Sunday 17 February 2013

Ike Unfit for the Summit

Sunday Pictorial dated Sunday July 27th 1958
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Dwight Eisenhower, known as ‘Ike’ for some reason, was the Republican President of the USA from 1953 until 1961. He’d had a heart attack in 1955, surgery for the effects of Crohn’s disease in 1956 and a stroke in 1957. He had several more heart attacks before finally dying in 1969. As far as I can ascertain the 1958 Summit never happened and Eisenhower and Krushchev finally met in at the Paris Summit in 1960, but that meeting was rather marred by the U2 Spy Plane incident in May of that year.

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Cont'd from Front page -
I wouldn’t have thought a mother could legally kidnap her own child any more than steal her own car, but could a father kidnap his child if the child is living with the mother? Answers on a post-card.

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As the Cold War between the West (USA, Britain etc) and the East (USSR etc) got frostier during the 1950’s it was Winston Churchill of all people that tried to encourage the US Presidents to talk face to face with the Russians. Possibly Churchill was aware that if the Cold War turned nuclear and Russians fired their ballistic missiles they could only reach the good old UK before blowing us all to Kingdom Come.

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Iven Kincheloe was an American Air-Force pilot who flew 131 missions during the Korean War. On his return to the USA he joined the test pilots at Edwards Airforce Base and was the first to fly at over 100,000 feet. He was to join a team that included future astronaut Neil Armstrong, testing the X15 rocket plane but was killed in a F104 Starfighter crash.
The first person to fly a plane into space was test pilot Joe Walker in an X15 in 1963.

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The Blue Streak rocket was actually developed as a medium range ballistic missile and cancelled before it went into production. The British space programme has always concentrated on getting hardware into Earth orbit using unmanned rockets. In fact only one British made rocket ever put one satellite into orbit – Black Arrow in 1971. Other British ‘sputniks’ used American rockets. 

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I knew there was still a lot of colour prejudice in Britain in the late 1950’s but charging ‘coloureds’ 50% more than ‘whites’ for the same glass of beer must have been illegal, although there is no mention of the police here, just a ticking-off from the brewery. 

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Elvis Presley’s grandfather Jesse who divorced his grandmother Minnie Mae did indeed record some sides for Legacy Records but only one single was ever released - ‘Who’s That Kickin’ My Dog Around’/’The Billy Goat Song’ backed by ‘Swingin’ In The Orchard’. Listen, if you dare, about half way down this page.

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Although Prince Charles was created Prince of Wales on July 26th 1958, his investiture was not conducted until July 1st 1969, when the Queen crowned him in a televised ceremony held at Caernarfon Castle.

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La Bébé. France’s biggest export in the 1950’s, Brigitte Bardot not only looked great but she could act.

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Born in 1903, Malcolm Muggeridge was a journalist, author, TV and radio personality, sometime communist, agnostic turned Catholic and World War II spy. When on TV he seemed to revel in going against public opinion; criticising the Beatle in the 1960’s when they were at the height if their popularity and in the same decade embracing Christianity as Church attendances fell dramatically. This is a typically outspoken piece criticising  the Foreign Office and MI6. He was a very articulate man who spoke very precisely and was often imitated.

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The moonraker Diana Fluck became Britain’s answer to Marylin Monroe when she changed her name to Diana Dors and bleached her hair. 

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There’s nothing new about kiss-and-tell revelations of a so-called celebrity. The Internet Movie Database list 1 acting role and 1 set designer role for Novella Parigini and a photo of her with Rock Hudson who looks like he is saying ‘will someone get this thing off me?’ while smiling gaily, can be seen here. I wonder if she ever even met Marlon Brando. She was also an artist of doubtful talent specializing in faces of women with horribly bloated lips. Freudian analysis anyone?

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No, not the ruddy Olympics again. The Empire Games were first held in 1930 when we still had an Empire (just about). By 1958 they were the British Empire and Commonwealth Games and became just the Commonwealth Games in 1978. 
36 countries took part in the 1958 Games compared to 71 in the most recent (2010).











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