Doses of History

Geraldine Page as the famed actress Alexandra Del Lago in Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth Recently I was reading excerpts from the book Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh  by John Lahr, and I stumbled across some passages detailing actress Geraldine Page's involvement with one of Tennessee's most famous plays: Sweet Bird of Youth . As an avid fan of Tennessee Williams, Sweet Bird of Youth  AND Geraldine Page, I thought I'd dedicate a post to it. Geraldine Page, lovingly nicknamed Gerry by those who knew her, was no stranger to Tennessee Williams before her involvement in Sweet Bird . In 1952 she had starred in a revival of Williams' play Summer and Smoke , playing the lead role of Alma Winemiller so wonderfully, her performance was labelled legendary, and she reprised it again for a radio adaptation and the film version, which earned her an Academy Award nomination. It was with her brilliant performance as Alma in mind that Elia Kazan, d...

A portrait depicting the Roman Emperor Nero looking over the corpse of his mother, Agrippina The Younger. I've always found stories about the Ancient Roman Empire to be fascinating. The people, the places, the events, etc. almost read off like a modern day soap opera or television show. It's hard to believe some of these things really happened (some of them actually didn't , but were rather the product of the ancient writer's very creative imaginations. For example: Caligula appointing a horse to consulship? Yeah, that didn't happen) and terrifying to think about actually living through them. The story about the Emperor Nero and his mother, Agrippina, is one of my favorites, so much so I actually wrote a play about it. Nero and Agrippina have one of the most interesting, complex and twisted mother/son relationships not just in Rome but in history. Their success in the empire were so intertwined with one another, that it was only natural that at some point o...

Stanley Clifford Weyman (far right) with the Princess Fatima of Afghanistan and her three adult sons during a visit to Washington DC, circa 1921. In its May 7, 1951 issue, LIFE Magazine featured a brief article about the unmasking of a notorious imposter. At the top of the article was a picture displaying the many, many different hats found in the man's apartment: from tops hats, bowler hats and fedora , to a military cap, a panama and a boater. Suffice to say, both literally and metaphorically, Stanley Clifford Weyman wore many, many different hats in his lifetime. LIFE Magazine article, May 7th 1951.  The hats and shoes found in Weyman's apartment during the FBI's draft arrest, circa 1951.  An ambassador, a doctor, a lawyer, a naval officer, a Serbian diplomat and a smooth-talking reporter at the United Nations. During his seventy years of life, Stanley Clifford Weyman had posed as all of these things, often successfully for long periods of time. In fact, ...

660 Fifth Avenue, the "Petit Chateau," in 1925.  Completed in 1882, the mansion was built for William Kissam Vanderbilt, grandson of the famed millionaire Cornelius Vanderbilt Sr., "The Commodore," who founded the Vanderbilt family fortune, and his wife Alva. With the intention of using the home to signal her and her family's arrival into New York society, she collaborated with architect Richard Morris Hunt to design a French Renaissance-style townhouse known as the Petit Chateau . Alva Smith Vanderbilt (1853-1933) The home was revolutionary in that, as the time, it was a blotch of bright limestone in comparison to the drab, dingy brownstones surrounding it, including the ornate, enormous triplex across the street occupied by Vanderbilt's father and sisters, and the town house occupied by Mrs. Caroline Astor, the doyenne of New York society, who had refused to acknowledge the Vanderbilt family by calling on them. In response, Alva famously decide...

Joan Crawford wielding a mop across the sleek floor of the kitchen in her New York apartment. Circa 1959.  I'm just going to come out of the gate and say it: I don't like the movie  Mommie Dearest,  the movie that has, perhaps, become as iconic in pop culture as the woman it's about. Sure, it's entertaining - there's  definitely  no doubting that - and showcases some excellent acting on Faye Dunaway's part, but it also does an  immense  disservice to Joan Crawford. For the three people who don't know what the movie's about,  Mommie Dearest  tells the story of Joan Crawford beginning with the adoption of her first child, Christina. Originally a book written by Christina herself, and  then  turned into the movie that is so well-known, it alleges that Joan was an abusive, manipulative and self-centered mother, capable of loving no one except for herself, who deprived her children of affection, treated them like filth and suff...

Grace Kelly with her Oscar for Best Actress at the 27th Academy Award in 1955.  She won for her role in  The Country Girl  and  had competed for the award with  Judy Garland, who was up for  A Star Is Born .   Welcome to  Doses of History ! Here you will find a blog about history! Posting at least weekly, though likely more often than that, stories and pictures of history that I happen to find interesting. Nothing is off limits: from the Ancient Romans, to the Golden Age of Hollywood, to even the history that is happening right now! From legendary playwrights to Gilded Age robber barons; iconic feuds, to mysterious crimes, to sinking ships. Anything and everything in history that fascinates me will be represented here. "Random Stories of History That I Find Interesting And Want To Share With The World" is a much more appropriate title for this blog, though the URL was already taken. A portrait depicting the Roman Emperor Nero looking ...