Memory Corner: So why was Old Jack sitting up that pole?
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SO what kind of epic film would enthuse a man so much he would decide to sit up a pole for five days to promote it?
In September 1959, 72-year-old Harborough man Jack Watling sat in a hut atop a 25-ft metal pole for five days and nights in a publicity stunt for a film showing at Harborough’s Ritz Cinema.
He was interviewed on TV about it at the time but neglected to say which film he was promoting.
So what was the film? Could it have been swords and sandals epic Ben Hur, starring Charlton Heston, which was released that year?
Had Marilyn Monroe got his pulse racing in Some Like It Hot?
Or had he taken the title of the Oscar nominated Room at the Top a little too literally?
Well, that’s enough drum roll. The Mail can reveal that he was in fact promoting Rally Round the Flag Boys!, starring Paul Newman and Joanne Collins.
The little-known (by this reporter at least) comedy was about a town’s reaction to an army missile base being built on their doorsteps.
The Mail story about the stunt reveals it had been organised by William Brooks, then manager of the Ritz.
Mr Watling - known as ‘Old Jack’ - had been loaned a reading lamp as well as a tape recorder with which to record messages to the crowds who gathered below him.
Curry’s also lent him a radio set, while his hut was built by WW Brown and Sons, the Harborough builders.
In the front was a hole through which Old Jack received food and other supplies. The Peacock Hotel was supplying many of his cooked meals.
His stunt attracted understandable attention at the time, with the Mail reporting: “At times he has been the object of youthful frivolity, but Jack’s superior position, dominating all ‘earthly beings’ below, has been psychologically sufficient to fob off any barbed wit.”
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