Saturday, June 30, 2012

The Redhead Room, Circa 1916

In a comment to my last post about W.C. Handy, Mister Muleboy noted that he had taken advantage of my implied invitation to climb into the Monkey's head, but was disappointed to find the redhead wing of my brain closed to the public.

So, who would have been lurking in the Redhead Room, circa 1916? Here are a few possibilities, in the order I ran across them in my research:

Too many Impressionist paintings to mention. Make a trip to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Soon.

Lily Langtry, stage actress and royal mistress (who I wrote about at length here)

Sarah Bernhardt, possibly the greatest stage actress in history

Anne of Green Gables, a novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery published in 1908, with two of seven sequels published by 1916. And, yes, I've read it.

Dame Ellen Terry, British stage actress

Raggedy Ann, famous doll first introduced in 1915

Irene Franklin, vaudeville comedienne who recorded her signature song "Redhead" in 1907

Margaret Sanger, who opened the first birth control clinic in America in 1916 and who would later found Planned Parenthood

and possibly Ella Hall, a silent screen actress who made her first movie in 1912 and would play "Polly Redhead" in the film of the same name in 1917, which may or may not have meant she was a redhead.

Hope this will tide you over until the next visit to the Redhead Room.

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