Teddy Boy

The Teddy Boys or Teds were a mainly British subculture of young men wearing clothes partly inspired by the styles worn by dandies in the Edwardian period, which Savile Row tailors had attempted to re-introduce in Britain after the Second World War.[1]

This article is about the subculture. For other uses, see Teddy Boy (disambiguation).
1980s Teddy Boy outfit worn by Smutty Smiff, bassist of Levi and the Rockats

History
Typical black suede creepers fashionable during the 1950s
Bolo tie featuring Native American design

A mainly British phenomenon,[2] the Teddy Boy subculture started among teenagers in London in the early 1950s, and rapidly spread across the UK, becoming strongly associated with American rock and roll music. After World War II, male youths in delinquent gangs who had adopted Edwardian-era fashion were sometimes known as Cosh Boys,[3][4] but the name Teddy Boy was coined when a 23 September 1953 Daily Express newspaper report headline shortened Edwardian to Teddy.[5] Nevertheless, the term had previously been used in Edwardian England to refer to members of the Territorial Army (see for example The Swoop! written by P. G. Wodehouse in 1909).[6]

In post-war Britain, rationing continued to affect the fashion industry, and men's tailors in central London devised a style based on Edwardian clothing hoping to sell to young officers being demobbed from the services.[7] However, the style—featuring tapered trousers, long jackets similar to post-war American zoot suits, and fancy waistcoats—was not popular with its target market, leaving tailors with piles of unsold clothing which, to recoup losses, were sold cheaply to menswear shops elsewhere in London.[7] While there had been some affluent adoption—"an extravagant upper-class snub to the post-war Labour Government and its message of austerity"[1]—it was predominantly suburban working class youth who adopted and adapted the look ('spiv' and cosh boy associations also hastened its middle class rejection) and, around 1952, what became the 'Teddy Boy' style began to emerge, gradually spreading across Britain.[1]

Although there had been youth groups with their own dress codes called scuttlers in 19th-century Liverpool and Manchester,[8] Teddy Boys were the first youth group in Britain to differentiate themselves as teenagers, helping create a youth market. The US film Blackboard Jungle marked a watershed in the United Kingdom. When shown in an Elephant and Castle cinema, south London in 1956, the teenage Teddy boy audience began to riot, tearing up seats and dancing in the cinema's aisles.[9] After that, other riots took place around the country where the film was shown.[10]

Some Teds formed gangs and gained notoriety following violent clashes with rival youth gangs as well as unprovoked attacks on immigrants. The most notable clashes were the 1958 Notting Hill race riots, in which Teddy Boys were present in large numbers and were implicated in attacks on the West Indian community. According to reports released decades after the riots, "Teddy boys armed with iron bars, butcher's knives and weighted leather belts" participated in mobs "300- to 400-strong" that targeted Black residents, in one night alone leaving "five black men lying unconscious on the pavements of Notting Hill."[11] Teds were also implicated in the clashes of the 1958 St Ann's riots in Nottingham.[12]

The violent lifestyle was sensationalised in the pulp novel Teddy Boy by Ernest Ryman, first published in the UK in 1958.[3]

Style
Examples of Teddy Boy clothing worn by Ray Stiles and Les Gray of '70s glam rock band Mud: drape jackets, brothel creepers and drainpipe trousers (source:AVRO)[13]

Teddy Boy clothing included drape jackets reminiscent of 1940s American zoot suits worn by Italian-American, Chicano and Black communities (such as Cab Calloway or Louis Jordan), usually in dark shades, sometimes with a velvet trim collar and pocket flaps, and high-waist "drainpipe" trousers, often exposing the socks. The outfit also included a high-necked loose-collared white shirt (known as a Mr. B. collar, because it was often worn by jazz musician Billy Eckstine); a narrow "Slim Jim" tie or western bolo tie, and a brocade waistcoat.[14] The clothes were mostly tailor-made at great expense, and paid through weekly installments.[15]

Favoured footwear included highly polished Oxfords, chunky brogues, and crepe-soled shoes, often suede (known as brothel creepers or beetle crushers). Preferred hairstyles included long, strongly moulded greased-up hair with a quiff at the front and the side combed back to form a duck's arse at the rear. Another style was the "Boston", in which the hair was greased straight back and cut square across at the nape.

Teddy Girls

Teddy Girls (also called Judies)[16] wore drape jackets, pencil skirts, hobble skirts, long plaits, rolled-up jeans, flat shoes, tailored jackets with velvet collars, straw boater hats, cameo brooches, espadrilles, coolie hats and long, elegant clutch bags. Later, they adopted the American fashions of toreador trousers, voluminous circle skirts, and hair in ponytails.[17]

The Teddy Girls' choices of clothes were not intended strictly for aesthetic effect; these girls were collectively rejecting post-war austerity. They were young working-class women from the poorer districts of London. They would typically leave school at the age of 14 or 15 and work in factories or offices.[18] Teddy Girls spent much of their free time buying or making their trademark clothes. Their style originated from a head-turning, fastidious style from the fashion houses, which had launched haute-couture clothing lines recalling the Edwardian era.[19]

A photo shoot by Liz Ham titled Teddy Girls was published by Oyster in 2009[20] and then in Art Monthly Australia in 2010.[21]

Music and dancing
Bill Haley and the Comets wearing tartan shawl collar jackets associated with the rockabilly subculture, 1956

Although Teddy Boys became associated with rock and roll music, prior to the advent of that genre, Teddy Boys also listened and danced to jump blues, R&B, jazz and skiffle music.[22] A well-known dance that the Teddy Boys adopted was The Creep, a slow shuffle that was so popular with Teddy Boys that it led to their other nickname, Creepers. The song "The Creep" came out in 1953 and was written and recorded for HMV by Yorkshire-born big band leader and saxophonist Ken Mackintosh.[23] Although this was not a rock and roll record, it was widely taken on by the Teddy Boys of the time.[24] From 1955, Rock and Roll was adopted by the Teddy Boys when the film Blackboard Jungle was first shown in cinemas in the UK,[25] and Teddy Boys started listening to artists like Elvis Presley, Bill Haley and Eddie Cochran.

Although not as big as the Americans, British rock and roll artists such as Tommy Steele, Marty Wilde, Cliff Richard and Joe Brown became popular with the Teddy Boy culture, as did Merseybeat bands such as The Searchers, Gerry and the Pacemakers and The Beatles. Original rock and roll artists such as Billy Fury also moved to beat music.[1]

Revivals
Shakin' Stevens wearing electric blue drape jacket, 1970s

George Harrison and John Lennon emulated the style in the early formation of the Beatles.[26]

Later, following The London Rock and Roll Show held at Wembley Stadium in August 1972 (featuring American performers including Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry, plus UK-based support acts),[27][28] the music enjoyed a renewed period of popularity.[29] Musical momentum was maintained by the release of films such as American Graffiti and That'll Be the Day[30] (both 1973) and glam rock reworkings by bands such as Wizzard, The Glitter Band and Showaddywaddy topping the pop charts from 1973.

Concurrently, a resurgence of interest in Teddy Boy fashions was promoted by Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren through their shop Let it Rock, on London's King's Road.[30] The new generation of Teds adopted some aspects of the 1950s but with a large glam rock influence, including louder colours for drape jackets, brothel creepers and socks and shiny satin shirts worn with bootlace ties, jeans and big-buckled belts. The 1970s Teddy Boys often sported flamboyant pompadour hairstyles in addition to long sideburns and added hairspray to grease/pomade to style their hair. In the late 1970s, the new generation became the enemies of the Westwood and Sex Pistols-inspired punk rockers. In the spring of 1977, street battles between young punks and aging teds happened on London's King's Road, where the earliest new-wave shops, including Westwood and McLaren's Sex (by now not selling zoot suits and ted gear anymore), were situated.

Ford Zephyr, a popular vehicle for Teds

In the late 1980s, there was a move by a number of Teddy Boys to revive the 1950s Teddy Boy style. In the early 1990s, a group of Teddy Boy revivalists in the Tottenham area of north London formed "The Edwardian Drape Society" (T.E.D.S.). The group concentrated on reclaiming the style which they felt had become bastardised by pop/glam rock bands such as Showaddywaddy and Mud in the 1970s.[31]

See also

References
  1. "History of the British Teddy Boy and Culture". The Edwardian Teddy Boy. The Edwardian Teddy Boy. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  2. "The Edwardian Teddy Boy - British Teddy Boy History". www.mrsite.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  3. McIntyre, Iain; Nette, Andrew; Doyle, Peter (2017). Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats: Pulp Fiction and Youth Culture, 1950 to 1980. London: PM Press. ISBN 9781629634586.
  4. Kirby, Dick (2013). Death on the Beat: Police Officers Killed in the Line of Duty. Wharncliffe. p. 29. ISBN 9781845631611.
  5. Ferris, Ray; Lord, Julian (2012). Teddy Boys: A concise history. Milo Books.
  6. The opening sentences of chapter 4 include: "But first the Territorials dropped out. The strain of being referred to on the music-hall stage as Teddy-boys was too much for them."
  7. Mitchell, Mitch (19 February 2019). "A brief history of the Teddy Boys". RS21. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  8. Davies, Andrew, 1962 February 8- (2008). Gangs of Manchester : the story of the scuttlers. Wrea Green: Milo. ISBN 978-1-903854-81-5. OCLC 213858221.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. Gelder, Ken; Sarah Thornton (1997). The Subcultures Reader. Editors. Routledge. p. 401. ISBN 0-415-12727-0.
  10. Cross, Robert J. "The Teddy Boy as Scapegoat" (PDF). Doshisha University Academic Depsitory: 22. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  11. Travis, Alan (24 August 2002). "After 44 years secret papers reveal truth about five nights of violence in Notting Hill". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-12-14.
  12. "St Ann's riot: The changing face of race relations, 60 years on". BBC News. 2018-08-25. Retrieved 2020-11-28.
  13. Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep
  14. "The Teddy Boy Movement". Black Cat Rockabilly Europe. Black Cat Rockabilly Europe. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  15. "The Edwardian Teddy Boy Dress". The Great British Teddy Boy. THE GREAT BRITISH TEDDY BOY. Archived from the original on 2012-09-17. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  16. "Teddy Girls". Subculture List. 2013. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
  17. "The Forgotten 1950s Girl Gang". Messynessychic.com. February 10, 2013. Retrieved 2013-08-08. These are one of just a few known collections of documented photographs of the first British female youth culture ever to exist. In 1955, Ken Russell, then a freelance photographer, was introduced to Josie Buchan, a Teddy Girl who introduced him to some of her friends. Russell photographed them and one other group in Notting Hill. After his photographs were published in a small magazine in 1955, Russell's photographs remained unseen for over half a century. He became a successful film director in the meantime. In 2005, his archive was rediscovered, and so were the Teddy Girls.
  18. "Bombsite Boudiccas – History of the London Teddy Girls". The Edwardian Teddy Boy. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
  19. "Teddy Girls". History is made at night. 31 December 2008. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
  20. Tzenkova, Ani. "Teddy Girls for Oyster Mag by Liz Ham". trendland.com.
  21. Art Monthly Australia in 2010
  22. "British Skiffle Craze". THE GREAT BRITISH TEDDY BOY. THE GREAT BRITISH TEDDY BOY. Archived from the original on 2012-09-17. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
  23. Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 340. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  24. Whitmore, Greg (17 October 2018). "Observer picture archive: teddy boys and teddy girls, 19 June 1955". Observer. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  25. "Blackboard Jungle". Time Out. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  26. George Harrison: Living in the Material World (Motion Picture). Grove Street Pictures and Spitfire Pictures. October 2011. Event occurs at 9 minutes in.
  27. "CHUCK BERRY AND LITTLE RICHARD HEADLINE THE LONDON ROCK & ROLL SHOW 1972". Dangerous Minds. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  28. Harrison, Gerry (20 March 2017). "Chuck wrote history of rock'n'roll music". Guardian. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  29. "Vintage Photographs of Hippies and Teds Gathered at Wembley Stadium for a Rock 'n' Roll Revival Show in 1972". Vintage News Daily. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  30. Westwood, Vivienne. "Let it Rock". Vivienne Westwood.com. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  31. Veness, Alison (16 May 1994). "Teddy-boy style is back: it never went away". Independent. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  32. "CEN Lifestyle : Stage and Screen : Things to see at the 26th Cambridge Film Festival". cambridge-news.co.uk. Archived from the original on 16 September 2006.
  33. "BBC News : World Service : Education : The droogs don't work".
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.