Thursday, July 29, 2010

What Is A Jive Turkey And The Chicken Waddle


What is a jive turkey?
I worked with a guy from Pakistan. When he came to the U.S.A. and to Washington, D.C. he enrolled in a class at Armstrong High School to learn English. Armstrong was 99 to 100 per cent Afro-American. The guy from Pakistan told me he didnt understand what a jive turkey was. He asked the teacher, "I know what a turkey is but what is this jive turkey? They explained it to him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_turkey
And now the term Jive Turkey has taken on new meaning.
http://www.thejiveturkey.com/

Jive turkey is also a quick step dance in Germany in the 1930s. It is also known as the chicken waddle.

Last Of The Mobile Hotshots By Gore Vidal And Tennessee Williams


Click on the picture above to enlarge it.
I think I was one of the very few people that ever saw this strange movie.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064574/

I saw this movie in New York City shortly after it was released. I never saw it again at any theater. I think it was a complete box office bust.
It is a film adaptation by Gore Vidal of Tennessee Williams play the Seven Descents of Myrtle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Descents_of_Myrtle

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Tennessee Williams Grandfather W.E. Dakin Performed The Marriage Ceremony Of William Faulkner's Wife Estelle's First Marriage In 1918


Click on the link below to read about the Mississippi Quarterly.
http://www.missq.msstate.edu/
Click and double click if necessary on these pages to enlarge and read them.



This is not the entire article. I just posted the first three pages of the article up to the point that mentions W.E.Dakin performing the marriage of Estelle Oldham to Cornell Franklin in Oxford,Miss. in 1918.

I think this is a rare connection between William Faulkner and Tennessee Williams. In 1918 Tennessee Williams was 7 years old.He was living with his family and his grandfather and grandmother in Clarksdale,Mississippi. His grandfather W.E. Dakin was minister of the Episcopal Church in Clarksdale, Miss. William Faulkner was 21 years old in 1918 and was away from Oxford at the time Estelle Oldham(his future wife)married Cornell Franklin in Oxford, Miss. in 1918. W.E. Dakin(Tennessee's grandfather)performed the wedding.

I found this out just recently reading an article in the Mississippi Quarterly. See page 597 above. For some unknown reason the authors of this article did not mention that W.E. Dakin was the grandfather of Tennessee Williams. Maybe they did not know that or just missed the connection somehow.
I have never read of this connection in any of the biographies of Faulkner or Tennessee Williams that I have read.

Even though Tennessee Williams was born in Columbus,Miss. he lived longer in Clarksdale,Mississippi as a child.

There are many places and people from Clarksdale that Tennessee Williams made use of in writing his stories and plays. See links below.
http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20091015/ENTERTAINMENT/910159937

http://www.coahomacc.edu/twilliams/sites.html

According to the link below Tennessee Williams and his family left Clarksdale in 1918 and moved to Saint Louis, Missouri.
http://www.southernliterarytrail.org/columbus-ms.html

Monday, July 26, 2010

Black Bear On Skyline Drive Shenandoah National Park Virginia 7-25-2010




Click on these pictures to enlarge them. Photos by Rachel.



We went back to Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park yesterday and saw this black bear as we were leaving the park. It was out by the road. A man walking nearby signaled for us to stop and look. Another car came and we signaled for them to stop. The bear looked to be an adolescent. It had long legs and big ears. It turned around to walk off. It had very large testicles as big as baseballs.

We had just listened to a Park Ranger at Skyland give a very informative talk about Black Bears. 70 years ago when the park was created there were no black bears in that area and very few deer. The trees had been cut for farming but once the park was created the trees grew back over the years since the 1930s and the bears and deer have returned and are now very numerous.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Old John D. MacDonald Travis McGee Paperbacks




The three above are hardcover. All the ones below are old Travis McGee paperbacks.
Click on the pictures to enlarge them.
























The Travis McGee Series


1964 The Deep Blue Good-By
1964 Nightmare In Pink
1964 A Purple Place For Dying
1964 The Quick Red Fox
1965 A Deadly Shade of Gold
1965 Bright Orange for the Shroud
1966 Darker than Amber
1966 One Fearful Yellow Eye
1968 Pale Gray for Guilt
1969 The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper
1969 Dress Her in Indigo
1970 The Long Lavender Look
1972 A Tan and Sandy Silence
1973 The Scarlet Ruse
1974 The Turquoise Lament
1975 The Dreadful Lemon Sky
1978 The Empty Copper Sea
1980 The Green Ripper
1981 Free Fall in Crimson
1982 Cinnamon Skin
1985 The Lonely Silver Rain

Saturday, July 24, 2010

15 Old Signet Paperback Books From The 1950's Including Jack Kerouac,Truman Capote,Ralph Ellison,Paul Bowles,William Bradford Huie,And James Avati Art


Click on all these pictures to enlarge them. The book by Ralph Ellison, the book by Richard Wright, and the James Cain book are the three with the James Avati art.















Click on the name James Avati in the label box below to read more of my posts about him.