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Looking back over the years I have been putting my blogs online - I have decided to keep this one - and try to improve and finish it - in my lifetime - and I have to complete my
rock n'roll years - groupies and all - some job that will be.
It is now June 1st, 2015, and I am still adding stories.
First of the last stories:
Janet Clark (Pan Am story) from Wallington County School, Hackbridge Red Lion, New York, and Hawaii, finally found me on the Internet after forty years since our last meeting with Maureen in Kauai...amazing!
At age 77, last year, I adopted a Lab/Beagle female dog. I named ESTHER for Esther Williams, because Labs love to swim. I couldn't find a human female, so, I settled for a female dog. The best thing I have done in years. She is my best companion. From the moment we met, she sat in my lap, and loves people, does not bark or whimper, but loves to eat, and is terrified of thunderstorms - for which she gets vet approved "doggie Valium" which puts her out for about 24 hours. She is four years of age on my birthday November 3, 2015. Here she is, after a grooming at my friend Chuck Simon's pet salon, my ex-stage manager at the Stones, Chuck Berry concerts, etc. in Florida. Those were the days in the mid 60's and thru the 70's - believe me...then it all came to an end...it got too commercial with Coca-Cola sponsors, Ticketmaster, etc...and ticket prices went through the roof. So, here's ESTHER with her favorite toy, named Mimi, given to her by Chuck's wife Beth. Look at that inquisitive face - that's how she looks at you...usually looking for a treat.
To begin:
When I was born, the British Empire covered 3/5ths of the world, and our King George V1, was the head of state of all the countries of which it covered., and the Emporer of India. My stamp and coin collection of those countries always had his picture or engraving on them. Going to school, the success of that Empire was reflected in the nearby houses and buildings. London was a few miles away, and the River Wandle that ran at the rear of our home emptied into the River Thames. That life all came to an end with World War 2.
Winston Churchill was a member of the House of Commons and repeatedly warned of Hitler's dire ambitions.
Churchill, along with King George the V1 and Queen Mary, with the Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, are seen above on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. Princess Elizabeth (far left), is now Queen Elizabeth.
Coins and stamps are from my collection. All British schoolboys had what they called their "collection", which included butterflies, bird's eggs, coins, stamps, etc. The coins included the raised imprint "IND" for India. As Churchill said, "Pity we had to give it away" - he was always strongly opposed to the independence of India.
The Guards regiments could be seen outside Buckingham Palace every day at the "changing of the Guards" ceremony.
Life was exciting, full of colour, and Pomp and Circumstance was the order of the day.
Yes, I am what they call an "Empire Loyalist."
The penny shown above, about 1.5 inches in diameter, would buy me a large bar of Cadbury chocolate. Today, that same bar costs about 150 pennies.
World War 2, changed most of that. We still walked to school through the nearby woods along the River Wandle which ran alongside our school playing fields in Beddington Park grounds of the old Carew Manor House.
http://www.panoramicearth.com/3962/Ca
The above link is to a modern video view of the River Wandle and white bridge mentioned later in this blog. Amazing what you can find on the Internet these days. Open (play) then click on enlarge full screen arrows lower right and use mouse to scan.
I went home and stayed with my brother in Kingston - we made a visit to this bridge and walked along the Wandle - in April, 2013 - brought back memories - it is still the same - then we had lunch at The Grange in Beddington Park, and later visited mom's grave in Bournemouth and dinner at Charles Dickens restaurant. See photo of "Girl in Hampton Court" - they still look great.
If you got here from some reference source - my email address is: ronshelleyis@gmail.com
Bermuda Police Force - 1962 "Paradise Lost"and paradise found with Kelli O'Hara and "South Pacific" at a Broadway charity event 2011.
That was during World War II.
A different world and a different life style.
The following begins that story.
These are wonderful images of swans on the River Wandle in Carshalton in 2002.
Sad to say they were killed by vandals.
River Wandle; clean, calm, and peaceful countryside
.
Nice photo of boating lake at Grange-Beddington park circa 1950's
The River Wandle had swans and ducks and lots of fish......this is Beddington Park where I spent many days after school with various girlfriends.
In 2007 the River Wandle was devastated by a chemical leak - all aquatic life was destroyed - it will take many years to restore - so much for private companies running the ecology.
Note: In December, 2011, the River Wandle was listed #1 in the top ten cleanest rivers in England...a remarkable comeback for a river that was declared a running sewer back in the late 1950's. It has taken 70 years to get it back to when I remember how clean the water was in Beddington Park during the 1940's...a spring bubbled up near the boating lake and Grange House, and you could drink the water as it bubbled out of the ground. The cleanup could have been done a lot sooner except for the lack of public interest and support.
The river now supports many forms of life - not seen for decades - including trout, bream, kingfishers, egrets, and numerous forms of favorable plant life. All the nearby schools have trout and fish tanks and a fish release day several times a year.
Above: Mom's gravestone which I visited with Richard during my trip to England in April 2013.
"Well mom, Richard and I finally got together and came to see you after all these years. RIP"
When my brother gave me some old family photographs a few years ago, I thought it would be an interesting project to put them together with my girlfriend memories. Also, I had read about the River Wandle disaster, and that gave me the title for this semi- biographical history. The internet has such a vast storage of old photographs and information on every subject, that my story looks like taking on a life of its own.
The memories come back with a great deal of nostalgia - and at times with sadness - and many laughs.
Young sister Rita in chair
First memories start with the garden where I lived outside London in Reynolds Close, Carshalton, Surrey. Our back garden led down to the River Wandle. English homes had a front and rear garden in those days. On a clear sunny day in the back garden I remember a cousin named Yvonne. She was twelve and I was four. She was tall, slim,with long blonde hair and blue eyes. She was wearing a daffodil yellow summer dress. My sister Rita was in an English black pram with hood and push handle.
Map of Reynolds Close and River Wandle
Note: Reynolds Close was the turn-around for the 151 bus. The connection with Kingswood Drive was not completed until many years after the war.
Our house was on the river as shown by the pin marker on the map.
Culvers Avenue runs from Green Wrythe Lane in Carshalton and ends at the London Road in Hackbridge which lies east of the river. It crosses the River Wandle in two places near Reynolds Close and served as the road for the 151 bus.
The River Wandle surrounds Reynolds Close and Ansell Grove forming a small island. The river is shown in the map below as the thick brown lines forming an oval shape island around the two streets.
The Mullards/Phillips factory complex was on the London Road (east) side of the river and ran the length of Reynolds Close.
The factory was a major wartime manufacturer of electronic parts, and has since been torn down and replaced by two small residential streets named Mullards Close and Phillips Close.
There was a footpath and woods and a couple of small crossing bridges along the length of the west bank of the river from Hackbridge Road to the end of Reynolds Close. That's how we walked to school. (See photo of the white bridge over the Wandle in later segment below.)
Click on map to enlarge
Then come war memories of the Anderson air raid shelter erected in the back garden at the outset of World War II. Made of curved corrugated steel within a four foot deep trench with discarded earth placed on the top and sides. It held about six people cramped in, and gave excellent protection from bomb blasts and shrapnel.
German "Dornier" Bomber over River Thames - London 
Right: SpitfireThe River Wandle and World War II: Childhood Memories
1937 - 1950
London devastated during the "Blitz"
BELOW: (a) WWII cartoon 1940 during the Blitz showing air raid warden checking for damage to his vegetable garden
(b) Small photo showing mother and children in an Anderson shelter
(c) Survivors emerge from their Anderson shelter
Spitfire photo to be moved to WWII section - note Spitfires found in Burma after 73 years of being hidden from Japanese.
story April 12, 2012
Above: Photos of Spitfires and Hurricanes
Here are a couple of interesting World War II clips of Spitfires in action.
The Royal Air Force and Royal Artillery had bases nearby. During the day we could watch the Spitfires and Hurricanes attack the German bombers.
During the war, the fighter planes would take off from large grass airfields in the south of England near the coast.
If there was no daylight raid we would pick up shrapnel from the previous nights ack ack gunfire. We had to be careful not to pick up small "butterfly" bombs dropped by the Germans to injure and kill civilians. The Salvation Army canteen vans would come around twice a day to feed us when the gas and electric was knocked out. Water we could always get and boil from the River Wandle. (Photo: Hurricane fighters)
We buried our pet cat Panda in the back garden. Mom cut her finger - never did heal.
One night during the war I had a nightmare and saw Hitler's face in my bedroom window. After that I always slept with a bayonet
Waking up in the Morrison indoor shelter with glass over me and flames reflected in the broken windows. A doodlebug (photo above)buzz bomb VI rocket had hit Mullards factory 100 yards away across the river Wandle.
Derek Taylor and I, along with a few other kids, found the nose cone in the river a few days later. The swans and ducks were still there.
The white bridge over the River Wandle
For a modern video view of this white bridge scene click on the link below: The reason I put this here long ago, was for Janet Clark to see the white bridge that I used to walk over on the way to school during the war - Janet never could remember that bridge - well, it's still there - next to the footpath was a large Home Guard camp - now it is an housing estate.
http://www.panoramicearth.com/3962/Ca
Then click "play" and on the enlarge screen "arrows" lower right and scan with mouse.
There used to be a small weir that connected the tip of the island and the footpath - these weirs have been removed from the river to allow more water and silt to flow downstream. Also, the river was wider and deeper at this spot in the 1940's. Changes were made to prevent flooding and protect the new residential houses built on the old Home Guard land....which is on the right of the footpath as you look at it.
I would walk to school in Hackbridge. The route would be through the woods along the River Wandle behind Ansel Grove, across a small white stone bridge, and then along a footpath between the Wandle and the woods of the Home Guard camp. This would lead to Hackbridge Road, turn left, and then walk past the Red Lion pub and telephone booth, and then a short distance of a few yards to the school on the right. You can follow this on the video above.
The elementary school was about 100 yards past the phone booth. If there was an air raid siren, we would stand under the trees until the "all clear" went off. At school we would be put into the air raid shelters. School always meant safety. Along the way I would pick up acorns from the big oak trees and conkers from the chestnut trees. What's a conker? It is the soft nut from a horse chestnut tree. We would harden the nut in vinegar,let it stand for a few days, then put string through it. Then the game was to challenge and strike your opponents conker. If it broke - you won. Your conker would be called a "tenner" if you broke ten other conkers...and so on.
(photo right)
My mother did everything she could to make sure my sister and I were always fed and clothed during the war. She also made sure we made it to school safely each day. This she did even later in life when I came home on leave from the Royal Air Force - she would serve me breakfast in bed - I have always remembered how much she cared. I didn't appreciate it as much as I should have at the time.
There were always swans and ducks on the River Wandle
REYNOLDS CLOSE, Carshalton, Surrey.
This is what I call my "Reynolds Close Alumni" page...and it has to be moved somewhere.
Homes on Reynolds Close were constructed just before the outbreak of WWII in 1939.
It is located, along with Ansell Grove, on what is part of a small island surrounded on all sides by the River Wandle. The connecting street Kingswood Drive was not completed until after WWII. Culvers Avenue runs east to west from the London Road in Mitcham to Wrythe Lane in Carshalton.
Reynolds Close is a circular street with a small playing field in the center. I lived where the pin is marked. It serves as the turn-around street for the 151 bus service which goes from Reynolds Close in Carshalton, along Culvers Avenue, through Wrythe Lane and St. Heliers, and then ends up at a turn-around at the Morden Undergound Northern Line station...and then begins its journey back to Reynolds Close.
Mullards factory was along the east bank of the River Wandle for the entire length of Reynolds Close. There was a footpath on the west side of the river that ran all the way to Hackbridge Road - that's how we walked to school. The Mullards side had a wire fence near the river edge. All the land east of Mullards and the river was wooded pasture land. There was a landmark 100ft tall brick chimney stack at Mullards just opposite where I lived.
The 151 bus would enter Reynolds Close from Culvers Avenue and then go around the center green field and exit from the street the same way it came in - back onto Culvers Avenue. It would then park for a ten minute driver rest stop between Ansell Grove and Culvers Retreat.
The bus was our only local contact with the outside world. The nearest telephone police call box was a mile away on London Road at the junction with Culvers Avenue or on Hackbridge Road opposite the Red Lion pub. No telephone service was available in any nearby homes until after the war.
As you enter the close, number one is on the right, and it then progresses upward around the street reaching number 100.
Names I remember, and street numbers I mostly guess.
Names.
George Plumbly lived at the last house on the right as you exited the close - which would be the first on the left coming into the street.
John Elgar lived next door to George.
John Goose family lived at 26 and he went to Mitcham County
I lived at number 41 which is about half way round the center field.
At #39 was Mrs. Dunn/Stacy and her sons John and Douglas. Another, Alan - the youngest, died of pnuemonia after falling into the River Wandle at the rear of our homes. The Mullard/Phillips factory was across the water from our back garden. A footpath ran along the banks of the Wandle.
#43 was Margaret Russell.
Next door was Patricia Tracy.
Jean Goodfellow lived at number 35...she had large breasts at age 12.
Derek Taylor lived at 63. At school they announced his father was killed in the army on the day the war ended.
Victor Alden lived at 55.
Donald Spence lived at 81 - his father was a bus driver.
Tricia was sexually assaulted by the mental retard. She lived at the end of the of street number 73. She also did the infamous look while standing on a mirror with no underwear trick.
John Pepper lived at 91
The Davis family lived downstairs at number 93 - the moon-faced mother.
Marion and Margaret lived at 87 - they both went to Purley County...and that was my young "Maid Marion."
Fredddie Mason lived at 79
Below: Rare photo of buzz bomb VI falling on London
I was evacuated to Nottingham when the buzz bombs got too heavy. The Germans bombed London with the sole intent of killing as many civilians as possible, and all us kids were sent off by train and bus to northern cities. We had to wear a name tag around our neck, and carry our gas mask across our shoulder, as we were herded onto buses and trains. (see photos above)
I lived with a family on Gunthorpe Street. There was a borstal school nearby, and the sirens would go off whenever a boy escaped. Went to Sherwood Forest and the Goose Fair and met a lot of American airmen who gave us chewing gum. Never did get to ride with Robin Hood or Erroll Flynn.
We got a large CARE package from the USA with a 20 pound can of peanut butter and shared this for many months with the family that got the strawberry jam and crackers.
Every night we could hear large numbers of bombers take off and pass over from nearby bases. The next morning not so many came back.
On the train to Nottingham from London, we passed through many bombed out areas. The scenes were really scary, especially those in London. Smoke was everywhere, the houses and buildings were just rubble, and people looked tired. The photos below show (1) children sitting on the remains of their bombed house (2) St. Paul's Cathedral survived many near hits and was often shrouded with smoke. It became a symbol of Londoner's determination to carry on.
Click on pictures to enlarge close-up
The best part of the journey to Nottingham was seeing all the steam engines and railroad stations. I eventually became an ardent "train spotter" and logged in many famous locomotives.
At some point I joined the army cadet corps and was given a uniform, cap, and a bugle to play in the band. We practiced in the school auditorium. One day on a Sunday march I lost the bugle mouthpiece and had to pretend I was playing as we marched along the streets. (photo below) I remember the boots and gaiters and blanco. They even let us break down a bren gun. We went to various camp sites where I had my first cigarette - a Pall Mall from an American soldier. Our cap badge was The Surrey Regiment.
"Sailing on Wandle" was the newspaper headline about young kids who helped themselves to a couple of aircraft fuel tanks from the Mitcham rubber dump fire.
(Photo right)
The police had found us using the fuel tanks as rafts on the River Wandle and had taken us to the local police station. They made such a big deal about us being delinquents. When the rubber dump caught fire, we had helped the firemen with their hoses, and we also helped ourselves to the fuel tanks which floated and bobbed along the river with us hanging on. The swans and ducks enjoyed our company.
Toward the end of the war we were able to play cricket and various games on the large green field outside our house. We also built a bonfire for Guy Fawkes day or Bonfire Night - celebrated November 5th each year. "Penny For The Guy" was the call made by children to passersby who were required to drop a penny in the bucket for a look at the ragged doll we had made from old clothes.
The "Guy" effigy would be burned later atop the bonfire on November 5th. Roasted and blackened buttered potatoes from the fire were the specialty of the night along with the firework displays.
Grandmother lived in Croydon on Katharine Street directly opposite the Clock Tower. When we stayed there overnight the clock bells could be heard chiming on the hour - just like Big Ben. Granny used to take us shopping to Kennards where Gracie Fields' song "Now is the Hour" would close the store at 6pm. In those days we had to use ration coupons for everything - shoes, socks, trousers, etc. Granny would use hers for our clothes. We had very little money or things to buy at that time. Mom used to darn the holes in our socks and sweaters to make them last. Imagine, we could only get one bar of chocolate per week with our coupons. Auntie Christine lived with Granny and was in the WAC as a driver...in her uniform she looked like Princess Elizabeth.
End of the war.
VE Day May 8 1945
Photo shows left to right: Princess Elizabeth (now Queen); Queen Mary (Queen Mom); Winston Churchill; King George VI; Princess Margaret.We had several local street parties with fireworks and food to celebrate VE Day. The King and Queen and later Winston Churchill toured the neighborhood. Everyone got dressed up in some form of fancy dress. Children were given commerative photos along with a cup and plate with the King and Queen photo engraved on them. There were church services at school. We always sang hymns each day before class, and RI was a weekly religious instruction hour...just as PT was a daily physical training period. The finale for that time was a visit to Buckingham Palace to see the King and Queen on the balcony.
I think "Rule Brittania" was the most popular song of the day. Standing for the National Anthem was mandatory everywhere - including after each film and before football games.
I went to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.
The parade lasted several hours - my favorite was seeing the Royal Canadian Mounted Police - live and in color. The bands and coaches and the whole spectacle was something you never forget. The only color video of a similar event is Trooping the Color - click below to see the first color version by British Pathe newsreel 1960:
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=41471
The Queen of Tonga rode in an open carriage in the rain - I had a good view from my spot in Trafalger Square, and you could buy small cardboard periscope type viewers which let you look over the heads of people. Only someone who was there would remember that piece of trivia. The entire route from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey was lined with troops and police and millions of people. You could buy tickets for the stands set up along the streets.
Once the war was over we could start to venture outside our immediate house and garden and go into the local neighborhood with bikes and roller skates.
A short distance from where we lived there was a new council housing estate site being constructed. Most of the laborers were Italian prisoners of war. We used to sit and talk to them about their families in Italy. They would make carved wooden dolls and toys for us, and we would give them some of our candy rations. I don't think the Italians ever really wanted to go to war. In fact, at the time, I remember being puzzled because I only knew about Germans and Japanese as our enemies.
It seems that everyone remembers the horse drawn carts used by tradesmen before, during, and after the war. There was the milkman, the greengrocer, the coalman, the rag and bone man, the tinker who sharpened knives, gypsies who sold clothes pegs, and some others. These all disappeared from our area around 1950.
In my early days, I wrote a short story for an English class at school. The teacher asked, "Who is Byron Shelley?" I explained that the story was "by" Ron Shelley. I had put the word "by" too close to "Ron." However, Byron Shelley sounded a classy name and it gave me a title for future projects. It explains my domain name.
Then came meeting with girls who made life either heaven or hell. Of course, as boys we were not supposed to like girls...
but we really did enjoy their attention.
Marion Russell
In early summer of 1946, Marion and her sister moved into a house next door. They had been bombed out of the their home. We lived on the River Wandle with the swans and ducks. (photo below)
I used to play Robin Hood in the nearby woods with a couple of friends. One day Marion came over and asked if she could play. She told me her name was Marion and she was seven years of age. With me being all of eight years old at the time, I immediately fell in love with Maid Marion. My merry band was now complete. We built a tree house and played all summer with our bows and arrows, wooden swords, along the river bank and nearby orchards -all unspoiled since before the war. I would kiss her hand and she would kiss my forehead and send me away on a mission - usually to get fruit from the nearby orchards. Sometimes I was Robin Hood, other times I would be Sir Galahad or Lancelot. She always remained Maid Marion. I think Enid Blyton's adventure books were popular at the time. The summer ended, and Maid Marion was no more...we just grew out of our adventures.
In 1975, I was visiting the old home town. I looked up Marion - she was still living in the same house. I took her out to dinner in my stage coach (a Rolls Royce limousine) - and we laughed at our memories of those younger days. That was it. She never married, and I headed back to the USA and the entertainment business. At least I had my Maid Marion and she had her knight in shining armour.
Gillian England.
What happened to Gillian England?
Gillian England my first...at a distance...secret love infatuation at Elmwood School near Beddington Park in Hackbridge, Surrey. I talked to her just twice because she was in a form ahead of me, and eighteen months older. As if a 15 year old girl would have any interest in the romantic aspirations of a 13 year old boy. I made a couple of excuses to ask her the time or where the school playing fields were. I also would watch her play netball or watch her return to school from lunch...the longings of a smitten teenager. She played netball. Really athletic, and she looked great in those gym shorts - wonderful girl-next-door look and nice personality. I later found out she was born in 1936 on July 14th, and lived in Sutton...and had a serious boyfriend named Ozzie Osbourne. I now have a group photo with her in the rear on a school trip to Belgium via a rough (seasick) boat trip.(photo below) In those days we could go boating on the lake in Grange Park and feed the swans and ducks. Never did know what happened to her...maybe one day I will find her. I wish I knew then what I know now.
Below is head shot of Gillian (left) with best friend Pat or Sheila Browne(right) from Belgium trip boat ride photo.
Below the photo of an Elmwood school trip (rough boat ride) to Belgium
in 1952 - Gillian England is top left
Well, I did find Gillian England, alive and well, and living in Toronto.
Her niece was looking for relatives on the internet and mentioned her name. I sent off an email, and that was it - found at last.
Below: The boat lake at Beddington Park-The Grange with a view of the old manor house in the background
Jean Corbett.
My classic English schoolgirl. Long blonde hair, blue eyes, fair complexion, a beautiful face with small nose, and that enchanting polite voice with a concern of all that is in nature. We both went to school in Guildford where I was living in 1949-50 She came in by bus from Cranleigh, and caught the bus home after school from the bottom of the cobblestone High Street, next to Guildford Castle (photo below) and the River Wey. I used to walk to the bus with her and my friend Ted Kania who took the same bus as she did. He told me that she used to sit on his lap when the bus was full - and that made me so jealous. How I longed to take the bus with her, but being so young I did not have the courgage to do so. I mean how could I explain why I was getting on the bus to Cranleigh when I lived in Guildford. Youth and bashful moments are real obstacles to what could have been a great romance.
Jean Corbett was married and living in Guildford when I visited with her in 1976. She still had the somewhat romantic letters I had written to her in school. Her daughter was 12 and looked the exact image of her mother in the school days of 1950. That evening we sat and talked while drinking champagne at the Red Lion Hotel on Guildford High Street.
My brother Richard was born December 26, 1945.
Saturday morning pictures was the major event of the week. The picture house was the Odeon in Wallington. I used to sit with one of the girls in the St. John's Ambulance Brigade who were there to give first aid if needed. Sort of like the Girl Scouts, but they had grey nurse type uniforms. I forget her name but I used to buy her a candy called Turkish Delight. We would sit in the back row and hold hands watching the movie - and sneak a kiss now and then. She had breasts and I was allowed to touch them outside of her blouse.The movies were mostly American, and featured
Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, Tom & Jerry, Buck Rogers etc.
Growing up after the war was dismal. The movie houses provided an escape from the grey and dark days of the 1940's. This was especially true of the musicals in color -I remember the glamour of America in "State Fair" and the song "It's a Grand Night For Singing." I think Jeanne Crain played the young girl. This was to establish my determination to get to the USA and find a beautiful American girl. In this I succeeded (via Bermuda) many times over - including the sports cars.
In those days England and Europe was a black and white movie. The USA and Bermuda were like living in a Technicolor movie.
.The great London smog of December 1952. Buses had to be led by the conductor, movie houses closed because you couldn't see the screen, and over 4,000 people died. Smog masks or handkerchiefs were worn over the mouth and nose by everyone. The smog was a swirling grey mass of soot filled damp air. A white shirt was dirty within one hour
When I was thirteen, disaster hit me in the form of a speeding car as I was on my bike leaving school and headed for the cricket grounds in Beddington Park. I had a fractured thigh and spent four months in traction at St.Heliers Hospital. I had the same nurse most of the time. She was a beautiful nineteen year old American girl from Texas. Her name was Nurse Skinner, and I loved her accent. I could have stayed in hospital forever. I was so upset not to see her anymore. She gave me her address and I wrote to her a couple of times.
In those days the nurses were all very nice, young, good looking, and looked so attractive in their uniforms. The matron was the horror story who made the rounds at night. I was young enough to be put in the children's ward, so I enjoyed the bed bath I would get every day from the nurses.
Photo below: St. Heliers Hospital in Carshalton
After my leg was broken by a car, I was reduced to a couple of sports - cricket and tennis. Running, football and rugby were out for me. I had done very well on the long distance running team - especially the five mile which I usually won. Our school had wonderful playing fields on the edge of Beddington Park and The Grange by the River Wandle.
At school we were divided into four groups. St. George (red); St. Andrew (blue); St. David (yellow); and St. Patrick (green). When participating in a sporting event, each player wore a colored armband or shirt to identify his team membership. I was St.Andrew and would wear a blue running shirt for the long distance cross country runs around Beddington Park - a five mile course. Beddington Park and the Grange had a history dating back hundreds of years as an estate under various kings. The church - fill in history and the Grange was a manor house - family Carew etc.
I always related to "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner." Having to give up football and rugby actually fit with my idea of what were the "nice" sports as opposed to the "dirty" sports. I went to one stadium football match to watch Arsenal and Chelsea - the whole place stank of urine and body odor. The men's room was an outdoor large enclosed area with tubs for urinals. Filthy and disgusting. Whereas, the cricket matches at the Oval watching Surrey from the clubhouse were so refined and clean. You could eat tomato and cucumber sandwiches with a glass of lemondade and sit in the sun. The low life's can have their sweaty and smelly football games. Tennis and cricket for me.
I went to a school in Guildford where girls shared the classroom with the boys...co-ed. One day a pretty young gypsy girl named Daisy joined the class. Her hair had been shaved off because she had come from an orphange and had contracted head lice there. In the playground a group of students were teasing her about her hair and she was crying. I was on the boxing team at the time, and that gave me a certain amount of respect. I told them to leave her alone. From then on for the next few weeks she never left my side. She needed a friend and I was her knight in shining armour. It was an amazing feeling to have someone so young to rely on you and trust in you so much. I felt sorry for her when she had to return to the orphanage, and I never saw her again. I guess that is why I later joined the police force to try and help others in need. It did not work out in the police force - I was frustrated because I could not solve all the crime and lock up all the criminals. It was a changing world from the one I knew of the local constable on his bicycle.
One night I went to see Jack Parnell and his band at the Granada Tooting. Half way through the show he asked for someone to come up from the audience to sing with the young girl vocalist named Marion Davis.
I leapt out of my seat and ran up on stage. She put her arm around me and we sang "Always." She was so nice and warm and beautiful in that cold dreary English winter of 1952. Being all of 14 years old, I, of course, immediately fell in love with her and wrote a fan letter. She wrote a nice letter back to me and told me she had just got married to the saxophone player Ronnie Keene, and they lived in Kingston near Hampton Court.
That ended my brief teenage crush.
Photos below show Hampton Court constructed in 1521 and taken over by Henry VIII in 1525. Also shown is its famous Hedge Maze.Hampton Court was a favorite historical site to visit in Kingston Upon Thames a few miles from where I grew up. It had a maze built with hedges, and dated back to Henry VIII who took it over from Cardinal Wolsey in 1525 and used it as a partying hideaway with his various female friends and eventual queens. He used to row from London on the Thames right to the grounds. There are still a few grace and favor apartments at Hampton Court which are lived in by Royal patrons/favorites
Fifty five years later in 2006 I set up a Wikipedia site for Marion (Davis) Keene on the internet. She wrote me a letter in September 2007 and sent some photos and biographical material. She had married again to Ron Goldie the trombone player, and had gone on to a successful career in television under her married name Marion Keene. I keep her Wikipedia site updated, and she writes to me now and again. I never thought I would be in contact with her after all these years. ADD PIX OF MARION'S LETTER
GRANADA TOOTING
Old b&w photo below shows the large stage with organ, and balcony seating.
Granada Tooting was probably the finest movie theater in England. It seated over 4,000 and featured many stars including Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, and of course Jack Parnell Band with Marion Davis. The theater was an art deco masterpiece built in 1937, and is now a national listed saved building - but can you believe it is now used as a bingo hall????? It still has the marble and frescos along with a sweeping marble staircase on either side of the lobbly. It had one of the largest pipe organs in the world - imported from America, which has been restored and is still there today. I used to go there for the shows and movies - cost was one shilling or 1/6d for the balcony seats. You got to see a show then the movie. Photos show the very large stage,the marble staircase, and the lobby with chandeliers. It really makes you wonder what this world has come to...a bingo hall????
Entering the "real world"
If my life was to change I had to work for some glamour company. And so,
in 1953 I went to work for 20th Century Fox Films in Soho Square, London.
I was assigned to the Circuits Department where I kept the records of receipts for movies rented to the Granada Cicrcuit and the Armed Forces Cinemas. I was there for a couple of years, during which time I went to several movie premieres - the most memorable was the Royal Command Peformance of Beau Brummell, where I met Stewart Granger and his wife Jean Simmons. I had already fallen in love with Jean Simmons in Young Bess, and here I was meeting her in person. Later that crush was replaced with Bridget Bardot - whom I never got to meet.
At work I was surrounded by young shorthand/typists and secretaries. I still remember their names; Jean, Peggy, Iris, Patricia, and Pamela. I was so young, and they were at least two or three years older than me, and they flirted with me all the time - I used to blush even talking with them. Peggy was a big flirt and she used to sit on my lap at lunch time, and that led to some amusing and arousing incidents.
NOTES:
It was here at 20th Century Fox Films, I learned to improve my table tennis skills, and developed a top spin forehand, and a smashing cross table backhand, which I later applied to my tennis game to great effect. We also had a cricket team which would play other movie company teams on Sunday during the summer months. I was a fairly good bowler and batsman and so played each week.
I also joined the company's theatrical group, and learned about directing and production of plays. My acting was pretty lousy, so it was for me to take on the directing, production, and promotion of the plays. This eventaully led me to produce and direct plays in Bermuda, and eventually produce and direct musical shows in the USA....more about that later in the USA section.
Our employee entrance at 20th Century Fox backed onto Wardour Street, the famous area for all the movie companies and equipment suppliers. There was also the pastry shop with rumbaba's that we would buy on birthdays.
add photo soho square and edit more.
The 20th Century Fox buidling was six stories and one of the most expensive locations in London. Just off the lobby the company had its own 100 seat plush movie theater, and it was here that they installed their new product Cinemascope, and I was to be one of the first to see The Robe, and Demtrius and The Gladiators, on the new wide screen...before it was set up and released to the general public. All very impressive for a young teenage boy, who had to take the Underground Northern Line train home each night. I had no one to share this with other than co-workers - and it all faded away into memories once I joined the Royal Air Force.
Soho Square: Then and now - how life has changed - in my days you were not allowed to walk on the grass let alone sit with a shirt off. Eating lunch on the seat was just about allowed. Lack of manners and sense of dress and occasion is the problem these days.
Good part about working in Soho Square was the ability to visit museums and historical buildings in central London. British Museum, St. Pauls, Imperial War Museum, Tate Gallery, and famous landmarks, Trafalgar Square, Eros in Piccidilly Circus, Marble Arch, Parks. Tower of London.
Soho Square was a couple of minutes walk to Charing Cross Road and all the bookstores. I used to browse through many old books at lunch time. I bought a couple of old print versions of Alice in Wonderland, and then gave them away. Many years later, after watching Anthony Hopkins in 84 Charing Cross Road, I realized how special those bookstores were to a way of life now gone. "Annonated Alice" has become one of my favorite works...purchased a least 10 copies and gave them away.
Lewis Carroll lived in Guildford and there are two statues there. The Alice stories may be considered childish by some, but I find the logic, math, and varied references
to be refreshing and amusing. Just as Alice requested, "make it all nonsense." If anyone asks me about the story, I usually give them a copy of "Annotated Alice."In this day and age, the term "curiouser and curiouser" takes on a useful observation to many events.
It may be a good question to ask why the statue of Alice in New York's Central Park?
BOYHOOD COLLECTION
I started my stamp collection with the usual subscription to a packet full of used stamps along with a schoolboy's standard fifty page album - plus those little stickers (hinges or some such name)to place the stamps on each page. The ultimate prize was to obtain a "Penny Black" - the first stamp issued in the world. It was not until many years later that I could afford to add one to my collection.
My favorite stamp collection included those stamps that had wonderful engravings of various locations around the British Empire, e.g. Newfoundland,Victoria Falls and Indian railroad trains etc. King George VI coronation set has a large number of this type.
The history of coins always interested me. The thought of how many people handled the copper penny over the hundred years or so it stayed in circulation - and what it could purchase varied so much during that time period. The same is true of the large 'cartwheel' penny of George 111 era. My favorite coin is the gold sovereign with "young head" Queen Victoria and St. George and the Dragon. I did not have any of these until I was in Bermuda...I gave one of these gold coins to each of my girlfriends during those days...how romantic...how stupid?
Note on collections.
As a schoolboy it became a hobby to have a "collection" - whether it be a stamp or coin collection or something as odd as a fossil collection. As a member of a cub scout troop, you could earn a merit badge for your collection, and would take the collection to meetings with like-minded people, thus forming new friendships, and, at the same time, gaining an education in varied historical or scientific subjects. My collections included a number of military cap bages, which after World War II were readily available from returning soldiers. My favorite was the Grenadier Guards badge, which was a shiny brass grenade, and tradition was to polish it twice daily - never could you wear a tarnished badge in the guards...or tarnished anything for that matter.
MILITARY BADGE COLLECTION
Royal Lancers
Welsh Southwest Borderers Regiment
Gurhka RegimentNational Service: The Royal Air Force
(Military service was mandatory)
A Lancaster bomber with the tail gun turret just visible
Uncle Frank had served in the Royal Air Force during WWII as a tail gunner on the Lancaster bombers - he gave me a copy of Guy Gibson's book, "Enemy Coast Ahead" and I can still hear that message over the intercom from the pilot as the bomber approached German occupied France, "Enemy coast ahead" - no onboard radar in those days - everything was visual contact.A very moving book and story written by the leader of the Dam Buster raid, who was later shot down and killed in WWII.
I guess that's why I joined the Royal Air Force.
Wing Commander Guy Gibson, V.C.
Military Service and World Travel Begins
My first passport photo. In those days you were not allowed to smile. In fact, even today, the instructions on your passport application state, "a non smiling photograph is the only acceptable type of photograph permitted."
Royal Air Force begins at West Kirby
RAF West Kirby - where thousands of airmen spent their "square bashing" days. The drill instructors were the most feared of creatures for all young airmen.
It all started when you went throught those gates at RAF West Kirby.The drill shed, the parade ground, the boots, the spit and polish, webbing, brasso cleaning the belt buckles etc...and the constant drilling and marching with rifles...in the rain.
Below is my "Trenchard Squadron" and then the DI's waiting for you.
Every young man and woman should serve two years in the military service. They would learn a great deal and be a better person for it...although there are exceptions...and I got to see some of those at West Kirby. You either made it through the three month training, or you failed and got discharged as unfit for service. That was a personal disgrace in those days.
The first shock I had was seeing the "teddy boys" with their long hair and unruly attitudes getting their hair cut to almost bald...and then being dealt with by the drill instructors.
I had been in the army cadets and was used to drilling and discipline, whereas, these juveline delinquents had been running the streets, now they got the shock of their life. Most gave in and dealt with it...some were constantly on "jankers" and eventually some ended up in military prison. I had to guard and escort a few of these when they were sent for court martial and prison. They were a sorry lot. I remember one week of guard duty was spent at the military hospital watching over one of them who had tried to commit suicide by sticking a bayonet in his stomach. We had one idiot who shot himself in the foot on the firing range.
We also had to guard the base against the IRA. This meant trudging around the perimeter fence at night, full dress with rifle and bayonet - in the rain - and trying to look tough. These weeks were to bring everyone to one level of discipline....and it worked. A tough cultural shock - but well remembered and well worth it. You never forget your military ID number, how to salute, how to march in step, keep your hair cut and take care of personal hygeine, and how to break down your weapons.
From here it was next to RAF Compton Bassett in Wiltshire for radar training, where I learned how to operate the radar that saved England during the Battle of Britain. This was a drastic change from "square bashing" and was very relaxed and a great deal of study. The only things I remember from this isolated part of the country (town population about 200) was the "scrumpy" apple cider which got you really drunk - and the local cafe with its jukebox. For threepence you got one play -hit songs at that time included "That Old Black Magic" by Sammy Davis Jr.
There was of course the nearby Salisbury Plain and Stonehenge, along with the famous chalk downs and the White Horse. Not the most inspiring environment for a young airman.
Then in November, 1955, it was off to RAF Wildenrath in Germany - via Hook of Holland, and that old troop ship they put us on. The height of the cold war and the freezing winter snow. I have vague memories of the train journey from London to Harwich, and then the hammocks on the troop ship from Harwich to Hook of Holland.
I was wrapped up in my RAF greacoat for about three days...it was November and so cold.
At least I didn't get sea-sick like many on that crossing. Then the military train through Holland and into Germany - waving at all the girls along the way.
RAF Wildenrath was the largest air base and home of the CANBERRA bomber and HQ 2nd TAF.
And this begins the long story of my days in the RAF - Germany and Holland.
At Wildenrath I was assigned to 724 Signals Unit, a GCI (Fighter Control Interception)
group. We had three radar cabins each with a 5 man crew, and spent day and night watching the radar screens for activity from the East German border. Most times we were training by directing Hawker Hunter fighters to intercept Canberra bombers - which usually ended in a "stern chase." Now and then we had to direct the American fighters on to the Canberra - they could never catch them - which made us feel good.
There were two F84E Sabre fighter squadrons 67 & 71 stationed at Wildenrath. It was a very active fighter/bomber station. The CO was Group Captain Johnnie Johnson, a World War II fighter ace.
The Canberra could vertical climb to 65,00 feet and leave all the fighters behind.
One day we got word that Nikita Krushev would be coming across the border in his plane, and that 12 Hawker Hunters would take over the escort from the Russian fighters on crossing the border from East Germany. All went well until a couple of the RAF pilots decided to "bounce" the Russian plane by a swooping fly over. For two weeks we had the top brass at our site looking at the log books and talking to us fighter controllers. Nothing ever came of it.
The next episode of any note was the outbreak of the Suez Crisis. We were put on standby to ship out to the Middle East, then suddenly it was all over. Prime Minister Anthony Eden resigned because of that disaster in our foreign policy, and England sunk back into a secondary position behind the USA and Russia in world affairs. My world travels had begun on an unsure footing.
About six months after arriving at Wildenrath, I was sent back to the UK on an advanced radar training course. This was a temporary assignment to RAF Peterhead, a small town outside Aberdeen. A higlight of the trip was taking the Flying Scotsman steam train from London - across the Forth Bridge - to Edinburgh - and then back again. It was the beginning of my first class travel experience with dinner being served and a bar on board.
Peterhead was famous for being the home of Cross & Blackwell sauces and fish products. Most of the girls in town worked at the factory, and on Saturday nights when dancing with them you could catch the odor of fish in their hair.I started to date Magaret, a young teenage Scots girl, and I convinced her that I had a special shampoo from the RAF that would get rid of the fish odor and leave her hair beautiful. In a actual fact it was a mixture of Tide, a regular shampoo, and some "Evening in Paris" perfume. In any case, she took me home and I washed her hair in the bathroom..then I washed her body with the same special shampoo...and that became a weekend ritual when I slept over with her. She never did know the secret shampoo formula - it worked quite well. After three months I had to return to Germany with my newly acquired knowledge of advanced radar systems...and that was the end of my Scottish adventure. It was also the end of Margaret and my secret shampoo.
Add courses taken on Navigation and college degree studies offered by Univ London
Instead of taking leave and going back to the UK for a holiday, I went with Don Spenser to Brussells and Paris for a week in summer 1956. FILL IN PHOTOS AND STORY
Spenser had bought an old German army staff car. In those days local people had to pay expensive registration costs based on the horsepower of the vehicle, and petrol was costly and rationed...so the large cars were cheap and available. In the RAF we only had to pay about $3 for our registration - no insurance was required - and we received petrol coupons at a cheap rate based on the size of the engine, and Britsh Zone plates. For us, the larger car made sense.
You have to remember that back then the Germans had very little money,and the blackmarket for cigarettes. whiskey, coffee, petrol coupons, etc. allowed us to buy these big old cars...also we used RAF supplies for tires and spares, oil etc. We were still occupation forces, so the local police had no jurisdiction, and borders did not have control over us.
So we took off one weekend for a 10 day trip to Brussels and Paris. The autobahn made travel easy, and the Mercedes staff car was similar to a Rolls Royce limousine.
It was equiped with overdrive, a glass divider between the rear and front seats, and the rear seats were as large as a double bed. We took along the usual supply of cigarettes and whisky to trade in for food and lodging.
My English drivers licence and early passport with border crossing endorsements.
Our first stop was in Limburg...into Belgium...then we made our way through the small French Zone and into the American Zone..and then into France. Stopped at a small farm cafe and had the most wonderful meal of cold pork chops and potato salad and local wine and bread. I never forgot the incredible taste of that fresh food.
Stopped at French garrison (Kaserne) where they had a brothel on base for the Algerian soldiers. All officers were French Foreign Legion. Local bar was fun...Fats Domino "Blueberry Hill" was popular on jukebox.
Complete Paris and Brussells story with photos.
I spent another six months at Wildenrath before being transferred to Fort Spijkerboor, RAF 550 SU, a small GEE radar unit outside of Amsterdam.
also add
Trips to Venlo with Ans and carnival before leaving Wildenrath
TRIP TO BERLIN STORY. TRAVEL ON WHITE TRAIN THROUGH RUSSIAN ZONE WITH CURTAINS DOWN. Berlin cabaret clubs similar to those throughout Germany but a little more dynamic - the isolation produced gaiety and indulgence in risque shows - compare to broadway play Cabaret when I saw that and the movie. First exposue to naked women sitting at table with you and earning money for various activities -ten marks got everything - $1 pound - $3.00 at that time.
Military trains across Germany were coded by color designations. The blue trains went south, the red went north. and the white train was the train east to Berlin.
Brian Fisher and I decided to take a trip to Berlin. We got the boarding passes and frontier passes set up in November 1956, and off we took from Dussledorf, which was HQ BAOR - Headquarters British Army on the Rhine. Primarily full of army personnel, the steam train headed east through all the German town and villages which were fairly dismal. When we came to the East German border we had to pull down the window blinds until we reached Berlin...peeking was a no-no unless you wanted to get shot. So we played cards, drank beer, and slept through the night with snow falling outside. A true beginning to a cold war eastern europe adventure. I loved the clicking and rumble of the train at night - it was easy to fall asleep...and dream.
Berlin was cold, dreary, and grey, but the people were friendly and the nightlife was plentiful. The food was somewhat limited, but plenty of beer and sausage as usual.
The women were plain and pale looking, and fashion was drab. So, off we went to explore Berlin nightlife.
I had seen photos of Berlin during its fashionable days, but to see the bomb ruins still there in 1950's was sobering. It is hard to reflect and think about how a city was so destroyed. (Click on the German soldier in front of the Brandenberg Gate - it gives you a sense of the loss of humanity.)
London suffered heavily - but not as much as Berlin. It is well remembered that during the Blitz, Churchill in a radio broadcast said to Hitler, "You do your worst - and we'll do our best."
Unter den Linden (Under the Lime Trees) a boulevard and name that runs through Berlin and its history - it brings to mind sentimental songs and more pleasant days for Germans. Marlene Dietrich sang the words "Unter den Linden" in one of her great movies. I am not a fan of the German people, but I did feel a nostalgia for their memories of a different Berlin. The linden trees were cut down at the end of the war and used for firewood. They were all replanted when I was there in the 1950's.
The Berlin Wall was erected in 1961, so I never got to see that. The Brandenburg Gate was there - it all looked so depressing. I was glad to get back to Holland and dancing in Venlo.
Somewhere around this time the song "Fraulein" was very popular on BFN (British Forces Network) with the dj and singer Chris Howland. Vera Lynn was of couse the "Forces Sweetheart" at that time...with her song "We'll Meet Again" which later was featured in Dr. Strangelove. Movies at the time included "Blackboard Jungle" with the song by Bill Haley 'Rock Around the Clock.' I saw "The Bridge Over the River Kwai" in a local cinema - it had German sub-titles and the film was in English...it was quite amusing reacting to the dialogue before the Germans could read it.
COLD WEATHER WHERE DIESEL OIL FROZE AND TOOK FOREVER TO START GENERATORS FOR RADAR SYSTEM - RAN 24 HOURS A DAY AFTER THAT.
550 Signals Unit, Fort Spijkerboor, Holland.
Photo shows the gun turret of Fort Spijkerboor which was the largest of the old forts built in 1909 to defend Amsterdam before World War I...and home to RAF 550 Signals Unit during the 1950's.For complete details of the GEE radar chain in Germany see RAF Winterberg on google
Amsterdam was probably the best place in the world to be stationed in the RAF - not only for the famous "red light" district and the girls in the windows...and the Zeedijk.
There were about 25 of us airmen near Pumerend, a small town a few miles outside Amsterdam. Fort Spijkerboor was were we had our GEE radar tower and base set up. GEE was an old world war II bomber guiding system. I am sure we were just a decoy for the Russians to think about. We were hardly ever operational...most of our advanced radar systems had gone underground the previous year.
Fort Spijkerboor was an amazing set up. It was a well maintained historic fort, unoccupied except for our small unit, situated on about 200 acres of farmland next to a canal. It was surrounded by a moat that contained all sorts of fish, frogs, and other aquatic life developed over the years since it was built in the early 1900's. There were about 25 of us, self contained with a Collin's radio operator, one cook, one RAF policeman, one medic, one auto mechanic, and a radar crew. The aerial was a wooden structure about two hundred feet high. I became in charge of decoding the signals we received, using the one time pad system.. I also was in charge of medical supplies, the food and kitchen supplies, parades and many other functions. ( add story of I set up the movie house with supplies because we came under Bomber Command in England as well as Fighter Command in 2nd TAF.) The radar unit was rarely operational, so I took on all these other duties. Dedcoding signals and one-time pad use was the most interesting with top security clearance being required.
Because I dealt with the local suppliers, Brian Fisher and I dated the two sisters whose father owned the local chemist store.
412446165870
I purchased my 1948 Dodge car for several cartons of cigarettes and some bottles of whisky from a local garage in Pumerend. We took the girls everywhere in that car. Visited the Heineken and Amstel breweries - Museums in Amsterdam - Alkmaar cheese market - Volendam the Island of costumes. Being such a large American car it doubled as a hotel room on many a night...the hotels in those days frowned upon unmarried couples using their rooms.
Amsterdam is full of life and the people are really friendly. The food is great and the entertainment plentiful. I used to visit the nightclubs which were always full of young Dutch girls willing to sit and talk and drink and dance and spend the night. We always had plenty of cigarettes to give out, and drinks at the best clubs were so cheap to us - only 1 guilder - about 25 cents American - two shillings English.
Holland is windmills and tulips and cheese markets. I used to take girlfriends on weekend trips out into the countryside - it was so relaxing.
Ans Timmermans was my first serious girlfriend.
I always dedicate my favorite poem by Percy Bysse Shelley to her...and my favorite love songs...actually they apply to all the girls I mention here...but more so to Ans.
OF ALL THE WOMEN IN MY LIFE, MY THOUGHTS ALWAYS GO BACK TO THE DAYS I SPENT WITH ANS TIMMERMANS I N VENLO, HOLLAND, DURING THE
1955-1957 ERA,
For she was beautiful - her beauty made
The bright world dim, and everything beside
Seemed like the fleeting image of a shade.
Have I told you lately that I love you,
Have I told you lately that I care.
Well, darling, I'm telling you now.
The very thought of you,
The mere idea of you.
I met her on one of my frequent weekend trips to Venlo from Wildenrath. She was about four years older than me, and used to tease me about how she was just an "old" woman. She looked like Gina Lollabrigida, and everyone called her Gina. I would take her out every other weekend and would meet her in Venlo or Roermond on a Friday night. She worked for her parents in their stationery store in Reuver which was a small town between Roermond and Venlo. The only trouble we had was that she was engaged to a Dutch soldier who was stationed and fighting the war in Indonesia. For two years we saw each other every two weeks until finally he came back; he then emmigrated to Canada, and she flew out to marry him in October of 1957. I was heartbroken. However, when I moved to the USA I would go and see her in Montreal and spend a couple of days with her. We would go dancing, and she would have a couple of drinks and cry about the memories of our younger days in Holland. She kept the letters I wrote to her over the years, and her husband sent them to me along with her photos when she died. She had remained married and had two children. Sad to say she died of heart disease in 1997. It is funny, but there are certain girlfriends you never forget, and always wonder what would have happened if you had married them. She was so beautiful and such an easy going unpretentious person...and would have been the perfect wife and friend. I have to upload some of her photographs.
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The best memories I have of Ans come from the days we celebrated at Carnaval in Roermond. In fact, there are a lot of great memories from the various festivities held in Germany and Holland. They all had one thing in common - everyone gets drunk and parties for several days. There is lots of singing and music and good food and good times. The people are caught up in the friendly festival atmosphere. I was lucky to be stationed in the main areas of Germany and Holland where these occured. ROSENMONTAG is in Germany around Cologne and Dusseldorf which lucky for me were in the British Zone. CARNAVAL is the Dutch version and is in the Limberg provinces - which includes Venlo, Roermond and Maastricht...all close to Germany and the British Zone. Then there was the OCKTOBERFEST which is held in Munich - which just happens to be near Ingolstadt where I spent my last year in Germany. CARNIVAL & ROSENMONTAG are the same time as Mardi Gras about seven weeks before Easter. OKTOBERFEST is obviously in October. And a great time was had by all. Bavarian girls were so much friendlier and prettier than the North German girls - and they could drink their beer.
Photo above of Oktoberfest beer tent in Munich gives an idea of how festive the time was.
Ans used to come to the dances in a mask and dressed as a Spanish Princess. She would try to hide from me until the mask came off at midnight. I could usually spot her - especially when she tried to dance with me and disguise her voice. My girlfriend in Ingolstadt was Nellie Gruman who spent most of her spare time with me. She wanted to get married and come back to England. That just wasn't in my plans, and sad to say it broke her heart when I left. As the popular song goes during ROSENMONTAG - "Am Aschermittwoch Ist Alles Vorbei" - On Ash Wednesday All Is Over.
They were wonderful and fun times and very fond memories. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time to relive them.
Amsterdam notes to add:
Scottish minister and the South African parties...especially the blonde he set me up with at Xmas. A young South African girl just arrived in Amsterdam and did not speak very much English. I had mastered some Dutch so I hit it off with her. She spoke Afrikaans etc. Tanned, long legs, and young and beautiful.
Clubs on the zeidyke...and cabaret style.
889 SU RAF Schleswig
When 550 SU RAF Fort Spijkerboor closed in November 1957,
I was transferred to 889 SU RAF Schleswig. I drove to this base in my 1948 Dodge. It was a 2 day drive northward across Holland and Germany in a blinding snowstorm from Amsterdam to Eckenforde in Schleswig Holstein. In those younger days I could drive non-stop for a couple of days, and this one put me to the limit. I spent a night in Hamburg - the infamous Reperbahn was a must to visit.
Later, on driving through the gates at my new base, I had to explain myself, my car, and why I was there. It seemed that 889 SU was about to go out of business, and few even knew what we did. The main activity at the camp was the last remaining Mosquito's that towed firing range drogue's.
Photo: Line of Mosquitos is one of the last operational squadrons. The crashed Mosquito shows the ever present snow.
Our radar site (non-operating) was about 10 miles away set back in the deep and uncharted woods and lakes. This had been a secret Nazi military area for their submarine base and the highly efficient Luftwaffe fighter ME110's. Unused since before the war, the lakes were a fantastic source of fishing for pike, and other large fish, where I spent many an afternoon hunting and fishing all types of creatures.
There were several American airmen in the area with a highly secret listening post. They all spoke Russian and carried Colt 45's and submachine guns which we would practice with in the backwoods. They had apartments in town, and we spent many a night drinking with them. They all had new Volkswagons and lots of money to spend. These were my early days of learning the world was not a level playing field and that money talked very loud.
For info on RAF GEE RAdar sites: google Winterburg Web History
After meeting with the commanding officer, and being told that I would probably be reassigned again to a unit in the American Zone, I was now sure that these radar units were just a decoy for the Russians. We were supposed to be the Gee units for our atomic bomber aircraft - but I doubted it. We had to have something more efficient than this. I spent the next three months fishing and enjoying the freedom of awaiting a new posting. I bought another car, this time a 1936 Adler two seater sports racer. It cost me a few cartons of cigarettes and a couple of bottles of Johnny Walker scotch whiskey. I spent many hours fine tuning the engine and driving to the nightclub in Schleswig where they usually had an excellent jazz band playing.
It was there that I would eat Schnitzel al la Holstein mit bracht kartoffel, and dance the night away with the local German girls. I think the club was called SchleiAllee. When I left for Ingolstadt in Bavaria, I traded in my Adler for a Grundig tape recorder. I left my American Dodge car at the camp outside my quarters with the intent to return the follwing summer for a fishing vacation. I then traveled by train on the long rail trip down Germany -along the Rhine - to my new unit 330 SU at a deserted airfield outside Ingolstadt.
We were all assigned rooms at the Hotel Adler in Ingolstadt. I had my own private room with bath, bed, couch, and maid service...and along came Nellie.
330 Signals Unit, Ingolstadt, Bavaria
This was a unique posting in every way. We were a small signals unit that was to set up at a deserted airfield outside of Ingolstadt on the Danube in the American zone of Germany. We had taken over the Adler hotel in Ingolstadt as our lodging headquarters, and this was fully staffed including maids, cooks, waitresses, doorman.
We got three meals a day in the dining room with waitress service...and we could order beer or wine at breakfast or any other meal. The rooms were cleaned by the maids who were young local girls, several of whom became pregnant within a few months of our arrival.
In town there were a couple of really nice nightclubs, and it was there I met a young German girl name Nellie. She could have had a more romantic name, however, she was to be my faithul companion for the next 18 months until I went back to England for demob. She was only seventeen, but the drinking and partying age in Germany began at sixteen...and she liked to do both.
At the hotel we also had use of the large ballroom, where we held parties once a week. Local girls and the female hotel staff were invited and we set up a record player and lights. There were about twenty five airmen total so we never had any shortage of girls.
At the site we had to erect the two hundred foot wooden aerial tower, and to set up various vehicles as offices and radar cabins. Most of our equipment was old World War II stuff, and it took a lot of repair to keep it functioning...this also included the vehicles.
I was lucky to get a fairly new Land Rover for my use.The spare tire located on the front was always a source of amusement for the locals.
Because we were in the American Zone, we also got to use their PX stores and eat at their bases. A vast improvement over the RAF food and NAAFI fare. American cigaretes were the most popular with locals who traded all sorts of things for them. Scotch whiskey was another favorite. We now received both NAAFI and PX supplies which required coupons and the use of "script" i.e. military money. The black market was a ready supply of all things....especially in nearby Munich. I also received large quantities of petrol coupons for my two cars...at a cost of five cents a liter.
After a few months we did get operational, and I used to take Nellie to spend night watch with me at the site. She used to think it so exciting watching the radar screen. I had more exciting things to do than that. As I said, this was a rare and unique setting....matched only by my later years served in the Bermuda Police Force.
A few stores down from the Adler hotel was a Konditori (pastry) shop.
It had hundreds a different cream and fruit filled cakes and pastries along with the apple strudel. These were, and still are, the best I have ever tasted. They also had a small cafe where we could sit and drink coffee along with fresh pastries. Fantastic.
BMW (Bavarian Motor Works) would bring their test cars to our deserted airfield a few times each month in the summer. They let a few of us test drive their sports cars on the empty and unused runways. The photo above shows the BMW 507 which was tested at Ingolstadt. These were the fastest cars I had ever driven. It was quite an experience. It was here in the American Zone I also got to see and drive a 1955/56 Ford T-Bird. It was a classy looking car, but too small for me and did not compare to the BMW test cars. I never did like the small MG's, and have always been a large car fan. Probably because of being 6'3" and having long legs I enjoyed my American cars. I could never have been a fighter pilot - tall airmen were selected as bomber pilots. I once tried to fit into an old Spitfire cockpit and it was really a tough and uncomfortable fit.
Note: I bought several nice cars
1. Adler sports car in Germany during RAF service. I bought this with cigarettes and whiskey.
2. Lincoln Town Car I bought in Austin, Texas during crazy rock 'n roll days.
Nightlife was good in Ingolstadt.
One night I drove to a nearby nightclub with a couple of friends. There were a number of girls in the club dancing with some German soldiers. I caught the eye of one young girl, and she came over. She did not talk any English, but I had learned enough German to carry on a conversation. She was in town for the evening from Munich visiting her boyfriend in the German army. I knew from previous experience that the new German army soldiers had to be back in their base by 11pm, so I asked her to stay around till midnight. We left to go to another club, where we got hung up with some other females. By the time I got back to the first club - it was closed. Driving back to the hotel I saw the young girl from the first club walking along the street. It was a cold night, so I pulled over and asked her where she was going. She told me that she had missed her train back to Munich and was going to check the Hotel Adler where I had told I was staying. She got into my car...and that was the beginning of a great night and relationship with a really wonderful young German girl named Heidi, whom I got to see later in Munich.
THIS IS AS FAR AS I MADE IT ON MARCH 1ST, 2008.
the girl who missed her last train home
nellie and i in munich -everly brothers - dream
trip back to schleswig
large airfield strange planes would land at night
marianne was favorite waitress at hotel
boat back to uk - victor alden
Below is Frontier Border Pass which allowed me to cross border with no trouble
---------------------------------------------------
It is now July 14, 2009, and here I am returning to this story.
The final days of my Royal Air Force service were spent in Ingolstadt, a town on the River Danube in Bavaria. I spent most of the off duty hours with my regular girlfriend Nellie.
She wanted to come back to England with me. Unfortunatley that did not fit in with my plans - and our farewell parting at the train station in Munich on the last day was somewhat heartbreaking and lonely.
A BRIEF RETURN HOME TO ENGLAND
On arrival in England, I secured a job as a television technician - my experience with the radar systems in the RAF gave me the edge for landing the job.The work consisted of repairing television sets for Puratone TV Company, located on the High Street in Croydon. I was born in Croydon General Hospital, and my Grandmother lived just 100 yards up Katherine Street from where I worked on the High Street.
Puratone TV Rentals notes:
They gave me a new green Morris Minor mini-van to drive around on service calls to private homes in Croydon, Purley, Kingston, Surbiton, subuarban areas that had rented televisions from Puratone that ranged in size from 15 inch to 19 inch sets. Usual problems involved no more than changing a valve (Mullards) or fine tuning into one of the two stations available at that time, i.e. BBC or ITV....and only black & white - and broadcast hours were 11am to 10pm - at other times you just got a signal to help tuning. Very easy and casual work because people were becoming addicted to watching television, and were very happy to see the "television repair man."
The television sets were very reliable, sometimes no more problem than the maid or housewife had knocked the electric power plug from the wall socket. Women had no idea about televisions sets in those days - they were more interested in talking and having a cup of tea. Sometimes, there were certain younger ones who wanted me to help solve a problem in the bedroom - it's surprising what young housewives will get up to when they are bored and have a glass of wine on a rainy afternoon.
I rarely had to solder a burned out circuit or replace a resistor. All major work was taken to the head office in Kingston where a factory technician would do the repair.
However, this employment was only to last six months while I was awaiting approval by the Colonial Office in London of my application for service in the Bermuda Police Force. Approval came in June 1960, and so off I went to Hendon Police College at the unheard (for those days) large salary of twenty pounds per week, plus all food, lodging and uniform paid for.
Begin story of Hendon days for three months. cricket grounds - local town rented cars on weekends denis byrne top of class word perfect - officers from around colonies etc.and all london met police
Things to remember about Hendon - primary objective - a person steals who - word perfect - cricket green pavilion
First day of study we were given our first law book - Police Law - a four inch thick black book which is the bible for London Police officers. It contains all the police law you require to make an arrest. Then came the big shock, you have to learn everything "word perfect" and write it out for each daily exam. That led to a couple of people dropping out of school.
First thing we learned - definition of Primary Objective of an Efficient Police Force - The Prevention of Crime. Then came a couple of days on larceny - "A person steals who takes and carries away - something capable of being stolen - and at the time of such taking with the intent to permanently deprive the owner etc etc."
Example given of car joy riding which is not theft because no intent to permanently deprive the owner etc...thus began the lessons of law and why you could or could not make an arrest. Six months of this - and my least favorite subject "Dead Bodies" and the procedure for dealing with them.
The mock courtroom had some amusing scenes. In one case the police officer left the evidence on the stand - a brick. The defendant picked it up and threw it at the judge.
Anyway, I did very well and passed out top of the class...and yes, a "Dead Bodies" question came up in the final exam.
Hendon had a very large cricket field with a wonderful pavilion for lunch and tea. We spent many a weekend playing cricket and tennis. I remember an old RAF friend Roy Livesey being a good tennis player and in the same class - small world.
Denis Byrne and I would rent a car on the weekend and head out to some small village pub looking for "birds of the evening" as he would call them in his heavy Irish brogue. Ian Davis was a quiet but very strong farmboy who had trouble passing the exams. Later, he would be seriously injured in the 1965 Bermuda race riots - and was awarded the Police Medal. That was all ahead of me.
Above: Prince William inspects a modern day graduation parade at Hendon Police College. I can't remember who inspected our passing out parade - and we didn't have any policewomen in our classes.
Then came Bermuda
From black and white movie to full technicolor on arrival in Bermuda from London aboard a BOAC Brittania a four engine prop plane with all those good looking stewardess girls in uniform. We travelled first class as is the norm for Colonial officers...champagne and grapes served by our stews.
On arrival from the air we could see white roofs on pastel houses - crystal blue sea.
Then the hot humid air as we walked down the exit stairs. Greeted by police oficers in kahki shorts. Then came white dinner jackets from Trimminghams and formal weddings - hotel bars and excellent dining - scooters and new car and college girls and nurses...beaches-pink sand-and constant sunbathing on Elbow Beach.
The main hospital in Bermuda was King George V memorial hopsital. Most of the nurses were Canadian and attractive. We met many at the various dances and social events around the island...some of them spent many a night at our police apartments. Kim McKinnon story etc. Nurses and Pan Am girls enter my life.
NOTES FOR BERMUDA SECTION
Everything female and American in Bermuda was young, beautiful, and glamorous, in the early 1960's
Sandra Balestracci.
The great love of my life in Bermuda. Sandra was a beautiful eighteen year old ballet dancer who came to Bermuda in 1963 to perform in Giselle and Coppelia. The stage was set up at the outdoor theater below Police Headquarters. I was on the Triumph Motorcycle Squad at the time and used to watch her rehearse.
This photo is from her appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in New York.
One day I got our photographic team to take long range close-ups of her on stage. I then drove up the next day and showed her the pictures. I took her to Spanish Point one evening where we lay side by side and looked over the ocean with a clear night sky and shooting stars. We spent some memorable times together around the island.
The following year I stayed at her home in New Bedford, Mass. Her mother was really nice and made me feel very welcome.
I drove with her to New York City for her audition at Radio City Music Hall where she was selected for a solo spot in the Easter show.
For the Bermuda section:
I was standing outside the other summer night...all was quiet - no traffic - warm night at the shore...reminded me of Bermuda at nights on the police force along Front Street at midnight...I used to think of Brenda Stailey sleeping at home in bed...and I was out on patrol...wanting to go home to a good woman was always a strong emotion in those days.
Sadly, Betty Malpas passed away March, 2010. Brian Malpas and his wife Betty took me under their wing when I first arrived in Bermuda in 1960. I always remember Betty and Ann Cherry in their Pan Am uniforms walking to work along Front St.
We became friends with an American advertising executive William (Bill) Galbraith and his family. One night they talked me into taking their youngest daughter to a show at the princess Hotel in Hamilton. It was a beautiful evening sitting outside watching the Esso Steel Band playing on the large back dropped sea shell stage (no longer exists.) She was underage, but no one ever objected to a police officer taking young American tourists to drink and watch a show.. She had a hang over the next day from rum and ginger...I was later to see Bill and Cary again when I moved to New York (therein lies a few stories) and I saw her in 2014...she is now 61, divorced, and has a beautiful daughter, Sarah, and a son William....how time has flown by.
Photo: on our recent trip to Bear Creek Mountain Resort in the mountains of PA.
She is an artist and attempted some painting - but it rained. However, we had a great dinner and talked over old times.
Brian Malpas was a police officer with me in Bermuda. He was also an experienced treasure diver on the wrecks around the Bemuda reefs. He would take me out in his boat and give me lessons on diving. He had no fear of sharks etc. We would see a large fish in the water, and he would grab a spear gun and jump over the side. A few minutes later he would appear alongside the boat with a large fish attached to the spear - usually a bonito or tuna. I would just sit and watch with amazement. Later, I would apply what he taught me to my own treasure diving in the Florida Keys.
Mitzi Eyles
Another beautiful college girl I met in Bermuda. Only the best come to Bermuda said Life magazine in 1963. She went to Vermont College, and our favorite song was of course "Moonlight in Vermont." Ken Norman dated her friend, and when he got married to a Canadian nurse.... her friend Susan Swift and I dated for a while in New York. They were both really great young women. And strangely enough, I bought a ski lodge in Vermont in 1967.
There was something special about the college girls who came to Bermuda during Spring break - we called it "college weeks." They were all beautiful young girls, full of life and looking for romance. The island of Bermuda is so romantic and lends itself to falling in love - even if for a short week or so - that it was easy to get caught up in the moment. Mitzi wrote a memorable note to me on the back of her photograph " To my dearest Ron with the fondest memories that have ever existed and will have to last until I see you once more, Love Mitzi." What more can be said!
When I went to the USA on a three month vacation in 1963, I spent some time with her - but that is a story for later.
I have to mention Mitzi and her Corvettes - she first drove me to Kingston NY from NYC in her Oldsmobile convertible at 90mph on the NY Thruway...long blonde hair blowing in the wind...and I had just arrived for a vacation after two years in Bermuda -where the speed limit was 20mph. About twenty years later she called me and asked if I was OK - she had a vivid dream that I had died...I didn't know she cared that much. You never know. Several years later I had lunch with her two times, and she complained about her grey hairs. She was still tall and slim...and driving fast cars-corvettes.
In Bemuda I owned a red Nash Metropolitan. Mitzi loved that car and kept the photos I gave her of our time in the car
In July of 1963, I took a three month vacation and tour of the USA, Canada, and Mexico. 90 day greyhound pass etc - Visit with Mitzi - postcards from every city - Stay on farm in Ontario with Joan Cleland family (she married Ken Norman.) Spent last two days in NYC with Susan (Mitzi's college friend.) Then took ship back to Bermuda (Queen of Bermuda.)
insert photo of ship.
Bermuda Peck and Peck model photographs at the birdcage and Horseshoe Bay swimsuits,
there was real police work - motorcycle squad - old fashioned police car and siren replaced by bells sounding like an ice cream vendor
UPDATE ON MITZI EYLES
She is now 73 with of grey hair - she stays still lives in Kingston, New York - and her grown daughter is an avid horse owner. She stays in touch via Facebook and just had her 75th birthday.
We also had lunch a couple of times. Here husband died a few years ago.
Vacation time from the Bermuda Police Force. We received 2 months vacation after the first two years of service, plus any overtime you had collected. The funny story about vacation time from the Colonial Police, was the time given for travel...it hadn't changed since the early colonial days when travel back to the UK was by sea, and all paid for by the Colonial Office in London....and then returning by the same route. Remember some colonial officers had to travel from their outposts in South Africa - The British South African Police Force, that also included Rhodesia. Therefore, ten days on each end of your vacation time was allowed. When I took my vacation plus the 20 days travel, I flew to New York instead of going home to the UK. A 90 minute flight each way, for which I was given 20 days...those were the good old colonial days...long gone. So, here starts my story of the 2 months plus vacation I took to the USA, Canada, and Mexico in 1962. My police officer friend, Mike Leng from CID, joined me for part of my adventure. At that time, Greyhound Bus offered a $99 for 99 days pass to use their buses anywhere they went...so off I went, camera in hand and a suitcase with varied clothing. It started in June and ended in September - I remember the ending in New York because the baseball world series was on TV at the bars I visited, and there learned how baseball was played, and as boring to me as cricket is to Americans. My first visit was with Mitzi Eyles who picker me up in Manhatten and drove me in her convertible Pontiac to her home in Kingston, New York. She was, and still is a fast driver...and here I was coming from Bermuda after two years of a 20 miles an hour speed limit. We drove up the New York Throughway Route 95 with her blond hair blowing wildly in the wind at 80mph. Was I nervous? Sure was - but she looked beautiful, and that kept my mind and eyes off of the speedometer......... to be cont'd.
COMING TO AMERICA
5. The real world on arrival in the USA new york to work steak houses - your fathers mustache - subway - pizza - ski and sailing clubs - broadway - restarants
jewish girls - apartments - the blackout - nyc cops - airline stews - night clubs - kathy gibbs girl - ondine clubs - peter to williams - weddings etc.
6. Touring the USA,Canada, Mexico on three month vacation
8. New York City I love
9. publicity with luce company
9. Owning ski lodge/hotel in Vermont
10. 25 years in entertainment business from NYC - Texas - Hollywood
...and so much more......
AMERICAN SECTION
=======================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================
NEW YORK CITY AND VERMONT
After spending about 40 years in the entertainment business, I am greatly amused (I have to find another expression than amused) with the number of people mostly males, who I meet, and they talk about their music and record companies, and songs they write, and yet, they know nothing at all about the business...not even the statutory mechanical license rate...let alone the forms for filing and registering copyrights and recordings...it is beyond laughable...so I don't even say anything...now and then I may tell them to start by getting Bill Krasilovsky's book "This Business of Music' - Bill was a personal friend and lawyer in New York with whom I shared several legal cases. One in particular was Chuck Berry who had demanded another $10,000 from me when I promoted one of his shows I did with him. I had a contract for a flat rate with Sha Na Na, and then "My Ding A Ling" suddenly became a giant hit for him, and 15,000 kids showed up for the concert (Hollywood Sportatorium where I also produced one of my two shows with Pink Floyd) which we only estimated would draw 3,000-5,000. I paid him, then stopped payment on the check, and Bill was his lawyer with whom I negotiated a settlement. I did several shows with Chuck, and had always paid him a cash flat sum, including a show where The James Gang were the headliners....but opted instead to play as Chuck's backup band...much to the chagrin of the local band I had hired and paid in full to be his back up band...and that was pre Eagles days for Joe Walsh...and it was a great 3 hour night of music at the Miami Hi-Li Fronton with Chuck Berry and Joe Walsh trading licks, and the local band sitting in were in a dream world playing with them...and tickets were only $6 with a 5,000 audience - I made money that night...those were the great days of my rock 'n roll producing...to be edited.
A couple of basic copyright facts to test the so-called record company owners, songwriters etc.
1. copyright means the right to copy.
2. copyright to a work belongs to the creator of that work.
3. copyright laws are federal laws
4. no copyright lawsuit can be brought unless the work has been registered with the copyright office in washington, dc....it also protects you world-wide because of the international copyright agreements...except of course russia and china who cheat on everything - law or no law.
5. cost of registering a song is about $75 - it used to be $6 on form E back in the 1960's. it is now form PA (Performing Arts).
6. the statutory mechanical license rate is now about 10 cents for each song for each album on which it is recorded e.g. an album with ten of your songs would cost the record company about $1 for each album sold - that's why most artists record only their own songs - the owner (artist) gets the money as owner of the copyright - ....plus he gets a percentage of the retail sales of the albums usually anywhere from 5% to 15% of the retail income...of course the lawyers and business types get in on the money by having the artist sign a publishing agreement with a 50/50 split of all royalties, etc, etc. the mechanical license rate was two cents for about 60 years until artists started to understand the laws with some good honest lawyers and managers like me :-) who would figt the record company to prevent things like cross-collateralization (if they don't know what that is they are bs artists not recording company execs...for your information, that is where the record company does not pay your publishing royalties until the cost of making the album has been met i.e. they take your copyright publishing royalties to pay toward the cost of making the album etc....that's why record companies want to own the publishing rights to your songs - then they don't have to fight you on that point.
7. the writer has the first right to record his song...after that he must allow others under the mechanical license rate of 10 cents per song per album as above.
right now, i am helping a photographer copyright and publish all of her own photos by putting them all together in a book...then you just register the book on form VA (Visual Arts) for about $50 and sending two copies to the copyright office - same can be done with songs - saves a fortune by not having to copyright each individual song or photograph. etc. you become your own publisher and writer and get all the licence income 100% of it...until the aforesaid lawyers etc get you confused.
On my arrival in New York, via The Queen of Bermuda cruise ship, I lived for a couple of weeks with two girls I had met in Bermuda. One of them, Dorothy, was a great looking female with a great body.
By the time of my arrival in New York, Sandy had become a star at Radio City Music Hall. I met her a couple of times and she took me for a tour backstage. However, it was obvious she had moved on in her relationship with other male dancers, and there was no place for me. So, I found solace in other girls of which there were plenty in those early 60's. The Beatles had arrived two days after I landed, so there was many a door open for an Englishman with all the local females and groupies.
After a couple of months, I found employment with Luce Publishing. I passed their IQ test with flying colors at the top of the class, and was hired as a public relations manager with a staff of six in the Manhattan office. I received the great salary of $10,000 a year, which in 1964 was amazing for a young man from England.
I soon moved into a duplex apartment on West 24th Street in the Chelsea district with a couple of IBM engineers who at first doubted my English/Bermuda police stories - until they met Sandy and Dorothy and a couple of visitng friends from Bermuda along with my college friends from Williams and Yale. I think it was the girls and their future possible relationships that convinced them of my credibilty. I also still had my Bobby's helmet and my handcuffs and nightstick which I displayed on the fireplace mantlepeice in our large living room. These items were soon stolen at one of the many BYOB parties we threw each weekend. I learned fast you can't trust many people in New York.
The bownstone duplex for which we paid $450 a month rent was sold in 2009 for $4.5 million. How times have changed.
Across from the townhouse was a large complex of apartments London Terrace Towers. It was here that I found numerous Pan Am and Eastern Airline girls. All new to the job and aged about nineteen.
I had a sun tanning space of the roof of our townhouse, and many of the girls would come over for an afternoon in the sun, and an evening in bed. I always remember Kirsten Lentz, a Swedish blonde working for Pan Am. After a couple of months she told me was pregnant. Being honest, she said she did not know if it was me or her pilot boyfriend. Then, she suddenly disappeared. A few years later she called me, and we got together in Manhattan. She was still with Pan Am and she had married the pilot; then divorced but no kids.
Peter Hero, from my Bermuda "college week" days, moved in for one summer while he was
an intern with J Walter Thompson advertising company on Madison Avenue.
Prescott (PEB) Bloom needed a job, so I hired him for the summer at Luce. We wrote a script for a TV series "Ski Patrol" - a WWII army story. Got turned down by all the networks. PEB becamoe a leading State Senator in Illinois - sadly his house burned down and he died along with his six year old daughter.
My early days in Manhattan were spent during the winter going to Vermont on weekends.
We rented a house near Killington for the ski season. A great time with various young people as part of our ski club....Sherry McGough was one of my favorites, an Irish/American girl, with blonde hair and freckles, from Queens who worked for BOAC and eventually became a NYC police officer like her father. She and her Italian girlfiend also joined my sailing club. We used to sail on the Petrel, a 73ft yawl, on weekends along the Long Island Sound to various ports. We also rented a house in the 'Hamptons for a couple of summers. I bought a sunfish sailboat. Madelaine Bates who was one of my first American grlfriends in Manhattan would come out with me on weekends. more on this era later.
I bought a ski lodge in Manchester, Vermont - 24 rooms - and run it for two years. Springtime went treasure diving with Morgan MVickar in Florida Keys, Ariel etc.
I finally found a photo of Morgan McVickar - skiing - he is on left.
Above: 75ft yawl with spinnaker, main, and mizzen sails.
Sailing 1964-67 Manhattan City Island to Sag Harbor every weekend during summer weekends plus house in the Hamptons on Penny Lane - sailing club I formed and was first mate - sailed on 65 ft schooner "Action" and 75 ft yawl "Petrel" with overnights at Trumans Cove - Cold Springs Harbor - Northport with four stacks - sometimes straight to Sag Harbor through Plum Gut - swimming etc. Same group of people that shared my winter ski house every winter weekend in Vermont near Killington for the same years.
Hans van Ness, the photographer, owned the Petrel which he had purchased from the Naval Academy where it had been donated for the use of President Kennedy, but when he was assassinated it was put up for sale, and Hans had purchased it for about $30,000. Where did I get all that energy in those days.
I must go down to the sea again,
The lonely sea and the sky,
All I ask is a tall ship,
And a star to guide her by.
John Masefield
Very little compares to sailing a fully rigged 75ft yawl, with a strong breeze, a clear sunny sky, the sails and rigging stretching and creaking, the blue and green water with small waves smacking against the hull, and leaning back, hands on the wheel, and just taking it all in. Every few hours you would change course and "come about" - head for the harbour, go ashore, and a have a good seafood meal with some drinks and all the company - then back to the boat for some wine and a good night's sleep.
Sailing along the Long Island Sound each weekend during the summers of 1965-7 was a great relief away from the frenzy of Manahttan. My crew was quite varied. There was Sherri McGough, a blonde, freckled face, good looking girl from Queens, who was of Irish stock, and had worked for BOAC in New York. She always came with her neighborhood Italian girlfriend. They were really "nice" Catholic girls, who would bring along food and cook for everybody. How they put up with our childish practical jokes such as flying their underwear on the main halyard I will never know...they just tolerated the idiotic things we got up to. Sherri later joined her father on the NYPD - I saw her grow from that fresh faced young girl into a mature policewoman, who would give me her gun for safekeeping when she stayed at my ski lodge in Vermont during the winter weekends. Then there was Pete Mendelsohn a Lt/Jg who lived next door to me on West 24th Street in Manhattan. He was stationed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during its decommissioning. We also had an advertising exec who showed up each weekend in his classic 1964 Corvette. Then a young clean cut man, Dick Simpson, from Texaco's head office, who each day was always suntanning in his perfectly ironed white sailing outfit.
My sailing was helped by the Bermuda experience on my Sunfish and 14ft sailboats. The 75ft Yawl was a little more complex - but principles were the same.
Later I would spend time with Ramblin' Jack Elliot down at the South Seaport looking over the Cape Horners - those huge sailing vessels from the days when you had "ships of wood and men of iron."
Upper East Side and bars in Manhattan.
Below: Janet and Maureen in Kauai
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I have to figure out how to crop this photo now that I have installed Windows 10 :-(
notes - met two Pan Am airline hostess girls at Dr.G's on 72nd Street - Janet from my home town Hackbridge and Maureen from Hong Kong - became friends for several years they always sent me Christmas and Birthday cards from both - real classy ladies do that. They shared an apartment with two other girls from Pan Am (Murray Hill) on the eastside of NYC - next door to their apartment were many more airline TWA etc.girls - several all night stays - sleep on couch with water dumped on me...and outside door in the apartment - then they came to see me when I was in Kauai with JJW at The Beach Boys house on Hanlei Bay and they were both married by then. I think I took Janet to the Fillmore East concert hall - this was during the second British Invasion, and one of the groups was ???> it will come to me when I google the Fillmore East history....it might have been King Crimson...or Uriah Heep...those were the good old days at the Fillmore.
Above photo of Maureen (right) and Janet (left) when they came to see me in Kauai. Janet always reminded me of a line from a song written by a friend of mine, Michael Burton, "Night Rider's Lament"
"The Perfect Professional's Wife"
I took Maureen to dinner at Luchow's on 14th Street one Thanksgiving night...alas, she had to go and spend the holiday with family friends...so, there went what could have have been a very interesting night.
I moved to a new apartment in 1967 located at 77th Street and Lexington Avenue. It was called The Newport East, and my upstairs neighbour was Joe Namath, and Sammy Davis lived in the Penthouse. May Britt used to sunbath at the roof top swimming pool and talk to us drooling and hungry males. Later, I moved to the Plaza 400 on east 54th street with a view of the East River. I paid $500 a month rent back then....these days it costs about $6,000 a month for same apartment By comparison, Joe Namath received $400,000 for signing with Jets...and his rent was the same as mine $500 a month. Today, he would get $40 million for signing, and pay about $10,000 a month rent. The world has gone money crazy - the reason I and many others supported Brexit was not finance, which is all the media talks about, but SOVEREIGNTY - people want to control their own country and way of life - not to be dictated from Brussels. It's going to be a mess for a couple years, but the British can get their Parliament back 100%.
Back to New York City:
The usual procedure for getting dates was to go to the upper eastside bars on Wednesday night and make a date for Saturday night. If you didn't score on Wednesday, you tried again after work on Friday evening. All the girls would pour out of their apartment buildings and visit the local bars - of which there were scores. I met another Pan Am girl during this period. Anne Marie Matthiessen was a young Danish girl who had been with Pan Am for about three months before being sent to New York, where along with all the others she secured an apartment with a couple of young stew roommates. She would come to Vermont with me on weekend ski trips when she was not flying, and we settled into a good relationship. Looking back, I think most of these girls were interested in marriage as that was the norm for the 60's. But with birth control pills so easily obtained, the pregnancy problems seemd to disappear, and getting married to get laid was no longer an issue for either male or female. And so, the 60's were in full bloom, as were the females.
I rented a house each summer in the Hamptons on Penny Lane in West Hampton. I bought a Sunfish sailboat, and this was the time I met up with Maddy. And so begins that story somewhere. She worked for IBM as a systems engineer - and is a fully tenured professor in New York...teaching computer science...she would do the New York Times Crossword in bed on Sunday mornings...while I was usually sleeping off a hangover.
I sold shares in the summer house to various girls. At that time thousands of young people would rent a share in houses in the Hamptons and flock to the shore on weekends from Manhattan. Hundreds of advertisements were placed in The Village Voice etc. looking for summer house share rentals.
Vermont 1968-1970
Morgan and I headed out when the ski season was over in Vermont 1968. We drove my red jeep to Key West with several interesting stops on the way. It was during "college weeks" so we obviously stopped in Fort Lauderdale and picked up a couple of college girls. We spent several nights with them, including drinking and dancing nights at the "Castaways" on Collins Avenuie in Miami Beach. Morgan's favorite song at that time was "Young Girl" you're breaking my heart. They were young and beautiful.
Then we made contact with an established treasure diving/hunter named Tom Gurr who was searching for Spanish wrecks along the Flordia Keys. We started out diving on the Trace, a Spanish ship that went down in the 1700's off Islamorada. After a couple of weeks bringing up cannon and bar-shot etc., we headed out with the crew and a large diving ship to the Bahamas. Morgan was an excellent swimmer and had no fear of the barracuda which were swimming around the ship. He would always be the first to dive into the sea - just as my friend Brian Maplas in Bermuda had done years before.
It was on these diving escapades that I learned about different breathing rigs - e.g. hooker, desco, etc...and dropping your weight belt if the air supply was cut off. The air for the face masks and the large hand-held vacuum operated metal cylinders (used for sucking up the sand around a wreck) was supplied from the ship's deck by two large compressors. I eventually was put in charge of this operation to watch for problems while the divers were working on the wrecks. I also was in charge of purchasing all the food supplies and the galley operation.
Later, we joined up with Mel Fisher and his magnatometer in searching for wrecks off Key West looking for the Santa Margarita, Atocha and others. Unfortunately, we were looking on the wrong side of the Keys. Mel Fisher later found these multi-million dollar treasure trove wrecks on the gulf side of Florida - just a few miles offshore (map above) Sad to say, he lost his son during those dives.
We put into Miami for repairs and supplies later on. It was here we met a family from New Zealand who were sailing around the world on an old 50ft lugger. They told us of the time the young son had fallen overboard (asleep) one night in the quiet night time of Pacific, and it had taken them two hours to find him. They had a young seventeen year old blonde daughter with them - she was tanned, long legged, and quite beautiful - as were all young blondes I remember from those days. I gave them a couple of hundred dollars of canned food supplies for their journey. We had dinner with them several nights. Given the chance, I would have sailed with the daughter for many years.
After a couple of months, we headed back to Vermont on a non-stop drive from the Keys to Manchester, Vermont - 27 hours and I drove all the way.
Morgan's girlfriend at the time was Maureen who tended bar for me. I dated her girlfriend Cathy, who called me one day and told me she was pregnant - turned out to be a "false" alarm.
Photos below show: Cannonballs, barshot, slingshot, and preserved cannons.
add pieces of eight and gold coins from mel fisher collection.
later back at the ski lodge hotel and stories abound for two ski seasons.
Back to Manhattan and Florida 1970-1977
Yes, I even found a photo of Madelaine Bates, and my favorite Audrey Hepburn - "Breakfast at Tiffany's"
notes: Madelaine Bates was my longest running relationship - first together thru mutual friend Pat Lynch - met at bar in Greybar Building Lexington Avenue - spent summer together on Penny Lane in house I rented in Hamptons - she moved to Rhinebeck, NY working with IBM - I bought ski lodge in Bromley, Vermont - she would come up on weekends and holidays - she looked so great with white turtleneck sweater and long black hair - then we both ended up back in Manhattan - I moved in with her on 86th street - broke up and I went to Florida to produce concerts etc. Called her several times - always remember the night she first made dinner for me - strange feeling of feeling married. favorite song at time was Elton John 'your song' etc. 'nights in white satin' moody blues - to be cont'd
Concert promotion stories can now be found
www.byronshelley.com
check the 'concert production' option
A good place to start my Rock 'n Roll years
1. During my RAF and Bermuda Police days, I always became the 'entertainment' director' - some interesting stories to tell there, especially in Bermuda with my friend from Williams College who always talks about the riot squad drill episode that coincided with one of my all night parties; young scantily clad college girls do not mix well with a riot squad drill practice.
2. First days in New York involved Moppets, Ariel, Deadly Nightshade, promoting and meeting up with two entertainment business icons, Sid Bernstein and Bill Krasilovsky. Then came Campus Directions and the college coffee house circuit with concert at New York's Town Hall; Michael Brovsky and McKendree Spring, Jerry Jeff Walker, Michael Mainieri, The Kinks, Led Zeppelin..and Greenwich Village and Bill Graham's Fillmore East days..
3. Fok Festivals, Joan Baez, Marta Heflin, and Florida concerts.
to be continued....THIS SECTION HAS TO BE EDITED AND ORGANIZED
Sitting in bed one night August 2013 with knee surgery recovery - and my whole Dave Van Ronk management era came back to me - Greenwich Village, Bitter End, Kenny's Castaways uptown, - Gaslight Cafe, Nobody's' etc and all the folk singers Jerry Jeff Walker, Nick Homes, Keith Sykes, McKendree Spring, John Prine, Rambling Jack Elliot, Carly Simon, Bob Dylan , Arlo Guthrie, Richie Havens- even Bruce Springsteen at the Bottom Line, Promoters Sid Bernstein, Michael Lang, John Scheer, Ron Delsener, etc - early days of some many singers - Phoebe Snow, Kate Taylor, Charles O'Hagerty, Mike Mainieri, Steve Gadd, Brecker Brothers, Deams. White Elephant bans. etc -and some many more - I have to put all those years togther - every night a diferent club - different singer - different girlfriend adventures
ARIEL,MOPPETS, DNS - Morgan McVickar treasure diving etc etc
This will all be revised and edited when I get time
This is the story of my working with group of female musicians that went under the name(s) Moppets, Ariel, Deadly Nightshade...during the period 1966 - 1977. I was finally able to secure them a record contract in 1975 with RCA Bud Preiger's label called Phantom Records. Bud was a long time veteran in the music business and had managed such acts as Mountain along with his new act Foreigner all of whom offered free advice to this new group of females.
It all started in Vermont when Morgan Mcvickar(treasure diving in the keys) introduced me to a five piece all female rock group named Ariel...formerly the Moppets. They all went to college in Mass - Smith-Mt.Holyoke etc. There was Beverly who founded the original group Moppets along with Gretchen and Pamela - then came Helen and Ann...making a good five piece rock band..driving round in a Ford van which had replaced their classic Cadilac hearse. They all did vocals, and instrumentation was Gretchen-organ; Pam-bass; Ann-drums; Beverly played a great Rickenbacker 12 string; and Helen who was the musician with the most potential, played violin, lead guitar, and a short lived stint on trumpet...she was the only one to go on with a career of her own and played studio gigs for various groups including Blondie/Debbie Harry etc...and stayed in New York - built her own house on Long Island - worked for a Wall Street firm - and had her own record label etc. I think she was the only one who came to realize the realities of the music industry and the opportunity she had been given - she even stayed with Bud Praeger as a manager.
I managed and booked them all over New England, New York, New Jersey. One of the most memorable gigs was a week at Tony Mart's in Somers Point New Jersey. Tony would only let them play 20 minute sets because he thought they played music from "Mars"...a reference to their preference for songs by groups such as Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, as opposed to the bubblegum type groups. There were other gigs such as the one a Captain Mac's in Syracuse for a month - Fat City in Wilmington Vermont for a summer - and eventually a showcase at the Village Gate on Bleeker Street with Sid Bernstein and many record label A&R men in the audience...my Western Union telegram promotion worked very well....and then the ultimate gig at the Fillmore East, which led to meetings with all the major labels; including Harvey Cowen at MGM Records who would have signed them had not Mike Curb taken over MGM and fired everybody.
I have to add a few more memories of various gigs - San Francisco train journey to and from New York - Quiet Knight in Chicago - Mainpoint in Philadelphia and the Folk Festival - Bitter End, Pat Kenny's Castaways etc - all my old club contacts from Billy Preston, Jerry Jeff Walker and Dave Van Ronk management days. People would ask me how I got all those gigs for them - and all the studio musicians to play on their albums - they had no idea the years I had been working with top groups...the only group that gave me credit was Tracks from Dartmouth who were frustrated and said they only reason the female group got all this work was because of me....a sentiment I heard from many sources in those days - the ladies would have died had they heard this...Tracks wanted me to manage them and came to see me in New York a couple of times - Ned really wanted to get into the studio as a drummer - he knew how great Steve Gadd and the others were....but one group along with Michael Mainieri was enough at that time.
I did set the group up with their own publishing company for long term income - this came in to play later when I could refuse to let Phantom Records get any part of the publishing royalties or co-publishing through cross-collateralization of recording costs etc. I don't think the ladies had any idea of these background assets I got for them at the time. I had studied publishing laws in the early 60's and was well aware of how record companies and managers stole the royalty income from the black musicians, and others such as the Beatles, Rolling Stones etc. Every musician I worked with got their own publishing company with 100% of income from all sources - that is another story for later.
I set up a blog for ARIEL to make it easy for adding items:
arielbeverly.blogspot.com
Front: Beverly Rodgers
Rear: Helen Hooke - Gretchen Pfeiffer - Pamela Brandt - Anne Bowen
ARIEL
Above is an interesting photo of the New England college female group ARIEL that I managed back in my Vermont hotel days during the 1960's. Gretchen (organ & vocals) my favorite 2nd from left - sad to say now deceased - but I did get to see and talk to her in 1990's, and my next favorite Beverly at front with her Rickenbacker 12 string - she was founder of the original group and was the best looking with the sexiest body according to my good friend Morgan McVickar - she had a good sense of humor and was a little on the wild side. These two were the 'straight' ones - the other three were confirmed never-to-change lesbians.
Hell, I even got them booked into the Fillmore East - a major gig in those days...but the long awaited record deal never did come our way...that was the big let down because they were talented, especially Helen Hooke (violin, guitar, vocals) first on the left, who later went on to record with Blondie...and Beverly had the right moves and looks on stage and a decent voice.
t
the moppets; beverly in center gretchen far right
beverly in action
DEADLY NIGHTSHADE; anne bowen - helen hooke - pamela brandt
they played various instruments fairly well and had good vocals and stage appearance. i took on their management and booking for about 18 months - which eventually led to playing at the Fillmore East in New York, and auditions for various record companies - in fact nearly all record companies in NYC - Atlantic, Capital, MGM etc. nothing came of any record deal - the group broke up and I went on to promote concerts in Florida with Michael Brovsky and became president of Freeflow Productions...eventually producing concerts with The Who, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Elton John, etc....then later took them back under managment as Deadly Nightshade and ended up with a record contact RCA/Phantom - Bud Preiger's label. Because I was working with Michael Mainieri, I was able to get the top musicians in New York to play on their recoding sessions for scale pay - this included people such as Steve Gadd, Tony Levin, David Spinozza, Michael and Randy Brecker, etc. I never took credit for getting these musicians - just watched others make fools of themselves not realizing the opportunity they had just by being around them. These musicians had toured and recorded with females such as Lyro Nyro, Carly Simon, Buffy St,Marie etc - they were not "newcomers" on that scene - knew a lot more about women's lib than most musicians.Lots of stories with these groups - including being the opening act for Billy Joel. Sad to say, Gretchen died in 2008 shortly after Beverly had set up their reunion concert. I talked with Gretchen the year before she died - she wanted to come to New York and see Swan Lake with me at the Met.
Beverly always had a sense of humor and had been Morgan's girlfriend - she was the attractive man-killer....and so on...have to finish all this later.
My involvement with the management of Michael Mainieri, Nick Holmes, White Elepephant, all comes together after I left Freeflow Productions. Mike Mainieri still is an incredible jazz musician who has always been considered one of the top musicians to come out of the New York scene. Working with him and his jingle company etc was a great experience. The musicians we worked with were the absolute finest to be found . One incident that sums it up is the time Yoko Ono wanted to put a group together so she could play Kenny's Castaways a small club on the Upper East side of Manhattan. I knew Pat very well having did him the favor of putting in his sound system and getting Jerry Jeff Walker to play for a week. The band we put together for Yoko included her sometime boyfriend David Spinoza, plus Tony Levin on bass, Steve Gadd on drums etc. She played there for three nights and John Lennon called each night on the phone to talk to her. She was horrible - coulldn't sing a note but paid the guys a fortune to back her up on stage...Many other stories to relate about Kenny's and the great musicians who played there...and I often sat at the sound board for the shows...especially Bonnie Bramlett who told me "Ron, keep those backup singers a pubic hair below me" - she was a great southern girl who had woked with Tina Turner, Eric Clapton etc....and the night Harry Belafonte came in and sat with me on the sound board whille Jerry Jeff Walker was performing Mr. BoJangles etc...Muddy Waters, Manhattan Transfer etc and more stories over a couple of years..
nyc broadwayMarta Heflin was my first introduction to the world of a Broadway singer/actress who had incredible talent and was highly trained with her stage craft...and was one hell of a good looking and very nice girl. She had been Bette Midler's roommate, and was given to me as a project when I was working with Michael Brovsky at Freeflow Productions in Manhattan.
We became friends for a while, and finished up one night in her uncle's (Van Heflin) apartment after watching all three Beatles movies, and drinking too much wine. She was playing Sheila in Hair on Broadway, and eventually landed the role of Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar. She made the choice to stay with the legitimate theater as opposed to going "rock 'nroll" - a wise choice for her talent. I saw her a few years later after she had come back from her Hollywood stint and several movies. She was appearing at a small nightclub in Manhattan, and sad to say she looked pale and thin - I thought it was probably the Hollywood story of substance and heroin/cocaine abuse. I said hello after the show...and that was it....SADLY, MARTA PASSED AWAY IN 2013 PROBABLY EATING DISORDER THAT I EARLIER MISTOOK FOR SUBSTANCE ABUSE
other nyc adventures; i didn't believe new jersey produced any beautiful women...until i met pamela - pam - at eric's bar on 82nd street - across from elaine's. pam had a seven year old daughter named amy. i took pam to boston one night where the dns were playing a gig. we spent the night together in the four seasons...i remember the pale pink panties she wore, and a soft white stomach...but i don't remember her last name...i saw her again in 1984 when she came to atlantic city from her north jersey home - she had a son by eric which suffered from add...and i sent her a giant basket of roses for her birthday shortly thereafter - i saw eric when he came to one of jjw gigs in nyc - he had spent 4 years in jail for cocaine selling - lost the bar..his mother owned the building and helped support the child and pam - eric was selling futures and making good money but somewhat estranged from pam at the time - he knew that i saw her again...and the story is somewhat complicated....i took her and eric her boyfriend to one of kiss' crazy parties - mostly gay
FLORIDA AND CONCERT PROMOTION DAYS
My first major concert production was the Ohio Folk Festival at Ohio University,Athens, Ohio, in May, 1971. (Billboard Magazine article) Working with the college coffee house circuit and a year after Kent State student killings, I put together a great show with Pete Seeger, Country Joe McDonald, Dave Van Ronk, Rambling Jack Elliott, McKendree Spring, Kate Taylor, Livingston Taylor, Tim Hardin, David Bromberg, Jerry Jeff Walker, Doc Watson, Youngbloods, etc. Three days with tickets at $6.50 per day....workshops, craft shows etc. 16,000 people were at Saturday night's show.
Billboard Magazine May, 1971
The event was almost cancelled by school president and state governor because of rumours that the Kent State anniversary would attract the likes of Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman, and Chicago Eight types. The student body held street protests and nightly vigils at the school - the show went on as planned. In those days the students held great sway over concerts etc.
This is where I first met Kate Taylor. Al Aronwitz (New York Post) reviewed the show and declared she was the new Janis Joplin. Later that year I met up with her in Greenwich Village. Here it is in 2009 - she sent me her new album along with a little note - I have to go see her in one of her shows now that she is back peforming.
I then went on to promote and produce shows at Town Hall in New York...Hot Tuna, McKendree Spring, Randy Newman etc...these were clasy shows and brought me attention from major agents.....to be continued...this is when carrie galbraith came back into my life for a short time.
I then began a series of large concert prouctions in Florida. My first was with Procol Harum at the Hi-Li Fronton in Miami. This I set up because of my friendship with their road manager Dereck Sutton, and their agent Sean LaRoche at Premier Talent in New York. I used a local promoter to help with the details. He hired the cheapest sound company which broke down halfway through the concert. He also fudged the ticket sales accounting. That ended my relationship with him, and Premier Talent took some talking to before giving me anymore of their groups.
I went out on my own and moved to Coconut Grove, and began a series of concerts with Pink Floyd at the Hollywood Sportatorium, and later Elton John in Jacksonville. This was the time when ATI in New York was packaging English & American groups. I was friends with the agents there, Sol Saffien, etc. I produced a number of those tours, including Fleetwood Mac, Savoy Brown, Rod Stewart, The Faces, Strawbs, Kinks, Byrds, Fairport Convention.
It was in Coconut Grove I met my longest running girlfriend - Martha Henry - 1971 - and we still go to Broadway shows together in 2012.
And she still looks seventeen. Chuck Berry and Sha Na Na was one of my early big selling shows with 13,000 people at the Hollywood Sportatorium. Dion was living in Miami at the time, he would always be willing to open a show for abut $100...so I used him now and again. I put on a show with all violin lead musicians - Sea Train, McKendree Spring, It's A Beautiful Day. One July, I did two shows with the Beach Boys - one in Tampa and one in Miami. The last of my big shows was with a local Promoter in Jacksonville at the Gator Bowl. These included The Rolling Stones, and The Who. Ticket sales proved that the Stones were the most popular...they sold out 65,000 tickets....the Who sold 13,000.
UPDATE ON MARTHA HENRYShe is an art dealer in Manhattan, and I put her in touch with Dusty Hind who has an art gallery in Hamilton Bermuda. She stays in touch via Facebook and we go to a few Broadway show together when I get to New York - always have a good time with her in New York at Sardi;s or some other vintage Broadway watering hole.1. During my RAF and Bermuda Police days, I always became the 'entertainment' director' - some interesting stories to tell there, especially in Bermuda with my friend from Williams College who always talks about the riot squad drill episode that coincided with one of my all night parties; young scantily clad college girls do not mix well with a riot squad drill practice.
2. First days in New York involved Moppets, Ariel, Deadly Nightshade, promoting and meeting up with two entertainment business icons, Sid Bernstein and Bill Krasilovsky. Then came Campus Directions and the college coffee house circuit with concert at New York's Town Hall; Michael Brovsky and McKendree Spring, Jerry Jeff Walker, Michael Mainieri, The Kinks, Led Zeppelin..and Greenwich Village and Bill Graham's Fillmore East days..
3. Fok Festivals, Joan Baez, Marta Heflin, and Florida concerts.
to be continued....THIS SECTION HAS TO BE EDITED AND ORGANIZED
Sitting in bed one night August 2013 with knee surgery recovery - and my whole Dave Van Ronk management era came back to me - Greenwich Village, Bitter End, Kenny's Castaways uptown, - Gaslight Cafe, Nobody's' etc and all the folk singers Jerry Jeff Walker, Nick Homes, Keith Sykes, McKendree Spring, John Prine, Rambling Jack Elliot, Carly Simon, Bob Dylan , Arlo Guthrie, Richie Havens- even Bruce Springsteen at the Bottom Line, Promoters Sid Bernstein, Michael Lang, John Scheer, Ron Delsener, etc - early days of some many singers - Phoebe Snow, Kate Taylor, Charles O'Hagerty, Mike Mainieri, Steve Gadd, Brecker Brothers, Deams. White Elephant bans. etc -and some many more - I have to put all those years togther - every night a diferent club - different singer - different girlfriend adventures
ARIEL,MOPPETS, DNS - Morgan McVickar treasure diving etc etc
This will all be revised and edited when I get time
This is the story of my working with group of female musicians that went under the name(s) Moppets, Ariel, Deadly Nightshade...during the period 1966 - 1977. I was finally able to secure them a record contract in 1975 with RCA Bud Preiger's label called Phantom Records. Bud was a long time veteran in the music business and had managed such acts as Mountain along with his new act Foreigner all of whom offered free advice to this new group of females.
It all started in Vermont when Morgan Mcvickar(treasure diving in the keys) introduced me to a five piece all female rock group named Ariel...formerly the Moppets. They all went to college in Mass - Smith-Mt.Holyoke etc. There was Beverly who founded the original group Moppets along with Gretchen and Pamela - then came Helen and Ann...making a good five piece rock band..driving round in a Ford van which had replaced their classic Cadilac hearse. They all did vocals, and instrumentation was Gretchen-organ; Pam-bass; Ann-drums; Beverly played a great Rickenbacker 12 string; and Helen who was the musician with the most potential, played violin, lead guitar, and a short lived stint on trumpet...she was the only one to go on with a career of her own and played studio gigs for various groups including Blondie/Debbie Harry etc...and stayed in New York - built her own house on Long Island - worked for a Wall Street firm - and had her own record label etc. I think she was the only one who came to realize the realities of the music industry and the opportunity she had been given - she even stayed with Bud Praeger as a manager.
I managed and booked them all over New England, New York, New Jersey. One of the most memorable gigs was a week at Tony Mart's in Somers Point New Jersey. Tony would only let them play 20 minute sets because he thought they played music from "Mars"...a reference to their preference for songs by groups such as Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, as opposed to the bubblegum type groups. There were other gigs such as the one a Captain Mac's in Syracuse for a month - Fat City in Wilmington Vermont for a summer - and eventually a showcase at the Village Gate on Bleeker Street with Sid Bernstein and many record label A&R men in the audience...my Western Union telegram promotion worked very well....and then the ultimate gig at the Fillmore East, which led to meetings with all the major labels; including Harvey Cowen at MGM Records who would have signed them had not Mike Curb taken over MGM and fired everybody.
I have to add a few more memories of various gigs - San Francisco train journey to and from New York - Quiet Knight in Chicago - Mainpoint in Philadelphia and the Folk Festival - Bitter End, Pat Kenny's Castaways etc - all my old club contacts from Billy Preston, Jerry Jeff Walker and Dave Van Ronk management days. People would ask me how I got all those gigs for them - and all the studio musicians to play on their albums - they had no idea the years I had been working with top groups...the only group that gave me credit was Tracks from Dartmouth who were frustrated and said they only reason the female group got all this work was because of me....a sentiment I heard from many sources in those days - the ladies would have died had they heard this...Tracks wanted me to manage them and came to see me in New York a couple of times - Ned really wanted to get into the studio as a drummer - he knew how great Steve Gadd and the others were....but one group along with Michael Mainieri was enough at that time.
I did set the group up with their own publishing company for long term income - this came in to play later when I could refuse to let Phantom Records get any part of the publishing royalties or co-publishing through cross-collateralization of recording costs etc. I don't think the ladies had any idea of these background assets I got for them at the time. I had studied publishing laws in the early 60's and was well aware of how record companies and managers stole the royalty income from the black musicians, and others such as the Beatles, Rolling Stones etc. Every musician I worked with got their own publishing company with 100% of income from all sources - that is another story for later.
I set up a blog for ARIEL to make it easy for adding items:
arielbeverly.blogspot.com
Front: Beverly Rodgers
Rear: Helen Hooke - Gretchen Pfeiffer - Pamela Brandt - Anne Bowen
ARIEL
Above is an interesting photo of the New England college female group ARIEL that I managed back in my Vermont hotel days during the 1960's. Gretchen (organ & vocals) my favorite 2nd from left - sad to say now deceased - but I did get to see and talk to her in 1990's, and my next favorite Beverly at front with her Rickenbacker 12 string - she was founder of the original group and was the best looking with the sexiest body according to my good friend Morgan McVickar - she had a good sense of humor and was a little on the wild side. These two were the 'straight' ones - the other three were confirmed never-to-change lesbians.
Hell, I even got them booked into the Fillmore East - a major gig in those days...but the long awaited record deal never did come our way...that was the big let down because they were talented, especially Helen Hooke (violin, guitar, vocals) first on the left, who later went on to record with Blondie...and Beverly had the right moves and looks on stage and a decent voice.
t
the moppets; beverly in center gretchen far right
beverly in action
DEADLY NIGHTSHADE; anne bowen - helen hooke - pamela brandtthey played various instruments fairly well and had good vocals and stage appearance. i took on their management and booking for about 18 months - which eventually led to playing at the Fillmore East in New York, and auditions for various record companies - in fact nearly all record companies in NYC - Atlantic, Capital, MGM etc. nothing came of any record deal - the group broke up and I went on to promote concerts in Florida with Michael Brovsky and became president of Freeflow Productions...eventually producing concerts with The Who, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Elton John, etc....then later took them back under managment as Deadly Nightshade and ended up with a record contact RCA/Phantom - Bud Preiger's label. Because I was working with Michael Mainieri, I was able to get the top musicians in New York to play on their recoding sessions for scale pay - this included people such as Steve Gadd, Tony Levin, David Spinozza, Michael and Randy Brecker, etc. I never took credit for getting these musicians - just watched others make fools of themselves not realizing the opportunity they had just by being around them. These musicians had toured and recorded with females such as Lyro Nyro, Carly Simon, Buffy St,Marie etc - they were not "newcomers" on that scene - knew a lot more about women's lib than most musicians.Lots of stories with these groups - including being the opening act for Billy Joel. Sad to say, Gretchen died in 2008 shortly after Beverly had set up their reunion concert. I talked with Gretchen the year before she died - she wanted to come to New York and see Swan Lake with me at the Met.
Beverly always had a sense of humor and had been Morgan's girlfriend - she was the attractive man-killer....and so on...have to finish all this later.
My involvement with the management of Michael Mainieri, Nick Holmes, White Elepephant, all comes together after I left Freeflow Productions. Mike Mainieri still is an incredible jazz musician who has always been considered one of the top musicians to come out of the New York scene. Working with him and his jingle company etc was a great experience. The musicians we worked with were the absolute finest to be found . One incident that sums it up is the time Yoko Ono wanted to put a group together so she could play Kenny's Castaways a small club on the Upper East side of Manhattan. I knew Pat very well having did him the favor of putting in his sound system and getting Jerry Jeff Walker to play for a week. The band we put together for Yoko included her sometime boyfriend David Spinoza, plus Tony Levin on bass, Steve Gadd on drums etc. She played there for three nights and John Lennon called each night on the phone to talk to her. She was horrible - coulldn't sing a note but paid the guys a fortune to back her up on stage...Many other stories to relate about Kenny's and the great musicians who played there...and I often sat at the sound board for the shows...especially Bonnie Bramlett who told me "Ron, keep those backup singers a pubic hair below me" - she was a great southern girl who had woked with Tina Turner, Eric Clapton etc....and the night Harry Belafonte came in and sat with me on the sound board whille Jerry Jeff Walker was performing Mr. BoJangles etc...Muddy Waters, Manhattan Transfer etc and more stories over a couple of years..
nyc broadwayMarta Heflin was my first introduction to the world of a Broadway singer/actress who had incredible talent and was highly trained with her stage craft...and was one hell of a good looking and very nice girl. She had been Bette Midler's roommate, and was given to me as a project when I was working with Michael Brovsky at Freeflow Productions in Manhattan.
We became friends for a while, and finished up one night in her uncle's (Van Heflin) apartment after watching all three Beatles movies, and drinking too much wine. She was playing Sheila in Hair on Broadway, and eventually landed the role of Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar. She made the choice to stay with the legitimate theater as opposed to going "rock 'nroll" - a wise choice for her talent. I saw her a few years later after she had come back from her Hollywood stint and several movies. She was appearing at a small nightclub in Manhattan, and sad to say she looked pale and thin - I thought it was probably the Hollywood story of substance and heroin/cocaine abuse. I said hello after the show...and that was it....SADLY, MARTA PASSED AWAY IN 2013 PROBABLY EATING DISORDER THAT I EARLIER MISTOOK FOR SUBSTANCE ABUSEother nyc adventures; i didn't believe new jersey produced any beautiful women...until i met pamela - pam - at eric's bar on 82nd street - across from elaine's. pam had a seven year old daughter named amy. i took pam to boston one night where the dns were playing a gig. we spent the night together in the four seasons...i remember the pale pink panties she wore, and a soft white stomach...but i don't remember her last name...i saw her again in 1984 when she came to atlantic city from her north jersey home - she had a son by eric which suffered from add...and i sent her a giant basket of roses for her birthday shortly thereafter - i saw eric when he came to one of jjw gigs in nyc - he had spent 4 years in jail for cocaine selling - lost the bar..his mother owned the building and helped support the child and pam - eric was selling futures and making good money but somewhat estranged from pam at the time - he knew that i saw her again...and the story is somewhat complicated....i took her and eric her boyfriend to one of kiss' crazy parties - mostly gay
FLORIDA AND CONCERT PROMOTION DAYS
My first major concert production was the Ohio Folk Festival at Ohio University,Athens, Ohio, in May, 1971. (Billboard Magazine article) Working with the college coffee house circuit and a year after Kent State student killings, I put together a great show with Pete Seeger, Country Joe McDonald, Dave Van Ronk, Rambling Jack Elliott, McKendree Spring, Kate Taylor, Livingston Taylor, Tim Hardin, David Bromberg, Jerry Jeff Walker, Doc Watson, Youngbloods, etc. Three days with tickets at $6.50 per day....workshops, craft shows etc. 16,000 people were at Saturday night's show.
Billboard Magazine May, 1971The event was almost cancelled by school president and state governor because of rumours that the Kent State anniversary would attract the likes of Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman, and Chicago Eight types. The student body held street protests and nightly vigils at the school - the show went on as planned. In those days the students held great sway over concerts etc.
This is where I first met Kate Taylor. Al Aronwitz (New York Post) reviewed the show and declared she was the new Janis Joplin. Later that year I met up with her in Greenwich Village. Here it is in 2009 - she sent me her new album along with a little note - I have to go see her in one of her shows now that she is back peforming.
I then went on to promote and produce shows at Town Hall in New York...Hot Tuna, McKendree Spring, Randy Newman etc...these were clasy shows and brought me attention from major agents.....to be continued...this is when carrie galbraith came back into my life for a short time.
I then began a series of large concert prouctions in Florida. My first was with Procol Harum at the Hi-Li Fronton in Miami. This I set up because of my friendship with their road manager Dereck Sutton, and their agent Sean LaRoche at Premier Talent in New York. I used a local promoter to help with the details. He hired the cheapest sound company which broke down halfway through the concert. He also fudged the ticket sales accounting. That ended my relationship with him, and Premier Talent took some talking to before giving me anymore of their groups.
I went out on my own and moved to Coconut Grove, and began a series of concerts with Pink Floyd at the Hollywood Sportatorium, and later Elton John in Jacksonville. This was the time when ATI in New York was packaging English & American groups. I was friends with the agents there, Sol Saffien, etc. I produced a number of those tours, including Fleetwood Mac, Savoy Brown, Rod Stewart, The Faces, Strawbs, Kinks, Byrds, Fairport Convention.
It was in Coconut Grove I met my longest running girlfriend - Martha Henry - 1971 - and we still go to Broadway shows together in 2012.
RON SHELLEY: ROLLING STONES CONCERT
Photos, etc
Above: My Rolling Stones 'Gator Bowl concert in Jacksonville, Florida.
Here are some photos from my friend Chuck Simons at my "Stones" concert in Jacksonville.
I can still remember that day and the girl from Daytona Beach.
The local promoter in Jacksonville had screwed The Allman Brothers Band out of money in their early days. After their raod manager killed a promoter in Buffalo for doing the same, the Jacksonville promoter was deathly scared of The Allman Brothers, so I got to do their shows in Jacksonville, and others shows in their home town of Macon. I did meet up with Phil Waldren and had his blessing on his groups at Paragon.
Later, I worked with Pink Floyd, The Who, The Kinks Kiss, Jethro Tull, etc, etc, and finally a show with Billy Preston, and then became his co-manager with Bob Ellis in Hollywood. And that is another story with the Brothers Johnson.
I have to put together photos and stories all the shows I promoted - Rolling Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd, Elton John etc etc.
Martha and Lynne enter my life...and that is a long story - and they were not groupies.
In Coconut Gove there was a bar named The Feedbag, it was the hangout for hippies, musicians and local girls. After my concerts, I used to take the musicians and an entourage to the place - The Feedbag - it also had a small stage. The Feedbag also had a small stage where locals musicians could perform. In the area at that time were singer/songwriters like Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy Buffet, Vince Martin, Michale Clarke, etc. Most of Florda was a rock 'n roll scene - very few places were available for these guys to play. Jerry Jeff would come in quite often - drunk, stoned, or both. His girlriend Murphy would be with him. He often got into arguments with the Miami Police, and would end up in the paddy wagon and later in the drunk tank to sober up and be released at 6am. I would give him a $100 bill to carry him through the night in jail.
He eventually left and went to Austin, Texas. He left his old 1949 Packard "Flying Lady" with me - and I sold it for him to Rick Wakemen of Yes for $900.
THIS SECTION NEEDS ADDITIONS AND EDITS,.
Above: Lynne
THIS IS A GOOD SECTION FOR MY 'CHANGING FACES' PHOTO ALBUM
1. 1977 FLORIDA CONCERTS - LYNNE BYRD
Lynne` sent me this old photo from 1975 - my Florida Rolling Stones days.
UPDATE ON LYNNE'
She is now 62 and has stayed in contact with me on facebook. She is divorced with a daughter and son aged 22/23. She still lives in Jacksonville, Florida and is President of her family's kindergarden schools franchise. During the past year she has been in and out of hospital with serious cancer problems...but she is a fighter and just got back out again after serious side effects from surgery and radiation - all involving the female reproductive areas.
2. 1986 AUSTIN TEXAS JERRY JEFF WALKER MANAGEMENT 'TRAVEL DAYS'
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3. 1981 AUSTIN TEXAS LAKEWAY TENNIS MANAGEMENT 'HEALTHY' DAYS
With South African tennis player Mike Freer
Good friends with Billy Freer and Cliff Drysdale at Lakeway
and tennis groupies same as rock era - but a lot cleaner.
AUSTIN TEXAS NOTES
Chanda: who did better than all the others with her life...and looks just like Carol...amazing!!!
Austin, Texas ; Jerry Jeff Walker days
This photo makes a good start
This is my only photo of Jessie as I knew her in the more pleasant days.
Austin, Texas and Jerry Jeff Walker early days 1977-79
Austin, Texas notes: It would take a book to describe all the show business experiences I had with Jerry Jeff Walker and the Willie Nelson family over the years. Enough to say that "one half of the world doesn't believe it happens, and the other half does it." Or, put another way, "We did everything you read about, and then some." The following is the Jerry Jeff Walker newsletter sent out in 1989 when I arrived back in Austin, Texas.
Needs editing...the html is screwed up.
FOR BOOKING INFORMATION
RonS helleyo r SusanWalker/T&TA rtiss
P.O.Box39
Austin, TX 78767
512n88-6r70 . Far51288-5301
FORP ROMOTIONSN, EWSLETTERS
ANDMERCHANDISE:
EileenGilVT&TM
5,2n38-1695
FORMEDIA & PUBUCIry
INFORMATION:
JotmT. Davis/T&TM
5121288-1695
FOR COPYRIGHT & PUBUSHING
INFORMATION:
SusanWalkeor r Ron Shelley
GmdknigirtM usic/t3ropeMr usic (BMD
Rr 6, Box 4lL
Arstiru fi 78737
512088-1695
I bought my seventeen year old Texas girlfriend Tina Sutherland a straw hat in the summer of 1977 - she looked just like Bridget Bardot.
I took her on the road with me several times during Jerry Jeff Walker/Willie Nelson tours. My good friend Poodie and I had some wild nights in those days on the road. One night we took Tina across the border into Mexico from El Paso, and then we had to put her in the trunk to cross back into the USA...she had no ID. She really loved taking flights with me to various concerts...she hadn't flown before until she met me.
I had met Tina at Soap Creek Saloon on Bee Caves Road in Austin. I was working with Jerry Jeff Walker at the time, and he played the club many times...drunk and sober.
One night I was standing at the bar, and there was this beautiful young girl sitting across from me...she looked just like Bridget Bardot.
After talking with her for a while, I discovered she needed a place to stay in Austin...so that night she moved right in for a few months. Sad to say, she had a one year old child at home with her parents, and I was not in the mood for being a father. Pity though, I should have tried it with her, she had everything I needed....except for the kid.
Around the time Jessie was born, my doctor's young nurse an LCN named Wendy from Wisconsin,(that's how I remember her name) invited me to her house for Christmas Eve. She had set up her bedroom with romantic ietms such as candles and warm blankets and Xmas music. As we lay on the bed she told me her pevious boyfriend had told she was like a cold fish in bed. She explained she was unable to have an orgasm. So from there began a relationship that explored many areas...but she still had the same problem. Although only twenty and from a small farm town, she had a great unabshed way of talking openly with me, she was a nurse and had seen a few things. She really wanted to love and be loved. Then she went home for a month vacation and had an serious accident in her Kombi van. I never saw her again....another potentail marriage gone. add more later.
GUNS IN TEXAS
When I lived in Texas, I went to several gun shows in Austin, and had a collection of Colt .38 Detective Specials, and an AR15 that would convert to fully automatic with a tooth pick slid under the bolt action. When I traveled with JJW I would always carry a Colt .38 because I had all the cash from each date. One night we were playing with Willie Nelson before a 20,000 audience. During the show, a fan was shot and killed in the audience, and the gunman was still on the loose when they closed down the show. Next morning I had forgotten about my handgun in my travel bag - as it went through the airport scanner it set off a major airport alarm. The police would not let me on the flight but they knew about the murder at the concert - so they gave me back my gun, which I was allowed to put in my suitcase...and I got the next plane an hour later back to Austin with no problems. That's how loose gun control was back then - and still is in Texas... except AR15 prices and .38 Colts are now through the roof...but you still only need a driver's license at gun shows in Texas. I sold all my guns when I left Texas...made a small profit.
TEXAS TENNIS
I even tried my hand at tennis player management. After spending so many hours on the court at Lakeway with Billy Freer's instructions and guidance, I managed his brother and a few junior players.
Mike Freer (seen in photo below in lounge at Lakeway) did quite well and reached #198 in world ranking. Which reminds me I met E.D. Hill (NBC) when she was Edie Tarbox aged 18 at Lakeway where she lived with her family...she looked great even back then.
My favorite little tennis player, Donna Van Auken, went on to college, and later became a high school tennis coach
in San Antonio. Last year (2011)she had the number one girl's tennis player in Texas. Donna gave me the best thanks I have ever received, she wrote "I am what I achieved because of you finding me on a tennis court so many years ago - a chance in a lifetime...thank you for everything.
And here is my friend Lana from The Ukraine.
i>
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BACK TO NEW YORK AND ATLANTIC CITY
needs a lot of editing.
South Pacific: Kelli O'Hara: The Final Curtain Call
Of course, I had to go see Kelli's Town Hall concert in New York, June 3, 2011.
Here is my ticket and some photos.
Kelli being Kelli - talking to the audience - and Kelli "Beyond The Ingenue."
So Cute - So Kelli
Ron Shelley with Kelli O'Hara at Broadway Charity Auction September, 2010...and she is so beautiful and so friendly
My River Wandle bio got sidetracked for a year after meeting Kelli O'Hara and South Pacific on Broadway. Now that is over, I return to the story. I reached the final days of my Royal Air Force service in Germany. I was ready to return home to England.
I will leave Kelli's story here with a photo and a memory link.
I met Kelli at Joe's Pub, and then saw her in South Pacific. I was so taken by her talent and personality that I had to tell the story...and see the show three times....along with two more visits to Joe's Pub...and her CD signings. As one fan said, "Kelli is so beautiful - it is scary."
Kelli makes everyone feel happy and young again - whether in the audience or performing on stage with her.
Click link below and watch a great interview video of Kelli - then right click to watch full screen
http://www.broadwayworld.com/videoplay.cfm?colid=25825&a=on
RUTHIE HENSHALL: My Broadway Follies continue...I have to get back to my life story - but Broadway and music has always been so much a part of my life over the past 40 years - and I haven't even reached that section
I can't believe it has been five years since I first started this life story project...how time passes and how soon we get older :-)
Anyway,
Click on the link below for Ruthie Henshall's performance of "I Dreamed A Dream" at the Les Miserables 10th Anniversay concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Ruthie is the gold standard for the performance of that song and the role of Fantine in Les Mis.
Following Ruthie Henshall video is Lea Salonga who is umatched in many Broadway shows including Les Mis and Miss Saigon. This video of "On My Own" is from Les Mis TAC - same as the Ruthie Henshall video. At least you get to see a couple of the best ever performances from Les Mis.
Ruthie Henshall: "I Dreamed A Dream"
Lea Salonga - "On My Own" Les Mis
And here is Ruthie's little note to me when she signed my Les Mis program
OK - I really have to edit this blog. I am using Alice Liddell as a byline because the phrase "make it all nonsense" seems appropriate for this year 2011.ronshelleyis@gmail.com
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REUNIONS
Re-establishing contact or a relatonship with an old girlfriend is the stuff of which romantic novels are written. None of mine had a fairy tale ending.
I will review them in chronological order.
MARION RUSSELL. My Maid Marion from the age of nine. I looked her up in 1971 when we were both in our forties. She barely had a memory of me - I still remember how pretty she was at age nine - she was now quite plain and uninteresting -but still a pleasant Englishwoman who had lived and worked in America for a couple years. One night visit to her home for tea and a quiet chat was about it. She still lived in the same house from our younger days, alone and settled as a spinster.
JEAN CORBETT. My English schoolgirl from Guildford. What a beautful face she had when we were thirteen. I looked her up in 1973, and she was married and living with husband and two young daughters in a nice big house in Guildford, a mile or so away from our old school. She still had my love letters from the 1950's, and she pulled out them along with some old school photo's. Her daughters looked just like she did when she was their age at twelve-thirteen. She and her husband spent the evening with me at the Red Lion hotel in Guildford, drinking champagne and eating late evening sandwiches made specially for us by the chef. She was settled into a nice marriage and family with those two young daughters who so resembled her from our schooldays.
ANS TIMMERMANS. My Dutch girlfriend, and my first adult and long term girlfriend when I was stationed with the RAF in Germany and Holland. Over the next 30 years I talked to and visited with with her in Montreal where she lived with her husband and two children. Our first meeting had beens dancing in Venlo at Carnival in 1955. Our last meeting some thity years later was dancing in Montreal. She died the following year. Her husband, Joop, sent me my old letters she had kept, along with some photos from our early days in Holland.
ATLANTIC CITY - BRIGANTINE CASINOS ETC BEGINS HERE
and as usual begins with a female :-)
Photo below of Heather my favorite barmaid in Brigantine - she's a nice good looking girl from Missouri - not New Jersey
First look at my roulette wheel marketing and design history
www.ronshelleyis.blogspot.com
OLD AGE MEDICAL STORIES - I have to get spelling corrected later:
I guess all older men talk about medical problems. So, this is a good a place as any.
I was always interested in Nurses from a young age, and thus would read about their work, and watch them working. My history:
1951 Broken leg and head injury car accident on my bike. In traction - 3 months St. Helier Hospital, Sutton, Surrey. Lucky to survive. Beautiful nurses in Children's Ward...Nurse Skinner my first American love...she was 18 year old student nurse - I was 13 year old schoolboy in traction that received bed baths from her for three months...great National Health Service in Britain :-) The nurses were always neatly dressed and clean uniforms everyday...not what you see everywhere today.
1955-60
I was appointed as Medical Officer, along with ten or more other job titles on our mobile radar units in Germany.
STD's the most prevalent were crabs from bathroom seats etc. Whitman's ointment and kerosine were most effective - the guys also had to stand on newspaper and shave off all pubic hair before applying the medicine.
Clap - Gonnherea?? Ampicillin=penicillin most effective - guys complained it felt like urinating broken glass.
Acid reflux which I mis-diagnosed for a case of acute appendicitus...luckily nearby hospital cut it out after pain stayed for a couple of days...a learning experience of don't out guess doctors.
Dental. German dentists had lots of practice and RAF was fee medical...so I had some fillings done with cocaine numbing effect...felt great afterward.
Bermuda 1960-1964
Again free medical etc.
Police first aid training.
USA
1964 on As Road Manager and promoter I carried the prescription medication for various ailments. As Carly Simon said, James Taylor would come home after a tour with what he called 'The Road Disease" i.e. clap/gonorrhea. She said that led, among other things, to their breakup.
Medication for that was Ampicillin before going home.
1988 I had lung cancer - misdiagnosed by two sports specialist docotrs who thought the aches and pains in my joint was arthritis. No, it was anocarcinoma.An X-Ray finally revealed a large peach sized tumor - encapsulated and cut out by as great surgeon. Two years off - swimming and tennis - no stress and no chemo - stiil here 30 years later by a miracle.
2008-2010 four inquinal hernia operations - three on left one on right...using two surgeons laproscopic for two on left and open surgery for latest on left and right.
2012 Now with peripheral nueropathy leg pain and numbness - oxycodone 4x daily.
PERIPHERAL NEUROPATHY from what I read - it probably started in about 2009-10 when I started to get tingling and numbness-pain in both feet. I couldn't understand what it was until I had two neurologists diaganose this as Peripheral Neuropathy - caused by the the drug Levaquin which I had been prescribed for Prostate problems.
I filed in 2013 as a pro-se plaintiff in the mass tort case against the manufacturer Johnson & Johnson. It is a progressive incurable disease that gets worse as the years go by. Walking with cane etc.//exercise leg muscles, swimming etc., to keep sense of balance, etc...no wheelchair yet. Daily Oxycodone for pain relief...only pain killer that works..tried everything...most medical reviews I read state that opiates are the best choice when all else fails to relieve the pain. The case will probably take years to resolve because Johnson & Johnson are fighting it with all their resources. The drug sold about $1.5 billion in 2010...they have plenty of money and other resources to fight the case. It could end up like the asbestos case, which is still dragging along.
still working to keep insurance up - but medicare if needed.
Klonopin 1mg as needed for stress and anxiety. They are STRONG and good for sleeping.
No alcohol for couple of years - buy smoking is so tough to quit.
2009 enlarged prostate - dr's gave me Levaquin...I am now listed on the mass tort lawsuit against johnson / johnson mgrs of levaquin cost me $300 to file my own case-thanks to the judge who prepared an easy format for pro-se filings. most cases have been settled - maybe i'll get something - i think i am down to #364 in line from 10,000 five years ago - and the case is in nj because j/j hq are in nj. so, i just walked the papers over to the courthouse.
Teeth: In Germany I had a couple of wisdom teeth extracted, and a couple of fillings, all done by a German dentist contracted by the RAF. I always though he was probably well experienced from the war and concentration camps...my youthful ignorance...he was quite caring and did a good job that lasted until I got to Bermuda. On the Bermuda Police Force we discovered that all dental work was free, including gold bridges, crown etc...some of mine still exist today. My current dentist is very good, and compliments the work done in Bermuda...can't believe the cost that work would be today in the USA.A torn knee ligament (miniscus tear) put me out of action for last summer...great laproscopic surgeon at Rothman Institute took just one hour with full sedation to solve the entire problem...and back to normal right now...except for the peripheral neuropathy.
NO FURTHER TEXT NO FURTHER TEXT NO FURTHER TEXT
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FILE PHOTOS FILE PHOTOS FILE PHOTOS FILE PHOTOS
FILE PHOTOS
FILE PHOTOS FILE PHOTOS
bomber dornier over thames london
blitz fires
wandle canoes
spitfire
guildford castle
indoor morrison shelter
croydon hospital where i was born november 3rd, 1937 #34365
stukas
buzz bomb falling
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Conker
goog palace
Photo shows left to right: Princess Elizabeth, Queen Mary (Queen Mom), Winston Churchill, King George VI, Princess Margaret.
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...
but we really did enjoy their attention.
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And this begins the long story of my days in the RAF - Germany and Holland.
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Sunbeam Talbot Police Car - Bermuda 1962
Note the old fashioned American style red light and siren fixture
To be so young and slim again!
My trusty Triumph 650cc
Bermuda Police 1962
Royal Air Force begins at West Kirby
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.
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bridget
Bermuda "Paradise Lost" The current black racist government of Bermuda is a continuation of the rabble rousing black politicians who cannot accept that they were brought to Bermuda as slaves and have no claim - as they now make - to being indigineous people to the island. Bermuda has sunk to a "Paradise Lost" from the days when I was there. It has gone from 60% white to 40% white in the last 40 years. The black government is no more than the old style banana republic style regurgitated under racist black politicians who can't accept that the majority of the people do not want Independance from the UK.
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I can use album covers for all my concert promotions - eg get your yayas out
dark side of moon etc.
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here
Memorable Moments in my Life...not neccessarily pleasant.
1. August/September,1940: Battle of Britain and the Blitz of London. Watching the
Spitfire and Hurricane fighters attack the German bombers over our home in
Surrey.
2. July/August 1944: Being evacuated to Nottingham during the VII rockets attacks
on London. The Goose Fair in Sherwood Forest, and drssing uop as Robin Hood.
Peace and quiet, and safety, far away from the bombs and war.
3. 1945: Seeing my first technicolor movie, "State Fair", and the title song "It's a Grand Night for Singing."
4. 1952: Going to the The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The unbelievable pageanty, pomp, and circumstance of the hours long parade. The gold carriages, and I always remember my first glimpse of the "Mounties"- The Royal Canadian Police Force on their horses near Trafalgar Square where I had a seat.
5. 1954: Singing the song, "Always", on stage with Marion Davis, in front of 4,000 people at Granda Tooting.
6. July, 1955: The first real seperation from home...arriving at RAF West Kirby for my12 weeks of training and "square bashing."
7. November, 1955: Taking the troop train across Germany when I was first stationed there in the Royal Air Force.
6. March, 1956: Meeting Ans Timmermans in Venlo at the "Carnival" dance...and later all the time we spent together over the next few years, dancing, singing, hugs and kisses at the raiolroad station when she went home after the dances.
Richard Colin Shelley
December 26, 1946
A young brother
Rita, Richard, Christine
richard's boys
Rita Bond Shelley
February 2, 1939
Rita's daughter Anita
Rita with one of Richard's boys
Evelyn Beatrice Shelley (Hayworth)
December 10, 1919
Christine & baby with Mom
Younger days in RAF
My first Triumph 650cc Bermuda Police 1962
Tennis coaching days with Mike Freer. Lakeway, Texas 1979
Relaxed at the hotel in 2002
Smiling Texas days.
My first passport photo - no smiling in those days - 1954
2. 1986 AUSTIN TEXAS JERRY JEFF WALKER MANAGEMENT 'TRAVEL DAYS'
.
3. 1981 AUSTIN TEXAS LAKEWAY TENNIS MANAGEMENT 'HEALTHY' DAYS
With South African tennis player Mike Freer
Good friends with Billy Freer and Cliff Drysdale at Lakeway
and tennis groupies same as rock era - but a lot cleaner.
AUSTIN TEXAS NOTES
Chanda: who did better than all the others with her life...and looks just like Carol...amazing!!!
Austin, Texas ; Jerry Jeff Walker days
This photo makes a good start
This is my only photo of Jessie as I knew her in the more pleasant days.
Austin, Texas and Jerry Jeff Walker early days 1977-79
Austin, Texas notes: It would take a book to describe all the show business experiences I had with Jerry Jeff Walker and the Willie Nelson family over the years. Enough to say that "one half of the world doesn't believe it happens, and the other half does it." Or, put another way, "We did everything you read about, and then some." The following is the Jerry Jeff Walker newsletter sent out in 1989 when I arrived back in Austin, Texas.
Needs editing...the html is screwed up.
FOR BOOKING INFORMATION
RonS helleyo r SusanWalker/T&TA rtiss
P.O.Box39
Austin, TX 78767
512n88-6r70 . Far51288-5301
FORP ROMOTIONSN, EWSLETTERS
ANDMERCHANDISE:
EileenGilVT&TM
5,2n38-1695
FORMEDIA & PUBUCIry
INFORMATION:
JotmT. Davis/T&TM
5121288-1695
FOR COPYRIGHT & PUBUSHING
INFORMATION:
SusanWalkeor r Ron Shelley
GmdknigirtM usic/t3ropeMr usic (BMD
Rr 6, Box 4lL
Arstiru fi 78737
512088-1695
I bought my seventeen year old Texas girlfriend Tina Sutherland a straw hat in the summer of 1977 - she looked just like Bridget Bardot.
I took her on the road with me several times during Jerry Jeff Walker/Willie Nelson tours. My good friend Poodie and I had some wild nights in those days on the road. One night we took Tina across the border into Mexico from El Paso, and then we had to put her in the trunk to cross back into the USA...she had no ID. She really loved taking flights with me to various concerts...she hadn't flown before until she met me.
I had met Tina at Soap Creek Saloon on Bee Caves Road in Austin. I was working with Jerry Jeff Walker at the time, and he played the club many times...drunk and sober.
One night I was standing at the bar, and there was this beautiful young girl sitting across from me...she looked just like Bridget Bardot.
After talking with her for a while, I discovered she needed a place to stay in Austin...so that night she moved right in for a few months. Sad to say, she had a one year old child at home with her parents, and I was not in the mood for being a father. Pity though, I should have tried it with her, she had everything I needed....except for the kid.
Around the time Jessie was born, my doctor's young nurse an LCN named Wendy from Wisconsin,(that's how I remember her name) invited me to her house for Christmas Eve. She had set up her bedroom with romantic ietms such as candles and warm blankets and Xmas music. As we lay on the bed she told me her pevious boyfriend had told she was like a cold fish in bed. She explained she was unable to have an orgasm. So from there began a relationship that explored many areas...but she still had the same problem. Although only twenty and from a small farm town, she had a great unabshed way of talking openly with me, she was a nurse and had seen a few things. She really wanted to love and be loved. Then she went home for a month vacation and had an serious accident in her Kombi van. I never saw her again....another potentail marriage gone. add more later.
GUNS IN TEXAS
When I lived in Texas, I went to several gun shows in Austin, and had a collection of Colt .38 Detective Specials, and an AR15 that would convert to fully automatic with a tooth pick slid under the bolt action. When I traveled with JJW I would always carry a Colt .38 because I had all the cash from each date. One night we were playing with Willie Nelson before a 20,000 audience. During the show, a fan was shot and killed in the audience, and the gunman was still on the loose when they closed down the show. Next morning I had forgotten about my handgun in my travel bag - as it went through the airport scanner it set off a major airport alarm. The police would not let me on the flight but they knew about the murder at the concert - so they gave me back my gun, which I was allowed to put in my suitcase...and I got the next plane an hour later back to Austin with no problems. That's how loose gun control was back then - and still is in Texas... except AR15 prices and .38 Colts are now through the roof...but you still only need a driver's license at gun shows in Texas. I sold all my guns when I left Texas...made a small profit.
TEXAS TENNIS
I even tried my hand at tennis player management. After spending so many hours on the court at Lakeway with Billy Freer's instructions and guidance, I managed his brother and a few junior players.
Mike Freer (seen in photo below in lounge at Lakeway) did quite well and reached #198 in world ranking. Which reminds me I met E.D. Hill (NBC) when she was Edie Tarbox aged 18 at Lakeway where she lived with her family...she looked great even back then.
in San Antonio. Last year (2011)she had the number one girl's tennis player in Texas. Donna gave me the best thanks I have ever received, she wrote "I am what I achieved because of you finding me on a tennis court so many years ago - a chance in a lifetime...thank you for everything.
And here is my friend Lana from The Ukraine.
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BACK TO NEW YORK AND ATLANTIC CITY
needs a lot of editing.
South Pacific: Kelli O'Hara: The Final Curtain Call
Of course, I had to go see Kelli's Town Hall concert in New York, June 3, 2011.
Here is my ticket and some photos.
Kelli being Kelli - talking to the audience - and Kelli "Beyond The Ingenue."
Ron Shelley with Kelli O'Hara at Broadway Charity Auction September, 2010...and she is so beautiful and so friendlyMy River Wandle bio got sidetracked for a year after meeting Kelli O'Hara and South Pacific on Broadway. Now that is over, I return to the story. I reached the final days of my Royal Air Force service in Germany. I was ready to return home to England.
I will leave Kelli's story here with a photo and a memory link.
I met Kelli at Joe's Pub, and then saw her in South Pacific. I was so taken by her talent and personality that I had to tell the story...and see the show three times....along with two more visits to Joe's Pub...and her CD signings. As one fan said, "Kelli is so beautiful - it is scary."
Kelli makes everyone feel happy and young again - whether in the audience or performing on stage with her.
Click link below and watch a great interview video of Kelli - then right click to watch full screen
http://www.broadwayworld.com/videoplay.cfm?colid=25825&a=on
RUTHIE HENSHALL: My Broadway Follies continue...I have to get back to my life story - but Broadway and music has always been so much a part of my life over the past 40 years - and I haven't even reached that section
I can't believe it has been five years since I first started this life story project...how time passes and how soon we get older :-)
Anyway,
Click on the link below for Ruthie Henshall's performance of "I Dreamed A Dream" at the Les Miserables 10th Anniversay concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Ruthie is the gold standard for the performance of that song and the role of Fantine in Les Mis.
Following Ruthie Henshall video is Lea Salonga who is umatched in many Broadway shows including Les Mis and Miss Saigon. This video of "On My Own" is from Les Mis TAC - same as the Ruthie Henshall video. At least you get to see a couple of the best ever performances from Les Mis.
Ruthie Henshall: "I Dreamed A Dream"
Lea Salonga - "On My Own" Les Mis
And here is Ruthie's little note to me when she signed my Les Mis program
OK - I really have to edit this blog. I am using Alice Liddell as a byline because the phrase "make it all nonsense" seems appropriate for this year 2011.ronshelleyis@gmail.com
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REUNIONS
Re-establishing contact or a relatonship with an old girlfriend is the stuff of which romantic novels are written. None of mine had a fairy tale ending.
I will review them in chronological order.
MARION RUSSELL. My Maid Marion from the age of nine. I looked her up in 1971 when we were both in our forties. She barely had a memory of me - I still remember how pretty she was at age nine - she was now quite plain and uninteresting -but still a pleasant Englishwoman who had lived and worked in America for a couple years. One night visit to her home for tea and a quiet chat was about it. She still lived in the same house from our younger days, alone and settled as a spinster.
JEAN CORBETT. My English schoolgirl from Guildford. What a beautful face she had when we were thirteen. I looked her up in 1973, and she was married and living with husband and two young daughters in a nice big house in Guildford, a mile or so away from our old school. She still had my love letters from the 1950's, and she pulled out them along with some old school photo's. Her daughters looked just like she did when she was their age at twelve-thirteen. She and her husband spent the evening with me at the Red Lion hotel in Guildford, drinking champagne and eating late evening sandwiches made specially for us by the chef. She was settled into a nice marriage and family with those two young daughters who so resembled her from our schooldays.
ANS TIMMERMANS. My Dutch girlfriend, and my first adult and long term girlfriend when I was stationed with the RAF in Germany and Holland. Over the next 30 years I talked to and visited with with her in Montreal where she lived with her husband and two children. Our first meeting had beens dancing in Venlo at Carnival in 1955. Our last meeting some thity years later was dancing in Montreal. She died the following year. Her husband, Joop, sent me my old letters she had kept, along with some photos from our early days in Holland.
ATLANTIC CITY - BRIGANTINE CASINOS ETC BEGINS HERE
and as usual begins with a female :-)
Photo below of Heather my favorite barmaid in Brigantine - she's a nice good looking girl from Missouri - not New Jersey
First look at my roulette wheel marketing and design history
www.ronshelleyis.blogspot.com
OLD AGE MEDICAL STORIES - I have to get spelling corrected later:
I guess all older men talk about medical problems. So, this is a good a place as any.
I was always interested in Nurses from a young age, and thus would read about their work, and watch them working. My history:
1951 Broken leg and head injury car accident on my bike. In traction - 3 months St. Helier Hospital, Sutton, Surrey. Lucky to survive. Beautiful nurses in Children's Ward...Nurse Skinner my first American love...she was 18 year old student nurse - I was 13 year old schoolboy in traction that received bed baths from her for three months...great National Health Service in Britain :-) The nurses were always neatly dressed and clean uniforms everyday...not what you see everywhere today.
1955-60
I was appointed as Medical Officer, along with ten or more other job titles on our mobile radar units in Germany.
STD's the most prevalent were crabs from bathroom seats etc. Whitman's ointment and kerosine were most effective - the guys also had to stand on newspaper and shave off all pubic hair before applying the medicine.
Clap - Gonnherea?? Ampicillin=penicillin most effective - guys complained it felt like urinating broken glass.
Acid reflux which I mis-diagnosed for a case of acute appendicitus...luckily nearby hospital cut it out after pain stayed for a couple of days...a learning experience of don't out guess doctors.
Dental. German dentists had lots of practice and RAF was fee medical...so I had some fillings done with cocaine numbing effect...felt great afterward.
Bermuda 1960-1964
Again free medical etc.
Police first aid training.
USA
1964 on As Road Manager and promoter I carried the prescription medication for various ailments. As Carly Simon said, James Taylor would come home after a tour with what he called 'The Road Disease" i.e. clap/gonorrhea. She said that led, among other things, to their breakup.
Medication for that was Ampicillin before going home.
1988 I had lung cancer - misdiagnosed by two sports specialist docotrs who thought the aches and pains in my joint was arthritis. No, it was anocarcinoma.An X-Ray finally revealed a large peach sized tumor - encapsulated and cut out by as great surgeon. Two years off - swimming and tennis - no stress and no chemo - stiil here 30 years later by a miracle.
2008-2010 four inquinal hernia operations - three on left one on right...using two surgeons laproscopic for two on left and open surgery for latest on left and right.
2012 Now with peripheral nueropathy leg pain and numbness - oxycodone 4x daily.
PERIPHERAL NEUROPATHY from what I read - it probably started in about 2009-10 when I started to get tingling and numbness-pain in both feet. I couldn't understand what it was until I had two neurologists diaganose this as Peripheral Neuropathy - caused by the the drug Levaquin which I had been prescribed for Prostate problems.
I filed in 2013 as a pro-se plaintiff in the mass tort case against the manufacturer Johnson & Johnson. It is a progressive incurable disease that gets worse as the years go by. Walking with cane etc.//exercise leg muscles, swimming etc., to keep sense of balance, etc...no wheelchair yet. Daily Oxycodone for pain relief...only pain killer that works..tried everything...most medical reviews I read state that opiates are the best choice when all else fails to relieve the pain. The case will probably take years to resolve because Johnson & Johnson are fighting it with all their resources. The drug sold about $1.5 billion in 2010...they have plenty of money and other resources to fight the case. It could end up like the asbestos case, which is still dragging along.
still working to keep insurance up - but medicare if needed.
Klonopin 1mg as needed for stress and anxiety. They are STRONG and good for sleeping.
No alcohol for couple of years - buy smoking is so tough to quit.
2009 enlarged prostate - dr's gave me Levaquin...I am now listed on the mass tort lawsuit against johnson / johnson mgrs of levaquin cost me $300 to file my own case-thanks to the judge who prepared an easy format for pro-se filings. most cases have been settled - maybe i'll get something - i think i am down to #364 in line from 10,000 five years ago - and the case is in nj because j/j hq are in nj. so, i just walked the papers over to the courthouse.
Teeth: In Germany I had a couple of wisdom teeth extracted, and a couple of fillings, all done by a German dentist contracted by the RAF. I always though he was probably well experienced from the war and concentration camps...my youthful ignorance...he was quite caring and did a good job that lasted until I got to Bermuda. On the Bermuda Police Force we discovered that all dental work was free, including gold bridges, crown etc...some of mine still exist today. My current dentist is very good, and compliments the work done in Bermuda...can't believe the cost that work would be today in the USA.A torn knee ligament (miniscus tear) put me out of action for last summer...great laproscopic surgeon at Rothman Institute took just one hour with full sedation to solve the entire problem...and back to normal right now...except for the peripheral neuropathy.
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FILE PHOTOS FILE PHOTOS FILE PHOTOS FILE PHOTOS
FILE PHOTOS
FILE PHOTOS FILE PHOTOS
bomber dornier over thames londonblitz fires
wandle canoes spitfire
guildford castle indoor morrison shelter
croydon hospital where i was born november 3rd, 1937 #34365
stukas
buzz bomb falling
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Conker
goog palace
Photo shows left to right: Princess Elizabeth, Queen Mary (Queen Mom), Winston Churchill, King George VI, Princess Margaret..
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but we really did enjoy their attention.
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And this begins the long story of my days in the RAF - Germany and Holland.
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Sunbeam Talbot Police Car - Bermuda 1962
Note the old fashioned American style red light and siren fixture
To be so young and slim again!
My trusty Triumph 650cc
Bermuda Police 1962
Royal Air Force begins at West Kirby
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bridget
Bermuda "Paradise Lost" The current black racist government of Bermuda is a continuation of the rabble rousing black politicians who cannot accept that they were brought to Bermuda as slaves and have no claim - as they now make - to being indigineous people to the island. Bermuda has sunk to a "Paradise Lost" from the days when I was there. It has gone from 60% white to 40% white in the last 40 years. The black government is no more than the old style banana republic style regurgitated under racist black politicians who can't accept that the majority of the people do not want Independance from the UK.
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I can use album covers for all my concert promotions - eg get your yayas out
dark side of moon etc.
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here
Memorable Moments in my Life...not neccessarily pleasant.
1. August/September,1940: Battle of Britain and the Blitz of London. Watching the
Spitfire and Hurricane fighters attack the German bombers over our home in
Surrey.
2. July/August 1944: Being evacuated to Nottingham during the VII rockets attacks
on London. The Goose Fair in Sherwood Forest, and drssing uop as Robin Hood.
Peace and quiet, and safety, far away from the bombs and war.
3. 1945: Seeing my first technicolor movie, "State Fair", and the title song "It's a Grand Night for Singing."
4. 1952: Going to the The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The unbelievable pageanty, pomp, and circumstance of the hours long parade. The gold carriages, and I always remember my first glimpse of the "Mounties"- The Royal Canadian Police Force on their horses near Trafalgar Square where I had a seat.
5. 1954: Singing the song, "Always", on stage with Marion Davis, in front of 4,000 people at Granda Tooting.
6. July, 1955: The first real seperation from home...arriving at RAF West Kirby for my12 weeks of training and "square bashing."
7. November, 1955: Taking the troop train across Germany when I was first stationed there in the Royal Air Force.
6. March, 1956: Meeting Ans Timmermans in Venlo at the "Carnival" dance...and later all the time we spent together over the next few years, dancing, singing, hugs and kisses at the raiolroad station when she went home after the dances.
Richard Colin Shelley
December 26, 1946
A young brother
Rita, Richard, Christine
richard's boysRita Bond Shelley
February 2, 1939
Rita's daughter Anita
Rita with one of Richard's boys
Evelyn Beatrice Shelley (Hayworth)
December 10, 1919
Christine & baby with Mom
Younger days in RAF
My first Triumph 650cc Bermuda Police 1962
Tennis coaching days with Mike Freer. Lakeway, Texas 1979
Relaxed at the hotel in 2002
Smiling Texas days.
My first passport photo - no smiling in those days - 1954
