ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE JANUARY 25, 1972
THE Queen has been given the Hollywood treatment by Joe King, the first American artist to paint her. His portrait, unveiled yesterday, is the movie-maker’s dream of what a film queen should be. Serene. Dignified. Beautiful. It shows Her Majesty in a brown military cape over a cream evening dress, and pictured against Dover Castle.
JANUARY 25, 1975
MRS Margaret Thatcher will officially launch her strike for the Tory leadership next weekend with a personal declaration designed to win over the waverers. Her outlook will stamp the party with a more positive Right-wing edge and establish its commitment to the middle-class voter.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
ANGELA THORNE, 82. The Karachi-born English actress played Marjory Frobisher, the best friend of Penelope Keith’s character, Audrey fforbes-Hamilton, in To The Manor Born. Running from 1979-81, the last episode of the first series was the most watched British television programme (excluding live events) of the 1970s, with 23.95 million viewers. SIR Boyd Tunnock, 88. ‘Scotland’s most famous baker’ created the Tunnock’s teacake — a chocolatecoated marshmallow on a biscuit base, right — in 1956. The family firm turns over more than £60 million a year. He said that when he received his knighthood, the Queen told him she preferred the teacakes to the caramel wafers invented by his father.
BORN ON THIS DAY
RAyMOND BAxTER (1922-2006). The Essex-born former Spitfire pilot was the first presenter of the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World. He commentated on the Coronation and state funerals of Winston Churchill and of George VI, and was the first person to broadcast live from a plane, an ocean-liner and a submarine underwater. ETTA JAMES (1938-2012). Rolling Stone magazine ranked ‘the ultimate blues mama’ — born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles to a 14-year- old mother and unknown father — as the 22nd greatest singer of all time. Adele has credited James as one of her earliest influences: ‘She was the first time a voice made me stop what I was doing and sit down and listen. It took over my mind and body.’
ON JANUARY 25...
IN 1947, U.S. crime boss Al Capone died through syphilis, aged 48. IN 1981, the ‘Gang of Four’, former Labour cabinet ministers Shirley Williams, Roy Jenkins, William Rodgers and David Owen, announced their intention to form the Social Democratic Party.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: pelisse (c1715) A) A horse’s attempt to dump its rider. B) A cut from right to left in fencing. C) A woman’s long, fitted coat.
( Answer below)
PHRASE EXPLAINED There’s no such thing as a free lunch — meaning in accepting a free gift or favour one has in one way or other to pay for it in the end; from old-time American saloons where you had to buy an alcoholic drink to be entitled to a free lunch.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
I NeveR think of the future — it comes soon enough. Albert Einstein, German-born physicist (1879-1955)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHy was the jazz movie x-rated? It had too much sax and violins. Guess The Definition answer: C