Company type | Gentlemen's club and moustache club |
---|---|
Founded | 1947 |
Founder | Rod Littlewood |
Headquarters | United Kingdom |
Owner | Rod Littlewood |
Website | handlebarclub |
The Handlebar Club is an association of aficionados of the handlebar moustache, based in London. [2] The club's sole requirement for membership is "a hirsute appendage of the upper lip and with graspable extremities"; [2] beards are absolutely forbidden. [3] The club engages in activism to assuage discrimination against the handlebarred as well as competitive facial hair tourneys, and has inspired the foundation of transatlantic and Scandinavian counterparts. [2] [3] [4] The club declares itself to be at war with a society that demands people choose "the bland, the boring and the generic"; [1] a club chant includes the proposition that being kissed by a smooth face is akin to "meat without the salt". [5]
The world's oldest whisker club, [6] the Handlebar Club was founded in a London pub in April 1947 by a convivial gathering of ten, including raconteurs Jimmy Edwards and Frank Muir as well as sports commentator Raymond Glendenning. Their stated intention was to show that "men with moustaches are men of good character", [7] and the mustachioed cohort resolved to meet monthly for "sport, conviviality" and charitable engagements. [3] [8] Enormous moustaches were quite popular among the flying officers of the Royal Air Force in the Second World War, and in founding the club Edwards sought to perpetuate the custom. [9] The Strand Magazine greeted the establishment as "an indication that Handlebars have outlived their time", interpreting the preponderance of "men with a distinctive type of face-wear" banding together as a sign of weakness. [10]
The club was founded in April 1947 in the dressing room of comedian Jimmy Edwards at the Windmill Theatre in London. There were 10 founder members, including Edwards, Raymond Glendenning, and Frank Muir. The minutes of that first meeting are in the Club archives and it appears that although there was a goodly number of founder members they were outnumbered by chorus girls.
The object of the club was, and still is, to bring together moustache wearers (beards being strictly prohibited) socially for sport and general conviviality. The aim of the club was to assist by all means at its disposal, any worthy charity or cause, particularly those devoted to ex-servicemen. This aim still remains today and it has helped particularly with children's charities.
Ever since the early days of the club, it has held a London meeting on the first Friday of the month, and for over ten years the venue has been The Windsor Castle Pub on Crawford Place, after its closure in September 2016 it moved to the Heron Bar & Restaurant, Norfolk Crescent, W2 2DN. [11] The Heron is jammed packed with memorabilia from the former Windsor Castle along with pictures from the Handlebar Club's 70-year history adorning the walls.
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster in the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
A beard is the hair that grows on the jaw, chin, upper lip, lower lip, cheeks, and neck of humans and some non-human animals. In humans, usually pubescent or adult males are able to start growing beards, on average at the age of 21.
Sideburns, sideboards, or side whiskers are facial hair grown on the sides of the face, extending from the hairline to run parallel to or beyond the ears. The term sideburns is a 19th-century corruption of the original burnsides, named after American Civil War general Ambrose Burnside, a man known for his unusual facial hairstyle that connected thick sideburns by way of a moustache, but left the chin clean-shaven.
A moustache is a growth of facial hair grown above the upper lip and under the nose. Moustaches have been worn in various styles throughout history.
A handlebar moustache is a moustache with particularly lengthy and upwardly curved extremities. These moustache styles are named for their resemblance to the handlebars of a bicycle. It is also known as a spaghetti moustache, because of its stereotypical association with Italian men. The Handlebar Club humorously describes the style as "a hirsute appendage of the upper lip and with graspable extremities".
The Windmill Theatre in Great Windmill Street, London, was a variety and revue theatre best known for its nude tableaux vivants, which began in 1932 and lasted until its reversion to a cinema in 1964. Many prominent British comedians of the post-war years started their careers at the theatre.
The walrus moustache is characterized by whiskers that are thick, bushy, and drop over the mouth. The style resembles the whiskers of a walrus, hence the name.
James Keith O'Neill Edwards, DFC was an English comedy writer and actor on radio and television, known for his roles as Pa Glum in Take It from Here and as headmaster "Professor" James Edwards in Whack-O!.
Movember is an annual event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November to raise awareness of men's health issues, such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men's suicide. It is a portmanteau of the Australian-English diminutive word for moustache, "mo", and "November". The Movember Foundation runs the Movember charity event, housed at Movember.com. The goal of Movember is to "change the face of men's health."
Raymond Carl Glendenning was a BBC radio sports commentator and occasional character actor.
Body hair or androgenic hair is terminal hair that develops on the human body during and after puberty. It is different from head hair and also from less visible vellus hair, which is much finer and lighter in color. Growth of androgenic hair is related to the level of androgens and the density of androgen receptors in the dermal papillae. Both must reach a threshold for the proliferation of hair follicle cells.
An eponymous hairstyle is a particular hairstyle that has become fashionable during a certain period of time through its association with a prominent individual.
The World Beard and Moustache Championships is a biennial competition hosted by the World Beard and Moustache Association (WBMA), in which men with beards and moustaches display lengthy, highly styled facial hair.
The Beard Liberation Front (BLF) is a British interest group which campaigns in support of beards and opposes pogonophobic discrimination against those who wear them. It was founded in 1995 by socialist historian Keith Flett who continues to organise and represent the organisation. Apart from its numerous campaigns in support of beards and against pogonophobia in the workplace and discrimination against those who wear beards as part of their religion, it currently hosts the annual Beard of the Year award.
The Yorkshire Stingo was a public house in Marylebone, London in the 18th to mid-20th century. Its name derived from the custom for Yorkshiremen in London to gather at the pub and its adjoining pleasure gardens on the first three days of May each year. In May 1808 it was reported that over 20,000 people gathered there, drinking strong ale, and playing football and other 'rustic Yorkshire sports'. The Stingo part of its name comes from a fashionable 18th century slang word for strong or old ale. The term is possibly derived from the sharp, or "stinging" flavour of a well-matured beer.
A bicycle handlebar is the steering control for bicycles. It is the equivalent of a tiller for vehicles and vessels, as it is most often directly mechanically linked to a pivoting front wheel via a stem which in turn attaches it to the fork. Besides steering, handlebars also often support a portion of the rider's weight, depending on their riding position, and provide a convenient mounting place for brake levers, shift levers, cyclocomputers, bells, etc.
Peter Evans was a restaurateur. Journalist Linda Blandford, writing in The Observer on 9 March 1975, described him as a pioneer of youth culture, opening one of Soho's first coffee bars called The Cat's Whisker. It became a popular spot where Tommy Steele performed. Evans also recognized the growing trend of dining out and established a chain of Aberdeen Angus Steak Houses and the Peter Evans Eating Houses, which were decorated by David Nightingale Hicks.
Facial hair in the military has been at various times common, prohibited, or an integral part of the uniform.
Reuben Goldstein,, who later changed his name to Reuben Goldstein Edwards and subsequently Reuben George Edwards, was the proprietor of Edwards' Harlene, manufacturer of hair restorers, colourants and other hair products for both men and women, from which he made a fortune. Goldstein and his wife founded and helped fund the Edith Edward's tuberculosis preventorium at Papworth Hospital.
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