Month: July 2014

A Spanish Holiday

Source: Charles Marriott, A Spanish Holiday (New York: John Lane, 1908), pp. 308-309

Text: On account of the fiesta, I suppose, we found the Zocodovér dark and deserted after dinner and all Toledo gathered upon a little arc-lighted, bat-haunted terrace with a privet hedge and mulberry trees overlooking the black gulf of the Tagus. For entertainment there was a band, an open-air cafe, and a kinematograph which promised pictures of “The Chicago Tramways, Japanese Painters at work, The San Francisco Earthquake, The Ascent of Mont Blanc, and The Assassination of the King and Queen of Servia.” In contrast to the evening crowd at Madrid, everybody here seemed to be friendly, content to walk up and down, eat caramels or the marchpane for which Toledo is famous, listen to the band, and answer with alacrity the purring of the electric bell which announced that another representation of the pictures was about to begin.

Comments: Charles Marriott (1869-??) was an American writer. A Spanish Holiday is a travel book. King Alexander and Queen Draga of Serbia were assassinated in 1903; the San Francisco earthquake was in 1906.

Links: Copy at Hathi Trust

Lege Bioskoop

Source: Paul van Ostaijen, ‘Lege Bioskoop’, in Bezette Stad (Antwerp: Sienjaal, 1921)

Text:
legebioskoop1

Comments: Paul van Ostaijen (1896-1928) was a Belgian poet. His idiosyncratically-designed Bezette Stad (Occupied City) is a collection of poems influenced by Dadism and Expressionism which deals with his life in Antwerp during the First World War. It features many references to the cinema and film stars (particularly Asta Nielsen). The poem ‘Lege Bioskoop’ (Empty Cinema) has a pianist playing to films in an empty cinema, building the music up to a gallop. I have not been able to find an English translation, and cannot match the titles Eenzame Bank, De Duivelse Vrouw or Arme Meisje van Belleville to any known films. My thanks to Karel Dibbets for drawing my attention to van Ostaijen’s work.

Links: Copy of Bezette Stad at Project Gutenberg
Copy of Bezette Stad at the International Dada Archive at the University of Iowa Libraries