Random Cutting - Washington DC Riot 1968

5 days of race riots followed the April 4^th 1968 assassination of Dr Martin Luther King. The riots occurred across the USA but Washington DC was especially hard hit.  22,000 soldiers and 34,000 National Guardsmen helped the Washington police and by the end of the action 12 people were dead and 6,100 people arrested. 

Birth of Prince Charles

Daily Mirror dated Monday November 15th 1948

These were the days of Post-war austerity with rationing, luxury goods for the overseas markets only and the Daily Mirror reduced to 8 pages, but at least the War was over, Hitler was dead and the Queen had given birth to an heir. Charles Philip Arthur George Windsor was born on November 14^th at Buckingham Palace and the poor little mite still hasn't got to be King.

This half of the front page is the only reference to the birth in this edition. Reading through I was surprised to find Prince Philip portrayed as a man who blushes easily. Given his talent for blunt opinion I find this hard to believe.

I include this piece on Malaya because I lived in Singapore from 1948 to 1950, though I don’t remember any of this going on because I was only 2 to 4 years old.

The Malayan Emergency, as it was called, lasted from June 1948 to 1960 and was a deliberately low-key conflict pitting the British Army, The Malay Army and Malay Police against mostly Chinese Communist insurgents. The Communists never really had a chance of taking over the country because the indigenous Malay population and many of the resident Chinese did not support them.

Diana Dors, who not surprisingly changed her surname from Fluck to Dors, had made her film debut the year before in 1947. In 1948 she released 6 films including the David Lean directed ‘Oliver Twist’ and went on to be the most recognisable sex symbol of the 1950’s. She switched to mainly TV work in the 1960’s and 70’s and died at the comparatively young age of 52 in 1984.

This is probably one of her least flattering photos. 

A story of its time. As mentioned above many luxury goods such as cars and, it seems, pottery, were ear-marked for export only as the British economy struggled to get out of the massive debt left by World War II, so a crime like this was seen as an unpatriotic act and dealt with harshly. That £5350 fine is equivalent to about £120,000 today.

‘Walter Whaley, 42’ – he looks about 72! It must be all that dying that has aged him.

Another sign of the times. A left over of the Wartime ‘make do and mend’ mentality.  It isn’t advertising B&Q or Homebase but just telling Joe Public how to do it – cheaply. Presumably one of a series. I want to see the one where Patsy bricks know-it-all Dad up in the basement wall, alive.

Reads like the start of an episode of ‘CSI’, ‘Bones’ or a Blue Peter tin collecting project gone wrong..

Even Hitchcock’s famous film ‘Rope’ gets the austerity advertising treatment. Not the best likeness of James Stewart I’ve seen.

I think that headline is what you call ‘emotional blackmail’ – drink that glass of water and the baby dies.

Football hooligan tries to tie a straw-hat to a goal post! 

‘Afterwards he was treated in hospital’ – “Yers My Lud. I was proceeding in a Northerly direction towards the goalmouth when the defendant threw himself against my truncheon thereby sustaining a severe confusion to the front of the forehead, and a bruised scrotum, your Lud-ship.”

Random Cutting - Faro Den Raided 1919

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“By gad, Sir. If a feller can’t have a flutter on the cards of a Saturday night, then life ain’t worth the living. Fried fish in the bedroom?  Probably that Cockney rhyming slang nonsense. Pass the vinegar!”

Victory in Kuwait - First Gulf War

Today dated Wednesday 27th February 1991

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Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi Forces invaded the neighbouring country of Kuwait on the 2^nd of August 1990 and the UN Security Council brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq. President George H. W. Bush sent American forces to Saudi Arabia and soon 30 other countries, including the UK, joined the Coalition and also sent troops. The scene was set for the 1^st Gulf War.

The action to expel the Iraqi from Kuwait began on the 17th January 1991 with an aerial bombardment followed by ground troops crossing into Kuwait from Saudi on the 23rd February. Between the 24^th and 28^th Operation Desert Sabre cleared Kuwait of Iraqis and pursued the retreating forces to within 150 miles of Baghdad, then President Bush made the decision that the Coalition’s objectives has been achieved and declared a ceasefire. The War officially ended on the 28^th February 1991.

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Bush Senior’s decision not to carry on into Baghdad and topple Saddam Hussein seemed to have been based on a reluctance “to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq”. Maybe he should have sat George W on his lap and explained what invading Iraq would lead to.

The United States hoped that Saddam Hussein would be overthrown by an internal coup, and the CIA used its influence in Iraq to organise a revolt, but it failed.

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From my own experience of what comes out of office coffee machines I am surprised it only took 3 cups for Michael Parkinson to realise he was drinking bleach and not strong white with extra sugar.

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Madonna and Andrew Lloyd Webber. The Beauty and the Beast. You decide which is which.

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Christian Brando, the eldest son of film star Marlon Brando, had shot and killed his stepsister’s boyfriend, Dag Drollet, in 1990. He claimed it was an accident but was finally charged with manslaughter. It would have been murder but the only witness, stepsister Cheyenne Brando, had been sent to an asylum in Tahiti by father Marlon and couldn’t be extradited.

The trial ended with Christian getting 10 years of which he served 5. Cheyenne committed suicide in 1995.

Christian was also implicated in the murder of film actor Robert Blake’s wife in 2001. He died of pneumonia in 2008 at the age of 49.

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Wrong. The Poll Tax or Community Charge introduced by Mrs Thatcher’s Government was scraped by John Major’s and replaced by the Council Tax, which was really the old Rates system under another name, and no-one minded except Nicholas Ridley.

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Apart from the obvious ‘if it’s too good to be true then it isn’t’ adage there are a couple of things that worry me about this advert. Does the alternative prize of £5000 cash imply that the house is only worth £5000? In 1991 that would have bought you a caravan. ‘Half an hour from the West End and City’ by what? Concorde? That could put the house in the middle of the Atlantic. A closing date 10 months hence – plenty of time to forget you parted with £9 and never heard another thing. Or am I being too cynical? Again.

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Now this is more like it! A New York apartment for $1? Probably overlooking Central Park. Woody Allen across the hall. Robert DeNiro 2 floors above. Where do I sign up?

Random Cuttings - 1950 UFO's

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Kenneth Arnold’s "flying saucer" sighting near Mt. Rainier, Washington on June 24th 1947 and the Roswell incident in July 1947 triggered a spate of UFO reports throughout the next decade. These two examples date from 1950.

3 London Policemen Shot

Daily Mirror dated Wednesday March 2nd 1938

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On the 28^th of February 1938 two soldiers, Andrew Vanderberg and Reginald Eddie Kaye, deserted from Tidworth barracks and headed for Andover where they hijacked a police car at gunpoint. Unfortunately for them cars were pretty unreliable in those days and it broke down after a mile or so. When an RAF officer stopped to help them he was forced to drive them to London. On March 1^st the soldiers carried out a couple of armed thefts and then hijacked another car, but didn’t realise that their driver was an off-duty policeman. He deliberately crashed the car into a lamppost outside Barking police station.

As detailed in the cuttings, they were caught after a one sided gun battle with the un-armed police. Actually only 2 policemen were shot – the other was injured when he was pushed through a glass window.

At their trial, Vanderberg, who was 37, got 10 years inside, while Kaye, at only 16, was sent to Borstal for 3 years.

Vanderberg’s defence included blaming his actions on marijuana addiction!

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Wilmer and another man had been convicted of beating and robbing a 67 year-old jeweller in a diamond robbery the previous December. The flogging was in addition to a 7year prison sentence and caused uproar in the more Liberal minded sections of the public. George Bernard Shaw and the Deans of St Paul’s and Canterbury led the protests. Flogging in British prisons was abolished as late as 1962. 

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Google throws up a surprising number of 12 toed and 12 fingered people, none of whom appear to have become World-class pianists, harpists, guitarists or mathematicians.

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King Vidor did direct ‘The Citadel’ with Robert Donat and Rosalind Russell.

Donat also starred in ‘Good-Bye Mr Chips’ and it was, according to the IMDb, directed by Sam Wood with an uncredited Sydney Franklin. ‘National Velvet’ wasn’t made until 1944 but with Mickey Rooney as Mi Taylor rather than Spencer Tracy. It doesn’t look like Wallace Beery made it to Britain.

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Why wasn’t this on the front page? King Misses Breakfast! Forced to drive to Monte Carlo! Thoroughly Pissed Off!

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As, I imagine was intended, I immediately thought this referred to the British Royal Family until I noticed the two ‘By Appointment’ notices.

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Next time you mutter “Health and safety gone mad” when you see people wearing goggles to open a tomato sauce bottle, remember this is what might happen. I once saw an experiment blow up in our chemistry teacher’s face. Luckily he wasn’t injured but just covered in black residue. Oh, how we little buggers laughed. 

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We all know advertisers tell fibs, but they should check their copy before publishing - ‘and butter free’ it says - ‘and a lacing of the finest butter’ it says. Which is it? The public has a right to know!

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Only 19 months later, in September 1939, Goering had his chance.

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I want eyebrows like Joan Crawford! Check out the coupon at the bottom. I think I’m a sallow, oily skinned, black eyed (under, not pupils), over 35, brownette gone grey.

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‘Carroll Levis’ Discoveries’ was ‘Britains Got Talent’ 1938 style. When was the last time you saw a whistling professional boxer, a dramatic monologist and the Peckam Piccaninny on the same bill? Simon Cowell eat your heart out!

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“Wow, man, toothpaste, cool.” She doesn’t look like a hippie but she’s ending her sentence “Man” so I hope he’s not surprised if they have hash cookies for the Wedding Breakfast and a honeymoon in Marakesh.  

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There doesn’t appear to be anything online about this death threat to Brentford FC. Has it been hushed up? The public has a right to know! Again!

Random Cutting - Roosevelt's Son Killed 1918

Quentin Roosevelt, youngest son of the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, was 20 when he was shot down over France on 14^th July 1918. Theodore died just over five months later.

JFK Assassination

Daily Mirror, Daily Sketch, Daily Mail and Daily Express

dated Saturday November 23rd 1963

     

   

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This is the 1^st anniversary of this blog so a slight departure from the usual single front page. 
4 front pages that say the same thing – John F Kennedy assassinated, and show the same thing - a picture of Secret Service agent Clint Hill riding the back of the Presidential limo as it accelerated out of Dealey Plaza on its way to Parkland Memorial Hospital

The President of the most powerful nation on Earth gunned down in the street. It was the biggest news story that had happened during my life until then, and would be until 2001 and the destruction of the World Trade Centre. 

 

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On their back page both the Daily Mirror and the Daily Sketch use the same photograph of Oswald being taken into the Main Street Police Station in downtown Dallas. 

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Was it Wittgenstein or Homer Simpson that said that we could never know the absolute truth about anything? Occam’s razor suggests that the simplest solution to any question is probably the correct one. So who did shoot John F Kennedy from the 5^th floor of the Book Depository? Was it the lone loony Lee Harvey Oswald or imported Marseilles drug gang gunmen from behind the grassy knoll? The CIA? The Mafia? Cubans? Lyndon Johnson? Logic tells us that Oswald acted alone, as did Jack Ruby when, ‘for Jackie’s sake’, he shot Oswald. But that’s boring. Conspiracy theory is more fun and makes for better books, TV programmes and films. Sod Wittgenstein, take it from me – Oswald was a patsy. 

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Not the right time to mention that father Joe Kennedy allegedly ‘bought’ his son the Presidency by paying Mafia boss Sam Giancana to get their Union members in West Virginia to vote JFK and swing the election. Nor the time to mention his alleged affairs with film stars (including Marilyn Monroe), White House workers, a reporter, a Mafia girlfriend and even a suspected East German spy. 

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The new President – 55 year-old Texan Lyndon Baines Johnson.

He was hated by the anti-war left wing youth of America for escalating the US involvement in Vietnam. Remember the chant? –

“Hey! Hey! LBJ!

How many kids did you kill today?”

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I didn’t see any TV that Friday evening because I was out with friends at the local flea-pit, so I was unaware of the shooting until the cinema manager super-imposed a note over the film saying ‘Kennedy has been assassinated’.

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Saturday night TV – note the new space and time programme Dr Who. I have always thought that the first episode (An Unearthly Child) was postponed until the following week, but the IMDb claims that it was broadcast on November 23^rd 1963. Other web sites concur, including one that says it was also repeated the following Saturday before episode 2. Who knows? Who cares? I do actually. I don’t like not knowing which of my memories are true and which false.

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An anonymous face in the crowd just 27 years after being one of the World’s most recognised. The King who never was – Edward VIII.

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In 1963 the papers would use any excuse to mention the Beatles, who were, I am told, a popular beat combo.

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It had been alleged that in 1962 5 Sheffield policemen had been involved in beating a suspect while in custody, one of them using a rhino hide whip. They said that their senior officers had not only condoned but encouraged the action. 

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The Perishers daily cartoon strip started in 1959 and lasted in one form or another until 2006. In the 1970’s it was made into an animated TV series.

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Jimmy Gauld, whose football career spanned 1948 to 1961, bet on matches that, in collusion with players from one of the teams, he ‘fixed’. 

This trial for attempted bribery cost him £80, but worse was to come.

In 1964 he sold his story to the Sunday People for £7,000, incriminating three Sheffield Wednesday players. The revelations resulted in a criminal trial for fraud and he got four years in prison. 6 co-defendants, all players, also got jail sentences.

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I bought my one and only cine camera from Dixons (other stores are available or have gone bankrupt). The film stock came in a cartridge and had a shooting time of 4 minutes. Afterwards it had to be sent off for processing. I wonder if Zapruder got his from Dixons?

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A speed trap detector that doesn’t let you know there is one there until you have been trapped is fundamentally flawed. I wonder what the Dragons would have said about it?

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‘That Was The Week That Was’ (aka TW3) was a live satirical show, hosted by 24 year-old Cambridge graduate David Frost, known for its combination of satirical sketches, serious interviews, political songs and occasional punch-ups. It took the Saturday night post-10 O-clock News slot on BBC1 and often overran its scheduled 11:10 finish time. It was shown in 1962 and 1963, but using the excuse that it was an election year and the BBC had to be politically unbiased; the show was not renewed in 1964.

They got another pat on the back, this time from the Sunday papers, for their Saturday night tribute to Kennedy.

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There are 5½ pages worth of these small ads in this 32 page Daily Mirror!