Richard Harold Naylor was one of the very first newspaper astrologers, beginning his weekly column in London's Sunday Express in 1930 primarily as a series of horoscope readings for the Royal Family, with general astrological forecasts appended as an after-thought. Though Royalty-mad Londoners were quite taken with his readings for the newly-minted Princess Margaret, they were equally enthralled by his forecasts for their own workaday lives & Naylor became a celebrity overnight.
The Express had wanted famous Irish astrologer & occultist Cheiro (William John Warner) for the column, but the Brahmin-trained clairvoyant begged off & the column was given to his debonair acolyte, Naylor. Cheiro was the palmist of choice for high society, having told the fortunes of such luminaries as Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, Mata Hari, Oscar Wilde, Grover Cleveland & Sarah Bernhardt. Late in life, Warner moved to Hollywood & married a countess. He wrote several screenplays, became an astrologer of note for the Tinseltown elite & passed away from a heart attack in 1936, his illustrious career given short shrift in U.S. newspapers & magazines, which described him simply as an "oldtime palmist". Meanwhile, his ambitious protege Naylor's career was in full flower. He had two insanely popular newspaper columns, "What the Stars Foretell" & "Your Stars", the first dedicated to predicting future news events, the second to more general portents for each of the twelve star signs. Express Editor Arthur Christiansen (from 1933 to 1957) said of Naylor: "His horoscopes became a power in the land. If he said that Monday was a bad day for buying, then the buyers of more than one West End store waited for the stars to become more propitious." Naylor's columns ran until the the mid-1940s & by then nearly every newspaper & magazine had its own astrologer. Still, Naylor was the king & he was coaxed out of retirement in 1952 for another popular zodiac column, this one running up until his death later that year. His son John took over from there.
Unsurprisingly, Naylor augmented his income with a series of enormously popular books & pamphlets (Astrology Reveals What Type of Woman Makes the Best Wife, Astrology Reveals Whether a Woman Should Devote Her Career to Love or Marriage, Personal Magnetism & the Stars), sold-out public appearances & this amazing series of 78 rpm records released by the British label Eclipse (also home to Leslie Sarony, Don Sesta & His Gaucho Orchestra & The Ambassadors Twelve) which sold records exclusively in Woolworth stores. While a seemingly random amalgam of sound effects & typically starry organ music noodle away in the background, Naylor quips suavely on characteristics for each zodiac sign, coming off like Noel Coward in a turban (or Stan Laurel in a fez). He's actually quite funny & his wry, sophisticated wordplay is clever far beyond the call of duty. And remember, "If December people live too well, they soon cultivate livers & their tempers suffer in consequence. Anyhow, take heart: December people live long & always die happy".
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