Out of the Cardboard Suitcase

Ivan Berg

The Ivan Berg Memoir podcast A podcast spanning the five decades from the outbreak of WW2 in 1939

  1. Ivan Berg - Podcast Memoir Part 1: 1939-1945 - The Blitz, Doodlebugs and V-2 Rockets

    Episode 1

    Ivan Berg - Podcast Memoir Part 1: 1939-1945 - The Blitz, Doodlebugs and V-2 Rockets

    First part of memoir spanning five decades.  Ivan Berg's wartime memories 1939-1945.  Evacuee, back in London for the Blitz - then sent away again, with father at war, mother in hospital, to a Kindertransport Hostel. #theblitz #evacuation #kindsertransport #ww2 #worldwar2 #londonblitz #1939 #bipolar #evacuee #v1 #flyingbomb #v2rocket #ballisticmissile

    24 min
  2. Ivan Berg - Podcast Memoir Part 2: 1945-1953

    Episode 2

    Ivan Berg - Podcast Memoir Part 2: 1945-1953

    1945-1953. Peacetime. Life in a prefab, arrival of a baby brother, getting into Grammar School ... and bunking off. First business - as a teenage entrepreneur, and first, short-lived, jobs.

    22 min
  3. Ivan Berg - Podcast Memoir Part 3: 1953

    Episode 3

    Ivan Berg - Podcast Memoir Part 3: 1953

    1953 continued : more jobs, and Ivan signs up for sea school aged 16 - dreaming of exotic foreign travel. His parents are not happy.

    20 min

  4. Episode 4

    Ivan Berg - Podcast Memoir Part 4: 1953 continued

    Ivan starts work as a saloon boy and steward, sailing to South Africa. Hard work, the waiter known as Mabel, and drag shows in the crew bar.

    21 min
  5. Ivan Berg - Podcast Memoir Part 5

    Episode 5

    Ivan Berg - Podcast Memoir Part 5

    Ivan sails to South Africa and South America ... a world away from Hackney and Austerity. There's an unfortunate incident involving Crepes Suzette.. and he meets "Esmerelda" a beautiful, rich young Brazilian girl ...

    22 min
  6. Ivan Berg - Podcast Memoir Part 6

    Episode 6

    Ivan Berg - Podcast Memoir Part 6

    Adventures in South America: learning to ride a horse gaucho style ...and a slightly awkward visit to a bordello. Ivan is 18, gets his rating, a pay rise, a job on the Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth and his first trip to New York ...

    23 min

  7. Episode 7

    Ivan Berg - Podcast Memoir Part 7

    The perks of Cunard.  Ivan learns how to make serious money in tips - especially from first class American passengers. Now smart in Brooks Brothers style suits, he has to fight off a 'friend' of his gay uncle Monty in New York. London on leave is more promising - he meets writers and composers just starting out, amongst them Lionel Bart, who develops a taste for Ivan's mothers's Friday night chicken soup.

    22 min
  8. Ivan Berg Podcast Memoir - Part 8: The Caribbean Cruises

    Episode 8

    Ivan Berg Podcast Memoir - Part 8: The Caribbean Cruises

    Ivan settles in to the Caribbean cruises: picking up passengers in New York and sailing to the Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, Curaçao, Jamaica, Antigua, Martinique, Barbados and St Thomas.  American passengers become friends, hosting him in their mansion in Great Neck LI, inviting him to glamorous parties. And he meets cheerful cockney and fellow crewman Tommy Hicks - helps him get a cushier job on board. #SirThomasHicksOBE

    24 min
See All Season 1 (19)

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The Ivan Berg Memoir podcast A podcast spanning the five decades from the outbreak of WW2 in 1939

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