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I remember going to Dudley Hippodrome, as a boy with my father, to see Laurel & Hardy on stage. It must have been in the early 1950's. They were great heroes of mine but, I have to say, they were a major disappointment to me in person. Obviously, they were beyond their prime, but I don't think...

There used to be a roofing repair business in the Leeds area, where I now live, whose proprietor (according to the sign) on its van was Titus A Duxass.

Re Mike Fisher's comment about rubber blocks near Lewis's - yes, I remember that the Minories raodway was made out of rubber blocks. They were quite hard, and didn't flex when you stamped on them, but definitely made of rubber.

It shows that commercial companies bamboozling the public is not a new phenomenon - note that the cover says that it costs sixpence from all stationers OR sevenpence ha'penny - post free!

Yes, Todd-AO was developed by Mike Todd and the Anerican Optical company as a rival format to Cinerama. Todd was one of the pioneer developers in Cinerama but left the company before it's first film was launched, to form the Todd-AO company. His goal was to develop a high-definition, very large...

I remember those broadcasts, too - although I had forgotten about them until this post reminded me. If you are interested in the other part of the post (the advent of CinemaScope and the introduction of stereo sound in the cinema) then this site : https://www.widescreenmuseum.com/ is a...

I remember two sisters, Hazel and Elizabeth Precious, would have been born in the early 1940's, whose father was a builder and they lived in Dark Lane, Hollywood, near the Maypole, I believe. I'm sorry that I have no more details, though.

I remember Dudley Zoo from when I was a boy in the 1950's. It was set on a wooded hillside at the edge of Dudley, the entrance being at the bottom of the hill by the railway, on the road out towards Tipton. At the top of the hill was Dudley Castle, also a feature of the zoo. The entrance porch...

I used to live by the Capitol Cinema on Alum Rock Road and remember on Sunday lunchtimes in the 1950's (as a boy, I might add) dashing up to the bridge by the cinema to see these trains go past. They were always "big name" locos. I seem to remember they were usually Duchesses but I'm sure that...

I've recently read a book that I found in a charity shop - The Meaning of Everything by Simon Winchester. I bought it rather hurriedly under the impression it might be an interesting reference book but when I got it home I was disappointed to find it was the story of the Oxford English...

Reference cooking F&C's in oil or dripping. I live in Yorkshire now, and several local F&C shops still cook in dripping here. Personally, I find it far too greasy and much prefer the drier, oil-cooked ones. Also, I noticed earlier in this thread that someone was praising the quality of F&C's...

I wouldn't call it posh by any means, quite austere really, but El Torro in the late 1950's behind the Forum Cinema, was always packed solid with cistomers. You could make a cup of frothy coffee last an hour in there. Sometimes people stood outside on the pavement drinking it because there were...

I worked for a petrol company when petrol was temporarily rationed during one of the Middle East Crises (I think in the 1960s) Petrol retailers had to collect the ration coupons from their customers as the fuel was sold and when he (the retailer) needed more petrol for stock, he had to parcel...

Alex's Pie Stall was definitely situated outside the main entrance to Snow Hill Station in Colmore Row during the late 1950s and early 1960s. I was a frequent purchaser of his hot meat pies and a cup of steaming coffee on a cold winter night. I can't now remember whether it was a trailer or a...

I remember the Cinephone and the up-market French-style coffee shop upstairs. It was waitress service and quite the in-place to take a girl-friend to impress in the 50's. A group of us lads went in one evening and when the waitress took our order one of us pointed to the pictures in the menu and...

Up here in the Leeds area, not a sticker, but actually sign written on a van belonging to a flat-roof sealant company - Proprietor : Titus A Duxass

I can remember pig bins in Flaxley Road, Stechford, when I was a boy (1943/4) The breadman would deliver along the road on a horse and cart and, if he left it to deliver bread to a house and left the brake off, the horse would walk further along to the next pig bin, knock the lid off and start...

I cannot claim ancient tools from before I was born, but I do have a small yellow plastic-handled screwdriver with a reversible metal shaft that works for slot headed screws or cross-head screws. It's about 7 inches long and I bought it in 1955. It seems to undo almost every screw I try it on...

Reference the old ATV start-up music referred to earlier, there is a nostalgic reconstruction of the whole sequence at : https://www.sub-tv.co.uk/atv58_startup.swf The quality is too good to be the original, but it is a convincingly accurate remake, together with the fully animated...

Visit https://www.whirligig-tv.co.uk/ and click on the second panel down marked Interludes and Announcers to re-run those old interludes - Potter's Wheel, Angel Fish, Kitten with Ball of Wool etc. And, at the bottom, London to Brighton in 4 minutes is still running!