Mark Arbuckle: Glasgow 2024

The first time I clapped eyes on Angela Cartwright was in The Sound of Music in 1965, she was playing Brigitta Von Trapp.

I was only 8 years old and still regarded girls as ‘icky’ 

Two years later I saw her in Lost in Space as Penny Robinson and I was totally captivated.

My first Crush!

I still can’t explain what I was feeling, all I know is that I never missed an episode of the very camp Lost in Space after that.

Ten years old and I couldn’t take my eyes off Angela Cartwright.

Around the same time I also became aware of the enchanting Elizabeth Montgomery in Bewitched an American fantasy sitcom.

Montgomery who played Samantha the gorgeous witch/mum was a woman not a girl but her cute nose-twitch and playful mischievousness completely charmed me. 

Closer to home, another fun action series from the late 60’s grabbed my attention in all sorts of ways – The Avengers.

Honor Blackman was the shows first female star but I always preferred Diana Rigg (who I met and sold a pair of shoes to in 1994!), however my absolute favourite was the sultry Linda Thorson.

Television was obviously the window to my young world back then and the next two ‘ladies’ who took my fancy could’ve been sisters. Alexandra Bastedo in The Champions and Annette Andre who played Marty Hopkirk’s widow in Randall and Hopkirk Deceased.

Perhaps it was the fantastical elements of these shows, ala Bewitched, that got my attention….

Or maybe it was just the eye catching female leads?

By the age of eleven I started noticing certain girls at school in a different way but I will refrain from picking out any names to save their embarrassment……

And mine!

Pre-teen hormones were obviously kicking in around this time as I developed a series of crushes on Cathy the Cub Leader, the makeup girl at our school play, and (along with 800 other boys) one of the (few) female teachers at our high school

Getting back to the not-so-real world, another sci-fi character (are you sensing a pattern here?) appeared in 1970 to briefly beguile me. 

Cheryl Burfield was her name and she played the teenage Liz in the British time travel show Timeslip.
Alas, it was a short infatuation as the show only lasted 2 seasons before she slipped away into another dimension…..

As my musical tastes developed I realised that the 70s music scene was very male dominated with a few notable but striking exceptions….

Through listening to early Eagles albums I ‘discovered’ Linda Ronstadt.
Wow! She was stunning and had a voice to match

As was Sonja Kristina of Prog Rock pioneers Curved Air, who had a big hit with the excellent ‘Back Street Luv’ in 1971.

And of course by the time Blondie hit the scene I would happily be ‘Hanging on the Telephone’ for the incomparable Debbie Harry

Whilst it was cool to have Debbie Harry adorning your bedroom wall, the Partridge Family was a different story. In fact if you had any street cred at all you would never admit to watching that show, it was viewed as sappy and featured every teenage girl’s crush, David Cassidy.

(Here’s an exclusive – I secretly always wanted to be him!) 

However myself, and I suspect many others, had an easy ‘out’ by stating that we only tuned into the Partridge Family to watch the vivacious Susan Dey…. which was more than partly true!

Susan had that wholesome ‘girl next door’ look but always wore a cheeky wee smile.

Teri Garr (who sadly passed away last week) is another who appeared on my ‘crush radar’ in 1974 when I saw the hilarious Young Frankenstein.

‘What knockers!’ 

‘Sankyoo Herr Doctah’ 

They say you should never meet your heroes, but crushes are different and in 1976 I was very fortunate to meet another one of my ‘celebrity’ crushes. 

On a very memorable occasion at a friend’s birthday party in Glasgow’s Albany Hotel I not only met and chatted to Cherry Gillespie of Pans People fame, I actually danced with her too!

I could barely believe what was happening!!

I often wonder if she remembers it as fondly as I do…. what do you think??

By the time the stunning Marilu Henner came along and graced our screens in Taxi in 1978 my days of teenage crushes were finally but very reluctantly coming to an end.

I often wonder what attracts you to a particular person and what turns that attraction into a crush? 

Why do you fall for one person and not another? 

Who knows! 

My motto is just enjoy it as long as you can.