NYPL Blogs: Women's History Month

Schomburg Center Volunteer Is One of the Last Surviving ‘Black Angels’

Tue, 01 Mar 2022 14:20:04 -0500

During her time as a nurse at Staten Island’s Sea View Hospital, Virginia Allen (center) became known as a "Black Angel.'"Allen is pictured with Delores Morris (left) and Zulma Candelaria Cruz (right). The three have been honored as Staten Island Advance Women of Achievement, one of the borough's highest honors. Photo: Virginia Allen

Growing up, Virginia Allen admired her maternal aunt Edna Sutton Ballard and loved to see her nurse’s uniform. It was starched white with shiny white shoes, Allen recalled. Ballard spoke of her patients and coworkers at Staten Island’s Sea View Hospital on family visits to Detroit in the 1930s and 1940s. Those stories planted the seeds for Allen who later became a nurse.

Both women went on to make history as part of a group of 300 nurses who later became known as “Black Angels.”

Below, Allen, who has been a volunteer at the Schomburg Center since 2010, looks back at her 10 years at Sea View and shares a glimpse of her life at the hospital.

The nurses “gave so much of themselves to the cure of tuberculosis,” Allen said. “Some of them, actually, risking their lives.” Allen and fellow nurses wore protective gear such as face masks, gowns over their uniforms, and gloves as part of the safety protocol of caring for the patients who contracted the highly contagious airborne disease.

“I was fortunate to have so many professional Black nurses teaching in the education department and teaching isolation techniques, which saved my life,” she added “If I did not maintain isolation techniques, I could have easily contracted tuberculosis.” Allen never did.

White nurses walked off the job in 1929, saying that caring for tuberculosis patients was too dangerous. According to Allen, the shortage created job opportunities for Black women. People were recruited from the South, the Caribbean, and Asian countries to fill the void. Some of the staff were also graduates of the Harlem Hospital School of Nursing and the Lincoln School for Nurses.

“Even though the Department of Hospitals had over 20 hospitals in New York, only four of them hired Black nurses at that time,” Allen said. “They had to work in other occupations because there were no jobs available to them because of segregation.”

Patients at Sea View were from all races, backgrounds, and ages.

“It wasn’t until many years later the term ‘Black Angels’ was assigned to the nurses,” Allen said. The patients called the nurses their “angels.” The nurses who cared for them were predominately Black. The nurses worked across Sea View’s eight pavilions. Her aunt, Edna Sutton Ballard, was a recovery nurse with patients post surgery and worked on the fifth floor of the children’s building.

“There were only a few Caucasian supervisors,” the Staten Islander added. “They rarely visited the units. They had almost no contact with patients. They worked in the front office.”

Allen began working at Sea View in 1947 at age 16. She convinced her parents to let her leave Detroit after graduating from high school, live with her aunt, and work as a nurse’s aide. Allen did not realize the historic nature of her job at the time.

“My age did not allow me to think critically about the situation at hand,” she said. “I treated the patients the way I was taught to treat them. I was young myself, so I related to them.”

Allen worked in the children’s building on the first floor. She cared for the babies, assisted toddlers and older children with their meals, and read to patients. She also accompanied them on visits to their occupational and physical therapy sessions. The five-story building housed a school, where teachers conducted classes and a library where children could select and borrow books. “It was more like a home setting—except that they were being cared for,” she said.

The Staten Islander recalled a seven-year-old patient named Willie who charmed all of the nurses in the children’s building. Diagnosed with tuberculosis of the spine, the boy wore a body cast, covering his upper body to just above his knees. Doctors thought he would heal faster if they could limit his movements.

“He was always cheerful, and funny, and he knew how to tug at your heartstrings, and get your attention, and he was always dropping things (such as his toys) on the floor,” the Black Angel recalled. “So naturally, you were always going over and getting things from the floor to attend to him and to pick up whatever he dropped. He knew how to get us in. All the nurses loved him. All the staff loved him.”

Her co-workers became part of her extended family, Allen said. On days off, they attended Brooklyn Dodgers games and went to dances at The Savoy and Renaissance ballrooms in Harlem. The nurses, who were from different states, formed clubs to raise money for educational opportunities for their communities.

Virginia Allen said her favorite place at the Schomburg Center is the ‘Rivers’ Cosmogram. Photo: Virginia Allen

Allen enrolled in nursing school at Central School for Practical Nurses in 1954 through a work-study program and graduated with honors in 1956. She left Sea View in 1957 and returned to school to take classes and pursue a career in labor relations. She advocated for members in unions Local 144, the Nursing Homes, and 1199 Healthcare workers of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Allen returned to patient care in the 1980s, working at Staten Island University Hospital until 1995. Then, she moved into a private doctor’s OB/GYN care and retired in 2005.

In 2010, Allen joined the Schomburg Center as a volunteer.

During the closing of the Center’s building in 2020 as a safety precaution to help stop the spread of COVID-19, Allen limited her volunteering activities to those in her borough.

She is a founding member and has been active with the Staten Island section of the National Council of Negro Women since 1968. She also serves on the board of organizations such as Cultural Crossroads in Fort Greene, the Staten Island Ballet, Frederick Douglass Memorial Park Inc., Art Lab at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island OutLOUD, and the College of Staten Island Auxiliary Board providing grants for education and vocation. She’s also a member of Lambda Kappa Mu Sorority, Inc, Lambda Chapter S.I. NY, and Literary Society New York.

In 2021, the College of Staten Island awarded Virginia Allen an honorary doctorate in Arts & Letters. Photo: Virginia Allen

Last year, Sea View unveiled the mural, “The Spirit of Sea View ,” by Yana Dimitrova. One of the panels pays tribute to the Black Angels. The New York State Nurses Association recognized Allen for her lifetime of advocacy and her nursing career. Also, the College of Staten Island awarded Allen an honorary doctorate degree in Arts and Letters.

As the number of positive cases caused by the Delta and Omicron variants of COVID-19 continue to decline and the weather gets better, Allen is planning to return to the Schomburg Center in the spring.

Allen, 90-years-of-age, has come full circle. She currently lives on the grounds of Sea View, which is known today as Sea View Hospital Rehabilitation Center and Home. The residential hall for nurses is now a housing complex for senior citizens.

And, the Staten Island resident kept up her nursing license. “I’m still very active,” Allen said. “I could actually still work if I wanted to. There’s nothing wrong with my thinking capacity. There was no reason why I should let it lapse.”

Collections at the Schomburg Center on Black Nurses

A maternity ward at Lincoln Hospital and Home in 1929. NYPL Image 1818739

If Virginia Allen has inspired you to learn more about the history and legacy of Black nurses, here are materials to explore in person and online.

Schedule a Research Appointment
The Lincoln School for Nurses
Because of segregation, Black people were not accepted to nursing schools. The Lincoln School for Nurses, a privately endowed institution, was founded in 1898 in the Bronx to train Black women. It was the first of its kind in the U.S.

The Schomburg Center’s Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division has the school’s newspapers, yearbooks, and annual report s. Some of the courageous nurses at Seaview—and colleagues of Virginia Allen— were alumni of the school.

Harlem Hospital School of Nursing
During her time at Sea View, Allen also worked with nurses who graduated from Harlem Hospital School of Nursing. The Center’s Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division holds a comprehensive history of the hospital from 1923-1973 on microfilm. The division also holds books such as Early Black American Leaders in Nursing: Architects for Integration and Equality by Althea T. Davis and Black Women in White: Racial Conflict and Cooperation in the Nursing Profession, 1890-1950 by Darlene Clark Hine.

Alma John Papers
Alma John was a radio talk show producer, registered nurse, and newspaper columnist. She was also the first African-American female director of a school of practical nursing in New York State. As the Executive Director of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, she hosted and wrote the scripts for the radio program, Brown Women in White.

“She was fantastic,” Allen recalled. She had “one of those programs that you couldn’t wait to listen to.”

The Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division holds John's radio scripts, typescripts, and news clipping of her columns and more.

Explore Online:
Lincoln School for Nurses Photograph Collection
The digital collections of the Center’s Photographs and Prints Division has pictures from the Lincoln School for Nurses. Spanning the mid-1800s to the 1930s, the images consist of graduations, student gatherings, and individual portraits.

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Classroom Connections: Women and Their Passions

Amber Certain, School Outreach Librarian — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 13:13:17 -0500

March is Women's History Month—a time to celebrate achievements women have made throughout the course of American history in various fields. This booklist highlights four women: Alice Waters, Patsy Takemoto Mink, Florence Merriam Bailey, and Coco Chanel with an outstanding children's book about each along with recommended titles related to each woman's great passion (healthy eating, gender equality in sports, birds, and fashion). These would be wonderful additions during storytime or great titles to suggest for parents to encourage family and independent reading.

Alice Waters

Alice Waters Cooks up a Food Revolution by Diane Stanley and illustrated by Jessie Hartland

The delicious story of pioneering chef Alice Waters who changed the way America eats and kickstarted the organic food movement. A pioneer of the slow and organic food movements, she is also known for creating Edible Schoolyard, a project that involves kids in the growing of their own food.

Min/Max Grade level: 1–2
Natural Foods

NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: ps_pho_cd5_54

Explore more titles about healthy eating and gardening:

Grow a Garden! by Alexis Frederick-Frost

Assigned to the most unpopular teacher at Garden Gnome Academy, Violet, Will, and Basil learn unexpectedly engaging lessons about soil, compost and the secrets to growing a healthy garden, in a story that shares step-by-step instructions for growing a container garden.

Min/Max Grade level: 4–6
Vegetable gardening

How to Say Hello to a Worm: A First Guide to Outside by Kari Percival

The beautiful simplicity of a garden is depicted through digital woodcut illustrations and engaging nonfiction text presented as a series of sweet questions and gentle replies. Less of a traditional how-to and more of a how-to-appreciate, this soothingly sparse text paints an inviting and accessible picture of what a garden offers. And with an all-child cast, the absence of an adult presence empowers readers to view the garden and its creatures through their own eyes, driven by curiosity and wonder.

Min/Max Grade level: Pre-K
Gardening

Our Food: A Healthy Serving of Science and Poems by Grace Lin, Ranida T. McKneally and illustrated by Grace Zong

An introduction to the science of food, the food groups, and the qualities of a healthy meal answers basic questions in a sequence of haiku poems and Q&A entries.

Min/Max Grade level: 3 - 4
Nutrition

Plant, Cook, Eat!: A Children's Cookbook by Joe Archer and Caroline Craig

For beginners and green-thumbed foodies, this unusually all-inclusive garden-to-kitchen cookbook is part lesson in gardening and part collection of healthy, delicious, kid-friendly recipes.

Min/Max Grade level: 3 - 7
Vegetable gardening

Patsy Takemoto Mink

Fall Down Seven Times, Stand up Eight: Patsy Takemoto Mink and the Fight for Title IX by Jen Bryant and illustrated by Toshiki Nakamura

A champion of equal rights who helped create a better future for all Americans, this biography of the first Asian American woman elected to Congress showed how she carved her own path to become a historic trailblazer.

Min/Max Grade level: Pre-K–2
Government and politics

NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 1683049

Explore books about sports and gender equality:

Girls With Guts!: The Road to Breaking Barriers & Bashing Records by Debbie Gonzales and illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon

A celebration of the strength, endurance, and athleticism of women and girls throughout the ages, Girls With Guts! keeps score with examples of women athletes from the late 1800s up through the 1970s, sharing how women refused to take no for an answer, and how finally, they pushed for a law to protect their right to play, compete, and be athletes.

Min/Max Grade level: 1–4
Sex discrimination in sports

More than a Game: Race, Gender, and Politics in Sports by Matt Doeden

This book explores controversies in sports, including black boxer Jack Johnson, Jessie Owens in the 1936 Olympics, Jackie Robinson breaking baseball's color barrier, Muhammad Ali's refusal to fight in the Vietnam War, #MeToo, and the US gymnastics team, and much more.

Min/Max Grade level: 5—12
Discrimination in sports

Flipster: Access over 100 popular magazines, including Sports Illustrated Kids with your NYPL library card.

Florence Merriam Bailey

She Heard the Birds: The Story of Florence Merriam Bailey: Pioneering Nature Activist written and illustrated by Andrea D'Aquino

Tells the story of pioneering birder and activist Florence Merriam Bailey, whose compassionate approach to nature influenced modern bird-watching and inspired a lasting sense of curiosity and respect for the world's feathered creatures.

Min/Max Grade level: K–2
Ornithologists

NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 108346

Encourage children to look for birds all around and pay close attention to their feathers and beaks! Explore more books about birds:

A Garden to Save the Birds by Wendy McClure and illustrated by Beatriz Mayumi

After a bird flies into their window, two children and their mother study how to keep birds safe, and soon their whole neighborhood is helping in different ways.

Min/Max Grade level: 1–3
Bird protection

The Beak Book by Robin Page

Birds around the world have so many amazing kinds of beaks! There are short beaks and long beaks, straight beaks and curved beaks, flat beaks, and even spoon-shaped beaks. But what do all of these beaks do? Discover how beaks of different shapes and sizes are adapted to help birds sip nectar, make nests, battle for mates, and more!

Min/Max Grade level: K–2
Bird identification

Bird Show by Susan Stockdale

Celebrates the beauty and diversity of some of the world's most remarkable birds, introducing amateur ornithologists to familiar and exotic species and their vibrant colors, patterns, and other feathered features.

Min/Max Grade level: Pre-K–2
Bird Identification

Birdology: 30 Activities and Observations for Exploring the World of Birds by Monica Russo, photographs by Kevin Byron

Provides thirty activities that encourage bird watching and observation in parks, zoos, farms, and backyards, and includes discussions on migration, nesting, food, territories, and wildlife preservation.

Min/Max Grade level: 4–6
Bird watching

Feathers: Not Just for Flying by Melissa Stewart and illustrated by Sarah S. Brannen

Profiles sixteen bird species and explores informative sidebars that underscore specific ways each bird uses its feather for a variety of practical purposes.

Min/Max Grade level:1–4
Feathers

Look Up!: Bird Watching in your own Backyard by Annette LeBlanc Cate

A conversational, lighthearted introduction to birdwatching encourages kids to get outdoors with a sketchbook and explains how to identify local varieties by referencing cartoon illustrations that whimsically profile bird characteristics.

Min/Max Grade level: 3–5
Bird Watching

Coco Chanel

Along Came Coco: A Story About Coco Chanel by Eva Byrne

In a time when children were meant to be seen and not heard, along came Coco, a small French orphan with an eye for style, a talent for sewing, and a big imagination. At a time when girls were told to brush their hair 100 times until their arms were sore, Coco promised herself that one day she would snip away her locks so that she wouldn't have to be so fussy—girls needed time for other things, and they needed some of the comforts that boys enjoyed. Why shouldn't girls have pockets? And why did they have to wear corsets all the time? Along Came Coco shows the ways in which Coco Chanel's imaginative spirit led her to grow into one of the world's most beloved fashion icons.

Min/Max Grade level: K–3
Fashion

NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 1698201

Exploring books about sewing:

Catalina Incognito by Jennifer Torres and illustrated by Gladys Jose

Eight-year-old Catalina Castañeda uses Taia Abuela's sewing kit to turn ordinary clothing into a magical disguise, enabling her to uncover a thief at the local library.

Min/Max Grade level: 2–3
Being a friend

Create a Costume! by Sarah Myer

The comic convention is just a few short weeks away. All Bea and Parker need now are great costumes . . . but won’t the supplies and materials cost a fortune? Not if Bea and Parker follow a few simple instructions from Costume Critter, the world’s cutest cosplayer!

Min/Max Grade level: 4–6
How to

Sadiq wants to Stitch by Mamta Nainy and illustrated by Niloufer Wadia

Sadiq loves stitching colorful patterns on rugs. However, his Ammi reminds him that boys in his community don't stitch, they tend to the livestock. But Sadiq is determined to pursue his passion.

Min/Max Grade level: K–2
Gender roles

Stitch + String Lab for Kids: 40+ Creative Projects to Sew, Embroider, Weave, Wrap, and Tie by Cassie Stephens

With 40+ inventive projects, Stitch and string lab for kids contains everything from simple sewing, embroidery, and weaving to string art, needle felting, and yarn crafts!

Min/Max Grade level: 3 - 7
Cookbooks

Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.

NYPL's Kathie Coblentz: Dedicated Librarian & Master Cataloger

Tue, 01 Mar 2022 00:00:00 -0500

In honor of Women's History Month, each March we take a look back at some of the remarkable women who changed The New York Public Library—and the field of librarianship—forever with our series, Foreword: Women Who Built NYPL. We share reflections from our current staff on how the impact of these trailblazing figures from the Library's 125-year history are still felt today.

About Kathie Coblentz

Kathie Coblentz was a dedicated research librarian who spent her entire 52-year career with The New York Public Library, working most recently in the Spencer Collection of the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs. Coblentz was a thorough and vigorous cataloger who took the responsibility of connecting the public to Library collections seriously. She would enthusiastically share her work and passions with the public through her blog posts, ranging from surveys of modern Scandinavian crime fiction (which she learned Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian to read) to highlighting gems of the collection, such as a banned book from the sixteenth century.

Kathie Coblentz’s Legacy

Reflection by Deirdre Donohue, Assistant Director, Wallach Collection and Laura O'Keefe, Special Collections Librarian (Retired)

Kathie started at NYPL on July 1, 1969, just weeks before the moon landing! She was recruited to join the Library right out of library school at the University of Michigan. She thought she'd do that until she could figure out what was next. She loved, loved, loved her job and her work family, both past and present. She was also devoted to the mission and purpose of all of the research libraries, and regularly volunteered as a tour guide for the annual open house at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.

Kathie was a dedicated librarian whose work created catalog and authority records that were the products of detective work, deep research, and scholarly skepticism about assumed facts, leading to truly rich description and access of items in the Library's coffers of great value and importance. She was glad to share her approach to rare book cataloging with colleagues who were new to the work, and mentored a number of them. She was also the most resilient during the pandemic, just got on with it and cataloged throughout. Kathie was among the first librarians who were eager to pop into the Library, check references, etc. Our weekly check-ins were the absolute best!

She had a secret cinephile life too and was an indexer, editor, and researcher on a number of publications about Clint Eastwood and other directors. The latest was the book Nichols and May: Interviews, edited by Robert E. Kapsis.

Kathie read many languages fluently, especially German, which she began studying on her own while she was in high school. She also learned Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian to read murder mysteries.

For her 50th anniversary at NYPL, we had a silk scarf custom printed for her in Denmark of Columbus’s letter in 1493 about his arrival in America from NYPL’s digital collections, because she always said it was extremely beautiful and should be a scarf. She loved it.

Children's Books About Women Artists

Clarissa Cooke, Children's Librarian, 96th Street Library — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 17:38:52 -0500

New York City has so many opportunities for children to see art. There are museums, galleries, and art on the sidewalks. If seeing all this art inspires young kids to learn more, The New York Public Library has many wonderful children's books about artists' lives. In celebration of Women's History Month, we've chosen to highlight books about inspiring women artists.

Art From Her Heart: Folk Artist Clementine Hunter by Kathy Whitehead; illustrated by Shane Evans

Lyrical writing introduces readers to a self-taught artist whose paintings captured scenes of backbreaking work and joyous celebrations of southern farm life, but because of the color of her skin, she was not allowed into the museums or galleries where her art was shown.

The Bluest of Blues: Anna Atkins and the First Book of Photographs by Fiona Robinson

A gorgeous picture book biography of botanist and photographer Anna Atkins, the first person to ever publish a book of photography, using this new technology to catalogue plant specimens in what was to be a true marriage of science and art.

Cloth Lullaby: The Woven Life of Louise Bourgeois by Amy Novesky; illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault

Just as spiders spin and repair their webs, Louise's own mother was a weaver of tapestries. Louise spent her childhood in France as an apprentice to her mother before she became a tapestry artist herself. She worked with fabric throughout her career, and this biographical picture book shows how Bourgeois's childhood experiences weaving with her loving, nurturing mother provided the inspiration for her most famous works. With a beautifully nuanced and poetic story, this book stunningly captures the relationship between mother and daughter and illuminates how memories are woven into us all.

Dancing Through Fields of Color by Elizabeth Brown; illustrated by Aimée Sicuro

Presents the story of Helen Frankenthaler’s early life, how she used colors to express emotion and how she overcame the male-dominated art world of the 1950s to originate her own unique and influential style of abstract expressionist painting. Encourages young readers to express themselves through art in their own unique ways.

Dorothea Lange: The Photographer Who Found the Faces of the Depression by Carole Boston Weatherford; illustrated by Sarah Green

Before she raised her lens to take her most iconic photo, Dorothea Lange took photos of the downtrodden, from bankers in once-fine suits waiting in breadlines, to former slaves, to the homeless sleeping on sidewalks. A case of polio had left her with a limp and sympathetic to those less fortunate. Traveling across the United States, documenting with her camera and her fieldbook those most affected by the stock market crash, she found the face of the Great Depression. In this picture book biography, Carole Boston Weatherford's lyrical prose captures the spirit of the influential photographer.

Frida Kahlo and Her Animalitos by Monica Brown; illustrated by John Parra

A picture book tribute to the iconic Mexican artist reveals how the animals in her life and her personal struggles inspired many of her works of art, and how her achievements raised awareness about her indigenous culture and the female form.

My Name is Georgia: A Portrait by Jeanette Winter

A richly illustrated biography of Georgia O'Keeffe follows her life from the time she was a young girl, when she viewed the world in her own way, practicing her drawings and running free, to adulthood, when she followed her love of art from the steel canyons of New York City to the plains of New Mexico.

Georgia Rises: A Day in the Life of Georgia O'Keefe by Kathryn Lasky; illustrated by Ora Eitan

The artist Georgia O'Keeffe spends the day transforming the materials, colors, and landscape of her desert home into paintings, in an imaginative and revealing look at how this artist's creative process is affected by the natural world and small moments of daily life.

In Her Hands: The Story of Augusta Savage by Alan Schroeder; illustrated by JaeMe Bereal

Presents the life of the African American sculptor Augusta Savage, who overcame many obstacles as a young woman to become a premier female sculptor of the Harlem Renaissance.

In Mary's Garden by Tina and Carson Kügler

In this inviting picture book biography of Mary Nohl, we meet the artist as a young girl, just discovering her talent, and watch as her front yard sculpture garden comes to life.

A Life Made by Hand: The Story of Ruth Asawa by Andrea D'Aquino

Ruth Asawa (1926-2013) was an influential and award-winning sculptor, a beloved figure in the Bay Area art world, and a devoted activist who advocated tirelessly for arts education. Delightful and substantial, this engaging title for young art lovers includes a page of teaching tools for parents and educators.

Maya Lin Artist-Architect of Light and Lines by Jeanne Walker Harvey; illustrated by Dow Phumiruk

An introduction to the life and achievements of the artist-architect who designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Describes the creative childhood explorations that inspired her career, and how she learned to think artistically with her hands as well as her mind, while performing unique experiments with light and lines.

Out of This World: The Surreal Art of Leonora Carrington by Michelle Markel; illustrated by Amanda Hall

Ever since she was a little girl, Leonora Carrington loved to draw on walls, in books, and on paper. She loved the fantastic tales her grandmother told that took her to worlds that shimmered beyond this one, where legends became real. Out of This World is the powerful, stunningly told story of Leonora Carrington, a girl who made art out of her imagination and created some of the most enigmatic and startling works of the last eighty year

Pocket Full of Color: The Magical World of Mary Blair, Disney Artist Extraordinaire by Amy Guglielmo and Jacqueline Tourville; illustrated by Brigette Barrager

Presents the life of the American artist, describing her early work at Disney Studios, her frustrations at not getting her color work accepted, and the later incorporation of her work into some of Disney's best-loved films.

The Quilts of Gee's Bend by Susan Goldman Rubin

A photo-essay portrait of the remarkable women of Gee's Bend and their celebrated artisan quiltmaking traditions, explores their multigenerational history and culture while celebrating the artistic mastery that led to their 2002 exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Stitchin' and Pullin': A Gee's Bend Quilt by Patricia McKissack; illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera

As a young African American girl pieces her first quilt together, the history of her family, community, and the struggle for justice and freedom in Gee's Bend, Alabama unfold.

Collections

13 Women Artists Children Should Know by Bettina Schmann; translated by Jane Michael

This book teaches a young audience about the works and lives of thirteen women artists through informative texts, puzzles, coloring exercises, and fun quizzes. In colorful spreads that feature important works as well as portraits of the artists themselves, children will learn how Sofonisba Anguissola, the Renaissance painter and pupil of Michelangelo, mastered portraiture in the Spanish Court; and how Mary Cassatt’s paintings depicted the lives of women in the nineteenth century. Modern and contemporary artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Frida Kahlo, Louise Bourgeois, and Cindy Sherman round out this introduction to women artists for children

Women Artists A to Z by Melanie LaBarge; illustrated by Caroline Corrigan

How many women artists can you name? From Frida Kahlo and Georgia O'Keeffe to Jaune Quick-to-See Smith and Xenobia Bailey, this lushly illustrated alphabet picture book presents both famous and underrepresented women in the fine arts from a variety of genres: painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and more. Each spread features a simple line of text encapsulating the creator's iconic work in one word, such as "D is for Dots" (Yayoi Kusama) and "S is for Spider" (Louise Bourgeois), followed by slightly longer text about the artist for older readers who would like to know more. Backmatter includes photos, extended biographies, and discussion questions for budding creatives and trailblazers.

Women in Art: 50 Fearless Creatives Who Inspired the World by Rachel Ignotofsky

A charmingly illustrated and inspiring book, Women in Art highlights the achievements and stories of 50 notable women in the arts--from well-known figures like painters Frida Kahlo and Georgia O'Keefe, to lesser-known names like 19th-century African American quilter Harriet Powers and Hopi-Tewa ceramic artist Nampeyo. Covering a wide array of artistic mediums, this fascinating collection also contains infographics about artistic movements throughout history, statistics about women's representation in museums, and notable works by women. Women in Art celebrates the success of the bold female creators who inspired the world and paved the way for the next generation of artists.

Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.

Treasures: Trailblazing Women Through History

NYPL Staff — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 09:35:04 -0500

To celebrate Women’s History Month, this guide features some of the items on view in the Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library’s Treasures that demonstrate the barriers women have broken and spaces they have made for themselves in the arts, sciences, literature, politics, and more through innovation, creativity, and advocacy. The items here highlight women of color, queer women, abolitionists, suffragists, feminists (and proto-feminists), thinkers, pioneers, and icons whose contributions revolutionized and redefined their fields and society at large. These represent only a portion of the objects on display in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, presented loosely in the order in which they are organized in the Polonsky Exhibition.

Reserve your timed tickets to see these objects and more in the Polonsky Exhibition, on view at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.

Kids Books & Digital Resources to Celebrate Women in the Arts

Tessa Hamilton, School Outreach Librarian — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 08:54:38 -0500

In March, Women's History Month, we celebrate women’s accomplishments throughout history to empower future generations to have a voice in the world. It's an opportune time to teach children about the contributions of women artists, many of whom struggled in this male-dominated field or were not recognized in their lifetimes. Through painting, sculpture, photography, and many other art forms, these artists express struggle, hope, oppression, strength, and dreams. The books below highlight the works of some of the most influential women in the world of art. You'll also find digital resources both at NYPL and other institutions to further explore these women and their careers.

Who was Frida Kahlo? by Sarah Fabiny and illustrated by Jerry Hoare

You can always recognize a painting by Kahlo because she is in nearly all of them—with her black braided hair and colorful Mexican outfits. A brave woman who was an invalid most of her life, she transformed herself into a living work of art. As famous for her self-portraits and haunting imagery as she was for her marriage to another renowned artist, Diego Rivera, this strong and courageous painter was inspired by the ancient culture and history of her beloved homeland, Mexico.

In Her Hands: The Story of Sculptor Augusta Savage by Alan Schroeder and illustrated by JaeMe Bereal

Presents the life of the African American sculptor Augusta Savage, who overcame many obstacles as a young woman to become a premier female sculptor of the Harlem Renaissance.

Maya Lin: Artist, Architect of Light and Lines by Jeanne Walker Harvey and illustrated by Dow Phumiru

An introduction to the life and achievements of the artist-architect who designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial describes the creative childhood explorations that inspired her career and how she learned to think artistically with her hands as well as her mind while performing unique experiments with light and lines.

Building Zaha: The Story of Architect Zaha Hadid by Victoria Tentler-Krylov

An inspiring picture book biography about British Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, a pioneer in her field against all odds. She persisted, she followed her dreams, and she succeeded.

Yayoi Kusama: From Here to Infinity! by Sarah Suzuki and illustrated by Ellen Weinstein; with reproductions of works by Yayoi Kusama

Growing up in the mountains of Japan, Yayoi Kusama dreamed of becoming an artist. One day, she had a vision in which the world and everything in it—the plants, the people, the sky—were covered in polka dots. She began to cover her paintings, drawings, sculptures, and even her body with dots. As she grew up, Yayoi has continued to bring dots with her as she travels around the world making art.

Georgia in Hawaii: When Georgia O'Keeffe Painted What She Pleased by Amy Novesky and illustrated by Yuyi Morales

A tribute to the iconic artist's resolve to paint according to the dictates of her heart relates how in 1939, artist Georgia O'Keeffe fell in love with the Hawaiian Islands while touring there and created nearly 20 sumptuous paintings depicting the beauty of its native elements while refusing to paint the commercial pictures of pineapples that her corporate sponsors wanted.

Pocket Full of Colors: The Magical World of Mary Blair, Disney Artist Extraordinaire by Amy Guglielmo and Jacqueline Tourville and illustrated by Brigette Barrager

Art From Her Heart: Folk Artist Clementine Hunter by Kathy Whitehead and illustrated by Shane Evans

Introduces the self-taught artist whose paintings captured scenes of the work and celebrations of southern farm life, but who, because of the color of her skin, was not allowed into the museums or galleries where her art was shown.

Dancing Through Fields of Color: The Story of Helen Frankenthaler by Elizabeth Brown and illustrated by Aimee Sicuro

Presents the story of Helen Frankenthaler's early life, how she used colors to express emotion, and how she overcame the male-dominated art world of the 1950s. This obstacle encouraged Helen to originate her own unique and influential style of abstract expressionist painting.

Beautiful Shades of Brown: The Art of Laura Wheeler Waring by Nancy Churnin and illustrated by Felicia Marshall

Growing up in the late 19th century, Laura Wheeler Waring didn't see any artists who looked like her. She didn't see any paintings of people who looked like her, either. As a young woman studying art in Paris, she found inspiration in the works of Matisse and Gaugin to paint the people she knew best. Back in Philadelphia, the Harmon Foundation commissioned her to paint portraits of accomplished African-Americans. Her paintings still hang in Washington DC's National Portrait Gallery, where children of all races can admire the beautiful shades of brown she captured.

Life Made by Hand: The Story of Ruth Asawa by written and illustrated Andrea D'Aquino

Ruth Asawa (1926-2013) was an influential and award-winning sculptor, a beloved figure in the Bay Area art world, and a devoted activist who advocated tirelessly for arts education. This engaging title for young art lovers includes a page of teaching tools for parents and educators.

We Are Artists: Women Who Made Their Mark on the World stories and illustrations by Kari Herbert

Wonderfully illustrated throughout, this book tells inspiring stories of fifteen women artists who made a lasting impact on art and the world through their lives and work.

Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide by Isabel Quintero and illustrated Zeke Pena

A blending of photographs and illustrations trace the life and work of Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide, who embarked on a journey across Mexico and the world.

Digital Resources at NYPL

To find out more about these phenomenal women, we invite you to explore The New York Public Library's vast array of digital resources available with a library card.

Art Resources from Home: Online Resources & Databases
A selection of resources about art and art history curated from the research libraries at NYPL. A library card is not required to view the guide but may be required to view the linked resources.

Biography in Context
Provides biographical information on 650,000+ people from throughout history, around the world, and across all disciplines. For more in-depth biographies of figures from American history, consult American National Biography.

Kids InfoBit
A child-friendly database that searches across reference books and periodicals covering history, current events, sports, government, and people.

Oxford Art Online
Oxford Art Online offers users the ability to access the vast content of Grove Art Online, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, Benezit Dictionary of Artists, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms all in one interface.

Pixton
Pixton is a digital comic creation website for kids and teens. No drawing skills are required—just select from preset characters and backgrounds from a variety of pop culture, literary, scientific, and historical themes. Personalize the character appearances and costumes, choose poses and facial expressions, and write dialogue to tell a story. Learn more here.

Scholastic Teachables
Scholastic Teachables offers teaching resources for every subject such as lesson plans, mini-books, and activity sheets to help educators plan for the school year. Teachables content extends from Pre-K to 6th grade.

Additional Resources

Here are additional resources for learners to explore and discover more information about the inspiring women who have contributed to and changed the world of art.

Artcyclopedia
A comprehensive index of artists represented at hundreds of museum sites, image archives, and other online resources.

Metropolitan Museum of Art: Works of Art
Collection database, curatorial departments, and exhibitions.

Museum of Women in the Arts
Artist portraits and work provided by MNWN.

MoMA
Women artists at the Museum of Modern Art.

Tate Museum
An archive of women in art through the collections of the Tate Museum.

The MET
An archive of women artists in the collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Art21
A nonprofit organization dedicated to educating through the works and words of contemporary artists.

National Portrait Gallery
An educator's guide expressing the role of women in portraiture.

Women Writers on Women in History

Lynn Lobash, Manager of Reader Services — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 08:52:16 -0500

March is Women's History Month—so what better time to delve into the past and read about women who have impacted our world, all in books researched and written by women. From empresses to activists, pioneering scientists to secret spies, these 10 titles highlight remarkable women and their stories.

In the Shadow of the Empress: The Defiant Lives of Maria Theresa, Mother of Marie Antoinette, and Her Daughters by Nancy Goldstone

Follow the sprawling saga of Empress Maria Theresa—one of the most renowned women rulers in history—and three of her extraordinary daughters, including Marie Antoinette, the doomed queen of France.

Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray by Rosalind Rosenberg

This biography tracks the life of African American activist and lawyer Pauli Murray, who played pivotal roles in both the modern civil rights and women's movements, all while struggling with the issue of her own gender identity.

Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar

This is the true story of Ona Judge, George and Martha Washington’s runaway slave who risked everything to escape the nation’s capital and reach freedom and the first family's relentless pursuit of her.

The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars by Dava Sobel

Dive into the little-known true story of the unexpected and remarkable contributions to astronomy made by a group of women working in the Harvard College Observatory from the late 1800s through the mid-1900s.

The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos by Judith Batalion

Shares the stories of the courageous women who risked their lives to work against the Nazis as fighters, intelligence agents, and saboteurs.

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore

Recounts the struggles of hundreds of women who were exposed to radium while working factory jobs during World War I, describing how they were misled by their employers and became embroiled in a battle for workers' rights.

Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals by Saidiya Hartman

Explore the evolution of the lives of young Black women living in Philadelphia and New York in the early 20th century.

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang

A Chinese woman chronicles the struggle of her grandmother, her mother, and herself to survive in a China torn apart by wars, invasions, revolution, and continuing upheaval.

Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: A History of Women Healers by Barbara Ehrenreich

Examines how women-led healing was delegitimized to make way for patriarchy, capitalism, and the emerging medical industry.

A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy who Helped Win WWII by Sonia Purnell

Virginia Hall was the first Allied woman deployed behind enemy lines and she helped to light the flame of the French Resistance, revolutionizing secret warfare as we know it.

Have trouble reading standard print? Many of these titles are available in formats for patrons with print disabilities.

Summaries provided are adapted via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.

31 Books for March: Women's History Month

Lynn Lobash, Manager of Reader Services — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 08:51:47 -0500

A retelling of Greek myth. A memoir from a former First Lady. Gripping multigenerational family sagas. Thoughtful explorations of personal identity. No matter what you're interested in, something in this list of works from women authors will click. Check out these 31 recent books by and about women now to celebrate Women's History Month—or any time of the year you're looking to discover a new favorite read.

1. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

Celestial and Roy are newly married professionals leaning into a bright future—a future that is threatened when Roy is convicted of a crime he did not commit.

2. Becoming by Michelle Obama

This intimate and uplifting memoir gives a deeper look into the life and history of the former First Lady.

3. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

Wilkerson provides a fascinating look at how caste has been implemented in three different places—the U.S., Nazi Germany, and India—and the effect that had on each country's society.

4. Circe by Madeline Miller

Miller reimagines the story of Circe, the banished witch daughter of Helios, who is forced to choose between the worlds of the gods and mortals.

5. Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters

A trans woman, her de-transitioned ex, and his cisgender lover build an unconventional family together.

6. Educated by Tara Westover

Traces the author's experiences as a child born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho.

7. The Friend by Sigrid Nunez

When a woman unexpectedly loses her lifelong best friend and mentor, she inherits a Great Dane who comes to live in her tiny NYC apartment.

8. Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacobs

Jacobs's graphic novel memoir explores how American identity has shaped her interracial family in the aftermath of the 2016 elections.

9. Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

Marian Graves circumnavigates the globe by flying over the North and South Poles. A century later, Hadley Baxter is cast to play Marian in a film.

10. The Great Offshore Grounds by Vanessa Veselka

Half-sisters Cheyenne and Livy set off to claim their inheritance. Except, instead of money, their father gives them a name that reveals a stunning family secret.

11. Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

The story of an extraordinary and eccentric woman, her son, and her husband—who happens to be William Shakespeare.

12. Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado

Women, their bodies, and the violence done to them—both by themselves and others—occupy the center of this collection of horror stories.

13. Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay

Gay reflects on her emotional and psychological struggles to explore women's anxieties about overconsumption, appearance, and health.

14. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by Victoria Schwab

An 18th-century French woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever but never be remembered.

15. Know My Name by Chanel Miller

Miller was known to the world only as Emily Doe when she stunned millions with a viral letter about how she felt when her rapist was sentenced to just six months in county jail.

16. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Shaker Heights, Ohio, is a by-the-books kind of town. Newcomers Mia Warren and her teenage daughter, Pearl, must find out for themselves what is acceptable and what is not.

17. Matrix by Lauren Groff

Cast out of the royal court, 17-year-old Marie de France is sent to England to be the new prioress of an impoverished abbey.

18. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

In this reimagining of Gothic fiction, a young woman discovers the haunting secrets of a beautiful old mansion and the family who inhabits it in 1950s Mexico.

19. Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong

A personal and candid exploration of the psychological condition of being Asian American.

20. My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

A young woman embarks on an extended hibernation with the help of one of the worst psychiatrists in the annals of literature and the battery of medicines she prescribes.

21. The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

The story of a Chippewa Council night watchman in mid-19th-century rural North Dakota who fights Congress to enforce Native American treaty rights.

22. Normal People by Sally Rooney

A secret childhood bond between a popular boy and a lonely, intensely private girl is tested as they mature and find their way through the world in their first year at a Dublin college.

23. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Lee melds historical fiction and family saga in a novel following four generations of a Korean family, set in Korea and Japan.

24. The Power by Naomi Alderman

Alderman's sci-fi novel explores an alternate reality that gives women and teenage girls immense physical power that can cause pain and death.

25. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

Leonie, a mother who struggles with addiction, travels with her children to the infamous Parchman prison to retrieve their white father in this novel that examines structural racism with a gorgeous dash of magical realism.

26. So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

Oluo provides a hard-hitting but user-friendly examination of race in America.

27. Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino

These nine essays examine the fractures at the center of culture today, offering insights into the toxicity of social networking.

28. Trust Exercise: A Novel by Susan Choi

In an American suburb in the early 1980s, students at a highly competitive performing arts high school struggle and thrive in a rarified bubble.

29. The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

An Ivy League-educated DACA beneficiary reveals the hidden lives of her fellow undocumented Americans.

30. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Twin sisters ultimately choose to live their adult lives in two very different worlds, one black and one white.

31. Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby

This collection of darkly funny essays highlights the ups and downs of aging, marriage, and living with step-children in small-town Michigan.

Have more room on your bookshelf? Check out 365 Books by Women Authors to Celebrate International Women’s Day All Year

Have trouble reading standard print? Many of these titles are available in formats for patrons with print disabilities.

Summaries adapted via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.

Laura Alvarez's Woman Being Project

Herbert Norat, Library Information Assistant, Bronx Library Center — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 17:08:44 -0400

In honor of Women’s History Month, the Bronx Library Center has partnered with Laura Alvarez to create a virtual exhibition showcasing some of the artist’s creations that highlight the importance of women’s experiences in modern society.

Some of the key issues that Alvarez's work tackles are breastfeeding in public, fertility, motherhood, and genetics. Her distinct colors and subject choices represent the emotions that the artist feels about these important topics. Alvarez's deliberate choices in using anchors to describe maternal worries and mandala designs to symbolize breast milk are all part of the exhibit's unique feel.

To view the artist's detailed descriptions of her work please feel free to view her presentation below or on Vimeo. Also, please visit Laura's website, here.

Virtual Heritage Tour - Woman Being from The New York Public Library on Vimeo.

Photo courtesy of Laura Alvarez.

Jerome Robbins Dance Division Coloring Books: Volume 11, Dauntless Dancing Divas (#danceincolor)

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 14:56:52 -0400

La Loïe Fuller: Vivante Fleur. NYPL Digital Collections Image ID 2030181

One of The New York Public Library's first blog posts for Women's History Month featured Genevieve Oswald, the founding curator of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, and her career-long fight to create and grow what is now the world's largest dance collection. In her honor we bring you a coloring book of similarly courageous and tenacious women dancers to close out the month. All of these women fought to make dances, many at a time when dance was considered morally suspicious, and certainly no art form, and many in spite of the racism they experienced or witnessed.

If you've missed our earlier volumes, you can still download them:

Post your art on Facebook and Twitter (#danceincolor), or email your masterpiece to dance@nypl.org to share your inspirations with us!

Click on the image below to download the coloring book.

“Do you think Betty is a Chrysanthemum?” Sarah Wyman Whitman & Sarah Orne Jewett

Wed, 24 Mar 2021 15:33:39 -0400

In the late 19th century, the popularization of decorative publishers' bindings created a unique opportunity for women in the traditionally male-dominated field of book publishing. After the developments in printing technology made possible by the Industrial Revolution and before the widespread use of dust jackets, publishers used decorative book covers as a means of advertisement, both to communicate the subject matter of individual works and to attract potential buyers when displayed in a store window. Many of the artists they hired to design these covers were women, and today, their work is collected and studied much like fine bindings—not just for the contents of their pages, but as art objects in and of themselves.

The first woman artist to be regularly employed by Houghton Mifflin‚ and one of the most prolific designers of her day—was Sarah de St. Prix Wyman Whitman. She was trained as a professional artist by William Morris Hunt, William Rimmer, and Thomas Couture, and, being heavily influenced by the Arts and Crafts stipulation that art and life should be intertwined, she extended her craft to include stained glass, interior design, and other decorative arts. Her distinct book cover designs reflect this; they are recognizable for their often simple color palettes, Art Nouveau motifs, long-stemmed flowers, and Whitman’s signature “high-waisted” text. Some of Whitman’s best designs were for the works of her close friend and fellow Bostonian Sarah Orne Jewett, and, over a century later, these bindings (many of which bear Whitman’s monogram of her initials in a flaming heart) stand out among the rest.

The King of Folly Island (1888), The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896), The Queen’s Twin (1899)

But like the women who created them, these books are more than just beautiful things to be admired—we can, in fact, learn quite a bit from them. Perhaps the most important is that Whitman and Jewett were active collaborators, not just two women who were paired by their publisher. Jewett would implore Houghton Mifflin to send Whitman advanced proofs of a given text to inform the binding designs. In turn, the artist would help Jewett to conceptualize her characters: in November 1889, Whitman wrote to Jewett about her design for Betty Leicester:

“Dear fellow traveller—do you think Betty is a Chrysanthemum kind of a flower? In my brief but very clear glimpse of her in a few pages which were vouchsafed to me, I get this idea of her—I have so stated on the cover—”

Jewett apparently agreed; the binding for Betty Liecester does not appear to have been changed after Whitman’s initial proposal. Indeed, when Houghton attempted to change the design for a new edition in 1904, Jewett asked them to restore Whitman’s original design.

A White Heron (1866), Betty Leicester: A Story for Girls (1890), Betty Leicester’s Christmas (1899)

These books also evidence the network of professional women supporting each other’s work that helped make these types of collaborations possible. Both Whitman and Jewett were among the circle of prominent women artists and writers who met at Annie Fields’ literary salons at 148 Charles Street in Boston (other members included Willa Cather and Celia Thaxter). These women were important in each other’s lives; in private, they encouraged each other's professional crafts when society at large did not (this was decades before women were awarded the right to vote), and in public, they vocally advocated for one another’s professional advancement (Jewett commissioned Whitman to design over one hundred windows for her alma mater the Berwick Academy in Maine). Both Whitman and Jewett paved their own paths, but it is hard to imagine either achieving quite the same level of success without the other supporting her.

The books shown here are part of the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, but publishers' bindings can be found in collections across The New York Public Library. Please see Meredith Mann's Designing Women: The Art of Cloth Bindings to see some examples from the Rare Book Division and for suggestions on how to search for cloth bindings at NYPL.

Cast of Thousands: The Life, Wit, and Work of Anita Loos

Sally Speller, Supervising Librarian, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL) — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 17:28:55 -0400

Anita Loos, 1930s, Wikipedia

Anita Loos (1888–1981), American screenwriter, playwright and author, was born in Sisson (now Mount Shasta) California. Her earliest memory, at age four, was made when her family moved to San Francisco. Having often endured the “boring adulation” of a girl named Johanna, she thought, as they rode out of town, “Never see Johanna any more… never have to suffer any more!” She wrote, “Thus was I first aware of the terror of boredom, which to me has always been a more acute pain than a leaping toothache.” In San Francisco, a place she later deemed her spiritual home, to the great consternation of her mother Minnie Loos, she played sidekick to her father, R. Beers Loos, who preferred a life of spontaneity over a career of “small-time journalism [and] low-grade theatrical ventures.” Of R. Beers, whom she called Pop, Loos wrote, “Although he was quite 'elegant’ in a tacky way, he was such a superb egoist that he was never to learn he was tacky, and the overwhelming jauntiness of his conceit always forced one to admire Pop, much as an acoholic who hates water is compelled to admire Niagara Falls.” R. Beers soon put Anita to work as an actress; the money she earned in her childhood would often be the family’s only income. But Loos, finding the work to be hard and dull, never wanted to be an actress. She wanted to be a writer.

ANITA WRITES IN CHILDHOOD

Her first piece was published when she was eight, in the children’s magazine, St. Nicholas, the winning entry in a contest to promote floor wax: "The best thing I’ve seen, said the Man from Mars/Since I left my abode from among the stars/ Is something my own world sadly lacks/The earth’s greatest boon F. P. C. Wax." The $5 she won was instantly appropriated by R. Beers, with the assurance that he would pay her interest at the rate of ten cents a week. “When that 10 per cent finally amounted to more than the loan,” she wrote, “I told Pop to forget about the capital and just come through with the interest. But I was only kidding; I never expected to get the money back...” With this initial realization of “the thrill a girl can feel in handing money to a man,” Loos established a world view that would guide and inform her in work and in life. She explained, “poems like the Song of Songs will never be written to a gold-digger.”

Portrait of Anita Loos, Wikimedia Commons

The family moved to San Diego in 1905, where R. Beers converted an empty stable into a theater he called the Lyceum. Here, Loos acted under her real name, while also working in a blonde wig as Cleopatra Fairbrother with a rival theater company across town. She graduated from high school two years late, at age 19; this is likely when she began a lifelong practice of taking years off her age, her small stature making the fib easy to believe. She wrote, “I was grown up now, having attained a height of four feet eleven and weighing ninety-two pounds...” She spent her spare time, such as it was, at the San Diego Public Library, where, reading her way through the works of Spinoza, Kant, and Santayana, she also assuaged her longing for New York City in avid consumption of the many East Coast periodicals to which the library subscribed. There was, at the time, no coverage of New York’s social scene in the local papers, despite much interest from guests at San Diego’s popular tourist spot, the Hotel Del Coronado. So Loos remedied this sad fact by pulling together social notes from New York publications and mailing them to an actor friend there, who then sent them along to a San Diego paper to be published under his name. In this roundabout way, Loos became a New York correspondent, receiving 75 percent of the profits in this venture.

In 1911, after the mild success of The Souls Sinners, a play she wrote for her father’s theater company, Loos decided to try her hand at screenwriting. By then, silent one-reelers were gaining in popularity and giving stock companies across the United States a run for their money. Her first screenplay,The Road to Plaindale, was a brief, visually-oriented comedy about a city couple's disastrous move to the country. She sent it off to the Biograph Company in New York, later insisting that she signed the submission letter “A. Loos" in order to recieve full compensation. (Film historian Cari Beauchamp, in possession of Loos’ correspondence, disputed this claim, noting all extant Biograph letters to Loos were addressed “Dear Madam” or “My dear Miss Loos.” American filmmaking, born in the Progressive Era, in those days employed men, women, immigrants, and African Americans alike, and freely explored social issues such as women’s rights, divorce, child labor, immigration, political corruption, poverty, prison reform, and prostitution.) In any event, Loos received the full amount accorded to a man: a check for $25. Over the next six months, she sold four more stories.

Mary Pickford, NYPL Digital Collections

The first of her scripts to be produced by Biograph, The New York Hat (1912) was a wry, feminist take on a small town scandal. It became an instant classic, directed by D.W. Griffith and, as Loos recalled, “played by a roster of equally nameless stars, who, I found out later, included Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, [and] Lillian and Dorothy Gish…” In 1913, Loos sold 36 screenplays throughout the industry, giving Biograph, a company she considered to be the best, first refusal; Biograph produced nineteen of these. In 1914, when the studio opened a branch in Los Angeles, Loos was invited to visit.

“We were completely settled in our little rut,” wrote Loos, of life in San Diego. “Pop satisfied, as always, with being a big shot in a small world; Mother so timid that any effort at all required superhuman effort; and I aimlessly wasting time among people with whom I was disenchanted.” So she took the two-hour train trip to Los Angeles; Biograph Studio, she wrote, was “a row of one-story buildings that were scarcely more than sheds... the sight of which speeded up my already rapid circulation." After spending the morning with director D.W. Griffith on the set of Judith of Bethulia (1914), they enjoyed a most consequential lunch. “I can’t say I fell in love with Griffith that day over a sandwich in a corner drugstore," she recalled, "but our session provided the sort of cerebral excitement that makes the bohemias of the world, the Greenwich Villages and Sohos and Left Banks, so much more sexy than any other places… On our way to the studio, Griffith said to me, ‘I think we’ll have to get you out of San Diego.’” Then Loos, as if to prove the adage two steps forward, one step back, returned to San Diego and got married. She later insisted this disaster ended the next day. The truth was that several months elapsed before the morning she sent her husband out for hairpins, and disappeared.

ANITA WRITES IN HOLLYWOOD

Triangle Studios 1916 , Wikimedia Commons

Loos returned to Los Angeles, checked into the Hollywood Hotel, then went in search of Griffith, who had recently formed the Fine Arts Triangle studios with Thomas Ince and Mack Sennett. There, Loos was offered a full-time job at $75 a week (today, about $1900), along with a bonus for any script that went into production. She wrote, “As far as I know there were no other Hollywood authors working on salary at the time, so I was possibly the movies’ first staff writer.” Her first screen credit, the unintentionally comical "Macbeth by William Shakespeare and Anita Loos,” was earned titling an adaptation of the play for Triangle’s most prestigious film release of 1916. The director of the picture, John Emerson, would soon become Loos’ second husband.

Loos & Emerson, Wikimedia Commons

She began a collaboration with Emerson and his friend, actor Douglas Fairbanks, after Emerson, looking for story ideas, found a cache of Loos’ scripts in a file cabinet at the studio; Griffith had purchased them purely for the pleasure of reading them, unable to translate Loos’ verbal humor into his visual style of filmmaking. He thought the trio's first effort, His Picture In the Papers (1916) amusing, but held back the movie’s release because of its heavy reliance on Loos’ titles. When a booking crisis at New York's Strand Theatre forced the showing, the film became a smash hit. About this event, Loos wrote, “The New York Times published a review which said, in effect, that motion pictures had grown out of their infancy, satire had reached the screen." And, she added, "Douglas Fairbanks rose to stardom in a single week.” Over the next two years, Loos wrote scripts for nine more Fairbanks pictures, the most difficult part of which, she said, “was finding a variety of spots from which Doug could jump.” In a move unusual for the times, Emerson hired a press agent. Upon the publication of a series of newspaper and magazine features, he and Loos became almost as popular as Fairbanks, much to the actor’s chagrin.

ANITA WRITES IN NEW YORK

Soon thereafter, the trio became a duo. Loos and Emerson signed a deal with Famous Players-Lasky and moved to New York, creating “John Emerson-Anita Loos Productions,” working with newcomers like Billie Burke, Marion Davies, and Norma Talmadge. This was when Emerson began, untruthfully, to claim co-authorship credit on Loos’ scripts, demanding top billing. Because she was so enamored, and comfortable with this familiar dynamic (“I had had an early schooling in male vanity from Pop.”), Loos agreed. She brought Emerson along when William Randolph Hearst hired her to make his girlfriend Marion Davies a star. Although Hearst kept trying to force Davies into serious dramatic roles, Loos understood that the actress’ true talent was to be found in light comedy; after much back and forth between Hearst and Loos, Getting Mary Married was released in 1919. It was one of the few films in Davies’ career that turned a profit.

About this time, Loos and Emerson were approached by the powerful movie producer, Joseph M. Schenck, who, along with his brother, had developed the Pallisades Amusement Park in New Jersey, and gone on to acquire a national chain of movie theaters, the Loew's Circut. He was looking to boost the career of his sister-in-law, Constance (Dutch) Talmadge; his wife, Norma Talmadge, was already established as one of the foremost dramatic stars of the era. (Another sister-in-law, Natalie, was married to rising comedian Buster Keaton.) Since Loos and Dutch had met in Hollywood on the set of Griffith’s Intolerance (1916), Loos felt that she “knew her potentialities.” Their first film, A Virtuous Vamp (1919)—its title supplied by Dutch’s boyfriend Irving Berlin—was a hit and “added a second star to [the] family," wrote Loos. "Thus began a series of comedies for Dutch in which her career paralleled Norma’s and one success followed another. Our pictures were filmed under the happiest circumstances; because the Schenck brothers [were] centered in New York, we worked there instead of in Hollywood.”

Loos-Emerson wedding, Wikimedia Commons

Loos (whom Emerson called Bug) and Emerson (whom Loos called Mr. E.) were married in June, 1919, at Schenck’s Long Island estate. About the ceremony, Loos biographer Gary Carey wrote, “Emerson was on the verge of nervous collapse as he took his place next to the bride. His voice couldn’t be heard in the responses, so Schenck resorted to ventriloquism. John opened his mouth, but Joe spoke the words. When it was over, Anita wondered whether technically she hadn’t actually married Joseph Schenck.” Summing up their relationship, Loos later wrote, “I failed to realize that John suffered from a very dangerous pathological insecurity. When, after our marriage, he first heard himself addressed as Mr. Loos, it hit his egotism with a bang that reverberated as long as he lived. Had I been a femme fatale, I couldn’t have destroyed him more thoroughly. Yet through it all, John loved me, was amused by me, depended on me, and then, alas, he envied me. And until the day he died he resented me." Emerson's hypochondria, which had flared up in the past whenever he perceived that Loos was getting more attention than he, became more acute after the couple married. Over the course of their marriage, entire transatlantic voyages were made in pursuit of one cure or another.

The couple (always taking separate rooms) had earlier moved from the Algonquin Hotel to the Ambassador Hotel on Park Avenue, where the Schencks and Talmadges resided. After their marriage, they found a more permanent address in Murray Hill, then moved to a brownstone on Gramercy Square. In 1921, Loos bobbed her hair. She was among the first women in the public eye to adopt this bold, controversial hairstyle. While working for Schenck on film scripts, she dashed off several Broadway plays, including The Whole Town’s Talking (1923) and The Fall of Eve (1925). When Mr. E. insisted the couple spend Tuesday evenings apart, Loos and the Talmadge girls went to Harlem, often accompanied by a young George Gershwin. About these evenings, she wrote, “jazz was in the air; new rhythms were being extemporized that were giving America its first serious standing in the world of music. At Small’s Paradise and the Savoy Ballroom the Charleston and black bottom were danced not as we did them, with a main thought toward showing off; the strut in Harlem was expressing an apotheosis of the human body that even our own high priestess of the dance, Isadora Duncan, admitted she could never achieve.” When Loos felt like staying closer to home, she met up with the “Tuesday Widows” club: the Talmadge sisters and their mother Peg, Marion Davies, Adele Astaire, and a revolving group of chorus girls (depending on who could get the night off) from the Ziegfeld Follies. On other Tuesday evenings, Loos enjoyed the company of some extraordinary men, among them her hero, H. L. Mencken.

ANITA WRITES THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL

Loos began to write what would later become Gentlemen Prefer Blondes on a train trip to Hollywood in mid-1924. “Prompted by a flirtation that Henry Mencken was having with a stupid little blonde,” she recalled, “I wrote a skit poking fun at his romance. I had no thought of it ever being printed; my only purpose was to make Henry laugh at himself, which it did.” Upon her return to New York in early 1925, she sent the short story to Mencken, who told her she was possibly the first American writer to make fun of sex, and urged her to publish. So she began a serialization for Harper’s Bazaar, which over its run doubled the magazine's circulaton. The novel, published in November 1925, brought Loos praise from literary luminaries such as Aldous Huxley (“I was enraptured by the book.”), William Faulkner (“I wish I had thought of Dorothy first.”), James Joyce (who had been “reclining on a sofa and reading Gentlemen Prefer Blondes for three whole days.”), and Edith Wharton (who said to Frank Crowninshield, “I am just reading the Great American novel (at last!) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and I want to know if there are—or will be—others, and if you know the funny woman, who must be a genius.” He did.).

Emerson, with his now customary lack of imagination, had dismissed Blondes as a frivolous exercise written for a female audience (published in a fashion magazine, no less!), so Loos received sole authorship credit. He had a change of heart, however, before the book's publication, and demanded she use the dedication, “To John Emerson, except for whose encouragement and guidance this book would never have been written.” Loos was "stunned, and then," she wrote, "as usual, the reason for it struck me as amusing… there remained only one way through which John could save face: by pretending that he himself had been responsible for it. I agreed to use the dedication, but [my publisher], although he, too, was amused, refused to print it in toto.” The abbreviated dedication read simply: “To John Emerson.” She later implied she would have preferred to dedicate the book to Mencken. By the end of the decade, Loos enjoyed worldwide celebrity; Blondes had been translated into 14 languages (including Chinese), and had made her a millionaire.

While completing the sequel to Blondes, Loos entered a period she called “semiretirement,” socializing in London, in the circle of Sybil, Lady Colefax (which included Arnold Bennett, H.G. Wells, Somerset Maugham, John Galsworthy, and Margot Asquith), and in Paris, where she had tea with Edith Wharton, and frequently met up with Cole Porter and his wife Linda, and Elsa Maxwell and partner Dickie Fellowes-Gordon. Mr. E., who claimed to be suffering from a variety of illnesses including laryngitis, hives, and boils, was often absent. In 1928, for But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, Loos composed this lengthy, somewhat ironic dedication: “TO JOHN EMERSON who discovered, developed, fostered and trained whatever I may have if I have anything that is worthwhile.” For the next two years, the couple spent autumn in New York, January and February in Palm Beach, Florida, and spring and summer in Europe. An entry from Loos' diary during this time read “TOO MUCH TRAVELING!”

The stock market crash in late 1929 wiped out a large portion of Loos’ wealth, but did not leave the couple destitute. In 1930, Mr. E. informed her that he had lost the rest of their money. “There’s enough left from our disaster to support one of us,” he told Loos.“Naturally, I’ll have to count every penny. But my Bug’s in luck because she’s healthy and can go to work.” So Loos wrote and oversaw the production of two Broadway plays, a dramatization of Brunettes called The Social Register (1931), and an adaptation of a Hungarian play, Cherries Are Ripe (1931). Because of a slow Broadway season, neither play did well, and, having nothing to fall back on, the couple lost their Gramercy Square home. One day, while packing for the move to a hotel, Loos came upon a stash of love letters other women had sent to her husband; she asked him if he wanted a divorce. “He grasped me in agitation,” she wrote. “‘No, no, no, Buggie! I’ll never leave you; you’re so gullible you might fall into the hands of some crook who’d get hold of your money!’” Insisting they now live apart (while keeping their financial arrangement intact), Emerson moved to “bachelor quarters” at the Lamb's Club and Loos found an apartment on East 79th Street. “A wide variety of kept or semikept men has developed since the disappearance of the gold digger of the Twenties,” she wrote in 1974. “In cases where a girl has talent, any husband or lover can ‘manage’ her career. And, although he generally mucks it up thoroughly, he’s able to save face...”

ANITA WRITES IN HOLLYWOOD (REPRISE)

Hollywood Sign, Wikipedia

In late 1931 “there suddenly came out of left field” Loos recalled, “an offer from MGM for me to write a movie script at $3500 a week!” Leaving Emerson behind, she boarded the Twentieth Century Limited at Grand Central Station, bound for a far different California than the one she had left. “In Kansas City,” she wrote, “the conductor brought me a telegram from Mr. E., reminding me that he was still living only for his Bug. Had he only wired ‘I’m still living on my Bug,’ I’d have adored his impudence and possibly fallen in love with him once more.” But Loos had already made arrangements to meet up with old friend Wilson Mizner at the Brown Derby in Los Angeles, and was looking forward, not back.

MGM’s esteemed studio head Irving Thalberg brought Loos on board after several writers (including, notably, F. Scott Fitzgerald) had tried and failed to adapt Katherine Brush’s popular novel Red-Headed Woman for the screen. Thalberg told Loos, “I want you to make fun of its sex element just as you did in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” She completed the script in just four months, while MGM’s publicity department looked for an actress to play the lead. Of their choice, Jean Harlow, Loos noted, “Underlying Jean’s raffish sense of humor was a resignation unusual for one so young. Nothing would ever surprise Jean. She knew exactly how people were going to react to her; if men were stupid enough they’d fall for her; if they had good sense, they’d laugh her off.” While the film enjoyed massive popularity, it also brought down the wrath of the Hays Office. As a result, Joseph Breen, whom Variety called the “supreme pontiff of picture morals,” began rigidly enforcing censorship rules; he would go on to hinder free expression in Hollywood for the next twenty years.

Much to her surprise, Loos enjoyed being back in Hollywood, reunited with her mother, father, and brother Clifford, and "living alone in a cozy bungalow with a Persian cat and a competent maid to bully me... Hollywood," she wrote, "may have been uncouth, but from being the remote outpost it was at the beginning, it was now in the mainstream of life.” Many friends from New York, London, and Paris lived there now, and others could be depended upon to visit regularly. So she was pleased when Thalberg offered her employment on a permanent basis, at the weekly salary of $2500. “In a state of euphoria, I accepted Irving’s deal right then and there,” she wrote. “It meant that my good times would be assured for two more years, while Mr. E. could remain in New York nursing his ailments and basking in the sympathy of his current lady friend." This was not to be. Mr. E. insisted Loos renegotiate the deal so they could “work together again as a team.” She shuddered, as their "collaboration," she said, had long consisted of him “glancing over my morning’s work while he was eating breakfast in bed.” The truth of their partnership had become an open secret throughout the industry; when Loos asked Thalberg to hire Emerson (and split her salary between them), he balked, then finally agreed, telling her "You are even more of a masochist than I am."

The couple moved to a suburban home in Beverly Hills; the maid, disliking Emerson, had taken the cat and left. “A typical day for me,” Loos wrote, “was to begin writing in my own room. At 4 a.m., I was delightfully alone with a sneaky feeling of freedom from having to protect Mr. E.’s ego throughout all his waking hours… After five hours of work I was at the studio by ten and still free because Mr. E. didn’t show up until after lunch.” One of the highest paid writers on the MGM lot, Loos created original scripts like Riffraff (1935), and was also expected to work as line producer and script doctor, usually without credit. In 1936, she and writing partner Robert “Hoppy” Hopkins began work on an original idea that was close to both of their hearts. San Francisco (1936) paid tribute to the city they both loved, and to their dear friend and idol, Wilson Mizner. About Mizner, who had died in 1933, Loos wrote, “everything about that aging reprobate was exciting: the aura of his reckless past; the challenge of his being a highly unsuitable companion: his air of tranquil assurance, which, as a rule, exists only in men of genius.”

ANITA SURVIVES THE WORST YEAR OF HER LIFE

Loos & Emerson, Wikimedia Commons

When Thalberg died in late 1936, MGM descended into chaos. Producer Bernie Hyman, hoping to replicate the success of San Francisco, put Loos to work on a vehicle for Harlow and Clark Gable called Saratoga (1937). Hyman and Loos fought about the script, and then Harlow died halfway through filming; MGM released the movie quickly in order to capitalize on Harlow’s death. By this time, Loos’ contract had ended; she took a trip to New York, leaving Emerson behind to negotiate a deal with producer Samuel Goldwyn. She soon realized she had made a mistake, noting in her diary that Goldwyn was “the most vile slimy loathsome mouse I ever dirtied myself by contracting [sic].” Matters went from bad to worse. "One evening," she wrote, "we were alone together in our living room when, without warning, [Mr. E.] clutched my throat and started to choke me." After she was rescued by her driver, Loos convinced Emerson to voluntarily commit himself to Las Encinas Sanitarium. Several "diagnoses" have since been put forward to explain his increasingly erratic and finally psychotic behavior, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder among them. Far from the harmless eccentric Loos believed him to be, Emerson had become quite dangerous.

Loos had never paid much attention to her finances; now she needed her brother's help to sort them out. What they found was shocking. First of all, the contract Mr. E. had negotiated with Goldwyn paid her only half the salary she thought she was getting; the rest went to Emerson as a $100,000 signing bonus, with which he had bought annuities payable only to himself. He had also transfered $150,000 from their joint account into accounts of his own. “Clifford then began further investigations,” she wrote, “and learned that Mr. E. had registered all my property in his own name; including the house [on Santa Monica's 'Gold Coast,' designed by celebrated architect Richard Neutra] for which my earnings had paid. Mr. E. even got me to turn over to him the royalties on my books, without my being aware I’d signed them away.” She comforted herself with the thought that payouts on Mr. E.’s annuities would keep him safely in Las Encinas until the day he died.

With no little difficulty, Loos bought out her contract with Goldwyn in early 1938. Back at MGM, she bounced around, doing uncredited work on a number of film scripts, and in the musical department on the Judy Garland-Mickey Rooney picture, Babes In Arms (1939). She hit her stride when, once again stepping in for Fitzgerald, she adapted Clare Boothe Luce's Broadway smash of 1936, The Women in just under three weeks. It was like old times for Loos, working closely with director George Cukor, who insisted she be involved in all aspects of production: shooting, re-writes, publicity, previews, and even the editing of trailers. The Women (1939) was hailed as one of the best films of the year. Unfortunately, this creative experience, so reminiscent for Loos of the Thalberg years, was an aberration. She was soon back to script-doctoring on Another Thin Man (1939), then assigned the screenplay Susan and God (1940) for Joan Crawford, about which Loos noted, “War is imminent, making it hard to concentrate on Susan’s problems with God." She then rapidly turned out four more scripts for MGM: Blossoms in the Dust (1941), When Ladies Meet (1941), They Met in Bombay (1941), and I Married an Angel (1942). In August, 1943, Loos' contract was unceremoniously ended.

ANITA WRITES BICOASTALLY

Seizing the opportunity to work again with Loos, Joe Schenck, now a chief executive at Twentieth Century-Fox, offered her a position working exclusively on vehicles for upcoming star Dorothy McGuire; the best thing about this arrangement was that she didn't have to report to the studio, and could write anywhere. Perhaps looking for a way back to New York, she had written a play with Lionel Barrymore for his sister, Ethel; in late 1943 it was ready to go into production, so Loos closed up the Santa Monica beach house and took a room at New York’s Plaza Hotel. For various reasons and after several stops and starts, the play, Old Buddha, never made it to the stage. Upon the death of her father in 1944, Loos returned to Hollywood and did uncredited work on the McGuire script, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945). Before leaving New York she enjoyed another consequential lunch, this time with old friend Helen Hayes.

Some Algonquin Round Table members (Left-right: Art Samuels, Charles MacArthur, Harpo Marx, Dorothy Parker, Alexander Woollcott), Wikipedia

Loos met Hayes in New York in 1927, when Loos was “caught up in the brouhaha” of producing Gentlemen Prefer Blondes for the stage. Hayes had been up for the lead, but, wrote Loos, “my husband, who, following the tradition of Broadway husbands, was managing my affairs, rejected Helen hands down.” She continued, “The girl chosen to play Lorelei Lee was a competent actress and she got away with the part. But I now realize that had it gone to Helen, she would have given it that extra dimension which separates art from adequacy.” After their initial meeting, Loos would run into Hayes at gatherings of the Algonquin Hotel’s Round Table, the group Loos later described as “a boring set of exhibitionists” (the exceptions being H.L. Mencken, George Jean Nathan, Joe Hergesheimer, and Theodore Dreiser). Charlie MacArthur, who had left Dorothy Parker to marry Hayes, was part of a Round Table satellite group Loos deemed “Musketeers of the Twenties who free-wheeled about town dipping into everything.” She got a kick out of MacArthur’s outrageous wit, and already his buddy, became good friends with Hayes after the couple married.

Over that now historic lunch at 21, Hayes worried that costume dramas had come to define her. “I’m afraid of getting to be grandiose," she told Loos. "Why don’t you write me a really rowdy part, where I can kick up my heels?” The result was Happy Birthday, which went into rehersals on Broadway in September, 1946, and opened in late October. The play, a great success for both friends, ran for almost 600 performances. Back in Santa Monica at Christmas, Loos wound up her West Coast business, put her house on the market, and said good-bye to a circle that included the Huxleys, the Hubbels, George Cukor, Ray Goetz, Rouben Mamoulian, and Christopher Isherwood. She ignored Mr. E.’s entreaties to take him along. By early 1947 she was once again at the Plaza, in search of more permanent accommodations.

ANITA, BACK IN NEW YORK AT LAST!

Loos found a small apartment at the Plaza Hotel Annex on West 58th Street, and happily immersed herself in multiple projects for the stage—an adaptation of She Stoops to Conquer for Mary Martin, which was abandoned after Martin took a career-changing role in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific (1948); a play about Josephine Baker, alternately titled Jacqueline or Montparnasse, for which no lead actress was ever signed (although Lena Horne, Hilda Sims, and Dorothy Dandridge were all considered); and Mother Was a Lady, co-authored with another Hollywood ex-pat, screenwriter Frances Marion, as a vehicle for their friend, actress ZaSu Pitts. Loos was, at this time, romantically linked with actor Maurice Chevalier, who was then appearing on Broadway.

In 1948, producers Herman Levin and Oliver Smith invited Loos to lunch at the Colony to pitch their latest idea, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes—the musical! Their timing was good; Mother Was a Lady had just been dropped from the Broadway calendar, and Loos had already written the Blondes' script in 1926. Seeing the potential in their idea, she readily agreed. But, as she had no experience in writing librettos, the process of adapting her script was rocky; at times the project almost stalled. The book was eventually completed with uncredited help from Levin’s friend Billy Rose, who also proved instrumental in raising the necessary subcriptions. To play the part of Lorelei, Loos and composer Jule Styne chose the relatively unknown actress Carol Channing, about whom Loos said, “You can cast Lorelei two ways, with the cutest, littlest, prettiest girl in town or with a comedienne’s... comment on the cutest, littlest, prettiest girl in town. I wrote her as a comedy, and Broadway is attuned to satire.”Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was a triumph, opening in December, 1949, and running for nearly two years. Loos enjoyed a celebrity the likes of which she hadn’t known since the 1920s.

Shortly after Blondes' opening, Loos moved from the Plaza Hotel Annex to a large apartment in the Langdon Hotel at Fifth Avenue and East 56th Street. Her novella, A Mouse Is Born, was published on January 1st, 1951, to mixed reviews. In the whirlwind of her first transatlantic voyage in two decades, she sailed to Dublin, staying with Adele Astaire and husband Charles, Lord Cavendish, then flew on to Paris, where she lunched with Colette at the Restaurant Le Grand Véfour, and sat for photographs, in couture, for Elle and Paris-Match. After returning to New York, she wrote a stage adaptation of Colette’s Gigi; Colette adored the treatment, later describing Loos as "the most subtle and friendly of collaborators." While still in the beginning stages of production, Loos received a wire from Colette: she had found an actress who looked exactly like the character she visualized in her novel. With newcomer Audrey Hepburn playing the lead, Gigi premiered on Broadway in November, 1951 and ran profitably through May, 1952. It would have run longer, but Hepburn had an appointment in Hollywood to make Roman Holiday (1953), the first picture in an illustrious film career that would span three decades.

In 1952, Loos and her maid/companion Gladys Turner moved to a large apartment at 171 West 57th Street, across from Carnegie Hall. In the time-honored tradition of New York real estate, acquiring this apartment was a matter of not what Loos knew, but whom she knew (the apartment became available after Jule Styne’s friend’s mother died). Always diligent about maintaining her health and her weight, Loos began the tradition of summering at Montecatini Terme spa, near Florence, Italy. Over the next decade, she endeavored to write and produce several Broadway plays, without much luck. Mr. E died in March, 1956, leaving Loos some money in trust that brought her a few thousand dollars a year. In the spring of 1958, Loos finished an adaptation of Colette's Chéri, which opened in October, 1959, and closed a month later. This experience, along with the changing tenor of Broadway, put an end to her career as a Broadway playwright. Her novella, No Mother to Guide Her, another Hollywood-based satire, was published in 1961.

ANITA WRITES HER MEMOIRS

In 1965, Loos learned her adaptation of The King’s Mare had found a West End producer; the play had a moderately successful run in London. Her memoir, A Girl Like I, which covered the periods of her childhood and early career in Hollywood and New York, up to the publication of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, was published in September, 1966. It garnered much praise and attention; The New York Times Book Review devoted an entire page to it, andThe Nation deemed it “the most remarkable Hollywood memoir ever written for its candor, its wit and its intelligence.”The New Yorker hoped that a second installment would be written soon. Viking Press threw a bash at the Plaza Hotel’s Terrace Room for Loos and many of her closest friends, including Hayes, Paulette Goddard, and Tallulah Bankhead, and celebrity acquaintances such as Truman Capote and Edmund Wilson. In November, Loos attended Capote's black and white masked ball in a black lace Balenciaga gown and ostrich feather wrap. To those who thought the gala inappropriate in the era of the Vietnam War, she proclaimed, "A little glamour might do everyone good just now."

According to the front flap of Twice Over Lightly’s dust jacket, “Helen Hayes, in a moment of irritation combined with zest, said to her friend Anita Loos: ‘I used to think New York was the most enthralling place in the world. I’ll bet it still is and if I were free next summer, I would prove it.’ And she did, launching herself and her skeptical companion on a series of explorations through all five boroughs of the fabled city.” Published in 1972, written in the form of a dialog between two friends and exhibiting the best kind of travel writing, the book provides a fascinating glimpse of a city as it existed before the combination of high rent and corporate interests destroyed much of its character. As usual, Loos kept up a busy social pace, enjoying MOMA’s retrospective film series along with friend Lillian Gish, and going to the Maisonette at the St. Regis with a group called “the girls” to see another friend, pianist and bandleader Peter Duchin. Part two of her memoirs, Kiss Hollywood Good-By (1974) was published to greater acclaim than part one. Over the next four years, she wrote two more books: Cast of Thousands (1977), a Hollywood-themed coffee table book, and The Talmadge Girls (1978), a recollection of the lives and times of the irrepressible Peg Talmadge and her famous daughters.

By the time Loos died in 1981 at the age of 93, she had been misrepresenting her age for over 70 years, and would have been amused to see the confusion this caused in many of her obituaries. The New York Times, (who ultimately got her age right but the age at which she began screenwriting wrong) called her a “New York social institution” and commended her on “a relentless desire to rebel, an honest love of flim-flam and a disarmingly pertinent comic vision of life.” As The Guardian wrote, Loos (much like her father, R. Beers) was “a born raconteur, the life and soul of many a… party, with a hawkish eye on the glamorous, or scandalous, events that surrounded her.” For over fifty years, she socialized with the best and the brightest in America and in Europe, and developed life-long friendships with some of the most brilliant artists of the Twentieth Century. Much has been written about Anita Loos, and for good reason: she was an original, an inspired and disciplined writer with a raft of penetrating observations about human beings and their foibles, who possessed a great talent—in her life as well as her writing—for finding the humor which exists at the exact moment when male entitlement and female disempowerment collide. The sheer longevity of her career would be astonishing for anyone, let alone a woman in a man’s world. She was no deal-maker, and was often forced to keep several projects in the air at any given time in the hope that one would get picked up. But she worked steadily throughout liberal and conservative eras alike, and achieved success beyond almost anyone else’s measure in the cutthroat, ultra-competitive arenas of Hollywood, Broadway, and New York publishing. As much a product of the Progressive Era at the turn of the last century as she was a “modern woman,” she summed up her attitude about the feminism of the 1970s thusly: “They keep getting up on soapboxes and proclaiming that women are brighter than men. That’s true, but it should be kept very quiet or it ruins the whole racket.”

Who Runs the World: Celebrating Women in March with Books for Kids & Teens

Amber Certain, School Outreach Librarian — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 17:06:24 -0500

Civil rights activist Ella Baker (standing third from right) with a group of young and teenage girls at a fair sponsored by the NAACP, circa 1950s. NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 5582303

"I am a woman / Phenomenally / Phenomenal woman / That's me." Maya Angelou

In 1981 Congress passed Public Law 97-28, proclaiming the week of March 7th, 1982 as “Women’s History Week.” In 1987 Congress passed Public Law 100-9, which designated March 1987 “Women’s History Month.” Congress passed additional resolutions which request and authorize the President to proclaim each March as Women’s History Month.

The month of March celebrates contributions women have made to the United States and recognize achievements women have made throughout the course of American History in various fields. This booklist highlights many amazing women and their accomplishments. Educators, parents and students will be able to dive into these stories and share new knowledge with each other.

These stories will have students perform on stage with the Supremes and Selena Quintanilla, take a journey into space with Sally Ride and Mae C. Jemison, stand in the courtroom with Dovey Johnson Roundtree, create sculptures with Edmonia Lewis and learn about so many other truly amazing women!

Kids

Baseball's Leading Lady: Effa Manley and the Rise and Fall of the Negro Leagues by Andrea Williams

Becoming: Adapted for Young Readers by Michelle Obama

Claudette Colvin by Lesa Cline-Ransome; illustrated by Gillian Flint

Dr. Mae Jemison: Brave Rocketeer by Heather Alexander and Jennifer Bricking

Fighting for Space: Two Pilots and their Historic Battle for Female Spaceflight by Amy Shira Teitel

Game, Set, Sisters!: The Story of Venus and Serena Williams by Jay Leslie; illustrated by Ebony Glenn

I am Frida Kahlo by Brad Meltzer; illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos

Jump at the Sun: The True Life Tale of Unstoppable Storycatcher Zora Neale Hurston by Alicia D. Williams; illustrated by Jacqueline Alcaantara

June Almeida, Virus Detective!: The Woman who Discovered the First Human Coronavirus by Suzanne Slade; illustrated by Elisa Paganelli

Latinitas: Celebrating Big Dreamers in History! by Juliet Menaendez

One Step Further: My Story of Math, the Moon, and a Life-Long Mission by Katherine Johnson; with her daughters Joylette Hylick and Katherine Moore; illustrated by Charnelle Pinkney Barlow

Runaway: The Daring Escape of Ona Judge by Ray Anthony Shepard; illustrated by Keith Mallett

Sally Ride by Atia Abawi; illustrated by Gillian Flint

She Persisted: Virginia Apgar by Dr. Sayantani DasGupta; interior illustrations by Gillian Flint

Sing with Me: The Story of Selena Quintanilla by Diana Laopez; illustrations by Teresa Martainez

Standing on Her Shoulders: A Celebration of Women by Monica Clark-Robinson; art by Laura Freeman

The Story of Movie Star: Anna May Wong by Paula Yoo, illustrated by Lin Wang

Sylvia and Marsha Start a Revolution!: The Story of the Trans Women of Color Who Made LGBTQ+ History by Joy Michael Ellison and Teshika Silver; illustrated by Teshika Silver

Superheroes Are Everywhere by Kamala Harris; illustrated by Mechal Renee Roe

Try It!: How Frieda Caplan Changed the Way We Eat by Mara Rockliff; illustrated by Giselle Potter

We Are the Supremes by Zoë Tucker; illustrated by Salini Perera

Teens

Almost American Girl: An Illustrated Memoir by Robin Ha

Atomic Women: The Untold Stories of the Scientists who Helped Create the Nuclear Bomb by Roseanne Montillo

Banned Book Club by Kim Hyun Sook, Ryan Estrada; artist, Ko Hyung-Ju

The Book of Gutsy Women by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton

(Adult title with teen appeal)

Bookish Broads: Women who Wrote Themselves into History by Lauren Marino; illustrations by Alexandra Kilburn

(Adult title with teen appeal)

Fly Like a Girl: One Woman's Dramatic Fight in Afghanistan and on the Home Front by Mary Jennings Hegar

Just as I Am : A Memoir by Cicely Tyson

(Adult title with teen appeal)

Mighty Justice: The Untold Story of Civil Rights Trailblazer Dovey Johnson Roundtree by Dovey Johnson Roundtree and Katie McCabe; adapted by Jabari Asim

Ms. Gloria Steinem: A Life by Winifred Conkling

Rage Baking: The Transformative Power of Flour, Fury, and Women's Voices (A Cookbook With More Than 50 Recipes) by Kathy Gunst and Katherine Alford; photography by Jerelle Guy

The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks (Young Readers Edition) by Jeanne Theoharis

Sarah Bernhardt: The Divine and Dazzling Life of the World's First Superstar by Catherine Reef

Seen. Edmonia Lewis by Jasmine Walls; illustrated by Bex Glendining; colored by Kieran Quigley; lettered by DC Hopkins

Sylvie by Sylvie Kantorovitz

The Truths We Hold: An American Journey (Young Readers Edition) by Kamala Harris

With Her Fist Raised: Dorothy Pitman Hughes and the Transformative Power of Black Community Activism by Laura L Lovett

(Adult title with teen appeal)

Database Resources

External Resource

Women’s History Month - The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in commemorating and encouraging the study, observance and celebration of the vital role of women in American history. (Description taken from the website)

Exhibitions (Check out Culture Pass for tickets to specific museums!)

Brooklyn Museum - The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art current exhibit: Lorraine O’Grady
Museum of Arts and Design - Current exhibit: Beth Lipman: Collective Elegy
Museum City of New York - Marian Anderson: A Digital Installation

Before Suffrage: Feminism in Slavic and East European Lands

Mon, 08 Mar 2021 14:33:45 -0500

As we celebrate Women's History Month, it's important to remember that only a few countries granted women the right to vote before World War I. Although female taxpayers were allowed to vote in local elections in the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia beginning in 1881 this right was rescinded in 1895. In the 1906 elections to the Hungarian Parliament, the Slovak National Party was pushing universal suffrage as a part of its program. However, this "universal" suffrage was only about men’s rights (not to mention the requirements of literacy or property ownership).

It was only beginning in 1917 that the process to introduce women's right to vote picked up momentum worldwide resulting in women's suffrage becoming a reality in an increasing amount of states, including Slavic and East European countries. Before that happened there was a long process of raising awareness and appreciation of women's accomplishments and contributions to society at large. Below are some books which were published with this goal in mind (all have been digitized and are available remotely).

Jan Sowiński, O uczony Polkach (Warszawa: W Xięgarniach N. Glücksberga, 1821) (.... pp.).

Jan Sowiński was inspired by the 1811 work De l'influence des femmes sur la littérature française by Stéphanie-Félicité de Genlis (1746-1830), a writer and educator who pointed at the limited opportunities for female writers. Sowiński wrote fifty biographies of accomplished Polish women, mostly writers. The list was later expanded by Karol Józef Teofil Estreicher (1827-1908), a Polish bibliographer and librarian. His manuscript included 500 biographies, many of which appeared in a periodical Niewiasta (1860-1862).

The New York Public Library's copy of this book was acquired in 1924 and was once in the private collection of Wiktor Teofil Gomulicki (1848 -1919), a Polish writer, translator, and editor who was a major advocate of Positivism.

Daniil Lukich Mordovtsev, Russkiia istoricheskiia zhenshchiny: populiarnye razskazy iz russkoi istorii: zhenshchiny do-petrovskoi Rusi(Sanktpeterburg : K.N. Plotnikov, 1874).

Daniil Lukich Mordovtsev, Russkiia zhenshchiny novago vremeni : biograficheskie ocherki iz russkoi istorii, 3 vols. (S. Peterburg : A. Cherkesov, 1874-1902.)

Daniil Lukich Mordovtsev (1830-1905) was a Ukrainian and Russian poet, writer, and historian educated at St. Petersburg University. He served as an official in Saratov where he also was the editor of the Saratovskie gubernskie vedomosti and contributed to several popular journals exhibiting a democratic leaning. His historical works were also received favorably. In the first work, he presented biographies of Russian women from the pre-Petrine times, and in the three-volume set from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Teréza Nováková, Slavín žen českých. Podává . Díl I. Od nejstarších dob do znovuzrození národa českého (V Praze, Nákl. "Libuše," Matice zábavy a vědění, 1894) (510 pp.).

Teréza Nováková, née Lanhausová (1853-1912) was a Czech writer and a representative of realism and so-called rural prose. She was an active member of the women's emancipation movement. The first part of her Celebration of Czech Women is devoted to the period from the earliest times to the rebirth of the Czech nation in the 19th century. No other parts were published.

NYPL's print copy.

For further reading on early feminism and women's emancipation see the following studies (print resources):

Bilym po bilomu: zhinky v hromadsʹkomu zhytti Ukraïny, 1884-1939 / Marta Bohachevsʹka-Khomiak (Lʹviv: Ukraïnsʹkyĭ katolytsʹkyi universytet, 2018).
Comrades and Sisters: Feminism, Socialism, and Pacifism in Europe, 1870-1945 / Richard J. Evans (Brighton, Sussex: Wheatsheaf Books; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987).
Drogi wolności : Ruch emancypacyjny kobiet w monarchii habsburskiej na podstawie publicystyki i twórczości literackiej w latach 1867-1918 / Urszula Górska (Warszawa: Instytut Badań Literackich PAN Wydawnictwo, 2016).
Działaczki społeczne, feministki, obywatelki-- : samoorganizowanie się kobiet na ziemiach polskich do 1918 roku (na tle porównawczym) / redakcja Agnieszka Janiak-Jasińska, Katarzyna Sierakowska, Andrzej Szwarc (Warszawa: Wydawn. Neriton, 2008).
Equality & Revolution: Women's Rights in the Russian Empire, 1905-1917 / Rochelle Goldberg Ruthchild (Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, c2010).
Feminism in Russia, 1900-17 / Linda Harriet Edmondson (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1984).
Granitsi na grazhdanstvoto: evropeiskite zheni mezhdu traditsiiata i modernostta / sustavitelstvo Krasimira Daskalova, Raina Gavrilova (Sofiia: Bulgarska grupa za izsledvaniia po istoriia na zhenite i pola, 2001).
Ideolohiia ta suspilʹna praktyka zhinochoho rukhu na zakhidnoukraïnsʹkykh zemliakh XIX--pershoï tretyny XX st. : typolohiia ta ievropeisʹkyĭ kulʹturno-istorychnyĭ kontekst / Oksana Malanchuk-Rybak (Chernivtsi: Knyhy - XXI, 2006).
Lietuvių moterų judėjimas XIX amžiaus pabaigoje, XX amžiaus pirmoje pusėje : monografija / Virginija Jurėnienė. (Vilnius: Vilniaus Universiteto leidykla, 2006).
Miscarea pentru emanciparea femeii în România, 1848-1948 / Paraschiva Câncea (Bucuresti: Editura Politică, 1976).
Ot siankata na istoriiata: zhenite v bŭlgarskoto obshtestvo i kultura, 1840-1940 / [Krasimira Daskalova, sŭstavitelstvo] (Sofiia: Bŭlgarska grupa za izsledvaniia po istoriia na zhenite i pola, 1998).
Sestre Srpkinje: pojava pokreta za emancipaciju žena i feminizma u Kraljevini Srbiji / Ana Stolić (Beograd: Evoluta, 2015).
Shifting Voices: Feminist Thought and Women's Writing in fin-de-siècle Austria and Hungary / Agatha Schwartz (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, c2008).
The Struggle for Female Suffrage in Europe: Voting to Become Citizens / edited by Blanca Rodriguez-Ruiz, Ruth Rubio-Marin (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2012).
Women's Emancipation Movements in the Nineteenth Century: a European Perspective / edited by Sylvia Paletschek and Bianka Pietrow-Ennker (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2004).
The Women's Liberation Movement in Russia: Feminism, Nihilism, and Bolshevism, 1860-1930 / Richard Stites (Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c1978).
Ženska obrobja: vpis žensk v zgodovino Slovencev / Marta Verginella (Ljubljana: Delta, 2006).
Zhenskoe dvizhenie v Rossii : vtoraia polovona XIX-nachalo XX veka / O.A. Khasbulatova, N.B. Gafizova (Ivanovo: Izd-vo "Ivanovo", 2003).

Celebrating Trans Women During Women's History Month

Rebecca Maron-Ryan, Children's Librarian, Riverdale Library — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 16:51:19 -0500

March is Women’s History Month, a time when we celebrate the role of women in American history and contemporary society. Below is a list of some books in NYPL's collection by or about trans women: some you may already know, and others you may want to learn more about.

Wendy Carlos: A Biography by Amanda Sewell

Drawing on published and unpublished interviews with Wendy Carlos and with other people in her life and career, this full biography tells the story of Carlos' life from her childhood in Pawtucket, Rhode Island to her present life in New York and the secrecy that has surrounded it.

Tranny : Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout by Laura Jane Grace

The transgender advocate and lead singer of the punk rock band Against Me! describes her intensely personal struggles with identity and addiction through journal entries that date back to her childhood.

Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More by Janet Mock

With unflinching honesty and moving prose, Janet Mock relays her experiences of growing up young, multiracial, poor, and trans in America, offering readers accessible language while imparting vital insight about the unique challenges and vulnerabilities of a marginalized and misunderstood population.

To My Trans Sisters edited by Charlie Craggs

An empowering, heartfelt collection of letters from celebrated trans women addressed to those who are transitioning. Each letter offers honest advice from their own experience on everything from make-up and dating, through to deeper subjects like battling dysphoria and dealing with transphobia.

Yes, You Are Trans Enough: My Transition from Self-Loathing to Self-Love by Mia Violet

With entertaining anecdotes and thoughtful observations, this memoir depicts the realities of being a trans woman—from bullying and botched coming out attempts to self-acceptance and love—whilst exploring the inaccuracies of trans representation and confronting what the media has gotten wrong.

She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan

She's Not There is the story of a person changing genders, the story of a person bearing and finally revealing a complex secret; above all, it is a love story.

Laverne Cox by Erin Staley

This biography documents Cox's triumphant life and work as an activist, documenting her own growth from troubling times she recalls as a teenager to becoming the first openly transgender actor nominated for an Emmy.

Rethinking Normal: A Memoir in Transition by Katie Rain Hill

A college student who endured years of bullying and disapprobation describes how after numerous failed therapies she accepted her transgender status and began learning how to be a girl while pursuing surgical gender reassignment.

No Way Renée: The Second Half of my Notorious Life by Renée Richards

A candid personal account by a pioneering doctor and tennis player who underwent sex reassignment surgery in 1975 discusses her pursuit of legal rights, her perspectives on gender issues, and her relationship with her son.

Lana and Lilly Wachowski by Cael M. Keegan

Lana and Lilly Wachowski are intensely political film writers, directors, and producers whose work has made an indelible impact on American popular culture. From The Matrix (1999) to Cloud Atlas (2012), they have left their mark as innovators in the industry, consistently pushing the boundaries of what is perceived as technically and topically possible in studio film. They are also the world's first major transgender film directors and arguably the most influential transgender cultural producers in human history.

I Rise: The Transformation of Toni Newman by Toni Newman

Born the eldest son into a strict Christian family, Toni admits knowing from her earliest days that she “was a different bird born in the wrong body.” With laser-guided sincerity, curiosity, and above all, humor and compassion, Toni tells her story of being a “sissy boy,” a scholarship student, a business professional, an escort, a drag queen, a NYC prostitute, an LA dominatrix, and finally, a transsexual attending law school in order to help her transsexual sisters in need.

Tomorrow Will Be Different : Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality by Sarah McBride

The national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign presents a timely memoir about her struggles with gender identity and relationships against a backdrop of the transgender equality movement. In 2020 Sarah McBride was elected in Delaware as the first transgender state senator.

Have trouble reading standard print? Many of these titles are available in formats for patrons with print disabilities.

Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your ideas too, so leave a comment and tell us what you’d recommend. And check out our Staff Picks browse tool for more recommendations!

Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.

Celebrating Women Leaders and Entrepreneurs: Reading List

Helena Escalante, Business Outreach, Thomas Yoseloff Business Center at SNFL — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 09:32:40 -0500

In honor of Women's History Month, we're celebrating women entrepreneurs and leaders with this reading list.

Serena Williams has a beautiful quote that says:

"The success of every woman should be the inspiration to another. We should raise each other up. Make sure you’re very courageous: be strong, be extremely kind, and above all be humble."

The women entrepreneurs and leaders whose books appear on the list come from all different walks of life. Yet they all have in common the desire to inspire, help others, and make the world a better place for themselves and for everyone else.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE LIST IN PDF FORMAT, OR SEE IT BELOW.

(You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open and view the document.)

Also, remember that our librarians are here to help if you need any assistance with your business research projects! We offer 30-minute video consultations that are free, confidential and completely tailored to you and your business needs. Take advantage of this wonderful service: No library card is required, and sessions are completely open to the public. This means that you don't even need to live in New York City to get access to our librarians and their wonderful knowledge. The Business Center can help anyone who is starting or growing a business!

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO AND TO BOOK YOUR CONSULTATION.

* * * * * * * * * *

Launching While Female: Smashing the System That Holds Women Entrepreneurs Back
Althoff, Suzzane(2020)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

Women With Money: The Judgment-Free Guide to Creating the Joyful, Less Stressed, Purposeful (And, Yes, Rich) Life You Deserve
Chatzky, Jean Sherman (2019)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

Girl, Stop Apologizing: A Shame-Free Plan for Embracing and Achieving Your Goals
Hollis, Rachel (2019)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

Believe It: How to Go from Underestimated to Unstoppable
Lima, Jamie Kern (2021)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

The Audacity to Be Queen: The Unapologetic Art of Dreaming Big and Manifesting Your Most Fabulous Life
DeVee, Gina (2020)
Book | E-Book

You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life
Sincero, Jen (2013)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

The Law of Divine Compensation: On Work, Money, and Miracles
Williamson, Marianne (2012)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

Boss Up!: This Ain't Your Mama's Business Book
Moreno, Lindsay Teague (2019)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

The Most Powerful Woman in the Room Is You: Command an Audience and Sell Your Way to Success
Fenet, Lydia (2019)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

I Am My Brand: How to Build Your Brand Without Apology
Springer, Kubi (2020)
Book

She Speaks: The Power of Women's Voices
Cooper, Yvette (2019)
E-Book

Tech Boss Lady: How to Start-up, Disrupt, and Thrive as a Female Founder
Gascoigne, Adriana (2019)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

Leapfrog: The New Revolution for Women Entrepreneurs
Molina Niño, Nathalie (2018)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

Chillpreneur: The New Rules for Creating Success, Freedom, and Abundance on Your Terms
Thomas Duffield, Denise (2019)
E-Book

Be an InventHer: An Everywoman's Guide to Creating the Next Big Thing
Yoo, Mina (2019)
Book

Self Made: Becoming Empowered, Self-Reliant, and Rich in Every Way
Galan, Nely (2016)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

What It Takes: How I Built a $100 Million Business Against the Odds
Moya-Jones, Raegan (2019)
Book | E-Book

Boss Bitch: A Simple 12-Step Plan to Take Charge of Your Career
Lapin, Nicole (2017)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

Riding High: How I Kissed Soulcycle Goodbye, Founded Flywheel, and Built the Life I Always Wanted
Zukerman, Ruth (2018)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

Work It: Secrets for Success From the Boldest Women in Business
Kerpen, Carrie (2018)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

Earning It: Hard-Won Lessons from Trailblazing Women at the Top of the Business World
Lublin, Joann S. (2016)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

Know Your Value: Women, Money, and Getting What You're Worth
Brzezinski, Mika (2018)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

Fear Is Just a Four-Letter Word: How to Develop the Unstoppable Confidence to Own Any Room
Tutor, Tracy (2020)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

The Memo: What Women of Color Need to Know to Secure a Seat at the Table
Harts, Minda (2019)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

Quiet Girls Can Run the World: Owning Your Power When You're Not the Alpha in the Room
Holman, Rebecca (2018)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

The Gutsy Girl Handbook: Your Manifesto for Success
White, Kate (2018)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

How Women Rise: Break the 12 Habits Holding You Back From Your Next Raise, Promotion, or Job
Helgesen, Sally (2018)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

WorkParty: How to Create and Cultivate the Career of Your Dreams
Johnson, Jaclyn (2018)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time
Vanderkam, Laura (2015)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
Sandberg, Sheryl (2013)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

#Girlboss
Sophia Amoruso (2014)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

Girl Code: Unlocking the Secrets to Success, Sanity, and Happiness for the Female Entrepreneur
Leyba, Cara Alwill (2017)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

What I Told My Daughter: Lessons From Leaders on Raising the Next Generation of Empowered Women
Nina Tassler and Cynthia Littleton, editors (2016)
Book | Audiobook

Rise to the Top: How Women Leverage Their Professional Persona to Earn More
Hawley, Stacy (2015)
E-Book

The Influence Effect: A New Path to Power for Women Leaders
Heath, Kathryn (2017)
Book | E-Book | Audiobook

Transcribing the Light: The Memoirs of Shirley MacLaine

Sally Speller, Supervising Librarian, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL) — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 15:30:18 -0500

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Shirley MacLaine, American film, televison and theatre actress, dancer, activist, and author, was, in her own words, “born into a cliché-loving, middle-class Virginia family” in 1934. Her father, Ira O. Beaty, was a psychology professor, school administrator, realtor, and amateur musician. Her mother, Kathlyn Corinne Beaty (née MacLaine), “a tall, thin, almost ethereal creature with a romantic nature,” was originally from Nova Scotia, Canada. A drama teacher who loved poetry and the theater, MacLaine’s mother introduced her to the ballet at age three, as a remedy for weak ankles. “There,” she wrote, “my imagination took anchor, my energy found a channel. What started as therapy became my life.” About her childhood, MacLaine said, “I have an orphan psychology, that’s what I’ve been told. See, my parents were always busy, so when I was about 11, I had to get up early to get off to school by myself and then to ballet class. I was the one navigating the buses and streetcars. I had no one to talk to, because by the time I got home my parents were in bed. So to navigate those waters, just to make it home each day, I had to keep asking myself, ‘Who am I?'"

MacLaine spent the summer of her junior year in high school in New York, performing in the subway circuit production of Oklahoma!, then returned after graduation, writing, “I arrived in New York at eighteen, wide-eyed, optimistic, brave, and certain I would crash the world of show business overnight. Naïveté is a necessary personality trait in order to endure New York, and a masochistic sense of humor an indispensable quirk.” Born Shirley MacLaine Beaty, she shortened her name at a successful audition for the Servel Ice Box traveling trade show. One night while on tour, MacLaine decided to "spice the spice." Dancing as Queen of the Swans around a Servel Ice Maker in the show’s grand finale, she wore a beautiful white tutu, blacked-out front teeth, and a “saintly smile.” She was fired and sent back to New York.

MacLaine met producer and businessman Steve Parker at a bar on West 45th Street; four hours later, he asked her to marry him. She was, at that time, in the chorus of Broadway’s Me and Juliet. “Steve and I met in 1952,” she wrote, “but so intense was our involvement, we forgot to get married until 1954.” By then, she was an understudy for lead Carol Haney in the Broadway sensation, The Pajama Game. After Haney tore a ligament in her ankle, MacLaine went on with no rehearsals, having watched only four times from the wings. In her nervousness, she rushed a line, then realized she had to slow the tempo of her delivery. “Suddenly, the flow of communication that I had longed for all my life was there. It wasn’t the applause and laughter that fulfilled me; it was the magnetism, the current, moving from one human being to the others and back again, like a giant pendulum.” When she came off stage, Bob Fosse, the show’s choreographer, told her, “You were good. Good energy.” She recalled, “It was from Fosse that I realized energy was the primary requirement for a good performance on the stage, on the screen, and in life.”

Image: Wikimedia Commons

The next night, producer Hal B. Wallis offered MacLaine a contract with Paramount Pictures. She eventually signed, went back to the chorus, and waited for Hollywood to call. Two months later, on again for Haney, she was spotted by a representative of director Alfred Hitchcock. “He was doing a picture called The Trouble With Harry” wrote MacLaine, “and was looking for an offbeat, ‘kooky’ actress to play the lead.” MacLaine won the Golden Globe New Star of the Year—Actress Award for her work in this film. She moved to Hollywood in 1955, and began filming her second picture, Artists and Models, about which she wrote, “Wallis took me from the shelf to garnish a Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis product… I represented all the plain broads in the audience who could never get a man unless they pinned him to the floor. I guess that’s when I first realized it was possible to make people laugh and cry at the same time.”

Shortly before he moved to Japan in 1956, Parker told MacLaine, “If I stay in Hollywood, I’ll always be Mr. MacLaine.” Of her husband, she wrote, “he was definitely the person I cared most about, my primary relationship, and the man I would wait for until he established his own identity in the world… In the meantime, I was free to operate in and around the hills and dales of Hollywood any way I wanted, and he was free to do the same in Japan or wherever.” They would have an open relationship until the marriage ended in 1982. "I don't think we could have stayed together for 30 years any other way," Parker told TIME Magazine in 1984. "Shirley is a free soul who must have her run." A self-proclaimed serial monogamist, MacLaine was romantically linked with many famous men, among them actor Robert Mitchum, Swedish prime minister Olof Palme, Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau, comedian/actor Danny Kaye, actor/singer Yves Montand, Australian foreign minister Andrew Peacock, and journalist/author Pete Hamill.

Between 1955 and 1970, MacLaine starred in 25 pictures; highlights include Some Came Running (1958) with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, The Apartment (1960) and Irma la Douce (1963) with Jack Lemmon, The Children’s Hour (1961) with Audrey Hepburn, and Bob Fosse’s directorial debut, Sweet Charity (1969). During this time she traveled widely, and became politically active at home, supporting Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign, advocating for civil rights, and protesting the Vietnam War. In 1970, she published her first autobiographical bestseller; over the years, while continuing to perform to great acclaim in the movies, on television, and on stage, she would publish 13 more. These works—essentially a chronicle of MacLaine’s life journey, written with wit, candor, and courage—have challenged established Western mores and beliefs, and ultimately, the very nature of reality itself.

According to Kirkus Reviews, Don't Fall Off the Mountain (1970) is “pleasantly and loosely written and all on her own—which is the way Miss MacLaine does things—an autobiography of the appealing gamine screen presence who turns out to be a very different kind of person altogether.” In it, MacLaine evokes her middle class Virginia childhood with a kind of exasperated affection, recalling her supportive, if distant mother, her autocratic father, and her brother, actor and director Warren Beatty. “He was my kid brother and we were friends, in fact, allies,” she wrote. “We had to be, because otherwise we found ourselves… vying for favor as a result of the competition unconsciously imposed on us by our parents.” She credits an early immersion in the world of dance for a work ethic that would inform and sustain her, from her time on Broadway through Hollywood stardom, marriage and motherhood, politics, and world travel. “I learned something about myself that still holds true,” she wrote. “I cannot enjoy anything unless I work hard at it.” Her writing, said a 1971 Newsweek review, “possesses a vigor that seems consistent with her convictions… What makes her story so engaging is her balance and sanity, her willingness to reject or assimilate experiences with her eyes, mind and heart wide open.”

You Can Get There From Here (1975), picks up in Hollywood in 1970 where, MacLaine wrote, “Television was keeping the studios alive and television was what had mortally wounded them—television and the American culture itself… There was nothing in the trade papers… about Vietnam, or poverty, or racism, nothing about the way the whole brave American dream seemed to be crumbling around us.” Disenchanted with acting, she spent 1972 stumping for presidential candidate, George McGovern, saying recently, “It was a political-value-priority promise I made to myself.” In 1973, upon the invitation of the People’s Republic of China, she led an all-female delegation on a tour of mainland China. Soon after their arrival, the group began to fall apart. “I suppose most of what happened had to do with the fact that we were Americans of a certain generation, inculculated with the belief that Communism is bad,” she wrote. “Yet in China, we saw low food prices, and streets free of crime and dope peddling. Mao Tse-tung was a leader who seemed genuinely loved, people had great hopes for the future, women had little need... for superficial things... children loved work and were self-reliant... All these things... shook us in ways that left no conventional response.”

As a writer and performer, much of MacLaine’s personal journey has taken place in public. While many considered her next book, Out on a Limb (1983) a radical departure from previous writings, the book was really a radical continuation, a chronicle of the next phase in her search for understanding. “My strongest personality trait,” said MacLaine to TIME Magazine in 1984, “ is the way I keep unsettling my life when most other people are settling down.” This time, as she was forced to seriously explore the validity of reincarnation, trance channeling, and human contact with extraterrestrials, she touched upon concepts that proved threatening to Western popular culture. With no little anxiety, she felt compelled to share what she had learned; luckily, the groundswell of an emerging New Age movement carried her forward. Ideas that had once seemed strange have become, if not widely believed, at least normalized. In the book, a non-physical entity told MacLaine something that is, forty years later, more relevant than ever: “The level of achievement in any civilization is judged by its spiritual evolvement. Technological advancement is important and attractive, but if it detains, detracts, or deters spiritual understanding, it bears the seeds of its own destruction.”

After her success in the films Turning Point (1977), Being There (1979), and Terms of Endearment (1983), MacLaine’s point of view began to shift. “Up till then,” she explained, in Dancing In the Light (1985), “I had been more interested in traveling, love affairs, political activism, my friends, writing, and living.” Now, as she started taking her acting more seriously, she also began “a search for the recognition of higher consciousness.” She asked, “How could I really help others if I didn’t know who I was?” The book’s remarkable narrative is centered on events that took place during a 1984 run at Broadway’s Gershwin Theater. Along the way, she discovers the transformative power of positive affirmation, and relates an emotional reunion with a discarnate entity called Ramtha (who, along with a friend, supports her onstage when she is too ill to perform). She writes about her parents with bemused affection. The reason for exploring past lives, insists MacLaine, is experiential. “The only way any of it made sense was when it related to our own personal experience. If you hadn’t felt it, you couldn’t know it.” Learning she was, in a past life, “involved with the sociopolitical questions of the Founding Fathers of the United States,” she wrote, “They were spiritually aware, and in terms of leadership today, it [is] essential that [today's leaders] also have a spiritual support system that would keep them in touch with the recognition of their own higher knowledge…”

It’s All In the Playing (1987) isn't only about the making of the TV miniseries Out On a Limb (1986), it's also a magical mystery tour, a travelogue of MacLaine’s progress through multiple iterations of space, time and reality. “Fundamental to MacLaine's metaphysics," Magill Book Reviews wrote, "is that one is responsible for creating one's own reality, that whatever happens in one's life is part of a ‘script’ one has written... Even without the references to extraterrestrial visitations and altered states, the book offers a fascinating glimpse into the world of television—the personality conflicts, the intricacies of casting and dealing with network executives, and the difficulties of shooting on location in London, Sweden, and Peru.” Central to this experience is MacLaine’s recognition of the female (yin) energy. She wrote, “I, a female, had motivated the entire project—experienced the spiritual search, written about it, and was now starring in the film about the book… The New Age was addressing itself to leadership by women, which meant not only that men would be required to make a fundamental adjustment in relation to female leadership, but that women would also.” About her ongoing spiritual journey, she wrote, “It was one thing to be metaphysically sophisticated… But quite another to relate to the world with simple love in your heart."

“I now realize,” wrote MacLaine, in the preface to her next book, Going Within (1989), “that it is impossible to understand anything of the world, its inhabitants, their suffering, their conflicts or the full potential of life itself until I am in touch with these same currents and truths inside myself. To understand and love others begins with understanding and loving oneself.” There are tried and true ways to get there, she insists, explaining how (and why) to put into practice certain techniques—or “spiritual technology”—that have existed in Eastern spiritual systems for millennia but have been lost to the West. Even for those who are familiar with concepts like “no time” and have worked with the chakras, MacLaine’s clear, grounded, intriguing presentation informs and inspires. Writes Magill Book Reviews, “critics may be surprised at how plausible MacLaine's arguments are beginning to sound. With her latest book, [her] metaphysics has seasoned somewhat, matured. Not that she has backed down in any way from pushing the limits of psychic understanding, but rather she has worked harder in Going Within to synthesize New Age ideas with the more accepted beliefs of science. MacLaine is at her best when she is anecdotal, sharing what she has seen and how she personally uses the New Age tools she describes.”

MacLaine's next book, Dance While You Can (1991), opens with the filming of Postcards From the Edge (1990), and progresses through the production of a live tour; readers get a real sense of the hard work and dedication involved in the execution of two very different types of performance art. Throughout, MacLaine examines family dynamics: how she used the power of her mother’s sublimated creativity to fire the engine that drove her to overachievement; how she learned to pole vault over her father’s self-sabotaging fear of failure, and, in doing so, accomplished more than she otherwise would have. “Had the seeds for my success been sown and nurtured in the small middle class rooms of a home that housed potential creative giants,” she asked, “married to one another in an unspoken bond of frustration, with a hidden agenda to never live out their own dreams?” In a 1991 interview for Publisher’s Weekly she said, "I have been in the process of remembering who I am, for by doing that you are remembering the future and that you have a certain destiny. You remember what you planned to do, you remember your dreams. And through that, I came to realize… nothing is more important than this life and the people involved in it—your immediate orbit, your family.”

“I have never understood why the concept of being famous—a star—never motivated me much,” wrote MacLaine, in My Lucky Stars (1995). “I wanted to be good at my work… I wanted people to like what I did. I wanted to be prepared, be professional, be imaginative, be a performer and an actress that people got a kick out of… my goals in Hollywood were limited. Yet, what I didn’t particularly care about was probably the secret of my success.” MacLaine ably demonstrates a sophisticated psychological understanding of self and subject, as she relates lessons learned from both positive and negative experiences in the entertainment industry. She muses on the nature of aging, power, and politics in Hollywood, and writes of her adventures as “mascot to the clan” (with its fascinating and frightening proximity to mob culture), how she coped with the seemingly pointless emotional turmoil created by her director and co-star on the set of Terms of Endearment, the recognition of a deep, recurring connection with Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon, and a 3-year love affair with the incomprehensible Robert Mitchum, She has a few words to say about her ex-husband as well. “Why do these people emerge from my memories as leading players in my play?” asked MacLaine. “Because they set me on my course… they were the people destiny provided as my guides.”

In 1994 MacLaine walked the Santiago de Compostela Camino, a 500-mile westward trek from France across Northern Spain, "a journey of the spirit" she documented in The Camino (2000). “I could say it was a mythological and imaginative experience," she wrote, "but then what is myth and what is imagination?” Completing approximately 20 miles a day, this physically grueling trip—essentially, an extreme version of walking meditation—provided MacLaine with more puzzle pieces to assemble in her ongoing search for the truth of humankind's origins and purpose. Ultreya, or “moving forward with courage,” denotes the pilgrim’s journey; MacLaine’s fear of random attacks by vicious dogs and the press complicated matters. She asked, “Would what should have been the spiritual understanding and resolution of a long and arduous pilgrimage back in time now become an adventure of escape…?” Although chock-full of mind-blowing revelations, and recollections of past lives on the Camino, and in Lemuria and Atlantis, the book's most profound insight is contained in this simple message: “The sorrow so much experienced in the world today can be regarded as the exercise of emptying ourselves… to make room for the joy that is rightfully ours in the future.”

To anyone paying attention, MacLaine’s strong suit has always been her formidable curiosity, paired with a writer's ability to synthesize research and experience into a coherent and fascinating narrative. In Sage-ing While Age-ing (2007), she writes, “I have spent most of my adult life endeavoring to educate myself in the truths that we are not traditionally taught and do not readily see. I have been privileged to be able to afford to travel around the globe searching out answers to these mystical, but fundamentally practical questions in many cultures… I am not an occultist (which simply means ‘hidden’). I am the opposite. I share everything publicly.” MacLaine opines on many thought-provoking topics: synchronicity and meaningful coincidence, alternative dentistry and medicine, the United States as the New Atlantis, humankind’s disastrous decision to separate into male and female halves (“In my view,” wrote MacLaine, “we chose the most difficult way to evolve and learn.”), extraterrestrial intelligence and the military-industrial cover-up (“We are not the preeminent beings in a universe that we know very little about.”), prophecy and physics, and ancient gods, angels and E.T.s. About past lives, she writes, ”There are many lessons to learn, many ways to learn them, and the soul is always intact and ready for the next advancement or life.”

I’m All Over That (2011) and What If... (2013) are shorter, punchier, and more "to the point" than her previous books, featuring themed chapters instead of running narratives. She explains, “People identify with other people; they don’t identify with subjects and information unless it relates to them… In the beginning of my spiritual questing and wanderings, people identified with me much more than they did after I’d found some answers. When I got specific and began to share the underpinnings of spiritual science… it got to be too dense for a lot of people.” Addressing an ever-evolving perspective, she says, ”When I look back on some of my experiences, I’m intrigued by which ones I recall as being important. There seems to be a separation of heart experience and mind/body experience. If I were to write a book today just about my travels, it would result in a different book from the ones I wrote in the past.” This is why it is a joy to read all of MacLaine’s writings: they're an invitation to witness her life's adventure through time, from many different angles. As she remembers, she asks, “What didn’t I see then? What deeper meaning did I miss?” A succinct, snappy format doesn’t prevent MacLaine from delving deep or telling her truth. Her new motto is “Shift Happens.”

In the wry, often laugh-out-loud funny Above the Line (2016), MacLaine describes the making of Wild Oats (2016), a screwball comedy filmed on the Canary Islands (which are thought by many to be the remnants of the lost continent of Atlantis). She writes, “It isn’t often a person my age (eighty-one), with a past (this time around) of work pretty well done and a life exuberantly led, gets to experience a real-life movie while making a reel-movie movie on next to no money. Making a movie is the most useful experience I’ve found for getting to know more about myself.” As someone whose career began during Hollywood’s Golden Age, she makes it clear that this is also the story of independent filmmaking today: a chaotic, tumultuous free-for-all of egos, insecurities, truth, lies, and elusive funding. There is also professionalism, artistry, and comaraderie, above, below, and across the line. After years of MacLaine-directed snark, Kirkus Reviews had only good things to say about this book, writing, “The author's insider's portrait of the moviemaking world sparkles... MacLaine is wickedly honest about moviemaking, sincere and enthusiastic in describing her beliefs, and welcoming in the skepticism of others--it's all refreshing and fun.”

A channel in Sedona Journal wrote, “The domestic versions of cats and dogs were genetically engineered… benevolently by the Sirian-Pleiadian alliance in an effort to assist humanity as it became more densely engrained in the Earth plane... Cats and dogs are different physical forms of the same source [and] have melded into group unity consciousness yet still retain individual identities within the greater harmonic field... [They] are but fragments of the full consciousness and energy spectrum of their Sirian aspects... this expression is specifically and purposefully designed to be so, for these beings can become so bonded with the humans they serve that a unique third consciousness can evolve... that is extremely beneficial. When the third consciousness between humans and their pets is formed... It awakens within itself characteristics that neither of the parties involved have on their own... It stretches and expands [and] reaches back into the individual awareness of both human and pet and changes both.” In this spirit, MacLaine writes movingly about her profound relationship with Terry, whom she called, “my confidante, my sense of home, and my deepest venture into the intimacy of myself.” First published in 2003, Out on a Leash was updated in 2017 after Terry’s death.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, The New York Post’s Cindy Adams reached out to MacLaine, who told her she “couldn’t be happier. I’m out west. I’ve had this ranch for years. I love nature. I’m here with my animals and housekeeper. And watching what’s happening to show business. And wondering what’s happening to the world… Now, today, I’m interested in the beginning of mankind. I’m here at this time reading books and learning how all this started and going into my own interior. It’s my metaphysical language. Totally isolated here, you find your survival, your spiritual meaning. Isolation accentuates how to be without other people. Without materialism, power or influence. I find my inner spiritual self a lot more populated. There are new things inside. I’m watching mountains. Animals. Trees. Nature. I’m a survivor. I hear from friends. See, as much as possible you must try to be without fear.” When asked, in 2019, by the New York Times if she had any clues about her next life, MacLaine replied, “I don’t, and I’m not interested. First I’m going to take a rest.”

The Incomparable Miss Peggy Lee

Sally Speller, Supervising Librarian, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL) — Wed, 30 Sep 2020 11:06:25 -0400

Courtesy of Peggy Lee Associates, LLC

The incomparable Peggy Lee (1920-2002), American pop and jazz singer, composer, and actress, was born Norma Deloris Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota. The grandchild of Swedish and Norwegian immigrants, her depression-era childhood was brutal: The sixth of seven children, her mother died when she was four years old; her beloved father, an alcoholic, remarried an abusive woman less than a year later. As a child, she listened to the radio for escape and inspiration, wrote songs, and sang continuously—for herself, for special occasions like birthday parties, in church choirs, glee-clubs and talent shows.

As a teenager in North Dakota, Egstrom got her own sponsored 15-minute weekly radio show on KOVC in Valley City, and sang there at the Rudolf Hotel with the Dutch Room Serenaders. She also sang over Jamestown’s KRMC, and toured locally with Doc Haines’ six-piece college dance band. In 1937, she was hired by Fargo’s WDAY, and renamed Peggy Lee by program director Ken Kennedy.

In 1938, her father gave her a train pass to Hollywood; Lee arrived with $18 in her pocket. She waited tables (“I always seemed to ‘flunk’ waitress”, Lee wrote), and sang at the Jade Lounge in Los Angeles. Illness soon forced her home, where, after a recuperation, she was back singing at WDAY radio, and at Fargo's Powers Hotel Coffee Shop, then at the Belmont Cafe in Grand Forks, and on a half-hour show on KFJM radio. In 1940, Kennedy got her a job fronting his cousin Sev Olsen’s band in Minneapolis, where she also sang on local radio station KSTP; according to legend, this exposure got her a job with the nationally-known Will Osborne Orchestra. A Variety review about a 1941 Peggy Lee performance in St. Louis states, "the gal thrills ‘Body And Soul’ and had to come back to do ‘Exactly Like You’ before the customers would cease the palm-pounding."

Courtesy of Peggy Lee Associates, LLC

When Osborne’s band broke up, Lee drove back to California, and sang at Palm Springs celebrity haunt, the Doll House, where she claimed to have discovered her trademark vocal style: "The audience was unusually boisterous," Lee told an interviewer in 1948. "To cope with the noise, I lowered my voice with each successive song. The people soon forgot their bad manners, and I found a kind of delivery I’d been seeking for a long while." At the Doll House, Lee was auditioned by Frank Beringin, co-owner of Chicago’s East and West Ambassador Hotels; he hired her in 1941. Shortly thereafter, Benny Goodman, the "King of Swing," heard Lee at the Ambassador West’s nightclub, the Buttery Room, and signed her to replace the departing Helen Forrest.

Life on the road with a big band was, Lee said, “like boot camp, tremendously tough to endure. But if you come through it, you’ll be in shape for anything that comes along.” In 1942, she had her first #1 hit, Russ Morgan, Dick Howard and Bob Ellsworth’s "Somebody Else Is Taking My Place", followed by 1943's million-selling "Why Don't You Do Right?" by Kansas Joe McCoy and Herb Morand. She sang with Goodman's orchestra in two 1943 films, The Powers Girl and Stage Door Canteen. During her years with Goodman, Lee would continue to write songs of her own. In the fall of 1941, the Chicago Sunday Herald-American published one of her original compositions, “Little Fool,” which Goodman would occasionally allow her to perform but was never recorded. Peter Richmond, in Fever: The Life and Music of Miss Peggy Lee, explained, "she was beginning to compose lyrics, an ambition that would eventually distinguish her from nearly every other female singer of her era, as well as produce some of the most remarkable musical poetry the American songbook would ever see."

In a 1983 interview Lee recalled, "I was with [Goodman] from 1941 to 1943, and I was with him longer than any other girl singer. The experience was priceless. He taught me discipline. He taught me to listen to the sounds. Oh, it was wonderful being a part of that world at that time, living in New York, the Broadway scene and the 52nd Street clubs. After hours in Harlem you could hear Billie Holiday sing at Café Downtown—and yes, that is the singer I would say I have most wanted to emulate. But Billie is Billie... and you know it was a privilege to be alive then and be a part of it—like I was at a wonderful circus every night. I guess I’d rather be with musicians than any other kind of people." In her autobiography, Lee referenced Goodman, and "the time in 1941 when he came into my life and I was swept up into a world of big-band singing and hit records. And, most important of all, to a year later, when a man named David, David Barbour, came into my life. David—my true love."

Lee and David Barbour
Courtesy of Peggy Lee Associates, LLC

Barbour, who joined the Benny Goodman Orchestra as guitarist in 1942, left the next year when his relationship with Lee became apparent. (Goodman forbade band members from "fraternizing with the girl singer.") Lee stayed on briefly, to the end of her contract. She married Barbour in Los Angeles in 1943, and later that year, gave birth to daughter, Nicki. Lee would remember these months as the happiest time she had ever known. Although she wanted to stay home and enjoy this new, settled life, her success with Goodman and the popularity of "Why Don’t You Do Right?" found her fielding all sorts of offers over the telephone; with Barbour’s encouragement, she finally agreed to record two songs for a Capitol Records project, New American Jazz. These songs, Dick Larkin’s "Ain’t Goin’ No Place" and Sammy Fain and Lew Brown’s "That Old Feeling," got the most airplay of any track on the record, and the fact of their popularity helped to ease Lee back into recording and performing. During this time, she wrote several songs that she went on to record with Capitol, including "I Don’t Know Enough About You" and "It’s a Good Day." In 1946, a reader’s poll in Down Beat magazine voted Lee the "best female singer not with a band."

From 1946 to 1949, while continuing to perform, and to record and promote commercial songs, Lee cut 72 tracks for Capitol's Transcription Library Service, which produced records exclusively for radio airplay. Her live radio appearances were also taking off. She wrote, "By now I was singing with Bing Crosby on the ‘Kraft Music Hall’ and Jimmy Durante on his Rexall program. Crosby and Durante—not one but two of the greatest entertainers who ever lived—and I had the pleasure of going to the NBC and CBS studios…I became a ‘regular,’ and every week there was a parade of stars…" In 1948, Lee made a television appearance on the premier episode of Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town. That year, on the sales strength of Lee’s "Mañana," and Victor Young, Jay Livingston and Ray Evans' "Golden Earrings," Billboard named her the "Nation’s Number One Vocalist."

By 1950, the Barbour’s marriage was almost over; one of their last performances together was captured in a Lee cameo in Crosby’s film, Mr. Music, Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen's "Life Is So Peculiar" (Barbour is barely visible on the left side of the screen). They divorced in 1951. In a 1974 National Enquirer interview, Lee said, "I loved him dearly but eventually we began to come up against the problem of my career. You see, it is always very difficult for a man to be married to a career girl. She’s the one who gets all the attention." In addition to Barbour, Lee married and divorced actors Brad Dexter and Dewey Martin and percussionist Jack Del Rio. Of these three later marriages, Lee said, "Each one could have been annulled. They were like costume parties."

Along with performing live and on television throughout the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, and writing and recording hit singles, Lee began writing for motion pictures —most famously, six songs for Disney’s Lady and the Tramp (1955). Her foray into movies included acting, with roles in The Jazz Singer (1953) and Pete Kelly’s Blues (1955), for which she won an Academy Awards Best Supporting Actress nomination. The only woman to have had Top Ten hits in the 1940s, ‘50s, and ‘60s, Lee went on writing, recording, and performing well into the 1990s. For those of us not fortunate enough to have seen her perform live, it is the virtuosity of Lee's decades-long recording career that continues to define her.

In 1952, Capitol refused to let Lee record her version of Lorenz Hart and Richard Rogers’ "Lover," so she jumped from Capitol to Decca to record it; this million-selling release hit #3, and stayed on the charts for 13 weeks. At Decca, she recorded the first of her many concept albums, Black Coffee, released as a 10-inch in 1953, then expanded to the 12-inch format in 1956 with the addition of four more songs. This innovative album evoked the atmosphere of a late night jazz club; set amidst the cool jazz stylings of trumpeter Pete Candoli and pianist Jimmy Rowles, Lee’s vocals evidenced a mastery of rhythm and phrasing, while demonstrating a wide emotional range. In the CD’s liner notes, jazz critic Will Friedwald wrote, "Black Coffee may not only be the greatest album of her career, it is one of the top ten jazz vocal albums of all time."

Sea Shells, recorded in 1955 and released in 1958, is notable for being the 1950’s version of a new age album. Ten years previously, Lee had found spiritual sustenance in Ernest Holmes’ "Science of Mind," a Christian-based set of beliefs that combined metaphysics, positive thinking, the law of attraction, creative visualization, and personal responsibilty. She would practice this form of spirituality for the rest of her life. On her next album, Dream Street (1957), arranged by Sy Oliver, Lee explored various musical styles in addition to jazz, such as pop, blues, and ballads, explaining, "I picked tunes I really wanted to do for a long time." The LP’s overall mood is one of dark elegance; outstanding tracks include Johnny Burke and Bob Haggart’s "What’s New?" and Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg’s "Last Night When We Were Young."

When Lee’s contract with Decca expired in 1957, Frank Sinatra, Capitol’s reigning artist, allegedly told the label’s president to "get Peggy back." Her first album after her return was The Man I Love (1957), a collection of lush, romantic ballads arranged by Nelson Riddle and conducted by Sinatra. Lee’s close friendship with Sinatra began when they both played at the Paramount Theater in New York in 1941; it would continue until his death in 1998. "There have been very few men in our business," wrote Lee, "who have effected me so deeply..." About Lee, Sinatra said, "Her wonderful talent should be studied by all vocalists; her regal presence is pure elegance and charm." One of Lee’s favorite songs stands at the apex of this album’s song cycle: Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern’s luxuriant, dreamy "The Folks Who Live on the Hill."

In 1958, Lee recorded Jump For Joy and promoted it in an extravagant and upbeat production at the Macambo in Los Angeles. During this engagement, she premiered a steamy version of Eddie Cooley and Otis Blackwell’s "Fever" (additional lyrics by Lee, with a little help from lyricist Sid Kuller). Released as a single, "Fever" became one of Lee's most popular songs, peaking at #8 on the Billboard charts. According to bassist Max Bennett, Jack Marshall’s Grammy-winning charts were "rearranged by Peggy and the musicians" in the song’s recording sessions. Also recorded and released at this time, Things Are Swingin’ (1958) was a remarkably smooth and timely album. Biographer Richmond wrote, "Even for listeners grown accustomed to her pitch, her time, her tone, her edges of velvet… her voice on Swingin’ is extraordinary."

Fresh from her third divorce, Lee told friends, "Instead of a wedding veil maybe I should have worn a crash helmet." Somewhat ironically, amid allegations of "grievous mental suffering" and allusions to physical violence, Lee went back to the studio to record I Like Men! in late 1958, Jack Marshall arranging and conducting. Songs on this album ran the emotional gamut from elation to heartbreak; highlights include Lee’s own title track, and Herbert Baker’s "I Love to Love."Beauty and the Beat! (1959), with the George Shearing Quintet, was recorded "live" at the infamous disc jockey convention in Miami Beach. Technical difficulties reportedly occurred at the venue, so questions remain as to whether this is a live or studio album; it is most likely a combination of both. No matter, this is a gem of an album.

The first of four LPs released in 1960, Latin Ala Lee!, a Latin and Afro-Cuban themed collection of Broadway tunes arranged and conducted by Jack Marshall, remained for 59 weeks on Billboard’s Best-Selling Pop LPs chart, peaking at #11. Marvin Schwartz, working from a concept Lee proposed to Capitol’s art department, won 1960's Best Album Cover Grammy. Of her next album’s arranger, Billy May, Lee said to Will Friedwald, "If I had to pick someone for a desert island arranger it would be Billy, because he can write every style for brass or strings or for large or for small, and he writes with such humor as well as beauty." Pretty Eyes highlights include Jerry Bock, Larry Holofcener and George David Weiss' "Too Close for Comfort" and Bart Howard’s "In Other Words." The latter song, better known as "Fly Me to the Moon," was so re-titled by Lee.

In 1960 Lee released All Aglow Again!, an album of hit singles from the two previous years (including "Fever"), never-released tracks from a 1952 session, and Lee's most popular hit single of the 1940s, "Mañana.” Ole Ala Lee!, Joe Harnell arranging, was released in 1961. Some of Lee’s most electrifying performances were at NYC’s Basin Street East, where she returned in 1961 for her third engagement. "This is the house that Benny built and Peggy made," said owner Ralph Watkins. Here she made a career-defining album, Basin Street East Proudly Presents Miss Peggy Lee; this LP, recorded live with studio overdubs, spent 22 weeks on the Billboard charts and garnered Lee's fourth Grammy nomination. One true and complete live performance, Peggy At Basin Street East, was issued in 2002. It captures a moment in time like few other albums do.

Lee made two concept albums with trumpeter, conductor, and arranger Quincy Jones; they met while working together during her 1961 Basin Street East engagement. The first of their studio albums was If You Go (1961), a lushly orchestrated collection of ballads about love and loss. The second, Blues Cross Country (1962) was a swinging, brass-heavy musical trip across America; two album highlights, among several songs they co-wrote, are "New York City Blues" and "San Francisco Blues." Lee and Jones were also linked romantically. Writes biographer Richmond, "For Peggy, Quincy was compatible. He had a mind as well as a talent, and a spirit. Like Peggy, ‘Q’ was a jazz artist, but also pragmatic and practical… He was also handsome—and risk free." To the point, Jones recalled, "We loved each other."

While in New York for a 1962 engagement at Basin Street East, Lee recorded another killer signature song, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller’s "I’m a Woman," marking the beginning of a most consequential relationship with the songwriters. Her next two nuanced and sophisticated albums, the last completely jazz-oriented albums of her career, Sugar ‘N’ Spice (1962) and Mink Jazz (1963), were arranged and conducted by Benny Carter. There are too many great tracks on these albums to name; stand-outs include Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh’s "The Best is Yet to Come," Ma Rainey’s "See See Rider," Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler’s "I’ve Got the World on a String" and "As Long As I Live," John Rox’s "It’s a Big Wide Wonderful World," Marvin Fisher and Joseph McCarthy’s "Cloudy Morning," and Lee’s own "Where Can I Go Without You?."

After the Beatles landed in New York in 1964, the British Invasion swept the American charts. From 1964 to 1967, Lee released multiple studio albums, and had nine songs on the adult contemporary charts, but times were changing, and the record buying public was now half her age. It’s a shame that most missed the amazingly pure, gorgeous, twelve-bar blues track on Big $pender (1966), Walter Spriggs’ "You Don’t Know." About Lee's delivery, Richmond wrote, "the lady’s soul was still in place, and it didn’t surface nearly enough in the rest of her ‘adult’ fare." Another noteworthy song released during this time was one of the first interpretations of Antônio Carlos Jobim’s bossa nova classic, "How Insensitive." The compilation album, Extra Special! (1967), included a sly, exuberant song she co-wrote with Duke Ellington, “I’m Gonna Go Fishin’.”

With lyrics based on the Thomas Mann short story, "Disillusionment," and music inspired by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, Leiber and Stoller's "Is That All There Is?" was, in 1969, an odd song in search of a singer. Performed in 1967 by Georgia Brown, and in 1968 by Lesie Uggams, then offered to and rejected by Marlene Dietrich and Barbra Streisand, it eventually found it’s way to Lee. Her reaction was swift: "I will kill you if you give this song to anyone but me,” she told the songwriters. “This is my song. This is the story of my life." Like so many songs in Lee’s career, it was recorded and released over the objections of record executives. Once again, Lee prevailed; "Is That All There Is?" ruled the charts in late 1969, hitting #1, winning a Grammy nomination for Best Record of the Year, and, 30 years later, an induction into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

In a 1995 Pulse article, jazz critic Will Friedwald outlined the brilliance of Peggy Lee: "Tin Pan Alley was a starting point for Lee, rather than a final destination. Establishing her identity with the true blues… she moved on to Latin rhythms... long before examples from that genre were accepted in the musical mainstream. She championed ‘uncommercial’ composers... and ventured as far from convention... An early believer in tradition- and culture-spanning, Lee has tested the boundaries of pop and expanded the vocabulary of jazz when and wherever she’s performed. Lee developed her material and accompaniments to frame her intimate whisper that’s all smoke and pixie dust. She’s a rarity, a jazz singer capable of communicating vulnerability even when she’s ripping through an uproariously fast-tempo… Typically, Lee commands something more than detached listening from her audiences; she draws them into an emotional involvement. Her personality is both sublimely surreal and super real in its honesty. She swings like nobody’s business, and no one’s better than she with torch songs. Yet Lee is at her best in a genre she virtually invented: the song of seduction. In such numbers as "Fever," with its undulating underpinning of bass and finger snaps, and Lieber and Stoller’s "I’m a Woman," Lee sold flat-out eroticism long before the ‘60s sexual revolution."

Doris Day: With a Smile and a Song

Sally Speller, Supervising Librarian, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL) — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 17:07:13 -0400

Image: Wikimedia Commons

To all appearances, Doris Day (1922-2019), America’s original "girl next door," moved easily from one success to the next. There might be some truth to this, but the full picture only emerges when you add Day's curiosity, discipline and conscientiousness to the mix.

As a child, her talent, hard work, and dedication to dance won her fame in her hometown. While still a teenager, she sang with the best big bands in the country, recording hit after hit. After going solo, her voice was broadcast coast to coast, and she sang on the most popular radio shows of the era before hosting a show of her own. Her recording career, in which she demonstrated an effortless mastery of big band, pop, show tunes, jazz, and ballads, lasted more than two decades. In Hollywood, she landed the first film role for which she auditioned, and, immediately thereafter, signed a contract with Warner Bros. Studios. She went on to become a movie star. In the late 1960s/early '70s, she had a successful television sitcom, and, after her retirement from the entertainment industry, founded several non-profits dedicated to animal welfare. In 2004, she was awarded the United States' highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom, for her work as an animal rights activist. Day said, to biographer A.E. Hotchner in Doris Day: Her Own Story, “I have never had any doubts in my ability in anything I have ever undertaken… Dancing, singing, acting—the demand seems to create a rise in me that satisfies it. It is not a conscious effort. It is not anything I have control over. It is automatic and natural and as reliable as my breathing.”

Day was born Doris Mary Ann von Kappelhoff in Cincinnati, Ohio, to first generation German-American parents. Recalling the day her father left her childhood home, she told Hotchner, “...my big dream as a girl [was] that my parents would have a happy marriage and that I would someday have a happy marriage too. It was the only real ambition I ever had—not to be a dancer or Hollywood movie star, but to be a housewife in a good marriage.” About her wholesome image, Day said, “At ten years of age I discovered that my father was having an affair with the mother of my best friend. Divorce followed. At thirteen, I was in an auto that was hit by a train, and that abruptly ended my promising career as a dancer... I was married at seventeen to a psychopathic sadist. When my third husband died, a man I had been married to for seventeen years, I discovered that not only had he secretly contrived to wipe out the millions I had earned, but he left me with a debt of a half-million dollars. My reward for a lifetime of hard work. Yes, sir, America’s la-di-da happy virgin!” Three out of Day's four marriages ended in divorce.

Kappelhoff began dancing while in kindergarten. She took lessons at several schools in the Cincinnati area during her childhood, and, in her early teens, was part of the locally famous dancing duo Doris and Jerry (Doherty). After spending a summer performing in and around Hollywood with the famed Fanchon & Marco troupe, the duo’s mothers decided to relocate there. Just before they were to leave, on Friday October 13th, 1937, a car in which Kappelhoff was riding was struck by a train, crushing her right leg. This injury put an end to her dreams of becoming a professional dancer. While at home recovering, living with her mother above her uncle’s bar, she began singing along with the radio, and to the jukebox downstairs, emulating her idol Ella Fitzgerald’s clear-as-a-bell enunciation and tone. Her ever-encouraging mother hired a vocal coach, Grace Raine, who, astounded by Kappelhoff’s perfect pitch, clear diction, and seamless modulations from key to key, gave her three lessons a week for the price of one. Raine, said Day, "taught me the importance of singing the lyrics correctly. 'When you sing the words to this song,' she'd say... 'imagine that you're singing to one person, just one, a very special person, and that you're singing it in that someone's ear.'”

Pillow Talk movie poster. Image: Wikimedia Commons

At age 15, Kappelhoff found professional jobs as a vocalist through her connection to Raine, first on Cincinnati’s WLW radio program Carlin's Carnival, and then in a local restaurant, Charlie Yee's Shanghai Inn. In 1939, her radio performances caught the ear of Barney Rapp, and she began working for him in his Cincinnati club, The Sign of the Drum. Told by Rapp that "Kappelhoff" was too long for marquees, she adopted the surname "Day" from the song "Day After Day.” Of her new name, Day told Hotchner, “I never did like it. Still don’t. I think it’s a phony name.” (Over the years, friends and colleagues gave her other names: the one that stuck, Clara Bixby, was given her by actor Billy De Wolfe. Rock Hudson called her Eunice and she called him Ernie, and Gordon MacRae called her Do-Do.) It was at Rapp’s club that she met her first husband Al Jorden, a trombonist whom Day called “one of the best musicians in the band”. With the exception of the birth of son Terry, this marriage was a catastrophe; Jorden was a violent, jealous, and physically abusive man. They would marry in 1941 and divorce two years later.

Les Brown and Doris Day. Image: Library of Congress

In the spring of 1940, Bob Crosby (brother of Bing) hired Day as singer for his world class swing band, which was voted the third best in the country, after Benny Goodman’s and Glenn Miller’s. They toured the United States extensively, and that summer, at a date at The Strand in New York City, she was spotted and hired by Les Brown. Day made her first recordings with Brown that year. Although many urged her not to, she took a two-year absence in 1941 to marry Jorden; during these years she gave birth to a son, and sang as a staff singer on Cincinnati’s WLW, which broadcast nationwide. By 1943, in the midst of World War II, Day was once again touring, and performing at military hospitals and for war bond drives. Recording a total of 42 songs with Les Brown and His Band of Renown, she released her first number one hit, Ben Homer, Bud Green, and Brown’s "Sentimental Journey" in early 1945. Recalling the song in the documentary Doris Day: A Sentimental Journey, Day said, “Just thinking about it makes me cry. The servicemen… That song said so much.”She had six other top-ten hits with Brown in 1945 and '46, including Vic Mizzy and Manny Curtis’ "My Dreams Are Getting Better All The Time."

Day went solo in 1947, signing a recording contract with Columbia Records. Her concurrent radio work with Frank Sinatra on Your Hit Parade led to divorce from second husband, saxophonist George Weidler, who did not want to be known as Mr. Doris Day. From 1948 to 1950, she appeared weekly on Bob Hope’s Hollywood-based radio program, doing two nationwide tours with Hope in 1949. The Doris Day Radio Show premiered on CBS in 1952, and ran for a little over a year.

A tearful, post-divorce performance at a Hollywood party of George and Ira Gerswin’s "Embraceable You" impressed songwriters Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn, who recommended Day for a role in Romance on the High Seas (1948); after a successful audition, she was cast by director Michael Curtiz. Her popularity in films, a box office reign that ran from about 1955 to 1965, would drive her success as a recording artist. From 1948 to 1956, Columbia released singles and albums of songs featured in her movies, albeit different versions—for contractual reasons—than recorded in the Warner Bros. films. An early example, Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn’s “It’s Magic,” from Romance on the High Seas hit number two on the Billboard charts in 1948. From 1950-1952, Day had four Top 5 movie albums, three of which charted at number one, and more than a dozen charted singles. One of these albums, Young Man With a Horn, released in 1950, paired Day with trumpeter Harry James. Another album released concurrently with the movie in 1950, Tea for Two, illustrated Day’s aptitude for showtunes, and included Vincent Youmans and Irving Caesar’s “I Want to Be Happy.”

Day and Marty Melcher. Image: Wikimedia Commons

Day married third husband, agent Marty Melcher, in 1951. In what seemed like a good idea at the time, she left control of her finances to him. After Melcher’s death in 1968, she found that Melcher and his lawyer Jerome Rosenthal had lost all of her money, an estimated $22 million, and she was now $500,000 in debt. In 1974, Day, in a lawsuit against Rosenthal, was awarded $22.8 million—the largest amount ever awarded in a California civil suit up to that time. Rosenthal was disbarred in 1987.

Day had many signature songs over the long course of her career. Sammy Fail and Paul Francis Webster's “Secret Love,” from the album Calamity Jane hit number one in 1954. Day’s most famous song, Jay Livingston and Ray Evans’ “Que Sera, Sera” was introduced in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie The Man Who Knew Too Much; it received the 1956 Academy Award for Best Original Song. (And, from 1968 to 1973, it was the theme song for her television series, The Doris Day Show.) “Everybody Loves a Lover,” by Richard Adler and Robert Allen, was a hit single in 1958. Also worth a mention is “Move Over Darling,” a song written in 1963 for the film by Day’s son Terry Melcher, along with Hal Kanter and Joe Lubin.

Despite Day’s numerous successful hit singles and movie-themed albums, the excellence of her musical legacy is ultimately to be found in her concept albums, most of which she made with Columbia Records, beginning in 1956 (Day By Day) and ending in 1967 (The Love Album). A match was made in musical heaven when arranger/composer Paul Weston stepped in on the first two, Day By Day and Day By Night (1957), employing some of the best big band musicians around. Weston had previously worked as musical director at Capitol Records, developing the “mood music” genre, and arranging and conducting for wife Jo Stafford. Day, Weston recalled, “was a very expressive singer. She could take a lyric, and to some extent act it out, while never losing sight of the musical part.”

Frank DeVol, with his big band background, was the best arranger of Day’s up-tempo songs during this time, as evidenced by her next two albums, Hooray for Hollywood (1958) and Cuttin’ Capers (1959). The latter perfectly reflects the optimistic mood of post-war America, in feel-good songs like Ray Henderson, Sam M. Lewis, and Joe Young’s “I'm Sittin’ On Top of the World,” and Harold Arlen, Ira Gershwin, and Edgar Yipsel Harburg’s joyous “Let’s Take a Walk Around the Block.” Tom Santopietro, in Considering Doris Day, explained, "Americans believed that they were sitting on top of the world, heading to the promised land of the 'nice' wide open suburbs, and generally living in the best place on the planet. Doris Day expressed that unbounded self-sufficiency and optimism..."

The overall theme of What Every Girl Should Know (1960), arranged and conducted by Harry Zimmerman, places Day's image firmly in the Greatest Generation camp of romance, and is similar in concept to Peggy Lee's The Man I Love (1957); whether or not she believed in them, the sentiments expressed on this album were responsible, along with the rise of rock and roll, for the Baby Boomers’ rejection of Day later in the decade. Nonetheless, the album has wonderful renditions of Duke Ellington, Irving Mills and Barney Bigard’s “Mood Indigo,” and Jo Trent and Louis Alter’s “My Kinda Love.” Day's next album, Show Time (1960), arranged and conducted by Axel Stordahl, is a stunning example of her flair for Broadway show tunes.

Bright and Shiny (1961), conducted by Neal Hefti, features a relaxed-sounding Day in a jazz-oriented, vibes-heavy setting. The opening progression of songs, from Robert and Richard Sherman’s bouncy “Bright and Shiny,” to a midtempo performance of Youmans and Caesar’s “I Want to Be Happy,” through Lou Singer’s cynical “Keep Smilin’, Keep Laughin’, Be Happy” creates a mood of weary sophistication. This is quite a new effect for Day, albeit one that is expertly acheived, and then resolved, by a sincere, heartfelt rendition of Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green’s “Make Someone Happy.” On her next album, Day is expertly backed by Jim Harbert's Orchestra; I Have Dreamed (1961) is a collection of charmingly crafted pop songs devoted to dreams and desire.

Duet (1962), with Andre Previn, is a spare album that contains some of the jazziest arrangements of Day's career. Here, she is accompanied by Previn on piano, Red Mitchell/Joe Mondragon on bass, and Frank Capp/Larry Bunker on drums. Bernice Petkere’s “Close Your Eyes” is a revelation (and one of my favorite Day recordings), as is Previn’s full-out “Control Yourself." Day explored religious themes on her next album, You’ll Never Walk Alone (1962), Jim Harbert conducting. She noted, “My favorite things are hymns. I enjoyed singing hymns more than anything.” Day, born Catholic, belonged to the Christian Science Church for nearly two decades before leaving to practice a more personal form of spirituality.

Love Him (1963), was produced by son Terry Melcher, with lush orchestral arrangements by conductor Tommy Oliver. This is Day’s most contemporary sounding album and a perfect example of early ‘60s popular music. Highlights include Buddy Johnson’s “Since I Fell For You” and Riz Ortolani, Nino Oliviero and Norman Newell’s “More.” With a Smile and a Song (1964), arranged/conducted by Allyn Ferguson with Jimmy Joyce and his Children’s Chorus, consists of sunny, optimistic songs that closely mirrored Day's wholesome image. Leigh Harline and Frank Churchill’s, “With a Smile and a Song,” was featured in Walt Disney’s animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and in the stage adaptation of the movie.

About Day’s Latin for Lovers (1965), Santopietro wrote, “it is worth noting that she was here exploring Latin music three years before Sinatra’s seminal recording [with Antonio Carlos Jobim] and thirty years before Rosemary Clooney’s Brazil album.” Arranged/conducted by Mort Garson, this album features a softly rhythmic, sensual type of music for which Day’s voice was uniquely suited. One of her favorite albums, it remains as relevant today as when it was released 55 years ago. Every song on this album is worth a listen (or two). Garson worked again with Day on Doris Day’s Sentimental Journey (1965), putting a contemporary spin on her big band legacy. As rock and roll began sweeping the charts, these selections paid a fitting tribute to The Great American Songbook. This was Day’s final album with Columbia Records.

The Love Album (1967), arranged and conducted by Sid Feller, was the first independently produced album of Day's career. These lush, intimate ballads, all chosen by Day herself and sung at an extremely slow tempo, were recorded in 1967, shelved, and forgotten about until rediscovered and released in 1994. Speculation has put the blame for this 27 year delay on the death of husband Marty Melcher, and its subsequent fallout, a few months after the album’s completion. Many of the tracks on Day’s final album, My Heart (2011), were recorded in the mid-1980s as background for her television show about animal care and advocacy, Doris Day’s Best Friends. She dedicated the album to her son, Terry, who died of melanoma in 2004, and to her favorite “four-leggers.”Day summed up the work to which she would devote the rest of her life this way: “I love people and animals—though not necessarily in that order. I’ve never met an animal I didn’t like, and I can’t say the same thing about people." And, "I'm all about the 'four-leggers.'” Of the extraordinary Doris Day, jazz expert Will Friedwald wrote, "no one ever sang this music that we call the Great American Songbook with greater purity and more heart."

June Christy: The Cool School

Sally Speller, Supervising Librarian, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL) — Thu, 20 Aug 2020 10:18:13 -0400

Image: Library of Congress

June Christy (1925-1990) was one of many female vocalists, like Peggy Lee and Doris Day, who emerged from the rigors of the Big Band era of the 1930s and ‘40s to become major recording artists in their own right. Today, Christy is best known as an innovator in the Cool Jazz genre of the 1950s; her voice—a smoky, slow vibrato, originating deep in the chest—will forever be an important part of The Great American Songbook.

What makes biography compelling are revelations of the subject’s emotional life, relationships, motivations, thoughts, and opinions. These insights give shape and substance to a life story. All we have, with regard to Christy, are some impressions given by contemporaries, most of whom are now gone, the facts of her career, and the body of work she left behind.

Her nephew, Scott Luster, wrote, "June was well versed in religion and philosophy… She read extensively on Eastern religions. Her attitudes were at least somewhat shaped by Buddhist teachings." He went on to address the lack of personal information available to June Christy fans: "This was the result of my aunt’s basically resolute desire to avoid publicity, and from about 1968 onward, to avoid work except when she wanted to buy something… She was largely unimpressed with her work. She thought she was recording ‘standards to be’ at the time she recorded them and then watched the business turn away from jazz to rock and roll... June is enigmatic to many of us. She cared little for fame, but liked to live well. Didn’t take herself very seriously, but chose songs to record with the same level of care one would take when selecting the name for a child… She was one of those personalities that changes the dynamics of a room just by walking into it. She exuded class and elegance."

May Diggs, a family friend of 30 years, shared a few more details: June was a "great down-home cook, fiercely loyal, and absolutely intolerant of intolerance… a very talented painter… a self-described ‘homebody’… She loved her Siamese (usually two or three at a time) cats… She was happiest just sitting on the floor by the fireside and talking (always with some cool jazz in the background), or working a jigzaw puzzle, or reading (She was an avid reader.), or watching old movies on TV (these were pre-VCR days)—Roz Russell's ‘Auntie Mame’ was a favorite—as she waited for Coop to get home. He played for many years with The Tonight Show band on Johnny Carson's show…. She never appreciated how great a vocalist she was."

Born Shirley Luster, she began her career at age 13, in Decatur Illinois, singing and touring with Bill Oetzel’s, Ben Bradley’s, Bill Madden’s, and Dick Cisne’s society bands. After high school she changed her name to Sharon Leslie, moved to Chicago, and sang with a group led by Boyd Raeburn, then with Benny Strong’s band. When they moved to New York in 1944, she was quarantined with scarlet fever, and, heartbroken, had to return home. On March 22, 1945, she stepped into Anita O’Day’s newly vacant spot as lead vocalist for the Stan Kenton Orchestra; Kenton came to Illinois himself to reassure her mother that he would take good care of her. She changed her name one last time, to June Christy. The rest, as they say, is history.

Christy’s first recording with Stan Kenton was "Tampico;" the song hit #3 on the Billboard charts and was Kenton’s biggest-selling record. Other hits included "Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy," "I'm Gonna Love That Guy" and "It’s Been a Long Long Time." She was named Down Beat Magazine’s Best Female vocalist with a Big Band in 1946, ‘47, ‘48 and ‘50. Kenton’s orchestra did not work in late 1948 and ‘49; during this time, Christy took night club engagements, and recorded a solo album for Capitol Records with her husband, Kenton tenor saxophonist Bob Cooper. She reunited with Kenton and his Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra in 1950. While working with Kenton, she met jazz composer, arranger, and producer Pete Rugolo, who was to prove vital to her later solo success.

Wrote jazz expert Will Friedwald, "Up until that time, few modern jazz arrangers had written anything for singers... Christy-Rugolo recordings amount to the first full-scale explorations of possibilities for the human voice in this modern world." Christy’s work with Rugolo produced the iconic solo albums that propelled her to even greater popular acclaim.

Something Cool (Capitol, 1955)

This, Christy’s most famous album, and the only one she felt completely satisfied with, launched the cool jazz vocal movement. The title track, by Bill Barnes, became Christy’s signature song. First released in 1954, in 10” mono, Capitol Records realized that this format was soon likely to be eclipsed by the 12”, so in 1955, sent Christy back into the studio to cut four more tracks. The feeling of the original release was one of melancholy; the addition of four up-tempo tracks created a richer and far more nuanced overall effect. In 1960, Christy and Rugolo re-recorded all 11 songs, and released the album in stereo. Both the 1955 mono and 1960 stereo versions are available today. (I prefer the mono version.) In no sense is this an album of "standards"; each song tells a story. It is worth noting that "Lonely House" is an aria from Kurt Weill’s Street Scene, with haunting lyrics by Langston Hughes.

The Misty Miss Christy (Capitol, 1956)

It was disc jockey and Christy fan Daddy-O Daylie who coined the term "The Misty Miss Christy" on his Chicago-based radio show. The follow-up to Something Cool, this album exhibits a wealth of subtle and sophisticated orchestral charts. Christy's moody version of "Round Midnight" is the second recording of Thelonious Monk’s tune with Bernie Hanighen's lyrics. (The first was Teddi King accompanied by Beryl Booker in 1953.) Already an instrumental standard, Christy's rendition launched it firmly into classic torch song territory. Jerry Gladstone added lyrics to Russ Freeman’s somber "The Wind" (originally recorded as an instrumental by Chet Baker in 1953) just in time for Christy to premiere them here.

June—Fair and Warmer! (Capitol, 1957)

The liner notes on Christy’s third venture with Rugolo describe the "light-hearted warmth" and "innate radiance" of her voice. This could be viewed as a not entirely successful attempt to counter the melancholy image Christy created over the course of her first two albums. She sang as both a dramaticist and a musician, her ballads set within dream-like arrangements, her up-tempo pieces smart and swinging. Here, she perks up Irving Berlin’s "Better Luck Next Time" and Frank Loesser’s "I’ve Never Been In Love Before," but is at her best and most honest when she allows her innate wistfulness to shine through on ballads such as Jack Segal and Marvin Fisher’s "When Sunny Gets Blue" and Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen’s "Imagination."

Gone for the Day (Capitol, 1957)

A selection of nature-themed songs released six months after Fair and Warmer!, this was Rugolo’s favorite of his albums with Christy. Here, he supports her with a full string section, a trombone quintet, woodwinds, vibes, and a superb rhythm section of piano, bass, guitar, and drums. Many of the songs on this album were obscure, like "It’s So Peaceful in the Country," an Alec Wilder song that was last recorded by Mildred Bailey, and then Bob Chester and his Orchestra in 1941, and Rugolo’s tune "Interlude," which began as an instrumental break in Kenton’s performances ten years earlier. Christy always wanted to sing it, so Bob Russell wrote lyrics just for this album. The lush "Lazy Afternoon" by John LaTouche and Jerome Moross evokes a feeling of summer like no other song I am aware of.

This Is June Christy! (Capitol, 1958)

The opening song, Frank Daniels and Dorothy Daniels’ "My Heart Belongs to Only You," sets the tone and style of this album firmly in the late 1950s. Both Christy and Bette McLaurin recorded bestselling versions of this song six years earlier; the most famous was Bobby Vinton’s 1964 release. Up-tempo songs such as Mildred Kirham’s "Great Scot" and Sholom Secunda, Sammy Cahn and Saul Chaplin’s "Bei Mir Bist Du Schon" demonstrate a new maturity and greater range, and here Christy is successful where she had, on previous albums, been mostly tentative. The liner notes state, "Rugolo should take a bow for the swing and ballad arrangements backing June… [He] takes most of the tunes at dance tempo, but his orchestrations break away from the ‘dance band sound’... The result: a free swinging impetus that never lets down."

Recalls Those Kenton Days (Capitol, 1959)

Of these re-interpretations of her greatest hits with The Stan Kenton Orchestra, Christy said that she and Rugolo tried "to be faithful to the spirit of the original while being true to what we all feel and do and like today. It’s a tribute to Stan’s early arrangements that so many of the original ideas in his scores could be retained… This has been absorbing as well as sentimental for all concerned. The originals were, and still are, all top efforts, and it was a real challenge to try to re-do such well-established concepts. I think we succeeded in doing right by them." If ever a perfect song existed for her tone and styling, it was Ann Ronell’s poignant "Willow Weep for Me," a lament written in 1932, first notably recorded by Christy and Kenton in 1946.

The Song is June! (Capitol, 1959)

This, the penultimate Christy-Rugolo album, is a mixture of lush, dreamy ballads and swinging, up-tempo tracks; here Christy is mostly backed by strings and occasional woodwinds. Throughout their long collaboration, Rugolo enjoyed crafting "tone poems" for Christy, and two here stand out: Connie Pearce and Arnold Miller’s moody "Night Time Was My Mother" and the hypnotic, melancholy "Saturday's Children" by Andre Previn and Bob Russell. The string work on this album was especially good because, as Rugolo explained, "I used all the best guys in the string sections. You’d go in to the session and you’d see ten concertmasters! They all... made more money than in the symphonies. So you’d see the first violinist from the Los Angeles symphony, and the people that used to play with Toscanini..."

Off Beat (Capitol, 1960)

This, Christy and Rugolo's final collaboration, is a quirky, non-commercial album of "off beat" songs. Most interesting is the exploration of tempo change in Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer’s "Out of This World" and on the title track, "Off Beat" by Leon Pober. Of Christy and Rugolo’s joint ventures, Friedwald wrote, "Over the 15 years of their association, singer and orchestrator grew into each other. The background breathes when she breathes, rests when she rests, and they hit every exquisite dynamic and sustain every dotted note together… As in the Ellington universe (a key influence on Rugolo), foreground and background blend into and out of each other, like water and sky on the horizon."