Sunday Pictorial dated April 10th 1927
Click to Enlarge
Old Etonian Sir Henry Segrave was the first person to exceed
200mph on land and the first Briton to win a Grand Prix.
In March 1926 he set a land speed record of 152mph and,
after temporarily losing it to John Parry-Thomas, increased it to 207mph at
Daytona Beach on March 29th 1927. He died in 1930 attempting the
water speed record on Windemere.
Oddly, apart from this picture, there is nothing else about
Segrave or the record in this edition.
Click to Enlarge
Still on motoring, there was a petrol price war
going on between the big oil companies (combines) and the independent providers
and the result was lower prices at the pumps. The AA guide to petrol prices
shows that in 1927 petrol averaged 14.5 old pence (approx 6p) per gallon (or 4.55
litres) and there was no tax on petrol.
Click to Enlarge
Ferdinando Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were two Italian
Anarchists living in the USA who murdered two men while carrying out an armed
robbery of a shoe factory in Massachusetts on April 15th 1920. They
were arrested 3 weeks later and after a controversial trial were found guilty.
Various appeals delayed their executions for 6 years. In the meantime violent
protests by Anarchists, against the verdict, included the horse drawn cart bomb
that blew up in Wall Street, New York on September 20th 1926 killing
38 people.
Sacco
and Vanzetti finally went to the electric chair on August 23rd 1927.
Click to Enlarge
You could buy this 9 horse-power Fiat (with brakes on all four wheels !) using the ‘gradual payments’ scheme. A much nicer phrase than ‘hire
purchase’ or ‘financial agreement’.
No
web address but note the ‘Wires: Fiatism, Piccy, London.” for telegrams.
Click to Enlarge
The ship would turn out to be the RMS Britannic
built by Harland and Wolff for the White Star Line and launched on August 6th
1929. She sailed mostly on the Liverpool-New York route right up to her final
voyage in November 1960.
Click to Enlarge
Obviously size zero models are nothing new.
Beautiful
line drawings, by someone called Renee Maude, the like of which you don’t get in
newspapers these days. I guess you don’t get a dress being described as a
‘confection’ either.
Click to Enlarge
What a horrific story. You could be callous and
say that’s what you get for parading around in dead animal pelts, but I
wouldn’t wish leprosy on the most ardent ‘if it moves kill it, skin it and wear
it’ troglodyte.
Click to Enlarge
Who is this Dora person? I think this snippet is
referring to the Defence Of the Realm Act (nicknamed Dora) that was introduced
during World War 1 and included such bizarre restrictions on the public as ‘no
kite flying’, ‘no feeding wild animals bread’ and ‘no using invisible ink when
writing abroad’. It also restricted public house opening hours. WWI was the
excuse for creating it but it continued in use afterwards and technically it
has never been repealed.
Click to Enlarge
In the contest Radium Vs Grey Hair I would back
Radium any day. The properties of radium were thought to be so beneficial that
the word ‘radio-active’ is in bold type. Not only could you put it on your
hair, but you could get it through the post where it could make everyone else’s letters and packages glow in the dark.
Click to Enlarge
A refreshingly different view of Youth at a time when the
flappers and Oxford bags brigade were being criticised by the ‘we fought in the
Crimea for you’ old fogies.
Click to Enlarge
“By gad, Sir! What’s it coming to when a chap
can’t put on baggy shorts and play with his woggle in the privacy of his own
home, doncha know. The memsahib makes a damn good girl guide too. Pass the
brandy!”
Click to Enlarge
As with all film related matters on this blog I rely on the
Internet Movie Database site for info.
Frank Hurlay it seems was primarily a documentary film maker
whose career spanned 1913 to 1962 and Charles Ray has 171 titles to his credit
between 1911 and 1944 but ‘The Naughty Widow’ seems to be listed as ‘Nobody’s
Widow’ and CM Woolf hardly rates a mention.
Click to Enlarge
Considering the cameras and film available in
1927 these are not half-bad action photos of Middlesbrough vs. Fulham and
Cardiff vs. West Ham playing some game called football.
No comments:
Post a Comment