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Every issue of Call Sign takes a look back at ODRTS history through the pages of the magazines of the time with a Flashback… DIAL-A-CAB FLASHBACK This month’s Flashback comes from the January 1984 Call Sign and gives an obituary and welcome insight into probably ODRTS’ least known Chairman – Eli ‘Trixie’ Solomons... |
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Eli Solomons - Known as
Trixie A TRIBUTE I suppose that a great number of you reading this will ask who was Eli ‘Trixie’ Solomons, but I would reply that he was one of a group of dedicated cab drivers that helped build this circuit. How he got his nickname I don't really know, but he was a humorous man who could take a joke and be part of one. Many years ago when he became an ODRTS member, he and a few other radio drivers used to meet for tea in what was then an Express Dairy at the top of Great Portland Street. In those days there was a cab shelter opposite and drivers would leave their cabs on the rank. On this particular day, Trixie and a few other drivers were talking about the amount of work coming over the air. The fourth tea drinker was Bert Frankford, a non-radio man. Trixie looked over to the cabs and said: "Bert, look at those aerials vibrating with all the jobs being broadcast!" Bert immediately left the shop and made for Pentonville Road where he signed up. He never did regret his decision and the yarn always made him grin whenever it was repeated. Trixie never minded being on the receiving end either. As an instance, years ago it was common to put on a station rank and spend up to an hour or so there and on this particular occasion Trixie put on at Euston. Cabbing then was not the hard grind it is today and you could leave your cab, have a walk along the rank and always find someone to chat to. But while Trixie was away from his cab, a couple of jokers wired a kipper to his exhaust manifold. In came the awaited train and off he went to Waterloo. You can imagine the stink as he drove down Kingsway and what the passengers must have thought! Trixie drove on until he reached the destination. At Waterloo he noticed smoke coming from under his bonnet and taking a look, Trixie found the incinerated remains of a kipper. But the |
joke was really on the jokers,
for Trixie had no sense of smell and wouldn’t have known without
the smoke! He was also a generous man. If ever a subscriber happened to bring his child to the office and by chance met Trixie, he would always put his hand in his pocket and find a piece of silver for him or her. He never had children of his own, but made friends with young and old alike. I remember one regular job we had taking a little girl to school from Upper Grosvenor Street. I once picked this little child up and she asked me where Uncle Trixie was? I understand that while she growing up, he never forgot to send her a birthday card. In 1956 he became a Board member, that's when I got to know him better. Across the Board table we would often have heated disagreements. They were exciting days - and nights! Most members of the Board in those days were daymen, so our fortnightly unpaid meetings started at 7pm and would go on until the early hours of the following morning on many occasions. Yet despite our battles, we always remained firm friends. In 1958 he became Treasurer, a tough but fair negotiator with our Pye radio suppliers, someone who was so quick with figures you would have thought that he had worked for a bookie at some time in his life. He earned the respect of the Directors of Pye, who I know kept in touch with him after he finally left the Board. Between 1959 and 1962 he deservedly became ODRTS Chairman. I last saw him when he was recovering from an illness. We spoke of the early days on the radio, laughed and joked, mentioned old subscribers good and bad, our successes and our failures. I remember something he often used to say: "A man who never made a mistake never made anything." He made a few, we all did, but he helped to create a radio circuit that was the envy of the cab trade. Frank Duncan (D02) |
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