Check this out. You can make your own growing Christmas tree card and send it to a friend. Here is my card, all about Lizzie Borden, of course.
A very recent publication contains a few pages about the Borden Murders: Life: The Most Notorious Crimes in American History: Fifty Fascinating Cases from the Files - in Pictures by the editors of Life Magazine.
I am most excited by this book because it mentions The Hatchet: Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies in the text! Also of note is that the photo of the handleless hatchet on the page before the Table of Contents in the book is an unattributed photo taken by me.
The book contains many great images of important cases, and is divided into the following categories: Politics, Passion, Profit, and Pointless Mayhem. Guess where they placed the Borden case? I don’t think of the case as “Pointless Mayhem”—several people profited from the crimes. But I guess since it is officially unsolved, the editors decided there was no reasonable motive to help place it in some proper pigeonhole.
Filmmaker Eric Swelstad has produced a sequel to the gross-out horror flick The Curse of Lizzie Borden, and it is due out on DVD in early 2008. Interesting that Lizzie has now become a horror icon. It was only a matter of time, I suppose.
The first film was pure camp and worth the price of disk. Once scene made me laugh so hard I literally fell off the couch and had to stop the show until I recovered. I’m not 100% sure it was supposed to make me laugh, but it sure struck me as HI-larious. So I really can’t wait for Prom Night.
You can see the trailer here:
Today the Daily Hampshire Gazette ran a piece by Kristin Pepini about Mount Holyoke and the Borden case.
You might remember that the August issue of The Hatchet: Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies included brand new research on where Emma Borden went during her “away years” in the 1860s. It turned out that Emma went to Wheaton College in Norton. This fact was discovered by Kristin Pepe and she graciously shared that information on The Lizzie Borden Society Forum.
Here is the article:
According to B.K. Swartz, Jr. in his “The Origin of American Christmas Myth and Customs,” The salutation, “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,” may have first appeared in 17th century European correspondence. Says Swartz, “Merry is probably of English origin and was introduced to America in Dickens’ time.” In Clement Moore’s poem (l822) “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (or as we know it now, “Twas the Night Before Christmas”) the reader is addressed with the phrase “Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night.”
The Old English origin for Merry is myrige [pleasing, delightful]; of Germanic origin it is related related to mirth.
“Christmas cards were first printed in London, England. They were designed by John Calcott Horsley of the Royal Academy for Sir Henry Cole in 1843 and were sold at Felix Summerly’s Home Treasury Office. The greeting was “A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You.” A portrayal of a child sipping wine in a toast on the central panel caused a stir with temperance groups. Cards were first mailed (to friends) by W. C. Dobson (Queen Victoria’s favorite painter) in 1845. First mailings in U. S. were in 1846. Louis Prang, a Boston lithographer, marketed multicolored Christmas Cards in Europe in 1865, and in the U. S. in 1875. He made Christmas Cards popular. Mailing was expanded with the “penny post card,” 1893. Half-tone engravings appear in 1900. The home photograph card begins in 1902 by Eastman Kodak.”
Harper’s Bazaar, December 9, 1876.
Odd facts about Father Christmas:
Father Christmas (later Santa Clause) was part of an old English midwinter festival and was normally depicted as dressed in green—a sign of the returning Spring.
Father Christmas was also known as ‘Sir Christmas,’ ‘Old Father Christmas,’ or ‘Old Winter.’
Father Christmas was not a bringer of gifts, nor did his slide down a chimney, but walked from home to home, feasting with families and then moving on to the next house.
Father Christmas was dressed in a red coat in the 1930s in an advertisement by Coca-Cola.
I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. ~Charles Dickens
I stopped believing in Santa Claus when my mother took me to see him in a department store, and he asked for my autograph. ~Shirley Temple
Don’t expect too much of Christmas Day. You can’t crowd into it any arrears of unselfishness and kindliness that may have accrued during the past twelve months. ~Oren Arnold
Christmas is forced upon a reluctant and disgusted nation by the shopkeepers and the press; on its own merits it would wither and shrivel in the fiery breath of universal hatred. ~George Bernard Shaw
Christmas is a time when everybody wants his past forgotten and his present remembered. What I don’t like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day. ~Phyllis Diller
Speaking of gifting Lizzie Borden this holiday season, why not consider these neato presents:
1. Unabridged audiobook version of the A&E Biography on Lizzie Borden, available through iTunes at only 95 cents. 55 minutes in length.
2. Unabridged audiobook version of Edgar Lustgarten’s “Lizzie Borden Took an Axe: the Famous Trials Series,” available through iTunes for only $7.95. 57 minutes in length.
Both of the above titles are also available through Audible.com.
On season two of the now defunct ABC TV show The Practice, they did an episode with the following storyline: “With help from Ally McBeal, the firm defends a murder suspect who claims she was Lizzie Borden in a past life. Ellenor learns the truth about Dr. Spivak.”
That episode is now available for download on iTunes through their online store for $1.99. The perfect gift for that Lizzie Borden case enthusiast in your family!
AOhell recently listed some “whacky” places to stay and listed the Lizzie Borden B & B as a must see site. The image is really kewl!
On October 31, the Today Show aired an interview between Natalie Morales and paranormal researcher Rebecca Muller regarding various and sundry supernatural subjects—voodoo, Amityville Horror, exorcisms, and of all things, Lizzie Borden. I am not sure what Ms. Muller’s bona fides are, but she gets the Amityville story a bit wrong since the entire haunting was recanted by the Lutz’s later on. Oh well.
It is worth the watch just to see Ms. Muller keep a straight face as she tries to answer questions put to her by a costumed Morales. Sort of gives the entire subject matter a less than serious approach, don’t you think?
Shelley Dziedzic made an amazing find recently—Lizzie Borden’s 1890 passport application!
You can read all about her discovery in the New Research section of The Lizzie Borden Virtual Museum and Library.
I guess this is the year for new finds. We now know where Emma Borden went to school for a year and a half in the 1860s; we have a new portrait of Andrew Borden; and now Lizzie’s passport application. What more could the year bring? KEWL!
