Born Today March 12 (Not So Silent Edition): Thomas Augustine Arne

1710-1778

English composer Thomas Augustine Arne was born in Convent Garden, London, UK on this date to an Catholic mother and an Anglican father.  Despite that his grandfather and father, both ulpholsterers, had fallen on hard times (his grandfather actually died in a debtors prison), his father had saved enough monies back to have young Thomas educated at Eton.  The young Arne showed a very early interest in music and smuggled a spinet into his room to practice on during the night when the rest of the family slept.  He also would dress up as a liveryman to gain access to the opera, which eventually lead to his having an apprenticeship of sorts with musician and composer Michael Festing; who among other things, taught Arne to play the violin.  When he finished school, he was articled to a solicitor for a period of three years.  He had, though, continued to work with Festing; a situation that his father found out about.  Festing was mostly likely the person responsible for persuading Arne's father to allow him to leave the legal service and pursue a career in music instead.  What Arne is by far and away most famous for is his composition Rule Britannia; he also penned A-Hunting We Will Go and a version of God Save The King (which in movies, he is also credited for when it is listed as God Save The Queen).  Three partial-sound or full sound films made use of his Rule Britannia and one short featuring "Hunting" were made in the late 1920's.  The first of these is a very famous, one could say infamous, film:  the Paramount produced, William A. Wellman directed (at least most of...) Wings, starring Clara Bow and Charles Rogers.  The film was made in 1927, but not released formally until 1929.  The mono musical score and sound effects were furnished by Western Electric.  The Divine Lady (1929) was also a partial sound film.  The first full sound film featuring his music also came in 1929, with the Mickey Mouse short animation When The Cat's Away, featuring sound from the Powers Cinephone Sound System; this marks the first use in a film of A-Hunting We Will Go.  Finally, the first all sound feature film to use the work was Disraeli (1929). Rule Britannia was used next in King Of Jazz  in 1930.  Of course, over the decades, such well known music has been used in dozens of films from the likes of The King and I  to Minions.  The most recent use came last year in the series The Crown.  Arne died at the age of 67 close to the place of his birth in London on the 5th of March, just shy of his 68th.  He is buried in St. Paul's, Covent Garden, a church designed by the renowned Inigo Jones; it is known as "The Actors Church."

Scene from When The Cat's Away (1929)

For More:

Wikipedia

List Of Compositions--Wikipedia

Britannica

IMDb

Leave Virtual Flowers @ Find A Grave  

Born Today March 11: Torquato Tasso

1544-1595

16th century Italian poet Torquato Tasso was born on this day in Sorrento, in what was then the independent Kingdom of Naples (now Campania, Italy).  He had aristocratic ties in his family, with his mother being closely connected to prominent Neapolitan families; his father was secretary in service to the Prince of Salemo, Ferrante Sanseverino (so much so, that when the Prince was exiled, Tasso's father went with him).  He grew up with his mother and sister in Naples and was educated by the Jesuits there.  He possessed a fierce intellect and religious devotion that he attracted wide spread attention at only 8 years of age.  He was subsequently sent to live with his father just outside of Rome; as it happens his father was also a poet.  While he was there, his mother died suddenly and suspiciously; the elder Tasso was convinced that her own brother murdered her in order to take control of her estate.  This, no doubt, had an ill effect on the young man.  Torquato traveled with his father when he accepted a position in the court of Urbino.  At court there, Torquato's education was advanced by the general atmosphere of philosophical studies and regular poetry recitation. Torquato also followed his father to Venice, where he had relocated to get his own epic published.  His father was greatly influenced in the negative by the fortune of his lot in life as a writer, and he was determined to turn Torquato to a more lucrative profession.  He was sent to study law in Padua.  But when he arrived there, he fell to studying philosophy and poetry instead.  By 1562 he had written a 12 canto epic of his own.  It was an impressive enough work to have the younger Tasso deemed the most promising young poet of his time; this so flattered his father, that he allowed the for the poem's publication.  Tasso's renown career in writing poetry was off.  He also was able to indulge his love for religion by taking up work with a Cardinal.  His career and relationships would have serious up and downs however, due to a disease that had already begun to manifest itself.  It is thought that if he had lived in modern times, he would have been diagnosed as Bi-polar.  The result of this, was that he slipped from one illustrious house to another, before being admitted to a "mad house" run by the church.  He stayed confined for some time, though is condition seemed to improve and he was released and continued to write, he never fully recovered, as the case even today, if the disease goes untreated.  In regards to film, 8 films have been produced from his poetry over the years, with 5 of those produced in the silent era.  The first of these came in 1910 with Le tyran de Jérusalem, a French film produced by Pathe' Freres.  The first film to be produced in his native Italy from his work came the next year with The Crusaders.  The short Aminta also came out in 1911.  Jerusalem Liberated was produced in 1913 and remade in 1918.  The most recent film produced from his work came in 2001 with Rinaldo, a made for television film in Germany, based on his very first epic poem.  Though he would eventually be named Poet Laureate and would be afforded several pensions, he retired himself to a monastery located in what is now Vatican City, stating upon his arrival that he was there to die.  And die he did, 24 days later at the very young age of 51 on the 25th of April.  There are no details as to his funerary rites or burial.  He is now remembered as being the greatest Italian poet of the late Renaissance.

Poster from the 1918 version of Jerusalem Liberated

For More:

Wikipedia

Catholic Encyclopedia

Britannica

Poem Hunter

IMDb

Born Today March 10: Barry Fitzgerald

1888-1961

Irish actor Barry Fitzgerald was born on this date in Dublin (birth name:  William Joseph Shields) to an Irish father and a German mother.  He was educated to enter the banking industry and did become a civil servant.  He was working at the Abbey Theater at the same time.  His tenure as an actor at that theater lasted from 1914-1936.  In the silent era, he appeared in two British films--only one of which was actually silent.  The first of these came in 1924 with Land Of Her Fathers.  The second was an early sound film by Alfred Hitchcock released in 1929; The Shame Of Mary Boyle, better known by it's alternative name Juno And The Paycock. By the late 1930's, he had made the move to Hollywood and found regular work there as a beloved character actor.  In 1959, he retired and returned to his native Dublin and assumed his birth name.  He passed away there on the 14th of January in 1961 of a heart attack, he was 72 years old.  He was the older brother of actor Arthur Shields.  He is buried there in Deansgrange Cemetery, next to his brother Arthur.

He and his brother's graves in Dublin, Ireland

Close up of his tombstone bearing his birth name

For More:

IMDb

Wikipedia

Leave Virtual Flowers @ Find A Grave

Born Today March 9: Leland Stanford

1824-1893

Amasa Leland Stanford was born on the day in Watervliet, New York (the town is now known as Colonie); he was one of eight children.  His father was a well off farmer and several of his brothers went on to become successful, even famous, in their own rights.  He would go on in life to be a general renaissance man: an industrialist, railroad executive, politician, winery owner, and co-founder of Stanford University.  He was also the founder of the Pacific Life insurance company.  He got his start, when he migrated out to California during the Gold Rush there; but instead of getting directly into mining, he set up shop as a merchant and grew his business into a wholesale company.  He served a term as California governor and eventually became the president of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and later Central Pacific railroad.  He is considered today to have been a robber baron.  As railroad president, he was wont to throw his weight around in the region, and not always to the good of anyone but Stanford and his family.  The reason for his inclusion here is his unique place in the history of earliest cinema.  He owned a huge horse ranch in Santa Clara County in California.  He had interest in horse movement and hired photographer Eadweard Muybridge to set up a series of cameras at the track that he had built at his Palo Alto Stock Farm.  All of his horses were trained to race as trotters, and he was interested in whether it could be proven that horses, at full gallop ever had all four legs off the ground at once.  Muybridge set up a series of cameras inside the track and every few feet, trip wires would set off a different camera.  What resulted was what is known as "series photography."  Using a simple "flip method"--as with animation--the photographs could show movement of the animal and rider.  The result was a film called Sallie Gardner At A Gallop (the horse's name being in the title).  This dates from the year 1878, and was previously (and erroneously) listed as being the very first motion picture. Because it was Stanford's scheme, and he hired Muybridge, he is given a producer credit on the film.  Standford had long suffered from Locomotor Ataxia, which caused him to rely heavily on a cane to walk.  The condition probably, over time, affected his heart muscle and he died of heart failure at the age of 63 on the 21st of June 1893 in Palo Alto; he is buried in the family mausoleum on the Stanford campus.

The exterior of the mausoleum

Interior showing Stanford's tomb

For More:

Wikipedia

PBS

The Birth Of Stanford University

IMDb

Leave Virtual Flowers @ Find A Grave

Born Today March 8: Ede Szigligeti

1814-1878

Hungarian dramatist Ede Szigligeti was born József Szathmáry on this date in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now the town where he was born is located in present-day Romania.  His parents wanted him to become a priest; he, however, wanted to be a doctor.  He wound up instead an apprentice engineer.  He had developed a love of drama as a child, and despite his father reportedly being a tyrant who hated the theater, Szigligeti appeared on the stage in 1834 in Budapest.  Because of this, his father forbade him the use the family name, so he changed it.  The name he chose came from a romance drama that he loved.  While barely supporting himself, he dove deeper into the world of theater and began to sketch plays for himself.  He gained the attention of Hungarian theater connoisseurs, who helped him and encouraged him to write more.  Finally in 1840, he was rewarded when one of his full length plays was produced by the newly found Hungarian Academy, starring the wife writer M. Jókai, Rosa Laborfalvy.  The production was well received and quite successful.  It also made Szigligeti famous.  He would go on to be elected to two dramatic academies, pen many full length plays in several genres; and would become not just the leading Hungarian playwright, but also a mentor to younger up and coming dramatists.  In addition to his own original writing, he also translated Goethe from the German and Shakespeare from English into Hungarian.  Some of his own plays were likewise translated into German.  In regards to film, 9 films have been produced using his plays as source material, 4 of them were made during the silent era.  The first of these, A csikós was released in 1913 and was a Hungarian production.  In fact, all four films were made in his home country of Hungary; they are:  A szökött katona (1915), Liliomfi (1915) and A. cigány (1925).  The most recent film made from his work came in 1993, a version of the same play filmed in 1925; it was produced for Hungarian television.  Szigligeti died in Budapest on Januray 19 in 1878 at the age of 63.  He is buried there in the Fiumei úti Nemzeti Sírkert (National Cemetery in Fiumei Street).

For More:

Wikipedia

Wikipedia Hungary  (can be translated)

IMDb

Born Today March 7: Anna Magnani

1908-1973

Italian stage and film actress Anna Magnani was born on this day possibly in Rome (some sources cite Egypt as her birthplace).  Her parentage remains a mystery.  Famed film maker Franco Zeffirelli, who claims to have known her well, stated in a book that she was, in fact, born in Alexandria, Egypt to an Egyptian father and an Italian-Jewish mother.  He further states that she was raised in Rome by a grandmother.  Whatever the case, she was supposedly sent at age 17 to study at the Eleonora Duse Royal Academy of Dramatic Art; though other sources claim she never formally studied acting.  It is known for sure that to support herself, she began to work in nightclubs and cabarets as a singer around this time.  She formally started her career on the stage in Italian music halls, singing Italian folk songs--this earned her the nickname "the Italian Edith Piaf."  She then began to get parts in speaking roles on the stage as well. She was said to be quick learner and a fine stage actress, and had some success early in her career as a result.  She is appearing here because it is thought that her first film appearance came in a late silent filmed in Rome by a German production company.  The film Scampolo featured a mostly Italian cast in the lead roles, but also featured German players, even featuring Max Schreck in a smaller role; it was released in 1928. Magnani's part is uncredited.  Her first credited role came in 1934 with The Blind Woman of Sorrento.  She would go on to have a bright career in film, working with and befriending a wide swath of famous people from Frederico Fellini to Tennessee Williams (a point of trivia: her friendship with Williams became the subject of an off-Broadway play).  She is also the grandmother of Italian actress Olivia Magnani, who was born after her death.  She died suddenly on the 26th of September 1973 after a battle with pancreatic cancer, she was 65 years old.  A huge crowd gathered for her funeral in Rome and she was interred the family mausoleum of Roberto Rossellini, with whom she had a relationship with before he married Ingrid Bergman.  She was later moved to the Cimitero Comunale di San Felice Circeo, where she is entombed behind a glass enclosure.  

Site of her first interment.

Her current resting place.

For More:

IMDb

Wikipedia

BAMPFA

Leave Virtual Flowers @ Find A Grave

Born Today March 6: Elizabeth Barrett Browning

1806-1861

English poet Elizabeth Barrett Moulton-Barrett was born in County Durham, England on this date in history; she was the eldest of 12 children.  Her family had considerable business interests on plantations in Jamaica.  Her family immigrated from there, when her father decided that he wished to start and raise his family on British soil.  The family's businesses were still centered there, and their considerable wealth, from both parent's families, was derived from there, including the owning of a large number of slaves.  Her earliest education came at home, along with her brother.  Their tutor was one Daniel McSwiney.  She is reported to have started writing verses at the age of just 4 years.  She was apparently studious learner and she claimed that she started reading novels at the age of 6.  She formed an interest in Greek while reading Pope's translation of Homer at the age of 8; and by the age of 10 she was studying the Greek language.  At the age of 12, she composed her own Homeric epic poem.  It would be this poem, The Battle Of Marathon,  that would be published privately in 1820.  Her father greatly encouraged her writing and this resulted in one of the largest collections of juvenilia of any English writer in history.  Around this time, she and two sisters came down with a mystery illness, from which she would not fully recover, though her two sisters did.  It is unknown what the illness could have actually been, it left her with loss of mobility and in near constant pain in the head and spine.  Some have speculated that it may have, in fact, been caused from a fall while dismounting a horse, but this is unlikely, since the symptoms occurred before that (it may be that the illness caused the fall?).  For lack of any other diagnosis, she was treated, unsuccessfully for a spinal problem.  In 1837, she also developed a lung ailment, but the two diseases are thought to be have been unrelated.  For the pain, she took laudanum, and was later prescribed morphine; unfortunately she would become addicted, a problem that plagued a large portion of her adult life.  During this period of time she had become very influenced by the philosophy of Mary Wollstonecraft; she was starting to oppose slavery.  When slavery was abolished in the United Kingdom, her father suffered major financial losses; but she seems to have been unaware of this.  By the early 1840's she had already lost several key family members (not least were her mother and grandmother), when two of her brothers died.  This took it's toll on her already fragile health.  Nonetheless, she also experienced success during this time, making the transition to prose.  By 1850, she was a serious rival for poet laureate along with Tennyson, upon the death of Wordsworth.  Her published volume of poetry dating from 1844 inspired poet and playwright Robert Browning to write to her with praise.  After meeting, the two embarked on a romance that captivated the country.  The two were married in secret, as she knew her father would disapprove.  That he did, and when discovering the marriage, he disinherited her--curiously doing the same for all of his children who had dared to wed.  The couple left England for France for a honeymoon, and eventually settled in Italy.  There they enjoyed a great deal of fame and lived in comfort.  Despite her health troubles, she gave birth to a son at the age of 43 in 1849.  The couple lived in Italy until her death on 29 June 1861, she was 55 years old.  She most probably died from the lung complaint, the symptoms of which suggested tuberculosis; her reliance on opiates to ease her discomfort may have contributed to her early demise.  She is buried in an elaborate above-ground tomb in the the Protestant English Cemetery in Florence.  In regards to film, only three films, and two television episodes, have made use of her writing for source material, and two of those came in the silent era.  The first was a social commentary entitled The Cry Of The Children, which was based on poem of hers and showed the evils of child labor.  The film was controversial upon it's release for showing real children toiling in a real mill.  It is one of only very few surviving films from the Thanhouser Company and dates from 1912.  The second is Aurora Leigh from 1915 and is based on the poem of the same name. 

For More:

Wikipedia

Poets.org

Poetry Foundation

IMDb

Leave Virtual Flowers @ Find A Grave

Born Today March 5: Étienne-Jules Marey

1830-1904

French scientist and photographer Étienne-Jules Marey was born on this day in Beaune, Côte'd'Or, France.  Marey, as a scientist and doctor of physiology, was intensely interested in the human circulatory system.  This morphed into a interest in the way that musculature operated in a living human body.  His studies in this field, lead to ground breaking changes in attitude toward anatomy.  Marey was also interesting in movement of other animals, especially birds.  Before turning to photography to capture movement of subjects, he was known to produce anatomically precise sculptures of birds in flight.  He started carrying out investigations in the field in regards to bird flight in Naples, Italy (he was probably there because he was in a relationship with a married woman who had moved there from France).  His investigations there included an intense study of aquarium fish.  Like fellow French scientist P. J. C. Janssen, his interest turned to moving photography to further study his subjects.  Considerable advancements had been made in photography by the time Marey turned his attention to it though; and this resulted in his inventing what could only be described at the world's first motion picture camera--though it hardly looks like one!

The camera was built into a gun shape at first to capture the movement of birds.

The unusual camera was constructed in 1882 and was capable of capturing 12 frames of film in one second.  The apparatus was referred to as "Marey's chronophographic gun."  His use of it drew suspicion and name calling from locals in Naples; nonetheless the camera produced strips of film that accurately captured every minute details of birds on the wing.  Intrigued with this, Marey turn his attention to all sort of critters, from elephants to microscopic organisms.  The whole was often referred to as "Marey's animated zoo."  He also used the same camera techniques to further study human locomotion; everything from nude athletic running to the analysis of a golf swing.  In all, the photographic studies advanced the study of locomotion by leaps and bounds.  Marey graduated to making full fledged films that were, for the time, a very high speed:  60 images, or frames, per second. Though, again these were used as a means of conducting scientific experiments, they also inadvertently advanced cinematography.  He also invented the means be which to project these films himself.  The first true film that Marey is credited with came in 1890 with Mosquinha, which tracked the flight of a fly.  In all, he produced 4 short films and shot 3 of them in the early 1890's. The 1894 film Falling Cat, which was a study of the belief that cats always land on their feet, is believed to be the very first film to ever feature a house cat.  Marey also invented equipment that would be some of the world's first sound recording devices.  One of the last experiments of motion that Marey was involved with involved the study of smoke trails.  He was partially funded by the Smithsonian Institution  and managed to build a smoke machine with some 58 trails.  It was at the time one of the very first aerodynamic wind tunnels.  He was also involved in the experimental film from 1904 Bullet Piercing A Soap Bubble, which was shot by Lucien Bull, who used a sophisticated camera invented by Marey, known as "the wheel camera." This would be basically the last scientific experiment he was involved with.  Marey died on the 15 of May in 1904 in Paris.  Upon his death, Bull, who had become a naturalized French citizen, assumed control of The Marey Institute--founded by and named for Marey himself.

For More:

Wikipedia

National Museum Of American History

More On The Gun Camera

Victorian Cinema

Musée d'Orsay

Google Images

Born Today March 4: Jack Crawford

1847-1917

Jack Wallace Crawford was born on this date in County Donegal, Ireland.  He would come to be known as either "Captain Jack" or the "Poet Scout." His parents were both from Scotland and later immigrated with their young son to Northern Ireland.  When Crawford was only 14 the family left for America; joining members of their family that had already immigrated to Pennsylvania.  At 17, he found work in that state as a coal miner, but eventually followed his father off to war in joining the Pennsylvania Regiment volunteers during the Civil War.  Wounded, he spent time convalescing in a Philadelphia hospital where he leaned to read and write.  It is said that he may have gotten his first taste for stage performance while at the hospital In 1875, he got caught up in the shameful Black Hills Gold Rush, where he later joined up into a militia like group calling itself the "Black Hills Rangers."  During this time, he worked as a journalist briefly, and got involved with local politics.  This is how he got started in westward expansion "security"--it was the beginning of his work as an army scout that would later lead him to serve under General George Crook's 5th Calvary Regiment.  Before long he was fighting in the so-called Great Sioux War (alternatively called the "Black Hills War").  This eventually lead to his being present when Great Chief American Horse's village was attacked by the U.S. Calvary (this was after the Battle of the Little Bighorn).  Eventually American Horse surrendered after being gravely wounded.  Despite field surgeon's trying to save his life, he died within 24 hours.  Crawford continued in the service of the army and continue to fight against Natives, even becoming famous as one of the "old scouts." But later in life, he expressed regret for much of the activities he had participated in; though he shared the same condescending attitude about "Indian assimilation" that was a product of it's time.  During his later service with the Army, he came to be acquainted with Col. "Buffalo" Bill Cody.  He would eventually become a performer in Cody's Wild West Show, staging stories of his adventures and composing and reciting poetry.  He reportedly possessed great talent at stage performance, routinely keeping his audience thoroughly entertained for more than 2 hours.  He was also an accomplished writer, publishing 4 books of poetry and numerous short stories, as well as copyrighting 4 plays.  He did continue to work off and on for the government.  In regards to early film, he appeared in the early feature length film in 1915 entitled The Battle Cry Of Peace (which is a lost film).  Also that same year, his writing was used to produce a short western called The Corporal's Daughter.  For some reason, he decided that he didn't want to stay in the western territories and moved back east onto Long Island as an elderly man.  He died in Woodhaven on the 27th of February 1917, just a few days shy of his 70th birthday--his cause of death was the kidney disorder known then as Bright's Disease.  He is buried in Cypress Hill National Cemetery (plot 7575) in Brooklyn, New York.

For More:

Wikipedia

Cowboy Poetry

IMDb

Leave Virtual Flowers @ Find A Grave

Born Today March 3: Sanford Faulkner (Not So Silent Edition)

1806-1874

Sandford C. "Sandy" Faulkner (first name sometimes spelled "Sanford") was born on this day in Scott County, Kentucky.  He was an iconic figure in the early statehood of Arkansas.  His earliest childhood history is shrouded in mystery, due in part to his birth on what was then the frontier.  Some sources have even suggested that his first name was actually "Sanderson" and that the "C." in his middle name stood for "Clinton," but evidence doesn't support these claims (for example, the census and his own grave marker).  His family must have been wealthy, because they were able to establish two plantations on the western side of the Mississippi, and was said, for a time at least, to owed the largest number of slaves in the territory.  Faulkner joined the Confederate army via the Arkansas Militia during the Civil War; this lead to him later in life to be known as "Colonel Faulkner," though he never actually attained that rank.  He got involved the territorial and state politics, though not very successfully.  He was also a bank president at one point.  What he was known for was as a lively teller of tall tales and as an avid fiddler.  It is for his fiddle composition and tale entitled "The Arkansas Traveler" that he is known for today. It is this tune that has been used in various films over the decades.  The first of these came in 1927 in a partial sound film:  Uncle Tom's Cabin starring Margarita Fischer (it would be her last film). The music and sound effects were provided by MovieTone.  The first full mono film to use the tune, came in 1931 with the animated short And The Green Grass Grew All Around.  The first full length feature film to have the music as part of it's soundtrack dates from 1932, in the Barbara Stanwyck vehicle The Purchase Price, directed by William Wellman.  The most recent use of the tune came in 2013 with the Civil War reenactment documentary film The Battle of Pea Ridge.  Faulkner died in his home in Little Rock on August 4th at the age of 68.  He is buried in Little Rock's Mount Holly Cemetery.

For More:

IMDb

Encyclopedia Of Arkansas

Wikipedia

Leave Virtual Flowers @ Find A Grave