The ‘Rain Girl’ in November
07 Thursday Nov 2019
Posted in Anniversaries, Jeanne Eagels, Theatre
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As noted in the Playbill Vault, Jeanne Eagels began her legendary Broadway run as Sadie Thompson, “a prostitute at odds with a jungle missionary in Rain, primarily based on a W. Somerset Maugham quick story,” on this day, November 7, in 1922. We’re now just three years away from its centenary. Continue reading
Swansea Celebrates ‘Dear Christine’ in Art and Poetry
15 Tuesday Oct 2019
Posted in Art and Photography, Poetry, Profumo Affair
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Caroline Coon, Christine Keeler, Dear Christine, Elysium Gallery, Pauline Boty, Poetry, Profumo Affair, Swansea, Wales
Dear Christine: A Tribute to Christine Keeler continues its run at the Elysium Gallery in Swansea with an evening of poetry this Saturday, as curator Fionn Wilson told Wales Art Review recently. An artist panel discussion will follow on October 26, and the exhibition will be on show until November 9. (If you can’t make it, Dear Christine will move to London next February.) Continue reading
‘Dear Christine’ Opens in Swansea
07 Monday Oct 2019
Posted in Art and Photography, Profumo Affair
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Dear Christine: A Tribute to Christine Keeler is now on display at Elysium Gallery in Swansea, open from Tuesdays to Sundays at 12pm until November 9, with a series of associated events. (Shown above is ‘Welcome to the Sixties’ by Cathy Lomax.) Continue reading
Marilyn, the Morning Star and Me
03 Thursday Oct 2019
Posted in History, Marilyn Monroe, Politics, Updates, Writing
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I’m proud to have a letter published in the British newspaper, The Morning Star, today. I have written to newspapers three times in my life, and all were about Marilyn Monroe (she is, perhaps, the subject about whom I feel most qualified to share my views in public.) Continue reading
Christine Keeler’s ‘Secrets and Lies’ Redux
24 Tuesday Sep 2019
Posted in Books, History, Non-Fiction, Profumo Affair
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Christine Keeler, Dennis F. Evans, Desmond Banks, Douglas Thompson, Eugene Ivanov, Gisela Winegard, Jeremy Hutchinson, John Profumo, Lucky Gordon, Mandy Rice-Davies, Profumo Affair, Secrets and Lies, Seymour Platt, Thomas Grant
“I never met Christine Keeler,” Seymour Platt writes in his foreword to the latest edition of her memoirs, Secrets and Lies: The Trials of Christine Keeler. (This is a paperback reissue of her 2012 book, itself an update to her 2001 autobiography, The Truth At Last.) His mother changed her name, he explains, “to get away from being Christine Keeler. In our house Christine Keeler was talked about in the third person – who would want to be associated with Christine Keeler? Christine Keeler would get the blame for a lot of things that happened. Friends, family, relationships that soured, all that would be Christine Keeler’s fault.” Continue reading
‘The Best Way to Forget, Until You Find Something You Want to Remember’
16 Monday Sep 2019
Posted in Art and Photography, Jeanne Eagels
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'The Best Way to Forget Until You Find Something You Want to Remember', Amy Winehouse, Bette Davis, Christine Keeler, Cob Gallery, If You Don't Want My Peaches (You Better Stop Shaking the Tree), Jean Harlow, Jeanne Eagels, Kim Novak, Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, Nina Mae Fowler, Rita Hayworth, The Letter
Nina Mae Fowler is a British artist who trained at the University of Brighton, and lives in Norfolk. Her latest solo exhibition, If You Don’t Want My Peaches (You’d Better Stop Shaking the Tree), on display at London’s Cob Gallery until September 28, borrows its title from an Irving Berlin song, and draws heavily on the iconography of Hollywood’s golden age. I was delighted to find Jeanne Eagels among the subjects, as she is often neglected. This portrait shows Jeanne in her penultimate movie (and only surviving talkie), The Letter (1929.) Continue reading
Brighton Shows Love (and Pride) for Marilyn
06 Tuesday Aug 2019
Posted in Art and Photography, Brighton, Marilyn Monroe, Politics
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Brighton, Brighton Pride, broken//hartist, Graffiti, LGBTQ+, Marilyn Monroe, Public Art, Richard Avedon, Sad Marilyn, Street Art, The Postman
Brighton Pride is the biggest event of its kind in the UK, and one of the most popular worldwide. This weekend, a rainbow ribbon of graffiti streamed across my hometown – including this mural at the old Methodist Church on 88 London Road. Created by The Postman and broken//hartist, after Richard Avedon’s 1957 photograph, widely known as ‘Sad Marilyn‘ – all the more touching as this Pride weekend coincided with the 57th anniversary of Marilyn’s passing, and she will always be loved by our LGBTQ+ community.
Some Kind Of Mirror: Creating Marilyn Monroe
04 Sunday Aug 2019
Posted in Books, Film, Marilyn Monroe, Non-Fiction
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All About Eve, Amanda Konkle, Audrey Hepburn, Billy Wilder, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Bus Stop, Clash By Night, Don't Bother To Knock, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, George Axelrod, How to Marry a Millionaire, Jack Cole, Jayne Mansfield, Kim Stanley, Let's Make Love, Love Happy, Lucille Ball, Marilyn Monroe, Method Acting, Monkey Business, Niagara, O. Henry's Full House, Some Kind of Mirror: Creating Marilyn Monroe, Some Like It Hot, The Asphalt Jungle, The Misfits, The Prince And The Showgirl, The Seven Year Itch, We're Not Married
In 1954, Marilyn Monroe was rehearsing ‘Do It Again’ as part of her show for U.S. troops in Korea, when the officer in charge of her tour deemed the Gershwin standard “too suggestive,” and insisted she change the title to ‘Kiss Me Again.’ “People had a habit of looking at me as if I were some kind of mirror instead of as a person,” she remarked in her memoir, My Story. “They didn’t see me, they saw their own lewd thoughts.” Her comment inspired the title (and epigraph) for a new book, Some Kind of Mirror: Creating Marilyn Monroe by Amanda Konkle, assistant professor of literature and film studies at Georgia Southern University. Continue reading
Read All About ‘Dear Christine’ in ART NORTH
18 Tuesday Jun 2019
Posted in Art and Photography, Profumo Affair, Wicked Baby
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1960s, Amadeo Modigliani, Art North, Charlotte Rampling, Christine Keeler, Dear Christine, Denning Report, Fionn Wilson, Flamingo Club, Ian McKay, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Julie Burchill, Julie Christie, Newcastle, Profumo Affair, Sexual Revolution, Stephen Ward, Swinging London, The Boy Looked At Christine, Vane Gallery, Wicked Baby, William Hogarth
‘Christine Reads the Denning Report’ by Fionn Wilson (2017)
Dear Christine: A Tribute to Christine Keeler, on display at Newcastle’s Vane Gallery until June 29 (and then touring), is featured on the ART NORTH website today, with an article by Julie Burchill (as quoted below) and ‘The Boy Looked At Christine,’ a review by Ian McKay. So if you’re in Newcastle this month, don’t miss this stunning (and free) exhibit – and you can check out the associated events here. Continue reading
‘Madame X’ is a Birthday Girl
14 Friday Jun 2019
Posted in Books, Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, Music, Updates
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In my 35+ years of fandom, this is the first time a Madonna album has dropped on my birthday – and it’s a masterpiece! As well as the delectable Madame X, I also got a copy of Marilyn Monroe In Spain, a wonderful book by the artist, author and museum owner, Frederic Cabanas … “Saludos a todos mis amigos!”
