Questions and Answers

One of the benefits of a blog is that it can be timely and even though a few posts ago I had listed upcoming things that I’d planned to write about, my recent trip to Japan got in the way.  (I began the draft of this post in our hotel in Kyoto, two days before our return, though I  verified a few facts in books I have at home before I published this.)

Leo Stein in a rakish pose

Just for fun while in Kyoto, I decided to do a Google search for “Leo Stein Japanese prints,” as I knew that Leo had an interest in this type of art.  These prints had come to the attention of Westerners as they were used to wrap Japanese porcelain which became very popular following the opening of the country in the 1860’s.  This art form also influenced the subject matter and composition of the Post-impressionists’ paintings.

Japanese print circa 1895. Is it a rose?

To my surprise (why am I still surprised at what turns up on the Internet – must be the fact I haven’t graduated to texting and tweeting and am still an old-school e mail writer!) an item appeared that is in the Stein collection at Yale – a note Leo wrote to Gertrude from Kyoto in December, 1895, giving her his address written in Japanese!

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Last November I posted a blog about the sudden death of our English Springer Spaniel Ollie and paralleled the importance of him in our lives with the role that dogs played in the lives of GertrudeandAlice.  I ended the piece anticipating a grand-nephew of Ollie’s, a new little dog who would come to know us.

Well, Fritz arrived last week Priority Parcel on American Airlines from Dallas to San Francisco.  This little fellow has already accumulated a lot of miles considering he was born in Ohio!

So here he is:

Fritz on his 3 month birthday today

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“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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