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Where Rosemary Goes...(1968)
May 23, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
The ancient Greek games originated in honor of the Gods of Mt. Olympus. After a hiatus of 1,500 years, the 19th century Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin resurrected the Olympics for countries to come together in sports rather than in war. In the 20th century, an American carried on the tradition of sprinkling the physical with the divine.
Any Other Man
May 22, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
One of the most challenging jobs in the world is that of the evangelist: hand-wrestling the devil over souls. Fortunately, when it came to saving his own, the Reverend Billy Graham had his fellow crusader in Christ, his “soulmate and best friend.”
Beloved Infidel
May 21, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
F. Scott Fitzgerald pessimistically pronounced, “There are no second acts in American lives.” He based this on his own free-fall: from golden boy of the twenties to forgotten has-been of the forties. What eased the pain of latter years was the purveyor of a poisoned pen.
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN PEN
May 20, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
Bond. James Bond. This was the classic greeting of the most dashing member of Her Majesty’s Secret Service. However, if people knew the biography of his creator, Ian Fleming, they might have thought of him as Bondage. James Bondage. And he was met, lash for lash, by his ladylove.
Madame Butterfly
May 19, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
As Jell-O conforms to its mold, children often adhere to the values of their parents. However, in a 1950s love story which involved Julius Rosenberg, it was a Jell-O Box and a Remington typewriter which made a woman’s path stray far afield from what her family, or anyone else, ever envisioned.
The Last Word (1501)
May 19, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
Kings are subject to grand gestures, sometimes of a romantic nature. Legend holds that when Queen Amytis grew homesick for the lush landscape of her native Media, her husband, King Nebuchadnezzar II, commissioned the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in his desert kingdom. When Mumtaz Mahal died giving birth to their fourteenth child, Shah Jahan immortalized his wife with the world’s most magnificent mausoleum. King Edward VIII, urged to give up his mistress, Wallis Simpson, instead relinquished the British throne. Another crowned head changed his country’s religion to legalize his obsession.
Fade Away
May 18, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
John Milton wrote in Paradise Lost, “They also serve who only stand and wait.” Ever since Penelope steadfastly wove on her loom waiting for Odysseus to return, the warrior’s wife has served in the typical role of the women who worry at home in shadow, waiting for their men to come back. But that has not always been the case. In contrast, a 20th century warrior wife accompanied her General, Douglas MacArthur, humanizing the man behind the five stars.
Herr Wolff
May 17, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
Lord Byron wrote, “Man’s love is of man’s life a thing apart/Tis a woman’s whole existence.” This sentiment epitomized Adolf Hitler’s relationship with his consort who had the rather unenviable distinction of being the partner of the man history has dubbed evil incarnate.
The Fearess Girl (1967)
May 17, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
Wall Street is named after an actual wooden stockade built by the Dutch when New York was Nieuw Amsterdam, erected to protect their trading post from the British. Wall Street became synonymous with finance in 1792 after twenty-four prominent merchants, in powdered wigs and waistcoats, founded the New York Stock Exchange to bet on foreign battles, elections, and cockfights. One hundred seventy-five years later, Muriel Siebert scaled the rampart when she became the first woman securities trader.
A Bumpy Ride (1941)
May 16, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
Upon hearing the word “president,” the image that is conjured is of a man wearing a dark suit and tie standing in the Oval Office. In sharp juxtaposition, during World War II, Bette Davis assumed the same mantle as the Chief Executive when she held the position of the first female President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science.
Called Home
May 15, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
“Because I could not stop for Death-He kindly stopped for me-The Carriage held but just Ourselves-And Immortality.” Emily’s immortality rests on her poetry, her legacy enshrined by The Emily Dickinson Museum.
Special Place in Hell (1937)
May 15, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
The word secretary sometimes carries negative connotations; it conjures an image of a subordinate female whose job description entails typing, bringing coffee, taking shorthand. These Girl Fridays combined the requisite traits of self-efficiency and self-effacement, the unsung minions. In contrast, when secretary bears a capital letter, it denotes a pinnacle of power.
The White Horse Girl and The Blue Wind Boy
May 14, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
Frank Lloyd Wright, the world’s most famous architect observed, “Less is more.” When it came to romance, however, his maxim was ‘more is more.’ Unfortunately, he was never able to achieve in his relationships the transcendent beauty of his buildings-until Wright, finally met, well, Mrs. Wright.
The Hand that Rocks the. Cradle (1914)
May 14, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
Mothers have always been sacrosanct: the Roman Catholic Church has a cult of the Virgin, beloved nursery rhymes are associated with one named Goose, and Whistler painted an iconic portrait of his. Hence, it was only fitting that a day be set aside to honor mothers; however, it came with a bizarre twist.
Life's Leading Lady
May 12, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
Alfred Hitchcock’s place in the pantheon of great film directors rests on a secure niche of psychological thrillers, thanks to classics like- ‘Psyyyy-cow,” (as he pronounced it) which led generations to shudder when showering at a motel. He is one of only two movie directors whose faces are as familiar as some of the actors who starred in his films (the other is fellow working-class Londoner Charlie Chaplin). Hitchcock’s renowned silhouette in his movies depicts his enormous girth, but lost in his towering shadow was his partner, Alma Reville.
The Stepping Stone
May 11, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
In a country music classic, for a sip of whiskey, a gambler offers the advice, “You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em/Know when to fold ‘em/Know when to walk away.” However, unlike the gambler, there was a wife who, though justified beyond belief, refused to walk away. By remaining steadfast she saved her man, and by extension, brought salvation to millions.
Rose is a Rose is a Rose is a Rose
May 10, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
The girl power chant, ‘Behind every great man’ had a variation in 1920s Paris: ‘Behind every great woman is a woman.’ Indeed, this proved true for the high priestess of modern art and her consort, who provided a salon in 1920s Paris which served as a Mecca for the leading lights of the Lost Generation.
Kung Fu Nuns of Nepal
May 06, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
Throughout the history of Buddhism, women in the Himalayas who sought to practice spirituality as equals with male monks were stigmatized. Religious leaders confined them to chores such as cooking and cleaning and barred them from physical exertions, leading prayers, singing, and participating in philosophical debates encouraged among monks.
Wherever We May Go (1830)
Apr 28, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
While all nursery room graduates know that Mary had a lamb, what proves elusive is the fact that the lamb did not only exist in the confines of a nursery rhyme. Immortality arrived when Mary Elizabeth Sawyer’s beloved pet followed her to school.
Lilibet (1900)
Apr 26, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
An 1865 poem by William Ross Wallace states, “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” Because good ole mom shapes society, the matriarch of the world’s most famous family was a magnet of scrutiny. Born in the dawn of the twentieth century, the royal remembered as the Queen Mother died a year after it ended and met the era’s most famous.
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