Victorian London

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Once upon a time London was the planet's most important city as the hub of the empire and home of industrial innovation.

The dizzying rate of changes in the latter half of the 19th century clearly inspired Danny Boyle's Olympic spectacular - and these photographs from the archives of the Museum of London, provide an invaluable document of history.

 

Forgotten trade: A shoeblack, pictured in 1877, stands by his equipment. Many of the city's streets were lined with such workers trying to sell their skills

Jam: London Bridge, shown around 1880, is packed with a steady stream of horses and carts

Historian Alex Werner is behind their rediscovery, having compiled them in his latest book  Dickens's Victorian London, making these historical scenes instantly recognisable.

Last night's opening ceremony, with its enormous cas and life-size factory smokestacks, told the story of the birth of modern Britain through the means of an incredibly extravagant stage production.

Charles Dickens, on the other hand, used his fiction to bring to life the villains, victims and ordinary people of industrial London, portraying the city as a chaotic hive of bustle and smog.

The pictures depict Cheapside and London Bridge congested not with hackney cabs and Routemaster buses but with horses and carts.

Notting Hill Gate station stands freshly completed and ready, long before the city's underground network became the well-oiled machine it is today.

And the Thames, now lined with tourist attractions, is seen in its prime - a working river and a key trade route, the starting point from which Britain's influence spread.

Paving the way: Notting Hill Gate Station in West London, shortly after completion in 1868. The birth of the modern railway was crucial in moving the masses into and around this rapidly expanding city

Financial heart: Cheapside, with Bow Church in the background, was one of the most consistently busy areas of London, attracting street-sellers in droves

Changing fortunes: The Strand, which went through a seedy period of decline in the early 1800s before its resurgence as a hotspot for London's intelligentsia

Home of the press: Fleet Street, pictured circa 1870, hosted the city's publishing and news industry until the late 20th century

Crucial: A custom house on the Thames around 1875, when the river was still vital to London's trade and was so polluted it earned the name 'the Great Stink'

Long gone: The towering gates of Millwall Dock, circa 1867, remained active until the 1960s and is today the site of residential developments near Canary Wharf

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2180284/Photographs-Victorian-London-todays-capital-took-shape.html#ixzz21xANb6Sa

forgotten loan made in 1562

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

On May 8, 1562, the people of Mittenwalde lent 400 guilders – the equivalent of £88 million today – to Berlin with the expectation it would be repaid within five years at an interest rate of six per cent a year.

Add in 450 years of compound interest, and the town’s 8,000 residents are rubbing their hands together in glee at the thought of a repayment of trillions of euros.

The German town of Mittenwalde has asked Berlin (shown here) to repay a loan made 450 years ago

The debt might have been forgotten for ever had local archivist Vera Schmidt not uncovered the loan agreement in some dusty files at the town hall.

With it was a note from 1893 detailing discussions then about getting Berlin to hand over the money it owed.

The original paperwork bears the crest of Berlin-Cölln – as the German capital was then called – and the signature of the spendthrift Elector of the city, Joachim II, who needed the money to settle a tax bill


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2180315/German-town-told-Berlin-You-owe-trillions-long-forgotten-loan-1562.html#ixzz21x9K1yzE

Olympic Evolution of Gymnastic Leotards

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Photographs show how leotard-fashion has changed over a century with higher and higher hemlines with each Olympics.

The Danish gymnastics team at the London Olympics in 1908 wearing uniforms that look more fitting for karate than gymnastics - times have certainly changed

 July 1908: Two members of the Danish troupe exercising on the 'horse' at the London Olympics wearing skirt-trousers and long-sleeved shirts

Back in 1908 there was nothing flattering about the competitors outfits and there was not an ounce of glitter or a rhinestone in sight

The first snap show a Danish troupe from the London Games in 1908 wearing light knee length skirt-trousers and modest tops which give nothing away covering from wrist to neck.

As they line up, the difference between their modest covering outfits are in stark contrast to modern-day ‘easy on the Lycra, heavy on the glitter’ flesh-bearing competitionwear.

When the Olympics returned to London in 1948 the American team is fashion forward showing short sleeved leotards but although a lot racier than 40 years earlier they have still got nothing on modern leotards.

 

Marian Barone of the U.S. team on the balance beam at the Earl's Court arena when the Olympics came back to London in 1948. Although rather daring compared to 40 years earlier, Marian and her teammates' outfits would be considered loose fitting at a modern-day competition

A Russian gymnast competing at the next Olympics in Helsinki, Finland, 1952, show that not much happened as 1940s became fifties in terms of leotard styling

Although leotards became tighter after the 1950s, they remained plain with high necklines, not until the nineties that Olympic gymnasts began entering the arena covered in enough rhinestones to satisfy Dame Edna.

The 'Evolution of the Leotard' seemed to stall in the seventies through the late nineties when gymnasts preferred plain colours letting their talent speak for  itself.

In this millennium it is as much about winning the competition as it is about out-glamming each other in the fashion stakes.

Plain leotard - check! Vera Cáslavská of the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia) went on to win 5 gold medals at the 1968 Games - all the while wearing a plain leotard sans bling and glitter, pictured at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo

 

On trend: the Italian rhythmic gymnastics team performing with ropes in 2008

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2180189/They-just-getting-skimpier-Photos-Olympic-gymnasts-years-leotards-changed.html#ixzz21x8NSScn

The Private World of Jackie Kennedy

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Jackie Kennedy Onassis' style, elegance and courage helped to define an era, and during the 1960 campaign and election of the future president, her legend was born.

Her many titles; First Lady, fashion icon and wife of 35th President, John F. Kennedy; created the legend that has transcended generations for over 50 years.

Now, on what would have been her 83rd birthday, a collection of rare photographs have been released, capturing her intriguing and timeless beauty from a time when she was simply known as, Jackie.

Mommy's girl: Jackie Kennedy, wife of then Senator John Kennedy, talks on the telephone with young daughter Caroline  at their home in Hyannis Port on on September 30, 1960

These images from Lifemagazine showcase the year of 1960 when John F. Kennedy and his beautiful wife were quickly becoming national, and international, celebrities.

She was young, - born on July 28, 1929, making her barely 30 - chic and indefinably 'exotic' to the American people, with her Irish and French heritage.

She set a new standard for glamour in the White House, and for women worldwide, across oceans and generations, the former First Lady has continued to intrigue and inspire.

 

Kennedy Campaign: Jackie and the future U.S. President JFK in a car during his campaign through the mid-Atlantic states on September 15, 1960

Portrait of a lady: The future First Lady photographed sitting at a table during a campaign dinner in New York on October 1, 1960

Campaign crusade: Jackie Kennedy votes for the presidential elections with her Democratic candidate husband JFK in Boston on November 8, 1960

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2179878/The-private-world-Jackie-Kennedy-Rare-pictures-provide-glimpse-American-icon-doting-mother-loyal-wife.html#ixzz21x4CPEXn

German U-boat?

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Part of the past: This U-boat, pictured in Kiel Naval Base in Germany, is one of hundreds used during WWII

A diver searching for the bodies of three men who went missing in 2010 claims he made a shocking discovery – a German U-boat from World War II.

Brian Corbin said he found the submarine while he and his team were taking sonar images in the bottom of Churchill River in Labrador, Province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Mr Corbin, a 50-year-old diver from Happy Valley Goose Bay in Newfoundland, is 100 per cent certain  ship is a WWII relic.
The German Embassy in Ottawa confirmed up to 50 German submarines were not accounted for at the close of the Second World War.

U-boats, short for the German word meaning ‘Unterseeboot’ (under sea boat), were military submarines used in warfare in the two World Wars.

Newfoundland went to war in 1939 because of constitutional ties with the United Kingdom.

The story of this particular vessel is shrouded in mystery, it is possible the U-boat  entered the river through a channel to the Atlantic Ocean.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2180022/Does-grainy-sonar-image-sunken-German-U-boat-river-200-miles-coast-Newfoundland.html#ixzz21x265Mpx

World War One Hero

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

A medal awarded to a pilot for his daring sea rescue of a stricken comrade during World War One has sold at auction for £11,400.

Flight Lieutenant George Reid was returning from an aborted air raid in Germany when he landed his seaplane on the water to save a stranded colleague.

He was cheered on from the shore during the audacious rescue by German locals who were unaware that the men were British.

The extraordinary story emerged as the medal Flt Lt Reid received for the rescue, the Distinguished Flying Cross, was sold to a private collector.
Flt Lt Reid, from Devon, saved his colleague while making his way back through heavy snow from an aborted raid on Zeppelin sheds at the then Tondon, in northern Germany, in March 1916.

He spotted a stranded British seaplane on the water and landed next to it before taking off again with his comrade strapped to the wing as German soldiers approached.

However, Flt Lt Reid's luck ran out later when his own plane developed engine trouble as he tried to return to an aircraft carrier in the North Sea.
He was forced to land in the water again, and they were picked up after drifting for three hours.

He was held in prison camps for the remainder of the war but tried to escape several times, even breaking his leg on one occasion when he jumped from a fast-moving train.

Flt Lt Reid was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross at Buckingham Palace in 1919.

Honoured: Flt Lt Reid, pictured at Buckingham Palace, after being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1919

It was one of the first medals awarded for bravery in the air.
After the war Flt Lt Reid opened a flying school and engineering firm in Leicestershire before moving to Jersey, where he sailed his yacht and raced thoroughbred horses.
He died in 1969, aged 80.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2179715/Remembered-The-brave-British-airman-stopped-pull-comrade-sea-World-War-One.html#ixzz21x0hkZ9S

Abandoned Railway Stations Crumble and Decay

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Once bustling transport hubs sending countless commuters in all directions, scores of spectacular railway stations now stand empty, having been left to fall to pieces as train travel in America, and around the world, declined.

These breath-taking photographs capture the ruins of the former railroad culture scattered across the United States.

But despite the buildings' gutted interiors, smashed windows and crumbling features, the beautiful often century-old architecture shines.

Falling apart: Michigan Central Depot, pictured, has been empty since 1988

 The installation of train tracks across America was a momentous occasion that made commercial trade and passenger travel possible from one coast to coast.

Sadly railroads have fallen from their glory days as modern forms of transportation including air travel have  evolved.

Most stunning of this cultural casualties is the ghost town of Michigan Central Train Station in Detroit.

Gutted: Michigan Central Depot is bare and unkempt inside

 The impressive structure, built almost 100 years ago in 1913, has been abandoned since 1988. It is now excessively vandalised and patrolled.

Another sad victim of the dwindling use of railroads is the Union Station in Gary, Indiana, which was built in 1910, just four years after the city was founded. It sits unoccupied and is slowly falling into greater ruin.

But it is not just in the U.S. that train travel was waned. Abandoned train tracks, tunnels and entire stations can be found around the globe, with these photographs capturing beautiful architecture in Spain and Germany left to fall apart.

Redlands: The abandoned station in Redlands, Santa Fe, was built in 1910, but is still in fairly good condition

And there is no reason for the abaondoment of historic structures.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2180156/Spectacular-photographs-abandoned-railway-stations-left-fall-pieces-world.html#ixzz21wwFTQbi

Guns Found on Outlaws Bonnie and Clyde for Sale

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were partners in crime and love. Nearly 80 years after the lives of history’s most famous gangster couple ended in a hailstorm of bullets, it has been announced that their personal handguns found on the bodies will be sold to the highest bidder this September.

 

Bonnie Parker’s gun, found taped to her thigh after her death. (RR Auction)

On the morning of May 23, 1934, a stolen Ford V-8 automobile sped down a dirt road near Sailes, Louisiana in a cloud of dust.  Inside was America’s most infamous duo—Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.  For nearly two years, the outlaws and lovers captured headlines as they eluded authorities on one of the most notorious crime sprees in history.  With the “Barrow Gang,” Bonnie and Clyde had gone on a binge of kidnappings, murders and robberies, knocking off banks, country stores and gas stations throughout the South and Midwest. While there are conflicting accounts as to whether Bonnie ever fired a shot, according to the FBI the couple is believed to have committed 13 murders.

The 1934 Ford driven by Clyde through the Louisiana pines that morning was a veritable arsenal on wheels. Inside were three Browning Automatic Rifles, two sawed-off shotguns, almost a dozen handguns and thousands of rounds of ammunition.  In case that wasn’t enough, tucked inside Clyde’s waistband was a Colt .45 Army pistol, believed to have been stolen from the federal arsenal in Beaumont, Texas.  Concealed beneath Bonnie’s red dress was a Colt .38 revolver taped to her inner thigh with white medical adhesive tape.

Clyde Barrow’s gun, found inside his waistband after his death. (RR Auction)

“Seldom did anyone ever live when Clyde got the first shot,” warned a newsreel of the day. On this day, however, Clyde never even had a chance to grab for his Colt. A six-man posse led by retired Texas Ranger captain Frank Hamer, hiding in the bushes on the side of the dirt byway, unleashed a fatal blizzard of gunshots into the vehicle carrying Bonnie and Clyde. The lawmen emptied their automatic rifles, then their shotguns and then their pistols. They pumped more than 130 rounds of steel-jacketed bullets into the car. The duo was killed almost instantly. When the authorities opened the doors of the automobile after the ambush, they found Bonnie’s body leaning on Clyde’s.

As part of his bounty, Hamer was given the Colt Model 1911 U.S. Army pistol recovered from Clyde’s waistband and the snub-nose detective special revolver found on Bonnie’s leg. The guns were passed down to Hamer’s son and then sold to a private collector. A New Hampshire-based RR Auction announced that the guns, along with other personal effects recovered from Bonnie and Clyde’s perforated car, will be sold to the highest bidder during a live auction.

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in a photograph from the early 1930s. (Library of Congress)

Bobby Livingston of RR Auction said he expects each gun to go for at least $100,000. “As far as handguns connected to Bonnie and Clyde, these are the finest you can have as a collector,” he said. “They were on the market last in 1986, so we are obviously getting intense interest. These items are as close to Bonnie and Clyde as you can get.”

Other items for sale include Bonnie’s light brown leatherette cosmetic case—minus the lipstick, box of face powder and powder puff that were found inside after the ambush. Another item for bid is Clyde’s Elgin pocket watch, which has a 10-karat gold-filled screw-back case.  The watch was among the personal effects returned to Clyde’s father, along with his body.  Clyde’s father wore the watch in memory of his son for more than 20 years until his death.

More than 100 other lots that are part of RR Auction’s “Gangsters, Outlaws and Lawmen” collection will be for bid, including a letter written by John Dillinger from prison and a handwritten score of “Madonna Mia,” a song composed by Al Capone while he was incarcerated at Alcatraz.

http://www.history.com/news/guns-found-on-outlaws-bonnie-and-clyde-for-sale?cmpid=Social_Google_Hith_07162012_1

Entire Army Sacrificed in Denmark Returns to the Surface

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of more than 200 warriors who were thrown into a Danish lake some 2,000 years ago. Weapon marks on their skeletons suggest they paid the ultimate price after losing in battle to an enemy tribe.

 

A lower jaw found at the Alken site. (Peter Moe Astrup)

Two thousand years ago, Roman expansion thrust Germanic Europe into turmoil, sparking conflicts between tribes and spurring groups to militarize. It was during this turbulent era, right around the birth of Jesus Christ, that hundreds of warriors died en masse on the Jutland peninsula, near what is now the Danish town of Alken. Thrown into a lake that has since dried into a bog, their remains began to surface in the last century. This summer, researchers have returned to the site to continue unraveling the grisly mystery of an entire army’s apparent sacrifice.

Mads Holst, an archaeology professor at Aarhus University in Denmark, said the bones of 200 individuals have emerged so far, many during a 2009 dig he directed along with Ejvind Hertz of the Skanderborg Museum. “In the surrounding areas other human bones have been uncovered in connection with peat digging and drainage for more than 100 years, indicating that we are dealing with a very large find,” he said. The most recent excavation, led once again by Holst and Hertz, began on July 2 and is expected to continue until August 24.

Little is known about the slaughtered individuals—thought to have been as young as 13—or the circumstances of their deaths. Holst noted that, since Roman encroachment into Germanic lands stopped some 185 miles south of Alken, it’s unlikely the soldiers were Roman. Still, he said, “We do not know whether they were local or foreign yet. That is one of the major questions we wish to try to answer with the investigations.” What can be discerned is that the individuals met violent ends, suffering fatal weapon blows that left slashes and cuts on their skeletons. Researchers believe they lost a battle to an opposing army before being sacrificed and discarded in the lake, Holst said.

Archaeologists have uncovered other European examples of sacrificed Iron Age warriors in northern France, dating from the second and third centuries B.C., Holst said. In Denmark, however, only caches of sacrificed ceramics and weapons—captured from enemy soldiers and then ritually buried—have been found.

Two weeks into the current dig, the team has unearthed additional human bones, ceramics and traces of woodworking at the Alken site, Holst said. “We are trying to get as large an assemblage of human remains as possible to be able to characterize the people who ended up in the lake, and we also hope to find other things which can help us understand what happened here,” he explained. “It is very much a situation where we feel that there could be great surprises and unexpected finds awaiting us.”

http://www.history.com/news/entire-army-sacrificed-in-denmark-returns-to-the-surface?cmpid=Social_Google_Hith_07172012_1

First U.S. Olympic Team

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

The ones who started it all were14 intrepid U.S. Olympians who competed in the very first modern Games, held in April 1896 in Athens. Little was expected of this group of American pioneers, but they stunned the world by earning an astounding 11 Olympic championships and essentially creating the U.S. Olympic movement. In his recent book “Igniting the Flame: America’s First Olympic Team,” Jim Reisler tells the engrossing tale of how this unheralded team won event after event in Athens and, in doing so, captivated the world. Below, he answers questions about the book and two of the most important weeks in U.S. Olympic history.

Princeton track foursome Francis Lane, Herbert Jamison, Robert Garrett and Albert Tyler, who competed in the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens as part of the first U.S. team. (Getty Images)

Fourteen athletes. Eleven Olympic championships. An astounding performance!
The American team left for Athens in complete indifference from the U.S. public and without the support of their amateur athletic officials or even their colleges. Thrown together at the last minute, they had the look and feel of a playground pick-up team. Then they achieved a level of excellence that stunned everyone, including themselves. Virtually anonymous one minute, they became overnight sensations and created a storm of sudden attention in Europe and back home. Had they not succeeded, it’s very likely the American Olympic movement would have died a quiet death or at least been delayed for years.

Thomas Curtis, an MIT-trained engineer who took the Olympic final in the 100-meter high hurdles. (Getty Images)

Why have their contributions been overlooked?
Coverage of the first modern Games was spotty and inconsistent. There is an interesting item deep in the archives at Princeton’s Mudd Library. It is a telegram from UPI in London addressed to members of the U.S. team, asking them—anyone—to cover the Games. Imagine the modern equivalent: “Hey LeBron, if you aren’t particularly busy, could you send us a report of the game?”

Cameras of the day were not equipped for action photography, there are few images from these Games beyond a few static shots and some nice profiles of the athletes. Nor was record keeping of much good: times and distances were recorded for the first five or six finishers in each event, not for anyone else. As a consequence, we know little of the performances of some athletes. Take the lone U.S. swimmer, Gardner Williams, for whom one report has him finishing far back, well out of medal contention, while another report has him jumping out of the water during competition and complaining it was too cold. I suspect Williams swam, but we just don’t know for certain what really happened.

Aother reason had to do with the personalities of the U.S. athletes themselves. These were humble men—and other than a few post-Olympic celebratory banquets, they went back to school and to work and got on with things without much talk of their accomplishments in Athens. Track and field is like that anyway, with athletes tending to be in the public eye one day and out of it the next. Nothing like baseball players, whose performances are chronicled for months and years.

Read on: http://www.history.com/news/remembering-the-first-u-s-olympic-team?cmpid=Social_Google_Hith_07202012_1

Pizza Through the Ages

 

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception 

Founded around 600 B.C. as a Greek settlement, Naples in the 1700s and early 1800s was a thriving waterfront city. Technically an independent kingdom, it was notorious for its throngs of working poor, or lazzaroni. “The closer you got to the bay, the more dense their population, and much of their living was done outdoors, sometimes in homes that were little more than a room,” said Carol Helstosky, author of “Pizza: A Global History” and associate professor of history at the University of Denver. 

Unlike the wealthy minority, these Neapolitans required inexpensive food that could be consumed quickly. Pizza—flatbreads with various toppings, eaten for any meal and sold by street vendors or informal restaurants—met this need. “Judgmental Italian authors often called their eating habits ‘disgusting,’” Helstosky noted. These early pizzas consumed by Naples’ poor featured the tasty garnishes beloved today, such as tomatoes, cheese, oil, anchovies and garlic.

Italy unified in 1861, and King Umberto I and Queen Margherita visited Naples in 1889. Legend has it that the traveling pair became bored with their steady diet of French haute cuisine and asked for an assortment of pizzas from the city’s Pizzeria Brandi, the successor to Da Pietro pizzeria, founded in 1760. The variety the queen enjoyed most was called pizza mozzarella, a pie topped with the soft white cheese, red tomatoes and green basil. (Perhaps it was no coincidence that her favorite pie featured the colors of the Italian flag.) From then on, the story goes, that particular topping combination was dubbed pizza Margherita.

Queen Margherita’s blessing could have been the start of an Italy-wide pizza craze. After all, flatbreads with toppings weren’t unique to the lazzaroni or their time—they were consumed, for instance, by the ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks. (The latter ate a version with herbs and oil, similar to today’s focaccia.) And yet, until the 1940s, pizza would remain little known in Italy beyond Naples’ borders.

An ocean away, though, immigrants to the United States from Naples were replicating their trusty, crusty pizzas in New York and other American cities, including Trenton, New Haven, Boston, Chicago and St. Louis. The Neapolitans were coming for factory jobs, as did millions of Europeans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; they weren’t seeking to make a culinary statement. But relatively quickly, the flavors and aromas of pizza began to intrigue non-Neapolitans and non-Italians.

Read on:  http://www.history.com/news/hungry-history/a-slice-of-history-pizza-through-the-ages?cmpid=Social_google_Hungryhistory_07272012_1

Seventies Style

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Who is your favorite 1970's style icon?

From Farrah to Diana to Jackie O, we've put together the list of the style icons that defined a decade. http://ow.ly/cwU05

Sophia Loren

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

wowza ....

Silent Screen Stars

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception 

In the early years of motion pictures, actors were recruited from the stage, resulting in larger-than-life performances that seemed jarring when blown up to the size of a movie screen. As the years went on, actors began to understand the subtleties of the medium, and used more natural expressions to connect with their audiences. They became movie stars, known for their glamorous looks and identifiable personalities. As Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard would say, they didn't need dialogue, they had faces.

http://www.biography.com/people/groups/silent-screen-stars

See all Silent Screen Stars (16)

• 

  Charlie Chaplin

• 

  Clara Bow

• 

  Buster Keaton

• 

  Joan Crawford

• 

  William Powell

• 

  Louise Brooks

Blacklisted

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

In the 1940s and 1950s, the United States was in the grips of a "red scare." Many prominent individuals suspected of sympathizing with liberal or humanitarian causes were branded a communist threat, and even accused of espionage. Hollywood was a major focus of these accusations, and after 10 actors refused to testify in front of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, the blacklist was created. Hundreds of actors, actresses, directors, screenwriters and other entertainment professionals were barred from working. Here are some of the famous people who were on the Hollywood blacklist.

Read about them at the link!

http://www.biography.com/people/groups/blacklisted

---

• 

  Charlie Chaplin

• 

  Lena Horne

• 

  Lillian Hellman

• 

  Paul Robeson

• 

  Orson Welles

• 

  J. Robert Oppenheimer

Charlie Chaplin

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Born on April 16, 1889 in London England, Charlie Chaplin worked with a children's dance troupe before making a huge mark on the big screen. His character Charlie the Tramp relied on pantomime and quirky movements to became an iconic figure of the silent film era. Chaplin went on to become a director and co-founded United Artists Corporation, making films like City Lights and Modern Times.

British comedian, producer, writer, director, and composer. Born Charles Spencer Chaplin on April 16, 1889, in London, England, to parents Charles and Hannah Chaplin. Famous for his Little Tramp character, the sweet little man with a bowler hat, mustache, and cane, Chaplin was one of film's first superstars, elevating the industry in a way few could have ever imagined.

Chaplin's rise was a true rags-to-riches story. His father, a notorious drinker, abandoned Chaplin, his mother, and his older half-brother, Sydney, not long after his Charlie's birth. That left Chaplin and his brother in the hands of their mother, a vaudevillian and music hall singer who went by the stage name of Lily Harley.

For a few years, anyway, Chaplin's mother, who would later suffer severe mental issues and have to be committed to an asylum, was able to support her family. But in a performance that would introduce her youngest boy to the world of performance, Hannah inexplicably lost her voice in the middle of a show, prompting the stage manager to push the five-year-old Chaplin, whom he'd heard sing, onto the stage to replace her.

Chaplin lit up the audience, wowing them with his natural presence and comedic angle (at one point he imitated his mother's cracking voice). But the episode meant the end for Hannah. Her singing voice never returned and she eventually ran out of money. For a time Charlie and Sydney had to make a new temporary home for themselves in London's tough workhouses.

Armed with his mother's love of the stage, Chaplin was determined to make it in show business himself and in 1897 using his mother's contacts landed with a clog dancing troupe named the Eight Lancashire Lads. It was a short stint, and not a terribly profitable one, forcing the go-getter Chaplin to make ends meet anyway he could.

Continues: http://www.biography.com/people/charlie-chaplin-9244327

 

Rumi ...

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

How Badly Would Usain Bolt Destroy the Best Sprinter of 1896?

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Jamaica's Usain Bolt celebrates winning the men's 200-meter final at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Compared with the athletes in the first modern Olympics, today’s gold medalists can run faster, swim stronger, and jump and throw farther. But how slow and weak were the champions of yore compared with the best of the 21^st century?

In which events could the cream of the crop from bygone eras keep up against their modern counterparts?

In the visualizations at the link, today's stars Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser are pitted against winners from past games. The eight contestants in each of the four events—the 100-meter dash, swimming’s 100-meter freestyle, the long jump, and the discus—were selected to bring together athletes from different Olympic eras. Chariots of Fire’s Harold Abrahams—the 100-meter gold medalist in 1924—is at the starting line with late-20^th-century great Carl Lewis. 


http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/fivering_circus/2012/07/olympics_interactive_how_would_the_champs_of_bygone_olympics_fare_against_today_s_best_sprinters_jumpers_throwers_and_swimmers_.html

Secrets of Ex-Slave Letter Revealed

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception


The photograph, scratched and undated, is captioned “Brother Jordan Anderson.” He is a middle-aged black man with a long beard and a righteous stare, as if he were a preacher locking eyes with a sinner, or a judge about to dispatch a thief to the gallows.

Anderson was a former slave who was freed from a Tennessee plantation by Union troops in 1864 and spent his remaining 40 years in Ohio. He lived quietly and likely would have been forgotten, if not for a remarkable letter to his former master published in a Cincinnati newspaper shortly after the Civil War.

Treasured as a social document, praised as a masterpiece of satire, Anderson’s letter has been anthologized and published all over the world. Historians teach it, and the letter turns up occasionally on a blog or on Facebook. Humorist Andy Borowitz read the letter recently and called it, in an email to The Associated Press, “something Twain would have been proud to have written.”

Addressed to one Col. Patrick Henry Anderson, who apparently wanted Jordan to come back to the plantation east of Nashville, the letter begins cheerfully, with the former slave expressing relief that “you had not forgotten Jordon” (there are various spellings of the name) and were “promising to do better for me than anybody else can.” But, he adds, “I have often felt uneasy about you.”

He informs the colonel that he’s now making a respectable wage in Dayton, Ohio, and that his children are going to school. He tallies the monetary value of his services while on Anderson’s plantation – $11,608 – then adds, “we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you.”

Turning serious, he alludes to violence committed against women back in Tennessee and wonders what would happen to his own family members. “I would rather stay here and starve – and die, if it come to that – than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters.”

He asks if there are schools now for blacks. “The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits,” he writes.

Then he signs off with a swift, unforgettable kick.

“Say howdy to George Carter,” he says, “and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.”

Read on: http://newsone.com/2025248/ex-slave-letter/?omcamp=sf_N1FB