Elizabeth Kerri Mahon

To celebrate Thanksgiving, and for a change of scenery, I headed down to our nation's capitol.  On my list of things to do was to visit Marjorie Merriweather Post's estate in north DC called Hillwood. Marjorie Merriweather Post (188 -1973) was the daughter of C.W. Post who invented a coffee substitute called Posties as well as Grape Nuts.  At the time of his death, when she was 27, she inherited $20 million dollars which is something like over a $100 million dollars in today's money.  Suffice it to say, girlfriend didn't have to clip coupons.  Although she could have spent the rest of her life counting her money, Marjorie was a shrewd businessman. She served on the board of her father's company The Postum Cereal Company,  which he'd founded in 1895.  With her second husband, E.F. Hutton (anyone remember those commericals, "When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen?), she developed a wider range of products including Birdseye.  The company eventually became...

Scandalous Women is pleased to welcome author Debra Brenegan to the blog today to talk about Fanny Fern, once one of the highest paid columnists in the United States, making $100 a week way back in 1855. Talk about a scandalous woman! Fanny Fern helped define the term. And the sad thing is that most people have never heard of her. I had never heard of her either until one day, in graduate school, I took a nineteenth-century American Literature class with a professor who told me, “I know a writer you’re just going to love.” This writer, Fanny Fern, wasn’t on our reading list that semester, so, he added her book, Ruth Hall, to the reading list of a course I took with him the next semester. And, he was right – I adored her! Fanny Fern was the highest-paid, most-popular writer of her era. She served as a literary mentor to Walt Whitman, earned the respect of Nathaniel Hawthorne and was friends with Harriet Beecher Stowe. Fern’s personal life was a rollercoaster of highs and lows. S...

Cast Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe Kenneth Branagh as Sir Laurence Olivier Eddie Redmayne as Colin Clark Judi Dench as Dame Sybil Thorndike Emma Watson as Lucy Dougray Scott as Arthur Miller Dominic Cooper as Milton H. Greene Julia Ormond as Vivien Leigh Derek Jacobi as Sir Owen Morshead Zoë Wanamaker as Paula Strasberg Richard Clifford as Richard Wattis Philip Jackson as Roger Smith Simon Russell Beale as Admiral Cotes-Preedy Directed by: Simon Curtis Written by Adrian Hodges based on the memoirs of Colin Clark Produced by David Parfitt, Harvey Weinstein, The Weinstein  Company and BBC Films Synopsis : In the summer of 1956, and 23 year old Colin Clark is looking for a job as an assistant on a film.  He talks his way into a job working as the 3rd Assistant Director on the British film of The Prince and the Showgirl (based on the The Sleeping Prince by Terrence Rattigan) , starring Knight of the British theatre Laurence Olivier a...

Sex scandals involving men of the cloth are not new (see Jimmy Swaggart. Jim Bakker, etc.); as far back as 1874 Henry Ward Beecher’s former assistant Theodore Tilton sued the preacher for ‘criminal intimacy’ with his wife Elizabeth Tilton. But a scandal involving a female evangelist was something new entirely. Aimee Semple McPherson was no ordinary female evangelist; she was also a media celebrity, one of the first evangelists to combine religion and popular entertainment in America. In the 1920's, Aimee was more famous than movie stars, such as Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford.  Her radio show sometimes reached as far as Australia. Over more than 30 years, Aimee Semple McPherson touched the lives of millions across the country. Born in Canada in 1890, Aimee was exposed to religion at an early age. According to biographer Daniel Mark Epstein, Aimee was consecrated to God at her birth, by her mother Mimi, who was a soldier in the Salvation Army. Strong-willed and inqui...

Just a quick round up of some links relating to various Scandalous Women. Historian Tracy Borman , whose new book Matilda: Queen of the Conqueror , was published by Jonathan Cape on 1 September, has a great podcast over at BBC History Magazine about Matilda. Borman is one of the History Chicks, along with Alison Weir, Kate Williams, and Sarah Gristwood, who lecture in the UK.  How I long to be included in that group! At History Today , there is a great article about Louis XV's mistress Madame de Pompadour, entitled Madame de Pompadour: The Other Cheek, detailing some of the obscene and irreverent 18th-century drawings targetting the royal mistress.  Thanks to Kathrynn Dennis of The History Hoydens for finding the article.  I would love to read a historical fiction novel from the POV of Madame de Pompadour. Robert K. Massie, whose new biography of Catherine the Great, just came out this month has an interesting article over at The Wall Street Journal entitled: Cather...

I can't tell you how excited I am to see this movie. Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher? How could this movie go wrong.  Have a look at the brand new trailer of upcoming biopic movie ‘The Iron Lady’ based on Margaret Thatcher, the UK first female Prime Minister. The film focuseson Thatcher's charismatic political persona and her personal vulnerability as a woman. Meryl Streep recently shared that it took a lot out of her to don the role, but it was a privilege to play Margaret Thatcher. The movie is directed by Phyllida Lloyd and besides Meryl Streep, the movie features Jim Broadbent, Richard E. Grant, Harry Lloyd, Roger Allam, Anthony Head and Olive Colman. The movie hits the US  on December 30, 2011 and on January 6, 2012 in the UK.  I think that it is a given that Streep will earn yet another Oscar nomination, but she has stiff competition in Glenn Close who plays a woman who disguises herself as a man in Albert Dobbs . This is a banner fall for films about S...

The Winner of Gillian Bagwell's THE SEPTEMBER QUEEN is....... Teabird Congratulations! I will be emailing you to get your address.  And thanks to everyone who entered the giveway. Now on to more news.  I'm contemplating adding a monthly Scandalous Women podcast to the blog.  The podcast would allow me to go into a little bit more depth about some of the Scandalous Women in history that I've been bringing you the past 4 years.  I've tentatively going to attempt to launch the podcast in December.  If the first one is successful and there's interest, the goal is to have one every month.  I'm lining up a great group of guests to join me, to discuss everything from Eleanor of Aquitaine to the Grande Horizontales of Paris during the Belle Epoque.  I've added a poll to the sidebar, to see whether or not my readers would be interested in a podcast. Stay tuned to the blog for details of the first podcast, date, time etc. and who my first guest will be...

• Title: Sybil Exposed • Author: Debbie Nathan • Pub. Date: October 2011 • Publisher: Free Press • Format: Hardcover, 320pp I remember watching the TV mini-series Sybil as a pre-teen and being riveted. The story of Sybil Dorsett, a young, shy graduate student who suffered such traumatic abuse by her mother, that her psyche shattered into 16 distinct personalities, was Must-See TV. Sally Field, who played the title role, won an Emmy Award for her work, and totally changed her career around, proving that she could handle serious drama as well as light comedy. But it was the story of Sybil and the idea of multiple personalities that really got me. I was fascinated by the idea that someone could suffer such trauma that the only way they could deal with it was by splinting into different personalities. I eagerly watched The Three Faces of Eve , based on one of the earliest known cases of multiple personality disorder. But Eve only had 3 personalities while Sybil had 16. Later on, th...

Cast Sophia Magdalena 'Sophie' Scholl - Julia Jentsch Hans Fritz Scholl - Fabian Hinrichs Robert Mohr - Gerald Alexander Held Else Gebel - Johanna Gastdorf Dr. Roland Freisler - André Hennicke Christoph Hermann Probst - Florian Stetter Willi Graf - Maximilian Brückner Alexander Schmorell - Johannes Suhm Gisela Schertling - Lilli Jung Magdalena Scholl - Petra Kelling Robert Scholl - Jörg Hube Werner Scholl - Franz Staber Director: Marc Rothemund Written by: Fred Breinersdorfter Released: February 13, 2005   Synopsis:   Arrested for participating in the White Rose resistance movement, anti-Nazi activist Sophie Scholl (Julia Jentsch) is subjected to a highly charged interrogation by the Gestapo, testing her loyalty to her cause, her family and her convictions. Based on true events, director Marc Rothemund's absorbing Oscar-nominated drama explores maintaining human resolve in the face of intense pressure from a system determined to silence whistle-blowers...

Scandalous Women is very pleased to welcome author Gillian Bagwell to the blog today to talk about her new book The September Queen which came out on November 1st. Happy Release week Gillian!  While researching The Darling Strumpet , my novel about Nell Gwynn, I read Derek Wilson’s book All the King’s Women , about the numerous women important to Charles II. As all of us who know anything about Charles II are aware, he liked women. His mistresses were many and famous, whether loved by the people like Nell Gwynn or hated like Louis De Keroualle. So I was intrigued to read his account of Jane Lane, an ordinary Staffordshire girl who played a starring role in an extraordinary part of Charles’s life – his six-week odyssey after the Battle of Worcester trying to escape to safety in France. The Battle of Worcester took place on September 3, 1651. Charles and his ragged and outnumbered army knew that all their hopes rested on that day, and the 21-year-old king believed that the outc...

On this day in 1755, Marie Antoinette (baptised Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna ) was born at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria. No, this is not Marie Antoinette, this is moi, dressed as Marie Antoinette.  Two years ago, I had the privilege of reading at Lady Jane's Salon here in New York. The date fell on November 2nd which is Marie's birthday as well as mine. So I decided to dress like her and read a piece on Marie and her relationship with Axel Fersen. The dress I liberated from a theatre company that I worked for years ago. This is the real Marie! Can't you see a resemblance? :) I had planned on writing a post on Marie Antoinette's impact on fashion, but instead I've decided just to post some photos instead. It's clear that in the more than 200 years since her death, Marie Antoinette continues to inspire designers. These photos are from John Galliano's Spring 2010 collection.  Aren't they gorgeous, allthough it must have been a bit to wear. ...

Title:   Sleeping with the Enemy - Coco Chanel's Secret War Author: Hal Vaughn Pub. Date: August 2011 Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Format: Hardcover , 304pp Overview :  “From this century, in France, three names will remain: de Gaulle, Picasso, and Chanel.” –André Malraux Coco Chanel created the look of the modern woman and was the high priestess of couture. She believed in simplicity, and elegance, and freed women from the tyranny of fashion. She inspired women to take off their bone corsets and cut their hair. She used ordinary jersey as couture fabric, elevated the waistline, and created bell-bottom trousers, trench coats, and turtleneck sweaters. In the 1920s, when Chanel employed more than two thousand people in her workrooms, she had amassed a personal fortune of $15 million and went on to create an empire. Jean Cocteau once said of Chanel that she had the head of “a little black swan.” And, added Colette, “the heart of a little black...