Here’s the place where it was all happening… The Hurricane, “New York’s Smart Tropical Restaurant,” on the 2nd floor of the Brill Building at 49th & Broadway in the early 1940s. Would you like a menu?
This is the place where Duke Ellington and his orchestra really turned the town upside down. Duke claimed he never made any money during his record 25-week stint at the club, but the live radio broadcasts raised his national appearance fees so high, that it made up for it. This was also the beginning of the end of segregated club audiences. Here’s a view from the orchestra.
And here’s Duke Ellington, surveying his domain.
The club, owned by theatrical attorney Dave Wolper (his nephew became the later TV producer), closed after a lot of financial disputes. The legendary Brill Building is still there.
Amazingly, here’s a recording of a live radio broadcast with Duke from The Hurricane.
Here’s some film of the Duke Ellington Orchestra from 1943.
And here’s where you would have danced…
I’ll see you in my dreams… at the Tahitian Hut Bar.
Pope Benny, 84, is propped up on a riser at a mass for Latin America in St. Peter’s Basilica, marking the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12.
On December 9, 1531, an Aztec peasant named Juan Diego had a vision of Guadalupe, who asked him if he would kindly build a church in the Tepeyac desert near Mexico City. Juan told the local bishop, who wanted proof.
Guadalupe appeared to Juan again, and offered roses on a mountaintop in winter as proof, which he carried to the bishop in his apron. When he dropped the flowers, her image was on the fabric. Kinda like this toaster press.
Juan’s apron is visited by millions every year. The toaster press is available here.
Today’s Turban Tuesday is Daler Mehndi, whose 1998 Bhangra/pop song Tunak Tunak Tun is featured below.
Mehndi released the song and video after critics complained that his music’s popularity was due to the hot babes he used in his videos — so Mehndi became his own hot babe, and the song became an international cult hit and internet meme.
For those of you who play video games, “World of Warcraft” features Mehndi’s dancing in the form of a Draenei.
If you’d like to sing along, the lyrics are below the video player.
refrain: (5x)
Tunak tunak Tun
Tunak tunak Tun
Tunak tunak Tun
Da Da Da
refrain: (5x)
Tunk tunk Tun
Tunk tunk Tun
Tunk tunk Tun
Da Da Da
Dholna, vaje tumbe val taar
soode dil de pukar
Aaja karle ye pyar
(4x)
Dholna…
Sweetheart, the strings of the instrument play
listen to what the heart says
Come and love me
(4x)
Sweetheart…
refrain2: refrain (4x)
The world is a colorful place
it’s not good nor bad
(4x)
Listen friends the iktaara(1) says
Mehndi’s friends refrain (4x)
Dholna Kadeh Mere Nal Hass
Mainu Dil Valli Dass
Nahin Taan Teri Meri Bass
(4x)
Dholna…
Sweetheart, come smile with me sometimes
My heart’s keeper (lover) look
This body is not under your or my control
(4x)
Sweetheart…
refrain2
refrain2
Dholna Tu Chann Mein Chakor
Sadde Varga Na Hor
Rab Hath Saddi Dor
(4x)
Dholna…
Sweetheart, you are moon and I am Chakor(2)
there no one like us
Our threads of life is in the hands of god
(4x)
Sweetheart
refrain2
refrain2
(1): iktaara = Musical instrument with one string
(2): Chakor = A mythical bird that is supposed to look at the moon continuously like it is in love with it
Betty Deuce, as delicate as a little green elf, meets various members of the media at Buckingham Palace, regarding next year’s Diamond Jubilee, marking Betty’s 60th year on the throne.
That little bauble Betty is wearing is Queen Mary’s Emerald Brooch, a cabochon emerald surrounded by two rows of diamonds, with an emerald drop. The brooch was made from a larger piece called a “stomacher,” owned by the mother of Queen Mary, the Duchess of Teck. Styles changed and stomachers were not longer worn, so many of them were made into smaller pieces such as this one.
Turban Tuesday has been preempted to bring you this special edition — Pillbox Hat Tuesday, marking the 48th anniversary of the murder of President Kennedy.
Here’s Jack and Jackie, arriving at Love Field in Dallas on that fateful day, November 22, 1963.
Jackie’s pink suit was made in 1961 by the New York dress salon, Chez Ninon. It was a copy of a Chanel pink boucle wool suit trimmed with a navy blue collar. The pillbox hat was designed by Oleg Cassini, and outsourced to be constructed by Marita at Bergdorf Goodman.
By request of Caroline Kennedy, Jackie’s Dallas outfit won’t be on public display until 2103. It is being stored by the National Archives and Records Administration in a dark, windowless, temperature-controlled bunker at the agency’s complex in Maryland. It was never washed and is still bloodstained.
No one seems to know what became of the pillbox hat. According to a Secret Service agent, it was last known to be in the hands of Jackie’s personal secretary, Mary Barelli Gallagher, who won’t discuss it.
The red Queen, Betty Deuce, took her act to Surrey to open a new college campus there.
That little pin on her dress is a Cartier flower basket, a gift to Princess Elizabeth from King George VI and Queen Elizabeth on the birth of Prince Chuck, November 14, 1948.
Here she is with baby Chuck, the future king. She’s wearing the pin.
If a piece of New York cheesecake could talk, it would sound like Thelma Ritter, today’s Friday Face, born in Brooklyn on Valentine’s Day 1902. She would become the most beloved character actress of her day.
At age 8, Ritter was performing recitals and monologues at Brooklyn’s PS 77. After acting in high school plays and stock companies, she enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She married actor Joseph Moran in 1927, and they had two children.
She resumed her career performing in radio in 1940. In 1946, her old friend, director George Seaton, offered her a bit part in the now classic “Miracle on 34th Street,” in which Thelma would play a tired holiday shopper. Fox’s Darryl F. Zanuck was so moved by her performance, he had her role expanded — and it launched an unparalleled film career that would see 6 Oscar nominations as Best Supporting Actress. She never won.
Her first nomination was for her absolutely delicious role as the acerbic maid Birdie, opposite Bette Davis in 1950′s “All About Eve.” There isn’t a scene she’s in that she doesn’t steal.
She would earn four consecutive nominations — a feat equaled only by Jennifer Jones, Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, and Al Pacino. Greer Garson had five consecutive nominations.
In the original “Titanic” made in 1953, she portrayed the cardplaying wisecracker, Maude Young. One of her lines is delivered wistfully and has always stayed with me.
Maude: [after Richard has rejected his son Norman and refused to play in the shuffleboard match with him]
“It certainly clouded up. Well, word’ll do it faster than a hickory stick any time.”
Hitchcock fans know her from 1954′s “Rear Window,” where she plays Stella, the visiting nurse for Jimmy Stewart. She played opposite Frank Sinatra and Edward G. Robinson in “A Hole in the Head.” She got drunk with Rock Hudson in “Pillow Talk.”
Ritter played serious roles too… she was perfect as Burt Lancaster’s mother in “Birdman of Alcatraz.”
She had the gift of being able to say everything with a look.
Thelma worked steadily in television. Her daughter, Monica Moran, launched a brief film career. I can’t find any info about her son.
Here’s a clip from a Hitchcock TV show opposite another great character actress, Mary Wickes.
Nurse! This is from her work opposite Susan Hayward in “With a Song in My Heart.”
Below as Moe Williams with Richard Widmark in “Pickup on South Street.” … she was a walking Hopper painting.
Here’s Thelma in an early uncredited role, “A Letter to Three Wives,” where she plays Connie Gilchrist’s loveable neighbor with an opinion. She often played cards in her films.
Thelma Ritter died of a heart attack 10 days before her 67th birthday, shortly after performing on a Jerry Lewis TV show.
Shockingly, Thelma Ritter does not have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Howie Mandel, Nicolas Cage and the Olsen twins do.
You can write to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce here, to ask for a star for Thelma.
The marvelous, witty, earthy, darling Thelma Ritter is today’s Friday Face.
One doesn’t usually think of Lucy in a turban, but there she is.
Today is an important day in Lucille Ball history. it was on November 15, 1962 that she purchased over 300,000 of Desi’s shares of Desilu, in excess of the market price of $7.63. With over 600,000 shares, more than 52 percent of the company, she became the first female head of a major Hollywood studio. Lucy and Desi had divorced in 1960
December 2 marks the 25th anniversary of Desi’s death.
Betty Deuce looked positively chipper today on a visit to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Goodenough College in London, where she was absolutely majestic in the color of the season, cobalt blue. And just get a gander at that wacky hat!
Her Highness is also festooned with a rather special little bauble there… that dainty pin is Queen Mary’s Russian Brooch, an 1893 wedding gift to Mary from Empress Marie Feodorovna.
It’s a square cut diamond and a square cut cabochon sapphire in a scroll frame of 36 round diamonds. Let’s have a closer look, shall we?
Her Majesty, Betty Deuce, arrived to Canberra, Australia on Wednesday for a 10-day visit with various stops in kangaroo land. It’s Betty’s 16th official sojourn to Australia, and she dragged Phil along with her.
Royally resplendent in a buffed baby blue buttoned tweedy coat and one of her birthday cake hats, the 85-year-old monarch is festooned with the her usual pearl necklace and earrings and the stunning Australian Wattle Brooch…
… a gift to Betty during her 1954 Commonwealth tour, from the Government and people of Australia.
It was made by Hungarian jeweler Paul Schneller for William Drummond & Co. of Melbourne. It features many yellow diamonds, representing the Australian wattle, blue-white diamonds in the form of mimosa leaves, with a large white diamond in the center in the form of a tea tree blossom.
Betty makes a point of wearing it to Australia. Isn’t she thoughtful?
