This edited article about David Low originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 704 published on 12 July 1975.

King Street, Covent Garden

Before he turned to curing corns, David Low had been a hairdresser and a hotelier. Not just a hotelier let it be stressed but the very first hotelier. His historic invention happened in 1774, and before readers reach for their pens and ask: “What about inns?”, they should remember that the grand old British inn/tavern is a place for drinking first and sleeping in overnight second. Mr. Low reversed the process.

He selected a house in Covent Garden, London, that had been occupied by a peer of the realm. Lord Russell, whose idea of interior decoration was to have a home looking like below decks in a man-of-war. The exact spot where this odd aristocrat lived was 43, King Street and it was here that David Low opened his Grand Hotel in January 1774.

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This edited article about Emanuel Zacchini originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 702 published on 28 June 1975.

Zacchini was appearing half a century after the great Zazel had performed similar feats as a human cannon-ball for her audience at London’s Royal Aquarium in the 1880s

One Day in 1940, amid a thunderous roll of drums, the ring master stepped before the packed crowds in Madison Square Gardens, New York, U.S.A.

“Ringling Brothers and Barnum and ‘Bailey’s circus proudly presents the most amazing spectacle ever witnessed by human eyes,” he proclaimed proudly.

A lorry trundled into the arena with a great cannon mounted on its back, and the crowd gasped in excitement.

“Mister Emanuel Zacchini’s death-defying feat is about to begin,” he cried. “He is going to be shot from a cannon for the greatest distance ever recorded in the annals of history.”

To a fanfare of trumpets, Zacchini tripped into the ring, bowed to the audience and climbed into the barrel of the cannon.

There was a hushed silence as the audience clung to their seats in anticipation. Suddenly, there was a tremendous roar. Smoke poured from the cannon and in the midst of it was Zacchini, shooting through the air so fast that he looked like a streak of colour.

Before the crowd could recover their breath, he was scrambling to the edge of the net in which he had landed and jumping into the arena.

After consulting with officials who had carefully measured the distance, the ringmaster announced that Zacchini had been shot a distance of 175 feet (53.3 metres) and achieved a world record.

Wherever he appeared after this, crowds flocked to see the world’s greatest human cannon-ball who not only survived to enjoy a quiet retirement, but was succeeded by his daughter Florinda as a star in an exciting profession.

This edited article about Amelia Bloomer originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 696 published on 17 May 1975

Cycling in bloomers was a huge step towards the emancipation of Victorian women, by Peter Jackson

Amelia Bloomer’s ideas of women’s wear were greeted with derision. But she was a dauntless pioneer who was determined that women were going to look fetching in bloomers.

This is a tale of women’s lib and male chauvinist pigs, Victorian style, and they have never come piggier than in Victorian times. It is also the story of a scorned but dauntless pioneer, whose ideas were greeted with derision. She rejoiced in the name of Amelia Bloomer.

The 1850s and ’60s saw women encased in crinolines. They were introduced in 1856 because the weight of petticoats worn by ladies of the day was becoming enough to make all but the toughest swoon. The “cage crinoline” or hooped petticoat gave them a huge steel cage in which they could move. Liberation had come.

But high winds exposed their legs, sorry, limbs: legs were not fit subjects for conversation at the time. So pantaloons were worn, long enough to conceal the limbs.

The trouble was that crinolines, which today look beautiful to us, became so wide that it was out of the question for two ladies to pass through a door at the same moment. As for sitting together on a sofa, it was impossible. Not until the 1870s did the fashion disappear after a long reign.

Meanwhile, even before crinolines became outsize, an American reformer, Mrs. Bloomer, had tried to liberate women weighed down by all those petticoats. In 1850 or so, long before be-crinolined ladies were practically taking off in a high wind, she designed a simple skirt which fell below the knees, and underneath which were baggy trousers that ended in frilly lace. A pretty woman with a good figure, like our Amelia, looked very fetching in her bloomers.

It must be admitted that larger ladies would not have looked so good, but that was not the point at issue. Victorian manhood was outraged at women wearing the trousers, and women meekly obeyed them, treating Mrs. Bloomer with the outraged contempt their menfolk considered she deserved. She fought on during the crinoline age, but was routed.

She had the last laugh though, for she lived until the 1890s when bloomers became the fashion for lady cyclists. Cycling plus bloomers was real liberation.

This edited article about Sussex originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 691 published on 12 April 1975.

The great Anglo-American novelist, Henry James, outside Lamb House in Rye, with inset showing the famous garden room where he wrote, by Harry Green

During the sunny summer days of the late eighteenth century the folk of the little fishing village of Brighthelmstone in Sussex gaped in amazement at crowds of ladies, gentlemen, and children from London who were suddenly thronging their pebble beaches.

Why had all these wealthy people come to the quaint Sussex village built on a crumbling cliff ledge? Neighbours told each other it was something to do with a new doctor from Lewes who had taken a house on the seafront.

The doctor had written a book in which he prescribed sea air and sea bathing as a cure for many illnesses. It was rumoured that even the Prince Regent was anxious to try the new cure.

Then, in 1783, George, the Prince Regent, suddenly arrived in Brighthelmstone. Every summer day he walked along the Steyne promenade with a crowd of friends.

Prince George liked the seaside air. He liked it so much that he built a palace a few yards from the sea, decorated with Indian domes, hangings, and Chinese dragons. Here he gave great banquets for his London friends.

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This edited article about the American cinema originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 684 published on 22 February 1975.

Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed

In the cosmopolitan cities of the United States, with their mixed races and nationalities, violence speedily became established as a way of life. The early film-makers realised this and a string of films were made which turned men like the trio above into a part of the Hollywood legend.

The big, black saloon swerves and skids around a corner at top speed, bullets spraying from a flung-open door. Bodies slump on to the pavement as, one by one, the members of the rival gang are eliminated.

“Cut!”

The director gives this instruction to stop filming and the “dead” men get up and dust themselves down, ready for another “take”, this time in close-up.

A gangster film is in the making, but this scene is not just a figment of a screen-writer’s imagination; it was happening in many cities across America in the early Thirties when crime had reached a frightening peak.

Gang warfare was front-page news and Warner Brothers’ Company in Hollywood, sensing that the public would appreciate seeing reality, however harsh, in their pictures, decided on a new policy. Movies based on headline items in the newspapers would henceforth be given top priority.

In 1930, they made “Little Caesar”, starring Edward G. Robinson. It was an instant success and started a cycle of gangster films which were immensely popular both in America and in Britain.

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This edited article about Walt Disney originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 678 published on 11 January 1975.

Donald Duck and Goofy are famous Disney cartoon characters

Mention the phrase ‘Cartoon film’, and the chances are that most people will immediately bring to mind the name of Walt Disney.

For the cartoon films of this delightful film maker have been charming audiences of all ages ever since the first sound films appeared in the cinemas in 1928.

Walter Elias Disney was born at Chicago on December 5th, 1901. Trained as a commercial artist, he went to Hollywood in 1923. There, he built his first studio, in a garage, and drew animal cartoons. It was when he created one particular animal cartoon, Mickey Mouse, in 1928, that the garage developed into a huge film factory in order to keep pace with the sudden demand for Disney productions. Soon, Disney was employing hundreds of draughtsmen and controlling his own studios.

Mickey Mouse, the most famous of Disney’s creations, was followed by Donald Duck, Pluto, and Goofy.

In 1932 Disney began to make short colour films, featuring all these and a host of other characters from nature in his musical Silly Symphonies, of which Three Little Pigs is the most famous.

In 1938, Disney brought all the wit, brilliance and beauty of his film techniques to his first full-length musical cartoon film, Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs. This was followed by the moral fantasy Pinocchio. In 1942 came Dumbo, the baby elephant and Bambi, the baby deer. But a year before this, Disney produced his most ambitious creative work, Fantasia in which he set patterns and stories to eight pieces of classical music.

In 1948 he produced the first in a series of brilliant factual nature films.

In 1955 Disney opened a huge amusement park in Anaheim, California, with scenery and characters based on some of his films. He called it Disneyland, and today, eight years after his death, the park, together with the films which are being shown over and over again, both in cinemas and on the television, continue to give pleasure and delight to millions of people all over the world.

This edited article about the Thirties originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 676 published on 28 December 1974.

Hiking was very popular in the Thirties by Pat Nicolle

There was no denying the passionate anger in the young man’s voice. “Something will be done about this,” he said. The words seemed mild enough, but the speaker and the subject made them dynamite.

For the speaker was His Majesty King Edward VIII, later to become the Duke of Windsor – and the words, muttered as a comment that all the officials in his entourage could hear, were spoken about the slum housing conditions that were the lot of the South Wales miners in the nineteen-thirties.

The comment of the King, who had shaken off the official itinerary for his trip and gone into a miner’s cottage for a cup of tea, was quickly reported. Pompous officialdom reacted sourly – royalty had no right to be saying such things about housing, which was a political issue, it was said.

The truth was, no one in government wanted to be reminded about Britain’s appalling slum housing – especially by the popular and ubiquitous King, who had a way of cutting red tape and speaking his mind. In London there were 35,000 slums; in Glasgow 55,000; in Manchester 30,000.

An independent report on housing conditions in central Birmingham declared: “There are 28,000 houses in Birmingham which should be cleared at once as utterly unfit; about 18,000 back-to-back houses which ought to go as soon as possible, and about 10,000 houses in need of immediate and thorough repair.”

In only seven British cities, it was calculated, there were nearly a quarter of a million slum homes, leaving out of account all other cities and towns and the deplorable condition of farm workers’ cottages in many country areas.

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This edited article about Brighton originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 662 published on 21 September 1974.

Brighton is famous for its beaches, piers and the exotic exhuberance of the Royal Pavilion where the Prince Regent entertained his guest so regally, by Harry Green

Dr. Richard Russell, general practitioner in the little market town of Lewes in Sussex, shook his head in disbelief as he gazed upon the portly paunch of the patient stretched out on his consulting room table.

The patient smelled, wore a fashionable wig and frock coat. His belly was distended with bad diet; he was dirty and grossly overweight.

No wonder the unfortunate fellow complained of the ague, the gout, goitre, constipation and half a dozen other miserable maladies that Dr. Russell heard repeated a hundred times a day by other patients in his surgery.

“I can cure you,” said the good doctor. “You must take the coach to Brighthelmstone and bathe in the sea water there every day for a week. Also, drink this mixture and take these pills.”

The mixture that Dr. Russell gave his patient was a bottle of water straight out of the English Channel off Sussex. The pills were simply for mystic effect, and were made from crushed adder flesh, wood lice or crabs’ eyes.

Dr. Russell knew that the treatment would work. It always did. A bottle of sea water and a pill made from wood-lice was a sure-fire cure for constipation, and a dip a day in the sea would get the unwashed patient clean again – and since his dirtiness was probably half the cause of his trouble, get him fit as well.

Yet in the middle of the eighteenth century in which he was living, Dr. Russell’s principal remedy – a sea dip – elevated him to the role of miracle worker in a world which had not yet heard about the delights of a beach holiday.

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This edited article about motor cars originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 653 published on 20 July 1974.

The Roebling family had built Brooklyn Bridge before strating a motor car manufacturing company

The company responsible for the first “beach buggy” was started in 1909 by members of the Roebling family and various helpers. The Roebling family were noted in the United States for building the famous Brooklyn Bridge in New York.

The engine did not exceed 2,000 revolutions per minute which meant that the driver did not get the feeling of travelling very fast. But the factory guaranteed that the Raceabout could “race about” over one mile in 51 seconds.

With its bright yellow or white colour, it certainly stood out in a crowd of other cars. To start the car, it was necessary to set the petrol inflow, spark levers and perhaps inject a few drops of fuel into the cylinder head, then crank-start the engine.

There was only one way to enter the car and that was from the left because the gear lever and brake handle blocked the right-hand side.

The driver braced his foot against a brass stirrup outside the chassis so that his toe could operate the accelerator pedal.

With the “monocle” windscreen the only protection against the elements, it was not surprising that people travelled in coats and scarves.

Only 5,000 of these Mercer models were built and although 100 exist today, less than half are Raceabouts, so you are looking at a scarce car!

This edited article about chess originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 640 published on 20 April 1974.

A mediaeval family at home in their castle where the Lord studies a game of chess in the living room, by Peter Jackson

No one knows for certain where the game of chess originated. The invention of the game has been variously attributed to the Greeks, Romans, Scythians, Babylonians, Jews, Egyptians, Chinese, Hindus, Irish, Welsh and Arabians, and many others. Some pundits have even tried to attribute its invention to one particular individual. But it is now generally believed that the game of chess probably originated in India during or before the 7th century.

From India, the game of chess spread to Persia, to Arabia and then to western Europe. In Persia the game was known as shatranj and the term “checkmate” is sometimes said to derive from the Persian, Shah mat which means “the king is dead.”

There is great confusion concerning the game of chess in England. Chroniclers have stated that chess was played in King Canute’s time (the early 11th century), and it has been recorded that King Canute himself had an opponent murdered after a quarrel over the game.

It is believed that modern chess was introduced first in France, and then, spread to Spain in the early 15th century. The English school of chess began about the beginning of the 19th century, and its first leader was J. H. Sarrat.

Chess has been a favourite hobby of many famous men in history. Richard the Lionheart, Ivan the Terrible, Tamerlane, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Harum Al Rashid are among the many men who are known to have enjoyed the game.

Chess is now played in every country in the world. In recent years, Russia has become the strongest chess-playing nation in the world. The International Chess Federation controls the individual championship of the world, the women’s championship of the world, and a junior world championship.