I've got a

problem 25 YEARS AGO

A QUARTER of Ford's 50,000 labour force in Britain are now on unofficial strike in the £2 pay offer dispute. The unions have been seeking £15.

BOLTON licensee George Penchion picked up the phone this afternoon to get a number for a customer and got a crossed line - the spaceshot countdown in Houston, Texas. George is certain the crossed line was "a sheer freak". No one was available at the telephone manager's office at Blackburn to comment. 50 YEARS AGO

GRACIE Fields, who has arrived in London from Naples, told a reporter today of plans for her "swan song" before she retires to her villa in Capri. Miss Fields, who flew from Naples in an American plane, is returning to Greece for a three weeks' tour as her last ENSA job.

"Before I retire," she said, "I want to do a quick tour of the principal towns of England in a vaudeville show, giving the proceeds to charity. After that I want to settle in Capri and do nothing." 125 YEARS AGO

DURING the past week, a couple of young men, professionally known as the Brothers Bauvard, have been performing at the Adelphi Music Hall, Oldham, and their aerial flights on the trapeze, so reckless of life and limb, have attracted large audiences. Friday night was set apart for the benefit of the "Brothers", and the house was crowded in every part.

Everything passed off smoothly and satisfactorily until a quarter to ten o'clock, at which hour the gymnasts were in the middle of their performance. Just as the last and crowning effort was being made, a most alarming and horrifying incident occurred, by which one of the gymnasts fell headlong into the orchestra, and by a wonderful piece of good fortune escaped with no further injuries than a broken arm and the fingers of his left hand smashed to pieces.

The accident, it should be observed, was the prelude to a ceremony in which the gymnasts were to have been presented with silver crosses as rewards for their foolhardiness.

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