APROPOS OF NOTHING #73 - 30 JUNE 2001 - CHESTER BURTON 'CHET' ATKINS

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping (40 years in retailing), the golden age of Hollywood (including westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. I wrote a book on retailing, on dealing with job losses and a biography of Stephen Boyd.

This is a series of very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #73 – 30 June 2001

Chester Burton ‘Chet’ Atkins was born on 20 June, 1924 and died at 77 on 30 June, 2001.  He was a musician, songwriter and record producer and was very prominent in the development of the country music style known as the Nashville sound.

He was a major decision-maker at RCA Victor and nurtured the talents of and produced records for Hank Snow, Dolly Parton, Floyd Cramer, Elvis Presley, Eddy Arnold, The Everly Brothers, Jerry Reed, Waylon Jennings and many more.

As well as being a sublime guitar player, Atkins also played the mandolin, fiddle, ukulele and banjo.

He was the Country Music Association’s Instrumentalist of the Year nine times.  He won fourteen Grammys.  He was inducted posthumously into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

 

Sources : Various

APROPOS OF NOTHING #72 - 29 JUNE 1919 - SLIM PICKENS

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping (40 years in retailing), the golden age of Hollywood (including westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. I wrote a book on retailing, on dealing with job losses and a biography of Stephen Boyd.

This is a series of very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #72 – 29 June 1919

Born on 29 June, 1919, Louis Burton Lindley Jr, better known as Slim Pickens, was a star of films, television shows and rodeos.  Most of his screen work was in westerns.  He enhanced many a cast with his distinctive face and slightly hoarse, twangy voice.

His most famous film is not a western but he dressed as if it was one when he played Major ‘King’ Kong in the black comedy Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1962), directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Peter Sellers who played three parts.

The sequence where Major Kong rides a nuclear bomb as if it was a rodeo horse is memorable and it boosted his career.

My favourite Pickens role is in Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973), directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson.  There is a very moving scene when his character, Sheriff Baker, is shot.  He makes his way to the river followed by his wife, played by Katy Jurado.  The sadness is enhanced by Bob Dylan singing Knockin’ on Heaven’s door.

A little piece of trivia.  Slim had a brother, Samuel Turk Lindley, who chose the professional name Easy Pickens.

Slim Pickens died at 64 in 1983.


As Major 'King' Kong

Sources: Various

APROPOS OF NOTHING #71 - 28 JUNE 2016 - ROCKABILLY SCOTTY MOORE

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping (40 years in retailing), the golden age of Hollywood (including westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 

This is a series of very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #71 – 28 June 2016

Winfield Scott ‘Scotty’ Moore III died at 84 on 28 June, 2016.  He was a US guitarist and recording engineer who was a studio and recording guitarist for Elvis Presley from 1954 to 1968.

His playing can be heard on many of Presley’s most successful records including That’s All Right’, ‘Baby Let’s Play House’, ‘Mystery Train’, ‘Little Sister’ and ‘Jailhouse Rock’.

In 2011, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at 29 in the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000, the Musicians Hall of Fame in 2007, the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2015 amongst other honours.

Cruelly, in his final years, arthritis denied him the opportunity to play his guitars.

 Sources: Various

APROPOS OF NOTHING #70 - 27 JUNE 2001 - "JOE - MY BEST WISHES, JACK LEMMON"

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping (40 years in retailing), the golden age of Hollywood (including westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 

This is a series of very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #70 – 27 June 2001

Actor Jack Lemmon died at 76 on 27 June, 2001.  In a distinguished theatre, film and television career, he achieved multiple awards including two Oscars – Best Supporting Actor in Mister Roberts (1955) and Best Actor in Save the Tiger (1973) and a Primetime Emmy for Tuesday’s With Morrie (1999).

The US film industry honoured him with two Lifetime Achievement Awards in 1986 and 1995.

There are so many brilliant Jack Lemmon films – Some Like It Hot (1959), The Apartment (1960), Days of Wine and Roses (1962), The Great Race (1965), The Fortune Cookie (1966), The Odd Couple (1968) and onwards to The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975), The China Syndrome (1979), Missing (1982) and Glengarry Glen Ross (1992).

His last film was an uncredited role as narrator in Robert Redford’s The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000).

In 1986, Lemmon starred in Long Day’s Journey Into Night at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London.  It was directed by Jonathan Miller.  I wrote a fan letter to him and he kindly sent me a signed photograph, and here it is:

  

Sources: Various

APROPOS OF NOTHING #69 - 26 JUNE 1959 - ST LAWRENCE SEAWAY

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping (40 years in retailing), the golden age of Hollywood (including westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 

This is a series of very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #69 – 26 June 1959

On 26 June, 1959, Queen Elizabeth II and President Dwight D. Eisenhower inaugurated the 2,300-mile St Lawrence Seaway in Canada that links the Atlantic with the Great Lakes in North America.

Crowds cheered and waved flags, church bells rang out, sirens wailed and bands played as the Royal Yacht Britannia began the first leg of the journey from Montreal harbour to the Atlantic Ocean.

On board were the Queen, representing Canada, and President Eisenhower who could be seen chatting together on deck and waving to the crowds.

Balloons and fireworks were released when the ship's bow passed a symbolic gate at St Lambert Lock made of old timbers from the lock of the Lachine canal which was built to bypass the Lachine rapids. The seaway takes a different route avoiding the rapids and rendering the Lachine canal obsolete.

Then all the whistles and sirens of ships in Montreal harbour went off.

At one point an American congressman called to the president from the lock side: "We have all fallen in love with the Queen, Ike!"

The joint Canada/USA project cost $470 million and took five years to complete.

St Lawrence Seaway

Source: BBC

APROPOS OF NOTHING #68 - 25 JUNE 1968 - TONY HA-HA-HANCOCK

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping (40 years in retailing), the golden age of Hollywood (including westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 

This is a series of very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #68 – 25 June 1968

Comedian and actor Tony Hancock died at 44 on 25 June 1968.  It was a suicide.
  

His radio and subsequent television show, Hancock’s Half Hour, were enormous successes and made him a popular star in the late 1950s and early 1960s.  

He was helped significantly by the scriptwriting of Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, but Hancock’s delivery and performance made the shows memorable.  The cast around him, including Sid James, Bill Kerr, Moira Lister, Hattie Jacques and Kenneth Williams was pure comedic gold too.

The radio shows continue to be broadcast regularly to this day on BBC Radio 4Extra.

The most famous shows, The Blood Donor and The Radio Ham were not part of Hancock’s Half Hour. They featured in a short season of radio performances called, simply, Hancock, in 1961.

He starred in a Galton & Simpson scripted film The Rebel, in 1961, but afterwards cut ties with the writers and the regulars in Hancock’s Half Hour and attempted to move in a different comedic direction to cast off the downbeat, pompous character he had played for so long.

Tony Hancock was a troubled man not able to come to terms mentally with the patchiness of the latter years of his career.  In addition, he had a far from settled personal life.

On 25 June, 1968, he committed suicide in his Sydney apartment.

But before the sadness, there was the brilliant Hancock, on top of his game.  He is a firm fixture in the upper echelons of British comedy greats.

Sources: Various

APROPOS OF NOTHING #67 - 24 JUNE 1983 - SALLY RIDE, ASTRONAUT

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping (40 years in retailing), the golden age of Hollywood (including westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 

This is a series of very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #67 – 24 June 1983

On 24 June, 1983, America's first woman in space returned safely to Earth in the Challenger space shuttle after a successful six-day flight.  Sally Ride, aged 32, captured the media's attention over the weeks leading up to blast-off on 19 June as the public realised history was in the making.

Ride, a former tennis champion, decided to become an astronaut in 1977 after she saw a Nasa advertisement in the campus newsletter while studying English and physics.  She was one of more than 1,000 women and almost 7,000 men to apply for just 35 places on the 1978 training programme and it was there that she met her husband, fellow astronaut Steve Hawley.

Before blast-off the week before, flight commander Robert Crippen said she had been chosen to fly purely on her skills and not for her gender.

As flight engineer, Ms Ride's main tasks were to monitor the controls and make sure nothing went wrong on ascent and descent.  In space she also had to control a 50ft retractable arm to retrieve a satellite package of experiments.  It was the first time a satellite had been grabbed from space and paved the way for repairing satellites in orbit.

"She is flying with us because she is the very best person for the job. There is no man I would rather have in her place," said Robert Crippen.

Sally Ride died at 61 on 23 July, 2012.

Source: BBC

APROPOS OF NOTHING #66 - 23 JUNE 1940 - ADAM FAITH & HIS GLOTTAL STOPS

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping (40 years in retailing), the golden age of Hollywood (including westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 

This is a series of very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #66 – 23 June 1940

Terence Nelhams-Wright, better known as singer, actor and financial writer Adam Faith, was born on 23 June, 1940.

He began his musical career in the late-1950s, having worked his way into the business via the popular coffee shop scene.  His early supporters included Jack Good, producer of TV’s Six-Five Special and musician/composer John Barry.

After several flopped singles, he struck gold in 1959 with a number one in the charts, What Do You Want?  His vocal style was distinctive, using glottal stops to great effect.  The next six singles were all top five hits.

As his musical appeal began to fade, Faith turned to acting on the big sand small screens, and occasionally in the theatre.

For a time in the 1970s, Adam Faith managed Leo Sayer but it was not a happy relationship, mainly due to money mismanagement.  Sayer sued Faith and the matter was resolved with an out of court settlement. Bizarrely, Faith eventually reinvented himself as a financial adviser, investor and Daily Mail money journalist.

His biggest screen hit was the television series Budgie, about an ex-convict getting involved with dodgy money-making schemes, mostly in association with local crime boss Charlie Endell, played by Iain Cuthbertson.  The show ran for 26 episodes in 1971/72.  In the 1990s, he starred with Zoe Wanamaker in another success, Love Hurts.

He won a BAFTA for his role in the David Essex film Stardust (1974).

Adam Faith died at 62 on 8 March, 2003.

APROPOS OF NOTHING #65 - 22 JUNE 1847 - THE GRAVY RING IS BORN!

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping (40 years in retailing), the golden age of Hollywood (including westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 

This is a series of very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #65 – 22 June 1847

On 22 June, 1847, Hanson Gregory, an American, claimed to have invented the ring-shaped doughnut on board a limestone trading ship when he was 16 years old. Gregory was dissatisfied with the greasiness of doughnuts twisted into various shapes, and with the uncooked centres of regular doughnuts. He claimed to have punched a hole in the centre of the dough with the ship's tin pepper box.

There have been many claims and versions.  It’s a sort of interesting piece of trivia in a who-cares kind of way.

Growing up in Belfast, ring doughnuts were called gravy rings.

Incidentally, one of the earliest mentions of a dough-nut was in Washington Irvine’s 1809 book, A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty:

“Sometimes the table was graced with immense apple-pies, or saucers full of preserved peaches and pears; but it was always sure to boast of an enormous dish of balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog’s fat, and called dough-nuts, a delicious kind of cake, at present scarce known excepting in genuine Dutch families.”

 

From crewman to Captain Hanson Gregory 

and a gravy ring. 

Sources: Wikipedia and others

APROPOS OF NOTHING #65 - 21 JUNE 1926 - CONRAD HALL, BIG SCREEN MAESTRO

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping (40 years in retailing), the golden age of Hollywood (including westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 

This is a series of very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #65 – 21 June 1926

Cinematographer Conrad Lafcadlo Hall was born on 21 June, 1926 in Tahiti. 

He won three Academy Awards; Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), American Beauty (1999) and, posthumously, Road to Perdition (2002).

He won three Baftas for the same films, and several other awards and accolades.

His father, James Norman Hall, co-wrote the novel Mutiny on the Bounty (1932) which was the basis for two films in 1935 (Charles Laughton and Clark Gable) and 1962 (Trevor Howard and Marlon Brando).

Conrad Hall cut his teeth filming commercials, documentaries and short films.  He worked for a time in television.

His big break came with Morituri (1965), a war film, starring Brando and Howard, alongside

Yul Brynner.  Then came a western, The Professionals (1966) starring Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Jack Palance and Woody Strode.  In the same year, he filmed Harper with Paul Newman and Lauren Bacall.

From there, he was off and running, building an outstanding CV of brilliant work – Cool Hand Luke (1967), In Cold Blood (1967), Butch Cassidy (1969), Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969), Marathon Man (1976) and many more.

Conrad Hall was married three times including, from 1969 to 1975, to Katherine Ross who starred as Etta Place in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

He died at 76 on 6 January, 2003.

His classy work on screen will last forever.

 

Sources: Various

APROPOS OF NOTHING #64 - 20 JUNE 1840 - DOT-DOT-DOT-DASH-DASH-DASH

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping (40 years in retailing), the golden age of Hollywood (including westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 

This is a series of very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #64 – 20 June 1840

On June 20, 1840, portrait painter and inventor Samuel Finley Breese Morse was granted US Patent 1,647A:

'Improvement in the mode of communicating information by signals by the application of electromagnetism.'

This invention later led to the creation of Morse Code.

In 1832, Morse began perfecting his version of an electric telegraph after he missed the death of his wife due to a lag in communications. 

He had a number of expert collaborators in developing the telegraph. Following the construction, it was apparent that a critical piece was still needed to effectively use it. A code was needed to transmit natural language using only pulses and the silence between them.

In 1836, the development of the Morse Code began with the help from inventor Alfred Vail. Eventually, Morse Code allowed operators to translate pulses and pauses into letters, words, and phrases which led to many other advancements in the 'dots and dashes' communication we know today.

 

Samuel Morse

27 April, 1791 – 2 April, 1872

APROPOS OF NOTHING #63 - 19 JUNE 2013 - SLIM WHITMAN

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping (40 years in retailing), the golden age of Hollywood (including westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 

This is a series of very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #63 – 19 June 2013

Ottis Dewey Whitman Jr. (better known as Slim Whitman) was born on 20 January, 1923 and died at 90 on 19 June, 2013.

He specialised in country, western and folk music and sold nearly 100 million records during his career.

Back in the day when our family record collection was dominated by showbands and country music, Slim Whitman was one of the favourites.

An easy listening vocal style and a signature yodel made him stand out from some of the other country greats in the LP stack, including Hank Locklin and Hank Snow.

Whitman’s many hits included Rose Marie, Indian Love Call, Beautiful Dreamer, Cattle Call and I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen.

For his major contribution to the recording industry, he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In the 1996 film Mars Attacks! director Tim Burton used Whitman’s Indian Love Call as an effective weapon against the invading Martians.  

Sources: Various

APROPOS OF NOTHING #62 - 18 JUNE 2007 - BERNARD MANNING

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping (40 years in retailing), the golden age of Hollywood (including westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 

This is a series of very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #62 – 18 June 1961

Comedian, singer and nightclub owner Bernard Manning was born on 13 August, 1930 and died at 76 on 18 June, 2007.

The 1970s were his peak years, helped enormously by his regular television appearances on The Comedians and The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club.  He opened his own Embassy Club on Rochdale Road, Manchester.  Manning was very popular and successful, although his comedy style more than pushed the boundaries on race, sex and religion.  Very few topics were out of bounds.  Times changed and his TV career faded as the world became impatient with 'old-style' controversial comedy.

Writer and comedian Barry Cryer is quoted as saying:

‘The thing about Bernard was that he looked funny, he sounded funny and he had excellent timing. It was just what he actually said that could be worrying.’

A little nugget of non-showbusiness information – during the Second World War, as part of his National Service, he was posted to Germany and, for a time, was one of the squad at Spandau Prison, Berlin, guarding Nazi war criminals including Rudolf Hess and Albert Speer.

Sources: Various

APROPOS OF NOTHING #61 - 17 JUNE, 1961 - NUREYEV'S DASH

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping (40 years in retailing), the golden age of Hollywood (including westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 

This is a series of very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #61 – 17 June 1961

On 17 June, 1961, principal dancer of the Kirov Ballet, Rudolf Nureyev, broke free from Russian embassy guards at a Paris airport and requested asylum in France.

The 23-year-old Russian dancer dashed through a security barrier at Le Bourget airport shouting in English: "I want to be free."

It is understood Nureyev was approached by two Russian guards as he was waiting, with the rest of his troupe, to board a BEA Vanguard plane to London.

The guards informed him that he was required to return to Moscow instead of going to London, but, as he was being escorted to a waiting Russian aircraft, he made his dash for freedom.

He was taken into the airport police station by two French police officers, followed by the two furious Russian guards, and a heated argument ensued.

He was immediately granted temporary asylum in France and his case was referred to the Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons.

Within a week of his defection, Nureyev was signed by the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas in Paris.  He never returned to Russia, settled in the West and became an international star.

He died at 54 in 1993.

Sources: BBC and others