Day in History – 23 November – André Malraux – Roald Dahl – Roy Acuff – Louis Malle – Anita O’Day – Larry Hagman

Posted on 29 NovamThu, 23 Nov 2023 00:09:00 -06002023-11-23T00:09:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

JFK, Marie-Madeleine Lioux, Malraux, Jackie Kennedy, LBJ

On this day in 1976, adventurer, author and statesman, André Malraux, died in Créteil, near Paris at the age of 75.  Born on 3 November 1901 in Paris.  Known for his novel entitled La Condition Humaine (Man’s Fate) (1933).  He served in several minister positions during De Gaulle‘s entire presidency (1959–1969).  Malraux married three times; Clara Goldschmidt (divorce), Josette Clotis (her death) and Marie-Madeleine Lioux (separation).  I inherited a copy of his book The Voices of Silence (Les Voix du Silence) from my Grandmother Ruby Christner.  Memorable quotes from The Voices of Silence: “Art is an object lesson for the gods.” “The art museum is one of the places that give us the highest idea of man.” “Humanism does not consist in saying: ‘No animal could have done what I have done,’ but in declaring: ‘We have refused what the beast within us willed to do, and we seek to reclaim man wherever we find that which crushes him.’”

The Final Footprint – Malraux was cremated and his cremains were interred in the Verrières-le-Buisson (Essonne) cemetery.  In 1996 on the twentieth anniversary of his passing, in honor of his contributions to French culture, his ashes were moved to the Panthéon in Paris. The Panthéon is a secular mausoleum containing the remains of distinguished French citizens.  Other notable Final Footprints at the Panthéon include: Victor Hugo, Louis Braille, Pierre and Marie Curie, and Alexandre Dumas, père, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, and Émile Zola.

On this day in 1990, Royal Air Force veteran, novelist, short-story writer, poet, screenwriter, Roald Dahl died from blood cancer in Oxford at the age of 74. Born 13 September 1916 in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales.

Dahl was born to Norwegian immigrant parents. He served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. He became a fighter ace, scoring five confirmed victories, and, subsequently, an intelligence officer, rising to the rank of acting wing commander. He rose to prominence as a writer in the 1940s with works for children and for adults. In my opinion, he is one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century.

Dahl’s short stories are known for their unexpected endings, and his children’s books for their unsentimental, macabre, often darkly comic mood, featuring villainous adult enemies of the child characters. His works for children include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The Witches, Fantastic Mr Fox, The BFG, The Twits, and George’s Marvellous Medicine. His adult works include Tales of the Unexpected.

Dahl married actress Patricia Neal on 2 July 1953 at Trinity Church in New York City. Their marriage lasted for 30 years before divorcing in 1983. In 1972 Roald Dahl met Felicity d’Abreu Crosland, niece of Francis D’Abreu who was married to Margaret Ann Bowes Lyon, the first cousin of the Queen Mother, while Felicity was working as a set designer on an advert for Maxim coffee with Neal. Soon after the pair were introduced, they began an 11-year affair. Dahl married Felicity, at Brixton Town Hall, South London.

The Final Footprint

Dahl's gravestone
Dahl was buried in the cemetery at the Church of St Peter and St Paul, Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, England. He was buried with his snooker cues, some very good burgundy, chocolates, HB pencils and a power saw. To this day, children continue to leave toys and flowers by his grave.
 
#RIP #OTD in 1992 singer, fiddler, promoter (Acuff-Rose Music), the “King of Country Music” Roy Acuff died at the Baptist Hospital in Nashville of congestive heart failure at the age of 89. Hillcrest section (grave 6, lot 9) of Spring Hill Cemetery on Gallatin Road in Nashville
 
#RIP #OTD in 1995 director, screenwriter, and producer (Le Monde du silence; Ascenseur pour l’échafaud; Lacombe, Lucien; Atlantic City; My Dinner with Andre; Au revoir les enfants) Louis Malle died from lymphoma at his home in Beverly Hills, age 63. Cremation
 
#RIP #OTD in 2006 lyricist, librettist, screenwriter with Adolf Green, (On the Town, Singin’ in the Rain) Betty Comden died of heart failure at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, aged 89. Mount Carmel Cemetery in Glendale, New York
 
#RIP #OTD in 2006 singer, song stylist (“And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine”, “How High the Moon”, “I Told Ya I Love Ya, Now Get Out”, “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby”), Anita O’Day died in West Hollywood from cardiac arrest, aged 87. Cremated remains scattered in the Pacific.
 

On this day in 2012, United States Air Force veteran, actor, director, producer, Larry Hagman died at Medical City Dallas Hospital in Dallas, Texas at the age of 81 from complications of acute myeloid leukemia. Born Larry Martin Hagman on September 21, 1931 in Fort Worth, Texas. Perhaps best known for playing oil baron J.R. Ewing in the 1980s primetime television soap opera Dallas and astronaut Major Anthony “Tony” Nelson in the 1960s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie.

Hagman had supporting roles in numerous films, including Fail-Safe, Harry and Tonto, S.O.B., Nixon and Primary Colors. His television appearances also included guest roles on dozens of shows spanning from the late 1950s until his death and a reprisal of his signature role on the 2012 revival of Dallas. He also worked as a television producer and director. Hagman was the son of actress Mary Martin. He underwent a life-saving liver transplant in 1995.

Hagman and Barbara Eden on I Dream of Jeannie (1965)

 

Hagman, 1973

 

TV series Here We Go Again (1973). From top: Dick Gautier, Nina Talbot, Hagman and Diane Baker.

Hagman with Maj Axelsson in 1983

 

Hagman in August 2011

 

In 1954, Hagman married Swedish-born Maj Axelsson (born May 13, 1928, in Eskilstuna, Södermanlands län, Sweden – died May 31, 2016, in Los Angeles, California). Longtime residents of Malibu, California, they then moved to Ojai.

The Final Footprint 

In a statement to the Dallas Morning News, Hagman’s family said: “Larry’s family and close friends had joined him in Dallas for the Thanksgiving holiday. When he passed, he was surrounded by loved ones. It was a peaceful passing, just as he had wished for.”

Upon his death, he was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at the Southfork Ranch in Parker, Texas.

Actress Linda Gray, who played Sue Ellen Ewing on Dallas, called Hagman her “best friend for 35 years”, and was at his bedside when he died. In a statement, she said: “He was the Pied Piper of life and brought joy to everyone he knew. He was creative, generous, funny, loving and talented and I will miss him enormously. He was an original and lived life to the fullest.”

Actor Patrick Duffy, who played Bobby Ewing on Dallas, was also at his bedside when he died. In a statement, he said: “Friday I lost one of the greatest friends ever to grace my life. The loneliness is only what is difficult, as Larry’s peace and comfort is always what is important to me, now as when he was here. He was a fighter in the gentlest way, against his obstacles and for his friends. I wear his friendship with honor.”

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On this day 22 November – Jack London – Lorenz Hart – Shemp Howard – JFK – C. S. Lewis – Aldous Huxley – Mae West – Scatman Crothers – Michael Hutchence

Posted on 29 NovamWed, 22 Nov 2023 00:33:00 -06002023-11-22T00:33:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1916 novelist, journalist and activist, Jack London died at his ranch in Glen Ellen, California, aged 40.  A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing.  He was also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction.

London was part of the radical literary group “The Crowd” in San Francisco and a passionate advocate of animal rights, workers’ rights and socialism.  London wrote several works dealing with these topics, such as his dystopian novel The Iron Heel, his non-fiction exposé The People of the Abyss, War of the Classes, and Before Adam.

His most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in Alaska and the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as the short stories “To Build a Fire”, “An Odyssey of the North”, and “Love of Life”. He also wrote about the South Pacific in stories such as “The Pearls of Parlay”, and “The Heathen”.

The Final Footprint

London died in a sleeping porch in a cottage on his ranch. London had been a robust man but had suffered several serious illnesses, including scurvy in the Klondike.  Additionally, during travels on the Snark, he and Charmian picked up unspecified tropical infections and diseases, including yaws.  At the time of his death, he suffered from dysentery, late-stage alcoholism, and uremia; he was in extreme pain and taking morphine and opium, both common, over-the-counter drugs at the time.

London’s cremated remains were interred on his property not far from the Wolf House. London’s funeral took place on November 26, 1916, attended only by close friends, relatives, and workers of the property. In accordance with his wishes, he was interred next to some pioneer children, under a rock that belonged to the Wolf House. After Charmian’s death in 1955, she was also cremated and then buried with her husband in the same spot that her husband chose. The grave is marked by a mossy boulder. The buildings and property were later preserved as Jack London State Historic Park.

On this day in 1943 lyricist Lorenz Hart died in New York City of pneumonia from exposure, aged 48.  Born Lorenz Milton Hart in Harlem on 2 May 1895.  He was half of the Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart. Some of his more famous lyrics include “Blue Moon”, “The Lady Is a Tramp”, “Manhattan”, “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered”, and “My Funny Valentine”.

According to Thomas Hischak, Hart “had a remarkable talent for polysyllabic and internal rhymes”, and his lyrics have often been praised for their wit and technical sophistication.

According to The New York Times music critic Stephen Holden, “Many of Hart’s ballad lyrics conveyed a heart-stopping sadness that reflected his conviction that he was physically too unattractive to be lovable.”  Holden also noted that “In his lyrics, as in his life, Hart stands as a compellingly lonely figure. Although he wrote dozens of songs that are playful, funny and filled with clever wordplay, it is the rueful vulnerability beneath their surface that lends them a singular poignancy.”

Hart lived with his widowed mother. He suffered from alcoholism, and would sometimes disappear and be gone for weeks at a time on alcoholic binges.

Holden writes:

Many of his lyrics were the confessional outpourings of a hopeless romantic who loathed his own body. By all accounts, Hart, who stood just under five feet [1.52 m] tall and wreathed himself in cigar smoke, saw himself as an undesirable freak. Homosexual in the era of the closet, he pursued a secretive and tormented erotic life of which only hints appear in his songs.

Hart suffered from depression and sadness throughout his life. His erratic behavior was often the cause of friction between him and Rodgers and led to a breakup of their partnership in 1943 before his death. Rodgers then began collaborating with Oscar Hammerstein II.

The Final Footprint

Devastated by the death of his mother seven months earlier, Hart died after drinking heavily.  His remains are buried in Mount Zion Cemetery in Queens County, New York.  The circumstances of his life were heavily edited and romanticized for the 1948 MGM biopic Words and Music.

On this day in 1955 actor and comedian Shemp Howard died from a heart attack in Hollywood, at the age of 60.  Born Samuel Horwitz in Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, on March 17, 1895.

He is best known as the third Stooge in the Three Stooges, a role he played when the act began in the early 1920s (1923–1932), while it was still associated with Ted Healy and known as “Ted Healy and his Stooges”; and again from 1946 until his death in 1955. During the fourteen years between his times with the Stooges, he had a successful solo career as a film comedian, including series of shorts by himself and with partners. He reluctantly returned to the Stooges as a favor to his brother Moe and friend Larry Fine to replace his brother Curly as the third Stooge after Curly’s illness.

The Final Footprint

Shemp went out with associates Al Winston and Bobby Silverman to a boxing match (one of Shemp’s favorite pastimes) at the Hollywood Legion Stadium at North El Centro and Selma Avenues, one block above the Hollywood Palladium. While returning home in a taxi that evening, Shemp died. He had just told a joke and was leaning back, lighting a cigar, when he suddenly slumped over on Winston’s lap, burning him with the cigar.

Howard was entombed in a crypt in the Indoor Mausoleum at the Home of Peace Cemetery in East Los Angeles. His younger brother Curly is also entombed there, in an outdoor tomb in the Western Jewish Institute section, as well as his parents Solomon and Jennie Horwitz and older brother Benjamin “Jack”.

On this day in 1963, U.S. Navy veteran, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator, the 35th President of the U.S., author, American Icon, Jack, JFK, John F. Kennedy, died in Dallas, Texas at the age of 46.  Born John Fitzgerald Kennedy on 29 May 1917 at 83 Beals Street in Brookline, Massachusetts.  He graduated from Harvard in 1940 with a degree in international affairs.  Kennedy met his future wife Jacqueline Lee “Jackie” Bouvier at a dinner party.  They married 12 September 1953.  They had four children; Arabella (23 August 1956 – 23 August 1956), Caroline Bouvier (27 November 1957 – ), John Fitzgerald Jr. (25 November 1960 – 16 July 1999), Patrick Bouvier (7 August 1963 – 9 August 1963).  On Tuesday 8 November 1960, Kennedy won the presidential election over Republican Vice President Richard M. Nixon.  The Kennedys were popular on a level more common with movie stars than politicians.  This popularity and his charisma led to his administration being referred to as Camelot.  The Kennedys travelled to Texas in an attempt to reconcile a widening rift in the Texas Democratic party between the conservative wing led by Governor John B. Connally and the liberal wing led by U.S. Senator Ralph Yarborough and Don Yarborough (no relation).  Kennedy was fatally shot while riding in a Presidential motorcade with Jackie, Governor Connally and his wife Nellie Connally.  He was succeeded as president by vice president Lyndon Baines Johnson.  Conspiracy theories abound as to who was behind the assassination.  The Warren Commission finding that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman has been debated and disputed since the findings were released.  Groups behind supposed assassination plots include; the Mafia, the CIA, the Cubans, the Russians, the military industrial complex, or some combination of the above.  Mrs. Connally, who as mentioned was riding in the car with JFK, believed to her grave that there was more than one shooter.  November 22nd was a Friday that year.  All three major networks suspended their regular schedules and switched to all news coverage through November 25th, 70 straight hours.  I was three years old and Daddy and Uncle Ben told me later that I was upset because Saturday morning cartoons were not shown.

The Final Footprint –  Kennedy was interred in a temporary plot at Arlington National Cemetery on 25 November 1960.  On 14 March 1967, he was moved to his current plot at Arlington.  His grave area is paved with irregular stones of Cape Cod granite, which were quarried around 1817 near the site of the president’s home and selected by members of his family.  Clover, and later, sedum were planted in the crevices to give the appearance of stones lying naturally in a Massachusetts field.  His grave is lit with an “Eternal Flame”.  His brother Robert F. Kennedy was interred nearby following his assassination in 1968.  Upon her death in 1994, Jackie was interred next to JFK.  Upon his death in 2009, JFK’s brother Edward Kennedy was interred nearby.  Other notable Final Footprints at Arlington include; the Space Shuttle Columbia, the Space Shuttle Challenger, Medgar Evers, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, RFK, Edward Kennedy, Lee Marvin, Audie Murphy and Malcolm Kilduff, Jr.

On this day in 1963 writer and lay theologian C. S. Lewis died at his home in Oxford from kidney failure, age 64.  Born Clive Staples Lewis in Belfast in Ulster, Ireland (before partition), on 29 November 1898.

He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge University (Magdalene College, 1954–1963). He is best known as the author of The Chronicles of Narnia, but he is also noted for his other works of fiction, such as The Screwtape Letters and The Space Trilogy, and for his non-fiction Christian apologetics, including Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain.

Lewis was a close friend of J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings. Both men served on the English faculty at Oxford University and were active in the informal Oxford literary group known as the Inklings. According to Lewis’s 1955 memoir Surprised by Joy, he was baptized in the Church of Ireland but fell away from his faith during adolescence. Lewis returned to Anglicanism at the age of 32, owing to the influence of Tolkien and other friends, and he became an “ordinary layman of the Church of England”.  Lewis’s faith profoundly affected his work, and his wartime radio broadcasts on the subject of Christianity brought him wide acclaim.

Lewis wrote more than 30 books which have been translated into more than 30 languages and have sold millions of copies. The books that make up The Chronicles of Narnia have sold the most and have been popularized on stage, TV, radio, and cinema. His philosophical writings are widely cited by Christian scholars from many denominations.

In 1956, Lewis married American writer Joy Davidman; she died of cancer four years later at the age of 45.

The Final Footprint

He collapsed in his bedroom at 5:30 pm on 22 November, exactly one week before his 65th birthday, and died a few minutes later.  He is interres in the churchyard of Holy Trinity Church, Headington, Oxford.  His brother Warren died on 9 April 1973 and was buried in the same grave.

Media coverage of Lewis’s death was almost completely overshadowed by news of the assassination of John F. Kennedy (see above), which occurred on the same day (approximately 55 minutes following Lewis’s collapse), as did the death of English writer Aldous Huxley (see below), author of Brave New World.  This coincidence was the inspiration for Peter Kreeft’s book Between Heaven and Hell: A Dialog Somewhere Beyond Death with John F. Kennedy, C. S. Lewis, & Aldous Huxley.  Lewis is commemorated on 22 November in the church calendar of the Episcopal Church.  In 2013, on the 50th anniversary of his death, Lewis was honoured with a memorial in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.

On this day in 1963 writer, philosopher Aldous Huxley died from an assisted intentional overdose of LSD, aged 69.  Born Aldous Leonard Huxley in Godalming, Surrey, England, on 26 July 1894.

He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. From the prominent Huxley family, he graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, with an undergraduate degree in English literature. Early in his career, he published short stories and poetry and edited the literary magazine Oxford Poetry, before going on to publish travel writing, satire, and screenplays. He spent the latter part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death.  By the end of his life, Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the foremost intellectuals of his time.  He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times, and was elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in 1962.

Huxley was a pacifist.  He grew interested in philosophical mysticism, as well as universalism, addressing these subjects with works such as The Perennial Philosophy (1945), which illustrates commonalities between Western and Eastern mysticism, and The Doors of Perception (1954), which interprets his own psychedelic experience with mescaline. In his most famous novel Brave New World (1932) and his final novel Island (1962), he presented his vision of dystopia and utopia, respectively.

The Final Footprint

On his deathbed, unable to speak owing to advanced laryngeal cancer, Huxley made a written request to his wife Laura for “LSD, 100 µg, intramuscular.” According to her account of his death in This Timeless Moment, she obliged with an injection at 11:20 a.m. and a second dose an hour later.

Media coverage of Huxley’s death, along with that of fellow British author C. S. Lewis (see above), was overshadowed by the assassination of John F. Kennedy (see above) on the same day, less than seven hours before Huxley’s death.  In a 2009 article for New York magazine titled “The Eclipsed Celebrity Death Club”, Christopher Bonanos wrote:

The championship trophy for badly timed death, though, goes to a pair of British writers. Aldous Huxley, the author of Brave New World, died the same day as C. S. Lewis, who wrote the Chronicles of Narnia series. Unfortunately for both of their legacies, that day was November 22, 1963, just as John Kennedy’s motorcade passed the Texas School Book Depository. Huxley, at least, made it interesting: At his request, his wife shot him up with LSD a couple of hours before the end, and he tripped his way out of this world.

This coincidence served as the basis for Peter Kreeft’s book Between Heaven and Hell: A Dialog Somewhere Beyond Death with John F. Kennedy, C. S. Lewis, & Aldous Huxley, which imagines a conversation among the three men taking place in Purgatory following their deaths.

Huxley’s memorial service took place in London in December 1963; it was led by his elder brother Julian. On 27 October 1971, his cremated remains were interred in the family grave at the Watts Cemetery, home of the Watts Mortuary Chapel in Compton, Guildford, Surrey, England.

Huxley had been a long-time friend of Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, who dedicated his last orchestral composition to Huxley. What became Variations: Aldous Huxley in memoriam was begun in July 1963, completed in October 1964, and premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on 17 April 1965.

On this day in 1980 actress, playwright, screenwriter, singer, sex symbol Mae West died in Los Angeles, aged 87.  Born Mary Jane West on August 17, 1893, in Brooklyn.

She was known for her breezy sexual independence, and her lighthearted bawdy double entendres, often delivered in a husky contralto voice.  She was active in vaudeville and on stage in New York City before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the film industry.

West was one of the most controversial movie stars of her day; she encountered problems especially with censorship. She once quipped, “I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it.”  She bucked the system by making comedy out of conventional mores, and the Depression-era audience admired her for it. When her film career ended, she wrote books and plays, and continued to perform in Las Vegas and the United Kingdom, on radio and television, and recorded rock ‘n roll albums.

The Final Footprint 

In August 1980, West tripped while getting out of bed. After the fall, she was unable to speak, and was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, where tests revealed that she had suffered a stroke.

A private service was held at the church in Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills, on November 25, 1980.  Bishop Andre Penachio, a friend, officiated at the entombment in the family mausoleum at Cypress Hills Abbey, Brooklyn, purchased in 1930 when her mother died. Her father and brother were also entombed there before her, and her younger sister, Beverly, was laid to rest in the last of the five crypts less than 18 months after West’s death.

On this day in 1986 actor, singer and musician Scatman Crothers died from lung caner at his home in Van Nuys, California, age 76.

He is known for playing Louie the Garbage Man on the TV show Chico and the Man, and Dick Hallorann in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980). He was also a prolific voice-over actor who provided the voices of Meadowlark Lemon in the Harlem Globetrotters animated TV series, Jazz the Autobot in The Transformers and The Transformers: The Movie (1986), the title character in Hong Kong Phooey, and Scat Cat in the animated film The Aristocats (1970).

The Final Footprint

Crothers died after struggling with lung cancer for nearly four years.  Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

On this day in 1997 singer-songwriter, Michael Hutchence died at the Ritz-Carlton hotel, Double Bay, Sydney, aged 37.  Born Michael Kelland John Hutchence on 22 January 1960 in Sydney.

Hutchence co-founded the rock band INXS, which sold over 75 million records worldwide and was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2001. He was the lead singer and lyricist of INXS from 1977 until his death.

Hutchence was a member of the short-lived pop rock group Max Q. He also recorded some solo material and acted in feature films, including Dogs in Space (1986), Frankenstein Unbound (1990), and Limp (1999).

Hutchence had a string of love affairs with prominent actresses, models and singers, and his private life was often reported in the Australian and international press. In July 1996, Hutchence and English television presenter Paula Yates had a daughter, Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily.

The Final Footprint

At 9:54 am on 22 November, Hutchence spoke with a former girlfriend, Michèle Bennett; according to Bennett, Hutchence was crying, sounded upset, and told her he needed to see her. Bennett arrived at his hotel room door at about 10:40 am, but there was no response. Hutchence’s body was discovered by a hotel maid at 11:50 am. Police reported that Hutchence was found “in a kneeling position facing the door. He had used his snakeskin belt to tie a knot on the automatic door closure at the top of the door, and had strained his head forward into the loop so hard that the buckle had broken.”

On 6 February 1998, after an autopsy and coronial inquest, New South Wales State Coroner, Derrick Hand, presented his report. The report ruled that Hutchence’s death was suicide while depressed and under the influence of alcohol and other drugs.  “An analysis report of Hutchence’s blood [indicated] the presence of alcohol, cocaine, Prozac and prescription drugs.”  In producing his coroner’s report, Hand had specifically considered the suggestions of accidental death (coupled with the fact that Hutchence left no suicide note), but had discounted them based on substantial evidence presented to the contrary.  In a 1999 interview on 60 Minutes (and in a documentary film on Channel 4), Yates claimed that Hutchence’s death might have resulted from autoerotic asphyxiation; this claim contradicted her previous statements to police investigators and the coroner.

On 27 November 1997, Hutchence’s funeral was held at St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney. His casket was carried out of the cathedral by members of INXS and by his younger brother, Rhett; “Never Tear Us Apart” was played in the background. Nick Cave, a friend of Hutchence’s, performed his 1997 song “Into My Arms” during the funeral and requested that television cameras be switched off. Rhett claimed in his 2004 book, Total XS, that on the previous day at the funeral home, Yates had put a gram of heroin into Hutchence’s pocket.  Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills.

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On this day 21 November – Henry Purcell – Hadda Brooks – David Cassidy

Posted on 29 NovamTue, 21 Nov 2023 00:24:00 -06002023-11-21T00:24:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1695, organist and Baroque composer, Henry Purcell, died at his home in Dean’s Yard, Westminster at the age of 35 or 36.  Born on or about 10 September 1659 in St Ann’s Lane, Old Pye Street, Westminster.  His legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music, a style of European classical music  extending from about 1600 to 1750.  This era begins after the Renaissance and was followed by the Classical era.  The word “baroque” came from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning “misshapen pearl”.  Baroque music forms a major portion of the classical music canon and is associated with composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Alessandro Scarlatti, Antonio Vivaldi, Claudio Monteverdi and Purcell.  Most importantly to me, it was during this period that opera became established as a musical genre.  Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (c. 1689) is, in my opinion, the first important English opera, and is still performed.  Purcell had a direct influence on rock and roll.  Apparently, both Pete Townshend of The Who and Queen, list Purcell’s music as an influence on their own.

The Final Footprint – Purcell is entombed in Westminster Abbey near the organ in the North Choir Aisle.  His epitaph reads: “Here lyes Henry Purcell Esq., who left this life and is gone to that blessed place where only his harmony can be exceeded.”  A bronze memorial sculpture by Glynn Williams, The Flowering of the English Baroque, in tribute to Purcell was installed in a park on Victoria St,. Westminster.  Other notable Final Footprints at Westminster include; Robert Browning, Lord Byron, Geoffrey Chaucer, Oliver Cromwell, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Edward The Confessor, Elizabeth I, George II, George Friederic Handel, James I (James VI of Scotland), Samuel Johnson, Ben Jonson, Charles II, Edward III, Edward VI, Henry III, Henry V, Henry VII, Richard II, Rudyard Kipling, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Milton, Sir Isaac Newton, Laurence Olivier, Mary I, Mary II, Mary Queen of Scots, Thomas Shadwell, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Dylan Thomas, and William III.

#RIP #OTD in 2002 pianist, vocalist (“Swingin’ the Boogie”, “Out of the Blue”, “I Hadn’t Anyone Till You”) composer, “Queen of the Boogie” Hadda Brooks died at White Memorial Medical Center in Los Angeles after open-heart surgery aged 86. Cremated remains scattered

On this day in 2017, actor, singer, songwriter, and guitarist David Cassidy died of liver failure in Fort Lauderdale, Florida at the age of 67. Born David Bruce Cassidy on April 12, 1950 in Manhattan. Perhaps best known for his role as Keith Partridge, the son of Shirley Partridge (played by his stepmother Shirley Jones), in the 1970s musical-sitcom The Partridge Family, which led to his becoming one of popular culture’s teen idols and superstar pop singers of the 1970s. He later had a career in both acting and music.

Cassidy’s first wife was actress Kay Lenz, whom he married on April 3, 1977, and divorced on December 28, 1983. Cassidy soon married his second wife, horse breeder Meryl Tanz, in 1984. They met in 1974 at a horse sale in Lexington, Kentucky. This marriage ended in divorce in 1985. Cassidy married Sue Shifrin on March 30, 1991, his third and her second marriage. In August 2013, Cassidy’s Los Angeles publicist confirmed that the couple had separated, with Shifrin filing for divorce in February 2014.

The Final Footprint

His cremated remains were scattered.

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On this day 20 November – Tom Horn – Paula Modersohn-Becker – Leo Tolstoy – Robert Altman

Posted on 29 NovamMon, 20 Nov 2023 00:21:00 -06002023-11-20T00:21:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

Tom_Horn,_Lincoln,_NEOn this day in 1903, American Old West scout, hired gunman, Pinkerton, range detective, cowboy, and soldier Tom Horn executed by hanging in Cheyenne, Wyoming.  Born Thomas Horn, Jr. on the Horn family farm in rural northeastern Scotland County, Missouri.  Believed to have committed 17 murders as a hired gunman in the West, in 1902 Horn was convicted of the murder of 14-year-old Willie Nickell near Iron Mountain, Wyoming.  The boy was the son of sheep rancher Kels Nickell, who had been involved in a range feud with neighbor and cattle rancher Jim Miller.

The Final Footprint – Horn was buried in the Columbia Cemetery in Boulder, Colorado on 3 December 1903.  Rancher Jim Coble paid for his coffin and a stone to mark his grave.  While in jail he wrote his autobiography, Life of Tom Horn: Government Scout and Interpreter (1904), which was published posthumously. Numerous editions have been published of this book since the late 20th century, and debate continues as to whether he was guilty of Nickell’s murder.  Horn was portrayed by Steve McQueen in movie Tom Horn (1980).  While the film took liberties with facts, McQueen’s performance was highly praised, and the film was well received.

On this day in 1910, writer, Leo Tolstoy, died at the Astapovo railway station, Russia at the age of 82.  Born Lyev Nikolayevich Tolstoy on 9 September 1828 in Yasnaya Polyana, the family estate in the Tula region of Russia.  Perhaps best known for his masterpieces Anna Karenina (1877) and War and Peace (1869).  Some condsider Tolstoy to be the worlds greatest novelist.  Tolstoy is also known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his extreme moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became noted as a moral thinker and social reformer.  His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist.  His ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on other thinkers and reformers.  On 23 September 1862, Tolstoy married Sophia “Sonya” Andreevna Bers, who was 16 years his junior and the daughter of a court physician.  Their relationship was apparently passionate and tumultuous and they had 13 children.

The Final Footprint

Just before his death, his health was a concern of his family, who cared for him daily. In his last days, he spoke and wrote about dying. Renouncing his aristocratic lifestyle, he left home one winter night.  His secretive departure was an apparent attempt to escape from his wife’s tirades. She spoke out against many of his teachings, and in recent years had grown envious of his attention to Tolstoyan “disciples”.

Tolstoy died after a day’s train journey south.  The station master took Tolstoy to his apartment, and his personal doctors arrived and gave him injections of morphine and camphor.

The police tried to limit access to his funeral procession, but thousands of peasants lined the streets. Still, some were heard to say that, other than knowing that “some nobleman had died”, they knew little else about Tolstoy.

According to some sources, Tolstoy spent the last hours of his life preaching love, non-violence, and Georgism to fellow passengers on the train

Tolstoy is interred in the  “Place of the Green Wand” in the Forest of the Old Order at Yasnaya Polyana.

On this day in 2006, film director, screenwriter, and producer, five-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director, Robert Altman died from leukemia complications at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 81. Born Robert Bernard Altman on February 20, 1925 in Kansas City, Missouri. An enduring figure from the New Hollywood era, Altman was considered a “maverick” in making films with a highly naturalistic but stylized and satirical aesthetic. In my opinion, he is one of the most influential filmmakers in American cinema.

His style of filmmaking was unique among directors, in that his subjects covered most genres, but with a “subversive” twist that typically relies on satire and humor to express his personal vision. Altman developed a reputation for being “anti-Hollywood” and non-conformist in both his themes and directing style. Actors especially enjoyed working under his direction because he encouraged them to improvise, thereby inspiring their own creativity.

He preferred large ensemble casts for his films, and developed a multitrack recording technique which produced overlapping dialogue from multiple actors. This produced a more natural, more dynamic, and more complex experience for the viewer. He also used highly mobile camera work and zoom lenses to enhance the activity taking place on the screen. 

In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized Altman’s body of work with an Academy Honorary Award. His films MASH (1970), McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), and Nashville (1975) have been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Altman is one of the few filmmakers whose films have won the Golden Bear at Berlin, the Golden Lion at Venice, and the Golden Palm at Cannes.

Altman was married three times. His first wife was LaVonne Elmer. They were married from 1947 to 1949. His second wife was Lotus Corelli. They were married from 1950 to 1955. His third wife was Kathryn Reed. They were married from 1957 until his death in 2006.

The Final Footprint

Altman’s cremains were scattered at sea. The film director Paul Thomas Anderson dedicated his 2007 film There Will Be Blood to Altman.

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Day in History 19 November – Nicolas Poussin – Thomas Shadwell – Emma Lazarus – Mike Nichols – Jana Novotná – Della Reese – Mel Tillis

Posted on 29 NovamSun, 19 Nov 2023 00:54:00 -06002023-11-19T00:54:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

Nicolas_Poussin_078On this day in 1665, classical French painter, Nicolas Poussin, died in Rome at the age of 71.  Perhaps the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome.  He worked in Rome for a circle of leading collectors there and elsewhere, except for a short period when Cardinal Richelieu ordered him back to France to serve as First Painter to the King.  Most of his works are history paintings of religious or mythological subjects that often have a large landscape element.  He served as inspiration for classically-oriented artists, notably Paul Cézanne.

The Final Footprint – Poussin is interred at Basilica di San Lorenzo in Lucina in Rome.  The French writer, politician, diplomat and founder of Romanticism in French literature, François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand, donated the marble memorial in honour of Poussin in 1820.  It reads; POUR LA GLORIE DES ARTS ET LHONNEUR DE LA FRANCE.

Gallery

Venus and Adonis – Nicolas Poussin – 1624 – Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas.

Cephalus and Aurora – Nicolas Poussin – 1627 – National Gallery, London.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Adoration of the Golden Calf – Nicolas Poussin – 1633-34 – National Gallery, London.

A dance to the music of time – Nicolas Poussin – 1640 – The Wallace Collection.

On this day in 1692, English poet and playwright who was appointed poet laureate in 1689, Thomas Shadwell died from an overdose of opium at Chelsea on 19 November 1692.  Born ca. 1642 at Stanton Hall, Norfolk, England.

The Final Footprint – Shadwell was interred at Chelsea Old Church which was destroyed during World War II bombing.  He has a memorial in Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey.  Other notable Final Footprints at Westminster include; Robert Browning, Lord Byron, Geoffrey Chaucer, Oliver Cromwell, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Edward The Confessor, Elizabeth I, George II, George Friederic Handel, James I (James VI of Scotland), Samuel Johnson, Ben Jonson, Charles II, Edward III, Edward VI, Stephen Hawking, Henry III, Henry V, Henry VII, Richard II, Rudyard Kipling, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Milton, Sir Isaac Newton, Laurence Olivier, Henry Purcell, Mary I, Mary II, Mary Queen of Scots, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Dylan Thomas, and William III.

On this day in 1887 author of poetry, prose, and translations, activist Emma Lazarus died from Hodgkin’s lymphoma in New York City, age 38.  Born in New York City on July 22, 1849.

Perhaps best known for writing the sonnet “The New Colossus”, which was inspired by the Statue of Liberty, in 1883.  Its lines appear inscribed on a bronze plaque, installed in 1903, on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.  The last lines of the sonnet were set to music by Irving Berlin as the song “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor” for the 1949 musical Miss Liberty, which was based on the sculpting of the Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World). The latter part of the sonnet was also set by Lee Hoiby in his song “The Lady of the Harbor” written in 1985 as part of his song cycle “Three Women”.

The Final Footprint

Lazarus was buried in Beth Olam Cemetery in Cypress Hills, Queens. The Poems of Emma Lazarus (2 vols., Boston and New York, 1889) was published after her death, comprising most of her poetic work from previous collections, periodical publications, and some of the literary heritage which her executors deemed appropriate to preserve for posterity.[24] Her papers are kept by the American Jewish Historical Society, Center for Jewish History, and her letters are collected at Columbia University.

On this day in 2014 film and theater director, producer, actor, and comedian, Mike Nichols died of a heart attack at his apartment in Manhattan, thirteen days after his 83rd birthday.  Born Michael Igor Peschkowsky on November 6, 1931 in Berlin.

He was noted for his ability to work across a range of genres and for his aptitude for getting the best out of actors regardless of their experience. He is one of 17 people to have won all four of the major American entertainment awards: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT). His other honors included three BAFTA Awards, the Lincoln Center Gala Tribute in 1999, the National Medal of Arts in 2001,[1] the Kennedy Center Honors in 2003 and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2010. His films received a total of 42 Academy Award nominations, and 7 wins.

Nichols began his career in the 1950s with the comedy improvisational troupe The Compass Players, predecessor of The Second City, in Chicago. He then teamed up with his improv partner, Elaine May, to form the comedy duo Nichols and May. Their live improv act was a hit on Broadway, and each of their three albums was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album; their second album, An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May, won the award in 1962. After Nichols and May disbanded in 1961, he began directing plays, and quickly became known for his innovative productions and ability to elicit polished performances. His Broadway directing debut was Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park in 1963, with Robert Redford and Elizabeth Ashley. He continued to direct plays on Broadway, including Luv (1964), and The Odd Couple (1965) for each of which he received Tony Awards. In 2012, he won his sixth Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play with a revival of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman starring Philip Seymour Hoffman. Nichols directed and/or produced more than 25 Broadway plays throughout his prolific career.

In 1966, Warner Brothers invited Nichols to direct his first film, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. It won five Academy Awards and was the top-grossing film of 1966. His next film, The Graduate (1967), starred then unknown actor Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft. It was another critical and financial success and received seven Academy Award nominations, winning Nichols the Academy Award for Best Director. Among the other films Nichols directed were Catch-22 (1970), Carnal Knowledge (1971), Silkwood (1983), Working Girl (1988), Postcards from the Edge (1990), The Birdcage (1996), Primary Colors (1998), Closer (2004), and Charlie Wilson’s War (2007). Nichols also was known for work on television, directing HBO’s Wit (2001) with Emma Thompson and Angels in America (2003) starring Meryl Streep.

The Final Footprint

During the 87th annual Academy Awards on 22 February 2015, Nichols was featured in the In Memoriam segment, in anchor position.

On November 8, 2015, stars and artists gathered at New York’s IAC Building to pay tribute to Nichols. Hosts for the private event included Elaine May and Lorne Michaels. Eric Idle and John Cleese performed. Guests included Streep, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Natalie Portman, Carly Simon, Nathan Lane and Christine Baranski.

In 2017, during an Oscars Actress Roundtable with The Hollywood Reporter, Amy Adams, Natalie Portman, and Annette Bening spoke about the impact Nichols had on their lives.  In 2020 Woody Allen described Nichols as “maybe the best comedy director ever on the stage.”

On this day in 2017 professional tennis player, Wimbledon Champion Jana Novotná died from cancer with her friends and family in the Czech Republic, age 49.  Born on 2 October 1968 in Brno, in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. 

She played a serve and volley game, an increasingly rare style of play among women during her career.  Novotná won the women’s singles title at Wimbledon in 1998, and was runner-up in three other majors. Novotná also won 12 major women’s doubles titles (completing a double career Grand Slam), four major mixed doubles titles, and three Olympic medals. She reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 2 in 1997, and held the No. 1 ranking in doubles for 67 weeks.

The Final Footprint

Zidlochovice Cemetery, Zidlochovice, Czech Republic

On this day in 2017, singer, actress, and ordained minister whose career spanned seven decades Della Reese died at her home in Encino, Los Angeles, age 86.  Born Delloreese Patricia Early on July 6, 1931, in the historic Black Bottom neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan.

She began her long career as a singer, scoring a hit with her 1959 single “Don’t You Know?”. In the late 1960s she hosted her own talk show, Della, which ran for 197 episodes.  From 1975 she also starred in films, playing opposite Redd Foxx in Harlem Nights (1989), Martin Lawrence in A Thin Line Between Love and Hate (1996) and Elliott Gould in Expecting Mary (2010). Reese achieved continued success in the religious television drama Touched by an Angel (1994–2003), in which she played the leading role of Tess.

The Final Footprint – Reese was cremated.

And on this day in 2017, singer and songwriter Mel Tillis died of respiratory failure in Ocala, Florida, at the age of 85. Born Lonnie Melvin Tillis on August 8, 1932 in Tampa, Florida. Although he recorded songs since the late 1950s, his biggest success occurred in the 1970s, with a long list of Top 10 songs.

Tillis’ biggest hits include “I Ain’t Never”, “Good Woman Blues”, and “Coca-Cola Cowboy”. On February 13, 2012, President Barack Obama awarded Tillis the National Medal of Arts for his contributions to country music. He also won the Country Music Association Awards’ most coveted award, Entertainer of the Year. Additionally, he was known for his speech impediment, which did not affect his singing voice. His daughter is 1990s country hitmaker Pam Tillis.

The Final Footprint

Tillis is interred in Woodall Cemetery in Clarksville, Tennessee.

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Day in History 18 November – Boatswain – Renée Vivien – Marcel Proust – Paul Éluard – Joseph Kennedy – Man Ray – Gia Carangi – Cab Calloway – Doug Sahm – James Coburn

Posted on 29 NovamSat, 18 Nov 2023 00:15:00 -06002023-11-18T00:15:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1909 poet (Cendres et Poussières, La Vénus des aveugles, A l’heure des mains jointes, Flambeaux éteints, Sillages, Poèmes en Prose, Dans un coin de violettes, Haillons), “Muse of the Violets”, who wrote in French, in the style of the Symbolistes and the Parnassiens, Renée Vivien died in Paris from pneumonia, aged 32.  Born Pauline Mary Tarn in London on 11 June 1877.

A high-profile lesbian in the Paris of the Belle Époque, she is notable for her work, which has received more attention following revival of interest in Sapphic verse. Many of her poems are autobiographical, pertaining mostly to Baudelarian themes of extreme romanticism and frequent despair. Apart from poetry, she wrote several works of prose, including L’Etre Double (inspired by Coleridge’s Christabel), and an unfinished biography of Anne Boleyn, which was published posthumously. She has been the object of multiple biographies, most notably by Jean-Paul Goujon, André Germain, and Yves-Gerard Le Dantec.

The Final Footprint

Above all, Vivien romanticized death. While visiting London in 1908, deeply despondent, she tried to kill herself by drinking an excess of laudanum. She stretched out on her divan with a bouquet of violets held over her heart. The suicide failed, but while in England, she contracted pleurisy; later, upon her return to Paris, she grew considerably weaker. According to biographer Jean-Paul Goujon, Vivien suffered from chronic gastritis, due to years of chloral hydrate and alcohol abuse. She had also started to refuse to eat. By the summer of 1909, she walked with a cane.

The cause of death was reported at the time as “lung congestion”, but likely resulted from pneumonia complicated by alcoholism, drug abuse, and anorexia nervosa. She was interred at Passy Cemetery in the same exclusive Parisian neighbourhood where she had lived.

On this day in 1922, novelist Marcel Proust, died in Paris at the age of 51.  Born Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust on 10 July 1871 in Auteuil, France.  Author of the monumental  À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time; earlier translated as Remembrance of Things Past).  It was published in seven parts totaling about 3200 pages between 1913 and 1927.  W. Somerset Maugham called the novel the “greatest fiction to date”.  Graham Greene called Proust the “greatest novelist of the 20th century”.

The Final Footprint – Proust is entombed in an individual above ground crypt in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.  Père Lachaise is the largest cemetery in Paris and one of the most visited cemeteries in the world.  Other notable Final Footprints at Père Lachaise include; Guillaume Apollinaire, Honoré de Balzac, Georges Bizet, Jean-Dominique Bauby, Maria Callas, Chopin, Colette, Auguste Comte, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Ma Ernst, Molière, Jim Morrison, Édith Piaf, Camille Pissarro, Sully Prudhomme, Gioachino Rossini, Georges-Pierre Seurat, Simone Signoret, Gertrude Stein, Dorothea Tanning, Alice B. Toklas, Oscar Wilde, and Richard Wright.

On this day in 1952 poet (Capitale de la douleur, L’Amour la Poésie, “Liberté”) a founder of the Surrealist movement Paul Éluard died from a heart attack at his home, in Charenton-le-Pont, Paris, aged 56.  Born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel in Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis on 14 December 1895.

In 1916, he chose the name Paul Éluard, a matronymic borrowed from his maternal grandmother. He adhered to Dadaism and became one of the pillars of Surrealism by opening the way to artistic action politically committed to the Communist Party.

During World War II, he was the author of several poems against Nazism that circulated clandestinely. He became known worldwide as The Poet of Freedom and in my opinion, is the most gifted of French surrealist poets.

The Final Footprint

His funeral was held in the Père Lachaise Cemetery and organized by the French Communist Party.  The French government refused to organise a national funeral for political reasons. A crowd of thousands spontaneously gathered in the streets of Paris to accompany Éluard’s casket to the cemetery. That day, Robert Sabatier wrote: “the whole world was mourning”.

Joseph_P__Kennedy,_Sr__1940On this day in 1969, American businessman, investor, and government official, patriarch of the Kennedy Family, Joseph Kennedy died in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts at the age of 81.  Born Joseph Patrick Kennedy on 6 September 1888 in Boston.  He was the father of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, United States Attorney General and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, United States Senator Edward M. Kennedy, naval officer Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., Special Olympics co-founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith.  He was a leading member of the Democratic Party and of the Irish Catholic community.  Kennedy was the inaugural Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), and later directed the Maritime Commission.  Kennedy served as the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1938 until late 1940, including the early part of World War II.  Kennedy was educated at Harvard University, and embarked on a career in finance, making a large fortune as a stock market and commodity investor and by investing in real estate and a wide range of industries.  During World War I, he was an assistant general manager of a Boston area Bethlehem Steel shipyard, through which he developed a friendship with FDR, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy.  In the 1920s Kennedy made huge profits from reorganizing and refinancing several Hollywood studios, ultimately merging several acquisitions into Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) studios.  After Prohibition ended in 1933, Kennedy consolidated an even larger fortune when he traveled to Scotland with FDR’s son, James Roosevelt, to buy distribution rights for Scotch whisky.  His company, Somerset Importers, became the exclusive American agent for Gordon’s Gin and Dewar’s Scotch.  He owned the largest office building in the country at that time, Chicago’s Merchandise Mart, giving his family an important base in that city and an alliance with the Irish-American political leadership there.  His term as ambassador and his political ambitions ended abruptly during the Battle of Britain in November 1940, with the publishing of his controversial remarks suggesting that “Democracy is finished in England. It may be here, [in the US].”   Kennedy resigned under pressure shortly afterwards.  In later years, Kennedy worked behind the scenes to continue building the financial and political fortunes of the Kennedy family.  Kennedy married Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald, the eldest daughter of Boston Mayor John Francis “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald (political rival of his father P. J. Kennedy) and Mary Josephine “Josie” Hannon.  The marriage joined two of the city’s most prominent Irish-American political families.  The couple had nine children, four boys and five girls.  Kennedy survived all but one of his sons and one of his daughters.

The Final Footprint – Kennedy is interred in the Kennedy private family estate in Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline, Massachusetts.

On this day in 1976, visual artist, Man Ray died in Paris from a lung infection at the age of 86. Born Emmanuel Radnitzky on August 27, 1890 in Philadelphia. He spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements. He produced major works in a variety of media but considered himself a painter above all. Perhaps best known for his fashion and portrait photography. Man Ray is also noted for his work with photograms, which he called “rayographs” in reference to himself.

In 1913, Man Ray met his first wife, the Belgian poet Adon Lacroix (Donna Lecoeur) (1887–1975), in New York. They married in 1914, separated in 1919, and formally divorced in 1937.

In July 1921, Man Ray went to live and work in Paris, France. He soon settled in the Montparnasse quarter favored by many artists. Shortly after arriving in Paris, he met and fell in love with Kiki de Montparnasse (Alice Prin), an artists’ model and celebrated character in Paris bohemian circles. Kiki was Man Ray’s companion for most of the 1920s. She became the subject of some of his most famous photographic images and starred in his experimental films, Le Retour à la Raison and L’Étoile de mer. In 1929, he began a love affair with the Surrealist photographer Lee Miller. Miller left him in 1932.

Man Ray was in a relationship with the model Adrienne Fidelin during some time between 1936 and 1940, the two parting ways after Ray fled the Nazi occupation in France, while Adrienne chose to stay behind to care for her family.

Man Ray was forced to return from Paris to the United States due to the Second World War. He lived in Los Angeles from 1940 to 1951 where he focused his creative energy on painting. A few days after arriving in Los Angeles, Man Ray met Juliet Browner, a first-generation American of Romanian-Jewish lineage. She was a trained dancer, who studied dance with Martha Graham, and an experienced artists’ model. The two married in 1946 in a double wedding with their friends Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning.

Man Ray returned to Paris in 1951, and settled with Juliet into a studio at 2 bis rue Ferou near the Luxembourg Gardens in St. Germain des Pres, where he continued his creative practice across mediums.

In 1963, he published his autobiography, Self-Portrait, which was republished in 1999.

1919, Seguidilla, airbrushed gouache, pen & ink, pencil, and colored pencil on paperboard, 55.8 × 70.6 cm, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

1920, Three Heads (Joseph Stella and Marcel Duchamp, painting bust portrait of Man Ray above Duchamp), gelatin silver print, 20.7 x 15.7 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York

1920, The Coat-Stand (Porte manteau), reproduced in New York dada (magazine), Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, April 1921

Lampshade, reproduced in 391, n. 13, July 1920

1922, Untitled Rayograph, gelatin silver photogram, 23.5 x 17.8 cm

with Salvador Dalí in Paris, on June 16, 1934 making “wild eyes” for photographer Carl Van Vechten

portrayed by Lothar Wolleh, Paris, 1975

Paris 2011

The Final Footprint

He was interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris. Ray’s epitaph reads “unconcerned, but not indifferent”. When Juliet Browner died in 1991, she was interred in the same tomb. Her epitaph reads “together again”. Juliet organized a trust for his work and donated much of his work to museums. Her plans to restore the studio as a public museum proved too expensive; such was the structure’s disrepair. Most of the contents were stored at the Pompidou Center. Other notable Final Footprints at Montparnasse include; Charles Baudelaire, Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, Emmanuel Chabrier, César Franck, Guy de Maupassant, Adah Isaacs Menken, Man Ray, Camille Saint-Saëns, Jean-Paul Sartre,  Jean Seberg, and Susan Sontag.

On this day in 1986 supermodel Gia Carangi died of AIDS-related complications at Hahnemann University Hospital, Philadelphia, aged 26.  Born Gia Marie Carangi in January 29, 1960 in Philadelphia.

Considered by many to be the first supermodel.  She was featured on the cover of many magazines, including multiple editions of Vogue and Cosmopolitan, and appeared in advertising campaigns for luxury fashion houses such as Armani, Dior, Versace and Yves Saint Laurent.

After Carangi became addicted to heroin, her career rapidly declined. As she had spent most of her modeling earnings on drugs, Carangi spent the final three years of her life with various lovers, friends, and family members in Philadelphia and Atlantic City. She was admitted to an intense drug treatment program at Eagleville Hospital in December 1984.  After treatment, she got a job in a clothing store, which she eventually quit.  She later found employment as a checkout clerk and then worked in the cafeteria of a nursing home. By late 1985, she had begun using drugs again and was engaging in sex work in Atlantic City.  Her life was dramatized in the 1998 HBO television film, Gia directed by Michael Cristofer and starring Angelina Jolie as Carangi.

The Final Footprint

In December 1985, Carangi was admitted to Warminster General Hospital in Warminster, Pennsylvania, with bilateral pneumonia. A few days later, she was diagnosed with AIDS-related complex.  In the fall of 1986, Carangi was hospitalized again after being found on the street badly beaten and raped.  On October 18, she was admitted to Hahnemann University Hospital.  Carangi died becoming one of the first famous women to die of the disease.  Her funeral was held on November 23 at a small funeral home in Philadelphia. No one from the fashion world attended.  However, weeks later, Francesco Scavullo, Carangi’s friend and confidant, sent a Mass card when he heard the news.  Sunset Memorial Park, Feasterville, Pennsylvania.

Carangi is often considered to be the first supermodel, although that title has been applied to others, including Margaux Hemingway, Audrey Munson, Lisa Fonssagrives, Dorian Leigh, Twiggy, Jean Shrimpton, and Janice Dickinson.  Model Cindy Crawford, who rose to prominence the year Carangi died, was referred to as “Baby Gia” because of her resemblance to Carangi.  Crawford later recalled, “My agents took me to all the photographers who liked Gia: Albert Watson, Francesco Scavullo, Bill King. Everyone loved her look so much that they gladly saw me.”  Additionally, Carangi, whose sexual orientation has been reported as either lesbian or bisexual, is considered a lesbian icon and is said to have “epitomized lesbian chic more than a decade before the term was coined.”  Argentine model Mica Argañaraz has often been compared to Carangi, whom she considers a beauty icon.

Carangi’s life has been the subject of several works. A biography of Carangi by Stephen Fried titled Thing of Beauty—taken from the first line of John Keats’ famous poem Endymion—was published in 1993. Gia, a biographical television film starring Angelina Jolie, debuted on HBO in 1998. Jolie won a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance, among other accolades. A documentary titled The Self-Destruction of Gia, released in 2003, showcased footage of Carangi, contemporary interviews with Carangi’s family and former colleagues, including Sandy Linter, and footage of actress-screenwriter Zoë Lund, herself a heroin addict, who had been commissioned to write a screenplay based upon Carangi’s life at the time of her own death of drug-related causes in 1999.

A biography of Carangi by Sacha Lanvin Baumann titled Born This Way: Friends, Colleagues, and Coworkers Recall Gia Carangi, the Supermodel Who Defined an Era, was published in 2015. Sondra Scerca, who brought Carangi to Wilhelmina, is currently writing a memoir titled GIA, WILLY and ME, which will be released in 2022. The AIDS Memorial Quilt contains one panel with Carangi’s full name on it that only commemorates her, one panel that refers to her as Gia that only commemorates her, and one panel that refers to her as Gia and commemorates other people as well as her.

On this day in 1994, jazz singer, dancer, bandleader and actor Cab Calloway died from pneumonia in a nursing home in Hockessin, Delaware, at the age of 86. Born Cabell Calloway III on December 25, 1907 in Rochester, New York. He was associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City, where he was a regular performer and became a popular vocalist of the swing era. His niche of mixing jazz and vaudeville won him acclaim during a career that spanned over 65 years.

Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States’ most popular big bands from the early 1930s to the late 1940s. His band included trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie, Jonah Jones, and Adolphus “Doc” Cheatham, saxophonists Ben Webster and Leon “Chu” Berry, guitarist Danny Barker, bassist Milt Hinton, and drummer Cozy Cole.

Calloway had several hit records in the 1930s and 1940s, becoming known as the “Hi-de-ho” man of jazz for his most recognized song, “Minnie the Moocher”, originally recorded in 1931. He reached the Billboard charts in five consecutive decades (1930s–1970s). Calloway also made several stage, film, and television appearances until his death in 1994 at the age of 86. He had roles in Stormy Weather (1943), Porgy and Bess (1953), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), and Hello Dolly! (1967). His career saw renewed interest in 1980 when he appeared in The Blues Brothers.

Calloway was the first African-American musician to sell a million records from a single song and to have a nationally syndicated radio show. In 1993, Calloway received the National Medal of Arts from the United States Congress.

Calloway married his first wife Wenonah “Betty” Conacher in July 1928. They divorced in 1949. Calloway married Zulme “Nuffie” MacNeal on October 7, 1949.

The Final Footprint

Calloway is entombed in Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum in Hartsdale, New York. Other notable Final Footprints at Ferncliff include:  Aaliyah, James Baldwin, Joan Crawford, Jerome Kern, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Hammerstein II, and Ed Sullivan.

He posthumously received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. His song “Minnie the Moocher” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999 and added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry in 2019. He is also inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame and the International Jazz Hall of Fame.

On this day in 1999, musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Doug Sahm died from a heart attack in Taos, New Mexico,  aged 58.  Born Douglas Wayne Sahm in San Antonio, Texas on 6 November 1949.

Sahm is regarded as one of the main figures of Tex-Mex music, and as an important performer of Texan Music. He gained fame along with his band, the Sir Douglas Quintet, with a top-twenty hit in the United States and the United Kingdom with “She’s About a Mover” (1965). Sahm was influenced by the San Antonio music scene that included conjunto and blues, and later by the hippie scene of San Francisco. With his blend of music, he found success performing in Austin, Texas, as the hippie counterculture soared in the 1970s.

Sahm began singing at age five and learned to play the steel guitar at age six. He was considered a child prodigy on the instrument. By the age of eight, he had appeared on the Louisiana Hayride. He made his recording debut as “Little Doug” in 1955, and was influenced by rock and roll during his teenage years. Sahm had local hit records, while he played clubs as a musician for other bands. In 1965, Huey P. Meaux produced Sahm and the Sir Douglas Quintet’s “She’s About a Mover”. The same year, Sahm moved to California. In 1971, he returned to San Antonio, and soon after he moved to Austin. Atlantic Records signed Sahm and released his debut solo album Doug Sahm and Band in 1973.

After a continuing decline in record sales, Sahm kept performing in clubs in Austin, and moved through different record labels. Meanwhile, he enjoyed success in Sweden and in Canada. In 1989, Sahm formed the supergroup the Texas Tornados with fellow Tex-Mex musicians Augie Meyers, Freddy Fender and Flaco Jiménez. The Texas Tornados toured successfully, and one of their releases earned a Grammy Award. In 1999, Sahm died during a vacation trip. A posthumous album, The Return of Wayne Douglas, was released in 2000. Sahm received multiple honors in the state of Texas, including hall of fame inductions and memorials in public places.

The Final Footprint

Sahm decided to take a vacation trip to New Mexico. He planned to visit a friend in Taos, then continue to a cabin in the Sangre de Cristo Range and finish the trip with a visit to Dan Healy in San Francisco.  Sahm left for New Mexico after a brief visit with his son Shawn in Boerne, Texas. During the trip, Sahm called his son to inform him he had been feeling sick and that he often had to pull over to vomit. Sahm checked into the Kachina Lodge Hotel in Taos. His son continued calling him over the next few days. Sahm’s girlfriend, Debora Hanson, and Shawn offered to fly to New Mexico and drive him back to Texas. Sahm initially refused, but he agreed to drive himself to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to meet Hanson there for the drive back to Texas. As his condition worsened, he asked a clerk about local doctors. They advised him to visit the local emergency room, but he did not do so.  Sahm was found dead in his hotel room. Local authorities determined it to be a death by natural causes, but an autopsy was ordered.  The results of the autopsy determined that Sahm died of arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, described as a heart attack.  The Austin Music Network aired a three-hour tribute to Sahm, while KUT dedicated an episode of one of its shows to his music. A memorial concert was announced to take place at Antone’s in December 1999.

On November 23, 1999, Sahm’s funeral took place at the Sunset Memorial Home in San Antonio.  Loudspeakers were placed outside of the funeral home for the service to be heard by the estimated one thousand mourners in attendance. According to the Austin American Statesman, the crowd consisted of people “across all lines of age, race and social standing”.  The viewing lasted an hour and a half, as the mourners passed Sahm’s casket and left keepsakes. Fender chose not to attend the funeral to avoid distracting the crowds with his presence.  Sahm was buried in a private ceremony at Sunset Memorial Park in San Antonio, next to his mother and father.

In July 2000, the songs recorded at the Cherry Ridge Studios sessions the previous year were released on the posthumous album The Return of Wayne Douglas.

James_Coburn_The_Californians_1959On this day in 2002, Academy Award winning actor James Coburn died of heart attack while listening to music in his Beverly Hills home at the age of 77.  Born James Harrison Coburn III in Laurel, Nebraska on 31 August 1928.  Coburn was featured in over 70 films and made 100 television appearances during his 45-year career, winning an Academy Award for his supporting role as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction.  His rugged and “cool” persona made him a prpminent tough guy in numerous leading and supporting roles in westerns and action films, such as The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Great Escape (1963), Major Dundee (1965), Our Man Flint (1966), In Like Flint (1967), Duck, You Sucker! (1971), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), Charade (1963) and Cross of Iron (1977).  Coburn married twice; Beverly Kelly (1959 – 1979 divorce) and Paula Murad (1993 – 2002 his death).

James_Coburn_grave_at_Westwood_Village_Memorial_Park_Cemetery_in_Brentwood,_CaliforniaThe Final Footprint – Coburn was cremated and his cremains were inurned in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery (a Dignity Memorial® provider) in Los Angeles, California, and marked by a stone bench inscribed with his name.  Other notable final footprints at Westwood include; Ray Bradbury, Sammy Cahn, Truman Capote, Rodney Dangerfield, Farrah Fawcett, Brian Keith, Don Knotts, Hugh Hefner, Burt Lancaster, Peter Lawford, Peggy Lee, Janet Leigh, Jack Lemmon, Karl Malden, Dean Martin, Walter Matthau, Marilyn Monroe, Carroll O’Connor, Roy Orbison, George C. Scott, Dorothy Stratten, Natalie Wood, and Frank Zappa.

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Day in History 17 November – Catherine the Great – Rodin – Audre Lorde – Ruth Brown – Doris Lessing

Posted on 29 NovamFri, 17 Nov 2023 00:18:00 -06002023-11-17T00:18:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

#RIP #OTD in 1796 the last reigning Empress of Russia Catherine the Great died from a stroke in the Winter Palace, Saint Petersburg, age 67. Saint Peter and Paul Fortress, Saint Petersburg.

On this day in 1917, sculptor Auguste Rodin, died at his villa in Meudon, Île-de-France, on the outskirts of Paris at the age of 77.  Born François-Auguste-René Rodin on 12 November 1840 in Paris.  Among his best known works: Le Penseur, La Porte de L’enfer, Monument à Balzac, Monument à Victor Hugo, Monument aux Bourgeois de Calais, L’homme qui Marche, L’age D’airain, and Le Baiser.  Clearly, Le Baiser (The Kiss) is my personal favorite.  The sculpture was originally titled Francesca da Rimini, as it depicts the 13th-century Italian noblewoman immortalised in Dante’s Inferno (Circle 2, Canto 5) who falls in love with her husband Giovanni Malatesta’s younger brother Paolo.  They fall in love while reading the story of Lancelot and Guinevere, but the couple are discovered and killed by Giovanni.  In the sculpture, the book can be seen in Paolo’s hand.  The lovers lips do not actually touch in the sculpture to suggest that they were interrupted and met their demise without their lips ever having touched.  In 1864 Rodin began living with Rose Beuret, with whom he would have a son.  In 1883, at the age of 43, Rodin met the 18 year-old artist Camille Claudel.  The two commenced a passionate but stormy relationship and they influenced each other artistically.  She inspired him as a model for many of his female figures.  His muse if you will.  Rodin parted with Claudel in 1898.

The Final Footprint

Fifty-three years into their relationship, Rodin married Beuret. They married on 29 January 1917, and Beuret died two weeks later, on 16 February.  Rodin was ill that year; in January, he suffered weakness from influenza, and on 16 November his physician announced that “congestion of the lungs has caused great weakness. The patient’s condition is grave.”  Rodin died the next day.

A cast of The Thinker was placed next to his tomb in Meudon; it was Rodin’s wish that the figure served as his headstone and epitaph.  In 1923, Marcell Tirel, Rodin’s secretary, published a book alleging that Rodin’s death was largely due to cold, and the fact that he had no heat at Meudon. Rodin requested permission to stay in the Hotel Biron, a museum of his works, but the director of the museum refused to let him stay there.

#RIP #OTD in 1992 writer, professor, philosopher, intersectional feminist, poet, civil rights activist, self-described black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, mother, warrior, poet, Audre Lorde died of breast cancer in St. Croix aged 58. Cremated remains scattered in the Caribbean

On this day in 2006 singer, songwriter, actress, the “Queen of R&B”, Ruth Brown died in Henderson, Nevada from a heart attack and stroke, aged 78.  Born Ruth Alston Weston in Portsmouth, Virginia on 12 January 1928.  She was noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for Atlantic Records in the 1950s, such as “So Long”, “Teardrops from My Eyes” and “(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean”.  For these contributions, Atlantic became known as “the house that Ruth built” (alluding to the popular nickname for the old Yankee Stadium).  Brown was a 1993 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Following a resurgence that began in the mid-1970s and peaked in the 1980s, Brown used her influence to press for musicians’ rights regarding royalties and contracts; these efforts led to the founding of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.  Her performances in the Broadway musical Black and Blue earned Brown a Tony Award, and the original cast recording won a Grammy Award.  Brown was a recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.  In 2017, Brown was inducted into National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.

The Final Footprint

A memorial concert for her was held on January 22, 2007, at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York.  Roosevelt Memorial Park, Chesapeake City, Virginia

And on this day in 2013 novelist Doris Lessing died at her home in London, aged 94.  Born Doris May Tayler in Kermanshah, Iran, on 22 October 1919.  She lived in Iran until 1925. Her family then moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where she remained until moving in 1949 to London, England. Her novels include The Grass Is Singing (1950), the sequence of five novels collectively called Children of Violence (1952–1969), The Golden Notebook (1962), The Good Terrorist (1985), and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos: Archives (1979–1983).

Lessing was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature. In awarding the prize, the Swedish Academy described her as “that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny”.  Lessing was the oldest person ever to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The Final Footprint

During the late-1990s Lessing suffered a stroke, which stopped her from travelling during her later years.  She was still able to attend the theatre and opera.  She began to focus her mind on death, for example asking herself if she would have time to finish a new book.  She was remembered with a humanist funeral service.  Lessing was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium.

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Day in History 16 November – Clark Gable – Edie Sedgwick

Posted on 29 NovamThu, 16 Nov 2023 00:36:00 -06002023-11-16T00:36:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

On this day in 1960, U.S. Army Air Corps veteran, Academy Award-winning actor, The King of Hollywood, Clark Gable, died in Los Angeles at the age of 59.  Born William Clark Gable on 1 February 1901 in Cadiz, Ohio.  Of course his most famous role was that of Rhett Butler with Vivien Leigh’s Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939).  His final film, The Misfits (1961), paired Gable with Marilyn Monroe in her last screen appearance.  The screen play for the movie was written by Monroe’s then husband, Arthur Miller. 

Gable married five times including; Texas socialite Ria Franklin Prentiss Lucas Langham and actress Carole Lombard.  The marriage to Lombard ended when she died in a plane crash on 16 January 1942.  Gable reportedly had affairs with Joan Crawford, Paulette Goddard, Grace Kelly and Loretta Young.

  The Final Footprint – Gable is entombed next to Lombard in the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Trust, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California.  Other notable Final Footprints at Forest Lawn Glendale include; L. Frank Baum, Humphrey Bogart, Lon Chaney, Nat King Cole,  Sam Cooke, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr., Walt Disney, Errol Flynn, Jean Harlow, Michael Jackson, Carole Lombard, Tom Mix, Casey Stengel, Jimmy Stewart, Elizabeth Taylor, and Spencer Tracy.

#RIP #OTD in 1971 actress (Ciao! Manhattan), fashion model, “It Girl”, “Youthquaker”, one of Andy Warhol’s superstars Edie Sedgwick died from a barbiturate overdose at her home in Santa Barbara, age 28. Oak Hill Cemetery, Ballard, California

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Day in History 15 November – Frank Weston Benson – Tyrone Power – The Clutter Family – Alydar

Posted on 29 NovamWed, 15 Nov 2023 00:48:00 -06002023-11-15T00:48:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

Frank_W_Benson_artist_headshot-crop-204x300On this day in 1951, impressionist painter, Frank Weston Benson, died in Salem, Massachusetts at the age of 89.  Born 24 March 1862 in Salem.

Perhaps best known for his Realistic portraits, American Impressionist paintings, watercolors and etchings. He began his career painting portraits of distinguished families and murals for the Library of Congress. Some of his best known paintings (Eleanor, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Summer, Rhode Island School of Design Museum) depict his daughters outdoors at Benson’s summer home, Wooster Farm, on the island of North Haven, Maine. He also produced numerous oil, wash and watercolor paintings and etchings of wildfowl and landscapes.

In 1883 he travelled to Paris to study at the Académie Julian. He enjoyed a distinguished career as an instructor and department head at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He was a founding member of the Ten American Painters, American Academy of Arts and Letters and The Guild of Boston Artists.

The Final Footprint – Benson is interred in Harmony Grove Cemetery in Salem alongside his wife Ellen Perry Benson.  Their graves are marked by a large upright marble marker.

    • The Sisters, 1899, Terra Museum, Chicago

    • Eleanor Holding a Shell, 1902, Private collection

    • Calm Morning, 1904, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

    • Evening Light, 1908, Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio

    Red and Gold, 1915

On this day in 1958, US Marine Corp veteran, actor Tyrone Power died from a heart attack in Madrid, aged 44. Born Tyrone Edmund Power III in Cincinnati, Ohio on 5 May 1914.

From the 1930s to the 1950s, Power appeared in dozens of films, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads. Perhaps his best known films include The Mark of Zorro, Marie Antoinette, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan, Prince of Foxes, Witness for the Prosecution, The Black Rose, and Captain from Castile. Power’s own favorite film among those that he starred in was Nightmare Alley.

Though largely a matinee idol in the 1930s and early 1940s and known for his striking good looks, Power starred in films in a number of genres, from drama to light comedy. In the 1950s he began placing limits on the number of films he would make in order to devote more time to theater productions. He received his biggest accolades as a stage actor in John Brown’s Body and Mister Roberts.

Power was one of Hollywood’s most eligible bachelors until he married French actress Annabella (born Suzanne Georgette Charpentier) on July 14, 1939. They had met on the 20th Century Fox lot around the time they starred together in the movie Suez. Power adopted Annabella’s daughter, Anne, before leaving for service. In an A&E biography, Annabella said that Zanuck “could not stop Tyrone’s love for me, or my love for Tyrone.” J. Watson Webb, close friend and an editor at 20th Century Fox, maintained in the A&E Biography that one of the reasons the marriage fell apart was Annabella’s inability to give Power a son, yet, Webb said, there was no bitterness between the couple. In a March 1947 issue of Photoplay, Power was interviewed and said that he wanted a home and children, especially a son to carry on his acting legacy. Annabella shed some light on the situation in an interview published in Movieland magazine in 1948. She said, “Our troubles began because the war started earlier for me, a French-born woman, than it did for Americans.” She explained that the war clouds over Europe made her unhappy and irritable, and to get her mind off her troubles, she began accepting stage work, which often took her away from home. “It is always difficult to put one’s finger exactly on the place and time where a marriage starts to break up,” she said “but I think it began then. We were terribly sad about it, both of us, but we knew we were drifting apart. I didn’t think then—and I don’t think now—that it was his fault, or mine.” The couple tried to make their marriage work when Power returned from military service, but they were unable to do so.

Following his separation from Annabella, Power entered into a love affair with Lana Turner that lasted for a couple of years. In her 1982 autobiography, Turner claimed that she became pregnant with Power’s child in 1948, but chose to have an abortion.

In 1946, Power and lifelong friend Cesar Romero, accompanied by former flight instructor and war veteran John Jefferies as navigator, embarked on a goodwill tour throughout South America where they met, among others, Juan and Evita Peron in Argentina.  On September 1, 1947, Power set out on another goodwill trip around the world, piloting his own plane, “The Geek”.  He flew with Bob Buck, another experienced pilot and war veteran. Buck stated in his autobiography that Power had a photographic mind, was an excellent pilot, and genuinely liked people. They flew with a crew to various locations in Europe and South Africa, often mobbed by fans when they hit the ground. However, in 1948 when “The Geek” reached Rome, Power met and fell in love with Mexican actress Linda Christian. Turner claimed that the story of her dining out with Power’s friend Frank Sinatra was leaked to Power and that Power became very upset that she was “dating” another man in his absence. Turner also claimed that it could not have been a coincidence that Linda Christian was at the same hotel as Tyrone Power and implied that Christian had obtained Power’s itinerary from 20th Century Fox.

Power and Christian were married on January 27, 1949, in the Church of Santa Francesca Romana, with an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 screaming fans outside. Christian miscarried three times before giving birth to a baby girl, Romina Francesca Power, on October 2, 1951. A second daughter, Taryn Stephanie Power, was born on September 13, 1953. Around the time of Taryn’s birth, the marriage was becoming rocky. In her autobiography, Christian blamed the breakup of her marriage on her husband’s extramarital affairs, but acknowledged that she had had an affair with Edmund Purdom. They divorced in 1955.

After his divorce from Christian, Power had a long-lasting love affair with Mai Zetterling, whom he had met on the set of Abandon Ship.  At the time, he vowed that he would never marry again, because he had been twice burned financially by his previous marriages. He also entered into an affair with a British actress, Thelma Ruby.  However, in 1957, he met the former Deborah Jean Smith (sometimes incorrectly referred to as Deborah Ann Montgomery), who went by her former married name, Debbie Minardos.  They were married on May 7, 1958, and she became pregnant soon after with Tyrone Power Jr., the son he had always wanted.

The Final Footprint

In September 1958, Power and his wife Deborah traveled to Madrid and Valdespartera, Spain to film the epic Solomon and Sheba, directed by King Vidor and costarring Gina Lollobrigida. Probably affected by hereditary heart disease, and a chain smoker who smoked three to four packs a day, Power had filmed about 75% of his scenes when he was stricken by a massive heart attack while filming a dueling scene with his frequent costar and friend George Sanders. A doctor diagnosed the cause of Power’s death as “fulminant angina pectoris.”  Power died while being transported to the hospital in Madrid.

Power was interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery (then known as Hollywood Cemetery) in a military service on November 21.  Henry King flew over the service; almost 20 years before, Power had flown in King’s plane to the set of Jesse James in Missouri, Power’s first experience with flying. Aviation became an important part of Power’s life, both in the U.S. Marines and as a civilian. In the foreword to Dennis Belafonte’s The Films of Tyrone Power, King wrote: “Knowing his love for flying and feeling that I had started it, I flew over his funeral procession and memorial park during his burial, and felt that he was with me.”

Power was interred beside a small lake. His grave is marked with a gravestone in the form of a marble bench containing the masks of comedy and tragedy with the inscription “Good night, sweet prince.” At Power’s grave, Laurence Olivier read the poem “High Flight.”

Power’s will, filed on December 8, 1958, contained a then-unusual provision that his eyes be donated to the Estelle Doheny Eye Foundation for corneal transplantation or retinal study.

Deborah Power gave birth to a son on January 22, 1959, two months after her husband’s death. She remarried within the year to producer Arthur Loew Jr.

On this day in 1959, farmer Herbert Clutter (48), his wife Bonnie (45), their daughter Nancy (16), and their son Kenyon (15), were found bound and shot to death in various rooms of their home, on the family’s River Valley Farm on the outskirts of Holcomb, Kansas.  The murders, arrests and convictions of Richard Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward Smith were the basis for author Truman Capote‘s acclaimed book, In Cold Blood, which was serialized in The New Yorker magazine in 1965 and first published in book form in 1966. Capote actually began work on the book several days after he read a news article in a New York paper in 1959 about the murders.  Capote was assisted in his research by his childhood friend, Harper Lee.

The Final Footprint – The Clutters are interred in Valley View Cemetery in Garden City, Kansas.

On this day in 1990, chesnut colt and American thoroughbred race horse, Alydar, died at the age of 15.  Foaled 23 March 1975 at Calumet Farms in Lexington, Kentucky; sire Raise a Native, dam Sweet Tooth, damsire On-And-On.  Trained by John M. Veitch and ridden by jockey Jorge Velasquez, Alydar finished second to archrival Affirmed in all three Triple Crown Races in 1978.  A feat never accomplished, before or since.   In my opinion, their matchup in the Belmont Stakes ranks as the most exciting race in the history of the sport.  Affirmed won by a head to claim racing’s 11th Triple Crown Winner.  I watched all three races on television.  Both horses were beautiful chestnuts and I was a fan of both, but I was hoping that Affirmed would win.  Alydar was a major success as a stallion.  His offspring include; Easy Goer, Alysheba and Strike the Gold.

The Final Footprint – On November 13, 1990, Alydar appeared to have shattered his right hind leg in his stall at Calumet Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. Emergency surgery was performed the next day in an attempt to repair the injury, but the leg broke again. On November 15, Alydar was euthanized.  At the time the owner of Calumet Farm was in dire trouble financially, but suspicions of foul play by the management were not raised until federal prosecutors investigated in the late 1990s. John Thomas (J.T.) Lundy was indicted and convicted in 2000 on separate but related fraud charges—bribing a bank executive for favorable loans—and served nearly four years in prison. The farm’s former attorney, Gary Matthews, was also convicted and received a 21-month prison sentence. The Texas Monthly described Alydar’s death as “a sweeping saga of greed, fraud, and almost unimaginable cruelty that could have been lifted straight from a best-selling Dick Francis horse-racing novel.”

In Houston federal court, MIT professor George Pratt testified that Alydar had to have been killed.  He speculated that someone had tied the end of a rope around Alydar’s leg and attached the other end of the rope to a truck that could easily have been driven into the stallion barn. The truck then took off, pulling Alydar’s leg from underneath him until it snapped; he testified that the force involved was at least three times that which a horse was able to exert. About five days before Alydar’s injury his original night watchman, Harold “Cowboy” Kipp, testified that he was at work on the farm when he was ordered to take Tuesday, November 13 off.

Alydar was given the rare honor of being buried whole (traditionally only the head, heart, and hooves of a winning race horse are buried) in the Calumet Farm Equine Cemetery in Lexington.

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Day in History 14 November – Giovanni della Casa – Flora Tristan – Booker T. Washington

Posted on 29 NovamTue, 14 Nov 2023 00:54:00 -06002023-11-14T00:54:00-06:0012 2011 by MacGregor

giovannidellacasaWenceslas_Hollar_-_Altoviti,_or_della_Casa_(State_3)_croppedOn this day in 1556, Florentine poet, writer on etiquette and society, diplomat, and inquisitor, Giovanni della Casa died probably in the Farnese palace in Rome at the age of 53.  Born 28 June 1503 in Florence or Borgo San Lorenzo.  He is celebrated for his famous treatise on polite behavior, Il Galateo overo de’ costumi (1558).  From the time of its publication, this courtesy book has enjoyed success and influence.  In the eighteenth century, critic Giuseppe Baretti wrote in The Italian Library (1757), “The little treatise is looked upon by many Italians as the most elegant thing, as to stile, that we have in our language.”

The Final Footprint – Casa is entombed in the Church of Sant’Andrea della Valle, Rome. Sant’Andrea della Valle is a minor basilica in the rione of Sant’Eustachio. The basilica is the general seat for the religious order of the Theatines. It is located at Piazza Vidoni, 6 at the intersection of Corso Vittorio Emanuele (facing facade) and Corso Rinascimento.

#RIP #OTD in 1844 French-Peruvian writer and socialist activist who made important contributions to early feminist theory, Paul Gauguin’s grandmother, Flora Tristan died aged 41. Cimetière de la Chartreuse, Bordeaux, France 

On this day in 1915, educator, author, orator, and advisor to presidents of the United States, Booker T. Washington died in Tuskegee,
Alabama at the age of 59. Born Booker Taliaferro Washington c. 1856 in Hale’s Ford, Virginia. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American community.

Washington was from the last generation of black American leaders born into slavery and became the leading voice of the former slaves and their descendants. They were newly oppressed in the South by disenfranchisement and the Jim Crow discriminatory laws enacted in the post-Reconstruction Southern states in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Washington was a key proponent of African-American businesses and one of the founders of the National Negro Business League. His base was the Tuskegee Institute, a historically black college in Alabama. As lynchings in the South reached a peak in 1895, Washington gave a speech, known as the “Atlanta compromise”, which brought him national fame. He called for black progress through education and entrepreneurship, rather than trying to challenge directly the Jim Crow segregation and the disenfranchisement of black voters in the South. Washington mobilized a nationwide coalition of middle-class blacks, church leaders, and white philanthropists and politicians, with a long-term goal of building the community’s economic strength and pride by a focus on self-help and schooling. But, secretly, he also supported court challenges to segregation and restrictions on voter registration, passing on funds to the NAACP for this purpose.  Black militants in the North, led by W. E. B. Du Bois, at first supported the Atlanta compromise but after 1909, they set up the NAACP to work for political change. They tried with limited success to challenge Washington’s political machine for leadership in the black community but also built wider networks among white allies in the North.[2]Decades after Washington’s death in 1915, the civil rights movement of the 1950s took a more active and militant approach, which was also based on new grassroots organizations based in the South, such as CORE, SNCC and SCLC.

Washington mastered the nuances of the political arena in the late 19th century, which enabled him to manipulate the media, raise money, develop strategy, network, push, reward friends, and distribute funds. His long-term goal was to end the disenfranchisement of the vast majority of African Americans, who then still lived in the South.

Washington was married three times. In his autobiography Up from Slavery, he gave all three of his wives credit for their contributions at Tuskegee. His first wife Fannie N. Smith was from Malden, West Virginia, the same Kanawha River Valley town where Washington had lived from age nine to sixteen. He maintained ties there all his life, and Smith was a student of his when he taught in Malden. He helped her gain entrance into the Hampton Institute. Washington and Smith were married in the summer of 1882. Fannie died in May 1884.

In 1885 the widower Washington married again, to Olivia A. Davidson (1854-1889). Born free in Virginia to a free woman of color and a father who had been freed from slavery, she moved with her family to the free state of Ohio, where she attended common schools. She later studied at Hampton Institute and the Massachusetts State Normal School at Framingham. She taught in Mississippi and Tennessee before going to Tuskegee to work as a teacher. Washington recruited Davidson to Tuskegee, and promoted her to vice-principal. She died in 1889.

In 1893 Washington married Margaret James Murray. She was from Mississippi and had graduated from Fisk University, a historically black college. Murray outlived Washington and died in 1925.

The Final Footprint

Washington’s coffin being carried to grave site.

He was interred on the campus of Tuskegee University near the University Chapel.

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