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timeless-hollywood-classics · 3 years

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Julie Adams (born Betty May Adams; October 17, 1926 – February 3, 2019) was an American actress, billed as Julia Adams toward the beginning of her career, primarily known for her numerous television guest roles. She starred in a number of films in the 1950s, including Bend of the River (1952) opposite James Stewart and Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). She was also known for her small screen role as Paula Denning on the 1980s soap opera Capitol and recurring role of Eve Simpson on Murder, She Wrote.

Julie Adams was born as Betty May Adams on October 17, 1926 in Waterloo, Iowa, the daughter of Arkansas-born parents Esther Gertrude (Beckett) and Ralph Adams, who was a cotton buyer. Her family moved a great deal; the longest she lived in one town was eight years in Blytheville, Arkansas. In 1946, at the age of 19, she was crowned "Miss Little Rock" and then moved to Hollywood, California to pursue her acting career. Adams worked as a part-time secretary and began her film career in B movie westerns.

She used her real name until 1949, when she began working for Universal-International, the same studio where she met future stars such as James Best, Piper Laurie, Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis. She then became "Julia" and eventually "Julie". In 1954, she explained the latter change, "The studio picked Julia, but I never have felt comfortable with it. I just like the name Julie better, and the studio has given me permission to make the change."

Her first movie role was a minor part in Red, Hot and Blue (1949), followed by a leading role in the Lippert western The Dalton Gang (1949). Adams was featured as the bathing beauty Kay Lawrence in the science-fiction film Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954).

Adams co-starred in 1950s films opposite some of Hollywood's top leading men, including with James Stewart in 1952's Bend of the River, with Rock Hudson in The Lawless Breed (1953) and One Desire (1955), with Tyrone Power in The Mississippi Gambler (1953), with Glenn Ford in The Man from the Alamo (1953), with Charlton Heston in The Private War of Major Benson (1955), with Dan Duryea in Slaughter on Tenth Avenue (1957) and with Joel McCrea in The Gunfight at Dodge City (1959).

Adams co-starred with Rory Calhoun, known for his role in How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), in the film The Looters (1955), the story of a plane crash in the Rocky Mountains. Part of the picture was filmed about Tarryall Creek at what is now Eleven Mile State Park in Park County in central Colorado. The advertising poster reads: "Five desperate men ... and a girl who didn't care ... trapped on a mountain of gale-lashed rock!"

Adams also starred in 1957's Four Girls in Town, a romantic comedy about four young women competing for the leading role in a new movie, featuring an international cast. She appeared with Elvis Presley in the musical-comedy Tickle Me (1965). Adams thought highly of her co-star, noting: "Despite his status as a superstar singer and stage performer, Elvis took his acting very seriously. He was always prepared, and did a good job in the roles he was given. When he did his musical numbers in Tickle Me, sometimes walking from table to table in a nightclub set, he did them perfectly in one take."

On television, Adams appeared on The Andy Griffith Show portraying Mary Simpson, a county nurse and romantic interest of Sheriff Andy Taylor in a 1962 episode. She also made four guest appearances on Perry Mason, perhaps the most notable being the 1963 episode, "The Case of the Deadly Verdict," when she played Janice Barton, Mason's only convicted client during the show's nine-year run on CBS. In 1963, she starred in "The Case Of Lovers Leap.” In 1964, she played Janice Blake in "The Case of the Missing Button." In 1965, she played the role of defendant Pat Kean in "The Case of the Fatal Fortune." Adams appeared on The Rifleman as a dubious vixen and romantic interest of lead character Chuck Connors. She guest-starred in five episodes of 77 Sunset Strip, three ofAlfred Hitchcock Presents, and two ofMaverick.

More guest-star roles in popular television series followed, including One Step Beyond, McMillan & Wife, Police Woman, The Streets of San Francisco, The Incredible Hulk, Cannon, Quincy, M.E., and Cagney & Lacey. Adams co-starred with James Stewart in The Jimmy Stewart Show on NBC in 1971-1972. Stewart played a professor, and Adams played his wife. She was cast in the recurring role of real estate agent Eve Simpson for ten episodes of CBS's Murder, She Wrote.

Adams, along with her son, Mitchell, authored a book on her life and career, The Lucky Southern Star: Reflections From The Black Lagoon, which was published in 2011. A limited test print run of 100 copies with an interview DVD of the audio book version was completed. Her son served as producer.

Adams joined three other cast members from Creature from the Black Lagoon for a 50th anniversary celebration of the film at Creaturefest in November 2003. The festival was held at Wakulla Springs, just south of Tallahassee, Florida, where underwater scenes were filmed in 1953.

In August 2012, she was a guest of honor at the Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention held at the Shrine Auditorium. (She attended the same convention in May 2012.) She also appeared at the CineCon Classic Film Festival on August 31, 2012 at the Loews Hollywood Hotel. She was a scheduled guest at The Hollywood Show in Chicago from September 7–9, 2012. An additional book signing was held at Century Books in Pasadena, California, on September 20, 2012. On October 13, 2012, she was back in Berwyn, Illinois for a book signing party.

In October 2012, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences selected Creature from the Black Lagoon as one of 13 classic horror films to screen to honor the 100th anniversary of Universal Pictures. The film was shown (in 3D format) on October 16 at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California. After the screening, Adams appeared on stage for a Q&A session where she shared personal memories of her role in the film, as well as several other career projects on which she had worked.

Adams was married to screenwriter Leonard B. Stern from 1950/1951 to 1953. She was then married to actor-director Ray Danton from 1954 until their divorce in 1981. They had two sons: Steven Danton (b. 1956), an assistant director, and Mitchell Danton (b. 1962), an editor.

Adams died on February 3, 2019 in Los Angeles, California, aged 92. She is survived by her two sons. Her remains are buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Malvern, Arkansas.

In 1999, Adams received a Golden Boot award for her work in Westerns. She was inducted into the Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame in 2000. At CineCon in 2011, Adams was honored with a Film Career Achievement Award. In 2012, she won the Rondo Award for the Monster Kid Hall of Fame at the annual Wonderfest in Louisville, Kentucky.

#julie adams #classic hollywood #classic horror #1950s women #1950s hollywood #1950s television #1960s television #1970s television #1980s television #1990s tv #2000s tv

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beaumoumanatee · 3 years

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A cache in the woods: how my most recent geocaching adventure almost became a horror film plot

Fred Crabtree Park is a deceivingly-vast wooded trail system that lies beside an elementary school and several athletic fields. Even before I got into geocaching, I almost got lost in these woods on a few occasions.

Well, this Friday, I got out of work early and decided to hit the trail there in the hope of finding one of the two traditional caches in the park before the sun went down. It was about 4:30 when I got there and despite it being wintertime, the sun still seemed pretty high in the sky. I took a picture of a lone shrinking snowman on the soccer field before plunging into the woods.

No matter how peaceful it is, any forest becomes a little creepy if you’ve almost gotten lost in it before. Depending on which trail you pick to enter Fred Crabtree Park, the creepy factor is enhanced further by a little trailside cemetery.

The park is so large that I still haven’t memorized where all the trails lead and where certain landmarks are, but it does seem like there are two main trails that run parallel to each other for a while. The initial path past the cemetery and into the trees hits one of those main paths perpendicularly, and the other path can be found across a stream.

Glancing occasionally at my GPS, I could tell that the cache I sought lay across the stream, likely on the far side of the other path. I walked south on my path toward the cache, seeking a crossing, and eventually came to a bridge.

If Fred Crabtree wasn’t spooky already, then this bridge probably would have done the trick:

In case you can’t see, the bridge literally says, “STOP” on its posts. As though to warn away travelers before they pass the point of no return.

Well, the sun was still above the trees and I am not one to be frightened by ominous all-caps on a wooden bridge, so I took a selfie and plunged on, deeper into the woods...

Once I had crossed the bridge, I assessed the little beacon of light on my GPS that is supposed to show the direction you are facing. It appeared that I had gone too far south in my search for a crossing, so I turned north and walked up the trail, parallel to the path I had taken to get to the bridge in the first place.

After some time, I realized that my GPS must be acting up. It took me a while to notice because my map does not show any of the individual paths in Fred Crabtree Park, so it was hard to see my progress as I moved this way and that. For a long time, my little blue dot seemed to be fixed in the same place, neither getting closer nor farther away from the cache that I was pursuing. But the blue beacon still indicated that I was facing the right way.

As I continued on in what I increasingly suspected was the wrong direction, something on my left caught my attention and I looked up. Oh yes, I forgot to mention the other thing that makes Fred Crabtree Park super-creepy: someone occasionally comes along and hangs up twig wreaths throughout the trails. I’m sure they’re meant to be decorative and friendly, but the aesthetic comes much closer to the twig stick-people from The Blair Witch Project. In any case, when I first discovered Fred Crabtree Park a few years ago, the trails were littered with these things; on a subsequent visit, they had all been cleared out. When I was there the other day, I found just one, dangling from a branch not too far north of the place where I had crossed the bridge.

After snapping a picture of the sinister twig wreath, I returned my attention to my GPS. My dot finally appeared to have moved, but it was now clear that I had moved away from the cache. I was in the northeastern edge of the park that borders suburban backyards and private woodland. The strange thing was that the GPS beacon still seemed to point toward the cache. I now objectively knew the cache had to be to the south, but when I turned that way, the blue beacon pointed toward the north, and vice versa.

Simple adjustment, I thought. I would simply use the beacon as an inverse indicator of the direction I should go in. I quickly checked the sky. There was still a healthy flush of sun at the tops of the trees, so I made my way south, the beacon pointing behind me.

I passed the STOP bridge and continued until my GPS indicated that I should leave the path. I clambered up a slope to my left, forcing my way through thorns and brambles. I encountered the barrier of a fallen tree trunk, climbed over, and then realized that was a mistake: I found myself in a triangle of fallen tree trunks, with the densest thorns and brush barring the way to the cache.

I doubled back and edged around the obstruction the long way. Now, based on my GPS, I should have been about ten feet away from the cache. The forest had darkened by several degrees while I navigated the wild terrain, but I was so close! Surely I had enough time to make the find, sign the log, and get back to the bridge.

I checked the hint on the cache page and was instructed to search for the cache in the “V” of a tree trunk. Easy-peasy, I thought. I’d already found a few caches hidden in tree “V’s” before this one. Looking around, I spotted a few likely candidates and made my way over to the closest tree. Circling around it, I did not find any sign of the cache. I staggered over to the next tree. No luck there either.

As the light continued to fade, it became harder to navigate the thorns and roots. I tripped and felt thorns snag at my ankles, shins, and shoelaces. In my haste to find the cache before I ran out of time, I did not yet register the scratches.

Some of the red blush of sunset left the sky and the forest became suddenly and dramatically darker. In a moment of panic, I realized I could no longer see the trail from where I stood. I blundered away from the trunk I had been examining, incurring more scratches to my ankles, until I found myself on the path once more. I was now at the top of a hill and was unsure whether to proceed to the left or right. My wild search through the brush had disoriented me. I ultimately decided to proceed to the right because the last pink glow of the sun was in that direction and I knew that I had parked to the west of the forest.

Imagine my relief when I saw the STOP bridge at the bottom of the hill. I made my way gratefully toward the familiar landmark. I figured I would pause to re-tie my boot laces on the bridge. They had been torn loose by the same thorns that had snagged my ankles, but I was unwilling to stop and re-tie them until I was confident that I knew where I was; plus, having grown hot during my feverish search, I was now carrying my coat and did not want to set it down on the dirt while tying my shoes.

I felt better about lying my coat across the wooden rail of the bridge, and I did so while re-tying my laces. It was while I knelt over my boots that I realized something was wrong. There were no icy patches on the bridge. I wasn’t certain, but I thought there had been patches of snow on the planks of the STOP bridge. With a sinking feeling, I walked to the end of the bridge and looked at the front posts: No STOP.

Cue horror film music. This was bad news. I was not sure where I was or which direction I should head in. When I checked my map then and there, I seemed to be right in the middle of the park, and based on the antics it had previously pulled, I wasn’t sure if I could trust the directionality of the beacon. I had two choices: I could either go back over the ridge in case the way out was actually on the other side, or I could run north in the hope of finding the correct bridge and the path I had come in on.

I decided on the second option and literally sprinted up the path as full darkness closed in. After tripping on a few roots, I turned on my phone’s flashlight, but it was still a fragile beam and did not project far in any direction. I heard the startled scrambles of nocturnal animals who fled in the wake of my thundering footfalls.

Thankfully, I made the correct navigational choice. I came upon a second bridge that looked identical to the first, but this time there were icy patches on the boards. I checked the front posts and was grateful to see the ominous chalked message, “STOP.” I breathed a sigh of relief, but I didn’t slow my pace until I reached the welcome sight of my parked car, visible between the last column of trees on the way out of the trail.

I’m glad that my geocaching horror story had a happy ending (despite the DNF/”did not find”), as it very well could have ended with me blundering around lost in the dark and/or with my car getting towed for being parked after sunset. A few scratches and welts on my ankles are well worth the wisdom earned that caching in a vast forest an hour before sunset might not work out, and that the mindset of, “Let me check just one more tree before giving up...” can become a dangerous game when daylight is fading.

My parting advice to fellow geocachers is to always be aware of your surroundings and the time. If your instinctive thought is that it might be getting late, it probably is. You can always come back another day to find that cache.

I know I will. I’m not done with you yet, Fred Crabtree Park.

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blackkudos · 4 years

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Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer. Nicknamed the Empress of the Blues, she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. Bessie did not have access to an education because her parents had died and her elder sister was taking care of her. She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and was a major influence on fellow blues singers, as well as jazz vocalists.

Life

The 1900 census indicates that her family reported that Bessie Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in July 1892. The 1910 census gives her age as 16, and a birth date of April 15, 1894 which appears on subsequent documents and was observed as her birthday by the Smith family. The 1870 and 1880 censuses report three older half-siblings, but later interviews with Smith's family and contemporaries contain no mention of them against her siblings.

She was the daughter of Laura (born Snow) and William Urie, a laborer and part-time Baptist preacher (he was listed in the 1870 census as a "minister of the gospel", in Moulton, Lawrence County, Alabama). He died while his daughter was too young to remember him. By the time Bessie was nine, her mother and a brother had also died. Her older sister Viola took charge of caring for her siblings.

To earn money for their impoverished household, Smith and her brother Andrew began busking on the streets of Chattanooga. She sang and danced as he played the guitar. Their favorite location was in front of the White Elephant Saloon at Thirteenth and Elm streets, in the heart of the city's African-American community.

In 1904, her oldest brother Clarence left home, joining a small traveling troupe owned by Moses Stokes. "If Bessie had been old enough, she would have gone with him," said Clarence's widow, Maud. "That's why he left without telling her, but Clarence told me she was ready, even then. Of course, she was only a child."

In 1912, Clarence returned to Chattanooga with the Stokes troupe and arranged an audition for his sister with the troupe managers, Lonnie and Cora Fisher. She was hired as a dancer rather than a singer, because the company already included the well-known singer Ma Rainey. Smith eventually moved on to performing in various chorus lines, making the "81" Theater in Atlanta her home base. She also performed in shows on the black-owned (Theater Owners Booking Association) (T.O.B.A.) circuit and became its biggest star after she signed a recording contract with Columbia Records.

Smith's recording career began in 1923. Despite her success, neither she nor her music was accepted in all circles. She once auditioned for Black Swan records (W. E. B. Du Bois was on its board of directors) and was dismissed because she was considered too rough, she supposedly stopped singing to spit. In fact, even her admirers, white and black, considered her a "rough" (i.e., working class or even "low class") woman. She was then living in Philadelphia, when she met Jack Gee, a security guard, whom she married on June 7, 1923, just as her first record was being released. During the marriage Smith became the highest-paid black entertainer of the day, heading her own shows, which sometimes featured as many as 40 troupers, and touring in her own custom-built railroad car. Their marriage was stormy with infidelity on both sides, including numerous female lovers for Bessie. Gee was impressed by the money but never adjusted to show business life or to Smith's bisexuality. In 1929, when she learned of his affair with another singer, Gertrude Saunders, Smith ended the relationship, although neither of them sought a divorce.

Smith later entered a common-law marriage with an old friend, Richard Morgan, who was Lionel Hampton's uncle. She stayed with him until her death.

Career

All contemporary accounts indicate that while Rainey did not teach Smith to sing, she probably helped her develop a stage presence. Smith began forming her own act around 1913, at Atlanta's "81" Theater. By 1920, she had established a reputation in the South and along the East Coast.

In 1920, sales of over 100,000 copies of "Crazy Blues," recorded for Okeh Records by the singer Mamie Smith (no relation), pointed to a new market. The recording industry had not directed its product to black people, but the success of the record led to a search for female blues singers. Bessie Smith was signed to Columbia Records in 1923 by Frank Walker, a talent agent who had seen her perform years earlier. Her first session for Columbia was on February 15, 1923; it was engineered by Dan Hornsby. For most of 1923, her records were issued on Columbia's regular A-series. When the company established a "race records" series, Smith's "Cemetery Blues" (September 26, 1923) was the first issued.

Both sides of her first record, "Downhearted Blues" backed with "Gulf Coast Blues", were hits (an earlier recording of "Downhearted Blues" by its co-writer Alberta Hunter had previously been released by Paramount Records). Smith became a headliner on the T.O.B.A. circuit and rose to become its top attraction in the 1920s. Working a heavy theater schedule during the winter and performing in tent shows the rest of the year (eventually traveling in her own railroad car), Smith became the highest-paid black entertainer of her day. Columbia nicknamed her "Queen of the Blues," but the press soon upgraded her title to "Empress of the Blues". Smith's music stressed independence, fearlessness, and sexual freedom, implicitly arguing that working-class women did not have to alter their behavior to be worthy of respect.

Smith had a strong contralto voice, which recorded well from her first session, which was conducted when recordings were made acoustically. The advent of electrical recording made the power of her voice even more evident. Her first electrical recording was "Cake Walking Babies [From Home]", recorded on May 5, 1925. Smith also benefited from the new technology of radio broadcasting, even on stations in the segregated South. For example, after giving a concert to a white-only audience at a theater in Memphis, Tennessee, in October 1923, she performed a late-night concert on station WMC, which was well received by the radio audience.

She made 160 recordings for Columbia, often accompanied by the finest musicians of the day, notably Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Fletcher Henderson, James P. Johnson, Joe Smith, and Charlie Green. A number of Smith's recordings—such as "Alexander's Ragtime Band" with the Dorsey Brothers orchestra in 1927—quickly became among the best-selling records of their respective release years.

Themes in her music

Songs like Jail House Blues, Work House Blues, Prison Blues, Sing Sing Prison Blues and Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair dealt critically with important issues of the day like the chain gang, the convict lease system and capital punishment. Poor Man's Blues and Washwoman's Blues are widely considered to be an early form of African American protest music.

What becomes evident after listening to her music and studying her lyrics is that Smith emphasized and channeled a subculture within the African American working class. Additionally, she incorporated commentary on social issues like poverty, intra-racial conflict, and female sexuality into her lyrics. Her lyrical sincerity and public behavior were not widely accepted as appropriate expressions for African American women; therefore, her work was often written off as distasteful or unseemly, rather than as an accurate representation of the African-American experience. Her work challenged elitist norms by encouraging working-class women to embrace their right to drink, party, and satisfy their sexual needs as a means of coping with stress and dissatisfaction in their daily lives. Smith advocated for a wider vision of African-American womanhood beyond domesticity, piety, and conformity; she sought empowerment and happiness through independence, sassiness, and sexual freedom. Although Smith was a voice for many minority groups and one of the most gifted blues performers of her time, the themes in her music were precocious, which led to many believing that her work was undeserving of serious recognition.

Broadway

Smith's career was cut short by the Great Depression, which nearly put the recording industry out of business, and the advent of sound in film, which spelled the end of vaudeville. She never stopped performing, however. The days of elaborate vaudeville shows were over, but Smith continued touring and occasionally sang in clubs. In 1929, she appeared in a Broadway musical, Pansy. The play was a flop; top critics said she was its only asset.

Film

In 1929, Smith made her only film appearance, starring in a two-reeler, St. Louis Blues, based on W. C. Handy's song of the same name. In the film, directed by Dudley Murphy and shot in Astoria, Queens, she sings the title song accompanied by members of Fletcher Henderson's orchestra, the Hall Johnson Choir, the pianist James P. Johnson and a string section—a musical environment radically different from that of any of her recordings.

Swing era

In 1933, John Hammond, who also mentored Billie Holiday, asked Smith to record four sides for Okeh (which had been acquired by Columbia Records in 1925). He claimed to have found her in semi-obscurity, working as a hostess in a speakeasy on Ridge Avenue in Philadelphia. Smith worked at Art's Cafe on Ridge Avenue, but not as a hostess and not until the summer of 1936. In 1933, when she made the Okeh sides, she was still touring. Hammond was known for his selective memory and gratuitous embellishments.

Smith was paid a non-royalty fee of $37.50 for each selection on these Okeh sides, which were her last recordings. Made on November 24, 1933, they serve as a hint of the transformation she made in her performances as she shifted her blues artistry into something that fit the swing era. The relatively modern accompaniment is notable. The band included such swing era musicians as the trombonist Jack Teagarden, the trumpeter Frankie Newton, the tenor saxophonist Chu Berry, the pianist Buck Washington, the guitarist Bobby Johnson, and the bassist Billy Taylor. Benny Goodman, who happened to be recording with Ethel Waters in the adjoining studio, dropped by and is barely audible on one selection. Hammond was not entirely pleased with the results, preferring to have Smith revisit her old blues sound. "Take Me for a Buggy Ride" and "Gimme a Pigfoot (And a Bottle of Beer)", both written by Wesley Wilson, were among her most popular recordings.

Death

On September 26, 1937, Smith was critically injured in a car crash on U.S. Route 61 between Memphis, Tennessee and Clarksdale, Mississippi. Her lover, Richard Morgan, was driving, and misjudged the speed of a slow-moving truck ahead of him. Tire marks at the scene suggested that Morgan tried to avoid the truck by driving around its left side, but he hit the rear of the truck side-on at high speed. The tailgate of the truck sheared off the wooden roof of Smith's old Packard. Smith, who was in the passenger seat, probably with her right arm or elbow out the window, took the full brunt of the impact. Morgan escaped without injuries.

The first person on the scene was a Memphis surgeon, Dr. Hugh Smith (no relation). In the early 1970s, Hugh Smith gave a detailed account of his experience to Bessie's biographer Chris Albertson. This is the most reliable eyewitness testimony about the events surrounding her death.

Arriving at the scene, Hugh Smith examined Smith, who was lying in the middle of the road with obviously severe injuries. He estimated she had lost about a half pint of blood, and immediately noted a major traumatic injury: her right arm was almost completely severed at the elbow. He stated that this injury alone did not cause her death. Though the light was poor, he observed only minor head injuries. He attributed her death to extensive and severe crush injuries to the entire right side of her body, consistent with a sideswipe collision.

Henry Broughton (a fishing partner of Dr. Smith's) helped him move Bessie Smith to the shoulder of the road. Dr. Smith dressed her arm injury with a clean handkerchief and asked Broughton to go to a house about 500 feet off the road to call an ambulance.

By the time Broughton returned, about 25 minutes later, Bessie Smith was in shock. Time passed with no sign of the ambulance, so Hugh Smith suggested that they take her into Clarksdale in his car. He and Broughton had almost finished clearing the back seat when they heard the sound of a car approaching at high speed. Smith flashed his lights in warning, but the oncoming car failed to stop and plowed into his car at full speed. It sent his car careening into Bessie Smith's overturned Packard, completely wrecking it. The oncoming car ricocheted off Hugh Smith's car into the ditch on the right, barely missing Broughton and Bessie Smith.

The young couple in the new car did not have life-threatening injuries. Two ambulances then arrived from Clarksdale—one from the black hospital, summoned by Broughton, the other from the white hospital, acting on a report from the truck driver, who had not seen the accident victims.

Bessie Smith was taken to the G. T. Thomas Afro-American Hospital in Clarksdale, where her right arm was amputated. She died that morning without regaining consciousness. After her death, an often repeated but now discredited story emerged that she died because a whites-only hospital in Clarksdale refused to admit her. The jazz writer and producer John Hammond gave this account in an article in the November 1937 issue of Down Beat magazine. The circumstances of Smith's death and the rumor promoted by Hammond formed the basis for Edward Albee's 1959 one-act play The Death of Bessie Smith.

"The Bessie Smith ambulance would not have gone to a white hospital; you can forget that," Hugh Smith told Albertson. "Down in the Deep South Cotton Belt, no ambulance driver, or white driver, would even have thought of putting a colored person off in a hospital for white folks."

Smith's funeral was held in Philadelphia a little over a week later, on October 4, 1937. Her body was originally laid out at Upshur's funeral home. As word of her death spread through Philadelphia's black community, the body had to be moved to the O.V. Catto Elks Lodge to accommodate the estimated 10,000 mourners who filed past her coffin on Sunday, October 3. Contemporary newspapers reported that her funeral was attended by about seven thousand people. Far fewer mourners attended the burial at Mount Lawn Cemetery, in nearby Sharon Hill. Gee thwarted all efforts to purchase a stone for his estranged wife, once or twice pocketing money raised for that purpose.

Unmarked grave

Smith's grave was unmarked until a tombstone was erected on August 7, 1970, paid for by the singer Janis Joplin and Juanita Green, who as a child had done housework for Smith.

Dory Previn wrote a song about Joplin and the tombstone, "Stone for Bessie Smith", for her album Mythical Kings and Iguanas.

The Afro-American Hospital, now the Riverside Hotel, was the site of the dedication of the fourth historical marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail.

Hit records

78 RPM Singles - Columbia Records

78 RPM Singles, Okeh Records

Selected awards and recognition

Grammy Hall of Fame

Three recordings by Smith were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, an award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least 25 years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance".

National Recording Registry

In 2002, Smith's recording of "Downhearted Blues" was included in the National Recording Registry by the National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress. The board annually selects recordings that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

"Downhearted Blues" was included in the list of Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts in 2001. It is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 500 songs that shaped rock 'n' roll.

Inductions

In 1984, Smith was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

U.S. postage stamp

The U.S. Postal Service issued a 29-cent commemorative postage stamp honoring Smith in 1994.

Digital remastering

Technical faults in the majority of her original gramophone recordings (especially variations in recording speed, which raised or lowered the apparent pitch of her voice) misrepresented the "light and shade" of her phrasing, interpretation and delivery. They altered the apparent key of her performances (sometimes raised or lowered by as much as a semitone). The "center hole" in some of the master recordings had not been in the true middle of the master disc, so that there were wide variations in tone, pitch, key and phrasing, as commercially released records revolved around the spindle.

Given those historic limitations, the current digitally remastered versions of her work deliver significant improvements in the sound quality of Smith's performances. Some critics believe that the American Columbia Records compact disc releases are somewhat inferior to subsequent transfers made by the late John R. T. Davies for Frog Records.

In popular culture

The popular musical Bessie: The Life & Music of Bessie Smith, by the playwright Douglas M. Parker, follows Smith's rise, personal life and career, incorporating many of the songs that made her famous.

The Death of Bessie Smith by Edward Albee also deals with her.

The 1948 short story "Blue Melody", by J. D. Salinger, and the 1959 play The Death of Bessie Smith, by Edward Albee, are based on Smith's life and death, but poetic license was taken by both authors; for instance, Albee's play distorts the circumstances of her medical treatment, or lack of it, before her death, attributing it to racist medical practitioners.

Bessie's Back in Town, a musical in production by Barry Edelson, presents as accurately as possible aspects of her life and death, while remaining true to her music.

The song Bessie, sung by Patricia Kaas on the 1990 album Scène de vie, is about Smith's death.

The playwright Angelo Parra wrote the 2001 musical The Devil's Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith, with Miche Braden in the title role.

In the video game series BioShock (1 and 2), Smith is portrayed as a cameo of a character by the name of Grace Holloway. Smith's music can be heard during the loading screen and in the level Paupers Drop, and in the various hallways and rooms of the sunken city. Her 1929 song "I'm Wild About That Thing" is (anachronistically) included in the sequel, BioShock: Infinite, set in 1912.

HBO released a movie about Smith, Bessie, starring Queen Latifah, on May 16, 2015.

"Bessie Smith", a song by the Band, is about her.

Each June, the Bessie Smith Cultural Center in Chattanooga sponsors the Bessie Smith Strut as part of the city's Riverbend Festival.

The NBC show Timeless features Bessie Smith briefly in the season 2 episode "The King of the Delta Blues".

Her 1933 recording "Take Me for a Buggy Ride" was featured prominently in the 1981 film Rich and Famous.

In the tv-series New Amsterdam (season 2, episode 16) Dr Reynolds, an African Americans chief surgeron, tells he decided to become a doctor when learning that Bessie Smith had died after being refused treatment in an all-white hospital.

#04/15 #09/26

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pantalaiimon · 5 years

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3, 6, 9 :)

Thank you, darling :)

3. An actor/actress you’ve seen in more than 8 movies? Name the movies.

Thanks for calling me out, Cora, you know perfectly well I do this compulsively xD

So, first, the actors whose filmography I purposefully went through (I’m not including any short films, series, or tv stuff) :

Alan Rickman: Die Hard, Quigley Down Under, Truly, Madly, Deeply, Closet Land, Robin Hood, Close My Eyes, Bob Roberts, Mesmer, An Awfully Big Adventure, Sense and Sensibility, Michael Collins, The Winter Guest, Judas Kiss, Dark Harbor, Dogma, Galaxy Quest, Blow Dry, The Search for John Gissing, all 8 Harry Potter movies, Love Actually, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Snow Cake, Perfume, Nobel Son, Sweeney Todd, Bottle Shock, Alice in Wonderland, The Wildest Dream, A Promise. (36)

Ben Whishaw: The Trench, My Brother Tom, Layer Cake, Perfume, I’m Not There, Brideshead Revisited, Bright Star, The Tempest, Skyfall, Cloud Atlas, Lilting, both Paddington movies, the Lobster, the Danish Girl, Spectre, In the Heart of the Sea, A Hologram for the King, Mary Poppins Returns. (19)

Hugo Weaving: Proof, The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, True Love and Chaos, Bedrooms and Hallways, The Interview, Strange Planet, all 3 Matrix movies, all 3 LotR movies, Russian Doll, After the Deluge, Peaches, Little Fish, V for Vendetta, The Tender Hook, Last Ride, Oranges and Sunshine, Cloud Atlas, Mystery Road, The Turning, Healing, Strangerland, The Dressmaker, Hacksaw Ridge. (27)

Ralph Fiennes: A Dangerous Man: Lawrence after Arabia, Wuthering Heights, Schindler’s List, Quiz Show, Strange Days, The English Patient, Oscar and Lucinda, The Avengers, Sunshine, Onegin, The End of the Affair, Spider, Red Dragon, Maid in Manhattan, Chromohobia, The Constant Gardner, The White Countess, 5 Harry Potter movies, Land of the Blind, In Bruges, The Duchess, The Reader, Cemetery Junction, The Wildest Dream, Coriolanus, Skyfall, Great Expectations, The Invisible Woman, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Spectre, The White Crow. (35)

Mads Mikkelsen: After the Wedding, Prague, Casino Royale, Flame and Citron, Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, Valhalla Rising, The Three Musketeers, A Royal Affair, The Hunt, Charlie Countryman, Michael Kohlhaas, The Salvation, Rogue One. (13)

Alexander Siddig: A Dangerous Man: Lawrence after Arabia, Kingdom of Heaven, Syriana, The Nativity Story, A Lost Man, Espion(s), Cairo Time, Miral, Inescapable, The Fifth Estate, May in the Summer. (11)

Ewan McGregor: Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, The Pillow Book, Emma, Brassed Off, Nightwatch, The Serpent’s Kiss, A Life Less Ordinary, Velvet Goldmine, Little Voice, all 3 prequel Star Wars, Moulin Rouge, Black Hawk Down, Down With Love, Big Fish, The Island, Stay, Scenes of a Sexual Nature, Miss Potter, Cassandra’s Dream, Incendiary, Deception, Angels & Demons, I Love you Philip Morris, The Men who Stare at Goats, The Ghostwriter, Beginners, Perfect Sense, Haywire, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, The Impossible, Jack the Giant Slayer, August: Osage County, Son of a Gun, Last Days in the Desert, Jane Got a Gun, Our Kind of Traitor, American Pastoral, T2 Trainspotting. (41)

And now, actors I happen to have seen in more than 8 movies, and that I can think of right now:

Cate Blanchett: Oscar and Lucinda, both Elizabeth movies, An Ideal Husband, The Talented Mr. Ripley, all 3 LotR movies, Little Fish, Notes on a Scandal, I’m Not There, The Turning, Carol. (13)

Hugh Grant: The Remains of the Day, Four Wedding and a Funeral, Sense and Sensibility, The Englishman who went up a hill but came down a mountain, An Awfully Big Adventure, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary, About a Boy, Love Actually, Cloud Atlas, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Florence Foster Jenkins, Paddington 2. (13)

Emma Thompson: Howards End, Much Ado About Nothing, The Remains of the Day, Sense and Sensibility, The Winter Guest, Judas Kiss, Love Actually, 3 Harry Potter movies, Brideshead Revisited, Saving Mr. Banks. (12)

Colin Firth: The English Patient, Shakespeare in Love, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Love Actually, The King’s Speech, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, 2 Kingsman movies, Mary Poppins Returns. (10)

Liam Neeson: Excalibur, Schindler’s List, Nell, Michael Collins, The Phantom Menace, Love Actually, Kinsey, Kingdom of Heaven, Breakfast on Pluto, the first Narnia movie, Chloe, The Wildest Dream, The Grey, Non-stop, A Monster Calls, Silence. (16)

Judi Dench: A Room with a View, 8 James Bond movies, Hamlet, Shakespeare in Love, Chocolat, Pride and Prejudice, Notes on a Scandal, Tulip Fever, Murder on the Orient Express. (16)

Anyone like Bernard Lee or Desmond Llewelyn who’s done more than 8 James Bond films also qualifies I guess, as I’ve seen them all…

Let me stress that many movies up there are utter shite.

6. A film you wish you hadn’t watched?

A lot of the stupid crap up there. Otherwise, either Nymphomaniacs or Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom, but for different reasons actually. The first one is pretentious and disgusting and loathsome. The second one… I can squint and see some merits to it I guess? It’s just that I thought I was ready to see it when actually it really was too much, even for me. The scat scenes had me almost throwing up and the ending fucked me up real bad.

9. The most aesthetically pleasing movie you’ve ever watched?

I’m biased because it’s my favourite film, but… Gattaca. The aesthetics is just perfect and I find it very soothing.

Quite different, but I really love the aesthetics of Call Me By Your Name. I thought the film pretentious, its characters flat, and the emotions lacking, but I’m utterly enamored with the Lazy North Italian Summer Aesthetic it’s got going :D Fruit orchards, old grand house full of art and books, rivers and lakes, gorgeous scrumptious food, bike rides on country roads… I want to bask in it all…

#answered #vesternly #meme thingie

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iwansatyanegarakamah · 5 years

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Marilyn Monroe Jumpa Soekarno, 31 Mei 1956

DUA legenda berbintang Gemini ini hanya sekali berjumpa. Di The Beverly Hills Hotel, California, Kamis malam 31 Mei 1956. Hanya sekitar 45 menit. Namun perjumpaan itu membekas dan menjadi kisah menarik hingga kini.

"Saya ingin kau datang menemui sahabat saya nanti malam", bujuk Joshua Logan, seorang sutradara Hollywood kenamaan yang berjasa mempertemukan Soekarno dan Marilyn Monroe. Logan juga sutradara film 'Bus Stop' (1956) yang dibintangi Marilyn.

Jelang acara yang digelar Logan itu, Marilyn memang sedang di Hollywood sehingga mudah baginya memenuhi permintaan sang sutradara. The Beverly Hills Hotel bukan tempat yang asing baginya. Dia memiliki tempat favorit di hotel tersebut, Bungalow No. 7.

Pertemuan dua legenda itu pun terjadi dalam sebuah pesta mewah yang diadakan oleh Eric Johnston, presiden The Motion Picture Producers Association (MPPA) untuk menghormati kunjungan Presiden Soekarno yang selama di Hollywood ditemani Marshall Nobel, ipar Joshua Logan. Joshua bersama istrinya, Nedda Harrigan Logan menjadi host malam itu, Kamis 31 Mei 1956.

"Saya senang sekali bertemu dengan presiden India", sapa Marilyn sambil mengulurkan tangannya kepada Soekarno. India? Soekarno dengan senyumnya menjelaskan dirinya adalah presiden Indonesia, bukan India. Saat itu memang Presiden India Rajendra Prasad dan juga PM India Jawaharlal Nehru memakai penutup kepala berwarna putih.

Keterangan: Berita harian 'Nieuwsgier' edisi 12 Juni 1956. Suratkabar berbahasa Belanda terbitan di Indonesia.

Mengapa Marilyn mau datang dengan mudahnya ke pesta yang diadakan untuk menghormati? Aktris sekaliber dan setenar dia saat itu sangat padat jadualnya. Tak mudah dia ubah jadual yang sudah terencana rapih. Apalagi keesokan harinya, 1 Juni 1956, tepat HUTnya ke 30 dan Marilyn akan terbang ke New York.

Alasan pertama, dia diundang khusus oleh sutradara Joshua Logan, sahabat baiknya yang membuat film 'Bus Stop' (1956), film yang dibintangi Marilyn.

Kedua, lokasi pesta di The Beverly Hills Hotel bukan tempat yang asing bagi Marilyn. Dia banyak kenangan dengan hotel yang menjadi inspirasi lagu 'Hotel California' yang diciptakan tahun 1976 oleh kelompok musik Eagles.

Lalu apa yang dibicarakan antara Marilyn dan Soekarno? Mengingat sosok pendiri RI itu masih asing baginya?

Keterangan: Soekarno, Joshua Logan dan Marilyn Monroe.

Penampilan Soekarno yang unik dan eksotik menarik perhatian Marilyn. Baginya, Soekarno seorang pria yang charming, ramah, sopan dan bertutur menyenangkan. Machismo istilahnya. Apalagi beberapa sebelumnya Soekarno menziarahi makam-makam pendiri AS sambil membacakan surat al Fatihah bersama putranya Guntur, seperti di pusar George Washington, Thomas Jefferson dan, ini yang terpenting, makam Abraham Lincoln di Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, Illinois.

Bagi Marilyn, Lincoln adalah "ayahnya". Di setiap rumah yang ditempatinya pasti ada foto Abraham Lincoln, terutama saat berpidato di Gettysburg 1863. Soekarno pun mengagumi Lincoln, presiden AS ke 16 itu. Di ruang tamu Istana Kepresidenan Gedung Agung Jogjakarta, ada foto Lincoln tergantung. Lincoln adalah "guru" bagi Soekarno. Ini topik yang menarik bagi mereka berdua untuk dibincangkan.

"Anda orang yang begitu penting di Indonesia", kata Soekarno membuka percakapan dengan Marilyn ditengah kerumunan orang yang kebanyakan berkulit sawo matang yang tak dikenalnya. Ada sekitar 60 orang lebih hadir di pesta itu, termasuk aktor Ronald Reagan, Gregory Peck, George Murphy. Juga aktris Rosalind Russell, Freddie Brisson dan Kitty LeRoy datang diundang. Mereka bertiga pulang lebih cepat karena harus hadir dalam review film 'The Bad Seed' (1954). Aktor Roy Rogers juga datang bersama istrinya, Dale Evans. Roy sempat bertemu dan bermain bersam Guntur, putra Soekarno, beberapa hari sebelumnya. Elton John pernah menulis lagu untuknya tahun 1973 berjudul 'Roy Rogers'.

Di tengah pesta berlangsung, datanglah tamu yang ditunggu-tunggu, Marilyn Monroe. Dia agak asing dengan melihat orang-orang berwajah melayu di sekelilingnya. Untunglah mata Marilyn tertuju ke Louella O. Parsons, seorang perempuan setengah baya. Dia penulis skenario dan kolumnis film terkenal. Louella menyapanya dan mengajak duduk di sofa.

Kedatangan Marilyn diketahui wartawan Indonesia. Mereka berteriak memanggil rekan seprofesinya dan Marilyn pun dikelilingi wartawan Indonesia yang sibuk mengambil gambar dirinya. Saat itu Soekarno datang dan mereka berjumpa pertama kalinya.

"Semua rakyat Indonesia senang saya berjumpa dengan Anda", aku Soekarno. Mereka bertemu hanya sekitar 45 menit. Namun Marilyn menyimpan kesan mendalam. Beberapa tahun kemudian ketika Soekarno dalam kesulitan dengan keamanan dirinya, Marilyn menawarkan Soekarno untuk tinggal di rumahnya di AS. Ide manja ini ditolak suaminya, Arthur Miller.

Setelah perjumpaan itu berkembang gosip tentang mereka berdua walau hanya sekali bertemu. Bulan April 1961 ketika melakukan kunjungan resmi ke AS, Soekarno sempat menelpon Marilyn usai diajak makan malam oleh Eric Johnston di resto Romanoff's Restaurant di Hollywood. Soekarno sempat berdansa dengan aktris Rhonda Flemming dan mengundangnya ke Indonesia bersama suaminya, Lang Jeffries. Rhonda sahabat dekat Presiden AS Ronald Reagan semasa menjadi aktor.

Ketika Marilyn tewas di kamarnya 5 Agustus 1962, Soekarno sedang sibuk di Istana Bogor membuka sidang gabungan Dewan Pertahanan Nasional dan Musyawarah Pimpinan Negara, tentang strategi merebut wilayah Indonesia di Irian Barat. Beberapa hari kemudian, datanglah ke Jakarta, Ketua Peace Corps yang juga ipar Presiden Kennedy, Sargeant Shriver, yang kemudian menjadi mertua aktor Arnold Schwarzsenegger. Sargeant dicecar pertanyaan Soekarno soal cara sebab kematian Marilyn.

"Well, gee, sulit untuk mengatakan hal itu dan masih banyak spekulasi yang berkembang tentang hal itu, jawab Sargeant agak bingung.

Tidak ada pertemuan kedua antara Marilyn dan Soekarno setelah dalam pesta di The Beverly Hills Hotel, 31 Mei 1956. (ISK).

#Soekarno #Marilyn Monroe #The Beverly Hills Hotel #Hollywood #Bung Karno

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learn-from-the-pain · 6 years

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2017 best picture nominee aesthetics ; repost, don’t reblog. Bold whatever applies to your muse. Tag someone , feel free to add to the categories if you wish .

Tagged by: @suzumesoul Tagging: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Arrival

blurry memories. helicopters flying overhead. fog pouring over mountains. ominous feelings. stuttering voices. dark, cavernous chambers. protective suits. hazy skies. smooth and mysterious rock. in a relationship with death. defied gravity. a chirping bird in a cage. white, bleak emptiness. the soft hands of a child. a barrier between them and you. moaning voices of unknown creatures. odd languages. tentacles. flat landscapes. ink. the circle of time. silhouettes. a window overlooking a body of water. strange perceptions of time. moving from shadows to light. possible threats. the laugh of a child. déjà vu. government secrets. conversations without speaking. military uniforms. sickness. confessions. a lover friend once there and now gone. strange dreams. paranoia. disturbing the peace.

Fences

strained relations. exercising power. laundry hanging on the line. providing. tears streaming down hurt cheeks. masculinity. family. claustrophobic houses. youth and inexperience. the hollow sound when a baseball hits a bat. football jerseys. framed photos of relatives. throwing punches. second chances. muted colors. prison. unacknowledged sacrifices. post-war. streets framed by rusted metal. sitting on steps. sticking your fingers through the holes of a fence. cross necklaces. unflinchingly hard circumstances. railroad tracks. pride being suffocated by self-pity. being rooted in the same place for years. building a dream. maternal abandonment. pecking someone goodbye. bad timing. losing a dream. long-standing marriage. knitting. covering your ears with a pillow. infidelity. brick walls.

Hacksaw Ridge

bullets whizzing past your ears. dust. bodies littering the dirt. helmets. scraped up faces. hospitals. obligations. pacifism. taking someone in your arms. a photo tucked away in a bible. warfare. a cemetery full of plain white tombstones. smoke. saving lives. rough terrain. a rifle set aside. enemies. allies. underground tunnels. perseverance. water and blood streaming down one’s face. being the odd one out. staying true to what you believe. the smell of gunpowder. people crying out for mercy. spiritual transcendence. someone waiting. a cliff leading to nowhere. fire and brimstone. no man’s land. barbed wire. trust. white rock. faceless danger. carrying somebody on your back. heroes.

Hell or High Water

sleepy towns. a windmill turning. pickup trucks. the cocking of a gun. cowboy hats. summer heat. doing things for family. robberies. stand-offs. locking eyes with somebody in a bar. dirt roads leading to nothingness. masked faces. badlands. justice. crosses painted on the sides of buildings. the west. dust bowls. the badge pinned to a cop’s shirt. hot tempers. burying past mistakes. guns on belts. slow drawls. shattered glass. piles of money. browns and beiges. gambling. hot and sprawling landscapes. a lack of moral salvation. tattoos hidden by sleeves. blinding sun. getting away. getting caught. generations of poverty. thunderstorms on the horizon. loose-fitting shirts. farms. not knowing if you’re going to heaven or hell or somewhere else.

Hidden Figures

junky cars. close friendships. vintage lamps. pursuing the impossible. rocket ships. satellites. running in heels. computers. chalk drawn on a whiteboard. mathematics. pulling up after being pushed down. kodachrome. files being slammed on desks. standing out among the rest. dark computing rooms. pencils moving on paper at high speeds. warm homes. being depended on. getting ahead and having the finish line moved. space age. meetings full of suits and ties. crowbars. grainy footage. crowds of women. black and white televisions. counting numbers. no windows. astronauts. a little girl walking through the trees. sepia. breaking boundaries. long hallways. watching through glass. making history.

La La Land

auditions gone wrong. neon streets. highways jammed with cars. vivid colors. piano keys. spotlights. dreaming of goals. christmas jingles. romances that sweep you off your feet. dancing. telescopes. old hollywood movies. lighthouses. parties. movie sets. jazz music. galaxies upon galaxies. fights over dinner. purple skies. blue skies. car radios blaring from vehicles. murals on the walls. arms spread wide. candy-colored fantasies. nostalgia. standing on a stage all alone. brightly colored clothes. lingering eye contact. theater seats. the seasons flying by. singing your heart out. elegance. losing love. jumping into a swimming pool. lamps lighting up dark streets. film burning out on the screen. coffee shops. kisses where the world ends. fireworks.

Lion

gut feelings you can’t shake. yellow butterflies. walking alongside the tracks of a train. a child running around freely. dangerous alleyways. elegant pinks. a family who you haven’t seen in a long time. falling apart. being lost. bright green grass by an ocean. foreign landscapes. looking for answers. being locked in a room. searching the internet. maps. crowds of unrecognizable people. noisy traffic. holding hands. catching a stray leaf floating in the wind. being chased down dark streets. no one understanding. rainbows appearing in the rain. dust-colored browns. trash dumps. florescent figures in a home. letting go. banks of a river. thumbtacks. home. rare but bright colors. standing in water. the train departing. the roughness of eroding brick. fruits. finding a way back.

Manchester by the Sea

boats on clear water. regret. shoveling snow. driving without a clear destination. florescent lights in a hospital. orphans. tears clinging to your eyelashes but never falling. aimlessness. hockey. small towns. running into someone from long ago. sidewalks. a house burning to the ground. funerals. dressing for the cold. jarring human memories. pointless conversations with some meaning. teenagers. empty pizza boxes. life going on. having people over. haunting beauty. bands playing bad music. trauma. bar fights. fishing nets. seagulls. depression. dreams you don’t know aren’t real. confronting the past. grief. tough love. unopened boxes. annoying relatives. depending on someone else to get by. punching glass and shattering it.

Moonlight.

violins. dusk. visiting an old friend. repressed emotions. searching for an identity. bullying. well-lit diners. running away. rich skin tones. alienation. the moon over glistening seas. burgeoning sexuality. darkness making your skin look blue. keeping your head above water. glints of light. dream-like senses of reality. flashy cars. pink hallways. screaming but there’s only silence. crystalline blues. avoiding home. bath tubs. palm trees. being scolded. dreams. moist skin. hotboxing. sun-drenched neighborhoods. struggling with addiction. first kisses. songs coming on the jukebox. reflections in the mirror. high contrast. hands digging in the sand. forgiveness. bright mid-daylight. blowing smoke. true love.

#[ MEME ]#[ AESTHETIC ]#I just checked this blog's drafts and this thing was completed but never posted what the fuck #I guess I never saw it under my 500 drafts but ???????

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travelingtheusa · 3 years

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TENNESSEE

2021 May 4 (Tue) – We went to Oak Ridge this morning. It was called the Secret City back in the 1940s. Oak Ridge was one of 3 cities where the atomic bombs were produced. Its population went from 1,000 to 50,000 people in 6 months. Unfortunately, the museum was closed. So was the Museum of the Appalachia and the Museum of Tennessee. We got to see a short film at the NPS office, which was a little booth located in the corner of the Children’s Museum.

We then drove to Knoxville. There wasn’t much to see but we drove around to look at the city. We drove into the Old City and past Market Square. The city had lots of old buildings mixed with new construction. We stopped at Corner 16 for lunch. It was an excellent choice. The food was outrageous. We bought some of the chili to bring home for dinner.

2021 May 3 (Mon) – We packed up and left Lebanon at 9:30 a.m. It was raining and rained for most of the drive. About three-quarters of the way to our destination, the skies opened up and it poured. The rain was so heavy we could barely see past the hood. There was a break in the rain just as we arrived at our new campground – the Windrock State Park Campground in Oliver Springs. It rained all night long, sometimes ferociously. There was lightning and thunder and, at times, hail.

The campground is very high class. We spotted at least 3 Prevost RVs. Those are very expensive rigs. This campground is up in the mountains and is nicely laid out, neat and clean with plenty of space between sites. There is extra space for ATVs. This seems to be a favorite spot for ATV riding. The campground is at the head of many trails leading off into the wilderness. We’ve been watching them come and go for the two days we’ve been here. Covered in mud and debris and smiling from ear to ear.

2021 May 2 (Sun) – We drove into Nashville today to go to the Johnny Cash Museum. His life story was quite interesting. His parents couldn’t agree on a name when he was born, so they named him J.R. Years later, when he tried to enlist in the Air Force, they insisted that he had to have a first name so he chose John. That morphed into Johnny as his musical career took off.

It cost us $20 to park for two hours. The parking lot appeared to be 3 in 1; three different machines for different areas of the same parking lot. It was strange. The town was bustling with people. It was so crowded that we had to step off the sidewalk to go around clusters of folks gathered outside restaurants and shops. No one was wearing masks outside, although you still have to wear a mask indoors. Looks like things are finally starting to loosen up. Infections around the country are dropping as people get the vaccine and venues are beginning to open again. It feels very hopeful.

We wanted to have lunch in Nashville but it was too crowded. We hopped in the truck and drove back to Lebanon. First stop was at the number one and number two restaurants, according to Trip Advisor. But, you guessed it. Too crowded with long wait times. We finally wound up at Cracker Barrel. The gal who checked us in said it was 20 to 30 minutes. We waited almost an hour. The food was good, as usual, but the long wait took the bloom off the rose.

After lunch, we stopped at WalMart to get some groceries. Then it was a stop at the liquor store to pick up some spirits. And finally, we stopped at a gas station to fuel up for tomorrow’s trip. We got back to the campground at around 3:45 p.m. It started raining later in the evening. Weather forecasters are saying it’s going to rain for next two days.

2021 May 1 (Sat) – We packed up and after a brief stop at the dump station to empty the tanks, we were on our way. It was 2-1/2 hours to Lebanon where we are staying in a KOA. This campground is very tight and also on uneven terrain, like our last campground. It is lucky we have a pull-through site. It would be very hard to maneuver between all the rigs and on a hillside.

Once we were set up, we took the laundry to the machines and did the wash.

2021 Apr 30 (Fri) – We drove to Lexington (still in Tennessee) for lunch at Dan’s Café. It was a small house converted to an eatery. It had a 50’s flair to it. The food was good.

After lunch, we drove to Parker’s Crossroads and toured the battlefield. The north and south clashed there and had an intense 5-hour battle where neither really won. The confederates were able to escape and cross the Tennessee River but not before causing havoc for many miles on their mission to disrupt Union rails and resources. The battlefield is spread out with walking tours and storyboards recounting the activities that went on at that point. The Visitor’s Center had a video that told the story of the battle. It was quite informative.

Next door to the visitor’s center was the Tennessee State Veteran’s Cemetery. We drove through the grounds. There were only about 50 graves. It is a new cemetery just established in 2018.

After getting some fuel, we stopped at a gas station shoppette to pick up milk. They had loads of beer and soda to go with lots of snacks, but no milk. The closest supermarket was 24 miles away. We drove over the bridge to the next gas station shoppette and were able to find milk there. Thank goodness!

We got news that the Washington, D.C. caravan we signed up for has been cancelled. The caravan was scheduled to take place the first week in July and the plan was to march in the National Parade on Independence Day. The parade, which is run by the National Park Service, has been cancelled. In addition, several other tourist places around Washington, D.C. will not be open. Also, the number of rigs signed up for the caravan fell to 11. That’s below the minimum threshold of 15 rigs for the caravan to go. We will still go to D.C. for the 2 weeks we planned to be there. So will our friends, Rick & Brenda from Florida. Our other friends, Hank & Brenda from Texas, cancelled out of the D.C. caravan but they will join us on the drive from D.C. to New York for our caravan around Upstate NY. I sent an email to the manager at Fort Belvoir to tell her we will still be coming for the 2 weeks we reserved.

2021 Apr 29 (Thu) – We pulled up stakes and left Memphis at 10 a.m. It rained during most of the drive. In addition, as accident occurred right in front of us. The traffic was at a stand still for an hour and a half. Two tractor trailers and two cars got into it. One of the cars had 3 kids in it. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt.

We finally arrived at the Natchez Trace RV Park at 1:30 p.m. It was a little tricky getting into our site around the trees. The slick mud didn’t help things a bit. The trailer wouldn’t level right either. It kept resetting itself and the RV was on a tilt.

2021 Apr 28 (Wed) – We dropped off Bonnie’s urine sample to the vet’s office this morning. The vet came out and told us there is no urine infection. She also refilled Bonnie’s liver medication for 3 months. I asked for 4 but they only had 3 boxes. Oh, well. You take what you can get.

After the vet, we drove to the Blue Plate Café where we met Steve & Diane for breakfast. Not only was the food good but the company was also enjoyable. We stayed for over an hour and a half.

Next stop was at Vitamin Shoppe where I got some vitamins. Paul is still not feeling well. He’s still suffering the effects of the vaccine.

2021 Apr 27 (Tue) – I took Paul to lunch (or did he take me?) at Las Tortugas Deli Mexicali. It was a different kind of set up. You ordered at the counter from a menu that was in Spanish with English in parentheses. We recognized very few of the dishes. We both wound up ordering sandwiches which were very good. We brought leftovers home.

I called the vet’s office where no one knew anything about what I was calling about. I left a message for Dr. Bates to call. I called again at 5:30 pm. The doctor got on the phone and said she left a message today. There was no message on my phone. She didn’t know anything about a urine sample so we agreed to bring another one in tomorrow. She said she would refill Bonnie’s liver medication. Five months’ worth will be waiting for us when we drop off the urine sample tomorrow.

Just as we were sitting down to dinner tonight, there came a knock on the door. It turned out to be Diane. She and husband, Steve, were on our Utah caravan. He served as the Weatherman. They will be staying here in the campground until Friday. We agreed to get together for breakfast tomorrow.

Paul is feeling cruddy tonight. He is feverish and achy. Guess the vaccine is doing its thing.

We got a call from a campground in Ticonderoga, NY today. The manager had looked over the list of RVs I sent her and decided they couldn’t accommodate the larger rigs. They cancelled our reservation. What a disaster!!! Less than 3 months to go and we lose a campground. We would be lucky to find another place that can fit 22 RVs at this late date during the height of the tourist season. I felt sick. Paul jumped on the Internet and did some research. I tried calling the campground we were going to stay at before the cancelled one to see if we could just extend our stay. No luck. They are booked solid for the week after us. Paul found a place 65 miles east in Peru, NY. I called and they were able to fit us in. I sent a list of campers and RV sizes. Hopefully, things will go OK. I also got a call from another campground on our caravan saying our deposit was due May 1st or our sites would open up. I quickly sent off a missive to SMART HQ to send out a check. That could have been a serious problem! Luckily, the fates were looking after us.

2021 Apr 26 (Mon) – We went out to lunch at a BBQ place. The food was good. Then we dropped off a urine sample at the veterinarian. Bonnie is acting like she has a urine infection again. *sigh* She just can’t seem to get past this thing. The vet she saw last time was not in, so a tech took the sample and said he would handle everything. Also pass on our request to refill Bonnie’s liver medication.

We then went to CVS where Paul got his second COVID shot. I picked up some Mother’s Day cards. As we were standing on line, Paul saw a young man wearing a motorcycle helmet put two car chargers in his pocket and walk out. He yelled at the guy but the clerk, who was ringing up a customer in front of us, just giggled about the incident. She just shrugged it off.

I called the vet’s office later to see what happened with the urine sample but nobody had anything to say about it. Guess I will talk to Dr. Bates tomorrow.

2021 Apr 25 (Sun) – It was cold this morning. The heat pump went off about 2:30 a.m. this morning. We keep that off because of the noise it makes. It turns out the furnace was not working. It looks like the techs did something that made the controls work improperly. We cannot get the furnace to turn on.

All Vanleigh personnel were gone early this morning so I posted our issue on Facebook. Sure enough, the tech folks were still monitoring the website and responded to my post. The tech said he would send us a new program for the Spyder Control Panel. Apparently, he knows exactly what they did. Aaaaarrrggghhh!!! We’ll have it sent to Travis & Sam where we will be in two weeks.

We packed up and left Hot Springs at 10 a.m. It was a long drive. We pulled into a parking lot at a mall around noon to make ourselves lunch. We arrived at Agricenter RV Park in Memphis around 2:30 p.m. The host couldn’t find our reservation and it turns out that I had made reservations for a different date. He was able to clear up the confusion and find us a spot.

After that lovely RV resort in Hot Springs, this feels like a slum. Lol. The RVs are very close to each other in rows with grass that needs cutting, no trees, and stone campsites. The road is asphalt that needs some repairs. Several of the campers are long term as we saw 40 lb. and 100 lb. propane tanks outside their RVs. The cost was higher than I expected but reflects a military discount. Guess we can expect charges to continue to increase with all the new RVers out there and no new campgrounds to accommodate them.

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dipulb3 · 3 years

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Our past is still there if you look hard enough - I was recently asked to take part in a podcast interview representing the Woodhaven Cultural & Historical Society talking about what else Woodhaven. I haven’t done it yet so I have no idea how it w...

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/our-past-is-still-there-if-you-look-hard-enough-i-was-recently-asked-to-take-part-in-a-podcast-interview-representing-the-woodhaven-cultural-historical-society-talking-about-what-else-woodhaven-i/

The landmarked carousel in Forest Park is 130 years od.

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The cemetery behind All Saints Episcopal Church has graves dating back to 1789.

slideshow

I was recently asked to take part in a podcast interview representing the Woodhaven Cultural & Historical Society talking about, what else, Woodhaven. I haven’t done it yet, so I have no idea how it went.

If you know me, you know I can talk a lot, especially about our neighborhood. I’ve been giving weekly Zoom presentations talking about Woodhaven for an hour, sometimes two, and I never run out of things to discuss.

I have been president of the Woodhaven Cultural & Historical Society for ten years, taking the reins from Leonora Lavan, one of the founders of the WCHS. And I have been blessed to live in a neighborhood with so much of its history still around.

We have one business in Neir’s Tavern that’s over 190 years old. But while Neir’s may be the most famous, we need to remember that Walker Funeral Home is over 125 years old.

And Ohlert-Ruggiere, Inc. can also claim to be around 125 years old, as they acquired Woodhaven’s oldest insurance agency, Clapp Insurance.

Pop’s on 86th Street and Jamaica Avenue is around 115 years old, Manor Delicatessen is over 100 years old, and Schmidt’s Candy is closing in on 90 years. Imperial Upholstering on 86th Street is now in its 83rd year.

And the newspaper you’re reading right now, either in print or online, has chronicled the history of Woodhaven since 1909.

On top of that, we’ve got a New York City Landmark in the Forest Park Carousel, which is 130 years old. Sitting nearby is Seuffert Bandshell, which will be celebrating its 100th birthday this decade.

Forest Park itself, along with the golf course and the golf clubhouse (now Oak Ridge), are 125 years old.

We’ve got schools and churches well over 100 years old, and one of the most important buildings in our community’s history, the clocktower of LaLance & Grosjean, still keeps watch over Woodhaven and Ozone Park 145 years after it was rebuilt following a devastating fire.

And we have a cemetery on 96th street behind All Saints Episcopal Church, serving as the final resting place of some of the earliest settlers in Woodhaven, with marked graves going back to 1789.

So that’s why I shake my head when people who haven’t lived here in years say they don’t recognize Woodhaven anymore, that everything’s changed. If you look at Woodhaven and fail to recognize the longevity of our history and the wealth of it that’s still sitting in plain view, then you’re not really looking.

Along the way, however, some of our history has been lost. But through the efforts of our community, we’ve been able to recover and restore some of it.

During our research, we uncovered an old news clipping about the Memorial Trees in Forest Park. These were trees that were planted to honor the Woodhaven soldiers killed in WWI and families used to come up and decorate them for Memorial Day.

But over time and due to a strange chain of events, that tradition died. But 100 years later, many of those trees still stand, so we began decorating the them again with local residents, students, ROTC, American Legion, and other volunteers. And we were able to the street co-named and restore a bit of old history.

We did something similar with a triangle named for Father Lynch, a local priest who was in the Fighting 69th, a successor to the famous Father Duffy. Father Lynch was killed in the Battle of Okinawa and the triangle at Rockaway and Atlantic was named after him in 1949.

He was a great character, the pages of this newspaper carried stories about what a great man he was, kind and fair to everyone he encountered. They even wrote a book about him called Father Cyclone. It would make a terrific film.

But none of us had ever seen a sign there, so with the help of American Legion Post 118, we asked for and received a street sign bearing his name at the triangle dedicated in his honor. We were thrilled that some of Father Lynch’s family was in attendance.

We have a lot of terrific history all around us and lots more just waiting out there to be discovered. If you’d like to learn more about our past, please join us at one of our upcoming Zoom meetings.

Email us at [email protected] to join us on this historical journey through Woodhaven.

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ozarkianhillcrofters-blog · 6 years

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Mark Kumming, Collector of Ozarkiana

By Curtis Copeland, The Society of Ozarkian Hillcrofters

In the world of the Internet and social media, Mark Kumming is becoming well known for his knowledge of Ozarks history, memorabilia, and almost all things Ozarkiana. From posting photos of his personal Ozarks book collection, to images of Silver Dollar City and Branson area tourism memorabilia, to answering questions from followers about people and places of the Ozarks, Mark is actively becoming a guru of Ozarks regional culture.

A follower and fan of Mark myself, I felt fortunate to interview him and ask several questions, for his collection and knowledge is fascinating to me as well. Although Mark spent his earliest years in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri, he eventually moved to Branson in his early teens. Like many people, Mark Kumming’s interest in regional and local history was influenced at an early age by his parents. “My dad would carry my brother and I, later our sister, all around St. Louis in the family van in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He took us to all kinds of museums and historic sites, primarily to keep us occupied on a day off from school or during summer vacation from school,” Mark said, when asked about how he became interested in history.

His father had some interesting occupations. These occupations, along with his father’s devoted interest in spending time with his children, led to some interesting experiences for Mark. “Dad was a licensed embalmer and funeral home director when I was very small, and so he had an interest in old cemeteries, too. I have been to all kinds of odd, strange, and unusual places around St. Louis that few life time residents even knew about. I thought it was fascinating to go to the Old Courthouse and stand in the room where the Dred Scott Decision was made or see all the stuff in the St. Louis Art Museum, the McDonnell Planetarium, and other such places.”

Mark’s father later went to work for McDonnell-Douglas, an aerospace firm in St. Louis that had a US Government contract during the Apollo and Skylab Eras with NASA. He met many of the astronauts when they came to St. Louis for training prior to their space flights. He personally knew Gus Grissom and Neal Armstrong. Mark recalled one special experience, “Once, on a day off from school, my dad took me in the family car to a warehouse in the St. Louis area, so he could pick up some parts for Skylab and take them to another location to deliver them. When he came out a few minutes later he had a little Ziploc bag with some electronic circuits in it...part of Skylab! I got to hold that bag in my hands and take a good look at it...something that soon would go up into space! That was a big deal for a little kid, and I remember it well.”

In 1973, Mark’s father felt that after spending time in the suburban areas of St. Louis, that he wanted his children to experience life in the country. The family moved to Perryville, MO, to a small farm on an Ozarks ridge just above the Mississippi River bottom lands. Relocating to this region of the Southeast Missouri Ozarks reinforced his interest in the Ozarks, it’s culture and history. “I was about 11 years old. That summer, a local publisher printed THE PERRYVILLE ADVERTISTER, a little magazine with a bunch of ads in it. The publication featured several articles about local history and folklore, lost treasure legends, historic spots, church history, settlement history, and so on. It was something I ate up! I loved the legends and local history stories. It was the first piece of regional material that I kept. I still have it today.” But it was not only the history of the local museums and history sites of the area that influenced Mark. He began to have an appreciation for the natural features that make the Ozarks region so special. “My brother and I explored the Ozarks woods around our farm. We had a natural spring that bubbled up in our pasture, and we followed it through the woods down to a much larger creek that eventually dumped into the Mississippi. Along that stream there were caves, limestone water falls, and all sorts of cool things for little early teenaged boys to explore. That left a big impression on me, too.”

During this time of the mid 1970’s Marks parents divorced. Although this was an unfortunate event, the silver lining was that his mother and stepfather worked for a large healthcare company, which had transferred them to Branson, Missouri. His family back in 1968 or 1969, had visited Branson for the first time on vacation right after the Beverly Hillbillies episodes aired on TV. They spent several days in Branson then, doing Silver Dollar City, Baldknobbers Jamboree, and other sights, which had made a great impression on young Mark. In 1978, after his mother and stepfather had been transferred, Mark found himself in Branson once again, but as a resident, and thrilled to be living in the town that brought him so much joy as a young boy. “We lived for the first two weeks in the Branson Inn, while mom and stepdad looked for a house. Then, I got a job at the age of 15 at SDC in the Foods Department, working at the Vineyard (now the Wagon Works Restaurant.) We were enrolled in Branson schools in the fall. Life was good! Of course, now with the SDC "pass exchange program" a benefit which let employees of the park into Branson attractions at no charge, I had the ability to go to all the music shows, attractions, just about everywhere in town for free! It was fantastic!”, said Mark of his moving to Branson.

This is the time when Mark began his collection of Branson, Silver Dollar City, and Ozarks memorabilia. Many people are now thankful that Mark saved every pamphlet, small trinket, and many things people of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s considered unimportant, or even trash. “I slowly accumulated Ozarks related material beginning in this period. I kept everything my employers gave me at SDC. ...I am proud of saving from the SDC dumpsters several small pieces salvaged from the float trip and diving bell attractions when they were torn out and updated with the American Plunge and the Lost River.” These early Silver Dollar City and Branson places of employment during his high school years gave Mark the opportunity to be surrounded by and participate in the “Ozarks-themed” tourist industry which he loved. He also made a lot of friends in this “golden age” of early Silver Dollar City and Shepherd of the Hills attractions, that would become well-known locally, and influential to the community even today. “I got a job as the concessions manager at Hee Haw Theater in 1981, it was a showcase for the Hee Haw TV stars. I transferred to the Attractions Department at SDC in 1979, and worked at Jim Owens Float Trip Ride, Rube Dugan's Diving Bell, Flooded Mine, Fire in the Hole, Grandfather's Mansion, Tree Top House (Huck Finn's Hideaway) the One Mule Swing, and did ad-lib street entertainment and was involved in one of the street feud skits regularly in the 1980 season. In 1981 I was second lead man at the diving bell. During this period, I graduated from Branson High School in 1980 and attended College of the Ozarks.” Mark stated about his early employment.

Mark’s experience and knowledge was not only increasing in the areas of Silver Dollar City and Branson tourism, but also the Ozarks region and its history and culture. “My collecting continued, primarily buying Ozarks books at the SDC book store. I worked with many people from the old days of Branson tourism at SDC, so I heard many old stories of what it was like in the area from decades past. Also, I went to high school with Jack Herschend's son, Bruce Herschend (who now runs Talking Rocks and Butterfly Palace) and Kelly Trimble, Mark Trimble's son, who had Shepherd of the Hills at the time. I went to high school and college with Jace Land, whose grandpa was Townsend Godsey, noted photo journalist of the Ozarks, and a contemporary and friend of Vance Randolph, Otto Ernest Rayburn, Harry Truman, and Thomas Hart Benton. Jace taught me some photography basics, too.”

In 1984, Mark’s educational and career path took him away from his friends and favorite places of Branson. He went to Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau to study mass communications and business. During this time at SEMO University he was classmate with a man that went on to a big career in TV and film, Cedric the Entertainer. They had mass communications classes together and were friends at the time.

Later in 1984, Mark began a 20-year career as a radio broadcaster, working as a disc jockey, announcer, news reporter and news director at radio stations in Cape Girardeau, Dexter, and Kennett, MO. All these towns are in the bootheel area of Missouri. In 1990 Mark moved to Forrest City, AR to continue radio there, and met and married his wife, Janette. He became an instant husband and stepfather. In less than three years their oldest daughter had her first child, and he was a grandpa for the first time. Mark and his wife now have two daughters and ten grandkids.

Mark had a very successful career during his twenty years in radio. He received several awards and met many celebrities, politicians and influential people. He received the Distinguished Service Award from the Journalism Department at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2000. He was a stringer for the ARKANSAS GAZETTE newspaper in Little Rock, and THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL newspaper in Memphis, TN. Mark contributed news on a regular basis to the Arkansas Associated Press Broadcasters Association, the Arkansas Radio Network, the Brownfield Ag Network, and the Learfield Data News Service. As a news reporter he covered events attended by President Reagan, Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush, and met and interviewed such people as Barbara Bush, Bill Clinton, Academy Award winning actress Mary Steenburgen. Mark also went to press events featuring Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood. He interviewed Ricky Phelps of the Kentucky Headhunters. Mark also had the opportunity to interview Jesse Jackson, was part of a press pool that covered a press conference featuring author John Grisham, and met and interviewed three Missouri governors, and five Arkansas governors and was on a first name basis with Mike Huckabee when he was Arkansas governor.

During that 20-year timespan of being in his radio career and raising a family, Mark’s collecting of Ozarkiana and memorabilia had come to a standstill. They had vacationed in Branson a couple of times over the years, but that was about all. “I still was interested in local and regional history, and as a news reporter did many stories on local and regional history topics, festivals, and so on. All that stuff was Mississippi Delta Region material, not Ozarks material.”

Then in 2003, Mark’s wife, Janette, had an opportunity to move to northwest Arkansas and double her salary. She had a great career working in medical offices doing billing, Medicare, Medicaid, insurance contracts, etc., so they moved to Rogers, Arkansas. Unfortunately, Mark’s radio career had ended, and he went into construction work for a while, then was a clerk in an emergency room at a hospital in Springdale, Arkansas for nine years. “My, how my eyes were opened! This was much different work than entertaining in Branson or being a radio broadcaster.”

When that job ended, Mark became a clerk in a government contractors firm in Rogers for four years. When that job ended in 2017, he became a substitute teacher in the Pea Ridge School District. Mark and his Janette moved to Pea Ridge in 2007. In January of 2018, the Pea Ridge Community Library made Mark their children's storyteller. He also has done freelance writing on Ozarks topics since 2010. “No money in it, but I have had about 150 articles published in regional magazines and newspapers. I am regular contributing writer for THE MISSOURI CHIGGER magazine published at Lowry City, MO.”

After moving to Rogers, Mark was once again able to turn his sights towards his Ozarks collection. “I went at it full throttle when we moved to Rogers. My wife and I began going to yard sales, and I started picking up material like old out of print books on Ozarks topics. Then I discovered several fine used book stores and "friends of the library" type book stores, where material was sold cheap. I built a library of Ozarks material over the last 15 years. At times, I ran out of space, or found myself in an economic bind, and sold huge chunks of the library for cash at yard sales we held or traded material for better stuff with the secondhand book stores. I have two double book shelves full of Ozarks material. I have a closet packed full of other material I have found in flea markets and antique stores.”

Mark’s collection began to make its online appearance in 2010, when he joined the www.sdcfans.com web site, a web page for the fans of Silver Dollar City. “I posted over 2000 posts on that site [www.sdcfans.com] and began a Flickr account to post SDC and Hee Haw Theater photos. I found that all that stuff I had saved for over 30 years from my youth at SDC and Hee Haw was now interesting to someone other than myself! A younger generation who had only heard about this stuff was amazed when I started posting scans of my collection on line, and they marveled at the stories of old time Branson and SDC of the 1970s and early 1980s.” In 2013, Janette bought him a computer tablet, and his son in law signed him up for a Facebook account. “Over time I discovered the Facebook group pages I now contribute to. Now I administer the Hee Haw Theater Facebook page in honor of the people who worked at the theater with me. SDCFans.com began a Facebook page, and the administrator asked me to be a co-administrator with him, so I do some work there. I am very pleased to be able to share my knowledge about Ozarks topics with folks on those group sites.” Mark also stated that he is pleased to be an active member of the Society of Ozarkian Hillcrofters and enjoys sharing his collection with that group as well.

Mark’s sharing of his collection is not just in cyberspace. He was amazed when Josh Heston invited him to the State of the Ozarks Festival in 2017 at Hollister, where he had a booth with items from his collection. He felt honored to be a part of the festival and could visit with people directly about his collection of Ozarks memorabilia.

I asked Mark some specifics about his collection. “Regarding the rarest piece I have, it is a copy of M.E. Oliver's "STRANGE SCENES IN THE OZARKS," a handmade book limited to a printing of 400 copies. I’m very pleased to have that. I have tons of brochures, postcards, and many other pieces of paper goods that promoted or told of aspects of Ozarks.” Mark has some advice for those interested in being collectors themselves. “If I could give anyone a tip on what to collect I would say to seek out the many, many small cheaply made booklets that Ozarks natives made and peddled to tourists in the 1950s through the 1980s. These little books contain many gems of Ozarks history, little tidbits that the bigger books by the university presses don't discuss. Some of those books include one by Silver Dollar City's first Marshal, one by a miller at Sullivan's Mill at SDC. Also, books written by the eccentric "Coin" Harvey at Rogers, AR who founded the Monte Ne Resort in the 1920’s, and books by a Bentonville, AR man, J. Dickson Black, who did several books on northwest Arkansas history.”

Mark met several interesting people, some of them old timers, along the way during his collecting. He had the opportunity to get acquainted with Walker Powell from Silver Dollar City, he met Ozarks author Phillip Steele a couple of times, during his time freelance writing. Mark had encounters with Jack and Pete Herschend, and helped train Branson area entertainment legend, Terry Wayne Sanders at Silver Dollar City. “I was a coworker with many good, good people who worked at SDC, the Branson music shows, Shepherd of the Hills play...gosh, I worked or was friends with many good folks from Shepherd. There are many stories I could tell if time permitted.”

Not only is Mark a collector, but he is also an accomplished author. He has had some 150 freelance stories published in regional periodicals. He also used the CreateSpace platform on the Internet to publish his first collection of poetry. It is a small chapbook of poetry and photos titled “REFLECTIONS ON THE BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE IN POETRY AND PHOTOGRAPHS”. It is currently available on amazon.com. “I have seen the printed proof of the little book, and I'm proud of it, although I do not expect a little book of Ozarks poetry to sell more than a handful of copies.” He stated with a chuckle.

Mark intends to continue his writing efforts. “I do have plans on publishing some of the Ozarks articles that have appeared in print in magazines and newspapers in the months and years ahead. There is a lot of material that I have in my filing cabinet. I do have plans on issuing a history and memoir of my diving bell days and my time at Hee Haw Theater when time permits.”

Mark is also continuing his new career in education as well. Although he is currently substitute teaching in Pea Ridge Schools, he hopes to be able this summer to begin to study and obtain a teacher’s license, and teach full time in Pea Ridge Schools, hopefully beginning in fall. “It will be a long, hard process for me, but I hope at this time to accomplish this. It hopefully will be a career until I am eligible to retire at age 68.”

Mark Kumming’s lifelong interest in the Ozarks, and his collection of Ozarks memorabilia has become something much more than the hobby of an individual. It has become an important historic record of the region and a source of education for this and future generations. The excitement that Mark has had for Ozarks history and culture, and his willingness to share the collection, has created an interest in the Ozarks that is essential for the preservation of the unique culture of the region. □

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sararcdcr · 6 years

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BEST PICTURE NOMINEES (2017) AESTHETICS. repost, don’t reblog. bold whatever applies. tag whoever you want and feel free to add to the categories.

tagged by: @allianceofficer

tagging: @greysistance @guidiinglight @kettsbain @misunne @zerodcwned @xaedificare @novasurfer @shadybstard @spiritualty @starcharted

ARRIVAL. blurry memories. helicopters flying overhead. fog pouring over mountains. ominous feelings. stuttering voices. dark, cavernous chambers. protective suits. hazy skies. smooth and mysterious rock. in a relationship with death. defied gravity. a chirping bird in a cage. white, bleak emptiness. the soft hands of a child. a barrier between them and you. moaning voices of unknown creatures. odd languages. tentacles. flat landscapes. ink. the circle of time. silhouettes. a window overlooking a body of water. strange perceptions of time. moving from shadows to light. possible threats. the laugh of a child. déjà vu. government secrets. conversations without speaking. military uniforms. sickness. confessions. a lover once there and now gone. strange dreams. paranoia. disturbing the peace.

FENCES. strained relations. exercising power. laundry hanging on the line. providing. tears streaming down hurt cheeks. masculinity. family. claustrophobic houses. youth and inexperience. the hollow sound when a baseball bat hits a ball. football jerseys. framed photos of relatives. throwing punches. second chances. muted colors. prison. unacknowledged sacrifices. post-war. streets framed by rusted metal. sitting on steps. sticking your fingers through the holes of a fence. cross necklaces. unflinchingly hard circumstances. railroad tracks. pride being suffocated by self-pity. being rooted in the same place for years. building a dream. maternal abandonment. pecking someone goodbye. bad timing. losing a dream. long-standing marriage. knitting. covering your ears with a pillow. infidelity. brick walls.

HACKSAW RIDGE. bullets whizzing past your ears. dust. bodies littering the dirt. helmets. scraped up faces. hospitals. obligations. pacifism. taking someone in your arms. a photo tucked away in a bible. warfare. a cemetery full of plain white tombstones. smoke. saving lives. rough terrain. a rifle set aside. enemies. allies. underground tunnels. perseverance. water and blood streaming down one’s face. being the odd one out. staying true to what you believe. the smell of gunpowder. people crying out for mercy. spiritual transcendence. someone waiting. a cliff leading to nowhere. fire and brimstone. no man’s land. barbed wire. trust. white rock. faceless danger. carrying somebody on your back. heroes.

HELL OR HIGH WATER. sleepy towns. a windmill turning. pick-up trucks. the cocking of a gun. cowboy hats. summer heat. doing things for family. robberies. stand-offs. locking eyes with somebody in a bar. dirt roads leading to nothingness. masked faces. badlands. justice. crosses painted on the sides of buildings. the west. dust bowls. the badge pinned to a cop’s shirt. hot tempers. burying past mistakes. guns on belts. slow drawls. shattered glass. piles of money. browns and beiges. gambling. hot and sprawling landscapes. a lack of moral salvation. tattoos hidden by sleeves. blinding sun. getting away. getting caught. generations of poverty. thunderstorms on the horizon. loose-fitting shirts. farms. not knowing if you’re going to heaven or hell or somewhere else.

HIDDEN FIGURES. junky cars. close friendships. vintage lamps. pursuing the impossible. rocket ships. satellites. running in heels. computers. chalk drawn on a whiteboard. mathematics. pulling up after being pushed down. kodachrome. files being slammed on desks. standing out among the rest. dark computing rooms. pencils moving on paper at high speeds. warm homes. being depended on. getting ahead and having the finish line moved. space age. meetings full of suits and ties. crowbars. grainy footage. crowds of women. black and white televisions. counting numbers. no windows. astronauts. a little girl walking through the trees. sepia. breaking boundaries. long hallways. watching through glass. making history.

LA LA LAND. auditions gone wrong. neon streets. highways jammed with cars. vivid colors. piano keys. spotlights. dreaming of goals. christmas jingles. romances that sweep you off your feet. dancing. telescopes. old hollywood movies. lighthouses. parties. movie sets. jazz music. galaxies upon galaxies. fights over dinner. purple skies. blue skies. car radios blaring from vehicles. murals on the walls. arms spread wide. candy-colored fantasies. nostalgia. standing on a stage all alone. brightly colored clothes. lingering eye contact. theater seats. the seasons flying by. singing your heart out. elegance. losing love. jumping into a swimming pool. lamps lighting up dark streets. film burning out on the screen. coffee shops. kisses where the world stops. fireworks.

LION. gut feelings you can’t shake. yellow butterflies. walking alongside the tracks of a train. a child running around freely. dangerous alleyways. elegant pinks. a family who you haven’t seen in a long time. falling apart. being lost. bright green grass by an ocean. foreign landscapes. looking for answers. locked in a room. searching the internet. maps. crowds of unrecognizable people. noisy traffic. holding hands. catching a stray leaf floating in the wind. being chased down dark streets. no one understanding. rainbows appearing in the rain. dust-colored browns. trash dumps. fluorescent fixtures in a home. letting go. banks of a river. thumbtacks. home. rare but bright colors. standing in water. the train departing. the roughness of eroding brick. fruits. finding a way back.

MANCHESTER BY THE SEA. boats on clear water. regret. shoveling snow. driving without a clear destination. fluorescent lights of a hospital. orphans. tears clinging to your eyes but never falling. aimlessness. hockey. small towns. running into someone from long ago. sidewalks. a house burning to the ground. funerals. dressing for the cold. jarring human memories. pointless conversations with some meaning. teenagers. empty pizza boxes. life going on. having people over. haunting beauty. bands playing bad music. trauma. bar fights. fishing nets. seagulls. depression. dreams you don’t know aren’t real. confronting the past. grief. tough love. unopened boxes. annoying relatives. depending on someone else to get by. punching glass and shattering it.

MOONLIGHT. violins. dusk. visiting an old friend. repressed emotions. searching for an identity. bullying. well-lit diners. running away. rich skin tones. alienation. the moon over glistening seas. burgeoning sexuality. darkness making your skin look blue. keeping your head above water. glints of light. dream-like senses of reality. flashy cars. pink hallways. screaming but there’s only silence. crystalline blues. avoiding home. bath tubs. palm trees. being scolded. dreams. moist skin. hotboxing. sun-drenched neighborhoods. struggling with addiction. first kisses. songs coming on the jukebox. reflections in the mirror. high contrast. flickering lights. hands digging in the sand. forgiveness. bright mid-daylight. blowing smoke. true love.

#★・ﾟ: *✧ ❛ YOU'RE IN FOR ONE HELL OF A NIGHT ❜ /// (MEMES)

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