Naughty Gallery

The Arrival of the First Thor Ballistic Missile to RAF Bom

Photograph of the delivery of first Thor Ballistic Missile to an RAF Base in Norfolk, 19th September 1958. Sixty-five feet long, it was carried to the site from a nearby American base on a 90 foot long transporter. The Thor's nuclear war-head was retained by the Americans and any British decision to launch this missile would have been subject to American approval. RAF Regiment guards can be seen in the foreground, ready to deter any naughty ideas

© Mary Evans Picture Library 2015 - https://copyrighthub.org/s0/hub1/creation/maryevans/MaryEvansPictureID/10216667

Fancy Meeting You by George Ranstead

Humorous illustration by George Ranstead, an amateur artist of the Great War who served in the Army Pay Corps, depicting a rascally little boy wriggling through a fence after stealing apples, only to find the gap guided by a large police officer. Ranstead was one of many soldiers of WWI who took up drawing as a hobby. His subjects range from wartime humour to pictures of pretty girls and are clearly influenced by images in the illustrated magazines of the period.
circa 1916

© Mary Evans Picture Library 2015 - https://copyrighthub.org/s0/hub1/creation/maryevans/MaryEvansPictureID/10527704

Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay - sung by Lottie Collins

"Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay" is a vaudeville and music hall song. The song's first known public performance was in Henry J. Sayers 1891 revue Tuxedo, which was performed in Boston, Massachusetts. The song became widely known in the version sung by Lottie Collins (1865-1910) in London music halls in 1892 (as shown in this drawing by Phil May of the same year). She would sing the first verse demurely and then launch into the chorus and an uninhibited and exhausting skirt dance with high kicks (especially on the word "BOOM") that exposed her stockings held up by sparkling garters, and bare thighs. At the height of the craze, Collins was performing the song five times nightly at different venues in London !!! Date: 1892

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection