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The Writer's Almanac from Wednesday, July 17, 2013
The Writer's Almanac from Wednesday, July 17, 2013The text for this poem is no longer available. "The Swan at Edgewater Park" by Ruth L. Schwartz, from Edgewater. © Harper Collins, 2002. It's the birthday of composer and humorist Peter Schickele, born in Ames, Iowa (1935). He has written and arranged music for classical, jazz, folk, and rock groups, and for television and radio. But he is probably best known as P.D.Q. Bach, the fictitious son of Johann Sebastian Bach. He invented the character while studying at Juilliard, and it's under that name that he writes satirical music. P.D.Q. Bach's original operas include Hansel and Gretel and Ted and Alice (1990) and The Abduction of Figaro (1984). It's the birthday of photographer Berenice Abbott, born in Springfield, Ohio (1898), best known for her portraits and documentary photographs of American life. She traveled to Europe in 1921 to study art and sculpture, and got a job as a darkroom assistant to the surrealist photographer Man Ray. She took to the camera herself in 1925 and opened her own portrait studio, where she photographed many of the famous literary and artistic figures of the day, including James Joyce, Peggy Guggenheim, and Jean Cocteau. Her greatest work was her documentation of New York in the 1930s. Throughout the early 1930s, Abbott photographed the architecture, historical buildings, and street life of New York City. The powerful black-and-white photographs were published in 1939 in a book called Changing New York. It's the birthday of the comedian and actress who was once called "the funniest woman in the world": Phyllis Diller, born in Lima, Ohio (1917). She didn't start her career in stand-up comedy until she was middle-aged, after spending much of her life as a housewife. In her act, she said: "Housework can't kill you, but why take a chance?" In her shows, she caricatured the frumpy housewife and appeared on stage with outrageous makeup and wild hair that she claimed she combed with an electric toothbrush. She routinely used a cigarette holder, though she did not smoke, and wore a fur scarf that she insisted she trapped under the kitchen sink at her home. She appeared regularly on television and played a role in the film Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966) alongside Bob Hope, who invited her to go on his USO tour of Vietnam that same year. In 2003, she donated her "gag file" to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History; it's a filing cabinet with 48 drawers, containing more than 50,000 individual jokes and gags typed on index cards. Diller wrote several books, including the memoir Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse (2005). She passed at the age of 95. Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® If you are a paid subscriber to The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor, thank you! Your financial support is used to maintain these newsletters, websites, and archive. If you’re not yet a paid subscriber and would like to become one, support can be made through our garrisonkeillor.com store, by check to Prairie Home Productions, P.O. Box 2090, Minneapolis, MN 55402, or by clicking the SUBSCRIBE button. This financial support is not tax deductible.
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