The Condition of Muzak (33 page)

10 November

Budapest. Russian and Hungarian secret police seek an Englishman believed to have taken an active part in the uprising of 23 October. He is sometimes called Cornelius. For a while the police place much importance on his capture and interrogate all imprisoned foreigners as to his whereabouts, but suddenly stop their investigations and no more is heard of him. (Richard Geiss,
They Went to Hungary
, Hodder and Stoughton, 1958, p. 400.)

1958

September

China’s Great Leap Forward. European refugees cross from China to Hong Kong. Among them is a Jeremy Cornelius, half Chinese, half English, who disappears before he can be vetted by the authorities. (
Hong Kong Times
, 21 September.)

1960

Spring

The Ladbroke Grove Murders in London. Within three months eight women disappear. All live in Ladbroke Grove. Two of them are found dismembered in the grounds of a disused monastery in Kensington Park Road, the others are found in Hyde Park. All corpses have the initials J.C. carved on their foreheads and the work is thought to be that of a religious maniac. The last corpse found has the slogan “J.C. loves C.B.” carved into its back. Moses Collier, a labourer, confesses to the murders but further investigations and questions prove that he is mentally unbalanced and could not have been responsible for any of the murders. The case remains unsolved. (R.W. Eagen, ‘The Killer’s Mark’,
Weekend
, 4 July, 1966.)

1961

Summer

The war in the Congo. White mercenaries fighting for the Congolese are commanded for a while by a Major Jerry Cornelius, apparently a Belgian deserter. Later Cornelius disappears, believed killed by UN troops. (Alexander Charnock, Twilight of Africa, Hutchinson, 1965, p. 607.)

1962

20 November

The Cornelius Realty Company of Key West buys large areas of land in Florida at a time when values are relatively low because of the Cuba Crisis. After the crisis is over, the company resells the land at 100 per cent profit and then dissolves. (
Business Month
, January 1963.)

1963

24 November

Dallas, Texas. Police seek a Jerry Cornelius in connection with the assassination of President Kennedy. It is believed that he is an associate of Lee Harvey Oswald and a young man known only as ‘Shades’. The young man, it is rumoured, was heard boasting in a Houston bar that he was Kennedy’s killer, not Oswald. After a fruitless investigation police conclude that Cornelius and ‘Shades’ are inventions of Oswald. (
Time
, 11 December.)

1964

Spring

Sudden takeover of various large department stores in London and London suburbs by the Torrent Group of Companies. The Torrent Group is described as a partially owned subsidiary of the Cornelius Development Corporation of Chicago. (
Business Journal
, 15 June.)

1965

Spring

The Deep Fix, a pop group, go to No. 1 with ‘Felt for You, Velvet for Me’. “There’s few would argue that lead guitar Jerry Cornelius is the group’s real guv’nor and maybe the best white blues guitarist ever.” (Chris Marlen,
Melody Maker
, 19 April.)

30 June

Bomb explodes in Alford Street, Dover, Kent. Several bodies found but none identified. The house was owned by a Mr J. Cornelius, believed to be one of those killed. (
Kentish Times
, 5 July.)

14 August

Thailand. A meeting of Chinese trade representatives with Bangkok businessmen. The intermediary is a ‘Mr Cornelius’, a Belgian industrialist. (
Eastern Trading News
, 25 August.)

22 September

Death of a youth in Kilburn, stabbed in broad daylight in High Street. A gang of youths was seen running away from the scene of the crime. An identification bracelet on the young man’s body gave the name Jerry Cornelius. Police asked relatives or friends of the dead man to come forward but so far nobody has done so. (
West London Times
, 29 September.)

1967

12 December

“Police raided a flat in Chepstow Villas, Notting Hill Gate, last night and seized what they described as the biggest ever drug cache to be found on private premises. The occupant of the flat, a Mr Jerrold Cornelius, escaped from custody and has not yet been found. The police wish to interview him in connection with their inquiries. The drug cache included marijuana, hemp, cocaine, heroin and purple hearts as well as methadrine and dexadrine.” (
Guardian
, 13 December.)

15 December

Conference of Black Panther leaders in Kingman, Ohio. Minister for Special Activities is given as Jerry Cornelius—“something of a mystery man even in Panther circles”. (
Newsweek
, 20 December.)

1968

13 January

The highjacked TWA Boeing 707 which crashed in the sea off Trinidad had a J. Cornelius listed among its passengers. There were no survivors. (
International Herald Tribune
, 15 January.)

17 December

Multiple crash on the M1 motorway near Luton. One of those killed in the Phantom V he was driving (and which was in head-on collision with an articulated truck) is a Jerry Cornelius, described as “a young fashion designer”. (
The Sun
, 18 December.)

(
Note:
Although the compilers have discovered other references to people who might be Cornelius since the last entry above, they have not yet been able to check the authenticity of these references and therefore prefer not to include them as yet.)

“What’s the hour?” The black-bearded man wrenched off his gilded helmet and flung it from him, careless of where it fell … “We
need
Elric—we know it, and he knows it. That’s the truth!”

“Such confidence, gentlemen, is warming to the heart.”

The Stealer of Souls
, 1963

“Without Jerry Cornelius, we’ll never get it. We need him. That’s the truth.”

“I’m pleased to hear it.” Jerry’s voice was sardonic as he entered the room rather theatrically and closed the door behind him.

The Final Programme
, 1968

The captions to chapters in this novel are advertisements and headlines taken from the following sources, most of them published 1975/76:
Jane’s Weapons Systems
,
Interavia
,
Official Detective
,
Crime Detective
,
True Detective
,
Official UFO
,
Guns & Ammo
,
Titbits
,
Weekend
,
Guardian
,
Daily Mirror
,
Horology Magazine
.

The first four chapter headings referring to Harlequin are taken from productions staged between 1716 and 1740 by John Rich at Lincoln’s Inn Fields and Covent Garden. The fifth is from Charles Dibdin’s Covent Garden production, Christmas 1779. These classic pantomimes consisted of a dramatic ‘opening’, in which the main characters all wore oversized masks, on a theme usually taken from folklore, Romance or Classical Mythology—and which lasted for the first quarter whereupon, at a moment of tension in the plot, the characters would be transformed magically into members of the Harlequinade, to act out their parts in a fantastic, musical, satirical and symbolic manner and bring the whole entertainment to a satisfactory resolution. There were some 400 pantomimes of this kind staged in the 170 years between Rich’s first production and the start of the modern pantomime which began to take its place from the 1870s and had almost completely superseded it by the 1890s.

The Broadsheet quotes at the beginning of the Coda section are almost all taken from John Foreman’s excellent two-volume collection of facsimile broadsheets
Curiosities of Street Literature
(London, 1966).

Muzak is a trade name for piped music used in restaurants, supermarkets, bars and other public places.