Do you share a celebrities name? I'm about to give my name away. My parents generation are the ones that enjoyed the cinema as it reached it's zenith. You might think that the release of a new film, potential audiences would ask, "what's it about?" My mother, like many others of her day, would ask, "whose in it?" Such was the pulling power of Hollywood's finest.
My parents spent the whole of WW2 apart, Dad being incarcerated in a POW camp. Come the end of the war they wasted no time in responding to government instruction to start replenishing the population. Your's truly came along, nine months and ten days after his father's return. (I told you that they didn't waste anytime.)
Dad's father was named Herbert. Granddad Herbert didn't survive the war, my father wanted to honour his own father by naming his first born Herbert. My mother, a great fan of the movies of that era, had other plans. "Herbert?" She said, adding, "I know that your father was special, but Herbert is so Victorian." "What did you have in mind?" Dad asked. "Oh I don't know," replied my mother, she knew alright, but this was going to take skilful handling. "I was thinking of something fresh, like Robin."
"Robin?" Dad said, "he will get teased mercilessly." There was a female TV presenter name of Robyn, and although many families still didn't have a TV in those days, her fame went beyond the small screen. Mother looked suitably crestfallen. Dad softened. "Look," he said. "I have an idea, why don't we compromise? Robin and Herbert could become Robert." My mother was ecstatic. You see, our family name is Taylor, and her favourite film star was Robert Taylor. So now you know my name. And, here are that young family: See, I did have hair.
