October 27, 2022 ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
OCTOBER 27, 1966
THE showbiz world’s sweetheart, Alma Cogan, died yesterday [of cancer] at 34. She came up the hard way, from £8-a-week chorus girl to Britain’s highest-paid woman singer, at £1,000 a week. She had two gimmicks: the giggles and the gowns. But her ambitions reached higher: ‘I’d like to be a female Sinatra.’
OCTOBER 27, 1999
THE maverick son of a duke brought the House of Lords to a halt last night with an astonishing one-man demo hours before the plan to scrap the voting rights of hereditary peers was passed. The Earl of Burford — a descendant of Charles II and Nell Gwyn — shouted: ‘Stand up for your Queen and country and vote this treason down.’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
JOHN CLEESE, 83. The co- creator of Fawlty Towers asked to take Monty Python colleague Michael Palin as his luxury item on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs. Told he could only have a stuffed Palin, Cleese said: ‘OK, that’ll do.’ In 2019, he said Netflix refused to return his calls after he pitched a comedy special, while ITV said it wasn’t ‘tonally right’. Cleese asked: ‘Why didn’t they just say it was too intelligent?’ GLENN HODDLE, 65. The former Tottenham Hotspur player was described as ‘the most naturally gifted footballer of his generation’. He was sacked as England manager in 1999 after comments suggesting disabled people were being made to pay for the sins of past lives. He suffered a cardiac arrest on his 61st birthday after collapsing on the set of BT Sport’s studios and was brought back to life by a sound engineer.
BORN ON THIS DAY
CARRIE SNODGRESS (1945-2004). The U.S. actress won two Golden Globes and an Oscar nomination for only her second credited film role, in 1970’s Diary Of A Mad Housewife. But she stepped away from the spotlight to raise her son Zeke — who had cerebral palsy — by musician Neil Young. MONICA SIMS (1925-2018). The Gloucester-born producer became the BBC’s first female director of radio programmes. As head of children’s TV, she introduced Newsround and Grange Hill. But when she criticised one of America’s most famous offerings for kids, Life magazine said the BBC’s Play School was ‘so dreary it’s no wonder Miss Sims worries about Sesame Street’.
ON OCTOBER 27…
IN 1955, Rebel Without A
Cause, starring James
Dean and Natalie Wood, was released — nearly a month after his death in a car crash. It went on to become Dean’s most celebrated film.
IN 1988, Carry On star Charles Hawtrey died, aged 73.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION: Integument (circa 1700s)
A) A natural covering, as a skin, shell or rind. B) Taking pleasure in another’s joy. C) Propriety; decency. answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
In a flat spin: Meaning in a state of panic or agitation. It comes from the name of an aerial manoeuvre in which an aircraft descends in tight circles while staying almost horizontal.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
I hate housework! you make the beds, you do the dishes — and six months later you have to start all over again.
Joan Rivers, U.S. comedienne (1933-2014)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHEN does a horse talk? Whinny wants to. Guess The Definition answer: a.