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Films with longest runs in Sheffield


Guest Old Canny Street Kid

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Here are a couple of US FOH stills from the set I have:

Tommy and Julia Foster singing the title song.....

Tommy and the girls with "Money to Burn"........

By the way, did you know that Julia Foster, who played Ann in the film is Ben Fogle's Mum ?

The title song, "Half A Sixpence" is sung in a Victorian (Edwardian, - it was set in 1905)fairground and the song appears to open and end with the music from the organ on the carousel it is performed in front of by Tommy and Julia.

It came to mean more to me later in life when I was interested in both steam engines, running steam rallies (Sheffield Steam rally) and mechanical music from fairground organs.

I have often wondered, on seeing that scene, which (or whose) carousel ride was used and what organ it actually contained, -was it a Gaviolli, a Merhengi, a Veerbeck, a Steinput or some other make?

I suppose in reality the organ on the ride wasn't playing at all and the music of the fairground came from a group of professional musicians who worked on the film.

Yes I did know Julia Foster was Ben Fogles mum, - it's amazing what useless information a man can learn from his wife. lol

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I remember the big storm very well too Dave and I didn't go to school that day either......although I didn't get to go to the pictures!

You are probably right about the film you saw that day....."The Young Ones" was in it's third (and final) week at the ABC.

It was an enormous hit, and we saw it three times there.

ABC Man has already posted a copy of the ad from the ABC Film Review.

The films showing in town that week Dave were:

Odeon - "The Outsider" with Tony Curtis

ABC - "The Young Ones" with Cliff Richard

Palace - "Breakfast at Tiffany's" with Audrey Hepburn

Gaumont - "The Comancheros" with John Wayne

Hippodrome - "Twist Around the Clock" - with Chubby Checker

Classic - "Wuthering Heights" with Laurence Olivier

Has that jogged your memory, or, is the answer "Blowing in the Wind" ? lol

No, I am pretty certain now that my cousin took me to the ABC to see Cliff and the Shads in "The Young Ones"

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"Summer Holiday" was a mega hit Dave, and ran at the ABC for four, packed weeks, from Feb 3rd to March 2nd, 1963.

I remember queuing in that passage at the side of the ABC several times to get in.

The Beatles certainly did change everything, and ballad singers were out. Although Cliff has managed to hang on in there !

From ABC Film Review - Feb, 1963....

....and March, 1963.....

Hey, I only said that "Summer Holiday" was in colour when I said "A Hard Days Night" was only in black & white.

Judging by that second picture there I should have said that "Summer Holiday" was in

Glorious Technicolour, Breathtaking CinemaScope and Stereophonic Sound lol

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It could have been funky....but, "Whistle Down the Wind" had blown itself out by then

It played at the Gaumont - w/c 6th August, 1961.

Another good film.

Hayley Mills and that cute little kid with a Lancashire accent

"That's not Jesus, - it's just a feller!"

Who was he?

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Don't panic S24, I still have my copy of the programme. And here is the Blackpool ABC in 1963 with Cliff in residence, plus flyer for the show.

It seems that in this Cliff Richard & the Shadows show, Cliff's female lead star from the film "The Young Ones", Carole Gray, is appearing with him.

For some reason, probably because it's Blackpool, there is also the comedian Norman Collier!!!

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Another good film.

Hayley Mills and that cute little kid with a Lancashire accent

"That's not Jesus, - it's just a feller!"

Who was he?

That was Alan Barnes - a real scene stealer, if ever there was one !

I think he was only in one other film - "The Victors". Today, I believe he has a building/joinery business in Ribchester in Lancashire.

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Hey, I only said that "Summer Holiday" was in colour when I said "A Hard Days Night" was only in black & white.

Judging by that second picture there I should have said that "Summer Holiday" was in

Glorious Technicolour, Breathtaking CinemaScope and Stereophonic Sound lol

Well!....you're nearly right Dave. It was in CinemaScope and Technicolor........but only in Mono sound.

Still....two out of three ain't bad !

When I saw The Beatles on stage though, they were definitely in black and white!!! lol

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Well!....you're nearly right Dave. It was in CinemaScope and Technicolor........but only in Mono sound.

Still....two out of three ain't bad !

When I saw The Beatles on stage though, they were definitely in black and white!!! lol

Why do we always let the Americans have the edge on us?

We were still making B&W films like "A Hard Days Night" well into the 60's, a time when all British TV was still in B&W anyway and the Americans were using colour in every film and most of their TV by then.

Also by the 60's we had some great music like Cliff, The Shadows and The Beatles but we were only prepared to record them in mono while the Americans had almost everything in stereo.

British pop singles (7" discs) were in mono almost until the end of the 60's. LP's (12" disc with about 12 tracks on) were only just going stereo at this time. In fact the first 4 Beatles LP's (Please Please Me, With The Beatles, A Hard Days Night and Beatles For Sale) were ALL initially recorded only in Mono. Later a pseudo artificial stereo version of these discs was issued but when the CD's came out in the late 1980's George Martin was so unhappy with them in pseudo stereo that he reverted back to the mono recordings. So the first "true stereo" Beatles LP was their 5th one, Help! released in 1965, - and they were the best group in the world at the time!!!!

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Why do we always let the Americans have the edge on us?

We were still making B&W films like "A Hard Days Night" well into the 60's, a time when all British TV was still in B&W anyway and the Americans were using colour in every film and most of their TV by then.

Also by the 60's we had some great music like Cliff, The Shadows and The Beatles but we were only prepared to record them in mono while the Americans had almost everything in stereo.

British pop singles (7" discs) were in mono almost until the end of the 60's. LP's (12" disc with about 12 tracks on) were only just going stereo at this time. In fact the first 4 Beatles LP's (Please Please Me, With The Beatles, A Hard Days Night and Beatles For Sale) were ALL initially recorded only in Mono. Later a pseudo artificial stereo version of these discs was issued but when the CD's came out in the late 1980's George Martin was so unhappy with them in pseudo stereo that he reverted back to the mono recordings. So the first "true stereo" Beatles LP was their 5th one, Help! released in 1965, - and they were the best group in the world at the time!!!!

Oh! - I don't think the Americans had that much of an edge on us in the 1960's Dave.

London was the place to be in the "Swinging '60's!"

We produced many fine films in B/W....but so did America.

The "British New Wave- Kitchen Sink " films did very well on both sides of the Atlantic, and movies like "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning", "A Taste of Honey",

"A Kind of Loving", "Billy Liar", "Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner", "Georgy Girl", "The Knack", "The L-Shaped Room", "This Sporting Life", "Darling", etc.

I think all benefited from being in black and white, rather than colour.

At the same time, America was still producing big movies like: "Anatomy of a Murder", "On the Beach", "Inherit the Wind", "Suddenly, Last Summer", "Psycho",

"The Apartment", "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", "Judgement at Nuremberg", "The Miracle Worker", "Birdman of Alcatraz", "The Loudest Whisper", "Witness for the Prosecution", The Longest Day", "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?", "Cape Fear", "Hud", "Two for the Seesaw", "To Kill a Mockingbird", "Lillies of the Field",

"Dr. Stangelove", "The Train", "Zorba the Greek"....and many others. All of which were in black and white!

Back then audiences were still quite used to - and readily accepted seeing movies in black and white, as well as colour.

The same goes for movies from The Continent, Japan,etc. at that time.

We didn't do too badly in the Oscar stakes in the '60's either:

Four Best Picture Oscars - "Lawrence of Arabia", "Tom Jones", "A Man for all Seasons" and "Oliver!"

Six Best Actors/Actresses - Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews, Margaret Rutherford, Paul Schofield, Maggie Smith and Julie Christie. (Plus two more if you count Liz Taylor!)

Four Best Directors - David Lean, Tony Richardson, Carol Reed and John Schlesinger.

Three Best Original Music Scores - John Addison, John Barry and Leslie Bricusse.

plus a host of other, technical awards.

All in all, not a bad record ?

And, the Beatles did get colour for their second film - "Help!".

As regards the records, if you look up a discography, all of Cliff Richard's albums from 1960 onwards were released in Stereo, as well as Mono, as were many other artists.

Stereo records came out in 1958 and established themselves fairly quickly. Decca and RCA led the way, and things like "South Pacific" (Soundtrack), "My Fair Lady (London Cast), "Mantovani", "Ted Heath", "Edmundo Ross", etc were huge sellers.

I don't think there were any Stereo singles though until the late 60's.

And don't forget, the Beatles were popular here in the early 60's, but they didn't aquire the status they have now until later in the 60's.....and America !

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As regards the records, if you look up a discography, all of Cliff Richard's albums from 1960 onwards were released in Stereo, as well as Mono, as were many other artists.

But was it "proper" stereo or that cobbled together, artificial pseudo stereo that was used on the first 4 Beatle albums?

It really did sound artificial.

In fact, it was only really in 1967 on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album that the stereo effect was fully exploited by The Beatles.

As for American black & white films, - some of them were classics and I am not sure if the modern trend in America of "colourising" their old B&W films is a good idea. Some films which have had this done look "blurred" in the colourised version but not in the original B&W. Often the colour is not constrained by the B&W image and does not follow it accurately when the object moves.

I have seen most of the Laurel & Hardy shorts in both B&W as they were originally made in the 1930's and in a colourised version. Often the B&W version still looks much better.

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The Time Machine was released in August 1960

Would I be right in assuming that some of the "special effects" in The Time Machine" are the work of the absolute master of film effects himself, Ray Harryhousen?

I seem to remember that as the machine speeds through time there are a lot of speeded up sequences done by "stop framing" (basically frame by frame animation). This was the technique which he perfected a few years later in the film "Jason and the Argonauts", particularly in the quite lengthy scene with the sword fight against the animated skeletons.

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But was it "proper" stereo or that cobbled together, artificial pseudo stereo that was used on the first 4 Beatle albums?

It really did sound artificial.

In fact, it was only really in 1967 on the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album that the stereo effect was fully exploited by The Beatles.

As for American black & white films, - some of them were classics and I am not sure if the modern trend in America of "colourising" their old B&W films is a good idea. Some films which have had this done look "blurred" in the colourised version but not in the original B&W. Often the colour is not constrained by the B&W image and does not follow it accurately when the object moves.

I have seen most of the Laurel & Hardy shorts in both B&W as they were originally made in the 1930's and in a colourised version. Often the B&W version still looks much better.

On the whole, i'm not over-keen on colourising B/W movies. As you say Dave, the results are patchy and some of them are just plain awful.

You can usually spot them a mile off. Disney's "The Shaggy Dog" is awful. It looks like one of those "Magic" painting books you used to have as a kid.

Do you remember them?.........the colours were all pale and blotchy.

I havn't seen the Laurel & Hardy stuff, but the most successful colourisation I have seen is that on the early TV series of "Bewitched".

If you didn't know they were shot in B/W, you really couldn't tell the difference.

As regards Cliff, I don't have his really early albums ("Me and my Shadows", "21 Today",etc), so I can't comment on the stereo, but - both "The Young Ones" and "Summer Holiday" were in proper Stereo........and they aren't the actual film Soundtrack, but studio re-recordings.

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Would I be right in assuming that some of the "special effects" in The Time Machine" are the work of the absolute master of film effects himself, Ray Harryhousen?

I seem to remember that as the machine speeds through time there are a lot of speeded up sequences done by "stop framing" (basically frame by frame animation). This was the technique which he perfected a few years later in the film "Jason and the Argonauts", particularly in the quite lengthy scene with the sword fight against the animated skeletons.

Ray Harryhausen didn't work on "The Time Machine" Dave. This was a George Pal production,

and old George was pretty hot stuff himself in the stop-frame motion technique, and other special effects.

The film won the Oscar for Best Special Effects that year. (credited to Gene Warren and Tim Baar).

Pal also produced the 1953 version of "War of the Worlds"...which also won the Best Special Effects Oscar.

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Ray Harryhausen didn't work on "The Time Machine" Dave. This was a George Pal production,

and old George was pretty hot stuff himself in the stop-frame motion technique, and other special effects.

The film won the Oscar for Best Special Effects that year. (credited to Gene Warren and Tim Baar).

Pal also produced the 1953 version of "War of the Worlds"...which also won the Best Special Effects Oscar.

Thanks for that S24.

It did look remarkably like the work of Harryhausen, which is why I asked.

I once watched a documentary on Harryhausen in which he was interviewed in his "workshop" surrounded by all sorts of models of monsters and dinosaurs which he had used in films over the years.

The interviewer asks "Of all these models which has been your favourite"

Without hesitation Harryhausen says "this one" and picks up a 6" tall model of the actress Raquel Welch dressed in a cavegirl loin cloth which he had used in the film "1,000,000 Years BC" for the scene in which the pteradactyl picks Raquel Welch up and flies off with her to feed to the chicks.

An interesting guy.

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As regards Cliff, I don't have his really early albums ("Me and my Shadows", "21 Today",etc), so I can't comment on the stereo, but - both "The Young Ones" and "Summer Holiday" were in proper Stereo........and they aren't the actual film Soundtrack, but studio re-recordings.

I don't have his early albums either but I do have "The Young Ones" and, after listening to it for the first time in years I can confirm that it is indeed in "proper" stereo.

Good job I still have a record player to play it on lol

However, tried to scan the cover and a 12" LP cover just doesn't fit on a standard A4 scanner bed does it :(

Original album cover, - or at least part of it

Part of rear cover confirming recording is stereo

Stereo information panel

As this EMI Columbia recording predates all the Beatles recordings it looks like the Beatles got a rough deal down at EMI Parlophone as far as stereo recordings were concerned.

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Certainly one of Cliff's early highlights. I saw the film at the Essoldo in Rotherham and remember having to queue for ages - as was normal with many a popular film in those days.

The scene from "The Young Ones" in which Cliff sings "The Young Ones"

<object width="480" height="202"><param name="movie" value="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/xbrnac"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/xbrnac" width="480" height="202" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always"></embed></object>

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The Time Machine was released in August 1960

The 1960 advertising trailer for this film.

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="

name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="
type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

I noticed also that as well as being in "Futuristic Metrocolour" that this whole film is downloadable in sections from You Tube.

Not so sure about the legality of that.

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I don't have his early albums either but I do have "The Young Ones" and, after listening to it for the first time in years I can confirm that it is indeed in "proper" stereo.

Good job I still have a record player to play it on lol

However, tried to scan the cover and a 12" LP cover just doesn't fit on a standard A4 scanner bed does it :(

Try scanning the right hand side of the album, and then the left hand side - and then stitch them together with Photosuite.

That works for me.

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The 1960 advertising trailer for this film.

I noticed also that as well as being in "Futuristic Metrocolour" that this whole film is downloadable in sections from You Tube.

Not so sure about the legality of that.

It's a lot quicker (and easier) to just go to the Amazon.co.uk site and order the DVD Dave.

It's on at the moment for only £3.93, with free postage.

A real bargain !

http://www.amazon.co...76474104&sr=1-1

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The scene from "The Young Ones" in which Cliff sings "The Young Ones"

Ahhhh!!......nice one Cliff.

Ruislip Lido's finest hour...........and, whatever happened to Carole Gray ?????

Here's an interesting bit of film that takes us behind the scenes of "The Young Ones". Pity there's no sound though.

On the Pathe site, they have it billed wrongly as "On the set of Summer Holiday".

http://www.britishpa...rd.php?id=70698

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Try scanning the right hand side of the album, and then the left hand side - and then stitch them together with Photosuite.

That works for me.

I do have some specialised software that came with some "vinyl to digital" software but it seems a lot of hassle.

Especially when these days all album covers are available on the internet. With things like Realplayer and itunes if you have the tracks it will automatically find the "album art" for you.

However, in this case I was more interested in showing just a part of the album cover anyway, - the bit that shows that it is a genuine stereo recording.

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Ahhhh!!......nice one Cliff.

Ruislip Lido's finest hour...........and, whatever happened to Carole Gray ?????

Here's an interesting bit of film that takes us behind the scenes of "The Young Ones". Pity there's no sound though.

On the Pathe site, they have it billed wrongly as "On the set of Summer Holiday".

http://www.britishpa...rd.php?id=70698

Fancy getting that wrong and calling it Summer Holiday :blink:

It is clearly The Young Ones with those dance senses from "What do you, - you've got a show"

"Hey guys, I've got an idea. Let's do the show right here!"

Pity about the mute sound though.

Could they restore the sound? After all -

"Nothings impossible!

Faith can move a slab of granite

Any day we'll reach a planet

or two

That's what we'll do

Nothing we can't achieve

Because nothing is impossible

As long as you believe"

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="

name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="
type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
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Here's an interesting bit of film that takes us behind the scenes of "The Young Ones". Pity there's no sound though.

On the Pathe site, they have it billed wrongly as "On the set of Summer Holiday".

http://www.britishpa...rd.php?id=70698

Here is the entire "What Do You Know, - You've Got A Show" sequence (all 7 minutes 21 seconds of it) which clearly contains the same dance routines that where being rehearsed in the silent "behind the scenes" clip in the earlier posting.

Definately this section, definately "The Young Ones", certainly NOT "Summer Holiday"

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="

name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="
type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
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Guest funkydory

Hey, I only said that "Summer Holiday" was in colour when I said "A Hard Days Night" was only in black & white.

Judging by that second picture there I should have said that "Summer Holiday" was in

Glorious Technicolour, Breathtaking CinemaScope and Stereophonic Sound lol

Maybe my memory ain't that good, but wasn't 'Summer Holiday' in black and white to emphasise the grotty weather until the "bus" started its holiday tour?

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Maybe my memory ain't that good, but wasn't 'Summer Holiday' in black and white to emphasise the grotty weather until the "bus" started its holiday tour?

Yes - just like "the Wizard of Oz".

The opening credits are in B/W showing the English seaside in Summer ,with rain - rain - and more rain!

Cut to Bus garage with the three lads waiting for Cliff to arrive on his bus. When he does....... Voila!...Colour!!.

<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbqrDNhS8VE&hl=en_GB&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbqrDNhS8VE&hl=en_GB&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

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