Frank Beacham's Journal

Helmut Newton, the German-Australian photographer, was born 100 years ago today

Helmut Newton, the German-Australian photographer, was born 100 years ago today.

Newton was a "prolific, widely imitated fashion photographer whose provocative, erotically charged black-and-white photos were a mainstay of Vogue and other publications."

Born in Berlin, Newton’s family was Jewish. He was interested in photography from the age of 12, when he purchased his first camera. He worked for the German photographer, Yva (Elsie Neulander Simon), from 1936.

The increasingly oppressive restrictions placed on Jews by the Nuremberg laws meant that his father lost control of the factory in which he manufactured buttons and buckles. He was briefly placed in a concentration camp on "Kristallnacht" in 1938, which finally compelled the family to leave Germany.

Newton's parents fled to South America. He was issued a passport just after turning 18, and left Germany in December, 1938. At Trieste, he boarded the Conte Rosso ocean liner, along with about 200 others escaping the Nazis. He intended to journey to China.

After arriving in Singapore, he found he was able to remain there, first and briefly as a photographer for the Straits Times and then as a portrait photographer.

Newton was interned by British authorities while in Singapore, and was sent to Australia on board the Queen Mary, arriving in Sydney in 1940. Internees travelled to the camp at Tatura, Victoria by train under armed guard.

He was released from internment in 1942, and briefly worked as a fruit picker in Northern Victoria. In April, 1942, he enlisted with the Australian Army and worked as a truck driver. After the war in 1945, he became a British subject and changed his name to Newton in 1946.

In 1948, he married actress, June Browne, who performed under the stage name June Brunell. She later became a successful photographer under the pseudonym, Alice Springs.

In 1946, Newton set up a studio in fashionable Flinders Lane in Melbourne and worked on fashion and theatre photography in the affluent post-war years. He shared his first joint exhibition in May, 1953 with Wolfgang Sievers, a German refugee like himself who had also served in the same company.

The exhibition of New Visions in Photography was displayed at the Federal Hotel in Collins Street and was probably the first glimpse of “New Objectivity” photography in Australia.

Newton went into partnership with Henry Talbot, a fellow German Jew who had also been interned at Tatura, and his association with the studio continued even after 1957, when he left Australia for London. The studio was renamed “Helmut Newton and Henry Talbot.”

Newton settled in Paris in 1961 and focused on work as a fashion photographer. His photos appeared in magazines including, most significantly, French Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. He established a particular style marked by erotic, stylized scenes, often with sado-masochistic and fetishistic subtexts.

A heart attack in 1970 slowed Newton's output, but his notoriety continued to increase, most notably with his 1980 "Big Nudes" series, which marked the pinnacle of his erotic-urban style, underpinned with excellent technical skills. Newton also worked in portraiture and more fantastical studies.

Newton shot a number of pictorials for Playboy, including pictorials of Nastassja Kinski and Kristine DeBell.

He was in an accident in 2004, when his car sped out of control and hit a wall in the driveway of LA’s Chateau Marmont Hotel, which had for several years served as his residence. He died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. His ashes are buried next to Marlene Dietrich at the Städtischer Friedhof III in Berlin.

Photo at the top by Volker Hinz

Woman and Dog, 1982 (for Pomellato, the Milanese jewelry brand)

Photo by Helmut Newton

Tom Paxton is 83 years old today

Tom Paxton, New York City, 2007

Photo by Frank Beacham

Tom Paxton is 83 years old today.

Paxton is a folk singer and singer-songwriter who has been writing, performing and recording music for more than fifty years. His songs have demonstrated enduring appeal, including modern standards such as "The Last Thing on My Mind,” "Bottle of Wine,” "Whose Garden Was This,” "The Marvelous Toy" and "Ramblin' Boy.”

Paxton's songs have been recorded by Pete Seeger and The Weavers, Judy Collins, Sandy Denny, Joan Baez, Doc Watson, Harry Belafonte, Peter, Paul and Mary, Marianne Faithfull, The Kingston Trio, The Chad Mitchell Trio, John Denver, Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner, Willie Nelson, Flatt & Scruggs, The Move and The Fireballs.

He has performed thousands of concerts around the world in such places as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong, Scandinavia, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland, England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada and all over the United States.

Paxton’s songs have been translated into various languages. He enjoys a strong relationship with fans throughout the world. His songs can be emotionally affective and cover a wide range of topics, from the serious and profound to the lighthearted and comical.

"What Did You Learn in School Today?" mocks the way children are often taught lies. "Jimmy Newman" is the story of a dying soldier and "My Son John" is a moving song about a soldier who comes back home and cannot even begin to describe what he has been through.

"Beau John" is a civil rights era song about taking a stand against racial injustice. "A Thousand Years" tells the chilling tale of Neo-Nazi uprising, and "Train for Auschwitz" is about the Holocaust.

"On the Road to Srebrenica" is about Bosnian Muslims who were killed in a 1995 massacre in Bosnia and Herzegovina. "The Bravest" is a song about the firefighters who gave their lives while trying to save others on September 11, 2001.

Then there are Paxton's "short shelf life songs,” which are topical songs about current events and things in the news. These songs can be lighthearted and comical, or serious depending on the situation, and they change all the time as new ones are written and old ones can reappear as things seem to have a way of cycling around in this world.

They include: "In Florida,” about the 2000 election; "Without DeLay,” a song about the former congressman; "Bobbitt,” about John and Lorena Bobbitt; "Little Bitty Gun,” which lampoons Nancy Reagan; "I'm Changing My Name to Chrysler,” about the federal loan guarantee to Chrysler in 1979 (which was rewritten in 2008 as "I Am Changing My Name to Fannie Mae" about the 700 billion dollar "bailout of the U.S. financial system"); "The Ballad of Spiro Agnew,” and "Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation" (which became "George W. Told the Nation" in 2007).

Paxton performed his officially final touring concert at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia on November 14, 2015, and has now entered "semi-retirement,” though he still performs occasional shows and did a 10 venue UK tour in 2017.

Here, Paxton sings “Bottle of Wine” in 2011

In 2015, Tom Paxton talked about the influences of The Weavers, Woody Guthrie, and the Kingston Trio, the rise of Bob Dylan and folk rock…

John Keats, the English romantic poet, was born 225 years ago today

John Keats, the English romantic poet, was born 225 years ago today.

Keats was one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantic poets along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Although his poems were not generally well received by critics during his lifetime, his reputation grew after his death.

By the end of the 19th century, he had become one of the most beloved of all English poets.

Keats had a significant influence on a diverse range of poets and writers. Jorge Luis Borges stated that his first encounter with Keats was the most significant literary experience of his life.

The poetry of Keats is characterized by sensual imagery most notably in the series of odes. Today, his poems and letters are some of the most popular and most analyzed in English literature.

Keats died of tuberculosis at the age of 25.

On this day in 1963 — 57 years ago — Bob Dylan completed the recording of The Times They Are a-Changin'

On this day in 1963 — 57 years ago — Bob Dylan completed the recording of The Times They Are a-Changin,' his third studio album.

The album was released in January, 1964 by Columbia Records. Produced by Tom Wilson, it was the singer-songwriter's first collection to feature only original compositions.

The album consists mostly of stark, sparsely-arranged ballads concerning issues such as racism, poverty and social change. The title track is one of Dylan's most famous. It captured the spirit of social and political upheaval that characterized the 1960s.

The Times They Are a-Changin' peaked at #20 on the U.S. chart, eventually going gold.

Dylan began work on the album on August 6, 1963, at Columbia's Studio A in New York City. Eight songs were recorded during that first session, but only one recording of "North Country Blues" was ultimately deemed usable and set aside as the master take.

Another session at Studio A was held the following day, this time yielding master takes for four songs: "Ballad of Hollis Brown," "With God on Our Side," "Only a Pawn in Their Game" and "Boots of Spanish Leather” — all of which were later included on the final album sequence.

A third session was held in Studio A on August 12, but nothing from this session was deemed usable. Sessions did not resume for more than two months. During the interim, Dylan toured briefly with Joan Baez, performing a number of key concerts that raised his profile in the media.

When Dylan returned to Studio A on October 23, he had six more original compositions ready for recording. Master takes for "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" and "When the Ship Comes In" were both culled from the October 23 session.

Another session was held the following day, October 24. Master takes of "The Times They Are a-Changin'" and "One Too Many Mornings" were recorded and later included in the final album sequence.

The sixth and final session for The Times They Are a-Changin' was held on October 31, 1963. The entire session focused on one song — "Restless Farewell" — whose melody is taken from an Irish-Scots folk song, "The Parting Glass," and it produced a master take that ultimately closed the album.

As Clinton Heylin wrote: "in less than six months [Dylan] had turned full circle from the protest singer who baited Paul Nelson into someone determined to write only songs that 'speak for me'... Dylan's ambitions as a writer for the page...may have been further fed at the end of December when he met renowned beat poet Allen Ginsberg, author of Howl and Kaddish."

Dylan was already familiar with Ginsberg's work. By now, beat poetry and French symbolists had become an enormous influence on Dylan's work, as Dylan "passed from immediate folk sources to a polychrome of literary styles."

In a 1985 interview, Dylan said that he didn't start writing poetry until he was out of high school: "I was eighteen or so when I discovered Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, Frank O'Hara and those guys. Then I went back and started reading the French guys, Rimbaud and François Villon."

Harry Houdini died of peritonitis in a Detroit hospital on this day in 1926 — 94 years ago

Harry Houdini, the most celebrated magician and escape artist of the 20th century, died of peritonitis in a Detroit hospital on this day in 1926 — 94 years ago.

Twelve days before, Houdini had been talking to a group of students after a lecture in Montreal when he commented on the strength of his stomach muscles and their ability to withstand hard blows.

Suddenly, one of the students punched Houdini twice in the stomach. The magician hadn't had time to prepare, and the blows ruptured his appendix.

He fell ill on the train to Detroit. After performing one last time, he was hospitalized. Doctors operated on him, but to no avail. The burst appendix poisoned his system. On October 31, Houdini died.

Houdini was born Erik Weisz in Budapest in 1874, the son of a rabbi. At a young age, he immigrated with his family to Appleton, Wisconsin, and soon demonstrated a natural acrobatic ability and an extraordinary skill at picking locks.

When he was nine, he joined a traveling circus and toured the country as a contortionist and trapeze performer. He soon was specializing in escape acts and gained fame for his reported ability to escape from any manacle. He went on his first international tour in 1900 and performed all over Europe to great acclaim.

In executing his escapes, he relied on strength, dexterity and concentration — not trickery — and was a great showman.

In 1908, Houdini began performing more dangerous and dramatic escapes. In a favorite act, he was bound and then locked in an ironbound chest that was dropped into a water tank or thrown off a boat.

In another, he was heavily bound and then suspended upside down in a glass-walled water tank. Other acts featured Houdini being hung from a skyscraper in a straitjacket, or bound and buried — without a coffin — under six feet of dirt.

In his later years, Houdini campaigned against mediums, mind readers and frauds who claimed supernatural talents but depended on tricks.

At the same time, he was deeply interested in spiritualism and made a pact with his wife and friends that the first to die was to try and communicate with the world of reality from the spirit world.

Several of these friends died, but Houdini never received a sign from them. Then, on Halloween 1926, Houdini himself passed on at the age of 52.

His wife waited for a communiqué from the spirit world but it never came. She declared the experiment a failure shortly before her death in 1943.

Houdini shown in 1912

Ethel Waters was born 124 years ago

Ethel Waters was born 124 years ago.

A blues, jazz and gospel vocalist and actress, Waters frequently performed jazz, big band and pop music on the Broadway stage and in concerts, although she began her career in the 1920s singing blues.

Her best-known recordings includes "Dinah,” "Stormy Weather,” "Taking a Chance on Love,” "Heat Wave,” "Supper Time,” "Am I Blue?" and "Cabin in the Sky,” as well as her version of the spiritual, "His Eye Is on the Sparrow.”

Waters was the second African American, after Hattie McDaniel, to be nominated for an Academy Award. Her nomination for was 1949’s, Pinky.

Waters often toured with Billy Graham on his crusades. She died on September 1, 1977 at age 80 from uterine cancer, kidney failure and other ailments in Chatsworth, California.

Waters' recording of "Stormy Weather" (1933) was honored by the Library of Congress. It was listed in the National Recording Registry in 2003.

Here, Waters sings “His Eye is On the Sparrow”

Ed Sullivan taps the Beatles after pandemonium at Heathrow Airport — 57 years ago today

In the autumn of 1963, Beatlemania was a raging epidemic in Britain, and it was rapidly spreading across the European continent.

But in the United States, where the likes of Bobby Vinton and Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs sat atop the pop charts, John, Paul, George and Ringo could have walked through Grand Central Terminal completely unnoticed.

It wasn't Grand Central that the Beatles were trying to walk through on this day in 1963 — 57 years ago today. It was Heathrow Airport, London, where they'd just returned from a hugely successful tour of Sweden.

Also at Heathrow that particular day, after a talent-scouting tour of Europe, was the American television impresario, Ed Sullivan. The pandemonium that Sullivan witnessed as he attempted to catch his flight to New York would play a pivotal role in making the British Invasion possible.

It wasn't for lack of trying that the Beatles were still unknown in the United States. Their manager, Brian Epstein, had tried and failed repeatedly to convince Capitol Records, the American arm of their British label EMI, to release the singles that had already taken Europe by storm.

Convinced that the Merseybeat sound wouldn't translate across the Atlantic, Capitol declined to release "Please Please Me," "From Me to You" and "She Loves You," allowing all three to be released on the minor American labels, Vee-Jay and Swan, and to languish on the pop charts without any promotion.

Desperate to crack the American market, John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote a song explicitly tailored to the American market and recorded it just two weeks before their fateful indirect encounter with Ed Sullivan. That song was "I Want to Hold Your Hand."

Ed Sullivan had his staff make inquiries about the Beatles following his return to the United States, and Brian Epstein arranged to travel to New York to open negotiations.

And in what surely must rank as one of the greatest one-two punches in the history of professional talent-management, Epstein convinced The Ed Sullivan Show to have the Beatles as headliners for three appearances rather than as a one-time, mid-show novelty act.

He then leveraged that contract into an agreement by Capitol Records to release "I Want To Hold Your Hand" in the United States and back it with a $40,000 promotional campaign.

As a result of the chance encounter at Heathrow, and of Brian Epstein's subsequent coup in New York, the Beatles would arrive in the United States on February 7, 1964, with a #1 record already to their credit.

The historic Ed Sullivan appearances that followed would lead to five more #1 hits in the next 12 months.

Thanks History.com

War of the Worlds scared the nation on this day in 1938 — 82 years ago today

On this day in 1938 — 82 years ago — Orson Welles caused a nationwide panic with his broadcast of "War of the Worlds" — a realistic radio dramatization of a Martian invasion of Earth.

Welles was only 23 years old when his Mercury Theater company decided to update H.G. Wells' 19th century science fiction novel, War of the Worlds, for national radio.

Despite his age, Welles had been in radio for several years, most notably as the voice of "The Shadow" in the hit mystery program of the same name.

"War of the Worlds" was not planned as a radio hoax, and Welles and his producer, John Houseman, had little idea of the havoc it would cause.

The show began on Sunday, October 30, at 8 p.m. A voice announced: "The Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations present Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater on the air in 'War of the Worlds' by H.G. Wells."

Sunday evening in 1938 was prime-time in the golden age of radio, and millions of Americans had their radios turned on. But most of these Americans were listening to ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy, Charlie McCarthy, on NBC and only turned to CBS at 8:12 p.m. after the comedy sketch ended and a little-known singer went on.

By then, the story of the Martian invasion was well underway. Welles introduced his radio play with a spoken introduction, followed by an announcer reading a weather report. Then, seemingly abandoning the storyline, the announcer took listeners to "the Meridian Room in the Hotel Park Plaza in downtown New York, where you will be entertained by the music of Ramon Raquello and his orchestra."

Putrid dance music played for some time, and then the scare began. An announcer broke in to report that "Professor Farrell of the Mount Jenning Observatory" had detected explosions on the planet Mars.

Then the dance music came back on, followed by another interruption in which listeners were informed that a large meteor had crashed into a farmer's field in Grovers Mills, New Jersey. Soon, an announcer was at the crash site describing a Martian emerging from a large metallic cylinder.

"Good heavens," he declared, "something's wriggling out of the shadow like a gray snake. Now here's another and another one and another one. They look like tentacles to me ... I can see the thing's body now. It's large, large as a bear. It glistens like wet leather. But that face, it... it ... ladies and gentlemen, it's indescribable.

“I can hardly force myself to keep looking at it, it's so awful. The eyes are black and gleam like a serpent. The mouth is kind of V-shaped with saliva dripping from its rimless lips that seem to quiver and pulsate."

The Martians mounted walking war machines and fired "heat-ray" weapons at the puny humans gathered around the crash site. They annihilated a force of 7,000 National Guardsman, and after being attacked by artillery and bombers the Martians released a poisonous gas into the air.

Soon "Martian cylinders" landed in Chicago and St. Louis. The radio play was extremely realistic, with Welles employing sophisticated sound effects and his actors doing an excellent job portraying terrified announcers and other characters.

An announcer reported that widespread panic had broken out in the vicinity of the landing sites, with thousands desperately trying to flee. In fact, that was not far from the truth.

Perhaps as many as a million radio listeners believed that a real Martian invasion was underway. Panic broke out across the country. In New Jersey, terrified civilians jammed highways seeking to escape the alien marauders.

People begged police for gas masks to save them from the toxic gas and asked electric companies to turn off the power so that the Martians wouldn't see their lights.

One woman ran into an Indianapolis church where evening services were being held and yelled, "New York has been destroyed! It's the end of the world! Go home and prepare to die!"

When news of the real-life panic leaked into the CBS studio, Welles went on the air as himself to remind listeners that it was just fiction. There were rumors that the show caused suicides, but none were ever confirmed.

The Federal Communications Commission investigated the program but found no law was broken. Networks did agree to be more cautious in their programming in the future.

Orson Welles feared that the controversy generated by "War of the Worlds" would ruin his career.

But the reverse happened. The publicity helped land him a contract with a Hollywood studio, and in 1941 he directed, wrote, produced, and starred in Citizen Kane — a movie that many have called the greatest American film ever made.

Thanks History.com

At a press conference after the "War of the Worlds" broadcast 82 years ago today, Orson Welles tells reporters he had no idea the broadcast would cause a national panic

Otis Williams, founder and last surviving member of The Temptations, is 79 years old today

Otis Williams, founder and last surviving member of The Temptations, is 79 years old today.

A baritone singer nicknamed "Big Daddy,” Williams was one of the founders of The Temptations, the famous Motown vocal group in early 1960s. The group was originally called The Elgins.

Also a sporadic songwriter and record producer, Williams is the group's only surviving original member and owner of the group’s name. He continues to perform today.

As a teenager, Williams loved music and put together a number of singing groups, among them Otis Williams and the Siberians, the El Domingoes and the Distants.

After an offer from Berry Gordy of Motown Records, Williams and his friends/bandmates Elbridge "Al" Bryant and Melvin Franklin quit the Distants. (Best friends for over thirty years, Williams and Franklin were the only two Temptations to never quit the group.)

Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams from The Primes later joined Williams, Bryant and Franklin in "The Temptations."

The Temptations eventually became the most successful act in black music over the course of its nearly five-decade existence, over which time notable singers such as David Ruffin, Dennis Edwards, former Distant Richard Street, Damon Harris, Ron Tyson, Ali-Ollie Woodson, Theo Peoples, Ray Davis and G.C. Cameron have all been members.

In fact, the group's lineup changes were so frequent, stressful and troublesome that Williams and Melvin Franklin promised each other they would never quit the group.

Franklin would remain in the group until 1994, when he became physically incapable of continuing. Franklin died on February 23, 1995, leaving Otis Williams (then 53) as the last surviving original member of the Temptations quintet.

Williams is the co-author, with Patricia Romanowski, of The Temptations, a 1988 book that served as both his autobiography and a history of the group. Ten years later, the book was adapted into a NBC television miniseries, The Temptations. Williams was portrayed by actor Charles Malik Whitfield.

Over the years, fan opinion of Williams has been mixed, with some criticizing him for what they perceive as jealous insults against his former bandmates while others defend him for simply trying to be honest about the problems that the group suffered.

Although he has served the longest tenure in the Temptations, Williams rarely sings lead, focusing instead on his role as the group's leader and organizer, and as the background "tenor in the middle.”

The Smokey Robinson and Eddie Kendrick written track, "Don't Send Me Away," from the album, The Temptations with a Lot o' Soul (1967), the intro on early group song, "Check Yourself" (1961), and the Norman Whitfield-penned tune, "I Ain't Got Nothing," from 1972's All Directions are extremely rare showcases for Williams singing lead.

Williams has provided non-singing (spoken word) contributions to some Temptation songs, including "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" (1968, a hit duet with Diana Ross and Eddie Kendricks sharing the lead vocals), and during the opening verse of "Masterpiece" (1973).

Here, Williams performs “I Ain’t Got Nothin’” on lead with the Temptations

Otis Williams with the Temptations view a video of a performance

Louis Malle, the French film director, was born 88 years ago today

Louis Malle, the French film director, was born 88 years ago today.

Also a screenwriter and producer, Malle’s film, Le Monde du silence, won the Palme d'Or and Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1956. He was also nominated multiple times for Academy Awards later in his career.

Malle worked in both French cinema and Hollywood, and he produced both French and English language films. His most famous films include Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958), Atlantic City (1981) and Au revoir, les enfants (1987).

Malle worked as the co-director and cameraman to Jacques Cousteau on the Oscar and Palme d'Or-winning (at the 1956 Academy Awards and Cannes Film Festival respectively) documentary, The Silent World (1956).

He assisted Robert Bresson on A Man Escaped (French title: Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut, 1956) before making his first feature, Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (released in the U.K. as Lift to the Scaffold and in the U.S. originally as Frantic, later as Elevator to the Gallows) in 1957.

A taut thriller featuring an original score by Miles Davis, the film made an international film star of Jeanne Moreau, at the time a leading stage actress of the state Comédie-Française. Malle was then 24 years old.

Malle's The Lovers (Les Amants, 1958), which also starred Moreau, caused major controversy due to its sexual content, leading to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case regarding the legal definition of obscenity. In Jacobellis v. Ohio, a theater owner was fined $2,500 for obscenity.

The decision was eventually reversed by the higher court, which found that the film was not obscene and hence constitutionally protected.

However, the court could not agree on the definition of "obscene," which caused Justice Potter Stewart to utter his, "I know it when I see it" opinion, perhaps the most famous single line associated with the court.

Malle is sometimes associated with the nouvelle vague — though his work does not directly fit in or correspond to the auteurist theories that apply to the work of Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol, Rohmer and others.

Though Malle had nothing whatsoever to do with Cahiers du cinéma, he did exemplify many of the characteristics of the movement, including using natural light and shooting on location. His film, Zazie dans le métro ("Zazie in the Metro," 1960, an adaptation of the Raymond Queneau novel), did inspire Truffaut to write an enthusiastic letter to Malle.

Malle later moved to the United States and continued to direct there.

His later films include Pretty Baby (1978), Atlantic City (1981), My Dinner with Andre (1981), Crackers (1984), Alamo Bay (1985), Damage (1992) and Vanya on 42nd Street (1994, an adaptation of Anton Chekhov's play Uncle Vanya) in English; Au revoir, les enfants (1987) and Milou en Mai (May Fools in the U.S., 1990) in French.

Just as his earlier films such as The Lovers helped popularize French films in the United States, My Dinner with Andre, was at the forefront of the rise of American independent cinema in the 1980s.

Malle married actress Candice Bergen in 1980. They had one child, a daughter, Chloe Francoise Malle, on November 8, 1985.

Malle died from lymphoma at age 63 in Beverly Hills, California on Thanksgiving Day, 1995.