MY mate Kev the Sparky (he's second cousin to Torchy the Battery Boy) occasionally poses questions that seem to have a rather obvious answer, but which often conceal hidden depths.
“You know when a film is said to be a blockbuster?” he said. “Well, where does blockbuster come from? Who decided to call it a blockbuster?”
And then he supplied his own answer: “Does it come from the days when a film or show was so successful, that the queues went round the block?”
To be honest, I didn't know and neither did the any of the members of the Monday Club as we stood around the bar. So I looked it up and found a surprising answer.
The term first seems to have been used to describe large bombs dropped by RAF planes during the Second World War that could destroy a city block.
This was then adapted in America to refer to a film, play or book that made a great impact. Other sources suggest that it referred to a play that was so successful it drove competing theatres in the same block out business. And there were even those who said it referred to the crowds of people who might queue round the block to see a hit play.
Well done, Torchy. Er, I mean Kev.
