Throwback Thursday: ‘The manager stared at the wild display in horror and put a stop to jitterbugging’

Paddy O’Brien, that great founder of the over 60s talent contests, wrote in response to last week’s pages extolling the great showband era.

“Your words on the band scene brought back many happy memories of those days to me. Every week I love reading your articles in Throwback Thursday,” he said.

Of course, we contacted Paddy instantly, demanding those self same happy memories, and he was more than willing to oblige.

Paddy’s recollections, though, have a rather different sound to them, since he favoured the old-time ballroom numbers and the céilí sets, which were in fact continuing as lively as ever while The Royal or The Dixies were rocking the Arcadia.

“I went to work in Dublin in my young days, and that was where I got involved in the clubs and halls where Irish dances were held. Because I had the Irish, I became ‘caller’ for the different sets. I would shout out (in Irish of course!), The Walls Of Limerick, or The Siege Of Ennis, and then guide the couples through the movements. Advance, retire, go sideways, return, swing your partner… etc, etc. It was great fun and everybody loved it.

“Then I was moved back to Cork and I soon got involved in the dance scene here, but it was very different to what you were talking about last week, Jo, with the showband era.

“The main place I did MC was the Gresham in Maylor Street, and I am sure many of your regular readers will remember that great place, where ballroom dancing and céilí still held sway. It was packed every night there was a dance. Wednesday nights were traditionally ‘nurses nights’ and I can tell you that many a Garda met his future wife there! As I did myself!” said Paddy.

This should remind us all that there was a time when being able to dance ‘properly’ was considered a social necessity.

Young men and women in the 1930s and 40s would have gone to ballroom dancing classes to get a polish on the slow waltz or the lively foxtrot. (You can still get those skills incidentally, at places like the Viva Dance Studio run by Rona Coulter, always a feature of the Lord Mayor’s Tea Dance each January : https://www.ballroomdancingcork.ie/.)

“Dances at the Gresham were held 8pm to 11pm and strictly controlled,” recalls Paddy. “There wasn’t a hope of somebody being allowed in ‘with drink on him’ and any kind of hanky panky was stopped immediately. I’d have to call out any young man with roaming hands, or couples getting too close in a ‘clinger’.

“That’s the way it was then. But we never had any trouble in the Gresham, and it was a great place for young people to meet and get to know each other. Not just the young ones either – you would often get older men coming in, up from the country, and hoping to meet someone friendly that they could talk to and get to know.

“It was understood was that if a young man invited a girl for a mineral at the counter downstairs, he was interested. If he bought her a KitKat as well, then her friends would say, ‘Oh you’ll be walked home anyway!’ Another sure sign was the offer of ‘the mug of soup’. There was a late night shop on Parnell Place that sold hot soup to those leaving the dance hall at 11, and if a partner was especially attentive throughout the evening, her friends would comment archly: ‘Oh, you’ll be getting the mug of soup tonight, no doubt about it!’

“It was all innocent, but so happy and you’d wish we had more of that around today.”

Paddy peals with laughter at one of his memories, which actually links right into the showband era. “You had the two going on side by side in Cork back then - us with the military two-step, the foxtrot and the waltz, and the Arcadia with the Hucklebuck, the Yenka, the Twist and whatever. Well, we were asked at the Gresham if we couldn’t give just a bit of rock, say one number during an evening, and the manager said all right, we’d try it.

“So our backing band, at the chosen moment, swung into a hit song, and didn’t the place go mad! Instead of moving decorously round the floor in couples, everybody started dancing in circles, changing partners, skipping and hopping here, there and everywhere! The manager came out to see what the noise was, and stared at the wild display in horror. ‘We’ll have to stop this,’ he cried. ‘Stop it right away! None of this jitterbugging!’

“Well, I never laughed so much! One pop song and they forgot all their good behaviour!”

And what was it, I know you are frantic to learn, dear readers. What was the hit song that had them going mad altogether? Was it Rock Around The Clock? High School Confidential? No, it was quite another number.

I’m in love with the girl who lives in the house with the whitewashed gable, And every time she comes my way, my poor heart seems to say:

I’m in love with the girl who lives in the house with the whitewashed gable, And I won’t rest until she marries me.

Yes, it was sweet-voiced Joe Dolan and none other who shattered the peace and decorum of the Gresham, for the space of one number at least. Well, maybe Bill Haley or Jerry Lee Lewis would have been a bit much for those accustomed to the steady beat of the military two-step or the swoop of the waltz.

Remember that scene in Back To The Future when Marty plays at the school dance for his parents-to-be? He goes wild and lunges across the stage playing crashing guitar chords, skidding along the boards on his knees while the young couples stand and stare in consternation? And another band member rushes to the phone to tell his cousin, Chuck Berry, that he thinks he’s found the new music Chuck was searching for? Must have been a bit like that.

Paddy has another funny anecdote from his Gresham days. “There were a lot of men up from the country to work on the new building sites that were going up all round the city, and they would often stay in caravans on the sites, to save money, but they would always try to get in to the dances at the Gresham for a bit of companionship and friendliness.

“Well, this girl came up to me one night and said, ‘Paddy, I know if I refuse to dance with someone who asks me, I might be barred, but I can’t dance with one of those lads – they’re greasy!’ I couldn’t understand so went and consulted with the manager, and we soon discovered the explanation. These building workers hadn’t the wherewithal to buy Brylcreem to tame their hair before going into a dance hall, so apparently they would use the grease from the frying pan to smooth down their locks. I never did find out how that problem got sorted though, or even if it ever did!”

In time, such was the popularity of the dances at the Gresham that other venues sprang up. The Palm Court on nearby Caroline St, Paddy recalls, and then the Gaylord on Patrick Street. “I’m sure your readers will remember a few more, Jo, where the old-time dancing still went on.” I’m sure they will, Paddy, and I’m asking them right now to come on here and tell the rest of us!

There were country dances too of course, in village halls and on platforms at crossroads. This was one of the very few occasions when the lonely bachelor farmer from up the mountain got the chance to meet with friends and even, crossed fingers, get to hold a girl in his arms for the brief length of a dance. Maybe this would be the night he met the woman of his dreams and found a partner to share his life.

For those of us who grew up in cities, it is sometimes hard to imagine how lonely the life of a single farmer could be. The occasional dance or a Saturday night trip to the nearest pub offered the only entertainment, and these days even the pub is becoming less of an option, given the drink-driving regulations. Why don’t more country pubs offer transport, we ask? And why not a bit of set dancing, like they used to have in the Mills Inn at Ballyvourney back in the ’60s? Anybody for the Coolea Stomp?

Going to a dance at the Gresham was certainly a tried and trusted way of meeting new people and making new friends, agrees Paddy O’Brien. And that was why, in later years, when the dance hall had long gone, he instigated what was to become a huge Cork event, The Over 60s Talent Competition.

“It was in 1977 I got that going, and it was determinedly aimed at tackling loneliness among older people. More and more they were being left to themselves, with their families gone from them, far too busy to call in and see how their parents were doing.

“By getting these events going, it brought so many elderly folk out, encouraged them to show their talents, gave them a pride in their achievements – it was heart-warming.”

It was a very new idea, but the indefatigable Paddy went round to every club and hall, asking if they would let him host a heat there. Then he organised posters and publicity – “I have to say The Echo and Examiner were incredibly helpful on that side. Declan Hassett couldn’t do enough for me, and Noel Spillane and Kevin Mills were towers of support.”

From those small beginnings, the project gradually expanded until there were hundreds crowding the venues for each heat. The finals grew so big that they had to be held in the City Hall - the only place with the required seating space for those wanting to attend.

“To see the delight on the faces of the finalists was worth all the work. Friends and relatives were coming from all over the place, even flying in from other countries to see Mum or Grandad taking to the stage.

“It gave the competitors such a boost, such a sense of belonging, of still being somebody.”

And Paddy has never stopped in his drive to combat loneliness among older people. “If anything, that problem has got worse over the years, with far less of the neighbourliness and companionship we took for granted long ago when at least you knew who your neighbours were on either side of you. So I thought I would start touring the finalists from the different years to nursing homes across Cork, bringing their talents and friendship to the guests there. It is such a rewarding event every time. Long may I and the troupe be able to go on doing it.”

And we second that, Paddy. Long may you go on bringing joy and friendship and a sense of achievement to those who are no longer young, and to those who could do with a bit more company in their daily lives.

Were you ever in the over 60s talent heats? Did you ever dance at the crossroads? Tell us all about it right now.

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