The Postcard
A carte postale that was published by Les Éditions Mar of 4, Boulevard de Cimiez, Nice. The card was printed in France.
The card was posted in London using a 2d. stamp on Thursday the 15th. August 1957 to:
Mrs. Evans,
10, Coastguard Cottages,
Normans Bay,
Pevensey,
Sussex.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"So glad about the kitten.
Terrible weather. Won't it
be nice to get out of this
country for a bit?
The Pont S. Luigi has
changed a bit since this
picture was taken!
Clara."
The Pont Saint-Louis
The Pont Saint-Louis near Menton was of huge strategic importance during WWII.
On the 26th. May 1940, Benito Mussolini announced to various senior military men and staff that he intended to join the German war against Britain and France:
"So that after an Axis victory I can sit
at the peace table when the world is
to be apportioned."
Two military marshals unsuccessfully attempted to persuade Mussolini that this was not a wise course of action, arguing that the Italian military was unprepared, divisions were not up to strength, troops lacked equipment, the empire was equally unprepared, and the merchant fleet was scattered across the globe.
However on the 5th. June 1940, Mussolini stated
"I only need a few thousand dead so
that I can sit at the peace conference
as a man who has fought".
Paull Paillole, in 1940 a captain in the French military intelligence, the Deuxième Bureau, was forewarned about the Italian declaration of war on the 6th. June, when he met Major Navale, an Italian intelligence officer, on the Pont Saint-Louis to negotiate an exchange of captured spies.
Navale warned him that they only had four days to work something out before war would be declared, although nothing much did happen near Menton before the 19th./20th. June.
On the 10th. June 1940, Ciano informed his ambassadors in London and Paris that a declaration of war would be handed to the British and French ambassadors in Rome at 1630 hours, local time.
Gian Ciano, was Foreign Minister in the government of his father-in-law, Benito Mussolini.
When Ciano presented the declaration, the French ambassador was alarmed, while his British counterpart Percy Loraine, who received it at 1645 hours, "Did not bat an eyelid", as Ciano recorded in his diary. The declaration of war took effect at midnight on the 10th./11th. June 1940.
Commenting on the declaration of war, the French ambassador François-Poncet called it:
"A dagger blow to a man
who has already fallen."
This prompted United States President F. D. Roosevelt's famous remark:
"The hand that held the dagger
has struck it into the back of its
neighbor".
Late in the day, Mussolini addressed a crowd from the Palazzo Venezia, in Rome. He declared that he had taken the country to war to 'rectify' maritime frontiers. Mussolini's exact reason for entering the war has been much debated, although the consensus of historians is that it was opportunistic and imperialistic.
On the 19th. June 1940, Mussolini ordered his generals to seek contact with the enemy, and at 2050 hours a directive was sent:
"Undertake small offensive operations
immediately and make contact with the
enemy everywhere, to decisively harass
enemy forces as harshly as possible."
On the 24th. June, the Italian infantry reached the plain of Carnolès and were repulsed by the French artillery—not by the Tirailleurs Sénégalais as sometimes stated. That day the fort of Pont Saint-Louis engaged in an artillery duel with the Italians. 9 french soldiers in a fortified casemate are said to have held off several hundred Italian invaders from crossing the Bridge until the armistice was declared.
The French defense was an extreme act of valor, having shown the supreme effectiveness of a heavily fortified stronghold, especially against the somewhat outdated weaponry and tactics employed by the Italians.
Sable Starr
So what else happened on the day that Clara posted the card?
Well, the 15th. August 1957 marked the birth in Los Angeles of Sable Hay Shields, better known as Sable Starr. She was a famous groupie, often described as the "Queen of the Groupie Scene" in Los Angeles during the early 1970's.
Sable stated during an interview published in the June 1973 edition of Star magazine that she had met Rod Stewart, Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Elton John, and Marc Bolan.
Sable Starr - The Early Years
Starr first attended concerts around Los Angeles in late 1968 at the age of 11, together with older friends who had dropped out of school. She claimed to have had sexual intercourse when she was 12, with adult male Spirit guitarist Randy California after a gig at Topanga, California.
Starr became one of the first "baby groupies" who in the early 1970's frequented the Rainbow Bar and Grill, the Whisky a Go Go, and Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco; these were trendy nightclubs on West Hollywood's Sunset Strip. The girls were named as such because of their young age.
She got started after a friend invited her to the Whisky A Go Go at the age of 14. Starr later described herself at that period:
"I was nuts to begin with.
I always liked getting into
trouble".
She had considered herself unattractive, so she had a nose job when she was 15. During the time Starr was a groupie, she continued to live at home with her family, and attended Palos Verdes High School to placate her parents.
In 1973, she gave a candid interview for the short-lived Los Angeles-based Star magazine, and boasted to the journalist that she considered herself to be "the best" of all the local groupies. She also claimed that she was closely acquainted with some of rock music's leading musicians, such as David Bowie, Rod Stewart, and Alice Cooper.
When asked how she attracted the attention of the musicians, she maintained it was because of the outrageous glam rock clothing she habitually wore.
Sable was often photographed alongside well-known rock musicians; these photos appeared in American rock magazines such as Creem and Rock Scene.
Starr admitted to having gotten into fights with rival groupies. Lori Mattix, a fellow baby groupie, claimed that Starr once told her to "keep her hands" off Jimmy Page, saying "if you touch him, I will shoot you. He's mine."
Sable's closest friends in Los Angeles were fellow groupies Shray Mecham and "Queenie". Model Bebe Buell described Starr as having been one of the two top Los Angeles groupies of the era, adding that:
"Every rock star who came to
Los Angeles wanted to meet her".
She ran away from home when she was 16 after meeting Johnny Thunders, a guitarist in the glam rock band the New York Dolls. She went to live with him in New York City.
However their relationship did not last, mainly due to his violent jealousy and drug addiction. He had wanted to marry her after she became pregnant with his child, but she refused and instead had an abortion. Tired of the physical abuse Thunders often inflicted upon her, and unable to adjust to life in New York, Starr moved back to Los Angeles. She claimed that:
"Thunders tried to destroy my
personality. After I was with him,
I just wasn't Sable Starr anymore.
He really destroyed the Sable
Starr thing".
She made frequent visits to New York, where she had an affair with Richard Hell, befriended Nancy Spungen, and participated in the local burgeoning punk rock scene.
Sable Starr - The Later Years and Death
By the early 1980's, Sable was no longer part of the groupie milieu.
She later moved to Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and became a table game dealer at the Carson Valley Inn in Minden until shortly before her death.
Sable died at her home in Reno, Nevada on the 18th. April 2009 of brain cancer at the age of 51. She was survived by her partner, her daughter, and her son.
