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Who Makes Queen Elizabeth’s Purses?

Posted in PEOPLE, Prince Charles of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Queen Elizabeth II, ROYALTY/NOBILITY, tagged biographies of queens, biographies of royalty, British Royal Family/Nobles, Buckingham Palace, Duke of Edinburgh, launer handbags, launer leather goods, Prince Charles, Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth's handbag, Queen Elizabeth's purse, Queen's Jamestown visit 2007, royal coat-of-arms, royal pursemaker, Royal Warrants on April 6, 2009| 15 Comments »

Queen Elizabeth's Launer handbag (4/1/09 Buckingham Palace with Obamas)

Since I’ve been blogging about Queen Elizabeth in general and her purse-carrying habit in particular, I’ve looked at a lot of of images of the Queen carrying purses. She seems to prefer small, unfussy black leather handbags, though she has carried a white purse before, I know. At first, the black leather handbags looked as if they could be just one bag. Closer inspection revealed slight differences in straps, patinas, and shapes. In all the bags I scrutinized, though, one theme was a constant. The clasp on the different bags was always the same. The clasp was distinctive – covered with a gold rope emblem. The clasp looked like a string you tie on your finger to remember something. Was it a logo, perhaps? I sensed a designer lurking about.

I was slow to catch on. Of course. The Queen doesn’t buy her purses off the rack at Macy’s; she has a royal pursemaker. That’s why the purses looked so similar. They were made by the same company.

Queen Elizabeth in Jamestown (5/4/2007) with handbag

A little further digging for the name of the designer turned up a lot of information. Evidently, not only does Her Royal Highness have a royal pursemaker to make her purses – Launer’s of London – but also a royal milliner to make her hats and a royal dressmaker to make her dresses. Currently, three British royals, The Queen, her husband Prince Philip ( AKA the Duke of Edinburgh) and their son Prince Charles (AKA the Prince of Wales) may grant “Royal Warrants of Appointment” to tradespeople who supply goods or services to a royal court or certain royal personages. The warrant allows the supplier to advertise the fact that they supply to the royal family. The Royal Warrant does not mean that these specially-honored companies must then give the Royals their goods and services for free. Rather, suppliers both continue to charge their royal customers as well as reap incredible bonuses in the marketplace courtesy of the royal endorsement.

Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth's coat-of-arms

Launer's "Royale" handbag

Launer of London holds the Royal Warrant for supplying the Queen with her leather goods and purses. On the “About Us” page on the Launer company website, the Queen’s coat-of-arms is displayed boldly at the top left and right of the page. Under the company’s history, we read that:

photo of Queen Elizabeth II on the Launer company website

In 1991, Her Majesty the Queen visited the factory on 4th March, spending virtually the whole afternoon with all the employees and seeing all the various stages of making both handbags and personal leather goods. This was a great honour for the company, and in the following year Launer was also given the right to add leather goods to the warrant.

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Queen Elizabeth’s Purse: Take the Survey

The Obamas being received at Buckingham Palace by Queen Elizabeth II

The Huffington Post is taking a survey on the purpose of Queen Elizabeth’s bag. Don’t forget to vote. Here is a close-up of Queen Elizabeth receiving Michelle Obama at Buckingham Palace on April 1. Inquiring minds want to know:

Why does the Queen carry her purse around her own home?

For more on the Queen’s handbag habit, read another post on this blog, “What’s in Queen Elizabeth’s Purse?”

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Or, Did Queen Elizabeth Hug Michelle First?

Posted in Barack and Michelle Obama, PEOPLE, Queen Elizabeth II, ROYALTY/NOBILITY, tagged biographies of first ladies, biographies of queens, biographies of royalty, biographies of women, British Royal Family/Nobles, Buckingham Palace, michelle hug queen, Michelle Obama, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth hugs Michelle Obama, queen hug michelle on April 3, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Michelle Obama with Queen Elizabeth

I’ve been blogging about the Obamas and their state visit to London and Buckingham Palace. There has been much discussion on and offline as to whether or not Michelle Obama was out of line when she touched the Queen. Royal protocol dictates that no one touches the Queen.

In my recent post, “Michelle Obama Hugs Queen Elizabeth,” I gave the first report of the touchy-feely action in royal quarters – that Michelle initiated the contact by placing her hand on the Queen’s back. Now, though, according to Vanity Fair Online, it may have been Queen Elizabeth who started the touching by slipping her right hand around Michelle’s waist. (The New York Times confirmed this on April 3.)

‘A mutual and spontaneous display of affection and appreciation,’ was how a Buckingham Palace spokesman hastened to describe it.

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Michelle Obama Hugs Queen Elizabeth

Posted in Barack and Michelle Obama, Kennedys, the, PEOPLE, Queen Elizabeth II, ROYALTY/NOBILITY, tagged Barack Obama, biographies of first ladies, biographies of queens, biographies of royalty, biographies of women, British Royal Family/Nobles, Charles deGaulle, Duke of Edinburgh, Elysee Palace, France, Group of 20 Meeting, Kennedy 1961 visit to France, London, Michelle Obama, Michelle Obama hugs Queen, michelle queen hug, Paris, Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth, queen hug michelle on April 2, 2009| 1 Comment »

Queen Elizabeth and Michelle Obama at Buckingham Palace

As I mentioned in my recent post, “President Barack and Michelle Obama Give Queen Elizabeth an IPod,” the Obamas have visited Buckingham Palace and met with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. As the two couples mingled with other diplomats in London for the Group of 20 Meeting, First Lady Michelle Obama reached out and touched the Queen on her back. The Queen responded warmly, wrapping her right arm around Michelle’s waist. Those listening to the two women say that the Queen remarked on how tall Michelle is. They also were looking down and talking about their shoes.

Everyone’s buzzing about this historic moment: Michelle Obama touched the Queen! Royal protocol demands that no one touch the Queen. Even her royal consort, Prince Philip, must walk several paces behind her when the two are in public.

First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and General Charles DeGaulle at a dinner at Versailles, France, June 1, 1961.

All this attention to the Obamas and their first visit to Europe as the First Couple takes me back to 1961 when President John Fitzgerald and Jacqueline (pronounced JAK LEEN’) Bouvier Kennedy made a state visit to France. Jackie Kennedy mesmerized the French with her style and elegance. She spoke fluent French and boasted a paternal French bloodline (Bouvier). Jackie was so charming that she even won the heart of President Charles DeGaulle, a man not easily conquered. At a dinner at the Elysee Palace, DeGaulle talked extensively to Jackie, then turned to President Kennedy and said, “Your wife knows more French history than any French woman.”

Jackie Kennedy so upstaged John on their trip overseas that the President joked, “I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris.” Upon the Kennedys’ return to America, their popularity soared. The American public – and the rest of the world – had fallen in love with Jackie. To this day, she remains an American idol.

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Queen Elizabeth Already Owned an IPod

Posted in Barack and Michelle Obama, PEOPLE, Queen Elizabeth II, ROYALTY/NOBILITY, tagged Apple iPod, biographies of queens, biographies of royalty, British Royal Family/Nobles, Michelle Obama, President Barack Obama, Prince Andrew, Queen, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen's iPod on April 2, 2009| 1 Comment »

Apple iPod

Oops!!! Someone on the Obama team goofed.

In my last post, “What’s Playing on Queen Elizabeth’s iPod?“, I reported that President Barack and Michelle Obama had given the Queen a new, full-loaded iPod as a gift. The royal monarch, who turns 73 on the 21st of this month, gave the Obamas a signed portrait of herself.

Obviously, the Obama team didn’t do extensive research when selecting an iPod as a gift for the Queen, not that there’s anything wrong with giving her an iPod. It’s just that she doesn’t need one! She already has an iPod. She bought one for herself back in 2005. Australian news outlet Fairfax Digital carried the June 17, 2005 announcement on its website:

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has dipped into the royal purse to snap up an iPod, a report said today.

Britain’s biggest-selling daily The Sun said the 79-year-old sovereign had bought a six-gigabyte silver model for £169 ($400.05).

The pocket-sized digital music players can hold up to 10,000 downloaded songs.

Queen Elizabeth II with son Prince Andrew when he was 7.

Queen Elizabeth’s second son Prince Andrew, fourth in line to the throne, was reported to be behind the move, having bought his mother a mobile phone and taught her how to use it in 2001.

“The Queen loves music and was impressed by how small and handy the iPod is,” a royal insider told The Sun.

“Obviously it is quite complicated to download songs, but I’m sure one of the courtiers will do it for her.

“Prince Andrew will probably also help out because he’s a real dab hand with gadgets.”

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What’s Playing on Queen Elizabeth’s iPod?

Posted in Barack and Michelle Obama, PEOPLE, Queen Elizabeth II, ROYALTY/NOBILITY, tagged biographies of queens, biographies of royalty, British Royal Family/Nobles, Broadway show tunes, Group of 20 Meeting, Michelle Obama, obamas give queen ipod, President Barack Obama, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen's iPod, songs on the queen's iPod, what music is on the queen's ipod, what's playing on the queen's ipod on April 2, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Queen Elizabeth Jiving to Her New IPod

In London for the Group of 20 Meeting (see last post), President Barack and Michelle Obama visited Buckingham Palace yesterday. The Obamas gave Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip a fully-loaded engraved iPod, with music and videos.

According to the Associated Press, the following songs were loaded onto Queen Elizabeth’s iPod:

“Oklahoma!”
“If I Loved You,” Jan Clayton, “Carousel”
“You’ll Never Walk Alone,” Jan Clayton, “Carousel”
“There’s No Business Like Show Business,” Ethel Merman, “Annie Get Your Gun”
“Once in Love with Amy (Where’s Charley?),” Ray Bolger
“Some Enchanted Evening,” “South Pacific”
“Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” Carol Channing, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”
“Getting to Know You,” Gertrude Lawrence, “The King and I”
“Shall We Dance?” Gertrude Lawrence, “The King and I”
“I Could Have Danced All Night,” Julie Andrews, “My Fair Lady”
“I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face,” Rex Harrison, “My Fair Lady”
“The Party’s Over (Bells Are Ringing),” Judy Holliday
“Maria,” “West Side Story”
“Tonight,” “West Side Story”
“Seventy Six Trombones,” “The Music Man”
“Everything’s Coming up Roses,” Ethel Merman, “Gypsy”
“The Sound of Music”
“Try to Remember,” Jerry Orbach, “The Fantasticks”
“Camelot,” Richard Burton
“If Ever I Would Leave You,” Robert Goulet, “Camelot”
“Hello, Dolly!” Carol Channing
“If I Were a Rich Man,” Zero Mostel, “Fiddler on the Roof”
“People,” Barbra Streisand, “Funny Girl”
“On a Clear Day (You Can See Forever),” John Cullum
“The Impossible Dream,” Richard Kiley, “Man of La Mancha”
“Mame,” Charles Braswell
“Cabaret,” Liza Minnelli
“Aquarius, Ronald Dyson, “Hair’
“Send in the Clowns,” Judy Collins, “A Little Night Music”
“All That Jazz,” Chita Rivera, “Chicago”
“One,” “A Chorus Line”
“Tomorrow,” Andrea McArdle, “Annie”
“Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” Patti LuPone, “Evita”
“And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” Jennifer Holliday, “Dreamgirls”
“Memory,” Elaine Paige, “Cats”
“The Best of Times,” George Hearn, “La Cage Aux Folles”
“I Dreamed a Dream,” Aretha Franklin, “Les MisDerables”
“The Music of the Night,” Michael Crawford, “The Phantom of the Opera”
“As If We Never Said Goodbye,” Elaine Paige, “Sunset Blvd.”
“Seasons of Love,” “Rent”

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President Barack and Michelle Obama Give Queen Elizabeth II an IPod

Posted in Barack and Michelle Obama, PEOPLE, Queen Elizabeth II, ROYALTY/NOBILITY, tagged biographies of queens, biographies of royalty, British Royal Family/Nobles, Buckingham Palace, Duke of Edinburgh, Group of 20 Meeting, London, Michelle Obama, President Barack Obama, Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth's handbag, Queen Elizabeth's purse, Richard Rodgers, the Queen's iPod on April 2, 2009| 9 Comments »

The Obamas met Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday, April 1. The two couples exchanged gifts. The Obamas gave the queen an engraved iPod. The Queen’s new music player came already loaded with some Broadway show tunes and videos of her 2007 visit to Washington and Virginia. The Obamas also gave the Queen a rare songbook signed by the composer Richard Rodgers. The British royals gave signed silver-framed portraits of themselves to the Obamas, their standard gift for visiting dignitaries.

The Obamas Visit Buckingham Palace. Note that the Queen has that purse in her arm although she is at home!

The Obamas Visit Buckingham Palace. Note that the Queen has that purse on her arm although she is at home!

If you enjoyed this post, you might also like the following:

“Queen Elizabeth’s Grandmother Had the Gimmies”
“What’s in Queen Elizabeth’s Purse?”
“What’s Playing on Queen Elizabeth’s iPod?”

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The Strange Case of Patty Hearst: Part 1

Posted in Patty Hearst, tagged biographies of women, Che Guevara, Daniel DeFreeze, Hibernia Bank Robbery, Joseph Remiro, Kathleen Soliah, Marcus Foster, Patty Hearst kidnapping, Russell Little, San Francisco, Sara Jane Olson, Symbionese Liberation Army, the SLA, William Randolph Hearst on March 31, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Patricia Hearst shown with then fiancee Steven Weed

It was January 20, 2001, President Bill Clinton’s last day in office. In his last official act, Clinton granted a full pardon to a number of Americans, among them the notorious Patty Hearst, who had served two years for a bank robbery conviction.

Twenty seven years earlier, on February 4, 1974, Patty Hearst made headlines when she was abducted from her Berkeley, California, apartment which she shared with fiancee Steven Weed. Shots were fired and Weed was roughed up. Patty, wearing only her nightgown, was carried out front and stuffed into the trunk of a white getaway car. Her kidnappers were the radical urban guerrilla group, the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). Patty, a 19-year-old college sophomore, was the daughter of rich West Coast publishing tycoon Randolph Hearst. After Patty’s abduction, the SLA released a statement in which it called her kidnapping the “serving of an arrest warrant on Patricia Campbell Hearst.” It warned that any attempt to rescue Hearst would result in her execution. The message ended with: “DEATH TO THE FASCIST INSECT THAT PREYS UPON THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE.”

The SLA had kidnapped the media heiress to increase news attention on their cause: their demand for the release of two imprisoned SLA members, Joseph Remiro and Russell Little, serving life terms for murder. Remiro and Little had been found guilty of killing Oakland school board member Marcus Foster, whom they detested for his idea of requiring Oakland school kids to carry identification cards. The SLA considered Foster to be a “fascist.” Foster was killed by the SLA as he walked out of a school board meeting. The hollow-point bullets they used to kill Dr. Foster had been packed with cyanide.

Patty’s abduction was sensational news around the world. At a time of student unrest and radical causes, Patty Hearst was an average though privileged girl who had given neither the law nor her family any real trouble. At first, through tapes given to the news media, the SLA demanded the Hearst family arrange for the release of Remiro and Little in exchange for Patty’s freedom. When that proved impossible, they demanded that the Hearst distribute millions of dollars in food to the needy as ransom. After the Hearsts donated over $6 million to the poor of the San Francisco Bay Area, the SLA refused to let Patty go, claiming the donated food had been inferior. Inexplicably, all negotiations ceased.

Patty Hearst (b. 1954) from a Symbionese Liberation Army photo

Over the next few weeks, the Hearsts received several tapes of Patty’s voice. More and more Patty began to expouse the cause of her captors. The Hearsts believed Patty was being forced to say these things, but then they received a photo of her with a carbine rifle in her arms, standing next to the seven-headed cobra, which was the SLA’s symbol. Then, on April 3, 1974, Patty is heard on a new audiotape saying: “I have been given the choice of being released…or joining the forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army and fighting for my freedom and the freedom of all oppressed people. I have chosen to stay and fight.” Patty also said that she had assumed the new name “Tania,” after the nom de guerre of revolutionary Che Guevera’s girlfriend. Patty had joined her captors.

Twelve days later, policemen were examining security camera footage of the Hibernia Bank robbery that day in San Francisco. The hold-up gang had shot two bystanders and gotten away with over $10,000. To their surprise, they recognized the face of missing girl Patty Hearst among the hold-up gang. She was brandishing a carbine and yelling orders like she was one of them. A warrant was issued for her arrest as a material witness. Opinion was divided: was Patty a willing participant or was she being forced to participate in the robbery against her will?

Shortly afterward, an audiotape was released by the SLA on which Hearst can be heard to say:

“Greetings to the people, this is Tania. Our actions of April 15 forced the Corporate State to help finance the revolution. As for being brainwashed, the idea is ridiculous beyond belief. I am a soldier in the People’s Army.”

Stay tuned. To be continued.

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Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I a Woman?

Posted in PEOPLE, Sojourner Truth, tagged abolitionists, Ain't I a woman, biographies of African-American reformers, biographies of African-American women, biographies of African-Americans, biographies of women, black emancipation, civil rights, Isabella Baumfree, Jesus Christ, Ohio Women's Rights Convention 1851, Slavery, Sojourner Truth, the Civil War, women's movement, women's rights, women's suffrage movement on March 26, 2009| 8 Comments »

Sojourner Truth (1797-1883), photograph by Mathew Brady c.1864

Born into slavery in New York, Isabella Baumfree (Sojourner Truth’s given name) was an abolitionist and women’s rights activist. She spoke Dutch until the age of nine when she was sold to a new owner along with a flock of sheep. Eventually freed, she became a devout Christian and began to travel and preach about freedom.

Asking the Lord for a new name to reflect her new life, she claimed “Sojourner” was given to her because she was to travel the land and “Truth” because she was to declare the truth to all people.

Sojourner Truth was a powerful speaker. Her most famous speech was delivered in 1851 at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention. It is called “Ain’t I a Woman?” a slogan she adopted from a famous abolitionist image (See below.) The speech as shown here has been revised from the 19th century dialect in which she spoke.

When Sojourner got up to speak to the crowd, some men were present and they began to boo and hiss at her:

“Well, children, where there is so much racket, there must be something out of kilter. I think that ‘twixt the Negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what’s all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne five children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?”

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what’s this they call it? [member of audience whispers, “intellect”] That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with women’s rights or Negroes’ rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Abolition Movement poster

Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, ’cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it. The men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain’t got nothing more to say.

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Queen Victoria in the Blue Room with a Bust

Posted in PEOPLE, Queen Victoria & Prince Albert, tagged biographies of queens, biographies of royalty, British Royal Family/Nobles, death of Prince Albert, Mary Lincoln, mourning customs, Queen Victoria, the Blue Room, typhoid fever, Windsor Castle on March 25, 2009| 8 Comments »

British Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, 1861

Queen Victoria was devastated by the death of her husband Prince Albert in December, 1861.* She mourned him for the rest of her life, forty full years, wearing only black and virtually becoming a hermit.

The following passage describes the extreme measures the Queen took to preserve her royal consort’s memory. This scene takes place in Windsor Castle on the day after Albert has died of (possibly) typhoid fever. Albert’s body lies in state for visitation:

On the first morning of her widowhood, she went into the Blue Room to gaze upon her beloved husband’s features. Warned by her doctors not to kiss them, she kissed his clothes instead. She had every part of the room photographed so that it could be preserved exactly as it had been at that moment of the night, ten minutes to eleven on 14 December 1861, when her own life had been shattered….

Bust of Prince Albert, Minton & Co. from the original sculpture portraits by Carlo Marochetti (1805 - 67), England, Original sculpture 1851, made 1862.

She gave orders for Albert’s dressing gown and fresh clothes to be laid each evening on his bed and for a jug of steaming hot water to be placed on his washstand. Between the two beds in the room a marble bust of him was placed; above it she had his portrait hung, wreathed with evergreens; and almost every day fresh flowers were strewn beneath it on the pillows. The glass from which he had taken his last dose of medicine was kept on the table beside it where it remained for more than forty years. On his writing table his blotting book lay open with his pen upon it as though it were waiting for him to pick up. Guests at Windsor were required to write their names in his visitors’ book as well as in the Queen’s, ‘as before’….She had herself photographed gazing up at his bust; and she went to bed each night clasping one of his nightshirts and with a cast of his hand close enough for her to touch it with her fingers. (1)

*See a related post on this blog, “Mary Lincoln Goes Goth,” and read how Queen Victoria got her notorious nickname, “Mrs. Brown.”

(1) Hibbert, Christopher. Queen Victoria: A Personal History. (New York: Basic Books, 2000)

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John Wilkes Booth Uses the N-Word

Posted in Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth, tagged 1865, April 11, black Union soldiers, Confederacy, David Herold, Emancipation Proclamation, John Wilkes Booth, Julius Caesar, Lee's surrender, Lewis Payne, Lewis Powell, Lincoln Assassination, Lincoln's last speech, Noah Brooks, President Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Tad Lincoln, the Civil War, the Union, the War Between the States on March 24, 2009| Leave a Comment »

President Lincoln and son "Tad" (Thomas) in a February 9, 1864 photograph by Anthony Berger of the Brady Studio.

April 11, 1865 became the official day of celebrating the end of the Civil War. An even larger crowd was assembled on the White House lawn than the night before. (See last post.) The band was playing triumphant music, people were waving banners and shouting, “Hoorah!” and calling out for President Lincoln to speak. It was evening, but Washington D.C., was blazing with light. The Capitol, other government buildings, the White House, and private homes were lit up from within to ring in the good news.

A great cheer went up from the crowd when the President appeared on the second-floor balcony to deliver his speech. There he stood patiently and quietly as waves of applause rolled toward him. Finally, the crowd settled down and Lincoln, holding a candle in his left hand and his notes in his right, prepared to speak. But the juggling of the candle and his manuscript instantly proved awkward for the president. So he gave the candle to his friend Noah Brooks to hold. Son Tad knelt at his feet to catch each fluttering page of his father’s notes as he dropped them.

The crowd was silent when Lincoln began:

“Reuniting our country is fraught with great difficulty…and we differ among ourselves as to the mode and manner and means of reconstruction….”

Lincoln continued in this same vein, spelling out in greater and more boring detail the plans he had for reuniting the torn nation. The crowd was somewhat taken aback by the president’s tone. This was not the speech they’d expected. They had come to hear a rousing speech, praising the Union troops for their bravery and sacrifice, but, instead their president was droning on with no merriment, skipping past the present and jumping into the future without pausing to savor victory. Not waiting for the end of the president’s speech, some members of the crowd drifted away no doubt to find a jazzier way to spend the celebration.

John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865)

One of the people in the crowd that day was the famous young actor and Southern sympathizer John Wilkes Booth. Along with him were drugstore clerk David Herold and former Confederate soldier Lewis Powell, also known as Lewis Payne. Just weeks earlier, these three men and five others had been planning to kidnap Lincoln and exchange him for Confederate P.O.W.s. But now that the Confederacy had collapsed, Lee had surrendered, and Rebel P.O.W.s were being released, there was no incentive to kidnap the president. Still, Booth wanted to act. He hated Lincoln and considered him a tyrant along the lines of Julius Caesar. He was determined to do something heroic in defense of the South and to punish Lincoln.

Booth was startled to hear what the President said next. Lincoln said something that no other president had ever said publicly. He told the crowd that he was in favor of granting some black men the right to vote, especially, “the very intelligent and those who served our cause as soldiers.” One hundred eighty thousand black men had served in the Union Army.

Booth went ballistic. He turned to his fellow co-conspirator Powell. “That means nigger citizenship. That is the last speech he will ever make,” he vowed. He begged Powell to shoot Lincoln then and there. When Powell said no, Booth proclaimed, “By God, I’ll put him through.”

Booth was true to his word. It was the last speech Lincoln ever made. Four days later, the president would be dead, killed by a bullet fired into his head by John Wilkes Booth.

For related posts on this blog, see left sidebar “Categories.” Select Mary and Abraham Lincoln. In particular, you might enjoy reading “The Lincoln Assassination: Mary Surratt & the 7 Hoods.”

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Abe & Elvis Whistling “Dixie”

Posted in Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, Elvis, PEOPLE, The American Civil War, tagged Abraham Lincoln, Appomattox Court House, Civil War, Confederacy, Confederate flag, Confederate rebels, Confederate surrender, Daniel Emmett, Dixie, Elvis Presley, General Ulysses S. Grant, Gideon Welles, Lee's surrender, Mary Lincoln, Mathew Brady photographs, Richmond, Robert E. Lee, Tad Lincoln, the Union, Virginia, War Between the States on March 23, 2009| 2 Comments »

Confederate General Robert E. Lee, seated, with 2 of his officers, photographed by Mathew Brady in April, 1865, following Lee's surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomattox Court House in Richmond, Virginia.

At daylight on April 10, 1865, the firing of 500 cannons spread the news throughout Washington, D.C., that the War Between the States was over and the Union preserved. The cannons were so loud that they broke windows on Lafayette Square, the neighborhood around the White House. (1) “Guns are firing, bells ringing, flags flying, bands playing, men laughing, children cheering – all, all jubilant,” wrote Secretary of the Navy Gideon Wells. (2)

Expecting the president to make a speech, several thousand people gathered outside the White House. President Lincoln was not sure what to say as he was planning on giving a formal address the following evening.Just then, his twelve-year-old son Tad appeared at a second-floor window, waving a captured Confederate flag. It gave the president an idea. He asked the Marine Band to play a favorite tune of his, “Dixie,” the unofficial Confederate anthem.

“I have always thought ‘Dixie” one of the best tunes I ever heard,” he told the surprised crowd. “It is good to show the rebels that with us they will be free to hear it again.”

True to the promise he made in his second inaugural address, Lincoln was already trying to bind up the nation’s wounds.

Now let’s hear Elvis Presley sing “Dixie.”

(1) White, Ronald C. A. Lincoln. (New York: Random House, 2009)

(2) Fleming, Candace. The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary. (New York: Schwartz & Wade, 2008)

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Mary Lincoln Goes Goth

Posted in Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, Mental Institutions, PEOPLE, Queen Victoria & Prince Albert, ROYALTY/NOBILITY, tagged "Mrs. Brown", Abraham Lincoln, biographies of first ladies, biographies of political wives, biographies of women, British Royal Family/Nobles, crepe, Elizabeth Keckley, FASHION & TOYS, French Empress Eugénie, insane asylum, jet jewelry, John Brown, Judy Dench, Mary Todd Lincoln, Mary Todd Lincoln's mourning, mourning clothes, mourning jewelry, Prince Albert, Prince Albert's death, Queen Victoria, Queen Victoria's mourning, Tad Lincoln, the Civil War, the contaminated Potomac River, typhoid fever in Washington, Victorian mourning customs, weeping veils, widow's weeds, Willie Lincoln on March 20, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Mary Todd Lincoln in mourning clothes, 1863. Even during the period in 1862 and 1863 when Mrs. Lincoln was in mourning for her son Willie and wore only black, she managed to go further into debt for new clothes. By 1864, she told Elizabeth Keckley: "The President glances at my rich dresses and is happy to believe that the few hundred dollars that I obtain from him supply all my wants. I must dress in costly materials. The people scrutinize every article that I wear with critical curiosity... If he is elected, I can keep him in ignorance of my affairs, but if he is defeated, then the bills will be sent." Only on January 1, 1865 did she completely shed her mourning attire.

After her son Willie’s death at age eleven on February 20, 1862, Mary Todd Lincoln went into deep mourning. She traded in her sparkling jewels, frilly white and colorful gowns, and flowered bonnets made fashionable by her icon the French Empress Eugénie (click to read earlier post) for widow’s weeds of dull black crepe. Her stylish White House parties were put to the side. Gaiety gave way to sadness. Mary had lost her favorite son, the perfect one, the one she considered most like her husband.

After Willie died, Mary’s youngest son, eight-year-old Tad, still tossed with the same typhoid fever that killed his brother. He lay critically ill nearby, but Mary, incapacitated by grief, would not and did not rush to his side to nurse him. Meanwhile, Willie’s embalmed body was laid out in the Green Room of the White House and his coffin was open. Mary mustered enough energy to place a sprig of laurel on Willie’s chest before retreating to her bedroom and shutting the door. She took to her bed, weeping and sobbing in such uncontrolled spasms that she became quite ill.

She did not come out of her bedroom to attend Willie’s funeral and never again entered the Green Room or the second floor guest room where Willie died. She rid the house of all of Willie’s toys and clothes and forbade his and Tad’s best friends, the Taft boys, from ever returning to the White House to play.

During Mary’s tormented period, Abraham, also heartbroken at his son’s death, sent for help. Two of Mary’s friends, a nurse, and Mary’s sister Elizabeth heeded the calling. One of the friends was the esteemed Washington seamstress Elizabeth Keckley. In memoirs she wrote with a ghostwriter six years later, she recalled a day when President Lincoln led his distraught wife (whom he called “Mother”) to the window, pointed to the lunatic asylum at a distance from the White House, and said,

“Mother, do you see that large white building on the hill yonder? Try and control your grief or it will drive you mad and we may have to send you there.”

The recently widowed Queen Victoria wearing mourning clothes at Balmoral, Scotland, 1863. She is riding "Fyvie" and is accompanied by her faithful servant John Brown. Her husband, Prince Albert, died in December of 1861 of typhoid fever or perhaps cancer of the stomach. For forty more years, the rest of Victoria's life, she wore black widow's weeds. Suspicion was aroused by Victoria's partiality to John Brown as a servant; most of the members of the Royal Household referred to him as "the Queen's stallion" and defamatory pamphlets referred to her as "Mrs. Brown." A 1997 film with Judy Dench titled "Mrs. Brown" was about their rumored love affair.

It was three weeks before Mary could even be persuaded to get up out of bed and put on her mourning clothes. Queen Victoria (1819-1901) now became the First Lady’s fashion model. Victoria’s husband Prince Albert had died unexpectedly just three months earlier and Victoria had plunged herself and her entire staff into the deep black dress of mourning. Following Victoria’s lead and further compounding her debt to clothing merchants (click to read an earlier post), Mary Lincoln ordered an entire new wardrobe of dull black crepe dresses, bonnets, and weeping veils.

For more than a year, six months longer than was called for in the mourning manuals of the day, Mary wore first-degree mourning. Her black crepe straw bonnet was so heavily veiled that she could not turn her head, which gave her an odd appearance as she was always facing forward. She became a very public mourner. She wanted to draw attention to her grief as if she was the only one who had lost a child at a time when Civil War soldiers were dying in record numbers from Mississippi to Maryland on the nation’s bloody battlefields. During her mourning, she cancelled the Saturday afternoon Marine Band Concerts held on the White House lawn, explaining that, “When we are in sorrow, quiet is necessary.” She bought black jet jewelry to accent her sooty “widow’s weeds” and used writing paper with the thickest margins of black.

Finally, in 1863, Mary ordered another new wardrobe, running up yet more bills, and moved into the stage known as half-mourning, exchanging her lusterless black for fabric in lavender, gray, and somber purples with a little touch of white at the wrist. (1)

Click here to access my related post, “The Madness of Mary Lincoln.” Also, for more posts on the Lincolns, view the drop down menu, “Categories,” in the left column, find at the top, Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, and click.

(1) Baker, Jean H. Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1987)

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Queen Elizabeth’s Grandmother Had the “Gimmies”

Posted in PEOPLE, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Mary (of Teck), ROYALTY/NOBILITY, tagged biographies of queens, biographies of royalty, Britain, British Royal Family/Nobles, House of Windsor, jewelry, King George V, Mary of Teck, Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary, Queen Victoria, Royal Collection, Royal Jewels, tiara on March 19, 2009| 44 Comments »

Shown in the photograph is Queen Mary (1867-1953), grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II. Queen Mary was a manic collector of jewelry and other fine pieces. During the reign of her husband, King George V (1865-1936), she vastly expanded the Royal Collection, often from the houses of friends. Mary is shown here wearing “the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara” which is also referred to as “Granny’s Tiara,” which she gave to Elizabeth in 1947, the year she married Prince Philip.

Queen Mary was Queen Elizabeth’s grandmother. She was married to George V. George V was the father of Queen Elizabeth’s father, King George VI, who preceded Queen Elizabeth on the throne.

Queen Mary got it wrong. One is supposed to “love people and use things.” She did the very opposite. Mary loved things and used people. The Queen had an “emotional lurch of the heart when she saw beautiful jewels,” but hated to pay for them. On seeing something she coveted, she said, “I’m caressing it with my eyes.” But it didn’t stop there. She acquired jewels, furniture, Faberge animals, watches, and gold musical boxes by means that ranged from begging to extortion to outright theft. She loved to visit India where the “maharajas handed out jewels like blackberries.” (1)

Antique dealers, jewellers, and estate owners locked away their valuables before Queen Mary came calling. If she spied a small silver vase or a china plate that she fancied, she would hint that she expected to be given it as a gift. At that point, the host or proprietor had no choice but to hand it over to the Queen. The Queen then instructed her chauffeur to put her new bauble in the car to add to the Royal Collection.

One day Queen Mary almost met her match. She was taking tea one late afternoon with Old Lady Hudson. The Queen began admiring a set of chairs that belonged to Lady Hudson. The chairs were painted by Angelica Kauffman. The Queen remarked that Lady Hudson’s chairs would go splendidly with the Kauffman table she owned. Lady Hudson no doubt smiled but did not offer her chairs to Queen Mary. The clock ticked on. Queen Mary continued to sip her tea. The sun went down. Queen Mary still showed no sign of getting up and departing.

More time passed. Finally, when the clock struck nine o’clock, Lady Hudson capitulated. She had held on valiantly, but, at the end, she was an old woman and she was ready for the Queen to go home. So “the chairs went off in the royal Daimler.” (1)

At times, when Queen Mary wasn’t given something she desired, it is rumored she went ahead and stole it.

In the early 20th Century, wearing expensive jewelry was a way of defining status and Queen Mary was all about defining status – her status – as an elevated member of society. She was born the daughter of two royals who frittered away their money, infuriating their benefactress Queen Victoria, resulting in the whole family being tossed out of their apartments at Kensington Palace and run out of London. Mary ended up studying in Italy. Years passed and Mary returned to England. Queen Victoria cast her eye about looking for a suitable spouse for her grandson George, second in line for the throne. She selected Princess Mary, seeing in her “queen potential.” Upon the death of King Edward VII in 1910, George ascended the throne and Mary became his Queen.

Queen Mary with granddaughters, the Princesses Margaret Rose and Elizabeth

Queen Mary with granddaughters, the Princess Margaret Rose and the future Queen Elizabeth II

Mary then set about to fulfill the potential seen in her by Queen Victoria and to become as royal as royal could be. She proceeded to outdazzle the royals around her, projecting such a flawless image of majesty that, to many, she ceased to be human. She was so decorated and gem-encrusted that, “at Lord Harewood’s wedding, a myopic E.M. Forster bowed to the iced and many-tiered cake under the impression that it was Queen Mary.” (1)

Queen Mary was so busy collecting, carrying out her royal duties, and hobnobbing with nobility that she had little time for motherhood, though she had borne six children. She had no passion for them. She left their care to cruel servants who pinched them. She did not kiss, cuddle, or hug her children. They were all starved of love, particularly her youngest child, John, born handicapped and epileptic. He was hidden away in a cottage with caregivers until his death at fourteen.

Upon her death from lung cancer in 1953, her son, David, Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII, remarked:

I somehow feel that the fluids in her veins must always have been as icy-cold as they now are in death.

(1) Brendon, Piers and Whitehead, Phillip. The Windsors: A Dynasty Revealed. (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1994)

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The Sundance Kid Remembers Butch Cassidy

Posted in Paul Newman, PEOPLE, Robert Redford, tagged Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, George Roy Hill, Hole in the Wall Camp, Newman's Own, Paul Newman, Paul Newman death, Porsche, race car driving, Robert Redford, Sundance Film Festival, The Sting, Winning on March 18, 2009| 1 Comment »

A publicity shot from the 1969 American Western film, “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” starring Robert Redford (left) and Paul Newman. Newman died in September of 2008 of cancer.

Robert Redford Remembers Paul Newman (1925-2008):

I first met Paul Newman in 1968, when George Roy Hill, the director of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” introduced us in New York City. When the studio didn’t want me for the film — it wanted somebody as well known as Paul — he stood up for me. I don’t know how many people would have done that; they would have listened to their agents or the studio powers.

The friendship that grew out of the experience of making that film and “The Sting” four years later had its genesis in the fact that although there was an age difference, we both came from a tradition of theater and live TV. We were respectful of craft and focused on digging into the characters we were going to play. Both of us were fundamentally American actors, with the qualities and virtues that characterize American actors: irreverence, playing on the other’s flaws for fun, one-upmanship — but always with an underlying affection. Those were also at the core of our relationship off the screen.

Paul was very engaged at work. He was there. He liked a lot of rehearsal. But he was fun too. Whenever he’d make a mistake on set, he would enjoy it more than anybody. I’d look at him, and he’d look at me, and I’d say, “You’re not fooling anybody. You’re not staring at me intensely; you’ve lost your line.” And he’d roar with laughter.

Paul Newman was a nonprofit entrepreneur with a line of foods from lemonade to popcorn to spaghetti sauce.

We shared the belief that if you’re fortunate enough to have success, you should put something back — he with his Newman’s Own food and his Hole in the Wall camps for kids who are gravely ill, and me with Sundance and the institute and the festival. Paul and I didn’t see each other all that regularly, but sharing that brought us together. We supported each other financially and by showing up at events. And then we’d give each other a hard time. Whatever success one of us would have, the other would knock it down. If you’re in a position of being viewed iconically, you’d better have a mechanism to take yourself down to keep the balance. I think we did that for each other.

Paul Newman was one of the last of the great 20th century actors. He was strikingly handsome with piercing blue eyes. He dropped out of college to become a Navy Pilot only to discover he was not qualified due to colorblindness.

What impressed me about Paul was that he was very realistic about who he was. He knew the world of hyperbole and distortion he was in. That meant he maintained a certain amount of privacy. He was generous and a pillar of integrity. He was loyal and self-effacing. His commitment to his profession was serious, as was his commitment to social responsibility and especially to his family.

Paul Newman was a successful professional race car driver. He got his first taste of car racing when starring in the 1969 film, “Winning.”

He had a life that had real meaning and that will for some time.I last saw him a few months ago. He’d been in and out of the hospital. I knew what the deal was, and he knew what the deal was, and we didn’t talk about it. We talked about what was on our minds: the election, politics, what needed to be done. Ours was a relationship that didn’t need a lot of words.

Mostly I’ll miss the fun we had. We played lots of pranks on each other. I used to race cars, and after he took this rare Porsche I owned for a drive, he began to get into racing. He had incredible reflexes, and he got really good, but he talked so much about it that I got sick of it. So I had a beaten-up Porsche shell delivered to his porch for his 50th birthday. He never said anything, but not long after, I found a crate of molten metal delivered to the living room of my (rented) house. It dented the floor. I then had it turned into a really ugly sculpture and dropped into his garden. To this day, neither one of us has ever mentioned it.