Advert - Fisons Fertilizers (1940's)

Click to Enlarge

Covering the strap-line and reading from 'Canny Newcastle' to 'killing by kindness' gives absolutely no clue as to what is being advertised and it would take a better man than I, Gunga Din, to guess it was Fison's Fertilizers.

Cutting - Death of King Alexander of Yugoslavia (1934)

August 1934

Click to Read

The Paris Peace Conference had created Yugoslavia after WWI. It was made up of territory that including Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia, and this mish-mash of nationalities made it almost impossible to hold together. It was dominated by the Serbs and ruled by the Serbian King Alexander, but after years of turmoil and violence, he abolished the original constitution, made himself dictator.

The assassin, Vlado Chernozemski, was a Bulgarian who belonged to a Macedonian revolutionary organisation, which wanted to secede from Yugoslavia. After shooting the King he was cut down by a French mounted officer with a sabre, and then beaten to death by the crowd. 

Louis Barthou may have been shot accidentally by a French policeman in the confusion of the moment.

Young Peter fled Yugoslavia when Germany invaded during WWII and set up a government in exile in England. In 1945 he was deposed by Communists and fled again this time to the USA where remanined until he died in 1970.

Advert - NUR Ballot (1972)

Click to Enlarge

The 1970's have become synonymous with industrial unrest and this 1972 National Union of Railwaymen advert is a reminder.

Cutting - Embankment Motor Smash (1923)

March 1923

Click to Read

Back in 1923 there were no breathalyzers or specific limits to how much alcohol would make a driver incapable, but when, as in the case above, a death occurred, then the driver would be charged with manslaughter. Annual figures for road deaths have been kept since 1926 and show that year's figure as 4,886 whereas last year (2013) it was 1,713. The peak year was 1941, possibly due to the blackout and removal of road signs during the War, when it was 9,169. The good news is that the figure has been steadily falling year on year since 1970.

Advert - Music Club (1981)

Click to Enlarge

The Audio Club of Britain offering vinyl long players or cassettes for only £1.29. Who would you go for - Mantovani or Judas Priest, Rod Stewart or Ted Nugent, David Bowie or Blue Oyster Cult?

Cutting - Demoted General (1944)

8th June 1944

Click to Read

A little tit-bit following the D-Day landings from an American paper. On the 18th April 1944 in the Claridge's Hotel restaurant in London the rather drunk Ninth Airforce Services Commander, Major General Miller complained to a nurse that something he had ordered from the States would not arrive in England before June 15th "well after the invasion". 

This wasn't the only breach in the extremely secret D-Day plans. For instance back in March Basil Liddell Hart, a militery expert, had been with Duncan Sandys, the Minister for Supply, at another London hotel when he showed the Minister what appeared to be details of the invasion and complained to Sandys that he hadn't been officially consulted. Sandys notified Churchill and Liddell Hart had his knuckles rapped.

Advert - 'Hunted' starring Dirk Bogarde (1952)

Click to Enlarge

Dirk Bogarde in Hunted, also known as The Stranger In Between. The boy in the film was played by Jon Whiteley who had a short 5 film career before eventually becoming curator of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

Cutting - Obituary for Charles Bickford (1967)

10th November 1967

Click to Read

Charles Bickford had a career that went from burlesque to Broadway theatre to films to TV over a period of 63 years. As a child he was the black sheep of his family and was even tried (but acquited) of murder at the age of 9 (that is not a misprint - nine). As well as the films mentioned in the article his CV aso included 'Duel in the Sun' with Gregory Peck, 'Of Mice and Men' with Burgess Meredith and 'The Plainsman' with Gary Cooper.He was nominated 3 times for best Supporting Actor Oscars but never won.

Advert - Whiteley's Furs (approx 1910)

Click to Enlarge

Whiteley's furs. Those were the days when wearing a dead wolf, bear or hare round your neck was a la mode. I note that the wolf was 'cross'. I assume the strong frames on the Whiteley umbrellas were for when you were clubbing seals to death.

Cutting - Batman is Banned (1979)

September 1979

Click to Read

Australia in the 1970's and they are blaming children's bad behaviour on their desire to copy superheroes like Batman and Superman. Miss Jee is quite happy for them to play at being the foreign invaders who committed near genocide on the Native American population, sorry, I mean Cowboys and Indians.

Advert - Ruston Hornsby car (1924)

Click to Enlarge

Ruston Hornsby were an engineering company originally formed in 1840, who only dipped their toes in car manufacturing from 1919 to 1924. This advert is from the final year of production.

Cutting - Sawn-Up Body Riddle (1938)

4th February 1938

Click to Read

After the man’s torso was found in the Severn near Haw Bridge, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, the river was dragged and police turned up two legs and two handless arms. Home Office pathologist Sir Bernard Spilsbury carried out a post-mortem on the torso and other remains and decided they belonged to a missing man, Captain William Butt of Cheltenham.

Brian Sullivan, the son of a nurse who looked after Butt's invalid wife, had committed suicide a few days after the Captain's disappearance in January and his bloodstained coat was found under the floorboards of the house.

Further searching failed to find the head and hands of the body, and the inquest left the identity of the remains and cause of death officially open. The crime has never been solved.

Advert - Lockheed Constellation aircraft (1940's)

Click to Enlarge

The Lockheed Constellation evolved from the WW2 Lockheed 10A and Hudson bomber. In April 1946 the first aircraft of a foreign airline, a Panair Lockheed 049 Constellation, landed at the newly opened Heathrow Airport after a flight from Rio de Janeiro

Cutting - Frank Randle leaves West End Show (1952)

February 1952

Click to Read

Frank Randle was a controversial Lancashire born comedian who was very popular in the 1930's but his career took a nosedive with the passing of variety in the 1950's. He suffered from bad health due to drinking, was bankrupt in 1955 and died in 1957. 'Televariety' ran from February 4th to 24th 1952.

Advert - East Ham Palace Variety (1930's)

Roy Fox was an American band leader who moved to England in 1930 and included the more famous Al Bowlly as vocalist with one of his bands. 

By 1948 the Grip Quartet was appearing in the Cirque Medrano alongside 12 polar bears. 

I don't think Britain's Got Talent has yet to feature a Japanese Foot Juggler like Taro Naito. Where he got the feet from I don't know.

Cutting - Parents Censor Nightmare Films (1936)

8th May 1936

Click to Read

These days they blame computer games. Before that it was TV. In the 1950's there was an outcry against American comics such as 'Tales from the Crypt'. Back in 1936 it was the films or even just 'going to the cinema' that caused juvenile delinquency. I may be wrong but it appears that Australia had no age rating system for films before 1970.

Advert - Welbeck Mini Cabs (1960's)

Click to Enlarge

Mini Cabs appeared on London streets in 1961 as the result of a loophole in the 1869 Carriage Act which allowed for taxis other then the official 'black cabs' if they were not hailed in the street but called via a control office.