View allAll Photos Tagged decency
A gesture that would seem totally incongruous a short while ago: a young couple
holding hands in the streets of Pyongyang.
In North Korea, decency is not an old fashioned concept.
Seeing my surprise witnessing men dancing together during a giant ball, while lots
of girls were alone, my guide explained:
“it’s their first ball, they are shy. In your country, when it’s their first ball, do boys
find the courage to ask girls to dance?”, which left me speechless.
Geste totalement incongru il y a encore peu: un jeune couple main dans la main dans les
rues de Pyongyang.
La pudeur nord coréenne n’est pas un vain mot. Voyant des hommes danser ensemble
lors d’un bal géant alors que de nombreuses filles étaient seules, devant mon
étonnement , mon guide me répondit:
-c’est leur premier bal, ils sont timides. En France, les garçons invitent les filles à danser
la première fois?
-...
© Eric Lafforgue
is sad and sorry for the tragic killings in his country these past days. He's sad and sorry for the victims, and sad and sorry because he is beginning to realize what it would have been like to live in Germany in the 1930's, and he knows nothing is going to change now until new leaders are elected, and, even then not much may change, but just maybe, some of his country's policies may regain some decency and common sense. Photo by Frank.
We Stand For Life
With a Danish Royal Navy helicopter buzzing around the the BRIGITTE BARDOT today it is becoming quite apparent that all is going as planned. The British police today reluctantly seized one of the small boats from the SAM SIMON in the Scottish Shetland Islands citing that it had been used to attempt to disrupt a whale slaughter. What this means is that Denmark is using EU laws and EU enforcement agreements to seize a Sea Shepherd boat from an EU registered ship in defense of an activity that is illegal under EU laws.
This is very good news. The reason this is good news will be understood at a future date. And if they try to seize one of the larger ships - even better.
Our angry little Danish prosecutor in the Faroes is so gung-ho in her lust to defend the carnage of the Grind that she is making one legal blunder after another, confident that her government will cover her mistakes with political muscle. But even the Danish government cannot manipulate the law when placed under international scrutiny and Sea Shepherd intends to intensify that scrutiny.
The legal guns are being readied and the real battles will soon commence.
Sea Shepherd does not go into battle with guns. We use something far more effective - cameras. Where once ships carried cannon we carry canons, as well as Nikons. Leicas, and such.
And soon it will be time to clear the decks to deploy the lawyers, the editors, the writers, and even more photographers and videographers.
For one thing is absolutely predictable and it is this. No matter what they seize, how many they arrest, the campaign to end this despicable, horrific, disgusting, and obscene nonsense called the "grindadrap" will win. It may take years but it will be ended because in the name of decency, compassion and the common good, there can be no justification for the extermination of entire family units of such intelligent, self aware, socially complex sentient beings as members of the dolphin family of species.
In the Cove at Taiji or on the bloody beaches of the Faroes, the forces of empathy will never surrender to the violent lust of murderous thugs.
And what is the loss of a boat compared to the loss of hundred of lives - lives filled with hope, with dreams, with love.
That is what we stand for and that is what we are fighting for.
Before the Goliaths of doom and death we humbly kneel and vow that no matter what they do, no matter what they say, we will never abandon those we have come to serve and protect.
The whalers and the Danish and Faroese governments represent death. We stand for life. There can be no justification for the former and no retreat from the latter.
Photo : Sea Shepherd
Catching up on some back shots from the beginning of the year
On a walk around the Addington Cemetery with a wonderful Flickr friend. February 13, 2016 Christchurch New Zealand.
There is so much damaged in the cemetery because of the earthquake we have had. It is such a pity as I don' think it will ever be fully repaired.
The Addington Cemetery was established in 1858 when the Scottish Presbyterians of St Andrew’s Church purchased land for a cemetery in Selwyn Street. Although not the first cemetery in Christchurch, Addington was in fact the first “public” cemetery, “being open to all persons of any religious community” and allowing the performance of any religious service “not contrary to public decency”.
The first burial took place on the 10th of November 1858. The cemetery has several persons of note buried within its grounds including activist Kate Sheppard, Christchurch Mayor Tommy Taylor and members of the pioneer family, the Deans.
For More Info:http://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/addington-cemetery/
Italian postcard by W. Di Giovanni. Photo: Augusto Di Giovanni. Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953).
American actor Gregory Peck (1916-2003) was one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s. Peck received five nominations for Academy Award for Best Actor and won once – for his performance as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). He almost always played courageous, nobly heroic good guys who saw injustice and fought it. Among his best known films are Spellbound (1945), The Yearling (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), Roman Holiday (1953), The Guns of Navarone (1961), and Cape Fear (1962).
Eldred Gregory Peck was born in 1916 in La Jolla, California (now in San Diego). His parents were Bernice Mary (Ayres) and Gregory Pearl Peck, a chemist, and druggist in San Diego. His parents divorced when he was five years old. An only child, he was sent to live with his grandmother. He never felt he had a stable childhood. His fondest memories are of his grandmother taking him to the cinema every week and of his dog, which followed him everywhere. Peck's father encouraged him to take up medicine. He studied pre-med at UC-Berkeley and, while there, got bitten by the acting bug and decided to change the focus of his studies. He enrolled in the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and debuted on Broadway after graduation. His debut was in Emlyn Williams' play 'The Morning Star' (1942). By 1943, he was in Hollywood, where he debuted in the RKO film Days of Glory (Jacques Tourneur, 1944). Stardom came with his next film, The Keys of the Kingdom (John M. Stahl, 1944), for which he was nominated for an Oscar. Tony Fontana at IMDb: "Peck's screen presence displayed the qualities for which he became well known. He was tall, rugged and heroic, with a basic decency that transcended his roles." He appeared opposite Ingrid Bergman in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945) as an amnesia victim accused of murder. In The Yearling (Clarence Brown, 1946), he was again nominated for an Oscar and won the Golden Globe. He was especially effective in Westerns and appeared in such varied fare as David O. Selznick's critically blasted Duel in the Sun (King Vidor, 1946), the somewhat better received Yellow Sky (William A. Wellman, 1948), and the acclaimed The Gunfighter (Henry King, 1950). He was nominated again for the Academy Award for his roles in Gentleman's Agreement (Elia Kazan, 1947), which dealt with anti-Semitism, and Twelve O'Clock High (Henry King, 1949), a story of high-level stress in an Air Force bomber unit in World War II. In 1947, Peck, along with Dorothy McGuire, David O'Selznick, and Mel Ferrer, founded the La Jolla Playhouse, located in his hometown, and produced many of the classics there. Due to film commitments, he could not return to Broadway but whet his appetite for live theatre on occasion at the Playhouse, keeping it firmly established with a strong, reputable name over the years.
With a string of hits to his credit, Gregory Peck made the decision to only work in films that interested him. He continued to appear as the heroic, larger-than-life figures in such films as Captain Horatio Hornblower (Raoul Walsh, 1951) with Virginia Mayo, and Moby Dick (John Huston, 1956) with Richard Basehart. He worked with Audrey Hepburn in her debut film, Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953). While filming The Bravados (Henry King, 1958), he decided to become a cowboy in real life, so he purchased a vast working ranch near Santa Barbara, California - already stocked with 600 head of prize cattle. In the early 1960s, he gave a powerful performance as Captain Keith Mallory in The Guns of Navarone (J. Lee Thompson, 1961) opposite David Niven and Anthony Quinn. The film was one of the biggest box-office hits of that year. Peck finally won the Oscar, after four nominations, for his performance as lawyer Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962). He also appeared in two darker films than he usually made, Cape Fear (J. Lee Thompson, 1962) opposite Robert Mitchum, and Captain Newman, M.D. (David Miller, 1963) with Tony Curtis, which dealt with the way people live. The financial failure of Cape Fear (1962) ended his company, Melville Productions. After making Arabesque (Stanley Donen, 1966) with Sophia Loren, Peck withdrew from acting for three years in order to concentrate on various humanitarian causes, including the American Cancer Society. In the early 1970s, he produced two films, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (Gordon Davidson, 1972) and The Dove (Charles Jarrott, 1974), when his film career stalled. He made a comeback playing, somewhat woodenly, Ambassador Robert Thorn in the horror film The Omen (Richard Donner, 1976) with Lee Remick. After that, he returned to the bigger-than-life roles he was best known for, such as MacArthur (Joseph Sargent, 1977) and the infamous Nazi war criminal Dr. Josef Mengele in the huge hit The Boys from Brazil (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1978) with Laurence Olivier and James Mason. In the 1980s, he moved into television with the miniseries The Blue and the Gray (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1982) in which he played Abraham Lincoln, and The Scarlet and the Black (Jerry London, 1983) with Christopher Plummer and John Gielgud. In 1991, he appeared in the remake of his 1962 film, playing a different role, in Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear (1991). He was also cast as the progressive-thinking owner of a wire and cable business in Other People's Money (Norman Jewison, 1991), starring Danny DeVito. In 1967, Peck received the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. He was also been awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom. Always politically progressive, he was active in such causes as anti-war protests, workers' rights, and civil rights. In 2003, Peck's portrayal of Atticus Finch was named the greatest film hero of the past 100 years by the American Film Institute, only two weeks before his death. Atticus beat out Indiana Jones, who was placed second, and James Bond who came third. Gregory Peck died in 2003 in Los Angeles, California. He was 87. Peck was married twice. From 1942 till 1955, he was married to Greta Kukkonen. They had three children: Jonathan Peck (1944-1975), Stephen Peck (1946), and Carey Paul Peck (1949). His second wife was Veronique Passani, whom he met at the set of Roman Holliday. They married in 1955 and had two children: Tony Peck (1956) and Cecilia Peck (1958). The couple remained together till his death.
Sources: Tony Fontana (IMDb), and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Sikhism originated in the 15th century, in the Punjab region by Guru Nanak, who preached ideas that were radical for his age: he denounced Hinduism's oppressive caste system and Islam's gender discrimination, preaching that all people can commune with the divine equally, without the intervention of rituals or priests. The Sikh faith is a monotheistic religion, meaning Sikhs worship one God. The three core pillars of Sikhism are: vaṇḍ chakkō (sharing with others, helping those in need, as well as participating as part of a community), kirat karō (earning/making a living honestly, without exploitation or fraud, and speaking the truth at all times) and naam japna (meditating on God’s name to live a life of decency and humility).
The temporary distractions of the material world are seen as an illusion. The qualities of ego, anger, greed, attachment and lust are known as the Five Thieves that rob a person of their ability to realize their oneness with God and creation. Sikhs work to counteract the temptations of these qualities through the values of service, equality, and seeking justice for all. Sikhs also believe that one’s form on Earth is only a temporary vessel for the eternal soul. Thus, the death of the physical body is a natural part of the life cycle, while the soul remains. Death is not an end, but merely the progression of the soul on its journey toward God.
Nine more gurus succeeded Guru Nanak (Angad, Amar Das, Ram Das, Arjan, Har Gobind, Har Rai, Har Krishan, Tegh Bahadur, and Gobind Singh), and continued to spread his teachings across the world.
The last guru, Guru Gobind Singh, named the Sikh sacred text, the Guru Granth Sahib, to be the eternal Guru that would guide the Sikhs going forward. It consists of 1,430 Anks, or pages, and 6,000 Sabads, or line compositions, all are written in poetic verse and are aligning to the rhythmic forms of ancient north Indian classical music. At the core of the Guru Granth Sahib is a yearning for a world governed by divine justice, without oppression of any kind.
The final living guru, Gobind Singh, also established the Khalsa, or order of Sikh soldier-saints. They are recognizable by "The 5 k's," their physical articles of faith: Kesh (unshorn hair and beard), Kirpan (ceremonial sword), Kangha (comb), Kara (steel bracelet) and Kachha (drawers). The Dastar, or turban, is considered a spiritual crown, a token of remembrance of the Sikh principles.
Subathu, Himachal Pradesh, India
Bessa
Voigtländer A.G. Braunschweig
Rollfilm Kamera 6x9/4,5x6
1937
lens
Voigtar 1:4,5 F=11
shutter
Prontor II
Alfred Gauthier Calmbach
1937 wurde die Kamera so beworben:
Flach, elegant und springlebendig ist sie, die Bessa. Sie verlangt keine umständliche Behandlung und keine großen Fotokenntnisse.
Ob Sommer oder Winter, ob Tag oder Nacht – zu jeder Stunde können Sie mit der Bessa knipsen, wenn nur irgendwoher ein wenig Licht auf das Motiv fällt. Sie können sogar – und das ist das Fabelhafte – mit Hilfe des Auslösers am „Laufboden“ (D.R.P.) noch Aufnahmen aus freier Hand machen, wenn andere schon längst zum Stativ greifen mussten.
Immer und überallhin können Sie diese leichte, schlanke Kamera mitnehmen, und das Knipsen macht noch mal so viel Spaß, weil es so riesig einfach ist. Im Handumdrehen ist man „schußfertig“, und ebenso schnell hat man die Aufnahme auch schon gemacht.
Bildgröße nach Wunsch:
Nicht nur Aufnahmen im 6x9-Format, nein, auch Kleinbildaufnahmen können Sie mit der Bessa machen. Mit einem Handgriff ist die Kleinbildmaske eingesetzt, und jetzt bekommen Sie 16 Aufnahmen 4 1/2 x6 cm auf einen Film anstelle von 8 Aufnahmen 6x9 cm. Feine Sache, was? Man kauft sich eine Kamera und hat praktisch zwei.
Wenige Jahre später hatte "schußfertig sein" nichts mehr mit Fotografie zu tun.
Am 1. September 1939 begann mit dem Überfall auf Polen der 2. Weltkrieg.
Voigtländer stellte die Kameraproduktion ein und produzierte nur noch kriegswichtige Güter.
Schon 1937, als diese Kamera auf den Markt gebracht wurde, waren Parlamentarismus, Rechtsstaat und gesellschaftlicher Anstand im damaligen "Deutschen Reich" bereits untergegangen.
Unmittelbar nach Kriegsbeginn folgte im Herrschaftsbereich der Nationalsozialisten eine massenhafte Ermordung von Juden und anderen Volksgruppen, politischen Gegnern und Behinderten, die bis zum Ende des Krieges und dem Untergang des Deutschen Reiches 1945 andauern sollte.
Von 1949 bis 1990 existierten zwei deutsche Nationalstaaten, die Bundesrepublik Deutschland (BRD) und die Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR).
Seit der Wiedervereinigung der beiden Nationalstaaten 1990, existiert „Deutschland“ als souveräner Nationalstaat.
In 1937 the camera was advertised like this:
Flat, elegant and vivacious is she, the Bessa. It does not require any complicated handling and no great photographic knowledge.
Whether summer or winter, day or night - you can take pictures with the Bessa at any hour, if only a little light falls on the subject somewhere. You can even - and this is the fabulous thing about it - use the shutter release on the "Laufboden" (D.R.P.=Deutsches Reichs Patent) to take pictures freehand when others have long since had to reach for a tripod.
You can take this light, slim camera with you wherever you go, and taking pictures is even more fun because it's so incredibly easy. You'll be "ready to shoot" in no time at all, and you'll have your shot just as quickly.
Picture size as desired:
Not only shots in 6x9 format, no, you can also take 35mm shots with the Bessa. The mask is inserted with a flick of the wrist, and now you get 16 shots 4 1/2 x6 cm on one film instead of 8 shots 6x9 cm. A fine thing, huh? You buy one camera and practically have two.
A few years later, "being ready to shoot" no longer had anything to do with photography.
On September 1, 1939, the Second World War began with the invasion of Poland.
Voigtländer stopped the camera production and produced only war important goods.
Already in 1937, when this camera was launched on the market, parliamentarianism, the rule of law and social decency in former "German Reich" had already perished
Immediately after the beginning of the war there was a mass murder of Jews and other ethnic groups, political opponents and disabled people in the National Socialist area, which was to last until the end of the war and Decline of the German Reich in 1945.
From 1949 to 1990 there were two German nation states, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR).
Since the reunification of the two nation states 1990, "Germany" exists as a sovereign nation state.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
American card by Movie Candid Color Card, Beverly Hills, Calif., no. A32. Photo: Frank Powolny / 20th Century Fox. Caption: Gregory Peck began his professional career in 1939 as a barker. After a few appearances on Broadway, screen writer Casey Robinson brought him to Hollywood where he rapidly became one of the screen's most sought after stars.
American actor Gregory Peck (1916-2003) was one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s. Peck received five nominations for Academy Award for Best Actor and won once – for his performance as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). He almost always played courageous, nobly heroic good guys who saw injustice and fought it. Among his best known films are Spellbound (1945), The Yearling (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), Roman Holiday (1953), The Guns of Navarone (1961), and Cape Fear (1962).
Eldred Gregory Peck was born in 1916 in La Jolla, California (now in San Diego). His parents were Bernice Mary (Ayres) and Gregory Pearl Peck, a chemist, and druggist in San Diego. His parents divorced when he was five years old. An only child, he was sent to live with his grandmother. He never felt he had a stable childhood. His fondest memories are of his grandmother taking him to the cinema every week and of his dog, which followed him everywhere. Peck's father encouraged him to take up medicine. He studied pre-med at UC-Berkeley and, while there, got bitten by the acting bug and decided to change the focus of his studies. He enrolled in the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and debuted on Broadway after graduation. His debut was in Emlyn Williams' play 'The Morning Star' (1942). By 1943, he was in Hollywood, where he debuted in the RKO film Days of Glory (Jacques Tourneur, 1944). Stardom came with his next film, The Keys of the Kingdom (John M. Stahl, 1944), for which he was nominated for an Oscar. Tony Fontana at IMDb: "Peck's screen presence displayed the qualities for which he became well known. He was tall, rugged and heroic, with a basic decency that transcended his roles." He appeared opposite Ingrid Bergman in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945) as an amnesia victim accused of murder. In The Yearling (Clarence Brown, 1946), he was again nominated for an Oscar and won the Golden Globe. He was especially effective in Westerns and appeared in such varied fare as David O. Selznick's critically blasted Duel in the Sun (King Vidor, 1946), the somewhat better received Yellow Sky (William A. Wellman, 1948), and the acclaimed The Gunfighter (Henry King, 1950). He was nominated again for the Academy Award for his roles in Gentleman's Agreement (Elia Kazan, 1947), which dealt with anti-Semitism, and Twelve O'Clock High (Henry King, 1949), a story of high-level stress in an Air Force bomber unit in World War II. In 1947, Peck, along with Dorothy McGuire, David O'Selznick, and Mel Ferrer, founded the La Jolla Playhouse, located in his hometown, and produced many of the classics there. Due to film commitments, he could not return to Broadway but whet his appetite for live theatre on occasion at the Playhouse, keeping it firmly established with a strong, reputable name over the years.
With a string of hits to his credit, Gregory Peck made the decision to only work in films that interested him. He continued to appear as the heroic, larger-than-life figures in such films as Captain Horatio Hornblower (Raoul Walsh, 1951) with Virginia Mayo, and Moby Dick (John Huston, 1956) with Richard Basehart. He worked with Audrey Hepburn in her debut film, Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953). While filming The Bravados (Henry King, 1958), he decided to become a cowboy in real life, so he purchased a vast working ranch near Santa Barbara, California - already stocked with 600 head of prize cattle. In the early 1960s, he gave a powerful performance as Captain Keith Mallory in The Guns of Navarone (J. Lee Thompson, 1961) opposite David Niven and Anthony Quinn. The film was one of the biggest box-office hits of that year. Peck finally won the Oscar, after four nominations, for his performance as lawyer Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962). He also appeared in two darker films than he usually made, Cape Fear (J. Lee Thompson, 1962) opposite Robert Mitchum, and Captain Newman, M.D. (David Miller, 1963) with Tony Curtis, which dealt with the way people live. The financial failure of Cape Fear (1962) ended his company, Melville Productions. After making Arabesque (Stanley Donen, 1966) with Sophia Loren, Peck withdrew from acting for three years in order to concentrate on various humanitarian causes, including the American Cancer Society. In the early 1970s, he produced two films, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (Gordon Davidson, 1972) and The Dove (Charles Jarrott, 1974), when his film career stalled. He made a comeback playing, somewhat woodenly, Ambassador Robert Thorn in the horror film The Omen (Richard Donner, 1976) with Lee Remick. After that, he returned to the bigger-than-life roles he was best known for, such as MacArthur (Joseph Sargent, 1977) and the infamous Nazi war criminal Dr. Josef Mengele in the huge hit The Boys from Brazil (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1978) with Laurence Olivier and James Mason. In the 1980s, he moved into television with the miniseries The Blue and the Gray (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1982) in which he played Abraham Lincoln, and The Scarlet and the Black (Jerry London, 1983) with Christopher Plummer and John Gielgud. In 1991, he appeared in the remake of his 1962 film, playing a different role, in Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear (1991). He was also cast as the progressive-thinking owner of a wire and cable business in Other People's Money (Norman Jewison, 1991), starring Danny DeVito. In 1967, Peck received the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. He was also been awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom. Always politically progressive, he was active in such causes as anti-war protests, workers' rights, and civil rights. In 2003, Peck's portrayal of Atticus Finch was named the greatest film hero of the past 100 years by the American Film Institute, only two weeks before his death. Atticus beat out Indiana Jones, who was placed second, and James Bond who came third. Gregory Peck died in 2003 in Los Angeles, California. He was 87. Peck was married twice. From 1942 till 1955, he was married to Greta Kukkonen. They had three children: Jonathan Peck (1944-1975), Stephen Peck (1946), and Carey Paul Peck (1949). His second wife was Veronique Passani, whom he met at the set of Roman Holliday. They married in 1955 and had two children: Tony Peck (1956) and Cecilia Peck (1958). The couple remained together till his death.
Sources: Tony Fontana (IMDb), and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Korea's first-edition Warner Brothers release of "The Exorcist" features the iconic still, said to be influenced by a Magritte painting, of Max von Sydow in the fog. Unusual ex-rental features a "Viewing allowed by youngsters" green label at the bottom - perhaps a nod to the Catholic Legion of Decency's giving the film a lenient A-4 "Morally acceptable in part for adults, with reservations." Several imitations were slapped with the dreaded "C" (Condemned) rating at the time. Once a common tape, now scarce.
© John C. Mejia, All rights reserved This is a copyrighted image with all rights reserved. Do NOT use this image on any website, blog, Facebook, Tumblr or ANY other type of media without my explicit written permission. Contact me...and let's talk. I'm a reasonable person.
We spottted this fellow perched in a tree on the opposite side of the Wenatchee River. Luckily, he stayed around long enough for us to turn around and get our gear out. It wasn't long before he took flight just as I got my focus locked in on him! He at least had the decency to finish his dump before taking off! :-)
If it were a perfect world, I would gladly leave my normally unobtrusive watermark off in a corner. But sadly, it is not. And so I am forced to now place it front & center to discourage dishonest people from image theft and cropping watermarks. My apologies to image loving fans everywhere...I trust you will understand. Help fight this by reporting such abuses immediately!
www.thelivingmoon.com/49ufo_files/03files2/Black_Knight_S...
"Black Knight" Satellite
What is the "Black Knight" satellite? It is a mysterious satellite, of unknown origin, discovered in 1960 which shadowed Sputnik. It is believed to have been of extraterrestrial origin, and signaled back old radio waves from the 1920s and 1930s before it disappeared. In short wave patterns analyzed by astronomer Duncan Lunan, it revealed its origin as Epsilon Boötes (or the star system as it was 13,000 years ago).
In "Disneyland of the Gods", by John Keel, he reports in depth on this satellite:
"In February 1960 the US detected an unknown object in polar orbit, a feat that neither they or the USSR had been able to accomplish. As if that wasn't enough, it apparently was several sizes larger than anything either country would have been able to get off the ground.
And then, the oddness began. HAM operators began to receive strange coded messages. One person in particular said he managed to decode one of the transmissions, and it corresponded to a star chart. A star chart which would have been plotted from earth 13,000 years ago, and focused on the Epsilon Bostes star system.
On September 3, 1960, seven months after the satellite was first detected by radar, a tracking camera at Grumman Aircraft Corporation's Long Island factory took a photograph of it. People on the ground had been occasionally seeing it for about two weeks at that point. Viewers would make it out as a red glowing object moving in an east-to-west orbit. Most satellites of the time, according to what little material I've been able to find on the black knight satellite, moved from west-to-east. It's speed was also about three times normal. A committee was formed to examine it, but nothing more was ever made public.
Three years later, Gordon Cooper was launched into space for a 22 orbit mission. On his final orbit, he reported seeing a glowing green shape ahead of his capsule, and heading in his direction. It's said that the Muchea tracking station, in Australia, which Cooper reported this too was also able to pick it up on radar traveling in an east-to-west orbit. This event was reported by NBC, but reporters were forbidden to ask Cooper about the event on his landing. The official explanation is that an electrical malfunction in the capsule had caused high levels of carbon dioxide, which induced hallucinations.[1]"
Now, I [webmaster] haven't been able to find reports on this satellite from any news source, but given the recently discovered photos from Russian satellite footage and the stories regarding unknown objects that the early US astronauts saw, I'm inclined to believe this satellite existed. However, the question is its origin- was it a secret US military project, an artifact from earlier in history, or extraterrestrial? The evidence is insufficient to determine the answer.
Call of The Black Knight
By TheAllSeeingI | Published: August 10, 2010
"Our home is Epsilon Boötis, which is a double star. We live on the sixth planet of seven—check that, the sixth of seven—counting outwards from the sun, which is the larger of the two stars. Our sixth planet has one moon. Our fourth planet has three. Our first and third planet each have one. Our probe is in the orbit of your moon."
–signal translation originating from ‘The Black Knight’ Satellite, Time Magazine April 9, 1973
In 1953, four years before the U.S.S.R. launched Sputnik I, an object of unknown origin was sighted by Dr Lincoln La Paz of the University of New Mexico orbiting the earth. As more reports of sightings trickled in from around the world, the U.S. Department of Defense appointed distinguished astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh (best known for his discovery of the dwarf ‘planet’ of Pluto in 1930) to run a search for the mystery object. The blip became known as "Black Knight".
The Pentagon never formally released the results of Dr Tombaugh’s study. No more was heard about the object until December, 1957, when Dr Luis Corralos of the Communications Ministry in Venezuela photographed it. The first modern satellites, Sputnik I & 2, had been launched just a few months earlier. Dr Corralos was taking pictures of the second of these modern marvels as it passed over Caracas, and his photos caught the unknown object shadowing the Russian craft.
"Black Knight" was observed once again in 1960, this time by one of the stations that formed the Northern American Air Defense System. The object was in a polar orbit, something that neither the Americans or Soviets were capable of at the time. Several times larger and heavier than anything capable of being launched with 1960 rockets, it shouldn’t have been there, but it was. The observance sent panic through the U.S. military. Not only did the intelligence agencies have no idea that the USSR had launched a new satellite, nothing in their reports on Soviet space activity suggested they had the capacity to place an object into a polar orbit, or to launch something that was estimated to be in excess of 15 tons. The military scientists were horrified, since they were at least four years away from achieving polar orbits and getting payloads that large into space.
Similar waves of shock and anxiety were spreading through the Soviet ranks. They had not launched the satellite and knew they were years away from being able to accomplish such a feat, they also knew that the Americans could not do it either. No one knew where it came from, but it was definitely there.
Three years later Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper was launched into space on his 22 orbit mission in the Faith 7 capsule. On his final orbit, he reported seeing a glowing green shape ahead of his capsule, and heading in his direction. The Muchea tracking station, in Australia, which Cooper reported this too was also able to pick it up on radar traveling in an east-to-west orbit. This event was reported by NBC, but reporters were forbidden to ask Cooper about the event on his landing. The official explanation is that an electrical malfunction in the capsule had caused high levels of carbon dioxide, which induced hallucinations.
If this weren’t enough, Ham radio operators worldwide had been receiving messages from Black Knight. Perhaps the strangest phenomenon associated with the Black Knight was the Long Delay Echo (LDE). The effect observed was that radio or television signals sent into space bounce back seconds (or even days) later, as if recorded and retransmitted by a satellite. First indentified over 30 years earlier by Norwegian geophysicist Carl Stormer and a Dutch collaborator Balthasar van der Pol, the duo discovered that short wave radio messages were followed by mysterious echoes that were picked up at indiscriminate intervals after the original transmissions. Indeed, the delays were so long that they could not be readily attributed to atmospheric quirks, magnetic storms or other natural phenomena. To this day, scientists have been unable to solve the mystery of the echoes.
Scottish Astronomer and science writer Duncan Lunan, in a paper presented to the British Interplanetary Society in 1973, noticed a correspondence between the LDE effect and the periodic appearances of Black Knight. To go further, he claimed that these "echoes" carried messages and star map which he had decoded. Lunan theorized the messages may have been relayed to earth by a robot spacecraft from a highly advanced civilization far beyond the solar system. More astonishing, Lunan added, the automatic vehicle may have been circling the moon for thousands of years, waiting patiently for earthlings to acquire the necessary know-how to contact it.
In 1960 Radio Astronomer Ronald Bracewell of Stanford University speculated on life elsewhere in the galaxy. An article published in Nature offered the theory that an advanced civilization might not necessarily use long-range radio signals to communicate with other intelligent beings. Such signals would be considerably weakened over interstellar distances. Instead, Bracewell said, those far-off beings might employ robot space probes as their message bearers. Sent to a promising nearby star, such a vehicle could swing into an orbit around it at approximately the right distance to encounter a planet with life-supporting temperatures. If it picked up telltale radio signals, the probe might then bounce them back to advertise its presence, thereby producing an effect like the echoes of the 1920s. Finally, as its first message, the robot might transmit a picture of the area of the heavens from which it came.
images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0PDoKiAolxSoC...
The Black Knight Satellite that could be thousands of years old
Posted by prayingforoneday on October 8, 2013
nasa ufo black night
An interesting video on the history of the Black Knight. A satellite that was located in space in the 1960. It neither belonged to the Russians or the Americans.. Some people think it spans back to a previous civilisation on earth and some think it is an alien craft.
In 1899 Tesla discovered an electronic signal that he believed was coming from space. Signal where later picked up in the 1920s by HAM radio enthusiasts, it was coming from 400/600 feet up they eventually found out after at first thought it was coming from Mars. So to start, this thing is 100% in orbit, it’s transmitting, so it can’t be a lost piece of NASA tools or covers etc ok, we clear, agree? ok……
1960 North American System Listening Station picked up a radar echo. They had detected an unknown satellite in orbit. R.Johnson director of the Adler Planetarium was involved, Google him, why was he involved? The object does not even have the decency to maintain a regular schedule like any other heavenly body or man made object we have ever seen. It appears some nights and some nights it does not.
The satellite was in a polar orbit. It was further revealed that this could not have been the work of either Russia or the USA as they could not achieve polar orbit at the time. The USA named the satellite the Black Knight. A special committee was formed to gather information on the mysterious satellite.. An article was put into time magazine about it. The satellite was photographed on 3rd September 1960 Long Island and Some seven months after it first appeared on radar image. On 1963 it was seen by an astronaut going into space.
On December 1998 The space craft endeavour was making a journey to the Space Station it recorded several images that many people think to be the Black Knight. The links to the images are on the video.
The object is still believed to be in Orbit to this day. NASA explanation to what the object is has changed several times. and that is a “Conspiracy” They are not all fake, some are true, below I don’t believe too much said by Nostradamus, but here is one of his quatrains (Small visions) What you think?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT4Vq32zlDs#t=12
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlkV1ybBnHI#t=45
prayingforoneday.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/the-black-knigh...
www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sEuDK...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGKtlB9cYV0
www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=V7t6o...
video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A2KLqIWhrFxS3ksA5I...
This piece of art will be lost on most people of Dundee
A truism is a claim that is so obvious or self-evident as to be hardly worth mentioning, except as a reminder or as a rhetorical or literary device.
a little knowledge can go a long way
a lot of professionals are crackpots
a man can't know what it is to be a mother
a name means a lot just by itself
a positive attitude means all the difference in the world
a relaxed man is not necessarily a better man
a sense of timing is the mark of genius
a sincere effort is all you can ask
a single event can have infinitely many interpretations
a solid home base builds a sense of self
a strong sense of duty imprisons you
absolute submission can be a form of freedom
abstraction is a type of decadence
abuse of power comes as no surprise
action causes more trouble than thought
alienation produces eccentrics or revolutionaries
all things are delicately interconnected
ambition is just as dangerous as complacency
ambivalence can ruin your life
an elite is inevitable
anger or hate can be a useful motivating force
animalism is perfectly healthy
any surplus is immoral
anything is a legitimate area of investigation
artificial desires are despoiling the earth
at times inactivity is preferable to mindless functioning
at times your unconsciousness is truer than your conscious mind
automation is deadly
awful punishment awaits really bad people
bad intentions can yield good results
being alone with yourself is increasingly unpopular
being happy is more important than anything else
being judgmental is a sign of life
being sure of yourself means you're a fool
believing in rebirth is the same as admitting defeat
boredom makes you do crazy things
calm is more conductive to creativity than is anxiety
categorizing fear is calming
change is valuable when the oppressed become tyrants
chasing the new is dangerous to society
children are the most cruel of all
children are the hope of the future
class action is a nice idea with no substance
class structure is as artificial as plastic
confusing yourself is a way to stay honest
crime against property is relatively unimportant
decadence can be an end in itself
decency is a relative thing
dependence can be a meal ticket
description is more important than metaphor
deviants are sacrificed to increase group solidarity
disgust is the appropriate response to most situations
disorganization is a kind of anesthesia
don't place to much trust in experts
drama often obscures the real issues
dreaming while awake is a frightening contradiction
dying and coming back gives you considerable perspective
dying should be as easy as falling off a log
eating too much is criminal
elaboration is a form of pollution
emotional responses ar as valuable as intellectual responses
enjoy yourself because you can't change anything anyway
ensure that your life stays in flux
even your family can betray you
every achievement requires a sacrifice
everyone's work is equally important
everything that's interesting is new
exceptional people deserve special concessions
expiring for love is beautiful but stupid
expressing anger is necessary
extreme behavior has its basis in pathological psychology
extreme self-consciousness leads to perversion
faithfulness is a social not a biological law
fake or real indifference is a powerful personal weapon
fathers often use too much force
fear is the greatest incapacitator
freedom is a luxury not a necessity
giving free rein to your emotions is an honest way to live
go all out in romance and let the chips fall where they may
going with the flow is soothing but risky
good deeds eventually are rewarded
government is a burden on the people
grass roots agitation is the only hope
guilt and self-laceration are indulgences
habitual contempt doesn't reflect a finer sensibility
hiding your emotions is despicable
holding back protects your vital energies
humanism is obsolete
humor is a release
ideals are replaced by conventional goals at a certain age
if you aren't political your personal life should be exemplary
if you can't leave your mark give up
if you have many desires your life will be interesting
if you live simply there is nothing to worry about
ignoring enemies is the best way to fight
illness is a state of mind
imposing order is man's vocation for chaos is hell
in some instances it's better to die than to continue
inheritance must be abolished
it can be helpful to keep going no matter what
it is heroic to try to stop time
it is man's fate to outsmart himself
it is a gift to the world not to have babies
it's better to be a good person than a famous person
it's better to be lonely than to be with inferior people
it's better to be naive than jaded
it's better to study the living fact than to analyze history
it's crucial to have an active fantasy life
it's good to give extra money to charity
it's important to stay clean on all levels
it's just an accident that your parents are your parents
it's not good to hold too many absolutes
it's not good to operate on credit
it's vital to live in harmony with nature
just believing something can make it happen
keep something in reserve for emergencies
killing is unavoidable but nothing to be proud of
knowing yourself lets you understand others
knowledge should be advanced at all costs
labor is a life-destroying activity
lack of charisma can be fatal
leisure time is a gigantic smoke screen
listen when your body talks
looking back is the first sign of aging and decay
loving animals is a substitute activity
low expectations are good protection
manual labor can be refreshing and wholesome
men are not monogamous by nature
moderation kills the spirit
money creates taste
monomania is a prerequisite of success
morals are for little people
most people are not fit to rule themselves
mostly you should mind your own business
mothers shouldn't make too many sacrifices
much was decided before you were born
murder has its sexual side
myth can make reality more intelligible
noise can be hostile
nothing upsets the balance of good and evil
occasionally principles are more valuable than people
offer very little information about yourself
often you should act like you are sexless
old friends are better left in the past
opacity is an irresistible challenge
pain can be a very positive thing
people are boring unless they are extremists
people are nuts if they think they are important
people are responsible for what they do unless they are insane
people who don't work with their hands are parasites
people who go crazy are too sensitive
people won't behave if they have nothing to lose
physical culture is second best
planning for the future is escapism
playing it safe can cause a lot of damage in the long run
politics is used for personal gain
potential counts for nothing until it's realized
private property created crime
pursuing pleasure for the sake of pleasure will ruin you
push yourself to the limit as often as possible
raise boys and girls the same way
random mating is good for debunking sex myths
rechanneling destructive impulses is a sign of maturity
recluses always get weak
redistributing wealth is imperative
relativity is no boon to mankind
religion causes as many problems as it solves
remember you always have freedom of choice
repetition is the best way to learn
resolutions serve to ease our conscience
revolution begins with changes in the individual
romantic love was invented to manipulate women
routine is a link with the past
routine small excesses are worse than then the occasional debauch
sacrificing yourself for a bad cause is not a moral act
salvation can't be bought and sold
self-awareness can be crippling
self-contempt can do more harm than good
selfishness is the most basic motivation
selflessness is the highest achievement
separatism is the way to a new beginning
sex differences are here to stay
sin is a means of social control
slipping into madness is good for the sake of comparison
sloppy thinking gets worse over time
solitude is enriching
sometimes science advances faster than it should
sometimes things seem to happen of their own accord
spending too much time on self-improvement is antisocial
starvation is nature's way
stasis is a dream state
sterilization is a weapon of the rulers
strong emotional attachment stems from basic insecurity
stupid people shouldn't breed
survival of the fittest applies to men and animals
symbols are more meaningful than things themselves
taking a strong stand publicizes the opposite position
talking is used to hide one's inability to act
teasing people sexually can have ugly consequences
technology will make or break us
the cruelest disappointment is when you let yourself down
the desire to reproduce is a death wish
the family is living on borrowed time
the idea of revolution is an adolescent fantasy
the idea of transcendence is used to obscure oppression
the idiosyncratic has lost its authority
the most profound things are inexpressible
the mundane is to be cherished
the new is nothing but a restatement of the old
the only way to be pure is to stay by yourself
the sum of your actions determines what you are
the unattainable is invariable attractive
the world operates according to discoverable laws
there are too few immutable truths today
there's nothing except what you sense
there's nothing redeeming in toil
thinking too much can only cause problems
threatening someone sexually is a horrible act
timidity is laughable
to disagree presupposes moral integrity
to volunteer is reactionary
torture is barbaric
trading a life for a life is fair enough
true freedom is frightful
unique things must be the most valuable
unquestioning love demonstrates largesse of spirit
using force to stop force is absurd
violence is permissible even desirable occasionally
war is a purification rite
we must make sacrifices to maintain our quality of life
when something terrible happens people wake up
wishing things away is not effective
with perseverance you can discover any truth
words tend to be inadequate
worrying can help you prepare
you are a victim of the rules you live by
you are guileless in your dreams
you are responsible for constituting the meaning of things
you are the past present and future
you can live on through your descendants
you can't expect people to be something they're not
you can't fool others if you're fooling yourself
you don't know what's what until you support yourself
you have to hurt others to be extraordinary
you must be intimate with a token few
you must disagree with authority figures
you must have one grand passion
you must know where you stop and the world begins
you can understand someone of your sex only
you owe the world not the other way around
you should study as much as possible
your actions ae pointless if no one notices
your oldest fears are the worst ones
These flamingos had the decency to eat where the soft overcast light on them was good, and the area behind them was in deep shade. This is taken at the large Flamingo lagoon near the main entrance to the San Diego Zoo. I always love to watch these stately birds.
Other pictures I have taken at our world famous zoo can be seen in my creatively named San Diego Zoo album.
www.flickr.com/photos/9422878@N08/sets/72157621078764843/
Other pictures that I've taken of birds are in my Birds album.
In the good old days the chavs had the decency to actually deface places with skill! Not like our lightweight modern counterparts!
Eeee the youth of today eh!
I am so pleased to find a Flickr group dedicated to public toilets. I thought I was a bit wierd in liking to toilets and wanting to take photographs. Well, OK, it is wierd! I might now try it more often, common decency and the law permitting?
I don't even really like this photo, but my hard drive is full (again) and until I get some more DVD's I can't really shoot anything new. (This should be remedied in a day or 2.) I wanted to upload something anyway because I have something to rant about a little bit.
Some of you (my contacts) will know what sparked this little rant, and some of you will know and understand why my ranting about this has multiple reasons behind it.
It's recently been brought to my attention that someone out there in the Flickr world has been copying other people's photos without giving any credit to the originals. I'm not going to name names here.. because I'm not trying to start a big debate about this particular person on my photostream. (Also, any comments mentioning specific people will be deleted.) I am only bringing it up because it is one of my biggest "pet peeves" - if one could call it that.
It's true that there are few truly 'original' ideas out there... pretty much everything has already been done. So, in a way we are all influenced by what we have seen, whether we know it, or it be subconscious. I think it's important to be aware of our influences though, and when drawing from a specific source, it's only common decency to let people know about that source. In other words, if you're going to copy/interpret/be inspired by someone else's photo/song/poem, etc... give that person some credit instead of letting people assume you thought of it all on your own.
I don't want anyone to go getting paranoid and think that I'm accusing anyone of copying me... that isn't what this is about. All I'm saying is that if you see a photo of mine (or anyones!) and decide that you want to do something similar because of it... give me (or that person) some credit for the idea. It takes all of 10 seconds to say "oh, by the way.. I got this idea from _____" or "this photo was inspired by ____". It's only fair, and believe me when I say that it is flattering to be the source of someone's inspiration... but that feeling of "flattery" turns into 'annoyance' if someone doesn't give proper credit. ((Many people have been inspired by photos of mine, and have provided a link to my page, and I think that is wonderful!! xo))
Once again, I want to reiterate that this isn't solely about me - this goes for everyone out there. When I am inspired by someone else's work or a specific photo, I always provide a link to that person. When I use textures, I link to the creators of those textures (unless they specifically say there is no need to credit them.) Hell, I link to people even if I didn't think of one of their photos until after I took it.
As photographers, as artists, we're all in this together. We have to look out for each other, ya know?
Just a little rant to remind everyone out there to please please please remember to credit your inspiration when it applies. xo
Thanks for reading this!
Belgian postcard, no. 96.
Voluptuous American actress Mamie Van Doren (1931) was a sex symbol of the 1950s and 1960s. Van Doren starred in several exploitation films such as Untamed Youth (1957), loaded with rock 'n' roll and juvenile delinquency. Her onscreen wardrobe usually consisted of tight sweaters, low-cut blouses, form-fitting dresses, and daring swimsuits. Mamie and her colleague blonde bombshells Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield were known as 'The Three M's.'
Mamie Van Doren was born Joan Lucille Olander in Rowena, South Dakota, in 1931. She was the daughter of Warner Carl Olander and Lucille Harriet Bennett. In 1942 the family moved to Los Angeles. In early 1946, Van Doren began working as an usher at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. The following year, she had a bit part on an early television show. She also sang with Ted Fio Rito's band and entered several beauty contests. She was married for a brief time at seventeen when Van Doren and her first husband, Jack Newman, eloped to Santa Barbara. The marriage was dissolved quickly, upon her discovery of his abusive nature. In the summer of 1949, at age 18, she won the titles Miss Eight Ball and Miss Palm Springs. Van Doren was discovered by producer Howard Hughes the night she was crowned Miss Palm Springs. The pair dated for five years. Hughes provided her with a bit role in Jet Pilot at RKO Radio Pictures. Her line of dialogue inconsisted of one word, "Look!". The following year, 1951, she posed for famous pin-up girl artist Alberto Vargas, the painter of the glamorous Vargas Girls. His painting of Van Doren was on the July 1951 cover of Esquire magazine. Van Doren did a few more bit parts in RKO films, including His Kind of Woman (John Farrow, 1951) starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell. Van Doren then began working on the stage. She was a showgirl in New York in Monte Proser's nightclub version of Billion Dollar Baby. Songwriter Jimmy McHugh discovered her for his musicals, then decided she was too good for the chorus line and should have dramatic training. She studied with Ben Bard and Bliss-Hayden. While appearing in the role of Marie in a showcase production of Come Back, Little Sheba, Van Doren was seen by Phil Benjamin, a casting director at Universal International. In 1953, Van Doren signed a contract with Universal Studios. They had big plans for her, hoping she would bring the same kind of success that 20th Century Fox had with Marilyn Monroe. Van Doren, whose signing day coincided with the inauguration of President Eisenhower, was given the first name Mamie for Ike's wife, Mamie Eisenhower. Universal first cast Van Doren in a minor role as a singer in Forbidden (Rudolph Maté, 1953), starring Tony Curtis. Interested in Van Doren's allure, Universal then cast her again opposite Curtis in The All American (Jesse Hibbs, 1953), playing her first major role as Susie Ward, a wayward girl who is the man-trap at a campus beer joint. In Yankee Pasha (Joseph Pevney, 1954), starring Jeff Chandler and Rhonda Fleming, she played a slave girl, Lilith. In 1955, she had a supporting role in the musical Ain't Misbehavin' (Edward Buzzell, 1955) and starred in the crime-drama Running Wild (Abner Biberman, 1955). Soon thereafter, Van Doren turned down a Broadway role in the play Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, and was replaced by newcomer Jayne Mansfield. In 1956, Van Doren appeared in the Western Star in the Dust (Charles F. Haas, 1956). Though Van Doren garnered prominent billing alongside John Agar and Richard Boone, she appears rather briefly, as the daughter of a ranch owner. By this time, Van Doren had grown tired of Universal, which was only casting her in non-breakthrough roles. Therefore, Van Doren began accepting bigger roles in better movies from other studios, such as Teacher's Pet (George Seaton, 1958) with Doris Day and Clark Gable. She appeared in some of the first films to feature rock 'n' roll music, such as Untamed Youth (Howard W. Koch, 1957). The film was originally condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency, but that only served to enhance the curiosity factor, resulting in it being a big moneymaker for the studio. Van Doren became identified with this rebellious style, and made some rock records. She went to star in several bad girl movies that later became cult films. These include Born Reckless (Howard W. Koch, 1958), High School Confidential (Jack Arnold, 1958), and The Beat Generation (Charles F. Haas, 1959). After Universal Studios chose not to renew her contract in 1959, Van Doren was now a free agent and had to struggle to find work.
Mamie Van Doren became known for her provocative roles. She was in prison for Girls Town (Charles F. Haas, 1959), which provoked censors with a shower scene where audiences could see Van Doren's naked back. As Eve in The Private Lives of Adam and Eve (Mickey Rooney, Albert Zugsmith, 1960) she wore only fig leaves, and in other films, like Vice Raid (Edward L. Cahn, 1960) audiences were clued in as to the nature of the films from the titles. Many of these productions were low-budget B-movies which sometimes gained a cult following for their high camp value. An example is Sex Kittens Go to College (Albert Zugsmith, 1960), which co-starred Tuesday Weld and Mijanou Bardot - Brigitte's sister. Mamie also appeared in foreign productions, such as the Italian crime comedy Le bellissime gambe di Sabrina/The Beautiful Legs of Sabrina (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1959) with Antonio Cifariello, and the Argentine film Una americana en Buenos Aires/The Blonde from Buenos Aires (George Cahan, 1961) with Jean-Pierre Aumont. Van Doren took some time off from her career and came back to the screen in 1964. That year she played in the German Western musical Freddy und das Lied der Prärie/In the Wild West (Sobey Martin, 1964), starring Freddy Quinn and Rik Battaglia. Tommy Noonan convinced Van Doren to appear in 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt (Tommy Noonan, 1964). Van Doren had turned down Noonan's previous offer to star in Promises! Promises!, in which she would have to do nude scenes. She was replaced by Jayne Mansfield. In 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt, Mamie did a beer-bath scene, but is not seen nude. She posed for Playboy to promote the film. Van Doren next appeared in The Las Vegas Hillbillys (Arthur C. Pierce, 1966) which co-starred Jayne Mansfield. It was the only time two of 'The Three M's' appeared together in a film. A sequel was titled Hillbillys in a Haunted House, but Van Doren turned this role down, and was replaced by Joi Lansing. She appeared in You've Got to Be Smart (Ellis Kadison, 1967), and the Sci-Fi film, Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968), directed by the young Peter Bogdanovich (as Derek Thomas). In this film astronauts land on Venus and encounter dangerous creatures and meet sexy Venusian women who like to sun-bathe in hip-hugging skin-tight pants and seashell brassieres. In 1968, she was offered the role of a murder victim in the independent horror film The Ice House as a replacement for Mansfield, who died the previous year. She turned the offer down, however, and was replaced by Sabrina. During the Vietnam War, she did tours for U.S. troops in Vietnam for three months in 1968, and again in 1970. Van Doren also developed a nightclub act and did live theatre. She performed in stage productions of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Dames at Sea at the Drury Lane Theater, Chicago, and appeared in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and The Tender Trap at the Arlington Park Theater. In the 1970s, Van Doren performed a nightclub act in Las Vegas as well. Van Doren had a supporting role in the Western The Arizona Kid (Luciano B. Carlos, 1970). Since then, Van Doren has appeared only in cameo appearances in low-budgeted films. To this date Van Doren's last film appearance was a cameo role in the comedy Slackers (Dewey Nicks, 2002). Van Doren's guest appearances on television include Jukebox Jury, What's My Line, The Bob Cummings Show, The Jack Benny Show, Fantasy Island, Burke's Law, Vega$, and L.A. Law. She released her autobiography, Playing the Field, in 1987 which brought much new attention and proved to be her biggest media splash in over 25 years. Since the book's publication she has often been interviewed and profiled and has occasionally returned to acting. Van Doren has been married five times. Her first marriage was to sportswear manufacturer Jack Newman whom she married and divorced in 1950. Her second marriage was to bandleader, composer and actor Ray Anthony whom she married in 1955. They had one son, Perry Ray Anthony (1956). The couple later divorced in 1961. When Van Doren's early 1960s, highly publicized, on-again off-again engagement to baseball player Bo Belinsky ended in 1964, she married baseball player Lee Meyers in 1966. They were divorced in 1967. Her fourth marriage was to businessman Ross McClintock in 1972. They met while working on President Nixon's reelection campaign; the marriage was annulled in 1973. Since 1979 she has been married to Thomas Dixon, an actor and dentist.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
French postcard in the Entr'acte series by Éditions Asphodèle. Mâcon, no. 001/03. Gregory Peck and Karl Struss on the set of The Macomber Affair/Without Honor (Zoltan Korda, 1947). Caption: Low angle on Gregory Peck, on camera Karl Struss (middle).
American actor Gregory Peck (1916-2003) was one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s. Peck received five nominations for Academy Award for Best Actor and won once – for his performance as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). He almost always played courageous, nobly heroic good guys who saw injustice and fought it. Among his best known films are Spellbound (1945), The Yearling (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), Roman Holiday (1953), The Guns of Navarone (1961), and Cape Fear (1962).
Eldred Gregory Peck was born in 1916 in La Jolla, California (now in San Diego). His parents were Bernice Mary (Ayres) and Gregory Pearl Peck, a chemist and druggist in San Diego. His parents divorced when he was five years old. An only child, he was sent to live with his grandmother. He never felt he had a stable childhood. His fondest memories are of his grandmother taking him to the cinema every week and of his dog, which followed him everywhere. Peck's father encouraged him to take up medicine. He studied pre-med at UC-Berkeley and, while there, got bitten by the acting bug and decided to change the focus of his studies. He enrolled in the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and debuted on Broadway after graduation. His debut was in Emlyn Williams' play 'The Morning Star' (1942). By 1943, he was in Hollywood, where he debuted in the RKO film Days of Glory (Jacques Tourneur, 1944). Stardom came with his next film, The Keys of the Kingdom (John M. Stahl, 1944), for which he was nominated for an Oscar. Tony Fontana at IMDb: "Peck's screen presence displayed the qualities for which he became well known. He was tall, rugged and heroic, with a basic decency that transcended his roles." He appeared opposite Ingrid Bergman in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945) as an amnesia victim accused of murder. In The Yearling (Clarence Brown, 1946), he was again nominated for an Oscar and won the Golden Globe. He was especially effective in Westerns and appeared in such varied fare as David O. Selznick's critically blasted Duel in the Sun (King Vidor, 1946), the somewhat better received Yellow Sky (William A. Wellman, 1948) and the acclaimed The Gunfighter (Henry King, 1950). He was nominated again for the Academy Award for his roles in Gentleman's Agreement (Elia Kazan, 1947), which dealt with anti-Semitism, and Twelve O'Clock High (Henry King, 1949), a story of high-level stress in an Air Force bomber unit in World War II. In 1947, Peck, along with Dorothy McGuire, David O'Selznick and Mel Ferrer, founded the La Jolla Playhouse, located in his hometown, and produced many of the classics there. Due to film commitments, he could not return to Broadway but whet his appetite for live theatre on occasion at the Playhouse, keeping it firmly established with a strong, reputable name over the years.
With a string of hits to his credit, Gregory Peck made the decision to only work in films that interested him. He continued to appear as the heroic, larger-than-life figures in such films as Captain Horatio Hornblower (Raoul Walsh, 1951) with Virginia Mayo, and Moby Dick (John Huston, 1956) with Richard Basehart. He worked with Audrey Hepburn in her debut film, Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953). While filming The Bravados (Henry King, 1958), he decided to become a cowboy in real life, so he purchased a vast working ranch near Santa Barbara, California - already stocked with 600 head of prize cattle. In the early 1960s, he gave a powerful performance as Captain Keith Mallory in The Guns of Navarone (J. Lee Thompson, 1961) opposite David Niven and Anthony Quinn. The film was one of the biggest box-office hits of that year. Peck finally won the Oscar, after four nominations, for his performance as lawyer Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962). He also appeared in two darker films than he usually made, Cape Fear (J. Lee Thompson, 1962) opposite Robert Mitchum, and Captain Newman, M.D. (David Miller, 1963) with Tony Curtis, which dealt with the way people live. The financial failure of Cape Fear (1962) ended his company, Melville Productions. After making Arabesque (Stanley Donen, 1966) with Sophia Loren, Peck withdrew from acting for three years in order to concentrate on various humanitarian causes, including the American Cancer Society. In the early 1970s, he produced two films, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (Gordon Davidson, 1972) and The Dove (Charles Jarrott, 1974), when his film career stalled. He made a comeback playing, somewhat woodenly, Ambassador Robert Thorn in the horror film The Omen (Richard Donner, 1976) with Lee Remick. After that, he returned to the bigger-than-life roles he was best known for, such as MacArthur (Joseph Sargent, 1977) and the infamous Nazi war criminal Dr. Josef Mengele in the huge hit The Boys from Brazil (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1978) with Laurence Olivier and James Mason. In the 1980s, he moved into television with the miniseries The Blue and the Gray (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1982) in which he played Abraham Lincoln, and The Scarlet and the Black (Jerry London, 1983) with Christopher Plummer and John Gielgud. In 1991, he appeared in the remake of his 1962 film, playing a different role, in Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear (1991). He was also cast as the progressive-thinking owner of a wire and cable business in Other People's Money (Norman Jewison, 1991), starring Danny DeVito. In 1967, Peck received the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. He was also been awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom. Always politically progressive, he was active in such causes as anti-war protests, workers' rights, and civil rights. In 2003, Peck's portrayal of Atticus Finch was named the greatest film hero of the past 100 years by the American Film Institute, only two weeks before his death. Atticus beat out Indiana Jones, who was placed second, and James Bond who came third. Gregory Peck died in 2003 in Los Angeles, California. He was 87. Peck was married twice. From 1942 till 1955, he was married to Greta Kukkonen. They had three children: Jonathan Peck (1944-1975), Stephen Peck (1946) and Carey Paul Peck (1949). His second wife was Veronique Passani, whom he met at the set of Roman Holliday. They married in 1955 and had two children: Tony Peck (1956) and Cecilia Peck (1958). The couple remained together till his death.
Sources: Tony Fontana (IMDb), and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
This image is copyright, all rights reserved, and not part of the public domain. Any use, linking to, or posting of this image is prohibited without my consent. If you want to use this image in any fashion, please have the common courtesy and decency to ask.
Indian Creek, Indian Beach, Ecola State Park, Cannon Beach, Oregon
I hope this 4 foot waterfall over a huge log along Indian Creek qualifies as a Waterfall Wednesday post? It was a fun day celebrating my 23rd (x2) birthday at the beach on a nice Spring day. After a visit to Indian Beach I went to the Ecola Park bluff and did about 3 hours of Whale watching. It was cool watching these big Grey Whales splashing around although even with my big lens they were far enough away that they still appeared tiny in the frame. To end the day I celebrated with a nice steak dinner topped only by blueberry pie and a waitress singing happy birthday to me. Just a really great day of relaxation and peacefulness.
Happy Waterfall Wednesday Everybody!
3-Stop ND filter stacked with my Polarizer to control the water from blowing out as well as slowing the exposure time and getting me that deep blue in the sky.
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Story written by Gaetano P. Matteazzi.
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Most little boys dream of one day stepping inside their daddy’s shoes…and trying them on for size. Two of my all time favourite family photos are of David and Michael, when they were each 3 years old, standing in my shoes. I melt whenever I see those pictures.
I know when I was a little boy…I tried on my Papa’s shoes. They were too big for me. I always dreamed of one day fitting in them. But…even now…although my feet are actually larger than those of my father…Papa’s shoes are still too big…way too big…for me to ever fill. You see…
My father grew up during the depression and World War II in northern Italy. There was no time to play in my father’s youth…it was a time of poverty…a time of war…a time of struggling just to survive. He was 5 years old when he started to work on the farm, tending after cattle and ploughing the fields. He was 12 years old when war broke out…he was 18 when it ended. I have heard the atrocities that my poor father saw as a child…I will not repeat them here. Let me just say, no child should be exposed to what my father witnessed with his own eyes. Yet, to this day he never speaks with resentment as to how he was treated or what he saw. My dad taught me that war is horrible, that it brings out the worst in mankind, but one should forgive, work hard, help others, and judge a man not by his nationality, colour, or creed, but by his labour and integrity.
My father was a top student but a grade 4 education was all that was available at the time. He went no further. To this day, he can barely read or write English. But never assume he is stupid. My dad is very bright. I have 3 university degrees, but I have to be on my “A game” to even have a chance of beating him in a debate.
My father immigrated to Canada when he was 25 because there was no economic opportunity at the time. Like most immigrants, he dreamed of a better life for himself, and his future family. So, he packed a suitcase full of little more than wishes and aspirations and set sail for a new land – a land with a different set of languages, customs, and culture. It was also a land…without his beloved family or friends. My dad left for Canada…alone…knowing no English, no French and no one…at all.
My father was working on the rails in Alberta within a week of arriving in Canada. He worked there for 2 years and then moved to Ontario where he worked as a bricklayer and later in a factory. He sponsored and supported a brother, a sister and his future wife, to come to Canada, while sending a portion of his income to assist his family in Italy.
My father loved Canada…but he was often wounded by the racism that he encountered in those early years. Yet, he taught me not to fight back with fists…but with decency, reason and intellect.
My father has hands that are large, strong and rough…and some of his fingers are slightly twisted out of shape. That is the product of years of hard manual labour. I recall as a boy he would say to me, “See these hands?” “Don’t be like me…go to school…be better than me”. At the time, these comments did not always mean much. However, years later whenever I was tired or fed up with studying, I could hear my father’s voice saying “See these hands…don’t be like me…be better than me”. I would feel ashamed for having felt sorry for myself and would move on. The funny thing is, I could think of no one whom I would rather be like than my dad. I still can’t.
So you see…how could I…a man not worthy to even stand in my father’s shadow…ever be able…to stand in his shoes? Even if I could…I would never dream of it…for Papa never had his first pair of shoes…until he was 18.
June 2010.
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On Explore - thanks all!
or will it? — Did the rejection of the McCain/Palin ticket open the door for a more gradual continuing slide on the slippery slope toward fascism in America?
This is How Fascism Comes: Reflections on the Cost of Silence
from the article: "If fascism comes it will be interviewed, lovingly, on talk radio, by hosts whose cerebral inadequacies are more than made up for by their bellicosity, their bombast, their willingness to shout down those with whom they cannot argue, for argument requires knowledge, and this is a commodity with which they have not even a passing familiarity."
Here's the whole article [linked above]:
by Tim Wise
October 11, 2008, 7:26 pm
For those who have seen the ugliness and heard the vitriol emanating from the mouths of persons attending McCain/Palin rallies this past week--what with their demands to kill Barack Obama, slurs that he is a terrorist and a traitor, and paranoid delusions about his crypto-Muslim designs on America--please know this: This is how fascism comes to an ostensible democracy.
If it comes--and if those whose poisonous, unhinged verbiage has been so ubiquitous this week have any say over it, it surely will--this is how it will happen: not with tanks and jackbooted storm troopers, but carried in the hearts of men and women dressed in comfortable shoes, with baseball caps, and What Would Jesus Do? wristbands. It will be heralded by up-dos, designer glasses, you-betcha folksiness and a disdain for big words or hard consonants.
If fascism comes, it will spring from the soil of middle America, from people known as values voters but whose values are toxic, from simple folk whose simplicity, far from being admirable, is better labeled ignorance, from "all-American" types whose patriotism is a dagger pointed at the very heart of the national interest, for it so forsakes all the best principles upon which the republic was founded, choosing instead to elevate and ratify the narrow-mindedness, the bigotry, and the intolerance that also marked our country's origins.
If fascism comes, it will be ushered in by tailgaters at the big football game, by Joe Six Pack, who, upon finishing his sixth beer and belching forth the stench of a mediocre life lived, will gladly announce its arrival, so long as it comes with a steady supply of Pabst Blue Ribbon and hot dogs on the grill, and giant foam hands with a "We're Number 1" finger, some Mardi Gras beads and a good titty bar.
If fascism comes it will dress like a hockey mom, or a NASCAR dad. It will believe Toby Keith to be an artist, Larry the Cable Guy to be a comic, and that the world was made in six literal days less than 6000 years ago.
If fascism comes it will come from the small towns; the ones Sarah Palin, quoting a famous racist and Jew-hater, said "grow good people," and which occasionally do, but which, just as often grow provincial, isolated, fearful and superstitious ones.
If fascism comes it will come from faux populism, from anti-immigrant hysteria, from persons who have more guns in their homes than books, or whose books, when they have them, are principally volumes of the Left Behind series, several different copies of the Bible, and a plethora of romance novels.
If fascism comes it will be welcomed, lock stock and barrel by persons who pray at every meal to a God they visualize as white, whose son they also think was white, and who they believe is going to rapture them all into the sky upon the blowing of some heavenly trumpet, after which point all those who don't think as they think will be burned in an eternal lake of fire. Their vision and version of God is itself fascistic--to love a God who would do such a thing is to love an abusive, sadistic and evil deity after all--so it should come as little surprise that their conception of the state would be equally authoritarian or worse.
If fascism comes it will be at the behest of those who hold a contempt for what they call "book learnin," who prefer Presidents who mispronounce basic words because they make them feel smarter, and who are looking for nothing so much as a commander-in-chief with whom they would enjoy having a beer, or two, or twelve at some backyard barbecue.
If fascism comes it will be interviewed, lovingly, on talk radio, by hosts whose cerebral inadequacies are more than made up for by their bellicosity, their bombast, their willingness to shout down those with whom they cannot argue, for argument requires knowledge, and this is a commodity with which they have not even a passing familiarity.
If fascism comes it will come wrapped in red,white and blue, carrying a crucifix and a shotgun, projecting its own sexual confusion and insecurity onto others, substituting volume for veracity and rage for reason, and landing on the New York Times best-seller list as a result.
If fascism comes it will have a pajama party at Ann Coulter's house, pop pills with Rush Limbaugh, and go gay-bashing with Michael Savage, all in the same weekend. And it will refuse to learn another language or get a passport, because doing either of those would make one cosmopolitan--which is just another word for "faggot."
If fascism comes it will come because a lot of people who aren't like the folks I'm talking about here, won't stand up to the ones who are. Because we're too busy, don't want to make waves, don't want to lose friends, or alienate family. It will come, in other words, because those who know better are cowards, more concerned with getting along, making nice, and being liked than with telling the truth, calling out evil and saving their country.
If fascism comes it will come because of the silence, and thus, collaboration of those who think themselves good, and certainly superior to the knuckle-draggers they can see on YouTube at the McCain rallies, but who in the end are no better and in some ways worse than they: after all, at least fascists stand up for what they believe in. They are telling us, in no uncertain terms what kind of United States they want and are willing to fight for, and maybe even to kill for. But many "progressives," many liberals, many of the so-called enlightened are doing nothing at all.
If fascism comes it will come because those liberals thought voting for Barack Obama was all they needed to do; it will come because they allowed themselves to believe that politics is what a person does every four years, but not at work, and not in the neighborhood, and not at the dinner table. Meanwhile, know-nothings filled with hate, nurtured on racial and religious bigotry and who have overdosed on the kind of hypernationalism that has always proved fatal to those places foolish or craven enough to allow it a foothold, talk of their visions for America at every opportunity. They raise their kids on that sickness, they build churches whose very foundation is rooted in that cancerous rot, and they will think nothing of steamrolling those who get in their way.
So when, exactly, do we fight back? When do we say enough? When do we stand up to our relative or friend who sends us the e-mail about Obama being a Manchurian Candidate or al-Qaeda sympathizer, or the one about the decency of Midwestern flood victims as opposed to those stranded after Katrina, or about how God was punishing New Orleans because of its tolerance of homosexuality, and tell them what we think: namely, that they are a bunch of racist, heterosexist loons, whose friendship or familial connection we neither want nor intend to pursue unless they get help. When do we decide that we love our country and humanity too much to allow these people one more day of decent sleep, one more day of self-assured confidence in their craziness and the willingness of the rest of us to just take it? When do we decide that every irrational, Jeezoid, racist thing that comes from their mouths will be attacked, will be rebutted, until they can no longer take for granted the ability to say any of it in mixed company without being called out?
Why, in the face of the fascism they would surely introduce if given the chance, are we intent on being so nice? Why are we not more offended? Offended not merely at what such persons say about others--like Obama, or Latino immigrants, or whatever--but even about we who look like them? After all, their open exhortations of racism presuppose that they are speaking for us, and that this kind of brain-dead ventilation is something to which all white folks should aspire as though it were virtually the essence of enlightenment.
If fascism comes it will come because we did not see in their actions a sufficient threat, or because we allowed ourselves to believe that it couldn't come, that our institutions were too strong, our people too good, for that to happen. If it comes it will come because we allowed ourselves to believe the rosy and optimistic version of America spun by Obama, without tempering that optimism with a clear-headed appraisal of the way that (sadly) a still huge number of Americans actually think: because we allowed the vehicle of our hopes to outrun the headlights of truth; because we convinced ourselves that we actually lived in the country of our aspirations, rather than the nation we have at present.
And if fascism doesn't come--if, rather, democracy does--it will come because good people said no. It will come because we saw in this moment the opportunity to demand the full measure of our humanity and to pour it forth upon the national soil. It will be because we understood that democracy isn't what you have, it's what you do. But if we are to issue that demand, if we are to stand straight and fulfill the potential we possess to do justice, we had best exercise the option quickly, for the opponents of justice are on the move. They are preparing to enter on the winds of our silence and indifference, and complacency. Let them find no quarter here.
when Donna's timelord mind started to leak into her human consciousness, she thought she was going mad, so she separated with Shaun, to protect him. she even lied to him that she'd cheated, because she knew he'd never leave her otherwise. but now she's found out what it really was, she got Torchwood or UNIT (?) to help, and she's ok, she's got her memories back and the timelord consciousness isn't killing her human brain after all. but she can't find Shaun anywhere, and she's desperately worried that she's lost him for good.
not knowing where else to turn, she goes to find her best mate, but the Doctor is off on some errand of cosmic importance. the TARDIS lets her in, because she has the Doctor's mind, so she raids the kitchen while waiting. the Master smells food (and senses something like the Doctor's inner voice but with a different tone) and shows up. he ends up listening to her whole story, hoping he'll hear something useful about the Doctor or Torchwood or UNIT, but mainly all he finds out is how great Shaun Temple is.
pretty soon he will get so fed up that he'll end up helping her just to get her to shut up. and here he thought nobody could talk your ear off like Ten... he hadn't met DoctorDonna.
This image is copyright, all rights reserved, and not part of the public domain. Any use, linking to, or posting of this image is prohibited without my consent. If you want to use this image in any fashion, please have the common courtesy and decency to ask.
Multnomah Falls Trail, Columbia Gorge, Oregon
I thought I would add my name to the list of all the photographs of ice I've been seeing as of late. The leaf encased in a bubble of ice really caught my eye. It was real pretty!
Album: www.flickr.com/photos/125866625@N08/albums/72157678426806791
Theme: Eternal Lullaby
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKpu-wwFEAk
“Nadine, run! NOW!”
There are a dozen of them at least, all clad in guardsman armor. The emperor’s goons, a bunch of crooked, low-life bastards who suckle the emperor’s teats while treading on the less fortunate.
One of the fools takes a swing at me- his arm shatters on my knee. Another bolts for the back door- after Nadine. I throw the blade of his comrade into his back. Still got it.
How did they find us? That piece of shit, Gerot, I bet it was him. Perhaps if his son had any decency, I wouldn’t have had to crack the brat’s jaw. Getting his friends to beat on Nadine like that- he’s lucky she didn’t tear out his spine- if he had one.
Two more descend upon me. I manage to dodge their strikes, but two more join the fray. One of their blades grazes my shoulder- my sword splits his skull.
“C’mon! Is that… the best you shitheads can do!?”
The three charge me again- their blood now stains the walls. My breath is growing shallow- my age catching up to me.
“Don’t… disappoint… this old lady. What would those whores… Nezrith pays to be your wives think if… they found you lost to a bag of bones like me?!”
That did it. They’re all upon me now. One after the other, the blows come, and one after the other, they fall. I can barely breath now, and my sword grows heavy. Sweat stings my eyes, and my vision blurs. Yet I fight on.
A sharp pain… across my back. It’s done.
The sand is warm against my cheek. It grows damp and red- my blood.
“N-Nadine…”
I remember when I first found her. I must look mighty like her- dying in the sand. Poor thing- she’s been through so much. I know she’ll survive. She’ll… make that bastard- make Nezrith- pay. He’ll suffer- for her father, for all he has oppressed, for… the wretched things he did to Nadine. She… doesn’t deserve this. All for that… damn treasure. Despite all… of… this, it’s… it’s been… great… Nadine-
“Live.”
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The sun hangs low on the horizon. The girl stumbles through the ocean of sand, stained orange with the evening light. Her breath narrowly escaped her lips- her lungs burning with fatigue. Nevertheless, she persists, knowing her pursuers are not far behind. A singular thought consumes her mind: survive.
The sky is dark- the sea silver with lunar light. The girl shuffles through the sand, towards the Guiding Star, her body burdened from her escape. The faint echoes of her pursuers permeate the air, hanging on the faint breeze. Exhaustion overtakes her- she collapses. Her mind returns to the day she had met the one she came to call Grandma- an eerie sense of déjà vu. A tear rolls down her cheek.
There is no Grandma to save her now.
The tear glistens as a blue light illuminates her face- the glow originating from a pouch on Nadine’s belt. She manages to reach in, pulling out an azure orb- her family treasure. Before her weary eyes, a mound of sand rises, giving way to reveal a statue bearing a golden mask. With her remaining strength, she reaches for the mask.
“Father… this is…”
Placing the mask upon her face, the echoes of her pursuers are quickly drowned in the howls of wind. The waves of sand take to the skies, swirling above the broken girl. The sand beneath her parts as the spiraling grains begin to converge upon her. Renewed strength is found as she begins to panic, attempting to wrestle herself free. It is not enough. Sinking into the sand, the girl reaches to the sky- towards the Guiding Star.
“No! I can save them!"
You are not yet ready.
"I-I have the strength! Please!”
I’m sorry, so sorry.
Hot day on the (ex) Island Goeree Overflakkee with my little friend. In the old historic town of Goedereede in a street a sales point for potatoes, eggs, and seasonal vegetables. You leave your payment in the gray moneybox, as indicated. It is an unwritten rule of trust and decency.
En ce dimanche matin, la jeune fille décide de rester un peu dans son lit... Mais réveillée, le sommeil semble l'avoir définitivement quittée. Et la dernière lettre de ses parents, pas encore décachetée, semble annonciatrice de nouvelles peu réjouissantes ; le paquet étant plus épais qu'à l'accoutumée.
"Chère Pearl, mes lettres restent sans retour et c'est avec regret que j'observe cela. J'ose espérée que tu me lis malgré tout et continue de faire vivre la maison Honneycutt sur Paris. Tu trouveras ci-joint une invitation pour te rendre au domaine français des Handersen. Fais-nous honneur, rappelle toi chaque posture, discours mondains de bienséance, pas de danse et prône une image de femme distinguée. N'oublie pas que ta tenue devra correspondre au rang de notre petit noblesse, pas d'extravagance. Ne t'emporte pas sous quelque inspiration, élan du coeur, ma fille... Miss Honneycutt."
On this Sunday morning, the girl decides to stay a little in bed ... But awake, sleep seems to have left permanently. And the last letter from her parents, not yet opened, seems to announce unpleasant news; the package being thicker than usual.
"Dear Pearl, my letters remain without return and I regret that, I hope that you will read me anyway and continue to live the house Honneycutt in Paris.There will be enclosed an invitation for go to the French Handersen Manor. Make honor on our name, remember every posture, worldly speeches of decency, dance and preach a picture of distinguished woman. Do not forget that your outfit should match the rank of our little nobility, no extravagance, do not get carried away under some inspiration, so much for the heart, my daughter ... Miss Honneycutt. "
Sikhism originated in the 15th century, in the Punjab region by Guru Nanak, who preached ideas that were radical for his age: he denounced Hinduism's oppressive caste system and Islam's gender discrimination, preaching that all people can commune with the divine equally, without the intervention of rituals or priests. The Sikh faith is a monotheistic religion, meaning Sikhs worship one God. The three core pillars of Sikhism are: vaṇḍ chakkō (sharing with others, helping those in need, as well as participating as part of a community), kirat karō (earning/making a living honestly, without exploitation or fraud, and speaking the truth at all times) and naam japna (meditating on God’s name to live a life of decency and humility).
The temporary distractions of the material world are seen as an illusion. The qualities of ego, anger, greed, attachment and lust are known as the Five Thieves that rob a person of their ability to realize their oneness with God and creation. Sikhs work to counteract the temptations of these qualities through the values of service, equality, and seeking justice for all. Sikhs also believe that one’s form on Earth is only a temporary vessel for the eternal soul. Thus, the death of the physical body is a natural part of the life cycle, while the soul remains. Death is not an end, but merely the progression of the soul on its journey toward God.
Nine more gurus succeeded Guru Nanak (Angad, Amar Das, Ram Das, Arjan, Har Gobind, Har Rai, Har Krishan, Tegh Bahadur, and Gobind Singh), and continued to spread his teachings across the world.
The last guru, Guru Gobind Singh, named the Sikh sacred text, the Guru Granth Sahib, to be the eternal Guru that would guide the Sikhs going forward. It consists of 1,430 Anks, or pages, and 6,000 Sabads, or line compositions, all are written in poetic verse and are aligning to the rhythmic forms of ancient north Indian classical music. At the core of the Guru Granth Sahib is a yearning for a world governed by divine justice, without oppression of any kind.
The final living guru, Gobind Singh, also established the Khalsa, or order of Sikh soldier-saints. They are recognizable by "The 5 k's," their physical articles of faith: Kesh (unshorn hair and beard), Kirpan (ceremonial sword), Kangha (comb), Kara (steel bracelet) and Kachha (drawers). The Dastar, or turban, is considered a spiritual crown, a token of remembrance of the Sikh principles.
Subathu, Himachal Pradesh, India
After a lot (never too much, actually) of Industrial Exploration I felt the need to feed my soul and regenerate myself a bit.
This is the H.C.Andersen museum in Rome (see map).
it's a small museum but is full (really packed) of beautiful bronze and plaster statues telling the skills of Mr. Andersen, a Norwegian architect, painter and sculptor.
The Building was Mr Andersen's home and workshop at the same time. Here a number of scale models for bigger statues and building are also displayed
The preferred subjects were dancers, athletes, singers and angels that he represented in the full beauty of the naked body
Some of the bronze statues could not be displayed publicly (at that time) because of "too much nudity" which was against the commons rules of decency at his time (around 1920)
Gotham Meat Lockers. Kinda sad that out of all the businesses in Gotham, it's name is one of the most honest. Well, was one of the most honest. About 20 years ago it was the site of a violent triple homicide. This not only took the lives the three people, but the life of the business as well. No one's willing to go near the place anymore, so it just sits there on the street rotting away like an open wound. You can smell the old meat in the street. The place really is a pit. And Jackie's here...whoever took him and brought him here of all places, I swear I'll do them what I did them Black Mask times 10. Steph and I enter through the garage doors with the help of some C4. Sure, we could've snuck in all incognito, but we want them to know we're here. I mean, if they're giving us hints with maps and stuff, they obviously want us, right? Well, they got us. We walked into the slaughterhouse, and the smell was even worse. Flies and bones everywhere, giant steaks still on hooks. Nothing but a giant health hazard at this rate. I need to tell Bruce to pull some string to get this place demolished when this is all over. We continue deeper into the slaughterhouse and it just gets messier. Nothing but rotting death around us. The only signs of life are our footsteps and--
"Well, you figured out my little puzzle, huh Tim? You're as smart as they say you are."
That voice...oh god, no...of all the people to do this, of all the people we've gotta deal with...
"Slade?!"
"The one and only. I gotta congratulate you on figuring out that puzzle. Was a bit worried it was a bit too convoluted."
"First off, I solved your stupid puzzle. Second, Why did you take Jackie? What do want with us?"
"You solved it? Nice job Tim. Got yourself a sidekick that's actually useful."
"Sidekick!?"
"Slade, if you hurt Jackie I swear I'll--"
"Hurt a child? Please, Tim. I actually have some decency. He's just bait to reel in the big fish. You two."
"And just what good are we to you?"
"What good? Millions, that good."
"We're your contract? But who hired you?"
"C'mon, you solved the map puzzle so you should know! I gave you their homes and everything!"
"Widow and The Broker..."
"Two of the biggest idiots I've ever met. But their money's green, so why not? If they give you two trouble though, This won't be too fun."
"...Slade, you took Jackie from us. Made us think we lost him. I don't care what happens, I will make you eat those words one way or another. Every hour we were without him will be worth how many bones I'm gonna break!"
"Really? Get real Tim. I'm a metahuman! My skeleton's as strong as steel. But hey, if you wanna try then go ahead! Let's make this fun. Impress me the best y--"
He stops to catch a Batarang thrown by Steph, the only one here getting more sick of his voice than me. Before he could counter, the Batarang explodes with a loud bang and so bright light. A flash bang. Annoying from where I was standing, but Slade pretty much had that thing next to his head. Smart move, Steph. What wasn't was when she rushed him. Her swing was easily blocked by his sword. While he had Steph held off, he got his pistol up and started shooting at me. The Kevlar in my suit would do a good job deflecting small arms, but knowing Slade, those bullets aren't normal pistol rounds. Before he was able to get a those shots off my staff goes into shield mode and blocks the shots. The kick from the impact was pretty big. My arms are already kinda sore. Worse part of this has to be how close he is to Steph. She makes one wrong move in the 3 seconds I'm not fighting with are and Slade will murder her. I've got two loved ones to worry about now...
with the contagious 'Turquoise Decency Strip' starting to spread haphazardly, somewhat dependent on proximity.
Appropriate social distancing recommended (See government guidelines).
I remember being so delighted to see these small pitcher plants in the wild.
I am adding an incomplete list that I have just come across on my computer, telling of my early interest in BIRDS. Adding it here just for my own information.
EARLY START OF INTEREST IN BIRDS:
6 September 1967, New Delhi, India:
After leaving Birmingham on 4th September 1967, we flew via Zurich and Tehran to New Delhi, where we arrived at 8:30 a.m. on 5th September 196- this being the local time in New Delhi. The rest of the day we spent sleeping in the hotel. September 6th, we got up early in the afternoon and walked to Connaught Circus, the central and shopping area, and from there took a taxi to the Zoological Gardens. This was a really beautiful place, extending over a huge area, with most of the animals out of cages. Of course, it was extremely fascinating because many, or most, of the animals and birds were from various parts of India itself. Amongst other things, there were herons flying to and from a clump of trees by a lake - these were like small pterodactyls when seen in flight! One cage had a beautiful peacock inside - an Indian lady nearby told us that it is the national bird of India. As in all zoos, there were monkeys, too, and one of these suddenly put out a hand and caught a small bird and, I think, ate it or at least played with it.
7 September 1967, Agra, India
When we reached Agra, there was a bus to take us about, and most of the day was spent looking at historic places other than the one famous one which everyone had come to see! Our first stop was at Akbar’s Tomb, and then Itimad-ud-daulah’s Mausoleum. Afterwards, we went inside Agra Fort from where we could look across the river to the Taj Mahal. These various buildings were quite nice to look at briefly, but Dave and I found it far more enjoyable walking outside in the sun, watching the birds, and numerous tiny yellowy-brown squirrels which were everywhere in India.
Borneo birds seen: Glossy Tree Starling, Seria 1968
Yellow-vented Bulbul, Seria 1968
Golden-backed Three=toed Woodpecker, Seria
May 1970, Seria, Brunei, Borneo
The only sounds we get are ones from outside, and we certainly are getting plenty of those, with bulldozers, lorries and cement mixers only a few yards away. Really, the only other sounds are the birds, and a rather annoying croaking frog in the evenings!!! Just outside at the front of the house is a large clump of plants in which live a couple of huge crow pheasants (also named Greater coucal), the body part black like a crow, and the wings (and tail?) a beautiful chestnut brown, like a pheasant. I don’t like them, but they are quite impressive.
March 1972 Muttrah, Oman
I went round to see someone whom I met at the Bolliger's barbecue. She used to work at the British Museum and is writing up a list of birds seen in the Oman, at the moment. She said I was the first person she's met here who has shown any interest in the surroundings! I told her that I had found a huge spider in the corner of Steven's empty sand pit and asked her if she collected such things. Funnily enough, she heard a couple of days ago from a man at the British Museum in reply to a letter of hers, asking him if he wanted any spiders collecting and he had said yes. So, I shall be glad when she has been and taken the thing away. It now fills the bottom of an empty Napisan jar, Shelltoxed and put in Methylated Spirits. It's the biggest spider we've ever seen! Nice if it was a new species! Who knows, it may be on show in the British Museum. Apparently, her husband, John, found a new species of scorpion last year. There are all sorts of different kinds of beetles, wasps, etc. here, but I have no desire to collect them!
28 April 1972 Muttrah, Oman
For the last week or two, the beaches have been spoilt by an oil slick, and all the sea life is being killed off and the birds, too, are suffering. A fantastic amount of oil was pumped into the sea by mistake and I don't think the Company is very popular at the moment! At least it has the decency to compensate the local people who, of course, get their living from the sea.
Our spider collecting will, I suppose, come to an end now. We found a beautiful one a week ago; small, jet black, with a lovely, brilliant red mark on it. Fred Lapré told Dave that it was a Black Widow!!
6 July 1976, Muttrah, Oman
Yesterday, Rachel and I were going along in the car when we passed a few vultures flying around, and Rachel said that they were Mummy and Daddy birds, and baby birds, and then suddenly asked: "Where's Grandma bird?"!!!
9 April 1977, Muttrah Oman
By the way, we have some baby birds outside in my clay pot hanging on the wall! Trouble is, the last two Fridays, Dave has cooked lovely barbecue dinners and we've sat out at the big table. The poor mother bird has been frantic, because she hasn't dared to fly up to the pot to feed her hungry babies!
4 October 1978, Lake Minnewanka, Alberta
Part way up was a site of an old coal mine, and from there we had such a spectacular view of Lake Minnewanka and its valley. The kids fed a few very tame birds - whisky jacks, someone said they are called. They swoop down to you and take food from your hand.
17 May 1984, Calgary
I was given some information ready for Miss Kells’ class trip to Fish Creek Park for bird watching on Tuesday. She and I are the only drivers (eight kids), so we’ll have four each. Oh, I do look forward to it, though I know nothing about birds!!
July 1991, Calgary
I have just walked round to the front of the house where we had found a little baby bird, which we think has hurt it's leg. The mother flew down into the bush so she knows where it is. Poor little thing. A family of six beautiful blue jays was in our garden a good part of the day, today. Four babies, though they are as big as the parents. They are very noisy birds, but tame compared with other birds. They come when you call them. They are absolutely beautiful birds.
This image is copyright, all rights reserved, and not part of the public domain. Any use, linking to, or posting of this image is prohibited without my consent. If you want to use this image in any fashion, please have the common courtesy and decency to ask.
Seal Rock State Park, Seal Rock, Oregon
Since it ended up being a clouded over sunset, I tried playing with exposure times to see what effects I could get on the incoming and outgoing waves. I like some of the things I captured here.
“It Is What It Is!” And It Isn’t “Rounding The Corner” - IMRAN™
Yes, China was the place of origin of the Coronavirus. Yes, WHO didn’t have a proper hanfle on how COVID19 started & spread. Yes, the White House Chief of Staff did declare defeat in admitting this administration is not even trying to control the pandemic. And, yes, Trump is lying when he claims that the pandemic is rounding the corner.
See for yourself. Do you want your family to be a dot on one of these rising curves? The number of cases & deaths and even the rates are actually going up, not down. The only thing going flat... hundreds of Americans flatlining every day.
It didn’t have to be this way. A competent & serious response, based on science and simple decency, could have saved many of the nearly one-quarter million Americans who died from it. Many more will.
Several other countries have gotten a grip on the pandemic even while the disease isn’t cured. We can too. There’s still time. Vote for science. Vote for a competent response in USA.
© 2020 IMRAN™
#Coronavirus #COVID19 #pandemic #politics #elections #TrumpVirus #facts The New York Times
"D'you know the Radstocks?" asked the foreman.
He was referring to the highly permutated group of bus services which then linked Bristol to the former Somerset mining towns of Radstock and Midsomer Norton.
"No", I said.
"Well here's your chance to learn", he replied, grimly and, I thought, with a touch of relish.
The foreman, a former wartime sergeant and a member of the Burma Star Asssociation, was an old sweat then nearing retirement. I was a new boy, then in my mid-20s but looking considerably younger, who had lately transferred to "country" services from a city depôt. To such a man I must have represented a new generation of young whipper-snappers who didn't know what the job was "all about". I had never been to Radstock and had only a very slight idea of where it was. That morning I was the bus station's 0430 Spare, whose function was to "cover" for any driver who overslept or reported sick. It was now 6am on a filthy February morning and the scratchy sound against the window-panes told me that the rain was lashing down in the empty streets outside.
Beyond Whitchurch (Black Lion) the sickly orange glare of the city's street lighting receded in the wing mirrors and I was in pitch blackness. The bus I was driving was a Bristol MW-type. As will be seen from the photo, these had a horizontally divided windscreen. The demisters, as they were fancifully known, consisted of two lengths of coiled reistance wire, like miniature electric fire elements, which ran across the bottom of the windscreen's upper section. Their effect was to clear about one inch of the base of the windscreen. In practice you used your sleeve. The wipers reciprocated sluggishly from side to side with a monotonous whirring sound. They had been cunningly positioned not to sweep that part of the windscreen which the driver looked through. The tiny wing mirrors, partially eclipsed on the nearside by the upper part of the folding entrance door, were fogged up and flecked with particles of mud drawn up from the road in the bus's slipstream. It was all seat-of-the-pants stuff. I hadn't a clue where I was supposed to be going and had not yet picked up any passenger whom I could ask. In any case I always felt embarrassed when I had to do this ...after all, I was supposed to be the driver. It looked so unprofessional. When uncertain of a route I preferred to run the slight risk of looking a complete fool if I took a wrong turning to the certainty of looking a partial fool if I turned around to ask for directions.
I cannot now remember the details, but I recall several panic-stricken reversals after I had shot past turnings, and the ommission of a peak-hour deviation from the normal route in Paulton. I also abandoned the attempt to do a school run, being unable even to find the terminus from which the route commenced. Subsequently there was a telephoned complaint from the headmaster. It was not my finest hour.
Yet, in time the "Radstocks" became favourites of mine. There were basically three services, with peak-hour, school and weekend variants. Usually buses worked out on one service and returned on one of the others. One took a certain pride in one's knowledge of the various permutations. I even came to love the MW-type, execrated by almost every bus driver for its heaviness, sluggishness and general recalcitrance.
Here one of these execrated vehicles makes its way into Bristol on the 365 service from Radstock via Midsomer Norton, High Littleton, Farmborough and Keynsham. Bath Road curves away into the distance under the heights of Totterdown. As extensively detailed in the Bentos photostream, the lower parts of Totterdown, in the middle distance of the photograph, had been destroyed in 1973 in readiness for a new road interchange. Only three years later the scheme has already been abandoned. Perhaps the City Council had enough vistigial decency to feel embarrassed, for the ruins which might have reminded passers-by that a lively and vigorous community once thrived here have been landscaped and seeded with grass. The steep valley-side site meant that the houses on the right-hand side of Bath Road had elevated front gardens, reached from the pavement by flights of steps. In the foreground one such flight of steps remains, together with railings and a flagged yard. Not a bad place to live and watch the world go by. The road is now about three times this width. The photo was taken Monday 5th April 1976.
Another view of that castle with a dark history ,at Mullaghmore ,Co. Sligo
Viscount Palmerston, arrived by horse and carriage in 1808. He is best known as Lord Palmerston, who served two terms as Prime Minister of England. It was he who commissioned the building of Classiebawn Castle on a hill overlooking Mullaghmore with magnificent views of the surrounding villages, sea, lake and mountain. Palmerston died in 1865 leaving the completion of Classiebawn to his successor the First Lord Mount Temple. On completion of the building in 1874, succession then passed to the Ashleys.
Palmerston presided over Mullaghmore and North Sligo during the worst years of the Irish Holocaust, the great famine of the mid 19th century. His record during that period is shameful. During the summer and autumn of 1847, nine vessels, carrying over 2,000 persons left Sligo port with tenants evicted and “shovelled out” from his Sligo estates. They arrived in Canada half naked and totally destitute. The city of St. John in Quebec province had to take many of Palmerston’s evicted tenants into care and, outraged, sent a scathing letter to Palmerston expressing regret and fury that he or his agents, ‘should have exposed such a numerous and distressed portion of his tenantry to the severity and privation of a New Brunswick winter ......unprovided with the common means of support, with broken down constitutions and almost in a state of nudity ..... without regard to humanity or even common decency.’ The graves of many of these unfortunate victims can be seen today on the old quarantine station, now a museum, at Grosse Ille near Quebec .
Edwina Ashley, daughter of the above-mentioned Col. Wilfrid Ashley, married Lord Louis Mountbatten, great grandson of Queen Victoria, in 1922. In August 1979 this first Earl Mountbatten of Burma, last Viceroy of India and supreme Allied Commander in SE Asia during WW2 was assassinated when his boat was blown up off the coast of Mullaghmore by the IRA in August 1979. The castle and surrounding lands are now owned by Mr. Hugh Tunney, a retired businessman. He is the first Irish owner of the Classiebawn Castle and estate since the lands were confiscated from the O’Conor Sligo in the 17th century.
(For more information on the Mountbatten family history ,I found this on the net,
"In Europe: a History, by Norman Davies, 1996, ISBN 0-06-097468-0, page 809 :
"Married to Queen Victoria's favorite granddaughte, Victoria of Hesse, Count Louis Battenberg (1854-1921) was a cousin on the paternal side both to Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and to Tsar Alexander III, and brother-in-law to empress Alix. Having joined the Royal Navy as a cadet, he worked his way up to be Admiral, Director of Naval Intelligence, and at the outbreak of war in 1914, Britain's first Sea Lord. Unfortunately as a German, he was immediately forced to retire. By then, his elder daughter had become Queen of Sweden and his younger daughter, Alice, a Princess of Greece. His niece was Queen of Spain. His younger son, Louis (1900-1979), known as "Dikie", later Earl of Burma, was to follow him into the British Admiralty. In July 1917 the family name was changed once again, this time from Battenberg to Mountbatten. Their Romanov relatives were under arrest, and their relatives in the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Hanover-Teck were hurriedly renaming themselves "Windsor". )
Listen to the following song to get the feeling of family break -up and heartache at the time of the great famine in Ireland,when a quarter of our population died or were forced to emigrate on "coffin-ships".
I would tell you about the things
They put me through.
The pain I've been subjected to.
But the Lord himself would blush.
The countless feasts laid at my feet,
Forbidden fruits for me to eat.
But I think your pulse would start to rush.
Now I'm not looking for absolution,
Forgiveness for the things I do.
But before you come to any conclusions -
Try walking in my shoes,
Try walking in my shoes.
You'll stumble in my footsteps,
Keep the same appointments I kept.
If you try walking in my shoes.
If you try walking in my shoes.
Morality would frown upon,
Decency look down upon.
The scapegoat fate's made of me.
But I promise now, my judge and jurors,
My intentions couldn't have been purer.
My case is easy to see.
I'm not looking for a clearer conscience,
Peace of mind after what I've been through.
And before we talk of any repentance -
Try walking in my shoes.
Try walking in my shoes.
You'll stumble in my footsteps,
Keep the same appointments I kept.
If you try walking in my shoes.
If you try walking in my shoes.
Try walking in my shoes.
Now I'm not looking for absolution,
Forgiveness for the things I do.
But before you come to any conclusions -
Try walking in my shoes.
Try walking in my shoes.
You'll stumble in my footsteps,
Keep the same appointments I kept.
If you try walking in my shoes.
Try walking in my shoes.
If you try walking in my shoes.
Try walking in my shoes.
Written by: Martin Gore
Performed by: Depeche Mode
From: Touring the Angel: Live in Milan
Brody Dalle Homme, Spinnerette @ Santa Barbara, CA
p.s. if you are gonna post my copyrighted images elsewhere on the internet at least have the decency to credit me with them and link them back to here, or i'll probably stop posting them without big watermarks on them.
Belgian postcard by Victoria Biscuits Chocolats, no. 6. Photo: M.G.M. June Allyson and Gene Kelly in The Three Musketeers (George Sidney, 1948), based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas.
The Three Musketeers (George Sidney, 1948) is a classic Swashbuckler, starring Gene Kelly as D’Artagnan and Lana Turner as Milady De Winter. Other stars in the cast include Van Heflin, June Allyson, Gig Young, Angela Lansbury, and Vincent Price. It is one of the many, adaptations of the famous French book ‘Les trois mousquetaires’ by Alexandre Dumas père, and possibly the liveliest one, full of acrobatics, galloping horses, flapping cloaks, and sword fights with almost operatic intensity. Dumas’s story is followed quite faithfully, but the creative fantasy is in the theatrical way of depicting it.
As in the book: the story of The Three Musketeers (George Sidney, 1948) is set in 1625 in France. The young and inexperienced D'Artagnan (Gene Kelly) leaves his home village in Gascony to become a musketeer in Paris in the service of His Majesty King Louis XIII (Frank Morgan). In his pocket, he has the letter of recommendation from his father (silent film star Robert Warwick), a former musketeer and friend of the current captain of the musketeers, Treville (Reginald Owen). His father has taught him the art of fencing masterfully and gives him the good advice never to let himself be compromised with impunity. He is only too happy to follow this advice. Very soon, before he has even reached Paris, D'Artagnan gets into a confrontation with Rochefort (Ian Keith), Cardinal Richelieu's (Vincent Price) confidant, and his companion, the mysterious Lady de Winter (Lana Turner). At this first opportunity to preserve his honour in battle, he is unceremoniously struck down and robbed by Rochefort's henchmen, and his credentials are also taken from him. Once in Paris, he not only meets his new friends and comrades-in-arms Athos (Van Heflin), Porthos (Gig Young), and Aramis (Robert Coote), but also his landlord's niece, Constance Bonacieux (June Allyson), and falls in love. Many adventures and entanglements lie ahead and in the path of the brave hero D'Artagnan. Driven by his desire to become the king's musketeer and to prove himself in battle, he falls into the clutches of both the queen (Angela and the cardinal, experiences numerous dangerous situations and sometimes needs his new friends to get away at all. Nevertheless, he sets out to travel to England for the Queen's honour, to retrieve a jewellery box given away by the Queen's secret lover, Lord Buckingham (John Sutton), and to prevent Richelieu from plotting. To assist him, he is accompanied by Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, as well as his dull but loyal servant Planchet (Keenan Wynn). Shortly after D'Artagnan's return from England, Constance is kidnapped at the behest of Cardinal Richelieu. D'Artagnan makes a pass at Milady de Winter, discovers a delicate secret, and only just manages to save himself. Constance is freed and taken to safety in England, shortly after which war breaks out, and our four friends are drawn into it. They overhear a conspiratorial meeting between the Cardinal and Lady de Winter in an inn. The latter is to travel to England and kill Buckingham. Planchet also travels to England at D'Artagnan's behest to warn Buckingham. Lady de Winter is convicted and is to be executed. Constance is appointed her guardian. Milady de Winter, after a lengthy psychological duel, manages to take out Constance as well as a guard and Buckingham and then escapes. Athos and D'Artagnan, who wanted to help Constance, arrive too late; after Constance dies in D'Artagnan's arms, they themselves also have only escaped. Back in Paris, the four friends track down Lady de Winter, pronounce the death sentence on her, and have the prisoner executed. During their subsequent escape towards Spain, they are overpowered and arrested. Their fate seems to be sealed, but young D'Artagnan still has one trump card: the Countess's passport, personally sealed and signed by Cardinal Richelieu, with the note that everything the bearer of this letter undertakes will serve the good of the state. The king is not allowed to know the background of this letter - so Richelieu has to give in. Aramis receives permission to take up a clerical office. Porthos is allowed to marry richly, Athos gets his property back and D'Artagnan is to negotiate a peace offer with the enemy England on behalf of France.
Among the many American film versions of Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers are the 1914 Film Attractions Co. production, directed by Charles V. Henkel, the 1921 Douglas Fairbanks production, directed by Fred Niblo, the 1935 RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. production, directed by Rowland V. Lee and starring Walter Abel, Paul Lucas and Margot Grahame, Richard Lester's 1974 Twentieth Century-Fox production starring Michael York, Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain, and Raquel Welch; and the 1993 Buena Vista release, directed by Stephen Herek and starring Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, Chris O'Donnell, and Rebecca de Mornay. This splashy 1948 MGM adaptation of The Three Musketeers was the third sound version and was also the first version in Technicolor. In 1947, a representative of the National Catholic Legion of Decency, an organisation that monitored the interests of the Church in motion pictures, objected to the characterisation of Cardinal Richelieu in the planned MGM adaptation of Dumas' story. In a letter to MGM producer Pandro S. Berman, the organisation stated its objection to the cardinal being portrayed as a "worldly and unscrupulous man" and urged the studio to remove the character from the film. Berman refused to remove the character from the film but promised he would use great caution in all sensitive matters pertaining to the story and in the film, Richelieu is never referred to as Cardinal Richelieu. Berman also indicated that Constance, the married mistress of D'Artagnan in the novel, would be unmarried in the film version. While early sound versions of Three Musketeers eliminated the deaths of Constance and Milady, this adaptation telescopes the novel's events to allow for these tragedies. According to AFI, screenwriter Robert Ardry was displeased with Sidney's irreverent approach to the Dumas story and objected to the spoof elements that were added to the film. A biography of Kelly noted that Belgian fencing champion Jean Heremans, who appears in the film as the cardinal's guard, taught Kelly how to fence. Kelly's biography also noted that during the filming of a bedroom scene, Kelly flung Turner onto a bed with such force that she fell to the ground and suffered a broken elbow. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “True to form, MGM saw to it that Lana Turner, as Milady, was dressed to the nines and heavily bejeweled for her beheading sequence. Portions of the 1948 Three Musketeers, in black and white, showed up in the silent film-within-a-film in 1952's Singin' in the Rain, which of course also starred Gene Kelly.” The Three Musketeers opened to mostly favourable reviews, with several reviewers commenting on the film's unusual tongue-in-cheek approach. New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther noted that "more glittering swordplay, more dazzling costumes, more colors or more of Miss Turner's chest have never been seen in a picture than are shown in this one." And added: “Completely fantastic, however, is Miss Turner as the villainess, the ambitious Lady de Winter who does the boudoir business for the boss. Loaded with blond hair and jewels, with twelve-gallon hats and ostrich plumes, and poured into her satin dresses with a good bit of Turner to spare, she walks through the palaces and salons with the air of a company-mannered Mae West.” In 1948, there was an Oscar nomination for Robert Planck in the category Best Cinematography/Colour. Hans J. Wollstein at AllMovie: “The Three Musketeers remains an outrageously entertaining yarn, the Southern California locales perfectly standing in for 17th Century France and England.” And finally, Yvette Banek at her blog In so many words: “Lana Turner is really quite superb in her evilness. So evil that she is even photographed without make-up. Well, as 'without make-up' as MGM got, at any rate. Even then, she is exquisitely beautiful - especially when praying.”
Sources: Bosley Crowther (New York Times), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Yvette Banek (In so many words), AFI, Wikipedia (Dutch, German), and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Belgian postcard by Nieuwe Merksemsche Chocolaterie S.P.R.L., Merksem (Anvers). Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).
Johnny Sheffield (1931-2010) was one of Hollywood's most famous child stars. He was unforgettable as Tarzan's adopted son Boy in eight Tarzan films starring Johnny Weissmuller. Between 1949 and 1955, he starred in twelve Bomba films for Monogram Pictures.
Johnny Sheffield was born John Matthew Sheffield Cassan in 1931 in Pasadena, California, USA. His father was the actor Reginald Sheffield who began as a child star and later turned to character acting. In 1938, Sheffield became a child star after he was cast in the juvenile lead of a West Coast production of the highly successful Broadway play 'On Borrowed Time', which starred Dudley Digges and featured Victor Moore as Gramps. The seven-year-old Sheffield played the role of Pud, a long role for a child. He later went to New York as a replacement and performed the role on Broadway. That year he also played Napoleon's son in the short MGM film The Man on the Rock (Edward L. Cahn, 1938). When Maureen O'Sullivan wanted out of her Jane role in the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan series, it was decided that she and Tarzan would adopt a son (they had to adopt, according to the Legion of Decency, because they weren't married) before she died. Weissmuller personally selected Sheffield from 300 boys for the part of Boy. The role was inspired by Bobby Nelson's portrayal in Tarzan the Mighty (Jack Nelson, Ray Taylor, 1928). Athletic by nature, little Johnny was taught to swim by swimming Olympian Weissmuller. Johnny Sheffield's feature debut in Tarzan Finds a Son! (Richard Thorpe, 1939) was such a success that MGM signed him to six more films as Tarzan's Boy. Sheffield played Boy in three Tarzan films at MGM, and in another five after Johnny Weissmuller, and production of the film series moved to RKO. Brenda Joyce played Jane in the last three Tarzan films in which Sheffield appeared.
In between the Tarzan films, Johnny Sheffield played supporting parts in other films. Sheffield appeared in the musical Babes in Arms (Busby Berkeley, 1939) with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, classmates of his at the studio school. Johnny and his brother Billy Sheffield were both in Knute Rockne All American (Lloyd Bacon, 1940), playing football player and coach Knute Rockne at different ages. By the time of Tarzan and the Mermaids (Robert Florey, 1948), Johnny Sheffield was too big for the part of Boy. The film merely said he was away at school. When Monogram Studios learned Sheffield had been dropped, they picked him up for s series of B-films based on Roy Rockwood's adventure novel 'Bomba'. The first was Bomba: The Jungle Boy (Ford Beebe, 1949). Between 1949 and 1955, Sheffield made twelve Bomba films for "Poverty Row" studio Monogram Pictures. Sheffield retired from films at age 24 after starring in his twelfth Bomba film Lord of the Jungle (Ford Beebe, 1955). He then made a pilot for a television series, Bantu the Zebra Boy, which was created, produced, and directed by his father, Reginald Sheffield. Although the production values were high compared to other TV jungle shows of the day, a sponsor was not found and the show was not taken up as a weekly series. In his later years, Sheffield sold bootlegged copies of the pilot to collectors on videotape. After leaving show business, Sheffield completed a business degree at UCLA. Turning his attention to other fields, he involved himself variously in farming, real estate and construction. For a time, he was a representative for the Santa Monica Seafood Company importing lobsters from Baja California in Mexico. In 1959 he married his wife Patricia and they would have three children, Stewart, Regina and Patrick Sheffield. In 2010, Johnny suffered a fatal heart attack at his home in Chula Vista, California, four hours after he fell off a ladder while pruning a palm tree. Sheffield was 79. His brother Billy Sheffield died two months later.
Sources: Ed Stephan (IMDb), Find A Grave, Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.