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

[Bonnie Taylor-Blake]

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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