Bonded: Who's Your Favorite James Bond

The new James Bond movie, Skyfall, is in theaters now, starring the incredibly handsome and hunky Daniel Craig, as 007.

Sean Connery: The Greatest  Bond

In my opinion, the best Bond was the original, Sean Connery, but my next favorite is Craig, followed by Timothy Dalton.

Timothy Dalton: Should Have Made More Bond Movies

Dalton made only two Bond films, The Living Daylights (1987) and License to Kill (1989).  I saw both and enjoyed them immensely, yet critics claim he lacked the charisma necessary for the role.  I've never understood this.  To me, he embodied the rugged intensity and manliness of James Bond, as well as that 007 cool charisma.  In addition, he was absolutely gorgeous!  Sigh...I wish he'd made more Bond movies...

Daniel Craig: Next Best Thing to Connery

Below is a list of all the actors who have ever played Bond. I've included my unsolicited opinions on each for fun:

1. Sean Connery- The Best!

2. George Lazenby - Who? Aynilists says, "Having done only one James Bond movie, George became actually a metaphor for something forgettable: 'It was a mistake, like casting George Lazenby as 007.'″

3. Roger Moore - Many years ago on The Mike Douglas Show, I heard Moore say he believed himself too pretty for the role; I agree.

4. Timothy Dalton - Superb!

5. Pierce Brosnan - Why?

6. Daniel Craig - Next best thing to Sean Connery!

Who is your favorite bond?

Thanks for visiting and have a great week!

Passing as Black

Effa Manley

So there's trans-gender, can there also be trans-racial? If someone chooses to pass, perhaps they are. If you're unfamiliar with the term "passing," here's a definition from Wikipedia: 

Racial passing refers to a person classified as a member of one racial group attempting to be accepted as a member of a different racial group. The term was used especially in the U.S. to describe a person of mixed-race heritage assimilating into the white majority during times when legal and social conventions...classified the person as a minority, subject to racial segregation and discrimination.

Back in the days of segregation, lots of mixed race individuals of black and white ancestry chose to pass as white for social and economic reasons.  Effa Manley, however, was a white woman who chose to pass as black!  Her biological parents were white, but she was raised by her white mother, and her step-father who was African-American.

I'd never heard of Effa Manley, but here's some of her story from Negro Leagues Legacy.  See the link for the complete article "The First Lady of Black Baseball," by Aimee Crawford.

Effa Manley was ahead of her time.

In the 1930s and '40s, women were often viewed as second-class citizens, and blacks were accorded few rights. According to the established rules of society, neither were considered qualified to contend at baseball's highest level. But Effa Manley had little use for those rules -- or for establishment, for that matter.

Like greats Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby, she was a pioneer in breaking down baseball's racial barriers. Unlike those two, Manley faced the additional obstacle of gender bias.

 Aggressive and progressive, glamorous and magnanimous, Manley overcame each to make her mark as one  of the most fascinating and significant figures in Negro League history.  

"She was unique and effervescent and knowledgeable," says Monte Irvin, the Hall of Famer who played shortstop and outfield for the Newark Eagles, the Negro League team Manley co-owned with her husband, Abe. "She ran the whole business end of the team."
  

A born entrepreneur, Manley was the only female in the history of Negro Leagues.  Effa and Abe ran the Eagles, a Negro National League team, from 1935-48. And her considerable influence extended beyond baseball as well; she was also active in the black civil rights movement.

Manley was born March 27, 1900. Her birth, like much of her life, was controversial. Within the black community, Manley rarely discussed her heritage, and most people assumed she was a light-skinned black. But Manley claimed in an interview in 1973 that she was white. Her mother, Bertha Ford Brooks, was white, of German and Asian-Indian descent. Effa explained that Bertha, who earned a  living as a seamstress, became pregnant by her white employer, John M. Bishop, a wealthy Philadelphian. Manley's black stepfather, Benjamin Brooks, sued Bishop and received a settlement of $10,000 before he and Bertha divorced. Bertha remarried, and Effa was raised in a household with a black step-father and black half-siblings, and so chose to live as a black person.


Effa Manley was a fascinating individual, and the first person I'd ever heard of to "pass as black!" Had you ever heard of her, or perhaps someone else who chose to pass as something other than white?

Thanks for visiting and have a great week!

Taking a Christmas Break!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and very Happy Holiday Season! I'm taking a break from blogging for a couple of weeks, but I'll be back January 7th!

The Real Anna Karenina

Kiera Knightley as Anna

A new version of Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina is in theaters now, starring the stunning Keira Knightley in the title role. According to NPR, this  story has been adapted for the large and small screens at least 25 times. Although a succession of beautiful actresses have played the role of Anna, including Greta Garbo (1935), Vivien Leigh (1948) and Jaqueline Bisset (1997), just who was the real Anna Karenina?

The Portland Center Stage Blog says:

Many believe that the character Anna Karenina was inspired, at least in part, by Maria Gartung (1832 – 1919), the eldest daughter of Russian poet Alexander Pushkin...Apparently Tolstoy was transfixed by Maria, instantly taken with her beauty and intelligence, as well as her…elbows. Soon after meeting her, Tolstoy returned home and, out of curiosity, began reading some of Alexander Pushkin’s writings. While reading he slipped into a daydream, in which he saw a fleeting image of "a bare exquisite aristocratic elbow.” This ultimately proved to be the first intimation of Anna's character.

Greta Garbo as Anna

More fascinating information is found here at a site specifically about Maria Gartung. It's translated from Russian, but perhaps not by a professional translator, so it's a bit difficult to follow.  I've included some highlights below and tried to fix the translation.

All who met Maria Alexandrovna noted the unusual delicacy of her manners, her wit and her excellent knowledge of the Russian and French languages.

She was very friendly and easy to know, and also very beautiful.  She was said to possess the rare beauty of her mother and the exotic look of her father.  Her face, though a bit large for a woman, was striking.  She had a perpetual peace about her, as well as an unusual attachment to her mother, who expressed touching and affectionate care for her daughter.

At a provincial ball in 1861 Maria met the writer Leo Tolstoy.  Maria attracted his attention immediately as soon as she entered the ballroom. When he was told who she was, he said admiringly, "Yes, now I understand where she gets her pedigree, those curls at the back!" (A reference to Pushkin's African ancestry.)

Tolstoy wanted to be immediately introduced to the daughter of the Russian poet. They talked animatedly all evening. At Tolstoy's request, Maria told him about her father (probably from her mother's words, since he died when she was five) and shared her impressions of literature and art.

Maria Gartung, Anna's inspiration

Tolstoy genuinely admired the subtlety of her taste, her uniqueness, and the boldness of her opinion.  He later said that Maria not only resembled her father externally, but was probably similar to him internally as well. The poet's daughter so struck Tolstoy's imagination, that she became the inspiration of his famous heroine, Anna Karenina.

I'm looking forward to seeing the new movie; unfortunately I've never seen any of the older versions, and I haven't read the book.

Have you seen the new movie or any of the older versions? If so, who's your favorite Anna Karenina? Have you read the book? Had you ever heard of Maria Gartung?

Thanks for visiting, and have a great week!

The Black Count

I must apologize for being a day late with my blog.  Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy today's thoughts!

I knew that Alexandre Dumas was of mixed race heritage, but only recently learned about his father.  He's profiled in the new release (that's currently on my reading list) entitled The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss.

It's always fun to see what inspires a writer, and here we learn who inspired one of the greatest.  Through historical sleuthing, Tom Reiss has uncovered the life a forgotten hero who was the inspiration for The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.

The real-life protagonist of The Black Count, is General Alex Dumas.  Though almost unknown today, his story is familiar, because his son, the novelist Alexandre Dumas, used it to create some of literature's best loved heroes.

Not only does this book tell of swashbuckling adventures, it reveals a secret: the real hero was the son of a black slave.  He rose higher in the white world than any man of his race would before our current time.

Born in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), Alex Dumas was briefly sold into bondage but made his way to Paris. There, he was schooled as a sword-fighting member of the French aristocracy. After enlisting as a private, he rose to command armies at the height of the Revolution.

This is a fascinating story that I can't wait to read!  Too many books, too little time...

Are you familiar with The Black Count?

Thanks for visiting and have a great week!