Views looking back - the Eclectic Ephemera Top 10

Here I am again, then, saying "What ho!" after another long dry spell at Eclectic Ephemera.  I seem to spend half my (few) posts lately apologising for my absence, and can only do so again.  I dislike constantly using work as an excuse, since I know so many bloggers who successfully juggle a good working/writing balance - it just seems I'm not one of them!  Having said that, it seems that a few of my favourite bloggers have gone quiet as the new year got underway, or have just emerged from the woodwork after months of silence, so perhaps I am not alone after all.

Anyway, enough navel-gazing, for a quite remarkable milestone was reached by this blog at the start of 2015 and it is this that I intend to celebrate in this post (for lack of anything really newsworthy!).  Quite appropriately, the start of my sixth year as a vintage blogger saw Eclectic Ephemera pass 400,000 pageviews.  Now of course that doesn't mean that 400,000 individual people have viewed this blog - some of those will have been me looking at the thing to see how it's doing (and forgetting to select "Don't track my own pageviews"!) and many, many more were probably spammers, bots, bits and other assorted members of the æthereal interweb - but the majority would have been fellow bloggers, followers and interested parties.  You, in other words.  And that deserves celebrating.  What I thought I'd do to mark the occasion, therefore, is to "run down" (to use the modern parlance) the Top 10 posts from Eclectic Ephemera's 6-year history - a sort of "best of", as it were, chosen by you the readers.

So, in ascending order they are:

10. Home linked to P G Wodehouse's Blandings Castle up for sale

 

From November 2010, the news that Apley House in Shropshire had been completely restored and was up for sale for the princely sum of £1¾ million.  I found it to be of particular interest because it is generally agreed among scholars to be the inspiration behind P.G. Wodehouse's Blandings Castle, which was the setting for one of his other book series.  With Plum being one of my favourite authors and creator of that arch-chap Bertie Wooster, even though it was not directly related to the Jeeves stories I fancied including it here.  Eclectic Ephemera was barely a year old at this point and still evolving into the blog we know today, so at this point the stories I featured were sometimes more wide-ranging than they are today.  Still this one had a vintage bent about it and has obviously proved popular, for whatever reason (perhaps the Wodehouse connexion, or just its magnificence as an English stately home).

9. Liebster Blog Award #2

 

Jumping forward two years to November 2012, this blog received its second Liebster Blog Award.  Having largely given way to other blog awards (probably due to the demise of Google Friends) the Liebster nevertheless contained most of the things we recognise in today's examples.  Given to me by Lil of the now defunct Little Lil of London blog, it contained the usual x number of questions about myself to answer and I obviously made a decent fist of it since it is the most popular award-based post on the blog!

8. Historic wooden car floated at auction

 

November 2010 again and one of my many vintage motoring posts - this time featuring a one-off wood-bodied 1932 Talbot.  This car had an interesting history, which is why the story appealed to me (and everybody else too, it seems!), having started out in 1932 as just an ordinary 14/65 saloon before some time in the 1960s acquiring a fantastic roadster body fashioned entirely from boat-grade mahogany!  Despite this it was only valued at £20,000 to £30,000, eventually being sold for almost smack dab in the middle at £25,300.  As I said at the time, I hope the new owner enjoys varnishing!

7. Cary Grant - Style Icon

 

source

February 2012 and number 2 in my personal Style Icon series is obviously number 1 in your books - Mr Cary Grant.  Proof of the man's popularity even today, my thoughts on his impeccable dress sense - and more importantly the pictures that illustrate this - have gone towards making this everyone's favourite Style Icon post from a list that included David Niven and Fred Astaire!

6. Model of new Routemaster bus unveiled

 

source

The classic [red] AEC Routemaster bus has come to symbolise the city of London, not just for those of us in Britain but more especially for people living around the world for whom this simple, long-lived vehicle is part of their own external view of our capital.  Therefore it should perhaps come as little surprise, given the international nature of the internet (and thus, this blog), that the unveiling of its spiritual successor should prove to be so popular.  The idea of modern technology meeting classic, tried-and-tested design was much in evidence throughout the story of the NB4L (or New Routemaster, as it has become known) and this has always been the most appealing aspect of things to me, as I hope it has been to all who have followed the journey of the NB4L from drawing board to now, five years later, actually carrying passengers around the streets of London.  Having since seen one or two up close I can confirm it more than lives up to the hype and it's been fascinating to see its progress all the way from inception to now.

5. Vintage Rolls-Royces honour Spirit of Ecstasy

 

source

As if to reinforce its position as "Best Car in the World" this 2011 post about the centenary of Rolls-Royce's mascot, the famous Spirit of Ecstasy, makes it into the top 5.  As well the story about the anniversary celebrations featuring myriad Royce models from down the years, I took the opportunity to throw in a bit about some of my favourite examples and it has obviously struck a chord with many people for whom the Rolls-Royce is still the very epitome of luxury motoring.

4. Film Friday - Scarface (1932)

 

The third of the Film Friday: Gangsters series that I began back in 2010 with Little Caesar (and which sadly I've rather let slide since) this post focussed on the plot - and, more importantly the fashions - of Howard Hughes' and Howard Hawk's classic 1932 gangster drama Scarface, starring Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak and George Raft.  This post has proven to be popular with both vintage film and fashion fans alike, which are who I hoped would be the target audience and which has made me think that maybe it's about time I brought this series back!

3. All aboard the song train

 

This is the most recently-written post to make the top 10, containing a selection of railway-related tunes to celebrate (if that's the word I want!) my first foray back into the world of full-time work and commuting by train.  While that job didn't last and I now commute to the latest office by bus, this post really seemed to build up a good head of steam(!) and powered its way into the "most popular" list.  I suspect this is just through people searching for the phrase "song train", but then I live in hopes that there are several thousand visitors with a liking for the music of Glenn Miller, Paul Whiteman and Bob Crosby among others!

2. Rare photographs of comedian Stan Laurel are auctioned

 

Proof of the enduring popularity of two of the funniest comic actors to have ever lived, this story regarding the auction of rare photographs of (mainly) Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy proved inordinately popular (again probably just through people Googling "photos of Stan Laurel", I reckon).  Including some very rare images dating back to 1897 and showing a young Arthur Stanley Jefferson playing with his siblings these photographs came from a family collection owned by a great-niece of Stan's living in Sunderland, near to North Shields where he grew up.  The 54 lots eventually sold for a total of £8,000.

1. Classic car firm Morgan building new three-wheeler after gap of 60 years

 

This would certainly be in my top 10 favourite vintage news items that this blog has covered since 2009, so I'm delighted to see it make the number one slot with my readers too.  And why should it not?  Here is an almost perfect example of traditional, vintage design being married to modern technology and - even better - one that has been an unqualified success for the Morgan Motor Company.  For it is now the company's best-selling model, having sold more than 600 in the first few months after it went on sale and over 1,000 in the four years it has been on sale.  While that may not sound like much, for a niche manufacturer like Morgan - who still use the same construction methods and work out of the same factory in Malvern, Worcestershire that they have done since the company's inception in 1909 - it is a very big deal.  In 2014 a whole raft of updates were applied to the car in response to customer feedback and I see no reason why the 3-wheeler, having taken its rightful place back in the very heart of the Morgan range, should not endure for decades just as the other models have done.

There we have it, then - the 10 most popular Eclectic Ephemera posts from the past 6 years and 400,000 pageviews.  I hope you've all enjoyed this little reminiscence as much as I have writing it and I look forward to seeing what the future brings for this blog amid the hope of many more readers and followers to come.

Laurel and Hardy inspire BBC drama

Laurel and Hardy inspire BBC drama

It has always been a source of regret to me that I wasn't alive to see two of my favourite comic actors of the 20th century, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, when they toured the theatres of Britain with their live sketch shows during 1952-53.  Although they were in the twilight of their careers, having completed their final film in 1951 - the unholy mess that was Atoll K (also known as Utopia or Robinson Crusoeland, an absolute disaster of a film and no way to have ended a 25-year movie career - a mixed nationality of actors and crew meant that no-one understood one another, The Boys were both ill and in the case of Stan looked it, he also never really got the creative freedom he was promised so the story was weak as well) - by the following year they were in better health and keen to get out and meet the many fans who still enjoyed their comedy genius.  Stan, the creative one of the partnership, had several new ideas for the team but both agreed that another tour of Europe - where they remained popular - was the first step (they had twice before toured abroad, once in 1932 and again in 1947).

In 1952 they performed a sketch written by Stan entitled "A Spot of Trouble" and it proved so successful that in 1953 they returned with a new performance, "Birds of a Feather".  Playing to packed houses, they were overwhelmed by the joy and affection they still engendered nearly 20 years after their heyday.  On one occasion, arriving by boat at Cobh in Ireland, they were moved to tears by the crowds' cheering and waving and - I'd have loved to have been there to hear it - all the church bells in the town pealing out their theme tune, "The Dance of the Cuckoos".

The 1953 tour was another great success but it proved to be their last, for Oliver Hardy's health declined in 1956 and following a series of strokes he passed away on the 7th August 1957 aged 65, ending one of the greatest partnerships in film.



I'm pleased to see that the B.B.C. has now commissioned a new drama-documentary charting those last two years' of tours, to be written by the same chap who co-wrote the recent critically-lauded film Philomena.  I haven't seen that one myself but by all accounts it is a very good, if heartrending, story so I have high hopes for this forthcoming programme.

It won't be the first time the Beeb have produced a drama based around the last years of Laurel & Hardy, however.  Back in 2006 as part of its "Silent Cinema" season B.B.C. Four broadcast Stan, which was written by Neil Brand (who is also well-known for playing accompanying music - and in some cases composing new scores - for silent films, often shown at the British Film Institute e.g. The Wrecker) and which covered Laurel & Hardy's career in a series of flashbacks as Stan visited Ollie on his deathbed.  That was an excellent production, if sometimes tough to watch, with the actors playing the lead roles well suited to the parts.  Let us hope it will be more of the same with Stan and Ollie; I look forward to hearing more news about it.  In the meantime I can heartily recommend the book Laurel & Hardy: the British Tours by A. J. Marriot as an excellent tome on the subject of The Boys' later live appearances.

The Patient Man

Hopefully I won't end up like poor old Ollie, nor be visited by the likes of catastrophic Stan, but such are the vagaries of life that I will be in my own variation of "County Hospital" from tomorrow for a week or so.

Thusly this wire service will fall quiet for a time, but I look forward to catching up with all the lovely vintage blogs once I'm home and recuperating.  I haven't forgotten any of my infrequent themed posts either - Film Friday, Forties Fashion, Tit-bits and more will all return, I promise you.  Not to mention the 100 followers give-away!  Plenty to look forward too!  I shall see you all anon...

"He's out of bed and looking for a computer again, doctor".

A Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night

This will almost certainly be my last post before the day itself, so it just remains for me to wish you all - family, friends, followers and readers from around the world(!) - compliments of the season, a very Merry Christmas and a happy holiday.

It has become something of a little tradition with me to have a mini-marathon of Christmas-themed episodes of my favourite TV programmes in the days running up to the 25th. So to finish up with here is a run-down of my pre-Christmas viewing thus far:

The episode of A Nero Wolfe Mystery, the much underrated adaptation of the Rex Stout novels that ran for far too short a time between 2001 and 2002 (plus the pilot in 2000), entitled Wolfe Goes Out. Interestingly in the original North American airings it is actually shown as two separate episodes - Door To Death and Christmas Party - but for the European version they were spliced together and some previously unseen footage added in the middle to provide a seamless transition. I love this series; there are some great ideas for men's - and ladies - fashions, there's a brilliant use of colour and Maury Chakin and Timothy Hutton are perfect as Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. That it was cancelled after only two seasons, is barely shown in the UK and is not available on Region 2 DVD is an absolute travesty.



Anyway, putting that aside, my next treat was The Blue Carbuncle, the Christmas episode of the 1980s Granada TV adaptation of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Starring the incomparable Jeremy Brett this is a smashing story, with a delightful Victorian Christmas ambience.

For a bit of light relief I turned to a series of Laurel & Hardy shorts, beginning with their most well-known Christmas-themed film, Big Business. For those of you not familiar with the plot, our heroes are Christmas tree salesmen plying their trade in sunny California(!). They fail to sell a single tree and end up involved in a running battle with one particularly reluctant customer, which ends in destruction and hilarity.

In The Fixer-Uppers Stan and Ollie are Christmas card salesmen who, in their own inimitable fashion, try to help one female customer win back her husband, only for after several funny misunderstandings to end up facing him in a duel!

The films Below Zero and Laughing Gravy make no mention of Christmas but are set in the winter and do feature a lot of snow! In Below Zero the Boys are buskers trying to make a dime or two in the freezing conditions, before the chance discovery of a dropped wallet and a run-in with a cop leads to predictably side-splitting results. The wonderfully-titled Laughing Gravy has Stan and Ollie in all sorts of trouble as they try to hide the existence of Stan's pet dog of the title (and what a great name for a dog!) from their landlord as a blizzard rages outside.

Laurel & Hardy also posed for several publicity shots with a Christmas theme. Here are a few:


Starting shortly on Channel 4 (2:20pm) is the original 1947 version of Miracle On 34th Street, so that's another Christmas classic taken care of - I shall certainly be settling down to watch that. The 1994 remake, which is quite decent, is on ITV1 tomorrow at 12:55pm as well.



Then tonight I shall finish off with Hercule Poirot's Christmas, the 1995 Christmas episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot, starring the peerless David Suchet. Tomorrow morning I'll be off to the family pile to spend Christmas with the old folks, so whatever you may be up to may your Christmas bring joy, happiness and good cheer (plus plenty of food, drink and presents of course!) and I'll be back before the New Year.

Rare photographs of comedian Stan Laurel are auctioned

Rare photographs of comedian Stan Laurel are auctioned

I make no secret of my love for the films of Laurel & Hardy, so it was with great interest that I read about this discovery of some very early photographs of Stan Laurel (some of which can be seen here).

A few are very much in the vein of private family photographs, with some even showing him as a young boy playing and acting with his siblings, when he was still just little Arthur Stanley Jefferson. (He would later go on to be billed as "Stan Jefferson" when touring with Fred Karno's outfit in 1910s America but, a very superstitious man, he disliked the fact that it was 13 letters in length. It was his first wife, Mae Dahlberg, who suggested the name "Laurel", having seen a picture of Caesar wearing a laurel wreath).

Stan's parents were well known in local showbiz circles, with his father running a number of theatres and his mother performing in variety acts, so it should come as no surprise to see him catch the acting bug so early. And generations of comedy fans worldwide are glad he did!

Other photos in this collection include impromptu photos of Stan and Oliver Hardy clowning about on set and in publicity shots, many of which have never been seen before. This fact and the continued appreciation of their work by people the world over should ensure that these photographs fetch a tidy sum and end up in the hands of an appreciative collector who will preserve them for years to come.

Jeffrey joins fans for tribute to kings of comedy

Jeffrey joins fans for tribute to kings of comedy

Following on from a previous post that told of two rooms at a recently-refurbished local hotel being named in honour of Laurel & Hardy, here is further news from the same venue regarding those two great comedians.

Once again I am pleased to see some recognition of "the Boys'" work and of their blessing humble little Southend with their visit and stage show back in 1952. A hearty well done to the owners of the Palace Inn Hotel and the local "Tent", or fan club, for being such good sports in making the whole thing possible.

Palace Hotel owners honour Laurel and Hardy

Palace Hotel owners honour Laurel and Hardy

Two of my all-time favourite comedians, nay actors, are Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. I have been a fan of them since I was 9 years old. Together they made some of the funniest films the world has ever known and their wonderful humour is as fresh and accessible today as it was at the height of their powers.

So I was pleased to see this small acknowledgement of a visit they made to my local town, Southend, when they were touring the British variety theatres back in the early 1950s. The Palace Hotel was where they would have stayed while performing at the local theatre and it is heartening to see this fact appreciated as part of the hotel's renovation.

The joy and laughter given to us by Stan and Ollie has never diminished in the 80 years since they made their best pictures and this little story just goes to prove that their work will continue to be well-regarded and enjoyed for as many years (if not more) to come.