The Lizzie Mystique- Cashing in on a Name

[Shelley]

Long before Second Street opened as a B&B, the house next to Dr. Kelly's operated The Lizzie Inn, and just one street behind was Lizzie's B&B on Third Street, and Lizzie's Deli on upper Third behind the post office. Although these are gone now as businesses, the Lizzie name still grabs attention as website domain names-places in cyberspace and no doubt more ways will be found to memorialize and market Lizzie's name.

[Shelley]

Lizzie Inn 240 Second Street

[Shelley]

The Lizzie Professional Building- site of the former Lizzie Deli (ground floor)

[RayS]

The use of a generic name like "Lizzie" can't be copyrighted (in most cases). I do know of a "George's" restaurant which prevented another "George's" restaurant in town from using that name.
The trade name is often differenct from the license name (D/B/A).
Ford's "Tin Lizzie" is one example.
But even a "Lizzie Borden" name could be used w/o any copyright infringement. And has been, by that porn star (?) who was arrested last year. Anybody hear about that case?

[Shelley]

The rock band Lizzy Borden has been around for some time and markets their own band merchandise
http://www.lizzyborden.com/

There was actually a woman named Lizzie Borden at the 1992 conference. I have met 2 other Lizzie Bordens over the years. One was actually Elizabeth which maybe does not count.

[Oscar]

I've often wonderd what Lizzie would think about all this; the use of her name, her family home being turned into a B&B and museum, all the interest in Lizzie on the internet at sites like this etc. What would she think of all the interest in the case itself all these years and decades later? She'd probably tell us all in her own way to go and get a life!

[Shelley]

I am sure she would be horrified, Emma would jump off the Braga Bridge with shame and dismay, and Mr. Borden would be begrudgingly intrigued about how much money could be made from such fascination.

Actually the B&B was a rooming house more than once- so not a lot has changed there. I am sure the ghostly "Haunted Bordens" slant would bring forth a chuckle from the whole family.

[Richard]

Not to mention what the Bordens would think about me turning Lizzie into a girl detective!

I hope my story, although comic, was also respectful. There is a degree of social satire that I think makes the story more than just a cheap gimmick.

[Kat]

It didn't seem gimmicky. It made a young Lizzie seem a bit endearing!
Like she wasn't necessarily meant to fulfill such a grim future.

[Richard]

Kat wrote: Like she wasn't necessarily meant to fulfill such a grim future.

Thanks Kat. I do want the stories to bring out the best in Lizzie, as well as touch on the bad (the kleptomania and her class issues will definitely be dealt with).

The character of LB Girl Detective I actually based on someone I dated back in the 1980s who was living in a house dominated by her stifling parents and was super brilliant. Sherlock Holmes and Mr. Spock were two of her role models. When I wrote the character of the Girl Detective I was thinking of this girl all the way, hoping that somewhere, wherever she is, she would see the Hatchet on line, recognize my name, buy a copy, read the story and appreciate the in-joke.

And here's the kicker. I'm not lying here. The girl I'm talking about was named Lizzie. She went by the name Liz, but I called her Lizzie and sometimes when we talked about her parents in a bad way, we would joke that she should "pull a Lizzie Borden."

Anyway, I hope our dear LB doesn't mind me merging her with an old girlfriend. It made for a very entertaining characterization, merging the two.

[DWilly]

Kat wrote: Like she wasn't necessarily meant to fulfill such a grim future.

Thanks Kat. I do want the stories to bring out the best in Lizzie, as well as touch on the bad (the kleptomania and her class issues will definitely be dealt with).

.

The thing about the "class issues" is that Lizzie was not alone in the way she felt. That was the time she lived in. Her views on class would have been the norm.I once read a review on Charles Dickens(can't remember where) and the writer pointed out that although Dickens did want to see things improve for the poor he still believed that they should "know their place" and be content to stay in it. The writer pointed to Dicken's book, "The Old Curiosity Shop" as an example. In it you see little Nell a very sympathetic figure. The thing is Dickens blamed the Grandfather for Nell's death because he turned to gambling to try and take a shortcut to improve Nell's position in society. It did not work. The Grandfather should have remained in his class. Well, anyway, that's a brief summation on that. My main point is just about everyone back then felt the same way Lizzie did regarding class. Didn't Knowlton even mention in his closing or something about how Lizzie would be given respect due a lady? Think poor Irish Catholic Bridget would have been treated the same way by Knowlton and Moody?

[RayS]

I am sure she would be horrified, Emma would jump off the Braga Bridge with shame and dismay, and Mr. Borden would be begrudgingly intrigued about how much money could be made from such fascination.
...

I think it would be more likely for Emma to retire and live as a recluse in seclusion in rural New Hampshire. Just guessing.

Andrew Borden would sue the pants off those who dared to use his name. His connection w/ ruling class would mean their license would be suspended, building inspectors would shut the place down, all the harassment possible to put them out of business. Maybe stationing a policeman by the front entrance to take the names of those who entered?

[Shelley]

Next time I will remember to put a SMILEY face next to my posts intended to be jokingly humorous, so there is no mistake.

[Richard]

Good point DWilly. Through research, I'm coming to understand a lot about Lizzie and her class, and the class relations in Fall River. I definitely take what you say to heart.

Be assured in the stories I have planned, it strikes me as more appropriate to have Lizzie possessed with a social conscience that may or may not be in line with the real Lizzie. She is concerned with the unethical behavior of some of the Fall River textile industrialists. I know I made Livermore absurdly and comically evil, but you can see that Lizzie is indeed repulsed by him, and Andrew Borden doesn't like him either. Jonathan Borden, the distant cousin who runs the Livermore Mills, is a good man who ran his mill with a high sense of ethics and class morality. Oddly enough, I never gave any motive for the murder other than Livermore didn't like him. Perhaps that will come out in a later story! Perhaps Jonathan had "the goods" on Livermore's corruption.

Even at the end of the Purloined Curio, Lizzie and company forgive poor Tom Crank, who is the son of a textile worker, and put up some money for his education. In a later story we find out that he went to Chicago to play in an orchestra that accompanies Encrio Caruso, so his almost impossible dream of being a musician is fulfilled by Lizzie Borden.

And Homer Thesinger goes off to New Jersey to invent motion pictures with Thomas Edison and Edwin S. Porter.

[RayS]

Next time I will remember to put a SMILEY face next to my posts intended to be jokingly humorous, so there is no mistake.

I recommend that you NOT do it, so "old fools" can be shown up?