Random Ad - What's on at the flicks (1953)

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If you lived in London in 1953 you had 3 cinema chains to choose from - Gaumont, ABC or Odeon with just the one double bill at each.

I saw James Kenney the juvenile delinquent of Cosh Boy in another 50's film, The Gelignite Gang, only a couple of weeks ago on DVD.

Random Cutting - Growth of the Blues (1961)

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They do say that the Blues is the poetry of the South, so that may be why a balding, bespectacled poet and Hull librarian who once turned down the offer to be poet laureate, namely Philip Larkin, wrote this piece in praise of the form.  It dates from 1961, a good 2 years before the Blues burst onto the English music club scene. I discovered the Blues one evening in 1963 when, on TV, I saw Sonny Boy Williamson on a disused branch-line station platform singing and playing his ‘harp’. I read both ‘The Country Blues’ and ‘Blues Fell This Morning’ in those early years.

Moscow News 1936

Moscow News Weekly Edition dated September 16th 1936

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The English language Russian newspaper Moscow News was founded by the American socialist Anna Louise Strong and originally ran from 1930 until 1949. The paper was revived in 1956 under Communist Party control.

The front cover picture would look just as appropriate as part of a Hitler Youth recruitment poster.

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Page 2 sets the tone for the rest of the paper with an article about the success of Soviet military manoeuvres.

Kliment Voroshilov (picture above) was Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (i.e. Head of State) from 1953 to 1960 when Leonid Brezhnev took over. Voroshilov and Semyon Budyonny (the other man in the picture) were 2 of the first 5 Marshals of the Soviet Union, the other 3 were to die in Stalin’s Great Purge. 

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The trial of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Center, which Lenin’s widow (Nadezhda Krupskaya) is writing about in this article, was the first Moscow Show Trial and set the stage for subsequent trials based on trumped up charges. 

Gregori Zinovyev, Lev Kamenev and 14 others were charged with, among other anti-Soviet actions, conspiring to murder Joseph Stalin. The defendants were found guilty on August 24, 1936.

Prior to the trial, Zinoviev and Kamenev had agreed to plead guilty to the false charges on the condition that they would not be executed, a condition that Stalin accepted. Immediately after the conviction, Stalin ordered their execution.

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And for your reading pleasure the transcript of the Show Trial. I don’t think it’s available on Kindle, although I see you can get it from Collet's in the Charing Cross Road.

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Drawn by Boris Yefimov who had a career as a political cartoonist from 1919 until his death in 2008 at the age of 108!

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In 1949 the Editor-in-Chief Mikhail Borodin, was tried for being an enemy of the State (i.e. Joseph Stalin), and he died 2 years later in a Siberian prison camp.

Anna Loiuse Strong was a strong supporter of Russian Communism until 1936/37 when Stalin’s Great Purge started. She went back to America and switched her allegiance to the fledgling Chinese Communist cause. She spent the last 20 years of her life in China and died in 1970.

The strength of the Red Army was much appreciated a few years later when Russia's help in defeating Hitler was critical.

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Vladimir Kokkinaki was a test pilot that set numerous records from 1932 until 1960. In 1936/37 he broke his own altitude record 6 times.

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The Nottingham tournament was the first victory by a Soviet chess master outside of Russia and Mikhail (Michael) Botvinnik went on to be the World Chess Champion for 13 years.

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This article by Anna Louise Strong herself shows how obsessed with productivity the Soviets were.

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It is now known that Joseph Stalin was a monster who had the blood of millions on his hands - not only those who died in the Gulags but the countless peasants that died as a result of his Collectivist policies. And who was his biggest trading partner? The UK.

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The 1936 Nuremberg Rally or The 8th Party Congress was known as the "Rally of Honour". Leni Riefenstahl filmed the 1934 Rally as ‘Triumph of the Will’.

The Soviets calling the Nazis hypocritical is a bit like the pot calling the kettle black.

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The name Dynamo Moscow goes back to 1923 when the team was managed by the head of the Russian Secret Police (CHEKA). In 1936 they won the Soviet Championship. Who can forget such players as Mikhail Semichastny, Vasili Pavlov, Vasili Smirnov and Sergei Ilyin? I just have.

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If all this jollity has whetted your appetite why not visit the USSR? Oops too late.

Random Ad - Men's Clothing Sales (1940's)

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It's hard to decide which would suit me best,  the Humphrey Bogart trenchcoat and trilby ensemble or the schoolboy look in strong union flannel.

The chap in the top left-hand corner looks suspiciously like a member of Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts.

Random Cuttings - Zeppelins (1915 & 1916)

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Air raids are normally associated with World War II rather than the Great War, but Zeppelin airships were used in over 50 bombing missions over Britain. 

The top cutting is about the first Zeppelin raid in January 1915. 4 people were killed and 16 injured.

The photograph is of the grounded Zeppelin L49 from January 1916.

500 In Sea Crash Drama

The Evening News dated Wednesday May 6th 1953

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British Railways passenger steamer "Duke of York" on route from the Hook of Holland to Harwich collided with the United States troopship "Haiti Victory" about 40 miles off Harwich. The "Duke of York" was carrying 437 passengers and a crew of 72 and, in spite of the remarkable success of the rescue attempts, 8 passengers lost their lives.

At a hearing in Clerkenwell Court it was found that there was enough evidence against John Christie to warrant a charge of murder and a trial. 

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In 1949 Timothy Evans wife and daughter had been murdered at 10 Rillington Place in London. Evans was tried, found guilty and hanged.

In 1953 several bodies were found at the same 10 Rillington Place and John Reginald Christie, who had been living in the house at the time of the Evans’ murders, was arrested. Christie confessed to 7 murders including that of Timothy Evans’ wife. He was tried, convicted and hung.

It is now generally accepted that Evans did not murder either his wife or his child. Too late.

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Major Charles Wylie was in charge of the 350 porters and 35 Sherpas attached to expedition that conquered Everest on May 26^th 1953 when Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit. Some say George Mallory got there first in 1924 but we shall never know.

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Crime was very hands-on in the 50’s. None of your white-collar computer fraud. Cosh gangs, murder and stealing from Churches were the order of the day.

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1953 was of course Coronation Year and all things Coronationy were popular. A for-runner of 'QI' perhaps?

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Names to conjure with – Eddie Fisher, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Guy Mitchell, Danny Thomas… whoa there… who was Danny Thomas? He was a film actor, a stalwart of US TV from the 1950’s until the 90’s, a TV producer whose credits include ‘The Andy Griffith Show’, ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ and ‘The Mod Squad’.

He also founded a children’s hospital in Memphis, won a Bob Hope Humanitarian Award and had a US Postal Service stamp issued in his memory.

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The history of 3D cinema goes back as far as 1900 but it wasn’t until the release of ‘Bwana Devil’ in 1952 that it became popular with the paying public. The craze died out by 1955. In the early 1980’s there was a small revival with films such as ‘Comin’ at Ya!’ which I saw and wished I hadn’t. The recent revival (e.g. ‘Alice in Wonderland’) is a great improvement on the previous incarnations of 3D but may, in the not too distant future, be replaced by Lenticular 3D which does not require the viewer to wear glasses.

Director John Huston’s argument that effects were being used instead of good story telling is still relevant.

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The radio adventures ‘Paul Temple’ were created by Francis Durbridge in 1938 and continued until 1968. Some lost episodes were remade over the last 7 years and pop up on BBC Radio 4 Extra. The amateur detective has also appeared in films, TV and novels. This ‘Paul Temple’ strip was published from the mid-1950’s until the early 1960’s.

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When, as a kid, I started my life long total disinterest in football the only names I knew were Stanley Mathews and Nobby Stiles. I didn’t know who they played for, but I knew they were footballers.

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I only include this because I recognised John Arlott’s name. If such a thing were feasible I am less interested in cricket than I am in football.

Random Ad - Shell X-100 Oil (1950's)

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If I was casting a film role and wanted a 1950's salesman I'd pick Mr Barrow* complete with 1950's moustache. This advert might explain why just about the only pre-1960 car you regularly see on the road is the Morris Minor.