Cathy McGowan (born 1943) is a British broadcaster and journalist, best known as presenter of the 1960s pop music television show Ready Steady Go!
[4] Its original presenter Keith Fordyce (1928–2011), a stalwart of the BBC Light Programme and Radio Luxembourg, was joined in 1964 by McGowan and Michael Aldred.
[7] McGowan seemed in tune with the times, "the girl of the day", according to Eric Burdon of the Animals[7] – and, through her fashion sense, acquired the nickname, "Queen of the Mods".
[9]) Much of her appeal lay in the fact that she was the age of RSG's viewers:[10] young women regarded her as a role model, while men were attracted by her looks.
Anna Wintour, future editor of American Vogue, was, according to her biographer Jerry Oppenheimer, among teenagers whom the show introduced to fashion.
[12] In the words of Dominic Sandbrook, a social historian: The show's most celebrated presenter, McGowan was the same age as the national audience; she wore all the latest trendy shifts and mini-dresses; and she spoke with an earnest, ceaseless barrage of teenage slang, praising whatever was 'fab' or 'smashing', and damning all that was 'square' or 'out'.
Barbara Hulanicki, who founded Biba, observed that "the girls aped Cathy's long hair and eye-covering fringe and soon their little faces were growing heavy with stage make-up".
[15] It has been claimed that the formation in 1966 of a British Society for the Preservation of the Miniskirt was prompted by McGowan's indicating that she would wear a long skirt on RSG.
As Sandbrook put it, "Thanks to the enthusiastic salesmanship of McGowan and her fellow presenters, the emerging youth culture that had once been confined to the capital [London] or to the great cities could now be seen and copied almost immediately from Cornwall to the Highlands".
In 1991, McGowan co-hosted with Alexei Sayle and Jonathan Ross a show by British comedians to mark the 30th anniversary of Amnesty International.