LES AMATEURS DE HOCKEY DE QUÉBEC EXCITÉS PAR LA RENAISSANCE DES JETS !

Les amateurs de hockey de Québec sont excités par la renaissance des Jets de Winnipeg. Ils partagent un peu la fièvre qui atteint les mordus de la nouvelle équipe manitobaine. Les Jets, ce sont nos vieux frères de l'ancienne AMH. Winnipeg c'est un petit marché comme celui de la vieille capitale. Leur ré-admission dans la NHL est un bon présage pour le retour des Nordiques. Celui-ci pourrait survenir dans deux ans, alors que le nouveau Colisée sera en construction. Les "Nords" pourraient jouer dans le vieux Colisée durant une couple d'années mais je pense que Bettman sera réticent à ce qu'ils jouent plus qu'un an à cet endroit. Certes, le maire de Québec, Régis Labeaume, aura un petit pincement au coeur en voyant sa ville être devancée par Winnipeg pour l'obtention d'une franchise de hockey de la grande ligue. Mais le responsable du retour du hockey professionnel à Winnipeg, Mark Chipman, a travaillé pendant sept ans avant d'atteindre son objectif. Québec est en retard et elle n'a pas eu le même support de l'entreprise privée que les nouveaux Jets. Je continue à déplorer le manque d'implication de gens comme la famille Desmarais, dont le patriarche coule des jours heureux dans Charlevoix, pas très loin de Québec, ou d'un milliardaire comme Guy Laliberté, dont la carrière incroyable a commencé dans la ville de Champlain. Bon... enfin, à leur place j'aurais investi dans le projet du nouveau Colisée, la condition sine qua non pour le retour des Nordiques, ... mais malheureusement, je ne suis justement pas à leur place...

Les nouveaux Jets renaissent donc de leurs cendres contre les CHaudrons de MortYial aujourd'hui. Les anciens Thrashers ne sont pas mauvais. Ils ont bien fait l'an dernier avant de s'écrouler en deuxième moitié de saison. Ils sont jeunes et il n'y a pas beaucoup de profondeur en attaque dans leur alignement. Ils ont un bon gardien en Ondrej Pavelec, et un assez bon mélange de défenseurs offensifs et défensifs. Ils leur manquent surtout un bon deuxième joueur de centre. Si jamais la recrue de dix-huit ans Mike Scheifele (photo) leur donne un bon coup de main à cette position, ça aiderait beaucoup. Le jeune homme a ébloui tout le monde au camp d'entraînement en finissant en tête des marqueurs de son club avec huit points en cinq parties. Il sera très nerveux aujourd'hui à son baptême de feu dans la LNH. Les fans des Jets l'adorent déjà. J'ai hâte de le voir à l'oeuvre même si la pression l'empêchera peut-être de vraiment montrer son talent. C'est certain que l'enthousiasme délirant de la foule va aider les nouveaux Jets à remporter quelques victoires de plus.

Quant aux CHieux, on va voir s'ils vont encore s'écraser comme lorsqu'ils ont senti la soupe chaude à Toronto l'autre jour. Price et Cammalleri sont affaiblis par la grippe et la défensive ne compte qu'un seul homme valable, Gorges, qui revient quand même d'une grave blessure l'an passé. Spacek est fini, Gill est très limité dans ce qu'il peut faire, Emelin et Diaz sont nouveaux dans la Ligue et Subban est une gaffe sur patins. En avant, ça patine la queue entre les jambes et tout le monde semble mêlé et pas très conscient du rôle qu'ils ont à jouer. Jacques Martin n'a plus Kirk Muller pour diriger et motiver sa troupe de flancs mous... J'ai l'impresssion que Dumbo "les grandes oreilles" s'ennuie déjà à mourir de son assistant parti sous d'autres cieux...

CHieux 5, JETS 1.

Avant le premier match de ses protégés contre le Cacanadien de Mourial, l'entraîneur des Jets Claude Noël confiait que son plus grand défi était de calmer ses joueurs pour qu'ils gardent leur concentration en restant "cool". Le but était de faire en sorte que leur préparation pour la rencontre ne soit pas affectée par toute cette agitation et ces distractions entourant la renaissance de l'équipe de Winnipeg. Calmes, les ex-Thrashers d'Atlanta l'ont peut-être été trop ! Ils n'ont pu canaliser l'énergie que leur donnait la foule en délire. Sans chercher d'excuses pour leur performance décevante, il faut dire que les Jets étaient inactifs depuis neuf jours, soit depuis la fin des matchs hors-concours. L'anxiété de la longue attente, la pression de gagner pour faire plaisir à leurs nouveaux partisans, et ce, dans un milieu encore peu familier pour eux, a semblé saper leur énergie. Le défenseur Johnny Oduya semblait avoir la tête ailleurs en commettant deux revirements qui ont lancé les CHaudrons en avant 2-0. Et après le seul but des Jets, qui aurait pu les relancer, Byfuglien a écopé d'une pénalité très douteuse (non méritée) qui a fait basculer à nouveau le momentum en faveur du torCHon. Même s'il a encore été assailli devant sa cage, Scary Price a tenu bon alors que son vis-à-vis Pavelec n'a rien cassé, comme le reste de ses coéquipiers...

Tout de même, on a eu quelques bons moments dans cet affrontement. Subban a été hué dans les premières minutes de la partie. Sa réputation de "honte du hockey" l'a précédée à Winnipeg. Et il s'est vite fait de nouveaux ennemis en riant dans la face de certains joueurs de l'équipe locale qui voulaient le confronter. Pauvre Piqué ! Dire qu'avant le début de la saison, Jacques Martin et d'autres CHieux vantaient sa nouvelle maturité ! Mon oeil ! Le seul marqueur dangereux de la CHiasse, Mike Cammalleri a été coupé à une jambe et devrait manquer une couple de semaines. Excellent ! Quant à la blessure de Spacek (ci-dessus), on ne peut s'en réjouir autant car le 6 du Caca est tellement mauvais que ses bévues nous manqueront... On devra patienter encore une autre semaine avant de voir la Guenille affronter de bons clubs. Car après Toronto et Winnipeg, Calgary et Colorado ne peuvent pas non plus être considérés comme des adversaires redoutables. On parlait d'un calendrier avantageux pour les CHieux ?

Sarah Grand and The New Woman

While reading Tasha Alexander’s magnificent new mystery A Crimson Warning, I came across a name I had never heard before, that of novelist Sarah Grand. Alexander’s heroine, Lady Emily Hargreaves is notorious for her taste in literature that was deemed unhealthy for women. As soon as I read the name, I had to know more about her. Her name is almost forgotten; yet one hundred years ago she was regarded as a woman of genius.  Today you won't find many of her books in the library, nor is she studied much in literature courses compared to the big guns of Victorian literature, Henry James, Anthony Trollope or Thomas Hardy. However, during her lifetime Sarah Grand was known for her radical ideas, daring style, and aggressive wit. She was also credited with coining the phrase, “The New Woman.”


Sarah was born Frances Elizabeth Bellenden Clarke in Ireland, on June 10 1854. Her parents were English; her father was a coastguard commander who lived in a spacious mansion called Rosebank on the town’s Millisle Road. After her father’s death in 1861 when she was 7, her mother moved the family to England where she was enrolled in the Royal Naval School in Twickenham. She was expelled after a year for expressing what were considered radical attitudes and religious skepticism. Instead, she finished up her education at a finishing school in London.

It was marriage to army surgeon David McFall which really began to shape Sarah’s future life. Sarah was sixteen (fairly young by Victorian standards) and her new husband was 23 years her senior. David already had two sons from a previous marriage and their new stepmother was only six years older than her eldest step-son. The couple later had a son of their own named David, who later became an actor. The family travelled widely in the Far East and for a time Sarah enjoyed the glamour and excitement, not to mention the freedom of life abroad. However, after returning to England, Sarah quickly became disillusioned with her now domineering husband. Now retired, he spent his time drinking and consorting with what one would call lewd women.

Sarah turned to writing to cope with her unhappy marriage; she had already published several short stories in children’s magazines, but now she took up writing full-time. She started writing her first novel Ideala in 1881. The novel told the story of a woman who, after making a bad marriage, must decide whether to leave her husband for another man or embrace a feminist philosophy that requires her to sacrifice personal relationships for the good of other women. She published the book anonymously in 1888 with her own money and the proceeds gave her enough money to leave her husband and start a new life. She renamed herself Madame Sarah Grand, and quickly adopted unconventional dress and ideas. In her writing, she publicly attacked double standards in marriage, she also believed that women had a responsibility to other women, and that literature had the capacity to change people’s lives. According to Wikipedia, Grand also argued in favor of women’s education, and that women should have the responsibility of choosing mates with whom they might produce strong, well-educated children in order for the British nation to grow stronger.

Her next book, The Heavenly Twins, took a long time to publish. The fact that it dealt with “taboo” subject matter including venereal disease scared off many publishers. Sarah was told, amongst other things, to bury the manuscript deep in her back garden! However, despite being rejected by over 30 publishers, in 1893 the book was published. Immediately, The Heavenly Twins was a sensation. The Times and other journals refused to review the book but it didn’t matter. The book was a huge best seller, it sold over 140, 000 copies in England and America and had to be reprinted eight times during its first year of publication. Her autobiographical novel, Beth Book:  A study in the Life of a Woman of Genius (love the title!) sold 20,000 copies in its first week.

Her success opened many doors. Sarah embarked upon a lecture tour which attracted thousands of people, particularly in the United States. George Bernard Shaw (who made a career writing plays about the ‘New Woman’), Thomas Hardy and Mark Twain were among her many admirers. Critics however focused more on her broken marriage and prickly personality than her writing abilities. And not everyone was an admirer. The writer Frank Harris called her ‘aboriginal’ rather than “original” and insisted that “She was unfit to be received by decent people.”

Tired of the attacks, Sarah stopped writing for ten years, from 1898 to 1908. Instead she moved to Tunbridge Wells in Kent, focusing her attention on the National Union of Women’s Suffrage and other causes. When she took up the pen again, her later novels were not as successful as her first. The ‘New Woman,’ had become part of the lexicon and a host of new writers including Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Kate Chopin, and Elinor Glyn among others had come onto the scene. In 1920 she moved to Bath and was for several years Lady Mayoress alongside Mayor Cedric Chivers.

Sarah Grand died at her home at The Grange on May 12, 1943 and was buried in Lansdown Cemetary in Bath.

LES LEAFS BARDASSENT LE CH EN MASSE : BELLE COLLECTION DE "GREATEST HITS"

Wow ! Belle entrée en matière pour le CH à Toronto hier ! Bousculés à souhait, les schtroumfs revolaient partout sous les coups des robustes joueurs des Leafs. Du hockey comme on l'aime ! À un moment donné, le réseau Bull Shit (RBS) a montré bout à bout les mises en échec des bleus contre les p'tits cacanadiens. Ouf ! Impressionnant ! Ils se sont fait rentrer dedans pas à peu près ! Belle collection de "greatest hits" que j'aurais aimé vous faire visionner ici, mais que je n'ai pas trouvé sur le web... Komisarek, en particulier, s'est fait plaisir en plantant plusieurs membres de son ancienne équipe... Même le pauvre Scary Price s'est fait bulldozé à quelques reprises sans que les mauviettes chargées de le protéger ne lèvent le petit doigt pour faire leur job... Subban a encore été piqué des vers (ou pourri, si vous préférez) en reprenant ses gaffes défensives là où il les avait laissé lors de l'élimination de son club par les Bruins, le printemps passé. Merci P.K. pour tes deux bévues qui ont conduit aux buts de Toronto !

Et Pierre Houde, le descripteur de match névrosé des Habs, qui se désolait en fin de partie de ce que le Caca allait manquer les super étoiles Chris Campoli et Blair Betts, tous deux blessés... Comme si ces deux de pique pouvaient faire une différence pour les CHieux ! Attachez-le celui-là ! il ne finira pas la saison derrière son micro ! Pendant ce temps-là, le coach Ron Wilson était privé de deux joueurs de son premier trio (MacArthur suspendu et Connolly blessé)... Gelés en première période par les présentations d'avant-match, les Leafs se sont réveillés en deuxième et ils ont fait mal paraître les CHaudrons. Les nouveaux venus Erik Cole, Chris Campoli et Raphael Diaz n'ont impressionné personne ! Cole a manqué un filet ouvert en première. Il semblait transporter un piano sur ses épaules. Lent, perdu, visiblement en déclin... Comme c'est toujours le cas quand les lutins du CH "entendent frapper", ils sont allés se cacher comme des souris surprises par l'arrivée du chat. Oui, quand le jeu devient viril, les CHickens du CH prennent leur trou.

S'ils ont trouvé que la pression exercée par les Leafs était grande hier, les petits Canailliens n'ont rien vu à comparer à ce qui les attend dimanche à Winnipeg ! La renaissance des Jets créera un tsunami qui emportera la troupe peu courageuse de Dumbo Martin. Un Martin qui, en passant, n'en revenait pas du tout de la punition qu'a écopé son club en 2e période quand le CH avait déjà un joueur au cachot. Personnellement, je n'avais jamais vu ça ! Hier, j'écrivais que le CH avait toujours le tour de nous surprendre en commettant des bourdes inédites. Tout indique que les anti-habs seront encore bien servis cette saison. Ça promet ! En rentrant au vestiaire, la tête basse, à la fin de la game hier soir, le tricolore était bleu (corps couverts de bleus après avoir reçu des coups) blanc (de peur) et rouge de honte... Ha ! Ha ! Ha !

LE CH EN 2011-12 : ENTRE DOUTEUX ET AFFREUX !

Au début de l'année, après s'être hissé au premier rang des blogues indépendants de sports au Québec (selon le répertoire de blogues TOUT LE MONDE EN BLOGUE), CH comme dans torCHon a fait l'objet de plaintes de fefans du CH (frustrés, dérangés et outrés) auprès de son diffuseur officiel (Blogger). S'en est suivi un avertissement qui empêche maintenant les visiteurs du site d'y accéder directement. Une sorte de censure déguisée... Pour contourner cet inconvénient agaçant, j'ai déménagé mes pénates ici, sur CH comme dans CHaudrons, qui devient ainsi la nouvelle adresse pour les amateurs de hockey désireux d'exprimer leurs opinions anti-habs. On sait qu'ailleurs sur le web, sur les sites pro-habs, les avis contraires à ceux de la majorité écrasante des fefans, sont censurés ou non publiés, la plupart du temps. Une injustice et un mépris que je veux essayer de contrer en ouvrant ici mes textes à quiconque est intéressé à les discuter, y compris les mordus du torCHon, s'ils sont assez braves pour tenter l'expérience. Donc, bienvenue à tous ! Et nous voilà repartis pour une autre saison des CHaudrons au cours de laquelle nous nous bidonnerons sans doute autant, sinon plus, que durant les deux ans que nous avons passé ensemble sur CH comme dans torCHon. Chaque année, les Habs et leurs fefans nous réservent des surprises dans l'art de faire des bêtises et des conneries dont eux-seuls ont le secret. C'est avec impatience que nous les attendons dans le détour. Il faut bien en rire... et aussi souvent que possible. C'est ma devise !

Rire, par exemple, de Pédé Subban qui, non content de faire l'unanimité contre lui parmi les joueurs des autres clubs de la LNH, continue de se mettre à dos ses propres coéquipiers ! Le dernier en ligne étant Max Pacioretty, qu'il a failli blesser en sortant le genou contre lui lors d'un récent entraînement. Nul doute que Piqué nous réserve encore une tonne de stupidités qui nous ferons nous tenir les côtes à force de rire de lui. D'autres cancres CHieux qui risquent d'attirer nos sarcasmes : Scott Gomez, le spécialiste dans l'art de faire damner les fefans; Erik Cole (ci-dessus), un autre restant de table aussi fragile que surpayé, qui va s'ennuyer énormément de Eric Staal (son magnifique joueur de centre avec les Hurricanes) sans qui il a très mal paru lors de son bref séjour à Edmonton il y a une couple d'années; Mike Cammalleri, l'hypocrite visage à deux faces qui va encore parler dans le dos de ses coéquipiers cette saison; Brian Gionta, le diminutif capitaine du Caca, qui va poursuivre son chemin sur la pente descendante et va continuer de se faire planter par ses adversaires; Andrei Kostitsyn qui va "redoubler d'efforts" pour... se traîner les pieds dans l'espoir d'être échangé enfin, afin de fuir le bagne des fefans qu'il est écoeuré d'avoir sur le dos, et pour ne plus voir la face de cochon de son coach Jacques Dumbo Martin; Travis Moen, l'impotent jambon du torCHon qui vient d'apprendre en tremblant, que celui qu'il a frappé par derrière l'an passé (le jeune défenseur Erik Gudbranson) s'est taillé un poste chez les Panthers de la Floride; David Desharnais, le plus minuscule joueur de hockey professionnel au monde à évoluer sur une "checking line" (assez ridicule merci !); Blair Betts, un autre rejet d'un club qui voulait se débarrasser de ses épaules finies et de son coup de patin...inexistant; Andrei Markov, l'indécrottable paraplégique multi-millionnaire du hockey qui n'est plus qu'à une mise en échec près de la retraite définitive; Jaroslav Spacek, dont même une équipe de ligne D- Allemande ne voudrait pas; Hal Gill, la tortue handicapée sur patins; Peter Budaj, le nouveau porte-serviette de Scary Price, Chris Campoli, le dernier des comédiens engagés par le CanaCHien, qui, à Québec, samedi passé, a vainement simulé une commotion cérébrale pour que Ryan Malone du Lightning soit suspendu, etc.

La tragi-comédie 2011-12 de la CHiasse, commence ce soir à Toronto. Malheureusement pour eux, les Maple Leafs ressemblent pas mal à leurs rivaux moronréalaids. L'entraîneur des bleus Ron Wilson, avec son menton en l'air et son arrogance naturelle, ferait un excellent pilote à Mourial, le bidonville des têtes enflées et des prétentieux, qui pètent plus haut que le trou mais n'obtiennent jamais de résultats satisfaisants dans leurs projets. Il ne reste plus que trois joueurs qui étaient en place avant l'arrivée du DG Brian Burke, il y a presque trois ans. Beaucoup de changements ont été apportés à la formation des Leafs, ce qui fait que, d'une année à l'autre, les nouveaux ont peu de temps pour s'intégrer à l'équipe et jouer avec cohésion. Ce qui explique possiblement les très mauvais débuts de saison des dernières années. De plus, ces nouveaux joueurs sont, comme ceux des CHaudrons, assez frêles et vulnérables aux blessures. Pour remédier un peu à cette situation, les Leafs (comme le CH avec Betts) a fait l'acquisition de David Steckel des Devils, afin d'ajouter un peu de boeuf dans l'alignement. Steckel mesure 6' 5" sur 215 lbs et il frappe solidement. Parlez-en à Sidney Crosby, qui lui doit sa fameuse commotion, lors de la Winter Classic au début de l'année. En sa présence, les petits CHickens de Morial vont patiner les fesses serrées, ce soir. Tout comme les Canailliens comptent sur Price pour accéder aux séries éliminatoires, les espoirs des Leafs reposeront en très grande partie sur leur jeune cerbère James Reimer (ci-dessus), qui a très bien fait en seconde moitié de saison en 2010-11. Burke a raté son coup dans la loterie Brad Richards (qui a préféré les Rangers) et il a dû se rabattre sur Tim Connolly, une béquille, qui est d'ailleurs déjà blessé et qui n'est pas certain de participer à la rencontre de ce soir. Le jeune Nazem Kadri, blessé à un genou, manquera aussi la partie, tout comme Clarke MacArthur qui, lui, est suspendu. Grabovski a reçu un lancer sur un pied lors de la dernière partie hors-concours et il ne sera certes pas rétabli à 100%. Même chose pour le centre Matthew Lombardi, à peine remis d'une grave blessure qui l'a mis au rancart pendant toute la saison dernière. Restent Kessel, Kulemin et Liles pour la mettre (la rondelle) dedans. Hummmm... pas fort ! Souhaitons que l'adrénaline coule dans les veines des Leafs en cette ouverture locale, et que Reimer se dresse comme un mur face aux tire-pois du Caca. À cause de leur attaque anémique, les pauvres CHieux perdent plus souvent qu'à leur tour contre un bon gardien de buts... Et, qui sait, Price reprendra peut-être sa bonne habitude d'allouer un ou deux mauvais buts par partie, comme il y a deux ans... Un qui devra aussi se réveiller c'est Komisarek (ci-dessous) qui, après deux ans de misère, a épuisé complètement la patience des partisans des Leafs, dont plusieurs rêvent de lui arracher la tête !

Les fefans m'accusent souvent d'être de mauvaise foi quand je descends leur club de schtroumfs. Ils ne m'accordent aucune crédibilité. Et bien, je leur écrirai alors par le biais d'un expert du réseau NBC Sports, James O'Brien. Ce dernier, un analyste impartial, a fait des prévisions pour la saison qui commence. Il qualifie la défensive CHicolore en la situant entre un état «douteux et affreux» ! L'offensive du CH selon son verdict ? Médiocre ! Point de salut pour les CHieux sans une performance sans reproche de Price, qui d'après lui, devra en faire encore plus puisque sa défensive est pire que l'an passé (on n'a pas remplacé Hamrlik et Markov avec des joueurs de qualité). Le problème, c'est que Price a établi un record du CH la saison dernière en jouant dans 72 games. Il ne peut en faire plus ! J'ai lu tous les pronostics de O'Brien au sujet des trente formations du circuit Bettman. Dans un seul cas, celui du club des Molson bien entendu, il parle d'un calendrier facile et avantageux. Tiens, tiens, une autre remarque que les anti-habs font fréquemment ! Y a pas seulement nous-autres qui soulèvent cette question donc ! Au nom de tous les anti-habs, je souhaite la pire des saison aux CHaudrons !

Je vais possiblement écrire des commentaires entre les périodes ce soir, sur mon site JOURNAL INTIME D'UN ANTI-HABS EN FEU... Libre à vous d'envoyer des messages...

Scandalous Women on Film - The Conspirator

Cast:

James McAvoy as Frederick Aiken
Robin Wright as Mary Surratt
Evan Rachel Wood as Anna Surratt
John Simmons as John Surratt.
Toby Kebbell as John Wilkes Booth
Tom Wilkinson as Reverdy Johnson,
Norman Reedus as Lewis Payne
Kevin Kline as Edwin Stanton, Lincoln’s secretary of war.
Danny Huston as Joseph Holt, the prosecuting attorney.
Stephen Root as John W. Lloyd
Jonathan Groff as Louis Weichmann
Colm Meaney as Maj. Gen. David Hunter

Synopsis:

In the wake of Abraham Lincoln's assassination, eight people are arrested and charged with conspiring to kill the President, Vice President, and Secretary of State. The lone woman charged, Mary Surratt (Robin Wright) owns a boarding house where John Wilkes Booth (Toby Kebbell) and others met and planned the simultaneous attacks. Against the ominous back-drop of post-Civil War Washington, Senator Reverdy Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) who was supposed to defend Mary asks his colleague, the newly-minted lawyer Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy), a 27-year-old Union war hero, to take over as counsel.  Because he is a Southerner from Maryland, he feels that the jury will be automatically prejudiced against her.  Aiken reluctantly agrees to defend Surratt before a military tribunal.

Aiken is at first very reluctant to take the case and believes his client is guilty. However, he uncovers evidence casting doubt on the allegations and conducts a spirited defense. He realizes his client is being used as bait and a hostage in order to capture the only conspirator to have escaped a massive manhunt, her own son, John Surratt (Johnny Simmons). As the nation turns against her, Surratt is forced to rely on Aiken to uncover the truth and save her life.

My thoughts:  I had planned on seeing this film when it came out this past Spring but somehow never made it to the movie theatre, so I was quite happy to find out that my local library had a copy. I had written about Mary Surratt a few years ago, and I was eager to see how the story was dramatized. The film, directed by Robert Redford, is not really about Mary Surratt.  The film is more an indictment against the power of the Presidency and the War department who are trying Mary and her fellow consipirators in a military tribunal instead of criminal court.  Their reasoning is because the nation is still at war but really they want revenge for the death of President Lincoln, and are willing to ride roughshod over the civil liberties of the defendents to do so.

The film is also about Aiken's loss of innocence.  He initially believes that Mary is flat out guilty, and while he's sure that she was somehow involved in the conspiracy, he's appalled at how the law is being twisted and perverted. The audience watches as he grows from a green attorney into a more confident one as the trial progresses and he tries to do what little he can to save his client from a fate he now feels that she does not deserve. He also has to deal with the consequences of defending an unpopular defendent while the nation is still mourning.  It's not clear in the film that Surratt and the conspirators are actually tried a year after Lincoln's death.  The film makes it seem as if the trial takes place soon after Lincoln is buried (FYI, I stand corrected by Anonymous.  The film is correct on the timeline. Surratt and her co-consipirators were hung in July of 1865). Unfortunately, at least for this viewer, I found the documentary on the Special Features disc more compelling than this film. The film in the end is nothing more than a Civil War Courtroom drama, although anyone who knows history knows how it ends. Robin Wright is required to do no more than look stoic in her widow's weeds, and James McAvoy is full of righteous indignation at the knowledge that his client is being railroaded primarily in the hopes that her son will step forward and turn himself in to save his mother.

For a moment, I thought the film was going to create some sort of love triangle between Aiken, his sweetheart (played by Alexis Bledell as Rory from Gilmore Girls in a hoopskirt) and Anna Surratt (played Evan Rachel Wood).  Thank god, Redford and the screenwriters didn't throw that Hollywood cliche into the mix. I think I would have thrown something at the screen at that point. The film could have benefited if we had actually seen a little bit of the conspirators say conspiring. The audience gets a little hint in flashbacks, and Mary Surratt does admit that she knew that her son and John Wilkes-Booth were planning on attempting to kidnap the President.  Lucky for her, there is such a thing as attorney-client privilege.  It's hard to feel sympathy for Mary, although it is clear that her role in the conspiracy was minor, she was no more than an accessory like Samuel Mudd, who ended up with a prison sentence instead of being hanged for his role in hiding Booth and giving him medical attention, although he was the one who introduced John Surratt to Booth.

The irony in all this, is that the one person, who should hanged for his role in the conspiracy ended up getting off due to a mis-trial, that person being John Surratt. If the point of the film was to change people's minds about capital punishment, I'm not sure it was successful.  Those who oppose capital punishment will surely point to this film as an example of why capital punishment does not work, those for it will say the conspirators got what they deserved.

Still, it was interesting to see a big budget historical film that doesn't star Keira Knightley!

Texas Guinan – Queen of the Night Clubs

“Hello Suckers!” was the regular greeting of the tall, leggy, blonde dripping jewels as the demimonde of New York society crowded into the smoky speakeasy, rubbing shoulders with the criminal class. In the 1920’s Texas Guinan ruled the night, the undisputed Queen of the Night Clubs. A wisecracking, besequined, outrageous dame, who became an exuberant symbol of the Roaring Twenties, as well known as Babe Ruth, Charlie Chaplin and Lucky Lindy. She was extravagant and frivolous, with a heart as large as the state she hailed from. Notorious for her ability to slither through the cracks on nuisance charges, Tex was the best known and loved hostess on the Great White Way, the Toast of Times Square. She was a bundle of contradictions: a good “bad woman” who hung out with gangsters and illegal booze, but who still lived at home with her parents who she supported to the end of her life. She was also a loyal friend who never forgot the people who helped her on the way up, a lover of antiques, and a voracious reader who read a book a day.

Texas was shameless in her quest for publicity during her career. She was one of the first celebrities to endorse a weight-loss product, and during her nightclub years, she once staged her own suicide to just to promote a new club. During her years in the spotlight, she fed a gullible press tall tales about a youth spent riding broncos on a 50,000 acre ranch, running off with a Wild West Show, and entertaining the troops during World War I earning herself a medal from the French, all of it pure bunkum. But Texas never let the truth get in the way of a good story. As far as she was concerned, as long as they were talking about her, who cares what they said? Not that the truth was any less boring.

They say that everything is larger in Texas and Mary Louise Cecilia Guinan was proof of that. She was born in Waco, Texas in 1884, and educated in Catholic schools. Waco was not the dusty cow town that Tex portrayed in her memoirs. Not only did it have electric lights but a little soft drink called Dr. Pepper put the town on the map the year after she was born. From childhood, she was a tomboy, more prone to playing pranks then playing with dolls. An exhibitionist, she delighted in thumbing her nose at the conventions of the day, walking through the red light district, telling her friends where babies came from. Her father Mike was risk taker, concocting shaky business deals. There were years of fortune in the Guinan household and years of poverty. Texas learned from an early age that a man couldn’t be relied on for support.

Texas started acting at the age of sixteen, and after a brief detour into marriage, she made the move to the Big Apple in 1906. It was love at first sight. Although Texas had only a modest talent as a singer and a dancer, she made up for it with sheer chutzpah. She quickly found work in a few Broadway musicals, where she became known for her acerbic wit, but she spent most of her time touring the country in various vaudeville shows. While she didn’t spend time in the trenches in World War I, she did do time in Hollywood, starring “The Gun Woman” and “Fuel of Life” becoming the first female Western star. She eventually made 36 mostly B-movies, although she later inflated that number to 300. Although she never married again, Texas had several beaux over the years. She preferred however to remain independent. “It’s having the same man around the house all the time that ruins matrimony,” she once wisecracked.

Prohibition was the apex of Texas’ career as it was for the various mobsters who saw the 18th amendment as a chance to make some serious dough, bootlegging liquor from Canada and Europe. Despite the law, people weren’t about to stop drinking. By 1922, Tex was looking for a new career, tired as she put it of “kissing horses in horse operas.” One night, she showed up a party at the Beaux Arts Café on West 40th Street, a high class joint where anyone who was anyone was there. The party was desperately dull so someone asked Texas to sing. She willingly obliged. “First thing you know we were all doing things. Everybody had a great time.” Getting people to “do things,” soon became her life’s work.

Soon she was lured away to work at the King Cole Room at the Knickerbocker Hotel on 42nd Street. The King Cole room was seriously swanky; celebrities such as Rudolph Valentino, and John Barrymore were known to frequent the hotel. But Texas didn’t just want to be the hostess with the mostest, she wanted a cut of the action and that is what she got when she hooked up with Larry Fay, an ex-cabbie turned nightclub owner with serious mob connections. Fay hired her at the El Fay Club on West 45th Street, where she presided from a ringside table, cracking wise with performers and customers. Fay gave her a cut of the profits, hired a sexy chorus line, and allowed her free rein. Texas now had a setting that she liked. Her years in the theatre and films stood her in good stead, she knew how to entertain an audience, how to make them laugh. She was the life of the party, the ringmaster, emptying the wallets of her customers without even trying. Her secret was the best booze, the sexiest chorus girls (including a young Ruby Keeler and the future playwright and congresswoman Clare Booth Luce), and her penchant for skewering her customers with her wit, and making them like it. Ironically for someone who spent most of her time cajoling customers to pay as much as $25 for a fifth of Scotch, she never touched a drop of alcohol herself.

Customers flocked to the El Fay and her other clubs, not just the hoi polloi, but millionaires and mobsters rubbed elbows with politicians and athletes, well-heeled Wall Streets and college co-eds vied to get in to empty their wallets into Fay and Guinan’s pockets. Gossip columnist such as Walter Winchell, Ed Sullivan and Mark Hellinger came with pencils poised to dig the dirt for hungry tabloid readers. Several newspapers kept a standing table at the club, with a reporter on deck every night. Her club was said to be a news source as essential as the courthouse or the city jail.

Wrapped in ermine, armed with a clapper and a police whistle, Texas held court night after night, insulting her customers and making them love it. “Hello sucker,” became a common phrase as did her introduction as a performer walked on the stage, “Give the lil’ girl a great big hand.” On another night, an inebriated customer allegedly began handing out $50 bills. When Texas asked what he did to be able to throw money around, he replied that he was in dairy produce. Without missing a beat, Texas exhorted the audience to “Give a big hand for the big butter and egg man.” Playwright George S. Kaufman lifted her line to use as the title of his play “The Butter and Egg Man.”

The money poured in, in one 10 month period Texas and Fay netted something like $700,000 which is over $6M in today’s money. While it seems like a great deal money, Fay and Texas were also paying bribes to cops and other law enforcement officials. That didn’t keep them from raiding the place. But even getting arrested seemed to bolster her reputation. She made front page news every time. “I like your cute little jail,” she cooed after a night in the West 30th Street joint, “I don’t’ know when my jewels have seemed so safe.” Inevitably Texas was released. As soon as one club closed, Texas and Fay opened another one. They opened the Texas Guinan Club on West 48th, when police padlocked that one, they simply moved back to the El Fay Club space.

Texas finally went out on her own, opening the 300 Club on West 54th Street. Fay was not happy about losing his meal ticket, of course he threatened her, but Texas had a powerful new friend in her corner, gangster Owney Madden. She hired some goons, and bought a heavily armored car. Fay wisely backed down and offered his best wishes on her future success. And a success it was, the 300 Club was a smash from the beginning. But the cops wouldn’t leave Texas alone. There was a new sheriff in town, the incorruptible U.S. Attorney Emory R. Buckner, and Texas was in the sights of Prohibition enforcement. In 1927, police raided the 300 Club. By now, Texas was used to the drill. She ordered the band to play the “Prisoner’s Song” as she was hauled off to jail. Paraphrasing one of her most famous lines, a detective quipped, “Give the little girl a big handcuff.” At the police station, Texas entertained a horde of entertainment reporters, prisoners, police and federal agents with several renditions of the “Prisoner’s Song,” during the nine hours that she was behind bars.

Long before the stock market crash in 1929 that ended the good times, Texas was going out of style. She produced a mediocre revue The Padlocks of 1927 that bombed. Trying to revive her movie career, she starred in several movies that also flopped. Texas tried her best, as she quipped “An indiscretion a day keeps the Depression away,” but it was a losing battle. In 1931, she took a troupe to France but was sent packing by the French government. It wasn’t that she was too immoral for the country that gave the world the Can-Can, the Apache Dance, and the Follies Bergeres, but in the hard economic times, she was competing with French performers for audience dollars.

Always with an eye open for publicity, she changed the name of the revue to “Too Hot for Paris,” touring the country from city to city, always on the move. Her career had no come full-circle. By 1933, the late nights and the road finally caught up to Texas Guinan. She suffered an attack of ulcerative colitis. After emergency surgery that failed, she died at the age of 49 in November of 1933 in Vancouver, Canada. On her deathbed, she said, “I would rather have a square inch of New York than all the rest of the world.”

Texas once joked that she wanted her funeral to be a nightclub wake, with a motorcycle escort, and boys singing songs on the way to the cemetery. 12,000 people showed up to her funeral, at the same funeral chapel that had held Rudolph Valentino's services. The New York Times Herald wrote “She was a master showman, and accomplished psychologist….she had the ability too, and would have been successful in any one of a dozen more conventional fields. To New York and the rest of the country Texas was a flaming leader of a period which was a lot of fun while it lasted.” Guinan was laid to rest in Calvary Cemetery, Queens, New York. A month to the day after her death Prohibition was repealed.

Sources:

Texas Guinan: Queen of the Nightclubs by Louise Berliner

Ask Stacy Schiff Anything

I was lucky enough to get to see Stacy Schiff (author of Cleopatra: A Life) interviewed by Amanda Foreman (author of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire) at the New York Public Library on Friday. Unfortunately they haven't put up the video yet but Alison at Mahalo.com sent me this video which I wanted to share with you.