Author Archives
Author, Historian, Screenwriter, Journalist
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Memorial Day: Still a War Between the States of Necessary Distraction
It was the expression those in the southern states called the Civil War, but a “War Between the States” still rages on about where the national holiday which resulted from that bloody conflict first started. In fact, just like the dispute… Read More ›
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First First Lady in Newsreels: Florence Harding’s Jazzy Moves & Love of Hollywood
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Media Alert: Carl Anthony on C-Span First Ladies Show, Monday, May 20
As part of the extraordinarily weekly “First Ladies Show” series, I will be appearing as the guest on C-Span‘s episode this coming Monday evening, May 20. The two Administrations and three women who will be covered are: *Lucretia “Crete” Garfield,… Read More ›
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Jackie Kennedy’s Mid-Century Modern Luncheon: Part 6, At War with Newswomen
After sixteen years of waiting for a First Lady who again understood the professional needs of journalists, the Washington newswomen believed the former columnist Jackie Kennedy would be their new Eleanor Roosevelt. She wasn’t. In terms of generating almost… Read More ›
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Jackie Kennedy’s Mid-Century Modern Luncheon: Part 5, Intention & Achievement
According to her cousins Jack Davis and Edie Beale, young Jackie Bouvier always preferred the company of horses and dogs to people and would rather spend time along writing at the beach, rambling through the wild blueberry bushes than in… Read More ›
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Jackie Kennedy’s Mid-Century Modern Luncheon: Part 4, The Subversive Senate Wife
When Jackie Bouvier won Vogue magazine’s 1951 Prix-de-Paris essay contest, she later claimed that it had really been the edict of her mother which pressured her into ultimately turning down the prize of working as a junior editor at the… Read More ›
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Jackie Kennedy’s Mid-Century Luncheon: Part 3, Reporter Bouvier on the Job
From her earliest years, she’d evinced a talent for acutely observing and analyzing how people behaved and interacted, and then writing about them, usually in essay or short-story form. Further, she often illustrated the more humorous tales she recounted with… Read More ›
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Jackie Kennedy’s Mid-Century Modern Luncheon: Part 2, Covering First Ladies
Among the hundreds of women Jackie Kennedy hosted at luncheon on April 11, 1961, she recognized only a few faces but she was well aware of what they all did. That’s why she’d invited them. These women were the… Read More ›
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Jackie Kennedy’s Mid-Century Modern Luncheon: Part I, The Kodachrome Years
This is the first in a multi-part series appearing on this website over the forthcoming weeks. It may not be copied, adapted or reproduced without first securing syndication rights. Other websites may link to or make reference to it. Images… Read More ›
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Michelle Obama’s Chicago Speech in Historic Context
Michelle Obama’s greatly-anticipated Chicago speech Wednesday, addressing the issue of gun violence in the city where she was born, raised and returned to after law school was a significant moment n her tenure as First Lady for several reasons. Foremost,… Read More ›
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Happy Easter: Sponsored by Nature, in Blue & Purple
No matter how enjoyable the process of storytelling, not even pecking out patterns of words while chained indoors to a little electrified box of plastic and metal can trump the pleasurable sights discovered while strolling the streets of San Francisco… Read More ›
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Secret Black Sheep Peep? Easter Candy Mystery, Scandal & Father of the Jellybean
Fruitcake at Christmas, hot dogs on July Fourth, beer for St. Patrick’s, turkey on Thanksgiving. And, the quintessential American food favorite for Easter? Surpassing the hard-boiled matter once those decorated eggs are cracked, not to mention asparagus, jellybeans, lamb or ham, and… Read More ›
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First Photographed First Lady: A Girl Elopes with the President & Brands Her Image
First Lady Michelle Obama has taken to Twitter to keep herself before the American public, updating them on her activities. Jackie Kennedy went on television, conducting a black-and-white videotaped tour of the White House. Eleanor Roosevelt made herself a national… Read More ›
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The Agoraphobic Dog: Fostercare Weimaraner #4, Baron The Dichotomus
I’ve recently finished the fourth period of time for the fourth ”unadoptable” Weimaraners I’ve had the privilege to fostercare from Friends for Pets, southern California’s Weimaraner rescue and no-kill shelter. The first three were Paddington, Weimy and Beamer. This fellow is Baron,… Read More ›
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Lindsay Lohan to Madame Curie: Celebrity Degrees of Separation
March may be designated as a period to recall Women’s History but regardless of whether people are paying attention to the fact – women have always been crucial figures in all aspects of civilization, be they famous or unknown. Or,… Read More ›
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The first First Lady to Doll a Magazine Cover: “Hello…..Mrs. Madison.”
Elected to an unprecedented four terms, Franklin D. Roosevelt served as President of the United States longer than any one man, even in light of the fact that he died just less than three months into his fourth term, in… Read More ›
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Jackie Kennedy’s Dogged Influence on JFK Jr. & Canine-Themed Homes
While yesterday’s article, The Dogs of Jackie O: Jackie Kennedy’s Lifetime of Canine Companions, detailed the First Lady’s life alongside a series of pooches during almost fifty of her sixty-four years, even after there were no longer four-legged friends in… Read More ›
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The Dogs of Jackie O: Jacqueline Kennedy’s Lifetime of Canine Companions
From her earliest childhood days on Long Island, through her youth in New York, Newport, Rhode Island and McLean, Virginia, to her public period as the wife of a U.S. Senator in Washington and in the White House as First… Read More ›
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Another First Lady at the Oscars (& President & First Daughter)
February 24, 2013 is definitely a footnote for FLOTUS history. Tonight’s surprise appearance by incumbent First Lady Michelle Obama announcing the winner of the 2013 Best Picture of the Year Academy Award by live remote from the White House was… Read More ›
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The Reagans Host Old Hollywood & New “Royalty” at the White House
There seemed to be a time that, rather than go to Hollywood and take a tour bus through Beverly Hills hoping to glimpse one of the famous names of its Golden Era, one had a better chance of seeing them… Read More ›
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The Untold Mary Lincoln Story Spielberg Couldn’t Show & None Seem to Know
A week after President’s Day and during Black History Month, the Academy Award ceremony brings renewed focus on Best Supporting Actress-nominee Sally Field’s portrayal of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln in screenwriter Tony Kushner’s and director Steven Spielberg’s masterful feature… Read More ›
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The Earliest First Lady’s Recorded Voice: Theodore Roosevelt’s wife Edith Speaks
So often in life when we’re close to someone we know well or even closely follow the life of a public person, it is easy to assume we know how they will continue to conduct their life. And, the truth… Read More ›
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Indy-Chinese New Year: Early Chinese-Americans & The Holiday, Hooiser Style
Seeing a dragon parade the streets of San Francisco or New York this time of year might not be shocking, being the symbol of Chinese New Year, which began several days ago, with festivities continuing for about two more weeks…. Read More ›
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Mobile Mardi Gras: Alabama’s French Catholic Holiday First-in-the-Nation
There may not be a trace of French in the Deep South accent of Alabamians and New Orleans may seem to have the lock on Mardi Gras, but it all started as a Catholic holiday in the first French colonial… Read More ›
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Bush Grandsons Entering Politics, Trying to Turn the Latino Vote Republican
George P. Bush first became famous as the grandson of the forty-first U.S. President George Bush, the son of former Florida Governor James Ellis “Jeb” Bush, the nephew of forty-third President George W. Bush and great-grandson of the late U.S…. Read More ›
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A First Lady Fears She Wouldn’t Shut Up: Abigail “Mrs. President” Adams, January 29, 1797
For a First Lady so famous, it’s amazing that during her husband’s one term in office that she was on the scene for less than two of his four years as President. The fact is, however, that Abigail Adams, wife… Read More ›
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Chaplin, Streisand, Sinatra & More: The Inaugural Gala That Was
For half a century, it was a quadrennial display of the performing arts, a time capsule of the nation’s pop culture, a snapshot too of the varied entertainment tastes of the President about to assume office. It was called the… Read More ›
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The Very First Inaugural Ball: Hot for Her, Not for Him
Of all the traditional events associated with a Presidential Inauguration, the most frivolous one of the Ball is often equated with as much importance in the public imagination as the Inaugural Address, in which the new leader outlines his vision… Read More ›
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Ike’s Mid-Century Cold War Show & High Visibility Veep: The 1957 Sunday Inauguration, Part 6
It was precise and orderly, with a sense of Cold War automatism. It was modern and moved along smoothly. It was the Mid-Century version of the Sunday Second Inauguration and it started and ended without a glitch. In fact, from… Read More ›
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The Secret Ceremony of Hayes & a First Lady Who Wouldn’t Leave: The 1877 Sunday Inauguration, Part 4
The fact that the 1877 Inauguration fell on a Sunday was a pale factor in making it the most compelling stories of these historic occasions, compared to the drama leading up to it. By the time the calendars had fated… Read More ›
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A Day With No President & Lincoln’s Lost Coat: Zach Taylor’s 1849 Sunday Inauguration, Part 3
When Warren G. Harding was a candidate for the highest office in the land, his manager Harry Daugherty enthused that Harding might win simply because “he sure looks like a President!” Nobody ever said that about Zachary Taylor. In fact,… Read More ›
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The Greek Epiphany Day…in Florida
Everyone in every State of the Union know the Big Dozen: New Year’s Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Father’s Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. In between these primary holidays there still… Read More ›
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To All Readers: Help These Dogs, Please.
For two years now, everything available on this website, be it articles that readers access for pleasure or research, images pinned on Pinterest and answered questions from even anonymous individuals has been provided without subscription. Nearly 240 magazine-length stories have… Read More ›

















