From the Evening News, August 18, 1976

25 YEARS AGO

WANTED: Athletic youngsters willing to undergo training to become wrestlers. Reward: Cash, travel, and possible fame. P.S. Must be female.

And if you think you can fill the bill, and fancy the rewards, Bolton agent Bernard Woolley wants to hear from you because he admits: "I just can't book enough wrestlers." Apparently, business is booming for the grunt-and-groan girls. As entertainment in pubs and clubs, at home and abroad, they are star attractions, but the number of girls "on the circuit" is still comparatively small, and Bernard is anxious to recruit more.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, August 18, 1951

When "Sitting Pretty", the film about baby-sitting which introduced to the screen a new and startling character, Mr Belvedere, was made, it came as a refreshing and original work. Now apparently, we are to be saturated with Belvedere in the name of box office. The latest Belvedere film, "Mr Belvedere Rings the Bell" is in the true Belvedere tradition - with that insufferable encyclopaedia Clifton Webb displaying his usual talent for making everyone appear small and intellectually weak. A charming film, beautifully acted, but the last, we hope, in which Clifton Webb is kept in his Belvedere strait-jacket.

125 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, August 18, 1876

AT five o'clock on Sunday morning, James Hornby, aged 34, of Black Lane, manager of the Black Lane colliery, was received at the Bolton Infirmary, suffering from fractured skull and the loss of his right hand, which had been severed. He had been to Bury for the purpose of having his hair cut, and was found on the line 300 yards beyond the Black Lane station early on Sunday morning, insensible and suffering from the above injuries. He died on Monday evening. At the following inquest, the jury returned an open verdict.

ON Thursday, at the Borough Court, Richard Scott Burkett, 38, Cheapside, was charged with selling adulterated lard on the 24th July. He was fined 10s and costs.