A tale involving a TV legend, the QE2, a mucky knicker shop and an inflatable sheep. Asking ‘who loves ya, baby?’ is our bald detective correspondent Angus Young.
Here at Curiosity Towers, we love our 1970s TV cops. Recently we revealed how TV tough guy detective Patrick Mower nearly became a pop star only to be foiled by the obscure Hull-based record label he unaccountably signed up after it failed to promote his debut single. Perhaps even stranger is the tale about Kojak star Telly Savalas swapping the mean streets of New York for, er, Beverley.
The American TV series Kojak ran from 1973 to 1978 and became an essential part of BBC1’s prime time Saturday night schedule. Savalas starred as Detective Lieutenant Theo Kojak, a tough-talking, no-nonsense, lollipop-sucking character with a catchphrase: ‘Who loves ya, baby?’ Already a well-known actor, the role made Savalas an recognisable worldwide star. It also brought him into the orbit of international art dealer James Starkey, who happened to be based at his own gallery in Beverley.
Starkey first started selling art to wealthy Americans by booking regular trips on the QE2 transatlantic liner. With a knack for attracting headlines, he once came up with the idea of bottling Yorkshire tap water and selling it to the Americans as ‘holy water’ as part of a personal campaign protesting about utility company charges. In another stunt, he designed an inflatable traffic warden for people to punch instead of taking out their anger on real-life wardens after getting a ticket.
But his biggest publicity coup came when he persuaded his friend and client Savalas to visit Beverley to be a VIP guest at the annual carnival staged by the Beverley Lions charity. Crowds lined the town’s streets in June 1980 to see Kojak join Beverley Borough Mayor Councillor Audrey Langdale in her open-top civic car at the front of the carnival’s main parade. He even handed out lollipops to fans during a walkabout in Saturday Market.
Later, the TV cop visited Beverley Police Station and posed for photographs with officers while wearing a traditional bobby’s helmet. To cap a surreal day, he was later spotted with Starkey enjoying a flutter at Stakis Casino in Hull before returning to Rowley Manor hotel where he spent the night.
By the time of his visit, Savalas had hung up his character’s iconic trilby but he would return to play his most famous role in a series of TV movies later in the 1980s. As for Starkey, he continued to sell art to customers around the world and generate local headlines, later becoming owner of the legendary adult shop Gwenap in Hull where he displayed a series of cheeky eye-catching banners, such as ‘Knickers to the lot of you’ and ‘Bent politicians welcome here’. He also placed an inflatable sheep in the shop window.
As they say, it’s never dull in Hull or Beverley for that matter.
Angus Young