The Echo of a Distant Time: September 2024

Friday, September 13, 2024

Born #OTD 1977: Fiona Apple

Fiona Apple, a slender maid of fair skin and a rich alto voice that might stir the soul of Etta James herself, emerged at the tail end of a brief yet glorious age in the 1990s, when the mainstream media and, to some degree, the general public embraced rock-based artists of merit and integrity. Her excellent first album from the year 1996, ‘Tidal’, did find great success in the marketplace; indeed, the lead single, ‘Shadowboxer,’ still sends chills down my spine. Yet her later works, though most worthy, have been wholly cast aside by a public and an industry that only cares about the trifles of shallow pop and country singers. In a better world, Fiona Apple would be a household name, though I strongly suspect she cares little for such fleeting fame or riches.

Copyright 2024, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Born #OTD 1903: Claudette Colbert

Actress Claudette Colbert in ‘The Sign of the Cross’, 1932, Paramount Pictures

Born in Saint-Mandé, France, on 13 September 1903, the future Hollywood goddess Claudette Colbert (née Émilie Chauchoin) emigrated to Manhattan with her family in 1906, just before her third birthday. She grew up bilingual in French and English. With her precise, aristocratic Mid-Atlantic accent and sharp sense of humour, Ms Colbert enchanted Hollywood audiences during her tenure with Paramount in the 1930s. In 1935, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for ‘It Happened One Night’, and received two further nominations, in 1936 and 1945.

A Chesterfield cigarette ad starring Claudette Colbert

After 1940, she left Paramount to become a freelancer, an uncommon path in the film industry at the time, and continued to be a box office success. As late as 1987, she was awarded a Golden Globe for her role in the television mini-series ‘The Two Mrs. Grenvilles’. Claudette Colbert was also known as an avid Republican, though methinks she would not find a place in today’s MAGA-leaning, Christian nationalist GOP, as she was a childless woman who lived life on her own terms. She departed this ungrateful world at the age of 92 at her vacation home in Barbados, having lived a full and independent life.

Claudette Colbert in 'Bluebeard's Eighth Wife', 1938 Paramount

#OTD 1857: Milton Hershey is born in Derry Township, PA

Photo: A vintage advertisment for Hershey’s Kisses chocolates

Few there be who can claim to have left this world more sweet than they found it, yet Milton S. Hershey most surely can.

Friday the 13th with Joi Lansing, 1956

Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images

The lovely Joi Lansing, lost tragically to the scourge of cancer at only 43 years of age, in 1972. In 1956, she was on top of the world: Via Getty Images, the original caption: ‘Hoodoos, jinxes, and superstitions apparently mean very little to television actress Joi Lansing. Not content with tempting the fates by breaking a mirror and sitting beneath a ladder, she add insult to injury by performing the daring deeds on Friday the 13th’.

Thursday, September 12, 2024

Too hot for social media: Playmate of the Month for October 1957, Colleen Farrington (for adults 18+ only)

All photos copyright of Playboy

Known chiefly in this day as the mother of the Academy Award-winning actress Diane Lane, the fair Colleen Farrington was a most bewitching subject through the lens of Peter Basch in the year 1957—captured, as it were, in three diverse flavours.

Quotables 12 September 2024: On the 144th anniversary of his birth, H.L. Mencken’s prophecy about Trump, government as a ‘broker in pillage’, and the eternal nature of the American people

American journalist H.L. Mencken. Photo: A. Aubrey Bodine/Keystone/Getty Images

Foretelling Donald Trump: ‘On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron’.

A ‘broker in pillage’: ‘The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods’.

This holds more true now than ever: ‘The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth’.

Quotes via https://www.azquotes.com/author/9962-H_L_Mencken

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Too hot for social media: women and statues - Julie Lynn Cialini (for adults 18+ only)

Julie Lynn Cialini, 1995 Playmate of the Year. All photos are copyright of Playboy.

Too hot for social media: Helen Mirren in ‘Savage Messiah’, 1972. (for adults 18+ only)

Described by its director, Ken Russell, as a tale of nothing but two souls in discourse, I am unsure whether this 1972 feature by MGM-EMI is the most thrilling work ever produced. Yet, it does offer much allure, chiefly by way of its female lead, the excellent Dame Helen Mirren, as shown below.

The serene elegance of Carole Lombard: an otherworldly reflection by Otto Dyer

John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images

An ethereal and dreamlike portrait of the Golden Age of Hollywood goddess, Carole Lombard, her delicate and refined features captured by the hand of Otto Dyer. She gazes upon a mirror, creating a visual effect by capturing manifold angles of her comely visage. Her countenance is pensive, with eyes cast slightly downward and lips gently parted, evoking a feeling of serene elegance. Her platinum blonde locks are softly waved, artfully drawn back from her face. The lighting illuminates her fair complexion, emphasising her sharp and symmetrical features, whilst her dark-hued lips stand in striking contrast. She holds a flower delicately, lending a gentle touch of softness and womanly grace.

Too hot for social media: Penthouse, October 1979 – Carol Ann Wilken (for adults 18+ only)

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Tuesday, September 10, 2024

Quotables 10 September 2024: Joan Collins on ‘the problem with beauty’

Photo: Getty Images

‘The problem with beauty is that it's like being born rich and getting poorer’.

Quote via https://www.azquotes.com/quote/61208

Photo: actress Joan Collins, seated without, upon what seemeth to be a step of stone or concrete. She is arrayed in a fashionable raiment of light-coloured lace, with long sleeves and fine embellishments. Her legs are bare, and she is unshod, her toes resting upon the step beneath. Her dark tresses, full and flowing, are styled in loose waves, and her countenance is serene yet dignified, her gaze fixed upon the lens. Behind her, the clear and vivid azure sky doth provide a striking contrast to her garb, enhancing her grace in this tranquil scene.

Born #OTD 1934: remembering the great Roger Maris on what would have been his 90th birthday

Topps 1963

Roger Maris is arguably the most glaring omission from the National Baseball Hall of Fame. While some folks today may believe he had only one standout season (1961), Maris was, in fact, a seven-time All-Star, a back-to-back AL MVP in 1960 and 1961, and a Gold Glove winner. He is most famous for breaking Major League Baseball’s single-season home run record with 61 in 1961. Although this record has since been surpassed in the National League (McGwire, Sosa, Bonds), it is worth noting that no American League player exceeded this total until Aaron Judge hit 62 in 2022. Maris was also instrumental in the Yankees’ World Series victories in 1961 and 1962, as well as in the St. Louis Cardinals' seven-game triumph in the 1967 World Series, where he hit .385 and recorded seven RBIs. While he may not have displayed the consistent brilliance of players like Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays, it is absurd for the Hall to not recognise his historical significance. Maris made history, and he remains a household name decades after he departed this ruthless and unappreciative world.

Nancy Nash: the forgotten life of a silent era starlet

Born Maude Miller in Texas in 1897, Nancy Nash briefly ascended to the status of leading lady for the Fox Film Corporation towards the twilight of the silent film era, from around 1926 to 1928. After departing the industry and marrying newspaper reporter Otto Winkler in 1928, she returned anon in the early 1930s in uncredited, non-speaking roles as one of Samuel Goldwyn’s troupe of merry dancers, the Goldwyn Girls, appearing in two films. She later joined Warner Bros.’ Chorus Girls before retiring from show business following her marriage to film producer Ben Hershfield. Although her Wikipedia entry does not mark the date of her passing from this vale of tears, nor tell of her life’s course beyond the 1930s, her IMDb entry indicates that she succumbed to cancer in the early 1960s whilst residing in Seattle. If anyone possesses further knowledge of this fair lady’s life, I would be eager to learn more.

Photo: the exquisite actress Nancy Nash, circa 1927, as captured by the lens of Max Munn Autrey. She sits with her legs crossed, a headband bedecked with fine adornments upon her brow, and clad in a short, lace-trimmed raiment. A robe of great luxury, with ruffled edges, falls upon her shoulders. Her tresses, shorn short and sleek, and the painting of her visage, most notably her eyes, heavily lined, do mirror the fashions favoured in the latter days of the 1920s.

Monday, September 9, 2024

Rest in peace, James Earl Jones: the golden voice has been silenced at the age of 93

Though he played many iconic roles, I will always remember him most as Terence Mann in 'Field of Dreams'. Our ungrateful and undeserving country will never realise or care how fortunate we have been to possess so many great thespians over the decades. Thank you for your remarkable life, good sir. {BBC 9 September}

Quotables 9 September 2024: Louise Brooks on her talent for ‘enraging people’

Photo: Donaldson Collection/Getty Images.

‘I have a gift for enraging people, but if I ever bore you it will be with a knife’.

Quote via https://www.azquotes.com/quote/37276

Photo: actress Louise Brooks, captured in a still from the 1929 film 'The Canary Murder Case'. She doth recline most elegantly upon a vintage velvet sofa, her arm draped over the side and her legs stretched forth in languid repose. Adorned is she in a dark satin gown, her signature bob framing her face most artfully, whilst her countenance doth appear serene, as though lost in deep contemplation.

Born #OTD 1924: Jane Greer

Photo: RKO Radio Pictures

Wishing the lady a very happy celestial centennial birthday. Please click here to read my short biographical piece on the life of this Golden Age of Hollywood starlet.

Photo: a portrait of the fair actress Jane Greer, clad in a glamorous, metallic two-piece ensemble. The bodice is strapless, adorned with a fine brooch at its centre, whilst the skirt is long and form-fitting, draping gracefully over her legs. Her tresses are styled in gentle waves, as she gazes directly at the camera with great poise.

Saturday, September 7, 2024

Born #OTD 1914: Lída Baarová, the Czech actress who became the mistress of Joseph Goebbels

Photo: Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo/INTERFOTO/Alamy Stock Photo

Lída Baarová’s dalliance with the Nazi minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, which endured from 1936 to 1938, caused such grievous torment to Goebbels’ wife, Magda, that she appealed directly to Adolf Hitler for intervention. As Hitler was preparing for the invasion of the Sudetenland, he decreed that Herr Goebbels and Fräulein Baarová cease their affair, and forbade Baarová from performing on stage or screen. Exiled to Prague, now under the heel of Nazi rule, Baarová was eventually allowed to appear in a few productions. She also resided and performed in Fascist Italy during the Second World War. Upon the Allied victory in Europe, Baarová returned to Germany, whereupon she was seized by American military officers and sent back to Prague to face trial.

Released in 1947 due to a lack of evidence to convict her, she then took a brief sojourn in Argentina with her then-husband. Thenceforth, after living in poverty and apparently unhappy in her marriage, she returned to Europe and revived her career to a small degree, appearing in several Italian films during the 1950s. In 1958, she moved to Salzburg, Austria, where she wedded a wealthy physician, and there spent the rest of her days, until she departed this mortal coil on 27 October 2000.

Photo: Lída Baarová, circa 1937, doth strike a poised and elegant stance, adorned in a most glamorous, embellished two-piece array with intricate design. Her raiment consists of a sparkling, sequined bodice and a matching skirt, bedecked with ornate and ruffled adornments. With both hands, she holds the sides of her skirt, spreading it wide to display its elaborate craftsmanship. Her tresses flow in soft waves, and she doth gaze off to the side with a composed and confident countenance.

Quotables 7 September 2024: Chrissie Hynde on the difference between being drunk at 23 and at 43

Photo: screenshot

Wishing a very happy birthday to the great singer-songwriter, born on this day in 1951:

‘You know, when you're 23 and you get pissed, I mean drunk, you can just go crazy and it's all right. But if you're 43 and you do it, it's like your best friend's mother who used to come in pissed and everybody was really embarrassed. It just doesn't go down well, you know, after a certain age’.

Quote via https://www.azquotes.com/quote/1536204

Friday, September 6, 2024

Born #OTD 1971: Dolores O’Riordan

Photo: Getty Images

Happy heavenly birthday to the Irish lady with the voice of an angel. Gone too soon.