00:00 it a little bit out and squash it down again. Lovely. There we are.
00:07 We're going to sing Happy Birthday.
00:09 Right, after three. One, two, three.
00:12 Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Jolly, Happy Birthday to you.
00:26 Yay!
00:28 Happy Birthday Jolly Fisherman. 115 today. How are you feeling?
00:34 Happy.
00:36 He seems very happy, doesn't he? Now you just cooked your birthday cake.
00:40 That must be quite a surprise for you coming to the party today.
00:45 And I understand you've had a busy morning going out and about town as well.
00:51 So, Mr Mayor, you've organised this afternoon's party.
00:58 What do you think the secret of the Jolly Fisherman is to stay so well and fit and out and about all over the place at 115?
01:08 Well, for 115, I don't know how he's doing it, but like I say, he said he goes bathing in the sea a little bit.
01:15 He gets his wellet and boots wet and then he splashes this salt water on his face and it's supposed to keep him young or something.
01:23 Right, OK.
01:24 Right, well, I think a lot of people will take those tips on board.
01:30 I mean, for Skegness, the Jolly Fisherman is an icon, isn't he?
01:35 He's a great icon and we nearly lost him, actually, a year ago.
01:40 And we revived him and brought him back in the full swing for the people.
01:45 We couldn't afford to lose him.
01:47 Why do you think he's so popular?
01:50 I think people have got used to him being around and most people that have grown up now,
01:56 they came here when they were younger and they've seen Jolly and now they pass it down to their families.
02:01 And they keep bringing their families here and Jolly's always there.
02:05 And they always think of Jolly as a friend.
02:08 Bob Walker, you're involved with the Chamber of Commerce and a lot of events that are happening around Skegness at the moment.
02:15 It's a big day for Jolly, isn't it?
02:17 It's a fabulous day for Jolly. It's a fabulous day for Skegness.
02:20 To see that we've still got our icon of Jolly the Fisherman.
02:24 And going back a few years when I used to go out with a few others, George Saxon, Tony Tye, Paul Dixon,
02:33 and we did Jolly on tour around the country advertising and marketing Skegness.
02:37 It was absolutely brilliant.
02:39 When we did Yorkshire Shore, we did 7,500 bags and in each bag was 35 leaflets of attractions and hotels in the area.
02:50 John Byford, honoured citizen of Skegness.
02:54 Hello.
02:55 Hello. Tell us the history of the Jolly Fisherman.
02:58 Well, how long have you got?
03:00 Brief history. 1908, GNR, Great Northern Railways, wanted to produce a poster to put bums on the seats, bring in the trains to Skegness.
03:10 So they commissioned John Hassell, who was a poster king of his day, to produce the poster for Skegness and the Jolly was born.
03:20 That was 1908. They needed a slogan to accompany the poster, "Skegness is so bracing."
03:26 That wasn't Hassell, that was an employee of the GNR Railway Company that came up with that strap line and it worked.
03:34 The two go hand in hand.
03:36 I think Jolly on his own, on the poster, needs the slogan, "It's so bracing," for the whole thing to work.
03:43 And a star was born.
03:46 Here we are 115 years later and Jolly is still putting in the crowds.
03:51 He's our A-list celebrity for the resort and people still love him. They love him now as they did 115 years ago.
03:59 Wherever we went it was the same thing. You took Jolly out there and everybody wanted to have that photograph taken with them.
04:05 Everybody knew Jolly, no matter where you went.
04:08 And is that the same today?
04:12 Today, yes. If you get Jolly out there, then people, you know,
04:16 and I'm sorry to say now that we're only doing it when he goes out with the mayor most of the time.
04:22 But obviously the Jolly on Tour thing, it won't happen, I don't suppose, for a long time.
04:28 If it happens again, purely and simply because of needing money to do it.
04:32 It's like all these events. We've got all these events coming up, which are A) short of money,
04:38 but also B) a lot of the problem is all the paperwork and the hoops we've got to jump through for health and safety.
04:46 It's absolutely crazy.
04:49 I think it's lovely.
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