Nostalgia - Wooden Steiff toys

Some years ago when I still did the "Finds of the week" posts, I had some called "I'm a collector" in which I shared vintage items. Over time my collections have mostly stopped growing due to different reasons, but they are still there and still loved. I also have vintage items, some inherited, some gifts, some from fleamarkets, some more interesting than others. So I thought it could be fun to share some of them every, now and then and tell their story.

In my post about the Teddies for tomorrow, I had mentioned that there were times when material for Steiff plush animals became scarce because mohair and felt were used for other purposes, for example uniforms (plush animals would have been so much better), and that they used substitute materials, but also produced wooden toys.
Today I want to show you just a few that I pulled from my cabinets - literally pulled which wasn't easy because of course all of them were in the back, it's going to be fun to fit them back in - and mention some others at least.

Let's start with the "Pyramidenkubus" (pyramid cube), also available under the name "Satzkubus" (set cube), in its original box - a set of six hollow cubes with one side missing for nestling them in the box.
Given they probably got stacked and then knocked over, it's amazing there's any color left.

We'll stay in the builder's world a little longer.
Here we have the "Bausack" (building bag) which was linen from 1951 to 1958 and held 100 small building blocks, later it was also available with big blocks in a plastic bag.
I have never counted to see if there are all 100, by the way.

Can't afford your own shipping line yet? Start small with the "Schiffsbaukasten" (ship building set)! It's always good to be prepared.

And yet another building set, the "BiBau", probably called that because the blocks are from two different natural woods in two colors - mahogany and maple.
My guess is that the maple was never as light as on the box because I've seen another box with blocks in similar colors. As you can see, the box has never even been opened, so I think it doesn't have to do with dirty children's hands 😉

Do you have ten black thumbs just like me? No problem.
Build your own flowers from plastic stems and wooden leaves and blossoms!
Look, even I can do it.
Of course, the box is a gross exaggeration of what you can do with the set. My set is complete and I couldn't even build a one color flower. You'd probably need like three boxes to create what's in the picture.

Steiff didn't just force you to build things.
They also made beautiful wooden animals, especially pre-war, but I don't have any of those.
I do have two of the later wood burning series, however. There were many more, wisents, dogs, bears, cats, rabbits, zebras, lions, squirrels, camels, elephants, cows, and who knows what else (without looking it up) - and these two cuties.
See the metal tags instead of the "button in ear"?

That's not all of course.
Steiff made little and bigger trains, agricultural and construction vehicles, puzzles, tiny bird houses, toy boxes, hobby horses, hand wagons (I have one of those, but it's misused as a storage box right now, so sorry, no picture), small or slightly bigger scooters (I have some of those, hard to take pictures of), YoYos, horse wagons.
If you are interested, check out this page which has some wooden Steiff listed.

I think my favorite wooden Steiff is this one, though. You'll see why.

Looks harmless enough, doesn't it?
It can be very dangerous if you try to drive to your field in the morning and get ambushed, though! 😂

Random Saturday - A rose between the pages

This post is for Ida.

As a librarian, I have found a lot of things in books, some were from the library itself, old process slips, old bookmarks with ads on them, old receipts, and some of them were quite interesting because they were from even before my time. Hard to believe, I know 😉
Others were left behind - rarely on purpose, I would think - by our patrons.
Bank statements, photos, library cards, prescriptions, letters, really anything that can be used for a bookmark.
Some of those tell a very clear story that helps us to identify the rightful owner who might still need this, other stories stay in the dark, in case of photos for example ... or a flower.

Thanks to this week's silent movie and my usual snooping around for interesting details (I love my rabbit holes), I had found out about other books Jean Webster, the author of "Daddy-Long-Legs", had written, and I put her first one, "When Patty Went to College", and its later published prequel "Just Patty" on my reading list (both books are in the public domain and can be found at The Internet Archive).

I struggle with reading books on my laptop, but I told myself that it was part of my attention span training and have been getting a bit better at it since although I really prefer printed books.
One problem is getting tired more easily, but when I was just about to nod off in the middle of the story about Patty inventing a lore around a none-existent college student and turned the page, I came upon this.

There are several editions of the book available at The Internet Archive. There was no special reason to choose this one from 1903/04 (the title page says 1904, the back says published March 1903), but maybe the universe sent me a little greeting with this rose.

Mrs. Ida La Rua ... I couldn't find the name quickly, only an Ida La Rua Conrad.
Why did Ida own the book (only?) 20 years after it was published? Had it been passed on by someone else? Was it a gift or inherited? Did it come from a second-hand bookshop or a charity sale?
Why did Ida put down a street name, but no city (so I could find out something more easily)?
Was October 8, 1924 a special date or simply the day Ida got the book?
What about the rose? Had it already been in the book when Ida got it if it was a used book? Did Ida get the rose from someone special? What's the story of the rose?
Is the rose even that old or did someone put it in the book long after Ida owned it? And why wasn't it taken out when the book got scanned? Where is that book now? Is the rose still in there?

My mind went wandering and stories began bouncing around inside my head. It's just the way my mind works, I couldn't stop it if I wanted to.
Does the same happen to you if you find an inscription or something else in an old book?

Silent movies - Daddy Long Legs

"Daddy Long Legs", a silent movie with Mary Pickford from 1919, is based on the book of the same title written by Jean Webster and published in 1912 (the sequel "Dear Enemy" came out in 1915).
I first read the books when I was about 10. I spent a few days with my godmother at her parents' farm, and one of those days she had a hairdresser appointment and decided to take me along because everyone else was busy. As she figured I wouldn't find it very interesting there, she picked "Daddy Long Legs" from her shelf for me to read at the salon. I remember I liked the dust jacket and actually bought myself the same edition just for that years later.
I re-read the books more than once since then and did it again for this post although the movie just covers the first one.

Then I watched the movie, a challenge because it was my first try at watching a silent film without a musical score (there is also a different version which has a score and is colorized, though).

Film poster, public domain
via Wikimedia

Jerusha Abbott called Judy, found in a trash can as a baby, is the oldest orphan at the John Grier Home.
She tries to stand her ground and defend the younger children, but life under the hard and cruel rule of the matron Mrs. Lippett is tough for all the children at the orphanage (it can't have been much fun being an acting child at that time, either, from some of the scenes).
Her life changes when one of the trustees decides to send her to college. He wants his name to stay unknown to her and his only condition is for her to write one letter a month about her life and studies in college. All she has seen of him is his "grotesquely elongated" shadow on the wall which makes her give him the name "Daddy-Long-Legs".
At college, she shares a room with Sally McBride and Julia Pendleton. While telling them that she has a guardian, she can't bring it over herself to speak about the orphanage.
On the occasion of a Shakespeare play, she meets Sally's brother Jimmie and Julia's uncle Jarvis both of who are immediately smitten with her (thanks to a cupid messing up, those two scenes with the little love gods are very strange).
Sally's family invites Judy for the summer, but last minute she receives an order from Daddy-Long-Legs to spend her summer at a farm. Much to her surprise, Uncle Jarvis turns up for a visit with his old nurse, so does Jimmie eventually to see Judy, but he gets picked up by police for running into the mayor's car.
During a walk, Judy expresses how much she would like to have a family and Jarvis offers her his heart, but she declines because she's determined to write a novel, so she can pay Daddy-Long-Legs back everything.
After her graduation, Judy gets invited by the Pendletons where she meets a rich girl - Angelina - she used to know when she was still at the orphanage. She also sees Jarvis again after a year and he asks her to marry him, but the image of the orphanage is stuck in her mind, especially after overhearing Angelina saying something mean about her being an orphan, even though Sally defends her. When she declines again, Jarvis thinks it's because she's in love with Jimmie whom she asks to drive her back to the farm.
There she writes to Daddy-Long-Legs about her unhappy love and finally gets invited to his house.
Surprise (as if you hadn't guessed it from the beginning), Daddy-Long-Legs is Jarvis! The End.

First, I was a bit surprised but also a bit proud of myself for making the completely silent movie almost in one go. The one break I had to take was due to a wasp that suddenly turned up above my head, but refused to leave. For all I know it could still be somewhere and live off stolen cat food. I heard the buzzing out of nowhere and honestly thought something was wrong with my laptop at first!

Second, and you probably already expected that, I prefer the book over the movie, but that doesn't mean at all that I didn't enjoy the movie.
If you go on, be ready for spoilers as usual.

The film starts with baby Judy being found, then we jump forward 12 years.
Mary Pickford played a child more than once. I didn't necessarily expect it, but the difference between Judy being 12 in the first part and around 20 in the second one really works amazingly well.

The movie seems to be split in two parts, not just in regards to Judy's age.
The first one set at the orphanage is a mix of demonstrating the difference between rich and poor by comparing Judy's life to that of Angelina.
There are a few slapstick scenes showing Judy breaking out of the routine when she slides down the bannisters for example and her bloomers catch fire, but there are also sad scenes showing reality in the orphanage, like a dying orphan or the hard punishments.
In the book, Judy's life before college only appears in the introduction and then in her letters to Daddy-Long-Legs which make up most of the book. Also she only takes the name Judy in college, a new name for a new life.

The second part is mainly a love story.
You don't get to see much of the college which is really important in the book.
Judy tells Daddy-Long-Legs everything, not just once a month, what she's buying now that she has her own pocket money, furniture for her room, clothes, books, a watch. She tells them about classes, about her friends, about their activities, about people she has met, about her thoughts.
The book shows how she has been given the chance to evolve from one of the orphans which have to wear their gingham like a uniform to an individual, educated and independent young woman and writer who also happens to fall in love.
You have to keep in mind that this was a time when women had not been able to vote nationwide yet.
There's nothing wrong with a happy ending. From the second book you learn that Judy becomes a mother, but is also still very much socially aware and active.

The film, however, shows life at the orphanage and the love story, yes okay, a graduation and a check for a published book, too. That's absolutely fine if you watch the movie for what it is, I just felt it left out exactly the part I like best about the book.
I understand, though, that it was probably easier and more popular to concentrate on the love story.

What I found interesting was that the film sometimes seemed to go in little hops, with quite a lot of intertitles. I wonder if that was supposed to mimic the glimpses that you get from the letters in the book. I also found interesting how well that worked.
Many of the intertitles had artwork for a background. Here's one of my favorites.

Now let's get to the elephant in the room. Both in the movie and the book, Jarvis is older than Judy, 14 years, to be exact. In this case it doesn't come across as creepy for me, though, as it has other times although I understand people might feel differently about that.
I think it has to do with Jarvis never being pushy or really controlling - except for the one time he orders her to go to the farm instead of visiting Sallie's (no typo, this is how it's written in the book) family in his role as Daddy-Long-Leg. He doesn't try to pull the rich or the gratitude card and also Judy stands up to him, like the time she takes on a summer job as a tutor against his will.
Actually, I think it's easier with the book because you just fill in your own idea of him while it's more difficult to do with the film. To me, Jarvis looks older there than 39 which is the age of the actor (Pickford was 26). In the book, Judy is 22 and Jarvis 36 when they finally get together.

At the time, the idea wouldn't have been strange at all. It has been suggested that the inspiration for the story might have come from Grover Cleveland's marriage with Frances Folsom who had been his unofficial ward. When they got married, he was 49 and she was 21.

Pickford was very funny in the slapstick scenes and elegant and mature as a grown-up, without a lot of overacting.
Up to now, I had only seen a documentary about her and her second husband, Douglas Fairbanks - the Queen and King of Hollywood who were highly influential in the business in their time.
So this was the first movie I have seen with her and I'm really looking forward to more now.

P.S. There are later versions, for example a musical with Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron (huge age gap there), but also an anime!
P.P.S. While writing this blog post, our friend the wasp came back and I managed to steer it towards the window and it left. Yay! Der Dekan is still looking for it, so little faith in my insect chasing skills.

Springtime in Paris - Hugo

One day early again, here's my post for the Springtime in Paris event that Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and Lisa from Boondock Ramblings have on their blogs this spring.
Today's movie is "Hugo" from 2011 which goes well with my silent movie of last week. You'll see why.

Hugo Cabret is a young orphan living behind the clocks in Gare Montparnasse, a big railway station in Paris.
His father died in a fire at the museum he worked at, so Hugo's alcoholic uncle has taken him in to train him how to maintain the station clocks. When the uncle disappears, Hugo works on the clocks alone trying to avoid the station inspector who is always on the lookout for orphans to send them to the orphanage.
All Hugo has left from his father is a broken automaton, a writing man that no one at the museum had wanted and that he and Hugo tried to fix, and his notebook with notes on the automaton.
Hugo takes toys from the little toy and candy shop in the station and uses the parts from them trying to fix the automaton by himself because he believes it will give him a message from his father. An important part missing is a heart shaped key to wind it up.

When Georges, the shopkeeper, catches Hugo, he takes the notebook from him. Hoping she will be able to help him getting it back, Hugo meets with Isabelle, Georges' goddaughter, who advises him to demand the notebook back. Georges agrees to give it back eventually if Hugo works for him to pay back for what he has taken from the shop.
Hugo and Isabelle become friends and he shows her the automaton when he notices the heart shaped key on her necklace. When they activate it, it doesn't write, but draws a picture of a space capsule hitting the eye of the man in the moon which is a scene from "A Trip to the Moon" by Georges Méliès - Isabelle's godfather!

To find out more, the children go to the Film Academy Library where they meet René Tabard, a film expert, who is delighted to hear that Méliès is still alive.
They invite him to Georges' apartment where they watch "A Trip to the Moon" with Georges' wife Jeanne who has acted in a lot of his films. When her husband comes into the room, he gets lost in memories and mentions the automaton he has built.
Hugo runs to the station to fetch the automaton. He's held up by the station inspector who has learned that Hugo's uncle is dead and wants to take him to the orphanage. Hugo escapes, but drops the automaton on the tracks. The inspector saves him when he jumps on the tracks to retrieve it.
Now Georges arrives and claims that Hugo belongs with him.
In the end, Georges becomes a professor at the Academy and they celebrate, then you see Isabelle starting to write down Hugo's story.

If you read last week's post about "A Trip to the Moon" and Méliès, you'll know how fascinating I think he was, and how sad it was that he ended up the way he did, in poverty.
You could feel this movie was made by a fan of this work and the history of film making. In the Making Of, you could also  tell that from the way Scorsese spoke about it.

But I didn't like it. My head could appreciate the technology going into it, the details of the pictures for example in the clock, the little Easter eggs in the film. My favorite was the automaton because I think automatons are absolutely wonderful in the truest sense, they are works of wonder to me, an utterly unmechanical person.
No matter, though, how many people - people I know, critics, award juries - tell me how magical this film is, that magic didn't work on me.
Deep breath - I found it boring and the acting rather stiff at times. Sorry, can't help it. I liked some of the components, but brought together it didn't do anything for me. I got more excited about the Méliès documentaries I have seen before or the videos I listed in the sources of the last post. I even found the Making Of more interesting than the film itself.
Also, there's only so much French accordion music I can listen to.
And yes, I was disappointed because I had absolutely expected to be enchanted.

Oh well, win some, lose some, right?

Has anyone read the book, by the way? If so, how did you like it?

Springtime

One of my favorite flowers are Bleeding Hearts (they are actually perennials). The most popular name here is "Tränende Herzen" - Crying Hearts.
Where my grandmother lived, there was a small meadow with three buildings around it, and along the walls of those buildings, there were Bleeding Hearts. I still see myself sitting down beside them to admire the little pink hearts which were so perfect.
Probably my memory deceives me and there wasn't the mass of blossoms I seem to remember, but that doesn't change anything about my thinking of my grandmother every time I see one of those plants.

Picture via pxhere

Then one day I stumbled upon a picture on deviantArt which surprised me, not sure why it did because I love looking at flowers, but don't know the next thing about them.
It was a white Bleeding Hearts plant and it looked beautiful. I had seen black and blue ones on the web before and knew those weren't real, but white ones are and I immediately fell in love. So when I met the neighbor the next day and he told me he was off to the garden center, I jokingly asked him to bring me white Bleeding Hearts and he did!

It has been in our little garden for some years now and while it's not blooming in abundance, it makes me smile every year.
Last week Monday, there were no blossoms yet, but when I went down two days later to fill up the bird feeder, I was happy to see two little rows of white.
From what I read, April is rather early for Bleeding Hearts to bloom. Part of the blossoms were still quite delicate and I just hoped the predicted rain wouldn't be too hard on them because it was already too dark to get a good picture.

The next morning I checked from the window and saw a blossom peek out from under the green, so I went down - without much hope because it was a really grey day, just how I love it, but not good for pictures with my little old camera - and found them alive and well.
Welcome spring!

If you want to know more about Bleeding Hearts, where they come from, and an old tale behind the name, check out
Bleeding heart: origin, properties and flowering time

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

Three years ago we got our egg delivery via bunny post for the first time. This was the promo picture and we were sold right away. Who could resist such a sweet smile?
Actually, he's an old friend of mine.

This year, however, there's a new kid in town because Mr. Gnome is on Easter vacation - Floppy the Bunny who has moved in here not long ago (it was a sale and I blame my sister, this time because she gave him to me 😉), just in time to take over. You have to give young people a chance, don't you?

I just hope Floppy hasn't got overwhelmed ... it was a lot of work.

Mr. Gnome made by my lovely friend Jennifer ❤
Running bunny made by Steiff
Floppy by Steiff (actually his name is Hoppy, but he reminded me so much of the rabbit Bluey's sister Bingo has)
Chocolate by Lindt
Wire knit and bead eggs made by me

I'm not affiliated with Steiff or Lindt in any way.

Random Saturday - Random kitty

What can I say? Der Dekan has been the epitome of grace from his very first day with us.
I never really told his story here, did I? Of course Gundel did it on Ponder's blog, mostly to vent about what I had done to her by letting this little monster in our house.

Der Dekan moved in here shortly after my birthday in 2021. The birthday was coincidence.
I felt it was time to find a companion for Gundel after Ponder had been gone for almost one and a half years. So I talked to Kosel, one of the upstairs poodles, to bring me a kitten the next time he went to the garden in a village nearby with his humans. There was a farm near there.
Just a few days later I got sent an email with a picture and the order to put the crate in the hallway. You have to remember these were still very much Covid times which was also the reason for not picking an older companion for Gundel, 1. I couldn't get to a shelter easily, 2. especially not one that didn't insist on a balcony (without exceptions), 3. as we know, shelters were wiped clean at the time (I wish they still were). 4. I didn't take two kittens because I wanted Gundel to get involved and because I was at home all the time. Gundel didn't warm up to him right away like some cats do to kittens, but they really get along fine with some very minor spats.
The email said something about how this little fellow "had to go" which I found curious. Shortly after I got my crate back, filled up with the cutest little kitten, randomly chosen ... or was he?
Possibly it had to do with him being one of nine siblings (people, as cute as kittens are, please neuter your pets!) or maybe one point was the content of his litter box.

I don't know if you can see it here, but he had a bit of a balloon belly and it wasn't worms. Maybe he had started early eating everything in sight and had got something wrong? Anyhow, the master started his new life at the vet's where he got injections and got put on a diet until his guts calmed down and I didn't need oxygen anymore after cleaning out his box.

I still like to call him Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. More than 30 years with cats, and this one still finds ways to surprise me, in good ways and some, erm, slightly annoying ways.
Everything he does, he does 200 %. Yeah, we are both not good at math.

Do you wonder why I'm telling you his story on this day of all days? Well, it's his birthday (yes, we assigned one, but he said he's okay with that)!
It's hard to believe that he's four years already and still the adorable little kitten ... What? A girl is allowed to dream, isn't she?
He may not be little (give me a moment while I wipe the tears of laughter from my eyes), but he's still adorable. Here's one of my favorite pictures even if he just eyed my cheese sandwich.

He's not at all macho (send help, he's making me say that!).

And of course he's always well-behaved (where's the help??).

Happy Purrday, my furry baby, I love you - no need to send help, no one had to make me say THAT.

Tackle that stash - Mookaite "teeth" earrings

Maybe you remember my mookaite "teeth" necklace that I made a few years ago inspired by a favorite YA novel of my childhood (with regular re-reads) - Rulaman from 1878 about a tribe of cave people set in an area not far from me at all which of course made this an even more fascinating read.
This is an illustration of the fest held after they hunted down the dangerous cave lion to whom they lost so many family members.
The idea that there were cave lions and bears in my area was so exciting to me!

I said then that I might make more using a different Delica color and of course promptly forgot about that until I shared the necklace elsewhere last week.

Last time I used copper and berry for the bead strips holding the stones and even if it doesn't seem this way, I chose the stones by size. The one in the center is the longest and then I chose similarly sized pairs to build the sides.
This time I went for different browns for the strips and as my left over stones were all over the place in regards to size, I thought earrings from teeth would have been something even for Neanderthals - not in combination with metal of course, but after all the plan was not to make authentic Neanderthal jewelry, but to be inspired by it.
Yes, it is indeed believed that they did wear jewelry and makeup.
Of course those earrings would be asymmetrical and probably random in the choice of stones, just the way mine are.

At first I had put three stones on each earring, but I couldn't get the third stone and chain to fall the way I wanted it to, due to the size of the dangles. I think two worked much better.

Here's a longer variation.

Not all of my stash tacklers have to become something big.
My mookaite stash is not even close to being used up with these earrings. I have a little box with different sizes, shapes, and colors.
There are also these beautiful big beads, not many matching pairs among them, but these two cream colored make a really nice one.

Since I got that box in a destash, the beads call to me every, now and then. It will be interesting to see even for myself what the next ones will want to be!

Silent movies - A trip to the moon

1902 was a good year. My grandmother was born which also made me possible and therefore this post, and Richard Steiff designed their first teddy bear, the PB 55 (I'm not going into the discussion who invented the teddy).
And it also was the year for "Le voyage dans la lune" to come out, in English known as "A Trip to the Moon".
It's incredible 15 1/2 minutes long which was quite long, practically feature-length for those early days of film.
What's happening, you may think, so much for attention span! Is she already getting tired? Will the next one be even shorter? Let's say that's not the plan, but you never know what happens.

Not only does this film takes us to yet another genre, science-fiction, and is regarded to be the first one in it, but it's iconic - in fact it's where it all began.
Of course that doesn't mean it's the first movie ever as we all know, but those coming before were short documentations of everyday life, such as the famous train arriving at a station, by the Lumière brothers.
Enter the stage - Georges Méliès.

Public domain via Wikimedia

Méliès was born into a wealthy family, his father had a high-quality boot factory. When he was sent to London for work and to improve his English, visits at the Egyptian Hall sparked his passion for stage magic which didn't stop when he returned to Paris. After his father retired, Méliès sold his share to his brothers, bought a theater, and began creating illusions of his own.
Attending a private demonstration of the Lumière cinematograph led to Méliès buying an Animatograph film projector and modifying it into a film camera. Unlike the Lumières, however, who wanted to save the medium for scientific and historical study, he used it to bring his magic and special effects such as the stop trick or superimposition - which he also often invented himself -  onto the screen and to cater to the fairground and music hall crowd. He also often acted in his own films.
Unfortunately, his career declined over the years due to problematic deals which finally led to his ruin, so he had to earn his livelihood at a candy and toy stand. Even after his work was rediscovered and appreciated again, his financial situation did not improve until his death.

Back to our moon trip.
The story is told rather quickly as early Méliès films didn't have an elaborate plot.
A group of scientists - looking more like wizards with their pointy hats and robes - fly to the moon in a space capsule launched by a cannon and with a military group of ladies in shorts (that would have reminded me of the shorts we wore to sports in school in the early 70s if they had been black) cheering them on.

Even if you don't know the film, you probably know this picture, the Man in the Moon hit in the eye by the space capsule (we never learn if he has recovered from this traumatic incident; also I can never help being reminded of the moon from The Mighty Boosh which simply must have been inspired by this one).

The scientists get out, watch the Earth rise, and fall asleep missing the celestial and magic scene above them until they get woken up by snow.

They explore the fantastic moonscape until they meet the moon's natives, kill some of them - at least that's how I interpret them going up in smoke -  but finally get captured.
They manage to escape and run back to their capsule followed by natives with big spears.

Are you confused by the mix of black and white and color
in the screenshots? We'll be getting to that.

They kill some more, but one of them jumps on the capsule before the scientists leave the moon and dive into the ocean. The space capsule is towed back by a ship and the scientists, showing off the native who miraculously survived the fall as well, are welcomed home enthusiastically.

The movie was inspired by Jules Verne and H. G. Wells books. Humankind has always been fascinated by the moon and there are many tales woven around it, new and old ones, so I'm not surprised Méliès liked the idea of going to the moon and find it filled with wonders.
I'm not sure how much his scientists really appreciate that thought, however. As mentioned in one blog, "film historian Matthew Solomon points out that Méliès' 1890s political cartoons mocked militant nationalism and bullying colonialism". I think it's safe to say that the wizardy costumes already show that Méliès didn't take them too seriously, also the professor (played by himself) simply draws an arrow from Earth to Moon and off they go where no man has gone before. Who even designed the capsule? They more or less just stand in the way when it's being built.
Then, instead of doing some serious exploring, they immediately get distracted by a moon native, start killing a few, escape, kill some more and shove off, only to show off the one native they brought home in a very undignified way.
Sounds rather familiar, doesn't it, especially for a time when there were still "human zoos".
And for those who didn't notice that, it was just fun, whimsy, and magical.

Méliès had some of the prints hand colored - that explains the screen shots, you can see the movie in black and white here or the colored version here - and one of those was found in Spain in 1993 and restored which took years. There's a documentary about it which I haven't seen (yet), but would love to.
Hand colored means someone actually painted frame by frame. The sets themselves had been painted in black and white for better contrast in the film.
Try both versions and see what you like better. I think here the colors add to the magic and dreamy mood.

The film was a success with the audience. Unfortunately, that also contributed to it being heavily pirated in the USA (yes, Edison was included, too) and imitated which resulted in big profit losses for Méliès who had not only put a lot of time, but also money into it.

If you are interested in the medium film at all, give this a try (and the two videos in the sources which tell you more about the film, but also the man behind it). It's worth it.

Sources:
1. A Trip to the Moon: Film History #1. On YouTube, channel "A Matter of Film"
2. The Father of Special Effects: Georges Méliès. On YouTube, channel "This is Barris! - French History"
3. Fritzi Kramer: A Trip to the Moon (1902): A Silent Film Review. On "Movies Silently", March 29, 2015
4. Daniel Stride: Review: A Trip to the Moon [Film] (1902). On: A Phuulish Fellow, July 19, 2020
5. Dan Stalcup: Review: A Trip to the Moon (1902). On: The Goods: Film Reviews, November 20, 2020

Springtime in Paris - Paris Blues

This post is part of the Springtime in Paris event that Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and Lisa from Boondock Ramblings have on their blogs this spring.
Today's movie is "Paris Blues".

Artists of all kinds have always been drawn by the charms of Paris, painters, photographers, composers, musicians, and there is more than one movie about Americans in Paris (for example "An American in Paris", what a surprise).

"Paris Blues" is about two of them, Ram and Eddie, both of jazz musicians.
Ram is white and aspires to be a serious musician, Eddie is black and came to Paris because to escape racism at home (as in fact many black artists did).
At the train station, Ram meets two tourists, Connie who is black and her friend Lillian who is white. Ram is attracted to Connie and invites her to see him perform at the club. She's not interested, but Lillian convinces her to go. When they leave the club, Ram tries to flirt with Connie again and gets angry when she rejects him.
In the end, Connie leaves with Eddie and Ram ends up in bed with Lillian.

The relationships develop over the next few days.
Both of the women want the men to come back to the USA with them. Lillian, who has two children, wants Ram to commit to their relationship, Connie is convinced you can only change things at home and therefore tries to persuade Eddie to go back. Ram, however, puts his music first and Eddie is glad he experiences less discrimination and racism in Paris.
Thereupon, the women decide to head back home early.
After meeting with a record producer and having one of his compositions rejected, Ram is ready to go with Lillian.
Eddie can't bear the thought of losing Connie and agrees on following once he has settled his affairs in Paris.
When they meet at the train station, though, Ram tells Lillian he has changed his mind and will be staying in Paris because he can't give up on his dream of a more respected career as a musician. Lillian tells him he will never forget her and gets on the train, heart-broken.

The film doesn't show the romantic Paris for tourists. I couldn't imagine it in color. Actually Connie and Lillian don't even get the chance for sightseeing.
You get to see the Paris of the artists in pictures that are beautiful without being sugarcoated, the clubs, the bird market, the drugs, the good moments and the disappointments, the music and the mood, and the movie is easy enough to watch, but to me it was like a babbling brook. I can't help that image, that's what it felt like throughout the movie.
Connie and Eddie talk about racism and how she wants to fight it at its source and he wants to escape it, but it didn't sound as passionate to me as it could have been.
The same goes for Lillian and Ram, I didn't feel any big passion and therefore didn't feel very sympathetic towards both of them, Ram not getting his big chance with the producer and Lillian not getting the relationship she wanted.
Maybe I struggled understanding big decisions like that being made within 12 days?

There are only two scenes that really stood out for me and both of them didn't have to do with the couples.
One was when Louis Armstrong as Wild Man Moore comes into the club and starts a spontaneous jam session which is wonderful. Actually I loved the whole score by Duke Ellington, period.
The other one was when Ram got into a fight with his guitarist over his drug addiction. I really felt that one, but that wasn't what the movie was mainly about, right?

It has been said that the film missed the chance on making a real impact by not mixing the couples up. Poitier talked about the studio getting cold feet after - so the rumor goes - the original idea had been interracial relationships.
It would definitely have made it more interesting and given the opportunity for deeper conversations and conflict.

Now I'm not saying that "Paris Blue" is bad, I still enjoyed watching it, but I think it could have been better.
Poitier regarded it as a step in the right direction and maybe we should just take it as that.

Ombré flower

This pendant got started "backwards" because I had forgotten to sew on one of the leaves for Nadine's palm in my last embroidery piece. Then I found I just had about enough of those green beads left for one more leaf, so I beaded that, and only then I started thinking about a main design to go with those leaves.
I had a small flower in mind, but as you can see once again my mind and Mabel (my imaginary muse) didn't agree and as usual Mabel won.

I pulled three colors from my drawer for an ombré design. The red is one of my regular stock-ups because I love the color, the other two were in one of my surprise orders.
Sometimes the bead tubes in those orders are full, sometimes they are leftovers, so I didn't have much of the salmon color and therefore didn't know how many petals I would be able to make. I honestly didn't think it would be enough for the fifth one and had already made plans how to deal with that. It was pretty close in the end, I had about ten beads left when I finished!

After the petals were attached to each other, the hole in the center was next.
The last time I made a flower with brick stitch petals, I had filled the center with beads in the round, but this time I went for loads of stamina in yellow and gold on a bead foundation instead.
Then I sewed on the leaves and beaded a golden bail and voilà!
Some time ago I got some black satin ropes and spontaneously added a few pink ones although I didn't know if I would ever use those, but isn't it perfect for my flower?

Silent movies - Sherlock Jr.

When I introduced my silent movie project, I told you that I grew up with them - again, re-runs, I'm not that old.
What I seem to remember best from those times are the comedies. Laurel and Hardy (shorts), Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin, and of course Buster Keaton.

For today I chose a Buster Keaton film that's not feature-length, but I couldn't remember having heard of it before and it sounded like fun.
It's "Sherlock Jr." from 1924 about a projectionist dreaming of becoming a detective and winning the love of his girl.

The movie starts by introducing the main characters - "The Boy" who studies "How To Be A Detective" from a book, his boss telling him to do his job instead, "The Girl", "The Girl's Father" who "had nothing to do so he got a hired man to help him" (love it!), and "The Local Sheik" (the name is a reference to another movie) who's also interested in the Girl.
The Boy wants to buy the Girl, who obviously comes from a wealthier family, a big box of chocolates, but he doesn't have enough money. So finally he gets her the small box, but changes the sticker from $1 to $4 and casually makes her see the price to impress her. Then he puts a ring with a tiny stone on her finger for which she needs the magnifying glass the Boy has on him. You can tell she really likes him because despite being disappointed, she's hiding that from him.
Meanwhile the Sheik has entered the house. Since he too doesn't have money, but wants to trump the Boy, he takes the Father's pocket watch from the waistcoat hanging on the wardrobe to pawn it and buy the big box of chocolates.
When he gives it to the Girl, the Father comes in to tell about his watch having been stolen. Our wannabe detective says he'll take the case and turns to his book. The Sheik sees that the first rule is to search everyone and slips the pawn ticket into the Boy's pocket.
When the Father searches the Boy, he finds the ticket for $4, so having changed the sticker backfires, the Father tells him he has to leave and the Girl gives back the ring. You can see, however, that they are both very distraught about it.

The Boy suspects the Sheik and shadows him without any success, so he heads back to the movie theater.
The Girl, however, goes to the pawn shop to ask for a description of the man bringing in the watch. Just then the Sheik happens to pass by and the pawnbroker recognizes him to be the one which the Girl then tells her father.

Meanwhile, the Boy has started the movie and falls asleep.
His dream self gets up and sees that the characters in the movie have changed to those in his life, so he enters the screen.

After getting thrown out again at first and then going through a number of different scenes, he - "the crime-crushing criminologist" named Sherlock Jr. - is called because a pearl necklace is stolen by the movie Sheik and his associate. He looks very dapper in his elegant outfit completely with top-hat and spats and has a very close look at the beautiful socialite in the house.

The thieves try everything to save themselves and kill the detective, but he escapes all their attempts very nonchalantly ...

He follows the Sheik, accompanied by his assistant, and finally manages to retrieve the necklace and jump on the assistant's motorcycle who unfortunately falls off without Sherlock Jr. noticing.
Next up is an incredible chase with the car full of gangsters going after the detective on the driverless motorcycle who rides from one danger into the next.
One of the gangsters has the young lady in his power, but Sherlock Jr. manages to save her and they escape in the gangsters' car.
At that point the Boy wakes up again and finds it was all just a dream, but then the Girl turns up to tell him they found out about him being innocent. So he takes clues from the final scene of the movie, holds her hands, kisses them, puts the ring back on her finger, and kisses her. Only the final image of the couple on the screen and their two babies confuses him visibly.

After first screenings didn't go well enough for him, Keaton made several cuts to "Sherlock Jr.", but the film still received mixed reviews for not being regarded funny.
Therefore Keaton himself did not see this movie as one of his good ones, but over time people began to praise it as a masterpiece.
There is theater magic, movie magic, incredible stunts, and a lot of practice in this. You can find a making of video here which explains quite a bit and it's utterly fascinating.
Two of my favorite scenes are
- the part where the gangsters try to kill Sherlock Jr., for example with a bomb in a billiard ball - he had practiced those trick shots
- the gangsters chasing Sherlock Jr. on the motorcycle, it's absolutely incredible - despite a bit of trickery being used, he actually practiced riding the motorcyle like this, how crazy is that?

I honestly can't remember ever having watched a complete Buster Keaton film, it must all have been snippets in the compilation shows of my childhood.
Of course I was aware that he mostly did his own stunts and that many were death-defying, but I don't think I ever really got the chance to grasp that fully until now.
There's this stunt for example during which the water pressure made Keaton lose his grip and hit his head on a steel rail. Despite heavy headaches, he kept on filming and only years later it was found out during a doctor's appointment that he had actually broken his neck!
And I can't get up from my bed without moaning 🤪

Of course I knew him only stone-faced, but I never knew to appreciate the effect that could have on scenes that would usually ask for big emotion.
I didn't only gasp at the stunts, though, but also loved how he showed the relationship between two people who seem to come from different worlds, but are still so sweet with each other. I guess I'm a sucker for heartwarming at the moment.

There may not be much of a plot - Keaton said he wanted it to feel like a dream, and you can tell it's made by someone who loved the medium film - but remember that this isn't feature-length. If I have learned something from these 44 minutes it's that I'm looking forward to seeing more.

Selected sources:
1. Kieran Judge: 'Sherlock Jr.' at 100 - Review. On: The Film Magazine, April 21, 2024
2. Jeffrey Vance: "Sherlock Jr." (1924). On: Library of Congress - Programs - National Film Preservation Board, October 2024
3. David A. Punch: Sherlock Jr: Keaton's Cinematic Genius. On: The Twin Geeks, September 2, 2019
4. Chris Scott Edwards: Sherlock, Jr. (1924). On: Silent Volume, July 5, 2009
5. David Johansson: Sherlock Jr. On: San Francisco Silent Film Festival. Winter Event 2009.