#QueerQuote: “A Woman Is Like a Tea Bag – You Can’t Tell How Strong She Is Until You Put Her in Hot Water”. – Eleanor Roosevelt

By Stephen Rutledge on October 11, 2021 5:05 am

Eleanor Roosevelt, Hyde Park, 1920, Photo: Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Site In their 13th year as a couple, Eleanor Roosevelt (1983-1962) discovered, from letters her husband Franklin D. Roosevelt had left lying around, that he was having an … [Read more...]

#BornThisDay: Dancer / Choreographer / Director, Jerome Robbins

By Stephen Rutledge on October 11, 2021 3:03 am

Photograph from PBS American Masters via YouTube October 11, 1918: Jerome Robbins: "Dance is like life. It exists as you are flitting through it, and when it's over, it's done." There is this famous anecdote about Jerome Robbins. I first heard it when I was a high … [Read more...]

#BornThisDay: Transgressive Filmmaker, Ed Wood

By Stephen Rutledge on October 10, 2021 3:03 am

October 10, 1924– Ed Wood: "No, I’m all man. I even fought in World War II. Of course, I was wearing women’s undergarments under my uniform." Ed Wood is only really referenced by hardcore film fans, and even that group has probably only seen one of his films. Creepy … [Read more...]

#FlashBack68: “Julia” by John Lennon

By Stephen Rutledge on October 9, 2021 7:07 am

John Lennon was just 20-years-old when The Beatles played dingy clubs in Hamburg. His father was a sailor who abandoned his son shortly after his birth, as Liverpool was being bombed by those damn Nazis. Lennon's father later did time in jail for desertion, but when he got out, … [Read more...]

#BornThisDay: Composer, Camille Saint-Saëns

By Stephen Rutledge on October 9, 2021 3:03 am

October 9, 1835 – Camille Saint-Saëns: “Nothing is more difficult than talking about music: if it is a prickly business for musicians, it is almost impossible for anyone else; the strongest, subtlest minds go astray.” Camille Saint-Saëns had a special genius all … [Read more...]

#BornThisDay: Photographer, Herbert List

By Stephen Rutledge on October 8, 2021 3:03 am

Self-Portrait via YouTube screen-grab October 8, 1903 – Herbert List: “The pictures I took spontaneously, with a bliss-like sensation, as if they had long inhabited my unconscious, were often more powerful than those I had painstakingly composed. I grasped their magic as in … [Read more...]

#BornThisDay: Transgender Pioneer, Virginia Charles Prince

By Stephen Rutledge on October 7, 2021 3:03 am

Via Wikimedia Commons October 7, 1912 – Virginia Charles Prince: "The world that we live in is highly polarized and highly stereotyped into femininity and masculinity. What I would like to have you think about is the word in the middle-humanity. A man who wants to look … [Read more...]

#BornThisDay: Actor, Janet Gaynor

By Stephen Rutledge on October 6, 2021 3:03 am

Publicity Still from Sunset (1927), public domain October 6, 1906– Janet Gaynor: “I think all I really have is sincerity, That’s what has carried me through the change from silents to talkies. My voice has been criticized, brutally sometimes, and I think I’ve gotten by … [Read more...]

#WomenWeLove: Singer, Mrs. Miller

By Stephen Rutledge on October 5, 2021 5:05 am

October 5, 1907 – Mrs. Miller Charm often comes with imperfection. The Japanese call it wabi-sabi, the view centered on the acceptance of beauty that is imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. This brings me to the lovely Elva Ruby Miller, who made her debut as a Capitol Records … [Read more...]

#BornThisDay: 18th Century Transgender Spy, The Chevalière d’Eon

By Stephen Rutledge on October 5, 2021 3:03 am

Portrait by Thomas Stewart October 5, 1728 - Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée d'Éon de Beaumont, The Chevalièr d’Eon In 1762, The Chevalière d’Eon left France as a diplomat, a spy in King Louis XV’s service, a captain in cavalry, and a man. When he … [Read more...]