Random Ad - Amstrad Computing (1980's)

Lord Sugar's finest wares for your delight. I had an Amstrad 8256 and wrote several short stories using Locoscript Word - even got a couple published!

Randon Cutting - Bogus Plot to Kill Hitler (1934)

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This cutting is not dated but is from after April 20^th 1934 when Heinrich Himmler took over from Rudolf Diels as head of the Gestapo. 

I found this under some lino at my parents’ house many years ago. Unfortunately there was no page 2 for the continuation of the story. I wonder what happened to Herr Hitler?

Heat Wave Deaths

Sunday Express dated Sunday June 7th 1925

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Extremes of weather are nothing new but I notice that in 1925 there was no mention of Global Warming. Surely, though, in the good old days all summers were sunny, all Christmases were white and it never rained on Sundays.

19 year-old Nathan Leopold and 18 year-old Richard Loeb were wealthy Law students who decided to commit the perfect murder by kidnapping the 14 year-old son of a local Chicago millionaire, killing him and then requesting a ransom. They were caught despite their elaborate plans because Leopold lost his rather unusual glasses close to where they disposed of the boy’s body and the body had been found far quicker than they expected. They blamed each other for the murder but at their trial they were both sentenced to life plus 99 years. A fellow prison inmate murdered Loeb in 1936. Leopold was released on parole in 1944 and died in 1971.

Alfred Hitchcock’s film ‘Rope’ and ‘Compulsion’ starring Orson Welles were both inspired by the case.

I’m not sure why the paper is calling the Quakers’ limited support for artificial contraception ‘astonishing’. Is it because the Quakers would be expected to be against contraception or is it that anyone could possibly support contraception?

Pro-contraception campaigner Marie Stopes had opened Britain’s first birth control clinic in 1921, which helped to make both the use of, and the dissemination of information about, contraceptives acceptable.

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Continued from the front page -

Anti-foreign (i.e. anti-Eurpoean) feelings had been gathering strength and support in China in the early 1920’s until, in May 1925 a group of Chinese students were arrested in the British policed International Settlement in Shanghai on their way to a funeral. On the day the students were to be put on trial a large demonstration outside the British police station got out of hand and 9 demonstrators were shot dead. Strikes and riots spread across China for the next 6 months.

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Between the two World Wars Britain’s race courses were plagued by gangsters, particularly the Sabini mob from North London, who offered bookmakers and course owners ‘protection’ from trouble makers, who were actually the gangs themselves. The 1938 Graham Greene novel and the subsequent 1947 film ‘Brighton Rock’ featured the gangs’ methods.

The writer of this article, Edward Shortt, became the President of the British Board of Film Censors in 1929 and managed to ban a record number of films for sexual content during his ‘reign’. He’d probably have flogged film directors as well if they’d let him.

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On June 4th 1925 the ambassadors of Great Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, and Japan handed a note, detailing a series of German Versailles Peace Treaty disarmament provision violations, to the German Government The Allies demanded that Germany immediately fulfil all the conditions, otherwise any withdrawal from the Allied occupied Ruhr District would be further delayed. 

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An example of Old Testament Christian justice in a supposed civilized country. A truly horrific story.

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That’s what I keep telling my psychiatrist when we’re not doing ‘I think I’m a pair of curtains’ – ‘Pull yourself together.’ jokes.

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In 1925 there was no UK Driving Test, no traffic lights, no white lines in the middle of roads or at junctions, no minimum driving age, no MOT tests on vehicles and a 20mph National speed limit that everyone ignored.

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The special effects on ‘The Lost World’ were by the pioneer of stop-motion Willis H O’Brien who later mentored Ray Harryhausen who brought to life the dinosaurs that failed to spoil Raquel Welch’s hair and make-up in ‘One Million Years BC’.

‘The Phantom of the Opera’ was a classic of the silent cinema, based on the novel by Gaston Leroux.  This was long before Andrew Lloyd Webber got his grubby mits on it and turned it into a musical.

Gloria Swanson starred in silent films, talkies and TV from 1914 or 1915 until her final appearance in ‘Airport 1975’. She also found time to marry 6 times.

Beverly Bayne appeared in 158 films between 1913 and 1925. She only made 3 films after ‘The Age of Innocence’, 2 in 1925 and ‘The Naked City’ in 1948.

Michael Arlen created the character ‘The Falcon’ that appeared in 13 films in the 1940’s.

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Now there’s a question that needs answering – ‘Does the girl who is always knocking a ball about or riding something or killing something necessarily make a healthy mother?’ 

Mr Page really has a downer on athletic women. For a balanced view read John Betjeman’s poem ‘The Olympic Girl’.

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Move over James Bond, Jason Bourne et al; Harry Marlow’s in town.

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What an odd image for a 1920’s cigarette advert. He looks more like a 1950’s juvenile delinquent who, when asked “What are you rebelling against?’ replies ‘Whadda you got?’

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If you thought the previous image odd then this is plain freaky. What’s the kid doing with a 1970’s Afro? Or is that one of the ‘eruptions’ that Germolene can cure?

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“By Gad, Sir! The blighter’s taken his jacket off! When I was in Rangoon I was still in full dress uniform when it was so hot you could fry an egg on the thigh of a sultry young servant girl. I remember a young.. well.. I err… enough of that! Pass the toddy juice!”

Random Ad - Tape recorder (1950's)

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A two-speed open-reel tape recorder like this was the best Christmas present I ever received from my parents. I had years of use out of it and still have some of the recordings that I copied from tape to cassette and then to CD.

Random Cutting - The Lusitania arrives in Liverpool (1915)

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On the 4^th February 1915 Germany declared that the sea around Britain was a War Zone and all but neutral shipping would be targeted. RMS Lusitania arrived in Liverpool on the 6^th from New York. Because a majority of the passengers were American the Captain was advised, that on entering British waters, he was to raise the Stars and Stripes. British naval vessels were sent out to escort her into Liverpool but couldn’t find her and the Captain wouldn’t give his position to them over the radio in case a German U-boat overheard. He brought her in un-escorted.

On 1^st May 1915 she sailed from New York but on the 7th, just 120 miles off the southern tip of Ireland, German U-boat U20 sank her with the loss of 1,195 people.

Obama Inauguration

Sarasota-Manatee Herald-Tribune (News Section)

dated Wednesday 21st January 2009

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This US broadsheet shaped newspaper is quite unfamiliar in the UK – our broadsheet size being the same depth but almost twice as wide.

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Barack Obama had defeated Republican candidate John McCain at the Presidential Election back in November 2008, but as is traditional, was not Inaugurated until January 20^th 2009. He was the first African-American to become President and for many this was far more important than the man’s politics.

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There was also a wave of relief that the dark days of Bush’s administration following 9/11 were over. Optimism was the order of the day and Obama the messiah who would lead the America people to a bright new future - give or take a financial meltdown or two!

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“Don’t look now, Michelle, but there’s a weirdo in the audience who thinks she can levitate.”

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Although born in Connecticut, George W Bush was raised in Texas and was Governor of the State before becoming, like his father George H W Bush, President. Since 2009 he has kept out of World affairs. Some would say ‘thank goodness’.

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There was a sigh of relief heard around the World when George W Bush finally left the White House. I believe that the West was in more danger during his Presidency than at any time since the Cuban Crisis of 1962.

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...Or to put it more succinctly.

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The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American military aviators in the United States armed forces to fly in combat when the Tuskegee 332nd Fighter Group saw action in Sicily and Italy in 1943.

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In October 2008 ex-‘American Idol’ finalist Jennifer Hudson’s mother, brother and 7 year-old nephew were murdered by Jennifer’s ex-brother-in-law William Balfour. He was sentenced to 3 terms of life imprisonment in July 2012. His father Raymond Balfour was sentenced to 30 years for murder in 1987.

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Gary McKinnon was accused of hacking into US Military computers in 2001 and 2002 and, amongst other charges, of deleting important files. In the atmosphere of paranoia and fear that followed the 2001 World Trade Centre attacks the British Government enacted the 2003 extradition treaty with the United States which did not require the United States to provide contestable evidence before requesting the extradition of a suspect. McKinnon and his supporters have spent the years since then fighting against his being sent to the USA.

I wonder how many millions of dollars the US Military spent on ‘security consultants’ when they set up their systems. They should be glad it was someone as comparatively ‘harmless’ as McKinnon who found a way in.

Random Ad - Trains to Southend (1930's)

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Day trip to Souffend? Plate of jellied eels on the pier? The wa'er splash at the Kursaal? And a ride on a puffer train? What more could ya want, Squire?