Of the British officers who served in America during the Revolution, the names Howe and Clinton, Burgoyne and Cornwallis, are the ones that echo across the years. There is some irony to this, since none of those captains—with the possible exception of Cornwallis—had any notable claim to posterity’s attention for their accomplishments on this side of the Atlantic. Yet just as they had in their day the perquisites of rank, so they were accorded the privilege of fame.
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January 2011
Those who enjoyed James Abbe’s photographs of Hollywood personalities of the fervid twenties (December, 1972) will be glad to learn that a large selection of them is now available in a book called Stars of the Twenties . The volume was compiled by picture editor Mary Dawn Earley and published by Viking Press.
We have learned that the number of persons denied their seats in the Senate by exclusion is considerably greater than the figure Allan Damon offered in “Congress” (October, 1974). The Senate recently released a study that corrects all previously published accounts, including those on which our author relied. Entitled Senate Elections: Expulsion and Censure Cases (gand Congress, ist Session, Document No. 92-7), the new compilation lists forty-eight cases in which exclusion was sought. As a result of hearings, the study shows, “there have been 38 instances where the claimant was actually refused a seat.”
An interesting curiosity has come to light in the wake of our article on the ill-starred Russian-American telegraph (June, 1975). George Cheren of South Miami, Florida, a member of the American Society of Polar Philatelists, has sent us a photograph of an old cover (envelope) bearing an optimistic engraving that shows the half of the globe the line was to cover. The Polar Philatelists, says Mr. Cheren, “study and write on polar and subpolar history and life, as reflected in or commemorated by stamps and philatelic items, including postal history. We try for original source research wherever possible.” Their publication is called Ice Cap News .
Last winter in a grand if rather farfetched gesture, Sheik Masoud AlSharif Al Hamdan of Saudi Arabia wrote a Houston lawyer asking him to arrange for the sheik to buy some Texas real estate. The desired land was state-owned and occupied by the Alamo. “My son learned how to fly in San Antonio,” the sheik is quoted as having written the lawyer. “He used to visit the Alamo, and he loved it. Please contact the proper people and see if we can buy it. I want to present it as a gift to my son.”
The lawyer suggested that the sheik set his sights a little lower and think of another gift—perhaps a Texas ranch.
One good indication of the new regard in which Scott Joplin is held is the fact that RCA Victor has recently issued his complete piano works on their Red Seal label. Prior to this the Red Seal has been used almost exclusively for straight classical works. (Among the few exceptions are recordings of Enrico Caruso singing “Over There” and Fritz. Kreisler playing “Poor Butterfly.”) Dick Hyman is the pianist for the record set, and Rudi Blesh, the author of our article on Joplin (June, 1975), wrote the booklet that accompanies the records.
The Providence that looks out for small children and inebriates must certainly have a protective concern for free-balloon pilots. And indeed I suppose that is appropriate, since the pilot or passenger in a free balloon is almost as helpless against the assaults of the elements as the smallest tot or the most supine wine-bibber.
When Aaron Burr was in his early seventies and had but a few years more to live, he returned to the site of his famous duel with Alexander Hamilton. The occasion stirred him to an outpouring of feelings, dramatically recounted in the following excerpt from the noted historian James Parton’s biography The Life and Times of Aaron Burr , published in 1857.