Vintage Vignettes: Jane Austen Fun

Every once in a while we like to highlight some of the best videos we come across as we surf through the world of vintage romance, those that not only entertain us, but also let us imagine what it would have been like to live and love in another era!

This week we're sharing some of the fun and incredibly creative Jane Austen parodies and homages we've come across in our surfing!

Memorable Melodies: Miss Thomasina Tucker's Repertoire, Part II

As promised, here's Part Two of Miss Tommy Tucker's Repertoire! In the opening story of Kate Douglas Wiggin’s Ladies In Waiting, our heroine, aspiring singer Thomasina Tucker, finds that her repertoire of old-fashioned ballads and folk songs doesn’t always go over well with audiences, some of whom prefer more modern or sophisticated music. But happily for Tommy, it does succeed in helping her win the heart of one particular listener, the solitary and lonely Fergus, whose melancholy soul is touched by and opens up to her passionate voice!

Our first post covering some of her famous tunes focused on those of Irish origin, and here we have ballads of Scottish and English birth. Be sure to check out our article about James Hogg, the Scottish poet known as "The Ettrick Shepherd," who is widely credited with penning our first selection!

Memorable Melodies: Miss Thomasina Tucker's Repertoire, Part I

In the opening story of Kate Douglas Wiggin’s Ladies In Waiting, our heroine, aspiring singer Thomasina Tucker, finds that her repertoire of old-fashioned ballads and folksongs doesn’t always go over well with audiences, some of whom prefer more modern or sophisticated music. But happily for Tommy, it does succeed in helping her win the heart of one particular listener! His first assumption that she must be Irish undoubtedly comes from the fact that many of these songs have an Irish origin.

My Love’s An Arbutus
The lyrics to this lovely song are by Alfred Perceval Graves (1846 – 1931), who also penned many other Irish ballads, including the well-known “Father O’Flynn,” and the melody is traditional. Piano/vocal sheet music may be downloaded for free here.

Vintage Vignettes: Styles, Songs, and Suffrage

Every once in a while we like to highlight some of the best videos we come across as we surf through the world of vintage romance, those that not only entertain us, but also let us imagine what it would have been like to live and love in another era!

This week we're highlighting a brief history of fashion, popular tunes from the turn of the twentieth century, and the women's rights movement. Something all three of these videos have in common: a rockin' soundtrack!

Vintage Happy Hour with Audra: Cin Cin Campari!

In 1860 in a small town near Milan, the liquor known as Campari was created. Originally called Bitter all'Uso d'Holanda, it is an infusion of aromatic herbs and other plants (such as ginseng) as well as fruit (like oranges and rhubarb). Made up of anywhere from twenty to sixty ingredients, it is a closely guarded secret. A "bitter" liquor, it’s considered medicinal in quality and was originally taken undiluted before lunch to aid in digestion.

The first Campari cocktail came about during the belle époque of the 1890s. Called the Milano-Torino after the source of its two main ingredients, Campari and vermouth (along with a shot of club soda), the drink was renamed the Americano after its popularity with Americans (and perhaps a marketing ploy to cause more Americans to order it). In 1960, Ian Fleming featured the Americano in his James Bond novel Casino Royale, the first alcoholic drink Bond orders, and in From a View to Kill Bond even clarifies he prefers drinking it over his usual choices when at an outside cafe.

Dog-Warpin' on the River: A Family Tradition

“The forests of Maine have been a resource since the area first was inhabited by humans – but the uses of the forest have changed and grown – from timber for masts and shipbuilding, to sawn lumber for myriad building projects, to raw material for papermaking, to a recreational resource that boosts the tourism economy.” ~Maine History Online

Rose O’ The River, by Kate Douglas Wiggin, takes place in Maine in the heart of the logging industry in the early 1900s. Although modern technology and enhanced safety regulations have helped in improving the job of a logger, it is still today considered a highly dangerous occupation. Requiring brute strength and incredible bravery, it's not for the faint of heart.

In the early logging days, men lived in camps on location while their families lived at home. Often, the cabins the men lived in were on skids so they could easily be moved from site to site when resources had diminished in the current location. The living conditions were deplorable, camps were often rampant with lice and other diseases, and the men wore the same clothing for months at a time. Later, through the unions, logging camps allowed the men to move their wives and families to these remote locations where small communities, complete with schools, were founded.

Fresh Brides Available! Hurry, Supplies Won’t Last!

Thomas Hart Benton's Brideship
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

"...the plantation can never florish till families be planted and the respect of wives and children fix the people on the soil." ~Sir Edwin Sandy, Treasurer Virginia Company of London, 1620

Mail order brides. The images these words conjure up are not entirely pleasant, and certainly not romantic! Our modern equivalent of the mail order bride seems to bear little resemblance to the women depicted in Mary Johnston’s romantic adventure, To Have and to Hold, and to the actual women who traveled to the New World in 1620 to start new lives by marrying Colonists. In Johnston’s novel, Lady Jocelyn Leigh is running away from a man named Lord Carnal (sounds like a fitting moniker for a pimp, doesn’t it?) and she is rescued by the ultimate hero, Ralph Percy. When she meets Percy in the courting meadow, the scene is tinged with valor and romance. But was there much romance for the real Jamestown brides?