I wish I new what motivated a 21-year-old, blonde window dresser named Sally Cooper on Tuesday, March 17, 1974 to take off her clothes and run across Richmond Bridge in south-west London with four friends. She probably did not expect to achieve fame as the first streaker to be caught by a press photographer and displayed before the entire world.
Patrolman/security guard, Peter Feltham, who did not appreciate harmless fun, chased after her, and probably did not enjoy pushing her against a stone wall as if she were a criminal. The scene happened to be witnessed by a photographer. Thus the "Daily Mirror" had the happy distinction of being the first large-circulation newspaper internationally to show us an active streaker on its front page.
At that time the press loved the streaking phenomenon since it proved an excuse, if any were needed, to supply pleasantly titillating copy and to print nude pictures.
Sally got bitten in the rear by the policedog, prompting numerous readers, who might have otherwise disaproved of her naked antics, express their outrage about how the dog was used against her harmless stunt.
I too experienced having innocent fun only to see a police car drive up. I do not regret my streak and I hope Sally doesn't regret hers. I don't know how she feels about having a picture of it published, but If I had had my picture made and put in a paper, then maybe the shy kid who went through high school without a single date would have a had a more interesting time.
Ulike me, however, Sally managed to slip away from the policeman, or perhaps he let her go, not knowing what to do with her, and find refuge in a friend's house, except for a bite from the dog, none the worse. Whether her other friends were caught or not is not known.
However, other accounts say she was fined 10 Pounds. Later she modeled in a couple of magazines. One of which was Mayfair Magazine, Vol 9 No 6, 1974.
She died in August 1994.
Other first. The first female streaker to hit the headlines was 18-year-old Laura Barton. She streaked across the stage as the curtain fell at the end of a college performance of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.
The first female streaker at a major football (Eoropean) match was Variana Scotney, who ran on to the pitch at Highbury when Arsenal were playing Tottenham Hotspur in 1981.
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