Today is the 295th birthday of Madame de Pompador, arguably one of the first fashion icons and one of the most influential women of the 18th century.  The world is a better place because she was in it and still feels the loss that she has left.

NAME: Madame de Pompadour
OCCUPATION: Singer, Theater Actress
BIRTH DATE: c. December 29, 1721
DEATH DATE: April 15, 1764
EDUCATION: Convent of the Ursuline Order, Club de l’Entresol
PLACE OF BIRTH: Paris, France
PLACE OF DEATH: Versailles, France
AKA: Madame de Pompadour, Jeanne-Antoinette Le Normant d’Etiolles, Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson
FULL NAME: Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour

BEST KNOWN FOR: Madame de Pompadour became the mistress of French King Louis XV in the mid-1700s. She greatly influenced French culture during this time, including decorative arts, architecture and statecraft.

Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, better known as Madame de Pompadour, was born sometime at the end of December in 1721 (the date is often fixed at December 29 because she was baptized in the church of Saint-Eustache on December 30 of that year). Her mother, Madeleine de La Motte, was known as a beauty; her father, François Poisson, a financier, fled the country a few years after her birth to avoid being put to death for fraud. François Poisson later returned, but during his absence, tax collector Charles Le Normant de Tournehem, who paid for Jeanne-Antoinette’s education, was frequently assumed to be her real father.

Jeanne-Antoinette was well-educated, first in an Ursuline convent, then with excellent private tutors in voice and elocution from the Parisian opera and theatre (she memorized entire plays). She was later educated at the Club de l’Entresol, an exclusively male political and economic think-tank.

At age 19, Tournehem married Jeanne-Antoinette off to his nephew, furnishing them with an opulent estate at Etoiles. She bore him two children, a son who died in infancy, and a daughter nicknamed “Fanfan.” Jeanne-Antoinette’s beauty, intelligence and passion for the arts led her to instigate “salons” that attracted a varied circle of painters, sculptors, philosophers and writers, including Voltaire.

Jeanne-Antoinette entered the glittering life of the court at the Clipped Yew Tree Ball in 1745. She dressed as a shepherdess, and was determined to meet the magnetic King Louis XV, adorned as the tree. When their paths crossed, their fates were sealed—her carriage was reportedly seen outside of his apartment the next morning.

Louis XV was moody, sometimes languishing in the shadow of his great-grandfather, Louis XIV, the “Sun King.” He was fond of his Polish queen (with whom he would have 10 children); he had been through several mistresses by this time, but “Madame de Pompadour”—a title that Jeanne-Antoinette was soon given, along with an estate—became his chief mistress within a year. Her “office” came with castle apartments beneath the king’s own, as well as an annual income.

A talented seductress, actress and singer, Madame de Pompadour dazzled Louis XV with lively theater productions that she organized and performed in. She also adored the king, so even after their sexual liaison had run its course, she continued to be his loyal companion, and was accorded unprecedented political influence.

So devoted was the king to Madame de Pompadour, he became the stepfather of Fanfan, rushing doctors to her side when she fell ill. Sadly, the little girl died before turning 10; Fanfan’s grandfather, who adored the child, died shortly afterward. Madame de Pompadour is said to have never recovered from the dual loss.

Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour shared an appreciation for architecture and other decorative arts, and of animals, amassing a menagerie that included monkeys, birds and more domestic constant companions: her little dog and his white angora cat. Madame de Pompadour’s romantic ardor waned first, and her maid reported that she lived on a diet of “vanilla, truffles and celery” to stimulate passions for the king.

Madame de Pompadour eventually provided substitutes for herself in the boudoir while engaging Louis XV’s passions in other areas; she had her brother appointed director of buildings and, together, the trio planned and built chateaux, pavilions and palaces, including the Petit Trianon in Versailles. Each construction included extravagant detail and decoration by France’s premier artists, such as painter Francois Boucher. Madame de Pompadour also kick-started the Sèvres porcelain factory, and employed the Rococo style copiously in art and decor; a deep pink popular in this décor became known as “Pompadour Pink.”

Additionally, Madame de Pompadour became a patron to men of science and letters, encouraging the king to hire Voltaire as the court historiographer, and championing the first French encyclopedia. Her personal library held more than 3,500 volumes.

Eventually, Madame de Pompadour was involved in everything from designing the Place de la Concorde in Paris, to court affairs and foreign policy. Careers rose and fell with her favor and she maintained her lofty position, despite many enemies at court, until her death in 1764.

Madame de Pompadour’s weakened health, from several miscarriages and a painful struggle with tuberculosis, brought about her death on Easter Day in 1764 (April 15, 1764), at the Palace of Versailles. She was buried two days later, beside her daughter at the Chapel of the Capuchin Friars in Place Vendome.

Considered one of the three most powerful women of the 18th century, along with Catherine the Great of Russia (Catherine II) and Maria Theresa of Austria, Madame de Pompadour certainly went through fortunes in her zeal for unique and beautiful surroundings. Her enemies blamed her for France’s failure in the Seven Years’ War and its subsequent economic shoals.

However, respect for her vibrant wit, varied interests and keen intelligence has given Madame de Pompadour a better reputation over the years. A British regiment became known as “The Pompadours” for using a shade of purple that is said to have been her favorite. Also named after her are flowers, kitten heels, the hairstyle known as “the Pompadour” and the starship SS Madame de Pompadour—a vessel in the British Dr. Who series; Madame de Pompadour is even portrayed in one episode of Dr. Who, “Girl in the Fireplace.”

Source: Madame de Pompadour – Wikipedia

Source: Madame de Pompadour – Theater Actress, Singer – Biography.com

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 147th birthday of the French artist Henri Matisse.  If you have ever been to IKEA, you have seen his artwork.  For good or for bad, his art is recognized and helped to change the path of modern art.  The world is a better place because Henri was in it and still feels the loss that he has left.

NAME: Henri Matisse
OCCUPATION: Painter, Sculptor
BIRTH DATE: December 31, 1869
DEATH DATE: November 3, 1954
EDUCATION: Académie Julian, Paris, École des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, École des Beaux-Arts, Paris
PLACE OF BIRTH: Le Cateau, Picardy, France
PLACE OF DEATH: Nice, France
INFLUENCED BY: Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, and Paul Gauguin
PERIODS: Post-Impressionism, Impressionism, Modernism, Modern art, Fauvism, Neo-impressionism
NATIONALITY: French
PATRONS: Gertrude Stein, Etta Cone, Claribel Cone, Sarah Stein, Albert C. Barnes

BEST KNOWN FOR: Henri Matisse was a revolutionary and influential artist of the early 20th century, best known for the expressive color and form of his Fauvist style.

Henri Matisse was born on December 31, 1869, and was raised in the small industrial town of Bohain-en-Vermandois in northern France. His family worked in the grain business. As a young man Matisse worked as a legal clerk and then studied for a law degree in Paris in 1887-89. Returning to a position in a law office in the town of Saint-Quentin, he began taking a drawing class in the mornings before he went to work. When he was 21, Matisse began painting while recuperating from an illness, and his vocation as an artist was confirmed.

There are always flowers for those who want to see them.

In 1891 Matisse moved to Paris for artistic training. He took instruction from famous, older artists at well-known schools such as the Académie Julian and the École des Beaux-Arts. These schools taught according to the “academic method,” which required working from live models and copying the works of Old Masters, but Matisse was also exposed to the recent Post-Impressionist work of Paul Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh while living in Paris.

Matisse began to show his work in large group exhibitions in Paris in the mid-1890s, including the traditional Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, and his work received some favorable attention. He traveled to London and to Corsica, and in 1898 he married Amélie Parayre, with whom he would have three children.

By the turn of the 20th century, Matisse had come under the more progressive influence of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, who painted in a “Pointillist” style with small dots of color rather than full brushstrokes. He stopped exhibiting at the official Salon and began submitting his art to the more progressive Salon des Indépendants in 1901. In 1904 he had his first one-man exhibition at the gallery of dealer Ambroise Vollard.

Matisse had a major creative breakthrough in the years 1904-05. A visit to Saint-Tropez in southern France inspired him to paint bright, light-dappled canvases such as Luxe, calme et volupté (1904-05), and a summer in the Mediterranean village of Collioure produced his major works Open Window and Woman with a Hat in 1905. He exhibited both paintings in the 1905 Salon d’Automne exhibition in Paris. In a review of the show, a contemporary art critic mentioned the bold, distorted images painted by certain artists he nicknamed “fauves,” or “wild beasts.”

Painting in the style that came to be known as Fauvism, Matisse continued to emphasize the emotional power of sinuous lines, strong brushwork and acid-bright colors in works such as The Joy of Life, a large composition of female nudes in a landscape. Like much of Matisse’s mature work, this scene captured a mood rather than merely trying to depict the world realistically.

In the first decade of the century, Matisse also made sculptures and drawings that were sometimes related to his paintings, always repeating and simplifying his forms to their essence.

After finding his own style, Matisse enjoyed a greater degree of success. He was able to travel to Italy, Germany, Spain and North Africa for inspiration. He bought a large studio in a suburb of Paris and signed a contract with the prestigious art dealers of Galerie Bernheim-Jeune in Paris. His art was purchased by prominent collectors such as Gertrude Stein in Paris and the Russian businessman Sergei I. Shchukin, who commissioned Matisse’s important pair of paintings Dance I and Music in 1909-10.

In his works of the 1910s and 1920s, Matisse continued to delight and surprise his viewers with his signature elements of saturated colors, flattened pictorial space, limited detail and strong outlines. Some works, like Piano Lesson (1916), explored the structures and geometry of Cubism, the movement pioneered by Matisse’s lifelong rival Pablo Picasso. Yet despite his radical approach to color and form, Matisse’s subjects were often traditional: scenes of his own studio (including The Red Studio of 1911), portraits of friends and family, arrangements of figures in rooms or landscapes.

In 1917 Matisse began spending winters on the Mediterranean, and in 1921 he moved to the city of Nice on the French Riviera. From 1918-30, he most frequently painted female nudes in carefully staged settings within his studio, making use of warm lighting and patterned backgrounds. He also worked extensively in printmaking during these years.

The first scholarly book about Matisse was published in 1920, marking his importance in the history of modern art as it was still taking place.

In his later career, Matisse received several major commissions, such as a mural for the art gallery of collector Dr. Albert Barnes of Pennsylvania, titled Dance II, in 1931-33. He also drew book illustrations for a series of limited-edition poetry collections.

After surgery in 1941, Matisse was often bedridden; however, he continued to work from a bed in his studio. When necessary, he would draw with a pencil or charcoal attached to the end of a long pole that enabled him to reach the paper or canvas. His late work was just as experimental and vibrant as his earlier artistic breakthroughs had been. It included his 1947 book Jazz, which placed his own thoughts on life and art side by side with lively images of colored paper cutouts. This project led him to devising works that were cutouts on their own, most notably several series of expressively shaped human figures cut from bright blue paper and pasted to wall-size background sheets (such as Swimming Pool, 1952).

In one of his final projects, Matisse created an entire program of decorations for the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence (1948-51), a town near Nice, designing stained-glass windows, murals, furnishings, and even sacred vestments for the church’s priests.

Matisse died on November 3, 1954, at the age of 84, in Nice. He was buried in nearby Cimiez. He is still regarded as one of the most innovative and influential artists of the 20th century.

Is the subject of books:
Matisse: His Art and His Public, 1951, BY: Alfred H. Barr, Jr.
Matisse, 1979, BY: Lawrence Gowing

Source: Henri Matisse – Wikipedia

Source: Henri Matisse – Painter, Sculptor – Biography.com

Source: Henri Matisse Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works | The Art Story

Source: Henri Matisse

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 120th birthday of the artist André Masson. I was first introduced to his work through one called Kitchen Maids, a mention in a book about cubism and mostly dominated by Picasso. I loved the softer edges and the lack of rigidity to the style. Art should be a bit dirty, a bit blurred. Even a style of art that is supposed to be breaking all the rules should have it’s rules stretched. The world is a better place because he was in it and still feels the loss that he has left.

NAME: André Masson
OCCUPATION: Painter
BIRTH DATE: January 4, 1896
DEATH DATE: October 28, 1987
PLACE OF BIRTH: Balagny, France
PLACE OF DEATH: Paris, France

BEST KNOWN FOR: André Masson was a French painter and graphic artist associated with Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism.

Masson was born in Balagny-sur-Thérain, Oise, but was brought up in Belgium. He began his study of art at the age of eleven in Brussels, at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts under the guidance of Constant Montald, and later he studied in Paris. He fought for France during World War I and was seriously injured.His early works display an interest in cubism. He later became associated with surrealism, and he was one of the most enthusiastic employers of automatic drawing, making a number of automatic works in pen and ink. Masson would often force himself to work under strict conditions, for example, after long periods of time without food or sleep, or under the influence of drugs. He believed forcing himself into a reduced state of consciousness would help his art be free from rational control, and hence get closer to the workings of his subconscious mind. Masson experimented with altered states of consciousness with artists such as Antonin Artaud, Michel Leiris, Joan Miró, Georges Bataille, Jean Dubuffet, and Georges Malkine, who were neighbors of his studio in Paris.

From around 1926 he experimented by throwing sand and glue onto canvas and making oil paintings based around the shapes that formed. By the end of the 1920s, however, he was finding automatic drawing rather restricting, and he left the surrealist movement and turned instead to a more structured style, often producing works with a violent or erotic theme, and making a number of paintings in reaction to the Spanish Civil War (he associated once more with the surrealists at the end of the 1930s).

Under the German occupation of France during World War II, his work was condemned by the Nazis as degenerate. With the assistance of Varian Fry in Marseille, Masson escaped the Nazi regime on a ship to the French island of Martinique from where he went on to the United States. Upon arrival in New York City, U.S. customs officials inspecting Masson’s luggage found a cache of his erotic drawings. Denouncing them as pornographic, they ripped them up before the artist’s eyes. Living in New Preston, Connecticut his work became an important influence on American abstract expressionists, such as Jackson Pollock. Following the war, he returned to France and settled in Aix-en-Provence where he painted a number of landscapes.

Masson drew the cover of the first issue of Georges Bataille’s review, Acéphale, in 1936, and participated in all its issues until 1939. His brother-in-law, the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, was the last private owner of Gustave Courbet’s provocative painting L’Origine du monde (The Origin of the World); Lacan asked Masson to paint a surrealist variant.

Source: André Masson – Wikipedia

Source: André Masson | artnet

Source: Andre Masson – 122 artworks – WikiArt.org

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 161st birthday of the artist John Singer Sargent.  The renewed interest in his works could be attributed to the huge popularity of Downton Abbey and it’s highlighting and romanticizing of the Edwardian era, but his works can also hold their own.  They depict Edwardian subjects, but in a bit more of a realistic style.  His paintings let you feel like you are sneaking a peek at what it was really like in that time period, behind all the manners and ceremony, they sometimes depict more everyday situations.  I am sure that is part of their popularity, they allow you to be a participant. The world is a better place because he was in it and still feels the loss that he has left.

NAME: John Singer Sargent
OCCUPATION: Painter
BIRTH DATE: January 12, 1856
DEATH DATE: c. April 15, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH: Florence, Italy
PLACE OF DEATH: London, England
REMAINS: Buried, Brookwood Cemetery, London, England

BEST KNOWN FOR: John Singer Sargent was an Italian-born American painter whose portraits of the wealthy and privileged provide an enduring image of Edwardian-age society.

Artist. John Singer Sargent was born January 12, 1856 to American parents living in Florence, Italy. Although he spent most of his life in Europe, both of his parents were raised in the United States and the artist considered himself to be an American. His father, Fitzwilliam Sargent, was a physician who came from an early colonial family and grew up in Philadelphia. His mother, Mary Newbold Singer, married Sargent in 1850. While the couple were enamored of Europe and lived as expatriates, they were initially sent there by tragic circumstances, taking a tour as a means of escape following the tragic death of their first child. The Sargents had originally intended to return to the United States, but instead became expatriates.

John Singer Sargent began demonstrating his artistic talents at a young age, and soon took up the study of painting in a formal setting. His first known enrollment in art classes took place in Florence at the Accademia delle Belle Arti, in his late teens. During the winter of 1873-74, Sargent honed his skills, convincing his father that it was well worth encouraging his artistic pursuits. Father and son traveled together to Paris in the spring of 1874 so that John Singer Sargent could continue his studies in the art capital of Europe.

While in Paris, Sargent studied under a relatively young teacher named Carolus-Duran, who was teaching his students to break free of the rigidity of the old masters’ style. Carolus-Duran’s method emphasized skipping the step of making detailed sketches and heading straight to the canvas with a paintbrush. Sargent internalized these techniques; his later works would come to be recognized for their immediacy, emotional depth and refined technique.

In May 1876, when Sargent was in his early twenties, he made his first trip to the United States, accompanied by his mother and sister, Emily. The family visited Philadelphia and Niagara Falls, among other places. Much like his mother, Sargent found that he was intensely drawn to travel. When he got back to Europe, he kept traveling, using his voyages as opportunities to study great works of art and try his hand at portraying diverse locations. In Spain, Sargent admired and copied the works of Diego Velásquez; in Venice, he cultivated an appreciation for its picturesque canals, to which he would return many times. Travel scenes would form a major element of his work.

Back in Paris, Sargent submitted a portrait of his teacher, Carolus-Duran, to the Salon of 1879. It won him an honorable mention, and his reputation as a portraitist was given a boost. Between the years of 1877 and 1882, Sargent submitted many types of paintings to the Salon, but his portraits generally won the most positive attention. In 1884, though, his reputation took a turn for the worse, with the exhibition of his work Madame X. Because it defied many of the accepted standards of the day, and was slightly risqué in its portrayal of a woman in a low-cut, nearly sleeveless dress, it turned many of his admirers against him. The mother of the woman who had sat for the portrait, Madame Gautreau (who was actually American), even asked Sargent to remove it. Today, the painting is one of his most celebrated and famous.

Rather than stay in a city in which public opinion had turned against him, Sargent left Paris and began spending much of his time in England, making it his permanent home in 1886. The country he had adopted had not quite adopted him, though; the English were reluctant to sit for Sargent’s portraits because of the scandal of Madame X. Not wanting their own portraits to turn out the same way, they refrained from giving him commissions.

Sargent was not discouraged. On a pair of trips to the United States in 1887 and 1890, he found that Americans were not averse to being painted by him, and many members of American high society sat for his portraits. He often painted his subjects as if they were caught in the middle of motion, with faces both highly individualized and expressive.

The turning point for Sargent’s career in England came when he showed his Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose (painted 1885-86) at the London Royal Academy. The piece, undeniably one of Sargent’s masterpieces, incorporated Victorian themes and a calculated impressionist influence that depicted two girls lighting lanterns among flowers in spring. The English recognized the painting’s greatness, and members of the elite were soon lining up to commission their own likenesses.

Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose was important, too, as an example the impact that impressionism had had on Sargent’s works. He had become acquainted with and learned from both Claude Monet and Edgar Degas, masters of French impressionism. Sargent, like Monet, was particularly fascinated with light, and became highly skilled at portraying it. However, in contrast to the French painters’ work, Sargent’s paintings remained fairly literal, retaining crisp forms and not dissolving entirely into streaks of color.

Although his portraits were highly praised, Sargent eventually grew tired of painting them — they took up a large amount of his time, and there seemed to be no end to his new commissions. Sargent backed away from the portrait business between 1907 and 1910 to leave himself time to focus on other projects, in particular a set of murals for the Boston Public Library. The coming of World War I also changed Sargent’s subject matter, for a time. Visiting the Western Front at the request of the British government, which had asked him to paint a scene commemorating the war, Sargent created Gassed, an appropriately dark work, which depicted soldiers enduring the deplorable conditions that marked life in the Great War.

Sargent was also commissioned to create murals in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. His creations span across the museum’s grand staircase and rotunda. Additionally, his works can also be seen at Harvard University in its Widener Library — a tribute to those who died in WWI.

As he left portraiture behind, Sargent increasingly turned to watercolor, especially after 1903. His works in the medium were praised, so much so that he managed to make a name for himself as a watercolorist in addition to a painter.

Sargent passed away in his sleep on April 15, 1925 at the age of 69. He left behind a large body of work, including portraits, travel scenes, watercolors and impressionistic masterpieces that have defined his reputation into the current century; his works are still exhibited around the world. Although the artist and his portrait sitters are all gone, his admirable skill has given future generations a glimpse into the lives and characters of people long gone — certainly a gift to future generations, and one that those future generations have so far recognized as precious.

Source: John Singer Sargent – Wikipedia

Source: John Singer Sargent – 796 paintings and drawings – WikiArt.org

Source: John Singer Sargent – Painter – Biography.com

Source: John Singer Sargent

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 176th birthday of the artist Berthe Morisot. There are so very few female French Impressionist painters that she deserves note. You recognize her paintings, but probably didn’t know her story. The world is a better place because she was in it and still feels the loss that she has left.

NAME: Berthe Morisot
OCCUPATION: Painter
BIRTH DATE: January 14, 1841
DEATH DATE: March 2, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH: Bourges, France
PLACE OF DEATH: Paris, France

BEST KNOWN FOR: Berthe Morisot was a French Impressionist painter who portrayed a wide range of subjects—from landscapes and still lifes to domestic scenes and portraits.

Born January 14, 1841, in Bourges, France. Berthe Morisot’s father was a high-ranking government official and her grandfather was the influential Rococo painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard. She and her sister Edma began painting as young girls. Despite the fact that as women they were not allowed to join official arts institutions, the sisters earned respect in art circles for their talent.

Berthe and Edma Morisot traveled to Paris to study and copy works by the Old Masters at the Louvre Museum in the late 1850s under Joseph Guichard. They also studied with landscape painter Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot to learn how to paint outdoor scenes. Berthe Morisot worked with Corot for several years and first exhibited her work in the prestigious state-run art show, the Salon, in 1864. She would earn a regular spot at show for the next decade.

In 1868, fellow artist Henri Fantin-Latour introduced Berthe Morisot to douard Manet. The two formed a lasting friendship and greatly influenced one another’s work. Berthe soon eschewed the paintings of her past with Corot, migrating instead toward Manet’s more unconventional and modern approach. She also befriended the Impressionists Edgar Degas and Frédéric Bazille and in 1874, refused to show her work at the Salon. She instead agreed to be in the first independent show of Impressionist paintings, which included works by Degas, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, and Alfred Sisley. (Manet declined to be included in the show, determined to find success at the official Salon.) Among the paintings Morisot showed at the exhibition were The Cradle, The Harbor at Cherbourg, Hide and Seek, and Reading.

In 1874, Berthe Morisot married Manet’s younger brother, Eugne, also a painter. The marriage provided her with social and financial stability while she continued to pursue her painting career. Able to dedicate herself wholly to her craft, Morisot participated in the Impressionist exhibitions every year except 1877, when she was pregnant with her daughter.

Berthe Morisot portrayed a wide range of subjects—from landscapes and still lifes to domestic scenes and portraits. She also experimented with numerous media, including oils, watercolors, pastels, and drawings. Most notable among her works during this period is Woman at Her Toilette (c. 1879). Later works were more studied and less spontaneous, such as The Cherry Tree (1891-92) and Girl with a Greyhound (1893).

After her husband died in 1892, Berthe Morisot continued to paint, although she was never commercially successful during her lifetime. She did, however, outsell several of her fellow Impressionists, including Monet, Renoir, and Sisley. She had her first solo exhibition in 1892 and two years later the French government purchased her oil painting Young Woman in a Ball Gown. Berthe Morisot contracted pneumonia and died on March 2, 1895, at age 54.

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 85th birthday of the zoologist Dian Fossey.  She is the reason that we know more about gorillas than we used to and that we value them more than we used to.  The world is a better place because Dian was in it, needs more people like Dian in it, and still feels the loss that she has left it.

NAME: Dian Fossey
OCCUPATION: Anthropologist, Zoologist
BIRTH DATE: January 16, 1932
DEATH DATE: December 26, 1985
EDUCATION: Cambridge University
PLACE OF BIRTH: San Francisco, California
PLACE OF DEATH: Volcanoes National park, Rwanda

BEST KNOWN FOR: Zoologist Dian Fossey was one of the foremost primate researchers in the world who for 18 years studied of a group of gorillas in Rwanda.

Primatologist and naturalist. Born on January 16, 1932, in San Francisco, California. Dian Fossey enriched our understanding of gorillas through her intense study of these animals from the 1960s to 1980s. She was interested in animals from childhood, but changed college courses from pre-veterinary studies to occupational therapy.

Dian Fossey moved to Louisville, Kentucky, to be director of the Kosair Crippled Children’s Hospital occupational therapy department in 1955. But she soon became restless and dreamed of traveling to Africa. On her first trip to Africa in 1963, Fossey met palaeontologists Mary and Louis Leakey, who encouraged her dream to live and work with mountain gorillas.

In 1966, Dian Fossey caught up with Louis Leakey at a lecture in Louisville, and he invited her to study the mountain gorillas in Africa. She accepted his offer and lived among the mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo until civil war forced her to escape to Rwanda.

Dian Fossey established the Karisoke Research Foundation in 1967, alternating her time between her fieldwork there and obtaining a Ph.D. based on her research at Cambridge University. She earned her degree in 1976 and later accepted a visiting associate professorship at Cornell University. In 1983, her book, Gorillas in the Mist, was published and became a best seller. A film with the same name was also released in 1988 starring Sigourney Weaver as Fossey.

Considered the world’s leading authority on the physiology and behavior of mountain gorillas, Dian Fossey fought hard to protect these “gentle giants” from environmental and human hazards. She saw these animals as dignified, highly social creatures with individual personalities and strong family relationships. Her active conservationist stand to save these animals from game wardens, zoo poachers, and government officials who wanted to convert gorilla habitats to farmland caused her to fight for the gorillas not only via the media, but also by destroying poachers’ dogs and traps. On December 26, 1985, Fossey was found hacked to death, presumably by poachers, in her Rwandan forest camp. No assailant has ever been found or prosecuted in her murder.

Dian Fossey strongly opposed tourism, as gorillas are very susceptible to diseases by humans like the flu for which they have no immunity. Dian Fossey reported several cases in which gorillas died because of diseases spread by tourists. She also viewed tourism as an interference into their natural wild behavior. Fossey also criticized tourist programs, often paid for by international conservation organizations, for interfering with both her research and the peace of the mountain gorillas’ habitat.

come find me, i’m @

This year, I am answering 47 questions that I found on the internet by googling “questions to ask” and pulling them from a bunch of different sites. I have put them  in a random order on purpose because some are heavier than others, so much so that I will go ahead and fire off the **TRIGGER WARNING** now. I have gone back and forth with feeling comfortable about posting this and not posting it. Then once I identified where my discomfort was coming from, I realized that it was not my discomfort. I am worried about what I write, my story, my truth, making others uneasy. I hear it is a fairly common thing to do, so if you know anything about me it’s that I rarely do the common thing. I am sorry if my story make you uncomfortable, but not sorry enough to not tell it.

1. When you are day dreaming, what do you dream about? Being philanthropic. My lottery winning dreams are always related to supporting artists, animal rescues, at risk youth, food banks, and resources for the homeless.

2. What is your greatest extravagance? Skincare.

3. What was the happiest moment of your life? The saddest? The happiest was that moment when my feet left the roof of the Dow Rotunda; it felt like I was floating through the warm midnight air. I was infinite. The saddest moments are loss and unfinished business.

4. What have you done to make the world a better place to live in? I chose a path for myself that was less destructive.

5. Who has been the biggest influence on your life? What lessons did that person teach you? Having a mentor would have made this so much easier. I have always professed that there were no special teachers or adults in my childhood life that I looked up to for guidance. There weren’t. Most of the feedback I got from adults was that I wan’t smart and wasn’t their favorite.

6. Which living person do you most admire? Jimmy Carter.

7. If you had to choose one cause to dedicate your life to, what would that cause be? Curing HIV. But, I’m not a scientist, so I guess I will dedicate my life to highlighting inspiring stories.

8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Honesty. When opinions are masked as honesty and used as a weapon or a defense for being mean, ‘just being honest’ is an excuse.

9. Who has been the kindest to you in your life? I remember my maternal grandfather being a source of safety, comfort, and unconditional love.

10. Who is your hero of fiction? Nick Carraway. They sympathetic witness, the confidant, the friend with no ulterior motives.

11. What is society doing now that in 20 years will be laughed at and ridiculed? Electing presidents.

12. What are the most important lessons you’ve learned in life? You can continue on a lot longer than you think you can. Nothing is permanent.

13. What was your first thought when you woke up this morning? Is it leg day?

14. What advice would you give to your teenage self? My teenage self would not take any advice from a time traveling future me, he would not believe anything I said. So my best bet is to just tell him to buy Microsoft stock. If I could break through the insolence, I would tell him that nothing that is happening right now is going to matter in ten years, keep your head down, get out, and don’t look back.

15. What would you NOT do for 5 million dollars? Give away my dog.

16. What are you proudest of? The distance I have traveled.

17. What is your motto? Hic Sunt Leones.

18. What is your earliest memory? Being raped by my paternal grandfather in the greenhouse in his backyard. The pain, the smell of potting soil, the humidity. Yes, it sucks that being my earliest memory and normally, I have a conversation-friendly lie that I tell about our dog on the back porch of our house, but that is actually just a photograph I memorized. It’s kind of amazing how much time I have spent making sure that other people were ‘ok’ with that story, even before I was.

19. What’s the biggest doubt you have? That Stevia isn’t just the next Aspartame.

20. When in life have you felt most alone? I always feel alone. Maybe in that way I am lucky?

21. What is something that most people get wrong? The comment section. You know that rule to not make a comment on social media that you wouldn’t say to them in person while standing in front of your mother or clergy or your own personal moral authority. I want to take it a bit further and say, just don’t comment. Stop. Just be silent. One of my personal goals for 2017 is to not comment anything that is negative and to not read any comments from other people. I mean, I will read the comments that I get on the content I post, but I want to stop reading the comments that other people get on their posts. That goes double for news articles.

22. If you could hold on to one memory from your life forever, what would that be? Summer nights out at the lake house in front of the fire pit, listening to my maternal grandfather tell my sister and me stories about when he was a kid. I started to write that memories cannot be taken away from you, but they can. Not the way a tangible item can be taken, but time can soften the focus on your memories.

23. What three events made the biggest impact on who you are today? Sexual abuse. Breakdown. The summer at the lake changing my brain and building my foundation. In no way can these events be considered positive, but they are the still the most impactful.

24. What is your most treasured possession? The ring on my left middle finger that was my maternal grandfather’s wedding ring. Or it may be my father’s wedding ring. It’s a bit unclear and I haven’t had the chance to look at old photo albums to determine which.

25. If you could only have one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?  Grilled chicken, broccoli, and rice. If left to my own devices, I would do it now. I am not at all a foodie.

26. Who is your favorite author? David Rakoff. His last book breaks my heart.

27. How has your life been different than what you’d imagined? As a kid and teenager, I didn’t imagine my future. My daydreams were always about what I wished my present life was. Hoping and wanting seemed to only cause disappointment.

28. Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest? My maternal grandparents and my father.

29. What do you most dislike about your appearance? My hairline and waistline.

30. How would you like to be remembered? That I left the world better than I found it.

31. Do you have any regrets? I regret that I didn’t figure out my situation earlier.

32. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? Ideally, I would like to come back as a gay guy’s dog.

33. What are you tired of hearing about? What someone tweeted.

34. You are in charge of making insects a popular food item. You have 1 billion US dollars to achieve your goal. How do you do it? Give 1 billion people a dollar to eat a bug.

35. What does your future hold? Diet and exercise.

36. How would you like to die? In my sleep when I am 95 years old or in a hail of bullets. It just depends on the day.

37. What movie do you wish life was more like? The Goonies. Water slides, pirate ships, trap doors, treasure hunts, lovable ogres, inept villains, and Martha Plimpton.

38. What is your favorite word? Absolutely.

39. If you could learn only one magic spell, but it could only do something mundane and boring, what would the spell do? Twitch my nose and move the garbage/recycling/yard waste bins to and from the curb on Thursdays.

40. Which words or phrases do you most overuse? May I have a double tall americano please?

41. What childish thing do you still enjoy? Jellybeans.

42. What is your favorite curse word? Motherfucker.

43. You wake up suddenly in the middle of the night. What would be the scariest sound to hear after waking up? Shovelfuls of dirt landing on my coffin.

44. What would be the consequences of a scientific discovery that extended the life span of humans to 500 years? Electric scooter traffic jams.

45. What high level job do you think you could lie your way into with no experience and no one would notice? I think everyone could lie their way into being some sort of Department and/or Project Manager and believe most of them probably did.

46. Who are your icons? I have spent several years chronicling the lives of people who I find inspiring in some form or another. I take parts from him, pieces from her and mash them together to create the type of person I aspire to. Here are a few:  Andy Warhol, Anna Wintour, Buster Keaton, Cary Grant, David Rakoff, Diana Vreeland, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Paul Newman, Richard Neutra, Steve McQueen, Thom Browne, and Tom Ford.

47. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? Wanna go again?

Source: S.P.A. v45.0 Launch is Live – Waldina

Source: SPA v44.0 Launch is Live – Waldina

Source: SPA v43.0 Launch. – Waldina

Source: SPA v42.0 is LIVE, fool! – Waldina

Source: SPA v41.0 Launch – Waldina

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 62nd birthday of the artist Jeff Koons.  He is one of the most important modern artist living today.  The world is a better place because he is in it.

NAME: Jeff Koons
OCCUPATION: Illustrator, Painter, Sculptor
BIRTH DATE: January 21, 1955
EDUCATION: Maryland Institute of Art
PLACE OF BIRTH: York, Pennsylvania

BEST KNOWN FOR: Jeff Koons is a famous contemporary artist whose work is influenced by an eclectic array of sensibilities.

Jeff Koons was born on January 1, 1955, in York, Pennsylvania. After high school, he headed south to Maryland, where he attended the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. While earning his M.F.A. there (1976), he attended a show at the Whitney Museum in New York, an exhibition that would change his life.

“I remember being an art student and going to the Whitney in 1974 to see the exhibition of Jim Nutt, the Chicago imagist,” Koons says. “It was then I transferred to school in Chicago, all because of that show.” So Koons enrolled at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, an institution that would grant him an honorary doctorate more than 30 years later (2008).

Koons’ first show was staged in 1980, and he emerged onto the art scene with a style that blended several existing styles—pop, conceptual, craft, appropriation—to create his own unique mode of expression.

An “idea man,” Koons now runs his studio as he would a production office, often using computer-aided design and hiring out the actual construction of his pieces to technicians who can bring to life his ideas with more precision than he himself could.

His work takes on, in usually unconventional ways, such hot-button subjects such as sex, race, gender and fame, and it comes to life in such forms as balloons, bronzed sporting-goods items and inflatable pool toys. His knack for elevating the stature of such items from kitsch objects to high art has made his name synonymous with the art of mass culture.

And the transformation that takes place from Koons’ finding the objects he’ll use and the art he creates with them often gives birth to an unexpected psychological dimension, as shifting color, scale and representation take on new meaning, and the viewer can often find something wholly new in how humans, animals and anthropomorphized objects come to life.

Koons’ exhibits have always elicited inspired responses, a trait that perhaps itself is a marker in his importance as an artist, and since his first show in 1980 his works have been widely exhibited across the globe. In 2014, the Whitney, the museum that gave Koons a huge jolt of artistic inspiration as a student, held a retrospective of his body of work, the first to do so.

Of Koons, the Whitney says, “Throughout his career, he has pioneered new approaches to the readymade, tested the boundaries between advanced art and mass culture, challenged the limits of industrial fabrication, and transformed the relationship of artists to the cult of celebrity and the global market.”

He has also done solo shows at the château de Versailles in France (2008–09), the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago (2008), the Helsinki City Art Museum (2005), the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art in Oslo (2004) and the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (2003).

Along with high-profile exhibits, Koons’ career has been notable for the wide array of prestigious awards he has received, which span the entire course of his career. Notable among them are the State Department’s Medal of Arts (awarded by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2012) and becoming an honorary member of the Royal Academy, London (2010), and an officer of the French Legion of Honor (2007).

Koons was elected as a Fellow to the American Academy for Arts and Sciences in 2005.

Source: Jeff Koons – Wikipedia

Source: Jeff Koons – 241 Artworks, Bio & Shows on Artsy

Source: Jeff Koons

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 108th birthday of Porfirio Rubirosa.  I am not sure if The Smiths wrote the song about him, but I would like to think they did. The world is a better place because he was in it and still feels the loss that he has left.

NAME: Porfirio Rubirosa
DATE OF BIRTH: January 22, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH: San Francisco de Macorís, Dominican Republic
OCCUPATION: Diplomat, polo player, race car driver
DATE OF DEATH: July 5, 1965
PLACE OF DEATH:  Paris, France
HEIGHT: 5′ 10″

BEST KNOWN FOR: Dominican diplomat, race car driver, soldier and polo player. He was an adherent of the dictator Rafael Trujillo, and was also rumored to be a political assassin under his regime.

LAST OF THE FAMOUS INTERNATIONAL PLAYBOYS

Porfirio Rubirosa Ariza (January 22, 1909 – July 5, 1965) was a Dominican diplomat and adherent of Rafael Trujillo. He made his mark as an international playboy, for his jet setting lifestyle, and his legendary prowess with women.  Among his spouses were two of the richest women in the world.

Rubirosa was married five times, but never had any children. His wives were:

• Flor de Oro Trujillo, Rafael Trujillo’s daughter, December 3, 1932-38
• Danielle Darrieux, French actress, September 18, 1942 – May 21, 1947
• Doris Duke, American heiress, September 1, 1947 – October 1948; with marital gifts and final settlement he received an alimony ($25,000 per year until remarriage), a fishing fleet off Africa, several sports cars, a converted B-25 bomber (La Ganza), and a 17th Century house at Rue de Bellechasse, Paris.
• Barbara Hutton, American heiress, December 30, 1953 – on or before March 14, 1954; in the settlement he received a coffee plantation in the Dominican Republic, another B-25, polo ponies, jewelry, and she paid him a reported $2.5 million.
• Odile Rodin, French actress, age 19, October 27, 1956 – July 5, 1965 (his death)

Why he’s a style icon

Porfirio Rubirosa is the archetypal man’s man. He drove Ferraris at Le Mans, was a champion polo player, flew fighter planes from the South of France to South America for fun, married the two wealthiest women in the world back to back, and set the bar for all other Latin lotharios. While he stood only 5’9″, it was his manhood that made him a legend and the most desired man on the planet. He often described himself as half diplomat (which he actually was, after being appointed to numerous positions by Dominican dictator Generalissimo Trujillo, who happened to be Rubirosa’s first father-in-law) and half gigolo. While he was far too much of a gentleman to make mention of his now-legendary endowment, it is said that this alone caused women the world over to literally drag him into closets, bathrooms and under tables for a sample of what had entranced so many of the most beautiful and powerful women. He never held a steady job, and his goal was never to make money — but rather to spend it. Luckily, when a man can lay claim to romancing Barbara Hutton (a Woolworth heiress), Doris Duke (heiress to a tobacco and energy fortune), Zsa Zsa Gabor, Jayne Mansfield, Ava Gardner, Eva Peron, and countless other wealthy and powerful women, money tends to fall into one’s lap. Even his ex-wives were getting in on the action, as it is rumored that Rubirosa’s second wife, famed French actress Danielle Darrieux, received $1 million from Doris Duke to consent to a divorce so that she could lay a claim to Rubi herself. Has a woman ever paid someone $1 million to get a chance with you? Didn’t think so. At the age of only 47, Rubi died the night his team had won the Coupe de France polo cup. He died when his Ferrari skidded off the road and into a tree, and the steering column went through his heart. A true romantic even in death.

Dress the Rubirosa way

Rubirosa didn’t just act the part of Latin lover, he dressed the part. He was famously seen wearing thin three-piece suits of the finest quality, often with double-breasted jackets. His style of dress was equally influenced by the Latin flair that ran through his veins and the smooth, subtle cool of the Riviera. If you want to emulate Rubi you must remember that despite his generous endowment, he was not a showman and not a braggart, so the look must be quietly confident. In essence, he’s a prime example of “walk softly but carry a big stick.” One way to look like Rubi is to find a pink-gold Rolex like the one mentioned in American Psycho, but an even easier way is to buy a suit from Argentinean boutique Etiqueta Negra, whose polo-inspired flair would have certainly been a favorite of Rubi’s.

World War II, Rubirosa became engaged in two major passions, polo and car racing, both expensive sports that would be supported in years to come by his American wives. He organized and led his own polo team Cibao-La Pampa that was an often successful contender for the Coupe de France cup. Rubirosa played polo until the end of his life. In the same period, Rubirosa started to acquire fast cars and form friendships with race car drivers. He would own a number of Ferraris. His first race at 24 Hours of Le Mans took place in June 1950 with his partner Pierre Leygonie, and his second race, this time with Innocente Baggio, was four years later; in both races his car did not finish. Rubirosa participated in a number of races at Sebring, all but once as a private entry.

Rubirosa died early in the morning on July 5, 1965, when he crashed his Ferrari 250 GT into a chestnut tree and the steering column went through his heart after an all-night celebration at the Paris nightclub “Jimmy’s” in honor of winning the Coupe de France polo cup.  A true romantic even in death.

Source: Porfirio Rubirosa – Wikipedia

Source: Porfirio Rubirosa: The Most Interesting Man In The World – Thrillist

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 185th birthday of the artist Edouard Manet. His works are immediately recognizable and frequently reproduced, making them part of our collective consciousness and human experience. The world is a better place because he was in it and still feels the loss that he has left.

NAME: Edouard Manet
OCCUPATION: Painter
BIRTH DATE: January 23, 1832
DEATH DATE: April 30, 1883
EDUCATION: College Rollin, Canon Poiloup’s school in Vaugirard
PLACE OF BIRTH: Paris, France
PLACE OF DEATH: Paris, France

BEST KNOWN FOR: Edouard Manet was a French painter who depicted everyday scenes of people and city life. He was a leading artist in the transition from realism to impressionism.

Impressionist painter Edouard Manet fell dramatically short in meeting his parents’ expectations. Born in Paris on January 23, 1832, he was the son of Auguste Manet, a high-ranking judge, and Eugénie-Desirée Fournier, the daughter of a diplomat and the goddaughter of the Swedish crown prince. Affluent and well connected, the couple hoped their son would choose a respectable career, preferably law. Edouard refused. He wanted to create art.

Manet’s uncle, Edmond Fournier, supported his early interests and arranged frequent trips for him to the Louvre. His father, ever fearful that his family’s prestige would be tarnished, continued to present Manet with more “appropriate” options. In 1848, Manet boarded a Navy vessel headed for Brazil; his father hoped he might take to a seafaring life. Manet returned in 1849 and promptly failed his naval examinations. He repeatedly failed over the course of a decade, so his parents finally gave in and supported his dream of attending art school.

At age 18, Manet began studying under Thomas Couture, learning the basics of drawing and painting. For several years, Manet would steal away to the Louvre and sit for hours copying the works of the old masters. From 1853 to 1856, he traveled through Italy, Germany and Holland to take in the brilliance of several admired painters, notably Frans Hals, Diego Velázquez and Francisco José de Goya.

After six years as a student, Manet finally opened his own studio. His painting “The Absinthe Drinker” is a fine example of his early attempts at realism, the most popular style of that day. Despite his success with realism, Manet began to entertain a looser, more impressionistic style. Using broad brushstrokes, he chose as his subjects everyday people engaged in everyday tasks. His canvases were populated by singers, street people, gypsies and beggars. This unconventional focus combined with a mature knowledge of the old masters startled some and impressed others.

For his painting “Concert in the Tuileries Gardens,” sometimes called “Music in the Tuileries,” Manet set up his easel in the open air and stood for hours while he composed a fashionable crowd of city dwellers. When he showed the painting, some thought it was unfinished, while others understood what he was trying to convey. Perhaps his most famous painting is “The Luncheon on the Grass,” which he completed and exhibited in 1863. The scene of two young men dressed and sitting alongside a female nude alarmed several of the jury members making selections for the annual Paris Salon, the official exhibit hosted by the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Due to its perceived indecency, they refused to show it. Manet was not alone, though, as more than 4,000 paintings were denied entry that year. In response, Napoleon III established the Salon des Refusés to exhibit some of those rejected works, including Manet’s submission.

During this time, Manet married a Dutch woman named Suzanne Leenhoff. She had been Manet’s piano tutor when he was a child, and some believe, for a time, also Manet’s father’s mistress. By the time she and Manet officially married, they had been involved for nearly 10 years and had an infant son named Leon Keoella Leenhoff. The boy posed for his father for the 1861 painting “Boy Carrying a Sword” and as a minor subject in “The Balcony.” Suzanne was the model for several paintings, including “The Reading.”

Trying once again to gain acceptance into the salon, Manet submitted “Olympia” in 1865. This striking portrait, inspired by Titian’s “Venus of Urbino,” shows a lounging nude beauty who unabashedly stares at her viewers. The salon jury members were not impressed. They deemed it scandalous, as did the general public. Manet’s contemporaries, on the other hand, began to think of him a hero, someone willing to break the mold. In hindsight, he was ringing in a new style and leading the transition from realism to impressionism. Within 42 years, “Olympia” would be installed in Louvre.

After Manet’s unsuccessful attempt in 1865, he traveled to Spain, during which time he painted “The Spanish Singer.” In 1866, he met and befriended the novelist Emile Zola, who in 1867 wrote a glowing article about Manet in the French paper Figaro. He pointed out how almost all significant artists start by offending the current public’s sensibilities. This review impressed the art critic Louis-Edmond Duranty, who began to support him as well. Painters like Cezanne, Gauguin, Degas and Monet became his friends.

Some of Manet’s best-loved works are his cafe scenes. His completed paintings were often based on small sketches he made while out socializing. These works, including “At the Cafe,” “The Beer Drinkers” and “The Cafe Concert,” among others, depict 19th-century Paris. Unlike conventional painters of his time, he strove to illuminate the rituals of both common and bourgeoisie French people. His subjects are reading, waiting for friends, drinking and working. In stark contrast to his cafe scenes, Manet also painted the tragedies and triumphs of war. In 1870, he served as a soldier during the Franco-German War and observed the destruction of Paris. His studio was partially destroyed during the siege of Paris, but to his delight, an art dealer named Paul Durand-Ruel bought everything he could salvage from the wreckage for 50,000 francs.

In 1874, Manet was invited to show at the very first exhibit put on by impressionist artists. However supportive he was of the general movement, he turned them down, as well as seven other invitations. He felt it was necessary to remain devoted to the salon and its place in the art world. Like many of his paintings, Edouard Manet was a contradiction, both bourgeoisie and common, conventional and radical. A year after the first impressionist exhibit, he was offered the opportunity to draw illustrations for Edgar Allan Poe’s book-length French edition of “The Raven.” In 1881, the French government awarded him the Légion d’honneur.

He died two years later in Paris, on April 30, 1883. Besides 420 paintings, he left behind a reputation that would forever define him as a bold and influential artist.

Today is the 143rd birthday of the writer W. Somerset Maugham.  I was given a copy of “The Razor’s Edge” quite a while ago by a former employer stating “this is one of my favorite books and novels.”  He meant that he liked the story and like the look of the book, physically.  The book was given to him by the matriarch of a very prominent Seattle family when she was closing up and selling off her properties on the San Juan Islands.  I still have it and I hope to do the same with it one day.  The world is a better place because he was in it and still feels the loss that he has left.

NAME: Somerset Maugham
OCCUPATION: Author, Playwright
BIRTH DATE: January 25, 1874
DEATH DATE: December 16, 1965
EDUCATION: King’s School, Canterbury, St. Thomas’ Medical School, London
PLACE OF BIRTH: Paris, France
PLACE OF DEATH: Nice, France

BEST KNOWN FOR: Somerset Maugham was a British fiction writer, essayist and playwright known for works like Of Human Bondage and The Razor’s Edge.

Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.

Today is the birthday of W. Somerset Maugham, born in Paris (1874). His father was in Paris as a lawyer for the British Embassy. When Maugham was eight years old, his mother died from tuberculosis. His father died of cancer two years later. The boy was sent back to England into the care of a cold and distant uncle, a vicar. Maugham was miserable at his school. He said later: “I wasn’t even likable as a boy. I was withdrawn and unhappy, and rejected most overtures of sympathy over my stuttering and shyness.” Maugham became a doctor and practiced in the London slums. He was particularly moved by the women he encountered in the hospital, where he delivered babies; and he was shocked by his fellow doctors’ callous approach to the poor. He wrote: “I saw how men died. I saw how they bore pain. I saw what hope looked like, fear and relief; I saw the dark lines that despair drew on a face; I saw courage and steadfastness. I saw faith shine in the eyes of those who trusted in what I could only think was an illusion and I saw the gallantry that made a man greet the prognosis of death with an ironic joke because he was too proud to let those about him see the terror of his soul.”

At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.

When he was 23, he published his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, about a working-class 18-year-old named Liza who has an affair with a 40-year-old married man named Jim, a father of nine. Jim’s wife beats up Liza, who is pregnant, and who miscarries, and dies. The novel was a big success, and Maugham made enough money to quit medicine and become a full-time writer. For many years, he made his living as a playwright, but eventually he became one of the most popular novelists in Britain. His novels include Of Human Bondage (1915), The Moon and Sixpence (1919), Cakes and Ale (1930), and The Razor’s Edge (1944).

It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up.

FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Encore (14-Nov-1951) · Presenter
Trio (1-Aug-1950) · Presenter
Quartet (26-Oct-1948) · Himself

Author of books:
Liza and Lambeth (1897, novel)
Of Human Bondage (1915, novel)
The Moon and Sixpence (1919, novel)
Ashenden (1928, short stories)
Cakes and Ale (1930, novel)
Rain and Other Stories (1933, short stories)
The Summing Up (1938, novel)
The Razor’s Edge (1944, novel)
Catalina (1948, novel)
Quartet (1949, novel)

Wrote plays:
A Man of Honour (1903)
Lady Frederick (1907)
Our Betters (1917)
The Circle (1921)
The Constant Wife (1927)
The Sacred Flame (1928)

Source: W. Somerset Maugham

Source: W. Somerset Maugham – Wikipedia

Source: Somerset Maugham – Author, Playwright – Biography.com

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 136th birthday of the French artist Fernand Léger. His developed style of painting is distinctively his own. I see a combination of Picasso and Rivera cubism and the linear Art Deco formality. The world is a better place because he was in it and still feels the loss that he has left.

NAME: Fernand Léger
OCCUPATION: Painter
BIRTH DATE: February 4, 1881
DEATH DATE: August 17, 1955
EDUCATION: Paris School of Decorative Arts
PLACE OF BIRTH: Argentan, France
PLACE OF DEATH: Gif-sur-Yvette, France

BEST KNOWN FOR: French painter Fernand Léger created the abstract painting series “Contrast of Forms.” His work blended elements of Cubism with his own unique style, “tubism.”

Fernand Léger was born to a peasant family in the rural town of Argentan, France, on February 4, 1881. Léger’s father was a cattle dealer who hoped his son would follow in his footsteps and choose what he deemed a practical trade. Although Léger was initially discouraged from becoming an artist, his father became supportive once he recognized Léger’s gift for drawing.

With his father’s approval, Léger enrolled in architecture school and accepted an apprenticeship under an architect in Caen. In 1901, upon completion of his two-year internship, Léger moved to Paris, France, where he worked as an architectural draftsman.

Wishing to further pursue his art education, Léger applied to the prestigious École des Beux-Arts and was unfortunately rejected.In 1903 he stated attending the Paris School of Decorative Arts instead, while also being unofficially mentored by two École des Beux-Arts professors who recognized his potential. Up until this point, Léger’s painting style blended Impressionism with Fauvism. In 1907 he attended a retrospective of Paul Cézanne’s work. From then on, Léger’s work took on more elements of Cubism, but with his own unique style of slicing forms into tubular cylinders, casually referred to as “tubism.”

In 1913, he started a series of abstract paintings called “Contrast of Forms.” A year later, he put his art career on hold to serve in the French army during World War I. In 1916, he was gassed at Verdun. Having incurred a head injury, he was sent home and hospitalized until 1917.

After the war, Léger continued to paint but also tried his hand at other mediums, including book illustrations and set and costume designs for the theater. In 1924, Léger ventured to make his first film, Ballet Mécanique. That same year, he opened his own school of modern art.

As Léger’s work matured in the 1920s and ’30s, he increasingly incorporated elements of modernism—particularly representations of machinery and human figures expressing speed and movement. His notable paintings from this period include “The Mechanic,” “Mona Lisa with Keys,” “Adam and Eve,” and “Composition with Two Parrots,” among others.

With the arrival of World War II, in 1940, Léger temporarily relocated to America. During this time, he produced a series of paintings called “Divers,” noted for its unique use of large patches of color that overlapped outlines to portrayed stylized figures of swimmers diving off docks in Marseille. This series was followed by two others also portraying human figures in motion: “Acrobats” and “Cyclists.” In 1946, Léger went back to France, where he revitalized his art school and became active in the Communist Party. In the 1950s, Léger’s work focused on the theme of the common man, and further expanded to include tapestry, pottery, stained glass and mosaics.

Léger died on August 17, 1955, in Gif-sur-Yvette, France.

Source: Fernand Léger – Wikipedia

Source: Fernand Leger – 442 paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures – WikiArt.org

Source: Fernand Léger – Painter – Biography.com

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 119th birthday of silent movie idol Ramon Novarro.  I first discovered him back in the early 90s through an article in Architectural Digest about his Lloyd Wright house on Los Feliz.  Gorgeous house, I could go on and on about it (and have).  Since that first article, I have read several biographies and done my best to watch the films of his that are available.  His story is fascinating.  The world is a better place because he was in it and still feels the loss that he has left.

NAME: José Ramón Gil Samaniego
OCCUPATION: Silent Film Star
BIRTH DATE: February 6, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH: Durango, Mexico
DATE OF DEATH: October 30, 1968
PLACE OF DEATH: North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
REMAINS: Buried, Calvary Cemetery, Los Angeles, CA
GOLDEN GLOBE 1960 Special Award
HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME 6350 Hollywood Blvd.
HEIGHT: 5′ 6″

BEST KNOWN FOR: Jose Ramón Gil Samaniego, best known as Ramón Novarro, was a Mexican-American film, stage and television actor who began his career in silent films in 1917 and eventually became a leading man and one of the top box office attractions of the 1920s and early 1930s.

Navarro was born José Ramón Gil Samaniego on February 6, 1899 in Durango, Mexico to Dr. Mariano N. Samaniego. He moved with his family to Los Angeles, California, to escape the Mexican Revolution in 1913.

Allan Ellenberger, Novarro’s biographer, writes:

…the Samaniegos were an influential and well-respected family in Mexico. Many Samaniegos had prominent positions the affairs of state and were held in high esteem by the president. Ramon’s grandfather, Mariano Samaniego, was a well-known physician in Juarez. Known as a charitable and outgoing man, he was once an interim governor for the State of Chihuahua and was the first city councilman of El Paso, Texas…

Ramon’s father, Dr. Mariano N. Samaniego, was born in Juarez and attended high school in Las Cruces, New Mexico. After receiving his degree in dentistry at the University of Pennsylvania, he moved to Durango, Mexico, and began a flourishing dental practice. In 1891 he married Leonor Gavilan, the beautiful daughter of a prosperous landowner. The Gavilans were a mixture of Spanish and Aztec blood, and according to local legend, they were descended from Guerrero, a prince of Montezuma.

The family estate was called the “Garden of Eden”. Thirteen children were born there: Emilio; Guadalupe; Rosa; Ramon; Leonor; Mariano; Luz; Antonio; a stillborn child; Carmen; Angel and Eduardo.

At the time of the revolution in Mexico the family moved from Durango to Mexico City and then back to Durango. Ramon’s three sisters, Guadalupe, Rosa, and Leonor became nuns.

A second cousin of the Mexican actresses Dolores del Río and Andrea Palma, he entered films in 1917 in bit parts; and he supplemented his income by working as a singing waiter. His friends, the actor and director Rex Ingram and his wife, the actress Alice Terry, began to promote him as a rival to Rudolph Valentino, and Ingram suggested he change his name to “Novarro.” From 1923, he began to play more prominent roles. His role in Scaramouche (1923) brought him his first major success.

In 1925, he achieved his greatest success in Ben-Hur, his revealing costumes causing a sensation, and was elevated into the Hollywood elite. As with many stars, Novarro engaged Sylvia of Hollywood as a therapist (although in her tell-all book, Sylvia erroneously claimed Novarro slept in a coffin). With Valentino’s death in 1926, Novarro became the screen’s leading Latin actor, though ranked behind his MGM stablemate, John Gilbert, as a model lover. He was popular as a swashbuckler in action roles and was considered one of the great romantic lead actors of his day. Novarro appeared with Norma Shearer in The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927) and with Joan Crawford in Across to Singapore (1928). He made his first talking film, starring as a singing French soldier, in Devil-May-Care (1929). He also starred with the French actress Renée Adorée in The Pagan (1929). Novarro starred with Greta Garbo in Mata Hari (1932) and was a qualified success opposite Myrna Loy in The Barbarian (1933).

When Novarro’s contract with MGM Studios expired in 1935, the studio did not renew it. He continued to act sporadically, appearing in films for Republic Pictures, a Mexican religious drama, and a French comedy. In the 1940s, he had several small roles in American films, including John Huston’s We Were Strangers (1949) starring Jennifer Jones and John Garfield. In 1958, he was considered for a role in a television series, The Green Peacock with Howard Duff and Ida Lupino after the demise of their CBS sitcom Mr. Adams and Eve. The project, however, never materialized. A Broadway tryout was aborted in the 1960s; but Novarro kept busy on television, appearing in NBC’s The High Chaparral as late as 1968.

At the peak of his success in the late 1920s and early 1930s, he was earning more than US$100,000 per film. He invested some of his income in real estate, and his Hollywood Hills residence is one of the more renowned designs (1927) by architect Lloyd Wright. After his career ended, he was still able to maintain a comfortable lifestyle.

Novarro had been troubled all his life as a result of his conflicting views over his Roman Catholic religion and his homosexuality, and his life-long struggle with alcoholism is often traced to these issues. MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer reportedly tried to coerce Novarro into a “lavender marriage”, which he refused. He was a friend of adventurer and author Richard Halliburton, also a celebrity in the closet, and was romantically involved with journalist Herbert Howe, who was also his publicist during the late 1920s.

Novarro was murdered on October 30, 1968, by two brothers, Paul and Tom Ferguson (aged 22 and 17, respectively), whom he had hired from an agency to come to his Laurel Canyon home for sex. According to the prosecution in the murder case, the two young men believed that a large sum of money was hidden in Novarro’s house. The prosecution accused them of torturing Novarro for several hours to force him to reveal where the nonexistent money was hidden. They left with a mere 20 dollars that they took from his bathrobe pocket before fleeing the scene. Novarro allegedly died as a result of asphyxiation, choking to death on his own blood after being brutally beaten. The two brothers were later caught and sentenced to long prison terms, but were quickly released on probation. Both were later rearrested for unrelated crimes, for which they served longer terms than for their murder conviction.

Ramón Novarro is buried in Calvary Cemetery, in Los Angeles. Ramón Novarro’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is at 6350 Hollywood Boulevard

Novarro’s murder served as the influence for the short story by Charles Bukowski, The Murder of Ramon Vasquez, and the song by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, “Tango,” recorded by Peggy Lee on her Mirrors album.

In late 2005, the Wings Theatre in New York City staged the world premiere of Through a Naked Lens by George Barthel. The play combined fact and fiction to depict Novarro’s rise to fame and a relationship with Hollywood journalist Herbert Howe.

Novarro’s relationship with Herbert Howe is discussed in two biographies: Allan R. Ellenberger’s Ramón Novarro and André Soares’s Beyond Paradise: The Life of Ramón Novarro. A recounting of Novarro’s murder can be found in Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon.

FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Heller in Pink Tights (29-Feb-1960)
Crisis (7-Jul-1950) · Col. Adragon
The Outriders (1-Mar-1950) · Don Antonio Chaves
The Big Steal (9-Jul-1949) · Inspector General Ortega
We Were Strangers (27-Apr-1949) · Chief
Laughing Boy (13-Apr-1934) · Laughing Boy
The Cat and the Fiddle (16-Feb-1934) · Victor Florescu
The Barbarian (12-May-1933) · Jamil
The Son-Daughter (23-Dec-1932)
Huddle (14-May-1932) · Tony
Mata Hari (26-Dec-1931) · Lt. Alexis Rosanoff
Son of India (1-Aug-1931) · Karim
Daybreak (2-May-1931) · Willi
Call of the Flesh (16-Aug-1930)
In Gay Madrid (17-May-1930) · Ricardo
The Pagan (27-Apr-1929) · Henry Shoesmith, Jr.
The Flying Fleet (19-Jan-1929) · Tommy Winslow
Across to Singapore (7-Apr-1928) · Joel Shore
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (21-Sep-1927) · Prince Karl Heinrich
Ben-Hur (30-Dec-1925)
The Red Lily (8-Sep-1924)
The Arab (13-Jul-1924)
Scaramouche (15-Sep-1923)
The Prisoner of Zenda (11-Sep-1922) · Rupert of Hentzau

Source: A star is killed: Hollywood’s deadly secret – latimes

Source: Ramon Novarro – Wikipedia

Source: Ramon Novarro

Source: Ramon Novarro

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 136th birthday of the prima ballerina Anna Pavlova. She elevated the art of dance to celebrity status. The world is a better place because she was in it and still feels the loss that she has left.

NAME: Anna Pavlova
OCCUPATION: Ballet Dancer, Choreographer
BIRTH DATE: February 12, 1881
DEATH DATE: January 23, 1931
EDUCATION: Imperial School of Ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre
PLACE OF BIRTH: St. Petersburg, Russia
PLACE OF DEATH: The Hague, Netherlands
FULL NAME: Anna Pavlovna Pavlova
REMAINS: Cremated, Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow, Russia

BEST KNOWN FOR:  Anna Pavlova was a famous Russian prima ballerina and choreographer. The company she founded in 1911 was the first to tour ballet around the world.

Ballerina Anna Pavlova was born Anna Matveyevna Pavlovna Pavlova on February 12, 1881–a cold and snowy winter’s day–in St. Petersburg, Russia. Her mother, Lyubov Feodorovna was a washerwoman. Her stepfather, Matvey Pavlov, was a reserve soldier. The identity of Anna Pavlova’s biological father is unknown, though some speculate that her mother had an affair with a banker named Lazar Poliakoff. As a child, Anna preferred to believe she was a product of an earlier marriage. She told people her mother had once been married to a man named Pavel, who died when Anna was just a toddler. Yet this Pavel remains something of a mystery to historians and biographers.

From early on, Anna’s active imagination and love of fantasy drew her to the world of ballet. Looking back on her childhood, Anna Pavlova described her budding passion for ballet accordingly: “I always wanted to dance; from my youngest years…Thus I built castles in the air out of my hopes and dreams.”

Although they were poor, Anna and her mother were able to see a performance of The Sleeping Beauty at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg when Anna was 8 years old. Captivated by what she saw, the wide-eyed little girl declared she was resolved to become a ballet dancer. Anna’s mother enthusiastically supported her pursuit. Within just two years, Anna was accepted at the St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet School, after passing the entry exam with flying colors. The school was directed by famed ballet master Marius Petipa.

At the Imperial Ballet School, Petipa and Anna’s teachers, Ekaterina Vazem and Pavel Gerdt, quickly recognized her extraordinary gift. A dedicated and ambitious student, Anna knew a successful ballet career would require a lot more than just talent. Her natural gift for dance, combined with her tireless work ethic, is here summarized in her own words: “No one can arrive from being talented alone. God gives talent, work transforms talent into genius.” In 1899 Anna graduated the St. Petersburg Imperial Dance School at the age of 18–gracefully leaping from school to stage in her hard-earned transformation from ballet student to prima ballerina in the making.

Because Anna graduated as a coryphée, she was able to skip right over dancing in a corps de ballet. In other words, she bypassed the usual initiation rite of dancing in large groups, and was permitted to dance in smaller groups right away. Fresh out of dance school, on September 19, 1899, the gifted young ballerina made her company debut, dancing in a group of three in La Fille Mal Gardée.   The performance took place at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg–the same theater where, as a child, Anna Pavlova had first decided to become a dancer.

Pavlova’s career soon blossomed. With every performance, she gained increasing critical acclaim and subsequent fame. But it was in 1905 that Anna Pavlova made her breakthrough performance, when she danced the lead solo in choreographer Michael Fokine‘s The Dying Swan,  with music by Camille Saint-Saëns. With her delicate movements and intense facial expressions, Anna managed to convey to the audience the play’s complex message about the fragility and preciousness of life. The Dying Swan was to become Anna Pavlova’s signature role.

Anna continued to rise quickly through the ranks. By 1906 she had already successfully danced the difficult part of Giselle. Just seven years into her ballet career, Anna was promoted to prima ballerina.

Accompanied by a handful of other dancers, in 1907, Anna took leave on her first tour abroad. The tour stopped at capital cities throughout Europe–including Berlin, Copenhagen and Prague, among others. In response to the critical acclaim her performances received, Anna signed up for a second tour in 1908.

In 1909, after having completed her second tour, Anna was invited to join Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe on its historic tour, during the opening season in Paris. Anna’s fellow dancers in the company included the likes of Laurent Novikoff, Thadee Slavinsky, Olga Spessivtzeva, Anatole Vilz and Alexander Volinine. While touring, the Ballet Russe frequently visited Australia, and there played an instrumental role in Russian ballet’s influence on the future of Australian dance. During 1910, Anna toured the United Kingdom and the United States. When she wasn’t dancing solo, her more notable dance partners included Laurent Novikoff and Pierre Vladimirov.

In 1911 Anna Pavlova took a major step in her career–by forming her own ballet company. In so doing, Anna was able to retain complete creative control over performances and even choreograph her own roles. Anna put her husband, Victor Dandré, in charge of organizing her independent tours. For the final two decades of her ballet career, she toured with her company all over the world, as little girls watched in awe and were inspired to become dancers, the same way Anna had been at the Mariinsky Theatre all those years ago.

In 1930, when Anna was 50 years old, her 30-year dance career had come to physically wear on her. She decided to take a Christmas vacation after wrapping up a particularly arduous tour in England. At the end of her vacation, she boarded a train back to The Hague, where she planned to resume dancing. On its way from Cannes to Paris, the train was in an accident. Anna was unharmed in the accident, but she was left waiting out the delay for 12 hours on the platform. It was a snowy evening, and Anna was only wearing only a thin jacket and flimsy silk pajamas. Once in Holland, within days of the accident, she developed double pneumonia. Her illness quickly worsened. On her deathbed, Anna, passionate about dance until her final breath, asked to see her swan costume one last time. She died in The Hague, Netherlands, in the wee hours of the morning, on January 23, 1931. Her ashes were interred at Golders Green Cemetery, near the Ivy House where she had lived with her manager and husband, Victor Dandré, in London,  England.

Anna Pavlova was one of the most celebrated and influential ballet dancers of her time. Her passion and grace are captured in striking photographic portraits. Her legacy lives on through dance schools, societies and companies established in her honor, and perhaps most powerfully, in the future generations of dancers she inspired.

Source: Anna Pavlova – Wikipedia

Source: Anna Pavlova – Ballet Dancer, Choreographer – Biography.com

Source: Anna Pavlova

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 102nd birthday of the prolific Hollywood actress Ann Sheridan. Her’s is the classic Hollywood story, right down to her final resting place. Do yourself a favor and watch one of her films from the 30s and think about a time before television and how everyone went to movie houses. The world is a better place because she was in it and still feels the loss that she has left.

NAME: Ann Sheridan
BIRTHDATE: February 21, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH: Denton, TX
HEIGHT: 5′ 5″
DATE OF DEATH: January 21, 1967
PLACE OF DEATH: Los Angeles, CA
REMAINS: Cremated, Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood, CA
HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME 7024 Hollywood Blvd.

BEST KNOWN FOR: American actress. She worked regularly from 1934 to her death in 1967, first in film and later in television. Notable roles include Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942), Kings Row (1942), Nora Prentiss (1947) and I Was a Male War Bride (1949).

Born Clara Lou Sheridan in Denton, Texas on February 21, 1915, Sheridan was a student at the University of North Texas when her sister sent a photograph of her to Paramount Pictures. She subsequently entered and won a beauty contest, with part of her prize being a bit part in a Paramount film. She abandoned college to pursue a career in Hollywood.

She made her film debut in 1934, aged 19, in the film Search for Beauty, and played uncredited bit parts in Paramount films for the next two years. Paramount made little effort to develop Sheridan’s talent, so she left, signing a contract with Warner Bros. in 1936, and changing her name to Ann Sheridan.

Sheridan’s career prospects began to improve. She received as many as 250 marriage proposals from fans in a single week. Tagged “The Oomph Girl”—a sobriquet which she reportedly loathed – Sheridan was a popular pin-up girl in the early 1940s.

She was the heroine of a novel, Ann Sheridan and the Sign of the Sphinx, written by Kathryn Heisenfelt, published by Whitman Publishing Company in 1943. While the heroine of the story was identified as a famous actress, the stories were entirely fictitious. The story was probably written for a young teenage audience and is reminiscent of the adventures of Nancy Drew. It is part of a series known as “Whitman Authorized Editions”, 16 books published between 1941 and 1947 that always featured a film actress as heroine.

She received substantial roles and positive reaction from critics and moviegoers in such films as Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), opposite James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, Dodge City (1939) with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, Torrid Zone with Cagney and They Drive by Night with George Raft and Bogart (both 1940), The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) with Bette Davis, and Kings Row (1942), in which she received top billing playing opposite Ronald Reagan, Robert Cummings, and Betty Field.

She also appeared in such musicals as It All Came True (1940) and Navy Blues (1941). She was also memorable in two of her biggest hits, Nora Prentiss and The Unfaithful, both in 1947.

Despite these successes, her career began to decline. Her role in I Was a Male War Bride (1949), directed by Howard Hawks and costarring Cary Grant, gave her another success, but by the 1950s she was struggling to find work and her film roles were sporadic. In 1950, she appeared on the ABC musical television series Stop the Music. In 1962, she played the lead in “The Mavis Grant Story” on the Western series Wagon Train. In the middle 1960s, Sheridan appeared on the NBC soap opera Another World. She also had a TV series of her own in the mid-1960s, a comedy Western entitled Pistols ‘n’ Petticoats. This was shortly before her death.

For her contributions to the motion picture industry, Ann Sheridan has a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame at 7024 Hollywood Boulevard.

Sheridan married three times, including a marriage lasting one year to fellow Warner Brothers star George Brent, who co-starred with her in Honeymoon for Three (1941).

In 1966, Sheridan began starring in a new TV series, a Western themed comedy called Pistols ‘n’ Petticoats. She became ill during the filming, and died of esophageal and liver cancer at age 51 on January 21, 1967, in Los Angeles, California, a month before her 52nd birthday. She was cremated, and her ashes were stored at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles until her remains were interred in a niche in the Chapel Columbarium at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in 2005.

TELEVISION
Pistols ‘n’ Petticoats Henrietta Hanks (1966-67)
Another World Kathryn Corning (1965-66)

FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
The Opposite Sex (26-Oct-1956) · Amanda
Come Next Spring (9-Mar-1956) · Bess Ballot
Appointment in Honduras (16-Oct-1953) · Sylvia Sheppard
Take Me to Town (19-Jun-1953)
Woman on the Run (29-Nov-1950)
Stella (20-Jul-1950)
I Was a Male War Bride (11-Aug-1949) · Lt. Catherine Gates
Good Sam (1-Sep-1948) · Lu Clayton
Silver River (18-May-1948) · Georgia Moore
The Unfaithful (5-Jun-1947) · Chris Hunter
Nora Prentiss (21-Feb-1947) · Nora Prentiss
One More Tomorrow (1-Jun-1946) · Christie Sage
The Doughgirls (30-Aug-1944) · Edna Stokes
Shine on Harvest Moon (10-Mar-1944) · Nora Bayes
Thank Your Lucky Stars (1-Oct-1943) · Herself
Edge of Darkness (23-Mar-1943)
George Washington Slept Here (28-Nov-1942) · Connie Fuller
Wings for the Eagle (18-Jul-1942) · Roma Maple
Juke Girl (30-May-1942)
Kings Row (2-Feb-1942) · Randy Monaghan
The Man Who Came to Dinner (1-Jan-1942) · Lorraine Sheldon
Navy Blues (13-Sep-1941)
Honeymoon for Three (18-Jan-1941) · Anne Rogers
City for Conquest (21-Sep-1940) · Peggy Nash
They Drive by Night (27-Jul-1940) · Cassie Hartley
Torrid Zone (18-May-1940) · Lee Donley
It All Came True (6-Apr-1940) · Sarah Jane Ryan
Castle on the Hudson (17-Feb-1940) · Kay
The Angels Wash Their Faces (26-Aug-1939) · Joy Ryan
Winter Carnival (28-Jul-1939)
Indianapolis Speedway (14-Jul-1939) · Frankie Merrick
Naughty But Nice (23-Jun-1939)
Dodge City (1-Apr-1939) · Ruby Gilman
They Made Me a Criminal (21-Jan-1939) · Goldie
Angels with Dirty Faces (24-Nov-1938)
Letter of Introduction (5-Aug-1938)
Cowboy from Brooklyn (9-Jul-1938) · Maxine Chadwick
The Patient in Room 18 (8-Jan-1938)
She Loved a Fireman (18-Dec-1937) · Margie Shannon
Wine, Women and Horses (11-Sep-1937)
San Quentin (3-Aug-1937)
The Great O’Malley (13-Feb-1937) · Judy Nolan
Black Legion (30-Jan-1937) · Betty Grogan
The Glass Key (15-Jun-1935)
Rocky Mountain Mystery (1-Mar-1935)
Car 99 (23-Feb-1935)
Enter Madame (4-Jan-1935)
Ladies Should Listen (10-Aug-1934)
Kiss and Make-Up (13-Jul-1934)

Source: Ann Sheridan – Wikipedia

Source: Ann Sheridan (1915 – 1967) – Find A Grave Memorial

Source: Ann Sheridan

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 90th birthday of the fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy.  His continuously classic modern style cannot be copied and his longevity is unmatched.  The world is lucky that he is still in it.

NAME: Hubert de Givenchy
OCCUPATION: Fashion Designer
BIRTH DATE: February 21, 1927
DID YOU KNOW?: Hubert de Givenchy designed Audrey Hepburn‘s costumes for several films, including Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
EDUCATION: École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (Paris)
PLACE OF BIRTH: Beauvais, France
FULL NAME: Hubert James Marcel Taffin de Givenchy
AKA: Count Hubert James Marcel Taffin de Givenchy

BEST KNOWN FOR: French fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy is known for his elegant haute couture designs and professional relationships with clients like Audrey Hepburn.

Hubert de Givenchy Marcel Taffin de Givenchy was born on February 21, 1927, in the city of Beauvais in northern France. His parents, Lucien and Béatrice (née Badin) Taffin de Givenchy, gave him and his brother, Jean-Claude, an aristocratic heritage. After Lucien Taffin de Givenchy died in 1930, Givenchy was raised by his mother and his maternal grandmother.

In 1944, Hubert de Givenchy moved to Paris, where he studied art at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. Though he briefly considered a career in law, he decided to enter the world of fashion and, at the age of 17, began an apprenticeship with designer Jacques Fath. After his time with Fath, Givenchy worked for several famous French couture houses in the 1940s: Lucien Lelong, Robert Piquet and Elsa Schiaparelli.

Givenchy opened his own design house in 1952. His debut collection was a hit. It featured separates such as long skirts and tailored blouses, including the “Bettina blouse,” named after model Bettina Graziani. In his following collections, he also designed elegant evening gowns, feminine hats and tailored suits, and the Givenchy name became synonymous with Parisian chic.

In 1953, Givenchy met Spanish designer Cristóbal Balenciaga, whom he greatly admired. In 1957, the two designers teamed up to introduce a new silhouette called the “sack,” a loose form without any waistline.

By the 1960s, Givenchy, setting new trends and embracing certain aspects of youth culture, had begun to favor shorter hemlines and straighter silhouettes in his designs.

Givenchy designed for many celebrity clients, but his best-known client (who became a close personal friend) was Audrey Hepburn. Givenchy and Hepburn met in 1953, when she was just a rising star; he designed her costumes for Sabrina (1954) and helped to define her classic, gamine style. Over the following decade, he designed her costumes for Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), Charade (1963), Paris When It Sizzles (1964) and How to Steal a Million (1966). The Givenchy brand also released a fragrance inspired by Hepburn called L’Interdit.

Among the other well-known women of style dressed by Givenchy were U.S. first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, who wore a Givenchy gown during an official visit to Paris in 1961; Princess Grace of Monaco; Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor; and socialite Babe Paley.

After selling his business to the luxury conglomerate Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessey in 1988, Givenchy designed for seven more years, retiring and presenting his final collection in 1995. He was succeeded as head designer by enfant terrible John Galliano.

Designers to later serve as head designer at Givenchy include Alexander McQueen and Riccardo Tisci.

Givenchy lives in retirement at a country estate called Le Jonchet in the French countryside. His work has been shown in retrospective exhibitions at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and the Musée Galliera in Paris, and he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1996.

Source: Hubert de Givenchy – Wikipedia

Source: Hubert de Givenchy – Fashion Designer – Biography.com

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 85th  birthday of Elizabeth Taylor.  Everything has already been said and everything should be said about Elizabeth Taylor.  Pick one of her films and watch it and re-fall in love with her.  I can’t even decide which one it should be.  Cat? Place? BUtterfield? Suddenly? Giant? Just watch one.  The world is a better place because she was in it and still feels the loss that she has left.

NAME: Elizabeth Taylor
OCCUPATION: Film Actress
BIRTH DATE: February 27, 1932
DEATH DATE: March 23, 2011
PLACE OF BIRTH: London, England
PLACE OF DEATH: Los Angeles, California
NICKNAME: Liz Taylor
FULL NAME: Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, DBE
REMAINS: Buried, Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Glendale, CA
OSCAR for Best Actress 1961 for Butterfield 8
OSCAR for Best Actress 1967 for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
GOLDEN GLOBE 1960 for Suddenly, Last Summer
GOLCEN GLOBE 1974 World Film Favorite, Female
AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE LIFE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 1993
DAME OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 2000
KENNEDY CENTER HONOR 2002
HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME 6336 Hollywood Blvd.

BEST KNOWN FOR: Actress Elizabeth Taylor starred in films like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Butterfield 8, but was just as famous for her violet eyes and scandalous love life.

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born on February 27, 1932, in London, England. One of film’s most celebrated stars, Elizabeth Taylor has fashioned a career that’s covered more than six decades, accepting roles that have not only showcased her beauty, but her ability to take on emotionally charged characters.

Taylor’s American parents, both art dealers, were residing in London when she was born. Soon after the outbreak of World War II, the Taylors returned to the United States and settled into their new life in Los Angeles.

“One problem with people who have no vices is that they’re pretty sure to have some annoying virtues.” – Elizabeth Taylor

Performance was in Taylor’s blood. Her mother had worked as an actress until she married. At the age of 3, the young Taylor started dancing, and eventually gave a recital for Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. Not long after relocating to California a family friend suggested the Taylors’ daughter take a screen test.

She soon signed a contract with Universal Studios, and made her screen debut at the age of 10 in There’s One Born Every Minute (1942). She followed that up with a bigger role in Lassie Come Home (1943) and later The White Cliffs of Dover (1944).

Her breakout role, however, came in 1944 with National Velvet, in a role Elizabeth Taylor spent four months working to get. The film subsequently turned out to be a huge hit that pulled in more than $4 million and made the 12-year-old actress a huge star.

In the glare of the Hollywood spotlight, the young actress showed she was more than adept at handling celebrity’s tricky terrain. Even more impressive was the fact that, unlike so many child stars before and after her, Taylor proved she could make a seamless transition to more adult roles.

“It would be glamorous to be reincarnated as a great big ring on Liz Taylor’s finger.” – Andy Warhol

Her stunning looks helped. At just 18 she played opposite Spencer Tracy in Father of the Bride (1950). Taylor also showed her acting talents in 1954 with three films: The Last Time I Saw Paris, Rhapsody, and Elephant Walk, the latter of which saw Taylor take on the role of a plantation owner’s wife who is in love with the farm’s manager.

Her personal life only boosted the success of her films. For a time she dated millionaire Howard Hughes, then at the age of 17, Elizabeth Taylor made her first entrance into marriage, when she wed hotel heir, Nicky Hilton.

The union didn’t last long and, in 1952, Taylor was walking down the aisle again—this time to marry actor Michael Welding. In all, Taylor has married eight times during life, including twice to actor Richard Burton.

While her love life continued to make international headlines, Taylor continued to shine showed as an actress.

She delivered a riveting performance in the drama A Place in the Sun, and turned things up even more in 1956 with the film adaptation of the Edna Ferber novel, Giant that co-starred James Dean. Two years later, she sizzled on the big screen in the film adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The following year, she starred in another Williams classic, Suddenly Last Summer. Taylor earned her first Oscar, capturing the coveted Best Actress award for her role as call girl in BUtterfield 8 (1960).

But Taylor’s fame was also touched by tragedy and loss. In 1958, she became a young widow when her husband, pioneering film producer Mike Todd, was killed in a plane crash. After his death, Taylor became embroiled in one of the greatest Hollywood love scandals of the era when she began an affair with Todd’s close friend, Eddie Fisher. Fisher divorced Debbie Reynolds and married Taylor in 1959. The couple stayed married for five years until she left Fisher for actor Richard Burton.

The public’s obsession with Taylor’s love life hit new heights with her 1964 marriage to Richard Burton. She’d met and fallen in love with the actor during her work on Cleopatra (1963), a film that not only heightened Taylor’s clout and fame, but also proved to be a staggering investment, clocking in at an unprecedented $37 million to make.

The Taylor-Burton union was a fiery and passionate one. They appeared onscreen together in the much-panned The V.I.P.’s (1963), and then again two years later for the heralded Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, a film that earned Taylor her second Oscar for her role as an overweight, angry wife of an alcoholic professor, played by Burton.

The subsequent years proved to be an up-and-down affair for Taylor. There were more marriages, more divorces, health obstacles, and a struggling film career, with movies that gained little traction with critics or the movie-going public.

Still, Taylor continued to act. She found work on television, even making a guest appearance on General Hospital, and on stage. She also began focusing more attention on philanthropy. After her close friend Rock Hudson died in 1985 following his battle with HIV/AIDS, the actress started work to find a cure for the disease. In 1991 she launched the Elizabeth Taylor HIV/AIDS Foundation in order to offer greater support for those who are sick, as well fund research for more advanced treatments.

Largely retired from the world of acting, Taylor received numerous awards for her body of work. In 1993 she received the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award. In 2000 she was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE).

Taylor overcame a litany of health problems throughout the 90s, from diabetes to congestive heart failure. She had both hips replaced, and in 1997 had a brain tumor removed. In October 2009, Taylor, who has four children, underwent successful heart surgery. In early 2011, Taylor again experienced heart problems.

She was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Hospital in that February for congestive heart failure. On March 23, 2011, Taylor passed away from the condition.

Shortly after her death, her son Michael Wilding released a statement, saying “My mother was an extraordinary woman who lived life to the fullest, with great passion, humor, and love … We will always be inspired by her enduring contribution to our world.”

FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
These Old Broads (12-Feb-2001)
The Flintstones (27-May-1994) · Pearl Slaghoople
Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert (20-Apr-1992) · Herself
Sweet Bird of Youth (1-Oct-1989)
Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989) · Herself
Young Toscanini (5-Sep-1988)
North and South (3-Nov-1985)
Malice in Wonderland (12-May-1985)
Between Friends (11-Sep-1983)
Genocide (14-Mar-1982) · Narrator [VOICE]
The Mirror Crack’d (19-Dec-1980)
A Little Night Music (Sep-1977)
Victory at Entebbe (13-Dec-1976)
The Blue Bird (5-Apr-1976)
That’s Entertainment! (23-May-1974) · Herself
The Driver’s Seat (20-May-1974)
Ash Wednesday (1-Nov-1973)
Night Watch (10-Aug-1973)
Hammersmith Is Out (12-May-1972)
Under Milk Wood (27-Jan-1972)
Zee and Co. (21-Jan-1972) · Zee Blakeley
The Only Game in Town (21-Jan-1970) · Fran Walker
Secret Ceremony (23-Oct-1968) · Leonora
Boom (26-May-1968) · Flora Goforth
The Comedians (31-Oct-1967) · Martha Pineda
Reflections in a Golden Eye (11-Oct-1967) · Leonora Penderton
Doctor Faustus (10-Oct-1967)
The Taming of the Shrew (27-Feb-1967) · Katharina
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (21-Jun-1966) · Martha
The Sandpiper (23-Jun-1965) · Laura Reynolds
The V.I.P.’s (1-Sep-1963) · Frances Andros
Cleopatra (12-Jun-1963) · Cleopatra
Butterfield 8 (4-Nov-1960) · Gloria Wandrous
Suddenly, Last Summer (22-Dec-1959) · Catherine Holly
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (18-Sep-1958) · Maggie Pollitt
Raintree County (4-Oct-1957) · Susannah Drake
Giant (10-Oct-1956) · Leslie Benedict
The Last Time I Saw Paris (18-Nov-1954) · Helen Ellswirth
Beau Brummell (1-Oct-1954)
Elephant Walk (21-Apr-1954) · Ruth Wiley
Rhapsody (11-Mar-1954) · Louise Durant
The Girl Who Had Everything (27-Mar-1953) · Jean Latimer
Ivanhoe (31-Jul-1952) · Rebecca
Love Is Better Than Ever (23-Feb-1952) · Anastacia Macaboy
A Place in the Sun (28-Aug-1951) · Angela Vickers
Father’s Little Dividend (12-Apr-1951) · Kay Dunstan
Father of the Bride (16-Jun-1950) · Kay Banks
The Big Hangover (26-May-1950)
Conspirator (9-Dec-1949) · Melinda Greyton
Little Women (10-Mar-1949) · Amy
Julia Misbehaves (8-Aug-1948) · Susan Packett
A Date with Judy (21-Jun-1948)
Cynthia (29-Aug-1947) · Cynthia Bishop
Life with Father (15-Aug-1947) · Mary
Courage of Lassie (8-Nov-1946) · Kathie Merrick
National Velvet (14-Dec-1944) · Velvet Brown
Lassie Come Home (10-Oct-1943) · Priscilla
There’s One Born Every Minute (26-Jun-1942)

Source: Elizabeth Taylor

Source: Elizabeth Taylor – Wikipedia

Source: Elizabeth Taylor – Actress, Film Actor/Film Actress, Film Actress – Biography.com

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 106th birthday of the original blonde bombshell:  Jean Harlow.  It is amazing to think that someone can die at 26 over 70 years ago and the world can still adore her.  Watch a few of her films and the biopic Harlow with Caroll Baker, you will become a lifelong fan.  Some people just have IT, although IT never gets any better defined than that.  Just something that draws us moths to their flame, something that we see, admire, perhaps even aspire to, but IT is something that attracts us on a biological level.  The world is a better place because she was in it and still feels the loss that she left.

NAME: Jean Harlow
OCCUPATION: Film Actress, Pin-up
BIRTH DATE: March 03, 1911
DEATH DATE: June 07, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH: Kansas City, Missouri
PLACE OF DEATH: Los Angeles, California
ORIGINALLY: Harlean Carpenter
HEIGHT: 5′ 1″
HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME 6910 Hollywood Blvd (motion pictures)
REMAINS: Buried, Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Glendale, CA

BEST KNOWN FOR: Jean Harlow was an American actress who proved herself a platinum-blonde sex-symbol and able comedian in 1930s Hollywood.

Harlean Harlow Carpenter was born on March 3, 1911, in Kansas City, Missouri. She moved with her mother, Jean Harlow, to Los Angeles after her parents separated, and was educated at Ferry Hall School in Highland Park, Illinois and the Hollywood School for Girls.

Harlow endured bouts with polio, meningitis and scarlet fever as a child. She eloped with a young bond broker named Charles McGrew at age 16, though their marriage ended when she decided to pursue an acting career.

Adopting her mother’s maiden name for her films, Harlow captured the public’s attention when she flashed her legs in the 1929 Laurel and Hardy comedy Double Whoopee. She also made her sound debut that year in The Saturday Night Kid, but her breakout performance came the following year in Howard Hughes’s update of Hell’s Angels, where she delivered her famously suggestive line, “Would you be shocked if I put on something more comfortable?”

Harlow appeared in six films in 1931, including The Public Enemy and Platinum Blonde. Hollywood’s original blonde bombshell, her rise was fueled by her sexual allure, but she soon proved an actress of substance. Harlow’s role in the 1932 film Red-Headed Woman put her comedic abilities on display and established her as a bona fide star. She was also featured that year in Red Dust, one of several acclaimed pairings with Clark Gable, and in the following year’s hits Dinner at Eight, Hold Your Man, and Bombshell.

Men like me because I don’t wear a brassiere. Women like me because I don’t look like a girl who would steal a husband. At least not for long.

Despite her perceived charmed life as a leading lady, Harlow’s personal life was anything but glamorous. Her second husband, an MGM executive named Paul Bern, died in an apparent suicide at their home in 1932, and a third marriage, to cinematographer Harold Rosson, lasted less than a year.

Harlow got engaged to fellow MGM actor William Powell, her co-star in Reckless (1935) and Libeled Lady (1936), but her still-ascendant career was complicated by declining health. After years of undergoing weekly treatment with toxic chemicals to maintain her famous platinum-blonde locks, she wore a wig to mask her hair loss in the 1935 film China Seas. The following year, she was stricken with a throat infection and influenza.

While on the set of Saratoga in 1937, Harlow was bedridden with fatigue, nausea and abdominal pain. Believed to be on the path to recovery, she instead lapsed into a coma and died in a Hollywood hospital on June 7, 1937, from kidney failure. The film was completed with other actresses standing in as doubles for the recently deceased starlet.

Despite her brief career, Harlow is remembered as one of the biggest stars of the early sound era in Hollywood. A biopic on her life, Harlow, was released in 1965, starring Carroll Baker. Decades later, singer Gwen Stefani briefly portrayed Harlow in the 2004 Martin Scorsese film The Aviator, and a few years later Mischa Barton was tapped to play the sex symbol for the production of another biopic, By Love Reclaimed, slated for a 2016 release.

FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Saratoga (23-Jun-1937) · Carol Clayton
Personal Property (19-Mar-1937) · Crystal Wetherby
Libeled Lady (9-Oct-1936) · Gladys
Suzy (26-Jun-1936) · Suzy
Wife vs. Secretary (28-Feb-1936) · Whitey
Riffraff (3-Jan-1936) · Hattie
China Seas (9-Aug-1935) · China Doll
Reckless (17-Apr-1935) · Mona
The Girl from Missouri (3-Aug-1934) · Eadie
Bombshell (11-Oct-1933) · Lola
Dinner at Eight (29-Aug-1933) · Kitty Packard
Hold Your Man (30-Jun-1933) · Ruby
Red Dust (22-Oct-1932) · Vantine
Red-Headed Woman (25-Jun-1932) · Lil Andrews
The Beast of the City (13-Feb-1932)
Three Wise Girls (11-Jan-1932)
Platinum Blonde (31-Oct-1931) · Ann Schuyler
Iron Man (30-Apr-1931)
The Public Enemy (23-Apr-1931) · Gwen Allen
The Secret Six (18-Apr-1931) · Anne
Hell’s Angels (27-May-1930)
Double Whoopee (18-May-1929) · Blonde

Source: Jean Harlow – Wikipedia

Source: Jean Harlow

Source: Jean Harlow – Actress, Film Actor/Film Actress, Film Actress, Classic Pin-Ups – Biography.com

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 128th birthday of the actress and activist Pearl While. The world is a better place because she was in it and still feels the loss that she has left.

NAME: Pearl White
OCCUPATION: Women’s Rights Activist, Film Actress
BIRTH DATE: March 4, 1889
DEATH DATE: August 4, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH: Green Ridge, Missouri
PLACE OF DEATH: Neuilly-sur-Seine, France
REMAINS: Buried, Cimetière de Passy, Paris, France
HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME 6838 Hollywood Blvd.

BEST KNOWN FOR: Pearl White was an American silent film actress best known for her role in The Perils of Pauline, in which she did her own stunt work.

White was born in Green Ridge, Missouri to Edgar White, a farmer, and Inez White. She had four brothers and sisters. The family later moved to Springfield, Missouri. At age 6, she made her stage debut as “Little Eva” in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. When she was 13 years old, White worked as a bareback rider for the circus.

She began performing with the Diemer Theater Company, located on Commercial Street, while in her second year of high school. Against the wishes of her father, White dropped out of high school and, in 1907 at age 18, she went on the road with the Trousedale Stock Company, working evening shows while keeping her day job to help support her family. She was soon able to join the company full-time, touring through the American Midwest. White played minor roles for several years, when she was spotted by the Powers Film Company in New York. She claimed she had also performed in Cuba for a time under the name “Miss Mazee”, singing American songs in a dance hall. Her travels as a singer took her to South America, where she performed in casinos and dance halls. In 1910, White had trouble with her throat, and her voice began to fail from the nightly theatrical performances. She made her debut in films that year, starring in a series of one-reel dramas and comedies for Pat Powers in the Bronx. It was at Powers Films that White honed her skills at physical comedy and stunt work. She became a popular player with the company and caught the attention of Pathé Frères.

In 1910, White was offered a role by Pathé Frères in The Girl From Arizona, the French company’s first American film produced at their new studio in Bound Brook, New Jersey. She then worked at Lubin Studios in 1911 and several other of the independents, until the Crystal Film Company in Manhattan gave her top billing in a number of slapstick comedy shorts from 1912 to 1914. White then took a vacation in Europe. Upon her return, she signed with Eclectic Film Company, a subsidiary of Pathé in 1914.

Pathé director Louis J. Gasnier offered her the starring role in film serial The Perils of Pauline, based on a story by playwright Charles W. Goddard. The film features the central character of “Pauline” in a story involving considerable action, which the athletic Pearl White proved ideally suited for. The Perils of Pauline consisted of twenty, two-reel episodes that were released weekly. The serial proved to be a hit with audiences and made White a major celebrity, and she was soon earning $1,750 a week. She followed this with an even bigger box office hit, The Exploits of Elaine (1914-1915). Over the next five years, White would appear in the popular serials The New Exploits of Elaine (1915), The Romance of Elaine (1915), The Iron Claw (1916), Pearl of the Army (1916-1917), The Fatal Ring (1917), The House of Hate (1918), The Lightening Raider (1919) and The Black Secret (1919-1920). In these serials, White flew airplanes, raced cars, swam across rivers, and did other similar feats. She did much of her own stunt work until Pathé decided that they could not risk injuring one of their most popular stars (She had already injured her spine during the filming of The Perils of Pauline, an injury that would cause her pain for the rest of her life). A male stunt double wearing a wig would perform the majority of the more dangerous stunts in White’s later films. The public was largely unaware that White and other actors utilized stunt doubles because studios made a point to publicize that the actors did their own stunts. In August 1922, the public finally learned the truth. During the filming of White’s final serial Plunder, John Stevenson, an actor who was doubling for White, was supposed to leap from the top of a bus on 72nd Street and Columbus Avenue onto an elevated girder. He missed the girder and struck his head. Stevenson died of a fractured skull. After the filming of Plunder was complete, White traveled to Europe for another vacation.

By 1919, White had grown tired of film serials and signed with Fox Film Corporation with the ambition to appear in dramatic roles. Over the next two years, White appeared in ten drama films for Fox but her popularity had begun to wane.

Influenced by her French friends from Pathé Studios, White was drawn to the artistic gathering in the Montparnasse Quarter of Paris. While living there, she made her last film for her friend, Belgian-born director Edward José, who had directed her in several serials. Silent films could be made in any country, and as White was a recognizable star worldwide, she was offered many roles in France. She made her final film, Terreur (released as The Perils of Paris in the United States), in France in 1924. White returned to the stage in a Montmartre production Tu Perds la Boule (You Lose the Ball). In 1925 she accepted an offer to star with comedian Max Wall in the “London Review” at the Lyceum Theatre in London where she earned $3,000 a week. She then retired from performing.

By the time she retired from films in 1924, White had amassed a fortune of $2 million. A shrewd businesswoman, she invested in a successful Parisian nightclub, a Biarritz resort hotel/casino, and a stable of ten race horses. White divided her time between her townhouse in Passy and a 54-acre estate near Rambouillet. She became involved with Theodore Cossika, a Greek businessman who shared her love of travel. Together they purchased a home near Cairo, Egypt, and White travelled with him throughout the Middle East and the Orient.

According to published reports after her death, White’s friends claimed that she intended to make a comeback in sound films. White later told friends that after she made a test for sound films in 1929, she was told that her voice was unsuitable. White made occasional visits to the United States in 1924, 1927 and 1937. On her last visit, White would tell reporters that she was not interested in making a comeback and mused that acting in silent films was more difficult than acting in the then-new “talkies” though she did praise Greta Garbo. By this time, White had gained a substantial amount of weight. She told reporters she did not like to be photographed as she felt that photos made her face look fat adding, “Why should I have my picture taken when I can get paid for it?”.

White was married twice and had no children. She married actor Victor Sutherland on October 10, 1907. They divorced in 1914. In 1919, she married for the second time to actor Wallace McCutcheon. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1921.

By 1937, White was dying of liver failure. The injury she sustained to her spine while filming The Perils of Pauline had continued to cause her pain which she eased with drugs and alcohol. A year before her death, White got her affairs in order, purchased a plot in Cimetière de Passy (Passy Cemetery) near her home and arranged her own funeral. In early July 1938, she checked herself into the American Hospital in the Paris suburb of Neuilly, due to issues with her liver. She slipped into a coma on August 3, 1938 and died the following day of what was identified in her obituaries as a “liver ailment” (likely cirrhosis due to years of heavy drinking). She was 49 years old. White was buried in Cimetière de Passy after a small, private funeral.

White left the majority of her fortune, including jewelery and property, to Theodore Cossika. She also bequeathed money to her father, nieces, and nephews, and willed $73,000 to charities.

Pearl White’s place in film history is important in both the evolution of cinema genres and the role of women. Like many silent film actors, many of White’s films are now considered lost. The Perils of Pauline is only known to exist in a reduced nine-reel version released in Europe in 1916, but The Exploits of Elaine survives and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. All of her films were made at studios on the east coast of the United States, as White reportedly never visited Hollywood, California.

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Pearl White has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6838 Hollywood Blvd.

The 1947 Paramount Pictures film The Perils of Pauline, starring Betty Hutton, is a fictionalized biography of Pearl White.

Source: Pearl White – Wikipedia

Source: Pearl White – Actress, Activist, Film Actor/Film Actress, Women’s Rights Activist, Film Actress – Biography.com

Source: Pearl White

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 96th birthday of the Skipper from Gilligan’s Island:  Alan Hale Jr. He was a film and theatre actor before landing that role, whole full careers of both. The most interesting facts I discovered while researching him is that I had no idea the number of Gilligan’s Island specials and movies after the series was over. That and he had is own seafood restaurant and travel agency afterward. Brilliant. The world is a better place because he was in it and still feels the loss that he has left.

NAME: Alan Hale JR.
BIRTHDATE: March 8, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH: Los Angeles, CA
DATE OF DEATH: January 2, 1990
PLACE OF DEATH: Los Angeles, CA
HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME: 6653 Hollywood Blvd. (television)

BEST KNOWN FOR: American film, stage, character and television actor and a restaurant owner, who was the son of character actor Alan Hale, Sr., whose career spans four decades of television. He also appeared on several talk and variety shows.

Alan Hale Jr. was born Alan Hale MacKahan in Los Angeles, California on March 8, 1921. His father was character actor Rufus Edward McKahan, who used the stage name of Alan Hale (1892–1950), and his mother was silent film actress Gretchen Hartman (1897-1979). Appearing in over 235 films, his father had a successful screen career both as a leading man in silent films and as a supporting actor in sound movies.

During World War II, Hale, Jr., enlisted in the United States Coast Guard. After the death of his father in 1950, Hale dropped the “Junior” from his name.

In 1931, Hale made his Broadway stage debut in Caught Wet. The play opened on November 4 and closed later that month. He made his screen debut two years later in Wild Boys of the Road. However, his part was deleted out of the film’s final release but he still received screen credit for the role. He later appeared in roles in To the Shores of Tripoli (1942), Yanks Ahoy (1943), Sweetheart of Sigma Chi (1946), and When Willie Comes Marching Home (1950). During the late 1940s and early 1950s, he frequently appeared in Gene Autry films and also had a recurring role from 1950 to 1952 on The Gene Autry Show. In 1952, Hale landed the starring role in CBS’s Biff Baker, U.S.A., but the series was canceled in 1954.

Hale continued his career with guest spots on The Range Rider (five times), Annie Oakley, Fireside Theater, Frontier,Matinee Theater, Fury, Northwest Passage, and The Man from Blackhawk (as Miles Mackenzie in the 1960 episode “The $100,000 Policy”). He also had roles in The Gunfighter (1950), Silver Lode (1954), The Sea Chase (1955), The Three Outlaws (1956), The True Story of Jesse James (1957), and Up Periscope (1959).

In 1957, Hale landed another starring role in the syndicated television series Casey Jones, which aired thirty-two episodes before it was canceled in 1958.

In 1957, he played folksy rancher Les Bridgeman in the episode “Hired Gun” of the ABC/Warner Brothers western series Cheyenne, with Clint Walker in the title role. Whitney Blake plays Bridgeman’s wife Lilli, who hires a professional assassin to kill her husband so that she can marry a rival rancher, Kiley Rand (Don Megowan). Cheyenne Bodie goes undercover to unravel the mystery.

From 1958 to 1960, Hale had a recurring role on Rory Calhoun‘s CBS western series The Texan.

Throughout the early 1960s, Hale continued in guest-starring roles on episodes of Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Rawhide, The Real McCoys, Mister Ed, Assignment: Underwater, Hawaiian Eye, Adventures in Paradise, Lock Up, The Andy Griffith Show, Lassie, Tales of Wells Fargo, Route 66, and Hazel. He was featured in two episodes of Perry Mason, first as murderer Lon Snyder in the 1961 episode, “The Case of the Unwelcome Bride,” then in 1963 he played Nelson Barclift in “The Case of the Bouncing Boomerang”. Actress Diana Millay also appeared in both episodes.

In addition to numerous guest roles on television, Hale was noted for his supporting-character roles in such movies as the character of Whitey in the 1947 Christmas movie “It Happened on 5th Avenue“, as Porthos’ son in the 1952 “Three Musketeers” sequel “At Swords Point” opposite Cornell Wilde and Maureen O’Hara, in thestock car racing film Thunder in Carolina (1960) starring Rory Calhoun, The Long Rope (1961) with Hugh Marlowe, Bullet for a Badman (1964) with Audie Murphy,Advance to the Rear (1964) starring Glenn Ford, and “hanging party” blacksmith Matt Stone in Hang ‘Em High (1968) starring Clint Eastwood.

n 1964, Hale won the co-starring role as the Skipper on the CBS sitcom Gilligan’s Island. The series aired for a total of 98 episodes from 1964 to 1967. The role proved to be the most prominent role for Hale, as the show continued to be popular for later generations of viewers due to syndicated reruns. The popularity of the show typecast its actors, making it difficult for them to successfully pursue diversified acting opportunities. They received no substantial residual payments for their roles, and the difficulty in finding roles often created financial hardship and resentment. However, Hale did not mind being so closely identified with the Skipper. According to Sherwood Schwartz, he often visited children in hospital dressed as the Skipper.

Hale reprised the role of the Skipper in three television films, Rescue from Gilligan’s Island in 1978, The Castaways on Gilligan’s Island in 1979, and The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island in 1981. He also voiced the Skipper in two cartoon versions of the series, The New Adventures of Gilligan from 1974 to 1977 and Gilligan’s Planet from 1982 to 1983. Hale also appeared as the Skipper in two unrelated sitcoms, The New Gidget in 1987 and ALF in 1989. He also promotedGilligan’s Island reruns on TBS, alongside Bob Denver. Denver and Hale also appeared as their characters at various promotional events.

Dawn Wells said in a 2014 interview on CRN.com with Larry and Nancy Manetti, when asked if Alan Hale Jr. was the consummate professional of the Gilligan’s Island series, “Well, that is so interesting, because Alan Jr. and his father looked so much alike, you don’t know, who was who. His father did all the Errol Flynn … I used to say to Alan, ‘How was it growing up in a household, with all those moviestars?’ Alan was absolutely, the consummate professional, wonderful gentleman, jovial, never complained … he was the exact same size of my dad. Everytime he picked me up and hugged me, I thought he was my father, he was my dad.” Then, Wells also responded if she ever went to her acting mentor’s restaurant, he once owned in Los Angeles, “It was a lobster house on La Cienega Blvd., and he would greet you with his sea hat on, as you can…. but that was after the show; and he had his friend, Anthony, there, with some good food, too.” The last question that has ever been asked by Dawn, was if Gilligan’s Island, was nearly his show, “No, no… as a matter of fact, it was interesting when you go back and find the people that they should thought say the other characters, and I understand Alan was doing a movie in Utah and they wanted to bring him to audition and he couldn’t get a flight out, so … he hitchhiked, hitchhiked on the highway and then, he came in to audition.” After the show’s cancelation, and until Hale’s death, Wells not only stayed in touch with him, but were also neighbors, who were both golfing buddies. Gretchen’s death in 1979, drew the relationship between Hale & Wells closer, who received word from the loss of her mentor’s mother.

After the end of Gilligan’s Island, Hale continued his career in television. He guest-starred on several series, including The Wild Wild West, Here Come the Brides,Land of the Giants, The Virginian, Here’s Lucy, Marcus Welby, M.D., The Paul Lynde Show, The Love Boat, and Crazy Like a Fox.

Hale also appeared in film roles from the 1960s to the 1980s. During the 1970s, he starred in The Giant Spider Invasion (1975) and Angels Revenge (1978), both of which were later featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000 (as was his 1963 film The Crawling Hand). In 1983, Hale costarred in comedy-drama film Hambone and Hillie, starring Lillian Gish. The following year, he had a role in the comedy Johnny Dangerously and became a spokesman for a car dealership in Victoria, British Columbia. In 1987, Hale starred in the horror film Terror Night. Later that same year, he made his final film appearance in a cameo role with Bob Denver in Back to the Beach. Also in 1987, he reprised his role as The Skipper on The New Gidget with his childhood friend and classmate William Schallert and Bob Denver, and on an episode of ALF.

In addition to acting, Hale also co-owned Alan Hale’s Lobster Barrel, a restaurant that was opened in the mid-1970s. The Lobster Barrel was located on La Cienega Boulevard on Los Angeles’ Restaurant Row. According to Hale’s agent, Hale was “phased out” of the business in 1982. He later opened Alan Hale’s Quality and Leisure Travel office.

Hale was married twice; his first marriage was on March 12, 1943 in Hollywood to Bettina Doerr Hale with whom he had four children: Alan Brian, Chris, Lana, and Dorian. The couple later divorced. In 1964, Hale married former singer Naomi Ingram, to whom he would remain married until his death.

Hale died on January 2, 1990, of thymus cancer at St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles at age 68. His ashes were sprinkled into the Pacific Ocean. Gilligan’s Island co-star, Dawn Wells, was in attendance representing the surviving members of the cast.

TELEVISION
Gilligan’s Island Skipper (1964-67)
The Good Guys Big Tom (1969)
Casey Jones Casey Jones (1957-58)

FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Back to the Beach (7-Aug-1987)
Johnny Dangerously (21-Dec-1984) · Desk Sergeant
Red Fury (1984)
Hambone and Hillie (24-Apr-1983)
The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island (15-May-1981)
The Castaways on Gilligan’s Island (3-May-1979)
The Fifth Musketeer (6-Apr-1979)
The North Avenue Irregulars (9-Feb-1979)
Angels’ Brigade (1979)
Rescue from Gilligan’s Island (14-Oct-1978)
The Giant Spider Invasion (30-Dec-1976)
There Was a Crooked Man… (19-Sep-1970) · Tobaccy
The Andersonville Trial (17-May-1970) · Board Member
Hang ‘Em High (31-Jul-1968) · Stone
Tiger by the Tail (1968)
Bullet for a Badman (24-Jun-1964) · Leach
Advance to the Rear (15-Apr-1964)
The Crawling Hand (4-Sep-1963)
The Iron Maiden (7-Jun-1963)
The Long Rope (1961)
Thunder in Carolina (Jul-1960)
Up Periscope (4-Mar-1959) · Malone
The Lady Takes a Flyer (29-Jan-1958)
All Mine to Give (Nov-1957) · Tom Cullen
Affair in Reno (15-Feb-1957)
Battle Hymn (14-Feb-1957) · Mess Sergeant
The True Story of Jesse James (Feb-1957) · Cole Younger
The Three Outlaws (13-May-1956)
The Killer Is Loose (2-Mar-1956) · Denny
The Indian Fighter (21-Dec-1955)
A Man Alone (17-Oct-1955)
The Sea Chase (4-Jun-1955) · Wentz
Many Rivers to Cross (23-Feb-1955) · Luke Radford
Destry (1-Dec-1954) · Jack Larson
Young at Heart (Dec-1954)
Rogue Cop (17-Sep-1954)
Silver Lode (23-Jul-1954)
Captain Kidd and the Slave Girl (20-May-1954) · Jay Simpson
The Iron Glove (Apr-1954)
Captain John Smith and Pocahontas (20-Nov-1953) · Fleming
The Man Behind the Gun (31-Jan-1953) · Olaf
Springfield Rifle (22-Oct-1952) · Mizzell
Wait ‘Til the Sun Shines, Nellie (27-Jun-1952)
The Big Trees (5-Feb-1952) · Tiny
At Sword’s Point (1952)
Home Town Story (1-May-1951)
The West Point Story (22-Dec-1950) · Bull Gilbert
The Blazing Sun (20-Nov-1950) · Ben Luber
The Underworld Story (26-Jul-1950)
Riders in the Sky (29-Nov-1949) · Marshal Riggs
It Happens Every Spring (10-Jun-1949) · Schmidt
One Sunday Afternoon (25-Dec-1948) · Marty
It Happened on 5th Avenue (19-Apr-1947) · Whitey
Eagle Squadron (16-Jun-1942)
To the Shores of Tripoli (11-Mar-1942)
All-American Co-Ed (31-Oct-1941) · Tiny

Source: Alan Hale, Jr.

Source: Alan Hale, Jr. – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Source: Alan Hale, Jr (1921 – 1990) – Find A Grave Memorial

Source: Alan Hale Jr., Who Was Skipper On ‘Gilligan’s Island,’ Dies at 71 – NYTimes.com

come find me, i’m @