*Tour-ette on a brittle and blustery end-of-March Monday! Brrrr! 3/28/2022

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The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire... March 25th, 1911…

The next time you hear someone at a cocktail party, or on the bus, or in the office disparage unions and wonder why they ever came about, ask them if they've come from generations of fabulous wealth! Or… ask them if any of their relatives immigrated here (they probably DID!) and if they ever worked long hours in appalling conditions. Labor activism and unions came about from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and other incidents (many of them!) like it which we still observe and memorialize over 100 years later. Speaking as a member of three unions, I appreciate all the work and sacrifice that laborers contributed for my wellbeing… and how they, at the very beginning of the 20th century, helped to create America’s large and prosperous middle-class, one of the most vital pillars of a stable and secure democracy!

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Sybil Bruncheon's Hollywood's Hysterical Histories... Theresa "Tootie" Smith...

As a very young child, Theresa Smith (born to Alonzo and Anna Smith of St. Louis, Missouri, and nicknamed "Tootie"), began her career singing and dancing even in the cradle. Her first public performances were for friends and neighbors of her family often for holiday occasions where she would team up with her siblings doing impressions and various Vaudeville songs about exotic places or disreputable persons involved in piracy, white slavery, bootlegging, and even cannibalism.

Though seemingly humorous, there were dark undertones to these little showlettes, and frequently little Tootie would end up in some sort of altercation or violence, often in alleyways behind a theatre... or her nursery school. At the tender age of 7 she almost wed an indigent character actor from a local dinner theatre before her parents (usually absent and uninterested) interceded with local authorities to stop the marriage ceremony literally at the altar just before the groom could say, "I do!"... Little Tootie then descended into a bizarre nether-world of carny-shows and cult-films and political scandal... before she finally disappeared from all respectable society.

(Top row L to R: 1) Little Tootie singing with her older sister Esther whom she later hooked on heroin and marijuana and abandoned in a Women's House of Detention. Her brother Lon is seen accompanying the girls on his banjo. He was later drugged, abducted, and sold into white slavery by Tootie's 3rd grade boyfriend, possibly to Arabia, Madagascar, or somewhere in Akron. The banjo was never found. 2) Tootie at the age of 5 rescued by police from her agent (pimp?) after being robbed of her night's salary at Bluestein's Bimbo & Burlesqueerie in Poka-Ma-Hola, Arkansas. 3) Tootie with her almost husband, Edward "Big Ned" Bunsterston seen in this photo just after she pinched his bottom. 4) Tootie photographed with her doll/ventriloquist dummy Madame Shahtzi, a German fraulein known for her suggestive cabaret songs and off-color limericks about sailors and long voyages at sea without women-folk. Bottom row L to R: 5) Tootie with Mr. Ruffski, one of many animals from the local pound that she did cult-films with as the only human in the cast. Eventually church authorities interceded, and many of the animals were rescued to good and loving homes. 6) Tootie at the birthday celebration for the MGM studios. She was told by the secretary to LB Mayer, that if she would wait in his office, he might come by with a piece of cake and she could sit on his lap! 7) Tootie broadcasting as Wee Tootsen Stroodlehoff, the Nurnberg Nightingale, during World War I when she may have been a double-agent for the Kaiser. 8) Tootie reduced to being a hobo when she returned to the United States and was only partially cleared of sedition charges. 9) A photo taken in the 1940s of acclaimed Dr. Mary Edwards Walker... or a stage magician named The Magnificent Mr. Majooski, either of whom may or may not be Tootie disguised to conceal her true identity.)

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Sybil Bruncheon's "Holiday Recipes... St. Patrick's Day!"...

For those of you who hate corned beef and cabbage but don't mind the gas and bad smells, we offer this alternative! Breaking News from the CNN news desk: The RNC has revealed that, in celebration of the president's soon-to-be return to the White House, they have invented an official recipe for the upcoming victory parties on election night! Their... um, "recommendation" is that all loyal Americans prepare, serve, and finish this delightful creation; a melding of recipes from the Sears Catalog Cook Book of 1946 (the president's birth year) and some hand-me-down recipes from Slovenia, the first lady's birthplace, (although there are rumors that she is from Uranus.) The RNC has suggested that the dish should be served with little toothpicks, paper umbrellas, and frankfurters... but NOT the mini ones!!... y'understand? NOT THE MINIS!!! Details at 6. The Heimlich maneuver at 11.

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Sybil Bruncheon's "St. Patty's Cinema"...

"When I tell you to ditch the shirt, you hop, ya hear me, my wild Irish Rose?... and ya better NOT be a leprechaun where it counts!"...

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*Tour-ette on the last "big blow" (we hope!) of Winter! But, Spring, WHERE ARE YOU?? 3/12/2022

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Sybil Bruncheon's "Who'z Dat?"... Happy Birthdays on March 5th...

Clockwise from top left: James Sikking, Joan Bennett, Samantha Eggar, Dean Stockwell, Jack Cassidy, Virginia Christine, Rex Harrison, Henry Daniell, Henry Travers, and Elaine Page.

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*Tour-ette on a chilly but sunny Thursday in my little driveway-garden! Simple gratitude! 3/3/2022

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Sybil Bruncheon's "Travel Notes From Around The World... Bill and Missy Bailey; 1959"...

Yes, Folks, we’ve found fun and exciting travel notes from all around the world, just for you! Bill and Missy Bailey from Coshocton, Ohio decided that they’d like to see the newest state in the USA; Hawaii! They heard about it before of course, on TV with Lucy and Ricky Ricardo visiting there, and then Connie Stevens and the nice detectives on HAWAIIAN EYE, and… um…. well… Pearl Harbor. But to fly all the way there! Why it’s almost on the other side of the Earth… what with the Earth being round and all! So they saved Bill’s salary for a whole year and booked the whole vacation… during the Summer of course when Missy’s third grade teaching job was done for the Summer!… and off they went!

They had a marvelous time! They had never seen the ocean before in person, or even salt water (well, except when Bill gargled it during his strep throat scare back in February!). And they saw hula dancing, and pigs roasting over a fire pit, and they ate clams, and lobsters, and even poi, although they hated it but ate it anyway to be polite to the native chief and his wives (or whatever they were at the big Holiday Inn Hotel in Waikiki… or Honey-Lulu).

Anyway, it was a terrific vacation, and the Baileys learned all sorts of amazing things about people from other lands, and they came back with a coconut brassiere and a grass skirt… for Bill. Missy said she didn’t want one. Oh, and they bought a nice pineapple from a man in the airport. They showed it to Carl and Muriel Johnston on the flight home… and they even let them touch it. Bill said he was surprised that TWA allowed pets on the plane!.. and without a leash! But it never bit anyone…

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*Tour-ette from my little driveway-garden after a middle-of-the-night ice storm! 2/25/2022

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