31. Cliff Richard makes his big screen debut
29 June, 1959While Cliff went on to star in some of the most successful British films of all time, his movie debut was in a supporting role in
a film called Serious Charge which was directed by Terrence Young who went on to direct the early
James Bond films.
The films story dealt with a vicar (Anthony Quayle) who helps a juvenille delinquent (Andrew Ray) who turns around and accuses him of indecent assult. Cliff played the delinquent's younger brother Curly, mainly due to the fact producer Mickey Delamar felt a rock'n'roll soundtrack was needed to broaden the appeal of the movie in a time when homosexuality was a taboo subject.
Lionel Bart wrote the songs, including one which was to become Cliff's first No.1 hit single.
32. Cliff and the Shadows hit No.1 for the first time
July, 1959
While Serious Charge wasn't the film which launched Cliff as a major film star, it did produce a song that was in many ways as important to his career as
Move It: Living Doll.
Originally this song was an up tempo number that Cliff and the Drifters hated, until one night while sitting around in a dressing room in Sheffield Bruce Welch started strumming through the song when he had the flash 'Why don't we do this as a country number?'
Not only did this record become Cliff's first No.1 single selling almost two million copies, it signalled a broadening of his career from a purely rock'n'roll singer to an all-round entertainer who could
tackle almost any kind of material. This helped him weather changing musical tastes and appeal to larger audience than his contempories.
It was also around this time that the Drifters became the Shadows.
33. First Car
August, 1959
Through car mechanic Ronnie Ernstone who Cliff had met at an EMI studio party, Cliff organised in August 1959 to purchase his first in a long line of cars.
Cliff's first car was a grey Sunbeam Alpine with red leather seats, which he would later trade in for a Thunderbird. He still counts automobiles as one of his major vices.
34. Expresso Bongo premieres
20 November, 1959
Cliff's second movie once again saw him take a supporting role, however Expresso Bongo was a more successful and critically accepted film than his last effort.
In this film Cliff played a character named Bongo Herbert who is exploited by an unscrupulous manager (played by Laurence Harvey) and latched on to by a fading movie star (Yolande Donlan). Eventually he sends to have the contract with his agent nullified, but Harvey's character simply picks himself up in search of the next Bongo Herbert.
The film was originally created as a satire of the career of Tommy Steele's rise to fame, and much of it was shot in the 2i's coffee bar where Cliff had performed the previous year.
35. Cliff and the Shadows release second album
November, 1959
Reflecting a broadening of his career which started with Living Doll, Cliff Sings further cemented Cliff and the Shadows as entertainers rather than a purely rock'n'roll act. This album contrasted rock hits such as
Blue Suede Shoes with standards such as Embraceable You recorded with the Norrie Paramor Orchestra, showcasing the mix of styles that would guide Cliff's career through the sixties.
36. Cliff presented with first gold disc
17 January, 1960
During Cliff's performance on the television show Sunday Night at the London Palladium, presented Bruce Forsythe presented Cliff with what would be the first of many gold disc for
Living Doll.
Bruce told the audience when the award was being presented, 'Ladies and gentlemen, I just want to announce that Cliff's
Living Doll has sold a million.'
The broadcast also drew nineteen million viewers which was a record for a light entertainment program.
37. America welcomes Cliff and the Shadows
18 January, 1960
While his only impact on the charts so far had been Living Doll's No.30 placing,
then-manager Tito Bruns decided Cliff should tour America and eventually signed a deal with Irving Feld of the General Artists Corporation, one of America's biggest booking agencies of the time. Cliff was booked on a package tour with big American artists of the day including Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell
and Freddy Cannon and billed as 'Extra added attraction: England's singing sensation'.
The tour lasted 31 nights and took Cliff right across the states in a Greyhound tour coach, with the bands travelling for anything from eight to sixteen hours a night with no time for rest in a hotel room. While on tour, he also managed to appear on the
Pat Boone Show.
Despite their relative anonymity, Cliff and the Shadows were one of the most well received acts on the tour, with audiences screaming for more at the end of their set. Unfortunately EMI showed little interest in promoting him in the states, and he would recount later that he never once met a representative of his record company during the entire tour.
During this tour Cliff also came close to fulfilling his ambition of meeting Elvis when he and his family met with Colonel Tom Parker. Unfortunately Elvis was still serving in the army and the icons of British and American rock'n'roll were never to meet.
38. Peter Gormley becomes Cliff's manager
March, 1961
After Tito Burns was dismissed from the position of Cliff's manager, there was one logical choice for who would replace him. This man was a 41 year old Australian who had come to Britain managing a country singer Frank Ifield, and then, through Norrie Paramor, moving on to manage the Shadows.
Peter Gormley ended up being the man who would guide Cliff's career in various capacities for almost thirty more years and was Cliff's last real manager.
Peter died in 1999.
39. Thousands greet Cliff and the Shadows on first tour of South Africa
March, 1961
In the greatest scenes of mass hysteria that Cliff had produced to date, 3,000 screaming fans greeted him and the Shadows at the airport when arriving for their first tour of South Africa.
The hysteria didn't stop at the airport. Fans lined the entire route from the airport to his hotel, where police estimated around 10,000 fans were waiting in the area in front of his hotel in Johannesburg chanting 'We want Cliff!'
Cliff and the Shadows were unaware that apartheid prevented interracial mixing at their concert, and when this was discovered they offered to do a second concert for black citizens with the proceeds going to the Salisbury Society for Handicapped Africans.
40. Rodger Webb dies
15 May, 1961
A stern figure, Cliff's father had a strong influence on Cliff's life. Not only was he strict with Cliff as a child, but also as a pop star, helping to guide his career and who managed it.
During the last weeks of his life, Rodger and Cliff started to become close for the first time and his death had a profound impact on Cliff. It was probably this more than any other single event which led to his eventual conversion to Christianity.
