Biographical Details on Boys' Clothing Styles (G-L)
Figure 1.--This English boy, the Honorable George Lambton, wears a dress just like that of his sister. The photograph was taken in the 1860s.
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Many famous and not so famous men remember the clothing and
hair styles they wore as boys.
Not so many years ago it was all up to mom how junior was dressed. In
some cases, especially in the late 19th and early 20th Century, moms in Europe and America
let their imaginations run wild, choosing
elaborate Fauntleroy and
kilt outfits for their darling sons. The wife in affluent families rarely
worked and thus she had a great deal of time, and in some cases the
assistance of nannies and governesses, to see to the care and dressing
of their children. The results were very little boys kept in
dresses.
Ever after they passed out of dresses, little and not little boys done up
in dress-like
tunics and kilts and lacy Fauntleroy suits and kilts as well as
more manly sailor suits.
Available information on individuals from G-L are listed below.
This page is still being developed. If you have any historical
information to add, do let me hear from you.
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Gable, Clark (US) - Clark Gable was perhaps the most popular male film star in the 1930s and early 40s. As a little boy he wore dresses, but we have little additional information about his childhoof clothes.
Garfunkle, Art (US) - Art remembers being the Rabbi's pet and closing the service with a song that brought tears to the congregation. He says he liked doing it, both because he liked to sing, but also because he was dressed in a satin ribbon with a big lace
collar.
Gary, Romaine - ( ) Romaine had a claustrophobic relationship with his mother. He was an only child and later wrote, "I am not saying that mothers should be prevented from loving their young. I am only saying that they should have some one else to love as well." Details on Romaine and other older children are described by Michele Slung in The Only Child Book (Ballentine).
Gifford, Leroy - (US, 18??-??): Two images from Fargo, North Dakota taken by photographer Authur Bentley appear to preserve for prosperity the day that Leroy D. Gifford was breeched. We know nothing about Leroy, except that he appears to be about 10 or 11 years old. A close analysis of the photograph, however, does provide some interesting conclusions. Please let me know if you agree or if you have any thoughts on these images.
Goebbels, Joseph - (Germany, 1897-1945) Joseph was reportedly raised by a weak father and domineering mother who idolized him. He apparently had few friends as a boy. His club foot made him an object of derision to other children. It also kept him out of World War I. He was an excellent student and earned a Ph.D in German literature. Goebels joined the NAZI Party after meeting Hitler in 1925. Hitle appointed him Gauleiter, or party governor, in Berlin. He founded the Party magazine Der Angriff (The Attack). After HItler sized power he made Goebels Minister of Propaganda and National Enligtenment in 1933. He served in that position until killing his six children and himself in Hitler's Berlin bunker at the end of the War.
Goering, Herman - (Germany, 1893-1946) The Reichmarshal's mother was kept by a half Jewish Austrian nobleman, perhaps even his father. Hermann was apparently a cheerfully unruly boy. He was sent to a military boarding school at the age of 11 where he was punished for choosing his half Jewish
godfather as a great German. His school mates found out about it and
paraded him around the school with a placard hung around his neck, "Mein
Pate ist ein Jude" ("My Godfather is a Jew."). The humiliated Hermann ran
off home. Heydrich who organized the Holocaus had a similar experience. Göring was an air ace during World War I. He played a major role in Hitler's rise to power and estanlishment of a dictatorship. He oversaw the creation of the Luftwaffe and was given other major assignments by Hitler, including organizing the Holocaust. Failures of the Luftwaffe agter ininial successes destroyed his influence with Hitler. He was tried as a war criminasl at Nuremerg. He committed suicide before his execution.
Grant, Carry - (US/England, 1904- ): The movie actor was told his
mother disappeared when he was 9 years old. She was actually put away in a mental hospital. Carry wore shorts as a boy. One picture show him at about 6 or 7 wearing a plain sweater, shorts, and knee socks.
Greene, Graham (England, 1904-91): Noted English author Graham Greene was one of a number writers who were very unhappy at their private schools. Graham had a hard time, not only because hedidn't like sports, but becausehis father was the headmaster. His father thought he was disturbed and set him to a therapist. One of his most noted books is The Power and the Glory. He is also known for his Cold War books, The Quiet American and Our Man in Havana.
Gregorian, Vartan (Iran, 1934): Vartan Gregorian is the famous American intellectual, academic, and university president. He was born in 1934, Tabriz, Iran. He belonged to the small Armenian Christian community in
Tabriz where he grew up. He came from a rather poor family and has
written interestingly in his recent book, The Road to Home (2003), about the family's need to blend into the Islamic culture of Iran during the 1930s.
Gumble, Brian (US,1948- ): Longtime anchor for the NBC "Today"
program. Brian was dressed in short pants suits as a boy. I've seen
pictures of him at about 5 with a collarless Eton short pants suit,
rather long shorts with ankle socks. In another picture at about 7 or so with his brother, both in a short pants suit. I'm not quite sure when he made the transition to longs.
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Hammarshold, Dag - (Sweden ): The United Nations diplomat's mother took great care with Dag's clothes. He wore white Little Lord Fauntleroy suits with knicker pants. He had long ringlet curls. sometimes with a hairbow.
Hart, Gary -(US,19 ): The author Gail Sheehy in her book
Character: America's Search for Leadership, wrote about Hart, "Gary Hart is a double man. All his life he has lived a lie. Severely
restricted by his upbringing from experimenting in any of the ways normal for a bright, imaginative boy, Hart broke out at 24 and seems to be stuck in a perpetual adolescence." Apparently he had an unloving,
fundamentalist mother. I don't know the details about his childhood.
Hausman, John - (UK?, 1903- ): The noted actor/director was very nicely dressed as a young boy. I saw a picture of him at about 4 and he looked like a beautiful little girl in a frilly dress and curls. I saw another picture as an older boy, about 13 or 14 and he was in long pants. He was educated at Clifton College, but had a very urbane, European background. He started out with a career in international finance, but after losing everything in the Depression, was drawn to Hollywood because he was married to a movie star.
Halsey, William - (US, 1882-19??): William "Bull" Halsey was born in 1882. All we know about hisboy hood clothing at his time is that he wore sailor suits as a boy. He entered the U.S. Naval Accademy at Anapolis in 1900. He was popular, but not abilliant student. He graduated 43rd in a class of 62. He was a part of the Geat White Fleet that President Theodore Rooseveltsent on a world tour. It called at Yokahama which was Halsey's first experience with the Japanese. More were to come in World War II.
Hemingway, Earnest - (US, 1898-1961?): Rugged American novelist Earnest Hemmingway was born in 1898 and raised
in Oak Park, Ill. His tough guy, hard boiled style had a profound
influence on other American authors. His father taught him to love outdoor sports. In contrast to this image, he was rather a coddled child, a least when he was young. His mother who prided herself on her culture and who did have a beautiful voice, however, dressed him and his older sister as twins and insisted he practice a musical instrument. She was very disappointed that none of her children had notable musical talent. Ernest in fact liked to use the music room to stage boxing matches. He seems to have gone from dresses to regular boys clothes without the transition of kilts or other fancy suits which was a common convention at the time.
Hess, Rudolf - (German, 1893-19 ) The NAZI Vice fuhrer was born in Egypt where his father had established an import-export business. Growing up in a villa surrounded by a luxurious garden, Rudolf received a disciplined, Teutonic upbringing that clashed with his romantic temperament and the exotic Near East setting.
Heydrich, Reinhard - (Germany, 1904-42): Reinhard Heydrich is considered by most to be the architect of the Holocaust. Adolf Eichmann is often seen as the director of the Holocaust. Eichmannwas in fact primarily the administrator of the Holocaust. It is Heydrich more than any other single individual who planned the Holocaust.
Himmler, Heinreich - (German, 18??-1945): SS Reichführer Himmler represents the true embodiment of evil in the 20th century. He grew up in a middkeclass German family. His was a school administrator at a gymnasium (academically selective seconadry school). He could be extrenmrly cruel to the boys in pstchological ways. One boy remembers how he and his brother were expelled by being pubically humiliated before the class when their farher could not pay the school fees. His farher had an interest in romanticised German history which hr passed on to his son. Heireich and his brothes were outfitted in dresses and sailor suits as boys. He was not a brilliant student, but did very well because he was extremely dilogent. He was dissapointed in World War I becaue he did not complete officer cadet training before the War ended. One biograpger mainatins that although he was strongly anti-semmetic that the Holocaust was forced on him by Hitler from above and Heydrich from below.
Hitler, Adolf - (Austria/Germany, 1889-1945): Adolf Hitler is arguably the most evil individual in modern history. He is a good example of how individuals do matter in history. Major economic and social forces may largely frive history, but time and again individuals have arrise that have directed events for good or evil. Hitler was born in Austria to an abusive father who was a minor customs official. His mother was loving a permisive. He was an inteligent boy who was unmotivated and did poorly at school. After his mother died, he went to Vienna hoping to be an artist. After he failed the admissions exam he was cast adrift, living in great poverty. It was hear that he appears to have acquired a deep-seated anti-Semitism in reaction to Vienna's large prosperous Hewish population. For Hitler World war I was a refuge from poveety and failure. After the War he rose in the German nationalist movement to become Chancellor of Germany and lead that great nation into the most terrible war in hitory and to the commission of horendous crimes in the name of the German people. At the end he blamed his failure on the the German people and their lack of commitment.
Holroyd, Michaek - (England, 19??- ): English author Michael Holroyd is one of the notable literary biographers of the 20th century. His massive biography of George Bernard Shaw is widely proclaimed as the definitive work on the famed English writer. Holroyd's authobiography provides an interesting glimpse of his and his father's childhood. His father Basil and uncle Andrew wore dresses in the years before World War I. I'm not sure yet how Michael was dressed.
Hood, John Bell - (United States, 1831-79): No one ever questioned the bravery of Confederate Genera John Bell Hood, but his command of the Army of Tennessee was a disaster for the Confederacy. Hood was born in Owingsville, Kentucky during 1831. He grew up in Kentucky's bluegrass region of central Kentucky near Mt. Sterling. His paternal grandfather was Lucas Hood who served in the Indian Wars under famed General "Mad" Anthony Wayne. His grandfather fought at Fallen Timbers. His maternal grandfather James French, served in the Revolutionary War. His father wanted him to be a doctor. Instead Hood through the assisance of an uncle, Congressman Richard French, secured an appoitment to West Point. There his academic career was average, but he awarded a large number of demerits--some by Superintendent Col. Robert E. Lee. Despite the demerits, Hood graduated 44th out of 52 in the class of 1853. Hood served in South Carolina and then with the calvary in Texas. When the Southern states seceeded, Hood was awarded a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army of Northern Virginia. He rapidly rose in rank. He was severely wounded at Gettsburg, but upon recovering joined the Army of Tennessee. Hood had proven a daring an effective commander under the command of Lee, but when given command of the Army of Tennessee he proved a disaster. After the War he fathered a large family.
Figure 2.--This is the Hope family in 1907. It may have been taken just befor the family emmigrated to Anerica. Bob or Leslie at the time is the little boy in the middle.
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Hope, Bob - (American, 1903): English born Bob Hope grew up in America. Bob was the fifth of seven sons. He was born Leslie Townes Hope in Eltham, England on May 29, 1903. His English father, William Henry Hope, was a stonemason--his Welsh mother Avis Townes Hope, an aspiring concert singer. Leslie's father in 1907 brought his family to Cleveland, Ohio. Bob went one to become perhaps America's most beloved comedian. The boys were dressed in a variety of juvenile suits with large collars when then they were little. In America they wore knickers although they wore long pants in England.
Hopkins, Anthony - (Wales, 1937- ): The British actor Anthony Hopkins was raised in Walses. I watched a Bravo (US cable netwok) TV profile on Hopkins. Seems he hated school. But what surprised me was that the video about his school days was stock footage on schools with boys wearing smocks. Obiously French images having nothing to do with Wales and schools in Wales. Strange that they would show repeated images of french schools while the naration and comments from Hopkins himself explained how abusive his schools were and how much he hated school.
Hoss, Rudolf Franz Ferdinand - (German, E1900-46): The infamous commandant of Auschwitz was born in Baden, near the French frontier. His father was a bigoted, sexually suppressed, fanatic Catholic, who after fathering Rudolf and his younger sister, had taken an oath of celibacy. He dedicated Rudolf to God, intending that he be a priest. Assuming the mantel of a saint, he proclaimed Rudolf's sister an angel and made the Rudolf's boyhood a torture of pertinence, prayers, lies, and guilt feelings. At the age of 17 he escaped by enlisting in the calvary.
Hugo, Victor-Marie (France, 1802-85): Victor Hugo is generally recognized as the greatest French author of the 19th century. He wrote in different forms, including novels, plays and poems. Victor-Marie was born in Besançon during the Napoleonuc era in 1802. His parents were Joseph-Léopold-Sigisbert Hugo and Sophie
Trébuchet. His father was a fervant supporter of the Revolution and a military officer who rose to the rank of general. The marriage of his parents failed, although there was no divorce. Victor was raised by his mother, but a relationship continued between his parents. Léopold was appoined military governor of an Italian province near Naples. Viictor's mother brought the familt to Italy to be near General Hugo. Subsequently General Hugo was transferred to Spain and the family followed him there. Victor's mother Sophie became involved with General Victor Lahorie, who had once been her husband's commander. Lahorie was executed for plotting against the Emperor (1812).Napoleon.
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Jones, Sir William (England, 17??-??): William Jones, the renowned "Oriental Jones". William was an academic prodigy. His mother was a widow, but instilled in him the teachings of thegreat thinkers of thec day like John Locke. John reportedly recited Shakesper at age 4 and knew The Tempest by heart at age 13. He majored in the Classics at Oxford. Jones in 1778, after the British conquest of India from the French, was offered the post of justice on the Supreme Court of Bengal. The Governor Gerneral at the time was William Hastings who had an appreciation for Indian culture. Unlike most British, who spurned Indian culture, Jones actually learned Sanskrit, perhaps the first Westerner to do so. With his previous academic
training and knowledge of languages (Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian), he was the first to grasp the similarities in these languages and their common origins that today has come to be known as the Indo-European language pool. Jones founded the Asiatic Societyb of Bengal and the societies periodic publications Provided a platform for researchers throughout India to share their findings. One of those findinds was to introduce Buddhism to the West.
Joyce, James
(Ireland, 1882-1941) James' father was a wasteral and
his mother and brothers and sisters had a very difficult childhood. James
wore sailor suits as a boy of 7 years of age. I do not yet have additional
details on his boyhood clothes.
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Kelly, Gene (US, 1912-96): Gene's mother gave dancing lessons. Sheinsisted all her boys take dancing lessons. There is a cute picture of him as a boy, about 7 or 8 years old in a nice sailor suit. Gene wanted to be a baseball player and hated dancing. He thought it was sissy. Later as a teenager he began to like it--especially as it helped to meet girls.
Kerensky, Alexander Feodorovich (Russia, 1881-19??): Kerensky participated in the 1917 revolution aganst the Tsar. He was a moderate socialist believing in a democratic government. He succeeded Prince Lvov's Provisional Government. Kerensky's Government was overthrown by Lenin's Bolshevicks (November 1917). Krensky eventually emigrated to the United States.
Kertész, André (Hungary/US, 1894-1985): André Kertész was American of of Hungarian ancestry. He was born in 1895, but we have no details on his childhood at this time. He is one of the most prolific photographers of the 20th century. Like Cartier-Bresson (??) or Doisneau (French), he is one of the great masters of humanistic photography, which sympathetically focuses on the life of common people. Kertesz during the 1930s lived and worked in Paris and published several collections of his photographs. One of his best known is Enfants published in 1933. Some of the photographs were taken in the classroom and wonderfully record French school life.
Figure 3.--The TV show "The Brady Bunch" was a showcase for 1970s
American fashions. Here Christopher Knight (Peter) and Michael Lookinland
(Bobby) appear in the typical dress of the era, "t" shirts, colored collared
shirts, and jeans. Notably, they never wore short pants, even though
many American boys were beginning to wear shorts for casual wear.
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Knight, Christopher (US, 1960?- ): Americans will remember Christopher better as Peter Brady of TV's The Brady Family. The clothes worn by Chris and his co-stars are a good reflection of what American boys were wearing in the 1970s, "t" shirts, long pants, jeans, bell-bottoms, and jackets with wide collars. It is notable that none of the boys wore short pants, even though American boys were beginning to wear shorts more commonly as leisure wear--especially cutoffs. One episode ("The Liberation of
Marcia Brady") had Peter dressing up
in the uniform of the Sunshine Girls (Girl Scouts) in an effort to show
how foolish it was for his sister to join a Boy Scout-like group. Peter appeared in the girl's uniform, a green dress and kneesocks--but never in short pants. I'm not sure why American TV in the 1970s never pictured boys in shorts, perhaps the producers felt boys watching the show would not approve.
Koop, C. Everett - ( ): U.S. surgeon General was a bit puggy as a boy. One picture at 5 years old shows him in a very smart sailor suit worn with knee socks.
Korczak, Dr. Janusz (Poland, 1879-1943): Dr. Korczak, a Christian, ran an orphanage in Warsaw for poor Jewish children and stayed with his Jewish orphans on the train to Treblinka, refusing all chances to rescue himself. Before the War he was a celebrated author, founding a successful children's newspaper. He was a pediatrician who hobnobbed with Warsaw's rough street urchins. He was also a Polish Army officer who scribbled tracts on child psychology at field offices under bombardment. An impish, solitary man, often abrupt or quitoic with adults, but capable of endless patience, warmth, and humor with children. He devoted his entire, celibate life to their care. At age 30 he gave up a promising medical practice to found an orphanage for poor Jewish kids (abandoned, brutalized, or orphaned) that became admired throughout Europe. Later he took a Catholic orphanage under his wing also. He trained the children in cleanliness and discipline, tenderly sat with the weeping or sick ones at night, took temperatures, told stories. Solemnly, he collected his orphans' baby teeth and built a castle from them. With instinctive empathy for their many losses--and at a time when most orphans were themselves thought of as refuse, beaten and starved in other orphanages--he insisted on each child's right to a locked drawer in which to treasure bits of string and broken junk, "memories of a lost love." He shocked everyone by his stubborn respect for the child. Other educators were outraged by his children's court, in which the orphans could sue and judge each other and their teachers. But Korczak insisted that it was only by living democratically that the children could absorb the lessons of individual rights and respect for the law. Student teachers flocked to learn from him. He would begin by taking them to a laboratory, sitting a youngster behind a X-ray machine, and exhorting the startled students. "Before you raise a hand to a child ... remember what his frightened heart looks like." At the end, old sick and exhausted, Korczak was still protective of those frightened hearts. He hobbled around the nightmarish ghetto streets to scrounge and beg for just one more crust for his orphans. And not only crusts: he tried to arrange a visit to a church garden so they could see a flower one last time. He organized concerts, Passover seders, and helped the starving children perform a Tagore play about "reconciling oneself to death." A biography by Betty Jean Lifton gives more details: The King of Children (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1988?).
Krock, Arthur: (US, 1886-1974): Arthur Krock was a renowed American jurnalist. He was born in Glasgow, Kyntucky in 1886. This was a bad year for Americn boys. Coming 1 year after the appearnce of Little Lord Fauntleroy suits, he crew up wearing both kilt suits and Fauntleroy suits. He also faced the problem that his mother adored ringlet curls. He went on to attend Princeton and take up reporting in Louisville and Washington. He was hired by the New York Times in 1927, becoming their Washington correspondent in 1932. Krock's controversial columns were thoughtful and generally conservative. He won four Pulitzer awards.
Krupp Family: Germany: Friedrich Krupp (1787–1826) founded the Krupp family dynasty. He built a small steel foundry in Essen while the Germans states were still controlled by Napoleon (1811). This was before the the onset of the industrial revolution in Germany which lagged behind industrial developmebt in Britain. It was his son Alfred (1812-87) which turned the family foundary with five mployees into a huge industrial enterprise. He became known as "the Cannon King" and "Alfred the Great". It was Alfred that made the decesion to invest in new technology to become a major manufacturer of railway material and locomotives and the time when Germany began building a major railway system. He also mde a major commitment to the Bessemer process. He acquired mines in Germany and France to supply his factories. Along with astute business and technical decesions, Alfred made an important commitment to his workers. He subsidized worker housing and offered health and retirement benefits. Krupp entered the armaments business (1840s). They sold steel cannons to the Russian, Turkish, and Prussian armies. The demand and high margins for armaments led the compazny to increasing commit its efforts to weapons manufacture. About half the company output was weapons (1880s). Krupp became the world's largest industrial company. And tht was before the European arms race began in earnest.
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Lambert, George (US, 1873-1930): George Lambert was the famboyant and often hard-hearted son of a Baltimore railway engineer and an English mother. Raised in the outback of New South Wales, he eventually established himself as Australia's leading painter. I don't have a much information about how the children were
raised. Their mother appears to havev preferred long, but not shoulder length hair. The boys were dressed in the increasingly popular style of short pants and knee socks during the 1910s.
Lambtons (England, 1860s): John George Lambto, First Earl of Durham played a key role in extending the sufferage in England he also played an important role in building modern Canada. While I have no infornmation on his boyhood clothes. Images from the 1860s show that his grandson Georege Lambton wearing the exact same dress as his older sister.
Lawrence, D.H. - (England, 1885-1930): D.H. Lawrence was ine of the most important figures in early 20th century English literature. He wrote, novels, stories, and poems. He was also a noted critic. He even painted. He is perhaps best known for his poetry. Some authorities point to "Snake" and "How Beastly the Bourgeoisie is" as his most notable poems. His father was a hard drinking coal miner. At a time when British boys without means did not attend secondary school, he earned a scholarship to Nottingham High School.
Leech, Robin - (England, 1945?- ): In one of his enumerable TV shows he mentioned how his mother sent him off to America as a boy in short trousers. I don't know any more details, including his age, at the time. He is well known to Americans as the host of the "Life style of the Rich and Famous." In another TV spot he explains how he grew up in Harrow. He mentions that was where Winston Churchill went to school. Churchill went to the posh school on top the hill, Robin school was at the bottom of the hill and decidedly not posh. He wrote a weekly column about his school which was published in the "Harrow Examiner?" for about 4 years. Apparently the school required short pants. The editor never said a word to him about the school column. When he left school at 15, still wearing his school shorts, he went to see the editor who simply pointed to a desk and offered him a job.
Lenin--Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov -(1870-1924): Lenin had assured the Russian people that the suspension of bourgeois freedoms was to be temprary during the Revolution and Civil War. He
promissed the Russians that they were creating a state which would allow greater freedoms than anything experienced in the Western bourgeois democracies. On the contrary, Lenin played a part in creating the foundation for a police state. Here the Bolsheviks can not be uniqueky faulted. They at first simply recreated their version of Tsarists institutiins which included a
secret police (the Okhrana). arbitrary arrest and courts, and Siberian exiles at hard labor. Under Lenin and especially Stalin, however, the Soviets created a much more efficent police states than the Tsars ever imagined.
Lewis, C.S. - (Ireland/U.K., (1898-1963): Medieval scholar a Oxford, he wrote children's books for his own amusement, but the Narnia Chronicles became classics of children's literature, although more read in Britain than America. It was finally done as a nmportant film in 2006. His mother was a brilliant mathematician and his father was a solicitor. He lived in a large, drafty house with untold little hideaways. He began writing at about 5 and created his own imaginary world with his younger brother. He continued to write his fantasies until he was packed away to strict, formal boarding school at 12. He writes in detail about the school in his book Surprised by Joy.
He made reference to clothing a couple of times, first, the suit he wore when he first went off to boarding school where he suffered from the strict discipline.. He described his knickers as particularly uncomfortable as they had button-down legs, and the buttons left painful impressions in his skin. He wore a stiff Eton collar and a bowler hat. I don't believe this was a uniform per se, just the style his father dressed him in to go off to school. I haven't yet located a photo of such pants. The other fashion he described was from his teen years, when "knuttery" was the style (I have not found this word in any other source). He described this outfit as a wide tie with a pin in it, the suit coat cut long, the trousers worn high in order to show off colorful socks, and brogue shoes with "immensely wide laces.
He lived the life of a bachelor scholar until late in his life he met an American poet and author, a married woman with two children. He was captivated by her and the boys, but had difficulty with adjusting his bachelor habits and the ethics of the relationship as she was still, if unhappily, married friend. She contracts cancer which devastates him, but marries her before she dies. The story of his later years is nicely depicted in a British docudrama.
Lindbergh, Charles - (US,1902-72?): Charles Lindbergh was once of the most respected americans of the 1920s and 30s. He was the famed Lone Eagle who in 1927 flew the Atantic solo. He became one of the most admired American of the inter-War era. A photograph of Lindburgh with his mother shows him at about 5 years of age with beautiful curls and dressed in a sailor suit. His mother reportedly constantly hovered over him, but was not outwardly affectionate. When he was older, she would always put him to bed with a handshake. His father was distant. Once when his son fell into a river, he didn't jump in after him--expecting the boy to learn to swim. Lindbergh's reputation was diminished when after war broke out in Europe, he returned from England and joined the isolationists in the effort to prevent America from aiding Britain and France. This mixed with a deeply felt anti-Semitism that prevented him from recoiling from NAZI Germany for ever marred, but did not entirely destroy his reputation.
Llewellyn-Davies family (England, 1890s-1900s): Scottish author J.M Barrie's London home was very close to Kensington
Gardens and it was here that he first met the Llewellyn Davies boys--George, Jack and Peter. Soon he was a frequent visitor to their house where he would tell the boys stories. One of these stories was about the youngest boy, Peter, who, according to Barrie, would one day fly away to Kensington Gardens so that he might be a boy forever. When children died, Peter would take them on a journey to a place called Never Never Land. When George heard the story, he said that "dying must be an awfully big adventure!". Barrie wrote the words down. They would later became the most famous words spoken in Peter Pan. Their mother had an artistic flair and often dressed the boys in berets and smocks.
Lockridge, Jr. Ross (US, 1914-48): Ross Lockridge, Jr. was the famous and tragic author of the novel, "Raintree County." When the book was published in 1948, it
instantly became a best-seller and was hailed as the "great American novel". Up to this point, Lockridge was a virtual unknown although he had nurtured ambitions to be a writer from his childhood. The book is set in Indiana, Lockridge's home state, during the American Civil War and has sometimes been compared to "Gone With the Wind" in its
panormanic portrait of the culture of the period.
Long, Huey Pierce, Jr. (US, 1893-1935): President Roosevelt considered the flamboyant Louisana Democrat, Huey Long, the most dangerous person in America. He was elected govenor of Louisiana and became a fixture in state politics where he was called the Kingfish. There he became known for his radical populist policies. He served as Governor (1928-32) and U.S. senator (1932-35). He initially backed President Roosevelt and the New Deal. He soon, however, broke with the President, unhappy with the moderate character of the New Deal (June 1933). He founded the Share Our Wealth program (1934). The moto was "Every Man a King". He proposed wealth redistribution measures that during the Depression had considerable appeal. They would be financed by a net asset tax on large corporations and wealthy individuals. Roosevelt believed that Long would use his Share Our Wealth Foundation to challenge him in the 1936 election. Long was a talented and charismatic politicans. He was probably the only man in America with the political presence to take on Roosevelt. As gover he achieved considerable popularity for the social progeams he sponsored. He was willing to take forceful action against entrenced interests and was not particularly bothered about legal niceties. He achieved virtual absolute control of the state government. His enemies charged tht he had dictatorial tendencies which along with his populist appeal made him so dangerous. He was assasinated at the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge (September 8, 1935). He died two days later. He is reoportedly to have said "God, don't let me die. I have so much left to do." as he died.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth (US, 1807-82): Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was one of the most noted American poet of the 19th century. He was a professor of modern language at Harvard University. Many of his poems such as "The Village Blacksmith" and "The Song of Hiawatha" (1855) are classics of American litrature. There were other important works. "Evangline" (1847) deat with the expulsaion of the Arcadians. "Paul Revere's Ride" (1863) was a classic of the Revolution. Longfellow had five children. His wife was tragically killed while playing with the locks of the children's hair which caught fire.
Louis, Murray - (US, 19- ): Famous choreographer. I saw bits of a PBS documentary about Murray and his friend Alwin Nikolais who was also a choreographer. One described his embarrassment at taking dancing lessons at the YMCA. He apparently sneaked to his classes so his friends wouldn't know.
Lowell, Robert - (US, 19 ): Two time Putlizer prize winning poet. I watched a profile on him, part of the PBS series, "Voices and Visions." Some of the profile dealt with his childhood, part of the video accompanying the reading of his poems included a boy, always dressed in shorts and knee socks. The camera did not show the boys face, except in a reflection on the water. He was showing in several different outfits, including a short pants blue suit with blue knee socks. In one of his poems he talks about playing with the little anchor which was part of his sailor suit. His mother apparently babied him a bit, and asked the local librarian (I think) not to let him check out rough adventure and war books.
Loti, Pierre (France, 1850-1924): French mariner and nocelist, Pierre Loti, recalls some details of his childood, including pinafores and curls. Loti went on to lead
a rather coloful naval career. He drew upon his travels for his writing. One of his books inspired Puchini's Madame Butterfly.
Luther, Martin (Germany, 1483-1546):
Martin Luther was born in Eisleben, an old town in central Germany. Eisleben was a small town in Saxony one of the states of the Holy Roman Empire. He grow up in Mansfeld, Magdeburg, and Eisenach. Not a great deal is known of his childhood. The availavle accounts suggest that he was an especially sensitive boy and took an early interest in religion. The images of Christ he was exposed to as a stern judge as well as the firy torments of Hell terrified him. The Reformation began when a German monk, Martin Luthur nailed his "95 Thesis" on the church door in Wittenberg (1517). Luthur was offended by the papal sale of indulgences. As the pope had authoirized the indulgences, the Church could hardly accept Luthur's call for reform. The problem was that even though indulgences were not a critical element of Catholic doctrine, papal infalibility was. The Church ordered Luther to retract his statements and to submit to Church authority. Instrad Luthur became more intransigent and expanded his call for reform to include central aspects of the Roman Catholic faith, the sacramental system and insisted that salvation was based on on personal religiouds faith based on an understanding of the guidance contained in the Bible.
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Created: October 21, 1999
Last updated: 6:45 AM 7/25/2008