Fall/Winter 2015

FALL/WINTER 2015

Let Us Entertain You

Trees in a Time of Drought

Blue Boy & Co.

The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens OSKA 9693 Wilshire Blvd Beverly Hills, CA 90212 310 271 2806

OSKA SENIOR STAFF OF THE HUNTINGTON 13 Douglas Alley LAURA SKANDERA TROMBLEY Pasadena, CA 91103 President FROM THE EDITOR 626 432 1729 CATHERINE ALLGOR Shop online Nadine and Robert A. Skotheim Director of Education LONG AGO, RIGHT NOW beverlyhills.oska.com JAMES P. FOLSOM Marge and Sherm Telleen/Marion and Earle Jorgensen Director of the Botanical Gardens ANNE GUSTUS n this issue, we take you on journeys into the past and explorations of Executive Assistant to the President the here and now that you won’t soon forget. STEVE HINDLE W. M. Keck Foundation Director of Research In the cover feature, Jennifer A. Watts, The Huntington’s curator COREEN A. RODGERS of photographs, shares remarkable images from the heyday of Fanchon Anne and Jim Rothenberg Vice President for Financial Affairs Iand Marco, a formidable brother-sister team that mass-produced live dance KEVIN SALATINO and music shows for movie theaters across the nation in the 1920s and Hannah and Russel Kully Director of the Art Collections 1930s, building an entertainment empire that helped launch the careers of RANDY SHULMAN some of Hollywood’s biggest stars (see pg. 20). Vice President for Advancement Then we take you right to the frontline of the battle to save Southern LAURIE SOWD California’s trees from the devastating impact of pests and disease, compounded Vice President for Operations by the state’s long drought. Freelance writer and former Los Angeles Times SUSAN TURNER-LOWE Vice President for Communications and Marketing reporter Lynne Heffley writes about the race to find solutions to this compli- DAVID S. ZEIDBERG cated, confounding problem, one led by Huntington staff botanists and area Avery Director of the Library scientists (see pg. 14). Kevin Salatino, The Huntington’s Hannah and Russel Kully Director of the MAGAZINE STAFF Art Collections, provides a poignant perspective on the most famous work in EDITOR The Huntington’s art collection, Thomas Gainsborough’s Blue Boy (see pg. 10). Kevin Durkin And Andrea Denny-Brown, associate professor of English at University of DESIGNER California, Riverside, recalls her first encounter at The Huntington with a Lori Ann Achzet mysterious medieval manuscript of a poem that meditates on Christ’s crucifixion (see pg. 26). Huntington Frontiers is published semiannually by the Be sure to check out new departments in this issue, including Social Scene Office of Communications and Marketing. It strives to connect readers with the rich intellectual life of The Huntington, (see pg. 8), a roundup of images and news items from The Huntington’s social capturing in news and features the work of researchers, media sites, and Back Page (see pg. 36), which features a flip-book animation educators, curators, and others across a range of disciplines. inspired by the works of Edward Hopper and Alexander Calder. Here at The Huntington, you can experience the wonders of the past and INQUIRIES AND COMMENTS: the innovations of the present succeeding one another with vertiginous rapidity. Kevin Durkin, Editor, Huntington Frontiers 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA 91108 Turn the pages ahead to experience the whirligig of time. [email protected]

For advertising inquiries, please call Kevin Durkin

Kevin Durkin is editor of Huntington Frontiers and managing editor in Maggie Malone at Cultural Media, 312-945-5977 The Huntington’s Office of Communications and Marketing. Unless otherwise acknowledged, photography is provided by The Huntington’s Department of Photographic Services.

© 2015 The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Correction: After the publication of our Spring/Summer 2015 issue, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Gardens. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of the Hawaii let us know that the photograph of the Nihoa millerbird on page 32 of that issue was not by the USFWS’s Mark MacDonald, as we had originally been told, but by Robby Kohley, working on behalf of contents, in whole or in part, without permission of the American Bird Conservancy. We wish to thank Chris Farmer, Hawaii Program Director for American Bird publisher, is prohibited. Conservancy, for alerting the USFWS and us and setting the record straight.

On the Cover: Producers Fanchon and Marco’s “Aerial Ballet Idea,” 1927, featuring 20 young women trained, according to the San Jose News, “in the clock-like work of an aerial performer. They are seen working 60 feet above the stage footlights, dangling at arm’s length on glistening cords, against the background of a mammoth curtain covering the entire stage.” Photograph by Harry Wenger.

Beverly Hills / Chicago / Edina / Healdsburg / Mill Valley / New York / Pasadena / Seattle / Calgary / Vancouver / callidas in Edmonton 1151 Oxford Road | San Marino, California 91108 | huntington.org London / Paris / Munich / Amsterdam / Stockholm volume 11, issue 1

Contents FALL/WINTER 2015

FEATURES

TREES IN A TIME OF DROUGHT 14 The Huntington is ground zero in a race to save Southern California’s trees By Lynne Heffley

LET US ENTERTAIN YOU 20 Fanchon and Marco’s big “Ideas” revolutionized the 1920s theater world By Jennifer A. Watts

DEPARTMENTS

SOCIAL SCENE 8

A CLOSER LOOK 10 14 Poignant Portrait of Youth By Kevin Salatino

SCHOLAR’S INSIGHT 26 Call Nadine Black at 310.300.3050 or email [email protected] Mysterious Manuscript in a Silk Purse By Andrea Denny-Brown

IN PRINT 34 Recommended Reading

BACK PAGE 36 You’re Gonna Flip! By Kate Lain

Top: Producers Fanchon and Marco’s “Spangles Idea,” 1928, featuring the Pyramid Girls. According to the Los Angeles Times, the “Spangles Idea” was a “California Folies Bergère with the sets and costumes reproduced from WEALTH ADVISORY | INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT 10 originals at the Folies Bergère at Paris.” Photograph by Harry Wenger. Center: Wielding a chainsaw, gardener Rafael Gutierrez lops the limbs off a Liquidambar tree weakened by drought and ravaged by the polyphagous GLOBAL CAPITAL MARKETS | RETIREMENT PLAN SERVICES shot hole borer. Photograph by Lisa Blackburn. Bottom: Detail from Thomas Gainsborough’s Blue Boy (1770).

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How do we conserve a classic book on sunspots? huntingtonblogs.org/2015/05/conserving-a-classic-book-on-sunspots/

1 Renaissance literature, history of medicine, and more— a new cadre of research fellows dives into our Library collections. 2 huntingtonblogs.org/2015/05/coveted-research-fellowships/ Teenage writers find inspiration in Octavia Butler’s fiction at a recent WriteGirl workshop. huntingtonblogs.org/2015/06/writing-herself-in/

ON INSTAGRAM… From galleries to gardens and everything in between, we’ve got you covered. Follow @thehuntingtonlibrary 3 The key to growing edibles in a time of drought: healthy soil. The head of our Ranch project has some tips for you. huntingtonblogs.org/2015/06/its-all-about-the-soil/ ON iTUNES U… These lectures are only a tiny fraction of the Huntington audio available for free on iTunes U. ON VERSO, THE BLOG… THE ON VERSO, Read about these stories and more at huntingtonblogs.com at more stories and these about Read Nearly4 two centuries ago, painter David Wilkie left behind an unfinished Fashion Victims: Dress at the Court of painting. It’s now part of our European art collection. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette huntingtonblogs.org/2015/05/new-home-for-a-hidden-treasure/ Searching for the Spirit of the Sages: by Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell The Japanese Tea Ceremony for Sencha by Patricia J. Graham Capital Dames by Cokie Roberts 5 Los Angeles photographer John C. Lewis comes to The Huntington to revisit two panorama photographs from 1915. Admiral Nelson’s Women: Female Masculinity and huntingtonblogs.org/2015/05/taking-the-long-view/ What We’ve Forgotten about Lincoln’s Body, Body Politics in the French and Napoleonic Wars and What We’ve Never Known by Kathleen Wilson by Richard Wightman Fox

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8 huntington.org 6 huntington.org 9 SOCIALA PEEK AT WHAT WE’RE UP TO ONLINE SCENE

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8 huntington.org 6 huntington.org 9 a closer look LOCA L EXPERTS, Poignant Portrait of Youth GLOBA L REACH CONTEMPLATING THE IMPACT OF BLUE BOY’S Bonhams is one of the world’s largest auctioneers of fine DEPARTURE FROM ENGLAND CHARLES MARION RUSSELL art and antiques, with hundreds of auctions annually in A Scouting Party dozens of collecting categories. Call today to arrange a watercolor on paper complimentary auction estimate of your property. By Kevin Salatino +1 (323) 850 7500 [email protected] This fall, Huntington art curators Catherine Hess and Melinda McCurdy unveil Blue Boy & Co., a 179-page book highlighting the richness and diversity of The Huntington’s European collection. The book opens with a foreword by Kevin Salatino, Hannah and Russel Kully Director of the Art Collections, who shares how the departure of Thomas Gainsborough’s Blue Boy from England to Southern California in the 1920s stirred the emotions of the British public not long after the end of World War I. What follows is an excerpt from the foreword.

BLUE BOY BLUES As a painting you must have heard a lot about me, For I lived here for many happy years; Kevin Salatino, Hannah and Russel Kully Director of the Art Collections at The Huntington, with Thomas Gainsborough’s Blue Boy Never dreaming that you could ever do without me (1770). Photograph by Kate Lain. Till you sold me in spite of all my tears. It’s a long way from gilded galleries in Park Lane business-savvy machinations of the most flam- To the Wild West across the winter sea. boyant art dealer of the day, Joseph Duveen, from If you don’t know quite what I mean, its owner the Duke of Westminster for what was said Simply ask Sir Joseph Duveen to be the largest price ever paid for a work of art. And he’ll tell you what he gave ’em for me. Duveen, the Duke of Westminster, and the swoon- For I’m the Blue Boy; inducing price Huntington paid are all directly or The beautiful Blue Boy; indirectly mentioned in Porter’s witty and highly And I am forced to admit topical song, while its references to cowboys and I’m feeling a bit depressed. the Wild West flattered an urbane audience quick A silver dollar took me and my collar to equate California with the caricatures found in To show the slow cowboys cheap novels and the nascent film industry. Just how boys Before shipping Blue Boy to California, Duveen— In England used to be dressed. ever the showman—arranged for it to be exhibited at London’s National Gallery for a month. An astonishing 90,000 people came to pay their respects, ole Porter, the great 20th-century and the Gallery’s director famously wrote “au revoir” American songwriter, wrote this amusing on the back of the painting in the hope, no doubt, ditty in 1922, ostensibly for the London that it would someday return. It has never, how- revue Mayfair and Montmartre. It ever, left the estate to which Huntington brought Clampoons railroad tycoon Henry E. Huntington’s it. The public reaction to the painting’s departure celebrated purchase a few months earlier of what for America (and California, of all places!) was a was then arguably the most famous painting in the combination of sorrow, anger, dismay, and national world: Thomas Gainsborough’s Blue Boy, painted pride. To understand this response, we should in 1770. Huntington had acquired it through the remember the extraordinary popular fame the

picture had achieved in the Blue Boy’s fame remained undiminished for century and a half since it generations, its elegant form gracing every imag- had been made. We should inable consumer product from tea towels to

alsoBLUE creditBOY Duveen’s brilliant Christmas ornaments, devolving finally to kitsch, & Co. marketingeuropean art skills. Equally the surest sign of celebrity. But that fame, while at the huntington

o. important,Catherine h ess though, was what not yet on life support, has been compromised in and Melinda MC Curdy, with C ontributions by John b rewer Blueand Kevin s alatinoBoy symbolized to the recent years, and what was once universally rec- Contributors at european

the BLUE British people, and for that ognized now just as easily elicits a blank stare. John Brewer is the Eli and Eyde Broad Professor One of the world’s great cultural and research in the Humanities and Social Sciences at the centers, The Huntington, located in San Marino,

California Institute of Technology (CalTech). huntington California, is home to a celebrated library, art we mustcollection, and botanical recall gardens. While thefamous for great This volume—the first ever devoted to a wide-ranging

Kevin Salatino is the Hannah and Russel art its British art, especially Thomas Gainsborough’s Kully Director of the Art Collections at iconic painting, Blue Boy, The Huntington also The Huntington Library, Art Collections, war holdsthey a remarkably hadwide-ranging collectionjust of endured overview of The Huntington’s collection of European and Botanical Gardens. BOY continental European art, particularly French and Italian but including fine examples of Dutch and Catherine Hess is the Chief Curator of European european art Flemish as well. Over one hundred of the finest Art at The Huntington Library, fromEuropean 1914–18, works at The Huntington—including the memory art—hopes, in part, to reverse this trend. Blue Boy Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. at the paintings, sculpture, decorative art, and drawings— huntington are published together for the first time in this Melinda McCurdy is the Associate Curator of whichbeautifully illustrated was catalog, accompanied still by vivid. & Co. presents its eponymous subject in the reju- of British Art at The Huntington Library, & thoughtful historical essays. Innovatively juxtaposing Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. medium, style, and cultural origin, Blue Boy & Co. isO a visuallyf stunningthe selection 8.5 of masterworks million to venating context of its distinguished kin—paint- Published by DelMonico Books • Prestel and that will serve as both a guide to The Huntington's The Huntington Library, Art Collections, holdings and an enlightening compendium for and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California 10 millionanyone interested in the artsoldiers of Europe. killed ings, sculpture, furniture, and decorative art of the DelMonico • Prestel Co. ###[insert number of] full-color illustrations in the war as a whole, more highest quality—collected first by Henry and Arabella than 700,000 were from Huntington and substantially enlarged by subsequent the United Kingdom and curators and directors of the Huntington Art Blue Boy & Co. highlights the an additional 200,000 Collections from the 1930s to the present. And richness and diversity of The came from the British colonies. Additionally, yet while Gainsborough’s Blue Boy and Thomas Huntington’s European collection. Images of more than 100 of the 2 million British (and British colonial) soldiers were Lawrence’s Pinkie retain their minor celebrity most impressive works housed wounded, many grievously. “Indiscriminate status, and while The Huntington’s collection of at The Huntington—including paintings, sculptures, decorative slaughter” is a phrase often used to describe the 18th-century British “Grand Manner” portraits is arts, and works on paper—are brutality of this, the first fully mechanized war rightly known by many as the finest in the world, published together for the first time in this handsome catalog on a massive scale. In a single day of the Battle of large parts of The Huntington’s holdings of Euro- (available fall 2015). the Somme, the British army alone suffered more pean art remain unfamiliar to the wider public. than 57,000 casualties. By 1921, three years after At the same time, the “meaning” of Blue Boy— the war’s conclusion, the wounded were still a painting once nearly as iconic as the Mona Lisa— everywhere in sight, on the streets of every city and has shifted and continues to shift over time. What, village in Britain. The ceremonial funeral for the to contemporary audiences, do Blue Boy, or Joshua “Unknown British Warrior”—the most poignant Reynolds’ Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse, or and cathartic of all post-war commemoratives, John Constable’s View on the Stour near Dedham, attended by hundreds of thousands—had been or Madame de Pompadour’s tea service mean to held in November of 1920, less than a year before today’s audiences? What, for that matter, does it mean Blue Boy’s sale. to have a major collection in Southern California It is difficult not to conclude that at least part of 18th- and 19th-century British art, accompanied of the anguish of Blue Boy’s leave-taking was its by superb, if smaller, collections of Italian Renais- commingling in the public’s mind with the leave- sance, French 18th-century, and a smattering of taking of their sons and brothers for the war, many Dutch and Flemish art? This book will not answer of them never to return. An entire generation of those questions. What it will do, we hope, is invite young, healthy, handsome boys killed or mutilated, a second look at and a rethinking of these beautiful and now this: another son, another brother, sym- and compelling objects. It is gratifying that artists bolizing unutterable loss. And though the associa- from Robert Rauschenberg (whose first acquain- tion of Blue Boy with Britain’s heroic fighting men tance with Blue Boy, Pinkie, and Sarah Siddons as may strike us as improbable, given Blue Boy’s un- the Tragic Muse was transformational) to Kehinde deniably androgynous appearance to modern eyes, Wiley (whose artistic practice is informed by his it is useful to note that in the 19th century the early experience of The Huntington’s Grand Manner painting was described as “the most firm, spirited, portraits) have found inspiration in The Huntington and manly portrait of youth ever painted.” “Youth” Art Collections. It is our hope that every visitor is the operative word here, for youth is what the will have such epiphanies at The Huntington; this One Colorado Great War utterly smashed, and this beautiful book is a tool in the service of that goal. 48 Hugus Alley boy—pretty enough to appeal to both sexes— Pasadena CA 91103 struck a nationalist and deeply emotional chord. Kevin Salatino is Hannah and Russel Kully Director plvendome.com of the Art Collections at The Huntington. 626.577.7001 12 huntington.org “As we get further and further into the severe competition for water that will come from nearby drought,” Goyette says, “we’re seeing different plants. And because windblown dirt and dust remain species here start to die off. The European white on dry leaves, inhibiting life-sustaining photosyn- birch trees were the first to start to go. Alder trees. thesis, some overhead irrigation must continue. Some Southern magnolias are going.” “We’re doing our best to irrigate within the Over the next half hour, Goyette points out guidelines we’ve been given,” Goyette says. “We’re numerous areas of concern. Water-intensive stands in reevaluation mode right now.” of bamboo. Japanese cedars, turning brown with- (Water limits are a concern, too, for The Hun- out the moisture they are used to in their native tington’s Valencia orange and avocado groves and country. Some historic redwoods, too, are showing recently established grapevines. Since 2011, more their distress. than 81,000 pounds of the Valencias have gone to “Lack of humidity, lack of rainfall,” Goyette Food Forward, picked by the nonprofit organization’s says. “They need a deep soaking, and that’s the volunteers for distribution to charitable groups only thing we can replicate well, by getting some across Southern California.) drip irrigation out along the drip line of those As a microcosm of trees and plants that grow trees and allowing it to percolate into the ground.” all over the world, The Huntington must also A combination of drought and increased heat maintain a meticulous lookout for harmful insects, seems to be creating a “tipping point” for the state’s bacteria, and diseases on its grounds—and monitor Left: The leaf canopy of a healthy native oaks as well, says Rosi Dagit, senior conser- those that turn up in surrounding urban, park, and cork oak (Quercus suber), with its wonderfully craggy bark, provides vation biologist for the Resource Conservation wild landscapes. green shade for visitors to The District of the Santa Monica Mountains and an “Unfortunately, in the fourth year of drought,” Huntington during a time of intense drought. Below: Daniel arborist for the California Oak Foundation (as well says Tim Thibault, The Huntington’s curator of Goyette, The Huntington’s arborist, as author of the children’s book Grandmother Oak). woody plant materials, “we’ve got some significant measures the circumference of a diseased Liquidambar’s trunk and Oaks are “inordinately well-evolved to adapt to pests on the grounds here.” takes notes on its condition before drought conditions,” she says. “What’s changed is “It’s a challenging situation,” he says. “We have the tree is removed. Yellow stains on the trunk indicate the presence the number of days that are over 90 degrees. You trees that are already drought stressed, so they of the destructive Fusarium fungus can have lack of rain for months on end, and if the have pests and disease; in turn, the continued introduced by the polyphagous shot hole borer, a tiny invasive beetle. temperatures are not extreme, that is one level of drought stress is making the problems with those Photographs by Lisa Blackburn. stress. Increase the temperatures and number of pests worse.” days and months over which those high temperatures are found, and you’ve added a whole other layer of stress.” The stubby remains of an oak tree at The Huntington, its dying limbs lopped off, illustrate Trees in a Time of Drought Dagit’s point. “Now it is more a tall oak shrub than THE HUNTINGTON SERVES AS GROUND ZERO IN A RACE TO RESEARCH, AND ULTIMATELY an oak tree,” Goyette says. “At some point, we’re KILL, THE PESTS THAT THREATEN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA’S TREES going to have to say we’ve spent enough time and energy on it. Is the tree worth saving? Can we put By Lynne Heffley something in its place that will be less susceptible to drought and pests?” Losing it will be “a sad day,” he says. Like home- and landowners up and down the Four years of historic drought. Restricted water use. The Darth Vader of tree pests state, The Huntington is under a mandate to cut and assorted other destructive bugs, diseases, fungi, and root rot. To protect and water usage—in its case, by a third. It is in the process of installing water-conserving drip irrigation maintain the health of the thousands of trees on its property, The Huntington faces systems, part of a conversion that includes elimi- urgent challenges on multiple fronts. nating sections of lawn and revamping current irrigation methods. During a golf-cart tour, The Huntington’s arborist Daniel Goyette spots one Watering restrictions translate to 15 minutes of victim of California’s sustained drought: a dead pine tree rising from a stand of above ground irrigation, two days a week, Goyette leafy carrotwoods. Minutes later, he indicates a Chinese mahogany, between says. Any new drip irrigation system must take into account the varied amounts of water required by 10 and 20 years old, that has succumbed and is slated for removal. different species of trees, their location, and the

14 huntington.org huntington.org 15 “As we get further and further into the severe competition for water that will come from nearby drought,” Goyette says, “we’re seeing different plants. And because windblown dirt and dust remain species here start to die off. The European white on dry leaves, inhibiting life-sustaining photosyn- birch trees were the first to start to go. Alder trees. thesis, some overhead irrigation must continue. Some Southern magnolias are going.” “We’re doing our best to irrigate within the Over the next half hour, Goyette points out guidelines we’ve been given,” Goyette says. “We’re numerous areas of concern. Water-intensive stands in reevaluation mode right now.” of bamboo. Japanese cedars, turning brown with- (Water limits are a concern, too, for The Hun- out the moisture they are used to in their native tington’s Valencia orange and avocado groves and country. Some historic redwoods, too, are showing recently established grapevines. Since 2011, more their distress. than 81,000 pounds of the Valencias have gone to “Lack of humidity, lack of rainfall,” Goyette Food Forward, picked by the nonprofit organization’s says. “They need a deep soaking, and that’s the volunteers for distribution to charitable groups only thing we can replicate well, by getting some across Southern California.) drip irrigation out along the drip line of those As a microcosm of trees and plants that grow trees and allowing it to percolate into the ground.” all over the world, The Huntington must also A combination of drought and increased heat maintain a meticulous lookout for harmful insects, seems to be creating a “tipping point” for the state’s bacteria, and diseases on its grounds—and monitor Left: The leaf canopy of a healthy native oaks as well, says Rosi Dagit, senior conser- those that turn up in surrounding urban, park, and cork oak (Quercus suber), with its wonderfully craggy bark, provides vation biologist for the Resource Conservation wild landscapes. green shade for visitors to The District of the Santa Monica Mountains and an “Unfortunately, in the fourth year of drought,” Huntington during a time of intense drought. Below: Daniel arborist for the California Oak Foundation (as well says Tim Thibault, The Huntington’s curator of Goyette, The Huntington’s arborist, as author of the children’s book Grandmother Oak). woody plant materials, “we’ve got some significant measures the circumference of a diseased Liquidambar’s trunk and Oaks are “inordinately well-evolved to adapt to pests on the grounds here.” takes notes on its condition before drought conditions,” she says. “What’s changed is “It’s a challenging situation,” he says. “We have the tree is removed. Yellow stains on the trunk indicate the presence the number of days that are over 90 degrees. You trees that are already drought stressed, so they of the destructive Fusarium fungus can have lack of rain for months on end, and if the have pests and disease; in turn, the continued introduced by the polyphagous shot hole borer, a tiny invasive beetle. temperatures are not extreme, that is one level of drought stress is making the problems with those Photographs by Lisa Blackburn. stress. Increase the temperatures and number of pests worse.” days and months over which those high temperatures are found, and you’ve added a whole other layer of stress.” The stubby remains of an oak tree at The Huntington, its dying limbs lopped off, illustrate Trees in a Time of Drought Dagit’s point. “Now it is more a tall oak shrub than THE HUNTINGTON SERVES AS GROUND ZERO IN A RACE TO RESEARCH, AND ULTIMATELY an oak tree,” Goyette says. “At some point, we’re KILL, THE PESTS THAT THREATEN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA’S TREES going to have to say we’ve spent enough time and energy on it. Is the tree worth saving? Can we put By Lynne Heffley something in its place that will be less susceptible to drought and pests?” Losing it will be “a sad day,” he says. Like home- and landowners up and down the Four years of historic drought. Restricted water use. The Darth Vader of tree pests state, The Huntington is under a mandate to cut and assorted other destructive bugs, diseases, fungi, and root rot. To protect and water usage—in its case, by a third. It is in the process of installing water-conserving drip irrigation maintain the health of the thousands of trees on its property, The Huntington faces systems, part of a conversion that includes elimi- urgent challenges on multiple fronts. nating sections of lawn and revamping current irrigation methods. During a golf-cart tour, The Huntington’s arborist Daniel Goyette spots one Watering restrictions translate to 15 minutes of victim of California’s sustained drought: a dead pine tree rising from a stand of above ground irrigation, two days a week, Goyette leafy carrotwoods. Minutes later, he indicates a Chinese mahogany, between says. Any new drip irrigation system must take into account the varied amounts of water required by 10 and 20 years old, that has succumbed and is slated for removal. different species of trees, their location, and the

14 huntington.org huntington.org 15 Among them: the twig girdler (it gnaws the ends of tree branches), the When Eskalen began a survey of trees affected defoliating lerp psyllid (a eucalyptus pest), spider mites, root rot fungi, and by the newly identified and newly named poly- the Asian citrus psyllid, which can vector bacteria, but “thankfully,” Thibault, phagous shot hole borer, an effort first funded by says, “it is not that much of a problem here.” More serious, he feels, is a the California Avocado Commission, his scouting drought-driven infestation of the California five-spined ips, or bark beetle. led to The Huntington. (The Los Angeles County In an overgrown area north of the Chinese Garden—where there are plans to Arboretum is another research site for the UC replicate a mountainous pine forest in China—truncated, barren pines produce Riverside scientists.) an uncanny graveyard feel. Deodars have succumbed to the drought, but two “We had called [Eskalen] out to look at our Canary Island pines and a Torrey pine are victims of the opportunistic ips. avocados,” Thibault says, “and we had a large “We’ve been trying to remove trees as they are identified as being affected,” English oak by the entry that was dying and Thibault says, “but we’re at a point now in the Los Angeles Basin where we’ve asked him to look at that.” The culprit in both got both drought-stressed trees and a population of bark beetles that is high cases was Fusarium dieback, vectored by the poly- enough to take them out, even if they weren’t drought stressed.” phagous shot hole borer through the pathogenic “It’s a bad time to be a pine tree,” he adds. species of Fusarium (fungi) that it carries. Bark beetles, says Tom Coleman, a Southern California forest entomologist “That’s when Akif got really interested, and with the USDA Forest Service, “kill more trees than wildfire does every year, my life changed,” says Thibault. As a result of basically throughout North America. When a healthy tree has enough water their joint findings, Thibault coauthored with and enough resin, it can push these beetles out when they start to attack. When Eskalen, Stouthamer, and other UC Riverside promised transport system inhibits pesticides or they’re extremely stressed out, they can’t do that.” scientists a paper on the beetle and its symbiotic fungicides from reaching either the beetle or its Aerial surveys of forest areas in Southern California reveal an all-you-can- Fusarium, published in the July 2013 issue of source of nourishment. eat bark beetle smorgasbord: an estimated 2 million dead trees, mostly pines, Plant Disease, a journal of the American Phyto- The search for an effective pesticide and/or a lost to the drought. pathological Society. parasitic fungus, however, is still on. “There are a With some pests, vigilance and tried-and-true remedies aren’t enough. As the research continues, other surprises have lot of different ways we may be able to kill these Along a winding path through The Huntington’s Desert Garden, it is hard turned up. darn things,” Stouthamer says, “but it’s a process to miss: the enormous stump of a sycamore, one lone branch remaining of its Stouthamer has found that the polyphagous shot that takes time. In the meantime, 100-year-old once-lofty height of 80 feet. After some 100 years of growth, the venerable hole borer in Los Angeles differs genetically from sycamores go.” tree was felled by an insect smaller than a sesame seed: the polyphagous shot the San Diego invaders. Eskalen’s recent research Determining what effect, if any, the drought has hole borer. reveals that it also carries and disseminates not one on the infestations is another area of exploration. This tiny invader, a new species of ambrosia borer beetle not identified but three types of fungi (Fusarium euwallaceae, UC Riverside entomology graduate student Colin until 2012, is a carrier of pathogenic fungi. It has wiped out all but one of Graphium sp., and Acremonium sp.). The beetle Umeda is running an experiment in a field at The The Huntington’s box elders, and has oaks, sycamores, and numerous other population in San Diego carries two. Huntington to see if the beetle is drawn to well- tree species in its indiscriminate sights. “The Los Angeles beetle has spread from Sylmar hydrated or drier trees. He has brought in 64 young It is spreading its destruction over wide and growing swaths throughout to now close to Dana Point,” says Stouthamer. “At box elders, staked them out in an inviting grid, and San Diego, Los Angeles, and Riverside Counties. For plant pathologists some point, the two are going to meet, and we’re is using tensiometers to measure soil moisture levels. and entomologists from the University of California, Riverside, The Hun- worried about that, because then you can get new Box elders are “one of the most susceptible tington, home to virtually every tree species of interest to the bug, has be- combinations of beetles and fungi. And we don’t hosts for the beetle,” says Paine, chosen because come ground zero for research as they work feverishly in collaboration with know what that’s going to do.” “we want to be sure the beetles are going to attack Thibault, his Huntington colleagues, Coleman, and others to find ways to Essentially “fungi farmers,” these beetles are not at some point. It’s unfortunate as far as the tree Top: Pines north of the Chinese goes, but it does let us get additional information Garden that succumbed to the curb or neutralize the threat it poses. wood eaters but symbiotic vectors for the patho- bark beetle (also known as the “This beetle was first identified as coming into California as the tea shot genic fungi they carry. Inoculating the tree with that we might not be able to get otherwise.” five-spined ips) had to be cut Umeda is also monitoring the rate of beetle down and removed. Bottom: hole borer,” says Timothy Paine, UC Riverside professor of entomology. “It’s fungal spores, they grow the fungi—the sole diet Gardener Jose Lopez views been in the state for probably 10 years or so, but it wasn’t recognized as a of both adults and larvae. In the process, the fungi development under different temperatures in a Fusarium damage in a cross- quarantine facility at the UC Riverside Center for section of a Liquidambar tree problem here until two or three years ago.” colonize the tree’s vascular tissues and compromise, that fell victim to the Top: The black holes and chambers Plant pathologist Akif Eskalen, head of UC Riverside’s Eskalen Lab, made the link in early 2012 when often fatally, its ability to transport water and Invasive Species Research to “identify which tem- polyphagous shot hole borer. in this box elder’s wood indicate he was asked to examine a South Gate homeowner’s damaged backyard avocado tree. Eskalen found the nutrients from its roots. peratures are the limits that the beetle can reproduce Photographs by Lisa Blackburn. damage caused by the polyphagous shot hole borer. trunk riddled with tiny holes and stained by an unfamiliar fungal infection. (Signs of the beetle/fungi presence include leaf in, and in which the beetles perform especially Bottom: Nursery manager Dan UC Riverside entomologist Richard Stouthamer’s DNA analysis of the beetle responsible showed discoloration, branch die-off, moist, dark staining well,” he says. Berry holds five polyphagous shot hole borers—each smaller that, while morphologically identical to the tea shot hole borer (a wide-ranging Asian ambrosia beetle) and/or whitish powdery exudates around the tiny, The discovery of a bait attractive to the beetles than a sesame seed—in the and of the same genus, it had “14 percent genetic differences in the so-called barcoding gene.” These precision-drilled holes.) in their flying phase enabled the creation of odor- palm of his hand. Photographs by Lisa Blackburn. variations, Stouthamer said, proved it to be a separate species. “In the sense that you have the perfect storm, emitting funnel traps at The Huntington. Counting DNA fingerprinting would show, too, that this same species, deemed a threat to California’s multi- this beetle is the perfect pest,” says Stouthamer. the number of beetles in the traps is providing an million dollar avocado industry, previously had wreaked havoc in Israel’s avocado orchards (where it Once in the tree, it is inaccessible, and the com- estimate of beetle population development. had also been misidentified as the tea shot hole borer.)

16 huntington.org huntington.org 17 Among them: the twig girdler (it gnaws the ends of tree branches), the When Eskalen began a survey of trees affected defoliating lerp psyllid (a eucalyptus pest), spider mites, root rot fungi, and by the newly identified and newly named poly- the Asian citrus psyllid, which can vector bacteria, but “thankfully,” Thibault, phagous shot hole borer, an effort first funded by says, “it is not that much of a problem here.” More serious, he feels, is a the California Avocado Commission, his scouting drought-driven infestation of the California five-spined ips, or bark beetle. led to The Huntington. (The Los Angeles County In an overgrown area north of the Chinese Garden—where there are plans to Arboretum is another research site for the UC replicate a mountainous pine forest in China—truncated, barren pines produce Riverside scientists.) an uncanny graveyard feel. Deodars have succumbed to the drought, but two “We had called [Eskalen] out to look at our Canary Island pines and a Torrey pine are victims of the opportunistic ips. avocados,” Thibault says, “and we had a large “We’ve been trying to remove trees as they are identified as being affected,” English oak by the entry that was dying and Thibault says, “but we’re at a point now in the Los Angeles Basin where we’ve asked him to look at that.” The culprit in both got both drought-stressed trees and a population of bark beetles that is high cases was Fusarium dieback, vectored by the poly- enough to take them out, even if they weren’t drought stressed.” phagous shot hole borer through the pathogenic “It’s a bad time to be a pine tree,” he adds. species of Fusarium (fungi) that it carries. Bark beetles, says Tom Coleman, a Southern California forest entomologist “That’s when Akif got really interested, and with the USDA Forest Service, “kill more trees than wildfire does every year, my life changed,” says Thibault. As a result of basically throughout North America. When a healthy tree has enough water their joint findings, Thibault coauthored with and enough resin, it can push these beetles out when they start to attack. When Eskalen, Stouthamer, and other UC Riverside promised transport system inhibits pesticides or they’re extremely stressed out, they can’t do that.” scientists a paper on the beetle and its symbiotic fungicides from reaching either the beetle or its Aerial surveys of forest areas in Southern California reveal an all-you-can- Fusarium, published in the July 2013 issue of source of nourishment. eat bark beetle smorgasbord: an estimated 2 million dead trees, mostly pines, Plant Disease, a journal of the American Phyto- The search for an effective pesticide and/or a lost to the drought. pathological Society. parasitic fungus, however, is still on. “There are a With some pests, vigilance and tried-and-true remedies aren’t enough. As the research continues, other surprises have lot of different ways we may be able to kill these Along a winding path through The Huntington’s Desert Garden, it is hard turned up. darn things,” Stouthamer says, “but it’s a process to miss: the enormous stump of a sycamore, one lone branch remaining of its Stouthamer has found that the polyphagous shot that takes time. In the meantime, 100-year-old once-lofty height of 80 feet. After some 100 years of growth, the venerable hole borer in Los Angeles differs genetically from sycamores go.” tree was felled by an insect smaller than a sesame seed: the polyphagous shot the San Diego invaders. Eskalen’s recent research Determining what effect, if any, the drought has hole borer. reveals that it also carries and disseminates not one on the infestations is another area of exploration. This tiny invader, a new species of ambrosia borer beetle not identified but three types of fungi (Fusarium euwallaceae, UC Riverside entomology graduate student Colin until 2012, is a carrier of pathogenic fungi. It has wiped out all but one of Graphium sp., and Acremonium sp.). The beetle Umeda is running an experiment in a field at The The Huntington’s box elders, and has oaks, sycamores, and numerous other population in San Diego carries two. Huntington to see if the beetle is drawn to well- tree species in its indiscriminate sights. “The Los Angeles beetle has spread from Sylmar hydrated or drier trees. He has brought in 64 young It is spreading its destruction over wide and growing swaths throughout to now close to Dana Point,” says Stouthamer. “At box elders, staked them out in an inviting grid, and San Diego, Los Angeles, and Riverside Counties. For plant pathologists some point, the two are going to meet, and we’re is using tensiometers to measure soil moisture levels. and entomologists from the University of California, Riverside, The Hun- worried about that, because then you can get new Box elders are “one of the most susceptible tington, home to virtually every tree species of interest to the bug, has be- combinations of beetles and fungi. And we don’t hosts for the beetle,” says Paine, chosen because come ground zero for research as they work feverishly in collaboration with know what that’s going to do.” “we want to be sure the beetles are going to attack Thibault, his Huntington colleagues, Coleman, and others to find ways to Essentially “fungi farmers,” these beetles are not at some point. It’s unfortunate as far as the tree Top: Pines north of the Chinese goes, but it does let us get additional information Garden that succumbed to the curb or neutralize the threat it poses. wood eaters but symbiotic vectors for the patho- bark beetle (also known as the “This beetle was first identified as coming into California as the tea shot genic fungi they carry. Inoculating the tree with that we might not be able to get otherwise.” five-spined ips) had to be cut Umeda is also monitoring the rate of beetle down and removed. Bottom: hole borer,” says Timothy Paine, UC Riverside professor of entomology. “It’s fungal spores, they grow the fungi—the sole diet Gardener Jose Lopez views been in the state for probably 10 years or so, but it wasn’t recognized as a of both adults and larvae. In the process, the fungi development under different temperatures in a Fusarium damage in a cross- quarantine facility at the UC Riverside Center for section of a Liquidambar tree problem here until two or three years ago.” colonize the tree’s vascular tissues and compromise, that fell victim to the Top: The black holes and chambers Plant pathologist Akif Eskalen, head of UC Riverside’s Eskalen Lab, made the link in early 2012 when often fatally, its ability to transport water and Invasive Species Research to “identify which tem- polyphagous shot hole borer. in this box elder’s wood indicate he was asked to examine a South Gate homeowner’s damaged backyard avocado tree. Eskalen found the nutrients from its roots. peratures are the limits that the beetle can reproduce Photographs by Lisa Blackburn. damage caused by the polyphagous shot hole borer. trunk riddled with tiny holes and stained by an unfamiliar fungal infection. (Signs of the beetle/fungi presence include leaf in, and in which the beetles perform especially Bottom: Nursery manager Dan UC Riverside entomologist Richard Stouthamer’s DNA analysis of the beetle responsible showed discoloration, branch die-off, moist, dark staining well,” he says. Berry holds five polyphagous shot hole borers—each smaller that, while morphologically identical to the tea shot hole borer (a wide-ranging Asian ambrosia beetle) and/or whitish powdery exudates around the tiny, The discovery of a bait attractive to the beetles than a sesame seed—in the and of the same genus, it had “14 percent genetic differences in the so-called barcoding gene.” These precision-drilled holes.) in their flying phase enabled the creation of odor- palm of his hand. Photographs by Lisa Blackburn. variations, Stouthamer said, proved it to be a separate species. “In the sense that you have the perfect storm, emitting funnel traps at The Huntington. Counting DNA fingerprinting would show, too, that this same species, deemed a threat to California’s multi- this beetle is the perfect pest,” says Stouthamer. the number of beetles in the traps is providing an million dollar avocado industry, previously had wreaked havoc in Israel’s avocado orchards (where it Once in the tree, it is inaccessible, and the com- estimate of beetle population development. had also been misidentified as the tea shot hole borer.)

16 huntington.org huntington.org 17 THE LANGHAM HUNTINGTON, PASADENA is the perfect place to escape from it all and relax in luxury as you enjoy world-class dining and the award-winning Chuan Spa. Long committed to the limited use of chemical pesticides, The Huntington would certainly prefer a biotic solution, Thibault says. “We’ve got 700,000 visitors a year, not to mention concerns for our own safety,” he points out. “The current theory in integrated pest management is to spray as little as possible, and we do as little as we possibly can.” Meanwhile, Goyette canvases the gardens daily for drought and pest damage. In any given week, he walks and drives—via golf cart—around all 207 acres of The Huntington property, “just to be sure nothing new is dying, staying aware of what’s happening.” “Something I need to look at now,” he says, “is a willow in the Shakespeare Garden. Apparently (“We’ve also tried some ‘things that are so there is something attacking that. It could be,” he crazy they just might work,’ ” Thibault says. Bio- adds with optimistic cheer, “just a nuisance pest acoustical control, for example, involves the play- that will come and go.” back of recorded sounds made by the beetles; For his part, Thibault, even as the hunt for a researchers at Northern Arizona University have solution to the polyphagous shot hole borer and had some success with this bark beetle control in its killer fungi continues with crime scene urgency, CHUAN SPA their laboratory.) is concerned about two bad bugs not yet on site: Uniting today’s cutting-edge facial technologies with treatments inspired by While it isn’t clear how the polyphagous shot the South American palm weevil—“it is right on Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chuan Spa offers luxurious services such as hole borer migrated to Southern California via the border in Tijuana,” he notes—and the gold- two separate routes, the human factor is likely, massages, facials, body treatments, manicures, pedicures, and hair services. spotted oak borer. Paine says. It also features two couple’s suites, one of which is a completely private VIP The latter “is now in Orange County, and “People don’t recognize what serious problems Suite delivering the ultimate feeling of exclusivity, for ideal relaxation. there’s a continuity of oak trees, coupled with the they might cause by not being careful about bring- flight range of the insect, that could ladder it to us.” ing in plant material from overseas. I mean, the “And you never know,” Thibault says, “when signs at the international terminals at airports are somebody is going to throw a load of infected THE ROYCE | WOOD-FIRED STEAKHOUSE not there by accident.” firewood in the back of their pickup and bring it Featuring the fi nest selection of USDA Prime Cuts, Australian Wagyu and At present, just under four dozen tree species right to Pasadena.” are the beetle’s favored reproductive hosts. The Authentic Kobe Japanese Beef, expertly prepared over a wood-fi red grill to number of tree species that it targets? More than sear in maximum fl avor and juiciness. Menu includes fresh, seasonal seafood Lynne Heffley is a freelance writer based in South 350 and counting. and comforting side dishes. Enjoy pre- or post-dinner drinks in the red wine Pasadena, Calif. Top: Tim Thibault (left), curator There is one promising development. During room or fi nd a spot at the Chef’s Table for the best steak experience in town. of woody plant materials at The Huntington, and Richard trips to Vietnam and Taiwan—home to genetic Stouthamer, entomologist at University of California, Riverside, matches for the L.A. and San Diego polyphagous collect polyphagous shot hole shot hole borer populations, respectively—Eskalen, borers from odor-emitting funnel traps to estimate the size of their Stouthamer, and Thibault have found species of a population. Bottom: Colin Umeda, predatory wasp and of a fly that seem to target this THE TAP ROOM an entomology graduate student at UC Riverside, conducts an beetle. The insects require further study in the Serving handmade cocktails, premium artisanal beers on tap and upscale experiment with 64 young box field and in the lab (a process of years, not months, bar bites nightly. Live music Thursday – Saturday evenings. elders at The Huntington, recording soil moisture levels to considering quarantine and permission require- determine if polyphagous shot ments), but Stouthamer has hopes that the wasp, hole borers are drawn to well- hydrated or drier trees. in particular, may be the key to substantially re- Photographs by Lisa Blackburn. ducing Southern California’s beetle populations. (UC Riverside, which has a long history with To make a dining or spa reservation, please dial (626) 568 3900 plant management through biological controls, has also identified a parasitic wasp that successfully targets the Asian citrus psyllid, a major threat to California’s citrus industry and home growers.)

18 huntington.org 1401 South Oak Knoll Avenue, Pasadena, California 91106 USA T (626) 568 3900 F (626) 568 3700 pasadena.langhamhotels.com Let Us Entertain You FANCHON AND MARCO’S BIG “IDEAS” REVOLUTIONIZED THE 1920S THEATER WORLD By Jennifer A. Watts

Chances are you’ve never heard of Fanchon and Marco. But in the 1920s, millions Far left: “The San Francisco Beauties,” the first female tap of Americans had. A wildly successful theatrical firm founded in 1923 by Fanchon dance lineup on the West Coast, 1927. The dancers are (left to right): Wolff Simon (1892–1965) and her brother, Marco Wolff (1894–1977), produced live Alice Sullivan, Zeta Harrison, Reva Howitt (stage name “Lollipop”), stage shows that dazzled moviegoers from Los Angeles to New York. The Fanchon Marge Hacker, Alice Haas, Idis Hacker. In her book, Lollipop: and Marco brand became synonymous with fast-paced extravaganzas that featured Vaudeville Turns with a Fanchon and Marco Dancer, Howitt wrote that, at the end of 1925, she was elaborate sets and row upon row of winsome chorus girls. In 1932, at the height of selected to be “one of the San Francisco Beauties, Fanchon the Great Depression, the outfit reported earnings in the seven figures, and Fanchon and Marco’s premiere showgirls.” Photograph by Harry Wenger. estimated that she had trained more than 10,000 dancers all told, including some Center: Marco Wolff, far left, with three unidentified women who would go on to become big-time stars, such as Shirley Temple and Ginger Rogers. outside the Los Angeles home office of West Coast Theatres, The press dubbed the sister and brother the “Henry Fords of entertainment” for their one of the largest theater owners and operators in the country. assembly-line approach to mass-producing shows. With the recent acquisition of Fanchon and Marco did business with them and provided shows 1,400 photographs donated by the family, The Huntington now has a rare group of for all of their theaters. Photograph by Harry Wenger. Right: Fanchon pictures depicting hundreds of Fanchon and Marco sets and performers between Wolff, far left, and performers rehearsing for the “Opportunity Idea,” 1928. Unidentified 1923 and 1935, the organization’s heyday. photographer.

huntington.org 21 Let Us Entertain You FANCHON AND MARCO’S BIG “IDEAS” REVOLUTIONIZED THE 1920S THEATER WORLD By Jennifer A. Watts

huntington.org 21 Born and raised in a large Jewish family in often nebulous theme. An F&M Idea promised big turn-of-the-century Los Angeles, Fanchon and laughs, lavish costumes, and a grand finale in a Marco Wolff caught the show business bug early snappy 40 minutes, tops. Themes ran from the fairly on. As teenagers, the duo cut their teeth on the predictable (“Hollywood Beauties,” “Dancelogue,” vaudeville circuit performing a violin and ball- “Romance”) to the timely (“Radio,” “Aviation”) to room dance act. By 1919, they had migrated be- the outré (“Hot Mama Goose”) to the downright hind the scenes to produce musical revues. An weird. The “Salad Idea” was one such oddity, a epiphany came with their 1920 California-themed production from the fertile mind of Fanchon, who production “Sun-Kist,” starring a line of high- dreamed it up over dinner one night. Musicians kicking beauties. A frenetic mash-up, according to played in chef’s caps while dancers, dressed like one contemporary critic, “Sun-Kist” whirled be- lettuce leaves and asparagus stalks, emerged on tween burlesque and grand opera, “with dashes stage from a colossal bowl. According to one of the of musical comedy and vaudeville in between.” company’s long-term chorus-line hoofers, Reva West Coast audiences gobbled it up. The two Howitt (aka Lollipop), the dancers were not amused. sensed a lucrative opportunity at the historic Aside from offering entertainment value that crossroads where vaudeville overlapped with the packed a swift punch, sheer volume proved an movie industry’s meteoric rise and huge audiences. equally important element to the duo’s success. A movie ticket to a big city theater in the early Ideas were churned out at the rate of one per week 1920s often included a full-fledged musical revue in a block-long Hollywood facility that employed with live song and dance. Called “prologues,” a phalanx of choreographers, musicians, carpen- these stage shows preceded and often promoted ters, electricians, seamstresses, “advance men,” the film. Audiences loved them—often more than stage directors, scenic painters, and the hundreds the silent film itself. Movie executives and savvy of others needed to create and promote these pre- theater owners saw them as a high-profile way to packaged shows. Ideas required a deep well of tal- keep filling seats. The problem? A show was cost- ent, and Los Angeles provided an ample, ever- ly and fleeting, as it often related to a specific renewable supply. More than 1,000 performers film. A prologue typically closed when a movie were cast in the dozens of F&M Ideas circulating left the theater after a brief one- to two-week run. around the nation in 1932. Marco, who oversaw Smaller houses simply could not afford them, given the business side of things, ticked off an extensive the logistics and expense. Enter Fanchon and Marco. list that included novelty acts (whistlers, mind These two vaudevillians-turned-producers hit upon readers, “iron jaw experts,” and “punching bag an enterprising scheme to generate hundreds of artists”); animals (dogs, elephants, horses, four touring prologues, meeting a nationwide demand grizzly bears); musicians; acrobats; contortionists; for them in a big way. a plethora of comics (including a “nut comic” and “The secret to a good prologue,” Fanchon told a “Dutch comic”); and dancers of all sorts. Fan- one reporter who had asked for an accounting of chon openly credited the company’s Southern Clockwise from upper left: A dancer wearing an “asparagus top” headpiece for the “Salad Idea,” photograph by Harry Wenger; a dancer in the “Peacock Idea,” 1927, photograph by Paralta Studios; a dancer in the “Masks Idea,” F&M’s success, “is to have the most entertainment California locale: “If you need a Japanese knife 1927, photograph by Paralta Studios; Norma Wilson in the “Masks Idea,” 1927, photograph by Paralta Studios. in the least amount of time.” Fanchon and Marco thrower or a Hindu snake charmer, or a rainmak- entered the prologue business in 1923 with an er or a long-haired prophet—there they are, as (most of whom ranged between 15 and 20 years of innovation they called the “Idea,” a compressed quick as you can get them on the phone…Los An- age), giving high marks to intelligence as well. All entertainment grab bag based on a broad and geles is the most amazing place in the world!” the better to swiftly learn the complicated and Above all else, chorus lines of young women ever-changing dance numbers, many of which Top: “Hoops M’Idea,” 1927. From a display advertisement in the Los Angeles Times for the Loew’s State Theater: “On the stage…Fanchon & became the signature Fanchon and Marco touch. Fanchon devised herself. Marco’s ‘Hoops M’Idea’ featuring Renoff and Renova, world’s greatest There were the Sunkist Beauties and San Francisco To be a Fanchonette required precision timing and classical dancers, Sunkist Beauties—All Beauts! Juanita Wray, prima donna of ‘Castles in the Air’ – The Lovetts – Scotty Westen, Natalie Beauties, small troupes of six to eight. Yet, the Fan- stamina, not to mention guts. A crowd-pleasing Harrison.” Photograph by Harry Wenger. Center: “Stairway of Dreams chonettes were the pièce de résistance. The groups number might draw on a repertoire of steps from Idea,” 1928. From a display advertisement in the San Jose Evening News: “Fanchon and Marco’s ‘Stairway of Dreams.’ Biggest stage of two dozen dancers—enough to fill a stage— ballroom, ballet, tap, and jazz. A Fanchonette spectacle in months with 20 great girls. Flo and Ollie Walters, Woods were the creative brainchild of Fanchon, as the could be required to perform an arabesque aloft Miller, and of course, Milt Franklyn and his band!” Unidentified photographer. Bottom: “Masks Idea,” 1927. According to the Los name suggests. She supervised each Fanchonette’s while clutching a rope or suspended from a swing. Angeles Times: “On the stage, Rube Wolf ‘world’s homeliest musical selection and artistic training through the popular She might be wearing an elaborate spider costume shriek’ makes his debut at the Metropolitan in Fanchon and Marco’s ‘Masks.’” Rube Wolf, who dropped one f from his surname, was dance school F&M opened in 1926. Fanchon while crawling across a giant web or a cumbersome Fanchon and Marco’s brother and an orchestra leader for the prized “youth and naturalness” in her dancers hoopskirt that concealed a pair of stilts. The “Pirate company; he also played trumpet. Photograph by Harry Wenger.

huntington.org 23 Born and raised in a large Jewish family in often nebulous theme. An F&M Idea promised big turn-of-the-century Los Angeles, Fanchon and laughs, lavish costumes, and a grand finale in a Marco Wolff caught the show business bug early snappy 40 minutes, tops. Themes ran from the fairly on. As teenagers, the duo cut their teeth on the predictable (“Hollywood Beauties,” “Dancelogue,” vaudeville circuit performing a violin and ball- “Romance”) to the timely (“Radio,” “Aviation”) to room dance act. By 1919, they had migrated be- the outré (“Hot Mama Goose”) to the downright hind the scenes to produce musical revues. An weird. The “Salad Idea” was one such oddity, a epiphany came with their 1920 California-themed production from the fertile mind of Fanchon, who production “Sun-Kist,” starring a line of high- dreamed it up over dinner one night. Musicians kicking beauties. A frenetic mash-up, according to played in chef’s caps while dancers, dressed like one contemporary critic, “Sun-Kist” whirled be- lettuce leaves and asparagus stalks, emerged on tween burlesque and grand opera, “with dashes stage from a colossal bowl. According to one of the of musical comedy and vaudeville in between.” company’s long-term chorus-line hoofers, Reva West Coast audiences gobbled it up. The two Howitt (aka Lollipop), the dancers were not amused. sensed a lucrative opportunity at the historic Aside from offering entertainment value that crossroads where vaudeville overlapped with the packed a swift punch, sheer volume proved an movie industry’s meteoric rise and huge audiences. equally important element to the duo’s success. A movie ticket to a big city theater in the early Ideas were churned out at the rate of one per week 1920s often included a full-fledged musical revue in a block-long Hollywood facility that employed with live song and dance. Called “prologues,” a phalanx of choreographers, musicians, carpen- these stage shows preceded and often promoted ters, electricians, seamstresses, “advance men,” the film. Audiences loved them—often more than stage directors, scenic painters, and the hundreds the silent film itself. Movie executives and savvy of others needed to create and promote these pre- theater owners saw them as a high-profile way to packaged shows. Ideas required a deep well of tal- keep filling seats. The problem? A show was cost- ent, and Los Angeles provided an ample, ever- ly and fleeting, as it often related to a specific renewable supply. More than 1,000 performers film. A prologue typically closed when a movie were cast in the dozens of F&M Ideas circulating left the theater after a brief one- to two-week run. around the nation in 1932. Marco, who oversaw Smaller houses simply could not afford them, given the business side of things, ticked off an extensive the logistics and expense. Enter Fanchon and Marco. list that included novelty acts (whistlers, mind These two vaudevillians-turned-producers hit upon readers, “iron jaw experts,” and “punching bag an enterprising scheme to generate hundreds of artists”); animals (dogs, elephants, horses, four touring prologues, meeting a nationwide demand grizzly bears); musicians; acrobats; contortionists; for them in a big way. a plethora of comics (including a “nut comic” and “The secret to a good prologue,” Fanchon told a “Dutch comic”); and dancers of all sorts. Fan- one reporter who had asked for an accounting of chon openly credited the company’s Southern Clockwise from upper left: A dancer wearing an “asparagus top” headpiece for the “Salad Idea,” photograph by Harry Wenger; a dancer in the “Peacock Idea,” 1927, photograph by Paralta Studios; a dancer in the “Masks Idea,” F&M’s success, “is to have the most entertainment California locale: “If you need a Japanese knife 1927, photograph by Paralta Studios; Norma Wilson in the “Masks Idea,” 1927, photograph by Paralta Studios. in the least amount of time.” Fanchon and Marco thrower or a Hindu snake charmer, or a rainmak- entered the prologue business in 1923 with an er or a long-haired prophet—there they are, as (most of whom ranged between 15 and 20 years of innovation they called the “Idea,” a compressed quick as you can get them on the phone…Los An- age), giving high marks to intelligence as well. All entertainment grab bag based on a broad and geles is the most amazing place in the world!” the better to swiftly learn the complicated and Above all else, chorus lines of young women ever-changing dance numbers, many of which Top: “Hoops M’Idea,” 1927. From a display advertisement in the Los Angeles Times for the Loew’s State Theater: “On the stage…Fanchon & became the signature Fanchon and Marco touch. Fanchon devised herself. Marco’s ‘Hoops M’Idea’ featuring Renoff and Renova, world’s greatest There were the Sunkist Beauties and San Francisco To be a Fanchonette required precision timing and classical dancers, Sunkist Beauties—All Beauts! Juanita Wray, prima donna of ‘Castles in the Air’ – The Lovetts – Scotty Westen, Natalie Beauties, small troupes of six to eight. Yet, the Fan- stamina, not to mention guts. A crowd-pleasing Harrison.” Photograph by Harry Wenger. Center: “Stairway of Dreams chonettes were the pièce de résistance. The groups number might draw on a repertoire of steps from Idea,” 1928. From a display advertisement in the San Jose Evening News: “Fanchon and Marco’s ‘Stairway of Dreams.’ Biggest stage of two dozen dancers—enough to fill a stage— ballroom, ballet, tap, and jazz. A Fanchonette spectacle in months with 20 great girls. Flo and Ollie Walters, Woods were the creative brainchild of Fanchon, as the could be required to perform an arabesque aloft Miller, and of course, Milt Franklyn and his band!” Unidentified photographer. Bottom: “Masks Idea,” 1927. According to the Los name suggests. She supervised each Fanchonette’s while clutching a rope or suspended from a swing. Angeles Times: “On the stage, Rube Wolf ‘world’s homeliest musical selection and artistic training through the popular She might be wearing an elaborate spider costume shriek’ makes his debut at the Metropolitan in Fanchon and Marco’s ‘Masks.’” Rube Wolf, who dropped one f from his surname, was dance school F&M opened in 1926. Fanchon while crawling across a giant web or a cumbersome Fanchon and Marco’s brother and an orchestra leader for the prized “youth and naturalness” in her dancers hoopskirt that concealed a pair of stilts. The “Pirate company; he also played trumpet. Photograph by Harry Wenger.

huntington.org 23 to a frenetic grand finale in which her tin-soled shoes Fanchon and Marco may have burned brightly threw off blue sparks! In the popular naval-themed as the impresarios of those strange theatrical “Gobs of Joy” (gob being a slang term for a sailor), amalgams called “prologues,” but demand for the a pair of Fanchonettes sat astride enormous battle- genre was over in a flash. While neither the first ship guns that discharged a pyrotechnic finish nor only people in the prologue business, the two (see opposite, top right). cornered the niche market with efficient panache The life of a Fanchon and Marco performer and grand, go-for-broke style. Today little F&M could be grueling, and never more so than when business history exists: no records, receipts, ledgers, out on the road. By 1928, F&M Ideas were play- or files, despite F&M’s having employed thousands ing in more than 100 theaters from San Diego to of people in its day. This fact makes The Huntington’s Vancouver on the West Coast, and across the 15 volumes of photographs and small group of country in Colorado, Montana, Illinois, Missouri, clippings and programs an indispensable resource and New York, in cities large and small. A show for scholars. The volumes, which appear to have complete with sets, costumes, and a cast of 40 to been organized chronologically, contain images— 50 would arrive at a venue to perform four to five often four to a page—that served as a corporate shows each day. After a week or two, the produc- inventory of hundreds of the Ideas, both sets and tion would take an overnight train, repeating the performers. Though accompanying information entire process at a new venue with rarely a day off. is scant, several theater and dance specialists have Dancers were paid a little more than $30 per week already begun to identify members of specific casts, and typically made the six-month circuit two times, such as the Mexican-American Romero brothers, three at the most. Even so, one wide-eyed Fancho- called the “Aristocrats of Dance,” who appeared in nette from Iowa expressed the sentiments of many many Spanish-themed Ideas. an up-and-coming young dancer in appraising In later years, Reva Howitt reminisced that she Opposite (top left): “Seeing Double Idea,” 1930. A reviewer in the Los Angeles Times commented: “whether they are real twins or stage twins, in every case, doesn’t matter. Each pair looks convincingly alike, and they her F&M tour as “glamorous and well-paying.” and many fellow performers considered their brief include comedians, tumblers, fun-makers, and dancers.” Photograph by Harry Wenger. Opposite (top right): Despite the ascendency of the “talkies” and the time with F&M to be a labor of love. “I speak for The Four Covans (1928), a tap dance group featuring dancing sensation Willie Covan (third from left), his brother Dewey, and their wives. Photograph by Paralta Studios. Opposite (bottom): Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle catastrophic Great Depression, Fanchon and Marco my hundreds of counterparts…who are lost in and Nita Martan, stars of “College Capers Idea,” 1928. According to the Los Angeles Times: “F&M, gunning for continued to do surprisingly well into the 1930s. obscurity but who provided entertainment for the big names for their stage Ideas, have just signed…Arbuckle to star in person in ‘College Capers’…in the role of the fat campus freshie.” Photograph by Harry Wenger. Top (left): “Yachting Idea,” 1926. Unidentified F&M opened a theatrical school in 1933, training public with zest, enthusiasm, proficiency, respon- photographer. Top (right): “Gobs of Joy Idea,” 1929. Photograph by Harry Wenger. Bottom: “Moonlit Waters Idea” required shoot-outs, ladder climbing, and a myriad wannabes and budding stars, including sibility, and color,” she wrote. “Hurrah for us!” Idea,” 1927. Variety commented: “F&M have taken advantage of the pop song of the same title and utilized other ‘moon’ songs for this newest of Ideas.” grand finale that included doing the splits. The the likes of Judy Garland, Bing Crosby, and Cyd aforementioned Lollipop remembered whirling Charisse, among others. Even so, by 1936, enter- Jennifer A. Watts is curator of photographs at from a “spectacular peacock number in a very tainment appetites had shifted, and F&M shuttered The Huntington. scanty costume” to a Red Riding Hood number the Hollywood production facility for good.

24 huntington.org huntington.org 25 to a frenetic grand finale in which her tin-soled shoes Fanchon and Marco may have burned brightly threw off blue sparks! In the popular naval-themed as the impresarios of those strange theatrical “Gobs of Joy” (gob being a slang term for a sailor), amalgams called “prologues,” but demand for the a pair of Fanchonettes sat astride enormous battle- genre was over in a flash. While neither the first ship guns that discharged a pyrotechnic finish nor only people in the prologue business, the two (see opposite, top right). cornered the niche market with efficient panache The life of a Fanchon and Marco performer and grand, go-for-broke style. Today little F&M could be grueling, and never more so than when business history exists: no records, receipts, ledgers, out on the road. By 1928, F&M Ideas were play- or files, despite F&M’s having employed thousands ing in more than 100 theaters from San Diego to of people in its day. This fact makes The Huntington’s Vancouver on the West Coast, and across the 15 volumes of photographs and small group of country in Colorado, Montana, Illinois, Missouri, clippings and programs an indispensable resource and New York, in cities large and small. A show for scholars. The volumes, which appear to have complete with sets, costumes, and a cast of 40 to been organized chronologically, contain images— 50 would arrive at a venue to perform four to five often four to a page—that served as a corporate shows each day. After a week or two, the produc- inventory of hundreds of the Ideas, both sets and tion would take an overnight train, repeating the performers. Though accompanying information entire process at a new venue with rarely a day off. is scant, several theater and dance specialists have Dancers were paid a little more than $30 per week already begun to identify members of specific casts, and typically made the six-month circuit two times, such as the Mexican-American Romero brothers, three at the most. Even so, one wide-eyed Fancho- called the “Aristocrats of Dance,” who appeared in nette from Iowa expressed the sentiments of many many Spanish-themed Ideas. an up-and-coming young dancer in appraising In later years, Reva Howitt reminisced that she Opposite (top left): “Seeing Double Idea,” 1930. A reviewer in the Los Angeles Times commented: “whether they are real twins or stage twins, in every case, doesn’t matter. Each pair looks convincingly alike, and they her F&M tour as “glamorous and well-paying.” and many fellow performers considered their brief include comedians, tumblers, fun-makers, and dancers.” Photograph by Harry Wenger. Opposite (top right): Despite the ascendency of the “talkies” and the time with F&M to be a labor of love. “I speak for The Four Covans (1928), a tap dance group featuring dancing sensation Willie Covan (third from left), his brother Dewey, and their wives. Photograph by Paralta Studios. Opposite (bottom): Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle catastrophic Great Depression, Fanchon and Marco my hundreds of counterparts…who are lost in and Nita Martan, stars of “College Capers Idea,” 1928. According to the Los Angeles Times: “F&M, gunning for continued to do surprisingly well into the 1930s. obscurity but who provided entertainment for the big names for their stage Ideas, have just signed…Arbuckle to star in person in ‘College Capers’…in the role of the fat campus freshie.” Photograph by Harry Wenger. Top (left): “Yachting Idea,” 1926. Unidentified F&M opened a theatrical school in 1933, training public with zest, enthusiasm, proficiency, respon- photographer. Top (right): “Gobs of Joy Idea,” 1929. Photograph by Harry Wenger. Bottom: “Moonlit Waters Idea” required shoot-outs, ladder climbing, and a myriad wannabes and budding stars, including sibility, and color,” she wrote. “Hurrah for us!” Idea,” 1927. Variety commented: “F&M have taken advantage of the pop song of the same title and utilized other ‘moon’ songs for this newest of Ideas.” grand finale that included doing the splits. The the likes of Judy Garland, Bing Crosby, and Cyd aforementioned Lollipop remembered whirling Charisse, among others. Even so, by 1936, enter- Jennifer A. Watts is curator of photographs at from a “spectacular peacock number in a very tainment appetites had shifted, and F&M shuttered The Huntington. scanty costume” to a Red Riding Hood number the Hollywood production facility for good.

24 huntington.org huntington.org 25 scholar’s insight Mysterious Manuscript in a Silk Purse

AN INTIMATE GLIMPSE AT A MEDIEVAL POEM PUT TO A SURPRISING USE

By Andrea Denny-Brown

s a graduate student doing research in study. I asked to see it, along with a series of the library at The Huntington in the other rare manuscripts, because I knew from its summer of 2002, I examined a manu- catalogue description that it had illustrations to script that surprised me so much that it accompany the poem, which was about various wouldA take me more than 10 years to fully articu- sacred objects associated with Christ’s life and death. late my response. At the time, I was writing a That manuscript ended up being a tiny roll identified doctoral dissertation on the symbolic nature of by the call number HM 26054. When I went to pick clothing in medieval English poetry, and I knew it up from the librarian at the call desk in the reading that this particular manuscript recorded a unique room, it arrived in an emerald green silk bag with Middle English poem I had recently begun to golden drawstrings, the whole thing not much larger than the palm of my hand. I should admit that in this early period of my archival research, I didn’t always have a full grasp of the size or shape of the manuscript I had called up to examine, and I was often surprised by the material presence of an item as I brought it back to my desk for closer study. But this object was even THE ORIGINAL more startling than usual; the delicate 19th-century silk bag implied that the mysterious manuscript inside was to be treated like a precious piece of jewelry. More used to carrying heavy, slightly bulky, brown leather books back to my research CONVERTIBLE station, I felt this time like I was carrying an intimate possession—a lady’s reticule with unknown personal items inside.

The year-round beautiful weather in Los Angeles Top: The Huntington Library’s creates the irresistible urge to cruise along the manuscript of a 15th-century English poem written on a scroll coast with the top down. Even the charioteers on of parchment approximately four inches wide and five feet long. display at the Getty Villa can’t resist the feeling The illustration and opening lines of the poem depict the of the wind through their hair. Come visit them Christological artifact known as Veronica’s veil. Christ’s face is and the more than 1,200 antiquities on display. just visible in the center of the image. Bottom: In the Middle Ages, the tiny roll was most likely The Getty Villa. One mile north of Sunset on PCH. carried in a leather pouch. For Reserve your free ticket today. several decades, however, it has been kept in this Victorian silk purse with golden drawstrings. Admission is free. An advance timed-entry ticket is required. Photographs by Kate Lain.

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GETTY VILLA DESTINATION PUB(S): HUNTINGTON FRONTIERS CONTACT: JESSICA ROBINSON

TRIM: 8.5” X 10.5” INSERTION: FALL/WINTER ISSUE PROOF: 1 CURIOUS OBJECT ABOUT CURIOUS OBJECTS The so-called arma Christi poem—a Latin phrase meaning the “arms” or “instruments” of Christ— at Ambassador Auditorium was written in Middle English in the 15th century and survives in 20 manuscripts, two of which are housed at the Huntington Library (HM 26054 and HM 142). This fascinating poem is simultaneously FEEL a prayer, an ode, and a visual study of the many Singpoli the material objects associated with Christ’s Passion. Classics Series the Some of these objects presented in the poem are THRILL clearly miraculous, such as Veronica’s veil and the 2015/16 famously “seamless” garment worn by Christ, but most, such as the pillar, ropes, and blindfold used in November 7 | 2 & 8 pm February 13 | 2 & 8 pm Christ’s mocking, and the ladder, hammer, and nails Vivaldi Four Seasons Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto used during and after the crucifixion, are more mun- December 19 | 4 & 7pm March 19 | 2 & 8 pm dane—a cluster of otherwise unremarkable things Holiday Candlelight Mozart Symphony No. 40 made spectacular by their role in this singular event. Tickets *at All Saint’s Church My interest in this poem originated in one April 30 | 2 & 8 pm particular stanza, the verses that deal with Christ’s Start at January 9 | 2 & 8 pm An American in Paris garments. In the Bible, Christ wears two main items Beethoven “Emperor” of clothing. The tunica inconsutilis, or “unseamed $35 Piano Concerto tunic,” is Christ’s own garment, so called because it was made without a seam, meaning that it was not PasadenaSymphony-Pops.org made by a human hand; the vestis purpurea, or Call 626.793.7172 “purple garment,” is the garment in which he is dressed during his mocking, when his captors The manuscript is illustrated with That day in the library, as I somewhat self- ridicule him by costuming him like a king. Each objects related to the Crucifixion and its aftermath, as narrated by consciously opened the silk bag and unrolled the of the four gospels in the New Testament tells the the gospels of the New Testament narrow but unexpectedly long manuscript (roughly story of the soldiers who play lots (gamble) for (from right to left): the lance that the soldier Longinus used to four inches wide and five feet long), I became pain- Christ’s garment. As the story goes, right after the pierce Christ’s side, creating his fully aware of the vast and often obscuring differ- crucifixion itself, the soldiers decide to divide the fifth wound; the ladder needed to take Christ’s body down from ence between reading a medieval poem in a modern seamless garment among themselves; when they the cross; and the hammer and edition and reading it in its original format. While realize that it has no seams (and thus cannot easily tongs used to remove the nails from Christ’s hands and feet. my initial interest in the poem written in this Photograph by Kate Lain. manuscript was its curious fixation with the This manuscript pulls out all the stops— material objects of Christ’s Passion, I had until that moment been blind to just how curious the it synchronizes the power of words, poem’s own material circumstances were. Why images, and objects—to ask for, and to was this manuscript so narrow and long? Why was offer, spiritual guidance and protection it in roll format at all, a form used primarily for for a human life necessarily lived administrative court documents and royal gene- alogies? Why were its 24 illustrations, while among material things. charming in their simplicity, so crudely drawn? All worthy questions, but unfortunately not be divided), they instead play lots to see who will related to the topic of my dissertation. Most of take the whole garment. The episode is a crucial the analysis I originally wrote on this poem was one in the story of the Passion, and it is usually dropped from the final draft of my doctoral work, understood to symbolize the indivisible unity of and what I did manage to keep in that document the body of Christ and of the Church. was eventually cut from my first monograph. But But in the arma Christi poem, this biblical I always planned to return to the arma Christi episode takes on new meaning. The poem mentions manuscript—I was on intimate terms with it now, the seamless garment, but it insists that the purple and its mystery would not let me go. garment is the one the soldiers gambled for. This

28 huntington.org Frontiers.qxp_ArtDrectr1 04 4/20/15 2:51 PM Page 1

was an easy switch to make: Christ’s seamless robe was, we are to understand, simple and unadorned, whereas the purple robe used to mock him was made of the most luxurious and valuable materials— those only a king could afford. If the soldiers were the HUNTINGTON STORE going to fight over a garment, the purple one seems like the more obvious choice. The poem offers up the contrast between Christ’s two very different garments, therefore, as a point of contemplation for people who might desire beautiful but morally dubious things. A related stanza is reproduced here in its original Middle English and in a modern English translation:

T hyn own cot þt had sem noon The purpure þt þey layd lot upon Lorde be my socoure & my helpynge Þt my body hath used mys clothynge.

Your own coat that had seams none, The purple one that they laid lots upon: Lord, be my succor and my helping That my body has misused clothing.

Here the speaker’s description of Christ’s gar- This detail from the manuscript shows Christ’s garment, along with the ments (he or she speaks directly to Christ, calling dice that Roman soldiers are said to have used to gamble for it. In the “O Vernicle” stanza below the garment, these objects are used to help the garment “Your coat”) invokes a kind of pro- protect the speaker from wearing or coveting inappropriate clothing. tection against the vice of “misused clothing,” which could have meant anything from coveting beautiful tional use, to be hung in churches for public worship. clothing to wearing clothes that were expensive, Most recent scholars have rejected this under- luxurious, or fashionable. Look at Christ’s clothing, standing, arguing that the poem’s form, words, and the stanza says, and contemplate more carefully the images seem best suited for private devotion such clothes that you yourself wear or covet. as prayer, introspection, and meditation. For one This stanza is especially interesting because of thing, the various manuscripts of the poem are the image that accompanies it. Unlike most English relatively small—too small for their images and poems written during this time, the arma Christi words to be observed from the congregation if they poem is almost always illustrated. Christ’s purple were hung on a church wall. The poem’s language, garment is one of the larger illustrations in HM including the personal way the speaker of the poem 26054, and the dice associated with it (dice, in the addresses Christ as “you,” also suggests a more Middle Ages, having replaced the lots described in intimate reading experience. Many stanzas invoke the biblical narrative) have been superimposed on the reader’s experience of his or her five senses, yet the garment itself, as if meant to represent buttons another personal element: the blindfold that was or brooches. Like the nails illustrated later on in the used to cover Christ’s eyes during his mocking, for poem, the dice are depicted as life-size—the size example, offers contemplation of vices experienced of actual medieval dice—ostensibly to enhance through the reader’s eyes and nose; the nails used their effect as objects of meditative concentration. in the crucifixion serve as objects of meditation about sins perpetrated by one’s hands and feet. A STARTLING REALIZATION The tongs used to remove the nails after Christ’s The roll format of manuscripts of this poem has death are also included in the poem, portrayed as always intrigued and mystified scholars. One of its instruments that can help “loosen” any sins from earliest critics, Rossell Hope Robbins, suggested in the poem’s speaker or reader, just as they helped 1939 that the roll format was meant for congrega- physically to loosen Christ from the cross.

theHuntingtonStore.org 30 huntington.org But this manuscript seems to This manuscript pulls out all the stops—it have had an even more unique per- synchronizes the power of words, images, and sonal use. Scholar Mary Agnes Edsall objects—to ask for, and to offer, spiritual guidance has recently published evidence that and protection for a human life necessarily lived the most narrow arma Christi rolls among material things. Such a call for supernatural were likely used for an astonishing protection is equally apt for a mother facing the very purpose: as birth girdles, textual real dangers of illness or death during labor and talismans that could be wrapped for a child about to enter the world for the first time. around a woman’s belly to protect As a birth girdle, the Huntington manuscript her and her baby during labor. Such known as HM 26054 would have served both girdles were made from long strips purposes admirably, and—in my somewhat biased of parchment sewn together, like opinion—exquisitely. The Huntington’s manuscript, and OUT OF THE PURSE AND INTO PRINT Above: Andrea Denny-Brown, Almost 10 years after encountering my first arma former Andrew W. Mellon Christi manuscript, I finally started a book project Foundation Fellow at The Huntington, holds the silk purse with my colleague and co-editor Lisa H. Cooper that contains the arma Christi in an attempt to explain not only HM 26054, manuscript. Photograph by Kate Lain. Right: The Arma Christi in but also all kinds of other curious medieval and Medieval and Early Modern Renaissance objects that used the arma Christi as Material Culture With a Critical Edition of “O Vernicle” opens their central unifying theme: manuscripts, heraldic with an introduction that surveys shields, tombstones, sculptures, textiles, paintings, previous scholarship and situates Art. Appreciation. the arma Christi in their historical and printings. We invited junior and senior scholars and aesthetic contexts. The 10 from many disciplines to think through the cultural essays that follow explore representative examples of the and artistic uses of these objects, and with them, instruments of the Passion across we produced the first critical volume to address a broad swath of history, from some of their earliest formulations the arma Christi as its own cultural phenomenon. in late antiquity to their refor- Seems we have quite Part of this project was to produce, with scholar Ann mulations in early modern Europe. Together, they offer the Eljenholm Nichols, a new critical edition of the first large-scale attempt to poem I first encountered in that green silk purse— understand the arma Christi as a unique cultural phenomenon now renamed “O Vernicle,” for the opening line of its own, one that resonated of the poem, which is about Veronica’s veil. The across centuries in multiple a lot in common. languages, genres, and media. book, published by Ashgate and titled The Arma Christi in Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture: With a Critical Edition of ‘O Vernicle,’ represents a very happy conclusion to one of my most felicitous early encounters with The Huntington’s medieval manuscripts. FROM PLEIN AIR TO PRE-TAX PROFITS, WE UNDERSTAND WHAT MOVES OUR CLIENTS. At Whittier Trust Andrea Denny-Brown is associate professor of our approach re ects what’s important to each individual client. An expertise English at University of California, Riverside, they usually included prayers, charms, and spiritual and a former Andrew W. Mellon Foundation we’ve honed over 85 years, through deep, lasting relationships that enhance symbols, such as the arma Christi. This would Fellow at The Huntington. every facet of family wealth. ere is a tangible di erence that the oldest explain not only the curiously long and narrow and largest multi-family o ce headquartered in the West can mean to your size and shape of The Huntington’s manuscript, but also its obvious portability and well-used legacy. Experience it. Contact physical condition: this manuscript had a practical Tim McCarthy at 800.971.3095. function. It likely belonged to a medieval midwife or a female family member, perhaps passed down For your informative copy, visit whittiertrust.com/enriched-reg through generations of women in the same family or line of work.

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In Print Arabella and Henry Huntington HERITAGE SOCIETY A SAMPLING OF BOOKS BASED ON RESEARCH IN THE COLLECTIONS Honoring friends who have made a commitment to the BRITISH HISTORY FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE 18TH CENTURY future of The Huntington by including it in their estate plans. In Medieval Robots: Mechanism, Magic, Nature, and Art (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015), Create your Huntington legacy today. E.R. Truitt, assistant professor of history at Bryn Mawr College, recovers the forgotten history of real and imagined automata—including talking statues, mechanical animals, and silent metal guardians—that captivated Europe between the 9th and 14th centuries. Variously ascribed to artisanal genius, cosmic forces, or demonic powers, these fabrications raised fundamental questions about knowledge, nature, and divine purpose in the Middle Ages.

J. Sears McGee, professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, provides the first full-length biography of Sir Simonds D’Ewes (1602–1650) in An Industrious Mind: The Worlds of Sir Simonds D’Ewes For more information, please contact (Stanford University Press, 2015). D’Ewes collected one of the largest private libraries of books and manuscripts Cris Lutz, Planned Giving Director, at in England in his era. His autobiography, correspondence, and journal of the Long Parliament (1640–48), offer 626-405-2212 or at [email protected]. a comprehensive view of the life of a 17th-century English gentleman. Girl With a Parrot, 1744, by Allan Ramsay (purchased Winner of the award for Best First Book from the United Kingdom’s Society for Army Historical Research, Erica with funds from the estate Charters’ Disease, War, and the Imperial State: The Welfare of the British Armed Forces during the Seven Years’ of Frances Crandall Dyke) War (University of Chicago Press, 2014) demonstrates how disease played a vital role in shaping strategy, British state policy, and imperial relations during the Seven Years’ War (1756–63). Charters is associate professor of the history of medicine at the University of Oxford.

STUDIES OF CALIFORNIA AND THE FIGHT FOR THE AMERICAN DREAM David Samuel Torres-Rouff, assistant professor of history at the University of California, Merced, the HUNTINGTON STORE expands borderlands history by examining the past and original urban infrastructure of Los Angeles in Before L.A.: Race, Space, and Municipal Power in Los Angeles, 1781–1894 (Yale University Press, 2013). His study reveals how an innovative intercultural community developed along racial lines, and how immigrants from the United States engineered a profound shift in civic ideals and the physical environment, creating a social and spatial rupture that endures to this day.

In Loren Miller: Civil Rights Attorney and Journalist (University of Oklahoma Press, 2015), independent historian Amina Hassan tells the story of one of the nation’s most prominent civil rights attorneys from the 1940s through the early 1960s in the fields of housing and education. With co-counsel Thurgood Marshall, Miller argued two landmark civil rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, whose decisions effectively abolished racially restrictive housing covenants. Hassan also describes Miller’s early career as a radical journalist and his ownership of the California Eagle, one of the longest-running African-American newspapers in the West.

Jack London (1876–1916) found fame with his wolf-dog tales and sagas of the frozen North, but Cecelia Tichi— William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English and professor of American studies at Vanderbilt University—challenges the long-standing view of London as merely a mass-market producer of potboilers in Jack London: A Writer’s Fight for a Better America (University of North Carolina Press, 2015). Tracing the arc of London’s work, Tichi examines how London leveraged his written words into a force for social change.

theHuntingtonStore.org

34 huntington.org back page You’re Gonna Flip!

BREAK OUT THE SCISSORS—IT’S TIME TO ANIMATE THE HOPPER

By Kate Lain

Flash back to April Fool’s Day, 2015. To celebrate the day on our Tumblr site, we posted a short animated loop I’d made showing what might sit WHEN YOU NEED A LAWYER, atop the distant hill obscured by the boat in Edward Hopper’s painting The Long Leg—could it possibly be an Alexander Calder sculpture? You can now make your own flip-book version of the animation using the images on this page. 1. Cut along the dotted lines. Be sure not to cut off the white strip on the left side of each image. 2. Stack the images in order, with 1 on top. (Or with 1 on bottom, to play them in reverse.) 3. Secure the stack along the white strip with a binder clip, rubber band, heavy-duty staple, or your finger and thumb. 4. Flip away! You can find the original animation at huntingtonlibrary.tumblr.com by typing “hopper calder” in the search bar. Kate Lain is the new media developer at The Huntington.

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