1953

Ron and Muzz exhausted after playing three concerts a day in London arrive at their billets. Hillary and Margaret greet them at the door scantily clad. Their father is the drummer with the Stanley Black Orchestra. They are dancers with the Follie’s Bergere in Paris and its counterpart the Windmill in London. When Hillary asks Muzz what time he wants to get knocked up in the morning he has no idea what she means but thinks he’s died and gone to heaven.

During a heart to heart Hillary tells them she is going to Paris for the weekend with a member of the London mob. He told her he would give her a Jaguar if she went. She did and he did, quite the fast ladies for eighteen and nineteen. They run around the house scantily clad and knock on their door at just the right time.

One landlady schemes to get money from Delamont. She thinks she can fool him into paying for a damaged cot one boy supposedly jumped on and collapsed but she is exposed for her larceny. Seems it was already broken and held up by string. But Delamont isn’t as amused when he has to keep handing out letters with SMACK written on them sent by girls who follow the boys from town to town. It means So Much In Love With You and is a code from the war days.

Arthur and some of the older boys discuss letting Lorne carry on establishing a relationship with an older woman. It might get out of hand. He decides it must end. At a concert Arthur says people think his boys are not really boys after all. He asks Lorne to stand up and tells the audience he is only sixteen. The older woman is in the audience.

The boys and Arthur charter a plane and fly to Paris. Arthur tells them to get into groups and go find accommodation. Gerry, Ian and Russ walk for miles before running into a gorgeous young Parisian. She tells them her family has a small hotel and it is getting dark so she is too beautiful to pass up. Their room has a wrought iron balcony and from his bed Gerry can see a searchlight playing in the night sky. When he opens his eyes in the morning his heart skips a beat as he gazes upon the Eiffel Tower. The next five days are the most wondrous of his life.

Ed meets someone new. The owner of a music store takes him into a back room. There sits legendary musician Charlie Parker and he stays for an hour talking to him.

When the boys arrive in a new town for a week usually on a Sunday night, they are given their billet’s address and their bags and set out on their own to find it. Be at the Hippodrome or the Palace in the morning says Mr. D. It is the same for every week of the trip just a new town and a new theatre. They are in vaudeville, and that’s theatre routine.

Kenny and others visit the Lyceum in Charing Cross and hear the Oscar Rabin Band. The Teddy boys see them coming. But they welcome the boys and tell them to dance with their birds.

Quotes from Ambassadors of Empire Season 3, Episode 2:

“Do you take this bride?” Wham! Wham! The gun goes off! Arthur almost jumped out of his shoes. The audience cheered so it became a part of the act. It was fantastic!”

“Up and down, up and down.”

“Why don’t we go from here to the stern.”

“The effect was electrifying.”

“Be at rehearsal at 10am at the Hippodrome on Monday.”

“Throw it down here and they will correct it for you.”

“No, don’t worry the basses will play it by ear.”

“Tn three and a half months, we played 175 stage, theatre and concert performances.”

“In Blackpool we played before a crowd of 3500. Crooner Frank Sinatra only had a few hundred.”

“Boys, I thank you from the bottom of my heart and from my wife’s bottom too.”

“If you know so much why don’t you take over the band.”

“We should all pay $300 out of our pocket.”

“I’m not going there again.”

“Oh yes you are!”

“Would you come back to Hollywood with me?”

“Do you want to meet someone?’

“Would you believe that Lorne is only sixteen.”

“Ah here’s the can-i-dians. The boys are here. You dance with my bird.”

“What time do you want to get knocked up in the morning?”

“How was the accommodation in Paris?”