Sunday 29 April 2012

Segrave and World Speed Record

Sunday Pictorial dated April 10th 1927
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Old Etonian Sir Henry Segrave was the first person to exceed 200mph on land and the first Briton to win a Grand Prix.
In March 1926 he set a land speed record of 152mph and, after temporarily losing it to John Parry-Thomas, increased it to 207mph at Daytona Beach on March 29th 1927. He died in 1930 attempting the water speed record on Windemere.
Oddly, apart from this picture, there is nothing else about Segrave or the record in this edition. 

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Still on motoring, there was a petrol price war going on between the big oil companies (combines) and the independent providers and the result was lower prices at the pumps. The AA guide to petrol prices shows that in 1927 petrol averaged 14.5 old pence (approx 6p) per gallon (or 4.55 litres) and there was no tax on petrol.

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Ferdinando Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were two Italian Anarchists living in the USA who murdered two men while carrying out an armed robbery of a shoe factory in Massachusetts on April 15th 1920. They were arrested 3 weeks later and after a controversial trial were found guilty. Various appeals delayed their executions for 6 years. In the meantime violent protests by Anarchists, against the verdict, included the horse drawn cart bomb that blew up in Wall Street, New York on September 20th 1926 killing 38 people.

Sacco and Vanzetti finally went to the electric chair on August 23rd 1927.


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You could buy this 9 horse-power Fiat (with brakes on all four wheels !) using the ‘gradual payments’ scheme. A much nicer phrase than ‘hire purchase’ or ‘financial agreement’.
No web address but note the ‘Wires: Fiatism, Piccy, London.” for telegrams.

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The ship would turn out to be the RMS Britannic built by Harland and Wolff for the White Star Line and launched on August 6th 1929. She sailed mostly on the Liverpool-New York route right up to her final voyage in November 1960.

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Obviously size zero models are nothing new.
Beautiful line drawings, by someone called Renee Maude, the like of which you don’t get in newspapers these days. I guess you don’t get a dress being described as a ‘confection’ either.

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What a horrific story. You could be callous and say that’s what you get for parading around in dead animal pelts, but I wouldn’t wish leprosy on the most ardent ‘if it moves kill it, skin it and wear it’ troglodyte.

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Who is this Dora person? I think this snippet is referring to the Defence Of the Realm Act (nicknamed Dora) that was introduced during World War 1 and included such bizarre restrictions on the public as ‘no kite flying’, ‘no feeding wild animals bread’ and ‘no using invisible ink when writing abroad’. It also restricted public house opening hours. WWI was the excuse for creating it but it continued in use afterwards and technically it has never been repealed. 

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In the contest Radium Vs Grey Hair I would back Radium any day. The properties of radium were thought to be so beneficial that the word ‘radio-active’ is in bold type. Not only could you put it on your hair, but you could get it through the post where it could make everyone else’s letters and packages glow in the dark.

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A refreshingly different view of Youth at a time when the flappers and Oxford bags brigade were being criticised by the ‘we fought in the Crimea for you’ old fogies.

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“By gad, Sir! What’s it coming to when a chap can’t put on baggy shorts and play with his woggle in the privacy of his own home, doncha know. The memsahib makes a damn good girl guide too. Pass the brandy!”

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As with all film related matters on this blog I rely on the Internet Movie Database site for info.
Frank Hurlay it seems was primarily a documentary film maker whose career spanned 1913 to 1962 and Charles Ray has 171 titles to his credit between 1911 and 1944 but ‘The Naughty Widow’ seems to be listed as ‘Nobody’s Widow’ and CM Woolf hardly rates a mention.

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Considering the cameras and film available in 1927 these are not half-bad action photos of Middlesbrough vs. Fulham and Cardiff vs. West Ham playing some game called football. 


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