A Special Centenary – A Reprise

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As it so reliably does, the Timehop app reminded me this morning of a post I wrote four years ago today. This was to mark what would have been my Mum’s 100th birthday, had she lived to see it, and apart from memories of her I found myself enjoying all over again the various clips I played of life back then, from the early days of film. It struck me that many readers will have joined me since then and won’t have seen this before, so it seemed a good idea to share it again now: as well as the personal memories it contains a lot of social history, which I hope you will find as interesting as I do.

The post is very much a piece of its time. At the time I wrote it the UK was enduring its third national lockdown of the Covid pandemic, and you will see passing comments on that. There are a few other comments which need updating, too: sadly, I lost my Dad two years ago, at 95, so the reference to him is now out of date – I didn’t want to edit it out, though. And for anyone not up to doing the maths, the final line will now read ‘Happy celestial 104th’ for Mum. But the overriding thought this gives me is that how little has changed, in many respects: wars and incompetent politicians seem to be always with us, don’t they, offering a sad reflection on how we have built our world. That’s enough waffle from me for today, though, here is:

A SPECIAL CENTENARY

My Mum has appeared by proxy in several of my Tuesday Tunes posts, as I have referred to her musical tastes and how they differed from mine, yet occasionally coincided. Mum passed on 15th May 2008, at the age of 87, but if she had lived today would have been her 100th birthday. Although nearly thirteen years have gone by I think about her often, and my series of Tuesday posts on the music of the Sixties and Seventies brought back many memories for me. So I thought I’d do something to mark the date, with a few snippets about Mum and some of the other events of that year apart from her birth, to show what life was like back then.

This is Mum, probably in her late 30s (which places it around 1960ish):

Also in the photo are my Dad – still with us, and going strong at 93 – my cousin Sheila (top left), me, and my little sister, Heather. The photo was taken at a family gathering, though I’ve cropped a lot of others out. Those were the days when the gents still wore a suit to family events that weren’t weddings, christenings or funerals!

1921 was three years after the end of WW1, and a lot of the political events of the year were to do with the rebuilding from that, along with the settlement of reparations from Germany: this took place on 5th May, and required the payment of 132 billion gold marks, in annual instalments of 2.5 billion. That sounds a lot, even now! A couple of months later, on 2nd July, US President Warren Harding signed a Congressional order declaring an end to hostilities with Germany, Austria and Hungary: I’ve no idea why it took nearly three years, but, as that was the start of their habit of being late to join world wars I guess they were just keeping in character.

A look at the significant dates of 1921 reveals many which were related to wars and conflicts. There were a number involving the Soviet Union and neighbouring states, and also China. Here in the UK we had been fighting the Irish Republican Army (IRA) until a truce was signed on 9th July, paving the way for the official creation of the Irish Free State in December. Students of history will know that the ‘Irish problem’ wasn’t resolved by this, with the renewal of hostilities in Northern Ireland in the 1960s, which were only finally put to rest by the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. It is to be hoped that the aftermath of Brexit doesn’t screw this agreement. My point in mentioning these conflicts is that there is nothing new, and we seem to be doomed to continue making the same mistakes rather than learning from them. One of the scariest 1921 dates for me, which is almost lost in the mix, is 4th November: after a speech by Adolf Hitler in the Hofbräuhaus (the Bavarian State Brewery) in Munich, members of the Sturmabteilung (“brownshirts”) physically assaulted his opposition. Given the number of occasions that journalists and political opponents have been physically assaulted at Trump rallies, and the events of 6 January at the Capitol, there are some frightening similarities here.

There were numerous other acts of political violence and assassination that year, including in Spain, Portugal and Persia (as it was then) but I don’t want to dwell on the less pleasant events of 1921. They were different times in many ways, from those that we are accustomed to in our days of widespread social media and access to global news on an instant basis. It was five years before John Logie Baird gave what is now regarded as the first public demonstration of what became ‘television,’ and a full thirty years before the medium became widely available, albeit often in grainy monochrome images. So, apart from creating large families, what did the good people of 1921 do for entertainment?  These were the early days of commercial movie theatres, when silent monochrome films were the height of sophistication. In this year, the Charlie Chaplin film The Kid was released. Here is a brief sample:

That is charming, but it isn’t exactly what would encourage us to swarm to the cinema these days if we were allowed to, is it? But if that has whetted your appetite, the whole movie can be found on YouTube here – it is just over an hour long,  a little short by modern day standards!

Another famous movie star of that era also released a new one in 1921 – Rudolph Valentino, in The Sheik. Again, the full movie is on YouTube here but this brief clip will give you a feel for it:

At 1 hr 26 mins that is a little longer, almost up to the length of shorter movies today. I love that clip, and I imagine there was much fun to be had in the captioning room with lines that had to be deleted, especially in response to Agnes Ayres’ “why have you brought me here?” question. Tragically, Valentino died just five years later of peritonitis, at the age of 31, causing mass hysteria amongst his fans: the ‘Latin Lover’ was no more, but his early death sealed his status as an icon of the cinema, in much the same way that later happened for James Dean.

As I mentioned, mass tv broadcasting was still a long way off, but radio was in its infancy in 1921. The US had a plethora of locally based broadcasters, with no control, whilst the UK looked on sniffily and declared that it didn’t want to recreate the ‘chaos’ of radio in the US. As a result, it wasn’t until 1922 that the BBC (British Broadcasting Company) was established, becoming the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1927 to mark its independence from either government or commercial management. This little clip gives some of the background to that US chaos:

There is mention in that of the radio broadcasting of baseball. Radio and, later, tv have been instrumental in bringing us huge volumes of sports coverage. In these pandemic times, when mass gatherings aren’t allowed, the television has been vital for those of us wanting our ‘fix.’ But, back in 1921, if you wanted to follow a game you had to be there. It was on 7th May that the lowest ever paying crowd for a game in the English Football League was assembled: all 13 of them, for the fixture between Stockport County and Leicester City, in what was then Division Two. The match was played at Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United, as Stockport’s ground was officially closed after some crowd trouble – yes, really, it happened back then too! The official attendance of 13 was the number of spectators who paid for entrance after Man Utd’s earlier game against Derby County had finished, but it is believed that around 2,000 stayed on after the first match to get their money’s worth. I’m not sure that they did, though, as Stockport vs Leicester was a 0-0 draw. But as far as I can tell there were no reports of crowd disturbances.

I’ve always thought of fashion as being one of the most vacuous of industries, but it seems like it was going strong back then too:

They took it seriously: no dresses made of meat or bras like traffic cones for them. I’m not sure those clothes would be too well received by most people today, though, given the use of animal fur as decoration. I wonder if it was a status symbol to boast that your clothes were trimmed with bits of monkeys?

As you may have noticed through my posts, I am interested in folk music and the traditions that go with it. This one is still going today, albeit after the occasional hiatus:

If you have come across that before it may well be by the better known name of the Floral Dance. The Helston event is the best known, though there are others. As you can imagine, it now bears little resemblance to earlier versions like this one. It takes place on 8th May each year, and is a celebration of the passing of winter and the arrival of spring. The folk song Hal-An-Tow is associated with the day – it mangles together bits of celebration from English history.

All reviews of bygone years make reference to those who were born and died. Births in 1921, as well as my Mum, included several from the entertainment world, among them Humphrey Lyttleton, Diana Barrymore, Peter Sallis, Dirk Bogarde, Peter Ustinov, Lana Turner, Jane Russell, and quite  a few sportspeople, including Stan Mortensen, Sugar Ray Robinson and Jack Kramer. The big sporting event of the year has to be this, though:

I accept that there *might* be an element of bias in sharing that one. [2025 update: maybe I’m not as keen on admitting to supporting Spurs, who are having a dreadful season!]

Among those who departed in 1921 were Bat Masterson, the US gunfighter, army scout, professional gambler, lawman and journalist; Engelbert Humperdinck, the German composer (not the Release Me guy – though Mum loved that one); the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns; and the microbiologist Julius Richard Petri, who invented a dish.

That’s just about it for 1921, but as this is her day it wouldn’t be right to finish this piece without including a couple of songs that my Mum liked. This is one that she bought, saving me the need to do so:

And this is her absolute favourite song by her absolute favourite singer:

That says it all, really. Happy celestial 100th, Mum. [See earlier note: it’s now the 104th!]

49 thoughts on “A Special Centenary – A Reprise”

  1. Pingback: February Flew By | Take It Easy

  2. such a fantastic history posy with all the warmth of family love.
    I enjoyed the closing Reevs song – what a voice, I can see why Reeves was your mum’s fav.
    The Chaplin video with the pancake-making kid was interesting too – and really showed the different times. So many takeaways – but the blanket that turned into a poncho was pretty interesting too

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  3. Hi Clive, your mom was 11 years older than your dad, same as my parents. Interestingly, my mom is 86 and going strong and dad is 75 and chronically ill. He is seeing another doctor this Friday as he appears to have pulmonary hypertension which is very serious. Happy celestial birthday to your mom. Mine was bornin 1938, she was 11 months old when WW2 broke out.

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  5. A lovely tribute to your mum , Clive .it shows far we have come in films and broadcasting..loved the pancake clip…my fathe played football and was a Spurs fan he always used to say the footballers of today would know what it was like if they had leather balls especially when they got wet…plus Jim Reeves was a big favourite…I hope you have a good weekend , Clive xx

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    • Thank you, Carol, I’m pleased you liked it. I find those old clips fascinating – technological advances have been huge but the basics were already there.

      Growing up we played football with leather balls – you tried not to go for a header if the ball was wet, unless you enjoyed concussion!

      Jim Reeves was definitely a favourite back then – many have mentioned him.

      You have a good weekend too 😊 xx

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  6. This was lovely, Clive. My mother made it to 89. She and Grandma listened to Jim Reeves when Grandma came to visit. I never heard Albatross, but that is really pretty, too. What a great way to remember your mother every year on this day.

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    • Thank you, Maddie, I’m pleased it went well with you. Jim Reeves seems to have been popular with the ladies – you aren’t the first to pick up on that!

      Albatross was a UK #1 but I don’t think it made it across the pond – too far to fly, perhaps?

      With my sister I always remember Mum on this day – just not on the blog. I would say this is a one-off but I guess it’s a two-off now 😉

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  7. So many memories through our parents of a time we have not even experienced. Still, they kept it alive and the music carries that memory on. I know, I had a tape my mom once recorded with songs she love when she was a teenager. The songs were part of my later childhood until I grew into a teenager.

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    • I know what you mean. My parents were born in the 1920s and went through a lot in their youth. I learned a lot from them, the books and music they had collected. That tape from your Mum must have been very special.

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      • A very difficult time they were born into. I cannot imagine how it must have been to go through a world war. My grandfather was born 1927. He was a young teenager when he was called up to the army. He was taken prisoner by the Russians. He talked about this and other things of his and his parents’ history on a tape he recorded only few years before he died. A priceless piece of history and another special tape.

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      • Wow, that really is a special tape to have. My father was also born in 1927 but was deemed unfit for call up as he had a dodgy left arm. Mum was older, born in 1921, but luckily for her she spent the war in the Women’s RAF in a strategic role in London – one of those people pushing things around maps that you see in war movies 😊

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      • Dad was born in Folkestone, in SE Kent, and being 12 when it started he was evacuated to S Wales for safety and spent several years there with a host family. I was born in 1953 in Dover – which was known as ‘Hellfire Corner’ because of all of the bombs – and was brought up with daily reminders of what they had gone through: a lot of the town was being rebuilt from rubble.

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      • You experienced the period of rebuilding. A special time. My mom was born 1949. She did not have memories from devastations in Viennan neither had my dad (1947). But my uncle was 5 when the war was over (born 1940). He told us that for him it was normal to here the alarm going on, running into basements and shelters, and hearing the airplanes passing and the bombs fall. He was not even afraid. Terrible actually.

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  11. Days well before texting, X, Social gossi- sorry, Media. Different times, but maybe no better, especially in light of Hitler talking himself up. Trust blowhards to make the loudest noise.

    My wife just remarked yesterday that her Mum would have been 103 on the 13th, so I share your sadness. I couldn’t have asked for a better mother-in-law.

    Yeah, Spurs. Down, down, down at White Heart Lane; you’re definitely suffering a lot of Ange/angst there. Don’t worry though, there’s many travails up at Old Trafford too.

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    • Some things don’t change, do they!

      I’m sorry to hear that this is an anniversary for you, too. We still have our memories, though, don’t we.

      Spurs play Utd on Sunday – the two biggest disappointments of the PL season. At least I still have the Os to cheer me up 👍

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      • That game will be one that will have the William Hill odds-making staff double triple and quadrupling their doubts. It could be a nil-all draw, it could be 4-0 to either side, it could be 6-4, it could be anything! All bets are off for me.

        The O’s are on fire.

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      • I’d happily take a repeat of the game at OT – 3-0 to us. Can’t see it happening though.

        The Os have amazed me, after a shocking start. Got some tough games coming up – make or break time 😊

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  12. This is such a lovely post, Clive; I have a huge lump in my throat as February is also my mom’s birthday month. We lost her back in 2009 at the age of 92; it will be mom’s 108th celestial birthday on February 21. The videos are just incredible, a wonderful sign of the times. Thanks for sharing this beautiful homage, Clive. Happy Birthday to your mum. ☺️

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  15. I enjoyed this look back through the videos and information of the times that were. I liked the Charlie Chaplin one, but that Valentino one, how anyone could like him I don’t know. He seemed like a big jerk! Jim Reeves was one of my mom’s favorite too. Happy Heavenly birthday to your mom. ❤

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  17. I love this post and it was worth reading again. My dad was a huge Jim Reeves fan and used to sing that very song to me. He was born in 1924. I just recently found a Jim Reeves CD at a charity shop and play it often.

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