The Postcard
A Town and City Series postcard that was published by Raphael Tuck & Sons, Art Publishers to Their Majesties the King and Queen.
The card was posted in Beckenham using a ½d. stamp on the 4th. August 1904. It was sent to:
Miss Buck,
The Athol Hydro,
Pitlochry,
Scotland.
Equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington, Hyde Park Corner
The equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington stands on the north side of Hyde Park Corner, London. The open space in which it stands, now the centre of a large roundabout, was once called Wellington Place.
The statue portrays the Iron Duke on a campaign, mounted on his horse Copenhagen, with all hooves planted on the ground. Wellington has a telescope in his right hand.
The statue was executed in bronze by the sculptor Joseph Boehm and unveiled in 1888. The figures at the corners of the pedestal represent British soldiers -- a Grenadier, a Scottish Highlander, an Irish Dragoon and a Welsh Fusilier.
The statue faces Apsley House, which was Wellington's London home. This gives the unintended impression that the Duke's back is turned on the processional way that runs through the open space in which the statue stands.
The bronze statue stands on a plinth of pink Peterhead granite from Stirlinghill quarry, near Boddam, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The grey dais forming the base is made of Aberdeen granite from the Rubislaw quarry, Aberdeen. The bronze came from captured French cannons.
On one side of the plinth is inscribed WELLINGTON, and on the other 1769–1852 in raised bronze characters.
An earlier, 1846 equestrian statue of the Duke, by Matthew Cotes Wyatt, once surmounted the nearby Wellington Arch. It was considered to be too large for the arch, and was removed in 1882–83. It is now located at Aldershot Camp, Hampshire.
Boehm's statue was commissioned to compensate for the removal of Wyatt's.
Changes
The large town mansion to the right of Apsley House was demolished in the 1960's, along with several of its neighbours.
They were removed in order to make way for a very heavily used dual carriageway that feeds into a large roundabout which is a pollution and accident blackspot. The western end of Green Park was also sacrificed to the roundabout.
The statue in the photograph, along with the Wellington Arch (out of shot on the right), which used to be a grand entrance into Green Park, has been left stranded in the middle of the very busy roundabout. Don't try and walk across the road to get to the roundabout - you won't make it.
Helen Kane
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, the 4th. August 1904 marked the birth in the Bronx, NYC of Helen Kane.
Helen Kane (born Helen Clare Schroeder) was an the American singer, dancer, comedian and actress.
Her signature song was "I Wanna Be Loved by You" (1928), featured in the stage musical Good Boy.
Kane's voice and appearance were thought to be a source for Fleischer Studios animators when creating Betty Boop. Kane attempted to sue the studio for stealing her signature "boop-oop-a-doop" style, but the judge decided that the proof of this was insufficient, thus dismissing the case.
In early 1929, Paramount Pictures signed Kane to make a series of musicals at a salary of $8,000 a week (equivalent to over $120,000 in 2020).
Her films were:
-- 1929: Nothing But the Truth, a comedy starring Richard Dix
-- 1929: Sweetie, a college musical, which starred Nancy Carroll, Jack Oakie and Stanley Smith
-- 1929: Pointed Heels, which starred William Powell and Fay Wray
-- 1930: Paramount on Parade, an all-star extravaganza
-- 1930: Dangerous Nan McGrew, with Stuart Erwin, Frank Morgan, and Victor Moore
-- 1930: Heads Up, starring Buddy Rogers and Victor Moore
-- 1931: A Lesson in Love, a musical short film.
Helen Kane battled breast cancer for more than a decade. She had surgery in 1956, and eventually received two hundred radiation treatments as an outpatient at Memorial Hospital.
Helen died on the 26th. September 1966, at the age of 62, in her apartment in Jackson Heights, Queens, NYC. Her husband of 27 years, Dan Healy, was at her bedside.
Helen Kane was laid to rest in Long Island National Cemetery, in Suffolk County, New York.