The Postcard
A Solograph Series De Luxe Photogravure postcard that was published by E. A. Sweetman & Son Ltd. of Tunbridge Wells.
The card was posted in Newquay using a 2d. stamp on Thursday the 25th. August 1949. It was sent to:
Miss Hartnell,
4, South Street
Wincanton,
Somerset.
The pencilled message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"c/o Mrs. Richardson,
Market Street,
East Looe,
Cornwall.
Dear May,
We are at Newquay for
a day having come from
Looe by coach.
Looe is a pretty place.
We are staying at Looe
until the 3rd. September,
then on the 10th. we go
to Emmie Silver's wedding
party, she is having a big
do.
Lots of love to all,
Dolly & Mum."
Newquay
Newquay is a town on the North Atlantic coast in Cornwall, England. It is a seaside resort, regional centre for aerospace industries with an airport and a spaceport, and a fishing port.
The town is bounded to the south by the River Gannel and its associated salt marsh, and to the north-east by the Porth Valley. The western edge of the town meets the Atlantic at Fistral Bay.
The town has been expanding inland (south) since the former fishing village of New Quay began to grow in the second half of the nineteenth century.
-- Newquay People
William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies, was born in Newquay.
So was Alexander Lodge (1881–1938). He was an English inventor who did early work and held some patents on the spark plug.
Richard Long, 4th. Viscount Long, lived at The Island, a house on a rock linked to the mainland by a private suspension bridge.
Singer-songwriter James Morrison grew up in the Newquay area: he attended Treviglas College.
Phillip Schofield attended Newquay Tretherras School.
-- Newquay in the Media
The Headland Hotel next to Fistral Beach has been used in several films, including Wild Things (1998) and The Witches (1990).
The Beatles filmed part of the Magical Mystery Tour film in Newquay. Scenes were filmed at the Atlantic Hotel and Towan Beach.
Lies During Jury Selection
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, on the 25th. August 1949, Judge Harold Medina refused to declare a mistrial in the Smith Act trial.
This was despite defense contentions that juror Russell Janney, author of The Miracle of the Bells, had discussed the case out-of-court.
They also claimed that Janney had answered falsely about having an anti-Communist bias during the jury selection process.
A New Converter for Color TV
Also on that day, RCA reported that they had developed a color television which could be adapted to existing black-and-white receivers through the use of a converter.
Martin Amis
The 25th. August 1949 also marked the birth in Oxford of Martin Amis.
Sir Martin Louis Amis FRSL was an English novelist, essayist, memoirist, screenwriter and critic. He is best known for his novels Money (1984), London Fields (1989), and The Information (1995), (commonly referred to as the London Trilogy).
At 5 feet 6 inches (1.68 m) tall, he referred to himself as a "short-arse" while a teenager. He graduated from Exeter College, Oxford, with a congratulatory first in English:
"The sort where you are called in for a
viva and the examiners tell you how
much they enjoyed reading your
papers".
According to Martin, his father was deeply critical of certain aspects of his work:
"I can point out the exact place where
he stopped reading my novel Money
and sent it twirling through the air;
that's where the character named
Martin Amis comes in."
His father Kingsley complained:
"Breaking the rules, buggering about
with the reader, drawing attention to
himself."
He received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his memoir Experience, and was twice listed for the Booker Prize (shortlisted in 1991 for Time's Arrow and longlisted in 2003 for Yellow Dog).
Amis was a professor of creative writing at the University of Manchester's Centre for New Writing from 2007 until 2011.
In 2008, The Times named him one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.
Amis's work centres on the excesses of "late-capitalist" Western society, whose perceived absurdity he often satirised through grotesque caricature. He was portrayed by some literary critics as a master of what The New York Times called "The New Unpleasantness".
Martin was inspired by Saul Bellow and Vladimir Nabokov, as well as by his father Kingsley Amis.
-- The Death of Martin Amis
Martin became a grandfather in 2008. He later described his new status as:
"Like getting a telegram
from the mortuary".
A life-long smoker, Amis died from oesophageal cancer at his house in the U.S. state of Florida on the 19th. May 2023. He was 73 when he died - the same age as his father.
The New York Times wrote after his death:
"To come of reading age in the last three
decades of the 20th century – from the
oil embargo through the fall of the Berlin
Wall, all the way to 9/11 – was to live, it
now seems clear, in the Amis Era."
Martin Amis was knighted in the 2023 King's Birthday Honours for services to literature, with the knighthood being backdated to the day before his death.
Gene Simmons
Also born on the 25th. August 1949 was Gene Simmons. Simmons is an American musician, entrepreneur and founding member of the hard rock band Kiss.
Also known by his stage persona "The Demon", Gene was also the bassist and co-lead singer of Kiss, which he co-founded with Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss in the early 1970's, and which lasted until their retirement in 2023.
Simmons was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 as a member of Kiss.
-- Gene Simmons - The Early Years
Simmons was born as Chaim Witz at Rambam Hospital in Haifa, Israel, to Jewish refugees from Hungary. His mother, Florence "Flora" Klein, later Lubowski (1925–2018) was born in Jánd. She survived internment in Nazi concentration camps from November 1944 until her liberation from the Mauthausen camp in Austria in 1945.
Flora and her brother, Larry Klein, were the only members of the family to survive the Holocaust.
Simmons' father, Ferenc "Feri" Yehiel Witz (1925–2002), was a carpenter whom Klein married in 1946. The couple moved to Israel the following year.
Gene spent his early childhood in Tirat Carmel and was raised in a practicing Jewish household. He has said that his family was "dirt poor", scraping by on rationed bread and milk. At the age of seven, he began to pick wild fruit and sell it at the roadside together with a friend.
At the age of eight, after his parents’ divorce, he and his mother emigrated to the United States, settling in Queens, NYC. His father remained in Israel, where he had another son and three daughters.
In the United States, Simmons changed his name to Gene Klein, adopting his mother's maiden name. When he was nine, he briefly attended a Jewish religious school, Yeshiva Torah Vodaas, before transferring to a public school.
Gene graduated from Newtown High School. He later attended Sullivan County Community College in New York, and Richmond College in Staten Island, New York where he graduated with a BA in Education in 1970.
Before his musical career began, Klein worked a variety of jobs in the city. A proficient typist, he served as an assistant to an editor of Vogue, and spent 6 months as a sixth grade instructor on the Upper West Side.
The Beatles had a significant influence on Simmons:
"There is no way I'd be doing what I do now
if it wasn't for the Beatles. I was watching The
Ed Sullivan Show and I saw them.
Those skinny little boys, kind of androgynous,
with long hair like girls. It blew me away that
these four boys from the middle of nowhere
could make that music."
-- Gene Simmons' Career
Simmons became involved with his first band, Lynx, when he was 15 in 1964 – 1965. Eventually, he disbanded the band in order to form the Long Island Sounds, the name being a pun on the Long Island Sound.
In this band was also future Wicked Lester guitarist Steve Coronel, and future lawyer/author Alan Stuart Graf who convinced Simmons to buy his first bass as the band needed a bass player.
In 1967, after losing Graf the band morphed into The Love Bag. While Gene played in these bands, he worked at odd jobs on the side to make more money, including trading used comic books.
From 1968 to 1970 Simmons attended Sullivan County Community College in Loch Sheldrake, New York for two years. He joined a new band, Bullfrog Bheer, and the band recorded various home demos includig Leeta; this was later included on the Kiss box set. The band existed until 1970 with various line-ups.
Simmons, Coronel and Brooke Ostrander who was in their 1969 band Coffee formed the rock band first known as Rainbow and later Wicked Lester in 1970 with Stanley Eisen and recorded one album which was never released in its entirety.
Dissatisfied with Wicked Lester's sound and look, Simmons and Stanley attempted to fire their band members. Met with resistance, they instead quit Wicked Lester, walking away from their record deal with Epic Records, as they decided to form the "ultimate rock band" in its place.
Looking for a drummer, Simmons and Stanley found an ad placed by Peter Criss, who was playing clubs in Brooklyn at the time; they joined and started out as a trio.
Ace Frehley responded to an ad they put in The Village Voice for a lead guitar player, and soon joined them. Kiss released their self-titled debut album in February 1974. Stanley took on the role of lead performer on stage, while Simmons became the driving force behind what became an extensive Kiss merchandising franchise.
The eye section of Gene's "Demon" makeup with Kiss came from the wing design of comic book character Black Bolt.
In 1983, when Kiss's fame was waning, the members took off their trademark make-up and enjoyed a resurgence in popularity that continued into the 1990's.
At this time, Peter Criss, the original drummer, was voted out of the band, and a replacement was sought to fill his vacancy. The new drummer was Eric Carr, who played for Kiss from 1980 until his death in 1991.
The band hosted its own fan conventions in 1995, and fan feedback about the original Kiss members' reunion influenced the highly successful 1996–1997 Alive Worldwide reunion tour.
In 1998, the band released Psycho Circus. Since then, the original lineup has once again dissolved, with Tommy Thayer replacing Ace Frehley on lead guitar and Eric Singer replacing Peter Criss on drums.
-- Gene Simmons on TV and Film
Gene Simmons has been involved with such projects as:
-- My Dad the Rock Star, a cartoon by the Canadian animation company Nelvana, about the mild-mannered son of a Gene Simmons-like rock star.
-- Mr. Romance, a show created and hosted by Simmons on the Oxygen cable television channel.
-- Rock School, a UK reality show in which Simmons tries to make a rock band out of a group of students from Christ's Hospital School in the first season, and in the second, a group of kids from a comprehensive school in Lowestoft.
-- Gene Simmons Family Jewels, a reality show documenting the personal lives of Simmons, his wife, his son and daughter.
-- Scooby-Doo! and Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery. Gene Simmons and the other members of Kiss appear in this animated movie of Scooby Doo where the gang is attacked by a monster in a Kiss amusement park and Kiss saves them.
-- In 1978, Simmons appeared in a made-for-television movie, Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park.
-- In 1981, Simmons auditioned at ABC for a role in a new Marcy Carsey produced show called Grotus and was offered his own TV show, which he declined as the pay was lower than what he made with Kiss at the time.
-- In 1985, Simmons appeared on the TV series Miami Vice in an episode titled "The Prodigal Son".
-- Simmons performed in the 1984 Michael Crichton thriller Runaway starring Tom Selleck, Cynthia Rhodes and Kirstie Alley.
-- He also took part in the 1987 Gary Sherman action film Wanted: Dead or Alive starring Rutger Hauer.
-- Gene also guest-starred as himself in the 2014 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode "Long Road Home."
-- In March 2015, Simmons founded the film production company Erebus Pictures and announced as the first project the Horror-thriller film Armed Response.
-- In 2022, Simmons became a judge of the talent competition show Yoshiki Superstar Project X, airing on Hulu Japan and produced by Japanese musician and composer Yoshiki.
-- On the 14th. September 2023, Simmons was one of the guest speakers chosen to introduce Yoshiki at his imprint ceremony at the TCL Chinese Theatre.
-- Other Gene Simmons' Projects
Simmons had his own label, Simmons Records. Simmons Records has released albums by such bands as Kobra and the Lotus, Silent Rage, Gypsy Rose and House of Lords as well as Gene's own solo releases.
In 1976–77, Simmons signed a management and production contract with the band Van Halen. He produced a Van Halen demo tape and attempted to find a record deal for the band with a variety of major record labels. However when no deal materialized, Gene released them from their contract.
In 1989, Simmons managed the recording side of Liza Minnelli's entry into mainstream pop.
In 2002, Simmons launched Gene Simmons' Tongue, a men's lifestyle magazine. However the magazine only lasted five issues before being discontinued.
From 2006 to 2008, Simmons served in a marketing and publicity role with the Indy Racing League.
In 2012, Simmons headlined the Rock N Roll All Stars tour which performed in stadiums across South America. The project featured several other Rock N Roll Hall of Famers including Def Leppard's Joe Elliot, Guns N' Roses' Duff McKagan & Matt Sorum.
Other participants included Deep Purple's Glenn Hughes, as well as Collective Soul's Ed Rolland, Sebastian Bach, Alice in Chain's Mike Inez, and the Cult's Billy Duffy.
The tour was featured on Simmons Family Jewels' series finale episodes.
In 2012, Simmons partnered with Paul Stanley and three other investors to form the restaurant franchise Rock & Brews.
In August 2013, Simmons, Paul Stanley and manager Doc McGhee became a part of the ownership group that created the LA Kiss Arena Football League team, which played their home games at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. The team has since folded.
In 2017, Simmons launched "The Vault" which is a compilation of all of his major works selling for $2,000.
In 2018, Simmons was named "Chief Evangelist Officer" of the Canadian cannabis company Invictus MD Strategies. Simmons also holds a large investment stake in the company.
Gene also spearheaded the drive to licence more than 5,000 pieces of Kiss-branded merchandise, including motorbikes, pinball machines and even a brightly airbrushed coffin known as the Kiss Kasket.
-- Gene Simmons' Artistry
Simmons plays bass, and lead vocals are split between Simmons and rhythm guitarist Paul Stanley in most Kiss songs. Some notable songs featuring Simmons singing lead include "God of Thunder", "Rock and Roll All Nite", "Deuce", "A World Without Heroes", "I Love It Loud", "Calling Dr. Love", "Unholy", "You Wanted the Best," and "Christine Sixteen", among others. Simmons possesses a baritone voice.
Simmons has expressed his preference for "memorable simplicity" in music as opposed to technical complexity:
"I don't consider myself—and was never
really interested in being—a bass virtuoso.
I don't like show-offs in music.
I'm much more attracted to things that are
memorable. It's part of the joy of music for
me."
Gene has also said that while he appreciates the technical skill of jazz musicians, he believes they do not have appeal over a wide audience, saying:
"You can be a jazz player and be
respected by musicians, but the
rest of the world doesn't care."
-- Gene Simmons' Stage Antics and Persona
In addition to playing bass, Simmons is known for his long tongue, which he frequently sticks out while performing. Some publications have reported that his tongue measured up to 7 inches long, and that he had it insured for $1 million, although Simmons himself has not commented on this.
Gene is also known for his demonic figure on-stage where he spits fire and vomits stage blood.
-- Gene Simmons' Personal Life
Gene Simmons resides in Los Angeles with his wife Shannon Lee Tweed, a Canadian actress and former Playboy Playmate. Although they began dating in 1983, they did not marry until 28 years later.
Simmons often joked that he and Tweed were "happily unmarried" for over 20 years. He also often paraphrased Groucho Marx, saying:
"Marriage is an institution, and I
don't want to live in an institution".
Simmons and Tweed wed on the 1st. October 2011, at the Beverly Hills Hotel. They have two children: Nick and Sophie.
Gene formerly had live-in relationships with Cher and Diana Ross, revealing that he fell in love with Ross while dating Cher.
Simmons has boasted many times about having bedded thousands of women. In 2010, he claimed the tally stood at 5,000, and that he has a Polaroid picture of each liaison, including the hotel key where it took place.
After their wedding, when Shannon found the key for the lockboxes containing the photos (confirming at least that much of the rumors), after a "loving confrontation" with Gene, she had every single Polaroid burned on national television during the final season of their reality show Gene Simmons Family Jewels.
Simmons is multilingual, and is able to speak Hungarian, German, English, Hebrew, and some Japanese.
Simmons believes that he is an "outcast" in the rock music community due to his open disdain for drug and alcohol use, and has proudly claimed many times to have never been drunk or high on a substance in his life.
He has said that the reason for his sober lifestyle was his mother, who was a Holocaust survivor. He said:
“I’m my mother’s only child. I was
concerned I had no right to harm
my mother. Life did that enough.”
However, he has admitted to once accidentally becoming intoxicated on marijuana after mistakenly eating pot brownies.
Simmons is a science fiction and comic book fan, and has published several science-fiction fanzines, among them Id, Cosmos (which eventually merged with Stilletto to become Cosmos-Stilletto and then Faun), Tinderbox, Sci-Fi Showcase, Mantis and Adventure.
-- Gene Simmons' Personal Views and Politics
Simmons was a supporter of the foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration. He supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq, writing on his website:
"I'm ashamed to be surrounded by people
calling themselves liberal who are, in my
opinion, spitting on the graves of brave
American soldiers who gave their life to
fight a war that wasn't theirs, in a country
they've never been to, simply to liberate
the people therein."
In a follow-up, Simmons explained his position and wrote about his love and support for the United States:
"I wasn't born here. But I have a love for this
country and its people that knows no bounds.
I will forever be grateful to America for going
into World War II, when it had nothing to gain,
in a country that was far away... and rescued
my mother from the Nazi concentration camps.
She is alive and I am alive because of America.
And if you have a problem with America, you
have a problem with me".
In 2010, Simmons said he regretted voting for Barack Obama and criticized the 2009 health care reforms.
Following Obama's 2011 speech on the Middle East in which he called on Israel and the Palestinians to negotiate a settlement based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, Simmons told CNBC that Obama was gravely misguided:
"If you have never been to the moon, you can't
issue policy about the moon.
For the president to be sitting in Washington
and saying, 'Go back to your '67 borders in Israel' –
how about you live there and try to defend an
indefensible border – nine miles (14 km) wide?"
Simmons also accused the United Nations of being "the most pathetic body on the face of the earth".
In an April 2012 interview, Gene endorsed Republican Mitt Romney for President:
"America should be in business and
it should be run by a businessman."
In an August 2021 interview, regarding the honesty of Donald Trump and his presidential administration, Simmons said:
"We all lie to some extent, but what happened
the last four years was beyond anything I ever
thought imaginable from people who had lots
of power — not just him, but the administration,
everybody."
On the 10th. November 2021, he stated that people who refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine are "an enemy" and called them "evil".
-- Gene Simmons' Views on Israel
In March 2011, Simmons visited his birth country, Israel. He described the trip as a "life changing experience". He talked about how he still feels that he is an Israeli:
"I'm Israeli. I'm a stranger in
America. I'm an outsider".
While there, Simmons met his half-brother Kobi, and triplet half-sisters Drora, Sharon and Ogenia. He also visited his estranged father's grave.
Simmons has taken Kiss to Israel, for the first time in 2015 with a concert in Tel Aviv.
He has said that he is an ardent supporter of Israel. At a press conference in Israel, he spoke in both Hebrew and English. During his visit to Israel in 2011, he also stated that the artists refusing to perform in Israel for political reasons are "stupid".
During the 2006 Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah, Simmons sent a televised message of support (in both English and Hebrew) to an Israeli soldier seriously wounded in fighting in Lebanon, calling him his "hero".
On the 6th. November 2015, he attended a Friends of the Israel Defense Forces gala in Beverly Hills, which raised more than $31 million.
-- Jean Simmons' Views on Islam
In a 2004 interview in Melbourne, Australia, regarding Islamic extremists, Simmons described Islam as a "vile culture", saying that Muslim women had to walk behind their husbands, and were not allowed to be educated or to own houses. He said:
"They want to come and live right
where you live and they think that
you're evil."
Muslim media personality Susan Carland argued that Simmons' stereotyping of Muslims was inaccurate. Simmons later clarified his comments on his website, saying he had been talking specifically about Muslim extremists.
-- Controversies Associated With Gene Simmons
(a) The NPR Interview
During an interview on the National Public Radio (NPR) program Fresh Air on the 2nd. February 2002, Simmons told Terry Gross:
"If you want to welcome me with
open arms, I'm afraid you're also
going to have to welcome me
with open legs."
Gene was paraphrasing a lyric from the Who's 1981 song "You Better You Bet".
Gross replied:
"That's a really obnoxious
thing to say".
At the time, Simmons refused to grant permission for NPR to make the interview available online. However, it appears in print in Gross' book All I Did Was Ask, and unauthorized transcripts are available. NPR re-broadcast part of the interview in August 2007.
In a 2014 interview with The Huffington Post, Simmons noted that he was upset over what he perceived as Gross's "holier-than-thou" attitude, which included mislabeling his band Kiss as "The Kiss".
(b) The File-Sharing Controversy
In 2007, Simmons openly spoke out against music piracy, and called for file-sharers to be sued. A year later, he threatened further lawsuits, and to withhold new recordings, if file-sharing continued.
In 2010, Anonymous staged a DDoS on his website, prompting Simmons to hit back with provocative comments once he was back online, at which point Anonymous staged a second DDoS, taking Simmons's site down again.
In September 2014, Simmons said:
"The death of rock was not a
natural death. Rock did not
die of old age.
It was murdered".
Simmons blames file-sharing, and that no one values music enough to pay you for it for the decline of the rock music scene.
(c) Gene Simmons' Comments on Suicide and Depression
In July 2014, Simmons made comments in an interview with Songfacts that encouraged those with depression to kill themselves. He said:
"I never understand, because I
always call them on their bluff.
I'm the guy who says 'Jump!' when
there's a guy on top of a building
who says, 'That's it, I can't take it
any more, I'm going to jump.'
Are you kidding?
Why are you announcing it?
Shut the f*ck up, have some dignity
and jump! You've got the crowd."
The comments drew criticism from Nikki Sixx of Mötley Crüe, who had suffered from depression in the past.
Following his comments, both Triple M and Winnipeg radio station Power 97 stated that they were pulling all Kiss songs from their lineup in protest.
Simmons later clarified his comments, and apologized for the incident.
(d) The Fox & Friends Incident
On the 16th. November 2017, Simmons made an appearance on Fox & Friends in order to promote a new book, but shortly afterward, he burst into a staff meeting uninvited, unbuttoning his shirt and telling jokes.
The next day Fox News announced that Simmons was banned for life from their program, as well as from entering any of the company's properties.
Simmons later issued a statement saying that he had a tremendous amount of respect for the company's workers, and apologized for "unintentionally offending" any staff members during his visit.
(e) Sexual Assault Allegations Against Gene Simmons
In 2018, Simmons settled a sexual assault lawsuit with an unnamed radio personality, who accused him of touching her inappropriately.
The woman claimed that:
"Simmons touched me and turned
standard interview questions into
sexual innuendos."
Despite the settlement, Simmons denied the allegations.
In 2019, Ace Frehley, who played together with Simmons for years in Kiss, stated that Simmons had groped his wife, stating:
"Simmons is an asshole
and a sex addict".
Gene Simmons' Philanthropy
Simmons is a known advocate for ChildFund International's work. He traveled to Zambia during his Gene Simmons Family Jewels show in order to visit several of his sponsored children, of whom he has more than 140.
Simmons said:
"The trip was a stark reminder
that life doesn't treat everyone
the same."
Simmons' family received the MEND Humanitarian Award for their philanthropic efforts and support for Mending Kids International at the organization's annual gala on the 9th. November 2013. The award was presented by Mel Gibson.
In his acceptance speech, Simmons spoke of his own difficult childhood in Israel in a bullet-riddlen house. He recalled his mother's excitement when they received a CARE box one day.
Simmons helped found "The Children Matter", which is a collaborative initiative with the charity MATTER that fights to give children around the world access to health care.
Gene was an advocate for public safety during the coronavirus pandemic, encouraging people to wear face masks and follow social distancing protocols.
-- Gene Simmons' Awards and Recognition
On the 28th. January 2011, Simmons was in Dallas, Texas, in order to host the Aces & Angels Salute to the Troops charity event.
Simmons was presented with the key to the city, and a street (Gene Simmons Boulevard) was named for him.
Simmons and Tweed also visited the U.S. Army base at Fort Hood in order to support the troops as a part of the Aces & Angels event.
On the 15th. June 2011, Gene was given the key to the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
In 2012, Simmons was awarded the Golden God award by Revolver magazine.
In 2013, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History accepted an autographed Gene Simmons Axe bass into their collection from John Upshaw Downs Jr.
The Smithsonian wrote, in part:
"The bass will now be cared for in our permanent
collections. We are happy to include the Axe bass,
as it relates to the impact Mr. Simmons and his
band Kiss have had on American culture, especially
in the creation of a unique and iconic brand that has
been embraced by fans worldwide.
The story of Mr. Simmons' American experience
deserves to be preserved.
An immigrant and son of a Holocaust survivor, he
used creative vision and entrepreneurial acumen
to make a significant impact for our nation's popular
culture, becoming an iconic figure in American
music and entertainment."
Simmons is an honorary board member of Little Kids Rock, a national nonprofit organization that works to restore and revitalize music education in disadvantaged U.S. public schools.
A&E's Gene Simmons Family Jewels visited a Little Kids Rock classroom, and featured the segment on the show. Gene also decorated a guitar for auction with his son Nick.
On the 15th. December 2014, Simmons was awarded the Golden Medal by the Royal Artistic Circle of Barcelona.
In 2020, Simmons won two Guinness World Records for the highest flame projection in a music concert and the most flame projections launched simultaneously in a music concert.
Both of the records were established at the KISS 2020 Goodbye concert.
Thoughts From Gene Simmons
Gene had opinions on a wide range of topics, as evidenced by the following:
"My eyesight’s good. My schmeckle
works. What else do you want?"
"Mortality? It helps to be delusional."
"I’ve got to do two hours of make-up
preparation, then wear 40 pounds of
armour and studs, and then seven-inch
platform heels."
"I also learned that I love making
money. Anyone who is not afraid
of work will be happy with the
money they make."
"The sad thing is most people have
to check with someone before they
do the things that make them happy.
We're all passing through; the least
we can do is be happy, and the only
way to do that is by being selfish."
"If you think about it, critics are an
unnecessary life-form on the planet
Earth, and here's why: because it's
a job without credentials.
You don't have to go to school."
"The Beatles weren't like any other
band. Everybody in the band sang,
which is why you knew everybody
in the band."
"Kiss is a Fourth of July fireworks
show with a backbeat."
"I've always been anti-marriage for
men until they become mature.
As a species we don't mature until
we're in our 60's."
"My mother had a horrific life.
At fourteen, she was in the Nazi
concentration camps.
Her sense about life now is, every
day above ground is a good day."
"I'm fascinated with myself, and love
hearing the sound of my own voice.
I'd like to hear what I have to say.
A lot of people don't like being
alone because they truly don't like
themselves, but I love me."
"Life is too short to have anything
but delusional notions about yourself."
"I don't wait for the calendar to
figure out when I should live life."
"Fiscally, I'm very conservative.
I don't believe in welfare states.
I believe in giving people jobs."
"Never underestimate the power
of being popular in pop culture. You
have to be able to do something.
You can have a good seat at the
restaurant, but you still have to pay
for the meal. Fame is important, but
to be rich is more important."
"When you really think about it, I'm
not delusional enough to think that
what I do is important to life as we
know it on this planet. No.
But neither is what you do."
"I was never interested in being
a rock star. I always wanted to be
Boris Karloff."
"I refuse to stand up in front of a
rabbi and my friends and the
woman I love - who I will tell you
I can love with all my heart - and
promise she will be the only one
I will ever have until the day I die.
That's a lie."
"I'd like to think that the boring lady
who's talking to me now is a lot
sexier and more interesting than the
one who's doing NPR.
You know, studious and reserved,
and - I bet you're a lot of fun at a
party."
"My skin is more beautiful than yours.
I would be quite more popular in jail
if I so chose."
"I'm forbidden fruit. Once you go to
certain households, mommy doesn't
want you to see that dirty man who
sticks his tongue out and spits out
blood and all that stuff."
"The root of all evil isn't money;
rather, it's not having enough
money."
"I voted for President Bush, I voted
for President Clinton, and, although
I do want my vote back, I voted for
President Obama."
"People who are the salt of the earth
get up and go to a job that they hate."
"England is a profoundly bizarre place
that has produced thousands of bands
the world has worshipped."
"If you look at the CEOs of some the
most successful companies in the
world like IKEA, they never fly first
class. They always go economy."
"The best you can do is set your kids
on the right track; staying on it without
falling is up to the kids."
"You can't go through life and leave
things the way they are. We can all
make a difference, and if I die today,
I know I made a difference."
"If someone likes you, they'll buy
what you're selling, whether or
not they need it."
"If you're the greatest, it's okay to
say you're the greatest.
My suggestion to everybody is to
be their own greatest fan.
Weaker personas and personalities
define that as egotistical or arrogant,
but what it means is their self-esteem
isn't that strong."
"I wanted to be in a band that gave
bang for the buck. I wanted to be in
the band who didn't look like a bunch
of guys who, you know, should be in
a library studying for their finals."
"I'm in a weird band. We've done very
well. The American Dream is alive and
well."
"James Bond has a license to kill,
rockstars have a license to be
outrageous."
"When you look at Clark Kent when
he's working at the Daily Planet, he's
a reporter.
He doesn't fly through the air in his
glasses and his suit."
"I want to do everything. I want to be
the president, I want to learn Tae Kwan
Do, I want to climb mountains.
I'm always bugged by the notion that
I can't do everything."
"The biggest financial pitfall in life is
divorce. And the biggest reason for
divorce is marriage."
"Sugar-free ice pops are an invention
of God. They hardly have any calories
since they're mostly water.
I eat about 15 pops every two days."
"I know that you like to see a man in
the kitchen, but I'm skeptical of men
who cook.
A man should be focusing his attention
on the woman, and not what's on the
stove."
"I fly economy. I do often fly first class,
but I don't travel with a posse, or
bodyguard, or an assistant."
"It's in the history books, the Holocaust.
It's just a phrase. And the truth is it
happened yesterday.
It happened to my mother.
I never met my grandmothers or my
grandfathers. They were all wiped up
in the gas chambers of Nazi Germany."
"My mother is probably the wisest
person I've ever known.
She's not schooled, she's not well-
read.
But she has a philosophy of life
that makes well-read people seem
like morons."
"You know why I'm pulling your leg?
Because I can't touch it from where
I am."
"When you walk through a bad
neighborhood, you don't want
a poodle by your side.
You want a Rottweiler."
"First, when I was 12, I saw a Spanish
girl jumping rope.
I never saw her face, but it was still
the most beautiful sight I'd ever seen."
"If you're building a house, or doing
anything, time is what you've got.
Well, there's effort, but you need time.
The more time you put into something,
the better stuff you can make."
"Well, I'm like most Americans, we don't
vote by party, we both by the person,
because a person is bigger than the party,
which is why sometimes the Democrats
get in and sometimes the Republicans
get in."
"I crave ideas, and when an idea hits
me, it grips me and it tortures me until
I master it."
"Live and think like a poor man
and you'll always be OK."
"I worship scones and danishes.
If I never had another meal, I
wouldn't care as long as I could
eat pastries and jelly doughnuts."
"I fail all of the time. It means nothing."
"I would urge all bands that say they
only care about credibility and don't
care about money to send Gene
Simmons every dollar that they don't
want. I'd be happy to take it off them."
"Don't believe bands who say it's all
about the fans and they want to give
their music away for free.
The result is they will continue to live
in their mother's basement."
"Everyone in Kiss is replaceable.
My ego will tell you that I am not,
but that's not so."
"The only jobs kids have are to do well
in school, to be charming and polite,
and be thankful.
That's it. I'll house you, protect you, I'll
even give my life for you, and in return,
you will behave."
"I am an entrepreneur in the classic mold.
No matter what I do - outside of sticking
my tongue out - I tend to make money,
and quite a bit in non-KISS stuff."
"I work for everything I've got. I started
off as a very poor kid. I want to get paid."
"I don't wanna go on vacation. There's
nothing about it that appeals to me.
People look forward to doing that;
I look forward to getting up every day
and doing something."
"I think it's pathetic that women and
men treat each other worse than we
treat our pets. It's love or hate."
"Personally I support 14,000 kids in
Zambia - I feed and clothe them -
but I don't hold press conferences
about it. I don't do it so you'll think
what a nice person I am; it's private."
"I like to approach every day like
it's the only day I will ever have."
"Never negotiate with kids. They don't
have life experience, and they don't
have repercussions for bad decisions;
they still get fed and housed."
"When you are a rock star in front of
20,000 people, you receive instant
gratification. A rock star on tour is a
king in his domain."
"I have to have an emotional connection
to what I am ultimately selling because it
is emotion, whether you are selling religion,
politics, even a breath mint."
