Miss Anglia Will Need Beauty Plus...
This article sets out to find some hints on 'How - To - Make - Yourself - Sparkle - Before - The - Judges' for Miss Anglia '67. I must say I am baffled by the whole beauty competition concept. Despite all the claims made in this article about personality and 'an inner beauty', it all feels rather hollow. If it is genuinely considered at all, the comment that personality is there 'to garnish your natural feminine appeal' makes it clear what really counts. Who wants a garnish?
Interestingly, the article does turn to four women and only one man to seek tips.
'But who would have sound advice to pass on to the girls? I decided to ask the people who devote a lot of their time to the world of love, marriage, beautiful women, handsome men - the writers of romantic fiction.'
Barbara Cartland, Sylvia Thorpe, Ivy Ferrari, Mary Burchell and Walter Boore are the authors consulted. They all provide variations on the personality trope.
First place gets £200, second takes £100 and both go through to the National Final of the Miss ITV competition. Third place receives £50. These are not insignificant sums in 1967 and would undoubtedly be a large part of the appeal for many of the young ladies.
Lessons that go on and on...
On Wednesday Siggy and the Changelings shows two new primary schools that have adopted an unstructured school day. Lessons are not rigid and flow among one another. The recently abandoned 11+ exam has opened up the possibilities for different teaching styles. The writer, Graeme Kay, went to visit both schools and encountered a couple of interesting aspects.
'When I rang Royce to make an appointment a 10-year-old answered the phone. A nine-year-old makes his daily rounds as the school weather man, checking temperatures and issuing weather bulletins.'
The article describes the schools as radical and being unfamiliar with a typical 1960s' primary school day, it is difficult for me to judge. Some of the ideas certainly ring bells with my own education many years later. A teacher describes an English, Maths and baking lesson all in one as, 'the children write and read out the recipe, hence the English lesson. Then when we take it from the oven, the cake is cut into fractions - halves, quarters, eighths, and so on. Thus we get a maths' lesson before the children demolish the cake.' There is also a photo of a girl measuring a boy with the caption telling us, 'Learning arithmetic this way gives children a personal interest.'
The children appear to flourish. John England, a headteacher and former president of the National Union of Teachers praises the schools, before going on to make a firm point. 'But let's get one thing straight. You can never take all the drudgery out of school work. At some point a child must get to grips with a subject or problem he doesn't like.' An official from the Manchester Education Authority pointed out that most schools don't have the resources of these two, which also both have far fewer pupils than most schools.
Wish You Were Here...
Anthony Morton, Sue Nicholls, Noele Gordon and Lew Luton pose on the shore.
Four of the Crossroads regulars pose in Djerba, Tunisia, whilst taking a break from filming there. I am absolutely baffled as to how Crossroads ended up filming in Tunisia and the cast must have thought all their Christmases had come at once. How does a soap opera centred around a hotel in the West Midlands end up in Tunisia? We want some beach scenes - where shall we go? I grant you the West Midlands region is not awash with coastline. If we wanted to go to the beach for the day when I was a kid, it was at least a four hour round trip. However, though they may be slightly less beautiful, there are nearer sandy parts than Djerba, Tunisia.
Swing Through Summer With Bulmers!
Send off the paper or foil seals and you can save money on a beach towel, a folding table, an insulated bag and sleeping bag. The sleeping bag has an 'attractive, gay cotton cover'. All you need to do is buy several, I presume, bottles of Woodpecker or Strongbow cider. I had never heard of Woodpecker. Wikipedia states sales to have declined by a third since 2001 and yet Sainsbury's claims it to be the third biggest draught cider in the UK. Oddly, I am inclined to believe the former.
The Harry Driver Story: Part One
Triumph Over Tragedy
A scriptwriter for George and the Dragon as well as Coronation Street, Harry Driver discusses how he got his success. After contracting polio, Harry was paralysed from the neck down but eventually persisted to become a writer. Harry was 25 when he contracted polio, something that surprised me because I had only ever heard about polio being contracted by children. Harry's descriptions of his suffering really convey what a terrible disease it is. 'All this rubbish about having thoughts and feeling sorry for yourself. In fact, you're just interested in breathing for the next ten minutes, nothing else!' He spent over a year lying in an iron lung, where the nurses fixed up a mirror so he could see who he was talking to and was able to watch television. Harry seems to have picked writing as one of the few jobs he could do despite being paralysed. He was very concerned about being able to provide for his young family. Overall, the picture painted is a devastating one. Harry may have made a success of himself, but there would be many who didn't. It is odd to think of such a debilitating disease still being so prevalent up until the 1950s.
Speaking out
(Mrs) M. Edgar of Harrogate, Yorks. is appalled at the use of Americanisms in The Avengers as she heard 'petrol being referred to as gas, and flat as apartment'. TV Times takes a sarcy tone, saying she wins the prize letter for that week. Her prize? '5 dollars and 88 cents.'
Mrs Jacki Boardman goes all the way with Frigidaire!
Ooh-er etc. The young lady looks ecstatic to be surrounded by drawings of modern white goods. Apparently there was the money for a photograph of her but alas, not of any of the products.
Over 250,000 Women enjoy wearing this wonderful Girdle every day
Leaving School?
School leavers are invited to send for a book on the Royal Navy. The top line is appropriate for the time of year but virtually every issue of TV Times seems to have at least one advert for the armed forces. This one has three. National Service had only ended a few years before and though the armed forces were being reduced in size, there was still a need to woo young recruits in. Good prospects, decent pay, the opportunity to travel and learn a trade all usually feature in these adverts.
Why doesn't someone bring out a refrigerator as carefully made as my Singer sewing machine?
The trousers that look after themselves
Two women admire a pair of men's trousers because they won't have to iron them.
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