One of the quiz questions the other night related to the man whose body building plan turned you from a seven stone weakling who had sand kicked in his face to an Adonis who could see off the bullies with one and a half hands tied behind his back. The man was of course, Charles Atlas and advertisements for his plan appeared all over the papers and magazines back in the fifties and sixties.
I never met anyone who used the Atlas plan. I was never seven stone myself and was rather more inclined to be overweight. I must admit that had anyone had the inclination to kick sand in my face I would have been rather more inclined to belt them about the head and body with the nearest blunt instrument then head home and spend three months or whatever following the Atlas plan before exacting my revenge. I suspect the only ones who did were probably the nerdy types who lost interest after a few weeks and went back to building do it yourself radio communication equipment. Atlas did well out of somebody though. He certainly didnt die poor.
The other one with the master plan as all of a certain age will remember, was Horace Batchelor of Keynsham (Spelt K.E.Y.N.S.H.A.M as all listeners to Radio Luxembourg will remenber) who had the plan which would enable to scoop the football pools, no one ever seemed to wonder why, if the plan was so great was he flogging it to all and sundry.
And a blog question to our older readers. What instrument was Horace Bachelor alleged to be playing on The Bonzo Dog Band classic 'The Intro and The Outro'?.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I think Horace was on percussion wasn't he? I remember General de Gaulle on accordian "really wild general" and wasn't there a session gorilla on something? And the Count Basie Orchestra on triangle. And Val Doonican as himself "Hello There". Brilliant track. Still got the album but nothing to play it on anymore, sadly.
Charles Atlas' "invention" was what we now call isometrics, pushing one hand against the other or pulling against the arm of your chair. They advocate it on management training programs so that you can exercise while you work.
Horace's "infra-draw method" was a Ponzi scheme. Lots of people sent him money and he paid a small amount out as a dividend to "winners" chosen at random and kept the rest. It actually had nothing to do with football results, homes, aways, draws etc. Just a big scam mascarading as a football pool.
On the 'Intro and The Outro' we also had Eric Clapton on Ukelele and Adolph Hitler on vibes.
The others were:
Lord Snooty and His Pals tap-dancing, John Wayne - Xylophone, Robert Morley on guitar, Billy Butlin on spoons, Princess Anne on Sousaphone, Liberace on clarinet, Garner Ted Armstrong on vocals, Harold Wilson on violin, Franklyn MacCormack on harmonica, Sir Kenneth Clark on bass saxaphone ("great honour sir"), the gorilla was on vox humana, Incredible Shrinking Man on euphonium, Peter Scott on duck call, Casanova on horn, Roy Rogers on Trigger, Wild Man of Borneo on bongos, the Rawlinsons on trombone, Dan Druf on harp, Quasimodo on bells, Brainiac on banjo, Max Jaffa (as himself), Zebra Kid and Horace Batchelor on percussion, J Arthur Rank ("great friend of all of us here") on gong ...
Poor old Vivian Stanshell, the leader of The Bonzo Dog Band eventually died after setting his beardon fire whilst drunk.
Post a Comment