Week in Review

Movies I Watched

• The Hobbit: the Desolution of Smaug (2013) - Pretty good.  Wish there was less C.G.I., but I suppose that is a useless wish in today's movies.
• Alice in Wonderland (1951) - Great.  Gotta love Disney classics!
• Doorway to Hell (1930)
• King of the Underworld (1939)
• Frosty the Snowman (1969)
• Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (1964)
• Santa Clause is Comin' to Town (1970)
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)
• A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
• Twas the Night Before Christmas (1974)

*Christmas is Rankin Bass season.  I can't go a day without watching one of those classic specials.

Links of the Week

Letterology is a great site to find inspiration.  I especially find its posts near holidays intriguing.  So far this year there have been some great posts about Snowmen and Some Seasonal Samplings.

Nuggets of Note - December 31, 2012

Mary Pickford and Her Flower

The Daily Mirror features Flowers Names After Stars

Cecil B DeMille's Christmas Card

Some great Christmas related posts:
The 1914 Christmas Truce on Today I Found Out
Origin of NORAD Tracking Santa on Mental Floss
Very cool story about the First Christmas Recording.  It's so cool to hear a family celebrating Christmas over 100 years ago
Cecile B. DeMille's Christmas Card on Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie

Dorothy Gish of MY HERO and AN UNSEEN ENEMY

Immortal Ephemera features Movie Ads from Christmas 1912


Los Angeles Morgue Files features: Norma Talmadge, Florence Lawrence

Fleischmann's Mixer's Manual

Leave it to Letterology to come up with some great Mixology for New Year's  


Part 2 on Aldo Ray is delightful on Movie Morlocks

A gorgeous 1840s Astronomy book on BiblioOdyssey


Some cool homes on Daytonian in Manhattan include: the 1926 Scientific American Building, Wm. Barnard House, 


I wish I had received even one of these Best Movie Books of 2012 on San Francisco Silent Film Festival

Marilyn Monroe FBI Document

And of course there is the recently released FBI Files about Marilyn Monroe


Deja View has some cool initial sketches of Amelia and Abigail Gabble from the Aristocats

Artifact of the Day - WWI Red Cross Sewing Kit

WWI Red Cross Sewing Kit

A soldier's 'housewife' sewing kit for repairing cloth items in the field. The kit contains two strips of miniature American flags in addition to safety pins and cloth patches. It ties closed with cloth tape

Collections Online : mnhs.org

WWI Red Cross Sewing Kit

What a patriotic way to do a little mending.  It almost inspires me to finish my mending!  (Almost, but not quite).  I think it's so cool that something like this survived.  I imagine there was a lot of time between fighting, and not much to do, so a little mending certainly could be something to keep one busy.  I find it fascinating that there is hardly any brown cloth, and more than enough American Flags.  Armies today seems more concerned with camouflage, than country designation.  

Christmas Truce; 1914

During Christmas, when I think WWI, I always think of that magic Christmas where some laid down their arms and celebrated together.  If only we could have such a Christmas Truce today.  It's one of the reasons I love history, and it truly was humanity at its best.

Vintage Christmas Homes

1950

1935

1937

Vintage Christmas - Street Decorations

1924

It's fun to see streets change through time.  I thought I'd take a look at how Christmas decorations changed on one street through time.  These photographs are of Nicollet Avenue in nearby Minneapolis.  I wish these kinds of decorations were still put up.  My favorite photo has to be 1937.  The sunburst star is quite striking.  What a glorious drive it must have been! 

1934

1937

1938

Nuggets of Note December 17, 2012

1879 Hats

I adore Jessica's Vintage Holiday Buying Guide.  Not a thing on their I wouldn't want.  Great choices, Jessica.


Lynn at 19th Century Historical Tidbits has a great series about 1879 Hats.  Part 2 and Part 3 are now up.

Thelma Todd

Los Angeles Morgue Files has a fascinating post about Lupe Velez's suicide and Thelma Todd's death.

Hoover Ad; 1950

Reminisce Magazine has a great feature about Santa Ads from the Past.  

Geneva Hand Fluter

American Duchess is a constant inspiration.  I adore her costumes.  Her latest post is her Year in Review.  I wish I could make just one costume that looked that fabulous.  She also experiments with a Geneva Hand Fluter iron.  I always wanted to try using a vintage iron, and she makes it sound easy.

Christmas Meal for Louis XVIII

I love food history, so the Old Foodie is a must-read blog.  Rationing during WWII and some Rationing Recipes is the subject of her latest post.  She also had an interesting Christmas Meal for Louis XVIII.  


Daytonian in Manhattan features the Anson McCook Beard House.  The daughter of local legend James J. Hill lived there, so I was personally very interested. 

1933 Fortune Magazine

Letterology had some great posts this week.  My favorites were about 19th C Cold Type and Fortune Magazine.

Kemps Ice Cream ad

Neatorama sheds light on the only Christmas Song to hit #1 on the Billboard charts and some great tidbits on Frank Sinatra.

Mental Floss has a number of fantastic posts.  A few that sparked my fancy were: 12 Technological Advances of WWI, 12 Proposed Disney Attractions That Were Never Built, 12 Essential American Cartoons (I agree with the first 9), and 12 Toys From the 1980s That Didn't Take Off (I remember every one!).

History-wise in my neck of the woods, I was made aware of a fun bit of history.  The 1921 Kissing Contest winner - French actor Andre Brule.  Apparently he knew how to give the perfect kiss.

And my Christmas sentimental side has been in full force this year, thanks to Christmas specials like A Charlie Brown Christmas.  So it was fun to see what Movie Morlocks had to say about it.

On the book front, there were two exciting finds recently:  The Cardiff Library recently realized they had a book from Sir Isaac Newton's library and Hans Christian Anderson's First Fairy Tale was discovered in the Danish National Archives.

Go Retro!  has a fun post about a sex-ed video Disney put out in the 1940s.  I've never heard of this video.  The animation was great, as with most Disney cartoons.  Very sweet.  While the video would never be shown these days, all the information is still pretty accurate.  It's a fun way to learn about a not-fun topic.

Nuggets of Note - December 10, 2012

Christmas Girl from Chronically Vintage

Jessica over at Chronically Vintage has a delightful article about 25 Reasons to Smile this December.  Each reason is absolutely true and she features each reason with such wonderful vintage photographs.  I think I Pinned almost everything!  Her Flicker Favorites are great this week, too.

Book of Snowflakes; 1863

Letterology has a great post about 1863 Book of Snowflakes.  The illustrations are marvelous.

Gertie has a wonderful post about organizing her sewing room.  It has really inspired me to get my craft room in order.

Baby Peggy

Noir and Chick Flicks featured Baby Peggy, whose films were featured on TCM 12/3/2012.


Daytonian in Manhattan has a wonderful post about the Mrs Osborn Company building.  Another clothing great I'll have to research more.

306th Bomb Group

For the actor in me, Neatorama tries to find the origin of the phrase "break a leg".

Collectors Weekly has a great story about Bomber Jacket Art.  I just love the pinup and bomber art.

And who knew canoeing could be so risque?

Perm Machine; 1934

And a fun post about strange beauty practices of the past.  I have featured a few of these gizmos in my Weird Wednesday posts.  The most popular Weird Wednesday post is not a beauty post, but my post about the Kiddie Koup.

I had no idea some flappers could be so scheming.  The New York Times Review had a fascinating article about a flapper ponzi scheme.  The article also had a mini flapper dictionary at the end.

Mansion of Happiness Board Game

But then again, they ahead of their time.  It reminds me of a great article I read about the history of greedy board games, like Monopoly.  I adore vintage board games, so this post was right up my alley.

First Lady Grace Coolidge; 1923

And since December is basically cookie central in my home, this article about Girl Scout Cookie history seems timely.  I mostly give baked goods out as presents the past few years because of no job, but I love baking so it's good. I find it soothing.  If only I more room in my kitchen.

19th Century Doll House

I've always loved dolls and dollhouses, so I was really excited to see this article about a child's butcher shop dollhouse.  When I was in middle school, a project we had was to build a colonial model.  I was obsessed with Colonial Williamsburg, so I decided to build a model of its Bakery.  I still have parts of the Bakery.  I wish I would have taken better care of it.








  

Gene and Ina at Home

Gene Autry and wife Ina Mae at home

Known for her grace and intelligence, Ina Mae was married to Gene from 1932 until 1980.  Ina is the reason Gene recorded the much-loved holiday classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  Gene didn't like it, but Ina thought kids would love it.  It seemed like the perfect updated "ugly duckling" tale.  Ina was right of course, since we still listen to this holiday classic today.