The date is Monday, October 28th, and today I’m traveling from Vung Tau to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. 

Today is the birthday of Edith Head, American costume designer. Prolific from the 1940s through the 1970s, Edith was nominated for 35 Academy Awards, and won 8, a record that has yet to be topped. 

Costume design was actually Edith’s second career. She received a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in French from UC Berkeley and Stanford University, respectively. She taught French at the high school level in the 1920s in Los Angeles and offered to teach art as well in the hopes of increasing her salary. When given the position Edith scrambled to enroll in a few evening courses at two local design schools, including Otis College of Art and Design. 

Fully in love with drawing, Edith traded teaching for an entry level job as a costume sketch artist at Paramount Studios in 1924. By the 1930s, Edith Head had worked her way up through the ranks of costume design at Paramount. Her first big success which gained her public notoriety, was her “sarong” dress design for Dorothy Lamour in the 1937 film The Hurricane. 

Edith Head became popular among the Paramount Studio starlets of the 1940s and ‘50s and personally dressed a number of them. She would give special attention to the female stars, consulting with them on projects, making her a favorite as compared to her male counterparts. Paramount would sometimes “loan out” Edith to other studios at the request of various actresses. 

In addition to her work in Hollywood classics such as Carrie (1952), Roman Holiday (1953), The Ten Commandments (1956), Funny Face (1957), and TV series Bewitched, Edith Head continues to influence costume culture today. Perhaps the most recognizable tribute to Head is in the Incredibles series’ character Edna Mode. The characters thick rimmed glasses, straight bangs, and penchant for all-black ensembles are taken straight from Edith Head’s own personal “look.”

And today is the birthday of Eileen Shanahan, Irish poet. 

Born in 1901 in Dublin, Eileen never published a collection of poems. To date we only know of about 70 poems that she wrote. However, the 11 that were published during her lifetime have been published widely in periodicals and anthologies. Perhaps busy with raising a family and working for the League of Nations, Shanahan just didn’t have time. 

Her poetry is generally melancholic or dark, centering on themes of war, lost love, and childhood. 

And today is the birthday of Erasmus of Rotterdam, Dutch philosopher. 

Erasmus, who said, “When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes,” wrote prolifically during the Reformation Age in the 1500s. His allegorical essay In Praise of Folly was a runaway best-seller by today’s standards. Upon a “republication” of the work, German artist Hans Holbein, a favorite portraitist of Henry VIII and court, provided illustrations for the essay. 

He managed to become a favorite philosopher of both the Protestant and Catholic leaders, for his criticisms of abusive Catholic practices and his loyalty to the Pope in Rome.

The Three Children (near Clonmel)

Eileen Shanahan

I met three children on the road—

The hawthorn trees were sweet with rain,

The hills had drawn their white blinds down—

Three children on the road from town.

Their wealthy eyes in splendour mocked

Their faded rags and bare wet feet—

The King had sent his daughters out

To play at peasants in the street.

I could not see the palace walls,

The avenues were dumb with mist;

Perhaps a queen would watch and weep

For lips that she had borne and kissed.

And lost about the lonely world,

With treasury of hair and eye,

The tigers of the world will spring,

The merchants of the world will buy.

And one will sell her eyes for gold,

And one will barter them for bread,

And one will watch their glory fade

Beside the looking-glass, unwed.

A hundred years will softly pass

Yet on the Tipperary hills

The shadows of a king and queen

Will darken on the daffodils.

Thank you for listening. I’m your host, Virginia Combs, wishing you a good morning, a better day, and a lovely evening.