Leon High School
Tallahassee, Florida
Class of 1959
What do you remember most about January 1956? Below are headlines for the month, followed by memories of the month, followed by links to other websites with January 1956 info.
To view other months/years of the countdown, click here to go back to the Countdown 1956 Page.
If the menus above don't work for you, try the text menu at the bottom of the page
January 1956 Headlines
(courtesy of http://dmarie.com/timecap/)
Marie's website is down, so no headlines this month. Here are a few I found:
* January 1 - End of Anglo-Egyptian Condominium in
Sudan.
* January 16 - President Gamal Abdal Nasser of Egypt
vows to reconquer Palestine.
* January 26 - 1956 Winter Olympic Games open in
Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.
* January 26 - The United Kingdom bans heroin.
* January 25-January 26 - Finnish troops reoccupy
Porkkala after Soviet troops vacate its military
base. Civilians can return February 4.
COUNTDOWN TO GRADUATION - JANUARY 1956
LINKS TO WEBSITES WITH GOBS OF MORE JANUARY 1956 INFO
Top 10 Hits of January 1956
(First week of the month)
(courtesy of
1. Mr Sandman - Chordettes
2. Let Me Go Lover - Joan Weber
3. Naughty Lady Of Shady Lane - Ames Brothers
4. This Ole House - Rosemary Clooney
5. Count Your Blessings - Eddie Fisher
6. I Need You Now - Eddie Fisher
7. Teach Me Tonight - De Castro Sisters
8. Hearts Of Stone - Fontane Sisters
9. Papa Loves Mambo - Perry Como
10. Let Me Go Lover - Teresa Brewer
US R&B chart toppers this month:
Earth Angel - The Penguins
Sincerely - The Moonglows
US Country chart toppers this month:
Loose Talk - Carl Smith
Let Me Go Lover - Hank Snow
Well, that's it for this month. Not much, I'm afraid. Until my memory improves or the headlines website comes back, this will be a little scant. Even my 'January 1956' search on Yahoo didn't yield any decent info this month.
As usual, PLEASE - if you have any walks down memory lane that you'd like to share, particularly in the February 1956 time frame, by all means email them to me! I really enjoy having something in here written by someone other than me!
Rockin' Rollin' Diaries
July '55 - '62
The charts in UK and USA, the releases
and other important events
Courtesy of http://www.rocknroll.freeserve.co.uk/january.htm
'Shivers down the backbone....'
Another 1956 memory is my paper routes, which I was still doing on my Allstate Cruisaire motor scooter. As I mentioned in earlier chapters, I had worked with the Democrat for years, but in 1956, possibly January, I took a route with the Florida Times Union. The Times Union was published in Jacksonville and probably only about 1 out of 20 Tallahasseans (or less) subscribed to it back then. I remember I'd go down to the Times Union office on College Avenue every morning at about 5 AM, roll my papers, and head out West Tennessee Street. The route covered a couple of streets around High Road, then across High Road to Tharpe, several subdivisions between there and Meridian, out Meridian to Waverly Hills, then over to Thomasville Road. It ended there, where Waverly Hills exits onto Thomasville Road. All those miles and I delivered only about 75 homes. I'd often go a mile or more between deliveries, some of which that I probably threw at about 40 mph (or whatever the top speed was on that scooter). Sometime in 1956, coming out of Waverly Hills onto the newly-paved Thomasville Road, my scooter slipped out from under me and I just about knocked out my two front teeth. Scared the heck out of my parents, coming home all bloody at around 7 AM. Got my two front teeth capped and I believe I retired from that early morning paper route at about that time and went back to the more leisurely Tallahassee Democrat routes, where you delivered just about every house on every street and it was in the afternoon every day but Sunday.
The January 23, 1956 Florida Times Union on the left is one I found on Ebay - nothing special about it -- just saw it and thought it would fit nicely here.
Personal Memories of January 1956
Today is Sunday, January 29th, 2006 and I've just now gotten around to saying Happy New Year, Classmates!
I started this page last night, then awoke this morning thinking about what I was doing in January 1956. I was still 14 and this was prior to drinking, girls, cars, and Rock 'n Roll, so I probably spent a really quiet New Year's Eve, like watching Lawrence Welk or something along those lines. Since New Year's Eve 1955-6 was on a Saturday, Lawrence might very well have been our companion, since that's about all that happened on Saturday nights on good old WCTV. I just checked to see if Dick Clark was dropping the ball in Times Square back then - surprise! He didn't start that until 1972! In January 1956, he hadn't even started American Bandstand yet - that comes in July 1956.
What I remember mostly from 1956 in general is the 1956 Ford. I recall that I was in the Civil Air Patrol and one of the older guys, named Stoutamire I think, bought a Pink and Black 1956 Ford Crown Victoria. Remember the one with the huge chrome bar right across the top? Oops! Just did a search on '1956 Ford Crown Victoria' - got over 26,000 hits! Also learned that it wasn't the 1956 that had the big chrome bar, it was the 1955 - so, Stoutamire must have had a 1955. Did a search on '1955 Ford Crown Victoria' and got over 22,000 hits. Put some photos above, including one in the "rare" Pink and Black. If you want to buy a model, you can get one HERE for $135. If you want a real Pink and Black one, click HERE to see one for $25,000. Did you know Elvis had one of the Pink and Black ones? I didn't. In the search, I came across a wierd story by June Juanico, telling of her first encounter with Elvis in Biloxi, MS, when she was 17 and he was 20. Click HERE to read all about it!
Now .. what started all this .. my faulty memory of Stoutamire's 1955 Ford. I recall that was the first time I'd ridden in a friend's car at over 100 mph. I'd seen my dad take our 1949 Packard over 100, but this was the first with a bunch of young guys and we hit 120 real fast! How exciting ... it was probably the start of my life-long "interest" in speed.
Back to 1956 Fords - my mother bought a brand new 1956 White Ford Convertible with Orange and White vinyl interior. Wow! It was really something. She sold her 1951 Studebaker to my brother, who turned 16 in 1956, she drove the Ford for a few years, then sold that to him. When he got the Ford, I got the Studebaker. Then, a year or two later, I got the Ford. Somewhere in those years, I also owned a 1956 two-toned Green Ford 2-door sedan, so I guess we were just a big family on 1956 Fords.
To see a larger view of all these 1955 Ford Crown Victorias, click the photo. The two in the center are variations of the Pink and Black decor.
Well, the headlines thingee isn't working right now, so I'll go on to the Jukebox. Not much Rock 'n Roll going on in January! I see Let Me Go Lover by three different singers - how wierd. The only time I recall hearing that was on Your Hit Parade on TV with Rosemary Clooney and Snooky Lanson and Gisèle MacKenzie and some others. hahaha ... just checked Wikipedia for Your Hit Parade and got this: "Your Hit Parade was a popular United States music radio and television program. It was broadcast from 1935 through 1955 on radio, and from 1950 through 1959 on TV. The most popular songs of the then-current week were sung or performed.
The show debuted on radio as The Lucky Strike Cigarettes Hit Parade, after the first sponsor, Lucky Strike.
The cast of the 1950s TV version included Snooky Lanson, Russell Arms, Dorothy Collins, Gisele Mackenzie, Eileen Wilson, June Valli, and Johnny Desmond. All were conventional performers of standards, show tunes, and big band numbers. Bob Fosse was an occasional guest dancer during the first year or two of the TV show.
The show faded out with the rise of rock and roll when the performance became more important than the song. It is said that big band singer Snooky Lanson's weekly attempts to perform Elvis Presley's long-running hit, "Hound Dog", brought the program to an end."
Hahaha ... poor Snooky. I'm sure Rosemary was on there - wonder why Wikipedia left her out ...
But, back to our Jukebox - what were we singing in the cafeteria? I don't see a single song on that list above that a red-blooded Leon Lion would be singing ... maybe it'll improve next month.
Oh, and the T-shirt on the left - just another item I found on Ebay that is from a concert in January 1956. Again, nothing special except that it looked like it would fit here.
Lastly, I found a couple of nice photos of the 1956 American coin proof set. Since I've been collecting coins most of my life, this seemed like it might be appropriate to stick in here. Click them for a larger view.
