When General Jiao rested in an inn during the journey, the innkeeper who played the role of a “Wu Chou” (martial clown) sympathized with his plight and pledged to protect him. However, when Warrior Ren turned up, the innkeeper mistook him for the assassin. That night, the innkeeper and Warrior Ren put a fierce fight in complete darkness each mistaking the other to be the assassin.

 

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The days being nearly fulfilled when the Blessed Virgin must, according to the Law, present and redeem her firstborn in the Temple, 143143 The laws about ‘Purification’ and offerings after childbirth are in Lev. 12.4-8, and the ‘sanctification’ of the first-born is directed in Exod. 13.2 and Num. 3.13. (SB) all was prepared for the Holy Family’s journey first to the Temple and then to their home in Nazareth. On the evening of Sunday, December 30 th, the shepherds had been given everything left behind by Anna’s servants. The Cave of the Nativity, the side-cave, and Maraha’s grave were all completely swept out and emptied. Joseph left them all quite clean. In the night of Sunday, December 30 th, to Monday, December 31 st, I saw Joseph and Mary with the Child visiting the Cave of the Nativity once more and taking leave of that holy place. They spread out the kings’ carpet on Jesus’ birthplace, laid the Child on it and prayed, and finally laid it on the place where He had been circumcised, kneeling down in prayer there, too. At dawn on Monday, December 31 st, I saw the Blessed Virgin mount the donkey, which the old shepherds had brought to the cave all equipped for the journey. Joseph held the Child while she settled herself comfortably; then he laid Him in her lap. She sat sideways on the saddle with her feet on a rather high support, facing backwards. She held the Child on her lap wrapped in her big veil and looked down on Him with an expression of great happiness. There were only a few rugs and small bundles on the donkey. Mary sat between them. The shepherds accompanied them part of their way before taking a moving farewell of them. They did not take the way by which they had come, but went between the Cave of the Nativity and the grave of Maraha, round the east side of Bethlehem. Nobody noticed them.

[January 30 th:] This morning I saw them going very slowly on the short journey from Bethlehem to Jerusalem: they must have made many halts. At midday I saw them resting on benches round a fountain with a roof over it. I saw some women coming to the Blessed Virgin and bringing her jugs with balsam and small loaves of bread. The Blessed Virgin’s sacrifice for the Temple hung in a basket at the side of the donkey. This basket had three compartments, two of which were lined with something. These contained fruit. The third was of open wickerwork and a couple of doves could be seen in it. Towards evening I saw them enter a small house beside a large inn about a quarter of an hour from Jerusalem. This was kept by an old childless couple who welcomed them with particular affection. I now know why I mistook Anna’s companions yesterday for the people from an inn in Jerusalem: I had seen them stopping here with these good old people on their way to Bethlehem, when they had no doubt arranged about a lodging for the Blessed Virgin. The old couple were Essenes and related to Joanna Chuza. The husband was a gardener by trade, trimmed hedges, and was employed in work on the road.

[February 1 st:] I saw the Holy Family with these old innkeepers near Jerusalem during the whole of today. The Blessed Virgin was generally alone in her room with the Child, who lay on a rug on a low ledge projecting from the wall. She was praying all the time, and seemed to be preparing herself for the coming ceremony. It was revealed to me at the same time how one should prepare oneself for receiving Holy Communion.

I saw the appearance of a number of holy angels in her room, worshipping the Infant Jesus. I do not know whether the Blessed Virgin also saw these angels, but I think so, because I saw her rapt in contemplation. The good people of the inn did everything possible to please the Blessed Virgin: they must have been aware of the holiness of the Infant Jesus.

About seven o’clock in the evening I had a vision of the aged Simeon. He was a thin, very old man with a short beard. He was an ordinary priest, was married, and had three grown-up sons, the youngest of whom might have been about twenty. I saw Simeon, who lived close to the Temple, going through a narrow dark passage in the Temple walls into a small vaulted cell, built in the thickness of the wall. I saw nothing in this room but an opening through which one could look down into the Temple. I saw the aged Simeon kneeling here rapt in prayer. Then the appearance of an angel stood before him and warned him to take heed of the little child who should be first presented early next morning, for this was the Messiah for whom he had so long yearned. After he had seen Him, he would soon die. I saw this so plainly; the room was illuminated, and the holy old man was radiant with joy. Then I saw him going to his house and telling his wife with great joy what had been announced to him. After his wife had gone to bed, I saw Simeon betake himself to prayer again.

I never saw devout Israelites and their priests praying with such exaggerated gestures as the Jews today. I did, however, see them scourging themselves. I saw the prophetess Anna praying in her cell and having a vision about the Presentation of the Infant Jesus in the Temple.

[February 2 nd:] This morning, while it was still dark, I saw the Holy Family, accompanied by the people of the inn, leaving the inn and going to Jerusalem to the Temple with the baskets of offerings and with the donkey laden for the journey. They went into a walled courtyard in the Temple. While Joseph and the innkeeper stabled the donkey in a shed, the Blessed Virgin and her Child were kindly received by an aged woman and led into the Temple by a covered passage. A light was carried, for it was still dark. No sooner had they entered this passage than the aged priest Simeon came, full of expectation, towards the Blessed Virgin. After addressing a few friendly words to her, he took the Child Jesus in his arms, pressed Him to his heart, and then hurried back to the Temple by another way. Yesterday’s message from the angel had so filled him with longing to see the Child of the Promise, for whom he had sighed so long, that he had come out here to the place where the women arrived. He was dressed in long garments such as the priests wear when not officiating. I often saw him in the Temple, and always as an aged priest of no elevated rank. His great devoutness, simplicity, and enlightenment alone distinguished him.

The Blessed Virgin was led by her guide to the outer courts of the Temple where the ceremony took place, and she was here received by Noemi, her former teacher, and Anna, who both lived on this side of the Temple. Simeon, who now once more came out of the Temple to meet the Blessed Virgin, led her, with her Child in her arms, to the customary place for the redemption of the firstborn. Anna, to whom Joseph gave the basket with the offerings, followed her with Noemi. The doves were in the lower part of the basket; above them was a compartment with fruit. Joseph went by another door into the place set apart for men.

It must have been known in the Temple that several women were coming for the presentation ceremony, for everything was arranged. The room where the ceremony took place was as big as the parish church here in Dülmen. Many lamps were burning on its walls, forming pyramids of light. The little flames are at the end of a bent tube projecting from a golden disc which shines almost as brightly as the flame. Hanging from this disc by a woven cord is a little extinguisher which is used to put out the light without making any smell and removed again when the lamps are lit.

An oblong chest had been brought out by several priests and set before a kind of altar with what looked like horns at each corner. The doors of this chest were opened to form a stand on which a large tray was laid. This was covered first with a red cloth, and then with a transparent white one, which hung down to the ground on each side. Burning lamps with several branches were placed at the four corners of this table, in the middle of which was an oblong cradle flanked by two oval bowls containing two baskets. All these things had been brought out of drawers in the chest, with priests’ vestments, which were laid on the other permanent altar. The table which had been set up for the offering was surrounded by a railing. On each side of this room were seats, raised one above the other, in which were priests saying prayers.

Simeon now approached the Blessed Virgin, in whose arms the Infant Jesus lay wrapped in a sky-blue covering, and led her through the railing to the table, where she laid the Child in the cradle. From this moment I saw an indescribable light filling the Temple. I saw that God Himself was in it, and above the Child I saw the heavens opening to disclose the Throne of the Holy Trinity. Simeon then led the Blessed Virgin back to the women’s place. Mary wore a pale sky-blue dress, with a white veil, and was completely enveloped in a long yellow cloak. Simeon then went to the permanent altar on which the vestments had been laid out, and he and three other priests vested each other for the ceremony. They had a kind of little shield on their arms, and on their heads were caps divided like miters. One went behind and the other in front of the table of offering, while two others stood at the narrow ends of it praying over the Child. Anna now came up to Mary and handed her the basket of offerings, which contained fruit and doves in two separate compartments, one above the other. She led her to the railing in front of the table, and there both remained standing. Simeon, who was standing before the table, opened the railing, led Mary up to the table, and placed her offering on it. Fruit was placed in one of the oval dishes and coins in the other: the doves remained in the basket. 144144 In 1823, when recounting Jesus’ stay in Hebron during the third year of His ministry, some ten days after the death of the Baptist, Catherine Emmerich said that she saw Our Lord teaching, on Friday the 29th day of the month of Thebet (i.e. Jan. 17th), from the Sabbath reading taken from Exodus, Chapter 10 to Chapter 13.17. He taught about the Egyptian plague of darkness and about the redemption of the first-born. In connection with the latter she recounted once more the whole ceremony of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, including the following, omitted from the description given in the text:‘The Blessed Virgin did not present Our Lord in the Temple until the forty-third day after His birth. Because of the feast, she waited for three days with the good people of the inn outside the Bethlehem gate of Jerusalem. Besides the customary offering of doves, she presented to the Temple five triangular pieces of gold from the kings’ gifts, as well as several pieces of beautiful stuff for embroidery. Before leaving Bethlehem, Joseph sold to his cousin the young she-ass which he had given him in pledge on Nov. 30th. I have always thought that the she-ass, on which Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, was a descendant of hers.’ (CB) Simeon remained standing with Mary before the table of offering, and the priest who stood behind it lifted the Infant Jesus from the cradle and held Him up towards the different sides of the Temple, making a long prayer the while. He then gave the Child to Simeon, who laid Him once more in Mary’s arms and prayed over her and the Child from a scroll hanging on a stand beside him. Simeon then led the Blessed Virgin back to where Anna was waiting for her in front of the railing, after which Anna took her back to the railed-off women’s enclosure. Here some twenty women were waiting to present their firstborn. Joseph and the other men were standing farther back in the place for men.

The priests at the permanent altar now began a service with incense and prayers. The priests in the seats took part in this service, making gestures, but not such violent ones as the Jews of today. At the close of this ceremony, Simeon came up to where Mary was standing, took the Infant Jesus from her into his arms, speaking long and loudly over Him in raptures of joy and thanking God that He had fulfilled His Promise. He ended with his Nunc Dimittis [ Luke 2.29-32]. After the Presentation Joseph came up, and he and Mary listened with great reverence to Simeon’s inspired words to the Blessed Virgin [ Luke 2.34]. When Simeon had finished speaking, the prophetess Anna was also filled with inspiration, and spoke long and loudly about the Infant Jesus, hailing His Mother as blessed. I saw that those who were present were greatly moved by all this, and the priests, too, seemed to hear something of what was happening; but no sort of disturbance was caused thereby. It seemed as if this loud inspired praying was nothing unusual, as if it often happened, and as if it must all be so. At the same time I saw that the hearts of all the bystanders were much moved, and all showed great reverence to the Child and His Mother. Mary was like a heavenly rose in radiance.

The Holy Family had, in appearance, made the most humble offering; but Joseph gave Anna and the aged Simeon many of the triangular yellow pieces in secret, to be used specially for poor girls who were being brought up in the Temple and could not afford the expense.

I saw the Blessed Virgin and her Child being accompanied by Anna and Noemi back to the outer court, whence they had fetched her, and there they took leave of each other. Joseph was there already with the two people from the inn; he had brought the donkey which carried Mary and the Child, and they started at once on their journey from the Temple through Jerusalem to Nazareth. I did not see the presentation of the other firstborn children that day, but I feel that they were all given a special grace, and that many of them were among the massacred Innocents.

The Presentation must have ended about nine o’clock this morning, for it was at this time that I saw the departure of the Holy Family. That day they traveled as far as Bethoron, where they spent the night at the house which had been the last stopping-place of the Blessed Virgin when she was brought to the Temple thirteen years before. The owner of this house seemed to me to be a schoolteacher. Servants sent by Anna were waiting here for them. They went to Nazareth by a much more direct road than on their way to Bethlehem, when they had avoided all towns and had only stopped at lonely houses. Joseph had left in pledge with his relations the young she ass which had shown him the way on their journey to Bethlehem, for he still intended to return to Bethlehem and build a house in the Shepherds’ Valley. He had spoken to the shepherds about it, and told them that he was taking Mary to her mother only for a time until she should have recovered from the discomfort of her lodging. With this plan in his mind, he had left a good many things with the shepherds. Joseph had a strange kind of money with him; I think he must have been given it by the three kings. Inside his robe he had a kind of pouch, in which he carried a quantity of little thin shining yellow leaves rolled up in each other. Their corners were rounded and something was scratched on them. Judas’ pieces of silver were thicker and tongue-shaped; the whole pieces were rounded at both ends and the half pieces at one end only.

1. A VIEW OF THE THREE HOLY KINGS ON THEIR JOURNEY HOME.

 

At this time I saw all three kings together again beyond a river. They had a day of rest and kept a feast. At this place there was one big house with several smaller ones. The direction taken by the kings on their way home lies between the road they followed on their journey to Bethlehem and that by which Jesus came out of Egypt in the third year of His ministry. At first they traveled very quickly, but after this resting-place their pace was much slower than when they came. I always saw a shining youth going before them and sometimes talking with them. They left Ur on the right.

2. SIMEON’S DEATH.

 

[February 3 rd:] Simeon had a wife and three sons, of whom the eldest was about forty and the youngest twenty years old. All three served in the Temple, and were later secret friends of Jesus and His followers. All became disciples of Our Lord, but at different times: before His death or after His ascension. At the Last Supper one of them prepared the Paschal Lamb for Jesus and the Apostles; but these were perhaps grandsons, not sons, of Simeon; I am not sure. Simeon’s sons did much to help the friends of Our Lord at the time of the first persecutions after the Ascension. Simeon was related to Seraphia, who was later given the name Veronica, and also, through her father, to Zechariah.

I saw that Simeon fell ill yesterday immediately on returning home after his prophecy at the Presentation of Jesus, but he spoke very joyfully with his wife and sons. Tonight I saw that today was to be the day of his death. Of the many things I saw I can only remember this much. Simeon, from the couch where he lay, spoke earnestly to his wife and children, telling them of the salvation that was come to Israel and of everything that the angel had announced to him. His joy was touching to behold. Then I saw him die peacefully and heard the quiet lamentation of his family. Many other old priests and Jews were praying round his bed. Then I saw them carry his body into another room. They placed it on a board pierced with holes, and washed it with sponges, holding a cloth over it so that its nakedness could not be seen. The water ran through the board into a copper basin placed beneath it. Then they covered the body with big green leaves, surrounded it with bunches of sweet herbs, and wrapped it in a great cloth in which it was tied up with long bandages like a child in swaddling bands. The body lay so straight and rigid that I thought the bands must have been tied right round the board.

In the evening Simeon was buried. His body was carried to the grave by six men bearing torches. It lay on a board more or less the shape of a body, but surrounded by an edge higher in the middle of its four sides and lower at the corners. The wrapped-up corpse lay on this board without any other covering. The bearers and those who followed them walked quicker than is usual at our burials. The grave was on a hill not very far from the Temple. The door of the sepulcher was set slanting against a little hill. It was walled inside with a strange kind of masonry like that which I saw St. Benedict working at in his first monastery. 145145 In a vision of the life of St. Benedict which Catherine Emmerich had on Feb. 10th, 1820, she saw amongst other things that as a boy he was shown by his teacher how to use colored stones to make all kinds of ornaments and arabesques in the sand of the garden in the manner of the old pavements. Later she saw him, when a hermit, decorating the roof of his cell or cave with a reproduction in rough mosaic of a vision of the Last Judgment. Still later she saw St. Benedict’s followers imitating and extending this form of decoration. After contemplating in its smallest details the whole history and development of his Order from its foundation, she said: ‘Because in the Benedictines the inner spirit became less active and alive than its outer shell, I saw their churches and monasteries becoming too much ornamented and decorated. I thought to myself, that comes from the picture Benedict made in his cell; it has shot up like a weed, and when once this superstructure collapses, it will strike many of them at the same time.’ (CB) The walls, like those in the Blessed Virgin’s cell in the Temple, were decorated with stars and other patterns in colored stones. The little cave in the middle of which they laid the corpse was just large enough to allow them to pass round the body. There were some other funeral customs such as laying various things beside the dead man—coins, little stones, and I think also food, but I am not sure.

3. THE ARRIVAL OF THE HOLY FAMILY AT ST. ANNE’S HOUSE.

 

In the evening I saw the Holy Family arrive at Anna’s house, which is about half an hour’s distance from Nazareth in the direction of the valley of Zabulon. There was a little family’ festival like the one when Mary left home for the Temple. A lamp was burning above the table. Joachim was dead, and I saw Anna’s second husband as master of the house. Anna’s eldest daughter, Mary Heli, was there on a visit. The donkey was unloaded, for Mary meant to stay here for some time. All were full of joy over the Infant Jesus, but it was a tranquil inner joy; I never saw any of these people giving way to very violent emotions. Some aged priests were there, and all present partook of a light meal. The women ate separately from the men, as is always the custom at meals.

I saw the Holy Family still in Anna’s house a few days later. There are several women there, Mary Heli, Anna’s eldest daughter, with her child Mary Cleophas, a woman from Elizabeth’s home, and the maidservant who was with Mary in Bethlehem. This maidservant did not wish to marry again after the death of her husband, who had not been a good man, and came to Elizabeth at Juttah, where the Blessed Virgin made her acquaintance when she visited Elizabeth before John’s birth. From here this widow came to Anna. Today I saw Joseph in Anna’s house packing many things on donkeys and going in front of the donkeys (of which there were two or three) towards Nazareth, accompanied by the maid.

I cannot remember the details of all that I saw today in Anna’s house, but I must have had a very vivid impression of it all, for while I was there I was in an intense activity of prayer, which is now hardly comprehensible to me. Before I came to Anna’s house I had been in spirit with a young married couple who supported their old mother; they are both mortally ill, and if they do not recover, the mother will perish. I know this poor family, but have had no news of them for a long time. In desperate cases like this I always invoke St. Anne, and when I was in her house today in my vision, I saw, in spite of the season of the year, and though the leaves had all fallen, many pears, plums, and other fruit hanging on the trees in her garden. When I went away I was allowed to pick these, and I took the pears to the young couple who were ill and so cured them. After that I was made to give some to many other poor people, known and unknown to me, who were restored to health by them. No doubt these fruits signified graces obtained through the intercession of St. Anne. I fear that these fruits mean much pain and suffering for me, which always comes after visions in which I pick fruit in the gardens of the saints—this has always to be paid for. Perhaps these souls are under the protection of St. Anne, and are thus entitled to fruit from the garden; or perhaps it happened because, as I have always recognized, she is a patroness in desperate cases.

4. THE WEATHER IN PALESTINE.

 

[When asked what sort of weather she saw in Palestine at this time of the year, she answered:] I always forget to mention that, because it seems to me all so natural that I always think everyone knows about it. I often see rain and mist, and sometimes a little snow, but this melts at once. I often see leafless trees with fruit still hanging on them. I see several crops in the year, and I see them beginning to harvest in our spring. Now that it is winter I see people going along the roads wrapped up, with their cloaks over their heads.

[February 6 th:] This afternoon I saw the Blessed Virgin going from Anna’s house to Joseph’s house in Nazareth. She was accompanied by her mother, who carried the Infant Jesus. It is a very pleasant walk of half an hour among hills and gardens. Anna sends provisions from her own house to Joseph and Mary in Nazareth. How beautiful is the life of the Holy Family! Mary is at once the mother and the humblest handmaid of the Holy Child and at the same time she is Joseph’s servant. Joseph is her faithful friend and humblest servant. When the Blessed Virgin rocks the Infant Jesus to and fro in her arms, how marvelous to see the all-merciful God, who made the world, allowing Himself out of His great love to be treated like a helpless little child! How dreadful in comparison the coldness and self-will of deceitful and hard-hearted men!

Some of the saddest words on earth are we don’t have room for you. Jesus knew the sounds of those words. He was still in Mary’s womb when the innkeeper said, “We don’t have room for you.” And when He hung on the cross, wasn’t the message one of utter rejection? We don’t have room for you in this world.

 

Today Jesus is given the same treatment. He goes from heart to heart, asking if He might enter. Every so often, He’s welcomed. Someone throws open the door of his or her heart and invites Him to stay. And to that person Jesus gives this great promise, “In my Father’s house are many rooms…” (John 14:2). We make room for Him in our hearts. And Jesus makes room for us in His house!

-Max Lucado

Guarded Inn - also known as The Bacon House

  

The MOC shows an inn built around a tower belonging to old castle ruins. The place is known for different types of pork from own breeding. The inn also runs hotel services.

  

At the moment, in the courtyard, we see several banqueters, innkeeper checking the roasting pig and two waitresses taking care of guests. One of them is roughly adored by a client.

A fresh group of consumers comes in - soldiers and their not too bright master returning from a medium-successful military expedition.

On the right below, the stable is being cleaned, and higher on the wall a boy pretending to be a guard (an element of the decoration) consumes his fee.

On the left back, the innkeeper prepares himself for the pig slaughter, while a swine thief tries to lure one of the fine specimen from the pigsty.

 

More: www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=576251

Guarded Inn - also known as The Bacon House

  

The MOC shows an inn built around a tower belonging to old castle ruins. The place is known for different types of pork from own breeding. The inn also runs hotel services.

  

At the moment, in the courtyard, we see several banqueters, innkeeper checking the roasting pig and two waitresses taking care of guests. One of them is roughly adored by a client.

A fresh group of consumers comes in - soldiers and their not too bright master returning from a medium-successful military expedition.

On the right below, the stable is being cleaned, and higher on the wall a boy pretending to be a guard (an element of the decoration) consumes his fee.

On the left back, the innkeeper prepares himself for the pig slaughter, while a swine thief tries to lure one of the fine specimen from the pigsty.

 

More: www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=576251

Dutch postcard by JosPe, Arnhem, no. 390. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

 

American film and stage actress Jean Parker (1915–2005) landed her first screen test while still in high school. She played the tragic Beth in the original Little Women (1933), starred as the spoiled daughter of an American chain store millionaire who persuades her nouveau riche father to transport a Scottish castle in the hilarious British fantasy-comedy The Ghost Goes West (1936), and she was a perfect stooge for Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, as an innkeeper's daughter with whom Ollie falls in love in The Flying Deuces (1939).

 

Jean Parker was born Lois Mae Green in 1915. Her father was Lewis Green, a gunsmith and hunter, and her mother was Pearl Melvina Burch. Later, her mother worked at MGM in the set department and created magnificent flowers, trees and other greenery for such notable films as National Velvet (1944), known professionally as Mildred Brenner. Lois was an accomplished gymnast and dancer. At age 10, she was adopted by the Spickard family of Pasadena when both her father and mother were unemployed during the Great Depression. She initially aspired to be an illustrator and artist. At 17, she entered a poster-painting contest and won for portraying Father Time. After a photograph of her was published in a Los Angeles newspaper, Ida Koverman, the assistant to MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer, contacted the would-be starlet and had Mayer offer her an MGM contract. She made her feature film debut in the pre-code drama Divorce in the Family (Charles Reisner, 1932), before being loaned to Columbia Pictures, who cast her in Frank Capra's Lady for a Day (1933). Parker made several important films in the following years, including Little Women (George Cukor, 1933) with Joan Bennett and Katharine Hepburn; Sequoia (Chester M. Franklin, Edwin L. Marin, 1934) with Russell Hardie, shot in the Sequoia National Forest near Springville, California; Operator 13 (Richard Boleslawski, 1934) with Marion Davies and Gary Cooper; and The Ghost Goes West (René Clair, 1935) with Robert Donat.

 

Jean Parker remained active in film throughout the 1940s. Parker later starred in the Laurel and Hardy comedy The Flying Deuces (A. Edward Sutherland, 1939), followed by the sports film The Pittsburgh Kid (Jack Townley, 1941), and the Film Noir Dead Man's Eyes (Reginald Le Borg, 1944), opposite Lon Chaney Jr. After several successful cross-country trips entertaining injured servicemen during World War II, Jean Parker wed and divorced Curt Grotter of the Braille Institute in Los Angeles, and moved on to New York to star in the play 'Loco'. She also starred on Broadway in 'Burlesque' (1946-1947) with Bert Lahr, and in the hit 'Born Yesterday' (1948), filling in for Judy Holliday. Parker's fourth and last husband, actor Robert Lowery, played opposite her as Brock in the play for a short stint. By this marriage, Parker bore her only child, a son, Robert Lowery Hanks. By the 1950s, Parker's film career had slowed, though she continued to appear in supporting parts in the Westerns The Gunfighter (Henry King, 1950) with Gregory Peck and Toughest Man in Arizona (R. G. Springsteen, 1952), and the Film Noir Black Tuesday (Hugo Fregonese, 1954) opposite Edward G. Robinson. Parker made her final film appearance in Apache Uprising (R. G. Springsteen, 1965) starring Rory Calhoun. Later in her career, she played in the West Coast theatre circuit and worked as an acting coach. Parker died in 2005 at the Motion Picture Country Home and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, aged 90, from a stroke. She lived there from 1998 until her death. Jean was survived by her son and two granddaughters, Katie and Nora Hanks.

 

Sources: Ronald Bergan (The Guardian), Robert Sieger (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

The odyssey of Rama profoundly marked the dawn of our history. If the West has forgotten everything, some people still cherish his memory. Here’s another source that reflects the fabulous saga of Ram: the tradition of Islander Druidesses of Sein and Avalon.

 

During the Era of Lion, Western countries acted the transition from traditional matriarchal society that is corrupt, which has allowed the emergence of patriarchal model under the charming authority of Rama.

 

At that time, women were uncontested master of mystery and magic. They possessed clavicles and arcane, they could read in the ledger, they led humanity on steep paths of magic. Great was their authority, great and dangerous too.

 

Dominated by pride, they gradually lost contact with the Invisible which became at the same time the prerogative of the Druids. This sacred function may not remain vacant, this is a secret law of life. Incredulous and ferocious, the Druidesses wanted to resume their authority through violence.

 

Concocted by these female devils, strange diseases appeared and decimated the human, male preferably. The Black Death was on white people. Another version of the Saga says it was lung disease, but the two symptoms may have been present.

 

A young druid had shown a singular gift for cures and potions. Ramos was his name, aka Ram, which can be translated “one who knows” or “spirit of peace”. His knowledge of the virtues of medicinal plants was amazing because of his young age.

 

As Setanta aka Cuchulainn, Ram came from Hyperborea, because he was the son of god and god himself, as Jesus will say much later. Hyperborea, the enchanted island in the northern sky, is also called Nibiru, the wandering planet.

 

The Greeks called it the Garden of the Hesperides, for there grew apples of gold, ie oranges, fruit that does not exist on earth. This is actually not a magical land floating in the sky, but a mother ship type Black Star from Star Wars, done in heaven. Here lived the gods, and with them some humans, elected officials who served and entertained.

 

In the Bible, it is the garden of Eden, where early man lived in the company of gods until they displease them and make clear. Here we recognized Adam and Eve.

Fallen from Paradise, Adam settled in Middle-earth, the New Atlantis with its capital Minas Tirith on the now engulfed Dogger Bank in North Sea. Second capital Edinburgh or Castle of Eden is still the capital city of Scotland.As Setanta aka Cuchulainn, Ram came from Hyperborea, because he was the son of god and god himself, as Jesus will say much later. Hyperborea, the enchanted island in the northern sky, is also called Nibiru, the wandering planet.

The Greeks called it the Garden of the Hesperides, for there grew apples of gold, ie oranges, fruit that does not exist on earth. This is actually not a magical land floating in the sky, but a mother ship type Black Star from Star Wars, done in heaven. Here lived the gods, and with them some humans, elected officials who served and entertained.

  

Minas Tirith is also the origin of Rama, who came from Hyperborea as Adam did. Are they one and the same person? It is not impossible, if you believe that the Indian tradition called an isthmus Adam’s Bridge or Rama’s Bridge, as if they were one. It is even likely, if you consider the name of the Muslim fast, Ram Adam.

 

For the convenience of the story, I will continue to name him Rama. Very young, he had visited the northern countries, initiated by the wizards of the cold wild. Then he went among blacks in Central Europe to study the intricacies of their powerful sorcerers. It is even said that he studied with marabouts in Africa. Everywhere his modesty and wisdom made miracles and priests willingly initiated him into their magic. Back home in Middle-Earth, the young Ram concocted an herbal remedy wtih mistletoe that eradicated leprosy silicosis in no time, to the amazement of all, to the great satisfaction of healed, to the chagrin of Druidesses.

 

Easily elected Chief Druid healers, ie as military leader, as it is one of the roles of the druid, the young Ram enacted a first step that made him even more popular among the people, while increasing in the same proportion the fury of the Druidesses: he forbade human sacrifices and other bloody sacrifice.

 

Mad with fury, the Druidesses pronounced a death sentence against Ram. Therefore, the white peoples separated into two camps: supporters of Ram under the sign of Aries, and the other were supporters of Thor under the sign of Taurus.

 

Ram emigrated more like conqueror than exiled with a several million people circa 8000 BCE. He crossed Europe, reached the Caucasus and the Taratha, the gateway to Asia, where he found strong allies among Celts, former prisoners of war of black people who had gained their freedom. These people followed the law of Thor. Their meeting with Ram took place in a country which took the name of THOR-RAM or Touran. Thus was born the first empire of Ram, called I-RAM or Iran. He established his provisional border in Afghanistan, it followed the path of the Ram or Jam river.

 

“One of the great wonders of the medieval world is a very tall, heavily ornamented minaret nestled in a green valley at the edge of the Jam river in what is now Afghanistan. Often called the Minaret of Jam, the monument was almost a millenium ago illuminated by a torch at its top, and surrounded by a thriving town with small industries and outlying farms. Some archaeologists believe the region around the Minaret of Jam was once called Firuzkuh and was the summer capitol of the Ghurids, a Muslim empire in the 11th and 12th centuries, that spanned all of what we know now as Afghanistan as well as parts of eastern Iran and northern India.”

 

Ram then seized Egypt, an old Atlantean colony to which he gave the constitution known as RAM or HAM MON, the Law of Ram. The Black Pharaohs submitted themselves to his law and Ra continued his conquests.

 

Meanwhile another army marched on India. It defeated the black people by winning a long and painful siege in Ayodhya which opened the doors of India. The suite is found in the Ramayana, which means the race of Ram. But the empire doesn’t stop in India.

 

Then Ra seized Egypt where there was an old Atlantean colony to which he gave the constitution known as the RAM or HAM MON MON, law of Ram. The Black Pharaohs submitted themselves to his law and Ra continued his conquests.

 

Meanwhile another army marched on India, defeating the black people by winning the long and painful siege of Ayodhya that opened the doors of India.

 

Rama pacified the entire subcontinent extending the influence of his immense empire to Tibet, to Ceylon, to the borders of the empire of Naacals where the floating island Mu stood in the middle of the ocean Pacific.

 

But the empire does not end so quickly. Much of China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and even Australia were part of his planetary field.

 

The continuing is in the Ramayana, meaning The race of Rama. But the episodes of Rama Odyssey were relocated in India, where the young Rama was born, which is not true, as we have shown. This process was often seen in ancient times, number of legends were adaptated to the countries and continents.

 

The very name of Ram is English and links to astrological era of Aries, which certify a Celtic origin. In truth, Rama is neither Indian nor European. He is from the mother ship of the Aesir gods, a huge island-vessel called Hyperborea or Walhallah, the Valley of Allah. When the Greek poet Nonnus recounts the saga of the Indian Bacchus, he also makes us relive the race of Ram.

 

So many ancient legends and myths are dealing with this prominent figure of unknown past, one could hardly believe. Now that you’ve been warned, you will meet him everywhere.

 

Ram came to the extreme limits of life, imposing in his states the pure doctrine of the Hyperboreans. And Ram disappeared from the world leaving behind him a worldwide fame of justice and of magnitude.

 

And the ancient Druidesse with evil powers turned into Sleeping Beauty: her life long she awaits prince charming, handsome Rama that will not come.

 

When awake, she will know that her powers are not from Rama or from Adam or from God or from Allah but from herself.

 

During the first half of the first century CE, the Roman emperors Tiberius and Claudius attempted to restrain the Druids. Although Druidic worship was generally unaffected during this period, Druids are mentioned less and less in textual sources. Occasionally Druids and Druidesses are mentioned as "freelance seers," and an innkeeper Druidess is said to have prophesied the empowerment of Diocletian at this time. As assimilation became a priority of the Roman soldiers during their occupation of southern Britain, the Druids were increasingly attacked since they were often the source of rebellion. In In order to assimilate the Britons to a more Roman way of life, the Romans struck at the center of Celtic intellectualism. "Both Claudius and Tiberius attempted to stamp out the ‘religion of the Druids,’ and the altars for the "savage superstition’ of human sacrifice were destroyed, but we do not hear details a general persecution" (Jones, p.85). The accusations of 'savage superstition' was a common charge against any enemy of the Roman way of life.

 

In Ireland, worship of the Irish gods remained strong. The Druids tolerated Christians and in 438 CE, the High King Laighaire, held a conference at Tara to discuss religion. Three Behona, Pagan "law-speakers" as well as kings, along with three Christian missionaries drew up the Seanchus Mór, which mixed Christian and Pagan law. This code of law lasted till the seventeenth century until English law took over (Jones, p.99). However, the last Pagan king, Diarmat, died in 565 CE and official Celtic worship is mentioned no more (Jones, p.101).

 

The Roman’s view of "women as the bearers of children and objects of pleasure" changed Celtic society from a ‘mother goddess’ society into a patriarchal society during initial encounters with Roman society (Ellis, The Druids, p.95). The Romans culture slowly impressed itself onto Celtic society. Roman officials often refused to deal with women rulers and in the case of Boudica, they invaded her kingdom on this account. Women rulers as well as Druidesses were seen as a target for extermination. It is possible that this is because in many cases they were one and the same.

 

The introduction of the Christian religion was the final blow that ended the equalitarianism of Celtic society. "When the Celts began to accept Christianity, Celtic women, as they had been in Pagan times were equal with men in preaching religion" (Ellis, Celtic Women, p.142). It is possible that although manu Druids and Druidesses were opposed to conversion to Christianity, some might have joined the Church. As a result women had little problems obtaining high level positions since the old religion had clearly accepted women as equals. In fact evidence shows that in the 5th century, the Irish Catholic Church ordained two women Bishops, Bridget of Kildare and Beoferlic of the Celtic Church in Northumbria and that they preformed mass and gave the sacrament.

 

The three Roman bishops at Tours objected profusely to them and wrote to two Breton priests between 515 to 520 CE objecting to their participation in the giving of the sacrament (Ellis, Celtic Women, p.142). When communication with Rome increased and mainland European missionaries began to come to the British Isles, the Church began to reject women from entering its ranks. Women were finally pushed out of the priestly order during the Middle Ages and diminished to the roles of nun and abbess. "Female Druids [became] reduced in the [ancient] stories to witch-like figures" (Ellis, Celtic Women, p.221). As a result by the High Middle Ages women could neither rule a kingdom or serve in a position of authority in the Church. Women's high status had been effectively wiped out by the two 'invasions' and women became like ancient Roman women, possesions of their men.

 

eden-saga.com/en/ramayana-race-of-ram-hyperborea-druidess...

 

British postcard in the Film Partners Series, London, no. P. 156. Photo: M.G.M. Russell Hardie and Jean Parker in Sequoia (Chester M. Franklin, Edwin L. Marin, 1934).

 

American film and stage actress Jean Parker (1915–2005) landed her first screen test while still in high school. She played the tragic Beth in the original Little Women (1933), starred as the spoiled daughter of an American chain store millionaire who persuades her nouveau riche father to transport a Scottish castle in the hilarious British fantasy-comedy The Ghost Goes West (1936), and she was a perfect stooge for Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, as an innkeeper's daughter with whom Ollie falls in love in The Flying Deuces (1939).

 

Jean Parker was born Lois Mae Green in 1915. Her father was Lewis Green, a gunsmith and hunter, and her mother was Pearl Melvina Burch. Later, her mother worked at MGM in the set department and created magnificent flowers, trees and other greenery for such notable films as National Velvet (1944), known professionally as Mildred Brenner. Lois was an accomplished gymnast and dancer. At age 10, she was adopted by the Spickard family of Pasadena when both her father and mother were unemployed during the Great Depression. She initially aspired to be an illustrator and artist. At 17, she entered a poster-painting contest and won for portraying Father Time. After a photograph of her was published in a Los Angeles newspaper, Ida Koverman, the assistant to MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer, contacted the would-be starlet and had Mayer offer her an MGM contract. She made her feature film debut in the pre-code drama Divorce in the Family (Charles Reisner, 1932), before being loaned to Columbia Pictures, who cast her in Frank Capra's Lady for a Day (1933). Parker made several important films in the following years, including Little Women (George Cukor, 1933) with Joan Bennett and Katharine Hepburn; Sequoia (Chester M. Franklin, Edwin L. Marin, 1934) with Russell Hardie, shot in the Sequoia National Forest near Springville, California; Operator 13 (Richard Boleslawski, 1934) with Marion Davies and Gary Cooper; and The Ghost Goes West (René Clair, 1935) with Robert Donat.

 

Jean Parker remained active in film throughout the 1940s. Parker later starred in the Laurel and Hardy comedy The Flying Deuces (A. Edward Sutherland, 1939), followed by the sports film The Pittsburgh Kid (Jack Townley, 1941), and the Film Noir Dead Man's Eyes (Reginald Le Borg, 1944), opposite Lon Chaney Jr. After several successful cross-country trips entertaining injured servicemen during World War II, Jean Parker wed and divorced Curt Grotter of the Braille Institute in Los Angeles, and moved on to New York to star in the play 'Loco'. She also starred on Broadway in 'Burlesque' (1946-1947) with Bert Lahr, and in the hit 'Born Yesterday' (1948), filling in for Judy Holliday. Parker's fourth and last husband, actor Robert Lowery, played opposite her as Brock in the play for a short stint. By this marriage, Parker bore her only child, a son, Robert Lowery Hanks. By the 1950s, Parker's film career had slowed, though she continued to appear in supporting parts in the Westerns The Gunfighter (Henry King, 1950) with Gregory Peck and Toughest Man in Arizona (R. G. Springsteen, 1952), and the Film Noir Black Tuesday (Hugo Fregonese, 1954) opposite Edward G. Robinson. Parker made her final film appearance in Apache Uprising (R. G. Springsteen, 1965) starring Rory Calhoun. Later in her career, she played in the West Coast theatre circuit and worked as an acting coach. Parker died in 2005 at the Motion Picture Country Home and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, aged 90, from a stroke. She lived there from 1998 until her death. Jean was survived by her son and two granddaughters, Katie and Nora Hanks.

 

Sources: Ronald Bergan (The Guardian), Robert Sieger (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Secuencia 1 - Presa a la vista. Dam in sight

Suaves brisas en el monte movían a su capricho las flores. El pequeño arácnido estaba al acecho en una flor próxima a otra donde la mariposa (un macho de Lysandra hispana) se posó a libar tranquilamente, presencia que advirtió de inmediato la araña… De cuando en cuando, las flores se mecían por las intermitentes rachas del viento y ambos posaderos se acercaban.

 

Gentle breezes in the bush moved the flowers at their whim. The little arachnid was lurking in a flower next to another where the butterfly (a male of Hispanic Lysandra) sat quietly, a presence that immediately noticed the spider ... From time to time, the flowers swayed by the intermittent gusts of Wind and both innkeepers approached.

Unveiling the Badbea Monument 1912:

Speech by George Gunn, grandson of John Gunn of Badbea

 

EXTRACT No.1

(Transcribed from the John O'Groats Journal of 08/11/1912)

 

THE DONOR OF THE CAIRN

 

Mr Gunn said - Mr King, ladies and gentlemen, allow me on behalf of Donald Sutherland to return you his cordial thanks for your presence here today. You have come, as it were, "to add a stone to the cairn" of the people who once lived in Badbea. Over six years ago Mr Sutherland first visited this country. One of the special objects of his coming was to see the birthplace and scenes of the early days of his father, Alexander Sutherland, who was brought up in the home of John Sutherland, or "John 'Badbea'", as he was usally called, a man of exceptional piety and worth. Mr Alex. Sutherland afterwards emigrated to New Zealand in the ship "Oriental" in 1839, and prospered in the land of his adoption, but he never forgot the lessons he was taught at the knees of John Badbea, and was regarded as a man of strict religious views and a strong respecter of the Sabbath. He was honoured and respected while he lived, and deeply regretted when he died.

 

THE LASTING MONUMENT

 

Being myself deeply interested in the locality, which was the home of my forefathers and of many relatives, I gladly undertook the duties. Plans were drawn and estimates got, and after due consideration this was the one selected. It was intended to be a substantial cairn rather than one of ornamental beauty, soon to crumble away.

 

EXTRACT No.2

(Transcribed from the Northern Ensign of 05/11/1912)

 

GATHERING OF THE NAMES

 

This cairn is intended to stand for centuries and from its nature I think you will agree with me that it is likely to do so. It was built solid all through and the stones are bedded in cement to insure strength and stability, and in this respect it is an emblem of the people who lived here. It is about 22 feet height and fully 10 feet square at the base. The undertaking of the duty of seeing to its erection seemed simple enough although the inaccessible nature of the district made it not an easy task. But it was when I set out to get the names of the residents that I found the great difficulty. I went north, west and south, and only the sea prevented my going east, to find who were the residents. I got valuable help from friends. Mr Wm Sutherland, Helmsdale, a former resident; Mr Andrew Little; Mrs Jas. Sutherland, Latheronwheel, who was born and brought up here; Mrs Wm. Gunn, formerly of Ballachly, Dunbeath, a rare genealogist, and many others. But a limit had to be drawn. Members of the young generations had to be omitted with the daughters of families. One of the natives who died some time ago had, I found, 125 descendants - 68 grandchildren and 46 great grandchildren! One name I regret is omitted that of Robert Grant to whom I have referred already and I also regret one or two others. But I hope it may be possible to get their names added yet.

 

AN OLD WORLD COMMUNITY

 

They were 12 families in all and averaging numbers at six to each there would be fully 72 people resident in the township. Being so much secluded they constituted a happy community among themselves, forming as it were one large family. When one was in trouble the others suffered with them. To the widow and the fatherless their portion from the produce of the sea was set aside and divided equally with them. One chief source of sustenance was from the small patches dug with the "chaib", a kind of spade, near the brink of the rocks for there were no ploughs, and there was only one horse in the whole township, and but one watch - owned by John Badbea. The next source was from the sea for the fishing was then most productive, as many as 800 haddocks might be found in a house at one time for there was no outlet for them. Another source of adding to their incomes was by working on the estate. They had to walk two miles to their work, and were paid at the rate of 1s a day, and those were not the days of 8 hours work. If any felt aggrieved and went to work elsewhere he was a marked man. Another source of small additions to the family purse was in making flails of birch, bread-baskets, potato-baskets, cogs, which they sold at the Dunbeath market and sometimes in Sutherlandshire. One other source of income was the making of malt and home-brewed whisky and ale. The cave in which they brewed is at the foot of that burn over there. The remains of the peats are still there, and even the planks put there, I am told, by my own grandfather and his sons.

 

SMUGGLING STORIES

 

The great danger was that they would be caught by the guagers. But John Dow, the good innkeeper at Berriedale, was always ready to give them the hint when danger was abroad. On one occasion my aunt, now living in Latheron, when at Berriedale as a little girl of seven or eight, was told that the gaugers were there. Being fully sensible of the danger, she hurried by a short cut and was at Badbea ten minutes before the enemy was in sight. There was consternation in the home. The malt was hurriedly carried out and scattered on the hillside, and every trace was removed from the house. The gaugers walked up the hillside and at length found the malt scattered about. In their baffled rage they kicked the stuff about. But as soon as they were away willing hands gathered up the malt, brewed it into whisky, and sold it to pay the fees of the children at school. You must remember that making malt and whisky at that time was thought to be not a whit more sinful than fishing for a trout in a mill stream is considered today, but drunkenness and profane swearing were unknown.

 

There is one scene I must not omit. The boats are on the stormy sea out from Badbea, going up the Firth. The gale rages fiercely, but the fishermen are not afraid. They say, "Let us not fear, for John is in the barn." They knew that at that hour John Badbea was in his sanctuary, and that he remembered them in his prayers.

 

THE DREAM OF A LIFE

 

Mr David Sutherland, though born in New Zealand, had heard so much about this locality that it was the dream of his life to see it. He was greatly impressed with the isolation and seclusion of the spot, and remarked to me that a person living here could hardly fail to be pious, and that of all the places he had seen since he left New Zealand, there was no place he thought more of than this secluded but now desolate locality. When he visited it there were only two tenants, Widow Sutherland, now of Ousdale, and John Gunn, now of Langwell Gardens.

 

MEMORIES OF OTHER DAYS

 

Mr Sutherland on coming to the house of John Sutherland, his father's house, was deeply impressed. Its very stones seemed sacred to him and we left him alone for a time in solemn reverie. There was the fireplace at which John Sutherland sat; there the recess where his religious books and his Bible were kept; there where he held his prayer meetings; there the barn where he prayed; down there the ground that he tilled. There was the spot where Robert Grant stood and prayed; there where John Gunn stood when he led the singing. Is it any wonder that my friend took chips of the very stones from the home of John Badbea and his father! There was the home of his uncle David Sutherland so ingenious in making all the principal implements of use for the locality. There was the home of John Gunn and Marion Sinclair his wife and their family of five sons and six daughters - there was the house of Christy Sutherland and her sons George and Jamie noted as the fiddlers of the township. There was the home of George Duncan. Over yonder was the home of Gordon Grant. Across on yonder steep slope was the home of "the weaver" where children had to be tethered for fear of them falling over the cliffs. There was the Badbea burn where his father had played with the other bairns of the locality. Down below was the cave where the smuggling took place, and where John Gunn senior, perished in his 84th year in climbing up to the top with a keg of whisky on his back. Yonder was the spot where George Duncan fell over and was killed, and down there where the young son of Widow Duncan was brought up by John Gunn with ropes after falling over the rocks. Such were the scenes that Mr D Sutherland often pictured to himself in New Zealand. In fact Mr Sutherland knew far more of the locality and the people than natives residing at Berriedale. On leaving, he said he would like to erect some cairn or memorial of the good people who had lived here. And so sometimes after he gave instructions to me that a memorial cairn or some monument solid and substantial should be erected with tablets on ...

 

SCATTERED FAR AND WIDE

 

The people of Badbea and their descendants are now scattered far and wide, carrying with them the memories of the lessons taught there. They loved their home, they loved their Sabbath. Though primitive in their habits and methods of living, they were high-principled people, fearing God and keeping His day holy, and going to His house. As a proof of this, I may say that my own grandfather had to leave for refusing so to work on the Sabbath. Of the descendants of the little community, one is a pastor of a large church in England. Another is a missionary in far off New Hebrides. Another was the physician of Helmsdale, when death cut him off in the prime of his youth. Another lies in a missionary's grave on the shores of Livingstonia. Another in a soldier's grave in Burmah. Others having served their generation have fallen on sleep. While others remain, and they with their descendants occupy places of honour and responsibility. It is not gold, it is not wealth that makes the man. It is a noble and virtuous life which is far better than a stone cenotaph, and while this monument will last for ages, the character of a good man will last when earth shall have passed away ...

 

[Source of text:- www.badbeafamilies.com]

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 950. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer (M.G.M.).

 

American film and stage actress Jean Parker (1915–2005) landed her first screen test while still in high school. She played the tragic Beth in the original Little Women (1933), starred as the spoiled daughter of an American chain store millionaire who persuades her nouveau riche father to transport a Scottish castle in the hilarious British fantasy-comedy The Ghost Goes West (1936), and she was a perfect stooge for Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, as an innkeeper's daughter with whom Ollie falls in love in The Flying Deuces (1939).

 

Jean Parker was born Lois Mae Green in 1915. Her father was Lewis Green, a gunsmith and hunter, and her mother was Pearl Melvina Burch. Later, her mother worked at MGM in the set department and created magnificent flowers, trees and other greenery for such notable films as National Velvet (1944), known professionally as Mildred Brenner. Lois was an accomplished gymnast and dancer. At age 10, she was adopted by the Spickard family of Pasadena when both her father and mother were unemployed during the Great Depression. She initially aspired to be an illustrator and artist. At 17, she entered a poster-painting contest and won for portraying Father Time. After a photograph of her was published in a Los Angeles newspaper, Ida Koverman, the assistant to MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer, contacted the would-be starlet and had Mayer offer her an MGM contract. She made her feature film debut in the pre-code drama Divorce in the Family (Charles Reisner, 1932), before being loaned to Columbia Pictures, who cast her in Frank Capra's Lady for a Day (1933). Parker made several important films in the following years, including Little Women (George Cukor, 1933) with Joan Bennett and Katharine Hepburn; Sequoia (Chester M. Franklin, Edwin L. Marin, 1934) with Russell Hardie, shot in the Sequoia National Forest near Springville, California; Operator 13 (Richard Boleslawski, 1934) with Marion Davies and Gary Cooper; and The Ghost Goes West (René Clair, 1935) with Robert Donat.

 

Jean Parker remained active in film throughout the 1940s. Parker later starred in the Laurel and Hardy comedy The Flying Deuces (A. Edward Sutherland, 1939), followed by the sports film The Pittsburgh Kid (Jack Townley, 1941), and the Film Noir Dead Man's Eyes (Reginald Le Borg, 1944), opposite Lon Chaney Jr. After several successful cross-country trips entertaining injured servicemen during World War II, Jean Parker wed and divorced Curt Grotter of the Braille Institute in Los Angeles, and moved on to New York to star in the play 'Loco'. She also starred on Broadway in 'Burlesque' (1946-1947) with Bert Lahr, and in the hit 'Born Yesterday' (1948), filling in for Judy Holliday. Parker's fourth and last husband, actor Robert Lowery, played opposite her as Brock in the play for a short stint. By this marriage, Parker bore her only child, a son, Robert Lowery Hanks. By the 1950s, Parker's film career had slowed, though she continued to appear in supporting parts in the Westerns The Gunfighter (Henry King, 1950) with Gregory Peck and Toughest Man in Arizona (R. G. Springsteen, 1952), and the Film Noir Black Tuesday (Hugo Fregonese, 1954) opposite Edward G. Robinson. Parker made her final film appearance in Apache Uprising (R. G. Springsteen, 1965) starring Rory Calhoun. Later in her career, she played in the West Coast theatre circuit and worked as an acting coach. Parker died in 2005 at the Motion Picture Country Home and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, aged 90, from a stroke. She lived there from 1998 until her death. Jean was survived by her son and two granddaughters, Katie and Nora Hanks.

 

Sources: Ronald Bergan (The Guardian), Robert Sieger (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

British Real Photograph postcard, no. 100b. Photo: London Films. Jean Parker in The Ghost Goes West (René Clair, 1935).

 

American film and stage actress Jean Parker (1915–2005) landed her first screen test while still in high school. She played the tragic Beth in the original Little Women (1933), starred as the spoiled daughter of an American chain store millionaire who persuades her nouveau riche father to transport a Scottish castle in the hilarious British fantasy-comedy The Ghost Goes West (1936), and she was a perfect stooge for Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, as an innkeeper's daughter with whom Ollie falls in love in The Flying Deuces (1939).

 

Jean Parker was born Lois Mae Green in 1915. Her father was Lewis Green, a gunsmith and hunter, and her mother was Pearl Melvina Burch. Later, her mother worked at MGM in the set department and created magnificent flowers, trees and other greenery for such notable films as National Velvet (1944), known professionally as Mildred Brenner. Lois was an accomplished gymnast and dancer. At age 10, she was adopted by the Spickard family of Pasadena when both her father and mother were unemployed during the Great Depression. She initially aspired to be an illustrator and artist. At 17, she entered a poster-painting contest and won for portraying Father Time. After a photograph of her was published in a Los Angeles newspaper, Ida Koverman, the assistant to MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer, contacted the would-be starlet and had Mayer offer her an MGM contract. She made her feature film debut in the pre-code drama Divorce in the Family (Charles Reisner, 1932), before being loaned to Columbia Pictures, who cast her in Frank Capra's Lady for a Day (1933). Parker made several important films in the following years, including Little Women (George Cukor, 1933) with Joan Bennett and Katharine Hepburn; Sequoia (Chester M. Franklin, Edwin L. Marin, 1934) with Russell Hardie, shot in the Sequoia National Forest near Springville, California; Operator 13 (Richard Boleslawski, 1934) with Marion Davies and Gary Cooper; and The Ghost Goes West (René Clair, 1935) with Robert Donat.

 

Jean Parker remained active in film throughout the 1940s. Parker later starred in the Laurel and Hardy comedy The Flying Deuces (A. Edward Sutherland, 1939), followed by the sports film The Pittsburgh Kid (Jack Townley, 1941), and the Film Noir Dead Man's Eyes (Reginald Le Borg, 1944), opposite Lon Chaney Jr. After several successful cross-country trips entertaining injured servicemen during World War II, Jean Parker wed and divorced Curt Grotter of the Braille Institute in Los Angeles, and moved on to New York to star in the play 'Loco'. She also starred on Broadway in 'Burlesque' (1946-1947) with Bert Lahr, and in the hit 'Born Yesterday' (1948), filling in for Judy Holliday. Parker's fourth and last husband, actor Robert Lowery, played opposite her as Brock in the play for a short stint. By this marriage, Parker bore her only child, a son, Robert Lowery Hanks. By the 1950s, Parker's film career had slowed, though she continued to appear in supporting parts in the Westerns The Gunfighter (Henry King, 1950) with Gregory Peck and Toughest Man in Arizona (R. G. Springsteen, 1952), and the Film Noir Black Tuesday (Hugo Fregonese, 1954) opposite Edward G. Robinson. Parker made her final film appearance in Apache Uprising (R. G. Springsteen, 1965) starring Rory Calhoun. Later in her career, she played in the West Coast theatre circuit and worked as an acting coach. Parker died in 2005 at the Motion Picture Country Home and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, aged 90, from a stroke. She lived there from 1998 until her death. Jean was survived by her son and two granddaughters, Katie and Nora Hanks.

 

Sources: Ronald Bergan (The Guardian), Robert Sieger (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

The city of Leeds in West Yorkshire.

 

Leeds first began as a Saxon village, by 1207 the Lord of the Manor, Maurice De Gant, had extended it into a town. He created a new street of houses west of the existing village and he divided the land into plots for building. In Medieval Leeds, there were butchers, bakers, carpenters, and blacksmiths. However, the main industry in Leeds was making wool.

 

In 1628 a writer described Leeds as standing pleasantly in a fruitful and enclosed vale upon the north side of the River Eyer over or beyond a stone bridge from where it has a large and broad street leading directly north and continually ascending. The houses on both sides are very thick and closely compacted together, being old, rough, and low built and generally all made of timber.

 

In 1642 came civil war between king and parliament. Most of the townspeople supported the king and a royalist army occupied Leeds. But in January 1643 parliamentary soldiers captured it. They held Leeds until the summer of 1643 when, after losing a battle in Yorkshire, they were forced to abandon the town. The parliamentary army returned to Leeds in April 1644. They held Leeds for the rest of the civil war.

 

In the 17th century Leeds was a wealthy town. The wool trade boomed. However, like all towns in those days, it suffered from outbreaks of the plague. There was a severe outbreak in 1645. However, in 1694 Leeds gained a piped water supply (for those who could afford to be connected).

 

In the 18th century wool manufacture was still the lifeblood of Leeds but there were other industries. Leeds pottery began in 1770. There was also a brick making industry in Georgian Leeds. There were also many craftsmen such as coachmakers, clockmakers, booksellers, and jewellers as well as more mundane trades such as butchers, bakers, barbers, innkeepers, carpenters, blacksmiths, and glaziers. In 1700 the rivers Aire and Calder were made navigable from Leeds to Wakefield. In 1794 work began on the Leeds to Liverpool canal. It was completed in 1816.

 

The city flourished in the Victorian year’s textiles became less important. But tailoring for a more mass market flourished with the leather industry boot and shoemakers. Leeds grew rapidly but many of the new houses built were dreadful. Overcrowding was rife and streets were very dirty.

 

In the 1850s the council-built sewers but very many of the houses in Leeds were not connected to them. Many dwellings continued to use cesspits or buckets which were emptied at night by the 'night soil' men. Not until 1899 was it made compulsory for dwellings in Leeds to be connected to sewers.

 

Information Source:

www.localhistories.org/Leeds.html

 

(further information and pictures you can get by clicking on the link at the end of page!)

Mariahilferstraße

Mariahilferstraße, 6th, 7th, 14th and 15th, since 1897 (in the 6th and 7th district originally Kremser Sraße, then Bavarian highway, Laimgrubner main road, Mariahilfer main street, Fünfhauserstraße, Schönbrunnerstraße and Penzinger Poststraße, then Schönbrunner Straße), in memory of the old suburb name; Mariahilf was an independent municipality from 1660 to 1850, since then with Gumpendorf, Magdalenengrund, Windmühle and Laimgrube 6th District.

From

aeiou - the cultural information system of the bm: bwk

14,000 key words and 2000 pictures from history, geography, politics and business in Austria

www.aeiou.at

Mariahilferstraße, 1908 - Wien Museum

Mariahilferstraße, 1908

Picture taken from "August Stauda - A documentarian of old Vienna"

published by Christian Brandstätter - to Book Description

History

Pottery and wine

The first ones who demonstrably populated the area of ​​today's Mariahilferstraße (after the mammoth) were the Illyrians. They took advantage of the rich clay deposits for making simple vessels. The Celts planted on the sunny hills the first grape vines and understood the wine-making process very well. When the Romans occupied at the beginning of our Era Vienna for several centuries, they left behind many traces. The wine culture of the Celts they refined. On the hill of today's Mariahilferstraße run a Roman ridge trail, whose origins lay in the camp of Vindobona. After the rule of the Romans, the migration of peoples temporarily led many cultures here until after the expulsion of the Avars Bavarian colonists came from the West.

The peasant Middle Ages - From the vineyard to the village

Thanks to the loamy soil formed the winery, which has been pushed back only until the development of the suburbs, until the mid-17th Century the livelihood of the rural population. "Im Schöff" but also "Schöpf - scoop" and "Schiff - ship" (from "draw of") the area at the time was called. The erroneous use of a ship in the seal of the district is reminiscent of the old name, which was then replaced by the picture of grace "Mariahilf". The Weinberg (vineyard) law imposed at that time that the ground rent in the form of mash on the spot had to be paid. This was referred to as a "draw".

1495 the Mariahilfer wine was added to the wine disciplinary regulations for Herrenweine (racy, hearty, fruity, pithy wine with pleasant acidity) because of its special quality and achieved high prices.

1529 The first Turkish siege

Mariahilferstraße, already than an important route to the West, was repeatedly the scene of historical encounters. When the Turks besieged Vienna for the first time, was at the lower end of today Mariahilferstrasse, just outside the city walls of Vienna, a small settlement of houses and cottages, gardens and fields. Even the St. Theobald Monastery was there. This so-called "gap" was burned at the approach of the Turks, for them not to offer hiding places at the siege. Despite a prohibition, the area was rebuilt after departure of the Turks.

1558, a provision was adopted so that the glacis, a broad, unobstructed strip between the city wall and the outer settlements, should be left free. The Glacis existed until the demolition of the city walls in 1858. Here the ring road was later built.

1663 The new Post Road

With the new purpose of the Mariahilferstrasse as post road the first three roadside inn houses were built. At the same time the travel increased, since the carriages were finally more comfortable and the roads safer. Two well-known expressions date from this period. The "tip" and "kickbacks". In the old travel handbooks of that time we encounter them as guards beside the route, the travel and baggage tariff. The tip should the driver at the rest stop pay for the drink, while the bribe was calculated in proportion to the axle grease. Who was in a hurry, just paid a higher lubricant (Schmiergeld) or tip to motivate the coachman.

1683 The second Turkish siege

The second Turkish siege brought Mariahilferstraße the same fate. Meanwhile, a considerable settlement was formed, a real suburb, which, however, still had a lot of fields and brick pits. Again, the suburb along the Mariahilferstraße was razed to the ground, the population sought refuge behind the walls or in the Vienna Woods. The reconstruction progressed slowly since there was a lack of funds and manpower. Only at the beginning of the 18th Century took place a targeted reconstruction.

1686 Palais Esterhazy

On several "Brandstetten", by the second Turkish siege destroyed houses, the Hungarian aristocratic family Esterhazy had built herself a simple palace, which also had a passage on the Mariahilferstrasse. 1764 bought the innkeeper Paul Winkelmayr from Spittelberg the building, demolished it and built two new buildings that have been named in accordance with the Esterhazy "to the Hungarian crown."

17th Century to 19th Century. Fom the village to suburb

With the development of the settlements on the Mariahilferstraße from village to suburbs, changed not only the appearance but also the population. More and more agricultural land fell victim to the development, craftsmen and tradesmen settled there. There was an incredible variety of professions and trades, most of which were organized into guilds or crafts. Those cared for vocational training, quality and price of the goods, and in cases of unemployment, sickness and death.

The farms were replaced by churches and palaces, houses and shops. Mariahilf changed into a major industrial district, Mariahilferstrasse was an important trading center. Countless street traders sold the goods, which they carried either with them, or put in a street stall on display. The dealers made themselves noticeable by a significant Kaufruf (purchase call). So there was the ink man who went about with his bottles, the Wasserbauer (hydraulic engineering) who sold Danube water on his horse-drawn vehicle as industrial water, or the lavender woman. This lovely Viennese figures disappeared with the emergence of fixed premises and the improvement of urban transport.

Private carriages, horse-drawn carriages and buggies populated the streets, who used this route also for trips. At Mariahilferplatz Linientor (gate) was the main stand of the cheapest and most popular means of transport, the Zeiselwagen, which the Wiener used for their excursions into nature, which gradually became fashionable. In the 19th Century then yet arrived the Stellwagen (carriage) and bus traffic which had to accomplish the connection between Vienna and the suburbs. As a Viennese joke has it, suggests the Stellwagen that it has been so called because it did not come from the spot.

1719 - 1723 Royal and Imperial Court Stables

Emperor Charles VI. gave the order for the construction of the stables to Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. 1772 the building was extended by two houses on the Mariahilferstrasse. The size of the stables still shows, as it serves as the Museum Quarter - its former importance. The Mariahilferstraße since the building of Schönbrunn Palace by the Imperial court very strongly was frequented. Today in the historic buildings the Museum Quarter is housed.

The church and monastery of Maria Hülff

Coloured engraving by J. Ziegler, 1783

1730 Mariahilferkirche

1711 began the renovation works at the Mariahilferkirche, giving the church building today's appearance and importance as a baroque monument. The plans stem from Franziskus Jänkl, the foreman of Lukas von Hildebrandt. Originally stood on the site of the Mariahilferkirche in the medieval vineyard "In Schoeff" a cemetery with wooden chapel built by the Barnabites. Already in those days, the miraculous image Mariahilf was located therein. During the Ottoman siege the chapel was destroyed, the miraculous image could be saved behind the protective walls. After the provisional reconstruction the miraculous image in a triumphal procession was returned, accompanied by 30,000 Viennese.

1790 - 1836 Ferdinand Raimund

Although in the district Mariahilf many artists and historical figures of Vienna lived , it is noticeable that as a residence they rather shunned the Mariahilferstraße, because as early as in the 18th Century there was a very lively and loud bustle on the street. The most famous person who was born on the Mariahilferstrasse is the folk actor and dramatist Ferdinand Raimund. He came in the house No. 45, "To the Golden deer (Zum Goldenen Hirschen)", which still exists today, as son of a turner into the world. As confectioners apprentice, he also had to visit the theaters, where he was a so-called "Numero", who sold his wares to the visitors. This encounter with the theater was fateful. He took flight from his training masters and joined a traveling troupe as an actor. After his return to Vienna, he soon became the most popular comedian. In his plays all those figures appeared then bustling the streets of Vienna. His most famous role was that of the "ash man" in "Farmer as Millionaire", a genuine Viennese guy who brings the wood ash in Butte from the houses, and from the proceeds leading a modest existence.

1805 - 1809 French occupation

The two-time occupation of Vienna by the French hit the suburbs hard. But the buildings were not destroyed fortunately.

19th century Industrialization

Here, where a higher concentration of artisans had developed as in other districts, you could feel the competition of the factories particularly hard. A craftsman after another became factory worker, women and child labor was part of the day-to-day business. With the sharp rise of the population grew apartment misery and flourished bed lodgers and roomers business.

1826

The Mariahilferstraße is paved up to the present belt (Gürtel).

1848 years of the revolution

The Mariahilferstraße this year was in turmoil. At the outbreak of the revolution, the hatred of the people was directed against the Verzehrungssteuerämter (some kind of tax authority) at the lines that have been blamed for the rise of food prices, and against the machines in the factories that had made the small craftsmen out of work or dependent workers. In October, students, workers and citizens tore up paving stones and barricaded themselves in the Mariahilfer Linientor (the so-called Linienwall was the tax frontier) in the area of ​​today's belt.

1858 The Ring Road

The city walls fell and on the glacis arose the ring-road, the now 6th District more closely linking to the city center.

1862 Official naming

The Mariahilferstraße received its to the present day valid name, after it previously was bearing the following unofficial names: "Bavarian country road", "Mariahilfer Grund Straße", "Penzinger Street", "Laimgrube main street" and "Schönbrunner Linienstraße".

The turn of the century: development to commercial street

After the revolution of 1848, the industry displaced the dominant small business rapidly. At the same time the Mariahilferstraße developed into the first major shopping street of Vienna. The rising supply had to be passed on to the customer, and so more and more new shops sprang up. Around the turn of the century broke out a real building boom. The low suburban houses with Baroque and Biedermeier facade gave way to multi-storey houses with flashy and ostentatious facades in that historic style mixture, which was so characteristic of the late Ringstrasse period. From the former historic buildings almost nothing remained. The business portals were bigger and more pompous, the first department stores in the modern style were Gerngross and Herzmansky. Especially the clothing industry took root here.

1863 Herzmansky opened

On 3 March opened August Herzmansky a small general store in the Church Lane (Kirchengasse) 4. 1897 the great establishment in the pin alley (Stiftgasse) was opened, the largest textile company of the monarchy. August Herzmansky died a year before the opening, two nephews take over the business. In 1928, Mariahilferstraße 28 is additionally acquired. 1938, the then owner Max Delfiner had to flee, the company Rhonberg and Hämmerle took over the house. The building in Mariahilferstrasse 30 additionally was purchased. In the last days of the war in 1945 it fell victim to the flames, however. 1948, the company was returned to Max Delfiner, whose son sold in 1957 to the German Hertie group, a new building in Mariahilferstrasse 26 - 30 constructing. Other ownership changes followed.

1869 The Pferdetramway

The Pferdetramway made it first trip through the Mariahilferstraße to Neubaugasse.

Opened in 1879 Gerngroß

Mariahilferstraße about 1905

Alfred Gerngross, a merchant from Bavaria and co-worker August

Herzmanskys, founded on Mariahilferstrasse 48/corner Church alley (Kirchengasse) an own fabric store. He became the fiercest competitor of his former boss.

1901 The k.k. Imperial Furniture Collection

The k.k. Hofmobilien and material depot is established in Mariahilferstrasse 88. The collection quickly grew because each new ruler got new furniture. Today, it serves as a museum. Among other things, there is the office of Emperor Franz Joseph, the equipment of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico from Miramare Castle, the splendid table of Charles VI. and the furniture from the Oriental Cabinet of Crown Prince Rudolf.

1911 The House Stafa

On 18 August 1911, on the birthday of Emperor Franz Joseph, corner Mariahilferstraße/imperial road (Kaiserstraße) the "central palace" was opened. The construction by its architecture created a sensation. Nine large double figure-relief panels of Anton Hanak decorated it. In this building the "1st Vienna Commercial sample collective department store (Warenmuster-Kollektivkaufhaus)", a eight-storey circular building was located, which was to serve primarily the craft. The greatest adversity in the construction were underground springs. Two dug wells had to be built to pump out the water. 970 liters per minute, however, must be pumped out until today.

1945 bombing of Vienna

On 21 February 1945 bombs fell on the Mariahilferstrasse, many buildings were badly damaged. On 10th April Wiener looted the store Herzmansky. Ella Fasser, the owner of the café "Goethe" in Mariahilferstrasse, preserved the Monastery barracks (Stiftskaserne) from destruction, with the help other resistance fighters cutting the fire-conducting cords that had laid the retreating German troops. Meanwhile, she invited the officers to the cafe, and befuddled them with plenty of alcohol.

www.wien-vienna.at/blickpunkte.php?ID=582

 

(further information and pictures you can get by clicking on the link at the end of page!)

Mariahilferstraße

Mariahilferstraße, 6th, 7th, 14th and 15th, since 1897 (in the 6th and 7th district originally Kremser Sraße, then Bavarian highway, Laimgrubner main road, Mariahilfer main street, Fünfhauserstraße, Schönbrunnerstraße and Penzinger Poststraße, then Schönbrunner Straße), in memory of the old suburb name; Mariahilf was an independent municipality from 1660 to 1850, since then with Gumpendorf, Magdalenengrund, Windmühle and Laimgrube 6th District.

From

aeiou - the cultural information system of the bm: bwk

14,000 key words and 2000 pictures from history, geography, politics and business in Austria

www.aeiou.at

Mariahilferstraße, 1908 - Wien Museum

Mariahilferstraße, 1908

Picture taken from "August Stauda - A documentarian of old Vienna"

published by Christian Brandstätter - to Book Description

History

Pottery and wine

The first ones who demonstrably populated the area of ​​today's Mariahilferstraße (after the mammoth) were the Illyrians. They took advantage of the rich clay deposits for making simple vessels. The Celts planted on the sunny hills the first grape vines and understood the wine-making process very well. When the Romans occupied at the beginning of our Era Vienna for several centuries, they left behind many traces. The wine culture of the Celts they refined. On the hill of today's Mariahilferstraße run a Roman ridge trail, whose origins lay in the camp of Vindobona. After the rule of the Romans, the migration of peoples temporarily led many cultures here until after the expulsion of the Avars Bavarian colonists came from the West.

The peasant Middle Ages - From the vineyard to the village

Thanks to the loamy soil formed the winery, which has been pushed back only until the development of the suburbs, until the mid-17th Century the livelihood of the rural population. "Im Schöff" but also "Schöpf - scoop" and "Schiff - ship" (from "draw of") the area at the time was called. The erroneous use of a ship in the seal of the district is reminiscent of the old name, which was then replaced by the picture of grace "Mariahilf". The Weinberg (vineyard) law imposed at that time that the ground rent in the form of mash on the spot had to be paid. This was referred to as a "draw".

1495 the Mariahilfer wine was added to the wine disciplinary regulations for Herrenweine (racy, hearty, fruity, pithy wine with pleasant acidity) because of its special quality and achieved high prices.

1529 The first Turkish siege

Mariahilferstraße, already than an important route to the West, was repeatedly the scene of historical encounters. When the Turks besieged Vienna for the first time, was at the lower end of today Mariahilferstrasse, just outside the city walls of Vienna, a small settlement of houses and cottages, gardens and fields. Even the St. Theobald Monastery was there. This so-called "gap" was burned at the approach of the Turks, for them not to offer hiding places at the siege. Despite a prohibition, the area was rebuilt after departure of the Turks.

1558, a provision was adopted so that the glacis, a broad, unobstructed strip between the city wall and the outer settlements, should be left free. The Glacis existed until the demolition of the city walls in 1858. Here the ring road was later built.

1663 The new Post Road

With the new purpose of the Mariahilferstrasse as post road the first three roadside inn houses were built. At the same time the travel increased, since the carriages were finally more comfortable and the roads safer. Two well-known expressions date from this period. The "tip" and "kickbacks". In the old travel handbooks of that time we encounter them as guards beside the route, the travel and baggage tariff. The tip should the driver at the rest stop pay for the drink, while the bribe was calculated in proportion to the axle grease. Who was in a hurry, just paid a higher lubricant (Schmiergeld) or tip to motivate the coachman.

1683 The second Turkish siege

The second Turkish siege brought Mariahilferstraße the same fate. Meanwhile, a considerable settlement was formed, a real suburb, which, however, still had a lot of fields and brick pits. Again, the suburb along the Mariahilferstraße was razed to the ground, the population sought refuge behind the walls or in the Vienna Woods. The reconstruction progressed slowly since there was a lack of funds and manpower. Only at the beginning of the 18th Century took place a targeted reconstruction.

1686 Palais Esterhazy

On several "Brandstetten", by the second Turkish siege destroyed houses, the Hungarian aristocratic family Esterhazy had built herself a simple palace, which also had a passage on the Mariahilferstrasse. 1764 bought the innkeeper Paul Winkelmayr from Spittelberg the building, demolished it and built two new buildings that have been named in accordance with the Esterhazy "to the Hungarian crown."

17th Century to 19th Century. Fom the village to suburb

With the development of the settlements on the Mariahilferstraße from village to suburbs, changed not only the appearance but also the population. More and more agricultural land fell victim to the development, craftsmen and tradesmen settled there. There was an incredible variety of professions and trades, most of which were organized into guilds or crafts. Those cared for vocational training, quality and price of the goods, and in cases of unemployment, sickness and death.

The farms were replaced by churches and palaces, houses and shops. Mariahilf changed into a major industrial district, Mariahilferstrasse was an important trading center. Countless street traders sold the goods, which they carried either with them, or put in a street stall on display. The dealers made themselves noticeable by a significant Kaufruf (purchase call). So there was the ink man who went about with his bottles, the Wasserbauer (hydraulic engineering) who sold Danube water on his horse-drawn vehicle as industrial water, or the lavender woman. This lovely Viennese figures disappeared with the emergence of fixed premises and the improvement of urban transport.

Private carriages, horse-drawn carriages and buggies populated the streets, who used this route also for trips. At Mariahilferplatz Linientor (gate) was the main stand of the cheapest and most popular means of transport, the Zeiselwagen, which the Wiener used for their excursions into nature, which gradually became fashionable. In the 19th Century then yet arrived the Stellwagen (carriage) and bus traffic which had to accomplish the connection between Vienna and the suburbs. As a Viennese joke has it, suggests the Stellwagen that it has been so called because it did not come from the spot.

1719 - 1723 Royal and Imperial Court Stables

Emperor Charles VI. gave the order for the construction of the stables to Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. 1772 the building was extended by two houses on the Mariahilferstrasse. The size of the stables still shows, as it serves as the Museum Quarter - its former importance. The Mariahilferstraße since the building of Schönbrunn Palace by the Imperial court very strongly was frequented. Today in the historic buildings the Museum Quarter is housed.

The church and monastery of Maria Hülff

Coloured engraving by J. Ziegler, 1783

1730 Mariahilferkirche

1711 began the renovation works at the Mariahilferkirche, giving the church building today's appearance and importance as a baroque monument. The plans stem from Franziskus Jänkl, the foreman of Lukas von Hildebrandt. Originally stood on the site of the Mariahilferkirche in the medieval vineyard "In Schoeff" a cemetery with wooden chapel built by the Barnabites. Already in those days, the miraculous image Mariahilf was located therein. During the Ottoman siege the chapel was destroyed, the miraculous image could be saved behind the protective walls. After the provisional reconstruction the miraculous image in a triumphal procession was returned, accompanied by 30,000 Viennese.

1790 - 1836 Ferdinand Raimund

Although in the district Mariahilf many artists and historical figures of Vienna lived , it is noticeable that as a residence they rather shunned the Mariahilferstraße, because as early as in the 18th Century there was a very lively and loud bustle on the street. The most famous person who was born on the Mariahilferstrasse is the folk actor and dramatist Ferdinand Raimund. He came in the house No. 45, "To the Golden deer (Zum Goldenen Hirschen)", which still exists today, as son of a turner into the world. As confectioners apprentice, he also had to visit the theaters, where he was a so-called "Numero", who sold his wares to the visitors. This encounter with the theater was fateful. He took flight from his training masters and joined a traveling troupe as an actor. After his return to Vienna, he soon became the most popular comedian. In his plays all those figures appeared then bustling the streets of Vienna. His most famous role was that of the "ash man" in "Farmer as Millionaire", a genuine Viennese guy who brings the wood ash in Butte from the houses, and from the proceeds leading a modest existence.

1805 - 1809 French occupation

The two-time occupation of Vienna by the French hit the suburbs hard. But the buildings were not destroyed fortunately.

19th century Industrialization

Here, where a higher concentration of artisans had developed as in other districts, you could feel the competition of the factories particularly hard. A craftsman after another became factory worker, women and child labor was part of the day-to-day business. With the sharp rise of the population grew apartment misery and flourished bed lodgers and roomers business.

1826

The Mariahilferstraße is paved up to the present belt (Gürtel).

1848 years of the revolution

The Mariahilferstraße this year was in turmoil. At the outbreak of the revolution, the hatred of the people was directed against the Verzehrungssteuerämter (some kind of tax authority) at the lines that have been blamed for the rise of food prices, and against the machines in the factories that had made the small craftsmen out of work or dependent workers. In October, students, workers and citizens tore up paving stones and barricaded themselves in the Mariahilfer Linientor (the so-called Linienwall was the tax frontier) in the area of ​​today's belt.

1858 The Ring Road

The city walls fell and on the glacis arose the ring-road, the now 6th District more closely linking to the city center.

1862 Official naming

The Mariahilferstraße received its to the present day valid name, after it previously was bearing the following unofficial names: "Bavarian country road", "Mariahilfer Grund Straße", "Penzinger Street", "Laimgrube main street" and "Schönbrunner Linienstraße".

The turn of the century: development to commercial street

After the revolution of 1848, the industry displaced the dominant small business rapidly. At the same time the Mariahilferstraße developed into the first major shopping street of Vienna. The rising supply had to be passed on to the customer, and so more and more new shops sprang up. Around the turn of the century broke out a real building boom. The low suburban houses with Baroque and Biedermeier facade gave way to multi-storey houses with flashy and ostentatious facades in that historic style mixture, which was so characteristic of the late Ringstrasse period. From the former historic buildings almost nothing remained. The business portals were bigger and more pompous, the first department stores in the modern style were Gerngross and Herzmansky. Especially the clothing industry took root here.

1863 Herzmansky opened

On 3 March opened August Herzmansky a small general store in the Church Lane (Kirchengasse) 4. 1897 the great establishment in the pin alley (Stiftgasse) was opened, the largest textile company of the monarchy. August Herzmansky died a year before the opening, two nephews take over the business. In 1928, Mariahilferstraße 28 is additionally acquired. 1938, the then owner Max Delfiner had to flee, the company Rhonberg and Hämmerle took over the house. The building in Mariahilferstrasse 30 additionally was purchased. In the last days of the war in 1945 it fell victim to the flames, however. 1948, the company was returned to Max Delfiner, whose son sold in 1957 to the German Hertie group, a new building in Mariahilferstrasse 26 - 30 constructing. Other ownership changes followed.

1869 The Pferdetramway

The Pferdetramway made it first trip through the Mariahilferstraße to Neubaugasse.

Opened in 1879 Gerngroß

Mariahilferstraße about 1905

Alfred Gerngross, a merchant from Bavaria and co-worker August

Herzmanskys, founded on Mariahilferstrasse 48/corner Church alley (Kirchengasse) an own fabric store. He became the fiercest competitor of his former boss.

1901 The k.k. Imperial Furniture Collection

The k.k. Hofmobilien and material depot is established in Mariahilferstrasse 88. The collection quickly grew because each new ruler got new furniture. Today, it serves as a museum. Among other things, there is the office of Emperor Franz Joseph, the equipment of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico from Miramare Castle, the splendid table of Charles VI. and the furniture from the Oriental Cabinet of Crown Prince Rudolf.

1911 The House Stafa

On 18 August 1911, on the birthday of Emperor Franz Joseph, corner Mariahilferstraße/imperial road (Kaiserstraße) the "central palace" was opened. The construction by its architecture created a sensation. Nine large double figure-relief panels of Anton Hanak decorated it. In this building the "1st Vienna Commercial sample collective department store (Warenmuster-Kollektivkaufhaus)", a eight-storey circular building was located, which was to serve primarily the craft. The greatest adversity in the construction were underground springs. Two dug wells had to be built to pump out the water. 970 liters per minute, however, must be pumped out until today.

1945 bombing of Vienna

On 21 February 1945 bombs fell on the Mariahilferstrasse, many buildings were badly damaged. On 10th April Wiener looted the store Herzmansky. Ella Fasser, the owner of the café "Goethe" in Mariahilferstrasse, preserved the Monastery barracks (Stiftskaserne) from destruction, with the help other resistance fighters cutting the fire-conducting cords that had laid the retreating German troops. Meanwhile, she invited the officers to the cafe, and befuddled them with plenty of alcohol.

www.wien-vienna.at/blickpunkte.php?ID=582

 

I'll put some more pics up later today. This is my entry for Rocko's contest. The contest is a great way to culminate respect from non-Castle builders such as myself. The scale of a lot of those Castle MOCs is really something to be in awe of. This is a large MOC by my standards but it's nothing compared to pretty much any other Castle MOC so hats of to you Castle guys!

 

The Inn was taken over by two mages of the worst kinds, a necromancer and a monstermancer. The Innkeeper, Betsy Crumpletumple was able to escape and has returned with noble heroes and some low class mercenaries to take back the Inn!

Great flashes of light burst over the city of Bladefall as fireworks of all colors were fired into the air. The sounds of laughter and merrymaking could be heard from well outside the city walls, and the smoke of a great bonfire slowly rolled up into the clear and starry night sky. Barrels of wine were brought out of the cellars, and all manner of food was arrayed on seemingly endless tables. But before the feasting and entertainment could begin, all the citizens, both Lenfel, Garhim, and the few Loreesi who were there, were to pay respect to the fallen heroes for whom the feast was dedicated to.

 

In the midst of the crowd, Michael was slowly making his way toward the Oar and Boar Inn. His father, Nathaniel Breadman, was the current innkeeper, and the inn had belonged to the Breadman family for three generations. When Michael turned eighteen a few months prior, his father had been far from subtle in his suggestions that a time would come when the inn would belong to him. The Oar and Boar had a prestigious reputation throughout Bladefall and the surrounding area, and it was heavily trafficked by Garhim traders and merchants. To be the innkeeper of such an establishment was a great gift, and it held the promise of a profitable and comfortable life.

 

But Michael did not want it.

 

For many years now, he had taken up the profession of hunting, and he provided much of the food that was served at the Oar and Boar. He enjoyed the outdoors, and he scoffed at a sedentary life. He imagined himself as a merchant (it could not be denied that Michael had great charisma, as well as a keen head for business), or perhaps he could someday join the ranks of the Lenfel Scout Snipers. ‘A life of adventure,’ he could oft be heard to speak of when discussing the future with his father. ‘That’s what I want.’

Michael was thankful for the opportunities he had been given in Bladefall, but the thrill of adventure appealed to him more than anything. He only wondered when that opportunity would come. Perhaps when—

 

“Michael!” the familiar voice of an old friend brought him back to reality.

 

Michael turned to where the voice had come from and saw Jonathan, his best friend from childhood, fighting through the sea of people between them. His black hair contrasted sharply with his fair skin, and his resemblance was not unlike that of Jonathan’s father. He was not a bold or outgoing individual, but he carried himself with a sense of nobility and grace.

 

“Jonathan!” Michael grinned and embraced Jonathan when he arrived. “I did not think to see you until summer! Did the scholars in Stoneborough cast you out already?”

 

“No, not yet I am afraid,” Jonathan chuckled. “My studies go well, although I confess that at times it can grow quite tedious. But I have worked diligently, and my professors were kind enough to allow me a brief holiday for tonight’s celebration!”

 

“What great fortune!” Michael clapped his friend on the back. “And I trust you still have the support of your father in your pursuits?”

 

Jonathan’s father, Halthion Strongbow was a nobleman of Lenfald, and the current Captain of the Guard for the city of Bladefall. He was renowned for his valorous feats in past wars, and it had long been assumed that Jonathan would follow in his father’s footsteps and become a great warrior of Lenfald. But Jonathan had always had a passion for scholarly pursuits, and not great deeds of war.

 

“Yes, he is as steady in his support as he always has been,” Jonathan replied. “He rarely speaks of his part in past wars, and I do not think he wants to. I believe he is quite happy that I do not wish to brandish a sword or loose an arrow.”

 

“That is excellent! Although I have never understood your devotion to ancient lore and seemingly endless compendiums. The thrill of adventure has always held a greater appeal to me,” Michael said, as he gestured toward the Oar and Boar Inn. “I was just on my way to meet my father and mother before our beloved, though long-winded, mayor gives his speech. Will you join me?”

 

Jonathan readily obliged, and within minutes they had joined Mr. and Mrs. Breadman just outside of the Oar and Boar. The Breadmans were delighted to see Jonathan, and after they had finished their greetings, the group made their way to the town square for the official beginning of the festivities.

 

As was the time honored tradition amongst Lenfels, the duty for honoring the fallen heroes of any town fell to the mayor. A large platform had been erected in the town square for this purpose, and as the fanfare of trumpets signaled for the crowd to become silent, Mayor Inglewood ascended the steps of the platform and prepared to deliver his speech.

 

“Citizens of Bladefall, sons of Garheim, and travelers from Loreos,” the mayor began. “It is my great privilege to welcome you to our fair city on this joyous night! As you are all well aware, tonight is the night that we shall celebrate our collective victory over the dark forces of Maldrake the Silent and the false Queen Galainir. I encourage you to feast heartily and be merry with your fellow man, for we are truly blessed to have been released from our bondage to such evil forces.”

 

“Oh how I wish that I could have been at the grand assault on Maldrake’s fortress!” Michael whispered to Jonathan. “I should have liked to have had the chance to slay the wretched villain myself.”

 

“We have much to be thankful for,” the mayor continued. “And none deserve our thanks more than those who gave their lives in sacrifice for their homelands and for freedom. Let us never forget the brave men who marched through the snow and ice of Garheim, only so that they could later be buried in it. War is a terrible thing, and our lands have seen much of it in recent times. Let us all be thankful for the peace which has been bought at so great a price. I believe it is time we stopped concerning ourselves with flags and borders, and began seeking after hearth and home. Whether Lenfel, Loreesi, or Garhim, let us rebuild our lands and extend goodwill toward all men!”

 

Several people in the crowd cheered and clapped at these remarks, and the mayor took this opportunity to gather his breath before resuming his speech.

 

“Finally, I am sure you are all quite hungry by now, so I shall leave you with this:

Remember the fallen, whose swords were shattered,

Remember the promise of spring to come,

Remember the living, whose homes are battered,

Remember our vict’ry, for we have won!”

 

A great cheer erupted from the crowd, and there were high spirits throughout the city. Trumpets blew and fireworks were lit once more to signal that the time for feasting had begun. Michael went with Jonathan to go and celebrate, but as he did so he wondered when he would have the chance to do great deeds and bring glory to great Lenfald as well…

 

* * * * *

 

From just outside the port city of Bladefall, a full moon shone brightly over the Great Northern Sea. Its beam faintly illuminated tattered black sails, which moved slowly across the great waves. The ship to which these sails belonged was concealed by a grey fog which hovered just above the sea itself and crept towards the shore. The mysterious boat appeared as though it were merely adrift at sea, but a keen eye could not mistake that the ship’s course was for land.

 

“Keep that rudder steady, Gorthan,” a gruff voice called out from the bow of the ship. “We need to reach land before dawn.”

 

“Aye, Captain Steelfist!”

 

Jarrek Steelfist, renowned among outlaws as one to be feared, strode over to the ship’s railing and stared across the vast sea that lay between him and his destination. He watched as fireworks burst in the sky above Bladefall. A cruel smile began to manifest along the corners of his mouth as he watched the brilliant explosions of light.

 

“So, the Lenfel dogs are having a party?” He wondered aloud. “We shall have to join them…”

The city of Leeds in West Yorkshire.

 

Leeds first began as a Saxon village, by 1207 the Lord of the Manor, Maurice De Gant, had extended it into a town. He created a new street of houses west of the existing village and he divided the land into plots for building. In Medieval Leeds, there were butchers, bakers, carpenters, and blacksmiths. However, the main industry in Leeds was making wool.

 

In 1628 a writer described Leeds as standing pleasantly in a fruitful and enclosed vale upon the north side of the River Eyer over or beyond a stone bridge from where it has a large and broad street leading directly north and continually ascending. The houses on both sides are very thick and closely compacted together, being old, rough, and low built and generally all made of timber.

 

In 1642 came civil war between king and parliament. Most of the townspeople supported the king and a royalist army occupied Leeds. But in January 1643 parliamentary soldiers captured it. They held Leeds until the summer of 1643 when, after losing a battle in Yorkshire, they were forced to abandon the town. The parliamentary army returned to Leeds in April 1644. They held Leeds for the rest of the civil war.

 

In the 17th century Leeds was a wealthy town. The wool trade boomed. However, like all towns in those days, it suffered from outbreaks of the plague. There was a severe outbreak in 1645. However, in 1694 Leeds gained a piped water supply (for those who could afford to be connected).

 

In the 18th century wool manufacture was still the lifeblood of Leeds but there were other industries. Leeds pottery began in 1770. There was also a brick making industry in Georgian Leeds. There were also many craftsmen such as coachmakers, clockmakers, booksellers, and jewelers as well as more mundane trades such as butchers, bakers, barbers, innkeepers, carpenters, blacksmiths, and glaziers. In 1700 the rivers Aire and Calder were made navigable from Leeds to Wakefield. In 1794 work began on the Leeds to Liverpool canal. It was completed in 1816. For the rich and the middle-class life grew more comfortable and more genteel during the 18th century.

 

The city flourished in the Victorian year’s textiles became less important. But tailoring for a more mass market flourished with the leather industry boot and shoemakers. Leeds grew rapidly but many of the new houses built were dreadful. Overcrowding was rife and streets were very dirty.

 

In the 1850s the council-built sewers but very many of the houses in Leeds were not connected to them. Many dwellings continued to use cesspits or buckets which were emptied at night by the 'night soil' men. Not until 1899 was it made compulsory for dwellings in Leeds to be connected to sewers.

 

Information Source:

www.localhistories.org/Leeds.html

 

A Channel 4 programme in 1998 called Time Team-History Hunters led by Tony Robinson investigated which of Nottingham's Pubs was the oldest, Trip to Jerusalem, Ye Olde Salutation, and The Bell Inn.

The earliest proven was The Bell.

In 1638, half of The Bell -- then two buildings joined together by a common passageway -- was given in the will of Alderman Sherwin to the poor of the three parishes: St Mary's, St Peter's, and St James. From 1820 to 1836, the innkeeper was William Clarke, who, upon marrying the widow who owned the Trent Bridge Inn, left The Bell and founded the famous Trent Bridge Cricket Ground.

A Green Plaque to William Clarke is situated on the front of the building.

Looking towards Lincoln Cathedral from the Beer Garden of the Grade II Listed Lion & Snake public House, 79 Bailgate, Lincoln, Lincolnshire.

 

Originally dating from 1590 the current building was mostly rebuilt in 1919, while retaining first-floor jetty and some medieval stone walls. Upper storey rendered. Ground floor underbuilt in brick. Incorporates rear stables. It was called the Lion in 1515, the Ram 1500s/1600s, 1649 the Greyhound; 1667 the Red Lion, 1668 the Ram; 1726 the Red Lion; 1735 (William Poole landlord) Red Lyon and Snake; 1783 the Red Lion and Snake, 1826 the Lion and Snake. 1807-1820 John and Frances Woodthorpe; 1839-1841 John Moss; 1842, 1857 Robert Jackson, innkeeper; 1867-1892 G R Brailsford. Mostly rebuilt after the roof collapsed in 1919. J Hole and Co in 1925-1948.

 

U.S. 29 North at 16th St. in City Limits

90 Rooms and Baths - 150-Seat Restaurant - Banquet Facilities - Sales, Sample Room - Bridal Suite - Television, Telephones - Wall-to-Wall Carpets - Tom Kellam, Innkeeper - Phone: BR. 5-5371

 

Curteichcolor Card

9C-K1416

CAPA-003434

The Jerry Lewis Theatre Club at Brown’s Hotel, Catskills (Borscht Belt), New York.

 

Though it's more recently associated with Jewish history and leisure, the site of Brown's Hotel goes back centuries. Dutch immigrants settled in the Catskill Mountains in the 1600s where they grew wheat and rye. By the mid-1800s, farmers and innkeepers began renting out bungalows to boarders from the city who sought to escape the humidity, heat, and pollution of New York City.

 

Pictured here, Brown's Resort was known for its wealthy patrons, and it attracted comedians such as Bob Hope, Buddy Hackett, Jackie Mason, Woody Allen, and George Burns, as well as musicians Sammy Davis, Jr., Tony Bennett, Harry Belafonte, and Liberace.

 

Brown’s also attracted Italian and Jewish gangsters. By the 1940s, the bodies of organized crime victims would turn up in Loch Sheldrake less than two miles away from the hotel. At 570 rooms, Brown's became one of the largest in the Catskills.

 

In July of 1988, Lillian Brown filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It wasn't until 1997 that the resort was converted into a 396-unit condominium complex known as Grandview Palace.

 

By 2012, it was clear the historic complex had fallen on hard times. The city threatened to condemn the complex. Coincidentally, just a month later, a fire broke out and destroyed many of the structures, which involved over 43 fire companies and 300 firefighters. It is possibly the largest fire in Catskills history. All that remains are these shells...

 

#historic #abandonedny #borschtbelt #catskills

Starring Richard Garland, Pamela Duncan , Maurice Manson ,Mel Welles and Allison Hayes .

Produced and directed by Roger Corman during the height of his "low-budget" period, this tale is essentially a time-travel by hypnosis story about a woman who journeys back to see her past life as a witch.

The king of the drive-in horror movies, Roger Corman, made this classic horror film about two researchers who send a woman back in time to her former life. While there, she finds that she was imprisoned in a tower, awaiting execution for being condemned as a witch. Allison Hayes played the dual role and was known for her many horror and science fiction pictures of the 1950s.

synopsis

Legendary shlockmeister Roger Corman and long-time collaborator Charles B. Griffith attempted to cash in on the popular 1950s surge in Bridey Murphy reincarnation mania with this confusing and throughly weird thriller. It begins with researcher Richard Garland hypnotizing streetwalker Pamela Duncan in an attempt to record her past-life experiences as a condemned witch in the Dark Ages. After numerous silly attempts by Garland to save her -- including regressing himself into the same period, where, by remarkable coincidence, he also lived as a soldier -- Duncan decides not to alter the course of history, and she resigns herself to her fate. Despite the spooky ambience, a cast of Corman regulars (including Mel Welles and Allison Hayes), and some clever plot twists -- including one which finds the tables turned on our meddling scientist -- Griffith's static and talky screenplay is so absurdly crammed with half-baked metaphysical musings that it becomes almost impossible to discern the plot.

We open with Satan (Richard Devon) introducing himself. Next, we meet Diana Love (Pamela Duncan) entering the scene through a thick fog. She is a streetwalker and agrees to accompany a man to the American Institute of Psychical Research office. In a very shabby office we meet Quintus Ratcliff (Val Dufour), who was the man who engaged Diana's services. Quintus has been away in Tibet for the last seven years. We meet Professor Ulbrecht Olinger (Maurice Manson). Quintus was one of the professor's students, and not a very good student--he failed him. Quintus talks the professor into conducting an experiment in regression hypnosis. He intends to hypnotize Diana back to a previous life. He intends to keep her under for two or more days. The professor is reluctant to get involved, for both legal and ethical reasons, but eventually agrees. He first examines Diana medically, specifically to see if her heart is sound, then he takes a brief medical history.

 

Quintus hypnotizes Diana. He is taking her back in time. In her first observation, she speaks French. Quintus takes her back even further in time to explore earlier past lives. Diana starts to pull on her bracelet. Quintus and the professor look on baffled at her behavior. Next we are transported back in time and see what Diana (now Helene in her time) is experiencing. She is chained in a dungeon and is trying to remove the manacle on her wrist. We meet the torturer and dungeon master, Gobbo, the Jailer (Aaron Saxon). He proceeds to verbally torment Helene. He tells her that she is to be beheaded soon. Helene has been accused of being a witch. She manages to knock her jailer out, take his keys and escape.

 

Back in the office, Quintus is explaining that while Diana is in her trance, in the here and now, her past life is being played out in real time. Helene exits the dungeon with guards chasing her. She encounters a knight on horseback who begins to chase her through the woods. Helene stops to catch her breath, she encounters the Gravedigger Smolkin (Mel Welles) singing a macabre little ditty. She enters his hearse and hides in the coffin with the body Smolkin is taking for burial. The knight on horseback is Pendragon (Richard Garland) and he questions Smolkin if he "has seen the witch Helene?" He demands to examine the contents of the coffin, but all he finds is the body of an old man with a beard. Helene is hiding beneath the body. Pendragon reminds the gravedigger that coffins must be sealed, and it is nailed shut immediately. Smolkin heads off to the graveyard to finish his job.

 

A pair of owls, in a nearby tree, transform into lizards (or iguanas) then transform again into an Imp (Billy Barty) and a black cat. The cat then transforms into Livia the Witch (Allison Hayes). They observe the knight and she engages him in conversation. Pendragon tells Livia he is trying to prove Helene innocent of witchcraft, and seeks Smolkin to get his evidence. Livia is in love with Pendragon. After Pendragon departs, Livia transforms back into a cat and goes back to her tree to talk to her Imp.

 

Helene struggles to excape from the coffin. Pendragon meets Smolkin at the graveyard and questions him about his bewitchment. Did Helene do it? Smolkin cannot answer the question. Pendragon departs, and Smolkin carries the coffin to the hole, but he hears a cry from inside and releases Helene. Helene denies bewitching him and tells him that at dawn she and two others accused of witchcraft are to be executed. If she can hide for an additional day, she will have a full year to prove her innocence. The witch's Sabbath is scheduled for midnight in this very graveyard.

 

Livia enters the Gabriel's Horn Inn and meets with Scroop, the Innkeeper (Bruno VeSota). He tells her he's prepared to repel witches from his establishment. Pendragon enters the Inn and walks upstairs to his room, ordering Scroop to bring him some ale. Livia brings him his pitcher of ale. They talk, and she kisses him. She reminds Pendragon that Helene will die in the morning.

 

Smolkin takes Helene to the deepest part of the forest and directs her to a cottage where she will be safe for the night. There she meets the owner, Meg Maud, a witch (Dorothy Neumann) and screams. We are back in the office, and Diana is screaming. The professor demands Quintus wake her, but Quintus refuses. He suggests that the shock of waking her could kill her. Meg Maud opens the door to the cottage and invites Helene inside.

 

Meanwhile, back at the Inn, Scroop gives Pendragon the plans to the prison tower to aid in Helene's escape. He doesn't know she isn't there. Livia looks on, bemused. Helene explains to Meg that she managed her escape with the help of her future self, Diana Love, and learns that it was Livia that accused her of witchcraft. Meg heads over to the Inn to confer with Scroop. She tells Pendragon to go over to her cottage immediately. Pendragon leaves, and Meg heads upstairs to confront Livia, who has transformed herself back into a cat. When Meg enters, Livia has resumed human form. Livia reveals that she intends to marry Pendragon. Pendragon meets Helene at the cottage and they head back to the Inn. Smolkin finishes burying the corpse. Livia arrives and they discuss the witch's Sabbath that takes place at midnight.

 

Back in the office, Helene through Diana explains to Quintus and the professor that she will die soon. Diana has altered the past. The professor notices a bruise on Dianas forearm, and Quintus concludes the regression is both mental and physical. He proposes his own hypnosis to go back to Helens past life and correct their mistake. Meg and Helene leave the Inn and return to Meg's cottage. Livia arrives at the Inn to get Helene, but missing her, she collects a freshly severed head she needs for the Sabbath. It is Scroop's head. Smolkin tells Meg that Helene is in great danger from Livia and her Imp.

 

Quintus explains to the professor that if Helene does not die at the appointed time in the past, Diana and all the other lives she will live will never happen. Quintus must go back and make sure Helene dies at her appointed time and place. Livia promises Pendragon that she will use her powers to release Helene. Using black magic and witchcraft is the only way to save her--she reveals herself as a witch. Pendragon agrees, but Livia tells him the price is his soul. He must enter into a bargain with the devil at the Sabbath that midnight. He agrees.

 

Quintus, back in the office, is hooked up to some electrical apparatus. He and Diana are wired up and ready. The professor is very reluctant to participate. He hypnotizes Quintus to synchronize their brain waves. It works, and Quintus is transported back in time. He assumes the identity of a knight, steals his armor, and sets off to find Helene.

 

Meg Maud leaves for the Sabbath to observe. At the graveyard, the ceremony begins with a dance. Livia and Pendragon arrive, while Meg Maud looks on, unobserved. Livia offers up the severed head of Scroop and Satan appears. He is collecting souls and makes all interested parties sign his book. The first to sign is a leper (Richard "Dick" Miller). He signs, and is transformed back to normal, but now has a pitch fork tattoo on his hand. Livia presents Pendragon to Satan. Before Pendragon can sign the book, Quinus stops him. Satan recognizes Quintus, and tells him he has slipped the bounds of time. Quintus convinces Pendragon to follow him back to Meg Maud's cottage to be reunited with Helene. Pendragon learns of Livia's treachery and the role Quintus plays in all this. Quintus explains his mission to Meg Maud, while Smolkin, Helene, and Pendragon head for the woods. Livia arrives with Quintus, Meg, and Satan in the woods. There, Helene is presented with her choice--death now and future lives, or life now and no life for all her future selves. Each of the assembled offer their advise, even the voices of her future selves chime in.

 

Helene makes her choice, which is to die, and runs off. Pendragon confronts Livia and kills her with his knife. Helene arrives just in time for the headsman to take her head. Diana wakes up from her trance and explains to the professor that she is grateful to Helene and will make the effort to change her life. All that remains of Quintus, in the present, is an empty suit of clothes. Quintus is left with the Devil, who explains that his link to the future was with Helene, and now that she is dead, he is stuck in the past. We close with Satan taunting Quintus and laughing.

 

A timeless scene reflecting on the DDR-era, a glimpse of 750mm gauge Saxon-Meyer 99 1590-1 glimpsed through the door of the booking hall and waiting room at Steinbach station of the Pressnitztalbahn on 16th February 2019.

 

© Gordon Edgar - All rights reserved. Please do not use my images without my explicit permission

 

Interesting background information on Konsum stores, provided by the DDR Museum in Berlin reads as follows:

 

"In order to satisfy their daily consumer needs, the citizens of the DDR / Soviet occupation zone had a number of possibilities to do their shopping. Already in December of 1945, a consumer cooperative with the simple name of “Konsum” was established. Only three years later, almost 300 independent consumer cooperatives existed in different cities. The German Consumer Cooperative Union (German: Verband Deutscher Konsumgenossenschaften / VDK) had the task to satisfy the needs of the population, covering as large an area as possible and establishing as low prices as possible. The selling organizations were substantially different. There were larger stores and supermarkets called “Kaufhalle”, whereas village consumer cooperatives dominated more rural areas. There were also Konsum shops adjacent to larger factories which were gladly used by the shift-working employees. For the villages which did not have a Konsum at their disposal there were selling busses which delivered groceries to the inhabitants of the village. In the 1950s, there was even a Konsum-ship called “Kambala” for the inland sailors in the DDR. Since 1954, Konsum stamps were given out as trading stamps. Like that, members of the consumer cooperatives were able to receive an annual refund for a part of their turnovers at the selling organizations".

 

"In the mid-1950s, the cooperative already had more than 3 million members. The phrase “to go to the Konsum” is dating back to this time period, meaning that a person is going to shop for groceries. Along with the fast growth in the 1950s, a strengthening of the brand followed as well. In 1959, the graphic designer Karl Thewalt created a specific logo for the cooperative. An industrial chimney along with a curved sickle is representing a capital “K”. The logo was put up on the roofs of the shops or onto the facades of the building – an illuminated advertising which could be seen from far away".

 

"The consumer cooperative was not only limited to selling points. The Konsum chain of stores consisted of more than 150 companies, 28 of which were directly subordinate to the Consumer Cooperative Union. A large amount of the products in the shops was produced in the according companies. In addition to the own companies and production facilities there was also a net of Konsum restaurants which mostly processed the goods of the Union-owned factories and represented an additional option on the gastronomic market. Some of these restaurants were leased to private innkeepers".

 

"In the late 1980s, the consumer cooperative had a total of about 4,5 million members. Since it was a private business, the company did not fall into the area of responsibility of the Trust Agency during the Peaceful Revolution. Along with the Reunification, the German Cooperative Societies Act was the legal frame since October 3rd, 1990. The 200 single Konsum cooperatives merged on a regional level and formed 55 regionally active Konsum cooperatives. Some of these regional unions have survived until today and are running their own sales branches".

 

132 Cobourg Street, Stratford, Perth County, Ontario.

 

In the early 1840’s newlyweds William Henry Hine and his wife Elizabeth Fishleigh left Devonshire, England and emigrated to Stratford, Canada West, where their first daughter Elizabeth was born in 1843. In 1848 he opened a general store offering dry goods and groceries. The business appears to have prospered because by 1851 when William was about 31 years old the family was living in a two story brick house, remarkable as most dwellings of the period were frame or log construction.

 

William Hine turned to the hotel business and worked as Inkeeper or Tavern Keeper at various establishments. He owned properties in Stratford including one at 132 Cobourg Street where, in 1857, he erected this small building which housed various tenants until Donald McDonald, a labourer purchased the property in 1872 and enlarged the structure.

 

William served as Perth County Auditor from 1859 to 1862 and was a member of the Perth County Militia. William and Elizabeth and their daughters left Stratford in the late 1860s and settled in Clinton where he returned to the grocery business as a produce merchant. They spent the remainder of their lives there. Elizabeth died in 1889 and William in 1894.

 

Source: Abridged from Architectural Conservancy of Ontario, Historical Plaque Properties www.stratford-perthcountybranchaco.ca/Historical_Plaque_P...

Initiatory Travel, a disconnection for a better reconnection with oneself. What is meant by disconnection is above all detachment from time, to which the mind is attached. A disconnection for a better reconnection with yourself, where it is necessary to live times of silence. It is also the opportunity to nourish oneself with intense energy by encountering the sacred. Mary Magdalene would have brought with her the holy cup which had collected the blood flowing from the side of Jesus crucified. She would have settled down with her numerous suite, in a "balme", a Baume (term which means cave)

Take a step towards wisdom by meeting the legend of Mary Magdalene (Mary Magdalene is known throughout the world as the disciple who was the first person to witness the resurrection of Jesus. Her energies include frequencies of unity, of peace, and tenderness), by soaking up the positive vibes that emanate from these places recognized as sacred, will make your trip a special one. A kind of magic then happens, something that cannot be explained but can only be felt. The change will come about as much by introspection as by the radiance of what (ux) you will encounter. In the journey to the deep self, you will be invited to participate in self-knowledge improvement sessions. And accompanied by the legend of Marie-Madeleine throughout this trip, you will learn step by step, to deploy your energy and to feel that of the places.

 

This journey is an invitation to awaken the divine version that exists in everyone's heart. It is an initiation which unifies the sacred Feminine and Masculine, which removes the veils and shadows, and which makes it possible to shine. Living this trip also means taking a route that can be confusing at times but so powerful because the meeting of Christelle GAMBEE and our Shaman, combined with the practice of various teachings and ancestral rites, will enrich this exceptional trip

  

The Jesus bloodline refers to the proposition that a lineal sequence of descendants of the historical Jesus has persisted to the present time. The claims frequently depict Jesus as married, often to Mary Magdalene, and as having descendants living in Europe, especially France but also the UK. Differing and contradictory Jesus bloodline scenarios, as well as more limited claims that Jesus married and had children, have been proposed in numerous modern books. Some such claims have suggested that Jesus survived the crucifixion and went to another location such as France, India or Japan.

 

While the concept has gained a presence in the public imagination, as seen with Dan Brown's best-selling novel and movie The Da Vinci Code that used the premise for its plot, it is generally dismissed by the scholarly community. These claimed Jesus' bloodlines are distinct from the biblical genealogy of Jesus and from the documented 'brothers' and other kin of Jesus, known as the Desposyni.

 

Jesus as husband and father

Historical precursors

Ideas that Jesus Christ might have been married have a long history in Christian theology, though the historical record says nothing on the subject.[1] Bart D. Ehrman, who chairs the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, commented that, although there are some historical scholars who claim that it is likely that Jesus was married, the vast majority of New Testament and early Christianity scholars find such a claim to be historically unreliable.[2]

 

Much of the bloodline literature has a more specific focus, on a claimed marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. There are indications in Gnosticism of the belief that Jesus and Mary Magdalene shared an amorous, and not just a religious relationship. The Gnostic Gospel of Philip tells that Jesus "kissed her often" and refers to Mary as his "companion".[3] Several sources from the 13th-century claim that an aspect of Catharist theology was the belief that the earthly Jesus had a familial relationship with Mary Magdalene. An Exposure of the Albigensian and Waldensian Heresies, dated to before 1213 and usually attributed to Ermengaud of Béziers, a former Waldensian seeking reconciliation with the mainstream Catholic Church, would describe Cathar heretical beliefs including the claim that they taught "in the secret meetings that Mary Magdalen was the wife of Christ".[4] A second work, untitled and anonymous, repeats Ermengaud's claim.[4] The anti-heretic polemic Historia Albigensis written between 1212 and 1218 by Cistercian monk and chronicler Peter of Vaux de Cernay, gives the most lurid description, attributing to Cathars the belief that Mary Magdalene was the concubine of Jesus.[4][5] These sources must be viewed with caution: the two known authors were not themselves Cathars and were writing of a heresy being actively and violently suppressed. There is no evidence that these beliefs derived from the much earlier Gnostic traditions of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, but the Cathar traditions did find their way into many of the 20th-century popular writings claiming the existence of a Jesus bloodline.[4][6]

 

Modern works

The late 19th-century saw the first of several expansions on this theme of marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene, providing the couple with a named child. The French socialist politician, Louis Martin (pseudonym of Léon Aubry, died 1900), in his 1886 book Les Evangiles sans Dieu (The Gospels without God), republished the next year in his Essai sur la vie de Jésus (Essay on the life of Jesus), described the historical Jesus as a socialist and atheist. He related that after his crucifixion, Mary Magdalene, along with the family of Lazarus of Bethany, brought the body of Jesus to Provence, and there Mary had a child, Maximin, the fruit of her love for Jesus. The scenario was dismissed as 'certainly strange' by a contemporary reviewer.[7]

 

The late 20th century saw the genre of popular books claiming that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had a family. Donovan Joyce's 1973 best-seller, The Jesus Scroll, a time bomb for Christianity, presented an alternative timeline for Jesus that arose from a mysterious document. He claimed that, after being denied access to the Masada archaeological site, he was met at the Tel Aviv airport by an American University professor using the pseudonym "Max Grosset", who held a large scroll he claimed to have smuggled from the site. Relating its contents to Joyce, Grosset offered to pay him to smuggle it out of the country, but then became spooked when his flight was delayed and snuck away; he was never identified and the scroll was not seen again. According to Joyce, the 'Jesus Scroll' was a personal letter by 80-year-old Yeshua ben Ya’akob ben Gennesareth, heir of the Hasmonean dynasty and hence rightful King of Israel, written on the eve of the fall of the city to the Romans after a suicide pact ended Masada's resistance. It was said to have described the man as married, and that he had a son whose crucifixion the letter's author had witnessed. Joyce identified the writer with Jesus of Nazareth, who, he claimed, had survived his own crucifixion to marry and settle at Masada, and suggested a conspiracy to hide the contents of the Dead Sea Scrolls in order to suppress this counter-narrative to Christian orthodoxy.[8][9]

 

Barbara Thiering, in her 1992 book Jesus and the Riddle of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Unlocking the Secrets of His Life Story, republished as Jesus the Man, and made into a documentary, The Riddle of the Dead Sea Scrolls, by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, also developed a Jesus and Mary Magdalene familial scenario. Thiering based her historical conclusions on her application of the so-called Pesher technique to the New Testament.[10][11] In this work of pseudo-scholarship, Thiering would go so far as to precisely place the betrothal of Jesus and Mary Magdalene on 30 June, AD 30, at 10:00 p.m. She relocated the events in the life of Jesus from Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem to Qumran, and related that Jesus was revived after an incomplete crucifixion and married Mary Magdalene, who was already pregnant by him, that they had a daughter Tamar and a son Jesus Justus born in AD 41, and Jesus then divorced Mary to wed a Jewess named Lydia, going to Rome where he died.[12][13] The account was dismissed as fanciful by scholar Michael J. McClymond.[12]

 

In the television documentary, The Lost Tomb of Jesus, and book The Jesus Family Tomb,[14] both from 2007, fringe investigative journalist Simcha Jacobovici and Charles R. Pellegrino proposed that ossuaries in the Talpiot Tomb, discovered in Jerusalem in 1980, belonged to Jesus and his family. Jacobovici and Pellegrino argue that Aramaic inscriptions reading "Judah, son of Jesus", "Jesus, son of Joseph", and "Mariamne", a name they associate with Mary Magdalene, together preserve the record of a family group consisting of Jesus, his wife Mary Magdalene and son Judah.[15] Such theory has been rejected by the overwhelming majority of biblical scholars, archaeologists and theologians, including the archaeologist Amos Kloner, who led the archeological exavation of the tomb itself.[16]

 

The same year saw a book following the similar theme that Jesus and Mary Magdalene produced a family written by psychic medium and best-selling author Sylvia Browne, The Two Marys: The Hidden History of the Mother and Wife of Jesus.[17][non-primary source needed]

 

The Jesus Seminar, a group of scholars involved in the quest for the historical Jesus from a liberal Christian perspective, were unable to determine whether Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a matrimonial relationship due to the dearth of historical evidence. They concluded that the historical Mary Magdalene was not a repentant prostitute but a prominent disciple of Jesus and a leader in the early Christian movement.[18] The claims that Jesus and Mary Magdalene fled to France parallel other legends about the flight of disciples to distant lands, such as the one depicting Joseph of Arimathea traveling to England after the death of Jesus, taking with him a piece of thorn from the Crown of Thorns, which he later planted in Glastonbury. Historians generally regard these legends as "pious fraud" produced during the Middle Ages.[19][20][21]

 

Joseph and Aseneth

Main article: Joseph and Aseneth

In 2014, Simcha Jacobovici and fringe religious studies historian Barrie Wilson suggested in The Lost Gospel that the eponymous characters in a 6th-century tale called "Joseph and Aseneth" were in actuality representations of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.[22] The story was reported in an anthology compiled by Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor, along with covering letters describing the discovery of the original Greek manuscript and its translation into Syriac. In one of these, translator Moses of Ingila explained the story "as an allegory of Christ's marriage to the soul".[23] Jacobovici and Wilson instead interpret it as an allegorical reference to actual marriage of Jesus, produced by a community holding that he was married and had children.

 

Israeli Biblical scholar, Rivka Nir called their work "serious-minded, thought-provoking and interesting", but described the thesis as objectionable, [24] and the book has been dismissed by mainstream Biblical scholarship, for example by Anglican theologian, Richard Bauckham.[25] The Church of England compared The Lost Gospel to a Monty Python sketch, the director of communications for the Archbishop's Council citing the book as an example of religious illiteracy and that ever since the publication of The Da Vinci Code in 2003, "an industry had been constructed in which 'conspiracy theorists, satellite channel documentaries and opportunistic publishers had identified a lucrative income stream'."[26] The Lost Gospel was described as historical nonsense by Markus Bockmuehl.[27]

 

Early Mormon Theology

Early Mormon theology posited not only that Jesus married, but that he did so multiple times. Early leaders Jedediah M. Grant, Orson Hyde, Joseph F. Smith and Orson Pratt stated it was part of their religious belief that Jesus Christ was polygamous, quoting this in their respective sermons.[28][29] The Mormons also used an apocryphal passage attributed to the 2nd-century Greek philosopher Celsus: "The grand reason why the gentiles and philosophers of his school persecuted Jesus Christ was because he had so many wives. There were Elizabeth and Mary and a host of others that followed him".[30] This appears to have been a summary of a garbled or second-hand reference to a quote from Celsus the Platonist preserved in the apologetics work Contra Celsum ("Against Celsus") by the Church Father Origen: "such was the charm of Jesus' words, that not only were men willing to follow Him to the wilderness, but women also, forgetting the weakness of their sex and a regard for outward propriety in thus following their Teacher into desert places."[31]

 

Jesus as ancestor of a bloodline

Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln developed and popularized the idea of a bloodline descended from Jesus and Mary Magdalene in their 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (published as Holy Blood, Holy Grail in the United States),[32] in which they asserted: ". . . we do not think the Incarnation truly symbolises what it is intended to symbolise unless Jesus were married and sired children."[32] Specifically, they claimed that the sangraal of medieval lore did not represent the San Graal (Holy Grail), the cup drunk from at the Last Supper, but both the vessel of Mary Magdalene's womb and the Sang Real, the royal blood of Jesus represented in a lineage descended from them. In their reconstruction, Mary Magdalene goes to France after the crucifixion, carrying a child by Jesus who would give rise to a lineage that centuries later would unite with the Merovingian rulers of the early Frankish kingdom, from whom they trace the descent into medieval dynasties that were almost exterminated by the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars, leaving a small remnant protected by a secret society, the Priory of Sion.[33][34] The role of the Priory was inspired by earlier writings primarily by Pierre Plantard, who in the 1960s and 1970s had publicized documents from the secretive Priory that demonstrated its long history and his own descent from the lineage they had protected that traced to the Merovingian kings, and earlier, the biblical Tribe of Benjamin.[35] Plantard would dismiss Holy Blood as fiction in a 1982 radio interview,[36] as did his collaborator Philippe de Cherisey in a magazine article,[37] but a decade later Plantard admitted that, before he incorporated a group of that name in the 1950s, the very existence of the Priory had been an elaborate hoax, and that the documents on which Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln had relied for inspiration had been forgeries planted in French institutions to be later "rediscovered".[38][39][40] The actual lineage claimed for the portion of the Plantard and Holy Blood bloodline that passes through the medieval era received highly-negative reviews in the genealogical literature, being viewed as consisting of numerous inaccurate linkages that were unsupported, or even directly contradicted, by the authentic historical record.[41]

 

The Woman with the Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalen and the Holy Grail, a 1993 book by Margaret Starbird, built on Cathar beliefs and Provencal traditions of Saint Sarah, the black servant of Mary Magdalene, to develop the hypothesis that Sarah was the daughter of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.[4] In her reconstruction, a pregnant Mary Magdalene fled first to Egypt and then France after the crucifixion.[3] She sees this as the source of the legend associated with the cult at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. She also noted that the name "Sarah" means "Princess" in Hebrew, thus making her the forgotten child of the "sang réal", the blood royal of the King of the Jews.[42] Starbird also viewed Mary Magdalene as identical with Mary of Bethany, sister of Lazarus.[3] Though working with the same claimed relationship between Jesus, Mary Magdalene and Saint Sarah that would occupy a central role in many of the published bloodline scenarios, Starbird considered any question of descent from Sarah to be irrelevant to her thesis,[4] though she accepted that it existed.[43] Her view of Mary Magdalene/Mary of Bethany as wife of Jesus is also linked with the concept of the sacred feminine in feminist theology. Mary Ann Beavis would point out that unlike others in the genre, Starbird actively courted scholarly engagement over her ideas, and that "[a]lthough her methods, arguments and conclusions do not always stand up to scholarly scrutiny, some of her exegetical insights merit attention . . .," while suggesting she is more mythographer than historian.[3]

 

In his 1996 book Bloodline of the Holy Grail: The Hidden Lineage of Jesus Revealed, Laurence Gardner presented pedigree charts of Jesus and Mary Magdalene as the ancestors of all the European royal families of the Common Era.[44] His 2000 sequel Genesis of the Grail Kings: The Explosive Story of Genetic Cloning and the Ancient Bloodline of Jesus is unique in claiming that not only can the Jesus bloodline truly be traced back to Adam and Eve but that the first man and woman were primate-alien hybrids created by the Anunnaki of his ancient astronaut theory.[45] Gardner followed this book with several additional works in the bloodline genre.

 

In Rex Deus: The True Mystery of Rennes-Le-Chateau and the Dynasty of Jesus, published in 2000, Marylin Hopkins, Graham Simmans and Tim Wallace-Murphy developed a similar scenario based on 1994 testimony by the pseudonymous "Michael Monkton",[46] that a Jesus and Mary Magdalene bloodline was part of a shadow dynasty descended from twenty-four high priests of the Temple in Jerusalem known as Rex Deus – the "Kings of God".[47] The evidence on which the informant based his claim to be a Rex Deus scion, descended from Hugues de Payens, was said to be lost and therefore cannot be independently verified, because 'Michael' claimed that it was kept in his late father's bureau, which was sold by his brother unaware of its contents.[47] Some critics point out the informant's account of his family history seems to be based on the controversial work of Barbara Thiering.[48]

 

The Da Vinci Code

Main article: The Da Vinci Code

The best-known work depicting a bloodline of Jesus is the 2003 best-selling novel and global phenomenon, The Da Vinci Code, joined by its major cinematic release of the same name. In these, Dan Brown incorporated many of the earlier bloodline themes as the background underlying his work of conspiracy fiction. The author attested both in the text and public interviews to the veracity of the bloodline details that served as the novel's historical context. The work so captured the public imagination that the Catholic Church felt compelled to warn its congregates against accepting its pseudo-historical background as fact, which did not stop it from becoming the highest-selling novel in American history, with tens of millions of copies sold worldwide. Brown mixes facts easily verified by the reader and additional seemingly-authentic details that are not actually factual, with a further layer of outright conjecture that together blurs the relationship between fiction and history. An indication of the degree to which the work captured the public imagination is seen in the cottage industry of works that it inspired, replicating his style and theses or attempting to refute it.[49]

 

In Brown's novel, the protagonist discovers that the grail actually referred to Mary Magdalene, and that knowledge of this, as well as of the bloodline descended from Jesus and Mary, has been kept hidden to the present time by a secret conspiracy.[49] This is very similar to the thesis put forward by Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln in Holy Blood and the Holy Grail though not associating the hidden knowledge with the Cathars,[4] and Brown also incorporated material from Joyce, Thiering and Starbird, as well as the 1965 The Passover Plot, in which Hugh J. Schonfield claimed that Lazarus and Joseph of Arimathea had faked the resurrection after Jesus was killed by mistake when stabbed by a Roman soldier.[50] Still, Brown relied so heavily on Holy Blood that two of its authors, Baigent and Leigh, sued the book's publisher, Random House, over what they considered to be plagiarism. Brown had made no secret that the bloodline material in his work drew largely on Holy Blood, directly citing the work in his book and naming the novel's historical expert after Baigent (in anagram form) and Leigh, but Random House argued that since Baigent and Leigh had presented their ideas as non-fiction, consisting of historical facts, however speculative, then Brown was free to reproduce these concepts just as other works of historical fiction treat underlying historical events. Baigent and Leigh argued that Brown had done more, "appropriat[ing] the architecture" of their work, and thus had "hijacked" and "exploited" it.[51] Though one judge questioned whether the supposedly-factual Holy Blood truly represented fact, or instead bordered on fiction due to its highly conjectural nature,[52] courts ruled in favor of Random House and Brown.[51]

 

Bloodline documentary

Main article: Bloodline (documentary)

The 2008 documentary Bloodline[53] by Bruce Burgess, a filmmaker with an interest in paranormal claims, expands on the Jesus bloodline hypothesis and other elements of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.[54] Accepting as valid the testimony of an amateur archaeologist codenamed "Ben Hammott" relating to his discoveries made in the vicinity of Rennes-le-Château since 1999; Burgess claimed Ben had found the treasure of Bérenger Saunière: a mummified corpse, which they believe is Mary Magdalene, in an underground tomb they claim is connected to both the Knights Templar and the Priory of Sion. In the film, Burgess interviews several people with alleged connections to the Priory of Sion, including a Gino Sandri and Nicolas Haywood. A book by one of the documentary's researchers, Rob Howells, entitled Inside the Priory of Sion: Revelations from the World's Most Secret Society - Guardians of the Bloodline of Jesus presented the version of the Priory of Sion as given in the 2008 documentary,[55] which contained several erroneous assertions, such as the claim that Plantard believed in the Jesus bloodline hypothesis.[56] In 2012, however, Ben Hammott, using his real name of Bill Wilkinson, gave a podcast interview in which he apologised and confessed that everything to do with the tomb and related artifacts was a hoax, revealing that the 'tomb' had been part of a now-destroyed full-sized movie set located in a warehouse in England.[57][58]

 

Jesus in Japan

Claims to a Jesus bloodline are not restricted to Europe. An analogous legend claims that the place of Jesus at the crucifixion was taken by a brother, while Jesus fled through what would become Russia and Siberia to Japan, where he became a rice farmer at Aomori, at the north of the island of Honshu. It is claimed he married there and had a large family before his death at the age of 114, with descendants to the present. A Grave of Jesus (Kristo no Hakka) there attracts tourists. This legend dates from the 1930s, when a document claimed to be written in the Hebrew language and describing the marriage and later life of Jesus was discovered. The document has since disappeared.[59]

  

www.wikiwand.com/en/Jesus_bloodline

  

The sanctuary of Sainte-Baume, also known as the grotte de Sainte-Marie-Madeleine, is a sanctuary erected within a cave in the Sainte-Baume massif, in the commune of Plan-d'Aups-Sainte- Baume, in the Var, which would have served as a hermitage for Saint Mary Magdalene after she evangelized Provence.

 

According to Tradition, Mary Magdalene was expelled from Palestine with several disciples during the first persecutions against Christians after Pentecost. Embarked on a boat without a sail or a rudder, they miraculously landed on the Provençal shores, at a place which was later named Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer and became the first evangelizers of Provence. "Marie Madeleine preached in Marseilles in the company of Lazarus then she established herself in this steep mountain, in the cave which has since been named after her. Like the beloved of the Song of Songs, "dove hidden in the hollow of the rock, in steep retreats", she was able to devote herself to prayer and contemplation in solitude "1.

 

Timeline for

In pre-Christian times, Sainte-Baume was the sacred mountain of the Marseillais: a high place of worship of fertility, and in particular of the Artemis of Ephesus. Around 60, Lucain, a Latin poet, mentions a certain “sacred wood” near Marseille, although nothing allows him to be associated with it.

 

Around 415, Saint John Cassien, founded a first priory on his return from Egypt and from the fifth century, the presence of monks from the Saint-Victor abbey in Marseille is attested.

 

The cave of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine becomes a famous place of Christian pilgrimage. In 816, Pope Stephen IV, then, in 878, Pope John VIII went there. As on July 22, 1254, Saint Louis visited Sainte-Baume 2 on his return from the Crusade.

  

Reliquary of the tibia of Mary Magdalene.

 

Statue of Mary Magdalene.

In 1279, Charles II of Anjou, King of Sicily and Count of Provence, carried out the excavations which led to the discovery at Saint-Maximin of the relics of Mary Magdalene, in a crypt buried under the small Benedictine priory dedicated to the saint. A marble tomb is identified there as that of Mary Magdalene. In addition, a scroll of parchment explains that the relics were buried at the beginning of the 7th century in order to protect them from the Saracen invasions which raged in the Country3. After six years of detention in Barcelona, ​​Charles II can implement in 1288 his project to build a basilica to house the relics. Finally, on June 21, 1295, he obtained from Pope Boniface VIII a papal bull, which entrusted the young order of the Dominicans with the charge of the holy places: the basilica of Saint-Maximin and the cave of Sainte-Baume.

 

In 1332, the same day Philippe VI of Valois, King of France, Alfonso IV of Aragon, Hugh of Cyprus, and John of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia, gathered in the cave.

 

Throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, popes, kings and princes made pilgrimages to the cave, one of the most famous in Christendom.

 

In 1440, we deplore the fire in the cave and the destruction of buildings. In 1456 Louis XI, King of France richly endowed the cave and designed the plan of the dome he offered for the altar. And, on January 21, 1516, François Ier accompanied by his mother Louise of Savoy and his wife Claude of France comes to give thanks for his return from Marignan. He provided funds for the restoration of the cave, had the "Francis I portal" built (visible at the hostel), and built three royal chambers in the cave. Jean Ferrier, Archbishop of Arles, had the oratories of the Chemin des Rois erected.

 

Charles IX went there during his royal tour of France in 1564 in order to satisfy the Catholics4. But, in 1586 and 1592, we deplore looting of the cave (the second time despite the drawbridge erected following the looting that took place when the relics of Saint-Maximin had been transferred to the cave during the disturbances caused by the League).

 

Esprit Blanc had the so-called “Parisians” (or “of the dead”) chapel built in 1630 and, in 1649, Monsignor de Marinis offered the statue of the Blessed Virgin, the work of the Genoese sculptor Orsolino (still visible in the cave).

 

On February 5, 1660, Louis XIV, with Anne of Austria and Mazarin, went to the sanctuary.

 

The Revolution and the Empire endanger the site. In 1791, the Marquis of Albertas redeemed the property of the Dominicans which had been sold as national property. But, in 1793, Sainte-Baume was renamed "les Thermopyles", the interior of the cave and the large adjoining guesthouse (traces of which can still be seen in the cliff) were destroyed. Fortunately, Lucien Bonaparte, husband of Christine Boyer, daughter of the innkeeper of Saint-Maximin, saves the basilica and the forest of Sainte-Baume from revolutionaries. In 1814, Marshal Brune destroyed the cave and what had just been rebuilt there.

 

It was not until 1822 that Chevalier, prefect of the Var, restored the Catholic worship. In 1824, a community of Trappists was established on the plateau, opposite the current hotel, and in 1833 gave way to Capuchins who only stayed for two years.

 

The statue of Marie Madeleine on her rock comes from the tomb of Count Joseph-Alphonse-Omer de Valbelle who was in the Charterhouse of Montrieux [ref. desired].

 

In 1848, Father Henri-Dominique Lacordaire, famous preacher and restorer of the Dominican order in France since 1840, came to the cave and, in 1859, he bought the convent of Saint-Maximin to reinstall the preaching brothers there; with the help of the work for the restoration of the holy places of Provence that he had founded, he reinstalls on July 22, the brothers in the cave; he built the hotel in the plain of Sainte-Baume.

 

In 1865, the Dominican brother Jean-Joseph Lataste founded the congregation of Dominicans known as “of Bethany” which accommodates women released from prison (converted Madeleines); he set up a community near the church of Plan d'Aups in 1884. In 1889, some relics of Mary Magdalene were placed in the reliquary made by Lyon goldsmith Armand Caillat and placed in the cave.

 

Following the laws separating the Church and the State, the cave became the property of the commune of Plan d'Aups in 1910.

 

In 1914, with the centenary celebrations of the reopening of worship at Sainte-Baume, Father Vayssière restored the stairs leading to the cave (150 steps in memory of 150 Ave du Rosaire) and inaugurated the Calvary. Then in 1928, the Nazareth retirement home was inaugurated in front of the hostel (now occupied by the ecomuseum). In 1932, Marthe Spitzer5, a Jewish convert close to the Benedictines of the rue Monsieur and the entourage of Jacques Maritain, produced the Pietà which is on the forecourt of the cave (donated by the Basilica of La Madeleine in Paris).

 

In 1948, the architect Le Corbusier planned the construction of an underground basilica at Sainte-Baume (a utopian project never realized) then, in 1966 - Oscar Niemeyer carried out a project for a modern convent at the Hôtellerie instead of the west wing. In 1970, Thomas Gleb created the Saint-Dominique oratory at the hotel, between 1976 and 1981, the companion Pierre Petit ("Tourangeau, the disciple of the Light") made the stained glass windows in the cave.

 

In 1995 was celebrated the seventh centenary of the foundation of the basilica of Saint-Maximin and the installation of the Dominican friars in Saint-Maximin and in the cave of Sainte-Baume.

 

A community of four Dominican friars was re-established in the summer of 2002 (the date of the reopening of the cave after the work of purging the cliff), which welcomes pilgrims to the cave of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine. Since the summer of 2008, the number of Dominican friars has been increased to eight, and they ensure, in addition to the reception at the cave, the management of the Sainte-Baume hotel.

 

fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctuaire_de_la_Sainte-Baume

View On Black

   

...

A cosy little Bar in Bruck an der Mur, Styria, where we stayed two Days (in the City, not in the Bar... lol). In the Evening we had an amusing Time with the Innkeeper Christine and her Guests Uschi, Edgar and Match. She sure was one of the most friendly Persons, we met on our Journey. We had quite a lot of "Mixtures" there (red or white Wine mixed with Soda - very popular here). If you ever stay in Austria, go inside such a Bar (Austrian: Beisl). You can't see and feel more original Austrian Life.

 

-

Das kleine Beisl ♫ - a very popular Austrian Song about this kind of Bars.

Ydriss woke-up in the usual tavern, with the beautiful Cecilia (the daugter of the innkeeper) beside him... he has just put on his clothes and he's going to start a new task soon...

I hope he won't be distracted by some other beauty on his way to his new destination... >__>

"He, another Moses, teacheth,

And Elias-like he preacheth,

Sin denouncing with his might".

 

In debate with an innkeeper who adhered to the Albigensian heresy, St Dominic realised the grave need for well-educated preachers of the Gospel, and it was his deep compassion and love for men that motivated him. For to leave one in error and heresy is hardly merciful or loving.

 

This stained glass window depicting this seminal incident in St Dominic's life is in the St Cecilia Chapel in Nashville.

German postcard by Photochemie, no. K. 1601a. Photo: A. [Alex] Binder, Berlin. 1910s.

 

Paul Westermeier (* 9. Juli 1892 in Berlin; † 17. Oktober 1972 in Berlin) was a German stage and screen actor.

 

The son of the civil servant Engelbert Westermeier and his wife Luise, née Nagora, Paul Westermeier tried his hand at being a circus clown in his youth and played at the student theatre association. He left school before graduating from high school and took acting lessons from Moritz Zeisler at the Royal Theater and at the Maria Seebach Drama School. At the age of 17, he made his debut at the Royal Theater, and in 1909 he got his first engagement as a youthful hero and lover in Stralsund. In the next two playing years he worked in Plauen and Magdeburg. In 1911 he moved to Hamburg and the following year to Bremen, where he appeared as Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. From 1913 he played at the Berlin theatres, especially at the Metropol Theater, at the theatre in the Admiralspalast and the Berlin Thalia Theater. He became a well-known star in operettas and revues during the Roaring Twenties. He acted in operettas like Mask in Blue, The Merry Widow, Wedding Night in Paradise, as Lothar in A Waltz Dream and Giesecke in Im Weisse Rößl. Several times he was a partner of Lotte Werkmeister.

 

Paul Westermeier gradually turned into a comedian and worked in this way as an important supporting actor in several films in the late 1910s and 1920s. But soon he was little more than a typical small actor who could be seen in a total of over 200 films, including the Henny Porten romantic comedies Agnes Arnau und ihre drei Freier (1917), Sie und die Drei (1922), and Die grosse Pause (1927). He usually embodied the somewhat grouchy man next door, often with a Berlin flair. In the early 1930s, he started to act in sound film too, as the innkeeper Hentschke in Berlin Alexanderplatz (Piel Jutzi, 1931), starring Henrich George as Franz Biberkopf, as Clock opposite Hans Albers als the title character in Quick (Robert Siodmak, 1932), and as the radio operator Jaul in the submarine drama Morgenrot (Gustav Ucicky, 1933). He also had an important part in the (lost) comedy April, April! (Detlef Sierck, 1934). In the later 1930s he acted e.g. in he crime drama Sein bester Freund (Harry Piel, 1937), and Der grüne Kaiser (Paul Mundorf, 1939). In 1944 he had with Henny Porten the lead in Die Familie Buchholz by Carl Froehlich.

 

After the Second World War Westermeier was able to continue his career without any problems. He was even more committed to the long-term role of the grumpy Berliner, for example as captain and opponent of the triple appearing Heinz Erhardt in Drillinge an Bord (1959). Sometimes you could experience the actor atypically calm, however, as always as a driver in Sauerbruch – Das war mein Leben (1954) and in Des Teufels General (1955). Westermeier continued to play on Berlin stages and also worked as a radio play speaker. He was married to the former actress Lotte Dobschinsky since 1935. In 1967 he received the Filmband in Gold award for many years of outstanding work in German film. His grave is in Berlin in the Schöneberg III cemetery in Section 10-189.

 

Source: German Wikipedia, IMDB.

Wall monument with the busts of George Newton 1746 between his mother & stepmother

 

"Near this place lies interred George the only son of Gabriel Newton gent by Mary his wife daughter of George Bent, gent. He departed this life the 8th of March 1746 in the 18th year of his age to whose memory his affectionate and disconsolate father erected this monument and with a pious intention clothed 35 poor boys and put them out to trades at his own expense settling £3,250 By his last will for a perpetual support of the charity and for carefully instructing them in toning And psalmody which you may see more pathetically described '2 Chron 5, 13' +++ and for educating them rightly in the principles of our most holy and divine religion, for as Denham says: 'All human wisdom to divine is folly, This truth the wisest man made melancholy That man is the greatest monster without doubt Who is a wolf within and sheep without"

 

At the top are the arms of Newton (Argent, on a chevron azure 3 garbs or),

Beneath are the figures of charity children, with the text

"I was hungry and He gave me meat; Thirsty and He gave me drink; A stranger and He took me in; Naked and He clothed me".

 

He was the son of Gabriel Newton, Mayor of Leicester & 2nd wife Mary daughter of George Bent, a prominent corporator; Mary was the widow of William Wightman 1696 - 1724 son of Mary & John Wightman 1709 of Peckleton

 

His father Gabriel was the son of Joseph Newton, a jersey comber, who died in 1688 at Lincoln, to which city he appears to have gone in 1684 to take charge of the jersey school organised by the Corporation there, "for the employment of the poor in knitting and spinning".

Gabriel in his youth apprenticed as a wool-comber later abandoned this trade becoming an innkeeper running the respectable "Horse & Trumpet" near the High Cross, a Tory meeting place. In 1702 he was admitted to the freedom of the borough of Ieicester, as the eldest freeborn son of his father, paying for fine on admission a "bottle of wine". In consequence of admission to the freedom, he gained the parliamentary franchise of the town, the right to ply his trade within the limits of the borough jurisdiction, and a potential footing in the civic hierarchy. From this point, he endeavoured to advance the growth of his public importance and the accumulation of his fortune. In 1711 he was col-lector for the poor, and later churchwarden of St. Mary de Castro

He was an alderman of the town from 1726 to 1762 & mayor & JP in 1732 ; He was churchwarden here 1730 - 32

Gabriel married 3 times, each one strengthening his position in the borough oligarchy , each of his wives a woman of considerable wealth. however George was his only son.

Gabriel m1 1715 Elizabeth daughter of Alderman Wells having 7 children who all died in their infancy; m3 1738 Eleanor daughter of John Bakewell of Normanton on the Heath .

 

Gabriel having no son to whom he could leave his plentiful fortune, decided to devote the greater part of it to the "religious education of children ". To this object he devoted the larger part of his wealth which was estimated at £14,000 founding in his lifetime Greencoat school for boys between 7 & 14 . (His bounty also extended to several places besides Leicester) About 35 boys were educated in St Martins church Leicester from 8 to 11 in the morning and 3 to 5 in the afternoon. Once every year, or 15 to 18 months, each was to have a green cloth waistcoat and breeches of material not under 20 pence per yard, a shirt of flaxen cloth not under 13 pence per yard, with stockings, caps and other apparel. They were given a halfpenny coarse roll each for breakfast, taught reading writing and accounts, and apprenticed with £5.

This venture suffered from Gabriel's irritability which was notorious , consequently bringing opposition to his schemes.

The conditions he set were :-

A. the schoolboys were to be selected exclusively from Anglican families, and they were to "attend daily and join in the liturgical worship of the church for if they were obliged for a series of years to attend the daily office, they might it not reasonably be hoped they were in the most likely way to receive such impressions of religion as might sometime work together for their future happiness as well as be a means to improve their condition in this present life"

B. No town was to enjoy the benefit of the bequest unless the Creed was duly received and recited as enjoined in the Book of Common Prayer

C: No place was to receive money unless the boys were taught to sing the psalms so as to "adorn with music the spiritiual simplicity of the Christian scheme"

After his death, many years passed and a considerable amount went in lawyers fees & collecting bad debts from various people who absconded and excused themselves, Finally 20 years after Gabriel's death the Corporation was awarded £2409. 13s & 5 d, £2300 to be invested immediately

 

Gabriel died 26th October 1662 and was buried in All Saints churchyard, Leicester. His altar tomb in the churchyard, near the south east angle of the church, has 2 inscriptions:

"In memory of Gabriel Newton gentleman, one of the aldermen, and once mayor of the borough of Leicester, who died the 26th of October 1672 aged 78 years. By his first wife Elizabeth daughter of Mr Alderman Wells, he had seven children, which all died in their minority; by his second wife Mary daughter of George Bent, gentleman, he had George Newton who died the 8th of March 1746 in the 18th year of his age; by his last wife Eleanor daughter of John Bakewell, gent, of Normington on the Heath he had no issue"

"Mr Alderman Newon, in his life time by deeds of trust, charged several of his estates with the payment of 26L annually for ever to the following towns, for cloathing and educating poor children therein viz; to Hertford, Bedford, Buckingham, St Neots, Northampton and Ashby de la Zouch; and also 20L 16s yearly for ever to Earl Shilton (for 20 boys); and by his last will directed 3250L to be raised upon his personal estate, for supporting a charity of the same kind in Leicester"

 

Sadly it was noted "the chicanery of law respecting the omission of a word, or a misconstrued sentence, has cruelly deprived the children of the necessitous in Leicester of that support which his bounty had provided for them. It is computed that he left lands and money to the amount of 16000L for charitable uses. Bad debts owed to him became hard to collect , the debtors absconding or denying their indebtedness. His executors instead of enforcing the will by an over caution searched for his nearest relation, and met with a Richard Walker, a pauper, a member of Trinity Hospital here. Him they produced to chancery and acknowledge though on disputable grounds as first of kin. He instead of accepting of a pecuniary present and assisting them to pass a fine, got advice and support to embarrass them several years.

Finally 20 years after Gabriel's death the Corporation was awarded £2409. 13s & 5 d, £2300 to be invested immediately

 

He is one of 4 figures on the Haymarket Clock Tower www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/1L01E5

 

Greencoats School later became known as Alderman Newtons School and survived until 1999 when it was merged by the local authority with two other local schools to form a single educational institution. Gabriel is one of the 4 men portrayed on Leicesters Haymarket Memorial Clock Tower.

 

+++ "It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of musick, and praised the Lord, saying For He is good; for His mercy endureth for ever that then the house was filled with a cloud even the house of the Lord:"

 

Cathedral Church of St Martin, Leicester.

 

Picture with thanks - copyright Jules & Jenny from Lincoln CCL commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leicester_Cathedral,_Monu...(46228360191).jpg

www.le.ac.uk/lahs/downloads/NewtonPagesfromVolume19.pdf file:///C:/Users/Peter/Downloads/p15407coll6_5999.pdf

Italian postcard by DITTA Iris, Terni, no. 34. Photo: Bragaglia. Luisa Ferida in Fedora (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1942).

 

Luisa Ferida (1914-1945) was an Italian stage and screen film, who was a popular leading actress in the late 1930s and 1940s Italian sound film. She was married to actor Osvaldo Valenti. Because of his close links with the fascist regime, the couple was shot by partisans in April 1945.

 

Luisa Ferida was born Luigia Manfrini Frané in Castel San Pietro Terme, near Bologna, in 1914. Her father Luigi, a rich lander owner, died when she was a child. She was then sent to a convent school. Ferida started her career as a stage actress. In 1935 she made her first film appearance with a supporting role in the crime film La Freccia d'oro/Golden Arrow (Piero Ballerini, Corrado D'Errico, 1935). Because of her photogenic looks and talent as an actress, she soon graduated to leading roles in such films as the historical comedy Il re Burlone/The Joker King (Enrico Guazzoni, 1935) with Armando Falconi. The following year, she appeared in the comedy Lo smemorato/The Amnesiac (Gennaro Righelli, 1936) starring Angelo Musco, the screwball comedy Amazzoni bianche/White Amazons (Gennaro Righelli, 1936) starring Paola Barbara, and the historical comedy L'ambasciatore/The Ambassador (Baldassarre Negroni, 1936) starring Leda Gloria. She starred opposite Antonio Centa in the romantic comedy I tre desideri/The Three Wishes (Giorgio Ferroni, Kurt Gerron, 1937) of which also a Dutch-language version was made - without Ferida. Next, she appeared opposite Amedeo Nazzari in the drama La fossa degli angeli/Tomb of the Angels (Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, 1937). Roberto Rossellini co-wrote the screenplay and served as assistant director. It was shot on location in the Apuan Alps in Liguria and is set amidst the marble quarries of the area. It marked an early attempt at realism in Italian cinema, anticipating neorealism of the postwar era, and it celebrated Italy's industrial strength in line with the propaganda of the Mussolini regime. She co-starred with Totò in the comedy Animali pazzi/Mad Animals (Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, 1939). In 1939, while working on the Swashbuckler Un Avventura di Salvator Rosa/An Adventure of Salvator Rosa (Alessandro Blasetti, 1940), Luisa Ferida met the actor Osvaldo Valenti. The pair became romantically involved and had a son, Kim, who died 4 days after his birth. Valenti had been linked with many Fascist officials and personalities for years and he eventually joined the Italian Social Republic, and for these reasons, he was on the partisans' hit list.

 

In the first half of the 1940s, Luisa Ferida's career was at its zenith, and she played memorable roles in such films as La fanciulla di Portici/The girl from Portici (Mario Bonnard, 1940), La corona di ferro/The Iron Crown (Alessandro Blasetti, 1941), and the drama Gelosia/Jealousy (Ferdinando Maria Poggioli, 1942). She had a supporting role in the drama Nozze di sangue/Blood Wedding (Goffredo Alessandrini, 1941) starring Beatrice Mancini, and Fosco Giachetti. The film about an arranged marriage in 19th century South America, is based on the Spanish play by Federico Garcia Lorca. She played the lead in the historical drama Fedora (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1942) opposite Amedeo Nazzari and Osvaldo Valenti. Opposite Fosco Giacchetti, she starred in the drama Fari nella nebbia/Headlights in the Fog (Gianni Franciolini, 1942). The film about a group of truck drivers is considered to be part of the development of Neorealism, which emerged around this time. She starred with Osvaldo Valenti in the adventure film I cavalieri del deserto/Knights of the Desert (Gino Talamo, Osvaldo Valenti, 1942) with a screenplay by Federico Fellini and Vittorio Mussolini, the son of Italy's dictator Benito Mussolini. It was produced by the Rome-based ACI which was run by Vittorio Mussolini and shot on location in Libya before the North African Campaign turned decisively against Italy and its Allies. Fellini may have directed some of the Libyan scenes after Gino Talamo was injured in a car accident. The film was ultimately never released due to the defeats suffered in Libya, which meant its plot was now a potential embarrassment to the regime. She appeared again with Valenti in the extremely popular historical film La cena delle beffe/The Jester's Supper (Alessandro Blasetti, 1942), also starring Amedeo Nazzari, and Clara Calamai. The film is set in the 15th century Florence of Lorenzo the Magnificent and portrays a rivalry that leads to a series of increasingly violent jokes. She again co-starred with Valenti and Nazzari in the drama Sleeping Beauty (Luigi Chiarini, 1942), which belongs to the films of the Calligrafismo style. Calligrafismo is in sharp contrast to the Telefoni Bianchi-American style comedies and is rather artistic, highly formalistic, expressive in complexity, and deals mainly with contemporary literary material. In 1942 she won the Best Italian Actress award. In the historical comedy La locandiera/The Innkeeper (Luigi Chiarini, 1944), she co-starred again with Armando Falconi and Osvaldo Valenti. During the last stages of completion, Mussolini was overthrown. The final editing was done in Venice, the film capital of the Italian Social Republic, but without the presence of Chiarini. At the end of 1943, the fascist government of the Republic of Salo decided to create an Italian cinematographic center in the north of the country.

Ferida and Valenti agreed to go there. They made Un fatto di cronaca/A Chronicle (Piero Ballerini, 1945), which was released in February 1945. Two months later, Valenti was finally arrested in Milan, alongside a pregnant Ferida. They were both sentenced to be executed and shot immediately in the street, without a proper trial. Opinions are divided as to whether the couple deserved this fatal fate. The pregnant Ferida had a blue shoe of her deceased son Kim in her hand when she was killed. The twelve suitcases of the couple, full of clothes, furs, money, and jewels were stolen that day. Her Milanese house was burglarised a few days later. The partisan chief who organised the execution, Giuseppe 'Vero' Marozin, declared years later that one of the partisan leaders that ordered the two actors to be executed was Sandro Pertini, who decades later became president of the Italian republic. No other source, however, supports Marozin's version of the incident. Her mother Lucia asked for support from the Italian government since her daughter was her only support. After the actress was cleared of charges during the 1950s, Lucia received a small monthly pension. She died in poverty. Both lovers' graves are side to side in Cimitero Maggiore di Musocco in Milan. The film Sanguepazzo/Wild Blood (Marco Tullio Giordana, 2008) starring Monica Bellucci and Luca Zingaretti, discusses Luisa Ferida's relationship with Osvaldo Valenti.

 

Sources: Marlene Pilaete (La collectionneuse - French), Hugo Bartoli (IMDb), Find-A-Grave, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Wilfrid James Mannion (16 May 1918 – 14 April 2000) was an English professional footballer who played as an inside forward, making over 350 senior appearances for Middlesbrough. He also played international football for England. With his blonde hair, he was nicknamed "The Golden Boy".

 

Mannion was born on 16 May 1918 in South Bank, the son of Irish immigrants Tommy and Mary Mannion, and one of ten children.

 

Mannion joined his local team Middlesbrough F.C. in 1936 and went on to make 341 Football League appearances for them, scoring 99 goals in the First and Second Divisions, over the next 18 years. However, his career was disrupted by World War II. He scored 110 goals in all competitions for Middlesbrough.

 

Mannion fought in France and Italy during World War II, and in Italy his commanding officer was the England cricketer Hedley Verity.

 

At the end of the 1947–48 season he wanted a transfer, but Middlesbrough refused. In protest he did not play for them for much of the following season but he eventually backed down and started playing for Middlesbrough again.

 

After initially retiring as a player in 1954, Mannion subsequently joined Hull City. However, the Football League suspended him for articles he had written, He then played non-league football with Poole Town and Cambridge United.

 

Mannion was capped on 26 occasions by the England national team between 1946 and 1951, and his final appearance came on 3 October 1951. He was a member of the England squad for the 1950 FIFA World Cup. Along with Middlesbrough and England teammate George Hardwick, he was also part of the Great Britain football team that beat the Rest of Europe 6–1 in 1947.

 

He remains the only Middlesbrough player to score for England at the World Cup.

 

Mannion was eventually awarded a testimonial match by Middlesbrough in 1983, alongside former Boro and England colleague George Hardwick.

 

Mannion died on 14 April 2000 at the age of 81. After his death, Middlesbrough FC erected a statue of Mannion outside the Riverside Stadium.

 

In 2004, he was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame at the National Football Museum.

 

Middlesbrough is a town in the Middlesbrough unitary authority borough of North Yorkshire, England. The town lies near the mouth of the River Tees and north of the North York Moors National Park. The built-up area had a population of 148,215 at the 2021 UK census. It is the largest town of the wider Teesside area, which had a population of 376,633 in 2011.

 

Until the early 1800s, the area was rural farmland in the historic county of Yorkshire. The town was a planned development which started in 1830, based around a new port with coal and later ironworks added. Steel production and ship building began in the late 1800s, remaining associated with the town until the post-industrial decline of the late twentieth century. Trade (notably through ports) and digital enterprise sectors contemporarily contribute to the local economy, Teesside University and Middlesbrough College to local education.

 

Middlesbrough was made a municipal borough in 1853. When elected county councils were created in 1889, Middlesbrough was considered large enough to provide its own county-level services and so it became a county borough, independent from North Riding County Council. The borough of Middlesbrough was abolished in 1968 when the area was absorbed into the larger County Borough of Teesside. Six years later in 1974 Middlesbrough was re-established as a borough within the new county of Cleveland. Cleveland was abolished in 1996, since when Middlesbrough has been a unitary authority within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire.

 

Middlesbrough started as a Benedictine priory on the south bank of the River Tees, its name possibly derived from it being midway between the holy sites of Durham and Whitby. The earliest recorded form of Middlesbrough's name is "Mydilsburgh", containing the term burgh.

 

In 686, a monastic cell was consecrated by St. Cuthbert at the request of St. Hilda, Abbess of Whitby. The manor of Middlesburgh belonged to Whitby Abbey and Guisborough Priory.[1] Robert Bruce, Lord of Cleveland and Annandale, granted and confirmed, in 1119, the church of St. Hilda of Middleburg to Whitby. Up until its closure on the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII in 1537, the church was maintained by 12 Benedictine monks, many of whom became vicars, or rectors, of various places in Cleveland.

 

After the Angles, the area became home to Viking settlers. Names of Viking origin (with the suffix by meaning village) are abundant in the area; for example, Ormesby, Stainsby and Tollesby were once separate villages that belonged to Vikings called Orm, Steinn and Toll that are now areas of Middlesbrough were recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. Other names around Middlesbrough include the village of Maltby (of Malti) along with the towns of Ingleby Barwick (Anglo-place and barley-wick) and Thornaby (of Thormod).

 

Links persist in the area, often through school or road names, to now-outgrown or abandoned local settlements, such as the medieval settlement of Stainsby, deserted by 1757, which amounts to little more today than a series of grassy mounds near the A19 road.

 

In 1801, Middlesbrough was a small farm with a population of just 25; however, during the latter half of the 19th century, it experienced rapid growth. In 1828 the influential Quaker banker, coal mine owner and Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) shareholder Joseph Pease sailed up the River Tees to find a suitable new site downriver of Stockton on which to place new coal staithes. As a result, in 1829 he and a group of Quaker businessmen bought the Middlesbrough farmstead and associated estate, some 527 acres (213 ha) of land, and established the Middlesbrough Estate Company.

 

Through the company, the investors set about a new coal port development (designed by John Harris) on the southern banks of the Tees. The first coal shipping staithes at the port (known as "Port Darlington") were constructed with a settlement to the east established on the site of Middlesbrough farm as labour for the port, taking on the farm's name as it developed into a village. The small farmstead became a village of streets such as North Street, South Street, West Street, East Street, Commercial Street, Stockton Street and Cleveland Street, laid out in a grid-iron pattern around a market square, with the first house being built on West Street in April 1830. New businesses bought premises and plots of land in the new town including: shippers, merchants, butchers, innkeepers, joiners, blacksmiths, tailors, builders and painters.

 

The first coal shipping staithes at the port (known as "Port Darlington") were constructed just to the west of the site earmarked for the location of Middlesbrough. The port was linked to the S&DR on 27 December 1830 via a branch that extended to an area just north of the current Middlesbrough railway station, helping secure the town's future.

 

The success of the port meant it soon became overwhelmed by the volume of imports and exports, and in 1839 work started on Middlesbrough Dock. Laid out by Sir William Cubitt, the whole infrastructure was built by resident civil engineer George Turnbull. After three years and an expenditure of £122,000 (equivalent to £9.65 million at 2011 prices), first water was let in on 19 March 1842, and the formal opening took place on 12 May 1842. On completion, the docks were bought by the S&DR.

 

Iron and steel have dominated the Tees area since 1841 when Henry Bolckow in partnership with John Vaughan, founded the Vulcan iron foundry and rolling mill. Vaughan, who had worked his way up through the Iron industry in South Wales, used his technical expertise to find a more abundant supply of Ironstone in the Eston Hills in 1850, and introduced the new "Bell Hopper" system of closed blast furnaces developed at the Ebbw Vale works. These factors made the works an unprecedented success with Teesside becoming known as the "Iron-smelting centre of the world" and Bolckow, Vaughan & Co., Ltd became the largest company in existence.

 

By 1851 Middlesbrough's population had grown from 40 people in 1829 to 7,600. Pig iron production rose tenfold between 1851 and 1856 and by the mid-1870s Middlesbrough was producing one third of the entire nations Pig Iron output. It was during this time Middlesbrough earned the nickname "Ironopolis".

 

On 21 January 1853, Middlesbrough received its Royal Charter of Incorporation, giving the town the right to have a mayor, aldermen and councillors. Henry Bolckow became mayor, in 1853.

 

A Welsh community was established in Middlesbrough sometime before the 1840s, with mining being the main form of employment. These migrants included figures who would become important leaders in the commercial, political and cultural life of the town:

 

John Vaughan established Teesside's first ironworks in 1841, The Vulcan Works at Middlesbrough. Vaughan had worked his way up through the industry at the Dowlais Ironworks in south Wales and encouraged hundreds of the skilled Welsh workers to follow him to Teesside.

Edward Williams (iron-master), although he was the grandson of the famous Welsh Bard Iolo Morganwg, Edward had started as a mere clerk at Dowlais. His move to the Tees saw him rise to ironmaster, alderman, magistrate and Mayor of Middlesbrough. Edward was also the father of Aneurin and Penry, who both became Liberal MPs for the area.

E.T. John arrived from Pontypridd as a junior clerk in Williams' office. John became the director of several industrial enterprises and a radical politician.

Windsor Richards, an Engineer and manager, oversaw the town's transition from iron to steel production.

Much like the contemporary Welsh migration to America, the Welsh of Middlesbrough came almost exclusively from the iron-smelting and coal districts of South Wales. By 1861 42% of the town's ironworkers identified as Welsh and one in twenty of the total population. Place names such as "Welch Cottages" and "Welch Place" appeared around the Vulcan works, and Middlesbrough became a centre for the Welsh communities at Witton Park, Spennymoor, Consett and Stockton on Tees (especially Portrack). David Williams also recorded that a number of the Welsh workers at the Hughesovka Ironworks in 1869 had migrated from Middlesbrough.

 

A Welsh Baptist chapel was active in the town as early as 1858, and St Hilda's Anglican church began providing services in the Welsh language. Churches and chapels were the centres of Welsh culture, supporting choirs, Sunday Schools, social societies, adult education, lectures and literary meetings. By the 1870s, many more Welsh chapels were built (one reputed to seat 500 people), and the first Eisteddfodau were held.

 

By the 1880s, a "Welsh cultural revival" was underway, with the Eisteddfodau attracting competitors and spectators from outside the Welsh communities. In 1890 the Middlesbrough Town Hall hosted the first Cleveland and Durham Eisteddfod, an event notable for its non-denominational inclusivity, with Irish Catholic choirs and the bishop of the newly created Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough as honoured guests.

 

In the early twentieth century this Eisteddfod had become the biggest annual event in the town and the largest annual Eisteddfod outside Wales. The Eisteddfod had a clear impact on the culture of the town, especially through its literary and music events, by 1911 the Eisteddfod had twenty-two classes of musical competition only two of which were for Welsh language content. By 1914, thirty choirs from across the area were competing in 284 entries. A choral tradition remained part of the town's culture long after the eisteddfod and chapels had gone. In 2012 an exhibition at the Dorman Museum marked the Apollo Male Voice Choir's 125 years as an active choir in the town.

 

Industrial Wales was noted for its "radical Liberal-Labour" politics, and the rhetoric of these politicians clearly won favour with the urban population of the North East. Penry Williams and Jonathan Samuel won the seats of Middlesbrough and Stockton-on-Tees for the Liberal Party and Penry's brother, Aneurin would also win the newly created Consett seat in 1918.

 

Sir Horace Davey stressed his Welsh lineage and stated that "it was scarcely an exaggeration to say that Welshmen had founded Middlesbrough", courting the Welsh vote that saw him elected MP for Stockton. However, others complained that local Conservative candidates were losing to "Fenians and Welshers" (Irish and Welsh people).

 

These sentiments had grown by 1900 when Samuel lost his seat after a Unionist complained publicly that the town had been "forced to submit to the indignity of being trailed ignominiously through the mire by Welsh constituents". Samuel lost the seat but regained it in 1910 with a campaign that made few, if any, references to his Welsh background.

 

From 1861 to 1871, the census of England & Wales showed that Middlesbrough consistently had the second highest percentage of Irish born people in England after Liverpool. The Irish population in 1861 accounted for 15.6% of the total population of Middlesbrough. In 1871 the amount had dropped to 9.2% yet this still placed Middlesbrough's Irish population second in England behind Liverpool. Due to the rapid development of the town and its industrialisation there was much need for people to work in the many blast furnaces and steel works along the banks of the Tees. This attracted many people from Ireland, who were in much need of work. As well as people from Ireland, the Scottish, Welsh and overseas inhabitants made up 16% of Middlesbrough's population in 1871. A second influx of Irish migration was observed in the early 1900s as Middlesbrough's steel industry boomed producing 1/3 of Britain's total steel output. This second influx lasted through to the 1950s after which Irish migration to Middlesbrough saw a drastic decline. Middlesbrough no longer has a strong Irish presence, with Irish born residents making up around 2% of the current population, however there is still a strong cultural and historical connection with Ireland mainly through the heritage and ancestry of many families within Middlesbrough.

 

The town's rapid expansion continued throughout the second half of the 19th century, fuelled by the iron and steel industry. In 1864 the North Riding Infirmary (an ear, nose and mouth hospital) opened in Newport Road; this was demolished in 2006.

 

On 15 August 1867, a Reform Bill was passed, making Middlesbrough a new parliamentary borough, Bolckow was elected member for Middlesbrough the following year. In 1875, Bolckow, Vaughan & Co opened the Cleveland Steelworks in Middlesbrough beginning the transition from Iron production to Steel and by the turn of the century. Henry Bolckow died in 1878 and left an endowment of £5,000 for the infirmary.

 

In the latter third of the 19th century, Old Middlesbrough was starting to decline and was overshadowed by developments built around the new town hall, south of the original town hall, the town's population reaching 90,000 by the dawn of the 20th century.[9] In 1900, Bolckow, Vaughan & Co had become the largest producer of steel in Great Britain and possibly came to be one of the major steel centres in the world.

 

In 1914, Dorman Long, another major steel producer from Middlesbrough, became the largest company in Britain. It employed a workforce of over 20,000 and by 1929 and gained enough to take over from Bolckow, Vaughan & Co's dominance and to acquire their assets. The steel components of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (1932) were engineered and fabricated by Dorman Long of Middlesbrough. The company was also responsible for the New Tyne Bridge in Newcastle.

 

Several large shipyards also lined the Tees, including the Sir Raylton Dixon & Company, Smith's Dock Company of South Bank and Furness Shipbuilding Company of Haverton Hill.

 

Middlesbrough was the first major British town and industrial target to be bombed during the Second World War. The Luftwaffe first attacked the town on 25 May 1940 when a lone bomber dropped 13 bombs between South Bank Road and the South Steel Plant. One of the bombs fell on the South Bank football ground making a large crater in the pitch. The bomber was forced to leave after RAF night fighters were scrambled to intercept. Two months after the first bombing Prime Minister Winston Churchill visited the town to meet the public and inspect coastal defences.

 

German bombers often flew over the Eston Hills while heading for targets further inland, such as Manchester. On 30 March 1941 a Junkers Ju 88 was shot down by two Spitfires of No. 41 Squadron, piloted by Tony Lovell and Archie Winskill, over Middlesbrough. The aircraft dived into the ground at Barnaby Moor, Eston; the engines and most of the airframe were entirely buried upon impact.

 

On 5 December 1941 a Spitfire of No. 122 Squadron, piloted by Sgt Hutton, crashed into rising ground near Mill Farm, Upsall, on the lower slopes of Eston Hills. Poor visibility due to bad weather and low cloud is believed to have been the cause of the crash.

 

On 15 January 1942, minutes after being hit by gunfire from a merchant ship anchored off Hartlepool, a Dornier Do 217 collided with the cable of a barrage balloon over the River Tees. The blazing bomber plummeted onto the railway sidings in South Bank leaving a crater twelve feet deep. In 1997 the remains of the Dornier were unearthed by a group of workers clearing land for redevelopment; the remains were put on display for a short while at Kirkleatham museum.

 

On 4 August 1942 a lone Dornier Do 217 picked its way through the barrage balloons and dropped a stick of bombs onto the railway station. One bomb caused serious damage to the Victorian glass and steel roof. A train in the station was also badly damaged although there were no passengers aboard. The station was put out action for two weeks.

 

The Green Howards was a British Army infantry regiment very strongly associated with Middlesbrough and the area south of the River Tees. Originally formed at Dunster Castle, Somerset in 1688 to serve King William of Orange, later King William III, this regiment became affiliated to the North Riding of Yorkshire in 1782. As Middlesbrough grew, its population of men came to be a group most targeted by the recruiters. The Green Howards were part of the King's Division. On 6 June 2006, this famous regiment was merged into the new Yorkshire Regiment and are now known as 2 Yorks, The 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment (Green Howards). There is also a Territorial Army (TA) company at Stockton Road in Middlesbrough, part of 4 Yorks which is wholly reserve.

 

Post Second World War to contemporary era

By the end of the war over 200 buildings had been destroyed within the Middlesbrough area. The borough lost 99 civilians as a result of enemy action.

 

Areas of early and mid-Victorian housing were demolished and much of central Middlesbrough was redeveloped. Heavy industry was relocated to areas of land better suited to the needs of modern technology. Middlesbrough itself began to take on a completely different look.

 

Middlesbrough's 1903 Gaumont cinema, originally an opera house until the 1930s, was demolished in 1971. The Cleveland Centre opened in the same year. In 1974, Middlesbrough and other areas around the Tees, became part of the county of Cleveland. This was to create a county within a single NUTS region of England, with the UK joining the European Union predecessor (European Communities) a year earlier.

 

Middlesbrough's Royal Exchange building was demolished, to make way for the road. A multi-storey the Star and Garter Hotel built in the 1890s near to the exchange on the site of a former Welsh Congregational Church, was also demolished. The Victorian era North Riding Infirmary was demolished in 2006 and replaced by a hotel and supermarket.

 

The Cleveland Centre opened in 1971, Hill Street shopping centre opened in 1981 and Captain Cook Square opened in 1999.

 

Middlesbrough F.C.'s modern Riverside Stadium opened on 26 August 1995 next to Middlesbrough Dock. The club moved from Ayresome Park their previous home in the town for 92 years.

 

With the abolition of Cleveland County in 1996, Middlesbrough again became part of North Yorkshire.

 

The original St.Hilda's area of Middlesbrough, after decades of decline and clearance, was given a new name of Middlehaven in 1986 on investment proposals to build on the land. Middlehaven has since had new buildings built there including Middlesbrough College and Middlesbrough FC's Riverside Stadium amongst others. Also situated at Middlehaven is the "Boho" zone, offering office space to the area's business and to attract new companies, and also "Bohouse", housing. Some of the street names from the original grid-iron street plan of the town still exist in the area today.

 

The expansion of Middlesbrough southwards, eastwards and westwards continued throughout the 20th century absorbing villages such as Linthorpe, Acklam, Ormesby, Marton and Nunthorpe[9] and continues to the present day.

A sea otter eating a fat innkeeper worm in Elkhorn Slough near Moss Landing, California.

Italian postcard by NMM. Photo: Bragaglia.

 

Luisa Ferida (1914-1945) was an Italian stage and screen film, who was a popular leading actress in the late 1930s and 1940s Italian sound film. She was married to actor Osvaldo Valenti. Because of his close links with the fascist regime, the couple was shot by partisans in April 1945.

 

Luisa Ferida was born Luigia Manfrini Frané in Castel San Pietro Terme, near Bologna, in 1914. Her father Luigi, a rich lander owner, died when she was a child. She was then sent to a convent school. Ferida started her career as a stage actress. In 1935 she made her first film appearance with a supporting role in the crime film La Freccia d'oro/Golden Arrow (Piero Ballerini, Corrado D'Errico, 1935). Because of her photogenic looks and talent as an actress, she soon graduated to leading roles in such films as the historical comedy Il re Burlone/The Joker King (Enrico Guazzoni, 1935) with Armando Falconi. The following year, she appeared in the comedy Lo smemorato/The Amnesiac (Gennaro Righelli, 1936) starring Angelo Musco, the screwball comedy Amazzoni bianche/White Amazons (Gennaro Righelli, 1936) starring Paola Barbara, and the historical comedy L'ambasciatore/The Ambassador (Baldassarre Negroni, 1936) starring Leda Gloria. She starred opposite Antonio Centa in the romantic comedy I tre desideri/The Three Wishes (Giorgio Ferroni, Kurt Gerron, 1937) of which also a Dutch-language version was made - without Ferida. Next, she appeared opposite Amedeo Nazzari in the drama La fossa degli angeli/Tomb of the Angels (Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, 1937). Roberto Rossellini co-wrote the screenplay and served as assistant director. It was shot on location in the Apuan Alps in Liguria and is set amidst the marble quarries of the area. It marked an early attempt at realism in Italian cinema, anticipating neorealism of the postwar era, and it celebrated Italy's industrial strength in line with the propaganda of the Mussolini regime. She co-starred with Totò in the comedy Animali pazzi/Mad Animals (Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, 1939). In 1939, while working on the Swashbuckler Un Avventura di Salvator Rosa/An Adventure of Salvator Rosa (Alessandro Blasetti, 1940), Luisa Ferida met the actor Osvaldo Valenti. The pair became romantically involved and had a son, Kim, who died 4 days after his birth. Valenti had been linked with many Fascist officials and personalities for years and he eventually joined the Italian Social Republic, and for these reasons, he was on the partisans' hit list.

 

In the first half of the 1940s, Luisa Ferida's career was at its zenith, and she played memorable roles in such films as La fanciulla di Portici/The girl from Portici (Mario Bonnard, 1940), La corona di ferro/The Iron Crown (Alessandro Blasetti, 1941), and the drama Gelosia/Jealousy (Ferdinando Maria Poggioli, 1942). She had a supporting role in the drama Nozze di sangue/Blood Wedding (Goffredo Alessandrini, 1941) starring Beatrice Mancini, and Fosco Giachetti. The film about an arranged marriage in 19th century South America, is based on the Spanish play by Federico Garcia Lorca. She played the lead in the historical drama Fedora (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1942) opposite Amedeo Nazzari and Osvaldo Valenti. Opposite Fosco Giacchetti, she starred in the drama Fari nella nebbia/Headlights in the Fog (Gianni Franciolini, 1942). The film about a group of truck drivers is considered to be part of the development of Neorealism, which emerged around this time. She starred with Osvaldo Valenti in the adventure film I cavalieri del deserto/Knights of the Desert (Gino Talamo, Osvaldo Valenti, 1942) with a screenplay by Federico Fellini and Vittorio Mussolini, the son of Italy's dictator Benito Mussolini. It was produced by the Rome-based ACI which was run by Vittorio Mussolini and shot on location in Libya before the North African Campaign turned decisively against Italy and its Allies. Fellini may have directed some of the Libyan scenes after Gino Talamo was injured in a car accident. The film was ultimately never released due to the defeats suffered in Libya, which meant its plot was now a potential embarrassment to the regime. She appeared again with Valenti in the extremely popular historical film La cena delle beffe/The Jester's Supper (Alessandro Blasetti, 1942), also starring Amedeo Nazzari, and Clara Calamai. The film is set in the 15th century Florence of Lorenzo the Magnificent and portrays a rivalry that leads to a series of increasingly violent jokes. She again co-starred with Valenti and Nazzari in the drama Sleeping Beauty (Luigi Chiarini, 1942), which belongs to the films of the Calligrafismo style. Calligrafismo is in sharp contrast to the Telefoni Bianchi-American style comedies and is rather artistic, highly formalistic, expressive in complexity, and deals mainly with contemporary literary material. In 1942 she won the Best Italian Actress award. In the historical comedy La locandiera/The Innkeeper (Luigi Chiarini, 1944), she co-starred again with Armando Falconi and Osvaldo Valenti. During the last stages of completion, Mussolini was overthrown. The final editing was done in Venice, the film capital of the Italian Social Republic, but without the presence of Chiarini. At the end of 1943, the fascist government of the Republic of Salo decided to create an Italian cinematographic center in the north of the country.

Ferida and Valenti agreed to go there. They made Un fatto di cronaca/A Chronicle (Piero Ballerini, 1945), which was released in February 1945. Two months later, Valenti was finally arrested in Milan, alongside a pregnant Ferida. They were both sentenced to be executed and shot immediately in the street, without a proper trial. Opinions are divided as to whether the couple deserved this fatal fate. The pregnant Ferida had a blue shoe of her deceased son Kim in her hand when she was killed. The twelve suitcases of the couple, full of clothes, furs, money, and jewels were stolen that day. Her Milanese house was burglarised a few days later. The partisan chief who organised the execution, Giuseppe 'Vero' Marozin, declared years later that one of the partisan leaders that ordered the two actors to be executed was Sandro Pertini, who decades later became president of the Italian republic. No other source, however, supports Marozin's version of the incident. Her mother Lucia asked for support from the Italian government since her daughter was her only support. After the actress was cleared of charges during the 1950s, Lucia received a small monthly pension. She died in poverty. Both lovers' graves are side to side in Cimitero Maggiore di Musocco in Milan. The film Sanguepazzo/Wild Blood (Marco Tullio Giordana, 2008) starring Monica Bellucci and Luca Zingaretti, discusses Luisa Ferida's relationship with Osvaldo Valenti.

 

Sources: Marlene Pilaete (La collectionneuse - French), Hugo Bartoli (IMDb), Find-A-Grave, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

The city of Leeds in West Yorkshire.

 

Leeds first began as a Saxon village, by 1207 the Lord of the Manor, Maurice De Gant, had extended it into a town. He created a new street of houses west of the existing village and he divided the land into plots for building. In Medieval Leeds, there were butchers, bakers, carpenters, and blacksmiths. However, the main industry in Leeds was making wool.

 

In 1628 a writer described Leeds as standing pleasantly in a fruitful and enclosed vale upon the north side of the River Eyer over or beyond a stone bridge from where it has a large and broad street leading directly north and continually ascending. The houses on both sides are very thick and closely compacted together, being old, rough, and low built and generally all made of timber.

 

In 1642 came civil war between king and parliament. Most of the townspeople supported the king and a royalist army occupied Leeds. But in January 1643 parliamentary soldiers captured it. They held Leeds until the summer of 1643 when, after losing a battle in Yorkshire, they were forced to abandon the town. The parliamentary army returned to Leeds in April 1644. They held Leeds for the rest of the civil war.

 

In the 17th century Leeds was a wealthy town. The wool trade boomed. However, like all towns in those days, it suffered from outbreaks of the plague. There was a severe outbreak in 1645. However, in 1694 Leeds gained a piped water supply (for those who could afford to be connected).

 

In the 18th century wool manufacture was still the lifeblood of Leeds but there were other industries. Leeds pottery began in 1770. There was also a brick making industry in Georgian Leeds. There were also many craftsmen such as coachmakers, clockmakers, booksellers, and jewellers as well as more mundane trades such as butchers, bakers, barbers, innkeepers, carpenters, blacksmiths, and glaziers. In 1700 the rivers Aire and Calder were made navigable from Leeds to Wakefield. In 1794 work began on the Leeds to Liverpool canal. It was completed in 1816.

 

The city flourished in the Victorian year’s textiles became less important. But tailoring for a more mass market flourished with the leather industry boot and shoemakers. Leeds grew rapidly but many of the new houses built were dreadful. Overcrowding was rife and streets were very dirty.

 

In the 1850s the council-built sewers but very many of the houses in Leeds were not connected to them. Many dwellings continued to use cesspits or buckets which were emptied at night by the 'night soil' men. Not until 1899 was it made compulsory for dwellings in Leeds to be connected to sewers.

 

Information Source:

www.localhistories.org/Leeds.html

 

Looking from Wearyall Hill towards Glastonbury Tor in Glastonbury, Somerset.

 

Wearyall Hill is a long narrow ridge to the south west of Glastonbury. It's summit offers views across to Glastonbury Tor and the Somerset levels to one side, the town to another. It is on this hill that the legend of the Glastonbury Holy Thorn begins. The original was said to have blossomed from the staff of Joseph of Arimathea whom legend says came to Glastonbury after the crucifixion. Glastonbury was once an inland isle, surrounded by water and only connected to the mainland by a narrow strip of land. Visitors to the Isle could sail up the tidal river Brue and legend tells us that on arrival, Joseph planted his staff which took root and blossomed into the now world-famous Glastonbury Thorn.

 

Hearse’s History and Antiquities of Glastonbury (1722) describes a Mr. Eyston being given information on the Thorn by a local innkeeper: "I was told by the innkeeper where I set up my horses, who rents a considerable part of the enclosure of the late dissolved abbey, that St. Joseph of Arimathea landed not far from the town, at a place where there was an oak planted in memory of his landing, called the Oak of Avalon; that he and his companions marched thence to a hill near a mile on the south side of the town, and there being weary, rested themselves; which gave the hill the name of Weary-all-Hill; and Joseph on arrival, planted his staff in the ground and it immediately blossomed."

 

This one up one down cottage is in Wells-next-the-Sea, on the north Norfolk coast. It was last occupied in 1935 at that time there were additional outbuildings. The Oxford dictionary describes an 'ostler' as 'a man employed to look after the horses of people stopping at an inn', Late middle English from the old French, hostelier or innkeeper in English.

F04_3458R

Alcedo atthis.

one of the innkeepers and looking for fish.

D600 + 200-400VRII

1/640, F4, iso 640, 400mm.

 

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Source Type: Matchcover

Publisher, Printer, Photographer: Universal Match Company

Collection: Steven R. Shook

 

Copyright 2016. Some rights reserved. The associated text may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Steven R. Shook.

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In 1911, an innkeeper from the Peruvian town of Aguas Calientes led Hiram Bingham on a scramble up a steep, jungle-tangled embankment to the extensive ruins of an Inca settlement that was named Machu Picchu for the neighboring mountain.

 

Bingham, a professor from Yale University who was exploring in the region, later wondered in his book, Lost City of the Incas, whether anyone would believe what he had found.

 

Today, there's no question about the site's significance. More than 300,000 people a year make the trek to Machu Picchu to marvel at the 500-year-old structures built from blocks of granite chiseled from the mountainside.

 

They come by helicopter, train, and foot. They snap photos, meditate, and lounge in the sun. They come for a variety of reasons—to fulfill a romantic dream, tap into the energy of the Inca soul, or simply tick off a box on the list of the world's must-see sights.

 

Panorama of 3 shots

January 2025

 

(further information and pictures you can get by clicking on the link at the end of page!)

Mariahilferstraße

Mariahilferstraße, 6th, 7th, 14th and 15th, since 1897 (in the 6th and 7th district originally Kremser Sraße, then Bavarian highway, Laimgrubner main road, Mariahilfer main street, Fünfhauserstraße, Schönbrunnerstraße and Penzinger Poststraße, then Schönbrunner Straße), in memory of the old suburb name; Mariahilf was an independent municipality from 1660 to 1850, since then with Gumpendorf, Magdalenengrund, Windmühle and Laimgrube 6th District.

From

aeiou - the cultural information system of the bm: bwk

14,000 key words and 2000 pictures from history, geography, politics and business in Austria

www.aeiou.at

Mariahilferstraße, 1908 - Wien Museum

Mariahilferstraße, 1908

Picture taken from "August Stauda - A documentarian of old Vienna"

published by Christian Brandstätter - to Book Description

History

Pottery and wine

The first ones who demonstrably populated the area of ​​today's Mariahilferstraße (after the mammoth) were the Illyrians. They took advantage of the rich clay deposits for making simple vessels. The Celts planted on the sunny hills the first grape vines and understood the wine-making process very well. When the Romans occupied at the beginning of our Era Vienna for several centuries, they left behind many traces. The wine culture of the Celts they refined. On the hill of today's Mariahilferstraße run a Roman ridge trail, whose origins lay in the camp of Vindobona. After the rule of the Romans, the migration of peoples temporarily led many cultures here until after the expulsion of the Avars Bavarian colonists came from the West.

The peasant Middle Ages - From the vineyard to the village

Thanks to the loamy soil formed the winery, which has been pushed back only until the development of the suburbs, until the mid-17th Century the livelihood of the rural population. "Im Schöff" but also "Schöpf - scoop" and "Schiff - ship" (from "draw of") the area at the time was called. The erroneous use of a ship in the seal of the district is reminiscent of the old name, which was then replaced by the picture of grace "Mariahilf". The Weinberg (vineyard) law imposed at that time that the ground rent in the form of mash on the spot had to be paid. This was referred to as a "draw".

1495 the Mariahilfer wine was added to the wine disciplinary regulations for Herrenweine (racy, hearty, fruity, pithy wine with pleasant acidity) because of its special quality and achieved high prices.

1529 The first Turkish siege

Mariahilferstraße, already than an important route to the West, was repeatedly the scene of historical encounters. When the Turks besieged Vienna for the first time, was at the lower end of today Mariahilferstrasse, just outside the city walls of Vienna, a small settlement of houses and cottages, gardens and fields. Even the St. Theobald Monastery was there. This so-called "gap" was burned at the approach of the Turks, for them not to offer hiding places at the siege. Despite a prohibition, the area was rebuilt after departure of the Turks.

1558, a provision was adopted so that the glacis, a broad, unobstructed strip between the city wall and the outer settlements, should be left free. The Glacis existed until the demolition of the city walls in 1858. Here the ring road was later built.

1663 The new Post Road

With the new purpose of the Mariahilferstrasse as post road the first three roadside inn houses were built. At the same time the travel increased, since the carriages were finally more comfortable and the roads safer. Two well-known expressions date from this period. The "tip" and "kickbacks". In the old travel handbooks of that time we encounter them as guards beside the route, the travel and baggage tariff. The tip should the driver at the rest stop pay for the drink, while the bribe was calculated in proportion to the axle grease. Who was in a hurry, just paid a higher lubricant (Schmiergeld) or tip to motivate the coachman.

1683 The second Turkish siege

The second Turkish siege brought Mariahilferstraße the same fate. Meanwhile, a considerable settlement was formed, a real suburb, which, however, still had a lot of fields and brick pits. Again, the suburb along the Mariahilferstraße was razed to the ground, the population sought refuge behind the walls or in the Vienna Woods. The reconstruction progressed slowly since there was a lack of funds and manpower. Only at the beginning of the 18th Century took place a targeted reconstruction.

1686 Palais Esterhazy

On several "Brandstetten", by the second Turkish siege destroyed houses, the Hungarian aristocratic family Esterhazy had built herself a simple palace, which also had a passage on the Mariahilferstrasse. 1764 bought the innkeeper Paul Winkelmayr from Spittelberg the building, demolished it and built two new buildings that have been named in accordance with the Esterhazy "to the Hungarian crown."

17th Century to 19th Century. Fom the village to suburb

With the development of the settlements on the Mariahilferstraße from village to suburbs, changed not only the appearance but also the population. More and more agricultural land fell victim to the development, craftsmen and tradesmen settled there. There was an incredible variety of professions and trades, most of which were organized into guilds or crafts. Those cared for vocational training, quality and price of the goods, and in cases of unemployment, sickness and death.

The farms were replaced by churches and palaces, houses and shops. Mariahilf changed into a major industrial district, Mariahilferstrasse was an important trading center. Countless street traders sold the goods, which they carried either with them, or put in a street stall on display. The dealers made themselves noticeable by a significant Kaufruf (purchase call). So there was the ink man who went about with his bottles, the Wasserbauer (hydraulic engineering) who sold Danube water on his horse-drawn vehicle as industrial water, or the lavender woman. This lovely Viennese figures disappeared with the emergence of fixed premises and the improvement of urban transport.

Private carriages, horse-drawn carriages and buggies populated the streets, who used this route also for trips. At Mariahilferplatz Linientor (gate) was the main stand of the cheapest and most popular means of transport, the Zeiselwagen, which the Wiener used for their excursions into nature, which gradually became fashionable. In the 19th Century then yet arrived the Stellwagen (carriage) and bus traffic which had to accomplish the connection between Vienna and the suburbs. As a Viennese joke has it, suggests the Stellwagen that it has been so called because it did not come from the spot.

1719 - 1723 Royal and Imperial Court Stables

Emperor Charles VI. gave the order for the construction of the stables to Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. 1772 the building was extended by two houses on the Mariahilferstrasse. The size of the stables still shows, as it serves as the Museum Quarter - its former importance. The Mariahilferstraße since the building of Schönbrunn Palace by the Imperial court very strongly was frequented. Today in the historic buildings the Museum Quarter is housed.

The church and monastery of Maria Hülff

Coloured engraving by J. Ziegler, 1783

1730 Mariahilferkirche

1711 began the renovation works at the Mariahilferkirche, giving the church building today's appearance and importance as a baroque monument. The plans stem from Franziskus Jänkl, the foreman of Lukas von Hildebrandt. Originally stood on the site of the Mariahilferkirche in the medieval vineyard "In Schoeff" a cemetery with wooden chapel built by the Barnabites. Already in those days, the miraculous image Mariahilf was located therein. During the Ottoman siege the chapel was destroyed, the miraculous image could be saved behind the protective walls. After the provisional reconstruction the miraculous image in a triumphal procession was returned, accompanied by 30,000 Viennese.

1790 - 1836 Ferdinand Raimund

Although in the district Mariahilf many artists and historical figures of Vienna lived , it is noticeable that as a residence they rather shunned the Mariahilferstraße, because as early as in the 18th Century there was a very lively and loud bustle on the street. The most famous person who was born on the Mariahilferstrasse is the folk actor and dramatist Ferdinand Raimund. He came in the house No. 45, "To the Golden deer (Zum Goldenen Hirschen)", which still exists today, as son of a turner into the world. As confectioners apprentice, he also had to visit the theaters, where he was a so-called "Numero", who sold his wares to the visitors. This encounter with the theater was fateful. He took flight from his training masters and joined a traveling troupe as an actor. After his return to Vienna, he soon became the most popular comedian. In his plays all those figures appeared then bustling the streets of Vienna. His most famous role was that of the "ash man" in "Farmer as Millionaire", a genuine Viennese guy who brings the wood ash in Butte from the houses, and from the proceeds leading a modest existence.

1805 - 1809 French occupation

The two-time occupation of Vienna by the French hit the suburbs hard. But the buildings were not destroyed fortunately.

19th century Industrialization

Here, where a higher concentration of artisans had developed as in other districts, you could feel the competition of the factories particularly hard. A craftsman after another became factory worker, women and child labor was part of the day-to-day business. With the sharp rise of the population grew apartment misery and flourished bed lodgers and roomers business.

1826

The Mariahilferstraße is paved up to the present belt (Gürtel).

1848 years of the revolution

The Mariahilferstraße this year was in turmoil. At the outbreak of the revolution, the hatred of the people was directed against the Verzehrungssteuerämter (some kind of tax authority) at the lines that have been blamed for the rise of food prices, and against the machines in the factories that had made the small craftsmen out of work or dependent workers. In October, students, workers and citizens tore up paving stones and barricaded themselves in the Mariahilfer Linientor (the so-called Linienwall was the tax frontier) in the area of ​​today's belt.

1858 The Ring Road

The city walls fell and on the glacis arose the ring-road, the now 6th District more closely linking to the city center.

1862 Official naming

The Mariahilferstraße received its to the present day valid name, after it previously was bearing the following unofficial names: "Bavarian country road", "Mariahilfer Grund Straße", "Penzinger Street", "Laimgrube main street" and "Schönbrunner Linienstraße".

The turn of the century: development to commercial street

After the revolution of 1848, the industry displaced the dominant small business rapidly. At the same time the Mariahilferstraße developed into the first major shopping street of Vienna. The rising supply had to be passed on to the customer, and so more and more new shops sprang up. Around the turn of the century broke out a real building boom. The low suburban houses with Baroque and Biedermeier facade gave way to multi-storey houses with flashy and ostentatious facades in that historic style mixture, which was so characteristic of the late Ringstrasse period. From the former historic buildings almost nothing remained. The business portals were bigger and more pompous, the first department stores in the modern style were Gerngross and Herzmansky. Especially the clothing industry took root here.

1863 Herzmansky opened

On 3 March opened August Herzmansky a small general store in the Church Lane (Kirchengasse) 4. 1897 the great establishment in the pin alley (Stiftgasse) was opened, the largest textile company of the monarchy. August Herzmansky died a year before the opening, two nephews take over the business. In 1928, Mariahilferstraße 28 is additionally acquired. 1938, the then owner Max Delfiner had to flee, the company Rhonberg and Hämmerle took over the house. The building in Mariahilferstrasse 30 additionally was purchased. In the last days of the war in 1945 it fell victim to the flames, however. 1948, the company was returned to Max Delfiner, whose son sold in 1957 to the German Hertie group, a new building in Mariahilferstrasse 26 - 30 constructing. Other ownership changes followed.

1869 The Pferdetramway

The Pferdetramway made it first trip through the Mariahilferstraße to Neubaugasse.

Opened in 1879 Gerngroß

Mariahilferstraße about 1905

Alfred Gerngross, a merchant from Bavaria and co-worker August

Herzmanskys, founded on Mariahilferstrasse 48/corner Church alley (Kirchengasse) an own fabric store. He became the fiercest competitor of his former boss.

1901 The k.k. Imperial Furniture Collection

The k.k. Hofmobilien and material depot is established in Mariahilferstrasse 88. The collection quickly grew because each new ruler got new furniture. Today, it serves as a museum. Among other things, there is the office of Emperor Franz Joseph, the equipment of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico from Miramare Castle, the splendid table of Charles VI. and the furniture from the Oriental Cabinet of Crown Prince Rudolf.

1911 The House Stafa

On 18 August 1911, on the birthday of Emperor Franz Joseph, corner Mariahilferstraße/imperial road (Kaiserstraße) the "central palace" was opened. The construction by its architecture created a sensation. Nine large double figure-relief panels of Anton Hanak decorated it. In this building the "1st Vienna Commercial sample collective department store (Warenmuster-Kollektivkaufhaus)", a eight-storey circular building was located, which was to serve primarily the craft. The greatest adversity in the construction were underground springs. Two dug wells had to be built to pump out the water. 970 liters per minute, however, must be pumped out until today.

1945 bombing of Vienna

On 21 February 1945 bombs fell on the Mariahilferstrasse, many buildings were badly damaged. On 10th April Wiener looted the store Herzmansky. Ella Fasser, the owner of the café "Goethe" in Mariahilferstrasse, preserved the Monastery barracks (Stiftskaserne) from destruction, with the help other resistance fighters cutting the fire-conducting cords that had laid the retreating German troops. Meanwhile, she invited the officers to the cafe, and befuddled them with plenty of alcohol.

www.wien-vienna.at/blickpunkte.php?ID=582

 

While this photo is from Eureka it was taken on my Oregon Road Trip.

 

This description was copied from www.carterhouse.com/History.html

 

The Carter House was originally built in 1884 – 1885 in San Francisco and was known as the Murphy House. The original structure was destroyed in the famous San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. In 1978, Mark Carter found the plans in a Eureka antique store and decided to build that house. To his surprise, when he began drawing up the new plans he discovered that the original house had been designed by the famous Newsom Brothers of San Francisco, the same architects who had created the lavish Carson Mansion just up the street in Old Town, Eureka. Crafting the building’s ornate moldings and trim-work by hand, the Carter’s small crew finished the re-creation in 1982. The Carters initially intended for the building to be their own home. However, with construction taking longer and costing more, they soon found themselves opening their doors to paying guests, and onto a new path as innkeepers.

 

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Reconstruction of Garrett Van Sweringen's inn at Historic St. Mary's City museum.

 

Van Sweringen was born in 1636 in Holland but little is known of his early years. He was evidently well educated and multi-lingual, speaking Dutch, English, and French. He came to America in 1657 as an agent for the City of Amsterdam. He sailed as part of an expedition charged with reinvigorating the Dutch colony of New Amstel (now New Castle, Delaware), on the Delaware Bay, but the ship wrecked on the shores of Long Island, resulting in the loss of many of the supplies and personal possessions of the passengers. After finally arriving at New Amstel, Van Sweringen served in several positions, including sheriff, a councilor, and deputy commander of the colony. In this capacity, Van Sweringen had contact with Maryland's leaders and gained some knowledge of that colony.

 

When English forces invaded and captured the Dutch colony in 1664, he again lost most of his estate, this time from plundering during the conquest. Soon afterward, Van Sweringen moved to St. Mary's City with his wife Barbara, a native of Flanders, and their family. Cecil Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, appointed him as an alderman on the new city council in 1667, and made Van Sweringen and his family some of the first naturalized citizens of Maryland in 1669. Documents from that year describe Van Sweringen as an innkeeper.

 

His ordinary was probably located in a structure newly built by William Smith, who died shortly before it was completed. It is likely that Van Sweringen initially leased the building from Smith's widow and her new husband, Daniel Jennifer. In December of 1672, Van Sweringen purchased the Ordinary and began major renovations. The building was doubled in size and had a number of expensive refinements added including plastered walls and decorative tin-glazed tiles.

Much of Van Sweringen's trade came from those traveling to the capital city to do business with the government. Many of these visits were subsidized by the state. Evidence of substantial payments to Van Sweringen, in pounds of tobacco, are stored in the Maryland Archives.

Like so many immigrants to Maryland, Van Sweringen's wife Barbara died. In 1676 he married Mary Smith, a 17-year old English woman. Van Sweringen ultimately fathered at least ten children by these two wives. The Van Sweringens operated Smith's Ordinary until early in 1677. At that time, the complex with most of its furnishings was leased to John Derry. Court documents indicate that Van Sweringen wanted to give up ordinary keeping so that he could open a private house and engage in brewing. By law, an ordinary had to accept anyone at any time who appeared seeking lodging. The law also set rates that could be charged by ordinaries. A private house was less bound by these regulations and thus potentially more profitable.

 

In 1677, Van Sweringen acquired the building that had been used as the meeting place for the Governor's Council and public records office. These functions had moved to the new brick State House, which was completed in 1676. There is no question that Van Sweringen's latest venture was designed to appeal to the elite, especially members of the Governor's Council. Archaeology suggests Van Sweringen made a sizable investment in renovations, including building a new kitchen, adding chimneys, plastered walls, and installing a brick veneer. Just as the lodging house was being finished, disaster struck once again. Smith's Ordinary, which he still owned but leased to Derry, burned to the ground. Van Sweringen's loss was a staggering sum yet he recovered from adversity once again.

 

His new lodging house began attracting the elite of the colony, and it became the most elegant establishment in Maryland. From time to time, the higher charges for feeding and housing the Council members became a subject of contention. Nonetheless, Van Sweringen received very substantial payments for his services. The quality of the food and drink served is suggested in the record of a discussion that took place in the General Assembly in 1682, where rates that would be charged for cider were set. Van Sweringen’s boiled cider was the only exception made to the rates.

 

"…and therefore Resolved that they be allowed for syder 25 lbs of tob. P Gall except Mr. Vansweringen & he to have for his boyld syder 30 lbds. Tob P Gall…" (Archives of MD 7:429).

 

Van Sweringen kept sheep at the site, a source of fresh meat for the table and wool for the household. There was a garden containing cabbage and other vegetables. One of the most unexpected documentary references from 17th-century St. Mary's City is found in the 1698 will of Garrett Van Sweringen. In it, he bequeaths to his son, Joseph, "ye Council Rooms and Coffee House and land thereto belonging". Coffee houses were fashionable urban institutions in Europe and of growing popularity in England during the late 17th century. Coffee houses served wine and other beverages but little food. They were places for social interaction. It is surprising to find this reference in early Maryland.

 

Archaeological evidence suggests that the outbuilding originally built for brewing and baking may have been the coffee house. This outbuilding was fitted out far better than most such structures. The artifacts associated with the building suggest that it was the scene of much smoking and drinking but little food consumption. Other evidence comes from traces of the vanished colonial landscape - fence trenches. They formed an unusual public entry corridor to the Coffee house, probably so that people could come to the structure without going through the private yard.

 

Scattered references suggest that Van Sweringen had some role in providing medical treatment. Other records show that Van Sweringen was a merchant involved in trade with England, Ireland, Jamaica, and New York. He also provided construction services. In June 1674, Van Sweringen was paid 800 lbs. of tobacco for building the stocks and a whipping post for the colony.

 

Van Sweringen owned a plantation just south of St. Mary's City, the 1,500 acre St. Elizabeth's Manor. At his death, the inventory lists four enslaved Africans who might have been working in agricultural production. However, there is no direct evidence as to the nature of his plantation operations, aside from cattle-raising and perhaps dairying.

 

When Garrett Van Sweringen died in 1698, he had amassed a large estate valued at over 300 lbs. sterling, placing him among the top 5% of all the householders in St. Mary's County for his time. His story reflects the hard work, innovation, risk-taking, and the will to succeed which characterizes generations of immigrants to America. His entrepreneurial spirit and persistence took advantage of the many opportunities offered by early Maryland, and set a precedent for future immigrants who still come to these shores.

 

www.stmaryscity.org/history/bio%20Garrett%20Van%20Swering...

 

Joseph's Prayer

by Max Lucado, from On This Holy Night

  

Joseph... did what the Lord’s angel had told him to do. — Matthew 1:24

 

The white space between Bible verses is fertile soil for questions. One can hardly read Scripture without whispering, “I wonder...”

 

“I wonder if Eve ever ate any more fruit.”

 

“I wonder if Noah slept well during storms.”

 

“I wonder if Jonah liked fish or if Jeremiah had friends.”

 

“Did Moses avoid bushes? Did Jesus tell jokes? Did Peter ever try water-walking again?”

 

“Would any woman have married Paul had he asked?”

 

The Bible is a fence full of knotholes through which we can peek but not see the whole picture. It’s a scrapbook of snapshots capturing people in encounters with God, but not always recording the result.

 

So we wonder:

 

When the woman caught in adultery went home, what did she say to her husband?

 

After the demoniac was delivered, what did he do for a living?

 

After Jairus’s daughter was raised from the dead, did she ever regret it?

 

Knotholes and snapshots and “I wonders.” You’ll find them in every chapter about every person. But nothing stirs so many questions as does the birth of Christ. Characters appear and disappear before we can ask them anything. The innkeeper too busy to welcome God — did he ever learn who he turned away? The shepherds — did they ever hum the song the angels sang? The wise men who followed the star — what was it like to worship a toddler? And Joseph, especially Joseph.

 

I’ve got questions for Joseph.

 

Did you and Jesus arm wrestle? Did He ever let you win?

 

Did you ever look up from your prayers and see Jesus listening?

 

How do you say “Jesus” in Egyptian?

 

What ever happened to the wise men?

 

What ever happened to you?

 

We don’t know what happened to Joseph. His role in Act I is so crucial that we expect to see him the rest of the drama — but with the exception of a short scene with twelve-year-old Jesus in Jerusalem, he never reappears. The rest of his life is left to speculation, and we are left with our questions.

 

But of all my questions, my first would be about Bethlehem. I’d like to know about the night in the stable. I can picture Joseph there. Moonlit pastures. Stars twinkle above. Bethlehem sparkles in the distance. There he is, pacing outside the stable.

 

What was he thinking while Jesus was being born? What was on his mind while Mary was giving birth? He’d done all he could do — heated the water, prepared a place for Mary to lie. He’d made Mary as comfortable as she could be in a barn and then he stepped out. She’d asked to be alone, and Joseph had never felt more so.

 

In that eternity between his wife’s dismissal and Jesus’ arrival, what was he thinking? He walked into the night and looked into the stars. Did he pray?

 

For some reason, I don’t see him silent; I see Joseph animated, pacing. Head shaking one minute, fist shaking the next. This isn’t what he had in mind. I wonder what he said...

 

This isn’t the way I planned it, God. Not at all. My child being born in a stable? This isn’t the way I thought it would be. A cave with sheep and donkeys, hay and straw? My wife giving birth with only the stars to hear her pain?

 

This isn’t at all what I imagined. No, I imagined family. I imagined grandmothers. I imagined neighbors clustered outside the door and friends standing at my side. I imagined the house erupting with the first cry of the infant. Slaps on the back. Loud laughter. Jubilation.

 

That’s how I thought it would be.

 

The midwife would hand me my child and all the people would applaud. Mary would rest, and we would celebrate. All of Nazareth would celebrate.

 

But now. Now look. Nazareth is five days’ journey away. And here we are in a... in a sheep pasture. Who will celebrate with us? The sheep? The shepherds? The stars?

 

This doesn’t seem right. What kind of husband am I? I provide no midwife to aid my wife. No bed to rest her back. Her pillow is a blanket from my donkey. My house for her is a shed of hay and straw.

 

The smell is bad; the animals are loud. Why, I even smell like a shepherd myself.

 

Did I miss something? Did I, God?

 

When You sent the angel and spoke of the Son being born — this isn’t what I pictured. I envisioned Jerusalem, the temple, the priests, and the people gathered to watch. A pageant perhaps. A parade. A banquet at least. I mean, this is the Messiah!

 

Or, if not born in Jerusalem, how about Nazareth? Wouldn’t Nazareth have been better? At least there I have my house and my business. Out here, what do I have? A weary mule, a stack of firewood, and a pot of warm water. This is not the way I wanted it to be! This is not the way I wanted my son.

 

Oh my, I did it again. I did it again, didn’t I, Father? I don’t mean to do that; it’s just that I forget. He’s not my son... He’s Yours.

 

The child is Yours. The plan is Yours. The idea is Yours. And forgive me for asking but... is this how God enters the world? The coming of the angel, I’ve accepted. The questions people asked about the pregnancy, I can tolerate. The trip to Bethlehem, fine. But why a birth in a stable, God?

 

Any minute now Mary will give birth. Not to a child, but to the Messiah. Not to an infant, but to God. That’s what the angel said. That’s what Mary believes. And, God, my God, that’s what I want to believe. But surely You can understand; it’s not easy. It seems so... so... so... bizarre.

 

I’m unaccustomed to such strangeness, God. I’m a carpenter. I make things fit. I square off the edges. I follow the plumb line. I measure twice before I cut once. Surprises are not the friend of a builder. I like to know the plan. I like to see the plan before I begin.

 

But this time I’m not the builder, am I? This time I’m a tool. A hammer in Your grip. A nail between Your fingers. A chisel in Your hands. This project is Yours, not mine.

 

I guess it’s foolish of me to question You. Forgive my struggling. Trust doesn’t come easy to me, God. But You never said it would be easy, did You?

 

One final thing, Father. The angel You sent? Any chance You could send another? If not an angel, maybe a person? I don’t know anyone around here, and some company would be nice. Maybe the innkeeper or a traveler? Even a shepherd would do.

 

I wonder. Did Joseph ever pray such a prayer? Perhaps he did. Perhaps he didn’t.

 

But you probably have.

 

You’ve stood where Joseph stood. Caught between what God says and what makes sense. You’ve done what He told you to do only to wonder if it was Him speaking in the first place. You’ve stared into a sky blackened with doubt. And you’ve asked what Joseph asked.

 

You’ve asked if you’re still on the right road. You’ve asked if you were supposed to turn left when you turned right. And you’ve asked if there is a plan behind this scheme. Things haven’t turned out like you thought they would.

 

Each of us knows what it’s like to search the night for light. Not outside a stable, but perhaps outside an emergency room. On the gravel of a roadside. On the manicured grass of a cemetery. We’ve asked our questions. We questioned God’s plan. And we’ve wondered why God does what He does.

 

The Bethlehem sky is not the first to hear the pleading of a confused pilgrim.

 

If you are asking what Joseph asked, let me urge you to do what Joseph did. Obey. That’s what he did. He obeyed. He obeyed when the angel called. He obeyed when Mary explained. He obeyed when God sent.

 

He was obedient to God.

 

He was obedient when the sky was bright.

 

He was obedient when the sky was dark.

 

He didn’t let his confusion disrupt his obedience. He didn’t know everything. But he did what he knew. He shut down his business, packed up his family, and went to another country. Why? Because that’s what God said to do.

 

What about you? Just like Joseph, you can’t see the whole picture. Just like Joseph, your task is to see that Jesus is brought into your part of your world. And just like Joseph, you have a choice: to obey or disobey. Because Joseph obeyed, God used him to change the world.

 

Can He do the same with you?

 

God still looks for Josephs today. Men and women who believe that God is not through with this world. Common people who serve an uncommon God.

 

Will you be that kind of person? Will you serve... even when you don’t understand?

 

No, the Bethlehem sky is not the first to hear the pleadings of an honest heart, nor the last. And perhaps God didn’t answer every question for Joseph. But He answered the most important one. “Are you still with me, God?” And through the first cries of the Godchild the answer came.

 

“Yes. Yes, Joseph. I’m with you.”

 

There are many questions about the Bible that we won’t be able to answer until we get home. Many knotholes and snapshots. Many times we will muse, “I wonder...”

 

But in our wonderings, there is one question we never need to ask. Does God care? Do we matter to God? Does He still love His children?

 

Through the small face of the stable-born baby, He says yes.

 

Yes, your sins are forgiven.

 

Yes, your name is written in heaven.

 

Yes, death has been defeated.

 

And yes, God has entered your world.

 

Immanuel. God is with us.

 

from On This Holy Night, copyright Thomas Nelson, 2013.

La leggenda di Zlatorog, il camoscio dalle corna d’oro della Slovenia.

 

Una volta il Monte Triglav, in Slovenia, non era come lo conosciamo. La selvaggia Valle dei Laghi, nel cuore del parco nazionale, non esisteva.

E’ questo che racconta la leggenda.

 

La leggenda racconta che un tempo la valle era uno splendido giardino, dove Zlatorog era solito scorrazzare in compagnia delle Signore Bianche, delle fate benevoli (o comunque delle ragazze vergini) il cui compito era di mantenere rigogliosa la zona e aiutare gli abitanti quando ne avevano bisogno.

 

Poco lontano, nella Valle del Soča la figlia di un locandiere aveva ricevuto dei gioielli come dono da un ricco mercante di Venezia. Però la figlia aveva un altro pretendente: un cacciatore di grande esperienza ma molto povero.

Il cacciatore non poteva competere con il dono del ricco mercante, per cui la madre della ragazza gli chiese in cambio di recuperare l’oro di Zlatorog, custodito sotto il Monte Bogatin e protetto da un serpente con molte teste.

 

Vi sembra una prova crudele? Pur di ottenere la mano della ragazza, il cacciatore non esitò a tentare l’impresa. Per onor di cronaca precisiamo che la madre gli concesse un’alternativa: recuperare un mazzo di rose del Triglav (le cinquefoglie) in pieno inverno. Un’impresa impossibile, per cui in effetti il cacciatore non ebbe molta scelta.Il cacciatore scalò il Triglav in inverno e ritrovò le tracce di Zlatorog. Da lontano, prese la mira e sparò, colpendo il camoscio in pieno.

 

Ed ecco fare breccia la magia. Il sangue della ferita di Zlatorog sciolse la neve e subito crebbe una rosa guaritrice. Il camoscio mangiò qualche petalo e la sua ferita si richiuse, permettendogli la fuga.

Zlatorog corse verso la cima e a ogni sua zoccolata portava alla nascita di una nuova rosa, che il cacciatore seguiva prontamente.Durante l’inseguimento, però, spuntò l’alba. La luce del Sole andò a rimbalzare sulle corna dorate del camoscio e il cacciatore si ritrovò abbagliato. Cieco, il giovane barcollò e finì per precipitare nella gola.A Zlatorog non bastò la morte del cacciatore. Era furioso per la ferita e per come era stato trattato. Spinto dall’ira, cominciò a devastare la Valle dei Laghi, fino a ridurla all’ammasso di nuda pietra che compone oggi quella zona del Triglav.

Dopodiché, sia Zlatorog che le Signore Bianche decisero di abbandonare la terra che per secoli avevano protetto e di lasciarla in mano agli uomini.

 

Che ne fu della figlia del locandiere? La ragazza aspettò il ritorno del cacciatore fino a primavera. Allora il caldo sciolse le nevi e il Soča le portò il corpo del giovane amato, che ancora stringeva la rosa in mano.

 

The legend of Zlatorog, the chamois with golden horns of Slovenia.

 

Once Mount Triglav, Slovenia, was not as we know it. The wild Valley of Lakes, in the heart of the national park, did not exist.

That 's what the legend says.

 

Legend has it that once the valley was a beautiful garden, where he used to run around Zlatorog in the company of Lord White, fairy benevolent (or virgin girls) whose job was to keep the area lush and help people whenever they felt need.

 

Not far away, in the Valley of the Soca daughter of an innkeeper he had received jewelry as a gift from a wealthy merchant of Venice. But the daughter had another suitor, a hunter of great experience but very poor.

The hunter could not compete with the gift of the wealthy merchant, so the girl's mother asked him in return to recover the gold of Zlatorog, guarded beneath Mount Bogatin and protected by a snake with many heads.

 

Sounds like a cruel test? Just to get the girl's hand, the hunter did not hesitate to groped the company. To tell the truth we point out that his mother gave him a choice: to retrieve a bunch of roses Triglav (the cinquefoils) in winter. An impossible task, so in fact the hunter did not have much scelta.Il hunter climbed the Triglav in the winter and found traces Zlatorog. From a distance, he took aim and fired, hitting the chamois in full.And here to break the spell. Blood wound Zlatorog melted snow and quickly grew a rose healer. Chamois ate a few petals and his wound closed, allowing him to escape.

Zlatorog ran to the top and every zoccolata led to the birth of a new rose, the hunter followed promptly.

During the chase, however, the dawn broke. The sunlight went to bounce on the horns of the golden chamois and the hunter found himself dazzled. Blind, the young man staggered and ended up falling into gola.A Zlatorog was not enough the death of the hunter. He was furious at the wound and how it was handled. Driven by anger, he began to ravage the Valley of the Lakes, to reduce storage of bare stone that makes up today the area of ​​the Triglav.

After that, both Zlatorog that Lord White decided to leave the land that for centuries had protected and leave it in the hands of men.

 

Who was the daughter of the innkeeper? The girl waited for the return of the hunter until spring. Then the heat melted the snows and the Soca brought her the body of her beloved, still clutching the rose in his hand.

 

M4_37766

 

A collection getting out of hand!

 

Started saving for Christmas and then had presents to help.

 

More general photographs at: www.flickr.com/photos/staneastwood/albums

 

Marek had little time to waste. He had been lucky to make it to the ambush point before Ulfric and his companions. After all, who knew how long he had been unconscious.

Fate must have been on Marek's side, he thought while stepping foot into the freezing stream and designated ambush point. He recoiled at the initial touch of the cold melt-water, but he slowly managed to ease his way into it.

The road Ulfric was using had to cross over the river in order to get to WinterHaven, and it did so in the form of an old bridge.

Marek's plan was to destroy the support to said bridge whilst Ulfric and his thugs were crossing it, and the Marek would finish Ulfric with his axe before he had time to recover from the shock of the cold water. After all, the odds weren't quite in Marek's favor, due to the fact that there was only one Marek, and three of them.

Marek stopped his planing and thought for one second. Could he really bring himself to killing Ulfric? He had never directly ended another persons life, even the previous owner of his axe hadn't been directly defeated by Marek.

He pushed his thoughts away. Ulfic had destroyed Marek's life, and it was time he payed.

Marek continued along the river, holding on to the deeply eroded rock so as not to be swept away. The bridge was so close now. He planted his feet into the river bed and waited for his quarry to cross the bridge.

 

After half an hour of waiting, Marek heard voices from above his hiding place.

"So what will we do once we make it to WinterHaven, Ulfric?" Asked an unpleasant voice who Marek identified as one of Ulfric's cronies.

"What is this 'we' nonsense? I hired you to help me intimidate that farmer. He owed me money. What more do you want?" Marek could only figure as much. Ulfric made it his business to harass the people of WhiteHaven and the surrounding hamlets, and these men were merely hired muscle, not friends or companions of any sort.

"Well there was that jongluer fellow that you robbed. That wasn't in our agreement, so shouldn't we get some of his coin too?" Marek's heart beat faster as he realized they were talking about him. Only a few more steps and Ulfric would be over.

"That was merely a bit of fun with an old friend, talk to any innkeeper on this side of Rowia and they'll surely reward you with a handsome amount of coin. That fool was terrible at the lyre."

And with these word Ufric stepped onto the bridge. The bridge, being as old as it was, was straining holding up Marek's enemies as is, but the moment Marek struck it with his axe, the whole support broke into splinters.

The bridge released a terrible groan and collapsed into the water, sending one Ulfric's hired thugs screaming into the water. Marek hid behind one of the eroded walls so as not to reveal his position until his longtime enemy fell into the water.

But no such luck. Somehow, Ulfric managed to grab onto one of the plants hanging above the river, and one of his cronies helped him back up.

"Darn bridge, about time it broke. We'll have to find another crossing now." Ulfric said with his same mocking voice as always. Was he not at all phased by nearly tumbling into the freezing water?

Marek cursed softly as Ulfric and his thugs left, and returned to the bank of the river. As exhausted as he was, he couldn't collapse into sleep as he wanted, for fear of being spotted by someone.

Little did he know that someone had witnessed the whole thing, and was very pleased.

 

My A2 for the Land's of Rowia Assassin's guild!

Hope you guy's like it, and as always, C&C much appreciated!

    

with the thumps up from Bret the vet , Mole pops of to the Albert inn for a point of Bridgetown bitter. an interesting time was had with a loquacious Innkeeper a bear from Puru and a man in a Panama hat known as Phil the hat. ( mole felt he'd be seeing more of him) bidding his goodbyes he set back to rat whom he left admiring a beautiful pea-green boat en route to see Mr Toad at Dartington Hall.