ON THIS DAY
March 5, 2019
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
MARCH 5, 1941 THE actor Michael Redgrave — one of those who are to be banned by the BBC unless they give up the People’s Convention, an organisation with communist sympathies — denied last night that he was a pacifist and said he was going to join the Navy. MARCH 5, 1960 A PROuD mother was showing off her new baby yesterday. While the world waits to see the first pictures, the Queen invited Palace staff along to the nursery to look at Prince Andrew. They agreed he has the wide ‘Mountbatten’ mouth, a crop of ‘brownish hair’ and ‘a dear little button of a nose’.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
ELAINE PAIGE, 71. The London-born actress and singer (right) — who is just under 5ft tall — is best known for the song Memory, which she sang in the original production of Cats. The ‘First Lady of British musicals’ was born Elaine Bickerstaff, but settled on stage name ‘Paige’ after flicking through the pages of a phone book for inspiration. MATT LuCAS, 45. The actor and comedian, who starred in Little Britain with David Walliams, said he regrets early sketches in which he played Take That’s songwriter, adding: ‘I’ve only met Gary Barlow a few times, but I’ve apologised every time.’ Lucas said his mother ‘wasn’t convinced I was doing well until I did a Cadbury’s Creme Egg advert’.
BORN ON THIS DAY
SIR REx HARRISON (1908-1990). The actor won an Oscar for playing Professor Henry Higgins (right, with Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle) in My Fair Lady. Noel Coward called six-times married Sir Rex ‘the best light comedy actor in the world — except for me’. But Women’s Auxiliary Air Force officer Eileen Younghusband, who served with him in World War II, said he was ‘quite revolting’, treating colleagues ‘like dirt’. At breakfast, she added, ‘he would fill his mouth with toast and marmalade and eat so messily that the soggy bread would ooze out of the side of his mouth’. HENRY TRAvERS (1874-1965). The British actor played guardian angel Clarence Odbody in 1946 film It’s A Wonderful Life, saying: ‘Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?’ It was voted Britain’s favourite Christmas movie in a 2018 poll, but started as a financial flop and Travers never knew his performance would become his most celebrated.
ON MARCH 5…
IN 1936, the Spitfire made its first flight, taking off from Eastleigh, Hampshire. IN 2016, Ray Tomlinson, the inventor of email, died aged 74.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Blatteroon (17th century) A) A babbler. B) A slight, tickling cough. C) A drinking vessel. Answer below PHRASE EXPLAINED Oh my stars and garters —
meaning ‘Oh my goodness!’ Early 18th-century phrase expressing excitement or surprise. Refers to honours and awards and by extension to those holding them.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Too bad that all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxicabs and cutting hair. George Burns, U.S. comedian (1896-1996)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHY did the farmer call his pig ‘Ink’? Because it ran out of the pen. Guess the definition answer: A.