Daily Mirror dated Monday February 4th
1957
Click to Read
The BBC’s ‘Panorama’ programme started in 1953 and is still
running. It hasn’t been backward in dealing with controversial subjects and in
1957 this included the then very private act of giving birth to a baby being
shown on TV for the first time (albeit in black and white and very discreetly).
Not a programme I would have wanted to watch then at 11 years old. Luckily we
didn’t have a TV set.
Click to Read
Western Swing bandleader turned Rock’n’Roller Bill Haley was
heading for Britain and the Mirror was hip to the beat, daddio. Bill Haley at
30 years old, chubby and balding was an unlikely teen hero but he was all they
had until Elvis Presley and the younger generation of rockers arrived.
Click to Read
Hungary was in the grip of a Soviet crack down
following the ‘Uprising’ of the previous October/November and was no place to
be looking like a beatnik in a duffle coat, a beard and a bow tie. Roger
Cooper, Christopher and Basil Lloyd and Judith Cripps had been arrested on
January 17th when they crossed into Hungary from Yugoslavia without
proper authorisation. They were threatened with a trial for spying but
released, along with two Americans arrested earlier in the month,
Click to Read
Flying under the Clifton Suspension Bridge near Bristol was
quite common in the days of bi-planes, but John Crossley successfully flew
under in a de Havilland Vampire jet. After going through he tried a victory
roll along the gorge but crashed into the bank, killing himself instantly. His
was the last flight by anyone under the bridge.
Click to Read
What the **** is going on at the top of this advert? Ah! I
see now. It’s a reference to the popular rhyme of the time - ‘Eany Meany Miny
Mo - catch a ni**er by his toe - if he hollers let him go - Eany Meany Miny
Mo’. And there he is being caught by the toe!
Click to Read
Both Liz Taylor and Mike Todd had been married twice before.
Just 13 months later Todd was killed in a plane crash.
Click to Read
In England at this time a youngster could only get married
at 16 if they had parental consent, but in Scotland you could marry at 16
without it, but you had to be resident for 21 consecutive days. Gretna Green
being traditionally the first village you come to in Scotland when crossing the
border north of Carlisle, had long been the venue for runaway marriages.
Click to Read
The Windmill Theatre, just off Piccadilly Circus, featured a
mixture of variety acts, comedians and nude or semi-nude tableaux in shows,
usually called Revudeville, from 1932 until it closed down in 1964. Managed by
Vivian Van Dam it was the launching pad for the likes of Harry Secombe, Peter
Sellers, Jimmy Edwards, Arthur English, Bill Pertwee, Alfred Marks, Michael
Bentine, Bill Kerr and Bill Maynard.
Click to Read
3 of the comic strips in this issue – Private
eye ‘Buck Ryan’ drawn by Jack Monk from 1937 until it ended in 1962, ‘Ruggles’
(not to be confused with the US strip ‘Casey Ruggles’) drawn by Stephen P
Dowling from 1935 to 1957 and ‘Belinda’ (originally called ‘Belinda Blue Eyes’)
which Tony Royle took over drawing from S P Dowling in 1943 until it ended in
1959.
Click to Read
Regular readers will know of my complete and
life-long disinterest in football, but I must admit as a child I did know the
name of one footballer – Stanley Matthews, and this is the man himself in action.
