ON THIS DAY
September 13, 2019
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE SEPTEMBER 13, 1958
SINGEr Eddie Fisher tonight said he was solely to blame for his break-up with Debbie reynolds, who had tried ‘very hard’ to make the relationship work. ‘Our marriage would have come to an end if I had never known Elizabeth Taylor [reynolds’ best friend, with whom he had an affair],’ he said.
SEPTEMBER 13, 1966
THE Beatles have been voted Britain’s best group in the Melody Maker 1966 Pop Poll Awards. Tom Jones has ended Cliff richard’s five-year reign as Britain’s top male singer. Dusty Springfield replaces Sandie Shaw as top female singer and beats Brenda Lee for the international female title. Best TV show is BBC’s Top of the Pops. Elvis Presley stays top international male singer.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
STELLA McCArTNEy, 48. The fashion designer daughter of Sir Paul and Linda McCartney had rocks shipped from her father’s Mull of Kintyre farm to decorate her store in London’s Old Bond Street. She said: ‘We had to reinforce the floors ... for my rock passion. And then, you know, they weren’t quite the right colour, so now we spray them.’ She admits going up to people in the street who are wearing her wares and saying: ‘Nice bag!’ BOBBy DAVrO, 61. The English comic, impressionist and actor was born robert Christopher Nankeville, but took his stage name from the business his father, Olympic runner Bill Nankeville, named after his sons David and robert. Davro, paid £50,000 a week for nightclub shows in the 1980s, quit EastEnders in 2008, saying he could earn more in panto. He admitted on Channel 5’s In Therapy he’d had alcohol every day since age 14. His drinking began with Bacardi and Cokes in a pub with older friends.
BORN ON THIS DAY
LOrD ( GEOrGE) WEIDENFELD ( 19192016). The Austrian-born publisher and philanthropist came to Britain as a Jewish refugee to escape Hitler. He published Harold Wilson, Pope John Paul II, U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson and French leader Charles de Gaulle, and befriended several of them. He also printed the UK edition of Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial novel, Lolita, about a man’s obsession with a 12-year-old girl. He spoke four languages and married four times.
On September 13...
IN 1980, Hercules the bear, who went missing for 24 days while filming a Kleenex ad in the Outer Hebrides, was recaptured. IN 2008, five bombs planted by Islamist terrorists exploded across Delhi in India.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Turriculate (coined c 1835) A) To talk with overblown gravity. B) resembling a turret. C) Using indecent language. Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Ante up: Meaning to pay what is due, compensate for something or do one’s share. The phrase is from games of risk such as poker when the ‘ante’ was the bet or stake made before cards are dealt.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
I’M noT a pitiable creature. It’s just that I suffer very eloquently. Joni Mitchell, Canadian singer-songwriter.
JOKE OF THE DAY
I JUST slipped on a banana skin... I look ridiculous in it. Guess The Definition answer: B.