Chalkie White and Lobby Lud were once regular summer visitors
to Bournemouth and Weymouth sea fronts; but who were these curiously named characters?
‘To my delight, it’s
Chalkie White’ was all
you had to say to Chalkie to win a £50 prize. This was providing, of course, you
were holding a copy of the Daily Mirror. This was a scheme to boost newspapers
sales when circulation traditionally fell during the summer months. The Mirror
would announce which days the mystery man would be in town and readers would be
challenged to seek him out. To help his identification, a picture of Charlie’s
eyes would be published daily.
A forerunner of Chalkie was Lobby Lud created in 1927 by the
Westminster Gazette. Like Chalkie, Lobby would also visit Bournemouth and
Weymouth. Prizes equivalent to over £300, in today’s money, were on offer which
led to a sort of Lobby Lud mania. Holiday plans would be changed at the last
moment in an attempt to catch him. There was even a Lobby Lud train which would
take Londoners to the resorts that Lobby visited. Its locomotive would carry a
big, bold sign the ‘Lobby Lud Express’. He would also leave post cards at various places around the town which would pay out ten shillings if sent to the newspaper company. There was, however, a downside to the scheme as Lobby was sometimes punched by
holidaymakers who thought they should have won the prize. He was once hit over
the head with a handbag by a woman who thought it unfair he was wearing a false
beard. Innocent look-a-likes could also suffer abuse when they denied being the
mystery man. There was even a popular song written: Lobby Lug - Mystery Man.
Bournemouth plays a key role in Lobby Lud trivia history as
Bournemouth was the first resort where Lobby Lud was identified. More
precisely, it had been announced he would be on Boscombe pier after 11.00am on
the 15th August 1927. So London builder, George Rowley challenged
every similar looking man who entered the pier’s only working entrance turnstile
for over an hour until successful. His £150 prize was a significant amount of
money in the 1920s. Afterwards and jumping on the publicity bandwagon, Mayor of
Bournemouth, Thwaites announced:
‘I have always said
that invigorating air and delightful surroundings produced clarity of vision
which enabled one to be detected at once.’
(Image: Mystery man, Chalkie White.)
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