Monday, August 29, 2005

100 years ago

Dr Josiah Oldfield, of Harley Street, was of the opinion that the best way to treat tuberculosis was to increase the combative power of the blood corpuscles. The right use of fruits and vegetable juices was of the utmost importance in increasing the stamina of the corpuscles. He put raisins first of all foods, and then came apples and pears and their juices in the form of sweet cider and sweet perry. Of vegetables, carrots were the best, and watercress was also good. He did not regard potatoes as a good vegetable, because they were liable to disease. He looked upon the beer of old England as one of the most important causes of stamina of the British. The merits of the beverage were in the salts obtained from the barley.

50 years ago

A large crowd gathered on Knavesmire the previous night to watch a high-wire demonstration - a sample of things to come in the nearby circus "big top". The two York volunteers to be carried across the 60-foot-high wire by Camilo Mayer, the 65 year-old leader of the high-wire troupe, well earned the applause of the large crowd, as well as their free tickets to the show. Earlier in the afternoon more crowds went to Knavesmire or lined the road from the station to see the 16 elephants, a girl on most of them, shamble in single file to their stables. They and some other animals came by train from the circus's last venue, Newcastle.

25 years ago

Rowntree Mackintosh's top lorry driver had been disqualified by the company -- for attracting too much attention on TV. Mr Martin Fisk, from Heathfield, Sussex, was the lorry-driver star of the first Yorkie TV adverts. But his good looks provoked such a flow of fan mail including offers of marriage that he just had to go. A spokesman for Rowntree Mackintosh explained: "It was felt that the personality was becoming stronger than the product." They were taking no risks with the new man, 27-year-old Jerry Judge, of London, who got the job through the Ugly Model Agency. The Yorkie Bar, Rowntree's second most successful brand ever--after the Kit-Kat--was developed in York but was manufactured in their Norwich factory. It was voted best new product of the 1970s by the grocery retail trade and it was estimated that 400 bars were eaten each minute of the year.

Updated: 12:14 Saturday, August 27, 2005