LOSE YOURSELF IN 1952

DETECTOR GADGET

The Post Office introduced television detector vans in February as a means of enforcing the TV licence, introduced in 1946. The first ‘vans’ were actually converted Hillman Minx and Morris Oxford estates, with very obvious aerials on their roofs, but the better-known Commers and Dodges soon took over. How the vans actually worked is still shrouded in secrecy to this day, leading many to believe that they don’t actually do any real detecting and were just around to scare people into buying licences. However, from the information that has leaked out, it seems that the process includes an optical detector and the analysis of electromagnetic radiation from a TV’s local oscillator. Nevertheless, the sudden presence of a big van with lots of prominent technology bolted to its top may well have convinced lots of unlicensed TV viewers over the years to promptly make themselves legal.

CHAPLIN BAN

While sailing from the USA to the UK for the world premiere of his new movie Limelight, in September, Charlie Chaplin heard that his permission to re-enter America had been revoked. Cold War hysteria there had seen him labelled a communist and investigated by the FBI from 1947, although Charlie himself denied being one, preferring to call himself a ‘peacemonger’ instead. Although he’d lived in the USA since 1912 and his success typified the American Dream, he’d never applied for citizenship, remaining a British subject. Chaplin, unhappy at America’s ‘hate-beleaguered atmosphere’, ‘insults’ and ‘moral pomposity’, decided not to return; his wife Oona sorted out his Stateside affairs and the couple settled in Switzerland instead. Charlie made his later films in Britain. He did revisit America in 1972 for an Academy Award, and was given a 12-minute standing ovation.