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dankusner · 7 months

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A captivating story of an extraordinary woman, "Shaking It Up: The Life and Times of Liz Carpenter" provides an intimate look at the trailblazing career and influential life of journalist, author, humorist, political activist, and proud Texan Liz Carpenter, who served as chief of staff/press secretary for Lady Bird Johnson, and was an inspirational leader for the women’s movement.

From the JFK assassination to campaigning for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, Liz Carpenter experienced and helped shape some of the most vivid moments and movements of the 20th century.

Directors Christy Carpenter and Abby Ginzberg weave candid modern-day interviews with Dan Rather, Bill Moyers, Gloria Steinem, Luci Johnson, and more, with archival footage that reveals Liz’s enduring passion for shaking things up in the battle for equal rights and human progress.

UT alumna, trailblazer Liz Carpenter’s life story told with loving humor in documentary co-directed by daughter

Through archival news footage, photographs and recent interviews to provide context, “Shaking It Up: The Life and Times of Liz Carpenter” shared the story of proud Texan and UT alumna Mary Elizabeth Sutherland Carpenter in its premiere at SXSW on Sunday.

In nearly an hour and a half, the film detailed Carpenter’s early career as a reporter, rise to power in political circles, trailblazing in women’s rights and her whimsy.

The documentary’s retelling of Carpenter’s career and life feels personal and gives viewers the sense they’re hearing stories about an old family member.

This is undoubtedly because the documentary was directed by Peabody award-winning director Abby Ginzberg and her friend Christy Carpenter, Liz Carpenter’s daughter.

Throughout the film, scenes cut to Christy contextualizing the experiences of her full-time working mom as portrayed in the documentary’s news footage.

At one point, she shares the story of her mom being so distracted that she accidentally brought the wrong dog home from the vet, not realizing until Christy and her brother spoke up.

The first portion of the documentary details how Carpenter went from reporting for The Daily Texan and the Austin American-Statesman to being Lady Bird Johnson’s press secretary during the Johnson presidency.

From her early career, Carpenter chose not to be thrown into societal reporting — the typical role of women in the newsroom at the time.

She pushed to be involved in the center of the political sphere in Washington, D.C., with the support of her husband, fellow journalist and UT alumni Les Carpenter. Photographs from social events balance with home footage of the two’s young family early in the documentary.

Emphasizing that Carpenter served as a strong asset to both Lady Bird and Lyndon B. Johnson, memorable moments include the image of the speech she wrote for President Johnson to give after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and footage of her campaigning alongside Lady Bird through the South to support the Johnson presidency, equal rights and environmentalism.

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Carpenter’s unique humor serves as a strong theme throughout the documentary.

Though it’s emphasized that Carpenter was stubborn and extremely driven to fight for women journalists and advocates, it’s also emphasized that Carpenter’s wit and jokes helped people be more agreeable with her and the causes she supported.

Her use of theatrics crops up in photographs from social events Carpenter would host at her home in Austin in her later years.

An especially funny photo of Carpenter in a hot tub with writer and politico party invites with the dress code of ‘nearly naked’ near the end of the film leaves the sense that Carpenter would have been a great ally but also a fun friend to have.

The passion from Carpenter’s career bleeds through “Shaking It Up: The Life and Times of Liz Carpenter,” helping viewers understand the kind of grit it took to be a female trailblazer in the 60s and 70s.

Christy Carpenter’s loving storytelling about her mother reinforces the lessons that can be taken from her mother’s career — making a difference can be made easier with flair and a bit of Austin’s weirdness.

4 flamboyant canes out of 5

Liz Carpenter's home for sale

Liz Carpenter was a salty, unassailable force.

She was so full of energy, spunk and verve that her friend, columnist Erma Bombeck, said she "always made Auntie Mame look like a shut-in."

But on March 20, 2010, the Democratic trailblazer, witty, wise author and frontline feminist went to what she called "The Great Precinct Convention in the Sky." She was 89.

Nearly a year later, Grassroots, her beloved home on a quiet limestone shelf overlooking the Colorado River and City of Austin, is for sale for $895,000. Kay Andrews of Amelia Bullock Realtors has the listing.

"Liz brought so much life to that house," her good friend and assistant Shirley James says. "When I think of the house, I think of lots of people, laughter, food - food was big - and music, mainly music."

In 1976, after 34 years at the vortex of power in Washington, the sixth-generation Texan came back to Austin, she said, to find her soul and replant her roots. At 116 Skyline Drive in West Lake Hills, she did both.

Ignoring friends' advice to buy a condominium, the former journalist, press secretary to Vice President Lyndon Johnson and press secretary and staff director for Lady Bird Johnson looked for a house with a view of the city and water.

Niece Carol Hatfield found it: a wood-frame, rock-veneer bungalow with a guest cottage, seven live oaks and a spectacular vista. "Once she saw the view," son Scott Carpenter says, "she fell in love with the house."

From her long, narrow house on the hill, the Distinguished University of Texas Alumna could see the river, the UT Tower and the dome of the pink granite Capitol in the distance. "Liz always said she had a million-dollar view," says Genevieve Van Cleve, deputy political director for Annie's List, who lived for two years in the guest cottage.

"The first thing my mother wanted to do was name it," daughter Christy Carpenter says. "Grassroots seemed perfect, so she put up a sign and had native Texas grasses etched on glass for the double front doors and painted on tiles for the living room fireplace."

Liz Carpenter, who loved bright colors and often wore red, lightened the interior. Dark paneling became white, white bookshelves went up, glazed white floor tiles went down and a solid wall was opened to the panoramic view.

"For my mother, Grassroots was her identity," Christy Carpenter says. "It reflected every aspect of her nature: Her warmth, her sense of fun, her enveloping spirit, her desire to embrace people."

Only minutes from downtown, the 2,521-square-foot house on 0.85 acre loomed large with its owner's hospitality.

"Liz loved parties, and she loved parties with themes," says James, who often cooked for the lively affairs. "Liz invited everyone to her house. You might see a governor or U.S. senator sitting next to an Esther's Follies performer, masseuse or student."

Unable to afford a pool, Carpenter installed a Texas-sized outdoor hot tub, currently inoperable, that she called "My Golden Pond." Surrounded in limestone, the heated spa that, she said, "seats six Republicans or eight Democrats and a bucket of champagne" was the scene of her infamous Bay at the Moon parties.

In its warm, bubbly waters, the Queen of the Hill relaxed, held meetings, nurtured needy friends and howled at the full moon with celebrities such as Carol Channing and her much-loved GBATs (Getting Better All the Time) local singing group.

When Carpenter first moved to West Lake Hills, she thought the neighbors were "nutty" about wildlife. But soon she was out every morning in her nightgown and slippers feeding the deer and driving almost eight miles each month to spend $42.75 on corn at Buck Moore Feed and Supply.

"She was crazy for the deer," Christy Carpenter says. "She had outdoor speakers that used to play the "Out of Africa" soundtrack. She thought the deer liked it." So many came that Lady Bird Johnson, a frequent visitor, told Carpenter she had her own Serengeti.

Her champagne glasses, Cokesbury hymnals and pianos are gone, but whoever buys Grassroots will inherit a storehouse of music and laughter. Scott Carpenter, retired and living on Vashon Island, Wash., says, "You could write a book about noteworthy guests."

To reach Grassroots, she told visitors, "Turn right onto Wild Cat Hollow, and before you can say `Vote Democrat,' take a left." Among the many who did: Walter Cronkite, Barbara Jordan, Gloria Steinem, Ann Richards, Bill Moyers, Maya Angelou, Bill and Hillary Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

"She loved to be surrounded by people, especially interesting, quirky people," says Christy Carpenter, who is executive vice president and CEO of the Paley Center for Media in New York. "By inviting writers to live in her guest cottage, she felt she was doing her part to keep Austin weird."

"God, we had fun," says author Marshall De Bruhl, who wrote "Sword of San Jacinto: A Life of Sam Houston" in the limestone cottage with a stone fireplace and full bathroom.

"Such memories," he says. "Betty Friedan, Molly Ivins and Liz in that hot tub. Lady Bird catching me in my underwear one morning. And my favorite, coming home and finding the UT cheerleading squad there for a photo shoot."

"You could feel creativity pulsing in that home," says British poet, minister and former cottage dweller Geraldine Buckley, whose poem about Carpenter, "Modern Frontier Woman," was read at her funeral.

"At the time, I was soaked in poetry, and Liz loved poetry," she says. "I cooked for her poetry parties. Then Liz would bring in a basket of `Senator-sized' swimsuits, and everyone would end up in the Jacuzzi."

By the time spoken-word artist Van Cleve moved in 10 years ago, she says, "It was a little bit like camping out. However, no matter how worn the cottage, it was still a joy to wake up with the sunrise and watch the deer and other animals starting their day."

In Washington, Liz Carpenter had a long career at a whirlwind pace. But after Les Carpenter, her journalist husband and soul mate, died of a heart attack at 53 in 1974, the Capitol merry-go-round wasn't fun anymore. A farewell party at Ford's Theatre drew 600 friends.

Back in Texas, Carpenter fashioned Grassroots to her needs, hosted A-list parties, lectured, campaigned for the Equal Rights Amendment and wrote four more books, including the inspirational "Getting Better All the Time" in 1987.

At President Carter's request, she returned to D.C. as assistant secretary for public affairs in the new Department of Education, but bureaucracy wasn't the White House, and she missed "the quiet beauty" of her hill.

Grassroots was also her workplace. Located first in the cottage, her office moved next to the guest bedroom. Later, remodeling expanded a small porch into a room with three walls of windows, where the 5-foot-1-inch dynamo worked and "watched the theater of the sky."

At 71, she took in her late brother Tom's three children, ages 16, 14 and 11, then chronicled their lives together at Grassroots in the poignant "Unplanned Parenthood" in 1994.

Always the organizer, the hymn-singing Methodist planned her own funeral and staged rehearsals. Buckley remembers her lying on the floor, eyes closed and arms folded, while her friend Ruben Johnson sang "How Great Thou Art."

After the public memorial service at the LBJ Library, family and a dozen friends gathered at College Hill in Salado. As close kin scattered her ashes mixed with wildflower seed, a bagpiper skirled "Going Home."

"Something unusual always happened at her parties," James says. And Carpenter's final one was no exception. As one of the mourners crossed the street to attend the reception, the kilt the bagpiper was wearing fell down. "Liz would have loved being flashed at her own ash-strewing," James says.

And though Liz Carpenter is now gone, her spirit lives on in Grassroots. Andrews will hold an open house Sunday, March 6 from 2 to 4 p.m.

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Leslie Carpenter Dead at 52; Long a Newsman in the Capital

Leslie Carpenter Dead at 52; Long a Newsman in the Capital July 26, 1974

Leslie Carpenter Dead at 52; Long a Newsman in the Capital

July 26, 1974, Page 36

WASHINGTON, July 25 (AP) — Leslie Carpenter, a Washington newspaper correspondent for nearly three decades and husband of a former White House press aide Elizabeth Carpenter, died yesterday at the age of 52.

Mr. Carpenter came here in 1945 as correspondent for a group of newspapers including The Fort Worth Star‐Telegram, The Dallas Times Herald, The Houston Chronicle and The New Orleans States. He opened his own news bureau in 1951, representing more than 30 newspapers mostly in Texas.

Mr. Carpenter and his wife were closely associated for many years with the late President Lyndon B. Johnson, and Mrs. Carpenter served for a number of years as Mrs. Johnson's press secretary.

Mr. Carpenter wrote a syndicated column distributed by Hall Syndicate for nine years.

He had also served as Washington editorial representative for G. P. Putnam's Sons, the book publishers.

He joined Hill & Knowlton, Inc., an international publicrelations firm, this year as vice president.

Survivors also include a son, Scot of Austin, Tex., a daughter, Mrs. Harvey Levin of Washington, and his father, John W. Carpenter of Austin.

SHAKING IT UP’

Texas icon Liz Carpenter up close and personal in new documentary

It is one thing to read about Texas icon Liz Carpenter.

It is another thing altogether to watch her in glorious action, bursting onto the national scene as pioneer woman journalist during the 1940s; working as a key aide to Lady Bird Johnson, and before that, Lyndon Baines Johnson in the 1960s; leading the fight across the country for women’s rights in the 1970s and beyond.

After all that, settling down, not quietly, but joyously, back in Austin, throwing parties, singing songs, howling at the moon, and, as always, getting things done.

That’s a part of what we see and hear thanks the new 77-minute documentary, “Shaking It Up: The Life & Times of Liz Carpenter,” co-produced and co-directed by her daughter, Christy Carpenter, along with veteran filmmaker Abby Ginzberg.

The movie, which briskly introduces a cascade of archival images as well as an array of short, astute interviews, premiered at South by Southwest during three packed showings.

It will be exhibited again on May 21 at the LBJ President Library.

Later, the film will be shown at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum on Sept. 28.

Next year, during Women’s History Month, it will appear on public television; you will be able to stream it for free on PBS.org.

PROVIDED BY CHRISTY CARPENTER

It was good to hear Carpenter’s singular voice again.

How well I recall those phone calls to the newsroom during the 1990s and early 2000s.

The brassy blast from the other end of the line dispensed with any preliminaries:

“Now Michael, listen, this is what I need you to do.”

Liz Carpenter (1920-2010) had one of those unstoppable personalities — part LBJ, part Lady Bird.

She mesmerized almost everyone around her, especially journalists, who knew that whatever Carpenter had in mind would likely lead to a hot story.

You witness that in the movie: Time and again, hordes of reporters and visual journalists swarmed together whenever Carpenter staged an environmental event for Lady Bird, or the times she put together rallies for the Equal Rights Amendment, meant to put women on the same constitutional footing as men.

The U.S. Congress passed it overwhelmingly in 1972, but the ERA was stopped just short of full ratification by the states due to a coalition of emerging culture warriors.

To celebrate the film, which will play additional festivals around the country during the coming months, take a look at the following 10 things that might surprise you from this movie about the unparalleled Liz Carpenter.

A long line of strong Central Texas women

It is good to be reminded that Carpenter was a 5th-generation Texan whose early years were spent in the Central Texas town of Salado.

I should not have been surprised that she descended from a line of unbowed women, several of whom attended since-gone Salado College, founded by her greatgrandfather in 1859, and were suffragists.

These days, several small monuments to Carpenter can be found in Salado.

Noted journalist learns her trade in Austin

Carpenter’s family moved to Austin when she was seven.

She edited the school newspaper at Austin High School, back when it was located on Rio Grande Street.

That’s where she met her future husband, Les Carpenter, with whom she later founded the Carpenter News Bureau, located in the National Press Building in Washington, D.C.

They studied journalism at the University of Texas, then Liz contributed to the Austin American-Statesman, a gig that included frequent interviews with LBJ and Lady Bird.

Breaking into the national press corps

Liz Carpenter was hardly welcomed with open arms by the male press corps when she arrived in D.C. as an outspoken Texas reporter.

Men ruled the roost.

Although most women reporters were relegated to the society pages, Carpenter was a political reporter from the start.

She was helped along by first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who held press conferences exclusively for women reporters.

Another unlikely figure also pitched in: Carpenter, as president of the Women’s National Press Club, convinced visiting Soviet Premier Nikita Khushchev to insist on the inclusion of women reporters at his speech to the male-only National Press Club during his showboating trip to the U.S. Brick by brick during Carpenter’s two decades as a Washington reporter, the walls fell.

In 1960, LBJ picks Carpenter to help his campaign

LBJ could spot talent a mile away.

Liz Carpenter, whose political gifts and speechmaking skills were undeniable, was recruited during his 1960 run for the president.

After the election, she joined his vice-presidential staff and accompanied him on the fateful trip to Texas when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

On the plane back to Washington, Carpenter wrote the short, eloquent speech that the new president gave upon his return.

Johnson chose Carpenter for her selfevident skills.

He could be genuinely charming and persuasive to his staff, when he was not outrageously demanding and what today would be considered abusive (a recent book to read on the subject is Tracy Daughtery’s “Leaving the Gay Place: Billy Lee Brammer and the Great Society”).

Putting together a staff for the first lady

Lady Bird Johnson was the first presidential wife to assemble a professional staff.

Although her title was press secretary and chief of staff, Carpenter was much more.

She organized events, ironed out every detail, and brought along her press pals anytime the first lady announced a political or policy objective.

As described in Julia Sweig’s bestseller, “Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight,” Carpenter helped coordinate the efforts of the East and West Wings.

Sweig appears in the documentary, along with presidential daughters Luci Baines Johnson and Lynda Bird Johnson Robb, environmental historian Douglas Brinkley, Johnson aide Bill Moyers, journalist Dan Rather (who called Carpenter the “insider’s insider” in the Johnson White House) and many others.

Butting heads with the leader of the Free World

Carpenter’s closeness to the Johnson family did not exempt her from LBJ’s wrath.

Yet, as the audio records show, Carpenter, not unlike Lady Bird, stood up to the president time and again.

Interestingly, both women used the tactic of talking right through his objections, never raising their voices, as if the outcome would eventually go their way.

An unprecedented campaign for the environment

Quite a few historians have amended the record to show that Lady Bird was no mere “beautifier,” instead she was a crucial link between the conservationists of the past and the environmental activists who followed in their footsteps.

Her barnburner tours of the U.S. with Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall sparked the imaginations of Americans regarding their national parks and other natural legacies.

Carpenter not only made sure the trains ran on time during these tours, she convinced many otherwise sedentary reporters to take mountain hikes and climb into whitewater rafts to follow them.

Headlong into women’s rights

Not long after the Johnsons returned to the relative quiet of the LBJ Ranch west of Austin in 1969, Carpenter turned her energies to an enormous political project she already supported.

The intellectual leaders of the women’s movement had laid the groundwork for cultural changes, but it took a political insider and galvanizing speaker like Carpenter to put together the panels, speeches, conferences and tours, meanwhile guaranteeing media coverage for the National Women’s Political Caucus and the Equal Rights Amendment campaign.

She knew the power of having three first ladies — Lady Bird Johnson, Betty Ford and Rosalynn Carter — on the stage at the same time, along with rising stars such as Rep. Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to run for president, and Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, whom Carpenter influenced and encouraged, to support the fight for the ERA.

Ann Richards, others follow in Carpenter’s footsteps

“Shaking It Up” makes it clear that Carpenter blazed a trail for other Texas women political figures, including Barbara Jordan, Ann Richards, Kay Bailey Hutchison and Sissy Farenthold.

If you include some others, such as Molly Ivins and Sarah Weddington, who did not hold office, you behold a generation of women who changed the tune of good ol’ boy politics in the state.

Singing, howling and soaking in Austin

Austinites got to know Carpenter better once she returned to the city and a modest house with a gorgeous view of downtown in the western hills.

Carpenter wrote books and threw parties.

She dressed up in costumes and adopted young talents.

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She founded the Getting Better All the Time singing group.

People crowded into her hot tub and followed her outside to howl at the moon.

There’s no denying that she let her hair down.

This movie captures all of that.

She was an original in every way.

#Youtube

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mariasmemo · 10 months

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Score!

We are an organization founded not too long after our namesake died. Just thirteen years after she died, Maria Mitchell’s family members, her friends, colleagues, and former students came together to create the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association in 1902. In 1903, we were formally incorporated. That is pretty remarkable – and shows you the affect Maria Mitchell had on people – her teaching, her friendship, her mentorship, her ability to inspire.

Everything began in the Mitchell House at 1 Vestal Street – all the departments – until we were given or acquired the buildings and sites that make up the MMA today. The first curators were Maria Mitchell’s cousins and their daughters; the cousins having lived at 1 Vestal Street with their parents after Maria Mitchell’s family moved to the Pacific Bank where William Mitchell was cashier. To Maria’s cousins, the House was still their home, but now a museum, and things they did were maybe a bit different than you would think for a historic house museum – and the times were different too.

Thus, items that once belonged to Maria Mitchell were also used by the fledgling organization. Her Dollond telescope, with which she discovered her comet in 1847, and her Alvan Clark telescope –were used for moon evenings in the yard – and then next door at the Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory. In fact, the lenses in her Clark telescope were removed and used as the guide on the telescope in the MMO for many years. It was by chance and poking around many years ago that a conservator found the Dollond telescope’s other eyepieces in a drawer of the 1922 Astronomical Study of the MMO.

Now, it was in cleaning out the MMO’s Seminar Room (ca. 1987) for its renovation project, to be funded with a gift from a descendant of William Mitchell, that we located these. While I am embarrassed that no one seemed to notice them, I am relieved that they were unearthed! These are the eyepieces to Maria’s Alvan Clark telescope. A five-inch refractor which she was able to work with Clark on creating when she was given $500.00 by the “Women of America,” headed by Elizabeth Peabody, in 1858. Obviously, these were used during the MMO moon nights a long time ago and then nicely put away – in a drawer. Thankfully, someone had made a wooden holder for them, thus keeping them all together. I suspect it was likely Alvin Paddock, the Coffin School principal who assisted our first astronomer, margaret Harwood, who made this “holder.” He was once a carpenter and started at the Coffin School as a teacher of woodworking. While the collections in the MMO do not fall under the Mitchell Housie collections, I am glad that these items can be reunited with the telescope and find a better home for display and storage.

JNLF

#Nantucket #Maria Mitchell #Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association #Alvan Clark #Maria Mitchell Observatory #Elizabeth Peabody #William Mitchell #Pacific Bank Nantucket

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dnaamericaapp · 2 years

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Yale Honors The Work Of 9-Year-Old Bobbi Wilson Whose Neighbor Reported Her To Police

Nine-year-old Bobbi Wilson may be in the fourth grade, but last month the Yale School of Public Health held a ceremony honoring the budding scientist's recent work.

The university entered Bobbi's collection of 27 spotted lanternflies — an extremely invasive species that is harmful to trees and other plants — into the Peabody Museum of Natural History database. Bobbi was also presented with the title of "donor scientist" during the Jan. 20 ceremony.

"We wanted to show her bravery and how inspiring she is, and we just want to make sure she continues to feel honored and loved by the Yale community," Ijeoma Opara, an assistant professor at the school, said in a statement.

The accolades come just three months after Bobbi, who is Black, made headlines when former Caldwell city council member Gordon Lawshe, who is white, called local police on the girl.

"There's a little Black woman walking, spraying stuff on the sidewalks and trees on Elizabeth and Florence," Lawshe told the dispatcher, according to a call obtained by CNN.

"I don't know what the hell she's doing. Scares me, though," Lawshe added.

Outside, Bobbi, a petite child who wears pink-framed glasses, was doing her bit to comply with the state's Stomp it Out! campaign, which urges New Jersey residents to help eradicate the spotted lanternfly infestation. She'd learned about it at school and made her own version of an insect repellent she'd seen on TikTok. Making her way from tree to tree, Bobbi would spray the bugs, pluck them from the tree and drop them into a plastic bottle.

Body camera footage shows officer Kevin O'Neill approach the child before her mother, Monique Joseph, intervenes.

"Am I in trouble?" the small girl asks.

"No," Joseph and O'Neill respond simultaneously.

Joseph adds, "How many trees did you save?"

Joseph told CNN that her 9-year-old hasn't been the same. But at the ceremony, she expressed gratitude for the community that has rallied around the entire family. -(source: cnn)

DNA America

“It’s what we know, not what you want us to believe.”

#dna #dnaamerica #news #politics

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myhauntedsalem · 4 years

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Grimshawe House Salem, Massachusetts

Cornering the Burying Point Cemetery is a yellowed, three-storied house as gloomy as the graveyard beside it. The Grimshawe House, also known as the Peabody House, was built in 1770 at 53 Charter Street, Salem. Nathaniel Peabody purchased the house in 1835, yet the house didn’t receive its moniker until Dr. Grimshaw’e Secret, a posthumous publication of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Indeed, it was Hawthorne’s Dr. Grimshaw’e Secret, a “romance” about a spider-cultivating scientist, that saw this sinister structure to stage.

Hawthorne had even courted Peabody’s daughter Sophia in the property’s parlor, leading some to nickname the home “Hawthorne’s Courting House.” Romantic? Think again. Hawthorne had described the “old house itself” as “covering ground which else had been sown thickly with buried bodies.” The Grimshawe House, Hawthorne said, “partook of [the] dreariness” of Burying Point Cemetery – though the cemetery was “seldom disturbed” and the house “hardly worthy to be haunted.”

Still, what makes Salem’s Grimshawe House so spooky?

Purchased by Nathaniel Peabody in 1835, 53 Charter Street became known for his daughters, the Peabody Sisters.

Elizabeth, or “Lizzie,” the eldest, became an instructor, author, and experimental education advocate. Lizzie was, in fact, America’s first female publisher! She even opened the nation’s first English-language kindergarten in 1860, forefronting the dissemination of America’s pre-schools. Lizzie likewise opened Elizabeth Palmer Peabody’s West Street Bookstore, where feminist Margaret Fuller’s “Conversations” were held.

Lizzie was later the business manager for transcendentalist publication The Dial; her English translation of the Buddhist Lotus Sutra, published in The Dial, was the first of its kind. With a reading knowledge of ten languages, Lizzie was a prolific, progressive pioneer. Indeed, Henry James canonized Lizzie in his Bostonians, writing that Lizzie was “heroic…sublime, the whole moral history of Boston was reflected in her displaced spectacles.”

Lizzie was, in brief, an American trailblazer. Talk about unmatched ambition!

Mary, the middle Peabody sister, became an author and teacher, later marrying education reformer Horace Mann. Horace promoted free public education, becoming known as the “Father of Common School.” Together Mary and Horace championed accessible education, actively and radically advocating education reform. Yet Mary’s involvement with early education preceded her marriage to Horace. Indeed, by the time of her marriage to Horace Mann in 1843, Mary was an experienced teacher with a repertoire of original methods, many of which featured the outdoors… She believed in individualized reading instruction for beginners, and her Primer, which employs a whole-word rather than phonetic method, reveals a philosophy of education as guided nurture.

Mary’s success didn’t stop with the death of Horace, however. In Mary’s widowhood, Mary published periodicals, translated Spanish, and assisted Lizzie with her kindergarten. And, at eighty years of age, Mary began to write her first novel, Juanita: A Romance of Real Life in Cuba Fifty Years Ago. The novel was published posthumously in 1887, extending and emphasizing the legacy of Mary Peabody.

Sophia, the youngest Peabody sister, was like Lizzie and Mary, an artist. Yet unlike Lizzie and Mary, Sophia was a painter and illustrator who only occasionally partook in print through the publication of her journals. And, unlike Lizzie and Mary, Sophia was occasionally invalid. It was assumed that her illness was due to mercury poisoning from a dental treatment prescribed by her father in Sophia’s infancy – contributing to her later exhaustion, “excitability,” anxiety, and agitation. Migraines were an additional effect of mercury poisoning, which could account for Sophia’s reliance on narcotics. Indeed, Sophia is documented to have a dependency upon calomel and opium… Yet calomel was detrimental to the nervous system. Side effects? Gangrene, gum deterioration, and loss of teeth.

It was in the Grimshawe House that Elizabeth introduced Sophia to Nathaniel Hawthorne. Elizabeth had before exclaimed that Hawthorne was “handsomer than Lord Byron!” yet Sophia had refused to meet the renowned writer. Sophia presumably denied the initial meeting due to her migraines, yet the two were nevertheless introduced. Although it’s uncertain when the introduction occurred, we know that Sophia wore a “simple white wrapper.” According to Lizzie, Hawthorne rose to look at Sophia with unmistakable intent. And, by Lizzie’s account, Sophia returned Hawthorne’s look.

Sophia had initially discouraged their marriage, citing her ill health as a preventative cause. Yet Hawthorne and Sophia were secretly engaged after a three-year courtship. Although their engagement took place on New Year’s Day of 1839, they didn’t marry until July 9, 1842. “The ceremony,” Sophia wrote to a friend, “is nothing.” To Sophia, she and Hawthorne’s “true marriage” had happened upon their betrothal.

Legend has it that the two often took midnight strolls in Burying Point Cemetery! Do their ghosts still gallivant the graveyard?

Dr. Grimshawe’s Secret

Nathaniel Hawthorne, inspired by The Grimshawe House in which he had courted his bride, included the house in his short stories. Although The Grimshaw House is featured in Hawthorne’s “The Dolliver Romance,” it was “Dr. Grimshawe’s Secret” that portrayed the house most poignantly. To Hawthorne, “The house itself, moreover, except for the convenience of its position, close to the seldom disturbed cemetery, was hardly worthy to be haunted. As I remember it (and, for aught I know, it still exists in the same guise) it did not appear to be an ancient structure, nor one that could ever have been the abode of a very wealthy or prominent family – a three-story wooden house perhaps a century old, low studded, with a square front, standing right upon the street, and a small enclosed porch, containing the main entrance affording a glimpse up and down the street through an oval window on each side, its characteristic was a decent respectability, not sinking below the boundary of the genteel.”

“Dr. Grimshawe’s Secret,” written in 1861, was only posthumously published. Yet Hawthorne’s associations with The Grimshawe House are palpable. Hawthorne, along with the Peabody sisters, helped publicize this eerie yet extraordinary structure.

For literature lovers, it’s a must-see!

Is The Grimshawe House Haunted?

Was Hawthorne wrong? Is the Grimshawe House haunted after all? It depends on who you ask. Some think that Sophia’s invalidism – along with her cemetery strolls – make her a likely “visitor.” Some even claim to have seen her apparition!

Yet in Hawthorne’s “Dr. Grimshawe’s Secret,” there was “no whisper of Doctor Grimshawe’s house being haunted; a fact on which both writer and reader may congratulate themselves, the ghostly chord having been played upon in these days until it has become wearisome and nauseous as the familiar tune of a barrel-organ.” Except for “the convenience of its position close to the seldom-disturbed cemetery,” the Grimshawe House was “hardly worthy to be haunted.”

As the backdrop for Hawthorne’s spider-serum scientist, it’s certainly worth the stop.

Even if The Grimshawe House isn’t haunted, the adjacent cemetery is! Known as a site of “spiritual regeneration,” the Burying Point Cemetery is the second oldest cemetery in the United States. Notable “inhabitants” include Witch Trial Judge Hathorne and Bartholemew Gedney, fellow magistrate. Judge Hathorne had been infamously immortalized by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a descendant, who wrote that Hathorne had “made himself so conspicuous in the martyrdom of witches, that their blood may fairly be said to have left a stain on him.” Nathaniel even added a letter to his surname to distance himself from the ignominious magistrate!

Witch Trial victim Martha Corey is also buried at Burying Point, leading some to believe that she manifests as the Burying Point’s “Woman in White.” Though could this “Woman in White” be Sophia in her “simple white wrapper”?

Some visitors have even captured EVP on the premise! Others claim to see mysterious orbs or lighting otherwise unaccounted for… Indeed, many believe Burying Point Cemetery keeps company with the restless dead. It’s no surprise, though, since Burying Point was the final resting place for so many of those wrongly accused of witchcraft.

#Grimshawe House #Salem Massachusetts #haunted locations #paranormal #ghost and hauntings #ghost and spirits

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seaspiritwrites · 4 years

Note

11 for the meme!

11. What are you planning to work on next?

WELL. I had planned to take a break from writing fanfic so I could focus on reading it for the next few months without any of my own story ideas cluttering up my brain. *insert hysterical laughter*

So, naturally, I am simultaneously brainstorming/researching/stewing on ideas for:

1) an AU inspired by the Peabody/Emerson relationship in Elizabeth Peters’ historical mystery/adventure/romance series set in Victorian Egypt. I have decided, because I am insane and apparently love researching obscure details from the ASOIAF universe more than actually writing, to set it in roughly Victorian-age Westeros/Essos instead of making it a straight adaptation. In short, Jaime and Tyrion are archaeologists studying sites related to the Old Empire of Ghis around Slaver’s Bay, and Brienne is an unconventional heiress who meets them while visiting there with Sansa in tow.

2) a Sabrina AU that bears less and less resemblance to the plot of the film the more I sketch it out. WHOOPS. The idea has morphed into something with the potential for multiple layers of fake dating, and I have no idea how that happened. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#writer ask meme

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justforbooks · 5 years

Photo

US opera singer Jessye Norman, one of the most renowned sopranos of the 20th Century, has died at the age of 74.

A native of Augusta, Georgia, Norman was one of the rare black singers to reach fame in the opera world.

She established herself in Europe in the 1970s and made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1983.

Norman died in a New York hospital of septic shock and multiple organ failure related to complications from a spinal cord injury in 2015, her family said.

Born on 15 September 1945, Norman grew up in a family of amateur artists and sang in church from the age of four. She earned a scholarship to study music at the historically black college Howard University in Washington DC before going on to the Peabody Conservatory and the University of Michigan.

"I don't remember a moment in my life when I wasn't trying to sing," she told NPR in an interview in 2014.

She made her opera debut in Berlin in 1969, and performed across the continent, wowing audiences with a voice described as both sumptuous and shimmering.

Norman sang at the presidential inaugurations of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, and at the 60th birthday celebrations of Queen Elizabeth in 1986.

Her many awards included a prestigious Kennedy Center Honor, which she earned in 1997 at the age of 52; a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006; a National Medal of Arts in 2009 and France's Legion d'Honneur.

"We are so proud of Jessye's musical achievements and the inspiration that she provided to audiences around the world that will continue to be a source of joy," her family said in a statement.

"We are equally proud of her humanitarian endeavors addressing matters such as hunger, homelessness, youth development, and arts and culture education."

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

#JUST FOR BOOKS #Jessye Norman

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nancypullen · 4 years

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Monday Morning

This day dawned sunny, bright, and breezy, just the way I like ‘em. I missed posting yesterday but it was a banner day. My sister and I had a delightful video chat with Mom and we laughed ourselves silly. It was so good to see their faces and share some giggles. My hat is off to my mother for whipping out her iPad and knowing how to FaceTime. Most folks her age are scared of technology but she’s always willing to give it a whirl. I should have posted a long, heartfelt Mother’s Day post, but isn’t it better just to reach out to the person and tell them you love them? And speaking of heartfelt Mother’s Day activities, my guys spoiled me rotten. The mister served me breakfast in bed, complete with his killer Eggs Benedict and chocolate dipped strawberries. YUM! Then my guys presented me with a rug for the porch, pillows for the deck, craft supplies, books, and organizing tools. Oh my! Every gift was EXACTLY right. Mickey installed the rack and I spent a good portion of the afternoon re-bottling (is that a word?) and organizing my spices to go into this awesome pull out rack. It holds 30 bottles and solves my dark cavern of a spice cupboard that I may have complained about a few hundred times.

Hallelujah! I haven’t decided whether I should alphabetize the bottles or just put the most used herbs and spices toward the front. Did I mention books?

This is one I’ve been dying to read. Every return trip to Salem I learn a bit more about the oh-so-interesting Peabody sisters. They’ve been called America’s Brontës. All three were intelligent, passionate, and continually urged society to be better, kinder,and wiser. Elizabeth was a “mind-on-fire thinker” according to historians, and was a powerful progressive influence on friends Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne. She was a teacher, a writer, a publisher, business owner, literate in ten languages, and founded the country’s first English-language kindergarten. I feel accomplished when I dust and vacuum in one day. Middle sister Mary was a writer, teacher, fluent in several languages, and a passionate reformer - she took on prisons, insane asylums, etc. She fell madly in love with and married Horace Mann, educator and politician, and they devoted themselves to promoting the belief that in a democratic society, education should be free and universal, nonsectarian,and reliant on well-trained professional teachers. The youngest sister, Sophia, was frail and often ill. Rumor has it that her father, a dentist who loved to experiment, treated her infant teething pain with mercury and caused her lifelong health problems. Still, Sophia was an illustrator, painter, as smart and progressive as her sisters, was handy in Latin, French, Greek, Hebrew, and German. She won the heart of author Nathaniel Hawthorne, though he’d paid attention to all three sisters, causing some rivalry. Elizabeth met him first and swooned, declaring him “more handsome than Lord Byron.” When she urged Sophia to come downstairs to meet him, she laughed and said, "If he has come once he will come again" After meeting her, Nathaniel wrote the tale Edward Randolph’s Portrait, which included an artist character inspired by Sophia. Although he was smitten by her, Sophia never planned to marry due to her health. Still, they were married five years after meeting and Nathaniel wrote to his sister, “We are as happy as people can be, without making themselves ridiculous, and might be even happier; but, as a matter of taste, we choose to stop short at this point." They were quite a romantic couple, head over heels for each other, and their union produced three children, two daughters and a son. When Nathaniel died, Sophia wrote,"My darling has gone over that sapphire sea, and these grand soft waves are messages from his eternal rest." Isn’t that beautiful? So now that I’ve shared more than you ever cared to know about the Peabody sisters, I’m going to bury my nose in that book. The other book addresses my love of sky watching, it’s filled with both scientific information and whimsy. Each type of cloud is detailed and explained, but there are also chapters devoted to clouds in illustrations and clouds that look like things (people, animals, etc).

And look! I didn’t even know this existed - and now I need my own cyanometer.

I love this book too! It feeds my soul. I received new rolls of washi tape for crafts, and you can bet that this gal will be decorated with a strip or two.

She was actually holding a big stick or a bat or something and I lopped it off to suit my purposes. She doesn’t look sorry and neither am I. ha! I’ll post pics of the porch rug and the new deck pillows just as soon as I fluff everything up and get it just the way I like it. But here’s a peek at the pillow covers.

Kind of fabulous, huh? I love them! Alright, I’ve probably bored you to tears and it’s time for me to get back to painting rocks. Very important work I’m doing, this fairy village ain’t going to build itself. I just wanted to share a bit of my Mother’s Day fun. Every year I tell them to dial it back because I feel guilty - I’m no longer an exhausted mother, still in the trenches. Yet every year they make me feel so very special. Who on Earth would I be if not for the two souls who made my life so wonderful? They were my focus during hard times and my absolute joy all of the time. They made me stronger, smarter, more creative, and I’m more proud of them and their accomplishments than anything I could have ever done on my own. They’re truly the best people I know. This photo snapped after Tyler’s arrival sums it up - my whole world in my arms.

Motherhood, the greatest adventure of all. Hope your day was special too, and that you spread some love around. Take care of yourselves, stay safe and well. See you tomorrow and we’ll talk about rocks (I never promised you excitement or anything remotely cool). XOXO - Nancy

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team-ramses · 5 years

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“Sarcasm does not become you, Emerson. I am quite serious. There must be some way we can increase our prestige, inspire awe and terror. . . . Emerson! Is there by chance an eclipse of the sun imminent?”

Emerson took his pipe out of his mouth and stared at me. “How the devil should I know, Peabody?”

The Last Camel Died at Noon by Elizabeth Peters

#lol amelia #amelia peabody #last camel #elizabeth peters #radcliffe emerson #eclipse #sarcasm

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jenny-jensen · 1 year

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For the beautiful @madasahattersblog

Would she come willingly, he wondered, or would she put up a fight? Even as a kid, she had always been so damn stubborn with such mundane decisions, like learning to tie her shoes, or jumping into Sweet Water River on the old rope swing Fangs had broken two years later.

If she wouldn’t come willingly... Well...

She would just have to learn to forgive him for whatever drastic measures he hoped he wouldn’t have to take.

Inspired by my beautiful friend's story willow tree, which in turn was inspired by my story Butterflies.

Six years after Elizabeth Peabody was stolen by her noncustodial father in the middle of the night, her mother Penny enlists the help of the future Serpent King Jughead Jones to bring her home.

#bughead #bughead fanfic #jughead jones #betty cooper #riverdale #bughead fanfiction #jughead x betty #jughead and betty #riverdale fanfiction

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ourimpavidheroine · 5 years

Note

Ourimpavidheroine just let me say your fan fiction of atla and lok are bright spots in my otherwise grey world.Your take on these characters as well as your oc ‘s are fantastic especially their relationships with each other.One ask I have is are these relationship’s inspired by other fictional works and/or real life one’s(individual characters themselves as well)?

Thank you! What a lovely, kind thing to say. I am so glad you enjoy them.

I do have some influences: Studio Ghibli’s films, the Dutch movie Antonia’s Line, and the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters to name a few. I like how relationships/events are portrayed in those works and I wanted to capture that essence and (hopefully!) make it mine in my own work.

In terms of basing an OC character on someone else’s work...no, I didn’t. Or I should say that I didn’t do it intentionally! I do think all writers are, at one point or another, influenced by what they’ve read or seen, and there are going to be similarities. But as I said, I didn’t set out to base any of my OC characters or relationships specifically on anyone else’s, no.

My canon characters are based on their canon counterparts; however, I have certainly taken liberties with them!

In terms of real life people... the closest, I think, is that LoLo is based, in many ways, on a combination of my late father and my late wife. He’s got my father’s humor and tenderness and my late wife’s nurturing spirit, especially when it comes to feeding = caring. An amalgamation, I think, although LoLo is his own character that has other characteristics that are not anything like my father or late wife.

Does Autistic Huan have some things in common with my Autistic son? He does, yes, but he’s certainly not my son. Iris has a namesake (one of my son’s friends, also on the spectrum) but she’s not a carbon copy of the real Iris. I borrowed Nuo’s whoosh whoosh from myself but I am not at all like Nuo herself! So it’s more that I may have borrowed a little sliver of a known personality from here or there to add a bit of richness to a character rather than basing any character on someone specific.

Some of what I did do was take certain characters/tropes from the ATLA/TLOK world and see if I could deconstruct them/break them down/re-write them. Naoki is a clear parallel to Azula; I wondered what would happen if a child as prodigiously gifted as Azula had been raised in a supportive atmosphere of love and caring, and Naoki’s my response to that. Baatar Junior is my idea of a redemption story (which has been an interesting balance - he’s a dick that’s done terrible things, yes, but I refused to leatherpants him and therefore had to find a way to make him likable enough that people would actually be invested in his story). I was so fucking salty over how Lin ended up - alone, glaring at a freakin’ shish-kebab - that I wrote her a love interest. I was so mad about how poorly Mako had been written over the seasons that I wanted to do him some justice and make him likable. As the mother of twins it irritated me that Wing and Wei are canonically considered a single unit (they don’t even get their own Wiki pages!) and so I made sure to give them their own distinct personalities.

And of course I wanted to make Wu grow up.

(One thing I haven’t done is address a non-bending next generation child born to any of my bending characters but I deal so much with Baatar Junior over that that I just haven’t felt inspired, to be honest.)

Anyhow, I hope that offers some insight! Thanks again for taking the time to come here and let me know how much you like my work. It’s what fanfic authors live on!

#my fanfiction #Anonymous

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glass-kilimanjaro · 4 years

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Brian Greene

Greene was born in New York City of Jewish background.[3] His father, Alan Greene, was a one-time vaudeville performer and high school dropout who later worked as a voice coach and composer. After attending Stuyvesant High School,[4] Greene entered Harvard University in 1980 to concentrate in physics. After completing his bachelor's degree with summa cum laude honors, Greene earned his doctorate at Magdalen College, Oxford University, graduating in 1987.[5] While at Oxford, Greene also studied piano with the concert pianist Jack Gibbons.[6]

Career[edit]

Greene joined the physics faculty of Cornell University in 1990 and was appointed to a full professorship in 1995.[citation needed] The following year, he joined the staff of Columbia University as a full professor.[citation needed] At Columbia, Greene is co-director of the university's Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics (ISCAP) and is leading a research program applying superstring theory to cosmological questions. With co-investigators David Albert and Maulik Parikh he is a FQXi large-grant awardee for his project entitled "Arrow of Time in the Quantum Universe".[7]

Research[

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Greene's area of research is string theory, a candidate for a theory of quantum gravity. He is known for his contribution to the understanding of the different shapes the curled-up dimensions of string theory can take. The most important of these shapes are so-called Calabi–Yau manifolds; when the extra dimensions take on those particular forms, physics in three dimensions exhibits an abstract symmetry known as supersymmetry.[citation needed]

Greene has worked on a particular class of symmetry relating two different Calabi–Yau manifolds, known as mirror symmetry and is known for his research on the flop transition, a mild form of topology change, showing that topology in string theory can change at the conifold point.[8]

Currently, Greene studies string cosmology, especially the imprints of trans Planckian physics on the cosmic microwave background, and brane-gas cosmologies that could explain why the space around us has three large dimensions, expanding on the suggestion of a black hole electron, namely that the electron may be a black hole.[citation needed]

World Science Festival[

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In 2008, together with Tracy Day (former ABC News producer), Greene co-founded the World Science Festival,[9] whose mission is to cultivate a general public informed by science, inspired by wonder, convinced of its value, and prepared to engage with its implications for the future.[10]

The World Science Festival's signature event is a five-day festival in New York City, typically falling in May. Held at a variety of museums, galleries, and outdoor venues, the festival has surpassed 2 million attendees.[11] Hailed as a “new cultural institution”,[12] by The New York Times, the Festival has featured such luminaries as: Stephen Hawking, Edward O. Wilson, Sir Paul Nurse, James Watson, Anna Deavere Smith, Francis Collins, Philip Glass, Yo-Yo Ma, Oliver Sacks, Mary-Claire King, William Phillips, Paul Davies, Elizabeth Vargas, Sir Roger Penrose, Charlie Rose, Lisa P. Jackson, John Lithgow, Vinton Cerf, Glenn Close, Jeffrey Eugenides, Bill T. Jones, Joyce Carol Oates, Elaine Fuchs.

Communicating science[

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Brian Greene on Bookbits radio.

Greene is well known to a wider audience for his work on popularizing theoretical physics, in particular string theory and the search for a unified theory of physics. His first book, The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory, published in 1999, is a popularization of superstring theory and M-theory. It was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction, and winner of The Aventis Prizes for Science Books in 2000.[13]The Elegant Universe was later made into a PBS television special of the same name, hosted and narrated by Greene, which won a 2003 Peabody Award.[14]

Greene's second book, The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality (2004), is about space, time, and the nature of the universe. Aspects covered in this book include non-local particle entanglement as it relates to special relativity and basic explanations of string theory. It is an examination of the very nature of matter and reality, covering such topics as spacetime and cosmology, origins and unification, and including an exploration into reality and the imagination. The Fabric of the Cosmos was later made into a PBS television special of the same name, hosted and narrated by Greene.[citation needed]

Greene's third book, The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos, published in January 2011, deals in greater depth with multiple universes, or, as they are sometimes referred to collectively, the multiverse.[citation needed]

A book for a younger audience, Icarus at the Edge of Time,[15] which is a futuristic re-telling of the Icarus myth, was published September 2, 2008.[16] In addition to authoring popular-science books, Greene is an occasional Op-Ed Contributor for The New York Times, writing on his work and other scientific topics.[citation needed]

The popularity of his books and his natural on-camera demeanor have resulted in many media appearances, including Charlie Rose, The Colbert Report, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, The Century with Peter Jennings, CNN, TIME, Nightline in Primetime, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and the Late Show with David Letterman. It has also led to Greene helping John Lithgow with scientific dialogue for the television series 3rd Rock from the Sun, and becoming a technical consultant for the film Frequency, in which he also had a cameo role. He was a consultant on the 2006 time-travel movie Déjà Vu. He also had a cameo appearance as an Intel scientist in 2007's The Last Mimzy. Greene was also mentioned in the 2002 Angel episode "Supersymmetry" and in the 2008 Stargate Atlantis episode "Trio". In April 2011 he appeared on The Big Bang Theory in the episode "The Herb Garden Germination" as himself, speaking to a small crowd about the contents of his most recent book.[17]

Greene often lectures outside of the collegiate setting, at both a general and a technical level, in more than twenty-five countries. In 2012 his teaching prowess was recognized when he received the Richtmyer Memorial Award, which is given annually by the American Association of Physics Teachers.[18]

In May 2013, the Science Laureates of the United States Act of 2013 (H.R. 1891; 113th Congress) was introduced into Congress. Brian Greene was listed by one commentator as a possible nominee for the position of Science Laureate, if the act were to pass.[19]

In March 2015, an Australian spider that uses waves to hunt prey, Dolomedes briangreenei, was to be named in honor of Brian Greene.[20][21]

He was interviewed at length by Jim Al-Khalili on the BBC radio program The Life Scientific on 28 April 2020.[22]

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thedivinemisshepburn · 7 years

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Bringing Up Baby - a timeless classic

I can’t give you anything but love, baby

First of all, I’d like to thank Crystal for organizing the Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy blogathon and for letting me write about one of my favorite Katharine Hepburn pictures. ‘Bringing Up Baby’ was actually the first Hepburn picture I ever saw so it will always be special to me.

On May 3, 1938 the Independent Film Journal printed an article by Harry Brandt titled ‘Box Office Poison’. The piece was written on behalf of the Independent Theatre Owners of American and labeled many well-known movie stars of the time as ‘box office poison’, including Katharine Hepburn. A few months earlier, ‘Bringing Up Baby’ had been released and Katharine Hepburn’s fourteenth picture was another failure in a string of flops that had characterized her career over the previous years. Her last big hit had been ‘Alice Adams’, but that had been almost three years ago. When RKO, her film studio at the time, offered her a movie called ‘Mother Carey’s chickens’, she knew that it was time to buy out her contract and move on to greater things. The movie that had been her last one at RKO and that the New York Times had called ‘a farce which you can barely hear above the precisely enunciated patter of Miss Katharine Hepburn and the ominous thread of deliberative gags’ would also move on to greater things.

In 2000, the American Film Institute ranked ‘Bringing Up Baby’ at number 14 in their list of the 100 funniest movies in American cinema. ‘Bringing Up Baby’ is one of the great screwball comedies which feels timeless and is just as funny when you watch it for the 100th time as it was when you first watched it. The magical chemistry between Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, the absurd situations in which they find themselves, the song-loving leopard and bone-loving dog, and the great supporting cast - from Miss Swallow to Major Applegate - all helped make this movie the classic that it has become. This is not so much a review – as I can’t really find anything bad to say about it – as an appreciation, a behind-the-scenes look and an incentive to give this movie a chance (if you haven’t already).

Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and director Howard Hawks on the set

‘Bringing Up Baby’ is the story of madcap heiress Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn) and paleontologist David Huxley (Cary Grant) who find themselves drawn to each other, though not in the way you would expect. David only wants two things: to complete his brontosaurus – the last bone he needs is on its way – and to marry his assistant Miss Swallow. That is, until Susan Vance makes a mess of everything. The day before he is supposed to get married, they meet on the golf course. David has an appointment with Mr. Peabody whom he hopes will give one million dollars to the museum where he works. Susan manages to steal his golf ball, his car and his dignity. They keep running into each other, much to David’s dismay. When David finds outs that Mr. Peabody – aka ‘Boopy’ – is a close friend of Susan’s, he asks for her help – that is until he finds himself throwing pebbles at Mr. Peabody’s window in the middle of the night. The next day, Susan calls David because she needs his help. Since he is the only paleontologist she knows, he has to help her bring a leopard (Baby) – which her brother sent her from Brazil – to her country home in Connecticut. David is forced to agree and what follows is a series of absurd events, including leopard hunting in the Connecticut countryside, chasing George (the terrier of Susan’s aunt) who has stolen David’s brontosaurus bone, eventually ending up in prison where everyone involved is suspected of being a member of the ‘Leopard Gang’. The next day, when Susan comes to apologize for everything that happened – she only wanted to keep him near her – she manages to destroy David’s brontosaurus. Even then, David insists that the day he spent with her was the best day of his life.

Shooting on ‘Bringing Up Baby’ began on the 23th of September 1937. It was the second collaboration between Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn after they had starred together in ‘Sylvia Scarlett’ a few years earlier. Howard Hawks – perhaps now best known for directing two of the Bogart-Bacall pictures - directed the picture. Katharine Hepburn had a hard time at first with the character she was playing – often trying to be ‘too funny’. Howard Hawks asked vaudeville veteran Walter Catlett to coach her and Kate was so impressed with him that she insisted he play Constable Slocum in the picture.

Apparently, the search to find ‘Baby’ the leopard wasn’t easy. One leopard – which was supposed to be tame – attacked a woman who was playing with him and another one was useless after someone thought it would be a good idea to have a puma instead and decided to paint spots on the leopard – which didn’t want to come off after they had changed their minds. Eventually, eight-year-old Nissa was assigned to play Baby. Olga Celeste, the animal’s trainer, was always around with a whip in case of problems. Everyone was afraid of Nissa apart from – you guessed it – Katharine Hepburn. She would put on perfume – Nissa was a pushover for French perfume - to make the animal playful. Everything went fine until Kate put on a skirt lined with little metal pieces and the leopard made a lunge for her back. Luckily, Olga Celeste was around to save the day. Cary Grant never did hit it off with the leopard and a double was used in the scenes where he and Baby were supposed to be together. Once, Katharine Hepburn put a stuffed leopard through a vent in the top of his dressing room. ‘He was out of there like lightning’, she wrote in her autobiography ‘Me’. Of course, the movie stars another animal: George, aunt Elizabeth’s terrier. Skippy, George’s real name, was a big star as far as dogs go. He became famous by playing ‘Asta’ in the ‘Thin Man’ movies and was given the real star treatment (separate dressing rooms, vegetarian diet…). He went on the star in the ‘Awful Truth’ and of course ‘Bringing Up Baby’. At the time, training animals was very important because special effects weren’t yet what they are nowadays.

‘I went gay all of a sudden’ is probably one of the most-quoted lines from this movie. It is uttered by Cary Grant when Susan’s aunt asks him why he is wearing a negligee. Whether or not this use of the word ‘gay’ is the first time in movies that it refers to ‘homosexual’ remains a topic of debate. However, one of the subsequent lines ‘I’m sitting in the middle of 42nd street, waiting for a bus’ might very well indicate it was. At the time, 42nd street was the primary cruising strip for the city’s male prostitutes. Other instances of sexual innuendo are also quite obvious. After all, this is a movie about a man looking for his bone (‘it’s rare, it’s precious’) and a woman looking for her… well, leopard. Luckily for us, the people working at the Hays office didn’t see any problem. The only thing they objected to was showing Susan’s panties when David ripped off the back of her skirt.

For me, ‘Bringing Up Baby’ is the definitive screwball comedy. This genre was popular during the Great Depression until the early 1940s. ‘It Happened One Night’ starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert is often cited as the first true screwball comedy. The main elements are: a female lead who challenges or dominates the male lead, fast-paced talking, absurd situations and conflict in social classes. Ironically, these were the elements of the film that were often criticized at the time. I guess it’s safe to say that ‘Bringing Up Baby’ was ahead of its time and fortunately has now been given the praise it so rightly deserves. Over the years, filmmakers have been inspired by the movie and the 1972 film ‘What’s Up, Doc?’ starring Barbra Streisand was even a homage to ‘Bringing Up Baby’.

‘Bringing Up Baby’ will always by one of my favorite Katharine Hepburn pictures. It’s still as fresh and witty 80 years later. I know all the lines by heart and never get tired of watching it. If you haven’t seen it already, give it a chance, you definitely will not regret it. And my, what would I give to be a member of the Leopard gang!

This piece is part of the Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn blogathon hosted by ‘In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood’. Be sure to check out all of the amazing contributions here: https://crystalkalyana.wordpress.com/2017/07/20/announcing-the-spencer-tracy-katharine-hepburn-blogathon/

After all, we can never have enough Spencer and Kate in our lives!

#Katharine Hepburn #bringing up baby #blogathon #cary grant #1930s #1938

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