Day in History 26 September – Bessie Smith – Anna Magnani – Robert Palmer – Paul Newman – Gloria Stuart

1936 (photograph by Carl Van Vechten)

On this day in 1937 singer, the Empress of the Blues, Bessie Smith died from injuries suffered in a car crash near Clarksdale, Mississippi, at the age of 43. Born on April 15, 1894 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In my opininon, she was one of the greatest singers of her era and was a major influence on other jazz singers.

She was living in Philadelphia, when she met Jack Gee, a security guard, whom she married on June 7, 1923, just as her first record was being released. During the marriage Smith became the highest-paid black entertainer of the day, heading her own shows, which sometimes featured as many as 40 troupers, and touring in her own custom-built railroad car. Their marriage was stormy with infidelity on both sides, including numerous female lovers for Bessie. Gee was impressed by the money but never adjusted to show business life or to Smith’s bisexuality. In 1929, when she learned of his affair with another singer, Gertrude Saunders, Smith ended the relationship, although neither of them sought a divorce.

Smith later entered a common-law marriage with an old friend, Richard Morgan, who was Lionel Hampton‘s uncle. She stayed with him until her death.

The Final Footprint

Smith’s funeral was held in Philadelphia, on October 4, 1937. Her body was originally laid out at Upshur’s funeral home. As word of her death spread through Philadelphia’s black community, the body had to be moved to the O.V. Catto Elks Lodge to accommodate the estimated 10,000 mourners who filed past her coffin on Sunday, October 3. Contemporary newspapers reported that her funeral was attended by about seven thousand people. Her burial took place at Mount Lawn Cemetery, in nearby Sharon Hill. Gee thwarted all efforts to purchase a stone for his estranged wife, once or twice pocketing money raised for that purpose. Smith’s grave remained unmarked until a tombstone was erected on August 7, 1970, paid for by Janis Joplin and Juanita Green, who as a child had done housework for Smith.

 

On this day in 1973, stage and film actress, La Lupa, Anna Magnani died from pancreatic cancer in Rome at the age of 65. Born on 7 March 1908 in Rome. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress, along with four other international awards, for her portrayal of a Sicilian widow in The Rose Tattoo.

Director Roberto Rossellini called her “the greatest acting genius since Eleonora Duse”. Playwright Tennessee Williams became an admirer of her acting and wrote The Rose Tattoo specifically for her to star in.

After meeting director Goffredo Alessandrini she received her first screen role in La cieca di Sorrento (The Blind Woman of Sorrento) (1934) and later achieved international fame in Rossellini’s Rome, Open City (1945), considered the first significant movie to launch the Italian neorealism movement in cinema. As an actress she became recognized for her dynamic and forceful portrayals of “earthy lower-class women” in such films as L’Amore (1948), Bellissima (1951), The Rose Tattoo (1955), The Fugitive Kind (1960) and Mamma Roma (1962).

 

With director Luchino Visconti on the terrace of Palazzo Altieri where Magnani lived in the fifties.

 

 

Photo signed 1969

 

She married film director, Goffredo Alessandrini, in 1935, two years after he discovered her on stage. After they married, she retired from full-time acting to “devote herself exclusively to her husband”, although she continued to play smaller film parts. They separated in 1942.

Magnani had a love affair with the actor Massimo Serato.

In 1945 she fell in love with Rossellini while working on Roma, Città Aperta aka Rome, Open City (1945). “I thought at last I had found the ideal man… [He] had lost a son of his own and I felt we understood each other. Above all, we had the same artistic conceptions.” Rossellini had become violent, volatile and possessive, and they argued constantly about films or out of jealousy. “In fits of rage they threw crockery at each other.” As artists, however, they complemented each other well while working on neorealist films. The two finally split apart when Rossellini fell in love with and married, Ingrid Bergman.

The Final Footprint

Huge crowds gathered for the funeral. She was provisionally laid to rest in the family mausoleum of Rossellini; but then subsequently interred in the Cimitero Comunale of San Felice Circeo in southern Lazio.

On this day in 2003, singer, songwriter, musician, Robert Palmer died in Paris at the Hôtel Warwick Champs-Elysées, rue de Berri, from a heart attack at the age of 54.  Born Robert Allen Palmer on 19 January 1949 in Batley, West Yorkshire, England.  Palmer was known for his distinctive voice and the eclectic mix of musical styles on his albums, combining soul, jazz, rock, pop, reggae and blues.  He found success both in his solo career and in the musical act The Power Station, and had Top 10 songs in both the UK and the US.  His iconic music videos by Terence Donovan for the hits “Addicted to Love” and “Simply Irresistible” featured identically dressed dancing women with pale faces, dark eye makeup and bright red lipstick, which resembled the women in the art of Patrick Nagel, an artist popular in the 1980s.  Sharp-suited, his involvement in the music industry commenced in the 1960s, and covered five decades.  Palmer received a number of awards throughout his career, including two Grammy Awards for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, an MTV Video Music Award, and was twice nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Male.  Palmer married twice: Shelly Putman (1974 – 1978 divorce) and Susan Eileen Thatcher (1979 – 1999 divorce).

The Final Footprint – Cimitero Comunale della Città di Lugano. On her All The Best compilation album, Palmer’s Swiss neighbour, Tina Turner, added a live version of “Addicted to Love” in tribute to him.  Apparently, Palmer’s favourite author was Jack Vance and he was especially fond of the character Cugel.  Vance paid homage to Palmer in his novel Night Lamp, which begins: “Toward the far edge of the Cornu Sector of Ophiuchus, Robert Palmer’s star shone brilliant white, its corona flaring with films of blue, red and green colour.”

On this day in 2008, Academy Award winning actor, director, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and auto racing enthusiast Paul Newman died at his home surrounded by his family and friends in Westport, Connecticut at the age of 83.  Born Paul Leonard Newman on 26 January 1925 in Shaker Heights, Ohio.  He won numerous awards, including an Academy Award for best actor for his performance in the 1986 Martin Scorsese film The Color of Money and eight other nominations, six Golden Globe Awards (including three honorary ones), a BAFTA Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award, an Emmy award, and many honorary awards.  He also won several national championships as a driver in Sports Car Club of America road racing, and his race teams won several championships in open wheel IndyCar racing.  Newman was a co-founder of Newman’s Own, a food company from which Newman donated all post-tax profits and royalties to charity.  One of my favorite actors.  My favorite movies with Newman; Cat on a hot Tin Roof, The Hustler, Hud, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, The Sting, The Color of Money.  Newman married twice: Jackie Witte (1949 – 1958 divorce) and actress Joanne Woodward (1958 – 2008 his death).

The Final Footprint – His remains were cremated after a private funeral service near his home in Westport.

#RIP #OTD in 2010 actress (The Old Dark House, The Invisible Man, Titanic), visual artist, activist, amateur chef, Gloria Stuart died from respiratory failure at her home in Los Angeles aged 100. Cremated remains scattered off the Santa Monica pier

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