Rosa Louise McCauley Parks

TODAY, 53 YEARS AFTER ROSA PARKS MADE HISTORY, ANOTHER MAN MAKES HISTORY.
HE WAS BORN SIX YEARS AFTER ROSA PARKS WAS ARRESTED. A VERY BRAVE WOMAN.


THE BUS


Rosa Parks riding in the front of a bus. Montgomery, Alabama


Rosa Parks mugshot 1955


Rosa Parks fingerprinted 1955


Rosa Parks 1995 a legend


A scene in the south, circa 1950.


Rosa Parks Civil Rights Pioneer


THE ROSA PARKS STORY IN BRIEF...

In 1954, I boarded a bus in Miami Beach. I sat in the back of the bus, as I had always done in Chicago, where I lived. The bus sat there for 15 minutes. Everyone was staring at me. I said, "Why isn't the bus moving?" The bus driver said, "The back of the bus is for colored folks. Move to the front of the bus." There were about five people on the entire bus.
In 1955, Rosa Parks changed all that. Today, if there is a heaven, I'm sure she is smiling.

Jiva

MIRACLE NEAR 48TH STREET MIDTOWN MANHATTAN

Former fighter pilot Chesley B. Sullenberger III saves 155 souls on a Thursday afternoon...


"BRACE FOR IMPACT"


US AIRWAYS FLIGHT 1549 GLIDING OVER THE HUDSON RIVER


NICE JOB, SULLY !!!


ON THE WINGS OF A HERO ~ NOT ONE SOUL LOST


HELP TO THE RESCUE !!!


GLAD TO BE ALIVE


VIDEO OF ACTUAL SPLASHDOWN ON LEFT SIDE OF SCREEN ~

It's one of those events that brings the entire country together: A miracle, A hero,
A feeling of solidarity in a time of national crisis. It was just what we needed to
remind us of the bravery and kindness and tenacity of the American spirit.

You've seen it on TV, you've read about it on your computers, you know the details.
They are too fascinating to ignore. A veteran pilot with the coolness of god, set
down a plane in the middle of the Hudson River with no engines. His glider pilot
experience no doubt helped. But it was the man himself, who made those instant
decisions, said those powerful words, and brought the plane down smoothly.

Sullenberger's co-pilot was Jeff Skiles, 49, of Oregon, Wis.,
a 23-year US Airways veteran.

People who saw it said, "It was a controlled descent." "I thought they were making
a film on the river!" 35 people were rescued from the water. The air temp was 20F.
Riders on the Thomas Jefferson commuter ferry threw life vests and ropes to the
passengers in the water. A miracle near 48th Street, that gave us all hope.

Jiva

IT'S ABOUT THE HATS...

The thing was, someone designed hats to go with these costumes. Inevitably, the hats
would be either huge, or have feathers, or something that stuck out in all directions.
Nice to look at maybe, but for dancers performing acrobatics, those were unfriendly hats.
The Merriel Abbott Dancers usually had cartwheels, walkovers, or some such feat in
the dance numbers, and that tropical number featured in the photo had a few.

If you look at the hats, you can see that they are placed precariously
on one's head. There is a lot more hat off the head than is on the head, making it
unsteady, uncertain, and fraught with probabilities. You'd think that a designer,
with years of experience, would know this. But no, those hats kept coming at us.
Every dance number, every costume, had a hat, and the hats were usually cumbersome.

In this particular dance number, the boys had to jump over the girls. Well, you can imagine!
Not a performance went by, that a hat didn't go flying. Once off the head, they were in
danger of being confiscated by the audience, as we danced on the same level as our guests.
They ate and DRANK at their tables, then watched the show on a level dance floor. They
were not beyond a little mild frivolity. We tried not to encourage it.


You could stumble over a hat lying innocently on the floor, when you were tripping the
light fantastic. You could toss an errant hat on the bandstand. You could try to pin it
back where it had been originally, without missing a step. You could! Really.

Heard in the dressing room after a show:
"Has anyone seen my hat?"

Like our current government, it befuddles the mind with the irrationality of it all.

Jiva (who is 18, bottom right)

(Copyright 2009)

A LITTLE HOUSE IN WYOMING

I have this desire to live in Wyoming, with a nice big fluffy dog,
a lot of books, and my computer. I found this house on The Internet,
and can't remember where. I just know that it is my dream house.

I've lived in much bigger houses, lived on estates, lived on the shore,
in the woods, in the mountains, just about everywhere I can think of
except maybe Venice, Italy, or Paris, France, wouldn't mind living there either.
Or being in NYC, the center of the theater world.
But no, I want to live in Wyoming. This is the house for me.
I have nothing else to say about it, just wanted you to see it.

Jiva

THE GLAMOROUS MARY MEADE

It was March of 1953, and I was performing for the first time at The Empire Room of The Palmer House Hotel in Chicago, dancing with The Merriel Abbott Dancers. A dancer had not shown up for work, and they asked me to take her place, as I already knew the dance numbers. I was sixteen years old, a tall girl with long blond hair, quite attractive, a nice Catholic schoolgirl basically, suddenly thrust into the spotlight in more ways than one. The other girls had to show me how to put on stage make-up, fix my eyelashes with black wax to make them look thick and long, and put my headpiece on so it wouldn't fall off while I was dancing. That was the easy part. What happened next was something sudden. They asked me to walk out around the tables to the other side of the dance floor where we performed our shows, and wait for Miss Mary Meade who was the headliner.

They said, now just stand at the other side of the stage, and when she comes out, she'll hand you her black fox fur. You take it to the dressing room the same way you came out. This meant walking all the way around the tables and back again. They put me in a maid's outfit, with a little apron, black stockings and high heels. I looked like a pin up girl. Mary Meade was not that well known in Chicago, or anywhere else except Europe in the 1950's. She had been an actress in some "B" movies in Hollywood in the 40's, but for the most part, she was basically an unfamiliar face. She was quite beautiful, and she also had long blonde hair, just as I did at that time. We were both tall and blonde, and both pretty. So.......

The orchestra starts playing. I start walking around the back of the tables. The Master of Ceremonies introduces the star of stage and screen, the lovely Miss Mary Meade! And here she comes out of the same dressing room I came out of, only I reached the stage well before she did.
Just as they announced her, I stepped forward on the stage waiting dutifully for her to arrive with her black fox fur. The audience couldn't see her because she was on her way from the dressing room, making her way through the side tables. They took one look at me, and thought I looked similar to the picture on their table card, so they started applauding, loud and passionately, as good Chicago audiences were known to do. I smiled and grinned at the crowd which was staring at me, and then a somewhat irate Ms.Meade came strolling across the stage and handed me her fur with a cutting look I will never forget.

The musicians unfortunately started chuckling in the background, and the drummer made one of those stick on cymbal sounds they make at the punch line of a joke. I still had to walk all the way around the back tables. Ms. Meade started singing, but the audience continued smiling at me, as I walked fast to the dressing room. It was a story that went around town a bit, as the new girl who upstaged Mary Meade. She was quite unhappy about it, until they told her it was my very first night in show business, and I guess she decided to forgive me, as apparently it had been her idea to have a maid pick up her fur, and for some reason, somebody decided to have me do it. I'll never forget that night, as I didn't know whether to be elated at my sudden celebrity, or humiliated at my bold stance while I waited for her to appear. A charming memory now, but then, all the girls said, "nice going."


Jiva

(Copyright 2009)

KATE WINS !!

KATE WINSLET WON TWICE !!
MICKEY ROURKE SUPRISED ME WITH HIS BEST ACTOR WIN.
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE STOLE THE SHOW...
IT WAS A LOT OF FUN... CHECK IT OUT.


Jiva

GOLDEN GLOBES TONIGHT AT 8PM EST !!!

THE 66TH ANNUAL GOLDEN GLOBES AIRS TONIGHT.
A PRINTABLE BALLOT IS ON THE HEADER LINK ABOVE. (title bar)
KEEP TRACK OF ALL THE WINNERS AND LOSERS!
I JUST LOVE HOLLYWOOD. I LOVE THE RED CARPET AND ALL THE FASHIONS.
50 STARS WILL BE PRESENTERS AT THE BEVERLY HILTON HOTEL
(where I just happened to be the first day the place opened in 1955)!
IT IS FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE ON NBC LIVE AND IN COLOR :)

The Golden Globes is the only awards show today that combines the intimacy and spontaneity of a party. As the night continues on, the famous and not so famous usually become
innebriated, thereby doing and saying outrageous things that make us all laugh and giggle.
That's the BIG difference between the Golden Globes and the rest of the award shows.

In case you don't know, the Golden Globes is put on by the Hollywood Foreign
Press Association. My experience is that they usually have no hidden agendas.
They just call it like they see it. NO politics!

I'll be on the couch with my Martini, my snacks and my ballot.
I love to guess who might win, I always play my favorites.
And of course BRAD PITT AND CATE BLANCHETT are right at the top of my list!

Happy Viewing.

Jiva