The photo of footballer that launched 50-year career of Sun snapper Arthur Edwards – and got its subject into trouble

10 months ago 65

IT is the picture that launched a legend.

Fifty years ago next week, a young Arthur Edwards worked his first shift as a photographer for the “Soaraway Sun”.

He was sent to get a picture of Wolverhampton Wanderers footballers as they arrived at a West End show ahead of the League Cup final.

And he managed to persuade Wolves’ star striker John Richards to pose with curvy actress Vikki Richards — no relation — from the cast of the farce No Sex Please, We’re British.

Arthur’s photo of the football star and the showgirl appeared on the back page of The Sun on the day Wolves played Manchester City at Wembley, and won a cup final for the first time in 14 years.

And the shot made history that day — because it began the stellar career of a Fleet Street legend.

It was a lucky omen for John too, as he scored the winner in Wolves’ shock 2-1 victory.

As The Sun’s royal photographer, Arthur has since travelled to 100 countries, photographing every member of the Royal Family, plus the King’s Coronation last year, as well as famous faces from popes to presidents.

Remarkably, at the age of 83, he is still taking photos and getting the same buzz today from seeing them published as he did half a century ago.

To celebrate this landmark in Arthur’s incredible career, we contacted John, now 73, who still lives in Wolverhampton.

We also tracked down actress Vikki at her home near Port of Spain, in Trinidad, where she became a TV presenter.

Wembley was amazing

As a result, Arthur was reunited with John at Wolves’ Molineux stadium, and he photographed Vikki when she recently flew to London.

John revealed to Arthur that on the Sunday before that 1974 cup final, Wolves manager Bill McGarry had whisked his team away to the seaside.

The players checked into a hotel at Worthing on the Sussex coast to escape media attention but also to hide the fact that first-choice goalkeeper Phil Parkes had a broken ankle and would not play at Wembley.

Dad-of-two John added: “We had a great team, with some really good players, and in those days the League Cup was a big thing.

“On the Thursday we moved from Worthing to a hotel in St Albans in Hertfordshire and that afternoon we went to Wembley, which was amazing.

“We walked through the famous tunnel and had a wander round. If it made any difference I don’t know, but psychologically it was something the manager felt was important for us.

“And then, to keep us distracted, the club had arranged for us to go to see the show in the West End.

“They didn’t tell us too much in advance. Until we actually got there we didn’t know there was going to be any planned photographs.”

Vikki, then 24, was waiting in the foyer of the Strand Theatre to welcome the players and pose for photos.

When my team-mates saw your photo they took the p**s. They kept saying, ‘Ooh, your eyes are looking down, aren’t they?

John Richards

She joked to Arthur: “In those days I used to get quite a lot of publicity. I think Michael Crawford, who was the star of the show, got a bit jealous.” Racing against time before the players were shown to their seats, Arthur asked John to pose for a photo with Vikki.

On the morning of the match itself, Saturday March 2, 1974, Arthur’s picture of John and Vikki appeared on the back page of The Sun, accompanied by three short paragraphs under the headline No Sex Please — We’re Wolves.

The story read: “John Richards tried to keep his mind on today’s League Cup final but his namesake Vikki Richards got him interested in other things.

“The Wolves striker and some of his team-mates met Vikki when they went to the Strand Theatre to see the show No Sex Please, We’re British. Vikki is one of the stars of the show.

Picture: Arthur Edwards”

It was a proud moment for Arthur, son of a Cockney lorry driver, and the first time his name — byline — ever appeared in The Sun.

But 50 years later John recalled: “You got me into a bit of trouble, Arthur.

When John’s wife Pam picked up that morning’s Sun and saw the photo of her husband apparently peering at Vikki’s boobs, it did not go down well[/caption]

Arthur in his staff portrait from 1974[/caption]

“When my team-mates saw your photo they took the p**s. They kept saying, ‘Ooh, your eyes are looking down, aren’t they?’”

And it got worse.

When John’s wife Pam, who was then seven months pregnant, picked up that morning’s Sun and saw the photo of her husband apparently peering at Vikki’s boobs, it did not go down well.

I scored the winning goal with about seven or eight minutes to go. We got a £1,000 bonus for winning, which was a lot of money back then

John Richards

John said: “She was not impressed. She wasn’t going to blame the photographer but she did blame me. Thankfully I didn’t see her until after the match, when we went to the Hilton hotel for a banquet.

“That was when my wife said, ‘Somebody showed me this picture in The Sun’. But the fact we’d won the League Cup saved my bacon.

Most memorable period in my footballing career

“I scored the winning goal with about seven or eight minutes to go. We got a £1,000 bonus for winning, which was a lot of money back then.

“We had just moved into a newly-built house in Wolverhampton, which cost £9,999. And I said, ‘Pam, the money I’m getting out of this will put central heating in the house’.”

During the match Pam had had more to worry about than a photo in The Sun as she watched John, standing near the Manchester penalty spot, hammer a deflection off City striker Rodney Marsh’s boot past keeper Keith MacRae to score his match-winning goal.

John said: “That was when all hell was let loose. My wife nearly had a premature birth. Could have been all sorts of problems.

“My mum and in-laws were there as well. It was a fantastic occasion. To me it is the most memorable period in my footballing career.”

As Wolves’ top striker, John was earning £100 a week — three times more than his dad, also John, who worked in a cardboard factory — but the First Division club did not splash out on extras for their players.

Our back page on the day Arthur’s photo was published revealed how Manchester City’s players would each have been paid a £2,500 — more than £32,000 in today’s money — bonus for lifting the trophy, compared with a grand a man for Wolves — the equivalent of £13,000 today.

And back then, teams did not kit out their players with matching suits for big occasions — which is why, as John explained, the smart suit he wore to the theatre was his own.

He added: “The only thing that they gave us for the ’74 final were tracksuits. We thought we were the bees’ knees but when we came out of the tunnel we looked like Rod Hull’s Emu, with bright yellow legs.

“They were supposed to be gold (to match the famous Wolves kit) but they were bright yellow and looked absolutely horrendous, with a black top. I look back at it now and think how awful that was.”

John was at Wolves for 14 years before ending his playing career with a two-year spell at Maritimo, in Madeira, in the mid-1980s.

Little did I know that first assignment all those years ago would lead to an amazing career

Arthur Edwards

In 1997 he was back at Wolves as managing director but after three years on the board he quit to run a website for training groundsmen and greenkeepers.

Now retired, John — who has been married to Pam for more than 50 years — is still involved with his old club as chairman of the former Wolves players’ association.

Vikki went on to appear in TV dramas including The Gentle Touch, Howards’ Way and Return Of The Saint, before moving to Trinidad, where for five years she presented her own television series, Building Your Dream Home.

As for our very own Arthur Edwards, he is still living his dream as Britain’s most famous royal photographer.

He said: “Little did I know that first assignment all those years ago would lead to an amazing career.”