Wow, the show is coming along so nicely. We took a bunch of publicity photos last night. Here are the best ones. Please use to promote the show!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adenasf/sets/72157604182175621/
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
1950s timeline
Important Historic and Cultural Events
1950 - President Harry Truman ( 'til 1952) approves production of the hydrogen bomb and Sends air force and navy to Korea in June.
1951 - Transcontinental television begins with a speech by Pres. Truman. Dwight D. Eisenhower is president from 1953 until 1961
1952 - The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952 is signed, removing racial and ethnic barriers to becoming a U.S. citizen.
1953 - Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are electrocuted for their part in W.W.II espionage.
1953 - Fighting ends in Korea.
1954 - U. S. Senator Joseph McCarthy begins televised hearings into alleged Communists in the army.
1954 - Racial segregation is ruled unconstitutional in public schools by the U.S. Supreme Court.
1955 - Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama.
1955 - The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge making the new AFL-CIO an organization with 15 million members. also in 1955 Dr. Jonas Salk developed a vaccine for polio
1956 - The Federal Highway Act is signed, marking the beginning of work on the interstate highway system.
1958 - Explorer I, the first U.S. satellite, successfully orbits the earth. December 10,
1958 - The first domestic jet-airline passenger service is begun by National Airlines between New York City and Miami.
1959 - Alaska and Hawaii become the forty-ninth and fiftieth states.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Cherie Costume Ideas
I love the idea of putting Cherie in something asymmetric.
Cherie buys clothes at the local thrift shop. She doesn't own a lot of clothes, but the clothes she does own are all somehow loud. They definitely get her noticed. They're likely clothes from a few season's ago that some rich locals bought and threw out after wearing once (or never).
Regardless, Cherie somehow still has a sex appeal, even in these ridiculous dresses.
Cherie buys clothes at the local thrift shop. She doesn't own a lot of clothes, but the clothes she does own are all somehow loud. They definitely get her noticed. They're likely clothes from a few season's ago that some rich locals bought and threw out after wearing once (or never).
Regardless, Cherie somehow still has a sex appeal, even in these ridiculous dresses.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
The Menninger Clinic in Topeka
http://www.menningerclinic.com/
Individuals with severe mental illness from across the USA and abroad have turned to The Menninger Clinic since 1925.
Founded in Topeka, Kansas, by Drs. C.F., Karl and Will Menninger, The Menninger Clinic represented the first group psychiatry practice. "We had a vision," Dr. C.F. said, "of a better kind of medicine and a better kind of world."
The three founders created a national psychiatric hospital with staff dedicated to helping people who were struggling with difficulties and disorders that interfered with quality daily living. They believed that persons with mental illness could be treated and helped at a time when custodial care or lifetime exile were the only alternatives.
The Clinic stood as a symbol of hope. The nervous and mental symptoms, emotional conflicts, the frustrations, and unhappiness complained of by the patients were given consideration equal to that given infections, tumors, and other physical ailments. Others around the world adopted and practiced many of Menninger’s innovations and approaches to the care of the mentally ill and to psychiatry.
Since that time, standing still has never been a trait among Menninger clinicians, researchers and educators.
---
Celebrities treated at the clinic...
Gene Teirney
Individuals with severe mental illness from across the USA and abroad have turned to The Menninger Clinic since 1925.
Founded in Topeka, Kansas, by Drs. C.F., Karl and Will Menninger, The Menninger Clinic represented the first group psychiatry practice. "We had a vision," Dr. C.F. said, "of a better kind of medicine and a better kind of world."
The three founders created a national psychiatric hospital with staff dedicated to helping people who were struggling with difficulties and disorders that interfered with quality daily living. They believed that persons with mental illness could be treated and helped at a time when custodial care or lifetime exile were the only alternatives.
The Clinic stood as a symbol of hope. The nervous and mental symptoms, emotional conflicts, the frustrations, and unhappiness complained of by the patients were given consideration equal to that given infections, tumors, and other physical ailments. Others around the world adopted and practiced many of Menninger’s innovations and approaches to the care of the mentally ill and to psychiatry.
Since that time, standing still has never been a trait among Menninger clinicians, researchers and educators.
---
Celebrities treated at the clinic...
Gene Teirney
Received extensive shock treatment in the 1950s while battling her mental instability.
Tierney was in the throes of suicidal depression and was admitted to the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, on Christmas Day in 1957, after police talked her down from a building ledge. She was released from Menningers the following year.
Divorce and the 1950s
| Back then, people spend more of their lives married than they do today due to lower divorce rates and earlier ages at marriage. People just didn't live alone. Only 9.3% of homes had only a single occupant in 1950, up slightly to 16.3% in 1960. Today that number is over 25% |
| Women's prospects as single people were pretty grim. Even today, divorced women suffer about a 45% decline in economic status and it was worse then. Today a woman can get a decent paying job but back in the Fifties, a woman's best chance at employment was in traditionally accepted "women's jobs" such as secretary, teacher, nurse, librarian and so forth. So there was an ecomonic incentive to stay married. Men felt the societal pressure. A proper fella had a wife and kids. His boss expected it. His neighbors and family expected it. |  |
Who Was Hildegarde?
Cherie mentions "Hildegarde" in one of her monologues explaining how she chose her name.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegarde
http://www.musicbizadvice.com/hildegarde.htm
NEW YORK (AP) -- Hildegarde, the “incomparable" cabaret singer whose career spanned almost seven decades, has died. She was 99.
The performer, who was credited with starting the single-name vogue among entertainers, died Friday at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Hospital, said Don Dellair, her longtime friend and manager.
Born Hildegarde Loretta Sell in Adell, Wisconsin, she was known for 70 years simply as “The Incomparable Hildegarde," a title bestowed on her by columnist Walter Winchell.
During the peak of her popularity in the 1930s and '40s, she was booked in cabarets and supper clubs at least 45 weeks a year. She appeared on the cover of Life magazine in 1939, and her recordings sold in the hundreds of thousands. Revlon even introduced a Hildegarde shade of lipstick and nail polish.
"Hildegarde was perhaps the most famous supper-club entertainer who ever lived," Liberace once said. “I used to absorb all the things she was doing, all the showmanship she created. It was marvelous to watch her, wearing elegant gowns, surrounded with roses and playing with white gloves on. They used to literally roll out the red carpet for her."
Hildegarde's admirers ranged from enlisted men and officers during World War II to King Gustaf of Sweden and the Duke of Windsor.
From the 1950s through the '70s, in addition to her cabaret performances and record albums, she appeared in a number of television specials and toured with the national company of the Stephen Sondheim Musical “Follies."
Her autobiography, “Over 50 ... So What!" was published by Doubleday in 1961.
Hildegarde accompanied herself on the piano and chatted between numbers, often poking fun at herself.
During a 1993 performance at Manhattan's Algonquin Hotel, she said, “Wrinkle, wrinkle, leave me alone. Go and sliver Sharon Stone."
Another Cabaret legend, Bobby Short, who died this year at 80, once said, “Hers was the slickest nightclub act of all time."
She leaves no immediate survivors, Dellair said.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Elma Hair Ideas
Elma is a 16 year old waitress born and raised in Kansas.
Challenge: Turn 23-year-old actress into 16 year old.
"Naturally, life in the ‘50s wasn’t one sock hop after another. Teens spent most of their time in school, and were constantly pressured to conform to society’s extremely conservative standards. One such method of pressure were the frequent showing of “mental hygiene” films in schools. These 15 minute films (with titles such as, “Keep off the Grass”, “Are You Popular?” and “Safety or Slaughter”) attempted to steer – or frighten – young people away from drugs, sex, slouching, speeding, or anything that might render them socially unpopular. The consequences for teens that veered from the norm were severe: an unwed pregnant teen would quickly find herself a pariah; homosexuality could result in a jail sentence; an interracial relationship would practically guarantee ostracism from everyone, including your own family."
"The average white middle-class teen in the 1950’s often engaged in the type of wholesome activities for which they are so well remembered. They hung out with their friends at malt shops, “necked” at drive-in movies, and gathered around the television with their families – only one set per household in those days – to watch respectable programs such as “I Love Lucy” and “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Teenage boys – from slick-haired “greasers” to cardigan-wearing preppies – spent ample time salivating over the increasingly sleek and sporty cars that were being churned out each year. Girls swooned over pin-ups of teen idols like Troy Donahue and Fabian, and consulted newly inaugurated teen magazines for advice on dating or fashion." --- America's First Teenagers
"The Eagle" Year Book, 1955, Coldwater, Kansas, Junior Class:
Challenge: Turn 23-year-old actress into 16 year old.
"Naturally, life in the ‘50s wasn’t one sock hop after another. Teens spent most of their time in school, and were constantly pressured to conform to society’s extremely conservative standards. One such method of pressure were the frequent showing of “mental hygiene” films in schools. These 15 minute films (with titles such as, “Keep off the Grass”, “Are You Popular?” and “Safety or Slaughter”) attempted to steer – or frighten – young people away from drugs, sex, slouching, speeding, or anything that might render them socially unpopular. The consequences for teens that veered from the norm were severe: an unwed pregnant teen would quickly find herself a pariah; homosexuality could result in a jail sentence; an interracial relationship would practically guarantee ostracism from everyone, including your own family."
"The average white middle-class teen in the 1950’s often engaged in the type of wholesome activities for which they are so well remembered. They hung out with their friends at malt shops, “necked” at drive-in movies, and gathered around the television with their families – only one set per household in those days – to watch respectable programs such as “I Love Lucy” and “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Teenage boys – from slick-haired “greasers” to cardigan-wearing preppies – spent ample time salivating over the increasingly sleek and sporty cars that were being churned out each year. Girls swooned over pin-ups of teen idols like Troy Donahue and Fabian, and consulted newly inaugurated teen magazines for advice on dating or fashion." --- America's First Teenagers
"The Eagle" Year Book, 1955, Coldwater, Kansas, Junior Class:
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