Classic 50s autographs

[SeasideMark]

We get some wonderful pieces of memorabilia brought into the shop by people but very often what makes them so wonderful is not what they actually are, but the story behind them.
So it is with this fantastic collection of 1950s autographs brought in by a gentleman from Prestatyn earlier this week.
The autographs are by some of the greatest players of that era – Preston’s Tom Finney, Blackpool’s Stanley Matthews, Wales legends John Charles and Trevor Ford, Bolton’s Nat Lofthouse, Sunderland’s mercurial Len Shackleton plus dozens of other well-known names – but it is how they were acquired that makes them so interesting.
As a child, this gentleman’s mother made sure that the school summer holidays were memorable and so the first two weeks were spent in the opulent surroundings of London’s Strand Palace hotel, they would then tour Europe for a month before returning to the Strand for another week or two and then head back to Prestatyn.
In these days of online booking, e-mail or a quick visit to the travel agents, which we take for granted, sorting a holiday of that scale out in 1956 required a trip to Thomas Cook in Liverpool where the whole day would be spent at their offices making arrangements.
Shortly after, a large box would arrive containing all the necessary documentation, tickets, paperwork, passports and visas for the trip, all in order, all perfectly correct in every last detail.
Have we made progress since? Perhaps not!
In the summer of 1956 this 12-year-old boy decided to take advantage of the Strand Palace’s free stationery and postage stamps and write to all his footballing heroes enclosing an SAE so when he returned to Prestatyn the doormat would be full of envelopes for him.
Amazingly, of the letters he sent not one of the clubs or players let him down – all wrote back with their autographs on the slips or cuttings he provided. Again highly unlikely in this modern age.
The pictures attached tell their own end to the story…enjoy!

[Fishy]

Lovely collection and great story Mark.

Thanks for sharing.
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Millwall league AWAYS wanted
45/6 Newport; Swansea; Leicester.
47/8 Coventry.
48/9 Newport.
49/0 Walsall; Exeter.
50/1 Port Vale.
51/2 Port Vale 1/5.
52/3 Swindon.