Advert - 'The Golden Disc' film (1958)

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'The Golden Disc' was known in the USA as 'The Inbetween Age' and starred Terry Dene who had a trio of hit records before being conscripted into the Army in 1958. He was discharged after only a couple of months due to ill-health. He left rock-n-roll behind to become an evangelist and I saw him at a local hall in Dagenham in the early 60's.

Cutting - Police Moves in Gang Murder (1936)

29th January 1936

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The bullet-riddled body of Emile Allard, an elderly itinerant jewellery dealer, was discovered

under a hedge near St. Albans on 23^rd January 1936. The police believed he had been taken to the spot by car either already dead or shot at the scene.

Police soon discovered that Allard, a French-Canadian also known as Max Kassel, had French criminal connections and had been imprisoned for 8 months in France for sex trafficking. They suspected the murderer or murderers had fled to France possibly by plane.

Later in the year French police arrested and charged a man, George Lecroix (aka Roger Vernon) and a woman, Susan Betrand (aka Susan Naylor) with the murder and rather than extradite them to England, tried them in Paris. He was found guilty and got 10 years.

Neither the murder of the prostitute Josephine (French Fifi) Martin the previous November nor that of the French acrobat Martial Lechavelier were ever solved.

Advert - Alvis from Henleys (1920's)

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An Alvis car advert from the 1920's. 'Judged from any angle is supreme' - the drawing looks as if it's from the angle of someone being run over. Good graphics, though.

Cutting - The Infuenza (1919)

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This was the Influenza pandemic that spread across the World between 1918 and 1920 and killed an estimated 20 to 50 million people globally. It reached Britain in May 1918 and killed 228,000 people many of whom were, unlike the usual victims of ‘flu, young fit adults.

Advert - 'Limelight' film (1936)

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An unusual spot coloured advert from the Sunday Mercury dated 9th August 1936 for the film 'Limelight' starring Anna Neagle which was renamed 'Backstage' when it was released in the USA in 1937. She married the Director Herbert Wilcox in 1943.

Cutting - Hitler's Deputy escapes to Britain (1941)

13th May 1941

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Hess joined the Nazi on 1st July 1920, and was at Hitler's side in November 1923 for the Beer Hall Putsch, a failed attempt to seize control of the government of Bavaria. Whilst serving time in jail for this attempted coup, Hess helped Hitler write Mein Kampf. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Hess was appointed Deputy Führer and received a post in Hitler's cabinet.

Having learnt to fly at the end of WWI he retained his interest and obtained his private pilot's licence in 1929. During the 1930’s he owned 3 aircraft and logged many hours flying time.

On 10 May 1941, Hess flew himself across the Channel to Scotland, claiming that he wanted to meet with the Duke of Hamilton and plot a peace treaty that would lead to the supremacy of Germany within Europe and leave the British Empire intact. He crash landed near Eaglesham and gave his name as Alfred Horn, a friend of the Duke. Hess was taken to hospital for injuries sustained during his landing, the Duke was informed of the prisoner and visited him. Hess revealed who he was and why he’d come to Scotland. The Duke, also a keen airman, flew himself to London and informed Winston Churchill.

Hess was imprisoned by the British authorities until the end of the war and sentenced to life imprisonment at the Nuremberg trials. He spent the rest of his time in Spandau Prison and apparently committed suicide at the age of 93 in 1987.

Advert - Komposill (1929)

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Komposill may have been the miracle clean-all in 1929 but by 1936 the company had gone into voluntary liquidation.