I was born, just as the thirties were launched, in what used to be the small township of Gorton on the fringes of Manchester. My mother had taken over the “high class china and hardware” shop that my grandmother had opened years before. So, in my youth I became adept at pulling pints of paraffin oil and wrapping up tea sets. On leaving school I worked for a year or so as an apprentice draftsman in a local engineering works before taking up work as a trainee newspaper photographer with the Ashton-under-Lyne group of weekly newspapers.

John's Story

The fifties saw a dramatic change not simply in my life style but, more especially, in my style of living. The fifties started out with my working as a newspaper photographer for a group of East Anglian newspapers. The second half of the decade saw me reading for a degree in psychology at Hull University. This change in my life was straddled by my long term interest in the theatre. So what I find particularly memorable about going out in the fifties is two theatre visits: one in Lowestoft whilst the other in Hull.

SAND AND WEST END SUCCESSES Lowestoft, is an East Anglian seaside resort so, during the summer, it had it concert party type shows: one at the Arcadia whilst the other at the Sparrows Nest - both now long gone as theatres. The particular night I remember was at the end of the summer season when comic Bill Fraser and comedienne Pamela Cundell had packed away their grease paint and were doubtless preparing for panto. So the theatre was now given over to weekly rep with a fixed company of players presenting a different play each week. Which, for the actors, meant playing twice nightly each evening and rehearsing a new play in the morning. If the actors were lucky they had the afternoon off or, if they were unlucky with a long part in the offing, having to learn their lines or having to go off to borrow a three piece suit from the local furniture store. Added to which you had to provide a range of their own clothes for modern parts. All of which still evokes my youth in Manchester with its ring of weekly repertory companies presenting "Frank H. Fortescue Famous Players in West End Successes". It was with one of Frank H's companies that Arthur Lowe started his theatrical career. (Arthur Lowe would later star as Captain Mainwaring in Dad's Army. It was also in Dad's Army that later Pamela Cundell would also appear as Mrs Fox.) But whilst "Frank H" was well established in the North he had not similarly colonised East Anglia.

ASKING HER OUT So what of my night out? It was special because it was the first night out with my new girl friend. She had had little time for evening enjoyments as she was a cook in one of the sea front hotels. But, as it was now the end of the season, she had said "yes" when I nervously asked her if she would like to see the play at the Arcadia. I explained, to guard against being turned down, that I had to write a report for The Stage newspaper - I was the local correspondent for that newspaper and had to keep the editor posted with reviews for the various theatrical productions in the area. But it was a lie that I had to write a report as it was already written and in the post to London. But I knew I could wangle another couple of free seats from Harry the theatre manager.

WALKING OUT OLD STYLE As the theatre visit was our first night out together I bought a box of chocolates. It was, if I remember rightly, a box Good News. That choice might have suggested that I hoped that our first date would be good news for our long time friendship! It wasn't, but that is another story! And when I called for her to walk to the theatre I walked on the outside of the pavement - to protect her from the mud thrown up by the passing traffic or from the slops thrown from an upstairs window. Yes: social habits do die hard! I wonder now if, even in the fifties, she guessed why I was prancing about from side to side as we walked along. But that was how my parents said a gentleman behaved! For then there were 'ladies' and 'gentlemen' - 'women' as a class came rather later.

COFFEE AND QUESTIONS We were soon at the theatre; we received a nod of welcome from Harry on duty as manager in the foyer to welcome his patrons. We moved into the theatre's tiny refreshment bar - dominated by a massive chromium plated geyser and with the walls painted in an uninteresting maroon which Harry had no doubt picked up as a job lot of paint as local reps tend to be in financial straights. As we drank coffee she advanced the common query: you must have an interesting job as a photographer. "Not", I responded, "if you have to go every Tuesday to Beecles and Bungay!" Although, at the time, I did not realise that I would not be a photographer for very much longer. Nor did I realise that before leaving for Hull University I would work in this theatre as its stage manager for a couple of months or so. Or that by then in charge of the company would be Charles Simon who years later would play Mr Dale in radio's Mrs Dales Diary - with Mrs Dale played by Jessie Mathews.

A STRANGE RECOLLECTION OF ANGER My theatre night out in Hull was also an emotionally charged one but in a quite different sense. I made that visit alone to see John Osborne's Look back in Anger. Somewhat surprisingly I now remember very little of the production. But I still remember the feeling of exhilaration as I left the theatre and walked back to my digs. Why I found the play so exhilarating I now find it difficult to understand. Certainly it must have had something to do with the play's representation of working class life - but was it then quite so novel as it is now presented? With my home in Manchester had I not seen Hobson's Choice and Hindle Wakes - I certainly remember my mother recalling that when Hindle Wakes was presented in the past in Manchester then about town were poster's asking: 'Should Fanny Marry Alan?' But, as I was to find out as a student, the English have rather short memories…….