| A British phenomenon started by Sir Billy Butlin in 1935 to provide cheap holidays for working-class people with families. Butlins and Pontins became very popular with British holidaymakers in the fifties and sixties. The first camp was built at Skegness, in the East Midlands. In the early days, they looked a little like concentration camps - rows of wooden, tin-roofed huts - and were organised along fairly rigid lines; sirens going off for breakfast, children packed off in the morning for activities, etc. The camp organisers were known as Redcoats, for their uniforms. Some of the Redcoat entertainers later went on to careers in showbiz. The TV series Hi-de-Hi, set in a holiday camp, took the piss out of them, and by the Eighties they had declined, and were seen as a naff place to go. The Rank organisation ordered a refit and re-marketing in the early Nineties, and they're now more like theme parks. |
