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byneddiedingo · 1 year

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Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles, and Everett Sloane in Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

Cast: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorhead, Ruth Warrick, Ray Collins, Erskine Sanford, Everett Sloane, William Alland, Paul Stewart, George Coulouris. Screenplay: Orson Welles, Herman J. Mankiewicz. Cinematography: Gregg Toland. Art direction: Van Nest Polglase, Perry Ferguson. Film editing: Robert Wise. Music: Bernard Herrmann.

Things I don't like about Citizen Kane:

The "News on the March" montage. It's an efficient way of cluing the audience in to what it's about to see, but is it necessary? And was it necessary to make it a parody of "The March of Time" newsreel, down to the use of the Timespeak so deftly lampooned by Wolcott Gibbs ("Backward ran sentences until reeled the mind")?

Susan Alexander Kane. Not only did Orson Welles leave himself open to charges that he was caricaturing William Randolph Hearst's relationship with his mistress, Marion Davies, but he also unwittingly damaged Davies's lasting reputation as a skillful comic actress. We still read today that Susan Alexander (whose minor talent Kane exploits cruelly) is to be identified as Welles's portrait of Davies, when in fact Welles admired Davies's work. But beyond that, Susan (Dorothy Comingore) is an underwritten and inconsistent character -- at one point a sweet and trusting object of Kane's affections and later in the film a vituperative, illiterate shrew and still later a drunk. What was it in her that Kane initially saw? From the moment she first lunges at the high notes in "Una voce poco fa," it's clear to anyone, unless Kane is supposed to have a tin ear, that she has no future as an opera star. Does she exist in the film primarily to demonstrate Kane's arrogance of power? A related quibble: I find the portrayal of her exasperated Italian music teacher, Matiste (Fortunio Bonanova), a silly, intrusive bit of tired comic relief.

Rosebud. The most famous of all MacGuffins, the thing on which the plot of Citizen Kane depends. It's not just that the explanation of how it became so widely known as Kane's last word is so feeble -- was the sinister butler, Raymond (Paul Stewart) in the room when Kane died, as he seems to say? -- it's that the sled itself puts so much psychological weight on Kane's lost childhood, which we see only in the scenes of his squabbling parents (Agnes Moorehead and Harry Shannon). The defense insists that the emphasis on Rosebud is mistakenly put there by the eager press, and that the point is that we often try to explain the complexity of a life by seizing on the wrong thing. But that seems to me to burden the film with more message than it conveys.

And yet, and yet ... it's one of the great films. Its exploration of film technique, particularly by Gregg Toland's deep-focus photography, is breathtaking. Perry Ferguson's sets (though credited to RKO art department head Van Nest Polglase) loom magnificently over the action. Bernard Herrmann's score -- it was his first film -- is legendary. And it is certainly one of the great directing debuts in film history. But I don't think it's the greatest film ever made. In the top ten, maybe, but it seems to me artificial and mechanical in comparison to the depiction of actual human life in Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953), the elevation of the gangster genre to incisive social and political critique in the first two Godfather films (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972, 1974), the delicious explorations of obsessive behavior in any number of Alfred Hitchcock movies, the epic treatment of Russian history in Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966), and the tribulations of growing up in the Apu trilogy (Satyajit Ray, 1955, 1956, 1959). And there are lots of films by Howard Hawks, Preston Sturges, Luis Buñuel, François Truffaut, Robert Bresson, and Jean-Luc Godard that I would rewatch before I decide to watch Kane again. There are times when I think Welles's debut film has been overrated because he had a great start, battled a formidable foe in William Randolph Hearst, and inadvertently revealed how conventional Hollywood filmmaking was -- for which Hollywood never forgave him. It's common to say that Citizen Kane was prophetic, because the downfall of Charles Foster Kane anticipated the downfall of Orson Welles. That's oversimple, but like many oversimplifications it contains a germ of truth.

#Citizen Kane #Orson Welles #Joseph Cotten #Everett Sloane

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sporadiceagleheart · 4 months

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americanmachine · 2 years

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Kiss the people you love. Tell them that you love them. Be thankful for what you have. Be thankful for the opportunities available to you. They can all disappear in an instant. Today, there is a roof over my head. My belly is not grumbling. I am reasonably comfortable. No one is shooting at me. It is a good day. Everything else is gravy. It is important to remember that ALL of these conditions exist because of the GIANTS of men like those that died on this day, years ago, and before them. Today though, it is about them. 03OCT93. Today, I remember them. All of them. Task Force Ranger & The Battle of Mogadishu. Donovan Briley. Daniel Busch. James Manuel Cavaco. William D. Cleveland Jr. Thomas J. Field. Earl Fillmore. Raymond Alex Frank. Cornell Houston. Gary Ivan Gordon. J. Casey Joyce. Richard Kowalewski. Timothy Martin. Dominick Pilla. Matthew Rierson. Lorenzo Ruiz. Randall D. Shughart. Jamie Smith. Clifton P. Wolcott. #DeedsNotWords #tillValholl https://www.instagram.com/p/CjP4sqKu4Og/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#deedsnotwords #tillvalholl

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todaysdocument · 3 years

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Treaty Between the United States and the Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi Indians Signed at Chicago, Illinois, 8/29/1821

File Unit: Ratified Indian Treaty 117: Ottawa, Chippewa and Potawatomi - Chicago, August 29, 1821, 1789 - 1869

Series: Indian Treaties, 1789 - 1869

Record Group 11: General Records of the United States Government, 1778 - 2006

Transcription:

Articles of a Treaty made and concluded at Chicago in the State of Illinois between

Lewis Cass and Solomon Sibley Commissioners of The United States, and the Ottawa, Chippewa, and

Pottawatamie Nations of Indians.

Article I". The Ottawa, Chippewa and Pottawatamie Nations of Indians Cede to the United States all

the Land comprehended within the following boundaries: Beginning at a point on the South bank of the River

St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, near the parc aux Vaches due North from Rum's Village, and running thence

South to a line drawn due East from the Southern extreme of Lake Michigan, thence with the said line East

to the tract, ceded by the Pottawatamies to the United States by the Treaty of Fort Meigs in 1817. if the said

line should strike the said Tract, but if the said line should pass North of the said Tract, then such line shall

be continued until it strikes the western boundary of the Tract ceded to the United States by the Treaty of Detroit

in 1807, and from the termination of the said line following the boundaries of former cessions to the main branch

of the Grand River of Lake Michigan, should any of the said lines cross the said River, but if none of the said

lines should cross the said River, then to a point due east of the source of the said main branch of the said

River, and from such point due West to the source of the said principal branch, And from the crossing of

the said River, or from the source thereof, as the case may be, down the said River, on the north bank thereof

to the mouth; thence following the shore of Lake Michigan to the south bank of the said River St. Joseph,

at the mouth thereof and thence with the said south bank to the place of beginning.

Article 2. From the Cession aforesaid, there shall be reserved, for the use of the Indians, the following Tracts,

One tract at Mang-ach-qua Village on the river Pebl'e, of six Miles square. One tract at Mick-ke-saw-be- of

six Miles square.

One Tract at the Village of Na-to-wa-se-pe of four miles square.

One Tract at the Village of Prairie ronde of three Miles square.

One Tract at the Village of Match-e-be narh-she-wish, at the head of the Kekalamazoo river.

Article 3. There shall be granted by The United States, to each of the following persons, being all Indians

by descent, and to their heirs the following tracts of Land.

To John Burnet, two sections of Land.

To James Burnet, Abraham Burnet, Rebecca Burnet, and Nancy Burnet each one section of Land. which said

John, James, Abraham Rebecca and Nancy are Children of Kaw-kee-me sister of Top-ni-be principal Chief of the

Potowatamie Nation.

The land granted to the persons immediately preceding shall begin on the north bank of the river St. Joseph,

about two miles from the mouth and shall extend up and back from the said river for quantity.

To John B. La Lime son of Noke-no-qua one-half of a Section of land, adjoining the tract before granted,

and on the upper side thereof.

To Jean B. Chandonai son of Chip-pe-wa-qua two Sections of Land on the river St. Joseph, above and ad-

-joining the tract granted to J. B. La Lime.

[page 2]

To Joseph Dazé son of Chip-pe-wa-qua one Section of Land above and adjoining the tract granted

to Jean B. Chandonai. To Monguago, one-half of a Section of Land, at Mish-she-wa-ko-kink.

To Pierre Moran or Peeresh a Potawatamie Chief One Section of Land, and to his Children two Sections of

Land at the mouth of the Elk heart River.

To Pierre Le Clerc, son of Moi qua one Section of Land on the Elk heart River, above and adjoining the

tract granted to Moran and his Children.

The section of land granted by the Treaty of St. Mary's, in 1818 to Peeresh or Perig shall be granted to

Jean B. Cicot son of Pe-say-quot sister of the said Peeresh, it having been so intended at the execution of the

said Treaty.

To O-she-ak-ke-be or Benac one half of a Section of Land on the North side of the Elksheart river,

where the road from Chicago to Fort Wayne first crosses the said river.

To Me-naw-che a Potawatamie Woman one half of a Section of Land, on the eastern bank of the St. Joseph

where the road from Detroit to Chicago first crosses the said river.

To Theresa Chandler or To-e-ak-qui a Potawatamie Woman and to her daughter Betsey Fisher one Section of Land

on the South side of the Grand River, opposite to the Spruce Swamp.

To Charles Beaubien and Medart Beaubien Sons of Man-na-ben-a-qua, each one-half of a Section of Land,

near the Village of Ke-wi-go-shkeem on the Washtenaw river.

To Antoine Roland, son of I-gat-pat-a-wat-a-mie-qua one half of a Section of Land, adjoining and below

the tract granted to Pierre Moran.

son

To William Knaggs or Was-es-kuk-son^ of Ches-qua one half of a Section of Land adjoining and below the

tract granted to Antoine Roland.

To Madeline Bertrand wife of Joseph Bertrand a Potawatamie Woman one Section of land at the Parc aux

Vaches on the north side of the River St. Joseph.

To Joseph Bertrand Junior, Benjamin Bertrand, Laurent Bertrand, Theresa Bertrand and Amable Bertrand, children

of the said Madeline Bertrand, each one half of a Section of Land at the portage of the Kankakee river.

To John Riley, son of Me-naw-cum-a-go-quoi, one Section of Land, at the mouth of the river au Foin, on

the Grand River, and extending up the said River.

To Peter Riley the son of Me-naw-cum-e-go-quoi, one Section of Land at the mouth of the river au Foin

on the Grand River, and extending down the said River.

To Jean B. Le Clerc son of Moi-qua one half of a Section of Land, above and adjoining the tract granted

to Pierre Le Clerc.

To Joseph La Framboise son of Shaw-we-no-qua one Section of Land upon the South side of the River

St. Joseph, and adjoining on the upper side the Land ceded to The United States, which said Section is also

ceded to the United States.

The Tracts of Land, herein stipulated to be granted, shall never be leased or conveyed by the grantees or

their Heirs to any persons whatever, without the permission of The President of the United States.

And such tracts shall be located after the said Cession is surveyed, and in conformity with such surveys,

[page 3]

as near as may be, and in such manner as The President may direct.

Article 4. In Consideration of the Cession aforesaid, The United States engage to Pay to the Ottawa

Nation, One Thousand Dollars in Specie annually forever, and also to appropriate annually for the term

of Ten Years the sum of Fifteen Hundred Dollars, to be expended as the President may direct, in the

support of a Blacksmith, of a Teacher, and of a person to instruct the Ottawas in Agriculture, and in the

purchase of Cattle and farming Utensils. And the United States also engage to pay to the Pota-

-watamie Nation Five Thousand Dollars in Specie Annually for the term of Twenty Years, and also to

appropriate annually for the term of Fifteen Years the sum of One Thousand Dollars, to be expended as

the President may direct, in the support of a Blacksmith and a Teacher. And one Mile square shall

be selected under the direction of The President, on the north side of the Grand River, and one mile

square on the South side of the St. Joseph and within the Indian Lands not ceded, upon which the

Blacksmiths and Teachers employed for the said tribes respectively shall reside.

Article 5. The stipulation contained in the Treaty of Greenville relative to the right of the Indians

to Hunt upon the Land ceded, while it continues the property of The United States, shall apply to this

Treaty.

Article 6. The United States shall have the privilege of making and using a Road through

the Indian Country from Detroit and Fort Wayne respectively to Chicago.

Artcile 7. This Treaty shall take effect and be obligatory on the Contracting parties, so soon as

the same shall be ratified by The President of the United States by and with the advice and consent

of The Senate thereof.

In Testimony whereof, The said Lewis Cass and Solomon Sibley Commissioners as aforesaid and the

Chiefs and Warriors of the said Ottawa, Chippewa, + Pattiwatimie Nations have hereunto set their

hands at Chicago aforesaid, this 29th day of August in the Year of our Lord one Thousand

eight hundred and twenty-one.

In presence of —

Alex. Wolcott Jr. Ind. Agent. Lewis Cass,

Jno. R. Williams, Adjt. Genl. M. Ma. Solomon Sibley.

Ottawa's{ [written vertically]

G. Godfroy Indian agent Kewagoushcum his + mark

W. Knaggs Indian agent Nokawjegaun his + mark

Jacob Visget Kee-o-to-aw-be his + mark

Henry I. Hunt Ket-che-me-chi-na-waw his + mark

A. Phillips PMsr. US Army Ep-pe-san-se his + mark

Kay-nee-wee his + mark

Mo-a-put-to his + mark

[page 4]

Mat-che-pee-na-che-wish his x mark

R. Montgomery Chippewa's{Met-tay-waw his x mark

Jacob B. Varnum US factor {Mich-el his x mark

John B. Beaubien - Quoi-quoi-taw his x mark To-pen-ne-bee his x mark

Conrad Ten Eyck Pe-an-nish his x mark Mee-te-ay his x mark,

J. Whipley Wy-ne-naig his x mark Chee-banse his x mark

George Miles J Onuck-ke-meck his x mark Loui-son his x mark

Henry Connor Ka-way-sin his x mark Wee-saw his x mark

James Barnerd A-meck-kose his x mark Kee-po-taw his x mark

John Kenzie. Sub Agent Os-see-meet his x mark Shay-auk-ke-bee his x mark

Shaw-ko-to his x mark Sho-mang his x mark

No-shay-we-quat his x mark Waw-we-uck-ke-meck his x mark

Mee-gwun his x mark Nay-ou-chee-mon his x mark

Mes-she-ke-ten-now his x mark Kong-gee his x mark

Kee-no-to-go his x mark Shee-shaw-gan his x mark

The tract reserved at the Village of Wa-baw-nee-she his x mark Aysh-cam his x mark

Matchebe-nash-she-wish at the Shaw-waw-nay-see his x mark Meek-say-mank his x mark

head of the Ke-kal-imazoo River, was Atch-wee-muck-quee his x mark May-ten-way his x mark

by agreement to be three miles square. Pish-she-baw-gay his x mark Shaw-wen-ne-me-tay his x mark

The extent of the reservation Waw-ba-saye his x mark Francois his x mark

was accidentally omitted. Meg-ges-seese his x mark Mauk-see his x mark

Lewis Cass Say-gaw-koo-nuck his x mark Way-me-go his x mark

Sol: Sibley Shaw-way-no his x mark Man-daw-min his x mark

Shee-shaw-gun his x mark Quay-guee his x mark

To-to-mee his x mark Aa-pen-naw-bee his x mark

Ash-kee-wee his x mark Mat-cha-wee-yaas his x mark

Shay-auk-ke-bee his x mark Mat-cha-pag-gish his x mark

Aw-be-tone his x mark Mongaw his x mark

Pug-gay-gaus his x mark

Ses-cobe-mesh his x mark

Chee-gwa-mack-gwa-go his x mark

Waw-seb-baw his x mark

Pee-chee-co his x mark

#archivesgov #August 29 #1821 #1800s #Native American history #Indigenous American history #treaties #Ottawa #Chippewa #Potawatomi

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46ten · 4 years

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Valedictions & Salutations

So after noticing how long and loving PS’s valedictions (which were never short) to AH got as time went by, and knowing AH’s increasing warmth in his valedictions in letters to GW, I decided to look into AH’s use of “Yrs”/”Yours,” which he used in the first letter that we have - the one to Edward Stevens from 1769. AH used “Yrs.” and “Yrs. sincerely” quite frequently throughout his life. (His other very common valediction in informal letters is “Adieu.”)

Laurens got one “Yrs. for ever,” ESH got two (she also got “Ever yrs,” “ever yours,” and “Yrs ever & entirely”), G. Morris, McHenry, Rufus King, and Oliver Wolcott Jr. all got “Yrs ever,” the Marquis de Lafayette got a “Yours ever;” CC Pinckney got an “Ever Yrs.”

William Duer and King got “Yrs. sincerely & Affect,” though both were written on the same day, so maybe he had that in mind.

“Yrs truly”s went to Jeremiah Wadsworth, Benjamin Walker, King, L’Enfant, and John Jay (King got alot of special valedictions, as did McHenry and Wadsworth as the 1790s progressed - Wadsworth even got a “Yrs always” by 1794.) “Yrs truly” or “Truly yrs” were very popular with AH from 1794 onward and only sparingly used before then.

John B. Church got “Yrs. unalterably,” James Madison got “Affecty Yrs” or “Yrs affy” ALOT in 1788 (though AH seems to be copying Madison’s valedictions - Madison even sent him an “I am yours” that AH never reciprocated.) “Affecty Yrs” also went to Wadsworth and a few others. “Yrs affectionately” went to the Marquis de Lafayette, Laurens, and similar versions went to G. Morris too.

ESH got the most superlative versions (as she did in salutations also) like, “most affectionately yrs,” “Yrs my Angel with inviolable affection,” “Yrs. with unalterable tenderness and fidelity,” “ Yrs. with unbounded Affec,” “Yours tenderly,” “Yours very truly and tenderly.”

Salutations (well, sometimes a salutation, sometimes within the letter):

Laurens was called “My dear Laurens,” “My Dear J” and “My Dear” (April 1779 and 30March1780), but is usually “My dear Laurens” or “My dear friend” when the ‘dear’ expression is used.

Others called “My dear Friend” (capitalized and not) are Fish, Meade (who is also “My dear Meade”), Laurance, G. Morris, Angelica S. Church (in several different letters; also “my dear Angelica” and “my dear sister” and “my dear sister-in-law”), JB. Church, Robert Harrison, Henry Lee (also “My Dear Lee”), Duer (also “My Dear Duer”), Catharine Greene, Wadsworth (also “My Dear Wadsworth in the 1790s), King ( also “My Dear King”), McHenry (also My Dear Mc., and “My Dear Mac” by 1800), Lafayette (also frequently “My Dear Marquis”), and Susan Kean.

Walker is “My Dear Walker,” Robert Troup is “My Dear Troupe,” and William Jackson is “My Dear Jackson.” AH is “My Dear Hamilton” in letters from persons who knew him early in life, like Stevens, Lafayette, Laurens, GW, Harrison, Meade, McHenry; otherwise he’s “My Dear friend” (like in Troup’s letters, a bit oddly) or “Dear Sir” in general. [I think it’s only from a couple of letters between ESH and AS Church that we know that the Schuylers did also refer to him as “Alexander,” though more commonly as “Hamilton.”]

ESH is often “My dear girl,” “my dear,” “My dear Betsey,” “My dear Eliza,” “My Dear Wife” etc.

BUT, My dearest is only found in letters to ESH (20Jul1780), (31July1780), (supposedly Aug1780). He also addresses her as “My dearest girl” (17Mar1780), “My Dearest Angel” (22Aug1781 and May, 1786–April, 1788), “My Dearest Eliza,” and “my dearest life (23Sept1801). I thought this last one might be an incorrect transcription, but no, it really is “my dearest life.” That was a phrase of the time period (Benedict Arnold used it in letters to both his wives), though perhaps made most famous by Charles Dickens (for his own wife) decades later.

“Adieu my dearest life.” Here’s the link.

Bonus AH ridiculousness: “I write you this letter on your fidelity. No mortal must see it or know its Contents.”

#18th century letters #Alexander Hamilton #Elizabeth S. Hamilton #my dearest #yrs ever #I suggested that I'd do a comparison of the letters to ESH vs JL from AH stating that #there are some similarities but also strong differences #this is some background to that so I don't have to write all of that out later

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aswithasunbeam · 4 years

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did ham fake the letters in the Reynolds pamphlet? cause I read somewhere that James T Callender even thought this in a pamphlet he published called "Sketches of the History of America"

Great question! Possibly. This is a theory that’s been bouncing around for over 200 years now. For context, James T. Callender was the one who initially published letters from the Reynolds affair along with accusations of financial malfeasance in his pamphlet “The History of the United States for 1796,” which in turn prompted Hamilton to write the Reynolds Pamphlet to defend himself. In July 1797, before the Pamphlet was published, Callender wrote a letter to Hamilton later published in the Merchant’s Daily Advertiser, alleging:

According to my information, these Written documents consisted of a series of letters pretended to be written relative to your alledged connection with Mrs. Reynolds. You told the members a confused and absurd story about her, of which they did not believe a single word, and which, if they had been true, did not give a proper explanation as to your correspondence with her husband.

(The same letter ends, mockingly, “The[ public] have long known you as an eminent and able statesman. They will be highly gratified by seeing you exhibited in the novel character of a lover.”)

After the Reynolds Pamphlet was published, Callender again wrote to Hamilton on 29 October 1797, requesting an inspection of the original correspondence from Maria Reynolds. Hamilton endorsed the request “Impudent Experiment No Notice” and did not reply. (Though, after Callender’s initial pamphlet and later mocking letters, Hamilton being reluctant to engage with him further hardly seems surprising.)

At this point, Callender published “Sketches of the History of America” and leveled the accusation that the Reynolds letters were forged:

These letters from Mrs. Reynolds are badly spelt and pointed. Capitals, also, occur even in the midst of words. But waving such excrescences, the stile is pathetic and even elegant. It does not bear the marks of an illiterate writer. The construction of the periods disagrees with this apparent incapacity of spelling. The officer who can marshall a regiment, must know how to level a musquet. A few gross blunders are interspersed, and these could readily be devised; but, when stript of such a veil, the body of the composition is pure and correct. In the literary world, fabrications of this nature have been frequent. Our ex-secretary admits that he has been in the habit of writing to this family in a feigned character. The transition was easy to the writing in a feigned stile. (Sketches, p.99)

But even in this pamphlet, Callender hedged on whether he truly believed the letters were forged. After the above passage, Callender added, “Mrs. Reynolds herself may have written these epistles from the dictating of the Colonel,” and then later waffles further, “[E]ven admitting that the love letters and others were genuine, this does not take away the probability of a swindling connection between Reynolds and Hamilton.” (Sketches, p.100).

Hamilton claimed to have given the letters to his friend William Bingham so that they might have been inspected by anyone wishing to do so. Bingham, however, claimed never to have received the letters. Where the letters ended up is still unknown. However, the introductory note to the Reynolds Pamphlet on Founders Archive posits:

In 1795, when Hamilton thought that he was going to fight a duel with James Nicholson, he entrusted the disposition of his estate to Robert Troup. At the time he wrote to Troup: “In my leather Trunk … is also a bundle inscribed thus—J R To be forwarded to Oliver Wolcott Junr. Esq. I entreat that this may be early done by a careful hand.” Hamilton then added: “This trunk contains all my interesting papers.”80 In going through her husband’s papers after his death, Elizabeth Hamilton wrote under Hamilton’s letter to Troup: “to be retained by myself.” If Broadus Mitchell is correct in assuming that the initials “J R” refer to the Reynolds correspondence,81 it may not be too wild a leap of the imagination to conclude that Elizabeth Hamilton inherited and then destroyed the documents describing her husband’s affair with Maria Reynolds. In this connection it may be relevant to point out that Joseph Sabin states that Hamilton’s edition of the “Reynolds Pamphlet” was bought up and destroyed by Hamilton’s family.

So, Callender claimed the letters were forgeries written by Hamilton, but he never had the chance to inspect the originals to definitively say one way or the other. And the originals, if they were returned to Hamilton, were very possibly burned by Eliza after his death. All in all, it remains an unanswerable question.

#alexander hamilton #james callender #maria reynolds #eliza hamilton #reynolds affair #history #ask

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blackkudos · 4 years

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Ma Rainey

"Ma" Rainey (born Gertrude Pridgett, September 1882 or April 26, 1886 – December 22, 1939) was one of the earliest African-American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of blues singers to record. She was billed as the "Mother of the Blues".

She began performing as a teenager and became known as Ma Rainey after her marriage to Will Rainey, in 1904. They toured with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels and later formed their own group, Rainey and Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues. Her first recording was made in 1923. In the next five years, she made over 100 recordings, including "Bo-Weevil Blues" (1923), "Moonshine Blues" (1923), "See See Rider Blues" (1924), "Black Bottom" (1927), and "Soon This Morning" (1927).

Rainey was known for her powerful vocal abilities, energetic disposition, majestic phrasing, and a "moaning" style of singing. Her qualities are present and most evident in her early recordings "Bo-Weevil Blues" and "Moonshine Blues".

Rainey recorded with Louis Armstrong, and she toured and recorded with the Georgia Jazz Band. She continued to tour until 1935, when she retired and went to live in her hometown.

Life and career

Pridgett claimed to have been born on April 26, 1886 (beginning with the 1910 census, taken April 25, 1910), in Columbus, Georgia. However, the 1900 census indicates she was born in September 1882 in Alabama, and researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc suggest that her birthplace was in Russell County, Alabama. She was the second of five children of Thomas and Ella (née Allen) Pridgett, from Alabama. She had at least two brothers and a sister, Malissa, with whom Gertrude was later confused by some writers.

She began her career as a performer at a talent show in Columbus, Georgia, when she was about 12 to 14 years old. A member of the First African Baptist Church, she began performing in black minstrel shows. She later claimed that she was first exposed to blues music around 1902. She formed the Alabama Fun Makers Company with her husband, Will Rainey, but in 1906 they both joined Pat Chappelle's much larger and more popular Rabbit's Foot Company, in which they were billed together as "Black Face Song and Dance Comedians, Jubilee Singers [and] Cake Walkers". In 1910, she was described as "Mrs. Gertrude Rainey, our coon shouter". She continued with the Rabbit's Foot Company after it was taken over by a new owner, F. S. Wolcott, in 1912.

Beginning in 1914, the Raineys were billed as Rainey and Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues. Wintering in New Orleans, she met numerous musicians, including Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet and Pops Foster. As the popularity of blues music increased, she became well known. Around this time, she met Bessie Smith, a young blues singer who was also making a name for herself. A story later developed that Rainey kidnapped Smith, forced her to join the Rabbit's Foot Minstrels, and taught her to sing the blues; the story was disputed by Smith's sister-in-law Maud Smith.

From the late 1910s, there was an increasing demand for recordings by black musicians. In 1920, Mamie Smith was the first black woman to be recorded. In 1923, Rainey was discovered by Paramount Records producer J. Mayo Williams. She signed a recording contract with Paramount, and in December she made her first eight recordings in Chicago, including "Bad Luck Blues", "Bo-Weevil Blues" and "Moonshine Blues". She made more than 100 other recordings over the next five years, which brought her fame beyond the South. Paramount marketed her extensively, calling her the "Mother of the Blues", the "Songbird of the South", the "Gold-Neck Woman of the Blues" and the "Paramount Wildcat".

In 1924 she made some recordings with Louis Armstrong, including "Jelly Bean Blues", "Countin' the Blues" and "See, See Rider". In the same year she embarked on a tour of the Theater Owners Booking Association (TOBA) in the South and Midwest of the United States, singing for black and white audiences. She was accompanied by the bandleader and pianist Thomas Dorsey and the band he assembled, the Wildcats Jazz Band. They began their tour with an appearance in Chicago in April 1924 and continued, on and off, until 1928. Dorsey left the group in 1926 because of ill health and was replaced as pianist by Lillian Hardaway Henderson, the wife of Rainey's cornetist Fuller Henderson, who became the band's leader.

Although most of Rainey's songs that mention sexuality refer to love affairs with men, some of her lyrics contain references to lesbianism or bisexuality, such as the 1928 song "Prove It on Me":

They said I do it, ain't nobody caught me. Sure got to prove it on me. Went out last night with a crowd of my friends. They must've been women, 'cause I don't like no men.

According to the website queerculturalcenter.org, the lyrics refer to an incident in 1925 in which Rainey was "arrested for taking part in an orgy at [her] home involving women in her chorus." The political activist and scholar Angela Y. Davis noted that "'Prove It on Me' is a cultural precursor to the lesbian cultural movement of the 1970s, which began to crystallize around the performance and recording of lesbian-affirming songs."

Towards the end of the 1920s, live vaudeville went into decline, being replaced by radio and recordings. Rainey's career was not immediately affected; she continued recording for Paramount and earned enough money from touring to buy a bus with her name on it. In 1928, she worked with Dorsey again and recorded 20 songs, before Paramount terminated her contract. Her style of blues was no longer considered fashionable by the label.

Death

In 1935, Rainey returned to her hometown, Columbus, Georgia, where she ran three theatres, the Lyric, the Airdrome, and the Liberty Theatre until her death. She died of a heart attack in 1939, at the age of 53 (or 57, according to the research of Bob Eagle), in Rome, Georgia.

Legacy

Honours and awards

Rainey was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

In 1994, the U.S. Post Office issued a 29-cent commemorative postage stamp honoring her.

In 2004, "See See Rider Blues" (performed in 1924) was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and was added to the National Recording Registry by the National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress.

The first annual Ma Rainey International Blues Festival was held in April 2016 in Columbus, Georgia, near the home that Rainey owned and lived in at the time of her death.

In 2017, the Rainey-McCullers School of the Arts opened in Columbus, Georgia, named in honor of Rainey and author Carson McCullers.

References and portrayals

In 1981 Sandra Lieb wrote the first full-length book about Rainey, Mother of the Blues: A Study of Ma Rainey.

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, a 1982 play by August Wilson, is a fictionalized account of the recording of her song of the same title in December 1927. Viola Davis will portray Rainey in a film adaption of the play, set to be distributed by Netflix.

Sterling A. Brown wrote a poem, "Ma Rainey", in 1932, about how "When Ma Rainey / comes to town" people everywhere would hear her sing.

Comedienne Mo'Nique played Rainey in the 2015 film Bessie.

#04/26

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foxingpeculiar · 5 years

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Since I don’t plan on putting on another one in the next two hours, I apparently watched exactly 200 movies for the first time in 2019. We’ll see if we can beat that. They are, if anyone cares:

Searching (2018, Aneesh Chhaganty)

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018, David Slade)

Upgrade (2018, Leigh Whannell)

Pather Panchali (1955, Satyajit Ray)

Aparajito (1956, Satyajit Ray)

The Vampire Lovers (1970, Roy Ward Baker)

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009, Werner Herzog)

*Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018, Marielle Heller)

Cape Fear (1991, Martin Scorsese)

Wild Strawberries (1957, Ingmar Bergman)

The Seven Year Itch (1955, Billy Wilder)

A Star is Born (2018, Bradley Cooper)

You Were Never Really Here (2017, Lynne Ramsay)

Vampire’s Kiss (1988, Robert Bierman)

Gangs of Wasseypur—Part 1 (2012, Anurag Kashyap)

*Destroyer (2018, Karyn Kusama)

Gangs of Wasseypur—Part 2 (2012, Anurag Kashyap)

Under the Silver Lake (2018, David Robert Mitchell)

Night Moves (1975, Arthur Penn)

*Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018, Bob Persichetti/Peter A Ramsey/Rodney Rothman)

The Thin Red Line (1998, Terrence Malick)

*Shogun Assassin (1980, Robert Houston/Kenji Misumi)

Secret Window (2004, David Koepp)

Gemini (2017, Aaron Katz)

Velvet Buzzsaw (2019, Dan Gilroy)

A Field in England (2013, Ben Wheatley)

Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened (2019, Chris Smith)

Daisies (1966, Věra Chytilová)

The Devils (1971, Ken Russell)

Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010, Panos Cosmatos)

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018, Bryan Singer)

Bye Bye Birdie (1963, George Sidney)

Body Heat (1981, Lawrence Kasdan)

Being There (1979, Hal Ashby)

Logan’s Run (1976, Michael Anderson)

Escape From Tomorrow (2013, Randy Moore)

The Double (2014, Richard Ayoade)

Days of Heaven (1978, Terrence Malick)

The Blackcoat’s Daughter (2015, Oz Perkins)

Submarine (2010, Richard Ayoade)

*The Wandering Earth (2019, Frant Gwo)

Abducted in Plain Sight (2017, Skye Borgman)

The Thomas Crown Affair (1968, Norman Jewison)

Certain Women (2016, Kelly Reichardt)

Green Book (2018, Peter Farrelly)

Cold War (2018, Pawel Pawlikowski)

*The Boxer’s Omen (1983, Kuei Chih-Hung)

Vox Lux (2018, Brady Corbett)

A Most Violent Year (2014, JC Chandor)

Leaving Neverland (2019, Dan Reed)

Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy (1968, Roger Vadim)

The Clovehitch Killer (2018, Duncan Skiles)

The Wicker Man (1973, Robin Hardy)

Jubilee (1978, Derek Jarman)

Blithe Spirit (1945, David Lean)

Burning (2018, Lee Chang-Dong)

Starchaser: The Legend of Orin (1985, Steven Hahn)

First Man (2018, Damien Chazelle)

*Us (2019, Jordan Peele)

Re-Animator (1985, Stuart Gordon)

The Dirt (2019, Jeff Tremaine)

Brokeback Mountain (2005, Ang Lee)

All That Heaven Allows (1955, Douglas Sirk)

The Blues Brothers (1980, John Landis)

Unfaithfully Yours (1948, Preston Sturges)

Hustle & Flow (2005, Craig Brewer)

Yojimbo (1961, Akira Kurosawa)

The Detective (1968, Gordon Douglas)

Support the Girls (2018, Andrew Bujalski)

The Age of Innocence (1993, Martin Scorsese)

Boys Don’t Cry (1999, Kimberly Peirce)

Eyes of Laura Mars (1978, Irvin Kershner)

*Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2019, Bi Gan)

Pet Sematary (1989, Mary Lambert)

*Avengers: Endgame (2019, Anthony & Joe Russo)

Fear (1996, James Foley)

Shivers (1976, David Cronenberg)

The Brood (1979, David Cronenberg)

Drowning by Numbers (1988, Peter Greenaway)

Like Someone in Love (2012, Abbas Kiarostami)

Society (1989, Brian Yuzna)

The Perfection (2019, Richard Shepard)

Lords of Chaos (2018, Jonas Åkerlund)

Perfect Blue (1997, Satoshi Kon)

Happy Death Day 2 U (2019, Christopher Landon)

The Dunwich Horror (1970, Daniel Haller)

Three Days of the Condor (1975, Sydney Pollack)

The Parallax View (1974, Alan J Pakula)

Klute (1971, Alan J Pakula)

The Day of the Jackal (1973, Fred Zinneman)

Play Misty for Me (1971, Clint Eastwood)

The Craft (1996, Andrew Fleming)

Charade (1963, Stanley Donen)

Her Smell (2019, Alex Ross Perry)

Gattaca (1997, Andrew Niccol)

Hackers (1995, Iain Softley)

The Paperboy (2012, Lee Daniels)

They Live (1988, John Carpenter)

*Midsommar (2019, Ari Aster)

A Murder of Crows (1999, Rowdy Herrington)

The Predator (2018, Shane Black)

*Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019, Quentin Tarantino)

Bullitt (1968, Peter Yates)

Basic Instinct (1992, Paul Verhoeven)

The Da Vinci Code (2006, Ron Howard)

The Trip (1967, Roger Corman)

X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963, Roger Corman)

The Falcon and the Snowman (1985, John Schlesinger)

Inside Daisy Clover (1965, Robert Mulligan)

The Falls (1980, Peter Greenaway)

Cannibal Holocaust (1980, Ruggero Deodato)

Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019, Rob Letterman)

War & Peace (1967, Sergei Bondarchuk)

A Zed and Two Noughts (1985, Peter Greenaway)

The Man with the Golden Arm (1955, Otto Preminger)

Maniac (1934, Dwain Esper)

Possession (1981, Andrzej Żuławski)

High Life (2018, Claire Denis)

Catch Me If You Can (2002, Steven Spielberg)

The Souvenir (2019, Joanna Hogg)

Gow the Killer (1931, Edward A Sailsbury)

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018, JA Bayona)

Suicide Squad (2016, David Ayer)

Jaws of the Jungle (1936, Eddie Granemann)

*IT, Chapter Two (2019, Andy Muschietti)

Rocketman (2019, Dexter Fletcher)

Booksmart (2019, Olivia Wilde)

A Futile and Stupid Gesture (2018, David Wain)

Goodbye Lover (1998, Roland Joffé)

24 Hour Party People (2002, Michael Winterbottom)

Wild Women of Wongo (1958, James L Wolcott)

Body of Evidence (1993, Uli Edel)

Capricorn One (1978, Peter Hyams)

Identification of a Woman (1982, Michelangelo Antonioni)

Marihuana (1936, Dwain Esper)

*Ad Astra (2019, James Gray)

The Violent Years (1956, William Morgan)

Salvatore Giuliano (1962. Francesco Rosi)

Metropolis (2001, Rintaro)

Mom and Dad (1945, William Beaudine)

The Eye of Vichy (1993, Claude Chabrol)

Harper (1966, Jack Smight)

The House That Dripped Blood (1971, Peter Duffell)

The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967, Roman Polanski)

Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959, Edward D Wood Jr)

*Joker (2019, Todd Phillips)

Attack of the Crab Monsters (1956, Roger Corman)

Fracture (2007, Gregory Hoblit)

The Bedroom Window (1987, Curtis Hanson)

The Celluloid Closet (1995, Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman)

Echoes in the Darkness (1987, Glenn Jordan)

No Way Out (1987, Roger Donaldson)

Pumpkinhead (1988, Stan Winston)

Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011, Alex Stapleton)

McLuhan’s Wake (2002, Kevin McMahon)

Taking Lives (2004, DJ Caruso)

Spine Tingler!: The William Castle Story (2009, Jeffrey Schwarz)

House on Haunted Hill (1959, William Castle)

The Tingler (1959, William Castle)

The Virgin Spring (1960, Ingmar Bergman)

Last House on the Left (1972, Wes Craven)

*Judy (2019, Rupert Goold)

Judgment at Nuremberg (1961, Stanley Kramer)

Cam (2018, Daniel Goldhaber)

Dolemite is My Name (2019, Craig Brewer)

Dolemite (1975, D’Urville Martin)

*The Lighthouse (2019, Robert Eggers)

The Defilers (1965, David F Friedman)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985, Jack Sholder)

Paranormal Activity 2 (2010, Tod Williams)

Paranormal Activity 3 (2011, Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman)

Kill List (2011, Ben Wheatley)

Krull (1983, Peter Yates)

Ginger Snaps (2000, John Fawcett)

Blood Feast (1963, Herschell Gordon Lewis)

Primal Fear (1996, Gregory Hoblit)

The World of Apu (1959, Satyajit Ray)

Man of Steel (2013, Zack Snyder)

Superman: The Movie (1978, Richard Donner)

Coffy (1973, Jack Hill)

In the Shadow of the Moon (2019, Jim Mickle)

The Irishman (2019, Martin Scorsese)

Marriage Story (2019, Noah Baumbach)

Echo in the Canyon (2019, Andrew Slater)

Shock Corridor (1963, Samuel Fuller)

The Road to Wellville (1994, Alan Parker)

The Last Temptation of Christ (1988, Martin Scorsese)

*Knives Out (2019, Rian Johnson)

Howl (2010, Rob Epstien & Jeffrey Friedman)

Hustlers (2019, Lorene Scafaria)

Late Night (2019, Nisha Ganatra)

Reefer Madness (2005, Andy Fickman)

Soapdish (1991, Michael Hoffman)

Happy Together (1997, Wong Kar-Wai)

The Cloud-Capped Star (1960, Ritwik Ghatak)

Jodorowsky’s Dune (2013, Frank Pavich)

Thief (1981, Michael Mann)

Detour (1945, Edgar G Ulmer)

The Bank Dick (1940, Edward F Cline)

Blinded by the Light (2019, Gurinder Chadha)

#movies #personal #lists

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asfaltics · 5 years

Text

tackings

water; this caused me to tack about immediately, and change my design 1 with me tacking the care of... tacking the whole 2 finds me tacking naught. Blinded 3 when it reached me, tacking gracefully, and came 4 r y, LINE TO ME TACKING 1 » t*» •» i a 1 c» S 3 3 O s o 100** -i z " 3 5 l~~ * c* $ z fli. 5 wind caused me to tack towards Porama. Thus I landed 6 me, tacking on to it parts of... speech 7 me, tacking me 8 me, tacking on a shoe ; of course, 9 rather late in the day, found me tacking up the Bure 10 says he can see me tacking No. 14 silk on my sieves 11

reads, OCR misreads, side-reads — sources

1 ex Jean de La Roque (1661-1745 *), A Voyage to Arabia the Happy, By the Way of the Eastern Ocean, and the Streights of the Red-Sea, Perform’d by the French for the first time, A.D. 1708, 1709, 1710. Together With a particular Relation of a Journey from the Port of Moka to the Court of the King of Yemen, in the second Expedition, A.D. 1711, 1712, 1713. Also, An Account of the Coffee-Tree and its Fruit... (London, 1730): 59 his Voyage dans l’Arabie heureuse (1716), Englished 2 ex deed of Goodman Andruss, tanner (narrated; signed by a mark and dated January 4, 1717) in Henry Bronson, The History of Waterbury, Connecticut; The Original Township embracing present Watertown and Plymouth, and parts of Oxford, Wolcott, Middlebury, Prospect and Naugatuck. With an appendix of biography, genealogy and statistics. (1858): 133 3 OCR misread of “me lacking naught” “Mutual Blindness” by C. A. C. H. in Godey’s Magazine (Philadelphia; September 1870): 228 (snippet only) see entire in different copy/scan, 228 4 ex “A Catamaran cutter – a queer craft coursing a North-Western prairie” in Farm Implement News (December 8, 1892): 24 5 ex snippet, dramatically inventive OCR misread of text (at 90ºcw), in chart showing naval evolutions during the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, February 14, 1797, in Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914), The Influence of Sea Power Upon the French Revolution and Empire, 1793-1812 (sixth edition, vol. 1 of 2, 1892): (facing) 223 6 ex “Missions of Oceania / Mission of the New Hebrides / Kaina’s Conversion.—His Baptism.—His Zeal and his Self-Sacrifice.” in Annals of the Propagation of the Faith 58 (1895): 299 7 ex J. W. Wilkins, “The International Submarine Telegraph Memorial” (interesting letter to the editor) in The Electrical Journal (November 6, 1896): 59 8 ex (an intelligent and well-composed) letter by John Minot (Portsmouth, April 20, 1725) in William Blake Trask, ed., Letters of Colonel Thomas Westbrook and Others Relative to Indian Affairs in Maine, 1722-1726 (1901): 100 9 ex Colin Harding (Acting-Administrator of North-West Rhodesia, Commandant Barotse Native Police), his In Remotest Barotseland: Being an Account of a Journey of over 8,000 Miles through the Wildest and Remotest Parts of Lewanika’s Empire (1904): 273 whew 10 ex G. F. Bradby, “The Haunted Boat” in The Cornhill Magazine (January 1905): 80-77 (80) 11 “Brain storms are still rampant in this land of ours, even among millers...” American Miller and Processor (November 1, 1912): 892-893

—

mindful that few (if any) of these links will work in distant lands

all tagged tack all tagged lack

#tack #tacking #lack #latihan

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dd20century · 5 years

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Clara Wolcott Driscoll: Tiffany Studios’ Brightest Light

“This is rather difficult work, but when one has a fondness for a certain brand of industry, she does not pause when a difficulty must be overcome.” -- Clara Wolcott Driscoll

This past summer the Munson Williams Proctor Museum in Utica, NY held an exhibition, “Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Driehaus Collection.” The astonishing show featured Tiffany’s most iconic lamps, many designed by a woman whose name is largely forgotten now, Clara Wolcott Driscoll. The women who assembled Mrs. Driscoll’s designs were popularly referred to as “Tiffany Girls,”(1), and they worked under her in Tiffany’s Women's Glass Cutting Department. Driscoll was the designer behind many of the best well-known lamps to emerge from Tiffany Studios: Daffodil, Wisteria, Dragonfly, and Peony lamps (2).

Clara Wolcott Driscoll for Tiffany Studios (1900), Daffodil Shade (detail). Photo credit: Telome4 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14892217 Image source.

Young Clara Pierce Wolcott

Clara Pierce Wolcott was born in Talmadge, Ohio in 1861. Her father, Elizur V. Wolcott studied theology and aspired to be a missionary but his poor health prevented that dream from becoming a reality. Instead, Wolcott became a farmer and teacher (3). Tragically, Wolcott died in 1873, forcing his wife Fannie to find work as a teacher in order to support Clara and her three younger sisters (3). Fannie Wolcott who had attended the Talmadge Academy was determined that her daughters would also receive an education. With her family connections, Fannie placed “Clara with relatives living near the excellent (and free) Central High School”(3) in Cleveland, Ohio.

During her time at Central High School, young Clara demonstrated a keen interest in the natural world, especially flowers. This interest was undoubtedly encouraged by naturalist, Harriet Louise Keeler who was an instructor at the school during that time (3). After graduation, Clara enrolled in “the Western Reserve School of Design for Women (now the Cleveland Institute of Art)”(2). Not much, however, is known about Clara’s time there.

Sometime after Clara’s secondary studies were completed, she had “taken a position as designer for C. S. Ransom and Company, a Cleveland-based manufacturer of Moorish-influenced fretwork panels”(3).

Clara Driscoll Joins, Departs and then Rejoins Tiffany Studios

In the fall of 1888, Clara left Cleveland and headed to New York City to continue her art education “at the then-new Metropolitan Museum Art School” (2). Not long after her arrival in New York Louis Comfort Tiffany hired her as a designer in his studio. At Tiffany Studios Clara “earned the intricacies of glass selection and cutting,”(3) but after only a year with Tiffany, Clara left to get married as was the law in New York at that time. In 1989, Clara married Francis Driscoll who was thirty years her senior. In 1892 Mr. Driscoll died, and Clara, widowed, was rehired by Tiffany. Soon after Tiffany named Clara to head the Women’s Glasscutting Department (3). She had excellent managerial skills with an aptitude “for realizing a great profit from lamps and fancy goods”(4). When Clara took over the glasscutting department six women were working under her, eventually the staff would grow to thirty-five strong. These women earned the nickname “The Tiffany Girls”(5).

Clara Wolcott Driscoll (third row far left, wearing a white blouse) and the “Tiffany Girls” (circa 1904). Photo courtesy of The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of Art.

Challenges Faced by Clara Driscoll and the Women Working at Tiffany Studios

The women in her department selected the glass for the shades, “cutting the individual segments using templates, and wrapping them with copper foil”(5). The men would assemble the lamps by attaching the glass pieces to molds and soldering the copper foil edges together.

Over time rivalries developed between the men and the women workers. Men were “making windows, mosaics, and leaded shades” while the women for a time were relegated to only glass cutting. The men belonged to a union that “did not admit women,” so the women could not enjoy the same benefits as the men. Tiffany, however, paid his male and female employees equally which angered many of the men (5). “In 1903, the men threatened to strike in order to take away the women’s right to make windows”(5). Tiffany refused to meet the union’s demands but agreed to limit “the number of women in Driscoll’s department at 27”(5).

Mrs. Driscoll, herself became frustrated with faced staffing issues in the Women’s Glasscutting Department. Since married women were barred from employment Driscoll, would invest in developing a young talent only to lose the young woman to the wedding altar (5).

Clara’s Mystery Engagement

Mrs. Driscoll had also considered remarrying sometime between 1896 and 1897; she became engaged to Edwin Waldo the brother of artist George B. Waldo, one of Driscoll’s friends. While on route to meet his potential future in-laws in Ohio, Edwin inexplicably disappeared. No one heard from him for five years. Possibly due to the painful nature of this episode, Mrs. Driscoll never referred to it in any of her writings (3).

Clara Driscoll’s Major Works for Tiffany

During 1896 “Clara began experimenting with lamps”(5). Along with “Tiffany designer Agnes Northrop and fellow Cleveland art school classmate Alice Carmen Gouvy (also hired by Tiffany), Mrs. Driscoll designed the innovative Flying Fish lamp and Deep Sea mosaic and glass-jeweled base”(2). In addition to lamps, she designed “desk and boudoir accessories, often in combinations of glass, bronze, and mosaic”(3).

Driscoll drew her inspiration for her iconic lamp designs upon her life-long passion for and study of nature. Based upon information Driscoll shared in one of her letters, the daffodil lamp was her first important lamp design in 1900. That same year her design for the dragonfly lamp, “won a prize at the 1900 World’s Fair,”(6) that design, however, had long been credited to her boss, Louis Comfort Tiffany (6). The stunning wisteria lamp has also been attributed to Clara (5).

Clara Driscoll’s Later Years

In 1909 Driscoll left Tiffany Studio for the final time to marry Edwin Booth. While marriage ended Mrs. Driscoll’s professional career, she continued designing -- this time the product was colorful silk scarves. Edwin retired from his job managing an import business in 1929 just as the Great Depression struck, and the couple spent the remainder of their years in Florida. Their marriage would last thirty-five years until Clara’s death in 1944 (3).

Clara Driscoll’s Design Legacy

Clara Driscoll’s real role in Tiffany Studios went largely forgotten. When the company folded “in 1932, all the records were lost”(1). In 1953 when her sister Emily died, a trove of letters between the two sisters was discovered. It was not until almost 40 years later, however, that the letters were recognized by scholars when one of Driscoll’s relatives “Elizabeth A. Jones Yeargin transcribed a sampling from the letters for her work…self-published as a bound typescript titled The Pierce and Wolcott Letters”(3).

During Clara Driscoll’s career about thirty “or so lamps believed to have been designed by or created under”(6) her direction. These included “the Wisteria, Dragonfly, Peony, and from all accounts, her first — the Daffodil”(2). One Wisteria Lamp sold for $492,500 on December 14, 2017, at Christie’s in New York (7). Driscoll’s lamps are held in the collections in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and in numerous museums throughout the world. In recent years, numerous exhibitions of Tiffany lamps that featured Driscoll’s works, like the recent show in Utica, NY, have been held. The first to specifically acknowledge her contributions to Tiffany Studios was the New-York Historical Society 2007 show, “A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls.” Also that year, a book of the same title by Martin Eidelberg, Nina Gray and Margaret Hofer was published, and in 2011 Susan Vreeland published her historical novel Clara and Mr. Tiffany, based on the relationship between Mrs. Driscoll and Louis Comfort Tiffany (1). It may have been a long time coming, but the world is beginning to recognize the design genius of Clara Wolcott Driscoll.

References

Taylor, K., (13 February 2007). “Tiffany's Secret Is Over,” The New York Sun website. https://www.nysun.com/arts/tiffanys-secret-is-over/48495/

Wikipedia, (29 May 2019). Clara Driscoll (glass designer). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Driscoll_(glass_designer)

Bassett, M., (1 January 2012). “Breaking Tiffany's Glass Ceiling: Clara Wolcott Driscoll (1861-1944),” Cleveland Institute of Art website. https://www.cia.edu/news/stories/breaking-tiffanys-glass-ceiling-clara-wolcott-driscoll-1861-1944

The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art (2019). “Tiffany Studio Designers,” The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art website http://www.morsemuseum.org/louis-comfort-tiffany/tiffany-studios-designers

Gedal, A., (27 March 2015). “Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls,” The New York Historical Society and Museum website http://behindthescenes.nyhistory.org/tiffany-girls/

Kastner, J., (25 February 2007). “Out of Tiffany’s Shadow, a Woman of Light,” New York Times Online Archives. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/arts/design/25kast.html?pagewanted=print

Vilinsky, B., (9 August 2019). “Collecting Guide: 10 Things to Know About Tiffany Lamps,” Christie’s website. https://www.christies.com/features/Tiffany-lamps-10-things-you-need-to-know-9542-3.aspx

#clara wolcott drsicoll #tiffany studios #louis comfort tiffany #product design #art glass

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moved-accounts-btw · 11 months

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The Wolcott family is a complex tapestry of diverse opinions and thoughts, whether stemming from their inherent nature or fueled by their hopes for change. Who could have predicted that a family, renowned for its skills and abilities, would crumble under the weight of a single father's indifference? He seemed to care for his children, but his motives were askew. It wasn't a genuine affection that drove him to protect Sadie; rather, it was an aversion to admitting his failure, in what capacity, we may never truly comprehend – as a husband, father, or perhaps even as a son.

The mother bears some responsibility, though her culpability is mixed with her own struggles and regrets. She brought children into the world, even when she was ill-prepared to embrace motherhood. The first time, when Mikael was but an infant, it was more understandable, giving her a chance to contemplate her beliefs. Yet, 21 years passed, and she still couldn't acknowledge her eldest while favoring her youngest. She carries her own sins, ones that aren't easily absolved, especially after nearly sacrificing a life to save a stillborn, only for it to endure more suffering than anyone could have foreseen. The stress of guilt and Adam's demands clouded her judgment, but it does not justify treating her children as mere playthings, casting them aside when motherhood became inconvenient.

Her jealousy towards the memory of Adam's first wife, Eve, lingers like a shadow in the family's history. Envying that her children clung to her present then anything.

#scp foundation #scp au #MTF au #Wolcott Family #Adam Wolcott #Evelynn Wolcott #Eve O5-1 #O5-1 #Mikael Wolcott #J. William Wolcott #Theo Wolcott #Cassidy Wolcott #sadie wolcott

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byneddiedingo · 2 years

Photo

Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941). Cast: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead, Ruth Warrick, Ray Collins, Erskine Sanford, Everett Sloane, William Alland, Paul Stewart, George Coulouris. Screenplay: Herman J. Mankiewicz, Orson Welles. Cinematography: Gregg Toland. Art direction: Van Nest Polglase, Perry Ferguson. Film editing: Robert Wise. Music: Bernard Herrmann.

Things I don't like about Citizen Kane.

The "News on the March" montage. It's an efficient way of cluing the audience in to what it's about to see, but was it necessary to make it a parody of "The March of Time" newsreel, down to the use of the Timespeak so deftly lampooned by Wolcott Gibbs ("Backward ran sentences until reeled the mind")?

Susan Alexander Kane. Not only did Welles leave himself open to charges that he was caricaturing William Randolph Hearst's relationship with his mistress, Marion Davies, but he unwittingly damaged Davies's lasting reputation as a skillful comic actress. We still read today that Susan Alexander (whose minor talent Kane exploits cruelly) is to be identified as Welles's portrait of Davies, when in fact Welles admired Davies's work. But beyond that, Susan (Dorothy Comingore) is an underwritten and inconsistent character -- at one point a sweet and trusting object of Kane's affections and later in the film a vituperative, illiterate shrew and still later a drunk. What was it in her that Kane (Orson Welles) initially saw? From the moment she first lunges at the high notes in "Una voce poco fa," it's clear to anyone, unless Kane is supposed to have a tin ear, that she has no future as an opera star. Does she exist in the film primarily to demonstrate Kane's arrogance of power? A related quibble: I find the portrayal of her exasperated Italian music teacher, Matiste (Fortunio Bonanova), a silly, intrusive bit of tired comic relief.

Rosebud. The most famous of all MacGuffins, the thing on which the plot of Citizen Kane depends. It's not just that the explanation of how it became so widely known as Kane's last word is so feeble -- was the sinister butler, Raymond (Paul Stewart), in the room when Kane died, as he seems to say? -- it's that the sled itself puts so much psychological weight on Kane's lost childhood, which we see only in the scenes of his squabbling parents (Agnes Moorehead and Harry Shannon). The defense insists that the emphasis on Rosebud is mistakenly put there by the eager press, and that the point is that we often try to explain the complexity of a life by seizing on the wrong thing. But that seems to me to burden the film with more message than it conveys.

And yet, and yet ... it's one of the great films. Its exploration of film technique, particularly by Gregg Toland's deep-focus photography, is breathtaking. Perry Ferguson's sets (though credited to RKO art department head Van Nest Polglase) loom magnificently over the action. Bernard Herrmann's score -- it was his first film -- is legendary. And it is certainly one of the great directing debuts in film history. I don't think it's the greatest film ever made. In the top ten, maybe, but it seems to me artificial and mechanical in comparison to the depiction of actual human life in Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953), the elevation of the gangster genre to incisive social and political critique in the first two Godfather films (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972, 1974), the delicious explorations of obsessive behavior in any number of Alfred Hitchcock movies, the epic treatment of Russian history in Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966), and the tribulations of growing up in the Apu trilogy (Satyajit Ray, 1955, 1956, 1959). And there are lots of films by Howard Hawks, Preston Sturges, Luis Buñuel, François Truffaut, Robert Bresson, and Jean-Luc Godard that I would rewatch before I decide to watch Kane again. There are times when I think Welles's debut film has been overrated because he had a great start, battled a formidable foe in William Randolph Hearst, and inadvertently revealed how conventional Hollywood filmmaking was -- for which Hollywood never forgave him. It's common to say that Citizen Kane was prophetic, because the downfall of Charles Foster Kane anticipated the downfall of Orson Welles. That's oversimple, but like many oversimplifications it contains a germ of truth.

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#Citizen Kane #Orson Welles

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sporadiceagleheart · 4 months

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stripesandrockers · 5 years

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Today marks the 30th anniversary of the explosion of gun turret #2, an explosion that killed 47 crew members of the USS Iowa. The Iowa was 300 miles off the coast of Puerto Rico, participating in a routine naval training exercise, FLEETEX 3-89, when the center gun room blew. A naval investigation of the incident concluded that the explosion was deliberately caused by crew member Clayton Hartwig. A second subsequent investigation by the GAO, assisted by Sandia National Laboratories, determined that an overram of the powder bags was the likely cause of the center gun room explosion.

You can read more about this tragic incident here. Video and news report here.

Honoring the 47 fallen:

TUNG THANH ADAMS, 25, fire controlman, Alexandria.

ROBERT WALLACE BACKHERMS, 30, gunner's mate, Ravenna, Ohio.

DWAYNE COLLIER BATTLE, 21, electrician's mate, fireman apprentice, Rocky Mount, N.C.

WALTER SCOT BLAKEY, 20, gunner's mate, Eaton Rapids, Mich.

PETE EDWARD BOPP, 21, gunner's mate, Levittown, N.Y.

RAMON JEREL BRADSHAW, 19, seaman recruit, Tampa, Fla.

PHILLIP EDWARD BUCH, 24, lieutenant junior grade, Las Cruces, N.M.

JOHN PETER CRAMER, 28, gunner's mate, Uniontown, Pa.

MILTON FRANCIS DEVAUL Jr., 21, gunner's mate, Solvay, N.Y.

LESLIE ALLEN EVERHART Jr., 31, seaman apprentice, Cary, N.C.

GARY JOHN FISK, 24, boatswain's mate, Oneida, N.Y.

TYRONE DWAYNE FOLEY, 27, seaman, Bullard, Texas.

ROBERT JAMES GEDEON III, 22, seaman apprentice, Lakewood, Ohio.

BRIAN WAYNE GENDRON, 20, seaman apprentice, Madera, Calif.

JOHN LEONARD GOINS, 20, seaman recruit, Columbus, Ohio.

DAVID L. HANSON, 23, electrician's mate, Perkins, S.D.

ERNEST EDWARD HANYECZ, 27, gunner's mate, Borenton, N.J.

CLAYTON MICHAEL HARTWIG, 25, gunner's mate, Cleveland, Ohio.

MICHAEL WILLIAM HELTON, 31, legalman, Louisville, Ky.

SCOTT ALAN HOLT, 20, seaman apprentice, Fort Myers, Fla.

REGINALD JOHNSON Jr., 20, seaman recruit, Warrensville Heights, Ohio.

BRIAN ROBERT JONES, 19, seaman, Kennesaw, Ga.

MICHAEL SHANNON JUSTICE, 21, seaman, Matewan, W.Va. (resident of Norfolk, Va.)

EDWARD J. KIMBLE, 23, seaman, Ft. Stockton, Texas

RICHARD E. LAWRENCE, 29, gunner's mate, Springfield, Ohio.

RICHARD JOHN LEWIS, 23, seaman apprentice, Northville, Mich.

JOSE LUIS MARTINEZ Jr., 21, seaman apprentice, Hidalgo, Texas.

TODD CHRISTOPHER McMULLEN, 20, boatswain's mate, Manheim, Pa.

TODD EDWARD MILLER, 25, seaman recruit, Ligonier, Pa.

ROBERT KENNETH MORRISON, 36, legalman, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

OTIS LEVANCE MOSES, 23, seaman, Bridgeport, Conn.

DARIN ANDREW OGDEN, 24, gunner's mate, Shelbyville, Ind. (resident of Hampton, Va.)

RICKY RONALD PETERSON, 27, seaman, Houston, Minn.

MATTHEW RAY PRICE, 20, gunner's mate, Burnside, Pa.

HAROLD EARL ROMINE Jr., 19, gunner's mate, Bradenton, Fla.

GEOFFREY SCOTT SCHELIN, 20, seaman, Costa Mesa, Calif.

HEATH EUGENE STILLWAGON, 21, gunner's mate, Connellsville, Pa.

TODD THOMAS TATHAM, 19, seaman recruit, Wolcott, N.Y.

JACK ERNEST THOMPSON, 22, gunner's mate, Greeneville, Tenn.

STEPHEN J. WELDON, 24, gunner's mate, Yukon, Okla.

JAMES DARRELL WHITE, 22, gunner's mate, Norwalk, Calif.

RODNEY MAURICE WHITE, 19, seaman recruit, Louisville, Ky.

JOHN RODNEY YOUNG, 21, gunner's mate, Columbia, S.C.

REGINALD OWEN ZIEGLER, 39, gunner's mate, Port Gibson, N.Y.

#uss iowa #bb-61

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