100 years ago

Mr KE Wedmore wrote: “Those who have read in your columns Mr Gulland's letter referring to the undesirable postcards displayed in some local shop windows may be interested in seeing how others are dealing with the situation as shown by the following paragraph from the current number of the 'Christian World.'

'Certain vendors of picture post-cards considered to be 'offensive to delicacy' were fined 10s each at Yarmouth with an intimation that any future offenders could be fined up to £25. The post-cards had a coarseness and vulgarity, which the Mayor said the magistrates were determined to suppress.

For some time clergy and ministers of the town had made complaints of the types of pictures meeting the eyes of young people. As a result of the prosecution the dealers are to hold a meeting to establish a sort of moral censorship in self-protection. The Court advised them that their own common-sense would enable them to make this selection.'“

50 years ago

The televising of the morning services from York Minster on Easter Day had produced an improvement in the ceremony - and a new experience for the Dean, the Very Rev E Milner-White.

The Dean wrote in the annual report of the Friends of York Minster: “In the last few years this report has illustrated the acquisition of two 17th century banners. Since I am always at the back of the procession, I have never seen anything but the backs of them!

But the television invasion of the South Choir Aisle on Easter Day compelled us to change our usual route - to the great advantage of the procession and congregation alike, and we shall never go back to the old one. And the new turns in the track gave me, on several occasions, a view from the front. I found it deeply impressive, even solemn; and that due in no small degree to the quality and beauty of the banners.”

25 years ago

President Reagan and Hollywood had paid tribute to dance king, Fred Astaire, who had died after a ten-day battle with pneumonia.

President Reagan said 88-year-old Astaire was a superstar and an American legend. “He was the ultimate dancer - the dancer who made it all look so easy.” Ginger Rogers, Astaire's partner in eight films, said of him: “I feel there is only one Fred Astaire and there will always be only one Fred Astaire... class was innate in his being.”

The man who publicly danced before millions, fiercely guarded his privacy and, on his deathbed in a Hollywood hospital, would not even allow in his children, Fred, 50, and Ava, 44, from his first marriage, or his six grandchildren.