Sunday 21 October 2012

SOS after murder attempt at sea

Evening Standard dated Tuesday September 9th 1958

Click to Read
A very busy front page. An SOS is sent from the cargo ship Brockleymoor reporting an attempted murder aboard; film star Mamie Van Doren sues for divorce; rock’n’roller Terry Dean is done for travelling without a ticket; Prince Rainier of Monaco refuses Lady Docker a visa; football pools winners ‘work on’; 2 men saved from a factory fire; and the US pledge support for Quemoy.

Mamie Van Doren finally divorced her 2nd husband Ray Anthony in 1961 then went on to have three more.

After early success as a pop singer Terry Dene turned his back on the scene in 1964 and became a Christian Evangelist preacher.

Lady Docker and her husband Sir Bernard Docker  were invited to the christening of Prince Albert of Monaco in April 1958. After an incident in which she tore up a Monaco flag Prince Rainier had her expelled. Due to a treaty with France the ban was enforced throughout the French Riviera. 
Before the Lottery the weekly Football Pools was the only way to an instant fortune for normal law abiding citizens.

After the Communists took control of mainland China in 1949, the non-communist Nationalist government of General Chiang Kai-shek set up shop on the island of Taiwan. Quemoy Island, although closer to the mainland than Taiwan was owned by Taiwan and became the focus of a long running dispute between the governments.

Click to Read
Juvenile delinquency was a big issue in the 1950’s and everyone had cure, from more youth clubs to capital punishment.

Click to Read
This letter was provoked by 8 days of violence between black and white youths in the Notting Hill area of North-West London the previous week. The answer here is a damn good thrashing.

Click to Read
As a result of the Notting Hill riots the police arrested over 140 people, 72 were white and 36 were black. 

Click to Read
The BBC monopoly of TV had been broken by the introduction of the commercial channel in September 1955, but looking at this evening’s offerings I think I would have been off to the local flea-pit for a good film.

Click to Read
Then as now, British soldiers patrolling some distant countryside attacked by terrorists. In 1958 it was Cyprus, a British colony since 1925 with a divided population of Greek and Turkish Cypriots. It gained Independence from the UK in 1960.

Click to Read
Those were the good old days when young whippersnappers could go out and play all day long with only the risk of being blown to bits by discarded high explosives to worry about.

Click to Read
The top 6 best selling books of the week included Boris Pasternak, Nevile Shute and H E Bates. Either we were better read in those days or there was very little choice. Certainly no Jamie Oliver cook-books or ghost written ‘celebrity’ memoirs.

Click to Read
The driving alcohol limit wasn’t introduced into the UK for another 9 years, although it had been an offence to be ‘found drunk in charge of a mechanically propelled vehicle on any highway or other public place’ since 1925.
The Driving Test had been around since 1934.




No comments:

Post a Comment