Viv Nicholson infamously vowed to “spend, spend, spend” after winning a fortune on the football pools in the 1960s. MAXINE GORDON hears an eyewitness account of those heady days from family friend, York hairdresser Jacqui Reilly.

IT’S not everyday you go to Scarborough in a pink Cadillac with one of the most famous faces in the country, so Jacqui Reilly’s day out with Viv Nicholson is one she remembers vividly.

“I was 13 and was in the back with Viv’s three children and her sister Maureen was there too,” says Jacqui, now 65. “We drove to Scarborough and Viv parked right on the seafront next to the amusement arcades. There were no yellow lines in those days.

 

York Press:

Viv and her famous pink cadillac as featured in a BBC TV drama, Spend, Spend, Spend in 1977

“People walked past and looked at us and the big pink car. Viv gave us all money for the slot machines and then took us to a fish and chip restaurant on the front. Suddenly this table appeared and we all sat down. She was treated as if she was a film star.”

Viv would have been used to turning heads and special treatment. In 1961, her husband Keith won £152,319 on the football pools – worth almost £3 million in today’s money. When asked what she would do with it all she declared she would “spend, spend, spend”.

And she did – splashing out on a houses, cars, clothes and holidays. After Keith died in a car crash in 1965, she was declared bankrupt.

 

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Keith and Viv Nicholson with the cheque from their pools win in 1961. The sum of £152,319 is equivalent to almost £3 million today

Jacqui first met Viv as a teenager in Garforth, south of York. One of Viv and Keith’s first purchases was the four-bed detached show home on the Grange estate, a new housing development in Garforth.

Jacqui’s gran Florrie Baxter became the Nicholsons’ housekeeper and they all became firm friends. Jacqui would often help bath the couple’s three children, Sue, William and Howard. She remembers teatime consisting of cans of Ambrosia creamed rice and bread and jam – Viv couldn’t cook.

“My gran taught her how to cook,” says Jacqui. “She couldn’t boil an egg, she wasn’t domesticated all all.” The children didn’t go hungry, however, as Florrie had always prepared a hot dinner for lunch, says Jacqui.

 

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Jacqui Reilly modelling in the mid 1960s. She says her sense of style was inspired by Viv

The house at Garforth had its own cocktail bar and saw many parties, catered for by Jacqui’s gran.

Keith and Viv enjoyed holidays – exotic by 1960s standards. “They had fantastic holidays. They went to America for the month and to Spain and Gibraltar.” When they were away Jacqui and her gran house-sat.

Viv lived up to her vow and spend the winnings. Jacqui recalls how they moved to a bigger house in Garforth, sent the children to private school, bought luxury cars and goods.

Viv loved clothes. Jacqui said: “She was very attractive and had her hair done every day. To me, she was like a film star. She dressed beautifully.”

She would shop in Leeds, at the finest stores such as Marshall and Snelgrove’s, Schofield’s and Matthias Robinson, recalls Jacqui. “When she went shopping she would come back with bags full of stuff; it was like Christmas.”

But she was generous too. “She gave me some of her cast-offs. I remember some beautiful ski pants and mohair jumpers. She was so kind. When she got fed up with something she would give it away.”

 

York Press:

Viv after a shopping spree

Viv had a huge impact of the young, impressionable teen. “She gave me my sense of style and my taste for nice things,” says Jacqui. More crucially, she set Jacqui off on her career path by securing her a Saturday job with her hairdresser in Castleford.

“She gave me my first leg-up. It was very kind of her to do it,” says Jacqui who has been a hairdresser for four decades and still runs her own salon in Bishopthorpe. “I love it – I will probably die with scissors in my hand.”

Viv dyed her hair to match the cars she had. “She had a pink rinse when she had the Cadillac and a blue one when she got a blue car,” says Jacqui.

There was only occasion when Jacqui did Viv’s hair. It was just after Keith’s death.

“She asked if I could do her hair – she had a beehive. After, she asked me: ‘how much do I owe you?’ I said ‘you don’t owe me anything’. She gave me a tub of talcum powder called Topaz, which was her favourite perfume in those days. And all I did was comb up her hair.”

Jacqui recalls another journey they took together in Viv’s car – this time back home to Castleford to see her mother. “It was a really rundown area and she told me that they had been so poor she used to pinch coal out of the neighbours’ coal sheds for the fire.”

Although they lost touch a few years after Keith’s death. Jacqui has followed Viv’s life story, which has been documented in dramas, a book and regularly in the media.

She was sad to learn of Viv’s death earlier this month, at the age of 79. Unlike many people who are critical of Viv’s spendthrift lifestyle, Jacqui believes she did the right thing.

She said: “When she said she was going to ‘spend, spend, spend’, she did the right thing. They lived life to the full with the money in the time they had together.”