Oliver Reed Dies in Pub

The Sun dated Monday May 3rd 1999

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What a shame that the star of ‘The Devils’, Ken Russell’s ‘Debussy’, ‘Women in Love’, ‘The Three Musketeers’, ‘I'll Never Forget What's'isname’, ‘The Trap’ and ‘Oliver!’ and so many others, should be remembered this way – Oliver Reed, the drunken buffoon in a silly hat. 

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I offer no apology for including this more fitting tribute, not from The Sun but a cutting from The Independent – Oliver Reed, the professional film actor.

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Continued from the top of the front page.

On 3 weekends in April homemade nail bombs had exploded in London, they were aimed at Black, Bangladeshi and Gay targets and killed 3 people as well as seriously injuring 139, some permanently. The arrested man, David Copeland, had been a member of both the BNP and the National Socialist Movement but was not acting on their behalf. He was later found guilty of multiple murders and sentenced to at least 50 years behind bars.

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On the 28^th April 1999 the journalist, TV presenter and newsreader Jill Dando was shot on the doorstep of her London home. A year after the murder a local man, Barry George, was arrested, charged and tried for the murder. He was convicted but, at a third appeal in 2007, he was allowed a re-trial and was acquitted for lack of evidence. No one else has ever been arrested for the murder.

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Why, oh why, oh why do papers have to use headlines like ‘Ross: Our snake hell’?  I’m sure it was frightening and upsetting for the Ross household at the time, but his daughter didn’t fall into a bottomless pit of serpents for all Eternity. It devalues the word ‘hell’. What is the copywriter to use when trying to describe something truly ‘hellish’ like a war or a famine?

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Call me Phil E Stein but this sketch by Pierre-Auguste Renoir doesn’t look anything special to me. Any traditional art student worth their student loan could do better.

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An edition of The Sun wouldn’t be complete without a picture of Posh and Becks. This was before they were married, moved to America and had 3 more embarrassingly named children.  

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Perfect Icon of the 1990’s? Johnny Vaughan? Paul Gascoigne? Melinda Messenger? Has The Sun never heard of Homer Simpson?

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As usual I include Sport for those strange people out there who actually enjoy it and might find this bit about the 1999 San Marino Grand Prix… what’s the word?.. oh yes… interesting.

Random Ad - Barratt Shoes 1940's

A WWII advert for Barratt shoes. A difficult time for companies to advertise in the traditional way (buy now or else!). This advert is  asking the customers not to buy Barratt’s shoes (or anyone else’s) because the leather is needed for War use. So why advertise at all? I think they must be trying to store up public goodwill for after the War.

Random Cutting - Bus Crash 1926

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A picture of a badly damaged London bus that is horribly reminiscent of the July 7th 2005 bus bomb, only this is just the result of a collision between the bus and a tram and no one was killed.

Death of William IV

The Manchester Guardian dated Wednesday 21st June 1837 and Saturday 24th June 1837

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The Manchester Guardian (which became The Guardian in 1959 and still is) was published twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays and measured about 18 inches (45.7 cm) by 27 inches (68.5 cm). The front pages showed just classified adverts - even when there was an important story like the death of the Monarch to report.

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This from page 2 of 4. Although William IV. King of Great Britain and Ireland and Elector of Hanover, had died in the early hours of Tuesday, in the 1st edition on Wednesday the latest news was as at 4pm on Monday. 

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The 2nd edition augmented the out-of-date page 2 information with this announcement plonked in amongst other stories on page 3.

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By the next edition on Saturday there is a bit more detail. ‘Queen’ in this article refers to William’s widow Adelaide who out lived him by 12 years. 

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And this Proclamation of the new Queen Victoria.

William and Adelaide had 2 daughters but the first died within 1 day and the second within 3 months. There were (allegedly) 10 illegitimate children but the only legitimate heir was his niece, Victoria. who went on to reign until her death in 1901.

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William had disliked Victoria’s mother so much that he swore he would live until Victoria was 18 to prevent the mother becoming Regent. Victoria was 18 years and 27 days old when William died.

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A nice cheap way to have a stag-do in Hamburg – leaving on the Paddle Steamer ‘Rob Roy’ on Saturday and only £2 to pay. 

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The slave trade had been abolished in Britain and its dependencies in 1807 although the owning of slaves wasn’t made illegal under British law until 1833. This Portuguese trader was taken off the coast of Dominica.

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I can’t find any specific statistics to show that murder was a lot more common in 1837 than it is now, but looking through the 100 odd editions of The Manchester Guardian that make up the bound set that this issue is from, it certainly appears so. And, in this horribly casual murder at least, it looks like alcohol played its part as now.

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If the fire damp doesn't get you then a roof collapse will. Coal mining was notoriously dangerous as these 2 items show.

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Classified ads for white-collar jobs. I love the language in these adverts – ‘none need apply but persons acquainted with the business’ – has more of a ring to it than ‘experience required’. Why does the grocer specifically want a ‘stout, active Youth’?

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And for servants. Again the language. ‘character must be unexceptional’ ‘wages not so much an object as a comfortable situation’ ‘a good plain cook’ Does this last example refer to the food or the cook?

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An interesting curriculum at Mrs Nutter’s Establishment for Young Ladies that includes ‘Washing’. What no Geography, History, Science, IT or Media Studies?

Random Ad - Shirley Temple and Puffed Wheat

Child film-star and future U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia advertises Puffed Wheat in 1936. Makes Doris Day look like Aileen Wuornos.

Random Cutting - Space Shuttle Explosion

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The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded at 11:28 local time just off the Florida coast on January 28^th 1986 killing all 7 people on board, including a non-astronaut woman teacher. The Shuttle space program was paused for nearly 3 years.

Nab Roosevelt Death Plotter

The (San Francisco) Call Bulletin dated Wednesday May 17th 1939

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A very busy front page typical of the Call Bulletin.

6 years after the attempt to assassinate Franklin D Roosevelt featured in this post, a man is arrested outside the White House armed with a rock, a knife and a grievance.

The Royal Tour of Canada lasted until June 15^th and took in all the Provinces as well as a quick foray into the USA to visit Washington, New York and, for some unknown reason, Poughkeepsie, home of IBM.

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The 2^nd Sino-Japanese War had been going on since 1937 and was, by 1939, pretty well a stalemate. The Chinese were being supported by the USA and the USSR. Foreign nationals were under the protection of the British, US and French navies. The conflict became a part of WWII and ended with the defeat of Japan by the Allies. ‘Bluejackets’ in the front-page headline just means ‘sailors’.

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In the 1930’s in America there was a strongly held belief that they should stay out of any foreign squabbles. And there’s some that think that it’s a pity they don’t revive that attitude.

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Spin doctoring Nazi style.

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Britain took over control of Palestine in 1923 with the intention of making it a homeland for the Jewish People whilst not displacing the Arab population, but they just couldn’t win. The Jews resented the Arabs, the Arabs resented the Jews and they both resented the British, who finally got out in 1948 with the independence of Palestine and the establishment of Israel.

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Oxygen tents were used in hospitals to help patients with respiratory problems breath by creating an enclosed oxygen rich atmosphere. Oxygen gas is inflammable. Smoking was not banned in hospitals. Nor were idiots. 

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When the doors opened you would think that he might notice he was facing a dark brick-lined hole rather than a well-lit lift car.

When I was working in London in the 1960’s I once visited an office building that had a man-with-a-rope-operated lift. To move the lift the man pulled on a rope that came down through the ceiling and went out through the floor.   

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The phrase ‘turret top’ refers to the all steel roof of the car. This was a change from the previously more common fabric insert tops on saloons. The ‘Sunshine Turret Top’ is what became known as a sunroof. The first sunroofs appeared in about 1937.

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“By Gad, Sir! I like my cars like my women – big, fast and with a rust-proofed body. Pass the Ethanol!”

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Wyatt Earp had Doc Holiday, Matt Dillon had Chester and the Sheriff of San Francisco had George Daniels complete with spectacles.

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The World’s first parking meter was installed in Oklahoma City in 1935, but it wasn’t just the motorists who were unhappy with their proliferation.

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Non-story of the year award goes to the 16 year-old who had amnesia one day and recovered the next. How did this story even get into the paper? On realising her daughter couldn’t remember whether or not she’d turned the gas off, Mrs Parker immediately contacted the Call-Bulletin?

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The FBI arrested Mrs Rose Carina the following day (May 18^th). Intrigued? Have a look at this very detailed 7-page account of the whole sordid business. There’s a picture of Rose on page 6.

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The Golden Gate International Exposition (or San Francisco World’s Fair) had been running for almost 3 months, and this piece looks forward to the Rome World’s Fair of 1942, which, due to a little interruption called World War 2, didn’t happen. The next Fair was actually in Brussels in 1958.

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To get some idea of the dangers of driving on the ‘steep grades and sharp curves’ of the Sierra Nevada mountain roads try watching the climatic (and speeded–up) car chase sequence from the 1941 Humphrey Bogart film ‘High Sierra’.