Nostalgia … Ah! Childhood…

Bernie Newnham

Roger Bunce and I visited the SciFi exhibition at the Barbican the other week.

We saw lots of obscure things, but as a person who has been reading this stuff since I was about ten, I was somewhat surprised not to see due prominence given to the classic authors and publishers – Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, Campbell etc. To some extend it was a put together of whatever they could get without asking those who know the subject well. Interesting without being outstanding. Afterwards we went along to the Guildhall Art Gallery (free), which quietly hides the London Roman Amphitheatre underneath, also free.

One of the Barbican exhibits was a book of Brooke Bond tea collecting cards. “I’ve got that”, I said. Much hunting later I came up with these two things in the same pile. I was also trying to find a post-war ration book which I’m sure I have somewhere, back when austerity was really austerity – one egg and 2oz butter a week etc. Can’t find that, so here’s the other stuff. Any quirky bits and pieces out there?

(Click on the pictures below to see larger versions:
use your Browser’s BACK button to return to this page)

Dave Mundy

Yes, I still have ration books and MY children’s gasmask – they went down a treat at my grandchild’s WW2 themed day where all the old fogies were invited into school to show their memorabilia and tell the kids what is was like during ‘The War’. I also have my Empire Youth Annual with articles in it about the Mulberry Harbour, Malta and its three Swordfish, the Ark Royal etc.

Geoff Fletcher

I think you mean Gladiators? Actually five airframes were used to keep the famous three flying. It is also a interesting story as to how they came to be on Malta at all.

Roger Bunce

In fairness, the exhibition was more concerned with Sci-Fi artwork, movie props, and clips (a couple of recognisable examples attached).

(Click on the pictures below to see larger versions:
use your Browser’s BACK button to return to this page)

The written word doesn’t easily become a museum exhibit. There’s nothing much to see, apart from book jackets – and there were plenty of those. But I was surprised by the lack of the character in this collection:

(Click on the picture below to see larger version:
use your Browser’s BACK button to return to this page)

I think those are different Brooke Bond Tea cards from the ones I collected (and have long ago lost). Mine were called “Out into Space” and dated from the 1950s, long before 1/- could be written as 5p. I have an advert – found it!

(Click on the picture below to see larger version:
use your Browser’s BACK button to return to this page)

There were cards for each Sign of the Zodiac, and each planet – no doubt full of inaccurate 1950s information – canals on Mars, the Twilight Zone on Mercury, steaming jungles beneath the clouds of Venus, etc. The Solar System was a much more interesting place in those days. And spaceship always looked like a cross between a V2 and the Skylon!

Also, on the subject of childhood 1950s Sci-Fi nostalgia, does any one (apart from me) remember the cardboard cutout spaceships that were printed on the backs of cereal packets (Corn Flakes? or something else? c. 1954?). There were a large number of different models to collect. Each came with its own launching ramp, and could be launched by means of a rubber band. There were ‘S’ class spaceships, with names like Saturn and Sagittarius, which were launched from a horizontal ramp; ‘P’ class spaceships, with names like ‘Pegasus’ and ‘Pluto’, launched from a 45 degree diagonal ramp, and ‘M’ class spaceships, with names like Mars and Mercury, launched from a vertical ramp (or gantry). Naturally, I had to accompany Mum to the shops, to supervise cereal purchases. She’d never remember which space ships I hadn’t already collected! The collection included a Space Helmet (actually a mask) and an ingenious Space Gun, which used a rubber band both to propel its darts, and also to provide a realistically sprung trigger. All students of cardboard engineering should have one.

I don’t have a Ration Book, but I still have a post-war Identity Card, somewhere.

Barry Bonner

A bit more nostalgia…… the “Out into Space” series descriptions on the reverse were written by Dr. Alan Hunter director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory who was Andrew Hunter’s father: Andrew was a BBC Gram Op of some repute!

Bernie Newnham

Yes, the Brooke Bond tea collecting cards was different to those I collected: I realised that after I put them up. I certain wasn’t collecting cards in the 1970s. I also had the earlier one, which I did collect, and I think is hiding here somewhere.

(Click on the picture below to see larger version:
use your Browser’s BACK button to return to this page)

ID Card:

(Click on the pictures below to see larger versions:
use your Browser’s BACK button to return to this page)

Eagle Club:

(Click on the pictures below to see larger versions:
use your Browser’s BACK button to return to this page)

Dave Buckley

A trip into my loft found the attached – issued a few days after I was born. I think I have my ID card somewhere as well.

(Click on the picture below to see larger version:
use your Browser’s BACK button to return to this page)

Roger Bunce

The logo of the Horlicks Spaceman’s Club looks suspiciously similar to Dan Dare’s cap badge. But, wasn’t it Horlicks who sponsored the Dan Dare serials on Radio Luxemburg? “Dan Dare is a hero because he drinks Horlicks!” etc. You’d have expected him to fall asleep at the controls.

I belonged to a similarly club, name now forgotten, which had something to do with the News Chronicle (I think), and was supposed to be a junior branch of the British Interplanetary Society. They had a nice die-cast metal badge, of roughly similar design, but in blue and silver.

Robin Sutherland

I’ve been trying to sort out piles of old BBC stuff in boxes in my loft and came across a couple of old copies of “Ariel” from 1967 and 1970.

Here’s the 1967 November issue, the cover featuring a Marconi Mk 7 with what looks to me like the outline of Robin Barnes operating? Must have been TC6, Julie Felix show. Hadn’t got any lens hoods yet by the look of it.

(Click on the picture below to see larger version:
use your Browser’s BACK button to return to this page)

The issue also records the first Colour OB from Wimbledon, the 50 anniversary of which seemed to be completely ignored by the BBC, apart from the BBC history website, Selwyn Cox featured.

Click on Download PDF to see the PDF in an alternative viewer: this allows you to print or save the complete PDF document, and often makes the document easier to read.

To return to this page, use your browser’s Go Back One Page button.

Here’s the scan from “Ariel” in June 1970. Interesting shot. Must have been the first use of a hand held colour camera in studios? Anyone remember working on it? 29th June 1970 it says.

It was a stripped down LDK3, very heavy and an ergonomic disaster to operate, hence the rubber bungee cords to try to help the imbalance. John Pilblad was the only one I can remember using it.

(Click on the picture below to see larger version:
use your Browser’s BACK button to return to this page)

John Henshall

We used to hand-hold EMI 2001s. It took six of us: four on the carry handles, one on the cable and one operating. Probably easier than the John Pilblad example though?

I wonder if you – or anyone else – could help me with a couple of old copies of “Ariel” please?

I’m looking for articles from the 9 March 1973 and 6 April 1973 issues. If anyone has spares, or can loan to me, or make some high-res scans of a few pages I’d be most grateful.