Autobiography

CHAPTER TWELVE
C12. BETRAYED
I was still a virgin at the age of 20; a quiet
young man following the traditions of
Hollywood film stars like James Dean, Alan
Ladd, Robert Mitchum and other heroes of the
day. The strong, quiet hero of the time was in
vogue.
There was little or no humour between the
male and female leads in the movies, and the
quiet chap always won the girl. Of course, in
real life that was not the case. In real life the
man who gets the girl is the man who makes
her smile or laugh, the confidant one with the
great chat-up line.
In my case this was never more apparent than
with Millie, the girl I mentioned before from our
group at school. I was desperately in love with
her when I was an innocent sixteen years old,
but she fell for a chat-up line of a friend called
Ken Sayer, who made her laugh, told jokes
and looked more like Elvis Presley than Alan
Ladd.
I’m still friends with Mille to this day and it
turns out that Ken was something of a rogue,
as I found out when Millie came to Birmingham
City Football Club with four other old friends
from the East End, Charlie Cross, his wife Pat,
Barbara Weeks and her husband Alan. I
discovered that Ken and Millie’s marriage had
lasted just seven years.
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