Queen of the cult B-movie
QUESTION What became of the actress Allison Hayes who famously played the 50ft woman in Attack Of The 50ft Woman?
Born Mary Jane Hayes in Charleston, West Virginia, on March 6, 1930, statuesque Allison Hayes was Miss Washington DC in the 1949 Miss America pageant. She didn’t win, but the competition opened the door to various TV roles which eventually took her to Hollywood.
From 1954 to 1965, she starred in a string of B-movies and played a supporting role in several A features. Her busiest period came in the late Fifties when she was cast in films such as Gunslinger (1956, with Beverly Garland and John Ireland), The Unearthly (1957, with Tor Johnson and Sally Todd), The Disembodied (1957, with Paul Burke), Attack of The 50ft Woman (1958, with Yvette Vickers) and The High Powered rifle (1960).
Attack of The 50ft Woman, which became a cult hit, features Hayes as nancy Archer, a troubled woman who turns into a giantess after an encounter with an alien. She’s then seen angrily searching the town for her philandering husband Harry.
In 1963 and 1964, she starred in the soap opera General Hospital. A close friend of raymond Burr, she also made five guest appearances on his Perry Mason series.
In her last film, she appeared alongside Elvis Presley in Tickle Me (1965). Hayes features in the beginning of the film as a drunken bar patron who lunges at Elvis as he performs. Viewers will note that she already looked thin and gaunt.
In 1962, Allison had begun consulting Dr Henry Bieler, nutritionist to the stars, on the advice of her close friend, actress Gloria Swanson. Bieler prescribed a calcium supplement made from dried animal bones. By 1967, she was unable to walk without a cane and her career came to an end.
Her auburn hair turned black and began to fall out. She lost the use of her right hand and suffered uncharacteristic mood swings. She eventually discovered that she was suffering from acute lead poisoning.
I n 1976, she was diagnosed with leukaemia and she died from this at the University of California Medical Centre in San Diego on February 27, 1977, one week before her 47th birthday.
Erica Wright, London N11.
QUESTION What became of Wood Green Town FC whose match-day programme carried the proud claim: ‘The only football club in White Hart Lane’?
Wood Green Town were formed in 1920 as a breakaway from Tufnell Park FC. In 1930, Wood Green moved to Coles Park on White Hart Lane, a field formerly owned by Coles Pottery. Tufnell Park FC, meanwhile, continued to play under various names, and by the Seventies were known as Edmonton FC.
In 1973, Wood Green amalgamated with Edmonton and played at Coles Park, briefly under the name of Edmonton & Haringey FC until 1976, when the name Haringey Borough FC, the present name, was adopted. It remains the only club to play in White Hart Lane.
White Hart Lane itself has existed since at least 1619. An inn called the White Hart stood on the east side of Tottenham High road, being used for court sessions in the 1650s. George Beckwith, landlord of the White Hart in the 1890s, set up a nursery on the site behind his pub at 750 High road.
Tottenham Hotspur FC was formed by a group of cricketers in 1882 as Hotspur FC. The prefix Tottenham was adopted three years later to avoid confusion with a team called London Hotspur. The Club took over its present site, the White Hart’s nursery (by then owned by Charrington brewers), i n 1899. The ground was originally known as the High road, but by 1909 the fans were calling it White Hart, for the pub and White Hart Lane for the nearby road. Though the ground was never in White Hart Lane, the name was officially adopted for the stadium.
Greg Hinde, Twickenham, Middx.
QUESTION Where are the French Eagles captured at Waterloo?
French army Imperial eagles were instituted by napoleon in imitation of the aquila of the legions of rome. The standards represented the regiments raised by the various departments of France, intended to garner feelings of pride and loyalty among the troops.
Designed by Antoine-Denis Chaudet and cast i n the workshop of PierrePhilippe Thomire, the first eagles were presented on December 5, 1804. Sculpted from bronze, the eagles sat atop blue regimental flagpoles, and weighed 1.85kg (about 4lb).
on napoleon’s fall in 1814, the restored monarchy of Louis XVIII ordered all eagles to be destroyed, but when the former emperor returned to power in 1815 (‘The Hundred Days’) he immediately had more eagles cast. The two eagles captured at Waterloo were the ‘newer’ versions.
The Scots Greys captured t heir napoleonic eagle during the decisive f i ghts around La Haye Sainte and Hougoumont farmhouses.
During a now famous cavalry attack in support of the 92nd Highlanders, Sergeant Charles Ewart captured the eagle following a bloody fight towards the French 45th regiment of the Line: ‘It was in the charge I took the eagle from the enemy. He and I had a hard contest for it.’
In all, the Scots Greys suffered 104 dead and 97 wounded, and lost 228 of their 416 horses during the Battle of Waterloo. A French Eagle above a scroll with the word ‘Waterloo’ is still worn as the regimental cap badge. Today, the eagle can be seen at The royal Scots Dragoon Guards Museum in Edinburgh Castle.
The other eagle was captured in a bloody charge led by Alexander Kennedy Clark of the 1st (or royal) regiment of Dragoons, against the French 105th Infantry.
The eagle that topped the standard, with the number 105, still forms part of the uniform of the regiment’s successor, The Blues and royals. This eagle can be seen at the national Army Museum, Chelsea, London.
R.K. Lomas, Aldershot, Hants.