Every Day Is Special: King Arthur

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December 3 – Happily-Ever-Aftering in Camelot!

Posted on December 3, 2018

The date: December 3, 1960.
The place: The Majestic Theatre, Broadway, New York City
The event: The Broadway opening of the musical Camelot

After having drastically loooooonnnnnngggg shows in Toronto and Boston (the premiere in Toronto ran almost four-and-a-half hours!), Camelot opened on Broadway with a talented cast but mixed reviews.

Still, it was popular: the musical ran on Broadway for 873 performances, won four Tony Awards, became a hit album for 60 weeks, and inspired many revivals and foreign productions and a movie!

This depiction of Camelot is by
Tobias Roetsch

Camelot is the name of a place of legend - the home and castle of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere. King Arthur was said to have lived in early Britain - a time of knights and ladies and quests for the Holy Grail. "They" say that Arthur built a Round Table where his knights, including his loyal friend Sir Lancelot, would meet and talk with him. "They" say that Arthur had a magical sword called Excalibur - a sword he pulled from a stone as a young boy, proving his worth to be king. "They" even say that the young Arthur was taught by a wizard named Merlin.

The Sword in the Stone isn't the only legend about
Excalibur - there is also a legend about the sword and
the Lady of the Lake.

All of that sounds like myths, right? And although there may be some real guy at the bottom of all the fabulous stories, or maybe not, for sure most of the tale of King Arthur and Camelot is fiction.

Nothing wrong with fiction!

Remember I mentioned that the original cast of Camelot released a popular album? Well, not only did many folks in the United States listen to their Camelot LPs over and over again, even President Kennedy loved listening to the album. According to his wife, Kennedy had some favorite lines:

Don't let it be forgot

That once there was a spot

For one brief, shining moment

That was known as Camelot.

The thing is, President Kennedy's administration was cut short by an assassin, and looking back, many people felt that having the relatively young and charismatic president for such a little time was a sort of "brief, shining moment." And so now the idea of Camelot - the idea of a fantastic place, a place of romance and chivalry, a place that is hard to achieve and harder yet to hold onto - is associated with the Kennedy Administration.

Check out some Camelot videos, such as these here and here.

Like the legends of King Arthur and his Round Table, the images on the Pinterest page "All Things Camelot" are equal parts mysterious and alluring.

What did King Arthur and Queen Guinevere look like?
Well, since they probably never existed:
Any way you like!

Also on this date:

Anniversary of the discovery of Himalia

Anniversary of first mouth-to-mouth rescue breathing

Actor and storyteller Te Ata Fisher's birthday

Anniversary of the first close-ups of Jupiter

Painter Gilbert Stuart's birthday

Anniversary of the demonstration of neon lights

Scientist and doctor Carlos Juan Finlay's birthday

Illinois's statehood anniversary

Anniversary of the adoption of the Singapore flag

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest pages on:

December holidays
December birthdays
Historical anniversaries in December

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

July 15 – Happy Birthday, Thomas Bulfinch

Posted on July 15, 2015

Myths and legends and folklore are often seen as a subject for study – they might appear in textbooks, tests, and college coursework – but Thomas Bulfinch collect these sorts of stories, “not as a study, but as a relaxation from study.”

Born in Massachusetts on this date in 1796, back when the United States was a young nation, Bulfinch wanted to create books that would help men and women to understand allusions made to myths by public speakers, poets, and other writers.

What is an allusion?

An allusion is either an indirect reference or a passing reference to something or someone, in an attempt to call to the hearer's (or reader's) mind complex ideas, images, or emotions.

A common sort of allusion is to say something like, “Tom's a total Einstein.” In this case, the speaker is referencing a well know real person, Albert Einstein. In alluding to Einstein in his description of Tom, the speaker tells us that Tom is really, really smart. We probably also get the idea that Tom is a genius, and the sort of genius who is brilliant at math and science, probably, rather than music or art.

Literary allusions often refer to the Bible or Shakespeare. A line in one of my favorite poems, “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost, alludes to a Bible story:

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold. 
Her early leaf’s a flower; 
But only so an hour. 
Then leaf subsides to leaf. 
So Eden sank to grief, 
So dawn goes down to day. 
Nothing gold can stay.

The use of the place name “Eden” suggests that Frost is talking about perfection, purity, and idealism changing into something more practical and slightly soiled by mistakes and flaws.

Some allusions – both in everyday speech and in literature – refer to myths other than Bible stories. The Greek myths are perhaps the most famous. Here are a couple of examples:

[Everyday speech]: Opening the door to the frat house was like...well, you know, Pandora's box!

[Literature, from the play Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare:]

Mercutio: Take Cupid's wings and fly higher than the average man.

Romeo: His arrow has pierced me too deeply, so I can't fly high with his cheerful feathers.

Thomas Bullfinch wanted to make sure that men and women understood allusions to the Midas Touch, to Arcady, to the Knights of the Round Table, and so forth, so he made collections of stories in the mid-1800s:

Greek and Roman and Norse myths

Legends of King Arthur

Legends of Charlemagne

Since Bulfinch's collections of myths were especially designed to inform “genteel Americans” about everything they needed to know to quickly understand literary allusions, he made sure that the versions he used were correct. However, he removed what he considered unnecessary sex and violence.