ON THIS DAY
JANUARY 18, 1962 The Twist was denounced as immoral today by Nostro Tempo, a Vatican publication. ‘The couples come together in immodest postures,’ said the article. JANUARY 18, 1963 Joe (‘Mr Piano’) Henderson yesterday signed a £56-a-year insurance policy covering his hands against injury for up to £10,000. Conditions of the policy include: no shaking hands with people over 15st, not more than 200 autographs at one session and no washing-up, scrubbing floors, handstands, steeplechasing, duelling, fighting or any kind of racing.
Mr Henderson, starring in ATV’s Arthur Haynes Show, said: ‘My wife is sure that I’ve had the washing-up clause inserted for my own benefit.’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
JANE HORROCKS, 55. The Lancashire-born actress — Bubble in Absolutely Fabulous — had the starring role in Little Voice created for her after its writer heard her warming up with impersonations of Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe.
In her younger days she had romances with stage and film director Sam Mendes and rocker Ian Dury. She recently admitted she doesn’t like going to the theatre unless it’s a musical. RAyMOND BRIGGS, 85. The author and illustrator from Wimbledon created The Snowman, Father Christmas, When The Wind Blows, Fungus The Bogeyman and Ethel & Ernest (about his mother, a lady’s maid, and father, a milkman). Briggs says he would like engraved on his tombstone the words of a girl he knows, who said: ‘Raymond is not a normal person.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
OLIVER HARDy (18921957). One half of Laurel and Hardy, the U.S comedia was dubbed the ‘portly master of the withering look’ and was known for his catchphrase, ‘Here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten us into’. At his heaviest he was 25st. A.A. MILNE (1882-1956). The author of the Winnie-the-Pooh books was in what must be history’s most literary amateur cricket team, Allahakbarries. Its players included J.M. Barrie, Arthur Conan Doyle, P.G. Wodehouse, G.K. Chesterton, Rudyard Kipling and H.G. Wells.
ON JANUARY 18…
In 1996, Lisa Marie Presley filed for divorce from Michael Jackson, after just over a year and a half of marriage.
In 2016, an Oxfam report revealed that the world’s 62 richest people owned as much as the poorest half of the world’s population.