View allAll Photos Tagged Bluebeards
VICTIMS
Date: 1908
Source Type: Postcard
Publisher, Printer, Photographer: Cyko, Stansbury
Postmark: None
Collection: Steven R. Shook
Remark: Belle Gunness, often referred to as the Lady Bluebeard, is considered to be the first American female serial killer.
Born in 1858 in Selbu, Norway, Belle Gunness emigrated to America in the mid 1880s. Belle married Mads Sorenson in 1893, and together they operated a store in Chicago. The store burned down, and Mads and Belle collected insurance on the property. Mads Sorenson died in 1900, with Belle collecting approximately $8,000 through his life insurance policy.
On April 1, 1902, Belle married Peter Gunness in LaPorte, Indiana. Together, Peter and Belle owned and operated a small farm on McClung Road in LaPorte County. Belle again collected insurance on a husband when Peter died after a coffee grinder allegedly fell from a shelf hitting him on the head. Following Peter's death, Belle began advertising in Norwegian language newspapers in America for a husband.
Several suitors answered Belle's advertisements. However, many of these potential bridegrooms would suddenly leave in the night, leading Belle's 18 year old niece, Jenny Olson, to be suspicious as to their welfare. Jenny then mysteriously disappeared, though Belle told friends and neighbors that she had left for schooling in California.
The final man to respond to Belle's advertisement was Andrew Helgelein. Belle requested that Andrew sell his property and bring his money (about $3,000) to LaPorte, which he did in 1908. Andrew's brother, Asa Helgelein became suspicious when letters from Andrew ceased to arrive. Asa therefore traveled to LaPorte County to inquire about the welfare of his brother.
In the early morning of April 28, 1908, the Gunness farmhouse burned to the ground. The Gunness children were found in the ashes of the home, as well as the body of a headless woman. This headless body, however, was much smaller in size than the rotund stature of Belle's body. After sluicing through the ashes of the home, dental work reportedly to be Belle's was found. Asa Helgelein arrived several days after the fire, and at his urging, the LaPorte County Sheriff began to further investigate the fire and Belle's relations with out-of-town men. The investigation turned into a national sensation, as numerous bodies were soon found to be buried on Belle's farm.
The remains of Andrew Helgelein were the first to be found, buried in a shallow grave in the garden. Jenny Olson's body was soon discovered nearby. In all, at least twelve other bodies were recovered from the property. It has been estimated that Belle may have buried forty men on the farm.
Enormous crowds, numbering in the thousands, visited the farm during the investigation. Special trains from Chicago and Indianapolis, as well as from other towns and cities, brought curious onlookers to the farm. Picnics were common. A farm building was used as a temporary morgue, where onlookers could view the remains as they were recovered and put on display. Numerous postcards were produced and sold during and after the investigation.
Ray Lamphere, a farm hand of Belle's, was eventually charged with murder and arson. Though not convicted of murder, Lamphere was found guilty of arson and incarcerated in the nearby Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, where he died a few years later. While in prison, Lamphere maintained that Belle had escaped and insisted that her body was not found in the debris of the burnt house. Lamphere's statement led to numerous reported sightings of Belle Gunness across the United States for many years, none of which were ever confirmed.
Copyright 2014. Some rights reserved. The associated text may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Steven R. Shook.
Out Now @ Enchantment "Bluebeard" Round Starting August 1st! This is one of our mainstore releases. elephanteposes.blogspot.com/2014/08/enchantment.html
Tara and Raven. The wedding foto The customized Namu Wolf as lord Bluebeard and customized Pullip Street as Bluebird's bride
German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, nr. T 650. Photo: Warner Bros. Publicity still for Helen of Troy (1956, Robert Wise).
Lithuanian-born French actor Jacques (sometimes: Jack) Sernas (1925) had an international film career of more than sixty years. First the handsome blonde appeared as the hero of peplum spectacles and adventure films and later he worked as a character actor. Sernas is perhaps best-known as Paris in the Hollywood epic Helen of Troy (1956).
Jacques Sernas, was born as Jurgis Šernas in Kaunas, Lithuania in 1925. Sernas was the son of the Baltic minister of justice, Jokūbas Šernas, a signatory of the Act of Independence of Lithuania in 1918. He died six years later when Jacques was a year old. His Russian mother took him to Paris where he received his formal education. Still at school, he joined the French Resistance and was captured. For more than a year he was interned at concentration camp Buchenwald, where he had to do hard labour. After the war Sernas started a medicine study, but broke this off this rapidly. To be able to keep his mother and himself financially above the water, he did all kind of odd jobs such as night watchman, waiter in the Café de la Paix, and skiing instructor in Chamonix. He also tried briefly as a journalist - he was a correspondent for the journal Combat at the Nuremberg processes – but he also gave up this career. In 1947 he appeared for the first times before the camera in the Italian film drama Gioventù perduta/Lost Youth (1947, Pietro Germi) with Carla del Poggio and Massimo Girotti and the French film noir Miroir/Mirror (1947, Raymond Lavy) with Jean Gabin and Martine Carol. Thus started a career lasting more than 60 years. He was noted for his eye-catching good looks, and soon appeared in many jeune premier roles. Sernas cut a fine figure in European spectacles as Il falco rosso/The Red Falcon (1949, Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia), The Mill on the Po/ Il mulino del Po (1949, Alberto Lattuada) with Carla del Poggio, Il lupo della Sila/ Lure of the Sila (1949, Duilio Coletti) with Silvana Mangano, Barbe-Bleue/Bluebeard (1951, Christian Jacque) with Cécile Aubry, and Camicie rosse/Anita Garibaldi (1952, Goffredo Alessandrini) starring Anna Magnani. He hit major international attention after being cast as Paris opposite sex sirens Rosanna Podestà and Brigitte Bardot in the historical epic Helen of Troy (1956, Robert Wise). Hollywood took brief notice but nothing much came of it. In his few American films and TV series he appeared under the name Jack Sernas.
After two years in Hollywood, Jacques Sernas returned to Europe and settled in Rome. Since then he was mainly seen in Italian productions. He was relegated for the most part to supporting characters, but he made one lasting impression as a fading matinee idol in Fellini's masterpiece La Dolce Vita (1960, Federico Fellini). Other interesting films were Un amore a Roma/Love in Rome (1960, Dino Risi), and the war satire Il giorno più corto/The Shortest Day (1963, Sergio Corbucci). Sernas appeared in international productions as 55 Days at Peking (1963, Nicholas Ray) with Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner, In 1966 he wrote his so far single screenplay, Zarabanda Bing Bing/Balearic Caper (1966, José María Forqué) a satire on the James Bond films, in which Sernas also played the leading part. Later films included the shocking Curzio Malaparte adaptation La Pelle/The Skin (1981, Liliana Cavani) starring Marcello Mastroianni, and L'africana/The African Woman (1990, Margaretha von Trotta) with Stefania Sandrelli. About the private life of Jacques Sernas is little known. In June, 1955 he married the Rumanian journalist Maria Stella Signorini. The following year he became father of a daughter. Unknown is if he was married more time, or if he had more children. His most recent appearances have been as a Cardinal in a TV film biopic Papa Giovanni - Ioannes XXIII/ Pope John XXIII (2002, Giorgio Capitani) with Edward Asner, and in the TV mini-series Papa Luciani: Il sorriso di Dio (2006, Giorgio Capitani) with Franco Interlenghi.
Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia (French), and IMDb.
Zip Comics / Heft-Reihe
> Chimpy / "Yes, Sir, Genie! Bluebeard was quite a man!"
Script: Joe Edwards
art: Joe Edwards
Editor: John Goldwater;Harry Shorten
Archie (MLJ Magazines) / USA 1944
Reprint: Comic-Club NK 2010
ex libris MTP
This Caryopteris (Caryopteris × clandonensis 'Arthur Simmonds') belongs to the family of the Lamiaceae but it was classified earlier as a Verbenaceae. Seen in the Rosengartgen Bad Langensalza, Gernany Cladon-Bartblume
San Francisco and the Bay Bridge, as seen from Treasure Island.
Feel lucky you just get to enjoy the photo and didn't have to enjoy the aroma of piss that had overtaken the spot where I was shooting. Ah, the lovely scents of San Francisco...
It's not a pano...just a crop from a shot at 10mm. Oh, and it looks alot better like this: big, on black.
If you’ve seen some of our recent posts then you will have noticed time-travelling warrior poet Azrael Goldbeard and his brother Mikhail Bluebeard a time-travelling poet warrior who don’t quite see eye to eye look uncannily similar. This is because they are actually clones, unbeknownst to them. Sadly their allowance from their ‘dad’ (who is also a clone) has run out and with Brexit on the way have decided to head back home. Back to the future. It’s all quite complicated but that’s the last we’ll see of them apparently...
Cheers
id-iom
Commissioned as a Christmas present. I trust that it has arrived by now, so I'm posting a photo... happy holidays to everyone :)
Seems all that mucking about with pleats finally came in handy...
I should mention that the score in the background is from Bartok's opera "Bluebeard's Castle"
Based off of the story "Bluebeard" told in "Women Who Run With The Wolves" by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. Dare to ask the question you are scared to ask. The key symbolizes that question - the key unlocks the door to destructive forces in our lives. We must face the truth of these forces rather than dismissing them or being ignorant of them.
Women's ward at the Old Idaho Penitentiary.The Women's Ward (1905–1906) was built out of necessity. Prior to its completion women did not have separate quarters. Male inmates built a wall around the old wardens home to serve as a separate facility for women. This building had seven two-person cells, a central day room, kitchen and bathroom facilities. This building held the infamous Lyda Southard (Lady Bluebeard).
Mom: Now, the one thing that was great about this pool—it was salt water. And I floated easily.
Me: You're crossing your legs here!
Mom: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I'm modest! Wow, the bathing suits in those days were nothing like today.
Blackberry Picking
Late August, given heavy rain and sun
For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.
At first, just one, a glossy purple clot
Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.
You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet
Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it
Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for
Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger
Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots
Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.
Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills
We trekked and picked until the cans were full
Until the tinkling bottom had been covered
With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned
Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered
With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's.
We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.
But when the bath was filled we found a fur,
A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.
The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush
The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.
I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair
That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.
Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not.
-- Seamus Heaney
Lillian de la Torre - The Truth About Belle Gunness
Gold Medal Books 487, 1955
Cover Artist: Baryé Phillips
"Men swarmed like flies to her embrace and one by one were loved—and died."
www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/11/unsolved-case-be...
Created for the Face Challenge on the other side of the vase.
Mixed media: stained glass, vitreous glass, glass nugget.
French postcard by Europe, no. 928. Photo: Films Paramount.
American screen legend Gary Cooper (1901-1961) is well remembered for his stoic, understated acting style in more than one hundred Westerns, comedies and dramas. He received five Oscar nominations and won twice for his roles as Alvin York in Sergeant York (1941) and as Will Kane in High Noon (1952).
Frank James Cooper was born in Helena, Montana in 1901. His parents were English immigrants, Alice Cooper-Brazier and Charles Henry Cooper, a prominent lawyer, rancher, and eventually a state supreme court judge. Frank left school in 1918 and returned to the family ranch to help raise their five hundred head of cattle and work full-time as a cowboy. In 1919, his father arranged for his son to complete his high school education at Gallatin County High School in Bozeman, Montana. His English teacher, Ida W. Davis, played an important role in encouraging him to focus on academics, join the school's debating team, and become involved in dramatics. He was in a car accident as a teenager that caused him to walk with a limp the rest of his life. In the fall of 1924, Cooper's parents moved to Los Angeles to administer the estates of two relatives. Cooper joined them and there he met some cowboys from Montana who were working as film extras and stuntmen in low-budget Western films. Cooper decided to try his hand working as a film extra for five dollars a day, and as a stuntman for twice that amount. In early 1925, Cooper began his film career working as an extra and stuntman on Poverty Row in such silent Westerns as Riders of the Purple Sage (Lynn Reynolds, 1925) with Tom Mix, and The Trail Rider (W.S. Van Dyke, 1925) with Buck Jones. Cooper paid for a screen test and hired casting director Nan Collins to work as his agent. Collins changed his first name to ‘Gary’ after her hometown of Gary, Indiana. Cooper also worked in non-Western films. He appeared as a masked Cossack in The Eagle (Clarence Brown, 1925) with Rudolph Valentino, as a Roman guard in Ben-Hur (Fred Niblo, 1925) with Ramón Novarro, and as a flood survivor in The Johnstown Flood (Irving Cummings, 1926) with George O'Brien. Gradually he began to land credited roles that offered him more screen time, such as Tricks (Bruce M. Mitchell, 1925), in which he played the film's antagonist. As a featured player, he began to attract the attention of major film studios and in June 1926, Cooper signed a contract with Samuel Goldwyn Productions. His first important film role was in The Winning of Barbara Worth (Henry King, 1926) with Ronald Colman and Vilma Bánky. The film was a major success, and critics called Cooper a "dynamic new personality" and future star. Cooper signed a five-year contract with Jesse L. Lasky at Paramount Pictures for $175 per week. In 1927, with help from established silent film star Clara Bow, Cooper landed high-profile roles opposite her in Children of Divorce (Frank Lloyd, 1927) and Wings (William A. Wellman, 1927), the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. With each new film, Cooper's acting skills improved and his popularity continued to grow, especially among female movie-goers. He received a thousand fan letters per week. The studio placed him opposite popular leading ladies in films such as Beau Sabreur (John Waters, 1928) with Evelyn Brent, Half a Bride (Gregory La Cava, 1928) with Esther Ralston, and Lilac Time (George Fitzmaurice, 1928) with Colleen Moore. The latter introduced synchronized music and sound effects, and became one of the biggest box office hits of the year.
In 1929, Gary Cooper became a major film star with his first sound picture, The Virginian, (Victor Fleming, 1929). The Virginian was one of the first sound films to define the Western code of honour and helped establish many of the conventions of the Western genre. The romantic image of the tall, handsome, and shy cowboy hero that embodied male freedom, courage, and honour was created in large part by Cooper's performance in the film. Cooper transitioned naturally to the sound medium, with his deep, clear, and pleasantly drawling voice. One of the high points of Cooper's early career was his portrayal of a sullen legionnaire in Josef von Sternberg's Morocco (1930) with Marlene Dietrich in her American debut. Cooper produced one of his finest performances to that point in his career. In the Dashiell Hammett crime drama City Streets (Rouben Mamoulian, 1931) he played a misplaced cowboy in a big city who gets involved with gangsters to save the woman (Sylvia Sidney) he loves. After making ten films in two years Cooper was exhausted and had lost thirty pounds. In May 1931, he sailed to Algiers and then Italy, where he lived for the next year. During his time abroad, Cooper stayed with the Countess Dorothy di Frasso who taught him about good food and vintage wines, how to read Italian and French menus in the finest restaurants, and how to socialize among Europe's nobility and upper classes. In 1932, a healthy Cooper returned to Hollywood and negotiated a new contract with Paramount for two films per year, a salary of $4,000 per week, and director and script approval. He appeared opposite Helen Hayes in A Farewell to Arms (Frank Borzage, 1932), the first film adaptation of an Ernest Hemingway novel. Critics praised his highly intense and at times emotional performance, and the film went on to become one of the year's most commercially successful films. The following year, Cooper appeared in the Ernst Lubitsch comedy Design for Living (1933) with Miriam Hopkins and Fredric March, and based loosely on the successful Noël Coward play. Wikipedia: “The film received mixed reviews and did not do well at the box office, but Cooper's performance was singled out for its versatility and revealed his genuine ability to do light comedy”. Then, he appeared in his first of seven films by director Henry Hathaway, Now and Forever (1934), with Carole Lombard and Shirley Temple. The film was a box-office success. His next two Henry Hathaway films were the melodrama Peter Ibbetson (1935) with Ann Harding, about a man caught up in a dream world created by his love for a childhood sweetheart, and the romantic adventure The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935), about a daring British officer and his men who defend their stronghold at Bengal against rebellious local tribes. The latter was nominated for six Academy Awards and became one of Cooper's most popular and successful adventure films.
Gary Cooper returned to Poverty Row for the first time since his early silent film days to make Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (Frank Capra, 1936) with Jean Arthur for Columbia Pictures. Cooper plays the character of Longfellow Deeds, an innocent, sweet-natured writer of greeting cards who inherits a fortune, leaves behind his idyllic life in Vermont, and travels to New York where he faces a world of corruption and deceit. For his performance in Mr. Deeds, Cooper received his first Oscar nomination. In the adventure film The General Died at Dawn (Lewis Milestone, 1936) with Madeleine Carroll, he plays an American soldier of fortune in China who helps the peasants defend themselves against the oppression of a cruel warlord. Written by playwright Clifford Odets, the film was a critical and commercial success. In Cecil B. DeMille's sprawling frontier epic The Plainsman (1936) with Jean Arthur—his first of four films with the director—Cooper portrays Wild Bill Hickok in a highly-fictionalized version of the opening of the American western frontier. That year, Cooper appeared for the first time on the Motion Picture Herald exhibitor's poll of top ten film personalities, where he would remain for the next twenty-two years. In Ernst Lubitsch's romantic comedy Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938) with Claudette Colbert, Cooper plays a wealthy American businessman in France who falls in love with an impoverished aristocrat's daughter and persuades her to become his eighth wife. In the adventure film Beau Geste (William A. Wellman, 1939) with Ray Milland, he joined the French Foreign Legion to find adventure in the Sahara fighting local tribes. Wikipedia: “Beau Geste provided Cooper with magnificent sets, exotic settings, high-spirited action, and a role tailored to his personality and screen persona.” Cooper cemented his cowboy credentials in The Westerner (William Wyler, 1940). He won his first Academy Award for Best Actor in 1942 for his performance as Alvin York, the most decorated U.S. soldier from the Great War, in Sergeant York (Howard Hawks, 1941). Cooper worked with Ingrid Bergman in For Whom the Bell Tolls (Sam Wood, 1943) which earned him his third Oscar nomination. The film was based on a novel by Ernest Hemingway, with whom Cooper developed a strong friendship. On 23 October 1947, he appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee in Washington, not under subpoena but responding to an invitation to give testimony on the alleged infiltration of Hollywood by communists. Although he never said he regretted having been a friendly witness, as an independent producer, he hired blacklisted actors and technicians. He did say he had never wanted to see anyone lose the right to work, regardless of what he had done. Cooper won his second Oscar for his performance as Marshal Will Kane in High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952), one of his finest roles and a kind of come-back after a series of flops. He continued to play the lead in films almost to the end of his life. His later box office hits included the influential Western Vera Cruz (Robert Aldrich, 1954) in which he guns down villain Burt Lancaster in a showdown, William Wyler's Friendly Persuasion (1956), in which he portrays a Quaker farmer during the American Civil War, Billy Wilder's Love in the Afternoon (1957) with Audrey Hepburn, and the hard-edged action Western Man of the West (Anthony Mann, 1958), with Lee J. Cobb. Cooper's final film was the British-American co-production The Naked Edge (Michael Anderson, 1961). In April 1960, Cooper underwent surgery for prostate cancer after it had metastasized to his colon. But by the end of the year the cancer had spread to his lungs and bones. On 13 May 1961, six days after his sixtieth birthday, Gary Cooper died. The young and handsome Cooper had affairs with Clara Bow, Lupe Velez, Marlene Dietrich and Tallulah Bankhead. In 1933, he married socialite Veronica Balfe, who, billed as Sandra Shaw, enjoyed a short-lived acting career. They had an ‘open’ marriage and Cooper also had relationships with the actresses Grace Kelly, Anita Ekberg, and Patricia Neal. Sir Cecil Beaton also claimed to have had an affair with him.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
Crazy / Heft-Reihe
Madame Knockwursts Whacks Museum
cover: Joe Maneely
Marvel Comics (Atlas) / USA 1954
Reprint / Comic-Club NK 2010
ex libris MTP
DOG + PONEY
GUNNESS FARM
Date: 1908
Source Type: Postcard
Publisher, Printer, Photographer: Stansbury
Postmark: July 20, 1908, North Liberty, Indiana
Collection: Steven R. Shook
Remark: Belle Gunness, often referred to as the Lady Bluebeard, is considered to be the first American female serial killer. Soon after the discovery of numerous bodies buried on Gunness' property, a number items of her personal property were auctioned. The auction, which took place on May 29, 1908, on the Gunness farm, attracted nearly 5,000 attendees. More than 500 carriages were tied about the farm. Most items sold at five to ten times beyond their ordinary sale value. The three items attracting the greatest attention at the sale were Gunness' pony, the pony cart, and a shepherd dog. The dog sold for $107 ($2,940 in 2019 dollars).
Born in 1858 in Selbu, Norway, Belle Gunness emigrated to America in the mid 1880s. Belle married Mads Sorenson in 1893, and together they operated a store in Chicago. The store burned down, and Mads and Belle collected insurance on the property. Mads Sorenson died in 1900, with Belle collecting approximately $8,000 through his life insurance policy.
On April 1, 1902, Belle married Peter Gunness in LaPorte, Indiana. Together, Peter and Belle owned and operated a small farm on McClung Road in LaPorte County. Belle again collected insurance on a husband when Peter died after a coffee grinder allegedly fell from a shelf hitting him on the head. Following Peter's death, Belle began advertising in Norwegian language newspapers in America for a husband.
Several suitors answered Belle's advertisements. However, many of these potential bridegrooms would suddenly leave in the night, leading Belle's 18 year old niece, Jenny Olson, to be suspicious as to their welfare. Jenny then mysteriously disappeared, though Belle told friends and neighbors that she had left for schooling in California.
The final man to respond to Belle's advertisement was Andrew Helgelein. Belle requested that Andrew sell his property and bring his money (about $3,000) to LaPorte, which he did in 1908. Andrew's brother, Asa Helgelein became suspicious when letters from Andrew ceased to arrive. Asa therefore traveled to LaPorte County to inquire about the welfare of his brother.
In the early morning of April 28, 1908, the Gunness farmhouse burned to the ground. The Gunness children were found in the ashes of the home, as well as the body of a headless woman. This headless body, however, was much smaller in size than the rotund stature of Belle's body. After sluicing through the ashes of the home, dental work reportedly to be Belle's was found. Asa Helgelein arrived several days after the fire, and at his urging, the LaPorte County Sheriff began to further investigate the fire and Belle's relations with out-of-town men. The investigation turned into a national sensation, as numerous bodies were soon found to be buried on Belle's farm..
The remains of Andrew Helgelein were the first to be found, buried in a shallow grave in the garden. Jenny Olson's body was soon discovered nearby. In all, at least twelve other bodies were recovered from the property. It has been estimated that Belle may have buried forty men on the farm.
Enormous crowds, numbering in the thousands, visited the farm during the investigation. Special trains from Chicago and Indianapolis, as well as from other towns and cities, brought curious onlookers to the farm. Picnics were common. A farm building was used as a temporary morgue, where onlookers could view the remains as they were recovered and put on display. Numerous postcards were produced and sold during and after the investigation.
Ray Lamphere, a farm hand of Belle's, was eventually charged with murder and arson. Though not convicted of murder, Lamphere was found guilty of arson and incarcerated in the nearby Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, where he died a few years later. While in prison, Lamphere maintained that Belle had escaped and insisted that her body was not found in the debris of the burnt house. Lamphere's statement led to numerous reported sightings of Belle Gunness across the United States for many years, none of which were ever confirmed.
----------
The following news item appeared in the July 9, 1908, issue of The Chesterton Tribune:
Gunness Relics on Exhibition.
The Gunness relics are this week on exhibition at Riverview park, Chicago. A Place to represent the Gunness yard, with its private graveyard, has been paid out and in this place are exhibited the horse Mrs. Gunness drove, the pony and cart used by the children, the watch dog, a couple of chickens from the Gunness farm, the old house cat, with her kittens, and several other relics from the farm. Even Joe Maxon, the hired man, who escaped from the burning house, is with the exhibition.
Source:
The Chesterton Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana; July 9, 1908; Volume 25, Number 15, Page 7, Column 6. Column titled "Gunness Relics on Exhibition.
Copyright 2017. Some rights reserved. The associated text may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Steven R. Shook.
I want to share one great music from Cocteau Twins. . Bluebeard, because some of you might be wondering how it sounds i posted the link to its video on yotube and you also can find the lyrics below ala videoke :)
Enjoy friends!
Cocteau Twins were an innovative and influential Scottish dream pop band. They built a sound based on woozy atmospherics and singer Elizabeth Fraser’s unmatchable vocals, most of which featured lyrics of made-up words and words plucked at random from the dictionary.
Bluebeard
Aliveness
Exploration
Aliveness
Energy
Are you the right man for me?
Are you safe? Are you my friend?
Are you the right man for me?
Are you safe? Are you my friend?
Aliveness
Exploration
Fulfillment
Creativity
It may be diverting
For some part of him
Are you the right man for me?
Are you safe? Are you my friend?
Or are you toxic for me?
Will you betray my confidence?
Are you the right man for me?
Are you safe? Are you my friend?
Or are you toxic for me?
Will you betray my confidence?
Naming things is empowering
I balance, walk, and coordinate myself, alive
Aliveness energy
Healthy dependence
And healthy independence
And healthy assurances
This love's a nameless dream
And healthy boundaries
And how long would you miss me
Are you the right man for me?
Are you safe? Are you my friend?
Or are you toxic for me?
Will you mistreat me
Or betray all my confidence?
Are you the right man for me?
Are you safe? Are you my friend?
Or are you toxic for me?
Will you mistreat me
Or betray all my confidence?
Are you the right man for me?
Are you safe? Are you my friend?
Or are you toxic for me?
Will you mistreat me
Or betray all my confidence?
GRAVES WHERE FOUR BODIES TAKEN OUT, GUNNESS' FARM, LAPORTE, IND.
Date: 1908
Source Type: Postcard
Publisher, Printer, Photographer: F. Stansbury
Postmark: August 11, 1908, Rolling Prairie, Indiana
Collection: Steven R. Shook
Remark: Belle Gunness, often referred to as the Lady Bluebeard, is considered to be the first American female serial killer.
Born in 1858 in Selbu, Norway, Belle Gunness emigrated to America in the mid 1880s. Belle married Mads Sorenson in 1893, and together they operated a store in Chicago. The store burned down, and Mads and Belle collected insurance on the property. Mads Sorenson died in 1900, with Belle collecting approximately $8,000 through his life insurance policy.
On April 1, 1902, Belle married Peter Gunness in LaPorte, Indiana. Together, Peter and Belle owned and operated a small farm on McClung Road in LaPorte County. Belle again collected insurance on a husband when Peter died after a coffee grinder allegedly fell from a shelf hitting him on the head. Following Peter's death, Belle began advertising in Norwegian language newspapers in America for a husband.
Several suitors answered Belle's advertisements. However, many of these potential bridegrooms would suddenly leave in the night, leading Belle's 18 year old niece, Jenny Olson, to be suspicious as to their welfare. Jenny then mysteriously disappeared, though Belle told friends and neighbors that she had left for schooling in California.
The final man to respond to Belle's advertisement was Andrew Helgelein. Belle requested that Andrew sell his property and bring his money (about $3,000) to LaPorte, which he did in 1908. Andrew's brother, Asa Helgelein became suspicious when letters from Andrew ceased to arrive. Asa therefore traveled to LaPorte County to inquire about the welfare of his brother.
In the early morning of April 28, 1908, the Gunness farmhouse burned to the ground. The Gunness children were found in the ashes of the home, as well as the body of a headless woman. This headless body, however, was much smaller in size than the rotund stature of Belle's body. After sluicing through the ashes of the home, dental work reportedly to be Belle's was found. Asa Helgelein arrived several days after the fire, and at his urging, the LaPorte County Sheriff began to further investigate the fire and Belle's relations with out-of-town men. The investigation turned into a national sensation, as numerous bodies were soon found to be buried on Belle's farm..
The remains of Andrew Helgelein were the first to be found, buried in a shallow grave in the garden. Jenny Olson's body was soon discovered nearby. In all, at least twelve other bodies were recovered from the property. It has been estimated that Belle may have buried forty men on the farm.
Enormous crowds, numbering in the thousands, visited the farm during the investigation. Special trains from Chicago and Indianapolis, as well as from other towns and cities, brought curious onlookers to the farm. Picnics were common. A farm building was used as a temporary morgue, where onlookers could view the remains as they were recovered and put on display. Numerous postcards were produced and sold during and after the investigation.
Ray Lamphere, a farm hand of Belle's, was eventually charged with murder and arson. Though not convicted of murder, Lamphere was found guilty of arson and incarcerated in the nearby Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, where he died a few years later. While in prison, Lamphere maintained that Belle had escaped and insisted that her body was not found in the debris of the burnt house. Lamphere's statement led to numerous reported sightings of Belle Gunness across the United States for many years, none of which were ever confirmed.
Copyright 2017. Some rights reserved. The associated text may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Steven R. Shook.
French postcard. Editions Cinémagazine, No. 276.
Huntley Gordon aka Huntly Gordon (1879-1956) was a Canadian actor, who peaked in the silent Hollywood of the late 1910s and 1920s.
Gordon, born in Montreal, Canada, started in film in 1916, when given a chance by Ralph Ince, and became a regular at Vitagraph. Probably his first film at Vitagraph was Miss Warren's Brother (Theodore Marston, 1916), in which he played an English Lord. Ince himself directed him in 1916 in The Destroyers, The Conflict, and His Wife's Good Name, while John Robertson directed him in a few shorts. Lucille Lee Stewart often had the female lead in these films. In 1916-1918, during the First World War, Gordon served in the Canadian military (despite Wikipedia's claim he acted there in cinema as well, IMDB lists no film titles for British films with Gordon in the 1910s). After his demobilization, Gordon was a much sought-for actor by Holywood studios because of his good looks and suave manners He came back under the wings of Ralph Ince, who had left Vitagraph and now worked for various companies, in films such as The Eleventh Commandment (1918) and Our Mrs. McChesney (1918), in which Gordon had the male lead opposite Ethel Barrymore. Still, Gordon also did films for Vitagraph in 1918-1919, and even one with Ince: Too Many Crooks (1919). In addition to supporting parts in other films, in 1919 Gordon had the male lead opposite Irene Castle in The Invisible Bond (Charles Maigne, 1919), a drama set in the idle rich milieu, and opposite Olive Thomas in the lighthouse keeper's drama Out Yonder (Ralph Ince, 1919).
By 1920 Gordon alternated star roles such as the male lead opposite Dorothy Dalton in The Dark Mirror (Charles Giblyn, 1920), opposite Betty Blithe in His Wife's Husband (Kenneth Webb, 1922), opposite Myrtle Stedman in The Famous Mrs. Fair (Fred Niblo, 1923), opposite Viola Dana in Her Fatal Millions (William Beaudine, 1923), opposite Clara Kimball Young in Cordelia the Magnificent (George Archainbaud, 1923), and opposite Gloria Swanson in Bluebeard's Eight WIfe (Sam Wood, 1923), with supporting parts in films at Selznick Pictures or at smaller companies, at times still directed by Ince but mostly by others. In 1923 he was the star of Pleasure Mad, directed by Reginald Barker, and opposite Mary Alden and upcoming actors Norma Shearer and William Collier jr., while in the same year he was the male lead opposite Shearer and Marie Prevost in The Wanters.
By the mid-1920s Gordon alternated between the big studios of Paramount, Metro and First National. In 1924 Gordon was the Minister of Interior opposite Pola Negri's "apache" who rises on the social ladder, in Shadows of Paris by Herbert Brenon. He had an adulterous affair with Eileen Pringle in the plot of True as Steel (Rupert Hughes, 1924). With Pauline Frederick, Mae Busch, and Conrad Nagel, he was in a foursome in Married Flirts (Robert G. Vignola, 1924). In the mid-1920s Gordon often played the Other Man in relationships, playing second fiddle to the female and male lead. Still, he had a male lead opposite Lillian Rich in The Golden Web (Walter Lang, 1926), with Boris Karloff in a supporting part. He was also the male lead opposite Billie Dove in the romantic drama Sensation Seekers (Lois Weber, 1927), and opposite Irene Rich in the comedy Don't Tell the Wife (Paul L. Stein, 1927). While Gordon did only two films in 1927, he did a whole string of films in 1928 such as the popular film Our Dancing Daughters (1928), in which Gordon was the father of the female lead Joan Crawford. Yet between 1929 and 1931, when sound cinema had become established, Gordon only did 6 films.
By 1932, Gordon was back in the saddle in sound films, but no longer working for the majors, but instead at Universal and small independent companies, and by the mid- and late 1930s at RKO and Monogram. Gordon also had no leads anymore, only supporting parts, and by 1935 more and more uncredited ones. In 1940 he called it a day and quitted film acting. He built up manufacture of silk stockings, which was lucrative in Canada and the US during WWI because of rationing. Gordon also remained active by giving interviews on the radio. He died of a heart attack at his home in Van Nuys, CA, in 1956.
Sources: English and French Wikipedia, IMDB.
VICTIMS
Date: 1908
Source Type: Postcard
Publisher, Printer, Photographer: Cyko, Stansbury
Postmark: None
Collection: Steven R. Shook
Remark: Belle Gunness, often referred to as the Lady Bluebeard, is considered to be the first American female serial killer.
Born in 1858 in Selbu, Norway, Belle Gunness emigrated to America in the mid 1880s. Belle married Mads Sorenson in 1893, and together they operated a store in Chicago. The store burned down, and Mads and Belle collected insurance on the property. Mads Sorenson died in 1900, with Belle collecting approximately $8,000 through his life insurance policy.
On April 1, 1902, Belle married Peter Gunness in LaPorte, Indiana. Together, Peter and Belle owned and operated a small farm on McClung Road in LaPorte County. Belle again collected insurance on a husband when Peter died after a coffee grinder allegedly fell from a shelf hitting him on the head. Following Peter's death, Belle began advertising in Norwegian language newspapers in America for a husband.
Several suitors answered Belle's advertisements. However, many of these potential bridegrooms would suddenly leave in the night, leading Belle's 18 year old niece, Jenny Olson, to be suspicious as to their welfare. Jenny then mysteriously disappeared, though Belle told friends and neighbors that she had left for schooling in California.
The final man to respond to Belle's advertisement was Andrew Helgelein. Belle requested that Andrew sell his property and bring his money (about $3,000) to LaPorte, which he did in 1908. Andrew's brother, Asa Helgelein became suspicious when letters from Andrew ceased to arrive. Asa therefore traveled to LaPorte County to inquire about the welfare of his brother.
In the early morning of April 28, 1908, the Gunness farmhouse burned to the ground. The Gunness children were found in the ashes of the home, as well as the body of a headless woman. This headless body, however, was much smaller in size than the rotund stature of Belle's body. After sluicing through the ashes of the home, dental work reportedly to be Belle's was found. Asa Helgelein arrived several days after the fire, and at his urging, the LaPorte County Sheriff began to further investigate the fire and Belle's relations with out-of-town men. The investigation turned into a national sensation, as numerous bodies were soon found to be buried on Belle's farm.
The remains of Andrew Helgelein were the first to be found, buried in a shallow grave in the garden. Jenny Olson's body was soon discovered nearby. In all, at least twelve other bodies were recovered from the property. It has been estimated that Belle may have buried forty men on the farm.
Enormous crowds, numbering in the thousands, visited the farm during the investigation. Special trains from Chicago and Indianapolis, as well as from other towns and cities, brought curious onlookers to the farm. Picnics were common. A farm building was used as a temporary morgue, where onlookers could view the remains as they were recovered and put on display. Numerous postcards were produced and sold during and after the investigation.
Ray Lamphere, a farm hand of Belle's, was eventually charged with murder and arson. Though not convicted of murder, Lamphere was found guilty of arson and incarcerated in the nearby Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, where he died a few years later. While in prison, Lamphere maintained that Belle had escaped and insisted that her body was not found in the debris of the burnt house. Lamphere's statement led to numerous reported sightings of Belle Gunness across the United States for many years, none of which were ever confirmed.
Copyright 2018. Some rights reserved. The associated text may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Steven R. Shook.
CORNER OF BASEMENT, WHERE FOUR CHARRED BODIED FOUND, GUNNESS' FARM, LAPORTE, IND.
Date: 1908
Source Type: Photograph
Publisher, Printer, Photographer: F. Stansbury
Postmark: August 12, 1908, New Carlisle, Indiana
Collection: Steven R. Shook
Remark: Belle Gunness, often referred to as the Lady Bluebeard, is considered to be the first American female serial killer.
Born in 1858 in Selbu, Norway, Belle Gunness emigrated to America in the mid 1880s. Belle married Mads Sorenson in 1893, and together they operated a store in Chicago. The store burned down, and Mads and Belle collected insurance on the property. Mads Sorenson died in 1900, with Belle collecting approximately $8,000 through his life insurance policy.
On April 1, 1902, Belle married Peter Gunness in LaPorte, Indiana. Together, Peter and Belle owned and operated a small farm on McClung Road in LaPorte County. Belle again collected insurance on a husband when Peter died after a coffee grinder allegedly fell from a shelf hitting him on the head. Following Peter's death, Belle began advertising in Norwegian language newspapers in America for a husband.
Several suitors answered Belle's advertisements. However, many of these potential bridegrooms would suddenly leave in the night, leading Belle's 18 year old niece, Jenny Olson, to be suspicious as to their welfare. Jenny then mysteriously disappeared, though Belle told friends and neighbors that she had left for schooling in California.
The final man to respond to Belle's advertisement was Andrew Helgelein. Belle requested that Andrew sell his property and bring his money (about $3,000) to LaPorte, which he did in 1908. Andrew's brother, Asa Helgelein became suspicious when letters from Andrew ceased to arrive. Asa therefore traveled to LaPorte County to inquire about the welfare of his brother.
In the early morning of April 28, 1908, the Gunness farmhouse burned to the ground. The Gunness children were found in the ashes of the home, as well as the body of a headless woman. This headless body, however, was much smaller in size than the rotund stature of Belle's body. After sluicing through the ashes of the home, dental work reportedly to be Belle's was found. Asa Helgelein arrived several days after the fire, and at his urging, the LaPorte County Sheriff began to further investigate the fire and Belle's relations with out-of-town men. The investigation turned into a national sensation, as numerous bodies were soon found to be buried on Belle's farm..
The remains of Andrew Helgelein were the first to be found, buried in a shallow grave in the garden. Jenny Olson's body was soon discovered nearby. In all, at least twelve other bodies were recovered from the property. It has been estimated that Belle may have buried forty men on the farm.
Enormous crowds, numbering in the thousands, visited the farm during the investigation. Special trains from Chicago and Indianapolis, as well as from other towns and cities, brought curious onlookers to the farm. Picnics were common. A farm building was used as a temporary morgue, where onlookers could view the remains as they were recovered and put on display. Numerous postcards were produced and sold during and after the investigation.
Ray Lamphere, a farm hand of Belle's, was eventually charged with murder and arson. Though not convicted of murder, Lamphere was found guilty of arson and incarcerated in the nearby Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, where he died a few years later. While in prison, Lamphere maintained that Belle had escaped and insisted that her body was not found in the debris of the burnt house. Lamphere's statement led to numerous reported sightings of Belle Gunness across the United States for many years, none of which were ever confirmed.
Copyright 2022. Some rights reserved. The associated text may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Steven R. Shook.
I met Ryan in Nottingham City centre during a visit made specifically to add to my stranger project. I’d found a street that offered a number of different backgrounds and had decided to wait around and see who would come along. It wasn’t long before I spotted Ryan and his companion heading my way. The colour of Ryan’s beard meant I just had to ask if he’d be a stranger for me. Both Ryan and Blue (see my previous stranger) agreed as they both had an interest in the arts of all kinds. Ryan told me he thought the idea behind the stranger project was fantastic.
As Ryan was dressed mainly in black I felt a similar coloured background would be ideal to really bring out the colour of his beard. There wasn’t any problems taking Ryan’s picture other than being photobombed by a couple of lads which added to the fun element of the shoot.
Ryan told me he was a support worker for adults with disabilities which lead to me mentioning my stranger number 113, Max, who I’d photographed earlier that day in another part of the city. Max was in a wheelchair and it turned out that both he and Blue knew Max. What chances of photographing strangers on the same day in different parts of Nottingham that knew each other?
Ryan told me that he and Blue enjoy going to watch drag queen shows and attending the alternative music scene.
I then asked Ryan my question of the moment of who his first star crush was on and he said Emma Watson, citing her role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films as being where that infatuation came from.
Thank-you Ryan for being such a terrific stranger and I hope you like your portrait.
This picture is #115 in the 100 Strangers project, yes I’m doing a second 100. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page
This is my 86th submission to the Human Family Group. To view more street portraits and stories visit www.flickr.com/groups/thehumanfamily/</a
Created with fd's Flickr Toys.
Thanks to the photographers on Flickr who made this mosaic posible. :)
1. Entire Spiral Heart, 2. jellies, 3. Coronado, 4. Plumbago 2 - 2006, 5. Seagull, 6. the lake (detail),
7. dandelion a composite?, 8. Heaven Scent, 9. Blue night, 10. Me & Me Guitar Pt.2, 11. Untitled, 12. rushin' blue,
13. Untitled, 14. Close-up on the stairs, 15. Left Standing, 16. Lady of St. Kilda, 17. Beija-flor - swallow-tailed hummingbird -1 212 - 3, 18. Bluebeard (*2),
19. MorningGlories1, 20. Full-Wave Rectification, 21. Bhaktapur, 22. Silent Night, 23. Bluer than blue, 24. IMG_5905 Far from the sunny slopes and vinyards....,
25. Still ice here, 26. Untitled, 27. wisteria, 28. Plumbago (Plumbago auriculata), 29. non conformance, 30. The beginning of a New Year,
31. Retreat, 32. Balloons Galore, 33. Img1174 cusco, 34. pure nature /3, 35. Lerici - DRI, 36. Old Beauty
Date: 1908
Source Type: Postcard
Publisher, Printer, Photographer: Stansbury
Postmark: November 30, 1908, South Bend, Indiana
Collection: Steven R. Shook
Remark: The message written on the reverse of this postcard is as follows:
"The pony on this card is the one that was sold at the auction. They are going to stop digging over there to day as they say they have all the bodys."
Belle Gunness, often referred to as the Lady Bluebeard, is considered to be the first American female serial killer. Soon after the discovery of numerous bodies buried on Gunness' property, a number items of her personal property were auctioned. The auction, which took place on May 29, 1908, on the Gunness farm, attracted nearly 5,000 attendees. More than 500 carriages were tied about the farm. Most items sold at five to ten times beyond their ordinary sale value. The three items attracting the greatest attention at the sale were Gunness' pony, the pony cart, and a shepherd dog. The dog sold for $107 ($2,940 in 2019 dollars).
Born in 1858 in Selbu, Norway, Belle Gunness emigrated to America in the mid 1880s. Belle married Mads Sorenson in 1893, and together they operated a store in Chicago. The store burned down, and Mads and Belle collected insurance on the property. Mads Sorenson died in 1900, with Belle collecting approximately $8,000 through his life insurance policy.
On April 1, 1902, Belle married Peter Gunness in LaPorte, Indiana. Together, Peter and Belle owned and operated a small farm on McClung Road in LaPorte County. Belle again collected insurance on a husband when Peter died after a coffee grinder allegedly fell from a shelf hitting him on the head. Following Peter's death, Belle began advertising in Norwegian language newspapers in America for a husband.
Several suitors answered Belle's advertisements. However, many of these potential bridegrooms would suddenly leave in the night, leading Belle's 18 year old niece, Jenny Olson, to be suspicious as to their welfare. Jenny then mysteriously disappeared, though Belle told friends and neighbors that she had left for schooling in California.
The final man to respond to Belle's advertisement was Andrew Helgelein. Belle requested that Andrew sell his property and bring his money (about $3,000) to LaPorte, which he did in 1908. Andrew's brother, Asa Helgelein became suspicious when letters from Andrew ceased to arrive. Asa therefore traveled to LaPorte County to inquire about the welfare of his brother.
In the early morning of April 28, 1908, the Gunness farmhouse burned to the ground. The Gunness children were found in the ashes of the home, as well as the body of a headless woman. This headless body, however, was much smaller in size than the rotund stature of Belle's body. After sluicing through the ashes of the home, dental work reportedly to be Belle's was found. Asa Helgelein arrived several days after the fire, and at his urging, the LaPorte County Sheriff began to further investigate the fire and Belle's relations with out-of-town men. The investigation turned into a national sensation, as numerous bodies were soon found to be buried on Belle's farm..
The remains of Andrew Helgelein were the first to be found, buried in a shallow grave in the garden. Jenny Olson's body was soon discovered nearby. In all, at least twelve other bodies were recovered from the property. It has been estimated that Belle may have buried forty men on the farm.
Enormous crowds, numbering in the thousands, visited the farm during the investigation. Special trains from Chicago and Indianapolis, as well as from other towns and cities, brought curious onlookers to the farm. Picnics were common. A farm building was used as a temporary morgue, where onlookers could view the remains as they were recovered and put on display. Numerous postcards were produced and sold during and after the investigation.
Ray Lamphere, a farm hand of Belle's, was eventually charged with murder and arson. Though not convicted of murder, Lamphere was found guilty of arson and incarcerated in the nearby Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, where he died a few years later. While in prison, Lamphere maintained that Belle had escaped and insisted that her body was not found in the debris of the burnt house. Lamphere's statement led to numerous reported sightings of Belle Gunness across the United States for many years, none of which were ever confirmed.
Copyright 2019. Some rights reserved. The associated text may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Steven R. Shook.
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 19E. Photo: Warner Bros, 1953. Gary Cooper in Dallas (Henry Hathaway, 1950).
American screen legend Gary Cooper (1901-1961) is well remembered for his stoic, understated acting style in more than one hundred Westerns, comedies and dramas. He received five Oscar nominations and won twice for his roles as Alvin York in Sergeant York (1941) and as Will Kane in High Noon (1952).
Frank James Cooper was born in Helena, Montana in 1901. His parents were English immigrants, Alice Cooper-Brazier and Charles Henry Cooper, a prominent lawyer, rancher, and eventually a state supreme court judge. Frank left school in 1918 and returned to the family ranch to help raise their five hundred head of cattle and work full-time as a cowboy. In 1919, his father arranged for his son to complete his high school education at Gallatin County High School in Bozeman, Montana. His English teacher, Ida W. Davis, played an important role in encouraging him to focus on academics, join the school's debating team, and become involved in dramatics. He was in a car accident as a teenager that caused him to walk with a limp the rest of his life. In the fall of 1924, Cooper's parents moved to Los Angeles to administer the estates of two relatives. Cooper joined them and there he met some cowboys from Montana who were working as film extras and stuntmen in low-budget Western films. Cooper decided to try his hand working as a film extra for five dollars a day, and as a stuntman for twice that amount. In early 1925, Cooper began his film career working as an extra and stuntman on Poverty Row in such silent Westerns as Riders of the Purple Sage (Lynn Reynolds, 1925) with Tom Mix, and The Trail Rider (W.S. Van Dyke, 1925) with Buck Jones. Cooper paid for a screen test and hired casting director Nan Collins to work as his agent. Collins changed his first name to ‘Gary’ after her hometown of Gary, Indiana. Cooper also worked in non-Western films. He appeared as a masked Cossack in The Eagle (Clarence Brown, 1925) with Rudolph Valentino, as a Roman guard in Ben-Hur (Fred Niblo, 1925) with Ramón Novarro, and as a flood survivor in The Johnstown Flood (Irving Cummings, 1926) with George O'Brien. Gradually he began to land credited roles that offered him more screen time, such as Tricks (Bruce M. Mitchell, 1925), in which he played the film's antagonist. As a featured player, he began to attract the attention of major film studios and in June 1926, Cooper signed a contract with Samuel Goldwyn Productions. His first important film role was in The Winning of Barbara Worth (Henry King, 1926) with Ronald Colman and Vilma Bánky. The film was a major success, and critics called Cooper a "dynamic new personality" and future star. Cooper signed a five-year contract with Jesse L. Lasky at Paramount Pictures for $175 per week. In 1927, with help from established silent film star Clara Bow, Cooper landed high-profile roles opposite her in Children of Divorce (Frank Lloyd, 1927) and Wings (William A. Wellman, 1927), the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. With each new film, Cooper's acting skills improved and his popularity continued to grow, especially among female movie-goers. He received a thousand fan letters per week. The studio placed him opposite popular leading ladies in films such as Beau Sabreur (John Waters, 1928) with Evelyn Brent, Half a Bride (Gregory La Cava, 1928) with Esther Ralston, and Lilac Time (George Fitzmaurice, 1928) with Colleen Moore. The latter introduced synchronized music and sound effects, and became one of the biggest box office hits of the year.
In 1929, Gary Cooper became a major film star with his first sound picture, The Virginian, (Victor Fleming, 1929). The Virginian was one of the first sound films to define the Western code of honour and helped establish many of the conventions of the Western genre. The romantic image of the tall, handsome, and shy cowboy hero that embodied male freedom, courage, and honour was created in large part by Cooper's performance in the film. Cooper transitioned naturally to the sound medium, with his deep, clear, and pleasantly drawling voice. One of the high points of Cooper's early career was his portrayal of a sullen legionnaire in Josef von Sternberg's Morocco (1930) with Marlene Dietrich in her American debut. Cooper produced one of his finest performances to that point in his career. In the Dashiell Hammett crime drama City Streets (Rouben Mamoulian, 1931) he played a misplaced cowboy in a big city who gets involved with gangsters to save the woman (Sylvia Sidney) he loves. After making ten films in two years Cooper was exhausted and had lost thirty pounds. In May 1931, he sailed to Algiers and then Italy, where he lived for the next year. During his time abroad, Cooper stayed with the Countess Dorothy di Frasso who taught him about good food and vintage wines, how to read Italian and French menus in the finest restaurants, and how to socialize among Europe's nobility and upper classes. In 1932, a healthy Cooper returned to Hollywood and negotiated a new contract with Paramount for two films per year, a salary of $4,000 per week, and director and script approval. He appeared opposite Helen Hayes in A Farewell to Arms (Frank Borzage, 1932), the first film adaptation of an Ernest Hemingway novel. Critics praised his highly intense and at times emotional performance, and the film went on to become one of the year's most commercially successful films. The following year, Cooper appeared in the Ernst Lubitsch comedy Design for Living (1933) with Miriam Hopkins and Fredric March, and based loosely on the successful Noël Coward play. Wikipedia: “The film received mixed reviews and did not do well at the box office, but Cooper's performance was singled out for its versatility and revealed his genuine ability to do light comedy”. Then, he appeared in his first of seven films by director Henry Hathaway, Now and Forever (1934), with Carole Lombard and Shirley Temple. The film was a box-office success. His next two Henry Hathaway films were the melodrama Peter Ibbetson (1935) with Ann Harding, about a man caught up in a dream world created by his love for a childhood sweetheart, and the romantic adventure The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935), about a daring British officer and his men who defend their stronghold at Bengal against rebellious local tribes. The latter was nominated for six Academy Awards and became one of Cooper's most popular and successful adventure films.
Gary Cooper returned to Poverty Row for the first time since his early silent film days to make Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (Frank Capra, 1936) with Jean Arthur for Columbia Pictures. Cooper plays the character of Longfellow Deeds, an innocent, sweet-natured writer of greeting cards who inherits a fortune, leaves behind his idyllic life in Vermont, and travels to New York where he faces a world of corruption and deceit. For his performance in Mr. Deeds, Cooper received his first Oscar nomination. In the adventure film The General Died at Dawn (Lewis Milestone, 1936) with Madeleine Carroll, he plays an American soldier of fortune in China who helps the peasants defend themselves against the oppression of a cruel warlord. Written by playwright Clifford Odets, the film was a critical and commercial success. In Cecil B. DeMille's sprawling frontier epic The Plainsman (1936) with Jean Arthur—his first of four films with the director—Cooper portrays Wild Bill Hickok in a highly-fictionalized version of the opening of the American western frontier. That year, Cooper appeared for the first time on the Motion Picture Herald exhibitor's poll of top ten film personalities, where he would remain for the next twenty-two years. In Ernst Lubitsch's romantic comedy Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938) with Claudette Colbert, Cooper plays a wealthy American businessman in France who falls in love with an impoverished aristocrat's daughter and persuades her to become his eighth wife. In the adventure film Beau Geste (William A. Wellman, 1939) with Ray Milland, he joined the French Foreign Legion to find adventure in the Sahara fighting local tribes. Wikipedia: “Beau Geste provided Cooper with magnificent sets, exotic settings, high-spirited action, and a role tailored to his personality and screen persona.” Cooper cemented his cowboy credentials in The Westerner (William Wyler, 1940). He won his first Academy Award for Best Actor in 1942 for his performance as Alvin York, the most decorated U.S. soldier from the Great War, in Sergeant York (Howard Hawks, 1941). Cooper worked with Ingrid Bergman in For Whom the Bell Tolls (Sam Wood, 1943) which earned him his third Oscar nomination. The film was based on a novel by Ernest Hemingway, with whom Cooper developed a strong friendship. On 23 October 1947, he appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee in Washington, not under subpoena but responding to an invitation to give testimony on the alleged infiltration of Hollywood by communists. Although he never said he regretted having been a friendly witness, as an independent producer, he hired blacklisted actors and technicians. He did say he had never wanted to see anyone lose the right to work, regardless of what he had done. Cooper won his second Oscar for his performance as Marshal Will Kane in High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952), one of his finest roles and a kind of come-back after a series of flops. He continued to play the lead in films almost to the end of his life. His later box office hits included the influential Western Vera Cruz (Robert Aldrich, 1954) in which he guns down villain Burt Lancaster in a showdown, William Wyler's Friendly Persuasion (1956), in which he portrays a Quaker farmer during the American Civil War, Billy Wilder's Love in the Afternoon (1957) with Audrey Hepburn, and the hard-edged action Western Man of the West (Anthony Mann, 1958), with Lee J. Cobb. Cooper's final film was the British-American co-production The Naked Edge (Michael Anderson, 1961). In April 1960, Cooper underwent surgery for prostate cancer after it had metastasized to his colon. But by the end of the year the cancer had spread to his lungs and bones. On 13 May 1961, six days after his sixtieth birthday, Gary Cooper died. The young and handsome Cooper had affairs with Clara Bow, Lupe Velez, Marlene Dietrich and Tallulah Bankhead. In 1933, he married socialite Veronica Balfe, who, billed as Sandra Shaw, enjoyed a short-lived acting career. They had an ‘open’ marriage and Cooper also had relationships with the actresses Grace Kelly, Anita Ekberg, and Patricia Neal. Sir Cecil Beaton also claimed to have had an affair with him.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 962. Photo: Paramount. Claudette Colbert and Henry Wilcoxon in Cleopatra (Cecil B. DeMille, 1934).
With her round apple-face, big eyes and charm, French-born Hollywood star Claudette Colbert (1903-1996) was the epitome of chic sophistication. Her comedies It Happened One Night (1934) - for which she won the Oscar, Midnight (1939) and The Palm Beach Story (1942) are among Hollywood's greatest ever. After more than 60 films, she returned with great success to the theatre, and was 84 years old when she won a Golden Globe for the TV mini-series The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1987).
Claudette Colbert was born Emilie ‘Lily’ Claudette Chauchoin in 1903 in Saint-Mandé, an eastern suburb of Paris, where her father owned a bakery. Her parents were Georges Claude Chauchoin and Jeanne Marie née Loew. In 1906 her family emigrated to New York. Though she did some acting in college, her primary interest was fashion design. She studied fashion when she met the writer Anne Morrison at a party who offered the 20-year-old student a small role in her play The Wild Westcotts (1923) on Broadway. She started to use the stage name Claudette Colbert. After signing a five-year contract with the producer Al Woods, Colbert played ingénue roles on Broadway from 1925 through 1929. British actor Leslie Howard, with whom she had a brief relationship in 1924, encouraged her and persuaded his friend the producer Al Woods to put her under contract but, despite personally good notices, she did not get into a major hit until The Barker (1927) with Walter Huston and Norman Foster. In The Barker she played a duplicitous snake charmer. She and Foster, later a Hollywood actor and director, were married the following year during the play's London run. Their marriage remained a secret for many years while they lived in separate homes. In Los Angeles, Colbert shared a home with her mother Jeanne Chauchoin, but her domineering mother disliked Foster and did not allow him into their home. Colbert and Foster divorced in 1935 in Mexico. Colbert's first film, For the Love of Mike (Frank Capra, 1927), was made during The Barker's Broadway run. The silent film is now believed to be lost. She was concerned that silent cinema failed to utilise her melodious voice, one of her greatest assets. The advent of talkies changed her attitude, and in 1929 she signed a Paramount contract. Only two of her first 15 films - The Big Pond (Hobart Henley, 1930) and The Smiling Lieutenant (Ernst Lubitsch, 1931), both co-starring Maurice Chevalier - were better than mediocre. Then Cecil B. De Mille asked her to play Nero (Charles Laughton)'s unscrupulous wife Poppaea in the Biblical epic The Sign of the Cross (1932). Her performance was acclaimed, while her bath in asses' milk received immense publicity and has become a famous scene in Hollywood history. Columbia offered her the role of a spoiled heiress in It Happened One Night (Frank Capra, 1934). Colbert was initially reluctant to appear in the screwball comedy and demanded to be paid $50,000 - twice her usual pay - and that filming was to be completed within four weeks to allow her to take a planned vacation. Tom Valance at The Independent: “the role gave her the chance to work with Clark Gable, who had been forced by his studio, MGM, to do the film. Neither star initially expected much of the low-budget comedy which won five Oscars. Colbert was in fact boarding a train for New York on the night of the ceremony when she was stopped and rushed back to accept her Best Actress award from Shirley Temple.” The madcap comedy was a mega-hit all across the country. Two more big hits consolidated her status. She played the title role in the lavish but inaccurate Cleopatra (Cecil B. De Mille, 1934), then starred in Imitation of Life (John Stahl, 1934), a trenchant study of racial intolerance. It was based on Fannie Hurst's novel about a young widow who becomes a millionairess marketing the pancake recipe of her black friend (Louise Beavers). While the widow and her daughter move into society, the friend insists on keeping in the background, and when her light-skinned daughter, who faces exclusion and prejudice where her counterpart has privilege and opportunity, tries to pass for white and disowns her mother tragedy follows.
In 1935, Claudette Colbert was named one of the top 10 money-making stars, a position she was to hold again in 1936 and 1947. Fred MacMurray had his first major role in her next film, The Gilded Lily (Wesley Ruggles, 1935), and the two would go on to co-star in six more films. Charles Boyer, co-star of Colbert's next film, Private Worlds (Gregory La Cava, 1935), and not yet fully conversant with the English language, would also acknowledge the support he received from the actress, who won a second Oscar nomination for her performance as a psychiatrist in this grim story of mental illness. Wikipedia: “Colbert was a stickler for perfection regarding the way she appeared on screen. She believed that her face was difficult to light and photograph, and was obsessed with not showing the right side of her face to the camera, because of a small bump resulting from a childhood broken nose. She often refused to be filmed from the right side of her face, and this sometimes necessitated redesigning movie sets.” Colbert's first marriage ended in 1935 while she was making She Married Her Boss (Gregory La Cava, 1935). The same year she married Joel Pressman, a throat specialist and surgeon at UCLA, who remained her husband until his death in 1968. Colbert's role in Under Two Flags (Frank Lloyd, 1936), based on Ouida's tale of the Foreign Legion, was an unusual one for her, that of the tempestuous camp-follower "Cigarette" who sacrifices herself for love of a soldier (Ronald Colman). For the same director she starred in Maid of Salem (Frank Lloyd, 1937), an account of the 1692 witch-hunts in Massachusetts. Colbert never seemed entirely comfortable in period pieces, and both audiences and critics were happy when she returned to modern comedy with I Met Him In Paris (Wesley Ruggles, 1937) and Tovarich (Anatole Litvak, 1937), in which she and Charles Boyer were impoverished Russian nobility working as maid and butler in a Parisian household. Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (Ernst Lubitsch, 1938), with a screenplay by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, based on a 1923 Gloria Swanson silent film, was a disappointment. After a promising start in which Colbert meets Gary Cooper in a Riviera store where she is trying to buy pyjama bottoms while he is trying to purchase just the tops, it becomes contrived and frantic rather than funny. Zaza (George Cukor, 1939), in which Colbert sang several songs as a French music-hall star, was another failure. Then followed one of her greatest films, the Cinderella-inspired screwball comedy Midnight (1939), directed by Mitchell Leisen and brilliantly written by Brackett and Wilder. Colbert next appeared with Henry Fonda in the Western Drums Along the Mohawk (John Ford, 1939), her first film in colour, as a farmer's wife coping with rugged conditions and hostile Indians. Boom Town (Jack Conway, 1940) was one of her most popular films, due to its star-power of Gable, Colbert, Spencer Tracy and Hedy Lamarr.
Claudette Colbert cited as her own favourite film Arise My Love (Mitchell Leisen, 1940), set just after the Spanish Civil War. Tom Valance in The Independent: “it has some splendidly romantic, dramatic and comic moments as Colbert, playing a reporter, pretends to be the wife of a condemned soldier of fortune (Ray Milland) to save him from a Spanish firing squad, then inevitably falls in love with him. Brackett and Wilder's screenplay tried to keep pace with changing events in Europe (the story ends after the invasion of France) which resulted in some uneasy shifts of mood in an otherwise impressive work.” Better still was Henry King's warmly charming piece of Americana Remember The Day (Henry King, 1941), in which Colbert gave a glowing performance as a school teacher who while visiting a now-famous former pupil recalls the past and her sweetheart who was killed in the First World War. Preston Sturges' The Palm Beach Story (1942) is one of the screen's greatest screwball comedies and contains the sequence Colbert later cited as her favourite comic scene. Having left her husband to find a millionaire to finance his inventions, she is climbing into a train's upper berth when she steps on the face and glasses of a rich passenger (Rudy Vallee). During the Second World War Colbert's husband, Joel Pressman, became a navy lieutenant and she spent much time selling war bonds and working for the war effort. Two of her major films were effective wartime propaganda: So Proudly We Hail (Mark Sandrich, 1943), a tribute to the nurses in Bataan and Since You Went Away (John Cromwell, 1944), producer David O. Selznick's ambitious three-hour tribute to the families at home. Colbert considered hard before taking the role of the mother to two teenage girls, but it became one of her finest, most deeply felt performances, representing the women left to raise families while their husbands are at war. In one remarkably touching scene Colbert, who has taken a job at a munitions factory, converses with a refugee, now a naturalised American (Alla Nazimova). For the part, she received her third Academy Award nomination, but lost to Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight. She appeared in such mild comedies as Practically Yours (Mitchell Leisen, 1944), and tepid dramas as Tomorrow is Forever (Irving Pichel, 1946) with Orson Welles. Colbert and Fred MacMurray had an enormous box-office hit with The Egg and I (Chester Erskine, 1947) as a city couple trying to run a farm, but the slapstick (lots of falling about in the mud) was far from the sophistication Colbert purveyed so expertly. Three Came Home (Jean Negulesco, 1950) gave her a strong dramatic role as Agnes Newton Keith, a true-life American authoress captured when the Japanese invaded Borneo in 1941. Her scenes with Sessue Hayakawa (as the cultured prison camp commander) were memorable in a gripping film which was too grim to be a major hit. Colbert had appeared on radio regularly throughout her career, and in 1951 she made her television debut on The Jack Benny Show. Other appearances included The Royal Family of Broadway (1954), The Guardsman (1955) and Blithe Spirit (1956), with Noel Coward and Lauren Bacall. In 1951 she also returned to the stage, with a tour of Noel Coward's Island Fling (later known as South Sea Bubble). She went to Britain to star with Jack Hawkins in The Planter's Wife (Ken Annakin, 1952) based on the native terrorism being faced by rubber planters. The film was a hit in Britain. The following year Colbert went to France to play a mistress of Louis XIV in Sacha Guitry's lavish Si Versailles m'était conté/Royal Affairs in Versailles (1953). She returned to Broadway in 1955, replacing Margaret Sullavan in Janus, then in 1958 starred in a new play, Leslie Stevens's The Marriage- Go-Round. The play was a hit and Colbert won a Tony nomination. Her last film was Parrish (Delmer Daves, 1961), a soap opera in which Colbert played the mother of Troy Donahue. She continued to make Broadway appearances, among them The Irregular Verb To Love (1963), The Kingfisher (1978) and A Talent For Murder (1981), and she returned to the London stage in Frederick Lonsdale's Aren't We All? (1984) opposite Rex Harrison. For her television work in the mini-series The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (John Erman, 1987) she received a Golden Globe and a nomination for an Emmy Award. Claudette Colbert spent much of her time at the 200-year-old plantation house she and her husband had bought long ago in Barbados, and she also had a flat in Paris and an apartment on the East Side of New York. After three strokes, she died in Barbados in 1996 at the age of 92.
Tom Vallance in The Independent: “It is no accident, surely, that she flourished at that most European of studios, Paramount, home of Lubitsch and Chevalier, Mamoulian, Von Sternberg and Wilder. Her distinctive high-cheekboned beauty and the throaty individuality of her voice were complemented by superb comic timing and fine technical skill honed by an extensive apprenticeship in the theatre. She could be warmly compassionate in romantic drama but was unsurpassable in sophisticated comedy.”
Sources: Tom Vallance (The Independent), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Denny Jackson (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
Late August, given heavy rain and sun
for a full week, the blackberries would ripen.
At first, just one, a glossy purple clot
among others, red, green, hard as a knot.
You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet
like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it
leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for
picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger
sent us out with milk-cans, pea-tins, jam-pots
where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.
Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills
we trekked and picked until the cans were full,
until the tinkling bottom had been covered
with green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned
like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered
with thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's.
We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.
But when the bath was filled we found a fur,
A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.
The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush
the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.
I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair
that all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.
Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not.
- Seamus Heaney
MRS. GUNNESS' PRIVATE GRAVE-YARD -- STARS MARK
PLACES WHERE BODIES WERE FOUND -- SURROUNDED
BY TIGHT WIRE FENCE -- LAPORTE, IND. MAY 1908.
Date: 1908
Source Type: Postcard
Publisher, Printer, Photographer: Cyko
Postmark: May 22, 1908, Wellsboro, Indiana
Collection: Steven R. Shook
Remark: Belle Gunness, often referred to as the Lady Bluebeard, is considered to be the first American female serial killer.
Born in 1858 in Selbu, Norway, Belle Gunness emigrated to America in the mid 1880s. Belle married Mads Sorenson in 1893, and together they operated a store in Chicago. The store burned down, and Mads and Belle collected insurance on the property. Mads Sorenson died in 1900, with Belle collecting approximately $8,000 through his life insurance policy.
On April 1, 1902, Belle married Peter Gunness in LaPorte, Indiana. Together, Peter and Belle owned and operated a small farm on McClung Road in LaPorte County. Belle again collected insurance on a husband when Peter died after a coffee grinder allegedly fell from a shelf hitting him on the head. Following Peter's death, Belle began advertising in Norwegian language newspapers in America for a husband.
Several suitors answered Belle's advertisements. However, many of these potential bridegrooms would suddenly leave in the night, leading Belle's 18 year old niece, Jenny Olson, to be suspicious as to their welfare. Jenny then mysteriously disappeared, though Belle told friends and neighbors that she had left for schooling in California.
The final man to respond to Belle's advertisement was Andrew Helgelein. Belle requested that Andrew sell his property and bring his money (about $3,000) to LaPorte, which he did in 1908. Andrew's brother, Asa Helgelein became suspicious when letters from Andrew ceased to arrive. Asa therefore traveled to LaPorte County to inquire about the welfare of his brother.
In the early morning of April 28, 1908, the Gunness farmhouse burned to the ground. The Gunness children were found in the ashes of the home, as well as the body of a headless woman. This headless body, however, was much smaller in size than the rotund stature of Belle's body. After sluicing through the ashes of the home, dental work reportedly to be Belle's was found. Asa Helgelein arrived several days after the fire, and at his urging, the LaPorte County Sheriff began to further investigate the fire and Belle's relations with out-of-town men. The investigation turned into a national sensation, as numerous bodies were soon found to be buried on Belle's farm..
The remains of Andrew Helgelein were the first to be found, buried in a shallow grave in the garden. Jenny Olson's body was soon discovered nearby. In all, at least twelve other bodies were recovered from the property. It has been estimated that Belle may have buried forty men on the farm.
Enormous crowds, numbering in the thousands, visited the farm during the investigation. Special trains from Chicago and Indianapolis, as well as from other towns and cities, brought curious onlookers to the farm. Picnics were common. A farm building was used as a temporary morgue, where onlookers could view the remains as they were recovered and put on display. Numerous postcards were produced and sold during and after the investigation.
Ray Lamphere, a farm hand of Belle's, was eventually charged with murder and arson. Though not convicted of murder, Lamphere was found guilty of arson and incarcerated in the nearby Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, where he died a few years later. While in prison, Lamphere maintained that Belle had escaped and insisted that her body was not found in the debris of the burnt house. Lamphere's statement led to numerous reported sightings of Belle Gunness across the United States for many years, none of which were ever confirmed.
Copyright 2010. Some rights reserved. The associated text may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Steven R. Shook.
2014-09-20, Pentax K-r and Tamron SP 90mm Macro MF,
f/22, 1/125sec. ISO=800, -0.5EV, using tripod, crop, adjust contrast.
Italian postcard in the Artisti di Sempre series by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 347.
American actress Raquel Welch (1940) is one of the icons of the 1960s and 1970s. She first won attention for her role in Fantastic Voyage (1966). In Great Britain, she then made One Million Years B.C. (1966). Although she had only three lines in the film, a poster of Welch in a furry prehistoric bikini became an amazing bestseller and catapulted her to stardom.
Raquel Welch was born Jo Raquel Tejada in 1940 in Chicago, Illinois. She was the first of three children born to Bolivian Armando Carlos Tejada Urquizo, an aerospace engineer, and his Irish-American wife Josephine Sarah Hall, who was the daughter of American architect Emery Stanford Hall. At age 14, she won her first beauty title beauty title as Miss Photogenic. She graduated from high school in 1958 and a year later, after becoming pregnant, married her high school sweetheart, James Welch. Seeking an acting career, Welch won a scholarship in drama,took classes at San Diego State College and won several parts in local theatre productions. She got a job as a weather forecaster at KFMB, a local San Diego television station. After her separation from James Welch, she moved with her two children to Dallas, Texas, where she worked as a model for Neiman Marcus and as a cocktail waitress. In 1963, she went to California, where she met former child star and Hollywood agent Patrick Curtis who became her personal and business manager and second husband. They developed a plan to turn Welch into a sex symbol. After small roles in a few films and TV series, she had her first featured role in the beach film A Swingin' Summer (Robert Sparr, 1965). She landed a seven-year nonexclusive contract at 20th Century Fox and was cast in a leading role in the sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage (Richard Fleischer, 1966) opposite Stephen Boyd. Welch portrayed a member of a medical team that is miniaturized and injected into the body of an injured diplomat with the mission to save his life. The film was a hit and made her a star. Fox Studio loaned her to Hammer Studios in Britain where she starred in One Million Years B.C. (Don Chaffey, 1966). Her only costume was a two-piece deer skin bikini. Gary Brumburgh at MDb: "Tantalizingly wet with her garb clinging to all the right amazonian places, One Million Years B.C. (1966), if nothing else, captured the hearts and libidos of modern men (not to mention their teenage sons) while producing THE most definitive and best-selling pin-up poster of that time. Welch stayed in Europe for the French comedy Le Plus Vieux Métier du monde/The Oldest Profession (Michael Pfleghar a.o., 1967) and the British seven-deadly-sins comedy Bedazzled (Stanley Donen, 1967). She played the deadly sin representing 'lust' for the comedy team of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. In Britain, she was also the title secret agent in the sexy spy spoof Fathom (Leslie H. Martinson, 1967). In Italy, she starred with Monica Vitti and Claudia Cardinale in Le Fate/The Queens (Mauro Bolognini, 1966) and with Edward G. Robinson and Vittorio de Sica in The Biggest Bundle of Them All (Ken Annakin, 1968). Back in the United States she appeared in the Western Bandolero! (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1968) with James Stewart and Dean Martin, which was followed by the private-eye drama Lady in Cement (Gordon Douglas, 1968) with Frank Sinatra. She caused quite a stir in her ground-breaking sex scenes with black athlete Jim Brown in the Western 100 Rifles (Tom Gries, 1969).
Raquel Welch's most controversial role came in the comedy Myra Breckinridge (Michael Sarne, 1970), based on Gore Vidal's 1968 novel. She took the part as the film's transsexual heroine in an attempt to be taken seriously as an actress. The picture was controversial for its sexual explicitness, but unlike the novel, Myra Breckinridge received little to no critical praise. It is cited in the book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time. Jason Ankeny at AllMovie: "Her situation was unusual; she was certainly a star and a household name, yet few people ever went to see her movies." Welch took a measure of control over her screen persona, producing and starring in Hannie Calder (Burt Kennedy, 1971), the first film in which she carved out a place in movie history portraying strong female characters and breaking the mould of the submissive sex symbol. She altered the image further with Kansas City Bomber (Jerrold Freedman, 1972), insisting on doing her own stunts as good-hearted roller derby star Diane 'KC' Carr. She followed that with a series of successful films in Europe that included the thriller Bluebeard (Edward Dmytryk, 1972) starring Richard Burton, the swashbuckler The Three Musketeers (Richard Lester, 1973) - for which she won a Golden Globe, the sequel The Four Musketeers (Richard Lester, 1974) both with Oliver Reed and Michael York, and The Wild Party (James Ivory, 1975). A big hit in Europe was the French action-comedy L'Animal/Animal (Claude Zidi, 1977) starring Jean-Paul Belmondo. Raquel Welch's unique persona on film made her into one the reigning icons of the 1960s and 70s. Later, she made several television variety specials. In 1980, Welch planned on making a comeback in an adaptation of John Steinbeck's Cannery Row (David S. Ward, 1982), but was fired by the producers a few days into production. The producers said that at 40 years old she was too old to play the character. She was replaced with Debra Winger. Welch sued and collected a $10.8 million settlement. She starred on Broadway in Woman of the Year, receiving praise for following Lauren Bacall in the title role. She also starred in Victor/Victoria, having less success. In 1995, Welch was chosen by Empire Magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in Film History. Her later films include the hit comedy Legally Blonde (Robert Luketic, 2001), starring Reese Witherspoon, and Forget About It (BJ Davis, 2006) with Burt Reynolds. Welch was married four times and is the mother of Damon Welch (1959) and actress Tahnee Welch (1961).
Sources: Jason Ankeny (AllMovie), TCM, Wikipedia and IMDb.
1970's Long John Silver's Kid's meal
choices:
1. Ben Gunn - fish and fries (Ben Gunn yellow fork)
2. Billy Bones - chicken "peg legs" and fries (Billy Bones red fork)
3. Bart Bluebeard - fish, chicken, and fries (Bart Bluebeard blue fork)
There appears to be at least two different versions of each fork.
One set of designs match the friendly character design from the Pirate Crew Coin set, the other set (may have been earliest) design of the forks did not have as friendly character expressions.
There was also a colorful paper pirate ship the food and special fork were placed, the paper food container had the three main pirate characters
drawn on the ship.
HFF
Happy Fence Friday
W-s-M August 2013
Blackberry-Picking
Late August, given heavy rain and sun
For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.
At first, just one, a glossy purple clot
Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.
You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet
Like thickened wine: summer’s blood was in it
Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for
Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger
Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots
Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.
Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills
We trekked and picked until the cans were full
Until the tinkling bottom had been covered
With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned
Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered
With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard’s.
We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.
But when the bath was filled we found a fur,
A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.
The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush
The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.
I always felt like crying. It wasn’t fair
That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.
Each year I hoped they’d keep, knew they would not.
Seamus Heaney, 13th April 1939 – 30th August 2013
Cant believe how quickly summer has just disappeared this year, of course there wasn't that much of it to begin with, but Autumn has completely taken over around here today!
Here's a few bees putting in some autumnal overtime as no one has told them they can clock off yet.
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©2011 Jason Swain, All Rights Reserved
This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.
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Links to my website, facebook and twitter can be found on my flickr profile
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On the wooded domain of Château d’Arnac, near a lake hides The Gate House, a charming hotel of two suites only. Despite the noise of water slowly running down and the little birds chirping, we could even believe that Bluebeard imprisoned his wife behind these thick and mysterious walls. Don’t worry though, the Gate House definitely is a chic and zen retreat for anxious travelers!
On three stories, the hotel offers the atmosphere of any country house, or even of an English cottage: living room with a fire place, ideal to read and have a cup of tea, fitted kitchen and private garden to tan in the summer. We helplessly fall for the charm of the ancient furniture, the exposed stone walls and majestic floors. We would almost like to buy The Gate House and make it our second, and why not main home…
The hotel is saving you two beautiful and luminous suites overlooking the lake facing the residence. On the menu, luxury and more luxury with a black marble bathroom, Manuel Canovas wallpapers, fabrics from Colefax and Fowler and a canopy bed in the suite nestled under an arched wooden ceiling on the last floor. Magical!
There’s no doubt that such a romantic décor will make you never want to leave when holidays come to an end!
A little extra: The price of your stay includes breakfast, a bottle of champagne when you arrive, fresh fruit, flowers and lighting the fire in the winter!
Rates: From €520 for two nights to €1,717 for 7 night during the high season (from April to October).
Booking on Hoosta.com
The Gate House
Château d’Arnac
19 120 Nonards
France
Check the most beautiful hotels selected by Hoosta Magazine and our chics addresses just here.
To visit and join the Hoosta Luxury Hotels Collection community… Check in.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 51592, 1930-1931. Photo: Radio Pictures (RKO). Bebe Daniels and John Boles in Rio Rita (Luther Reed, 1929).
Bebe Daniels (1901-1971) was an American actress, singer, dancer, writer and producer. She began her career in Hollywood during the silent film era as a child actress and later the love interest of Harold Lloyd in dozens of short comedies. Cecil B. de Mille made her a silent star and later she sang and danced in early musicals like Rio Rita (1929) and 42nd Street (1933). In Great Britain, she gained further fame on stage, radio and television. In her long career, Bebe Daniels appeared in 230 films.
Phyllis Virginia Daniels was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1901. Bebe was her childhood nickname. Her father was a theatre manager and her mother was stage and silent film actress Phyllis Daniels. The family moved to Los Angeles, California in her childhood and she began her acting career at the age of four in the stage play The Squaw Man. That same year she also went on tour in a stage production of William Shakespeare's Richard III. The following year she participated in productions by Oliver Morosco and David Belasco. By the age of eight Daniels made her film debut as the young heroine in A Common Enemy (Otis Turner, 1910). Then she starred as Dorothy Gale in the short The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Otis Turner, 1910), the earliest surviving film version of L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, made by the Selig Polyscope Company. It was later followed by the sequels Dorothy and the Scarecrow in Oz (1910), The Land of Oz (1910) and John Dough and the Cherub (1910), all considered to be lost films. At the age of fourteen Bebe was enlisted by studio head Hal Roach to pair her with very young and talented Harold Lloyd and also Snub Pollard in a series of two-reel comedies starting with Giving Them Fits (Hal Roach, 1915). At the time, Harold Lloyd was trying to ape Charlie Chaplin in his character, 'Lonesome Luke'. Roach made 80 short comedies featuring Harold as Luke with Bebe playing his love interest between 1915 and 1917, including Bughouse Bellhops (Hal Roach, 1915), Tinkering with Trouble (Hal Roach, 1915) and Ruses, Rhymes and Roughnecks (Hal Roach, 1915). Lloyd and the charming and spunky Daniels eventually became known as ‘The Boy and The Girl’ in such shorts as Bliss (Alfred J. Goulding, 1917), The Non-stop Kid (Gilbert Pratt, 1918) and Young Mr. Jazz (Hal Roach, 1919). Stephan Eichenberg at IMDb: “Lloyd fell hard for Bebe and seriously considered marrying her, but her drive to pursue a film career along with her sense of independence clashed with Lloyd's Victorian definition of a wife.” After 200 shorts for Hal Roach Studios. Bebe decided to move to greater dramatic roles and accepted a contract from Cecil B. DeMille in 1919. He gave her secondary roles in such feature films as Male and Female (Cecil B. DeMille, 1919) starring Gloria Swanson,, Why Change Your Wife? (Cecil B. DeMille, 1920), and The Affairs of Anatol (Cecil B. DeMille, 1921), with Wallace Reid.
In the 1920s, Bebe Daniels was under contract with Paramount Pictures, and made the transition from child star to adult in Hollywood. The now lost comedy The Speed Girl (Maurice Campbell, 1921) was supposedly expanded into a screenplay from Daniels's real life jail sentence of 10 days for multiple speeding tickets. The film poster shows her walking out of a jail cell. At the time the 20-year-old was already a veteran film actress. By 1924 Bebe was playing Rudolph Valentino’s love interest in the costume drama Monsieur Beaucaire (Sidney Olcott, 1924). Paramount spared no expense on the film from the sets, costumes down to the musical soundtrack that accompanied it upon it's release. Following this she was cast in a number of light popular films, namely Miss Bluebeard (Frank Tuttle, 1925), The Manicure Girl (Frank Tuttle, 1925), and Wild Wild Susan (A. Edward Sutherland, 1925) with Rod LaRocque. Paramount dropped her contract with the advent of talking pictures. Daniels was hired by Radio Pictures (later known as RKO) to star opposite John Boles in one of their biggest productions of the year, the talkie Rio Rita (Luther Reed, 1929). Its finale was photographed in two-color Technicolor. The musical comedy, based on the 1927 stage musical produced by legendary showman Florenz Ziegfeld, proved to be the studio's biggest box office hit until King Kong (1933). Daniels found herself a star and RCA Victor hired her to record several records for their catalogue. Radio Pictures starred her in lavish musicals such as Dixiana (Luther Reed, 1930) and Love Comes Along (Rupert Julian, 1930).
Toward the end of 1930, Bebe Daniels appeared opposite Douglas Fairbanks in the musical comedy Reaching for the Moon (Edmund Goulding, 1930). However, by this time musicals had gone out of fashion so that most of the musical numbers from the film had to be removed before it could be released. Daniels had become associated with musicals and so Radio Pictures did not renew her contract. Warner Bros. realized what a box office draw she was and offered her a contract which she accepted. During her years at Warner Bros. she starred in such pictures as the drama My Past (Roy Del Ruth, 1931), Honor of the Family (Lloyd Bacon, 1931) and the pre-code version of The Maltese Falcon (Roy Del Ruth, 1931), based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett and with Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade. The Maltese Falcon was a huge success for Warner and garnered rave reviews for Bebe and Cortez. In 1932, she appeared opposite Edward G. Robinson in Silver Dollar (Alfred E. Green, 1932) and the successful Busby Berkeley choreographed musical extravaganza 42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon, 1933) in which she played the star of a stage musical who breaks her ankle. The backstage musical was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. That same year Daniels played opposite John Barrymore in the enjoyable Counsellor at Law (William Wyler, 1933). The film was another box office smash. Her last film for Warner Bros. was Registered Nurse (Robert Florey, 1934).
Bebe Daniels retired from Hollywood in 1935. She had been a working actress for 30 years. With her husband, film actor Ben Lyon, whom she had married in 1930, she moved to London. Daniels and Lyon had two children: daughter Barbara (1932) and a son Richard whom they adopted. In England, they had found a quiet place in the countryside to raise their family. They starred in the British comedy crime film Treachery on the High Seas (Emil E. Reinert, 1936) with Charles Farrell. They also wanted to go back to the theatre. A few years later, Daniels starred in the London production of Panama Hattie in the title role originated by Ethel Merman. The Lyons then did radio shows for the BBC. Most notably, they starred in the radio series Hi Gang!, continuing for decades and enjoying considerable popularity during World War II. Daniels wrote most of the dialogue for the Hi Gang radio show. There was also the spin-off film Hi Gang! (Marcel Varnel, 1941) in which they starred opposite Vic Oliver). The couple stayed in London , broadcasting even during the worst days of The Blitz of WWII. Ben signed up for the Royal Air Force while Bebe kept the home fires burning in between appearing in the occasional stage play. Following the war, Daniels was awarded the Medal of Freedom by Harry S Truman for war service. In 1945 she returned to Hollywood for a short time to work as a film producer for Hal Roach and Eagle-Lion Films. She returned to the UK in 1948 and lived there for the remainder of her life. Daniels, her husband, her son Richard and her daughter Barbara all starred in the radio sitcom Life With The Lyons (1951-1961), which later made the transition to two films and to television (1955-1960). Daniels’ final film The Lyons in Paris (Val Guest, 1955). Bebe Daniels suffered a severe stroke in 1963 and withdrew from public life. She suffered a second stroke in late 1970. In 1971, Daniels died of a cerebral hemorrhage in London at the age of 70. Her ashes would eventually be interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood California. Upon his death in 1979, Ben Lyon's remains were interred next to Daniels'.
Sources: Stephan Eichenberg (IMDb), Page (My Love of Old Hollywood), Shawn Dwyer (TCM), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
GUNNESS FARM.
Date: 1908
Source Type: Postcard
Publisher, Printer, Photographer: Cyko
Postmark: None
Collection: Steven R. Shook
Remark: Belle Gunness, often referred to as the Lady Bluebeard, is considered to be the first American female serial killer.
Born in 1858 in Selbu, Norway, Belle Gunness emigrated to America in the mid 1880s. Belle married Mads Sorenson in 1893, and together they operated a store in Chicago. The store burned down, and Mads and Belle collected insurance on the property. Mads Sorenson died in 1900, with Belle collecting approximately $8,000 through his life insurance policy.
On April 1, 1902, Belle married Peter Gunness in LaPorte, Indiana. Together, Peter and Belle owned and operated a small farm on McClung Road in LaPorte County. Belle again collected insurance on a husband when Peter died after a coffee grinder allegedly fell from a shelf hitting him on the head. Following Peter's death, Belle began advertising in Norwegian language newspapers in America for a husband.
Several suitors answered Belle's advertisements. However, many of these potential bridegrooms would suddenly leave in the night, leading Belle's 18 year old niece, Jenny Olson, to be suspicious as to their welfare. Jenny then mysteriously disappeared, though Belle told friends and neighbors that she had left for schooling in California.
The final man to respond to Belle's advertisement was Andrew Helgelein. Belle requested that Andrew sell his property and bring his money (about $3,000) to LaPorte, which he did in 1908. Andrew's brother, Asa Helgelein became suspicious when letters from Andrew ceased to arrive. Asa therefore traveled to LaPorte County to inquire about the welfare of his brother.
In the early morning of April 28, 1908, the Gunness farmhouse burned to the ground. The Gunness children were found in the ashes of the home, as well as the body of a headless woman. This headless body, however, was much smaller in size than the rotund stature of Belle's body. After sluicing through the ashes of the home, dental work reportedly to be Belle's was found. Asa Helgelein arrived several days after the fire, and at his urging, the LaPorte County Sheriff began to further investigate the fire and Belle's relations with out-of-town men. The investigation turned into a national sensation, as numerous bodies were soon found to be buried on Belle's farm.
The remains of Andrew Helgelein were the first to be found, buried in a shallow grave in the garden. Jenny Olson's body was soon discovered nearby. In all, at least twelve other bodies were recovered from the property. It has been estimated that Belle may have buried forty men on the farm.
Enormous crowds, numbering in the thousands, visited the farm during the investigation. Special trains from Chicago and Indianapolis, as well as from other towns and cities, brought curious onlookers to the farm. Picnics were common. A farm building was used as a temporary morgue, where onlookers could view the remains as they were recovered and put on display. Numerous postcards were produced and sold during and after the investigation.
Ray Lamphere, a farm hand of Belle's, was eventually charged with murder and arson. Though not convicted of murder, Lamphere was found guilty of arson and incarcerated in the nearby Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, where he died a few years later. While in prison, Lamphere maintained that Belle had escaped and insisted that her body was not found in the debris of the burnt house. Lamphere's statement led to numerous reported sightings of Belle Gunness across the United States for many years, none of which were ever confirmed.
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