In Memoriam, James Earl Jones.

One of the most monumental actors of the second half of the 20th Century, and one of the most memorable voices of all times, James Earl Jones died at age 93 yesterday.

A lot has been written about Jones over the past day, and so we won't go back into most of it.  Born to actor Robert Earl Jones, whom he closely resembled in appearance and voice, and Ruth, he mostly grew up outside of the presence of his father who left the family shortly after he was born.  He mostly grew up on the farm of his maternal grandparents in Michigan.  After high school he started off towards a career in medicine but realized it wasn't for him and switched to drama, graduating from the University of Michigan in 1955.  He participated in ROTC while a university student and had expected to deploy to the Korean War, but it ended shortly after he graduated.  He attended Ranger school, something very difficult to graduate from and frankly making him an unusually large graduate of a program which tends to favor smaller men.  While in the Army, he converted to Catholicism.

His first film appearance was in Dr. Strangelove in 1964.  His last was in 2021 in Coming 2 America.  He had various monumental roles in between, including famously being the voice of Darth Vader and Terrence Mann in Field of Dreams.

Saturday, January 5, 1924. Ironic?

Sounding like a story line out of an Alanis Morissette song, Eleftherios Venizelos, a Greek hero, was elected as the Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament by his colleagues only to go on and have a heart attack that day during the parliamentary session.  He'd serve in the position for only six days, but would live until 1936.

Walter P. Chrysler introduced his first car, the Chrysler Six Model B-70.

Celia Cooney, age 19, commenced her criminal career with the robbery of the Thomas Ralston Grocery store in Brooklyn.  Her husband, Ed Cooney, drove the getaway car.

Their criminal career ended in April when they were caught.  Ed Cooney lost an arm due to an injury while in prison and recovered $12,000 against the State of New York in 1931 as a result.  The same year they were released.  He died in 1936 of tuberculosis, and she remarried in 1943. She passed away in 1992.

Thursday, November 30, 1922. Thanksgiving Day turkeys and speeches, Ominous rallies in Germany, Living by the sword in Ireland, Strange Imperial Chinese weddings.

Well, at least I didn't miss this one.

This day was Thanksgiving Day in 1922.

Unlike the entry for 1942, I can't give any personal recollections for my parents, or speculations on what they did, as they weren't born yet.

President Harding had earlier made a proclamation in advance of and in recognition of the day.

THANKSGIVING - 1922 BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - A PROCLAMATION 

In the beginnings of our country the custom was established by the devout fathers of observing annually a day of Thanksgiving for the bounties and protection which Divine Providence had extended throughout the year. It has come to be perhaps the most characteristic of our national observances, and as the season approaches for its annual recurrence, it is fitting formally to direct attention to this ancient institution of our people and to call upon them again to unite in its appropriate celebration. 

The year which now approaches its end has been marked, in the experience of our nation, by a complexity of trials and of triumphs, of difficulties and of achievements, which we must regard as our inevitable portion in such an epoch as that through which all mankind is moving. As we survey the experience of the passing twelve-month we shall find that our estate presents very much to justify a nationwide and most sincere testimony of gratitude for the bounty which has been bestowed upon us. Though we have lived in the shadow of the hard consequences of great conflict, our country has been at peace and has been able to contribute toward the maintenance and perpetuation of peace in the world. We have seen the race of mankind make gratifying progress on the way to permanent peace, toward order and restored confidence in its high destiny. For the Divine guidance which has enabled us, in growing fraternity with other peoples, to attain so much of progress; for the bounteous yield which has come to us from the resources of our soil and our industry, we owe our tribute of gratitude, and with it our acknowledgment of the duty and obligation to our own people and to the unfortunate, the suffering, the distracted of other lands. Let us in all humility acknowledge how great is our debt to the Providence which has generously dealt with us, and give devout assurance of unselfish purpose to play a helpful and ennobling part in human advancement. It is much to be desired that in rendering homage for the blessings which have come to us, we should earnestly testify our continued and increasing aim to make our own great fortune a means of helping and serving, as best we can, the cause of all humanity. Now, therefore, I, Warren G. Harding, President of the United States of America, do designate Thursday, the thirtieth day of November, as a day of Thanksgiving, supplication and devotion. I recommend that the people gather at their family altars and in their houses of worship to render thanks to God for the bounties they have enjoyed and to petition that these may be continued in the year before us. 

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

Done at the City of Washington this second day of November, in the year of our Lord, one thousand nine hundred and twenty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and forty-seventh.

Liam Lynch, the Chief of Staff for the Irish Republican Army, issued orders to the IRA authorizing the assassination of Irish Free State officials in retaliation for the execution of those caught with handguns contrary to an Irish emergency law earlier in the week. The order further provided: 

All members of the Provisional 'Parliament' who were present and voted for the Murder Bill will be shot at sight. Houses of members... who are known to support Murder Bill will be destroyed. Free State army officers who approve of Murder Bill will be shot at sight; also all ex-British army officers and men who joined the Free State army since 6 December 1921.

Lynch was shot by Free State troops himself on December 6, 1923.

On the same day, oddly enough, the British announced the withdrawal of its remaining troops from Ireland, starting on December 12 and to be completed by January 5.  The UK also closed its post offices in China, something that had been operating for fifty years.

A riot over rationing in Mexico resulted in the deaths of seventeen people in clashes with police in Mexico City.

Aisin-Gioro Puyi (溥儀) age 17, the former Emperor of China, and future Emperor of collaborationist Manchucko, married Gobulo Wanrong (郭布羅·婉容), age 16, in an elaborate ceremony in the Forbidden City.

Wanrong.

In spite of the termination of the monarchy, some of its traditions were still strong, and Puyi had been ordered to marry by the Dowager Empress.  Wanrong was chosen from a collection of photographs he was given and was in fact his second choice after being informed that his first choice was suitable only to be a concubine.  A marriage to the first choice, Erdet Wenxiu 額爾德特·文繡, was performed later that night in an example of hopeless oddity.

Wenxiu.

The Chinese royal family was quite frankly extraordinarily weird in many ways by this time, and its maintenance after its fall preserved its oddities.  The marriages may not have been consummated, but if they were they were certainly not happy in numerous ways.  Puyi himself noted that they were strained as the two women were effectively slaves, rather than real spouses.  There is some fairly serious speculation that Puyi was homosexual, in spite of having at least one other concubine.

Wanrong smoking a cigarette in the 1930s.

Wanrong lived a miserable life in spite of being the claimant to the title of Empress.  As Empress of Manchuko she entered into affairs and became pregnant by a court chauffeur.  The baby was murdered after birth.  She would have divorced Puyi, but the Japanese precluded it. She was taken prisoner towards the end of the Second World War by the Red Chinese. She died in their captivity at age 39 in June, 1945.

Not too surprisingly, Wenxiu was also unhappy in her role as a second class wife and had a troubled relationship with Wanrong and Piyu.  She divorced him in 1931 and latter married Major Liu Zhendong in 1947. He later became a car dealership and then the two of them lived in poverty following the Red Chinese victory in the Chinese Civil War. She died in 1953.

Yuling.

As if this isn't odd enough, and in spite of the questions this raises, Puyi would take two more consorts over time, Tatara Yuling 他他拉·玉齡 and Li Yuqin.  Puyi grew to be very fond of Yuling, who died undergoing medical treatment in 1942 at age 22. There are some suspicions regarding her death as her physician was Japanese and she was known to harbor negative thoughts about the Japanese.  Puyi kept a picture of her with him until his death.  Yuling was half Korean.

Yuquin married Puyi in 1943 and was with Empress Wanrong when she attempted to flee at teh endo fthe Second World War.  She was released from capitivy in 1946 and became a textile factory employee and a library employee.  She sought a divorce from Puyi in 1955 but oddly was ordered to reconcile with him by the Red Chinese government.  They none the less divorced in 1958 and she latter married technician Huang Yugeng (黃毓庚). She died in 2001 in Changchun.

Puyi lived until 1967, dying in Red China. The Soviets saved his life by refusing to extradite him to the Republic of China, which viewed him as a traitor.

50,000 gathered to hear Hitler speak in Munich.

Monday, June 22, 1942. Laval wishes for a German victory.

Pierre Laval, the Prime Minister of (Vichy) France, stated in a radio address; 

I wish for a German victory, because, without it, Bolshevism tomorrow would settle everywhere.

He was in his third period of being the Prime Minister, with the second and third both being during the Vichy period.

The statement came as a shock to many of his countrymen, who assumed that Vichy France was playing a waiting game until an Allied liberation would come.  Laval, however, had come to heavily sympathize with the Nazis.

Laval had been Prime Minister in 1931-32. He originally had been a pacifist Socialist politician and a lawyer who championed working men, but by the 1940s he'd migrated towards fascism.  He was executed following a trial after the war.

Sarah Sundin reports the following for today:

Today in World War II History—June 22, 1942: Germans take Bardia, Libya. US Flag Code becomes public law, regarding the Pledge of Allegiance and treatment of the flag.

Movies In History: The Maltese Falcon

The other day, I ran this really long item on the 80 years ago theme:

Lex Anteinternet: Friday October 3, 1941. The Maltese Falcon: 

Friday October 3, 1941. The Maltese Falcon

Humphrey Bogart appeared as Sam Spade in the classic, The Maltese Falcon, which was released on this day in 1941.

Today in World War II History—October 3, 1941

In spite of the movie poster, I don't recall a lot of "blazing automatics" in the film, but it is a great film.

Not generally recognized today, the film is a remake of a film by the same name, from a decade prior.  The two films are actually reportedly very close in plot, with both very closely following the Dashiell Hammett book, but the 31 variant was a pre Production Code film and contained elements that were omitted from the 41 film, including some fairly open references to homosexuality and hints at nudity. This is interesting for a variety of reasons, including that while the movies track each other in all other respects, the 1941 version which omits this material is the one that is remembered, suggesting that the degree to which material is really necessary in movies is overstated.

The film was directed by John Huston, a great director and legendary Hollywood figures, and Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, both of whom had appeared in the recently released Casablanca, which some also regard as a film noir, appeared again with Bogart in this film.  Indeed, it's a surprise to me that The Maltese Falcon was released after Casablanca, as it has the feel of an older film. 

The 31 film came just a year after the novel was released.  The 41 film overshadows the novel and the 31 film, which is a credit to it.  Both film variants reported follow the dialog of the book very closely which is of note as the dialog in this film is so distinct that it's come to define film noir in many people's minds, even though many film noir feature nothing of the sort.  Having said that, they all have a certain gritty feel to them.  At any rate, the film's dialog is so well known that both serious noir efforts such as Pat Novak for Hire, the radio drama, and parodies, such as Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid and Calvin & Hobbes detective base their dialog on it.

The Maltese Falcon famously concludes with the revelation that the falcon figurine is a fraud , with Spade then indentifying that "that's the stuff dreams are made of", one of the most famous movie lines of all time.

After that, I thought, should I add this to the "Movies In History" page?

Well, there's good reasons not to.  This is a movie made in 1941, it's not a movie looking back on 1941. When this film was made people were going to the movies, so they could have a couple of hours not to think about whether the US was going to enter the global catechism, whether Moscow was going to fall to the Germans, and whether they were going to be drafted.  

Still, we wrote quite a bit about it, and this is a really influential movie, so perhaps we ought to spend a little time looking at it.

The central plot here, and I'm going to really unfairly reduce it, is that everyone is looking for the jewel encrusted Maltese Falcon, a remnant of the Knights of Malta, which has been lost to the world but which now is nearly found, and which criminal elements are closing in on.  People are getting murdered. Femme fatales are really being fatal, and creepy criminals are lurking everywhere.  Standing against them and for the forces of justice are Sam Spade, super private eye, whose partner has just been gunned down in a murder made to look like a suicide.

Yikes, what a plot.

It's a very good movie.  Does it reflect its time.

Well, no, but it does act as sort of an interesting mirror in a way.

Now, what we can't take from that is that this is somehow a realistic image of what private detectives did in the 1930s and 40s. . . or ever.   Probably the portrayal of the Volkswagen driving PI in The Big Lebowski is more representative of that.  And while I have no doubt that the hard-boiled image portrayed by Bogart has been affected by PI's from time to time, it probably doesn't accurately reflect the profession either, other than that it probably can be a dicey way to make a living.  So we can toss that out for the most part.

But in terms of male clothing, it probably is reflective to a degree of the style of the time.  The suits are cheap and plain, which is a not inaccurate portrayal of day to day life in the 30s and 40s for men.  Bogart wears a fedora, but he preferred Borsolino's, which were a very expensive Italian fedora.  He usually wore his own hat in films as he preferred that brand.  He wears a trench coat in the movie, which became a movie prop, but at the time this was made that was an intentional reference to service in World War One, which gave us that coat in its original and best form. The firearms are mostly conventional and correct for the period, although his partner is murdered with a Webley Fosbery Automatic Revolver, which would be weird for any era. This is pointed out by Spade in the film, which shows I suppose about how acutely aware he is of every detail of a crime.

As for the women, Mary Astor is ridiculously well-dressed for the era, something that was common for movies of this era.  Films tended to dress leading ladies glamorously, not matter what.

So, not a documentary by any means, but some interesting reflections of the era in which it was made.  Part of that reflection, as we've noted, comes filtered through the Hayes Production Code, which was now in effect.  In spite of that, the 1941 version of the film is remembered and the 1931 version, which was more salacious, is not.  Anyway you look at it, Sam Spade is a guys' guy, with no doubts about his masculinity, and while the central female figure is an evil self acting woman, she's pretty clearly a woman, or maybe a gal, or a dame.

Friday October 3, 1941. The Maltese Falcon

Humphrey Bogart appeared as Sam Spade in the classic, The Maltese Falcon, which was released on this day in 1941.

Today in World War II History—October 3, 1941

In spite of the movie poster, I don't recall a lot of "blazing automatics" in the film, but it is a great film.

Not generally recognized today, the film is a remake of a film by the same name, from a decade prior.  The two films are actually reportedly very close in plot, with both very closely following the Dashiell Hammett book, but the 31 variant was a pre Production Code film and contained elements that were omitted from the 41 film, including some fairly open references to homosexuality and hints at nudity. This is interesting for a variety of reasons, including that while the movies track each other in all other respects, the 1941 version which omits this material is the one that is remembered, suggesting that the degree to which material is really necessary in movies is overstated.

The film was directed by John Huston, a great director and legendary Hollywood figures, and Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, both of whom had appeared in the recently released Casablanca, which some also regard as a film noir, appeared again with Bogart in this film.  Indeed, it's a surprise to me that The Maltese Falcon was released after Casablanca, as it has the feel of an older film. 

The 31 film came just a year after the novel was released.  The 41 film overshadows the novel and the 31 film, which is a credit to it.  Both film variants reported follow the dialog of the book very closely which is of note as the dialog in this film is so distinct that it's come to define film noir in many people's minds, even though many film noir feature nothing of the sort.  Having said that, they all have a certain gritty feel to them.  At any rate, the film's dialog is so well known that both serious noir efforts such as Pat Novak for Hire, the radio drama, and parodies, such as Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid and Calvin & Hobbes detective base their dialog on it.

The Maltese Falcon famously concludes with the revelation that the falcon figurine is a fraud , with Spade then indentifying that "that's the stuff dreams are made of", one of the most famous movie lines of all time.

On the same day Adolph Hitler delivered a public speech in Berlin's Sportspalast stating that the Soviet Union was almost defeated and that Germany could defeat any enemy, no matter how much they spent trying to take Germany on, a reference to American lend lease.

Wednesday September 16, 1931. A consumate liar.

On this day in 1931, the Texas Senate passed a resolution calling Louisiana Governor Huey Long a "consummate liar".

Long probably wasn't bothered by the declaration.

If nothing else, I guess it shows that political wackiness is nothing new.

On the same day, three gunmen members of the Purple Gang were killed in Detroit in the Collingwood Manor Massacre.

Wednesday July 20, 1921. Attacking the Ostfriesland.

The Army Air Corps sank the Ostfriesland, the largest German vessel to be subject to the Air Corp's aerial bombing experiment.

It was also the last vessel to be sunk.

The SMS Ostfriesland was a 1908 vintage German battleship and its use as demonstration proved to be a bit more accurate than had been planned for.  The effort was watched by the Secretaries of War and the Navy and Gen. John J. Pershing and only 13 of the 52 bombs launched from Army Air Corps airplanes struck her, a not atypical ratio.  This was, of course, before dive bombing and torpedo runs became the areal norm for attacking surface vessels.

Worse yet, only four of the bombs detonated.

A second run, using two 2,000 lbs bombs, occurred the following day, which did finally sink the former German dreadnought.

While the experiment confirmed what had already been proven, that aircraft could sink any surface ship, it also showed that some ships weren't easy to sink and that conventional bombing, such as engaged in by the Air Corps, had its limitations  In the following years before World War Two the Navy would take this to heart and develop specialized aircraft and weapons for attacking both surface ships and submarines.  The Air Corps, however, continued to take the view that bombers were effective against surface ships, which would prove to be in error in World War Two.

Parliament approved Prime Minister David Lloyd George's peace proposal to the Irish Republicans. The authorization envisioned an offer which granted Ireland complete domestic government, Dominion status, but which reserved defense and foreign relations to the United Kingdom.

If this seems rather limited, it was actually the status that other British Dominions, such as Canada and Australia, had at the time.  It was not until the Statute of Wesminster of 1931 that the Dominions obtained control of their own foreign relations, including the ability to declare war.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: St. David's Catholic Church, Broadus Montana

Churches of the West: St. David's Catholic Church, Broadus Montana:

St. David's Catholic Church, Broadus Montana

These are photos of St. David's Catholic Church in Broadus Montana. The Prairie Gothic style church was built in 1931 and is a mission church of Sacred Heart Church in Miles City.

February 13, 1920. Leagues Founded. Leagues Joined. Leagues Not Joined.

On this day in 1920, the National Negro Leagues were founded and professional black baseball was launched.  Black baseball teams already existed at the time, but the NNL was the first association of them to last for more than a year, and hence some stability was brought to the African American leagues in an era in which segregation kept players out of major league baseball otherwise.  The effort was lead by Rube Foster, owner and coach of the Chicago American Giants.

Rube Foster

Foster would serve as president of the league but suffered from a near fatal asphyxiation from a gas lead in 1925 from which he never recovered.  He became increasingly erratic thereafter and died in 1930, after which the league, suffering from the effects of the Great Depression, disbanded.  A  new one would be formed several years later.

On the same day Switzerland was admitted as a neutral member of the League of Nations.  And in the US Robert Lansing, Wilson's Secretary of State, was effectively terminated by Woodrow Wilson.

Robert Lansing

Lansing had fallen increasingly out of favor with President Wilson since the end of World War One.  Lansing did not regard the League of Nations as being vital to U.S. interests, in contrast to President Wilson.  And he called the cabinet together several times for consultations during Wilson's absence, and further urged the Vice President to assume the duties of the President during his illness, which Wilson regarded as disloyal.