"The Secret Place" - David MacCallum (1957)

This is an excellent film which works well as a simple crime drama, unless you look beneath the surface. Then it becomes so much more.

Melinda, a 20 something year old newsstand operator who is engaged to a shady petty criminal, finally realises she has lost the true friendship of 14 year old Freddie; who is really a man at heart; and traded it for the false love of her fiancee, Gerry; a wannabe gangster who is really just a little boy playing at being a man.

A tightly woven script, excellently directed, this film is a great example of British cinema in the post war era. At the time, theaters in Britain were required to show a film made there for every American movie shown. This was done in an effort to revitalize their domestic film industry. David Lean, Richard Attenborough and Alec Guiness, and many others, all got their start as a result in this era. 

Conversely, it also provided for many American actors and directors to make films in Britain. 

This was only David MacCallum's third film, but he plays an important supporting role to Melinda, who is his sister. His performance as a confused and desperate young man is a very different role for him, and he carries his part off well.

Last Word to My Father

Would that I could,

but can't so I won't

It's not like I don't want to,

it's simply that I don't

meet your expectations,

so, i had to stop from trying.

It's the only way I had to cope,

and keep myself from crying.

Old Slides #2 - Learning How to Fly (1957)

Most photos have a “back story” to them; where and when the photo was taken being the least important of the details. What happened just before the shutter clicked can be very revealing in some cases. And that’s what makes the photograph above, which is one of a series taken on Veteran’s day 1957, so unusual. There is none.

As I sift through the old family photos I can find very few where there is not something else that has just occurred which mars the memory a bit. Behind most of the smiling faces there was either a very recent scolding, argument or some other stupid and unnecessary problem. No one is really to blame for that; it’s just the dynamics of an ordinary family living and growing; together or apart.

But, let’s get back to this photograph which was taken over 57 years ago. This one is of me and my Dad. I’m the little guy holding the string. He’s the big guy showing me how to fly the kite. It was one of those big paper kites; bright red and with a tail made of rags. We were at Riis Park; for some reason we were always at Riis Park; winter or summer. I’m not complaining; I loved the place!

Riis Park was named after Jacob Riis, the famous campaigner for decent housing and social reform. His photographs of the Lower East Side at the turn of the 20^th Century are iconic. He championed airways in the tenements and windows in every room. It was only fitting that a bright, sunny, public beach be named for him.

Once again; back to this photograph. In the years after this was taken; remember I said that every picture has a “back story”? Well, this one really has more of a “front story”, as it was taken less than 2 years before my mother began a long illness, which permeated my entire childhood. I didn't really mind, I just always hoped that she would get better; but she never did.

So, this photo is one of the rare ones in which my Dad is smiling and really means it. Life was good. He had just been through the only job “layoff” he would ever know, and also had pneumonia, one of the only times I had ever seen him ill. The other time was when he gave up smoking in 1962 or ’63 after the Surgeon General’s first warning about cigarettes causing cancer. He didn't even wait until the warning was on the pack. He just stopped. And was very ill; throwing up and bedridden for several days. It was cold turkey, just like heroin withdrawal. He may have lapsed once or twice in the first few years after, but never went back to smoking full time again. Instead he discovered M&M’s.

We would go grocery shopping on Thursday nights when my mother wasn't in the hospital; and my Dad would buy a box of Peanut Chews, or a 1 pound bag of M&M's, which we would eat before getting home.When my Mom was in the hospital, either my brother or I would pick up what was necessary ourselves. We used a pull along type folding “shopping cart” to wheel the groceries home. My brother was not fond of this chore; I think he found it embarrassing for some reason; so I was usually the one “bringing home the bacon.”

So, this is a picture of my father before all the bad times began. It’s also part of a set of 14 photographs taken that day. My Dad’s teaching me how to fly a kite, a skill which I have passed on to my daughter and 2 of my granddaughters. And whenever I look at this photo I remember what it was like to have my parents and my brother, before all the bad times began.

Jimmy Page - 1957 Skiffle Music

I ran across this gem on You Tube.(Where else?) Jimmy Page, along with 3 of his freinds, just as thousands of other British teenagers in the late 1950's, were influenced by the sounds of Lonnie Donnegan and Buddy Holly. This was a type of music which they were able to play easily, and without much formal training. It was called "skiffle" music. It often included a washboard along with the upright bass. Lonnie Donnegan had launched the whole sound in 1956 with his hit "Rock Island Line." That record would be the impetus for John Lennon to buy a guitar. It appears that Jimmy Page was hit with the same idea. This music was more acceptable to adults in Britian at the time, who had witnessed, only 2 years earlier, the riots which accompanied Bill Haley and the Comets on their "Rock Around the Clock" Tour.

This clip is from the Huw Wheldon variety show on BBC. At the time, England had only 2 stations, and the content was strictly controlled. Rock was not entirely welcome. But there was an innocence about "skiffle" that made it acceptable to the masses. Even parents enjoyed watching their kids play in these bands, which performed at most church functions, or "socials", as they were called at the time. The Beatles, appearing as The Quarrymen, made their first public appearance, at such an event around the same time as this clip from the Huw Wheldon Show.

The most interesting thing about this video for me is the bemused way in which Mr. Wheldon handles the interview portion with the boys. He is surprised that they seem to have no musical ambitions. They all wanted to be biologists of some sort. Glad they chose music instead!