Orange Countiana returns!

The first issue of the newly-revived Orange Countiana historical journal is finally out, and it's outstanding.
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A couple years ago, I started encouraging the Orange County Historical Society (OCHS) to get back to the business of publishing substantive local history. Thanks to the Society's board and our editor, Phil Brigandi, the long-dormant Orange Countiana was brought back to life -- this time as an annual publication. (The previous five issues were published somewhat randomly over the course of more than 35 years.)
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I'm now on the editorial board -- But honestly, between our great contributors and an excellent editor, there wasn't much for me to tweak. Here are the major articles you'll find inside:
  • Eighty Five Years In the Old Courthouse - Lecil Slaback
  • Albert Barnes Clark: A Pioneer Community Leader - Paul R. Clark
  • The Birth of Orange County - Phil Brigandi
  • Orange County's Meandering Boundary: Coyote Creek - Esther Ridgway Cramer
  • The Long Arms of the Octopus: Southern Pacific Politics in Early Orange County - Stan Oftelie
  • Prohibiton Distills New Business on the South County Coast, Then Depression Pulls the Cork on the Good Life - Doris I. Walker
Some of the contributors will speak and sign journals at the OCHS holiday gathering on Thurs., Dec. 9, 2010, 7:30pm, at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., Orange. The meeting is open to the public and refreshments will be served.
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All OCHS members receive a free copy of Orange Countiana. Additional copies, or copies for non-members are available for $20 each. (Hint: Individual membership in OCHS is $20 a year, so you might just want to join!) If you can't attend the meeting and are not a member, feel free to contact me about purchasing a copy.

Jewelry Biz - The Windsor Jewels At Auction...Again

Thank God Tabitha reminded me that today is the Sotheby's auction for the Windsor jewels...
I hadn't been paying attention.
Here's the famous 1952 Cartier onyx and diamond panther bracelet
which has estimates of 1 million to 1.5 million pounds.

That is pretty pricey for a panther...even one with provenance
Here's another view
Not only is it a great bracelet, it is iconic Cartier
But there is something, to me at least, not fresh about this collection.
In addition to the fact that the collection is so famous
haven't we seen all these items at auction before?
And would it be catty of me to say that these pretty panther pieces get around?

And what do we have here?
Oh it's a past  Beladora homepage photo with a panther bracelet.

And we have another perching panther from the past gracing the homepage of Beladora?
This one, in sapphires and diamonds sitting on a huge sapphire, had serious provenance too.
Don't get excited people, it's sold.

Now if you want to know about a woman with a jewel collection that put the Windsor's to shame
Dash has a post about the amazing Maharani Sita Devi of Baroda

Now this Baroda babe not only had an incredible life, she had some serious bling.

OK, bear with me just a little longer please because I just have to brag.
All of the photography for Beladora is done in house by the very talented Elizabeth Kollar.
Here's a link to the past homepage cover art for Beladora.
It's a good as anything that would come out of a fancy pants Madison Avenue advertising agency,
Don't you agree?

Billionaires Behaving Badly or Opulence Abounds Barry Diller Style

I've been enjoying Gawker today, so I thought I'd share with you the Monday mirth

While Barry Diller has denied raises and bonuses to his IAC staff for the third year in a row
he hasn't cut back on his own spending, at least not on decorating his office,
which apparently needed a new carpet...a $1,000,000 silk rug.

Well, we know that he's not shy about spending
Diller's luxe tastes are no secret, of course. He got dinged in the press earlier this year when it was revealed he spent $4,600 per day in IAC funds on personal travel during 2009. (It isn't cheap to hop from place to place aboard a $45 million Bombardier BD-700.) And he spent more than $200 million on the world's largest sailing vessel, the 300-foot-long Eos, which features a crew of nine as well as and two chefs. From 2000-2010, he was the second best-paid executive at a public company, right behind Oracle chief Larry Ellison.

Of course nothing can be too good for the CEO of a publicly owned company.



Note: the Diller private jet


and the Diller Yacht

Obviously, these belong to the man not the corporation.
Still it's hard not to imagine what the IAC employees feel about all of this.

I suppose that the institutional shareholders of IAC stock think that of this is all OK.

And speaking of Billionaires Behaving Badly...don't even get me started on Berlusconi...

All Things Wicki, Wacki and Wonderful

I'm sorry but I'm just not feeling the outrage over the latest Wikileaks.
Thanks to Gawker we've got some US Embassy gossip...and it has made our day.

Libyan President Mumammar al-Qadhafi apparently keeps a "voluptuous blonde" Ukranian nurse named Galyna Kolotnytska at his side at all times. According to one cable: "the Libyan Government sent a private jet to ferry her from Libya to Portugal to meet up with the Leader during his rest-stop. Some embassy contacts have claimed that Qadhafi and the 38 year-old Kolotnytska have a romantic relationship. While he did not comment on such rumors, a Ukrainian political officer recently confirmed that the Ukrainian nurses 'travel everywhere with the Leader.'" The cable says Kolotnytska is always with Qadhafi because "she alone knows his routine." Imagining this routine is the mental equivalent of the nuclear bomb Libya was trying to build in the early 2000s.

I'm always fascinated with news of my favorite Libyan as an honorary member of the Qadhafi tribe. 
Qadhafi also uses botox, which is obvious because of how beautifully taut his skin is.
And, I'm glad to read that cousin Moo is keeping up his appearance with botox.



And then we get this.

Kim Jong-Il was described by a diplomatic source as a "flabby old chap." That's mean. So the guy has curves? We're so sick of unrealistic body expectations for unhinged dictators.
Doesn't all that flab make him easier to target?

And then back to Africa, which is always funnier than a barrel full of monkeys.
Idiotic Zimbabwean dictator/president Robert Mugabe is an idiot. So says a former U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe in a cable! Mugabe sucks as a leader because of "his deep ignorance on economic issues (coupled with the belief that his 18 doctorates give him the authority to suspend the laws of economics, including supply and demand)." Oh, you did not just go there: In Zimbabwe people have been disappeared for insulting just one of Mugabe's doctorates.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing good to say about Assange, and his hacker sidekicks. And quite frankly I'm surprised to that he has gotten this far.

But our world is teaming with dictators who need to be taken down a notch or ten 
and I'm glad that the US Diplomatic officers can at least be honest about these tyrants in their internal communications because they are horny, fat and idiotic...and so much more.

Timeless Style - Renée Pearl and 1930's French Modernism

Renée Pearl photographed by Jacques-Henri Lartigue in 1930

I found this fabulous photo and story about fashion model and muse of Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Renée Pearl, on the Bluetramontana Style blog, and I couldn't help but note how modern her look was.
The big ring, the bangle bracelets...
this is how I would rock this look in 2010 Beladora style.


For more on Renée Pearl and French Modernism
regard


Joe McCarthy in Orange County

At last month's OCHS meeting, the folks from the Center For Oral & Public History's MCAS El Toro project mentioned something interesting in passing. Several of their interviewees, (including Maxine Wehry,) remembered Joseph R. McCarthy -- the future Senator and "red hunter" -- as "the base legal officer" at El Toro during WWII. I knew Lee Harvey Oswald had served there as a Marine, but the McCarthy story was new to me.
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McCarthy grew up in rural Wisconsin and earned his law degree at Marquette University in Milwaukee. In 1935 he was admitted to the State Bar, and only four years later was elected as a Circuit Judge in the 10th District.
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In 1942, he volunteered for the U.S. Marine Corps, even though being a judge exempted him from the draft. But his judicial position offered him automatic officer status.
As a second lieutenant, he served as an intelligence briefing officer for a dive bomber squadron in the Solomon Islands and Bougainville. He also flew in bombers as an observer on about 12 missions, and may have served as a tailgunner during a few of those flights. He was in the South Pacific for two tours, from Sept. 1942 to March 1944.
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McCarthy was a Captain by the time he was sent "stateside" in July 1944. According to The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy by James Cross Giblin, sometime in August, "Joe reported to the El Centro Marine Corps Air Station, ...and was soon transferred to the El Toro Marine training base. He knew he would be eligible for another overseas tour of duty early in the new year and decided to try to head off the assignment. He would be up for reelection as a judge in April 1945, and he wanted to get ready for the campaign."
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In other words, he wasn't at El Toro very long.
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He resigned his commission on Dec. 11, 1944 and was home campaigning in Wisconsin by late January. He easily won the judicial election and immediately began planning his 1946 Senate race. From day one, he lied regularly about his military record to further his political career.
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The rest, as they say,...

"The weather's fine"

I like the fact that there was once a cottage industry selling postcards like this to Southern Californians specifically so they could gloat to their friends back East about our wonderful winter weather. There are subtler versions, but I like the in-your-face approach of this one.

Having "The Talk" With Your Children



h/t  Pejman Yousefzadeh's blog A Chequer Board of Nights and Days

Christmas at MCAS El Toro, 1945

Christmas is now officially just around the corner, and here's a little companion piece to my recent Thanksgiving post. I lifted (and then colorized) the artwork above from the 1945 MCAS El Toro Christmas dinner menu shown below.
From nose art on bombers to mess hall murals to unit logos, a lot of fun artwork -- both professional and amateur -- was generated as part of the war effort. Today I'm sure this menu would have some benign clip art on the front. But in 1945 we got Santa with a lecherous gleam in his eye.
Once again, this menu comes from the collection of CSUF's Center for Oral & Public History. The food selections bear a striking resemblance to the Thanksgiving menu from that same year.
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Does anyone else wonder why the reindeer has a spear sticking out of him? It seems fairly non-jolly and un-festive.

I cleaned up the back panel a bit in Photoshop and it still looks bad. It was damaged by one of those sticky "magnetic" or "magic pages" scrapbooks.
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Folks,... PLEASE don't use those things. However, if you already have family photos and momentos in one of those books, just leave them there for a couple decades until the glue dries up and they fall out. Otherwise, you're likely to damage the contents during the attempt to peel them off the pages.

On Austria, Assimilation and Art - The Hare With The Amber Eyes


I have been super busy these last few days, as I'm sure that you gathered from my lack of posting and commenting on all of your blogs. 
It is the season, after all, and the Christmas crunch is on.


Do you read only one book at a time or do you have several books going simultaneously?
I generally have 3 entirely different types of books going at the same time; a downloaded audio book on my iPod, a downloaded book on my nook (like a kindle) and an actual physical book.

Last week while finishing 'The Hare with the Amber Eyes' on my nook and 'Marie Antoinette' on my iPod, I was struck with the similar theme that runs through both books, the concept of being 'The Other'. 

No matter how Francais the Austrian born Marie Antoinette became, including bearing the dauphin, she was never truly accepted as the Queen of France.  She was libeled and maligned in print in Paris.  She was accused of cuckolding the King and of having numerous lovers.  She was blamed for adding to the national debt, for hoarding wheat during the low harvest and for virtually everything else that was wrong in France.  No matter what she did  for France, she remained 'The Other', an easy target and scapegoat for all that was wrong.

Stepping into the next century we have the flourishing of the Ephrussi family, a highly successful Russian Jewish Family that expanded their grain trading business in Odessa into a European banking powerhouse that rivaled the Rothchilde's. With branches of the family in London, Paris, Lucerne and Vienna, the great wealth enabled the family to become patrons of the arts and of the cultures of their respective cities.

Note the man in the top hat in Renoir's The Boating Party.  That was Charles Ephrussi, art historian, owner of the Parisian art journal La Gazette and patron of the Impressionists. 
He was also the model of Proust's character Charles Swann of 'Rememberance of Things Past'.

Amongst his vast art collection was a group of 264 netsuke which he purchased at the onset of the French fascination with all things Japonnais in 19th Century Paris.
'The Hare With The Amber Eyes' traces the journey of these netsuke from Charles'  elegantly art filled Palais Ephrussi to his nephew and niece at the Ephrussi Palais on the Ringstrasse in Vienna, to post WW2 Japan and finally to the author, British artist and Eprhussi descendant, Edmund de Waal.


As with the great nouveau riche families of 19th Century Europe, the Viennese branch of the Ephrussi were highly educated. Vicktor read history as he reluctantly took over as the head of the bank.  His daughter Elisabeth Ephrussi was the first woman to graduate with a degree in Law from the University of Vienna. All members of the family spoke Russian, French, English and German fluently.  They were full citizens of the Hapsburg Empire and loyal supporters of the Emperor.  They were titled. 
They were completely assimilated.
Or so they though.


All this of course changed with Kristallnacht.
They were 'The Other'.
But unlike Marie Antoinette, they were able to leave everything behind and survive.

This week I've been thinking about Thanksgiving, and about all of the things that I am thankful for...and there many. On this most American of holidays, I am indeed thankful that America is perhaps the only country where immigrants can indeed assimilate and become truly American. 

'The Hare With The Amber Eyes' is the best book that I have read all year and if you like History and Art History I encourage you to read it.

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving at MCAS El Toro, 1945

Happy Thanksgiving! Today I'm posting images of the 1945 Thanksgiving menu from MCAS El Toro. (As always, click on any image to enlarge it.) This menu comes from the collections of CSUF's Center for Oral & Public History. To get an idea of how busy the base was during the war, take a look at how many mess halls were operating!
It looks like they had quite a spread. Hope it tasted as good as it looked on paper.
You'd think it would be harder to have a spirit of thanksgiving during times of war, economic depression and hair-raising governance. But such times have a tendency to focus us -- as individuals and as a country -- and make us appreciate what's most important. And as one colorful Orange County transplant likes to say, "Tough times never last. Tough people do."
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Among the many things I'm thankful for are my family, my friends, and all the tough people (the Marines most definitely included) who will see us through these hard times.

If You've Got It Flaunt It - Or So They Tell Me

In the new issue of the edgy Flaunt Magazine, another gorgeous photo by Donna Trope with Beladora jewelry...or so they tell me. I can't tell anything from this photo so I'm off to buy the print edition.

Meanwhile, if you're not the type to flaunt it
please go see the beautiful pieces on the latest post of one of my favorite blogs, Amid Privilege
5 Pieces of Jewelry For A Wish List
Beladora has happily purchased a little ad on Privilege (our first blog ad!!)
and we feel privileged to be associated with one of the classiest blogs on the internet.

If you click through the Privilege blog and decide to purchase a little this or a little that
we will, with pleasure, send a modest referral fee to the Privilege blogstress...
as we would for anyone else who refers a client to our firm.

We have chosen not to sign up with the big affiliate marketing firms because the set up fees and monthly costs would have had to have been be incorporated into the prices of our jewelry. 

We would much rather work with bloggers, who we admire, on an individual basis, where we can compensate them in a way that will not affect our end prices to our clients.
For clarification, we don't work with the standard retail markup.  Our prices are based on what we had to pay to purchase an item.  If we bought an item particularly well, we will pass on that savings to our clients.

For example, take these earrings
They are being sold elsewhere for $18,000
Meanwhile, Beladora has the all white diamond version of the same Oscar Heyman earrings $9750.
They were purchased well, and can be sold at the right price.

So, go check out the Privilege wish list,
You might even be inspired to make your own...
you never know, with the holidays approaching fast
someone may want to know what you are wishing for.

Around Town - Sunday Afternoon Musicale

Really, this has been a weekend of music and WOW houses for me. 
Sunday afternoon I attended a small private afternoon musicale with a piano recital by Steve Hall
This lovely event was held at magnificent California Mediterranean home.
It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon and the hostess was so gracious to open up her exceptionally beautiful and tastefully decorated home.
Since she shared it with us, I thought that I would share it with you.
Here it is.
The recital was held in the living room, which was great because it was appropriately sized for a small group and it had rather exceptional accoutiscs.
I sat in this hallway between the living room and the library where I could admire the Second Empire furniture and the Impressionist paintings.

After the recital was finished we wandered around a bit to see more of the house.
Here is the library.

Then we went downstairs for the reception with champagne and hors d'oeuvres in the more casual entertaining areas, decorated with less formal furniture and modern art.

With our coup de champagne in hand we admired the pool and the gardens.  Everything was so green and the roses were still in full bloom.
Like all major homes it had all the accoutrement's, like his and hers gyms. 
A spa complete with hair salon set up, jacuzzi, mani-pedi set up, etc.
 And indoor lap pool, yes, with double tv's.
 A screening room, naturally...this is LA after all.
And of course a full underground garage, which I didn't see, but I did wonder where all the cars were parked.

Now, if this house appeals to you, you are in luck.
It is on the market for $50 million.
Happy Monday!

Around Town - LA Opera Lohengrin - Not Much To Love

I have to admit that I was really looking forward to the opening night of Lohengrin.
Wagnerian Score + LA Opera's Creativity + James Conlon's Conducting = Awesome Night Out
Well, not exactly.
Let's just start with set and costumes.
The classic German mythical tale of the god/knight Lohengrin arriving on a swan to champion Elsa, the noblewoman who has been wrongfully accused of fratricide, was set in a snowy field hospital in a ruined church at the eve of World War I.  The stage was dark, the costumes were dreary and we all got the reference to the Caspar David Freidrich painting of the Cloister Cemetery in the Snow.
The tale was a struggle over control, isn't it always?
Lohengrin a resurrected soldier saved Elsa, from her foes, then made it all the way to the marriage bed with her.  But in usual female fashion, she screwed everything up by her insecurity. She asked the fatal question as to his identity and after he sings the sad story he must get back on his swan and leave giving up his one chance to return to mortality. Naturally, Elsa collapses and dies.
In other words there was no ultimate redemption through love.

My problem with the opera wasn't the singing.  It was lovely.
The two sopranos sang exquisitely and the chorus was brilliant.

What I couldn't take was the lack of visual interest. 
No matter how beautiful the voices, the set was dark and visually boring after the first 20 minutes.....and the same set is a lot to have to look at for a 4 plus hour opera.  And worse, the lead characters were costumed so poorly, particularly Lohengrin, that it made it hard to accept them as hero and heroine.
It was impossible to recognize that this was the opera that inspired the Ludwig II to build Neuschwanstein.
At $250 per ticket the Los Angeles Opera needs to come up with better productions if it wants to attract a new generation of subscribers.  If the LA Opera doesn't provide more of a wow factor, the young culture vultures of LA will not fill the seats of the Dorthy Chandler Pavilion.
Soldier? Saint? Sorcerer? Savior?
Snore?

Heritage Museum of O.C., California Heritage Day

Last weekend, I attended California Heritage Day at the Heritage Museum of Orange County in Santa Ana. The event celebrated the anniversary of the signing of the original California Constitution, which was ratified in 1848. As Sharon Brown pointed out, "It was published in both English and Spanish. It guaranteed significant rights to the established Spanish-speaking population. Most of these were withdrawn when the NEW 1879 Constitution replaced it."
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Anyway, I thought I'd share some of the photos I took that day. The image above shows Ernie Perez Tautimes Salas of the Tongva people, performing a traditional blessing during the day's opening ceremony. Below is a fellow dressed as the Franciscan padres did during the Mission era.
I don't think enough people know about the Heritage Museum of Orange County (HMOC). It's an especially great place to take kids -- either individually or whole school classes. While they don't have all these reenactors milling around every day, there is a lot to see and do here. Everything from blacksmith demonstrations to panning for gold.
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But the centerpiece is really the Kellogg House -- home of one of Orange County's first surveyors, Hiram Clay Kellogg and his family. This Victorian gem is now a very hands-on museum, where kids can experience what everyday life was like in California around 1900. They can play the pump organ, churn butter, run a foot-operated washing machine, listen to cylinder records and a Victrola, use a stereopticon, pick oranges, try on period clothing, and much more.
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I know I'm starting to sound like an ad. But I believe in this place and really think it deserves extra attention. I actually worked there as a docent when I was in college, and let's just say that the current management and staff have clearly worked their butts off to improve and enliven the place. Oh, yes... Back to the photos: A couple Californios show off their guns, bear skins, and fancy duds in the image above. Yes, those were real knives they had stuck in their belts (and in their boots), but I wasn't intimidated. As you'll see in the photo below, I was carrying a pick-axe.
Yes, that's me, at the "Falcon Mining Co." claim, getting a jump on "Talk Like A Grizzled Prospector Day."
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I also ran into my friend and fellow OCHS board member, Carolyn Schoff, (shown in the photo below,) who I almost didn't recognize in her Early California attire!
All these photos -- plus images of many other historical events and locations I visit (and a whole lotta other random stuff) -- are posted on my Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/traderchris/. Feel free to stop by and visit whenever. Note especially the photo sets marked "Orange County History," "Knott's Berry Farm," "Tiki & Polynesian Pop," and so forth.

Friday Night Dinner Chez Amis

For a while now I have been thinking that, except for large holiday parties, entertaining at home was a thing of the past.  Most people I know meet for dinner with their friends at restaurants instead of hosting dinner parties.  Who has time for all that organizing, decorating, cooking and serving anymore.
Well apparently a few still do, and thank god for that.

Reggie Darling recently hosted an Autumn black tie dinner party and posted about the planning and the execution of it here and here.  Note how elegantly his table is set. 
And Privilege hosted a virtual housewarming dinner party on the patio to celebrate the launch of her new blog.
A posts about holiday table settings showed up at Greige and A Gardner's Cottage.
Am I sensing a stay at home and entertaining trend here?

 Of course the recipe for successful home entertaining calls for delicious food and charming guests. 
An awesome home is not required, but certainly adds the special je ne sais quoi to the party.

Last night I attended just such a soiree, a sit down dinner party for 25.
The Thanksgiving inspired meal, prepared by a talented young private chef was delicious and healthy, a soup course to start, a salad, turkey roulade for the main course and cold lemon souffle sided by a brownie for dessert.
The guests, friends and neighbors of the hosts, were an eclectic mix from young couples in their 30's to couples in their late 60's, or maybe even early 70's, I didn't ask.  But the mix in age and backgrounds made for lively conversation.

And the house was perfect for entertaining. 
A 1960's California ranch house, up in the hills, remodeled and decorated with perfect 1960's style.
It was uber groovy.
From the city view to the sunken bar, to the open fireplace, to the step up dining room, to the earth colors and patterns of the fabrics and wall coverings, to the palos verdes stone, to the outdoor fire pit...
it was like stepping back in time to a house from my early Southern California childhood.
Classic California architecture.
I could have imagined my parents and their friends sipping cocktails, smoking cigarettes and partying it up in such a house...because that's what they did back in the day.
Am I inspired get out my china and crystal and start entertaining?
No not really. Not only do I not have the house for it, I don't have energy with my day job and all that. 
I will leave the sit down dinner parties to the ladies and gentlemen who can host them with the proper savoir faire. 
Hopefully though, I will remain on their guest lists, because I do so appreciate being invited.
Are you inspired to entertain at home this season?