We're traveling back to the Middle Ages (kinda?) with The Court Jester! Join us for a discussion of sign language, performance troops, court jesters, kidnapping of women, and more!

Sources:

Background:

"Danny Kaye Arriving in 'The Court Jester'..." The Christian Science Monitor 29 February 1956, p.5 "Memo to my Husband from Sylvia (Mrs. Danny Kaye) Fine" Photoplay Jan-Jun 1955, p.57. "Comic Knighthood for Kaye" LIFE 30 January 1956, p.93-6. Wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Court_Jester ; https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0291035/?ref_=tt_ov_dr https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0659085/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_lk1 Al Steen, "Review: The Court Jester," Motion Picture Daily 27 January 1956 p.1, 6. Bosley Crowther, "Burlesque With a Lance; Danny Kaye Is Starred as 'The Court Jester' Knighthood Movies Are Spoofed at Paramount," The New York Times 2 February 1956. Angela Lansbury talks about her career: https://youtu.be/QOma6cinvZ8

Hermine's Midgets:

Classified Ad 8--No Title, Chicago Daily Tribune 8 March 1947, p. 15. "Burlesque: Old Howard," Daily Boston Globe, 11 January 1947, D7. "BURLESQUE: OLD HOWARD "Toyland"," Daily Boston Globe 30 December 1941, p.8; Display Ad 58--No Title, Daily Boston Globe 21 April 1940, C6. Display Ad 110--No Title, Daily Boston Globe 14 April 1940, C6. Display Ad 11--No Title, Daily Boston Globe 31 December 1941, p.5. "Hermine's Midgets to Play 9 M. & P. Suburban Theatres," Daily Boston Globe 10 April 1940, p.12. "Burlesque: GLOBE THEATRE Renee and Girls" Daily Boston Globe 13 January 1942, p. 17. Deborah Petersen, "Tiny Elves Big Hit at Area Mall," The Hartford Courant 22 November 1982, B2a. Bob Kowalchyk, "Family Fun in Adirondacks," The Hartford Courant 11 September 1977, p. 11F. Sunny Stalter-Pace, Imitation Artist: Gertrude Hoffman's Life in Vaudeville and Dance (Northwestern University Press, 2020) 9. Timothy G. Turner, ""We Midgets are People Like You!"" Los Angeles Times 19 May 1935, p.SM9. H.I. Phillips, "The Once Over: The Summer Vacationists' Relief Fund," Daily Boston Globe 4 August 1928, p.14. "FAMOUS DWARFS AT THE HARTFORD: Royal Lilliputians Heads Entertaining Bill First Three Days." The Hartford Courant 31 October 1915, p.17. "Union Collects $1,000 Salary Claim for Midgets," Variety 1 October 1947, p.43. "Keith's, Indpls." Variety 11 April 1945, p. 65. Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev, "The dwarves of Auschwitz," The Guardian 23 March 2013, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/23/the-dwarves-of-auschwitz . Bob Hermines Magazine of Midgets Robert (Hermine) Rebernigg, Flushing, NY, 1945. http://speccoll.library.arizona.edu/collections/vaudeville/wp-content/uploads/azu_ms421_b4_f10_004_w.pdf

Kidnapping Elite Women:

Caroline Dunn, Stolen Women in Medieval England: Rape, Abduction, and Adultery, 1100-1500, (Cambridge University Press, 2012). https://doi-org.ezproxy2.williams.edu/10.1017/CBO9781139061919 Kiera Lindsey, "'The Absolute Distress of Females': Irish Abduction and the British Newspapers, 1800 to 1850," The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 42:4 (2014): 625-44.

Court Jesters:

Beatrice K Otto, Fools Are Everywhere: The Court Jester Around the World. University of Chicago Press. Jean Fouquet, Portrait of the Ferrara Court Jester, available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jester#/media/File:Jean_Fouquet-_Portrait_of_the_Ferrara_Court_Jester_Gonella.JPG Magda Romanska, "The History of the Court Jester," Available at http://blog.blo.org/the-history-of-court-jester-by-magda

Sign Language:

"The Origins of Cistercian Sign Language," https://www.medievalists.net/2015/08/the-origins-of-cistercian-sign-language/ "The Development of Education for Deaf People," https://www.medievalists.net/2011/12/the-development-of-education-for-deaf-people/ RJ Salter, "Only Half Healed," Selected Readings from the Proceedings of the 'Maladies, Miracles, and Medicine of the Middle Ages,' University of Reading. Marina Radic-Sestic, "The Beginnings of Education for Deaf Persons: Renaissance Europe," Faculty of Special Education and Rehabilitation (2012)