| Author |
Message |
Lynne (Lynne)
| | Posted on Thursday, March 31, 2005 - 11:50 pm: |       |
I recall it being a brief fad in the UK for and there is a reason for that
Was it a seasonal thing, and by the time the next year's season came round there was something else to replace it?
Was it the character's 'signature'? Was he replaced by someone else? Was he written out of the show? |
Simon Downham (Beroean)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 12:00 am: | |
"I recall it being a brief fad in the UK for and there is a reason for that"
Was it a seasonal thing, and by the time the next year's season came round there was something else to replace it? No - you have already identified the reason - a TV personality popularised it on TV. By me describing it as brief, it could be misleading. I am only going by my childhood memory.
Was it the character's 'signature'? Yes
replaced by someone else? No
written out of the show? It might have disappeared from later series but certainly not forgotten
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I remember going to Weymouth for a weeks summer holiday in the sixties and every teenager / young adult who wore long hair also had a "cowbell" about the size of a walnut whip strung around their neck. It seemed that you weren't hip (cool) unless you had one of these dangling and dingling as you strode up and down the sea front. It seemed that these bells were taking over the World!
I have since wondered how widespread the craze was and how long it lasted - just one summer I expect.
Do you remember the gonks? |
Lynne (Lynne)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 12:06 am: | |
My husband had a bell, I walked around barefoot with fringes on my jeans, but that was the extent of my hippydom, but I do remember Gonks.
Was it a British sitcom or an import? |
Simon Downham (Beroean)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 12:14 am: | |
My husband had a bell, I walked around barefoot with fringes on my jeans, but that was the extent of my hippydom, but I do remember Gonks. Wow - you two were real hippies!
Was it a British sitcom or an import? British 100% |
Lynne (Lynne)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 12:22 am: | |
My husband was a fully fledged hippy with all that that entailed, but I was too young - by the time I left school the Summer of Love was long since gone
I can't remember watching many sitcoms in the 60s, too busy falling asleep over my homework. Was it on in the early or later evening? |
Simon Downham (Beroean)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 12:30 am: | |
I can't remember watching many sitcoms in the 60s, too busy falling asleep over my homework. Was it on in the early or later evening?
Now that's a question. I suspect it was early to mid evening.
Maybe 8.00pm |
Ed Mason (Logician)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 12:34 am: | |
Is the character eponymous to the series?
Is this character male? female?
Is the actor / actress British? Is s/he best known for this series? Or is there something for which s/he is better known? Is this series the only thing that s/he is famous for? |
Lynne (Lynne)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 12:35 am: | |
Now, Top of the Pops was at 7.30 on a Thursday - was it just afterwards? 
Was it set in a home?
Terry and June? |
Lynne (Lynne)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 12:35 am: | |
Harry Worth doing that leg lifting thing with a the reflection in a shop window? |
Simon Downham (Beroean)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 12:40 am: | |
Ed
Is the character eponymous to the series? Yes
Is this character male? female? Male
Is the actor / actress British? He is British
Is s/he best known for this series? Yes
Or is there something for which s/he is better known? no - except for the thing that the puzzle hinges on
Is this series the only thing that s/he is famous for? no
Lynne
Was it set in a home? noish
Terry and June? no
Harry Worth doing that leg lifting thing with a the reflection in a shop window? Well done!
spoiler coming up |
Lynne (Lynne)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 12:42 am: | |
LOL - yes I did that - as did my kids many years later (but probably because they copied their Dad)  |
Simon Downham (Beroean)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 12:46 am: | |
*********************** SPOILER *******************
Harry Worth 01
Harry Worth 02
Harry WOrth 03 |
Simon Downham (Beroean)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 12:51 am: | |
Well if you did that Lynne, so far I am gratified to know that I have 1/4 correct.
I would be very interested to get feedback from all the other puzzlers.
1. Have you ever done this?
2. What did you call it?
3. Did you know of Harry Worth? |
Simon Downham (Beroean)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 1:01 am: | |
With this link you can play the original opening sequence with Harry doing "The Harry Worth" as seen in the photo. There is a Real player Link called Harry Worth title video clip |
Ed Mason (Logician)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 1:05 am: | |
1. No I haven't - but this is only because I have never had the chance to, never having had access a full length self-supported mirror like that.
2. I would have called it, 'That cool levitation thing-a-ma-jig'
3. I didn't know it was Harry Worth, I just knew that *someone* did it. |
Simon Downham (Beroean)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 1:10 am: | |
Thanks for the feedback Ed - dare I say it 2 ouut of 4?
Actually all you need is a shop window or a patio door for the illusion to work - dead cynch every time. Sometimes even a shiny door in the house will work
Give it a go tomorrow and get someone to watch you
|
Lynne (Lynne)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 1:11 am: | |
Psst Ed - you use a shop window. Yes, you do this in public - now I wonder whether Simon has been told off by his 14 year old daughter recently. "Oh Daaaaaaad" |
Simon Downham (Beroean)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 1:16 am: | |
Lynne, you are perfectly right of course, I am forever being told off by my daughter. She finds me a complete embarassment and that "Oh Daaaaaad" is has been more prevalent just recently
|
Ed Mason (Logician)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 1:21 am: | |
lol, I'll try and get a chance to
And 2 out of 4? Well, maybe I've done it in spirit... |
David Burn (Woubit)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 1:34 am: | |
I have seen the Harry Worth show, but I am abashed to confess that I have never tried to emulate the great man. You see, I try to stay as far away as I can from shops, of whatever persuasion.
Good puzzle, though |
Fred Z (Dref)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 5:21 am: | |
Uh, well, I have to admit this is totally new to me. I don't go for fads, myself. Now I have to go, the operation to remove all those goldfish from my stomach is about to start. |
Birgitta Ericsson (Brid)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 6:57 am: | |
I've seen this described as "the live jumping jack" in a book from around 1900. Probably tried it out myself, too.
Anyway, what are (or is, or were, or was) gonks? |
Simon Downham (Beroean)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 1:32 pm: | |
"I have never tried to emulate the great man." Okay so that means that I have scored just 2 out of 3 so far. I'm just waiting on Sciguy now.
What about everyone else - have you ever done "The Harry Worth" or "The Live Jumping Jack" or 'That cool levitation thing-a-ma-jig' even?
Brid, as for gonks they were around in the 70's I think. They were cheap, plastic, troll looking creatures with long hair. They were really quite grotesque and I could never understand the reason for the fad. I've tried to find a picture of one but cannot find one yet. They varied in size but were mostly quite small and I remeber kids sticking them on the end of their pencils. |
Simon Downham (Beroean)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 1:43 pm: | |
Brid - here we are - a link to pictures of some "Gonks"!
Here are some GONKS
I also notice that there are scores on ebay and they are selling under the name of TROLLS
My word there seems to be a craze for them in the States - there are hundreds of them for sale |
Johanna (Buzzard)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 1:45 pm: | |
I have done such a thing, but not with a shop window - I have a vague recollection of some science museum somewhere with such a mirror set up for such a purpose. And this is the first that I have heard of Harry Worth. |
Barbara Johannessen Bailey (Rabrab)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 5:05 pm: | |
I don't recall ever doing it, and I've never heard of Harry Worth either.
Troll dolls have been an on-going thing here in the States for, oh, decades. Their popularity rises and falls in waves, but they've never gone completely out of fashion since at least the 60's and probably earlier than that. |
Simon Downham (Beroean)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 7:58 pm: | |
This could have been a good spoiler |
Simon Downham (Beroean)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 8:05 pm: | |
It's interesting to hear that 2 out 3 Americans had not heard of "The Harry Worth" or "The Live Jumping Jack" or 'That cool levitation thing-a-ma-jig', Johanna being the exception |
Lynne (Lynne)
| | Posted on Friday, April 01, 2005 - 8:39 pm: | |
I remember Trolls as being different to Gonks. I understood them to be Scandinavian in origin. Some friends had dozens of them in lots of different sizes.
The gonk pictures in Google all seem to show a two part plastic thingy, but I remember gonks as creatures that were all hair - no body that you could see, just vague facial features. I had one in lurid turquoise nylon 'hair'. |
Lynne (Lynne)
| | Posted on Saturday, April 02, 2005 - 8:36 am: | |
Thinking about it overnight - as you do when you can't sleep! - I remember now that Gonks were more like flat round stuffed toys and we often made our own. I'm not sure that I actually had one, but they've been described as the Telytubbies of the 60s and were 'everywhere'.
This is not a good image of a Gonk, but I think my hairy thing was a Cousin It.
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=69854&item=6167003975&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW |
Harry (Harry)
New member
Username: Harry
Post Number: 1
Registered: 4-2008
| | Posted on Friday, April 25, 2008 - 3:45 pm: | |
The shop window that Harry used was in St Annes Sq in Manchester which alas is now a Starbucks coffee shop. The shop next door however still has an identical window , so go and try it - I did |
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