Bobby started his career in Oxford on August 16, moving on to Reading next day. It was Reading which gave him his most exciting day of the whole campaign, producing a hair's-breadth escape when someone challenged him just three minutes after the 4:00pm cut-off point and a large crowd of chasing admirers outside Alfrieda's Restaurant. It was also at Reading that Bobby found the first of his own doubles - a salesman who was forced to take refuge from the pursuing crowds by ducking into a nearby house and then fleeing over the rooftops from its upstairs window. (26)
Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there. Bobby was caught for the first time on his third day and, by the time he completed his stint in Rochester on September 20, he'd been caught nine times in less than five weeks and distributed about £150 in prize money. By the time he finished, Bobby's captors included a schoolboy in Weston Super-Mare, a butcher in Bognor, a postman in Barking, a greengrocer in Eastleigh and a policeman in Rochester. Denied the big crowds which Lobby relied on to conceal him, Bobby was simply too easy to find, and no-one seemed too disappointed when he was quietly dropped. Perhaps he simply didn't have Lobby's flair, either for staging the little stunts that kept each day fresh, or for describing his adventures in the lively way needed to maintain armchair hunters' interest.
With Bobby retired and Lobby enjoying his holiday, Mrs Lud was left to carry the torch alone. She started her tour with appearances in Piccadilly, Gray's Inn Road and Knightsbridge on Monday, October 9, and pulled in her first big crowds at Tooting Beck on the following Thursday. “Policemen, tramsmen, busmen and tradesmen were aghast,” she told Gazette readers. “They had never seen so many women, cheek by jowl, packing the pavements in their lives. [...] What was wanted most was one-way traffic for perambulators. Frequently, they met three abreast, both ways at once and jammed. Then some rival would be challenged, and somebody else nearby would say slyly ‘Why, she'll never see 24 again!’” (27)
Heywood later recalled her adventures in a Radio 4 documentary. “I remember once, at the end of the day, there was one poor girl in a telephone box,” she said. “The crowd outside were sure she was Mrs Lobby Lud - they were certain. I was on the opposite side of the road, so I went into a shop and asked them if I could borrow their phone. They said ‘Yes’, so I phoned head office and said ‘Everything's OK, I've got through the day. Everything's safe’. I thanked them for letting me use the phone, came out and there was this poor girl, still struggling to get out, with me standing there watching her.” (7)
Mrs Lud was caught for the first time next day by the Compton Terrace railings opposite what is now Highbury & Islington Tube station. Her nemesis was Ethel Soper, a 35-year-old woman from Sloane Square, who had been hunting her all week. Soper credited a dream she'd had the previous night for securing her the £100. “I dreamt that I went to see the chef of a West End club where I once worked,” she said. “I found myself in a room but, strangely enough, there were railings round it. When I went to shake hands with him, he turned out to be you. I could make no mistake, because I'd seen you at Finchley. Then, this morning, when I caught sight of you against the railings, I knew. I thought at once of the dream.”
Asked what she'd do with the money, Soper gave an immediate and detailed answer. “New clothes for all the family,” she said, “a ton of coal in for the winter, the rest in the bank and a nice holiday for us all next summer.” Welcome as the money was, it was not this alone that had kept her motivated. “I became so interested in the hunt for its own sake, whether I was fortunate in winning the prize or not,” she said. “I read the articles every day as I would a serial story. I shall still read them. It was like a new interest in life.”
We shouldn't underestimate the role this soap opera element played in the scheme's success. There must have been ten or twenty Lud fans who bought the Gazette just to follow his accounts from home for every one who chased the man in person, and they all helped to add to the paper's circulation too. But even the most popular soap needs a constant supply of fresh storylines to hold its fans' attention, and Mrs Lud's introduction turned out to be the last major twist the Gazette's editors could come up with. Lobby himself returned to the stage towards the end of October with a tour of Britain's big provincial towns and cities, but nothing that happened there could match the fuss he'd caused earlier in his career.
On Monday, October 24, the Gazette stated supplementing his personal appearances with a series of daily crowd photographs aimed at his armchair followers. At least one photo per week would include Lobby among the dozens of faces it showed, and anyone able to circle his face correctly would win a share of that week's prize. The amount on offer started at £50, rising by the same sum for every week it stayed unclaimed until it reached a maximum of £500.
Three
successful entrants shared the £50 home prize awarded on November 10, but already the writing was on the wall. Lobby made his final personal appearance in Norwich on Saturday, December 3, marking the occasion by enquiring about his own funeral arrangements there. Two days later, the Gazette's pictures were cut back to four a week, and then the scheme was allowed to peter out altogether.