Category Archives: Today’s Birthday

September 21, 2012

Thought of the Day 9.21.12 Henry Tingle Wilde

By ritalovestowrite

“I still don’t like this ship . . . I have a queer feeling about it.”

–Henry Tingle Wilde

Henry Tingle Wilde, Jr was the Chief Officer of the Titanic. [Image courtesy: Wikipedia]

Henry Tingle Wilde was born on this day in Walton, Liverpool, England in 1872. Today is the 140th anniversary of his birth.

Wilde was drawn to the sea at an early age. At 17 he left his home for an apprenticeship on the iron sailing ship the Greystoke Castle — a three mast, square sail vessel– as a third mate. He served on the Greystoke’s sister ship the Hornby Castle, also as third mate. He was posted to the steamships the S.S. Brunswick and the S.S. Europa before joining the White Star Line in 1897. He was a Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve, and held ordinary and extra masters certificates.

The Hornby Castle, a sailing ship that Wilde trained on. He worked on both sail and steam vessels.  [Image Courtesy Wreck Site]

Starting in 1905 he transferred to the White Star passenger line, working mostly on the Liverpool to New York, and Australian routes. He rose in the ranks aboard The Arabic, The Covic, The Cufic, The Tauric, the Celtic, the Medic, The Delphic, the Cymric and The Olympic until he reached the rank of Chief Officer under Captain Edward John Smith on The Olympic.

The Titanic [Image courtesy: Mail Online]

Smith transferred to the White Star’s newest vessel, The Titanic as her Captain. Wilde was due to ship out with The Olympicbut White Star officials sent word for him to stay in Southampton and await further orders. At 39 and with years of experience he was certainly seasoned enough to get his own ship. But Captain Smith wanted to add experience to his senior staff and he requested that Wilde join the crew as Chief Officer. Wilde debated the move. His family urged him to take the position, but, as he wrote in a letter to his sister…

“I still don’t like this ship…I have a queer feeling about it…” [Henry Tingle Wilde, Chief Officer by Christine Ehren, Titanic-lore.info]

He officially joined The Titanic crew on April 9th, the day before she sailed. The post was for the great ship’s maiden voyage only. And it meant that the other senior officers would be shifted down in rank. William Murdoch became first officer, Charles Lightoller became second officer. The man originally slated to be second officer, David Blair, did not make the journey. The junior officers retained their positions.

Henry Tingle Wilde in his summer white uniform, that he wore on the Olympia. [Image courtesy: Encyclopedia Titanica]

Publicity still from the Movie Titanic. Mark Lindsay Chapman, third from the left, plays Chief Officer Henry Tingle. He stands just to the left of Bernard Hill who is playing Captain Smith. [Image courtesy: William Murdoch.org]

 

The Titanicleft Southampton, England on April 10th, 1912 with stops at Cherbourg, France and Queenstown, Ireland before heading west across the Atlantic toward New York. Wilde had the 2-6 AM and the 2-6 PM shifts as “Officer of the Watch.” So he was not on the bridge when the ship hit an iceberg at 11:40 PM on April 14th.

Wilde was in charge of the loading the even-numbered lifeboats on the port side of the ship. (He also distributed firearms to the senior officers.) He adhered strictly to Captain Smith’s order to “put women and children in and lower away…” so the boats from that side of the ship only contained women, children and two crew members (to work the boats). When all the boats on his side of the ship were launched he went to starboard side of the ship. Some survivors recall seeing him attempting to release Boat A or B from the roof the Officers’ Quarters when the Titanic’s deck flooded.

Schematic of Titanic. [Image courtesy: Mail Online]

Survivor George Rheims wrote in a letter dated just days after the sinking:

“While the last boat was leaving, I saw an officer with a revolver fire a shot and kill a man who was trying to climb into it. As there remained nothing else for him to, the officer told us, “Gentlemen, each man for himself. Good bye.” He gave a military salute and then fired a bullet into his head. That’s what I call a man!” [Henry Tingle Wilde, Chief Officer by Christine Ehren, Titanic-lore.info]

But it isn’t known if that officer was Wilde or First Officer Murdoch. It doesn’t matter. If he didn’t die of a self-inflicted gunshot wound he died a few minutes later in the freezing waters of the North Atlantic. His body was never found. He was 39 years old.

In 1998 the newspaper Liverpool Echo wrote about Wilde’s role on the Titanic as follows:

Liverpool’s forgotten hero, Chief Officer Henry Wilde… from Walton, flits through the enquiry evidence but witnesses have described how Wilde supervised the loading of the lifeboats and stopped 100 people rushing them by the sheer force of his personality….He is believed to have prevented a panic which would have led to even greater losses. [Henry Tingle Wilde, Chief Officer by Christine Ehren, Titanic-lore.info]

 He was survived by four children (he had recently lost his wife and twin boys.)

——————————–

Thanks to J.G.Burnette at jgburdette.wordpress.com for suggesting Henry Wilde as the Thought of the Day Birthday Bio for today. J.G. is a big Titanic fan and was able to give me both the name and birthdate so I could start my research.–I hope I found some new nugget for your Titanic files! — IF YOU have some one you’d like to see profiled on Thought of the Day please let me know. Cheers, Rita

10 Comments   |  tags: , | posted in England, Henry Tingle Wilde, History, Ocean, postaday, Sailling, Thought of the Day, Titanic, Today's Birthday

September 20, 2012

Thought of the Day 9.20.12 Elizabeth Kenny

By ritalovestowrite

“He who angers you conquers you.”

–Elizabeth Kenny

“Sister” Kenny [Image courtesy: Australian War Memorial; AWM.Gov.au]

Elizabeth Kenny was born on this day in Warialda, New South Wales, Australia in 1880. Today is the 132nd anniversary of her birth.

Because her father was an itinerant farmer the family moved often when Elizabeth was growing up. Her education was limited to home-schooling and a variety of small town primary schools. When she was 17 she fell off her horse and broke her wrist. Her father, Michael, took her to the town of  Toowoomba to see Dr. Aeneas McDonnell. Kenny remained in Toowoomba to recover from the injury and grew fascinated with Dr. McDonnell’s medical books, especially those on anatomy, and his model skeleton. It started Kenny on her life long journey in medicine. She made her own model skeleton to study how muscles and bone worked together in the human body.

Elizabeth Kenny as a young woman. [Image courtesy: Minnesota Public Radio.org]

At 18 she became an unaccredited,  unpaid bush nurse. She later (probably) volunteered at the maternity hospital at Guyra in New South Wales.

There is no official record of formal training or registration as a nurse. She probably learned by voluntary assistance at a small maternity hospital at Guyra, New South Wales. About 1910 Kenny was a self-appointed nurse, working from the family home at Nobby on the Darling Downs, riding on horseback to give her services, without pay, to any who called her. [Elizabeth Kenny, by Ross Patrick, Australian Dictionary of Biography]

Kenny opened St. Canice’s Cottage Hospital in Clifton. She kept in contact with Dr. McDonnell and would often telegraph him when a case stymied her.

In 1911 one such case presented itself. She contacted McDonnell about a new case that stymied her.. a young girl who was crippled, but not from a fall or external trauma. McDonnell replied that it was probably “It sounds like Infantile Paralysis.  There’s no known treatment, so do the best you can.” [Sister Elizabeth Kenny. Australians Documentary Series. 1998. from Teachspace.org] Kenny used a common sense approach. She applied hot compresses to the little girl’s spasming muscles. Hot, heavy woolen blankets were applied that help loosen the muscles and relieve the pain. Then she stretched the little girls legs and strengthened the muscles. It worked. The pain abated, the girl (allegedly) asked “Please, I want them rags that well my leg.”

Of the twenty children in the district, the six that Kenny treated survived without complications. [Sister Elizabeth Kenny. Australians Documentary Series. 1998. from Teachspace.org]

With the outbreak of World War I Kenny, with a letter of recommendation from Dr. McDonnell, joined the Australian Medical Corps. She worked on hospital ships bringing the wounded home from Europe. She was received a shrapnel wound to the leg while at the front.

She patented her invention of a stretcher that immobilized shock patients during transport, the Sylvia Stretcher, and used the royalties  open a clinic for polio patients in Townsville, Queensland. Here she treated long-term polio and cerebral palsy patients, tossing aside the braces and concentrating on hot baths, passive movements and foments.

Sister Kenny works with a young patient as other doctors, nurses and physiotherapist observe. [Image courtesy: Sister Elizabeth Kenny: Medical Pioneer]

Her “homespun” methods for polio treatment, though effective, were controversial as the  accepted practice was to splint the affected limbs to keep them rigid. That way the stronger muscles wouldn’t pull on the weaker/paralyzed muscles and create deformities. Kenny thought that splinting the limbs would actually produce deformities and increase paralysis. She alternately dismissed, ridiculed or vilified by the medical establishment. Kenny soldiered on, buoyed by the support of parents who witnessed first hand the results her methods were having on their children. Kenny opened clinics in Brisbane and through out Queensland.

The controversy over her methods followed her to England  and the US. Kenny worked in the Minneapolis General Hospital where…

Her methods became widely accepted. She began courses for doctors and physiotherapists from many parts of the world. The Sister Kenny Institute was built in Minneapolis in 1942 and other Kenny clinics were established. [Elizabeth Kenny, by Ross Patrick, Australian Dictionary of Biography]

Kenny in 1950. {Image courtesy: Wikipedia]

She developed Parkinson’s disease and retired to Toowoomba in 1951. Kenny died there of cerebrovascular disease on 30 November 1952.

Sister Kenny’s pioneering principles of muscle rehabilitation became the foundation of physical therapy. Today, Sister Kenny Rehabilitation Services is one of the premier rehabilitation centers in the country, known for its progressive and innovative vision. [Nurses for nurse everywhere.info]

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , | posted in Australia, Elizabeth Kenny, History, Medicine, Polio, postaday, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday, World War One

September 19, 2012

Thought of the Day 9.19.12 Jeremy Irons

By ritalovestowrite

“It’s always great to play a man who sets himself up to be punctured.”

–Jeremy Irons

Jeremy John Irons was born on this day in Cowes on the Isle of Wight, England in 1948. He is 64 years old.

He grew up on the island, and didn’t have much connection with the professional performing arts. The family only ventured to the mainland once a year. But when he was an adolescent the family moved to Hertfordshire and, at 13, Jeremy was sent to the Sherborne School in Dorset. There he took part in a four-man school band called the Four Pillars of Wisdom. The group played for their mates on Sunday afternoons, with Jeremy on drums and harmonica (including stand out harmonica solos in “Moon River” and “Stairway to Heaven.” — because when you think of Stairway to Heaven you think ‘harmonica solo!’) He also performed comedy skits and was in the school’s production of My Fair Lady (he played Professor Higgins.)

Irons trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. There he “gained much experience working in everything from Shakespeare to contemporary dramas.” [IMDB biography] He supported himself with a number of odd jobs and by busking on the streets of Bristol.

In 1971 he moved to London and landed the role dual role of John the Baptist/Judas in Godspell at the Round House.

He did a lot of television work in the 1970’s including: The Pallisers;  Love of Lydia; Churchill’s People; Langrishe, Go Down; The Voysey Inheritance; and as Franz Liszt in Notorious Woman,

His film debut was in the 1980 film Nijinsky, but his break out role was opposite Meryl Streep in the French Lieutenant’s Woman. The film, based on the John Fowles novel, follows two parallel love stories — one between Victorian palaeontologist Charles and “the French Lieutenant’s Whore” Sarah; the other between Mike and Anna, the actors who play the Victorian couple in a movie they are making on the novel. Irons was nominated for a BAFTA Award for best Actor (Streep won one for Best Actress.)

Still from The French Lieutenant’s Woman [Image Courtesy: Encyclopedia Britannica]

Back on television he played another Charles, Charles Ryder, opposite Anthony Andrew’s Sebastian Flyte in the hugely successful Brideshead Revisited  based on the Evelyn Waugh novel.  Irons got another BAFTA Nomination (Andrews won), both men were nominated for Emmy Awards.

Anthony Andrews and Jeremy Irons in Brideshead Revisited (Image Courtesy The Guardian.)

He followed those two high profile projects with an independent film about Polish guest workers in London, Moonlighting.

Irons played Father Gabriel in Roland Joffe’s The Mission. Father Gabriel is a Spanish Missionary who is sent into the jungles of South America. He builds a sanctuary for the Guarani Indians. Robert DeNiro, a reformed slave hunter joins him at the mission. Together they must defend both the mission and the people who live there from the encroaching Portuguese It is all set to Ennio Morricone’s beautiful music.

Father Gabriel’s (Irons) first encounter with the Guarani Indians. [Image courtesy: Mostly Movies]

David Cronenberg’s psychological thriller Dead Ringers saw Iron’s playing identical twin gynecologist. The movie brought the word “co-dependant” to a whole new level. Iron’s is cool (maybe even icy) and creepy in the movie. (It is a total departure from his Father Gabriel. So if you are planning a Jeremy fest, don’t book these two back to back.)

Reversal of Fortune finally brought Irons the Gold. He won both an Academy Award  and a Golden Globe Award for his portrayal of Claus von Bulow.

Irons took on the role of Rene Gallimard when Cronenberg brought M. Butterfly from stage to screen.

You might recognize his growling voice from Disney’s the Lion King. He played Simba’s uncle Scar.

When Bruce Willis brought his Die Hard franchise to New York for Die Hard with a Vengeance, Irons played his foil, psychopath Simon Gruber.

He pulled on some tights when he took on Aramis in The Man in the Iron Mask; Antonio, to Al Pacino’s Shylock, in Michael Radford’s 2004 movie of Shakepeare’s The Merchant of Venice;  suited up as Tiberias, a Knight Templar, in Kingdom of Heaven; and starred in the tv mini-series Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, as the Earl of Leicester/Lord Dudley, opposite Helen Mirren’s Bess.

He played photographer Alfred Stieglitz in the made for TV biopic Georgia O’Keefe in 2009.

Still from Georgia O’Keefe. (Image Courtesy: IMDB)

Heck, he’s even voiced the part of Moe’s Bar Rag in the Simpsons!

Irons currently can be seen in Showtime’s sweeping TV mini series The Borgias, a crime drama set in 1492 Italy.

And he plays Henry IV in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1 & 2  in the BBC’s the Hallow Crown series.

Still from Henry IV, Part 1 with Irons and Tom Hiddleston as Prince Hal (Image Courtesy: The Telegraph)

Here’s Ennio Morricone’s BAFTA Award winning song Gabriel’s Oboe from the film The Mission. [The soundtrack holds a very special place in my heart because we used parts of it, including Gabriel’s Oboe at our wedding. I wrote the publisher to see if I could get the sheet music, but it wasn’t published yet. They contacted Mr. Morricone and they supplied us with a copy of the hand written piano score. How’s that for romantic? This was played on a pipe organ as I walked up the aisle with my dad. ]

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , | posted in Elizabeth I, England, Film, Jeremy Irons, postaday, Shakespeare, Theatre, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday

September 17, 2012

Thought of the Day 9.17.12 Baz Luhrmann

By ritalovestowrite

n”I only achieve about 60 per cent of what I’ve dreamed of. Perhaps that’s a good thing – if I did ever get the whole way with anything, I think I’d probably want to destroy it.”

— Baz Luhrmann

On the set of Australia [Image Courtesy: The Play List]

Mark Anthony Luhrmann was born on this day in Sydney, Australia in 1962. He is 50 years old.

His mother, Barbara, owned a dress shop. His father, Leonard, was a farmer and owned a gas station and movie theater in the small town of Herons Creek near where they lived. Barbara and Leonard competed in ballroom dance competitions and Barbara taught ballroom dance at a local studio.

“What kind of kid was I? …Extremely busy. My father was a bit mad, you see. He thought that we had to be the renaissance kids of Herons Creek. We had to learn commando training as well as photography, how to grow corn as well as how to play a musical instrument. We were up at 5 in the morning, and then we just went until we dropped. The town consisted of a gas station, a pig farm, a dress shop and a movie theatre – and we ran them all.” [Baz Luhrmann, as quoted on Baz the Great! fansite]

Growing up the Luhrmann kids helped run the various family businesses. In their free time they rode horses, learned to ballroom dance (of course), and made amateur movies. As a gas jockey at the service station Mark saw a stream of people  pass through. He was invisible to them, and  so was able to observe  their stories unfiltered and unedited for the 5 minutes it took to fill up their tank.  Later, after his parents divorced he eventually found himself in Sydney. Prior to the move he (and his brothers) had to keep their hair closely cropped in a buzz cut, but once in Sydney he was allowed grow it out. When he was teased that his new hair do made him look like a puppet fox on TV, Basil Bush, he embraced the  taunting and officially changed his first name to Bazmark.  In high school he acted in Henry IV, Part 1.  And at 17 he got a role in the Judy Davis, Bryan Brown film The Winter of Our Dreams.

He worked with the Australian Opera to bring in a younger audience and directed and performed in a number of stage productions for the company.

In 1987, while working on an experimental opera, Lake Lost, He met Catherine Martin, a production designer. She became his exclusive production designer and his wife.  (They now have two children.)

Luhrmann mounted productions of La Boheme, A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream and other classics in modern or unusual settings.

[Image Courtesy: NNDB]

His break out film was Strictly Ballroom. The project began as a 30-minute play, but Luhrmann developed it into a full blown motion picture in 1992. The story centers around handsome, spoiled, Scott. He’s a leading ballroom dancer who’s set to win the Pan-Pacific Ballroom Championships. But Scott wants to break the rules and dance his own steps. Enter Fran, a shy, ugly duckling of a girl from the beginner class at his mother’s studio. He teaches her how to dance and along the way she teaches him a thing or two as well. It’s quirky, funny, over the top, and wonderful. Here’s a scene about mid-way through the movie:

It is the first of his Red Curtain Trilogy.  Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge! round out the trio. Luhrmann describes a Red Curtain film as having the following attributes:

  1. the audience knows how it will end right from the start;
  2. the storyline is thin and simple;
  3. the world created in the film is one of heightened reality; and
  4. there is to be a specific device driving the story. For Strictly Ballroom it was dance, for Romeo + Juliet it was iambic pentameter, and for Moulin Rouge! it was characters breaking into song.

The success of Strictly Ballroom  brought Luhrmann to the attention of 20th Century Fox  who signed him to a 3-year deal. For second movie Luhrmann gave Romeo + Juliet a modern jump. It starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes and is both fast paced and action packed.  In both style and weirdness factors there is a 15% increase from Ballroom, but still, it works.

The third movie of the set was Moulin Rouge!, a highly stylized musical love story starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor.

“. . . if you make a film full of risk, studios don’t run towards you to give you $50,000,000 in order to reinvent the post-modern musical, I can tell you. If you do manage to cajole them into doing it and you want to maintain the flag of creative freedom, you better make sure that it pays its bill.”[Baz Luhrmann, IMDB]

It was somehow even bigger and stranger than J + R and Ballroom put together. With an odd combination of modern songs (with modified lyrics) that should not have fit in the 1900 Paris setting, this musical had no business becoming a hit. But it did. Frankly, once Ewan McGregor opened his mouth to sing… nothing else seemed to matter.  (As is evidenced by the bizarre beginning of this clip… Here McGregor’s Christian has snuck into courtesan Satine’s room. He is a penniless writer and he tries to win her over with the strength of his prose [well, in this case it’s Elton John’s lyrics] Kidman feign’s over excitement, hoping to get the shy wordsmith to leave, but then he starts to sing and the movie, and their attraction,  takes off.)

For his next project he brought  La Boheme to Broadway.  The show opened on December 8, 2002 and was declared a “brilliant reworking of Puccini’s masterpiece that appealed to all. [Baz the Great! fansite]

In 2008 he teamed with Kidman again, this time pairing her with Hugh Jackman, in the epic WWII Aussie drama, Australia. It’s beautifully shot. From a cattle drive worthy any Western… to the Japanese attack on Darwin… to the love story, Australia has a lot going for it. (But be warned it is a bit preachy too.)

<iframe width=”420″ height=”315″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/p447zpUmbxw&#8221; frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>

His eclectic mix of images and music can make even the every day seem extrordinary…

 

Luhrmann’s latest project is Gatsby. This time he re-teams with DiCaprio. This stylish take on the Fitzgerald’s classic, The Great Gatsby is due out on Christmas Day. [Don’t buy your tickets just yet… seems like the release date has been pushed back to Summer 2013 — thanks to John for the heads up. ]

Leave a comment   |  tags: | posted in Australia, Baz Luhrmann, Entertainment, Fiction, Film, Musical Theatre, postaday, Shakespeare, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday, World War Two

September 17, 2012

Thought of the Day 9.16.12 Henry V

By ritalovestowrite

“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall with our English dead.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry V

Henry the Fifth of England was born in the tower above Monmouth Castle in Wales on this day in 1386. Today is the 626th anniversary of his birth.

Illustration of Henry V from Cassell’s History of England [Image Courtesy: Wiki Commons]

Henry’s birthday was not officially recorded but it is believed to be either September 16 or August 9, and in either 1386 or 1387. He was born into one of the most important families in England. As such, he had the best education and upbringing available at the time. He learned to ride, fight and hunt. In the class room he learned history, literature, and music (he could play the harp) and he could speak English, French and Latin fluently. Because he was born in Monmouth Castle he was referred to as Henry Monmouth during his early life.

His grandfather, John of Gaunt was the son of Edward III, his parents were Henry Bolingbroke, the Earl of Derby and Mary Bonhun. At the time of Monmouth’s birth Richard II sat on the English throne. John of Gaunt, the King’s uncle, was an ardent support, Bolingbroke had a less steadfast relationship with the King. Although the two had been childhood friends Bolingbroke took part in the Lords Appellant’s rebellion against Richard in 1387. Richard forgave him and even promoted him to Duke of Hereford. But in 1397…

“Henry Bolingbroke reported treasonous comments made by the Duke of Norfolk; a court was convened but, as it was one Duke’s word against another, trial by battle was arranged. It never took place. Instead, Richard II intervened in 1398 by exiling Bolingbroke for ten years…
[Henry V, of England by Robert Wilde, About.com Guide]

At that time Richard “invited” 12-year-old Henry Monmouth to be his “guest” at court. Essentially Monmouth was a hostage. If  the father returned to England to cause any trouble, the son would be forfeit. Things were not so grim in the Royal castle, however, Richard treated Monmouth kindly. The two became friends. The King even knighted Monmouth.

But in 1399 Monmouth’s grandfather, John of Gaunt died. Instead of Bolingbroke automatically inheriting his father’s lands Richard II “kept them for himself and extended Bolingbroke’s exile to life. ”

In 1399, whilst Richard was in Ireland, Henry of Bolingbroke returned to claim his father’s inheritance. … Henry captured and deposed Richard. Bolingbroke was crowned King as Henry IV. [The Official website of The British Monarchy]

Richard was thrown in jail, and, on October 13th 1399 Henry Bolingbroke became Henry the Fourth of England, his son, was named

“heir to the throne, Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall and Earl of Chester. Two months later he was given the further titles Duke of Lancaster and Duke of Aquitaine.” [Henry V, of England by Robert Wilde, About.com Guide]

Detail of miniature of Henry, Prince of Wales, receiving a book from Thomas Hoccleve. [Image Courtesy: Wiki Commons]

So… Henry  Monmouth becomes Prince Hal. He was at his father’s side in battle at the Battle of Shrewsbury. He also fought bravely (and effectively) in Wales, Scotland and France. As his father’s health began to fail the Prince took on more and more responsiblity at court. He became a  major political player. Shakespeare’s portrayal of him laughing it up with Falstaff was more dramatic fiction than historic truth.

Henry as King. [Image Courtesy: Wiki Commons]

He ascended to the throne upon his father’s death on March 21st, 1413 and was crowned Henry V on April 9th. He transferred the remains of Richard II — who died of starvation in Pontefract Castle tower  to Winchester Cathedral and gave him an honorable burial. He prepared the nation for a war with France. He straighten out the royal finances by editing royal budgets. He decreed that all government documents be written in English. He  tackled the lawless no-man’s-lands and reduced the number of roving bandits (mostly by funneling them into the army.) He crushed the religiously “deviant” Lollards. And he united the people — noble and common alike — behind him.

Kenneth Branagh as Henry V [Image Courtesy: Renaissance Films PLC 1989]

“And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother”
― William Shakespeare, Henry V

“In August 1415, after dealing with a conspiracy to remove him from the throne, he led an army of 20,000 foot soldiers and 9,000 horsemen to attack Harfleur and, after sending a large part of his army home due to illness, marched to Calais to secure a base for further operations. On the way, unable to avoid a vastly superior French army, he gave battle at Agincourt on Oct. 25, 1415, gaining a great victory and capturing the constable of France and the Duke of Orléans.” [Henry V Biography, Your Dictionary.com]

In May 1420 the Treaty of Troyes was signed. Under the treaty  Charles VI remained King of France, Henry married his daughter Katherine, was named heir, and ruled the country in all but name.
Alas, Henry took ill in 1422 while laying siege to one of the last French hold outs.  He lingered for three weeks before dying at Vincennes on August 31st.  He was 35 years old.
“I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot;
Follow your spirit: and upon this charge,
Cry — God for Harry! England and Saint George!”
― William Shakespeare, Henry V

1 Comment   |  tags: | posted in England, Henry V, History, Non Fiction, postaday, Shakespeare, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday

September 15, 2012

Thought of the Day 9.15.12 Marco Polo

By ritalovestowrite

“I have not told half of what I saw.”

–Marco Polo

Marco Polo was born on this day in Venice, Italy in 1254. It is the 758th anniversary of his birth.

Marco Polo followed in the footsteps of his explorer father, Niccolo, and uncle, Matteo and traveled with them from Europe to the East. Niccolo and Matteo were on their first trip East when Marco was born. The elder Polos made it as far east as Kkublai Khan’s capital Kaifeng in the Mongol Empire. When they returned to Italy they found out that Marco’s mother, Niccolo’s wife, had died. Marco, then 15,  joined the explorers and in 1271 they set off again.

14th-century print showing the Polos leaving Venice at the beginning of their journey [Image Courtesy Hutton Archive/Getty Image / How Stuff Works]

This time they met the Great Khan himself in his summer capital of Xanadu. Khan liked the Polos, and took a special interest in the lively,  20 year-old Marco who he

conscripted him into service for the Empire. Marco served in several high-level government positions, including as ambassador and as the governor of the city of Yangzhou. [Biography of Marco Polo by Matt Rosenberg, About.Com Guide]

The Polos stayed in the diplomatic service of the Khan,  exploring the Empire for 17 years. In 1292, charged by Khan to escort a 17-year-old princess to Persia to wed a King, the Polos led an armada of 14 ships and 600 passengers that departed Sumatra and travelled to Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India through the Strait of Hormuz to Persia. The trip took 2 years.

Supposedly, only eighteen people survived from the original 600, including the Princess who could not wed her intended fiancée because he had died, so she married his son instead. [Biography of Marco Polo by Matt Rosenberg, About.Com Guide]

Polo would have been about 40 when he returned home from the East. [Image Courtesy: Hutton Archive/Getty Images; How Stuff Works]

The Polos went back to Venice. Marco became involved in the Italian wars between the city-states of Venice and Genoa, and was captured. While in prison he met Rustichello da Pisa . To pass the time he shared the stories of his far East travels with Rustichello who wrote them down. When they were released they worked together to publish The Travels of Marco Polo.

Polo told tales of fabulous Asian courts, black stones that would catch on fire (coal), and Chinese money made out of paper. [Biography of Marco Polo by Kallie Szczepanski, About.com Guide]

The book was an exaggerated telling of Polo’s actual adventures. Perhaps Marco hyped up the adventure to make for a more interesting tale in the dark days of prison, or maybe Rustichel loaded  it with danger and cannibals to increase sales. Regardless of how it happened, the book was an enormous hit. It was translated into most of the European languages and sold thousands of copies during Polo’s life time.

Cover of The Travels of Marco Polo, the paperback edition. The book has been in continuous publication (in one for or another) for 712 years. [ Image courtesy: Amazon.com]

The accounts of his travels provide a fascinating glimpse of the different societies he encountered: their religions, customs, ceremonies and way of life; on the spices and silks of the East; on precious gems, exotic vegetation and wild beasts. He tells the story of the holy shoemaker, the wicked caliph and the three kings, among a great many others, evoking a remote and long-vanished world with colour and immediacy. [Amazon.com]

The book heightened Europe’s desire to explore the world. Christopher Columbus owned a copy of it.

Marco lived out his days in Venice as a merchant. He married the daughter of another successful merchant and they had three daughters. He prefered to stay in Italy, letting others travel for the supplies that he sold.

As Polo neared death in 1324, he was asked to recant what he had written and simply said that he had not even told half of what he had witnessed. [Biography of Marco Polo by Matt Rosenberg, About.Com Guide]

The Polo’s route outlined in red [Image Courtesy: Tropical Stamps]

Leave a comment   |  tags: | posted in Explorer, History, Marco Polo, postaday, Sailling, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday, Writing

September 14, 2012

Thought of the Day 9.14.12 Sam Neill

By ritalovestowrite

 

 

“As much as possible, I try to encourage people to use stunt men because that is really their job.”

 

-Sam Neill

 

Nigel John Dermot “Sam”  Neill was born on this day in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland in 1947. He is 65 years old today.

His father, a New Zealander, was stationed in Northern Ireland when Sam was born. The family lived there until Sam was six when they returned to Christ Church.

Sam stuttered badly as a child, and shied away from talking to people. He would refrain from raising his hand because he was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to say anything if he was call on.

“My fear was nothing would come out at all … and I would just be left with a face that was going redder and redder and more purple. The upside of that was I probably learned to listen better than most of my contemporaries… I’m still fairly economic with words and I think that’s a good thing.” [ The British Stammering Association]

He says his stammer gradually became less pronounced. As he  became involved in debate and acting, at University of Canterbury, he gained  self-confidence. The more self-confidence he had, the less he stuttered. Occasionally you can still hear a snippet of it. Neill actively supports several stammering support associations like the British Stammering Association and the Australian Speak Easy Association.

After graduating from university he worked with the New Zealand National Film Unit directing, editing and writing documentaries. He also worked on stage with the New Zealand Players at that time.

His first real film role was in 1977’s Sleeping Dogs, a N.Z. based drama. He got a much wider audience as Harry, the romantic lead in the period drama My Brilliant Career opposite Judy Davis.

Neill in My Brilliant Career [Image Courtesy: HD-Sensei]

After a few television roles he landed quite a different kind of leading role in Omen III: The Final Conflict. Sure, Neill always had a bit of a devilish grin, but …. On a scale of 1 to 10, with My Brilliant Career as a strong 10… I’d give Omen III a weak 6.66.  The Omen brought Neill to the London film making scene under the mentorship of James Mason.

DVD cover for Omen III. Cute little devil, isn’t he? [Image Courtesy: IMBD Movie Database]

For a New Zealander, he played a lot of Soviets. Some were good Russians, like Vassili in Hunt for Red October. Other times he played “A strict Eastern European autocrat” [TalkTalk] as he did in Enigma and Amerika.

While in England he took on the title role in the BBC mini-series Reilly: Ace of Spies, ” The epic adventures of Britain’s greatest spy” [IMDB: Movie Database — Reilly: Ace of Spies]

He teamed up with Academy Award winner Merle Streep for the drama A Cry in the Dark (it was released originally as Evil Angels in Australia and New Zealand.)

Next he starred in the taunt (essentially) three person horror film Dead Calm with newcomer Nicole Kidman and Billy Zane…

“Here Neill played her distressed husband, desperately trying to save the day when nut-job Billy Zane kidnaps both Kidman AND Neill’s boat. It was a superb thriller, boosting its stars big-time…” [TalkTalk]

I don’t know that I’d go so far as to call it “superb”, but…the scene where Neill is stuck inside the quickly sinking second boat (the one Billy Zane was on)  is more than worth the price of a Netflix rental.

Still from Dead Calm. [Image Courtesy: Turner Classic Movies]

In 1993 he was the, angry, odd-man-out in a love triangle between mute Holly Hunter and Harvey Keitel the beautiful made The Piano.

So… if you’ve never heard of any of the movies I’ve written about so far in this blog, I’m betting your heard of this one…Neill played Dr. Alan Grant the Jurassic Park franchise. I thought J.P. the book was wonderful, the movie? Not so much. The dinosaurs were cool, REALLY cool, but the acting, script, and direction was flat — except for my boy Sam. I thought he pulled off the requisite wonder and reluctance needed for the role.

Still from Jurassic Park [Image Courtesy: Cineplex.com]

Back on the small screen he’s played  Merlin, Komarovski in Doctor Zhivago, and Cardinal Wolsey in The Tudors.

One of my favorite Sam Neill movies is The Dish. In it “A remote Australian antenna, populated by quirky characters, plays a key role in the first Apollo moon landing.” [IMDB: Movie Data Base]

DVD Cover for The Dish. [Image Courtesy: Amazon.com]

Neill currently  he enjoys relaxing by making wine at his Two Paddocks Winery on New Zealand’s South Island. Here he shows a bit of his trademark deadpan humor in a promotional video for the vineyard.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , | posted in Australia, Film, New Zealand, postaday, Sailling, Sam Neill, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday

September 13, 2012

Thought of the Day 9.13.12 Roald Dahl

By ritalovestowrite

“We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.”

–Roald Dahl

My Roald Dahl collage featuring some of his most popular characters (as drawn by the amazing Quentin Blake). Surrounding Mr. Dahl and his pups are: at the top left The BFG & Sophie, The Enormous Crocodile, Mr. Fox, James (inside the Peach,) the Grand High Witch, Willy Wonka, Danny (Champion of the World) and Matilda.

[I gave a little inward squeak of delight when I saw that it was Roald Dahl’s birthday today. I can’t think of a better way to spend a few hours than to reminisce with my old friends Charlie, Matilda, Sophie, James and the rest. What joy!]

Roald Dahl was born on this day in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales, in 1916. Today is the 96th anniversary of this birth.

Although Dahl grew up in Wales his parents were from Norway and the family spoke Norwegian at home. His older sister, Astrid, and his father,Harald, died within weeks of each other when Roald was a toddler. Sophie, his mother, was pressured to bring the family home and live with relatives, but she knew Harald had wanted the children to have a proper English education. So she split the difference.  Summers were spent visiting relatives across the North Sea. Roald and his sisters enjoyed long, sun drenched days on the water and beaches of the Norwegian coast and the family visited with their grandparents in Oslo.

Roald Dahl aged 8. [Image courtesy: The Telegraph]

It was a lovely break for the dreary days at English public school that Dahl described as  being filled with “rules, rules and still more rules to be obeyed.”  His biography Boy: Tales Childhooddetails his exploits, dramas, and adventures growing up… like the time he mixed goat droppings into his older sister’s fiance’s pipe tobacco or the when he and his friend were given Cadbury chocolate samples to taste test at school.

After school Roald wanted adventure…

Though not a good student, his mother nevertheless offered him the option of attending Oxford or Cambridge University …. His reply, …was, “No, thank you. I want to go straight from school to work for a company that will send me to wonderful faraway places like Africa or China.”…Dahl took a position with the Shell Oil Company in Tanganyika (now Tanzania)

He worked for Shell in Mombasa, Kenya and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanganyika and had a famous encounter with a black mamba and some lions. At the outbreak of WWII Dahl joined the British Royal Air Force as a pilot — not an easy thing for him to do as he was 6’6″ and the open cockpit of his De Havilland Tiger Moth was built for men who were considerably smaller.  His head stuck up above the windshield.

Dahl in his RAF uniform. [Image Courtesy: Mail Online]

In September 1940 while flying the last leg of a trip across the top of Africa he found himself  running out fuel and was lost. He couldn’t find the target airstrip near Mersa Matruh, Egypt, and had to make a desert landing. He cracked his skull, broke his nose, and was temporarily blinded in the crash. When he woke up he found out that the coordinates he’d been given for the airstrip had been all wrong. HQ had sent him by mistake into a no man’s land between Allied and Axis forces.

He flew other missions — bravely flying with the 80th Squadron  in the Greek Campaign. He described the “Battle of Athens” as “an endless blur of enemy fighters whizzing towards me from every side.” [Going Solo, Scholastic] After that he was sent back to Egypt and flew sorties over the Mediterranean against Vichy France, but he’d begun to have severe headaches — a result of the earlier crash. When the headaches got so bad that he began to black out he was grounded.  He writes about his adventures in Africa and in the War in his second, equally wonderful biography, Going Solo.

Dahl was sent to Washington DC as an assistant air attaché. While in Washington he stepped briefly into the role of a spy. He passed information to MI6 and worked on propoganda to promote the British agenda within the US. It was in DC that he began to write. The Saturday Evening Post published his first piece, “A Piece of Cake” (which it retitled to the more sensational, if less accurate “Shot Down Over Libya,”) in 1942. He also wrote his first book, a novel for adults about  the mythical creatures gremlins. Walt Disney optioned the story for a potential animated film.

The Gremlins is the story of Gus, a British World War II fighter pilot, who during the Battle of Britain turned to look out on the wing of his plane only to see an amazing sight: a little man, no more than six inches tall with horns growing from his head, drilling a hole in the plane’s wing. [Amazon.com]

Although the film was never made a companion book was released on a limited run. The book was re-released in 2006. (The classic Twilight Zone episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” is an homage to the story.)

Dahl in 1954 [Image Courtesy Wikipedia]

He began to write for children when his own family came along. ( He was married to actress Patricia Neal and had five children with her.)

…Dahl began making up stories for them each night before they went to bed. These stories became the basis for his career as a children’s writer, which began seriously with the publication of James and the Giant Peach in 1961. …Dahl insisted that having to invent stories night after night was perfect practice for his trade… [Roald Dahl Biography]

His other childrens’ books include: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 1964; The Fantastic Mr. Fox 1970, Danny, the Champion of the World 1975;  The BFG 1982; The Witches 1983;  Matilda 1988 and others. He also wrote books of verse for children including the hilarious Revolting Rhymes and Dirty Beasts.  Most of his books have nasty adults who mistreat children, those adults do not fare well in the end. The justification that “Beastly people must be punished,” made Dahl very popular with children of all ages.

Neal and Dahl prior to their marriage. [HubPages.com]

He wrote fiction for adults as well, though it is much more difficult to find. Roald Dahl: Collected Stories is a good place to start and it contains dozens of the writer’s short stories. As does The Best of Roald Dahl.

“Dahl has the mastery of plot and characters possessed by great writers of the past, along with the wildness and wryness of his own. One of his trademarks is writing beautifully about the ugly, even the horrible.” [– The Los Angeles Times on the back of The Best of Roald Dahl]

He also wrote screen plays. He wrote a full script for The Gremlins for Disney, as well as the screenplay for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)– that creepy child catcher  who trolls the streets of Vulgaria with his candy festooned wagon is 100% Dahl– and the 1971 version of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.  For the small screen he penned  6 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents  and several other suspense shows.

Dahl died at the age of 74 from Leukemia.

[Image courtesy: Wikipedia]

8 Comments   |  tags: , | posted in England, Fiction, Film, Norway, postaday, Roald Dahl, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday, Writing

September 12, 2012

Thought of the Day 9.12.12 H.L.Mencken

By ritalovestowrite

“Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.”

— H. L. Mencken

The Sage of Baltimore. [Image courtesy: The American Mercury]

Henry Louis Mencken was born on this day  in Baltimore, Maryland in 1880. Today is the 132nd anniversary of his birth.

Mencken lived in the same house in the Union Square neighborhood of the city for all but 5 years of his life. At 9 he read Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and knew he wanted to become a writer. His family had other ideas.

His grandfather had prospered in the tobacco business and his father, August, continued the family tradition. Mencken studied at the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute (1892-96) and then worked at his father’s cigar factory. [Books and Writers]

[Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons]

He worked for 3 years at the family owned business and would have stayed indefinitely, but upon his father’s death in 1899  Mencken was “free to choose his own trade in the world.”

Within a week, Mencken “invaded” the city room of the old Baltimore Morning Herald to face down the city editor and ask for a job…There were no jobs that day, but Mencken, persistent, returned daily for two weeks. “Finally I was sent out on a small assignment — it was a stable robbery at Govans — and a few days later I was on the staff,” [H.L. Mencken, Pioneer Journalist, By Jacques Kelly The Baltimore Sun]

His skill as a writer and his reputation for being able to turn a phrase grew. So 6 years later when the Herald closed its doors Mencken applied for a position at the larger Baltimore Sun.  He started at “The Sun as its Sunday editor, became an editorial writer, and in 1911 started writing his own column, the Free Lance Mencken.”  He worked at The Sun until 1948, bring his unflinching wit and critical eye to everything he saw.

“I believe that a young newspaper reporter in a big city… led a live that has never been matched… for romance and interest.” [Mencken from his only known audio interview. Courtesy of: The American Mercury.com]/

Mencken at work. [Image Courtesy: Enoch Pratt free Library Digital Collections.]

He was a war correspondent in Germany and Russia from 1916 to 1918. During WWI Mencken was pro-German (a very unpopular thing to be in patriotic Baltimore of 1917).

In 1919 he published The American Language, a guide to American expressions and idioms.

From 1914 to 1923 Mencken co-edited with drama critic George Jean Nathan (1882-1958) the Smart Set, which mocked everything from politics to art, universities to the Bible…[Books and Writers]

He preferred realism to modernism and he helped the careers of Sinclair Lewis, Dorothy Parker and Eugene O’Neill.

Cover of the American Mercury [Image Courtesy: Wikipedia]

He started The American Mercury monthly magazine, working on the magazine from 1924 t0 1933.

A stroke in 1948 left him nearly unable to read or write. Speaking took a lot of effort, and he grew easily frustrated. He spent his remaining days organizing his papers and letters (which can now be found in H.L. Mencken Room and Collection at the Central Branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library on Cathedral Street in Baltimore.

[Image courtesy: MPT]

Here are a few more quips from the Sage of Baltimore:

  • “A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.”
  • “Nature abhors a moron”
  • “Do not overestimate the decency of the human race”
  • “A man loses his sense of direction after four drinks; a woman loses hers after four kisses”
  • “Love is like war; easy to begin but very hard to stop”
  • “It is a sin to believe evil of others, but it is seldom a mistake.”
  • “Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.”
  • “You come into the world with nothing, and the purpose of your life is to make something out of nothing”
  • “Most people are unable to write because they are unable to think, and they are unable to think because they congenitally lack the equipment to do so, just as they congenitally lack the equipment to fly over the moon.”
  • “I believe that it is better to tell the truth than a lie. I believe it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant.”

Leave a comment   |  tags: | posted in Baltimore, H L Mencken, History, Maryland, Non Fiction, postaday, Thought of the Day, Today's Birthday, United States, World War One, World War Two, Writing