By Noralee Frankel
In late July, Catalonia a region in Spain outlawed bull fighting. The vote in parliament was spurred by a petition signed by 180,000 people. The burlesque queen and author, Gypsy Rose Lee would have been pleased.
What has a famous strip tease artist have to do with bull fighting? In 1950, Gypsy Rose Lee was blacklisted from radio and television, not for sexuality, but for her liberal politics. She had been a very successful moderator of two silly game shows, all the rage in the fifties. Unable to work on the new media, she left for Europe where she performed her strip tease.
In 1952, she traveled to Spain to make the movie with Paulette Goddard entitled “Babes of Baghdad.” (Unimpressed with the unsophisticated plot, Gypsy never bothered to see the movie. Back in New York, she dismissed it as “made strictly for Muncie, Indiana.”)
While there, Gypsy was impressed with the Barcelona Humane Society. Barcelona was the capital of Catalonia. The Society campaigned against bull fighting. According to Gypsy in an interview they were succeeding in convincing the upper-classes to avoid bullfights and cockfights by associating them with “unchic” behavior.
Gypsy’s advocacy on behalf of animals made her sensitive to issues such as a bull fighting. By 1950 Gypsy was vice president of Greenwich Village Humane Society. Gypsy worked tirelessly for the Humane Society. She enjoyed visiting animal hospitals where she felt the animals were receiving good care and her trips also lifted the morale of the staff. She was worried that problems with the blacklist might reflect on and hurt Human Society.
Gypsy brought back a gift from Spain. While in Spain, Gypsy adopted her first Siamese cat, Gaudi, named for a famous Catalonian architect. “When he came to me all he spoke was Catalonian.” Later she acquired her second Siamese in Italy, Teena. Later the couple had kittens. Gypsy quickly pointed out to the press that although she gave them pretty Siamese names, “they are solid sound substantial American citizens.” Given the blacklist, even the kittens had to be politically above reproach.
Fifty years after an earlier campaign, Barcelona has finally banned bull fighting, just as Gypsy Rose Lee wanted.
Noralee Frankel is the author of Stripping Gypsy: The Life of Gypsy Rose Lee and Assistant Director, Women, Minorities, and Teaching at the American Historical Association.
You have to be careful if you're planning on living by the law of attraction.
My mother used to tell me the best place to meet someone is in the grocery store. Well, that was one of the many things she told me that was pure bull! If you read my blog, you know I hurt my finger awhile back and didn’t have any band-aids. Well, from that moment on, I haven’t remembered a thing I needed from the grocery store. I will forget what I went there to get, whether I write it down or not. The fact that I will forget half of my list, leading to some disastrous happening, I believe to be the result of the law of attraction.
It is a universal law, I know, and one I wholeheartedly believe in. The law of attraction has changed my life and I’m grateful. It's also the reason for most of the things happening to me, because it's the result of the way I think. For example, my most recent experiences at the grocery store are a direct result of my own imagination. If something has happened to me already, I wonder about how or why it happened, thereby attracting a repeat of the same occurrence or situation.
In addition, I'm forgetting to get these items because I’m distracted by the latest disastrous occurrence I’ve managed to create while I was there. I keep thinking about what silly disturbance may occur, and in doing so I 'm actually creating the event. I insist on thinking about the grocery store, period. Yesterday, I started my weekly post that will ask my readers (you) what’s happening in a picture. I’ll help you out, it’s below you right now-the picture of the grocery shopper lady with her screaming boy and their blue dog!
I’m posting the readers comments today, but first I wanted to tell you what happened last night on my latest trip to the good ‘ole grocery store! This is the second time I’ve posted about a grocery disaster or something happening to me relating to the grocery store, in the last two months….
The first post is the one where I stay enslaved to the bathroom faucet since that one brought up the band-aids. The second was discovering my shirt was on inside out, and this one is date shoppers. The name “date shopper” is a name I created for couples who stroll down the grocery aisle at a snails pace, softly voicing their opinions of the latest grocery art resting on the shelves.
I always wonder what they’re whispering in their romantic hushed tones, and I see them every time I go shopping! It makes me think of a joke we used to tell in junior high school about a family of tomatoes. A family of five tomatoes is strolling along one day when one just cannot keep up with the rest of the family.
Seeing this, the father tomato stops the rest of the family and says, “Wait everybody stop walking” and the family stops. Then the father marches toward the little tomato, and stomps him with his foot, “ ker-splat! “ and says, “Ketchup!”
I imagine that joke because that's what I wish I could do to a pair of date shoppers. Especially when I get stuck behind them in line. Date shoppers stroll, and stroll shoppers are like Sunday drivers who stop every few minutes to admire the view while everyone else waits! For example in the grocery store, they admire the golden grains of wheat germ on the aisle, while you literally climb the shelves in front of them in order to reach your cereal! What do they think you’re trying to do, gymnastics?
I'm sorry, let me tell you what happened last night: I was trying to get a box of Peanut Butter Crunch, but there were two sightseers in front of me. I said, “Excuse me, um excuse me,” except they just stood looking at me as if I weren’t talking, so I said, “Excuse me, um” and before I could get the words out, it happened, and it happened so quickly I didn’t see it coming. The first thing I noticed were two boxes of cereal on the top shelf, rocking in slow motion! They began to sway back and forth like a house of cards, until finally falling like rain on the top of our heads!
This always happens before your brain can tell your body to move or voice to shout, “Get out of the way!”
As the boxes fell I watched the date shoppers and wondered, “Why do they have those expressions on their faces?” Only later did I realize, my shirt lay squished around my neck, since before the boxes fell, I had to stand in a back bend, in order to grab my cereal from around them, and even then, they would not MOVE- OUT –OF- THE- WAY!
Incidentally, we all helplessly watched the cereal boxes smash on the ground and bottles of wheat germ roll hundreds of miles down to the double doors of the meat department! I heard a soft gasp that turned out to be one date shopper’s biggest reaction, as they stood holding each other in a sway admiring the view!
Again, watch what they think, say, and do when it comes to the law of attraction, you just may manifest it into the realities of your life.
Oh Val...it's amazing! The colors are gorgeous!
Can you imagine living that simply... what freedom! You have had some wonderful experiences!
Your painting style and that wagon are a match made in heaven... !!
beautiful painting !! the colors are delicious !!
What a beautiful illo and a wonderful story. All so in "the story" type mood. A story worth sharing and saving, thank you. Lisa
Hi Val...this painting is wonderful...I love the bright colours and your story is pretty neat too...I love people that stick up for the world and making it a better place!!!
Great submission...
Cheers,
Diana
This is beautiful! I love the few twinkling stars in the sky. :) Nice story and inspiration.
What a lovely way to commemorate such an anniversary.
(And I bet you could draw a wicked push-me-pull-you!)
What an amazing story! And a great illustration to go with it! Cool.
I love this one. It makes me want to pee. Not really, I always want to pee. Love. Bad Dog
You know what I love about this place? It's the same colors as my beach towel!
You run with a hip crowd, girlfriend!
dood!
I love this!...it would be so cool to live there!
Your style suits this perfectly...I saw a great old railcar that had been turned into a home on TLC a few years back...amazing that so much could be done with so little space!!!
What a wonderful story and adorable little house.
This is beautiful! How great that she has lived there for so long and lives so simple! It looks like a wonderful place to live. Your colors are so AWESOME in this! :)
What a great story. I just found your blog...your work is very beautiful and so unique!
So beautiful! do you think she can adopt me?
I want to live in a gypsy wagon. I bet she has a wonderful life.
so fun and lively!
What a story. What a character. And what a beautiful painting of this fantastic little home. I remember the movie, and will make time to find the DVD and see it again.
You created such a wonderful mood with all the flowers and the bright sunny day.
Your stories kill me. You always have a fascinating story to weave around your paintings!
oooh, lovely!!
Val, what a fantastical story!! That's tremendous! Your painting is just lovely, what an experience that must have been, fun for you!!
a : )
This is a wonderful story. An adorable and historical item converted into a home which you painted so beautifully. Imagine living in a lillte space like that for 25 years, would make one set her priorities straight. Perfect IF entry Val. Thanks for sharing.
Your story, together with your so beautiful illustration, make a gipsy vagon seem the most beautiful place to live!!!
cannot help but adore this story and this picture. Awesome!
A truly beautiful painting, Val, and what a great story too! You could almost weave a fictional story around this picture.
AWWW! Your colours are making moi dream of Spring!!! :)
it is a perfect illustration for the story. I especially like the colour of the sky and the flower pots on the stairs.
I also loved Dr Dolittle when I was a child.
WOW! What an illo and what an interesting story. Made my gloomy, rainy Sunday a little brighter!!
love love love love love love love love love love this keep-it-simple painting. it glows.
:)
Valgal,
Love this painting and love the real place too! Reminds me of visiting you last summer -- and lately I have been jonesing for an LA trip really bad. The gloom of NW is getting old -- would love to see LA and you too!
xoxox
--dd
Great post. I like both your writing and your illustration, they're perfect match.
Beautiful story and charming illo.Is the deck THAT pink? Amazing!
That is a great story. How cool, to live in a gypsy wagon; although I could imagine it would be a little impractical. That is a very charming painting too; I like all the plant details and the vibrant color.
So warm and welcoming!! Beautiful!
Wow!!.. you have painted a famous house then!!.. it is a wonderful piece.. I love the line style!!.. Thanks for your words in my blog.. =)
PS: Those horns are my long ears.. hahaha..
Val - this is so wonderfully special! Before I read the post, my first thought was - "I want to live there!" What a great story. It must be such a treat to meet all kinds of interesting people and hear their stories... they get a beautiful painting and you get the story (along with the pay, of course). And we get to share them with you! Thanks:>
This an awesome piece of eyecandy and the story that accompanies it is wonderful too.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment on my blog.
Such a wonderful story Val! Love this painting. The colors are so wonderful! It would be so fun to visit her home. I bet she is fun to be with.
Wow! Amazing and beautiful house!
p/s glad you received the handmade set!
That is so cool!
Great painting.
Great story and beautiful illustration!
I could soooo live there. I want a gypsy wagon!
Maybe I'll just stare at your lovely painting of a gypsy wagon instead. It's making me smile. Such lovely colors and really liked your story as well. Ya just gotta love California, eh?
This is amazing! All of it Val!! Your illustration, the story ,the lady... How wonderful it must be, to live with two dogs in that beautiful gypsy wagon you painted! :o)
i love it when people dance to the beat of their own heart. thanks for sharing it!
very inspirational. great illustration, too, of course.
xoxo
teri