In 1961 Vivian Nicholson was
thrust into the limelight after she and her husband Keith won £152,300 on the
Littlewoods football pools (about £4.5 million today.) Her fame was matched by
her words “spend spend spend” after she told the
media of her spending intentions. She led a messy chaotic life and died after
five marriages aged 79 and was cremated here where I'm stood at Pontefract
Crematorium.
For years the media followed Viv’s
rollercoaster rise as the couple rapidly burned through the fortune. Growing up
in poverty she didn’t know how to make it work for her, nor pace the spending.
She was born near Wakefield to a poor family and, being the eldest child, was
expected to mind her six sisters. Aged 14 she left school to work packing
Pontefract cakes at the local liquorice factory for £7 per week. Pregnant at 16
she got married by soon left her husband to marry her neighbour Keith
Nicholson. By the time she was 25 she had four children and was broke. At this
age the couple won the football pools - what equates to £4.7 million in today’s
money.)
The media had won the jackpot too - Viv and her husband lapped up the attention. Oddly this
wasn’t even the biggest jackpot - widow Nellie McGrail
from Stockport had won £205,235 four years earlier.
The brakes were off and uncontrolled spending
commenced - sports cars, fur coats, posh clothing, home appliances, jewellery
and holidays. There was a bling new home called
Ponderosa after the ranch in a TV series (the swimming pool was often empty and
used by the children to store their bikes.) Viv was a
fan of Jayne Mansfield who owned a pink Cadillac - so she bought one too.
With little idea of managing money she said
spending was like being addicted to drugs. She felt disconnected from people
she’d known for years. Four years of the win Keith lost control of his Jaguar
and died in a crash. Viv began drinking heavily and
would become an alcoholic. From this point the money seemed to run away and she
ended up with nothing - less than nothing and the banks and the Inland Revenue
deemed her bankrupt. There was one advantage - Keith’s will ensured a trust
fund protected their her children’s private schooling. Aged 34 she won a legal
battle to gain £34,000 from her dead husband's estate but had learnt nothing.
More rampant spending ensued - along with more drinking.
Aged 44 she moved to Malta but was back within a
year after assaulting a policeman. She married again but her new husband - like the first one - died in a car crash.
Her luck worsened when she married again but the wedlock lasted 13 weeks (she
ended up in a mental home to escape his abuse and attempted suicide.) She
claimed she was so broke she could not afford his funeral. She married again
but her fifth and final husband died of a drug overdose. Not far off being
penniless she had a brief stint in a Manchester strip club singing Hey Big Spender but was fired for
refusing to take off her underwear.
In later life she became a Jehovah's Witness and
wrote her life story called Spend, Spend,
Spend (also a play - a big success for the BBC.) Aged 62 a musical Spend, Spend, Spend was such a triumph
at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds that it transferred to the West End of
London for a two-year run. Viv developed dementia and
suffered a stroke, dying at Pinderfields Hospital in
Wakefield a week after her 79th birthday.
On a hot autumn Sunday I arrived at Pontefract
Crematorium. I had set off home from the coast and was hungry so I had three
fried eggs on toast and a milky coffee before emerging into the sun. I had to
wait for a couple in wheelchairs to leave before taking a few photos. As usual
the grass of memorial gardens was peppered with ashes. Someone had shaped one into
a crucifix shape (see photo.) Perhaps if Viv hadn't
hit the jackpot she wouldn't have lived such a chaotic life. Perhaps she
wouldn't swap it for anything. I did a salute and left.
Some ashes in the shape of a crucifix...