MUSIC & MOVIES OF THE 60s

Before the advent of TVs and the birth of couch potatoes, the common home entertainments in the late 50s and early 60s were listening to music from radio, tape-recorder and gramophone (or record-player as some of you might call it). Instead of cassette tapes or CDs, VCDs or DVDs that pervade every home these days, we used thick black vinyl records, the sizes of which varied from that of a large pizza (for 78 rpm and 33.3 rpm) to that of a small plate (for 45 rpm). Its thickness was almost 2-3 times that of a CD.

Our gramophone at Carpenter Street had a square wooden base that held a turntable. By the side of the turntable was a robust metal arm (tone-arm) that ended in a swollen cartridge holding a stylus. It was the contact of the stylus with the closely-set bands and grooves on the vinyl record when it was turning that produced the music and song. The turntable was powered by winding an S-shaped handle on one side of the wooden base. The sound from the record was then amplified through a large trumpet-liked funnel. From time to time, we had to quickly turn the handle to allow the continuous rotation of the turntable. Oh yes, before even placing the record, we had to set the correct speed of the turntable by turning an adjustable button. Otherwise, you might end up with Doris Day belting out like Donald Duck or Dean Martin with the squeaky voice of a chipmunk. The magnetic tape recorder that Uncle Hock had was an open-deck with two large spools of magnetic tapes. It was slightly smaller in size than an in-flight cabin suitcase, nothing like the mini-tapes you use for video recorders these days.

I recalled songs like Mambo Italiano (Hey Mambo,Mambo...)a renewed version (sung by Bette Midler)of which you hear these days,Blame it on the Bossa Nova, I Will Follow Him, A Little Bit of Soap were playing on the radio day in and day out at the peak of their popularity. The latter was very appropriate during shower time when our Uncle Poh (Guan/Tony's dad) would sing out in his top voice. Auntie Ghim and Auntie Hiok's favourites were those Mandarin songs like Nan Ping Wan Zhong (The Evening Bell of Nanping)南屏晚钟 and those oldies by Zhou Xuan 周璇. Pa used to play various Chinese folk songs from Yi Sheng 艺声 or Arts Sound Records Company. Some of those evergreens were 'The Distant Land'在那遥远的地方，'Welcoming Our Guests from Distant Land' 远方的客人请你留下来, 'Love Song of Kanding' 康定情歌 and 'Picking Tea leaves and Catching Butterflies' 采茶扑蝶。Pa once had a Mario Lanza record too and I remembered the tune of an Italian/English song sung by him - 'Come prima, come prima....'

For the English inclined, Elvis Presley was gaining his reign in the pop charts as well as the cinema stage. His gyrating gait, his 'curry-puff' hairdo and the quivering voice would drive all the teenage girls insane, screaming their hearts out or crying. His movies were always full of girls, girls and more girls, who often engaged in beach and dance parties. Sun-tanned bodies and bikini swimsuits were the craze of the day. It was as if people in the whole world all lived on islands in the South Pacific, doing nothing but sun-worshiping to get a good tan and merry-making. Then you had similar-genre singers like Frankie Avalon who were fighting for their share of fame. He too followed the formula of beach, girls and love songs.

The early 60s also saw Cliff Richard coming on stage with his band The Shadows. His movies and songs like 'The Young Ones', 'Summer Holiday', 'Bachelor Boy' echoed the heartstring of teenagers of those days. At the same period, budding British singers seemed to dominate the pop scene with many popular all-male groups churning out hits after hits - Freddy and the Dreamers, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Peter and Gordon, Dave Clark Five, the Moody Blues just to name a few. Suddenly like a lightning flash out of the blue,for the first time in 1963, a Japanese song called 'Sukiyaki'by Kyu Sakamoto hit the western pop charts. Hardly anyone would know what the title of the song meant, let alone the strange sounding Japanese lyrics to the western ears - 'Ue o muite, arukoo. Namida ga kobore nai yoo ni, omoidasu, haru no hi hitori bocchi no yoru....' Yet it surprised everyone that a song with a foreign word like 'Sukiyaki' which is a Japanese dish could upset the crooning of an Elvis number. By the way, 'Sukiyaki' was just a catchy word used and had nothing to do with the content of the song.

However, when the Beatles came on board with 'It's a Hard Day's Night' and 'Help' as black & white movies, their songs instantly caught the world's attention. As if overnight, the half-coconut shell hairdo, the bell-bottomed pants matched with the polished 'sepatu' leather shoes became the in-thing of teenage guys. Our all-obliging Cho Cho even sewed us a few bell-bottoms to catch up with the era. However I did not imitate the half-coconut shell hairdo but sported the `half-baked' side-burns and `curry puff' Elvis hair-style instead.

In those days, going to movies was the most popular pastime. From the make-shift, open-air, outdoor, one-piece movie screen played at empty lots in downtown (opposite the temple at Carpenter Street)to proper cinemas like Rex, Odeon, Capitol,Cathay and Sylvia (located at the State Secretariat Building facing the Padang), it was an entertainment that most families could afford. Those open-air movie screening was free, usually as a kind gesture to the community from the organisers who celebrated the special events of a temple in the lunar calendar. It could be the celebration of some deity or festivity. Often shown were silent movies like Charlie Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy, the Three Stooges or everyone's favourite cartoons like Tom & Jerry, Woody Woodpecker, Donald Duck, etc. Cantonese soapies featuring the child prodigy Fung Bo Bo 冯宝宝 who suffered the ill-treatments of her step-mother were played over and over again on the white screen on many occasions.

To watch the movie at the open-air compound, all one required as a kid was to find an empty space, bared your feet, put your thongs on the concrete floor and sat on them. That was your 'cinema seat', enough to enable you to focus your attention on the white screen through the night and disregard the dusty floor. The more demanding adults would bring their own stools from home. It was a smart move as often you would find yourself waiting in pitch darkness when all of a sudden the film ground to a stop. That was when the worn-out film-strip broke during the most engaging part of the movie. Catcalls from disgruntled audience would erupt from all corners until the running of the film projector was restored.

Cinema tickets were not expensive in those days. Ta Ker and I could share a single ticket that costed 50 cents to watch a movie. Being a minor, very often I could happily follow uncles or aunties after dinner and entered the cinema free of charge. All I needed was to sit on the space in between the seats or on their laps. That free-viewing of movies continued until I had grown too big and the bones on my butt began to cause discomfort on the laps of Auntie Ghim! The 50-cent ticket allowed one to sit amongst the first 5-6 rows of seats from the big screen. To secure a good seat without straining the neck at the front row, often I had to resort to queueing up way early before the ticket counter opened. That in itself could be a full hour of waiting and patience would be a virtue.

You may wonder what were the cinema movies back then? Well, we had the black and white Asian Cowboy, Philippino movies. Instead of gun duels in hacienda, you had Joseph Estrada, (disgraced former Philippines President) acting as villain and fighting it out in pineapple plantation. Most amusing of all,the Phillipino actors and actresses spoke in fluent Mandarin and not Tagalog.

However dominating the cinema screens then were the Japanese movies dubbed in Mandarin. They were produced by companies like 日活Nikkatsu and 東映Toho and were amongst the most popular. After watching Philippino actors speaking Mandarin, no one would feel funny watching the Japanese actors doing the same. Movies with fast-paced, sword-fighting samurais and dart-throwing ninjas equipped with mesmerizing translocation skills and unbelievable feats were my favourites.The famous Zatoichi series of films called The Blind Swordsman by actor 勝新太郎Shintaro Katsu proved so popular that it was running for several years. I could remember vividly in one scene, the fleeting draw of a sword would kill a dozen annoying flies that disturbed the peace of the blind hero. Impressive indeed for a young mind back then. The blind swordsman was considered 'cool' wearing his straw hat that covered his face, even when fighting. That was possibly a convenient way by the director to allow the supposedly 'blind' actor to peep/see while the film rolled. In recent years, Japanese film company has rehashed this Zatoichi movies with new main actor and violence. But to me, that was no comparison to the original Shintaro. Other well known samurai actors were 三船敏郎 Toshiro Mifune (of 黒沢明Kurosawa fame),丹波哲郎　Tetsuro Tanba and 高橋英樹 Hideki Takahashi.

When the samurai theme started to wear out, more modern Japanese thriller movies with assassins, hitmans, Yakuza gangsters became the talk of the town. Actors like 小林旭Akira Kobayashi (of Black Tight Killers, Tokyo Drifters and Kanto Wanderer fame)and 石原裕次郎 Yujiro Ishihara became very very popular. So were the accompanying damsel-in-distress actresses like 浅丘ルリコ Asaoka Ruriko, 松原智恵子Chieko Matsubara，吉永小百合　Yoshinaga Sayuri. These beautiful hearthrobs with big marble eyes acting opposite the above `heros' continued to appear in hundreds of movies in years to come.

Another pioneering forte of Japanese film industry in the early 60s was the science fiction movies with incredible special effects. It was nothing compared to the computerised animation and realistic special effects you see these days. Nonetheless, considering the limited resources available then, the Japanese directors set the trend in creating super-heroes like the Ultraman (太空飞侠)and Astroboy, equivalent of later days Superman or Spiderman. Just like other avid followers, I was thrilled to watch Ultraman (太空飞侠)show after show even though they were in black and white. As if trying to outdo the super-heroes, Japanese directors (such as Ishiro Honda)created the so-called 'Weird Beasts' (Kaiju 怪兽)fantasy movies with dinosaur-liked, all destructive Godzilla & Gamera. These creatures terrified the silver screen for a few years and set the milestone and standard for the later King Kong, Star War movies.

While the aforesaid fantasy movies pleased young audience like me, adults from the Tay family were more atuned to Mandarin movies。The first Chinese movie I ever recalled was 夜半歌声, equivalent of 'Phantom of the Opera'. It was perhaps the horrifying scarred face of the main actor and the eerie song (sung at midnight) more than anything else that left an indelible mark in my mind. Other movies that the Tay seniors preferred were those carrying good moral stories /messages, especially those made by slightly leftist Great Wall Film Productions. These often depicted trying family life with hard-working members who fought against repression and adversity from the beaurocrats. Popular actors and actresses in these films were 鲍方(Bao Fang),龚秋霞 (Gong Chiu Xia)，江汉 (Zhiang Han)，朱虹 (Zu Hong) and 张铮 (Zhang Zhen). Some of them continued to act in Hong Kong TV series till today. In fact, early 60s was also a period of upsurge in communism ideology, especially in British Borneo and Malay Peninsula when the colonial British rule was coming to an end. Communist sympathisers were actively recruiting new members in Chung Hua Chinese schools by organising social group activites especially after school hours. Games, sports, free tuition classes were soon turned into brain-washing and the teaching of communism.

To be fair, not all movies imported from Mainland China were bad. In fact some of the most memorable ones were those adopted from classical literature. 'Dream of the Red Chamber 红楼梦','Tales of Water Margin 水浒传', 'Monkey Goes West 西游记', 'Hua Mu Lan 花木兰', 'Lady Generals of The Yang Family 杨门女将'(some presented in Beijing Opera style)were household favourites. However, the most impressive box-office holder was not adopted from a classical literature but from a story of Guangxi province - 'The Third Sister Liu　刘三姐'.It was possibly the first movie that was shown in cinemas for several months. We had a record of the songs from the movie and it was played so often by Aunties that I could even memorise some of them. Other examples of good family entertainment movies were 'Ma Lan Flower 马兰花'，'The Kite　风筝','Salesman Li Lian Sheng' 李连生卖杂货. The latter was the first Hokkien opera that I knew and we had the vinyl record too.　Occasionally, there were Chinese cartoon productions that rivaled Walt Disney's. Short cartoons like 鲤鱼跳龙门(Carps and the Dragon Gate)and 西游记 (Monkey Goes West) were excellent.　

Besides those Chinese movies produced in Mainland China, the popular Mandarin movies were produced in Hong Kong under the umbrella of Shaw Brothers. Early film-stars like 严俊Yen Chun and 李丽华Li Li Hua were familiar to our uncles/aunties' generation.
Yen Chun after years of acting later turned into a film director himself. It was a bit like dual-role actress Ge Lan 葛兰 (starred in Star, Moon and Sun 星星，月亮，太阳) who was also an established singer.

The 60s Shaw Brothers productions were well remembered and closely associated with a series of musicals (especially those directed by 李翰祥 Li Han-Hsiang) which were termed `黄梅调Huangmei (Yellow Plum) opera'. They were not unlike English musicals except that the story-lines were based on tales from ancient China. 林黛Linda Lin Dai, 乐蒂Betty Loh Ti, 赵雷Zhao Lei and subsequently 凌波 Ivy Ling Po and 李菁　Li Ching were the anchoring actors and actresses of this genre of movies. Almost anyone who loved the opera movies would know '江山美人The Kingdom and the Beauty'＆ '梁山伯与祝英台 Butterfly lovers' The latter was the Chinese version of Romeo & Juliet. 林黛Linda Lin Dai shot to fame after her maiden costume appearance in `江山美人The Kingdom and the Beauty'. Her subsequent appearances in '白蛇传Madam White Snake','不了情Love Without End', '蓝与黑The Blue and the Black' proved less successful. Tragically she ended up following the footstep of Marilyn Monroe and committed suicide in 1964.

With the roaring success of sword-fighting samurai movies in Japan and South East Asia, Shaw Brothers directors like 张澈Chang Cheh quickly capitalised on the craze and followed suit with his `独臂刀One-Armed Swordsman' which instantly turned 王羽Jimmy Wang Yu into superb　swordsman. Other new comers made famous with the sword-fighting movies were 秦萍Chin Ping,罗烈 Luo Lie, 狄龙Ti Lung,姜大卫David Chiang, 郑佩佩Cheng Pei Pei. The latter came into prominence in 1966 when she acted in '大醉侠Come Drink With Me' directed by 胡金铨King Hu. Actually it was King Hu who brought a new lease of life to sword-fighting movies just when they started to decline into meaningless, violent and blood-letting nonsensical dramas. '龙门客栈Dragon Gate Inn' became the signature masterpiece of King Hu who instilled art, poetry, zen, wits and good photography into an otherwise ordinary sword-fighting story. From a humble beginning doing minor role in '江山美人The Kingdom and the Beauty', King Hu became well known as a film director internationally.

You would be wrong to think there were only action movies in the 60s. On the romantic side of it, Shaw Brothers did churn out a fair number of love story dramas with actors and actresses like 叶枫 Julie Yueh Feng, 陈厚Peter Chen Ho, 关山Kwan Shan 乔庄 Qiao Zhuang and 胡燕妮Jenny Hu. Many of these movies were based on best-selling romantic stories of Taiwanese author 琼瑶Chuong Yao.'明日之歌The Song of Tomorrow','船Boat'and 寒烟翠were some of her works.

What about English action movies back in the late 50s and early 60s? Those that stayed vividly in my mind are Tarzans, Zorro, Ten Commandments, Magnificient Seven. However, the trend-setting ones were the spy versus spy movies like 007 James Bond (Dr No, Goldfinger), The Man from U.N.C.L.E.(starring Robert Vaughn, David McCallum)and 707 (James Coburn).

Last but not least, the first Indian movie I watched with mum and dad in those days was not the typical Indian bollywood movie with lovers running round a coconut tree but an Indian mythology. All I could recall was a genie that appeared after the rubbing of a brass lamp, a bit like Aladdin's magic lamp. There was flying carpet and a scene where the main character entered the mouth of a genie via his outstretched tongue. Perhaps it was Sinbad's story but I could not remember the title. One thing for sure was that they did not speak in Mandarin.

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