The Teddy Boy in Britain

After the deprived years of the Second World War, in Britain a rebellious streak was showing in young people. This manifested itself in many ways, the most peculiar being a fashion for young men that was a throwback to the Edwardian era. The Teddy Boy was born.

In an effort to bring a little gaiety to their lives, young people started spending money on a fashion that really belonged to them. The first Teddy Boy suits were made in 1951 in London, but it was a few years before this bizarre style of dress found popularity throughout Britain.

Basically the Teddy Boy's garb consisted of tightly tapered high-waist stove-pipe trousers worn with thick soled square-toed shoes. The jacket was a long drape coat to almost knee length, with velvet lapels and padded shoulders. The favourite colour was black.

Often there was a double breasted waistcoat to set off the suit, together with a bootlace in place of a tie. These bootlace ties were clipped at the neck with a brooch bearing initials, a skull or similar motif.

The Teddy Boy's hair was worn long. Sometimes it flopped forward on the forehead in a jumble of greasy curls, or it was carefully blow waved to stick out in front like an elephant's trunk.

The "Tony Curtis" was also popular at this time. Alternatively the hair would be brushed back in various styles, such as the "Boston." Another much-worn style was the "D.A." so called because the hair was brushed back to resemble a "Duck's Arse."

The hooligan element - previously known as Spivs or Cosh Boys - took an immediate fancy to this new trend. Unfortunately, this led to "Teddy Boy" becoming a synonym for Juvenile Delinquent.

Even at the beginning of the 1960s, some six years after the zenith of Teddy Boy fashions, the Teddy Boy tag was still associated with teenage mischief makers.

In spite of the lavishness of grooming and dress flaunted by the Teds, there was still at that period in the 1950s a prevailing interest in sport. On Saturdays gangs of youths would congregate in station forecourts bound for a kickabout at an amateur football match.

Then in the evenings the Teds would make their way to the dance halls, but the dancing was still the dull perambulating called Waltz, Quickstep and Foxtrot.

Not having the inclination nor the nature to indulge in the dainty steps of ballroom dancing, the Teds shuffled about in their own lolloping manner.

Seeing this, enterprising band leaders - Ken Macintosh among them - decided they should do something about the shiftless grunting mass on the dance floors. And so The Creep was born.

The Creep was much too slow and dreary to last, but for a few months it appealed to the Teddy Boy populace. However, the faint beat of a new sound sweeping the USA was being heard in Britain.

With the rebellious streak of teenagers being exploited on cinema screens in quaint Hollywood dramas of Juvenile Delinquency, the Teds pricked up their ears to the new noise.

In 1955 an American film called Blackboard Jungle came to Britain. In shots from this, youngsters were seen bopping in their schoolroom to a background of a reedy voice and honking saxophone exhorting them to "Rock!" The voice was Bill Haley's and the song was Rock Around The Clock.

The Teddy Boy generation had found an anthem.