Literary Work- The Magnificent Ambersons

Booth Tarkington is best remembered for his book, “The Magnificent Ambersons”, but in his life, wrote over twenty novels. Although the most popular, “The Magnificent Ambersons” was the second in a series of three books called “The Growth Trilogy”. The other two books in the trilogy were called “The Turmoil” and “The Midlander”, which was re-titled as “National Avenue”. The characters in these novels were mostly aristocrats. This was a result of the influence from Tarkington’s own rich upbringing. The novels describe, in great detail, changing times and changing social classes. The time of the Civil War to the time of World War I, is when these novels are set.

Tarkington won two Pulitzer Prizes, almost back to back. He was awarded such for “The Magnificent Ambersons” and “Alice Adams”. The novel “The Magnificent Ambersons” was made into a movie by Orson Welles. It was filmed right after he wrapped up Citizen Kane, and there was TONS of footage recorded. Sadly, he was unhappy with a lot of it, so it was cut, and later destroyed. Supposedly, Welles was sent a copy of the original, before the cuts, but no one ever found it.

-Clancy Darcy

Literary Work- The Waste Land

The Waste Land, written in 1922, is a 434-line modernist poem by T. S. Eliot. Despite it being a little bit hard to understand, the poem has become a familiar work of modern literature. It has confused many because of its abrupt and unannounced changes of speaker, location, and time. Some of its famous phrases are "April is the cruellest month," which is its very first line. Others are "I will show you fear in a handful of dust," and "Shantih shantih shantih," which is the last line.

T. S. Eliot is estimated to have worked on this poem for several years before having it published. Drafts of the poem that have been found show that there was almost double what it is now. Its famous first line was not actually written until the top of the second page. It is also said that Eliot let another poet, Ezra Pound, make cuts and changes to the poem resulting in a shorter product.

-Clancy Darcy

Steamboat Willie- Misc. essay

Steamboat Willie is a short, animated story, released on November 18, 1928. It was the third Mickey Mouse cartoon. “Plane Crazy” (released six months earlier) and “The Gallopin' Gaucho” (made earlier, but released after) being the first two. It was also the first Disney cartoon to feature synchronized sound. Disney used Pat Powers' Cinephone system, it was made by Powers using Lee De Forest's Phonofilm system, without giving De Forest any credit. Steamboat Willie premiered at New York's 79th Street Theatre, it played ahead of the independent feature film “Gang War.” Steamboat Willie was an immediate hit while “Gang War” has pretty much been forgotten, not many people know of it today.

The cartoon was directed by Walt Disney. The title is a parody of the Buster Keaton film “Steamboat Bill Jr.”. Music for Steamboat Willie was put together by Wilfred Jackson, one of Disney's animators. However, it was sometimes reported to be by Carl Stalling, but that’s not true. The short also uses popular melodies including "Steamboat Bill" and "Turkey in the Straw" (the ice cream man song).

-Clancy Darcy

Marcus Garvey

Marcus Garvey, Provisional president of Africa and Messiah, was the most widely known agitator for the rights of the negro and one of the most phenomenal. Arriving in the United States unknown and poor, in just about four years he became the most talked about black man in the U.S., the West Indies, and perhaps the world. He was born in Jamaica, West Indies. He had very humble parents. His father was a breaker of stones on the roadway. Marcus went to a denominational school and he dreamed of doing great things. He worshiped Napoleon. On Sundays he pumped the organ in the Wesleyan Methodist Church at St. Ann's Bay, of which his parents were members. Later Garvey became a Catholic.

He stopped going to school at the age of sixteen to become the apprentice in the printing plant of P. Austin Benjamin in Kingston. six years later he became the foreman. He began agitation for the political' rights of the blacks of the island, who, though in the majority, were of lower social caste than the mulattoes. He also went among the West Indian laborers who were recruited to work and he urged them to demand more pay and better working conditions, and for this he got arrested in Port Limon, Costa Rica.

Prashant Singh

Teapot Dome Scandal

The Scandal dates back to the popular legislation of presidents Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and William Taft, specifically as to the navel petroleum reserves in Wyoming and California. There were three navel oil fields, Elk Hills and Buena Vista Hills in California and Teapot Dome in Wyoming, were tracts of public land that were owned by previous presidents to be emergency underground supplies to be used by the navy when they had no more regular supplies.

The Teapot Dome oil field received its because of a teapot shaped rock above the oil-bearing land. Many politicians and private private oil intersects had opposed the restrictions placed on the oil fields claiming that the reserves were unnecessary and that the American oil companies could provide for the U.S. Navy.

One politician that opposed the conservation was Albert B. Fall Who was Warren G. Harding's interior secretary in 1921. Upon becoming secretary of the interior, convinced the secretary of the Navy to turn over the control of the oil fields to him. Fall then moved to lease the Teapot Dome to Harry Sinclair's Mammoth Oil Company and the Elk Hills reserve to Edward Doheny's Pan American Petroleum Company. In return for leasing these oil fields to the respective oil magnates Fall received "gifts" from the oilmen totaling about $400,000. Fall tried to keep his actions secret but his sudden improvements in his standard of living drew speculation. The scandal was revealed to the public in 1924 after findings by a committee of the U.S. Senate. Albert Fall had made legitamite leases of the oil fields to the private companies but the taking of money was his undoing.


-Prashant Singh

Coco Chanel

Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel was born August 19th 1883 in Saumur, France by her parents Albert Chanel and Jeanne Devolle. Julie(1882) was their first daughter and following was her siblings Coco, Alphonse(1885), Antoinette(1887), Lucien(1889) and Pierre(born & died 1891). In 1895, when Coco was 12 her mother passed away from tuberculosis and her father left the family. Due to her father's leaving, Coco spent 6 years in the orphanage of the Roman

Catholic monastery of Aubazine, until she turned 18 and left to go to the town of Moulins to become a cabaret singer, where she got her nickname "Coco". In the club she performed at she met rich, young textile heir Etienne Balsan, and soon became his mistress. Balsan lavished her in diamonds, dresses, pearls, and anything her heart desired. During her time with Balsan she realized her deep interest in her hat designing hobby. Her first shop she opened was called Chanel Modes in Cambon, Paris. Her business boomed when famous theatre actress Gabrielle Dorizat modeled her hats in the play Bel Ami in 1912. Her business kept climbing after that to where she even made a false history to go with her new life and even told people that she was 10 years younger than she actually was.

In 1925 Coco Vera Bate Lombardi became Coco's assistant/co-worker and means of upper-class connections. At the beginning of WWII Coco closed her shops, she believed it was not a time for fashion. She lived in the Hotel Ritz Paris on and off for 30 years even while the Germans occupied it. In 1943, after 4 years of separation, Coco contacted Lombardi, living in Rome, to come to Paris to renew their work together. This was actually a cover for "Operation Modellhut", an attempt by Nazi spy-master Walter Schellenberg to make secret contact with Lombardi's family member, Winston Churchill. Lombardi refused and was arrested as a British spy by the Gestapo with Coco later charged as a collaborator, but fortunately avoided trial due to an intervention by the British Royal family. In 1945 she moved to Switzerland and eventually moved back to paris in 1954. In that same year Coco released a new collection that, although, did not make much success with the Parisians due to her involvement with the Nazis, did, make a huge success with her most reliable customers, the British and Americans.

There have been many productions of Coco Chanel's life as well as books along with the newest movie, "Coco Before Chanel" by Anne Fontain, starring Audrey Tautou.

Coco Chanel had affairs with some of the most influential men of her time, but never did marry. When she was asked her reason for not marrying the Duke of Westminster, her response was, " There have been several Duchesses of Westminster. There is only one Chanel."

-Bella Mireles

1920's Women's Fashion

A lot happened to women in the 1920's. Women got the right to vote, alcohol became legal, and world war one ended. The younger generation stopped obeying the high standards due to all the deaths brought by world war one. They became more liberal and more understanding of the lesser things in life. For the first time, the older women copied the younger women in fashion. The strong liberation of women was expressed in the fashion. Women's legs and arms showed. They drove around in Model T's, showing off their raccoon coats and pretty hair.

The flapper was the heroine of the 1920's Jazz Age. People still idle the flapper to this day. People now and then admired her confidence and sex appeal. The flappers signature outfit was the tight fitting dress with two to three inch tassels from the top to the bottom, giving her a perfect shape that every guy imagined their perfect girl would look like. Another popular fashion was flatten breasts, and hips, and bobbed hair. Shirts dresses, with big bows and peter pan collars were a big hit too.

In the 1920's everything was still hand made by tailors and dress makers. However there were still some ready-to-wear pre-made clothing in department stores. In 1923, the bobbed hair cut turned into the shingle cut. Silk tights became popular, and even though there was wrinkling, they still made the girls legs look almost naked. Women's P.J.s became cotton pants and halter tops instead of night gowns the previous generation sweared by. In 1926 the skirts became shorter and evening dresses no longer had to be so long. the evening dress were shorter, making some leg show, and most of them were patterned with bold colors, fringe and detail work. In all ways the 1920's women's fashion became a reflection of individuals and the obsticles women over came.

-Kara Klaczynski