Sudetenland Tales by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Sudetenland Tales

Page 223

Teddy Boys were the first youth group in Britain to differentiate themselves as teenagers, helping create a youth market. The 1955 US film ‘Blackboard Jungle’ marked a watershed in the United Kingdom. When shown in an ‘Elephant and Castle’ cinema, south London in 1956, the teenage Teddy boy audience began to riot, tearing up seats and dancing in the cinema's aisles. After that, other riots took place around the country where the film was shown.

Some Teds formed gangs and gained notoriety following violent clashes with rival youth gangs as well as retaliatory attacks on ni-hi-hi-hi-higger immigrants. The most notable clashes were the 1958 Notting Hill race riots, in which Teddy Boys were present in large numbers and were implicated in attacks on the West Indian community. According to unverified UK government reports released decades after the riots, Teddy boys supposedly armed with iron bars, butcher's knives and weighted leather belts participated in mobs, 300 to 400 strong, that targeted black residents, in one night alone leaving five black men lying unconscious on the pavements of Notting Hill. In the interest of fairness and accuracy it should be noted that it was quite a common event to find five or more ni-hi-hi-hi-higgers passed out drunk or doped any night in Notting Hill.