Back in England after father had been demobbed from the navy, we embarked as a family on a tour of Kent where we were ceremoniously ejected from a caravan park in St-Nicholas-at-Wade for non-payment of rent, invited to leave for the same reason from a one-bedroomed flat in Margate near the harbour, and then condemned to three months incarceration in a hostel for the homeless in West Malling before finding a semi-permanent base in the bomb site that was Gillingham.
Above is the archway our family sheltered in overnight down near Tivoli Dykes after being ejected from the flat in Margate as it was too late to visit the welfare office until the next morning. Just think, if I sell enough books they might put a plaque up there one day.
As usual it was the time I spent in the cinema that impressed me the most, the films released in 1960 some real classics of the silver screen. Here’s a double-bill my dad took me to see, the main film “Dinosaurus!” getting me into an altercation with a kid at school who maintained that as it had an “X” certificate I wasn’t old enough to have seen it. He reinforced his position by then punching me in the face. However, if you look closely you can see it has an “A” and not an “X” certificate. I rest my case your honour. “The Mole People” scared the living crap out of me though.
If there’s one film from that year which stands out as a highlight of my cinema-going career then it has to be “Ben-Hur”, the daddy of all Hollywood epics. My mum took me to the Ritz cinema in Chatham where it was shown in 70mm. It’s difficult to convey the impression the film made on audiences back in the day so all I’ll say is this. If you’ve only ever managed to watch the famous chariot race sequence from “Ben-Hur” on TV as opposed to a giant cinema screen then you’ve not really seen the film, just a visual palimpsest* of the original version.
Chop off all of his limbs? Do you think that’s wise?
Here are a few images I purloined from a brochure you could buy in the cinema about the making of the film. My mum didn’t have enough money at the time to purchase it but now, after only sixty years, I’ve finally managed to get my own copy through the magic of Ebay. Note John LeMesurier to the left of Charlton Heston in the last image. He played the doctor who’s just informed the villain Messala, played by Stephen Boyd, that unless they saw off both arms and both legs he’s going to die as a result of having been trampled under Ben’s chariot. Personally I’d have asked for a second opinion.
Other movies that come to mind from 1960 include those shown above, “The Magnificent Seven” another of my all-time favourite Westerns.
Finally, a big shout-out to another biblical epic, “The Ten Commandments”. This started
a family tradition in which my parents would send me off to the cinema with a couple of my siblings without ensuring that we had enough money to actually get in and see the bloody film in the first place.
* Something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form. My thanks to Umberto Eco for introducing me to a term I’ve been waiting years for an opportunity to use. My work here is now done.
Steve Mayhew 