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Post 520 showed screen star Virginia Mayo advertising Lux Toilet Soap. In the 1951 advert below there is a less obvious choice of a school-boy stamp collector in the advert for Cussons famous toilet soap Imperial Leather. He is saying "Imperial--what?" so perhaps there is a play on the word...

The Royal Mail has just issued ten first-class stamps of "Classic Toys". These are: the Teddy Bear; Sindy Doll; Spirograph; Stickle Bricks; Toy Soldiers; Spacehopper; Fuzzy Felt; Meccano, Action Man; and Hornby Dublo train sets. I'm sure I had a teddy bear when I was very, very small and I know...

I was never a fan of chewing gum but here is an advert for Anglo-XL Chewing Gum, Halifax, in 1953. Dave.

Perhaps it was a dirndl skirt as worn in Bavaria and Austria. Dave https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirndl

Can I just check something out here. If we post any photographs of "Birmingham as it is today" is it OK if they contain images of people that could be identified? Many of the posts of Birmingham in the past, e.g. pre-war or early post-war show people going to and fro with some of their faces...

Mention was made in the Daily Mail today of the "Birmingham Dribbler". It was a steam engine but only a Victorian toy. A description and photo of the Birmingham Dribbler is given in the link below: Dave. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Dribbler

Can't believe it's 40 years. I saw him happily playing his guitar on the Strip, Las Vegas in 2012. Sorry it's only a rear view. Dave.

Tank engine 41312 on the Mid-Hants railway yesterday. The coaches were pulled from Alton to Alresford with the steam engine facing backwards. Just wondered if there are any advantages/disadvantages compared to the engine facing forwards? Dave.

Rinso. Slightly different take from Pedrocut's #462 in that Rinso is claimed to" save coal every wash day". Taken from a train on the Mid-Hants (Watercress) Line yesterday. Dave.

"Who do you think you are" is on BBC one at 9.00 pm tonight. It features the presenter Emma Willis, who was born in Birmingham, and promises to show quite a bit of her home town as she traces her roots there. Dave. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0905gr6

From the left of the photo at Old Hill Station we have lady holding a baby, lady in white, then four rather grim elderly ladies in black whose hats appear to be quite different to everybody else. The rest have a brim on the hat whereas the four are wearing brimless headgear. Can't quite make out...

There are probably subtle layers in the extent of having a Brummie accent. I used to watch the TV programme "Kilroy" between 2000 and 2004. It was hosted by Robert Kilroy-Silk who had been an MP and who was born in Birmingham. His accent was not "strong" but it was fairly obvious to me that he...

The letter "g" at the end of a word ending in "ing" is also disappearin (sorry, disappearing). Examples are Votin, Nothin and Runnin instead of Voting, Nothing and Running. Agree that a middle "t" is often dropped. e.g. Hospi'al, le''er. Dave

First picture in #9 must be looking towards the railway bridge at Camp Hill. I can make out, just above the bus, the building that was King Edwards Camp Hill Grammar School up to 1956. I think the building is still there but now has other students/residents. Dave.

The thread "61-64 Ludgate Hill, Birmingham" mentions the firm "Philip Harris" quite a few times. I think that they were mainly manufacturers and suppliers of laboratory glassware. I was not aware that they ever made cameras but they might have done. Dave.

In the mid-1960s many students from outside Birmingham and its environs, studying at Aston University, would be in residence at Gracie Hall, 38 Wake Green Road. Not sure whether it is still there or being used for other purposes. Dave.

Several days of adding 2 or 3 drops of olive oil to the affected ear, twice or three times daily, followed by ear irrigation seems to be the recommended method used by our surgery. Warm water from a tank is pumped into the ear at a controlled rate. This flow rate can be increased and should...

Played the Henry Hall "Here's to the Next Time" clip above. It's certainly very cheerful and sets your feet tapping. Thanks Radiorails. Dave.

BBC News 24 this afternoon. Forget the commentator, but look at the backdrop. Birmingham is quite rightly represented by the Telecom Tower, Rotunda, St. Martins Church and Selfridges. But I wondered where the photograph was taken or is it just a compilation. The BBC mailbox studios would seem...

"Life with the Lyons", a radio show in the 1950s, always started off with "I'm Richard Lyon, I'm Barbara Lyon, I'm Ben Lyon---and I'm Bebe Daniels Lyon". One of Barbara Lyon's catchphrases was: "I'll die--I'll just die". Dave