her family’s tiny home in Castleford, near Wakefield.
She was pregnant at 16 and Keith was her second husband.
The win was the equivalent of £3.6million in today’s money.
She later admitted they had no idea how to manage their cash.
Much of their fortune was gone when Keith died in a car accident just four years later.
She discovered that any property left belonged to her husband’s estate and the tax bills bankrupted her.
After a three-year legal battle she was awarded £34,000, but most of that went on more taxes, more spending, unpaid debts, unwise investments and three more marriages.
She went into a spiral of alcoholism and mental problems but kept her fame thanks to TV and stage versions of her life, including a hit musical.
She died of a stroke and dementia in April 2015, aged 79.
Her story was a tragedy, but other winners fared better.
Lancashire lass Nellie Mcgrail received a cheque for £205,236 from comic film star Norman Wisdom in 1957.
But Nellie, of Stockport, had her feet firmly planted on the ground, having been recently widowed at 34 years old and
earning £5 10 shillings a week in a local factory. Her then record-breaking win – worth £4.8million today – did not lead to a wild spending spree.
Instead, she bought her small, terraced home and the one next door, where her parents lived.
She went shopping for a typewriter for her 14-year-old daughter Irene and a talking doll for other daughter Barbara.
And she booked a holiday in Norway.
Nellie and her daughters were spotted four years later trampolining and roller-skating at the Butlins holiday camp in Pwllheli, Wales.
In 1962 she married her childhood sweetheart, a lorry drive called Albert, but shunned the spotlight.
Bradford couple Elaine and Tommy Mcdonagh scooped £1,010,172.40 in October 1987.
Jobless Tommy had spent
80p on extra lines on his 31-year-old wife’s pools coupon.
They had three children and were living on £90 a week unemployment benefit in a three-bedroomed terrace.
The jackpot win allowed them to have the honeymoon they had never had, and to swap their old Datsun for a BMW. One of their first luxuries was a trip to Disneyland, new shoes for their two daughters and a radiocontrolled toy car for their son.
Elaine continued with her business studies course at Keighley College, saying that knowledge would help them handle their massive windfall. The couple said at the time: “We are still the same people. Folk seem genuinely pleased for us and we are still treated as normal.”
Pottery worker Edwin Dodd celebrated a £1,000 pools win in 1934. He had been working for 48 shillings a week in Stoke-ontrent while recovering from a major operation.
The 21-year-old was able to buy a newsagents business and a home for himself, his wife and their four-year-old son.
Almost 50 years later,
Edwin recalled: “The win saved my life because if I had not had the money, I would have carried on working.”