Looking Back, with Eric Leaver

WHAT whirling dervish Jimmy Jenneys wanted to know when the Evening Telegraph featured him 39 years ago was whether he was the king of the craze.

Remember it - the hula-hoop?

It had Britain and millions worldwide in a spin in late 1958.

The shops sold out of the plastic hoops as soon as they got them - even though they cost a stiff five bob each.

Yet, 14-year-old Jimmy soon had his money's worth out of his. For hardly had the fad begun than, in November that year, he clocked up 30,000 twirls without stopping in the living room of his home in Lindadale Avenue, Accrington.

He might have done even more but his mum stopped him in case he got too tired.

And, anyway, his sister Joan, doing the counting, was drying up from thirst.

But was it a record, he wondered. Even today, Jimmy - now a 53-year-old bus driver - doesn't know.

"I never found out because there didn't seem to be an official score," he said at his home in Ormerod Street, Accrington. "I can't remember now how long it took me but it was hours.

And when I stopped I couldn't feel myself walking - it felt like I was on air."

Certainly, Jimmy was a contender for the hula-hoop hall of fame. For, at the time, he was twirls and twirls ahead of others in East Lancashire - and the rest of the world.

For first in the frame for the highest number of hulas were Lower Darwen sisters Sheila and Diana Jones on October 28.

Eighteen-year-old Diana claimed 2,000 spins and Sheila, aged 20, topped the 1,000 mark - at a time when the best total they had read about was 800 revolutions. But this pair had an advantage - working at their dad's firm in Darwen, which claimed to be the first in Lancashire making the hoops.

Two days later, as the hula-hoop boom was going ballistic, their score was bettered by Blackburn man Charles Poore, who sought a place in the championship stakes with 5,000 twirls done in 50 minutes before breakfast.

That day, however, the world record was claimed by one Mervyn Sandbergh, a nine-year-old living in South Africa's Transvaal, who did 16,500 non-stop spins. Meanwhile, Blackburn Rovers were muscling in on the mania.

New manager Dally Duncan introduced hula-hoops as a training aid.

"They're good for the stomach muscles," said whirling full-back Dave Whelan, today a sports shops tycoon.

But Ewood half-back hero Mick McGrath used his hoop as a king-size collar.

"It makes the neck muscles more flexible," he claimed.

But whatever their keep-fit qualities, many people found the hoops a pain. Unlike high-scoring Jimmy, they could hardly get one spin out of their hoop before it clattered around their ankles.

What you need was the knack - and the Evening Telegraph's women's page editor went to Burnley fitness class instructor Pearl Redman to seek advice for those whose hoop just wouldn't hula.

Pearl, a 1,000-spin performer, said: "First of all, hug the hoop to your back.

"Give it a hard push with your right hand and set it spinning.

"Do not twist your body but sway and swing gently.

"If you jerk yourself the hoop will fall."

She advised spinning a hoop round the calves or ankles for slimming the legs but, unlike Mick McGrath, did not believe it was good for the neck.

But, unlike 30,000-whirl-wonder young Jimmy, others did not get a great feeling inside after becoming an expert with the hoop.

A month after his hip-swivelling marathon, an 11-year-old girl from Sandbach in Cheshire was admitted to hospital with internal bleeding that was blamed on "excessive hula-hooping."

Her dad burned hers.

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