May 02

Women’s Magazines and Ideology Shifts

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On the 2nd of May 1885, Good Housekeeping magazine was founded by Clark W. Bryan in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Still owned by the Hearst Corporation, it has ever since featured articles about women’s interests, product testing, recipes, diet, health as well as literary articles. It has become an institution known for its “Good Housekeeping Seal of […]

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May 01

‘Heart of Darkness’ in ‘Citizen Kane’

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On the 1st of May 1941, the American drama film Citizen Kane, had its premiere in New York City. The film co-written, directed, produced by, and starring Orson Welles, has been considered by many of the fans and film critics one of the best, if not the best, motion pictures of all time. The day […]

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April 30

In the Footprints of Hollywood Fame

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On the 30th of April 1927, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford became the first celebrities to leave their footprints in the concrete of the Grauman Chinese Theater forecourt at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard (Walk of Fame). During construction, the owner Grauman ordered an extremely hard concrete to be laid by Jean Klossner, who later became known […]

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April 29

Alfred Hitchcock, Psycho and the Question of Madness

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On the 29th of April 1980, Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock died aged 80 in Bel Air, California. Justifiably crowned with the title of the master of suspense, he produced and directed some of the most iconic films in the history of world cinema. The magazine MovieMaker, for example, has described him as the most influential […]

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April 28

Yves Klein’s Art: Into the Void

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On the 28th of April 1928, the early postmodernist Yves Klein was born in Nice, France, to an Impressionist painter father and an Art Informel artist mother.  From a young age, Klein was fascinated with space. Allegedly, at the age of nineteen, him and his friends lay on a beach in the south of France, […]

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April 27

Petty Girl: The Ideal Male Fantasy of a Woman

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On the 27th of April 1894, the American graphic artist George Petty was born in Abbeville, Louisiana. He is mostly remembered for creating the Petty Girl, one of America’s favourite and most popular pinups, which was used frequently in advertisements, calendars, magazine centrefolds, posters, and most importantly, as an element of building soldiers’ morale during […]

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April 26

Simonetta Vespucci and Quattrocento Femininity

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On the 26th of April 1476, Simonetta Cattaneo de Candia Vespucci died from tuberculosis in Florence, Italy, aged just 23. An Italian Renaissance noblewoman from Genoa, at the tender age of fifteen she married Marco Vespucci, son of Piero, close to the Florentine Medici family, as well as a cousin of the Florentine explorer and […]

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April 25

Allegory in Defoe’s ‘Robinson Crusoe’

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The last day of the Easter Quote Week! On the 25th of April 1719, Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe was first published. The original title, extremely long and detailed, led many people to believe that the book was based on a true story and authored by Robinson Crusoe himself. The title read as follows: The Life […]

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April 24

The Business Mindset of Groucho Marx

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Easter Quote Week, Day 7… On the 24th of April 1961, the famous American comedian Groucho Marx wrote a letter to the President of the Franklin Corporation,  a company in which he had become an investor. The sardonic character of the letter gives us an insight into Groucho’s vibrant off-stage persona and proves that he was as brilliant […]

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April 23

‘Under the Glacier’ by Halldór Kiljan Laxness

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Welcome to another day of the Easter Quote Week… Enjoy! On the 23rd of April 1902, Halldór Kiljan Laxness was born in  Reykjavík, Iceland. The only Icelandic Nobel laureate in literature (1955), Laxness was a prolific writer of poetry, novels, short stories, plays, articles and travelogues. Major influences on his writings include August Strindberg, Sigmund Freud, Sinclair […]

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