Bodgies, Widgies, Teddy Boys, Rock'n'Roll and Milk Bar Cowboys ROCK'N'ROLL TEDDY BOYS, BODGIES, WIDGIES, MILK BAR COWBOYS AND OTHER SUCH TYPES ARE BANNED AT THE TOWN HALL DANCE Ads such as this were common in Dunedin newspapers from 1957 onwards but the conflict between rebellious youth and their elders had been simmering for some years before. 1954 was a bad year for this already strained relationship. A scandal erupted in the Hutt Valley when it was revealed that teenagers had been playing truant and dabbling in what were seen to be the exclusively adult pursuits of drinking and sex. A parliamentary enquiry was hastily set up to investigate the problem of juvenile delinquency and meetings were convened throughout the country. The highly regarded Dunedin Presbyterian minister Jack Somerville who sat on the Mazengarb Enquiry recalls a number of the informants as 'cranks' and that he was perceived as being excessively liberal by the more conservative members. Regardless of the limited terms of reference which ignored the opinions of the sector of society under investigation, the enquiry was a well intentioned effort to lead youth away from destructive urges and a reminder to parents of their responsibilities.

Dunedin had its own problems with reckless youth and the newspapers were full of reports of badly behaved Bodgies and Teddy Boys causing disturbances on Friday and Saturday nights. Noticed in Sydney as early as 1951, the cultish aspects of the Bodgie lifestyle were eagerly seized in by the press. Leading the fight locally was the Dunedin scandal sheet The South End News which, between flying saucer stories and pictures of busty starlets, exposed teen vice wherever it was found. Under crusading editor Ray Noonan who always seemed to be on the receiving end of physical threats and libel suits, The South End News chronicled the Bodgie phenomenon in Dunedin in rich tabloid terms.
The Bodgie look. That's the ill-fitting drape-coated band, with the greasy hair that sweeps into a duck's tail. That's the outfit which wears the creeper shoes, the stovepipe trousers half-way up their legs. We've got them but they're like the grass snakes, nasty, but harmless.

The Milk Bar Cowboys rode their British motorcycles up and down George Street and met at their favoured haunts, delighting in their ability to shock the public but also usually keeping to themselves.

"The milk bar cowboys used to congregate down at the Beau Monde, a milk bar in Princes Street just before the Exchange and we used to go in there. That's where every one met any night of the week really. There were certain things you had to do... initiation things which included gunning your motorbike in the door, around and back out again. We had a house out at Allanton which was used for parties. Cruising the drag- going up and down George Street on your bikes in convoys- there would be letters in the paper from 'Mother of six'. A lot of it was built up by the media. We used to go out to Black's Bridge which is at the bottom of Three Mile Hill. We used to light a fire down there and there used to be some guys that had a big V8 convertible and they were usually relegated to picking up the kegs although we had been known to carry a keg on the handlebars of the bike and a girl on the back. There was never any violence or anything like that. I guess we used to drink and drive, that's all." - Don Spence.

The extravagant Teddy Boys were more often than not visiting British merchant seamen whose freely adapted Edwardian cut suits and elaborate hair cuts appalled the more conventional.

"Most young people [at the time] if you didn't have short back and sides, creased trousers and a gabardine coat and a white silk scarf and pick up the Star Sports and go to the pictures on a Saturday night and have an ice cream - that was normal - that was the highlight of people's lives. It wasn't enough for me." - Don Spence.

There was also tolerance from unexpected quarters including the South End News which could never seem to decide how to deal with youthful rebellion and was occasionally moved to a kind of pensive envy:


The truth of this [bodgie] haircut debate is that local barbers cannot cut any sort of male hair style that differs from the clean-cut Kiwi cut. The bare-headed stubble that marks everyone as a shorn 'sheep', and a hard paying sheep at that.

The fear of new immigrants was added to the generally xenophobic mix and it was presumed that the few Teddy Boys in Dunedin were recently arrived Dutch settlers. This speculation was confirmed in many minds when the leader of a Dunedin juvenile gang turned out to be a Greek or Rumanian immigrant well into his twenties. So called 'crimes of passion' were generally understood and a number of well publicised murder cases during the period resulted as much in sympathy for the accused than horror at the act of taking a life. Bodgies who ended up in court however were often characterised as blank, callous or just plain sadistic. Had Parker and Hulme been widgies, the outcome of the case may have been significantly different. The occasional public brawls were often the outcome of provocation. Punch ups could result from such minor incidents as jostling in cinema queues and a Bodgie or Teddy Boy in court for assault could expect little sympathy from the bench.

Music on the radio at the time was conservative and sentimental and the start of the Bodgie cult preceded Rock and Roll which did not begin to emerge until late in 1956. Instead Bodgies could be found in their 'jive dens' dancing to boogie woogie and other forms of black American music. Such was the dearth of exciting music available that even the soundtrack from the Marilyn Monroe movie Some Like It Hot became a cult record.


"The milk bar cowboy thing came before rock and roll but it gradually became entwined. This music started coming through and there was a couple of movies like Rebel Without a Cause and you heard a lot of this music from movies." -- Don Spence.

Bodgies slowly faded from the scene during the mid-60s but many of their rituals persisted. The spiritual descendant of the Bodgie can be seen driving up and down the main street of any New Zealand town on Saturday night, much the same as 40 years ago. Toyotas may have replaced Customlines but the ability to antagonise the older generation remains unaltered.

Were all these types subliminal Anarchists