ARE no readers brave enough to tell us how they got on with Phil Strong's 'Spanish Demiana', the product he sold at Tavistock Goose Fair each year with (he claimed) Viagra properties? Or perhaps none survived to tell the tale, part of his patter being 'what a way to go!'.
Some feedback I have received from my letter published on December 30. Apparently, he used to stay at the Bedford Hotel and filled his Rolls Royce up at Carr's Garage the day after Goose Fair. Clearly, his business did very well.
Sadly, he died relatively young. Perhaps over-indulgence in his own products?
David Stanbury
l Here's a response, Mr Stanbury . . .
I WRITE in reference to Dave Stanbury's request (Letters, December 30) for evidence of the viagra-like qualities of the Spanish Demiana tablets which the great Phil Strong ('and I do pheel strong') used to promote at Goose Fair in the 50s.
As a boy, I listened to him every year, 'spiel-bound' as it were. I never saw him pull any of his chest expanders but was impressed when he drew a mark on them to prove that, as he said, aspirin was made of chalk.
I missed the underlying message about Spanish Demiana that your correspondent picked up on but then, David was always older and more worldly wise than I. I thought Phil was just offering to make my biceps bigger!
I do remember, though, Mrs Strong standing by all day, smiling a smile of great inner contentment. Perhaps there was something in his claims for Spanish Demiana after all.
Merv Collins
Melbourne
Australia