The Postcard
A Norman Series postcard that was published by Shoesmith & Etheridge of Hastings. The image is a glossy real photograph.
The card was posted in Hastings using a 2d. stamp on Monday the 6th. September 1954. The postmark states:
'Save Time - Buy 2½d.
Stamps in a Book.
3/9d. a Book.'
The book would have contained 18 stamps.
The card was sent to:
Mr. T. L. Rigden,
36, Joyes Road,
Folkestone,
Kent.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Monday.
We have had a ride
along the front, and
are now in the lounge
for ice near the tall
building.
It is a lovely day.
Hoping to go to the
Dicker Pottery this
afternoon.
We went by here
yesterday.
Time is going quickly.
R. is home tomorrow,
off duty 2pm until
Wednesday.
Love from D & Ma."
Kathy Kacer
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, the 6th. September 1954 marked the birth of Kathy Kacer.
Kathy is a Canadian author of fiction and non-fiction for children about The Holocaust, and has written one adult fiction book (Restitution).
She has won several awards, and her books have been translated into a variety of languages (e.g. Die Kinder aus Theresienstadt, German translation of Clara's War and Japanese translation of The Underground Reporters).
As well as writing, she speaks to children about the Holocaust, and to educators about teaching sensitive issues to young children.
Kathy Kacer's Personal Life
Both Kacer's Jewish parents, Gabriela (née Offenberg) and Arthur Kacer, were Holocaust survivors. Her father was in a concentration camp and her mother lived in hiding.
Kacer was born in Toronto, where she still lives, and is married to a lawyer, Ian Epstein. They have two children, Broadway talent Gabi Epstein, and actor and singer Jake Epstein.
Kacer has a master's degree in psychology, and worked with troubled teenagers before becoming a full-time writer in 1998.
La Strada
Also on that day, the film La Strada was exhibited at the Venice International Film Festival and won the Silver Lion.
La Strada (The Road) is an Italian drama film directed by Federico Fellini and co-written by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli and Ennio Flaiano.
The film tells the story of Gelsomina, a simple-minded young woman (Giulietta Masina) bought from her mother by Zampanò (Anthony Quinn), a brutish strongman who takes her with him on the road.
Fellini described La Strada as:
"A complete catalogue of my entire
mythological world, a dangerous
representation of my identity that
was undertaken with no precedent
whatsoever".
As a result, the film demanded more time and effort than any of his other works, before or later.
The development process was long and tortuous; there were problems during production, including insecure financial backing, problematic casting, and numerous delays.
Finally, just before the production completed shooting, Fellini suffered a nervous breakdown that required medical treatment so that he could complete principal photography.
Initial critical reaction was harsh, and the film's screening at the Venice Film Festival was the occasion of a bitter controversy that escalated into a public brawl between Fellini's supporters and detractors.
Subsequently, however, La Strada has become "one of the most influential films ever made", according to the American Film Institute.
It won the inaugural Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1957. It was placed fourth in the 1992 British Film Institute directors' list of cinema's top 10 films.
In 2008, the film was included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978."
Kitty Kallen
Also on the 6th. September 1954, the Number One chart hit record in the UK was 'Little Things Mean a Lot' by Kitty Kallen.
Kitty Kallen, who was born Katie Kallen on the 25th. May 1921, was an American singer whose career spanned the 1930's to the 1960's, including the Swing era of the Big Band years, the post-World War II pop scene, and the early years of rock 'n roll.
Kallen performed with popular big band leaders of the 1940's, including Jimmy Dorsey and Harry James, before establishing a solo career.
Kitty is widely known for her 1954 solo recording '"Little Things Mean a Lot", a song that stayed at the U.S. Billboard number one spot for nine consecutive weeks, and took top honor as 1954's #1 song of the year. It charted in the U.S. for almost seven months, hit No. 1 on the UK singles chart, and sold more than two million copies.
Voted "most popular female singer" in 1954 in both Billboard and Variety polls, Kallen lost her voice at the London Palladium in 1955 at the top of her career and stopped singing before an audience for four years.
After testing her voice under a pseudonym in small town venues, she ultimately returned and went on to achieve 13 top-ten career hits.
On the 8th. February 1960, Kallen received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (located on the north side of Hollywood Boulevard at #7021).
In 1977, Kitty sued her dermatologist, Norman Orentreich, after he prescribed an oestrogen drug, Premarin, for her facial wrinkles. She subsequently suffered blood clots in her lungs, caused directly by the drug, and was awarded $300,000 by a court.
In 2008, Kallen joined artists Patti Page, Tony Martin, Dick Hyman, Richard Hayman and the estates of Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Sarah Vaughan, Woody Herman, Les Brown, the Mills Brothers, Jerry Murad, Frankie Laine, and the gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe in a suit against the world's then largest music label, Universal Music Group. They alleged that the company had cheated them on royalties.
In 2009, Kallen was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.
Kallen had homes in Englewood, New Jersey and Cuernavaca, Mexico. By the end of her life, she lived full-time in Cuernavaca, where she died on the 7th. January 2016, at the age of 94.