Scandalous Women

Scandalous Movie Review: A Dangerous Method

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:05:00 +0000

A Dangerous Method (2011)

Directed by David Cronenberg
Produced by Jeremy Thomas
Screenplay by Christopher Hampton Based on his play The Talking Cure (which was based on A Most Dangerous Method: the story of Jung, Freud and Sabina Spielrein by John Kerr published in 1993)

Distributed by Universal/Lionsgate/Sony Pictures Classics

Cast:

Viggo Mortensen as Sigmund Freud
Michael Fassbender as Carl Jung
Keira Knightley as Sabina Spielrein
Vincent Cassel as Otto Gross
Sarah Gadon as Emma Jung
André Hennicke as Eugen Bleuler

My thoughts: I saw this film over a week ago at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, a small art house theatre here in New York, on Martin Luther King day. Instead of writing my review immediately, I decided to let the movie simmer awhile. I'd also been going through some personal stuff which took my focus away from writing for a bit. I have to admit that my views on the film are somewhat colored by the fact that I have always leaned more towards Jung's theories than Freud's, ever since I first read about the two men in my high school psychology class.

A Dangerous Method is based on the turbulent relationships between Carl Jung, founder of analytical psychology, and Sigmund Freud considered to be the founder of the discipline of psychoanalysis, and a young patient of Jung's, Sabina Spielrein who later became a physician and one of the first female psychoanalysts. The film starts in 1904 where Jung is working at the Burgholzi Hospital in Switzerland. A young Russian woman, Sabina Spielrein, arrives as a new patient. She seems to be suffering from hysteria, which was one of those all-purpose diagnoses at the time. Contorting her body in impossible positions as she were being hit by hot poker, Spielrien's condition turns out be a great deal more complex than anyone realized. Employing Freud's controversial 'talking cure,' Jung soon discovers what has her knickers in a twist as it were. Soon Sabina becomes much more than a patient, she begins assisting Jung with his treatments as well as attending medical school. Before long the two have become lovers, beginning what would become a pattern in Jung's life. At the same time, Jung has struck a correspondance with Freud, sharing details of his work with Spielrien. The two men eventually meet, and Freud takes the young psychoanalyst under his wing, believing that Jung could be the future of psychoanalysis. But their friendship soon founders as Jung begins to move away from Freud's theories, developing his own unorthodox methods. Spielrien is caught in the middle between these two powerhouse men as she struggles to find her way in a male-dominated field.

While I found the subject of the film endlessly fascinating, I also found watching this film incredibly frustrating. My frustrations stem mainly from the treatment of the women in the film. For example, in the film, Emma Jung is portrayed as the dutiful little wifey, rather bland, whose sole function is to have babies and to provide a large fortune for Jung. There is no mention in the film that Emma Jung was a psychoanalyst in her own right, that she wrote books, or that she carried on her own correspondance with Freud, nor that at one point, Jung was treating his own wife! As for Spielrein, apparently sleeping with Jung, was enough to cure her and send her on her merry way to medical school. I would have liked the film to have delved deeper into what drew Jung to Sabina, besides her being an interesting test case for him. Was it her intelligence? The kinkiness of their relationship? Little is made of Freud's own relationship Spielrein or how her own work eventualy informed both Freud and Jung's, particularly the death instinct. It's just sort of mentioned and brushed aside. There is one telling moment, when Freud suggests that Spielrien forget Jung and find a nice Jewish husband.

The film is on surer footing when it focuses on the relationship between Freud and Jung, and the tensions that ultimately led to its demise. The relationship between Freud and Jung is initially that of mentor and disciple. Freud hopes that Jung would eventually lead the psychoanalytic movement, proving that it was more than just a Jewish 'science' and into the mainstream. But Jung goes rogue, dabbling in astrology and spiritualism, and developing his own theories which began to conflict with Freud's. One of those tensions was Jung's relationship with Sabina, and how Jung basically lied to Freud about it, claiming that Sabina was lying when she said they were lovers, to the point of saying that she was suffering from delusions. Nice guy! The unraveling of their bromance, and not the triangle between Freud, Jung, and Spielrein, is the most compelling aspect of the film.

That both Michael Fassbender (as Jung) and Viggo Mortenson (as Freud) give stellar performances is a given. Fassbender starts of the film as this sort of uptight figure, clearly the son of a Presbyterian minister, who slowly starts to indulge his appetites. There is a telling scene when he visits Freud at his home for dinner. As they talk, Jung keeps piling more and more food on his plate, as the Freud's look on horrified, wondering if there is going to be anything left for them to eat! Mortenson is almost unrecognizable as Freud, his face obscured by the constant cloud of cigar smoke. However I found myself most impressed by Keira Knightley's performance as Sabina. On the surface, the role doesn't seem to be a natural fit. Knightley is generally cast in films where she gets to look beautiful and wear great costumes, as an unobtainable object of desire, but as Sabina she had to convincingly play a woman who was afraid, tormented, and filled with guilt and disgust. In the beginning of the film, Sabina is like a wild animal, unable to be tamed until she finally admits to the secrets that she has been keeping. It is a remarkably mature and assured performance from Knightley. A shame that in came in a year when there were so many great performances by women in film. I was amazed when I read in an article that Julia Roberts was originally offered the role.

My verdict: I give the film a thumbs up for the relationship between the two giants of pyschoanalysis, and a thumbs down on the portrayal of Emma Jung.

The Scandalous Women of One Life to Live

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:31:00 +0000

Today is a particularly sad day for me, not only is it Friday the 13th, but it is brings the final episode of One Life to Live after 42 years on the air. One Life to Live was created by Agnes Nixon in 1968, and from the beginning of its run, it featured strong women who were not afraid to go after what they wanted, no matter who or what got in their way. I started watching the show in junior high, and was fascinated by the wide array of female characters from the ridiculous to the sublime. While there have been some fascinating male characters on daytime and on One Life to Live in particular (Marco Dane, Todd Manning, David Vickers), soaps have always been a more female centric medium. These ten women are just the tip of the iceberg and my personal favorites during the past 43 years.

Carla Gray – the story of Carla Gray was a ground-breaking and controversial storyline for daytime in the late 60’s, and put OLTL on the map as a soap that wasn’t afraid to be different. The audience was shocked as Carla romanced not only her boss, the much older Dr. Jim Craig, but also a black intern at Llanview Hospital. They were even more shocked to discover that Carla was not white, but the light-skinned estranged daughter of Sadie Gray, the hospital housekeeper, who was passing for white. Carla and her mother eventually reconciled but she lost both the men in her life.

Karen Wolek (played by the immensely talented Judith Light who won an Emmy for the role). Karen Wolek was initially played as a gold-digging sex kitten looking for the easy life as the wife of Dr. Larry Wolek until Judith Light took over. Suddenly Karen was a walking bundle of jagged nerves with low self-esteem and a secret life Kept on a tight budget by her fiscally conscious hubby, Karen begins to indulge in a little “afternoon delight” with some of Llanview’s wealthy businessmen to pay for the luxuries that she craved. When her former lover and con artist Marco Dane discovers her little secret, he forces her to become a “housewife/prostitute” to prevent Larry for learning the truth. The storyline came to a head when Viki Lord was on trial for Marco’s murder. Under blistering cross-examination by Herb Callison, Karen confessed to the truth of her double life, falling apart on the stand. Karen later became involved in a baby switch storyline when her sister Jenny Wolek’s baby died at birth. Karen and Marco Dane (who turned out not to be so dead after all) switched Jenny’s dead baby with the healthy baby born to Katrina Carr, a fellow prostitute.

Dorian Cramer Lord – Amoral, greedy, ambitious, careless, and a murderer (allegedly), these are just some of the adjectives that could be used to describe Dr. Dorian Cramer Lord Callison Vickers Buchanan etc. during her years in Llanview. There was nothing that Dorian wouldn’t do to get what she wanted; she even pretended to be a lesbian in order to win election as mayor of Llanview. She’s also been a doctor, a publisher, the ambassador to Mendorra, and now a U.S. Senator. While Dorian married a plethora of men, her greatest love story was with Viki Lord Buchanan. For over 30 years, Dorian waged war with her frenemy and former step-daughter Viki, fighting over men and the late, and unlamented Victor Lord. See Dorian married Victor Lord have she lost her job at Llanview Hospital (she accidentally gave a patient a lethal dose. Oops!), and managed to finagle the lion’s share of his fortune after his death. She even went so far as to seduce Viki’s youngest Joey. What viewer didn’t live for the episodes where Dorian and Viki ended up trapped in a room somewhere? While Dorian could be vindictive and conniving (and that’s just before lunch), she could also be protective and caring, particularly towards the Cramer women, three generations of women, which included not just her daughters but also her nieces and her two sisters.

Tina Lord – When Tina Clayton arrived in Llanview; she was a sweet, innocent, teenager who had just lost her mother, and had come to live with Viki Lord Riley. Within months, she had been used by Marco Dane in his vendetta against Viki, and used by her father to try and bilk money out of Viki. But Tina’s story really kicked into gear when she discovered that she was Victor Lord’s illegitimate daughter. See Victor had seduced Tina’s mom, Viki’s best friend. What a dad! During her years in Llanview, Tina often did some questionable things (not telling people that her niece Jessica was really one of her alters Tess, trying to bilk Viki out of her fortune, etc.) Tina always had a good heart. Her taste in men is another story. Through the years, she always found herself attracted to the bad boys of Llanview, everyone from Mitch Laurence, Max Holden to con artists Cain Rogen &David Vickers, but her true love was always cowboy Cord Roberts. Despite the fact that Tina married him knowing that he was Clint Buchanan’s long lost son before he did, and pretending another woman’s baby was theirs, Cord just couldn’t quit Tina. No matter how many crazy schemes she came up with, and Tina was nothing if not creative, Cord always forgave her and took her back.

Echo DiSavoy – Countess Echo DiSavoy came to town, like so many tourists do to Llanview, seeking revenge, which never works out well. Played by the talented Kim Zimmer, Echo made her mission to seduce Clint Buchanan, and then framed him for her “murder” all because she blamed him for her mother’s death. Of course, he didn’t kill her mother, it was someone else. Echo finally came forward and told the truth. But leopards never really change their spots. Echo came back years later with a secret; she and Clint had a son, Rex, who was now living in Llanview. Still a schemer, she used her alcoholism to get close to Viki’s new husband Charlie Banks (and her ex-lover) who she claimed was Rex’s father. They started a torrid affair until Charlie discovered the truth. She then tried to ruin Dorian 's to David Vickers Buchanan, getting his co-star to try and seduce him, but it didn't work.

Allison Perkins was another one of those good girls who turn bad. She was a candy striper at Llanview Hospital until she fell under the spell of evangelist Mitch Laurence and joined his cult. Mitch convinced her to kidnap Viki Lord Buchanan’s new born daughter Jessica while dressed as one of Viki’s alters Nikki Smith. Although she ultimately returned her, Allison ends up at St. Anne’s, the local mental institution. Was Allison always crazy or did Mitch just bring it out in her? Years later, she was still doing Mitch Laurence’s bidding. Claiming to be well, she was released from St. Anne’s. The 2^nd part of Mitch Laurence’s grand plan came to fruition, it turned out that Allison had switched babies all those years ago. Now Viki’s real daughter came to town to wreak havoc, helped along by Allison who pours poison in her ears about what is rightfully hers and by extension Allison. Allison was the gift that just kept on giving whether you wanted her to or not over the years. Despite being sent to prison for 20 years, she managed not only to break out Statesville twice but also St. Anne’s.

Alexandra "Alex" Olanov Wentworth Hesser Buchanan Stuart Vickers (played by Tonja Walker) – Alex Olanov came to town as the FBI agent who was trying to help Bob Buchanan find his wife Sarah Gordon who had been kidnapped by mob boss Carlo Hesser. When Sarah was presumed dead, Alex became just a little obsessed with Bo, who didn’t return her feelings. Misunderstood or charming sociopath? Hard to tell with Alex. Even when she did something good, it was for the wrong reason (Bringing back Bo’s wife Sarah on his wedding day to Cassie Callison). During Alex’s tenure in Llanview, she married Bo’s dad, Asa Buchanan (twice), became mayor of Llanview, married Carlo Hesser, was arrested for the murder of Carlo Hesser, worked as a stripper, faked having a sex addiction, and abandoned her two children as kids. Over the years, Alex schemed to get her share of the Buchanan fortune, going so far to marry David Vickers, thinking that he was Asa’s long lost son. Like a cat, Alex always seemed to land on her feet.

Blair Cramer Manning – Blair Cramer is probably the only character in soap history, who started out as Asian-American, and then ended up being replaced by a Caucasian actress. Later regimes had fun playing up that little fact. Blair Daimler as she was called came to town in 1991. Unbeknownst to everybody, she was Dorian Lord’s niece, conceived when her mother was raped while a patient in a mental institution. That would give anyone a chip on their shoulder! Blair first tried to ruin Dorian by trying to get her to sign a document confessing to the murder of Victor Lord. She changed her tune when she discovered that Dorian had thought her sister Addie, Blair’s mother, had died. Blair then decided to go after Asa Buchanan, one of the richest men in town, becoming wife number 5 or 6 but who is counting? The night before her wedding, Blair had sex with Max Holden in barn. Despite the romp, she married Asa anyway. Trying to stake a claim on the Buchanan fortune, she faked a pregnancy (this would not be the first time Blair tried this trick). When Asa had a heart attack after founding out the truth, Blair left him to die. She left town for a while and then returned, taller, blonde and with a southern accent. Blonde Blair went after town pariah Todd Manning (illegitmate son of Victor Lord, rapist, thug, terrorized Nora Buchanan), after unsuccessful romances with Max Holden and Cord Roberts, beginning one of the most dysfunctional relationships in Soap history. During their many estrangements, Blair had relationships with Patrick Thornhart, Kevin Buchanan, Sam Rappaport, John McBain and Max Holden (again). Blair’s weak spot has always been Todd Manning, despite the fact that he sold their son Jack because he was convinced he was fathered by someone else, and told Blair the baby had died. Like her Aunt Dorian, she’s always been extremely loyal to the Cramer women, defending them to death, even as they squabble amongst themselves.

Lindsay Rappaport – Lindsay was always one of my favorite Scandalous Women on OLTL. She wasn't amoral or vicious like some of the women on this list. Lindsay just wanted to be loved. Unfortunately the mean that she loved either didn't love her back, or due to her insecurities, she manipulated them by lying and scheming. For instance, telling Bo Buchanan that he was sterile after his son Drew's death, leading his wife Nora to sleep with her old beau and Lindsay's ex-husband to have sex (to give Bo a child to replace Drew). Then she manipulated the DNA test to make it look like Matthew was Sam's child and not Bo's. See Lindsay grew up knowing that her father preferred her younger sister Melanie to her, he made no secret of it. Than learning that her husband Sam had never really gotten over his first love, Nora, lead her to have an affair with her brother-in-law. Her rivalry with Nora led to her decision to get back at Nora by stealing her husband Bo. Her hatred of Nora led her to help Colin kidnap and drug Nora until she lost her memory.

Lindsay was one of those women who were lonely and just a little desperate. Sure she shot and killed her ex-husband Sam, but she had been manipulated by Mitch Laurence. And yes, she imprisoned Troy McIver on a giant carnival wheel and left him to die, when she discovered that he was playing her. Haven't we all had thoughts like those, we just haven't acted on them? Still she loved her two children Will and Jennifer fiercely. And she even once saved her old enemy Nora Hanen Gannon Buchanen from a fire. Over the years, Lindsay softened and became less manipulative. If only the show had really given the romance between her and RJ Gannon a chance.

Margaret Cochran –A quiet and lonely accountant who worked at Buchanan Enterprises, when she was approached by Todd Manning for dirt on his rival Kevin Buchanan (who had slept with his ex-wife Blair). Todd, being Todd, led Margaret to believe that he had feelings for her. Imagine her surprise when she found out that Todd and Blair had reconciled for the umpteenth time. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned! Margaret, however, was not about to give up on the man of her dreams. She fakes a photo of her and Todd in bed together and shows it to Blair. Thank god for Photoshop! Blair, coming from a family of mentally unstable females, is not taken in by Margaret’s little art project. So Margaret kidnaps Todd and Blair’s son, which gets her a one way ticket to St. Anne’s. Since the mental health professionals in Llanview are easily fooled, Margaret is eventually released. Having spent her time in St. Anne’s re-reading Stephen King’s Misery, Margaret shoots Todd in the knees on his wedding day to Blair, holding him hostage in a remote cabin. Blair, who also must have read Misery, manages to track Margaret to the cabin. When she tries to save Todd, Margaret locks her in the trunk of a car. Not content with just kidnapping, she adds rape to her list of crimes. Todd is eventually rescued, but now Margaret is pregnant with his child which infuriates Todd. When she is found dead, Todd is tried and convicted of her murder and sentenced to die by lethal injection. But like Jason in the Friday the 13^th movies, Margaret is not dead, but alive thus freeing Todd. Margaret finally gets her comeuppance when she is killed in a car accident.

We Move Forward

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:25:00 +0000

I'm pleased to announce that I will be speaking at the We Move Forward conference on the beautiful Isla Mujeres in Mexico which takes place March 8-10, 2012. I will be speaking on Scandalous Women of the Past including Frida Kahlo as well as some others. I'm speaking early in the morning on Thursday so I'll be drinking lots of coffee!

The other speakers, including actress Wendy Crewson and Bal Arneson, the "SPICE GODDESS", sound fabulous and I've never been to Mexico before so I can't wait. Of course, I will be bringing my laptop and probably blogging poolside from the conference.

There is a contest entitled Wave to Win (wish I could enter) where you can win a trip to the conference. Check it out, and I hope to see a few of you there!

Scandalous Movie Review: The Iron Lady

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 19:37:00 +0000

Directed by Phyllida Lloyd

Produced by Damian Jones
Written by Abi Morgan

Cast

Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher
Alexandra Roach as Margaret Thatcher (as a teenager)
Jim Broadbent as Denis Thatcher
Harry Lloyd as Young Denis Thatcher
Olivia Colman as Carol Thatcher
Anthony Head as Geoffrey Howe
Nicholas Farrell as Airey Neave
Richard E. Grant as Michael Heseltine
Paul Bentley as Douglas Hurd
Robin Kermode as John Major
John Sessions as Edward Heath
Roger Allam as Gordon Reece
Michael Pennington as Michael Foot
Angus Wright as John Nott
Julian Wadham as Francis Pym
Ronald Reagan as Himself (archive footage)
Reginald Green as Ronald Reagan

My thoughts: One of the most famous actresses in the world (two-time Academy Award winner, record 16 nominations) playing one of the most famous female politicians in the world should be a win-win situation. Well yes and no. While I thoroughly enjoyed both Meryl Streep (and newcomer Alexandra Roach as the young Margaret Thatcher), I'm not sure how I feel about the film as a whole. I don't think I'm giving away any spoilers by saying that the film opens in the present day with the elderly Margaret Thatcher, now Baroness Thatcher, mainly retired from public life. Her husband Denis (who died in 2003) is haunting or perhaps it would be better to say that Lady Thatcher now suffers from a form of dementia that leads her to see her long dead husband.

It is depressing and profoundly sad to see the woman who was both feared and admired in equal measure reduced to a sad, lonely figure clinging to the clothes of her deceased husband. It's almost as if the filmmakers felt that the audience wouldn't find Thatcher at all sympathetic otherwise. As if the scenes of the young Margaret Thatcher, trying to win her first election, dealing with not just the prejudices of her own party (she's the daughter of a grocer from Grantham in Lincolnshire) weren't enough. The film flashes back in forth from the present day (or something approximating it) and scenes from Margaret's life. We get to see glimpses of her father, Alfred Roberts, who seems to have been a profound influence on her. The brief glimpses that we see are fascinating, particularly the scene where she gets her acceptance letter from Oxford. Her father is ecstatic, her mother not so much, sort of sad and disapproving, as if Margaret is getting ideas above her station, as well as moving forward in a way that was never open to her.

The movie then flashes to her first stand for Parliament and her meeting with Denis Thatcher. There's no mention at all in the film that Thatcher was not only 10 years older than Margaret but divorced and a millionaire. He comes across as a well-meaning, very skinny young man who has no problem taking second fiddle to his wife. We see nothing of their courtship, just his proposal and a lovely scene of the two of them dancing in an empty room. In the present, it is revealed to the audience that Thatcher's relationship with her daughter Carol (Margaret had twins, Mark and Carol, she was nothing if not efficient. 2 children, one pregnancy) is slightly contentious. It's clear that of the twins, Thatcher preferred Mark (again it's never revealed in the film Mark Thatcher was a bit of a scoundrel).

Since the film spends so much time in the present day, Thatcher's life is sort of represented as a greatest hits reel. We see precious little of what is was like for a woman to be an MP in the late 50's through to the 70's. Far more fascinating to the filmmakers is her Eliza Doolittle transformation. Out go the hats, and the high-pitched voice (but the pearls stay), in comes the media training as Margaret is groomed to become a leading power in the Conservative party by two men, Airey Neave an MP from Northern Ireland and a strategist named Gordon Reece. For the most part, she comes across as the plucky underdog in the male-dominated establishment. She takes a licking but keeps on ticking. All of her male colleagues are eithe portrayed as clueless, male chauvinist pigs, or jealous. Meanwhile Denis comes across as a saint. There is only one hint of marital discord in the whole film (although it's amusingly played by Jim Broadbent).

The film only slighly gives the audience a sense of the personal toll that Thatcher's ambition took on her family, nor is she seen with any real friends among the Conservative party. She seems to have been a lone wolf, while the men are waiting with smiles on their faces, and knives behidn their backs, just waiting for the chance to use them. The film implies that she became drunk on her own power, and rode roughshod over anyone who opposed her or had another point of view which I'm sure was probably true. One critic felt that the film tries to portray her as a feminist icon which is ironic since Thatcher had no use for feminists. Her motto seems to have to just get on with it, and to not expect a handout from anyone, as she bulldozed her way to power. There's no complexity or depth in the film, although there are glimpses occasionally (the scenes with her father early in the film, driving away from her children to Westminster as they scream and cry).

I spent a great deal of time in London in the 1980's during the years that Thatcher was in power, so I had a small view of what it was like back then. I remember people calling her "Thatcher the Snatcher" and being asked to sign a petition, I think she had wanted to eliminate giving out milk to school children. I also remember a sketch on the satirical TV show Spitting Image. It was a spoof of The Care Bears called The Don't Care Bears and Margaret Thatcher was Careless Bear. One of the other bears asked her "Careless Bear, don't you care about anybody?" Careless Bear batted her eyes at the camera and replied, "Yes, myself." I wish the opposing views to Thatcher hadn't been just one lone Labor MP in the House, and disgruntled men in her cabinet in the film. Seriously were there no other women MP's we could have seen as a contrast? The film made it seem as if she were it.

Still the film is worth seeing for Meryl Streep who seemingly could play a paper bag and make it believable. Streep doesn't just play Margaret Thatcher, she becomes her. Never once, while I was watching the film, did I feel I was watching an actress. She manages to capture Thatcher's charm (at least with men) as well as the ruthlessness. It's just a pity that she's not in a better film. Jim Broadbent does the best with what he is given, but he's more of a Greek chorus than an actual human being. Although she only has a few moments of screen time, Olivia Colman manages to pack a lifetime of bitterness, resentment and love into her few scenes as Carol Thatcher. While I recognized many of the actors in the film, they seemed to be mainly talking heads, as the director just assumed that the audience knew exactly who they were and how they related to Thatcher.

January Books of the Month: Searching for Beauty & Queen Elizabeth in the Garden

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:01:00 +0000

Since it's a brand new year, we have 2 books of the month, instead of one. The first book is Searching for Beauty: The life of Millicent Rogers by Cherie Burns. I'd read about Millicent Rogers before in a book on fashion but I knew very little about her as a person.

From the back cover: A fascinating portrait of the Standard Oil heirerss and legendary American trendsetter Millicent Rogers. Nobody knew how to live the high life like Millicent Rogers. Born into luxury, she lived in a whirl of beautiful homes, European vacations, exquisite clothing and handsome men. In Searching for Beauty, Cherie Burns chronicles Rogers's glittering life from her days as a young girl afflicted with rheumatic fever to her debutante debut and her Taos finale. A rebellious icon of the age, she eloped with a penniless baron, danced tangos in European nightclubs, divorced, remarried and romanced, among others, Clark Gable. Her romantic conquests, though, paled in comparison to her triumph in the fashion world where she electrified the fashionistas by becoming the muse to designer Charles James, appearing in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar and - at the end of her life - retreating to Taos, New Mexico where she popularized Southwestern style. With Searching for Beauty, Millicent Rogers enters the pantheon of great American women who, like Diana Vreeland and Babe Paley, put their distinctive stamp on American Style.

And now for something completely different, a book about Queen Elizabeth I, and gardens. I admit to suffering from Tudor overload, it seems like not a day goes by without someone publishing a book set in either the Court of Henry VIII or Elizabeth (not many people seem interested in setting a book during Mary's reign!). This one is different, dealing with the Queen's love of gardens, and the two of the most influential men in her life, Robert Dudley and William Cecil. The author, Trea Martyn, has a PhD in 18th-century literature at University College London and she lectures widely on garden history.

Title: Queen Elizabeth in the Garden: A Story of Love, Rivalry and Spectacular Gardens
Author: Trea Martyn
Publisher: Bluebridge
Pub Date: January 30, 2012

Overview: Taking a fresh and original approach to the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth I, this book tells the incredible story of her great passion for gardens, and how the two most powerful men in England during her reign fought a decade-long duel for their queen's affections by creating lavish gardens for her. It chronicles how, in their quest to woo the queen and outdo each other, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and William Cecil, Baron of Burghley, competed for Elizabeth’s favor by laying out innovative and extravagant pleasure grounds at their palaces for when she came to visit. As she played one off against the other, they created gorgeous palaces and landscapes that amazed the world. The book also describes how others in England and abroad followed Dudley’s and Cecil’s leads and how the queen’s love of plants made gardeners of courtiers, statesmen, and soldiers. This meticulously researched account reveals how Elizabeth’s enthusiasm for horticulture changed the world, encouraging gardeners and designers to create landscapes inspired by the spirit of the Elizabethan garden.

There you have it, 2 different books about 2 very different women. Enjoy!

Introducing the Herstory Project!

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 19:03:00 +0000

Last week, I was privileged to be a participant as part of a brand new project by Chick History called #Herstory. I'm not sure when my podcast will air yet, but I will let everyone know as soon as I get a date. I spoke about one of my favorite women from Scandalous Women, Anne Hutchinson.

From the website:

"How many women in history can you name? 20? 10? Who are your favorites? Who has inspired you? How would you tell her story?

In 2012, Chick History will tell the stories of 52 women, not through names and dates of textbooks, but through the voices of contemporary women. Chick History is inviting 52 diverse women to take ownership of the historical women who have inspired them - from the headliners to the lesser-known gems - and is asking each one to share her story with us.

Hear elected officials, academics, mothers, filmmakers, authors, activists, CEO’s, and more offer snapshots of these women’s lives. You may know some of these stories. Others, you may not know. But over the year, #HerStory will provide a collection of inspiring and fascinating women of history who form the foundation on which modern women are building today.

#HerStory is also an empowering way for contemporary women to express their gratitude to these historical women, by becoming an advocate and amplifier of their lives - sharing their stories with the larger world so that others may also find inspiration in their lives.

There is someone in history for all of us. Someone whose actions and words, courage and commitment, is a touchstone for us. Someone who has shaped our values, our points of view, our careers, commitments, and beliefs. Someone whose words cheer us up and motivate us to begin a difficult new project, make a career change, or just help us to get through another bad day at the office. Someone who inspires us and gives us the strength to make a change in our lives

Somewhere in these podcasts, during this year, Chick History hopes you will find a connection with one of these women. That she speaks to you on a personal level through her story, and you find something of what you have done, what you are doing, or what you have thought you might try in your own life.

So tune in each week for a new story and get inspired. And when the year is over, the next time someone asks you “How many inspiring women in history are there?”...you can start with these 52 and go from there."

The first podcast launched on New Year's Day with Eleanor Roosevelt by Maggie McIntosh, Maryland State Delegate. You can either download the podcast on iTunes or at the Chick History page.

Scandalous Women in London Part Deux - The Lion in Winter & Enchanted Princesses

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 19:27:00 +0000

A family Christmas becomes a family at war. Henry II, not so young as he was, invites his estranged wife Eleanor of Aquitane, and his three sons, Richard, Geoffrey and John, to spend the festive season with him, his mistress Princess Alais, and her brother, the young King Philip of France. Will Henry name who is to be his successor as King of England? Their yuletide celebration turns into a combat zone of deceit, betrayal, bitter power games and scabrous wit.

"I am excited to be directing the London premiere of a famous play about a power struggle full of sexual politics and political sex, with two such brilliant actors as Robert Lindsay and Joanna Lumley." - Trevor Nunn

I had no idea when I decided to attend the matinee of The Lion in Winter that it was the London premiere! I had just assumed that there was a London production soon after the Broadway one. Although given that the Broadway production was a bit of a flop, perhaps I was a bit optimistic. Still, the movie was very successful, so I was very surprised to find out that this was the first production in London. And what a theatre to be in! the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, one of the most beautiful in London. I was lucky enough to score a really good seat in the Royal Circle for 20 pounds just before the Thursday matinee. It was an impulse purchase, I had planned to buy a ticket for the evening's performance but changed my mind when I got to the box office.

Although I have seen the film starring Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn more times than I can count, I have never seen a stage production of The Lion in Winter, not even the Broadway production which starred Laurence Fishbourne and Stockard Channing at the Roundabout here in New York. The movie is one of my favorite films, and I was afraid that the play and the actors would not measure up to the movie. Well, I should have worried about the play given that James Goldman, the playwright, adapted his script for the film. However, it was in the performances, that the show fell short. Joanna Lumley, who I had previously only known from Ab Fab and The New Avengers, was actually quite good as Eleanor of Acquitaine. A little low energy at first, but her performance grew as the play went on. Robert Lindsay, on the other hand, seemed to be channeling Peter O'Toole. He not only looked a bit like him, but also sounded like him, it was a bit odd. If I had closed my eyes, I would have sworn that it was Peter O'Toole on stage.

The biggest disappointment for me were the sons. Anthony Hopkins, John Castle, and Nigel Terry's performances are seered into my memories. I couldn't help remembering their line readings while watching the play, which does a great disservice to the actors who were doing their gallant best on stage, but it was just impossible for me not to compare them and find them a bit lacking. I did adore the actress who played Alys, and the scene between her and her brother Philip, a shame that they cut that scene out of the movie. It gives Alys more shades to play than just the mistress, and we get to see a bit of their relationship. In the film, it's hard to remember that Alys and Philip are brother and sister. Although it fell short of my expectations, I am glad that I went to see the production. Trevor Nunn did a very good job of staging the play, and the set was gorgeous, and given that I saw it only two weeks before Xmas, it felt appropriate!

The day before I had gone to see the Enchanted Princess installation at Kensington Palace. The Palace right now is going through a great deal of renovation, so only a few of the rooms were open. I haven't been to Kensington Palace since my semester abroad in college, so just walking up to the Palace was fascinating. Right now, it's covered in a lot of barbed wire but I did get a little giddy when I saw the statue of William III outside. The Enchanted Princesses exhibition features the 7 Princesses who made Kensington Palace their home, Princesses Mary and Anne (later Mary II and Queen Anne), Queen Caroline, Princess Charlotte, Princess Victoria, Princess Margaret and Princess Diana. While the installations were interesting, particularly Princess Mary, I found the experience a bit lacking particularly in relation to Princess Diana and Princess Margaret. It's more of a sight and sound experience, with clues left so that you can guess which room relates to which Princess.

Perhaps I was expecting too much, or perhaps my experience was colored by the fact that I just gotten off the plane that morning, and the weather was cold and rainy. Plus there were no bathrooms available inside the palace, just the porta-potty outside!

I wish there had been a guidebook specifically done for the exhibition the way that Hampton Court Palace did a special HELLO! magazine issue for Henry VIII's wedding to Katherine Parr (how I wish I had bought that issue!). However, I did find the gift shop exciting, particularly the Queen Victoria china which I'm dying to own every piece of.

Scandalous Spotlight: Almina, Countess of Carnarvon

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 14:47:00 +0000

Thanks to the success of Downton Abbey, which is filmed at Highclere Castle, attention is now being focused on Almina, Countess of Carnarvon, wife of the 5th Earl of Carnarvon (he who famously bankrolled Howard Carter's expedition to Egypt which ended with the discovery of King Tut's tomb). Now two new biographies have been published about Almina, the first by the current Countess of Carnarvon entitled: LADY ALMINA AND THE REAL DOWNTON ABBEY, published just this week by Crown Publishing in the States (just in time for the new series of Downton Abbey which premieres soon on PBS). The 2nd is by William Cross and entitled THE LIFE AND SECRETS OF ALMINA CARNARVON.

Almina was born Almina Wombwell in 1876. Her mother Marie Boyer was French, her father a respectable banker. While her sisters all married well, Marie married a ne'er do well, younger son of a baron named Captain Frederick Wombwell. The couple seperated after Freddie apparently was caught stealing from Marie's parents. Marie soon made the acquaintance of Alfred de Rothschild, the man widely believed to be Almina's father. Even her unusual name Almina was a combination of her parents names. However, although he doted on Almina and left her a fortune, Alfred never openly acknowledged Almina as his. Almina grew up to be beautiful, vivacious and a little bit spoilt. Petite, she was blessed with the curvaceous figure that was then fashionable, Fiona Carnarvon describes her as a "Pocket Venus," throughout the book. Her 'god-father' Alfred doted on her, lavishing her with expensive presents, no doubt to make up for not claiming her as his own. Although a bachelor, he never married Almina's mother, even after her husband died. Apparently he liked his freedom too much, plus Marie was Catholic.

In 1893, Almina made the acquaintance of George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon. The Earl was deeply in debt and needed a wealthy bride, Almina was looking for respectability. Although she had been presented at court, the knowledge of paternity was like a dark cloud, even with her large dowery. The Earl landed a huge £500,000 dowry (equivalent to £25million in today's money), which was used to finance his later discovery in Egypt.They each got what they wanted when they married on June 26th (the Earl's 28th birthday) of 1895 at St. Margaret's, Westminster. At the age of 19, Almina was now the chateleine of Highclere Castle, as well as the Earl's other properties.

I bought Fiona Carnarvon's book on the day it was published and I find it riveting. While her book deals with a great deal of social history, detailing how an Edwardian household was run, the different roles of the servants, aspects of Edwardian society, Cross's book seems to take a more salacious tone. Just from reading the web-site , he seems to have a less rosy colored view of Almina. According to a recent article in The Daily Mail, Cross claims that Almina had an affair with her husband's best man, Prince Victor Duleep Singh, the son of the deposed Maharajah of Lahore, and that her son, the 6th Earl of Carnarvon was a product of this affair. What this means of course, if it could be proven and I don't see anyone taking a DNA test anytime soon, is that the current Earl is not the real Earl. Given that Prince Victor and his wife were childless, I think the changes that he is the father of 6th Earl are also slim. Although Prince Victor was of mixed race, there was a very good chance that if Almina had been pregnant by him, the child would have dark or tan skin. How was she going to pass the baby off as the Earl's if that had happened? It boggles the mind. Was she going to claim the baby died? Or given it away secretly? I can't imagine that Almina would have taken such a risk, given her own background.

According to Cross' biography (which I have not read, my information comes from the reviews that I have read of it), the marriage between the 5th Earl and Almina was a marriage of convenience. Even Fiona Carnarvon believes that the marriage was one of cash for a title, although she writes that Almina was deeply in love with her husband when they first got married. However, even if that were true, Almina would still have been required to provide the heir and the spare if possible, before discreetly seeking comfort elsewhere. Even if the Earl was, as Cross claimed, undersexed, that doesn't mean that he wasn't capable of fathering children with his wife. Heck, Oscar Wilde was gay, and still managed to father 2 children with his wife! Cross also writes that the Earl had a passion for photography, nude photography that is, commissioning 3,000 nude photos from a photographic studio, which makes him no different that a lot of aristocrats at that time. They may not have married for love, but they certainly spent a great deal of time together, traveling to Egypt many times form 1906 until his death. They were united in their passion for the Earl's discoveries as he went from a relatively small dig to the final discovery with Howard Carter. When she wasn't in Egypt, Almina used her prodigious energy as a political hostess, helping to get her brother-in-law Aubrey Herbert elected to Parliament, and giving speeches up and down the country to various women's groups. In January 1918 Sir Alfred de Rothschild died, leaving Almina almost everything - his house in Mayfair, a handsome tax-free legacy and fabulous pictures, objects and furniture. A portion of her new fortune went to fund her husband's last expedition to Egypt with Howard Carter.

Almina remarried her 2nd husband, not long after the Earl of Carnarvon died in 1923 (his death was considered to part of the Curse of King Tut's tomb). Her 2nd husband was Lieutenant-Colonel Ian Onslow Dennistoun. According to Christopher Wilson's article in The Daily Telegraph, Dennistoun owed his promotion to his wife Dorothy's liaison with the Army's Quartermaster General! Dennistoun and Almina met in Paris in 1920, 3 years before her husband's death. Almost immediately, Almina set him up in a smart cottage. Apparently Almina also used him for money-laundering purposes. She often sold jewelry and works of art that she had inherited from her god-father, and she used Dennistoun's bank accounts to hide the money from the tax man! Almina also apparently was having an affair with a man by the name of Tommy Frost who was also sleeping with Dennistoun's ex-wife Dorothy!

In 1925, Almina was part of a scandalous court case. Her husband's ex-wife, Dorothy Dennistoun sued her husband for the alimony that he claimed that he couldn't pay at the time of their divorce. Apparently, Dennistoun had promised to provide for his ex-wife in the future when he had the money. When Dorothy heard that he had married the Dowager Countess of Carnarvon, who had been left a fortune by her 'godfather' Alfred de Rothschild, she thought she had hit pay dirt. Almina was not about to give up any of her money to her husband's ex-wife. She convinced her husband to take the matter to the courts. During the trial, Dorothy claimed that her husband forced her to sleep with the Quartermaster General to further his career. Dennistoun basically claimed that his wife was a slut and couldn't be trusted. Under oath, Almina admitted to adultery, and her money-laundering scheme. Nobody, least of all Almina, came out smellling like a rose when the case was decided. Although the jury decided in favor of Dennistoun, the case cost Almina more than 400,000 pounds, more than what it would have cost her to make Dennistoun's wife go away.

Cash-strapped, Almina decided to open a high-society nursing home. During the war, like Downton Abbey, Highclere had been turned into a hospital. Almina had spared no expense hiring the best doctors and equipment, decreeing that each wounded officer should have his own room, with down pillows and linen sheets. She believed in the importance of comfort, warmth and cosseting. But even before that, Almina had discovered a talent for nursing when her husband suffered a horrific car accident in 1901 in Germany.

Unfortunately, it turned out that she had no head for running a business, finding it difficult to present her patients with a bill. Eventually the nursing home, according to Evelyn Waugh, became a place where high-class women could discreetly obtain an illegal abortion. Then at the age of 70, she became involved with a much younger man, who worked as heating engineer. It was the last straw for her son, the 6th Earl, who gave her up to the IRS, calling her a "scheming swindler" (they were never close). In her lifetime, Almina had gone through the equivalent of 50 million pounds, much of it no doubt going to pay for the Earl's expeditions to Egypt (they made yearly trips to the country, and the Earl started his own excavations in 1906), the upkeep on Highclere, taxes etc. One has to wonder if her son's sour grapes came more from the fact that his mother managed her own money, rather than turn it over to him to manage.

Almina's last years were spent in obscurity and poverty. She died at the age of 93 after choking on a piece of chicken, an ignominious end to a once glamorous life.

Highclere Castle today

Mary Phelps Jacobs and the Modern Brassiere

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 14:44:00 +0000

“I can’t say the brassiere will ever take as great a place in history as the steamboat*, but I did invent it.” – Mary Phelps Jacobs (1891 – 1970).

Imagine you are a 19 year old debutante in 1910 about to attend a ball. You put on a fabulous couture dress from Paris, only to discover that your corset cover is sticking out over the top of your sheer evening gown. What is a girl to do? Well, if you are Mary Phelps “Polly” Jacobs, you throw off your restrictive corset cover and have your maid fashion help you fashion an undergarment out of two handkerchiefs sewn together with pink ribbon and cord. Voila! You have created your own bra! The new undergarment was soft and light and conformed to the wearer better than a corset which had a tendency to create a uniboob. Polly’s new undergarment complimented the fashions of the time which were less restrictive than the previous Victorian fashions which required women to be trussed up like a chicken to get into them. When she showed her friends her new design, they, of course, all wanted one. Before she knew it, Polly was in the bra-making business. It wasn’t until a stranger offered her a dollar for one of her contraptions, that she started thinking that she could really make some money from it.

Nothing in Polly’s background suggested such a ground-breaking achievement. She was born into a world of power and privilege if not wealth, amongst her ancestors was William Bradford, the 1st Governor of the Plymouth colony, another was a General Walter Phelps, who commanded troops in the Civil War at the Battle of Antietam. Her family was well-off, but certainly not in the same league with the Astor’s or the Vanderbilt’s. Polly once wrote that her father had been raised, as she put it, "to ride to hounds, sail boats, and lead cotillions," and they divided their time between a house in New York, an estate in Connecticut and one in New Rochelle, NY. She went to the best schools (Chapin, Rosemary Hall), danced at cotillions, and even met King George V in 1915 at a garden party in London. When it came time to marry, it was to another blueblood, Richard Peabody, whose family had settled in New Hampshire in 1635.

Polly Jacob didn’t actually invent the brassiere. There had been attempts as far back as the 1860’s to create an alternative to the tyranny of the corset. Parisian corset maker Herminie Cadolle in 1889 invented a two-part garment much like a bikini but her design seems to have been known mainly to her customers. Later in 1893, Marie Tucek patented the first bra, her device included separate pockets for the breasts and was fastened by hook and eye closures, but she apparently failed to successfully market her invention.

Polly was the first to patent an undergarment named 'Brassiere,' which derived from the old French word for 'upper arm'. Like the bras that most of us wear today, her design had shoulder straps that attached to the bra’s upper and lower corners, but it also had wrap-around laces which tied in the front, allowing the wearer to wear gowns that were cut low in the back. It was wireless so it didn’t offer much in the way of support. In her application, she noted that her invention was “well-adapted to women of different size” and was “so efficient that it may be worn by persons engaged in violent exercise like tennis.” She received her patent in 1914, the same year that she married Peabody.

It was an invention whose time had come, not only was the fashions less restrictive but during WWI, the U.S. Government requested that women stop buying corsets to conserve metal. Polly named her new company the Fashion Form Brassiere Company which was located on Washington Street in Boston. There with a staff of two, Polly began manufacturing her wireless bra. While Polly managed to snag a few orders from department stores, her business never really took off. Her marriage to Peabody was also failing. They had two children, but Peabody came back from the war with two unfortunate hobbies: drinking and watching buildings burn. Polly fell hard for another blue-blooded, hard-drinking WWI vet named Harry Crosby. Their affair scandalized New York and Boston society but Polly didn’t care. Her office space provided cover for her trysts with Harry. In 1922, Polly divorced Peabody and quickly married Harry, who had no taste or interest in conventional business. Since he had a generous trust fund, he discouraged her from working and convinced her to close the business. Later, she sold the patent to the Warner Brothers Corset Company for $1,500 (about $20,000 today). Warner’s then went on to make over $15 million dollars with the design over the next 30 years before they eventually phased out the design.

After their marriage in 1922, Polly (now renamed Caresse thanks to Harry) and Harry moved to Europe were they led a “mad and extravagant life,” filled with drugs, drinking and numerous affairs on both sides. Their decadent lifestyle lasted until Harry’s murder/suicide with his young lover, Josephine Noyes Rotch in 1928 (and that’s a whole other scandalous story!). Caresse continued her writing and publishing work with Black Sun, the publishing company she had founded with Harry. During its years of operation, it published everyone from D.H. Lawrence, Archibald MacLeish, and Henry Miller to Ezra Pound.

In 1937, she married Selbert Young, a retired football player and sometime actor who was 18 years younger, and moved to Washington, D.C. where she opened an art gallery and started a magazine called Portfolio. After her third marriage collapsed, she spent her final years in Rome, where she planned to create an artist colony. She died in Rome in 1970, at the age of 78, but she lived long enough to see the bra go through a number of transformations (although unfortunately not Victoria’s Secret million dollar bras!). How ironic that something that was meant to liberate women, was later seen as a symbol of oppression!

*invented by another ancestor Robert Fulton

Scandalous Women Gift Guide: GemFatale

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 14:01:00 +0000

Recently I was contacted by Samantha Blakeney (love that last name!) who has a new jewelry line based on Scandalous Women throughout history. Would I be interested in mentioning her line on the blog? Heck yeah! What a fantastic idea, and why didn't I think of it? Oh right, I have no artistic talent beyond writing and acting. However, lucky for us all, Samantha does! So far the women featured are Lucrezia Borgia, Anne Boleyn and her sister Mary. She is also working on a few modern versions of Marie Antoinette's necklaces (one a pearl necklace that she gave as a gift and a replica of the infamous "Diamond Affair" necklace), Mata Hari, Elizabeth Bathory, and a couple of others.

You can take a peek at http://etsy.com/shop/GemFatale. And readers of Scandalous Women can receive a 10% discount. Just mention the coupon code "scandalouswomen" when you order.

The Borgia Poison Necklace

Birds of a Feather necklace

Scandalous Women in London: The First Actresses

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:02:00 +0000

Since I still had a few vacation days left this year, I decided to hop a plane to London for a few days, to see some friends but also to see 2 exhibits that I didn't want to miss. The first one was the Enchanted Princesses exhibit at Kensington Palace, the 2nd was The First Actresses exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery on Charing Cross Road. The National Portrait Gallery is hands down my favorite museum in London, and The First Actresses exhibit didn't disappoint. It was a tad expensive, 11 pounds, and the exhibition wasn't huge, but as a former actress, I found it fascinating to see the portraits of women I had only read about in theatre history. There were many women whose portraits I had never seen before including Moll Davis, the other actress who had the privilege of sharing Charles II's bed for a brief time.

From the web-site: The First Actresses presents a vivid spectacle of femininity, fashion and theatricality in seventeenth and eighteenth-century Britain. Taking centre stage are the intriguing and notorious female performers of the period whose lives outside of the theatre ranged from royal mistresses to admired writers and businesswomen. The exhibition reveals the many ways in which these early celebrities used portraiture to enhance their reputations, deflect scandal and create their professional identities.

Intriguing no? The exhibition mentions the fact that, in the beginning, actress and prostitute were seen as synonymous. Indeed, many of the early actresses had aristocratic protectors, Elizabeth Barry & The Earl of Rochester, Nell Gwyn & Charles II, Dorothy Jordan & The Duke of Clarence. Also many actresses including Elizabeth Farren, ending up marrying their lovers, albeit after their wives had died and the heirs had already been secured. Elizabeth Farren married the Earl of Derby, and Lavinia Fenton, the Duke of Bolton.

Looking at the portraits, one can see the rise of celebrity culture. Just as today, photographers like Annie Leibovitz are known for their celebrity portraits, artists like Reynolds, Gainsborough and Romney painted all the leading actresses of the day. And then there was the celebrity memoir, many of the leading actresses of the day wrote books about their lives which were eaten up by the public.

This lovely actress is Dorothy Jordon (1761-1816), one of the foremost comic actresses in London in the 18th century. Born in Ireland, Dorothy was also the mistress of the Duke of Clarence (the future King William IV), and the mother of his 10 illegitmate children, the Fitz-Clarences. For 20 years, she was not only his mistress but she also supported him and their children, since his civil list allowance did not cover his extravagant lifestyle. After the death of Princess Charlotte, the daughter of the Prince Regent, died in childbirth, the Duke dumped Dorothy and married a German princess in order to secure the line of succession. He and Queen Adelaide had no children who survived, paving the way for Queen Victoria. When Dorothy went back on the stage to support herself, after he left, he took her children away. What a prince!

This is Lavinia Fenton (1708-1760) who played Polly Peachum in the first ever performance of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera. Lavinia became the mistress of the Duke of Bolton, and then married him after his wife's death. Not bad eh?

This beauty is Mary Robinson (1757-1800), also known as Perdita after the role that she played when she met the Prince of Wales (future George IV). She was briefly his mistress, but the relationship was fleeting. Mary eventually gave up acting to write poetry and plays. Mary had a long affair with Banastre Tarleton who didn't really treat her well. Unfortunately she is not as well known as she should be. ALL FOR LOVE by Amanda Elyot is a historical fiction novel about Mary Robinson.

This is one of 2 portraits of Nell Gwyn (1650-1687) that are in the exhibition. The 2nd portrait was just recently attributed to her. I admit that I have a fondness in my heart for Nell Gwyn. Apart from his Queen, Catherine of Braganza, and his sister Minette, I think Nell is the only mistress who truly loved the King for himself and not for what he could do for. She never demanded a fancy house or jewels for herself, the only thing that she demanded was that their children be cared for, and given the same titles that his other bastards were given.

Ah Sarah Siddons (1755-1831), the Meryl Streep of the late 18th and early 19th century. There are several portraits of Sarah in the exhibition. She came from a theatrical family, her parents were actors, and her siblings also went on the stage, the most well known being her brother John Philip Kemble. Mrs. Siddons was not a success when she made her debut in London as Portia in Merchant of Venice and a few other roles. Whether it was nerves or lack of experience, she was soon sent packing. In fact, she spent several years in the provinces after her disasterous debut, honing her craft until she finally came back in triumph several years later. While Dorothy Jordon,Peg Woffington and Frances Abington were known for their comedic roles, Sarah was a tragedienne bar none. One of her most famous roles was that of Lady Macbeth.

There were several other actresses included in the exhibit including women who were known more for operatic roles than acting, although most actresses of the period were expected to be able to sing a little as well as dance. They also had to provide their own costumes! One of the actresses included in the exhibit is Elizabeth Inchbald who gave up the stage to write plays. She was well acquainted with William Godwin, and was not happy when he hooked up with Mary Wollstonecraft and then married her. The exhibit explores the "breeches" roles that were so popular in the 17th & 18th century. These roles allowed women the freedom to go on stage dressed like men, but it also caused a stink because they weren't covered up!

I had no idea how many actresses at that time extended their careers by picking up the pen. I wish some enterprising theatre producer would devote a season to reviving one of Mary Robinson or Elizabeth Inchbald's plays, even if it was just in the staged reading format.

While I was at the museum, I also made a pilgrimage to see Mary Wollstonecraft and Emma Hamilton's portraits in the museum. One of the displays concerned Princess Charlotte of Wales and the future Queen Victoria. While looking at the portraits of Queen Victoria, I was struck by how much Prince Andrew's daughter Princess Beatrice looks like her.

Here's a portrait of a young Queen Victoria

And here's Princess Beatrice. They look like twins right?

Yes, I know that Princess Beatrice is a direct descendent of Queen Victoria, but none of the Queen's children or grandchildren have quite the same uncanny resemblance. I spent a good deal of time in the Victorian and Edwardian galleries looking at the faces. My favorite room is the one that has the notorious rivals William Gladstone & Benjamin Disraeli hung right next to each other!

Afterwards, I went to the National Cafe for the Lady Hamilton tea which included a plum Bellini. Unfortunately they served the tea, not using loose tea, but with a tea bag! Considering the tea cost me a whopping 21 pounds, I thought it a bit much. On a lighter note, the scone with clotted cream was awesome!

Scandalous Romance - Caroline Flack & Harry Styles

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 01:24:00 +0000

All of London has been abuzz over the news that Xtra-Factor presenter Caroline Flack, 32, is dating Harry Styles, 17, member of the boy band One Direction. Opinion has been divided with some people giving Caroline the high-five, and others who want to stone her the market place. The big issues, the 15 year age gap, and the fact that Styles is 17 (which is legal in Great Britain). The couple met a year ago when Styles appeared on the X-Factor but the relationship apparently didn't start until this past October when the couple were caught kissing on camera.

You have to wonder if people would be so icked out if Styles were 18 or even 21. Since he can't legally drink or vote, the idea that he's dating a woman in her thirties boggles people's minds. Caroline is quoted as saying, "What is hard for me to get my head around is people saying its disgusting. I don't think it is. I shouldn't have to worry about what I do. But people aren't accepting of big age gaps." Well Caroline, actually they are, if the roles were reversed. If Caroline were 17 or 18, and Harry were 32, no body would probably blink an eye. It doesn't help, that like Justin Bieber, Harry looks like he's just barely hit puberty. (Another older woman, director Sam Taylor Wood has been involved with actor Aaron Johnson since he was 18, and she was 41. Perhaps the fact that they are now engaged and have 1 child, and another on the way, makes them a little less salacious).

Before you go thinking that Flack is some kind of 21st Century Mrs. Robinson, apparently Styles pursued her, which is pretty cheeky if you think about it. At first, she apparently didn't take him seriously, thinking he was just being flirty, but eventually she just decided that she liked him so, so what? Of course people are wondering what a 17 year old and a 32 year old could possibly have in common. Well, for one thing, both are in the entertainment business. She's not likely to get upset at the fact that he's constantly off touring and promoting his band's CD, when she's equally as busy with her career. And since she's been in the business for awhile, no doubt she has some sage advice, but it could just be that they have fun together.

One has to wonder what Style's mother feels about all this? Is she outraged or is she perhaps happy that her son is dating someone who isn't using him for fame? Most of the girls his own age that he meets are all fans (who have issued death threats against Flack). Chances are this relationship will run it's course but Flack has taken a huge risk by being in this relationship. Her people have already told her that it could cost her a great deal of work. In the end, the bad publicity may be the very thing that kills the romance as both discover that it's not worth all the derision.

In 1920, the French writer Colette published her story of Cheri, a young man who has a relationship with a courtesan who is 25 years older. Despite both their contention that the relationship is casual, they fall in love, although they know they can't be together. Things haven't changed very much since then have they? While George Clooney continues to date even younger and younger women, and nobody blinks an eye that Warren Beatty and Michael Douglas are 25 years older than their wives, for a woman to date a younger man brings up all kinds of issues for people.

So what do you think? Is Caroline Flack brave or foolhardy for dating a guy who is not only 15 years younger but still a teenager? Is there still a stigma against women dating much younger men?

The Dragon Empress – The Life of Cixi, Dowager Empress of China (1835-1908)

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:18:00 +0000

The Dragon Empress – The Life of Cixi, Dowager Empress of China (1835-1908)

"I have often then that I am the most clever woman that ever lived, and others cannot compare with me...I have 400 million people dependent on my judgement." - Empress Cixi
Once upon a time in a distant province of China, an ordinary girl named Yehenara was born. She would one day grow up to be one of the most feared women in the Eastern world, known as the Dragon Empress. Only five feet tall, this daughter of a minor Manchu official, believed herself to be the cleverest woman alive. Historians and filmmakers have long portrayed her ‘The Dragon Empress,’ a despot and villain, murdering anyone who got in her way including her daughter-in-law and the Dowager Empress Niuhuru. For almost fifty years, this powerful and charismatic woman ruled China with iron fist inside a velvet glove, but her feudal outlook, her belief that China was the center of the universe, and that all foreigners were barbarians were contributing factors to the end of the Ch’ing dynasty after three hundred years.

Yehenara’s father was nobody; just one of a thousand, nameless and faceless officials who populated Peking at that time. The eldest child, Yehenara had an unhappy childhood, feeling neglected and unloved. She once said, 'Ever since I was a young girl, I had a very hard life. I was not happy with my parents, as I was not a favorite. My sisters had everything they wanted, while I was, to a great extent, ignored altogether.' There was no money to educate the children beyond the basics. Somehow Yehenara managed to learn to read and write, making her a rarity since most Chinese women were illiterate. Her father died when she was fourteen, leaving the family in dire straits. So, at the age of 16, Yehenara and her sister were brought to the Forbidden City to join the Emperor’s harem, a step up back then for Chinese women. The Dowager Consort Kangci personally selected the girls. She was one of 60 girls who were eligible for the honor, and only 28 were picked to be Preparative Concubines. Yehenara and her sister were amongst the lucky ones.

Yehenara spent two years in training, hoping that the Emperor would notice her. From the beginning, she used her time wisely, cozying up to another one of the concubines Ci’an, who had been chosen to be Empress. She also kept her eyes open, sizing up who had the real power in the Imperial palace, the Eunuchs. While she waited, Yehenara occupied herself reading her way through the palace libraries. Her luck changed when, as the story goes; the Emperor heard her singing one day and asked to meet her. Impressed with her beauty as well as her talent, Xianfeng picked her name from his nightly list of choices to grace his bed. A tablet carved from jade was turned over to reveal her name. Etiquette demanded that she be deposited, naked, at the foot of his bed.

Soon she bore the Emperor a son which gained her a promotion to Consort of the fourth rank (after his 1st birthday, she was promoted again to Noble Consort Yi, placing her second in rank to the Empress). She was given the title Tzu Hsi (Cixi), meaning “kindly and virtuous.” The Emperor died in 1861. Since there was no tradition of primogeniture in China, Cixi went to the Emperor’s death bed and demanded that he recognize her son as his heir. Since Cixi’s son was only five, she took advantage of the naiveté and the good nature of the Dowager Empress Niuhuru, suggesting that they become co-reigning Empress Dowagers. However, during the three months between the Emperor’s death and his burial, a rival faction attempted to seize power. Soon Cixi, alongside 8other regents, including Empress Niuhuru, came out on top. Prince I and Prince Cheng were found guilty of treason, and allowed to commit suicide. The others weren’t so lucky, they were beheaded and their estates confiscated and divided between Cixi and Niuhuru. Cixi was now a very rich woman in her own right.

Civil war raged through five provinces and twenty million people died during the early years of Cixi’s reign. Cixi initially relied on the advice of Prince Kung, who indulged her, underestimating her intelligence, believing that she would be easy to manipulate. But he soon found out how wrong he was when Cixi decided to clean up the corrupt national bureaucracy. She personally met with all officials above the level of provincial governor, who now had to report to her. Instead of favoring the Manchu elite who had held power for centuries, Cixi began to cultivate the Han Chinese, appointing officials as governors of all the southern provinces. Soon Cixi was ready to rule on her own. Her first step was to get rid of Prince Kung, who had become a little too familiar for Cixi’s liking. One day, during an audience, Cixi claimed that he had tried to attack her. He was seized by eunuchs, and stripped of all honors and duties. She later forgave him, needing his help to rule the country, but she had made her point. She had brought down the most powerful man in the kingdom and bent him to her will.

Cixi now became the poster girl for the saying “Power corrupts but absolute power corrupts absolutely.” She quickly got rid of those who opposed her, not willing to share power with anyone. She raised taxes on an already overburdened populace, selling positions of influence and pocketing the money for herself. There were sumptuous banquets with a hundred courses where Cixi ate with gold chopsticks and drank out of a jade cup. Incredibly vain, she applied white make-up with a trowel, and wore sumptuous gowns decorated with precious gems. At the end of her life, her personal jewelry vault contained 3,000 ebony boxes of jewels. She used naval funds to rebuild the summer palace that had been destroyed during the 2nd Opium War. As she grew older, she became a tyrant, punishing her household with beatings for even minor infractions. She apparently enjoyed having two of her maids repeatedly slap each other. When she turned 60, every courtier was obliged to donate 25% of their salary to her and to buy lavish gifts to celebrate the birthday girl. By the end of her reign, she has amassed a personal fortune of 8.5 million pounds.

Unfortunately Cixi’s son, Tongzhi, had inherited none of her intelligence and ambition. He was spoiled and indulged by everyone, but he led a lonely life, with no playmates of his own age. By his teens, he was alcoholic, preferring to hang out in brothels. At the age of 16, a wife was chosen for him from amongst the daughters of the Manchu officials. Cixi took an instant dislike to Alute, fearing her influence over her son. Despite being officially crowned Emperor, Tongzhi preferred to leave matters in his mother’s capable hands, while he drank and shagged anything that had a pulse. Two years after he was crowned, Tongzhi was dead from a combination of venereal disease and smallpox. He was only 19. His wife, Alute, soon committed suicide by swallowing opium but gossip had it that Cixi had her murdered.

Not leaving anything to chance, Cixi called a meeting of the Grand Council to discuss the succession. The lucky winner was her nephew Guangxu who was only three. Her choice violated the laws of ancestor-worship but Cixi didn’t care. Despite opposition from more conservative members of the council, Cixi got her way. On February 25th, 1875 Guangxu was proclaimed Emperor. Cixi’s second regency was a disaster for China. Immediately, Cixi locked horns with the French, Japanese and English, all of whom wanting to trade more in the East; had struck deals with China’s neighbors. When Cixi wanted to declare war on Vietnam, who had been forced into a treaty with the French, and her council didn’t back her up, she had them sacked. She replaced them with a group of “yes” men, and proceeded to go to war. China lost, and France ruled Vietnam for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile Japan seized the chance to go after Korea. In order to pay for the costly wars, taxes were raised. Ironically what made Cixi so popular was her stance against foreigners, but it also brought China to her knees.

Finally when the Emperor turned 19, Cixi agreed to retire but it was in name only. She spent her time spreading rumors that the Emperor was childlike and incompetent. Guangxu was the exact opposite of his rigid, conservative aunt. He believed that China needed to learn from the West in order to survive. He initiated what came to be known as “Hundred Days of Reform,” issuing decrees ordering railroads to be built, modernizing the military, reforming the legal system, dismissing thousands of Manchu officials who opposed his reforms. Cixi was livid. When she got word that the Emperor’s advisors suggested that she be placed under house arrest, she stormed the Forbidden City, with members of the army that had remained loyal. She forced the Emperor to rescind his reforms, imprisoning him in a palace in the middle of an island. He was totally isolated from the court, his servants either put to death or banished. His only companions were four guards and his wife.

Cixi was back in charge. However, her policies were ruinous to China. She made the mistake of aligning herself with the Boxers, encouraging their efforts to rid China of all foreigners, missionaries, and Christian converts. No one was safe, buildings were burnt. The foreign governments weren’t about to take the murder of their citizens lying down. Over 20,000 foreign troops (including American) marched towards Peking. Cixi, along with the rest of the Imperial family, fled the palace dressed ironically as peasants. When the Emperor’s favorite concubine begged Cixi not to abandon Peking, she was allegedly thrown down a well. For the first time, Cixi came face to face with the reality of the lives of the ordinary citizens of China, the grinding poverty and the famine. The Empress, who was nothing if not practical, decided to stop the war (against the advice of her advisors) with the Allied Powers, once she was assured of her continued reign after the war. China agreed to pay almost $333 million in war reparations. Finally, Cixi saw the light and was willing to build the railroads, and schools that Guangxu has been pushing for. Ironically, she began implementing a reform program that was more radical than one that had been proposed before. She began inviting the wives of foreign diplomats for tea. To rehabilitate her image, Cixi allowed a young photographer to take elaborately staged shots of her and her court.

In 1907, Cixi suffered a stroke. While she recovered, the Emperor fell ill and died of what is now known to be acute arsenic poisoning. Historians now speculate that Cixi knowing she was dying wanted to make sure that the Emperor would not continue his reforms after her death. Cixi died a day later, but not before installing her grandnephew Pu Yi as the new and last Emperor of China. Her tomb, which she had ordered destroyed and reconstructed in 1895, was destroyed again 1928 by the Kuomintang general Sun Dianying and his army. They stipped the tomb of its jewels, and dumped Cixi's corpse in the mud. The tomb was restored in 1949 by the People's Republic of China.

Recent biographers have taken a different view of Cixi than the more traditional view of a devious despot. They claim that Cixi was just a convenient scapegoat for problems that were beyond her control, a leader no more ruthless than other male rulers, and an effective but reluctant reformer in her last years. Many of the more sensational stories written about her by people who never met the Empress and concocted stories to feed to the Western Press who had their own reasons for wanting to blacken her name. Katherine Carl, who painted Cixi in her later years, wrote a sympathetic memoir describing the Empress as kind and considerate. In her later years, Cixi apparently had many regrets about the past and how she had dealt with the many crises of her reign.

Sources:

Margaret Nicholas - The World’s Wickedest Women, Octopus Books Limited, 1984
Sean Price - Cixi: Evil Empress of China? (Wicked History), Scholastic Books, 2009
Shelley Klein - The Most Evil Women in History, Metro Books, 2003
Sterling Seagrave - Dragon Lady: The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of China, Vintage 1993

Exhibition: The Empress Dowager, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

Wallis & Edward - 75th Anniversary of Edward VIII's Abdication

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 21:27:00 +0000

This sunday marks the 75th anniversary of Edward VIII's famous radio broadcast, where he told the nation that he was abdicating because he couldn't possibly fulfill his duties without the help of "the woman I love." That woman as we all know was Wallis Simpson, who became the Duchess of Windsor. The day before he had signed the instruments of abdication with his three brothers, the Duke of York, the Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent as witnesses. 75 years later we are still fascinated with what was billed as the love story of the century. King gives up his throne for a twice-divorced American woman. Who would have thunk it? His great-grandmother Queen Victoria must have been rolling in her grave! The more I read about Wallis and Edward, the more sympathy actually I have for her. I don't think she had any idea that Edward's feelings were going to run so deep for her that he would abdicate. She truly believed that the affair would run its course and he would move on like he'd had before. Instead of ending it when she had the chance, her own hubris got in the way, and Edward became more and more reliant on her. If she'd had the chance, I think that she would have stayed married to Ernest Simpson.

To mark the anniversary, I thought I would share with you all some books and movies about Edward and Mrs. Simpson. First up is the new movie W.E. directed by none other than Madonna. I saw a preview of this film when I went to see My Week with Marilyn, and I have to say that it looked rather interesting. The poster is rather intriguing as well. The film is in limited release right now, planning to go wide in early 2012. I certainly plan on seeing it before the end of the year, and of course, I will share my thoughts with you all!

Two new biographies of Wallis Simpson were published this past year in the UK. The first was by royal biographer Hugo Vickers.

I have not yet read this book although I plan on purchasing it when it comes out in paperback next year. I did purchase Anne Sebba's book from Amazon.co.uk, even though it's being published in the US in March of 2012. I just love the picture of Wallis on the cover. I'm in the middle of the book right now, and I'm quite enjoying it. I could have done without the speculation about whether or not Wallis was biologically a man or not. Seriously can we put this theory to bed? There's no way to prove it, unless someone manages to get permission to dig The Duchess' body up to test her DNA. Sebba doesn't reveal any real new information on Wallis, apart from quoting the letters that she wrote Ernest Simpson after the divorce, clearing indicating her strong feelings for her ex-husband, and her regret at how things turned out.

For something completely different, Laurie Graham has written a novel about the Windsors from the POV of a fictional friend of Wallis' from Baltimore entitled GONE WITH THE WINDSOR'S. I haven't read this but I love the cover. I did read Anne Edward's novel WALLIS, that was published I think in 1991 that was pretty decent.

Of course, the best miniseries, in my humble opinion, was Edward & Mrs. Simpson starring Edward Fox as Edward VIII and American actress Cynthia Harris as Wallis. Of all the actresses that I have seen play the role, Cynthia Harris comes close to capturing the spirit of Wallis, not to mention that she looks uncannily like her. No one can better Edward Fox as the Prince of Wales/Edward VIII either. If you haven't seen it, I suggest adding it to your Netflix queue.

This film was made several years ago starring Joely Richardson (daughter of Vanessa Redgrave) as Wallis and Stephen Campbell Moore as Edward. I've only watched 1/2 hour of this, and I wasn't impressed. Richardson's accent is all over the place and Campbell Moore is way too young to be playing Edward (He was 41 when he abdicated), he barely looks like he's old enough to shave.

Tonight on the Royal Report, Marilyn from Marilyn's Royal Report will be discussing the abdication and what it meant for Britain as well as the implications.

The Collection of Elizabeth Taylor at Christie's

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:08:00 +0000

Elizabeth Taylor was one of the most fascinating women on the planet. During her 79 years on the planet, she was a movie star, AIDS activist, perfume magnate, married eight times (including twice to Richard Burton), and punch line (Joan Rivers, John Belushi). She almost died several times, but like a phoenix, she continually rose from the ashes. It seemed like she was indestructible. Even though she was forced to use a wheelchair during her last few years, she still sent swimming with the sharks!

Now the jewelry and wardrobe are being auctioned off at Christie's New York next week. For those of you who don't live in New York & LA and weren't able to see the collection up close and personal, the Christie's website has made it easy for you to see (and bid!) on some of these fabulous items. You can check out a video here. Christie's has announced that a portion of profits from the sale of select publications, exhibition admissions and event sponsorships will be directed to The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation (ETAF). The website also includes highlights of the collection, including some of the fabulous jewelry that Richard Burton bought for Elizabeth during their tumultous marriage.

Book of the Month: Dangerous Ambition: Rebecca West and Dorothy Thompson: New Women in Search of Love and Power

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:32:00 +0000

Title: Dangerous Ambition: Rebecca West and Dorothy Thompson: New Women in Search of Love and Power
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Publication date: 11/8/2011
Pages: 512

Overview:

Born in the 1890s on opposite sides of the Atlantic, friends for more than forty years, Dorothy Thompson and Rebecca West lived strikingly parallel lives that placed them at the center of the social and historical upheavals of the twentieth century. In Dangerous Ambition, Susan Hertog chronicles the separate but intertwined journeys of these two remarkable women writers, who achieved unprecedented fame and influence at tremendous personal cost.

American Dorothy Thompson was the first female head of a European news bureau, a columnist and commentator with a tremendous following whom Time magazine once ranked alongside Eleanor Roosevelt as the most influential woman in America. Rebecca West, an Englishwoman at home wherever genius was spoken, blazed a trail for herself as a journalist, literary critic, novelist, and historian. In a prefeminist era when speaking truth to power could get anyone—of either gender—ostracized, blacklisted, or worse, these two smart, self-made women were among the first to warn the world about the dangers posed by fascism, communism, and appeasement.

But there was a price to be paid, Hertog shows, for any woman aspiring to such greatness. As much as they sought voice and power in the public forum of opinion and ideas, and the independence of mind and money that came with them, Thompson and West craved the comforts of marriage and home. Torn between convention and the opportunities of the new postwar global world, they were drawn to men who were as ambitious and hungry for love as themselves: Thompson to the brilliant, volatile, and alcoholic Nobel Prize winner Sinclair Lewis; West to her longtime lover H. G. Wells, the lusty literary eminence whose sexual and emotional demands doomed any chance they may have had at love. Tragically, both arrangements produced troubled sons, whose anger and jealousy at their mothers’ iconic fame eroded their sense of personal success.

Brimming with fresh insights obtained from previously sealed archives, this penetrating dual biography is a story of twinned lives caught up in the crosscurrents of world events and affairs of the heart—and of the unique trans-Atlantic friendship forged by two of the most creative and complex women of their time.

Afternoon at Hillwood House

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 19:29:00 +0000

To celebrate Thanksgiving, and for a change of scenery, I headed down to our nation's capitol. On my list of things to do was to visit Marjorie Merriweather Post's estate in north DC called Hillwood. Marjorie Merriweather Post (188 -1973) was the daughter of C.W. Post who invented a coffee substitute called Posties as well as Grape Nuts. At the time of his death, when she was 27, she inherited $20 million dollars which is something like over a $100 million dollars in today's money. Suffice it to say, girlfriend didn't have to clip coupons. Although she could have spent the rest of her life counting her money, Marjorie was a shrewd businessman. She served on the board of her father's company The Postum Cereal Company, which he'd founded in 1895. With her second husband, E.F. Hutton (anyone remember those commericals, "When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen?), she developed a wider range of products including Birdseye. The company eventually became the General Foods Corporation in 1929.

In the 1950's Marjorie Merriweather Post bought Hillwood House, which she extensively renovated. It's now home to her large collection of French and Russian decorative arts. The web-site has an awesome orientation video.which you can watch here The house is gorgeous, but it is not easy to find, let me tell you. I got lost along the way, and ended up almost in Maryland! However, I did manage to find the Politics and Prose bookstore which was also on my list of places to visit. After I managed to turn myself around, I finally got to the museum but with only an hour to look around before it closed for the day. So I quickly headed over to the Adirondack House on the property to see the Wedding Belles exhibition.

The exhibition features not only all 4 of Marjorie Merriweather Post's wedding dresses, to husbands Edward Bennett Close (who later remarried, Glenn Close is his granddaughter), E.F. Hutton, Joseph Davies, and Herbert A. May, but also her mother Ella Merriweather's dress, and the wedding dresses of her daughters Adelaide, and Eleanor Close and Nedenia Hutton (the actress Dina Merrill). It's amazing to see how not only fashion, but wedding fashions have changed since the 19th century. Back then, very few women wore white wedding dresses unless they were rich, most women like Ella Merriweather wore an afternoon dress, something that they could wear again. The exhibit also features the flower girl and bridesmaids dresses worn by Dina Merrill as a child.

I had enough time after the Wedding Belles exhibition to visit the main house. During her third marriage, her husband Joseph Davies became the second American ambassador to the Soviet Union. During that time, Marjorie acquired many valuable works of art from the Soviets. Not just decorative arts but paintings and photographs of the Russian Tsars. I don't think I've ever seen so many portraits of Tsar Nicholas II as I did at Hillwood House, not to mention some fabulous portraits of Catherine the Great and Empress Alexandra. There are also several Faberge eggs, Sevres porcelain, French furniture, tapestries, and many, many Russian icons.

This little beauty is what Princess Alexandra of Hesse wore at her wedding ceremony to Tsar Nicholas II in 1894. The crown consists of bands of diamonds sewn into velvet-covered supports and surmounted by a cross of six large, old mine-cut diamonds.

This small brooch was most likely made soon after Tsar Nicholas and Tsaritsa Alexandra’s wedding. On it, Alexandra wears a headpiece and jewels similar to the ones in the couple’s wedding portraits. Nicholas is depicted in the uniform of the Life-Guard Hussars Regiment that he wore at the wedding.

These objects are part of a large dressing table set from the dowry of Grand Duchess Ekaterina Mikhailovna, a niece of Tsar Nicholas I. Commissioned for her wedding to the duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in 1851, this set reflects the tradition of grandiose objects produced in the eighteenth century deemed indispensable to the ceremonial acts of grooming and dressing.

The museum houses more than 16,000 objects that Post collected over the years. I definitely want to go back in the spring when the garden is in full bloom. The estate covers 25 acres of land, including the main house, the cafe, the dacha, the Adirondack house, the Butler's house, etc. Hillwood was just one of Marjorie Merriweather Post's estates. Mar-a-lago, her estate in Palm Beach, was bought by Donald Trump and turned into an exclusive club. It originally had 115 rooms! She also owned Camp Topridge in the Adirondacks as well as a home in Brookville, NY which she sold to Long Island University for $200,000. It is now the C.W. Post Campus of LIU.

What I loved about Hillwood was that it still felt like a private home. Interspersed amongst all the art work and expensive furniture are tons of family photographs and portraits. I could just imagine Marjorie Merriweather Post sweeping down the staircase in an evening gown to greet her guests at some swanky party that she was hosting. However, one of the best parts of the visit, was wandering through the gift shop and seeing my book, Scandalous Women perched between Leslie Carroll's Royal Pains and Kris Waldherr's Doomed Queens!

If you are ever in Washington, DC, I encourage you to visit Hillwood House. You won't regret it!

Guest Blogger Debra Brenegan on The Remarkable Life of Fanny Fern

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:50:00 +0000

Scandalous Women is pleased to welcome author Debra Brenegan to the blog today to talk about Fanny Fern, once one of the highest paid columnists in the United States, making $100 a week way back in 1855.

Talk about a scandalous woman! Fanny Fern helped define the term. And the sad thing is that most people have never heard of her. I had never heard of her either until one day, in graduate school, I took a nineteenth-century American Literature class with a professor who told me, “I know a writer you’re just going to love.” This writer, Fanny Fern, wasn’t on our reading list that semester, so, he added her book, Ruth Hall, to the reading list of a course I took with him the next semester. And, he was right – I adored her!

Fanny Fern was the highest-paid, most-popular writer of her era. She served as a literary mentor to Walt Whitman, earned the respect of Nathaniel Hawthorne and was friends with Harriet Beecher Stowe. Fern’s personal life was a rollercoaster of highs and lows. She was widowed, escaped an abusive second marriage, and then married a third man, eleven years her junior.

I became so interested in Fern and her amazing life that I started writing papers about her. I applied for and got a graduate school fellowship to visit Fern’s archives at Smith College in Massachusetts. As I learned more about Fanny Fern, I couldn’t stop telling people about her. And people were amazed with her rags-to-riches story. They couldn’t believe that they had never heard of her. When it came time to write my dissertation, I combined my interest in creative writing, literature and Women’s Studies to write a historical novel about this forgotten journalist, novelist and feminist. I wanted everyone who hadn’t heard of Fanny Fern to learn about her; I wanted to bring her back to life.

That dissertation became my first published book, the historical novel Shame the Devil (SUNY Press). My book tells the remarkable and true story of Fanny Fern (the pen name of Sara Payson Willis). Well ahead of her time, Fern (1811-1872) scrabbled in the depths of poverty before her meteoric rise to fame and fortune. She penned one of the country's first prenuptial agreements and served as a nineteenth-century Oprah to her hundreds of thousands of fans. Her weekly editorials in the pages of the New York Ledger over a period of about twenty years chronicled the myriad controversies of her era and demonstrated her firm belief in the motto, "Speak the truth, and shame the devil."

You can learn more about Fanny Fern, her life, and the book Shame the Devil on my website: http://www.debrabrenegan.com/.

Have you ever heard of Fanny Fern? If you haven’t (and many people haven’t), why do you suppose that is?

Scandalous Movie Review: My Week with Marilyn

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 05:04:00 +0000

Cast

Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe
Kenneth Branagh as Sir Laurence Olivier
Eddie Redmayne as Colin Clark
Judi Dench as Dame Sybil Thorndike
Emma Watson as Lucy
Dougray Scott as Arthur Miller
Dominic Cooper as Milton H. Greene
Julia Ormond as Vivien Leigh
Derek Jacobi as Sir Owen Morshead
Zoë Wanamaker as Paula Strasberg
Richard Clifford as Richard Wattis
Philip Jackson as Roger Smith
Simon Russell Beale as Admiral Cotes-Preedy

Directed by: Simon Curtis
Written by Adrian Hodges based on the memoirs of Colin Clark
Produced by David Parfitt, Harvey Weinstein, The Weinstein Company and BBC Films

Synopsis: In the summer of 1956, and 23 year old Colin Clark is looking for a job as an assistant on a film. He talks his way into a job working as the 3rd Assistant Director on the British film of The Prince and the Showgirl (based on the The Sleeping Prince by Terrence Rattigan), starring Knight of the British theatre Laurence Olivier and American film star Marilyn Monroe, who is also on honeymoon with her new husband, playwright Arthur Miller. Things on the set start rocky and get worse as Marilyn's insecurities get the best of her. Olivier is frustrated by her lateness and her dependence on her acting coach Paula Strasberg, wife of Method guru Lee Strasberg. When Arthur Miller leaves the country to do some work, Marilyn begins to rely on Colin to keep her company. Olivier tells Colin to do anything to make Marilyn happy and get her to the set on time. Colin, who of course falls immediately under Marilyn's spell, introduces her to th wonders of British life as they spend a week together, during which time she escapes from the pressures of work. But the idyll has to end, leaving Colin sad but happy with his memories of the magical time that he spent with Marilyn.

My thoughts: I read Clark's memoirs when they first came out back in the 1990's on a trip to England. Like many people, I've been fascinated with Marilyn Monroe since childhood. I've read pretty much every book ever written about her, her combination of sexuality and vulnerability has rarely been duplicated by any actress. So when I heard that they were making a movie out of the book, I had my misgivings. Does anyone remember the HBO movie where Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino shared the role of Marilyn, Ashley played the pre-nose job, pre-blonde Marilyn as a tough cookie, while Sorvino played the later Marilyn. It didn't really work, and I've avoided biopics about Marilyn ever since. Still, I couldn't help but wonder, especially given the cast that had been assembled for the film. The movie premiered at The New York Film Festival but I wasn't not paying $50 to see the film. However, when the film opened the day before Thanksgiving, I thought I would make it my Thanksgiving film.

I'm happy to see that my fears weren't realized, although at first I was worried, the first few scenes were not promising. Initially, they just seemed a catalog of Monroe stereotypes, breathy voice, the giggle, as the film progresses, it goes deeper into Monroe's psyche as Colin gets to know the real Marilyn. Michelle Williams doesn't do an impersonation of Marilyn Monroe, she is Marilyn from the tips of her platinum blonde locks to the wiggle in her walk. Williams has said in interviews that she spent six months not just reading Monroe biographies but also studying her walk and her vocal inflections, and it paid off. However, her work clearly went deeper than that. Williams captures Marilyn's fears, her vulnerability, her neediness, vanity, foolish, and her ability to turn the character that she called 'her' on and off when necessary. Marilyn's emotions are never very far from the surface, and Williams has the ability to portray her ability to turn on a dime from sadness to happiness in the blink of an eye. The scene where she reads her husband's work and realizes that he's created an unflattering portrait of her are devastating.

This film is a coming of age story with Colin Clark, played by the dynamic Eddie Redmayne, going from a boy who is unsure about what he wants to do with his life to a man. It's lovely to see his fumbling attempts to woo Lucy, the wardrobe assistant played by Emma Watson, and to defy the low expectations of the filmmakers who see him as just a gopher initially. Some of the best scenes in the film are when he goes above and beyond the call of duty much to the chagrin of his bosses.

Both Colin and Marilyn have to deal with expectations, for Colin it has to do with having a famous father, art historian Sir Kenneth Clark, and a famous brother, conservative politician and military historian Alan Clark. For Marilyn, it's the expectations of the public and her fellow actors. On the Prince and the Showgirl, she worries that she's not good enough to work with the English actors in the cast, most of whom are theatre veterans. Dame Judi Dench does superb work as usual in the small role of Dame Sybil Thorndike, who goes out of her way to make Marilyn feel welcome on the set, something that Olivier seems incapable of doing.

At first Kenneth Branagh seemed miscast as Laurence Olivier, he's shorter, blonder, doughier with no upper lip, but he manages to capture the impatience, and the narcissism of a man who has been told that he's the greatest actor in England, and feels that his poop doesn't stink. When Olivier has to eat crow later in the film, acknowledging that Marilyn has a gift for film acting that he doesn't possess, it's brilliant. Of course the film is peopled with wonderful actors in supporting roles such as Sir Derek Jacobi, Simon Russell Beale, Toby Jones, and Michael Kitchen. Zoe Wanamaker almost steals the film as Paula Strasberg. One longs for someone to make a film out of Susan Strasberg's memoir about what it was like to have her parents virtually adopt Marilyn, neglecting the needs of their own children. Only Dominic Cooper is miscast as Milton Greene, Marilyn's former lover and business partner. He's too young for the role and lacks the gravitas for the part. Unfortunately Dougray Scott is given very little too do as Arthur Miller.

While the film is not quite as emotionally satisfying as The King's Speech, it does evoke nostalgia for a time and a world that no longer exists. The film rests squarely on the more than adequate shoulders of Michelle Williams and Eddie Redmayne. It was a more than pleasant way to spend my Thanksgiving.

My verdict: Two thumbs up!

The Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:33:00 +0000

Sex scandals involving men of the cloth are not new (see Jimmy Swaggart. Jim Bakker, etc.); as far back as 1874 Henry Ward Beecher’s former assistant Theodore Tilton sued the preacher for ‘criminal intimacy’ with his wife Elizabeth Tilton. But a scandal involving a female evangelist was something new entirely. Aimee Semple McPherson was no ordinary female evangelist; she was also a media celebrity, one of the first evangelists to combine religion and popular entertainment in America. In the 1920's, Aimee was more famous than movie stars, such as Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. Her radio show sometimes reached as far as Australia. Over more than 30 years, Aimee Semple McPherson touched the lives of millions across the country.

Born in Canada in 1890, Aimee was exposed to religion at an early age. According to biographer Daniel Mark Epstein, Aimee was consecrated to God at her birth, by her mother Mimi, who was a soldier in the Salvation Army. Strong-willed and inquisitive by nature, Aimee suffered a spiritual crisis in her teens; trying to reconcile the theory of evolution she was taught in school with the teaching of Genesis in the Bible. Attending a revival meeting one day, she met her first husband, a charismatic Irishman named Robert Semple who was a guest preacher. Aimee found her calling and a husband at the same time. They soon married, partners in the Pentecostal faith, intent on spreading the word, but their happiness was short-lived. Robert died of dysentery and malaria four months after the couple arrived in China to do missionary work. Aimee was eight months pregnant with their daughter Roberta, penniless and alone. She managed to make her way back to New York, where her mother arranged a job for her working for the Salvation Army. It was there that she met her second husband, a restaurant accountant by the name of Harold McPherson.

Aimee tried to settle down as an ordinary housewife in Rhode Island, giving birth to a second child, a son named Rolf but she began suffering from depression and various ailments. In the hospital, she heard a voice saying “Now will you go? Now will you go?” Aimee decided to return to her ministry, buying 2 white servant uniforms, which became her signature look. With no savings, no church backing, and no guarantees, she set off to make a name for herself as a female preacher. From that point on, she would be known simply as “Sister.”

Over the next seven years, Aimee would criss-cross the country six times. She didn’t just talk of the gospel but of her own experiences as a wife and a mother. She turned the usual gospel of hell-fire and damnation into a gospel of love. But the constant touring took a toll on her marriage, and her husband eventually filed for divorce. After touring around the country for several years, Aimee decided to settle down in Los Angeles. Although she preached a conservative gospel, against evolution and for temperance, Aimee used modern technology, radio, movies and magazines, to get her message across. Her revival meetings were more like stage shows, dramatizing scenes from the Bible, with a full orchestra. In Los Angeles, she founded the Church of the Foursquare Gospel, building the huge Angelus Temple, which seated 5,300 people. Aimee was also one of the first women to preach a radio sermon, and she racially integrated her tent meetings and church services. By 1926, she was one of the most influential and charismatic women of her time.

On April 24, 1926, evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson returned from a three month trip to Europe and the Holy Land. She returned home to a life of loneliness, overwork, bickering with her mother, and the pressures of fame. “At the end of each day,” she wrote, “…dear people would go to their homes arm in arm, while I would sit in silence.” Aimee had almost immediately plunged back into her crusade against evolution. If that wasn’t enough on her plate, she’d also stuck her nose into local politics, campaigning to keep Venice Beach’s blue laws on the books, which prohibited things like dancing on Sundays. Her actions just added to her list of enemies which already included fellow evangelist Robert P. Schuler who felt that she was a poacher, raiding other church’s congregations. He also believed that she was more of a personality than a preacher, McPhersonism rather than Christianity.

Almost five weeks later, on May 18, 1926, Aimee went with her secretary to Ocean Park Beach north of Venice Beach for a swim. She often went to the beach to work on her sermons. That day she ate waffles with her secretary, wrote for a little while, and then went for a swim. After an hour, her secretary grew alarmed that she hadn’t returned. McPherson was scheduled to hold a service that day; her mother Minnie Kennedy preached the sermon instead, concluding with the words, "Sister is with Jesus," sending parishioners into a tearful frenzy. Thousands flocked to Venice Beach to watch the hunt for Aimee’s body as parishioners held day and night seaside vigils. Merchants did a big business selling photos of the evangelist. The hunt hurt the bootleggers business since they couldn’t bring in the booze without drawing attention to themselves. One parishioner drowned while searching for the body and a diver died of exposure. McPherson's mother received a ransom note (signed by "The Avengers") which demanded a half million dollars, or else the kidnappers would sell McPherson into "white slavery". She later claimed that she’d tossed the letter away, believing her daughter was already dead.

Aimee’s disappearance was a boon to the local newspapers circulation, The Los Angeles Times and William Randolph Hearst's Los Angeles Examiner competed to see who could get the latest scoop. Daily updates appeared in newspapers around the country, the story helping to attract new subscribers. The New York Times printed the same number of articles that they had on the Scopes Monkey trial one year earlier. Americans eagerly followed each new tidbit in the story. The Los Angeles Times chartered a plane to scan the ocean for Aimee’s body and even hired a parachutist. Other papers, lacking the resources, printed excerpts from Aimee’s autobiography. More than 50 reporters were assigned to the story. When there was no news, they simply printed rumor and innuendo.

On June 23, just when everyone assumed she was knocking on heaven’s door, Aimee knocked on the door of a cottage in Agua Prieta, Sonora, a Mexican town across the border from Douglas, Arizona. She claimed she had been kidnapped, drugged, tortured, and held for ransom in a shack by a man and a woman, "Steve" and "Mexicali Rose". She had managed to escape from her captors, walking 13 hours through the desert to freedom. She was quickly taken to a hospital. On the surface, the story seemed plausible; the FBI had been investigating a number of kidnapping rings in Southern California, but things didn’t seem to add up. Aimee's shoes showed no signs of a long desert trek, nor did they have grass stains on them. Aimee had also been wearing a bathing suit when she disappeared, but turned up in a dress, wearing a wristwatch that she hadn’t worn to the beach. Although she claimed that had been tortured and drugged, she seemed in surprisingly good health for someone who been through an ordeal nor was there any evidence of sunburn or dehydration.
A crowd of at least 50,000 people gathered to welcome her home after her ordeal, which was the largest crowd that had ever gathered to greet anyone arriving in Los Angeles—including sports figures, presidents, politicians or movie stars. The Los Angeles police department assigned a special guard to protect her and the Fire Department turned up in their parade uniforms. Aimee stood surrounded by 7 young women dressed in white as rose petals were tossed from planes overhead. Gossip columnist Louella Parsons covered the event for Hearst’s Los Angeles Examiner.

Within days, many were calling for a full investigation into Aimee’s “kidnapping.” The Los Angeles Examiner offered $10,000 for information about the kidnappers and $1,000 if anyone could locate the shack where Aimee was allegedly kept. However, the police seemed to have no interest in trying to find the kidnappers. Instead they focused on investigating Aimee’s personal life. They focused in particular on Kenneth Ormiston, the married engineer of the radio station she owned, who mysteriously disappeared around the same time. People quickly put two and two together and came up with the idea that the two were having an affair. Others, however, believed that the story was just one big publicity stunt.
A grand jury convened on July 8, 1926, but adjourned 12 days later citing lack of evidence to proceed. Witnesses came forward claiming to have seen Aimee at a seaside cottage in Carmel-by-the-Sea, the cottage rented by Kenneth Ormiston under an assumed name. Ormiston admitted he had rented the cottage but claimed that the woman --known in the press as Mrs. X--was not Aimee but another woman with whom he was having an affair. When the grand jury reconvened on August 3, it heard further testimony along with documents from hotels, all said to be in Aimee's handwriting.

Aimee never wavered from her story, that she was approached by a young couple at the beach who had asked her to come over and pray for their sick child, and that she was then shoved into a car and drugged with chloroform. When she was not forthcoming with answers regarding her relationship with Ormiston, the judge charged Aimee and her mother with obstruction of justice. She showed up in court every day with seven female attendants who were dressed like her in a white uniform with a navy cape. Not content to leave her fate solely in God’s hands, Aimee hired three of the most powerful lawyers in Los Angeles. To combat the bad newspaper publicity, Aimee spoke freely about the court trials on the air from her radio station. She likened herself to Joan of Arc, claiming that the forces of evil were trying to sacrifice a woman preacher. Just like in the 15th century, men were threatened by a powerful woman who challenged the status quo.

The prosecution of Aimee generated support for her among local flappers who attended the trial in support, they regarded her as a modern woman similar to themselves, and whose prosecution they believed was motivated by issues of gender. Newspaperman and cynic H.L. Mencken, previously a vocal critic of McPherson's, came away from the trial impressed with Aimee and disdainful of the prosecution. He concluded that that if you want to discredit somebody’s political agenda, then you go after their private life (now a fact of life for politicians) but still somewhat new at the time. Aimee had been very vocal about getting the teaching of evolution out of California schools and Bibles into every classroom. The same civic leaders, who had had once embraced her, now saw her as an embarrassment. In the end, the district attorney had no clear evidence that she and her mother had obstructed justice, and the charges were dropped. However, the damage to Aimee’s reputation was done.

To this day no one knows what really happened to Aimee Semple McPherson. Biographer Matthew Avery Sutton concedes that Aimee may have simply wanted to disappear for a break, or for good, not realizing the uproar that would be created by her disappearance. Others believed that Aimee would have risked everything that she had worked so hard for just to throw it away on a sexual affair or a publicity stunt. Theories and innuendo abounded: that she had run off with a lover, she had gone off to have an abortion, she was taking time to heal from plastic surgery, or she had staged a publicity stunt. Nevertheless, her disappearance produced a turmoil that convulsed Los Angeles, and enthralled millions of spectators who watched the unfolding drama in the press and on radio.

Aimee struggled for several years after the kidnapping, trying to re-establish her public image. She lost weight, and bobbed her hair, appeared in a Broadway show about her life, which was less than successful since she refused to talk about the kidnapping. There were dozens of lawsuits, and she even became estranged for a time from her mother and daughter. She eloped with a singer named Dave Hutton, who had appeared in one of her productions, outraging some of her parishioners who believed that divorcees should never remarry (the couple later divorced). As the country entered the Depression, Aimee began preaching to the poor and disenfranchised, particularly the African-American and Mexican communities in Los Angeles. Finally, she returned to her Pentecostal roots, publicly speaking in tongues, preaching that the country needed not just an economic revival but a spiritual one as well. In 1944, she arrived in Oakland to preach. One night before she went to bed, she took some barbiturates to help her sleep. She never woke up. Her son found her unconscious on the floor of her room. Although the official coroner’s report stated that her death was an accident, it was initially reported as a suicide.

More than 50 years later, the story of her disappearance still continues to fascinate novelists such as Sinclair Lewis and Nathaniel West, songwriters, and filmmakers. It is one of the great unsolved mysteries in American history.

Sources:

Epstein, Daniel Mark. Sister Aimee: The Life of Aimee Semple McPherson. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1993.
Sutton, Matthew A. Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2007

Scandalous Women around the Blogosphere

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:51:00 +0000

Just a quick round up of some links relating to various Scandalous Women.

Historian Tracy Borman, whose new book Matilda: Queen of the Conqueror, was published by Jonathan Cape on 1 September, has a great podcast over at BBC History Magazine about Matilda. Borman is one of the History Chicks, along with Alison Weir, Kate Williams, and Sarah Gristwood, who lecture in the UK. How I long to be included in that group!

At History Today, there is a great article about Louis XV's mistress Madame de Pompadour, entitled Madame de Pompadour: The Other Cheek, detailing some of the obscene and irreverent 18th-century drawings targetting the royal mistress. Thanks to Kathrynn Dennis of The History Hoydens for finding the article. I would love to read a historical fiction novel from the POV of Madame de Pompadour.

Robert K. Massie, whose new biography of Catherine the Great, just came out this month has an interesting article over at The Wall Street Journal entitled: Catherine the Great's Lessons for Despots.

Speaking of women in power, TIME magazine had a nice cover story on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Was Jane Austen murdered? That's what crime novelist Lindsay Ashford wants to know.

Another fascinating article on the Bronte Sisters. Why has no one filmed a miniseries or a film about the sisters? I had heard rumors that Michelle Williams was involved in a project but there's nothing on Internet Movie Database. I, personally, think that James McAvoy would make an interesting Branwell Bronte, and I would definitely cast Cary Mulligan as either Charlotte or Anne. Given the interest in remaking Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights ad nauseum, you would think a film about the sisters would be a slam dunk.

Scandalous Women on Film: Iron Lady Trailer

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:30:00 +0000

I can't tell you how excited I am to see this movie. Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher? How could this movie go wrong. Have a look at the brand new trailer of upcoming biopic movie ‘The Iron Lady’ based on Margaret Thatcher, the UK first female Prime Minister. The film focuseson Thatcher's charismatic political persona and her personal vulnerability as a woman. Meryl Streep recently shared that it took a lot out of her to don the role, but it was a privilege to play Margaret Thatcher.

The movie is directed by Phyllida Lloyd and besides Meryl Streep, the movie features Jim Broadbent, Richard E. Grant, Harry Lloyd, Roger Allam, Anthony Head and Olive Colman. The movie hits the US on December 30, 2011 and on January 6, 2012 in the UK. I think that it is a given that Streep will earn yet another Oscar nomination, but she has stiff competition in Glenn Close who plays a woman who disguises herself as a man in Albert Dobbs.

This is a banner fall for films about Scandalous Women. Along with Iron Lady and Albert Dobbs, new films include Keira Knightly (who is in everything) as Sabina Spielrein in A Dangerous Method, Madonna's new film about the abdicaiton W.E., and Michelle Williams channeling Marilyn Monroe.

Which one of these films are people particularly looking forward to? I can't wait to see A Dangerous Method and W.E.

Winner of The September Queen and more

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:25:00 +0000

The Winner of Gillian Bagwell's THE SEPTEMBER QUEEN is.......

Teabird

Congratulations! I will be emailing you to get your address. And thanks to everyone who entered the giveway.

Now on to more news. I'm contemplating adding a monthly Scandalous Women podcast to the blog. The podcast would allow me to go into a little bit more depth about some of the Scandalous Women in history that I've been bringing you the past 4 years.

I've tentatively going to attempt to launch the podcast in December. If the first one is successful and there's interest, the goal is to have one every month. I'm lining up a great group of guests to join me, to discuss everything from Eleanor of Aquitaine to the Grande Horizontales of Paris during the Belle Epoque. I've added a poll to the sidebar, to see whether or not my readers would be interested in a podcast.

Stay tuned to the blog for details of the first podcast, date, time etc. and who my first guest will be. I'm really excited about moving Scandalous Women into a different phase. I will still continue to post articles about interesting women as well as reviews of books and films that I think you will all be interested in.

Scandalous Book Review: Sybil Exposed by Debbie Nathan

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 19:34:00 +0000

• Title: Sybil Exposed

• Author: Debbie Nathan
• Pub. Date: October 2011
• Publisher: Free Press
• Format: Hardcover, 320pp

I remember watching the TV mini-series Sybil as a pre-teen and being riveted. The story of Sybil Dorsett, a young, shy graduate student who suffered such traumatic abuse by her mother, that her psyche shattered into 16 distinct personalities, was Must-See TV. Sally Field, who played the title role, won an Emmy Award for her work, and totally changed her career around, proving that she could handle serious drama as well as light comedy. But it was the story of Sybil and the idea of multiple personalities that really got me. I was fascinated by the idea that someone could suffer such trauma that the only way they could deal with it was by splinting into different personalities. I eagerly watched The Three Faces of Eve, based on one of the earliest known cases of multiple personality disorder. But Eve only had 3 personalities while Sybil had 16. Later on, the TV soap opera One Life to Live featured a mother and a daughter who both suffered from what has become known as Dissociative Identity Disorder. I even bought the book that the miniseries was based on to read more. The story terrified and fascinated me. I’m one those people who reads about a disease and then thinks that she has it. Not that I thought that I had DID, but I’ve often felt that I have more than one person inside of me. Little did I know that the entire story was based on a lie.

Picking up a copy of Debbie Nathan’s new book Sybil Exposed, I felt the same way that I did when I found out that Go Ask Alice wasn’t the real diary of a teenage drug addict who died tragically. I felt cheated, that book scared the crap out of me so much, that I vowed then and there that I would never do drugs. Finding out that the story was just a novel somehow cheapened it a little. But Sybil Exposed is a powerful story of how three women managed to pull the wool over not just a nation of readers but also over the whole psychiatric establishment.

What is interesting about Nathan’s book is that neither Dr. Connie Wilbur, the psychiatrist who treated Shirley Mason (Sybil) nor Shirley nor Flora Schreiber who wrote the book planned on deceiving anyone. Shirley just wanted to please the doctor who she had developed an unhealthy attachment to, Dr. Wilbur wanted the respect of the medical establishment that she felt that she had been denied during her years practicing, and Flora Schreiber was eager to move beyond writing fluff pieces for the women’s magazines. Nathan’s book Sybil Exposed examines how the whole thing went down. It’s a sad and cautionary tale about how the trust between a patient and a doctor can be abused, and how overwhelming ambition can warp one’s sense of right and wrong.

Shirley Mason was a young woman who grew up a member of the 7th day Adventist Church in a small town in Minnesota. Shirley was an only child, born when her parents were in the 40’s. Her mother, Mattie, had great difficulty carrying a pregnancy to full term so Shirley was doubly precious. . Imaginative and creative, Shirley devised various ways of hiding the stories that she wrote from her mother who was not only over protective but a bit neurotic. Shirley would cut up letters and words from magazines, like the word magnets that they sell today, and use them to create her stories. As a child, Shirley felt torn between her desire to paint and write and the teachings of her church which discouraged such activities, placing her already in conflict. She also suffered throughout her childhood from various ailments. Doctors diagnosed anemia, and after a few treatments, she would feel better but then she would go into a decline. The condition continued throughout her high school and early college years. It was in Omaha that Shirley met Dr. Connie Wilbur who was one of her first therapists.

It’s a testament to Nathan’s judicious reporting that Wilbur manages to come across as both a caring psychoanalyst as well as an ambitious monster. Wilbur had an overwhelming sense of her own importance. Her father, who was a noted chemist, had told her that she wasn’t smart enough to go to medical school, so she had to prove him wrong. She’d tried and failed to invent a cure for athlete’s foot. She became a psychiatrist at the time that there were very few women not only in medical school but in psychiatry. From the beginning, she was willing to try experimental techniques, including electro-shock therapy. For her the ends truly justified the means, although she genuinely wanted to help people.

The irony of this whole story is that after she finished her initial treatment with Dr. Wilbur, Shirley was fine for several years, until she moved to New York and started treatment with Dr. Wilbur again. Nathan concludes that Shirley was suffering from pernicious anemia, and that if she had been diagnosed properly, she probably would never have gone back into therapy with Dr. Wilbur. Another doctor who briefly treated Shirley when Dr. Wilbur was out of town, thought that Shirley was a hysteric who was highly suggestible under the influence of hypnosis.

The relationship between Doctor and patient was clearly co-dependent or countertransference. Wilbur, who was unable to have children, needed to be needed by her patients, and Shirley liked the attention that she received from Dr. Wilbur. From the beginning, Dr. Wilbur crossed professional lines which should have gotten her thrown out of the AMA if it had been known; she took Shirley on trips, gave her money, and made house calls to treat her. Later on when Shirley went back into therapy with Dr. Wilbur, she helped pay her rent, found her jobs and allowed her to rack up thousands of dollars’ worth of therapy. Why? Because at some point, Dr. Wilbur decided that Shirley suffered from multiple personality disorder, and she became determined that Shirley’s case would establish her at the forefront of American psychology. She pumped Shirley almost daily with Pentothal which Shirley quickly became addicted to, along with a whole host of other psychotropic drugs including Demerol, Benzedrine; Daprisal, Seconal, Equanil, Edrisal, Dexamyl, Thorazine, and Serpatilin, a combination of Ritalin and a tranquilizer, and Phenobarbital. Shirley was like a walking pharmacy. It’s a wonder that she could remember her name.

Nathan includes snippets of the therapy sessions (which were taped) which clearly indicated that Wilbur was leading Shirley along the path that she wanted her to go. Wilbur was relentless, increasing the dosages of Pentothal until Shirley came up with increasingly bizarre stories about her mother including lesbian orgies and repeated brutal rapes with various instruments. The more outrageous the story, the more Wilbur was happy. Shirley, to her credit, attempted to tell Dr. Wilbur at one point that she was making the whole alternate personalities/abuse stories up, but Wilbur made it clear that she would not only stop treating Shirley, but end the friendship. By this time, the only friend Shirley had was Dr. Wilbur. The involvement of Flora Schreiber, the journalist who like Dr. Wilbur, never felt that she’d gotten the recognition that she deserved completed the trio. The book’s success had a different effect on the 3 women. For Dr. Wilbur, MPD or DID was finally accepted as a genuine diagnosis, but Flora Schreiber began to resent having to share not just the money but also the spotlight with Dr. Wilbur. And poor Shirley, after spending several years after her ‘integration’ happily teaching art at a small college, the book’s publication turned her eventually into a total recluse, as soon as someone realized who she was.

If you have any doubts about psychiatry or psychoanalysis, this book will just reinforce your feelings about the profession. On the other hand, it just goes to show easy the doctor/patient relationship can be abused, if one is not careful. Nathan doesn’t indict psychiatry but she goes to show how repressed memories and DID had gotten a little out of hand over the past thirty years. Nathan gives a brief overview of how psychiatry and psychoanalysis evolved in this country, moving away from Freud’s theories, as well as the different treatment one gets if one has the money versus if one is poor. She also examines why Sybil became such a phenomenon, coming out as it did when the women’s movement was really taking off in this country. Nathan believes that MPD “became a kind of language” for women to explain their roles as wife, mother, friend, boss, employee etc. She also makes the valid point, that women historically had been the guinea pigs for any new kind of psychiatric treatment, particularly in the 19th century when so many women were diagnosed as hysterics.

Sybil Exposed is thoroughly and meticulously researched. Nathan was able to listen to the tapes of Shirley’s sessions with Dr. Wilbur, as well as Flora Schreiber’s papers which are housed at John Jay College in New York. Unfortunately, after Dr. Wilbur’s death, a large number of her papers were destroyed. It’s amazing that this book wasn’t written before now. Even now the book is still controversial, with many people still believing that the story of Sybil couldn’t possibly have been made up, along with those who doubted the veracity of the story from the beginning. The book made me grateful that I found a therapist who was sympathetic to my needs and didn’t have a hidden agenda. I felt pity for Shirley, anger towards Dr. Wilbur, and frustration that Flora Schreiber didn't walk away when she had the chance.

Movie Review: Sophie Scholl - The Final Days

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Kerri Mahon) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 16:07:00 +0000

Cast

Sophia Magdalena 'Sophie' Scholl - Julia Jentsch
Hans Fritz Scholl - Fabian Hinrichs
Robert Mohr - Gerald Alexander Held
Else Gebel - Johanna Gastdorf
Dr. Roland Freisler - André Hennicke
Christoph Hermann Probst - Florian Stetter
Willi Graf - Maximilian Brückner
Alexander Schmorell - Johannes Suhm
Gisela Schertling - Lilli Jung
Magdalena Scholl - Petra Kelling
Robert Scholl - Jörg Hube
Werner Scholl - Franz Staber

Director: Marc Rothemund

Written by: Fred Breinersdorfter

Released: February 13, 2005

Synopsis:

Arrested for participating in the White Rose resistance movement, anti-Nazi activist Sophie Scholl (Julia Jentsch) is subjected to a highly charged interrogation by the Gestapo, testing her loyalty to her cause, her family and her convictions. Based on true events, director Marc Rothemund's absorbing Oscar-nominated drama explores maintaining human resolve in the face of intense pressure from a system determined to silence whistle-blowers.

My thoughts: I've been intrigued by World War II partly because my father and uncle were in the army and navy respectively during the War. Neither of them would talk to me about their experiences, so I've become a little obsessed over the years at reading and watching films and documentaries. Most of my reading has been focused on England and America, but recently I've become more interested in what was going on in France and Germany. I don't remember when I first heard the name Sophie Scholl. It may have been while browsing through the Dramatist Play Service catalog and reading the description of Lillian Garrett-Groag's play The White Rose. Recently I found a copy of the 2005 German film Sophie Scholl - The Final Days in the library. Before I knew what I was doing, I had picked the copy off the shelf and walked over to check it out.

Words fail me to describe just how powerful and heartbreaking this film is. The film is directed almost like a thriller. It takes place over 5 days ending in Sophie's death on February 22nd 1943, 4 days after her arrest. It opens with a charming scene of Sophie and her best friend Gisela singing along to an American jazz song on the radio. The action quickly shifts to Sophie, her brother Hans, and their friends mailing out leaflets that they've printed out on a mimeograph machine (this was before Xerox machines. We actually had one in my school when I was growing up). Soon they've run out of envelopes, so Hans comes up with a risky plan to take the remaining leaflets to the university while the students are in class. Hans is reminded that since the seige of Stalingrad, the university has been infiltrated by informers. Sophie offers to go with her brother to help out, since a women would never be suspected. What follows is a nail-biting scene as Hans and Sophie hurry to the university, trying to put down as many stacks of leaflets as they can before classes get out. With only minutes left, Sophie rushes to the top floor with the rest of the leaflets and impulsively pushes them over the edge of the balustrade. Thinking that they've made a clean getaway, Hans and Sophie are just leaving the building, when they are stopped by a janitor who saw Sophie in action. They are arrested and taken to the Munich Stadelheim Prison.

We never see Hans interrogated, only Sophie who is interviewed by Gestapo investigator Robert Mohr. The two play a cat and mouse game as Sophie wisely admits to what is the truth, but denies being the one who dropped off the leaflets. She tells Mohr that it is part of her nature to play pranks, and that she was carrying a suitcase to pick up her laundry from her mother back home in Ulm (see college students brought their laundry home even back in the 1940's!). At first it looks like she's going to get away with it, but the investigation soon finds proof that she and Hans were involved. Mohr shows Sophie her brother's signed confession. Sophie soon admits what she has done that and that she is proud of it. It turns out that The White Rose had written and distributed 5 Anti-Nazi leaflets calling for passive resistance prior to the one they dropped at the University (Sophie was not involved in the writing of the pamphlets, just the distribution). In their second interrogation, Mohr takes more of a fatherly attitude towards Sophie. He admonishes her for breaking the law, considering that the Reich has paid for her education.

Sophie is not buying it. She reminds him that pre-1933, people still had free speech. She tells him about the rounding up of the mentally ill as well as the Jewish population to concentration camps where they have been exterminated. Mohr tells her that some lives are unworthy. Despite the fact that Sophie is only 21, in many ways she is more mature than Mohr. She is able to match him argument for argument. You can see in their scenes together that he reluctantly admires her even though he believes that she is misguided and wrong. Mohr offers Sophie a chance to save herself by repudiating her actions and naming names. Sophie refuses to name names and takes full blame. She insists that she receive whatever punishment her brother receives.

What follows next is a kangaroo trial. They are brought before Judge Roland Freisler in the People's Court. Even before Sophie, Hans and another member of The White Rose, Christoph Probst are brought into the courtroom, it's clear that the verdict is a foregone conclusion. Their lawyers make no attempt to defend them, and they are barely allowed to speak in their own defense. Sophie managed to tell the People's Court. "Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just do not dare express themselves as we did. "All three are pronounced guilty and sentenced to death. However they are allowed one final statement. Sophie tells the court that "where we stand today, you will stand soon."

All three prisoners are told that their execution is that day, they are not even given the normal 99 days after their conviction before execution. Sophie, a devout Lutheran, goes to her death with dignity. She is allowed to see her brother and Christoph Probst before their executions. She remarks as she is led out to the courtyard where the guillotine awaits her that the "The sun is still shining."

So what is movie review about a heroine like Sophie Scholl doing on a blog called Scandalous Women. Well, Sophie's actions scandalized Nazi Germany. At one point in the film, Sophie is contemptuously referred to by one of the police officers as the weaker sex. As if she had led the men astray with her misguided beliefs. She is treated by Mohr as some sort of wayward child that he can school, teaching her the true meaning of right and wrong. The idea that Sophie had a mind of her own, that she had thought seriously and thoughtfully about her actions, and even in the face of death, didn't waver, must have been mind boggling to them. Women were supposed to be the epitome of Aryan womanhood, giving birth to good Aryan children, teaching them about the glories of the Third Reich, not working underground to dismantle it.

At the end of the film we are told that after Sophie's death, another pamphlet was smuggled out of Germany, where it was utilized by the Allies. In mid-1943, they dropped millions of copies over Germany.

I urge everyone to watch this film about how one person can make a difference just by having the courage to speak out.