September 2008 - Vintage Culture

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Vintage Culture - September 2008

Mata Hari – Part 1

September 26th 2008 00:04

Intrigue, Sex and Betrayal - An Introduction to Mata Hari

Mata Hari 1876-1917

The name Mata Huri when muttered today cojures up images of an exotic, sensual temptress who used her allure to operate as the ultimate female double agent during WWI. A mater, executed by firing squad for espionage in 1917, the truth is even more intriguing.

Mata Hari flaunts it

Travelling through the East and Europe in her lifetime, she was an erotic dancer and courtesan who traded in military secrets and strategy. Born in 1876 as Margaretha Zelle in the Netherlands her earlier years went by in opulent settings attending private schools and receiving a quality education. Her father a successful investment trader who abruptly went bankrupt in 1889, divorced her mother who died a year later.

Restless and impulsive she began studying to become a kindergarten teacher but was forced to leave the college because the headmaster was flirting with her. Her godfather Heer Visser with whom she was living at the time insisted on her abandoning her studies.

Running away to an Uncle’s house in Prague shortly after, by the time of her 18th Birthday Margaretha was heading to Amsterdam. Answering a newspaper ad Military Officer Rudolf John MacLeod placed seeking a wife.

A License to Seduce

Siring two children with Margaretha, the family moved to java in the West Indies. Unfortunately Rudolf was a mean drunk who beat the young woman, and openly cheated on her with a native girl and also a mistress.

After a fling with one of Rudolf’s fellow officers Mrs Macleod took up dance and began to use her stage name of Mata Hari, in letters to relatives, the year was 1869.

Divorcing her husband and returning to the Netherlands, her son died of a syphilis related disease at 9 years old. Her daughter also died under similar circumstances at 21….stay tuned for PART TWO when Mata Hari moves to Paris and begins to create a legend.

A short video montage of Mata hari Images

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Harry Houdini - Nothing up my sleeve

September 25th 2008 00:05

The Wonder and Marvel of Houdini

Harry Houdini 1874 - 1926

As David Blain gets inverted for 60 hours under the guise of magic and attracts international attention it seems like a great time to revisit histories greatest Illusionists, Harry Houdini.

As much a myth now as man the master escape artist was born Erik Weisz March 1874 in Budapest, Hungary. Immigrating to America 4 years later under the name Ehrich Weiss as a young man he moved around with his family eventually settling on New York City where his father was a rabbi.

The faces of Harry Houdini

Making his public debut as a 10 year old Trapeze Artist by his teens Ehrich was also a champion cross country runner. Enjoying the attention and accolades of performance he embraced magic, once a professional he became Harry Houdini.

Named after the famous French Magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, Harry’s early years on the circuit were not very fruitful. Often having to take odd jobs on Circus troupe and playing sideshows for extra bucks.

Struggling at his craft and realising that card tricks were not cutting it, presto-chango Houdini began experimenting with escape acts. Earning his reputation quickly for his expertise at unshackling himself from hand and leg cuffs, 1899 was the year that Harry became famous.

Stripping Nude before his jail break

Touring Europe in 1900 with manager Martin Breck caused a sensation. Inspired by his notoriety he was dubbed “The Handcuff King” and began getting more theatrical with his stunts. Breaking out of prisons, dungeons, anywhere else that would attract attention.

By 1907 Houdini was back home and redefining what was possible by breaking loose of all forms of bondage and imprisonment. (Spoiler - Houdini was able to regurgitate small keys and could pick a lock with a shoelace)

At this time Houdini had also mastered the art of getting free from a straight jacket, (Spoiler – Houdini would dislocate his shoulder or contort his body when putting the jacket on so that the bonds had some slack) and would hang upside down above streets while dazzling audiences.

As his feats got more daring, so to did the risk and the audiences thrill of impending tragedy.

The Milk Can Escape

After surviving being locked in milk cans filled with water, in 1912 Harry devised his most recognized chamber of miraculous escape, the Chinese Water Torture Cell. Inside a tank of water with a transparent front Harry’s legs were shackled in stocks and he was lowered in upside down.

harry houdini chinese water torture cell

The Chinese Water Torture Cell

Despite what some fictional films and books say this trick did not kill Harry, instead he worked for up until 1926. In that year a student named J Gordon Whitehead approached Houdini after a show to enquire if it was true that he could take any blow to the stomach. Although lounging in a recliner he said “yes” and before he had a chance to physically prepare Whitehead pounded Houdini’s stomach several times.

In pain, he refused to see a doctor, even when he was finally told he had acute appendicitis and a fever of 104 Harry went on stage to perform his last show at the Garrick Theatre in Detroit Michigan.

Dying of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix on Halloween, ever since then the fascination and curiosity has grown. There have even been tales of his links to the occult, supernatural powers and séances held to communicate beyond the grave.

During his lifetime Harry Houdini also accomplished the first controlled power flight across Australia in 1910, making him a pioneer aviator of sorts. He also had a fledgling movie career and appeared in several films.

Hear Harry Houdini talk about The Chinese Water Torture Cell

Houdini's Straight jacket Escape

Houdini's hanging Escape

More footage of Houdini - Warning sorry about the terrible music.

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Ernest Hemingway

September 18th 2008 23:34

Living life the Heming-way

Ernest Hemingway

“Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.” – Ernest Hemingway

Resembling the fictional characters he created in his masculine mind, Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winning Author Ernest Hemingway was enigmatic with a monstrous presence.

His was a colourful life full of physiological mayhem, complex drama, heated conflict, passionate love and fatal pain, it’s a story as epic as the myth that surrounds him.

Hemingway soaks up the words

Penning tales of strong stoic protagonists facing nature, the elements and there own internal demons. Told with the economics of understated power, his words have become iconic.

Born in 1899 Ernest Hemingway began writing at school and progressed through his whole career using what he learnt at his first job for The Kansas City Star to shape his unforgettable literary works. These were the rules "Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English. Be positive, not negative."

“All good books have one thing in common - they are truer than if they had really happened.” – Ernest Hemingway

A Young Hemingway

Abandoning Journalism within a year of starting professionally Ernest instead served as a Red Cross medico during WWI. Experiences that fuel much of his work like A Farewell to Arms, Hemmingway carried what he witnessed about the nightmare of war and senseless death for the rest of his life.

“I know war as few other men now living know it, and nothing to me is more revolting. I have long advocated its complete abolition, as its very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a method of settling international disputes.” – Ernest Hemingway

the man always loved to fish

Returning from battle in 1920 he was mentored by Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein, becoming part of what be known as his self named “Lost Generation”

From Wikipedia:
Ernest hemingway said "Ezra was right half the time, and when he was wrong, he was so wrong you were never in any doubt about it. Gertrude was always right." - Ernest Hemingway

Finding time to marry in the early part of the decade, he was working as a freelance journalist for the Toronto Star. The gig ended up as a war correspondent job living in Paris, France reporting on the Greek Revolution. After returning to the US from Europe as a somewhat successful foreign correspondent in 1925 Ernest Hemingway’s first short story In Our Time was published.

“Decadence is a difficult word to use since it has become little more than a term of abuse applied by critics to anything they do not yet understand or which seems to differ from their moral concepts.” – Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway at work

The following year the semi autobiographical novel The Sun Also Rises was published and thus began one of the most influential writing careers of last century. Classics like The Old Man and the Sea, The Killers and For Whom the Bell Tolls came over the next 30 years.

The man had to fight

An avid sportsmen and aficionado of macho behaviour he managed to go through several wives and even become a Naval Officer fighting in WW2. In later life undergoing electro shock treatment for severe depression and unable to utilise his gift to its full potential he became mentally unstable. In 1961 Ernest Hemingway shot himself in the head with a Boss and Co Shotgun. He died.

“Forget your personal tragedy. We are all bitched from the start and you especially have to be hurt like hell before you can write seriously. But when you get the damned hurt, use it-don't cheat with it.” – Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway R.I.P.

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Sidney Poitier – A Life in Class

September 7th 2008 05:22

Sidney Poitier

A Poitier Portrait

“A good deed here, a good deed there, a good thought here, a good comment there, all added up to my career in one way or another.” – Sidney Poitier

Stoic, shattering intrinsic social barriers with powerful performances that defied racial stereotype Actor, Writer, Director Sidney Poitier separated himself from those that came before him. Determined to bring a strength of will and authentic character to his roles in order to become a high profile voice for civil rights.
“I was the only Black person on the set. It was unusual for me to be in a circumstance in which every move I made was tantamount to representation of 18 million people.” – Sidney Poitier

The Power Profile

Born in Miami in 1927 and spending much of his youth in the Bahama’s where he acquired a taste for Voodoo and juvenile delinquency. Moving back to the U.S at 17 he lived in New York and after some run ins with the Law decided to join the Army.

Beginning his acting career with a thick accent Poitier first gained notice on Broadway and made his cinema debut as an extra in the 1947 film Sepia Cinderella. His next big screen role as a doctor who must treat a bigoted patient in Daryl F Zanuck’s No Way Out garnered praise and officially started his career.

For many 1955’s The Blackboard Jungle is considered Sidney’s “breakout” performance, at 27 he was finally in the public eye for playing a teenager. Three years later he became the first black man ever nominated for a competitive Academy Award for his chain gang part in the Defiant Ones opposite matinee idol Tony Curtis. In 1963 Sidney Poitier won an Oscar for Lillies in the Field.

Sidney takes home the Honoree Oscar

A Raisin in The Sun, A Patch of Blue and The Slender Thread amongst the best of his films during this period. It was 1967 that will forever be seen as his most successful year as an actor with a trifecta of box office and critical hits. In The Heat of the Night, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner and To Sir With Love all now considered classics.

Continuing to do interesting work throughout the 1970’s on screen, off camera his passion remained championing the civil rights movement. Dedicated to change and eager to put his name behind the causes he saw as just, over the years Poitier had become an outspoken figurehead for social justice.

Sidney poitier charlton heston civil rights

The Activist

Fluent in Russian, today he is a legendary thespian and respected diplomat for the Bahamas, a one of a kind artist who has always tried to use his position for positive effect. A life that has led by example, the world of films would be far less rich without his presence.
“In my case, the body of work stands for itself... I think my work has been representative of me as a man.” – Sidney Poitier

The opening ten minutes of Sidney Poitier's Best Actor Oscar winning Lillies in the Field