Malcolm Lowry @ The 19th Hole

No se puede vivir sin amar

2012-01-17T07:02:00.000-08:00

I came across this piece of music:

No se puede vivir sin amar

The person who posted the piece describes it as follows:

Semi-improvised, based on bits I played while trying to come up with something better to enter. Title is taken from Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry.

The Firminist 2

2012-01-17T06:29:00.002-08:00

Apologies to regular readers of 19th Hole for my absence over the last few months. This is due mainly to my involvement in several other projects. I intend to get back on track with all things Malc over the next couple of weeks.

The second edition of the Firminist hit the streets in late 2011. The magazine featured the following:

Michael Romer: Malcolm Lowry's Influence on Orcadian Filmmaker Margaret Tait
Colin Dilnot: Postcards from Malc
Julia Courtney: Einstein Asks the Time in Malcolm Lowry's Under The Volcano
Sherrill Grace Remembering David Markson (1927-2010)
Plus the editorial and crossword.

You can obtain copies from the edtitor Mark Goodall:
m.goodall@bradford.ac.uk

Big thanks to Mark, Helen Tookey, Bryan Biggs, Jonny Biggs and Rob carter for another excellent issue!

Update to Chris Ackerley's Under The Volcano Website

2012-01-17T05:41:00.000-08:00

Chris's excellent Hypertextual Companion to Under the Volcano was upgraded as follows in late 2011:

The site, in particular Chapter I, was substantially revised and expanded. Further expansions are planned, incorporating Chris Ackerley's ongoing annotations of Lowry's other works and David Large's doctoral research on Lowry.

Chris also states:

The next phase for the site is set to coincide with the ongoing digitalisation of the UBC Special Collection archives. We plan to rewrite entries in light of the discoveries and comments of the EMiC Project, which includes new editions of "Swinging the Maelstrom", In Ballast to the White Sea and the 1940 Volcano.

"Malcolm Lowry, encore", Centre Culturel International de Cerisy-la-Salle 27 juin-4 juillet 2012

2011-10-19T06:17:00.000-07:00

Annick Drosdal-Levillain, Associate Professor, University of Strasbourg was a visitor to the recent Lowry Lounge in Liverpool. Amongst her contributions to the Lounge was the announcement of a Lowry event in France next year as follows:

Appel à communications

« Malcolm Lowry, encore »

Centre Culturel International de Cerisy-la-Salle
27 juin-4 juillet 2012

Ce colloque rassemblera des universitaires, des écrivains, des artistes et des traducteurs autour de l’écrivain anglo-canadien Malcolm Lowry. Il s’agira d’évoquer comment et pourquoi son œuvre singulière continue de parler à la civilisation planétaire du vingt-et-unième siècle.

On le sait aujourd’hui, cette œuvre ne se limite pas à la grande tragédie lyrique de notre modernité que reste Under The Volcano (1947). Depuis que les spécialistes ont porté à la connaissance du public une quantité importante de matériaux (romans, poèmes, nouvelles, essais), il apparaît que la tonalité d’ensemble est loin d’être monochrome : certes, Lowry est un écrivain de l’au-delà du principe de plaisir qui a su détecter dans la civilisation moderne une passion du réel où se conjuguent horreur et jubilation sur les chemins de la destruction. Mais sa « Divine Comédie Ivre », l’équivalent du work in progress joycien, est aussi un appel à la jouissance du vivant : elle vise à réintroduire la dimension du désir et du sacré, au premier rang desquels figurent la force pulsatile du corps accordé au souffle du monde et à la puissance « faunétique » de la langue.

L’intérêt de Malcolm Lowry pour la peinture, la musique et les arts émergents de son temps (le cinéma, le jazz) permettront également des ouvertures sur d’autres formes de productions culturelles.

Etant donné le cadre spécifique du Centre Culturel International de Cerisy-la-Salle, les travaux se tiendront principalement en français et partiellement en anglais (intervenants anglophones), sous forme de communications, de tables rondes, et de lectures. Les communications présentées pourront porter plus particulièrement sur les points suivants :

- Le corps sacré et le monde naturel
- Pulsion de mort, pulsion de vie
- Lowry et la mélancolie moderne
- La tragédie et son au-delà
- Le roman, au joint entre les arts et la politique
- Objets d’amour, objets de haine
- Lowry, poète du réel
- Illuminations
- La voix de Malcolm Lowry

Merci d’envoyer vos propositions avant le 15 novembre, à l’adresse mail suivante :
josiane.paccaud-huguet@univ-lyon2.fr

This conference aims to gather academics, writers, artists and translators interested in the work of Malcolm Lowry, both in itself and in relation to our contemporary global civilisation: the aim will also be to try to see how and why it continues to speak to the Twenty First century.

The posterity of Lowry’s work does not limit itself to the great lyrical tragedy of our modernity published in his lifetime, Under the Volcano (1947). A large amount of materials (novels, poems, short stories, essays) has been brought to public knowledge by specialists since Lowry’s death, and it appears that the tonality is far from being one-sided. No doubt, Lowry is one of those writers who take us beyond the pleasure principle, who detected in modern civilisation a passion for the real beyond the veil of reality, where joy and horror mingle on the path toward destruction. But his “drunken Divine Comedy”, the equivalent of Joyce’s work in progress, is also an appeal to the joy of bare life. It is an attempt to reintroduce the dimension of desire, of the sacred, foregrounding the living pulse of the body bound to the natural world, and to the “faunetic” substance of language.

Malcolm Lowry’s interest in painting and music, in the emerging art-forms of his time like the cinema and jazz music will also provide openings on other cultural fields.

Given the specific context provided by the Centre Culturel International de Cerisy-la-Salle in Normandy, the conference will be held mostly in French and partly in English, in the form of papers, round tables and readings.

Papers on the following subjects will be more particularly welcome:

- The sacred body and the natural world
- The death-drive and the life-drive
- Lowry and modern melancholy
- Tragedy and beyond the tragedy
- Poetics and politics
- Love objects, objects of hatred
- Lowry as poet of the real
- Illuminations
- The voice of Malcolm Lowry

Paper proposals should be sent not after November 15th at the following address:
josiane.paccaud-huguet@univ-lyon2.fr

-- Josiane Paccaud-Huguet Faculté des Langues Université Lumière-Lyon2 74 rue Pasteur 69365 Lyon Cedex O7

Camel Walk Part 2

2011-09-25T04:08:00.000-07:00

The second post inspired by Malc's monicker "Camel" which he used to sign off his article in the Leys Fortnightly.

Let's kick off another batch of Camel Walk tracks:

Camel Walk Part 1

2011-09-25T03:43:00.001-07:00

Here is another post inspired by my recent e-conversations with Annick Drösdal-Levillain. We had been discussing Lowry's pseudonym "Camel" for some of his writings for the Leys Fortnightly which he adapted from his initials C.M.L.. Our exchange started me thinking of the old dance called the "Camel Walk". Perhaps the impending annual "irreverence" called the Lowry Lounge in October also got me in the spirit!

I had always thought that the Camel Walk was a 60's dance concept but I discovered after looking through You Tube that the dance had its origins back in the 1910's or earlier:

The Camel Walk was a ragtime animal dance, came originally from Vaudeville shows. The Camel Walk was mainly done by college students and "flappers" during the Jazz age in the 1910's and 20's with the public as a social dance. It was basically done with a Staright Up (Posture) but otherwise was walking 1920's fox-trot from start to end while dragging your steps slightly, done to slow music and in a zigzag direction or rotary direction. The Camel Walk drew alot of displeasure among many mainly because the Girls woul rest their heads on the leaders shoulder while dancing which many frowned upon as vulgar dancing. Occasionally the dance was varied with Fox-Trot steps by those who disliked anything quite so extreme.

Another version was done in the 1950's/60's; - The Camel Walk spin-offs of the 1910's became a popular retro dance to do at the time in the 1950's/60's, however these spin-off's were freestyle rather than couples. With such dances as the Camel Walk, Dance the Camel Walk, The Camel Walk Stroll etc ... It is said the the Horse dance was just another Camel Walk. The Camel Walk became the Stroll in the 1960's.
Street Swing.com

So let's kick off with the University Six - could Malc have heard this and been partly inspired to adopt the monicker Camel - who knows!

Then we have a demonstration of the dance by Al & Leon

Let's embark on a tour of the later versions:

See Part 2

Couldn't go without leaving this postcard and a reminder that I am still posting over on Postcards from Malc

The Lowry Lounge @ The Bluecoat Liverpool 15/10/11

2011-09-20T09:28:00.001-07:00

The 2011 Lowry Lounge and Walk
11.00am to 3pm
The Bluecoat
School Lane
Liverpool
L1 3BX

Radical Wirral-born writer Malcolm Lowry, author of Under the Volcano, is remembered in this annual event: a psychogeographical walk round central Liverpool in Lowry’s footsteps, led by Colin Dilnot. The celebration continues at the Bluecoat with the launch of The Firminist No 2, an occasional journal of all things Lowry, plus talks, music, films and refreshments.

Tickets: tour £5 (places limited, so book early)/Lowry Lounge £3/combined ticket £6. Contact the Bluecoat for Lounge start time.

Meet at the Bluecoat.

The Last Voyage of the S.S. Ile de France

2011-09-18T08:50:00.000-07:00

S.S. Ile de France was the ship that Malc's first wife Jan Gabrial sailed back to America on in 1934 and features in Malc's short story 'In Le Havre'.

I was recently exchanging mails with my fellow Lowryan scholar Annick Drösdal- Levillain which included the topic of coincidence. Annick wrote:

I recently salvaged a framed photograph of a ship my mother was about to throw away in her cleaning up frenzy. Now this photograph was taken by a fellow swimmer of my grandfather's and it happens to be the L'île de France, in Le Havre, in 1950. I kept it, thinking that it looked like the ships Lowry must have sailed, that was all. And now I fell upon it in your postcards... I was then puzzled to see that on your picture the ship has three funnels whereas on mine it has two. Wikipedia came to the rescue (the ship was launched in June 1927...modernised in 1947 after having served for troop transports during the war).The dates surrounding this ship are striking.

What makes Annick and me smile is how these little coincidences just continue to creep in while studying Lowry! Ile de France was launched as Lowry himself is launching into the world aboard Pyrrhus to the Far East and 1947 for the publication of Under The Volcano.

Malc was conscious of the fate of ships that he wrote about so that we shouldn't be surprised at the fate of the S.S. Ile de France which was unusual to say the least:

The ship used in the film (Last Voyage 1960) was the legendary French luxury liner SS Ile de France, which had been in service from 1927 until 1959, when it was sold to a Japanese scrapyard. Her former owners initially attempted to block Stone's rental of the ship (for $1.5 million), but withdrew their opposition when MGM agreed not to identify the vessel by its original name when publicizing the film.

The ship was towed to shallow waters, where jets of water shot onto the ship from fireboats flooded forward compartments and made it appear she was sinking by the bow. Her forward funnel was sent crashing into the deckhouse and her Art Deco interiors were destroyed by explosives and/or flooded. Because there were too many poisonous jellyfish in the Sea of Japan, the final lifeboat scene was filmed in Santa Monica, California. In his autobiography Straight Shooting, Robert Stack recalled, "No special effects for Andy [Stone]; he actually planned to destroy a liner and photograph the process. Thus began a film called The Last Voyage, which . . . for yours truly very nearly lived up to its title." According to William H. Miller, American maritime historian, The French Line thereafter forbade any use of the ships they sold for scrap to be used for anything other than scrapping. Wikipedia

The Last Voyage is a 1960 American disaster film written and directed by Andrew L. Stone. It stars Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone.

The screenplay centers on the sinking of an aged ocean liner in the Pacific Ocean following an explosion in the boiler room. There are some plot similarities to the disaster involving the Italian liner SS Andrea Doria, which sank after a collision four years earlier. Read more on Wikipedia

Here is scene where S.S. Ile de France sinks

There also seems a certain irony in the title of the film - Last Voyage - when Lowry wanted to see all his work collected in one opus - The Voyage That Never Ends.

The Last Voyage is an archetypal disaster movie - which has resonance for Malc's life:

Success is like some horrible disastar
Worse than your house burning, the sounds of ruination
As the roof tree falls succeeding each other faster
While you stand, the helpless witness to your damnation
Poem 1945-6

Thanks to Annick for inspiring this post.

Beau Geste 1926

2011-09-18T08:03:00.000-07:00

Barban and Nicole continue their walk along the deck. They discuss the respective merits of English and French languages for expressing heroism and gallantry with dignity, and the expression of these qualities in movies, such as the 1926 American film Beau Geste, starring Ronald Coleman. Miguel Mota and Paul Tiessen: The Cinema of Malcolm Lowry: A Scholarly Edition of Lowry's "Tender is the Night

Beau Geste was directed by Herbert Brenon, stars Ronald Colman and Neil Hamilton, with support from Noah Beery (Sr.), Mary Brian, William Powell and Victor McLaglen. The plot concerns a valuable gem, which one of the Geste brothers, Beau, is thought to have stolen from his adoptive family.

Ronald Colman plays the title role in the first of several screen adaptations of Christopher Wren's tale of adventure in the foreign legion. Beau is the youngest of three brothers who fall into an ethical dilemma when their aunt resorts to stealing valuable jewelry from the family's collection to pay off her home. Beau takes the blame for the crime and, before he can be put in jail, flees the country, with his brothers John (Ralph Forbes) and Digby (Neil Hamilton) in tow. The Geste Brothers eventually join the French Foreign Legion, where they suffer under the tyrannical leadership of the cruel Sgt. Lejaune (Noah Beery Sr.). Unknown to Beau, Lejaune is in cahoots with men who want to capture the Geste Brothers and bring them to justice, but when Arab forces attack the Legion compound, the valiant Gestes fight with such bravery that even Lejaune is impressed with their selfless courage. It's said that Ronald Colman considered his performance in Beau Geste the finest work of his career; lip readers might get a chuckle out of some of Noah Beery Sr.'s non-subtitled dialogue, which today would have pushed the film into an R rating if it were audible. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A corking picture, but as a road show special not entirely surefire. The idea is that it will have to hold to just a few cities outside of New York to have a chance at $2. As a straight program leader it can't miss, although the running time of 129 minutes may keep it from equalling house records".

It's a "man's" picture, much more so than "The Big Parade." The story revolves around three brothers and their love for each other. And a great looking trio--Colman, Hamilton and Forbes. Beyond that the love interest is strictly secondary, practically nil. Which brings up the question as to how women are going to like it.Review from Variety, September 1, 1926

Read more on the the film at ERBzine and Stanford University

The best resource materials on the film can be found at Demonoid.me including contemporary magazine articles on the making of the film.

You can watch the film on You Tube:

Anatole Litvak's Mayerling 1936 film

2011-08-31T05:51:00.000-07:00

Why did they have to call that other fatal palace in Trieste also the Miramar, where Carlotta went insane, and everyone who ever lived there from the Empress Elizabeth of Austria to the Archduke Ferdinand had met with a violent death? Under The Volcano

Lowry is referring to the misfortunes that befell the Hapsburg family. Jan Gabrial recalls that she and Malcolm saw Anatol Litvak's Mayerling (1936) in Mexico City before they returned to the Hotel Canada for a tender night [Inside the Volcano, 157 & 187]. The film became an emblem of their love. Lowry states that "La Tragedia de Mayerling" was playing in the town just as it had been nine years ago. (Letter to Cape).

The Mayerling Incident refers to the series of events leading to the apparent murder-suicide of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and his lover Baroness Mary Vetsera. Prince Rudolf was the only son of Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria, and therefore heir to his father as Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and King of Bohemia. Rudolf's mistress Mary was the daughter of Baron Albin Vetsera, a diplomat at the Austrian court. The couple's bodies were discovered at Mayerling, Rudolf's hunting lodge, in Lower Austria on January 30, 1889. Read more on Wikipedia

Mayerling is a 1936 French historical drama film directed by Anatole Litvak and produced by Seymour Nebenzal from a screenplay by Marcel Achard, Joseph Kessel and Irma von Cube, based on the novel Idol's End by Claude Anet. The film stars Charles Boyer and Danielle Darrieux with Jean-Louis Barrault, René Bergeron, Jean Davy, Jean Dax, Jean Debucourt and Gabrielle Dorziat. It is based on the real life story of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, his affair with the 17-year old Baroness Maria Vetsera and their tragic end at Mayerling.

Here are some clips from the movie:

'Huston's Mexico' by Richard Vela

2011-08-31T05:29:00.000-07:00

Later tonight I am off to see a screening of Huston's Under The Volcano - by coincidence while searching the Net - I cam across the above.

The book contains an interesting essay on Huston's Mexican films by Richard Vela which you can read below:

Gustave Doré's Illustrations to Milton's Paradise Lost

2011-08-31T03:48:00.001-07:00

The watchtower of a prison rose over a wood between the river and the road which lost itself farther on where the purple hills of a Doré Paradise sloped away into the distance. Under The Volcano

On the other side, purple hills, which always reminded Laruelle of Dore's illustrations to Paradise Lost, sloped away into the distance. The 1940 Under The Volcano

Paul Gustave Doré January 6, 1832 – January 23, 1883) was a French artist, engraver, illustrator and sculptor. Doré worked primarily with wood engraving and steel engraving.

Doré was born in Strasbourg and his first illustrated story was published at the age of fifteen. His skill had manifested itself even earlier, however. At age five he had been a prodigy troublemaker, playing pranks that were mature beyond his years. Seven years later, he began carving in cement. Subsequently, as a young man, he began work as a literary illustrator in Paris, winning commissions to depict scenes from books by Rabelais, Balzac, Milton and Dante.

In 1853, Doré was asked to illustrate the works of Lord Byron. This commission was followed by additional work for British publishers, including a new illustrated English Bible. A decade later, he illustrated a French edition of Cervantes's Don Quixote, and his depictions of the knight and his squire, Sancho Panza, have become so famous that they have influenced subsequent readers, artists, and stage and film directors' ideas of the physical "look" of the two characters. Doré also illustrated an oversized edition of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven", an endeavor that earned him 30,000 francs from publisher Harper & Brothers in 1883.

Doré's English Bible (1866) was a great success, and in 1867 Doré had a major exhibition of his work in London. This exhibition led to the foundation of the Doré Gallery in Covelant Bond Street. In 1869, Blanchard Jerrold, the son of Douglas William Jerrold, suggested that they work together to produce a comprehensive portrait of London. Jerrold had obtained the idea from The Microcosm of London produced by Rudolph Ackermann, William Pyne, and Thomas Rowlandson in 1808. Doré signed a five-year contract with the publishers Grant & Co that involved his staying in London for three months a year, and he received the vast sum of £10,000 a year for the project. Doré was mainly celebrated for his paintings in his day. His paintings remain world renowned, but his woodcuts and engravings, like those he did for Jerrold, are where he really excelled as an artist with an individual vision.

The completed book, London: A Pilgrimage, with 180 engravings, was published in 1872. It enjoyed commercial and socioeconomical success, but the work was disliked by many contemporary critics. Some of these critics were concerned with the fact that Doré appeared to focus on the poverty that existed in parts of London. Doré was accused by the Art Journal of "inventing rather than copying." The Westminster Review claimed that "Doré gives us sketches in which the commonest, the vulgarest external features are set down." The book was a financial success, however, and Doré received commissions from other British publishers.

His later works included Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Milton's Paradise Lost, Tennyson's The Idylls of the King, The Works of Thomas Hood, and The Divine Comedy. His work also appeared in the Illustrated London News.

He continued to illustrate books until his death of a short illness in Paris in 1883. The city's Père Lachaise Cemetery contains his grave

See more images:

Paradise Lost: Illustrations by Gustave Doré
Wikimedia Commons
Art Craftsy

Here is the edition of Milton's Paradise Lost with Gustave Doré's illustrations:

You can read more about Gustave Doré's Illustrations here:

J. C. Squire Outside Eden

2011-08-31T03:34:00.001-07:00

To Albert Erskine, Lowry claimed to have lifted this phrase "from a rather stupid story by J.C. Squire, chiefly about duck shooting, though also in relation to a fair" [SL, 115]. In Squire's ‘The Alibi’, in his collection of short stories Outside Eden [180], before Sir Henry Moorhouse discovers the body of his shooting companion, Henry Henderson: "A small foreboding gust of wind came over moor and marsh, and rattled the leaves of the forlorn trees on the high ridge behind him. It carried a sound with it, a dim sort of brazen music, faint bangs and cries. It was the fair." The detail first appeared in Chapter VII [UBC 30-6, 2], then Chapter VIII [UBC 30-9, 23]; it was going to be used, somewhere. Chris Ackerley Under The Volcano A Hypertextual Companion

Sir John Collings Squire (2 April 1884 – 20 December 1958) was a British poet, writer, historian, and influential literary editor of the post-World War I period. Read more on Wikipedia

Over the fields from Upton

2011-08-24T07:30:00.000-07:00

That walk they had in the country, over the fields from Upton, "Public footpath to Thingwall". Some stupid boy (or was he, on the contrary, being profound) had turned the red signpost in the opposite direction, towards Wallasey, towards Leasowe, towards the sea. Warm fresh bread and butter with their tea. It was in Greasby they saw the horse in the stable - "dreaming and warm", she had read of someone calling a stable - and in Upton the slate-paved dairy, cold and clear: the primroses in Marples field under the yellow gorse. Ultramarine

The above walk is probably based on a real one undertaken in the Spring of 1927 by Malc and Tess Evans the model for Janet in Ultramarine.

The walk described by Lowry is closely related to the one already discussed in the post Day Out In Saughall Massie. The walk in that excerpt in the novel mentions Saughall Massie Road which runs from Upton to Saughall Massie.

Upton was the home of his brother Stuart and his wife Margot where Lowry felt more at home during the mid-20s than his parent's home in Caldy (see Bowker Pursued By Furies Pg 39). Therefore, we can assume that Malc was familiar with the area and that the walk possibly commenced from Stuart's Corvally - his home in Upton. Or Malc and Tess may have got the bus from West Kirby to Arrowe Park or got off on route as there are several footpaths to Thingwall off Arrowe Brook Lane and Arrowe Brooke Road, which was once used by the West Kirby to Birkenhead bus. The immediate fields around Upton have been consumed by housing and the old road to Saughall Massie ends at a dead end truncated by a new by-pass. Below you can see the the beginning of Saughall Massie Road in Upton and the fields beyond which Malc and Tess walked over:

If they started their walk in Upton - their route could have been down Ford Road - Greasby Road via a footpath which still exists from Greasby Road to Arrowe Brooke Road - Arrowe Brook Lane( where Lowry would have seen the signs to Thingwall)- by footpath near Irby Mill or Mill Lane to Greasby - where they could have returned by Greasby Road to Upton or continued over the fields to Saughall Massie. (See map below for possible route).

Malc and Tess may have got their "warm fresh bread and butter with their tea" at Lumsden's (seen below) at Irby Mill Hill which was popular in the 1920's.

Greasby was still a small village in the 1920's. Malc must have been familiar with Greasby as he mentions the village in a letter to Carol Brown in which he relates a dream about finding a dog on his way to Greasby; the Coach and Horses pub (seen below) is referred to in 'Enter One In Sumptuous Armour'.

The possible location for "the horse in the stable" could have been Greasby Hall Farm:

The dairy in Upton remains unidentified - here are photos of the village in the mid-1920s:

The only reference to a Marple's Field that I have discovered to date is one in Caldy. A farmer named Joseph Henry Marples ran the farm in the centre of the village not far from Inglewood. This may be a case of Malc altering the topography to suit his own creativity which does occur elsewhere in his work.

Lowry may have known that the name Primrose is associated with first love - from the Latin 'primus' - meaning first, due to their early Spring flowering. The primrose is the sacred flower of Freya, the Norse goddess of love and was used in rituals giving honor to her which again may have had significance for Lowry. Lowry was later to use the name Primrose in his novel Dark as the Grave wherein my Friend is Laid and the short story 'Gin and Goldenrod'. By one of those Lowryan coincidences, there is a pub in Liscard called 'The Primrose' not far from where Tess lived and very near the first Lowry family home.

Antediluvian Forest At Leasowe

2011-08-24T03:25:00.000-07:00

On the shore were the remains of an antediluvian forest with ugly black stumps showing. Under The Volcano

Chris Ackerley has suggested that Malc's mention of the forest early in Under The Volcano intimates the Atlantis theme in the book. The forest forms part of the 'Leasowe' landscape created by Lowry for the childhood home of the Consul.

The forest Lowry refers to is the 'submerged' or 'petrified'or 'submarine' forest described on a bas relief in Leasowe Castle as once stretching from "From Birkinheven unto Hilbree, a squirrel may jump from tree to tree". The trees were last regularly viewed back in the 60's but have since disappeared under the shifting sands. The trees were at their largest towards the river Dee, and smallest at Leasowe. They were mainly oak and fir, also present were alder, elm and beech. They gave the appearance of actually being planted and were of great size. This process was quite possibly accelerated by the introduction of the massive sea wall, which caused the tide to turn upon itself, increasing the flow around the stumps. As a child I have this vague memory of seeing them as we walked out from Dove Point at Meols, Wirral to pick cockles at low tide. Lowry would have certainly have seen the forest as a child whilst playing on the shore at Meols.

The earliest mention of the submerged forest occurs in description of Cheshire dated 1615 by William Webb entitled Kings Vale Royal in which he calls the forest the 'Meols Stocks' alluding to the antediluvian origins of the forest:

In these mosses, especially in the black, are fir-trees found under the ground, in some places six feet deep or more, and in others not one foot; which trees are of surprising length, and straight, having certain small branches like boughs, and roots at one end -as if they had been blown down by the winds; and yet no man can tell that ever any such trees did grow there, nor yet how they should come thither. Some are of the opinion that they have lain there ever since Noah's flood.

The forest is also mentioned in the poem Iter lancastrense (1636) as 'Ye Stockes in Worolde':

But greater wonder calls me hence: ye deepe
Low spongie mosses yet rememberance keepe
Of Noah's flood: on numbers infinite
Of fir trees -swaines do in their cesses light;
And in summe places, when the sea doth bate
Down from ye shoare, 'tis wonder to relate
How many thousands of their trees now stand
Black broken on their rootes, which once drie land
Did cover, whence turfs Neptune yields to showe
He did not always to theis borders flow.

The forest seems to have had a special interest for Victorians appearing in several studies including Benjamin Blower's The Mersey, ancient and modern, ones contained in the Proceedings of the Liverpool Geological Society and the Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. One of the most detailed accounts is contained in The History of the Hundred of Wirral by William Williams Mortimer (1847) The account is in the appendices of the book and is entitled 'Submarine Forest At Leasowe' telling of an excursion to the forest by the Liverpool Literary and Philosophical Society in April 1846:

It having been so arranged by the selection of the day for the excursion, that the party should reach the shore at the period of low water, they proceeded at once to the place called the Submarine Forest, entering on the beach at a point between the Castle and the Lighthouse.

To those who expected that the long expanse of sand between the embankment and the water was covered with stumps of trees of various heights, like a forest over which a hurricane had swept, nothing could be more disappointing. Apparently there was nothing worthy of notice beyond the ordinary extent of sand, diversified as usual with little rivulets flowing towards the tide, and with occasional pools, or patches of clay. The first indication of a forest was a projecting moss, like a gigantic nodule of clay, or like a projecting piece of rock. One of the party, however, drew attention to the fact that it was distinctly vegetable matter; in fact, a veritable stump, exhibiting its fracture horizontally, or nearly so, and it cleavage more or less vertically. Among the various projections or truncated pieces of root, large quantities of day and sand had effected a lodgment, and small portions of sea -weed were also attached to it. I am not aware that any other instance was noticed of a root apparently occupying the position where it had sent forth a stem, and thrown out branches and leaves: but in this instance it appears to me that there could be no doubt on the matter. It is not a little extraordinary, however, to find even a single root maintaining its anchorage, with such a strain of sea upon its tiny cables, where the material in which it is imbedded is liable to constant change, and where even its own substance is being daily rotted and frittered away.

Passing on along the sands, other indications of vegetable matter began to exhibit themselves. In some instances the clayey substance seemed to be impregnated with decayed vegetable matter; so that occasionally an ordinary observer could hardly tell whether a certain mass was merely a piece of blackened loam or a portion of rotten wood, of about the consistency of cheese. Passing still westward, the vegetable appearances became more frequent and more distinct; the whole area presented a carboniferous appearance, so that one could have predicted the existence of vegetable matter, even without the finding of a single specimen. But specimens existed in abundance; in one part the woody matter stood out in relief, like the veins of harder material, on the face of a weather-worn stone, suggesting the idea that it had been held in solution, and infiltrated into the cracks of the sand. In another, the margin of a streamlet, from four to six inches high, appeared to be a piece of darkened lias, but, on breaking it with the hand, it proved to be a portion of wood, very soft, and probably expanded, and holding the water like a sponge. Numerous instances occurred in which the timber so found admitted of the finger being readily thrust into it, in the same manner as into a piece of turf bog. Occasionally on breaking off a piece of the earthly matter, various strata of vegetable deposit appeared, like the marks that so frequently show themselves in coal, or like the leaves which appear in the fractures of various kinds of rock. Sometimes the wood was not in such a state of decomposition, but on the contrary, comparatively fresh and strong. Some was evidently birch ; and some evidently oak ; perhaps there were other kinds also. In some instances it retained the bark, in others this was wanting.

A few of the specimens, instead of giving evidence of rottenness, exhibited marks of partial petrifaction; as if minute portions of fine sand had been infiltrated into the substance of the wood, occasioning in it a shorter breakage, and rendering it almost impossible to cut it with a knife.

Another detailed account of the forest is included in Ancient Meols: or, Some account of the antiquities found near Dove point, on the Sea Coast of Cheshire by Abraham Hume. This states that timbers used in the library of Leasowe Castle came from the forest.

Here is Dove Point in 2006 with no sign of the forest at low tide:

New Bookshop in New Brighton

2011-08-19T14:18:00.000-07:00

I dropped into the new bookshop which has opened in Atherton Street in New Brighton. This is the nearest bookshop ever to Malc's birthplace in New Brighton. Unfortunately, none of his books were on sale! However, a very pleasant place to drop into. I couldn't resist a copy of Conrad's Youth - always a sucker for these Penguin editions.

Lowry quotes from Conrad's Youth in his short story 'China':

I didn't feel like Conrad "that what expected had already gone, had passed unseen in a sigh, in a flash together with youth, with strength, with romance of illusions" There was no moment that crystallized the East for me.

This quote from Conrad’s ‘Youth’ is what Malc had read before he voyaged to the Far East and expected to have the same experiences as the hero in Conrad's Youth. However, Lowry's short story reflects the reality of his isolation aboard Pyrrhus on his Far East voyage. He doesn't get the chance to prove himself unlike the hero of Conrad's Youth. In fact, he is driven back to his schooldays in having to play in a cricket match with other sailors while war wages around him.

Coot

2011-08-19T13:46:00.000-07:00

The coots, ivory billed, squat, awkward and raucous, make a noise like twanging guitar strings (Segovia tuning his guitar), they jerk along... Ghostkeeper

Shenandoah

2011-08-19T09:53:00.000-07:00

‘No, that’s no good as a song; we want one of them old sea shanties, one of the real old timers.’ 'Shenandoah.’ Ultramarine

‘Oh Shenandoah’ (also called simply ‘Shenandoah’, or ‘Across the Wide Missouri’) is a traditional American folk song, dating from at least the early nineteenth century. The lyrics may tell the story of a roving trader in love with the daughter of an Indian chief. Other interpretations tell of a pioneer’s nostalgia for the Shenandoah river, and a young woman who is its daughter; or of a Union soldier in the American Civil War, dreaming of his country home to the west of the Missouri river. The song is also associated with escaped slaves, who sang it in gratitude because the river allowed their tracks to be lost.

‘Shenandoah’ was first printed as part of William L. Alden’s ‘Sailor Songs’, in the July 1882 issue of Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. The song had become popular as a sea shanty with British sailors by the 1880s. The lyrics were printed in Sea Songs and Shanties, collected by W. B. Whall, Master Mariner (1910). A Mr J. E. Laidlaw of San Francisco reported hearing a version sung by a black Barbadian sailor aboard the Glasgow ship Harland in 1894, which went:

Oh, Shenandoah! I hear you calling!
Away, you rolling river!
Yes, far away I hear you calling,
Ha, Ha! I’m bound away across the wide Missouri.
My girl, she’s gone far from the river,
Away, you rolling river!
An’ I ain’t goin’ to see her never.
Ha, Ha! I’m bound away,’ &c

The above lyrics from Sea Songs and Shanties, collected by W. B. Whall may be near to what Lowry knew or heard on board Pyrrhus.

Malc on the Prom

2011-08-19T03:37:00.000-07:00

The beach reminded the man of his birthplace, New Brighton, England, (if this can be done, because one theme is, or should be, rebirth). Ghostkeeper

Yesterday, I discovered that I am not the only one who is spellbound by Malc believing that he should be more recognized in the place of his birth!

Bollocky Bill

2011-08-19T02:31:00.000-07:00

Bollocky Bill, aspiring writer, drawn magically from the groves of the Muses by Poseidon. Ultramarine

The mythical Bollocky Bill – reputed to have been most generously testicled – was commemorated in the bawdy ballad ‘Bollocky Bill the Sailor’, a traditional folk song originally titled ‘Abraham Brown’. ‘Bollocky’ is pronounced and occasionally spelt ‘bollicky’, and may also be a reference to being left-handed or clumsy.

There are several versions of the bawdy song in the Gordon ‘Inferno’ Collection in the US Library of Congress. The first printed version of the song is in the public domain book Immortalia (1927). Later versions feature the eponymous ‘Barnacle Bill’, a fictional character very loosely based on a nineteenth-century San Francisco sailor and Gold Rush miner, William Bernard. There are also known versions in England and Scotland from the early twentieth century.

It is impossible to determine when Lowry first heard the song. The earliest known recording is an expurgated adaptation by Carson Robison and Frank Luther in 1928:

This version was also recorded on May 21, 1930 by Bix Beiderbecke and Hoagy Carmichael with Carson Robison on vocals and released as a Victor 78, V-38139-A and 25371 with another Lowry jazz hero Joe Venuti on the session. This recording, made during the writing of Ultramarine, may have prompted Lowry to adapt the persona of the mythical seaman.

One version of ‘Barnacle Bill’ refers to an exchange between Bill and a ‘fair young maiden’. Each verse opens with inquiries by the maiden, sung by women, or by men in falsetto, and continues with Bill’s profane responses, sung by men:

‘Who’s that knocking at my door? Who’s that knocking at my door?
Who’s that knocking at my door?’ said the fair Young Maiden…
‘It’s me and my crew and we’ve come for a screw!’ said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.
‘It’s me and my crew and we’ve come for a screw!’ said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.

Alternative responses:
‘It’s only me from over the sea’ said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.
‘It’s only me from over the sea’ said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.

‘Open the door, you pox-ridden whore!’ said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.
‘Open the door, you pox-ridden whore!’ said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.

‘Open the door, you dirty whore!’ said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.
‘Open the door, you dirty whore!’ said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.

This version of the song would suit the character of Dana at the point in Ultramarine at which he prepares to lose his virginity in the brothels of Dairen. Dana’s obsession, besides his guilt at the prospect of being unfaithful to his love Janet, is that he will catch syphilis from a prostitute. Another dimension to the introduction of the Bollocky Bill persona is that Lowry considered himself to be clumsy. Lowry endows Dana with the same clumsiness, which is constantly being reinforced by the crew of the ship.

Here is the Bix Beiderbecke version:

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

2011-08-13T09:48:00.000-07:00

... we see Central Park again, changed from winter to spring and almost into another kind of Breughel, with bushes and trees in bloom, and young lovers wandering through it, children playing, little ducks swim, as church bells ring The cinema of Malcolm Lowry: a scholarly edition of Lowry's "Tender is the Night"

... in a Breughel garden with dogs & barrels & vin kegs & chickens & sunsets & morning glory with an approaching storm & a bottle of half wine. And now the rain! Let it come, seated as I am on Breughel barrel by a dog's grave crowned with dead irises. Letter to Albert Erskine 10 August 1948

The first in a series of posts in which I will be exploring Malc's references to paintings and artists in his work.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Dutch pronunciation c. 1525 – 9 September 1569) was a Flemish renaissance painter and printmaker known for his landscapes and peasant scenes (so called genre painting). He is sometimes referred to as "Peasant Bruegel" to distinguish him from other members of the Brueghel dynasty, but is also the one generally meant when the context does not make clear which Bruegel is being referred to. From 1559 he dropped the 'h' from his name and started signing his paintings as Bruegel. Read more on Wikipedia

Woodward's

2011-08-12T05:50:00.000-07:00

Lady's gold oblong wristwatch, gold expansion bracelet, lost in Woodward's dept. store Friday. Reward. F.A 3411R. Ghostkeeper

Charles Woodward established the first Woodward store at the corner of Main and Georgia Streets in Vancouver in 1892. On September 12, 1902, Woodward Department Stores Ltd. was incorporated, and a new store was built in Vancouver on the corner of Hastings and Abbott Streets. In 1926, a store was opened in Edmonton, and by the late 1940s, the company began to open numerous stores in both provinces. Facing financial difficulties, Woodward's was sold to the Hudson's Bay Company in 1993.Read more on Wikipedia

Thanks to Department Store Museum blog for the above photograph

Through The Panama

2011-08-12T04:43:00.001-07:00

British Columbian Stamps

2011-08-11T10:57:00.000-07:00

I am a British Columbian. Ever since I was a kid and collected stamps I have been in love with British Columbia. It had it's own stamp once. And I made up my mind to come here, and here I am. Ghostkeeper

There are several references to stamp collecting in Lowry's works and letters which I will be exploring in several posts. Lowry appears to have been an avid stamp collector in his youth which was quite common in middle class families in the 1910s and 1920s and beyond.

In 1860, the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia issued a postage stamp inscribed with the names of both British Columbia and Vancouver Island. The two colonies had been united until the Fraser River Gold Rush of 1858 caused an influx of settlers via Vancouver Island and, after this, British Columbia was made a separate colony. In 1866, the two were reunited as British Columbia and, in 1871, this became a province of the Dominion of Canada.

The unified stamp was issued for reasons of economy, both colonies having sufficient customers to justify the printing of stamps, but not enough to justify separate issues for each colony. The one stamp was denominated 2½ pence, depicting Queen Victoria in profile, and was surface-printed in a brownish-rose color by De La Rue. 235,440 were printed.

In 1862, Vancouver Island switched to decimal currency, and sold the unified stamp for 5 cents. It first issued its own 5- and 10-cent stamps in September 1865. In June 1864, British Columbia increased its postal rate to 3 pence, selling the unified stamp for 3d until its own stamps became available in November 1865. Pairs of stamps, used to pay a special rate to Vancouver Island, were also sold at 15 cents per pair. Although after 1865, the 2½d stamp was officially invalid, in 1867 some were made available at a 6¼ cent rate to express mail operators. The upshot of all this was the single type of stamp was sold for 2½d, 3d, 5c, 6¼c, and 7½c without ever receiving a surcharge indicating a changed value. Wikipedia

Here are some of the British Columbian stamps that Tommy Goodheart (Malcolm Lowry) may have collected:

Seal of B-C - 3 pence, blue 1865

Surcharge - 2¢, brown, perf 14 1867-71

Surcharge - 5¢, bright red, perf 14 1867-71

Seal of British Columbia 50¢ surcharge on 3d violet 1867-71

Seal of British Columbia 1$ surcharge on 3d green.

A British Columbia and Vancouver Island 2½-penny Queen Victoria stamp.

The Magnet 1950

2011-08-11T09:32:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to feature The Magnet on the 19th Hole for sometime. I did feature it in a recent talk at my local library so I thought it was about time to do so here! The film is held with affection in New Brighton because many of the landmarks seen in the film have long gone or been drastically altered. The film also had importance for Malc as well:

The Goodhearts...after dinner they seek relaxation at their local cinema, the Bay, where there is an English film playing called The Magnet.

But as soon as they enter the cinema Tommy Goodheart thinks he has gone to the next world , is having a dream within a dream, or suffering from extraordinary hallucination.

For the scene before his eyes seems at first to be the very scene along the beach this afternoon, then he realises that the scene is taking place in New Brighton, his own birthplace, on the sands where he played as a boy. And the scene that is playing is that which deals with the exchange of the invisible watch!

Then there is a short description of the film which is continually interrupted -for Mary Goodheart-by Tommy saying “There’s the cathedral! That’s Seacombe pier! That’s New Brighton pier! There used to be a tower only they knocked it down. That’s the old prom – called that the Ham and Egg Parade. Birkenhead Ales, my God! That's the place where I saw the Lion-faced Lady. The tunnel had not quite been completed when I left England though it was already in use," etc Ghostkeeper

We can only assume from the description above that Lowry saw The Magnet mostly set in his birthplace sometime in the early 1950's in Vancouver at the Bay Theatre. What I find remarkable about the description is the impact it had on the "exiled" Malc - an "extraordinary hallucination." Did Lowry construct the 'Ghostkeeper' story after seeing the movie? I will return to answering that question in more detail elsewhere. One can only imagine the feelings generated in Lowry's mind seeing a film of his birthplace when he was thousands of miles away as well as many years since being there.

The Magnet is a 1950 Ealing Studios comedy film, and gave James Fox his first starring role. The story revolves around a young boy, Johnny Brent (Fox), whose deceptive obtaining of the eponymous magnet leads to confusion and ultimately him being hailed as a hero, but feeling guilt at his slyness.

Johnny Brent (Fox), whilst off school in quarantine for scarlet fever, manages to con a younger boy out of a magnet by swapping it for an "invisible watch". However the little boy's nanny accuses him of stealing, which makes Johnny feel guilty: he runs away but then tries to get rid of the magnet, particularly after an older boy uses it to cheat at a pinball machine and the owner thinks Johnny is involved. He then meets an eccentric iron lung maker who is raising funds for the local hospital and gives him the magnet which is later auctioned for charity. The iron lung maker tells the story of the magnet at the various fund-raising events he attends, exaggerating wildly and portraying Johnny as everything from a Little Lord Fauntleroy to a ragged orphan from Dickens, all the while hoping that he can find him again. After he returns to school, Johnny sees the little boy's nanny and overhears her telling her friend about her budgerigar, which she says has died of a broken heart. Johnny, however, thinks she is talking about the little boy himself and becomes convinced that he is guilty of murder. He hides in the back of a van which takes him to Liverpool, where he conflicts with local boys, winning them over by convincing them he is on the run from the police. He saves the life of one of them when he falls through the floor of a disused pier. The injured boy ends up in the very iron lung for which the fund-raising has been all about and when Johnny visits him he sees the magnet mounted on it - and also bumps into the inventor, who is delighted to have found the little hero at last. Johnny is awarded the Civic Gold Medal, which he gives to the magnet's original owner, his conscience clear. Wikipedia

You can view the entire movie on Youtube:

The cinema Lowry refers to where he saw the film was the Bay Theatre 911 Denman Street, Vancouver (seen below). Constructed in 1938 and now a heritage site in Vancouver due to its poured in-place concrete walls and streamlined design features indicative of the “Art Moderne” style. Other notable features include the sculpted corner entrance and a prominent sign tower.

You can view related posts on my Postcards from Malc blog:

Liverpool Cathedral
Seacombe Ferry
New Brighton Pier
New Brighton Tower
New Brighton Promenade
Kingsway Tunnel

You can also view more still shots of the locations and what they look like now at Reel Streets.

Margerie Lowry in the movies Part 7

2011-08-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

This post completes my overview of Margerie Lowry in the movies.

A Made-To-Order Hero (1928)

Starring Ted Wells (seen above), Marjorie Bonner played Margery Murray, Pearl Sindelar, Jack Pratt, Ben Corbett and Gilbert Holmes. Directed by Edgar Lewis, and written by William A. Berke and Gardner Bradford, released on June 03 of 1928 in the USA.

As with many westerns of the silent era, much of this is played for humor. Aunty says niece Margery Bonner must marry a society man—or a hero, so cowboy Ted Wells has his pals (Dick L’Strange, Pee Wee Holmes, Ben Corbett, Scotty Maltraw) pretend to be outlaws as he rides to Margery’s fake rescue—as a hero! But Ted’s plans go awry when a real outlaw (Jack Pratt) shows up. Wells (1899-1947) was handsome, a superb horseman and even exhibited decent acting skills here, but was stymied when Universal shut down production of westerns in late ‘29 during the transition to sound. Ted continued to work sporadically as a stuntman, double (for Hopalong Cassidy) and extra in westerns and serials through 1947, but primarily found employment as a ranch manager in Colorado and co-owned a concrete block manufacturing business. He did manage to star in two bottom of the barrel Robert J. Horner westerns (DEFYING THE LAW and PHANTOM COWBOY, both ‘35) in the sound era that did absolutely noting to enhance his status in the film business. Silent Westerns

Trial of Courage 1928

Director: Wallace Fox; Writers: Frank Howard Clark, Helen Gregg; Stars: Bob Steele (seen above), Marjorie Bonner as Ruth Tobin and Thomas G. Lingham. No further details available.

Sinner's Parade 1928

Director: John G. Adolfi; Writers: David Lewis (story), Beatrice Van (adaptation), Stars: Victor Varconi (seen above), Dorothy Revier and John Patrick. Margerie plays Sadie in the film.

The Columbia programmer Sinner's Parade stars studio utility player Victor Varconi as shady dance-hall proprietor Al Morton. Schoolteacher Mary Tracy (Dorothy Revier) goes to work for Al to support her family. When Bill Adams (John Patrick), the son of anti-vice campaigner Mrs. Adams (Clara Selwynne), falls for Mary, she tries to quit her job, but Al won't let her. The girl's resentment for Al intensifies when the joint is raided and she loses her teaching job as a result. Amazingly, however, Al turns out to be the hero of the piece when the "respectable" Bill Adams reveals himself to be a gangster boss, whereupon Mary saves Al from being taken for a ride by Adams' hired goons. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A Rider of the Sierras (short) 1929

Director: Ray Taylor; Writers: William Berke (scenario), William Berke (story); Stars: Edmund Cobb, Marjorie Bonner and Bob Kortman. No other details available.

Dangerous Days (short) 1929

Director: Jack Nelson; Stars: Bobby Nelson, Edmund Cobb and Marjorie Bonner.

The Sign of the Cross 1932

The Sign of the Cross (1932) is a pre-Code epic film released by Paramount Pictures, produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille from a screenplay by Waldemar Young and Sidney Buchman, and based on the original 1895 play by Wilson Barrett. Read more on Wikipedia

Margerie played an uncredited Roman woman.

The Film Parade 1933

Director: J. Stuart Blackton; Writer: Howard Gaye; Stars: Kent Stevenson, Marian Constance Blackton and Violet Virginia Blackton. Margerie plays woman in Daguerre's Studio.

A two-reel short from Alliance (produced in England and not the USA as some sources indicate)covering the history of "moving pictures" from 1848 to the (then) present, and even going into detail about how stationary frames of pictures are made to move, and how Sound is put onto the track. Footage from many silent films is used, including Mary Pickford (identified as Gladys Nicholson) in 1910's "Simple Charity", and Camille's death scene from "La Dame aux cemelias" in which Sarah Bernhardt dies standing on her feet (possibly to ensure the other performers didn't upstage her) and takes her own sweet time doing it. Marlene Dietrich sings "Falling in Love Again" from the English version of "The Blue Angel", which is good as the German-language title of that song is tough to write on a keyboard that has no accent marks. This short's title was changed to "March of the Movies" in the USA, which makes more sense than what most of the US film titles were changed to in England. IMDb

A Clip From The Film Parade: A History Of Early Cinema - A funny movie is a click away

The above film has been released as follows:

The DVD is still available from Amazon which means this is the easiest way to see Margerie in a movie! As she is impossible to identify in the uncredited roles in the De Mille movies.

Margerie Lowry in the movies Part 6

2011-08-10T12:14:00.000-07:00

I continue my look at Margerie Lowry in the movies.

King of Kings 1927

Margerie had an undetermined/uncredited part in the film.

The King of Kings (1927) is a silent film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. It is a religious movie about the last weeks of Jesus before his crucifixion. H. B. Warner starred as Jesus. One of the last sequences of the movie, the Resurrection, is in Technicolor. Read more on Wikipedia

You can watch the movie on You Tube:

Poor Girls 1927

A Vivid Drama of the Night Clubs of New York IMDb

Director: William James Craft; Writers: Sophie Bogen (story), William Branch; Stars: Dorothy Revier (seen below), Edmund Burns and Ruth Stonehouse. Margerie played Vivian Stewart in the film.

The "poor girls" in this big-city melodrama are actually one in number: heroine Dorothy Revier, who has been raised to believe that she was born into a wealthy and well-connected family. Upon learning that her sainted mother is a "mere" nightclub hostess, the pampered Revier leaves home in a huff and heads for New York, where she lands a job in a department store. Only after being threatened by various urban pitfalls does Revier come to realize how much she truly owes her mother for sheltering her from such perils. Critics in 1927 complained that Dorothy Revier's character was too unsympathetic to sustain interest for six full reels. Nor were they impressed by leading man Edmund Burns, whom they found stiffer than usual. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi Artist Direct

The Four-Footed Ranger 1928

Director: Stuart Paton; Writers: Gardner Bradford (titles), Paul M. Bryan (screenplay), and 2 more credits; Cast: Dynamite the dog, Edmund Cobb [Jack Dunne], Marjorie Bonner [Katy Pearl Lee], Pearl Sindelar [Mary Doolittle], Francis Ford [Brom Hockley], Pat Rooney (Patrick Rooney) [Bull Becker], Frank M. Clark (Frank Clark) [‘Handsome’ Thomas], Carl Sepulveda [Jake], Lee Lin [the Chinese cook. I am unsure whether that is Marg in the above still from the movie.

Assisted by an above-average cast that included veteran Western lead Edmund Cobb (seen above)and rising ingénue Marjorie Bonner, Universal's Rin Tin Tin clone Dynamite headlined this likable silent Western}. Dynamite and Ranger {Cobb} are called in to investigate a series of cattle rustlings. In order to get close to the gang, {Cobb} dons the disguise of ranch hand on the {Lee} ranch. The owner of the ranch, unbeknownst to {Cobb}, is pretty {Marjorie Bonner}, who arrives from the East with a maiden aunt (Pearl Sindelar}) in tow. After numerous romantic and action-packed interludes, the ranger and his dog manage to unmask the leader of the rustlers, ranch foreman {Francis Ford}, and his underling, {Pat Rooney}. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Lowry Book Covers 6

2011-08-10T02:07:00.000-07:00

Lowry Book Covers 5

2011-08-10T02:05:00.000-07:00

Cover by Charles Raymond. Penguin Books (1962).

R.S.V.P. 1926

2011-08-08T12:14:00.000-07:00

RSVP at The Vaudeville is a a good revue. Letter to Carol Brown 3rd June 1926

The Vaudeville Theatre, which stands on the northern side of the Strand opened on the 23rd of February 1926 with a revue called 'R.S.V.P' by Archie de Bear. It is actually the Third Theatre on this same site since 1870, having been reconstructed three times over its long history.

The revue R.S.V.P., including Alice in Lumberland, 'a fantasy in three phases,' written by Archibald de Bear, with ballet and incidental music by Norman O'Neill, with additional scenes and lyrics by Reginald Arkell, was produced at the Vaudeville Theatre, London, on 23 February 1926. With dances arranged by J.W. Jackson and the ballet choreographed by Quentin Tod, with settings, costumes by Clifford Pember, the piece included a cast headed by Cyril Ritchard, Robert Hale, J.H. Roberts, Quentin Tod, Joyce Barbour, Mimi Crawford and Enid Stamp-Taylor. The number of performances is uncertain because of the General Strike, but is thought to be in the region of 294, closing on 6 November 1926.

Some of the revues included:

SITTING ON TOP OF THE WORLD (by Lewis Young and Ray Henderson) Cyril Richards with Mimi Crawford

MY BACHELOR DAYS (by Austin Melford and Melville Gideon)

WORSE-THAN-ANY-MARY (by Greatrex Newman). Cyril Richards played Hale Fellow Well Set in this parody of MERCENARY MARY, a "Hippodrome success".

ALICE IN LUMBERLAND by Archibald de Bear; Cyril Richards played Mr. Brown-Jones and the Mad Hatter to Mimi Crawford's Alice.

FAMILY BRIDGE (by J. H. Roberts and Greatrex Newman); Cyril Richards played the irascible Major Trevor.

HOW D'YOU DO? (by James Heard and Melville Gideon)

SENTIMENTAL ME (by Lorenz Hart and Richard Rogers) Cyril Richards with Mimi Crawford, J.H. Roberts and Joyce Barbour

HOUP-LA!, the finale which involved the entire company.

Rene Clair - Les Deux Timides 1928 Part 2

2011-08-08T07:35:00.000-07:00

I have been fixing many broken links on the blog over the last day or two. A few things have been lost but I have turned up some new material.

A few short clips from the movie which I featured as part of a series of posts on Cambridge Film Guild 1929-1930 Season:

Conrad Veidt Where the lighthouse shines across the bay 1933

2011-08-08T02:19:00.000-07:00

I will be resurrecting some draft posts over the next few days which have lay dormant for some time. I came across them as I have repaired/re-installed missing links on the blog.

The idea of one of Malc's favourite actors singing a song about a lighthouse was too good to miss!

Conrad Veidt sings the song in the English version of of "F.P.1" ("F.P.1 Doesn't Answer" in the US, and "Where the Lighthouse Shines Across the Bay" in Australia. There was also a German version called " F.P.1 Antwortet Nicht" with different actors as well as a French version - all directed by Karl Hartl.

F.P.1, or F.P.1 Doesn't Respond was the name of a novel written by noted science fiction and fantasy writer/director Curt Siodmak, best known as the creator of The Wolf Man.

Written after Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic flight, the plot concerned a permanent air station in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The German version was the last German film that either Siodmak or Peter Lorre, who played a secondary character, would make in Germany before the war. It premiered on 22 December 1932.Read more on Wikipedia

WHERE THE LIGHTHOUSE SHINES ACROSS THE BAY
(From the film "F.P.1" 1933.)
(Music by Allan Gray, [English] lyrics by Donovan Parsons.)

Where the lighthouse shines across the bay,
There's a cottage kissed by fume and spray,
Cheerful logs to warm the winter day are blazing.
List'ning to the breakers on the shore,
From a tiny cottage thatched with straw,
Stands a fair-haired lassie at the door star gazing.
Watching the dark clouds, dreading the gale,
Counting the days since her lover set sail.
Where the lighthouse shines across the bay,
Seagulls on the shore have heard her say:
"Come home, my love, come home, dear love, come home."

Read a review of FP1 on Shadow Play

Review of German version of the film on Diesel Punks

Next Lowry Lounge @ The Bluecoat Liverpool 15th October 2011

2011-08-06T11:31:00.001-07:00

We are starting to prepare for the next Lowry Lounge on 15th October 2011 - more details to follow. In the meantime I have revisted last year's musical treats from Bryan Bigg's playlist with songs which I didn't post for some reason last year!

These should get us in the spirit:

George Formby – I’m the Ukulele Man

Fred Waring & the Pennsylvanians – Dry Bones

Bix Beiderbecke – Singing the Blues

Claude Hopkins and his orchestra - Shake Your Ashes

West Cheshire Golf Course

2011-08-04T03:37:00.000-07:00

Spring on the West Cheshire Golf Links, with its background of cylindrical brick- red gas works Ultramarine

The West Cheshire Golf course was formed in September 1908 and went into liquidation on 7th June 1952.

The course occupied 2 sites as indicated on the map above. The first course occupied the former Bidston Moss to the east of the Birkenhead to New Brighton Railway and south of the line to Seacombe with the club house and first tee lying to the north across the Seacombe line. The course could be reached by an underpass under the Seacombe branch line. The first course moved from this site sometime in the mid-30s possibly due to the expansion of Birkenhead Docks with the construction of Bidston Dock which can been seen on the above map (click on image to enlarge) and in the photo below.

This expansion is referred to here:

The low-lying land north of Bidston, the site of the old West Cheshire Golf Course, is suited to port industries. The latest of the docks, Bidston Dock, at the head of the West Float, gives shipping facilities Merseyside Plan 1944

The original course became a municipal tip in 1936 which gradually expanded across the former course into the 90s.

The original course is the one referred to by Lowry in Ultramarine which we can assume he used with Tess Evans ( the basis of the character Janet in Ultramarine). Lowry himself was a member of Caldy Golf Club as a youth and later was a member of the Royal Liverpool Club at Hoylake. We can only speculate why he used the West Cheshire course rather than the ones at Caldy and Hoylake. Certainly, the West Cheshire was nearer to Tess's home in Liscard, she may have been a member or perhaps Malc was "hiding" with her at the West Cheshire from the prying eyes of his family and their friends? You can see the course's clubhouse which Malc and Tess would have used on the left of the photo below.

The gas works which Lowry referred to in Ultramarine was located the east of the course in Gorsey Lane, Wallasey which would have been clearly visible from the east end of the original course.

The only meaningful mention of the course in local newspapers I could find related to winding up of the club. However, the most detailed mention of the course is in Bill Houldin's Up Our Lobby which refers to the West Cheshire Artisans based at the course but also talks about caddying at the course. The book includes this description:

The West Cheshire Course was situated around what was the Wallasey Pool, (now Bidston Dock). The Pool was simply an irregularly shaped, grassy banked stretch of water. On one side ran the Wrexham/Wallasey railway, and on the other side up to the road bridge, the golf course. The course followed the line of the pool and then took a right turn following the road past what is now the incinerator. It went up to what is now the Co-op Coal Depot, but which then was a railway engine sheds. It then took a right turn again. It was a nice undulating and interesting course and bred many fine golfers... The clubhouse itself was on one side of a dirt road which starting at the first tee and going under the Wrexham/Wallasey Railwayb line bridge, would stretch for three or four hundred yards up the hill to Breck Road, Poulton... The Professionals Shop and Caddies Stand were on the opposite side of this sunken, dirt road. They were connected by a wooden bridge which lay alongside the railway bridge, both crossing the sunken dirt road at this point.The Caddies' Shed was just that, an open-ended wooden structure, roofed in with corrugated iron and having a dirt floor. Nothing here to encourage the lazy tomlounge about.

The second course was located west of the New Brighton to Birkenhead line occupying the former Bidston Aerodrome site as seen below:

The above map appears on the site of a former member of the club - Bert Gadd:

My new club, West Cheshire, just down the road from Hoylake, now lies partly under the M53 motorway having been wound up half a century ago, so I guess my course record 63 is safe.The Life and Times of Bert Gadd – Professional Golfer

Bert Gadd's mention of the club is one of the few on the Net. Another refers to the role of the course in WW2:

The West Cheshire Golf Course, of which my parents and I were members, was taken over to decoy German aircraft to hopefully bomb wide open spaces. The job of some brave folks, as air-raids started, was go out setting light to the many oil filled pots. The deception worked, the only problem being that some of the nearby homes including ours) suffered damage.

The old course received many bombs creating the abundance of "ready made" bunkers. However, as the estimate to reconstruct the course was prohibitive, the compensation money given by the government was used to build a new course - the clubhouse having escaped damage. WW2 Talk

Both former sites are now virtually unrecognisable due to the first being used as a tip and the second being consumed by a motorway, access roads and a retail park. There is sparse information existing about the course unlike Caldy and the Royal Liverpool - the course has virtually disappeared off the map and local consciousness. It must be noted that the course was not connected to Bidston Golf Club which still exists on land adjacent to the second course.

The original West Cheshire course and the later tip are now Bidston Moss Nature Reserve. You can see a slide show below of photographs taken on a recent trip to the nature reserve.:

This triangular piece of land sandwiched between the River Birket, the M53 and A554 was designated as a Local Nature Reserve in 1994.

Although vastly changed from the salt marsh of the original mossland it is an important wildlife site in North Wirral, particularly for its ponds, reedbed and marshland.

Approximately eight hectares in size the site has had a varied history. The construction of a sea wall in 1847 along the eastern limit of Wallasey Pool effectively destroyed the salt marsh at Bidston. Land drainage and the canalisation of the River Birket allowed the construction of roads and buildings.

The adjacent golf course was constructed in 1890, while land forming the present nature reserve continued to be used for grazing until the 1970's. Part of the reserve's land was then used for tipping builders rubble - particularly the mound in the north-east corner.

It was declared a Site of Biological Interest in 1980 and improved in 1984 by the construction of ponds, paths and boardwalks together with tree and wildflower planting. Since then it has been managed by the Wirral Ranger Service.
Read more

Pirandello's The Man With the Flower in His Mouth

2011-08-02T04:38:00.000-07:00

I'm writing an unpleasant story (inspired by Piandello's 'Man with a Flower in his mouth'), about a man with cancer of the lip, and almost at the end of his tether, who invites his old doctor down for the weekend. They pass the time away over the fireside by exchanging yarns, and my man with cancer of the lip keeps forgetting that there's anything wrong with him.

Subsequently...but that's as far as I've got, and I've committed the one fatal error in writing a short story, writing the beginning before the end. Letter to Carol Brown 10th June 1926

As Sherrill Grace says in her annotation to Malc's Collected Letters - "an intriguing choice of model for the seventeen year old Lowry." The short story is now lost if it was ever completed.

The play is a one-act "dialogue", derived with small variations, from the novella La Morte Adosso (1923). The dialogue takes place in a bar, late at night, between a man who is dying of an epithelioma ("il fiore in bocca") and a peaceful businessman who has missed his train. In other words, between someone who intensely lives the little time left to him and someone who is rich with time to spend idly and irresponsibly, waiting for the morning train and entirely absorbed by the banal contretemps.

The exceptional nature of the moment, for the man who feels death upon him--to use Pirandello's phrase--and the normality of it, for the one who is absorbed in the usual affairs of life with its small daily commitments, mark the two ends of the dialectic which is animated in the grand soliloquy of the protagonist.

He lucidly analyses his last sensations on earth, evoking scenes of common life, particulars of a quotidianity which are receding from him irremediably and which, for this reason, make precious the memories of even the most trivial events. In the solemnity of his solitude, he seems to have gained unexpected awarenesses of the life that is leaving him and of death. With no sense of regret or repentance, he almost seems to bitterly enjoy his unrepeatable experience marked by the echo of the end, which allows him to dedicate himself with interest to observing the anonymous life of others, in order to grasp its sense. Wikipedia

On July 14, 1930, Luigi Pirandello's play became the first drama ever broadcast over the then-experimental medium of television:

BBC radio producer Lance Sieveking's reaction to the new medium of television was very much as a place in which he could experiment with new ideas. In collaboration with Val Gielgud he brought an adaptation of Luigi Pirandello's short play L'Uomo dal Fiore in Bocca (1923) to 30-line television as "The Man with the Flower in His Mouth".

In 1967, Radio Rentals who owned the Baird brand approached the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) Television Service to co-operate in recording a reconstruction of "The Man with the Flower in his Mouth" for the Ideal Home Exhibition later that year. The video at upper left is the one performed in 1967, with fairly accurate 30-line equipment specially constructed by technician Bill Elliot at Granada. The reconstructed play was authentically re-produced and presented by the original producer, Lance Sieveking, supported by the original art-work, and used the original incidental music which had been retrieved from the 1930 gramaphone disc. The actors were students from ILEA, who were coached by Sieveking himself.
Baird Television

You can watch the reconstruction here:

The Scala Theatre, Birkenhead

2011-08-01T04:25:00.000-07:00

"Where shall we go? The Hippodrome or the Argyle? ..... I've heard there's a good show on at the Scala -" Ultramarine

I have already posted about this line in Malc's Ultramarine under the title The Smells of Birkenhead and Liverpool. I now realise that I incorrectly stated the theatre Lowry was referring to was the cinema in Lime Street Liverpool. However, I now believe that he was referring to the former Scala Theatre in Birkenhead since the other 2 theatres he mentions are both in Birkenhead. What caused me to change my mind was finding a 1927 programme for the Scala in Birkenhead. The scene in Ultramarine is probably based on Lowry's youthful excursions to Birkenhead theatres with Tess Evans.

The Scala Theatre was originally called the Theatre Royal opening at 51/53 Argyle Street, Birkenhead on 31st October 1864. The theatre was altered after a fire in 1892, extensively modernised in 1905 and introduced cinema into the programmes in 1910.

Under pressure from cinema, the Theatre Royal closed in January 1921. The new proprietors Sol and Alfred Levy spent a fortune in converting the theatre to a modern picture house. James S. Bramwell was in charge of the reconstruction, Arnold Auerbach, a Liverpool artist, provided the designs and J.A. Milestone was in charge of building work.

The cinema had a well-proportioned hall, on the right hand side of which was the main stairway to the balcony and café. On the newel post (or central pillar) was an ornamental ruby red brazier balanced by two similar lights on opposite walls. Entrance to the stalls was via a screen of pillars and the main lounge hall. The latter was of a Neo Graeco influence and sported artistically-illuminated semi-archaic panels of black murals depicting Greek legends. Indeed the foyer had a temple-like atmosphere.

On passing into the auditorium the most noticeable feature was the proscenium. The projection equipment was somewhat a novel to the area with films being projected from behind the stage rather than from the front of the screen. This necessitated the screen being transparent to the film yet opaque in terms of the audience not being able to see either the projectionist or his equipment.

The brightly decorated stage set was set off by glowing blue background. The proscenium opening was flanked by two tall piers, colossal gilded masks and decorative, lacquered lanterns. Both the piers and the cross beam were adorned with painted figures. Ceiling lights compromised four sculptured figures standing on an illuminated sphere and holding lighted globes in their hands. Lighting was supplemented by jewel lamps of quaint design. The orchestra pit was deeply recessed below floor level.

At that time this was the only cinema in the town to have a café, which was a lofty room to the left of the main stairway. It was finished in crimson, black, gold and blue with large, red-framed wall decorations and richly coloured lights suspended from the ceiling. The décor f the ante-rooms and corridors was in harmony with that of the main building. The Silver Screens of Wirral: A History of Cinemas in Birkenhead and Bebington by P.A. Carson & C.R. Garner

The cinema re-opened on 25th April 1921 as the Scala Picture House. The cinema had daily matinees at 3.00pm and continuous performances from 6.30 to 10.30pm. In 1927, the licensee and manager was Cyril Levy, circle cost 1 shilling and 6 pence, the stalls 1 shilling and the upper circle 5 pence. The Scala was the first cinema in Bikenhead to show “talkies” in August 1929. In February 1930 the Scala was taken over by Associated British Cinemas and soon after closed for redecoration. The Scala finally closed on 6th February 1937 and was demolished to be replaced with a new cinema called the Savoy.

One of the interesting things which struck me when I obtained a programme for the Scala, dated November 14th 1927, was the contents of the programme which was a mixture of live performance and movies. Here is a break down of the programme for that week in 1927 which may have been similar to what Malc and Tess may have seen:

Gaumont Graphic
The Gaumont Graphic was a silent newsreel which was issued from 25 October 1910 to 29 December 1932. In November 1929, Gaumont launched a new sound newsreel, the Gaumont Sound News, and for the next three years the Graphic functioned as its silent counterpart for smaller cinemas which did not possess sound. After the demise of the Gaumont Graphic, the Gaumont Sound News continued until the launch of the Gaumont British News in 1934.

The initial editorial arrangements of the Gaumont Graphic are unknown, but from 1913 it was edited by Alec Braid. In 1915 Braid was replaced by Alexander Victor, but by the following year Victor had himself been replaced by Louis Behr, who remained in editorial control of the Gaumont Graphic and Gaumont Sound News until 1934.
British Universities Film & Video Council

You can find every surviving Gaumont Graphic clip by searching JISC MediaHub

Tony Hargreaves and Dorothy Dodd
Unfortunately, I cannot find anything on this act except what it says in the programme - in musical and character studies.

Talbot O'Farrell

I couldn't really find too much about Talbot O'Farrell even though he was very popular in the 20s and 30s and even made a film directed by Michael Powell called Born Lucky.

TALBOT O'FARRELL

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Titles read: "Pathetone now has pleasure in presenting - The famous Variety, Screen & Radio Star Talbot O'FARRELL." London (probably Pathe Studio). Various shots of Talbot O'Farrell standing beside a piano in traditional 'Irishman' costume of a light-coloured top hat, dark double-breasted suit, light trousers and spats. He does a bit of patter about the silly titles of songs being sung nowadays. He then sings an Irish song called 'Little Green Heaven' (about Ireland, naturally). We see superimposed shots of the Irish countryside and the pretty colleen who is waiting for Talbot. British Pathe

Here is Talbot singing All that I want is in Ireland:

TALBOT O'FARRELL

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Full titles read: "And now 'Pathetone' introduces another celebrated Artist on the screen - Talbot O'Farrell - the famous Variety Star." London, probably Pathe Studio. M/S of a man in tails sitting at a grand piano and playing. Variety star Talbot O'Farrell enters, looking very smart in a top hat and suit. He does a bit of patter and then sings an Irish comedy song, 'Casey's Charabanc', a jaunty song about various characters and events on a charabanc trip. At the end of the song he starts clapping, to encourage the cinema audience! He says he is going to sing a different kind of Irish song, one that he sang for Their Majesties the King and Queen at the Command Performance, called 'Come Back To Ireland And Me'. Talbot sings the sentimental song - an Irish Mother's lament.
British Pathe

Mismates
(1926) American
B&W : Seven reels / 2104 metres
Directed by Charles Brabin

Cast: Doris Kenyon [Judy Winslow], Warner Baxter [Ted Carroll], May Allison [Belle], Philo McCullough [Jim Winslow], Charles Murray [Black], Maude Turner Gordon [Mrs. Winslow], John Kolb [Watson], Cyril Ring [Helwig], Nancy Kelly [Jimsy], Betty Byrne

Distributed by First National Pictures, Incorporated. / Supervising producer Earl Hudson. Scenario by Sada Cowan, from a play by Myron C. Fagan. / Released 26 July 1926. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.37:1 format. / The film was released in Austria in 1927, and in Germany in 1928.

Drama.

Survival Status: (unknown)

Mismates was based on the Myron C. Fagan stage play of the same name. Doris Kenyon (above) plays a pretty young woman of modest means who doesn't know what she's in for when she marries wealthy Philo McCullough. The groom's over-protective mother not only refuses to recognize the marriage, but she also denies Kenyon access to the family home -- for five long years! McCullough's snooty relatives try to rid themselves of Kenyon by framing the girl for a crime she didn't commit. But our heroine escapes from jail to get the last laugh on her despicable in-laws. Halfway through the film, director Charles J. Brabin tries and fails to emulate Cecil B. DeMille with an extravagant society party, which makes about as much sense as the rest of picture. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

I was interested to discover that the film's director was born in Liverpool:

Charles J. Brabin (April 17, 1882 in Liverpool, England - November 3, 1957 in Santa Monica, California) was an American film director and screenwriter. He was active during the silent era, then pursued a short-lived career in talkies.

Born in Liverpool, England, he was educated at St. Francis Xavier College. Brabin sailed to New York in the early 1900s and, while holding down odd jobs there, he tried his hand as a stage actor. He joined the Edison Company around 1908, first acting then writing then directing. His last film was A Wicked Woman for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1934.

Brabin wed silent-film "vamp" star Theda Bara (seen below) in 1921, remaining married to her until her death from abdominal cancer in April 1955 and becoming one of the rare long-lasting Hollywood marriages. Wikipedia

Full filmography of Charles Brabin

I was fascinated while researching this post to discover a Liverpool born artist new to me - Arnold Auerbach 1898-1978:

This self-portrait was drawn on Auerbach's return to London from the continent at the age of twenty-four. It bears the impress of the late quattrocento, recalling portraits by Piero della Francesca and Giovanni Bellini. As a sort of 'coming of age' portrait 'it is a summation of his student days; an avowal of his powers as a draughtsman and an anticipation of the art world opening before him.' (Elizabeth Harvey-Lee, Arnold Auerbach, 1998).

Auerbach was born in Liverpool to second-generation immigrants, his grandfather having come from Poland. In his Sculpture: a Brief History, one of a number of books on the subject, Auerbach wrote that drawing was the link, the common factor, between painting and sculpture. Having studied previously at the Liverpool School of Art, been invalided out of the army in 1918 two years after being drafted at the age of eighteen, he exhibited in 1919 at the Maddox Street Gallery and in 1921 at the Walker Art Gallery.

Through the 1920s Auerbach worked as an architectural sculptor on the interiors of art-deco buildings, including for the palace of the Nawab of Rampur in India. In the later 1920s and early 1930s his style changed from reflecting an awareness of ancient Egyptian stance, simplification and monumentality of form to experimentation with the broken forms, angularity and semi-abstract patterning of cubism. He later worked at the Beckenham Art School, the Regent Street Polytechnic and the Chelsea School of Art variously teaching architecture, sculpture, still life and portrait painting. Ill-health forced him to give up sculpture in the 1950s, by which time he had returned to naturalism. Invaluable Find.com

You can view some examples of his work at the Invaluable.com site.

Vancouver Bus Terminal

2011-07-31T10:33:00.000-07:00

A singing smell of tar, of the highway
Fills the grey Vancouver Bus Terminal
- Poem Turned Back at the Border

The above painting entitled Vancouver Bus Terminal 1939 is by Brian Croft. Here is what he had to say about the painting:

As with railroads and airlines, tracing transportation corporate history is always a jumble of buy-outs and mergers. I’ll pick up the story behind this painting in 1922 when Vancouver entrepreneur, Ivor Neil, decided to expand his small local bus company. He renamed it Pacific Stages Transportation Ltd, purchased a few more buses and commenced service between Vancouver and Port Moody and Coquitlam.

Expanding as he went, Neil bought up other companies and eventually served the Fraser Valley and south as far as Seattle. In 1924, The British Columbia Electric Railway Company (BCER) was watching Ivor Neil closely.

The BCER understood the emerging potential of bus travel, sensed competition with its electric streetcar and interurban system and responded decisively. By 1925 The BCER formed BC Motor Transportation Ltd. comprised of Pacific Stage Lines (PSL) still run by Ivor Neil, and a tour bus line called Grey Line.

In a parallel venture it also formed BC Rapid Transport to handle motor freighting in the Fraser Valley. BCER’s BC Motor Transportation Ltd. expanded quickly and in 1926, ground was broken for a stylish new depot and head office on the southeast corner of Dunsmuir and Seymour streets.

When the modestly sized depot opened that fall it was likely the most stylish and modern bus depot in North America. By 1930 PSL ran service to West Vancouver and Horseshoe Bay, south through Surrey to Halls Prairie, Coast Meridian and Johnston, past Haney to Mission and Harrison Hot Springs and out to Sumas Prairie. In 1932 BC Motor Transport merged its BC Rapid Transit freight operation into PSL.

New modern buses were acquired with streamlining and more passenger comforts. In 1936 a Vancouver manufacturer, Hayes, revolutionized the industry by creating a streamlined model based on the Chrysler Airflow. It was nicknamed the Teardrop, a bus so successful that Hayes became the main builder of PSL buses.

Although only five were ever built, Hayes went on to build the magnificent and innovative “Clipper” model. My painting Vancouver Bus Terminal – 1939 is based on an archived photograph by well known Vancouver photographer Leonard Frank.

Although I added hundreds of tiny additional researched details, I made two major alterations by expanding the viewpoint laterally and creating a night scene. The decision to create a night painting meant that the 1939 bus schedules needed to be found and researched.

This done, I am empowered to write that the Hayes Clipper in the foreground is the departing 7 p.m. bus bound for Seattle, Washington. The fare is $3 or $5.50 return. The teardrop in front of the terminal arrived earlier at 6:35 p.m. The teardrop emerging onto Seymour Street is the 7:15 departure to New Westminster via Kingsway.

The PSL emblem on each bus features the flying horse Pegasus signifying strength, speed and beauty. The depot was adorned with radiant neon destination signs and on the corner are pointers with more than 30 additional destinations.

By design, passersby would read these and begin to imagine themselves stepping on board a PSL coach, in every sense, a gateway express to the rest of the globe. The Hotel Dunsmuir anchors the left of my painting; the building survives to this day. The terminal housed several businesses located on the upper two floors. The sidewalk tenants included: Bridge River, a beauty salon, a barbershop, and a shoeshine stall.

The main attractions, however, are close to the corner; Ivor Neil could often be found in Pacific Tour and Travel Bureau under the Travel bureau sign, United Cigars, a well-known chain, occupies the double entry corner location and next door, Fountain Lunch, looks to be a most inviting eatery.

All of this I painted as accurately as possible. The colours are of my own imagination and I painted the entire scene, in my own style, romantically reflected in the glistening evidence of a recent fall shower.

All aboard!
Richmond News

Pare Lorentz's The River 1937

2011-07-31T09:24:00.000-07:00

As for propaganda, good propaganda, I take it, is good art. (eg The River.) Letter to Gerald Noxon 21 September 1940

The River is a 1938 short documentary film which shows the importance of the Mississippi River to the United States, and how farming and timber practices had caused topsoil to be swept down the river and into the Gulf of Mexico.

It was written and directed by Pare Lorentz and, like Lorentz's earlier documentary The Plow That Broke the Plains, was also selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", going into the registry in 1990. Both films have notable scores by Virgil Thomson that are still heard as concert suites. The film was narrated by the American baritone Thomas Hardie Chalmers.

The two films were sponsored by the U.S. government and specifically the Resettlement Administration (RA) to raise awareness about the New Deal. The RA was folded into the Farm Security Administration in 1937, so The River was officially an FSA production.
Read more on Wikipedia

You can watch documentary on Internet Archive:

New Bookshop in New Brighton

2011-07-31T06:24:00.001-07:00

I dropped into the new bookshop which has opened in Atherton Street in New Brighton. This is the nearest bookshop ever to Malc's birthplace in New Brighton. Unfortunately, none of his books were on sale! However, a very pleasant place to drop into. I couldn't resist a copy of Conrad's Youth - always a sucker for these Penguin editions.

Lowry quotes from Conrad's Youth in his short story 'China':

I didn't fell like Conrad "that what expected had already gone, had passed unseen in a sigh, in a flash together with youth, with strength, with romance of illusions" There was no moment that crystallized the East for me.

This quote from Conrad’s ‘Youth’ is what Malc had read before he voyaged to the Far East and expected to have the same experiences as the hero in Conrad's Youth. However, Lowry's short story reflects the reality of his isolation aboard Pyrrhus on his Far East voyage. He doesn't get the chance to prove himself unlike the hero of Conrad's Youth. In fact, he is driven back to his schooldays in having to play in a cricket match with other sailors while war wages around him.

Lowry Book Covers 4

2011-07-31T03:48:00.000-07:00

GALLIMARD .. 1978.. In-8 Carré. Broché. Bon état. Couv. convenable. Dos satisfaisant. Intérieur frais. 263 pages. Traduit de l'anglais par Clarisse Francillon et Jean-Roger Carroy. Postface de Jean-Roger Carroy.

DENOËL .. 1965.. In-8 Carré. Broché. Etat d'usage. Couv. légèrement passée. Dos satisfaisant. Intérieur acceptable. 265 pages. Couverture rempliée. Ecriture au stylo sur la page de titre. Traduit de l'anglais par Clarisse Francillon et Jean-Roger Carroy. Postface de Jean-Roger Carroy. Les lettres nouvelles dirigée par Maurice Nadeau.

An Underground Piccadilly Circus of the Soul

2011-07-30T12:42:00.000-07:00

in a kind of underground Piccadilly Circus of the soul Letter to Gerald Noxon

could not imagine that this beer parlour with its eternally recurrent ranged batteries of soapsuds-filled glasses on the bar was spinning on the same axis as he did, at the centre of the world, Piccadilly Circus and the Pantheon. October Ferry to Gabriola

See Piccadilly Circus on Postcards from Malc

The idea of an underground Piccadilly Circus of the soul appealed to me! Then I discovered the picture sleeve of Francis Bay's E.P. and loved the juxtaposition of a favourite Malc tipple Tequila and Piccadilly.

Here's the two tracks together:

Under the Volcano By Blackstone Audio

2011-07-29T12:17:00.000-07:00

UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry (unabridged) is presented by Blackstone Audio.

More details on iTunes

Mexican Altar dedicated to Malcolm Lowry

2011-07-29T09:39:00.001-07:00

It is funny that nearly 2 years after the Centenary Celebrations for Malc's birth that I keep finding things related to the event:

With the help of the people from Liverpool, we created an altar dedicated to the English writer Malcolm Lowry on the foyer of the Bluecoat Gallery in Liverpool.

The altar included all the traditional, decorations, food and objects used by mexican people to remember their deaths every year during the first and second of Novermber. Food, sugar skulls, special bred, marigold flowers and other crafts were all created in various workshops with different groups of people from Liverpool. We baked bread, made sugar skulls and cooked special food to eat during the first of November. A large picture of Lowry at the center of the altar and a other small pictures were displayed alone with of bottle of Mezcal and other objects associated to Lowry. The program on Sunday also included selected music by the Bluecoat's artistic director Brian Biggs, two requiems by members of the Lantern's choir and workshops and activities for children. Read more

The Paris Review No. 29, Winter-Spring 1963

2011-07-29T09:32:00.000-07:00

Among the contents:

Malcolm Lowry, Lunar Caustic
Conrad Knickerbocker, Malcolm Lowry and the Outer Circle of Hell

More details here

(Mis)adventure: Malcolm Lowry & Conrad Aiken 1928–1954

2011-07-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

Just come across this book which was new to me:

Both sides of this vital dialogue between Malcolm Lowry – dissolute, destitute, and laboriously writing Under the Volcano (1947) – and Conrad Aiken: his literary mentor, financial resource, an emotional security blanket, and friend.

37pp., three illustrations. 6” x 8½” Wrappers, $25

More info here

Bunuel on Under The Volcano

2011-07-29T05:37:00.001-07:00

Personally, I've always thought that either Luis Bunuel or Orson Welles would have been the best directors to have made a film version of Malc's great novel. I have already posted that Welles apparently didn't like the novel - see Chartres in Orson Welles's F for Fake

Below is what Bunuel's thoughts were on making a movie version of Under The Volcano from his book My Last Breath 1987

I was only reminded of Bunuel's thoughts of making the film when I read an interesting post on his film Death in the Garden on Bright Lights Film Journal:

Luis Buñuel at one time expressed an interest in adapting Malcolm Lowry's novel Under the Volcano but dropped the idea not believing he could do it justice –– to my mind, a lost opportunity of epic proportions. Instead, in the early eighties, an aging John Huston turned Lowry's feverish, interior narrative into a suffocatingly literal tale of the last day of a cuckolded alcoholic sweating out his marital problems under the hot sun of Mexico.4 Whereas Huston was generally more in tune with kind of material offered by an adventure tale like Death in the Garden, you can imagine Buñuel in sync with Lowry's overloaded prose, using the Mexican landscape in much the same way the author did, to mirror the Consul's drunken but weirdly mystical, personal hell. Read more

Read a review of Death in the Garden on Flickhead

Proof Copy of Under The Volcano

2011-07-29T05:17:00.000-07:00

Abe Books are currently selling the above:

Uncorrected proof of the first edition, preceding the English edition. A short tear on the front wrap, title and author's name inked on the spine, else a near fine copy in wrappers as issued. More details Abe Books

Celebrating Malc's Birthday with Yorkshire Blonde

2011-07-29T03:27:00.000-07:00

After my talk last night on Malc's Merseyside, we decamped to the nearest pub from Wallasey Central Library - The Telegraph in New Brighton which I now regard as my local mainly because the beer and atmosphere is the best around. I just wish Malc had written about it then it would have been perfect!

We had a few glasses of a good beer for a warm evening is Ossett's "Yorkshire Blonde" - "pale coloured ale is full bodied, well-rounded and slightly sweet on the palate. A generous late addition of Mount Hood hops result in a delicate fruity hop aroma."

The above description of the beer made me smile - a nice Lowryan coincidence - Mount Hood crops up in a few of Malc's works; "Ethan said, "there's old Mount Baker out this morning, or is it Mount Hood? Out very clear and beautiful.." October Ferry to Gabriola; And far away over in America the snowy volcanic peak of Mount Hood stood on high, disembodied, cut off from earth, yet much too close, which was an even surer presage of rain, as though the mountains had advanced, or were advancing. ... The Bravest Boat and "A hint of the summit of Mount Hood remained, or it might have been clouds." The Bravest Boat; "that ribbed the continent from Alaska to Cape Horn — and of which Mount Hood was no less a part than Popocatepetl...." The Forest Path to the Spring; "I see a great cold white and grey remote peak that vanishes behind rows of flats and stores so I can hardly believe I’ve really seen it. Presently Malc sees it also and there we are, out of the city, on a long straight highway running between neat farms and there it is: Mt. Hood." La Mordida

See Mount Hood, Portland, Oregon 1946 on Postcards from Malc

Happy 102nd Birthday to Malc!

2011-07-28T07:05:00.001-07:00

Later I will be raising a few glasses to Malc's memory after my talk Lowry on Merseyside at the Wallasey Central Library.

Lowry's Merseyside: An Illustrated Talk 28 July 2011

2011-07-23T14:19:00.000-07:00

I have been invited to give a talk on Lowry's Merseyside on his 102nd birthday as part of Wallasey Library's Centenary celebrations.

Here are the details:

Free
6.30-7.30pm
28th July 2011
Wallasey Library
Earlston Road
Wallasey
CH45 5DX

'The Kerry Dancers'

2011-07-20T13:43:00.000-07:00

Engine that sings 'The Kerry Dancers'Through The Panama
Just had to remind myself what they may have sounded like to Malc!!

Leonard Pennario Variations on the Kerry Dancers (1942):

Condor

2011-07-20T13:15:00.001-07:00

- A great black bird sitting crucified on the cross-trees, its wings so vast it obscures the foremast light; the Captain calls us to see it, says : I will not shoot the eagle , or anything, I never kill anything, but - "Shoot it ! I should damned well think not!" says Primrose. It is a condor ( Gymnogyps Californianus) with a 10 half foot wing-spread, and the sight one of the rarest in the world, for the bird, a sort of super-xopolite or vulture by Thomas Wolfe, is almost extinct, after a while it has vanished, as mysteriously as it arrived
Through The Panama

Malc and Margerie were keen birdwatchers. Many species of birds pervade Malc's writings. The condor in 'Through The Panama' appears to evoke the memory of the Mexican vultures (xopolite) who have a sinister presence in Under The Volcano.

The California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) is a North American species of bird in the New World vulture family Cathartidae and the largest North American land bird. Currently, this condor inhabits only the Grand Canyon area, Zion National Park, and western coastal mountains of California and northern Baja California. Although other fossil members are known, it is the only surviving member of the genus Gymnogyps.

It is a large, black vulture with patches of white on the underside of the wings and a largely bald head with skin color ranging from yellowish to a bright red, depending on the bird's mood. It has the largest wingspan of any bird found in North America and is one of the heaviest, weighing up to 29lbs. The condor is a scavenger and eats large amounts of carrion. It is one of the world's longest-living birds, with a lifespan of up to 60 years.

Condor numbers dramatically declined in the 20th century due to poaching, lead poisoning, and habitat destruction. Eventually, a conservation plan was put in place by the United States government that led to the capture of all 22 remaining wild condors in 1987. These surviving birds were bred at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and the Los Angeles Zoo. Numbers rose through captive breeding and, beginning in 1991, condors have been reintroduced into the wild. The project is the most expensive species conservation project ever undertaken in the United States. The California Condor is one of the world's rarest bird species. As of April 2011, there are 394 condors known to be living, including 181 in the wild.

The condor is a significant bird to many Californian Native American groups and plays an important role in several of their traditional myths. Read more

Art Tatum

2011-07-20T12:56:00.000-07:00

Frere Jacques, Frere Jacques - Played by Louis Armstrong and his orchestra. Art Tatum on piano. Joe Venuti violin. Battement de Tambours Through The Panama

Malc's only mention of the maestro!

Arthur "Art" Tatum, Jr. (October 13, 1909 – November 5, 1956) was an American jazz pianist and virtuoso. Tatum is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time. Critic Scott Yanow wrote, "Tatum's quick reflexes and boundless imagination kept his improvisations filled with fresh (and sometimes futuristic) ideas that put him way ahead of his contemporaries ... Art Tatum's recordings still have the ability to scare modern pianists."
Read more

Here's Art from 1947 with Art's Blues from the movie Fabulous Dorseys - the year Malc sailed through the Panama Canal:

Henry B Tucker

2011-07-20T08:46:00.001-07:00

Dawn behind the Henry B Tucker of the Luckenbach Line. Through The Panama

As far as my research shows there was no such ship of that line in 1947 at the time of Malc's voyage through the Panama Canal. This is not unusual for Malc as he either incorrectly spells names of ships, invents or slightly alters their identities.

In this case, I think he is referring to the Henry St.G.Tucker an ex- Liberty ship similar to the S.S. Brest on which Malc was sailing. Henry St.G.Tucker was originally owned by U.S.Department of Commerce and operated by American South African Line / Lykes Bros,Steamship Co.Inc.under WSA / USMC Service Agreement Form GAA / BB (General Agent Agreement / Bare Boat. Lykes Bros,Steamship Co Ltd sailed between New Orleans and other Gulf ports (Houston, Galveston etc), Yokohama and other Japanese ports, Korean ports, Taiwanese ports, Manila, Indonesian ports, Singapore, Penang, Port Swettenham, Singapore and return to US Gulf via the Philippines.

With regard to the Luckenbach Line, they didn't own a vessel corresponding to the name Henry B.Tucker. However, they did sail Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Panama Canal, Philadelphia, New York, Boston. Seattle and Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Panama Canal, New Orleans, Houston, Mobile routes. After World War II the company took over from the United States Maritime Commission several standard ships to make up for the wartime losses which means they would have used ex-Liberty ships as well.One such ship was the A C2-S-AJ3 Standard type steam turbine driven merchant built by the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company, Wilmington, North Carolina and launched for the WSA on 6 September 1944 as USS Waukesha (AKA-84). She was decommissioned on 10 July and struck from the Navy List on 31 July and therefore returned to the control of the WSA. She was purchased by the Luckenbach Steamship Co., New York in 1947 and renamed Mary Luckenbach. She continued to trade for the same firm until 1959 when she was sold to the States Marine Lines Inc., New York and was renamed Bayou State, as shown in photograph below.

In conclusion, I think Malc probably got the name slightly wrong as usual and perhaps liked the company name Luckenbach?

S.S. Parthenia

2011-07-20T08:14:00.000-07:00

Going down, at 7 am, between buoys, passing at buoy 7, going the other way, S.S. Parthenia out of Glasgow... Through The Panama

There have been several ships with this name. The ship corresponding to the 1947 voyage made by Malc must be the former USS Mercer:

USS Mercer, a 13,130-ton cargo ship, was built to Emergency Fleet Corporation Design 1037 at Hackensack River, New Jersey, in 1918 as the civilian ship of the same name. The Navy acquired her upon completion in January 1919 and immediately placed her in commission. She made one voyage to Europe, with a cargo of food, beginning in mid-February. Upon arrival in England, she was given emergency repairs and then sent to Antwerp, Belgium. After staying at that port into early May, Mercer recrossed the Atlantic and steamed on to New Orleans, Louisiana, where she was decommissioned late in that month. She was returned to the United States Shipping Board in early June 1919.

Mercer remained in that agency's custody until 1941, when she was transferred to British registry and renamed Empire Kangaroo. She operated as Parthenia in 1946-1949, then went to Italian registry, initially as Erminia Mazzella and, from 1951, as Pina Onorato. The ship was scrapped at Spezia, Italy, in 1958. History Navy MIL

Experiment Magazine Cambridge, England, 1928–31

2011-07-20T05:27:00.000-07:00

Malc participated in 2 magazines whilst at Cambridge - Venture and Experiment. He had 2 short stories published by Experiment - 'Port Swettenham', story, pp. 22 - 26 No 5 and 'Punctum Indifferens Skibet Gaar Videre', story, pp. 62-75 No 7.

The magazine was edited by Editor: William Empson, Jacob Bronowski, Hugh Sykes, Humphrey Jennings, published in Cambridge, Publisher: Nos. 1-2: Cambridge University Press; Nos. 4-7: G. F. Noxon, Trinity College, Cambridge/G. F. Noxton, 68a St. Andrew's Street, Cambridge. Published from November 1928 - Spring 1931. There were only seven editions which came out on a Quarterly-Irregular basis priced one Shilling and sixpence. You can find full details of each edition on the Modernist Magazine Project.

I did come across a very good article on Jacket 20 by Kate Price on the magazine:

We are concerned with all the intellectual interests of undergraduates. We do not confine ourselves to the work of English students, nor are we at pains to be littered with the Illustrious Dead and Dying. Our claim has been one of uncompromising independence: therefore not a line in these pages has been written by any but degreeless students or young graduates. It has been our object to gather all and none but the not yet too ripe fruits of art, science and philosophy in the university. We did not wish so much that our articles should be sober and guarded as that they should be stimulating and lively and take a strong line. We were prepared in fact to give ourselves away. But we knew that Cambridge is painfully well-balanced just now (a sign, perhaps, of anxiety neurosis) and so we were prepared also to find, as the reader will find, rather too guarded and sensible a daring. Perhaps we will ripen into extravagance.

[Experiment Number 1, November 1928]

The concern of Experiment with ‘all the interests of undergraduates’ was not simply a matter of having literary-minded mathematicians on the editorial team, nor one of including poetry produced by students reading Natural Sciences or Economics. Even taking Experiment as a literary magazine with an inspired eye on contemporary science, the ‘scientific’ content appears somewhat thin on the ground. The occasional article on biochemistry or biology, some hopeful remarks about the development of aesthetic science and Empson’s relativity poems are about the size of it. A distinctly literary and cinematic avant-garde emerges, giving the impression of an exclusively aesthetic kind of experimentation. Read full article here

Apologies for the poor image quality as I haven't been able to locate copies of the magazine to date.

Century 21 By Ewa Kuryluk

2011-07-20T05:17:00.000-07:00

I was unaware of the book which has a fictional account of some of Malc's life.

Imagine Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party , but then make it literary, make it coed and make many of the guests fictional, and one begins to get an idea of this provocative and moving first novel by the Polish artist, art historian and poet. Kuryluk's "guests" include Propertius and his mistress/muse Hostia, the Ptolemaic queen Berenice, Anna Karenina, an HIV-positive Djuna Barnes, Moses Maimonides, Italo Svevo, Nadia and Osip Mandelstam, Malcolm Lowry and Goethe and Lotte--now married with a poodle named Faust. Then there are Ann and Carol Kar, the formerly probably and the latter definitely meant to represent Kuryluk the writer and painter. Finally, there is the futuristic "Moon Scholar," who in the throes of Terra-Retrovirus--Ter-ret (Tourette's?)--has imagined this world drawn from fragments of the earth's texts, pictures and even advertising slogans and then insinuated himself into it. Although there is a fair smattering of polyglot wordplay and literary allusion, this is not as obtuse and heavy a work as Julian Rios's Larva: A Midsummer Night's Babel . Behind Kuryluk's purposeful lyric prose lie poignant insights into love, death and exile. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. Amazon

Kuryluk, a brilliant Polish-born artist and art historian ( Salome and Judas in the Cave of Sex , LJ 6/1/87; The Fabric of Memory , Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1991; Veronica and Her Cloth , LJ 9/15/91) debuts as a novelist in an ambitious, highly literary, but flawed work. Goethe, Propertius, Svevo, Conrad, Maimonides, Djuna Barnes, and other "immortals" have a problem: They are dying. The quasiautobiographical Carol Kar is a suicidal artist who has erotic fantasies about a scholar on the moon a thousand years from now. The book is meant to be a time machine transcending dualities of past-future, here-there, reality-fantasy, and physical-spiritual, but the resultant jumble seems pointless. "Like life itself, it doesn't get anybody anywhere, and tiptoes out, leaving us oblivious of God." One hopes that Kuryluk's next literary experiment will be less rambling. Although her other books are far stronger, this one will appeal to some avant-gardists and scholars and is recommended for academic and large public libraries. - Jim Dwyer, California State Univ. at Chico Amazon

Perim Island

2011-07-20T03:42:00.000-07:00

Malc visited the island on his Far East voyage in 1927 aboard Pyrrhus where the ship stopped to refuel. The island features in several of his works including Ultramarine.

I recently came across a fascinating site about the island's colonial history:

Perim Island (also known as Barim, Mayyun, Meyun) is a volcanic island located 90 miles west of Aden in the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, 1 ½ miles from the Arabian coast and 11 miles from the African coast. The island has a surface area of 13 square kilometers and rises to 65 meters. It was formerly part of the Aden Colony.

Albuquerque landed on Perim in 1513 and named it Vera Cruz. Later, for a short while, it became a base for pirates till they concluded there was no available fresh water, even after digging 15 fathoms, and moved elsewhere.

The East India Company took possession of Perim Island in 1799 and it was garrisoned by a force from Bombay led by Lieutenant-Colonel Murray. Their stay was short-lived as it was found unsuitable as a military position for preventing French troops from Egypt from proceeding to India.

The demands of increased shipping in the Red Sea prompted the Indian Government to build a lighthouse and Perim Island was re-occupied in 1857.

By 1861 a dark blue stone lighthouse had been built and lit on Perim Island. Located 0.95 km to the south west of Obstruction Point. It was 38 feet in height from base to vane. When the tower was rebuilt in 1912 it reached 81 feet. There was a one minute interval of revolution of the flash which could be seen from 22 miles in clear weather. Quarters were built for a detachment of 50 native infantry, under the command of a European officer, who were relieved every 2 months

Perim Island was used as a coaling station but the Perim Coal Company, which had been in fierce competition with rival, Luke Thomas of Aden, closed down in 1936, and Perim's small harbour was then closed to shipping.

Water was never found on Perim Island, which has always made its occupation difficult. After bringing water supplies from Aden and then considering a reservoir to collect rainwater it was decided, as in Aden, that a condenser to produce distilled water was more suitable.

By 1959 there were just 300 people living on Perim Island, mainly in the Arab fishing village of Meyun. The people took no practical part in the life of the Colony of Aden. In 1959 the Aden Colony Executive and Legislative Councils were relieved of responsibility for the administration of Perim Island but it remained part of Aden Colony with the executive and administrative power vested in the Governor. Read more on Perim Island The Last Colonial Outpost.

See Perim Island 1927 on Postcards from Malc

S.S. Brest

2011-07-18T06:36:00.001-07:00

'Through The Panama' is one of my favourite works by Malc. The story is based on the sea voyage made by the Lowrys from Vancouver to Rotterdam in November 1947 aboard the S.S. Brest en route to a short tour of Europe. Malc calls the S.S. Brest the S.S. Diderot in 'Through The Panama' after the French writer. Diderot was of interest to Malc and there are allusions to Diderot's work in Hear Us O Lord from Heaven Thy Dwelling Place which contains the short story.

The S.S. Brest was formerly the Liberty ship S.S. John Mac Lean.

Liberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by German U-boats, they were purchased for the U.S. fleet and for lend-lease provision to Britain. Eighteen American shipyards built 2,751 Libertys between 1941 and 1945, easily the largest number of ships produced to a single design.

The production of these vessels mirrored, on a much larger scale, the manufacture of the Hog Islander ship and similar standardized types during World War I. The immense effort to build Liberty ships, the sheer number of ships built, and the fact that some of the ships survived far longer than the original design life of five years, make them the subject of much study. Read more on Wikipedia

Brest (liberty-ship) 1947 - 1949
hull material : ...................
previous name(s) of ship : ........John Mac Lean
detailed type : ...................liberty-ship
type of propulsion : ..............1 propeller
building year of ship : ...........1942
name of shipyard : ................Permanente Metals Corp.
place of construction : ...........Richmond
year of entering the fleet : ......1947
length (in meters) : ..............126,79
width (in meters) : ...............17,37
gross tonnage (in tons) : .........7176
deadweight (in tons) : ............10900
type of engine : ..................inverted, triple expansion 3 cylinders
engine power (in HP) : ............2500
nominal speed (in Knots) : ........11

11 cargo liners of the liberty-ship type were entrusted with management to « Compagnie Générale Transatlantique » before the conclusion of the Blum-Byrnes agreements of May 26, 1946. Following these agreements, the French government acquired 75 liberty-ships, of which 21 in their turn were entrusted to management with Transat, which amounts their total to 32. The deliveries spread out until 1947. These ships were used, according to the needs, on the lines of the North Atlantic, of the West Indies, of the North Pacific or the South Pacific. Between 1957 and 1960, thirteen of them were especially equipped for the transport of the Renault cars in the United States and were chartered by the « Compagnie d’Affrêtement et de Transport » (CAT), then subsidiary company of Régie Renault. The first liberty-ship to leave the fleet of « Compagnie Générale Transatlantique » after the accident of the GRANDCAMP in 1947 was SAINT VALERY in May 1948 and the last DOMFRONT and BAYEUX in 1965. The last of the liberty-ships "ex-Transat" to disappear was the ARGENTAN, demolished in 1973. Built in 1942 under the name of JOHN MAC LEAN on behalf of the U.S. Shipping War Administration. Delivered to the French government in 1947. Renamed BREST and entrusted with management to « Compagnie Générale Transatlantique ». In July 1949, is transferred to the Messageries Maritimes company. Retains her name. In 1956, takes share in expedition of Suez. From 1958, is used to transport Renault cars to the United States. In 1961, is sold to a Panamanian Shipping company and renamed GALAXY. Is resold in 1969 and is renamed ELIOS. Demolished in 1970 in Kaoshiung, Taiwan. French Lines

Green River Whisky

2011-07-18T06:02:00.000-07:00

I fear that was the consequence of a case of none too good American whisky bought in Los Angeles because I liked its name, Green River. Even so, there is not half enough for this voyage. Through The Panama

Green River was the most advertised whiskey in the United States before prohibition. There are Green river tokens and bar pieces to be found in flea markets on a regular basis today. That illustrates how much was made. A fire in 1918 pretty much put the distillery out of business because wartime prohibition made it unprofitable to rebuild. The last of the Green River whiskey was sold by AMS during prohibition. After prohibition, the distillery was sold to new owners and eventually became the Medley distillery that is being re-opened by Angastura today.

The brand was also sold to new owners and was made at several central Kentucky distilleries, including Chapeze Station, until it was sold to Schenley in the 1940's. Schenley kept the brand alive until the 1960's and it was passed on to United Distillers. Straight Bourbon Forum

The above detailing the changes to the whisky explain Malc's comments in 'Through The Panama'.

Patricia A. Ybarra Performing conquest

2011-07-18T05:48:00.000-07:00

I recently came across a book entitled: Performing conquest: five centuries of theater, history, and identity in Tlaxcala, Mexico By Patricia A. Ybarra. The book's introduction discusses Malc's Under The Volcano and the Mexican town.

You can read the introduction via Google Books below:

See Hotel Tlaxcala, Mexico 1937 on Postcards from Malc

S. S. Pennsylvania

2011-07-16T13:57:00.000-07:00

....a little conjuration of climate you might say, but that the SS Pennsylvania should have gone down with all hands but one Seattle Ishmael.....this and the absolutely unprecedented fury and disaster of this winter, in which more ships have gone down in five minutes than in all my seafaring knowledge.... Letter to Jay Leyda 27 February 1952

This is a bit of a confusing letter - well to me it is! - Malc mentions the sinking of the S.S.Pennsylvania to Leyda and later reminds Leyda that if he didn't know that the S.S.Pennsylvania was in Chapter 2 of Under The Volcano.

S. S. Pennsylvania that sank was a different vessel to the one that Malc and Jan Gabrial sailed on to Mexico in 1936 and which is referred to in Under The Volcano. It seems very surprising that Malc would have made a mistake about such a significant ship as the one he sailed to Mexico on.

The ship that sank in 1952 was an American ship Pennsylvania owned by States Steamship Co. (States Line).The ship was built in 1944 by Kaiser Shipbuilding Co. (Oregon Shipbuilding Corp. Kaiser Cargo Inc. Captain George P. Plover, left Seattle on January 5th, 1952, for Yokohama. On January 9th, the hull cracked in heavy seas 600 miles N.W. of Cape Flattery. The crew of 45 abandoned the ship when she began to leak, but no trace of them was found by ships and aircraft which searched the area.

Malc and Jan sailed to Acapulco on the Panama Pacific Line S.S. Pennsylvania later the Argentina (above). One of a trio of American-built passenger liners on the US-South America route, the Argentina was owned and operated by Moore-McCormack Steamship Lines and sailed this route until she was laid up in 1958. Originally built as the "Pennsylvania" for International Mercantile Marine at Newport News Shipyard, VA. She was Hull 329, with Official Number 229044. She was launched 10/10/29 for operation by the Panama Pacific Line, and was built for the New York-Panama-Los Angeles-San Francisco route with her sisters California and Virginia. The Pennsylvania was 613 feet long, 80 feet wide and measured 20,614 gross tons. She carried 750 passengers in first and tourist class; her crew numbered 350. Turbo-electric engines drove her at a service speed of 17 knots. The ships proved too large for this route and their government subsidies were halted in 1937, when they were sold to the U. S. Maritime Commission and laid up. Read more on Wikipedia

Malc's Readings in the Modern Library

2011-07-16T07:14:00.000-07:00

It was super thoughtful of you to send the list of books: the Modern Library always afflicts me with nameless and wonderful senses of early draughts and distillings: McTeague I think was the first book I ever read, the the Seven That Were Hanged the second, both in Modern Library editions my brother, come back from Dallas, gave me. Letter to Albert Erskine 24 June 1947

Frank Norris McTeague 1899

McTeague is a novel by Frank Norris, first published in 1899. It tells the story of a couple's courtship and marriage, and their subsequent descent into poverty, violence and finally murder as the result of jealousy and avarice. The book was the basis for Erich von Stroheim's film, Greed. Read more on Wikipedia

Malc doesn't mention Von Stroheim's Greed in his work or letters which is surprising because he was an admirer of his work. Greed (1924) was starred Gibson Gowland, Zasu Pitts, Jean Hersholt, Dale Fuller, Tempe Pigott, Sylvia Ashton, Chester Conklin, Joan Standing and Jack Curtis.

The plot follows a dentist whose wife wins a lottery ticket, only to become obsessed with money. When her former lover betrays the dentist as a fraud, all of their lives are destroyed. The movie was adapted by von Stroheim (shooting screenplay) and Joseph Farnham (titles) from the 1899 novel McTeague by Frank Norris. (The onscreen writing credit for June Mathis was strictly a contractual obligation to her on the part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (the parent studio), as she was not actually involved in the production.) Originally over ten hours long, Greed was ultimately edited against von Stroheim's permission to about two and a half hours, and the full-length version is a lost film. Read more on Wikipedia

Leonid Nikolaievich Andreyev The Seven That Were Hanged 1908

Leonid Nikolaievich Andreyev 1871-1919 was a Russian playwright, novelist and short-story writer. He is one of the most talented and prolific representatives of the Silver Age period in Russian history. Andreyev's style combines elements of realist, naturalist and symbolist schools in literature. Read more on Wikipedia

The Seven That Were Hanged depicts the fates of five terrorists foiled in their attack and two common peasants who have received death sentences. These condemned men are awaiting their executions by hanging. In prison, each of the prisoners deals with his fate in his own way.

In a riverside tavern in Savannah

2011-07-16T06:32:00.000-07:00

In a riverside tavern in Savannah. From the n.... section next door the juke box is playing Open the door Richard. We are in the 'Whites' drinking your health in claret (by the bottle & bought retail on the spot.) A note on the reverse of a photograph sent
Conrad Aiken 24 June 1947

The Lowrys visited Savannah in February 1947 while on a bus trip from Miami to New York.

"Open the Door, Richard" is a song first recorded on the Black & White Records label by saxophonistist Jack McVea at the suggestion of A&R man Ralph Bass. In 1947, it was the number-one song on Billboard's "Honor Roll of Hits" and became a runaway pop sensation.

"Open the Door, Richard" started out as a black vaudeville routine. Pigmeat Markham, one of several who performed the routine, attributed it to his mentor Bob Russell. The routine was made famous by Dusty Fletcher on stages like the Apollo Theater in New York and in a short film. Dressed in rags, drunk, and with a ladder as his only prop, Fletcher would repeatedly plunk the ladder down stage center, try to climb it to knock on an imaginary door, then crash sprawling on the floor after a few steps while shouting, half-singing "Open the Door, Richard". After this he would mutter a comic monologue, then try the ladder again and repeat the process, while the audience was imagining what Richard was so occupied doing.

Jack McVea was responsible for the musical riff which became associated with the words "Open the Door, Richard" that became familiar to radio listeners and as many as 14 different recordings were made. Read more on Wikipedia

The appeal of the song for Malc goes without saying! Though it is impossible to ascertain which version Malc heard. It could be anyone of these from 1946/47:

The recording by Count Basie was released by RCA Victor Records as catalog number 20-2127. It first reached the Billboard magazine Best Seller chart on February 7, 1947 and lasted four weeks on the chart, peaking at number one.

The recording by Dusty Fletcher was released by National Records as catalog number 4012. It first reached the Billboard Best Seller chart on January 31, 1947, and lasted five weeks on the chart, peaking at number three.

The recording by The Three Flames was released by Columbia Records as catalog number 37268. It first reached the Billboard Best Seller chart on February 14, 1947, and lasted three weeks on the chart, peaking at number four.

The recording by Louis Jordan was released by Decca Records as catalog number 23841. It first reached the Billboard Best Seller chart on March 7, 1947, and lasted two weeks on the chart, peaking at number seven.

The recording by Jack McVea, recorded in October 1946, was released by Black & White Records as catalog number 792. It first reached the Billboard Best Seller chart on February 14, 1947, and lasted two weeks on the chart, peaking at number seven.[6] As stated above, this was the original recording. Wikipedia

Here are the different versions:

Michael Mercer's Goodnight Disgrace

2011-07-15T13:59:00.001-07:00

From his wheelchair in a nursing home, the aging Conrad Aiken recalls his long, stormy friendship with Malcolm Lowry. When Aiken is 40, Lowry's father pays him to tutor the young Malcolm. But the protegé becomes Aiken's friend, and, gradually, a real contender. Mercer's powerful play reveals the shifts in the two men's relationship as they struggle with alcoholism, women, creative energy, and each other; and as the student metamorphoses into a rival. "I will be the one they remember," Lowry declares in their final scene together.

Goodnight Disgrace, directed by Leon Pownall, was first performed by the Shakespeare Plus Theatre Company in Nanaimo, British Columbia, on July 5, 1984, with the following cast:

Conrad Aiken ... Matt Walker
Nurse ... Sheri-D Wilson
Malcolm Lowry ... Ron Halder
Clarissa Lorenz ... June Mayhew
Arthur O. Lowry ... Don Wallace
Ed Burra ... Sam Mancuso
Jan Gabrial ... Joelle Rabu

A text of the play has been published by Talon Books,

Seven Sisters Stanley Park Vancouver

2011-07-15T05:59:00.000-07:00

In the park of the seaport the giant trees swayed, and taller than any were the tragic Seven Sisters, a constellation of seven red cedars that had grown there for hundreds of years, but were now dying, blasted, with bare peeled tops and stricken boughs (They were dying rather than live any longer near civilisation. Yet though everyone had forgotten they were called after the Pleiades and though named with civic pride after the seven daughters of a butcher, who seventy years before when the growing city was named Gaspool had all danced together in a shop window, nobody had the heart to cut them down.) The Bravest Boat

There is a well-known trail in Stanley Park that leads to what I always love to call the "Cathedral Trees"–that group of some half-dozen forest giants that arch overhead with such superb loftiness. But in all the world there is no cathedral whose marble or onyx columns can vie with those straight, clean, brown tree-boles that teem with the sap and blood of life. There is no fresco that can rival the delicacy of lace work they have festooned between you and the far skies. No tiles, no mosaic or inlaid marbles, are as fascinating as the bare, russet, fragrant floor outspreading about their feet. They are the acme of Nature's architecture, and in building them she has outrivalled all her erstwhile conceptions. She will never originate a more faultless design, never erect a more perfect edifice. But the divinely moulded trees and the man-made cathedral have one exquisite characteristic in common. It is the atmosphere of holiness. Most of us have better impulses after viewing a stately cathedral, and none of us can stand amid that majestic forest group without experiencing some elevating thoughts, some refinement of our coarser nature. Perhaps those who read this little legend will never again look at those cathedral trees without thinking of the glorious souls they contain, for according to the Coast Indians they do harbour human souls, and the world is better because they once had the speech and the hearts of mighty men. "The Lure in Stanley Park" in Legends of Vancouver. by E. Pauline Johnson.

The trees were six Douglas Firs and a red cedar. In 1951, the Vancouver Parks Board declared them a hazard after they begun to die in 1943 when their root systems had been damage by constant traffic. (Vancouver: A History of Photographs by Aynsley Vogel and Dana Wyse). The last tree was removed in the 1960s Sean Kheraj Restoring Nature: Ecology, Memory and the Storm History of Vancouver's Stanley Park in Canadian Historical Review 88, 4 December 2007)

The Vancouver Sun 3 April 1951 featured a story of the trees headed 'Famed Giants of Forset Doomed'which prompted Malc to draft a letter to the newspaper which is the basis of what appears in his short story 'The Bravest Boat'. The death of the trees symbolised for Lowry the encroaching urban sprawl and industrialisation of Vancouver which is an underlying theme of the short story.

Malc also took up with the paper how the trees got their name of "Seven Sisters". The paper stated that the name was linked to the Sutherland Sisters, who sold hair tonic, and performed in Vancouver shop windows back in the 19th Century. The paper also stated that they have been named after the daughters of one Gastown's prominent citizens, Angus C. Fraser. Sherrill Grace has noted that Fraser actually had eight daughters! (Collected Letters 369)

The Seven Sutherland Sisters, a group of singing women from Lockport/ Niagara, N.Y., were famous for their long hair, which they showed off in a sideshow of Barnum & Bailey’s from about 1882 to 1907. On such group photos the sisters were always placed in such a way that it seemed all of the sisters had hair reaching the floor.

Malc suggest in his letter to the Vancouver Sum and later in 'The Bravest Boat' that in actual fact that the trees were named after Pleiades - the constellation known as the Seven Sisters. The nine brightest stars of the Pleiades are named for the Seven Sisters of Greek mythology: Sterope, Merope, Electra, Maia, Taygeta, Celaeno, and Alcyone, along with their parents Atlas and Pleione. As daughters of Atlas, the Hyades were sisters of the Pleiades. The English name of the cluster itself is of Greek origin, though of uncertain etymology. Suggested derivations include: from πλεîν pleîn, to sail, making the Pleiades the "sailing ones"; from pleos, full or many; or from peleiades, flock of doves. Malc goes on his draft letter to detail the various myths concerning the Pleiades including that the the one cedar in the seven firs corresponds to the Lost Pleiad Hyades.

Malc goes onto say that the Pleiades are known in many cultures - the Egyptians, the Aztecs etc. But significantly he also mentions that the Mexican Day of the Dead, All Saints Day and the festival of the All Hallows are all associated with the culmination of the Pleiades.

On of the ironic things that Malc suggests in his letter is to preserve the stumps of the trees by encasing them in plastic and goes onto say:

..Even more touching might be to put a little tablet, likewise encased in the plastic of course, commemorating their high-minded murderer; Persecuted & killed by civilisation in the form of the Noble City of Vancouver. nee Gastown R.I.P. (Huggged to death out of love).

As the plaque above states, in 1986 they were replaced with a newly-planted batch of evergreens.

See Seven Sisters, Stanley Park, Vancouver April 1951 on Postcards from Malc

Finally, E. Pauline Johnson believed in the Chinook legend that the trees were planted by the Four Men sent by Sagalie Tyee to prevent the lure of a witch:

The Four Men, fearing that the evil heart imprisoned in the stone would still work destruction, said: "At the end of the trail we must place so good and great a thing that it will be mightier, stronger, more powerful than this evil." So they chose from the nations the kindliest, most benevolent men, men whose hearts were filled with the love of their fellow-beings, and transformed these merciful souls into the stately group of "Cathedral Trees." Legends of Vancouver.

See The Famous Old Oak Tree, Calderstones Park, Liverpool on Postcards from Malc

Malc's Library Update

2011-07-13T14:41:00.000-07:00

Just to let you know that I have posted some new addtions to Malc's library:

Joseph Kramm The Shrike, Julian Green The Dark Journey, Cecil Gray Contingencies and Other Essays, John Goodwin The Idols and The Prey, Andre Gide Strait Is The Gate, Sir James George Frazer The Golden Bough, Gustave Flaubert's Sentimental Education and F.Scott Fitzgerald The Beautiful and The Damned.

Malc's Library

"Cowled Sisters of Darkness"

2011-07-13T11:41:00.001-07:00

In Sheryl Salloum's book Vancouver Days, William McConnell, a friend of Malcs, tells the story of how Malc ended up in St Paul's Hospital after breaking his leg in a fall in Dollarton:

It was a Roman Catholic hospital and at the time most of the nurses were nuns. They wore a black cowl edged with white and he called them the "Cowled Sisters of Darkness". to Malcolm they were the antithesis of angels of mercy. Vancouver Days p119

This was the same hospital where Malc went after damaging his back in a fall from the pier of his Dollarton shack in 1949. His experiences there due to a mixture of alcohol withdrawal and drugs were as traumatic as his time in Bellevue in 1936. As ever Malc turned these experiences into literature which he initially entitled the 'Atomic Rhythm' which eventually became the The Ordeal of Sigbjørn Wilderness which was never developed beyond a rough sketch and remains unpublished. The draft is accessible via the University of British Columbia Archives which provides a fascinating insight into how Lowry assembled his writing.

The Sisters of Providence established schools, hospitals, orphanages, homes for the aged and asylums in Canada and the United States and later in many other countries. In B.C., St. Paul's Hospital and Saint Mary's Hospital in New Westminster are operated by the order.

Responding to the Bishop Paul Durieu, OMI, of New Westminster, who urged the sisters to consider the needs of a growing Vancouver, two representatives of the Sisters of Providence came north from Portland Oregon in 1892. They bought seven lots on the outskirts of Vancouver for $9,000 and a 25-bed hospital was completed in 1894, and named after the Bishop. Mother Mary Fredrick from Astoria, Oregon became the first Superior and administrator of the hospital.

In keeping with the philosophy of the Sisters of Providence, the new hospital was founded on the pledge of providing compassionate care. The surge in Vancouver's growth brought on by the Klondike gold rush severely tested that pledge but it wasn't until later, in 1904, that the first of what seems an endless stream of additions was completed, adding 50 more beds.

September 1, 1907 saw the official opening of a School of Nursing at St. Paul's Hospital.

Just 10 years after the first addition was completed, a modern fireproof structure with a new surgical department and 120 beds was added in 1914.

St. Paul's was, from the beginning, keenly interested in using the latest medical technology. In addition to laboratory testing, the hospital became one of the first to have its very own X-ray machine, circa 1906. Using glass plate negatives the exposures took from 15 to 45 seconds, threatening to burn patients and electrocute operators in the process.

As Vancouver grew and the administration of health care became ever more complex and specialized, St. Paul's kept pace.

In 1919, the Sisters of Providence responded to the challenge of the American College of Surgeons and the Catholic Hospitals Association to standardize hospital services with those of the larger centres throughout the U.S. and Canada. The program established formal requirements for the efficient operation of X-ray and laboratory departments. Great emphasis was placed on the keeping of patient records, as previously few history and progress notes were written.

Until 1968, the chief administrator at St. Paul's was a member of the Sisters of Providence. The first lay Administrator was hired in 1969 and ran the hospital while the Sisters continued their involvement in the hospital and on the hospital board.

With the completion of the North Wing, in 1931, and the South Wing during World War II, St. Paul's expanded to 500 beds. In the 1960s, as medical knowledge and treatments quickly evolved, St. Paul's again kept abreast through the addition of ultra-modern diagnostic facilities. Providence Health Care

Check out other hospitals where Malc was treated:

Bellevue New York 1936

Vernon Clinique, Eure, North France March 1948

American Hospital, Paris May/June 1948

Vancouver General Hospital July 1949

Ospedale Niguarda, Milan October 1954

Atkinson Morley’s Hospital, 31 Copse Hill, Wimbledon, England 20th July 1956

Leviathan 1962

2011-07-13T01:33:00.001-07:00

One of Malc's favourite books by Julien Green was filmed by Léonard Keigel in 1962.

* Titre original : Leviathan * Réalisation : Léonard Keigel * Scénario : René Gérard, Léonard Keigel d’après le roman de Julien Green (Léviathan, éditions Plon, 1929) * Dialogues : Julien Green * Musique : Arnold Schönberg * Direction de la photographie : Nicolas Hayer * Son : Louis Hochet * Décors : Antoine Mayo * Costumes : Roger Harth, Jean Patou * Montage : Armand Psenny * Photographe de plateau : Roger Corbeau * Pays d'origine : France France * Langue de tournage : français * Période de tournage : 6 février 1961 au 8 avril 1961 * Producteur : Léopold Schlosberg * Société de production : Les Films du Valois * Format : noir et blanc — 1.66:1 — son monophonique — 35 mm * Genre : drame * Durée : 98 min * Date de sortie : 1962 Distribution / Cast : * Lilli Palmer : Éva Grosgeorges * Louis Jourdan : Paul Guéret * Marie Laforêt : Angèle * Madeleine Robinson : Mme Londe * Georges Wilson : M. Grosgeorges * Édouard Francomme : le vieillard * Nathalie Nerval : Marie Guéret * Patrick Monneron : André

Review: In this moody and slightly eerie film, Jourdan plays a married tutor in a small French town. He meets Laforet, a young girl who lives in the village, and becomes wildly infatuated with her. His attraction grows into obsession, and he begins following her everywhere. He discovers that she is the mistress of the man whose son he has been tutoring. When Jourdan confronts her, she denies this, and he makes a pass. When she resists his advances, he tries to kill her and disfigures her face permanently. From then on he's on the run, killing an older man along the way. The story relies heavily on symbolism and suggestion, and the characterizations are not as well written as perhaps they could have been (though well acted, particularly by Robinson). For a first directorial effort, however, Keigel shows an able hand for narration and style. TV Guide

See Julian Green The Dark Journey on Malc's Library

While researching the post, I came across this wonderful version of Paint It Black by Marie Laforêt who appears in the film - seemed to fit in with the mood of the book and film!:

Babylon Revisited

2011-07-12T06:34:00.000-07:00

In the Lowry's Notes on a Screenplay for Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night, they discuss the names of 2 Cafés on Page 91 of their film script which reads:

Now we are in the Rue Blanche and we pass Zelli's and the Poet's Cave and stop where the two great mouths of the Café of Heaven and the Café of Hell yawn across the street at each other.

The Lowry's were concerned about the use of the names of the Cafés in their filmscript which had been obtained from Fitzgerald's 'Babylon Revisited' because there were unsure about the historical realism and the use of the English names:

The Poet's Cave had disappeared, but the two great mouths of the Café of Heaven and the Café of Hell still yawned--even devoured 'Babylon Revisited'

Their note says:

Fitzgerald's original intention here was undoubtedly Babylonian but with the accent on damnation and spiritual emptiness, rather than psychical, as in the story. So also the notion of 'Babylon' in the sequence - though a metro sign is not copyright - could go, if the suggestion of the infernal can somehow remain.

The 2 Cafés definitely existed next door to each other in Pigelle - Le Café de L'Enfer and Le Café de Le Ciel. I can only assume Malc was unfamiliar with these 2 Cafés from his time in Paris as I am sure that he would have reveled in their existence and included them in his work!

“A hot spot called Hell’s Café lured 19th-century Parisians to the city’s Montmartre neighborhood—like the Marais—on the Right Bank of the Seine. With plaster lost souls writhing on its walls and a bug-eyed devil’s head for a front door, le Café de l’Enfer may have been one of the world’s first theme restaurants. According to one 1899 visitor, the café’s doorman—in a Satan suit—welcomed diners with the greeting, “Enter and be damned!” Hell’s waiters also dressed as devils. An order for three black coffees spiked with cognac was shrieked back to the kitchen as: “Three seething bumpers of molten sins, with a dash of brimstone intensifier!” National Geographic

The exterior facade appears to be molten rock surrounding misshapen windows and dripping off the building while inside, caldrons of fire and ghostly bodies of humans and beasts covered the walls and ceiling. From an account published in Morrow and Cucuel‘s Bohemian Paris of Today (1899):

Red-hot bars and gratings through which flaming coals gleamed appeared in the walls within the red mouth. A placard announced that should the temperature of this inferno make one thirsty, innumerable bocks might be had at sixty-five centimes each. A little red imp guarded the throat of the monster into whose mouth we had walked; he was cutting extraordinary capers, and made a great show of stirring the fires. The red imp opened the imitation heavy metal door for our passage to the interior, crying, – “Ah, ah, ah! still they come! Oh, how they will roast!”

Quite a site! (In an epic battle of good and evil, another entrepreneur opened Le Ciel—”Heaven”—next door that was filled with clouds, angels, and harps.) Archpaper

However these 2 Cafés may have predecessors called according to a fascinating book called Roses and Thorns of Paris and London (Anonymous) - Café de La Mort on the Boulevard Clichy and the Cabaret du Ciel. See Roses and Thorns for full details. Though they maybe the same places? ( Popular theatre: a sourcebook By Joel Schechter)

What about the Lowry's mention of the use of the Metro sign? This would have been familiar to Malc as he spent time in the Montparnasse area in 1934.

Sèvres-Babylone is a station on lines 10 and 12 of the Paris Métro. It is located at the intersection of the Boulevard Raspail and the Rue de Sèvres, on the border of the 6th arrondissement and 7th arrondissements, near le Bon Marché department store.

The line 12 platforms opened as line 10 Sèvres on 5 November 1910 as part of the original section of the Nord-Sud Company's line A between Porte de Versailles and Notre-Dame-de-Lorette. On 27 March 1931 line A became line 12 of the Métro. It is named after the Rue de Sèvres which in medieval times ran from Paris to Sèvres, and the Rue de Babylone, named in 1673 after the Bishop of Babylon. The line 10 station was opened by the Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris on 30 December 1923 as part of the first section of the ligne circulaire interieur (inner circular line) from Invalides (now on line 13) to Croix Rouge (a station east of Sèvres - Babylone, which was closed during World War II).

At the start the line 10 station was named Babylon, while the nearby line 12 station was still named Sèvres. Shortly after the opening of line 10, the city forced the two companies to form a common station, but the sign for line 10 read Sèvres-Babylone (emphasizing Babylone), and that of line 12 by contrast read Sèvres-Babylone (emphasizing Sèvres). Wikipedia

Would the metro sign have conveyed the same intensity of the infernal as the 2 Cafes? You can see where the Lowrys are coming from using the sign to link to Fitzgerald's story of dissipation after the Great Crash of 1929 and the symbolism of Babylon as the city of evil which ties in with Malc's ideas of Liverpool - 'that terrible city whose main street is the ocean' and Enochvilleport - Vancouver.

"Babylon Revisited" is a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, written in 1930 and first published on February 21, 1931 in the Saturday Evening Post. It was later adapted into a movie called The Last Time I Saw Paris.

The story is set in the year after the crash of the 1929, just after what Fitzgerald called the "Jazz Age". Brief flashbacks take place in the Jazz age itself. Much of it is based on the author's own experiences.

The story is based on a true incident regarding Fitzgerald, his and his wife Zelda's daughter "Scottie", and Zelda's sister Rosalind and her husband Newman Smith (a banker based in Belgium, who as a colonel in the U.S. Army in World War II would be in charge of worldwide strategic deception for the U. S. Joint Chiefs of Staff), on whom Marion and Lincoln Peters are based. Rosalind and Newman had not been able financially to live as well as Scott and Zelda had lived during the 1920s, and they had always regarded Scott as an irresponsible drunkard whose obsession with high living was responsible for Zelda's mental problems. When Zelda suffered a breakdown and was committed to a sanitarium in Switzerland, Rosalind felt that Scott was unfit to raise their daughter and that Rosalind and Newman should adopt her. Wikipedia

Text of Babylon Revisted

Margerie Lowry in the movies Part 5

2011-07-11T14:48:00.000-07:00

The 5th post on Marg's film career is about what can now be seen an ironic tale of alcohol abuse made in the year that her future husband Malc was setting off for the Orient aboard the Pyrrhus from Birkenhead. This was the only film she made with her sister Priscilla. You can read more about the sisters in Anthony Slides's book Silent Topics.

Paying The Price 1927

Director: David Selman; Writer: Dorothy Howell; Stars: Margerie with her sister Priscilla Bonner and John Miljan

This minor Columbia effort is a cautionary fable against alcohol abuse. Despite the efforts of a pious minister, two pretty sisters -- played by real-life siblings Marjorie and Priscilla Bonner (seen above) are led astray by city slicker John Miljan. Hoping to have his way with the girls, the villain invites them to a party and spikes their lemonade. The girls' outraged father kills the rapacious Miljan but manages to cover his tracks at the murder scene. Things take a sorry turn when an innocent young man is placed on trial for the murder -- and the girls' father is selected to serve on the jury! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

It was during this time that the two sisters joined "The Thalians" as can be read in the snippet below from Photoplay:

Read more about the hostess of "The Thalians" Jobanya Ralston here

Margerie Lowry in the movies Part 4

2011-07-11T13:45:00.000-07:00

A further look at the films of Margerie Lowry:

Broadway Lady 1925

Directed by Wesley Ruggles; Writers: Fred Myton (screenplay), Fred Myton (story. Stars: Evelyn Brent (seen above in the film), Theodore von Eltz, Margerie plays Mary Andrews.

BROADWAY LADY. THE Pretty good story with Evelyn Brent as a chorus girl with a heart of gold who marries into society and is innocently involved in a murder. Photoplay March 1925

Broadway Lady 1925

The smoldering Evelyn Brent starred in this silent melodrama about a chorus girl who turns down a proposal of marriage from a wealthy young scion (Theodore Von Eltz, only to change her mind in order to annoy his uppity relatives. But when Von Eltz's dimwitted sister (Joyce Compton) is found in the company of a very much murdered playboy, Evelyn nobly assumes the blame in a misguided attempt to shield the girl. In the end, both Evelyn and Joyce are saved by chorine Marjorie Bonner, who confesses to having killed the man out of jealousy. Amazingly, Broadway Lady was directed by Wesley Ruggles, a Hollywood professional with some taste who should have known better. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Secret Orders 1926

Director: Chester Withey; Writers: J. Grubb Alexander, Martin Justice (story; Stars: Harold Goodwin, Robert Frazer and Evelyn Brent. Marjorie Bonner played Mary, Janet's friend played by Evelyn Brent.

Evelyn Brent was known for playing lady crooks in the 1920s (in fact, she carried this typecasting into the sound era). In this drama -- very similar to the play Three Faces East, according to trade magazine Film Daily -- Brent switches to the right side of the law. Janet Graham (Brent) marries Eddie Delano (Harold Goodwin), only to discover she was being used as a front -- Delano didn't want to go fight in Europe because his work as a crook was netting him a lot of money. Janet's response is to become a secret service agent during WWI. Her boss, in charge of transports, is Bruce Corbin (Robert Frazer), and they fall in love. Delano, on the other hand, becomes an instrument of the Germans and spies on Corbin's transports. He kidnaps Janet and forces her to accompany him. She sends a radio transmission warning of the German sub, which is subsequently sunk. Corbin comes to her rescue, and Delano is killed. With her unwanted husband out of the way, Janet is able to marry her boss. ~ Janiss Garza, Rovi

SECRET ORDERS— F. B. O— The war spy system is again served for your entertainment. You won't object because Evelyn Brent is a treat for the optics. Photoplay June 1926

Riding Romance 1926

Margerie plays Beth Brandon.

Filmed partially on location in Arkansas, this silent western was one of eight produced by Morris R. Schlank and directed by J.P. McGowan. In order to cash in on Universal's popular Jack Hoxie, Schlank hired Hoxie's half-brother, Alton Stone, and without missing a beat renamed the youngster Al Hoxie. In Riding Romance, Hoxie prevents rancher's daughter Marjorie Bonner from marrying a scoundrel in order to save her ranch. As it turns out, Bonner's unscrupulous suitor is also the man who railroaded her brother in a rustling scheme. The sister of Priscilla Bonner, Marjorie Bonner was a decided step up from the amateur actresses usually cast in cheap Westerns in the '20s. The rest of the supporting cast was equally above-average and included Arthur Morrison, Steve Clemente, and stunt-man Cliff Lyons. ~ Hans J. Wollstein,

Part of the film was shot in Lone Pine California according to the Lone Pine Film History Museum.

Rapid Fire Romance 1926

Director: Harry Joe Brown Stars: Billy Sullivan, Harry Buckley, Margerie plays Dixie Demnman.

Falling in with crooks, Tommy Oliver plays role of willing disciple with hope of inducing girl member of gang to forsake pathway of crime. Girl reforms and they both succeed in saving small town bank from thieves. They face future happiness. ( Motion Picture News Booking Guide, 11:43, Oct 1926.)

Margerie Lowry's Grave

2011-07-11T08:55:00.001-07:00

While I was researching material for posts on Marg's film career, I came across a chapter by Anthony Slide on her early films. In the Chapter, he mentions that after her death he visited Ripe where she is buried but after searching the graveyard he was unable to find the grave.

Slide had expected Marg to be lying next to Malc but that is not the case. The St John the Baptist Church now provides a guide to find her grave. Back in 2009, when I visited the graveyard I too had difficulty finding her grave even with the church's guide. As we wandered around, my wife and I were discussing whether Marg had any part in Malc's death based on the Gordon Bowker's Times Literary Supplement article. Eventually, we stopped frustrated in not being able to find the grave. The stone used on the graves in Sussex seems very prone to the weather making reading the inscriptions very difficult. While standing by one gravestone, we continued our chat - I said that I couldn't make my mind up over Marg's guilt over Malc's death. The instance that the words fell from my mouth a shaft of sunlight burst from the overcast sky hitting the gravestone in front of me revealing that it was Marg's. The timing sent cold shivers down our spines!!!

Joseph Severn's Letters

2011-07-11T06:18:00.000-07:00

"And yet inerrably it was part of the same poem, the same story. "And yet the fatal prospect hangs. . ." "Severn, lift me up, for I am dying." "Lift them up, keep them away." Strange Comfort Afforded by the Profession

Lowry is actually quoting from a series of letters by Joseph Severn. Joseph Severn (7 December 1793 – 3 August 1879) was an English portrait and subject painter and a personal friend of the famous English poet John Keats. Until recently, it was believed that Severn's life culminated in his association with Keats and that he lived on this fame for the rest of his long life. In reality, Severn launched his own successful artistic career soon after Keats died, becoming a versatile painter in Rome during the 1820s and 1830s. He painted miniatures and altarpieces, landscapes and frescoes, historical and religious scenes, and subjects from the Bible, Greek mythology and Shakespeare. His pictures of Italian peasant life and pastoral genre scenes became very popular with British visitors on the continent and generated multiple commissions for his work. Read more on Wikipedia

On 17 September 1820, a struggling young painter named Joseph Severn sailed from England as companion to John Keats. They arrived in Rome on 15 November. The trip was supposed to cure Keats's lingering illness. The poet suspected it was tuberculosis; his friends and several doctors disagreed. They urged convalescence in a warm climate. Instead, Keats died just three months after his arrival.

Joseph Severn found himself in a most difficult situation. He had left England against his father's wishes; he had no money; worst of all, he had no idea of the severity of Keats's condition. Yet Severn rose to the challenge and became a devoted nurse. His troubles were noted and understood by Keats himself, and Severn was later thanked for his devotion by Percy Shelley in the preface to 'Adonais'.

While in Rome, Severn wrote numerous letters about Keats to their mutual friends in England. These remarkable letters are the definitive account of the poet's final months. English History

The quotes used by Lowry are firstly a letter to John Taylor:

Rome, 24 Dec, 1820 1/2 past 4 morn.

My dear Sir,

Keats has changed somewhat for the worse, at least his mind has much, very, very much, and this leaves his state much the same, and quite as hopeless. Yet the blood has ceased to come, his digestion is better and but for a cough he must be improving, that is as far as respects his body. But the fatal prospect of Consumption hangs before his "mind's eye" and turns everything to despair and wretchedness. He will not bear the idea of living, much less strive to live. Read more

Severn announced Keats's death to Charles Brown in a letter dated 27 February 1821:

Rome. 27 February 1821.

My dear Brown,

He is gone--he died with the most perfect ease--he seemed to go to sleep. On the 23rd, about 4, the approaches of death came on. "Severn-I--lift me up--I am dying--I shall die easy--don't be frightened--be firm, and thank God it has come!" I lifted him up in my arms. The phlegm seemed boiling in his throat, and increased until 11, when he gradually sunk into death--so quiet-that I still thought he slept. I cannot say now-I am broken down from four nights' watching, and no sleep since, and my poor Keats gone. Three days since, the body was opened; the lungs were completely gone. The Doctors could not conceive by what means he had lived these two months. I followed his poor body to the grave on Monday, with many English. They take such care of me here--that I must, else, have gone into a fever. I am better now--but still quite disabled.

The Police have been. The furniture, the walls, the floor, every thing must be destroyed by order of the law. But this is well looked to by Dr C.

The letters I put into the coffin with my own hand.

I must leave off.

J. S.

Above is Keats in 1819 by Severn.

George Dance and the Isle of Man TT Race

2011-07-11T02:06:00.000-07:00

.... upon the countenance of the great George Dance, as in the Isle of Man he negotiated Ballig Bridge, when it seemed he was going to win the Senior Tourist Trophy motorbicycle race upon a Sunbeam with one cylinder Elephant and Colosseum

...having long ago hit upon what was, for him, a satisfactory and common-sense solution, at least of the latter, that would have been appreciated by any Tourist Trophy motorbicycle racer in the Isle of Man, briefly that the nearer you approached the goal, the nearer that goal, viewed from another angle (no matter how many circuits of the island you had to make first), approached you; which was to say that so long as man was crouched headlong on his handlebars towards to death, the nearer death, and the world of ghosts, approached man: in short, to mix his metaphors and cliches, as his mind always did whether he liked it or not, if man was intent on having one foot in the grave, he must take the consequences. Elephant and Colosseum

Lowry's two references to the Isle of Man T.T. Race held annually on the island made me wonder whether he had actually seen the race in which George Dance rode the one cylinder Sunbeam bike. The only problem is that the race was in 1920 and that does not tally with Bowker's contention that the Lowry brothers visited the island in 1919 and Scotland in the 1920 on holiday (Bowker Pursued By Furies 20-22). Bowker probably obtained the information from Russell Lowry. Is it possible that Russell got the dates wrong over the holiday? Or did Malc read about the event? Malc was at Caldicott School during this period where he started writing the handwritten 'Sporting Magazine' with his school friend William Hywel Jones. Therefore it is possible that he may have picked up the information elsewhere such as Motorcycling Magazine?

You can view the race on British Pathe news below:

TT MOTORCYCLE RACE ( aka T.T. MOTORCYCLE RACE )

Your browser does not support iframes.

George Dance did not finish the 1920 Senior T.T due to engine trouble after setting the fast lap. The six-lap Senior was contested by just four factory teams (Sunbeam, AJS, Indian and Norton) in the 31-strong entry.

Local man Dougie Brown took over on his Norton, but was overhauled by the eventual winner, Tommy de la Hay, riding another Sunbeam. De la Hay and Brown, who was second, became the first riders to average over 50 mph for a complete race.

Full results here

Ballig (Manx: farm of the hollow and also known as Ballig Bridge) is a small hamlet of a few houses situated between the 8th Milestone and 9th Milestone road-side markers on the Snaefell Mountain Course between Ballacraine and Glen Helen. It is the site of a former notorious hump-back bridge used for the Isle of Man TT Races on the primary A3 Castletown to Ramsey and the road junction with the A20 Poortown Road in the parish of German in the Isle of Man.

The former Ballig Bridge was part of the Highland Course and Four Inch Course used for the Gordon Bennett Trial and Tourist Trophy automobile car races held in the Isle of Man between 1904 and 1922. Also, Ballig Bridge was part of the St John's Short Course used between 1907 and 1910 and part of the Snaefell Mountain Course used since 1911 for the Isle of Man TT Races and 1923 for the Manx Grand Prix.

The area is dominated by the farmland, including the Beary Mountain, St John's village, and Tynwald Mills. A number of changes occurred to the Mountain Course during the 1930s with extensive road widening on the A18 Mountain Road and the removal of the hump-back bridge and road straightening at Ballig for the 1935 racing season and the road work is completed for the Manx Grand Prix in September 1935. The George Formby film No Limit (1936 film) used the 1935 Isle of Man TT races as a backdrop for filming including Ballig Bridge. Wikipedia

Photo from Bob Holliday's book "Racing Around the Island" - Ballig Bridge 1930. The caption to the photograph states that the bridge was widened, straightened and flattened in 1936. For the record the rider is Ernie Knott on a Rudge on his way to 7th in the 1930 Senior.

The shots of bikes on the British Pathe newsreel appear to have been taken at Ballig Bridge. If so did Malc see this newsreel? Later in 1922, Wilfrid obtained a Sunbeam which was passed onto Russell enabling Malc to experience riding on a motorbike around the roads and lanes of the Wirral. (Bowker 23)

Margerie Lowry in the movies Part 3

2011-07-10T12:57:00.001-07:00

The third post in a series looking at Margerie Lowry in the movies.

The Ancient Highway 1925

The Ancient Highway (1925) American B&W : Seven reels / 6034 feet Directed by Irvin Willat; Cast: Jack Holt [Cliff Brant], Billie Dove [Antoinette St. Ives], Montagu Love [Ivan Hurd], Stanley Taylor [Gaspard St. Ives], Lloyd Whitlock [John Denis], William A. Carroll [Ambrose], Marjorie Bonner [Angel Fanchon], Christian J. Frank [George Bolden. A Famous Players-Lasky Corporation production; distributed by Paramount Pictures Corporation. / Scenario by James Shelley Hamilton and Eve Unsell, from the novel The Ancient Highway: A Novel of High Hearts and Open Roads by James Oliver Curwood. Cinematography by Alfred Gilks. Presented by Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky. / © 16 November 1925 [LP22006]. Premiered 8 November 1925 in New York, New York. General release, 16 November 1925. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.37:1 format. / Stuntman R.D. Jones drowned while shooting a river rapids canoe stunt for the film. Silent Era (Note that the novel, the film is based on, was written by James Oliver Curwood who Malc later identified with in his short story Elephant and Colosseum.

As "The Ancient Highway" pursues its course, one can't help hoping during the initial chapters that the story won't go any nearer to the great open spaces than the rooms in which the hero holds forth in town. But it does, and soon one perceives on the same screen on which Milton Sills was exhibited in "The Knockout" some more logrolling, dynamiting and a series of hectic scenes, in which the hero and the heroine are blown into the turbulent waters among the great tree trunks.

The captions have to make up for the lack of action in a number of places, for there is not much interest in a man and a woman merely gazing into each other's eyes. One subtitle announces that there was no moon that night; but when the scenes are depicted it seems wonderfully clear, and one can't help realizing that the sun, at least, was somewhere in the skies at the time this episode was taken—before it went through the process of blue tinting. Jack Holt officiates as Cliff Brant in this yarn. When he rescues Antoinette St. Ives from a peregrination on that supposedly awful night he can't resist picking up her hand and kissing it ravenously.

Too much ground is covered in this subject, with the consequence that the interest in the story suffers. While Cliff is devoting his herculean energies toward freeing the masses of logs, the opposition camp has the bright idea of dynamiting a hill so that much of it will fall into the stream and thus undo all Cliff's good work.

The Villain informs the heroine that he dares everything because he loves her, and Antoinette thereupon declares that he does not know what love is. She points to Cliff, who, she says, is risking his life for her.

There is the usual misunderstanding between Antoinette and Cliff. In fact it seems as if Antoinette anticipates the conflict. The comedy character flops and falls over anything that happens to be near him, so that it appears as if he were the type of individual who would trip over an ant.

Mr. Holt is sincere in his rôle, even if he does overdo the kissing scenes. He is a clean-cut player and the implausible scenes are not attributable to him, but to the scenarist and the director. Billie Dove is active and attractive as Antoinette. Montagu Love gives a sound performance as the villain.

Those who like logrolling and dynamiting thrills will find this picture leaves nothing to the imagination. NY Times By MORDAUNT HALL. Published: November 11, 1925

Photos from the Silent Screen Stills Archive

Karl Grune's Abdul The Damned 1935

2011-07-10T11:39:00.000-07:00

Did you ever hear tell of one Karl Grune .... a few years back made Abdul the Damned in England, with Nils Asther? Letter to Gerald Noxon November 2nd 1940

Abdul the Damned is a 1935 British drama film directed by Karl Grune and starring Fritz Kortner, Nils Asther and John Stuart. It was made by British International Pictures. It set in the Ottoman Empire in the years before the First World War where the Sultan and the Young Turks battle for power. It is also known as Abdul Hamid.

Strong drama of a sinister Sultan tortured by fear of assassination, magnificently acted by Fritz Kortner. Interesting, impressive and, for the most part, gripping entertainment.

Ostensibly, the picture's theme is the overthrow of Sultan Abdul Hamid in an uprising hastened by his own misdeeds. With Fritz Kortner as Abdul, however, it has become substantially a character study - an intense psychologically sound portrait of a man terrorised by the repercussions of his own reign of terror!

With extraordinary subtlety and remarkable economy of expression, Kortner exposes the tortured mentality of a foolish despot whose weakness is revealed only too plainly in the atrocities with which he seeks to maintain his power and safeguard his person. Friendless, surrounded by enemies, respected by none, he brings about his own downfall and is pathetically glad of ignomious exile when it is offered to him at the end.

It would have been better for the picture as a whole if the director had abetted the star in making Abdul Hamid, the man, more important than the events revolving round him. Too much time is given, especially at the beginning, to the obscure and not very exciting plottings of Turkish political parties. And there is an unworthy subsidiary story of a Viennese dancer (Adrienne Ames), who is compelled by the unscrupulous Turkish Police Chief (Nils Asher) to enter the Sultan's harem in return for the life of her lover.

The acting honours are natuarally coniscated by the star - all of them - although Esmé Percy, as the Grand Eunuch, succeeds in turning in a notable supporting performance, and Nils Asher is theatrically effective as the Chief of Police.Film Weekly, September 20th, 1935

For an alternative view of the film - see here

You can obtain the film on DVD as a package with Chu Chin Chow.

Robby Burns Statue

2011-07-10T04:02:00.000-07:00

It seemed to him now that it was as though, by some perverse grace, out of total inundation of some Pacific Northwestern city had been preserved....a broken statue of Bobbie Burns.... Present Estate of Pompeii

The statue is located in Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia.

The rededication plaque reads:

"This statue of Robert Burns, Scotland's National Bard, was unveiled by J. Ramsay MacDonald , a Prime Minister of Britain, on 25th August, 1928. Robert Burns's sincere desire for friendship and brotherhood among all peoples is clearly shown in his many poems and songs. His poetry and letters, both serious and humorous are worthy of study by those who value liberty and freedom.
This memorial was rededicated on the 200th Anniversary of the Bard's death by the Burns Club of Vancouver. 21 July 1996:

Then let us pray that come it may
(as come it will for a' that)...
that man to man, the world o'er
shall birthers be for a' that"

You can read Vancouver's Tribute to Burns here

Louis Armstrong @ The Palomar Vancouver 1951 and 1952

2011-07-09T11:22:00.000-07:00

In Enochvilleport iteself some ghastly-colored neon signs had long since been going through their unctuous twitchings and gesticulations that nostalgia and love transform into a poetry of longing: more happily one began to flicker: PALOMAR, LOUIS ARMSTRONG AND HIS ORCHESTRA. The Bravest Boat

The Palomar Supper Club was owned first by Hymie Singer, and then by Sandy DeSantis, who became the club's orchestra leader. Located at the corner of Georgia and Burrard Streets, the Palomar was a 1,200 seat wartime dance hall with opulent red decor and Greek pillars. Sensing the shift away from big name touring orchestras, DeSantis began booking big name acts such as Louis Armstrong, a young Sammy Davis Jnr, and Carmen Miranda. Occasionally, in the 1940's and 1950's, the Palomar booked floor shows of scantily clad female dancers until the club closed because of bankruptcy in 1951 (or 1952) Burlesque West: showgirls, sex, and sin in postwar Vancouver By Becki Ross

May 23, 1937

On May 23, 1937—68 years ago today—the Palomar opened at 713 Burrard Street at Alberni in Vancouver. In its day the Palomar was the place in town for big-name entertainers: the Ink Spots appeared there frequently in the 1940s and '50s, and for those of you younger folk who just said 'Who?,' here are a couple of other names you will recognize: Louis Armstrong (February 2, 1952) and Duke Ellington (April 11 to 15, 1952.)

Dal Richards joined the Sandy De Santis house orchestra at the Palomar in the fall of 1937, and was there in the fall of 1938 when it changed from a ballroom to a night club. A Vancouver girl named Peggy Middleton joined the chorus line, and Dal remembers that she pestered him and the club's owner, Hymie Singer, to do a solo number. “It was Top Hat, White Tie and Tails,” Dal said, “And she'd gone out and bought the stuff she needed for the number.” They okayed the solo, and maybe that's what persuaded 15-year-old Peggy Middleton that showbiz was for her. She changed her name to Yvonne De Carlo and went on to become a movie and TV star.

“Singer and Sandy De Santis had a falling out,” Dal recalls, “And Singer asked me if I could lead a band. I said sure. I was 20.” The Palomar eventually closed. Dal's still around. History of Metropolitan Vancouver

Above photo of Burrard Street looking north towards Alberni Street on April 22, 1955. The low building in the center of the photo is the Palomar Dance Hall building which is being prepped for demolition. [CBC Archive; Alvin Armstrong, photographer]

Armstrong concerts a hit for Kits

By Lisa Smedman-Staff writer

Jazz great Louis Armstrong played many a venue in his day, but none gave him a more enthusiastic welcome than the students at Kitsilano High School.

In February 1951, Armstrong came to Vancouver to play the Palomar Supper Club. After his performance there, Kitsilano Grade 12 student Olga Negriff and her friends Gerry Millard and Betty Sparrow staked out his hotel. They convinced him to play at one of the school's noon hour concerts.

The concerts, organized by the school's music committee, were held on Thursdays throughout the winter. Admission was a nickel. The students couldn't charge admission for Armstrong's appearance, however, since he was under contract to the Palomar.

The 45-minute concert, which also featured singer Thelma Middleton, was a hit. Armstrong promised to come back the following year.

He kept his promise, bringing his band with him. At the February 1952 concert, Armstrong's band took turns playing numbers with the Kitsilano School Mixer Orchestra. More than 1,000 students packed the school's auditorium and crammed the nearby hallways. Kids from other Vancouver schools-Lord Byng, King Edward, John Oliver, Magee and King George-also showed up. Organizers set up speakers outside the auditorium so everyone could hear.

Marilyn Muckle (nee Luckett) was a Grade 8 student at Kitsilano High the second year that Armstrong came to perform. She didn't get a seat in the auditorium, but was one of those who crammed into the hallways to hear him play.

"It was complete mayhem and excitement," she said. "It was fun. Everything was in motion. [The students] were just enjoying it so much. Everybody was so excited, nobody could concentrate on anything [that day]."

The concert was recorded by CKNW's Jack Cullen. When Armstrong died in 1971, Cullen played the tape on the radio in tribute.

The school orchestra included band leader Arnold Emery on trumpet, Jim McGinnes on trumpet, George Robertson on trombone, Harry (Ham) Mcleod on drums, Leslie Jones on piano, and Eric Foster, Bill Stonier, Ted Golf, Don Gaylord and Jim Thomas.

The orchestra didn't just perform at the school. Its members also gave concerts for veterans at Shaughnessy Hospital, and at the Institute for the Blind. Vancouver Courier Archive

Let's listen to Louis Armstrong with His Orchestra April 19, 1952, Denver, Colorado.

The Original Memphis Five Lovey Lee

2011-07-08T08:15:00.000-07:00

Lovey Lee was the nickname of Cosnahan's wife in Lowry's short story 'Elephant and Colosseum'; "and old recording.... that she and Cosnahan used to play when they were first in love."

Phil Napoleon, t / Miff Mole ?, tb / George Bohn, cl, as / Frank Signorelli or Lennie Hayton, p / Ray Bauduc, d / New York, August 16, 1927. Read more about Memphis Five.

James Stephens and James Oliver Curwood

2011-07-08T07:45:00.000-07:00

"And if you can imagine a combination of Jack London, James Stephens and James Oliver Curwood- with a bit of roaring O'Neill thrown in for good measure, there you have Cosnahan!" Elephant and Colosseum

The above is quoted by Cosnahan while reading a review of one of his novels in Lowry's short story. These appear to be the only references in Lowry's work to James Stephens and James Oliver Curwood.

James Stephens

James Stephens wrote many retellings of Irish myths and fairy tales. His retellings are marked by a rare combination of humor and lyricism (Deirdre, and Irish Fairy Tales are often singled out for praise). He also wrote several original novels (Crock of Gold, Etched in Moonlight, Demi-Gods) loosely based on Irish fairy tales. "Crock of Gold," in particular, achieved enduring popularity and was frequently reprinted throughout the author's lifetime.

Stephens began his career as a poet under the tutelage of "Æ" (George William Russell). His first book of poems, "Insurrections," was published in 1909. His last book, "Kings and the Moon" (1938), was also a volume of verse.

In the 1930s, Stephens had some acquaintance with James Joyce, who found that they shared a birth year (and, Joyce mistakenly believed, a birthday). Joyce, who was concerned with his ability to finish what would later become Finnegans Wake, proposed at one point that Stephens assist him, with the authorship credited to JJ & S (James Joyce & Stephens, also a pun for the popular Irish whiskey made by John Jameson & Sons). The plan, however, never came to fruition, as Joyce was able to complete the work on his own.

In the last decade of his life, Stephens found a new audience through a series of broadcasts on the BBC. Wikipedia

James Oliver Curwood

James Oliver Curwood (June 12, 1878 – August 13, 1927) was an American novelist and conservationist. His writing studio, Curwood Castle, is now a museum in Owosso, Michigan.

Curwood was born in Owosso, the youngest of four children. He left high school before graduation, but passed the entrance exam to the University of Michigan, where he enrolled in the English department and studied journalism. After two years, he quit college to become a reporter. In 1900, Curwood sold his first story while working for the Detroit News-Tribune. By 1909 he had saved enough money to travel to the Canadian northwest, a trip that provided the inspiration for his wilderness adventure stories. The success of his novels afforded him the opportunity to return to the Yukon and Alaska for several months each year that allowed him to write more than thirty such books.

By 1922, Curwood's writings had made him a very wealthy man and he fulfilled a childhood fantasy by building Curwood Castle in Owosso. Constructed in the style of an 18th century French chateau, the estate overlooked the Shiawassee River. In one of the homes' two large turrets, Curwood set up his writing studio. He also owned a camp in a remote area in Baraga County, Michigan, near the Huron Mountains as well as a cabin in Roscommon, Michigan.

Curwood was an avid hunter in his youth; however, as he grew older, he became an advocate of environmentalism and was appointed to the Michigan Conservation Commission in 1926. The change in his attitude toward wild life can be best expressed by a quote from The Grizzly King: "The greatest thrill is not to kill but to let live."

In 1927, while on a fishing trip in Florida, Curwood was bitten on the thigh by what was believed to have been a spider and he had an immediate allergic reaction. Health problems related to the bite escalated over the next few months and infection set in that led to his death from blood poisoning at the age of 48. Curwood was interred in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Owosso. At the time of his death, he was the highest paid (per word) author in the world Read more on Wikipedia