Month: May 2019

In 1948, San Diego was the site of the Grant Hotel sit-in to protest racism. The rapid growth of blacks in San Diego during WW II paved way for an expanded NAACP branch. Humiliated and angered at being refused a snack at a downtown “greasy spoon,” the NAACP’s president, a dentist, recruited a group of black and white students at San Diego State College, rehearsed them to act as customers and witnesses, then targeted white-owned restaurants that discriminated. As the black students were denied service, already seated white students who were on their side observed and later testified in court. The NAACP filed and won 31 of its 32 lawsuits, usually with court awards to plaintiffs of $300 per case, which the students split with their attorney. The ultimate triumph was desegregation of the Grant Grill at the prestigious U.S. Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego. Read more San Diego and desegregation history in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

As a real and deadly tornado hit Kansas yesterday (05/28/19), consider how the fake one in The Wizard of Oz was created. Jack Gillespie’s special effects team wrapped a 35-foot-long muslin stocking around a conical frame of chicken wire. The base of the tornado was fastened to a car, which traveled below the sound stage, propelled by a gantry crane rotated by a motor. Wind machines and dust completed the stormy picture. When the Weather Channel produced a miniseries about the 100 most memorable weather events in history, The Wizard of Oz tornado ranked #55. Read more about the making of the movie in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

The “shirtwaist” manufactured at the Triangle Waist Company, site of the tragic 1911 fire that killed 146 workers, was a woman’s blouse with puffed sleeves and a tapered waist. The ready-made garment was the first fashion to cross class lines because it was affordable for working women. Worn with an ankle-length skirt, the shirtwaist was appropriate for work and play, and soon replaced less comfortable and impractical corsets and hoops. Read about the seamstresses who sewed the original Triangle shirtwaists in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

Before Margaret Hamilton played Elvira Gulch and the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 Hollywood classic The Wizard of Oz, she was a kindergarten teacher and acted in children’s theater. She got the part when another actress refused to wear makeup that would cause her to appear ugly. Hamilton worried about the effect that her monstrous film role had on children because, in real life, she loved them and gave to charitable organizations benefitting them. Read more about the movie and Margaret Hamilton in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

Pain management for women in labor became available in the late 1800s, first in hospitals and later to midwives. A combination of morphine and scopolamine called “twilight sleep,” it relieved pain and induced forgetfulness. Unfortunately, heavily medicated women had trouble pushing, increasing the need for forceps deliveries and C-sections. Babies were born sleepy, had trouble breathing, and often needed resuscitation. Read more about childbirth 100 years ago in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

Aphorisms, pithy observations that contains a general truth, are a favorite form of literary utterance. Here are several I’ve used in my writing, some researched, others invented by me. Can you tell which is which? To undo a problem, you must unthink what caused it. // Morals are always better on a full belly. // You can’t ripen a watermelon in your armpit. // All sunshine makes a desert. // The learned live in the past; the learners in the future. // The key to happiness is a bad memory and a good drink. // Troublemakers are like farmers. They turn up the earth so something new can be planted. // Stubbornness comes from a weak will and a strong won’t. Read more real and invented aphorisms in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

Brown v. Topeka Board of Education was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court 65 years ago today. Before the 1954 desegregation case, Topeka’s black and white schools were already substantially equal with respect to buildings, transportation, curricula, & teacher qualifications. Unlike other districts, Topeka Schools even paid the cost of busing. However, Chief Justice Earl Warren noted in his unanimous decision that despite these comparable “tangible” factors, going to segregated schools had adverse “psychological” effects on black children. “To separate them from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone. . . . A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn. . . . We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of “separate but equal” has no place.” Read more about race relations in Topeka 100 years ago in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

In 1964, the Beatles went on a concert tour to promote their movie, A Hard Day’s Night. The movie’s title came from a comment by Ringo, who said, “We went to do a job, and we’d worked all day and we happened to work all night. I came up still thinking it was day I suppose, and I said, ‘It’s been a hard day . . .’ and I looked around and saw it was dark so I said, ‘. . . night!’” The movie premiered at the Pavilion Theater in London on July 6, 1964, the night before Ringo’s 24th birthday. Read more about the Beatles and Ringo in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

During World War I, anti-German sentiment in the United States ran to extremes that resulted in many name changes. The town of Berlin, Michigan was renamed Marne (after French soldiers who fought there), and Berlin, Ohio reverted to its original name of Fort Laramie. In Chicago, Lubeck, Frankfort, and Hamburg Streets were renamed Dickens, Charleston, and Shakespeare Streets. In New Orleans, Berlin Street was renamed in honor of General Pershing, head of the American Expeditionary Force. In New York, Brooklyn’s Hamburg Avenue was altered to Wilson Avenue. In the most absurd examples, words of German origin were also temporarily changed. Thus, German measles (rubella) became “liberty measles,” sauerkraut was dubbed “liberty cabbage,” hamburgers were renamed “liberty sandwiches,” and dachshunds were called “liberty pups.” Read more about World War I and U.S. immigrants in On the Shore (see NOVELS).

The Kansas State Capitol Building in Topeka is one of the largest in the U.S. The cornerstone was laid in 1866, and construction was completed 37 years later at cost of $3,200,588.92 ($83 million today). Materials include native Kansas wild cherry wood; marble from Belgium, Italy, France, and Tennessee; Mexican onyx; and local copper hammered by Italian artisans. The 1923 hand-operated elevator is one of the few still in use. Read more Topeka and Kansas history in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).