THURSDAY BACKTRACK: Music and news from 60 years ago - week ending 27 January 1962

At #3 is Bobby Darin's 'Multiplication':

Giles cartoon for this week: police recruitment

Concerns had been voiced for some time about the shortage of officers in the Metropolitan Police, as in e.g. these queries in Parliament from April and November 1961:

• https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1961/apr/26/metropolitan-police-force-strength
• https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1961/nov/09/metropolitan-police-force-strength

    There was a Royal Commission in progress to review policing arragements generally, which produced a final report in May 1962 with 111 recommendations. One suggestion considered was to establish a centralised police force but the Home Secretary told Parliament that 'all the Commissioners except one recognised as even more cogent the advantages of local administration, and they came down firmly against a national police service.'

https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1963/may/09/royal-commission-on-the-police-report

    These criminals are relatively short in stature, perhaps because of their poor diet in childhood, which the postwar Labour government sought to address. In the 1980s a teaching colleague noted the variation in height of a class of young secondary schoolchildren and commented that it was a sign of the decline in the Welfare State.

    Giles had a keen eye for detail. Both miscreants are wearing fashionable boots of the time - the one in front sports pointy-toed 'winklepickers' which some said were handy in a fight; the blond wears what look like Chelsea boots with 'Cuban heels' and apparently they have spurs attached - also a fighting asset, perhaps. Their jackets appear to be zip-up 'windcheaters' and both wear 'drainpipe trousers'.

Some memorable events (via Wikipedia):

21 January: 'The Organization of American States (OAS) began its Eighth Meeting of Consultation of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Punta del Este, Uruguay, in the course of which the United States agreed to resume aid to Haiti in return for its support of sanctions against Cuba. Haiti's participation was essential because the United States was a vote short of having the 2/3rds majority of the 21 member nations.'

22 January: 'The Organisation Armée Secrète (OAS), opposed to the independence of Algeria, bombed the French Foreign Ministry, by placing a time bomb inside a truck that was going into the compound. A mailroom worker was killed, and three people were seriously injured by the shattering of hundreds of windows at the Quai d'Orsay. Gunmen from the OAS also kidnapped a member of Parliament, Dr. Paul Mainguy, who was rescued that afternoon by French police.'

23 January: 'American inventor Thomas Townsend Brown received U.S. Patent 3,018,394 for an "Electro-kinetic Transducer", a means of using an electric field as a means of propulsion of aircraft.'

24 January: 

• 'The East German government instituted conscription into its armed forces, which formerly had been filled by volunteers. Western sources speculated that the East Germans had waited until the completion of the Berlin Wall before announcing the draft.'
• 'Brian Epstein made a verbal contract with the four members of The Beatles, becoming their manager in return for receiving up to 25 percent of their gross earnings.'
• 'An attempt by the United States, to launch five satellites into orbit from the same rocket, failed when the final stage of the Thor-Able-Star rocket failed to provide sufficient thrust to break the pull of gravity. Falling into the Gulf of Mexico "well south of Cuba" were the 80 foot rocket and the satellites SR-4, Injun II, Lofti II, Secor and Surcal, worth $3,500,000 altogether.'

25 January: 'Anandyn Amar, who had served twice as Prime Minister of Mongolia (1928–30 and 1936–39) and Chairman of the Presidium of State (1932–36) before becoming a victim of a purge by Joseph Stalin, was posthumously rehabilitated, more than 20 years after his execution by the Soviet Union on July 27, 1941.'

26 January: 'The American space probe Ranger 3 was launched from Cape Canaveral at 3:30 pm local time with the objective of duplicating the Soviet feat of landing a satellite on the Moon. Hours later, NASA announced that the Atlas rocket had hurled Ranger 3 into its trajectory too quickly, and that the probe would miss its target by 22,000 miles. Intersecting the Moon's orbit after 50 hours instead of the planned 66 hours, the spacecraft arrived too soon, got no closer than 22,862 miles from the Moon and went into orbit around the sun.'

27 January:

• 'With the publication of a January 15 decree of the Supreme Soviet, the Soviet Union changed all remaining street names and place names honoring Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich, Georgi Malenkov, and Kliment Voroshilov two months after the five aides to Joseph Stalin had been denounced by the Soviet Communist Party.[87] The Azerbaijan SSR city of Molotov would become Oktyabrkend, and the city of Perm had reverted to its name after Molotov's ouster in 1957; Voroshilovgrad was renamed Luhansk and Voroshilov in the far east became Ussuriysk.'
• 'The planned 7:30 am launch of Lt. Col. John H. Glenn, Jr. was postponed after the countdown clock stopped 20 minutes before liftoff. Glenn had been in the capsule since 5:10 am and was prepared to become the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth, while much of the nation watched live coverage. After technical difficulties halted the countdown, the skies became overcast with thick cloud cover, and the mission was scrubbed at 9:20 am.'
• 'At a major conference in Beijing, Liu Shaoqi, President of the People's Republic of China, criticized the "Great Leap Forward" economic policies of Party Chairman Mao Zedong. "People do not have enough food, clothes or other essentials... agricultural output has dropped tremendously," Liu told the assembly, adding "There is not only no Great Leap Forward, but a great deal of falling backward." Chairman Mao made a rare self-criticism three days later, and eventually took revenge on Liu, who disappeared in 1968 and reportedly died in 1969.'

UK chart hits, week ending 27 January 1962 (tracks in italics have been featured previously)

Htp: Clint's labour-of love compilation https://www.sixtiescity.net/charts/61chart.htm

THURSDAY BACKTRACK: Music and news from 60 years ago - week ending 20 January 1962

At #4, Billy Fury's 'I'd Never Find Another You':

Some memorable events (via Wikipedia):

14 January: 'A Netherlands warship sank an Indonesian torpedo boat after it approached the disputed territory of West Irian, a Netherlands colony claimed by Indonesia.'

15 January: 'After the United Kingdom sought to join the European Economic Community, the Meteorological Office first began using Celsius temperature values in its public weather information, following the Fahrenheit values. In October, the Celsius values were listed first, and by January 1, 1973, when the government entered the EEC and completed its conversion to the metric system, Fahrenheit numbers were only used occasionally.'

    Also, 'The Derveni papyrus, written in about 340 BC, was discovered in a cist that had been buried at the site of the Greek city of Derveni, near Thessaloniki. The oldest surviving manuscript in Europe, the papyrus roll contained a commentary on philosophy and religion.'

16 January: 'A military coup in the Dominican Republic, led by General Pedro Rodriguez Echavarria, forced President Joaquín Balaguer to resign and to go into exile. Earlier in the day in Santo Domingo, soldiers fired into a crowd of people protesting against the new regime, killing 8 people and wounding many more. Balaguer had been the leader of a council of state with seven civilians, and had pledged to hold elections on February 27, 1963. The junta consisted of two former state council members, two civilians from the old Trujillo government, and three military officers, but had no presiding leader. The other council members were placed under house arrest.'

17 January: 'United States government workers were given the right of collective bargaining by President Kennedy, in Executive Order 10988.'

18 January: 'Two days after seizing power in the Dominican Republic, General Pedro Rodriguez Echavarria was overthrown in a counter-coup by his own officers, who then freed members of the former council of state who had been under house arrest. The council's first act of business was to accept Balaguer's resignation, with Rafael Filiberto Bonnelly as his successor.'

    Also: 'In the lead-up to the opening of negotiations on Ireland's entry to the European Community, Irish Prime Minister Seán Lemass addressed the members of the other EC governments at their headquarters in Brussels.'

19 January: 'KGB agents identified Colonel Oleg Penkovsky as the man who was secretly meeting British national Janet Chisholm in Moscow. The agents, who had been shadowing Mrs. Chisholm, had first seen the two together on December 30, and followed Penkovsky to his apartment. Surveillance determined that Colonel Penkovsky, a high clearance official with the Soviet military intelligence agency GRU, had been bringing home classified material relating to ballistic missiles, photographing it, and giving the film to the British intelligence agency MI-6. Penkovsky, whose information alerted the United States to the placement of nuclear missiles in Cuba, would be arrested on October 22, when the Cuban Missile Crisis began, and would be executed on May 16, 1963 for treason.'

20 January: 'The play Prescription: Murder, by Richard Levinson and William Link, was first presented, with the premiere at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. Character actor Thomas Mitchell portrayed a disheveled police detective named Lt. Columbo. When the play was made into a TV movie in 1968, Peter Falk portrayed the detective, and then in the title role of Columbo, one of the recurring segments of the NBC Mystery Movie. Columbo had been seen once before, on July 30, 1960, in the presentation "Enough Rope", part of The Chevy Mystery Show.'

    

UK chart hits, week ending 20 January 1962 (tracks in italics have been featured previously)

Htp: Clint's labour-of love compilation https://www.sixtiescity.net/charts/61chart.htm

THURSDAY BACKTRACK: Music and news from 60 years ago - week ending 21 January 1961

At #2: Elvis' 'Are You Lonesome Tonight':

Giles cartoon for this week: the UK Professional Footballers' Association Strike

For 60 years in the UK, there had been an earnings cap for professional soccer players - maximum £20 a week in 1961, when the average male manual wage was £14.

    Jimmy Hill, a Fulham player about to retire from the game, organised a threatened nationwide players' strike which would have taken effect on Saturday, 21 January; the Football Association caved in on 18 January and so ushered in the modern era of very highly paid footballers.

https://www.thesportsman.com/features/how-jimmy-hill-s-strike-threat-turned-20-footballers-into-multi-millionaires

Some memorable events (via Wikipedia):

16 January: 'The United States banned travel by its citizens to Cuba, except in cases where a special endorsement was included on a passport.'

17 January: 'President Dwight Eisenhower gave his farewell address on nationwide television, with the warning, "We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex"..We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes."

    Also, 'Patrice Lumumba, 35, former leader of Republic of Congo, was secretly executed by a firing squad.'

19 January: 'In New Zealand, the filling of Lake Ohakuri began. Within two weeks, a reservoir of nearly five square miles was created and a supply of hydroelectric power was created. At the same time, two of the world's largest geysers—the 295-foot-high Minquini and the 180-foot-high Orakeikorako—were covered over and made extinct.'

20 January: 'John F. Kennedy took the oath of office as the 35th president of the United States. For the first time, the event was shown on color television, pioneered by the NBC network.'

21 January: 'Loaded with 16 nuclear tipped Polaris A-1 missiles, the submarine USS George Washington completed its first "deterrent patrol", after having remained submerged for a record 66 consecutive days.'

UK chart hits, week ending 21 January 1961

Htp: Clint's labour-of love compilation https://www.sixtiescity.net/charts/61chart.htm

THURSDAY BACKTRACK: Music and news from 60 years ago - week ending 13 January 1962

At #3, the now-classic 'The Young Ones' by Cliff Richard and the Shadows':

Some memorable events (via Wikipedia):

7 January: A bomb exploded at the Paris apartment building where controversial existentialist author Jean-Paul Sartre lived. Sartre was not home at the time, and his mother was not injured, but the fire destroyed most of his unpublished manuscripts.

    An assassination attempt against Indonesia's President Sukarno failed, but the hand grenades thrown at his automobile killed three bystanders and injured 28 others in Ujung Pandang (at that time, Makassar).

8 January: The first two teams of the United States Navy SEALs, were commissioned as the United States Navy's Sea, Air and Land teams, with an order backdated to January 1, in order to carry out President Kennedy's recommendation for the development of "unconventional warfare capability". SEAL Team One, based in Coronado, California served the Pacific Fleet and SEAL Team Two served the Atlantic Fleet out of Little Creek, Virginia. Each team consisted of 50 men and ten officers.

    Also, in a closed session at the Presidium, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev delivered what was later referred to as the "meniscus speech", using the analogy of a wineglass filled to the point that it could overflow at any time. In the speech, which was not revealed until 40 years later, Khrushchev told the ministers that the U.S.S.R. was weaker militarily than the United States, and that the only way to compete against American superiority was to maintain the threat that world tensions could spill over. "Because if we don't have a meniscus," Khrushchev said, "we let the enemy live peacefully."

9 January: Rashidi Kawawa was appointed as the last Prime Minister of Tanganyika, by President Julius Nyerere, who had formerly had both posts. The position of Prime Minister would be abolished on December 9, after which Tanganyika and Zanzibar had merged to form Tanzania. Kawawa would become the first Prime Minister of Tanzania when that post was created in 1972.

    Also, Cuba and the Soviet Union signed a trade pact.

10 January: An avalanche on Mount Huascarán, the tallest peak in Peru killed 4,000 people. At 6:13 pm, melting ice triggered the slide of three million tons of ice, mud and rock down the side of Huascaran, quadrupled in size as it gathered mass, and, within eight minutes, buried the town of Ranrahirca (population 2,700) the village of Yanamachico, and three other villages totaling 800 residents. Ranrahirca, which had only 50 survivors, would be rebuilt, then destroyed again in an earthquake and an even larger avalanche on May 31, 1970.

11 January: Soviet submarine B-37, nine days away from being dispatched to Cuba, was moored at Polyarny, conducting maintenance and pressurizing of outdated gas-steam torpedoes. At 8:20 am, a fire in the torpedo compartment detonated all twelve torpedoes and instantly destroying the submarine. Captain Anatoly Begeba, who had been outside, inspecting the top of the sub, survived. The 78 men inside the sub drowned as it sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea.

    Also, piloting the newest model of long-range bombers, the B-52H Stratofortress, crewmembers broke 11 non-stop distance and course-speed records, for its aircraft class and time, when they successfully completed a more-than-21-hour non-refueled flight—flying approximately 12,500 miles across the globe..

    Also, Nelson Mandela secretly left South Africa for the first time, as he was driven across the border to Botswana. From there, he went to Ethiopia to speak at a conference in Addis Ababa. He would tour the continent for the next six months. Upon his return to South Africa on August 5, he would be arrested.

12 January: Operation Chopper, the first American combat mission in Vietnam, began as the American pilots transported hundreds of South Vietnamese troops to fight against a Viet Cong force near Saigon. Three days later, President Kennedy told reporters at a press conference that American troops were not being used in combat.

    Also, A spokesman for the Army of Indonesia, Colonel Soenarjo, that soldiers had begun landing on West Irian, the semi-independent western side of New Guinea that remained under the administration of the Netherlands.

13 January: With the United States having halted its U-2 flights over the Soviet Union, the Republic of China (Taiwan) began regular U-2 surveillance flights over the People's Republic of China, with a group of American-trained pilots nicknamed the Black Cat Squadron.

    Also, Albania allied itself with the People's Republic of China, as the two nations signed a trade pact.

    

UK chart hits, week ending 13 January 1962 (tracks in italics have been featured previously)

Htp: Clint's labour-of love compilation https://www.sixtiescity.net/charts/61chart.htm

THURSDAY BACKTRACK: Music and news from 60 years ago - week ending 14 January 1961

At #2: Cliff Richard's 'I Love You':

Giles cartoon (15 January but relating to December 1960): Electric train breakdowns

In November 1960 Glasgow's diesel-powered suburban trains began to be replaced by non-polluting, 'blue train' electric versions - brochure details and electrification program here.  

    Unfortunately there were soon accidents, on 13 and 17 December, leading to questions in Parliament and Ministry of Transport reports. 'The entire fleet was withdrawn for nearly a year after a train exploded because of transformer problems in December 1960, seriously injuring three people,' says a 2010 'Scotsman' retrospective. 

Cover of November 1960 introductory brochure from British Railways (Scotland)

Some memorable events (via Wikipedia):

7 January: Following a four-day conference in Casablanca, five African chiefs of state announced plans for a NATO-type African organization to ensure common defense. From the Charter of Casablanca emerged the Casablanca Group, consisting of Morocco, the United Arab Republic, Ghana, Guinea, and Mali.

8 January: In France, a referendum supported Charles de Gaulle's policies on independence for Algeria with a majority of 75% (17,447,669 to 5,817,775) in favour.

9 January: British authorities announced that they had discovered the Soviet Portland Spy Ring in London. Arrested on January 7 were Harry Houghton, Ethel Gee and Gordon Lonsdale.

    Also, In the former Belgian Congo, aides of jailed premier Patrice Lumumba formed the "Republic of Lualaba", in the valley of the Lualaba River.

10 January: The University of Georgia was forced to admit its first African-American students, after U.S. District Judge William Bootle ordered the U.Ga. to admit Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton E. Holmes.

11 January: Ukrainian SSR Communist Party Chief Nikolai Podgorny was berated by Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev after corn production fell short of goals set for 1960. In a session of the party's Central Committee in Moscow, Khrushchev accused Podgorny of lying to conceal theft and warned, "You will pay for this lack of leadership." Podgorny, along with Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin, would be part of the troika that would overthrow Khrushchev in 1964.

    Also, The name Grampian Television was selected for independent television's new service covering the north of Scotland, replacing the name North of Scotland Television. The Grampian Mountains are one of three mountain ranges in Scotland.

13 January: General Cemal Gürsel, the President of Turkey since a May 27 coup, announced that the ban on political activity had been lifted and that parliamentary elections would be scheduled for October 15.

14 January: In the final week of his administration, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued an Executive Order that closed a loophole that allowed American people and companies to own gold outside of the United States. Since 1933, persons and companies under American jurisdiction were barred from buying, selling or owning gold within the U.S., but were not prohibited from hoarding it outside of the country. The new order directed that all Americans who held gold coins, gold bars, and foreign gold securities and gold certificates, would have to dispose of their holdings no later than June 1. The move came after the U.S. trade deficit had grown by ten billion dollars over the previous three years.

UK chart hits, week ending 14 January 1961

Htp: Clint's labour-of love compilation https://www.sixtiescity.net/charts/61chart.htm

THURSDAY BACKTRACK: Music and news from 60 years ago - week ending 6 January 1962

At #4 to begin 1962 is Pat Boone's 'Johnny Will':

Giles cartoon for this week: the Post Office industrial dispute

The background to this industrial dispute is the expansion of the British economy in the 1950s. The nation was heavily in debt and struggling with a balance of payments deficit. It was essential to boost exports but at the same time the public wanted more (and/or better) housing and consumer goods; this meant there was a competition for labour, made harder by the postwar shortage of manpower (which led to the drive to attract Commonwealth immigration), so wages were rising faster than productivity. The Government tried to negotiate the conflicting demands with a prices and incomes policy.

    Britain was keen to modernise and the Electricity Act of 1947 took over over 500 local authority and commercial electricity producers. 'The newly nationalised electricity industry made a huge effort to build up Britain's electrical system. building dozens of power stations and encouraging people to use more electricity in their workplaces and homes,' says this British Library blog; and as the country electrified, it generated a boom in consumer electrical goods - TVs even more than washing machines! To hold down prices and rein in consumer spending the Government not only imposed a variable 'purchase tax' on luxury goods such as TVs - 50% at this time! - but also a combination of minimum down payments and maximum credit periods (see p. 30 here.)

Image source (p.25)

    As to the incomes side of policy, the Government had imposed what it called a 'pay pause' affecting public sector workers including teachers, as a 'breathing space for productivity to catch up' and in the hope that it would set an example to the private sector also. The pay freeze invited conflict over the established use of third-party arbitration between employers and unions, as the Chancellor Selwyn Lloyd noted in his secret memorandum to Cabinet in August 1961.

    In response to governmental interference with the established negotiating mechanisms, the Union of Post Office Workers (UPW) led by Ron Smith began a work-to-rule on 1 January 1962 and called it off on 1 February. 

    Separately, the Post Office Engineers Union, (POEU) representing engineering staff (mostly in telecommunications including the public telephone system) started a work-to-rule on 20 January 1962 and called it off on 11 March. Prior to the 'pay pause' that union had gone to the Civil Service Arbitration Tribunal, who as future Prime Minister Harold Wilson told Parliament 'were threatened by the Government representatives and told what they had to do. Nevertheless, they awarded 7½ per cent. Within minutes the Postmaster-General was put up to say that the 5 per cent. would be paid, but that the other 2½ per cent. awarded by the tribunal would be withheld until some uncertain date in the future and without retrospection.'

Some memorable events (via Wikipedia):

31 December; 'Ireland's first national television station, Telefís Éireann (later RTÉ), began broadcasting. A speech by Irish President Éamon de Valera opened the new era.'

1 January: 'Western Samoa (now called Samoa) became independent from New Zealand. The two fautua (advisers), Malietoa Tanumafili II and Tupua Tamasese Mea'ole were named as the two heads of state.'

    'The People's Revolutionary Party was founded as a Marxist–Leninist political party in South Vietnam, and its leaders receiving instruction directly from the Lao Dong Party of North Vietnam.'

    'The Beatles auditioned unsuccessfully for Decca Records with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and, at that time, drummer Pete Best.'

    'Illinois becomes the first U.S. State to decriminalize homosexual activity.'

3 January: 'A spokesman for Pope John XXIII revealed that Cuban leader Fidel Castro and several other officials had received a decree of excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church in 1961 under two sections of canon law, for impeding bishops in their work and for violence against clergymen. In September, Cuban bishop Eduardo Boza Masvidal and 135 priests had been forced to leave Cuba.'

5 January: 'The first recording on which The Beatles play, the 45 rpm record My Bonnie, credited to "Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers" (recorded last June in Hamburg), is released by Polydor in the United Kingdom; "The Saints" is on the B-side.'

    Also on 5 January: 'Prison inmate Clarence Gideon sent a letter, written in pencil, to the United States Supreme Court, asking them to reverse his conviction for burglary on the grounds that he had not been given the right to an attorney. The Supreme Court granted certiorari and, on March 18, 1963, issued the landmark decision of Gideon v. Wainwright, holding that the Sixth Amendment guarantee, of the right to assistance of counsel, required the appointment of a lawyer for any person unable to afford one.

6 January: John F. Kennedy was formally elected as the 35th president of the United States, as a joint session of the U.S. Congress witnessed the counting of the electoral vote. U.S. Vice-President Richard Nixon, who had opposed Kennedy in the 1960 election, formally announced the result.

UK chart hits, week ending 6 January 1962 (tracks in italics have been featured previously)

Htp: Clint's labour-of love compilation https://www.sixtiescity.net/charts/61chart.htm

1	Stranger On The Shore	Acker Bilk	Columbia
2	Moon River	Danny Williams	HMV
3	Let There Be Drums	Sandy Nelson	London
4	Johnny Will	Pat Boone	London
5	Tower Of Strength	Frankie Vaughan	Philips
6	Midnight In Moscow	Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen	Pye
7	So Long Baby	Del Shannon	London
8	Toy Balloons	Russ Conway	Columbia
9	I'd Never Find Another You	Billy Fury	Decca
10	My Friend The Sea	Petula Clark	Pye
11	Multiplication	Bobby Darin	London
12	Take Five	Dave Brubeck	Fontana
13	Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen	Neil Sedaka	RCA
14	Don't Bring Lulu	Dorothy Provine	Warner Brothers
15	Bambino	The Springfields	Philips
16	September In The Rain	Dinah Washington	Mercury
17	Goodbye Cruel World	Jimmy Darren	Pye
18	Walkin' Back To Happiness	Helen Shapiro	Columbia
19	Run To Him	Bobby Vee	London
20	Take Good Care Of My Baby	Bobby Vee	London