#like blackpool era?!!! oh my good | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

paralleljulieverse · 5 years

Photo

Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside!

70th anniversary of Julie Andrews’ three-month run in “Coconut Grove” at the Blackpool Hippodrome (26 June - 1 October 1949)

When discussing her long and varied career, Julie Andrews is fond of representing it as a series of fortuitous “stepping stones,” “great, wonderful bursts of good fortune [that] I would race to be worthy of" (Brockes 2004).

The first of these auspicious breaks was Starlight Roof, the up-scale London variety revue that marked Julie’s professional debut in late-1947. At the end of her one year run in the show –– limited to a strict twelve month maximum by council laws governing theatrical employment of minors –– Julie recounts that she was awash with tears. “I honestly thought that was the end of my career, the end of all the fun, and that I would never work again” (Andrews, 2008: 88).

Such was the impact of Starlight Roof, however –– and such the ambitious management of those around her, perhaps –– that the pint-sized soprano was quickly launched into a series of follow-up engagements that further advanced her budding celebrity. From singing on the radio to appearing in big London pantos and even performing for royalty, the young Julie Andrews carved out a solid career as post-war Britain’s singing child wonder, a virtuosic “prima donna in pigtails” (Pearce: 3).

Most of these early performances were patterned more or less directly on the Starlight Roof novelty theme with Julie appearing as the unassuming little girl from Walton-on-Thames –– complete with white smock dress, ankle socks and Dolly shoes –– who would gaily skip onto the stage and let forth with this phenomenal coloratura singing voice. Touring the British variety circuit, often on the same bill as her parents, Julie typically stole the show...and the notices! “Julie Andrews...provides the highlight of the evening,” enthused one review of an appearance at the Hackney Empire in May 1949. Her “[o]peratic selections and ballad numbers, with excellent pianoforte accompaniment, are enjoyed in an all-too-brief appearance” (’Round the Halls’: 5).

Before long, Julie emerged as the star in the family with theatrical billing shifting from ‘Ted and Barbara Andrews with Julie’ to ‘Julie Andrews with Ted and Barbara’. “That was not a very happy state of affairs,” Julie later recalled, “certainly not for my stepfather who had an ego to think about” (Moir: 17). The growing disparity of professional fortunes became plainly apparent in the summer of 1949 when Julie and her parents were contracted to perform in the northern English town of Blackpool.

The largest seaside resort in the UK, Blackpool has been a longstanding epicentre for domestic British tourism and, with it, summertime entertainment (Brodie and Whitfield, 2014). Widely lampooned today as down-market and a little seedy, the Blackpool entertainment industry in its heyday was hugely vibrant. Theatres, opera houses, ballrooms, winter gardens and a whole multiform “infrastructure of fun” sprang up to service the town’s massive seasonal market of family holidaymakers with something for everyone from grandparents to children (ibid: 51ff).

By the 1940s, Blackpool was at its peak as the British capital of summertime entertainment. Boasting fourteen live theatres and eighteen picture theatres, it was reputed to offer “the biggest show biz in the world for the size of the town” (Regensberg: 52). These venues provided “a flow of entertainment comprising revue, vaudeville, ice and water spectacles and circus to millions of visitors and locals,” offering lucrative opportunities for performing talent “with the season absorbing some of the biggest radio and vaude[ville] names” (ibid.).

It was in this context that, in the summer of 1949, the Andrews family was placed under three-month contract by Tom Arnold and Jack Taylor, a pair of seasoned theatre producers who had recently set up as independents after years of supplying shows for the Blackpool Tower Company (Regensberg: 52). Following initial success in the 1948 season, Arnold and Taylor went all out in 1949 mounting three big shows: Water Follies, an aquatic spectacular housed at the Derby Baths with Johnny ‘Tarzan’ Weissmuller flown in from Hollywood as star attraction; Coconut Grove, a lavish Hollywood-style revue at the Blackpool Hippodrome, a 2500-seat theatre in the heart of town; and Orchid Room, a slightly more modest variety show at the smaller Central Pier Pavilion on the seafront (Band, 2018).

Barbara and Ted Andrews were placed on the bill of the Orchid Room, playing support to the comedian Frankie Howerd as headliner, while Julie appeared as part of the Coconut Grove line-up. The latter owed more than a passing nod to Starlight Roof. Alongside Julie, it featured several other Starlight alumni including balloon-man Wally Boag and singer Jean Carson. A glowing report in the British show biz paper, The Stage gives a sense of the revue’s opulence:

“The whole theatre is converted into a lavish auditorium, with bands on either side of the stage and another playing in the vestibule. Silver decorations seem to dominate the scene, and some of the spectacular ensembles are beautiful. One, in which the whole stage is starlit, is extended to the theatre itself, with the chorus coming out into the auditorium carrying lighted trees, and is particularly effective (”Summer Entertainment”: 5).

The Yorkshire Post was equally rhapsodic, describing how “the unstinted lavishness of costumes, scenery and effects give the show an overwhelming appearance of magnificence” (“Blackpool’s Square Mile”: 6). Coconut Grove even garnered international attention with US entertainment bible, Variety running an extended profile on Blackpool’s bumper season, noting that “Julie Andrews, a kid protegee, whams ‘em” (Regensburg: 52).

Behind the glitter, though, the summer was not a happy one for the Andrews clan with problems in Ted and Barbara’s relationship coming to the fore. As early as her 1958 serialised memoir for Woman magazine, written barely nine years after the fact, Julie admitted that the “summer season in Blackpool...should have been lovely, but there was some strange atmosphere at home which I kept trying not to notice––and couldn’t help noticing more each day” (Andrews 1958: 45). In keeping with the era’s culture of circumspection about such matters, the 1958 Julie gingerly glossed the familial unease as a case of marital tensions due to financial stress. But fifty years later in her 2008 autobiography, she would be much more forthright with details about Ted’s chronic problem drinking, her mother’s own developing co-dependent alcoholism, and a domestic environment of sporadic violence (Andrews 2008: 104-106). With a degree of melancholic irony, she writes:

“There was a publicity photo taken during this period of the family walking together along the front at Blackpool, looking very happy. These days, my brothers and I marvel at how far removed that photograph was from the reality of what was actually going on” (ibid: 106).

A painful time for all, no doubt, but the summer at Blackpool was an important one in the professional and, one suspects, personal life of Julie Andrews. It consolidated her breakout performance in Starlight Roof, bringing her to the attention of an expanded audience, as well as further cultivating professional networks that would prove valuable in coming years. By Julie’s own reckoning, it also firmed her renowned sense of personal discipline and dutiful resolve as she recognised the need to step to the fore and fill the void as the family’s main emotional support and breadwinner. “I felt extremely responsible,” she recalls,

“felt that I had to take care of the whole family, that it was only me being an adult around the place. So I [tried] to preserve what was good, being cheerful, and saying, ‘Things aren't so bad. We'll manage.’ And, of course, we did” (Meryman: 87).

Sources:

Andrews, Julie. “So Much to Sing About, Part 3.” Woman. 17 May, 1958: 17-18, 41-46.

_____________. Home: A Memoir of My Early Years. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2008.

Arntz, James and Wilson, Thomas S. Julie Andrews. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1995.

Band, Barry. “Showbiz spat led to a great summer line-up.” The Gazette. <www.blackpoolgazette.com> 23 August 2018.

“Blackpool’s Square Mile of Stars Thrives on Banter.” The Yorkshire Post. 26 July 1949: 6.

Brockes, Emma. “Thoroughly Modern Julie.” The Guardian. 13 October 2004.

Brodie, Alan and Whitfield, Matthew. Blackpool's Seaside Heritage. Swindon : English Heritage, 2014.

Fleming, Craig. “Raising the Curtain on the Blackpool Hippodrome’s History.” The Gazette. <www.blackpoolgazette.com> 7 January 2014.

Meryman, Richard. “Mint Julie.” Lear’s. September 1992: 82-87.

Moir, Jan. “An Overdose of Sugar.” The Guardian. 5: 7, 30 September 1992: 17.

Pearce, Emery. “Command Singer in Pigtails.” Daily Herald. 1 November 1949: 3.

Pearson, Lynn F. The People's Palaces: The Story of the Seaside Pleasure Buildings of 1870-1914. Buckingham : Barracuda, 1991.

Regensburg, Harry. “Blackpool, Britain’s Atlantic City Still Boff Show Town, U.S. Acts Score.” Variety. 10 August 1949: 52,60.

“Round the Halls.” The Stage. 19 May 1949: 5.

“Summer Entertainment 1949.” The Stage. 14 July 1949: 5.

#julie andrews #coconut grove #Blackpool #hippodrome #music hall #variety #theatre #british #Child Star #1949 #ted and barbara andrews

11 notes · View notes

bliphany · 8 years

Text

Fanfiction Rec Day - Whouffaldi

Whouffaldi fics means a lot to me not only because they were the reason I started to read stories written in English, but also because many of they helped me through all the angst of Doctor Who series 9. Clara and the Doctor’s last era wouldn’t be the same to me, if I hadn’t had their company.

Here are some stories that will remain in my memory and even Time Lord's device won't change that. I chose to include some of the writer’s tags just fyi, please still read the original tags per your preference.

(not in particular order)

we tried the world and it wasn’t for us; by twelveclara

She studies him, a gentle smile on her face. Her eyes are warm and he decides he no longer believes in science, or logic; there’s a light that comes from within her, like she has a sun for a heart; she wisps around, glittering, and her shadows are moonbeams. She drips dark matter and stardust. “If I were human,” he says, “the likelihood that I would exist at the same time as you is slim - unaccountably, unbearably slim - that it’s a risk I could never imagine taking.” [clara and twelve and philosophy; the paradox of love, and, as clara says, she’s an english teacher. there are too many words. 4,200 words.]

sometime around midnight by twelveclara

He struggles between making poetry out of her body and telling her the truth: it’s a difficult combination, needing her to know and needing it to be beautiful. She says, breathless in wonderment, “Oh, the amount of things that had to happen in order for me to be standing here at all.“ [midnight in paris au. 20k words. butterflies in summer; his bones on fire. a writer and his muse. they’re making history.]

Tidal Wave by samchandler1986

Words:5268; Chapters:3/3

This time, it really is their last hurrah.

if anybody could have saved me it would have been you by twelveclara

He spends the night threading stars into her skin and pouring the moon into the craters of her hips; she watches the birth of deep space begin unfolding underneath her eyelids, and the universe is returned to beauty once again. Together, he believes, they could be the greatest story ever told; if only she would come back to him. [an impossible decision and its consequences; she never wanted to live forever. timelady!clara au. in 12 parts. 6k words.]

some mad hope by twelveclara

He’d almost forgotten they were still out there, scattered across the stars and solar systems and galaxies, waiting for him. Ghosts. A curse. She’s gone, but she’s not gone. She’ll follow him forever. The idea enthralls him. Please, he thinks, haunt me to death. “You love her,” she says quietly. [on his way to revenge, he finds answers. maybe they’re not much better. maybe they are. a hell bent alternative ending. hybrid au, 6k words, in 10 parts.]

a theory about us and the universe by twelveclara

“Call it a paradigm shift,” he responds finally, low and delicate. “The Cybermen and their upgrades, the Time Lords and their time machines; you, alive and standing in front of me.” He stops being able to separate idealism and reality, allowing himself a world in which time watches the way he touches her and thinks,finally, you’ve done enough. [post-hell bent, and simultaneously, pre-magician’s apprentice. some people are much harder to tear apart once they’ve been brought together. based off this theory of mine. 10.6k words]

Love Me Like You Mean it by xXdreameaterXx

Words: 52343; Chapters: 37/37

1959. Dr John Smith moves to Texas with one goal in mind: to start over and forget about his past. When he meets Clara Oswin Oswald, a waitress and an outcast with a whole lot of buried dreams he thinks that she might be just what he needs to give his life some meaning. Diner AU. Rated E for later chapters. Whouffaldi.

Orpheus's Rescue by peacockgirl

Words: 34120; Chapters: 4/5; Major Character Death; Face The Raven; Hell Bent

For everyone who liked the poignancy of Hell Bent & Face the Raven but wished for better for Clara and the Doctor. Clara has resolved to visit 101 more places before she dies, but after she discovers the Doctor has lied about losing his memories, will he really be able to let her go? Whouffaldi

The Box Would be Empty by capildissexy

Words:2174; Chapters: 1/1 Major Character Death

Twelve/Clara discuss her mortality. Inspired by the heavy foreshadowing of Clara's life coming to an untimely end.

Oceans of Me and You by laekanik

Words: 1468; Chapters: 1/1

"I'll be the judge of time," and what followed after.

Suited and Booted by levendis

Words: 596; Chapters: 1/1

On the red velvet coat. (Set during "Face the Raven")

Spring Cleaning by levendis

Words: 672; Chapters: 1/1

The box of annoying things. Post-"Hell Bent"

Ways to Make it Through the Wall by levendis

Words: 1946; Chapters: 1/1

Those who can't figure out their mistakes are doomed to repeat them: The Doctor, the Axis, and an infinite amount of chances to screw up all over again. Post-"Hell Bent"

the man who fell to earth by jontinf

Words: 3846; Chapters: 1/1

“Is she your beloved? This Clara Oswald of Blackpool.”

He nearly slices off the tip of his thumb and throws a suspicious glance Bors’s way. “Are you ill, Bors?” he asks. “Have you come down with a case of the bloody flux?”

bones on fire by kissmeinnewyork

Words: 1238; Chapters: 1/1

There are a million different wars he could wage and a million different stars he could burn, but instead he carries on. (post face the raven.)

Absence in a Vacuum (Where is the Feedback?) by midnightxgarden

Words: 4339; Chapters: 1/1 Hell Bent

Clara made some promises when she took a TARDIS and ran away, but does a frozen heart ever heal? (aka the story of how accidents bring the Doctor and Clara back together in spite of what the universe demands)

That Subtle Knot by antennapedia

Words: 1473; Chapters: 1/1 Hell Bent

The Doctor tells his story, then reaches out to touch the waitress's hand. And freezes.

Hiding by xXdreameaterXx

Words: 893; Chapters: 1/1

They never do it in the TARDIS, or her flat. It's like they're different people out there while they're running, like it doesn't even count, like it never really happens at all.

clara/twelve fic: history, like love by twelveclara

There are planets orbiting her eyes and her mouth tastes like the ocean; in her head she hears a shatter, like her soul has pried her ribs apart in a desperate, aching attempt to reach his. “If I could have picked anybody,” he murmurs, “it would have been you.” [these words hurt as much as the truth always does. a soulmates/new girl (but you need no knowledge of new girl, i just took the ‘roommates’ plot) au. 15k words.]

Things We Don't Say by c1araoswa1d

Words: 1977; Chapters: 1/1

Prompt: At the end of Deep Breath, we hear say, “I’m not your boyfriend,” but then the Doctor has to admit to himself he does have feelings for Clara.

One of Us has to Remember by whouffaldigarbage

Words: 2075; Chapters: 1/1

In a moment of panic at the end of time, just before he prepares to wipe Clara's memory, the Doctor goes back in time to Clara Oswald, alive and well. Before she died. Before she lost her pulse. When she was just his Clara. Turns out he's not the only one who misses what they used to be.

Physicians and Phonographs by whouffaldigarbage

Words: 55212; Chapters: 17/17

A Victoran AU. Clara is a maid overseeing the children of a large estate. Struggling with her own desire for freedom and the suitors pursuing her, she feels a profound lack of something in her life. One day, circumstances out of her control lead her to require the services of the mysterious and ostracized Doctor, and a friendship grows between them that leads to something more. Demons from their past come back with a vengeance, society seeks to tear them apart, the supernatural rears its ugly head, and their future stands on the precipice of extinction. Together or alone they could face it all, but the choice is not a simple one.

Rated M for future chapters. Slow burn fic. Angst, humor, the supernatural, and stuffy Victorian romance, with a dash of the original tale of Beauty and the Beast.

i live to let you shine by freloux

Words: 1125; Chapters: 1/1

Blanket fort ridiculousness.

Good Days by samchandler1986

Words: 1211; Chapters: 1/1

He said he never forgets a face. Now, neither does she.

basil and cleopatra by jontinf

Words: 13891; Chapters: 2/2 Hell Bent

Clara and the Doctor if they'd never stopped running.

The Thief by antennapedia

Words: 9679; Chapters: 1/1 Death in Heaven

The Doctor just smashed up the TARDIS console, but he needs to get away from there. He shoves his fingers into the telepathic matrix and goes... somewhere. He doesn't care where. The TARDIS cares, however. This is what happened in between the visit to Gallifrey and the meeting in the cafe.

The Hypervodka Incident by antennapedia

Words: 12086; Chapters: 4/?

There’s some karaoke. And hypervodka. And consequences.

In Your Place by lornesgoldenhair

Words: 7930; Chapters: 1/1 Hell Bent

After years of travelling with Ashildr Clara decides to return to Gallifrey and her own timeline but attempts to Face The Raven fail and she is left in limbo, unresponsive, unable to live or die. Chased by Reapers and Time Lords Ashildr knows only one person can help them now, but can she risk reuniting Clara with him? With paradoxes and rifts opening, Reapers attacking and all hell breaking loose will Clara close the loop and sacrifice herself or will the Doctor take the place of a woman he has forgotten?

The Man That Once Was by xXdreameaterXx

Words: 7802; Chapters: 4/4

The Doctor has reigned Gallifrey as Lord President since the Time War. Driven mad by power he has one goal in mind: the utter and absolute extinction of the Daleks. Until one day a seemingly ordinary human girl attempts to steal his most precious possession just to bring a little hope to the entire universe.

Being Human 101 : Lessons in Physiology by lornesgoldenhair

Words: 21240; Chapters: 9/9

This is set in the universe created by 'In Your Place' wherein Clara gets her heartbeat back after the Doctor sacrifices himself to the Raven, but being a Time Lord with a special connection to his companion, he survives. You don’t have to have read it to read this. The two are different in style too.

In Summary : Clara having been frozen between one heartbeat and the next has to relearn how her body works. Everything from sleeping to processing alcohol, eating to sex, its all hazy to her after 400 years but the Doctor is on hand to help her discover what he describes as 'the fun a working body can lead to.'

Rated M for later Chapters.

A bit of an experimental work in progress.

dim the lights some, whisky lemon by dorothymcshane

Words: 2360; Chapters: 1/1

”Shut up, Oswald.” ”Make me.” In response he turns her around and pins her to the shelf. She gasps, unprepared for losing her control over him so abruptly, and more than a little turned on. ”My pleasure,” he says, his voice seductively husky, and slides her skirt up to place a hand between her legs.

Communicate by xXdreameaterXx

Words: 1253; Chapters: 1/1

The TARDIS translation circuit is broken. The Doctor doesn't speak English. But there are three words that the two of them still understand perfectly despite their communication failure. Twelve & Clara.

All Inclusive by xXdreameaterXx

Words: 34335; Chapters: 21/21

When his sister Missy convinces him to go on a cruise the Doctor has no idea that she is sending him on a party & singles cruise, determined to find him a match. It's even more of a surprise to him when he wakes up the morning after a party and realizes he is married to the annoying woman who vomited on his shoes on the first evening. But all will be well and the marriage can be annulled back on land – as long as he and Clara don't consummate it. Whouffaldi AU.

Running Out Of Pages by UniverseOnHerShoulders

Words: 2589; Chapters: 1/1

Somehow, their evenings always come to this: Clara doing her marking, while the Doctor sits idly beside her and tries to avoid doing anything his companion might deem to be "annoying." So he's surprised when she asks him for background noise while she works - although of course, there are stipulations...

Double shot, and extra hot by redpandanormalpanda

Words: 2346

AU when your OTP are both assholes - the Whouffaldi version. ‘I’m a barista and you’re the obnoxious customer who comes through and orders a venti macchiato while talking on the phone the whole time so I misspell your name in increasingly creative ways every day’

The Edge of the World by infinite_regress

Words: 2262; Chapters: 1/1

The Doctor remembers Clara, his memories return in a flood, and he makes some questionable choices. Luckily Clara is there to pick up the peices

Bookends by samchandler1986

Words: 529 Chapters: 1/1

As the Earth orbits the sun one more time, as the calendar edges closer to counting another year of her brief life, it’s a time for renewal. Like a mini-regeneration. And unlike the TARDIS, Clara’s wardrobe is resolutely finite.

Like Stars by c1araoswa1d

Words: 2050; Chapters: 1/1

Twelve and Clara have a quiet evening of babysitting.

but we're so happy (WIP) by twelveclara

part one: “I knew them both,” Jack says quietly. “I watched them fall in love. I watched them change.” Their knees touch, and her hand is on his thigh, and he’s smiling at her like she’s the sole reason he’s alive; Rory pictures the sun and the earth, orbiting. [punk rock au. from the outside looking in. the song repeats, I miss you, I miss you, I miss you, haunting him. so, maybe he’ll never know. 10k words]

part two: Nobody has ever kissed her like this in her entire life; she swears she’s spent years building up to this, decades, millenniums. Somewhere, a star is dying and a galaxy is being born and her head is a black hole; in every other dimension a version of her stops and takes in a breath, missing something. She says hotly, “If we’re already going to hell, you might as well just fuck me tonight.” [punk rock au. she’s the devil herself and he never stood a chance. 27k words. mature.]

#whouffaldi #whouffle #ficrecdays #whouffaldi fanfiction rec #clara oswald #12th doctor #bless all the fanfiction writers #show: we’re all stories in the end #long post

16 notes · View notes

aroundtheworldin18years · 5 years

Text

Back in the 70’s, I remember my two siblings and I being told by Mum that she had booked our family’s first foreign destination package holiday. The destination…Salou, Spain. As you can probably imagine, we were happy giddy children running around the living room, our arms outstretched; pretending to be aeroplanes….vrooooom, neeeooooown! Our usual family ‘holidays’ were day trips to Blackpool Pleasure Beach or the Cala Gran Caravan Park in Fleetwood, and even those trips were few and far between. So, our first trip to foreign lands booked, and we only had a year to wait…a whole year! Mum worked three jobs that year just to pay for the package holiday. Family Holidays Have Changed Since The 70’s and a package holiday was the only way to go, booking DIY was relatively unheard of.

A packed beach at Blackpool Pleasure beach in the 1970’s

DRESS TO IMPRESS

The year passed, and in the weeks leading to travel day we were dragged from pillar-to-post buying new clothes. Travel day arrived and I remember getting dressed into my new clothes. Wouldn’t want to look like the scruffy council estate street urchins that we were, no siree…posh clobber all the way! Bescoby’s (catalogue shop) finest at that! Manchester Airport was packed and the aircraft was enormous and noisy! The engine noise was soon drowned out by the rowdy passengers (mum and step-dad included), many of whom were bladdered and singing at the top of their lungs….”oh, this year I’m off to sunny Spain, Y Viva España”! The stench of alcohol was overwhelming and cigarette smoke filled the cabin, inside the aeroplane it looked like a foggy day!

Travelling with British Airtours at Manchester Airport

DO YOU JEST, NO I JOUST

There’s so much that I can recall from our first foreign holiday. One awful memory is going to the beach and having our white freckled skin plastered with sun cream. We looked like three ‘child-sized’ abominable snowmen on the beach but we didn’t care, we were on our package holiday! There were vendors walking the beach with live animals; baby chimps, snakes, lizards etc, each trying to get tourists to have a photo. My best memory was being taken to a Medieval Castle to watch Knights joust to win the hand of a Fair Maiden! Upon entry to the castle we were given a paper ‘crown’ and a plastic ‘chalice‘ before being shown to our bench table. We dined on chicken and potatoes and drank juice. No plates, a whole roast chicken was slammed down onto the table by servers who were dressed like peasants. Definitely no FSA hygiene rating in the good ol’ days! Quite a scary experience for a child if I’m being honest, scary…but an indelible memory. Plus we got to meet and have a photograph taken with the King and Queen of the Castle before we left.

Trying to win the hand of a Fair Maiden in a jousting contest

PILOTS ARE POOR, LET’S HAVE A WHIP-ROUND

Another memory I have of the 70’s family holiday was gathered on the return flight home. I recall a drunken man, walking up and down the aisle with a colourful sombrero souvenir on his head and a large ‘piñata’ style donkey under his arm; collecting money from the passengers to hand to the pilot after landing. Oh yes, and the tipsy travellers clapping and cheering once the plane landed and ground to a stop! Heaven only knows why? That’s the pilots job…take off, fly and land the plane! To this day I am still baffled as to why ‘collections’ became a common sight on planes in the 70’s and 80’s. It’s not as if pilots didn’t get paid a decent salary surely? And, on the souvenir front, I also remember my Nana bringing home a plastic donkey that she filled with cheap cigarettes. Pull both of the donkey’s ears, the tail lifted and a cigarette popped out of its bum hole! Highly amusing to a child, but also strangely weird!

I’m not an ass, I’m a donkey!

THE WORLD WIDE WEB IS WONDERFUL

Back in the 70s, booking via a Travel Agent on the High Street was the only option for Mum when she was booking our first family holiday. Nowadays we can surf the WWW discovering far flung destinations. The ease of comparing thousands of hotels and reading every Review (good and bad) of the hotel or campsite that you have your heart set on, is, well…easy! Booking a holiday is much more convenient in the 21st Century, especially as we have so much tech and so many apps to assist our travels. Mummy often recounts how, in the 80’s; her Mum and Dad planned their 3 week family trip to America and Walt Disney World Resort. No Google maps or Booking.com in sight and once at the destination…no sat-nav in the hire car! I shudder at the thought! I get lost in Asda’s car park let alone travelling the globe!

Lynne (age 9) meets Mickey Mouse at Disney World, Florida

LET’S GO TO SPAIN AND EAT A FULL ENGLISH

In this day and age we are truly spoilt that we very rarely experience ‘new foods’ whilst travelling. The exotic fruits that you would only see on your foreign summer holidays are now stacked high on our supermarket shelves. Albeit in the 70’s I’m sure that we, just like the other British holidaymakers in Spain; were still tucking into a full English fry. Let’s go to Spain and eat a full English…now that makes sense…not! And, just to make things clear; a fry isn’t a proper fry unless it has Heinz Baked Beans and HP Brown Sauce! Eggs, sunny side up or over easy, what’s your preference? Thankfully our tastebuds and sense of adventure have evolved since the 70’s. Nowadays we love nothing more than exploring a region and sampling the local delicacies when we venture to a new country.

A hearty fry, always a great start to the day

SELFIE’S ARE MORE ANTI THAN SOCIAL

Think back, how on Earth did we survive a holiday without letting our friends, family and anyone else on our Facebook ‘friends’ list know what a fabulous time we were having! Today, it’s so easy…lie by the pool with a cocktail in hand, snap that selfie (might take more than one attempt and a multitude of facial expressions) and share to all 7,936 friends (are they really ALL friends) on Social Media. It’s a holiday, put your phone away and stop being anti-social! But make sure you get that ‘instaworthy’ picture first!

Strike a pose…vogue

PHOTO ALBUMS GALORE

Back in the 70’s you came home with a couple reels of camera film that you would have to wait for a week to be processed in your local chemist. You would then spend hours arranging your glossy snaps into photo albums and annotating who, what and where…nightmare! Friends and family would avoid calling to the house for months fearing a 7 hour session of you reminiscing whilst showing them your ‘amazing holiday’ snaps! Now, when we arrive back home; a quick 10 minute ‘holiday’ conversation is all that’s needed because your friends and family have already seen the pictures and read about the holiday on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and every other social media outlet that there is.

Photo albums for reminiscing about holidays

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

Of course the cost of travel has also changed drastically since Mum worked 3 jobs to take us on our family’s first foreign package holiday to España. 2019 and we are in the era of low budget airlines where you can pick up a flight for €10 and sometimes less! Search engines have become our new BFF and sites like Skyscanner, Booking.com and Trivago allow us to hone our skills at searching for a bargain holiday to a luxury destination. No longer does cheap mean bad, or ‘you get what you pay for’. Credit was non-existent, there was no ‘stick it on the credit card’ and pay it off after the holiday, holidays were paid for with hard-earned cold, hard cash! I remember vividly counting and bagging my saved pocket money then taking it to the Post Office to exchange to Spanish currency, Pesetas, or ‘potatoes‘ as we called them! And I still have some of them from the 70’s, as well as a stamp.

IT’S THE MEMORIES THAT MATTER MOST

One thing that hasn’t changed since the 1970’s is that people still travel to make memories. Whether those memories and moments are captured in one simple 35mm photograph, or by 10 burst shots on your newest high-tech smartphone, we are all still trying to make the memories that our parents did back in the 70’s.

Sunsets and Memories

Where will your travels take you? What is your best travel memory? Let us know using the comments box below.

If you would like to:

Work With Us | Obtain Further Information | Receive Our Media Pack Please GET IN TOUCH

Information, currency and prices are correct at the time of publishing. Views, opinions and experiences are that of The Callaghan Posse and are correct at the time of publication. Photos, unless credited, are taken by The Callaghan Posse for use and distribution by Around The World In 18 Years. Images and content may not be used or copied (individual or commercial) without obtaining prior permission.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Don’t miss out on our future BLOG posts, sign up to our FREE Newsletter or connect with us on:

SHARING IS CARING

If you enjoyed reading our BLOG post, please feel free to share it using the SOCIAL MEDIA icons below.

FAMILY HOLIDAYS HAVE CHANGED SINCE THE 70’S Back in the 70’s, I remember my two siblings and I being told by Mum that she had booked our family’s first foreign destination package holiday.

#1970 #Family Holiday #Package Holiday #Spain

0 notes

spencerthorpe · 7 years

Text

Elephants, rollercoasters and rockets: The Idealist visits Andrew Martin

Today’s Modern Hero is Martin Waller, founder of Andrew Martin International. We caught up with him at their very distinctive store in Walton Street, Kensington, to talk design, travel and inspiration and learn more about the eclectic and highly original Andrew Martin look.

your home tells a story of your life

One Stop Shop

Martin Waller, Founder of Andrew Martin International

IDEALIST: Martin — thanks so much for finding time to talk to us today. You’ve worked all over the world and have a number of stores and high profile clients. As fans of Walton Street, it strikes us that there’s nothing quite like shopping in London. Our shopping guides to other cities feature some great places, but our experience of Paris, say, or Madrid is that you don’t get such a concentration of designers in one street. Why do you think that is?

Martin: I think that’s true in a lot of places in the world. I actually think London is this– we have this kind of quirky, individual attitude to life and I think which is why our music industry is so successful and we’re good at those things. It’s because we hate to be told what to do.

IDEALIST: In The Idealist we feature quite a lot of interior designers and people renovating their own properties. Professional designers tell me that their buyers all want a unique look but that also they want something that tells a story about themselves. Typically people want a mix and match approach that tells a story, so they’ve got antique prints from when they got married in Italy, or let’s say they’ve got a dining table inherited from their parents. People want that kind of connection. Do you agree?

Martin: I absolutely agree. I mean your home tells a story of your life. The curious thing about fashion is people say they want individuality but everybody buys an Hermès Birkin bag. Or they all buy exactly the same Louis Vuitton thing. But in their home, that’s where they express who they are and I absolutely believe that is what being in the trade is all about. All designers are facilitators to help people tell their story.

Starting the Business

IDEALIST: So how did you get into the business?

Martin: Oh my God the question really is how do I get out! So I started in 1978 that’s a long while ago! When you’re 22 you really know everything there is to know. It’s only as you get older you find you know less and less and less and want to know more and more! So we started in Richmond and then we came here about 30 years ago.

IDEALIST: And what were you selling first?

Martin: There were always things for the home: lighting, cushions, textiles, interior designs stuff.

IDEALIST: And did you have a certain kind of customer in mind or a certain look initially or was it things that you loved?

Martin: No, things have evolved terrifically. In fact I was just writing the introduction– you know we publish this book every year called Interior Design so I was just writing the Foreword for this year and I was trying to find a word to describe our design era. We’ve had everything from midcentury to 1960s to Pop, but actually I’ve realised what we’ve been doing for the last 20 years didn’t have a label.

random shards of glass come into focus and create the overall pattern

Kaleidoscopic Designs

IDEALIST: Did you find something? Have you come up with a name?

Martin: Well the word I’d come up with is kaleidoscope. I’m sure when you did ancient Greek you’ll know the derivation of the kaleidoscope, you know about observation and beauty and shape and so on. And this idea that these random shards of glass come into focus and create the overall pattern.

Martin walks us through his latest International Design Review book which features interiors of the rich and famous from all over the world, including outstanding designers from Holland, China, South Africa, Poland and elsewhere and with spreads including Tommy Hilfiger’s New York pad on top of the old Plaza Building, the New York Yankees hospitality suite, and some amazing commercial and domestic interiors.

Martin is a tremendous history buff and reminds us that there’s nothing new about palatial interiors and awe-inspiring designs. At the peak of ancient Rome, there were something like 1.2 million people in Rome which fell to fewer than 40,000 and has only in the 20th century recovered to its Roman Empire heights. And the Dark Ages lasted for so long! A thousand years of pillaging hoards before the Renaissance!

Alongside the modern design pieces and some amazing original prints – for example of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis – the Walton Street store is to our eyes pretty unique in also selling original historical artefacts and antiquary from Roman and Egyptian times. They really are a site to behold and make a change from the midcentury design classics you see being hallowed elsewhere.

IDEALIST: Returning to the 21st Century, why do you think certain historical styles, such as High Victorian, or Georgian persist? I can see why someone with a Jacobean mansion would want to decorate it faithfully, but why are there certain looks that we seem to return to? Are there trendsetters that tell us how we should live?

Martin: Yes. I mean that’s such an interesting idea where trends emerge from and how trends become universal. They pop up in Japan and they pop up in America and Europe kind of all simultaneously. There is partly movies and magazines but trends were always there. You’re talking about Victorian houses and you can tell the difference between a Queen Anne house and a Georgian house. Even in things as big as that, you know the decade the house was built by looking at it, or likewise on the domestic scale with a teapot by its handle or its lid and its spout. There has always been this incredible fashion for the styling of things in everything.

Martin: The interesting thing is that some things haven’t changed at all like. Men still want to look like Cary Grant and girls want to look like Audrey Hepburn. These are figures from the 1950’s. This is 70 years ago. If you go 70 years back before then people dressed completely differently. But James Dean, jeans, t-shirt that’s the look people wear still wear today. Back in the 1970s, we all thought by now we would be wearing white jumpsuits and our food would come in pills. There was this TV programme: Tomorrow’s World. None of it happened, none of it happened. Even cars, what has happened to car design?

Distinctive Aesthetics

IDEALIST: I know. There’s nothing now like the Citroen DS, or Aston Martin is there. I can just about get excited if you’ve got a retro looking sports car, but in the main, once you’re getting into the bigger cars they’re all very samey. Even the new VW Beetle.

So give me a feel for your kind of customers. When they come here are they looking for single pieces or are they looking to renovate a whole home?

Martin: Well of course you can’t generalise. There are lots of people who just want to wander in and find some strange thing or just buy an unusual Guatemalan textile, cushions or retro poster. Naturally because we do lots of homes and major projects, we see people who have an empathy with our aesthetic or think we have an empathy with their aesthetic.

IDEALIST: So what would you say has been your most unusual thing that you’ve found that you wanted to sell, or your most unusual request?

Martin: Of things we’ve sold I have to show you… we built this rollercoaster with all these old vintage cars that I got from Blackpool Pleasure Beach that were made in the 20’s and 30’s … so that was a random thing to sell. I bought this elephant sculpture too — you need to see how big it was.

Explorers are the real superheroes of the planet and I share their passion for finding new experiences and meeting new people.

IDEALIST: You’ve got a thing for elephants haven’t you?

Martin: Yeah we have. I made it for a place in India and was placed half way across a swimming pool and half on the shore as it were so you could swim underneath it. Aeroplanes…I’ve sold plenty of aeroplanes over the years. Space, I built this thing we do a lot of work with movie studios and this was from Alien. We rebuilt the spaceship and everything.This is when I was going through the Porn and Peep Show phase with neon signs saying All You Can Eat and Five Cents An Hour. And this, with these machines you press a button and it told you whether you were a love machine or grumpy…

Martin shows us some other installations with ropes hanging from the ceiling, some rockets for a restaurant in Paris and some huge Atomic Age and Russian-style pieces.

Martin: … these were divers we sold these figures. This was a football table but it was for giants, here are the humans. So we sold those. They were amazing actually. They’re beautiful aren’t they? Absolutely beautiful. So we’ve sold plenty of strange things over the years. This was an amazing thing. This was the architect’s model for a rollercoaster that was actually meant to be built in New Zealand. I think it was built in the 1930’s. You put a ball up here and it just follows the track of the rollercoaster. It was such a beautiful thing.

Ambitions

IDEALIST: You’ve done so much and it’s so eclectic. Do you have an ambition that’s not yet been realized?

Martin: Well next month I’m going to space conference in Norway and there are going to be three moonwalkers there including Buzz Aldrin. Exploration is a passion really so I think Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong are the two greatest explorers of all time. Explorers are the real superheroes of the planet and I share their passion for finding new experiences and meeting new people.

To see a small selection of the Andrew Martin range, you can shop online at andrewmartin.co.uk. For the full experience, we recommend a trip to their store on London’s Walton Street where they have everything from neon-enhanced posters of Che Guevara to Egyptian and Roman artefacts to rockets, cockpits, sofas, cushions and accessories. It’s a real treasure trove.