#robert e. ward

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

Vincent P. Miceli - Women Priests & Other Fantasies - The Christopher Publishing House - 1985 (cover design by Robert E. Ward)

[uwmspeccoll]

It’s Fine Press Friday! 

Today we present The Innocent Voyage by British writer Richard Hughes (1900-1976), illustrated by American artist Lynd Ward (1905-1985) and published in New York by The Limited Editions Club, in 1944 in an edition of 1500 copies signed by the artist. The novel was first published in the U.S. by Harper & Brothers in 1929, and in Britain by Chatto and Windus as A High Wind in Jamaica in the same year.    The novel was listed as one of the Modern Library’s 100 Best Novels. It has been adapted into film (1965) and two radio adaptations (1950 and 2000), and it is credited for influencing books such as Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Lynd Ward created more than twenty color lithographs for this edition. Each lithograph consists of four layers of color, pink, yellow, blue, and dark blue in combination they create the great diversity of value and color that we see. Combining the layers so successfully takes the hand of a skilled artist. Lynd Ward drew his illustrations directly on the plates, which were then printed by George C. Miller (1894-1965) in New York. 

This printing was published as a trade edition by Heritage Press, another imprint of George Macy, founder of The Limited Editions Club, in 1944. The trade edition does not contain original lithographs and the fine paper and binding that this edition does. 

Robert L. Dothard designed this book. The text is composed in Linotype Baskerville and was printed at the shop of E. L. Hildreth in Vermont. This edition is bound in a dyed sheepskin and stamped with a decorative illustration in gold foil. The paper is all-rag and was made by the Worthy Paper Company. Each copy is housed in a solander case wrapped in white linen and a lithograph by Lynd Ward. Our copy is a gift of Loryn Romadka to Special Collections, UWM Libraries, from the collection of Austin Fredric Lutter.  

View more Limited Edition Club posts.

View more Fine Press Friday posts.

– Teddy, Special Collections Graduate Intern

This image has been edited to see full complete image.

[genevieveetguy]

. I was just thinking what an interesting concept it is to eliminate the writer from the artistic process. If we could just get rid of these actors and directors, maybe we've got something here.

The Player, Robert Altman (1992)

[brokehorrorfan]

The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King's The Stand will be published in hardcover and e-book on August 19, 2025 via Gallery Books.

Edited by Christopher Golden and Brian Keene, the anthology features 34 short stories based on The Stand. It includes an introduction by Stephen King, a foreword by Golden, and an afterword by Keene.

Contributors include Wayne Brady & Maurice Broaddus, Poppy Z. Brite, Somer Canon, C. Robert Cargill, Nat Cassidy, V. Castro, Richard Chizmar, S.A. Cosby, Tananarive Due & Steven Barnes, Meg Gardiner, Gabino Iglesias, Jonathan Janz, Alma Katsu, Caroline Kepnes, Michael Koryta, Sarah Langan, Joe R. Lansdale, Tim Lebbon, Josh Malerman, Ronald Malfi, Usman T. Malik, Premee Mohamed, Cynthia Pelayo, Hailey Piper, David J. Schow, Alex Segura, Bryan Smith, Paul Tremblay, Catherynne M. Valente, Bev Vincent, Catriona Ward, Chuck Wendig, Wrath James White, and Rio Youers.

Since its initial publication in 1978, The Stand has been considered Stephen King’s seminal masterpiece of apocalyptic fiction, with millions of copies sold and adapted twice for television. Although there are other extraordinary works exploring the unraveling of human society, none have been as influential as this iconic novel—generations of writers have been impacted by its dark yet ultimately hopeful vision of the end and new beginning of civilization, and its stunning array of characters. Now for the first time, Stephen King has fully authorized a return to the harrowing world of The Stand through this original short story anthology as presented by award-winning authors and editors Christopher Golden and Brian Keene. Bringing together some of today’s greatest and most visionary writers, The End of the World As We Know It features unforgettable, all-new stories set during and after (and some perhaps long after) the events of The Stand—brilliant, terrifying, and painfully human tales that will resonate with readers everywhere as an essential companion to the classic, bestselling novel.

Pre-order The End of the World As We Know It.

[whencyclopedia]

George Armstrong Custer

George Armstrong Custer (l. 1839-1876) was an officer in the US Army, serving in the cavalry from 1861 to 1865 during the American Civil War and the wars against the Plains Indians 1866-1876. Although he became a widely recognized hero during the Civil War, he is best remembered for his death at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Custer established a reputation for recklessness, courage, and self-promotion early in the Civil War and, by 1863, after the Battle of Gettysburg, was a national hero. He blocked the retreat of General Robert E. Lee (l. 1807-1870) in April 1865 and was present at Appomattox Court House when Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant (l. 1822-1885). After the war, he oversaw Reconstruction in Texas before taking command of the newly formed 7th Cavalry in campaigns against the Native Americans of the West.

He led his troops against the Cheyenne people at the Washita Massacre/Battle of the Washita River in November 1868 and, ignoring the terms of the Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1868, marched his troops into the Black Hills in 1874 where he discovered gold. News of this discovery soon brought more settlers and miners into Sioux and Cheyenne territory, igniting the Great Sioux War of 1876-1877. At the Battle of the Little Bighorn (25-26 June 1876) Custer and his men were slaughtered by Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Sioux warriors under chief Sitting Bull (l. c. 1837-1890). Afterwards, thanks in large part to the efforts of his wife, Elizabeth Bacon "Libbie" Custer (l. 1842-1933), George Armstrong Custer came to be regarded as a great American hero.

His legacy and reputation held until shortly before the Second World War (1939-45) when scholars began challenging the traditional narrative. Today, Custer is a controversial figure, often condemned for his brutality and ruthlessness. Although Custer should certainly be held accountable for his actions, it must also be recognized that he was primarily advancing the genocidal policies of his government which saw the American Indian as an obstacle to progress, civilization, and Manifest Destiny.

Early Years & West Point

George Armstrong Custer was born on 5 December 1839 in New Rumley, Ohio, to Emanuel Henry Custer, a blacksmith, and his second wife, Marie Ward Kirkpatrick. He was named after a minister as his mother hoped this would encourage him to follow that path. He had three older half-siblings from his mother's first marriage and four full siblings, including Thomas and Boston, who would also join the military and die with him in battle.

He was sent to live with his older half-sister and her family in Monroe, Michigan, to attend school and met the girl who would one day become his wife, Elizabeth Clift Bacon. After graduating, he moved to Hopedale, Ohio, and enrolled at the Hopedale Normal College, pursuing a teaching degree. He began his teaching career in Cadiz, Ohio, in 1856 and boarded at the home of the Holland family, where he fell in love with the daughter, Mary Jane Holland. He hoped to marry her but found little opportunity for advancement in Ohio, so he decided to change careers and apply to West Point Military Academy. Scholar Nathaniel Philbrick comments:

He'd been a seventeen-year-old schoolteacher back in Ohio when he applied to his local congressman for an appointment to West Point. Since Custer was a Democrat and the congressman was a Republican, his chances seemed slim at best. However, Custer had fallen in love with a local girl, whose father, hoping to get Custer as far away from his daughter as possible, appears to have done everything he could to persuade the congressman to send the schoolteacher with a roving eye to West Point.

(47)

Custer entered West Point in July 1857 and, before the end of his first session, had earned 27 demerits. By graduation, he had been given more demerits than any of the other cadets in his class. After graduation in June 1861, he faced court martial for failing to break up a fight between cadets but was only reprimanded as the American Civil War was already underway. Many of Custer's classmates had left to fight for the Confederacy and the Union forces were in dire need of trained officers. Custer was commissioned a second lieutenant and sent to drill volunteers in Washington, D.C.

Continue reading...

[dalekofchaos]

If Ned Stark became King

Hypothetically speaking. Let's say Robert and Rhaegar killed each other in the Battle of The Trident and Ned had no choice but to take the Iron Throne because The Rebellion expected it of him. Here is how I could see things going.

Tywin lannister would have been sentenced to death do to his part in the deaths of Ella Martell, Rhaenys and baby Aegon.

Jamie has three options. He killed the King he was sworn to protect which should mean either a death sentence or a sentence to the wall. If he could convenience Ned that he did the right and honorable thing by keeping the city from being burned maybe he could have lived and be Lord of Casterly Rock.

If Jamie died, Tyrion would have become Lord of Casterly Rock.

He would send for Queen Rhaella and Viserys and baby Daenerys in peace promising safety. Rhaella would have been allowed to live and raise Daenerys possibly in the capital or on Dragon Stone. Viserys would have been sent to the Eryie as a ward of Lord Jon Arryn. ( Ned had fond memories of being warded there, a good place for a confused young child).

Now for Jon, this is my belief of what would have happened. Jon would have been named Prince and heir and betrothed to Ned's first born daughter, in this case Sansa. This would unite both the rebellion and House Targaryen uniting the kingdom again.

Stannis would have been given temporary lordship over Dragonstone, holding it for Viserys. And would still be Lord of Storms End.

The Martells would be happy because they would have been given the Mountain and Tywin would've been executed for his crimes. I could see Ned also fostering Jon there. By all rights Jon is sort of related to the Martells. Its unknown if Ella knew that Rhaegar was going to remarry or not, if she knew and told her family I could see them opening their arms to Jon.

Now for Winterfell, with Ned at Kings Landing, Benjen would be the stark in the north. Its unknown why Benjen joined the Nights watch, I think he just plain wanted to. Ned would ask Benjen to hold Winterfell for a time before he joins, till either Robb is ready to take over, or Ned leaves the thrown for Jon.

Since the Eddard-Catelyn marriage had already been arranged it would not change. Marriages would be vastly different however.

Eddard and Cats marriage ensures an alliance between the Tullys and Starks.

Robb would then be promised to Margaery Tyrell when they both came of age thereby ensuring an alliance between the Tyrells and Starks.

Jaime Lannister and Lysa Tully would be betrothed thereby ensuring an alliance with The Westerlands and the Riverlands and, by extension, the Crown.

Because Jon Arryn had no heirs and was getting older he would be wed as well but since he was already Lord Paramount of the Vale his bride would be from a lesser vassal house from the Reach.

Prince Oberyn would be wed to Cersei hereby ensuring an alliance with Dorne and the Westerlands.

Arya Stark and Quentyn Martell

Arianne Martell and Theon Greyjoy

Viserys and Shireen

Daenerys and Willas

Varys and Baelish would be summarily dismissed from their services in the capital. They would be given holdfasts somewhere far away and forever be barred from the capital or from raising armies.

Grand Maester Pycelle would be sent to the Citadel for reassignment elsewhere. An election for a new Grand Maester would take place then (as is the Citadels way).

Small Council members:

Hand of the King: Jon Arryn

Grand Maester: Marwyn

Master of Coin: Olenna Tyrell

Master of Ships: Balon Greyjoy (bring him into the fold)

Lord Commander of the King’s Guard: Barristan Selmy

Master of Whispers: Prince Doran of Dorne (Bringing Dorne into the Fold as well)

Master of Laws: Brynden Tully

Lord Commander of the City Watch: Mace Tyrell

One of Ned’s first and continuing acts would be to repair the damage, both physical and emotional from Robert’s Rebellion and to repair the relations and trust between the common people and the Crown.

All soldiers that fought against Robert and Eddard during the campaign would be forgiven and pardoned and allowed to return to their homes without consequence. Their leaders, depending on their level of loyalty, would be offered a chance to swear fealty to the Starks. Any that refused would be sent to the Wall and their lands, estates, and positions would be given to loyal nobles.

Ned understood that the job of a noble is to help the people (he considers them his children), and he would immediately order all noble houses of a certain wealth to pay a one-time reparation tax to lift the poor out of poverty and to secure a positive working relationship with them.

Because so many noble houses have been killed off and there is a lack of trueborn individuals left in the kingdom tournaments would be held throughout the kingdom that would be open to the common man, the winners of which would receive a large reward of coin, be allowed to squire with the guarantee of knighthood, and a holdfast. These new nobles would be extremely loyal to the house that allowed them knighthood as well as the crown that elevated their status. These tournaments would also serve to lift the spirits of the common people.

If Ned took the throne the world would be a lot different and ultimately the story would be considerably more boring because the “game” would never happen.

[fibula-rasa]

(Mostly) Lost, but Not Forgotten: Omar Khayyam (1923) / A Lover’s Oath (1925)

Alternate Titles: The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, The Rubaiyat, Omar Khayyam, Omar

Direction: Ferdinand Pinney Earle; assisted by Walter Mayo

Scenario: Ferdinand P. Earle

Titles: Marion Ainslee, Ferdinand P. Earle (Omar), Louis Weadock (A Lover’s Oath)

Inspired by: The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, as edited & translated by Edward FitzGerald 

Production Manager: Winthrop Kelly

Camera: Georges Benoit

Still Photography: Edward S. Curtis

Special Photographic Effects: Ferdinand P. Earle, Gordon Bishop Pollock

Composer: Charles Wakefield Cadman

Editors: Arthur D. Ripley (The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam version), Ethel Davey & Ferdinand P. Earle (Omar / Omar Khayyam, the Director’s cut of 1922), Milton Sills (A Lover’s Oath)

Scenic Artists: Frank E. Berier, Xavier Muchado, Anthony Vecchio, Paul Detlefsen, Flora Smith, Jean Little Cyr, Robert Sterner, Ralph Willis

Character Designer: Louis Hels

Choreography: Ramon Novarro (credited as Ramon Samaniegos)

Technical Advisors: Prince Raphael Emmanuel, Reverend Allan Moore, Captain Dudley S. Corlette, & Captain Montlock or Mortlock

Studio: Ferdinand P. Earle Productions / The Rubaiyat, Inc. (Production) & Eastern Film Corporation (Distribution, Omar), Astor Distribution Corporation [States Rights market] (Distribution, A Lover’s Oath)

Performers: Frederick Warde, Edwin Stevens, Hedwiga Reicher, Mariska Aldrich, Paul Weigel, Robert Anderson, Arthur Carewe, Jesse Weldon, Snitz Edwards, Warren Rogers, Ramon Novarro (originally credited as Ramon Samaniegos), Big Jim Marcus, Kathleen Key, Charles A. Post, Phillippe de Lacy, Ferdinand Pinney Earle

Premiere(s): Omar cut: April 1922 The Ambassador Theatre, New York, NY (Preview Screening), 12 October 1923, Loew’s New York, New York, NY (Preview Screening), 2 February 1923, Hoyt’s Theatre, Sydney, Australia (Initial Release)

Status: Presumed lost, save for one 30 second fragment preserved by the Academy Film Archive, and a 2.5 minute fragment preserved by a private collector (Old Films & Stuff)

Length:  Omar Khayyam: 8 reels , 76 minutes; A Lover’s Oath: 6 reels,  5,845 feet (though once listed with a runtime of 76 minutes, which doesn’t line up with the stated length of this cut)

Synopsis (synthesized from magazine summaries of the plot):

Omar Khayyam:

Set in 12th century Persia, the story begins with a preface in the youth of Omar Khayyam (Warde). Omar and his friends, Nizam (Weigel) and Hassan (Stevens), make a pact that whichever one of them becomes a success in life first will help out the others. In adulthood, Nizam has become a potentate and has given Omar a position so that he may continue his studies in mathematics and astronomy. Hassan, however, has grown into quite the villain. When he is expelled from the kingdom, he plots to kidnap Shireen (Key), the sheik’s daughter. Shireen is in love with Ali (Novarro). In the end it’s Hassan’s wife (Reicher) who slays the villain then kills herself.

A Lover’s Oath:

The daughter of a sheik, Shireen (Key), is in love with Ali (Novarro), the son of the ruler of a neighboring kingdom. Hassan covets Shireen and plots to kidnap her. Hassan is foiled by his wife. [The Sills’ edit places Ali and Shireen as protagonists, but there was little to no re-shooting done (absolutely none with Key or Novarro). So, most critics note how odd it is that all Ali does in the film is pitch woo, and does not save Shireen himself. This obviously wouldn’t have been an issue in the earlier cut, where Ali is a supporting character, often not even named in summaries and news items. Additional note: Post’s credit changes from “Vizier” to “Commander of the Faithful”]

Additional sequence(s) featured in the film (but I’m not sure where they fit in the continuity):

Celestial sequences featuring stars and planets moving through the cosmos

Angels spinning in a cyclone up to the heavens

A Potters’ shop sequence (relevant to a specific section of the poems)

Harem dance sequence choreographed by Novarro

Locations: palace gardens, street and marketplace scenes, ancient ruins

Points of Interest:

“The screen has been described as the last word in realism, but why confine it there? It can also be the last word in imaginative expression.”

Ferdinand P. Earle as quoted in Exhibitors Trade Review, 4 March 1922

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam was a massive best seller. Ferdinand Pinney Earle was a classically trained artist who studied under William-Adolphe Bougueraeu and James McNeill Whistler in his youth. He also had years of experience creating art backgrounds, matte paintings, and art titles for films. Charles Wakefield Cadman was an accomplished composer of songs, operas, and operettas. Georges Benoit and Gordon Pollock were experienced photographic technicians. Edward S. Curtis was a widely renowned still photographer. Ramon Novarro was a name nobody knew yet—but they would soon enough.

When Earle chose The Rubaiyat as the source material for his directorial debut and collected such skilled collaborators, it seemed likely that the resulting film would be a landmark in the art of American cinema. Quite a few people who saw Earle’s Rubaiyat truly thought it would be:

William E. Wing writing for Camera, 9 September 1922, wrote:

“Mr. Earle…came from the world of brush and canvass, to spread his art upon the greater screen. He created a new Rubaiyat with such spiritual colors, that they swayed.”  … “It has been my fortune to see some of the most wonderful sets that this Old Earth possesses, but I may truly say that none seized me more suddenly, or broke with greater, sudden inspiration upon the view and the brain, than some of Ferdinand Earle’s backgrounds, in his Rubaiyat. “His vision and inspired art seem to promise something bigger and better for the future screen.”

As quoted in an ad in Film Year Book, 1923:

“Ferdinand Earle has set a new standard of production to live up to.”

Rex Ingram

“Fifty years ahead of the time.” 

Marshall Neilan

The film was also listed among Fritz Lang’s Siegfried, Chaplin’s Gold Rush, Fairbanks’ Don Q, Lon Chaney’s Phantom of the Opera and The Unholy Three, and Erich Von Stroheim’s Merry Widow by the National Board of Review as an exceptional film of 1925.

So why don’t we all know about this film? (Spoiler: it’s not just because it’s lost!)

The short answer is that multiple dubious legal challenges arose that prevented Omar’s general release in the US. The long answer follows BELOW THE JUMP!

Earle began the project in earnest in 1919. Committing The Rubaiyat to film was an ambitious undertaking for a first-time director and Earle was striking out at a time when the American film industry was developing an inferiority complex about the level of artistry in their creative output. Earle was one of a number of artists in the film colony who were going independent of the emergent studio system for greater protections of their creative freedoms.

In their adaptation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Earle and Co. hoped to develop new and perfect existing techniques for incorporating live-action performers with paintings and expand the idea of what could be accomplished with photographic effects in filmmaking. The Rubaiyat was an inspired choice. It’s not a narrative, but a collection of poetry. This gave Earle the opportunity to intersperse fantastical, poetic sequences throughout a story set in the lifetime of Omar Khayyam, the credited writer of the poems. In addition to the fantastic, Earle’s team would recreate 12th century Persia for the screen. 

Earle was convinced that if his methods were perfected, it wouldn’t matter when or where a scene was set, it would not just be possible but practical to put on film. For The Rubaiyat, the majority of shooting was done against black velvet and various matte photography and multiple exposure techniques were employed to bring a setting 800+ years in the past and 1000s of miles removed to life before a camera in a cottage in Los Angeles.

Note: If you’d like to learn a bit more about how these effects were executed at the time, see the first installment of How’d They Do That.

Unfortunately, the few surviving minutes don’t feature much of this special photography, but what does survive looks exquisite:

see all gifs here

Earle, knowing that traditional stills could not be taken while filming, brought in Edward S. Curtis. Curtis developed techniques in still photography to replicate the look of the photographic effects used for the film. So, even though the film hasn’t survived, we have some pretty great looking representations of some of the 1000s of missing feet of the film.

Nearly a year before Curtis joined the crew, Earle began collaboration with composer Charles Wakefield Cadman. In another bold creative move, Cadman and Earle worked closely before principal photography began so that the score could inform the construction and rhythm of the film and vice versa.

By the end of 1921 the film was complete. After roughly 9 months and the creation of over 500 paintings, The Rubaiyat was almost ready to meet its public. However, the investors in The Rubaiyat, Inc., the corporation formed by Earle to produce the film, objected to the ample reference to wine drinking (a comical objection if you’ve read the poems) and wanted the roles of the young lovers (played by as yet unknown Ramon Novarro and Kathleen Key) to be expanded. The dispute with Earle became so heated that the financiers absconded with the bulk of the film to New York. Earle filed suit against them in December to prevent them from screening their butchered and incomplete cut. Cadman supported Earle by withholding the use of his score for the film.

Later, Eastern Film Corp. brokered a settlement between the two parties, where Earle would get final cut of the film and Eastern would handle its release. Earle and Eastern agreed to change the title from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam to simply Omar. Omar had its first official preview in New York City. It was tentatively announced that the film would have a wide release in the autumn.

However, before that autumn, director Norman Dawn launched a dubious patent-infringement suit against Earle and others. Dawn claimed that he owned the sole right to use multiple exposures, glass painting for single exposure, and other techniques that involved combining live action with paintings. All the cited techniques had been widespread in the film industry for a decade already and eventually and expectedly Dawn lost the suit. Despite Earle’s victory, the suit effectively put the kibosh on Omar’s release in the US.

Earle moved on to other projects that didn’t come to fruition, like a Theda Bara film and a frankly amazing sounding collaboration with Cadman to craft a silent-film opera of Faust. Omar did finally get a release, albeit only in Australia. Australian news outlets praised the film as highly as those few lucky attendees of the American preview screenings did. The narrative was described as not especially original, but that it was good enough in view of the film’s artistry and its imaginative “visual phenomena” and the precision of its technical achievement.

One reviewer for The Register, Adelaide, SA, wrote:

“It seems almost an impossibility to make a connected story out of the short verse of the Persian of old, yet the producer of this classic of the screen… has succeeded in providing an entertainment that would scarcely have been considered possible. From first to last the story grips with its very dramatic intensity.”

While Omar’s American release was still in limbo, “Ramon Samaniegos” made a huge impression in Rex Ingram’s Prisoner of Zenda (1922, extant) and Scaramouche (1923, extant) and took on a new name: Ramon Novarro. Excitement was mounting for Novarro’s next big role as the lead in the epic Ben-Hur (1925, extant) and the Omar project was re-vivified. 

A new company, Astor Distribution Corp., was formed and purchased the distribution rights to Omar. Astor hired actor (note, not an editor) Milton Sills to re-cut the film to make Novarro and Key more prominent. The company also re-wrote the intertitles, reduced the films runtime by more than ten minutes, and renamed the film A Lover’s Oath. Earle had moved on by this point, vowing to never direct again. In fact, Earle was indirectly working with Novarro and Key again at the time, as an art director on Ben-Hur!

Despite Omar’s seemingly auspicious start in 1920, it was only released in the US on the states rights market as a cash-in on the success of one of its actors in a re-cut form five years later.

That said, A Lover’s Oath still received some good reviews from those who did manage to see it. Most of the negative criticism went to the story, intertitles, and Sills’ editing.

What kind of legacy could/should Omar have had? I’m obviously limited in my speculation by the fact that the film is lost, but there are a few key facts about the film’s production, release, and timing to consider. 

The production budget was stated to be $174,735. That is equivalent to $3,246,994.83 in 2024 dollars. That is a lot of money, but since the production was years long and Omar was a period film set in a remote locale and features fantastical special effects sequences, it’s a modest budget. For contemporary perspective, Robin Hood (1922, extant) cost just under a million dollars to produce and Thief of Bagdad (1924, extant) cost over a million. For a film similarly steeped in spectacle to have nearly 1/10th of the budget is really very noteworthy. And, perhaps if the film had ever had a proper release in the US—in Earle’s intended form (that is to say, not the Sills cut)—Omar may have made as big of a splash as other epics.

It’s worth noting here however that there are a number of instances in contemporary trade and fan magazines where journalists off-handedly make this filmmaking experiment about undermining union workers. Essentially implying that that value of Earle’s method would be to continue production when unionized workers were striking. I’m sure that that would absolutely be a primary thought for studio heads, but it certainly wasn’t Earle’s motivation. Often when Earle talks about the method, he focuses on being able to film things that were previously impossible or impracticable to film. Driving down filming costs from Earle’s perspective was more about highlighting the artistry of his own specialty in lieu of other, more demanding and time-consuming approaches, like location shooting.

This divide between artists and studio decision makers is still at issue in the American film and television industry. Studio heads with billion dollar salaries constantly try to subvert unions of skilled professionals by pursuing (as yet) non-unionized labor. The technical developments of the past century have made Earle’s approach easier to implement. However, just because you don’t have to do quite as much math, or time an actor’s movements to a metronome, does not mean that filming a combination of painted/animated and live-action elements does not involve skilled labor.

VFX artists and animators are underappreciated and underpaid. In every new movie or TV show you watch there’s scads of VFX work done even in films/shows that have mundane, realistic settings. So, if you love a film or TV show, take the effort to appreciate the work of the humans who made it, even if their work was so good you didn’t notice it was done. And, if you’ve somehow read this far, and are so out of the loop about modern filmmaking, Disney’s “live-action” remakes are animated films, but they’ve just finagled ways to circumvent unions and low-key delegitimize the skilled labor of VFX artists and animators in the eyes of the viewing public. Don’t fall for it.

VFX workers in North America have a union under IATSE, but it’s still developing as a union and Marvel & Disney workers only voted to unionize in the autumn of 2023. The Animation Guild (TAG), also under the IATSE umbrella,  has a longer history, but it’s been growing rapidly in the past year. A strike might be upcoming this year for TAG, so keep an eye out and remember to support striking workers and don’t cross picket lines, be they physical or digital!

Speaking of artistry over cost-cutting, I began this post with a mention that in the early 1920s, the American film industry was developing an inferiority complex in regard to its own artistry. This was in comparison to the European industries, Germany’s being the largest at the time. It’s frustrating to look back at this period and see acceptance of the opinion that American filmmakers weren’t bringing art to film. While yes, the emergent studio system was highly capitalistic and commercial, that does not mean the American industry was devoid of home-grown artists. 

United Artists was formed in 1919 by Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and D.W. Griffith precisely because studios were holding them back from investing in their art—within the same year that Earle began his Omar project. While salaries and unforgiving production schedules were also paramount concerns in the filmmakers going independent, a primary impetus was that production/distribution heads exhibited too much control over what the artists were trying to create.

Fairbanks was quickly expanding his repertoire in a more classical and fantastic direction. Cecil B. DeMille made his first in a long and very successful string of ancient epics. And the foreign-born children of the American film industry, Charlie Chaplin, Rex Ingram, and Nazimova, were poppin’ off! Chaplin was redefining comedic filmmaking. Ingram was redefining epics. Nazimova independently produced what is often regarded as America’s first art film, Salome (1923, extant), a film designed by Natacha Rambova, who was *gasp* American. Earle and his brother, William, had ambitious artistic visions of what could be done in the American industry and they also had to self-produce to get their work done. 

Meanwhile, studio heads, instead of investing in the artists they already had contracts with, tried to poach talent from Europe with mixed success (in this period, see: Ernst Lubitsch, F.W. Murnau, Benjamin Christensen, Mauritz Stiller, Victor Sjöström, and so on). I’m in no way saying it was the wrong call to sign these artists, but all of these filmmakers, even if they found success in America, had stories of being hired to inject the style and artistry that they developed in Europe into American cinema, and then had their plans shot down or cut down to a shadow of their creative vision. Even Stiller, who tragically died before he had the opportunity to establish himself in the US, faced this on his first American film, The Temptress (1926, extant), on which he was replaced. Essentially, the studio heads’ actions were all hot air and spite for the filmmakers who’d gone independent.

Finally I would like to highlight Ferdinand Earle’s statement to the industry, which he penned for from Camera in 14 January 1922, when his financial backers kidnapped his film to re-edit it on their terms:

MAGNA CHARTA

Until screen authors and producers obtain a charter specifying and guaranteeing their privileges and rights, the great slaughter of unprotected motion picture dramas will go merrily on.

Some of us who are half artists and half fighters and who are ready to expend ninety per cent of our energy in order to win the freedom to devote the remaining ten per cent to creative work on the screen, manage to bring to birth a piteous, half-starved art progeny.

The creative artist today labors without the stimulus of a public eager for his product, labors without the artistic momentum that fires the artist’s imagination and spurs his efforts as in any great art era.

Nowadays the taint of commercialism infects the seven arts, and the art pioneer meets with constant petty worries and handicaps.

Only once in a blue moon, in this matter-of-fact, dollar-wise age can the believer in better pictures hope to participate in a truely [sic] artistic treat.

In the seven years I have devoted to the screen, I have witnessed many splendid photodramas ruined by intruding upstarts and stubborn imbeciles. And I determined not to launch the production of my Opus No. 1 until I had adequately protected myself against all the usual evils of the way, especially as I was to make an entirely new type of picture.

In order that my film verison [sic] of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam might be produced under ideal conditions and safeguarded from intolerable interferences and outside worries, I entered into a contract with the Rubaiyat, Inc., that made me not only president of the corporation and on the board of directors, but which set forth that I was to be author, production manager, director, cutter and film editor as well as art director, and that no charge could be made against the production without my written consent, and that my word was to be final on all matters of production. The late George Loane Tucker helped my attorney word the contract, which read like a splendid document.

Alas, I am now told that only by keeping title to a production until it is declared by yourself to be completed is it safe for a scenario writer, an actor or a director, who is supposedly making his own productions, to contract with a corporation; otherwise he is merely the servant of that corporation, subject at any moment to discharge, with the dubious redress of a suit for damages that can with difficulty be estimated and proven.

Can there be any hope of better pictures as long as contracts and copyrights are no protection against financial brigands and bullies?

We have scarcely emerged from barbarism, for contracts, solemnly drawn up between human beings, in which the purposes are set forth in the King’s plainest English, serve only as hurdles over which justice-mocking financiers and their nimble attorneys travel with impunity, riding rough shod over the author or artist who cannot support a legal army to defend his rights. The phrase is passed about that no contract is invioliable [sic]—and yet we think we have reached a state of civilization!

The suit begun by my attorneys in the federal courts to prevent the present hashed and incomplete version of my story from being released and exhibited, may be of interest to screen writers. For the whole struggle revolves not in the slightest degree around the sanctity of the contract, but centers around the federal copyright of my story which I never transferred in writing otherwise, and which is being brazenly ignored.

Imagine my production without pictorial titles: and imagine “The Rubaiyat” with a spoken title as follows, “That bird is getting to talk too much!”—beside some of the immortal quatrains of Fitzgerald!

One weapon, fortunately, remains for the militant art creator, when all is gone save his dignity and his sense of humor; and that is the rapier blade of ridicule, that can send lumbering to his retreat the most brutal and elephant-hided lord of finance.

How edifying—the tableau of the man of millions playing legal pranks upon men such as Charles Wakefield Cadman, Edward S. Curtis and myself and others who were associated in the bloody venture of picturizing the Rubaiyat! It has been gratifying to find the press of the whole country ready to champion the artist’s cause.

When the artist forges his plowshare into a sword, so to speak, he does not always put up a mean fight. 

What publisher would dare to rewrite a sonnet of John Keats or alter one chord of a Chopin ballade?

Creative art of a high order will become possible on the screen only when the rights of established, independent screen producers, such as Rex Ingram and Maurice Tourneur, are no longer interferred with and their work no longer mutilated or changed or added to by vandal hands. And art dramas, conceived and executed by masters of screen craft, cannot be turned out like sausages made by factory hands. A flavor of individuality and distinction of style cannot be preserved in machine-made melodramas—a drama that is passed from hand to hand and concocted by patchworkers and tinkerers.

A thousand times no! For it will always be cousin to the sausage, and be like all other—sausages.

The scenes of a master’s drama may have a subtle pictorial continuity and a power of suggestion quite like a melody that is lost when just one note is changed. And the public is the only test of what is eternally true or false. What right have two or three people to deprive millions of art lovers of enjoying an artist’s creation as it emerged from his workshop?

“The Rubaiyat” was my first picture and produced in spite of continual and infernal interferences. It has taught me several sad lessons, which I have endeavored in the above paragraphs to pass on to some of my fellow sufferers. It is the hope that I am fighting, to a certain extent, their battle that has given me the courage to continue, and that has prompted me to write this article. May such hubbubs eventually teach or inforce a decent regard for the rights of authors and directors and tend to make the existence of screen artisans more secure and soothing to the nerves.

FERDINAND EARLE.

---

☕Appreciate my work? Buy me a coffee! ☕

Transcribed Sources & Annotations over on the WMM Blog!

See the Timeline for Ferdinand P. Earle's Rubaiyat Adaptation

[angelap3]

Curiosità su Julia Roberts e Richard Gere in Pretty Woman 🎬

Ruoli invertiti: Richard Gere inizialmente rifiutò più volte il ruolo di Edward Lewis. Solo dopo che Julia Roberts lo convinse durante un incontro, accettò finalmente la parte.

Cambio di titolo: Il film era originariamente intitolato "3000", in riferimento alla somma di denaro che Vivian (Julia Roberts) riceveva per la settimana. Il titolo venne cambiato in "Pretty Woman" ispirato alla canzone di Roy Orbison, che divenne un elemento distintivo del film.

Scena improvvisata: Una delle scene più iconiche del film, in cui Edward chiude bruscamente la scatola di gioielli sulle dita di Vivian facendola ridere, fu improvvisata. La reazione di Julia Roberts era autentica, e il regista Garry Marshall amò così tanto quel momento che decise di mantenerlo nel film.

Casting di Julia Roberts: Julia Roberts non fu la prima scelta per il ruolo di Vivian Ward. Molte attrici, tra cui Molly Ringwald, Meg Ryan e Daryl Hannah, rifiutarono la parte prima che venisse scelta Roberts. Questo ruolo fu la sua grande svolta, catapultandola verso la celebrità.

Scena delle scarpe: La scena in cui Edward mette la scarpa a Vivian fu un'idea di Richard Gere, improvvisata sul momento. Divenne uno dei momenti più memorabili del film.

Alchimia reale: La chimica tra Roberts e Gere era così forte che ebbe un ruolo significativo nel successo del film. La loro connessione sullo schermo rese la trama romantica più credibile e affascinante.

Performance al pianoforte di Richard Gere: Richard Gere compose e suonò realmente il pezzo al pianoforte presente nella scena dell’hotel. Questo aggiunse un tocco personale alla sua interpretazione, mostrando anche il suo talento musicale.

L’iconico abito rosso: Il famoso abito rosso indossato da Julia Roberts nella scena dell'opera rischiava di non essere creato. Inizialmente, l'abito era stato disegnato in nero, ma la costumista Marilyn Vance decise di cambiarlo in rosso all'ultimo minuto, creando uno dei momenti di moda più iconici nella storia del cinema.

Collaborazione di successo: Pretty Woman segnò l'inizio di una collaborazione di successo tra Roberts, Gere e il regista Garry Marshall. Il trio si riunì nel 1999 per il film Se scappi, ti sposo, che ebbe anch'esso un grande successo al botteghino.

Un successo al botteghino: Pretty Woman fu un enorme successo, incassando oltre 463 milioni di dollari in tutto il mondo. Divenne una delle commedie romantiche di maggior incasso di tutti i tempi, consacrando Julia Roberts come una delle attrici più richieste e Richard Gere come protagonista di spicco a Hollywood.

Crediti: Light Of Rumi / Betty Nurbaety

[inkstainedheartbeats]

Okay @scarlet-bitch (hope you don’t mind the tag) this is the very basic like timeline of that thing I mentioned. It’s a super crossover xD

—//—//—//—

1917

James “Bucky” Barnes is born March 10

Howard Stark is born August 15

1918

Steve Rogers is born July 4

1921

Margaret “Peggy” Carter is born April 21

1930

Eric Lehnsherr is born May 25

1932

Charles Xavier is born July 13

1939

Howard Stark starts up Stark Industries

1950

Nick Fury is born July 4

1954

John Winchester is born April 22

Mary Winchester is born December 4

1956

David Rossi is born May 9

1958

Henry Winchester stumbles upon a mutant/human co-op trying to force mutations in humans. He is saved by an undercover CIA agent and forced into Witness Protection without his wife and child. The CIA agent has betrayed the CIA and is instead working with the co-op.

The CIA agent, calling herself Abbadon, starts to subtly threaten Millie.

1960

Harold Finch (Thomas) is born April 9

1962

Abbadon injects John with a prototype serum that is supposed to force a mutation out of him. It seems to fail.

Nathan Ingram is born June 6

Olivia Manx is born July 5

1964

Phil Coulson is born July 8

1965

Abbadon scares Millie, who believes that she has hidden John’s existence from Abbadon as the ex-CIA agent never threatens him, away. Millie leaves John with her sister Maisy. She takes on the name Maria.

Millie meets and falls in love with Howard Stark.

Nathan Ford is born August 16

Carl Elias is born August 18

1966

Robert Hersh is born May 7

Mark Snow is born May 22

1967

Anthony Marconi is born November 23

1968

Lionel Fusco is born March 17

James “Rhodey” Rhodes is born October 6

1969

Bruce Banner is born December 18

1970

Tony Stark is born May 29

Emily Prentiss is born October 12

1971

Clint Barton is born June 18

Aaron Hotchner is born November 2

1972

Joycelyn Carter is born March 7

Haley Hotchner is born July 16

1973

Derek Morgan is born June 6

1974

Pepper Potts is born February 12

1975

John Reese (Harris) is born May 4

1977

Elle Greenaway is born June 24

Penelope Garcia is born July 7

1978

Sam Wilson is born September 23

1979

Dean Winchester is born January 24

1981

Samantha Groves is born September 4

Sean Hotchner is born August 7

Spencer Reid is born October 28

1982

Maria Hill is born April 4

1983

Grant Ward is born January 7

Sam Winchester is born May 2

Nathan Ingram leaves MIT with an unfinished degree to start IFT May 29

Michael Cole is born July 10

Sameen Shaw is born October 25

Mary Winchester dies November 2

1984

Jessica Moore is born January 24

Will Ingram Finch is born August 31

Natasha Romanov is born November 20

1985

Devon Grice is born November 30

1986

Alec Hardison is born April 13

Dum E is created June 18

1987

Tony graduates from MIT June 5

Leo Fitz is born August 19

Jemma Simmons is born September 11

1988

Skye (Daisy Johnson) is born July 2

1989

This is the last year that Millie Winchester was seen alive. This is because she abandons the name and steps fully into her Maria Stark alias.

Pietro & Wanda Maximoff are born January 1

1990

Adam Milligan is born September 29

1991

Maria and Howard Stark die December 16

1992

Theresa Whitaker is born March 7

John Winchester drops his sons off with his half brother Tony Stark April 20

July 20 Tony manages to gain custody of his nephews.

1993

John Winchester suffers a mental break and kills Kate Milligan and kidnaps his son on October 3

October 11 Adam is dropped of with Tony which causes a scandal

1995

Caleb Phipps is born July 26

1997

Taylor Carter is born June 18

1999

Masha Ingram-Finch is born February 24

2000

Lee Fusco is born January 9

2001

Peter Parker is born August 10

2003

Genrika Zhirova is born December 13

2004

Lionel and his wife divorce

2005

Jack Hotchner is born October 7

“The Machine” goes online February and the next day sold.

2007

On February 5 Tobias Hankel kidnaps Spencer Reid.

2008

Henry LaMontagne is born November 12

2009

Tony is kidnapped by 10 Rings February 13

2010

The Ferry bombing happens killing Nathan Ingram September 26

Sometime during October or November Rick Dillinger is hired by Finch

Dillinger dies December 5ish

2012

May 4; Battle of New York happens.

[konmics-n-stuff]

Everyone who has ever, even slightly, been Robin

*In official, DC-endorsed media 

Total: 100 (i think)

FYI:

my definition of a ‘Robin’ is extremely vague. For example, I’m counting Lois Lane because she went to a costume party as Robin, and I’m also counting ‘Boy’ from Batman: the Return of Bruce Wayne because he had the domino mask paint and was clearly a stand-in for Robin. Et cetera.

They’re organized chronologically by their first appearance as Robin

Also this is heavily dependent on DC Fandom Wiki, so please let me know if I missed anyone or if anything is inaccurate

KEY

Red = actually Robin for a significant portion of time (more than a few in-universe days & more than one issue/episode/movie/etc)

Italics = was never Robin in main continuity (i.e. Earth Two [before Earth One existed], Earth One, New Earth, and Prime Earth)

Bold = I actually acknowledge them as Robin in my heart

Dick Grayson (Apr 1940)

Julie Madison (Mar 1941)

Ricky (Dec 1944) [possible future]

Mary Wills (Apr 1950) [Earth-Two]

Bruce Wayne (Dec 1955)

Vanderveer Wayne (Jun 1962)

Alfred E. Neuman (Sep 1966) [Mad Magazine]

Lance Bruner (May 1969)

Jimmy Olsen (May 1970)

Jason Todd (Mar 1982)

Boyd, the Robin Wonder (Apr 1983) [Earth-C-Minus]

Carrie Kelly (Jun 1986) [Dark Knight Returns]

Tim Drake (Oct 1989)

Robert Chang (Apr 1990) [Digital Justice]

Redbird (Jan 1993) [The Blue, the Gray, and the Bat]

Thomas Wayne (Jan 1993) [Robin 3000]

Bane (Apr 1993) [rejected elseworlds]

Robin Redblade (Jun 1994) [Earth-494]

Tengu (Sep 1994) [Narrow Path]

Alfred Pennyworth (Feb 1996) [Batman: Dark Alligiances]

Jubilation Lee (Apr 1996) [Amalgam Universe]

Tris Plover (Jun 1996) [Legends of the Dead Earth]

Darkbird (Jul 1996)

Bruce Wayne Jr. (Feb 1997) [Earth-3839]

Lois Lane (Oct 1997)

Rodney the chimpanzee (Nov 1997) [Batman: Dark Knight Dynasty]

Marya (1998) [I, Joker]

Barbara Gordon (Feb 1998) [Earth-37]

Robin the Toy Wonder (Nov 1998) [DC One Million]

Rochelle Wayne (Feb 1999) [Reign of Terror]

Kon-El (Mar 1999) [Hypertension]

Clark Wayne (Mar 1999) [Earth-3839]

Squid Wonder (Aug 1999)

The Robin (Mar 2000) [Earth-40]

Robin Drake (Feb 2002) [Riddle of the Beast]

Stephanie Brown (May 2004)

Koriand’r (Jan 2005) [Teen Titans (2003 show)]

Garfield Logan (Jan 2005) [Teen Titans (2003 show)]

Rachel Roth (Jan 2005) [Teen Titans (2003 show)]

Victor Stone (Jan 2005) [Teen Titans (2003 show)]

Robbie the Robin (Jun 2005) [Krypto the Superdog]

Control Freak (Oct 2005) [Teen Titans (2003 show)]

Damian Wayne (Nov 2006)

Robin Olsen (Oct 2007) [Earth-8]

Bizzaro Robin (Nov 2007)

Unnamed penguin (Jun 2010) [Tiny Titans]

Boy (Jul 2010)

Robin Robin (Jul 2010) [Tiny Titans]

M’gann M’orzz (Nov 2010) [Young Justice (2010 show)]

Jericho (Dec 2010) [Tiny Titans]

Kid Devil (Dec 2010) [Tiny Titans]

Wildebeest (Dec 2010) [Tiny Titans]

Kroc (Dec 2010) [Tiny Titans]

The Joker (Jan 2011)

Lance Heart (Feb 2011)

Fransisco Ramirez (Feb 2011)

Christopher Ward (Feb 2011)

Robin John Blake (Jul 2012) [Dark Knight Trilogy]

Helena Wayne (July 2012) [Earth 2]

Robin’s Egg (Jan 2013) [Farm League]

Super Robin (Jul 2013) [Teen Titans Go!]

Selina Kyle (Mar 2014)

Damien Wayne (Jun 2014) [Infinite Crisis Video Game]

John Thomas Grayson (Dec 2014) [Earth 2]

Nibor (Jan 2015) [Teen Titans Go!]

Daxton Chill (May 2015)

Dre Cipriani (May 2015)

Riko Sheridan (May 2015)

Duke Thomas (Jul 2015)

Troy Walker (Jul 2015)

Kat-R-ina (Aug 2015)

Isabella Ortiz (Aug 2015)

BlackDomino (Oct 2015)

Darkestdawn (Oct 2015)

SideKicker (Oct 2015)

Yellowcape (Oct 2015)

Shug-R (May 2016)

Robinbot (May 2017)

Dinesh Babar (May 2017)

Rabid Robins (Oct 2017) [Earth -22]

Cult Member Robins (Apr 2018)

Rosie (Apr 2018)

Matt McGinnis (May 2018) [Futures End]

Harley Quinn (Apr 2019)

Jarro (Oct 2019)

Billy Batson (Oct 2019)

Six of Hearts (Dec 2019)

Maps Mizoguchi (Dec 2020)

Talia Kane (Feb 2021) [Earth 11]

LeBron James (Jul 2021) [Space Jam: A New Legacy]

Drake Winston (Oct 2021) [Batman ‘89]

Anita Jean (Oct 2021)

Kiki (Nov 2021)

Son of Don Mitchell Jr. (Mar 2022) [The Batman (2022 movie)]

Gan (Mar 2022)

Jon Kent (Jul 2022)

Amish Boy Wonder (Nov 2022) [The Last Harley Story]

Darcy Thomas (Nov 2022)

Elizabeth Prince (Jan 2024) [Possible Future]

Bruce Wayne clone (Jul 2024)

[whitepolaris]

Ghosts of Alcatraz

by Troy Taylor

San Francisco Bay's barren Alcatraz Island, long nickname The Rock, was originally a fort and then served as a military prison from 1859 to 1934. With the arrival of social upheaval and rampant crime in the 1920s and '30s, the federal government chose Alcatraz as the perfect site for an escape-proof prison that would strike fear into the hearts of criminals thanks to the isolated location and the swift currents surrounding the island.

From the time Alcatraz became a federal prison in 1934 under the stern and watchful eye of Warden James A. Johnston until it closed in 1963, its steel doors clanged shut on then 1,000 hardened convicts, criminals, and would-be escape artists.

From the start, the most incorrigible inmates from across the country were sent to The Rock. Each train that arrived in San Francisco to dispense prisoners seem to have a "celebrity" of sorts on board. Among the first inmates were Al Capone, perhaps the most famous gangster of all; Doc Baker, the last surviving member of Ma Baker Gang; George "Machine Gun" Kelly, the privileged son of a wealthy Memphis family who became one of the Prohibition period's most notorious gangsters; Floyd Hamilton, a gang member and driver for Bonnie and Clyde, Alvin "Creepy" Karpis, a Canadian-born former Public Enemy No. 1 who arrested by J. Edgar Hoover himself; and Robert Stroud, the amateur ornithologist who would later become known as the Birdman of Alcatraz.

Noteworthy or not, the inmates found that Alcatraz was a place where they had but five rights-food, clothing, a private cell, a shower once a week, and access to a doctor. Their methodical daily routine never varied.

While the cells the prisoners lived in were barren at beast, they must have seemed like luxury hotel rooms compared to the punishment cells. In these, men were stripped of all but their basic rights to food-and even then, they barely survived. Confinement in the single Strip Cell was punishment for the most severe violations. In the Hole, the name for cells in the bottom tier of the main cellblock, the punishment usually included psychological torture, and sometimes physical torture as well. In D Block, inmates in cells above the Hole couldn't escape the screams of those imprisoned there. Prisoners who emerged from the Hole would often be senseless or sick and bound for the prison's hospital ward. Others never came out alive.

Even worse were the dungeons. A staircase in front of A Block led down to a large steel door, behind which were catacomb-like corridors and stone archways leading to the sealed-off gunports from the days when Alcatraz was a fort. In the dungeons off the corridor, the prisoners were chained to the walls, their screams unheard in the rest of the main cellblock. Food and sanitation in the dungeons were minimal, dignity nonexistent.

Early Ghost Activity

A number of guards who worked in Alcatraz between 1946 and 1963 experienced the strange and the unexplained. From the grounds of the prison to the caverns beneath the buildings, they heard people sobbing and moaning, smelled strange odors, discovered cold spots, and saw what they described as ghosts. Even families who lived on the island and the occasional guest claimed to have seen the ghostly forms of prisoners or phantom soldiers. The sound of what seemed to be gunshots mdae the guards think prisoners had escaped and obtained weapons.

A deserted laundry room would sometimes fill with the smell of smoke, though nothing was burning. The guards would be sent running from the room, only to return momentarily and find the air clear. Like the other mysterious happenings at Alcatraz, the phantom fires were never explained.

Even Warden Johnston, who had no time for those who believed in ghosts, once heard the unmistakable sound of a person sobbing in the dungeon as he led a group of guests on a tour. The sound was followed by an ice-cold wind felt by the entire group. Johnston could never arrive at an explanation for this weird occurrence.

During the twenty-nine years Alcatraz operated as a prison, there were at least fourteen escape attempts. Almost all the prisoners who tried to flee were either killed or recaptured, and only one is known to have made it ashore. The most traumatic and violent attempt, later dubbed the Battle of Alcatraz, took place over two days in May 1946.

What started as a well-planned breakout from the "escape-proof" prison turned into a disaster when the six inmates involved saw their plan fall apart. Realizing they couldn't succeed, they decided to fight it out. Before it was over, they had taken a number of guards hostage, killed three of them, and wounded several others; two of the guards were murdered in cold blood in cells 402 and 403 (later renamed C102 and C104). The failed escapees fared no better. Three of them climbed into a utility corridor to avoid the constant gunfire, only to die after being hit by bullets or shrapnel.

An escape attempt in 1962 was later documented by Hollywood in the film Escape from Alcatraz. Released in 1979, the movie was a big hit in the box office, but the prison had closed long before. Too expensive to renovate and properly secure, what could be called the world's most famous prison shut its doors for good in March 1963.

Mysteries of Cell 14D

In 1972, the federal government put Alcatraz Island under the purview of the National Park Service, and after opening to the public, it became one of the part service's most popular sites. While in the daylight hours the old prison teems with tour guides and visitors, at night it is filled with mystery. Many believe that the energy of those who served time on The Rock remains, making the Alcatraz complex one immense haunted house.

Night watchmen patrolling the main cell house, divided into A, B, C, and D blocks, say they've heard the sounds of what seems to be running coming from the upper tiers. Thinking an intruder has gained entry, the watchmen investigated the sounds but always found nothing.

One Park Service employee reported that on a rainy afternoon the sparse number of tourists allowed her some time off from guiding tours. She went for a walk in front of A Block and was just past the door leading down to the dungeons when she heard a loud scream from the bottom of the stairs. She ran away without looking to see if anyone where there.

Asked why she didn't report the incident, she replied, "The day before, everyone was ridiculing another worker who reported hearing men's voices coming from the hospital ward, and when he went to check the ward, it was empty. So I didn't dare mention what I heard."

Several guides and rangers felt something strange in one of the cells in the Hole: Cell 14D. "There's a feeling of sudden intensity that comes on when you spend more than a few minutes around that cell," one of them said.

Another guide described Cell 14D as "always cold. Sometimes it gets warm out here-so hot that you have to take your jacket off. The temperature inside the cell house can be in the seventies, and 14D is still cold."

The tour guides weren't the only ones to have strange experiences there. Several former guards at the prison have told of terrifying incidents that took place near the Hole, and in Cell 14D in particular.

During one guard's stint in the middle 1940s, an inmate was locked in 14D for some since forgotten infraction. According to the officer, the man began screaming within seconds of being locked in. He claimed that a creature with "glowing eyes" was locked in with him. Yet no one took the convict's cries of being "attacked" very seriously, probably because tales of ghostly presence wandering the nearby corridor were a continual inducement to practical jokes to the guards. The man's screaming continued into the night, until finally there was silence. The following day, guards inspected the cell and found the convict dead. A horrible expression was frozen on his face, and there were hand marks around his throat. An autopsy revealed that the strangulation couldn't have been self-inflicted. Some believed that the man might have been choked by one of the guards, who had been fed up with all the screaming, but no one ever confessed to the crime.

On the day following the tragedy, several guards who were performing a head count noticed that there were too many men in the lineup. Then, at the end of the line, they saw the face of the convict who had recently been strangled in the Hole. As they all looked on in stunned silence, the figure abruptly vanished.

Banjo Strains

A park service employee who worked at Alcatraz in the late 1970s had a weird experience in another of the main cellblock's chambers. He was down near the shower room when he heard something he couldn't explain.

"It was banjo music," he said. "The room was empty, but I definitely coming from there. Maybe back in the days when it was a fort or army stockade, there was some guy here who played that instrument."

What the employee didn't know was that during the most traumatic days of his life, Al Capone, rather rick going out to exercise yard with the other inmates, would sit in the shower room strumming on his banjo.

Perhaps this lonely and broken spirit still plucks at the strings of a spectral musical instrument that vanished decades ago. Even today, tour guides and rangers who walk the corridors of the prison alone occasionally building. Could Al Capone be its source? Or could it be another of the countless ghosts who continue to haunt Alcatraz year after year?

[danpuff-ao3]

Snarry-a-Thon 2013 Recs

Snarry-a-Thon is an annual fest of Snarry goodness that always brings so much creativity and joy in the Snarry community. I am forever blown away by how much talent and passion Snarry-lovers have. With that in mind, I wanted to create some special recs for a fest near and dear to my heart.

With that, here are my Top 5 picks for the 2013 fest! But first...

Disclaimer: my rec lists are created based on my personal experiences and preferences. There are plenty of other stories and authors who are quite good and deserve just as much love. This is not meant to be an objective “best of the best” list, but the subjective opinion of a longtime reader and fangirl.

Miles to Go

by accioslash. Rated: M. Words: 1,879. Depression. Recovery. Hurt/Comfort.

But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep. ~Robert Frost

A Hermitage of Two

by babygray (@babygray). Rated: G. Words: 4,792. Injured Snape. Recluse Harry. The Cult of Harry Potter. Bookstore Owner Severus.

In the months after Voldemort's death, both Severus and Harry have retreated from the Wizarding World at large. This, however, doesn't stop others from visiting. (Snarry-a-Thon '13, prompt #30: Tired of all the attention after defeating Voldemort, Harry withdraws to the house on Grimmauld Place. He's changed the wards to keep everyone out but doesn't know Severus built his own 'back door' into the house years ago to use as a disaster escape if he needed. Harry's friends convince Severus to go after him.)

One for Sorrow, Two for Joy

by elmyraemilie. Rated: E. Words: 21,507. Romance. Mystery. Podfic available.

A tale of chance and change in two parts; written for two prinicpals, several secondaries, a choir of children and a bird.

Going Green

by emynn. Rated: E. Words: 14,517. Romance. First Time. Jealousy. Hurt/comfort.

It was all Harry ever wanted for Severus to be recognised by the Wizarding world for all he’d done. But when Severus’ newfound popularity leads to a potential love interest, Harry becomes all too familiar with the old adage, “be careful what you wish for.”

The Atrocity of Sunsets

by Writcraft (@writcraft). Rated: T. Words: 6,305. MCD. Mental breakdown. Schizophrenia. Suicide. Romance.

I am terrified by this dark thing  That sleeps in me; All day I feel its soft, feathery turnings, its malignity One morning, Kingsley visits Grimmauld Place and tells Harry a secret about Severus Snape. From that moment on, Harry uses every strength he has to keep Severus safe.

Snarry-a-Thon 2013 Masterlist

[uwmspeccoll]

Milestone Monday

On this day, April 3 in 1895, the trial in the libel case brought by Oscar Wilde began, ultimately resulting in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality. Wilde brought the suit against the Marquess of Queensberry who, angered by Wilde’s apparent ongoing homosexual relationship with the Marquess’s son Alfred Douglas, had publicly accused Wilde of sodomy. Wilde dropped the suit, however, after being confronted by the possibility of witnesses who could potentially prove the Marquess’s accusation. After winning a counterclaim against Wilde that left the writer bankrupt, the Marquess of Queensberry then presented evidence against him, and on April 6, 1895 Wilde was arrested on charges of "gross indecency," a coded term for homosexual acts. He was convicted on May 25, 1895 and sentenced to two years hard labor. Much of his sentence was spent at Reading Gaol, where he was addressed and identified only as "C.3.3" – the occupant of the third cell on the third floor of C ward. The harsh incarceration broke his health and eventually led to his death in 1900.

After his release, Wilde wrote the long poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol, which was published in London by Leonard Smithers on February 13,1898 under the name "C.3.3." While in prison, Wilde wrote a long letter to Alfred Douglas that was not delivered. It recounts their relationship and extravagant lifestyle, as well as Wilde’s spiritual transformation during his imprisonment. Wilde entrusted the manuscript to his loyal friend and sometimes-lover Robert Ross, who had it published after Wilde’s death by Methuen and Co. in 1905, giving it the title "De Profundis" (”Out of the depths”) from Psalm 130.

To commemorate this milestone, we present the title page from our first edition copy of The Ballad of Reading Gaol, limited to an edition of 800 copies on handmade paper; the title page and cover of our first edition of De Profundis, with the gilt device of a bird leaving a circle of bars designed by Wilde’s friend Charles Ricketts; and illustrations by the designer and artist John Vassos for an illustrated edition of The Ballad of Reading Gaol published in New York by E. P. Dutton & Co. in 1928.

View more posts of works by Oscar Wilde.

View more Milestone Monday posts.

[gwendolynlerman]

Books I want to read in 2024

I was inspired by @fluencylevelfrench to write this post, so here are the 50 books I want to read in 2024, which is my provisional Goodreads goal. (I always set a lowish number and adjust it throughout the year depending on how my goal progresses.) Last year, I read 121 books, so I'm hoping to be able to read at least 100, but I have no idea what my year is going to look like.

1Q84 Book 1 by Haruki Murakami (currently reading)

1Q84 Book 2 by Haruki Murakami

1Q84 Book 3 by Haruki Murakami

Hamburg – hin und zurück by Felix & Theo

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Die Verwandlung by Franz Kafka

Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language by Steven Pinker

Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

International Relations Theory by Stephen McGlinchey

You Are What You Speak: Grammar Grouches, Language Laws and the Power of Words by Robert Lane Greene

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt

Meditations on Diplomacy: Comparative Cases in Diplomatic Practice and Foreign Policy by Stephen Chan

Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

Reflections on the Posthuman in International Relations: The Anthropocene, Security and Ecology by Clara Eroukhmanoff

In Cold Blood: A True Account of Multiple Murder and Its Consequences by Truman Capote

Haus ohne Hoffnung by Felix & Theo

Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer

Migration and the Ukraine Crisis: A Two-Country Perspective by Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska and Greta Uehling (eds.)

Writing Systems: An Introduction to Their Linguistic Analysis by Florian Coulmas

Nations under God: The Geopolitics of Faith in the Twenty-First Century by Luke M. Herrington

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

Herr der Diebe by Cornelia Funke

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser

Park Statue Politics: World War II Comfort Women Memorials in the United States by Thomas J. Ward

The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

Restoring Indigenous Self-Determination: Theoretical and Practical Approaches by Marc Woons

Veronikas Geheimnis by Friedhelm Strack

The Sacred and the Sovereign by Özgür Taşkaya

1984 by George Orwell

Sounds of War: Aesthetics, Emotions and Chechnya by Susanna Hast

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Feminists Don't Wear Pink (And Other Lies): Amazing Women on What the F-Word Means to Them by Scarlett Curtis

Into the Eleventh Hour: R2P, Syria and Humanitarianism in Crisis by Robert W. Murray

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams

Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit

Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams

Women & Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams

The Sources of Russia's Great Power Politics: Ukraine and the Challenge to the European Order by Taras Kuzio

Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams

Women, Race & Class by Angela Y. Davis

Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity by Chandra Talpade Mohanty

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

The “Clash of Civilizations” 25 Years On: A Multidisciplinary Appraisal by Davide Orsi

Making Space for Indigenous Feminism by Joyce Green

It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

[alleyskywalker]

The world limit for these polls drives me crazy, so here are the full quotes in case they don't live in your head rent free the way they do in mine.

1. "The noose I wore was not made of hempen rope, that's true enough, but I felt it all the same. And it chafed, Ser Rodrik. It chafed me raw."

2. If I die, I die friendless and abandoned. What choice did that leave him, but to live?

3. "There was no safe anchorage at Pyke, but Theon Greyjoy wished to look on his father's castle from the sea, to see it as he had seen it last, ten years before, when Robert Baratheon's war galley had borne him away to be a ward of Eddard Stark. On that day he had stood beside the rail, listening to the stroke of the oars and the pounding of the master's drum while he watched Pyke dwindle in the distance. Now he wanted to see it grow larger, to rise from the sea before him." + the fact that this is the opening of Theon's first POV chapter

4. "I took this castle and I mean to hold it, to live or die as Prince of Winterfell. But I will not command any man to die with me."

5. I must remember this, Theon vowed to himself. I must never go far from the sea again.

6. That was where Robert had made his breach, swarming in over the rubble and corpses with his warhammer in hand and Ned Stark at his side. Theon had watched from the safety of the Sea Tower, and sometimes he still saw the torches in his dreams, and heard the dull thunder of the collapse."

7. He gave me more smiles than my father and Eddard Stark together. Even Robb . . . he ought to have won a smile the day he'd saved Bran from that wildling, but instead he'd gotten a scolding, as if he were some cook who'd burned the stew."

8. "Outside the rain was falling harder than ever. The rope bridge twisted and writhed under his feet. Theon Greyjoy stopped in the center of the span and contemplated the rocks below."

9. Mercy, thought Theon as Luwin dropped back. There's a bloody trap. Too much and they call you weak, too little and you're monstrous.

10. As his sister vanished into the mists of the wolfswood he found himself wondering why he had not listened and gone with her.

[roosterarts]

Battle of Gettysburg - Day 2

July 2

4:30 PM

The Texas Brigade Attacks Devil's Den

The artillery bombardment has just ended. The attack was about to begin. As they waited, their division commander road by them and, in a loud voice, said: "Fix bayonets, my brave Texans! Forward and take those heights!" With that, the Texas Brigade cheered and prepared to launch their attack.

On July 2 General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, found himself facing an enemy dug in a strong position. The Union Army of the Potomac were occupying the high ground and Lee wanted to dislodge them. Despite complaints from his trusted officer, Lieutenant General James Longstreet, who wanted to march the army away to a place where the Union would be attacking them instead of the other way around, Lee decided to plan for an attack.

His plan was a two-pronged attack. Up on the north, against the Union's right flank, the Confederate Second Corps was to attack Culp's Hill. However, this was to only be a diversionary attack, as the main assault would come further south. Targeted against the Union's left flank, the Confederate First Corps was to strike the Union forces at Cemetery Ridge, where the Confederates believed the Union left flank was.

However, they were wrong. In reality, the Union left flank extended further south from Cemetery Ridge. Occupying positions from Cemetery Ridge down to the base of the Little Round Top Hills, the Union III Corps held their ground. If the Confederates went through with their original plan, the Confederate First Corps' right flank would have been enfiladed by fire from III Corps as they moved against Cemetery Ridge.

But nothing went according to plan that day.

Having difficulty navigating through unfamiliar terrain, while also trying to remain undetected, the Confederate First Corps didn't get into position until 3:15 in the afternoon. But by that time, the Union positions had changed.

Major General Daniel Sickles, commander of the Union III Corps, saw some high ground in front of his corps. Fearing that Confederate forces would place artillery there to shell his positions, and remembering a similar incident that occured to him a few months ago during the Battle of Chancellorsville, Sickles decided to take it.

At 2:00 in the afternoon, despite being told by General Meade to hold his ground, Sickles advanced his corps and occupied pieces of terrain that are now known as the Peach Orchard, the Wheatfield, and Devil's Den. However, despite now holding higher ground, Sickles' move is often considered as a blunder. By moving forward and ahead of the main line of defense, Sickles not only created a gap between his corps and the neighboring II Corps, which was on their right flank at Cemetery Ridge, but he also exposed the Union left, leaving it open to attack.

Such an attack came at 4:00 in the afternoon, when Confederate forces, who have adjusted to the new tactical situation and deployed appropriately, began bombarding III Corps' positions with artillery fire. For thirty minutes the men of III Corps were subjected to an intense bombardment. Then, at 4:30 in the afternoon the Confederates attacked.

Stepping up first, General Hood's Division divided into two assaulting forces. Brigadier General Robertson's Texas Brigade was to attack Devil's Den, while Law's Alabama Birgade was to head for the Round Top Hills. However, due to the terrible rocky terrain, the two assaulting forces got mixed up. Some Texan Regiments from Robertson's Brigade ended up heading towards the Round Top Hills, while some Alabama Regiments from Law's Brigade went to Devil's Den. Despite this, the regiments heading for Devil's Den struck the Union line hard.

More rocky and confined terrain awaited the Confederates at Devil's Den. Despite this, they pushed on and engaged Ward's Union Brigade that defended the position. The fight was tough and intense, but eventually the Texans and Alabamians managed to push out the Union troops from Devil's Den.

However, the capture of Devil's Den could not be fully exploited, as General Hood was injured and taken out of action early in the fight, while his division's scattered brigades were too far from one another to coordinate further assaults.

At 5:10 in the evening, as one portion of Hood's Division secure Devil's Den, the other half was fighting an intense and difficult battle at Little Round Top.

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Featuring Kayla from @techbro-arts and @duran301 as members of the 1st Texas Volunteer Infantry Regiment, as they fight their way through the boulders at Devil's Den. Kayla is a color-bearer and is carrying a flag that I don't think I'm allowed to post here, even for historical purposes. So, for anyone who wants to see the full image, message me on Discord.