Random Cutting - Death of Ernie Kovaks (1962)

14th January 1962

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I'm not sure today's newspapers would print such a graphic picture of a dead celebrity. Ernie Kovaks an American radio and TV star, comic, scriptwriter, film actor, novelist and during the early 1950's the first TV innovator who, by stretching the existing video technology to its limits, won a posthumous  Emmy in 1962. As shown above he died in car accident in Los Angeles on the 13rh January 1962. 

England scores 280 first innings

Sunday Pictorial dated Sunday August 15^th 1926

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I must admit that on reading this headline ‘England scores 280 first innings’ I had no idea whether it was a ‘Hooray for England’ or a ‘England team let us down again’ headline. I don’t understand cricket scoring.

A look on this web page told me England won the 5^th Test in 1926 by 289 runs.

Ask me in 5 minutes who won and by how many runs and I will have forgotten, but I am sure there are people out there that will find these pages interesting. 

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The death of John Thomas Derham resulted from a fight with his friend Alphonso (or Alphonse) Smith over Smith’s wife Catherine.

Smith was found not guilty of murder or manslaughter in November 1926 but sentenced to 12 months for possession of a firearm with intent to injure. The comparatively lenient sentence was passed because the judge believed that Smith only intended to kill himself.

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In fact the Reverend John Alexander Smith died of his head wound the next day. 

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At least this fire in a paint factory in Southwark ended without loss of life and even three cats were saved.

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In June 1916 Lord Kitchener sailed on the battle cruiser HMS Hampshire for a diplomatic mission to Russia, but the ship struck a mine laid by U-boat U-75 and sank. Kitchener, his staff, and 643 of the crew of 655 were drowned or died of exposure. His body was never found.

In 1926, a hoaxer, Frank Power, claimed that a Norwegian fisherman had found Kitchener’s body. Power brought a coffin back from Norway and prepared it for burial in St. Paul's. At this point, however, the authorities intervened and the coffin was opened in the presence of police and a distinguished pathologist. The box was found to contain only tar for weight. Power was never prosecuted.

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I have a funny feeling that whoever tried to fill this in didn’t stand an chance of winning that rather nice Bullnose Morris Cowley, and should have sent off for the 64 page booklet on how to complete crosswords. Rather an odd feature of this grid is the use of clues marked ‘actual’ so R.T.B. (actual) is literally RTB. The other oddity I’ve noticed is 20 across and 20 down is the same isolated square with a ‘D’ pre-printed.

The first crossword to appear in a UK newspaper was only 2 years previously in 1924.

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Arthur Ferrier was born and started working as a cartoonist in Glasgow, then he moved to London and drew joke cartoons for newspapers and  magazines.

In 1930 he created Britain’s first ‘glamour’ cartoon strip called ‘Film Fanny’. The most famous ‘glamour’ strip was the Daily Mirror’s ‘Jane’. The Sunday Pictorial also published his ‘Our Dumb Blonde’ strip, which ran from 1939 to 1946, followed by ‘Spotlight on Sally’ and ‘Eve’.

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“By Gad, Sir! Whatever next? They’ll be teaching the little blighters to use the Interweb, what ever that it. A damn good thrashing would do them a sight more good. Pass the cane!”

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Only 13 years before World War II and, apart from talk of getting rid of horses, this could be from World War I.

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Probably the Bristol Bulldog single seater biplane fighter introduced into service in 1927.

The racing seaplane mentioned here is the Gloster VI, which was entered for the 1929 Schneider Trophy race, but was beaten by the Supermarine S6. 

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Ah, the old ‘daring-short-skirt-flat-chested-coal-scuttle for a hat’ look. Although the one on the right has gone for the mis-tossed pancake hat. Nice drawings though by Renee Maude.

Japs Begin to Give up Arms

Sunday Pictorial dated Sunday August 19^th 1945

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On August 6th 1945 the USAAF dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima in Japan.  On August 9^th a second atomic bomb was dropped, this time on the city of Nagasaki. On the 15th Emperor Hirohito broadcast a radio message to his Empire announcing the surrender of Japan to the Allies, although the formal surrender wasn’t signed until September 2^nd.

Officially a state of war existed between the USA and Japan right up to April 1952.

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A 2 page spread proves that the War is over… for some. That’s Marlene Dietrich on the right doing her bit for peace.

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When Reinhard Heydrich was assassinated in Czechoslovakia in 1942 it was Karl Hermann Frank and Heydrich’s replacement Kurt Daluege that organized the total destruction of the village of Lidice and its people. Both Frank and Daluege were convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death by hanging.

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The civil war between Chiang Kai-Shek and the communists under Mao Tse-Tung went on until 1949 when Mao forced Kai-Shek and his people to evacuate from the mainland to the island of Taiwan.

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Since she (or he) was first sighted in 1871 the Loch Ness Monster has been a staple ‘light relief’ item for newspapers.

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Maria Anna Minges (sometimes written Marianne) was sentenced to death twice in 1949 by a French Military court, but was inexplicably given a free pardon in 1950.

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The War may have been won but the political battles between Labour and Conservative continued. Winston Churchill’s wartime National Government was replaced by Clem Attlee’s Labour Government in the General Election of July 1945.

“… too easy for too long for politicians to evade responsibility for their blunders..” Well I’m glad that sort of thing doesn’t happen these days!

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I wonder if little Colin Dexter is out there now still defying death. He’d be about 75.

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The demobilization of about 5 million men and women began in June 1945, the last wartime conscript being returned to civvy-street in 1949. No wonder there were strikes by disgruntled service men.

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A typical example of the perennial Sunday newspaper exposé of vice. All that is missing is the ‘I was invited up to her room but made my excuses and left’ line.

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The 18-month National Service imposed on most 18 year-old men lasted from the end of the War until 1960. 

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Footballers threatening to go on strike because some were being paid £8 a match and others only £4. Makes you wonder how Gareth Bale will survive on only £250,000 a week.

Ike Unfit for the Summit

Sunday Pictorial dated Sunday July 27th 1958

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Dwight Eisenhower, known as ‘Ike’ for some reason, was the Republican President of the USA from 1953 until 1961. He’d had a heart attack in 1955, surgery for the effects of Crohn’s disease in 1956 and a stroke in 1957. He had several more heart attacks before finally dying in 1969. As far as I can ascertain the 1958 Summit never happened and Eisenhower and Krushchev finally met in at the Paris Summit in 1960, but that meeting was rather marred by the U2 Spy Plane incident in May of that year.

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Cont'd from Front page -

I wouldn’t have thought a mother could legally kidnap her own child any more than steal her own car, but could a father kidnap his child if the child is living with the mother? Answers on a post-card.

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As the Cold War between the West (USA, Britain etc) and the East (USSR etc) got frostier during the 1950’s it was Winston Churchill of all people that tried to encourage the US Presidents to talk face to face with the Russians. Possibly Churchill was aware that if the Cold War turned nuclear and Russians fired their ballistic missiles they could only reach the good old UK before blowing us all to Kingdom Come.

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Iven Kincheloe was an American Air-Force pilot who flew 131 missions during the Korean War. On his return to the USA he joined the test pilots at Edwards Airforce Base and was the first to fly at over 100,000 feet. He was to join a team that included future astronaut Neil Armstrong, testing the X15 rocket plane but was killed in a F104 Starfighter crash.

The first person to fly a plane into space was test pilot Joe Walker in an X15 in 1963.

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The Blue Streak rocket was actually developed as a medium range ballistic missile and cancelled before it went into production. The British space programme has always concentrated on getting hardware into Earth orbit using unmanned rockets. In fact only one British made rocket ever put one satellite into orbit – Black Arrow in 1971. Other British ‘sputniks’ used American rockets. 

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I knew there was still a lot of colour prejudice in Britain in the late 1950’s but charging ‘coloureds’ 50% more than ‘whites’ for the same glass of beer must have been illegal, although there is no mention of the police here, just a ticking-off from the brewery. 

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Elvis Presley’s grandfather Jesse who divorced his grandmother Minnie Mae did indeed record some sides for Legacy Records but only one single was ever released - ‘Who’s That Kickin’ My Dog Around’/’The Billy Goat Song’ backed by ‘Swingin’ In The Orchard’. Listen, if you dare, about half way down this page.

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Although Prince Charles was created Prince of Wales on July 26^th 1958, his investiture was not conducted until July 1^st 1969, when the Queen crowned him in a televised ceremony held at Caernarfon Castle.

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La Bébé. France’s biggest export in the 1950’s, Brigitte Bardot not only looked great but she could act.

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Born in 1903, Malcolm Muggeridge was a journalist, author, TV and radio personality, sometime communist, agnostic turned Catholic and World War II spy. When on TV he seemed to revel in going against public opinion; criticising the Beatle in the 1960’s when they were at the height if their popularity and in the same decade embracing Christianity as Church attendances fell dramatically. This is a typically outspoken piece criticising  the Foreign Office and MI6. He was a very articulate man who spoke very precisely and was often imitated.

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The moonraker Diana Fluck became Britain’s answer to Marylin Monroe when she changed her name to Diana Dors and bleached her hair. 

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There’s nothing new about kiss-and-tell revelations of a so-called celebrity. The Internet Movie Database list 1 acting role and 1 set designer role for Novella Parigini and a photo of her with Rock Hudson who looks like he is saying ‘will someone get this thing off me?’ while smiling gaily, can be seen here. I wonder if she ever even met Marlon Brando. She was also an artist of doubtful talent specializing in faces of women with horribly bloated lips. Freudian analysis anyone?

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No, not the ruddy Olympics again. The Empire Games were first held in 1930 when we still had an Empire (just about). By 1958 they were the British Empire and Commonwealth Games and became just the Commonwealth Games in 1978. 

36 countries took part in the 1958 Games compared to 71 in the most recent (2010).

Mother of 2 Swims Channel

Sunday Pictorial dated Sunday August 29th 1926

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Clemington ‘Millie’ O. Corson swam from France to England in 15 hrs 23 mins. Richard Davey who swam it in 8 hrs 5 mins in 1988 holds the record for a crossing in that direction. The slowest time was 22 hrs 42 mins in 1979.

Comedian David Walliams swam from England to France in 10 hrs 29 mins.

All info from the Channel Swimming Association website.

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Slight personal interest here – I used to cross that pavement outside Stepney Green Station once a week for 5 years to catch the train to Fairlop where our school had its playing fields. Unlike the unfortunate George Holmes and A Everett I was never run over.

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Sadly that’s what comes of taking up with these new fangled American ideas.

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I am fairly sure this is the woman who came to be known as Anna Anderson who always claimed to be the daughter, Anastasia, of the murdered Russian Tsar Nicholas II. She didn’t come to England but did go to the USA in 1928. She died in 1984.

Her claim was finally refuted when DNA comparison with her tissue and the DNA of the Tsar and his family and surviving relatives, including the Duke of Edinburgh, found no matches.

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A coach doing 43 mph! I wonder what the motorist who clocked this ‘juggernaut’ would think if he could spend a few minutes on the M20 heading towards Dover and being overtaken on the inside by a 16 wheel artic doing 90.

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Adverts as postmarks! Whatever next? Is this the thin end of the wedge? Soon it will be whole envelopes covered in advertising bumph with ‘For the Attention of the Occupier’ as the address. The GPO would never let that happen. Would they?

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Gaston Guyot was a Frenchman who strangled his wife with one hand while driving and then stopped and put the body in a haystack, which he set on fire. Unfortunately for him 2 gendarmes happened by, tried to put out the fire and found the body. Guyot was tried and convicted of the murder and sentenced to death by guillotine, but due to a public outcry the French President reduced this to life imprisonment.

His previous 2 wives had committed suicide and he had a diary in which he recorded 737 previous lovers.

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Ivor Novello was a very successful singer and stage and film actor who died in 1951.

Sage advice from Mr Novello but some of it soon to be made redundant by the coming of the Talkies. His final sentiment, ‘… they must remember that nobody has ever got out of film acting more than they put into it’ – shows that he obviously he didn’t live to see any Steven Seagal films.

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This is the earliest use of the word ‘kinky’ that I have come across and, if it had the same meaning then as it has more recently, the mind boggles. I, for one, have never thought of short white socks, culottes and a Robin Hood hat as kinky.

Polly Ward went on to a fairly successful film and stage career that included co-starring in 2 George Formby films. She died in 1987.

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Note the picture top right from ‘That’s My Baby’ – the 'baby' is actually 24 year old Harry Earls who went on to play a Munchkin in  ‘The Wizard of OZ’, appear in Tod Browning’s controversial film ‘Freaks’ and the sound version of Lon Chaney’s ‘The Unholy Three’ having also appeared in the silent version in 1925.

Matt Moore (in the picture lower right) has 220 film appearances in the IMDb starting in 1912 through to 1958. Oddly the last 54, from 1941 to 1958, are listed as ‘uncredited’.

Mae Allison to Ian Keith – “I have to wear it or those CIA satellites will read my mind.”

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Both Miss Ivy Cummings and Hugo Urban-Emmerich crashed after 4 laps, George Eyston won in his Bugatti and a certain Englishman called Malcolm Campbell failed to start.

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Jack Hobbs played cricket for England 157 times between 1908 and 1930 and scored 61,760 runs for Surrey. No stats are available for the sparrow.

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To my untrained eye it looks like Parker, Millwall, is about to give Hannah, Norwich City, a bloody good kicking.

Chelsea seems to have a player that has a huge football for a head. Is this allowed? Must be, because an Arsenal player has one too.