The Literate Quilter

Friday, June 12, 2015

1957 Modern Screen: The Ads

The May 1957 Modern Screen is full of ads that give us a glimpse into the fashions of the time. Max Factor's Roman Pink lipstick ad had a real life 'Barbie doll' gal. Look at those heavily made up eyes in a side long glance, the dark arched brows, the bright lips. She is such a "doll" that it brought back to life an ancient Roman sculpture. His eyes are pretty creepy though.

'Modern Screen Beauty' suggests trying a new hair color, like Arlene Dahl's. Every one's doing it after all. "When you've bleached your hair to a completely pale blond shade you can test your secret yearning to be a redhead by using a temporary color."

Then you had to keep that hair clean and in place.

I remember Mom putting her hair up in pin curls.

Solitair "moisture makeup" contained "Vita-Lite" to restore moisture. Use it and look like those co-eds.

Those 'detergent hands' were a dead giveaway that you were a working gal. Working in the home that is.

To be attractive you also had to smell good.

Hope chests to store up all those things you needed at marriage...

Movies out included 12 Angry Men with Peter Fonda. A classic.

"Summer wardrobe" necessities--slips and girdles and granny pants.

The magazine includes an ad for the novel Raintree County by Ross Lockridge. The only reason for this ad was that the movie based on the book was released in 1957.

I have read the book. I really liked the book. But I doubt many 1957 housewives would have been able to get through the book. It is over a thousand pages long. It is told in a series of flashbacks. The language is gorgeous in the style of Thomas Wolfe, but more stream-of-consciousness. It draws from mythology and is full of symbolism.

The movie version of Raintree County starred Elizabeth Taylor.

It isn't just the American myth that Mr. Lockridge sets out to re-create; it's the myth that governs Life itself. Raintree County isn't simply the secret source of American life; it is also the Garden of Eden, and the raintree is the Tree of Knowledge whose golden boughs shed fertilizing blossoms on the land. Raintree County is nothing short of a primer of human Kultur: it refurbishes the Bible legends and the ancient myths, popularizes Freud's Totem and Taboo and Frazer's Golden Bough, delves into literature, history, ethics, psychiatry, religion. Every character, every event, is loaded with a portentous symbolism.

Read the full 1948 Atlantic Magazine review at: http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/classrev/raintree.htm

http://www.raintreecounty.com

http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/classrev/raintree.htm

http://www.collectorsworldonline.com/raintree-county.html

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

1957 Modern Screen: The Stars

What was happening in Hollywood in May, 1957? Quite a bit...Parties and marriages, babies and deaths.

Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher married in Acapulco, commanding four pages of pictures of partying. There were 22 cases of champaign and 15,000 white gladiolas flown in by Eddie.

Luella Parson's "in hollywood" covered a big party thrown for Merle Oberon's birthday.

Prince Rainier and Grace Kelley celebrated the birth of Princess Caroline by publishing her first photographs.

Bogie had died that January. "The last words he spoke were to his adored Betty--"Good-by, kid." So wrote Louella Parsons in her story about Humphrey Bogart's last days. She goes on to say, "Let me repeat, no scriptwriter could have conceived for Bogey the role he played in the last thirty days of his life."

Deborah Kerr's challenge was "can an actress be a good mother?" The article relates Kerr's considering leaving her career for her daughter's well being. Luckily, her husband had filled her loneliness so "now she's learned to give to the very little ones the same fulfillment that a gentle man had brought her when she showed her a love without fear. And she's teaching her children what she herself had never known--how to be alone, and know that you are not alone."

Kerr's then current movie was Hello, Mr. Allison.

Ingrid Bergman was notorious for having a baby before she was married. The only headline this would merit these days would be "congratulations".

Judy Spreckels shared this drawing she made when she met Elvis. It was for sale at the Elvis Presley Fan Club.

Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller were pregnant. They had married June, 1956.

"The receptionist was very surprised...Mr. Miller...wasn't grinning. Not that he looked sad, or anything...Marilyn came out. Marilyn was crying. You could see the tears streaming down her cheeks and you could see that her lips were trembling, trembling hard."
"No baby, huh?"
"Sure she'd going to have a baby."
"But she was crying!"

Marilyn had two miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy during her marriage to Arthur.

Dennis Hopper's first "complete story" told of his childhood on a farm outside of Dodge with a pig named Porcupine and Puddles the dog. His family moved to Kansas City and then to San Diego where he discovered art. He was star-struck and at age eighteen was in Giant.

"His family disapproved. All this talk about acting and poetry and painting; these things would never bring in any money. They thought, and they told him, that he was going to turn into a bum."

We really liked bad boys. First they called Hopper a rebel. Now we read about Nick Adams was "wild" before he starred in No Time For Sargents.

Back in Jersey City Adams was Nicholas Adamshock, hanging around pool rooms, hitch-hiking, chasing girls, throwing snowballs at strangers, sneaking into movies--all with his homies. They knocked off a man's hat, for crying out loud, and that's when he discovered they were juvenile delinquents. He flirted with greater danger until he auditioned for a play. Jack Palance got him the part. In 1952 he hitch-hiked to Hollywood where he was in Mr. Roberts, Picnic, and other films.

In 1968 he died of a drug overdose, but some call his death an unsolved mystery. No one knows how he obtained the drugs. His death certificate was changed three times, from homicide to suicide to undetermined.

In 1957 the current Hollywood mystery was "what happened to Jean Peters". One day she just dropped out. The long article relates friends glimpses of her here and there. Her New York Times obituary of 2000 relates she had secretly married Howard Hughes!

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Language Arts by Stephanie Kallos

Grief fills the room up of my absent child
Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,
Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form.
--William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King John (as quoted in Language Arts)

Charles Marlow is a Language Arts teacher and the divorced father of a 21-year-old autistic son, Cody. How Charlie and his wife reacted to their son's condition led to their divorce but also binds them in their roles of perpetual caregivers.

Charles has been drinking through their collection of fine wines as he opens boxes of papers and magazines in a search for their daughter Emmy's box. The process leads him to remember his Fourth Grade year when his proficiency at the Palmer Writing Method earned him his teacher's recognition and his story Flipper Boy won a prize but revealed too much about his home life. A misfit classmate with Fragile X syndrome spoke his first words in idolization of Charlie's loops. Charlie befriended the the boy and tutored him in the Palmer method.

Adult Charles has been asked to mentor a student whose project involves photographing residents of Cody's group home and writing a poem to accompany each photo. The girl reminds Charles of his daughter Emmy. He reluctantly agrees to co-mentor along with the school art teacher.

Stephanie Kallos writes with great humanity and sympathy about the human condition. We learn about Charles through flashbacks and his interactions with students and family, coming to understand his complex past and crisis of finding a future. She deals with some of the most harrowing issues a family can face, experiences that divides parents and ends marriages, and explores Charles' dysfunctional home life full of spousal anger and accusations. Kallos' portrayals feel true to life and wrenching.

I was so moved by this novel that on page 307 I cried, heartbroken for Charles. He was so alone.

Rays of light comes into Charles' life. His student's art project allows Cody a voice no one knew he had and unearths a part of Charles past to life. We come to understand Charles past and present and are given a glimpse into a possible future. His Language Arts experience comes full circle to a satisfying resolution.

I had read Broken For You by Stephanie Kallos and enjoyed it so I was excited to receive her third novel Language Arts through NetGalley. I usually read the NetGalley books in order of soonest to be published, but I skipped over to this book and am glad I did.

I received a free ebook in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Language Arts
by Stephanie Kallos
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication June 9, 2015
ISBN: 9780547939742
$27.00 hard cover

Monday, June 8, 2015

A Quilter's Paradise: 2015 CAMEO Quilt Guild Show

Here are some of the 186 quilts in the CAMEO Quilt Guild show.

Design Odyssey by Betty Carpenter; left is Starry Blue by Linda Wallace

French Braid by Susan VanEck

Tina Rink's Wedding Quilt for her son and daughter-in-law

Michigan Lighthouses by Sharon Cratsenburg, machine quilted by Barbara Lusk. Sharon made the quilt for her husband who was in the U.S. Navy. The Nautical flag border spells Michigan Lighthouses.

She included the Crisp Point Lighthouse, where my husband's grandmother spent time as a girl about 100 years ago!( see The Shipwreck Coast, Girl, and a Lamp)