IMPORTANT

Posted from my computer at work: My home computer crashed just after I came home from Easter holiday and it is in for service and upgrade at the moment. Besides I’m queuing up for a hip replacements operation and the line in front of me is getting shorter and shorter. When that operation is over I will end up at a convalescence center for at least four weeks (free of charge as the operation, standard here in Norway).
 So you see there might be a while before I can continue my posting, but I’ll return with a upgraded computer and a right hip made from titanium as soon as I can. Enjoy some older post in the meanwhile – Ted
Note: I will unfortunately not be able to answer mail or messages until my home coomputer is back in action. Here at work I’ve got my hands full with other things.

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Jeanne Crain–American Actress

Jeanne Elizabeth Crain (May 25, 1925 – December 14, 2003) was an American actress whose career spanned from 1943 to 1975. She received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in the 1949 film Pinky, in which she played the leading role. She was also noted for her ability in ice skating.

Career

In 1944, Crain starred in Home in Indiana and In the Meantime, Darling. Her acting was critically panned, but she gained nationwide attention. It resulted in landing the leading role in The Shocking Miss Pilgrim in October 1944, a musical film which was eventually made with Betty Grable as the star.

Crain first received critical acclaim when she starred in Winged Victory (1944). She co-starred in 1945 with Dana Andrewsin the musical film State Fair, in which Louanne Hogan dubbed Crain’s singing numbers. After that, Crain often had singing parts in films, and they were invariably dubbed, in most cases by Hogan. Also in 1945, Crain starred in Leave Her to Heaven with Gene Tierney. Her ice skating ability was on display in the 1946 film, Margie, in which she and Conrad Janis danced around the ice rink as her boyfriend, Alan Young, slipped and stumbled his way along the ice.

In 1949, Crain appeared in three films — A Letter to Three Wives, The Fan, and Pinky, the latter earning her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Pinky was controversial, since it told the story of a light-skinned African American woman who passes for white in the Northern United States. Although Lena Horne and other black actresses were considered, producer Darryl F. Zanuckchose to cast a white actress for fear of racial backlash.

Crain starred opposite Myrna Loy and Clifton Webb in the 1950 biographical film Cheaper by the Dozen. Next, Crain paired with Cary Grant in the Joseph L. Mankiewicz film of the offbeat drama People Will Talk (1951). Despite Jeanne heavily campaigning for the female lead, Anne Baxter was initially cast in the part, but when she had to forfeit due to pregnancy, Crain was given the role after all. Shortly after, she starred in Charles Brackett‘s production The Model and the Marriage Broker (1951). Cast in May 1951, Crain was Brackett’s first choice for the role. Crain was reunited with Loy for Belles on Their Toes (1952), the sequel to Cheaper by the Dozen.

While still at 20th Century Fox, Crain played a young wife quickly losing her mind amidst high-seas intrigue in Dangerous Crossing(1953), co-starring Michael Rennie. Crain then starred in a string of films for Universal Pictures, including a notable pairing with Kirk Douglas in Man Without a Star(1955).

Crain showed her dancing skills in 1955’s Gentlemen Marry Brunettes co-starring Jane Russell, Alan Young, and Rudy Vallee. The production was filmed on location inParis. The film was based on the Anita Loos sequel to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Gentlemen Marry Brunettes was popular throughout Europe at the time and was released in France as A Paris Pour les Quatre (To Paris for the Four), and in Belgium as Cevieren Te Parijs. Later in the 1950s, Crain, Russell, and another actress formed a short-lived singing and dancing lounge act on the Strip in Las Vegas.

In 1956, Crain starred opposite Glenn Ford, Russ Tamblyn, and Broderick Crawford in the Western film The Fastest Gun Alive directed by Russell Rouse. In 1957, she played a socialite who helps a floundering singer and comedian (Frank Sinatra) redeem himself in The Joker Is Wild.

In 1959, Crain appeared in a CBS special television production of Meet Me in St. Louis. Also starring in the broadcast were Loy, Walter Pidgeon, Jane Powell, and Ed Wynn, with top billing going to Tab Hunter. Film roles became fewer in the 1960s as Crain went into semiretirement. She appeared as Nefertiti in the Italian production of Nefertiti, Queen of the Nile (1961) with Edmund Purdom and Vincent Price. During this period, Crain appeared – for the second time – as one of the mystery guests on the CBS game show, What’s My Line?, and made guest appearances on the NBC Western series, Riverboat, with Darren McGavin, and the ABC detective series,Burke’s Law, starring Gene Barry.

She starred again with Dana Andrews in Hot Rods To Hell (1967). Her last films were Skyjacked (1972) and The Night God Screamed (1975).

Legacy

Crain’s career is fully documented by a collection of memorabilia about her assembled by Charles J. Finlay, a longtime publicist at 20th Century Fox. The Jeanne Crain Collection resides at the Cinema Archives at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. These archives also hold the papers of Ingrid Bergman, Frank Capra,Clint Eastwood, and others.

Filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1943	The Gang’s All Here	Chorus Girl/Pool Party Guest	uncredited
1944	Home in Indiana	‘Char’ Bruce
	In the Meantime, Darling	Margaret ‘Maggie’ Preston
	Winged Victory	Helen
1945	State Fair	Margy Frake	a.k.a. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s State Fair also Soundtrack
	Leave Her to Heaven	Ruth Berent
1946	Centennial Summer	Julia Rogers	also Soundtrack
	Margie	Marjorie ‘Margie’ MacDuff	also Soundtrack
1948	You Were Meant for Me	Peggy Mayhew
	Apartment for Peggy	Peggy Taylor	also Soundtrack
1949	A Letter to Three Wives	Deborah Bishop
	The Fan	Lady Margaret ‘Meg’ Windermere	a.k.a. Lady Windermere’s Fan
	Pinky	Patricia ‘Pinky’ Johnson	Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress
1950	Cheaper by the Dozen	Ann Gilbreth
	I’ll Get By	Jeanne Crain	uncredited Cameo appearance
1951	Take Care of My Little Girl	Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Erickson
	People Will Talk	Deborah Higgins
	The Model and the Marriage Broker	Kitty Bennett
1952	Belles on Their Toes	Ann Gilbreth	a.k.a. Belles on Their Toes: The Further Adventures of the Gilbreth Family
	O. Henry’s Full House	Della Young	Segment The Gift of the Magi
1953	Dangerous Crossing	Ruth Stanton Bowman
	Vicki	Jill Lynn
	City of Bad Men	Linda Culligan
1954	Duel in the Jungle	Marian Taylor
1955	Man Without a Star	Reed Bowman
	Gentlemen Marry Brunettes	Connie Jones/Mitzi Jones	also Soundtrack
	The Second Greatest Sex	Liza McClure	also Soundtrack
1956	The Fastest Gun Alive	Dora Temple
1957	The Tattered Dress	Diane Blane
	The Joker Is Wild	Letty Page	a.k.a. All the Way
1960	Guns of the Timberland	Laura Riley
1961	Twenty Plus Two	Linda Foster	a.k.a. It Started in Tokyo
	Nefertiti, Queen of the Nile	Tenet/Nefertiti	Original title: Nefertiti, regina del Nilo
1962	Madison Avenue	Peggy Shannon
	Pontius Pilate	Claudia Procula	Original title: Ponzio Pilato
1963	Invasion 1700	Helen	Original title: Col ferro e col fuoco a.k.a. Daggers of Blood a.k.a. With Fire and Sword
1967	Hot Rods to Hell	Peg Phillips	a.k.a. 52 Miles to Terror
1971	The Night God Screamed	Fanny Pierce	a.k.a. Scream
1972	Skyjacked	Mrs. Clara Shaw	a.k.a. Sky Terror
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1955	Star Stage	Nancy	1 episode
1956	The Ford Television Theatre	Joyce Randall	1 episode
1958	Playhouse 90	Daisy Buchanan	1 episode
	Schlitz Playhouse of Stars	Ruth Elliot	1 episode
1959	Meet Me in St. Louis	Rose Smith	TV movie
	Goodyear Theatre	Lila Babrek Barnes	1 episode
	Riverboat	Laura Sutton	1 episode
1960-62	G.E. True Theater	Hope/Marion Miller	3 episodes
1963	The Dick Powell Theatre	Elsie	1 episode
1964-65	Burke’s Law	Amy Booth / Lorraine Turner / Polly Martin	3 episodes
1968	The Danny Thomas Hour	Frances Merrill	1 episode
	The Name of the Game	Mrs. McKendricks	1 episode
1972	Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law	Lily MacMurdy	1 episode

Text and filmography table from Wikipedia

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The History Of Picnics

The picnic season is right around the corner people. Here’s a little historic view on the subject from my other blog to set you in the right mood. Get your picnic baskets out of the cupboards and start planning

RecipeReminiscing

Food historians tell us picnics evolved from the elaborate traditions of moveable outdoor feasts enjoyed by the wealthy. Medieval hunting feasts, Renaissance-era country banquets, and Victorian garden parties lay the foundation for today’s leisurely repast. Picnics, as we Americans know them today, date to the middle of the 19th century. Although the “grand picnic” is generally considered a European concept, culinary evidence confirms people from other parts of the world engage in similar practices.

The earliest picnics in England were medieval hunting feasts. Hunting conventions were established in the 14th century, and the feast before the chase assumed a special importance. Gaston de Foiz, in a work entitled Le Livre de chasse (1387), gives a detailed description of such an event in France. As social habits in 14th century England were similar to those in medieval France, it is safe to assume that picnics were more or less the same…

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Up in Smoke: Norwegian Tobacco History

About those rolling papers 😉

Girls presenting Benson & Hedges cigarettes at the “Britain -66 exhibition in Oslo (Photo: Ørnelund/Oslo Museum)

In 2012, Norway’s largest newspaper Aftenposten reported that an increasing number of Oslo citizens have quit smoking. In recent years, the number of quitters have dropped even further, but not too many years ago, Oslo was a tobacco melting pot.

Nowhere else in Norway, smoking has gained so low status as in Oslo, but smoking cigarettes used to be a trend that spread out from the capital to the rest of the country.

Throughout the 20th century, tobacco was very visible in the city: Oslo had a dozen tobacco factories, and cigarette commercials adorned apartment buildings, kiosks, restaurants and cinemas.

According to Karl Erik Lund at The Norwegian Institute for Alcohol and Drug Research (SIRUS), this happened around 1900 when the tobacco factories began with machine-produced cigarettes.

Gentlemen Only

Advertising from 1953: “Your…

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Book

Erotixx

The always almighty struggle with ebooks vs printed. I love the printed versions but read mostly from my kindle but as it says at the bottom,  doesn’t matter so long as you enjoy and keep on reading.

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The Old Kings Road Voted Norway’s Most Beautiful Road

More Norwegian roads for you.

Most Beautiful Road 1: Filefjell Kongeveien (Photo: Sverre Hjørnevik/ Norwegian Public Roads Adminsitration)

The old Filefjell Kongeveien (English: The Kings Road) is connecting Eastern and Western Norway and has been in use since the late 1100s. Now, it is voted the most beautiful road together with the Skjarvelandet landslide project on the Havøysund road in Northern Norway.

Every second year, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration awards “The Beautiful Roads Award” which is the Norwegian Director of Roads’ prestigious honorary prize for “roads with good aesthetic qualities adapted to their surroundings.”

The prize has been awarded fifteen times since 1988.

The Kings Road

The Kings Road, crossing the mountainous area of Filefjell, is the historical main route linking Western and Eastern Norway. It is named after King Sverre (1184–1202 AD) who traveled this route with his army. The road got official status as a main road in 1791.

The restoration of…

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Motorcycle women

Preindustrial Craftsmanship

And their exceptional caravan:

From Gypsies and Gentlemen by Nerissa Wilson, n.d. circa 1920s?

Maybe one rides in the van while on the road?  What an awesome base camp.

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Unique Opportunity: Summer Job as Viking Ship Høvedsmann/ Captain

The Viking ship “Lofotr” needs a new captain the coming summer. (Photo: Lofotr Viking Museum)

Have you ever dreamed of being Høvedsmann (Captain) on a Viking ship? This summer, you have the opportunity to apply for the position at the Lofotr Viking Museum in the Lofoten archipelago, Northern Norway – if you have the right qualifications.

There are two Viking ships at the museum. “Lofotr” is a full-scale reconstruction of the Gokstad ship dating back to the 800s. Like the original, “Lofotr” is an excellent seagoing ship which has won several regattas.

The Viking museum which is located on the beautiful Vestvågøy island is searching for two captains the coming summer.

(Article continues)

The reconstructed Viking longhouse at the Lofotr Viking Museum is the largest ever found. (Photo: Lofotr Viking Museum)

Here you will find the job ad translated into English. Notice that there is no requirement to speak Norwegian…

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2014 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 540,000 times in 2014. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 23 days for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report. – The report is now public 🙂

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A Lesson In Hats

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Conserving the Midland Railway poster, Blackpool

My absolute favourite museum in the world and I’ve been there more times than I can remember. I studied calligraphy and hand lettering in York for one year and I was at the National Railway Museum at least once a week, usually more often – Ted

National Railway Museum blog

This guest blog was written by Richard Hawkes ACR, Paper Conservator, Artworks Conservation, Harrogate

Midland Railway, Blackpool poster, after conservation

Posters produced to advertise railway companies and their destinations were not expected to last longer than their brief period of display. The papers on which they were printed contained low quality wood pulp and the inks were bulked out with cheap extenders. They were pasted to billboards and walls and often torn down or covered with next season’s designs. Although they were mass produced, the fact that examples from the nineteenth century had survived at all is remarkable.

Once such example was almost lost when, after nearly being thrown out due to its poor condition, it was donated to a local charity shop who contacted the National Railway Museum.

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Liquid Fuel Stoves and the Caravan Camper

If you’ve never made dinner on a hike you’ve missed out on one of life’s great pleasures.

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Freia Milk Chocolate – A Part of the Norwegian Spirit

Freia Milk Chocolate – A Little Piece of Norway 🙂 So alright, I love chocolate and I got a sweet tooth the size of a small country in Central America. What is that to you, huh 😉

In 1906, the Norwegian Freia Chocolate Factory launched a product that would become a bestseller and a national trademark aligned with the Norwegian flag, Henrik Ibsen and cross-country skiing: Freia Melkechokolade (Freia Milk Chocolate).

The company presented their new product as a “Cheerful chocolate that helps to preserve the mind’s joyfulness”. In 1916, the name was changed to Norsk Melke-chokolade to emphasize the Norwegian grammar. Four years later the chocolate was renamed Norsk Melk Chokolade – which was contrary to the contemporary spelling rules. The reason was probably that the spelling focused on milk as an important part of the Norwegian public health.

Their very first slogan was “The Best Chocolate in Europe”. In 1926, Freia launched their classic paper wrap design with cows on summer pastures – which is still in use. After the Second World War, the chocolate got its present name: Freia Melkesjokolade, which means…

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Chet Baker and His Music

A great post that deserves reblogging from more people than me. A good read, muscleheaded 🙂

The Müscleheaded Blog

Plaque in Amsterdam (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I can’t explain why this is……

But it always seems like the ones who are blessed with the most talents,

are also the ones cursed with the deepest torments.

In a previous post, I referred to Brian Wilson….

……… and he certainly is an example.

As another case in point,

I could easily use one Chet Baker.

Chet was an extraordinary talent— in the late 50’s and early 60’s,

few people who heard him
would have doubted that his name would be remembered as one of the most important Jazz talents of the century.

He had an innate understanding of the emotional side of music.

One could say that listening to him play is an exercise in empathy.

David Gelly described his potential early in his career:

” James Dean, Frank Sinatra and Bix rolled into one “

Born in 1929 into a musical family…

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True colours

Even more interesting to me, who is still a graphic designer ;.)

Erotixx

As a former graphics designer,  I find this very interesting. 

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Cheers to Jokke!

All I can say is, let’s all take a few beers for Jokke today, he is sorely missed – Ted

Today, Joachim “Jokke” Nielsen, Norway’s biggest rock poet, would have turned 50 years old. Commentator in newspaper Aftenposten, Joacim Lund, has written a most honest tribute to one of Norway’s most unconventional and unpredictable poets and musicians. Happy birthday, Jokke!

Aftenposten: Finally, Jokke got on stage. It was him we were waiting for. I do not remember the other bands who played, only the fiery political appeals between their songs. Seething anger against politicians, moneymakers and apparently a completely outrageous culture budget. Rock against the Budget, I think the posters said. It might have been in 1989. Spikersuppa [in Oslo] was the place.

Jokke took the microphone.

– I should probably say something smart about the budget, he said.

– But I won’t. What I can say is that we’ve got a case of beer for playing here. One-two-three-four!

And then it started. He sang about beer and…

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The Kurér Portable Radio

I got hold of one at flea market a couple of years ago, but my youngest daughter got hold of it 😉

Kurér Combi from 1960 (Photo: Northern Norwegian Radio Museum)

Kurér was a portable radio that became very popular in Norway in the 50’s and 60’s. The first model was launched 24 April 1950.and was produced by the Norwegian radio producer Radionette. 

It had four vacuum tubes and a speaker with a permanent magnet and four wavebands: Longwave, medium wave, fisheries wave and shortwave. It was designed to be a portable radio that also could be used at home. The power source was either normal electricity or batteries, which was quite innovative at the time. The total weight was 16.8 lb.

The ftop photo is showing a Kurér Combi from 1960, a variation of the Kurér with in-built record player that did cost 103 dollars. Today, the price would be about 1193 dollars which meant that families had to save money to get hold of a quality portable radio.

Kurér Transi from…

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Classy classic combo

While were talking about sidecars….

lambrettista.net

The Gulf Racing colours of pale blue and bright orange are a classic and recognisable combination that work so well together.  I’ve seen them on many vehicles, from Porches to Beetles, Mini’s, bikes and a fair few scoots over the years. But I think this is the first time I’ve seen them on a Lambretta sidecar combination.  In my ever so humble opinion, it works. And it’s for sale on eBay. The scooter (a GP 150) has been upgraded to with a GT 186 kit, so should pull that Watsonian along nicely. It’s on eBay here. But be quick, the auction ends today.
Here’s that link again

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A Slight Digression

This is my lunch box from ground school. I got it when I started in 1960. It should prove I’m the type of guy that doesn’t throw away things – Ted 😉

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this Week’s Retro Recipe – Bunnies In Clover

A recipe from an ad for Kraft Cheese Company published in 1940Recipe HERE

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