I hadn't until yesterday but I'm excited to delve into her life.
I was going through the dozens of old emails that I have acquired and for some reason opened one that was from the W Magazine mailing list (adore that magazine by the way. There is usually nothing vintage about it but I love fashion of any era. Sometimes you can find articles about fashion icons from the past along with fabulous photo spreads). The email featured an article about the life of an artist named Vali Myers.
It was this picture of Vali from the 50's that reeled me in...
The photo is circa 1950 but this woman looks like a model from the 80s, 90s or even now.
Vali Myers was not technically a model, even though she was the muse of many photographers and artists. She was an artist herself. Born in Australia in 1930, she was at first a dancer. In 1950 at the age of 20 she left her position as principal dancer with the Melbourne Modern Ballet Company and went to Paris. There she became friends with famous artists and authors of the period, including Tennessee Williams.
I, unfortunately, could not find much on her life. What I did find was fascinating. She seemed to have been a free spirited, tragic soul (the was an addiction to opium during her lifetime). Vali circulated in the bohemian world of Paris and was loved by the beatniks and eccentrics of the 50s and 60s. It was said that some called her la morte vive because of her pale skin and her heavily lined eyes (I guess what we would call a smoky eye today, hehe). Her artwork seemed to mimic her life. It's very mythical, ethereal and somewhat magical. I also think that has a lot to do with the fact that she was said to have grown up in the Australian bush...always around nature.
From the little I've read about her life she definitely reminds me of an Amy Winehouse type figure. Extremely talented but extremely tortured. Her fashion was always edgy for the time, on the verge of being disheveled. But unlike Amy she was able to live a full, if not wild and crazy, life until 2003, when at 73 she passed.
I'm not sure why but I'm very curious about her life and her work. I am in no way "bohemian" but the lifestyle sometimes appeals to me. A number of my friends are very bohemian in lifestyle and I totally get them. I guess it is the performance artist in me.
There is a biography about her, Vali Myers: A Memoir, that I hope to get for my birthday. After I read it I will revisit this post and hopefully be able to give you more incite into her life and work. For now, here are some photos that I have found.
Can you all believe that it's the last day in July?!?!?! Where did the summer go? Yes, there's still a month left, but my summer vacation ends mid August. That means only 2 1/2 weeks left!
Plus, it's my birthday month! WOOT WOOT!!! I'm counting down to the 13th. I'm still not sure what I want to do on the day. I'm thinking of keeping it low key and baking and having Honey cook for me. We'll see.
Anyway, today I decided to go online and window shop for homes. We think we've narrowed our location down to Connecticut, mostly because of my job. I REALLY need to cut down on my commute time, so right now that seems like the best option.
We also still plan on renting a place first ( we've also been looking at apartments and rental homes) but I want to keep the house buying energy flowing at all times. I really am a believer of the Law of Attraction, so we're putting home buying energy into the universe at all times!
Here are the top 6 houses that I looked at today. It's funny, some of them are not lookers in the curb appeal area but were super cute inside. Then, some were amazing outside and stunk inside...sigh. I guess that's house hunting for you. These are some of the ones I saw potential in... click the link to go to the listings. You know, in case you're looking too... Oh and not all are Capes!!!
I love this 1948 house because even though everything has been updated (as with all of the older homes I've looked at) I don't think it would take much to put a 50s spin on it.
Ok...so this one isn't a beauty outside but...It has a BREAKFAST NOOK!!!!!!!! LOVE! I have a soft spot for breakfast nooks. It also has some really nice built in cabinets that I like too.
This bungalow, built in 1925, has the cutest little white fence! I also love the mudroom. The rest of the house is decent, nothing extravagant but its reasonably priced. That means it could leave a heck of a renovation budget!!
Here is a 1940's Colonial. I usually don't like Colonials but this one is cute. The fireplace, kitchen and deck are all pluses for me.
Here is a Cape Cod. I love the outside (Honey hates the pointy top) but I'm not thrilled about the inside of it. Well, most of it is workable, but the kitchen is a deal breaker. I love the homey feel of the house though. With a little vintage tune up to the decor it could be a nice home. But...the kitchen definitely needs an overhaul.
Here is a bonus because it was Honey's favorite. The outside of this 1930s Colonial is definitely stunning! And the inside is just as beautiful (if you can imagine that all of the wood paneling and cabinets in the kitchen are gone and replaced with pretty ones).
It's a great day here in NYC. Well at least to me. We finally have a break from the super hot weather and have temps in the 60s!!!! YAY! It totally feels like fall! Too bad it's only for a day,but I'll take what I can get. This weather is really getting me thinking about apples, pumpkin, comfort food and nice warm flannel throw blankets. So... what do you think I spent most of my morning doing?
Christmas researching with a nice mug of hot coffee!
Around this time every year since I was a kid, I get what I call the "Christmas Tingles". Its that little butterfly-y feeling most of us got when we knew Christmas was right around the corner. The only difference is that I get the "Christmas Tingles" MUCH earlier than most people, and they last through the rest of the summer on till New Year's Day (After that I get the "Post Holiday Dumps" and they make me a little sad and not myself. I try to focus my energy on Valentine's Day/Honey's and my anniversary).
I'm doubly excited for Christmas this year because we have decided to make this year's Christmas a vintage one. That means I'm giving all of our old decor to charity (unless it's some of the more expensive collector's stuff I've been known to buy) and replacing it with vintage or vintage look alike decorations! I'm so excited I can barely contain myself.
The theme for this Christmas will be a 1940's Christmas. Maybe a little more post-war than rations... Yes, I know, I'm admittedly more of a 50's girl but I'm not a big fan of 1950's Christmas decor. I REFUSE to get an aluminum tree and all the not- so-Christmas colors of the decade put me off a little. I much more lean toward a Victorian ideal of the holiday. But in keeping with my personal affinity of all things mid century, I decided that the 40's would be a good compromise. It's before all the artificial-ness of a 50's Christmas but not so far back that I would bore Honey with sugarplums, marzipan and Wassail (although I do enjoy a good marzipan and Wassail).
So what does having a 40's Christmas mean in my mind? Well, I was thinking a 40's Christmas would have been a lot more homemade. Handmade decorations and gifts. Actual stockings hung as opposed to the Santa boot shaped stockings on the market today. A live tree (which we do anyway) decorated with popcorn and baked goods.
I'm already planning on buying some strands of Bubble Lights, which were popular in the late 40's. I think I may buy these new, although I'm sure I could find vintage ones on Ebay. I was thinking of ordering them from here
Or do you think these multicolored ones (from the same company) give more of a retro feel?
I know that tinsel was also a big thing but I think I may forgo the messy little strands. I'm not sure those would be safe for Givenchy, who loves to nibble on things he shouldn't. I'm not sure I love the look of tinsel anyway.
I think it may overwhelm our tiny apartment. Especially since I tend towards larger trees.
These are definitely on my to do list when the holiday rolls around. I found this recipe for inedible Christmas cookie decorations. I've never tried anything like it before so it should be fun. The recipe comes from The 1940s Experiment (the link will take you directly to the recipe). Aren't they adorable!
I also want to make a few paper chains. In years past (in my life pre-vintage) I shied away from hand made decorations. I thought that they may not look polished and may look like a child did them. But THESE (click the link and scroll down the page) from London's Imperial War Museum's 1940s House all decorated for the holiday make me want to try them out.
They're all over Ebay with decent prices so it's time to get a jump on that! Before the prices go up!
So, that's the beginning of my Christmas prep. I just need to organize my ideas on paper and start purchasing things. I'm a stickler for coordination in decorating, so I want to make sure everything flows correctly AND stays in the designated time period.
Before I say goodbye I wanted to leave you with THIS little essay that I found about the author's Christmases as a child growing up in 1940's North Dakota. It's sure to get your "Christmas Tingles" tingling!!!!!
Every month on the 25 (Rudolph Day) I'll be doing a Christmas themed post. It may be baking idea, gift ideas or any of the many things that ramble through my mind about the holiday on a daily basis. Be looking out for the posts. Hopefully we can bounce ideas around about how to make the holidays as vintage as possible!!!!
I hope everyone is having a fantastic start to their week. It's finally cooled off here in NYC thank goodness. We had 7 straight days of 95+ degree weather. UGH! Soooo hot!
As you all know, there was a certain royal baby born yesterday! YAY!!! Who can resist a cute little bundle of joy...royal or not.
You may also know that I am obsessed with anything (and I do mean anything) British, so yesterday was so much fun for me! I'm sure if you live in England my obsession is a little strange, but I can't help it. I think it's because my childhood ballet teacher was British. She was hard core and not always the nicest lady but she was an amazing teacher. She had a very no nonsense air about her that I'm sure made me a better dancer. I started taking from her in my teen years so she had a huge influence in my life. She taught a British style of ballet (the Royal Academy of Dance) which I now teach. Funny, huh?
I also admit that Julie Andrews had a lot to do with my childhood obsession with England. I wanted to meet her sooooooo badly!! I watched "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound of Music" twice a day from the time I was 8 years old until I was a preteen!
And OF COURSE I was totally in love with Princess Diana! My ballet friends and I were completely devastated when she passed.
Then when I finally got to visit London, that was it. I know now that my obsession will NEVER go away! It's just something that Honey has to deal with... and make fun of me about.
So with the arrival of the royal baby and the fact that I LOVE the UK I thought I would share some vintage Royal Family photos that I found a few weeks ago...
P.S. I'm currently working on my first Christmas prep post! (yay!) So that will be the next post...on the 25th!!! Exactly 5 months til Christmas!!! ( I think my obsession with Christmas and my love for the UK kind of go hand in hand...Thanks a lot Charles Dickens...hehe)
While on Facebook a couple of days ago I came across the cutest picture ever in the status update of one of the many vintage pages I follow. It was a photo of 4 adorable African American babies in the 1940s. The caption read :
The Fultz Quadruplets, the first quads to ever survive in the south.
After researching I found information to dispute the fact that they were the first surviving southern quads, I did find that they are the first ever African American quads on record to survive until adulthood.
I was immediately interested.
Back in the 40s there were no fertility drugs and in the South, most blacks were poor and on the verge of being malnourished, so the fact that the first surviving quads were in the south is amazing! I began to look up their story. Googling it, I found that most information on them came from sites that give information of the importance of breast feeding and specifically the importance of breast feeding in the black community...
The story goes:
Annie Mae Fultz was 37 years old and pregnant. She was the wife of a poor tenant farmer in North Carolina. During her pregnancy she had grown bigger than what was presumed "normal" (her x-rays presumed triplets) and went into town 3 weeks early to have her baby. You see, Annie, her husband (Pete) and their other children lived on a farm outside of town, and with Annie also being deaf and mute, no chances wanted to be taken with her already high risk pregnancy.
The Fultz Quadruplets were born May 23, 1946 at 3 pounds each. The doctor who delivered the children, Fred Klenner, was a family doctor in a small southern town. He didn't have any of the supplies we have today that are needed when the birth of multiples are involved. There was no incubator so he had to wrap them in cotton gauze blankets and place them very close together. And... let's not forget that it was 1946, a time of extreme racial segregation in the South and when blacks had almost no say in even their own lives. So because of this, Klenner took it upon himself to NAME ANNIE'S BABIES!!!! (I know, right?!?!?!) He named them all Mary, followed by names from his own family: Mary Ann (for his wife), Mary Louise (his daughter), Mary Alice (his aunt) and Mary Catherine (his great aunt). The black nurse who helped deliver the babies recalled not thinking much of it. She is quoted as saying:
"At that time, you know, it was before integration, They did us how they wanted. And these were very poor people. He was a sharecropper, Pete was, and she couldn't read or write."
It took no time at all before news of the quads spread and soon everyone wanted a piece of the the babies. At a time when baby formula companies were gaining momentum in the white community, many formula companies were looking to strengthen their presence in the black community. Most, if not all blacks were breast feeding at the time because of the simple fact that many could not afford infant formula. What better way to reel in African American business than with 4 beautiful, black baby girls. Borden and Carnation threw their hat in the ring, but in the end it was Pet that Klenner chose to let represent the girls. Klenner was awarded a contract with Pet Milk and made the girls guinea pigs for his "Vitamin C Therapy". In exchange for using the girls for promotional purposes, the Fultz's were given a nurse and medical care, food and a farm by Pet.
When the girls had gained enough weight to be deemed healthy, they were set to be discharged from the hospital. The local newspaper announced their discharge with a huge photo of the girls with a caption that read:
Dr. Fred Klenner stated that visitors would be welcome at the home between the hours of 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. each afternoon, and that the quads could be viewed through a glass screen. Yes, you read right. The girls were to be on display in there own home in their nursery behind a glass wall...
Throughout the years Pet Milk continued to promote their milk with the girls. They were on the covers of almost all of the black magazines at the time and almost every Pet Milk ad had them drinking Pet Milk, baking with Pet Milk and anything else that was thought to get people to buy the milk.
The girls grew up beautifully, which they probably would have done without the formula. But once the girls reached adulthood things started to unravel. The girls eventually had to be adopted by the nurse that Pet Milk had assigned to them. The farm they were promised turned out to be in the middle of nowhere and on land that wasn't able to grow anything. Eventually the girls were forgotten by the public and lived relatively private lives. And the most tragic of all, all of the girls except one, died of breast cancer before the age of 55. The one surviving sister, the youngest, Mary Catherine also has breast cancer. I have researched her but could find nothing stating whether she survived her cancer battle. As of 2002 she was still alive and well. Let's pray that it remains so today.
Mary Catherine looking at photos of her childhood still on display at the hospital
There has been a lot of talk about whether or not being fed Pet Milk exclusively through infancy and through a entire childhood had anything to do with the girls poor health later in life. It is said that even today breast feeding is much healthier than formula if mommy can manage it. And in the 40s I'm sure Pet Milk was not full of the vitamins and minerals of today's infant formula. I can't really see it containing many more vitamins and things babies need than regular store bought milk. Then again cancers, especially breast, have a big genetic component. So maybe Pet Milk wasn't the cause, but I'm sure it didn't help. I'm almost positive the Pet Milk of the 40s and 50s contained little if no cancer fighting properties... I have also heard that there were a lot of tests run on them and many shots given to them so... I'm not sure why I've never heard of the Fultz Quads before, but I'm glad I know of them now. Finding history of such stories is fascinating. Since starting my vintage journey I've found myself being more and more enthralled with history. Especially the little known history of individuals. I feel that it's my job to not only celebrate the fashion and hair of the past but the events that make our country and world, for that matter, the place that it is today. Had you ever heard of the Fultz girls before today? xoxo
(P.S. Sorry about the weird change in font toward the end...my computer just stopped with the normal font I was using...working on fixing it!!!! )
Whew!! This heat in NYC is RIDICULOUS!!!!!!! The weather is crazy this summer. Can you believe that we got rained out of Midsummer Night Swing!?!?! UGH! So disappointed but I guess there's always next year. Now, today it's 95 degrees out! Thank goodness for air conditioning!!!!
Well, Honey is off today so we're going to have a movie day! We're starting off with classics and are going to end with her all time favorite movie "Gangs of New York". Its not my favorite but it is a REALLY good movie worthy of movie night.
The first movie of today was one the I had never seen before so I wanted to share it with you all...
It's staring Kim Novak
and William Holden.
I heard that it's one of Kim Novaks first movies and is credited with making her the big star that she was in the 50s.
Picnic is about a drifter, Hal Carter (William Holden) who comes to a Kansas town on Labor Day to visit a wealthy fraternity friend, Alan. When he gets there he has nothing and asks an old woman if he can you some yard work for her in exchange for food. While doing the work he meets her neighbors: a young tomboy named Millie, her very pretty older sister Magde (Kim Novak) their mother and a school teacher who is boarding at their home, Rosemary (played by THE Rosalind Russell). Of course he falls for Madge immediately but soon learns that she is the girlfriend of Alan, the friend he is there to visit.
When he meets up with Alan he tells him of his troubles with money and Alan agrees to give him a job at the family grain company. Then he invites Hal to the town's annual Labor Day picnic. Hal agrees reluctantly and escorts young Millie to the picnic. Alan will of course escort Madge.
Everything goes well at the picnic. Hal and Millie have a blast, in a brother and sister kind of way (but of course Mille develops a crush). There are games and activities and Madge even wins the title of Queen Neeowollah (Halloween spelled backwards), the picnics Labor Day "queen". Everything is great until the end of the night dance when Madge and Hal start to dance together and romance ensues. An under aged Millie gets jealous and gets drunk and an equally drunken Rosemary becomes jealous of the gorgeous Madge and starts an argument with Hal. Things get turned upside down and everyone but Madge thinks its Hal's fault, including his friend Alan.
Things get worse and include Hal "stealing" Alan's car with Madge in it, Hal and Madge declaring their love for one another and Hal going into hiding and having to leave the town. He asks Madge to go with him...Does she go? Well, hopefully you can find the movie and find out.
Its a great little summer movie. It's kind of dramatic in a corny way but I liked it. The girl who plays Millie reminded me of a young Audrey Hepburn a little. Both in her looks and mannerisms. Kim Novak looks AMAZING throughout the entire movie, of course. William Holden, although super attractive looked a little old to be playing a recent college graduate. I was excited to see Rosalind Russell in the movie. I'm in love with all of her work! She was the best!
If you're looking for a good summer themed movie this is a good one! I can't wait until it's actually Labor Day! I'm thinking of having an end of the summer party and...its that much closer to FALL!!!
