Jimmy Savile - Early Life

Early Life

Savile, born in Leeds, was the youngest of seven children (his elder siblings were Mary, Marjory, Vincent, John, Joan, and Christina) in a Roman Catholic family. His parents were Agnes Monica (née Kelly) and Vincent Joseph Marie Savile, a bookmaker's clerk and insurance agent. Savile believed that he owed his life to the nun Margaret Sinclair, after he made a quick recovery from illness, possibly pneumonia, at the age of two when his mother prayed at Leeds Cathedral after picking up a pamphlet about Sinclair. During the Second World War he was conscripted to work as a Bevin Boy at South Kirkby Colliery in West Yorkshire, where he suffered serious spinal injuries in an explosion and spent a long period recuperating.

Having started playing records in dance halls in the early 1940s, Savile claimed to be the first ever DJ. According to his autobiography, he was the first person to use two turntables and a microphone at the Grand Records Ball at the Guardbridge Hotel in 1947. It was billed as 'Jimmy Saville introducing Juke Box Doubles'. Savile is acknowledged as a pioneer of using twin turntables for continuous music playing, although his claim to have been the first is disputed (twin turntables were illustrated in the BBC Handbook in 1929 and advertised for sale in Gramophone magazine in 1931).

He became a semi-professional sportsman, competing in the 1951 Tour of Britain cycle race and working as a professional wrestler. He said,

If you look at the athletics of it, I've done over 300 professional bike races, 212 marathons and 107 pro fights. No wrestler wanted to go back home and say a long-haired disc jockey had put him down. So from start to finish I got a good hiding. I've broken every bone in my body. I loved it.

Savile lived in Salford from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, the later period with Ray Teret, who became his support DJ, assistant and chauffeur. During this period, Savile referred to Teret as his son, while Teret referred to Savile as Dad. Savile managed the Plaza Ballroom on Oxford Road, Manchester, in the mid-fifties. When he lived in Great Clowes Street in Higher Broughton, Salford, he was often seen sitting on his front door steps. He managed the Mecca Locarno ballroom in Leeds in the late 1950s and early 1960s as well as the Mecca-owned Palais dance hall in Ilford, Essex, between 1955 and 1956. His Monday evening records-only dance sessions (admission one shilling) were popular with local teens.