le Tour in al-Ahram (Egyptian newspaper): 1961

[exapkib]

While slogging through microfilm copies of Egyptian newspapers from the 1960s (I have the best job in the world), I came across an article that I thought might be interesting to some here. It's a short piece that talks through the controversy of the 1961 Tour de France, criticizing the riders for riding so slowly at times that many referred to them as "Tourists." The author comes to the conclusion that it would probably be the last year that the Tour de France would be held.

His headline reads, "Will the Tour de France be Cancelled? The race lost over 300,000 francs this year and was very low-quality!"

http://i1336.photobucket.com/albums/o641/1zaxxon/Tour%20de%20France%20Ahram_zpscitrlfxl.jpg (http://s1336.photobucket.com/user/1zaxxon/media/Tour%20de%20France%20Ahram_zpscitrlfxl.jpg.html)

Also interesting for members of this forum who value finding handmade art in unusual places, note that this article comes from a period in which the headlines were inked by hand using a variety of calligraphic styles--fascinating contrast to the typeset text in the articles underneath them.

Anyway, a small diversion from my real work and yours. Carry on.

[notsew]

That's pretty cool. What do you do? (If you don't mind)

[exapkib]

That's pretty cool. What do you do? (If you don't mind)

Not at all! I'm a literature professor, working on some projects connected to Egyptian author (Nobel laureate!) Naguib Mahfouz's writing.

[MattTuck]

I have to say, that is amazing that the headlines were hand written. Absolutely nuts. Must have really constrained circulation.

Also, I realize that reading and radio were the predominant forms of getting information at the time, but bike racing would seem pretty boring to me if you read it.

[exapkib]

I have to say, that is amazing that the headlines were hand written. Absolutely nuts. Must have really constrained circulation.

Just to clarify--the headlines were written by hand on the masters from which the newspaper was printed, not written on each individual copy. This was common practice up until the 1990's when publishing software finally allowed more variation in the manipulation and electronic layout of Arabic fonts.

[MattTuck]

Just to clarify--the headlines were written by hand on the masters from which the newspaper was printed, not written on each individual copy. This was common practice up until the 1990's when publishing software finally allowed more variation in the manipulation and electronic layout of Arabic fonts.

got it. makes more sense, thanks for the clarification.