[Ads-l] "Fog in English Channel: Continent Isolated" (1930, barely)

Fri Nov 1 02:07:45 UTC 2024

Great work, Bonnie. The citation below is very late, but it is
somewhat interesting because it suggests that the headline appeared in
the Daily Mail instead of The Times. The credibility is low, but
searching the Daily Mail archive is a reasonable goal. You may have
already seen this citation.

Date: April 30, 1954
Newspaper: Truth
Newspaper Location: London, England
Article: Guide To the Guides
Author: A. E. Cherryman
Quote Page 34 (574), Column 1
Database: British Newspaper Archive

[Begin Excerpt]
WORST FOG FOR EIGHTY YEARS, read the legendary Daily Mail headline,
ENTIRE CONTINENT CUT OFF FROM BRITAIN. It is with this attitude in
mind that one tackles the stream of guides to foreign travel ...
[End Excerpt]

Garson

On Thu, Oct 31, 2024 at 7:35 PM Bonnie Taylor-Blake
<b.taylorblake at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Since it's been a little quiet here, I'll share something with the
> spurious-quotation-apocryphal-anecdote folks.
>
> We had previously placed "Fog in Channel; Continent Isolated" (and
> variants) -- that famous and unfindable headline said to have been
> printed in a London newspaper -- to the tail end of 1930. (Nobody has
> yet found it in English newspapers.)
>
> The 31 December 1930 mention of this supposed headline deals with
> "Channel fog" and the consequent "The Continent Isolated" that had
> appeared in the unnamed "our chief national daily." (See far below.)
>
> The next appearance, in the January-March 1931 issue of a British
> political journal (see
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2007-July/072575.html),
> notes that "when, not long ago, a great storm at sea damaged the
> cables and communication with Europe became for the moment difficult,
> *The Times* headline ran 'Continent Isolated.'"
>
> (I view these two sightings as contemporaneous.)
>
>
> I don't think I've seen anyone mention this before, so I'll note that
> a similar headline about an English weather event had appeared in an
> American newspaper three years earlier.
>
> In late December 1927, "Blizzard In England Worst In 30 Years;
> Continent Isolated," attached to a report filed out of London and
> Paris by a correspondent (or correspondents) for Hearst's Universal
> Service, showed up in The Atlantic City (New Jersey) Press.
>
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/press-of-atlantic-city-blizzard-in-engl/158202442/
>
> There's no mention of fog, but it does hold that "[a]ll cross-channel
> services have suspended" and that "[t]he Continent is virtually cut
> off from England by the storm which has been raging over Christmas."
> Further, "[t]he blizzard ... has interrupted all telegraphic and
> telephone communication between France and England. Many land lines
> are down in France, making the situation worse. The only means of
> communication today is by radio."
>
> Other American newspapers printed abbreviated versions of this
> Universal Service report and had similarly abbreviated headlines:
>
> CONTINENT CUT OFF FROM ENGLAND BY SNOW,
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-patriot-news-continent-cut-off-from/158204048/
>
> CONTINENT VIRTUALLY CUT OFF,
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-continent-virtually-cut-off/158197434/
>
> CONTINENT CUT OFF,
> https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A136E6A0F0DF56B38%40GB3NEWS-13A966DC6DABF31F%402425243-139DD76B1C44A712%401-139DD76B1C44A712?clipid=xzzvgwjgkdgqmfntsbywgqoyzzzyhsbd_ip-10-166-46-115_1730405168263
>
> At the same time, English newspapers described in great detail the
> effects of this winter storm both in England and on the continent,
> including disruptions of communications between the two regions, but
> (not surprisingly) I haven't found instances of "continent isolated"
> or "continent cut off." (I mean, so did other American newspapers, but
> without that headline.)
>
>
> Did this Christmas 1927 storm have something to do with anecdotes
> emerging in print ca. 1930 about a London newspaper running such a
> headline?
>
> Did this American headline, based on a Hearst Universal Service
> report, somehow get attached to London newspapers by the end of 1930?
>
> -- Bonnie
>
> On Sat, Feb 20, 2016 at 7:26 AM Bonnie Taylor-Blake
> <b.taylorblake at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Bonnie Taylor-Blake <b.taylorblake at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      "Fog in English Channel: Continent Isolated" (1930, barely)
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Some time ago we had pushed mentions of this apocryphal headline back
> > to early 1931 (see links below for two earlier posts on this).  For
> > what it's worth, here's a sighting from the very last day of 1930.
> >
> > -- Bonnie
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > What gives "The Criterion" unusual value is the inclusion of foreign
> > "chronicles" and reviews of foreign periodicals, represented in the
> > present number by an Italian chronicle and review of periodicals from
> > Russia and Germany.  "The Criterion" thus becomes a good antidote to
> > the attitude which our chief national daily recently expressed so well
> > in a time of Channel fog with its bold English headline, "The
> > Continent Isolated."
> >
> > [From G.E.G.'s short piece on T.S. Eliot's "The Criterion," a literary
> > and critical review. The Yorkshire Post, 31 December 1930, Page 4,
> > Column 6.]
> >
> > --------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2007-July/072575.html
> >
> > http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2010-August/101777.html
> >
>
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