The official quarterly newsletter of the South Jersey Postcard Club - Serving Postcard Collectors Since 1971 John H. McClintock (1925-2009), Founder
March 2011 Vol. 11. No. 2 Shankar’s Award and a Kid Named Carlos Americans seldom look beyond their own boarders for literature and art. Literature from cultures where English is a second language usually makes us nervous , nevertheless, when worthy translations dispel the mysteries of what is foreign, the world becomes a better place. As our globe shrinks to one international community where communication from one hemisphere to another is instantaneous, we need to broaden our horizons . South America and Asia are challenging places to begin. One early attempt to join differing cultures began more than fifty years ago when Kesava Shankara Pillai, an Indian cartoonist and humorist launched a political satire magazine that he named Shankar's Weekly. He used his publication as an instrument of comic relief in a time of national turmoil. From 1947 to 1975, the Indians gained their independence from the British crown, launched their first earth orbital satellite and elected their first female prime minister. Grand accomplishments in less than thirty years. Pillai, known internationally as Shankar, had an obsession for collecting children’s artwork. Under the auspices of his magazine, a contest called the Shankar’s Children’s Art Competition was organized in 1949. An administrative committee, which Shankar funded personally, invited the children in India to submit paintings and writings to the competition and more than 3,000 entries were received. The following year the competition was thrown open to children from all over the world. Year after year the participation increased and significant milestones were reached in 1952, when an on-the-spot painting competition was inaugurated, and in 1978 when the competition became bilingual. Last year about 1,600,000 entries were received from over 130 countries, all of which were judged by an international jury. At the end of each event the prizewinning entries are compiled in a volume called Shankar’s Children’s Art, a book that enjoys annual sales in the tens of millions.
Focus on 1978 . . . And the Winner is Carlos Fuentes Lemus Carlos Fuentes Lemus was born in Paris in 1973. He was the precocious son of the famous Spanish language novelist Carlos Fuentes and the international television interviewer Silvia Lemus. His circumstances of birth certainly opened broadways of opportunity for Carlos, but even as a child he knew his own mind and was determined to be successful. In 1978 Carlos was in New Delhi, India, while his parents were visiting that country on business. Carlos, the elder was doing a book promotion tour and his wife was there to interview Indian investors for a news segment on the world economy sanctioned by Mexican television executives. By happenstance the family learned of the Shankar competition and asked young Carlos if he wished to participate. His answer was yes. He did compete and at age five he won the Shankar Award for his age group. Carlos lived with his parents in the United States from 1978 to 1985. At age 12 he registered to attend school in the United Kingdom and published his first poems in the Perse School magazine at Cambridge, England, that same year. He attended the Ecole des Roches in Verneuil-sur-Avre, France, in academic year 1985-86, along with his sister, Natasha Fuentes. He lived in London until 1993 and in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 1994 to 1995. In 1998 he published a book of pictures called Retratos del Tiempo (Portraits in Time) in which his photographs of artists were accompanied by his father's profiles. Early in 1999, Carlos and his fiancée moved to the Pacific coast resort of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to work on his unfinished movie Gallo de Pelea. On May 5, 1999, Carlos experienced an episode relative to his life-long affliction with hemophilia and died from complications. He was 25.
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Posthumous exhibits of his paintings and pictures were held in Madrid and Barcelona. Generally known as a Mexican writer, photographer, painter and director, he also published his work on postcards that are sold to tourists in Mexican border towns to benefit orphanages and other charities. Two examples are here.
VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.SJPOSTCARD.COM March 2011 South Jersey Postcard Club Page 2. February Minutes Rick Geary, a well known, will be read at the meeting. modern postcard artist whose cards are widely collected here in the š› USA and internationally, agreed to Postcard Mystery Debunked by create a special postcard for SJPC’s Patton Museum Librarian PoCax and National Postcard This is a story of postcard research and it serves as a Week. The card will be used to perfect example of how to get to the bottom line. announce the 40th anniversary of our The Internet is the most democratic publication media annual show and exhibit. Each member will in the history of mankind. Anyone with a computer can receive a FREE copy in an upcoming mailing. download what they find on the Internet and they are also Rick’s art work pays tribute to our founder, John able to upload their own creative offerings, no matter how McClintock and three of southern New Jersey’s most iconic right, wrong, stupid, or uninformed they may be. Social images: RCA’s dog, Nipper, listening to his master’s voice networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have millions of in Camden, the diving horses on Atlantic City’s Steel Pier, members. That is all you need to know to realize that there and the Cape May Lighthouse. is a nearly unlimited supply of junk online. Stupidity, lies, inaccurate information and uninformed opinions are blasted SJPC Commissions Rick Geary Card in your face every time you go online. Here’s an example. Last week I read – on what I thought was a reputable website – that Colonel James H. O’Neill’s prayer was printed on 450,000 postcards. For those who may want a reminder. Monsignor (Colonel) James O’Neill was a Catholic chaplain attached to the American Third Army at the Battle of the Bulge. The weather that week was rainy mixed with snow, making air- cover for the still pending battle impossible. The very frustrated Lt. General George S. Patton, Jr., summoned Colonel O’Neill to his office and asked for a weather prayer. The monsignor was somewhat taken aback for he was being asked to pray for good weather so the infantry could kill the enemy. When the prayer was delivered, General Patton approved it and asked O’Neill to have it printed and distributed to the entire Third Army. For now, all that aside, let’s go back one paragraph and you can easily guess what word in that paragraph caught my attention – right, the last word, “postcards.” How can this be, 450,000 copies of a postcard, printed by the U.S. Army, and I’ve never heard this story before? I had to verify. My first step was to email my friend Hal Ottaway in Kansas. His collection of World War II postcards is legendary. I was sure he would know about the cards or perhaps even own one, but his answer came back in the negative. I checked some other websites, but learned nothing new. Then I realized that I had to contact the Patton Museum at Fort Knox, Kentucky. (The museum’s website is www.generalpatton.org.) Like most good websites this site has a “contact us” page, so in this age of call anywhere at anytime telephone
service, I dialed the number for the museum librarian. Mark your calendars! After an explanation of what I wanted I had an answer immediately. The story is basically true, the museum owns At Press Time dealer contracts have been mailed, and three copies of the prayer, and yes, there were thousands our treasurer, Sal Fiorello has announced that many replies of copies made, but the printing of the prayer was not done have been received. If you are one of our dealer members, on postcards , but on business size cards . remember, the reply deadline is March 21st. Sorry, WWII collectors. There’s no joy in this story.
Attention Non-Dealer Exhibitors. If you intend to South Jersey Postcard Club enter a board(s) in the annual competition, all standard for information & newsletter archives go to www.sjpostcard.com rules apply. If you need a reminder, the rules may be Please send newsletter inquiries and articles to: found on the club’s website at www.sjpostcard.com . Click Ray Hahn, Editor on PoCax and then Rules for Exhibits. 908 Barbara Terrace Millville, NJ 08332 or email to [email protected]
Remember, this newsletter is available electronically. Send an email to [email protected] with the word SUBSCRIBE in the subject line and your name in the message box. Join the “GREEN” members of SJPC by saving our club the expense of paper and postage. Thanks. March 2011 South Jersey Postcard Club Page 3.
Crimes Against the First Amendment by Ray Hahn Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech…. First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
homas Jefferson once said that any government that forces upon its citizens an opinion other than one mutually agreed T upon has committed a crime against the First Amendment. That was 18th century rhetoric that made sense to the citizens, but 21st century facts demonstrate that many such opinions are levied against Americans every day. Keep this in mind, while we time shift the story to 1895. « « « eorges Massias, a Frenchman who by 1895 had built a very successful career as a poster, postcard, and advertising artist G is hired to produce an advertisement for the Cycles Gladiator Company. Recent advances in technology had led to the invention of a new chained sprocket that would increase speeds to what was touted to be faster than Winged Mercury. Massias took those words as inspiration and drew a bicycle with winged pedals . To enhance the concept of speed and freedom he added a nymph who seems to be steering the bicycle through the stars. The advertisement was wildly successful, and for years has been available on dorm room posters , t-shirts, mugs, and postcards. Enough - the pictures are worth a thousand words. « « « n 1990 the founding of the Thomas Jefferson Center in I Charlottesville, Virginia, was heralded as a worthy step forward in the protection of free expression in all its forms. Primarily their mission is education but the TJ Center also presents an award, the Jefferson Muzzle, that each year on or near April 13 (the anniversary of Thomas Jefferson’s birth) focus es national attention on especially egregious or ridiculous affronts to free expression. This is the kind of award that no one chooses to earn, but by circumstance or by chance it goes to people who, or organizations that have opinions conflicting with the American majority and are too entrenched to abide by majority rule or common sense. Many of the Mu zzles awarded in the last two decades have gone to those responsible for cases that have received national news coverage. For a complete list go to http://www.tjcenter.org/muzzles/. Last year (2010) a Jefferson Muzzle was awarded to the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board for an Original postcard version by Georges Massias. Undivided action the board took in 2009 that prohibited the sale, in back, continental size 15cm x 10.5cm (5¾” x 4?“) caption on liquor stores and restaurants , of wines manufactured by bottom edge reads: Par G. Massias, Paris. Notice address: IX California’s Hahn Family Winery. (No relation!) The Boulevard Montmartre in lower right corner. reason the board took action was that the bottle labels were inappropriate for public use because of content. You guessed, didn’t you? It is the same image that the bicycle company used so successfully over 100 years ago! The only change was the replacement of the company’s address by the varietal name of the wine. A Hahn Family representative said, “The image was chosen because it captures the grace and uninhibited beauty of our hillside vineyards.” On a personal note, through the years I have enjoyed many bottles of Hahn Family wines including the wines questioned by the Alabama ABC. (The reds: Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Syrah are full-bodied, well crafted wines that I am proud to serve to guests and family. I don’t drink white wines but I am sure the Hahn’s Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio are equally good.) I really like Alabama too, it is scenic and friendly and on the whole a nice vacation alternative to Florida, but they do have some strange rules that easily bewilder anyone with an Hahn Family Vintner’s wine bottle label. 3?” x 3?”, with a ounce of common sense. Beside their silly ABC laws, the caption on bottom edge that reads: Central Coast 2004 (wine only other thing is that there are no postcard shows in region and date of harvest). Notice variety of grape replaces Alabama. the Parisian address. Most wine drinkers are resigned to life with puritanical « « « practices such as sin taxes on wine, but we rightfully scoff at the idea that the art on bottle labels must be approved by government officials. If such practices are not deemed National Post Card Week crimes against the first amendment, they should, at the May 1 - 7, 2011 very least, be deemed stupid. But again, there is no law Send cards to all your postcard friends against being stupid, is there? March 2011 South Jersey Postcard Club Page 4. “Glad Påsk!” Cry the Easter Witches If you are unfamiliar with the languages of Sweden and Finland, the title above is wishing you a Happy Easter from the Easter Witches - a Scandinavian tradition mostly kept as a celebration of spring. Like so many things these days , I learned about Easter Witches while scanning postcards on eBay. Hundreds of delightfully imagined costumes are found on cards that range in price from a few, up to dozens of dollars , all meant to be used as holiday greetings . In Scandinavia even atheists pay respect to the long-standing traditions that the grocery stores use their weekly holiday dictates. Easter is a big deal throughout the entire advertisements to exploit the country. food associations of chicks, lamb, eggs, sweets and the obligatory “påskkäring” or Easter witch, to draw in customers gearing up for the upcoming gluttony of Påskafton (Easter Saturday). It all happens like this: on Easter Eve or in some regions on Maundy Thursday, children dress up as påskkärringar (Easter hags). Much like the American Halloween, they paint their faces, carry a broom and knock on neighbor’s doors begging for treats, which are placed in the copper kettles they carry. The tradition of children dressing up in costume for Easter dates back to the early 1800s; however, the association between Easter and witches began much Hags aplenty and many more cards like these are for sale on eBay. earlier. In a Swedish church in Uppland (pronounced Oop’land), there is a painting from 1480 portraying three I will leave it up to you to make your own witch costume Easter witches holding out their drinking horns to be filled by for Easter, and if you choose to celebrate this Scandinavian the Devil with a magic potion. It was the belief that on tradition by starting a new postcard collection there are Maundy Thursday witches flew off to Brocken Mountain for a plenty of “Glad Påsk” cards for sale online. rendezvous with the Devil. There they feasted and danced to the singing of magpies until Easter Sunday morning when š› they would fly home arriving just in time for church services . The Legend of Frank Merriwell They had to be careful though, for after all their fun on the Card courtesy of Susan Lane mountain, they might accidentally reveal their identities by saying their prayers backwards. If you have quite a few pages in your diary, you may remember Frank Merriwell, a fictional character who appeared in novels and short stories authored by Gilbert Patten using the pseudonym Burt L. Standish. Merriwell may be considered a character for all media. He first came to the public’s attention as a five-letter freshman athlete at Yale University who could solve mysteries and right wrongs with great ease. As a perfect roll model for young Americans, Frank did not drink; he kept himself in perfect physical condition and would never dream of smoking a cigarette. From
Easter Witch Greeting Card magazines to dime novels, Frank made his way into comic It was also believed that on their return some of the books and later to radio and film . Easter witches might get caught in chimneys. In order to The Adventures of Frank Merriwell, sponsored by Dr. prevent this, people fumigated their chimneys by burning West's Toothpaste, first ran on NBC radio from March to nine different types of wood. Their fires were kept burning June 1934 as a 15-minute serial airing three times a week. from Maundy Thursday to Easter morning. People also Two years later a film with the same name was released by painted crosses on their doors and on the noses of their Universal Studios. Then, after a 10-year gap, the series livestock. And, they certainly did not leave brooms or rakes returned to NBC radio in October 1946 as a Saturday standing outs ide, lest a witch use them to fly. morning show and continued to June 1949. Bonfires were also lit and firearms shot into the sky to Today Merriwell postcards and comic books are high on ward off the evil powers they believed to be in play. the lists of desirable collectibles. The postcard above is a Thankfully, these superstitions have taken on a more fine example. cheerful legacy in modern times. PS: Someone who is reading over my shoulder ustj These Easter celebrations and traditions for the secular said, “I remember Dr. West Toothpaste.” Maybe her diary Swede are nearly as sacred as Christmas. Even devout has a few more pages than mine does. March 2011 South Jersey Postcard Club Page 5. Sadness touched Fredericksburg, Virginia, earlier than most communities at the start of World War II
Two years before the United States was officially involved Robert Harris was among the first of more than 400,000 in the war, Americans were being killed by warring factions Americans who would die in World War II. His body was in Europe; Robert Shenton Harris was one of them. never recovered; however there is a memorial stone in the Robert’s father ran a grocery store on William Street, City Cemetery on Amelia Street. Robert’s stone is located while his mother Susie managed their household at 1308 near the front wall, about 100 feet to the left of the main Winchester Street. gate. His parents are buried next to the memorial, and his grandmother, whose death prompted his change of plans, is next to them. « « « Naturally, the sting of death in this story is all the more grievous because the S.S. Athenia was the first British ship to be sunk by Nazi Germany in World War II. With only a few hours difference in time, Athenia would have been well on its way to America – far out of torpedo range. š›
Abraham Lincoln and His Horse Abraham Lincoln and his horse arrived at President Lincoln’s Cottage recently – in bronze form, as you can see. The 2500 pound sculpture commemorates the bicentennial RPPC of the Harris Grocery Store c. 1929 of Lincoln’s birth in Kentucky on February 12, 1809. Robert did what many students do when they graduate from college; he decided to take a trip before enrolling in graduate school at Cornell University. In early summer 1939, Harris and his friend Bill Buchannan of Danville set out for Europe. Everyone knew of the unrest and talk of war that was astir on that continent, nevertheless Bill and Bob started their tour on bicycles , eventually switching to trains, taking up with locals, even at one point joining in a salute of Hitler (long before the world recognized the Hitler we know). But in August, Robert’s grandmother died, and his father cabled him asking for his return home as soon as he was able. Cutting their trip short, Robert and Bill booked passage on the S.S. Athenia, along with 1,103 others departing Liverpool on September 3, 1939.
This illustration is not a postcard. Your editor is breaking his own rule.
Mr. Lincoln and his family lived at the Cottage (See arrow. A property next to the Old Soldier’s Home in Washington, DC.) for one-quarter of his presidency – it was the place where Lincoln plotted Union wartime ANCHOR-DONALDSON LINE Twi n-screw Steamship Athenia strategies, worked on the emancipation proclamation and Two days before Robert’s departure, Germany invaded decided to include the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, Poland. And just hours before SS Athenia pulled out of the in the Republican platform of 1864. docks at Liverpool, Great Britain declared war on Germany. The sculpture, designed by Studio EIS in New York, That evening, 60 miles off the Irish coast, a German U-boat took one year to create from concept to final cast. To render spotted Athenia, and fired a single torpedo that ripped into an historically accurate likeness, the Studio conducted the passenger liner near mid-ship. Instantly the doomed extensive research, including: examination of the life-casts ship started to sink by the stern. of Lincoln’s face and hands , plus all the known photos of Royal Navy vessels and merchant ships rushed to the him , and taking measurements of his top hat and coat at the scene. Most of the passengers were rescued, ncludingi Smithsonian. Not to mention their time with equine experts Robert’s companion Bill, but what happened to Robert in the and with photos of the president’s favorite horse, “Old Bob.” minutes following the torpedo strike is not known. Overall, the sculpture measures 84 inches tall and 88 Perhaps he died in the initial blast, but more likely he inches long. Unlike the many formal depictions of Lincoln, died when one of the lifeboats was crushed by the propeller this one is informal and highlights a moment at either the of a rescue ship. In any event, he was one of 117 who did beginning or the end of Lincoln’s daily commute from the not survive the disaster; 28 were Americans. Cottage to the White House.
March 2011 South Jersey Postcard Club Page 6.
Two Extraordinary Homes Owned by Men of the Arts Oh . . . Olana, an Awesome Surprise By Ray Hahn Approximately 125 miles north of New York Harbor, up along the Hudson, is a piece of property high above the river. The view of the river valley, from dawn to dusk, is frequently described using only superlatives. Words like spectacular, stunning, awesome, fabulous, magnificent and splendid come to mind. And, on that spot stands a homestead named Olana. In 1870 a prominent member of the Hudson River School of artists, Frederic Edwin Church started construction of what would be his family’s home for the next ninety-plus years. Today, as part of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, Olana is open to the public year-around. It is truly a great day-out on a sunny- Sunday in winter. The house and the grounds still have much the same appearance as they did in Church’s time there. The brick, stone and cement exterior is in a Persian style characterized by recessed porches, projecting balconies, towers and an ell that served the artist as his studio and retreat. The dining room, library, and a room they called the Court Hall are all equally fascinating for they are decorated with souvenirs the Churches brought home from their extensive travels in Europe, the middle-East, South America, and Mexico. Frederick met his wife, Isabel, at a New York City exhibition for his painting Heart of the Andes (1859). In the few years Church’s Studio, completed in 1891. that came after their marriage; Church became America’s highest paid artist. His audience View of Olana’s front entrance. clamored for his work and commissions valued in six-figures were commonplace. By the late 1880s public interest in romantic realism had diminished, yet Church, who was afflicted with arthritis, continued to paint and his work sold as period pieces to galleries, museums, and private collectors. Today there are nearly one-hundred of his paintings on public view, and estimates suggest three times that many in private collections . As a member of the Hudson River School, Church worked among a cadre of artists whose work environs extended from the White Mountains of New Hampshire, south through the Adirondacks and Catskills, then south-west to the Delaware Water Gap or south-east to Long Island Sound. More than twenty American painters, including Asher Durand (born in 1796, the oldest) and Thomas Moran (born in 1837, the youngest) considered themselves members of the group. Others such as Robert Duncanson was the first African-American artist to gain notoriety as a landscape artist; Albert Bierstadt, who later in life painted hundreds of canvases showing the Rocky Mountains, the Yosemite valley and the Alaskan Coastal Range; and John Frederick Kensett, whose work from New England and seascapes of coastal New Jersey, Long Island and New England is frequently found on postcards . Olana is located on Rt. 9G, just five miles south of Hudson, New York. Take NYS I-287 to Exit 21, Catskill. Take Rt. 23 over the Rip Van Winkle Bridge. Bear right on 9G south. Olana is 1 mile on the left. The Taconic State Parkway works well as a satisfactory alternative route. Visitor information is available at www.olana.org. š› Herman Melville’s Arrowhead The house at 780 Holmes Road, Pittsfield, Massachusetts sits but a few yards from the highway, the grass is mown short, but all else within the landscape is the undeniable work of Mother Nature.
“I have a sort of sea-feeling here in the country . . . I look out my window in the morning when I rise as I would out of a porthole of a ship in the Atlantic. My room seems a ship’s cabin; and at nights when I wake up and hear the winds shrieking, I almost fancy there is too much sail on the house, and I had better go on the roof and rig in the chimney.” - Herman Melville, writing to Evert Dyckink, 1850
After his three year adventure aboard the Acushnet, a whaling ship out of New Bedford, Massachusetts, Herman Melville moved his family from New York to Pittsfield, looking for a quiet place to write. It was at this home where he completed his most famous novel, Moby Dick. The house is a rather spacious 18th century farm -house, furnished in period furnishings and many of Melville’s own possessions. Melville could see Mt. Greylock from his bedroom window and often took comfort in the likeness of the mountain to his memory of a whale’s profile against the sky above the Pacific. Today the property is owned by the Berkshire County Historical Society. When you visit you can see the fireplace that is the central character in Melville’s short story, “I and My Chimney,” first published in Putnam’s Monthly Magazine in 1856.
March 2011 South Jersey Postcard Club Page 7.
Five Restaurant Postcards from Five Continents Teotihuacan, Mexico Craków, Poland Few cities in the world are considered worthy of being a Arguably the world’s oldest shopping mall, this indoor habitat orf the gods, but market has been doing business in the middle of Krakow's Teotihuacan, Mexico, is central Grand Square for 710 years. Sometime around such a city. It is a divine yet human city located in the Hidalgo District, 45 miles north of Mexico City. Its wide avenues originate within its center and move out toward the cardinal points of the compass to worlds unknown to the Toltec but today those same roads bring visitors who lose themselves in 1300 a roof was put over two rows of stalls to form the first realms of wonder that are Sukiennice building – Cloth Hall – where the textile trade still mystical for modern would gather to sell their goods to those who came from, Mexicans. literally, far and wide – it is not unusual for archeologists to One of those mystic find Krakow’s clothier marks in garments discovered in places Spain, Italy and Turkey. is La Cape Town, South Africa After a fire in 1555, the hall was Gruta (The Cave) Restaurant. It was rebuilt as an imposing Gothic structure once thought that the cave dated from a that extended 325 feet long and 40 feet time when a volcanic eruption of one wide. million years ago left the space as a Second and third refurbishments result of a gas bubble; however, recent took place between 1875 and 1879 when researchers suppose that it was the outside arcades were added for traveling Toltec themselves who dug out the cave merchants. to find material to build their temples . Today stalls on the ground floor and The card is a SELLO real-photo shops in the arcades sell assorted (Mexican photo-stock, dates unknown). souvenirs , while upstairs, since the The restaurant is still in business today, 1880s the Krakow National Museum has and serves meals from an extensive exhibited its unparalleled collection of 19- menu. century Polish art. « « « One of the two spacious cafes, Buenos Aires, Argentina Noworolski’s , on the east side, has been On the 14th of September 1935, on the serving meals without one missed day, Avenida Entre Rios, Don Francisco since it opened for business in 1910. « « « Lapietra opened the doors of his Hong Kong, China restaurant for the first time. La Cabana San Marco Restaurant proffers indoor boasted an ample Normandy style salon or al fresco dining experiences. Our The original Hong Kong Peak Tower to seat up to 450 people. “along-the-sidewalk” café is an Restaurant opened ni 1971 on the top Great care was taken with the décor. excellent vantage point for people floor of the building you see on the card Two stuffed cows welcomed visitors in watching. below. The tower however has since the lobby and a pat on their tails was said The fare is traditional Italian, with gone through a couple reincarnations - in to bring good luck. Locally made cutlery the beef carpaccio deserving special 1993 and 2005. and fine white china were set atop fine mention. Complement your meal with a Governor Sir Richard MacDonnell's linens. cup of fine Italian coffee and finish off summer home was the first structure built The menu featured only the best of with a scoop or two of homemade (circa 1868) on Hong Kong Peak. He did
Argentine beef and with over 200 gelato. so to take advantage of the cooler air. different varieties La Cabaña had a very In the special wine years after cellar. Sir Richard, The place fashionable was to go restaurants down in his - were the tory as the most best restau- common rant in the city attractions of Buenos on the Aires. peak. That Most say, it is still true. still is. March 2011 South Jersey Postcard Club Page 8.
A Series – My Reflections on the Presidents and the Health Crises They Faced … by William Reynolds
Dwight David Eisenhower McCrum Snyder, had given him a turned his back to the podium, Television was a new phenomenon in series of check-ups that revealed little Eisenhower mumbled, "If I cannot the 1950s, be it through entertainment if anything was out of the ordinary. attend to my duties, I am simply going or journalism, the world was being Snyder had diagnosed the problem as to give up this job!" beamed into American living rooms. a mild form of angina pectoris and President Eisenhower remained During that decade, we saw the birth prescribed nitro-glycerin tablets. At free of any further medical crises for of Little Ricky on I Love Lucy, the first the pills seemed to be effective in the remainder of his term. In January crowning of England's Queen treating the president's discomfort. 1961 the oldest man to leave the Elizabeth II, and the Army-McCarthy When news of the heart attack, presidency yielded the office to our hearings. It was also the first decade first broke an army of print and youngest elected chief executive, John in which television journalists could television journalists converged on F. Kennedy. bring breaking news to their Denver to report all the up-to-the- In years since President Eisen- audiences . History was made in minute details . One of the probing hower's death in 1969, historians have September 1955 when TV reporters questions they were asking was why learned that his 1955 heart attack was announced that President Dwight D. the president's physician, Dr. Snyder, not his first. In 1949, some three years Eisenhower had suffered a heart had shown such poor medical before his successful 1952 run for attack. judgment as to permit the president to office, General Eisenhower was walk to a waiting car after he had just confined in a Florida hospital for more diagnosed the illness as a coronary than a month with what is now occlusion. believed to have been his first heart By late October, the President attack. was out of bed and walking and was š› discharged from the hospital in Presidents on Postcards November. He spent the next several months recuperating in Georgia and Florida. He finally returned to the White House in January 1956, where, within a month's time, he announced his intentions to seek a second term in office. Six months later, though, on the eve of the Republican National Dwight David Eisenhower Presidential Portrait by J. Anthony Wills Nominating Convention, the President was again stricken with serious illness. But, as had happened so often in He was diagnosed with having ileitis . the past, the White House colored the Through television and print media, the truth of the president's medical American public learned that ileitis was condition. Initial reports, released on an inflammation of the ileum, the lower September 23rd stated that Eisenhower section of the small intestine. Ike’s had suffered a digestive upset while ileitis required him to undergo surgery vacationing in Denver. A day later, the at Walter Reed Army Hospital where press learned that the president had, he spent six weeks recuperating. in actuality, suffered a coronary Eisenhower was able to thrombosis. pers onally accept his party's Panic gripped the country. The nomination for a second term, and stock market lost some $12 billion at easily defeated Adlai E. Stevenson, his the news of the president's attack. General of the Army Eisenhower (Ret.) Democrat opponent by an even circa 1968 Vice-President Richard Nixon was greater margin then he did in 1952. thrust into the unenviable role of acting A year later, in November 1957, president. Eisenhower and Nixon had following a two day annual physical at had discussions, prior to the attack Walter Reed Army Hospital, the concerning presidential succession but president was given a clean bill of those discussions were never made health. Exactly two weeks later, public. however, he suffered a small stroke During the summer that had just while dictating a letter to his secretary ended, the President had noticed and was unable to speak properly. some symptoms that were disturbing When news of the stroke hit the to him. Among thes e were tightness in airwaves, once again, the stock market his chest, a shortness of breath and an Dwight David Eisenhower’s Boyhood Home reacted adversely – it dropped by $4.5 Abilene, Kansas excessive amount of perspiration when billion in less than a half hour. walking up a long flight of stairs or Vice-President Nixon hurriedly š› while playing golf. He also noticed arranged a news conference, during signs of indigestion and palpitations of This newsletter is available which the president, against his the heart. His old friend and personal by email. doctor's orders, shuffled into the room, physician, Major General Howard declaring himself to be okay. As he Subscribe today.