Blog - Marlene Wagman-Geller

The Truth (1903)

Mar 18, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

“C’est mon Plaisir” “It is my pleasure.” Isabella Stewart Gardiner

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

25 Evans Way, Boston, Massachusetts

Gods behaving badly is exemplified in Titian’s 16^th century painting, “The Rape of Europa.” The canvass reveals Zeus, in the form of a bull, ravishing the maiden. The masterpiece served as the crown jewel in Isabella Gardner’s art gallery, the scene of a violation that involved the art world’s greatest whodunit.

Mar 17, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

In some instances a single name is intricately associated with a country: Cleopatra with ancient Egypt, Marie Antoinette with France, Victoria with England. The same situation holds true for a nation born in the 20^th century that will forever be associated with a force of nature who refused to be defined by her sex or by her age.

Mar 16, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

If the amber-hued liquid inside a classic bottle could speak, it would tell the tale of the convergence of an American sex symbol, a German officer, and a French legend. The black lettering on the bottle holds an eponymous name and a lucky number, and a story as extraordinary as the woman who willed it into existence.

Mar 14, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

An iconic image of the 20^th century depicts Albert Einstein sticking his tongue out in his variation of “Say cheese.” As a man so famous he stopped Fifth Avenue traffic in the same fashion as the Beatles and Marilyn Monroe, (who called him the sexiest man on earth,) he could afford such irreverence. However, the woman at whom he figuratively stuck out his tongue was a little known girl of his youth, the one who labored and loved by his side.

Mar 13, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

Traditionally, the colors associated with October were the yellow and red of autumnal leaves, gourds of orange. However, since the advent of the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, the month became associated with pink, Susan’s favorite color.

Mar 12, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

When a Southern woman was none too happy with the way her life’s cookie had crumbled, rather than throwing a pity party, she adapted a British institution and made it into an iconic American one. She helped level the gender playing field and allowed girls- rather than wear their hearts on their sleeves- to instead display their merits.

Mar 11, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

Hands down, the porcine with the most pulchritude is Miss Piggy. She is a diva who dresses for excess, never gives an oink about her extra pounds, and participated in a cross-species romance. Miss Piggy, rather than originating from the same imaginative cloth as her fellow Hanson homies, is the alter ego of entertainer Peggy Lee.

Mar 10, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

The color pink brings to mind Barbie, Disney Princesses, Hello Kitty, and pussycat hats. Another pink lady, one who rolled in the green, was Mary Kay Ash.

Mar 09, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

There are many women who lay claim to be the world’s most legendary of lovelies: Italy’s Sophia Loren, Sweden’s Greta Garbo, France’s Brigitte Bardot. Yet there is an American beauty who most truly embodies the pronouncement, “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale, her infinite variety.”

Mar 07, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

“And the Oscar for Best Director goes to Victor Fleming for Gone with the Wind; and the Oscar for Best Director goes to John Ford for The Grapes of Wrath; and the Oscar for Best Director goes to Steven Spielberg for Schindler’s List.” The fact that the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has always gifted the coveted statue to men makes one wonder if there is-to borrow the title of Elia Kazan’s film for which he won best director-a Gentleman’s Agreement. If institutionalized sexism is indeed the norm, the Academy breached it after eight decades when Kathryn Bigelow made a rip in Hollywood’s seemingly shatterproof celluloid ceiling when she won the Academy Award for Best Director. .

Mar 06, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

As Jell-O conforms to its mould 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.

Mar 05, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

The world’s jubilation upon learning World War II had ended is exemplified in the famous image of a sailor and a nurse locked in an embrace. Formally known as “V-J Day in Times Square,” the photograph is one of the most famous depictions of a kiss in history. For decades, the identities of the couple remained shrouded in anonymity until the revelation that the woman was Greta Friedman.

Mar 04, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

After “The Star Spangled Banner” and “Happy Birthday,” America’s most prevalent song is “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” While fans chant the lyrics in the seventh inning, the crowds are unaware that the “me” refers to Trixie Friganza.

Mar 03, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

If one were to name a Supreme Court ruling, chances are the answer would be Roe v. Wade. However, if questioned as to the identity of the anonymous plaintiff, many would draw a blank. The flesh-and-blood Roe, Norma McCorvey, was as complicated as her judicial namesake.

Mar 02, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

A slice of Americana is the Wendy’s hamburger emporium with its mascot of a red-haired girl, pigtails bound with blue bows. Behind the fresh-faced child lies Wendy Thomas.

Mar 01, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

What is lime green and bubblegum pink with a black interior? The answer: Maybelline mascara. The cosmetic company has been a beauty staple for over a century, an industry behemoth that originated with Mabel Williams.

Feb 28, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

While the Italian Mona Lisa’s smile has beguiled the world, the American painted lady’s dour expression shows a woman who did not possess a non-serious bone. The Victorian painting is entitled, Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, though its colloquial name is Whistler’s Mother, after Anna Matilda Whistler.

Feb 27, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

One of the strangest creatures that Alice encountered in Wonderland was the Caterpillar who inquired who she was. Her response: “I-I hardly know, sir, at present-at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then.” Alice’s nonfictional counterpart was literary muse Alice Liddell.

Feb 26, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

The cry, “There’s gold in them thar hills!” served as the clarion call that drew thousands to California. Levi Strauss stumbled on another kind of gold when he put the name Levi’s on the backsides of America.

Feb 25, 2023 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

When flowers, chocolates, and Hallmark cards do not convey the depth of devotion, inspiration can be drawn from legendary lovers. German musician, Richard Wagner, composed the symphony “Siegfried Idyll” for his wife, Cosima. Russian Tsar Alexander III presented his Tsarina with the original Fabergé egg. Welsh actor Richard Burton gifted Elizabeth Taylor the fifty-carat La Peregrina pearl that had once graced the finger of Mary I of England. However, for romantic flourish, one can turn to the gesture of a Mogul emperor who erected the Taj Mahal in memory of his wife, Taj Mumtaz Mahal.

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Marlene Wagman-Geller

The Truth (1903)

The Female of the Species (1898)

Five Stone Lions (1883)

Doxerl and Johonzel

Tikkun Olam (1980)

Now Abideth Faith, Hope and Love (1912)

Hai-yah! (1974)

The Pink Queen Bee (1963)

America's Sweetheart (1959)

Moment of a Lifetime (2010)

Madame Butterfly

Flakes of Confetti (1945)

Trixie: A League of her Own (1908)

Roe V. Roe (1973)

Most Likely to Succeed (1969)

Maybe She's Born with It (1915)

Whistling Dixie (1871)

Wonderland (1865)

Forever in Blue Jeans (1873)

The Cheek of Time (1652)

A Room of Their Own: Home Museums of Extraordinary Women Around the World

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