THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW YOU NEEDED TO KNOW

On February 27th, 1920 a woman attempted to jump to her death from a bridge in Berlin. The woman, known in German as Fraulein Unbekkant ("Miss Unknown") was rescued and brought to an asylum. The woman refused to ID herself or reveal any personal details for 2 years. Then in 1922 she got a little chatty and dropped her name to a nurse. She was no Jane Doe from small village Europe. She is the missing Grand Duchess Anastasia, heir to the Romanov throne. Anastasia herself was only 16 when the Royal family died as the result of the Russian Revolution. She was beloved by those who knew her, but wasn't on a Princess Diana world level of fame. Only Russian aristocrats stripped of their money and titles would have been invested on a personal level. But a princess, thought to be dead but now alive in an asylum?  That's world headline grabbing news. The woman who claimed to be Anastasia would do so for nearly 50 years. Reasons for the Russian Revolution were multiple and varied...

  In 1917, two little girls tricked the world into believing fairies were real. Even the creator of Sherlock Holmes, the most unassailably logical human ever to exist, fictionality be damned - believed the girls. But the question is not why did two little girls play the trick, but why adults so eagerly believed two little girls. The answer is simply sometimes the desire to believe in something overtakes logic. To begin our fairy tale we go back to two other teen girls I've covered - the Fox Sisters. Their little prank of saying they could speak to the dead validated the emerging religion of spiritualism. Spiritualism was a whole cloth ideal that people could speak to the dead ; Theosophy, Spiritualism's offspring, saw the whole cloth and how it could be cut down to actually make something. Theosophy was logic applied to belief. You could believe people can talk to the dead, but something like spirit photography, with a technological element, could be analyzed and disproved. The...

Introducing Find Me Friday - The last Friday of each month I will discuss a famous disappearance.  Seek, but he may not always find...

  What do you do if you are a recognized beauty afraid of losing your looks? You fill your face with paraffin wax that settles an odd lumps towards your chin. Such was the situation for Gladys Deacon, a noted Gilded Age beauty who modeled for Pond's Soap and had her portrait painted by Boldini . Gladys Deacon faced a rocky childhood, life as a Gilded Age socialite and a terrible marriage to the man of her dreams. Gladys Deacon's story is most definitely one of the most unusual socialite stories ever. Gladys was born in Paris February 7 1881. Gladys was one of three sisters and the family lived the European life of wealthy expatriated Americans. In 1892 Gladys's mother went away for a week tryst with a lover. Gladys's father followed them, burst into their room, and shot his wife's lover. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison. Gladys was sent to a convent school but her mother kidnapped her so Gladys his father could not claim her upon his release. After his releas...

   The bride, face puffy from a morning spent crying, tears streaming down her silk bodice, entered the church, hair laced with orange blossoms - Queen Victoria wore them in her hair at her wedding. Her arms were heavy with a bouquet of orchids. Orchids, in Victorian flower language, symbolize beauty and refinement, but also self-love and uniqueness. A very telling statement for the bride. This wedding was the ultimate statement of the beauty and refinement the mother of the bride wanted to shove in the faces of the society mavens who rejected her. The bride, Consuelo Vanderbilt, would find self-love years later after escaping the Gilded Age cage of society and its restrictive roles for women via charity work and championing women's suffrage. Daughter of queen of the social climbers Alva Vanderbilt, Consuelo Vanderbilt was named for her mother's best friend, OG Penny Princess Consuelo Yznaga. Alva spared no expense, and showed no mercy, in her desire to mold Consuelo into Amer...

Consuelo Yznaga sang minstral songs and played the banjo. But what's that compared to a bawdy, brassy babe who gives hecklers the what for? Viscount Mandeville - Kim - Consuelo Yznaga's husband certainly thought that, as he carried on an open affair with Bessie Bellwood for several years. Bessie was a dance hall singer with a feisty, fiery reputation. Sharp-tongued Bessie was a hero to the working class, a star performer they could claim as their own. Bessie was a charitable woman who lived life the way she wanted to, be damned to anyone who said she shouldn't. Catherine Mahoney was born March 30th 1856, to Irish parents. The family were working class. Catherine skinned rabbits in a factory before becoming Bessie Bellwood. She made her stage debut in the working class area of Birdmondsey. She adapted the persona of a coster - a street vendor. Bessie sang songs about the hardships of life, sometimes from the perspective of a woman done wrong. Bessie Bellwood was sassy and sa...

  As I discussed in last week's post, there were 3 O G Penny Princesses.  Jenny got her own entry, so this week Minnie and Cosuelo get their due.  Then two more of the best known  Penny Princesses will tell their stories. Minnie Stevens If Minnie Padget had written a self-help book, she would have called it "Marrying Into the Aristocracy For Dummies." Minnie brokered marriages for the Penny Princesses - including Consuelo Vanderbilt. Minnie was a hostess and a brilliant fundraiser as well. Minnie eased young ladies into English society from her house on the posh Belgrave Square. She entertained Bertie and the Marlborough House set.  Minnie Stevens was born in 1853. Her father was Paran Stevens, owner of the 5th Avenue hotel. Her mother Marietta was the daughter of a grocer. In typical New York City Society style the Stevens were ostracized for making their money themselves -  shudder . Minnie made her debut, to not much success. Paran St...