Dennis and Elaine a mystery revealed part three

I first came across Dennis & Elaine in the summer of 1970. 

Their names appeared on a wall near Withington Library and soon they were everywhere.  Then and now I became intrigued at that simple message of love and partnership, and have continued to wonder who they were.

And almost as soon as the inscriptions appeared they ceased and I was left with nothing more than a memory which I regularly trotted out to anyone who would listen.  It was a nice story but incomplete and even after I had posted a story on the blog* I remained convinced that it was one of those little mysteries with no ending.

But then Elaine made contact and in due course she promised me a photo of the two of them, and here it is.

Nor does the connection stop there because Elaine worked at the old Tommy Ducks which if you are of a certain age you will remember with affection.  In my case it was one memorable evening when I introduced my sister and brother in law up from London to the ceiling of the pub.  

In turn Elaine shared another picture, this time of Tommy Ducks and the coffin which landlord Ken Riggs had brought from the Nags Head which was his previous pub.

Now I can’t remember the coffin in Tommy Ducks but I sat beside it in the Nags Head in the '70s and even went looking for it once.  I couldn’t find it and recently even doubted that I had shared a room and a pint with it.

But now Elaine has managed to bring both memories out of the past and remind me that history is not just about the big events but also the little ones which are more properly about how we lived.

And finally I also have to thank her for starting me on another mystery that of the Ardwick Millionaires but as they say that is another story.

Pictures; from the collection of Elaine Archer.

Dennis and Elaine, *http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Dennis%20and%20Elaine%20in%20Withington

Who now remembers Dennis and Elaine?

I haven’t always lived in Chorlton.  

I did a year on Butterworth Street by Grey Mare Lane, another few in Ashton Under Lyne and three years as a student in Withington.

And in those first three years of the 70s you couldn’t pass a wall without seeing the names “Dennis and Elaine.”

They were there at bus stops, beside advertising hoardings and of course street walls.
They began in 1970 and ceased as abruptly two years later.

I never got to know who they were and only once saw the names on an office building in town.  So when Dennis or Elaine professed their love for each other it was almost entirely around Withington.

Of course the idea of taking a picture of a piece of graffiti back then would never have occurred to most of us.  You saw it, chuckled if it was amusing, became enraged if it was politically incorrect and mostly instantly forgot it.

But Dennis and Elaine have stayed with me, and their memory was stirred yesterday when I came across the man, the cat and Karl who were caught in the late 1970s in Salford.  I suppose it might be possible to track Karl as he or his friend left his surname, but maybe not.  Perhaps Karl like Dennis and Elaine are best left in the past.

But as we are parading past memories I remember a short story I read back when I was in 5.1 at Samuel Pepys Secondary Modern School for Boys.  Our English teacher was of the firm belief that it didn’t matter what we read as long as we read.

So there on the beaten up bookcases were tons of paperbacks from pulp science fiction to the classics, and it was up to us what we read after the O level lesson.  It was pretty much pot luck, and so I devoured some James Bond, a bit of Graham Green, along with the odd horror novel and lots of rockets to the moon.

One of the books featured  the engaging story of the man who tracked down a joke.  Set in some small mid western town where not much happened, he became obsessed with the source of jokes.  It led him to follow the latest he had been told, via the barber’s shop, the local bar and the caretaker at the Double D motel to a shabby shop in a rundown part of the town.

And there inside in the back room were a gang of men working on writing jokes.  Each was tested on the assembled jokesters and at the end of the morning each member of the team set off for different parts of the town to pass them on.  I seem to recall that their pay was directly linked to the speed that the joke past around the town and its longevity.

Now I fully accept it loses something in the retelling but perhaps it has a bearing on Dennis and Elaine.  I cannot think how they could have covered so much of Withington in such a short time or really the reason why they wanted to be so publicly linked together.  True love I doubt ever stretched to a two year campaign especially given that this was the age of the paint brush not aerosol.

So maybe out there, there was a dedicated team who set about immortalizing the couple.  And in the same way perhaps Karl escaped Salford and left his name elsewhere.

To be continued .......... with how Elaine and l became friends and the discovery she later worked in Tommy Ducks ....

Picture; Denis and Elaine, 1970s from Elaine

Back with Dennis and Elaine in Withington in 1970

Now it is time I think to return to the story of Dennis and Elaine.*

Pack it in Dennis

I first came across them in the summer of 1970.

Their names appeared on a wall near Withington Library and soon they were everywhere.

Then and now I became intrigued at that simple message of love and partnership, and have continued to wonder who they were.

And almost as soon as the inscriptions appeared they ceased and I was left with nothing more than a memory which I regularly trotted out to anyone who would listen.

It was a nice story but incomplete and even after I had posted a story on the blog I remained convinced that it was one of those little mysteries with no ending.

But then Elaine made contact and in due course she promised me a photo of the two of them and today I received another piece of their history.


This was one of those angry but seriously responsible letters sent to the paper which roundly condemned theme.

Under the heading “Pack it in Dennis”, Rag and Turps wrote,

“WE HAVE the king of spray doddle here in Fallowfield.  
You name it, he and his girlfriend have sprayed it, from the swings in the park, every phone kiosk, walls, road signs, doors, posters, the lot.  

Never were names so prominent.  

Pack it in Dennis and Elaine (and you, ten ‘Manchester Blues Rule OK’ and ‘Kippax Street Rules’).

I wish Dennis you would learn a few rules, for instance that it’s an offence to deface people’s property.”

Now I have no more truck with spray painting than Rag and Turps and nor today nearly 40 years after the event has Elaine.

But I still love the story, mainly because it has a beginning and an end.

Back in the early 1970s I witnessed the messages, and wrote about them but with little expectation that I would ever uncover the identities of Dennis and Elaine.

And then that is exactly what happened.  The story was picked up on facebook, Elaine and I made contact and we have become friends.

All of which for me is a timely reminder that history is messy and that it comes in all shapes and sizes.

Pictures; courtesy of Elaine

*http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Dennis%20and%20Elaine%20in%20Withington