“Alan Whicker, almost a parody of himself, interviews Wizz Jones, some ‘Beatniks’ and a town councillor about the ban on the Beatniks in Newquay‘s pubs and cafes, and the difficulty of keeping clean. From BBC Tonight, 1960”
This video comes via the research blog of Jeanie Sinclair. The video (and the description above) appears alongside other materials from the archives, exploring memories, reminders and networks of creative communities in Cornwall. In her words, the project,
“explores the potential of digital technology and creative, cultural and historical practice to disseminate and develop archives and collections, bringing them to wider audiences.
Examining notions of connected communities past and present, local, national and international, it builds on the Heritage Lottery Funded Memory Bay project about ‘art community’ in St Ives, which has been developed as a collaboration between UCF, Tate St. Ives, the St. Ives Archives Trust, Leach Pottery and Porthmeor Studios”
The blog is interesting, not only for its entertaining look at past conventions of the British public in the earlier 1960s, but also for the wider scopes and aims of the research:
Working with historical material (oral history interviews, photographs, objects) I hope to create innovative and sustainable projects that promote the development of new skills and enhance social inclusion within local communities, contributing to the second phase of Memory Bay.
You can follow the progress of this research on Twitter.
