Frank Beacham's Journal

Michael Lindsay-Hogg is 82 years old today

Michael Lindsay-Hogg is 82 years old today.

Lindsay-Hogg is a director working in film, music video, stage and television. He was born in New York City to actress Geraldine Fitzgerald, and was educated at Trinity School in New York and at Choate School in Connecticut.

Fitzgerald and her husband, Sir Edward Lindsay-Hogg, 4th Baronet (1910–1999), led him to believe that he was their natural son. However, he was later told his biological father was Orson Welles, the actor and film director.

For years, rumors about his true parentage abounded, but Lindsay-Hogg was uninterested in them. He first met Welles as a teenager, acted with him in Ireland and continued to meet with him sporadically for the rest of Welles' life.

Lindsay-Hogg's step-father was Stuart Scheftel, who married Geraldine Fitzgerald when Michael was six, after she had divorced Sir Edward. His career began directing the 1960s British pop program, Ready Steady Go!, a forerunner of MTV-type programming. This work led to an unaired television special, The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus (1968), which was finally released in 1996.

In January, 2010 came word that Lindsay-Hogg was going to take a DNA test to determine if famed American filmmaker, Orson Welles, who was friend of the family, was in fact his father. The test gave no result, as the hair from Sir Edward that was used in the test did not contain a follicle.

Confirmation of his true parentage came after Lindsay-Hogg sent a copy of his unpublished autobiography to his mother's friend, Gloria Vanderbilt, who confirmed that Welles was his father.

Lindsay-Hogg's memoir, Luck and Circumstance: A Coming of Age in Hollywood, New York, and Points Beyond, was published in the fall of 2011.

A 2015 Welles biography by Patrick McGilligan, however, reports the impossibility of Welles's paternity. McGilligan said that Fitzgerald left the U.S. for Ireland in May, 1939 and was pregnant at the time she returned in late October, while Welles did not travel overseas during that period.

Some of his notable films include Nasty Habits (film) (1977), The Sound of Murder (1982), The Object of Beauty with Andie MacDowell and John Malkovich (1991), Frankie Starlight (1995) and Waiting for Godot (2001).

In 1994, Lindsay-Hogg directed A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who, also known as Daltrey Sings Townshend. This was a two-night concert at Carnegie Hall produced by Roger Daltrey of the English rock band, The Who, in celebration of his 50th birthday. In 1994, a CD and a VHS video were issued, and in 1998 a DVD was released.

On May 19 and 20, 1966, Lindsay-Hogg directed two pairs of film clips (then known as "filmed inserts") to promote The Beatles’ single, "Paperback Writer." On September 4, 1968 at Twickenham Film Studios, Lindsay-Hogg directed the promotional film for the new single, "Hey Jude," with Paul McCartney himself designing the set. The event is also memorable as it marked Ringo Starr's return to the group after a two-week hiatus, during which he had announced that he had left the band.

The final cut was a combination of several different takes, twelve having been filmed during the entire days session, according to the actor Marc Sinden who was in the film along with his brother, Jeremy.

In 1969, Lindsay-Hogg directed the full-length documentary, Let It Be. In 2000, he directed the VH1 television movie entitled, Two of Us, named after the song of the same name, a track from The Beatles' final album, Let It Be.

The movie is a fictionalized account of April 24, 1976, (six years after the break-up of The Beatles) the day Lorne Michaels made a statement on Saturday Night Live in which he offered The Beatles $3000.00 to appear on his program. The story is told through a series of conversations between John Lennon (Jared Harris) and Paul McCartney (Aidan Quinn).

Above photo by Jonathan Becker

Joseph Campbell was born 118 years ago today

Joseph Campbell was born 118 years ago today.

A mythologist, writer and lecturer, Campbell is best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion.

His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience. His philosophy is often summarized by his phrase: "Follow your bliss."

Campbell was born and raised in White Plains, New York in an upper middle class Irish Catholic family.

As a child, Campbell became fascinated with Native American culture after his father took him to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. It was there where he saw a display of Native American artifacts.

He soon became versed in numerous aspects of Native American society, primarily in Native American mythology.

This led to Campbell's lifelong passion for myth and to his study and mapping of the cohesive threads in mythology that appeared to exist among even disparate human cultures.

In 1921, he graduated from the Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut. While at Dartmouth College, he studied biology and mathematics, but decided that he preferred the humanities.

He transferred to Columbia University, where he received his B.A. in English literature in 1925 and M.A. in Medieval literature in 1927.

At Dartmouth, he joined Delta Tau Delta. Campbell was also an accomplished athlete, receiving awards in track and field events. For a time, he was among the fastest half-mile runners in the world.

In 1924, Campbell traveled to Europe with his family. On the ship, during his return trip, he encountered Jiddu Krishnamurti. They discussed Asian philosophy, sparking in Campbell a lifelong interest in Hindu and Indian thought.

In 1927, Campbell received a fellowship provided by Columbia University to study in Europe. Campbell studied Old French, Provençal and Sanskrit at the University of Paris in France and the University of Munich in Germany.

He quickly learned to read and speak French and German, mastering them after only a few months of rigorous study. He remained fluent in these languages for the remainder of his life.

While in Europe, he was highly influenced by the period of the Lost Generation, a time of enormous intellectual and artistic innovation. Campbell often commented of this influence and that of James Joyce in particular.

It was in this climate that Campbell was also introduced to the work of Thomas Mann, who was to prove equally influential upon his life and ideas.

Also while in Europe, Campbell was introduced to modern art, becoming particularly enthusiastic about the work of Paul Klee and Pablo Picasso.

A new world of exciting ideas opened up to Campbell while studying in Europe as he became familiar with the works and writings of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung.

On his return to Columbia in 1929, Campbell expressed his desire to pursue the study of Sanskrit and Modern Art in addition to Medieval literature. Lacking faculty approval, Campbell withdrew from graduate studies.

With the arrival of the Great Depression a few weeks later, Campbell spent the next five years (1929–34) living in a rented shack on some land in Woodstock, New York.

There, he contemplated the next course of his life while engaged in intensive and rigorous independent study.

He later said that he "would divide the day into four four-hour periods, of which I would be reading in three of the four hour periods, and free one of them... I would get nine hours of sheer reading done a day. And this went on for five years straight."

Campbell traveled to California for a year (1931–32), continuing his independent studies and becoming close friends with the budding writer, John Steinbeck, and his wife, Carol.

On the Monterey Peninsula, Campbell, like Steinbeck, fell under the spell of marine biologist, Ed Ricketts (the model for "Doc" in Steinbeck's novel, Cannery Row, as well as central characters in several other novels).

Campbell lived for a while next door to Ricketts, participated in professional and social activities at his neighbor's, and accompanied him, along with Xenia and Sasha Kashevaroff, on a 1932 journey to Juneau, Alaska.

Campbell's independent studies led to his greater exploration of the ideas of the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, a contemporary and estranged colleague of Sigmund Freud.

Campbell edited the first papers from Jung's annual Eranos conferences and helped Mary Mellon found the Bollingen Foundation's Bollingen Series of books on psychology, anthropology and myth.

Many of Campbell's books would be published in this series.

In 1934, Campbell accepted a position as professor at Sarah Lawrence College (through the efforts of his former Columbia advisor, W.W. Laurence).

In 1938, Campbell married one of his former students, dancer-choreographer Jean Erdman. Erdman and Campbell did not have any children.

For most of their forty-nine years of marriage, they shared a two-room apartment in Greenwich Village in New York City. In the 1980s, they also purchased an apartment in Honolulu and divided their time between the two cities.

In 1972, Campbell retired from Sarah Lawrence College, after having taught there for 38 years.

Joseph Campbell died at his home in Honolulu, Hawaii, from complications of esophageal cancer.

Before his death, he had completed filming the series of interviews with Bill Moyers that aired the following spring as The Power of Myth.

Here, Campbell discusses what it is like becoming an adult

Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic on this day 105 years ago

On this day in 1916 — 105 years ago — a nurse opened a small storefront office in Brownsville, Brooklyn. She and her assistants handed out fliers in English, Yiddish and Italian reading, “Mothers, do not kill, do not take life, but prevent.”

The nurse was Margaret Sanger. The office, at 46 Amboy Street, was the nation’s first birth-control clinic. It served more than a hundred women on opening day.

In those days, spreading contraceptive information was a crime. Ten days later, the police raided the office, confiscated condoms and pessaries, and arrested Ms. Sanger.

She eventually served 30 days in jail, but her case paved the way for rulings that loosened restrictions on contraception.

Thanks New York Times!

On this day in 1827 — 195 years ago — a group of masked and costumed students danced through the streets of New Orleans marking the beginning of the city's famous Mardi Gras celebrations

On this day in 1827 — 195 years ago — a group of masked and costumed students danced through the streets of New Orleans marking the beginning of the city's famous Mardi Gras celebrations.

The celebration of Carnival — or the weeks between Twelfth Night on January 6 and Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Christian period of Lent — spread from Rome across Europe and later to the Americas.

Nowhere in the United States is Carnival celebrated as grandly as in New Orleans, famous for its over-the-top parades and parties for Mardi Gras (or Fat Tuesday), the last day of the Carnival season. (Except 2021, due to Covid)

Though early French settlers brought the tradition of Mardi Gras to Louisiana at the end of the 17th century, Spanish governors of the province later banned the celebrations.

After Louisiana became part of the United States in 1803, New Orleanians managed to convince the city council to lift the ban on wearing masks and partying in the streets.

The city's new Mardi Gras tradition began in 1827, when the group of students, inspired by their experiences studying in Paris, donned masks and jester costumes and staged their own Fat Tuesday festivities.

The parties grew more and more popular, and in 1833 a rich plantation owner named Bernard Xavier de Marigny de Mandeville raised money to fund an official Mardi Gras celebration.

After rowdy revelers began to get violent during the 1850s, a secret society called the Mistick Krewe of Comus staged the first large-scale, well-organized Mardi Gras parade in 1857.

Over time, hundreds of krewes formed, building elaborate and colorful floats for parades held over the two weeks leading up to Fat Tuesday.

Riders on the floats are usually local citizens who toss "throws" at passersby, including metal coins, stuffed toys or those now-infamous strands of beads.

Though many tourists mistakenly believe Bourbon Street and the historic French Quarter are the heart of Mardi Gras festivities, none of the major parades have been allowed to enter the area since 1979 because of its narrow streets.

In February, 2006, New Orleans held its Mardi Gras celebrations despite the fact that Hurricane Katrina had devastated much of the city with massive flooding the previous August.

Attendance was at only 60-70 percent of the 300,000 — 400,000 visitors who usually attend Mardi Gras, but the celebration marked an important step in the recovery of the city, which counts on hospitality and tourism as its single largest industry. 

Thanks History.com

Malcolm X, African American nationalist and religious leader, was assassinated 56 years ago today in New York City

Malcolm X, an African American nationalist and religious leader, was assassinated 56 years ago today in New York City.

He was killed by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom on Broadway and 165th Street in Washington Heights.

Born as Malcolm Little in 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska, Little was the son of James Earl Little, a Baptist preacher who advocated the black nationalist ideals of Marcus Garvey. Threats from the Ku Klux Klan forced the family to move to Lansing, Michigan, where his father continued to preach his controversial sermons despite continuing threats.

In 1931, Malcolm Little’s father was brutally murdered by the white supremacist Black Legion, and Michigan authorities refused to prosecute those responsible. In 1937, the young man was taken from his family by welfare caseworkers. By the time he reached high school age, he had dropped out of school and moved to Boston, where he became increasingly involved in criminal activities.

In 1946, at the age of 21, he was sent to prison on a burglary conviction. It was there he encountered the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam, whose members are popularly known as Black Muslims. The Nation of Islam advocated black nationalism and racial separatism and condemned Americans of European descent as immoral "devils."

Muhammad's teachings had a strong effect on young Malcolm, who entered into an intense program of self-education and took the last name "X" to symbolize his stolen African identity. After six years, Malcolm X was released from prison and became a loyal and effective minister of the Nation of Islam in Harlem.

In contrast with civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X advocated self-defense and the liberation of African Americans "by any means necessary." A fiery orator, he was admired by the African American community in New York and around the country.

In the early 1960s, he began to develop a more outspoken philosophy than that of Elijah Muhammad, whom he felt did not sufficiently support the civil rights movement.

In late 1963, Malcolm X’s suggestion that President John F. Kennedy's assassination was a matter of the "chickens coming home to roost" provided Elijah Muhammad, who believed that Malcolm had become too powerful, with a convenient opportunity to suspend him from the Nation of Islam.

A few months later, Malcolm formally left the organization and made a Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, where he was profoundly affected by the lack of racial discord among orthodox Muslims.

He returned to America as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and in June, 1964 founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which advocated black identity and held that racism, not the white race, was the greatest foe of the African American.

Malcolm's new movement steadily gained followers, and his more moderate philosophy became increasingly influential in the civil rights movement, especially among the leaders of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.

On February 21, 1965, one week after his home was firebombed, Malcolm X was shot to death by Nation of Islam members while speaking at a rally of his organization in New York City.

Thanks History.com and the New York Times