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11,648. In the past the mood of the comic postcard could enter into the central stream of literature, and jokes barely different from McGill’s could casually be uttered between the murders in Shakespeare’s tragedies. That is no longer possible, and a whole category of humour, integral to our literature till 1800 or thereabouts, has dwindled down to these ill-drawn postcards, leading a barely legal existence in cheap stationers’ windows. The corner of the human heart that they speak for might easily manifest itself in worse forms, and I for one should be sorry to see them vanish. (Artists: McGill & Cartoon & Postcard & Rudeness & Humour & Miscarriages of Justice: McGill) George Orwell, The Art of Donald McGill, essay vol II pp 194-5
11,650. This is Donald McGill: the king of the saucy seaside postcard. And here is Mr McGill fifty years ago in a Lincoln prison cell. He is quite possible wondering how a seventy-nine-year-old man with a wooden foot who sold more than two hundred million postcards and put a smile on the face of the nation is practically penniless and facing the rest of his life in jail. (Artists: McGill & Censorship & Cartoon & Postcard & Seaside & Rudeness & Humour & Miscarriages of Justice: McGill) Censorship at the Seaside: The Postcards of Donald McGill
11,651. It’s a scorcher, and the nation is off to the seaside ... After the war ... One industry in particular goes into overdrive: and that is the saucy seaside postcard industry ... In the summer of 1947 sixteen million saucy postcards are sent from the seaside. And rather remarkably almost all of them bear the name of just one man: Donald McGill. So just who is the one-man postcard-producing machine? (Artists: McGill & Censorship & Cartoon & Postcard & Seaside & Rudeness & Humour & Miscarriages of Justice: McGill) ibid.
11,652. The nation’s shopkeepers are on his side. (Artists: McGill & Censorship & Cartoon & Postcard & Seaside & Rudeness & Humour & Miscarriages of Justice: McGill) ibid.
11,653. For the first time ever the authorities decide to directly pursue the artist himself. The Director of Public Prosecutions believes that these twenty-one cards created, painted sold and distributed by Mr McGill constitute no less than obscene libel – they have the power to corrupt. (Artists: McGill & Censorship & Cartoon & Postcard & Seaside & Rudeness & Humour & Miscarriages of Justice: McGill) ibid.
11,654. Over 2,000 Postcards Seized By Weymouth Police. (Artists: McGill & Censorship & Cartoon & Postcard & Seaside & Rudeness & Humour & Miscarriages of Justice: McGill) News headline cited ibid.
11,655. 17,989 Postcards Seized and Destroyed In Brighton. (Artists: McGill & Censorship & Cartoon & Postcard & Seaside & Rudeness & Humour & Miscarriages of Justice: McGill) News headline cited ibid.
11,656. Man carrying gigantic stick of rock on beach: A Stick of Rock, Cock? (Artists: McGill & Censorship & Cartoon & Postcard & Seaside & Rudeness & Humour & Miscarriages of Justice: McGill) Donald McGill saucy seaside postcard
11,657. She’s a nice girl. Doesn’t drink or smoke, and only swears when it slips out! (Artists: McGill & Censorship & Cartoon & Postcard & Seaside & Rudeness & Humour & Miscarriages of Justice: McGill) Donald McGill saucy seaside postcard
11,658. Nurse delivering baby to mother: What was the colour of the father’s hair?
Mother in bed: I don’t know. He kept his hat on. (Artists: McGill & Censorship & Cartoon & Postcard & Birth & Seaside & Rudeness & Humour & Miscarriages of Justice: McGill) Donald McGill saucy seaside postcard
11,659. Devil: Do you know who I am?
Drunken man: Of course I do. I married your sister. (Artists: McGill & Censorship & Cartoon & Postcard & Devil & Seaside & Sister & Marriage & Rudeness & Humour & Miscarriages of Justice: McGill) Donald McGill saucy seaside postcard
31,032. Travel back two hundred and fifty years and witness a Britain openly, gloriously and often shockingly rude. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) Rude Britannia I: A History Most Satirical, Bawdy, Lewd and Offensive
31,033. We had a fierce belief in our right to be rude. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,034. The first chronicler of Georgian rude: William Hogarth. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,035. Hogarth made Southwark Fair a portrait of the city. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,036. The Beggar’s Opera by John Gay. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,037. Henry Fielding – these attacks on political sleaze were even more direct than Gay in The Beggar’s Opera. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,038. The Law allowed literary bitchin’ to flourish. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,039. A master of rude words ... Alexander Pope. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,040. Bawdy humour was at the heart of the success of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy Gentleman. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,041. This was the colourful world of satirical and humorous prints. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,042. A poet with the rudest reputation in Regency Britain – the devilish Lord Byron. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,043. There would always be a different, ruder country. In Rude Britannia life was celebrated in music halls with bawdy humour and lewd songs. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) Rude Britannia II: Presents Bawdy Songs & Lewd Photographs
31,044. The shock of the rude nude photograph. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Photograph Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,045. The cheeky carnival of the seaside. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Seaside Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,046. The alliance of toffs and prolls and a racy night out was a serious threat to Victorian values. (England & Great Britain & Comedy Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,047. On the stage rude stars were created. (England & Great Britain & Comedy Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,048. Music hall had a tradition of bawdy humour and song that went back centuries. (England & Great Britain & Comedy Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,049. A new technology to further undermine Victorian values: photography. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Photography Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,050. Rude photographs became affordable and available. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Photography Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,051. Someone with a genius for the rude innuendo now needed was Victoria superstar Marie Lloyd. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Photography Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,052. Victorian moral reformers argued that music halls linked to prostitution were part of an exploitation of women undermining the morals of the nation. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Women & Prostitution & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,053. By the Edwardian era there was a new kind of peep-show – the Mutoscope. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,054. Donald McGill: McGill took a most proper part of daily British life – the postcard – and turned it rude. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Artists: McGill & Postcard & Rudeness & Humour & Censorship & Miscarriages of Justice) ibid.
31,055. [Frank] Randle pushed the course humour of the music hall to new levels of anarchic comedic invention. Frank on stage was wild. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,056. During a nationwide ‘back to basics’ campaign by the government of Winston Churchill [cf. maiden Parliament speech] McGill was investigated for obscenity. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Artists: McGill & Postcard & Rudeness & Humour & Censorship & Miscarriages of Justice) ibid.
31,057. The seventy-nine-year-old artist pleaded guilty to obscenity and was fined £50. Thousands of his cards were then ordered to be destroyed. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Artists: McGill & Postcard & Rudeness & Humour & Censorship & Miscarriages of Justice) ibid.
31,439. Enjoying rudeness became so much easier. Rude was now in your font room. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) Rude Britannia III: You’ve Never Had It So Rude
31,440. We now lived in a mass-democracy of rude. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,441. Cartoonist Gerald Scarfe drew the prime minister naked ... Private Eye’s Romantic England: MacMillan Issue. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Cartoon & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,442. A tradition of rude cartooning come back to life. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Cartoon & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,443. Plays like Entertaining Mrs Sloane and Loot [Joe Orton] with their assault on taboos of sex, class and death were a challenge to theatre audiences. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Plays & Theatre & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,444. Orton’s last piece of notorious rude theatre was What the Butler Saw. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Plays & Theatre & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,445. Radio was at its rudest in Round the Horne. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Radio & Rudeness & Humour) ibid.
31,446. A counter-culture: house-journal of this underground movement was Oz which first surfaced in the Summer of Love 1967. (England & Great Britain & Comedy & Comic & Cartoon & Rudeness & Humour & Miscarriages of Justice: Oz 3) ibid.