Leon High School
Tallahassee, Florida
Class of 1959
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March 1956 Headlines
(courtesy of http://dmarie.com/timecap/)
Marie's website is back! Below are headlines for March:
Mar 3 - 110,000-seat stadium to entice Giants to stay in NY
Mar 5 - "King Kong" 1st televised
Mar 12 - Dow Jones closes above 500 for 1st time (500.24)
Mar 14 - Satchel Paige signs with the Birmingham Black Barons (Negro League)
Mar 15 - "My Fair Lady" opens at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC for 2,715 performances
Mar 17 - 8th Emmy Awards: Ed Sullivan Show, Phil Silvers Show & Lucy Ball
Mar 19 - Biggest NBA margin of victory: Minnesota Lakers-133, St Louis Hawks-75
Mar 20 - USSR performs nuclear test
Mar 21 - 28th Academy Awards: "Marty", Ernest Borgnine & Anna Magnani win
Mar 22 - Musical "Mr Wonderful" with Sammy Davis Jr premieres at Broadway Theater NYC for 383 performances
Mar 26 - Red Buttons debuts on TV in Studio One
Mar 27 - US seizes US communist newspaper "Daily Worker"
Mar 30 - USSR performs nuclear test
COUNTDOWN TO GRADUATION - MARCH 1956
Ha! Ha! I'm not sure if those that I bolded are some I watched in 1956 when they first appeared, or ones that I've watched since on channels like TV Land. Probably a little of both.
Well, that's it for this month. This rambling was much easier and enjoyable for me than previous months, when I tried to stay on track and only include relevant, possibly interesting stuff. Let me know what you think. If you have strong enough objections to the rambling, maybe I'll let you write the next one ... ho ho ho.
As usual, PLEASE - if you have any walks down memory lane that you'd like to share, particularly in the April 1956 time frame, by all means email them to me! I really enjoy having something in here written by someone other than me!
Personal Memories of March 1956
Watching all three of these movies, I was again reminded of all that was going on while we were struggling through our Freshman year at Leon. I was so caught up in motor scooters, Geometry, newspaper routes, Latin, cars, Study Hall, and girls, that I never really heard much about Edward R. Murrow, Johnny Cash, or Truman Capote. Did you know that Johnny Cash toured around this time with June Carter, Jerry Lee Lewis, Waylon Jennings, and occasionally appeared with Elvis and Ray Orbison? I always thought he started as a country singer, but this movie shows him as more of a Rock and Roll singer. And, did you know that the only time he was in Folsom Prison was when he went there to sing? I thought sure he was an ex-con. If you want to see some interesting 50's stuff, check out these three movies.
Juke box time! Last month, I mentioned that Davy Crockett was in top 20 for UK (twice). I peeked ahead to April 1956 when creating this page and saw that Davy Crockett appears in the USA Top Ten then. Does that mean that England was ahead of us in music? For some reason, I always assume that most music starts here, then gets to Europe later. I guess that's the ugly American talking. That certainly wasn't the case for the Beatles and the other hundreds of British bands that have come to America. I wonder if Hard Rock and Punk Rock started there ... whatever ...
Calling upon the Southside High School (Elmira, NY) Class of 1958 website, once again, since my standard rocknroll site doesn't show March, the top ten 45RPM records this month were: 1 Lisbon Antigua - Nelson Riddle, 2 The Poor People of Paris - Les Baxter, 3 Rock And Roll Waltz - Kay Starr, 4 No, Not Much! - Four Lads, 5 The Great Pretender - Platters, 6 I'll Be Home - Pat Boone, 7 See you later,Alligator - Bill Haley and his Comets. 8 Why Do Fools Fall In Love - Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers, 9 Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom) - Perry Como, 10 Memories Are Made of This - Dean Martin. About all I see there that the "juke box boys" might have been singing was See You Later, Alligator and maybe The Great Pretender.
About the only headline that jumped out this month was the one about King Kong appearing on TV for the first time. Kind of a coincidence to see him mentioned in the headlines, just after seeing the 2005 version. I sure thought there was a version between Fay Wray and the latest ... Aha! Found it. The 1976 version with Jessica Lange is the one I'm most familiar with. The one showing on TV in 1956 was obviously the old 1933 - not sure I've ever seen it. But, seems like if you've seen one, you've seen them all. Big ape on an island, falls in love with girl, comes to New York, ends up whacking airplanes from the top of the Empire State Building ... I thought they'd make him look very realistic in the 2005 version, but he turned out to be kind of animated, like that Hulk movie that came out last year. I wasn't too impressed by it, over all.
So, enough about Kong! What else was happening in 1956?
Top 20 Hits of March 1956
(In the UK - Can't find listing for USA
USA listing returns in April! )
(courtesy of
1 Dream Weavers It's Almost Tomorrow
Dream Weavers It's Almost Tomorrow 2 Kay Starr Rock And Roll Waltz
Kay Starr Rock And Roll Waltz 3 Dean Martin Memories Are Made Of This
Dean Martin Memories Are Made Of This 4 Lou Busch Zambesi
Lou Busch Zambesi 5 Hilltoppers Only You
Hilltoppers Only You 6 Dave King Memories Are Made Of This
Dave King Memories Are Made Of This 7 Bill Haley & His CometsSee You Later, Alligator
Bill Haley & His CometsSee You Later, Alligator 8 Winifred Atwell Poor People Of Paris
Winifred Atwell Poor People Of Paris 9 Don Cherry Band Of Gold
Don Cherry Band Of Gold 10 Jimmy Parkinson The Great Pretender
Jimmy Parkinson The Great Pretender 11 Lonnie Donegan Rock Island Line
Lonnie Donegan Rock Island Line 12 Edmund Hockridge Young And Foolish
Edmund Hockridge Young And Foolish 13 Jimmy Young Chain Gang
Jimmy Young Chain Gang 14 Dick Hyman Trio Mack The Knife
Dick Hyman Trio Mack The Knife 15 Eddie Calvert Zambesi
Eddie Calvert Zambesi 16 Nat 'King' Cole Dreams Can Tell A Lie
Nat 'King' Cole Dreams Can Tell A Lie 17 Frank Sinatra (Love Is) The Tender Trap
Frank Sinatra (Love Is) The Tender Trap 18 Tennessee Ernie FordSixteen Tons
Tennessee Ernie FordSixteen Tons 19 Alfi & Harry The Trouble With Harry
Alfi & Harry The Trouble With Harry 20 Billy Vaughan Mack The Knife
Billy Vaughan Mack The KnifeAcademy Awards
* Best Picture: Around the World in Eighty Days
* Best Actor: Yul Brynner - The King and I
* Best Actress: Ingrid Bergman - Anastasia
What does this have to do with February 1956? Well, we rented all three of these this week and enjoyed them all. All three were about events that happened around that time.
I've decided that, this month, instead of doing a bunch of research to decide what to write about, I'm just going to ramble. That seems to be what I do best, plus I enjoy it. I was reading about Blogs (short for WebLogs, for the internet-challenged) the other day ... seems that most people write a Blog for themselves and a few friends to enjoy ... and that they usually have few friends, so often are just writing for themselves. I wondered about that when I checked the hit-count on my February 1956 blurb - 7! If you count the 4 or 5 times that I usually open the page during its creation, that's not very many visitors. So ... I guess this is also a Blog.
My "official" Blog is at RV-Blog.RV6.org. Problem there is that I originally intended to write mainly about RVing, but mostly find myself just philosophizing ... like my last three "Old Guys Doing Stuff", "Turning 65", and "TV Land" - all just an old guy reminiscing and rambling. You can blame that second one on John Hoover. I was going along, thinking how I didn't know but one or two people (other than me) who were turning 65 this year, when I got an email from John. In it, he mentioned that he had just turned 65 in January. It was at that point that I realized that I know a whole bunch of people turning 65 this year - most of our class! So, I started philosophizing and wrote about "Turning 65." Not real exciting, but you oldsters might get some enjoyment out of it. I suggest you also read the other two - a whole bunch of words that will probably not be appreciated by anyone under 50. Feel free to email me if you have anything to add on any of the topics.
So, to continue ... I got up yesterday, April Fool's Day, thinking about what I might write here. As I meandered through my day, I thought about how much things had changed since April Fool's Day 1956 and how much they'd stay the same. Combing my hair, I realized I still comb it pretty much the same as I did in 1956, except there's no Duck-Tail now - although it kind of tends that direction when, like now, I'm in need of a haircut. Plus, I use a brush now instead of a comb .. the comb is for the beard ... LOL .. there's a change. I don't think I was shaving yet in March 1956 - don't think that really happened for a couple more years - don't really recall. Once I got past that and my tooth-brushing, there was very little that was the same as 1956. Slim-Fast drink for breakfast, spending most of the day on the computer, communicating with friends via email, without dialing a phone or making a trip across town, two TVs on my desk on most of the day, and working three jobs without ever leaving my deskchair. My! My! Many changes! Very difficult to find those few things that are at all near the same as they were in 1956.
One similar thing was that I still can't ever think of anything slick to do on April Fool's Day, other than to say something that's believable, yet alarming - like telling my mother that I'd wrecked my motor scooter -- again. Believable, yet somewhat alarming ... then, following up quickly with "April Fool!" When the clocks changed today, I thought how neat it would be to have that happen on April Fool's Day -- then, you could do something like set the clocks two hours ahead ... hahaha. Guess what ! April Fool's Day 2007 falls on a Sunday! I think that means that my joke will be workable then .. assuming Congress doesn't decide to move the time change to the end of April, as is being discussed.
Actually, doing this blurb each month has been kind of a memory exercise for me - maybe holding back the Alzheimer's? I realized that I don't really recall what-all classes I had in my Freshman year. I recall Geometry with Rehwinkle (to be followed by Algebra I, II, and Trig), Latin I with Scarborough (to be followed by Latin II and Spanish), and Study Hall with Riser (to be followed by skipping that hour during my last 3 years). Beyond that, nothing much ... I'm sure I had Social Studies or History or whatever they called it -- Aha! It just occurred to me to look into the annual. Yep! I recall Mrs. Clemons and Miss Carmine in English one year or another, Mrs. Matthews in Social Studies and who could forget Mr. Longsdon! I think I must have had him Senior year, because I recall talking about Castro in Cuba in his class and that was 1959.
I guess my strongest Freshman memories are Geometry and Latin, because those are the classes that required the most thinking. I guess I must have enjoyed the Geometry also, since Math is where I went in college and in my career ... sort of ... at that time, Math and computers were strongly associated, so I suppose going into a computer field reflected my Math background.
Speaking of things that are same as 1956, how about TV? Of course, in 1956, I think the only TV was at night. I don't recall any daytime shows -- don't know if that was because they didn't exist or I just didn't watch. Ok ... I just checked Wikipedia .. lots of info there about TV in 1956. It seems that As the World Turns and The Edge of Night both started April 2, 1956 -- so, maybe there weren't many in March.
So, I looked through the list of over 50 TV shows from 1956 to see which I watched. I was going to only list those here, but ... what the heck! ... I've got the whole list, so will include it. I've BOLDED the ones that I recall watching. Quite a long list .. I must have spent more time watching TV in 1956 than I remember. Our first TV was a Hoffman 21" Floor-Model Console TV in a blonde cabinet -- my dad bought it in 1948, I believe .. and we still had it in 1956. Actually, thinking about it, I think the Hoffman set had problems and was in the den waiting to be fixed or discarded, and we had a newer, more compact one in the living room. Remember how we had to get up and walk across the room every time we wanted to switch channels? Wow! Of course, there were so few channels, I suppose we didn't switch all that often.
Am I rambling? ... LOL .. that was the plan. Here's the list of all 1956 TV shows from Wikipedia:
Debuts
* April 2 - As the World Turns (1956-present).
* April 2 - The Edge of Night (1956-1984).
* July 6 - Hancock's Half Hour on BBC Television (1956-1962).
* September 15 - The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (UK) debuts on ITV. After being sold to the NBC network in the United States, it later becomes the first British television series ever to be made in colour. (1956-1957).
* The hugely popular anthology drama series Armchair Theatre, produced by ABC Television for the ITV network, begins its long run in the UK (1956-1968).
* Jungle Jim (1956-1957), starring Johnny Weissmuller.
* The National premieres (1956-present).
* Opportunity Knocks on ITV (UK) (1956-1978).
* The Gale Storm Show, Oh! Susanna (1956-1960), starring Gale Storm and Zazu Pitts.
* The Price is Right game show premieres (1956-1965).
* The Steve Allen Show premieres (1956-1960).
* What the Papers Say on ITV (UK) (1956-present).
Television shows
* Gillette Cavalcade of Sports (1946-1960).
* Kukla, Fran and Ollie (1947-1957).
* Howdy Doody (1947-1960).
* Kraft Television Theater (1947-1958).
* Meet the Press (1947-present).
* Candid Camera (1948-present).
* The Ed Sullivan Show (1948-1971)
* Bozo the Clown (1949-present).
* Come Dancing (UK) (1949-1995).
* The Voice of Firestone (1949-1963).
* The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950-1958).
* The Jack Benny Show (1950-1965).
* Truth or Consequences (1950-1988).
* What's My Line (1950-1967).
* Your Hit Parade (1950-1959).
* Dragnet (1951-1959).
* I Love Lucy (1951-1957).
* Love of Life (1951-1980).
* Search for Tomorrow (1951-1986).
* The Roy Rogers Show (1951-1957).
* Hallmark Hall of Fame (1951-present)
* American Bandstand (1952-1989).
* The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952-1966).
* The Guiding Light (1952-present).
* The Honeymooners (1952-1970).
* The Today Show (1952-present).
* This Is Your Life (US) (1952-1961).
* General Motors Theatre (Can) (1953-1956, 1958-1961)
* Panorama (UK) (1953-present).
* The Good Old Days (UK) (1953-1983).
* Annie Oakley (1954-1957).
* Climax! (1954-1958).
* Disneyland (1954-1958).
* Face the Nation (1954-present).
* The Brighter Day (1954-1962).
* The Grove Family (UK) (1954-1957).
* The Secret Storm (1954-1974).
* The Milton Berle Show (1954-1967).
* Zoo Quest (UK) (1954-1964).
* The Tonight Show (1954-present).
* Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-1962).
* Captain Kangaroo (1955-1984).
* Cheyenne (1955-1962).
* Dixon of Dock Green (UK) (1955-1976).
* Gunsmoke (1955-1975).
* Mickey Mouse Club (1955-1959).
* The Lawrence Welk Show (1955-1982).
* This Is Your Life (UK) (1955-2003).
Ending this year
* Cisco Kid (1950-1956).
* The Honeymooners (1955-1956).
OOPS! WAIT! Almost forgot ... while "researching" this issue, I thought it might be neat to keep track of what our "elders" are doing for their 50th reunions (Class of '56, '57, '58). I wandered over to Leon56.com and noted that they're planning theirs next month! I sent them an email, suggesting that we keep in touch and offering them our 50th Reunion ideas, just in case they might find something they can use. I figure that watching them might give us more ideas for ours.
Also, while wandering around their website, I found some really neat stuff. Although it's just getting started, they've got a page where each classmate can enter a little "bio" of what they've been doing the last 50 years. I'm doing that same thing for my cousin Bruce on his LittleFalls1965.com website - sorry, that's a members-only site, so you can't really see much there. If anyone is interested, I could do that for our class also - lots of work, though, so I'd have to charge at little as we're doing on Little Falls 1965 ($10 for lifetime membership)
Leon56 also has a page where you can see old copies of Leon High Life! Click the headline page below to check them out. Warning! They're good-sized PDF files, so take a while to download. Notice the cool ads - I didn't even recall that we had advertising. Guess I didn't spend much time reading our paper ... LOL.
