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Teddy Boys

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This article is about the subculture. For other uses, see Teddy Boy (disambiguation).

Teddy boys playing music at the Queens Hotel, 1977
Teddy boys walking on a busy street, 1977

The Teddy Boys or Teds were a mainly British youth subculture of the early 1950s to mid-1960s who were interested in rock and roll and R&B music, wearing clothes partly inspired by the styles worn by dandies in the Edwardian period, which Savile Row tailors had attempted to re-introduce in Britain after the Second World War.[1]

History

Typical black suede creepers fashionable during the 1950s
Bolo tie featuring Native American design

A mainly British phenomenon,[2] the Teddy Boy subculture started among teenagers in London in the early 1950s, and rapidly spread across the UK, becoming strongly associated with American rock and roll music. After World War II, male youths in delinquent gangs who had adopted Edwardian-era fashion were sometimes known as "Cosh Boys", or "Edwardians".[3][4] But the name Teddy Boy was coined when a 23 September 1953 Daily Express newspaper report headline shortened Edwardian to Teddy.[5] Nevertheless, the term had previously been used in Edwardian England to refer to members of the Territorial Army (see for example The Swoop! written by P. G. Wodehouse in 1909).[6] This was a reference to the king, Edward VII, in whose service they were.

In post-war Britain, rationing continued to affect the fashion industry, and men's tailors in central London devised a style based on Edwardian clothing hoping to sell to young officers being demobilized from the services.[7] However, the style—featuring tapered trousers, long jackets similar to post-war American zoot suits, and fancy waistcoats—was not popular with its target market, leaving tailors with piles of unsold clothing which, to recoup losses, were sold cheaply to menswear shops elsewhere in London.[7] While there had been some affluent adoption—"an extravagant upper-class snub to the post-war Labour Government and its message of austerity"[1]—it was predominantly suburban working-class youth who adopted and adapted the look ("spiv" and cosh boy associations also hastened its middle-class rejection) and, around 1952, what became the "Teddy Boy" style began to emerge, gradually spreading across Britain. The 1953 film Cosh Boy (US: The Slasher), written by Lewis Gilbert and Vernon Harris, makes an early reference to the style when the character, Roy (James Kenny), speaks the words "[it's a] drape...the latest cut".[1]

Although there had been youth groups with their own dress codes called scuttlers in 19th-century Liverpool and Manchester,[8] Teddy Boys were the first youth group in Britain to differentiate themselves as teenagers, helping create a youth market. The 1955 US film Blackboard Jungle marked a watershed in the United Kingdom. When shown in an Elephant and Castle cinema, south London in 1956, the teenage Teddy boy audience began to riot, tearing up seats and dancing in the cinema's aisles.[9] After that, other riots took place around the country where the film was shown.[10]

Some Teds formed gangs and gained notoriety following violent clashes with rival youth gangs as well as unprovoked attacks on immigrants. The most notable clashes were the 1958 Notting Hill race riots, in which Teddy Boys were present in large numbers and were implicated in attacks on the West Indian community. According to reports released decades after the riots, "Teddy boys armed with iron bars, butcher's knives and weighted leather belts" participated in mobs "300- to 400-strong" that targeted black residents, in one night alone leaving "five black men lying unconscious on the pavements of Notting Hill."[11] Teds were also implicated in the clashes of the 1958 St Ann's riots in Nottingham.[12]

The violent lifestyle was sensationalised in the pulp novel Teddy Boy by Ernest Ryman, first published in the UK in 1958.[3]

Style

Examples of Teddy Boy clothing worn by Ray Stiles and Les Gray of '70s glam rock band Mud: drape jackets, brothel creepers and drainpipe trousers (source:AVRO)[13]

Teddy Boy clothing included drape jackets reminiscent of 1940s American zoot suits worn by members of Italian-American, Chicano and African-American communities (such as Cab Calloway or Louis Jordan), usually in dark shades, sometimes with a velvet trim collar and pocket flaps, and high-waist "drainpipe" trousers, often exposing the socks. The outfit also included a high-necked loose-collared white shirt (known as a Mr. B. collar, because it was often worn by jazz musician Billy Eckstine); a narrow "Slim Jim" tie or western bolo tie, and a brocade waistcoat.[14] The clothes were mostly tailor-made at great expense, and paid through weekly installments.[15]

Favoured footwear included highly polished Oxfords, chunky brogues, and crepe-soled shoes, often suede (known as brothel creepers or beetle crushers). Preferred hairstyles included long, strongly moulded greased-up hair with a quiff at the front and the side combed back to form a duck's arse at the rear. Another style was the "Boston", in which the hair was greased straight back and cut square across at the nape.

Teddy Girls

Teddy Girls (also called Judies)[16] wore drape jackets, pencil skirts, hobble skirts, long plaits, rolled-up jeans, flat shoes, tailored jackets with velvet collars, straw boater hats, cameo brooches, espadrilles, coolie hats and long, elegant clutch bags. Later, they adopted the American fashions of toreador trousers, voluminous circle skirts, and hair in ponytails.[17]

The Teddy Girls' choices of clothes were not intended strictly for aesthetic effect; these girls were collectively rejecting post-war austerity. They were young working-class women from the poorer districts of London. They would typically leave school at the age of 14 or 15 and work in factories or offices.[18] Teddy Girls spent much of their free time buying or making their trademark clothes. Their style originated from a head-turning, fastidious style from the fashion houses, which had launched haute-couture clothing lines recalling the Edwardian era.[19] "It was our fashion and we made it up," declared one "Judie",[20] succinctly writing the mantra of the Teddy Girl ethos.

The style was documented by Ken Russell in a June 1955 series of Picture Post photographs titled "Teddy Girls". Russell noted that the female counterpart of the Teddy Boy subculture was overlooked, saying: "No one paid much attention to the teddy girls before I did them, though there was plenty on teddy boys."[21]

A photo shoot by Liz Ham titled "Teddy Girls" was published by Oyster in 2009[22] and then in Art Monthly Australia in 2010.[23][importance?]

Music and dancing

Bill Haley and the Comets wearing tartan shawl collar jackets associated with the rockabilly subculture, 1956

Although Teddy Boys became associated with rock and roll music, prior to the advent of that genre, Teddy Boys also listened and danced to jump blues, R&B, jazz and skiffle music.[24] A well-known dance that the Teddy Boys adopted was The Creep, a slow shuffle that was so popular with Teddy Boys that it led to their other nickname, Creepers. The song "The Creep" came out in 1953 and was written and recorded for HMV by Yorkshire-born big band leader and saxophonist Ken Mackintosh.[25] Although this was not a rock and roll record, it was widely taken on by the Teddy Boys of the time.[26] From 1955, rock and roll was adopted by the Teddy Boys when the film Blackboard Jungle was first shown in UK cinemas,[27] and Teddy Boys started listening to artists including Elvis Presley, Bill Haley and Eddie Cochran.

Although not as big as the Americans, British rock and roll artists such as Tommy Steele, Marty Wilde, Cliff Richard, Dickie Pride, and Joe Brown became popular with the Teddy Boy culture, as did the Merseybeat scene in the early 60s. The Beatles' George Harrison and John Lennon emulated the Teddy Boy style in the early formation of the band.[28] Original British rock stars such as Billy Fury also moved to the latest of rock and roll, such as beat music during the early 1960s.[1]

Revivals

Shakin' Stevens wearing electric blue drape jacket, 1970s

Following The London Rock and Roll Show held at Wembley Stadium in August 1972 (featuring American performers including Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, and Bill Haley, plus UK-based support acts),[29][30] the music enjoyed a renewed period of popularity.[31] Musical momentum was maintained by the release of films such as American Graffiti and That'll Be the Day[32] (both 1973) and glam rock reworkings by bands such as Wizzard, The Glitter Band, Mud and Showaddywaddy topping the pop charts from 1973.

Concurrently, a resurgence of interest in Teddy Boy fashions was promoted by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren through their shop Let it Rock, on London's King's Road.[32] The new generation of Teds adopted some aspects of the 1950s but with a large glam rock influence, including louder colours for drape jackets, brothel creepers, and socks and shiny satin shirts worn with bootlace ties, jeans and big-buckled belts. The 1970s Teddy Boys often sported flamboyant pompadour hairstyles in addition to long sideburns, and they added hairspray to grease/pomade to style their hair.[citation needed] In the late 1970s, the new generation became the enemies of the Westwood and Sex Pistols-inspired punks. In the spring of 1977, street battles between young punks and aging teds happened on London's King's Road, where the earliest new-wave shops, including Westwood and McLaren's Sex (which were by then no longer selling zoot suits and ted gear anymore), were situated.

Ford Zephyr, a popular vehicle for Teds

In the late 1980s, there was a move by a number of Teddy Boys to revive the 1950s Teddy Boy style. In the early 1990s, a group of Teddy Boy revivalists in the Tottenham area of north London formed "The Edwardian Drape Society" (T.E.D.S.). The group concentrated on reclaiming the style which they felt had become bastardised by pop/glam rock bands such as Showaddywaddy and Mud in the 1970s.[33]

  • Early 1950s London gang culture was portrayed in the 1953 film Cosh Boy.[4]
  • T.E.D.S. was the subject of a short film, The Teddy Boys, by Bruce Weber.[34]
  • Teddies inspired the gang of "droogs" in Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange.[35]
  • The English singer-songwriter Paul McCartney released a song called "Teddy Boy" in 1970.
  • In one scene in the 1977 documentary Punk in London a group of teddy boys is interviewed about their rivalry with punks.[36]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d "History of the British Teddy Boy and Culture". The Edwardian Teddy Boy. Archived from the original on 4 April 2020. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  2. ^ "The Edwardian Teddy Boy - British Teddy Boy History". www.mrsite.co.uk. Archived from the original on 4 April 2020. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  3. ^ a b McIntyre, Iain; Nette, Andrew; Doyle, Peter (2017). Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats: Pulp Fiction and Youth Culture, 1950 to 1980. London: PM Press. ISBN 9781629634586.
  4. ^ a b Kirby, Dick (2013). Death on the Beat: Police Officers Killed in the Line of Duty. Wharncliffe. p. 29. ISBN 9781845631611.
  5. ^ Ferris, Ray; Lord, Julian (2012). Teddy Boys: A concise history. Milo Books.
  6. ^ The opening sentences of chapter 4 include: "But first the Territorials dropped out. The strain of being referred to on the music-hall stage as Teddy-boys was too much for them."
  7. ^ a b Mitchell, Mitch (19 February 2019). "A brief history of the Teddy Boys". RS21. Archived from the original on 4 April 2020. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  8. ^ Davies, Andrew (2008). Gangs of Manchester: The Story of the Scuttlers. Wrea Green: Milo. ISBN 978-1-903854-81-5. OCLC 213858221.
  9. ^ Gelder, Ken; Thornton, Sarah, eds. (1997). The Subcultures Reader. Routledge. p. 401. ISBN 0-415-12727-0.
  10. ^ Cross, Robert J. (1998). "The Teddy Boy as Scapegoat". Doshisha Studies in Language and Culture: 284.
  11. ^ Travis, Alan (24 August 2002). "After 44 years secret papers reveal truth about five nights of violence in Notting Hill". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 4 April 2020. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  12. ^ "St Ann's riot: The changing face of race relations, 60 years on". BBC News. 25 August 2018. Archived from the original on 9 December 2020. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  13. ^ "Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep". Archived from the original on 5 February 2020. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  14. ^ "The Teddy Boy Movement". Black Cat Rockabilly Europe. Black Cat Rockabilly Europe. Archived from the original on 4 April 2020. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  15. ^ "The Edwardian Teddy Boy Dress". The Great British Teddy Boy. Archived from the original on 17 September 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  16. ^ "Teddy Girls". Subculture List. 2013. Archived from the original on 6 September 2013. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
  17. ^ "The Forgotten 1950s Girl Gang". Messynessychic.com. 10 February 2013. Archived from the original on 18 August 2013. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
  18. ^ "Bombsite Boudiccas – History of the London Teddy Girls". The Edwardian Teddy Boy. Archived from the original on 4 April 2020. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
  19. ^ "Teddy Girls". History is made at night. 31 December 2008. Archived from the original on 11 December 2017. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
  20. ^ "Teddy Girls: The Tailored Subculture". The HeART of History: The way to History is always through the Art. 23 January 2022. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  21. ^ "Ken Russell's post-war London – in pictures". The Guardian. 29 November 2016. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  22. ^ Tzenkova, Ani (20 May 2010). "Teddy Girls for Oyster Mag by Liz Ham". trendland.com. Archived from the original on 4 April 2020. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  23. ^ "Art Monthly Australia in 2010" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 April 2020. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  24. ^ "British Skiffle Craze". The Great British Teddy Boy. Archived from the original on 17 September 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  25. ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 340. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  26. ^ Whitmore, Greg (17 October 2018). "Observer picture archive: teddy boys and teddy girls, 19 June 1955". The Observer. Archived from the original on 4 April 2020. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  27. ^ "Blackboard Jungle". Time Out. Archived from the original on 4 April 2020. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  28. ^ George Harrison: Living in the Material World (Motion Picture). Grove Street Pictures and Spitfire Pictures. October 2011. Event occurs at 9 minutes in.
  29. ^ "Chuck Berry and Little Richard Headline the London Rock & Roll Show 1972". Dangerous Minds. 21 July 2014. Archived from the original on 6 October 2019. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  30. ^ Harrison, Gerry (20 March 2017). "Chuck wrote history of rock'n'roll music". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  31. ^ "Vintage Photographs of Hippies and Teds Gathered at Wembley Stadium for a Rock 'n' Roll Revival Show in 1972". Vintage News Daily. 30 November 2017. Archived from the original on 7 October 2019. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  32. ^ a b Westwood, Vivienne (18 October 2013). "Let it Rock". Vivienne Westwood.com. Archived from the original on 5 January 2020. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  33. ^ Veness, Alison (16 May 1994). "Teddy-boy style is back: it never went away". The Independent. Archived from the original on 4 April 2020. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  34. ^ "CEN Lifestyle : Stage and Screen : Things to see at the 26th Cambridge Film Festival". cambridge-news.co.uk. Archived from the original on 16 September 2006.
  35. ^ "BBC News : World Service : Education : The droogs don't work". Archived from the original on 28 December 2019. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
  36. ^ Teddy Boys In A London Club (1977) Youtube.com
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