Social Media 1959

Dale Sisters entry in Autograph book

These are Jackie’s photographs of the piglets following their mother into the woodland yesterday.

A discussion with Flo and Dillon on benefits of hand made crafts and the difficulty of marketing them was broadened to incorporate many other aspects of life spanning our times.

This led Jackie to produce her autograph book from 1959.

This was a vehicle for friends and family to leave messages such as these, which in this form have survived for posterity without the aid of cyberspace.

Now, who, I ask you, were the Dale Sisters? Neither Jackie nor her parents knew when she attended an event in which they were present. After 64 years, by means of Google, Jackie was able to enlighten us all.

The Dale Sisters were an English vocal trio, who had limited chart success in the early 1960s. They are best remembered for their recordings of “Heartbeat[1] and “My Sunday Baby (un Telegrama)”, both of which became minor hits in the UK Singles Chart.[2] Other songs they sang included “Billy Boy, Billy Boy“, “Road to Love”[3] and “All My Life”.[4] Their work, when they were billed by their alternative name of The England Sisters, was arranged by John Barry.

They were born in Goole, Yorkshire, as Betty, Hazel and Julie Dunderdale, a name they later shortened to become the Dale Sisters.[6] In July 1959, they won a talent contest which was organised by The People, at ButlinsFiley. Later that year they made their first London appearance at the Lyceum Theatre.[7] They were on the bill with Helen Shapiro and The Brook Brothers at the Odeon Theatre, Halifax on 7 April 1962, as part of a national tour.[8] In January 1963, they played the Two Red Shoes Ballroom, ElginScotland, just a week after The Beatlesappeared there.[9] Their UK television show appearances included Thank Your Lucky Stars with Adam FaithJohn LeytonThe Brooks BrothersGeoff Goddard and Dion in 1961.[10]

The Dale Sisters tracks “My Sunday Baby (un Telegrama)” and “All My Life” appeared on the compilation albumSay When – Ember Sixties Pop Vol. 1 1960-1961.[11][12] (Wikipedia)

When The Beatles preceded the sisters’ performance in 1963 they were in the process of changing popular music forever.

This evening we all dined on racks of ribs with Jackie’s savoury rice with which she drank more of the Blush and I drank more of the Bordeaux.

77 comments

    1. Yes. It was fun, especially sharing it with Flo, definitely of the internet generation. Thanks very much, Bridget.

  1. I still have both my autograph books and my mother’s. What amused me no end is that two of the verses shown here appeared in both our books. Memes!

  2. Pretty pigglets photos! 🙂
    I have an autograph book like the one you shared…I found it a few years ago when sorting through some boxes. Also, we had yearbooks in school for 6 years, and those have many autographs, signatures, cute drawings, and sweet and funny messages written all over the inner covers and throughout the books. 🙂 It’s fun now to read the messages from friends of long ago (1970’s). Some back-then-friends I’ve kept up with to this day.
    I love your title to this post…as the autograph books messages back then were like getting comments on blogs today. 🙂 Only better…in that we got to “hold on to” people’s handwriting. We don’t see people’s handwriting much these days. I’ve saved a bunch of old letters for that very purpose. 🙂
    (((HUGS))) ❤️❤️❤️

  3. An autograph book is a good idea. I vaguely remember having one as a child. How nice that Jackie still has this snippet of history.

  4. More piglets!

    As soon as I saw the name, I knew who the Dale sisters were. It’s not a name that has stayed in my mind, though.

    The Beverley Sisters I remember well because they were often on Saturday night television.

    I used to have a book like Jackie’s, but I have no idea what happened to it.
    When I was sixteen, I saw the Beatles in Leeds, and my friend got John Lennon’s autograph. I can’t remember why I didn’t get any!

    Previous to that, and before I knew him, my husband and his group followed the Beatles into a grotty club in Hamburg.

    1. Thank you very much, Sue. They are Yorkshire folk – no death dates on the various info sites. I like to promote such memories

  5. Autograph books were still popular when I was at school. Sadly, I have no idea what happened to mine. I have featured pages from my grandmother’s on my blog before and I fully agree with an earlier comment about being able to ‘hold on’ to hand-written notes and letters. Handwriting reveals much about the writer.

  6. I can’t say that I’m totally surprised the sisters changed their names from Dunderdale whn they ventured into the world of showbiz. I wonder if any of them survive today, aged, possibly, around eighty?

  7. It’s wonderful that Jackie still has her autograph book to share, and the conversation must have been so much fun.

    The mother pig looks like she’s wearing pants. 🙂

  8. Wow! Have times changed, Derrick. I wish I had kept my autograph book. With that said, I kept my high school and college year books, which bring on many fond memories.

  9. I do have my autograph book somewhere. Do I have the patience to look through those dread boxes in the closet and garage? I like the Dale Sisters…cause an upsurge of nostalgia for that sound of the fifties and sixties. Did you ever hear the Lennon Sisters? Gotta look them up.

  10. Per my earlier comment about how frequently we broke bones in our 1950’s childhood I am reminded by this post of everyone rushing to sign those plaster casts.

    1. I have broken fingers, toes, and ribs – all in adulthood – so never a plaster cast

  11. I love this time travel post, Derrick and Jackie! Yes, handwritten notes, cards, autograph books all served the function of social media back then. The postal service also seemed more reliable and people more civil in general.

    I had not heard of The Dale Sisters. That was a nice introduction and interesting bit of history. Thank you, Derrick.

    And of course, the pigs. Thank you, Jackie!

  12. I had an autograph book when I was young, but it is long gone. I enjoyed reading about the Dale sisters. They were the end of an era. I wonder if they were surprised by the seismic changes that came to music.

  13. My autograph book was full of signatures from sports’ stars, largely tennis players and the late Charlton Heston whom I approached at Wimbledon for his signature. You’d have no chance nowadays. I wonder what happened to it…….

  14. Wonderful pictures of the mommy and her piglets. SO MANY piglets! I give full props to that mom!

    I remember my mom’s autograph book, which had similar pithy sayings. But hers didn’t have an autograph from a group that the Beatles opened up for! Very cool!

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