by catpaw | 27 Mar, 2024
Jazz great Sarah Vaughan was born March 27, 1924, in Newark, New Jersey.
“They always ask me the same questions. Where was I born? When did I start singing? Who have I worked with? I don’t understand why they can’t just talk to me without all that question bit.” Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan
From the Music Icons series
Issued by USPS March 29, 2016
Designed by Ethel Kessler using and
original oil painting by Bart Forbes
Bart Forbes’ painting was based on a 1955 photo of Vaughan in concert by photographer Hugh Bell. The stamp came in a sheet of designed to look like a record sleeve.
by catpaw | 22 Mar, 2024
On March 22, 1895, the Lumiere brothers first film premiered at a private viewing.
Auguste et Louis Lumiere
Issued by La Poste, France, June 14, 1955
Designer: Louis Muller
Engraver: Pierre Munier
The film, Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory, was first seen by a small group of 10. The film, or actualités, ran for 1:55 min. Other films produced by the brothers were Horse Trick Riders, The Gardener, Blacksmiths, & Baby’s Breakfast. Each film followed simple, every day activates which thrilled audiences with the moving action.
Advertising poster or one of Lumiere brothers’ films courtesty the French archives.
by catpaw | 15 Mar, 2024
March 15 is the Ides of March. Beware!
Street Art – Julius Caesar by Diego Anido
Part of Spain’s Urban Art 2023 series
Issued February 23, 2023
Artist: Diego Anido
Unless you are an ancient Roman dictator, you don’t have anything to fear. The Ides simply refer to the middle of March.
The Ides of March (“Eidus Martiae” in Latin) is a day on the traditional Roman calendar that corresponds to the date of March 15th on our current calendar. Today the date is commonly associated with bad luck, a reputation that it earned at the end of the reign of the Roman emperor Julius Caesar (100–43 BCE). The Ides of March (thoughtco.com)
And this is how we separate Canadians from the rest of the world:
by catpaw | 9 Mar, 2024
On March 9, 1954, Edward R. Murrow and his team took on Senator Joseph McCarthy’s witch-hunt.
Murrow: Good evening. Tonight See it Now devotes its entire half hour to a report on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy told mainly in his own words and pictures. …
Opening for the program Edward R. Murrow, See it Now (CBS-TV, March 9, 1954) (plosin.com)
Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965), Journalist
USPS Issued Jan 21, 1994
Designer: Chris Calle
Journalist Murrow devoted an episode of his popular See it Now news show to call out McCarthy’s conspiracies and abuses of power. The show A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy used McCarthy’s own speeches and insane claims that had destroyed many lives. McCarthy was already under pressure for his botched Army hearings and the public’s wanning appetite for McCarthyism.
… [The] March 1954 See it Now Special [consisted] largely of excerpts from McCarthy’s television appearances, this broadcast and McCarthy’s televised response did much to reveal the senator’s illogical, crude, and undemocratic crusade to a general public. Murrow’s stature and analysis did the rest. Murrow’s broadcast came right in the middle of the Army – McCarthy dispute over preferential treatment for a former McCarthy aide, Gerard David Shine. Starting in late April 1964, the 36 days of televised Army – McCarthy hearings were key to three developments: McCarthy’s eventual censure by the Senate in December 1954, his loss of political power, and the public’s disenchantment with the senator after his behavior was exposed on ABC over seven weeks. Murrow at CBS, USA, 1946-1961 | The Life and Work of Edward R. Murrow – Online Exhibits (tufts.edu)
by catpaw | 7 Feb, 2024
Viola Desmond died on this date – February 7, 1965.
Nova Scotian woman who triggered a change in Canada’s segregation laws when she refused to give up her seat at the Roseland Theatre in New Glasglow, Nova Scotia. She paid to enter the theatre Nov. 8, 1946, but didn’t know she took a seat in the “white’s only” section. Management demanded she move, and after she refused, they called the police. The manager and police grabbed Ms. Desmond and dragged her from the theatre and took her to jail.
Released February 1, 2012
designer:
Lara Minja from Lime Design
She was charged with tax evasion – the white seats (on the main level) cost a penny more. Prosecution reasoned, that by paying the lesser price, she evaded the taxes on the full price.
Often called “the Rosa Parks of Canada,” in 1946 Desmond refused to leave the “whites only” section of a movie theatre in New Glasgow, N.S.
Desmond was dragged out by police and thrown in jail overnight. For the next 12 hours, she sat upright on the hard jail bench, wearing her white gloves. Desmond was fined $20 and sentenced to 30 days in prison. But she won an appeal in court on a technicality.
Her case generated so much publicity, Nova Scotia was forced to throw out its segregation laws in 1954.
Viola Desmond Heritage Minute debuts, honouring the ‘Rosa Parks of Canada’ | CBC News