Newsletter - 2021-12-17

Gladys Constance Cooper was  born today in 1888, in Lewisham, South London. She was the daughter of a journalist, and was such a beautiful child that his contacts said she should become a photographic model. This led to her deciding, very young, to be an actress, and she would not be swayed. At the age of sixteen she was acting on tour with Seymour Hicks, and getting married shortly after in 1908, to Captain Herbert John Buckmaster. They had two children together, but were divorced in 1921. In 1911 she was in Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Ernest", and soon became a fan favourite with postcards of her flying off the racks. 

In 1913 she moved into motion pictures, and soon became one of the most popular subject for magazine covers. However she was not just an actress, because in 1917 he joined up with Frank Curzon to manage the Playhouse Theatre, running it all by herself from the late 1920s, when she married again, Sir Neville Pearson, with whom she had another child, but again the marriage ended in divorce, in 1936.

The following year she married Philip Merivale, and they stayed together until he died in 1946. By this time she had acted in her first 
Hollywood film  Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940). She was never afraid to tackle anything, and can often be seen in early sci-fi television including the Twilight Zone. All her children went into show business, but they also appeared with her, on postcards. She died in 1971 of pneumonia.

at 04:35 tonight will be a new moon, the first one of Winter, and this is the month when winter truly begins up here in the Northern Hemisphere. I bet you never knew the moon had names? Well this one is the Cold Moon, for obvious reasons, but it is also known as the Long Night Moon, more about that later, and the Celts called it the Wolf Moon, which is romantically connected with the silhouette of a wolf, head raised and howling, though some may dream of werewolves. If tonight is clear, put your coat and shoes on and go out and look upwards, for if it is full, and tilted in the right position, you can often see how early man thought that it had a face or some other image. And this started the myth of the man in the moon.

We need the moon in our lives, because, rather than the sun, it is the moon that dominates our lives, affecting how long the days and seasons are, making the tides rise and fall. Strangely enough these things are not set in stone, for the moon moves, sometimes quite dramatically, and all the time it is getting further away from us, losing its power to affect our lives. One day it will be too far away to have any pull on us at all, and we do not yet really know what will happen then, but some wonder if this is what happened on those old dead planets with no signs of life or water.

The ancient Egyptians were just one of the civilizations who worshipped the Moon, giving her a God called Aah, the giver of birth and life, who wore a head-dress wihich contained a large round circular shape. The simple truth is that we cannot avoid being aware of the moon, its brightness when all else is dark, and the fact that every night it is there, though sometimes it is a different, even more awe inspiring, crescent shape. The ancients must have seen this too, and it must have been even more of a miracle in their lives. Is it any wonder that it featured in so many myths from so many cultures?

Today in 2013 was the release date of “Saving Mr. Banks” which you might have seen in the TV schedules but not realised it was the story of the real Mary Poppins, or rather the story of how the film was made by Walt Disney, as well as being a biography of the writer, and her sad childhood.

Walt Disney is played by Tom Hanks, who coincidentally is a distant relative of the man himself, and P.L. Travers is brought to life by Emma Thompson, for something else you may not realise is that the book was written by a woman. The book, or books, for it was part of a series of eight, were written in stages, the first two in from 1934 and 1935, with the follow up in 1943, then one a decade until 1982, with a final one in 1988.

The film was released in 1964 it starred Julie Andrews in the title role, with Dick Van Dyke getting second billing though he actually also played Mr. Dawes senior (now you will have to watch it again). Mr Dawes, at the time he employed Mary Poppins, was played by David Tomlinson, with Glynis Johns as his wife.

If you ask most people what they remember about the film, they would probably say the penguins, hence our card; Disney loved them, and they appeared in many other films. However P.L. Travers hated them, complaining they were too .childish for her book, and fought hard to get them removed

Today is National Robin Day, so why not see how many you can spot from your window. Almost every set of bird cards has one of the robin, for they are one of our brightest in colour, and seen by the gardener as the most affectionate birds, though the truth is they are merely there to grab the worms and insects that the gardener reveals whilst they are digging, and they are rather violent to other robins. They have an association with Christmas that you may not realise, for when the original postmen were dressed (and they were all men then, or boys) their red attire gained them the nickname of “robins”. Some say this is why the robin is so popular on cards. Let us not forget, too, that Ogden manufactured Robin Cigarettes. In tens, twenties, and fives, at one time five cost 2d. - and Robin Redbreast Flake tobacco. The packaging changed with the times, so do have a look online and see what you can discover. I dont know if either of the Robins held cards, maybe someone out there does, or would like to pen us a short article for uploading on that day? We do welcome your contributions, short or long, so dont be shy and tell us what you collect. These can happily be published anonymously, if you prefer, they are just as interesting to our readers, who by now must be getting a bit bored of hearing about things I like!

Well this week the night of the 21st of December will be the Winter Solstice, in other words, the shortest night of winter - hooray! So that night it will stay darker for longer but dont worry as there is a good thing too, for it marks the change and the start of the journey towards that glorious time when we can write and enjoy the light before anyone else is awake, and stay in the garden until 10 pm. The solstices are also affected by the moon, and our first cad is Ogden`s Boy Scouts, which shows the passage of the moon, and explains why solstices occur. The second card is Stonehenge, where the moon lines up through the structure during the solstice, which has led to it becoming a place of pilgrimage for many throughout the centuries. 

On this day in 1823, a poem, “A Visit from St Nicholas" was published in a New York Paper. It remains popular today, and I am sure you know it, for it starts “Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse”. It was anonymous, but soon it was the talk of the town.

The writer had written it a short time earlier when he was in his mid forties, but he stayed quiet., in fact, more than that, he had not even sent it in, a friend had, and the friend did not tell either. This silence was actually kept unbroken for another twenty one years, and then the writer published a small book of poems in which this work was included and claimed as his own. And the mystery was finally solved, It seems strange to think that children who had the poem read to them in their cribs on its publication were now in their twenties with children of their own by then.

Anyway the writer was Clement Clarke Moore, he had been born in 1779, and was actually a professor of Oriental and Greek Literature, plus of Divinity, at a Church Seminary in New York City. He wrote political works and was a keen contributor to local papers, and lived another twenty years, before dying quietly at his country home in Rhode Island.

His work, however, definitely lived on, and is still a popular choice for Christmas readings. And you can read it HERE 

Strangely Christmas Eve is not a public holiday in the United Kingdom. However in Christianity it is regarded as the lead up to the birth of Jesus, reportedly at Midnight. The day is supposed to be contemplation and celebration, and some believe they should not eat until the stars rise in the sky.

Many people now open a present on Christmas Eve, and it is often something that they can eat or drink at midnight, (for the allure of the midnight feast still has a pull to some of us) or in the morning, when all is quiet, and before the rest of the family are awake. Father Christmas is supposed to board his chosen mode of transport and start on his journey round the world on that day as well. The present giving aspect of Christmas Eve seems to have come down from the presents that the Three Wise Men brought to the baby in the manger, the gold, frankinsence, and myrhh, and there has been a bit of a shift here because at one time, centuries ago, the gift giving took place much earlier in the month.