I heard the Beach Boys on the radio for the first time in the summer of 1964 when they had a hit in the UK with “I Get Around”. I was instantly smitten by their harmonies and good time California summer music despite the fact it had absolutely nothing in common with a kid growing up in Margate in the 1960s, which is probably why I perversely loved it. I didn’t even know what they looked up to this point so it was quite a surprise when I saw the Disney movie “The Monkey’s Uncle” and realised they were the backing band for Annette as she sang the theme tune over the credits. The film was shown on the lower half of a double bill along with another Disney offering, “Song of the South”, a film which is now officially cancelled due to its not-so-satisfactual attitude towards slavery.
John Wayne was still churning out two to three films a year after losing his shirt on “The Alamo” which he both produced and directed back in 1960. “The Magnificent Showman” aka “Circus World” wasn’t one of his best but compared to his turn as the Roman centurion in “The Greatest Story Ever Told”, also released in 1965, it’s right up there in the Top Ten Sight & Sound list of the best films ever made.
I’ve never been a fan of Hollywood musicals but I’ll make an exception when it comes to “Mary Poppins”. I was so impressed I even bought the soundtrack on vinyl a few years later. Actually I quite like “West Side Story” as well. And “Singin’ in the Rain” of course. You’d have to be missing a pulse not to like that one. But apart from – hang on, I quite like “On the Town” and “An American in Paris” as well. And “Top Hat”. But that’s it. Honest. Time to move on.
And this one. I liked “Help!” as well. Not as good as “A Hard Day’s Night” but back then we just couldn’t get enough of those zany madcap fab gear mop top Liverpudlian beat combo guys.
It appears we still couldn’t get enough of WW II movies either, even if by now Hollywood owned the rights to the conflict and therefore insisted on inserting an American actor in the male lead role for every single war film they made. Check out the four posters above. I rest my case.
Another year, another James Bond film, “Thunderball” being released right at the end of December. To some fans this is where the series started to move away from Ian Fleming’s original concept of Bond as a sadistic killer licensed to murder on behalf of Her Majesty’s government and play it more for laughs instead. I couldn’t have cared less one way or the other. For some reason I was unable to articulate at the time, I just wanted to marry Luciana Palluzi. I guess it must have been the Italian in me.
Staying with secret agents and all that, “The Man from U.N.C.L.E” proved to be very popular on TV over here although it seems the show dropped in the ratings in America when the producers decided to make it more tongue-in-cheek. I note that the U.N.C.L.E. ID card, one of which I purchased myself at the time, doesn’t have a Sabotage and Assassination department as I stated in the book. Probably just wishful thinking on my part.
Produced by Irwin Allen and another show new to TV in 1965, “Lost in Space” started out as a genuinely thrilling sci-fi series but soon lost its own way in the mind of the audience once Dr. Zachary Scott, played by Jonathan Harris, took centre stage. The best character in the show was the robot. The guy inside it had more acting talent than the rest of the cast put together.
A quick mention for “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea”, another TV series from Allen. I think I must have preferred this one to “Lost in Space” seeing as at the time I bought a few comics of the show like the one shown above, recently unearthed from the darkest corner of my loft. Great artwork too.
I was still sneaking over the road to my friend Jimmy’s house every Friday evening to catch the latest edition of “Ready Steady Go”. It was on one show in 1965 that I saw The Supremes for the first time and I immediately fell for Mary Wilson who can be seen in the middle of the image above. Sadly she passed away recently so our chance at a love supreme was never to be. Sorry, that’s the best I can do. It’s been a long week.
Steve Mayhew 