One of my friends had a letter in yesterday’s Indo concerning the current controversy over Communion and Confirmation ceremonies. He was reminiscing about his Communion treat, which was to be taken to see the Davy Crockett film, and how he always craved a Davy Crockett coonskin hat. Coincidentally I had been thinking about my Confirmation treat…
I was reading an account of the death of Marilyn Monroe. It mentioned her connection with Ben Lyon, and the radio series Life With the Lyons in which Ben starred with his wife, Bebe Daniels. We always listened to this programme on Sunday afternoons. It must have been in the 1950s. Ben Lyon had worked with Vic Oliver on radio. I saw Vic Oliver in the Theatre Royal once. It was my Confirmation treat, so that would have been 1960. My parents were given free tickets for the Vic Oliver show in the Theatre Royal as a reward for purchasing kitchen furniture in Cavendish’s store in Grafton Street where you could buy on the never-never. The furniture was a green Formica-topped table and four green chairs covered in Rexine, a leather-substitute material that was the last word in chic. The table and the chairs were objects of wonder and pride when they were delivered to our home. They had tubular steel legs which were also all the rage. One of my friends watched on in amazement as they were unloaded from the truck and asked incredulously “Are them for yous?” One of the neighbours who was invited in to admire them, declared her passion for “tubercular steel” furniture. When I entertained one of my schoolmates, Paddy Kelly, to tea he helpfully pointed out that the table was a health hazard because the table top had a metal surround under which germs could lodge. They probably included the tuberculosis bacillus.
The Cavendish store was great. We went there every week to pay instalments on the furniture. The office was downstairs in the basement. Peggy Dell played piano there. She was promoting the sale of pianos which could also be purchased on the never-never. Peggy had much earlier in her career played the piano in Woolworths, further up Grafton Street, to promote the sale of sheet music, but had gone on to better things in England and the States where she played with the Jack Hylton band. She was back in the doldrums now and my parents would say how sad it was that she had ended up playing the piano in Cavendish’s. Except that she didn’t end up there. She had a second coming after Gay Byrne re-discovered her and she went on to host her own TV series on RTE and had several hit records.
Vic Oliver died in his early 60s. He had married Churchill’s daughter, much to Churchill’s dismay. Churchill once told him that the man he most admired was Mussolini. When he asked why, Churchill said that Mussolini had the good sense to have his son-in-law murdered.
The green table and chairs remained part of my parents’ household until my parents died. When we were clearing out my mother’s flat we consigned the kitchen suite to a skip, tubercular legs and all. No-one asked “Are them for yous?”
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