ON THIS DAY
March 15, 2023
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
MARCH 15, 1978
PRINCE Charles will make a plea for racial tolerance in a television documentary series he is to present next month. The seven-programme BBC1 series, entitled Face Values, was described yesterday as ‘the most serious contribution to television by any member of the Royal Family’.
MARCH 15, 1993
BRITAIN’S first ‘ porn- in- the- wall’ machine has caused a storm of protest in a sedate seaside town. The vending machine, which works like a High Street cash dispenser, offers 24-hour access to adult movies. It goes into service today in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, only a short distance from the home of law-and-order minister Michael Jack, the local MP.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
wILL.I.AM, 48. The U.S. rapper, music producer and member of Black Eyed Peas, who was born william James Adams Jr, has been a mentor on UK talent show The Voice since 2012. In that year, his song, Reach For The Stars, was the first music to be broadcast from Mars to Earth by Nasa.
DAVID CRONENBERg, 80. The Canadian filmmaker wrote and directed Crash and The Fly. while making the horror film Shivers, actress Susan Petrie said she’d never had to cry on film before, so she asked Cronenberg to ‘slap her really hard’ before each take. After Martin Scorsese confessed that he was terrified to meet him, Cronenberg said: ‘You’re the guy who made Taxi Driver and you’re afraid to meet me?!’
BORN ON THIS DAY
MADELYN PUGH ( 1921- 2011). The American co-wrote the classic TV show I Love Lucy, which has been deemed ‘one of the most successful sitcoms of all time’. Its star, Lucille Ball, was known for her slapstick stunts, but they were all tested on Pugh first. Her writing partner Bob Carroll Jr said: ‘If it works for Madelyn, it will work for Lucy.’
ZARAH LEANDER (19071981). The Swedish singer and actress was germany’s biggest film star during world war II, after Marlene Dietrich and greta garbo fled to Hollywood. She has been ‘ slandered as a Nazi siren’ after starring in propaganda films, but refused Joseph goebbels’ request for her to take german citizenship and returned to Sweden.
ON MARCH 15 . . .
IN 1997, the Spice girls were enjoying their fourth consecutive UK No 1, with Mama/ who Do You Think You Are.
IN 2002, a statue of John Lennon was unveiled by his widow Yoko Ono to mark renaming Speke airport in Liverpool in his honour.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION:
Acequia (c. 1840s)
A) Spiritual torpor, world-weariness.
B) Persistent winking.
C) An irrigation ditch.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Horses for courses: Meaning different people suit different situations or things; it first referred to the difference between the racecourses at Brighton and Epsom.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
I admire you British: when things get tough, you reach for humour. Not firearms.
Sigourney Weaver, U.S. actress
JOKE OF THE DAY
HOW do you ask a dinosaur round for a bite to eat? ‘Tea, Rex?’
Guess The Definition answer: C.