Looking Back: Sheffield Girl - The First 19¾ YEARS

THE STRATFORD COURT HOTEL - AUGUST 1962

Dolcis have a shoe sale on, and I've bought myself a pair of white, pearlised shoes with 3" heels, how I'll walk in them I don't know, but they are so pretty and feminine, I just had to have them. They have been reduced from 49/11 (£2.50) to 35/-. (£1.75)

Friday, 27th July - Went to The Comedy Theatre with Kathy, to see 'The Promise', we got quite a surprise when we saw Mr. Frawley in the cast, he's a guest at 'Stratter's', and I don't know who was the most surprised, when our eyes met over the footlights!

One of my favourite places of entertainment, and not just because it's free, is The Paris, in Regent Street, where the lunchtime programme "Go Man Go" is recorded. It's great fun, people who can only listen in on the radio, don't know what they are missing! I like singer Colin Day, who is tall and handsome, with a mass of blonde curly hair, also Clinton Ford, who's very funny and sings great jazz. Kenny Ball, or another super jazz group are also usually on the show.

August

Friday, 3rd - Working late, but not very busy so Mr. Niederer came in the switchroom to have his tea, he stayed ages chatting, finally, I just had to ask him his first name - it's Eugen, when I told him my name, he told me that both his mother and his sister are also called Frieda!! His sister is known as Friedel (little Frieda) so I am to be known as Friedeli - littlest Frieda! Now what was that saying about everything happening in threes??? I confess to being quite thrilled at this surprising coincidence.

The evenings on the switchboard can sometimes stretch out interminably, so I have taken up knitting again, when Eugen saw me knitting away, he jokingly asked if I would knit a sweater for him - would I!! I lost no time - the next day I popped next door into Marshall & Snelgrove to check out knitting patterns, selected three and showed them to Eugen for him to choose which one he wanted. He seemed a little surprised, but pleased that I intended to knit for him. (Get in there girl, don't you waste any time!)

My happiness did not last very long, a blast from the past arrived at 'Stratter's in the shape of the very glamorous Miss Smith. It seems she had worked at 'Stratter's a while ago, and had, in the meantime been working in Jamaica, where she had acquired the most marvellous tan, along with her coal black hair, dark lashes and beautifully made up eyes, she looked like a poor man's Elizabeth Taylor, and just as sophisticated. I was insanely jealous! And unnerved by the interest she seemed to be taking in Eugen. All it needed was the short-tempered Mr. Gold, one of our live-in guests, to have a go at me and I burst into tears! But I needn't have worried. The next day, we were all having lunch together, including the glamorous Miss Smith, Eugen became the focus of her attention, bombarding him with questions, I was quietly dying, not only from my self inflicted misery, but because I knew Eugen would not care for this invasion into his privacy. She had asked Eugen more questions about himself in ten minutes, than I had dared to ask in 2 months! And it was obvious from his demeanour that he was not best pleased. When she got up and left, he turned to me and cried in exasperation "God - that woman, who does she think she is!" I was still envious of the glamour and sophistication, exuded by Miss Smith, not to mention her long and beautifully painted nails, but the thought that Eugen couldn't stand the sight of her, made me feel a whole lot better! (Now what was that about beauty only being skin deep...?)

There are three 'live in' residents at 'Stratter's', who go by the glorious names of Gold, Silver and Diamond! The afore-mentioned Mr. Gold, owns a strip club in Soho, I don't see him too often, which I am pleased about. Whilst his telephone manner is absolutely appalling - he yells and screams if he's not answered immediately, and he's always complaining, when we meet in the front hall, butter wouldn't melt! But I disliked him on sight, he's short and ugly, I felt my clothes fall in shreds around my feet, as his eyes, hard and stony, stripped me to the bone!

I think I saw Mr. Silver twice during the two years I worked at The Stratford Court, I don't know what he did for a living, but he was genial enough, most of the time we hardly knew he was there. I didn't see Mr. Diamond that much either, but I remember him well enough, because he was such an odd character. Tall and thin, a mass of black wavy hair escaped from beneath the bowler hat he always wore, forever in a rush, he'd take the stairs two at a time and as he ran across the front hall, his long, gangly legs seemed to go in all directions. He struck me as being a man uncomfortable with himself, and the rest of the world. I'm sure he thought that all this rushing around made him invisible, when in fact it did just the opposite. I once had occasion to stop him in full flight, to pass on a message, he became all of a fluster that someone had actually noticed him, and I saw a painfully shy, and rather vulnerable person. Mitch, the head porter, told me that he was a brilliant man - 'something in the City'.

Monday 6th - Me'n Kathy are already in demand to do overtime at the other hotels in the group, today I went round to the Londoner Hotel, further along Welbeck Street, to do an extra evening shift. Kathy is working overtime at another hotel too, and Eugen is on the late shift at Stratters. The telephone wires are red hot as we spend the evening ringing each other as we have heard that Marylyn Monroe has committed suicide and we are absolutely devastated. It's just so hard to believe that such a popular and beautiful woman could do that. I even ring the newspapers in an attempt to find out as much as I can. Little do we know, that it will become a mystery that will go on and on...

Continued...

Copyright © Freda Brown.