It’s Monopoly Monday !
Our next stop along the board after the Old Kent Rd is the first appearance of Community Chest. Here you draw a card from the pile and have to react to the instructions on the card. There are many occasions when people draw the card “Go to Jail, go directly to jail, do not pass Go! Do not collect £200”. Monopoly is just like life sometimes, innit ?
But occasionally (I think it only appears once) you just might find that you have “Won SECOND prize in a beauty contest” ! (See, told you, just like life….)
So….beauty contests. Originally these were essentially promotional events for manufacturers to raise the profile of their products. Here is Geene Courtney, Sausage Queen sponsored by the Zion Meat Company during National Hot Dog Week.
Hmm – not very acceptable sexist nonsense, dismissed by the mainstream since the dark ages of the 70s, (although still happening today believe it or not). However the “Miss World” beauty contest was invented by a sharp-witted London entrepreneur called Eric Morley and it first took place in London in 1951 to cash in on the glamour of the Festival of Britain. In fact “Miss Festival of Britain” was its original title as a promotional tool for Mecca, the entertainment organisation.
However, the press coined the term “Miss World” because of the international contestants arriving in London and until quite recently it was an annual event in November at the Lyceum Theatre on the Strand and later the Royal Albert Hall next to Hyde Park.
Eric Morley was born in Holborn in London and went to work for Mecca Ballrooms becoming “General Manager of Dancing”. What a title ! Actually he joined as a publicist and in 1949 was single-handedly responsible for creating the concept of “Come Dancing” the BBC show which introduced ballroom dancing to TV and carried on (and off) until 1998 ! His family still benefits from this invention under the brand name “Dancing with the Stars” which is the worldwide version of our own “Strictly Come Dancing” format
(The “Strictly” bit in the title of this modern spraytan ‘n’ glitter celebrityfest, comes from an old Australian movie called “Strictly Ballroom”). Later as the concept and popularity of ballroom dancing waned, Morley was smart enough to spot the trend and moved Mecca into the bingo market which became a nationwide moneyspinner.
But it as the promoter of Miss World that Morley will be remembered, which he dreamed up in 1951 when Britain was still just about recovering from the dark days of WW2 and rationing. The “Festival of Britain” in the same year was designed to bring some joy back to the country and involved the creation of several unique temporary buildings on the Southbank of the river Thames. These included the Telekinema, a state-of-the-art cinema, the Dome of Discovery, the largest dome in the world at the time, with exhibitions on modern life and outer space. It was also noted for the Skylon, a futuristic tower that “floated” on cables. ( see free BFI film here Royal Festival London1951)
A bit like the O2 Stadium is the leftovers from the celebrations of the year 2000 (it will always be the Millennium Dome to my generation), the Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank is all that remains of those celebrations in 1951.
Next stop on the Monopoly board is Whitechapel Rd. From Community Chest to community spirit, crime, caring clinicians and the bells, the bells !!!!
Don’t forget to email me on londontownwithmrbrown@outlook.com for actual real life walking tours of London and its hidden stories !
