Intl. Notebook

December 5 2017

THE FUTURE FORETOLD

Too bad your job isn't like the prediction racket.

We have more from National Informer, with an issue published today in 1971, containing stories about wives thinking their husbands are lousy lovers, how pornography is good for mental health, an inside look at the always exciting pimping profession, and more. One story we love: phrenologists feeling the shape of women’s heads to determine whether they’re good in bed. And as usual there’s a new slate of amazing predictions by resident seer Mark Travis, a guy who once predicted that a series of savage sex slayings would mystify the police of an east coast city until they finally found the culprit—an 11-year old boy. Ah, that crazy Travis. The man is right like 5% of the time but still gets to keep his gig. Our favorite from this issue: “I predict the death of another famous rock star from an overdose of narcotics will have a chilling effect on the drug scene among youth.” He really went out on a limb with that one and still got it only half right. There were plenty more overdoses after December 1971, but none that chilled the drug scene. We doubt anything could do that for long. We also doubt we’ll ever stop buying National Informer. It’s an addictive drug all its own.

National Informer, Mark Travis, nudity, tabloid

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

March 23

2011—Elizabeth Taylor Dies

American actress Elizabeth Taylor, whose career began at age 12 when she starred in National Velvet, and who would eventually be nominated for five Academy Awards as best actress and win for Butterfield 8 and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, dies of congestive heart failure in Los Angeles. During her life she had been hospitalized more than 70 times.

March 22

1963—Profumo Denies Affair

In England, the Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, denies any impropriety with showgirl Christine Keeler and threatens to sue anyone repeating the allegations. The accusations involve not just infidelity, but the possibility acquaintances of Keeler might be trying to ply Profumo for nuclear secrets. In June, Profumo finally resigns from the government after confessing his sexual involvement with Keeler and admitting he lied to parliament.

March 22

1978—Karl Wallenda Falls to His Death

World famous German daredevil and high-wire walker Karl Wallenda, founder of the acrobatic troupe The Flying Wallendas, falls to his death attempting to walk on a cable strung between the two towers of the Condado Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Wallenda is seventy-three years old at the time, but it is a 30 mph wind, rather than age, that is generally blamed for sending him from the wire.

March 22

2006—Swedish Spy Stig Wennerstrom Dies

Swedish air force colonel Stig Wennerström, who had been convicted in the 1970s of passing Swedish, U.S. and NATO secrets to the Soviet Union over the course of fifteen years, dies in an old age home at the age of ninety-nine. The Wennerström affair, as some called it, was at the time one of the biggest scandals of the Cold War.

March 21

1963—Alcatraz Closes

The federal penitentiary located on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay closes. The island had been home to a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military prison over the years. In 1972, it would become a national recreation area open to tourists, and it would receive national landmark designations in 1976 and 1986.

March 20

1916—Einstein Publishes General Relativity

German-born theoretical physicist Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity. Among the effects of the theory are phenomena such as the curvature of space-time, the bending of rays of light in gravitational fields, faster than light universe expansion, and the warping of space time around a rotating body.