Elegy

This winter I find myself kept indoors more than usual for this time of year, and so I have been looking at old books I've collected but not really read.

The poem below comes from a 1937 hardback anthology I have titled "Three TONY'S SCRAPBOOKS", a gathering of tidbits of philosophy, poetry, humor and trivia by folksy Depression-era radio personality Tony Wons. It collects three previous volumes that sold well. You can learn more about Tony Wons from a 1932 TIME magazine article that is archived here.

I can find no information on the author of the poem, Leonard Snyder, who most likely wasn't an acclaimed writer in any genre. Ordinary fans of the radio show sent in their thoughts and writings, and Wons used them sometimes. Perhaps Snyder was one of them.

I've chosen images found on the net (credited below) to illustrate the poem. It's a simple poem, reminiscent of Poe but without his brilliance. Still, I liked it and share it here.
__________________________

ELEGY

I have looked at dead men's eyes

Whose awful majesty

Held nothing, yet I saw therein

An endless mystery.



A dead man's lips are pale and cold

And changeless as of stone,

And yet they strangely seem to say

To find peace...go alone.

--Leonard Snyder

______________________________________________________

Related: Johnny Metro's great freaky-geeky blog Midnite Media recently posted the words to the an old dark English ballad titled "The Unquiet Grave." Read it here.

Top image: Statuary closeup found at Flickr account of Sandman1973.

Image second from top: Plasticized, skinned body from the BODIES exhibition--Picture source here.

Image, bottom left: Mexican mummy, picture source here.

Image, bottom right: Detail of statuary photo found at Flickr account of martins.nunomiguel

Po' Poe--His To' No Mo'!

Okay, if "to'" is read as short for "toast," then you CAN make sense of the subject line! (It certainly has nothing to do with his toe!)

Today is Poe's birthday. And an unknown watercolor portrait (by one A.C. Smith) of a younger, less melancholy Poe has just surfaced (see right). It should be a happy day for his unhappy spirit. But I suspect it's not because of the news about his annual toast.

Someone, dressed in dark clothes with their face hidden, has visited Poe's grave between midnight and dawn each year on Poe's birthday, to leave roses and cognac as a toast to the great writer's memory.


This did not happen today, according to the Associated Press. Perhaps Edgar Allan himself communicated in some way to the toaster* to tell him/her that the tribute was no longer needed. Maybe Poe is at last at rest...



But Happy Birthday, E. A., anyway! Wherever you are!









*And why not? I talk to my toaster! However, I'm no longer on speaking terms with my mixer, ever since it grabbed my tongue and yanked it. Couldn't speak to order a drink for more than a week!


Images copyright Associated Press.

"The Last Picture Show"

Everything here on Spring Hill is covered with a blanket of snow, and with the trees across the street being denuded by winter, I can see through the bone-like branches to another hill a few miles away. From my porch, I can see that on the side of that hill is a cemetery.

I love seeing cemeteries when their is snow on the ground. Somehow they are more beautiful then.


Slate has an interesting essay on the "surprising beauty of portraits on gravestones" with a good slideshow attached. (The pic just above comes from the slideshow.) Check it out here.

And to see some very odd gravestones, click on this link to a Mental Floss item.

Countdown Day 15: Autumn imagery

The weather here became suddenly sharp and chilling with the arrival of October, and the trees are now costumed in masquerade colors. Here are words and images celebrating the change into the Halloween season of autumn.

"October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came-
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name."

- George Cooper, October's Party

Image source: Mark G. Cappitella website

"October's the month
When the smallest breeze
Gives us a shower
Of autumn leaves.
Bonfires and pumpkins,
Leaves sailing down --
October is red
And golden and brown."

- Anonymous, October
Image source: Dreamstime site (hi-res copy for sale)

"The stillness of October gold
Went out like beauty from a face."

- E.A. Robinson, Llewellyn and the Tree

Image source: Toinen linja

Image source original: Vincent Hevern/New Hampshire

"There is something in the autumn that is native to my blood—
Touch of manner, hint of mood;
And my heart is like a rhyme,
With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time.

"The scarlet of the maples can shake me like a cry
Of bugles going by.
And my lonely spirit thrills
To see the frosty asters like a smoke upon the hills."

- William Bliss Carman, A Vagabond Song

Vampire news on Friday the 13th!

I was lucky on Friday the 13th! First thing today, after I got up, I read about a "vampire's grave" as the top news item!

Seems that in Europe centuries ago, plague victims would be buried in mass graves; when more victims died, the graves would be reopened for more burials. Sometimes people at the burials would see that the more recent dead had become discolored corpses with distended bellies, and with blood oozing from their mouths. The witnesses believed these bodies had become vampires. They would shove a brick into the corpse's mouth to prevent "the vampire" from feeding. (Like that makes sense--the vampire can dig his way outta the ground, but can't remove a brick from its mouth?)

In what may be the first known "vampire grave" opened up in modern times, a skeleton with a brick in its mouth has been found. Read about here and here.




The grave's discoverer, Dr. Matteo Borrini of the University of Florence (looks like the Italian Indiana Jones!):




Image source: AOL News.

A report on "Schlitzie's Day"

Verne Langdon sent the following report (with minor editing by me) on the memorial service and headstone dedication held for Schlitzie, the "pinhead" who was exhibited in carnival sideshows and immortalized in the film Freaks. Many people had contributed financially, and with their time, so that Schlitzie could have a gravestone. On Feb. 20th, the 77th anniversary of the premiere of Freaks, fans and friends gathered to pay tribute to Schlitzie's memory.

*********************************************************************************

SCHLITZEPHILES ONE AND ALL

SCHLITZE'S DAY was a resounding success.

On February 20, 2009, a group of friends from http://www.findadeath.com got together to hold a memorial service for Schlitze the Pinhead, whose earthly remains lay in an unmarked grave for nearly 40 years.

Following a beautiful journey to Queen Of Heaven Cemetery in Rowland Heights, California where Schlitze's remains are interred in a now-marked grave (see photo), those in attendance dressed the gravesite in beautiful floral arrangements, and Bryan Moore - himself an enormous Schlitze fan and historian - magnificently delivered an extremely well-constructed eulogy accompanied by a brief, emotional tribute to Schlitze by writer-composer-musician-producer Verne Langdon, who actually met, observed and knew Schlitze.

Tribute Part One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QChOCz9zxS8

Tribute Part Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW_zA8G5z2s

After a near hour-long service and photo ops at the Schlitze gravesite, the group of nearly 30 Schlitzephiles from all over the United States proceeded to world-famous downtown Los Angeles local eatery Philippe's, home of the mouth-watering double-dipped beef sandwich as well as other fantastic food fare. Philippe's was a part of Schlitze's life in that he - along with other members of the legendary Paul Eagles Circus & Carnival Club - dined there often when wintering in Southern California. Following Philippe's it was on to hallowed haunts of Schlitze, including MacArthur Park in downtown Los Angeles where Schlitze would chase the ducks and his caretakers would sell his never-ending supply of souvenir photos from Schlitze's glory days on the various carnival midways, Schlitze's last known residence as verified on his Official Certificate Of Death, and of course the county care facility -Fountain View - in Hollywood, California, where Schlitze spent 48 hours or so before expiring on September 24, 1971, of Broncho Pneumonia brought on by Medullary Depression.

"Schlitzie - he had no choice. As I grew older I had a choice. I could stay in
show business if I wanted to. He had no choice, so - I don't know how to
express it about him but he - he just wasn't able to do anything else. Quite
often you would get a crowd that thought they were funny, that they were
funny and they would torment him or something like that but usually there
were some roustabouts around that would see that that was broken up in a
hurry and they were not allowed to torment him."

- Jeannie Tomaini, the half-girl, in "Freaks Uncensored"

The day was memorable for so many reasons, and may turn into an annual event, held on the 20th of February each and every year -- the day we have come to know and love as "Schlitze's Day"!

Findadeath founder Scott Michaels (4th from left, front row), Heather & Bryan Moore (2nd row left, then Shelly Lichoff, Verne Langdon, and Micah Harris, back row between Shelly Lichoff & Verne Langdon -Michael Kriegsman. Others unidentified.

A slideshow presentation by Phil De Croocq on the day's events can be seen here.

A Headstone for Schlitzie

Well-known makeup artist, musician and mask maker (and friend to The Drunken Severed Head) Verne Langdon has sent me word that "Schlitzie" of Freaks movie fame has at last gotten a gravestone. It will be officially unveiled at 11:00 a.m. on February 20th.

It will be 77 years to the day after the premiere of Freaks; and coincidentally the same weekend as the Oscar ceremonies, where a more famous late movie star will be honored and remembered.

Here is an announcement of the informal memorial from Verne Langdon:

"On Friday morning, February 20, at 11 AM, a caravan of several dozen or more people who have for the most part never met one another in person, will wend their way to a cemetery, stand at a grave for a few moments for a quiet prayer spoken for someone most of these same people have never met, and did not know in life. They will take tremendous pride in their mysterious accomplishment, then exit the cemetery and go on about the day, visiting the deceased's favorite locations around Los Angeles, including his last known residence and place of demise.

"The Schlitzie Memorial will be a quiet and dignified ceremony. It will be a spiritual celebration. And those attending will be there to truly pay their respect to a man who spent most of his life being called ‘pinhead’ and ‘freak’.

"Schlitzie spent almost 40 years entertaining millions around the world and lining the pockets of many promoters, movie studios and artists. Yet the man, through no fault of his own, died penniless in a county convalescent facility and was laid to rest in an unmarked pauper's grave.

"It has taken almost another 40 years for Schlitzie to finally get a little something back for all he gave.

"There will be no carnival. There will be no sideshow. There will be no movie sets.

"There will, however, be quiet on the gravesite. There will be dignity. There will be respect.

"And finally, there will be a gravestone, for Schlitzie."


Learn about Schlitzie at http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/s/shlitze/shlitze.htm.

If you wish to send a representative to cover any part of the day, or wish to simply attend, please direct all inquiries, media or otherwise to:

Verne Langdon

Contact e-mail:
vernelangdon@cox.net

A snowy day in a nearby graveyard

Got a hankerin' for gloomy photographs of a cemetery in winter? No? Well, take a look at the boneyard pictures below, anyway--with the dark sky, and lonely white expanses of the place, they're like views of a weird, other world of the dead. (Or maybe undead!)

Jane and I have been in our new house for just over a week, and and it is cold and snowy here. We live on top of a hilly ridge called Spring Hill, and on a hilltop a few blocks away is an old cemetery. A few weeks before we moved in, I snapped the photos below to share here. (Click on any photo for a larger view.)

I've always felt not enough horror movies take advantage of the eeriness of lonely, snowy settings. And as folks who like cemeteries, Jane and I were happy to find this steep hillside graveyard near our new home.

Not seen in the photos are the scores of ravens that live in this area. They were many at the cemetery when we visited, but they would fly away when you got within 20 to 30 yards; so only a few show up in the pictures.

A picnic at this site, when the weather is warmer, will be in order. A great place to munch sandwiches while reading Poe and poetry!













The final, fitting photo of the day: an angel left behind among the stones:

31 Days of Halloween: St. Louis cemeteries, Part 2

For a previous post, I shared some photos (all real and none Photoshopped!) that I took some time back while exploring cemeteries in the St. Louis area. Reader Pierre Fournier of Frankensteinia commented, "The Frankenstein headstone is great. Now find one that says "Nosferatu" and you've really got something!"

Well, I never saw one that read "Nosferatu," but how do you like this one?

I hear he died from wire hanger injuries inflicted by Joan Crawford...

And since my "Frankenstein" headstone photo got positive comments, I'll share another headstone from the same family:

I believe Herbert and Clara Frankenstein were the title characters in The Son-in-Law and Daughter of Frankenstein.


Here's an unusual classical-Egyptian-style mausoleum that impressed me. It made me wonder if the man inside had been mummified instead of embalmed...



A family of veterinarians?



The birth date on the marker below is on the left-- and the death date is......where?

An immortal? Perhaps a vampire!


A note to the gravediggers to keep busy?



Insert your own pun here:

(Oh, if only a member of the Hooker family was buried in the adjacent plot!)



No silly caption for the above photo. Just a lovely dusk at the cemetery...



(Oh, hell, I might as well get it out of my system.)

...the time of day when the ZOMBIES come out in search of brains! "They're coming to get you, Barbara!")

Alright, I'll close in a more serious and reverent manner. Here's a photo of an interior wall of a mausoleum-- and its stained glass beautifully glowed at dusk:




And last, a unique sculpture marker for a couple that must have been known for their love for each other:


He had to go on for nearly forty years without her...
*********************

(Don't fear the reaper)
Baby, take my hand...
(Don't fear the reaper)
We'll be able to fly...

31 Days of Halloween: A visit to cemeteries in St. Louis