Maria Tucker Reads "The Bells" at Poe Funeral

Maria Tucker reads "The Bells" at Poe Forward's POE FUNERAL.

Jan Svankmajer's "Lunacy"

Jan Svankmajer's LUNACY,
loosely adapted from
"The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether"
by Edgar Allan Poe.

Poe Forward's POE FUNERAL Commemoration 1999

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Death of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) Poe Forward presented POE FUNERAL at the Midnight Special Bookstore in Santa Monica on Halloween 1999. The FUNERAL DIRECTOR was Brian Aldrich and the FUNERAL PRODUCER was David Delgado. The audience was SRO. The full program listing is on our website at www.poeforward.com. This is the funeral Poe never had.

The House Of Usher (clip) Kratky Film Prague

As Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" is read by a narrator, scenes that create impressions of the story appear on the screen in both live-action and animation. The live-action sequences are devoid of actors. Rather, tilt-angle shots of the haunted house, chairs inside it falling down and doors opening on their own create suspense and illuminate the drama that is being narrated. In the animated sequences, which use stop-action photography, amorphous images take on shapes to accompany the narration of Poe's spine-tingling story. Produced by Kratky Film Prague. 16 minutes, B/W.

Lost World Media's "The Gold Bug"

LOST WORLD MEDIA:

"Short film made in 72 Hours for a competition in October 2009. The festival coordinators passed out the secret criteria (similar to the 48 Hour Festivals) on Thursday night at 9PM. Things we had to include in the film were Edgar Allan Poe and a man staring at spilled toothpicks. The film was due the following Sunday at 9PM."

Phoenix Film & Video's "The Gold Bug"

Phoenix Film and Video

Edgar Allan Poe Classic Compilation (2008)

THE RAVEN (1935 film)

The Raven (1935) is a horror film starring Boris Karloff and Béla Lugosi, and directed by Lew Landers. It revolves around Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem, featuring Lugosi as a Poe-obsessed mad surgeon with a torture chamber in his basement and Karloff as a fugitive murderer desperately on the run from the police. Lugosi had the larger role, but Karloff received top billing, using only his last name.

Almost three decades later, Karloff also appeared in another film with the same title, Roger Corman's 1963 comedy The Raven with Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Jack Nicholson. Aside from the title, the two films bear no resemblance to one another.

Plot summary

After pretty Jean Thatcher (Ware) has been injured in a car accident, her father, Judge Thatcher (Hinds) and beau Jerry (Matthews) implore retired surgeon Dr. Richard Vollin (Lugosi) to perform a delicate operation to restore her to health. Vollin agrees and is successful; he befriends the spirited and grateful Jean, in the process revealing his passion for all things related to Edgar Allan Poe, including his collection of torture devices inspired by Poe's works (such as a pit, pendulum with scythe, shrinking room, etc).

After Vollin reveals his growing love for Jean to her father, the Judge quickly discourages him from the affair. Angered, Vollin hatches a plan when Edmund Bateman (Karloff), a murderer on the run, comes to his home asking for a new face so he may live in anonymity. Vollin admits to not being a plastic surgeon, but says he can help Bateman, and asks him to help in exacting revenge on the Thatchers, which he refuses. Vollin performs the surgery, but instead turns Bateman into a disfigured monster, promising only to operate again on Bateman when Vollin's revenge is exacted. Bateman finally reluctantly agrees.

Vollin hosts a dinner party, among which Jean, Jerry, and the Judge are guests. One by one, the guests are caught in the Poe-inspired traps. Ultimately, Bateman is shot by Vollin as he rescues Jean and Jerry, but throws Vollin in to the shrinking room where he perishes, and the guests escape.

Marketing

Universal's pressbook heavily focused on Karloff, calling him "the uncanny master of make-up," as well as the connection to Poe. "Was Edgar Allan Poe a mental derelict?" it asks. The pressbook suggests that Poe's characters were "but a reflection of himself." Universal also suggested that cinema owners write letters to local high schools and colleges, urging their teachers to suggest the film to students.[1]

Reception and reputation

Too strong for 1935 tastes, with its themes of torture, disfigurement and grisly revenge, the film did not do particularly well at the box office during its initial release (much like another 1935 horror movie, MGM's Mad Love, starring Peter Lorre), and indirectly led to a temporary ban on horror films in England. With the genre no longer economically viable, horror went out of vogue. This proved a devastating development at the time for Lugosi, who found himself losing work and struggling to support his family. Universal Pictures changed hands in 1936, and the new management was less interested for the moment in the box office novelty of the macabre.

Outside of being rivals in horror films of the time, with Lugosi resenting Karloff's spectacular success in the wake of playing the role of Frankenstein's monster, both men were united in getting the fledgling Screen Actors Guild off the ground in the mid-1930s. During the production of The Raven Lugosi encouraged four additional members of the supporting cast to sign with the guild.

Cast

Boris Karloff as Edmund Bateman
Béla Lugosi as Richard Vollin
Lester Matthews as Jerry Halden
Irene Ware as Jean Thatcher
Samuel S. Hinds as Judge Thatcher
Spencer Charters as Bertram Grant
Inez Courtney as Mary Burns
Ian Wolfe as Geoffrey
Maidel Turner as Mrs. Harriet Grant

References

1.^ Smith, Don G. The Poe Cinema: A Critical Filmography. McFarland & Company, 1999. p. 57-8 ISBN 0-7864-1703-X

Roger Corman's THE RAVEN (1963)

Roger Corman's THE RAVEN (1963)

The Raven (1963) is a B movie horror-comedy produced and directed by Roger Corman. The film stars Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Boris Karloff as a trio of rival sorcerers. Part of a series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations produced by Corman through American International Pictures, the film was written by Richard Matheson based on references to Poe's poem "The Raven." The supporting cast includes a young Jack Nicholson.

Three decades earlier, Karloff had appeared in another film with the same title, Lew Landers' 1935 horror film The Raven with Béla Lugosi. Aside from the title, the two films bear no resemblance to one another.

"The Raven" in Popular Culture

The Baltimore Ravens

Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" has been frequently referenced and parodied in contemporary culture. Immediately popular after the poem's publication in 1845, it quickly became a cultural phenomenon. Some consider it the best poem ever written. As such, modern references to the poem continue to appear in popular culture.

Bela Lugosi in The Raven (1935)

In part due to its dual printing, "The Raven" made Edgar Allan Poe a household name almost immediately and turned Poe into a national celebrity. Readers began to identify poem with poet, earning Poe the nickname "The Raven." The poem was soon widely reprinted, imitated, and parodied. Though it made Poe popular in his day, it did not bring him significant financial success. As he later lamented, "I have made no money. I am as poor now as ever I was in my life—except in hope, which is by no means bankable."

Elizabeth Barrett (Browning)

The New World said, "Everyone reads the Poem and praises it... justly, we think, for it seems to us full of originality and power." The Pennsylvania Inquirer reprinted it with the heading "A Beautiful Poem." Elizabeth Barrett wrote to Poe, "Your 'Raven' has produced a sensation, a fit o' horror, here in England. Some of my friends are taken by the fear of it and some by the music. I hear of persons haunted by 'Nevermore'." Poe's popularity resulted in invitations to recite "The Raven" and to lecture – in public and at private social gatherings. At one literary salon, a guest noted, "to hear [Poe] repeat the Raven... is an event in one's life." It was recalled by someone who experienced it, "He would turn down the lamps till the room was almost dark, then standing in the center of the apartment he would recite... in the most melodious of voices... So marvelous was his power as a reader that the auditors would be afraid to draw breath lest the enchanted spell be broken." Parodies sprung up especially in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia and included "The Craven" by "Poh!," "The Gazelle," "The Whippoorwill," and "The Turkey." One parody, "The Pole-Cat," caught the attention of Andrew Johnston, a lawyer who sent it on to Abraham Lincoln. Though Lincoln admitted he had "several hearty laughs," he had not, at that point read "The Raven." However, Lincoln eventually read and memorized the poem.

Abraham Lincoln

John Astin Recites "The Raven"

John Astin Recites "The Raven"

Richard Heft Recites Edgar Allan Poe's "Ulalume"

Richard Heft recites Edgar Allan Poe's "Ulalume" at POE FUNERAL.

PoeForward.com presented POE FUNERAL on October 31, 1999 at the Midnight Special Bookstore in Santa Monica, California.
(C)1999/2011 Brian Aldrich

Tim Burton's "Vincent" (1982) Vincent Price & Poe

Vincent is a 1982 stop-motion short film written, designed and directed by Tim Burton and Rick Heinrichs. At approximately six minutes in length, there is currently no individual release of the film. It can be found on the 2008 Special Edition and Collector's Edition DVDs of The Nightmare Before Christmas as a bonus feature and on the Cinema16 DVD American Short Films.

The film is narrated by actor Vincent Price, a lifelong idol and inspiration for Burton. From this relationship, Price would go on to appear in Burton's Edward Scissorhands. Vincent Price later said that the film was "the most gratifying thing that ever happened. It was immortality—better than a star on Hollywood Boulevard."

Plot

Vincent is the story of a young boy, Vincent Malloy, who pretends to be like the actor Vincent Price (who narrates the film). He is obsessed with the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and it is his detachment from reality when reading them that leads to his delusions that he is in fact a tortured artist, deprived of the woman he loves, mirroring certain parts of Poe's "The Raven." The film ends with Vincent being tortured by the goings-on of his make-believe world, quoting "The Raven" as he falls to the floor in frailty, believing himself to be dead.

The Masque of the Red Death (2007) - Mat Van Rhoon

A short film of Edgar Allan Poe's classic story "The Masque of the Red Death"
created at the University of Technology, Sydney.

Director: Mat Van Rhoon
Producer: Evangeline Aguas
http://www.mattyler.com.au

Deathday: Raven Illustrator Gustave Dore 1883

Paul Gustave Doré ( January 6, 1832 – January 23, 1883) was a French artist, engraver, illustrator and sculptor. Doré worked primarily with wood engraving and steel engraving.

Biography

Doré was born in Strasbourg and his first illustrated story was published at the age of fifteen. His skill had manifested itself even earlier, however. At age five he had been a prodigy artist, creating drawings that were mature beyond his years. Seven years later, he began carving in stone. Subsequently, as a young man, he began work as a literary illustrator in Paris, winning commissions to depict scenes from books by Rabelais, Balzac, Milton and Dante.

In 1853, Doré was asked to illustrate the works of Lord Byron. This commission was followed by additional work for British publishers, including a new illustrated English Bible. A decade later, he illustrated a French edition of Cervantes's Don Quixote, and his depictions of the knight and his squire, Sancho Panza, have become so famous that they have influenced subsequent readers, artists, and stage and film directors' ideas of the physical "look" of the two characters. Doré also illustrated an oversized edition of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven," an endeavor that earned him 30,000 francs from publisher Harper Brothers in 1883.

Doré's English Bible (1866) was a great success, and in 1867 Doré had a major exhibition of his work in London. This exhibition led to the foundation of the Doré Gallery in New Bond Street. In 1869, Blanchard Jerrold, the son of Douglas William Jerrold, suggested that they work together to produce a comprehensive portrait of London. Jerrold had obtained the idea from The Microcosm of London produced by Rudolph Ackermann, William Pyne, and Thomas Rowlandson in 1808. Doré signed a five-year contact with the publishers Grant Co that involved his staying in London for three months a year, and he received the vast sum of £10,000 a year for the project. Doré was mainly celebrated for his paintings in his day. His paintings remain world renowned, but his woodcuts and engravings, like those he did for Jerrold, are where he really excelled as an artist with an individual vision.

The completed book, London: A Pilgrimage, with 180 engravings, was published in 1872. It enjoyed commercial success, but the work was disliked by many contemporary critics. Some of these critics were concerned with the fact that Doré appeared to focus on the poverty that existed in parts of London. Doré was accused by the Art Journal of "inventing rather than copying." The Westminster Review claimed that "Doré gives us sketches in which the commonest, the vulgarest external features are set down." The book was a financial success, however, and Doré received commissions from other British publishers.

His later works included Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Milton's Paradise Lost, Tennyson's The Idylls of the King, The Works of Thomas Hood, and The Divine Comedy. His work also appeared in the Illustrated London News.

He continued to illustrate books until his death in Paris in 1883. The city's Père Lachaise Cemetery contains his grave.

Deathday: Dorothy Stratten 1960-1980 Murdered Playmate of the Year

Dorothy Stratten (February 28, 1960 – August 14, 1980)[1] was a Canadian model and actress. Stratten found fame as the Playboy Playmate of the Month for August 1979 and subsequently Playmate of the Year for 1980.[1] She was the second Playmate (after Lee Ann Michelle) to be born in the 1960s. Stratten is most remembered for the circumstances of her murder at age 20 by her estranged husband/manager, Paul Snider, who committed suicide later the same day. The circumstances surrounding her death have inspired two motion pictures.[2]

Life and career

Stratten was born Dorothy Ruth Hoogstraten in a Salvation Army hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, to Simon and Nelly Hoogstraten, Dutch immigrants.[3] In 1961, her brother John Arthur was born, and her sister Louise Stratten followed in May 1968.

She attended Centennial High School in Coquitlam. In 1977, while working part-time in a local Dairy Queen, she met a Vancouver-area promoter and pimp[3] named Paul Snider (then 26), who had nude photos taken of her and eventually sent them to Playboy. Because she was underage, she had to obtain her mother's signature to have the photos taken.[3]

In 1979, after having her surname shortened to Stratten,[3] she became Playboy's Miss August, and found work as a Bunny at the Los Angeles Playboy Club. She also played the role of Miss Cosmos in the Buck Rogers television series.

In June 1979, she married Snider in Las Vegas, Nevada. The couple's relationship quickly deteriorated, as Snider became prone to fits of jealousy and controlling behavior; he forbade her to drink coffee out of fear that it would damage her teeth, and Stratten believed that he was responsible for the death of her pet dog because he was jealous of the attention she gave it. [4]

In 1980, she became Playboy's Playmate of the Year. Her original pictorial was photographed by Mario Casilli.

Hugh Hefner reportedly encouraged Stratten to sever ties with Snider, calling him a "hustler and a pimp".[3] Rosanne Katon and other friends warned Stratten about Snider's behavior. By August 1980, Snider's grandiosity gave way to obsessive jealousy as he lost control of Stratten's "rocket to the moon".[3] Around this time Stratten began an affair with the director of her first major film, Peter Bogdanovich.[3] Snider hired a private detective to follow Stratten and report back to him everything she did. Snider and Stratten separated, and Stratten moved in with Bogdanovich, planning to file for a divorce from Snider.

Murder

Just after noon on August 14, 1980, Snider and Stratten met at Snider's house, where the two had once lived as a couple and which Snider was then sharing with their mutual friend, Dr. Stephen Cushner, and two women. The two had met to discuss terms for an amicable divorce, and Stratten had brought along $1,000 in the hopes that Snider would accept it as a settlement. [3][4] Around 12:30 pm, the private investigator whom Snider had hired phoned the apartment to see how the meeting was going; Snider answered the phone and told him that "everything is going fine." [4]

Around 5:00 pm, the female occupants of the apartment returned home from work. Finding Snider and Stratten's cars in the driveway and Snider's room door closed, they presumed that the couple wanted privacy. The female occupants watched the six o'clock news and then left to get dinner; at 7:00 pm, Cushner returned home from work, and, also finding Stratten's car in the driveway and Snider's door closed, decided not to disturb the couple. At 8:00 pm, the female occupants returned home and informed Cushner that they hadn't checked on Stratten and Snider either.[4]

At 11:00 pm, Cushner received a phone call on his private line from Snider's private investigator, who told him that he had been attempting to contact Snider for several hours but that Snider would not answer his phone. At the investigator's request, Cushner forced his way into Snider's room and found the couple; both were dead, completely nude and being partily eaten by ants. [4][3][5] Stratten was on the bed, dead from a shotgun blast that had taken off the side of her face and her left index finger. Evidence collected at the scene by police speculated that between 12:30 and 1:00 pm that Snider may have sexually forced himself on Stratten during an argument which turned violent in which he may have forcibily tied her up and then raped and sodomized before killing her with a shotgun that he kept in his room. Evidence also indicated that after having murdered Stratten, Snider had used medical tape to secure her corpse to a bondage bench and engaged in necrophilia with it before laying her corpse on the bed. Snider then turned the shotgun on himself.

Dorothy Stratten is buried at Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California. Stratten and Carol Willis are the only two Playmates to die within a year and a half of their Playboy appearances. At 20 and 22 years of age respectively, they were also the youngest.

In popular culture

Jamie Lee Curtis portrayed Stratten and Bruce Weitz played Paul Snider in the 1981 television film Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story.

Stratten's story was portrayed in Bob Fosse's 1983 film Star 80 starring Mariel Hemingway[2] (Stratten) and Eric Roberts (Snider). The movie was filmed in the very same house and room where the actual murder/suicide occurred.

Peter Bogdanovich wrote a book about Stratten titled The Killing of the Unicorn, published in the summer of 1984. Four years later, at the age of 49, he married Stratten's sister, Louise, age 20. Earlier, Bogdanovich had paid for Louise's private school and modeling classes after Stratten's death.[6] They divorced in 2001 after 13 years of marriage.

Bryan Adams co-wrote two songs about Stratten. The first, "Cover Girl," became a hit for the band Prism in 1980. The second, "The Best Was Yet to Come," was written with Jim Vallance; it appeared on Adams' 1983 album Cuts Like a Knife and was later covered by Laura Branigan.

References

Notes

1.^ "Playmate data". http://wekinglypigs.com/cgi-bin/nand/search/pmstat?browse=%3A%3ACONFIG%3A%3Amodelbrowse&key=stratten%2C+dorothy&limit=0. Retrieved January 29, 2010.
2.^ Vincent Canby (1983-11-10). "SCREEN: 'STAR 80,' A SEX-SYMBOL'S LIFE AND DEATH". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F00E1DD1539F933A25752C1A965948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
3.^ Theresa Carpenter (1980-11-05). "Death of a Playmate". The Village Voice. http://books.google.com/books?id=W2x4AjHQdWMC&pg=PA35&dq=dorothy+stratten+%22death+of+a+playmate%22+carpenter&client=opera&sig=ACfU3U2SgFMikHVULMokuL5PTJxbLi_QOw. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
4.^ The Murder of Dorothy Stratten
5.^ Biskind, Peter (1998). Easy Riders Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood. Simon & Schuster. pp. 388, 389. ISBN 0-684-80996-6.
6.^ The Centerfold Murder

Further reading

Yule, Andrew. Picture Shows: the Life and Films of Peter Bogdanovich - Has extensive coverage of Stratten's relationships with Paul Snider and Peter Bogdonovich.

Deathday: Shirley Jackson 1916-1965 Author "The Haunting of Hill House"

Shirley Jackson (December 14, 1916, San Francisco, California - August 8, 1965, Bennington, Vermont) was an influential American author. A popular writer in her time, her work has received increasing attention from literary critics in recent years. She has influenced such writers as Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Nigel Kneale and Richard Matheson.

She is best known for the short story "The Lottery" (1948), which suggests a secret, sinister underside to bucolic small-town America. In her critical biography of Jackson, Lenemaja Friedman notes that when "The Lottery" was published in the June 26, 1948, issue of The New Yorker, it received a response that "no New Yorker story had ever received." Hundreds of letters poured in that were characterized by, as Jackson put it, "bewilderment, speculation and old-fashioned abuse."

In the July 22, 1948, issue of the San Francisco Chronicle Jackson offered the following in response to persistent queries from her readers about her intentions:

"Explaining just what I had hoped the story to say is very difficult. I suppose, I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village to shock the story's readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives."

Jackson's husband, the literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman, wrote in his preface to a posthumous anthology of her work that "she consistently refused to be interviewed, to explain or promote her work in any fashion, or to take public stands and be the pundit of the Sunday supplements. She believed that her books would speak for her clearly enough over the years." Hyman insisted the darker aspects of Jackson's works were not, as some critics claimed, the product of "personal, even neurotic, fantasies," but that Jackson intended, as "a sensitive and faithful anatomy of our times, fitting symbols for our distressing world of the concentration camp and the Bomb," to mirror humanity's Cold War-era fears. Jackson may even have taken pleasure in the subversive impact of her work, as evidenced by Hyman's statement that she "was always proud that the Union of South Africa banned 'The Lottery,' and she felt that they at least understood the story."

Literary life

Born Shirley Hardie Jackson in San Francisco to Leslie and Geraldine Jackson, Shirley and her family lived in the community of Burlingame, California, an affluent middle-class suburb that would feature in Shirley's first novel The Road Through the Wall. The Jackson family then relocated to Rochester, New York, where Shirley attended Brighton High School and graduated in 1934. For college, she first attended the University of Rochester (from which she was "asked to leave") before graduating with a BA from Syracuse University in 1940.

While a student at Syracuse, Shirley became involved with the campus literary magazine, through which she met future husband Stanley Edgar Hyman, who would become a noted literary critic. For Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Harcraft's Twentieth Century Authors (1954), she wrote:

"I very much dislike writing about myself or my work, and when pressed for autobiographical material can only give a bare chronological outline which contains, naturally, no pertinent facts. I was born in San Francisco in 1919 and spent most of my early life in California. I was married in 1940 to Stanley Edgar Hyman, critic and numismatist, and we live in Vermont, in a quiet rural community with fine scenery and comfortably far away from city life. Our major exports are books and children, both of which we produce in abundance. The children are Laurence, Joanne, Sarah and Barry: my books include three novels, The Road Through The Wall, Hangsaman, The Bird's Nest and a collection of short stories, The Lottery. Life Among the Savages is a disrespectful memoir of my children."

Although Jackson claimed to have been born in 1919 in order to appear younger than her husband, biographer Judy Oppenheimer determined that she was actually born in 1916.

The Hymans eventually settled in North Bennington, Vermont, where Stanley Hyman became a professor at Bennington College while Shirley continued to publish novels and short stories while caring for their children Laurence (Laurie), Joanne (Jannie), Sarah (Sally), and Barry. Eventually the Hyman children would come to their own brand of literary fame as fictionalised versions of themselves in their mother's short stories. The Hymans were well-known for being colorful, generous hosts who surrounded themselves with literary talents, including Ralph Ellison. Both were enthusiastic readers whose personal library was estimated at over 100,000 books.

In addition to her adult literary novels, Jackson also wrote a children's novel, Nine Magic Wishes, available in an edition illustrated by her grandson, Miles Hyman, as well as a children's play based on Hansel and Gretel and entitled The Bad Children. In a series of short stories, later collected in the books Life Among the Savages and Raising Demons, she presented a fictionalized version of her marriage and the experience of bringing up four children. These stories pioneered the "true-to-life funny-housewife stories" of the type later popularized by such writers as Jean Kerr and Erma Bombeck during the 1950s and 1960s.

In 1965, Shirley Jackson died of heart failure in her sleep at the age of 48. Shirley suffered throughout her life from various neuroses and psychosomatic illnesses. These ailments, along with the various prescription drugs used to treat them, may have contributed to her declining health and early death. However, at the time of her death, Jackson was overweight and a heavy smoker. After her death, her husband released a posthumous volume of her work, Come Along With Me, containing several chapters of her unfinished last novel as well as several rare short stories (among them "Louisa, Please Come Home") and three speeches given by Jackson in her writing seminars.

With information for Jackson's debut novel, The Road Through the Wall (1948), he described Jackson as someone who practiced witchcraft. Hyman believed this image of Jackson would help promote sales of novels and film rights. She later wrote about witchcraft accusations in her book for young readers, The Witchcraft of Salem Village (1956).

Her other novels include Hangsaman (1951), The Bird's Nest (1954), The Sundial (1958) and The Haunting of Hill House (1959), regarded by many, including Stephen King, as one of the important horror novels of the 20th Century. This contemporary updating of the classic ghost story has a vivid and powerful opening paragraph:

"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone."

Adaptations
In addition to radio, TV and theater adaptations, "The Lottery" has been filmed three times, most notably in 1969 as an acclaimed short film which director Larry Yust made for an Encyclopædia Britannica educational film series. The Academic Film Archive cited Yust's short "as one of the two bestselling educational films ever".[6]

Eleanor Parker starred in Hugo Haas' Lizzie (1957), based on The Bird's Nest, with a cast that included Richard Boone, Joan Blondell, Marion Ross and Johnny Mathis.
The Haunting of Hill House was adapted to film in 1963 with Julie Harris and Claire Bloom. Liam Neeson, Lili Taylor and Catherine Zeta-Jones headed the cast of a 1999 remake.
Jackson's 1962 novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle was adapted for the stage by Hugh Wheeler in the mid-1960s. Directed by Garson Kanin and starring Shirley Knight, it opened on Broadway October 19, 1966. The David Merrick production closed after only nine performances at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, but Wheeler's play continues to be staged by regional theater companies.
Joanne Woodward directed Come Along with Me (1982), adapted from Jackson's unfinished novel, with a cast headed by Estelle Parsons and Sylvia Sidney.

Deathday: Calamity Jane 1852-1903 Frontierswoman

Martha Jane Cannary Burke, better known as Calamity Jane (May 1, 1852 – August 1, 1903), was a frontierswoman, and professional scout best known for her claim of being an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok, but also for having gained fame fighting Native American Indians. She was a woman who also exhibited kindness and compassion, especially to the sick and needy. This contrast helped to make her a famous and infamous frontier figure.[1]

Biography

Early life: 1852 – 1876

Calamity Jane was born on May 1, 1852, as Martha Jane Cannary in Princeton, Missouri, within Mercer County. Her parents, Robert W. and Charlotte Cannary, were listed in the 1860 census as living about 7 miles (11 km) further northeast of Princeton in Ravanna. Martha Jane was the eldest of six children, having two brothers and three sisters. In 1865, Robert packed his family and moved by wagon train from Missouri to Virginia City, Montana. Charlotte died along the way in Black Foot, Montana in 1866 of "washtub pneumonia". After arriving in Virginia City in the spring of 1866, Robert took his six children on to Salt Lake City, Utah. They arrived in the summer, and Robert supposedly started farming on 40 acres (160,000 m2) of land. They were there only a year before he died in 1867. Martha Jane took over as head of the family, loaded up the wagon once more, and took her siblings to Fort Bridger, Wyoming Territory. They arrived in May 1868. From there they traveled on the Union Pacific Railroad to Piedmont, Wyoming.

In Piedmont, Martha Jane took whatever jobs she could to provide for her large family. She worked as a dishwasher, a cook, a waitress, a dance-hall girl, a nurse, and an ox team driver. Finally, in 1874, she found work as a scout at Fort Russell. During this time period, Jane also began her on-and-off employment as a prostitute at the Fort Laramie Three-Mile Hog Ranch.[2]

From her autobiography of 1896, Martha Jane writes of this time:

"In 1865 we emigrated from our homes in Missouri by the overland route to Virginia City, Montana, taking five months to make the journey. While on the way, the greater portion of my time was spent in hunting along with the men and hunters of the party; in fact, I was at all times with the men when there was excitement and adventures to be had. By the time we reached Virginia City, I was considered a remarkable good shot and a fearless rider for a girl of my age. I remember many occurrences on the journey from Missouri to Montana. Many times in crossing the mountains, the conditions of the trail were so bad that we frequently had to lower the wagons over ledges by hand with ropes, for they were so rough and rugged that horses were of no use. We also had many exciting times fording streams, for many of the streams in our way were noted for quicksands and boggy places, where, unless we were very careful, we would have lost horses and all. Then we had many dangers to encounter in the way of streams swelling on account of heavy rains. On occasions of that kind, the men would usually select the best places to cross the streams; myself, on more than one occasion, have mounted my pony and swam across the stream several times merely to amuse myself, and have had many narrow escapes from having both myself and pony washed away to certain death, but, as the pioneers of those days had plenty of courage, we overcame all obstacles and reached Virginia City in safety. Mother died at Black Foot, Montana, 1866, where we buried her. I left Montana in Spring of 1866, for Utah, arriving at Salt Lake City during the summer."

Accounts from this period described Martha Jane as being "extremely attractive" and a "pretty, dark-eyed girl." Martha Jane received little to no formal education and was literate. She moved on to a rougher, mostly outdoor adventurous life on the Great Plains.

Acquiring the nickname

Martha Jane was involved in several campaigns in the long-running military conflicts with Native American Indians. Her unconfirmed claim was that:

"It was during this campaign that I was christened Calamity Jane. It was on Goose Creek, Wyoming where the town of Sheridan is now located. Capt Egan was in command of the Post. We were ordered out to quell an uprising of the Indians, and were out for several days, had numerous skirmishes during which six of the soldiers were killed and several severely wounded. When on returning to the Post we were ambushed about a mile and a half from our destination. When fired upon Capt Egan was shot. I was riding in advance and on hearing the firing turned in my saddle and saw the Captain reeling in his saddle as though about to fall. I turned my horse and galloped back with all haste to his side and got there in time to catch him as he was falling. I lifted him onto my horse in front of me and succeeded in getting him safely to the Fort. Capt Egan on recovering, laughingly said: 'I name you Calamity Jane, the heroine of the plains.' I have borne that name up to the present time."

However, it may be that she exaggerated or completely fabricated this story. Even back then not everyone accepted her version as true. A popular belief is that she instead acquired it as a result of her warnings to men that to offend her was to "court calamity." One verified story about "Calamity Jane" is that in 1875 her detachment was ordered to the Big Horn River, under General Crook. Bearing important dispatches, she swam the Platte River and traveled 90 miles (145 km) at top speed while wet and cold to deliver them. Afterwards, she became ill. After recuperating for a few weeks, she rode to Fort Laramie, Wyoming, and later, in July 1876, she joined a wagon train headed north, which is where she first met Bill Hickok, contrary to her later claims.

Deadwood and Wild Bill Hickok: 1876 – 1881

Calamity Jane accompanied the Newton-Jenney Party into the Black Hills in 1875, along with California Joe and Valentine McGillycuddy.

In 1876, Calamity Jane settled in the area of Deadwood, South Dakota, in the Black Hills. There, she became friends with, and was occasionally employed by Dora DuFran, the Black Hills' leading madam. She became friendly with Wild Bill Hickok and Charlie Utter, having travelled with them to Deadwood in Utter's wagon train. Jane greatly admired Hickok (to the point of infatuation), and she was obsessed with his personality and life. After Hickok was killed during a poker game on August 2, 1876, Calamity Jane claimed to have been married to Hickok and that Hickok was the father of her child (Jane), who she said was born on September 25, 1873, and who she later put up for adoption by Jim O'Neil and his wife. No records are known to exist which prove the birth of a child, and the romantic slant to the relationship might have been fabrication. During the period that the alleged child was born, she was working as a scout for the Army. At the time of his death, Hickok was newly married to Agnes Lake Thatcher. However, on September 6, 1941, the U.S. Department of Public Welfare did grant old age assistance to a Jean Hickok Burkhardt McCormick (name of her third husband), who claimed to be the legal offspring of Martha Jane Cannary and James Butler Hickok, after being presented with evidence that Calamity Jane and Wild Bill had married at Benson's Landing, Montana Territory, on September 25, 1873, documentation being written in a Bible and presumably signed by two reverends and numerous witnesses. The claim of Jean Hickok McCormick was later proved to be spurious by the Hickok family. (Rosa, Joseph- "They Called Him Wild Bill")[4][5][6][7] Jane also claimed that following Hickok's death, she went after Jack McCall, his murderer, with a meat cleaver, having left her guns at her residence in the excitement of the moment. However, she never confronted McCall. Following McCall's eventual hanging for the offense, Jane continued living in the Deadwood area for some time, and at one point she did help save several passengers in an overland stagecoach by diverting several Plains Indians who were in pursuit of the stage. The stagecoach driver, John Slaughter, was killed during the pursuit, and Jane took over the reins and drove the stage on to its destination at Deadwood.[6] Also in late 1876, Jane nursed the victims of a smallpox epidemic in the Deadwood area.

Final years: 1881 – 1903

In 1881, she bought a ranch west of Miles City, MT, along the Yellowstone River, where she kept an inn. After marrying the Texan Clinton Burke, and moving to Boulder, she again tried her luck in this business. In 1887, she had a daughter, Jane, who was given to foster parents.

In 1893, Calamity Jane started to appear in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show as a horse rider and a trick shooter. She also participated in the Pan-American Exposition. At that time, she was depressed and an alcoholic. Jane’s addiction to liquor was evident even in her younger years. For example, on June 10, 1876, she rented a horse and buggy in Cheyenne for a mile-or-so joy ride to Fort Russell and back, but Calamity was so drunk that she passed right by her destination without noticing it and finally ended up about 90 miles away at Fort Laramie.[8]

By the turn of the century, Madame Dora DuFran was still going strong when Jane returned to the Black Hills in 1903. For the next few months, Jane earned her keep by cooking and doing the laundry for Dora’s brothel girls in Belle Fourche. In July, she travelled to Terry, South Dakota. While staying in the Calloway Hotel on August 1, 1903, she developed pneumonia and died at the age of 51. It was reported that she was on board a train where she had been drinking heavily, and became very ill. The train's conductor carried her off the train and to a cabin where she died soon after. In her belongings, a bundle of letters to her daughter were found, which she had never sent. Some of these letters were set to music in an art song cycle by 20th century composer Libby Larsen called Songs From Letters.

Calamity Jane was buried at Mount Moriah Cemetery (South Dakota), next to Wild Bill Hickok. Four of the men who planned her funeral (Albert Malter, Frank Ankeney, Jim Carson, and Anson Higby) later stated that since Hickok had “absolutely no use” for Jane while he was alive, they decided to play a posthumous joke on Wild Bill by giving Calamity an eternal resting place by his side.[9]

Autobiography

"Calamity Jane," as she would become known, lived a very colorful and eventful life but often claimed questionable associations or friendships with notable famous American Old West figures, almost always posthumously. For example, years after the death of Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer, she claimed that she served under him during her initial enlistment at Fort Russell, and that she also served under him during the Indian campaigns in Arizona. However, no records exist to show that Cannary was assigned to Fort Russell, and she did not take an active part in the Arizona Indian Campaigns; she was tasked with subjugating the Plains Indians.

Major media representations

Films

The Plainsman is a 1936 film starring Gary Cooper as Wild Bill Hickok and Jean Arthur as Calamity Jane.

Calamity Jane was played by Jane Russell in the 1948 comedy movie The Paleface.

Calamity Jane was a 1953 musical film from Warner Brothers Studios; starring Doris Day in the title role, and Howard Keel as Wild Bill Hickock. It won the Best Song Oscar for the song "Secret Love," by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster.

In the 1963 episode of Bonanza, "Calamity Over the Comstock." Stefanie Powers plays Calamity Jane, who visits Virginia City along with Doc Holliday. In this primarily comedic episode, she is rescued by Little Joe, at first thought to be a male. She becomes infatuated with him and he receives threats form Doc who covets Jane for himself. At her urging (and threat) Doc demurs from facing-down Joe, and Jane and Doc exit town together.

In 1984, the television movie called Calamity Jane features her life story including her alleged marriage to Wild Bill & their daughter that she gave up. Actress Jane Alexander portrayed Calamity and was nominated for an Emmy in 1985 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Special. It also featured an early performance of Sara Gilbert as Calamity's daughter Jean at age 7.

Jane is the central character in Larry McMurtry's book Buffalo Girls, played by Anjelica Huston in a 1995 TV adaptation of the same name.

In the 1995 movie Tall Tale she was portrayed by actress Catherine O'Hara as Pecos Bill's love and as a sheriff or deputy of some sort.

In the 1995 film Wild Bill she was portrayed by actress Ellen Barkin.

In 1997 a cartoon series on Kids' WB called The Legend of Calamity Jane depicted a young Jane.

Jane was also a central character in HBO's series Deadwood, portrayed by Robin Weigert.

Books

Calamity Jane was an important character in the Deadwood Dick series of dime novels beginning with the first appearance of Deadwood Dick in Beadle's half Dime Library issue #1 in 1877. This series, written by Edward Wheeler, established her with a reputation as a wild north vacation heroine and probably did more to enhance her familiarity to the public than any of her real life exploits.

Science Fiction writer A. Bertram Chandler included a character named Calamity Jane Arlen (see [1]) in his far future novels, taking place on the frontier Rim Worlds - a kind of space analogue of the Old West.

Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickock are featured in the song "Deadwood Mountain" by the country duo Big & Rich.

A fictitious portrayal of a fight between Calamity Jane and an impostor is also depicted in Thomas Berger's 1964 novel,"Little Big Man."

Jane is the central character in Larry McMurtry's book Buffalo Girls, played by Anjelica Huston in a 1995 TV adaptation of the same name.

Jane is a central character in Pete Dexter's 1986 novel Deadwood, ISBN 1400079713.

J. T. Edson features Calamity Jane as a character in a number of his books, as a stand alone character and also as a romantic interest of the character Mark Counter.

Comic

Calamity Jane also figures as a main character in an album of the same name of the Franco-Belgian comics series Lucky Luke, created by Morris.

Music

Some of her letters were set to music in an art song cycle by 20th century composer Libby Larsen called Songs From Letters.

Games

Calamity Jane appeared as a side-main character in the 1996 videogame Wild ARMs.

She also appeared as a side character in the 1991 computer RPG game Worlds of Ultima: Martian Dreams.

References

1.^ Griske, Michael (2005). The Diaries of John Hunton. Heritage Books. pp. 83, 88. ISBN 0-7884-3804-2.
2.^ Griske, op. cit., pp. 84-86.
3.^ Freeman, Lewis R. (1992). Down The Yellowstone. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company.
4.^ [http://nj.essortment.com/whowildbillhi_rgvu.htm Who was Wild Bill Hickok?
5.^ Calamity Jane .
6.^ Martha Jane "Calamity Jane" Caary biography.
7.^ Calamity Jane.
8.^ Griske, op. cit., pp. 87, 88.
9.^ Griske, op. cit., p. 89.