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handeaux · 3 months

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When Horseshoers Convened In Cincinnati, Few Foresaw Their Looming Doom

With all the talk these days about artificial intelligence and its anticipated devastation of employment as we know it, let’s peer into some balmier times and the technological disruptions inflicted on past trades, specifically horseshoeing.

Up until about World War I, unless you traveled by railroad or electric streetcar, you needed a horse to get around, and horses needed regular horseshoeing. Especially in urban environments with cobblestone or crushed-gravel pavement, horses might need new shoes every 10 days or so.

Horseshoeing was a lucrative trade, and it was unionized. In fact, there were two horseshoeing unions, one for the journeymen and one for their bosses. The Master Horseshoers’ Protective Association met in Cincinnati for a national convention in 1898. They were very concerned about a new mode of transportation that threatened their livelihoods – the bicycle. It is impossible to exaggerate the bicycle’s explosion in popularity during 1896. Two years later, the horseshoers were still feeling the pinch and hoping bicycles were nothing but a passing trend. The Cincinnati Post [18 October 1898] reported the view of one convention delegate:

“H.E. Richards, representing the Ausable Horse-Nail Company, New York, gives it as his opinion that the bicycle is only a fad, that is dying out. He declares that in the midst of the craze the business of his company fell off. Now, he says, it is picking up. The wheel, he says, is passing, and the horse is the thing again.”

Mr. Richards was not alone in his over-optimistic prognostications. As late as 1920, when automobiles had all but monopolized the city’s streets, the Cincinnati Enquirer [6 April 1920] saw hope for the horse.

“The horse is coming back in a last struggle to hold his place against the progress of the automobile, tractor, truck and airplane. The Department of Agriculture estimates that horses on United States farms increased from 19,833,000 in 1910 to 21,109,000 on January 1, 1920. Mules increased, too, according to the estimates.”

That year, the Journeyman Horseshoes held their national conference in Cincinnati and desperation seethed through the delegates. According to one, quoted in the Post [19 July 1920] automobilists and their ilk were antagonizing The Almighty himself:

“Bernard Flatley, president, said horseshoers had made little progress until the war showed them their importance in industry. He urged more publicity for the horse. ‘Man is flying in the face of God,’ he said. ‘The horse is a creation of God and should not be relegated to the side of the road to make place for the inventions of man.’”

A person today, looking at old photographs and rare antique films might be forgiven for thinking the automobile had completely obliterated the horse by the early 1920s. Not so. At the beginning of the Great Depression, the Cincinnati Post [5 April 1932] profiled two Cincinnati businesses still dependent on horseshoes. J.D. Antill ran a livery at 1118 Clay Street in Over-the-Rhine. His stable boarded 12 horses at that time, but many of his stalls were vacant and cobwebbed. Most of his customers were peddlers. Although Antill recalled bygone days when every Sunday was busy with young men renting buggies to take their ladies for country drives, his lone remaining rig sat dusty and unused. Henry Imholt pounded out iron horseshoes at 1108 Broadway in Pendleton. When there weren’t enough horses to shoe, the Imholt smithy got by forging ice tongs – just as electric refrigerators were beginning to spell the end of the iceman’s visits.

That year, Cincinnati membership in the Journeyman Horseshoers dropped to fewer than two dozen from a peak of more than 160 card-carrying members in decades previous. The Master Horseshoers’ Protective Association had long since disbanded. Still, diehards insisted automobiles were on the way out. Charles Selzer was chief horseshoer at the French Bauer dairy. He told the Cincinnati Post [3 April 1929] that the day of reckoning approached when mankind would abandon the frivolous automobile.

“‘It will come a time,’ he explains, ‘when big business will not have so much money. They will have to save. Auto trucks cost money. So big business will go back to drays which don’t cost so much. Then it will happen, also, that the workingman will get smaller pay, and he will be glad to own a horse and rig instead of an auto. He will like it, too – you will see. There is no sport in driving a car.’”

In 1929, all the milkmen employed by French Bauer delivered their dairy products by horse-drawn cart. Charles Selzer managed the in-house smithy for the firm at Seventh and Smith streets out in the West End.

Alas, Mr. Selzer never lived to see the automobile get its comeuppance. In fact (forgive the spoiler), quite the opposite occurred. In 1956, the Cincinnati Post returned to French Bauer to talk with the last remaining horseshoer on the payroll. His name was Henry Luehrmann. He was 64 years old and he no longer shoed horses. French Bauer had abandoned horse-drawn carts in 1946 and Mr. Luehrmann was transferred to the refrigeration department. Even though he hadn’t shoed a horse in a decade, Mr. Luehrmann remained secretary of Local 12 of the Horseshoers’ Union, a group that had not met in a decade and existed only as a listing in Cincinnati’s AFL Union Directory.

When the horseshoers’ union disbanded in 1946, there were only 10 members. In 1956, Mr. Luehrmann could think of only two remaining card-carriers, John McGinnis in Maderia and N.C. Jackson in Highland Heights, Kentucky. Both still shoed actual horses. Mr. Luehrmann had long since transferred to the Milk and Ice Cream Drivers and Dairy Employees Union, which generously allowed him to keep his seniority.

“Cabinets are easier to work with than horses,” he told the Post. “They don’t kick. But horses are more interesting. As a trade, horseshoeing was one of the best. Most of us worked steady and the pay was good.”

Back in 1898, the Master Horseshoers took the trolley out to Chester Park and posed for pictures on the steps of St. Peter Cathedral. They also argued about whether their standard fees for shoeing city horses were just good business practice or a monopolistic restraint of trade. Times were good, even though the handwriting was on the wall.

#horseshoers #blacksmiths #farriers #Cincinnati trades #Cincinnati unions

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arqueete · 16 days

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Spring Awakening Broadway: Where Are They Now? (Part 2)

It's been 18 years since Spring Awakening opened on Broadway. In part 1 I looked up what the original cast members are doing today, and here in part 2 I'll be looking at all of the actors who joined the cast after the show opened.

Kyle Riabko Melchior

Went straight from the Broadway production to the first national tour. Later starred in Hair on Broadway and Close To You: Bacharach Reimagined (pictured) in the West End. He is currently composing music for children's television through a production company called Can-Land Music that he founded with his wife.

Hunter Parrish Melchior

Appeared on Broadway again in Godspell but has otherwise largely stuck to TV roles, most recently in The Other Black Girl (pictured.)

Alexandra Socha Wendla, Ensemble (u/s Wendla, Anna, Martha, Thea)

Returned to Broadway in Brighton Beach Memoirs and Head Over Heels. Is currently starring in the Broadway production of Wicked (pictured.)

Blake Bashoff Moritz

Went straight from Broadway to the first national tour. After that, he moved away from acting and now lives on a farm.

Emma Hunton Ilse

Was in Next to Normal on Broadway and the national tour, as well as the national tour of Wicked. She is currently on TV in Good Trouble (pictured.)

Drew Tyler Bell Hanschen

Continued in his longtime role on The Bold and the Beautiful (pictured) until 2010. Since then, he doesn't appear to be acting and it's not clear what he's been doing since.

Matt Doyle Hanschen, Ensemble (u/s Melchior, Hanschen, Ernst, Otto, Georg)

Later briefly played Melchior in the first national tour. Has returned to Broadway several times in shows like War Horse and The Book of Mormon, and won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a musical for his performance in Company in 2022 (pictured.) He has also released solo albums. He most recently starred in Sinatra: The Musical.

Blake Daniel Ernst

Has had a few acting roles since, most recently in the movie Dicks: The Musical.

Andrew Durand Georg (u/s Moritz)

Has appeared in several other Broadway shows including Head Over Heels and Shucked (pictured.) He is currently in Dead Outlaw off-Broadway.

Gabriel Violett Otto

Appeared as a contestant on The Voice in 2016 (pictured.)

Amanda Castanos Martha

Had a handful of appearances at theater festivals and on TV shows like Blue Bloods (pictured), but doesn't seem to be doing any acting in recent years.

Caitlin Kinnunen Thea

Returned to Broadway in The Bridges of Madison County and was nominated for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for her role in The Prom (pictured) in 2014. She recently appeared in The Magnificent Seven off-Broadway.

Emily Kinney Anna (u/s Wendla)

Appeared on stage again in the national tour of August: Osage County but since then has been doing a lot of TV, most notably on The Walking Dead (pictured.) She has also released several albums as a singer-songwriter.

Kate Burton Adult Women

She continues to have an extensive film and television career, with notable roles on shows like Grey's Anatomy and Scandal (pictured), for which she was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. She returned to Broadway in 2017 in the play Present Laughter.

Kristine Nielsen Adult Women

Has since been nominated for the Best Lead Actress in a Play Tony in 2013 for Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike and Best Featured Actress in a Play in 2019 for Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus. She most recently appeared in the TV show The Gilded Age (pictured.)

Ken Marks Adult Men

Has appeared again on Broadway in shows like Spider-man: Turn off the Dark and most recently in Take Me Out (pictured.) He is currently in Dead Outlaw off-Broadway.

Glenn Fleshler Adult Men

Has returned to Broadway in shows like Guys and Dolls and Death of a Salesman. He also has extensive credits in movies like Joker and TV shows like Billions (pictured.)

Tony Carlin (u/s Adult Men)

Returned to Broadway over a dozen times since, as well as off-Broadway in shows like The Trial of an American President (pictured.) He most recently appeared in Days of Wine and Roses.

Eryn Murman Anna, Ensemble (u/s Wendla, Ilse, Anna, Martha, Thea)

Has done some regional theater, including playing Wendla in San Jose Rep's production of Spring Awakening (pictured) before later marrying the actor playing Melchior, with whom she started the band 5j Barrow. She now also works as a massage therapist.

Jenna Ushkowitz Ensemble (u/s Anna, Martha, Thea)

Notably appeared on the TV show Glee. She returned to Broadway in Waitress (pictured) and has won two Tony Awards as a producer.

Alice Lee Ensemble (u/s Wendla, Ilse, Anna, Thea)

Notably appeared in the off-Broadway production of Heathers (pictured.) Competed in the reality singing competition Rising Star. She has had TV roles on shows like Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist and most recently did voice acting for My Adventures with Superman.

Jesse Swenson Ensemble (u/s Melchior, Hanschen, Otto, Georg)

Returned to Broadway in The Addams Family. He has now moved way from acting to become a writer and filmmaker.

Matt Shingledecker Ensemble (u/s Melchior, Hanschen, Ernst, Otto, Georg)

Went straight to the first national tour as Georg. Since then, he's appeared on Broadway again in West Side Story and on the national tours of shows like Wicked and Les Miserables (pictured.) He is currently performing in the musical The Wedding Banquet in Taiwain.

Morgan Karr Ensemble (u/s Moritz, Hanschen, Ernst, Otto, Georg)

Now a successful indie pop musician performing under the name Morgxn.

Zach Reiner-Harris Ensemble (u/s Moritz, Hanschen, Ernst, Otto, Georg)

Seems to have moved away from acting but still makes appearances as a musician.

#spring awakening

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phoenixflames12 · 23 days

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Tagged by the lovely @dragonslover98 to share the first seven songs on my on repeat playlist. I don't have Spotify, but looking at my recently played on Apple Music gives me:

There's a Storm a-Comin- from the Orginal Live Cast Recording of Standing at the Sky's Edge

Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell

Elgar's Symphony No 2 in E-flat Major

Dartmoor 1912 from War Horse

Spem in allium by Thomas Tallis sung by the Tallis Scholars

Felix's Suite from the soundtrack to Saltburn

No One is Alone- from the 'Into the Woods' 2022 Broadway Cast Recording

I will no pressure tag: @gaytobymeres, @sandfordsmostwanted, @gohoubi, @mycological-mariner and @endeavour12345- only if you want to, of course!

Thank you so much, friend!

Much love,

Phoenixflames12 xxx

#phoenixflames12 does memes #music things

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homomenhommes · 4 months

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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … December 29

Greek Lovers

570 B.C. – Polycrates, the Greek tyrant, was born on this date (d.522). By pirate raids and indiscriminate warfare, the tyrant of Samos dominated the East Aegean. He waged various wars and was, until the end of his life, victorious. His ruthlessness drove the philosopher Pythagorus from Samos, where Polycrates was generally despised. Eventually he was lured to Magnesia by one of his enemies, where he was crucified.

But even meanies can lose their hearts to the right guy, and Polycrates, tyrant though he was, was still a normal Greek. His special friend was Bathyllus, so beautiful that Polycrates dared to erect a statue in his honor in the temple of Hera, goddess of women. Polycrates may have thought it appropriate that beautiful Bathyllus have his place among women, but it was considered an act of arrogance nonetheless. Almost immediately thereafter he was crucified.

1879 – Died: Charley Parkhurst, born Charlotte Parkhurst (b.1812), also known as One-Eyed Charley or Six-Horse Charley, who was an American stagecoach driver, farmer and rancher in California. Born and reared as a girl in New England, mostly in an orphanage, Parkhurst ran away as a youth, taking the name Charley and living as a male. He started work as a stable hand and learned to handle horses, including to drive coaches drawn by multiple horses. He worked in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, traveling to Georgia for associated work.

In his late 30s, Parkhurst sailed to California following the Gold Rush in 1849; there he became a noted stagecoach driver. In 1868 he may have been the first female (though passing as a man) to vote in a presidential election in California. At his death, it was discovered that his gender assigned at birth was female.

After Parkhurst died in 1879, neighbors came to the cabin to lay out the body for burial and discovered that his body appeared to be female to them. Rheumatism and cancer of the tongue were listed as causes of death. In addition, the examining doctor established that Parkhurst had given birth at some time. A trunk in the house contained a baby's dress. "The discovery of her true gender became a local sensation." and was soon carried by national newspapers.

The fire station in Soquel, California, has a plaque reading:

"The first ballot by a woman in an American presidential election was cast on this site November 3, 1868, by Charlotte (Charlie) Parkhurst who masqueraded as a man for much of her life. She was a stagecoach driver in the mother lode country during the gold rush days and shot and killed at least one bandit. In her later years she drove a stagecoach in this area. She died in 1879. Not until then was she found to be a woman. She is buried in Watsonville at the pioneer cemetery."

1950 – Jon Polito (d.2016) was an American actor and voice artist. In a film and television career spanning 35 years, he amassed over 220 credits. Notable television roles included Detective Steve Crosetti in the first two seasons of Homicide: Life on the Street and as Phil Bartoli on the first season of Crime Story.

Polito was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is known for working with the Coen Brothers, most notably in the major supporting role of Italian gangster Johnny Caspar in Miller's Crossing. Polito won an OBIE award in 1980 for his theater performances off Broadway and for his lifetime of work in film and television he received the Maverick Spirit Event Award at Cinequest Film Festival in 2005.

When Homicide began pre-production, Polito was asked to audition, and was initially reluctant – he didn't want move to Baltimore for the series, because he had just relocated from New York to Los Angeles. The script he received featured a dialogue scene between two detectives, one Polish American and the other Irish-American. Polito decided that the part he wanted was that of the Irishman, but he was told that he could not read for it. After reading for the part of the Polish-American detective, Polito added a message on his audition tape, saying that if the producers wanted to call him back, he would only be interested if he could take the part of the Irish detective. Series co-creators Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana did call him back, and they rewrote the character as an Italian, and cast him in the role. The other character, the Polish-American detective, was also rewritten, becoming Det. Meldrick Lewis, played by African-American actor Clark Johnson.

Polito was openly gay. He married fellow actor Darryl Armbruster on October 16, 2015, fifteen years after they first met.

He died from multiple myeloma on September 1, 2016, at the City of Hope Hospital, where he was being treated. Polito was 65 years old.

Self-portrait

1960 – Sean Martin, born in Hereford, Texas (d.2020), was a Canadian cartoonist, illustrator, and graphic designer, best known for the Doc and Raider comic strip series which appeared in LGBT publications in the 1980s and 1990s.

Martin lived in New York and San Francisco before moving to Canada in 1986. He took Canadian citizenship in 1989, living in Vancouver, Toronto, and Calgary. He published the first Doc and Raider strips in a Vancouver gay publication in 1987. Although the issue featuring Doc and Raider turned out to be the final issue of the publication, the strip was quickly picked up by other LGBT publications, including the Xtra! newspapers in Canada.

The arrangement was a unique one in that Martin's fee for providing the panel was instead turned over to local charities and organizations, not necessarily LGBT ones; in its time, Doc and Raider underwrote everything from AIDS hospices in New Zealand to an arts festival in Scotland, resulting in total donations of close to a quarter million dollars (US). The characters have also been used to promote safer-sex practices and AIDS education, as well as rodeos, country dance conventions, and film festivals around the world.

Martin published two books of the comic: Doc and Raider: Caught on Tape in 1994 and Doc and Raider: Incredibly Lifelike in 1996. A third, to be presented as an eBook, is currently in the works. He has also written a manual for theatre designers, "Big Show Tiny Budget", based on his years as a scenic and costume designer, and a novella, "Triptych".

Martin retired the regular strip in 1997, although he drew two special five-page stories for the Little Sister's Defence Fund, anthologies What's Right and What's Wrong in 2002. He continued to work as an artist and graphic designer, and prior to his death explored projects to revive Doc and Raider in new formats, particularly with a more political satire slant, as well as short form animations. In addition to the CG reprise of Doc and Raider, which can be viewed at its website, http://docandraider.com, Martin also turned to illustrating such projects as Candide, Gilgamesh, and Aesop's Fables.

During his time in Calgary, Martin worked extensively with the Alberta Rockies Gay Rodeo, providing graphic design for the organization's posters and brochures. His work was honoured in 2001, with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Gay Rodeo Association. Martin's illustration work has also been celebrated: his series of images for Candide are part of the permanent Voltaire collection at the University of Wittenburg.

1966 – Jason Gould is an American actor, writer and director. Gould was born in New York City, the son of singer/actress Barbra Streisand and actor Elliott Gould, who divorced July 9, 1971. He spent his formative years around major Hollywood players in Los Angeles, California.

Gould has appeared in Say Anything... (1989) and the Streisand-directed film The Prince of Tides (1991), but has since rarely appeared in front of the camera. In 1997 he made his West End debut in the play The Twilight of the Golds at the Arts Theatre in which he played the part of David, an opera designer. In 1997 he also wrote, produced and directed the short film Inside Out, playing Aaron in the humorous story of the child of two celebrities who is outed by the tabloids. His real life father, Elliott Gould, also played his father in the short film. His real half-brother Sam Gould played the part of his brother. The short was later combined with other features for Boys Life 3 (2000).

Around 1988, at the age of 21, Gould came out to his parents about being a homosexual. Around 1991, tabloids outed Gould as being gay. In an interview with The Advocate published August 17, 1999, Barbra Streisand said

I would never wish for my son to be anything but what he is. He is bright, kind, sensitive, caring, and a very conscientious and good person. He is a very gifted actor and filmmaker. What more could a parent ask for in their child? I have been truly blessed. Most parents feel that their child is particularly special, and I am no different. I have a wonderful son. My only wish for my son, Jason, is that he continues to experience a rich life of love, happiness, joy, and fulfillment, both creatively and personally.

Nobody on this earth has the right to tell anyone that their love for another human being is morally wrong. I will never forget how it made me shudder to hear Pat Buchanan say that he stood "with George Bush against the immoral idea that gay and lesbian couples should have the same standing in law as married men and women." Who is Pat Buchanan to pronounce anyone's love invalid? How can he deny the profound love felt by one human being for another? ... Unfortunately, however, as long as people like Newt Gingrich and Pat Buchanan continue in public life, the fight to codify gay marriages will be a tough battle to win.

1971 – Wakefield Poole’s trend-setting Boys in the Sand premieres, prompting Variety to remark, “There are no more closets.” Shot on Fire Island, Poole’s slickly produced film marks a dramatic departure from the low-budget pornography previously available. Boys in the Sand had its theatrical debut on December 29, 1971, at the 55th Street Playhouse in New York City. It was the first gay porn film to include credits, to achieve crossover success, to be reviewed by Variety, and one of the earliest porn films, after 1969’s Blue Movie by Andy Warhol, to gain mainstream credibility, preceding 1972’s Deep Throat by nearly a year. It was promoted with an advertising campaign unprecedented for a pornographic feature, and was an immediate critical and commercial success. The film’s title is a parodic reference to the Mart Crowley play and film The Boys in the Band.

1993 – Dalton Harris is a Jamaican singer. In 2010, he won Digicel Rising Star, and subsequently signed with VP Records. In 2018, he won the fifteenth season of The X Factor in the United Kingdom.

Harris was born in Clarendon, Jamaica, before moving to Kingston to pursue his music career. Harris recalled living a difficult life growing up in Jamaica with a large family with 22 siblings, being poor, and living on his own since the age of 15. He also talked about being physically and mentally abused in his early life. Harris attended Kingston College, where he passed six CSEC subjects. In October 2020, Harris stated that he is pansexual*.

In 2010, Harris became the youngest winner of the Jamaican singing competition Digicel Rising Stars where he won a cash prize of $1.5 million JMD. After his win, he began releasing music in Jamaica. He then traveled across the States for five years to widen his scope. He released many tracks like "I'm Numb", "Watch Over Me" and "That Wonderful Sound" in 2015, "All I Need", "Whisper in the Wind", "Unfaithful Chronicles" and "Dem Kinda Woman" in 2016 and "Perilous Time" in 2017.

In 2018, Harris entered season 15 of The X Factor in the United Kingdom. He auditioned for the series with "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" by Elton John. He received four yeses from the four judges. Competing in the category of "Boys", he was coached by Louis Tomlinson. Owing the success and increasing popularity of the Jamaican act, the British X Factor was broadcast in Jamaica after the local Television Jamaica (TVJ) bought the rights of broadcasting the programme live in Jamaica.

He reached the final of the contest on 1 December 2018 alongside Anthony Russell and Scarlett Lee. In the final, he sang "A Song for You" from Leon Russell, and dueted "Beneath Your Beautiful" with Emeli Sande. His winner's single was "The Power of Love", performed as a duet with James Arthur, who won the ninth series of The X Factor in 2012.

*Pansexuality is sexual, romantic or emotional attraction towards people regardless of their sex or gender identity. Pansexual people may refer to themselves as gender-blind, asserting that gender and sex are not determining factors in their romantic or sexual attraction to others. Because pansexual people are open to relationships with people who do not identify as strictly men or women, it is often considered a more inclusive term than bisexual.

2012 – Same-sex marriage takes effect in Maine with a voter approval of 53%-47%. Maryland and Washington State are the other states to win marriage equality by popular vote.

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lboogie1906 · 15 days

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Perry Watkins (April 13, 1907 - August 14, 1974) was the first African American set designer on Broadway. He was a stage painter, makeup and costume artist, producer, and film art director.

Born in Providence, Rhode Island, he attended Hope High School where he and a friend hand-wrote and decorated a daily newspaper called “The Foolscape.” Awarded a scholarship to study art at the Rhode Island School of Design, he studied figure drawing and still life.

Despite having his paintings displayed at the Springfield Museum and the Providence Art Club, he struggled financially and worked as a waiter, chauffeur, insurance salesman, reporter, draftsman, and commercial illustrator. He applied to the Federal Theatre Project with a sample production and was employed.

Starting as a stagehand and becoming assistant technical director at Lafayette Theatre, he began a flurry of work, painting drops, dying costumes, and operating the lighting for Macbeth, designing sets for The Case of Philip Lawrence, Haiti, Plays of the Sea and Horse Play, as well as designing the costumes for Androcles and the Lion. He created sets for Mississippi Rainbow for the Chicago Negro Unit of the FTP and for the Los Angeles Negro Unit’s revival of Run Little Chillun!

He made a breakthrough, becoming the first Black Broadway set designer when he was commissioned for Mamba’s Daughters. He was permitted to take the drafting and art exam for admission into the Set Designer’s Union. He passed it easily and became the first African American to be admitted. He taught in the Rose McClendon Workshop Theatre and the following year designed the set for the revival of The Big White Fog at Lincoln Theatre.

In 1944 he served as the assistant technical director for Walk Hard, which was shown in Harlem and on Broadway. He co-produced Beggar’s Holiday. It was a success, showing one hundred and eight performances.

He ventured into film and television, working on art direction and design for films such as Hercules in New York, Come Back, Charleston Blue, Across 110th Street, and Gordon’s War. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

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justforbooks · 9 months

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In the late 1970s, Bo Goldman was researching a script about Melvin Dummar, the unassuming Utah factory worker, gas station owner and former “Milkman of the Month” who was named as a $156m beneficiary in a will supposedly written by Howard Hughes but later successfully contested in court. Slowly, a realisation dawned on the screenwriter: “This man is a failure just like I am.”

It seemed an unusual conclusion to reach. After all, Goldman had written the book and lyrics for a Broadway musical, First Impressions, based on Pride and Prejudice, before he was 30, and won his first best screenplay Oscar (shared with Lawrence Hauben) for adapting One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), Ken Kesey’s novel set in a psychiatric institution, by the time he was 45.

A second Oscar later came his way for Melvin and Howard (1980), his humane and warmly funny script about Dummar, lovingly directed by Jonathan Demme.

But Goldman, who has died aged 90, was haunted at the time by his inability to sell one of his earliest scripts, Shoot the Moon, or to follow up that 1959 Broadway debut, and by the years he spent in poverty and debt, struggling to provide for his wife and their six children. “I can’t tell you what it does to a man,” he said in 1982. “You feel awful. I respected my wife so much, but felt lousy about myself.”

Hollywood was impressed by Shoot the Moon, the story of a brutal marital break-up that he wrote in the early 1970s, but no one wanted to make it. The writing was strong enough to earn him an $8,000 commission from the director Miloš Forman to re-write Hauben’s script for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. One of Goldman’s first suggestions – that the iconoclastic patient McMurphy, played by Jack Nicholson, should kiss his admitting officers at the hospital – helped win him the job.

He also scripted the Bette Midler vehicle The Rose (1979), inspired by the life of Janis Joplin, but turned down offers to write Kramer vs Kramer and Ordinary People, both future best picture Oscar winners, because the terrain felt too similar to his unproduced script, which he still hoped would be filmed eventually.

It finally was. The British filmmaker Alan Parker directed Shoot the Moon in 1982, coaxing powerful work from Albert Finney and Diane Keaton as the warring couple, and touchingly natural performances from the four children cast as their daughters.

The critical response was positive. Even Pauline Kael, no fan of Parker’s, said she was “a little afraid to say how good I think [the film] is” and praised the script’s “theatrical richness.” Goldman was disappointed nevertheless by its box-office failure.

After his third Oscar nomination, for Scent of a Woman (1992), he said: “I’m always surprised when anything good happens to me.” That film starred Al Pacino as a blind, cantankerous ex-army officer who cuts loose when he is assigned a prep-school student (Chris O’Donnell) as his companion for Thanksgiving weekend.

Goldman based Pacino’s character on a combination of his father, one of his brothers and a sergeant under whom he had served. Pacino won an Oscar; on that occasion, the writer did not.

He was born Robert Spencer Goldman in New York City. It was at Princeton that he changed his name to “Bo”; the college newspaper, The Daily Princetonian, misprinted his byline, and it stuck.

His mother was Lillian Levy, a millinery model, his father, Julian Goodman, a sometime Broadway producer and the owner of a chain of more than 70 department stores, which went into receivership during the Depression shortly before Bo was born. That dramatic fall informed and even overshadowed the rest of Bo’s life, with its occasionally incongruous juxtapositions. He grew up, for instance, in a spacious, rent-controlled Park Avenue apartment yet the family was usually penniless. His father would leaf through scrapbooks from his glory days, even making annual visits to the stables in Chantilly where he kept his prize-winning race-horses.

Though this precarious economic situation was known to Bo throughout his youth, it was not until much later that he discovered his father had another estranged family, and that his parents had never married.

He was educated at the Dalton school and Phillips Exeter academy prior to Princeton. There he wrote lyrics for the college’s Triangle Show and developed an enthusiasm for writing for the stage. He was in the US army for several years, then made inroads into the television industry, starting in the CBS postroom before progressing to script editing and producing on shows such as Playhouse 90.

Though First Impressions, which starred Farley Granger, was poorly received, he devoted most of the 1960s to writing a civil war musical, Hurrah Boys, Hurrah, which was never staged. He took odds and ends of TV work, but was plagued by thoughts of his father’s ignominies, and bruised by his own. “The only thing which kept me going was my wife and the kids who never cared about my success or lack of it,” he said. “They only cared because it was causing me pain.”

Around the time Shoot the Moon was released, his wife, Mab (nee Ashforth), whom he had met at Princeton and married in 1954, and who supported the family financially through endeavours such as her fish and bread shop, Loaves and Fishes, reflected on the disparity between the bad times and the good: “People were so contemptuous of us … it’s remarkable how success has transformed us into acceptable people.”

Goldman became a sought-after script doctor, working uncredited on Forman’s Ragtime (1981), Demme’s Swing Shift, the coming-of-age comedy The Flamingo Kid (both 1984), Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy (1990) and the Arthurian adventure First Knight (1995).

Credited screenplays include Little Nikita (1988), an espionage thriller with River Phoenix and Sidney Poitier, and Meet Joe Black (1998), starring Brad Pitt as the pretty personification of death. Goldman also shared a story credit with Beatty on the period comedy-drama Rules Don’t Apply (2016). This was another Howard Hughes-related project, with Beatty playing the reclusive billionaire.

Though Goldman came close several times, his enduring dream of directing was never realised. “I think of myself as a filmmaker,” he said. “I’m a writer only because that is what they pay me to do.”

Mab died in 2017. He is survived by five of his children, Mia, Amy, Diana, Serena and Justin. A sixth child, Jesse, died in 1981.

🔔 Bo (Robert Spencer) Goldman, screenwriter, born 10 September 1932; died 25 July 2023

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

#JUST FOR BOOKS #Bo Goldman #in memoriam

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sunnyrealist · 6 months

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What fandoms other than Hogwarts Legacy and Harry Potter are you part of?

I’m just curious to see if there is any or even a lot of overlap. Comment and share other books, movies, shows, plays, games, ships, etc. that you enjoy! I might eventually make a poll about this, but I want to see what gets commented the most before I do.

I’ll go first! 🙋‍♀️

Star Wars - I used to be obsessed before The Rise of Skywalker. After a long period of depression resulting from that particular film, I don’t engage much anymore. But I love supporting all the Reylo fanfics getting published! You’d be amazed by the amount of popular romance novels that are secretly Reylo. Ships: Reylo, Han x Leia, Jyn Erso x Cassian Andor.

The Hunger Games - I cannot wait for TBOSAS. Ship: Katniss x Peeta.

Pride and Prejudice - Yes, it’s me, Depression Barbie! I love this story in all its forms. 😂 Ships: Elizabeth x Mr. Darcy, Jane x Mr. Bingley.

Sailor Moon - My childhood gateway into anime! Ships: Usagi x Mamoru, Usagi x Seiya, Haruka x Michiru

Phantom of the Opera - I saw this on Broadway when I was 15, and let’s just say it made a quite lasting impression. Ship: Christine x Raoul

Studio Ghibli films - I crossed off a bucket list item this past summer and saw Joe Hisaishi in concert. It was an AMAZING experience. Ships: Ashitaka x San, Chihiro x Haku

Disney/Pixar - favorites are Beauty and the Beast, Up, and Coco. I have been to Disney World many times but stopped bc I don’t like how much the company is nickle and diming guests. The value just isn’t there anymore. My husband I were actually supposed to go to Tokyo Disney in April 2020. Needless to say, that, uh, didn’t work out. 😑

I’m sure there are some I am forgetting!

And these are some things I really enjoy as well but wouldn’t say I am obsessed with…

Video games: Persona 5, Animal Crossing, Horizon: Zero Dawn

Anime: My Hero Academia, Spy x Family, Erased, Haikyuu!!, Your Lie in April, My Happy Marriage, Cardcaptor Sakura

Books/Scripts: Little Women, Dracula, Romeo and Juliet, Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, and a LOT more

Movies: Bridget Jones’s Diary, You’ve Got Mail, Titanic, live action Beauty and the Beast, Sleepless in Seattle, 13 Going on 30, Bridesmaids, War Horse

Shows: Outlander, Downton Abbey, Abbott Elementary, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Never Have I Ever

I look forward to hearing what else everyone is into!!!

#hogwarts legacy #hogwarts legacy fandom #fandom #fandom overlaps

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scotianostra · 26 days

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Jack Buchanan, the film actor, producer and singer, was born this day in 1890.

Our own Scottish "Fred Astaire" Jack's films include, Monte Carlo, The Band Wagon and Yes, Mr.Brown. Check out the video with the aforementioned Astaire.

Walter John Buchanan or Jack as he was called was born in Helensburgh the family home being Garthland in West Argyle Street, just along the road from his childhood, and later lifelong friend John Logie Baird.

To his bitter regret he was deemed unfit for military service in World War I.

Made his stage debut at the Apollo Theatre in Glasgow in 1912 and, by the 1920s, had become Britain's leading musical comedy star. He also worked occasionally as a producer from 1922. He was famous for "the seemingly lazy but most accomplished grace with which he sang, danced, flirted and joked his way through musical shows.... The tall figure, the elegant gestures, the friendly drawling voice, the general air of having a good time."

Turning down a chance to relocate permanently to Hollywood he stated they could make films here every bit as good as in the U.S, and should be doing so.

In December 1930, he opened, with his business partner Walter Gibbons, the Leicester Square Theatre. This venue was bombed out during the war and Buchanan lost a sizeable amount of money as a result. However, he went on to manage the Garrick Theatre in 1946.

Buchanan was a frequent broadcaster on British radio, especially during the Second World War. Programmes included The Jack Buchanan Show and, in 1955, the hugely popular eight-part series Man About Town. He made the transition to TV and was part of the very first outside broadcast in the British Isles, conducted of course, by his friend John Logie Baird. Television appearances in the USA included Max Liebman's Spotlight in 1954 and long running Ed Sullivan Show.

Buchanan was noted for his portrayals of the quintessential English gentleman, despite being a Scot, and was known for his financial generosity to less prosperous actors and chorus performers. He loved National Hunt horse racing and was known to , cancel the day's performance of his current musical and charter whole excursion train to the racecourse and back, supplying meals for the entire cast and crew of his show, in addition to giving them £5 each for a "flutter" on the horse of their choice.

In 1956, he returned to Glasgow to open the studios for Scottish Television at the Theatre Royal. It was to be his last public performance.

He died from spinal cancer in London in October 1957. His ashes were scattered from the decks of a Cunard Liner in recognition of his 50+ transatlantic sailings he took while alternating shows on London's West End and Broadway.

#scotland #scottish #history #folm star #cinema #actor #theatre #dancer

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bread--quest · 10 months

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more details about them are under the cut in case one of them sounds familiar and you want to doublecheck. if you know what the 8th one is please tell me

mr. revere and i: book narrated from the pov of paul revere's horse. she was formerly a british horse but through some amount of shenanigans was given to paul revere instead. she had an entire arc about unlearning her loyalty to england and choosing to side with the americans that was extremely compelling to young me

all-of-a-kind family: jewish sisters on the lower east side in turn of the century new york. i read so many books with that premise but these were my favorites. uhh there were 5 of them, oldest was ella and then i think hattie and then sarah, charlotte, and gertie. it was a series and later there was a little brother who had to get his name changed because he fell down a manhole (long story). they went to the library and coney island and ate soup and did jewish holidays. probably at least 15% responsible for my fixation on nyc. they were everything to me.

the year of the dog: book about an asian-american girl growing up. her name is pacy and she likes to draw. has a lot of conflicted feelings about being american vs. being part of her family's culture which i related a lot to for reasons that i'm sure you can guess

cobble street cousins: 3 cousins growing up on a street?? actually it was two sisters (lily and rosie) and their cousin tess. they had a cool aunt who was dating a botanist. tess was a broadway nerd. they had a cool attic hideaway. the books were excruciatingly cozy i love them

project mulberry: ANOTHER one about asian-american girls feeling conflicted about culture are you noticing a theme here. uhh a girl and her friend who collects state quarters do a science fair project raising silkworms and then trying to embroider something with them. they get help from a guy who has a mulberry tree and is black and her mom has to confront her inner racism. at one point the author talks to the main character in like the footnotes for some reason

the pushcart war: LOVE THIS ONE SO SO MUCH BTW EVERYONE SHOULD READ IT. uhh its new york in Very Slightly The Future. (it was like 1940s when this was written but the date gets changed with every reprint.) everything is the same but traffic is slightly worse. its supposed to read like an account of an actual historical event. pushcart peddlers get fed up with being literally pushed around by truck drivers and get organized. using pea shooters they make the trucks get flat tires so that everyone can see that they're the main problem of traffic. does a surprisingly good job going into all the ways seemingly small political action can have effects (newspaper articles, local government elections, other unions being affected, even trade with other nations). not exactly a union novel but basically a union novel (to this day i still think of a certain part of it whenever someone brings up union dues). basically radicalized kid me if we're being honest.

the fairy rebel: well it was either that or the rebel fairy can't remember. really weird one honestly. okay so a woman named jan hurts her leg and can't dance and also can't have kids and is like clinically depressed about it. weird beginning to a kids book but it gets weirder. a fairy shows up and makes friends with her and in exchange for jan teaching the fairy what jeans are the fairy makes a magic baby for jan. the baby has a streak of magic blue hair. there are also magic rose presents. the fairy queen is evil and has evil wasps and gives the kid an evil necklace and does some really fucked up stuff like nearly crush the kid under toys. it's okay eventually though i think

haunted doll one: okay so i read this at a campground once and it's probably the most genuinely obscure one on here but. a girl finds a doll and like. touches it? or picks it up or something? and somehow the doll transports her back in time to like a wagon chain exploring the west or whatever. and i think the doll is there in prairie times too. can't remember if the modern girl like possesses the original owner of the doll on the wagon chain or if she just gets prairie isekai'd but i think it's like a recurring event. also at some point someone gets bit by a snake and maybe dies. i don't remember how it ends but the general vibes of the thing terrified kid me So Much that it's haunted me ever since. if you remember this book please tell me

#wow look something original!!#polls #just 4 fun :]#and maybe bc a different post made me think about the haunted doll book again

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adumpofdumbstuff · 9 months

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Hello there welcome to my blog

FIRST AND FOREMOST THE ICON WAS MADE ON HUNBLOOM’S CHARACTER CREATOR ON PICREW

I’m Ality, ya’ll can just call me Al or Dump idc haha~ My pronouns are she/her and they/them, I do not care which set you use or if you use both. I’m genderqueer and bisexual and I have ADHD, autism, anxiety, depression and PTSD. I’m a Gryffindor (I do not support JK Rowling at all, frickin TERF), I’m Taurus (May 15) and ESTJ. I’m based in East Coast USA. Sometimes I travel around but I don’t say where I’m going

My favorite colors are red, dark blue, silver, mint and lime green and black. Fav animals are cats (I have two cats), wolves, foxes, pandas sometimes, horses/ponies and dragons and unicorns even though they aren’t real (or are they?)

My fandoms are Star Trek (mostly TNG), Marvel Cinematic Universe (mostly pre-Endgame), Lord of the Rings, Star Wars (mostly prequels and OG trilogy), Harry Potter, My Little Pony, Mission Impossible, Warrior Cats, various Disney movies and shows and various Broadway/Off-Broadway musicals!!!

I’m also into The Amazing Devil and Ghost and they might just be the two best bands I’ve heard in my short life. Also I have a ridiculous crush on Terzo so

My main ships are Qcard (Picard/Q), Daforge (Data/Geordi), Spirk (Kirk/Spock), Stucky (Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes) and Benthan (Ethan Hunt/Benji Dunn)

I’m active on AO3 (same username) over there I’m writing a Qcard fic called Unraveled go check it out!!

I’m in a band!!! It’s called Poisoned Lipgloss (@Poisoned-Lipgloss on YT) and I write songs based on Qcard!!!

My main OC is a blonde Q named Qira Quiggles, I also have a few other Trek OCs (Captain Malorie Mission + Tarrank of Rexia III)

This blog is SFW, I’d personally rate the things I post PG-13 though in rare cases I do sometimes curse and I reblog things that contain curses sometimes… also my Terzo thirst occasionally gets out of hand. I am however tolerant of minors. Minors however should know that not all of the posts I like or comment on are suitable for children!! The same does not go for all of my mutuals however

DNI: TERFs, homophobes/transphobes, racists, anti-Semitics, pedos/MAPs, zoophiles, literally if you are discriminatory towards anyone don’t talk to me or do anything, EXTREMELY NSFW BLOGS (porn videos, porn art, porn imagery of any kind, people who use Tumblr Live to cam)

if you look like a bot I block you

if you flirt with me I block you

If you insult me in a serious manner I block you

if you try to get personal information out of me I block you

That’s all I can think of haha

live long and prosper 🖖🏻

#bio post

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