Fun Fifties: When Bash Street Kids Meet Be-Bop-A-Lula

Dennis The Menace from Beano

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Many people would remark that I really had bad taste! My mum did.  Desperate Dan, The Two-Gun Man. This was my reading fare in the 1950s and as a school boy I was focused on buying every comic book that was hanging on clothes-pegs at the corner Indian shop near my home.  My mother was furious and put on a frown whenever I came back with a copy.

Desperate Dan from Dandy

"Today, Beano. Yesterday Dandy..." she remarked sarcastically. "Tomorrow what? Batman! The comic books are dirty. They are made from the cheapest paper! And your hands turn black with printing-ink and since you don't wash them, they make you sick. You get sniffles all the time gluing yourself to the comics. You better stop reading them! They smell after a while!  Some are already starting to disintegrate in our weather."

Plastic Man. Whatever happened to him?

But I ignored her, piling up my new ones on top of maybe 10 or 15 stacks of the greatest comic collection this side of the world.  Smelly or otherwise, I had them all and I kept them under the study table in my bedroom.  

Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling!

I would consume these comics as I would a plate of chee cheong fun, spending the afternoons and evenings at home filling away the hours as I followed the antics and adventures of these exceptionally naughty kids and super humans.  They thrilled me beyond words!

Lord Snooty

Minnie The Minx

There were the DC Comics heroes.  Now these comics had attractively glossy covers and promoted Batman, Superman, Captain Marvel (alter ego of Billy Batson), Green Lantern and Plastic Man at their heroic best.

Then there were the funnies like Beano and Dandy comics which consisted Dennis the Menace, Bash Street Kids, Desperate Dan and if I remember correctly, Roger the Dodger.  There were also Minnie the Minx, Lord Snooty and the very popular Biffo the Bear. These characters were the ultimate in comedy and mayhem and kept me in stitches!

The Bash Street Kids - Ultimate in Mayhem

But wait a minute. What had all these characters and reading of comics got to do with pop music?  Well the melodies came in the background because as I read my favorite cartoon, I had Frankie Laine singing High Noon.  Then Vic Damone would come on air with, Stranger In Paradise. After that  Gale Storm with Dark Moon and a radio song-requester asked for an earlier hit, Billie Holiday's Pennies From Heaven.  Good choice.

 

Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps - First Singer In Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.

There was Gene Vincent too with his echo-chamber revolution, Be-Bop-A-Lula and Little Richard screaming, Rip It Up.  Many of them sounded squeaky on 78s and over the radio but they were great. Yes, I heard them all from my dad's PYE radio before Rediffusion even established a line of cable in Singapore.

Billie Holiday - Squeaky On 78s.

My mother was irked. "How can you be reading The Beano and yet appreciate Gale Storm and Billie Holiday..." she would question. I kept my mouth shut and smiled. The worst taste in comic strips and music choice?  Perhaps.  But this period I call the Fun Fifties as I lived my teen life.

Today children spend their time going for tuition classes and modern dads pay a fortune per session. Those days, I learned my English from comic books and pop music.  No iPads nor Tablets. And no Singlish too because many of these comics come from England and the US.  Hooray for Beano, Dandy and Billie.  These tokens of joy during my teenage years were truly pennies from heaven.

             Pennies from Heaven - Billie Holiday - You Tube video by direfranchement

Every time it rains, it rains pennies from heaven
Don't you know each cloud contains pennies from heaven?
You'll find your fortune's fallin' all over the town
Be sure that your umbrella is upside down
 
Trade them for a package of sunshine and flowers
If you want the things you love, you must have showers
So, when you hear it thunder, don't run under a tree
There'll be pennies from heaven for you and me...
  
Shazam! Boom!

Captain Marvel (Alter Ego Billy Batson)

Roger The Dodger.

So as I conclude this short story here's a thought. What about Singapore school girls?  What do they read in the 50s?  Ah, they read School Girls Picture Library.  But that's another tale.

Credits:

1. Song from You Tube: Pennies from Heaven (1936),
American pop by Arthur Johnston and Johnny Burke.

2. Images from: Google, DC Comics, Beano, Dandy.

3. An Original Article.