tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54404875337110936272024-03-13T19:03:21.317-04:00Tales of a Madcap HeiressMichelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.comBlogger758125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5440487533711093627.post-53168807077356228692019-01-30T21:21:00.001-05:002019-01-30T21:21:20.533-05:00An Announcement<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GxJ7F3TNAWs/XFJYXPI581I/AAAAAAAANvk/uYkBblbMgYgzA-MN_jvnqwqptn-mVO-TgCLcBGAs/s1600/Jack%2Band%2BOllie%2Bkiss%2Bbw.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1319" data-original-width="1000" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GxJ7F3TNAWs/XFJYXPI581I/AAAAAAAANvk/uYkBblbMgYgzA-MN_jvnqwqptn-mVO-TgCLcBGAs/s640/Jack%2Band%2BOllie%2Bkiss%2Bbw.jpeg" width="484" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you've visited this site recently, you'll have noticed that I haven't posted anything for a very long time. There are a variety of reasons, one of which is that I got so busy with work and other projects that I didn't have the time anymore to devote to writing posts. But I did want to alert you to one project that I'm very excited to announce: a new feature documentary on one of my favourite couples, silent screen stars Olive Thomas and Jack Pickford. So please visit us at our <a href="https://www.oliveandjackmovie.com/">website </a>and follow us on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/olivejackmovie/">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/olivejackmovie">Twitter</a> for updates. And thank you for being such loyal readers.</span>Michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5440487533711093627.post-83656851069670756382016-08-06T11:05:00.000-04:002019-03-17T16:12:56.251-04:00Olive Thomas Restored<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Bm7BMwvdRyc/V6U1Q4KMhAI/AAAAAAAAMpM/GSHx3j8e1WEit_6FS_bfcZNo1TR9aJi9ACLcB/s1600/OliveHat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Bm7BMwvdRyc/V6U1Q4KMhAI/AAAAAAAAMpM/GSHx3j8e1WEit_6FS_bfcZNo1TR9aJi9ACLcB/s640/OliveHat.jpg" width="470" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">For almost 100 years, Olive Thomas' final resting place—a mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx—has sat untouched while nature has taken its course. Until now. <br /><br /> Last year, under the guidance of resident craftsman Rob Cappiello, a group of interns participated in a stone conservation program established in connection with the World Monuments Fund and the International Masonry Institute, working on the restoration of a series of small mausoleums at Woodlawn. One of those was Olive's. Yesterday, I went up to Woodlawn and met with Cappiello and Woodlawn's membership manager, Anastasija Ocheretina, to talk about the work that was done and to see the results in person. As you can tell from the photos below, they made a world of difference.</span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> The photo on the left is from a few years ago. The photo on the right was taken yesterday. Photos by Michele.</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zSIKDpJJzos/V6U4x8r1l5I/AAAAAAAAMps/OXuPt8Uj1JQbU6wWuWLGRp6DMiZLeIj9ACLcB/s1600/OliveThomasMasoleumSideToday.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zSIKDpJJzos/V6U4x8r1l5I/AAAAAAAAMps/OXuPt8Uj1JQbU6wWuWLGRp6DMiZLeIj9ACLcB/s640/OliveThomasMasoleumSideToday.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Before and after photos. Photos by Michele.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The mausoleum looks bright and clean, its details emerging like the rings above the columns, which you can now see are composed of flowers (tulips, perhaps?). They also removed the hideous wasp nest that was at the top of the door (thank you for that). Cappiello and his crew's first job was removing all of the biogrowth before dealing with the black carbon staining. "We started with the least aggressive method, just scrub brushes with water and light detergent then gradually moved up to a product called Restoration Cleaner—it’s a mild, vinegar type acid, which got rid of most of the carbon staining," he said. They also repaired all of the mortar joints to protect the mausoleum from water damage.<br /><br /> The mausoleum was picked for the project because of the type of dirt on it, the configuration of the mortar joints, and the stone that was used for its construction. "It's a very hard stone so you can’t do much damage," said Cappiello "It was a simple monument for them [the interns] to work on. Now they’re getting more fancy, working on curved cornices and such."<br /><br /> Working on the mausoleum had an effect on at least one of the workers. "We worked on so many buildings in the city, like the Waldorf Astoria, that all have a story that we never really get to know. We just go there and do the work," said Cappiello "Over here, when Susan [Susan Olsen, the director of Historical Services at Woodlawn] started telling me about Olive, I went online and couldn’t stop reading about her. She got me; I’m a fan."</span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Even with all of Cappiello and his crew's hard work, there's still more that needs to be done like the door, which needs to be refinished and protected and the glass
cleaned. Some plans are being hatched to see the second phase of restoration completed. To keep up-to-date on the progress, follow me on Twitter at <b><a href="https://twitter.com/madcapheiress25">@madcapheiress25</a></b> where I will tweet any new developments and Instagram at <b><a href="https://www.instagram.com/madcapheiress25/">@madcapheiress25</a> </b>for photos. </span></div>
Michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5440487533711093627.post-3523502073762752722016-04-30T23:00:00.000-04:002016-04-30T23:00:42.439-04:00Where Did She Go?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jFYyEpR_lrI/VyVsAOjzqOI/AAAAAAAAMhU/U_wbq6S5LJE2Jzox3rYvIo2Xt4aGtDQxgCLcB/s1600/LouiseattheBeach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="492" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jFYyEpR_lrI/VyVsAOjzqOI/AAAAAAAAMhU/U_wbq6S5LJE2Jzox3rYvIo2Xt4aGtDQxgCLcB/s640/LouiseattheBeach.jpg" width="640" /><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Sally Blane, Louise Brooks, and Nancy Phillips (1927)</span></a></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Wondering where I've gone? </span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'm still here, busier than ever before (or at least that's how it feels). I haven't forgotten this blog or you dear readers but my schedule is not what it once was. Unfortunately, until I can find some time to sit down and write the posts here will be few. So until I can share more tales with you, please follow me on <b><a href="https://www.instagram.com/madcapheiress25/">Instagram</a></b> or <b><a href="https://twitter.com/madcapheiress25">Twitter</a></b> to see what I'm up to. </span>Michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5440487533711093627.post-62182197117715385512016-03-17T20:38:00.000-04:002016-03-17T20:38:30.328-04:00Happy St. Patrick's Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<img border="0" height="430" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-19lH6oBVATg/VutIWiSEZjI/AAAAAAAAMeM/-mPqBZKRAcM5p_tAg-wBut34c-PUs2IrA/s640/glencarlake.jpg" width="640" /><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Glencar Lake. Photo from <b><a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/182958803581886881/">here</a></b>.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As I've done in the past, I'm celebrating the holiday on the blog by sharing a poem by my favourite Irish poet (my favourite poet really), W.B.Yeats. So Happy St. Patrick's Day and bain taitneamh as!</span><br />
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<span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I Am of Ireland</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666;"><i>'I AM of Ireland,</i></span></span></div>
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And the Holy Land of Ireland,</div>
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And time runs on,' cried she.</div>
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'Come out of charity,</div>
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<i>Come dance with me in Ireland.'</i></div>
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One man, one man alone</div>
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In that outlandish gear,</div>
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One solitary man</div>
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Of all that rambled there</div>
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Had turned his stately head.</div>
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'That is a long way off,</div>
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And time runs on,' he said,</div>
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'And the night grows rough.'</div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>'I am of Ireland,</i></span></div>
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<i>And the Holy Land of Ireland,</i></div>
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<i>And time runs on,' cried she.</i></div>
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<i>“Come out of charity</i></div>
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<i>And dance with me in Ireland.'</i></div>
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'The fiddlers are all thumbs,</div>
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Or the fiddle-string accursed,</div>
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The drums and the kettledrums</div>
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And the trumpets all are burst,</div>
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And the trombone,' cried he,</div>
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'The trumpet and trombone,'</div>
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And cocked a malicious eye,</div>
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'But time runs on, runs on.'</div>
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<i>'I am of Ireland,</i></div>
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<i>And the Holy Land of Ireland,</i></div>
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<i>And time runs on,’ cried she.</i></div>
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<i>'Come out of charity</i></div>
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<i>And dance with me in Ireland.'</i></div>
</span>Michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5440487533711093627.post-32100913376730400682016-03-10T23:18:00.004-05:002016-03-10T23:18:53.895-05:00IT Girls, Flappers, Jazz Babies, and Vamps<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IovP2u_9zrk/VuJGSM52tiI/AAAAAAAAMdo/Peejz9lUQY0aUjThTdIdnrsRwW6XscXlQ/s1600/ClaraBow_It.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IovP2u_9zrk/VuJGSM52tiI/AAAAAAAAMdo/Peejz9lUQY0aUjThTdIdnrsRwW6XscXlQ/s640/ClaraBow_It.jpg" width="494" /></a></div>
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Clara Bow in <i>It </i>(1927)</div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Tomorrow begins Film Forum's two-week series "IT Girls, Flappers, Jazz Babies, and Vamps" or as I call it, my big birthday present. Yes, there will be 31 films shown featuring some of the loveliest and greatest of the silver screen starting with Kay Francis and Miriam Hopkins in Ernst Lubitsch's witty <i>Trouble in Paradise</i> (1932) and ending with Clara Bow in Dorothy Arzner's delightful <i>Get Your Man </i>(1927).<i> </i>In between there's Louise Brooks, Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Blondell, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Anna May Wong, Colleen Moore, and more. I am trying to limit myself to only seeing films that I haven't seen on the big screen before but that rule might just get broken (I'll report back on which screenings I attend). So thank you Bruce Goldstein and Film Forum for scheduling this series during my birthday month. And if anyone is looking for me during the next few weeks, you'll know where to find me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">For more information about the series, visit <b><a href="http://filmforum.org/series/it-girls-flappers-jazz-babies-vamps-series">Film Forum</a></b>.</span>Michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5440487533711093627.post-34934360879003001652016-03-09T23:00:00.000-05:002016-03-09T23:01:38.504-05:00The Scream<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yADD7a3jXlU/VuDpiMK_ixI/AAAAAAAAMc8/QXo3Kocqq4g/s1600/the%2Bscream%2Bmunch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yADD7a3jXlU/VuDpiMK_ixI/AAAAAAAAMc8/QXo3Kocqq4g/s640/the%2Bscream%2Bmunch.jpg" width="472" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">"The Scream" Edvard Munch (1895)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">“Munch and Expressionism,” the latest exhibit at the Neue
Galerie, explores how the Norwegian Evard Munch influenced his German and Austrian
contemporaries and German Expressionism. Included in the show are more than 80
paintings and works on paper by Munch and other artists like Max Beckmann,
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and Egon Schiele. This mix allows viewers to
see shared themes of mortality, alienation, and anxiety and for Munch’s work </span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">to stand out. It's also refreshing to
see a woman artist, Gabriele Munter, included; her painting “The Blue Gable”
(1911) was one of my favourites in the show.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">An exhibit of Munch wouldn’t be complete without his most famous
work, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Scream</i>, an iconic symbol of
modern angst. Here the painting gets its own room, dark and cozy. Munch created
four versions of “The Scream” yet the one on display, the 1895 version done in
pastels, may be the most interesting. It’s the only one to have remained out of
a museum and in private hands. It’s also the one that includes a poem painted
on the frame by the artist that describes the origin of the work:</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">“I was walking along the road with two Friends / the Sun was setting –
The Sky turned a bloody red / And I felt a whiff of Melancholy – I stood /
Still, deathly tired – over the blue-black / Fjord and City hung Blood and
Tongues of Fire / My Friends walked on – I remained behind / – shivering with
Anxiety – I felt the great Scream in Nature – EM.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The Scream” has been
reproduced so many times that it’s become kitsch yet it’s striking to see in
person, brighter than any postcard or poster. The strong strokes of colour have
a feeling of urgency, as if the artist dashed off the work in a hurry. The oppressive
orange sky, the seemingly endless bridge above the swirling blue water below, and the alien-like features of the
figure in the forefront grab your attention, leaving you with a sense of unease.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">“Munch and Expressionism” is at the </span><b style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.neuegalerie.org/content/munch-and-expressionism-0">Neue Galerie</a></b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> until June
13, 2016.</span></div>
Michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5440487533711093627.post-90669217534337821132016-03-03T20:41:00.000-05:002016-03-03T20:41:28.724-05:00Harlow<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HFLvh8uP73M/VtjhapFcbCI/AAAAAAAAMcc/h1Ql-aLCCW0/s1600/harlow%2Bstripes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="500" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HFLvh8uP73M/VtjhapFcbCI/AAAAAAAAMcc/h1Ql-aLCCW0/s640/harlow%2Bstripes.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Today is Jean Harlow's birthday. Born in Kansas City, Missouri on March 3, 1911, she was the original blonde bombshell. Gorgeous, smart, and funny, she starred in a series of wonderful films in the 1930s before dying all too soon at the age of 26. I've written <a href="http://talesofamadcapheiress.blogspot.com/2011/03/blonde-bombshell.html">before</a> about my love for Harlow who is one of my favourite stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood. The scene of her sitting in bed eating chocolates and reading magazines in <i>Dinner at Eight</i> is a situation I am always aspiring to be in, and I only wish I could deliver a putdown like she could ("Ya big ape"). So Happy Birthday, Harlow!</span>Michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5440487533711093627.post-36320246860989752742016-03-02T23:40:00.000-05:002016-03-03T00:42:26.480-05:00Cocktail<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-J8s_jK5UtEY/VtfLWpdc4_I/AAAAAAAAMcM/iWbue04ln2c/s1600/Murpy_Cocktail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-J8s_jK5UtEY/VtfLWpdc4_I/AAAAAAAAMcM/iWbue04ln2c/s640/Murpy_Cocktail.jpg" width="640" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: x-small;">"Cocktail" Gerald Murphy (1927)</span></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Tonight I attended an after hours event at
the Whitney Museum. While I did check out the new exhibits, I probably enjoyed the
gallery with selections from the Whitney’s permanent collection the most.
In one section among works by Edward Hopper, Man Ray, and Joseph Cornell is the painting “Cocktail” by Gerald Murphy (1927).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">During the 1920s, Americans Gerald and Sara Murphy lived a
charmed life on the French Riviera. Cultured and stylish, they swam, sunbathed, danced, and dined with their circle of friends who
included the likes of Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Picasso. It was also the decade that saw an artistic outpouring from Gerald who produced 14 paintings in
the Cubist-style, which were well received. Tragedy struck the Murphys in 1929 when their son, Patrick,
became ill with tuberculosis; Patrick and his brother, Baoth,
would both die a few years later. Gerald never painted again.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666;">Today, only eight of his paintings are known to
still exist including “Cocktail.” It is a perfect painting for the Jazz Age.
Titled after what one drank in a speakeasy, it features a martini glass and
cocktail shaker along with a corkscrew and an all-important lemon for a twist.
There’s also a large box of cigars. Devoted to his family, Gerald included five
cigars to represent him and his family members. The collection of items, lined
up in an orderly fashion, is modern and sophisticated, just like its painter. </span></span></div>
Michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5440487533711093627.post-36484827762577482362016-03-01T19:54:00.000-05:002016-03-01T19:54:27.972-05:00Dear March<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-65ACmXzk47Y/VtUIqnhywUI/AAAAAAAAMb4/VEZimJYa0os/s1600/Scribners_March.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-65ACmXzk47Y/VtUIqnhywUI/AAAAAAAAMb4/VEZimJYa0os/s640/Scribners_March.jpg" width="412" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Dear March - Come in - </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Dear March - Come in -</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">How glad I am <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I hoped for you before -<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Put down your Hat - <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">You must have walked -<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">How out of Breath you are - <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Dear March, how are you, and the
Rest -<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Did you leave Nature well - <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Oh March, Come right upstairs with
me -<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I have so much to tell -<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I got your Letter, and the Birds - <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The Maples never knew that you were
coming -<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I declare - how Red their Faces
grew - <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">But March, forgive me - <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And all those Hills you left for me
to Hue - <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">There was no Purple suitable - <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">You took it all with you - <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Who knocks? That April -<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Lock the Door –<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I will not be pursued <o:p></o:p></span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">-</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">He stayed away a year, to call<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When I am occupied -<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">But trifles look so trivial<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As soon as you have come,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">That blame is just as dear as
praise<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And praise as mere as blame.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">—Emily Dickinson</span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5440487533711093627.post-80451910097860976892016-02-03T23:58:00.000-05:002016-02-04T14:03:39.792-05:00Pavlova of America<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--5Mht82fmsM/VrLLQ93T2SI/AAAAAAAAMZ4/XIDT6gj5QQ4/s1600/HarrietHoctor_question.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--5Mht82fmsM/VrLLQ93T2SI/AAAAAAAAMZ4/XIDT6gj5QQ4/s640/HarrietHoctor_question.jpg" width="512" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">During the 1920s and 30s ballerina Harriet Hoctor, dubbed the "Pavlova of America” by showman Florenz Ziegfeld, charmed audiences with her graceful and unique dancing. Double-jointed, she was able to bend her
body backwards and execute a perfect question mark, as seen in this photo, and incorporated her backbend into many of her dances.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Born on September 25, 1905 in Hoosick Falls, New York, she made her Broadway debut at just 15 in the chorus
of the Ziegfeld produced musical <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sally</i> (1920) starring
Marilyn Miller. After dancing on the vaudeville circuit, she was asked by
the Duncan Sisters (huge vaudeville stars at the time) to join the cast of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Topsy and Eva</i>, a musical version of <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i>, which toured the country
before opening on Broadway in 1924. After a 20-week run, Hoctor went on tour
again before returning to Broadway for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A
La Carte</i> (1927). </span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GZbcVDzCm1k/VrLWYREXufI/AAAAAAAAMaI/BALe6D7oNmQ/s1600/HarrietHoctor_smoking.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GZbcVDzCm1k/VrLWYREXufI/AAAAAAAAMaI/BALe6D7oNmQ/s640/HarrietHoctor_smoking.jpg" width="514" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Harriet Hoctor in <i>The Three Musketeers </i>(1928), Photo by Maurice Goldberg. While Hoctor was lovely <br />as a blonde, I like the bob and general flapper attitude in this photo. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Having made an impression on Ziegfeld, she was cast in three of his productions: </span><i style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Three
Musketeers</i><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> (1928), </span><i style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Show Girl</i><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
(1929), and </span><i style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Simple Simon</i><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> (1930). During
this time Hoctor also participated in recitals, showing off her dance skills in
various pieces including one based on </span><i style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The
Raven</i><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> by Edgar Allan Poe for which Hoctor tapped out of the sounds of the
bird. This was accomplished by toe tapping en pointe, which is exactly what it
sounds like— dancing en pointe with taps attached. Although not the only dancer to utilize this style of dance, Hoctor was one of the best.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In 1932, she travelled to London to perform at the
Hippodrome in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bow Bells</i> where she
received huge ovations from the audience. Returning to New York, she appeared
in a series of productions including Earl Carroll’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vanities</i> (1932) before she turned to film. She played herself in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Great Ziegfeld</i> (1936) and danced
with Fred Astaire in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shall We Dance</i>
(1937) for which George Gershwin wrote a number specifically for her titled
“Hoctor’s Ballet.” Back in New York, she was a member of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 </i>along with Josephine Baker and Fannie Brice.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">She spent the rest of the decade and the war years dancing on
stage, including </span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">performing and choreographing dances at Billy Rose's nightclub the Diamond Horseshoe,</span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> after which she retired and ran the Harriet Hoctor Dance School in Boston for many years.
She passed away on June 9, 1977.</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TdoBt-vAX-w/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TdoBt-vAX-w?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Her appearance in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shall
We Dance</i> comes at the end of the film. She's in the first part of this clip (before the dancers with the creepy Ginger Rogers masks appear). Notice her name on the marquee in the opening shot? Look at how beautiful and effortless her movements are and how perfectly paired she is
with Astaire. It was rumoured that Ginger Rogers didn’t want to make this film
at first and that Hoctor was going to replace her. Rogers decided at the last minute
to take the part. At least Hoctor got her own ballet, and we get to see it. Enjoy.</span></div>
Michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5440487533711093627.post-15866842762952115922016-01-20T23:02:00.000-05:002016-01-21T13:23:18.672-05:00The Sweetheart of Lisbon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Q1wPkvFu-BQ/Vp8JHTn5x9I/AAAAAAAAMXQ/Ad-R3iUqcfA/s1600/Beatriz_Costa2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Q1wPkvFu-BQ/Vp8JHTn5x9I/AAAAAAAAMXQ/Ad-R3iUqcfA/s640/Beatriz_Costa2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Beatriz Costa (1930)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Beatriz Costa (1907-1996) was a huge
Portuguese theatre and film star who, unfortunately, is not very well known
here in the States. I became intrigued from the moment I first saw her image.
Portuguese, dark bob, only five feet tall, that could be a description of me! (Sadly though, I can neither sing nor dance.) Of course, I wanted to find out more about her. Most of the
information I did find was in Portuguese so apologies in advance for anything
that I've translated poorly.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">She was born </span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Beatriz da Conceição in Mafra,
Portugal on December 14, 1907</span><i style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. </i><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As a young girl she helped her mother who took in sewing and taught herself how to read at the age of 13. Enamoured with the stage, she used a connection of her stepfather’s to get a letter of introduction to a theatre manager in Lisbon and at age 15 she made her professional stage debut
as a chorus girl in </span><i style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Tea and Toast</i><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">
(1923). She was shortly after renamed Beatriz Costa by Luis Gallardo.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: x-small;">Beatriz Costa from a studio session in Rio (1929)</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Nw0jTH6kpUA/Vp8ToSeZtnI/AAAAAAAAMYc/oy_LjagNroQ/s1600/Beatriz_Costa9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Nw0jTH6kpUA/Vp8ToSeZtnI/AAAAAAAAMYc/oy_LjagNroQ/s640/Beatriz_Costa9.jpg" width="508" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666;">The following year the theatre company travelled to Brazil where Costa earned raves from the public and the press, especially for her performance of the song “Mademoiselle Boy.” She returned to Portugal two years later where she continued to star in a variety of musical shows.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666;">In 1927, she made her screen debut in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Devil in Lisbon </i>followed the same
year by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fátima Milagrosa</i> in which she
danced a tango with the future director Manoel de Oliveira. She also began
sporting bangs, which would become her trademark. Although she was successful
in film, she continued to perform on stage in a series of productions before going on another tour of Brazil. When she returned, she met with Paramount’s European representative and won the lead in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Her Wedding Night</i>, a remake of a Clara Bow picture and one of the first
Portuguese talkies. Filmed in Paris, it brought Costa even more accolades.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jWhJ6DLLGZY/Vp8Jwa3gNSI/AAAAAAAAMYI/veIC67D1t_A/s1600/Beatriz_Costa7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="404" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jWhJ6DLLGZY/Vp8Jwa3gNSI/AAAAAAAAMYI/veIC67D1t_A/s640/Beatriz_Costa7.jpg" width="640" /><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #666666;">Beatriz Costa (center) on stage in <i>Full Moon</i> (1934)</span></span></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-O53dUZKo8OY/Vp8Jx2QEZ8I/AAAAAAAAMYQ/CvDa8xWViPU/s1600/Beatriz_Costa8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-O53dUZKo8OY/Vp8Jx2QEZ8I/AAAAAAAAMYQ/CvDa8xWViPU/s640/Beatriz_Costa8.jpg" width="636" /></span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Beatriz Costa (without bangs) and Procópio Ferreira in <i>The Four Leaf Clover </i>(1936)</span></a></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">By the 1930s, Costa’s bubbly personality and
comedic talents had made her incredibly popular and she was given the nickname,
“the Sweetheart of Lisbon.” In 1933, she starred in her biggest film yet, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Song of Lisbon</i>. Billed as the “first
Portuguese film made by Portuguese people,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A
Song for Lisbon</i> ushered in Portugal’s Golden Age of Cinema. In 1937, Portuguese moviegoers voted her the “Princess of
Portuguese Cinema.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">She ended the decade by making her last film, </span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>The Village of White Clothes</i>, and </span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">returning to
Brazil where she stayed for ten years, performing at the Casino da Urca; she
would later refer to this time as “the best years of my life.” It was there in
1947 that she wed the Brazilian writer and sculptor Edmundo Gregorian. But the marriage didn't last, and they
divorced two years later.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666;">In 1949, she made a triumphant return to
Portugal where she starred in a series of successful plays including <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Play the Music</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Carry On</i>. After her performance in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Está Bonita a Brincadeira</i> in 1960, she retired from the stage and
travelled the world, attending theatre festivals and visiting with various
celebrities. When she returned to Portugal, she moved into the Hotel Tivoli in Lisbon where she would
live for the rest of her life. There she began a second career as an author,
writing successful books about her career and experiences. I’m happy to report, she sported a bob with her trademark bangs even in old age. Although she received many
requests to return to the stage she refused, citing the decline in the quality
of theatrical shows. Costa passed away on April 15, 1996. </span></span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Tk2wYAryYQg/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Tk2wYAryYQg?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>Song of Lisbon </i>is one of her few films to survive. Watch this clip where Costa awkwardly dances around and cannot hit a high note. She's funny and adorable in this scene and throughout the rest of the film; no wonder she was called the Sweetheart of Lisbon.</span>Michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5440487533711093627.post-31755885923489266762016-01-19T22:08:00.000-05:002016-01-19T22:08:23.572-05:00It's Your Own Fault<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xyfwPmLZQNM/Vp76AlijXCI/AAAAAAAAMWw/mQPyEeT2MbE/s1600/Myrna_Loy_Hat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xyfwPmLZQNM/Vp76AlijXCI/AAAAAAAAMWw/mQPyEeT2MbE/s640/Myrna_Loy_Hat.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Something's always happening here. If you're bored in New York, it's your own fault."—Myrna Loy</span></div>
Michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5440487533711093627.post-54687815919729078512016-01-18T21:48:00.000-05:002016-01-18T21:48:11.237-05:00Boston Common at Twilight<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--hhurpqCdOY/Vp2eyByb_9I/AAAAAAAAMWI/qZhBZoeRrzY/s1600/AtTwilight_Hassam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="448" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--hhurpqCdOY/Vp2eyByb_9I/AAAAAAAAMWI/qZhBZoeRrzY/s640/AtTwilight_Hassam.jpg" width="640" /><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">"At Dusk (Boston Common at Twilight)" Childe Hassam (1885-86)</span></a></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Times; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Yesterday was the first snow of the season. In honour of the
occasion, I’m taking a look at a favourite winter painting.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When I lived in Boston, I spent many
hours at the Museum of Fine Arts. “At Dusk (Boston Common at Twilight)” by the
American Impressionist Childe Hassam was one of my favourite paintings. Today, looking at it instantly conquers up a
nostalgic mix of memories of both Boston and winter snow.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Here we see a mother with her two children
feeding the sparrows on the Tremont Street Mall in Boston Common (a handy
location for Hassam as it was across the street from his studio). This wide promenade
in the Common, lined with elm trees on one side and Tremont Street on the
other, was created for Bostonians to have a place to take a stroll, perhaps in
the afternoon or on a Sunday dressed up in church finery. So refined. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">While the site looks different today—the
promenade was broken up with the addition of two subway entrances—it’s still
recognizable as the Boston Common I’ve walked through so many times. What’s
interesting to note is that the Common Hassam painted reflected changes that had occurred during
his time as well; </span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">by the mid-1880s</span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">an increase in commerce in the area had resulted in new buildings and streets crowded with trolley cars and
carriages.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I particularly love the light in the
painting from the pink warmth of the setting sun behind the trees to the orange
glow from the windows in the buildings. As for the snow, Hassam painted a very
accurate depiction of snow that’s been walked upon. Looking at that path, I
know all too well that by the next day it would have turned into a sheet of ice
to be traversed at your own risk.</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> Oh, winter in Boston. How beautiful (and dangerous) you could be.</span></span></div>
Michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5440487533711093627.post-47736549346533178212016-01-12T01:21:00.001-05:002016-01-12T01:21:49.817-05:00Farewell to the Thin White Duke<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZR5rcqNRYA4/VpSWVL1eb1I/AAAAAAAAMVo/NCucFwXUB6Q/s1600/DavidBowie_theArcher.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="338" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZR5rcqNRYA4/VpSWVL1eb1I/AAAAAAAAMVo/NCucFwXUB6Q/s640/DavidBowie_theArcher.jpg" width="640" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">"The Archer" John Rowlands (1976)</span></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">David Bowie</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">1947-2016</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">RIP</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5440487533711093627.post-42502557351431552402016-01-05T22:55:00.001-05:002016-01-06T12:40:11.908-05:00Between the Pages<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5A7CuxoUwc8/VoiZxyCAy1I/AAAAAAAAMU8/wyC3WZLtTrI/s1600/ConstanceBennet_LadywithaPast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5A7CuxoUwc8/VoiZxyCAy1I/AAAAAAAAMU8/wyC3WZLtTrI/s640/ConstanceBennet_LadywithaPast.jpg" width="538" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Constance Bennett in <i>Lady With a Pas</i>t (1932)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A new year, a new slew of books to review. I read quite a few books last year but not nearly as many as I would have wanted. These are some of the titles I finished in 2015. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And as a new year brings fresh starts, Bookshelf will be called Between the Pages going forward. Now, please, read on.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/27078/my-life-in-france-by-julia-child-with-alex-prudhomme/9780307277695/">My Life in France</a></b>—Julia
Child and Alex Prud’homme</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Paul and Julia Child moved to France in 1948 for Paul to
start his job with the US Information Service. En route to Paris, they stopped
for lunch at a restaurant in Rouen. Julia would later refer to it as “the most
exciting meal of my life.” Thus began her life-long love affair with la belle
France. In Paris, Julia began exploring all aspects of French cuisine, taking
classes at the Cordon Bleu and ultimately writing her classic cookbook, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mastering the Art of French Cooking</i>. The
book is filled with charming anecdotes of her time in France from merchants she
befriended to her experiments in the kitchen to the great love affair with her
husband. Be warned: reading this will make you want to buy a ticket for
France.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://books.simonandschuster.com/All-the-Light-We-Cannot-See/Anthony-Doerr/9781476746586">All the Light We Cannot See</a>—</b>Anthony Doerr</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In 1930s Paris a blind girl named Marie-Laure learns the
layout of her neighbourhood via a hand-carved miniature version lovingly created by her
locksmith father while in Germany a young orphaned boy, Werner, discovers he
has a gift for fixing radios. As the Germans descend on Paris, the Seas of
Flame—a cursed diamond from the Museum of Natural History—is secreted out of
the city to the seaside town of St. Malo where Marie-Laure and Werner’s paths
will ultimately cross. I wasn’t expecting to like this novel as much as I did but the non-linear narration made for compelling storytelling and some of
Marie-Laure’s scenes were particularly moving.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/236764/mrs-roosevelts-confidante-by-susan-elia-macneal/9780804178709/">Mrs. Roosevelt’s Confidante</a></b>—Susan Elia Macneal</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Maggie Hope is back, this time travelling with Churchill to
America to visit Roosevelt to discuss the country’s entry in the war. The
mysterious death of one of Mrs. Roosevelt’s secretaries threatens to falsely
expose the first lady to a scandal of epic proportion, and it’s up to Maggie
find the killer and protect the nation. I’ve enjoyed all of the Maggie Hope
books and this one in particular. I especially liked the behind-the-scenes look
at the Roosevelts in the White House (FDR whipping up cocktails and lots of
appearances by Fala) and the descriptions of Washington during wartime.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.penguin.com/book/the-other-typist-by-suzanne-rindell/9780425268421">The Other Typist</a></b>—Suzanne
Rindell</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Rose Baker is a police typist in 1920s New York, spending her days typing up confessions and her nights alone in her rented room
in Brooklyn. Her world is changed with the hiring of a new typist, Odalie
Lazare, whose fashionable appearance and carefree attitude fascinate Rose. Before long she is
drawn into Odalie’s life, sharing her flat and frequenting speakeasies. But there’s something sinister bubbling under the surface that’s
destined to result in murder. Reminiscent of a Patricia Highsmith story, Rindell
does a good job at building the tension in the story and leaving the reader
guessing at the ending.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.hmhco.com/shop/books/Girl-Waits-with-Gun/9780544409910">Girl Waits with Gun</a></b>—Amy
Stewart</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In 1914, the three Kopp sisters were driving in their horse and buggy
in Patterson, New Jersey when a man hit them with his motorcar. The sisters tried
to invoice for the damages but Harry Kaufman, the silk factory owner who had
been behind the wheel, retaliated with threatening letters and rocks thrown
through the sisters’ windows. The local sheriff did what he thought best—gave
the sisters rifles for protection. This is the basis for Stewart’s novel, which
revolves around the oldest sister, six-foot tall Constance, who uses her height to
intimidate Kaufman and indeed waits with gun. This was a favourite read of mine last year. Stewart does a great job at fleshing out the portraits of the Kopp sisters and demonstrates how one can tell a fictional
account of a real event well.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/donna-tartt/the-goldfinch/9780316055437/">The Goldfinch</a></b>—Donna
Tartt</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Thirteen-year old The Decker and his mother are viewing
an exhibit at the Met when a bomb goes off, killing her and
leaving Theo unharmed with a dead man’s ring and Carel Fabritius’ “Goldfinch”
in his possession. Finding temporary shelter at the Upper East Side home of a
classmate, he’s soon whisked away by his father to Las Vegas where Theo embarks
down a drug-laden road with his only friend, a Ukrainian boy named Boris. When Theo returns to New York, he becomes an apprentice to an antiques dealer who lost his
partner in the blast, the same deceased man whose niece Theo loves. It took me a while to
get around to reading this book, and I’m so glad I did. Despite its heft, I
found myself finishing it in a few days, drawn to the story of Theo and the fate of that
glorious bird.</span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5440487533711093627.post-35634166538692513652016-01-01T20:55:00.000-05:002016-01-01T20:55:04.753-05:00Hello, 2016!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p4Q7yFleMEg/Vocp4PPaM4I/AAAAAAAAMUo/BONKosRE4fA/s1600/LouiseBrooks_LoveEmLeaveEm.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="303" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p4Q7yFleMEg/Vocp4PPaM4I/AAAAAAAAMUo/BONKosRE4fA/s400/LouiseBrooks_LoveEmLeaveEm.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Hello, 2016! My list of new year's resolutions is long and complex, created with the full realization that most of them will not be achieved but there's no harm in wishful thinking is there? At the top of that list is a resolution to make the most of the next twelve months. No more procrastination—it's time to act (or dance if the occasion calls for it). So lets enjoy 2016 and all the possibilities it brings.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Gif of Louise Brooks from Love 'Em and Leave 'Em (1926). Taken from <b><a href="http://nitratediva.tumblr.com/post/67022583800/louise-brooks-in-love-em-and-leave-em-1926-i">here</a></b>.</span>Michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5440487533711093627.post-20301767639493379802015-12-31T18:19:00.000-05:002015-12-31T18:19:34.160-05:00Happy New Year<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JC8-dPlpDdk/VoW2zZMfDRI/AAAAAAAAMUY/UMt-KRafyx8/s1600/LaVieParisienneNewYears.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JC8-dPlpDdk/VoW2zZMfDRI/AAAAAAAAMUY/UMt-KRafyx8/s640/LaVieParisienneNewYears.jpg" width="466" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I am anxiously awaiting the departure of 2015, which has not been a good year for me. So come on 2016; I have big plans for you. In the meantime, whether you're going out on the town or staying in tonight, I wish you all a Happy New Year and thank you for stopping by to read the Tales of a Madcap Heiress. Now let's have some champagne!</span>Michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5440487533711093627.post-76782071911123152442015-12-29T23:34:00.000-05:002015-12-30T14:46:07.274-05:00Ball of Fire<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-48XTHGl1aOk/VoM4tgIPD2I/AAAAAAAAMTs/IbhQW9h4-Aw/s1600/Ball%2Bof%2BFire%2Bposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="500" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-48XTHGl1aOk/VoM4tgIPD2I/AAAAAAAAMTs/IbhQW9h4-Aw/s640/Ball%2Bof%2BFire%2Bposter.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">On Christmas day, I could be found at
Film Forum laughing along with the rest of the audience at Howard Hawks’ <i>Ball of Fire</i> (1941). </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A
screwball comedy based on <i>Snow White and Seven Dwarfs</i>, the film is set not in a forest but in New York City where eight professors live
and work together in an old brownstone, writing an encyclopedia of
human knowledge. They are on the letter “S” when the youngest professor, Bertram
Potts (Gary Cooper), realizes that his research on slang is out of date. He
roams the city looking for people to make up a research panel and winds up at a nightclub where
Sugarpuss O’Shea (Barbara Stanwyck) is performing with the Gene Krupa Band. Potts is entranced and invites
Sugarpuss to join his panel. At first she declines but changes her
mind when she needs a place to hide from the DA who's looking for her in connection to her mobster boyfriend, Joe Lilac (Dana Andrews). She moves into the house with the professors and
quickly changes their lives.
She and Potts fall in love, and he proposes marriage. The only
problem is that Joe wants her to marry him so she can’t testify against him in court.
Everyone winds up in New Jersey where Potts fights Joe for the woman he loves.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The film’s leads are perfect in their
roles: Barbara Stanwyck was a street-smart New Yorker in real life and looks gorgeous
while Gary Cooper is especially attractive when he's in full fumbling nerd mode (which he plays so
well). They are supported by some of Hollywood’s favourite character actors
including S.Z. Sakall, Henry Travers, Richard Haydn, Leonid Kinskey, and Dan
Duryea. There’s also a great musical performance by Gene Krupa of "Drum Boogie" including a scene where he uses a book of matches to play the drums. The comedy is balanced with some tender
moments and the costumes are glorious (one of Stanwyck’s gowns literally
shines). And then there is the language. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Screwball comedies are noted for their
witty dialogue and this film delivers in spades thanks to a brilliant script by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett. In the film, Cooper quotes</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> Carl Sandburg who said, "slang is language that takes off it coat, spits on its hands, and gets to work." In this film, the language is working overtime. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The erudite
words of the professors are juxtaposed with the slang-filled observations of working class people creating numerous comedic moments. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Early in the film Potts realizes that his
slang research is obsolete when a garbage collector comes into the house to ask
the professors for some help with a “quizzola” he’s filling out for the chance
to win $25. He asks them a question about how Cleopatra died. When they give
him the answer, he expresses his thanks and tells them why it’s important:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Garbage Man: I could use a bundle of
scratch right now on account of I met me a mouse last week.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Potts: Mouse?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Garbage Man: What a pair of gams. A little
in, a little out, and a little more out...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Potts: I am still completely mystified.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Garbage Man: Well, with this dish on me
hands and them giving away 25 smackaroos on that quizzola. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Potts: Smackaroos? What are
smackaroos?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Garbage Man: A smackaroo is a...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Potts: No such word exists.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Garbage Man: Oh, it don't? A smackaroo is
a dollar, pal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Potts: Well, the accepted vulgarism for a
dollar is a buck.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Garbage Man: The accepted vulgarism for a
smackaroo is a dollar. That goes for a banger, a fish, a buck or a rug.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Potts: Well, what about the mouse?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Garbage Man: The mouse is the dish. That's
what I need the moolah for.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Potts: Moolah?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Garbage Man: Yeah, the dough. We'll be
stepping. Me and this smooch…I mean, the dish, I mean, the mouse. You know, hit
the jiggles for a little rum boogie.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Potts: Please, please, not so fast.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Garbage Man: Brother, we're going to have
some hoytoytoy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Potts: Hoytoytoy?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Garbage Man: Yeah, and if you want that
one explained, you go ask your papas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q52AOuzTBMs/VoM9J7iGFuI/AAAAAAAAMUA/KcMy7RyfF_I/s1600/ball%2Bof%2Bfire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q52AOuzTBMs/VoM9J7iGFuI/AAAAAAAAMUA/KcMy7RyfF_I/s640/ball%2Bof%2Bfire.jpg" width="518" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Sugarpuss O’Shea’s language is just as
colourful as the Garbage Man’s, and she’s better looking. Between her delivery
and the gold dress that shows off her midriff and shapely legs, Potts doesn’t
have a chance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">When he first meets Sugarpuss in her
dressing room she tells him, “Okay, scrow, scram, scraw,” and he responds with
delight, “The complete conjugation!” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Sugarpuss also gets some of the best
lines. When she first enters the professors’ library she says, “Hey, who
decorated this place, the mug who shot Lincoln?” And when trying to convince
Potts that she’s getting sick and needs to stay over at the house, she asks him
to check her throat. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Potts: There is possibly a slight rosiness
in the laryngeal region. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Sugarpuss: Slight rosiness? It’s as red as
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Daily Worker</i> and just as sore. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">When Potts attempts to kick her out of the
house, he tells her, "Make no mistake, I shall regret the absence of your keen mind. Unfortunately, it is inseparable from an extremely disturbing body." She responds by playing on his sense of duty as a grammarian. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Sugarpuss: There's a lot of words we
haven't caught up with. For instance, do you know what this means, "I'll
get you on the Ameche"?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Potts: No.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Sugarpuss: Of course, you don't. An Ameche
is the telephone. On account of he invented it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Potts: Oh, no, he didn't.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Sugarpuss: You know, in the movies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Potts: I see what you mean. Very
interesting. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">She finally convinces him to let her stay
when she stands on three of Professor Gurkakoff’s reference books (Potts is
very tall) and shows him what “yum yum” is. The kisses send Potts running out
of the room to apply a cold compress to the back of his neck. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k4gmF7m8pA4/VoM822ua5CI/AAAAAAAAMT4/AEsvZn0T6HQ/s1600/Ball%2BOf%2BFire%2Bgroup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="502" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k4gmF7m8pA4/VoM822ua5CI/AAAAAAAAMT4/AEsvZn0T6HQ/s640/Ball%2BOf%2BFire%2Bgroup.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Like when Snow White went to live with
the dwarfs, the other professors are enchanted by Sugarpuss and welcome her
into their lives. They begin dressing smarter to impress her and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">instead of conducting research, they dance a conga. They also</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> hang on her
every word, trying to understand her world. When the
professors turn the tables on the mobsters and pull guns on them, Professor
Oddly (Richard Haydn) tells them, “I believe…I think it is known as an
“up-stick.” Bless him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Yet the influence isn’t one-sided. Sugarpuss
comes to realize that not only does she deserve something better in her life but that she’s in love with Potts (or Pottsy as she calls him). He's the opposite of Joe, and she can't seem to believe that she's fallen for him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">“I love those hick shirts he wears with
the boiled cuffs. And the way he always has his vest buttoned wrong. Looks like
a giraffe, and I love him. I love him because he’s the kind of a guy that gets
drunk on a glass of buttermilk. And I love the way he blushes right up over his
ears. I love him because he doesn’t know how to kiss, the jerk.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The film was a hit with audiences and
garnered six Academy Award nominations including one for Stanwyck for Best
Actress. I think it's one of the best roles she ever played. So if you've never seen <i>Ball of Fire</i>, shove in your clutch and watch it now. Dig me?</span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5440487533711093627.post-6982003551620554412015-12-26T14:17:00.001-05:002015-12-26T20:10:03.868-05:00Get Your Man<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qhVfi_QyVYI/Vn7Ggi9c_kI/AAAAAAAAMSw/I03wm8X_-DE/s1600/GetYourMan_1927.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="504" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qhVfi_QyVYI/Vn7Ggi9c_kI/AAAAAAAAMSw/I03wm8X_-DE/s640/GetYourMan_1927.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Clara Bow was the original “It Girl,” radiating sex appeal
and epitomizing the flapper of the 1920s. What many people forget though is
that she was also a fine actress. A recent screening at MoMA of a restored print of her film, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Get Your Man</i> (1927), reminded the
audience of this fact.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Get Your Man</i> opens
with the betrothal between the children of two aristocratic French families
(emphasis on “children”). Jump ahead 17 years and the two, now grown, are set
to wed. Before they do the groom, Duke Robert Albin (Charles “Buddy” Rogers), must
take a trip to Paris to pick up some family pearls to give to his bride. There
he keeps bumping into the same girl—at a taxi, outside a building, in a
parfumerie, and finally at a wax museum. The girl in question is Nancy
Worthington (Clara Bow), a rich American on holiday. “It must be fate,” she
tells him. The two tour around the museum and are accidentally locked in,
resulting in their spending the night together and falling in love.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The next
morning the two part after Robert confesses that he’s engaged to be married. Yet
Nancy isn’t ready to give him up. She drives down to his chateau where she
stages an “accident.” Taken into the house, she quickly charms everyone
including Robert’s fiancée Simone de Valens (Josephine Dunn), who confides in
her that she’s really in love with another man. Meanwhile Simone’s smitten
father, the Marquis de Valens (Harvey Clark), proposes to Nancy who accepts on
condition that he break off his daughter’s engagement to Robert, which he
agrees to. Nancy’s plans almost backfire when she gets a letter from Robert
stating that he’s leaving for Africa to shoot lions. Luckily some quick
thinking on Nancy’s part, which involves the discovery of Robert in her room in
a compromising position, soon sets everything right, and Nancy is able to get
her man.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Eua7ELHQPJw/Vn7OC9f7P2I/AAAAAAAAMTI/A1OsHUmZVw0/s1600/GetYourMan_pearls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="512" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Eua7ELHQPJw/Vn7OC9f7P2I/AAAAAAAAMTI/A1OsHUmZVw0/s640/GetYourMan_pearls.jpg" width="640" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Clara Bow and Charles "Buddy" Rogers in <i>Get Your Man</i> (1927)</span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">As Nancy, Clara Bow is not only attractive but smart and funny (Bow was very good at comedy). In most of her films she played working class girls but here she is wealthy and glamorous. While the film may have been just one more of Bow’s films that year for the studio (internally it was referred to as “Winter Bow”), under the direction of Dorothy Arzner, one of the first women directors in Hollywood, Bow shines. Giving her a chance to play someone different, Arzner brings out all of Bow’s best qualities in the film. Arzner was to say of Bow, “Whichever way she did it [the scene] was so</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>right</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>so alive</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. It was like a dancing flame on the screen.”</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A strong performance by Charles "Buddy" Rogers shouldn't go unacknowledged. Always charming, he may be even more beautiful than Bow in the film. There’s also some good comic timing by Harvey Clark as the besotted Marquis. And hats off to the costume designer. Bow's gowns are to die for.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AaB4SEq13Ps/Vn7Og2Z3YYI/AAAAAAAAMTY/WVDHYqPcZeY/s1600/ClaraBow_GetYourMan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AaB4SEq13Ps/Vn7Og2Z3YYI/AAAAAAAAMTY/WVDHYqPcZeY/s640/ClaraBow_GetYourMan.jpg" width="512" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The screening of the film at MoMA last month was part of their <i>To Save and Project: The 13<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">th </span>MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation</i>. Bow’s biographer David Stenn was on hand to introduce the film. It was <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Running Wild,</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> his book about the actress, that helped to reintroduce Bow to film fans by debunking some persistent myths (thanks a lot <i>Hollywood Babylon</i>) and re-examining her as an actress. </span></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2pHlijdc-qc/Vn7OU0lVgwI/AAAAAAAAMTQ/DMf2pIj1FA4/s1600/ClaraBow_BuddyRogers_GetYourMan_Museum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="482" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2pHlijdc-qc/Vn7OU0lVgwI/AAAAAAAAMTQ/DMf2pIj1FA4/s640/ClaraBow_BuddyRogers_GetYourMan_Museum.jpg" width="640" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">A still from one of the missing scenes from </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Get Your Man</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">.</span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Unfortunately, some of the footage shows signs of nitrate
burns and two of the six reels are missing so the version screened contained
title cards and stills to cover the missing scenes. Restored by the Library of
Congress, MoMA, and the Academy of Arts & Sciences, they did a fine job but
it’s unfortunate that the missing scenes include the night at the wax
museum (the footage ends before they're locked in). A still of the two stars asleep together gives a hint at what was probably a lovely scene.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Bow notoriously dreaded the coming of sound, believing the
microphone to be her enemy. Watching her in a silent film, you realize that she
was right in so far as she didn’t need to speak—her face could express volumes. All you have to do is watch her eyes to know exactly what's happening and in this film, you know from the beginning that she will get her man.</span></div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5440487533711093627.post-21029654200933200862015-12-25T17:49:00.000-05:002015-12-25T17:49:24.902-05:00Merry Christmas<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JUXtc7ZlQdQ/Vn3FLjGZu_I/AAAAAAAAMSc/o2JDhBrtwe0/s1600/WashingtonArc_Tree_Michele.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JUXtc7ZlQdQ/Vn3FLjGZu_I/AAAAAAAAMSc/o2JDhBrtwe0/s640/WashingtonArc_Tree_Michele.jpg" width="512" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The Washington Square Arch and Tree. Photo by Michele.</span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Merry Christmas from New York. Whether you celebrate the holiday or not, I hope you had a wonderful day.</span>Michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5440487533711093627.post-49775573282061336952015-12-21T23:55:00.000-05:002015-12-22T00:08:05.279-05:00Ingrid in the Snow<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5sTUH6x-YHM/VnjUlCVbg8I/AAAAAAAAMR8/kHqk1UFFTjs/s1600/Ingrid_Bergman_Landry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5sTUH6x-YHM/VnjUlCVbg8I/AAAAAAAAMR8/kHqk1UFFTjs/s640/Ingrid_Bergman_Landry.jpg" width="490" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Ingrid Bergman by Bob Landry for <i>LIFE</i> Magazine (1941)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The February 24, 1941 issue of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">LIFE</i> magazine featured an article titled “Ingrid Bergman Takes a
Short Holiday From Hollywood.” The article was a fluff piece, featuring the
then fairly new actress (she’d been in the US for less than two years and had
yet to play her legendary role in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Casablanca</i>)
on a ski holiday with her husband, Dr. Petter <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Lindström,</span> at June Lake near the California-Nevada
Border. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">During the trip, she made a quick visit to San Francisco to
meet with Ernest Hemingway who was en route to China with his wife, Martha Gelhorn. They discussed Hemingway’s wish for her to play
Maria in the film adaptation of his novel, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">For
Whom the Bells Toll</i>, at Jack’s Restaurant where they enjoyed a “salad and a
dry white wine” (somehow I can’t see Hemingway eating a salad). He is quoted
as telling Bergman, “If you don’t act in the picture, Ingrid, I won’t work on
it.” Hemingway didn't have to worry; Bergman ended up winning the part.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The article is accompanied by photos of the actress and the author at the
restaurant. But I prefer the ones taken by Bob Landry of her
having a snowball fight with her husband at June Lake, especially the one above. Landry captured this candid moment of the young actress moments after getting hit by a snow ball. She appears to be having a wonderful time. What a refreshing change from the normally staged studio shots of the stars. Now, don't you want to go out and play in the snow?</span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5440487533711093627.post-44425313910858871172015-12-07T22:51:00.001-05:002015-12-08T13:12:41.393-05:00Bulldog Drummond<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZAkCEKouroY/VmY4MVg1vvI/AAAAAAAAMQg/kCSAQeWzTpM/s1600/Bulldog_Drummond_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZAkCEKouroY/VmY4MVg1vvI/AAAAAAAAMQg/kCSAQeWzTpM/s640/Bulldog_Drummond_poster.jpg" width="462" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Last week I saw <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bulldog
Drummond</i> (1929) at Film Forum, part of their tribute to the great
production designer William Cameron Menzies. Directed by F. Richard Jones, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bulldog Drummond</i> was the third film and
first talkie based on Sapper’s (aka H.C. McNeile) stage adaption of his 1920
novel. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>Bull Drummond</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">is a perfect detective story for the screen—fast paced and action packed with witty dialogue, a likable hero with a comical sidekick, a beautiful girl, and sufficiently evil villains.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The film opens in London at the Senior Conservative Club where
an elderly club member is outraged by the racket created by a
waiter dropping a spoon. Seated nearby is the recently demobilized Captain Hugh “Bulldog”
Drummond (Ronald Colman) and his best friend, Algy Longworth
(Claude Allister). Adding to the noise by whistling, Drummond
leaves with Algy for a bar where he confesses, “I've been bored too long. I
can't stand it any more. I'm too rich to work, too intelligent to play, much; I
tell you, if something doesn't happen within the next few days, I'll explode.” When
Algy jokingly suggests advertising his availability, Drummond takes him
seriously and quickly writes up an ad that’s placed in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Times</i>.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"DEMOBILIZED OFFICER, finding peace unbearably tedious would
welcome any excitement. Legitimate, if possible, but crime of humorous
description, no objection."</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Drummond’s soon inundated with requests but one in particular piques his
interest: a Phyllis Benton has written asking that if he’s serious, then
Drummond should meet her at midnight at the Green Bay Inn where she’s reserved
rooms for him. Drummond, who conjures up an image of a woman who’s “dark, voluptuous,
and dramatic,” asks his valet, Danny (Wilson Benge), to pack him a toothbrush
and a gun and departs.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">At the Inn he's waiting for Phyllis when Algy and Danny show up. Calling Algy a “meddlesome jackass,” he brushes off
Algy’s concerns. “If I had wanted a body guard, I should have sent for my
maiden aunt,” Drummond tells him, adding, “Why not, she’s more of a man than
you are.” </span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4SkcIQTD-ME/VmY4lKEfMjI/AAAAAAAAMQo/rcfWyiT7mbA/s1600/Bulldog_Drummond_couple.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4SkcIQTD-ME/VmY4lKEfMjI/AAAAAAAAMQo/rcfWyiT7mbA/s640/Bulldog_Drummond_couple.jpg" width="472" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Bulldog Drummond (Ronald Colman) and Phyllis Benton (Joan Bennett)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Phyllis (Joan Bennett) arrives, and Drummond is delighted to find
that she meets his expectations. The beautiful young woman is in a state,
telling him that her wealthy uncle, Charles Travers, is supposedly being treated for a nervous breakdown at a local
hospital but that the two men “treating” him, Dr. Lakington (Lawrence Grant)
and Carl Petersen (Montague Love), are really keeping him there against his
will in an attempt to get at his fortune. Drummond tells her that her tale is
“rather like a penny thriller” yet promises to do whatever she wants him to do.
The sudden appearance of silhouettes at the door (it’s just Algy and Danny
being nosey) spooks Phyllis who runs away only to be caught by Lakington, Petersen, and Petersen’s "sister," Irma (Lilyan Tashman). Drummond naturally
heads off to rescue his damsel in distress.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Once there Drummond acts nonchalant, pretending to have
just been passing. The sound of a man’s cries for help (“Somebody step on the
cat’s tail?” Drummond asks) prompts him to ask point blank if they’re abusing
Travers. When Petersen denies it, Drummond leaves only to circle back.
Announcing to Phyllis that “it’s a fine time for you to visit my maiden aunt in
London," Irma lets out a wolf whistle. Expecting her gang, she gets Algy instead (Algy’s cluelessness seems to make him immune not only to the obvious but to danger as well). When Irma’s gang does rush in, there’s a brief shootout during which Drummond and his pals escape. Telling
Algy to take Phyllis back to the Inn, Drummond returns to the hospital where he
hides outside a window and watches as Travers (Charles Sellon) is brought into Lakington’s
laboratory. Travers is given a special injection and forced to sign a paper turning over “certain
securities and jewels” to Petersen. Drummond then takes them by surprise and escapes
with Travers and the paper. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">He brings Travers to the Inn, which probably isn’t the
smartest move. The bad guys show up, and Irma is given two of her best
scenes—ordering a drink ("whiskey, straight,") and flirting with Algy who is
enamoured with the blonde (he keeps saying that he must get her telephone
number). The bad guys demand Travers be handed over so Drummond disguises Algy as himself while he dresses up like Travers. A fight ensues and Drummond is taken while Algy, who has
lost his costume, is left behind. </span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-snNmyPY4-pk/VmY_xPECKNI/AAAAAAAAMRA/_JQoWGHo9bk/s1600/Bulldog_Drummond_Irma.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="462" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-snNmyPY4-pk/VmY_xPECKNI/AAAAAAAAMRA/_JQoWGHo9bk/s640/Bulldog_Drummond_Irma.jpg" width="640" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Irma (Lilyan Tashman) helps out a tied-up Bulldog Drummond (Ronald Colman).</span></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Discovering Drummond's charade, the bad guys tie him up and inform him that
they have Phyllis. Threatening to torture her—she’s taken into a room where she
starts screaming—Drummond tells them that he left Travers at the Inn (in reality he's on the way to London with Danny and Algy). Everyone
leaves save for Lakington who brings an unconscious Phyllis into the room. He
shows Drummond his secret “electric” door that no one can open while the
“current is switched on” (it’s a flimsily looking metal door that garnered a
chuckle from the audience) before proceeding to paw at Phyllis. Announcing that
he’s going to put Drummond to sleep, he leaves the room to mix a potion. Phyllis
wakes and frees Drummond who then struggles with Lakington, killing him in the
process.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Algy rings and Drummond tells him to bring the police from
Scotland Yard. The bad guys return, and Drummond locks Petersen in the room with
him and Phyllis. Admitting he’s licked, Petersen asks Drummond to let
Irma go and requests one last call to her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Drummond agrees, and Petersen tells Irma on the phone to “work the old
circus gag,” code for the gang to dress up like the police. Drummond falls
for the trick and watches as the “police” take Petersen away. When </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Algy arrives and gives Drummond a note from Petersen
explaining what he's done, Drummond tries telephoning Scotland Yard but Phyllis
convinces him to let them go and tells him that she loves him. Drummond has won the girl and saved the day.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Ronald Colman is superb as </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Drummond</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">. Handsome, charming,
athletic (enough), and so very, very English. The most astonishing thing about
the film may be the fact that it was Colman’s first talkie. The actor had
already been acting in films for a few years before he played this role. I can
only imagine what it must have been like to be a moviegoer hearing Colman speak
for the first time in that beautiful, cultured voice.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The cast for the most part is strong including Claude
Allister whose Algy is great as the film’s comic relief, Montague Love
(what a brilliant name) who brings just enough likability and toughness to the
role of Petersen, and Lilyan Tashman as the cool, slinky Irma. It was also a
nice surprise to see Gertrude Short playing a barmaid. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Thin Man</i> fans will recognize her as Nunheim’s girlfriend, the one who
doesn’t like stool pigeons. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Lawrence Grant as Lakington however is a bit too over the top in his
acting while Joan Bennett is utterly underwhelming as Phyllis. Bennett wouldn’t
hit her stride until the 1940s when as a brunette she turned in solid
performances in films like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Woman in
the Window</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Scarlett Street</i>.
Here the blonde Bennett just seems inexperienced and unsure of herself.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-X8GI-kBYbXM/VmY8OjtsA-I/AAAAAAAAMQ0/ldBCodpBcbI/s1600/Bulldog_Drummond_Sign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="496" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-X8GI-kBYbXM/VmY8OjtsA-I/AAAAAAAAMQ0/ldBCodpBcbI/s640/Bulldog_Drummond_Sign.jpg" width="640" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The Tivoli theatre in The Strand, London, advertising <i>Bulldog Drummond</i>, July 26, 1929. Photo: J. Geiger.</span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">For a film made during the transition period from silent to
talkie, it’s incredibly smooth with none of the stilted dialogues that some
other films from this time suffered. There's plenty of action and Colman’s delivery helps to keep the scenes
between him and Bennett from becoming overly dramatic.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As for Menzies’ sets, their size (giant doors that dwarf the
characters in some scenes are juxtaposed with small, low-ceiling rooms in others) bring
to mind certain German silent films. The use of shadows also serves to enhance the
story. It should be noted that this was one of the first features that the
great cinematographer Gregg Toland worked on (he shared the credit with George
S. Barnes).</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The film was well received and earned Colman and Menzies Oscar nominations. While Colman would return to the role in 1934 in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bulldog
Drummond Strikes Back,</i> many other adaptations would be made with other
actors playing the role. Yet none were perhaps as convincing as Colman whose performance, a <i>New York Times</i> reviewer noted at the film's opening at the Apollo Theater, "<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">is matchless so far as talking pictures are concerned."</span></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5440487533711093627.post-50197954323047505122015-12-01T23:34:00.000-05:002015-12-02T00:50:39.474-05:00December!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M2hXAJFvCyk/Vl5ypu5hlAI/AAAAAAAAMQA/hCe4WPhHwPE/s1600/Parisienne_December.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M2hXAJFvCyk/Vl5ypu5hlAI/AAAAAAAAMQA/hCe4WPhHwPE/s640/Parisienne_December.jpg" width="462" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Oh, December. How is it you're already here? I'm not going to complain too much though because New York is a great place to be this month—the sparking lights and inventive store windows, the glories of Central Park, tree lightings and carolling, plays and movies, and air that is just cold enough. So have a joyful December!</span>Michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5440487533711093627.post-25824380668823462372015-11-30T17:54:00.000-05:002015-12-07T02:23:16.015-05:00Hemingway Between Two Wars<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rd_MV17wpo8/Vlufr8YxKZI/AAAAAAAAMO8/mCE9zdu4ZPs/s1600/1.%2BHemmingway%2Bon%2Bcrutches.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rd_MV17wpo8/Vlufr8YxKZI/AAAAAAAAMO8/mCE9zdu4ZPs/s640/1.%2BHemmingway%2Bon%2Bcrutches.jpg" width="512" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Ernest Hemingway on crutches while recovering in Milan, Italy, September 1918. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The Ernest Hemingway Photograph Collection. John F. Kennedy Presidential </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Library and Museum.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">“None are to be found more clever than Ernie,” declared an Oak Park and River Forest High School classmate of young Ernest Hemingway who apparently agreed; he used it as his senior yearbook quote. Bright and competitive, Hemingway always knew he wanted to be a writer and at 16 published his first short story, <i>The Judgment of Manitou</i>, in his school’s magazine, <i>The Tabula</i>.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">“Ernest Hemingway: Between
Two Wars,” an exhibit at the Morgan Library in collaboration with the John F.
Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum (which houses Hemingway’s papers),
looks at the two most productive decades in the writer's life during which he published
five novels, two works of non-fiction, and five short-story collections, honing
his craft along the way and becoming one of the most important voices in
American literature. (Full disclosure, I did my grad work on Hemingway and am a
big fan.)</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Broken into six sections, the exhibit contains almost 100 items including drafts, notebooks, manuscripts, first editions, photographs, and letters from friends and fellow writers like John Dos Passos, Sylvia Beach, and John Steinbeck. There are also bull fight ticket stubs, dog tags from when Hemingway was a war correspondent for <i>Colliers</i> during World War II, and a painting of Hemingway by Waldo Pierce modelled after a well-know photo of Balzac.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-i9kRMFC6pzk/Vlugys6oe-I/AAAAAAAAMPI/ThslNb7obxg/s1600/7.%2BHemingway%2BPassport.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="548" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-i9kRMFC6pzk/Vlugys6oe-I/AAAAAAAAMPI/ThslNb7obxg/s640/7.%2BHemingway%2BPassport.jpg" width="640" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: black; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Hemingway’s 1923 passport (detail), </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: black; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">1923. The Ernest Hemingway Photograph </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: black; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Collection. John F. Kennedy Presidential </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: black; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 10px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Library and Museum.</span></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The most interesting
section of the exhibit was the beginning where you see Hemingway emerging as a
writer. There’s the first appearance of Nick Adams in a story written on Red
Cross stationary; the passport from his early Paris days with that ridiculously
handsome photo; his first book, <i>Three Stories & Ten Poems</i>, published
by Robert McAlmon’s Contact Press; and a letter dated 20 March 1925 in which
Hemingway explains his artistic credo to a displeased father: "You see I'm
trying in all my stories to get the feeling of the actual life across—not to
just depict life—or criticize it—but to actually make it alive."</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">My favourite of his novels, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>The
Sun Also Rises</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">, which he wrote in just nine weeks in 1926, is represented
with numerous items like three of the seven French school notebooks in which he
wrote the first draft. As with all of Hemingway’s drafts, you see him crossing
out words and sometimes full paragraphs, always paring down. On the back cover
of the third notebook, there’s a running list of how many words he had written
each day before he had his first whiskey and soda.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Also
fascinating are the items related to F. Scott Fitzgerald. Hemingway, who had
met Fitzgerald at the Dingo Bar, showed his manuscript of <i>The Sun Also Rises</i>
to the already successful author. Fitzgerald turned out to be a good critic, suggesting that
Hemingway cut the first two chapters, thus beginning the novel with the story of Robert Cohn.
The first two pages of those excised chapters are on display and show that
Fitzgerald was right.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RsOHEo6F0RI/Vlug8Iw6NFI/AAAAAAAAMPM/jUnoEmBxl5s/s1600/13.%2BFarewell%2Bto%2BArms%2Bautograph%2Bmanuscript.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RsOHEo6F0RI/Vlug8Iw6NFI/AAAAAAAAMPM/jUnoEmBxl5s/s640/13.%2BFarewell%2Bto%2BArms%2Bautograph%2Bmanuscript.jpg" width="514" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">First page of autograph manuscript of A Farewell to Arms, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1929. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Reprinted with the permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Copyright © 1929 by Charles Scribner's Sons. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Copyright renewed ©1957 by Ernest Hemingway. All rights reserved.</span></div>
<br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">By 1929, Hemingway had become surer of himself as a writer and when he received nine pages of notes from Fitzgerald on <i>A Farewell to Arms</i> (three of which are on display), he was less open to advice. Even though on one of the pages of the typescript Fitzgerald had written “This is one of the most beautiful pages in all English literature,” at the bottom of Fitzgerald’s notes is a comment by Hemingway, “Kiss my ass—EH.” He also was not a happy with the book’s copy editor, writing in the margin of one of the galley proofs, “who buggered this up like this. EH.”<br /><br />Hemingway was famously thin-skinned and quick to lash out at anyone. Furious at Irwin Shaw for including a character based on Hemingway's younger brother, Leicester, in Shaw's novel <i>The Young Lions</i>, Hemingway's personal copy of the book shows an annotation on one page that reads, “This is the part I will break his jaw for.”<br /><br />Yet Hemingway could also be kind. When a young man, Arnold Samuelson, showed up at Hemingway's home in Key West, Florida to ask him for advice on becoming a writer, Hemingway offered him a job looking after his boat and wrote up a reading list of 16 works for Samuelson to read including classics such as <i>War and Peace</i>, <i>Madame Bovary</i>, and <i>Wuthering Heights</i> as well as some "modern" titles, <i>Dubliners</i> and <i>The Enormous Room</i>. “Here’s a list of books any writer should have read as a part of his education,” Hemingway told Samuelson, “. . . if you haven’t read these, you just aren’t educated.”</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1EkuL3MWGKs/Vlu06Q78ubI/AAAAAAAAMPo/Mmr73K9Ci4k/s1600/16.%2BRevising%2Bthe%2Btypescript%2Bof%2BFor%2BWhom%2Bthe%2BBell%2BTolls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="432" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1EkuL3MWGKs/Vlu06Q78ubI/AAAAAAAAMPo/Mmr73K9Ci4k/s640/16.%2BRevising%2Bthe%2Btypescript%2Bof%2BFor%2BWhom%2Bthe%2BBell%2BTolls.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Ernest Hemingway revising the typescript of For Whom The Bell Tolls, Sun Valley, Idaho, November 1940.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> Robert Capa © International Center of Photography/Magnum Photos.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Regardless of his actions, Hemingway was thought highly of by many other writers like Dorothy Parker who remained a staunch supporter of Hemingway's even after he mocked her behind her back. On 30 November 1929, the <i>New Yorker</i> published a profile of Hemingway written by Parker titled “The Artist’s Reward.” Nervous about its reception, she sent him a draft to read, commenting in her cover letter, “part of the Artist’s Reward is having shit like this written about you.” And in this case, a very fine exhibit.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">“Ernest Hemingway: Between Two Wars” is at the Morgan until
January 31, 2016. For more information, visit <b><a href="http://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/ernest-hemingway">here</a></b>.</span></div>
Michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5440487533711093627.post-59449424479995410152015-11-26T16:59:00.000-05:002015-11-26T16:59:40.065-05:00Felix the Thanksgiving Parade Cat <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XxiNwGX9ZT8/VldYNRWEhnI/AAAAAAAAMOg/0IQZKjzPaLw/s1600/Felix%2BBalloon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XxiNwGX9ZT8/VldYNRWEhnI/AAAAAAAAMOg/0IQZKjzPaLw/s640/Felix%2BBalloon.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is as much of a tradition
today as turkey and pumpkin pie. The first parade took place in 1924 with
nursery rhyme-themed floats and live animals borrowed from the Central Park Zoo. Originally
called the Macy’s Christmas Parade (it was sponsored by a department store
after all), it was renamed the Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1927. That same year some
giant balloons were added to the mix including one of the popular Felix the Cat, the first in a long line of character balloons to grace the parade (Mickey Mouse would follow in
1934). Felix’s debut went smoothly until he became entangled with some
telephone poles and caught fire. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Cats have nine lives though, and he was back the following
year. This time round, the air in the balloons was replaced with helium so they
could soar above the parade. At the end of the parade, the balloons were
released into the air; a tag sewn into each promised a $100 prize to the finder if
the balloon was returned to Macy’s. Unfortunately, the balloons burst upon
release prompting the addition of safety valves so they could deflate slowly
the next time round. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Felix continued to be featured in the parade. On November
27, 1931, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i> ran an
article with the headline—“Felix the Cat Soars Gayly in Broadway.” In it they said
that upon his release at the end of the parade, Felix started to float out to sea
and pilot Clarence Chamberlin grabbed him with the wing of his plane and
deposited Felix at the airfield. Yet a few days later it was reported that
Felix had floated over to New Jersey where he ran into a high voltage wire and once
again caught on fire. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Felix wasn’t the only cat to run into trouble. In 1932
another balloon cat, Tom-Kat, became entangled in the wing of a small
monoplane, almost causing it to crash (it wasn’t really the cat’s fault; the plane’s
student pilot had deliberately flown into the balloon in an attempt to capture
it). After this incident, the organizers wisely decided to stop releasing the
balloons.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In 1933, it was reported that Felix joined the parade, this
time without incident. He would continue to be a part of the parade until 1938. While another famed cat, Hello Kitty, would become part of the parade beginning in 2007, Felix will always hold the honour of being the first cat (and character balloon) of the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!</span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Michelehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08250935638530625730noreply@blogger.com0