Dorothy Thompson in 1960...
In this episode of the Mill Lane saga, we survey what was happening in and around the Mill Lane Lecture Rooms on Monday 10th October 1960.
Many readers will know Dr Dorothy Thompson, who was Director of Studies in Classics at Girton College from 1983 until her retirement in 2006. Dorothy held the position of Newton Trust Lecturer in Ancient History in the Faculty of Classics for many years, and has published extensively on Hellenistic (or Ptolemaic) Egypt, using evidence from documentary papyri. Dorothy was also Librarian of the Mill Lane Library from 1967 until 1975.
Dr Dorothy Thompson, FBA.
Michaelmas Term had begun on Wednesday 5th October 1960. Dorothy Walbank (as she then was) is an Exhibitioner at Girton, and has entered her third year. On Monday 10thOctober, Dorothy cycles into town to attend the Part II Group ‘C’ lecture to be given by Professor A.H.M. (‘Hugo’) Jones on ‘Roman History, 133-91 B.C.’ in the Mill Lane Lecture Rooms at 10am. The precise location of lectures was disclosed to questing undergraduates by means of a printed sheet pinned to a noticeboard in the cavernous and draughty entrance hall.
We may picture Dorothy taking her seat in a lecture room on the top floor, at a few minutes to ten. Professor Jones would, of course, give his lecture while wearing his gown, and may possibly have utilised the lecturers’ common room on the first floor. And Dorothy reminds us that not only were all undergraduates required to wear their gowns when attending University lectures, but women were also required to wear skirts with academic dress. Indeed, ‘Say Thank You’, the Girton College guide to undergraduate etiquette (2nd edition 1955, p.6) is emphatic on this point: ‘…blue jeans, corduroy trousers, one’s brother’s discarded grey flannel bags or even black peg tops are all deplorable. They may not be worn by women with academic dress. They should not be worn by women at any time.’
The guide highlights another important point (p.13): ‘…at the beginning of term lecture rooms seem entirely full of men.’ In 1960, only Girton, Newnham and New Hall admitted women undergraduates, and there were as yet no mixed colleges at Oxford or Cambridge.
The young Dorothy Walbank
Light entertainment could be enjoyed by the population at large via their radio sets. BBC Radio Times for the week 8th to 14th October (price 5d) informs us that a song recital for soprano and piano had commenced on the Home Service at 9.55am, to be followed by The Daily Service at 10.15am, and Music While You Work at 10.31am (featuring Ken Beaumont and his sextet). Alternatively, the Light Programme could offer Housewives’ Choice (‘Benny Lee introduces your request records’), which is followed at 10am by Robinson Cleaver at the BBC Theatre Organ. Meanwhile, BBC Television has scheduled Discovering Science from 10.5 to 10.25am. However, continuous television transmission will not begin until Blue Peter at 5pm, which features ‘making your own den’. Naturally, the Radio Times at this date would not admit the existence of other broadcasters, but the Cambridge Daily News for Monday October 10th 1960 (price 2½d) lets slip the important fact that commercial television has arrived in the form of ‘I.T.A. Anglia’, which will show, inter alia, Bonanza at 8.30pm. Note that the famous BBC ban on broadcast advertising does not extend to the Radio Times, which coyly admits that a 21-inch television ‘with glide-away doors’, and finished in medium or dark walnut, can be yours for only 89 guineas (post coupon for illustrated leaflet).
Turning once more to the invaluable listings in the Cambridge Daily News, we see that a production of Brendan Behan’s The Hostage (‘direct from Wyndham’s Theatre’) is playing at the Arts Theatre (telephone 52000), while the Arts Cinema in Market Passage (which is under the same management) will screen The Angry Silence (a gritty drama about a strike) at 2.30, 6.15 and 8.30. The stars are Richard Attenborough and Pier Angeli, the film classification is ‘A’, and unlike the commercial cinemas, seats can be booked at the Arts – ring 52001!
The A.B.C. Regal in St. Andrew’s Street is showing the attractive Boulting Brothers school comedy, A French Mistress, starring Cecil Parker and the lovely Agnès Laurent, at 2.20, 4.05 and 8.35, certificate ‘A’. (By the 1980s, the Regal had been sub-divided into Screens 1 and 2. The former Screen 1 is presently occupied by J.D. Weatherspoon’s popular beer hall, while Screen 2, yet further subdivided into three auditoria, houses the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse).
Enthusiastic Classicists might beat a path to the A.B.C. Victoria on Market Hill, where the mighty Steve Reeves appears in a colour remake of The Last Days of Pompeii (1.35, 5.05, 8.40, certificate ‘A’). The film review in the Cambridge Daily News describes Pompeii as a ‘giant city’, correctly dates the eruption to the reign of the Emperor Titus, and regrets ‘poor dialogue’; the invaluable Wikipedia notes that our hero is flung into a subterranean chamber by the bad guys, where he battles a giant crocodile. Only the façade of the Victoria survives today – as the principal point of entry to the M&S Food Hall.
The reviewer declares: ‘For those who like their films horrific, blood curdling and heart chilling, the Central is the place to go this week’. Located in Hobson Street, the Central Cinema daringly offers a certificate ‘X’ double-bill. Peter Cushing appears in the Hammer production Brides of Dracula (2.05, 5.25, 8.45), along with Yvonne Monlaur, ‘who has been dubbed as France’s second sex-kitten’. (One assumes the first is the divine Miss Bardot). The ‘B’ movie this week is Teenage Lovers (3.45, 7.0), and according to the classified ads on page 2, the Manager is looking for two Usherettes (one afternoon-only), and a Confectionery Salesgirl. Telephone 5783. (After many years in which it served as a bingo hall, the Central currently stands derelict, and bus passengers for Chesterton perch forlornly on its white front step).
The former Central Cinema in Hobson Street
Undergraduates keen to polish their film-buff credentials might venture to the terra incognita of Mill Road, where All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) is screening this week at the Kinema (note the distinctive spelling), while the Samuel Goldwyn production of Wuthering Heights (1939) can be viewed at the obscurely-located Rex in Magrath Avenue (near the Shire Hall). The barn-like, and long-vanished Rex could also boast a ballroom where the Cambridge Jazz Club will meet tonight (Monday), 8-11pm, admission 2/6. But note that at this date the proctorial rules require all persons in statu pupillari to wear a gown outdoors after dusk, the use of bicycles without bike lights would positively invite the unwelcome attentions of the man in blue, and an undergraduate’s choice of evening entertainment would of course dovetail with his or her college’s particular curfew rules – or the Senior Tutor would most certainly want to know the reason why!