Every Day Is Special: Arthur

Showing posts with label Arthur. Show all posts

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:

October 5 - Happy Birthday, Chester Arthur

Posted October 5, 2017

Yesterday I mentioned that October has the most presidential birthdays of any month.

And, to make that point even more strongly - today is another presidential birthday!

Today's birthday president was born on this date in 1829.

Chester Arthur was born in Vermont but grew up in upstate New York and started his adult career, as a lawyer, in New York City. He served on the Union side during the Civil War, and he became a politician after the war.

Get this - yesterday's birthday president fired today's birthday president from a very well-paying job!

You see, there was this system called the "spoils system" or the "patronage system" - whoever got elected president would pass out good jobs in the White House and in the administration, generally, to all the loyal people from his party, and sometimes to his friends and family.

That seems to make sense - you end up rewarding loyalty, right? - but then you realize that that usually means that a bunch of people who don't know anything about a field are now supposedly in charge of that field. And maybe "loyalty" isn't as important as good character, expertise, good ideas, and hard work.

Chester Arthur had been given the job of Collector of the Port of New York by President Ulysses Grant. When Rutherford Hayes was elected, he wanted to end the spoils system, and so - even though he was the same political party (Republican) as both Grant and Arthur - he fired Arthur and others who'd been rewarded with "spoils" by Grant.

Flash forward a few years - and Republican President James Garfield tried to make sure the spoils system would never come back. He helped to proposed a law by which most of the governmental positions were filled by non-partisan workers who had to earn their positions by showing ability and knowledge. You know, like any other job seeker!

But Garfield wasn't able to see his reforms passed into law, because he was assassinated by a guy with a gun and grievance.

So...Garfield's Vice President suddenly became president. And that fellow was none other than Chester Arthur. I bet some people thought he would not want to sign into law the reform that had, after all, cost him a very cushy job. But Arthur dove right in and helped motivate the passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act.

When I looked up old cartoons about the "spoils system,"
I found this picture of Chester Arthur giving out jobs to a
grasping, greedy horde.

But Arthur pushed through and signed a bill that ENDED
the spoils system! He didn't deserve the rep that this
cartoon gives him!

When Arthur became president, he was apparently quite distrusted, but when he left office he was respected by Republicans and Democrats alike. Author Mark Twain wrote, "[I]t would be hard indeed to better President Arthur's administration."