[Ads-l] Headline: Foot Heads Arms Body

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

According to a popular journalistic legend a newspaper in London
published the following difficult to decipher headline:

Foot Heads Arms Body

This entertaining headline was purportedly about British politician
Michael Foot who had become the leader of an organization which was
concerned with military armaments. The headline supposedly appeared in
"The Times" or "The Guardian" during the 1980s.

However, the earliest match I found appeared in the London magazine
"Flight International" in 1974. The editor Mike Ramsden published a
lighthearted column titled “Straight and Level” under the pseudonym
Roger Bacon. The column contained an item about a comical fictional
headline:

[ref] 1974 March 28, Flight International, Volume 105, Number 3394,
Straight and Level by Roger Bacon (pseudonym of editor Mike Ramsden),
Quote Page 416a, Column 3, IPC Transport Press Ltd, London. (Verified
with scans) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
What a narrow escape for all of us that Mr Michael Foot wasn't made
the Defence Minister, thus sparing me the headline "Foot Heads Arms
Body."
[End excerpt]

Based on this citation, Mike Ramsden is the leading candidate for
creator of this mock headline. The phrase entered circulation as a
joke, and it was repeated in other periodicals. I have searched
multiple databases, and I haven't yet found this phrase used as a
genuine headline in a newspaper.

The Quote Investigator article presents considerably more information:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2024/08/20/foot-heads/

Feedback welcome
Garson

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