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

January 1946

Tuesday  1 

Happy New Year. Went to work for half a day. At night I went to the pictures to see "Women in Bondage"

Wednesday 2 

Stayed off work to do the shopping for my mother. She has flu. At night I went back with our Joyce.

Thursday 3

I never went to work. Bought 2 hair slides. At night went to pictures "Nob Hill"

Friday 4 

I went back to work. At night I went in Joan Wrights house while her mother & father went to the "Plaza"

Saturday 5 

Went to work for half a day & in the afternoon I went to see the serial "The Adventures of Smiling Jack"

Sunday 6 

Stayed in until night then went to our Joyce's

The intention is for me to tell you all a little more about what is written in the diary - whether it be about the films mum went to see or the places she visited.

She left school in 1945 aged 14. She refers to "work" through out the diary I am pretty sure it was the Dunlop factory, in Speke making Green Flash plimsolls as worn by Fred Perry. Mum also worked at Bryant & Mays in Speke making matches but I think this was later

Mum loved her films and she collected film star photos - she was at the pictures at least once a week and straight off the blocks in 1946- Women in Bondage (that was a tricky Google search I can tell you)

Released in 1943 the film is about Margot Bracken who returns to Germany after years of absence...she is horrified at the degraded status which has been forced on to women in her homeland. She and another woman speak out against the terrorist regime in place and are imprisoned. Pagan baptisms, "mercy" killings, sterilizations, government-encouraged vice and the cruelties of the Gestapo are only a few of the practices they see or endure.

BLIMEY - heavy stuff for a 14 year old.......

1945 colour film about a Barbary Coast saloon keeper starring George  Raft and Joan Bennett. Part musical and part drama. This film was one of the most popular releases at the US box office in 1945

The diary tells us that Joan's parents were at the "Plaza" - this was a cinema in Allerton, Liverpool which sadly closed in 1971.

https://www.chestercinemas.co.uk/plaza-cinema-allerton-liverpool/