February/March 1946

Monday 25

Stayed in

Tuesday 26

Went to the Lyceum to see "Marine Raiders" good picture

Wednesday 27

It was snowing. Went to a concert at the Methodist Church Hall, Arthur Askey's sister was on. Good show 

Thursday 28

Stayed in to listen to Paul Temple. Uncle Tom came, had a very bad cold.

Friday 1

Stayed off work with a cold 

Saturday 2

Stayed off work again. Went to Garston in the afternoon

Sunday 3

Went to see Joan's Auntie Evelina. At night went to Joan's house.

 Arthur Askey was a Liverpool lad, born in the Dingle in 1900. His sister Irene Dorothy was born 8 years later and that is who mum saw  at the concert. Arthur was a really popular comedian back in the day - personally he wasn't my cup of tea, different generation I suspect but I was brought up to the melodic sound of the Bee Song.

The Lyceum, St Mary's Road was thought to be the most luxurious picture house in Liverpool - built in 1922 in Garston. Only open 37 years it closed in 1959 

 Marine Raiders is a 1944 war film filmed in pseudo-documentary style.... didn't know they did that sort of thing in the 40s?

Arthur Askey (1937)

February 1946

Monday 18

Went to work. Stayed in at night

Tuesday 19 

Went to work. At night I did some sewing, the eye of the needle went in my finger

Wednesday 20

Went to work. At night stayed in and washed my hair

Thursday 21

Went to work (Paul Temple) Stayed in at night

Friday 22

My niece's birthday - Dorothy 3 years

Went to the Plaza to see "Over 21" lovely picture

Saturday 23

Went to work in the morning. In the afternoon I went to town with Joany. I bought a white bow, cord for my beads, 2 stockings & a milkshake

Sunday 24 

Went down to Joyce's afternoon & night

A Case for Paul Temple ran on the radio from Feb 7 to March 28 1946, 8 episodes of 30 minutes a time. The original recordings were lost but recreated and transmitted in August and September 2011. I wish I had known about this at the time mum would have loved it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Temple

This weeks film is "Over 21". It was a comedy film made in 1945 fro a Broadway stage show.

The plot is a newspaper man Max Wharton suddenly decides to leave his job as chief editor for the New York Bulletin and follow his patriotic calling to enlist in the army. Max's novelist wife, Paula, is in Hollywood adapting a screenplay, but skips town and heads to a Florida military base to support Max during basic training. Together they adjust to the sporadic absurdities of military life.

It is probably better than what it says on the tin😏

I think the beads that were threaded on the cord bought this week are on the main photo.

 February 1946

Monday 11

Went in Joan's house while her mother went to the pictures 

Tuesday 12

Went to see " Mr Skeffington" at the Empire starring Bette Davies

Wednesday 13

Went to Joyce Hulmes to sell her a concert ticket. Went home. Car nearly crashed. Washed my hair

Thursday 14

Stayed in to hear Paul Temple. Rose stayed off work to go to the Pantomime

Friday 15

Stayed in Friday night but went to work

Saturday 16 

Morning went to work, afternoon & night went to Enid Reece's wedding

Sunday 17

Went to Joyce Hulmes but she wasn't in, at night went to the pictures but couldn't get in.

So pleased to see that folk skived off work back in the day .... and what better than to watch a Panto  "Beeeehind yoooou". Also teenager randomness was around back then too - "car nearly crashed. Washed my hair"

Only one movie this week - Mr Skeffington. A 1944 American movie (as most were).T

The film starred Bette Davis as a beautiful woman with many suitors and her love of herself distracted her from returning the affections of her husband. ooo she sounds a bit of a one!!

Mr. Skeffington Trailer 1944

 February 1946

Monday 4

Stayed in and washed my hair & got a bath. My mother put rags in my hair.

Tuesday 5 

Went to the "Empire" with Rose & Joan to see "Incendiary Blonde"

Wednesday 6

Went to Joan's house while her mother & father went to the pictures.

Thursday 7 

Stayed in & listened to Paul Temple

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Send_for_Paul_Temple

Friday 8 

Stayed in 

Saturday 9 

Went to town with mother bought a new coat.  [DN-I am thinking it is the one in the main photo on this blog]   At night went to Joyce Hulmes

Sunday 10

Went to Joyce Hulmes & went to the "Lyceum" to see "Wingpower in the Pacific". Our Tom, Freda & Joyce came to our house.

What a great title - 1945 same old same old romance and heartbreak.

Wing Power Over the Pacific a 1943 drama which depicts a South Pacific community caught up in WW2.

January/February 1946

 Monday 28

Had a hard days work. Stayed in at night.

Tuesday 29

Went to the "Plaza" to see "|And Then There Were None", a good murder picture. Our Tom's demobbed

Wednesday 30

Stayed in and made Dorothy some mittens and went to work

Thursday 31

Stayed in had nothing to do

Friday 1

Went to work, at night stayed in had nothing to do 

Saturday 2

Went to work for half a day, at night went to the "Empire" to see "This Above All" Good

Sunday 3

It was raining all afternoon. At night went to "Joyce Hulmes". Our Tom came to our house he had been demobbed.

Rose Murdoch

47 Western Ave

Speke L19

"Our Tom" and his battalion took a shell on on the beaches on D Day. All his fellow soldiers were killed and he was almost left for dead but someone noticed a tear trickling down his cheek. He spent a long time in hospital in London. He had a huge dent in his forehead and his face had grey bits which was shrapnel. For many years after the war the shrapnel was still to the surface of his skin and he had to have his eyes taken out and washed  - how traumatic that must have been. 

"Our Harold" was taken as a PoW in Germany and no one knew if he was alive. I think in 1946 he still wasn't home.

"This Above All" film was released in 1942 a tale about a beautiful aristocratic woman who falls in love with a AWOL soldier. I must say Tyrone Power was a bit of alright. 

No idea who Rose Murdoch is 

 January 1946

Monday 21

Went to the "Empire" to see "Diamond Horseshoe" cast - Betty Grable & Dick Haymes

Tuesday 22

Went to work. Stayed in at night.

Wednesday 23

Stayed in to make mittens finished them in 3 days.

Thursday 24

Done my knitting

Friday 25

Went to the "Plaza"to see "Dead of Night" good mystery picture.

Saturday 26

Harold Kerfoots Birthday 20 years. 

Am went to town with .......... At night went to ...... to see Mother Goose 

Sunday 27.

Went to Joan's nanas. Stayed in at night to iron my overall and dyed my blouse.

What I didn't mention when I started this journey was that a lot of the diary is written in pencil and after 74 years it is a bit tricky to read in parts, you will see .......  for the bits I can't decipher.

Films this week 

"Diamond Horseshoe" 1945 musical

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_Horseshoe

"Dead of Night" is a 1945 British horror film made by Ealing Studios. This film stands out from other 1940s British films as horror films had been banned from production in Britain during the war. 

I think I have seen this film as that dummy looks very familiar !

 

Mum saw the Diamond Horseshoe at the Empire. The Empire Theatre opened in 1925 so was only 20 years old when mum went there (I saw the Human League there in the very early 80s and it was an old theatre by then!)

 

Apparently the theatre is haunted by 2 ghosts a former theatre painter called Len and a young girl wearing Victorian clothing

January 1946 

Monday 14

Stayed in and made myself a ribbon out of an old blouse.

Tuesday 15

I went to the "Plaza" but could not get in. I went to my friends house and practiced dancing.

Wednesday 16

Went to the "Plaza" I got in this time  - "One Against Seven" was on & "Strange Affair"

Thursday 17

Stayed in.

Friday 18

Went to the "Plaza" to see "Dillinger" & "Army Wives"

Saturday 19

Went to Joyce Hulmes, very cold.

Sunday 20

Went to Calderstones to slide on the ice with Jean, Norma, Joyce & Joan

This diary was started only 5 months after VJ day, everyday things were still on ration and rationing would still be around for another 8 years yet. I wonder if the public knew it would be so long?  Making a ribbon out of an old blouse was the least a girl could do. 

The motto of the day was 'make do and mend'. 

Quite a busy old week on the pictures front 4 films this week- I read somewhere that although the war had just ended there was a raft of young people who had left school at 14 earning money and had some disposable income. I know my mum didn't get much money but she obviously did have disposable income which was spent, it seems, at the cinema  

"One Against Seven" was actually called "Counter-Attack aka One Against Seven" 

A 1945 film set in WW2 about a Russian soldier and a navigator trapped underground with a group of German  and set of mind games that mirror methods employed on the battlefield. 

sounds thrilling!!

"A Strange Affair" 1944 comedy 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Affair_(1944_film)

Dillinger is a 1945 gangster film that tells the story of John Dillinger

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dillinger_(1945_film)

A 1944 American romantic comedy 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Wives_(1944_film)

Calderstones Park - love that park and have some great childhood memories ... including 'our Joyce' aka my Auntie Joyce nicking a Busy Lizzie cutting from one of the glass houses there, wrapping it in a tissue and saying 'shushhhh don't tell anyone!' 😊

I don't think the glass houses are there now?

The park is 94 acres and gets its name from 6 megaliths some 5,000 years old that are in the park

.

 There is also a 1,000 year old oak tree known as the "Allerton Oak". According to Legend the ancient local Hundred Court once sat beneath its branches. 

 January 1946

Monday 7

Went to Joyce Hulmes . Had quite a good time.

Tuesday 8 

Had a hard days work. At night I went to the "Plaza" with our Doll to see "It's a Pleasure"

Wednesday 9 

I went to the concert in the Methodist Church Hall. All the radio stars  of Merseyside were there. A good show.

Thursday 10

I went to the Pantomime at St. Mary's Church Hall "Robinson Crusoe". Good show.

Friday 11

 Washed my hair and had a bath, washed my scarf & my ribbon & my stockings. I went to bed early.

Saturday 12

Went to Garston to do some shopping for my mother with Nita Clarke.

Sunday 13

Went to Joyce Hulmes but she was not in so we went a bus ride home. Went to see "Prison Mutiny"

Lark Lane 3380

Who was Joyce Hulme? Mum never mentioned her, she told us all about different friends she had growing up but not Joyce. I think she may have worked with her.

Imagine my delight when looking through mum's photos I came across this tatty photo and on the back it says 

Joyce Hulme. 20 Chesterton Street, Garston'

It was taken by a professional photographer - Geo. Robb, 34, Arnold Street, Liverpool 8.

This week's films ....

"It's a Pleasure" a 1945 romantic musical in glorious technicolour about an ice hockey player who is banned due to hitting a referee and is an alcoholic. The usual girl meets boy, boy steps back so she can find fame etc etc

"Prison  Mutiny"  1943 black and white movie who tries to rehabilitate a rich playboy who is doing time but reckons he is innocent. It is a B-movie crime drama and if you like this sort of thing apparently it is a good one - I found link to the movie on You Tube if you fancy it 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a7NzGwp4v0