On this day in 1930, Scottish physician and writer, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died at his home, Windlesham Manor, Crowborough, East Sussex, England from a heart attack at the age of 71. Born Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle on 22 May 1859 at 11 Picardy Place, Edinburgh, Scotland. Perhaps best known for his fictional stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction. He is also known for writing the fictional adventures of a second character he invented, Professor Challenger. He was a prolific writer whose other works include fantasy and science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels.
The Final Footprint – At the time of his death, there was some controversy concerning his burial place, as he was avowedly not a Christian, considering himself a Spiritualist. He was first buried on 11 July 1930 in Windlesham rose garden. He was later reinterred together with his wife in Minstead churchyard in the New Forest, Hampshire, England. Carved wooden tablets to his memory and to the memory of his wife are held privately and are inaccessible to the public. That inscription reads, “Blade straight / Steel true / Arthur Conan Doyle / Born May 22nd 1859 / Passed On 7th July 1930.” The epitaph on his gravestone in the churchyard reads, in part: “Steel true/Blade straight/Arthur Conan Doyle/Knight/Patriot, Physician, and man of letters”. A statue honours Conan Doyle at Crowborough Cross in Crowborough, where he lived for 23 years. There is also a statue of Sherlock Holmes in Picardy Place, Edinburgh, close to the house where Conan Doyle was born.
On this day in 1967, Academy Award-winning actress Vivien Leigh, Lady Olivier died from tuberculosis in London at the age of 53. Born Vivian Mary Hartley on 5 November 1913 in Darjeeling, Bengal, India. Her father was a British officer in the Indian Cavalry. One of film’s great dark haired beauties. Perhaps best known for her role as Scarlett O’Hara in the David O. Selznick and Victor Fleming film version of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind (1939) with Clark Gable as Rhett Butler, Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes, Olivia de Havilland as Melanie Hamilton Wilkes, Hattie McDaniel as Mammy, Butterfly McQueen as Prissy, and Thomas Mitchell as Gerald O’Hara. My other favorite role performed by Leigh is Blanche DuBois in Elia Kazan’s film version of Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) with Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski. Leigh married twice; Herbert Leigh Holman (1932-1940 divorce) and Sir Laurence Olivier (1940-1960 divorce).
The Final Footprint – Leigh was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium in London and her cremains were scattered on the lake at her home, Tickerage Mill, near Blackboys, East Sussex, England. A memorial service was held at St Martin-in-the-Fields, with a final tribute read by actor John Gielgud. GGC was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The crematorium, the Philipson Family mausoleum, designed by Edwin Lutyens, the wall, along with memorials and gates, the Martin Smith Mausoleum, and Into The Silent Land statue are all Grade II listed buildings. The gardens are included in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. GGC is in Hoop Lane, off Finchley Road, Golders Green, London NW11, ten minutes’ walk from Golders Green tube station. It is directly opposite the Golders Green Jewish Cemetery. The crematorium is secular, accepts all faiths and non-believers; clients may arrange their own type of service or remembrance event and choose whatever music they wish. Other notable cremations at GGC include; Kingsley Amis, Neville Chamberlain, T. S. Eliot, Sigmund Freud, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, Keith Moon, Peter Sellers, Bram Stoker, H. G. Wells, and Amy Winehouse.
#OTD #RIP in 1973 actress (This Gun for Hire, The Glass Key, The Blue Dahlia, I Married a Witch) Veronica Lake died from hepatitis & acute kidney injury at the University of Vermont Medical Center, Burlington, aged 50. Cremated remains scattered off coast of the Virgin Islands
#RIP #OTD in 1993 musician, lead singer for the Seattle punk band The Gits, Mia Zapata was murdered while on her way home from a music venue in Seattle’s Central District, aged 27. Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, Kentucky
On this day in 2008, engineer, model, business owner, cookbook author, Dorian Leigh died in a Falls Church, Virginia nursing home from Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 91. Born Dorian Elizabeth Leigh Parker on April 23, 1917 in San Antonio, Texas. In my opinion, she was one of the earliest modeling icons of the fashion industry and one of the first supermodels. Her sister, Suzy Parker was a model and actress as well.
While living in her apartment in New York, a young author, Truman Capote visited a friend in an apartment near hers. Capote was fascinated by Dorian’s lifestyle of non-stop men, coming-and-goings, and having a store across the street handle her phone calls (since there were no answering machines back in the early 1950s). He struck up a friendship with Dorian, and called her “Happy-go-lucky.” Capote’s character Holly Golightly in his 1958 novel Breakfast at Tiffany’s is said to be largely based on Dorian’s life, as well as socialite Gloria Vanderbilt’s.
In 1952, when she was 35 years old, Richard Avedon photographed her for Revlon’s most famous advertising campaign, Fire and Ice. In this two-page advertisement, Dorian is wearing a tight, silver sequined gown wrapped in a red wrap that was copied from a Balenciaga original. The dress had hand-sewn silver sequins on it, and it took so long to create that only the front of the dress was finished in time to be photographed for the ad. The back was non-existent and held in place with safety pins. Dorian also had a silver streak put in her black hair. The original ad had Dorian holding her hand in front of her breast. The agency considered the photo too risqué, and the ad was re-shot. This ad was accompanied by a provocative quiz written by Kay Daly. The ad became an enormous success, winning Advertising Age’s “Magazine Advertisement of the Year” award.
Leigh married and divorced four times. A fifth marriage to Alfonso de Portago was voided as de Portago was already married.
The Final Footprint
Unknown at this time. In 1980, Leigh published an autobiography, The Girl Who Had Everything (Doubleday).
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