Random Cutting - Film Star Natalie Wood Drowns (1981)

Reblogged from my newspaper collection blog (mhill46-holdthefrontpage.blogspot.co.uk)

Daily Mirror dated Monday November 30^th 1981

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Natalie Wood was born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko in San Francisco in 1938 and appeared in her first film in 1943. She is probably best remembered as Maria in ‘West Side Story’ as well as Oscar nominated parts in ‘Splendour in the Grass’ and ‘Love with the Proper Stranger’.

Her death by drowning was originally deemed to be an accident but the coroner’s verdict was amended recently to include the wording ‘drowning and other undetermined factors’.

Random Cutting - Steve McQueen dies (1980)

Reblogged from my newspaper collection blog (mhill46-holdthefrontpage.blogspot.co.uk)

The Sun dated Saturday November 8th 1980

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Even if he had never made another film Steve McQueen would still be remembered as the eponymous start of ‘Bullitt’ (1968) one of the most enjoyable films of the 60’s. The car chase scene is a classic and can be watched here. As it was, from 1958 until 1980, he made film after film with hardly a dud among them.

Random Cutting - Death of Ernie Kovaks (1962)

Reblogged from my newspaper collection blog (mhill46-holdthefrontpage.blogspot.co.uk)

14th January 1962

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I'm not sure today's newspapers would print such a graphic picture of a dead celebrity. Ernie Kovaks an American radio and TV star, comic, scriptwriter, film actor, novelist and during the early 1950's the first TV innovator who, by stretching the existing video technology to its limits, won a posthumous  Emmy in 1962. As shown above he died in car accident in Los Angeles on the 13rh January 1962. 

Random Cutting - Poet Robert Service dies (1958)

                             Click to Read

I'm not a great lover of poetry, but when, many years ago, I read the opening lines of The Shooting of Dan McGrew I was hooked on Robert Service –

A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon;

The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a rag-time tune;

Back of the bar, in a solo game, sat Dangerous Dan McGrew,

And watching his luck was his light-o'-love, the lady that’s known as Lou.

My other favourite is ‘The Cremation of Sam McGee’  which begins –

There are strange things done in the midnight sun

By the men who moil for gold;

The Arctic trails have their secret tales

That would make your blood run cold;

The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,

But the queerest they ever did see

Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge

I cremated Sam McGee.

Random Cutting - What London is Reading (1958)

Reblogged from my newspaper collection blog (mhill46-holdthefrontpage.blogspot.co.uk)

Evening Standard dated Tuesday September 9th 1958

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The top 6 best selling books of the week included Boris Pasternak, Nevile Shute and H E Bates.

Either we were better read in those days or there was very little choice. Certainly no Jamie Oliver cook-books or ghost written ‘celebrity’ memoirs.

I was a mere 12 years-old at the time and hadn't progressed beyond The Eagle comic.

Random Cutting - Rudolph Valentino Dead (1926)

Reblogged from my newspaper collection blog                                     (mhill46-holdthefrontpage.blogspot.co.uk)

Daily Mirror dated Tuesday August 24th 1926

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Rudolph Valentino was born Rodolfo Alfonzo Raffaello Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla in 1895 of French/Italian parentage and was brought up in Italy. He moved to the USA in 1913 and appeared in his first film in 1914. From then until 1921 he turned up as an extra, or un-credited or under a variety of variations of his name in about 20 films, but in 1921 he stared in ‘The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’ and his career as a one of the most popular Silent era stars was off and running. Unfortunately, particularly for his many many female fans, it came to a sudden end in 1926 when he died as a result of complications after an appendix operation.   

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Pola Negri, who claimed to be engaged to Valentino at the time of his death, was born in Poland and died at the age of 90 in 1987. Her film career spanned from 1914 to 1964 but she made very few films after the coming of Sound. In her most popular silent films she was a strong rival to Theda Bara as the leading ‘Vamp’ of the time.

Random Cutting - Obituary for author Joseph Conrad (1924)

Reblogged from my newspaper collection blog (mhill46-holdthefrontpage.blogspot.co.uk)

Cutting dated 23rd August 1924

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Joseph Conrad was born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski in 1857 in the Ukraine, and was raised and educated in Poland before a sea-faring career in the French and British merchant navies. He settled in England and wrote short stories and novels like Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness and The Secret Agent, which combined his experiences all over the World with an interest in moral conflict and the dark side of human nature. In his time he was regarded as one of England great writers but is now best remembered as the author of the novella (Heart of Darkness) on which the film 'Apocalypse Now' was based. He died in Canterbury on 3rd August 1924.