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American cartoonist Gary Larson, the creator of The Far Side, a single-panel cartoon series that was syndicated internationally to newspapers for 15 years. The series ended with Larson's retirement on January 1, 1995. His 23 books of collected cartoons have combined sales of more than 45 million copies. [wikipedia]
From this reference photo
Sample of his ginius work can be found by typing his name in the google search bar...
Pencil, watercolor pencil, markers in sketch book, displayed inside a digital frame here
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• aka Hindu Palace, a private residence designed by Miami Beach architect August Geiger (1887-1968) • known for his Mediterranean Revival-style buildings & his projects w/ "Mr. Miami Beach," Carl Fisher • later the Dade County School Board architect
• the building's design was loosely based on a temporary set built for the motion picture Lucky Charm • the film, said to be one of the first shot in Miami, was produced by Fox, directed by Richard Stanton & starred William Farnum & Anna Luther
• part of the movie was shot at Spring Garden, a new residential development on the north bank of the Miami River • advertised as "the most exclusive subdivision in Miami" (and now the oldest on the river) • lot sales continued during the filming
• Spring Garden developer John Seybold (1872-1940), an immigrant from Germany, was a prominent Miami baker & businessman • knowing the publicity value of a Hollywood movie shooting in a small town of ~30,000 residents, he ran an ad in the Miami Metropolis inviting the public to visit the shoot (and hopefully check out the lots for sale) • a large crowd arrived & was horrified as the leading man, Farnum, narrowly escaped immolation when a grass hut collapsed in flames • the movie, now considered lost, was released in 1919 as The Jungle Trail
• after the shoot, with the film's large temple set still fresh in the town's collective memory, Seybold built this permanent version where the temporary one had stood • the exotic new residence became a Spring Garden landmark, its signature cupolas soon echoed by the nearby 12th Ave. bridge tender houses
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• When Seybold purchased the Spring Garden property in 1913, it already had a colorful history • from the late 1890s to the early yrs. of the 20th c., the point at the junction of the Miami River & Wagner Creek – now Spring Garden Point Park — was the site of Alligator Joe's Crocodile and Alligator Farm, a tourist attraction owned by Warren Frazee (1873-1915), aka Alligator Joe • his main business was shipping animal hides & eggs to U.S. markets, e.g., 600 alligator hides & 2,892 alligator eggs shipped in 1898 • won $200 staging an alligator vs. crocodile fight (the gator won) —Florida's Warren Frazee — The Original Alligator Joe, Jim Broton, Tequesta, Issue 68, 2008
• when the Hindu Temple was completed, Seybold immediately sold it to Lillian and Charles O. Richardson, who had lived in Miami since 1897 • their new residence was close to a cluster of popular attractions on the north fork of the Miami River, one owned by Richardson • successive generations of the family occupied the house until 1990
• Charles O. Richardson (1868-1935), actor & theater operator, is said to have exhibited the state's first motion picture • his Miami tourist venue began as Richardson Grove (aka Richardson Plantation), founded in 1896 by his father, Otis Richardson (c. 1819-1901) • located on the S. bank of the river, close to today's 25th Ave. • in the renamed Musa Isle Fruit Farm, the word Musa being the botanical genus of bananas • became a favorite stop on river tours
• in 1907 Richardson sold the farm to John A. Roop (1866-1962), who dropped "Fruit Farm" from Musa Isle's name • Richardson returned to the theater business • purchased the Alcazar Theater & attempted to provide Miami's 1st air-conditioning by raising the floor & installing a fan to blow air, cooled by ice blocks, through holes under the seats —The Early Years Upriver by Donald C. Gaby, Tequesta 48 (1988)
• Musa Isle's new owner, erected an observation tower at what is now NW 22nd Ave • in 1919, he leased a section of the grove to a Seminole named Willie Willie (c. 1886-1929), presumably to compensate for reduced income following a 1917 hard freeze that wiped out the the crop & damaged his fruit trees • the move was also a response to a Coppinger's, a competitor on the river who had opened a Seminole village that was attracting the tourist boats • in 1921, on his newly leased land, Willie Willie established the Musa Isle Seminole Village & Trading Post, where trappers brought their bounty for sale to wholesalers
• Willie Willie was unique in that he was comfortable among whites & in fact married to a non-Indian • outside of the village he wore stylish clothes • his frequent speeding tickets warranted notices in the Miami Herald • profits from his various enterprises were an estimated $50K annually, equal to about $600K in 2016 dollars • “[He] had more money than he could use. He married outside his tribe and burned up the highways in his high priced car. However, Alan W. Davis, a hunter who became the foreman of the Musa Isle Indian Vilage, and Lucien A. Spencer, the special commissioner of the Seminole Agency, identified the sale of egret plumes as the business in which Willie Willie made his real money." —The Enduring Seminoles: From Alligator Wrestling to Ecotourism, Patsy West
• in 1911-12, Cardale Resort, with a skating rink, dance floor & the ~90 foot observation tower, opened in Cardale Grove (formerly Richardson Grove) at Musa Isle • the telescope-equipped tower offered expansive views of Miami & the adjacent Everglades • guests arrived at Cardale Landing via the Cardale boat (aka Car' dale, Car Dale)
• horticulturist & landscape designer Henry Coppinger Sr. (1848-1924), an Irish immigrant, arrived in S. Florida c. 1898 • in 1911 he purchased 10 acres of south bank riverfront property near Musa Isle • after trading for an adjacent, less rocky parcel at S.W. 19th Ave., he created a botanical garden to grow, hybridize & sell exotic plants • named the venture Coppinger's Tropical Gardens • Henry Coppinger hybrids soon decorated homes throughout the city
• in 1914 the attraction opened to tourists, featuring a Seminole camp that was already on the property when it was purchased • in the early 1900s, canals built to drain the Everglades had decimated hunting areas, diminishing the Seminoles' main source of income: animal hides & pelts • remaining as an exhibit at Coppinger's offered the Indians a decent living —Memories of Old South Florida, Don Boyd • —The Florida Anthropologist, Dec. 1981, Dorothy Downs
• the attraction expanded, becoming Coppinger's Tropical Gardens, Seminole Indian Village and Alligator Farm • Coppinger's Pirate's Cove added alligator wrestling in 1919, introduced by "The Alligator Boy," Henry Coppinger Jr. (1898-1976) • said to have been the second white child born in Miami —Henry Coppinger Jr." By Chris Mayhew, Palmpedia • video: Seminole Alligator Wrestling (2:28)
• "Chief" Jack Tigertail (1872-1922), a winter resident at Coppinger's, was murdered there in 1922 • this was big news in Miami because Jack was well known there, especially after leading a rescue team into the Everglades To find a missing surveying party • after a sensational trial, a white man was convicted of the crime, then acquitted on appeal • although the case was never solved, Indians at Coppinger's suspected Tigertail's cousin, Charlie Billie • the "Chief" was the first Miami Seminole buried in a white cemetery —The Enduring Seminoles: From Alligator Wrestling to Ecotourism, Patsy West
• after his death, the camp's name was changed to Tigertail Indian Village, & advertised as "home of the late Chief Tigertail," at least until 1926 • a towering image of Jack Tigertail soon greeted motorists entering the young city of Hialeah —The Long Sleep of Jack Tigertail, Stuart McIver, Sun Sentinel, August, 1993
• Hindu Temple designated a City of Miami Historic Site, 1991 • Spring Garden designated a City of Miami Historic District, 1997
Vicksburg, Mississippi est. 1825, pop. (2013) 23,542 • MS Delta
• site crowns the highest hill in Vicksburg • land donated by the family of the city's founder, Newitt Vick • built by the Weldon Brothers, immigrants from County Antrim, Ireland • Greek Revival design attributed to William Weldon in collaboration with slave John Jackson, a noted draftsman & artist who "drew the plans for many of the public buildings erected by [the Weldon's], including the courthouses still standing at Raymond and Vicksburg." —"The Emergence of the Cotton Kingdom in the Old Southwest: Mississippi, 1770--1860," John Hebron Moore, 1988
"The Weldon Brothers... Well known in Mississippi as large building and bridge contractors, owned and educated to mechanic pursuits, 100 slaves, many of whom are now residing in the river counties of the State, and most of them are well-to-do. Their draughtsman, John Jackson, a natural genius in that line, lives now at Port Gibson, the scene of much of the work of the Weldons. He painted the handsome drop curtain at Odd Fellow’s Hall, Port Gibson, and assisted in drawing the plans of the handsome Court house at Vicksburg, which the Weldons built in 1858.
"The writer had large dealings with these brothers in the days of their activity, and knows that while they were strict and exacting with their slaves, they were yet kind in their treatment; feeding and clothing them well; and they were not unmindful of their proper enjoyment; the suppers and music at their Christmas balls costing sometimes as much as $600. Tom Weldon was a very passionate man, as well as powerful and brave. Sometimes he would strike the negroes with his fist, and if they showed fight, it was his boast that he always gave them a white man’s chance, and fought fairly with them to the end. He had a fine mind, and but for his profanity was an eloquent talker.
"He equipped a company for the war at Natchez – the Weldon rebels [Co. L, 44th Mississippi Reg., C.S.A.] – but was employed, himself, chiefly in the secret service of the Confederate Government. George, the oldest of the three brothers, was very loquacious, and a great reader. William was a milder mannered man than the others, and very intelligent." —"Random Recollections of Early Days in Mississippi", Horace Smith Fulkerson, 1885
• Thomas Weldon (1816-1865) is said to have been instrumental in developing an electric spark underwater torpedo (naval mine) • on 12 Dec, 1862 it sank the USS Cairo, the first US warship ever destroyed by this type of weapon • "USS Cairo gunboat sunk by an IED" —Standing Well Back
• the Weldons utilized ~100 highly skilled slave artisans at the job site to burn brick & erect the $100K courthouse • the Ionic capitals were cast by Baker Iron Company, Cincinnati & transported to the site by river boat • stucco finish applied to exterior, 1907 • bldg. retains original iron doors & shutters
• Jefferson Davis (1808-1889), a local planter who became president of the Confederacy, launched his political career on these grounds • bldg. targeted by Union warships on Mississippi River during the American Civil War's 47-day Siege of Vicksburg • became the symbol of Confederate resistance • following the city's surrender, 4 July, 1863, Union soldiers under Maj. Gen. U. S. Grant replaced the Confederate flag with the Union flag on the Courthouse cupola [photo]
• U.S. Presidents Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant, William McKinley & Theodore Roosevelt spoke here, as did woman's suffrage leader Carrie Chapman Catt & black American icon Booker T. Washington
• bldg. was neglected after the completion of the New Warren County Courthouse (1940) • damaged by the 1953 Vicksburg Tornado • demolition considered • aware of the building's historical significance, Eva ("Miss Eva") Whitaker Davis (1892-1974) established the Vicksburg & Warren County Historical Society in order to to preserve it • on 3 June, 1948, the courthouse reopened as the Old Courthouse Museum • exhibits reflect the heritage of the area from pre-historic Indians through the present day • has one of the largest Civil War collections in the U.S.A.
• named one of the 20 most outstanding courthouses in America by the American Institute of Architects • Old Courthouse History • Court House Lagniappe Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
• Historic Vicksburg District • HABS MS-119 • designated Mississippi Landmark, 1986 • National Register 68000029, 1968 • designated National Landmark, 1968
St. Louis, MO (est. 1764. pop. ~300K) • Laclede's Landing
• Peper Building, aka Raeder Place Building • 6-story Victorian/ Italianate style tobacco warehouse, built on a site originally bought from American Indians for a yoke of oxen, plow, cow & 2 sows.• designed by Frederick Wiliiam Raeder (b.1832) for fellow German immigrant Christian Peper (1826-1903), founder of Christian Peper Tobacco Co., 1852
• a significant St. Louis cast-iron structure, one of the largest cast-iron front buildings in the U.S., listed in Source Book of American Architecture: 500 Notable Buildings from the 10th Century to the Present
• by the end of the 19th c., St. Louis was the largest processor of chewing & pipe tobacco in the U.S. • building’s plank floors were slanted so workers could roll large tobacco barrels down toward the Mississippi • in 1906, the company produced a series of racy cards for their Turkish brand Kadee cigarettes—one of the first uses of artistically-posed nude models for advertising [photo] • company was acquired by the Bloch Brothers Tobacco Co., early 1950s —Laclede's Landing Architecture
• Peper was the pioneer St. Louis tobacco merchant • had lived in the U.S. since age 13 • went into the grocery business then, in 1848, partnered in a tobacco firm which lasted 4 yrs. • founder & sole owner of Christian Peper Tobacco Co. • built an early cotton press [postcard, cotton compress c. 1905] • founded Peper Cotton Press Co. • St. Louis became a leader in the cotton trade • served as president of the Broadway street railroad for 35 yrs. • one of the 1st contributors to a fund to initiate the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (1904 St. Louis World's Fair) —Connie Nisinger, Find a Grave
Marker:
"On this site stood the Old Missouri Hotel [photo]. The first legislature convened here under the first state constitution on September 18, 1820. The year before Missouri was admitted to the Union. It was also the site of the inauguration of the first governor of Missouri, Alexander McNair and of the election of the state’s first U.S. Senators David Barton and Thomas Hart Benton."
• In 1831, the hotel’s owner, Major Thomas Biddle (1790-1831), engaged in a dual with U.S Congressman Spencer Pettis (1802-1831) on Bloody Island, a Mississippi River sandbar • both were mortally wounded —An Affair of Honor on the Western Frontier
• with the exception of the removal of the cornice, bldg. remained intact from the time of its construction [photo] • remodeled 1976 by architectural firm Kimble A. Cohn Associates as part of Laclede’s Landing redevelopment • recently housed Peper Lofts residential apartments, multiple options for loft living in Downtown in St. Louis, the Old Spaghetti Factory, & the offices of Abstrakt Marketing Group
• Christian Peper Building, City Landmark # 31, 1971
• Laclede's Landing Historic District, National Register # 76002262, 1976
Almost a year ago I've decided to read 50 books within 2010, which I've also said on my GoodRead account, anyway I'm far away from that number as I am now on my 31st book, and I stopped updating the account thereby I've lost a big deal of motivation, however I'm back on the track and insistent.
Thursday 's Fact:*
I never wear red .. the colour red does not exist in my wardrobe.
(*) .. I thought it'd be nice to share a personal fact each thursday.
• aka Hindu Palace, a private residence designed by Miami Beach architect August Geiger (1887-1968) • known for his Mediterranean Revival-style buildings & his projects w/ "Mr. Miami Beach," Carl Fisher • later the Dade County School Board architect
• the building's design was loosely based on a temporary set built for the motion picture Lucky Charm • the film, said to be one of the first shot in Miami, was produced by Fox, directed by Richard Stanton & starred William Farnum & Anna Luther
• part of the movie was shot at Spring Garden, a new residential development on the north bank of the Miami River • advertised as "the most exclusive subdivision in Miami" (and now the oldest on the river) • lot sales continued during the filming
• Spring Garden developer John Seybold (1872-1940), an immigrant from Germany, was a prominent Miami baker & businessman • knowing the publicity value of a Hollywood movie shooting in a small town of ~30,000 residents, he ran an ad in the Miami Metropolis inviting the public to visit the shoot (and hopefully check out the lots for sale) • a large crowd arrived & was horrified as the leading man, Farnum, narrowly escaped immolation when a grass hut collapsed in flames • the movie, now considered lost, was released in 1919 as The Jungle Trail
• after the shoot, with the film's large temple set still fresh in the town's collective memory, Seybold built this permanent version beside the Seybold Canal turning basin, where the temporary one had stood • the exotic new residence became a Spring Garden landmark, its signature cupolas soon echoed by the nearby 12th Ave. bridge tender houses
• When Seybold purchased the Spring Garden property in 1913, it already had a colorful history • from the late 1890s to the early yrs. of the 20th c., the point at the junction of the Miami River & Wagner Creek – now Spring Garden Point Park — was the site of Alligator Joe's Crocodile and Alligator Farm, a tourist attraction owned by Warren Frazee (1873-1915), aka Alligator Joe • his main business was shipping animal hides & eggs to U.S. markets, e.g., 600 alligator hides & 2,892 alligator eggs shipped in 1898 • won $200 staging an alligator vs. crocodile fight (the gator won) —Florida's Warren Frazee — The Original Alligator Joe, Jim Broton, Tequesta, Issue 68, 2008
• when the Hindu Temple was completed, Seybold immediately sold it to Lillian and Charles O. Richardson, who had lived in Miami since 1897 • their new residence was close to a cluster of popular attractions on the north fork of the Miami River, one owned by Richardson • successive generations of the family occupied the house until 1990
• Charles O. Richardson (1868-1935), actor & theater operator, is said to have exhibited the state's first motion picture • his Miami tourist venue began as Richardson Grove (aka Richardson Plantation), founded in 1896 by his father, Otis Richardson (c. 1819-1901) • located on the S. bank of the river, close to today's 25th Ave. • in the renamed Musa Isle Fruit Farm, the word Musa being the botanical genus of bananas • became a favorite stop on river tours
• in 1907 Richardson sold the farm to John A. Roop (1866-1962), who dropped "Fruit Farm" from Musa Isle's name • Richardson returned to the theater business • purchased the Alcazar Theater & attempted to provide Miami's 1st air-conditioning by raising the floor & installing a fan to blow air, cooled by ice blocks, through holes under the seats —The Early Years Upriver by Donald C. Gaby, Tequesta 48 (1988)
• Musa Isle's new owner, erected an observation tower at what is now NW 22nd Ave • in 1919, he leased a section of the grove to a Seminole named Willie Willie (c. 1886-1929), presumably to compensate for reduced income following a 1917 hard freeze that wiped out the the crop & damaged his fruit trees • the move was also a response to a Coppinger's, a competitor on the river who had opened a Seminole village that was attracting the tourist boats • in 1921, on his newly leased land, Willie Willie established the Musa Isle Seminole Village & Trading Post, where trappers brought their bounty for sale to wholesalers
• Willie Willie was unique in that he was comfortable among whites & in fact married to a non-Indian • outside of the village he wore stylish clothes • his frequent speeding tickets warranted notices in the Miami Herald • profits from his various enterprises were an estimated $50K annually, equal to about $600K in 2016 dollars • “[He] had more money than he could use. He married outside his tribe and burned up the highways in his high priced car. However, Alan W. Davis, a hunter who became the foreman of the Musa Isle Indian Vilage, and Lucien A. Spencer, the special commissioner of the Seminole Agency, identified the sale of egret plumes as the business in which Willie Willie made his real money." —The Enduring Seminoles: From Alligator Wrestling to Ecotourism, Patsy West
• in 1911-12, Cardale Resort, with a skating rink, dance floor & the ~90 foot observation tower, opened in Cardale Grove (formerly Richardson Grove) at Musa Isle • the telescope-equipped tower offered expansive views of Miami & the adjacent Everglades • guests arrived at Cardale Landing via the Cardale boat (aka Car' dale, Car Dale)
• horticulturist & landscape designer Henry Coppinger Sr. (1848-1924), an Irish immigrant, arrived in S. Florida c. 1898 • in 1911 he purchased 10 acres of south bank riverfront property near Musa Isle • after trading for an adjacent, less rocky parcel at S.W. 19th Ave., he created a botanical garden to grow, hybridize & sell exotic plants • named the venture Coppinger's Tropical Gardens • Henry Coppinger hybrids soon decorated homes throughout the city
• in 1914 the attraction opened to tourists, featuring a Seminole camp that was already on the property when it was purchased • in the early 1900s, canals built to drain the Everglades had decimated hunting areas, diminishing the Seminoles' main source of income: animal hides & pelts • remaining as an exhibit at Coppinger's offered the Indians a decent living —Memories of Old South Florida, Don Boyd • —The Florida Anthropologist, Dec. 1981, Dorothy Downs
• the attraction expanded, becoming Coppinger's Tropical Gardens, Seminole Indian Village and Alligator Farm • Coppinger's Pirate's Cove added alligator wrestling in 1919, introduced by "The Alligator Boy," Henry Coppinger Jr. (1898-1976) • said to have been the second white child born in Miami —Henry Coppinger Jr." By Chris Mayhew, Palmpedia • video: Seminole Alligator Wrestling (2:28)
• "Chief" Jack Tigertail (1872-1922), a winter resident at Coppinger's, was murdered there in 1922 • this was big news in Miami because Jack was well known there, especially after leading a rescue team into the Everglades To find a missing surveying party • after a sensational trial, a white man was convicted of the crime, then acquitted on appeal • although the case was never solved, Indians at Coppinger's suspected Tigertail's cousin, Charlie Billie • the "Chief" was the first Miami Seminole buried in a white cemetery —The Enduring Seminoles: From Alligator Wrestling to Ecotourism, Patsy West
• after his death, the camp's name was changed to Tigertail Indian Village, & advertised as "home of the late Chief Tigertail," at least until 1926 • a towering image of Jack Tigertail soon greeted motorists entering the young city of Hialeah —The Long Sleep of Jack Tigertail, Stuart McIver, Sun Sentinel, August, 1993
• Hindu Temple designated a City of Miami Historic Site, 1991 • Spring Garden designated a City of Miami Historic District, 1997
Balfour House (1835), 1002 Crawford St, Vicksburg, MS, USA
Vicksburg, Mississippi (est. 1825, pop. (2013) 23,542) • Facebook • MS Delta • The Town & the Battle —NY Times
• 2-story Greek Revival house w/projecting portico built by wealthy businessman William Bobb (1802-1871) • resembles Mount Stirling (1848), Providence Forge, VA • next door to the Gen. John C. Pemberton House, Confederate headquarters during the siege of Vicksburg • rehabed in 1980s • photo c. 1866
• home of Civil War diarist Emma Harrison Balfour (1818–1887) & husband, Dr. William T. Balfour (1815-1877), who purchased the house in 1848
• in 1862, the Balfours threw a Christmas Eve Ball in this house • Vicksburg socialites braved a violent storm to celebrate the holiday with Confederate officers & their ladies • meanwhile, on the other side of the Mississippi River, CSA Colonel Philip H. Fall received an urgent telegram from a station 36 mi. north, warning that a fleet of nearly 100 Union boats was moving toward Vicksburg • Col. Fall immediately set out into the storm & made it safely across the turbulent river
• just after midnight, muddy & soaking wet, he burst into the Balfour House, disrupting the festivities as he conveyed the message to General Martin Luther Smith (who, like Gen. Pemberton, was born & raised in the North) • on hearing the news, Smith announced "This ball is at an end! The enemy is coming down river. All non-combatants must leave the city!"
• after brief goodbyes to loved ones, the men rushed away to report to their stations • the initial battle of the Vicksburg Campaign — the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou (a Confederate victory) — began 26, Dec. —Wikipedia
• remaining in this house throughout the 47-day Siege of Vicksburg (16 May-04 July, 1863), Balfour wrote Vicksburg, a city under seige: Diary of Emma Balfour, May 16, 1863 - June 2, 1863:
May 17
(re: the Battle of Champion Hill, after receiving a dire message from Lt. Underhill)
“My pen almost refuses to tell of our terrible disaster of yesterday… We are defeated — our army in confusion and the carnage awful! Whole batteries and brigades taken prisoners — awful! Awful!
"...What is to become of all the living things in this place when the boats begin shelling – God only knows. Shut up as in a trap, no ingress or egress – and thousands of women and children who have fled here for safety…”
May 31
"The shelling from the mortars was worse than usual last night… I could hear the pieces falling all around us as the shells would explode, and once I thought our time had come… The mortars [fired] all night. We soon perceived that we could not retire while they fired as they had changed the range, and every shell came either directly over us or just back or front of us, so we made up our minds to sit up and watch, hoping, however, that they would cease about midnight, as they sometimes do… but no, all night it continued to add to the horror."
• 26-year-old Mary Ann Loughborough (1836-1887) was also among the 1,500 civilians who chose not to evacuate • her diary & letters were published in the 1864 book, "My Cave Life in Vicksburg: With Letters of Trial and Travel"
"A young girl, becoming weary in the confinement of the cave, hastily ran to the house in the interval that elapsed between the slowly falling shells. On returning, an explosion sounded near her—one wild scream and she ran into her mother’s presence, sinking like a wounded dove, the life blood flowing over the light summer dress in crimson ripples from a death-wound in her side caused by the shell fragment."
"A little Negro child, playing in the yard, had found a shell; in rolling and turning it, had innocently pounded the fuse; the terrible explosion followed, showing, as the white cloud of smoke floated away, the mangled remains of a life that to the mother’s heart had possessed all of beauty and joy."
• Union soldier Pvt. Merrick Wald (1840-1911), 77th Illinois, Company C, also kept a diary:
4 July, 1863
"Well Vicksburg has surrendered at last. When they (Rebels) first came out of their holes they looked like they hadn't drawn a long breath for six months... how sad these noble soldiers looked and how I respected them for fighting so hard for their Cause."
• the custodian of Wald's diary has stated that out of Merrick's unit of 350 men, 45 survived the entire war —Civil War Diaries
• Vicksburg surrendered on the 4th of July — US Independence Day
“About three o’clock the rush began. I shall never forget that woeful sight of a beaten, demoralized army that came rushing back – humanity in the last throes of endurance.” —War Diary of a Union Woman in the South by Vicksburg Unionist Dora Richards Miller
• on seeing US flag flying over the courthouse, Miller wrote, “Now I feel once more at home in mine own country” • more typical of local sentiment, Alice Shannon wrote that she could see “that hateful flag flying from the Court House Hill.” —Photographic Tour of Civil War Vicksburg
• the devastated City of Vicksburg didn't officially celebrate the nation's birthday again until 1944 (though unofficial celebrations were not uncommon) • during the occupation, Union General James B. McPherson made Balfour House his headquarters • more recently it was a B&B & is now a private residence
• Civilians During the Siege of Vicksburg • Vicksburg During the Civil War • National Park Service
• designated Mississippi Landmark, 1986 • HABS MS-116 • Uptown Vicksburg Historic District, National Register # 93000850, 1993 • Balfour House National Register # 71000458, 1971
...ili kako je poceo vikend.
Sa jednom dobrom soljom i jednom jos boljom pricom:
...
Ispred mene bila je ulica kojoj nisam vidio kraj, s mnogo uličica koje su je ispresijecale. Potrčao sam. Samo je netko ispružio nogu iz veže, jednu jedinu nogu sa crnom cipelom, dugačkom sam vrag zna koliko, ali dovoljno da se sapletem i ljosnem na beton koliko sam dug i širok. Tek sam podigao glavu, a već su svi, gotovo svi, bili oko mene. Stavio sam ruke na glavu da se zaštitim, znao sam da će me cipelariti. Ali ništa. Podigao sam glavu u istom trenutku kad se podigla i noga, i svom snagom me zviznula po uhu. Jedna s jedne strane, a s druge me dočekala druga. Mogao sam, eto, doživjeti gotovo stereo izvedbu kvalitetne boli, toliko dobro da je bilo dovoljno. Nakon toga sve je bio čisti profit, kojeg se, ipak, ni oni nisu htjeli odreći.
Senko Karuza
Not sure about this one. Took this while in Vermont. Feeling a little down; its showing in my work. This might not stay, comment/favorite if you like!
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"Sometimes when I look at you, I feel I'm gazing at a distant star.
It's dazzling, but the light is from tens of thousands of years ago.
Maybe the star doesn't even exist any more. Yet sometimes that light seems more real to me than anything."
— Haruki Murakami (South Of The Border, West Of The Sun)
A British Spring 16:9 Series #5
* Pentax K20D and Samsung D-Xenon 50-200mm Lens
• aka Hindu Palace, a private residence designed by Miami Beach architect August Geiger (1887-1968) • known for his Mediterranean Revival-style buildings & his projects w/ "Mr. Miami Beach," Carl Fisher • later the Dade County School Board architect
• the building's design was loosely based on a temporary set built for the motion picture Lucky Charm • the film, said to be one of the first shot in Miami, was produced by Fox, directed by Richard Stanton & starred William Farnum & Anna Luther
• part of the movie was shot at Spring Garden, a new residential development on the north bank of the Miami River • advertised as "the most exclusive subdivision in Miami" (and now the oldest on the river) • lot sales continued during the filming
• Spring Garden developer John Seybold (1872-1940), an immigrant from Germany, was a prominent Miami baker & businessman • knowing the publicity value of a Hollywood movie shooting in a small town of ~30,000 residents, he ran an ad in the Miami Metropolis inviting the public to visit the shoot (and hopefully check out the lots for sale) • a large crowd arrived & was horrified as the leading man, Farnum, narrowly escaped immolation when a grass hut collapsed in flames • the movie, now considered lost, was released in 1919 as The Jungle Trail
• after the shoot, with the film's large temple set still fresh in the town's collective memory, Seybold built this permanent version beside the Seybold Canal turning basin, where the temporary one had stood • the exotic new residence became a Spring Garden landmark, its signature cupolas soon echoed by the nearby 12th Ave. bridge tender houses
• When Seybold purchased the Spring Garden property in 1913, it already had a colorful history • from the late 1890s to the early yrs. of the 20th c., the point at the junction of the Miami River & Wagner Creek – now Spring Garden Point Park — was the site of Alligator Joe's Crocodile and Alligator Farm, a tourist attraction owned by Warren Frazee (1873-1915), aka Alligator Joe • his main business was shipping animal hides & eggs to U.S. markets, e.g., 600 alligator hides & 2,892 alligator eggs shipped in 1898 • won $200 staging an alligator vs. crocodile fight (the gator won) —Florida's Warren Frazee — The Original Alligator Joe, Jim Broton, Tequesta, Issue 68, 2008
• when the Hindu Temple was completed, Seybold immediately sold it to Lillian and Charles O. Richardson, who had lived in Miami since 1897 • their new residence was close to a cluster of popular attractions on the north fork of the Miami River, one owned by Richardson • successive generations of the family occupied the house until 1990
• Charles O. Richardson (1868-1935), actor & theater operator, is said to have exhibited the state's first motion picture • his Miami tourist venue began as Richardson Grove (aka Richardson Plantation), founded in 1896 by his father, Otis Richardson (c. 1819-1901) • located on the S. bank of the river, close to today's 25th Ave. • in the renamed Musa Isle Fruit Farm, the word Musa being the botanical genus of bananas • became a favorite stop on river tours
• in 1907 Richardson sold the farm to John A. Roop (1866-1962), who dropped "Fruit Farm" from Musa Isle's name • Richardson returned to the theater business • purchased the Alcazar Theater & attempted to provide Miami's 1st air-conditioning by raising the floor & installing a fan to blow air, cooled by ice blocks, through holes under the seats —The Early Years Upriver by Donald C. Gaby, Tequesta 48 (1988)
• Musa Isle's new owner, erected an observation tower at what is now NW 22nd Ave • in 1919, he leased a section of the grove to a Seminole named Willie Willie (c. 1886-1929), presumably to compensate for reduced income following a 1917 hard freeze that wiped out the the crop & damaged his fruit trees • the move was also a response to a Coppinger's, a competitor on the river who had opened a Seminole village that was attracting the tourist boats • in 1921, on his newly leased land, Willie Willie established the Musa Isle Seminole Village & Trading Post, where trappers brought their bounty for sale to wholesalers
• Willie Willie was unique in that he was comfortable among whites & in fact married to a non-Indian • outside of the village he wore stylish clothes • his frequent speeding tickets warranted notices in the Miami Herald • profits from his various enterprises were an estimated $50K annually, equal to about $600K in 2016 dollars • “[He] had more money than he could use. He married outside his tribe and burned up the highways in his high priced car. However, Alan W. Davis, a hunter who became the foreman of the Musa Isle Indian Vilage, and Lucien A. Spencer, the special commissioner of the Seminole Agency, identified the sale of egret plumes as the business in which Willie Willie made his real money." —The Enduring Seminoles: From Alligator Wrestling to Ecotourism, Patsy West
• in 1911-12, Cardale Resort, with a skating rink, dance floor & the ~90 foot observation tower, opened in Cardale Grove (formerly Richardson Grove) at Musa Isle • the telescope-equipped tower offered expansive views of Miami & the adjacent Everglades • guests arrived at Cardale Landing via the Cardale boat (aka Car' dale, Car Dale)
• horticulturist & landscape designer Henry Coppinger Sr. (1848-1924), an Irish immigrant, arrived in S. Florida c. 1898 • in 1911 he purchased 10 acres of south bank riverfront property near Musa Isle • after trading for an adjacent, less rocky parcel at S.W. 19th Ave., he created a botanical garden to grow, hybridize & sell exotic plants • named the venture Coppinger's Tropical Gardens • Henry Coppinger hybrids soon decorated homes throughout the city
• in 1914 the attraction opened to tourists, featuring a Seminole camp that was already on the property when it was purchased • in the early 1900s, canals built to drain the Everglades had decimated hunting areas, diminishing the Seminoles' main source of income: animal hides & pelts • remaining as an exhibit at Coppinger's offered the Indians a decent living —Memories of Old South Florida, Don Boyd • —The Florida Anthropologist, Dec. 1981, Dorothy Downs
• the attraction expanded, becoming Coppinger's Tropical Gardens, Seminole Indian Village and Alligator Farm • Coppinger's Pirate's Cove added alligator wrestling in 1919, introduced by "The Alligator Boy," Henry Coppinger Jr. (1898-1976) • said to have been the second white child born in Miami —Henry Coppinger Jr." By Chris Mayhew, Palmpedia • video: Seminole Alligator Wrestling (2:28)
• "Chief" Jack Tigertail (1872-1922), a winter resident at Coppinger's, was murdered there in 1922 • this was big news in Miami because Jack was well known there, especially after leading a rescue team into the Everglades To find a missing surveying party • after a sensational trial, a white man was convicted of the crime, then acquitted on appeal • although the case was never solved, Indians at Coppinger's suspected Tigertail's cousin, Charlie Billie • the "Chief" was the first Miami Seminole buried in a white cemetery —The Enduring Seminoles: From Alligator Wrestling to Ecotourism, Patsy West
• after his death, the camp's name was changed to Tigertail Indian Village, & advertised as "home of the late Chief Tigertail," at least until 1926 • a towering image of Jack Tigertail soon greeted motorists entering the young city of Hialeah —The Long Sleep of Jack Tigertail, Stuart McIver, Sun Sentinel, August, 1993
• Hindu Temple designated a City of Miami Historic Site, 1991 • Spring Garden designated a City of Miami Historic District, 1997
Charleston est. 1670, pop. 127,999 (2013)
• Rainbow Row consists of 13 early-18th c. wharfside houses • designed for colonial mercantile life with ships docked at wharfs across the street • upper floors served as residences • ground floors were used by factors as counting rooms or as shops • though joined by common walls like row houses, diverse roof styles offer evidence that nearly all of these bldgs. were constructed separately over a period of time —"Urban Architecture in Colonial Charleston"
(L) No. 89 (c.1787), Deas-Tunno House (blue)
• 3½-story brick house • outbuildings include slave quarters & former warehouses restored as residences • built by John Deas, Jr. (1761-1790), member of a prominent Scottish family of merchants & planters • either during or shortly after the American Revolution this house replaced a tenement that had been built by Scottish merchant/planter George Seaman & destroyed by the Great Fire of 1778 —Historic Charleston Foundation
• J.D. Jr.'s father, John Deas Sr. (1735-1790), was married to Seaman's stepdaughter, Elizabeth Allen Deas (1742-1802) • upon Seaman's death in 1769, she inherited most of his estate, including Thorogood Plantation & 141 slaves • by 1790, the Deas's had 208 slaves, none of whom fled the Plantation during the chaos of the Revolution —"The Goose Creek Bridge, Gateway to Sacred Places", Michael J. Heitzler
• Deas Sr. & his brother David were merchants & slave traders • David introduced golf to America, 1743 • First Golf Played, USA, 1788
• another Deas Family, this an African-American one, appears to have it's American roots in late 18th c. Charleston • research suggests the family line may have originated in Sierra Leone, where the Deas ancestors were presumably shipped from Bunce Island on the H.M.S. Brigantine Dembia, then sold or kept as slaves by John & David Deas —"Pearls of Wisdom of Three Generations"
• the slave ship was named for the Dembia River in Sierra Leone, where "black merchants [brought] slaves and ivory" • at Gambier, a settlement on the river, African children liberated from slave-smuggling vessels were kept "constantly under Christian instruction" by members of The Church Missionary Society, who also clothed, fed & provided the children with vocational training —"Southern Evangelical Intelligencer," 03 April, 1819
• in 1787 the Deas mansion was purchased by Scottish imigrant, Adam "King of the Scotch" Tunno (1753-1832), one of Charleston's wealthiest merchants • Tunno traded in Scottish imports, silk, fine cloth, wine & slaves • was steward of the St. Andrews Society • for over 40 yrs. this house was his home & place of business
• considered a bachelor, Tunno nevertheless raised a family here with a "fine looking [brown] person," Margaret Ballingall, who ran the household & oversaw the slaves • they appeared in public as a couple & attended church together at Charleston's elite St. Philip's • they were renowned for the elegance of their dinner parties —"Women in the South across Four Centuries"
• though state law did not prohibit inter-racial marriages, Tunno & Ballingall apparently were never married (apart from their "moral marriage," derived from decades of living together as husband & wife) • nevertheless, denied the sacraments at St. Philip's, Margaret presented a letter from Adam stating that she was his wife, & was henceforth permitted to commune • the white community viewed Ballingall as a housekeeper, concubine or slave, but among blacks she was considered Tunno's wife —"The Women of Charleston's Urban Slave Society", Cynthia M. Kennedy
• Margaret Ballingall (c. 1769-1839) aka, Bellingall, Bettingall, Battingall, and in her youth, Peggy, daughter of Sarah, was a slave who had already changed hands about eight times when, in 1795, Tunno purchased "Peg" & her 2 children, Hagar & Owen, from the daughter of Scottish planter Robert Ballingall
• evidence suggests that Tunno & Ballingall had already been living together since at least 1782, and that she had borne him both a son who died in infancy & — the very year Tunno purchased her — a daughter, Barbara, aka Barbary
• although Tunno treated Ballingall as a free woman & she lived as such, there is no record of manumission • however, Barbara, Tunno's natural daughter, was manumitted in 1803, & in Margaret's will, she identifies herself as "a free black woman"
• in his will, Tunno left "the free black woman" Margaret & daughter Hagar $1,250 each, with extra money for Margaret to purchase a new house • his natural daughter Barbara was given $2,500, slaves & several personal items from her father's home • larger bequests were left for some of his white relatives
• after Adam's death, Margaret & her children became homeowners, slaveholders & prominent members of Charleston's free black community • their financial success included dealings with white businessmen, some possibly intimate as posited by historian Amrita Chakrabarti Myers • when she died, Margaret Ballingall Tunno's estate was worth $15,000-$20,000
(C) 91 East Bay (c.1788), Inglis Arch House (peach)
• site of a pre-Revolutionary store leased by Scottish immigrant, George Inglis (1716-1775) • known as the lnglis Arch House after the covered alley — once known as Middle Alley — that passed through the bldg. —Historic Charleston Foundation
• purchased in 1774 by mercantile firm Leger & Greenwood — Peter Léger (1732-1775) & William Greenwood (1740-1822) — shortly after they half-heartedly participated in the "Charleston Tea Party" • though neither favored American independence, they went along with popular opposition to Britain's Tea Act by refusing a shipment of tea 12 days before the Boston Tea Party
• their building burned in the fire of 1778, about the same time that Leger & Greenwood ceased operations & Greenwood, a Tory, fled to Britain • rebuilt & sold to Rhode Island merchant Nathaniel Russell • severely damaged during the Union siege, 1864
• purchased in 1920 by preservationist Susan (Sue) Pringle Frost (1878-1960), who owned several nearby properties • New York playwright John McGowan (1894-1977) & his wife, Betty purchased No. 95 (green) from Frost in 1938, which they restored as their residence • bought No. 93 (yellow) & the adjoining No. 91 (peach) in 1941 • considered demolishing the 2 dilapidated structures to create a garden for their home • chose instead to restore them as investment property • removed 19 c. Greek Revival details from No. 91 • added the current details, e.g., the roofline & 1st floor arched doors
(C) No. 93 (c.1778), James Cook House (yellow)
• 3½-story stuccoed brick structure believed to have been built by house carpenter James Cook • replaced Loyalist Fenwicke Bull's Flemish gabled house and shop, destroyed in the 1778 fire • like many tradesmen of his era Cook, building houses with at least 4 slaves, assembled a real estate portfolio to take advantage of Charleston's robust rental market
• this house, however, Cook built for himself • his widow lived upstairs until her death in 1826 • the house then passed to Charleston-born Jew, Moses Hyams (1798-1868), a commission merchant dealing in rice who maintained his business at this location • Hyams was probably responsible for the Greek Revival facade & gutting of the interior for warehouse space • the neighborhood declined in the late 19th c. and was essentially a slum when preservationist Susan Pringle Frost purchased this and neighboring buildings in 1920
• in 1941, hoping to return the building to it's original appearance, New York playwright John McGowan (1894-1977) & his wife, Betty, secured the services of a preservation specialist, African-American carpenter/builder Thomas (Tom) Mayhem Pinckney (1871-1952), who performed the restoration
• the Greek Revival façade was removed, revealing a hip roof to which a dormer was added • landscape architect Loutrel Briggs (1893-1977) added a formal garden —Historic Charleston Foundation —Charleston County Public Library —Charleston Post & Courier, 30 April, 1979
• Charleston Historic District, National Register # 66000964, 1969 • declared National Historic Landmark District, 1973
“There are no wrong perspectives, only interpretations.” ~Tomitheos
Toronto, CANADA
Copyright © 2012 Tomitheos Photography - All Rights Reserved .
"© All Rights Reserved"
Cover (Kindle) art design for Voices from the OLD Earth by Regina Clarke.
"A mysterious city is an enchanter across time, transforming the lives of those who journey through it.
For Simma, it exists on a distant planet where souls seem to disappear and her job is to recover them. For Beornan, creating the songs in his heart is all he wants, but he is seen as a demon because of them and must escape his village to find sanctuary in the city. For Roger Connay, a physicist, the city is a place of wheelers and dealers in high places where power and money are gods, and for a time he is one of them, until he is given the chance to encounter other probabilities. For Kai-lun and Ming, imminent attack of marauders against their peaceful life sends them into the desert and mountains to find the city and a treasure it holds, at the urgent demands of the old one, Ming’s mother.
For Enya, the narrator, the lost city was once her hope for a new world and is now a place that appears to her only in visions when she listens to ancient music. Out of this she hears the voices of the others telling her their stories, and because of them, she begins to seek a peace with old memories and who she is now."
~
Stock images with thanks to;
~
Finished off a set of 2017 children's books in order to complete a 100 book to be read in 2017 challenge and recorded at GoodReads. I just made it. I read about 15 adult novels and then focused on 2017 children's literature. As a former teacher librarian, I still love reading the brand new books for children and guessing which will win awards. I enjoy writing reviews and posting these in GoodReads and Pinterest, and sometimes on Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter!
Here's my pick for the top 50 children's books in 2017: www.goodreads.com/list/user_vote/5887155
Well worth reading them, at any age!!!
📚 🗿Zulu Butterfly holding a cold piece of Urban Life Literature YOUNG LOCS on the WESTSIDE by Legendary Ali 🔫 Part II Still Locin Up also available Amazon & Over the Edge Books 📚 #younglocspart2 #younglocsonthewestside #blogthis #readersareleaders #needtoread #bibliophile #lit #awesome #wayback #waybackwednesday #humps #gangster #moneyandviolence #respectlife #mayhem #books #goodread #bookshelf #awesome #urban #hard amzn.com/B01E9F2AE0
Vicksburg, Mississippi (est. 1825, pop. 23,542) • Facebook • MS Delta • The Town & the Battle —NY Times
• aka Pemberton House, Mrs. Willis's House • 2-story Greek Revival brick residence • double-tiered portico added later • built by wealthy businessman William Bobb (1802-1871) • newly widowed Martha Patience Vick Willis (1796-1856) purchased the house in 1823, moved in w/son John • Mrs. Willis was the niece of Vicksburg founder, Newit Vick
• bldg. served as one of Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton's two Vicksburg headquarters during the 1863 Siege of Vicksburg, a decisive battle in the American Civil War (1861-1865), fought over a bid for independence by slaveholding states in the agricultural South • the North’s attitude toward slavery —Quora
• by the 1860s, the Mississippi River had become crucial to the U.S. economy • to strangle northern commercial interests, Confederate forces closed the waterway to navigation • the blockade was enforced at Vicksburg, called the "Gibraltar of the West" because of it's strategic location on bluffs overlooking the river —National Park Service
"See what a lot of land these fellows hold, of which Vicksburg is the key! The war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket... We can take all the northern ports of the Confederacy, and they can defy us from Vicksburg." —President Abraham Lincoln
• in the spring of 1863, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, a former slaveholder, launched the Union Army campaign to capture Vicksburg, with a force that grew to 77,000 men
• Confederate Gen. Pemberton, a Northerner (Pennsylvania) who had fought along side Grant in Mexico, commanded the 33,000-man Army of Vicksburg in defense of the city
• the Federals under Gen. Wm. Tecumseh Sherman attacked 19 & 22 May • when repulsed with great loss, Grant decided to lay siege to the city
• Pemberton's urgent requests for reinforcements were refused by Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston • had earlier urged the outmanned & outgunned Pemberton to abandon Vicksburg in spite of his orders to hold it at any cost • Johnston's 24,000-man "Army of Relief" remained on the sidelines while half-starved Confederate soldiers & Vicksburg citizens suffered the privations of siege warfare for 47 days —Civil War Trust
Marker:
Debate and Decision
From his headquarters in this grand mansion, Confederate General Pemberton followed the movement of enemy troops during the siege. He watched his men suffering from lack of food and the relentless Union bombardment. After nearly 7 weeks, he gathered his commanders together. Did they have the will to keep fighting? Debating late into the night of July 2, 1863, Pemberton made the difficult decision to surrender.
At 10 AM to-morrow I propose to evacuate the works in and around Vicksburg, and to surrender the city and the Garrison under my command, by marching out with my colors and arms, stacking them in front of my present lines, after which you will take possession.
General John Pemberton
July 3, 1863
• Pemberton surrendered his forces on July 4, 1863, American Independence Day • the Mississippi River was now in Union hands & once again open to the North's commercial traffic • Rashomon at Vicksburg —NY Times • The Unconditional Surrender Continues —HistoryNet
• the humiliating defeat exacerbated the cross-cultural antipathy toward Yankees that had pervaded the South for generations & would continue to do so well into the future • the devastated City of Vicksburg did not officially celebrate the nation's birthday again until 1944 (though unofficial celebrations were not uncommon)
• the victorious Union (U.S.) Army, which sealed the fate of both the Confederacy & slavery in America, was desegregated — in 1948 —How Liberals Invented Segregation by Nicholas Guyatt
• blamed by many Southerners for the loss of Vicksburg, Pemberton was accused of incompetence & because he was a Northerner, labeled a traitor • he accepted a reduction in rank & continued to serve the Confederacy as a colonel
"This brave officer has suffered more from traducers than any other in the Southern Confederacy. He happened to have been born in a Northern State, and although he had married in Virginia, had reared his children as Southern people, had resided many years among us, and had rejected the offer of a large fortune to cast in his lot with the North, there were not wanting men ungenerous enough to impute his Northern birth to him as a crime, and to 'foretell' that upon the first opportunity he would prove a traitor to the cause he had espoused at so great a cost." —Richmond Times Dispatch, June, 1863
"He was accused of being a traitor to Vicksburg. He was not a traitor to Vicksburg. He was a loyal man fighting a losing battle." —V. Blaine Russell (1890-1980), historian & columnist, "Vicksburgesque," Vicksburg Evening Post
• despite his refusal to come to Vicksburg's aid, Johnston retained his command in the Confederacy • after the war he became friends w/Union Gen. Sherman, later serving as an honorary pallbearer at his funeral
• Pemberton requested a court of inquiry into his controversial role at Vicksburg, but was refused • he & Joe Johnston continued blaming each other for decades —Under Siege!: Three Children at the Civil War Battle for Vicksburg, by Andrea Warren
• the house was purchased in 1890 by Mary Frances Harris Cowan (1849-1914), whose husband, Confederate Lt. Ludwell Blackstone Cowan (1828-1892) is said to have participated in the building of the electric spark underwater torpedo (naval mine) • on 12 Dec, 1862 it sank the USS Cairo, the first US warship ever destroyed by this type of weapon
• the building later housed Sisters of Mercy Catholic boarding school St. Anthony's Hall, then a tour home/B&B • acquired by the National Park Service as part of the Vickburg National Military Park, August, 2003
• Pemberton's Headquarters —National Park Service • Historic Structure Report —National Park Service
• HABS: MS-266 (1972) • National Register 70000319, 1970 • Uptown Vicksburg Historic District, National Register 93000850, 1993 • designated National Historic Landmark, 1976
“I have been finding treasures in places I did not want to search. I have been hearing wisdom from tongues I did not want to listen. I have been finding beauty where I did not want to look. And I have learned so much from journeys I did not want to take. Forgive me, O Gracious One; for I have been closing my ears and eyes for too long. I have learned that miracles are only called miracles because they are often witnessed by only those who can can see through all of life's illusions. I am ready to see what really exists on other side, what exists behind the blinds, and taste all the ugly fruit instead of all that looks right, plump and ripe.”
- Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem -
one of my favorite books this year.
please DO NOT POST MY PHOTOS ON WEHEARTIT.
i just found tons of my photos on tumblr linking back to a weheartit entry. please respect the copyright and don't help distributing content that doesn't credit the actual owner of the photo.
you wouldn't want your work circulating around somewhere (virtually on the internet or in "real" life, doesn't matter) without anyone knowing it's you who created it and who this actually belongs to, right?
“I’ve never been nearly as alone as I always say I am”
― Jill Alexander Essbaum, Hausfrau
My latest read for 2016.
I've had this one on my wish list for a while.
A few chapters in and I'm realizing that it's a pick that could warrant an explanation.
On the other hand...keep the bookclub guessing.
34:366
the review I wrote for GoodReads:Another appalling story of how fucked up this country is. There has never been any reason to be proud for being an "American". I am so sickened by the continuing and yes WORSENING racism in this country. WAKE UP America - you ARE a third world shit hole.
Sorry, Ms. Laskar, I shouldn't rant here - your book was phenomenal.
Benvenuto Cellini was a celebrated Renaissance sculptor and goldsmith - a passionate craftsman who was admired and resented by the most powerful political and artistic personalities in sixteenth-century Florence, Rome and Paris. He was also a murderer and a braggart, a shameless adventurer who at different times experienced both papal persecution and imprisonment, and the adulation of the royal court. Inn-keepers and prostitutes, kings and cardinals, artists and soldiers rub shoulders in the pages of his notorious autobiography: a vivid portrait of the manners and morals of both the rulers of the day and of their subjects. Written with supreme powers of invective and an irrepressible sense of humour, this is an unrivalled glimpse into the palaces and prisons of the Italy of Michelangelo and the Medici. [Source: Goodreads website at www.goodreads.com/book/show/880378.The_Autobiography_Of_B... ]
Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame is responsible for a recent production of Berlioz's Opera "Benvenuto Cellini."
My first book contribution... woo-hoo!
Hop on over to my blog to find out how you could win a copy :) x
Dashiell Hammett is the true inventor of modern detective fiction and the creator of the private eye, the isolated hero in a world where treachery is the norm. The Continental Op was his great first contribution to the genre and these seven stories, which first appeared in the magazine Black Mask, are the best examples of Hammett's early writing, in which his formidable literary and moral imagination is already operating at full strength. The Continental Op is the dispassionate fat man working for the Continental Detective Agency, modelled on the Pinkerton Agency, whose only interest is in doing his job in a world of violence, passion, desperate action and great excitement.
The tenth clew.--The golden horseshoe.--The house in Turk Street.--The girl with the silver eyes.--The whosis kid.--The main death.--The farewell murder. [Source: The Goodreads website at www.goodreads.com/book/show/30004.The_Continental_Op
"A young Indian boy carves a little canoe with a figure inside and names him Paddle-to-the-Sea. Paddle's journey, in text and pictures, through the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean provides an excellent geographic and historical picture of the region."
/ The old order changeth
Apo-Summicron-M 1:2/50 ASPH.
www.goodreads.com/quotes/404311-the-old-order-changeth-yi...
This issue contains the first installment of a science fiction classic, "Gather Darkness" by Fritz Leiber, which first appeared in three consecutive issues of Astounding Science Fiction Magazine from May to July, 1943.
It tells the story of Armon Jarles, a man on the edge, living amidst the disputes of two rival powers at large in the world. 360 years after a nuclear holocaust ravaged mankind, throwing society back into the dark ages, the world is fraught with chaos and superstition. The new rulers over the masses of humanity are the techno-priests of the Great God, endowed with scientific knowledge lost to the rest of humanity. Jarles, originally of peasant descent, rises to become a priest of the Great God. He knows the gospel propagated by the priests to be a fraud, based on illusion and trickery. Even more offensive to him is the paucity of true believers among the priesthood. One day he rebels against his priestly training and attempts to incite the peasants to rise up and demand freedom, but they are not ready. Jarles is not the only dissenter trying to sabotage and expose the false theocracy of the priesthood. Although he is unaware, his rebellion against the power of the priests is about to throw him headlong into the middle of the greatest holy war the world has ever seen. [Summary from the Goodreads website at www.goodreads.com/book/show/561311.Gather_Darkness_]
Memphis, TN, est. 1819, pop. 650,000
• in the 1950s, in a small studio on Union, Ave., Sam C. Phillips (1923-2003) recorded music that is "one of the true touchstones of American culture" —Escott, Hawkins, Good Rockin' Tonight: Sun Records and the Birth of Rock 'N' Roll
• this two-story corner bldg. is located in Memphis's Edge district • before becoming the Sun Studio Café, the 1st floor housed Taylor's Fine Food restaurant (1948-1981) [photo] • owned by Dell Taylor (1911-2003) & husband, Carlos (1914-1976) • 2nd floor was a rooming house
• the 1908 bldg. shares a partywall with a 1-story storefront at no. 706, built in 1916 [photos] • this small adjacent structure became Memphis Recording Service & later, Sun Studio [discography], where Elvis Presley (1935-1977) began his recording career
"Dell M. Taylor served up country fried steak and gentle mothering to the emerging stars of Sun Studio… Mrs. Taylor saw to it that Elvis Presley, Rufus Thomas, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Charlie Rich and Carl Perkins, — along with the mechanics and other workers from the auto dealership row on Union — had the freshest greens and vegetables… Many a song was written in the booths, as the musicians would come in to eat during a break in recording at Sun Studio next door… Sun Studio founder Sam Phillips, credited with discovering Elvis and others, often did his bookkeeping at the restaurant." —Chris Conley, The Commercial Appeal (Memphis), 24 Feb., 2003
• Sam Phillips, who claimed he didn't have a desk, had his own booth at Taylor's to pore over paperwork • "That's where all the guys did their writing and talking, and that's where the Sun sound was really born." –Jack Clement (1931-2013), Sun Studio producer
• exhausted musicians often spent the night in one of "Miss Taylor's" upstairs rooms • while recording at Sun the mid-1950s, Roy Orbison had a two-room apartment there
• the bldg. now serves as visitor center for the recording studio, which is open to the public for tours
Marker: Elvis Presley and Sun Records
In July 1954 Sun Records released Elvis Presley's first recording. That record, and Elvis' four that followed on the Sun label, changed popular music. Elvis developed an innovative and different sound combining blues, gospel, and country. That quality made Elvis a worldwide celebrity within two years. He went on to become one of the most famous and beloved entertainers in history. Sun Records introduced many well known people in all fields of music. Generations of musicians have been affected by those who recorded here and especially by the music Elvis Presley first sang at Sun Records
National Historic Landmark Nomination: (unedited version with citations available here)
Marion Keisker (1917-1989), Phillips's sole assistant & employee when he started his business said he "would talk about this idea he had, this dream, I suppose, to have a facility where black people could come and play their own music, a place where they would feel free and relaxed to do it. One day we were riding along, and he saw that spot on Union, and he said, 'That's the spot I want.' With many difficulties we got the place, and we raised the money, and between us we did everything. We laid all the tile, we painted the acoustic boards, I put in the bathroom, Sam put in the control room—what little equipment he had always had to be the best." — quoted by Peter Guralnick, Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley
Phillips started his own record company, Sun Records, in 1952, "the first great rock 'n' roll record label." • Some of the artists Phillips recorded would redefine the musical genres in which they worked. Many of them made for Phillips not only their first recordings but also their best.
Before World War II most black music was blues, and a lot of those were country blues of the Mississippi Delta, the raw, gut-wrenching folk music of rural African Americans… Black migration out of the rural South accelerated during the First World War and exploded after World War II when manual cotton picking came to an end. Synthetic materials took over the market after the discovery of nylon in 1939, and the mechanical cotton picker, able to do the work of fifty people, arrived soon after. "The main musical result of the great migration was the blues came to town, and not to any old town: to Memphis, which acted as the local focus for migration from the Delta." — Sir Peter Hall, Cities in Civilization
In Memphis, WDIA started out in 1947 as a popular and country music radio station. The station switched formats in 1948 and began programming for a black audience after the success of a show called "Black America Speaks," hosted by Memphis's first black on-air personality, Nat Williams (1907-1983) [editorial: Color the Issue, A Point of View by Nat L. Williams]
Also in 1948, Dewey Phillips (1926-1968), a white radio announcer from rural Tennessee, began to host a show on WHBQ. "Red Hot and Blue" [listen] expanded from fifteen minutes to three hours daily during its first year on the air. Phillips played "an eclectic mix of blues, hillbilly, and pop that would become an institution in Memphis, and his importance to the cross-cultural miscegenation that became Rock 'n' Roll is incalculable." By 1951, word began to spread that white kids were buying "race records."
Sam Phillips was born on January 5, 1923 in the northwest corner of Alabama near Florence, about 150 miles east of Memphis. He got his first radio job in 1940 at WLAY in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and later took correspondence courses in radio engineering. He worked at WMSL in Decatur, Alabama, and at WLAC in Nashville before moving to Memphis in 1945.
In January 1950, Phillips started his own recording business in addition to his regular jobs. The Memphis Recording Service opened at 706 Union Avenue, about a mile east of the downtown area. The small one-story brick building had a reception area/office at the front of the building, a recording studio in the middle section, and a small control room in the rear. The entire building is only about 18 feet wide and 57 feet long. Phillips's business card read "We Record Anything—Anywhere—Anytime." Initially that included weddings, funerals, bar mitzvahs, advertisements for radio, etc., in addition to musicians in his studio.
"I opened the Memphis Recording Service with the intention of recording singers and musicians from Memphis and the locality who I felt had something that people should be able to hear. I'm talking about blues—both the country style and the rhythm style—and also about gospel or spiritual music and about white country music. I always felt that people who played this type of music had not been given the opportunity to reach an audience . . . My aim was to try and record the blues and other music I liked and to prove whether I was right or wrong about this music. I knew, or I felt I knew, that there was a bigger audience for blues than just the black man of the mid-South. There were city markets to be reached, and I knew that whites listened to blues surreptitiously." —Escott, op. cit.
Phillips also functioned as a folklorist, documenting music that was fading into the past. "With the jet age coming on, with cotton-picking machines as big as a building going down the road, with society changing, I knew that this music wasn't going to be available in a pure sense forever."
Recording the Blues
video: Sam Phillips: The Man who Invented Rock & Roll Part 1 (44:22) & Part 2 (45:59)
His first deal, with 4 Star/Gilt Edge Records, was a song by a blind pianist from south Memphis. Lost John Hunter's "Boogie for Me Baby" [listen] was "a crude boogie blues that could pick up some southern juke coin," according to the review in Billboard, a record business trade publication.
In late summer 1950, Phillips launched his own record company with partner Dewey Phillips (the hot Memphis radio announcer, no relation) in order to issue and promote his own products. They called their label Phillips, but it only lasted a few weeks, issuing three hundred copies of Joe Hill Louis's "Boogie in the Park" in August 1950 [listen]
Phillips soon began working with Modern Records of Los Angeles, owned and operated by the Bihari brothers. Their new subsidiary, RPM Records, was looking for "new music with a down- home feel." Jules Bihari sent a guitar player from Indianola, Mississippi, to Sam Phillips to record. Riley King was already popular locally and known as B.B. King (for Blues Boy, or more likely, Black Boy). Phillips recorded King, one of the first artists on the new RPM label, from mid-1950 until mid-1951 [listen].
Even at this early stage in his career, Sam Phillips used recording techniques that were soon recognized as hallmarks of his records. He put up-tempo boogies on the front sides of records, slow numbers on back sides, and overamplified on faster songs to get a primitive fuzzy sound… These early recording sessions with King also document Phillips's skill as a record producer. King's version of a Tampa Red song had an explosiveness missing from the original record.
"Rocket '88'," a song about a hot Oldsmobile, is one of the contenders for the title "first rock 'n' roll record." It featured Jackie Brenston, the singer, and Ike Turner, the bandleader, on piano. "Rocket '88'" [listen] was released in April 1951. It hit number 1 on Billboard's R&B chart in June and eventually became the second biggest R&B hit of the year. According to Sam Phillips, "Rocket '88'" was the record that really kicked it off for me as far as broadening the base of music and opening up wider markets for our local music." Phillips resigned from WREC in June 1951 after "Rocket '88'" became a hit. — [more] on the history of “Rocket 88”
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis), 28 Mar, 1951: "[Sam Phillips] has agreements with two recording companies to locate and record hillbilly and race music. Race numbers are those tailored for the Negro trade. Sam auditions musicians with original songs. When he finds something he's sure will sell, he gets it on acetate and sends it to one of the companies. He doesn't charge the musicians anything . . . Sam may branch out one day, so he says if anyone wants to bring him a pop song, he'll be glad to look it over." • full article
• Sam Phillips first recorded Chester Burnett (The Howlin' Wolf) in the spring of 1951. Born near Aberdeen, Mississippi, Howlin' Wolf (1910-1976) was a singer who gave the traditional Delta blues another dimension. They recorded "Moanin' at Midnight" and "How Many More Years" [listen] in August 1951… In Phillips's estimation, the Wolf was his greatest discovery.
• Even though he preferred the creative side of the business, Phillips started his own record company early in 1952… With his own label, Phillips could run the business like he wanted and release records that other labels rejected.
"When I was leasing to other labels, they wanted me to compromise. They wanted a fuller blues sound than I did. They were selling excitement. I was recording the feel I found in the blues. I wanted to get that gut feel onto record. I realized that it was going to be much more difficult to merchandise than what Atlantic or Specialty, for example, were doing, but I was willing to go with it."
Phillips named his new company Sun Records and selected an eye-catching record label [photo] designed by John G. Parker (1925-2012), who also designed the tiger stripe helmet for the Cincinnati Bengals football team and packages for Alka-Seltzer and Super Bubble gum… "The sun to me—even as a kid back on the farm—was a universal kind of thing. A new day, a new opportunity." —Sam Phillips
The first record issued on the new Sun label (March 27, 1952), Sun number 175, was an original instrumental, "Drivin' Slow," by alto saxophonist Johnny London.
"Even on this first release, all the hallmarks of a Sam Phillips Sun record were in place: the raw sound, the experimental origin, the dark texture, even the trademark echo. Phillips and London created the illusion of a sax heard down a long hallway on a humid night by rigging something like a telephone booth over London's head while he played. The record's appeal had more to do with feeling than virtuosity—in short, it offered everything music buyers could expect from Sun for the remainder of the decade." [listen]
The first recording on the Sun label considered to be a classic was Easy, an instrumental released in March 1953 by Walter Horton (1921-1981) (Little Walter, and later, Big Walter).
". . . Horton played the same theme five times, with mounting intensity. By the fourth chorus, he was playing with such intensity that his harmonica sounded like a tenor saxophone. Phillips' virtuosity with tape delay echo was rarely used to better advantage: he made three instruments [harmonica, guitar, drums] sound as full as an orchestra. Any other instrument would have been redundant." [listen]
Sun Records had its first national hit in the spring of 1953 with "Bear Cat," [listen] which went to number 3 on the national R&B chart. It was an "answer song" to "Hound Dog" by Big Mama Thornton aka Willie Mae Thornton (1926-1984), sung by local radio announcer Rufus Thomas. "Bear Cat" was the first record to make money for Sun Records and it put the company on the map. "Feelin' Good" by Little Junior's Blue Flames (released in July 1953), was also commercially successful, reaching number 5 on the national R&B chart.
Sun's next hit was "Just Walkin' in the Rain" [listen] by The Prisonaires, a black vocal group of five inmates from the Tennessee State Penitentiary in Nashville. They sang close-harmony gospel style and came under armed guard to record at 706 Union on June 1, 1953. As part of the warden's rehabilitation program, they were allowed to perform on radio, in concerts, and at the Governor's mansion, but "Just Walkin' in the Rain" was their only hit.
Phillips recorded a number of important blues artists in the early 1950s, including "Sleepy" John Estes, Little Milton Campbell, Rosco Gordon, Dr. Ross, Harmonica Frank Floyd, Willie Nix, Billy "The Kid" Emerson, and Bobby "Blue" Bland.
". . . It's safe to say that the blues has never sounded as mean, raw, or intense as it did on countless days and nights at 706 Union Avenue. Amplifiers were cranked way past the point of distortion, guitars slashed like straight razors, rickety drum kits were pounded with fury and abandon, and the stories both sung and shouted spanned the gamut of the black Southern experience…
"Even if he'd never issued a record on the shining yellow Sun label, even if Elvis Presley had never entered his small recording studio..., Phillips would rank as one of the most visionary record producers of our time on the basis of his early fifties blues work." —John Floyd, Sun Records: An Oral History
In May 1954, Phillips recorded "Cotton Crop Blues" with James Cotton on vocals and Auburn "Pat" Hare on guitar. This was "one of the truly great blues recordings," but recording of traditional blues at 706 Union fell off in 1954 with the growing popularity of R&B music. Sun Records soon became synonymous with rock 'n' roll, overshadowing Phillips's role in blues recording "and the insight that [he] brought to recording the blues. He worked hard to get the best from his artists . . . Phillips would sit behind his tape deck until sunup if he thought the musicians on the studio floor might capture the sound that he heard in his head."
Phillips struggled to make money in the record business for almost six years. Eventually he saw that the market at that time was too small for the kind of music he was recording.
"The base wasn't broad enough because of racial prejudice. It wasn't broad enough to get the amount of commercial play and general acceptance overall—not just in the South . . . Now these were basically good people, but conceptually they did not understand the kinship between black and white people in the South. So I knew what I had to do to broaden the base of acceptance." —Escott, op. cit.
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley graduated from Humes High School in north Memphis on June 3, 1953 and went to work at M.B. Parker Machinists on July 1. Later that summer, he recorded a personal record at the Memphis Recording Service. Presley paid $3.98 for an acetate with two sides, both ballads. While he was there, Presley talked with Marion Keisker, a long-time Memphis radio personality who helped Sam Phillips run his businesses at 706 Union, and asked if she knew of a band that needed a singer.
He made an impression on Keisker which she later remembered well, especially his answer to her question about which hillbilly singer he sounded like: "I don't sound like nobody." At that time, Presley had a child's guitar that he played in the park, on his porch steps, and in a band with his buddies around their housing project. He soon aspired to be a member of the Songfellows, an amateur church quartet. —Guralnick, op. cit.
Presley dropped by 706 Union a number of times after that initial meeting to see if Ms. Keisker had any leads for him. In January 1954, Presley paid for a second personal record, and tried out for a professional band that spring. Eddie Bond (1933-2003), the band leader, told him to keep driving a truck because he would never make it as a singer. Presley later revealed that Bond's rejection "broke my heart." —Guralnick, op. cit.
". . . There is little question that he stepped through the doorway [at 706 Union] with the idea, if not of stardom . . . at the very least of being discovered. In later years he would always say that he wanted to make a personal record "to surprise my mother." Or "I just wanted to hear what I sounded like." But, of course, if he had simply wanted to record his voice, he could have paid twenty-five cents at W. T. Grant's on Main Street . . . Instead, Elvis went to a professional facility, where a man who had been written up in the papers would hear him sing." —Guralnick, op. cit.
Marion Keisker finally called Presley on Saturday, June 26 to set up an appointment, almost a year after he recorded his first personal disc. On a recent trip to Nashville, Phillips had gotten an acetate of a song that reminded him of Presley's voice. They worked on "Without You" [listen] for a long time that afternoon, and Phillips had Presley sing a number of other songs after his unsuccessful attempts with "Without You."
A week later, Phillips set Presley up with two members of the Starlite Wranglers [photos], Scotty Moore (guitar) and Bill Black (bass), and the three of them went to the studio on Monday, July 5 so Phillips could hear them on tape. Nothing special happened at the session until they took a break and Presley began fooling around and playing an old blues song by Arthur Crudup, "That's All Right [Mama] [listen]."
"Sam recognized it right away. He was amazed that the boy even knew Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup—nothing in any of the songs he had tried so far gave any indication that he was drawn to this kind of music at all. But this was the sort of music that Sam had long ago wholeheartedly embraced . . . And the way the boy performed it, it came across with a freshness and an exuberance, it came across with the kind of clear-eyed, unabashed originality that Sam sought in all the music that he recorded—it was "different," it was itself." —Guralnick, op. cit.
Phillips got his friend and kindred spirit, disc jockey Dewey Phillips, to play "That's All Right" [listen] on his radio show "Red Hot and Blue," then near the height of its popularity. The response was immediate—hundreds of phone calls and telegrams. Dewey played the song a number of times that night and also interviewed Presley during the show.
By the time the record was pressed and ready for release, there were 6,000 orders for it locally. Sun record number 209 was released on Monday, July 17, 1954. Phillips had been "looking for something that nobody could categorize," and this song did not sound exclusively black or white or country or pop. Initially, many people who heard the song thought that Presley was a black man. —Guralnick, op. cit.
Elvis Presley's first big public appearance with Scotty and Bill, the Blue Moon Boys, was on Friday, July 30 at Memphis's outdoor amphitheater in Overton Park [photos]. The show featured Slim Whitman, a star from the Louisiana Hayride, which some called the Grand Ole Opry's "farm club." He drew a hillbilly crowd, but they went wild when Elvis shook and wiggled his legs, his natural way of performing.
The new record made Billboard's regional charts by the end of August, but it was the B side that was more popular. Phillips backed "That's All Right" with an unorthodox version of "Blue Moon of Kentucky" [listen], a waltz that was a hit in 1946 for Bill Monroe, country music's elder statesman. By early September, "Blue Moon" was number 1 on the Memphis C&W chart and "That's All Right" was number 7. —Guralnick, op. cit.
Sun released Presley's second record in late September. "It was . . . an even bolder declaration of intent than the first, especially the strident blues number 'Good Rockin' Tonight' [listen], which rocked more confidently than anything they could have imagined in those first, uncertain days in the studio." The original jump blues version was written and recorded by Roy Brown in 1947 [listen]
Presley's growing popularity enabled Phillips to arrange a guest appearance on the Grand Ole Opry for October 2, even though the Opry had never before scheduled a performer at such an early stage in his career. The performance of "Blue Moon of Kentucky" by Elvis Presley, Scotty and Bill received a "polite, but somewhat tepid, reception," and the Opry's manager told Phillips that Presley "just did not fit the Opry mold."
It was a big disappointment for Elvis. But soon they were off to Louisiana for Presley's first appearance on the Louisiana Hayride, "the Opry's more innovative rival in Shreveport" that had a show every Saturday night. On the third Saturday of the month the show broadcast with a 50,000 watt signal that reached up to twenty-eight states.48 After only one guest appearance, Presley signed a standard one year contract to be one of the Hayride's regular members, and he and his band quit their day jobs. —Guralnick, op. cit.
For the next year, Elvis Presley and the Blue Moon Boys toured almost constantly... Presley took his first airplane flight and first trip to New York City on March 23, 1955 to try out for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts contest, but he did not pass the audition. [A] tour with Hank Snow/Jamboree Attractions began on May 1 in New Orleans, visiting twenty cities in three weeks, including a number of stops in Florida. There was a "riot" backstage after the concert in Jacksonville …
The audiences had never heard music like Presley played before, and they had never seen anyone who performed like Presley either. The shy, polite, mumbling boy gained self-confidence with every appearance, which soon led to a transformation on stage. People watching the show were astounded and shocked, both by the "ferocity of his performance,"49 and the crowd's reaction to it.
Even in the early days, Elvis almost always stole the show from the headliners, and concert lineups had to be rearranged accordingly. Nobody followed Elvis. Roy Orbison saw Presley for the first time in Odessa, Texas: "His energy was incredible, his instinct was just amazing . . . I just didn't know what to make of it. There was just no reference point in the culture to compare it."—Guralnick, op. cit.
"'He's the new rage,' said a Louisiana radio executive… 'Sings hillbilly in R&B time. Can you figure that out? He wears pink pants and a black coat . . .'" —Guralnick, op. cit.
Elvis caused a great commotion everywhere he went. Throughout the South, Presley had girls screaming and fainting and chasing after him.
Sam Phillips was also on the road constantly after the Overton Park performance in July 1954, promoting the new records to distributors, disc jockeys, record store owners, and jukebox operators. His experiences, however, were entirely different. Time and again, disc jockeys who were old friends and/or long-standing business associates told Phillips they could not play the Presley records. A country deejay said "Sam, they'll run me out of town." To an R&B deejay, "That's All Right" was a country song. A major pop station disc jockey told Phillips, "your music is just so ragged. I just can't handle it right now. Maybe later on." —Guralnick, op. cit.
WELO in Tupelo, Mississippi, Presley's hometown, would not even play the record, in spite of many requests from teenagers, because the deejay did not like the new music. —Guralnick, op. cit.
Sam Phillips persevered in spite of all the rejection he was getting, and kept trying to turn it around. "I needed the attention that I got from the people that hated what I was doing, that acted like: 'Here is somebody trying to thrust junk on us and classify it as our music.'"—Guralnick, op. cit.
"He was a man swept up by a belief, in a sound and in an idea. And as discouraged as he might sometimes get, as harsh as the reality of selling this new music might be, he never strayed from his belief, he never allowed himself to be distracted from his main goal. Which was to get them to listen." —Guralnick, op. cit.
Phillips could feel a revolution was on the way. There were already lots of country boys coming to his studio to play the new music, which initially got the name rockabilly. "Sam knew that a day was coming . . . when the music would prevail." —Guralnick, op. cit.
Presley was still a regional sensation and unknown to the national market when he got the record industry's attention. By the summer of 1955, almost all the major and independent record labels were inquiring about him. Sam Phillips had mixed feelings about selling Presley's contract, but his operations could not accommodate the Presley phenomenon, his finances were very tight, and he had other artists who needed his attention.
Presley's parents signed a contract in August which soon forced the issue. Col. Tom Parker (1909-1997) became "special adviser to Elvis Presley." He was the head of Jamboree Attractions, one of the major promoters and bookers of country and western talent, and had booked Presley on the Hank Snow package tours earlier that year. At that time, Parker was known as the best promoter in the business. In October Parker asked Phillips to name his price for Presley's contract, and Parker made sure that it was met.
The deal was signed at 706 Union Avenue on November 21, 1955. RCA-Victor bought Elvis Presley's contract from Sun Records for $35,000, plus $5,000 in back royalties owed to Presley. The story ran in the Memphis Press-Scimitar the next day:
"Elvis Presley, 20, Memphis recording star and entertainer who zoomed into big- time and the big money almost overnight, has been released from his contract with Sun Record Co. of Memphis . . . . Phillips and RCA officials did not reveal terms but said the money involved is probably the highest ever paid for a contract release for a country-western recording artist. 'I feel Elvis is one of the most talented youngsters today,' Phillips said, 'and by releasing his contract to RCA-Victor we will give him the opportunity of entering the largest organization of its kind in the world, so his talents can be given the fullest opportunity.'" —quoted in Guralnick, op. cit.
Sam Phillips never regretted his decision to sell Elvis Presley's contract. In many ways, Presley's departure was like a new beginning for Sun Records. Many country musicians aspiring to play rockabilly began to make their way to 706 Union Avenue. As Johnny Cash said many years later, "Elvis was a beacon that brought us all there." —Peter Guralnick, "Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock 'n' Roll," VHS (A&E Biography, 2000)
Sun Studio
After Sam Phillips moved his companies to the new location on Madison Avenue, 706 Union Avenue housed a number of different businesses in the 1960s and 1970s, including a barber shop, an auto parts store, and a scuba shop. The building was vacant in 1985 when it became the site of a family reunion of sorts. An album entitled “Class of '55: Memphis Rock 'n' Roll Homecoming“ was recorded here to celebrate and remember the "Class of '55" on their 30th "anniversary." Record producer Chips Moman convened Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Roy Orbison to record together for the first time at the Sun studio in September 1985.
Not long after that event, 706 Union Avenue became a stop for visitors on tours to Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley, which opened to the public in 1982. The building opened as the Sun Studio for tours in 1987—the name Sun Records and the original Sun record label design still belong to Shelby Singleton, who bought the company in 1969. The current property owner also purchased the adjacent two-story brick building that housed a café and a boarding house in the 1950s. That building now serves as a soda shop, gallery, and gift shop for visitors to Sun Studio.
The Sun Studio also operates as a full service 24-track recording studio for professional musicians, as well as anyone who wants to make a personal record, just like Elvis. In 1987, the Irish rock band U2 recorded several songs here for their album "Rattle and Hum," including "When Love Comes to Town" featuring B.B. King. Several hundred thousand visitors have made the pilgrimage to this extraordinary place.
• National Register # 03001031, 2003 • designated a National Historic Landmark, 2003
Philadelphia, PA, est. 1682; pop. 1,567,442 (metro 6MM)
• built in 1740 • earliest known photograph is dated 1859 — bldg. was then 119 yrs. old [photo] • Georgian-Colonial trinity aka "bandbox" design • typically, trinity houses had 1 room per floor & were built facing each other in rows of 4 identical bldgs. • in addition to the room on each floor, this house had a walkable attic room & a cellar
• served as both business & residence for shopkeepers & artisans for over 150 yrs. • among the occupants in the 18th c. were a shoemaker, apothecary & an upholsterer named Betsy Ross, who is said to have sewn the first American flag in this building • estimates of when & how long she lived here have her arriving in 1773 at the earliest & departing as late as 1791
• over time the house changed in appearance [photos] as neighborhood houses were razed & replaced w/larger commercial buildings —Where's Betsy
Betsy Ross
• Elizabeth "Betsy" Griscom (1752-1836) was a fourth-generation American • daughter of Samuel Griscom (1717-1793) & Rebecca James (c. 1730-1793) • the 8th of their 17 children • great granddaughter of Andrew Griscom (c. 1654-1694), a Quaker carpenter who migrated from England to New Jersey in 1680, 1 yr. before William Penn founded Philadelphia
"She often laughed at the curious fact that she was born on the first day of the week, the first day of the month, the first day of the year, and the first year of the 'new style' [which was] the dividing line between the old way of measuring the years time and the new method under the [Gregorian calendar… She was also] the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter." —C.B. Satterthwaite, great grandson, The Des Moines Register, 07 Jan, 1906
• at age 3 Betsy's family moved to a large home at 4th & Arch Sts. • went to a Friends (Quaker) public school • 8 of her siblings died before adulthood • lost her mother, father & sister, Deborah, to the 1793 yellow fever epidemic
• upon completion of her schooling at age 12, her father apprenticed her to upholsterer John Webster • fell in love with fellow apprentice John Ross (1752-1773), son of an Episcopal asst. rector at Christ Church • defying her parents, in 1773 Betsy, age 21, eloped w/John
• Betsy's sister Sarah & her husband Capt. Wm. Donaldson rowed the couple across the Delaware River, heading 5 miles downstream to Gloucestertown, NJ • they were married at family friend William Hugg Jr.'s tavern & inn, known locally as Hugg's …more: The New Jersey Hugg Line
• because her marriage to a non-Quaker was considered an act of "disorderly and undutiful conduct," Betsy was split from her family & read out of meeting, i.e., disowned by her Quaker community • became a member of Christ Church • the Ross's pew No. 12 [photo] was adjacent to Martha & George Washington's No. 56 & not far from Deborah & Benjamin Franklin's No. 70
• the newlyweds — now trained upholsterers — opened their own business • c. 1773 they rented a house, probably at what is today 239 Arch St. although the exact site is still debated by historians • most records point to this house or one next door at No. 241, long since razed
"The identity of the location was always preserved in the family, which agrees with the records in the old Philadelphia directories… from 1785, the first published, to the removal of Betsy Ross and her husband from 239 Arch Street, in 1791" —Betsy Ross grandson George Canby, New York Times, 05 July, 1908
• Benjamin Franklin & Benjamin Chew were among the Rosses' customers • business slowed during the Revolutionary War as fabric was in short supply • John Ross joined the Pennsylvania militia • mid-Jan., 1776, he was gravely wounded by a powder explosion at a Delaware River ammunition cache, apparently while standing guard • Betsy nursed him in their home, but he died within days
• in June, 1777, Betsy married girlhood suitor Joseph Ashburn, a privateer who commanded the sailing sloop Swallow • the couple had 2 daughters • the 1st, Aucilla ("Zillah"), died in infancy
• British troops entered Philadelphia on 26 Sep., 1777 after their victory at the Battle of Brandywine • the Ashburn home was forcibly shared with British occupation soldiers as the Continental Army suffered through the killing winter at Valley Forge • the British soldiers nicknamed Betsy "Little Rebel" —US History•org
• Betsy was pregnant with Elizabeth ("Eliza") when Joseph accepted a job offer & shipped out as first mate on the 6-gun brigantine, Patty • returned to be present for the Feb., 1781 birth of their 2nd daughter
• Joseph became master of the 18-gun Lion & took her to sea late in the summer of 1781 • on 31 Aug., his ship was captured off the coast of France by a 44-gun British frigate, the HMS Prudente
• prior to March, 1782, the British refused to designate captured rebels as prisoners of war, thus the captives from the Lion were viewed as traitors, charged with high treason & committed to Plymouth, England's Mill Prison [images] • while incarcerated, Ashburn met fellow prisoner John Claypoole, a longtime friend of the Ross family
• Claypoole, a Continental Army vet, had been wounded at Germantown & consequently discharged • in 1781 he signed on to man the 18-gun Pennsylvania privateer Chevalier de la Luzerne & was captured in April • in the spring of 1782 Ashburn died in prison, leaving Betsy a 2-time war widow at age 30 —Betsy Ross and the Making of America
"In the Night of the 3d of March Mr Joseph Ashburn departed this life after an illness of about a week which he bore with amazing fortitude & resignation" —John Claypoole, Mill Prison
"The story goes that Ashburn, while in Mill Prison, often talked with John Claypoole about his wife, Betty*, and at his death sent farewell messages by him to her. Claypoole, on his arrival in Philadelphia, hastened to deliver these messages, and inside of eight months he married her." —John Claypoole's Memorandum-Book *Betsy is referred to as "Betty" in some 18th, 19th & early 20th c. books & media
• in 1782 Claypoole returned to Philadelphia, called on Betsy & married her the following year • gave up his seafaring career to join her at the Arch St. upholstery shop • though renamed "John Claypoole, upholsterer," to customers the shop remained Betsy's place • the couple had 5 daughters: Clarissa, Susanna, Rachel, Jane & Harriet, who died at 9 months • sometime after Susanna's birth in 1786, the Claypooles moved from Arch St. to a larger house on 2nd
• Betsy returned to her Quaker roots, albeit with the Free (Fighting) Quakers, a group exiled from the main Quaker community when their support for the Revolution was ruled a violation of the faith's peace testimony • the couple became members c. 1785 • image: Betsy Claypoole signature taken from the Meeting House roster
• it is widely believed that when the Free Quaker Meeting House shut down in 1834, it was its last attending members — Elizabeth Claypoole & Samuel Wetherill — who closed the doors
• in 1817, after a long illness, John Claypoole died • Betsy never remarried • after retiring, she moved to the home of her daughter, Susanna • she died on 30 Jan, 1836, age 84
The American Flags
"Flags were a rare sight on land in the British North American colonies," —Wooden Teachout, Capture the Flag: A Political History of American Patriotism
• American flags were seldom used in parades or displayed by private citizens • colors were flown mainly in battle, over government institutions & on ships, where they were essential to identifying other vessels & determining friend or foe
• this changed after America's 1876 Centennial Exposition, which explains why "flags made prior to the Civil War are extremely rare, and flags made before 1820 are practically nonexistent." —Jeff R. Bridgeman, Stars and Stripes, Early American Life, Aug. 2011
• with the onset of the Revolutionary War, a flag for the "United Colonies" was created without the sanction of the Continental Congress • this 1775 flag was known as the Continental Colors, aka Grand Union, Congress Flag, Cambridge Flag
• on 2 Dec., 1775, the 1st Continental Colors flag was hand sewn by milliner Margaret Manny, who had begun making flags & ensigns the previous year
"Everyone knows about Betsy Ross, why do we know nothing about Margaret Manny? Probably for no better reason than that she had fewer articulate friends and relatives to build a story around her." —historian Barbara Tuchman, The First Salute
• the Continental Colors had 13 alternating red & white stripes with the British Union crosses in the canton • was created to replace the use of individual colony flags • prior to the Declaration of Independence, it was probably the most used unofficial flag of the revolution • American Flag Timeline
• the inclusion of the British Jack in the design signals that this flag was intended not for a civil war of secession, but rather a crusade to secure the American colonists' rights as Englishman • prior to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Gen. George Washington, still hoping for reconciliation with Mother England, would occasionally toast the King —The Forgotten Flag of the American Revolution and What It Means
• on 3 Dec, 1775, the new flag was raised by 1st Lt. John Paul Jones (1747-1792) on the 30-gun Continental Navy frigate USS Alfred [painting], the 1st national ensign to fly on an American fighting vessel —Naval History Blog
• the flag later flew over the signing of the Declaration of Independence & according to tradition (contested by some scholars), it was raised on a ship's mast atop Charlestown's Prospect Hill [painting] during Washington's 1 Jan., 1776 siege of Boston
• spotting the hybrid British/American flag for the first time, confused British observers took it as a signal of submission: “By this time, I presume, they begin to think it strange that we have not made a formal surrender of our lines,” Washington wrote • his psychological weaponry also included an early form of war propaganda
• absent a single government-mandated flag design, a variety of others were used • within a yr. after Prospect hill, the Continental Colors' Union Jack was replaced by a blue field w/13 white stars in various arrangements, e.g., rows, or possibly a circle?
• on 14 June, 1777, now celebrated as Flag Day, the American Flag was born by resolution of the Continental Congress, the country’s 1st flag law • during the Revolutionary period that followed, the stars on most American flags were arranged in rows of 4-5-4 with the number of points on most stars ranging from 4 to 8 • compared to the Continental Colors, the rows of stars made it easier to identify the flag/ship/nationality at sea —The 13 Stars & Stripes
The Story
• about a year before the Flag Resolution of 1777 Betsy Ross, 5-months a widow & struggling to make a ends meet, is said to have received a visit from a Continental Congress flag committee (apparently a secret one as there are no records of its existence)
• according to the well known Betsy Ross story, in late May of 1776 (but possibly 1777) 3 heroes of the revolution — George Ross, the uncle of Betsy's late husband, financier/slave trader Robert Morris & Betsy's pew neighbor Gen. George Washington [portraits] — called on her to discuss a flag for the new nation
• Rachel Fletcher (Betsy's daughter) recalled that "…she was previously well acquainted with Washington, and that he had often been in her house in friendly visits, as well as on business. That she had embroidered ruffles for his shirt bosoms and cuffs, and that it was partly owing to his friendship for her that she was chosen to make the flag." —Rachel's affidavit
• as told by Betsy, Gen. Washington, then head of the Continental Army, showed her a rough design of a flag with 6-pointed stars • she offered suggestions for modifications & stated a preference for 5-pointed stars • when her visitors expressed concern over the difficulty of producing them, she replied, "Nothing easier," which she then proved by cutting a 5-pointed star in a single snip • video: Make a perfect star with ONE cut! (1:15) • Two Conundrums Concerning the Betsy Ross Five-Pointed Star
• changes approved, Washington redrew the flag w/a pencil • Betsy's friend & collaborator William Barrett, a Cherry St. ornamental painter created a water color copy of the drawing for her to work from • 1-2 other seamstresses sewed alternate designs for the committee, but only Betsy's was approved & used
• what is known today as the "Betsy Ross flag" has 13 red & white stripes & a ring of 13, white 5-pointed stars • though the design may have been in use by 1777, vexillologists believe that between 1777-1795, (the yrs. the official flag had 13 stars) most flags displayed stars in rows, which are easier to produce than a circle
• None of the surviving flags from the 18th century exhibit the Betsy Ross pattern • however a few examples are depicted in the art of the era (although period art is notoriously unreliable for flag research)
• the flag depicted in Chas. Willson Peale's 1779 George Washington at the Battle of Princeton is generally considered credible & "may be the only evidence in a painting… that suggests that a circle-pattern flag may have existed in colonial times… Otherwise, you won't see an American flag with a perfect circle of stars made before the 1890s." —Jeff R. Bridgeman, loc. cit.13 Stars in the Betsy Ross Pattern • historically significant the American flags [images]
• though known as an upholsterer, there is no doubt that Betsy made flags, having sewn pennants & ensigns for the Pennsylvania State Navy Board (as did Margaret Manning & Rebecca Young, whose daughter Mary Pickersgill would go on to sew the enormous flag that inspired the U.S. National Anthem, Francis Scott Key's The Star-Spangled Banner)
• a month before Congress passed the Flag Resolution, Betsy was paid 14 pounds, 12 shillings, 2 pence (~$2,300 in 2017 USD) for what must have been a prodigious quantity of Pennsylvania Navy flags • there is no hard evidence that any of these were American flags • "...today we are reasonably convinced that Betsy’s flag was a naval flag, with a simple ‘in line’ arrangement of the stars…" —John B. Harker, Historian & Betsy Ross descendent
• Betsy (Elizabeth Claypool) was now in the business of producing flags & ensigns for the federal govt. • throughout the Jefferson & Madison admins. the skilled needlewoman made flags as large as 18' x 24' for American military installations, with demand peaking during the War of 1812
• for the rest of her life she — in her words — "never knew what it was to want employment" • her oldest daughter, Clarissa Sidney Wilson (1785-1864) [portrait], succeeded her, supplying arsenals, navy yards & the mercantile marine with flags for years —Betsy Ross•org
"In the last years of her life, Ross was neither more nor less important than other aging women who had lived through the Revolution. That she became famous while others were forgotten exposes the interlocking power of family history, local memory, and national politics." —How Betsy Ross Became Famous by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Historian
The Legend
"…at a time of great historic import such as that time when the Declaration was signed, people have no leisure to think about the minor events which are taking place. Thus, during the revolution no one thought of Betsy Ross as a national heroine, and it was not, in fact until 1870 that William J. Canby (1825-1890) first brought the story of how the first flag was made into general prominence." —Dr. Lloyd Balderston, great-grandson of Betsy Ross, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 3 Jul, 1908
• there is no record of the the Betsy Ross story prior to 1870 • that year — 34 years after her death — Betsy's 45 yr. old grandson, a title processor named William Jackson Canby, presented a paper titled The History of the Flag of the United States to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania • the document, accompanied by sworn affidavits, was an oral history passed on by descendants of Betsy Ross, including Canby himself who was 11 yrs. old when she died • …more: The Evolution of the American Flag by (Betsy Ross descendants) George Canby (1829-1907), Lloyd Balderston, Ph.D (1863-1933)
• the story was largely ignored until it was mentioned in historian George Henry Preble's 1872 book Our Flag & appeared in the July, 1873 Harper's Monthly [illustration] • with Civil War wounds slowly healing & the 1876 centennial celebration fast approaching, Betsy Ross & the flag entered American consciousness • in the 1880's her story began to appear in textbooks • by the mid 1890s it was often illustrated by an engraving of The Birth of Our Nation’s Flag, an 1893 painting by Charles H. Weisgerber (1856-1932)
• oral tradition has it that in 1892 Weisgerber, a 36 yr. old aspiring artist, was bent on winning a forthcoming art competition • walking along Arch St., he noticed a plaque at No. 239 which identified the bldg. as the site where Betsy Ross sewed the 1st American flag
• inspired, Weisgerber envisioned a scene of Betsy & the 1st flag set in her shop • to fill in details of the story, characters & setting, he drew on period portraits, the testimony of living descendants & the 22 yr. old Canby paper
• with no authentic image of Betsy in existence (according to her relatives), Weisgerber painted a composite taken from images of 4 of her daughters & a granddaughter who was said to closely resemble her • the resulting portrait was critiqued by relatives who had known her & modified accordingly • Weisgerber then created a massive 9' x 12' painting • portrayed the young Widow Ross, saintly matriarch of a new nation, as she presents the 1st American flag to 3 revered American patriarchs
• "the image was [said] …by Mrs. Ross' grandson, George Canby, to be the only correct likeness of [her]" — he was 7 yrs. old when Betsy Ross died —The Times (Philadelphia) 15 Jun 1893
• the flag depicted in the painting — with no evidence to support the authenticity of its design — has since been known as the "Betsy Ross flag," the standard for celebrating the U.S.A.'s birthday each 4th of July
The Apotheosis
• Weisgerber's painting won the $1,000 prize & in 1893 was showcased in the Pennsylvania Building at Chicago’s Columbian Exposition • seen by millions of visitors • contributed to the nascent reverence for Betsy Ross & the flag as sacred symbols of the emerging, quasi-religious American civil religion • politicians, patriotic societies & public sentiment propelled the flag's transformation into an object of veneration, its role expanding well beyond the customary military & govt. functions
On Flag Day, 1894, the Colonial Dames gathered 500 schoolchildren to honor “the adoption by Congress . . . of the flag made by Betsy Ross from the design submitted to her by Gen. Washington” • by 1895, 10 states had laws requiring public schools to display the flag on all school days — Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, loc. cit.
• in 1897 the City of New York bought thousands of lithographs of Weisgerber’s painting for its public schools: “It is thought that the representation which is declared historically correct, together with such lectures as the teachers may deliver, will add much to the pupil’s knowledge and keep alive a proper reverence for the country’s emblem.” —New York Times, 14 Feb, 1897
• in 1885, NYC school principal George T. Balch (1821-1908), a vet. of the Indian & Civil Wars, wrote Salute to the Flag, the U.S.A.'s first pledge of allegiance
"I give my hand and my heart to my country — one nation, one language, one flag."
• the heightened patriotism of the era inspired a movement to organize schoolyard flag raising ceremonies • the American Flag Assn. was founded in 1897 for the "fostering of public sentiment in favor of honoring the flag in our country and preserving it from desecration" • Natl. Flag Day was proclaimed in 1917
• Christian Socialist Francis Bellamy (1855-1931), who worked in the premium dept. of The Youth's Companion magazine, wrote a new U.S. Pledge of Allegiance (1892) for his employer • created as part of the magazine's campaign to sell American flags to public schools • goal was a flag in every classroom • 25,000 schools acquired flags the 1st yr. • though priced "at cost," banner sales proved profitable
• Bellamy also choreographed a salute — the "Bellamy Salute" — to accompany the pledge • because of its similarity to the Nazi heil it was replaced by a right-hand-over-heart gesture during World War II • another Youth's Companion employee, James Upham, headed a flag-centric project designed to engage public schools in the commemoration of the U.S.A.'s 1st Columbus Day (Oct. 1892)
The Verdict
• for nearly a century-and-a-half, historians have debated the available evidence in an attempt to prove that Betsy Ross either did or did not produce the 1st American flag: "There’s no good historical evidence that she did. But that doesn’t mean she didn’t. There’s simply a lack of documentation. Most historians believe the story is apocryphal." —Marc Leepson, author of Flag: An American Biography, The Truth About Betsy Ross
• the identity of the woman who sewed America's 1st flag may never be certain, but there is good reason to believe that its designer may have been Francis Hopkinson (1737-1791) • the NJ representative to the Continental Congress & signer of the Declaration of Independence is the only person entered into the Congressional record for designing the 1st American flag
• it has been speculated that on 14 June, 1777, it was Hopkinson who replaced the British crosses in the Continental Colors with white stars on a blue field • no original sketch of a Hopkinson flag exists, but surviving rough sketches including his design for the Great Seal of the U.S. incorporate elements of 2 of his flag designs —Wikipedia
On 25 May, 1780, Hopkinson wrote to the Continental Board, requesting "a Quarter Cask of the public Wine" as payment for several itemized "patriotic designs" he had completed, most notably, "the flag of the United States of America" • submitted another bill on 24 June for "drawings and devices," including "the Naval Flag of the United States"
• the Treasury Board rejected his request for payment because he "was not the only person consulted on those exhibitions of Fancy" & furthermore was not entitled to compensation as he was already on the government payroll —Did Francis Hopkinson Design Two Flags?, Earl P. Williams, Jr.
• Hopkinson is also considered America's 1st poet-composer • written at age 21, his song My Days have been so Wondrous Free (1759) is regarded as the earliest surviving American secular composition [listen] —UPen•edu
Saving Betsy's House
• by 1859, 239 Arch St. was occupied by the family of German immigrant (Carl) Philip Mund (1822-1883), who operated a tailor's shop on the 1st floor • the landlord, after collecting rent for the first year, never returned • over the succeeding rent-free decades, the Munds operated a variety of businesses in their retail space
• after Canby's 1870 speech identified the location of Betsy Ross's house as Arch between 2nd & 3rd, the Munds — occupants of the block's last standing colonial house — posted a sign: "First Flag of the US Made in this House" • in 1876, as visitors poured into the city for the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, the Munds ran an ad for their latest 1st floor business: "Original Flag House, Lager, Wine and Liquors. This is the house where the first United States flag was made by Mrs. John Ross." —Historic Philadelphia
• after Philip Mund died his wife Amelia, who objected to running a saloon, converted the space into a cigar store & candy shop which operated until 1892 — her son Charles then devoted the space to a museum/souvenir shop [photo] —The Betsy Ross House Facts, Myths, and Pictures by G.A. Anderson
• c. 1897 citizens led by Charles Weisgerber organized the American Flag Soc. & Betsy Ross Memorial Assn. • goal was to rescue the house from imminent demolition • intended to purchase it from Charles Mund, restore it to its 18th-c. appearance, preserve the memory of Betsy Ross & honor the American flag
• to raise the funds for purchasing the Betsy Ross "American Flag House," the Association devised a rudimentary multi-level marketing strategy • sold lifetime memberships for 10 cents • each member was encouraged to recruit others & form a group of 30; each group founder received a chromolithographograph of Weisgerber's painting • over 2 million monochrome certificates were sold at ten cents each • the colorful chromoliths were available at addl. cost (frame not included) —Enjoying Philadelphia
• the Association leased the house in 1898, purchased it in 1903 • Weisgerber & his family moved in • lived upstairs, kept the museum & a souvenir shop on the 1st floor • in 1902 they named their newborn son Charles Vexil Domus, Latin for "flag house" [photo] • he would later replace his parents as custodian of the house —G.A. Anderson, loc. cit.
• by 1936 the house was on the verge of ruin • in 1937 Philadelphia Mayor Davis Wilson proposed a restoration by WPA workers • this provoked "a storm of protest" from critics
• Pennsylvania Historical Soc. members wrote off the Betsy Ross story as "hokum" and "the bunk" • the protests from scholars & historians sparked an unwinnable faith vs. reason culture war with patriotic organizations such as the Daughters of the American Revolution & the Patriotic Order Sons of America
• amid the controversy, Philadelphia radio manufacturer & philanthropist A. Atwater Kent (1873-1949) offered to pay up to $25K for the restoration • Historical architect, Richardson Brognard Okie (1875-1945) won the commission
• the design for the restoration was derived from evidence & conjecture • goal was to return the bldg. to its c. 1777 appearance • surviving architectural elements were preserved when possible • materials salvaged from demolished colonial era homes were also used • in 1941, the Association gave the property to the city • the house now stands as one of Philadelphia's most popular tourist attractions
Postscript
• in 1929 Hugg's tavern, where Betsy Griscom defied family & church to marry John Ross, was demolished to make way for the Proprietor's Park swimming pool, which no longer exists • the Revolutionary War-era Hugg-Harrison-Glover House (1764), built on property owned by the Hugg family as early as 1683, was razed in the face of fervent opposition, March, 2017 —Facebook
• 178 yrs. after Betsy's wedding & just 5 blocks from where Hugg's once stood, another American legend was born at the Twin Bar [photo] when Bill Haley (and the Saddlemen) performed there in the early 1950s [poster] • in 1952 Haley's band laid down a cover of Rock the Joint [listen], an historic 1949 recording by Jimmy Preston & His Prestonians [listen] • each of these recordings has been cited as a candidate for the title of first rock 'n' roll song • Gloucester City thus became one of several U.S. sites that claims the title "Cradle of Rock 'n Roll"
Charles H. Weisgerber died in 1932 • his magnum opus, The Birth of the American Flag lay rolled up & hidden away in a barn loft & later in the back of a South Jersey dye-making workshop • his grandson Stuart (son of Vexil Domus) found it — still rolled up — in his mother's basement • its poor condition precluded exhibition: in the 50s, hanging in the old State Museum at Harrisburg, it had been vandalized, then incurred additional damage from repeated unrolling
• Weisgerber sought a Philadelphia home for the massive work but was unsuccessful • after a $40K restoration in 2002 the painting, it's appraised market value just $50K, returned to the State Museum at Harrisburg
• in 1976 the remains of Betsy Ross & 3rd husband John Claypoole were moved from Mount Moriah cemetery, Yeadon, PA, to the garden on the west side of the Betsy Ross House courtyard