Who else is old enough to remember Princess Margaret's wedding?

[raccoon]

I can remember coming home from school one day and seeing film of the wedding on TV (Black & white).

I expect there was only a few minutes of film of the wedding, rather than the extensive coverage we have nowadays.

...on 6 May 1960 Margaret married the photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Margaret#Marriage

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

1. I recall when they were married but not remember the actual wedding. I was 8.

[WinkyDink]

2. Me. I thought A A-J was movie-star handsome!

[KharmaTrain]

3. Pre-Satellite...

I barely remember that time but the coverage was nowhere near what we see today. In those days film had to be flown across the Atlantic. Usually it was sent to New Foundland or Nova Scotia and then relayed from there. The live coverage era began with Early Bird...the first Geo-sychronous bird in 1965. The world hasn't been the same since...

Cheers...

[asjr]

4. I remember the black and white

film. She was in love with someone else and was told she couldn't marry him. I believe this marriage with Armstrong-Jones was arranged by her sister. I always believed Charles was forced into marriage because of much the same reason. I am so glad today that it seems the marriage between William and Kate is truly a love marriage.

[kskiska]

5. I do. It was big news.

In those days a woman was branded as an "Old Maid" if she didn't marry by age 30. Margaret was just under the wire when she married Armstrong-Jones after being denied her first love, Peter Townsend. Margaret and Tony were small in stature, so Margaret chose children as her attendants. Tony was an avant garde photographer and continued his work after the wedding, which was unheard of at the time.

[raccoon]

6. For everybody's information: this "Peter Townsend" was not in the Who.

This one didn't have an "h" in his last name. :-)

[WinkyDink]

19. I'm pretty sure none here was confused.

[ScreamingMeemie]

10. He shot many of the iconic portraits of Charles and Diana.

I admit, I drank all of it up as a child and am still interested. His portrait of Charles, Diana and William, after William's birth, was stunning.

[rurallib]

7. Vaguely remember. Can't remember how I felt at the time

As a 10 YO boy, most likely I didn't care much. I do vaguely watching some of the footage just to see all the trappings just out of curiosity.
I also remember that I thought Margaret was kind of ugly.
My mother watched every minute with relish.

[Greybnk48]

8. I was 12, but I don't remember it.

This wedding is making me relive the sadness of the death of Lady Di. I'm going to watch her boy get married out of respect for another mom who can't.

[Raine]

9. Princess Anne's was the first one I paid attention to. nt

[Missy Vixen]

22. My mom woke me up to see Princess Anne's wedding

I stayed up all night watching Princess Diana's wedding; it was the day after I turned 21.

I wonder how the lives of most of the British royal family would have been different if they were allowed to marry the person they fell in love with, instead of someone considered "suitable".

I'll be up all night watching Prince William's wedding. I hope their marriage will flourish; unlike most of his relatives, he's marrying the woman he loves, and Kate has some idea of what she's getting into.

Breakfast and wedding cake, anyone?

:woohoo:

[Raine]

23. I'll be watching too

I think this marriage might actually work out. Will & Kate are more mature than some of the others and seem to truly love each other.

[Glorfindel]

11. I am - remember it well.

I can also remember the coronation of HM the Queen in 1953. We read about it in the newspapers and listened to it on the radio (we didn't own a TV until 1954 when I was 9).

[Newcanuck]

12. Used to watch these events at the movies

I grew up in South Africa where they didn't have TV at all until 1976.

[raccoon]

14. Really!!! "they didn't have TV at all until 1976" nt

[Newcanuck]

15. No, they really didn't

It was a method for the apartheid governments to control the news available to the populace. Programs were originally split into two halves per evening, in English and Afrikaans. African language programming was only introduced in 1981. A lot of people find that hard to believe. We found it hard to believe during the early 70s when we had to sit around at night listening to radio shows on Springbok Radio.

[kskiska]

13. I watched the Coronation on TV

My mother allowed me to stay home from school. I still have the ViewMaster reels of the event.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

28. The Coronation was the first time I saw TV

My great-uncle had a set, so my grandmother and mother and I walked over to see the event. I was about three, and I think I remember it because it was the first time I saw TV. I didn't know what a queen was, much less a coronation or where England was, but I remember a long shot of the interior of Westminster Abbey.

[immoderate]

21. I remember that all tthe TV stations broadcast the coronation -- without pictures.

I was 7 and really pissed that I couldn't watch cartoons.


--imm

[Manifestor_of_Light]

24. If you remember the Coronation, you're really old.

1953 is before I was born, so I'm slightly less codgerly than you are.

I remember Sam Rayburn's funeral on TV in 1961 (he was Speaker of the House).

And President Kennedy being murdered, of course.

Winston Churchill's funeral in 1965.

I was not terribly interested in Chuck and Diana's soap opera and I'm really not interested in William and Kate.

Christopher Hitchens has an article up at slate.com. He is telling Kate to RUN!!!

He says the problems with the Royal family are two: Elizabeth refused to let Margaret marry Capt. Townsend, so she married a guy she didn't love, and turned into a drunken socialite wastrel, as a result;

Secondly, Elizabeth let Philip direct Charles' education, so he went to punitive rigid boarding schools, and that messed him up.

:shrug:

[Missy Vixen]

26. I think William will be fine.

He had his mom. Despite her faults, she adored him, she was a conscientious parent, and did her best to show him a world outside polo, the palace, etcetera. He also has Kate. She was brought up in a wealthy family, but she has a degree, worked and lived away from her parents - they're young adults, not spoiled children.

I think Charles has always been an absentee parent, for a variety of reasons. The military gave both William and Harry structure they would never have gotten at home with him.

I have to believe that the Queen is not the warmest. My great aunt was married to the commander of the Canadian Royal Mounties when I was a child. (I don't know what his official title was; I apologize in advance.) As a result, my great aunt Babe was presented to the Queen. She saw the Queen snub a little girl trying to give her a bouquet of flowers; my great aunt would not curtsy as a result, and my great uncle pulled on the back of her dress till she did so.

Let's just say I take after her. :woohoo:

[lamp_shade]

16. Me. She was soooo beautiful.

[SoCalDem]

17. We did not have a tv until 1962 n/t

[raccoon]

18. Gosh, you were deprived. :silly: nt

[SoCalDem]

20. nope.. just did not live in the US

and even if we had bought one, all we could have watched would have been Panamanian tv:) if they even had one then ..:)

[rox63]

25. Not me - It was 3 years before I was born n/t

[Lydia Leftcoast]

27. I remember the wedding

It was on black-and-white TV.

Anthony Armstrong-Jones was handsome, and Princess Margaret was tiny. The commentators said that because she was so short, all her bridesmaids were young girls, like Princess Anne, who was about ten at the time.