July 27th, 2009 § § permalink
Sixty three years ago today Gertrude Stein died at the age of 72. Alice would live alone for another twenty one years.
Several years ago I wrote a short piece called “Alice: A Reverie, July 27, 1946.” On this anniversary of Gertrude’s death, I include it here.
GertrudeandAlice's grave, Père Lachaise Cemetery Paris
Alice: A Reverie, July 27, 1946
“Then the whole afternoon was troubled, confused and very uncertain, and later in the afternoon they took her away on a wheeled stretcher to the operating room and I never saw her again.” – the final sentence of Alice’s 1963 memoir, WHAT IS REMEMBERED
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July 20th, 2009 § § permalink
In the previous blog I wrote about well-known people who had met GertrudeandAlice. One American icon that I forgot was T.V. news great Walter Cronkite, who died last week. He met them when he was a student at the University of Texas-Austin.
COPYRIGHT HANS GALLAS ©2009
Walter Cronkite and JFK
He wrote about that meeting in the university newspaper and it was re-posted this week:
http://www.dailytexanonline.com/walter-cronkite/daily-texan-talks-great-depression-with-author-1.1775552
July 17th, 2009 § § permalink
As a boy in Springfield, Illinois, the Land of Lincoln, I recall that the aunt of a family friend once mentioned that she had met Mark Twain in San Francisco. How amazing, I thought, to know someone who had known someone who was that famous!
When it comes to GertrudeandAlice, they met lots and lots of famous people and lots and lots of not so famous people. Many of them flocked to rue de Fleurus, rue Christine and their country place near Bilignin while others got to know them on their travels.
It’s been said that there have probably been more people who have written about meeting GertrudeandAlice than have written about encounters with any other well-known 20th century personalities. They were a very sociable couple.
Who doesn’t know about some of the key players in their circle – Cézanne, Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Gris, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Pound, Wilder, and Van Vechten?
F. Scott & Zelda in the latest hairdo
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July 12th, 2009 § § permalink
“The envelope please. The Oscar for best actress in a supporting role goes to …”
Just imagine that in that great movie year 1939 – the year of “Gone with the Wind,” The Wizard of Oz,” “Stagecoach,” “Ninotchka,” “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” and “Wuthering Heights”- GertrudeandAlice had starred in a movie version of THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ALICE B. TOKLAS and the double feature at the local Bijou one-screenplex would have been Gertrude’s children’s book THE WORLD IS ROUND produced by Walt Disney!
Well, it could have happened, though it didn’t. Studio politics and World War II probably side-tracked plans.
After the success of the Autobiography, GertrudeandAlice visited Hollywood in the spring of 1935 as part of their six month criss-cross lecture tour of America. They were guests at a star-filled dinner party in Beverly Hills and Gertrude had a lively discussion about film with Charlie Chaplin who was seated next to her.
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