I was working through a crossword yesterday afternoon and came across the clue: 161 across - Famous gramophone logo dog. It was one of those things which triggered a memory. In about 1955, I used to go to Scouts every Thursday night at the Church Hall behind St Andrews in Kembla Street, Wollongong. Just up the street from the hall was an electrical store called something like Lindsay's Electrical. In the window one evening I saw a notice for a raffle -' write your details on a card and you might win a valuable prize'. They were shut, of course, but I went back the next day took a handful of cards and filled them in.
After Scouts, the next week, I looked in the window of the shop and there was a sign "The lucky winner is ... John Christie!'
The shop was shut, of course and the next day was a public holiday. I was so disappointed that my mum rang an after-hours number she found somewhere, spoke to someone who said, "Come to the back door and I'll get it for you."
And what does that have to do with 161 across? The prize was a His Master's Voice' Little Nipper' portable radio, and the HMV logo, of course, was a dog listening to his master's voice coming from a gramophone 'trumpet'. The dog's name was Nipper.
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