Questions and Answers

The year was 1934. FDR was in the second year of his first term as President.  The top movie of the year was “It Happened One Night” with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. And the theater and opera world were agog about FOUR SAINTS IN THREE ACTS!

The agogism wasn’t because the opera’s title was a lie, as there were more than four saints and more than three acts in the piece. Neither was the music by a not too well-known composer, Virgil Thomson,  particularly revolutionary.  Yes, it had an all-black cast, a first for an opera or theater work on Broadway (this was pre-Porgy and Bess), but what raised eyebrows and caused agogamania was the libretto by Gertrude Stein, that little read, but very much in the public eye, personality and transplanted American from “artsy-fartsy Paris!”

a few of the original Four Saints, standing, not marching, at this point

Why with lyrics from one of its most well-known refrains, why wouldn’t there be Steinmania across America?

“Pigeons on the grass alas.
  Pigeons on the grass alas.
  Short longer grass short longer longer shorter yellow grass. Pigeons

large pigeons on the shorter longer yellow grass alas pigeons on the
grass.
  If they were not pigeons what were they.”

When Gertrude’s editor for the book version of the opera, Saxe Commins at Random House, raised questions about the libretto, she turned to him, stared him in the eyes and said “My dear, you simply don’t understand!”

Now, almost 80 years later, an exciting, new version of  FOUR SAINTS, Gertrude Stein SAINTS!,  comes to New York in a few weeks to the La MaMa Theatre, the  historic off-off Broadway theater (it’s where the musical HAIR was created and performed in 1968), as part of this year’s New York International Fringe Festival.

These SAINTS! are marching in to the beat of a different drummer in more ways than one!

“Oh Lord I want to be in that number…!”

Here’s a bit of history and background:

“Our initial investigation into Stein’s work began with an all-male production of Four Saints in Three Acts at Carnegie Mellon University in February of 2013. Stein’s libretto offers no plot, no characters, and no conflict; it is a non-narrative text that can best be described as linguistic gymnastics.  In all this absence, anything becomes possible and what we have discovered is a Theatre of Joy. The response to the original production was overwhelmingly positive and became an invitation for more. We have since added an all-female Saints and Singing, also featuring an original musical score inspired by American music created by insanely talented performers. The two works are combined to create Gertrude Stein SAINTS!, a powerhouse that explores gender, a theatre that replaces conflict with joy, and America.”

Under the guidance of director Michelle Sutherland, this production has also tapped in to the 21st century’s answer to the patronage of the Medicis or the generosity of the Rockefellers, Guggenheims, or Fords, by raising funds through kickstarter.com. The goal of the 21 day campaign is $9,000, of which more than two-thirds has been pledged and there is one week to go!

Lorenzo de Medici looking like a saint. Right?!

Be a part of this! Haven’t you always wanted to be a Medici or Rockefeller? And if you’re in or near New York City next month, get your tickets soon.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/1345434627/gertrude-stein-saints

If they were not pigeons, what were they? My dear,  SAINTS!, of course! Now you understand!

Sorry about the lack of GertrudeandAliciana, but something will hit this page soon.

In the meantime, enjoy these posters which have nothing to do with GertrudeandAlice.

Till soon, your friend in GertrudeandAlice!

The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas was published 80 years ago this fall.  What better way to celebrate this anniversary and Alice’s birthday on April 30th (Happy 136 !),  than with another autobiography, but not just any autobiography would do and it hasn’t!

The 1933 Autobiography:
“Bedtime, Pussy?”

Just a few weeks ago THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DANIEL J. ISENGART by Filip Noterdaeme was published by Outpost19. Honoring the style of Stein’s faux-biography, Noterdaeme writes about his partner and their life together.  They are the new expats, one from Belgium, one from Germany, and their Paris is Brooklyn, New York City, the Hamptons and beyond.

But who are FilipandDaniel, the GertrudeandAlice of the 21^st century, whose book ushers in the 80^th anniversary year of THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY?

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There are certain people, both real or imaginary, who will always remain children in our memory.

From Peter Pan and his followers in Neverland, to Christopher Robin dragging Winnie the Pooh behind him, to the precocious rascals of the Our Gang comedies and the Depression-era tap dancing and ever-smiling Shirley Temple, these young ‘uns are ageless!

The ageless Peter Pan

A bumpy ride for Mr. Pooh.

All together now rascals!

Miss Temple tapping the blues away!

I’m adding to this menagerie of Shangrila cuties, Arthur Anderson Peters, who wrote under the name Fritz Peters.  Fritz would have turned 100 years old today.

Fritz at the age he was in Gertrude and Alice and Fritz and Tom

It was the wonderful chapter in his memoir, BOYHOOD WITH GURDJIEFF, which inspired me to write my picture book GERTRUDE AND ALICE AND FRITZ AND TOM.  I just couldn’t resist retelling the story of two young boys, Fritz and his brother Tom, reveling under the tutelage of GertrudeandAlice in 1920s Paris.  (Woody Allen, there’s a Paris sequel for you!)  And Fritz’s quote about his years at the boarding school outside of Paris helped to make the decision to do the book even easier:

 “I have never forgotten that winter.  The long evenings of reading and study in our warm rooms [and] looking forward to my visits to Paris with Gertrude and Alice.”

On his 100^th birthday, I pay tribute to Fritz Peters, a tribute that is long overdue.

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Just a timely, mini- post:

“Come and say what prints all day. A whole few watermelon. There is no pope.”-Gertrude Stein, TENDER BUTTONS (1914)

Some big Pradamelon shoes to fill:

It was Tom Hachtman who called to my attention that this year’s Super Bowl was really a Gertrude Stein Super Bowl because it’s her 139^th birthday  on February 3rd. Also this year’s two football teams, the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens, have ties to GertrudeandAlice.

In reality it is either a “GertrudeandAlice vs. Gertrude Super Bowl” as both ladies lived in San Francisco, Gertrude for only a couple of years after leaving the there of Oakland and then spending a few years in Baltimore before heading to Europe.  Or an “Alice vs. Gertrude Super Bowl” if we don’t want to count Gertrude’s few years  in Frisco (sorry!) and give more weight to the Baltimore Steins.  But then, if we factor in the birthday, maybe Alice will forfeit her involvement and allow it to be solely a Gertrude Stein Super Bowl!

“Gimme a 4 !” “4 !” “Gimme a 9 !” “9 !” “Gimme a small e !” “Small e !” Gimme a small r !” “Small r !” (Tom Hachtman, 2013)

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As another year ends, I, as many of you, will exclaim “Another year? What a year!”

All years have their ups and downs and this one was no different.

Events on the world stage were as crazy and heart-breaking as ever .  And I often wonder as years like 1929 or 1941 or  1962 came to a end, whether the despair of events of those years overwhelmed the joys that must also have entered people’s lives.

Two major links to GertrudeandAlice left us this year: Julian Stein, Jr. and Robert Lescher.

Those of you who have been following my posts have been introduced to Julian, Gertrude’s cousin, through the excerpts that I’ve featured from his memoirs.  (There are more to follow in the new year, I promise.) Julian will be remembered for a long, long time by all of those who knew and loved him.

The unforgettable Julian Stein, Jr.

Robert Lescher was a major figure in the New York publishing scene for 60 years working with such writers as Robert Frost, MFK Fisher and Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Literary mentor Robert Lescher

He traveled to Paris in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s to work with Alice on writing her memoir, WHAT IS REMEMBERED.

Alice had begun work on the book with Max White, whom Gertrude had praised as one of America’s young, up-and-coming writers in the late 1940s. For a number of months he met with Alice at rue Christine, taking notes as she related her life with Gertrude to him.

Portrait of Max White by Alice Neel

However, at one point he stormed out of a visit , notes in hand since , as he later put it, he did not believe Alice was telling him the truth and he wanted nothing to do with such a book.  He destroyed the notes and it was up to Robert Lescher to again begin the process as her publisher eagerly awaited the manuscript. The book was finally published in 1963.  I had a chance to meet with him twice in NYC and enjoyed his recollections of time with Alice.

So, as we all wrap up the last week of 2012 and gird ourselves for the ups and downs of 2013, my card to all of you this year features you know who,  with four-legged you know who the second and a few collaged items to make it all festive!  In her lap, Alice proudly displays her fruitcake which was one of the things that she relished making at the end of WWII.  The recipe is in her cookbook and ends with preparing icing  though she insists that that is “gilding the lily!”

With all good wishes to all….

HRG

Turkey

Feathers. A plate.

To gobble is to wobble.

Gaggle.

Yes, a goose.

Ouch!

And then we got stuffed.

It’s been another tough year on this planet of ours.  Mankind has been up to his usual no good at times and Mother Nature has once again proven how angry she can get, undoubtedly due to some of the no good mankind has afflicted on her.  Why shouldn’t she be upset?!

In a German children’s picture book that we grew up with, ETWAS VON DEN WURZELKINDERN (Something from the Root-Children), there is a wonderful illustration of Mother Earth preparing the root-children for the coming of winter.  Now this is the way it should be!

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Eleven.Eleven.Eleven.

“Ill get you my pretty, and your little dog too!”

11.11.11.  The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. That’s today.  It was the day and time in 1918 that World War I – you know the war that was to end all wars (Right!)-ended.  It was formerly know as Armistice Day, but was changed to Veteran’s Day because it was easier to spell and WW I did not end all wars.

11/11/18 Wall Street, NYC

11/11/11 last year is also the official day that Tom Hachtman and I decided would be the publication date of our book GERTRUDE and ALICE and FRITZ and TOM.  We liked the way it sounded and considering all of the alliteration in the book seemed right. By the way, have heard from Tom and there is lots of post-Sandy cleanup in his home in Point Pleasant Beach, NJ.

Now one year after the publishing of our book on 11/11/12 some thoughts about the book on its first anniversary.

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