The Postcard
A postcard bearing no publisher's name that was posted in the village of Corfe Castle using a 1d. stamp on Tuesday the 22nd. August 1939, twelve days before British Prime Minister announced to the nation that Great Britain was at war with Germany.
The card was sent to:
Mr. E. Want,
43, Flexmere Road,
Tottenham,
London.
The pencilled message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Camp,
Tuesday.
Dear Mr. Want,
Everything & Everybody
are all OK. Your sons
are behaving well, and
everybody is enjoying
themselves.
Yours sincerely,
G. V. Trend."
The Great Globe at Swanage
The Great Globe at Swanage is one of the largest stone spheres in the world. It has a diameter of 10 feet, and weighs 40 tons. It was provided by George Burt, who was responsible for much of modern Swanage.
The Great Globe stands at Durlston Castle within Durlston Country Park, a 113-hectare (280-acre) country park and nature reserve.
Constructed in Greenwich in 1887 in Mowlem's stone-yard (whose founder John Mowlem had lived in Swanage), it was brought to Swanage by sea.
The Globe, which is made of Portland stone, consists of 15 segments, with four stones for each of the lower three courses and three in the top-most course. The segments are connected by granite dowels.
The surface of the globe is carved in detail and lettered to show the continents, oceans and certain more specific areas of the world.
It was erected by W. M. Hardy in 1887 upon a platform cut into the solid rock of the hill some 136 feet (41 m) above sea level.
Around the globe is a set of stone plaques carved with quotations from English, Roman poets and the Bible, and also various facts about the natural world. These were not completed until 1891. Eight large stone blocks around the globe represent the compass.
The globe is now protected by an iron fence.
Hitler's Obersalzberg Speech
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, on the 22nd. August 1939, Adolf Hitler gave the Obersalzberg Speech to commanders of the Wehrmacht, detailing the pending invasion of Poland, and plans for the extermination of the Poles.
Recall to Parliament
Also on that day, members of the British Parliament were summoned back to London for a special session on Thursday.
'You are my Sunshine'
Also on the 22nd. August 1939, the song 'You Are My Sunshine' was recorded for the first time, by the Pine Ridge Boys for Bluebird Records.
Valerie Harper
The day also marked the birth in Suffern, New York of the American actress Valerie Harper.
Valerie Kathryn Harper began her career as a dancer on Broadway, making her debut as a replacement in the musical Li'l Abner. She is best remembered for her role as Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–1977) and its spinoff Rhoda (1974–1978).
For her work on the Mary Tyler Moore Show, Valerie thrice received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, and later received the award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for Rhoda.
From 1986 to 1987, she appeared as Valerie Hogan on the sitcom Valerie, which she subsequently left for salary reasons. Her character was killed off, and the show was re-titled Valerie's Family, and eventually The Hogan Family. Actress Sandy Duncan was cast in a new role that served as a replacement for Harper's character.
Valerie's film appearances included roles in Freebie and the Bean (1974) and Chapter Two (1979), both of which garnered her Golden Globe Award nominations.
She returned to stage work in her later career, appearing in several Broadway productions. In 2010, she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance as Tallulah Bankhead in the play Looped.
-- Valerie Harper - The Early Years
Valerie was the daughter of Iva Mildred (née McConnell) and Howard Donald Harper. Her father was a lighting salesman; her mother was born (and raised) in Dalmeny, Saskatchewan, before becoming a teacher and later training as a nurse.
Valerie stated that her parents were expecting a boy. However after her arrival, her first and middle names were derived from tennis players Valerie Scott and Katherine 'Kay' Stammers who were victorious doubles partners at a tournament Harper’s father was attending the day she was born.
She was of French, English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh ancestry. Harper based her character Rhoda Morgenstern on her Italian stepmother, and Penny Ann Green (née Joanna Greenberg), with whom she danced in the Broadway musical Wildcat.
She was raised Catholic, although at an early age she "quit" the church.
Valerie's family moved every two years due to her father's work. When her family returned to Oregon, she stayed in the New York City area to study ballet.
She attended Lincoln High School in Jersey City before graduating from the private Young Professionals School on West 56th. Street, where classmates included Sal Mineo, Tuesday Weld, and Carol Lynley.
-- Valerie Harper's Career
Harper began her show business career as a dancer and chorus girl on Broadway, and went on to perform in several Broadway shows, some choreographed by Michael Kidd, including Wildcat (starring Lucille Ball), Li'l Abner, Take Me Along (starring Jackie Gleason), and Subways Are for Sleeping.
She was also cast in the musical Destry Rides Again, but was forced to leave rehearsals due to illness. She returned to Broadway in February 2010, playing Tallulah Bankhead in Matthew Lombardo's Looped at the Lyceum Theatre.
Harper had a bit part in the film version of Li'l Abner (1959), playing a Yokumberry Tonic wife.
She broke into television in an episode of the soap opera The Doctors ("Zip Guns can Kill"), and was an extra in Love with the Proper Stranger.
Valerie was in the ensemble cast of Paul Sills' Story Theatre, and toured with Second City along with her then-husband Richard Schaal, later appearing in sketches on Playboy After Dark.
She performed several characters in a comedy LP record, When You're in Love the Whole World is Jewish, which included the popular novelty single, The Ballad of Irving, a recitation by TV announcer Frank Gallop.
Harper and Schaal moved to Los Angeles in 1968, and co-wrote the episode "Love and the Visitor" (1970) for the TV series Love, American Style.
While doing theater in Los Angeles in 1970, Harper was spotted by casting agent Ethel Winant, who called her in to audition for the role of Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. She co-starred there from 1970 to 1974, then starred in the spinoff series Rhoda (CBS 1974–1978) in which her character returned to New York City.
She won four Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award for her work as Rhoda Morgenstern. In 2000, she reunited with Moore in Mary and Rhoda, a television film that reunited their characters in later life.
Harper was nominated for a Golden Globe for "New Star of the Year" for her role in Freebie and the Bean (1974), and was a guest star on The Muppet Show in 1976, its first season.
Harper returned to situation comedy in 1986 when she played family matriarch Valerie Hogan on the NBC series Valerie. Following a salary dispute with NBC and production company Lorimar in 1987, she was fired from the series at the end of its second season, and she sued NBC and Lorimar for breach of contract.
Valerie's claims against NBC were dismissed, but the jury found that Lorimar had wrongfully fired her, and awarded her $1.4 million plus 12.5% of the show's profits.
The series continued without her, with the explanation that her character had died offscreen. In 1987, it was initially renamed Valerie's Family, then The Hogan Family, as Harper was replaced by Sandy Duncan, who played her sister-in-law Sandy Hogan.
Harper appeared in various television films, including a performance as Maggie in a production of the Michael Cristofer play The Shadow Box, directed by Paul Newman, and in guest roles on such series as Melrose Place (1998) and Sex and the City (1999).
-- Valerie Harper's Later Career
Harper was a member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and ran for its presidency in 2001, losing to Melissa Gilbert. She served on SAG's Hollywood board of directors.
In 2005–2006, Harper portrayed Golda Meir in a United States national tour of the one-woman drama Golda's Balcony. A film of the production was released in 2007.
She played Tallulah Bankhead in the world-premiere production of Matthew Lombardo's Looped at the Pasadena Playhouse from the 27th. June to the 3rd. August 2008.
The show moved to the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., in 2009. It then briefly ran on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre, from February through April 2010, for which Harper received a Tony Award nomination. She was to continue the role on a national tour beginning January 2013, but withdrew due to ill health.
Valerie played Claire Bremmer, aunt of Susan Delfino (Teri Hatcher), on ABC's Desperate Housewives in 2011.
On the 4th. September 2013, Harper was announced as a contestant for the 17th. season of Dancing with the Stars, partnered with professional dancer Tristan MacManus. They were eliminated from the show on the 7th. October 2013.
Harper appeared as the character Wanda on the American comedy web television series Liza on Demand, in its 11th. July 2018 episode: "Valentine's Day".
-- Valerie Harper's Activism and Charity Work
In the 1970's and 1980's, Harper was involved in the women's liberation movement, and was an advocate for the Equal Rights Amendment.
With Dennis Weaver she co-founded L.I.F.E. (Love Is Feeding Everyone) in 1983, a charity that fed thousands of needy people in Los Angeles.
-- Valerie Harper's Personal Life
Harper married actor Richard Schaal in 1964. They divorced in 1978, after which she had a relationship with Peter Horton.
She married Tony Cacciotti in 1987, after dating for seven years, and they adopted a daughter, Cristina.
Despite playing Jewish characters such as Rhoda Morgenstern, Harper herself was not Jewish.
-- Valerie Harper's Illness and Death
In 2009, Harper was diagnosed with lung cancer. She announced on the 6th. March 2013 that tests from a January hospital stay revealed she had leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, a rare condition where cancer cells spread into the meninges, the membranes surrounding the brain.
She explained that her doctors had given her as little as three months to live. Although the disease was considered incurable, her doctors said that they were treating her with chemotherapy in order to try to slow its progress.
In April 2014, Harper said that she was responding well to the treatment.. However on the 30th. July 2015, she was hospitalized in Maine after falling unconscious, and taken via medevac to a larger hospital for further treatment. She was later discharged.
In 2016, Harper's cancer continued, with treatment at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, but she was well enough to appear in a short film, My Mom and the Girl, based on the experiences of director/writer Susie Singer Carter, whose mother has Alzheimer's disease.[
In September 2017, Valerie said:
"People are saying, 'She's on her way
to death and quickly'.
Now it's five years instead of three
months... I'm going to fight this. I'm
going to see a way."
At the time, she was developing a television series with Carter.
By July 2019, Valerie was on a regimen of "a multitude of medications and chemotherapy drugs" and was experiencing extreme physical and painful challenges that required around-the-clock, 24/7 care.
Valerie died on the morning of the 30th. August 2019, in Los Angeles at the age of 80 years and 8 days.
