The sixties was the era of Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard and the Beatles. To my friends and me it was either Elvis or Cliff Richard. The Beatles were new than and we thought their hairstyle made them look like one of the Three Stooges. Their songs were also not that pleasing to the ear. The lyrics,we thought,were too simple. It was not music but just four scrawny looking guys banging on their guitars and screaming their heads off. They were not our type of musicians. I was a Cliff Richard fan. But I enjoyed Elvis Presley's songs too. We would tune in to the Royal Australian Air Force radio station,which was based in Butterworth,every evening at 8pm to listen to the latest songs. And than there was Rediffusion, a paid cable radio service, to which my uncle and his friends pooled together and had subscribed. It was from these two stations that we got our music and the latest news of that era. We would cycle down to Chulia Street to buy secondhand music or movie magazines which had stories and pictures of our idols. Chulia Street than had quite a few secondhand book shops and some allowed us to trade-in our used magazines and books for latter issues.
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| Chulia Street Penang |
We would try to dress up like our idols. There were many tailor shops in Penang in those days and making a pair of pants or a shirt will cost between eight and fifteen dollars depending on the quality of the cloth we choose. Of course there were more expensive material imported from Europe but we mostly chose cloth imported from Japan because they were so much cheaper. Most times we would bring along a picture of Elvis Presley or Cliff Richard from movies like Blue Hawaii, Summer Holidays, Girls,Girls,Girls or some other movie to show the tailor and tell him that we want our pants or shirt made exactly like the one the star is wearing in the picture.
Once a friend, called Edward, wanted to order a pair of pants for a talent-time contest he was taking part in. Edward loved to sing Elvis Presley songs and we thought he was good. So one day Edward and I went to a tailor shop on Dato Keramat Road called Sin Sin Tailor. After the usual measurements were taken Edward took out a picture of Elvis and told the tailor that he wanted his pants to be tailored just like the one Elvis is wearing in the picture. The tailor, upon hearing what Edward had said, went silent for a moment, stared at Edward with wide eyes and than dropped the chalk and the measuring tape he was holding and walked briskly to the rear of the shop. Edward looked at me and I at him wondering why the man had run off like that without saying a word. Than came loud laughter from the back like someone had gone bonkers. Meanwhile his two workers were just carrying on with their work on the sewing machines like nothing had happened. They did not, even for a moment, turn and look at us either. And we were wondering what next,whether to stay or exit as fast as possible for we knew why the tailorman was laughing. Than he came back, a good fifteen minutes latter. He looked at Edward and said that he will try his best to make the pants exactly like the one Elvis Presley is wearing in the picture and than suddenly, before he could complete the sentence,burst out laughing again. We decided to leave the place as fast as we could. As we walked out the door of that tailor shop I could still hear the tailor laughing his head off. Edward made me promise to keep what happened a secret from our friends. And I have kept that secret until today.
Once a friend, called Edward, wanted to order a pair of pants for a talent-time contest he was taking part in. Edward loved to sing Elvis Presley songs and we thought he was good. So one day Edward and I went to a tailor shop on Dato Keramat Road called Sin Sin Tailor. After the usual measurements were taken Edward took out a picture of Elvis and told the tailor that he wanted his pants to be tailored just like the one Elvis is wearing in the picture. The tailor, upon hearing what Edward had said, went silent for a moment, stared at Edward with wide eyes and than dropped the chalk and the measuring tape he was holding and walked briskly to the rear of the shop. Edward looked at me and I at him wondering why the man had run off like that without saying a word. Than came loud laughter from the back like someone had gone bonkers. Meanwhile his two workers were just carrying on with their work on the sewing machines like nothing had happened. They did not, even for a moment, turn and look at us either. And we were wondering what next,whether to stay or exit as fast as possible for we knew why the tailorman was laughing. Than he came back, a good fifteen minutes latter. He looked at Edward and said that he will try his best to make the pants exactly like the one Elvis Presley is wearing in the picture and than suddenly, before he could complete the sentence,burst out laughing again. We decided to leave the place as fast as we could. As we walked out the door of that tailor shop I could still hear the tailor laughing his head off. Edward made me promise to keep what happened a secret from our friends. And I have kept that secret until today.
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| Dato Keramat Road - Penang |
We would bring along pictures of the stars when visiting our barbers too and telling them that we want our hair trimmed or cut just like Elvis Presley's or Cliff Richard's as in the picture. There were many a times that we got slaps on the back of our heads from our barbers for such requests.
