lifeasdaddy

Who is that dancer?

A photographic puzzle starts when I ask myself a question.

Who is that dancer?

Unidentified partner of ballet dancer Valentin Zeglovsky, 1947 / Max Dupain

Held by State Library of New South Wales.

Call number  

ON 247 / 688-716

  I can show you the answer:

 

How do I get from question to answer?

 

Well, with a little bit of photo detective work.

I sometimes browse the photographs on the photo sharing website Flickr and usually take in the photos posted there by the State Library of New South Wales.

One in particular caught my eye today:  Unidentified partner of ballet dancer Valentin Zeglovsky, 1947 / Max Dupain

It is a great photograph, well lit, well composed.

But, unidentified?? Such a good photograph, but we don't know of whom?  That's usually the sort of question to which I can find the answer. Someone who was worth Max Dupain taking the time to create that work of art, she should be known.

 

I clicked through to the website of the State Library of New South Wales to find out more about the photograph.

There I see an "Administrative/Biographical Note" which says:

For further information, see: "Valentin Zeglovsky: on stage, backstage and at the studio of Max Dupain" in the Valerie Lawson blog Dancelines, 12 November 2011. http://dancelines.com.au/valentin-zeglovsky-on-stage-backstage-and-at-the-studio-of-max-dupain/ (accessed November 15, 2011)

Hmm. Valerie Lawson. She's a well-known journalist. So let's look at her blog page here.

Valerie's blog post gives some background about the photographs, and a good deal of biographical information about Valentin Zeglovsky - a well-known ballet dancer of years past.

It also gives the information that Valentin Zeglovsky married dancer & actress Pamela Bromley-Smith in 1949, and that Valerie thinks she may be the unidentified woman.

Well, there's a working hypothesis right there.

Let's see if we can find a photograph of Pamela Bromley-Smith to compare with the many of the unidentified woman.

There are three excellent close-up photographs of the unidentified woman on Valerie's blog which will provide excellent comparison.

Ok, now the go-to place for biographical research into 20th Century Australians is the National Library of Austrlia's Trove website.

Let's type Valentin Zeglovsky into the search box and see how we go.

This is the result. The search returns 13 photographs, none of which are the unidentified woman.

The search also returns 28 digitised newspaper articles, none of which appear to refer to Pamela Bromley-Smith, nor have photographs of the unidentified woman nor Pamela Bromley-Smith.

Now, let's approach the solution from a different direction. Let's search Trove for Pamela Bromley-Smith. There is 1 irrelevant photograph result, and 43 digitised newspaper articles.

I inspected each of the digitised newspaper articles until I found this one:

(ref. Prizewinners in Miss N.S.W. Quest. (1947, November 22). The Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 - 1954), p. 1. Retrieved November 17, 2011, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55894727)

And there, on the right, is Pamela Bromley-Smith.

Wouldn't you know it, the same woman as the unidentified partner of Valentin Zeglovsky here and here.

Puzzle solved. 

( More on Valerie Lawson here. )

 

 UPDATE - 21 November 2011.

It seems that Valerie Lawson is not convinced that the photograph of Pamela Bromley-Smith in the newspaper item I've shown above is the same person as the mystery dancer in the Max Dupain photographs.

Valerie writes on her blog:

"Bob, the newspaper photo does look like the woman with Zeglovsky. I had seen it on Trove but was not completely certain as the photo is grainy and she seems to have dark hair whereas Pamela is blonde in the Dupain photos. But this is the closest we’ve got to identifying her so far."

and the State Library of New South Wales people are also unimpressed with my findings:

"Thanks Bob, we've investigated Pamela Bromley-Smith and aren't convinced. This woman is probably a ballet dancer as her ballet poses in other photographs with Zeglovsky look professional."

I'll have to do a bit more work then.

Valerie Lawson also mentioned on her blog that Pamela Bromley-Smith and Valentin Zeglovsky had two sons, Mark and Paul Zeglovskis who attended Holland Park School in London.

I'm trying to contact the family in London.

Valerie also mentioned that Pamela Bromley-Smith also at times used the stage name "Pamela Bromley". 

Searching Trove for that name also gives us an article on Page 16 of the Australian Women's Weekly magazine of Wednesday 4 July, 1951 about the London production of Kiss Me, Kate  which includes a phorograph captioned, "Dancers, led by Pamela Bromley, who comes from Neutral Bay, New South Wales, wait in the wings."

It's accompanied by this photograph:

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55461438

The photograph looks like the mystery dancer to me, but is a little bit too small to be certain.

The search continues for more evidence.

UPDATE - 24 November 2011

I have managed to contact Mr. Leo Zeglovskis in the UK. I asked him if he could identify the photographs on Valerie Lawson's blog post here:

http://dancelines.com.au/valentin-zeglovsky-on-stage-backstage-and-at-the-studio-of-max-dupain/

which contain, amongst others, photographs captioned as:

- Valentin Zeglovsky and unidentified dancer, photo © Max Dupain, ON247/705, Courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW

- Unidentified partner of Valentin Zeglovsky, © Max Dupain, 1947, ON247/710, Courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW

- Unidentified partner of Zeglovsky, photo © Max Dupain, Courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, ON247/712

- Unidentified partner of Zeglovsky, © Max Dupain, 1947, ON 247/709, Courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW

He wrote back:

"These pictures are all of my mother Pamela Bromley-Smith."

 

 

A wedding toast.

I was asked to toast the Bride and Groom at Sunday's wedding.  A small gathering of immediate family and very close friends were present.  Luckily I had a few days' notice which gave me time to come up with something and memorise it.

Just in case it helps somebody, someday, somewhere this is what I said:

Thank you, Gabrielle (The Mistress of Ceremonies). And thank you too,  to Bill and Betty for according me this honour. ( pause ) When the stars are aligned – a wedding day is joyous  - a beautiful celebration and a wonderful gathering of family and friends. Well we certainly have that today with you all here gathered for this joining in matrimony of Betty and Bill.   The qualities which they both share, and which make them so suited to being together are -  things of beauty.   They have love.  Love of their friends -  and truly love of their families – and love for each other. They are patient. Patient with others -  and patient and caring for each other. They are generous. Generous in material ways, sure. But also generous with their time,  - and with that other thing that is so important. That thing which bonds families and binds couples together – generous with love.   Has everybody got a drink?  Yes, good then.   And on that loving note I ask you all to please be upstanding - (long pause) – and to celebrate our love for Bill and Betty and their love for each other – I propose a toast – TO THE BRIDE AND GROOM!

 

Sunrise over the Med

I'm going to write a few blog posts here about our recent trip to Barcelona and France. 

In Barcelona we stayed at the AC Barcelona Forum hotel next to the convention centre.  The hotel has a sleek, hip design which was a visual pleasure.  I was unfamiliar with the AC hotel chain which has a significant presence in Spain, Italy and Portugal.  I found the guest room size slightly on the small side compared to rooms in Australia and the USA but I'm told this is normal for Europe.

There was a problem with the air-conditioning: it would only heat, not cool.  This suggests to me that the hotel has the technical limitation of only one set of air-conditioning pipes running through the hotel and must choose for the whole hotel a date to switch from cooling to heating.  There was a saving grace however, the windows would open to permit fresh, cool air into the room:

That's what the sunrise over the Mediterranean Sea looked like.  Barely visible in the dawn light at the sea shore is part of the ongoing urban renewal of the area which is either reclamation or demolition/reconstruction.

The hotel staff were generally very good. The room attendants did a great job keeping the room clean. 

 

Strangely, for a hotel which is mainly aimed at conventioneers and the business traveller there was no electrical power point at the desk top to permit laptop and electronic device charging.  Instead we used the television power point.  This is not an unusual fault, but an unforgivable one in a recently built hotel.

One aesthetic feature of Barcelona is the architecture.  The 'culture-led' approach to urban renewal has dictated that great care is taken with the design of new buildings and this hotel precinct is no exception with cantilevered building segments on display.  The wedge shaped building standing by itself in the photo below was a transparent glass tower held up by the concrete floors and an exoskeleton.

Above: photo of AC Barcelona Forum hotel from across Passeig del Taulat.

 

Below left: AC Barcelona Forum hotel

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My best meals ever.

Some were great because of the food.

Some were great because of the time, place and people.

Some were great because I was introduced to a new culinary experience.

I was inspired to write about my best meals ever by Leonard Lopate's interview with James Oseland, Jane Stern and Michael Stern of Saveur Magazine.

Chicken with orange sauce.

My cousin Julie had been married the previous day to then-husband Phil. I guess I was about 9 years old. They were flying out of Melbourne to their honeymoon.  In those days it was unusual to take an international honeymoon.  Most of the extended family, including my parents and I went to the airport to see them off and it was decided by the adults to have lunch at the fancy restaurant at Tullamarine Airport.

There were lots of things on the menu which seemed unusual to me and I finally decided on Chicken Maryland with orange sauce. When my meal arrived I recall my wonder that there was a sauce other than tomato, that there was a sauce you could make from a fruit and how deliciously piquant citrus was with chicken.

Kill a lamb one day, eat it roasted the next.

My Uncle and Aunt ran a dairy farm and I was a regular childhood visitor. There was also a small flock of sheep on the farm which were reared for eating. One day when I was 12 or so it was time for me to see how the sheep was killed and butchered.  One of the lambs was tied up and killed by having its throat slit, then my Uncle went through the butchering process until it was a bare carcass.  The carcass was covered in a cotton bag and hung overnight in the big tree.  The next morning after milking-time the lamb was brought down and my Uncle cut it up.  Roast leg of fresh lamb for dinner.  No illusions about where the food comes from. It was delicious with a fresh mint sauce.

 Chateau de Troja, Prague.

June. Prague summer. It was at a corporate function for dinner. First there was a tour through the Baroque chateau, including the magnificently frescoed stables. Then, on an evening of beautiful weather, down the sculpted staircase to the parterre where tables were set for about 200 people.  We sat at a table with some Finns who could not speak any English.  I can't remember what we ate, but I remember eating it in the garden of a palace.

 

.(photo by Guillaume Cattiaux. Used with his kind permission)

 

More details about the Chateau de Troja here.

 

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Victor's Cafe 52, New York.

We were on our way to New York.  A friend recommended Victor's - which specialises in Cuban food.  Never had Cuban food before.  It was July.  New York is HOT in July.  The streets smell as the garbage rots.  I telephoned for a reservation and the restaurateur told me that the air conditioning was not working and the restaurant would therefore be hot, but if we still wanted to come we would be very welcome.  Seemed fair enough to me.  If it was too hot, we could leave. Walked past Gallagher's Steak House and the window of their cold larder filled with gigantic cuts of beef. Got to Victor's.  The door was propped open and large electric fans circulated the air.  Our friend told us to order Mohitos and Champagne empanadas.

Had my first Mohito. Tick the box. But there was no sign of Champagne empanadas on the menu. We asked, we got. They were exquisite.

Street view of Victor's.

Le Café Marly at Le Louvre.

Here, position is everything.

(Photo by Kwong Yee Cheng on Flickr under a CC licence)

 

When you sit down with your lovely wife at Café Marly , in the Richelieu wing of The Louvre you look out at I.M. Pei's pyramids. You sit on stylishly covered chairs and are attended by waiters who speak English. You drink an expensive, though excellent cup of coffee and take a pastry. You are not dreaming. You are a lucky man.

 

I have a few more memorable meals to write about.  Soon.

 

There are no atheists in foxholes: A World War Two soldier's Bible.

Here's an interesting pocket Bible.  It was given away to soldiers across the British Empire during  World War Two by the British and Foreign Bible Society. This one to a soldier in the Australian Army.

It cannot be rare, however I am unable to  find any identical in the online catalogues of the usual Australian cultural institutions.  If you know of any similar examples - please let me know.

This one bears the symbol of His Majesty King George VI.  It is 120mm high and 76mm wide.

 

Inside the front cover is a tipped in presentation page plus a stapled Bible Reading hints insert.  The slightly corroded staples have created a slight brown stain. Otherwise the bible is almost unmarked after 70 years:

 

His Majesty's message to his loyal troops is also included.  The message is dated just 2 weeks after the start of World War Two:

 

Interestingly it was printed at the University Press, Oxford:

 

I just checked the Integrated Catalogue of the British Library and cannot find it there either.

Regalia of an I.O.O.F. lodge member

The man I wrote about here was once a member of the I.O.O.F. Talbrager no. 74 lodge in Dubbo, New South Wales.  He was initiated in 1934.

The International Order of Odd Fellows was a fraternal organisation which also provided welfare and insurance such as sick benefits to members.  There was also an associated organisation for women named The Rebekahs.  Here's the wikipedia entry about the North American organisation which gives a good overview of the general structure and flavour of the organisation. 

His ceremonial I.O.O.F. lodge collar looks like this:

 

It is adorned with a flannel flower motif. This flower has a close association with the State of New South Wales. The background is red coloured silk velvet and the flowers are embroidered in silver bullion wire, and the fringe is also of silver bullion.  The edge of the collar is trimmed with  repeating I.O.O.F. and triple link motif in silver thread embroidery.

Here is a close view of the embroidery.

 
 

The rear of the collar is lined with red coloured leather.

 

And it comes complete with a lockable leather carrying case.

 

Some empheral items are also contained in the case including two I.O.O.F. hospital cards:

 

and usefully a copy of the Triple Links magazine for January 1, 1940. 

 

The magazine includes some advertisements for ceremonial collars, one from David Jones department store:

 

and from Hordern Bros. Ltd.:

 

Here's a photograph of some I.O.O.F. lodge members in California wearing their collars.

There do not seem to be many of these types of collars still in existence in Australia, but here's one in the collection of the National Museum of Australia.

Today is Anzac Day.

Today is Anzac Day, one of Australia's national days of remembrance for those who served our country in time of war.

When I was a little boy in the 1960s I remember watching Melbourne's Anzac Day marches on television.  There I saw the elder World War One veterans, dwindling in numbers, unable to walk the route  and conveyed in open cars. When I was in my teens they were already almost absent.  World War Two veterans were robust in numbers, but the crowds lining the march route along Swanston Street, St. Kilda Road and up the Shrine of Remembrance were sparse indeed. 

I thought Anzac Day would eventually die out as vets expired and the public lost interest.

But in fact the opposite is the case.  Anzac Day enjoys renewed vigor throughout Australia.

Geoffrey Blainey has said of Anzac Day that.

"It has risen and waned and risen, and it will wane and rise again."

Some, like Professor Marilyn Lake, think there is too much vigor around Anzac Day which has led to a diminution of other chapters in Australia's history and increasing militarism.  It is becoming a minor battle in the history wars. 

This time last year I had an exchange of emails with Professor Lake about her views.  I have great respect for her views and found her a gracious correspondent - and I think much of what she says is correct. 

This morning I was at our Sunday morning swimming club which is held in the premises of a large registered club. A club which was originally established by returned service people from World War Two.  Today is a big day at the club.  Recognition of Anzac Day includes games of two-up played for gambling stakes and a dawn service had already been held.

I saw old men and women wearing their service medals and having a quiet time of reflection over a cup of tea or coffee mixed in with younger people in their finery come for a day of gambling and drinking.

It does not insult my sensibilities to see returned service people wearing their medals, proudly, for one or two days a year.  Nor does it insult my sensibilities to see people downing rum and coca-cola at 10 o-clock on a Sunday morning.

This is a great country to live in.

And the war dead?

Their name liveth forever more.

No matter what people say or do.

H.M.A.S. Canberra 1940

I've recently come across these two photographs.  They appear to be of the same ship and the upper photograph has "HMAS Canberra 1940" written on the reverse.  The other photograph seems to be of the same ship.

Some other photographs in the set were taken in Sydney Harbour from the Manly Ferry, so I think it's likely that this was taken in Sydney Harbour too.

 

I'll check with my friend Mac Gregory who served in HMAS Canberra and see what he thinks.

The ad Gillette could have shot with Tiger

My wife and I were kicking around some alternatives to a sponsor shedding Tiger Woods during his current difficulties.

Gilette say they are going to limit his role and phase out his ads.

Instead, they could shoot an ad with Tiger that would probably be pure gold in public relations value.  With carefully managed leaks it would create anticipation and is guaranteed to go viral.

SCENE ONE:

Tiger on the tee, swinging hard at a drive, but slightly losing his balance at the end of the swing.

Tiger in voice over: YOU KNOW, PEOPLE USED TO THINK I WAS PERFECT ...

SCENE TWO:

Tiger and caddy searching for his ball in some deep rough.

Tiger in voice over: BUT IT TURNS OUT I'M NOT ...

SCENE THREE:

Tiger in a green side bunker linking up his shot, camera from behind the ball.  Closeup of his face, a picture of concentration.

Tiger in voice over: AND TRY AS I MAY TO BE PERFECT ...

Shot of Tiger swinging at the ball in bunker, ball goes up, heading direct for the pin, keeps rolling, rolling, rolling across the green and into a water hazard.  Disappointment on Tiger's face.

Tiger in voice over:  SOMETIMES I JUST DON'T MEASURE UP TO THE GOLFER I EXPECT TO BE....

SCENE FOUR:

Tiger in  green side water hazard.  Trouser legs rolled up past his knees, water up to his knees.  Tiger swings.  Water splashes up.  Mud splashes up too all over Tiger's face.

Tiger direct to camera, wiping mud from his eyes.  Tiger, "I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO BE PERFECT. NOW WE ALL KNOW I'M NOT.  BUT I HAVE FOUND ONE THING THAT IS PERFECT ... 

SCENE FIVE:

Cut to shot of Tiger in his bathroom, towel around his waist.  Silent.  Two strokes of the razor across his face to finish his shave.

Tiger turns, smiles, holds up his Gilette next to his face and says,

AND IT'S THE SHAVE I GET FROM MY GILLETTE.

CLOSE.

Edward races his grandfather

Yesterday morning Edward went for a swim at the nearby amateur swimming club.  the races are fun on a time handicap system with swimmers starting on different time marks.

Ed had a couple of races and did very well.  Afterward there was a club photograph. My boy appears at front right.

 
 

The competition is spirited and in the best of humour.  Many members are approaching or more than 70 years old.

This is the type of sporting event which deserves funding.  Not the far upper reaches of sport for the few.

There are a number of swimmers who have significant mobility impairments including joint problems.  There is one man who can only use one arm.  He freestyles using one arm and kicking two legs.  With time handicapping he competes with everyone.

The health benefits, physical and mental, to all involved, our society and our economy are obvious.  If you can't see that, then I invite you to come along and see for yourself.