Clarice Cliff Feature Articles
Do you follow your horoscope in your daily newspaper or magazine? Or are you one of those people who think astrology is “a load of old rubbish”?
As we are aware from several comments in Leonard Griffin’s Clarice Cliff books from Bizarre Girls and other people who knew her, Clarice was essentially a thoughtful, more studious type of young lady when growing up. But we also know that she had a wickedly delicious sense of humour, as witnessed by some of the themes of pots she produced. She also had much entrepreneurial skill and spirit, and together with future husband Colley Shorter, they often hit “just the right note” with their commercial ideas and publicity drives for her products.
In the course of scouring eBay and other similar sites for 1930’s ephemera relating to Clarice, I managed to purchase an original leaflet which was distributed with her “star signs”. The leaflet cover was headed “Lucky Star Horoscope Plaques” and this concept yet again, illustrated that Clarice very much had “her eye on the ball” for aligning her products with what would be described as these days “a more showbiz edge” than her competitors, e.g. promoting them with radio and film stars photographs and endorsements, and in this case of organising a contract with the FIRST and overnight sensation newspaper astrologer, R. H. Naylor. He devised the very first newspaper astrology column which began in August 1930 in the Sunday Express.
It was just after the birth of the (late) HRH Princess Margaret that then Express editor, John Gordon, wanted a story on her birth but with a new ‘angle’ so Cheiro (the biggest name in astrology at the time!) was asked to do her horoscope. He was unavailable, so the job went to R. H. Naylor (Richard Harold Naylor 1889-1952) one of Cheiro’s assistants. The result was “What the stars foretell for the new princess” (Sunday Express, 24th August 1930, page 11). It gave her birth chart and described what certain individual factors indicated, named her Leo sun sign, and ended with a general forecast. Naylor created the horoscope for her but also predicted events of “tremendous importance to the Royal Family and the nation will come about near her seventh year”. Hitherto unforeseen events resulted in her father’s accession to the throne a few months before her seventh birthday, following the abdication of the former Prince of Wales.
Naylor’s article aroused ‘enormous interest’ with ‘many requests’ for further forecasts. “The Sunday Express has received so many letters from readers concerning the recent extraordinary predictions of Mr R. H. Naylor that arrangements have been made for him to contribute an exclusive weekly article. This will interpret the astrological portents likely to influence national and world affairs each week. He will give warning advice to City men, racing men, and politicians, and will, in addition, tell you what fate may have in store for you if your birthday should fall during the week”. What a quaint way of putting it – those most important of men! Thus began a weekly column on “What the stars foretell” which lasted until the 1940’s.
Naylor and his horoscopes became a great power in the land - if he said Monday was a bad day for buying, then the buyers of more than one West End store waited for the stars to become more propitious! Of course, gradually every paper published a horoscope but R. H. Naylor was the first and most well-known and as the Express gave him massive publicity, he became famous overnight. This led to pressure on him to come up with a simplified system of astrology suitable for a newspaper column. After some experimentation, he hit upon using the sun signs (also called star signs) and called his column “Your Stars”. Since then, innumerable newspapers and magazines have published regular astrological forecasts for their readers.
As you can see from the front cover of the “Lucky Star Horoscope Plaques” leaflet/brochure……..predictions were by R. H. Naylor so Clarice and Colley were obviously “streetwise enough” to recognise the strong appeal of using this man’s name on their products’ literature. And then the wording “Models by Clarice Cliff will bring you good fortune”. ………. It’s interesting to note that some of Clarice and Colley’s claims were quite outlandish (see inside front cover) or should that be imaginative?
This 16-page brochure featured a star sign per page and covered the main facets of one’s daily life: Best Policy in Business, Associates, Marriage, Speculation, and Health. The wording was so formal….. so of the period! Perhaps as an older man, Colley Shorter had a hand in this, has been ventured by renowned Cliff author Leonard Griffin.
Very little is documented about these horoscope or “Lucky Star signs”. I had previously thought that maybe Clarice and Colley had instantly jumped on the bandwagon of R. H. Naylor’s success, but this was not the case. Instead of them being produced in 1930-1931, Leonard who has seen mention of them in the archives at Stoke-on-Trent Museum & Library, recalled that they were not manufactured until after 1935…..in fact probably more like 1936-1937, when pots however fanciful (or not), were not selling all that well.
I will let you flick through the photographs of each page now to find what Clarice has in store for you this coming new year……….enjoy!
Doreen Mann
