Marlene Wagman-Geller

"As far back as I can remember, it was always on my bucket list, even before the term bucket list was coined,
to be a writer. It was a natural progression to want to go from reading books to writing one."
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A Good Judge (1981)

A Good Judge (1981)
Sep 23, 2022 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
  Before the first female presidential nominee of a major political party was a twinkle in the nation’s eyes, before there was a female speaker of the House of Representatives, a female attorney general, or a female secretary of state, there was the F.W.O.T.S.C. – the first woman on the Supreme Court-an acronym Sandra Day O’Connor used when she ascended America’s loftiest bench.

Camp Betty

Camp Betty
Sep 21, 2022 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
The name “Ford” conjures the product which rolls off Detroit’s assembly lines, the Californian addiction center, the Omaha-born American president. However, there was a Ford whose bouffant hair and prim exterior belied an interior far from docile. Despite whatever storm in which she was at the center, she was always Gerald’s first lady.

Where Light and Shadow Meet

Where Light and Shadow Meet
Sep 20, 2022 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
  Like most girls brought up on the tales of her countrymen, Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, one farmer’s daughter dreamed of happily ever after. Ironically, however, because of her prince, Oskar Schindler, she became the little girl in the fairy tale whose life led to a sinister horror in the woods.

Rosebud (1954)

Rosebud (1954)
Sep 18, 2022 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
A variation of the 1950s The Adventures of Superman catchphrase is, “Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No-it’s fake news.” William Randolph Hearst was the master of tabloid journalism, but the life of his granddaughter rivaled even his most sensational headlines.

Never the Twain Shall Meet (1876)

Never the Twain Shall Meet (1876)
Sep 17, 2022 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

Chapter 3             “Never the Twain Shall Meet”         (1876)

“Taxation without representation is a tyranny.”

    When Jack let go of Rose’s hand and disappeared into the icy depths of the Atlantic Ocean, Titanic fans let out a collective gasp. Those of a less romantic bent were left wondering why the elderly Rose consigned the Le Coeur de la Mer, The Heart of the Ocean, diamond to a watery grave. The non-celluloid counterpart to the fabulous blue gem reveals another tragic tale. 

   Princess Sophia Alexandrovna Duleep Singh was the granddaughter of Maharajah Ranjit Singh, the legendary one-eyed “Lion of the Punjab,” who ruled the Sikh Empire that extended from the Khyber Pass in the west to Kashmir in the north to Tibet in the east. He rode through his lands with the storied Koh-I-Noor diamond strapped to his sleeve. A century later, the gem became the prized possession of Ranjit Singh. After his passing, at which time several of his wives burned themselves on his funeral pyre, the next maharaja was his son, Duleep Singh. The British seized control and forced the eleven-year-old to relinquish his kingdom to the crown. Four years later, Duleep left for exile in England where he converted from Sikhism to Christianity. Queen Victoria said of her subject, “I always feel so much for these poor deposed Indian princes.” Her pity did not extend to returning his lands or the Koh-I-Noor.

      The king without a kingdom married Bamba Müller, a Cairo born illegitimate daughter of a German merchant and an Abyssinian slave who placed their child in a missionary ward. In compensation for the confiscation of his birthright, Queen Victoria provided a 2.5-million-pound annual stipend in contemporary currency. The money led to Elveden Hall, a Suffolk estate transformed into a Mogul palace. Sophia was the fifth of his six surviving children, and the Singhs lived in great luxury; gardens held ostriches, leopards, and Indian hawks. Queen Victoria became Sophia’s godmother and gifted the child a sumptuously dressed doll known as “Little Sophie.” The Prince of Wales was a regular visitor. A presentation for debutantes at Buckingham palace ensured Sophia’s social standing.    

    The idylls of the Punjab Princess came with an expiration date. Her parents’ marriage ended due to her father’s promiscuity, gambling, and opulent lifestyle. Unable to pay his exorbitant debts, Duleep-who referred to Queen Victoria as Mrs. Fagin after the criminal in Oliver Twist- dedicated himself to wrestling back his stolen kingdom. Foiled in his attempt to return to India by the British government, Duleep ran off with Ada, a hotel chambermaid, leaving his family in dire financial circumstances. When he heard of his wife’s death, he sent a telegram to his oldest son, “Heartbroken-will write next week.” The deposed royal passed away at age fifty-five, destitute, in a Paris hotel, a casualty of the Raj. In nobles oblige, Queen Victoria installed her seventeen-year-old goddaughter in “a grace and favor” residence opposite Hampton Court Palace. The shy Sophia was content to dress in the latest Parisian fashions, breed her prized Pomeranians, and participate in the bicycle craze.

BA (1869)

BA (1869)
Sep 16, 2022 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
      In the 1990s a photograph appeared in a newspaper; in the top corner was a rainbow-striped apple with the slogan ‘Think Different.’ The lone image was of a follicle-challenged, emaciated man wearing a loin-cloth and oversized spectacles. But his small frame belied his huge achievement: A half century beforehand, Gandhi, known as Bapu, (“father”) had freed his nation from the yoke of the Raj. However, obscured by the giant shadow of the diminutive leader was Ba, mother of India.

Camelot Queen (1929)

Camelot Queen (1929)
Sep 14, 2022 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
A rite of passage of many a young girl is to indulge in make-believe, envisioning a tiara, a coach, a prince. With the passing of the years, reality takes over, but the fantasy remained for the one who became both an American and European princess.

What Rabbit Will Emerge? (1813)

What Rabbit Will Emerge? (1813)
Sep 09, 2022 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
   “Oh, say can you see….” an elderly man, sporting a white beard on chiseled face, wearing a top hat sprinkled with stars? If the date is July 4, the answer is most certainly yes. Most likely, he is at the head of a parade, standing on his trademark stilts. While Uncle Sam is the mainstay of Americana, lost in the lore is his historical counterpart, Samuel Wilson.

Fractured Fairy Tale (1947)

Fractured Fairy Tale (1947)
Sep 08, 2022 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
   Alexandre Dumas fils wrote, “The chains of marriage are so heavy that it takes two to bear them, and sometimes three.” Infidelity has long shadowed wedding vows and when the love triangle involves a future king, carnivorous tabloids descend into a feeding frenzy.

The Emerald Castle (1926)

The Emerald Castle (1926)
Sep 08, 2022 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

 

 

         When Dorothy journeyed along the yellow brick road, she chanted, “Lions, tigers, bears, oh my!” Twenty-six years later, a contemporary queen treads a path of purple whose chant could well be, “Castles, corgis, crowns, oh my!” The modern monarch has a life that rivals the marvels of Oz.

     For the irony file, the world’s longest reigning royal was not slated to become Her Most Excellent Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her Other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith. At the time of Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor’s birth, as her father, Prince Albert, was a second son, the mantle of monarchy belonged to her uncle Edward, the Prince of Wales. Because the princess was never supposed to be queen, her, along with younger sister, Margaret, childhood was relatively typical, insofar as typical entailed having King George V as your grandfather. The calm shattered in 1936 when her uncle Edward VIII repudiated his ermine robes after 325 days to wed American Wallis Simpson. A shocked footman relayed the news to the young princesses. Margaret asked her ten-year-old sister, “Does that mean you will have to be the next queen?” “Yes, someday,” Elizabeth replied. “Poor you,” Margaret responded. Only the arrival of a baby brother would have altered her fate.

     Margaret’s negative comment regarding the crown originated with her father who had sobbed when he and his mother discussed the abdication, partially as he dreaded his stutter would be on public display. Nevertheless, he accepted the role of King George VI, and, along with his wife, Elizabeth, moved with his family to Buckingham Palace. As any excursion into London resulted in a media frenzy, normalcy would never be their norm. In 1933, the king gifted Elizabeth with Dookie, a corgi which helped her cope with the pressures of her station. (She has owned at least thirty of the breed). Queen Mary, who always wore a tiara to dinner even if she and her husband dined alone, drilled protocol into her granddaughter.

      In 1940, with the outbreak of war, the close-knit family were often separated as the king and queen sent their daughters to Windsor Castle, about twenty miles away from the capital, and therefore not a likely target during the Blitz. The girls remained in their sheltered enclave for five years. A perk during the war time austerity was a thatched-cottage playhouse, the Y Bwthyn Bach, a present from the people of Wales, that had perks such as a heated towel rack, an electric fireplace, French dolls, and eight fur coats. In 1945, Elizabeth enlisted in the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Services as No 230873 second subaltern Elizabeth Windsor. Photographs of her, alongside the military, became staples in Allied propaganda.

    Following Germany’s defeat, in Buckingham Palace, Elizabeth became reacquainted with her third cousin, Prince Philip Mountbatten, who she had first met at age thirteen at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth. At that time, she had been mainly enthralled at Philip’s agility in jumping over tennis nets. Upon their reunion, the seventeen-year-old was still taken with the twenty-two-year-old who had spent the war years as a naval lieutenant on a British destroyer that had been under danger of bombardment by German Stukas. Their match seemed improbable: she was the daughter of King George VI; he was the nephew of the deposed king of Greece; the Windsors were the lords of majestic castles; his family were exiles. Despite their differences, romance blossomed: Philip’s terms of endearment for Elizabeth were Lilibet, Sausage, or Darling. The prince proposed, and the twenty-year-old princess accepted without consulting mum and dad. During their 1947 wedding, the crowned heads of Europe and the world’s most powerful poli

Can We Talk? (1933)

Can We Talk? (1933)
Sep 04, 2022 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

Shakespeare’s clowns were the stand-up comics of the Elizabethan world. Their role: mock the pompous and puncture the pretentious. Paradoxically, the fools were the wise men of the era. As Regan observed in King Lear, “Jesters do oft prove prophets.” Stephen Sondheim’s 1970s song that showcases our need for humor ends, “Quick, send in the clowns/Don’t bother/They’re here.”

Checkmate (1991)

Checkmate (1991)
Sep 01, 2022 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
The only piece on a chessboard that symbolizes a woman is the queen-its most powerful player-able to move in any direction. Ironically, females are treated as second-class citizens in the male-dominated game. A blow to sexism arrived when Susan Polgar became the first female grandmaster of chess.

A Good Judge (1981)

A Good Judge (1981)
Aug 30, 2022 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
  Before the first female presidential nominee of a major political party was a twinkle in the nation’s eyes, before there was a female speaker of the House of Representatives, a female attorney general, or a female secretary of state, there was the F.W.O.T.S.C. – the first woman on the Supreme Court-an acronym Sandra Day O’Connor used when she ascended America’s loftiest bench.

England's Rose (1961)

England's Rose (1961)
Aug 28, 2022 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
  The British national anthem ends with the words, “Long to reign over us/God save the Queen.” A princess never had the opportunity to sit on the throne, and yet forever rules as an immortal icon. 

Indian Summer (1901)

Indian Summer (1901)
Aug 27, 2022 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
Voracious sexual appetites are traditionally associated with the possessors of testosterone, but history has proved there are Lady Casanovas. Catherine the Great was so hot to trot a joke circulated in St. Petersburg that the canal that received the most use was Catherine’s canal. Mae West’s response to her maid informing her ten men were waiting at the door, “Send one of them home. I’m tired.” In a similar carnal vein, there was a British lady who could have given the Russian empress and the American movie star a run for their money.

The Storm (1875)

The Storm (1875)
Aug 24, 2022 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
  Crowned heads usually walk the prescribed path of sumptuous palaces, eye-popping jewelry, envy-worthy travels. A royal woman took this road, but along the way, her life also intertwined with Count Dracula, a Dorothy Parker poem, a revolution-and that was merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

A Perfect Match (1956)

A Perfect Match (1956)
Aug 22, 2022 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
The color white is de rigeur for participants in Wimbledon; however, on a metaphorical level, the color is emblematic of the fact that for most of its history, the elite club has been a white Anglo Saxon enclave. A blow was fought against elitism when Angela Buxton became the first Jewish woman, and Althea Gibson became the first black woman, to play at Wimbledon.

Farewell to Thee (1838)

Farewell to Thee (1838)
Aug 21, 2022 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
Hawaii proves an irresistible magnet for tourists drawn to the azure waves of the Pacific, pink hued sunsets, exotic-colored flowers. Ironically, the beauty of the island nation led to Paradise lost for its first and only queen.

More Human (1903)

More Human (1903)
Aug 14, 2022 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
On August 15, 1945, eight days after the first atomic bomb had annihilated thousands of people, Emperor Hirohito delivered a radio broadcast that marked the first time the public heard his voice. He stated that Japan would have “to endure the unendurable and suffer the unsufferable.” The head of an ancient kingdom had accepted the Allied Powers’ demand for unconditional surrender. By his action, Hirohito had saved his country and the chrysanthemum throne, (the name of Japan’s monarchy).  Those who preferred death to the dishonor of surrender committed suicide in front of the palace. At the other end of the spectrum, millions flooded into Manhattan’s Times Square, and the iconic photograph of the sailor planting a kiss on a nurse became the symbol of America’s elation as the curtain descended on World War II.

MY BELOVED WORLD (1954)

MY BELOVED WORLD (1954)
Aug 08, 2022 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
A common belief is that those born on the wrong side of the tracks usually end up in the same place-that environment is destiny. But as one woman proved, it is possible to travel far afield from humble roots, especially when equipped with the mindset that dreams do not just have to be for sleeping.