archiwalia arch2

1956 - Before a TV performance with his managers Larry Parnes and John Kennedy. LONDON, UK: EXCLUSIVE candid images of the UK's first pop heart-throb Tommy Steele have now been unearthed as part of a new book. In these rare images taken across a star-studded career, carefully collected and released by publishers Fonthill, Sir Tommy can be seen in candid moments throughout his life in personal moments with family and friends. During his career he has reached dizzying heights in London, Broadway and Hollywood. He worked with Walt Disney, acted with Alec Guinness and Joan Plowright, been taught tap-dancing by Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. At the age of 21 he was the star of his own film biography, after just six months in the business. Steele was first discovered in 1956 at the 2i's Coffee Bar in Soho, London. His future manager, John Kennedy saw Tommy at the bar, and was so impressed with what he saw, he felt, ‘Tommy seemed to have the confidence of a heavyweight champion.’ After following Tommy from the 2i’s to another coffee bar, in a famous conversation between the pair, Tommy confessed that he knew ‘nothing about performing’ and Kennedy ‘nothing about management’, but realising star quality when he saw it, Kennedy offered to personally manage Tommy and they agreed to learn the business together. Tommy, and later his mum, agreed to give Kennedy two weeks of his time to turn him into a performer, ‘not a star, just a performer’ and Kennedy ultimately became Steele’s manager. With the tape recorder, Tommy would regularly record messages for his mum while on tour and send the reels back home as a sort of tour-diary. Steele quickly became a pop rock-and-roll sensation, and subsequently recorded a string of hit singles including "Rock with the Caveman" (1956) and the chart-topper "Singing the Blues" (1957). In 1974, he explained that: "No one was ever under the impression that we were making history; it was just that being the first, everything I did had no precedent so therefore I had the edge on everybody else. Tommy Steele also was knighted in 2020, for services to entertainment and charity in the Queen’s Birthday Honors. Having inspired giants such as David Bowie, Cliff Richard, the Beatles and a whole host of 1950s performers working the the stables of Parnes and Kennedy, he single-handedly helped to revolutionise 'pop music' as we know it today. Tommy Steele is still alive at 86 years old, with one child, Emma Hicks, and lives with his wife Ann Donoghue, who he has been married to for over 63 years. mediadrumimages / @Fonthill