Is there any link between the Kit Kat chocolate bar and the Kit Kat Klub featured in Cabaret?

QUESTION Is there any link between the Kit Kat chocolate bar and the Kit Kat Klub featured in Cabaret?

No. It’s tempting to think so because Rowntree launched the Kit Kat in 1935 and Christopher Isherwood’s novel Goodbye To Berlin, on which the musical Cabaret was based, appeared in 1939. However, Isherwood named his ‘boys’ club’ just off the Tauentzienstrasse The Lady Windermere.

It wasn’t until 1966 it became the Kit Kat Klub when Joe Masteroff wrote the book for Kander and Ebb’s musical, which was in turn adapted into a film starring Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles.

It wasn’t until 1966 when it became the Kit Kat Klub- in the original novel Christopher Isherwood named his ‘boys’ club’ just off the Tauentzienstrasse The Lady Windermere

There is a theory that Masteroff named it the Kit Kat Klub because the initials were KKK and the Nazi-era musical was written during the height of the civil rights movement. Kit Kat bars weren’t introduced to the United States until the 1970s.

Katie Williams, Warminster, Wilts.

QUESTION Has anyone swum the complete lengths of the Panama or Suez canals?

The Panama Canal has been swum a number of times, but the most famous crossing was made by Richard Halliburton (1900-1939) in 1928. Halliburton was an American travel writer who swam for 50 hours in the water over a 10-day period. He wrote: ‘I dived into its waters on the Atlantic side, and, by daily stages, swam to the Pacific — locks, lake and all — 50 miles’.

He commissioned himself the SS Richard Halliburton and paid his toll for passage like any other vessel, by tonnage. Since he weighed one-thirteenth of a ton, he was charged 36 cents.

The Panama Canal has been swum a number of times, but the most famous crossing was made by Richard Halliburton in 1928 (File Image)

Halliburton was a famous adventurer who disappeared at sea while attempting to sail a Chinese junk across the Pacific Ocean.

Swimming the 120-mile-long Suez Canal is illegal and dangerous due to the heavy shipping traffic, high levels of pollution and strong currents.

H. J. Murphy, Cardiff.

QUESTION What became of boxer Brian London, who once fought Muhammad Ali?

Further to the earlier answer, Brian was from a fighting family. His dad, Jack, was a veteran of 142 bouts.

Brian London, who once fought Muhammad Ali (pictured) was from a fighting family – after one of his fights against Dick Richardson in 1960 a brawl erupted and was recorded on a Pathé newsreel

After Brian had been repeatedly butted during a European Championship bout against Dick Richardson in 1960, his father and brother and others jumped into the ring and a mass brawl erupted. It’s recorded on a Pathé newsreel.

D. Warner, Fleckney, Leicester.

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