Latest blog posts by historymavens

Bourne In New York Tour

26 10 2012 18:30:45 +0000

For more information about a tour of Bourne's NYC please call Jeff Sado # 212 772-6598. Tours start at the Dakota and includes St. John The Devine, The Explorer's Club, NY Yacht Club, Bryant Park, the Singer Tower and ends at Trinity Church, estimated 5 hours

What the 2012 Presidential Election Means...

26 10 2012 16:05:18 +0000

Remember in 2000 when Bush 2 nosed out Gore for the presidency. I had an ominous feeling that Bush's naivete would bring ruin on our nation. Little did we know. after 8 years, an invasion based on lies, over 5 thousand American deaths, over 20,000 maimed for life, most with without arms and legs, over 2 million Iraqi citizens displaced and over 150,000 killed and more than 1 trillion dollars spent, what did we get? An Iraq that is cozzing up to Iran --- America's real enemy.

Why even mention that right under the Bush/CheneyRumsfeld noses, terrorists trained at our flying schools and paying cash, insisting they did not want to learn how to land returned to their training camps and months later with one-way tix bought with cash, took off in 4 American jets and visited on our Nation the greatest terror since Pearl Harbor. And not a single jet fighter was even scrambled 'till the damage was done. And who was held accountable? No one. In any other society Bush et al would be tried and convicted of malfeasance and, in some, go to the slammer. In the Bush world no one was even fired. Lastly, let's forget Katrina and the worst recession/depression since 1933 from which we are all suffering.

Retired folks are able to live out years primarily because of domestic social programs opposed by the Republican party at every turn. Our primary interest should be that our children and every generation forward can live out their final years with a modicum of health security. It is a moral issue. Remember our federal debt took years to grow and it will take many years to balance. It cannot and will not be done solely on the backs of the middle class. It is a moral issue.

Finally, for all of us the choice is clear. A vote for the wrong candidate is a vote against our own interests and more importantly against our beliefs centered on "love of neighbor as you love yourself."

Arthur Soden: The George Steinbrenner of the 19th Century

19 10 2012 12:56:00 +0000

When Alexander Joy Cartwright created baseball in 1846, thirty years would pass before a group of businessmen saw the game's immense profit potential and formed the first professional federation: the National League. These captains of industry ushered in a new era in baseball where players were viewed as chattel, and everyone -- from the utility player to the top-draw star, ran the risk of being fired by a capricious owner. In truth, George Steinbrenner was one in a long line of dour and whimsical capitalists who screwed around with the athletes who make the game.

Arthur Soden, the owner of the National League franchise Boston Braves, would have made the late George Steinbrenner proud. Consider the case of baseball's first bona fide slugger, the forgotten Charley Jones of the Boston Braves. In 1879, Jones was the National League home run king. The next season Charley hit the skids and enraged Soden in a bitter contract dispute. Jones was blacklisted from baseball and disappeared from the public eye. Steinbrenner did virtually the same stunt with superstar Reggie Jackson in 1981, and there's little doubt in this author's mind that Steinbrenner would have banished Jackson forever if not for free agency.

When a rival American League started up in 1882, the blacklisted former National League players excelled in it. Soden and the other National League owners technically recognized the American League, they privately refused to accept its existence.

In 1879, baseball owner Arthur Soden created the reserve clause that bound all players to a specific team. Soden was a staunch supporter of a rule pushed through in 1888 that limited a player's salary according to his ability. I'm sure Steinbrenner would have loved to have that power!

Soden was also a classic stonewaller during all types of negotiations. In reaction to the onerous tyranny of the National League owners, player Monte Ward formed a Players' League in 1890. The Players' League was owned and operated by the players themselves, and it was a successful experiment that lasted only one season. Soden and the other owners offered minor concessions and a promise that all the players could return to the former teams without retribution. Monte Ward accepted the owners' offer and the monopoly became a fact of baseball life.

Arthur Soden and George Steinbrenner. A Marriage Made in Baseball Hell.

The Jekyll Island Club

17 10 2012 08:37:50 +0000

The history of Jekyll Island, Georgia is a fascinating one ...

It's allure once had it at the top of the heap of vacation getaways, but that is long forgotten in today's world. So, I plan to remind the readers of this blog how it all started and became known as a beautiful southern coastal escape. Jekyll is one of Georgia's 'barrier' islands along with others like Cumberland and St. Simon's, and Sea Island. Cumberland is it's neighbor and belonged to Andrew Carnegie and his family, more famous in recent times for quietly hosting the late JFK Jr.'s wedding to Carolyn Bessett in the early 1990's.

Through the centuries Jekyll was visited by local indians and regarded as a great place where hunting and fishing were plentiful. It's recorded history begins with the Spaniards settling in St. Augustine, Florida in 1565, when Ponce de Leon explored the southern coastal region of America and staked his claim for Spain. On the way to St. Augustine, he passed these beautiful 'barrier islands' off the coast of what is now Georgia, and noted them on his maps. When he arrived in St. Augustine, he built a fort that still stands today and a town that is considered the oldest in America (also home to the Fountain of Youth! lol). He never forgot the islands just up the coast and soon thereafter Spanish settlements were formed. But by 1720's the English were fighting with the Spanish over land and colonies here, and by 1736 Jekyll Island was formerly declared British and granted to Sir Joseph Jekyll, Commander of the fleet in the area, whose name it bears. The Spanish burned all the buildings before leaving Jekyll, and the oldest standing structure left is Horton House, which belonged to the British Major William Horton, and was built during this period. Over the next hundred years the island's ownership changed hands from Jekyll's descendants until the early 1820's when the Dubignon family purchased it. They were of French descent and nutured and farmed the land and built a business renting out cottages as retreats on the island.

In 1880, a group of wealthy investors bought the land that is now the Jekyll Island Club from the Dubignon family, and though Jekyll was already on the map, it was now on the well-to-do's 'radar' as an exquisite and exotic island getaway, complete with white sandy beaches and dunes. Activities were swimming, riding, sailing, croquet, golf,and tennis. If you wanted to mingle with Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, Morgans, and Astors you had to be there. Before Palm Beach, Florida became the choice spot of the rich and famous it was The Jekyll Island Club! Today's clubhouse was built in 1880, and restored and renovated several times over the last century. It is surrounded by four large apartments that at one point belonged to four of its most prominent members. Frederick Bourne, a member since 1900 and President of the Jekyll Island Club from 1914 until his death in 1919. There is also a beautiful Tiffany stained-glass window in the Jekyll Chapel in memory of FGB that was placed there following his death. In life he was President of the world's first international conglomerate, The Singer Sewing Company from 1882-1905. His neighbors at the apartments were William Rockefeller (JDR's younger brother), JP Morgan, and William Astor. The Hotel / Clubhouse also hosted many swank dinner parties attended by Carnegie, Rockefeller, Gould, Frick, Marshall Fields, George Fisher Baker, Joseph Pulitzer all who has residences there. It had many rooms that guests would rent out while there. Additionally, there were many 'cottages' built surrounding the clubhouse grounds that belonged to the many Gilded Age families that wintered there.

It was the place to be from January - March each year. They would all sail their steamship yachts there for the winter. Pulitzer's Liberty, Baker's Viking, Bourne's Alberta, Morgan's Corsair, Rockefeller's Willie Roc, they all docked there for the winter months. And, a lot of great history occurred there over the years. Jekyll Island's golfing was the inspiration for Bobby Jones Jr. to team-up with Alfred Severin Bourne to create Augusta National Golf Club and Course on the mainland in Augusta Georgia. The clandestine meetings of Senator Nelson Aldrich (JDR' Jr's father-in-law), JP Morgan and his cronies to brainstorm the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank took place there for two weeks from November 22, 1910 > with a whose who of business and banking titans. Another important event at the clubhouse was when the first transcontinental phone call was made in January 1915, with Woodrow Wilson, JP Morgan Jr., Bourne, and others in attendance and on the line with Alexander Graham Bell and his loyal and competent Mr. Watson on the other end in San Francisco. The Club flourished until 1941, when its members stopped coming, probably for fear of the image it projected to the rest of society. Our boys had been dying overseas in WWII fighting to preserve our freedoms. By 1944, The Jekyll Island Club shut it's doors in bankruptcy, and Palm Beach Florida had become the place to be. Eventually, the state of Georgia took over Jekyll and made it a tourist destination again for all to enjoy. There are still several of the old homes there to be toured, a museum, and lovely little town, and of course all the outdoor activiites that it has to offer. Jekyll certainly captured the imagination of the country, during the it's reign as America's hotspot! It's a place where time stood still, a place where you can imagine the ghosts of the Gilded Age still mingling with each other, while on holiday from conquering the world! Its pristine white sandy beaches are some of the widest and most beautiful in the world! You can stay and dine in the original clubhouse still known as The Jekyll Island Club. Well worth the trip!

By Jeffrey H. Sado

A Bat Boy's Love Of The Game!

29 09 2012 17:39:39 +0000

As most parents, I often live vicariously through my son Emanuel "Manny" Sado. He's such a passionate young man. His passion like many his age is the game of Baseball... America's Game! He's been very lucky and inspired growing-up around the game and many pro-players (family and friends). The former bad-boy of The American League, Manny Ramirez is one of his godfather's, and several others are great friends and his unofficial coaches. This summer he was fortunate to land a job as the bat-boy for the York Revolution, out of York PA. in the Atlantic Independent League. When they clinched a berth in the playoffs, they doused him with champagne, and the local news media interviewed him about his responsibilities as the bat boy. He met Roger Clemens on the field during the pre-game. He was in heaven, and I beamed for him! All preparing him for the the day when he can hopefully celebrate as a player too! He's got several little-league seasons under his belt, and now heading to High School where the competition just gets better and better. He just focuses and has the time of his life, just him and the catcher out there throwing to each other. He tells me, "you zone out the hitters and zero-in on the target and you feel it..." little does he know I too know the feeling. He conjures up those memories in me...

Manny is a right-handed pitcher, 5'9" / 115 lbs and just turned 13 years old he throws 70+ mph fastballs and has a mean repitore of other pitches including... a split-finger fastball, sinker, slider, curve, and off-speed pitches that confound hitters from both sides of the plate. Dilema, for the coach, he's a starter and a closer! In a little-league game two years ago he struck out 16 of 18 possible batters! He'll be pitching this Spring for his 7th & 8th grade ESMS team and you see me cheering them on and can catch them playing their games Tuesdays and Thursdays at the North Meadow Fields of Central Park in NYC. So proud of this kid! I wish him and his teammates and their coach Mr. D. all the best for the upcoming season.

P.S. Manny and any of you youngsters out there reading this... most important... do your homework and do well in school, if you're lucky enough to have a career in any pro sport, it's generally short and certainly over by age 40, so you have another half a life to live, find something else that you can be passionate about after sports! Cheers, Dad

By Jeffrey H. Sado

The Rockefeller's Kykuit

20 08 2012 15:59:26 +0000

Kykuit is the Rockefeller Family Estate in Potantico Hills at Tarrytown overlooking the majestic Hudson River. Some have said that this is the home God would build if he could afford it! It's nothing short of spectacular. Four generations of the family have lived there since it was built. I took my son, Manny for a day-trip this summer , and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

The word 'Kykuit' is an old Dutch word meaning 'Lookout'. It is so appropriately named, as it sits on the highest point over Tarrytown and the river, and covers 3500 acres. The views of the Hudson are unobstructed, and as far as you can see are 'The Palisades' across the water, the grand cliffs that remain from the great melt of the Ice Age. The main house was built between 1903-1908. Old John D. Rockefeller moved in with his wife Laura Spellman Rockefeller in the summer of 1908. It is built of beautiful slabs of fieldstone by stone masons that were imported from Germany. There had been a simplier wooden frame house on the property that burned down in a fire at the turn of the last century, and JDR decided to replace it with this grand home situated in the midst of some heaven on Earth. He had a 9 hole reversable golf course built, so that you play a full 18 on the return. His son John D. Rockeller Jr., known throughout his life by his staff as 'Junior', had much to do with the planning of this magnificent home. JDR was already 70 when he moved in and Jr. was a young man looking to please his mother and father, so he took special pride in seeing that everything here was done to perfection, just as he did with Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. There is a classical balance that is immediately noticeable when walking through the inviting and pristine gardens surrounding the house. Ohh the parties that they must have thrown there!

After JDR's passing in 1937, Jr. and his family took it over. Jr. was married to Abby Aldrich Rockefeller (daughter of Senator Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island), and they had five sons and a daughter. Her father auhored The Aldrich Plan, which created The Federal Reserve Bnk in 1914. Abby, Winthrop, Nelson, John, Laurence, and David (still alive and just celebrated his 96th birthday a few months ago). The entire family went on to do great things with their lives both in business, government, and most esspecially in philanthropy. JDR Jr. died in 1960 and is buried there in the family tomb.

In the next generation... Nelson Rockefeller, the former Vice President and Governor from NY., took over the property for his family. He aded to it's grandeur nd beauty by incorporating art and sculpture throughout the house and grounds. There are several brillantly placed sculptures by Henry Moore, Alexander Calder, and others in the gardens surrounding Kykuit. And, in the basement, which is literally a museum you will find Miro, 11 Picasso tapestries (that each took one year to complete), Calder, Matisse, Pollack, the list goes on and on...While upstairs are a Gilbert Stuart portrait of President George Washington another favorite portrait is that of President Abraham Lincoln placed on the wall opposite GW. Above the fireplace in the living room is Abby Aldrich Rocekfeller's portrait and in the dining room are two portraits... one of JDR by John Singer Sargent above this room's fireplace and placed there by JDR Jr., and on the opposite wall facing Grandpa is a portrait of JDR.Jr. plaed there by his son Nelson Rockefeller.

In it's heyday, Nelson and his guests often would arrive by helicopter, and Presidents, Kings, and Queens, and other dignitaries were entertained in the house and at that table by the Rockefeller's. One story ges that when the Henry Moore sculpture was installed by the then Governor in the garden, next to he first hole's tee... his younger brother David was teeing-off with some important bankers and the helicopter that was lowering the piece into place blew them and their balls away! David was Chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank and furious wth his older brother, thinking that he did it on purpose for a laugh! Nelson had rented the helicopter and had scheduled the installation fo the day before, but bad weather prohibited the job from being done, so the next nice day was ideal! It was just unlucky timing for David and his friends, but legend has it that the brothers didn't speak for weeks after the incident.

If you were hungry for a late night snack, you just needed to press a button that would light-up an electronic notice board in the kitchen, and the staff would know where to bring the goodies. Installed, were elevators and dumbwaiters for the family and guests comort and convenience. In the 'office' as it was called by NR, he had a television set hidden by a bookcase ful of 'faux' books. I'm also sure that some heavy dealmaking and politicking went down in that room! Across the hall, and also on the first floor, is the ladies parlor, where Laura Spellman and then later Abby Aldrich Rockefeller would entertain their friends. Very old world, the men went to the office to and the women went to the parlor. In the parlr they would play board games and gossip. Nelson lived there with two families, first Mary Clark Rockefeller, who he had five children with and divorced in 1960, and then with Marguerite "Happy" Rockefeller, who is 86 years young and lives next door to Kykuit, in what was the guesthouse. Her children Nelson Jr. and Mark are grown-up now, and recall fond memories from their chlldhood there with Dad and family through several books that are sold at the gift store. Kykuit is now owned and maintained by the National Trust and the Hudson River Valley Historical Society. Rockefeller Brothers Foundation leases back the Carriage House and perates it for the Foundation's presentations and business. And, the family still has use of the gymnasium and golf course.

The Estate has it all... the golf course, a farm, riding trails, gymnasium with indoor basketball and tennis courts as well as outdoors, several fountains with sculptures of Poseidon and other gods and goddesses, six swimming pools, the Carriage House that housed twenty carriages and thirteen automobiles, the stables, the garden and Japanese Garden and Grotto, and of course, Nelson Rockefeller's own personal art collection in the basement of the main house is like a museum! There's a wonderful organic restaurant backed by David Rockefeller, serving veggies and fruits grown on the estate, it's called The Stonehouse at Blue Hill. The Union Church has beautiful stained glass windows made by Matisse and donated by The Rockefellers. The Old Dutch Church is close by as well, and is the oldest church in the state of New York, built in 1685 by Lord Philips, who owned 52,000 acres of NY back then! Well worth the trip, and easy to get to via Metro North from Grand Central Station in NYC. Also places of interest in this historic area of the Hudson Valley are Washington Irving's 'Sunnyside Estate', where he wrote his masterpieces of American literature... The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle,Lyndhurst Castle, Van Cordtlandt Manor, Montgomery Place, and the nearby Philipsburg Manor, a working farm that dates back to 1750, and sits next to the Hudson Valley Visitors Center, where you go to meet the Kykuit transporation / tour bus. Oh yeah, and if you didn't already know, the Rockefeller Family Fortune was derived from The Standard Oil Company, the first successful national oil refinery business. It was created in 1863 to refine oil for kerosene. By the time JDR died in 1937, he and his family were worth over 10 billion dollars, adjusted in today's dollars to 190 billion! By Jeffrey & Manny Sado

Advice to a Daughter from Harry Lagarenne

01 08 2012 22:23:28 +0000

OMG! My baby's twenty-two!

What have you learned? Let's review:

Some people play, some people scheme.

Others live with hopes and dreams.

Some people laugh, some people cry.

Some people live and some wait to die.

Some people give, some people take.

Some people are real, others are fake.

Some people are mean, most are nice.

How to live one's life? What's my advice?

To the extent you can avoid the takers and schemers,

Try to open your heart to the visions of dreamers.

Life for today like there's no tomorrow!

Savor the joys and embrace the sorrows.

Wake up with joy and french kiss the day.

Be honest, hardworking and make time for play.

The spirit is willing but the path may be hazy...

God is great, beer is good and...

PEOPLE ARE CRAZY!

Churchill at The Morgan

18 06 2012 14:08:48 +0000

The Morgan Library at 36th Street and Madison Avenue in NYC is hosting a fabulous exhibition on the late Prime Minister of England Winston Churchill. Long overdue, this exhibit documents Churchill's life from 1874-1965... took my son and his friends recently and they loved it.

Churchill was the Man! During the early years of WWII it was Winston Churchill who stood-up to Hitler, not his predeccessor Neville Chamberlain, who as we look back lacked the toughness to fight the evil dictator from Germany. Churchill was not only a tough individual, but a brillant writer and speaker. His thoughtful words carried the British people through the NAzi Air Strikes over london in 1940, and the Battle of Britain. France had fallen and Hitler was on his way to take England. If she too had fallen, it may have been a very different world than that of which we live-in today! But Churchill held everyone together. He was the leader of all the people. He got out there and stood side by side with his troops and civilains. Famous lines like "this will be our finest hour" in the face of adversity gave strength and hope to his people. The most interesting part of this exhibition follows his rise to power, WWII and his alliances with Roosevelt and Stalin, and his oh so eloquent speeches. There is a 22 minute film documentary that is well worth sitting-in on. There are even paintings that he did following the War, while on holiday in the South of France at Cap D'Antibes. He was a very good painter as well.

If you haven't been to The Morgan it's also worth the trip. They have three Guttenberg Bibles, the earliest from 1452 is in perfect condition, the printing and illustrations and gold inlays are magnificent. These books came off the very first printing presses known to have published the Bible. The reside in the library of JP's library, and both JP Sr. and JP Jr.'s houses are spectacular examples of living life to the fullest in the Gilded Age. The Morgan is also free to the public Friday evenings from 7-9pm.

Indian Neck Hall

13 06 2012 15:25:06 +0000

Indian Neck Hall is perhaps famed American Archictect Ernest Flagg's greatest residential project. Indian Neck Hall is a 115-room replica of the White House, built of red brick and limestone and finished in 1897 with 300 workers. Indian Neck hall sat in the middle of 3,000 acres of prime Long Island waterfront. The structure was built for Singer Sewing President, Frederick Gilbert Bourne and his family, and now is owned by and operated as the St. John's University LI Campus in Oakdale, NY., on the Great South Bay overlooking the water with a view of Fire Island, NY.

Flagg was also known for building the first skyscraper in New York City, The Singer Tower (1906), and "The Towers", Bourne's Castle in The St. Lawrence River in upstate New York along the Canadian border (another blog on that property is listed on our home page). Flagg also built Bourne's beautiful tomb at the famous Greenwood Cemetery on the highest point overlooking NY Harbor in Brooklyn, New York. Flagg also worked for the Astors and Vanderbilts and several other prominent families of the day.

Bourne began aquiring the land in 1880, shortly after he built the Dakota apartments for the Clark Family, who owned 50% of The Singer Manufacturing Company, producer of Singer sewing machines. Bourne also lived at the Dakota during his stays in New York City. Much of the Long Island site had been known as the Ludlow Oyster Farm, but the Oysters disappeared and Bourne took over the property. He had a grand vision for what became his impressive main residence.

Because the land was largely marshy from the waterfront back to the house some 600 yards away. Bourne had his team of landscapers dig into the ground in front of the Mansion and irrigate a series of canals for his wife and children to enjoy rowing. Bourne had the dirt moved from the front to landfill in the marshy backside of the home, so there would be beautiful huge lawns to stroll to the water's edge.

Also known as the Bourne Mansion, Indian Neck Hall had a ballroom for 300 people with the largest pipe-organ ever installed in a residence anywhere in the world! FGB grew-up the son of George Washington Bourne, a church minister, and sang in the Trinity Church Choir in lower Manhattan, and never lost his love of music. Often, after dinner, he would take his children into the ballroom and sing with them, while he played the Grand Aoelian Organ (he sat on their board as well). The house also contained an Oval Office, which was used as a second-floor dining room with magnificent views to the water. Below was the back portico / patio, where parties roared during the summers of the Twenties. And , a curved line of Greek Revival Columns protected the front door that was reached from a circular driveway with a beautiful fountain as the centerpiece.

In the Hall's basement, there was a bowling alley, a 5000-bottle wine cellar, and indoor swimming pool. On the first floor: a lovely library facing the back, and spectacular wood-paneled dining room complete with a hidden 'walk-in' safe that we believe hasn't been opened since at least 1926, when the family sold the main house and some surrounding land for 2.5 million dollars to La Salle Military Academy, who in turn sold it to St, John's in 2001.

The rest of the property is equally Gatsbian! There is a large boathouse and wharf that served his 282' Steamship Yacht, The Alberta and other boats that he had in his fleet. He also served as Commodore of The New York Yacht Club (NYCC) from 1903 through 1906. In 1905, The NYYC won the first TransAtlantic Sailboat Race sponsored by King Wilheim II of Germany. The winners received what was supposed to be a solid Gold Trophy Cup, however the King's Cup was found to be gold-plated and caused a little bit of an uproar. Story goes... that Wilheim II made good on the Gold Cup and replaced it, very embarrassingly! Back to the Boathouse, inside was a ballroom with stage for an orchestra to play if they decided to have a party by the water. There were beautiful stables for the horses, and his favorite Stallion was "Royal Flush", he was a great horseman.

Indian Neck Hall had it's own golf course, now apart of the West Sayville Country Club. Today's WSCC clubhouse was known as Meadow Edge back in the day, it was a parcel of land and home that FGB gave to his daughter Florence Bourne Hard as a wedding gift in 1908, when she married Anson Wales Hard Jr. a Wall Street Stockbroker and son of a coffee magnate. The family's patriarch, Ken Hard, a grandson of the Commodore, grew-up in that house.

During winters there were tobbogan runs and ponds, where the boys played hockey and the girls skated. And, summers were filled with sails to Fire Island where they played in the dunes. It was a self-sufficient property, having an extensive farm with botanical gardens. State-of-the-art irrigation system and water towers throughout the property. Indian Neck Hall was originally lighted by candles, then gas, and elctrified in 1908 by Thomas Edison's electrical company. Today, Indian Neck Hall is used bt St. John's University for graduations and special events, and they rent out the Mansion for weddings, of which I understand they had over 80 of them last year. What was the original property has been sold-off over the years, and now exists the aforementioned West Sayville Country Club and Glof Course, The Long Island Maritime Museum another family home by the water that was converted in 1966. A gated-residential community of waterfront homes and several other parcels down to the Sayville - Fire Island Ferry. The original property spanned from Oakdale to West Sayvile to Sayville from the waterfront back to the Montauk Highway.

Next Door, was W.K. Vanderbilt's Mansion known as 'Idle Hour' originally built as a wooden hunting lodge in 1877, then after a fire ravaged it, a new Idle Hour was built in 1899, also as spectacular as Indian Neck Hall. It comprised about 1900 acres west of Bourne's Mansion and is now Dowling College. Bourne and Vanderbilt were good neighbors and helped to develop the surrounding area as well as the LI transportation systems, by building and / or renovating several of the local train stations, the Long Island Motorway (the main road through Long island), and the Nassau County Community Hospital, etc. For anyone interested in the Gilded Age lifestyle of this period, it is well-worth the trip to see how these titans of industry lived.

By Jeffrey H. Sado

The Enterprise Space Shuttle Finds Home on The Intrepid

02 06 2012 22:25:22 +0000

"The Enterprise," named for the Starship of the 1960's televison hit "Star Trek" (and the first of four Space Shuttles in our Nasa Program) lands on the flight deck of "The Intrepid" on June 6, 2012 and opens to the public next week.

This will become the space shuttle's permanent home, a place for all to visit her and see and touch a spectacular piece of space history. The Enterprise led the way for the successful space exploration program that followed the Apollo moon exploration program.

The Enterprise was the first space shuttle flight to launch and was named by 'popular demand' during a US write-in campaign. She was the 'test' shuttle and orbiter for the later successful Columbia, Discovery, Atlantis, Endeavour, and tragic, ill-fated Challenger, flights.

I look forward to taking my son to visit Intrepid and her new addition, which also includes a "Concorde Supesonic Jet", and Navy Fighter Jets that the kids can climb into and see first-hand. There are even flight simulators aboard this magnificent destroyer. Intrepid was retired after the Vietnam War and in dry-dock for many years before the Fisher Family of New York decided to salvage and restore her as a visitors destination. It's a great way to spend the day and many thanks to the Fisher Brothers Real Estate Family for creating this incredible floating museum. The Intrepid sits majestically on the Hudson River at 45th Street and the West Side Drive in New York City. Anthony Fisher, the man who spear-headed this effort, tragically died several years ago in a private plane crash in Massachusetts. Thank you Anthony!

By Jeffrey H. Sado

The Dakota

25 05 2012 19:15:11 +0000

The Dakota was built between 1880 to 1884 on the highest point of Central Park West overlooking Central Park at 72nd Street in New York City. The land belonged to August Belmont (The Belmont Stakes), who was a banker for the Rothschild Family in NYC. August sold Edward S. Clark two lots for a total of $200,000. The first lot is obvious, where the Dakota sits today, and the second lot is where The Mayfair Apartment House sits today (a large white modernish apartment tower that was built about 1974, right next door to The Dakota). That site was first called "The Dakota Gardens" and had a croquet court, clay tennis court, and stables for horses. The Dakota was the first luxury apartment building in Manhattan. Clark hired Henry Hardenburgh, the archeitect (also known for designing The Plaza Hotel in 1907), and Frederick Gilbert Bourne, the Project Manager, to build this architecturally significant landmark. Now, this New York City landmark home to the rich and famous. When the Dakota opened in October of 1884, it had 65 large apartments on floors 2-7, and numerous rooms on 8,9, and 10 for the domestic help that lived there and worked in the apartments below. Today, there are 103 apartments in this beautiful apartment complex.

The Dakota is famous as the site where ex-Beatle John Lennon lived and was tragically killed in 1980. Yoko still lives there on the 7th Floor overlooking the beautiful "Strawberry Fields" memorial she created to honor John's life. She lives in what was originally Edward Severin Clark's apartment, the eldest grandson of Edward S. Clark whose brainchild it was, and whose money from his Singer Sewing fortune financed the building's construction. Following his grandfather's death, when he was twelve, Edward Severin Clark inherited The Dakota. He had three brothers, who also inherited vast amounts of real estate in New York City and Cooperstown, New York as well.

Clark named it the Dakota because of his love of the Old West. During that time, New Yorkers lived downtown, because the city was settled and grew from Battery Park / Wall Street to the North. Critic's would comment that "nobody will live there, it's like living in The Dakotas (referring to the Dakota Territories, as they were known then). My great-aunt's father was Commodore Frederick Gilbert Bourne, and he oversaw the construction of The Dakota for the Clarks, and lived in the grandest apartment in the house. My ancestor's apartment was originally designed and built for Alfred Corning Clark, who was Fred's best friend. They met when Frederick was in the Trinity Church Choir, and Alfred was a patron, as well as a vocalist. Edward S. Clark never got to see the building finished, as he tragically died from a sudden heart-attack in 1882. He left Fifty Million dollars to his son Alfred (roughly 5 billion dollars today!) Alfred was not interested in running Singer, so he left the manangement of the company to Frederick Bourne.

Alfred pursued his interests in the arts. He was on the original Board of Trustees of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. He went to Paris to build his own art collection and commissioned art for the museum, while construction of The Dakota moved forward. He told Frederick Bourne that he wanted to live there when he returned to New York City, so he asked him to build a comfortable home for him on the first floor complete with 15-foot ceilings, fireplaces, a ballroom with organ, and a swimming pool to do his laps!

When the architect Alfred Clark arrived back in New York City for opening day in 1884, Alfred was touring the Dakota with Frederick and his wife Emma, who had lent a female touch to the design process. Alfred asked her, "Are you happy with the job?" Emma replied: "Yes!" Then he asked Emma: "Did we miss anything?" She responded: "It's all here!" Then Alfred inquired: "Will women enjoy the kitchens and baths?" "Yes!" Emma stated. Alfred then asked: "Would you live here"? And she said, "Oh Alfred, of course!"

With that, Alfred he reached into his pocket and and handed the keys to Emma and said, "Good, I'm glad these are for you and Fred"! Their apartment had roughly 23 rooms and today is four apartment units. Clark probably never intended to live there, as he had a huge Fifth Avenue Mansion on 58th & Fifth Avenue next to The Vanderbilts, and he needed someone to watch over his magnificent building for him. So, who better to give it to than his best friend and trusted advisor! Bourne would later oversee the Singer Manufacturing Company from 1882 to 1905. Singer became the first international conglomerate and the Singers, Clarks, and Bournes fortunes grew enormously.

The Dakota is a special place. When you enter the property through it's impressive archway and into a central courtyard with lili pond, it's as if you are stepping back a hundred and thirty years in time. Not much has changed: the big sturdy doors, wood-panneling, gracious hallways and iron wall sconces, it's all there. The hydraulic elevators are original. So much art and culture has been inspired by the Dakota including, "Time and Again" a story of time travel that jumps back and forth beyween the 1880's and the 1970's. "Rosemary's Baby" was filmed there in 1967. And, numerous celebrities and personalities have called it home over the last century including the Steinway Family, Schiff Family, John Browning, Lennon and Yoko, Leonard Bernstein, Lauren Bacall, Sting, John Madden, Boris Karloff, Nureyev, Gilda Radner and Gene Wilder, Graydon Carter, Roberta Flack, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff, Rex Reed, all the Presidents of Singer until 1959, when the Clark's sold the building to a developer named William Zeckendorf, who cooped it the following year. The list goes on and on...

There's a great book called, "Life At The Dakota", written by Stephen Birmingham in 1979. There are numerous stories, some a little spooky, which is 'natural' for such a Neo-Gothic Castle-like structure! Ghosts of children are reported to play with a ball in the hallways each Halloween. An old "Victorian Age" bloody dress was found in a closet upstairs. The inscription, "Kilroy was here" is etched into a rooftop door and has been there since the end of World War II. When Tschaikovsky, the talented composer, came to see the Steinways for a party in the 1890's, they took him to the roof after dinner and were talking and he was amazed at the size of their house with the stunning views of the city, apparently he thought the whole building was their Castle!

The building still fascinates me today, and I've been lucky to be invited to see some of its amazing apartments including the former apartments of my ancestors. The Dakota inspired me to come up with the idea for a movie called "Lady Liberty", the love story behind the face of the Statue of Liberty, which was written by my fellow historymaven John Barrett. You can read the movie synopsis on this blog page.

I'm happy to give guided tours that start at the Dakota and finish at The Conservancy Pond in Central Park, where you can sit for a drink or coffee, after a lovely walk that covers Strawberry Fields, Bethesda Fountain, The Boat Lake and Bow Bridge, The Mall and Poets Walk (lined with statues of world-famous poets and writers),The Bandshell and The Summer Stage, Rumsey Field, Alice In Wonderland and Hans Christian Anderson Statues, etc. You can also take-in the model sailboat regattas and other park-friendly sights, while at the Conservancy Pond Patio. Book it on a beautiful day (short notice not a problem), and I'm sure you will walk away with a new perspective of old New York. Tours last roughly two hours. Feel free to call me at 212 772-6598 or email me at jsado@nyc.rr.com for more information.

By Jeffrey H. Sado

The History Of Villa Strassburger in Deauville, France

24 05 2012 21:22:41 +0000

An avenue that cuts through the center of Deauville is called Avenue Strassburger. It winds through the town, past the town square, boutiques, hotels, restaurants and the famed casino and theatre. Follow it further to the end and it will take you to a magical place. A villa is surrounded by white picket fences and a guard house, and up a long driveway lined by apple trees, which takes you to the home of the Strassburgers, and sits majestically on a hilltop overlooking Deauville, France, and is called Villa Strassburger. The land has a rich history and was owned during the later 19th Century by Gustave Flaubert, the much admired French writer. He inherited the property from his parents whose family had operated a farm there since the 1820's. The land had been a wedding gift from Flaubert's grandfather.

In 1907, Baron Henri De Rothschild bought the hilltop from the Flaubert Family, and built the house. The villa has views of the Deauville Racecourse, the famed track where thoroughbreds ran for Les Grandes Prix. In the distance and to the west, is the town and the beach set against a backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean. Fabulous sunsets over the water end each day...this is an area known as Normandy, with neighboring villages of Honfleur and Le Harve, where the luxurious liners stop, bringing curious tourists to this beautiful part of France. Deauville has long been known as the playground of the rich and is famous for its casino, theatre, and horse races. The Aga Khan and Maharejsh had homes in the area, and bought horses from the Strassburgers.

Villa Strassburger is the area's crown jewel. In 1980, the estate was given as a gift to France by my mother's cousin Peter Strassburger. In 2011, President Sargozy used the home for the G8 Summit, and escorted the world leaders and their wives for a tour around the property. The home and its lovely gardens are open to the public for tours in July and August. It is as if time stood still in this house, complete with furnishings, spectacular artwork, and prized possessions. One possession is the game ball from the 1905 Army vs. Navy Football Game (which Navy won 11-0). Ralph scored all the points and his teammates all signed the ball for him. Strassburger graduated from the Naval Academy in 1905, and was assigned as an ensign to President Theodore Roosevelt's Yacht, "The Mayflower". He and his family would become great friends of the President. Ralph's father-in-law Commodore Frederick Gilbert Bourne would oversee construction of the basin of the Panama Canal, through one of his companies, Atlas Portlandt Cement, for TR. The Canal took five million barrels of cement to create the basin.

Ralph and May Bourne Strassburger honeymooned in Deauville and throughout the Norman Coast in the Summer of 1911, following their wedding in Kent County, England in May of that year. One of their wedding gifts was a 1912 Renault that came with a driver named William Obedine. Obedine mapped out a trip that took them from Paris up to Chantilly, Lisieux, to the Normandy coast visiting Le Harve, Honfleur, and Deauville. When they found Deauville, they fell in love with the place. The couple bought this exquisite example of Norman / Dutch Architecture in 1924 from Baron Henri, after returning many summers over the years to Deauville. They loved the the lakes and lovely gardens that could be found there, and the Atlantic Ocean and beach with endless boardwalks, the lively hotels and casino, and the horses, esspecially Aunt May (she was an equestrian since her childhood, often riding in NYC's Central Park and at her father's estate Indian Neck Hall in Oakdale, Long Island. They also purchased farmland in Lisieux in Chantilly about 20 kilos away from Deauville. They called that property "Haras Des Monceaux", this was their horsefarm, and there was a neighboring track there as well. It is still in operation and run by a Saudi Prince, and considered one of the finest horsefarms in France.

The Strassburgers also maintained a home in Paris at 3 Rue De Trouville, where they were members of high society in the roarong 20's. In Paris, Ralph was a member if The Travellers Club, at 25 Avenue Champs D'Elysees. It was a famous 19th / 20th Century gentleman's club that offered fine dining, card games, and great conversation of the politics and current events of the day with the Parisian elte. Ralph and May Strassburger, and later Peter Strassburger, their son, bred the finest thoroughbreds there, and had many winners on the European racing circuit. In the States, Ralph owned newspapers and a radio station and another farm named "Normandy Farm" for the families' love of area. Normandy Farm was 1500 acres at it's peak, and had 350 gead of Ayshire Cattle as well as horses. The Kellys were neighbors and as a young child, Grace Kelly and her father Jack often joined the Strassburgers to ride on the property. When Grace married Prince Ranier of Monaco, Ralph and May were guests at the wedding. .

In the early years, Ralph was a bit of a 'Bon-Vivant'. He loved his wife and women in general, the casino, and the horses, and May was a fabulous hostess. They were very fortunate and loved life and lived it to the fullest. They were known to have thrown wonderful parties, and invitations were prized. The Strassburger parties flowed with the finest champagne and foods, with beautiful orchestrated music creating an enchanting mood. This was life in the 'roaring twenties'. The mood would change as WWII approached...

The Germans invaded and seized the Strassburger properties. Villa Strassburger became the headquarters for a German Commandant. Remnants of the era remain. The Commandant was a large man and couldn't fit in the elegant claw tub in the Master suite, so he ripped it out and rebuilt an oversized tub. Secret underground bunkers hid radio operations for the resistence, prior to the Germans occupation. And, Haras Des Monceaux was the site of a huge battle that left the land destroyed.

Thankfully, Ralph foresaw this potential destruction and moved all of his livestock to a farm owned by a German Baroness that was not a target. They were good friends, and he knew that the Nazi's would spare her property. The horses continued to race under her name during the war years. Ralph, May and Peter left France before the occupation, and Ralph returned in 1946 to rebuild Haras Des Monceaux and reclaim Villa Strassburger. It took two years of meticulous restoration to the buildings and the land at horsefarm, before he could return the horses to their pastures and reopen for business. The property was filled with land mines, shrapnel, blown-up tanks and jeeps. The restoration project became a labor of love for Ralph and he returned the farm to all of its former glory and never returned to the United States.

Ralph died in his apartment in Paris on February 27th, 1959, and the French newspapers wrote "a great friend to France has passed away." May and Peter continued to go back and forth between France and the US until she passed away in January of 1975. Peter died in April of 1993. The Strassburgers had several homes around the world, but clearly Villa Strassburger was dear to their hearts. Ralph Beaver Strassburger is buried there. Annie-Claude Gruchet has been the caretaker of the house for the last thirty years and conducts the tours. You can find more information on visiting through www.deauville.fr/villastrassburger Well worth the trip to see it!

By Jeffrey H. Sado

Bobby Jones Jr.'s Augusta National

24 05 2012 09:52:33 +0000

Bobby Jones Jr. was one of the brightest stars in Golf's Universe! Maybe the greatest? After his playing career was over his next greatest accomplishement was developing The Augusta National Golf Club, in Augusta, Georgia, home to the famed "Masters Tournament", which has been played there since its inception in 1934. Horton Smith, another great golfer of the day, won the first Masters that year and repeated in 1936.

Jones often played golf on Jekyll Island, Georgia, a winter haven for multi-millionaires from across the country, where there were a couple of short and flat courses. The first Jekyll Island course was built in the early 1890's. Jones was a frequent guest of Alfred Severin Bourne. Bobby was born in March of 1902 and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. Jones's career was both short and sweet. Bobby played competitively as an "amateur" from 1923 through 1930. Yet Bobby Jones was the best golfer on both the National and International Amateur and Professional Tours. His feat of winning the Grand Slam in one season has never been repeated. Bobby Jones then went on to successfully practice law in Atlanta. He did, however, continue to play The Masters each year until he finally retired from that tournament in 1943, due to health reasons.

Back to Jekyll Island, the prequel to Augusta National. When Robert Todd Lincoln, a successful businessman and the son of The President, was invited to join the Jekyll Island Club in 189. Lincoln graciously declined and thanked the members, and wrote back that he felt "the golf wasn't challenging enough" Bourne was a golf enthusiast, and son of Commodore Frederick Gilbert Bourne, an early President of The Singer Sewing Company, the first successful international conglomerate. In his professional life, he was the Vice Chairman of Singer Manufacturing Company, and he also served on the Board of Trustees of Augusta National Golf Club from its inception until his death in 1956. The PGA Silver Trophy Cup is named after him.

By the late 1920's, Jones had this dream to design the world's most beautiful and challenging course! So where better to start looking than in his own backyard. Jones found Beckmann's Magnolia Farm in Augusta, Georgia. for sale, he was blown away! The area was lush with azzallia's and Magnolia trees, and set on a sweeping and rolling valley with perfect year-round temperatures. The Clubhouse today sits on its highest point on top of a hilly viranda.

Bobby Jones drew up plans and approached some of his rich friends to back him, and Alfred Severin Bourne was one of them. Bourne built a beautiful home he named "Morningside" for its magnificient eastern sunrises, right next door to the Clubhouse. The home is now owned by the Club and used for special events and guests as well as Golf Channel coverage of The Masters. Bourne's portrait hangs above the fireplace in the wood-paneled living room. There were four financial backers / original founding members and Jones.

The gifted men completed the purchase from the Beckmann family in 1931, and the course was designed and built to open in 1933. They spared no expense and created what remains one of the most admired courses and club in the world...

to be continued...

By Jeffrey H. Sado

Where is Christopher Columbus Buried?

15 05 2012 15:22:57 +0000

There is a debate as to where the adventurous Rennaisance Explorer Christopher Columbus is buried. Some believe Genoa, Italy (his birthplace); others believe Barcelona, Spain, where Columbus kept a home at the end of his life, in a church that he worshipped in. Still others (and this author) believe that Columbus's remains rest in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

The last location was where his son Diego Colon served as The Governor of The New World. Colon inherited the title from his famous father. Columbus received the title in 1492 from Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain, whose flag he sailed under while on his legendary sea-going adventures.

Diego's father made four trips to the New World between 1492-1506 and it is rumored that when he died in Spain in 1506 from a heart-attack, that his son sent for his father's remains, and built him a monument where he now rests in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. To me it seems reasonable that his son would want him in the DR and dedicate a monument to his greatest discovery!

Columbus also made a home in the Dominican Republic 1493, a village that he named La Isabella, the first city of the New World. La Isabella is an oceanfront paradise reached by an old dirt road, and you know that you are there when you arrive staring at a giant boulder carved "La Isabella /The First City of The New World".

Columbus's Spanish Fleet returned in 1493, supposedly to the very spot where he first landed a year earlier. Columbus was so taken by its beauty that he wanted to establish a base there. La Isabella sits on a lovely peninsula and Columbus's house is on the point on a cliff overlooking the Atlantic. Very modest in size, probably no more than 50' long by 25' wide, and all that remains is the walls and tiled floor. The Spanish stucco-tiled roof has been blown away over the centuries by many turbulant hurricanes, and the tiles are stacked along the sides of the walls. There is also a Church and cemetery, where the first Europeans to be buried in the New World rest. Many died from malaria. The first to die was the doctor, not so good for the rest of the crew. The crew and conquistadors conquered the local Tahino peoples, who resided there, and today's inhabitants are descendants from their unions. There is a mueseum and school, all overlooking a breathtaking beach. Legends are this was the first spot where Columbus set foot in this New World and planted the Spanish flag.

Columbus had wanted to sail under his native Italian Flag, but the Italian Government couldn't afford to fund his explorations, so he went seeking sponsorship in Spain. The King and Queen were flush with riches and Spain was at the height of it's power and influence, only challenged by England in dominance. Spain sought more looking for a faster way to the Orient and backed him.

Another interesting footnote on Columbus is that he may have had Jewish roots that he hid from the Spanish Crown, because of his advetures on their behalf. Spain's conquistidors like in many places were persecuting the Jews in Spain. He left a will that proivided for a stipend to "Jewish girls" and his signatures later in life and on the will contained symbollic markings, next to his name, known to be associated and identified as Jewish markings.

Diego Colon took over for his father and set up shop in Santo Domingo, on the other side of the island. He built a grand casa, known as Casa Colon, where he lived and served as Governor. This place is very much a palace, made of seashell brick and stucco. The ample terrace overlooking the river that passes through Santo Domingo is a great place to see the Columbus monument, it sits majestically across the water facing Casa Colon, and supposedly this is where the great adventurer may lie. Only DNA testing will establish the burial place of Christopher Columbus once and for all.

By Jeffrey H. Sado

Singer Castle: A Glorious Excursion

14 05 2012 12:44:30 +0000

Talk about a Magical Mystery Tour...Singer Castle, originally known as "The Towers" sits on a 7.5 acre island in the middle of the St. Lawrence River bordered to the west by Canada and the east by New York. It is one of the tallest islands in the Seaway, and was built from 1900-1905, by Ernest Flagg for Frederick Gilbert Bourne and his Family. Singer Castle is also known as Dark Island and was used by native American Indians as a summer fishing and hunting camp. It's a magical place, with spectacular Canadian sunsets! Lovely for weddings and parties or just a simple getaway from the modern era.

Bourne liked Castles. This mogul oversaw the construction of the famous "Dakota Apartments" (1880-1884) for the Clark Family, and would later serve as the President of their company, The Singer Manufacturing Company (1882-1905). He retired from the active operations of Singer and started many companies including; The Long Island railroad, Long Island Motorway, Aeolian Organ Company, Bourne & Sons Limited. Another one was Atlas Portland Cement Company (still in existence today) with George Fisher Baker (Founder of First National City Bank, now CitiGroup), and Atlas got the contract to pour the basin of the Panama Canal from his friend, President Theodore Roosevelt. That was a major construction project, the largest of it's day.

Bourne was also an adventurer, who co-founded The Explorer's Club, which funded Admiral Robert E. Peary's Expedition to The North Pole in 1909. He was a secretative man as well...

Frederick Bourne never told his wife Emma or the kids that he was building them a Castle, only referring to it as a a 'hunting lodge', a place for them to fish and shoot ducks. I'm sure Emma wondered why it took so long to build this place, and when they finally moved in during the summer of 1905, they trained-up from New York City to Albany, and connected to Hammond, NY, where the Bournes caught a ferry. They arrived at sunset and as you can imagine the view was pure fantasy. Emma was certainly surprised by the sight of this midevil Castle in the River, in the forefront of a Canadian Sunset, and Frederick Gilbert Bourne simply admired it and her and said, "Honey, I built this for you!" How's that for a romantic gesture? Frederick and Emma had married at a young age and would ultimately have twelve children together.

Singer Castle was a major undertaking, and tons and tons of granite were needed to be quarried on nearby Oak Island and brought to Dark Island to build The Towers. Soil from Canada was also lifted and replanted on the island, some stories circulated at the time that Bourne was stealing some of Canada to add to the United States!

Bourne planted corn on a neighboring island that he owned called Corn Island, which was in Canadian waters, and was criticized for not paying import taxes on the produce! He also owned Wheat Island, and Ice Island, etc., and you can only assume that Bourne named them for what they produced. Yet, in truth, Bourne was an incredibly honest and honorable man, having grown-up serving the Church. Bourne's father was a minister and he sang in the Choir. The Towers had a Chapel and Bourne would often send his ferry boats to pick-up locals that wanted to attend mass on Sundays.

The Towers were renamed Singer Castle in 2002, when an investor named Farhad Vladi purchased the estate. He has made it the ultimate destination in the St. Lawrence. Three ferry companies deliver guests from May - November, two from the US and one from Canada. Private boaters are also welcome to tie-up their crafts on the wharf at the South Boathouse. The Castle is now a museum with gift shop and numerous Singer Sewing Machines throughout. There's also a small theatre that tells guest the story of Bourne and his Towers using black and white footage from 1905, when the family moved in. Guests may just tour for the day, or actually stay over in The Royal Suite for a princely sum, and this beautiful island / castle becomes theirs for the night, until the next morning's visitors arrive. Tours are conducted from 10am-5pm and include all the buildings on the island.

There are two boat houses, and mechanical house, an Ice House, Guest House, a gymnasium, a rock beach, the gardens, the Castle and Clocktower with Westminister Chimes that still works! Mysterious tunnels connect the buildings and secret passageways connect and wander through the house, accessed from several rooms. And, of course, you must see the dungeon with chained skeleton as well. Perfect place for a Halloween Party! Probably a little spooky for the wonderful caretaker Scott Garis, who lives there year round with his dog. My son and I watched "The Shining" when we stayed, an appropriate choice for the evening's entertainment.

One noteworthy site to see while you're at Singer Castle is The Frederick Remington Museum on the mainland in Ogdensburg, New York. Remington 'summered' on the island next to Bourne's estate. During construction of Dark Island, Remington wasn't happy about the disturbances to his peace and quiet. He was there to paint and sculpt images of the wild west, which inspired his creativity. Bourne had heard of Remington's displeasure, and once "The Towers" opened Remington was one of Bourne's first dinner guests, and they became great friends, often talking about the West and Art, over dinner. Other 'Gilded Age' titans who visited the Bournes included: Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, Joseph Pulitzer, JP Morgan and WK Vanderbilt.

At the turn of the century, an annual Tennis Tournament at The Thousand Islands Yacht Club was held, as well as The Gold Cup Speedboat Races on the River, which Marjorie Bourne (which Frederick's daughter won in 1909 in her Garwood names 'Moike'), and today her boat and other Bourne boats can be seen at The Clayton Antique Boat Museum about 20 miles upriver of the Castle. It is yet another 'must see' stop on your vacation and only twenty minutes south of the Castle at Alexandria Bay, the entrance to Lake Ontario. If you're into visiting an exquisite setting that was one of the many playgrounds of the moguls of "The Gilded Age", visiting Singer Castle is highly recommended.

By Jeffrey H. Sado

The Trial of the 19th Century: Stanford White's Murder

13 05 2012 18:06:57 +0000

Stanford White was born in 1853. White was a famous American architect of the late 19th and early 20th Century who created many wonderful and memorable buildings in his hometown of New York City, as well as numerous estates for his wealthy clientele. He built magnificent homes for the Astors and Vanderbilts, as well as other Fifth Avenue and Newport RI. Mansions. White also built the first Madison Square Garden bordering Madison Square Park. He kept a private office and tower apartment there too, overlooking the Park. His family conveniently lived elsewhere.

He had just finished building 18 East 64th Street, a beautiful limestone mansion on 64th between Fifth and Madison Avenues, when he was gunned down on June 25th, 1906 in a jealous rage, by Harry Kendall Thaw, who shot and killed White atop Madison Square Roof Garden during an evening of entertainment. The roof was used to premiere Broadway shows and for partying.

Thaw dressed in a black suit, in the middle of Summer stood out like a sore thumb. He had a pistol under his coat. The coat-check girl had asked him several times if he wanted to check the coat, but he refused. After a few songs and dances, Thaw approached Stanford White's front row table, and put three bullets in his face. White slumped over and fell to the floor, and a man at the next table placed a couple of tableclothes over White to shield his bloodied face from the guests. He was dead on the spot. As Thaw emptied the remaininbg bullets into his hand, and held the gun up above his head, to show the crowd that it was empty, and that he had stopped firing. Some people laughed, thinking that this was a part of the show. Thaw exited to the elevators and met his wife, the young and beautiful Evelyn Nesbit, with friends who were waiting for him. She saw the gun and asked him "My God, What have you done?" and Thaw replied: "I've saved you." Nesbit had had a fling with White, and Thaw was jealous of this affair. White liked them young and glamerous, mostly showgirls, but Evelyn was a hi-society beauty married to a young mogul.

The resulting court proceedings were dubbed "The Trial of The Century" by the gossip hungry New York City press. The lurid details of the trial are long forgotten, but not Stanford White, as his architecure remains an elegant element and stamp on what's left of Olde New York. Moral of the story... no matter how good your work is, and how admired you are... be careful who you play with!

By Jeffrey H. Sado

History of New Year's Eve Ball Drop in Times Square

05 05 2012 21:20:57 +0000

New Year's Eve 1904 marked the first time that crowds gathered in front of the newly built New York Times Tower to celebrate New Year's Eve. In the days prior tp the party, the paper announced that there would be an unforgettable fireworks display to ring in the New Year! That first year was a huge success. The New York Times had moved their headquarters to this brand new 25-story elevated building with four basements! Interesting to note, the basements were designed for the printing presses, and the papers were inked each day/night (a 24-hour operation rotating the presses to give them breaks for maintenance).

As the papers came off the presses, they would be stacked and shipped via the newly constructed New York City Subway system. The building had it's own underground doors/passageways to the subway cars and Times Square Station (the conversion point for most of the city's subway lines for it's central location), and the newsboys would distribute the papers at each stop to newstands, which in many cases still exist today.

Back to New Year's Eve...following year 1, the first few years were probablematic, and as the crowds grew larger , and the fireworks greater, and setting them off atop the building created a potentially dangerous environment for the revelers below. Several injuries occurred over these early years of festivity. A solution was needed!

Max Starr was the electrician who created the first 'Electronic Ball' in 1908, and was inspired to do so by the world's first skyscraper: the 47-story Singer Tower commissioned by Frederick Gilbert Bourne and designed by Ernest Flagg (1906). The Singer Tower was topped-off, at Bourne's request, with a lighted-beacon for seagoing vessels and their captains to find the New York Harbor at night. The light was so powerful that it could be seen for 25 miles, almost the entire length of Manhattan!

For New Year's Eve 1908, Starr created this Electronic Ball. It was a 6' diameter sphere and consisted of 220 bulbs. Since the new Millennium, it's a new model of very expensive Waterford Crystal. The only years the 'ball' was not dropped and there was no celebration in Times Square were the war years of Word War II, when a black-out was declared by the U.S. Government for fear of it being a target of German Bombers that might plan a secret mission to drop bombs on our beloved Gotham.

As I write this, I can't help but think that another social change that took place with respect to the New Year's celebration in Times Square...just as the master of ceremonies baton was passed from Guy Lombardo, who for decades broadcast a New year's Party each year on CBS from The Warldorf Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue, to Dick Clark, who 'Rocked' Times Square for the last 40 years! Clark's recent passing is a sad reminder that nothing last forever. The moral: Enjoy every day, because each moment is a blessing. The good times will continue, just with different players. I was fortunate to spend New Year's 1990 on his broadcast platform in front of One Times Square, the magnifcient building that I once managed, with my then girlfriend and Dick Clark and his wife and small crew. He was a brillant entertainer and impressario and now will, I am sure, entertain the heavens!

Those few minutes and last ten seconds before the Ball drops each midnight 12/31 is broadcast around the world in all time zones, by various news media, and seen in over 200 countries worldwide, making this a truely global moment and event! But the history of the event underscores its importance and significance.

By Jeffrey H. Sado

See Jeff at http://www.filmannex.com/webtv/historymavens/movie/jeff-sado-about-lady-liberty/30465. Jeff talks about his latest screenplay "Lady Liberty."

Two Nations Under God...Red State and Blue State...Raebeck's Sample Ballot

04 05 2012 15:17:43 +0000

The U.S. is hopelessly divided. Political paralysis is the norm. Compromise is impossible. Two ideologically opposed countries struggling under banner of the red, white and blue. One liberal: the Horseshoe nation (New York, California, and some of northern U.S.) and one conservative: the Confederate nation (the South and the West). My friend Barry Raebeck created the following Sample Ballot in his blog.

His sample ballot can be modified, of course, but the results of voting on these twenty issues are sufficient to determine whether a state is Horseshoe or Confederate. The ballot would list these twenty issues, or comparable ones, and the voter would simply indicate an overall preference for the positions in one column or the other at the bottom--not a vote on every one of the issues. There could be more or less than the twenty, also, but twenty seems to be a representative number. With ample prior time to both construct the issues and to consider them, the plebiscite would have validity in clarifying the essential views of the citizens of each state, while determining consensus.

Twenty Issues

Horseshoe Position

1. Paying federal taxes is the obligation of a citizen.

2. Universal health care is a hallmark of a progressive nation. We should provide for

all.

3. Abortion should remain legal and available to all.

4. The US does not need a large standing army.

5. Environmental protection is essential.

6. The Supreme Court should protect the people.

7. Israel is not a particularly good ally for the US, as long as it does not deal with Palestinian

issue.

8. The National Rifle Association is dangerous for us.

9. Public schools require more state and federal $.

10. Taxes on the wealthy should be greatly increased.

11. Reliance on fossil fuels is leading to global warming and dangerous climate change.

12. Contributions to political campaigns by corporations should be severely limited.

13. Large government investments in high speed rail would be a huge benefit.

14. A strict separation of church and state is necessary in a true democracy.

15. Any two citizens should have full marriage rights and protections.

16. Government is a rational social arrangement.

17. Passage of the Equal Rights Amendment is long overdue.

18. The US would be wise to engage in the world diplomatically and economically more than

militarily.

19. We have way too many people in our prisons.

20. Labor unions guarantee basic worker protections and promote economic growth.

Confederate position

1. The federal government should be severely limited.

2. Universal health care is economic suicide. We should take care of ourselves privately.

3. Abortion is murder.

4. The US needs a large standing army.

5. Business is generally more important than environmental protection.

6. The Supreme Court should protect corporations, which are made up of people, after all.

7. Israel is one of our best allies, and needs our support.

8. The NRA enables us to protect ourselves.

9. Public schools already take too much of our taxes.

10. Taxes should not be raised on anyone.

11. Drill, baby drill.

12. Corporations are free to contribute as much as they wish.

13. High speed rail is for foreigners--Americans drive.

14. The US was always, and should remain, a Judeo-Christian nation, relying on the Ten

Commandments.

15. Marriage is for heterosexuals, as is divorce.

16. Government is a necessary evil, to limited degree.

17. The Equal Rights Amendment is a bad idea.

18. The US needs to maintain an armed presence throughout the world in order to protect

ourselves and our allies against terror.

19. Keeping people in prison protects the rest of us.

20. Labor unions weaken a capitalist system.

YOUR VOTE

Of these twenty issues, I mainly favor: Horseshoe Confederate (circle one)

Sherry Sado's Microwave Oven

03 05 2012 23:47:06 +0000

The microwave oven was another consumer product game-changer of the modern era. My family played a part in its history.

In 1949, microwaves were used to develop radar systems for the military. One day a lab technician with a chocolate bar in his lab coat pocket got zapped! The rest is a story that would make any future Bill Gates salivate. At that moment, microwave cooking was born! The smart young technician knew the profit making potential of the device right away! He went to his superiors and told them he could make an electronic oven and he was successful. In the microwave oven's early years, the U.S. military developed mammoth microwave ovens to feed their large numbers of troops and support personnel.

A decade passes before my mother had the bright idea to make a portable tabletop microwave. You see, my father Manny Sado had been in the appliance business since the 1930s, with his older brother, Harry. They formed Black Angus Broilers and Ritz Cookware. By the time my mother married my father in 1954, the company was extremely successful marketing a dozen or more different kitchen appliances, broilers, toaster ovens, waffle makers, donut makers, and electronic indoor/outdoor grills.

Manny Sado was a visionary and product innovator and Sherry Sado was a marketing genius. The idea for a tabletop microwave was created over dinner by my mother. It didn't take much to convince my Dad to invest in the research and development in creating a small microwave oven that worked in smaller spaces. Sherry knew the challenges of New York City apartment living and was convinced her new model would be a winner.

Since Black Angus already had the shell for the rotisseries, they needed to figure out how to shrink the magnatron, the cooking element needed to generate the microwaves. Instead of traditional cooking from the outside in, microwave cooking would heat the food's molecules to extremes and the natural friction against each other would cause heat and cook from the inside out.

My mother and father were a great business team, and they endeavored to globally change the way people cooked foods. They started on this culinary adventure in 1962, and tragically my Dad died that same year, never seeing their vision completed.

He knew it would work and his wife Sherry could deliver. And true to her word she did in 1965, when Sherry finally created the first working prototype of a table-top unit. In fact, my mother's design beat Amana's RadarRange by two years. Unfortunately, my mother never mass-marketed her table top microwave because the public was still wary of electronic cooking and the potential cancer risks. Scientific studies were still on-going, and soon after the formal introduction at McCormack Place at The Chicago Housewares Show, my mother sold the company to Sun Chief Electric, later acquired by Farberware.

My mother delighted in knowing that she made a big contribution to the way the world cooked and enjoyed food. She was a beautiful small-town girl (and eventual Ford Model) with big ideas when she moved to NYC to study at NYU. But she made her dreams real...

Cheers Mom!

By Jeffrey Sado

Jazz on a Summer's Day, Newport, RI (1958)

02 05 2012 18:47:49 +0000

You must see the movie "Jazz on a Summer's Day " because it's hands down the greatest jazz film ever made! (In this critic's humble opinion.)

Bert Stern, a famous photographer, always wanted to make a movie. In 1958, Stern was already one of the most sought-after advertising lensmen in the world shooting campaigns for blue-chip clients such as Smirnoff Vodka, Kodak, Coca-Cola, Camel, Rheingold beer...the list goes on and on... Stern's images danced in the frame, his pictures were colorful and inspiring and usually took you to far-off places. But Stern sold you whatever he was selling. He transformed advertising photography from the black and white era dominated by copy into a new era of amazing colorful images with simple bold tag-lines. Stern got people talking about the photograph as well as the products! Never done before. He was an artist creating appealing and inviting canvases out of reality. He won award after award, and his name, in ad circles, Stern became synonymous with commercial success!

But! Stern yearned to make a movie before his 30th birthday. The opportunity arrived when Elaine Lorrillard, Founder of the Newport Jazz Festival invited Stern to "come take some pictures" at her festival! George Wen,

who Lorrillard had hired and he invited everyone from the world of jazz to join-in. The top names in the world showed up for this first-ever Jazz Fest! Nobody would want to miss this most anticipated event and an invitation from Elaine and George.

What had started in 1954 as a 'Garden Party' on the manicured grounds of "Belle Court", the Lorillards' marvelous Newport Mansion on Bellevue Avenue, in Rhode Island, with George Wein and his Trio performing for the guests, had now outgrown the property, and was moved to the waterfront in Freebody Park and sponsored by Newport Cigarettes and Lorrilard Tobacco Company (owner of Newport and Kool Ciggarttes). All this set against the backdrop of The NY Yacht Club's 1958 America's Cup Races over the biggest holiday weekend of the year... Independence Day, July 4th,1958.

Imagine... a beautiful stage, stereofied for the first time, with jazz stars such as Louis Armstrong, Dinah Washington, George Shearing, Chico Hamilton, Max Roach, Johnny Mandel, Jimmy Guifree, Thelonious Monk,Big May Belle, Mahailia Jackson, Chuck Berry, Anita O'Day, Duke Ellington, Gerry Mulligan and others, and the finest most beautiful sleak teak sailboats racing in the background.

Louis Armstrong was the star of the movie, and when Bert asked him to sign the standard release forms, Louis looked at him and said that he wouldn't sign, unless Stern guarrenteed that it would be recorded in stereo. Stereo was state-of-the-art and Armstrong knew that this would he and others would deliver 'special' performances. They didn't disappoint, each artist was on his game and left the audience wanting more! Of course, Stern was thrilled with the "bargain" that he followed Louis' advice even though it cost him another $40,000.

With this stunning set, Stern wasn't about to just take some pictures, though he had his camera strapped around his neck while he directed this award-winning film (Best Document in Venice 1960 & listed as one of the top 100 films of the 20th Century by The Library of Congress in Washington D.C.). As mentioned, he wanted to make a film. So, he told Elaine that he was coming to shoot a movie. He actually wrote a script that carried a story of an beautiful heiress kidnapped at the jazz festival, and taken hostage out to sea, complete with an FBI rescue and helicopter shots and of course a sea-faring chase scene. Sounds great right!, but not as good as the Music! Once he turned the cameras on these fabulous artists he couldn't stop shooting, the sights and sounds were just too good for him to miss any moment, and thus this great documentary was born.

Chuck Berry strummed and sang "Blue Suede Shoes" and "My Little Sixteen". Thelonius Monk tickled the keys to the overhead visions of races below (shot from the helicopter, with Stern Strapped to a harness). Stern did anything needed to get the shot! Dinah Washington's voice was just beautiful and energetic as she captivated the audience. Anita O'Day sang her most moving "Sweet Georgia Brown", and who could forget Louis' Armstrong's "Wonderful World" and "Dixieland". "Jazz on a Summer's Day" was a dazzling display of luminaries from American jazz. Simply UNFORGETTABLE, as Nat King Cole said!

"Jazz on a Summer's Day" took two almost two years to edit, as it was the first music documentary ever recored in stereo and filmed in 35mm KodaColor film. No such syncing had ever taken place before, so it was an all new process, done magnificently by Bert and the film's editor, Avram Avakian. Avakian would go onto to become the Dean of the prestigious NYU Film School. His brother, George Avakian, was an award-winning sound editor, and the soundman on "Jazz on a Summer's Day."

When the film first premiered in Venice, Italy in the summer of 1960 "Jazz on a Summer's Day" took the well-deserved award for "Best Documentary". George Wein would go onto run the Festival for 50 years! The film set standards for later films sponsored from Newport to Kool to more recently JVC. This was the "Granddaddy" of 'em all! Stern directed this movie like no other before him, and let his love of the music and visuals soar. He shot with five cameras from every angle and with long lenses, drawing on his his advertising and fashion talents.

Prior to "Jazz on a Summer's Day", documentaries were shot from a static / one camera position with hi-fi sound. This was the only film Stern would ever make, and often when asked why he didn't make more movies, he replied, "I couldn't top 'Jazz on a Summer's Day" Congratulations! Mr. Stern and thanks for giving the world a cinematic musical masterpiece. Bravo!

By Jeffrey Sado

See Jeff at http://www.filmannex.com/webtv/historymavens/movie/jeff-sado-about-lady-liberty/30465. Jeff talks about his latest screenplay "Lady Liberty."

Singer Sewing Machine Co...The First Conglomerate!

01 05 2012 14:52:36 +0000

The Singer Sewing Machine was the first consumer product "Game-Changer". The invention won the first "Gold Ribbon" at the 1st World's Fair in Paris, France in 1855. This manufacturing company led the way for the American Industrial Revolution, creating the first home appliance, and company's rising fortunes ushered in Mark Twain's "Gilded Age".

Singer was the first successful international vertically integrated business model in history. The company's business plan has been taught at The Harvard Business School. Singer's management created credit in America in 1873, when the U.S. economy was in a recession, offering their best sewing machine for a mere $5. down and $3. per/week for 40 weeks.

This credit policy helped the struggling public the opportunity to make clothes for their families and even start businesses that hadn't existed before. The Singer Sewing Machine Co. supported the Woman's Suffrage Movement, and it's advertising campaign featured beautiful women in store windows behind a sewing machine/table.

Pedestrians would walk by and see the machine's power n action, and most had to have one! Singer built factories to satisfy the demand on waterfronts to ship product in their own ships. On the other side of the factory, railroad tracks were used to ship sewing machines in railroad cars. Each Singer actory had a giant clock right in front of it, so everyone knew what time it was. Employees had to be on-time!

Singer also had an in-house advertising agency that created beautiful Victorian Lithographs, Trading Cards, Prints, etc. Singer offered retirement plans for employees. Singer hired Ernest Flagg to build the first skyscraper (47 stories tall in 1906) in the world in lower Manhattan at Liberty and Broadway with an Observatory onthe 40th Floor facing Lady Liberty. Singer machines sewed the wings to the Wright Brothers first plane and the sails of the ship "The Atlantique," which won the first Trans Atlantic Race in 1905 from Red Hook, Brooklyn to Dover, England in 12 days and 4 hours (a record that held for 75 years!).

Singer Sewing Machine Co. became the world's firs international conglomerate with factories all over the world! By 1920, the company had grown to roughly 90,000 employees with 5000 stores and offices around the globe! By the time Singer was taken over in a hostile bidding war in 1987, the company made jet aircraft engines, computers, vacuum cleaners, irons, and assorted kitchen appliances. It's assests were broken-up and sold for 4 billion dollars. Today, Singer is on the rise again and is managed by the Scandanavian SVP Worldwide..

Here are some noteworthy American and European institutions and landmarks that were either directly built by or helped by the various Singer fortunes:

The Statue of Liberty in NYC Harbor...The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown NY...The Osewgo Hotel in Cooperstown, NY... Clark Museum in Williamstown, MA...Clark University in Worchester, MA...The Dakota Apartments in NYC...The NY Yacht Club...The Metropolitan Museum...The Museum of Modern Art...The Explorer's Club (and Admiral Peary's Trip to The North Pole)...The Singer Tower...TheSinger Plant in Elizabeth NJ and Montreal, Canada...The Singer Buildings in Chicago, and Richmond, VA....Singer Castle...Indian Neck Hall in Oakdale LI...Villa Strassburger in Deauville, France...Haras Des Monceaux in Chantilly, France...Normandy Farm in Blue Bell, PA...Bourne Hall at The Gunnery in Washington , CT... Bourne Meadows at Lake Tahoe...Albourne Rancho...Airy Hall Plantation...Jekyll Island Club and Hotel...Singer's Oldway Mansion in Torquay, England,...and Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Georgia. A pretty impressive collection of properties that enhanced culture and architecture throughout the world!

The best evidence of Singer's early great global reach is a simple set of Victorian Trading Cards created by Singer for the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 where the world's first Ferris Wheel was introduced. Each card depicts a country where sewing machines were sold in. By 1900, Singer was selling 3 million sewing machines per year. Today, Singer's sewing machines are sold in more than 190 countries!

A Stitch In Time Saves Nine...

By Jeffrey H. Sado

See Jeff at http://www.filmannex.com/webtv/historymavens/movie/jeff-sado-about-lady-liberty/30465. Jeff talks about his latest screenplay: "Lady Liberty."

Photographer Milton Greene's Marilyn Monroe

30 04 2012 23:59:39 +0000

“If you can make a girl laugh, you can make her do anything.”

Marilyn Monroe

The young handsome and charming photographer Milton H. Greene met the world's most famous actress Marilyn Monroe when she was a young and innocent girl dreaming of Hollywood. Marilyn would soon blossom into one of the most beautiful women of all time in front of Greene's eyes. The photographer and actress met in August of 1949 in Palm Springs, CA. to shoot the first of many memorable photography sessions. At the time, Milton took more pictures of the most photographed woman on Earth than anyone else on the planet. Their friendship and relationship ran the gamut, while both their stars rose to stratospheric levels not seen before by adoring audiences worldwide. Monroe's meteoric rise in fame made her one of the most influential actresses on the Big Screen in history. Monroe's images make the top of the list of most popular deceased icons year after year.

When Marilyn needed advice about her contract negotiations with Daryl Zanuck in 1952, who was one of the most powerful men in Hollywood at the time, she turned to Milton Greene. Milt advised her to meet his New York City attorney, the well-known Louis Nizer, a future New York State attorney general. Nizer had started his very successful firm a few years earlier. Paranoia ran rampant. Senator McCarthy was running around the country calling everyone Communists and writers, actors, all sorts of creative people were targeted.

Nizer defended many falsely accused and made a name for himself. He happily reviewed Monroe's contract and concluded that it was air-tight. Zanuck had his best lawyers write it up for his young super star. Zanuck knew she had a special talent in her, and the lens loved her. He wanted to tie her up for as long as he could and he did. She was paid $1500. per/wk and had to play any roles that 20th Century told her to play. She wanted out!!! soon after her films were made more money than any other actor/actress in Tinseltown.

Marilyn Monroe wanted the ability to pick her own roles. Everyone knew that she was about to marry Joe Dimaggio, the retiring star centerfielder for the New York Yankees, so Nizer came up with a plan: play a game of poker with the boss. Marilyn couldn't work for another studio, and the strategy was simple get to the table and demand to be released from the contract, or she would simply retire and marry Joe and make babies. In the alternative, if Zanuck and his partners agreed to let her out of her contract, she give him 20% of thge stock in Marilyn Monroe Productions and the first right of refusal to distribute anyt films that she chose to make. Zanuck was taken with Marilyn from the start and he couldn't bear the thought of losingh her entirely, so a deal was struck. This groundbreaking event was one of the first successful cases of 'free agency' in Hollywood.

Marilyn was so appreciative of Milton's advice that she made him a 49% partner and SVP of Production for the newly formed MM Productions. They duo surrounded themselves with the best and the brightest. Nizer was their lawyer, Jay Kanter became her agent. Kanter also represented Grace Kelly and Marlon Brando's careers and would go onto run Universal Studios and MGM. Milton Executive Produced "Bus Stop" in 1954 and "The Prince and "The ShowGirl" in 1956 with Laurence Olivier, The recent film, "My Week With Marilyn" was the subject of that backstory. Their partnership was perfect, until her marriage to Arthur Miller, who then wanted to control and direct MM's career. They sadly parted ways and disolved the company in 1957, but not before taking some fabulous pictures together such as "The Black Sitting".

Marilyn Monroe called the great photographer one more time, perhaps knowing that their wonderful partnership was coming to an end, but not before they had one last 'fling'! So late this evening she called Milton, and the photo shoot was a smashing success. Marilyn wore an elegant and sexy black outfit with only black tophat, and you see her laughing and sipping some Vodka from a cocktail glass, and can only imagine Sinatra's "Fly Me To The Moon" playing in the backgtound. She was always at her best in front of the camera with Milton Greene snapping away! Although the duo split due to Miller's pressure, Greene was Marilyn's loyal friend until the end, Before her tragic death, Greene and Monroe discussed moving back the east coast and restarting. Just think what more wonderful movies and images they may have made had Marilyn Monroe lived. We miss you both.

By Jeffrey H. Sado

See Jeff at http://www.filmannex.com/webtv/historymavens/movie/jeff-sado-about-lady-liberty/30465. Jeff talks about his latest screenplay "Lady Liberty."

Famed Photographer Bert Stern's Summer of 1962

28 04 2012 12:56:26 +0000

When the famed photographer Bert Stern planned out his summer of 1962, he had no idea that he would be capturing spectacular slices of future iconic history through his lens. Bert was a man known for his innovative advertising photography. In 1952, Stern burst on the scene with a shot for a Smirnoff Vodka Campaign of The Great Pyramid in Giza, Egypt. He shot a beautiful color image at daybreak of a V-shaped cocktail glass with Vodka in it, set in the sand in the foreground with the Great Pyramid in the background. An optical illusion was created turning the Pyramid upside down in the glass. It was a stunning color picture (Kodak had recently inroduced a new color film) and the cocktail dominated the exposure with a simple tag-line that read "Smirnoff Driest of The Dry" to compete the with the dry gin martini... the most popular drink of the day!

Smirnoff's new ads' success was immediate and directly attributable to the introduction of these award-winning images. In the twelve years 1952-1964 that Bert Stern shot for the company, Hueblein saw sales increase from 100,000 cases per/year to 10 Million cases per year! These ads put Stern on the International Map, and he quickly became one of the most sought after lensmen in the world! But advertising campaigns, although very lucrative, were not enough to satisfy his passions, so he turned to women in Fashion and Hollywood. He loved women and conquered them in both mediums.

In June of 1962...

Stern was booked as the photographer for the historic film 44M budgeted epic "Cleopatra", starring Liz Taylor and Richard Burton. 20th Century Fox produced and distributed the movie. And, it was the first film where an actor/actress received a one million dollar payday for her role. Elizabeth Taylor was at the height of her cinematic success. Stern didn't count on competing with Richard Burton for Liz's attention, but she was clearly smitten with the debonair Irishman. Stern set up a studio with 20th's money in Rome, and made several appointments with Liz to do their work in the evenings after her shooting schedule for the day was completed. But much to his chagrin, Liz only had eyes for Burton, and their time was spent sneaking-off to launch one of the most talked about love-affairs of the 20th Century.

After being stood-up by LT for a couple of weeks, Bert approached Liz on the set one day and said, "I understand that you have been very busy and unable to meet, but when you are ready for me please call my secretary in NYC, and let her know, and I'll return to take the pictures." She asked why was he leaving and he replied with a smile, "I have a date with Marilyn Monroe" He was leaving the most desirable brunette in the world for the sexist blonde bombshell the Earth had ever known. Stern knew that would get Liz's attention. So, off he flew to Los Angeles to meet everyman's dreamgirl!

A month before Marilyn had starred in her last film for Paramount with Dean Martin, and then got sidetracked singing "Happy Birthday Mr. President" to John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden, where Peter Lawford ominously introduced her as "the late Marilyn Monroe". She was a little late for her appearance, and we all know that within two months she would tragically be dead. In the interim, Bert Stern and Marilyn Monroe made photographic history. He rented suites at The Bel Air Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA., She was fashionable late for the appointment (several hours!), which made Bert crazy. This stylish session was slated to be published in Vogue Magazine's September 'showcase' issue to illustrate the latest and greatest in Fall Fashions. Stern and Monroe met and created perhaps the most memorable photos ever taken of her. The wardobe was sent out by Vogue, Kenneth and team did the hair and make-up, and Bert made sure that there was plenty of Dom Perignon 1952 and Sinatra and The Everly Brothers playing in the background.

When Stern finished shooting all the beautiful evening gowns and furs there was only one thing left to do, and that was to shoot Marilyn Monroe with nothing on! Pure, Simple and Beautiful... everyman's dream! He wondered if she would go along with it, and of course she did! Marilyn wanted to let the world know that she was still on top of her game, even though Paramount had shut down her recent film project, because the bombshell had been somewhat unreliable arriving to the set lately, costing the company time and money. When he arrived, she was ready and bottom-line was Stern's trip to LA. was a huge success! Diana Vreeland, the Editor-in-Chief of Vogue, Bert's boss, was thrilled with the fashion photos for the magazine, and Bert was excstatic with the very tasteful nudes, as was the rest of the world! Stern returned to NYC to hear that Liz Taylor had called and requested that he return to Rome. Next stop: Roma, Italy!

Stern arrived back in Rome to find a much more cooperative Liz Taylor. The 20th Century Fox executives had read her the riot act, as they had been spending a ton of money to get Stern and his Studio readied for her. This time they worked marvelously together. He captured 'Royal' shots of Elizabeth as Cleopatra and Burton as Marc Anthony, with their supporting cast of characters. They were plastered on posters and in magazines like Life all over the world. Gossip emanating from the set was that Liz and Dick were having an affair. The news circled the globe like wildfire. And, Liz who looked stunning as Cleopatra, and the movie was a hugh hit. Stern and Taylor became such good friends that when filming wrapped-up, and Taylor and Burton chose to rent a yacht and sail the Mediterreanean they invited Bert to join them. Taylor and Burton sent divorce papers to their spouses Eddie Fisher and Sybil Burton and went public with their romance. Bert was there to document it!

Ahhh...Summer wasn't over yet...and while basking in the Sun, when docked in St. Tropez, France a messenger came with an invitation from Bridgette Bardot, the most beautiful French Sex-Kitten alive. She invited them all to join join her for a lunch at her villa, which they did. The Gods looked out for him, the stars were aligned, and this was to be the Summer, the Year, of his All-Time Greatest Creative Accomplishments! They all had a lovely lunch and BB quietly seduced this royal photog right in front of Taylor and Burton. If he was good enough for Liz and Marilyn, he was good enough for her. Stern would be her latest conquest, and he wouldn't put up a fight., who would? Bridgette invited Bert to stay and take pictures, what real man could say no? He returned to the boat, packed up his things and thanked Liz and Dick, and told them he would see them back in the States. Liz jokes watch-out for that girl. Stern exits the yacht, his mind racing, how will he shoot BB. Will she take her clothes off for him? Could anybody match MM's sex appeal and Liz's elegant beauty? Cut back to BB's Villa where he took more famously timeless images of this gorgeous Goddess. Imagine being a red-blooded young American boy...

God has smiled upon (too bad he couldn't take God's picture!) , he has led a charmed life, and if ever there was a boy who got his dream job, the photographer / cinemaphotographer Bert Stern is the guy!

By Jeffrey H. Sado

See Jeff at http://www.filmannex.com/webtv/historymavens/movie/jeff-sado-about-lady-liberty/30465. Jeff talks about his latest screenplay "Lady Liberty."

Southern Fried Euphemisms

26 04 2012 09:58:51 +0000

* It's so dry the trees are whistling for the dogs.
* Busier than a cat covering crap on a marble floor.
* If things get any better around here, I may have to hire someone to help me enjoy it.
* Well knock me down and steal muh teeth!
* Cute as a box full of puppies.
* You can't get rid of 'em. He's like a booger you can't thump off.
* It's about as hard as trying to steer a herd of cats.
* The wheels still turning, but the hamster's dead.
* I'll beat you so bad you'll feel like you were ate by wolves and shit over a cliff.
* He's so confused he doesn't know whether to scratch his watch or wind his ass.
* She was as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
* There are a lot of nooses in his family tree.
* So crooked you can't tell from his tracks if he's coming or going.
* I wouldn't trust him any farther than I can throw him.
* He's got more guts than you could hang on a fence.
* So dry the catfish are carrying canteens.
* So dry I'm spitting cotton.
* Hot as a two-dollar whore on the 4th of July.
* So hot the hens are laying hard-boiled eggs.
* Cold as a frosted frog
* Cold as an ex-wife's heart
* Cold as a cast iron commode
* Cold as a banker's heart
* I won't say it's far, but I had to grease the wagon twice before I hit the main road.
* Busy as a funeral home fan in July.
* If a trip around the world cost a dollar, I couldn't get to the state line.
* We were so poor I had a tumbleweed as a pet.
* He looks like he was inside the outhouse when lightening struck.
* She looks like she was born down wind from the outhouse.
* Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day.
* Never smack a man who's chewin' tobacco.
* Never ask a barber if he thinks you need a haircut.
* The quickest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it back in your pocket.
* Scared as a sinner in a cyclone.
* Scared as a cat at the dog pound.
* Pregnant before marriage: They ate supper before they said grace.
* She's so ugly she'd make a freight train take a dirt road.
* He's so ugly his cooties have to close their eyes.
* So ugly his mama takes him everywhere she goes so she doesn't have to kiss him goodbye.
* She looks like she fell face-down in the sticker patch and cows ran over her.
* He looks like the dogs have been keepin' him under the porch.
* He's about as sharp as a mashed potato.
* So dusty the rabbits are digging holes six feet in the air.
* It'll last about as long as a fart in a whirlwind.
* He's rough as a corn cob.
* He's got enough money to burn a wet mule.
* He's about as sharp as a bag full of wet mice.
* It's as dry as the dust in a mummy's pocket.
* It's about as scarce as bird crap in a cuckoo clock.
* He's as tight as the pages in a book.
* Tight like a too-small bathing suit on a too-long ride home from the beach.
* This race is as tight as the rusted lug nuts on a '55 Ford.
* Hotter than a Laredo parking lot in the summertime.
* It’s hot enough to peel house paint.
* Running like a squirrel in a cage.
* Safe as a tick on a dog with a stiff neck.
* Dumb as a bag full of hammers.
* She's just naturally horizontal.
* Meaner than a skilletful of rattlesnakes.
* He couldn't find his ass with a flashlight in each hand.
* He couldn't pour rain out of a boot with a hole in the toe and directions on the heel.
* If dumb was dirt, he'd cover about half an acre
* So windy we're using a log chain instead of a wind sock.
* It's so foggy, the birds are walkin'
* Tighter than bark on a tree
* As welcome as an outhouse breeze.
* Her hair looks like a cats been suckin' on it.
* We were so poor my brother and me had to ride double on our stick horse.
* As bad-off as a rubber-nosed woodpecker in a petrified forest.
* As confused as a cow on astroturf.
* It was so hot you could pull a baked potato right out of the ground.

http://www.filmannex.com/webtv/historymavens/

The Perfect Leash: A Children's Fable

26 04 2012 00:01:45 +0000

One day Irwin wanted a friend.

So he biked to a pet store with money to spend.

The number of choices made choosing a fuss.

But the "I" became "we" when Irwin found Gus.

"We'll get the essentials as long as were here...

Though finding the exit will take us a year."

Just then there appeared a curious sort...

A boy with a dog on a leash way too short!

"My leash will keep her out of harm's way.

And there's never a chance of her going astray.

Quite a popular leash with all kinds of folks!

There's just one problem...

This leash often CHOKES!"

"What's the commotion?" asked the manager.

Gus and Irwin at that point winced.

"My leash is fashion," said a model in passing.

Gus and Irwin remained unconvinced.

Then the sound of some forgotten song

From a girl with a dog on a leash way too long!

"The leash gives me freedom," said the girl in a boast.

There's just one problem...

Her dog's always LOST!

A clerk held up a remote-control zapper:

"The voltage adjusts, the results spectacular.

Say what you will, but with a flip of my finger...

Dogs go anywhere with the help of this ZINGER!"

"Let's go home," sighed Irwin. "We'll ask Mom's advice.

She knows what to do and she's so very nice."

So the pair arrived home in barely a wink.

"What leash should I get?" was all he could think.

In his haste to get answers, Irwin burst through the door.

"Mom, I'm confused about leashes and want to learn more.

I saw leashes of silk and leashes of leather,

And waterproof leashes to use in bad weather.

Should I get Gus a short leash or a long one instead?"

But before Irwin could finish, his mom smiled and said:

"This world is full of a number of voices;

You can never be sure you made the right choices.

Yet, whatever you do, a good place to start...

Is to think with your head, but follow your heart."

"Thanks, Mom," said Irwin, "for helping me decide."

But Irwin forgot that Gus was outside.

When he went to the porch, Gus was nowhere in sight.

Putting Irwin the boy in a terrible fright.

With tears in his eyes, he searched high and low...

And he checked all the places his puppy might go.

"I was worried about leashes and forgot about you

And now it's late, I don't know what to do!"

Irwin arrived at his home after hours in the park.

Imagine his surprise when he heard Gus' bark!

Gus and Irwin embraced and were never seen apart.

You see the leash that really matters is written in your heart.

When in control,

Show some restraint.

But letting go is tempting fate.

Too short a leash,

No room to grow.

Too long a leash,

No time to sow.

Our story ends

On a playful tug.

The perfect leash, of course, is

LOVE!

By John Barrett

http://www.filmannex.com/webtv/historymavens/

"Lady Liberty" Movie Synopsis

25 04 2012 13:26:15 +0000

Frederic Auguste Bartholdi (August 2, 1834 - October 4, 1904) was a French sculptor. He is also known as Amilcar Hasenfratz. Born in Colmar, Alsace, he studied architecture in Colmar and then went to Paris to further his studies in architecture as well as painting. Bartholdi would go on to become one of the most celebrated of the 19th century sculptors, famous both in Europe and in North America. The Statue of Liberty was his most famous work.

LADY LIBERTY

In 1875, following the death of wealthy inventor Isaac Singer, his many ex-wives and relations gather to contest their claim in his estate. But his true love Isabella is confident about her part, as she fondly recalls life spent with her late husband...

Isaac rose to fame and fortune with his innovations to the sewing machine, saving hours of labor for women. As he carried on an affair with her mother, Isabelle came to know Isaac when she was but the age of 15, and a unique bond was apparent even then. Isaac lived a raucous and scandalous life, rolling in cash and flaunting his relationships around town, while maintaining his second marriage and fathering an ever increasing number of children. His business partner Edward Clark struggles to keep up with the affairs that threaten the reputation of their business. His reputation as a womanizer and woman-abuser threatens to alienate their primary demographic: women. Isaac withdraws from the business operations, and turns his sights on the woman he knows is “the one”: Isabella.

In the present, a Judge meets with Isabella and Edward. He asserts that she is the true heir to Singer’s estate, but she doesn’t have enough shares to control the Singer Company. She must convince another shareholder to tender enough shares to her to have a majority interest. Isabella tells the Judge about how she got together with Isaac years ago...

Isaac buys his way into Isabella’s life, conniving and plotting a path into her heart. Despite lavish and romantic advances, Isabella turns him down, which only makes Isaac want her more. After an exciting and unorthodox courtship, they divorce their spouses and are happily married. They take a honeymoon throughout Europe, but upon returning to the U.S., the scandalous couple are shunned by other elites. Yet, Isabella is a good influence on Isaac, pressuring him to give some of his wealth to charity, and the two develop a strong bond that stands in contrast to his failed loves of the past. They grow old and have many children together, until his death.

The Judge politely hears Isabella’s recounting of her time with Isaac, before making judgment about the estate. Regardless of the legal outcome, Isabella is now looking forward to a new phase of life. She returns to Paris, now a widow, and becomes a popular figure among high society. At a party to fund the Statue of Liberty, Isabella encounters the eccentric sculptor Frederic Bartholdi. The artist is searching for the right face to model, and when he lays eyes upon Isabella he knows that she is the perfect visage for Lady Liberty. She accepts her role as muse, despite a tense confrontation with the artist’s brother who sees this as scandalous. They begin an impassioned and unorthodox romance. Meanwhile, Singer’s ex-wives and lovers plot to pool their shares in the Singer Company in order to freeze out Isabella from the company. As Frederic and Isabella fall more in love, the elites disapprove of this relationship. A dark secret in the Bartholdi family past also hangs over their relationship. Frederic’s brother and family intervene, and he is faced with a choice: stop dating this woman of ill repute, or be fired from sculpting the Statue of Liberty. Sadly, his choice ends their relationship.

With her heart broken thanks to the sexist mores of the time, Isabella becomes involved in the women’s suffrage movement, turning her attention and funds to supporting a campaign that promises to liberate women from oppression put on them by men. The inauguration of Liberty Enlightening the World begins with great fanfare, but Isabella joins other suffragettes in a passionate, inspiring protest that becomes a poignant and ironic counterpoint to the men-only celebration of “liberty."

By Jeff Sado

A complete "Lady Liberty" screenplay is available upon request. See Jeff at http://www.filmannex.com/webtv/historymavens/movie/jeff-sado-about-lady-liberty/30465.

Four Wealthy Men Who Became Household Words

22 04 2012 16:22:06 +0000

Cecil John Rhodes left money in his will for Rhodes scholars. The Rhodes Scholarship is now an international postgraduate award for study at the University of Oxford. Notable Rhodes scholars include Piyush "Bobby" Jindal (the current governor of Lousiana), Rachel Maddow (social activist and host of MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow" show) and Jared Cohen (the youngest member of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Policy Planning staff).

Munitions maker Alfred Nobel, who also invented dynamite, established the Nobel prizes. The Nobel Prize is a set of international awards bestowed in a number of categories by Scandanavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. Controversial Nobel Peace Prize recipients include Henry Kissenger, Yasser Arafat and Barack Obama.

A teaching elder of a church in Charlestown, Massachusetts, John Harvard bequeathed half of his private library and half of his estate to a fledging college in Cambridge that eventually became Harvard University. Harvard is the oldest institution of learning in the United States. The institution's history, influence and wealth have made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world.

James Smithson, the illegitimate son of the Duke of Northumberland, never visited America but left his estate to establish the Smithsonian Institution "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." Today, the Smithsonian Institution is the largest musuem complex in the world and has over 137 items in its vast collections.

By John Barrett

http://www.filmannex.com/webtv/historymavens/

Frederick Bourne: The Ethical Tycoon (Part 1)

20 04 2012 08:00:10 +0000

Re-discovering the Legacy of Frederick Bourne

Unlikely as it may seem now, there was a time not too long ago that the best place for a 19^th Century young man to become successful was joining a church choir. One such man was Frederick Bourne, the ethical tycoon. Bourne got his start by singing under the vaulted nave a Gothic church called the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, aka Smoky Mary’s.

Controversial from the start, the Church of St. Mary the Virgin was built on land donated (with strings attached) by John Jacob Astor, a shrewd speculator who understood the potential monetary and spiritual benefitsof a new Episcopal church located in the part of New York now known as Times Square.

As part of the deal with Astor and over the objections of the church’s hierarchy, the primary mission of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin would be conducting elaborate religious rituals. Astor demanded the new church be awash in incense, hence its memorable nickname Smoky Mary’s.

Even without the revenues that would normally flow from the then common practice of renting pews, Astor insisted that these pews be free forever. But the church’s budget still provided for top-notch music, including a fancy organ and a well-versed organist, all the essentials for a gentlemen or lady’s proper standing in the community and in keeping with the dictum, “One who sings well, prays twice.”

This is where Frederick Bourne’s story begins in earnest, at the crossroads of the world and at the dawn of the Gilded Age. Even the imagination of Horatio Alger would never have penned the story of Bourne, the humble choirboy who would later rise to the top of the world’s first multinational conglomerate, rescue Wall Street during the Panic of 1907, and who ended his life surrounded by a loving family and an assortment of bishops, royals and robber barons. It is estimated that Bourne left a fortune of $50 million upon his death in 1919 at the age of 68, which was eventually left to his children, church and various charities.

But truth is often stranger than fiction and it was in the smoky nave of St. Mary’s that the talented teen baritone Frederick Gilbert Bourne was “discovered,” the end result of a lifetime of musical instruction by his father the Rev. George Washington Bourne and mother Harriette Gilbert Bourne.

Bourne’s Early Years

George and Harriet Bourne were married in Portland, Maine and had two girls, Mary and Clara. The Bournes then moved to Boston, where Frederick and his brother were born. The Bournes moved to Brooklyn, NY during a smallpoxoutbreak in 1859, when Frederick was eight years old.

Too young for the Civil War, Bourne’s first outdoor job in 1865 was to dive for the Atlantic Salvage and Wrecking Company. At the age of fourteen, Bourne took to the water like a fish, and he enjoyed probing the depths of the East River off floats at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In those days, companies used boys to dive because small children could fit in the “Sea-Hunt” type divers suits. Air was pumped down to them from the Mother ship and these young divers would help to retrieve anything of value from the cold, murky depths below. It’s amazing thatFrederick survived four years of this grueling labor, as many divers died during these treacherous projects. Frederick loved the water, and in his later years he became a noted yachtsman and all around sportsman. Bourne eventually became the Commodore of the New York Yacht Club, following in the footsteps of his friends Vanderbilt and JP Morgan.

The Lucky Choirboy

In New York, the only rung higher for a church singer was the elite Trinity Church on Wall Street – a bastion of high society with a waiting list for seating and a home for world-renowned music. Visiting Trinity Church and listening to choir music was de rigueur for the touring stars of Europe and the leading first families of New York.

Imagine the pride Bourne felt when Trinity Church invited Frederick and two other singers from Smoky Mary’s to appear as a trio of angels singing “Lift Thine Eyes from Elijah,” Mendelssohn’s anthem to perseverance in the face of despair. Not only was the invitation a once in a lifetime honor, but also Frederick’s appearance at Trinity would soon introduce him into high society.

A Fortuitous Meeting

Trinity Church had adopted the practice of dressing its choir in the formal outfits of present time. Why? Because the church didn’t want its choir boys, in their words, to be “looking like street Arabs,” especially with the impending visit of England’s Prince of Wales. Imagine Frederick decked out in a long white surplice; his six-foot two inch frame accentuated by his straight posture, his head held high as he proudly sings for the greater glory of God.

Enter Trinity Church parishioner Alfred Corning Clark, who was once a tenor in the Trinity choir, but now a full-time patron of the arts, the prodigal son of a millionaire and an international dandy. Clark took notice of Bourne, and before long offered offered the talented singer a job.

Bourne’s career would put him in the same league with Rockefeller, Morgan and Vanderbilt. Like those self-made titans, Frederick didn’t inherit his wealth, but he did not amass his wealth on the backs of deadunion members. Frederick earned his fortune through hard work and good timing. Bourne was described as a man “combining fidelity and trust with a rare business ability”… with a “loveable personality [that] gained for him thegenuine affection of all with whom he came into close contact.”

Frederick’s singing talents got him a private audience with Clark, but it was his “good sense, mental alertness, good nature and general capability” that made him a keen prospect for the Clark’s real estate and Singer Sewing businesses. Even though Frederick started out as an entry-level clerk, the boy soon became a welcome addition to his rich employer’s nightly sessions of dinners, debates, readings and recitals. Bourne fit right in. But this was only the beginning...

FGB's story should really be titled "From Choir Boy To Singer", which encompasses most of his illustrious life.

To be continued…

By Jeffrey Sado and John Barrett

See Jeff at http://www.filmannex.com/webtv/historymavens/movie/jeff-sado-about-lady-liberty/30465. Jeff talks about his latest screenplay "Lady Liberty."

So Much for a Loving God...

20 04 2012 06:20:18 +0000

"At the entry to every lane you made yourself cubicles, defiling your beauty and spreading your legs to all and sundry in countless acts of prostitution. You have fornicated even with your neighbors, the Egyptians with their huge erections, provoking my anger with further acts of harlotry....So then, whore, hear the word of the Lord....For all this, I will assemble all the lovers whom you pleasured, whether you loved them or not. Yes, I will assemble them around you and strip you bare in front of them, and let them ogle your bear body from head to toe. I will pass on you the sentence that adulterers and murderers receive; I shall hand you over to their jealous fury; ...they will rip off your finery, take away your jewelry and leave you stark naked. Then they will call a public assembly to deal with you--to stone you to death and hack you to pieces with their swords, to burn down your cublicles and wreak justice upon you, while many other women look on."

(Ezek. 16:25-26, 35-41)

By John Barrett

What a Way to Go...

19 04 2012 16:35:22 +0000

Muhammad died in 632 A.D. as the result of eating poisoned lamb.

Sir Isaac Newton died in 1727 C.E. probably from a kidney stone.

Jesus died on the cross in 33 C.E. from a rupture of the heart.

Buddha died in 543 B.C.E. from a body reaction to a dish of wild mushroom.

Confucius died in 479 B.C E. shortly after the death of his two sons.

St. Paul died in 62 C.E. from a beheading.

Christopher Columbus died in 1506 C.E. from a heart attack.

Albert Einstein died in 1955 C.E. from a rupture of an aortic aneurism.

Galileo Galilei died in 1642 C.E. after suffering a fever with heart palpitations.

Moses died in 1271 B.C E.. within sight of the Promised Land.

Charles Darwin died in 1882 C.E. after several minor heart attacks.

Augustus Caesar died in 14 C.E. of old age although there are some rumors that his wife Livia posioned him with figs.

Constantine the Great died in 337 C.E. after getting sick shortly after Easter.

Martin Luther died in 1546 C.E. after years of suffering various maladies such as constipation, hemorrhoids, Meniere's disease, a cataract in one eye, kidney and bladder stones, arthritis, and a ruptured ear drum.

George Washington died in 1799 C.E. after a brief illness believed to be a serious throat and lower respiratory infection.

Karl Marx died in 1883 C.E. from bronchitis and pleurisy.

Genghis Khan died in 1227 C.E. from unknown causes. Some historians believe that Khan fell of his horse and died from injuries and other scholars ascribe his demise to fighting against the Tanguts.

Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C.E. in the palace of Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon from a mysterious illness.

Napoleon Bonaparte died in 1815 C.E. from either stomach cancer or arsenic poisoning.

Adolf Hitler died in 1945 C.E. after taking a cyanide capsule and shooting himself in the head.

Oliver Cromwell died in 1658 C.E. from a urinary/kidney infection.

Ludwig Van Beethoven died in 1770 C.E. as a result of lead poisoning.

Simon Bolivar died in 1830 C.E. from tuberculosis.

Rene Descartes died in 1650 C.E. from pneumonia.

Michelangelo died in 1564 C.E. after suffering from a slow fever.

Stalin died in 1953 C.E. from a brain hemorrhage.

Julius Caesar died in 44 B.C.E. from multiple stab wounds.

William the Conquerer died in 1087 C.E. from complications from a wound received in a siege on the town of Mantes.

Sigmund Freud died in 1939 C.E. from cancer of the jaw, heart failure, and an overdose of morphine administered by his doctor.

Johan Sebastian Bach died in 1750 C.E. of a stroke.

Lenin died in 1924 C.E. from either a stroke or syphilis.

By John Barrett

http://www.filmannex.com/webtv/historymavens/

The Ultimate 20th Century Con Man: Victor Lustig

19 04 2012 09:52:08 +0000

Born in 1890 in the area now known as the Czech Republic, Victor Lustig was a student of human nature. Count Victor Lustig was also known as "The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower"! Fluent in many languages, Victor decided to use his extensive human "studies" to scam people and exploit their endless capacity for greed and self aggrandizement. As P.T Barnum once said, "There's a sucker born every moment." Victor took that adage to heart and began a one-man crime wave that resulted in his being a wanted man throughout Europe.

After scamming Al Capone while hiding in America, Victor arrived back in Paris in 1925 when he stumbled upon a newspaper article that reported the Eiffel Tower was in need of extensive repair work. Many of the day's pundits suggested the Eiffel Tower be scrapped entirely and a new structure be created in its stead. A new scam was born: Victor would create a fictional identity ("Deputy Director-General of the Ministry of Mail and Telegraphs") and sent an official-looking letter to the five leading Paris-based scrap metal dealers inviting them to meet him at the Hotel Crillon for a secret auction to buy the 7,000 tons of steel that would be available after the fictional scheduled "demolition" of the Eiffel Tower. They bought the scam, thinking the secrecy of the meeting was due to the expected destruction of a beloved Parisian landmark.

Lustig's targeted mark was the most ambitious scrap metal dealer named Monsieur Poisson. Lustig exchanged a phony contract to Poisson and he got a check. After cashing the check, Lustig fled with his partner Dapper Dan to Austria. The duo looked for any articles exposing them and, to their delight, Poisson was to ashamed to report he had been duped. If the scam worked once, why not try it again?

This time the next dupe reported to the police that he had been conned of roughly $100,000 and the two criminals fled to America. As the song says, "I fought the law and the law won." Lustis was arrested for passing counterfeit dollars and in 1935 received a 25-year sentence. Lustig died in 1947 in Alcatraz prison where his old friend Al Capone resided.

Move over financier Charles Ponzi, faith healer Benny Hinn, the spirtualist Fox sisters, land scammer Gregory MacGregory (the seller of a fictional country) and Frank Abagnale ("Catch Me if You Can")...Victor Lustig has you all beat!

By the way, while we are on the subject, we'd like to sell you a famous bridge in Brooklyn...

By John Barrett and Jeffrey H. Sado

Welcome to the History Mavens...

25 02 2012 09:09:26 +0000

Uncovering History's Hidden Stories...