We hear the recognizable voice, but do not see the face, of a President of the United States who is obviously meant to be Lyndon B. Johnson near the end of the 1964 James Bond adventure Goldfinger.
One of the women in Goldfinger is famously killed by being covered in gold paint, causing “skin suffocation”.
Actress Shirley Eaton was that gold-painted corpse in Goldfinger. She was assured that you could not suffer or die from skin suffocation (which, in 1964 they probably were not certain about). Two contingency plans were put into place for the filming:
• a doctor stood by during filming, for ‘just in case’; and
• Shirley Eaton’s abdomen was not covered in gold paint, although the rest of her was
➜ https://www.messynessychic.com/2013/11/25/how-they-painted-bonds-golden-girl ■
Shirley Eaton was 27 when Goldfinger was filmed. In 1999 she published her autobiography. It was titled Golden Girl.
Shirley Eaton is still alive at age 88 (and is a candidate for the Abe Vigoda thread!). She began her performing career at age 16 in 1951, and retired in 1969 to raise her family. One of her acting roles was appearing in 3 episodes of The Saint, including the pilot. That series starred Roger Moore, who later played James Bond in seven films.
When they worried about “skin suffocation” for Eaton, they may have been thinking of the case of Buddy Ebsen, who was originally cast as the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz. Ebsen had a severe allergic reaction to the aluminum dust used for the makeup and had to quit the movie.
Off topic: It’s spelled Lynda Bird, not Linda Bird.
Buddy’s father, Christian Ludolf Ebsen Sr., was a choreographer who operated a dance studio in Florida, where Buddy and his sisters learned to dance. After graduating high school Buddy and his sister Vilma moved to New York City, where they performed on stage as “The Baby Astaires.”
George Washington was sworn into office as the first President of the United States on this day in 1789, on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City. The event was shown, quite movingly IMHO, in the 2008 HBO miniseries John Adams.
Prior to the establishment of the U.S. capital in Washington, DC in 1800, eight different cities were used as official capitals of the U.S., or, prior to the ratification of the Constitution, as meeting places of the Continental Congress or the Congress of the Confederation. In chronological order from the first time the city served as the capital, those locations were:
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (for four separate periods of time)
- Baltimore, Maryland
- Lancaster, Pennsylvania (for a single day in 1777)
- Yorktown, Pennsylvania
- Princeton, New Jersey
- Annapolis, Maryland
- Trenton, New Jersey
- New York, New York
Lancaster PA celebrates their “Capital Day” every 27 September, to celebrate that one day in 1777 when the nation’s Capital was located there when the Continental Congress fled the British in Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War. British troops occupied Philadelphia the previous day after winning the Battle of Brandywine Creek near Chadd’s Ford 16 days earlier. Because British General William Howe’s troops were flanked northwest of Philadelphia, the Continental Congress was forced to flee across the Delaware River to New Jersey before taking a circuitous route to Lancaster where it rested for a day before moving the capital to York.
The seat of government of the province of Saskatchewan (the legal term for the capital) was once moved from Regina to Qu’Appelle for a day, at the request of a TV reality show.
The United States capital was located in Brookeville, Maryland, for one day in August 1814, during the War of 1812. Brookeville, now part of Montgomery County, served as the temporary capital when British forces forced President James Madison and other government officials to flee Washington, D.C.
The Confederate States of America had three capitals. The first was Montgomery, AL and then after Virginia seceded it was moved to Richmond, VA. After the fall of Richmond, the CSA government moved to Danville, VA for eight days until the CSA fell.
The first Confederate States presidential cabinet:
- President Jefferson Davis
- Vice President Alexander H. Stephens
- Attorney General Judah P. Benjamin
- Secretary of the Navy Stephen M. Mallory
- Secretary of the Treasury C. G. Memminger
- Secretary of War Leroy Pope Walker
- Postmaster John H. Reagan
- Secretary of State Robert Toombs
The only 2 members (not counting P or VP) to stay in office were
Reagan’s solution the the Confederacy not having any stamps was simple. You’d go to the counter, pay the cost of mailing and the worker would immediately postmark it.
The first American postage stamps were issued in 1847 – a five-cent stamp featuring the portrait of Benjamin Franklin (the first postmaster), and a ten-cent varety carrying the image of George Washington (the first president).
-“BB”-
The UK is the only country that is not required to put their country of origin on their postage stamps.
The UK was the first country to use postage stamps. The first stamp was black and showed Queen Victoria in profile. Since it sold for a penny, it has been nicknamed a “Penny Black”. An example of a Penny Black featured in one of Asimov’s Black Widowers stories.
Penny Black stamps were first issued in 1840 and were a huge success. The highest price ever paid for a Penny Black stamp at auction was $8.25 million, in 2021. This occurred when the first Penny Black stamp, on what is known as the Wallace Document, was sold by Sotheby’s. Robert Wallace was a British Member of Parliament who led a commission on postal reform.
British members of parliament used to be able to send all their post through the Royal Mail free, simply by writing their name and "MP” on the envelope, a practice known as “franking”.