(London) Evening Standard dated Friday August 9th 1974
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Richard Milhous Nixon had been Dwight Eisenhower’s Vice President from 1953-1961, had run for President in 1960 against John F Kennedy and had lost, and finally won the 1968 Presidential Election against Hubert Humphrey.
On 17th June 1972 there was a break-in at the Democratic Party Headquarters in the Watergate Complex and two Washington Post journalists, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, investigated. They uncovered a link between the burglars and the White House. At first the big question was did Nixon know the break-in was going to happen? This later became regardless of whether he knew, is the President trying to cover up White House involvement?
Nixon blustered his way through the next two years but, facing a Senate Impeachment trial on a charge of obstruction of justice, finally he resigned.
Even so he could still have been indicted on criminal charges relating to conspiracy to break into the Watergate, but in September 1974 the new President, Gerald Ford, controversially pardoned Nixon.
Only two Presidents actually faced Impeachment trials – Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 and both were acquitted.
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If you really want to you can listen to this speech on Youtube and read what you will into his choice of words and tone of voice. The HistoryCommons channel 2 part upload has the full speech.
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As predicted in this article front-runner Nelson Rockefeller became Ford’s Vice-President.
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The film ‘All the President’s Men’ was released in 1976 starring Dustin Hoffman as Bernstein and Robert Redford as Woodward. The film won 4 Oscars including best supporting actor for Jason Robards. It also got 10 BAFTA nominations.
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Doris (Dolly) Kray was having an affair with George Ince who, in May 1973, had stood trial for the Barn Restaurant Murder that happened in 1972 in Braintree, Essex. Ince was found not guilty and part of his alibi was that he was in bed with Dolly Kray at the time. She testified on his behalf with the approval of her husband Charles.
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This was pretty well the Osmonds’ last gasp as a chart-topping group before going into their separate careers. Their last UK top ten single ‘Love Me for a Reason’ was released that year.
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Traffic curbs.. geddit?? Curbs. Traffic. Oh forget it!
The congestion charge hinted at here finally came into force in 2003. London traffic problems are nothing new. Back in the late 1950’s I travelled about 10 miles by bus through East London to get to school. One day there was a hold up and my friends and I were complaining about being late, when an old woman said, “You should have been here when it was all horses. Those were real traffic jams and they happened every day.” Or words to that effect.
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Veggie eating, astrology believing, Nixon hating hippie buys fur coat! Even stereotypes are allowed a mistake once in a while.
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Born in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen, Raft became first a dancer then a movie actor. In the 1930’s he was one of the biggest stars of Gangster films alongside James Cagney and Edward G Robinson. In the 40’s his career flagged. He turned down ‘High Sierra’ and ‘The Maltese Falcon’, both leading roles that went to Humphrey Bogart.
In the 1950’s he worked as a ‘greeter’ at the Capri Casino in Havana, Cuba, which he partly owned along with Mafia men Meyer Lansky and Santo Trafficante.
In 1967 he was denied entry into the UK (where he was to have been Casino Director at the Colony Club) due to his gangster associations.
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One of my favourite films and one of my favourite film posters.
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Roman Polanski was born in France of Polish parents and was brought up in Poland. World War II started when he was 6 and the Nazis interned his parents. His father survived but his mother died in Auschwitz.
After the War he attended the National Film School and went on to appear in and to direct Polish films. After trying and failing to make a mark in France he made 3 films in England (‘Repulsion’, ‘Cul-de-Sac’ and ‘The Fearless Vampire Killers’) and then ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ in the USA.
Three years after ‘Chinatown’ he was accused and found guilty of sexual assault on a 13 year-old girl during a photo-shoot. To avoid a jail sentence he fled to France and, as a French citizen, has lived there ever since.
According to Wikipedia –
The victim, Samantha Geimer, during a television interview on 10 March 2011, blames the media, reporters, the court, and the judge for causing "way more damage to [her] and her family than anything Roman Polanski has ever done." She adds that the media were "really cruel," stating that the judge was using her and a noted celebrity for his own personal gain from the media exposure.
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I'm always a bit suspicious of round figures like £3000000 in articles like this so I got my calculator out – at £25 per ounce 3 UK tons which is 6720lb (3 * 2240) and therefore 107520 ounces (16 * 6720) would cost £2688000. Call it 2.7 extra large and we have a deal, OK Squire?
