Sixties
City presents
a wide-ranging series of
articles on all aspects of the Sixties, penned by the creator of the iconic
60s music paper Mersey
Beat
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Sixties
City presents
a wide-ranging series of
articles on all aspects of the Sixties, penned by the creator of the iconic
60s music paper Mersey
Beat
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This
was a weekly comic for girls founded by Reverend Marcus Morris and subtitled
‘a sister paper to the 'Eagle' which was the Reverend’s successful weekly
comic at the time. Marcus also co-operated closely with his fellow clergyman Chad Verah, who also worked with him on the 'Eagle' (Varah created the Samaritans charity.) The editor was Leonard James Matthews, who was also editor of the 'Eagle' and other publications and was awarded the Order of the British Empire for his services to children’s literature. He edited 'Girl' from its launch until 1962 when he left Hulton Press and joined Odhams Press. The initial publisher was Hulton Press and the first issue was published on 2nd November 1951, a 52-page comic with colour on the cover and centre pages. The cover series featured Kitty Hawke and her All-Girl Air Crew, an equivalent of the Dan Dare cover feature on the 'Eagle'. The crew comprised Winifred ‘Windfall’ White, Radio Officer Jean Stuart and Navigator Patricia D’Arcy. Kitty’s father was the owner of Hawke airlines and Kitty was determined to prove to her father that girls could do the same things as men. But daring adventures for girls seemed to raise objections from parents and within a year the cover strip was replaced by ‘Wendy and Jinx’, two schoolgirls. The initial issue also featured ‘Belle of the Ballet’ by George Beardmore and Stanley Houghton, as the story of a girl who becomes a ballerina with the Rag-Bag Ballet, it echoed the audience which the publication was aimed at – middle class girls. This was because 'Girl' stories featured adventures in private schools, horse riding, voyages on yachts and other aspects generally not experienced by girls who weren’t part of the middle class, although this ballerina series was one of the longest running in the comic. Nurse Susan Marsh was another lead character in a long-running series, ‘Susan of St. Bride’s’ drawn by Peter Kay. Although dedicated to her job, student nurse Susan was continually harassed, and her dedication made difficult by the bullying she received from Staff Nurse Fisher. Incidentally, Peter Kay’s real name was Bruno Kleinzeller, a Czech who managed to flee to England from the Nazis, although his brother was unable to get out of the country and died in a concentration camp. |
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The comic strip 'Lettuce Leefe: The Greenest Girl in School’ was penned
by John Ryan, who was to create Captain Pugwash. There were also illustrated
stories of inspiring British women such as ‘The Three Sisters of Haworth
the True Story of the Brontës Who Wrote Some of Our Finest Literature’.
Pamela Green and Kenneth Gravtt penned the story and Eric Dadswell was
the illustrator. Another featured heroine was ‘Boudica’, the leader of
the British Iceni tribe that battled against the Roman occupation. Informative
articles were also a regular feature with items such as ‘How to make a
Tyrolean Belt’ and ‘Christmas in the land of Pintas and Posatas'. A series
of 'Girl' annuals were produced that contained the familiar characters
from the comics and also lots of text stories such as ‘Heroines of the
Sea’ and ‘Angel and the Oyster Poachers'. There was even a 'Girl' film
and television annual.
Among the other comic strips and regular series were ‘Angela Air Hostess', 'At Work With Janet, Fashion Artist', 'Captain Starling', ‘Claudia of the Circus', ‘Emergency Ward 10’ (based on the TV series), ‘Flying Cloud’ (a western strip), ‘Kay of the Courier', ‘Laura and the Legend of Hadley House’, ‘Lindy Love', ‘Pat of Paradise Isle', ‘Penny Starr', ‘Prince of the Pampas', ‘The Rajah’s Secret', ‘Robbie of Red Hall', ‘Sally of the South Seas', ‘Sumuna’s South Sea Isle', ‘Travel Girl', ‘Two Pairs of Skates', ‘The Untold Arabian Nights', ‘A Cosy Christmas', ‘Vicky', and ’Yvette'. Despite building a substantial circulation of around 360,000 weekly, on 3rd october 1964 'Girl' was merged with 'Princess' as 'New Princess and Girl'. The features from 'Girl' included in the new launch included the cartoons of ‘Lettice’ and ‘Minx and Her Friend Dennis’ together with the ballet series ‘Belle and Mamie'. Four issues later it again changed title to ‘Princess and Girl’, then subsequently dropped the name 'Girl' and became, simply, ‘Princess’ in 1965 until it ceased publication on 16th September 1967. |
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Bill Harry attended the Liverpool College of Art with Stuart Sutcliffe and John Lennon and made the arrangements for Brian Epstein to visit The Cavern, where he saw The Beatles for the first time. Bill was a member of 'The Dissenters' and the founder and editor of 'Mersey Beat', the iconic weekly music newspaper that documented the early Sixties music scene in the Liverpool area and is possibly best known for being the first periodical to feature a local band called 'The Beatles'. He has worked as a high powered publicist, doing PR for acts such as Suzi Quatro, Free, The Arrows and Hot Chocolate and has managed press campaigns for record labels such as CBS, EMI, Polydor. Bill is the critically acclaimed author of a large number of books about The Beatles and the 60s era including 'The Beatles Who's Who', 'The Best Years of the Beatles' and the Fab Four's 'Encyclopedia' series. He has appeared on 'Good Morning America' and has received a Gold Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. |
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