| I note that today (April 3rd) is the day when in 1882 the | | | | to Sacramento, how evocative were those place |
| notorious Wild West bandit Jesse James died at the | | | | names. Somehow a journey from Bognor Regis to |
| age of 35, shot by a member of his own gang. Those | | | | Watford didn't have quite the same ring. |
| were the days all right! | | | | Of course there are loads of other notable events, like |
| It's also the day Marlon Brando was born. I remember | | | | the birth of Doris Day, the death of Brahms, Grahame |
| seeing his film "Last Tango in Paris" and being totally | | | | Greene, and D'Oyly Carte, and the appointment of |
| awed by his performance. It's a sign of the | | | | Stalin as general secretary of the communist party, but |
| preoccupations of our society that this amazingly | | | | I'm not going to even mention them. This is not a |
| artistic film received far less publicity for it's artistry | | | | catalogue, it's a wholly undisciplined ramble. Well all right |
| than for the overtly sexual nature of some of its | | | | just one more. |
| scenes. Most people associate Brando with the | | | | In1366 or 1367 no-one is quite sure which, Henry |
| Godfather nowadays, but his work is so much more | | | | Bolingbroke was born who later became Henry IV of |
| than that. | | | | England. Actually as Shakespeare has shown, he was |
| And it's the day when, in 1948, the Marshall Plan was | | | | only Henry IV Part 1. Part 2 - the return, went down like |
| signed by Harry S. Truman. From then on, the | | | | a lead balloon at the box office. I remember having to |
| Europeans all had to start drinking Coca Cola and | | | | study Henry IV Part 1 (this is all part of another story |
| eating hamburgers - and like it! | | | | involving my first wife) and I can remember odd |
| And the day when, in 1860, the Pony Express began | | | | snippets of it, like "Riot and dishonour stain the brow," |
| its service. It was a fast horse staging system across | | | | and "Banish plump Jack, banish all the world. - I do, I will," |
| some two thousand miles of bad lands full of hostile | | | | and "When I am King of England, I shall command all |
| robbers and war parties, so it must have been far too | | | | the good lads in Eastcheap." It was a while ago, so I |
| expensive to be used by anyone except the very | | | | may have misquoted them. |
| wealthy, but the idea of it is loaded with romantic | | | | The one I remember best is when Owen Glendower |
| appeal! When I first read about it, and the rallying cry, | | | | says, "I can call spirits from the vasty deep," and Harry |
| "The mails must go through!" ah how stirring it was. | | | | Hotspur replies, "Aye, so can I, or so can any man, but |
| And the itinerary, from St Joseph Missouri clear across | | | | will they come when you do call for them? |