Below are media mentions from The Dixon Evening Telegraph, from Dixon, Illinois, USA.
June 4, 1954
Source: The Internet Archive
From In Hollywood by Erskine Johnson:
The Roald Dahl who won the Edgar Allen Poe award for the best gory short story of the year is Patricia Neal’s hubby. . . .
June 1, 1961
Source: The Internet Archive
‘Way Out’ Host Dislikes People
by Dick Kleiner
NEW YORK (NEA)—Roald Dahl, host of “Way Out,” may prove to be New York’s answer to Alfred Hitchcock. . . . Tall, semi-sardonic with a slight British accent.
He long has been regarded as one of the top writers of macabre stories. . . . He says be likes to write them “to point out the rottenness of people.”
“They’re all stinkers, aren’t they? The women are just as bad as the men — in some cases, worse. Men are more aggressive—they like to fight—but women are more unscrupulous.”
Dahl has entered the hosting business out of necessity. . . . He prefers writing, especially short stores. . . .”I like to work slowly, do about three a year, after many false starts. I sell them and make perhaps $1,500 to $1,800 a year. It’s not very much but, you see, after a few years, the residuals begin to come in—one is bought for television, another goes into an anthology—and you find yourself with a steady $15,000 a year. Which is fine, isn’t it?”
He says he would have gone on being happy like that but his son was injured in an accident and the hospital and doctor bills are enormous. . . “So I passed the word to my agent that I would do other things and here I am. I don’t particularly enjoy it. I’ve always hated acting. But I think it’ll help the sale of my books.”
Dahl’s particular dislikes are art dealers and theatrical producers—they’re all up to no good.” He hasn’t quite made up his mind about TV producers yet.
August 4, 1965
Source: The Internet Archive
Pat Neal Has Baby Girl Today
OXFORD, England (AP) — Actress Patricia Neal, still recovering from the effects of a triple stroke six months ago, gave birth today to a 6-pound 8-ounce girl.
The baby is the 39-year-old film star’s fifth child. She was born in the Nuffield maternity wing of Oxford’s Radcliffe Hospital.
“Pat and the little girl are both well. Everything is normal,” said Miss Neal’s husband, British writer Roald Dahl.
“She’s fooled everyone. Nobody thought she could go through with it — but she did.”
“It was an easy, natural birth,” said a hospital spokesman, adding that Miss Neal was in labor about four hours.
Miss Neal entered the hospital Monday night. The baby was due in about two weeks but her husband said the doctors hoped to induce the birth to reduce her time of waiting.
She spent hours in the hospital Tuesday pacing a corridor to advance the birth. As a result of her strokes,
she still wears a steel and leather brace on one leg.
Dahl, 47, was at the hospital when the baby was born but was not in the room. Asked how he felt, he replied:
“Just wonderful and prouder than ever of Pat.”
Miss Neal, winner of an Academy Award for her performance in “Hud,” was stricken in February while making a film in California. She and her husband returned to their home in Britain last May. Their other children are three girls and a boy.
August 5, 1965
Source: The Internet Archive
Pat Neal, Baby Are Doing Fine
OXFORD, England (AP) — Patricia Neal, feeling fine after winning her uphill battle to live and have her fifth baby, said today it was an easy painless birth.
“It was the easiest baby I have ever had and the easiest I’m ever likely to have,” she told her husband, author Roald Dahl, 47.
Born Wednesday, the baby was sleeping this morning and doing very little crying.
“A beautiful, quiet child,” said a source at the Nuffield maternity wing of Radcliffe Hospital, “and mother’s very fine too. She had a good solid American breakfast.”
Medical experts revealed that the actress, 39, was given a caudal analgesia injection in the lower region of the spinal cord. This numbed the critical area, but left Miss Neal fully conscious.
Asked if his wife would ever return to the movies, Dahl said: “I can say right now. That is something that just hasn’t been considered for months, and yet — Pat’s a truly amazing person as she has proven once again.”
Miss Neal was partly paralyzed by strokes last February while making a film in Hollywood. She still wears a steel and leather brace on her left leg and speaks slowly.