Hello Again
A few weeks have passed since Boris, quite rightly limited our freedom of movement in an effort to control the spread of Coronavirus and now things are beginning to sink in. The weather at first was quite warm but soon changed and at present is much cooler and staying inside is not so much of an effort.
My cat, Ike is sitting beside me no doubt alarmed at reading that one of his feline cousins in Belgium has contracted the virus (I wish I had never taught the cat to read).
Stuart’s Very Clever, Beautiful Cat, Ike
It is a normal afternoon in the Big Brother House. The cat is in meltdown and I am pining for the football results which I know will not magically appear on the television screen.
Enough of this nonsense as it is time for another short article and I have chosen a Daily Mirror cartoon which ran from 1932 to 1959. The heroine will be well known to the older generations who will quite easily remember Jane and her daily adventures.
I first came across Jane when I was a child as I found some vintage copies of the Daily Mirror which carried the cartoons. Even though I was quite young, I was already following the adventures of Garth and for some reason, Jane just clicked with me.
Unlike Garth, the saucy innuendos were probably too much for my tender years but there was something about Jane that appealed. When I asked my mother about her she noted that the adventures of Jane had commenced when she was as young as me.
I did not know that much about Jane unlike my beloved Garth, and was quite surprised when I studied her history.
Jane was actually created by a chap named Norman Pett and made her debut on the 5th of December 1932.
Initially Norman’s wife, Mary modelled for him but later in the 1930s decided to give up modelling and pay more attention to her golf. To fill the vacancy, Norman recruited a girl called Chrystabel Leighton-Porter who became very associated with the character.
The actual title of the cartoon was Jane’s Journal or, the Dairy of a Bright Young Thing.
This was indirectly borrowed from Evelyn Waugh’s satirical 1930’s novel, Vile Bodies which in part dealt with the Bright Young Things in a carefree London between the wars.
Norman’s cartoon was really just the adventures of a young innocent ingenue who had the habit of losing her clothes (usually through no fault of her own). She was accompanied on her adventures by her pet dachshund called Fritz.
Jane reached the peak of her popularity during WW2 and although she nearly always ended up in her underwear, she was never seen fully naked (rather like the early Carry On films). But this all changed one day when Jane was surprised whilst getting out of a bath and fell into the arms of a group of very lucky British soldiers.
My mother noted that this unfortunate accident is said to have vastly improved the morale of troops serving abroad, although I have found no evidence of this.
In 1948, Norman handed over the cartoon to his assistant Michael Hubbard who steered the ship until the 10th of October 1959 when Jane married her boyfriend Georgie and lived happily ever after.
Although there have been attempts to raise Jane, these have not been successful which in way is quite sad as the world needs cheering up. Just like the wonderful Carry On films, Jane seems consigned to history in these puritanical times where everybody seems to take offence at everything.
If Jane was resurrected, then rather like the kill joys who ended Page Three and the Miss World beauty contests, there would be accusations of female exploitation and in the current correct climate, the Daily Mirror would be forced to drop the cartoon.
Jane was above all an innocent who just managed to get into a lot of scrapes and although things always worked out, she was often in more danger of catching a jolly good cold than getting hurt.
Looking back, I can remember the Glynis Barber TV series in the early 1980s and the 1987 movie Jane and the Lost City, but I was not aware that Chrystabel Leighton- Porter starred in a 1949 movie called The Adventures of Jane which I am told is available on DVD.
It might be an idea to try to find this DVD on EBAY or Amazon as we all seem to have a great deal of time on our hands.
Although Jane is no longer in the Daily Mirror, my hero Garth is still there and having run initially between 1943 and 1997. he was revived in 2011 and has been a fixture ever since and when I can, I try to keep up with his adventures.
I used to purchase the Daily Mirror so that I could catch up on Garth and the latest football but as it now sits somewhere in the black hole between The Star and The Sun, I no longer risk the damage to my sensibilities and read The Independent instead.
If in a parallel world Jane did return to the Daily Mirror, then I know that I would be tested but that is an abstract question.
But here is the eternal question – What has this got to do with Hungerford Antiques Arcade?
Unfortunately, I cannot show you pictures of Jane or Garth as the Daily Mirror own the copyrights. You can however, look them up on Google images which will bring a smile to your face.
Well surprisingly quite a lot, as vintage copies of the Daily Mirror (amongst other newspapers) frequently show up in the Arcade and are incredibly cheap to buy. I tend not to buy vintage newspapers as Ike quite often takes more than a normal interest in them, which is a little worrying. He is now happily asleep next to me without a worry in the world you will be glad to hear.
How did I pacify him you might ask? Well that was easy, I just told him that the date was the 1st of April and that newspapers do play pranks on their readers.
I do hope that on the 1st of April this year our newspapers have a little fun away from the doom and gloom.
It is not much fun at present, but things will improve and one must remember that it was far worse for my mother’s generation during WW2. If only there was another Jane to take us through these unpleasant days.
Do look after yourselves and remember that summer is not that far away.
Be Safe
Stuart & Ike
