ON THIS DAY
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE MAY 24, 1980
BRITAIN is to get its first 24-hour TV programme. The American-style ‘telethon’, a star-studded fundraising extravaganza, will start at 7pm on October 2, and run non-stop until the same time the next night. Guests will include Bob Hope, Dame Vera Lynn, Terry Wogan, Judi Dench, Frankie Howerd and Cliff richard. MAY 24, 2017
THERESA MAY announced last night that troops are to be deployed on Britain’s streets amid fears of a follow-up terror attack — 24 hours after a suicide bomber killed 22 concert-goers, including a girl of eight, at the Manchester Arena.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
PRISCILLA PRESLEY, 79. The U.S. actress has produced a number of movies, has a line of perfumes, starred in TV soap Dallas and wrote a best- seller about her life with elvis, which formed the basis of Sofia Coppola’s 2023 film Priscilla. JOHN C. reILLy, 59. The Chicagoborn character and comedic actor starred in the 2002 film Chicago — he has a great voice and did all his own singing — and in Stan & Ollie. Of his craggy face he says: ‘I’ve looked like a middle-aged man since I was 18.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
SIR ARNOLD WESKER (19322016). The Londonborn dramatist wrote classic plays Chips With everything and Chicken Soup With Barley. Despite being a socialist, he insisted he had ‘no qualms’ about accepting a knighthood, saying: ‘you need all the accolades you can get.’ LILLI PALMer (1914-1986). The German actress starred in The Boys From Brazil and Cloak And Dagger. She was the second of rex Harrison’s six wives — he divorced her to marry his dying mistress, actress kay kendall. Palmer honoured her contract to appear with her ex in a London play, ‘embracing each other every night with wooden arms’.
ON MAY 24…
IN 1943, Dr Josef Mengele began working at the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. He would become known as ‘the Angel of Death’.
IN 2023, rock star Tina Turner died in Switzerland, aged 83.
WORD WIZARDRY GUESS THE DEFINITION Planchette (coined 1920s)
A) Hard slap to the side of the face. B) Black magic manual. C) Triangular pointer on an ouiji board.
Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
The road to hell is paved with good intentions: meaning it is not enough to make plans, you must act on them too; derives from 16th/17th century: ‘Hell is full of good desires, and heaven is full of good works.’
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Don’t be so humble — you’re not that great.
Golda Meir, Israeli prime minister (1898-1978)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT’S a duck’s favourite ballet? the Nutquacker.
Guess the Definition answer: C.