Anne Scott and Pamela Johnson

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It's True

Girls like ANNE SCOTT and PAMELA JOHNSON really do go for those mod longs, and we’re as surprised as you.

Helen Milligan

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Helen Brodie (Milligan)

One for all you D.K. fans of the lovely HELEN BRODIE.

Span No 200 - April 1971

Sadie Milligan

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But You're A Big Girl Now

Little girls are the enchanting subject of the song.

When SADIE MILLIGAN was a little girl, she was a terror. Well, that's what all the other little girls said, but as for the little boys, ah, that's different. They shared their apples with her, and Billy always gave her half his jelly babies.

Sadie looked ever so cute reading her children's book in front of her slate.

But you're a big girl now, Sadie. I know I am (said Sadie) but I still like to wear my old-fashioned knickers. They remind me of Santa Claus in his red flannel nightgown.

If you can see the connection, we can't.

It must be something to do with having a warm, cosy childhood when you're a little girl.

Beautiful Britons No 192 - November 1971

Diane Clarke

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It's No Joke - She Means It

Beauty queen DIANE CLARKE isn't kidding you with her Long Johns. She means it. She likes them. They remind her of the bygone days of the 1920's, her favourite historical era, when the young people first thought up all the mad things to do. Diane is a Middlesex girl and likes to feel warm in winter.

Spick and Span Extra No 35 - Summer 1970

Janet Neill and Sadie Milligan

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An Update from Saltcoats

Janet Neill was born in 1937 in Kilwinning, just a couple of miles northeast of Saltcoats. She married George Fleming on 30th March 1959 at Barony Church in Ardrossan, which was recently sold and is now being redeveloped. At the time of her marriage to George, Janet was living at 4 Galloway Place - a small, terraced house not far from the sea front in Saltcoats - and was working as a Dental Nurse. What’s interesting to note on her marriage certificate is that Sadie Milligan is one of her witnesses.

Sadie (Sarah) Milligan was born in 1938 in Ardrossan. She married Patrick McAteer on 4th August 1962, and was married at the same church as Janet in Ardrossan. At the time of her marriage, she was living at 3 Caledonia Road Ardrossan - though it looks to me like the original house is now gone. Her profession is shown as an Explosives Process Worker; there was a large explosive factory in Ardeer just south of Saltcoats.

I often wonder, as I put things together and look at the local area, how they met and became friends. Janet was on the scene much earlier than Sadie, first appearing in May 1956. Sadie’s first pictures were not seen until June 1958, some 2 years later. Sadie, of course, was roughly 2 years younger than Janet, but both girls would have been about 19 or 20 years old for their first photo shoots. It certainly does make you think who else might have worked at the Explosives Factory, as it was such a large local employer. Julie Scott appeared in a couple of two-girl sets with Sadie, so perhaps she worked at the Explosives Factory as well.

You can just image the talk that went on during breaks about showing your stockings and knickers to a local photographer for some extra cash! I wonder if they are both still with us; Janet would be about 83 now and just full of great stories to tell us all.

The pictures of Janet are taken from Span No 54 February 1959 - just a month before she was married; what a lucky man George Fleming was!

The pictures of Sadie are from Spick No 105 and Beautiful Britons No 82, both published in August 1962 - the same month that Sadie was married. Oddly, both sets are of her in Directoire Knickers and in magazines published in the summer; not sure what that was saying to Patrick, her new husband!

Both girls though went on to appear in ToCo publications after they were married, so it was presumably something that their husbands approved of.

From Wikipedia

The Ardeer peninsula was the site of a massive dynamite manufacturing plant built by Alfred Bernhard Nobel. Having scoured the country for a remote location to establish his explosive factory, Nobel finally acquired 100 acres from the Earl of Eglinton, and established the British Dynamite Factory in 1871, and went on to create what was described then as the largest explosives factory in the world. The factory had its own jetty on the River Garnock in Irvine Harbour serving ships disposing of time expired explosives or importing materials for the works.

At its peak, the site employed almost 13,000 workers in a fairly remote location and had its own railway station. The station was used solely for workers and those special visitors with business in the ICI plant, and was never a regular passenger stop. Until the mid-1960s, there were two trains per day to transport workers. Although the line no longer exists, the abandoned platform remains, hidden beneath dense undergrowth.

Many thanks to David for researching this.

Dawn Grayson

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Cover Girl

Well-known as a girl who adorns many glossy magazine cover is photographic model DAWN GRAYSON.

Beautiful Britons No 122 - January 1966

Joan Paul

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Good For A Giggle

We know many a girl finds a pair of Long Johns just right for helping her to stave off the goosepimples in the depths of winter, but when you come to look at them, fellers you can’t deny they’re good for a giggle.

In fact, if the comical gentry running the shows at the Pier Theatre during the summer season want to make sure the house splits itself in half from time to time, they’ll always think up a sketch in which the heroine wears Long Johns and is, moreover, seen to be wearing them.

We can’t laugh at JOAN PAUL, though, she’d be ever so upset, and we’ve always been good friends up to now.

Her white Long Johns aren’t her only pair, you know.

Can’t help giggling, can you, really?

Helen Candlish

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Oops!

Well, that’s the way it goes when pretty HELEN CANDLISH decides to do a spot of sun-bathing in a recalcitrant deckchair.

The sun’s right, and so is Helen. The only thing giving any real trouble is the chair. Helen may look as if she's sorted it out satisfactorily, but appearances are always deceptive.

There we are and all we can say to Helen is how simple she was to allow herself to be let down this away. Think of any recalcitrant deckchair and you’re on the track of one darned bump after another.

Ah, well, aplomb restored and there are no ladders and no tears. No one can take a bump and come up with this kind of smile like Helen can.

Beautiful Britons No 70 - August 1961

Joy Carlton

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Just Right - But For What ?

You can either take them or leave them. JOY CARLTON took them but she still isn’t sure of the most suitable occasion on which to wear her new longs. Just for a cold day, perhaps!

Betty McBride

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The Reason Why

Scots girl BETTY McBRIDE could only give one reason why she sported the now-fashionable old-fashioned longs—they keep her warm, she says, when the weather is either windy or cold or both. All we can say to that is well, well.

In America it’s the fashion to wear this type of garment for Twisting, but in the snowy wastes of Greenland the Eskimos wear them for the same reason as Betty!

Betty is no Eskimo. She’s a bonny Ayrshire lassie who can’t help looking cute whatever the weather or the apparel.

Span No 95 - July 1962

Wendy Luton

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Weather Conscious

We can state quite categorically that no people are more weather conscious than the British —unfortunately, we have to be and at the moment WENDY LUTON is conscious the mostest, if you’ll pardon our English. Rubber raincoat to keep off the rain and long bloomers to keep out the cold, and garters to stop her nylons falling down. Marvellous. Or is it?

Span No 123 - November 1964

Janette Goodman

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You, Too ?

Yes, indeed, It’s JANETTE GOODMAN, too, who has fallen for the current old-fashioned look, which only goes to show that fashion is something a bright girl can’t afford not to be seen in.

This seems to indicate that yesterday’s long look can be today’s top look, but there you are—what’s new is new even if it’s old.

Janette should know. As a fashion model she has to be up with the leaders, never mind what they’re wearing in a Persian market.

This “how-do-I-look” smile from Janette is kind of rhetorical—for she’s sure she looks good. Let’s face it, she’s in the fashion.