Culture

Epitaph | Selective Works

— July 6, 2010—

Ned Beauman’s Epitaph is a tribute to pioneers and heavyweights who died on this day in history, and the unexpected coincidences that bind them together

William Faulkner, 1954 Photography by Carl Van VechtenIn the late 1960s my dad drove across America with some of his friends, and on the way through Mississippi they wanted to visit William Faulkner's old house, but they didn't know which town it was in, and no one would tell them. Then when they finally got to Oxford, in Lafayette County, they didn't know what street it was on, and no one would tell them that, either. The problem wasn't just that they had New York number plate...

Culture

Epitaph | Signals

— April 2, 2010—

Ned Beauman’s Epitaph is a tribute to pioneers and heavyweights who died on this day in history, and the unexpected coincidences that bind them together

Samuel F.B. Morse Photography by Mathew Brady, 1866

In 1947 the Cooper Union Art School in New York began using the Rorschach inkblot test as part of its admissions process. This was supposed to be a fairer way of judging creative potential than flipping through a portfolio, because the applicant's prior training, or lack of it, didn't get in the way. 'If Cooper Union is really bent on predicating its Art School's entrance exams on a pattern of response to inkblots,' wr...

Culture

Epitaph | At the Savoy in Mayfair

— February 12, 2010—

Ned Beauman’s Epitaph is a tribute to pioneers and heavyweights who died on this day in history, and the unexpected coincidences that bind them together

Lillie Langtry, Photography by W. & D. Downey, 1891 9 1/8 x 7 1/4 in.

Last week it emerged that the refurbishment of the Savoy in Mayfair may end up costing as much as £200 million, twice what it was supposed to. The London debut of Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado financed the hotel's original construction in the 1880s, but you'd presumably need a whole karaoke bar full of Mikados to pay for the current refit; and there is no celebrity alive today that could guarantee such a vigorou...

Culture

Epitaph | Sunset Boulevard

— February 1, 2010—

Ned Beauman’s Epitaph is a tribute to pioneers and heavyweights who died on this day in history, and the unexpected coincidences that bind them together

Sunset Boulevard poster, 1950

There's a famous scene in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard when Gloria Swanson's character, an aging silent film actress called Norma Desmond, sits down to a game of bridge with Buster Keaton, Anna Q. Nilsson and H. B. Warner, all playing themselves.William Holden's character, her young lover, describes them as “the waxworks.” After the first take of that scene was finished, Keaton, then 55, looked...

Culture

Epitaph | Around the World

— January 27, 2010—

Ned Beauman’s Epitaph is a tribute to pioneers and heavyweights who died on this day in history, and the unexpected coincidences that bind them together

Vera Totius Expeditionis Nauticae showing route of Francis Drakes Circumnavigation of the globe by Jodocus Hondius, 1595 The Kraus Collection of Sir Francis Drake

One of my favourite pages on the entire internet is this one, on which someone has gone to the trouble of transcribing the complete and unabridged lyrics to Daft Punk's 1997 single “Around the World” – which consist of the words “around the world” repeated 144 times. It's not only an indispensable reference text but also a reminder that the very act of circumnavigation, like the lau...

Culture

Epitaph | Commanding the Masses

— January 21, 2010—

Ned Beauman’s Epitaph is a tribute to pioneers and heavyweights who died on this day in history, and the unexpected coincidences that bind them together

Untitled, (Crowd 2), Photography by Alexey Titarenko, 1993

In 1923, Cecil B DeMille paid two assistants a hefty bonus to sit on the beach for a few weeks until they were so sunburnt they looked like braised pork belly. The purpose of their agony was that, during the filming of The Ten Commandments, DeMille wanted to know exactly how much scorch-simulating oil to squirt on the 2,500 extras playing Israelites in the desert. Those extras had been sent out on a train to the Californi...