Little Women

"You don't need scores of suitors.  You need only one...if he's the right one." (Little Women)

http://sineman.tv/movies-actor/margaret-o-brien-25704-ru

As the Civil War rages on to the South, the four March sisters face Christmas in New England without their father who is off on the battlefield.  Jo, played by Katharine Hepburn, is a tomboy who aspires to be an author.  She writes plays for her three sisters to perform for local children.  She also caters to the whims of her wealthy Aunt March.  Amy (Joan Bennett) is the pretty, but selfish sister; Meg (Frances Dee) works as a seamstress; and Beth (Jean Parker) is the sensitive, musical sister.

A young man named Laurie (Douglass Montgomery) moves in next door and takes an interest in Jo.  His tutor, John, courts Meg.  Beth takes the opportunity to practice on Laurie's piano while he lives there.  Their mother learns that their father has been injured and is recuperating in a Washington DC hospital.  She travels there to stay with him.

 

Jo & Laurie duel in Little Women courtesy https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJzdeS-pBWR2MFrmxkeLwUxFa4EXAFnN-gsfSfds8ppuSP7KRSn2E2xJGUeHTr0c4WVKTIyn-OLm-t2lpfV3rO8ATzqFEmrtmnaKxQkwx_8AJemDHKuoRELaxPMTiecCULBWeTos7l8j8/s400/littlewomen2.png.

In the meantime, Beth contracts Scarlet Fever from a neighbour's baby and becomes very ill.  The March parents return home and Meg marries John.  Laurie declares his love for Jo, but she rejects him.  Hurt, Laurie in turn rejects Jo and she moves to New York City to pursue her writing career. There, she meets a German linguist named Professor Bhaer (Paul Lukas) who coaches her in her writing.

With Beth debilitated and lying at death's door, Jo returns home.  Beth passes away.  Laurie declares his love for Amy, a girl who accompanied Aunt March to Europe.  Professor Bhaer follows Jo to Concord and proposes.

Note:  Little Women is based on the 1868 book by Louisa May Alcott.  Upon its 1933 premiere at Radio City Music Hall, it earned more than $100,000 during its first week.  Budgeted at $1 million, the film's production included 4,000 employees and 3,000 separate items (costumes, furnishings, household items) that had to be authenticated.

Jo marries Professor Bhaer courtesy http://reviewingeverymovieiown.blogspot.ca/2014_02_01_archive.html. 

James Pierpont's "Jingle Bells"

Dashing through the snow

In a one horse open sleigh

Over the fields we go

Laughing all the way

Bells on bobtails ring

Making spirits bright

What fun it is to laugh and sing

A sleighing song tonight!

In 1850, James Pierpont sat down at the Simpson Tavern in Medford, Massachusetts and wrote the lyrics to One Horse Open Sleigh.  Mrs. Otis Waterman, who was present at the time, called it a "merry little jingle"; hence, the tune became known as "Jingle Bells".  The Christmas song was not published until 1857, after James Pierpont moved to Savannah, Georgia, to fill the position of organist at the Unitarian Church.  The charge, of which his brother was the pastor, was known for its abolitionist leanings.  Even after the church closed due to its stand against slavery, Pierpont remained in Savannah as he married the mayor's daughter, Eliza Jane Purse.

Jingle Bells talks about going for a ride on a sleigh, reminiscent of the 19th Century sleigh races in Salem, Massachusetts.  At one point, the sleigh gets "upsot" which is the past tense for upset or turned over.  The word "Jingle" is used as a verb rather than an adjective, as the bells were used by a driver to alert other sleighs of his approach.  

The Edison Male Quartette was the first to record the song, on an Edison cylinder, in 1898 as part of a Christmas medley called the Sleigh Ride Party.  In 1943, Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters recorded Jingle Bells which placed 19th on the charts.  The Christmas song had the distinction of being the first song broadcast from outer space in 1965.  Astronauts Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra smuggled a harmonica and sleigh bells on board their space craft, Gemini VI, to provide the music.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingle_Bells)

http://www.divinecaroline.com/entertainment/sound-music-famous-winter-songs%E2%80%99-origins

The Mayflower

I remember two things about visiting the Mayflower in Plymouth, Massachusetts forty years ago:  my dad had to bend over on the decks because the pilgrims were significantly shorter than us and my mom bought me a silver pin of the ship at the gift shop.  Here is the history of the famous ship.

The Mayflower was a Dutch cargo fluyt that weighed 180 tons and measured 110 feet long.  It had four decks (main, gun, cargo) and three masts.  Square-rigged and beak-bowed, it had castle-like structures at its fore and aft, making progress slow against the prevailing winds.  Hence, the trip from England to America took over two months to complete.

Master Christopher Jones planned out the route of the Mayflower.  The ship first disembarked in July of 1620 filled with 135 people, both passengers and crew.  Many of the passengers were Separatists, wanting to separate from the Church of England.  However, hired hands and indentured servants were also on board, including four young children (long before the British Home Children came to Canada).

The Mayflower met up with another ship, the Speedwell, which sprang a leak and was abandonned, its passengers joining those on the Mayflower.  In September 1620, the ship disembarked from Plymouth, England to sail to the New World.  Its cargo deck held cannon, shot and gunpowder, just in case pirates were lurking in the Atlantic.  Its cargo hold held live sheep, poultry, pigs and goats along with food and supplies.  Its captain navigated using a compass and kept time with an hourglass.

 
With the voyage taking longer than expected, the food supply grew low.  Rather than risking drinking the untreated water, most drank beer on board the ship (although that seems hard to believe in case of the Puritans on board).  To entertain themselves, passengers played cards like Nine Men's Morris. Winds were strong resulting in many cases of seasickness.  Miraculously, only two deaths were reported on the voyage.

The Pilgrims' planned destination was the Virginia Colony.  However, in November 1620, with the winter approaching, they decided to dock at Provincetown, Massachusetts on Cape Cod.  There, after stealing corn and getting in a skirmish with the Natives, they decided to flee.  In December, they reached Plymouth.  While still on board the ship, they signed the Mayflower Compact, a list of rules that they would follow in the new colony.

The first winter was cruel.  The Pilgrims stayed on board the ship since they did not have dwellings to live in yet.  In the closed quarters of the ship, scurvy, pneumonia and tuberculosis ran rampant. Half of the passengers and crew perished.

The following spring, the crew of the Mayflower returned to England, taking less than half the time thanks to the prevailing winds at their backs.  That fall, the Pilgrims, thankful for their bountiful harvest, celebrated the first Thanksgiving.  Three years later, the Mayflower was scrapped.

In 1956, a Mayflower II was built.  It sailed to America the following spring, following a similar route to that of the original ship.. The Mayflower II docked at Plymouth, Massachusetts where it became a floating museum.  In 1970, marking the 350th anniversary of the Pilgrim's landing, the ship was taken over by the Natives to protest their poor treatment.  The issue was resolved and the Mayflower II still floats at Plymouth Rock.

Mayflower II courtesy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayflower.