Happy Birthday, Grace Kelly

What is it that gives Grace Kelly that enduring mystique and appeal? She seems to personify eternal beauty and natural poise, and inspires the same sort of devotion and fascination people also have for Marilyn Monroe and Princess Diana. Decades after her death, people still want to read about her and gaze at her picture.

Grace Kelly was born in Philadelphia on November 12, 1929.  Her career as an  actress spanned only six years, yet she won a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award.  Grace  retired from acting at the age of 26 to assume her duties as Princess of Monaco, upon her marriage to Prince Rainier. She died tragically in a car crash on September 14th, 1982, at the age of 52.

Grace and Rainier had three children, Caroline, Albert, and Stephanie. Albert, the current ruler of Monaco, is engaged to Charlene Wittstock from South Africa, so perhaps we'll see another marriage commemoration cover in Monaco again soon.

Here are some pictures from the May 27, 1958 issue of Look magazine.  It was a large magazine, so unfortunately it doesn't fit nicely into my scanner.

Streetcar Sunday - York, England

Bootham Bar is the one of the famous gateways through the city walls of York. There has been a gate of one kind or another here since 71 AD when the city was founded by the Romans. At that time, the city was known as Eboracum. When the Angles took over in 451 AD, the city became known as Eoforwic, which has a certain ring to it if you can pronounce it. It didn't become known as York until the 13th century.

York started out with horse-drawn carriages or buses as public transportation (i.e. no rails). They also used steam-powered trams briefly before changing over to electric trams in 1909. If you look closely, you can see that this one has two decks, and the barrier on the top one is quite low. Sit down, gentlemen or you may be knocked off the tram when we pass through one of those gates.

As buses gained in popularity over the next few decades, the decision was made to stop running the trams. The last one ran in 1935.

Here's the back of the card, showing that it was printed by E.T.W. Dennis & Sons.  I don't encounter  their cards very often.

To Amy from Paris

Today is Sepia Saturday, an opportunity for bloggers to share interesting old photos. Sepia Saturday is hosted by Alan Burnett, who also has a lively and entertaining blog entitled  News from Nowhere, and another blog (Fat Dog to the Big Apple) about a virtual walk across the United States with his dog, Amy.

Here is a lovely view of Paris from the turn of the century.

And here's the back of the card, which would appear to be addressed to Alan's dog.

The message reads:

The Little Palace was built for the Paris Exposition and is now a Museum of Modern Art.

Best wishes,

Mrs Hax (?)