THERE WERE GIANTS IN THE EARTH IN THOSE DAYS…
“1940: On September 22, actor David Niven, now serving as a Captain in the newly formed Commandos, was married to Miss Primula Rollo, grand-daughter of the Marquess of Downshire, whom he had first met a few months earlier at the fashionable Cafe de Paris in Coventry Street. The ceremony, which took place in a tiny Norman church on the Wiltshire Downs, was enlivened when a small flock of sheep drifted into the building.”
“At the end of the month, a bomb fell on the London Zoo and a zebra escaped from its cage and raced across Regent’s Park towards Camden Town, pursued by the Zoo’s secretary, Professor Julian Huxley, and members of the public. Coaxing the beast back into its shed later, Huxley found himself ‘wedged into a corner with its hind quarters six feet from my face.'”
(promoted from comments box, now with correct year)
“1943: A few days [after the New Year, Lord Moran] resumed his duties when he flew off with the Prime Minister to Casablanca for further consultations with President Roosevelt. During the flight, Churchill caused a sensation on the plane by crawling around in his silk nightshirt, presenting his huge bare bottom to anyone who cared to look.”
[Note: the use in transitions of the passive voice and/or collective subject is key thoughout: viz “Attention now turned to the newly refurbished Grand Hotel, Leicester, where… “]
“On February 20, Noel Coward, currently touring England with three plays, was found in a suite at the Grand Hotel, Leicester, basking under an enormous infra-red lamp and wearing only a garment described as a ‘triangulo’.”
“1950 [November 2, playwright Bernard Shaw’s] old friend, Lady Astor, immediately took charge of [his] funeral and cremation arrangements and invited reporters into the house to view the body. Shaw’s ashes were later mingled with those of his wife and scattered in a flowerbed, where, it was said, they took on the appearance of slug poison.”
(all from Gossip 1920-1970, see below)