Gordon Martin 'fired' in Oslo

This is a story Gordon Martin told me in Cuba in 1967 when he came out on assignment for the BBC. He swore it was true.

While still working for Reuters he was posted to Oslo when former managing director Gerald Long, then merely European manager, paid a visit. After a well truffled and wine lubricated dinner with His Grace, Gordon went back to his flat, only to be awakened in the middle of the night by a call from a friend at the local Norwegian news agency where Reuters had its office.

“You'd better come quickly,” the caller urged, “your manager has just filed a snap that the hotel's on fire.”

Well, conscientious journalist that he was, Gordon hurried into the office, saw the filed snap and phoned the hotel to find out the latest.

“Fire? What fire?” the receptionist asked.

So after filing an add-on to the effect that the hotel said there had been no fire, he went round to do a bit of investigative journalism. The end result: the receptionist remembered that somebody had got stuck in the lift and rang the lift alarm bell, following which said European manager raced out of the lobby, mistaking the lift bell for the fire alarm.

After that Gordon's path to further advancement in Reuters was blocked and he left for the far greener pastures of the Beeb.

Did anyone else ever hear that from Gordon? ■