Jon Slattery trawls the archives to look at what was making Press Gazette headlines in 11.69
DUKE BLASTS PA MAN
Press Association reporter Len Moxon was filing his copy from a telephone box when somebody tapped him on the shoulder. It was the Duke of Edinburgh, who harangued him for reporting remarks he had just made at a meeting of the Smaller Business Association. The Duke had not realised that PA had been invited to cover the event. Moxon said the Duke had angrily referred to “chaps like you” and named a newspaper he accused of distortion. A Palace spokesman later apologised to PA over the incident.
PRUDISH EXPRESS
Spot the difference between these two ads (above right) for Woman magazine which appeared in the Daily Mirror and the Daily Express. Press Gazette reported that Express editor David Marks requested the deletion of the third par of the ad. A case of the love that dare not speak its name.
THE PRICE OF IMPATIENCE
An angry Eric Price, the outspoken editor of the Western Daily Press, had reported the Press Council to itself. Price accused the council of “procrastination and discourtesy” over a omplaint against his paper made by a roup of students at Bristol University. The students had accused the WDP of biased reporting of their sit in protest. Price claimed the Press Council had decided not to proceed with the complaint but had not informed him. Press Council secretary Noel Paul said: “Mr Price’s complaint is that of a man who, having being told by an aggrieved person that he is going to sue him, complains to the court that no writ has been issued.”
FAREWELL TO THE OLD SUN
Dick Dinsdale, the editor of the old Sun , was shown on the front of Press Gazette, answering the phone in a deserted office at Endell Street. The Rupert Murdoch Sun was a week old and being published from Bouverie Street with Larry Lamb as editor. Dinsdale was moving on to be chairman of West of England Newspapers. Younger readers may wonder what the white machine is on the desk –
it’s a typewriter.
PANTS IDEA
A Scottish publishing company’s idea for promoting the launch of its new magazine for teenagers was pants – literally. A total of 35,000 pairs of paper pants were given away with the monthly Transplant . Publisher Ian Peebles said: “We wanted something original to launch the magazine – and this is something people will talk about.”
A CRISIS OUT OF A DRAMA
A drama had put the spotlight on t he critics in theatreland. Royal Court director Lindsay Anderson had banned The Spectator’s critic Hilary Spurling. The Sunday Times said it would not send its renowned critic Harold Hobson or his deputy to the Royal Court. Herbert Kretzmer of the Daily Express and The Sun’s David Nathan also said they would stay away because of the bar on Spurling. But Bernard Levin, writing in The Daily Mail, was against the critics’ show of solidarity. “They are wrong, in my view, because a
critic’s duty is not to his fellow critics, anymore than it is to the theatre; it is to his paper, and to his readers,” he wrote.
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