I've always loved the vaudeville era and as a youth was fascinated with the Ziegfeld follies. One of my favourite movies is The Great Ziegeld (1936), which won the best picture that year. So, to hear that the last Ziegfeld girl has passed on to the Great Beyond is sad.
The last Ziegfeld Follies Girl has died. Doris Eaton Travis, one of the legendary Ziegfeld Follies chorus girls, who wore elaborate costumes for the series of lavish Broadway theatrical productions in the early 1900s, died Tuesday at age 106, public relations firm Boneau/Bryan-Brown said. It didn't say where or how she died.
Travis, who was from West Bloomfield, Mich., also was a supporter of the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS fundraising organization and appeared often in its Easter Bonnet Competition.
She continued to work long after her Follies days ended, with annual appearances on Broadway, a small role in a Jim Carrey movie and a memoir, "The Days We Danced: The Story of My Theatrical Family From Florenz Ziegfeld to Arthur Murray and Beyond. [more...]
Sandy Frazier is a mixed-media Expressionist whose art encapsulates qualities of mysticism and allegory. Working with color in the manner of the Fauves and of Gauguin, and with mixed-media and collage in the manner of Picasso, she envisions from a subliminal source emblematic representations of her own life and the world in which she lives.
With joyous color and striking form, Sandy Frazier's artworks create a dynamic vision of a world both everyday and transcendent. Working with acrylic and mixed media, Frazier’s bold Expressionist style is unique, an alluring combination of intense hues, layered patterns, subtle textures and strong lines. Her handling of color is superb, taking unusual shades and placing them next to each other in a taut harmony that seems almost to vibrate with energy from the painting’s surface. The strong stylized lines that define her subjects are influenced by Picasso, but Frazier makes them her own, giving them fluidity. The result is a stunning combination of technical skill and artistic interpretation. [more...]
Coney Island's new Luna Park, modeled after original, will debut 19 thrilling rides on May 29th. It's now a drab construction site dotted with piles of dirt - but by Memorial Day weekend, a gleaming new amusement park will rise in Coney Island where Astroland once stood. It's been modeled after the original Luna Park, the legendary lunar-themed Coney Island mecca that opened in 1903 and closed because of fire in 1944. Valerio Ferrari, president of Central Amusement International and Zamperla USA, the companies responsible for building the new Luna Park said he's never heard of an amusement park being built from scratch so quickly, but he's confident it will be ready in time for the May 29 opening. But should it be rebuilt? [more...]
Years ago I saw a documentary on Coney Island which begins by showing the haunted roller coaster as it appeared back in 1995 when my mother and I visited there - amidst a blanket of fog, scrawled with graffiti. It represented, metaphorically, the shadow of evil, and the social decay that Coney Island came to represent. The five mile stretch on the coast of Brooklyn, just nine miles from Manhattan, was the home to three great parks (Steeplechase, Luna Park and Dreamland) which were built in the late 1800's and early 1900's... all of which were destroyed by fire (although Steeplechase was rebuilt soon after)... thus, the name, "The City of Fire." The great, but crooked, builder, McKane, had ruled the island in the late 1800's; but he was not a good man and landed in Sing Sing for election fraud, misuse of public funds and other charges.
Ministers and reverends spoke of the violence, lewd sex, gambling and prostitution that went on there, "victims they make drunken and rob." There were actually three chief men who created the parks and all of them were shady characters who competitively argued amongst each other, always trying to outdo one another. One of them died and another ended up bankrupt. They never really reveal the details of what went on there; but even in 1995, there was an unmistakable dark presence in the remains where the sordid, shoddy amusement shacks still ran full blast, where the hiss and boom of the breakers and crumbling paste board dominated the scene. The Wonder Wheel still stood in Astroland. Historians, nonetheless, say we should always consider Coney Island to be "forever an opportunity, a frontier..." not a place to rebuild what once was. [more...]
Inspired by my mother, a teacher of meditation, I painted this the other day. Actually, I was working on it for about a month... it started out to be chaos out of my abstract mind... and then suddenly one night, the vision of a girl in a meditative pose possessed me and voila! There she is! I love texture in paintings and so this one really expresses a mood in the way I wanted others to tap in to my art.
Inspired by 'The Passion of the Christ,' I have created a series of paintings, like the film, that reaches out across the ages, throughout all time, past race, creed, color, religion... deep into the hearts of what we all actually are: just simple human beings.
"...I wish to paint the artist's struggle against nature, the creative effort in the work of art, effort of blood and tears to give one's flesh, to create life: always wrestling with the truth and always beaten, the battle with the angel. ... tormented by his inability to give birth to his own genius..."
See the series here. Happy Easter!
I've always been fascinated by the history of vaudeville. One of the most colourful stories of that era (my favourite, growing up) was made into a film called "Gypsy," based on the meomoirs of burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee. Her sister, June Havoc (a/k/a "Baby June") was portrayed in the film as a child star who, wanting to escape showbiz and her ambitious mother, ran away and got married at 13. Today she passed away at 97. R.I.P., Baby June! [more...]
It's hard to tell what's factual in this great American story, but I read this online: "Arthur Laurents loosely based his marvelous libretto on the recollections of famed burlesque stripper Gypsy Rose Lee. Her sister June Havoc (the real 'Baby/Dainty June') has never been too happy with the results, which were clearly slanted to make Gypsy look good. However, both daughters concurred that their mother Rose was a monstrous bitch who always put her show biz dreams ahead of everything else, including the well-being of her children. The girls toured in vaudeville for years. Eventually, June left the act against her mother's wishes to marry one of the boys. The unstoppable Rose kept Louise touring - and they did end up in burlesque when vaudeville died out. With her 'intellectual' strip act, Louise renamed herself 'Gypsy Rose Lee' and became the toast of Minsky's. After June's marriage failed, her mother and sister refused her any assistance. June Havoc survived the 1930s as a marathon dancer, then emerged as a successful stage and screen actress."
I don't normally blog on politics and try very hard to keep an unbiased view of what's going on in our nation's capitol. But being a writer on American culture, I can't ignore what happened in Washington, D.C. last night with the passage of the most widespread intrusion into the lives of its citizens - the so-called health "reform" bill. It's a sad day for America. We are officially no longer a democracy and Socialism is now the new way. Last night we lost our freedom in America.
Born in America under a beautifully designed Constitution which has kept me free all of my life, I feel very sad today for my beloved country. I never thought I'd live to see this government turn Socialist. I can only pray now that there is a repeal and we are able to take back our freedom in the very near future.
The egomaniac, power-hungry people in Congress have trampled on our Constitution in an unprecedented way to show us that they know what's best for us. And they did it in the most corrupt manner. They lied to the American people and used mob tactics, shady deals and anything but transparency to get what they wanted - POWER. And we will suffer for it in ways that can only be imagined now. Tragically, future generations will pay the price because we no longer own our nation since it's been sold to the highest bidder last night so that the government can watch our every move. They didn't stop to consider even for a moment the will of the people. They forgot that they work for US!
Especially after 9/11, I, for one, have learned not to take my freedom for granted - witnessing the treatment of women in particular in other countries has been eye-opening and a real education for me about world history. In America, we're not sheep - we are a strong nation and with the freedoms the Constitution had guaranteed us, have been able to accomplish things in our lives that are not possible in other countries. For Speaker Pelosi to utter the words, "No longer will women be a pre-existing condition" is tragic at best. None of these people can even come close to imagining what the people of America will go through because of their irresponsible decisions since they are conveniently exempt from this destructive legislation.
Socialism, Communism and dictatorships are dangerous and only weaken a nation and its people. At this time, we can only pray that there is still hope - for a good, common sense repeal of this very dangerous, unconstitutional bill that is sure to destroy our status as a world leader, an innovator, and the strongest nation on the planet.
In this day and age of digital and pocket-sized video cameras, it is an awesome experience to watch "Shooting Iwo Jima," a fascinating documentary about an American hero, Bill Genaust. His is not a household name, but should be. He was a war photographer who fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima, and who is most famous for capturing the (second) flag raising on Iwo Jima on color motion picture film with his 16 millimeter camera. FDR immediately saw the value of the controversial photograph and seized the opportunity to use it to sell war bonds.
Thanks to Genaust, not only are we able to witness the fiercest battles of WWII right in the thick of it, but are able to follow the story of the nine days he risked his life capturing an up close view of American troops in battle via 23 reels of film and his personal notes. You never see Bill, himself, in the reels, other than one poignant shot of his left hand wearing his wedding ring and his combat boots as he films from a foxhole.
This forgotten hero was shot to death by Japanese soldiers when he lit the way into a cave for the other marines. His body was never recovered and he was left behind near the place he made so famous.
FINALLY - in the 21st century, the art world is beginning to acknowledge the contributions women have made to the art world. I've always been suspect about how famous male artists became throughout time and how few women ever received any recognition when it's obvious that many women deserve much more credit than they've received.
An exhibit in Philadelphia examines the lost legacy of women in Pop Art - "Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists 1958-1968" showing at the University of the Arts until March 15, focusing exclusively on the forgotten women of Pop Art and shows about 50 works - some not seen publicly in 40 years - of 20 female Pop artists from the United States and around the world.
Today I was privileged to attend "The Subject is Women: Impressionism and Post-Impressionism" at the Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn, NY where they were showing a lavish viewing of works by women and works depicting women. And in their gift shop, noticed the first book I'd seen on the art of Lee Krasner - Jackson Pollock's wife. I was happy to see that she's finally being given the respect she always deserved.
I hope this trend continues and art historians uncover the truth about women in art. We're in for a real treat!
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – Miep Gies, the office secretary who defied the Nazi occupiers to hide Anne Frank and her family for two years and saved the teenager's diary not, has died, the Anne Frank Museum said Tuesday. She was 100. [more...]
Let's all not forget what a wonderful hero she was. She was a great woman who helped to supply the necessities (food, shelter, etc.) to the Franks as they hid in the annex made famous in Anne Frank's diaries during WWII. Without Miep, we might not have had the privilege to have read the famous Anne Frank Diaries:
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
Anne Frank's Tales from the Secret Annex
Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife
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