Calendar: May 21

A Year: Day to Day Men: 21st of May

Opposites: Torrid and Frigid

May 21, 1792 is the date of Japan’s Mount Unzen’s deadliest volcanic eruption.

Mount Unzen consists of a group of composite volcanic domes located on Japan’s Shimabara Peninsula east of Nagasaki. This area has seen extensive volcanism over millions of years. The oldest volcanic deposits in the region date from over 6 million years ago, and extensive eruptions occurred over the whole peninsula between 2.5 and 0.5 million years ago.

Unzen’s deadliest recorded eruption occurred on May 21 in 1792, with a large igneous rock lava flow coming from the Fugen-dake dome. The east flank of the Mayu-yama dome collapsed unexpectedly following a post-eruption earthquake, creating a landslide into Ariake Bay. This caused a mega-tsunami that reached a height of 330 feet. The wave surge devastated nearby areas, causing further widespread damage and death. Most of the estimated 15,000 deaths caused by the event are believed to have resulted from the landslide and the tsunami. The scar created from the Mayuyama landslide remains visible today.

After 1792, the volcano remained dormant until November 1989 when an earthquake swarm, a series of earthquakes in a short time, began about 12 miles underneath and 6 miles west of the Fugen-dake dome. Over the following year, earthquakes continued, their hypo-centers gradually migrating towards the summit. The first steam blast eruptions began in November 1990, and after inflation of the summit area, fresh lava began to emerge on May 20, 1991.

The threat of further disastrous events prompted authorities to evacuate 12,000 residents from their homes. On June 3, 1991, the volcano erupted violently, possibly as a result of depressurization of the magma column after a landslide in the crater. A pyroclastic flow triggered by the collapse of a lava dome reached 3 miles from the crater and claimed the lives of 43 scientists and journalists, including volcanologist Katia and Maurice Krafft and Harry Glicken.

From 1993 onward, the rate of lava effusion gradually decreased, and eruptions came to an end in 1995. Since then heavy rains have frequently caused pyroclastic material, rocky debris and water to flow down the slopes. Dikes have been constructed in several river valleys to channel the lava flows away from vulnerable areas.

Calendar: May 20

A Year: Day to Day Men: 20th of May

Within the Hedge

The Kinetoscope, an early motion picture exhibition device, was first publicly displayed on May 20, 1891.

First described in conceptual terms by Thomas Edison in 1888, the Kinetoscope was largely developed by Edison Labs employee William Kennedy Laurie Dickson between 1889 and 1892, leading most modern scholars to assign Dickson with the major credit for turning the concept into a practical reality.

Only sporadic work was done on the Kinetoscope for much of 1890 as Dickson concentrated on Edison’s unsuccessful venture into ore milling. By early 1891, however, Dickson, his new chief assistant, William Heise, and another lab employee, Charles Kayser, had succeeded in devising a functional strip-based film viewing system. In the new design, whose mechanics were housed in a wooden cabinet, a loop of horizontally configured 19 mm film ran around a series of spindles.

The film, with a single row of perforations engaged by an electrically powered sprocket wheel, was drawn continuously beneath a magnifying lens. An electric lamp shone up from beneath the film, casting its circular-format images onto the lens and thence through a peephole atop the cabinet. A rapidly spinning shutter permitted a flash of light so brief that each frame appeared to be frozen. This rapid series of apparently still frames appeared, thanks to the persistence of vision phenomenon, as a moving image.

Dickson, himself, starred in the first public demonstration, which was given on a prototype Kinetoscope at the laboratory for approximately 150 members of the National Federation of Women’s Clubs on May 20, 1891. When the women looked through the peephole, they saw a man who bowed his head, smiled, and waved his hands holding his hat. Dickson was the man in the 3-second-long movie, which is often referred to as “Dickson Greeting”.

The premiere of the completed Kinetoscope did not come until May 9, 1893, at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. Instrumental to the birth of American movie culture, the Kinetoscope also had a major impact in Europe; its influence abroad was magnified by Edison’s decision not to seek international patents on the device, facilitating numerous imitations of and improvements on the technology.

Calendar: May 19

A Year: Day to Day Men: 19th of May

Marked Encounters

May 19, 1971 marked the death of British-American actor, Alan Young.

Alan Young was born Angus Young on November 19, 1919, in North Shields, Northumberland, England, to Scottish parents. The family moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, when he was a toddler, and to West Vancouver, Canada, when he was six years old. Bedridden as a child because of severe asthma, he came to love listening to the radio. By the time he was in high school, Young already had his own comedy radio series on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation network.

After leaving the Canadian armed service, Alan Young moved to Toronto and resumed his Canadian radio career, where he was discovered in 1944 by an American agent who brought him to New York to appear on American radio. He first appeared on the Philco Radio Hall of Fame. This led to his own American radio show, “The Alan Young Show”, a NBC summer replacement for entertainer Eddie Cantor’s show.

Alan Young’s film debut was in the 1946 film “Margie”, a romantic comedy that became a box office hit. Moving to TV, he wrote a pilot for CBS in 1950, resulting in live variety revue “The Alan Young Show” that earned him the 1951 Best Actor Emmy and the nomination for outstanding personality. After that show’s cancellation, Young acted in “Androcles and the Lion”, “Gentlemen Marry Brunettes” and two films produced by George Pal: the 1958 “Tom Thumb” and the 1960 film “The Time Machine” base on the story by H.G. Wells and starring Rod Taylor.

Young was best known, however, for the CBS television show “Mister Ed” which ran from 1961 to 1966. In this series, he starred as Wilbur Post, the owner of Mr. Ed, a talking horse who would not talk to anyone but him, thus causing comic situations for Wilbur Post, with his wife, neighbors, and acquaintances. Young was approached for “Mister Ed” by producer Arthur Lubin, who had created the popular 1950 film “Francis the Talking Mule”. Young initially turned down the part but eventually accepted it. Owning a portion of the show, he made a fortune off the royalties.

During the 1970s he became active in voice acting. He voiced Scrooge McDuck for numerous Disney films, and voiced Haggis McHaggis on “The Ren and Stimpy Show”. With Bill Burt, Young wrote the autobiography “Mr. Ed and Me,” which was published in 1995.

After 1997, Alan Young lived in Woodland Hills, California, at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital, a retirement community, where he died of natural causes on May 19, 2016 at the age of 96.

Calendar: May 18

A Year: Day to Day Men: 18th of May

A Bright New Day

May 18, 1927 marks the opening day of Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood, California.

Grauman’s Chinese Theater is a movie palace on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame. After the success of his Egyptian Theater, Sid Grauman secured a long-term lease on the property site at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard from Francis Bushman, the owner of the existing mansion located at that address. The firm of Meyer and Holler, with Raymond Kennedy as the principal architect, was contracted to design a “palace-type theater” of Chinese design. Grauman financed the theater’s two million dollar cost and owned one-third interest in the theater. His partners, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Howard Schenck owned the remaining two thirds.

During construction, Grauman hired Jean Klossner to formulate an extremely hard concrete for the forecourt of the theater. Norma Marie Talmadge, the American actress and film producer of the silent era, is traditionally recognized as the first person to put a footprint in the concrete. The theater’s third founding partner, Douglas Fairbanks, was the second celebrity to be immortalized in the concrete. Nearly two hundred Hollywood celebrity handprints, footprints and autographs are now imprinted in the concrete of the theater’s forecourt.

The exterior of Grauman’s theater is meant to resemble a giant, red Chinese pagoda. The design features a huge Chinese dragon across the facade, with two authentic Ming Dynasty guardian lions guarding the main entrance and the silhouettes of tiny dragons along the sides of the copper roof.

One of the highlights of the Chinese Theatre has always been its grandeur and décor. In 1952, John Tartaglia, the artist of nearby Saubt Sophia Cathedral, became the head interior decorator of the Chinese Theatre, as well as the theatre chain then owned by Fox West Coast Theaters. Celebrities also contributed to the theater’s decor. Xavier Cugat painted the trees and foliage between the pillars on the side walls. Keye Luke painted the Chinese murals in the lobby. The lobby features programs from some of the Hollywood premieres that have been hosted there, as well as a collection of classic movie costumes.

The Chinese Theatre was declared a historic and cultural landmark in 1968, and has undergone various restoration projects in the years since then.In 2000, Behr Browers Architects, a firm previously engaged by Mann Theaters, prepared a restoration and modernization program for the structure. The program included a seismic upgrade, new state-of-the-art sound and projection, new vending kiosks and exterior signage, and the addition of a larger concession area under the balcony.

Calendar: May 17

A Year: Day to Day Men: 17th of May

A Piece of Ginger

May 17, 1682 was the birthdate of Bartholomew Roberts, a Welsh pirate know after his death by the nickname of Black Bart.

Bartholomew Roberts was born John Roberts in Casnewydd-Bach, Wales. He is thought to have gone to sea when he was thirteen in 1695; however, there is no further record of him until 1718 when he was mate of a Barbados sloop. In 1719, Roberts was second mate on the slave ship Princess serving under Captain Abraham Plumb.

In early June of 1719, the Princess was anchored at Anomabu situated on the Gold Coast of West Africa, when she was attacked and captured by pirates. The two pirate ships, the Royal Rover and the Royal James, were led by captain Howell Davis. Roberts and several others of the Princess crew were forced to join the pirates. Captain Davis, also a Welshman, discovered Robert’s abilities as a navigator and took to consulting him and confiding information to Roberts in Welsh. Roberts was reluctant to become a pirate but soon saw the advantages to his new lifestyle.

The Royal Rover with Davis and Roberts on board hoisted a British flag and entered the harbor of the island of Principe, intending to hold the governor of the island hostage for ransom. Davis invited the governor to lunch on board the Royal Rover and sent boats to transport the governor. However, the Portuguese garrison on the island had discovered that their visitors were pirates, ambushed the landing party, and shot Davis dead. A new captain had to be selected. Despite his being with the crew for only six weeks, Roberts was elected captain.

Roberts and his crew crossed the Atlantic and spent nine weeks off the coast of Brazil. About to leave for the West Indies, the encountered a fleet of 42 Portuguese ships waiting for two men-of-war ships to escort them to Lisbon. The richest ship, Sagrada Familia with 40 guns and a crew of 170, was boarded and captured. The Sagrada Familia contained 40,000 gold coins and jewelry designed for the King of Portugal, including a cross set with diamonds- a very rich prize for the pirates.

On the 10th of February, 1722, The Royal Navy ship HMS Swallow delivered two broadsides to Robert’s ship at Cape Lopez on the coast of Equatorial Guinea. Grapeshot struck Roberts in the throat while he stood on deck. Before his body could be captured, Roberts’s wish to be buried at sea was fulfilled by his crew, who wrapped his body in the ship’s sail, weighted it down and threw it overboard. It was never found. Bartholomew Roberts was the most successful pirate of the Golden Age of Piracy as measured by vessels captured, taking over 400 prizes in his career.

Calendar: May 16

A Year: Day to Day Men: 16th of May

Orange Trimline Phone

May 16, 1919 was the birthdate of Wladziu Valentino Liberace, the American singer, pianist and actor.

Liberace was born in West Allis, Wisconsin. His father was an immigrant from central Italy and his mother was of Polish descent. Liberace was born ‘en caul”, which in some cultures is indicative of genius, good luck or the promise of a prosperous future. He began playing the piano at age four. By the age of seven he was already memorizing difficult pieces and studying the technique of the Polish pianist Ignacy Pederewski.

In 1934 at age 15, he played jazz piano with a school group called “The Mixers” and later with other groups. He also showed an interest in draftsmanship, design, and painting, and became a fastidious dresser and follower of fashion. By this time, he was already displaying a penchant for turning eccentricities into attention-getting practices, and earned popularity at school.

Liberace, at the age of twenty, played with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on January 15, 1940, at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, performing Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto under the baton of Hans Lange, for which he received strong reviews. By the late 1940s he changed from a classical pianist to an entertainer and showman, unpredictably and whimsically mixing the serious with light fare. He also added interaction with the audience—taking requests, talking with the patrons and making jokes. He began to pay greater attention to such details as staging, lighting, and presentation. The transformation to entertainer was driven by Liberace’s desire to connect directly with his audiences, and secondarily from the reality of the difficult competition in the classical piano world.

In 1956, Liberace had his first international engagement, playing successfully in Havana, Cuba. He followed up with a European tour later that year. Always a devout Catholic, Liberace considered his meeting with Pope Pius XII a highlight of his life. In 1960, Liberace performed at the London Palladium with Nat King Cole and Sammy Davis Jr. This was the first televised ‘command performance’, now known as the Royal Variety Performance, for Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

Liberace died on the late morning of February 4, 1987 at his retreat home in Palm Springs, California. He was 67 years old. His body is entombed at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles. In 1994 the Palm Springs Walk of Stars dedicated a Golden Palm Star to him. Liberace was recognized during his career with two Emmy Awards, six gold albums, and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Calendar: May 15

A Year: Day to Day Men: 15th of May

Awaiting an Answer

On May 15, 1492 German mercenaries kill 232 people during the Bread and Cheese Revolt in Holland.

The Bread and Cheese Revolt was an uprising of people from Kennemerland and West-Friesland in the province Holland in the year 1491-1492. The name “bread and cheese rebellion” comes from the emblems on the rebel banners. The main reason for the rebellion was a tax raise; but an economic crisis and a food shortage stimulated the rebellion. The tax oppression and the garrison policy of John III of Egmont, the steward of Maximilian I, who had secured the Lowlands by marriage to Mary of Burgundy, further inflamed the discontent of the suffering citizens..

The rebels attacked several cities and killed the most hated tax collectors including the bailiff of Kennemerland, Claes van Ruyven in the town of Haarlem. The peasants with the support of the urban lower classes seized the cities of Hoom, Alkmaar, and Haarlem. The rebels also stormed and destroyed two castles.

Count John III van Egmont first tried to quell the uprising by making some promises to the rebels but they were not impressed. John III called in an imperial army under the control of Albert III, Duke of Saxony, and Governor of the Netherlands. The imperial army defeated the rebel army on the cemetery of Heemskerk.

Two hundred and thirty-two peasants were killed by mercenaries at the city of Alkmaar in the Netherlands during the uprising. The captured leaders of the rebellion were executed and the cities which supported the rebellion were stripped of their city walls, received fines, and had garrisons installed in their midst.

Calendar: May 14

A Year: Day to Day Men: 14th of May

The Soft Shadow of the Sun

On May 14, 1970, Billie Burke, the American actress, died of natural causes at the age of 85.

Billie Burke, born Mary Burke, was an American actress who was famous on Broadway, in early silent films and later in sound films. As a child, she toured the United States and Europe with her father, a singer and a clown for the Barnum and Bailey Circus. At the age of nineteen, Burke began acting on stage, making her debut in London in “The School Girl”. She eventually returned to America to star in Broadway musical comedies.

Burke played leads on Broadway in the plays “Suzanne”, “The Runaway”, and “The Land of Promise” during the years from 1910 to 1913, along with a supporting role in the revival of “The Amazons”. It was during this revival that she caught the eye of producer Florenz Ziegfeld who married her in 1914.

Burke was soon signed for movies and made her debut in the 1915 film “Peggy”. Her success was phenomenal, and she was soon earning what was reputedly the highest salary ever granted to a motion picture actress up to that time. By 1917 she was a favorite with silent movie fans, rivaling Lillian Gish and Mary Pickford. Burke starred primarily in provocative society dramas and comedies. The star’s girlish charm rivaled her acting ability; and as she dressed to the hilt in fashionable gowns, furs and jewelry, she became a fashion trendsetter in the 1920s.

In 1937, Burke appeared in the first of the “Topper” films, about a man haunted by two socialite ghosts, played by Cary Grant and Constance Bennett, in which she played Cosmo Topper’s wife, the twittering and daffy Clara Topper. In 1938 at the age of 54, she was chosen to play Glinda the Good Witch of the North, in the musical film “The Wizard of Oz” directed by Victor Fleming and released in 1939. This became her iconic role among future film viewers.

Billie Burke was 75 when she made her final screen appearance as Cordelia Fosgate in John Ford’s 1960 western “Sergeant Rutledge”. After this film she retired from acting and lived in Los Angeles until her death. For her contributions to the film industry, Billie Burke was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 with a star located at 6617 Hollywood Boulevard. Her fame is also in the stars: a crater near the north pole of the planet Mercury is named after her.

Calendar: May 13

A Year: Day to Day Men: 13th of May

The Perfection of His Repose

May 13, 1856 was the birthdate of British writer and photographer, Peter Henry Emerson who first promoted photography as an independent art.

Peter Emerson was born on the Palma Estate, a sugar plantation in Cuba, belonging to his American father and British mother. He spent his early years in Cuba, but moved to England in 1869, after the death of his father. He was schooled at Cranleigh School in Surrey and later at King’s College London, before switching to Clare College in Cambridge in 1879. There he earned his medical degree in 1885.

Emerson bought his first camera in late 1881 to be used on bird-watching trips with his friend, the ornithologist A.T. Evans. In 1886 he was elected to the Council of the Photographic Society and abandoned his career as a surgeon to devote his time to writing and photography, initially influenced by naturalistic French painting but gradually turning more to experimentation.

During his life Emerson fought against the British photographic establishment on a number of issues. In 1889 he published a controversial and influential book “Naturalistic Photography for Students of the Art”, in which he explained his philosophy of art and straightforward photography. The book was a direct attack on the popular tradition of combining many photographs to produce one image that had been pioneered in the 1850s.

This method allowed the production of images that, especially in early days, could not have been produced indoors in low light, and it also made possible the creation of highly dramatic images, often in imitation of allegorical paintings. Emerson denounced this technique as false and claimed that photography should be seen as a genre of its own, not one that seeks to imitate other art forms. All Emerson’s own pictures were taken in a single shot and without retouching.

Emerson also believed that the photograph should be a true representation of that which the eye saw. Following contemporary optical theories, he produced photographs with one area of sharp focus while the remainder was unsharp. He vehemently pursued this argument about the nature of seeing and its representation in photography, to the discomfort of the photographic establishment.

Calendar: May 12

A Year: Day to Day Men: 12th of May

Green Lives on Water

Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Blow-Up” wins the Grand Prix at Cannes on May 12, 1967.

“Blow-Up” is a 1966 British-Italian mystery thriller film directed by Antonioni about a fashion photographer who believes he has unwittingly captured a murder on film. This film was Antonioni’s first production entirely in English. The actor in the film’s photographer role was David Hemmings, chosen by Michaelangelo Antonioni after Sean Connery turned down the role. Hemmings at that time was not a major star but acting in small theater productions in London.

There were several known stars in cast of this film, Including John Castle and Vanessa Redgrave. However there were several noted cameo roles. One of these cameos was the musical group The Yardbirds, who performed “Stroll On” near the end of the film and smashed their instruments. In that scene of the nightclub, Michael Palin, not yet a member of Monty Python, can be seen in the crowd watching the Yardbirds.

The plot was inspired by a short story by Julio Cortazar entitled “The Devil’s Drool”, based in part on the life of swinging London photographer David Bailey. The film was scored by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock- the first of his many soundtracks. Except for the music for the opening and closing title and credit sequences, the music is diegetic. Herbie Hancock noted: “It is only there when someone turns on the radio or puts on a record”.

“Blow-Up” won the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film in the main competition section of the 1967 Cannes Film Festival- the highest honor of the festival. The film was also nominated in the categories of Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best British Film for the 1967 Academy Awards.

The American release by MGM, a major Hollywood studio, of this counter-culture era film with its explicit sexual content was in direct defiance of the contemporary standards of the Production Code. MGM did not gain approval for this film. The film was also condemned by the Nation Legion of Decency, a United States Catholic organization which rated films. The collapse of the Production Code was foreshadowed when MGM released the film through a subsidiary distributer and “Blow-Up” was shown widely in North American cinemas despite the code. In 1968 the MPAA rating system was established when the Code was abandoned.

Calendar: May 11

Year: Day to Day Men: 11th of May

Communicating with Nature

May 11, 1969 is the birthdate of the British comedy troupe, Monty Python.

John Cleese was writing for TV personality David Frost and actor/comedian Marty Feldman, when he recruited Graham Chapman as a writing partner and “sounding board”. BBC had offered the pair a show of their own in early May of 1969. John Cleese reached out to former “How to Irritate People” writing partner Michael Palin, to join the team. Palin invited his own writing partner Terry Jones and colleague Eric Idle over from rival ITV. Eric Idle in turn wanted American-born Terry Gilliam for his animations.

The Pythons considered several names for their new program, including “Owl Stretching Time”, “The Toad Elevating Moment”, “Vaseline Review” and “A Horse, a Spoon and a Bucket”. “Flying Circus” had come up as well. The Flying Circus name stuck when BBC revealed that they had already printed flyers with this name and were not interested in printing any revisions.

The show was a collaborative process, beginning with the first broadcast on October 5, 1969. With no writers of their own, the six would divide into groups and write their own material. Whether any given sketch would make it into the program, was always a democratic process.

Different Python factions were responsible for different elements of the team’s humor. The work of the Oxford educated Terry Jones and Michael Palin was more visual, and a little more off the wall. The Spanish Inquisition arriving in a suburban apartment is a prime example. The Cambridge educated John Cleese and Graham Chapman were more confrontational – “This is abuse. I came here for an argument”. Any skit that got utterly involved with words was the work of Eric Idle, such as the ‘Man who Spoke in Anagrams’. Terry Gilliam was the personality behind all the peculiar animation.

The Pythons shared a dislike for “capping” bits with punchlines, and experimented with ending sketches by cutting abruptly to another scene, or breaking the rules altogether by addressing the camera directly. Terry Gilliam’s animations were a favorite technique to use: a 16 ton weight would drop from the sky and end the skit.

The Flying Circus broke new ground with techniques like the “cold open”. With no titles, credits, or opening theme, Michael Palin would crawl across the tundra a la Robinson Crusoe, looking into the camera and saying “It’s… And off the skits went. The cold open sometimes lasted until the middle of the show. Occasionally, the Pythons fooled viewers by rolling closing credits halfway through, usually continuing the gag by fading to the BBC logo while John Cleese parodied the tones of a BBC announcer. On one occasion the closing credits ran directly after the opening titles.

Calendar: May 10

A Year: Day to Day Men: 10th of May

The Lava Field

Olaf Stapledon, the British science fiction writer, was born on May 10, 1886.

Olaf Stapledon was educted at Abbotsholme School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he earned a BA degree in Modern History in 1909 and an MA degree in 1913. He was award a PhD degree in Philosophy from the University of Liverpool in 1925 and used his doctoral thesis as the basis for his first published prose book “A Modern Theory of Ethics” published in 1929. He, however, soon turned to fiction in the hope of presenting his ideas to a wider public.

In 1930, Stapledon wrote a future-history novel entitled “Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future”. It was a work of unprecedented scale in the science fiction genre, describing the history of humanity from the present onwards across two billion years, involving eighteen distinct human species, of which ours was the first.

Stapledon’s conception of history is based on the Hegelian Dialectic, following a repetitive cycle with many varied civilizations rising from and descending back into savagery over millions of years, but overall progressing, as the later civilizations rise to far greater heights than the first. The book anticipates the science of genetic engineering, and is an early example of the fictional supermind; a consciousness composed of many telepathically-linked individuals.

Stapledon followed that epic work with a sequel, the far less acclaimed “Last Men in London” published in 1932. The 1937 novel “Star Maker” could also be considered a sequel to “Last and First Men”, briefly mentioning man’s evolution on Neptune; but this novel is more ambitious in scope, being a history of the entire universe. He followed up these novels with many more books of fiction and philosophy.

After 1945, Stapledon travelled on lecture tours, and in 1949 spoke in Poland at the World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace. He attended the Conference for World Peace held in New York City in 1949. In 1950, he was actively involved in the anti-apartheid movement. After a week of lectures in Paris In August 1950, he cancelled a projected trip to Yugoslavia and returned to his home in Caldy, England, where he died very suddenly of a heart attack in early September.

Stapledon’s writings directly influenced Arthur C. Clark, Brian Aldis, Betrand Russell, John Maynard Smith and indirectly many others, contributing many ideas to the world of science fiction writing. None of Olaf Stapledon’s novels, however, have been presented as films.

Calendar: May 9

A Year: Day to Day Men: 9th of May

The Stag Tattoo

May 9, 1959 was the release date of Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological thriller “Vertigo”.

The film noir “Vettigo”, produced and directed by Hitchcock, was based on the 1954 novel “From Among the Dead” by Boileau-Narcejac. The star of the film James Stewart plays Scottie, a detective forced into early retirement, because an incident in the line of duty, causing him to develop a fear of heights, resulted in the death of a policeman. He is hired as a private investigator to follow an acquaintance’s wife, played by Kim Novack, who is behaving strangely.

“Vertigo” was filmed from September to December 1957, with the principal photography beginning on location in San Francisco. The film uses extensive location footage of the Bay Area, with its steep hills and tall, arching bridges. In the driving scenes shot in the city, the main characters’ cars are almost always pictured heading down the city’s steeply inclined streets.

The scene in which Madeleine falls from the tower was filmed at Mission San Juan Bautista. A steeple, added sometime after the mission’s original construction and secularization, had been demolished following a fire. So Hitchcock added a bell tower using scale models, matte paintings, and trick photography at the Paramount studio in Los Angeles.The original tower was much smaller and less dramatic than the film’s version. The tower’s staircase was later assembled inside a studio.

Hitchcock popularized the dolly zoom in this film, leading to the technique’s nickname “the Vertigo effect”. This “dolly-out/zoom-in” method involves the camera physically moving away from a subject whilst simultaneously zooming in, so that the subject retains its size in the frame, but the background’s perspective changes. Hitchcock used the effect to look down the tower shaft to emphasize its height and Scottie’s disorientation. Following difficulties filming the shot on a full-sized set, a model of the tower shaft was constructed, and the dolly zoom was filmed horizontally.

“Vertigo” premiered in San Francisco on May 9, 1958 at the Stage Door Theater. While the film did break even upon its original release, it earned less than other Hitchcock productions. Tghe film was nominated for two Academy Awards in the technical categories: Best Art Direction and Best Sound. Upon Hitchcock’s death in 1973, “Vertigo” was one of five Hitchcock films taken out of circulation. It wasn’t until ten years later that it was re-released after restoration and reprinting on 35mm stock.

Calendar: May 8

A Year: Day to Day Men: 8th of May

Catching the Last of the Rays

May 8, 1639 was the birthdate of Giovanni Battista Gaulli, the Italian artist of the High Baroque and early Rococo periods.

In mid-17th century, Gaulli’s Genoa was a cosmopolitan Italian artistic center open to both commercial and artistic enterprises from north European countries, including countries with non-Catholic populations such as England and the Dutch provinces. Painters such as Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck stayed in Genoa for a few years. Gaulli’s earliest influences would have come from an eclectic mix of these foreign painters and other local artists including Valerio Castello and Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione.

The election of a new General of the Jesuit order, Gian Paolo Oliva, put into motion the artistic decoration of the Church of the Gesù, the mother church of the Society of Jesuits. With Gian Bernini’s support and his guidance thereafter, Oliva awarded the prestigious commission to the 22-year-old Giovanni Gaulli. The original contract stipulated the dome was to be completed in two years, and the remainder by the end of ten years. Gaulli’s main vault fresco was unveiled on Christmas Eve, 1679. After this, he continued frescoing of the vaults of the tribune and other areas in the church until 1685.

Gaulli’s nave masterpiece, the “Triumph of the Sacred Name of Jesus”, is an allegory of the work of the Jesuits that envelops worshippers or the observers below into the whirlwind of devotion. Swirling figures in the dark entry border of the composition frame the ‘open’ sky, ever rising upward toward a celestial vision of infinite depth. The light from Jesus’ name and symbol of the Jesuit order is gathered by patrons and saints above the clouds; while in the darkness below, a fusillade of brilliance scatters heretics, as if smitten by blasts of the Last Judgement. The great theatrical effect here, inspired and developed under his mentor Bernini, prompted critics to label Giovanni Gaulli a “Bernini in paint”.

Gaulli’s frescoes were a tour-de-force in illusionary painting, depicting the church’s roof opening up above the viewer; and the panorama is viewed in true perspective when seen from below. Gaulli’s ceiling is a masterpiece of architectural illusionism, combining stuccoed and painted figures and architecture. Bernini’s pupil Antonio Raggi provided the stucco figures. From the nave floor, it is difficult to distinguish painted from stucco angels. The figural composition spill over the frame’s edges which only heightens the illusion of the faithful rising miraculously toward the light above.

Calendar: May 7

A Year: Day to Day Men: 7th of May

A Man with Attitude

On May 7, 558, the great dome of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople completely collapsed.

Hagia Sophia is a cathedral located in Istanbul, Turkey. It is one of the greatest surviving examples of Byzantine architecture. The original cathedral was finished in 360 A.D., but due to a future of riots, rebellions, and the fall of empires, the structure was rebuilt multiple times, each version more grand than the last. Due to this rich history, the cathedral has crowned the bodies of both the Christian and the Muslim world.

The size and measurements of the Hagia Sophia are much larger than other religious buildings of its time. This structure is world renown for the colossal dome that sits over its central space. The dome is 56 meters from ground level, 32 meters from North to South and 31 meters from East to West. It was the largest pendentive dome in the world until the completion of Saint Peter’s Basilica in 1626, and has a much lower height than any other dome of such a great diameter.

Earthquakes in August 553 and December 557 caused cracks in the main dome and eastern half-dome. The main dome collapsed completely during a subsequent earthquake on May 7th in the year 558, destroying the altar steps, the altar, and the structural canopy over the altar. The collapse was due mainly to the unfeasibly high bearing load and to the enormous sheer load of the dome, which was too flat. These caused the deformation of the piers which sustained the dome.

Emperor Justian I ordered an immediate restoration. He entrusted it to Isidorus the Younger, nephew of Isidore of Miletus, who rebuilt with lighter materials than previously used and elevated the dome by another thirty feet– giving the building its current interior height. Moreover, Isidorus shaped the new cupola like a scalloped shell or the inside of an umbrella, with ribs that extend from the top down to the base. These ribs allow the weight of the dome to flow between the windows, down the pendentives, and ultimately to the foundation.

Hagia Sophia is famous for the light that reflects everywhere in the interior of the nave, giving the dome the appearance of hovering above. This effect was achieved by the insertion of forty windows around the base of the original structure. The insertion of the windows in the dome structure, beside letting more light enter, lessened its weight upon the underlying structure. This reconstruction of the Hagia Sophia dome, giving the church its present 6th-century form, was completed in 562. The rededication of the basilica presided over by Patriarch Eutychius occurred on December 23, 562.