Friday Video: Buster Keaton in the ring

Loretta reports:

I've incorporated early 19th C gentlemen's fondness for fisticuffs in several of my books.  For an idea of what boxing was really like back then, take a look at Georgian Boxing at Horrible Histories.


Fortunately for the squeamish, we don't have actual Regency era fisticuffs recorded on film—but here's Buster Keaton, my favorite silent film actor and comic genius, demonstrating his brilliance in the ring.

Cruikshank illustration from Pierce Egan's Life in London, 1821

Friday Video: History of English in brief

Loretta reports:

Some of us have short attention spans and some do not.  Either species will, I think, enjoy this piece—and probably learn some things.  I did!

Readers who receive our blog via email might see only a black rectangle or empty square where the video ought to be.  To watch the video, please click on this link to the  Two Nerdy History Girls blog.

Beau Brummell in motion

Loretta reports:

Since it's so much harder to find fashion plates for early 19th century men’s clothing than for women’s, we tend to rely more upon painted portraits.

But these have limitations, some artists being less interested in fashion detail than in, oh, art.

But the best way, I believe, to understand the sexy elegance of the era is to see real clothes on real men.

Of course, we all know that Brummell was the leader, rather than a follower.  Still, the Kinks' song works.  The clips are from the movie Beau Brummell: This Charming Man, very loosely based on Ian Kelly’s wonderful biography, Beau Brummell:  The Ultimate Man of Style.

Readers who receive our blog via email might see only a black rectangle or empty square where the video ought to be.  To watch the video, please click on this link to the  Two Nerdy History Girls blog.

Valentine Video: The Addams Family Dances

Loretta reports:

In honor of Valentine’s Day, I present one of my favorite romantic couples.  It would have been great if the holiday fell on Video Friday instead of inconveniently next Tuesday.  But then you have an excuse to watch it again.



 

Readers who receive our blog via email might see only a black rectangle where the video ought to be.  To watch the video, please click on this link to the  Two Nerdy History Girls blog.

"One Very Fine Lady", 1908 (Friday Video)

Susan reporting:

"Head-turning" is generally a complement, but in this very short French film, the lady in the title literally causes heads to turn with amusing - if disastrous - results. The work of director Louis Feauillade (1873-1925), this film and others like it are considered predecessors to the Keystone Kops-style of slapstick that would soon be produced in Hollywood. It's also something of a fashion piece: the lady's extravagant hat and equally extravagant corseting are the height of Edwardian style. No wonder she leaves such mayhem in her wake!
Many thanks to Heather A. Vaughan and her excellent blog Fashion Historia for sharing this video.

Mincing at Versailles (Friday's Video)

Susan reporting:
We Nerdy History Girls are very partial to English humor, and when it's combined with history – whether Monty Python, Blackadder, or Horrible Histories – we're in laugh-riot heaven.

Recently I stumbled across a delicious series on YouTube staring the irrepressible Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French, cutting a hilarious swath through the court at Versailles shortly before the French Revolution. Let Them Eat Cake features Saunders as the immorally dense Colombine, Comtesse de Vache, and French as her far more clever (but equally immoral) maid Lisette, with Adrian Scarborough as the comtesse's ever-conniving hairdresser, stylist, and confidante, Bouffant - an 18th c. caricature brought to life. The series is irreverent and bawdy, full of huge wigs and extravagant gowns, and skewed appearances by everyone from Madame Vigee-Lebrun to the Marquis de Sade.

This clip features a showdown between the comtesse and her arch-rival, Madame de Plonge, both armed with huge skirts and servants. Which one will be forced to reverse down the hall so the other may pass?

If you wish for more, the whole series is on YouTube (though unfortunately each episode is cut into three parts). Here are the three links to the first episode, called "The Pox": Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

The Queen just wants to have fun

Loretta reports:

I know King Charles II had fun, and so did a great many of his successors.  George III, extremely monogamous, sired 15 legitimate children, and presided over what was reputed to be one of history's most boring courts.  His sons, on the other hand, really liked to party.  But shortly after Victoria ascended the throne—after she married Albert—the party element seems to have gone into decline in the British monarchy, with the emphasis shifting to Duty & Service.

And so I watch the present Queen of England visit child care centers and award titles and host parties and make small talk endlessly and look interested in deadly dull speeches and plow through mountains of letters and political documents and give speeches here there and everywhere (and let's not even start on the family issues) and I think, "Yes, I know she's really rich and owns a bunch of palaces & stuff, but I'm not sure I'd want that life."

So I was tickled to find this little video, which I hope will make you smile, too.

 

It's Time Again for 'Downton Abbey' - The Silly Video Version, That Is

Susan reporting:

While the second season of Downton Abbey, the immensely popular PBS dramatic series, won't be shown in the US until January, it has already made its debut in the UK, and viewers there are happily engrossed. Spoilers, too, are already all over the internet – but we promise you won't find a single one in this video sketch, created as a fundraiser for the BBC's Red Nose Day. What you will find in it, however, are some very familiar faces in very different roles. Look for Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley (still Absolutely Fabulous), Harry Enfield, Victoria Wood, and is that really Kim Cattrall as the countess? Even screenwriter-novelist Julian Fellowes makes an appearance. And if this isn't enough, there's a second part, too, here.

Just a Small Rewrite...of 'Hamlet' (Friday Silly Video)

Susan reporting:

The most disheartening suggestions that editors make to writers usually begin with "Just": just a little tweaking, just a few changes, just a bit of tightening. It's the editorial version of the doctor's "This won't hurt a bit." If this comedy skit featuring William Shakespeare (yes, that's Hugh Laurie, Dr. House in Elizabethan costume) and his editor (the incomparable Rowan Atkinson) discussing "just" a small rewrite of Hamlet, then things haven't changed a bit in the last few hundred years. This sketch was performed live in London as part of a Comic Relief benefit.

Mysteries & rituals of marriage

Loretta reports:

King George IV might have learned something from this 1931 lighthearted look at marriage and mating rituals among various species: 

THE MYSTERY OF MARRIAGE (aka SECRETS OF MARRIAGE) - British Pathe

Or maybe not. . .

George IV is Fat (a silly historical video from Horrible Histories)

Susan reporting:

What better way to ease into a long weekend than with a new video from the Horrible Histories?

If ever there were a monarch ripe for ridicule, it must be George IV (1762-1830.) The circumstances of his life would have tried a much better man, and even as kings go, George was somewhat lacking. While he did serve twice as Prince Regent for the ailing George III, the truth was that the father lived for so long that the son himself was long past his own prime by the time he became king. The younger George destroyed his promise as well as his once-handsome person by self-centered, sybaritic excess, and his reign lasted a mere ten years before he, too, died.

The satiric cartoonists of the day found a ready subject in George's womanizing, laziness, indulgences, and, of course, his ever-burgeoning girth. It does say something that one of the most famous quotations about him (spoken by his one-time friend Beau Brummell) – "Alvanley, who is your fat friend?" – is a dismissive dig at his weight. Clearly, if Prinny were alive and celebrating Labor Day weekend, he'd be the first one standing with an empty plate at the barbecue. O.K., not likely, but fun to imagine.

Enjoy your weekend!

Click here for another Horrible Histories video featuring the Prince Regent.

The Victorian Language of Flowers (the Horrible Histories way)

A few weeks ago, we shared a silly-history video about the Georgian language of fans. This week it seems only fair to go into the garden, and observe the Victorian language of flowers. Since both "languages" come by way of the Horrible Histories, you won't have to brush up on any real language skills - just enjoy!

The Brontë Sisters (a silly historical video by the History Girls)

We can't claim any special connection to these very funny British comedians except that we're all "history girls." As they say on their website: "The History Girls take their version of history and put a wig on it - a sort of Brontë Python." In this sketch, they put their silly-wig on the writing Brontë sisters. We especially like the part about coming up with a really, really good title – a constant challenge to novelists (okay, at least it's a constant challenge to us) though perhaps not with such amusing results. Oh, if only our books had moors in them, too!

Dining with the Tudors

Loretta reports:

A tour of Hampton Court Palace took me through the Tudor-era kitchens.  The fire was on, but nothing was cooking.  There were bowls and utensils and some representations of food, but these only whetted my appe—curiosity.

So let's let the Supersizers give us the lowdown on Tudor food.

The Language of Fans Explained (another silly video by Horrible Histories)

Our Friday silly video again comes from one of our favorite English shows, Horrible Histories. (If you know a child you're trying to lure towards history, the Horrible History books - here and here, among many - are also excellent.) While the complexities of 19th c. fan-language have likely been exaggerated since the time it was used in drawing rooms and across crowded theaters, it's still entertaining to consider how much a lady might have conveyed with only a skillful motion of her fan. Or, as in this case, what she didn't get quite right.

The Magic of History - and a Coke - Save the Day

Susan reporting:

Yes, this is a commercial – but for whatever reason, it didn't seem to be widely circulated. That's a shame, because it's really quite wonderful. I haven't had to race to an exam for a long time, but good ol' caffeine (whether from coffee, tea, or cola) can still be counted on to save my authorial bacon whenever a deadline looms. Now if I could only wake up in time to see my characters jumping off the page like this....

Existential Star Wars

Loretta reports:

For your Friday educational viewing, since we haven't done much with existentialism lately.


The Force, French style.

Regency style dining on our 500th post

Loretta reports:

Susan has informed me that this is the Two Nerdy History Girls’ five hundredth post.

We sure are a couple of blabbermouths.

But wait.  There's more.  It seems we've also passed the quarter of a million page view mark.  We’re very impressed with ourselves.  Also astounded.  As our blog description notes, we would have been excited if three people showed up.

As you would expect, I sought nerdy history material befitting so solemn an occasion.
But all you get is a funny video.

Five hundred thanks to Kolbaskina Katya, who brought it to my attention.

How British Was Queen Victoria? (Silly historical video time again)

Another delightfully silly video from our favorite Horrible Histories, with their usual little edge to the humor. The point of this video – that often the things considered most thoroughly British were in fact imported from somewhere else – is one more commonly made against us Americans.

In our enthusiasm to display our Yankee-Doodle-Dandy patriotic fervor, we (particularly politicians) too often slap the "All American" tag on things that really aren't. Denim jeans are one of the examples that comes immediately to mind. We've all heard the tale of how, in 1853, enterprising Levi Strauss created sturdy work pants for the miners of the California Gold Rush, and an entire denim world was born. What could be more thoroughly American than jeans?  (Of course this glosses over the fact that Strauss was a German immigrant, and that his fabric of choice was serge de Nimes, a heavy twill imported from France.)

Now a recently rediscovered series of 17th century paintings by a forgotten Italian artist have tossed that assumption out the window. Based on the evidence of these pictures by the newly-dubbed "Master of the Blue Jeans", it seems that denim clothing has been around for a lot longer than the United States.

Queen Victoria would understand.

Hope you enjoy!

For Halloween: Witchfinders Direct (another silly historical video)

In honor of Halloween, we offer up this dark-humored piece by our favorite folk at the Horrible Histories – and wish you lots of treats without a hint of tricks, let alone any witch-burnings.

As a casual observation: it's interesting how in contemporary American popular culture, witches are still regarded as having supernatural powers. They can be malevolent, like the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz, or cheerfully undercover in TV suburbia, like Samantha in Bewitched or Sabrina, the Teen-Aged Witch, or glamorously over-the-top Hollywood with Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon, and Michelle Phieffer in The Witches of Eastwick.

But unless you happen to be a high school student laboring through Arthur Miller's The Crucible in English class, there's very little reference to the historical persecution of witches and witchcraft, or to the misogyny, hysteria, and general intolerance tied to them, either. Even the town of Salem, MA, where the most famous American witch trials took place in the 17th c., tends to play up the witches on broomsticks for the tourist trade. Striped stockings, pointed hats, and stick-on warts are what sells at Halloween Adventure.

In other words, modern American witches in the media are all about the paranormal, and very little about the paranoia. As we noted, we don't have any deep historical explanations to offer for this right now (it's the weekend), but please feel free to Discuss Among Yourselves if you wish.

And save us some Reese's Peanut Butter Cups from your goodie bag, okay?