Did the Earth Move for You, Nancy?
Pamela Mitchell
27 October 1953
From Paris, Irish playwright Samuel Beckett writes to Pamela Mitchell with whom he has recently started a romance. Mitchell, who lives in New York, had been negotiating with Beckett on behalf of her boss, Harold Oram, who has purchased an option on Waiting for Godot. In the letter he talks about The Little Hut, a play which enjoyed a three-year run in London’s West End but barely lasted three weeks when it transferred to the Coronet theatre in New York. The play was adapted from André Roussin’s Petit Hutte by Nancy Mitford, one of the original ‘bright young things’ and author of The Pursuit of Love.
Nancy Reagan
4 June 1976
Punk trailblazers Sex Pistols play what would become a legendary gig at Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall. Present in the audience is fine art student Mick Hucknall. In 1985 Hucknall’s own band Simply Red release their debut single, a cover of The Valentine Brothers’ Money’s Too Tight (to Mention). The smooth soul sound is a world away from Anarchy in the UK but the lyrics commenting on unemployment and Reaganomics are equally charged. Hucknall adds a few lines of his own to the original including a swipe at the First Lady of the United States, Nancy Reagan, “Did the earth move for you, Nancy?”
Nancy Spungeon
12 October 1978
Nancy Spungeon is found dead with a knife wound in her abdomen in Room 100 at the Hotel Chelsea, New York. Originally from Philadelphia, she was 20 years old. Her boyfriend, Simon John Richie, otherwise known as Sid Vicious, bass player of the recently disbanded Sex Pistols, is arrested and charged with her murder. Somehow the Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren persuades a judge to release Vicious on bail. On 2 February 1979, and prior to his trial taking place, Vicious dies of a heroin overdose. He was 21.
Deborah Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (‘Debo’ Mitford)
1 November 2010
Nancy Mitford’s youngest sister Deborah (‘Debo’) now aged 89 and her granddaughter, fashion model Stella Tennant are photographed at the family home of Chatsworth by Mario Testino for a 10 page editorial in Vogue. This isn’t a first for Debo. Five years earlier she was featured in the Italian edition of the magazine wearing a red satin Balmain gown, while feeding her beloved chickens. Her granddaughter has previously modelled for Alexander McQueen, Karl Lagerfield and Vivienne Westwood. Together with her partner, Malcolm McLaren, Westwood’s fashion career had begun in 1971 with the opening of their boutique Let It Rock at 430 Kings Road, Chelsea.
Samuel Beckett
16 October 2024
The York Theatre Royal announces that Gary Oldman is to return to the theatre where he made his debut in 1979. Oldman - who starred as Sid Vicious with Chloe Webb in Alex Cox’s 1986 biopic Sid & Nancy - is to perform Samuel Beckett’s monologue Krapp’s Last Tape. Considered by many to be the best of the Beckett’s dramas, and originally written for Northern Irish actor Patrick Magee, it concerns an old man listening to tape recordings of himself as a younger man reflecting on his hopes and fears for the future.
The end is in the beginning and yet you go on
Endgame, Samuel Beckett (1957)