British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 370.

 

Blonde and utterly beautiful Mary Nolan (1902-1948) appeared on stage, on screen, and most of all in the tabloids. After a 'sex scandal', she fled to Germany where she starred in 17 silent films under her real name, Imogene Robertson.

 

Mary Nolan was born Mary Imogene Robertson in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. in 1902 (according to Wikipedia and 1905 according to IMDb). She was one of five children born to Africanus and Viola Robertson. Her mother died of cancer at the age of 46. Unable to care for five young children, Africanus Robertson placed Mary in a foster home. She eventually went to live in a Catholic orphanage in Missouri where she earned the nickname 'Bubbles'. The beautiful blonde arrived broke in New York in 1919. Eve Golden at Films of the Golden Age: "She really was breathtaking with her perfect bone structure, a cloud of thick blonde hair, and china-blue eyes. It wasn't long before Mary got work as an artist's model for such big shots as James Montgomery Flagg and Arthur William Brown." Famous Broadway producer Oliver Morosco launched her stage career in the choruses of Daffy Dill and Lady Butterfly (1923). Bubbles proved to be a Jazz-Age baby and a party girl by nature. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. signed her up for his Follies shows on Broadway. As a showgirl, she performed under the stage name Imogene 'Bubbles' Wilson. For the next several years, she started a violent love/hate relationship with Ziegfeld comedian Frank Tinney. Tinney was married to the comedy star Edna Davenport. Tinney set Mary up in a West 72nd Street apartment and showered her with expensive gifts, but he also showered her with bruises, both physical and emotional. The abusive affair stirred up a major sex scandal in 1924. The tabloids exposed the tumultuous relationship when Mary was seriously hospitalised after one of their many arguments. Mary was fired by Ziegfeld and set sail for France where she was scheduled to appear in vaudeville. She made her way to London in October where she reunited with Frank Tinney. By December 1924, Tinney had resumed drinking and began to physically abuse her again. In early 1925, Nolan finally ended the relationship. She then travelled to Germany where she began to work in the film industry under the new stage name Imogene Robertson. Her first German film was Verborgene Gluten/Hidden Fires (Einar Bruun, 1925) with Alphons Fryland. Later that year, she appeared in the title role of Die Feuertänzerin (Robert Dinesen, 1925) for the Ufa. She received good reviews for her work in the film which prompted the Ufa to offer her a contract for $1500 a week. Nolan worked steadily in Germany from 1925 to 1927 and continued to receive favourable reviews for her acting. Her best-known films include the mystery Das Parfüm der Mrs. Worrington/The Parfum of Mrs. Worrington (Franz Seitz, 1925) with Ernst Reicher as detective Stuart Webbs, Das süße Mädel/The sweet girl (Manfred Noa, 1926) with Nils Asther, and the drama Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines/The adventures of a 10-mark note (Berthold Viertel, 1926).

 

While in Germany, Imogene Robertson received offers from Hollywood producers to appear in American films but turned them down. She finally relented after Joseph M. Schenck offered her a contract with United Artists. She returned to the United States in January 1927. To solve the problem of audiences connecting her with her scandalous past, United Artists suggested she change her name to Mary Nolan. For United Artists, she appeared in an uncredited bit part in Topsy and Eva (Del Lord, 1927), and a supporting role in Sorrell and Son (Herbert Brenon, 1927). In 1928, Nolan was signed to Universal Pictures. Her first film for the company was Good Morning, Judge (William A. Seiter, 1928), starring Reginald Denny for which she received good reviews. Universal loaned her out to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning, 1928), about the vengefulness of a cuckolded magician (Lon Chaney) paralysed in a brawl with his rival (Lionel Barrymore). Nolan played Chaney's defiled daughter Maizie. The film was a hit and Nolan received favourable reviews for her work in the film. The following year, she was loaned to MGM again for the romantic drama Desert Nights (William Nigh, 1929), with John Gilbert. Two thieves (Noland and Ernest Torrence) victimize a diamond mine and kidnap its manager (Gilbert), but he gains the upper hand (and falls in love with Nolan) when they flee into the hostile desert. Desert Nights was another financial success and served to boost Nolan's career. Shortly after signing with Universal in 1927, Nolan had begun a relationship with another married man, studio executive Eddie Mannix. Mannix used his clout to further Nolan's career and was responsible for her loan outs to MGM. Shortly after Desert Nights was released in 1929, Mannix abruptly ended the relationship. This angered Nolan who threatened to tell Mannix's wife Bernice of their affair. Mannix became enraged and beat her unconscious. Nolan was hospitalised for six months and required fifteen surgeries to repair damage Mannix inflicted on her abdomen. While hospitalized, Nolan was prescribed morphine for pain. She eventually became addicted which contributed to the decline of her career. In the Universal production Young Desire (Lew Collins, 1930), Nolan plays Helen Herbert aka 'La Belle Helene', a carnival sideshow dancer. She falls in love with wealthy, wet-behind-the-ears Bobby Spencer who whisks her off to his hometown of Spencerville and stakes her to an apartment and a job. But Helen's sordid past catches up with her... By then, Nolan's acting career had begun to decline due to her drug abuse and reputation for being temperamental. She was fired from the film What Men Want (1930). Nolan got into an argument with the film's director, Ernst Laemmle after she learned she was the only cast member who hadn't received a close-up shot. Laemmle banned Nolan from the set and she was subsequently fired. After threatening to file a lawsuit against Universal, the studio bought her out of her contract in January 1931. She married stock broker Wallace T. McCreary on 29 March 1931. One week before they married, McCreary lost $3 million on bad investments. The couple used McCreary's remaining money to open a dress shop in Beverly Hills. The shop went out of business within months and Nolan filed for bankruptcy in August 1931. Nolan divorced McCreary in July 1932. After her exit from Universal, she was unable to secure film work with any of the major studios. Nolan spent the remainder of her acting career appearing in roles in low-budget films for independent studios. She made her final film appearances in File 113 (Chester M. Franklin, 1933), for Allied Pictures Corporation. From then on, Nolan appeared in vaudeville and performed in nightclubs and roadhouses around the United States. Later, Mary Nolan suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined. She turned to heroin, and it spelt the end. In 1948, she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems (according to IMDb, but Wikipedia writes she died of a barbiturate overdose). Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly."

 

Source: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Eve Golden (Films of the Golden Age), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1190/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Emelka Films / Süd-Film. Bayern Films. Imogene Robertson in Erinnerungen einer Nonne/Memories of a Nun (Arthur Bergen, 1927).

 

Blonde and utterly beautiful Mary Nolan (1902–1948) appeared on stage, on screen, and most of all in the tabloids. After a 'sex scandal', she fled to Germany where she starred in 17 silent films under her real name, Imogene Robertson.

 

Mary Nolan was born Mary Imogene Robertson in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. in 1902 (according to Wikipedia and 1905 according to IMDb). She was one of five children born to Africanus and Viola Robertson. Her mother died of cancer at the age of 46. Unable to care for five young children, Africanus Robertson placed Mary in a foster home. She eventually went to live in a Catholic orphanage in Missouri where she earned the nickname 'Bubbles'. The beautiful blonde arrived broke in New York in 1919. Eve Golden at Films of the Golden Age: "She really was breathtaking with her perfect bone structure, a cloud of thick blonde hair, and china-blue eyes. It wasn't long before Mary got work as an artist's model for such big shots as James Montgomery Flagg and Arthur William Brown." Famous Broadway producer Oliver Morosco launched her stage career in the choruses of Daffy Dill and Lady Butterfly (1923). Bubbles proved to be a Jazz-Age baby and a party girl by nature. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. signed her up for his Follies shows on Broadway. As a showgirl, she performed under the stage name Imogene 'Bubbles' Wilson. For the next several years, she started a violent love/hate relationship with Ziegfeld comedian Frank Tinney. Tinney was married to the comedy star Edna Davenport. Tinney set Mary up in a West 72nd Street apartment and showered her with expensive gifts, but he also showered her with bruises, both physical and emotional. The abusive affair stirred up a major sex scandal in 1924. The tabloids exposed the tumultuous relationship when Mary was seriously hospitalised after one of their many arguments. Mary was fired by Ziegfeld and set sail for France where she was scheduled to appear in vaudeville. She made her way to London in October where she reunited with Frank Tinney. By December 1924, Tinney had resumed drinking and began to physically abuse her again. In early 1925, Nolan finally ended the relationship. She then travelled to Germany where she began to work in the film industry under the new stage name Imogene Robertson. Her first German film was Verborgene Gluten/Hidden Fires (Einar Bruun, 1925) with Alphons Fryland. Later that year, she appeared in the title role of Die Feuertänzerin (Robert Dinesen, 1925) for the Ufa. She received good reviews for her work in the film which prompted the Ufa to offer her a contract for $1500 a week. Nolan worked steadily in Germany from 1925 to 1927 and continued to receive favourable reviews for her acting. Her best-known films include the mystery Das Parfüm der Mrs. Worrington/The Parfum of Mrs. Worrington (Franz Seitz, 1925) with Ernst Reicher as detective Stuart Webbs, Das süße Mädel/The sweet girl (Manfred Noa, 1926) with Nils Asther, and the drama Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines/The adventures of a 10-mark note (Berthold Viertel, 1926).

 

While in Germany, Imogene Robertson received offers from Hollywood producers to appear in American films but turned them down. She finally relented after Joseph M. Schenck offered her a contract with United Artists. She returned to the United States in January 1927. To solve the problem of audiences connecting her with her scandalous past, United Artists suggested she change her name to Mary Nolan. For United Artists, she appeared in an uncredited bit part in Topsy and Eva (Del Lord, 1927), and a supporting role in Sorrell and Son (Herbert Brenon, 1927). In 1928, Nolan was signed to Universal Pictures. Her first film for the company was Good Morning, Judge (William A. Seiter, 1928), starring Reginald Denny for which she received good reviews. Universal loaned her out to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning, 1928), about the vengefulness of a cuckolded magician (Lon Chaney) paralysed in a brawl with his rival (Lionel Barrymore). Nolan played Chaney's defiled daughter Maizie. The film was a hit and Nolan received favourable reviews for her work in the film. The following year, she was loaned to MGM again for the romantic drama Desert Nights (William Nigh, 1929), with John Gilbert. Two thieves (Noland and Ernest Torrence) victimize a diamond mine and kidnap its manager (Gilbert), but he gains the upper hand (and falls in love with Nolan) when they flee into the hostile desert. Desert Nights was another financial success and served to boost Nolan's career. Shortly after signing with Universal in 1927, Nolan had begun a relationship with another married man, studio executive Eddie Mannix. Mannix used his clout to further Nolan's career and was responsible for her loan outs to MGM. Shortly after Desert Nights was released in 1929, Mannix abruptly ended the relationship. This angered Nolan who threatened to tell Mannix's wife Bernice of their affair. Mannix became enraged and beat her unconscious. Nolan was hospitalised for six months and required fifteen surgeries to repair damage Mannix inflicted on her abdomen. While hospitalized, Nolan was prescribed morphine for pain. She eventually became addicted which contributed to the decline of her career. In the Universal production Young Desire (Lew Collins, 1930), Nolan plays Helen Herbert aka 'La Belle Helene', a carnival sideshow dancer. She falls in love with wealthy, wet-behind-the-ears Bobby Spencer who whisks her off to his hometown of Spencerville and stakes her to an apartment and a job. But Helen's sordid past catches up with her... By then, Nolan's acting career had begun to decline due to her drug abuse and reputation for being temperamental. She was fired from the film What Men Want (1930). Nolan got into an argument with the film's director, Ernst Laemmle after she learned she was the only cast member who hadn't received a close-up shot. Laemmle banned Nolan from the set and she was subsequently fired. After threatening to file a lawsuit against Universal, the studio bought her out of her contract in January 1931. She married stock broker Wallace T. McCreary on 29 March 1931. One week before they married, McCreary lost $3 million on bad investments. The couple used McCreary's remaining money to open a dress shop in Beverly Hills. The shop went out of business within months and Nolan filed for bankruptcy in August 1931. Nolan divorced McCreary in July 1932. After her exit from Universal, she was unable to secure film work with any of the major studios. Nolan spent the remainder of her acting career appearing in roles in low-budget films for independent studios. She made her final film appearances in File 113 (Chester M. Franklin, 1933), for Allied Pictures Corporation. From then on, Nolan appeared in vaudeville and performed in nightclubs and roadhouses around the United States. Later, Mary Nolan suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined. She turned to heroin, and it spelt the end. In 1948, she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems (according to IMDb, but Wikipedia writes she died of a barbiturate overdose). Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly."

 

Source: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Eve Golden (Films of the Golden Age), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5049. Photo: Mondial-Verleih / National-Film, Berlin. Probably a still for Die Königin des Weltbades/The Queen of the Baths (Victor Janson, 1926) which was released by National-Film in Germany.

 

Blonde and utterly beautiful Mary Nolan (1902-1948) appeared on stage, on screen, and most of all in the tabloids. After a 'sex scandal', she fled to Germany where she starred in 17 silent films under her real name, Imogene Robertson.

 

Mary Nolan was born Mary Imogene Robertson in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. in 1902 (according to Wikipedia and 1905 according to IMDb). She was one of five children born to Africanus and Viola Robertson. Her mother died of cancer at the age of 46. Unable to care for five young children, Africanus Robertson placed Mary in a foster home. She eventually went to live in a Catholic orphanage in Missouri where she earned the nickname 'Bubbles'. The beautiful blonde arrived broke in New York in 1919. Eve Golden at Films of the Golden Age: "She really was breathtaking with her perfect bone structure, a cloud of thick blonde hair, and china-blue eyes. It wasn't long before Mary got work as an artist's model for such big shots as James Montgomery Flagg and Arthur William Brown." Famous Broadway producer Oliver Morosco launched her stage career in the choruses of Daffy Dill and Lady Butterfly (1923). Bubbles proved to be a Jazz-Age baby and a party girl by nature. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. signed her up for his Follies shows on Broadway. As a showgirl, she performed under the stage name Imogene 'Bubbles' Wilson. For the next several years, she started a violent love/hate relationship with Ziegfeld comedian Frank Tinney. Tinney was married to the comedy star Edna Davenport. Tinney set Mary up in a West 72nd Street apartment and showered her with expensive gifts, but he also showered her with bruises, both physical and emotional. The abusive affair stirred up a major sex scandal in 1924. The tabloids exposed the tumultuous relationship when Mary was seriously hospitalised after one of their many arguments. Mary was fired by Ziegfeld and set sail for France where she was scheduled to appear in vaudeville. She made her way to London in October where she reunited with Frank Tinney. By December 1924, Tinney had resumed drinking and began to physically abuse her again. In early 1925, Nolan finally ended the relationship. She then travelled to Germany where she began to work in the film industry under the new stage name Imogene Robertson. Her first German film was Verborgene Gluten/Hidden Fires (Einar Bruun, 1925) with Alphons Fryland. Later that year, she appeared in the title role of Die Feuertänzerin (Robert Dinesen, 1925) for the Ufa. She received good reviews for her work in the film which prompted the Ufa to offer her a contract for $1500 a week. Nolan worked steadily in Germany from 1925 to 1927 and continued to receive favourable reviews for her acting. Her best-known films include the mystery Das Parfüm der Mrs. Worrington/The Parfum of Mrs. Worrington (Franz Seitz, 1925) with Ernst Reicher as detective Stuart Webbs, Das süße Mädel/The sweet girl (Manfred Noa, 1926) with Nils Asther, and the drama Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines/The adventures of a 10-mark note (Berthold Viertel, 1926).

 

While in Germany, Imogene Robertson received offers from Hollywood producers to appear in American films but turned them down. She finally relented after Joseph M. Schenck offered her a contract with United Artists. She returned to the United States in January 1927. To solve the problem of audiences connecting her with her scandalous past, United Artists suggested she change her name to Mary Nolan. For United Artists, she appeared in an uncredited bit part in Topsy and Eva (Del Lord, 1927), and a supporting role in Sorrell and Son (Herbert Brenon, 1927). In 1928, Nolan was signed to Universal Pictures. Her first film for the company was Good Morning, Judge (William A. Seiter, 1928), starring Reginald Denny for which she received good reviews. Universal loaned her out to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning, 1928), about the vengefulness of a cuckolded magician (Lon Chaney) paralysed in a brawl with his rival (Lionel Barrymore). Nolan played Chaney's defiled daughter Maizie. The film was a hit and Nolan received favourable reviews for her work in the film. The following year, she was loaned to MGM again for the romantic drama Desert Nights (William Nigh, 1929), with John Gilbert. Two thieves (Noland and Ernest Torrence) victimize a diamond mine and kidnap its manager (Gilbert), but he gains the upper hand (and falls in love with Nolan) when they flee into the hostile desert. Desert Nights was another financial success and served to boost Nolan's career. Shortly after signing with Universal in 1927, Nolan had begun a relationship with another married man, studio executive Eddie Mannix. Mannix used his clout to further Nolan's career and was responsible for her loan outs to MGM. Shortly after Desert Nights was released in 1929, Mannix abruptly ended the relationship. This angered Nolan who threatened to tell Mannix's wife Bernice of their affair. Mannix became enraged and beat her unconscious. Nolan was hospitalised for six months and required fifteen surgeries to repair damage Mannix inflicted on her abdomen. While hospitalized, Nolan was prescribed morphine for pain. She eventually became addicted which contributed to the decline of her career. In the Universal production Young Desire (Lew Collins, 1930), Nolan plays Helen Herbert aka 'La Belle Helene', a carnival sideshow dancer. She falls in love with wealthy, wet-behind-the-ears Bobby Spencer who whisks her off to his hometown of Spencerville and stakes her to an apartment and a job. But Helen's sordid past catches up with her... By then, Nolan's acting career had begun to decline due to her drug abuse and reputation for being temperamental. She was fired from the film What Men Want (1930). Nolan got into an argument with the film's director, Ernst Laemmle after she learned she was the only cast member who hadn't received a close-up shot. Laemmle banned Nolan from the set and she was subsequently fired. After threatening to file a lawsuit against Universal, the studio bought her out of her contract in January 1931. She married stock broker Wallace T. McCreary on 29 March 1931. One week before they married, McCreary lost $3 million on bad investments. The couple used McCreary's remaining money to open a dress shop in Beverly Hills. The shop went out of business within months and Nolan filed for bankruptcy in August 1931. Nolan divorced McCreary in July 1932. After her exit from Universal, she was unable to secure film work with any of the major studios. Nolan spent the remainder of her acting career appearing in roles in low-budget films for independent studios. She made her final film appearances in File 113 (Chester M. Franklin, 1933), for Allied Pictures Corporation. From then on, Nolan appeared in vaudeville and performed in nightclubs and roadhouses around the United States. Later, Mary Nolan suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined. She turned to heroin, and it spelt the end. In 1948, she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems (according to IMDb, but Wikipedia writes she died of a barbiturate overdose). Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly."

 

Source: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Eve Golden (Films of the Golden Age), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5721. Photo: Universal-Film, Berlin.

 

Blonde and utterly beautiful Mary Nolan (1902-1948) appeared on stage, on screen, and most of all in the tabloids. After a 'sex scandal', she fled to Germany where she starred in 17 silent films under her real name, Imogene Robertson.

 

Mary Nolan was born Mary Imogene Robertson in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. in 1902 (according to Wikipedia and 1905 according to IMDb). She was one of five children born to Africanus and Viola Robertson. Her mother died of cancer at the age of 46. Unable to care for five young children, Africanus Robertson placed Mary in a foster home. She eventually went to live in a Catholic orphanage in Missouri where she earned the nickname 'Bubbles'. The beautiful blonde arrived broke in New York in 1919. Eve Golden at Films of the Golden Age: "She really was breathtaking with her perfect bone structure, a cloud of thick blonde hair, and china-blue eyes. It wasn't long before Mary got work as an artist's model for such big shots as James Montgomery Flagg and Arthur William Brown." Famous Broadway producer Oliver Morosco launched her stage career in the choruses of Daffy Dill and Lady Butterfly (1923). Bubbles proved to be a Jazz-Age baby and a party girl by nature. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. signed her up for his Follies shows on Broadway. As a showgirl, she performed under the stage name Imogene 'Bubbles' Wilson. For the next several years, she started a violent love/hate relationship with Ziegfeld comedian Frank Tinney. Tinney was married to the comedy star Edna Davenport. Tinney set Mary up in a West 72nd Street apartment and showered her with expensive gifts, but he also showered her with bruises, both physical and emotional. The abusive affair stirred up a major sex scandal in 1924. The tabloids exposed the tumultuous relationship when Mary was seriously hospitalised after one of their many arguments. Mary was fired by Ziegfeld and set sail for France where she was scheduled to appear in vaudeville. She made her way to London in October where she reunited with Frank Tinney. By December 1924, Tinney had resumed drinking and began to physically abuse her again. In early 1925, Nolan finally ended the relationship. She then travelled to Germany where she began to work in the film industry under the new stage name Imogene Robertson. Her first German film was Verborgene Gluten/Hidden Fires (Einar Bruun, 1925) with Alphons Fryland. Later that year, she appeared in the title role of Die Feuertänzerin (Robert Dinesen, 1925) for the Ufa. She received good reviews for her work in the film which prompted the Ufa to offer her a contract for $1500 a week. Nolan worked steadily in Germany from 1925 to 1927 and continued to receive favourable reviews for her acting. Her best-known films include the mystery Das Parfüm der Mrs. Worrington/The Parfum of Mrs. Worrington (Franz Seitz, 1925) with Ernst Reicher as detective Stuart Webbs, Das süße Mädel/The sweet girl (Manfred Noa, 1926) with Nils Asther, and the drama Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines/The adventures of a 10-mark note (Berthold Viertel, 1926).

 

While in Germany, Imogene Robertson received offers from Hollywood producers to appear in American films but turned them down. She finally relented after Joseph M. Schenck offered her a contract with United Artists. She returned to the United States in January 1927. To solve the problem of audiences connecting her with her scandalous past, United Artists suggested she change her name to Mary Nolan. For United Artists, she appeared in an uncredited bit part in Topsy and Eva (Del Lord, 1927), and a supporting role in Sorrell and Son (Herbert Brenon, 1927). In 1928, Nolan was signed to Universal Pictures. Her first film for the company was Good Morning, Judge (William A. Seiter, 1928), starring Reginald Denny for which she received good reviews. Universal loaned her out to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning, 1928), about the vengefulness of a cuckolded magician (Lon Chaney) paralysed in a brawl with his rival (Lionel Barrymore). Nolan played Chaney's defiled daughter Maizie. The film was a hit and Nolan received favourable reviews for her work in the film. The following year, she was loaned to MGM again for the romantic drama Desert Nights (William Nigh, 1929), with John Gilbert. Two thieves (Noland and Ernest Torrence) victimize a diamond mine and kidnap its manager (Gilbert), but he gains the upper hand (and falls in love with Nolan) when they flee into the hostile desert. Desert Nights was another financial success and served to boost Nolan's career. Shortly after signing with Universal in 1927, Nolan had begun a relationship with another married man, studio executive Eddie Mannix. Mannix used his clout to further Nolan's career and was responsible for her loan outs to MGM. Shortly after Desert Nights was released in 1929, Mannix abruptly ended the relationship. This angered Nolan who threatened to tell Mannix's wife Bernice of their affair. Mannix became enraged and beat her unconscious. Nolan was hospitalised for six months and required fifteen surgeries to repair damage Mannix inflicted on her abdomen. While hospitalized, Nolan was prescribed morphine for pain. She eventually became addicted which contributed to the decline of her career. In the Universal production Young Desire (Lew Collins, 1930), Nolan plays Helen Herbert aka 'La Belle Helene', a carnival sideshow dancer. She falls in love with wealthy, wet-behind-the-ears Bobby Spencer who whisks her off to his hometown of Spencerville and stakes her to an apartment and a job. But Helen's sordid past catches up with her... By then, Nolan's acting career had begun to decline due to her drug abuse and reputation for being temperamental. She was fired from the film What Men Want (1930). Nolan got into an argument with the film's director, Ernst Laemmle after she learned she was the only cast member who hadn't received a close-up shot. Laemmle banned Nolan from the set and she was subsequently fired. After threatening to file a lawsuit against Universal, the studio bought her out of her contract in January 1931. She married stock broker Wallace T. McCreary on 29 March 1931. One week before they married, McCreary lost $3 million on bad investments. The couple used McCreary's remaining money to open a dress shop in Beverly Hills. The shop went out of business within months and Nolan filed for bankruptcy in August 1931. Nolan divorced McCreary in July 1932. After her exit from Universal, she was unable to secure film work with any of the major studios. Nolan spent the remainder of her acting career appearing in roles in low-budget films for independent studios. She made her final film appearances in File 113 (Chester M. Franklin, 1933), for Allied Pictures Corporation. From then on, Nolan appeared in vaudeville and performed in nightclubs and roadhouses around the United States. Later, Mary Nolan suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined. She turned to heroin, and it spelt the end. In 1948, she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems (according to IMDb, but Wikipedia writes she died of a barbiturate overdose). Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly."

 

Source: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Eve Golden (Films of the Golden Age), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no 289. Photo: Lee Marvin in Monte Walsh (William A. Fraker, 1970).

 

American film and television actor Lee Marvin (1924-1987) began as a supporting player of a generally vicious demeanor, then metamorphosed into a star playing tough, hard-bitten anti-heroes. Known for his gravelly smoke burnished voice and premature white hair, Marvin initially played villains, soldiers, and other hardboiled characters. A prominent television role was that of Detective Lieutenant Frank Ballinger in the NBC crime series M Squad (1957–1960). He became a major star with Cat Ballou (1965), a comedy Western in which he played dual roles, but his career waned considerably after Paint Your Wagon (1969). For portraying both gunfighter Kid Shelleen and criminal Tim Strawn, he won the Oscar for Best Actor, along with a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, an NBR Award, and the Silver Bear for Best Actor. Marvin is also remembered for his 'tough guy' characters in The Killers (1964), The Professionals (1966), The Dirty Dozen (1967), Point Blank (1967), and The Big Red One (1980).

 

Lamont Waltman Marvin Jr. was born in 1924 in New York City. He was the son of Lamont Waltman Marvin, an advertising executive and later the head of the New York and New England Apple Institute, and Courtenay Washington (née Davidge), a fashion and beauty writer/editor. As with his elder brother, Robert, he was named in honor of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who was his first cousin, four times removed. His father was a direct descendant of Matthew Marvin Sr., who emigrated from Great Bentley, Essex, England, in 1635, and helped found Hartford, Connecticut. Marvin studied the violin when he was young. As a teenager, Marvin "spent weekends and spare time hunting deer, puma, wild turkey, and bobwhite in the wilds of the then-uncharted Everglades". He attended Manumit School, a Christian socialist boarding school in Pawling, New York, during the late 1930s, and later attended St. Leo College Preparatory School, a Catholic school in St. Leo, Florida, after being expelled from several other schools for bad behaviour. Marvin left school at 18 to enlist in the United States Marine Corps Reserve in 1942. He served with the 4th Marine Division in the Pacific Theater during World War II. While serving as a member of "I" Company, 3rd Battalion, 24th Marines, 4th Marine Division, he was wounded in action on in 1944, during the assault on Mount Tapochau in the Battle of Saipan, during which most of his company were casualties. He was hit by machine-gun fire, which severed his sciatic nerve, and then was hit again in the foot by a sniper. After over a year of medical treatment in naval hospitals, Marvin was given a medical discharge with the rank of private first class (he had been a corporal years earlier but had been demoted after causing trouble) in 1945 Philadelphia. Marvin's military awards include the Purple Heart Medal, the Presidential Unit Citation, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, and the Combat Action Ribbon.

 

After the war, while working as a plumber's assistant at a local community theatre in upstate New York, Lee Marvin was asked to replace an actor who had fallen ill during rehearsals. He caught the acting bug and got a job with the company at $7 a week. He moved to Greenwich Village and used the GI Bill to study at the American Theatre Wing. He appeared on stage in a production of 'Uniform of Flesh', an adaptation of the novel 'Billy Budd' (1949). It was done at the Experimental Theatre, where a few months later Marvin also appeared in 'The Nineteenth Hole of Europe' (1949). Marvin began appearing on television shows like Escape, The Big Story, and Treasury Men in Action. He made it to Broadway with a small role in a production of Uniform of Flesh, now called Billy Budd in February 1951. Marvin's film debut was in You're in the Navy Now (Henry Hathaway, 1951), which also marked the debuts of Charles Bronson and Jack Warden. This required some filming in Hollywood. Marvin decided to stay there. He had a similar small part in Teresa (Fred Zinnemann, 1951). As a decorated combat veteran, Marvin was a natural in war dramas, where he frequently assisted the director and other actors in realistically portraying infantry movement, arranging costumes, and the use of firearms. He guest-starred on episodes of Fireside Theatre (1950), Suspense (1950), and Rebound (1952). Hathaway used him again on Diplomatic Courier (Henry Hathaway, 1952) and he could be seen in Down Among the Sheltering Palms (Edmund Goulding, 1952), We're Not Married! (Edmund Goulding, 1952), The Duel at Silver Creek (Don Siegel, 1952), and Hangman's Knot (Roy Huggins, 1952). He guest-starred on Biff Baker, U.S.A. (1952) and Dragnet (1952-1953), and had a decent role in a feature with Eight Iron Men (Edward Dmytryk, 1952), a war film starring Bonar Colleano and produced by Stanley Kramer. Marvin's role had been played on Broadway by Burt Lancaster. He was a sergeant in the Western Seminole (Budd Boetticher, 1953), and was a corporal in The Glory Brigade (Robert D. Webb, 1953), a Korean War film starring Victor Mature. He was now in much demand for Westerns: The Stranger Wore a Gun (Andre DeToth, 1953) with Randolph Scott, and Gun Fury (Raoul Walsh, 1953) with Rock Hudson and Donna Reed.

 

Lee Marvin received much acclaim for his portrayal as villains in two Film Noirs: The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953) where he played Gloria Grahame's vicious boyfriend, and The Wild One (László Benedek, 1953) opposite Marlon Brando. Marvin's gang in the film was called "The Beetles". He continued in TV shows such as The Plymouth Playhouse (1953) and The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse (1954). He had support roles in the 3D horror mystery B-movie Gorilla at Large (Harmon Jones, 1954) and had a notable small role as smart-aleck sailor Meatball in The Caine Mutiny (Edward Dmytryk, 1954), produced by Stanley Kramer. Marvin was in the war film The Raid (Hugo Fregonese, 1954) with Van Heflin and Anne Bancroft, and in episodes of the TV series Center Stage (1954), Medic (1954) and TV Reader's Digest (1955). He had an excellent part as Hector, the small-town hood in Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges, 1955) with Spencer Tracy and Robert Ryan. Also in 1955, he played a conflicted, brutal bank-robber in the thriller Violent Saturday (Richard Fleischer, 1955) with Victor Mature. A latter-day critic wrote of the character, "Marvin brings a multi-faceted complexity to the role and gives a great example of the early promise that launched his long and successful career." Marvin played Robert Mitchum's friend in Not as a Stranger (Stanley Kramer, 1955), a medical drama also produced by Kramer. He had bigger supporting roles in A Life in the Balance (Harry Horner, Rafael Portillo, 1955), Pete Kelly's Blues (Jack Webb, 1955) and I Died a Thousand Times (Stuart Heisler, 1955) with Jack Palance. Marvin was the villain in 7 Men from Now (Budd Boetticher, 1956) with Randolph Scott, and was second-billed to Jack Palance in Attack (Robert Aldrich, 1956). Marvin had good roles in The Rack (Arnold Laven, 1956) with Paul Newman, Raintree County (Edward Dmytryk, 1956) starring Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor, and The Missouri Traveler (Herry Hopper, 1958). Marvin finally got to be a leading man in 100 episodes in the successful television series M Squad (1957-1960). Set in Chicago, Illinois, it starred Marvin as Detective Lieutenant Frank Ballinger, a member of "M Squad", a special unit of the Chicago Police, assisting other units in battling organized crime, corruption, and violent crimes citywide. One critic described the show as "a hyped-up, violent Dragnet ... with a hard-as-nails Marvin" playing a tough police lieutenant. Marvin received the role after guest-starring in a memorable Dragnet episode as a serial killer. When the series ended Marvin appeared on such TV shows as Wagon Train (1960-1961), Route 66 (1961; he was injured during a fight scene), Bonanza (1962), The Untouchables (1961-1962; several times), The Virginian (1962), The Twilight Zone (1961-1963), and The Dick Powell Theatre (1963).

 

Lee Marvin returned to features with a prominent role in The Comancheros (Michael Curtiz, 1961) starring John Wayne. He played in two more films with Wayne, both directed by John Ford: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), and Donovan's Reef (1963). As the vicious Liberty Valance, Marvin played his first title role and held his own with two of the screen's biggest stars (John Wayne and James Stewart). In 1962 Marvin appeared as Martin Kalig on the TV western The Virginian in the episode titled 'It Tolls for Thee'. He continued to guest star on shows like Combat! (1963), Dr. Kildare (1962-1964), and The Great Adventure (1963). For director Don Siegel, Marvin appeared in The Killers (1964) playing an efficient professional assassin alongside Clu Gulager. The Killers was also the first film in which Marvin received top billing. Marvin finally became a star for his comic role in the Western comedy Cat Ballou (Elliot Silverstein, 1965) starring Jane Fonda. This was a surprise hit and Marvin won the 1965 Oscar for Best Actor and several other awards. Playing alongside Vivien Leigh and Simone Signoret, Marvin won the 1966 National Board of Review Award for male actors for his role in Ship of Fools (Stanley Kramer, 1965). Marvin next performed in the hit Western The Professionals (Richard Brooks, 1966), in which he played the leader of a small band of skilled mercenaries (Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, and Woody Strode) rescuing a kidnap victim (Claudia Cardinale) shortly after the Mexican Revolution. He followed that film with the hugely successful World War II epic The Dirty Dozen (Robert Aldrich, 1967) in which top-billed Marvin again portrayed an intrepid commander of a colorful group (future stars John Cassavetes, Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, Jim Brown, and Donald Sutherland) performing an almost impossible mission. In the wake of these two films and after having received an Oscar, Marvin was a huge star, given enormous control over his next film Point Blank (John Boorman, 1967), co-starring Angie Dickinson. He portrayed a hard-nosed criminal bent on revenge. Marvin, who had selected Boorman himself for the director's slot, had a central role in the film's development, plotline, and staging. Marvin also appeared in another Boorman film, the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful World War II character study Hell in the Pacific (John Boorman, 1968), also starring famed Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune. Marvin was originally cast as Pike Bishop (later played by William Holden) in The Wild Bunch (1969), but fell out with director Sam Peckinpah and pulled out to star in the Western musical Paint Your Wagon (Joshua Logan, 1969), in which he was top-billed over a singing Clint Eastwood. Despite his limited singing ability, he had a surprise hit song with "Wand'rin' Star". By this time, he was getting paid a million dollars per film, $200,000 less than top star Paul Newman was making at the time.

 

Lee Marvin had a much greater variety of roles in the 1970s, with fewer bad-guy roles than in earlier years. His 1970s films included Monte Walsh (William A. Fraker, 1970), a Western with Jack Palance and Jeanne Moreau; the violent Prime Cut (Michael Ritchie, 1972) with Gene Hackman; Pocket Money (Stuart Rosenberg, 1972) with Paul Newman; Emperor of the North (Robert Aldrich, 1973) opposite Ernest Borgnine; as Hickey in The Iceman Cometh (John Frankenheimer, 1973) with Fredric March and Robert Ryan; The Spikes Gang (Richard Fleischer, 1974) with Noah Beery Jr.; The Klansman (Terence Young, 1974) with Richard Burton; Shout at the Devil (Peter Hunt, 1976), a World War One adventure with Roger Moore; The Great Scout and Cathouse Thursday (Don Taylor, 1976), a comic Western with Oliver Reed; and Avalanche Express (Mark Robson, 1978), a Cold War thriller with Robert Shaw who died during production. None of these films were big box office hits. Marvin was offered the role of Quint in Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975) but declined, stating "What would I tell my fishing friends who'd see me come off a hero against a dummy shark?". Marvin's last big role was in Samuel Fuller's The Big Red One (1980), a war film based on Fuller's own war experiences. His remaining films were Death Hunt (Peter R. Hunt, 1981), a Canadian action film with Charles Bronson; Gorky Park (Michael Apted, 1983) with William Hurt; and in France Canicule/Dog Day (Yves Boisset, 1984), with Miou-Miou. For TV he did The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1985), a sequel with Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, and Richard Jaeckel picking up where they had left off despite being 18 years older. His final appearance was in The Delta Force (Menahem Golan, 1986) with Chuck Norris, playing a role turned down by Charles Bronson. Marvin had married Betty Ebeling in February 1951 and together they had four children, son Christopher Lamont (1952–2013), and three daughters: Courtenay Lee (1954), Cynthia Louise (1956), and Claudia Leslie (1958–2012). Married 16 years, they divorced in 1967. A long-term romantic relationship with Michelle Triola led, after their breakup, to a highly publicized lawsuit in which Triola asked for a substantial portion of Marvin's assets. Her case failed in its main pursuit but did establish a legal precedent for the rights of unmarried cohabitors, the so-called "palimony" law. Marvin reunited with his high school sweetheart, Pamela Feeley and they married in October 1970. She had four children with three previous marriages, they had no children together and remained married until his death in 1987. In December 1986, Marvin was hospitalized for more than two weeks because of a condition related to coccidioidomycosis. He went into respiratory distress and was administered steroids to help his breathing. He had major intestinal ruptures as a result and underwent a colectomy. Marvin died of a heart attack on 29 August 1987 in Tucson, Arizona, aged 63. He was buried with full military honours at Arlington National Cemetery.

 

Sources: Jim Beaver (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5316. Photo: Universal-Film.

 

Blonde and utterly beautiful Mary Nolan (1902-1948) appeared on stage, on screen, and most of all in the tabloids. After a 'sex scandal', she fled to Germany where she starred in 17 silent films under her real name, Imogene Robertson.

 

Mary Nolan was born Mary Imogene Robertson in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. in 1902 (according to Wikipedia and 1905 according to IMDb). She was one of five children born to Africanus and Viola Robertson. Her mother died of cancer at the age of 46. Unable to care for five young children, Africanus Robertson placed Mary in a foster home. She eventually went to live in a Catholic orphanage in Missouri where she earned the nickname 'Bubbles'. The beautiful blonde arrived broke in New York in 1919. Eve Golden at Films of the Golden Age: "She really was breathtaking with her perfect bone structure, a cloud of thick blonde hair, and china-blue eyes. It wasn't long before Mary got work as an artist's model for such big shots as James Montgomery Flagg and Arthur William Brown." Famous Broadway producer Oliver Morosco launched her stage career in the choruses of Daffy Dill and Lady Butterfly (1923). Bubbles proved to be a Jazz-Age baby and a party girl by nature. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. signed her up for his Follies shows on Broadway. As a showgirl, she performed under the stage name Imogene 'Bubbles' Wilson. For the next several years, she started a violent love/hate relationship with Ziegfeld comedian Frank Tinney. Tinney was married to the comedy star Edna Davenport. Tinney set Mary up in a West 72nd Street apartment and showered her with expensive gifts, but he also showered her with bruises, both physical and emotional. The abusive affair stirred up a major sex scandal in 1924. The tabloids exposed the tumultuous relationship when Mary was seriously hospitalised after one of their many arguments. Mary was fired by Ziegfeld and set sail for France where she was scheduled to appear in vaudeville. She made her way to London in October where she reunited with Frank Tinney. By December 1924, Tinney had resumed drinking and began to physically abuse her again. In early 1925, Nolan finally ended the relationship. She then travelled to Germany where she began to work in the film industry under the new stage name Imogene Robertson. Her first German film was Verborgene Gluten/Hidden Fires (Einar Bruun, 1925) with Alphons Fryland. Later that year, she appeared in the title role of Die Feuertänzerin (Robert Dinesen, 1925) for the Ufa. She received good reviews for her work in the film which prompted the Ufa to offer her a contract for $1500 a week. Nolan worked steadily in Germany from 1925 to 1927 and continued to receive favourable reviews for her acting. Her best-known films include the mystery Das Parfüm der Mrs. Worrington/The Parfum of Mrs. Worrington (Franz Seitz, 1925) with Ernst Reicher as detective Stuart Webbs, Das süße Mädel/The sweet girl (Manfred Noa, 1926) with Nils Asther, and the drama Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines/The adventures of a 10-mark note (Berthold Viertel, 1926).

 

While in Germany, Imogene Robertson received offers from Hollywood producers to appear in American films but turned them down. She finally relented after Joseph M. Schenck offered her a contract with United Artists. She returned to the United States in January 1927. To solve the problem of audiences connecting her with her scandalous past, United Artists suggested she change her name to Mary Nolan. For United Artists, she appeared in an uncredited bit part in Topsy and Eva (Del Lord, 1927), and a supporting role in Sorrell and Son (Herbert Brenon, 1927). In 1928, Nolan was signed to Universal Pictures. Her first film for the company was Good Morning, Judge (William A. Seiter, 1928), starring Reginald Denny for which she received good reviews. Universal loaned her out to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning, 1928), about the vengefulness of a cuckolded magician (Lon Chaney) paralysed in a brawl with his rival (Lionel Barrymore). Nolan played Chaney's defiled daughter Maizie. The film was a hit and Nolan received favourable reviews for her work in the film. The following year, she was loaned to MGM again for the romantic drama Desert Nights (William Nigh, 1929), with John Gilbert. Two thieves (Noland and Ernest Torrence) victimize a diamond mine and kidnap its manager (Gilbert), but he gains the upper hand (and falls in love with Nolan) when they flee into the hostile desert. Desert Nights was another financial success and served to boost Nolan's career. Shortly after signing with Universal in 1927, Nolan had begun a relationship with another married man, studio executive Eddie Mannix. Mannix used his clout to further Nolan's career and was responsible for her loan outs to MGM. Shortly after Desert Nights was released in 1929, Mannix abruptly ended the relationship. This angered Nolan who threatened to tell Mannix's wife Bernice of their affair. Mannix became enraged and beat her unconscious. Nolan was hospitalised for six months and required fifteen surgeries to repair damage Mannix inflicted on her abdomen. While hospitalized, Nolan was prescribed morphine for pain. She eventually became addicted which contributed to the decline of her career. In the Universal production Young Desire (Lew Collins, 1930), Nolan plays Helen Herbert aka 'La Belle Helene', a carnival sideshow dancer. She falls in love with wealthy, wet-behind-the-ears Bobby Spencer who whisks her off to his hometown of Spencerville and stakes her to an apartment and a job. But Helen's sordid past catches up with her... By then, Nolan's acting career had begun to decline due to her drug abuse and reputation for being temperamental. She was fired from the film What Men Want (1930). Nolan got into an argument with the film's director, Ernst Laemmle after she learned she was the only cast member who hadn't received a close-up shot. Laemmle banned Nolan from the set and she was subsequently fired. After threatening to file a lawsuit against Universal, the studio bought her out of her contract in January 1931. She married stock broker Wallace T. McCreary on 29 March 1931. One week before they married, McCreary lost $3 million on bad investments. The couple used McCreary's remaining money to open a dress shop in Beverly Hills. The shop went out of business within months and Nolan filed for bankruptcy in August 1931. Nolan divorced McCreary in July 1932. After her exit from Universal, she was unable to secure film work with any of the major studios. Nolan spent the remainder of her acting career appearing in roles in low-budget films for independent studios. She made her final film appearances in File 113 (Chester M. Franklin, 1933), for Allied Pictures Corporation. From then on, Nolan appeared in vaudeville and performed in nightclubs and roadhouses around the United States. Later, Mary Nolan suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined. She turned to heroin, and it spelt the end. In 1948, she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems (according to IMDb, but Wikipedia writes she died of a barbiturate overdose). Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly."

 

Source: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Eve Golden (Films of the Golden Age), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del Cine Series by Editorial Gráfica, Barcelona, no. 6. Photo: Universal Film.

 

Blonde and utterly beautiful Mary Nolan (1902-1948) appeared on stage, on screen, and most of all in the tabloids. After a 'sex scandal', she fled to Germany where she starred in 17 silent films under her real name, Imogene Robertson.

 

Mary Nolan was born Mary Imogene Robertson in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. in 1902 (according to Wikipedia and 1905 according to IMDb). She was one of five children born to Africanus and Viola Robertson. Her mother died of cancer at the age of 46. Unable to care for five young children, Africanus Robertson placed Mary in a foster home. She eventually went to live in a Catholic orphanage in Missouri where she earned the nickname 'Bubbles'. The beautiful blonde arrived broke in New York in 1919. Eve Golden at Films of the Golden Age: "She really was breathtaking with her perfect bone structure, a cloud of thick blonde hair, and china-blue eyes. It wasn't long before Mary got work as an artist's model for such big shots as James Montgomery Flagg and Arthur William Brown." Famous Broadway producer Oliver Morosco launched her stage career in the choruses of Daffy Dill and Lady Butterfly (1923). Bubbles proved to be a Jazz-Age baby and a party girl by nature. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. signed her up for his Follies shows on Broadway. As a showgirl, she performed under the stage name Imogene 'Bubbles' Wilson. For the next several years, she started a violent love/hate relationship with Ziegfeld comedian Frank Tinney. Tinney was married to the comedy star Edna Davenport. Tinney set Mary up in a West 72nd Street apartment and showered her with expensive gifts, but he also showered her with bruises, both physical and emotional. The abusive affair stirred up a major sex scandal in 1924. The tabloids exposed the tumultuous relationship when Mary was seriously hospitalised after one of their many arguments. Mary was fired by Ziegfeld and set sail for France where she was scheduled to appear in vaudeville. She made her way to London in October where she reunited with Frank Tinney. By December 1924, Tinney had resumed drinking and began to physically abuse her again. In early 1925, Nolan finally ended the relationship. She then travelled to Germany where she began to work in the film industry under the new stage name Imogene Robertson. Her first German film was Verborgene Gluten/Hidden Fires (Einar Bruun, 1925) with Alphons Fryland. Later that year, she appeared in the title role of Die Feuertänzerin (Robert Dinesen, 1925) for the Ufa. She received good reviews for her work in the film which prompted the Ufa to offer her a contract for $1500 a week. Nolan worked steadily in Germany from 1925 to 1927 and continued to receive favourable reviews for her acting. Her best-known films include the mystery Das Parfüm der Mrs. Worrington/The Parfum of Mrs. Worrington (Franz Seitz, 1925) with Ernst Reicher as detective Stuart Webbs, Das süße Mädel/The sweet girl (Manfred Noa, 1926) with Nils Asther, and the drama Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines/The adventures of a 10-mark note (Berthold Viertel, 1926).

 

While in Germany, Imogene Robertson received offers from Hollywood producers to appear in American films but turned them down. She finally relented after Joseph M. Schenck offered her a contract with United Artists. She returned to the United States in January 1927. To solve the problem of audiences connecting her with her scandalous past, United Artists suggested she change her name to Mary Nolan. For United Artists, she appeared in an uncredited bit part in Topsy and Eva (Del Lord, 1927), and a supporting role in Sorrell and Son (Herbert Brenon, 1927). In 1928, Nolan was signed to Universal Pictures. Her first film for the company was Good Morning, Judge (William A. Seiter, 1928), starring Reginald Denny for which she received good reviews. Universal loaned her out to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning, 1928), about the vengefulness of a cuckolded magician (Lon Chaney) paralysed in a brawl with his rival (Lionel Barrymore). Nolan played Chaney's defiled daughter Maizie. The film was a hit and Nolan received favourable reviews for her work in the film. The following year, she was loaned to MGM again for the romantic drama Desert Nights (William Nigh, 1929), with John Gilbert. Two thieves (Noland and Ernest Torrence) victimize a diamond mine and kidnap its manager (Gilbert), but he gains the upper hand (and falls in love with Nolan) when they flee into the hostile desert. Desert Nights was another financial success and served to boost Nolan's career. Shortly after signing with Universal in 1927, Nolan had begun a relationship with another married man, studio executive Eddie Mannix. Mannix used his clout to further Nolan's career and was responsible for her loan outs to MGM. Shortly after Desert Nights was released in 1929, Mannix abruptly ended the relationship. This angered Nolan who threatened to tell Mannix's wife Bernice of their affair. Mannix became enraged and beat her unconscious. Nolan was hospitalised for six months and required fifteen surgeries to repair damage Mannix inflicted on her abdomen. While hospitalized, Nolan was prescribed morphine for pain. She eventually became addicted which contributed to the decline of her career. In the Universal production Young Desire (Lew Collins, 1930), Nolan plays Helen Herbert aka 'La Belle Helene', a carnival sideshow dancer. She falls in love with wealthy, wet-behind-the-ears Bobby Spencer who whisks her off to his hometown of Spencerville and stakes her to an apartment and a job. But Helen's sordid past catches up with her... By then, Nolan's acting career had begun to decline due to her drug abuse and reputation for being temperamental. She was fired from the film What Men Want (1930). Nolan got into an argument with the film's director, Ernst Laemmle after she learned she was the only cast member who hadn't received a close-up shot. Laemmle banned Nolan from the set and she was subsequently fired. After threatening to file a lawsuit against Universal, the studio bought her out of her contract in January 1931. She married stock broker Wallace T. McCreary on 29 March 1931. One week before they married, McCreary lost $3 million on bad investments. The couple used McCreary's remaining money to open a dress shop in Beverly Hills. The shop went out of business within months and Nolan filed for bankruptcy in August 1931. Nolan divorced McCreary in July 1932. After her exit from Universal, she was unable to secure film work with any of the major studios. Nolan spent the remainder of her acting career appearing in roles in low-budget films for independent studios. She made her final film appearances in File 113 (Chester M. Franklin, 1933), for Allied Pictures Corporation. From then on, Nolan appeared in vaudeville and performed in nightclubs and roadhouses around the United States. Later, Mary Nolan suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined. She turned to heroin, and it spelt the end. In 1948, she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems (according to IMDb, but Wikipedia writes she died of a barbiturate overdose). Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly."

 

Source: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Eve Golden (Films of the Golden Age), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1516/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Süd-Film A.G., Berlin. Imogene Robertson a.k.a. Mary Nolan in Das süße Mädel/The Sweet Girl (Manfred Noa, 1926).

 

Blonde and utterly beautiful Mary Nolan (1902–1948) appeared on stage, on screen, and most of all in the tabloids. After a 'sex scandal', she fled to Germany where she starred in 17 silent films under her real name, Imogene Robertson.

 

Mary Nolan was born Mary Imogene Robertson in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. in 1902 (according to Wikipedia and 1905 according to IMDb). She was one of five children born to Africanus and Viola Robertson. Her mother died of cancer at the age of 46. Unable to care for five young children, Africanus Robertson placed Mary in a foster home. She eventually went to live in a Catholic orphanage in Missouri where she earned the nickname 'Bubbles'. The beautiful blonde arrived broke in New York in 1919. Eve Golden at Films of the Golden Age: "She really was breathtaking with her perfect bone structure, a cloud of thick blonde hair, and china-blue eyes. It wasn't long before Mary got work as an artist's model for such big shots as James Montgomery Flagg and Arthur William Brown." Famous Broadway producer Oliver Morosco launched her stage career in the choruses of Daffy Dill and Lady Butterfly (1923). Bubbles proved to be a Jazz-Age baby and a party girl by nature. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. signed her up for his Follies shows on Broadway. As a showgirl, she performed under the stage name Imogene 'Bubbles' Wilson. For the next several years, she started a violent love/hate relationship with Ziegfeld comedian Frank Tinney. Tinney was married to the comedy star Edna Davenport. Tinney set Mary up in a West 72nd Street apartment and showered her with expensive gifts, but he also showered her with bruises, both physical and emotional. The abusive affair stirred up a major sex scandal in 1924. The tabloids exposed the tumultuous relationship when Mary was seriously hospitalised after one of their many arguments. Mary was fired by Ziegfeld and set sail for France where she was scheduled to appear in vaudeville. She made her way to London in October where she reunited with Frank Tinney. By December 1924, Tinney had resumed drinking and began to physically abuse her again. In early 1925, Nolan finally ended the relationship. She then travelled to Germany where she began to work in the film industry under the new stage name Imogene Robertson. Her first German film was Verborgene Gluten/Hidden Fires (Einar Bruun, 1925) with Alphons Fryland. Later that year, she appeared in the title role of Die Feuertänzerin (Robert Dinesen, 1925) for the Ufa. She received good reviews for her work in the film which prompted the Ufa to offer her a contract for $1500 a week. Nolan worked steadily in Germany from 1925 to 1927 and continued to receive favourable reviews for her acting. Her best-known films include the mystery Das Parfüm der Mrs. Worrington/The Parfum of Mrs. Worrington (Franz Seitz, 1925) with Ernst Reicher as detective Stuart Webbs, Das süße Mädel/The sweet girl (Manfred Noa, 1926) with Nils Asther, and the drama Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines/The adventures of a 10-mark note (Berthold Viertel, 1926).

 

While in Germany, Imogene Robertson received offers from Hollywood producers to appear in American films but turned them down. She finally relented after Joseph M. Schenck offered her a contract with United Artists. She returned to the United States in January 1927. To solve the problem of audiences connecting her with her scandalous past, United Artists suggested she change her name to Mary Nolan. For United Artists, she appeared in an uncredited bit part in Topsy and Eva (Del Lord, 1927), and a supporting role in Sorrell and Son (Herbert Brenon, 1927). In 1928, Nolan was signed to Universal Pictures. Her first film for the company was Good Morning, Judge (William A. Seiter, 1928), starring Reginald Denny for which she received good reviews. Universal loaned her out to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning, 1928), about the vengefulness of a cuckolded magician (Lon Chaney) paralysed in a brawl with his rival (Lionel Barrymore). Nolan played Chaney's defiled daughter Maizie. The film was a hit and Nolan received favourable reviews for her work in the film. The following year, she was loaned to MGM again for the romantic drama Desert Nights (William Nigh, 1929), with John Gilbert. Two thieves (Noland and Ernest Torrence) victimize a diamond mine and kidnap its manager (Gilbert), but he gains the upper hand (and falls in love with Nolan) when they flee into the hostile desert. Desert Nights was another financial success and served to boost Nolan's career. Shortly after signing with Universal in 1927, Nolan had begun a relationship with another married man, studio executive Eddie Mannix. Mannix used his clout to further Nolan's career and was responsible for her loan outs to MGM. Shortly after Desert Nights was released in 1929, Mannix abruptly ended the relationship. This angered Nolan who threatened to tell Mannix's wife Bernice of their affair. Mannix became enraged and beat her unconscious. Nolan was hospitalised for six months and required fifteen surgeries to repair damage Mannix inflicted on her abdomen. While hospitalized, Nolan was prescribed morphine for pain. She eventually became addicted which contributed to the decline of her career. In the Universal production Young Desire (Lew Collins, 1930), Nolan plays Helen Herbert aka 'La Belle Helene', a carnival sideshow dancer. She falls in love with wealthy, wet-behind-the-ears Bobby Spencer who whisks her off to his hometown of Spencerville and stakes her to an apartment and a job. But Helen's sordid past catches up with her... By then, Nolan's acting career had begun to decline due to her drug abuse and reputation for being temperamental. She was fired from the film What Men Want (1930). Nolan got into an argument with the film's director, Ernst Laemmle after she learned she was the only cast member who hadn't received a close-up shot. Laemmle banned Nolan from the set and she was subsequently fired. After threatening to file a lawsuit against Universal, the studio bought her out of her contract in January 1931. She married stock broker Wallace T. McCreary on 29 March 1931. One week before they married, McCreary lost $3 million on bad investments. The couple used McCreary's remaining money to open a dress shop in Beverly Hills. The shop went out of business within months and Nolan filed for bankruptcy in August 1931. Nolan divorced McCreary in July 1932. After her exit from Universal, she was unable to secure film work with any of the major studios. Nolan spent the remainder of her acting career appearing in roles in low-budget films for independent studios. She made her final film appearances in File 113 (Chester M. Franklin, 1933), for Allied Pictures Corporation. From then on, Nolan appeared in vaudeville and performed in nightclubs and roadhouses around the United States. Later, Mary Nolan suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined. She turned to heroin, and it spelt the end. In 1948, she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems (according to IMDb, but Wikipedia writes she died of a barbiturate overdose). Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly."

 

Source: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Eve Golden (Films of the Golden Age), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 878/2. Photo: Vienna-Film. Imogene Robertson in Das süße Mädel/The sweet girl (Manfred Noa, 1926).

 

Blonde and utterly beautiful Mary Nolan (1902–1948) appeared on stage, on screen, and most of all in the tabloids. After a 'sex scandal', she fled to Germany where she starred in 17 silent films under her real name, Imogene Robertson.

 

Mary Nolan was born Mary Imogene Robertson in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. in 1902 (according to Wikipedia and 1905 according to IMDb). She was one of five children born to Africanus and Viola Robertson. Her mother died of cancer at the age of 46. Unable to care for five young children, Africanus Robertson placed Mary in a foster home. She eventually went to live in a Catholic orphanage in Missouri where she earned the nickname 'Bubbles'. The beautiful blonde arrived broke in New York in 1919. Eve Golden at Films of the Golden Age: "She really was breathtaking with her perfect bone structure, a cloud of thick blonde hair, and china-blue eyes. It wasn't long before Mary got work as an artist's model for such big shots as James Montgomery Flagg and Arthur William Brown." Famous Broadway producer Oliver Morosco launched her stage career in the choruses of Daffy Dill and Lady Butterfly (1923). Bubbles proved to be a Jazz-Age baby and a party girl by nature. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. signed her up for his Follies shows on Broadway. As a showgirl, she performed under the stage name Imogene 'Bubbles' Wilson. For the next several years, she started a violent love/hate relationship with Ziegfeld comedian Frank Tinney. Tinney was married to the comedy star Edna Davenport. Tinney set Mary up in a West 72nd Street apartment and showered her with expensive gifts, but he also showered her with bruises, both physical and emotional. The abusive affair stirred up a major sex scandal in 1924. The tabloids exposed the tumultuous relationship when Mary was seriously hospitalised after one of their many arguments. Mary was fired by Ziegfeld and set sail for France where she was scheduled to appear in vaudeville. She made her way to London in October where she reunited with Frank Tinney. By December 1924, Tinney had resumed drinking and began to physically abuse her again. In early 1925, Nolan finally ended the relationship. She then travelled to Germany where she began to work in the film industry under the new stage name Imogene Robertson. Her first German film was Verborgene Gluten/Hidden Fires (Einar Bruun, 1925) with Alphons Fryland. Later that year, she appeared in the title role of Die Feuertänzerin (Robert Dinesen, 1925) for the Ufa. She received good reviews for her work in the film which prompted the Ufa to offer her a contract for $1500 a week. Nolan worked steadily in Germany from 1925 to 1927 and continued to receive favourable reviews for her acting. Her best-known films include the mystery Das Parfüm der Mrs. Worrington/The Parfum of Mrs. Worrington (Franz Seitz, 1925) with Ernst Reicher as detective Stuart Webbs, Das süße Mädel/The sweet girl (Manfred Noa, 1926) with Nils Asther, and the drama Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines/The adventures of a 10-mark note (Berthold Viertel, 1926).

 

While in Germany, Imogene Robertson received offers from Hollywood producers to appear in American films but turned them down. She finally relented after Joseph M. Schenck offered her a contract with United Artists. She returned to the United States in January 1927. To solve the problem of audiences connecting her with her scandalous past, United Artists suggested she change her name to Mary Nolan. For United Artists, she appeared in an uncredited bit part in Topsy and Eva (Del Lord, 1927), and a supporting role in Sorrell and Son (Herbert Brenon, 1927). In 1928, Nolan was signed to Universal Pictures. Her first film for the company was Good Morning, Judge (William A. Seiter, 1928), starring Reginald Denny for which she received good reviews. Universal loaned her out to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning, 1928), about the vengefulness of a cuckolded magician (Lon Chaney) paralysed in a brawl with his rival (Lionel Barrymore). Nolan played Chaney's defiled daughter Maizie. The film was a hit and Nolan received favourable reviews for her work in the film. The following year, she was loaned to MGM again for the romantic drama Desert Nights (William Nigh, 1929), with John Gilbert. Two thieves (Noland and Ernest Torrence) victimize a diamond mine and kidnap its manager (Gilbert), but he gains the upper hand (and falls in love with Nolan) when they flee into the hostile desert. Desert Nights was another financial success and served to boost Nolan's career. Shortly after signing with Universal in 1927, Nolan had begun a relationship with another married man, studio executive Eddie Mannix. Mannix used his clout to further Nolan's career and was responsible for her loan outs to MGM. Shortly after Desert Nights was released in 1929, Mannix abruptly ended the relationship. This angered Nolan who threatened to tell Mannix's wife Bernice of their affair. Mannix became enraged and beat her unconscious. Nolan was hospitalised for six months and required fifteen surgeries to repair damage Mannix inflicted on her abdomen. While hospitalized, Nolan was prescribed morphine for pain. She eventually became addicted which contributed to the decline of her career. In the Universal production Young Desire (Lew Collins, 1930), Nolan plays Helen Herbert aka 'La Belle Helene', a carnival sideshow dancer. She falls in love with wealthy, wet-behind-the-ears Bobby Spencer who whisks her off to his hometown of Spencerville and stakes her to an apartment and a job. But Helen's sordid past catches up with her... By then, Nolan's acting career had begun to decline due to her drug abuse and reputation for being temperamental. She was fired from the film What Men Want (1930). Nolan got into an argument with the film's director, Ernst Laemmle after she learned she was the only cast member who hadn't received a close-up shot. Laemmle banned Nolan from the set and she was subsequently fired. After threatening to file a lawsuit against Universal, the studio bought her out of her contract in January 1931. She married stock broker Wallace T. McCreary on 29 March 1931. One week before they married, McCreary lost $3 million on bad investments. The couple used McCreary's remaining money to open a dress shop in Beverly Hills. The shop went out of business within months and Nolan filed for bankruptcy in August 1931. Nolan divorced McCreary in July 1932. After her exit from Universal, she was unable to secure film work with any of the major studios. Nolan spent the remainder of her acting career appearing in roles in low-budget films for independent studios. She made her final film appearances in File 113 (Chester M. Franklin, 1933), for Allied Pictures Corporation. From then on, Nolan appeared in vaudeville and performed in nightclubs and roadhouses around the United States. Later, Mary Nolan suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined. She turned to heroin, and it spelt the end. In 1948, she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems (according to IMDb, but Wikipedia writes she died of a barbiturate overdose). Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly."

 

Source: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Eve Golden (Films of the Golden Age), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

French postcard by Europe, no. 776. Photo: Universal Film.

 

Blonde and utterly beautiful Mary Nolan (1902-1948) appeared on stage, on screen, and most of all in the tabloids. After a 'sex scandal', she fled to Germany where she starred in 17 silent films under her real name, Imogene Robertson.

 

Mary Nolan was born Mary Imogene Robertson in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. in 1902 (according to Wikipedia and 1905 according to IMDb). She was one of five children born to Africanus and Viola Robertson. Her mother died of cancer at the age of 46. Unable to care for five young children, Africanus Robertson placed Mary in a foster home. She eventually went to live in a Catholic orphanage in Missouri where she earned the nickname 'Bubbles'. The beautiful blonde arrived broke in New York in 1919. Eve Golden at Films of the Golden Age: "She really was breathtaking with her perfect bone structure, a cloud of thick blonde hair, and china-blue eyes. It wasn't long before Mary got work as an artist's model for such big shots as James Montgomery Flagg and Arthur William Brown." Famous Broadway producer Oliver Morosco launched her stage career in the choruses of Daffy Dill and Lady Butterfly (1923). Bubbles proved to be a Jazz-Age baby and a party girl by nature. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. signed her up for his Follies shows on Broadway. As a showgirl, she performed under the stage name Imogene 'Bubbles' Wilson. For the next several years, she started a violent love/hate relationship with Ziegfeld comedian Frank Tinney. Tinney was married to the comedy star Edna Davenport. Tinney set Mary up in a West 72nd Street apartment and showered her with expensive gifts, but he also showered her with bruises, both physical and emotional. The abusive affair stirred up a major sex scandal in 1924. The tabloids exposed the tumultuous relationship when Mary was seriously hospitalised after one of their many arguments. Mary was fired by Ziegfeld and set sail for France where she was scheduled to appear in vaudeville. She made her way to London in October where she reunited with Frank Tinney. By December 1924, Tinney had resumed drinking and began to physically abuse her again. In early 1925, Nolan finally ended the relationship. She then travelled to Germany where she began to work in the film industry under the new stage name Imogene Robertson. Her first German film was Verborgene Gluten/Hidden Fires (Einar Bruun, 1925) with Alphons Fryland. Later that year, she appeared in the title role of Die Feuertänzerin (Robert Dinesen, 1925) for the Ufa. She received good reviews for her work in the film which prompted the Ufa to offer her a contract for $1500 a week. Nolan worked steadily in Germany from 1925 to 1927 and continued to receive favourable reviews for her acting. Her best-known films include the mystery Das Parfüm der Mrs. Worrington/The Parfum of Mrs. Worrington (Franz Seitz, 1925) with Ernst Reicher as detective Stuart Webbs, Das süße Mädel/The sweet girl (Manfred Noa, 1926) with Nils Asther, and the drama Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines/The adventures of a 10-mark note (Berthold Viertel, 1926).

 

While in Germany, Imogene Robertson received offers from Hollywood producers to appear in American films but turned them down. She finally relented after Joseph M. Schenck offered her a contract with United Artists. She returned to the United States in January 1927. To solve the problem of audiences connecting her with her scandalous past, United Artists suggested she change her name to Mary Nolan. For United Artists, she appeared in an uncredited bit part in Topsy and Eva (Del Lord, 1927), and a supporting role in Sorrell and Son (Herbert Brenon, 1927). In 1928, Nolan was signed to Universal Pictures. Her first film for the company was Good Morning, Judge (William A. Seiter, 1928), starring Reginald Denny for which she received good reviews. Universal loaned her out to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning, 1928), about the vengefulness of a cuckolded magician (Lon Chaney) paralysed in a brawl with his rival (Lionel Barrymore). Nolan played Chaney's defiled daughter Maizie. The film was a hit and Nolan received favourable reviews for her work in the film. The following year, she was loaned to MGM again for the romantic drama Desert Nights (William Nigh, 1929), with John Gilbert. Two thieves (Noland and Ernest Torrence) victimize a diamond mine and kidnap its manager (Gilbert), but he gains the upper hand (and falls in love with Nolan) when they flee into the hostile desert. Desert Nights was another financial success and served to boost Nolan's career. Shortly after signing with Universal in 1927, Nolan had begun a relationship with another married man, studio executive Eddie Mannix. Mannix used his clout to further Nolan's career and was responsible for her loan outs to MGM. Shortly after Desert Nights was released in 1929, Mannix abruptly ended the relationship. This angered Nolan who threatened to tell Mannix's wife Bernice of their affair. Mannix became enraged and beat her unconscious. Nolan was hospitalised for six months and required fifteen surgeries to repair damage Mannix inflicted on her abdomen. While hospitalized, Nolan was prescribed morphine for pain. She eventually became addicted which contributed to the decline of her career. In the Universal production Young Desire (Lew Collins, 1930), Nolan plays Helen Herbert aka 'La Belle Helene', a carnival sideshow dancer. She falls in love with wealthy, wet-behind-the-ears Bobby Spencer who whisks her off to his hometown of Spencerville and stakes her to an apartment and a job. But Helen's sordid past catches up with her... By then, Nolan's acting career had begun to decline due to her drug abuse and reputation for being temperamental. She was fired from the film What Men Want (1930). Nolan got into an argument with the film's director, Ernst Laemmle after she learned she was the only cast member who hadn't received a close-up shot. Laemmle banned Nolan from the set and she was subsequently fired. After threatening to file a lawsuit against Universal, the studio bought her out of her contract in January 1931. She married stock broker Wallace T. McCreary on 29 March 1931. One week before they married, McCreary lost $3 million on bad investments. The couple used McCreary's remaining money to open a dress shop in Beverly Hills. The shop went out of business within months and Nolan filed for bankruptcy in August 1931. Nolan divorced McCreary in July 1932. After her exit from Universal, she was unable to secure film work with any of the major studios. Nolan spent the remainder of her acting career appearing in roles in low-budget films for independent studios. She made her final film appearances in File 113 (Chester M. Franklin, 1933), for Allied Pictures Corporation. From then on, Nolan appeared in vaudeville and performed in nightclubs and roadhouses around the United States. Later, Mary Nolan suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined. She turned to heroin, and it spelt the end. In 1948, she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems (according to IMDb, but Wikipedia writes she died of a barbiturate overdose). Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly."

 

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Eve Golden (Films of the Golden Age), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Dutch postcard, no. 60. Photo: Croese Bosman Universal.

 

Blonde and utterly beautiful Mary Nolan (1902–1948) appeared on stage, on screen, and most of all in the tabloids. After a 'sex scandal', she fled to Germany where she starred in 17 silent films under her real name, Imogene Robertson.

 

Mary Nolan was born Mary Imogene Robertson in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. in 1902 (according to Wikipedia and 1905 according to IMDb). She was one of five children born to Africanus and Viola Robertson. Her mother died of cancer at the age of 46. Unable to care for five young children, Africanus Robertson placed Mary in a foster home. She eventually went to live in a Catholic orphanage in Missouri where she earned the nickname 'Bubbles'. The beautiful blonde arrived broke in New York in 1919. Eve Golden at Films of the Golden Age: "She really was breathtaking with her perfect bone structure, a cloud of thick blonde hair, and china-blue eyes. It wasn't long before Mary got work as an artist's model for such big shots as James Montgomery Flagg and Arthur William Brown." Famous Broadway producer Oliver Morosco launched her stage career in the choruses of Daffy Dill and Lady Butterfly (1923). Bubbles proved to be a Jazz-Age baby and a party girl by nature. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. signed her up for his Follies shows on Broadway. As a showgirl, she performed under the stage name Imogene 'Bubbles' Wilson. For the next several years, she started a violent love/hate relationship with Ziegfeld comedian Frank Tinney. Tinney was married to the comedy star Edna Davenport. Tinney set Mary up in a West 72nd Street apartment and showered her with expensive gifts, but he also showered her with bruises, both physical and emotional. The abusive affair stirred up a major sex scandal in 1924. The tabloids exposed the tumultuous relationship when Mary was seriously hospitalised after one of their many arguments. Mary was fired by Ziegfeld and set sail for France where she was scheduled to appear in vaudeville. She made her way to London in October where she reunited with Frank Tinney. By December 1924, Tinney had resumed drinking and began to physically abuse her again. In early 1925, Nolan finally ended the relationship. She then travelled to Germany where she began to work in the film industry under the new stage name Imogene Robertson. Her first German film was Verborgene Gluten/Hidden Fires (Einar Bruun, 1925) with Alphons Fryland. Later that year, she appeared in the title role of Die Feuertänzerin (Robert Dinesen, 1925) for the Ufa. She received good reviews for her work in the film which prompted the Ufa to offer her a contract for $1500 a week. Nolan worked steadily in Germany from 1925 to 1927 and continued to receive favourable reviews for her acting. Her best-known films include the mystery Das Parfüm der Mrs. Worrington/The Parfum of Mrs. Worrington (Franz Seitz, 1925) with Ernst Reicher as detective Stuart Webbs, Das süße Mädel/The sweet girl (Manfred Noa, 1926) with Nils Asther, and the drama Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines/The adventures of a 10-mark note (Berthold Viertel, 1926).

 

While in Germany, Imogene Robertson received offers from Hollywood producers to appear in American films but turned them down. She finally relented after Joseph M. Schenck offered her a contract with United Artists. She returned to the United States in January 1927. To solve the problem of audiences connecting her with her scandalous past, United Artists suggested she change her name to Mary Nolan. For United Artists, she appeared in an uncredited bit part in Topsy and Eva (Del Lord, 1927), and a supporting role in Sorrell and Son (Herbert Brenon, 1927). In 1928, Nolan was signed to Universal Pictures. Her first film for the company was Good Morning, Judge (William A. Seiter, 1928), starring Reginald Denny for which she received good reviews. Universal loaned her out to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning, 1928), about the vengefulness of a cuckolded magician (Lon Chaney) paralysed in a brawl with his rival (Lionel Barrymore). Nolan played Chaney's defiled daughter Maizie. The film was a hit and Nolan received favourable reviews for her work in the film. The following year, she was loaned to MGM again for the romantic drama Desert Nights (William Nigh, 1929), with John Gilbert. Two thieves (Noland and Ernest Torrence) victimize a diamond mine and kidnap its manager (Gilbert), but he gains the upper hand (and falls in love with Nolan) when they flee into the hostile desert. Desert Nights was another financial success and served to boost Nolan's career. Shortly after signing with Universal in 1927, Nolan had begun a relationship with another married man, studio executive Eddie Mannix. Mannix used his clout to further Nolan's career and was responsible for her loan outs to MGM. Shortly after Desert Nights was released in 1929, Mannix abruptly ended the relationship. This angered Nolan who threatened to tell Mannix's wife Bernice of their affair. Mannix became enraged and beat her unconscious. Nolan was hospitalised for six months and required fifteen surgeries to repair damage Mannix inflicted on her abdomen. While hospitalized, Nolan was prescribed morphine for pain. She eventually became addicted which contributed to the decline of her career. In the Universal production Young Desire (Lew Collins, 1930), Nolan plays Helen Herbert aka 'La Belle Helene', a carnival sideshow dancer. She falls in love with wealthy, wet-behind-the-ears Bobby Spencer who whisks her off to his hometown of Spencerville and stakes her to an apartment and a job. But Helen's sordid past catches up with her... By then, Nolan's acting career had begun to decline due to her drug abuse and reputation for being temperamental. She was fired from the film What Men Want (1930). Nolan got into an argument with the film's director, Ernst Laemmle after she learned she was the only cast member who hadn't received a close-up shot. Laemmle banned Nolan from the set and she was subsequently fired. After threatening to file a lawsuit against Universal, the studio bought her out of her contract in January 1931. She married stock broker Wallace T. McCreary on 29 March 1931. One week before they married, McCreary lost $3 million on bad investments. The couple used McCreary's remaining money to open a dress shop in Beverly Hills. The shop went out of business within months and Nolan filed for bankruptcy in August 1931. Nolan divorced McCreary in July 1932. After her exit from Universal, she was unable to secure film work with any of the major studios. Nolan spent the remainder of her acting career appearing in roles in low-budget films for independent studios. She made her final film appearances in File 113 (Chester M. Franklin, 1933), for Allied Pictures Corporation. From then on, Nolan appeared in vaudeville and performed in nightclubs and roadhouses around the United States. Later, Mary Nolan suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined. She turned to heroin, and it spelt the end. In 1948, she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems (according to IMDb, but Wikipedia writes she died of a barbiturate overdose). Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly."

 

Source: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Eve Golden (Films of the Golden Age), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Dutch postcard, no. 60. Photo: Croeze Bosman Universal.

 

Blonde and utterly beautiful Mary Nolan (1902-1948) appeared on stage, on screen, and most of all in the tabloids. After a 'sex scandal', she fled to Germany where she starred in 17 silent films under her real name, Imogene Robertson.

 

Mary Nolan was born Mary Imogene Robertson in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. in 1902 (according to Wikipedia and 1905 according to IMDb). She was one of five children born to Africanus and Viola Robertson. Her mother died of cancer at the age of 46. Unable to care for five young children, Africanus Robertson placed Mary in a foster home. She eventually went to live in a Catholic orphanage in Missouri where she earned the nickname 'Bubbles'. The beautiful blonde arrived broke in New York in 1919. Eve Golden at Films of the Golden Age: "She really was breathtaking with her perfect bone structure, a cloud of thick blonde hair, and china-blue eyes. It wasn't long before Mary got work as an artist's model for such big shots as James Montgomery Flagg and Arthur William Brown." Famous Broadway producer Oliver Morosco launched her stage career in the choruses of Daffy Dill and Lady Butterfly (1923). Bubbles proved to be a Jazz-Age baby and a party girl by nature. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. signed her up for his Follies shows on Broadway. As a showgirl, she performed under the stage name Imogene 'Bubbles' Wilson. For the next several years, she started a violent love/hate relationship with Ziegfeld comedian Frank Tinney. Tinney was married to the comedy star Edna Davenport. Tinney set Mary up in a West 72nd Street apartment and showered her with expensive gifts, but he also showered her with bruises, both physical and emotional. The abusive affair stirred up a major sex scandal in 1924. The tabloids exposed the tumultuous relationship when Mary was seriously hospitalised after one of their many arguments. Mary was fired by Ziegfeld and set sail for France where she was scheduled to appear in vaudeville. She made her way to London in October where she reunited with Frank Tinney. By December 1924, Tinney had resumed drinking and began to physically abuse her again. In early 1925, Nolan finally ended the relationship. She then travelled to Germany where she began to work in the film industry under the new stage name Imogene Robertson. Her first German film was Verborgene Gluten/Hidden Fires (Einar Bruun, 1925) with Alphons Fryland. Later that year, she appeared in the title role of Die Feuertänzerin (Robert Dinesen, 1925) for the Ufa. She received good reviews for her work in the film which prompted the Ufa to offer her a contract for $1500 a week. Nolan worked steadily in Germany from 1925 to 1927 and continued to receive favourable reviews for her acting. Her best-known films include the mystery Das Parfüm der Mrs. Worrington/The Parfum of Mrs. Worrington (Franz Seitz, 1925) with Ernst Reicher as detective Stuart Webbs, Das süße Mädel/The sweet girl (Manfred Noa, 1926) with Nils Asther, and the drama Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines/The adventures of a 10-mark note (Berthold Viertel, 1926).

 

While in Germany, Imogene Robertson received offers from Hollywood producers to appear in American films but turned them down. She finally relented after Joseph M. Schenck offered her a contract with United Artists. She returned to the United States in January 1927. To solve the problem of audiences connecting her with her scandalous past, United Artists suggested she change her name to Mary Nolan. For United Artists, she appeared in an uncredited bit part in Topsy and Eva (Del Lord, 1927), and a supporting role in Sorrell and Son (Herbert Brenon, 1927). In 1928, Nolan was signed to Universal Pictures. Her first film for the company was Good Morning, Judge (William A. Seiter, 1928), starring Reginald Denny for which she received good reviews. Universal loaned her out to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning, 1928), about the vengefulness of a cuckolded magician (Lon Chaney) paralysed in a brawl with his rival (Lionel Barrymore). Nolan played Chaney's defiled daughter Maizie. The film was a hit and Nolan received favourable reviews for her work in the film. The following year, she was loaned to MGM again for the romantic drama Desert Nights (William Nigh, 1929), with John Gilbert. Two thieves (Noland and Ernest Torrence) victimize a diamond mine and kidnap its manager (Gilbert), but he gains the upper hand (and falls in love with Nolan) when they flee into the hostile desert. Desert Nights was another financial success and served to boost Nolan's career. Shortly after signing with Universal in 1927, Nolan had begun a relationship with another married man, studio executive Eddie Mannix. Mannix used his clout to further Nolan's career and was responsible for her loan outs to MGM. Shortly after Desert Nights was released in 1929, Mannix abruptly ended the relationship. This angered Nolan who threatened to tell Mannix's wife Bernice of their affair. Mannix became enraged and beat her unconscious. Nolan was hospitalised for six months and required fifteen surgeries to repair damage Mannix inflicted on her abdomen. While hospitalized, Nolan was prescribed morphine for pain. She eventually became addicted which contributed to the decline of her career. In the Universal production Young Desire (Lew Collins, 1930), Nolan plays Helen Herbert aka 'La Belle Helene', a carnival sideshow dancer. She falls in love with wealthy, wet-behind-the-ears Bobby Spencer who whisks her off to his hometown of Spencerville and stakes her to an apartment and a job. But Helen's sordid past catches up with her... By then, Nolan's acting career had begun to decline due to her drug abuse and reputation for being temperamental. She was fired from the film What Men Want (1930). Nolan got into an argument with the film's director, Ernst Laemmle after she learned she was the only cast member who hadn't received a close-up shot. Laemmle banned Nolan from the set and she was subsequently fired. After threatening to file a lawsuit against Universal, the studio bought her out of her contract in January 1931. She married stock broker Wallace T. McCreary on 29 March 1931. One week before they married, McCreary lost $3 million on bad investments. The couple used McCreary's remaining money to open a dress shop in Beverly Hills. The shop went out of business within months and Nolan filed for bankruptcy in August 1931. Nolan divorced McCreary in July 1932. After her exit from Universal, she was unable to secure film work with any of the major studios. Nolan spent the remainder of her acting career appearing in roles in low-budget films for independent studios. She made her final film appearances in File 113 (Chester M. Franklin, 1933), for Allied Pictures Corporation. From then on, Nolan appeared in vaudeville and performed in nightclubs and roadhouses around the United States. Later, Mary Nolan suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined. She turned to heroin, and it spelt the end. In 1948, she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems (according to IMDb, but Wikipedia writes she died of a barbiturate overdose). Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly."

 

Source: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Eve Golden (Films of the Golden Age), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5722. Photo: Universal-Film, Berlin.

 

Blonde and utterly beautiful Mary Nolan (1902-1948) appeared on stage, on screen, and most of all in the tabloids. After a 'sex scandal', she fled to Germany where she starred in 17 silent films under her real name, Imogene Robertson.

 

Mary Nolan was born Mary Imogene Robertson in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. in 1902 (according to Wikipedia and 1905 according to IMDb). She was one of five children born to Africanus and Viola Robertson. Her mother died of cancer at the age of 46. Unable to care for five young children, Africanus Robertson placed Mary in a foster home. She eventually went to live in a Catholic orphanage in Missouri where she earned the nickname 'Bubbles'. The beautiful blonde arrived broke in New York in 1919. Eve Golden at Films of the Golden Age: "She really was breathtaking with her perfect bone structure, a cloud of thick blonde hair, and china-blue eyes. It wasn't long before Mary got work as an artist's model for such big shots as James Montgomery Flagg and Arthur William Brown." Famous Broadway producer Oliver Morosco launched her stage career in the choruses of Daffy Dill and Lady Butterfly (1923). Bubbles proved to be a Jazz-Age baby and a party girl by nature. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. signed her up for his Follies shows on Broadway. As a showgirl, she performed under the stage name Imogene 'Bubbles' Wilson. For the next several years, she started a violent love/hate relationship with Ziegfeld comedian Frank Tinney. Tinney was married to the comedy star Edna Davenport. Tinney set Mary up in a West 72nd Street apartment and showered her with expensive gifts, but he also showered her with bruises, both physical and emotional. The abusive affair stirred up a major sex scandal in 1924. The tabloids exposed the tumultuous relationship when Mary was seriously hospitalised after one of their many arguments. Mary was fired by Ziegfeld and set sail for France where she was scheduled to appear in vaudeville. She made her way to London in October where she reunited with Frank Tinney. By December 1924, Tinney had resumed drinking and began to physically abuse her again. In early 1925, Nolan finally ended the relationship. She then travelled to Germany where she began to work in the film industry under the new stage name Imogene Robertson. Her first German film was Verborgene Gluten/Hidden Fires (Einar Bruun, 1925) with Alphons Fryland. Later that year, she appeared in the title role of Die Feuertänzerin (Robert Dinesen, 1925) for the Ufa. She received good reviews for her work in the film which prompted the Ufa to offer her a contract for $1500 a week. Nolan worked steadily in Germany from 1925 to 1927 and continued to receive favourable reviews for her acting. Her best-known films include the mystery Das Parfüm der Mrs. Worrington/The Parfum of Mrs. Worrington (Franz Seitz, 1925) with Ernst Reicher as detective Stuart Webbs, Das süße Mädel/The sweet girl (Manfred Noa, 1926) with Nils Asther, and the drama Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines/The adventures of a 10-mark note (Berthold Viertel, 1926).

 

While in Germany, Imogene Robertson received offers from Hollywood producers to appear in American films but turned them down. She finally relented after Joseph M. Schenck offered her a contract with United Artists. She returned to the United States in January 1927. To solve the problem of audiences connecting her with her scandalous past, United Artists suggested she change her name to Mary Nolan. For United Artists, she appeared in an uncredited bit part in Topsy and Eva (Del Lord, 1927), and a supporting role in Sorrell and Son (Herbert Brenon, 1927). In 1928, Nolan was signed to Universal Pictures. Her first film for the company was Good Morning, Judge (William A. Seiter, 1928), starring Reginald Denny for which she received good reviews. Universal loaned her out to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning, 1928), about the vengefulness of a cuckolded magician (Lon Chaney) paralysed in a brawl with his rival (Lionel Barrymore). Nolan played Chaney's defiled daughter Maizie. The film was a hit and Nolan received favourable reviews for her work in the film. The following year, she was loaned to MGM again for the romantic drama Desert Nights (William Nigh, 1929), with John Gilbert. Two thieves (Noland and Ernest Torrence) victimize a diamond mine and kidnap its manager (Gilbert), but he gains the upper hand (and falls in love with Nolan) when they flee into the hostile desert. Desert Nights was another financial success and served to boost Nolan's career. Shortly after signing with Universal in 1927, Nolan had begun a relationship with another married man, studio executive Eddie Mannix. Mannix used his clout to further Nolan's career and was responsible for her loan outs to MGM. Shortly after Desert Nights was released in 1929, Mannix abruptly ended the relationship. This angered Nolan who threatened to tell Mannix's wife Bernice of their affair. Mannix became enraged and beat her unconscious. Nolan was hospitalised for six months and required fifteen surgeries to repair damage Mannix inflicted on her abdomen. While hospitalized, Nolan was prescribed morphine for pain. She eventually became addicted which contributed to the decline of her career. In the Universal production Young Desire (Lew Collins, 1930), Nolan plays Helen Herbert aka 'La Belle Helene', a carnival sideshow dancer. She falls in love with wealthy, wet-behind-the-ears Bobby Spencer who whisks her off to his hometown of Spencerville and stakes her to an apartment and a job. But Helen's sordid past catches up with her... By then, Nolan's acting career had begun to decline due to her drug abuse and reputation for being temperamental. She was fired from the film What Men Want (1930). Nolan got into an argument with the film's director, Ernst Laemmle after she learned she was the only cast member who hadn't received a close-up shot. Laemmle banned Nolan from the set and she was subsequently fired. After threatening to file a lawsuit against Universal, the studio bought her out of her contract in January 1931. She married stock broker Wallace T. McCreary on 29 March 1931. One week before they married, McCreary lost $3 million on bad investments. The couple used McCreary's remaining money to open a dress shop in Beverly Hills. The shop went out of business within months and Nolan filed for bankruptcy in August 1931. Nolan divorced McCreary in July 1932. After her exit from Universal, she was unable to secure film work with any of the major studios. Nolan spent the remainder of her acting career appearing in roles in low-budget films for independent studios. She made her final film appearances in File 113 (Chester M. Franklin, 1933), for Allied Pictures Corporation. From then on, Nolan appeared in vaudeville and performed in nightclubs and roadhouses around the United States. Later, Mary Nolan suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined. She turned to heroin, and it spelt the end. In 1948, she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems (according to IMDb, but Wikipedia writes she died of a barbiturate overdose). Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly."

 

Source: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Eve Golden (Films of the Golden Age), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Deep Peace Carving By Michael Appleby

 

In the quiet corners of the world, where nature and humanity harmoniously blend, there exists a gifted artist whose hands dance upon the canvas of wood. His name is Michael Appleby, and his art is a testament to the profound connection he shares with the natural world. The gentle strokes of his carving tools bring forth intricate and mesmerizing pieces, each imbued with a sense of deep peace that resonates with all who behold them.

 

Michael's journey into the realm of wood carving began in his early childhood. Growing up in a small village nestled between majestic mountains and a serene river, he spent his days exploring the forests and meadows. Nature became his playground, and the trees and stones became his friends. It was during these formative years that Michael's love for the wilderness began to intertwine with his artistic inclinations.

 

As he grew older, Michael honed his skills as an artist, experimenting with various mediums such as charcoal, paint, and clay. However, it was when he stumbled upon an old, weathered carving knife in his grandfather's attic that he discovered his true calling. The rusty blade seemed to resonate with a hidden energy, whispering tales of untold beauty locked within the wood.

 

Under the guidance of his grandfather, a skilled carpenter in his own right, Michael learned the basics of wood carving. Initially, he carved simple shapes and patterns, but as his passion grew, so did the complexity of his work. His designs began to mirror the intricate patterns found in nature – delicate leaves, graceful tendrils, and animals caught in moments of serene stillness.

 

As Michael's reputation as a wood carver grew, so did his appreciation for the environment. He recognized the urgent need to protect the very source of his inspiration. Believing that art could be a catalyst for change, he started using his work to advocate for conservation and the preservation of nature's wonders.

 

One of Michael's most renowned pieces, "Deep Peace," embodies his artistic philosophy and his commitment to the natural world. It is an exquisite representation of a tranquil forest scene carved into a massive slab of oak. The carving depicts a dense canopy of trees, their branches intermingling like old friends holding hands. Below, a gentle stream winds its way through the underbrush, where woodland creatures find solace in the presence of one another.

 

What sets "Deep Peace" apart is not merely its stunning craftsmanship, but the emotional depth it conveys. Michael's reverence for nature is palpable in every groove and curve, as if the spirit of the forest itself guided his hand. The piece seems to whisper ancient tales of forgotten wisdom and the interconnectedness of all living beings.

 

To bring this masterpiece to life, Michael spent countless hours immersed in the rhythm of the carving process. His workshop, surrounded by the very woods that fueled his imagination, became a sanctuary where time seemed to slow down. With each stroke of the knife, he surrendered to the wood's will, allowing the raw material to dictate the path of the art.

 

Michael's connection with the natural world was not limited to his art alone. He embarked on numerous expeditions into remote wilderness areas, seeking new inspiration and gaining a deeper understanding of the delicate balance of ecosystems. These adventures not only enriched his creativity but also fueled his desire to protect these sacred spaces from the encroachment of modern development.

 

Through his work and advocacy, Michael Appleby became a champion of environmental conservation, inspiring others to cherish and protect the natural world. His art exhibitions became platforms for raising awareness and funding for various environmental causes. His carvings also found homes in galleries, museums, and private collections around the world, serving as a reminder of the beauty and fragility of the Earth's ecosystems.

 

As his artistic journey continued, Michael's carvings evolved to include not only scenes of nature but also portraits of the people and cultures he encountered during his travels. With each piece, he sought to capture the essence of the human experience and the profound interconnectedness between all living things.

 

One of his most moving pieces, "Elders of the Plains," showcases the faces of indigenous elders etched into a towering totem pole. Each wrinkled visage tells a story of resilience, wisdom, and a deep-rooted bond with the land they have called home for generations. The totem serves as a testament to the strength of these communities and the urgent need to protect their ancestral territories.

 

Michael's journey as an artist and conservationist has not been without its challenges. The changing climate, deforestation, and the relentless march of progress all posed threats to the delicate balance of the natural world he held dear. Yet, in the face of adversity, his art continued to be a beacon of hope and a call to action for all who beheld it.

 

As the years passed, Michael's creations began to take on a new dimension. Collaborations with musicians, dancers, and writers allowed his art to transcend traditional boundaries and create immersive experiences that touched the hearts and souls of those who experienced them. His art installations became interactive sanctuaries, where visitors could reconnect with nature and their own inner peace.

 

Michael's commitment to the environment and his pursuit of deep peace through art garnered international recognition. He received numerous awards and accolades, but to him, the true reward was seeing how his art inspired positive change in the world. The awareness generated by his work contributed to the establishment of protected areas, reforestation projects, and the support of indigenous communities.

 

In an ever-changing world, Michael Appleby's art stands as a testament to the power of creativity, compassion, and the deep connection between humanity and nature. It serves as a reminder that each stroke of kindness, each act of preservation, and each endeavor to protect the environment can have a profound impact on the world around us.

 

In the end, "Deep Peace" is not merely a carving etched into wood; it is a reflection of the artist's soul, a mirror of the world's beauty, and a beacon of hope for a better, more harmonious future. Michael's journey continues, and his art continues to touch the lives of countless individuals, spreading a message of reverence for nature and the transformative power of creativity.

 

And so, with each new carving that graces the world, Michael Appleby's legacy endures – a legacy of deep peace, artistry, and a profound love for the natural world. As long as there are forests to inspire, rivers to whisper, and mountains to sing, his art will echo in the hearts of all who seek solace, wonder, and the enchantment of the wild.

 

The Cathedral Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, commonly known as St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Scottish Episcopal Church in the West End of Edinburgh, Scotland; part of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

 

Its foundation stone was laid in Palmerston Place, on 21 May 1874 by the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, and the building was consecrated on 30 October 1879.

 

St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral is the Mother Church of all Scottish Episcopal churches in the Edinburgh Diocese, which stretches from the Firth of Forth down to the English border. There are seven dioceses in Scotland. St Mary’s is the see of the Lord Bishop of Edinburgh, one of the seven bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church.

 

It was designed in a Victorian Gothic revival style by architect Sir George Gilbert Scott. It has attained Category A listed building status, and is part of the Old Town and New Town of Edinburgh World Heritage Site. The cathedral is one of only three in the United Kingdom that feature three spires, the other two being Lichfield and Truro cathedrals. The main spire is 90 metres (295 ft) tall, making the building the tallest in the Edinburgh urban area. The other two spires were completed in 1917. The Song School and the Chapter House were also added in later years.

 

History

In 1689, following the Glorious Revolution, Presbyterianism was restored in place of episcopacy in the national Church of Scotland. This led to the emergence of the Scottish Episcopal Church as a separate Christian denomination.

 

Edinburgh's historic St Giles' Cathedral was raised to cathedral status in 1633, the seat of the newly established Bishop of Edinburgh. However the rejection of episcopacy saw the cathedral converted to Presbyterian use. For a time the Episcopal residue of that congregation worshipped in an old woollen mill in Carrubber's Close, near the site of the present Old St Paul's Church.

 

A bequest by Barbara and Mary Walker left the cathedral's site in Edinburgh's West End to the Episcopal Church alongside an endowment. administered by the Walker Trustees, allowing for the building of a cathedral dedicated to St Mary the Virgin. The sisters owned the surrounding Drumsheugh Estate and lived in Easter Coates House, which survives to the north of the cathedral. They were the granddaughters of the Rev. George Walker, the Episcopal minister of Oldmeldrum Church (1734–1781). Their father, William Walker, was Attorney in Exchequer, and Bearer of the White Rod of Scotland; their mother was Mary Drummond, daughter of George Drummond, six times Lord Provost of Edinburgh and initiator of the New Town. William Walker bought the Coates estate from the Byres family around 1800 and is remembered in the street names William Street and Walker Street round the corner from Manor Place.

 

Design and construction

The cathedral was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and the foundation stone was laid on 21 May 1874 by the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, whose family had been supportive of Scottish episcopacy over the previous hundred years. Inside the stone was placed a bottle containing a copy of the trust deed, the Edinburgh Post Office Directory, Oliver and Boyd's Almanac, newspapers and coins. The cathedral's builder was G. W. Booth and the clerk of works was Edwin Morgan.

 

St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral has four main doors: the west, east, north and south doors. The cathedral's main entrance is the ornate west entrance, from Palmerston Place, which features Saint Peter and the key to the Kingdom of Heaven.

 

In preparation for the opening of the cathedral a congregation had been formed to worship in a temporary iron church erected on the site now occupied by the Song School. Beginning on 26 May 1876, it was ministered to by the dean, James Montgomery, and two chaplains, and grew rapidly. The nave of the cathedral was opened on 25 January 1879 and from that day, daily services have been held in the cathedral. The cathedral was consecrated on 30 October 1879 in the presence of about 200 clergy from around the country.

 

The twin spires at the west end, known as "Barbara" and "Mary" after the Walker sisters, were not begun until 1913 and completed in 1917. The architect for these was Charles Marriott Oldrid Scott, Sir George's grandson.

 

The reredos is designed by John Oldrid Scott and sculpted by Mary Grant. The critic Sacheverell Sitwell condemned the design as "peerless for ugliness, unless it be for its own sister, Scott's St John's College chapel, at Cambridge".

 

Music

Choral services

St Mary's Cathedral is the only cathedral in Scotland to maintain a tradition of daily choral services, for most of the year, with choristers drawn from its own choir school.

 

It was the first cathedral in Great Britain to employ girls in the treble line as well as boys, in 1978, when Dennis Townhill was organist and choir master. In 2005, St Mary's Cathedral became the first cathedral in the Anglican tradition to have a female alto singing in daily services.

Song School

 

The Song School was built in 1885. It was designed by John Oldrid Scott. It provided St Mary's choir with a rehearsal space which the choir use for their daily practice. It houses a second Father Willis organ (1829). The Song School walls are ornately decorated by the Irish-born artist Phoebe Anna Traquair. Guided tours of the Song School are available, at certain times during the year.

 

St Mary's Music School and choir

St Mary's Music School was founded to educate its choirboys. It continues to educate choristers of the cathedral and is now a separate specialist music school open to all pupils.

 

Bells

There are ten original bells in the central tower of the cathedral hung for change ringing, with two further bells which have been added more recently. They were the gift of the first dean of St Mary's, James F. Montgomery. The bells were all cast by John Taylor & Co. of Loughborough to weight ratios defined by Lord Grimthorpe who was a leading bell designer of his day. This is one of only a few complete Grimthorpe rings still in existence. The tenor bell weighs 41 cwt. The bells were dedicated on 29 October 1879.

Festival Fringe venue

 

St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral (Venue 91) hosts classical concerts, coffee concerts, lunchtime recitals, art events and exhibitions, during the annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

 

St Mary's also has an active calendar of concerts, charity concerts, events and exhibitions throughout the year.

Organists

T. H. Collinson

 

1878 Thomas Henry Collinson

1929 Robert Head

1958 Eric Parsons

1961 Dennis Townhill

1991 Timothy Byram-Wigfield

1999 Matthew Owens

2005 Simon Nieminski

2007 (to current day) Duncan Ferguson (Master of Music & Organist)

 

Provosts of the cathedral

The provost in the Scottish Episcopalian church is the senior priest of the cathedral, with responsibility for the mother church of the diocese. When the bishop officiates, the provost is assistant priest. They are formally addressed as The Very Reverend and more informally as Provost or simply .

 

1879–1897 James Montgomery

1897–1919 John Wilson

1920–1925 Edward Henderson

1925–1938 William Margetson

1938–1939 Logie Danson

1940–1944 David Dunlop

1944–1949 Ivor Ramsay

1949–1956 Hector Gooderham

1957–1967 Reginald Foskett

1967–1970 Patrick Rodger

1970–1990 Philip Crosfield

1990–2017 Graham Forbes

September 2017 (to current day) John Conway

 

Objects of interest

Memorials

Captain James Dundas V.C. (1842–1879)

General Sir Alexander Frank Philip Christison Bt. (1893–1993), erected by the Burma Star Association

Soldiers of the Royal Scots killed overseas 1857–1870

Reclining marble effigy of James Francis Montgomery (1902) by James Pittendrigh Macgillivray.

Barbara and Mary Walker, the philanthropists who funded the church (see above)

 

The war memorial is by Pilkington Jackson (1920).

Rood cross

 

The Lorimer rood cross was designed as part of the National War Memorial, and completed by Sir Robert Lorimer in 1922. It is positioned high aloft the nave altar, unmissable as eyes lift to view the high altar, or the east lancet windows beyond. It is a striking figure of Christ crucified on a background of Flanders poppies and decorated with golden winged angels.

 

Walter Scott's pew

Sir Walter Scott’s pew moved to the cathedral in 2006. Its first location was in St George's Church on York Place and was then moved in 1932 to St Paul's Church across the road when the two congregations amalgamated, and the latter building became St Paul's and St George's.

 

Raised a Presbyterian in the Church of Scotland where he was ordained as an elder, in adult life he also adhered to the doctrine of the Scottish Episcopal Church.

Paolozzi’s ‘Millennium Window’

 

The cathedral is home to a stained-glass window reworked as an artwork in the Modern Art genre for year 2000 by Eduardo Paolozzi who was born in Leith. The glasswork consists of a large rose window with three lancet windows below, in vibrant colours of glass which are designed to project onto stonework inside the cathedral on bright days.

 

It is visible from the south side of St Mary's from Bishop's Walk but is best viewed from inside with the light behind, from either the Resurrection Chapel on the south side, or beside the ornate wooden casing and pipework of St Mary's ‘Father Willis’ organ on the north side.

Prayer labyrinth

 

The south grounds of the cathedral are accessed from Bishop's Walk or from the south doors in the Resurrection Chapel when these stand open.

 

A prayer labyrinth designed by artists connected with the cathedral has been carved and sown with wild flowers, with help from others in the congregation of St Mary's. Unlike a maze, a labyrinth is a single continuous route, from entry point to centre. The prayer labyrinth frees you to think your own thoughts or prayers for others, as you follow the path, edged by wild flowers; to attract insects.

 

Midlothian is a historic county, registration county, lieutenancy area and one of 32 council areas of Scotland used for local government. Midlothian lies in the east-central Lowlands, bordering the City of Edinburgh council area, East Lothian and the Scottish Borders.

 

Midlothian emerged as a county in the Middle Ages under larger boundaries than the modern council area, including Edinburgh itself. The county was formally called the "shire of Edinburgh" or Edinburghshire until the twentieth century. It bordered West Lothian to the west, Lanarkshire, Peeblesshire and Selkirkshire to the south, and East Lothian, Berwickshire and Roxburghshire to the east. Traditional industries included mining, agriculture and fishing—although the modern council area is now landlocked.

 

Following the end of the Roman occupation of Britain, Lothian was populated by Brythonic-speaking ancient Britons and formed part of Gododdin, within the Hen Ogledd or Old North. In the seventh century, Gododdin fell to the Angles, with Lothian becoming part of the kingdom of Bernicia. Bernicia united into the Kingdom of Northumbria which itself became part of the early Kingdom of England. Lothian came under the control of the Scottish monarchy in the tenth century.

 

In the Middle Ages, Lothian was the scene of several historic conflicts between the kingdoms of Scotland and England. The Battle of Roslin took place in 1303 at Roslin as part of the First War of Scottish Independence. A Scottish army led by Simon Fraser and John Comyn defeated an army led by English commander John Segrave.

 

Along with other parts of the Lothians, the county was involved in the Rough Wooing when Roslin Castle, seat of the Earl of Caithness, was destroyed in 1544 by forces of Henry VIII of England.

 

In the 17th century, the county featured in the War of the Three Kingdoms, where General George Monck had his base at Dalkeith Castle as the Commonwealth's Commander in Scotland. Following the Restoration of the monarchy, the "Pentland Rising" in the region culminated with the Battle of Rullion Green in 1666, a decisive victory for the Government forces against Covenanter rebels.

 

In 1650, Oliver Cromwell's army came to Dalkeith. His officer General George Monck, was Commander in Scotland, and the government of the country was based out of Dalkeith castle.

 

The 1878-80 Midlothian campaign by British Liberal politician William Ewart Gladstone entered history as an early example of modern political campaigning, resulting in Gladstone taking the Midlothian constituency from the long-time Conservative Member of Parliament William Montagu Douglas Scott and going on to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

 

On 1 June 1978, Midlothian became Sister Cities with Midlothian, Illinois.

 

The modern council area of Midlothian is governed by Midlothian Council, based in Dalkeith.

 

The origins of the historic county of Midlothian are obscure; it emerged as a shire (the area controlled by a sheriff) in the Middle Ages, and was certainly in existence by the reign of David I (reigned 1124–1153). It covered the central part of the former kingdom or province of Lothian, and was formally called the "shire of Edinburgh" or "Edinburghshire", although the alternative name "Midlothian" was also used from a very early date. The burgh of Edinburgh became administratively independent from the surrounding county in 1482 when James III granted the burgh the right to appoint its own sheriff and coroner, making it a county of itself.

 

Commissioners of Supply were established for each shire in 1667, and served as the main administrative body for the county until elected county councils were created in 1890 under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, taking most of the commissioners' functions. The commissioners for Edinburghshire, and the county council which followed them, did not have jurisdiction over the city of Edinburgh, which was administered by the town council of the burgh.

 

From its creation in 1890 the county council called itself "Midlothian County Council". However, the legal name of the county remained the "county of Edinburgh" or "Edinburghshire". In 1913 the county council petitioned the government to formally change the name to Midlothian. The government responded that it would direct all government departments to use Midlothian rather than Edinburghshire, but that a formal change of name needed to be done by statute and it could not justify the parliamentary time to make such a change. The statutory change of name from Edinburghshire to Midlothian eventually took place in 1947, under section 127 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947.

 

Midlothian County Council was based at Midlothian County Buildings, built in 1904 on George IV Bridge in Edinburgh on the site of the earlier County Buildings.

 

Midlothian was abolished as a county for local government purposes in 1975. The boundaries of the historic county of Midlothian, including the city of Edinburgh, are still used for some limited official purposes connected with land registration, being a registration county.

 

Midlothian County Council was abolished in 1975 under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, which abolished Scotland's counties and burghs as administrative areas and created a new two-tier system of upper-tier regions and lower-tier districts. Most of Midlothian's territory went to a new district called Midlothian within the Lothian region. The Midlothian district was smaller than the area of the pre-1975 county, with the parts of the pre-1975 county going to other districts being:

 

Currie, Balerno, Ratho and Newbridge to the city of Edinburgh.

Musselburgh burgh and parish of Inveresk (which included the villages of Inveresk, Wallyford and Whitecraig) to East Lothian.

The Calders (East Calder, Midcalder and West Calder) and the Midlothian part of Livingston to West Lothian.

Heriot and Stow parishes to the Ettrick and Lauderdale district of the Borders region.

 

For lieutenancy purposes, the last lord-lieutenant of the county of Midlothian was made lord-lieutenant for the new district of Midlothian when the reforms came into effect in 1975. The former county council's headquarters in Edinburgh became the offices of the new Lothian Regional Council, whilst the Midlothian District Council established its headquarters in Dalkeith. In 1991 the council built itself a new headquarters called Midlothian House at 40-46 Buccleuch Street in Dalkeith.

 

The Lothian region was abolished in 1996. The four districts in the region, including Midlothian, became unitary council areas. The reconstituted Midlothian Council continues to be based at Midlothian House in Dalkeith. The Midlothian lieutenancy area corresponds to the current council area rather than the historic county.

 

There is a Midlothian constituency of the House of Commons.

 

There was a Midlothian constituency of the Scottish Parliament up to the 2011 elections when it was divided between Midlothian North and Musselburgh and Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale.

 

The Midlothian council area contains the towns of Dalkeith, Bonnyrigg and Penicuik, as well as a portion of the Pentland Hills Regional Park, Rosslyn Chapel and Dalkeith Palace.

 

The historic county has a roughly trapezoidal shape; it consists of a fairly flat area along the Firth of Forth, which is heavily urbanised and dominated by the Edinburgh conurbation. Off the coast lie the small islands of Inchmickery and Cramond Island. The land gradually rises to the south, with the Pentland Hills in the south-west, Moorfoot Hills in the centre-south and the Lammermuir Hills in the far south-east. Blackhope Scar on the border with Peeblesshire is the highest point in the county at 651 m (2,136 ft). The county contains no lochs of any size, though there are many reservoirs, most notably Gladhouse Reservoir, Rosebery Reservoir, Edgelaw Reservoir, Loganlea Reservoir, Glencorse Reservoir, Threipmuir Reservoir, Harlaw Reservoir, Harperrig Reservoir, Crosswood Reservoir, Morton Reservoir and Cobbinshaw Reservoir.

 

Notable people associated with Midlothian

 

William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585–1649), Scottish poet.

Princess Margaret of Scotland (1598–1600), daughter of James VI and I of Scotland and England (born Dalkeith Palace)

John Clerk of Penicuik, 2nd Baronet (1676–1755), was a Scottish politician, lawyer, judge, composer and architect.

William Robertson (1721–1793), historian, minister in the Church of Scotland, and Principal of the University of Edinburgh

Robert Smith (1722–1777), American architect, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, born in Dalkeith

Hector Macneill (1746–1818), poet and songwriter, born near Roslin

John Clerk, Lord Eldin (1757–1832), Scottish judge, lived in Lasswade for several years.

Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) wrote the novel The Heart of Midlothian and lived at Lasswade Cottage (now Sir Walter Scott's Cottage) in Lasswade from 1798 to 1804, where he wrote his Grey Brother, translation of Goetz von Berlichingen, etc. and was visited by Wordsworth.

William Tennant (1784–1848), the author of Anster Fair, was parish schoolmaster in Lasswade from 1816 to 1819.

Thomas de Quincey (1785–1859), author of Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1822), lived in Man's Bush Cottage (now De Quincey Cottage), Polton, from 1840 until his death in 1859.

Thomas Murray (1792–1872), the Gallovidian author, died in Lasswade.

Anne Richelieu Lamb (1807–1878), feminist writer

William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898), MP for Midlothian 1880–1895 and conducted his famous Midlothian campaign across the UK in 1880

Patrick Edward Dove (1815–1873), mainly remembered for his book The Theory of Human Progression, born at Lasswade

John Lawson Johnston (1839–1900), the creator of Bovril, born at Roslin.

Charles W. Nibley (1849–1931), Scottish-American religious leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Nibley was served as second counselor in the First Presidency to Heber J. Grant (1925–31), and Presiding Bishop (1907–25).

Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (1869–1959) of Glencorse, Nobel prize-winning physicist.

George Forrest (1873–1932), a plant collector who gained fame with his expeditions to the far east who spent a significant part of his early years in Loanhead.

Sir William MacTaggart (1903–1981), artist, and grandson of the artist William McTaggart, he became President of the Society of Scottish Artists, President of the Royal Scottish Academy, and Trustee of the National Museum of Antiquities.

Charles Forte, Baron Forte (1908–2007), the hotelier, worked in an Italian cafe in Loanhead, on his arrival in Scotland from Italy.

Karl Miller (1931–2014), founding editor of the London Review of Books and Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College, London (1974–1992), born in Straiton.

Annette Crosbie (born 1934), actress, born in Gorebridge Ishbel MacAskill (1941–2011), heritage activist and traditional Scottish Gaelic singer and teacher

Gary Naysmith from Loanhead (born 1978), Scottish International Footballer who played for Heart of Midlothian and Everton. He was named Scottish PFA Young Player of the Year in 1998. He won the Scottish Cup with Hearts in 1998.

Darren Fletcher (born 1984), from Mayfield Dalkeith. Scotland International footballer and holds the record of being the youngest player to captain his national side, and was part of the Manchester United squad that won the UEFA Champions League in the 2007–2008 season.

Steven Whittaker from Bonnyrigg, (born 1984), Scotland International footballer, ex-Hibernian F.C. and Rangers F.C.

This was above a former close (Melrose Close, the entrance now filled in with a shop) on the High street, next to no. 64 (‘Edinburgh Cashmere & Lambswool Boutique’ when I took this, now 'Balmoral Cashmere' according to google maps street-view), the address where my great-great-great-grandmother Elizabeth Greig, nee Whittet (Mom's Mom's Mom's Dad's Mom) was living in a small apt. just before she died at age 50 in 1863. (Her marriage record misidentifies her and her father as Whytocks and her death record gives her name as Whittock; but that's not her fault, she was a Whittet. I've read the name derives from 'Whitehead', so she must be the source of my oily skin. [Sorry]) Does this look like it could be 150 yr.s old?

- Her death record indicates she died at "Skinners Close 64 High st." which is mysterious as those are two different places. 'Skinner's close', where she and her husband, a Master shoemaker and 'Bootcloser', lived in the "3rd House Right hand" with their young family 12 yr.s earlier, is further west up the High st. across from the Tron church and near the castle. She was living here on her own as a widow at age 48 at 64 High st. two years before her death.

- She died of a "disease of the brain - uncertain [which]." (? 50's a bit young to die of a stroke.) She was the youngest bride I know of in my family tree, married at 13 or 14 in the famous, historic St. John's kirk in Perth to David Greig, a groom of @ 16 yr.s, also the youngest in my tree and already a shoemaker and a 'journeyman'. Her father was a weaver, and she was born and/or raised in Inchture in 'the Carse of Gowrie' in SE Perthshire. (Inchture is only 10 miles from Dundee, 'the capital of Jute'. www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRJL6x0P8v4 There must've been a mill or 2 handy to Inchture, or could her father have commuted such a distance?) Her parents were married in Perth in the same famous church by Rev. James Scott artuk.org/discover/artworks/reverend-james-scott-of-perth... and were living there when Elizabeth's elder and younger sisters were baptized, so the family must have moved @ a bit. There's evidence that her mother and maternal grandfather were from Dundee in Angus, and that her parents moved to Dundee to live and work in their 50s and 60s. Her husband David was from Edinburgh. How and where did they meet?

www.google.ca/maps/@55.9502846,-3.1866317,3a,15y,142.43h,...

- This and 64 High st. are just across the street and less than 20 m.s up from 105 High st. where her eldest son, my great great grandfather, and his family were living when my great grandmother was born in 1869 and only @ 1/2-a-block away from the "John Knox house" and this: www.flickr.com/photos/97924400@N00/9569013259/in/datepost...

- A painting in the next link was painted by Louise Rayner @ half-a-block east down the High street only 2 years before great x 3 grandma died and includes the fountain that she would have visited daily to draw water. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Knox_House#/media/File:Louise_...

 

- My great grandmother (Mom's Mom's Mom) was born a Greig, one of 49 variations of surnames adopted (or so it's said) by members of the McGregor clan on pain of death in the early 17th cent. in the time of James VI of Scotland/James I of England and which are recognized today as clan and sept names by the clan Gregor society. Early records of the surname predate James IV, the earliest dating to the 13th cent. in Fife, so it's possible that the patrilineal ancestor of my great grandmother who lived some 265 yr.s before she was born was not a MacGregor or Gregor and so didn't have to adopt a pre-existing surname. The gaelic name Griogair is the gaelic form of the latin name Gregorius and the late Greek Gregorios, and many of the surnames Greig, Grigg, Grig, Grieg, Greg, Gregg, Grege, et al. ( www.houseofnames.com/greg-family-crest ) in those less literate days of the 13th - 16th cent.s were derivations. "In early Scottish history, the name MacGregor was recorded a variety of ways. Inconsistencies in spelling were due to a number of factors: illiteracy, differing translations between the Gaelic and English, and personal preferences. Spelling changes could arise from family disputes, changes in allegiance to another branch of the clan, or in order to avoid persecution [with the proscription]. Even the inclusion or exclusion of the Mac or Mc was left up to the individual. Greig was one common ancient variant of MacGregor, and it was also possibly one of many surnames adopted by members of the clan when the MacGregor name was banished in Scotland from 1603 to 1774." web.archive.org/web/20190817164253/http://www.greig.org/i... Rather than 'less literate', Samuel Johnson, who toured the highlands in the 18th century, wrote in his 'A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland' that "[t]he nation was wholly illiterate. Neither bards nor Senachies could write or read; but if they were ignorant, there was no danger of detection; they were believed by those whose vanity they flattered. The recital of genealogies, which has been considered as very efficacious to the preservation of a true series of ancestry, was anciently made, when the heir of the family came to manly age. This practice has never subsisted within time of memory, nor was much credit due to such rehearsers, who might obtrude fictitious pedigrees, either to please their masters, or to hide the deficiency of their own memories."

- My mother, her mother and her grandmother had been told each in turn that they descend from a Gregor or MacGregor who had adopted the name Greig when the former names were proscribed in the early 17th cent. Family tradition won't amount to proof but it has value and shouldn't be dismissed, at least not without good reason. I don't know of any relatives with the name (it's no surprise that we have no contact with any of my great grandmother's nephews 2 or 3 x removed) so Y-chromosome testing won't help. But many members of Scottish clans are unrelated to one another by blood in any case as many would join clans over the centuries and adopt a clan name as a surname. This was common with crofters and tenant farmers who would adopt the name of the land-lord, a clan chieftain. So genetic studies could be unreliable in any event. (Here's an entry from an interesting blog for 'the MacGregor DNA project': themacgregordnaproject.blogspot.com/2018/01/ ). How long has the name Greig been recognized as that of a sept of the clan Gregor by the clan's chieftains? And how likely or unlikely is it that a family history which includes an episode of persecution in the early 17th cent. would be related over @ 250 yr.s and down through the generations to be conveyed to relatively poor, uneducated descendants in families supported by shoemakers living in the High street's slums in the mid 19th cent.? Unlikely I would think, but according to this post for the MacGregor DNA Project, "[i]t’s unusual ... among MacGregors [no matter how poor or uneducated they might be, that they would lose the knowledge of their heritage] because of their turbulent history, [although] it happens in other clans. Paradoxically because the MacGregor name was proscribed for so long [1603-60 and 1693-1774] it seems many families held on to the knowledge that they were MacGregors despite having been forced to take other surnames. Some families never changed back to MacGregor when it was finally possible to do so - which is why in the DNA project we see individuals named Drummond, Stirling, Campbell, etc. who are genetically MacGregors - their ancestors never readopted the name when it was safe to do so."

- In spite of Johnson's observation above, another traveler in the Highlands in the 18th cent. remarked that every man he met there "was a genealogist." (I forget who I'm quoting, I'll have to find the book with the quote.) A knowledge of one's tree and of one's roots was more important to the average romantic Scot than to the average (and less assuming?) Englishman. (This could also reflect average levels of wealth and the greater opportunities for 'upward mobility' in fertile England relative to the more dramatic but less hospitable highlands where one had to compete or fight for resources and where clan or tribal membership and support was crucial to success or survival.) Or did many Greigs, Griggs, etc. only begin to make the claim to descent from early 17th cent. McGregors/Gregors with the publication of Scott's Rob Roy and the ensuing rehabilitation and romanticization of the McGregor name (despite the clan's dark history and their horrific treatment in the 17th and 18th cent.s; see below.) So while it seems evident or likely that Greigs and McGregors and Gregors share the same roots and interesting medieval history, at least up until sometime before or @ the 13th cent. from as early as the 7th or 8th (again see below), the question for my Mom is how many McGregors and Gregors adopted the name Greig following the proscription, in light of the fact that the name predates it.

 

- The clan Gregor's or MacGregor's misfortunes began when David II gave a barony which included much of their lands to clan Campbell. Before then, "MacGregors were one of the largest landholding families in early Scotland. Their possessions once stretched from Loch Rannock to Loch Lomond and from Loch Etive to Taymough with their center of power located in Glenorchy, Argyllshire." As the Campbells gained power in the western highlands, they 'harried' the McGregors, refused to recognize the claim of a clan leader to 'the estates', and a 10 yr. war between the 2 clans ensued. The Campbells captured and murdered the MacGregor clan chief, who had become an outlaw, in 1570, and as the persecution of the McGregors by the Campbells continued, the former came to be known as 'the Children of the mist', an allusion to the extent of their losses. Then John Drummond, the king's forester, was murdered after hanging a number of MacGregors for poaching or, I've also read, cutting off their ears. According to one version of events, clan members paid a call at the home of the man's sister, demanded bread and cheese, and left the Sheriff's disembodied head on a platter for his sister to discover on her return from the kitchen. In another version presented in a contemporary bond, the "clan cuttit and aftuik his heid, and thereafter conveening the rest of the clan and setting doun the heid before them, thereby caused them to authorize the murder". A 2nd acct. in the records of the Privy Council which refers to 'the wicked Clan Gregor', "by which name the clan is stigmatized in all public records henceforth", supplies additional particulars.: "After the murder committit, the authors thereof cut off the said umquhile John Druminond's head, and carried the same to the Laird of MacGregor, who, and the whole surname of MacGregors, purposely convened upon the next Sunday at the Kirk of Balquhidder, where they caused the said John's head to be presented to them, and there avowing the murder to have been committit by their common counsel and determination, laid their hands upon the pow, and in eithnick (heathenish) and barbarous manner swore to defend the authors of the said murder." The chief took responsibility for the murder which was condemned by the Privy Council.

- Then, after a tit-for-tat pair of double executions between the MacGregors and the Colquhouns (pron. Col-hoons), the latter appealed to King James VI (with women of the clan raising sheets dipped in sheeps' blood high on sticks for dramatic effect) who took their side and granted them 'Letters of Fire and Sword' (a commission to subdue the MacGregors). A famous battle then ensued at Glen Fruin /b/ the Colquhouns and the MacGregors in February, 1603. A Colquhoun force of 500 foot and 300 horse were defeated by 400 MacGregors outnumbered 2 to 1, and 200 Colquhoun men were trapped and slaughtered in the Moss of Auchingaich. A furious King James then promptly issued an edict proclaiming the name of MacGregor as "altogidder abolisheed", such that all who bore the name must renounce it under pain of death (a great example of 'winning the battle and losing the war.') "In 1604, MacGregor [Alaistair of Glenstrae] and 11 of his chieftains were hanged at Mercat Cross in Edinburgh. As a result, the Clan Gregor was scattered, with many taking other names such as Murray or Grant [or Greig]. They were hunted like animals and flushed out of the heather by bloodhounds." (Wikipedia) www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGYR9dkV4wA Before he was hung, drawn, and quartered, Alaistair was accused "of having killed @ 140 [Colquhouns], most of them in cold blood, after they were made prisoners [of the MacGregors at Glen Fruin]; of carrying off 80 horses, 600 cows and 800 sheep; and of burning houses, corn-yards, etc." www.pressreader.com/uk/the-scotsman/20170220/281844348398823

 

- It might've been a little less risk-averse for those clan members who did adopt an alias to choose one that sounds similar to MacGregor or which retains something of the name. Of the 49 names of clans and septs recognized by the clan Gregor society, 19 begin with the letters 'Gr' or 'MacGr' and the rest have no resemblance to the name. These 7 come closest.: Gregg, Grigor, Gregson, Gregorson, Gregory, Greig, and MacGrigor. I have a friend and colleague who's a Gregson, but I think Gregory and Greig are the most common of the 7 (I've never heard the other 4). The names MacGregor and Gregor (the latter was also proscribed in the edict) are 2 of the 49 in total, but I have no idea what proportion of members of the clan sought and managed to retain the name from 1604 until it was restored in 1661, and then after 1693 when it was proscribed again by William of Orange. There would've been no shortage of remote spots in the Highlands and islands to which one could withdraw and keep whatever name one liked in the 17th cent. Perhaps it was after 1604 that those who retreated into the mountains and kept their name came to be known as 'the Children of the Mist'. According to Wikipedia "[d]espite the savage treatment of the MacGregors [see below], they had nevertheless fought for the king during the Scottish Civil War [from 1644-45, and] 200 men of the Clan Gregor fought for the Earl of Glencairn in what was known as Glencairn's rising, against the Commonwealth [from 1653-54]. In recognition of this, Charles II repealed the proscription," although William of Orange would then re-impose it with the deposition of Charles' brother James VII. What was life like for these people who continued to go by the name MacGregor in spite of the edict? And what percentage of MacGregors today descend from men who claimed or reclaimed or adopted the name following the repeal of the proscription? When I write that it might've been bold to adopt an alias similar to the name (let alone to seek to keep it), I consider the following.: "[In the early 17th cent.,] MacGregor women were branded and their children were given to other families. MacGregors couldn't travel in groups of more than 2 and couldn't cut meat with a blade. The men were executed, the women were stripped bare, branded, and whipped through the streets, and women and children were sold into slavery for Britain's new colonies in North America. MacGregors were denied food, water and shelter. They were denied the sacraments of baptism, holy communion, marriage, and last rites. They were hunted with dogs like vermin. And MacGregor heads could be sold to the government to attain pardon for thievery and murder. [! Truth is stranger and much worse than fiction.] It was a licence to kill. ..." www.duhaime.org/LawMuseum/LawArticle-1593/1604-The-Abolit... (The Campbells are made out to be the villains here, but I ask how much James VI/James I was directly responsible for such cruelty?)

- The clan had fallen as far as possible and from something of a height, for the MacGregors had been one of the leading clans in the country for centuries in the middle ages. 'Royal is my race' is the clan's motto as they claim descent from a Gregor who was a MacAlpine, and who I've read was the brother of King Kenneth in the early 9th century. I've also read that Gregor "may have been Griogair, son of Dungal, who was allegedly co-ruler of Alba." (Wikipedia) And one blogger writes that "[t]he MacGregors have always held their superior claim to the throne of Scotland. They were the principal branch of the Siol Alpine, an ancient Clan group descended from King Alpin [the Gaelic king of Dál Riata who married a Pictish princess, begat Kenneth I, and reigned from 833-40. Kenneth could then unite the Kingdoms of the Pictish and Gaelic thrones, for Pictish succession followed the female line.] For their assistance to King Alexander [II, I think, r. 1214-1249], the MacGregors held vast territories in Argyll and Perthshire. ... Historical researchers (reviewing many of the more ancient manuscripts available in Scotland) ... found the name MacGregor in Argyllshire where they were seated from very ancient times, some say well before the Norman Conquest in 1066 A.D." www.flickr.com/photos/celtico/2554851439/in/pool-clan-mac... There's also evidence in a medieval Gaelic manuscript found in the library of the Faculty of Advocates "which traces the male line of the MacGregor chiefs to King Ferchar II 'the Tall', a 7th-century Scottish king of Dál Riata (Dalriada)" and down to a cousin or a son of MacBeth. ... The Y-chromosomal data supports the Dalriadic Scottish royal claim as the hierarchical family Y-DNA is consistent with that of the other clans claiming similar descent. While the data supports descent from the Dalriadic Scottish kings, ancestors of the kings of united Scotland, it is not yet clear as to which branch or cinel the MacGregor chiefs descend from. Further DNA research and analysis may eventually establish whether the MacGregors are descended from King Alpin's line (Cinel Gabran), or King MacBeth's (Cinel Labhran)." Another fun rabbit-hole.: familypedia.wikia.org/wiki/Clan_Gregor

- Persecution of the MacGregors, who had come to be known as "the wicked clan", wouldn't end until as late as 1774 (!) when the laws against them were repealed. Scott's romance Rob Roy did much good for the clan's reputation, and in fact MacGregor "clansmen were given the tremendous honour of guarding the Honours of Scotland, better known as the Scottish Regalia, the oldest set of crown jewels in the British Isles" on the occasion of George IV's famous visit to Edinburgh in 1822. (wikipedia)

- www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHuFVd7aVsc

- www.youtube.com/watch?v=24_rXY7GTCU

- I haven't read Rob Roy (although I have the book), and I understand it's great fun, I took my Mom to see the great Liam Neeson film, but the real Rob Roy didn't deserve the props. He was charismatic and played the part of a Jacobite rebel leader and firebrand, but while it's well-known that he was a con-man, good evidence has come to light that he was a 'double agent', a spy working for the British crown who would sell out his own supporters and his own people. He should really be reviled. (The other historical Scot made most famous in literature, MacBeth, was just the opposite. He was a warlord but a good king, quite good on the spectrum of medieval Scottish kings, went on pilgrimage, was generous, and is described as "the last great Celtic king of Scotland". Even his appearance is surprising, a red complexion with blonde hair. www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq75Cl_osxk )

- I've just read about one Samuel Greig online: "Russian: Самуи́л Ка́рлович Грейг (1735, Inverkeithing, Fife, Scotland - 15 October, 1788, Tallinn, Estonia, Russian Empire) a Scottish-born Russian admiral who distinguished himself in the Battle of Chesma (1770) and the Battle of Hogland (1788). His son Alexey Greig also had a spectacular career in the Imperial Russian Navy. In 1782 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. ... Greigia is a genus of the botanical family Bromeliaceae named after Samuel Greig by Eduard August von Regel (a director of the St. Petersburg Botanical Garden) in 1864. Then in 1873, Regel named a species of Tulip after Samuel Greig, Tulipa greigii. ... And there's an Atoll in French Polynesian Niau named Greig after Aleksey Greig by Russian Admiral Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen in 1820." (Wikipedia)

- www.flickr.com/photos/61253223@N00/22016067040/

- The most famous Greig descendant is the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, whose forebear, one Alexander Greig of Scotland, settled in Norway in @ 1770 and whose surname was changed to the apparently more 'Norwegian' Grieg. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLp_Hh6DKWc youtu.be/2bohy8TjPl4?si=aFBM4pyD8K7yJ2Y4 "The family name [Grieg] ... is associated with the Scottish Clann Ghriogair (Clan Gregor). Following the Battle of Culloden in 1746, Grieg's great-grandfather, Alexander Greig, traveled widely, settling in Norway in about 1770 and established business interests in Bergen. Grieg's first cousin, twice removed, was Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, whose mother was a Greig." (Wikipedia) Glenn Gould too?! (When I was in high school I took piano lessons from a woman who had taken them from a man who taught Gould when she and Gould were both kids in Toronto, and she would hear them arguing during Gould's lesson while she waited in the next room for hers.) youtu.be/WqwZC-yLYI4?si=cqJLrA6sULTFJkon

 

- MacGregor clan history is so rich it's a bit of a rabbit hole and a dark one (as you know now, having read this far). Here's an article published in the Scottish Review in 1890 on 'The Wicked Clan Gregor' (quoted above with the 'contemporary bond' account and the privy council records re the murder of Sheriff Drummond) with much to say and much that's depressing.: electricscotland.com/history/articles/gregor.htm Reading just part of it I'm reminded that I find Neil Oliver's BBC series 'History of Scotland' to be generally depressing too (after the 1st and best episode which telescopes all the prehistory and early history up to the huge battle of Brunanburh in 937. I don't find the fascinating Scottish neolithic prehistory to be depressing one bit, and neither the early history in the Roman era and through 'the dark ages', at least not until the arrival of the Vikings.) I tell people that the shocker 'Red Wedding' scene in 'Game of Thrones' www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV2mqn_lwGQ www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FEGZ--UQKc was based by George R.R. Martin (one big history buff) on 2 episodes in European history. Scotland is the setting for the first, where at Edinburgh castle the 'Black dinner' was held in 1440 at which William Douglas, the rich, 16 yr. old 6th Earl of Douglas and his brother were guests of the boy king James II at 'a celebratory dinner of reconciliation'. A black bull's head, a medieval symbol of death, was brought to the table ("under Scottish custom, this formality presaged the death of the principal guest(s) at a dinner" ?! www.douglashistory.co.uk/history/Histories/blackbulldinne... ), and William and his brother were dragged off to submit to a mock trial and a beheading. I then ask if they can guess which country is the setting for the 2nd. ... Scotland again, where Glencoe was the highland scene of the infamous massacre of MacDonald hosts by their Campbell guests. Martin's quoted as saying: "No matter how much I make up, there´s stuff in history that´s just as bad, or worse" that happened in Scotland. "Scottish history is an amazing source because it's one of the most bloody histories of any country that I've ever studied." George R. R. Martin. www.cnn.com/2013/06/07/showbiz/tv/game-martin-red-wedding....

- In 1452, 12 yr.s after 'the Black dinner', a 22 yr. old James II invited William, the 8th Earl of Douglas, to dine with him at Stirling castle, and William cautiously accepted (but not cautiously enough) in spite of the fact that his predecessor had met his end at a dinner hosted by the same man (or person, James was 10 that first time). At supper James 'fiery face' Stewart II (he had a large red birthmark on much of his face) made accusations of treachery against William Douglas and stabbed his guest, who was then finished off by the servants in attendance, and whose perforated carcass was then defenestrated. (Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice ... )

- www.youtube.com/shorts/hrfRikbah6o

- youtu.be/B7xJzSbjbgg?si=fbfsSReo5YSj0BUA

- Another clan in my tree with a history ugly enough (or a little too ugly) for George R. R. Martin is that of the MacLeods of Assynt, ruled by their chieftains from the darkly legendary Castle Ardvreck on Loch Assynt. www.google.ca/maps/place/Ardvreck+Castle/@58.1660434,-4.9... My great great grandmother (Dad's Mom's Mom's Mom) was a MacLeod whose paternal great grandfather was a 'MacLeod of Assynt' according to my great grandmother or (more likely) her aunts Babs and Min or someone else my Mom consulted on a visit to P.E.I. with my Dad in the 60s. They "were a querulous lot, and the dungeon at Ardvreck was often full of other MacLeods or their near neighbours. The family was a romantic one, and extraordinarily violent. [They name the Devil himself as an in-law, see below.] In the generation of the sons of Angus Mor MacLeod in the 16th cent., for example, [just an example,] one was murdered by his brother, who was in turn murdered in revenge by one of his father’s illegitimate offspring. The next brother, Neil the Tutor, invited the final sibling, Houstian and Houstian’s son Dougal to Ardvreck. Having got them drunk, Neil drew his dirk and stabbed them both through the heart, dispatching them in cold blood in their own family castle, in flagrant violation of the laws of hospitality and the bonds of kinship [that theme again with Scottish hosts dispatching their guests or Scots guests dispatching their hosts]. Neil was executed for this dastardly act in Edinburgh in 1581. His and Houstian’s remaining sons called a temporary truce to oust their semi-crippled nephew, Angus, who had come of age, but soon the thugs fell out amongst themselves over fishing rights, and the bodies piled up again in an internecine civil war that left Assynt awash with blood." Sigh. The MacLeods played host to James Graham, chief of Clan Graham, the famous 1st Marquess of Montrose (aka 'the Great Montrose'), following his defeat at the Battle of Carbisdale in Ross, but then, in the most infamous moment in Ardvreck's history, held him captive and delivered him to the crown in April or May, 1650 (notwithstanding Montrose' loyalty to Charles II) for a financial reward and a bonus "for meat provisioning". His reputation was greatly rehabilitated 11 yr.s after his execution in Edinburgh, while Neil McLeod and his kin were soon evicted from Ardvreck and from Assynt. anthonyadolph.co.uk/macleods-of-assynt/ youtu.be/spcAj38Au0I?si=M4iLP92KJ6Yf3RZ2

- Ardvreck was a frequent haunt of the Devil himself of course, for it was his own handiwork. He built the castle in @ 1490 as a dowry for the hand of the chieftain's daughter, who he then married at Ardvreck and joined the family. There are some elaborate accounts of his many appearances there. youtu.be/Adjepg6olf0?si=Z9cDRuqjcq8lK9Yf youtu.be/H__Qckqtsj4?si=hx0iGVpMfky7zbwG youtu.be/W5JQnUowPvY?si=yt4ai_wxEKsNTtKx youtu.be/c9meVM7SFw8?si=gbdirwjD65Q-uBcD (They're good fun, but the basis for these legends might lie in part with the animus of the enemies of the MacLeods of Lewis and Assynt, their neighbours the McKenzies, royalist henchmen who dispossessed the MacLeods at Ardvreck and claimed and settled their lands at Assynt until Culloden. [My great x 3 grandmother, Mom's Mom's Mom's Mom's Mom, was a McKenzie.] The MacLeods by contrast were unruly [as seen from Edinburgh castle], defiant, and likely proud of their Viking roots. The McKenzies had an interest in the occult btw, which Paul Butler explores from the 4:23 min. pt. in this doc.: youtu.be/FMlxQdWfuRU?si=mPuNREbcjH86-tud )

 

- I'm also reminded of the relative intensity of the Protestant witch hunt in Scotland. "In numerical terms, Scotland’s witch hunts were severe. Between 1590 and 1662, 5 intense panics erupted across Scotland: 1590-91, 1597, 1628-1631, 1649-1650, and 1661-62. As a result of these, out of a population of @ 1 million, @ 2,500 accused witches, most of them women, were executed - 5 X the average European execution rate per capita." This was in part due to the great interest in witches of one man: the Scots King James (Stuart) VI who became King James I of England in 1603. (National Geographic). The rather inbred James appears to have suffered with attenuated Lesch-Nyhan disease with associated Asperger traits (the claim that he was porphyric has recently been debunked) and recurrent, symptomatic attacks of severe joint pain which he blamed on witchcraft. He was convinced that a coven in North Berwick had raised storms at sea in an attempt to sink his ship, took personal interest in the interrogations that followed, and published 'Daemonologie', a book about witch-hunting.

- Although relatively severe, the witch hunt in Scotland didn't sink to the depths it fell to in what is today Germany where it was particularly vicious and active. More than 1/2 of all deaths in the hunt occurred in the Germanic core of the Holy Roman Empire, "the epicenter of European witch-hunting" and "it seems likely that 3 out of every 4 witches executed between 1560 and 1660 spoke some dialect of German, and that almost 5 out of 6 lived within the boundaries of the pre-1648 Holy Roman Empire, which also included Switzerland, Alsace-Lorraine, and Luxemburg." (The debate in Germany today is which was worse, the German Catholic hunt or the German Protestant. www.history.com/news/how-medieval-churches-used-witch-hun... ) In contrast, only 2 'witches' were executed in Ireland. www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/encyclopedias-almana... The article in the 2nd-last link posits that the scale of the witch hunt in Germanic territory was a function of competition for adherents /b/ the growing Protestant church and the Catholic. “Similar to how contemporary Republican and Democrat candidates focus campaign activity in political battlegrounds, … historical Catholic and Protestant officials focused witch-trial activity in confessional battlegrounds during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation to attract the loyalty of undecided Christians,” Leeson and Russ write. ... To bolster their point, the authors point out that from @ 900 to 1400, the church didn’t want to acknowledge the existence of witches; and consequently, it didn’t try people for witchcraft. In 1258, Pope Alexander IV even prohibited the prosecution of witchcraft. Yet a few centuries later, the church reversed its decision following the Protestant Reformation."

 

- There's no shortage of other examples of brutality and hardship in the history of medieval and Renaissance-era Scotland, but 'blaming the victim' has always been a thing. I say if you carpet-bomb Cambodia, you get Pol Pot. If in fact things were relatively harsh and stayed that way for a spell once and after the Vikings arrived (and the Vikings decimated the Picts), this could be the result of a recurring state of siege. Pennant writes in his travelogue in 1769 that "[f]rom the extirpation of the Picts [which is a myth] to the year 1266 [the signing of the Treaty of Perth which "ended military conflict between Magnus VI of Norway and Alexander III of Scotland over possession of the Hebrides and the Isle of Man"], Scotland was harassed by invasions from the Norwegians and Danes, particularly the North part; for Harold the fair, King of Norway, seized Orkney in the latter end of the 9th cent. From Norway swarms came to Orkney, and the passage being so short, all the North of Scotland was continually in arms. Nothing can be expected in that period but fighting, bloodshed and rapine; we cannot look for improvements of any kind, and for that reason it is needless to attempt any particular history of it. It is true, Torfæus gives us some account of that time, which is all that we have." www.visionofbritain.org.uk/travellers/Pennant_Scot/17 The Vikings seem to have ushered in a procession of English would-be-conquerors with Æthelstan, Edward the Hammer, et al. who each did the math.: "That's a sizable place up there with 1/10th our population; it's for the taking." And niceties and luxury and such have no place in a siege. But I'm really not saying much here and don't intend to. There's too much to reconcile to have theories about a whole group of people or their history.

- I also wonder if many of the uglier episodes in medieval Scottish history were the result of the actions and machinations of the deeply inbred Stuarts/Stewarts, one of the oldest royal lines in Europe. That seems to come through in Neil Oliver's series. I've written about James II above, and James VI/James I and the Stuart/Stewart line are suspected to be the source of the infamous 'Madness of King George III', passed through James' grand-daughter Sophie, mother of George I. One could write a book on the boneheaded misdeeds of successors in that line. (Mary Stuart was no exception, as charming as she was.) Inbreeding amongst the nobility is over-rated. There's increasing evidence that narcissism (NPD), a 'personality disorder', is in large part genetic, and accounts of the conduct of many of the Stuarts read as consistent with NPD. There's some truth to the old adage "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.": www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/royals-prove-inbree...

- My great grandmother, Dad's Mom's Mom, was a Stewart btw (whose mother was a MacLeod, a descendant of the querulous, "extraordinarily violent" MacLeods of Assynt), and she wasn't too nice either by most accounts. When I first met my elderly cousin Orville (my great grandfather's sister's son) on P.E.I. in the early 90s, he said "So you're Georgie's grandson, eh? You're Georgie's grandson. Well now. You know if I thought you'd come here to hear all kindsa wonderful things 'bout your grandmother, I wouldn't talk to ya. I wouldn't talk to ya!!!" and soon recounted that before my great grandparents would visit, he and his siblings would have to "wash the rocks!!" on the driveway. My great grandmother would say to my grandmother and for all to hear, "Come Georgie and meet your country cousins!" (she being from the roaring, great metropolis of Summerside, P.E.I., although she herself had been raised on a farm in Park Corner [a community made famous by L. M. Montgomery btw]) and would proceed to try to make her sister-in-law and her kids feel 2 inches tall. Her son, my great uncle Ralph, became a hard-core alcoholic, which is common for the children of mothers with NPD, particularly those children who haven't inherited it. Orville also said: "Now Fred the Barber [another cousin, my great grandmother's sister's son]. He said once, he says "That Georgie. She thinks she walks on air. She thinks she walks on air!!!"" But Orville's older sister Ruth gave me some old piano music that Georgie had given her (lovingly preserved and with my grandmother's name written at the top), so Georgie could've been worse.

 

- Kenneth Clark, a Scot himself on the Scots: (from the 25:10 min. pt. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtiT7nu3NzU ) "The Scottish character ... shows an extraordinary combination of realism and reckless sentiment. ... But it's the realism that counts and that made 18th cent. Scotland, a poor, remote, semi-barbarous country, a force in European civilization. Let me name some 18th cent. Scots.: In the world of ideas and science, Adam Smith, David Hume, Joseph Black and James Watt. It's a matter of historical fact that these are the men who soon after the year 1760 changed the whole current of European thought and life. ... These great Scots lived in the grim, narrow tenements of the old town of Edinburgh piled on the hill behind the castle. ... [etc.]" He goes on to discuss the Scottish origins of neo-classicism in architecture (he's wrong on that point; neo-classicism was developed as a style much earlier, in the Renaissance, by Italian architect Andrea Palladio [1508-'80]) and neo-gothicism with Sir Walter Scott as well. Clarke, who, again, was a Scot himself, could be a bit biased, but Scott had an enormous influence on British and international culture in the early 19th-cent., which I write about here.: www.flickr.com/photos/97924400@N00/39025663462/in/photoli... " ... Not bad for a poor, underpopulated country."

- And there's this too, more to reconcile.: (I had a link here to a speech given by Arthur Herman, author of 'How Scots invented the Modern World', but it's been taken down.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifGd2b3sr78