Calendar: May 28

A Year: Day to Day Men: 28th of May

A Small White Space

The musical film “On with the Show!” by Warner Brothers Studio was released on May 28, 1929.

Filmed in Two-strip Technicolor, “On with the Show!” is noted as the first all-talking, all-color feature length movie. Warner Brothers promoted the film as being in “natural color”. This would be the first of a series of contracted films by Warner Brothers to be made in the Technicolor process. The film generated much interest in Hollywood; and other studios began shooting films in the process. The film, though a success, was eclipsed by the success of their next color film “Gold Diggers of Broadway”.

“On with the Show!” was a combination of a backstage musical using the ‘show within a show” format, a comedy and a mystery. The story and dialogue were written by Robert Lord with the music and lyrics by Harry Akst. William Bakewell was in the role of the head usher eager to get his sweetheart played by Sally O’Neil. Betty Compson played the temperamental star and the whiny young male star of the show was Arthur Lake. The vaudeville actor Joe E. Brown had a role as a comedian in the show; through this role his career shot to stardom status.

The film was a box office hit, with a worldwide gross of over two million dollars. Reviews from critics were mixed. Many thought the length was too long and the story was bad; however, most were impressed with the color process. Josh Mosher, the first regularly assigned film critic of the New Yorker magazine, wrote that the film was “completely undistinguished for wit, charm, or novelty, except that it is done in color. Possibly in the millennium all movies will be colored. In these early days of the art, however, not much can be said for it, except that it is not really distressing.”

The original color print of “On with the Show!” is lost, a fate of many of the early films printed on a nitrate film base. Only black and white prints of the film have survived. A 20 second fragment of an original color print surfaced in 2005; it was found in a toy projector. Other original color fragments have been discovered in 2014. The Library of Congress has long held a copy of the black and white version in its collection.

Calendar: May 27

A Year: Day to Day Men: 27th of May

The Path of Roses

May 27, 1922 is the was the birthdate of the English actor Sir Christopher Lee.

Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee was perhaps the only actor of his generation to have starred in so many films and cult saga. Although most notable for personifying bloodsucking vampire, Dracula, on screen, he portrayed other varied characters on screen, most of which were villains.

After attending Wellington College from age 14 to 17, Lee worked as an office clerk in a couple of London shipping companies until 1941 when he enlisted in the Royal Air Force during World War II. Following his release from military service, Lee joined the Rank Organization in 1947, training as an actor and playing a number of bit parts in such films as the 1948 “Corridor of Mirrors”. He also made a brief appearance in the Laurence Olivier’s 1948 film “Hamlet”.

Lee had numerous parts in film and television throughout the 1950s. However, playing the monster in the 1957 Hammer film “The Curse of Frankenstein” proved to be a blessing in disguise, since the film was successful. It led to him being signed on for many future roles in Hammer Film Productions. Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing often than not played contrasting roles in Hammer films, where Cushing was the protagonist and Lee the villain, whether it be Van Helsing and Dracula respectively in “Horror of Dracula”, or John Banning and Kharis the Mummy respectively in “The Mummy”.

Lee continued his role as “Dracula” in a number of Hammer sequels throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s. During this time, he co-starred in the Sherlock Holmes film “The Hound of the Baskervilles”. Lee also made numerous appearances as Fu Manchu, most notably in the first of the series “The Face of Fu Manchu”. By the mid-1970s, Lee was tiring of his horror image and tried to widen his appeal by participating in several mainstream films, such as; “The Three Musketeers” in 1973 and the 1974 James Bond film “The Man with the Golden Gun”.

The success of these films prompted him in the late 1970s to move to Hollywood, where he remained a busy actor but made mostly unremarkable film and television appearances, and eventually moved back to England. The beginning of the new millennium relaunched his career to some degree, during which he has played Count Dooku in two Star Wars movies (2002 and 2005). He also had the role of Saruman the White in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

On June 16, 2001, Christopher Lee was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services to drama. He was created a Knight Bachelor on June 13, 2009 in the Queen’s Birthday Honors List for his services to drama and charity. Lee died at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on June 7, 2015 at 8:30 am after being admitted for respiratory problems and heart failure, shortly after celebrating his 93rd birthday there.

Calendar: May 26

A Year: Day to Day Men: 26th of May

Early Summer on the Deck

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the eighth studio album by the Beatles, is released in the United Kingdom on May 26, 1967.

In August of 1966, the Beatles permanently retired from touring and began a three month individual holiday. During a return flight to London in November from a Kenya holiday with tour manager Mal Evans, Paul McCartney had an idea for a song that eventually formed the impetus of the “Sgt. Pepper” concept. His idea involved an Edwardian military band, for which Evans invented a name in the style of contemporary San Francisco-based groups.

In February of 1967, after recording the title track “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, McCartney suggested releasing an entire album representing a performance by the fictional Sgt. Peppers band. This alter-ego group would give them the freedom to experiment musically. During the recording sessions, the band furthered the technological progression they had made with their 1966 album “Revolver”. Knowing they would not have to perform the tracks live, they adopted an experimental approach to composition and recording on songs such as “With a Little Help from My Friends” and “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”.

Producer George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick helped realize the group’s ideas by approaching the studio as an instrument, applying overdubs of an orchestra, sound effects and other methods of tape manipulation. Recording was completed on 21 April 1967. The cover, depicting the Beatles posing in front of a tableau of celebrities and historical figures, was designed by the British pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth. The album was released in the United Kingdom on May 26 and in the United States on June 2nd of 1967.

“Sgt. Pepper” is regarded by musicologists as an early concept album that advanced the use of extended format in popular music while continuing the artistic maturation seen on the Beatles’ preceding releases. It is described as one of the first art rock long playing albums, aiding the development of progressive rock, and is credited with marking the beginning of the album era. For several years following the album’s release, straightforward rock and roll was supplanted by a growing interest in extended form, and for the first time in the history of the music industry sales of albums outpaced sales of singles.

With certified sales of 5.1 million copies, “Sgt. Pepper’ is the third best-selling album in the United Kingdoms’s chart history. In the United States, the Record Industry Association of America in 1997 certified 11 million album sales, making it one of the most commercially successful albums in the United States.

Calendar: May 25

A Year: Day to Day Men: 25th of May

Afternoon in the Bayou

May 25, 1969 was the release date for the film “Midnight Cowboy”.

“Midnight Cowboy” is a drama film based on the 1965 novel by James Leo Herlihy with the screenplay written by Waldo Salt. It was directed by the English film and stage director John Schlesinger and starred Jon Voight as the young Joe Buck alongside Dustin Hoffman playing the con man Enrico Salvatore “Ratso” Rizzo.

Jon Voight was paid “scale”, or the Screen Actor Guild minimum wage, for his portrayal of Joe Buck, a concession he willingly made to obtain the part. The director John Schlesinger was reluctant to hire Dustin Hoffman because Hoffman was associated by the public with the clean-cut image of Benjamin Braddock in “The Graduate”. Schlesinger checked out Hoffman in an Off-Broadway play in which he was performing. He saw Hoffman in a scruffy beard, disheveled clothes and speaking with a Bowery accent; he gave Hoffman the role of Ratso Rizzo.

The famous scene in which Joe and Ratso attempt to walk across the street and almost get hit by a cab was filmed guerilla-style, with a camera in a van across the street. The scene was a difficult shoot, logistically, because those were real pedestrians and there was real traffic. Director Schlesinger also wanted to do it in one shot—he didn’t want to cut the scene. After several attempts, the two actors figured out how to properly time the walk but then almost got run over by a cab. Dustin Hoffman yelled the line ‘I’m walking here’ at the cab meaning, ‘We’re shooting a scene here, and this is the first time we ever got it right.” That improvised, out-of-script, now famous yell remained in the film.

Upon initial review by the Motion Picture Association of America, “Midnight Cowboy” received a “Restricted” (“R”) rating. However, after consulting with a psychologist, executives at the United Artists studio were told to accept an “X” rating, due to the “homosexual frame of reference” and its “possible influence upon youngsters”. The studio refused to edit anything out; so the film was released with an “X” rating. The MPAA later broadened the requirements for the “R” rating to allow more content and raised the age restriction from sixteen to seventeen. The film was later rated “R” for a reissue in 1971. The film today retains its “R” rating.

The film won three Academy Awards in 1970: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. It was the first gay-related Best Picture winner and the only X-rated film ever to win Best Picture, although such a classification no longer exists. At the British Academy Film Awards it won in six categories: Best Film, Best Direction, Best Leading Actor – Dustin Hoffman, Best New Leading Newcomer – Jon Voight, Best Screenplay and Best Editing.

Calendar: May 24

A Year: Day to Day Men, 24th of May

At the Mountain’s Summit

May 24, 1923 was the birthdate of Japanese filmmaker, actor and screenwriter, Seijun Suzuki.

In 1954, the Nikkatsu Company lured many assistant directors from the other major film studios with the promise of quick promotion. Among these was Seijun Suzuki, who took an assistant directing position there. His first screenplay to be filmed was the 1955 “Rakujitsu no Ketto (Duel at Sunset)” directed by Hiroshi Noguchi. His directorial debut, credited to his real name, Seitarō Suzuki, was “Victory is Mine”, a kayo eiga, or pop song film, part of a subgenre that functioned as a vehicle for hit pop records and singers.

His third film and first yakuza action movie was “Satan’s Town” which linked him inexorably to the genre. The 1958 film “Underworld Beauty” was the first to be credited to his pseudonym Seijun Suzuki. His style increasingly shirked genre conventions, favoring visual excess and visceral excitement over a coherent plot and injecting madcap humor into a normally solemn genre,

Seijun Suzuki’s increasingly surreal style began to draw the ire of the Nikkatsu Company studio in 1963 and culminated in his ultimate dismissal for what is now regarded as his magnum opus, the 1967 “Branded to Kill”, starring notable collaborator Joe Shishido. Suzuki successfully sued the studio for wrongful dismissal, but he was blacklisted for 10 years after that.

He collaborated with producer Genjiro Arato in 1980 and made the first part of what would become his Taishō trilogy, “Zigeunerweisen”, a psychological, period, ghost story, named after a gramophone record of gypsy violin music featured prominently in the film. When exhibitors declined to show the film, Arato screened it himself in an inflatable mobile dome to great success. It won Honorable Mention at the 31st Berlin International Film Festival, was nominated for nine Japanese Academy Awards and won four, including best director and best film, and was voted the number one Japanese film of the 1980s by Japanese critics. He followed the film with “Kagero-za”, made the following year, and completed the trilogy ten years later with “Yumeji”.

His films remained widely unknown outside Japan until a series of theatrical retrospectives beginning in the mid-1980s and tributes by such acclaimed filmmakers as Jim Jarmusch, Takeshi Kitano, Wong Kar-wai and Quentin Taratino signaled his international discovery. Italy hosted the first partial retrospective of his films outside Japan at the 1984 Pesaro International Film Festival. In celebration of 50th anniversary of his directorial debut, the 2006 “Suzuki Seijun 48 Film Challenge” showcased all of his films to date at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

Calendar: May 22

A Year: Day to Day Men: 22nd of May

Bouyancy and Surface Tension

May 22, 1842 marks the discovery of Howe Caverns in New York state by Lester Howe and Henry Wetsel.

The Howe Caverns is a cave system in Schoharie County, New York. Geologists believe the formation of the cave, which lies 156 feet below ground, began several million years ago. The cavern is composed mainly of two types of limestone from different periods in the Earth’s early history, deposited hundreds of millions of years ago when the Atlantic Ocean stretched far inland. The cave is at a constant temperature of 52 degrees Fahrenheit, irrespective of the outside weather.

The Howe Caverns is named after farmer Lester Howe, who discovered the cave on May 22, 1842. Noticing that his cows frequently gathered near some bushes at the bottom of a hill on hot summer days, Howe decided to investigate. Behind the bushes, Howe found a strong, cool breeze emanating from a hole in the Earth. Howe proceeded to dig out and explore the cave with his friend and neighbor, Henry Wetsel, on whose land the cave entrance was located.

The cavern was open eight hours during the day for public tours in 1843. As the site became popular, a hotel was built over the entrance to the cave. From 1890 until the turn of the century, as visitors steadily decreased, a small community of management, quarry workers and their families sprang up in the hamlet now known as Howes Cave. While the Cave House Hotel had a steady business form 1871 to 1890, it eventually became a boarding house and later office space.

The rebirth and successful commercial development of Howe Caverns, as it is known today, between the years 1927-1929, is in large part attributable to two men, John Mosner of Syracuse and Walter H. Sagendorf of Saranac Lake. Mosner, an engineer, proposed the modern engineering developments that would make the cave easily accessible-even comfortable-to the average visitor. Mosner who was impressed by his visit to Howe’s Cave in 1890, believed that with a shaft for elevators sunk at the opposite end of the cave and the addition of electric lighting, Howe’s Cave would become a leading tourist attraction.

Sagendorf provided the organization for the Mosner plan; his brother John owned most of the land on which today’s Visitor Center is located. Howe Caverns, Inc. was organized as a closed stock corporation on October 11, 1927. Work began the next year under difficult conditions. The 156-foot elevator shaft was built at a cost of $1,100 per foot. A work force of well over 50 men constructed the walks and bridges and the above-ground facilities. The much-awaited grand re-opening of Howe’s Cave as Howe Caverns, Inc. took place on May 27, 1929. On the occasion more than 2,000 visitors toured what was once known as “Blowing Rock,” Lester Howe’s great wonder, down under.

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.