Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Street named for Harvey Milk
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or excepti
Monday, April 18, 2016
Hayley Mills
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
Today's birthday: English actress Hayley Mills, best known for her roles in Disney films such as "The Parent Trap" (1961), in which she played twin sisters. She was born in 1946, the daughter of Oscar-winning actor John Mills and actress/writer Mary Haley Bell. (L.A. Times file photo)
'World's worst singer' Florence Foster Jenkins had no idea the world mocked her terrible voice
She spent years desperately trying to launch her opera career as she performed in front of hundreds of people across America. But little did Florence Foster Jenkins know that the customers who flocked to see her were not applauding because she was talented.
In fact, hundreds of people eagerly battled for entry into private performances so they could cheer for the 'world's worst singer', who also happened to be a wealthy socialite.
It was this secret - one which was repeatedly covered up by her husband, St Clair Bayfield - that some believe led to the death of the 'Diva of din' just two days after a large public performance, which was widely ridiculed.
Now, a film starring Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant is being released to tell the unusual tale. Continue ...
'World's worst singer' Florence Foster Jenkins had no idea the world mocked her terrible voice - until the truth killed her
Duke of Wellington's daughter to wed her billionaire fiance at historic 16th century church in rural Spain
The 16th century Church of the Incarnation in Illora, near the historic Andalusian city of Granada, will see the joining of two famous families when Charlotte Wellesley and Alejando Santo Domingo marry on May 28
Lady Charlotte Wellesley - the daughter of the Duke of Wellington, Charles Wellesley, and the Princess Maria Antonia of Prussia - will exchange vows with New York-based Alejandro Santo Domingo in front of more than 200 high society family and friends at the sixteenth-century Church of the Incarnation in Illora, near Granada, on May 28. Continue ...
Book claims The Bard's greatest works were written by a Jewish woman
It may have been 400 years since the death of William Shakespeare - but rumours circulating about the Bard's mysterious identity are as frequent as ever.
Now one leading Shakespeare expert is claiming that the English playwright was actually a dark-haired Jewish woman, who lived in London.
John Hudson's book, entitled Shakespeare's Dark Lady, explores the theory that Shakespeare's true identity is that of a woman named Amelia Bassano. Continue ...
Leading Shakespeare expert John Hudson claims in his book that the English playwright was actually a dark-haired Jewish woman, who lived in London
Famous Heiress Gloria Vanderbilt was 17 when she fell for billionaire Howard Hughes
Gloria Vanderbilt was only seventeen in 1941 when she met business tycoon, aviator and filmmaker Howard Hughes at the Beverly Hills villa where she was spending the summer with her mother, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt.
The older Gloria, a Swiss-born American socialite, was expecting the much sought-after Hughes when little Gloria swept by her on the staircase and was on her way out to meet a man she was seeing.
Just as she touched the doorknob, the front bell rang. ‘I opened the door, and there, standing before me, was a very tall, very thin, very very sensitive-looking man who made me weak in the knees’, Gloria recalled in a conversation with her son, Anderson Cooper in their new book, The Rainbow Comes and Goes, Harper.
Gloria only learned the next morning that Hughes had arranged to meet with her mother to discuss a screen test for her daughter - not to ask the older Gloria out. ‘Of course, I told him it was out of the question’, her mother stated. Continue ...
Gloria Vanderbilt was only seventeen in the summer of 1941 when she met business tycoon, aviator and filmmaker Howard Hughes at the Beverly Hills villa where she was spending the summer with her mother
Joe Medicine Crow ~ last war chief of his people, earned the title during WWII
Prominent state leaders and tribal officials in ceremonial headdresses crowded around the flag-draped coffin of the last surviving war chief of Montana's Crow Indian Tribe.
At least 700 mourners on Wednesday packed into the one building on the Crow reservation large enough to fit them all, viewing the coffin of Joe Medicine Crow flanked by his World War II uniform and a picture of him in a massive feathered headdress.
Medicine Crow, who died Sunday at 102, spent decades cataloging Crow history and became a renowned Native American historian who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2009.
Medicine Crow attained the title of war chief for a series of deeds performed during combat in World War II. During the war, he wore an eagle feather under his helmet and war paint under his uniform. Continue ...
Joe Medicine Crow as a young man
Manson family murderer Tex Watson mailed Wikipedia handwritten edits of his page
The so-called right-hand man of Charles Manson has reportedly mailed Wikipedia handwritten edits of his page from prison demanding it be changed.
Charles 'Tex' Watson is still in Mule State Creek Prison in California after being convicted of seven counts of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder in 1971.
Among his victims was actress Sharon Tate, who was eight months pregnant when she was murdered in August 1969.
Now it has emerged that Texas-born Watson, who has become a born-again Christian during his time in prison, printed out a copy of his Wikipedia page and annotated it, marking out what he said were inaccuracies.
He then sent it to Wikipedia, which revealed that most of the edits he was demanding were surprising banal. Continue ...
Watson in 1971, was convicted of seven counts of murder
German tourist town of Tegernsee finally strips Adolf Hitler of honorary citizenship
The German tourist town of Tegernsee has stripped Adolf Hitler of honorary citizenship after 83 years.
Hitler’s honour was revoked by Conservative mayor Johannes Hagn and the 16 town councillors.
Hagn said: ‘It took so long because we didn’t actually know if he was still on the books as an honorary citizen and it turned out he was.
'We thought the honour had died off with him but that turned out not to be the case so we had to officially expunge him from the books.’ Continue ...
An official 1933 portrait of Adolf Hitler. The German tourist town of Tegernsee has stripped Adolf Hitler of honorary citizenship after 83 years
Vintage Still Photos Bring to life Bygone New York, Boston, Detroit and DC
An artist has created incredibly realistic animations of America in the early 1900s based almost entirely on vintage photos.
Alexey Zakharov from Moscow describes his animations as a 'travel back in time with a little steampunk time machine.'
His latest animation is so flawless that it looks as if you're watching real antique footage of the streets of New York, Boston, Detroit, Washington D.C. Link here ...
The films show New York spring to life, with horse drawn carriages driving by as pedestrians walk the streets. Here, a horsedrawn carriage passes by the Queensboro Bridge, also known as the 59th Street Bridge, around the time of its completion in 1909.
Gloria Vanderbilt's very uninhibited memoir
Born famous and fabulously rich, her libido was so powerful that, on sleepless nights, she counted her ex-lovers instead of sheep. And now, aged 92, legendary socialite Gloria Vanderbilt is once again making waves with an extraordinarily candid memoir that focuses on her astonishing love life.
As her son Anderson Cooper, the U.S. TV journalist, points out in their joint memoir, The Rainbow Comes And Goes, his mother has been famous for longer than anyone else alive.
Having written a steamy erotic novel, Obsession, when she was 85, Gloria has probably been obsessed with sex longer than anyone else, too. Continue ...
Sex-mad socialite: Gloria Vanderbilt (pictured), whose many celebrity lovers included Frank Sinatra, is making waves with a memoir focussing on her love life
Her Majesty's Historic Dresses Unveiled for her 90th Birthday
The largest display of the Queen's dress and accessories to be shown in Scotland will open to the public later this month to mark the monarch's 90th birthday.
The exhibition - Fashioning a Reign: 90 Years of Style from The Queen's Wardrobe - is to be held at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, her Scottish home in Edinburgh on April 21.
It will focus on significant events in the Queen's life and include more than 150 dresses, including the elegant turquoise dress she wore for her sister Princess Margaret's wedding. Continue ...
Gowns worn by the Queen will be part of the largest exhibition of its kind in Scotland. A turquoise gown designed by Norman Hartnell was worn to Princess Margaret's wedding in 1960.
272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. What Does It Owe Their Descendants?
The grave of Cornelius Hawkins, one of 272 slaves sold by the Jesuits in 1838 to help keep what is now Georgetown University afloat.
WILLIAM WIDMER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
The human cargo was loaded on ships at a bustling wharf in the nation’s capital, destined for the plantations of the Deep South. Some slaves pleaded for rosaries as they were rounded up, praying for deliverance.
But on this day, in the fall of 1838, no one was spared: not the 2-month-old baby and her mother, not the field hands, not the shoemaker and not Cornelius Hawkins, who was about 13 years old when he was forced onboard. Continue ...
Feeling Burnt Out was Invented by the Victorians
Being constantly overworked and tired may seem like a modern condition, but you might be suffering from a 19th-century malaise.
Doctors in the Victorian era diagnosed patients with ‘Neurasthenia’, which bears all the hallmarks of our hyper-connected age.
According to a new book, patients with the condition suffered from depression, a ‘lack of ambition’, insomnia and headaches. Continue ...
Changing lives: The nervous condition – a feature in 19th century literature – was seen as a failure to cope with the pace of industrialised life (pictured is Ludgate Circus in London during the Victorian era)
Driven mad by the horror of war:
Shattering new book lays bare extent of the mental torment the Somme exacted 100 years ago...
The British Army doctor serving in a casualty station just behind the front line in France knew ‘shell shock’ when he saw it.
Men in the trenches whose minds had gone under the barrage of explosives falling on their heads from enemy guns, or by being steeped in so much gore and misery for months on end, had a haunted look about them.
‘They are exhausted, their faces twitch and hands and arms shake constantly,’ he told his wife in a letter home. They were unable to answer the simplest of questions, their eyes were glassy and bulged out of their sockets, their skin was yellow, their teeth chattered, they swallowed constantly. Some could not speak at all. Others just stared into space without comprehension. Continue ...
A shattering new book, released 100 years since the Battle of the Somme, has revealed the true extent of shell shock. Above, a solider carries a fallen comrade during the brutal battle
Daffy Duck is 79
Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny in Chuck Jones' "Rabbit Seasoning" (1952).
WARNER BROTHERS
April 17th, 1937, 79 years ago today ... the day animation went daffy.
For that day saw the premiere of a Warner Brothers cartoon titled "Porky's Duck Hunt."
The cartoon followed Porky Pig as he attempted to bag a most unusual duck ... a duck quite unwilling to follow the rules:
Porky: "Hey, that wasn't in the script!"Read on ...
Daffy: "Don't let that worry you, Skipper! I'm just a darn fool crazy duck!"
Inside Infamous Los Feliz Murder Mansion
To the tourist, this Spanish colonial-style mansion looks the same as every other idyllic property nestled in California's well-heeled neighborhood of Los Feliz.
But unlike its equally picturesque neighbors, 2475 Glendower Place has a unique distinction: hosting one of America's most grisly murder-suicides.
It was inside these walls in 1959 that Dr Harold Perelson, a respected physician and father-of-three, killed his wife Lillian with one blow of a ball-peen hammer. He then tried (but failed) to do the same to his daughter, before feeding himself a lethal concoction of pills and poison - as the younger children looked on, confused.
While most other historical murder sites have been redeveloped or reoccupied or even torn down, this once-vibrant family abode has lain abandoned ever since as the new owners never moved in.
For decades, streams of curious visitors have climbed the hill to peer through the windows at the dust-covered dolls, crusting cans of food, and half-made beds - but none were ever allowed in. Continue
The princess bride:
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
Newly revealed family pictures of Grace Kelly's marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco show why the event is still the world's most glamorous wedding, even after 60 years
On Monday it will have been exactly six decades since Grace Kelly, the darling of Hollywood, married Monaco's Prince Rainier III - and yet the event remains etched in the minds of millions. Even the royal weddings of Prince Charles to Lady Diana, and Prince William to Kate Middleton haven't dislodged the fairytale moment from history. And these magical pictures, kept by the Rainier family in Monaco's palace, show exactly why that is.
Re-live Sinking of the Titanic
de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception
Re-live the sinking of the Titanic in real time: Visually stunning animation captures every moment of doomed ship's last tragic two-and-a-half hours
A three-man team from Massachusetts has recreated the sinking of the Titanic in real-time with minute by minute updates on key events on board the ship as it sank on its maiden voyage. Created with consultant Bill Sauder, who worked on the James Cameron film, this video charts the last hours of the ill-fated ship using a highly accurate model and atmospheric noises. The real-time video lays bare just how long it took the crew to realize the full scale of the horror about to unfold, and the opportunities they missed to save more of those on board.
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