Calendar: June 12

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

Another Room Painted

June 12, 1890 was the birthdate of the Austrian painter and graphic artist, Egon Schiele.

In 1906 Egon Schiele applied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Vienna, where Gustav Klimt had studied. Later that year he was sent to the more traditional Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. In 1907 Schiele sought out Gustav Klimt, who at that time mentored younger artists. Klimt accepted him for training and introduced Schiele to the Wiener Werkstatte, the arts and crafts workshop associated with the Vienna Succession.

Schiele’s early work from that period between 1907 and 1909 shows a strong influence by Klimt and the Art Nouveau style. In 1909, free of the constraints of the Academy’s conventions, he began to explore not only the human form, but also human sexuality. Schiele’s work was already daring, but it went a bold step further with the inclusion of Klimt’s decorative eroticism and with what some may like to call figurative distortions, that included elongations, deformities, and sexual openness. Schiele’s self-portraits helped re-establish the energy of both genres with their unique level of emotional and sexual honesty and use of figural distortion in place of conventional ideals of beauty.

In 1910, Schiele began experimenting with nudes. His 1910 “Kneeling Nude with Raised Hands” is considered among the most significant nude art pieces made during the 20th century. Schiele’s radical and developed approach towards the naked human form challenged both scholars and progressives alike. This unconventional piece and style went against strict academia and created a sexual uproar with its contorted lines and heavy display of figurative expression. At the time, many found the explicitness of his works disturbing.

In 1913, the Galerie Hans Goltz, Munich, mounted Schiele’s first solo show. Another solo exhibition of his work took place in Paris in 1914. During the war Schiele’s paintings became larger and more detailed, when he had the time to produce them. By 1917, he was back in Vienna, able to focus on his artistic career. His output was prolific, and his work reflected the maturity of an artist in full command of his talents.

Schiele was invited to participate in the Secession’s 49th exhibition, held in Vienna in 1918. He had fifty works accepted for this exhibition, and they were displayed in the main hall. He also designed a poster for the exhibition, which was reminiscent of the “Last Supper” with a portrait of himself in the place of Christ. The show was a triumphant success, and as a result, prices for Schiele’s drawings increased and he received many portrait commissions.

In the autumn of 1918, the Spanish flu pandemic that claimed more than 20,000,000 lives in Europe reached Vienna. Edith, his wife whom he married in 1915 and who was six months pregnant, succumbed to the disease on October 28th. Egon Schiele died, at the age of twenty-eight, only three days after his wife.

Calendar: June 11

A Year: Day to Day Men: 11th of June

The Sun King

June 11, 1936 was the opening day of the International Surrealist Exhibition.

The International Surrealist Exhibition was held from June 11 to July 4, 1936, at the New Burlington Galleries in London’s Mayfair, England. The exhibition was marked both by the high quality of the exhibits and by the fact that Andre Breton, Salvador Dali and many another European Surrealists came over for the occasion. The opening day stopped the traffic on Piccadilly due to the swell of the crowds and, over the weeks that followed, it forced the British arts establishment to reappraise what art actually was as well as what an exhibition could be.

Surrealism’s main flag bearer in Britain was Roland Penrose, a wealthy young artist. A meeting on the Rue de Tournon took place between him and a precocious young poet called David Gascoyne, who had become passionate about surrealism, and had just completed a book about it. The two men got talking about how extraordinary it was that, while Paris was undergoing a seismic art revolution, a few hundred miles away in London no one knew anything about it. They decided to change all that, with a show to jump-start the British imagination.

In the end, some 392 paintings and sculptures were assembled at the New Burlington Galleries. True to the surrealist notion of “objective hazard” (a random but ultimately fortuitous happening), the show was beset by problems which, added to the planned surprises, made it a veritable festival of the best that surrealism had to offer. First, there was the business of transporting the art: two days before the opening, a consignment was seized by Customs and two pieces – one by Wilhelm Freddie showing the naked bodies of dead soldiers, another by the Argentinian Leonor Fini showing young men dancing naked in the twilight – were turned back on grounds of decency. The hanging of the show happened just hours before the opening, only to be rearranged once again at the last minute.

The painter Sheila Legge showed up dressed in a long, white satin gown, her face obscured by roses and holding an artificial leg wearing a silk stocking. The poet Dylan Thomas offered the guests teacups full of boiled string. Andre Breton gave the opening speech dressed entirely in green. Salvador Dali gave his lecture wearing a diving suit with helmet. During the lecture, it became apparent that he was slowly suffocating inside his helmet; it had to be pried off to save him. He continued the lecture with a slide show, with the slides presented upside down.

Calendar: June 10

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

A Scattering of Suds

June 10, 1971 marks the passing of the English actor, Michael Rennie.

A meeting with a Gaumont-British Studios casting director led to Michael Rennie’s first acting job, a stand-in for Robert Young in the 1936 film “Secret Agent” directed by Alfred Hitchcock. He put his film career on hold for a few years to get some acting experience on the stage, working mostly in repertory theater in Yorkshire. Rennie eventually became a lead actor with the York Repertory Company.

Rennie played minor roles in films during this period including “Conquest of the Air” in 1937, “Bank Holiday” in 1938 and the 1939 “This Man in Paris”. After the outbreak of war in September of 1939, he began to receive offers for larger film roles, in particular Leslie Howard’s 1941 anti-Nazi thriller “Pimpernel Smith” which became one of the most valuable films of British war propaganda.

With the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, Rennie was given his first film break, when cast alongside Margaret Lockwood, who was at the peak of her popularity, in the 1945 musical “I’ll Be Your Sweetheart”, for Gainsborough Studios. Rennie was billed below Lockwood and star Vic Oliver and given an “introducing” credit; but his character was the actual protagonist of the film. Although the movie was not a large hit, Rennie received excellent notices for his perfomance.

After moving to Hollywood in 1950, Rennie was signed to a 20th Century Films contract by studio head Darryl F. Zanuck. In 1951, Robert Wise became the director of the first post-war, large budget science fiction film “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, Originally cast with Claude Rains in the lead, Rennie received top billing when Rains turned down the role. The film was a serious, high-minded exploration of mid-20th century suspicion and paranoia, combined with a philosophical overview of humanity’s coming place in the larger universe. Rennie’s portrayal of the spaceman Klaatu is arguably his most popular role and a classic in the science fiction genre.

After the film’s release, Rennie worked as a supporting actor for eight years until his return to England in 1959. At that time, he took the lead role of Harry Lime in the 1959 television series “The Third Man”. Throughout his career, Rennie made numerous guest appearances on television, particularly on American programs. He completed what amounted to guest roles in two films, “The Power” and “The Devil’s Brigade”, both filmed in 1968, before moving to Switzerland in the latter part of that year. Rennie’s final seven feature films were filmed in Britain, Italy, Spain and, in the case of the film “Surabaya Conspiracy”, the Philippines.

Michael Rennie journeyed to his mother’s home in Harrogate, Yorkshire, following the death of his brother. It was there that he died suddenly in June of 1971 of an aortic aneurysm almost two months before his 62nd birthday. After his cremation, Rennie’s ashes were interred in Harlow Hill Cemetery, Harrogate, England.

Calendar: June 9

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

Visualizing the Source of the Sea

On June 9, 1909. twenty-two year old Alice Huyler Ramsey leaves home to drive across the United States coast to coast.

Alice Taylor Huyler was the daughter of John Huyler, a lumber dealer, and Ada Mumford Farr. She attended Vassar College from 1903-1905. In 1906 she married congressman John Ramsey of Hackensack, New Jersey and settled in that town. They had two children; John Jr. born in 1907 and Alice born in 1910.

After receiving a new Maxwell runabout as a gift from her husband in 1908, Alice Ramsey became an avid driver and entered the 1908 American Automobile Association’s endurance race, being one of only two women to participate. During that event, Carl Kelsey, who was a publicity man for the Maxwell-Briscoe company, proposed that Alice Ramsey attempt a transcontinental journey with the company’s backing. It was to be a publicity stunt with the company providing a new 1909 Maxwell touring car for the journey and all parts and assistance as needed. This journey was part of a marketing strategy to encourage women to drive cars.

On June 9th, Alice Ramsey, twenty-two years old and now a mother of one, began the journey from Hell Gate in Manhattan, New York to San Francisco in a green Maxwell 30. She was accompanied by 16-year old Hermine Jahns and two older sisters-in-laws, none of whom could drive. They used maps from the AAA for guidance in their journey. Only 152 miles of the 3,600 mile trip were paved. The women mostly navigated by following telephone poles, using the poles with the most wires as the guide to where they hoped would be a town.

Over the course of the journey, Alice Ramsey cleaned spark plugs, repaired a broken brake pedal, changed eleven flat tires, and slept with the others in the car when stuck in the mud, a common occurrence. The journey took 59 days to drive coast to coast across the United States at that time in history. They arrived in San Francisco amid great crowds on August 7, 1909, about three weeks later than originally planned.

Alice Huyler Ramsey was named the “Woman Motorist of the Century” by the American Automobile Association in 1960. In her later years, she lived in California, where in 1961 she wrote and published her book “Veil, Duster, and Tire Iron”, the tale of her transcontinental adventure. Always an enthusiastic driver, Ramsey drove across country more than thirty times between 1909 and 1975, by which time she was 79 years old. She became, on October 17, 2000, the first woman inducted into the Automobile Hall of Fame.

“Good driving has nothing to do with sex. It’s all above the collar.”- Alice Huyler Ramsey, Ms. Magazine, February 1975

Calendar: June 8

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

Decorative Art

June 8, 1933 was the birthdate of American actress and comedian, Joan Rivers.

Joan Rivers was one of America’s first successful female stand-up comics in an aggressive tradition that had been almost exclusively the province of men. She would take the stage in a demure black sheath dress and ladylike pearls, a tiny bouffant blonde with a genteel air of sorority decorum. Then her biting and edgy stream-of-consciousness take on national heroes and sacrosanct cultural idols would begin.

Joan Alexandra Molinsky was born in Brooklyn on June 8, 1933, to immigrants from Russia. Her father, a doctor, did comic impersonations of patients. Her mother insisted on piano lessons and private schools for Joan and her sister, Barbara, who grew up in Brooklyn and Larchmont. Joan attended Adelphi Academy in Brooklyn, Connecticut College for Women and Barnard College. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, she graduated in 1954 with a degree in English.

Joan Rivers struggled for years, taking small parts off Off-Broadway and working in grimy cafes and small clubs. She made her breakthrough as a guest in 1965 on Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show”. Over the next two decades she became a regular guest host on the show, a Las Vegas headliner and a television star. In 1986, Rivers hit the big time with a $10 million contract as host of the new Fox network’s weeknight entry, “The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers,” competing directly with Carson, her old benefactor. After less than a year on the air, she was fired by Fox when her ratings slumped.

For years Joan Rivers marketed her lines of jewelry and fashion on shopping channels. In the mid-1990s, she turned up at the Grammys, Golden Globes and Academy Awards, first for E! Entertainment network and then for the TV Guide Channel, poking a microphone into the faces of the stars on red carpets. In 2010 she became star of the E! show “Fashion Police,” where she and a panel gleefully critiqued celebrities’ wardrobes.

Joan Rivers weathered 50 years in show business, appeared in thousands of TV shows, more than a dozen films and many nightclubs; written twelve books; raised millions for causes including AIDS, Guide Dogs for the Blind and cystic fibrosis; and amassed about $290 million. She won a Daytime Emmy for her talk show “The Joan Rivers Show” and was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance in the title role of Lenny Bruce’s mother in “Sally Marr …and Her Escorts”. She died in 2014 at Mount Sinai Hospital after going into cardiac arrest; she was 81.

Calendar: June 7

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

The Toss of a Shirt

The Day of the Tiles occurs on June 7, 1788 in the town of Grenoble, France.

Grenoble was the scene of popular unrest due to financial hardship from the economic crises. The causes of the French Revolution affected all of France, but matters came to a head first in Grenoble. Cardinal Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne attempted to abolish the provincial appellate courts in order to enact a new tax upon the people. Tensions caused by poor harvests and high costs of food increased when the privileged classes insisted on retaining the right to collect feudal royalties from their peasants and landholders.

A meeting was held prior to the 7th of June in 1788 calling together at Grenoble the judges of the old Estates to discuss reforms. The government responded by sending troops to the area to put down the movement. In the morning of June 7th, merchants closed their shops; groups of 300-400 men and women formed, armed with stones, sticks and axes. They rushed the city gates to prevent the judges at the Grenoble meeting from leaving the city. The cathedral was seized and the bells rung, calling neighboring peasants into the city.

The Regiment of the Royal Navy was the first to respond to the growing crowds, and was given the order to quell the rioting without the use of arms. However, as the mob stormed the hotel entrance, the situation escalated. Soldiers sent to quell the disturbances forced the townspeople off the streets. During an attack, Royal Navy soldiers injured a 75 year old man with a bayonet.

At the sight of blood, the people became angry and started to tear up the streets. Townspeople climbed onto the roofs of buildings around the Jesuit College to hurl down a rain of roof tiles on the soldiers in the streets below, hence the “Day of the Tiles”. Many soldiers took refuge in a building to shoot through the windows, while the crowd continued to rush inside and ravage everything.

A noncommissioned officer of the Royal Navy, commanding a patrol of four soldiers, gave the order to open fire into the mob. One civilian was killed and a boy of 12 wounded. To the east of the city, the Royal Navy soldiers were forced to open fire in order to protect the city’s arsenal, fearing that the rioters would seize the weapons and ammunition.

Meanwhile, Colonel Count Chabord began deploying his regiment of Australasia troops to aid and relieve the Royal Navy soldiers. At six o’clock in the evening, a shouting crowd estimated at ten thousand people forced the judges to return to the Palace of the Parliament of Dauphine. It wasn’t until the 14th of July that order was fully restored.

The Day of the Tiles was one of the first disturbances which preceded the French Revolution. Some historians have used that day to demonstrate the worsening situation in France in the buildup to the Revolution of 1789. Others have credited it with being the beginning of the revolution itself. Six outbreaks of rioting occurred in the city that day, leading to the Assembly of Vizille, which passed resolutions demanding reforms be made by the king.

Calendar: June 6

A Year: Day to Day Men: 6th of June

Heaven with Cerulean Fields

On June 6, 1683, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England opens as the world’s first university museum.

The Ashmolean Museum came into existence when Elias Ashmole, a weathy collector of rare books, gifted his collection to the University in 1682. He did so ‘because the knowledge of Nature is very necessary to human life and health.’ It opened as Britain’s first public museum, and the world’s first university museum on June 6, 1683. Though the collection has evolved considerably, the founding principle remains: that knowledge of humanity across cultures and across times is important to society.

Elias Ashmole acquired his collection from John Tradescant, father and son, both gardeners. The Tradescants were no ordinary gardeners; they were employed by the wealthy Earl of Salisbury. The Tradescants voyaged overseas, traveling the known world and shipping back new and exotic plant specimens for the Earl’s gardens. In the course of their travels they also acquired a remarkable collection of curiosities that included botanical, geological and zoological items as well as man-made objects.

When Elias Ashmole gifted this collection to the University, it was combined with an older University collection. The original Ashmolean Museum opened on Broad Street in Oxford in 1683, in the building that is now the Museum of the History of Science. Members of the public were admitted to the Ashmolean Museum from the outset- which was a controversial policy in the 17th century. Alongside the collection, this building was designed to house a chemistry laboratory and rooms for undergraduate lectures.

In 1823 the Ashmolean collection came under the reforming stewardship of brothers John and Philip Duncan – John was appointed as Keeper in 1823 and succeeded by Philip in 1829. In 1826 an “Introduction to the Catalogue of the Ashmolean Museum” was published, which proposed a detailed consideration of prevailing taxonomic systems of object organization. A full catalogue of the collections was completed in 1836 by Philip Duncan. These documents reveal the extent that the Duncan brothers, and the donors they attracted, transformed the collections with fresh specimens.

Sir Arthur Evans became Keeper of the Ashmolean in 1884. Sir Arthur was an Oxford scholar, traveller, and son of a famous academic of prehistory. In his 24-year keepership he transformed the museum by acquiring an archaeological collection and establishing the museum as a first-rate research institution. In 1908 the Ashmolean Museum and the University Art Galleries combined to create the current Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology.

Calendar: June 5

A Year: Day to Day Men: 5th of June

La Pièce de Résistance

June 5, 1895 was the birthdate of American film actor William Boyd.

William Boyd’s breakout role was Jack Moreland in Cedil B DeMille’s silent 1925 “The Road to Yesterday”, Boyd’s performance in the film was praised by critics, while movie-goers were equally impressed by his easy charm, charisma, and intense good-looks. Due to Boyd’s growing popularity, DeMille soon cast him as the leading man in the highly acclaimed silent drama film, “The Volga Boatman”.

Boyd’s role in that film firmly established him as a matinee idol and romantic leading man; he began earning an annual salary of $100,000. He acted in DeMille’s big lavish production “The King of Kings” and later in the 1928 DeMille production “Skyscraper” playing the lead role of Blondy. In 1931 his picture was mistakenly run in a newspaper story about the arrest of another actor, William “Stage” Boyd, on gambling charges. This story damaged his career, despite having been shown false; and Boyd became virtually bankrupt.

In 1935 William Boyd was offered the supporting role of Red Conners in the movie “Hop-Along Cassidy”. He asked for the title role and won it. The original role of tlhe Hop-Along Cassidy character, written by Clarence E. Mulford for pulp magazine serials, was changed from a hard-drinking, rough-living red-headed wrangler to a cowboy hero who did not smoke, swear, or drink alcohol and who always let the bad guy start the fight. Although Boyd never lived in real life as a cowboy and disliked Western music, he became indlibly associated with the Hop-Along character and, like the cowboy stars Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, gained lasting fame in the Western film genre.

The films were more polished and impressive than the usual low-budget “program westerns”. The Hop-Along Cassidy adventures usually boasted superior outdoor photography of scenic locations and name supporting players familiar from major Hollywood films. Big-city theaters, which usually wouldn’t play Westerns, noticed the high quality of the productions and gave the series more exposure than other cowboy films could hope for.

The series of films ended in 1948 as interest in the character waned and fewer theaters were showing the films. William Boyd bought all the rights to all the Hop-Along Cassidy movies, mortgaging almost everything he owned to meet the price of $350,000 for the rights and the film backlog. He offered a print to a local NBC television station; it was so well received Boyd released the entire library to the national network, beginning the long-running genre of Westerns on television. Boyd’s gamble paid off, making him the first national TV star and restoring his personal fortune.

William Boyd estimated in 1940 (after only 5 years of the thirteen-year role) that he had starred in 28 outdoor films in which he fired 30,000 shots and killed at least 100 villians. He wore out 12 costumes and 60 ten-gallon hats, rode his horse Topper more than 2000 miles and rode herd on 5000 head of cattle. A score or more of heroines had been saved, but were never kissed.

Calendar: June 4

A Year: Day to Day Men: 4th of June

Modern Man in the Ancient Wood

On June 4, 1783, a hot-air balloon was demonstrated by Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier.

The Montgolfier brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne were born into a family of paper manufacturers founded in 1534 in Annonay, France. Of the two brothers, it was Joseph who was first interested in aeronautics: as early as 1775 he was building and experimenting with parachutes. He first contemplated building machines when he observed laundry drying over a fire incidentally form pockets that billowed upwards.

While living in Avignon in November of 1782 he made his first definitive experiments. Joseph Montgolfier built a box-like chamber out of very thin wood, and covering the sides and top with lightweight taffeta cloth. He crumpled and lit some paper under the bottom of the box. The contraption quickly lifted off its stand and collided with the ceiling.

Joseph recruited his brother Jacques to balloon building. They built a similar device, however scaled up to three times the dimensions of the original, making it 27 times greater in volume. They did their first test flight on December 14, 1782, lighting wool and hay underneath. The lifting power was so great, that they lost control of the craft. The device floated nearly two kilometers and was destroyed, after landing, by a passerby.

To make a public demonstration and to claim its invention the brothers constructed a globe-shaped balloon of sackcloth tightened with three thin layers of paper inside. The envelope could contain nearly 28,000 cubic feet of air and weighed 500 pounds. It was constructed of four pieces (the dome and three lateral bands) and held together by 1,800 buttons. A reinforcing fish net of cord covered the outside of the envelope.

The Montgolfier brothers flew the balloon at Annonay on June 4, 1783 in front of a group of dignitaries. The flight covered 2 km (1.2 mi), lasted 10 minutes, and had an estimated altitude of 5,200-6,600 feet. Word of their success quickly reached Paris. Étienne went to the capital to make further demonstrations and to solidify the brothers’ claim to the invention of flight.

On September 19, 1783, the Montgolfiers’ new balloon Aerostat Revelillon was flown with the first living beings in a basket attached to the balloon: a sheep called Montauciel, a duck and a rooster. The flight covered two miles at an altitude of 1500 feet and lasted eight minutes: it landed safely with all aboard surviving. Since the animals survived, King Louis XVI, who had witnessed the flight, allowed flights to proceed with human passengers.

Calendar: June 3

A Year: Day to Day Men: 3rd of June

Firmness of Purpose

On June 3, 1839, Governor-General Lin Tse-hsu destroyed 1.2 million kilograms of opium confiscated from British merchants.

Lin Tse-hsu, or Lin Zexu, was a Chinese scholar and official of the Qing Dynasty of China. In 1811, he obtained the position of a jinshi with a degree in Literature in the imperial examination, and in the same year gained admission to the Hanlin Academy founded by Emperor Xuanzong. He rose rapidly through the various grades of provincial service, opposed the opening of China to foreigners, and became Governor-General of the provinces of Hunan and Hubei in 1937.

In March 1839, Lin arrived in Guangdong Province to take measures that would eliminate the opium trade. He was a formidable bureaucrat known for his competence and high moral standards, with an imperial commission from the Daoguang Emperor to halt the illegal importation of opium by the British. Upon arrival, he made changes within a matter of months. He arrested more than 1,700 Chinese opium dealers and confiscated over 70,000 opium pipes. He initially attempted to get foreign companies to forfeit their opium stores in exchange for tea, but this ultimately failed.

Lin resorted to using force in the western merchants’ enclave. A month and a half later, the merchants gave up nearly 1.2 million kilograms (2.6 million pounds) of opium. Beginning on the 3rd of June, 1839, five hundred workers labored for 23 days to destroy it, mixing the opium with lime and salt and throwing it into the sea outside of Humen Town on the Pearl River Delta. Lin composed an elegy apologizing to the gods of the sea for polluting their realm.

In 1839, Lin also wrote an extraordinary memorial to Queen Victoria in the form of an open letter published in Canton, urging her to end the opium trade. He argued that China was providing Britain with valuable commodities such as tea, porcelain, spices and silk, with Britain sending only “poison” in return. Lin appears to have been unaware that opium was not banned in the Middle East, Europe and the Americas, and was commonly used for its medicinal rather than recreational effects. The letter to the Queen never reached her.

Neither Lin nor the Daoguang Emperor appreciated the depth or changed nature of the problem. They did not see the change in international trade structures, the commitment of the British government to protecting the interests of private traders, and the peril to British traders who would surrender their opium.

Open hostilities between China and Britain started in 1839 in what later would be called the the First Opium War. The immediate effect was that both sides banned all trade. A series of military and naval engagements were fought between the United Kingdom and the Qing Dynasty of China over conflicting viewpoints on diplomatic relations, trade, and the administration of justice in China, ending in the 1842 Treaty of Nanking.

Calendar: June 2

A Year: Day to Day Men: 2nd of June

Truly Blessed

June 2, 1904 was the birthdate of the competition swimmer and actor, Johnny Weissmuller.

Johann Weissmuller was an ethnic German, the elder son of Peter and Elisabeth Weissmuller, immigrants who entered the United States through Ellis Island in New York. At the age of nine, young ‘Johnny’ Weissmuller contracted polio. At the suggestion of his doctor, he took up swimming and eventually earned a spot on the YMCA swim team. As a teen, while working at the Illinois Athletic Club, Weissmuller began training under swim coach William Bachrach. In August 1921, he won the national championships in the 50-yard and 220-yard distances.

Although foreign-born, Weissmuller gave his birthplace as Tanneryville, Pennsylvania, and his birth date as that of his younger brother, Peter Weissmuller. This was to ensure his eligibility to compete as part of the United States Olympic team, and was a critical issue in being issued a United States passport. On July 9, 1922, Weissmuller broke the world record in the 100-meter freestyle. He won the title for that distance at the 1924 Summer Olympics, beating the current champion, Duke Kahanamoku, for the gold record.

Johnny Weissmuller, in his life’s swimming competitions, won five Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal, fifty-two United States national championships, and set sixty-seven world records. He was the first man to swim the 100-meter freestyle under one minute and the 440-yard freestyle under five minutes. Weissmuller never lost a race and retired with an unbeaten amateur record.

Weissmuller’s acting career began when he signed a seven-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In his first film, he played the role of Tarzan in the 1932 “Tarzan the Ape Man”. The movie was a huge success and Weissmuller became an overnight international sensation. The author of “Tarzan”, Edgar Rice Burroughs, was pleased with Weissmuller as his book’s hero, although Burroughs hated the studio’s depiction of a Tarzan who barely spoke English. Weissmuller starred in six Tarzan movies for MGM with actress Maureen O’Sullivan as Jane and Cheeta the Chimpanzee. The last three also included Johnny Sheffield as Boy.

In 1942, Weissmuller went to RKO and starred in six more Tarzan movies with markedly reduced production values. Sheffield also appeared as Boy in the first five features for RKO. Brenda Joyce took over the role of Jane in Weissmuller’s last four Tarzan movies. In a total of 12 Tarzan films, Weissmuller earned an estimated two-million dollars and established himself as what many movie historians consider the definitive Tarzan. Although not the first Tarzan in movies, Weissmuller was the first to be associated with the now traditional ululating, yodeling Tarzan yell.

Top Insert Image: Photographer Unknown, “Johnny Weissmuller”, 1934, Gelatin Silver Print

Bottom Insert Image: Photographer Unknown, “Johnny Weissmuller”, circa 1930, Gelatin Silver Print

Calendar: June 1

A Year: Day to Day Men: 1st of June

Jumping Rope

June 1, 1890 was the birthdate of the American character actor, Frank Morgan.

Frank Morgan was an American character actor whose career spanned four decades, most of it under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He was born in New York City, the youngest of eleven children. His family earned its wealth h distributing Angostura bitters, allowing him to attend Cornell University. Both Frank and his brother Ralph Morgan went into show business, first on the Broadway stage and later into motion pictures.

After Morgan’s film debut in the 1916 “The Suspect”, he provided support to his friend John Barrymore in the 1917 “Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman”, an independent film produced in and about New York City. Morgan’s career expanded when talkies began, his most stereotypical role being that of a befuddled but good hearted middle-aged man. By the mid-1930s, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, impressed by his performances, signed him to a lifetime contract.

Morgan’s best remembered film performances, playing six roles, are in the 1939 “The Wizard of Oz”: as the carnival huckster “Professor Marvel”, the gatekeeper at the Emerald City, the coachman of the carriage drawn by “The Horse of a Different Color”, the guard who initially refuses to let Dorothy and her friends in to see the Wizard, the Wizard’s scary face projection, and the Wizard himself. Morgan was cast in the role on September 22, 1938, after the studio tired of negotiating the salary of W.C. Field for his possible participation in the role.

An actor with a wide range, Morgan was equally effective playing comical, befuddled men such as Jesse Kiffmeyer in the 1937 “Saratoga” and Mr. Ferris in 1944’s “Casanova Brown”, as he was with more serious, troubled characters like Hugo Matuschek in “The Shop Around the Corner” and Professor Roth in “The Mortal Storm” released in 1940. A musical-comedy film centering on Frank Morgan was released by MGM in 1946 entitled “The Great Morgan”. The film is a compilation of unrelated short subjects and musical numbers built around the premise of Morgan trying to produce a movie.

Morgan died of a heart attack on September 18, 1949, while filming “Annie Get Your Gun”. He was replaced in the film by Louis Calhern. His death came before the 1956 premiere televised broadcast on CBS of “The Wizard of Oz”, which would make him the only major cast member from the film who would not live to see the film’s revived popularity and its becoming an annual American television institution.

Frank Morgan was nominated twice for Academy Awards: Best Actor for his role in the 1934 “The Affairs of Cellini” and Best Supporting Actor fo “Tortilla Flat” released in 1942. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; one for his work in radio and one for motion pictures. Both were dedicated in 1960.

Calendar: May 31

A Year: Day to Day Men: 31st of May

Curvature of Nature

Ramesses II assumed the throne on III Shemu day 27 (May 31, 1279 BC), becoming the third Pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty of Egypt.

Ramesses II is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated and the most powerful pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire. The Greek sources knew him as Ozymandias from the transliteration into Greek of a part of his throne name Usermaatre Setepenre, “The justice of Rê is powerful- chosen of Rê”.

Ramesses II led several military expeditions into historical Syria, reasserting control over Canaan, the area of Phoenicia, Philistia, and Israel. He also led expeditions into the south to restore possession of previously held territories that had been lost to the Nubians and Hittites. The Egyptian army during his reign was formidable, estimated to have totaled about one hundred thousand men- a force he used to strengthen Egyptian influence.

After reigning for 30 years, Ramesses II joined a select group that included only a handful of Egypt’s longest-lived rulers. By tradition, in the 30th year of his reign, Ramesses celebrated a jubilee called the Sed Festival. These were held to honor and rejuvenate the pharaoh’s strength. Only halfway through what would be a 66-year reign, Ramesses already had eclipsed all but a few of his greatest predecessors in his achievements. He had brought peace, maintained Egyptian borders, and built great and numerous monuments across the empire. Ramesses’ kingdom was more prosperous and powerful than it had been in nearly a century.

Ramesses built extensively throughout Egypt and Nubia, and his cartouches are prominently displayed even in buildings that he did not construct. There are accounts of his honor hewn on stone, statues, and the remains of palaces and temples—most notably the Ramesseum in western Thebes and the rock temples of Abu Simbel. Ramesses covered the land from the Nile Delta to Nubia with buildings in a way no monarch before him had. He also founded a new capital city in the Delta during his reign, called P-Ramesses.

By the time of his death, Ramesses, now near ninety years of age, was suffering and plagued by arthritis and hardening of the arteries. He had outlived many of his wives and children and left great memorials all over Egypt. Nine future Egyptian pharaohs took the name Ramesses in his honor.

Ramesses II originally was buried in the tomb KV7 in the Valley of the Kings, but because of looting, priests later transferred the body to a holding area, re-wrapped it, and placed it inside the tomb of queen Inhapy. Seventy-two hours later it was again moved, to the tomb of the high priest Pinudjem II. All of this is recorded in hieroglyphics on the linen covering his body. Ramesses’ mummified body is today in Cairo’s Egyptian Museum.

Top Insert Image: Ramesses II Burning Incense and Pouring Water, 19th Dynasty, Frescoe Painting, Valley of the Kings, Thebes, Egypt

Bottom Insert Image: Ramesses II (Ramessess the Great), 19th Dynasty, Pink/Gray Granite, One of a Pair, Ramesseum, Thebes, Luxor West Bank, Egypt, British Museum

Calendar: May 30

A Year: Day to Day Men: 30th of May

Sitting in a Field of White Cotton

May 30, 1896 was the birthdate of American film director, producer and screenwriter Howard Hawks.

By the end of April in 1917 Howard Hawks was working on De Mille’s “The Little American” and later on on the Mary Pickford film “The Little Princess” directed by Marshall Neilan. Hawks began directing at age 21 after he and cinematographer Charles Rosher filmed a double exposure dream sequence with Mary Pickford. He worked with Pickford and Neilan again on another film before joining the United States Army Air Service. After the war he returned again to Hollywood.

Hawks first major film was the 1926 “Road to Glory”, the story of a young woman going blind and trying to spare her loved ones of the burden of her illness. Ir was filmed in two months and premiered in April of 1926, It received good reviews from critics but Hawks was dissatisfied with the film. Immediately after completing the film, he began writing his next film, his first comedy “Fig Leaves”. It was released in July of 1926 and was Hawks’ first hit as a director.

In March 1927, Howard Hawks signed a one-year, three-picture contract with 20th Century Fox and mad “A Girl in Every Port” in 1928. This film is considered by film scholars to be the most important film of Hawks’ silent career. It is the first of his films to utilize many of the distinctive themes and characters that would define much of his subsequent work.”A Girl in Every Port” was his first “love story between two men,” within which two men bonded over their duty, skills and careers and, as a result, considered their friendship to be more important than their relationships with women. Hawks wrote the original story and developed the screenplay with James Kevin McGuinness and Seton Miller. The film was released in February 1928, successful in the US, and a hit in Europe.

Over his career Howard Hawks directed and produced many important films in a wide variety of genres. He was a versatile director, whose career included comedies, dramas, gangster films, science fiction, film noir and westerns. His most popular films include” the 1932 “Scarface”, “Binging Up Baby” with Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant, the 1940 “His Girl Friday”, “The Big Sleep” with Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, the western “Red River” starring Montgomery Clift and John Wayne, the sci-fi classic “The Thing from Another World”, and the 1959 “Rio Bravo” with John Wayne and Dean Martin.

Howard Hawks popularized a particular female archetype in his films; women were portrayed as strong, less effeminate characters. Such an emphasis had never been done in the 1920s and therefore was seen to be a rarity. Hawks’ directorial style and the use of natural, conversational dialogue in his films are cited as major influences on many noted filmmakers, including Robert Altman, John Carpenter, and Quenton Tarantino. Howard Hawks received his only Oscar in 1975 as an Honorary Award from the Academy.

Calendar: May 29

A Year: Day to Day Men: 29th of May

Friend to Man

May 29, 1453 marks the end of the Byzantine Empire with the fall of the city of Constantinople.

The Byzantine empire was the continuation of the Roman Empire in the East lasting into the Middle Ages. The capital of this empire was Constantinople, the site of ancient Byzantium. It survived the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe.

The borders of the empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Emperor Maurice from 582-602 AD, the Empire’s eastern frontier was expanded and the north stabilized. However, his assassination caused the Byzantine-Sasanian War, which lasted from 602 to 628 AD, exhausted the empire’s resources, and contributed to major territorial losses during the seventh century. In a matter of years the empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs.

The empire recovered again during the reigns of the Komnenian family; by the 12th century, Constantinople had become the largest and wealthiest European city. However, the city was delivered a mortal blow during the Fourth Christian Crusade. During this crusade, Constantinople was sacked in 1204 and the territories that the empire formerly governed were divided into competing Byzantine Greek and Latin realms. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small rival states in the area. For the final two centuries of its existence, the empire’s remaining territories were progressively annexed by the Ottomans.

The capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the invading Ottoman army occurred on May 29, 1453. The attackers were commanded by the then 21-year-old Sultan Mehmed II, who defeated an army commanded by Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos and took control of the imperial capital, ending the seige of the city. After conquering the city, Sultan Mehmed transferred the capital of his Empire from Edime to Constantinople, and established his court there. The Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque, the Greek Orthodox Church was allowed to remain intact, and Gennadius Scholarius was appointed the Patriarch of Constantinople.

The fall of Constantinople was a watershed moment in military history. The substantial fortifications of ramparts and city walls of the city had been a model followed by other cities throughout the Mediterranean region and Europe. The Ottomans ultimately prevailed due to the use of gunpowder which fueled their cannons.