Little Ears warning: Parents may want to preview this episode, we discuss several adult themes including suicide, alternative lifestyles, and…” adult play.”
We step back from reality (sorta) to talk about the many lives of Wonder Woman, her original creator William Moulton Marston, the women who originally inspired the superhero, and the creators who recrafted her to suit their own visions. It’s a heck of a ride. And there is a Little Ears warning–you know how cartoons often have adult themes and jokes that go right over the heads of little kids? We talk about some of Wonder Woman’s in these two episodes–oh yeah, two! There’s A LOT to talk about, her story begins in the early 1900s and hasn’t ended yet! (more…)
Victoria, deep in thought about…we have no idea. Brandley Rulofson
The 2020 US Presidential election is officially underway so we that this was a perfect time to revisit the life of the very first woman to run for the US Presidency in 1872, years before women could legally vote. Victoria Woodhull crafted a life for herself from pretty raw materials. (more…)
For photos, recommendations, and links to things we talked about today, click on over to our original STATUE OF LIBERTY SHOWNOTES.
We would like to say thanks to the sponsors of this episode! Did you know that when you support the companies that support us, YOU become a sponsor, too? Thank you!
Everyone has a lesson to teach us, even the hard living, hard drinking, crime breaking ones who bucked convention and survived in a dangerous time and place. These two women of the American wild west fall on a side of the life-choices spectrum that we don’t usually talk about, but it’s time that we did. We thought it was time to tell the stories of two women with fabulous, well-known nicknames that mask who they really were. (Lady Gaga and Madonna are amazing but come back in 120 years and we’ll talk.) (more…)
Southern-born Flapper? Trophy wife of famous writer? Jazz Age fashion icon? Wild and selfish woman-child who went off the deep end? Zelda Fitzgerald has been remembered in all of these ways – but none are entirely correct, nor do they describe this unique woman who lived a very complex life in an ever-changing world.
Zelda was a southern born flapper. No argument there. Zelda Sayre began her life on July 24, 1900 in Montgomery, Alabama. She grew up in a socially prominent (although financially upper middle class at best) family as the loved-by-everyone, charming, energetic, brave and highjinky youngest child. She was a skilled ballet dancer, a fearless flirt and an incomparable Orange Blossom sipping beauty. Young gentlemen filled her dance card, frat boys swore their devotion to her and aviators flew over her house just to be noticed by her.
She became a Jazz Age icon and first wave flapper when she and her new husband–freshly published, (gasp!) Yankee writer, Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald– arrived in New York City to a life of instant literary fame in 1920. She defined the flapper: bold, brave, reckless and fun loving young women who threw off stuffy formality along with their corsets. Zelda and Scott lived a very public life of opulence as the poster couple for the wild, monied and creative set in both the US and Europe. Wherever they went partying followed; whatever they did somehow was used as material for Scott’s novels, articles and short stories. His second book, The Beautiful and the Damned, was so filled with their likenesses the publisher went ahead and marketed it with a couple that looked an awful lot like them on the cover.
The whole Youth on a Wild Bender life sounds kind of dreamy…for a short time, but the pair made “never settling down” a lifestyle. Even the birth of their only child, Frances Scott Fitzgerald (Scottie) didn’t slow them down. New York, Paris, the Riviera, Hollywood…they kept moving, Scott kept writing (and drinking), Zelda kept helping to critique (and write) his work and giving him fodder for the novels, short stories and articles that supported them. But the more Zelda lost herself into their marriage–into Scott’s literature–the more troubled she became.
Circa 1921, Zelda was pregnant with Scottie. (wikicommons)
We give a disclaimer that we TRIED to achieve middle-ground between Team Scott (she was his muse but also his crazy wife who pulled him down) and Team Zelda (she was an emotionally abused wife whose mental condition had more to do with an alcoholic husband, exhaustion and unnecessary and harmful medical treatment than simply an existing mental illness). We probably failed to completely achieve middle-ground.
We’re okay with that.
Zelda tried to find and throw herself into creative outlets for herself ONLY–her OWN writing, ballet dancing, painting all of which she was very good at. These activities worked to help her express herself and to keep it together…until they didn’t. His behavior towards her– multiple affairs (she wasn’t exactly innocent here, either), alcohol induced dramas, panic from massive debts mounting, dismissing her art, her writing, her value, and blaming her for any family failures– only pushed her spiral downward.
The wife, the Hollywood girl friend. hmmm…
When Zelda was hospitalized in 1930 she was immediately diagnosed as schizophrenic (most likely incorrectly diagnosed) and moved (was forced?) into the next phase of her life: 18 years spent in and out of mental institutions. As part of her therapy she painted and wrote an autobiographical novel, Save Me the Waltz, that allowed her to tell her story through her lens, not Scott’s. She sent it to Scott’s publisher behind his back, but in the end he still managed to put his imprint on the book.
We tell a lot more of Zelda’s story in the podcast, give anecdotes and opinions to fill in the black and white impression that many have of her very colorful life.
Scott Fitzgerald died of a heart attack in 1940. Eight years later, on March 10, 1948 Zelda was locked into her room for the night at Highland hospital in Ashville, North Carolina, the psychiatric facility where she had been living, when a fire broke out and she died. She was 48 years old. She is buried with Scott and Scottie (who lived a long and pretty normal life) in Maryland. The words on their tombstone is the final sentence from Scott’s most famous book, The Great Gatsby:
“So we beat on; boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
Even in death, Scott got the last word. Maybe spending an hour listening to her story will let Zelda’s voice be heard.
TIME TRAVEL WITH THE HISTORY CHICKS
We dug up a hefty collection of links and materials that would make Zelda blush with pride. Probably.
We’ll start off by bucking convention (Zelda would have it no other way) and get you in the mood with the end song that we didn’t play. Tiny Victories, Scott and Zelda
Websites:
You want to see her art (you do, trust us) and instead of breaking copyright laws we’ll simply send you to ART.COM. (Not sponsored, we always tell you if something is.)
Fitzgerald Museum in Montgomery Alabama, housed in the last house the couple rented 1931-’32. Going would be your best bet, but clicking through the collections online is a good second place.
We didn’t talk much about it but did touch on the 2011 Woody Allen film, Midnight in Paris. Here is a scene, you tell us if you think Alison Pill as Zelda is what you imagined her to be.
Zelda Fitzgerald: The Musical, You can watch the whole thing on this site. Theater! Without leaving the house! In your jammies or MeUndies loungewear! (That is totally sponsored)
Not a movie, but the Amazon Prime original, Z: The Beginning of Everything has one episode with Christina Ricci as Zelda available to stream for the low, low price of $0.00.
We couldn’t help (when we lined-up with Team Zelda) but think back to Gaslight with Ingrid Bergman, the 1944 movie about a man who makes his wife believe that she is crazy.
The woman that we discuss in this episode lived a life of devotion and sacrifice during an exciting, yet turbulent, period of American History. By all accounts she was an intelligent wife, mother, patriot, home fire-tender, Second Lady, First Lady and oh, yes, mother of the sixth president of the United States. As if that were not enough, she was a self-educated, letter writing machine!
A young Abigail Smith Adams
Abigail Smith was born in November 1, 1744, the second of four children to William and Elizabeth Quincy Smith in Weymouth, MA. Her father was a Congregationalist minister and her mother’s family was rooted in politics- Abigail’s grandfather held the position of Speaker for Massachusetts for 40 years. Abigail’s life was lived out during the formative, and historically thrilling, early years of the United States.
It’s easy to get lost in all the Quincys, Smiths and Johns in her life, we’ll admit that. But wade through them because this remarkably resilient and faith driven woman lived a rather difficult life of sacrifice as she strove for the greater good. Even if all you know at this point is that she was the wife of one of the early presidents, and something about “remember the ladies!”- you should put on your thinking caps. This woman was an intellectual powerhouse! PLUS, her marriage was one based in a very real romance, intellectual stimulation and mutual respect. We all can learn a lot from her.
