Question for Beatchick--the Murphys
Dec 15th, 2004, 09:59 AM
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Question for Beatchick--the Murphys
Hi
I was just re-reading your wonderful April 2003 Paris report. I noticed for the first time that you went by the Paris home of Gerald and Sara Murphy. I've done quite a bit of reading about them and they fascinate me--where is the house they lived in?
I was just re-reading your wonderful April 2003 Paris report. I noticed for the first time that you went by the Paris home of Gerald and Sara Murphy. I've done quite a bit of reading about them and they fascinate me--where is the house they lived in?
Dec 15th, 2004, 04:17 PM
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Elaine, I bet there is more info on this on Beatchick's VT pages. www.virtualtourist.com member name Beatchick.
Dec 15th, 2004, 04:24 PM
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``In the fall (of 1921) they crossed the Channel and settled for the winter in Paris, first in the Hotel Beau Site and then in an apartment at 2, rue Greuze, near the Etoile``
-- Living Well is the Best Revenge, by Calvin Tomkins
-- Living Well is the Best Revenge, by Calvin Tomkins
Dec 16th, 2004, 07:51 AM
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In walking around London I noticed plaques on some of the houses if they'd had a famous previus resident. Do they do this in Paris? I'm beginning to feel as though I'll be carrying so much paperwork with me that I'll spend the trip with my nose in a file!
Dec 16th, 2004, 08:33 AM
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http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/tp/feb9f/
Sorry 'bout that, Elaine! I haven't been checking into Fodor's as often as I used to.
Especially since I have VT taking up all my time! 
Above is the link to that particular tip about the Murphy's apt. on the Quai des Grands Augustins. Check it out - there're links that link you to other pages of mine that are related as well as some outside websites.
That book that I keep touting, Expatriate Paris: A Cultural & Literary Guide to Paris of the 1920s by Arlen Hansen, inspired me to do much of my searching for literary haunts. I flesh out that info with 2 books by Noel Riley Fitch: Sylvia Beach & the Lost Generation and Walks in Hemingway's Paris. The latter I don't think is as good because many times she is not as precise with addresses or doesn't know their exact whereabouts or sometimes downright confuses them.
For instance, this same address on the Quai des Grands Augustins, Fitch lists as the address for Harry & Caresse Crosby but I've found no other info to back that up. I prefer to think that Expatriate Paris is correct since Gilbert Seldes (who lived around the corner) referred to his apartment as "Chez Murphy" for its proximity to their apartment:
http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/tp/ff5f5/
Of course it COULD be that they both lived in that building, perhaps in different apartments or perhaps at different time in the '20s.
Tedgale, I've been meaning to buy that book, too.
Has anybody seen "De-Lovely" starring Ashley Judd and Kevin Kline?
Hey, Grasshopper-san!
Sorry 'bout that, Elaine! I haven't been checking into Fodor's as often as I used to.
Especially since I have VT taking up all my time! Above is the link to that particular tip about the Murphy's apt. on the Quai des Grands Augustins. Check it out - there're links that link you to other pages of mine that are related as well as some outside websites.
That book that I keep touting, Expatriate Paris: A Cultural & Literary Guide to Paris of the 1920s by Arlen Hansen, inspired me to do much of my searching for literary haunts. I flesh out that info with 2 books by Noel Riley Fitch: Sylvia Beach & the Lost Generation and Walks in Hemingway's Paris. The latter I don't think is as good because many times she is not as precise with addresses or doesn't know their exact whereabouts or sometimes downright confuses them.
For instance, this same address on the Quai des Grands Augustins, Fitch lists as the address for Harry & Caresse Crosby but I've found no other info to back that up. I prefer to think that Expatriate Paris is correct since Gilbert Seldes (who lived around the corner) referred to his apartment as "Chez Murphy" for its proximity to their apartment:
http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/tp/ff5f5/
Of course it COULD be that they both lived in that building, perhaps in different apartments or perhaps at different time in the '20s.
Tedgale, I've been meaning to buy that book, too.
Has anybody seen "De-Lovely" starring Ashley Judd and Kevin Kline?
Hey, Grasshopper-san!
Dec 16th, 2004, 01:07 PM
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Hi
I saw 'Delovely' months ago and it didn't thrill me, but over time I think more highly of it. I think for me the real fault was Ashley Judd, I didn't believe her for a minute. Kevin Kline is infinitely more macho (and tall!) than Cole Porter was but I loved his performance anyway.
For any one who wants to read more about the Murphys, see the Tomkins book mentioned above (it's a very slim volume) or for more, read Vaill's 'Everybody Was So Young'. It puts the Murphys in context of Paris in the 1920s and they seemingly knew everyone: Picasso, Hemingway, Dorothy Parker, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, the Cole Porters, etc etc. They were also the first to attract the rich fashionable set to the French Riviera.
They had both a charmed and tragic life together.
I saw 'Delovely' months ago and it didn't thrill me, but over time I think more highly of it. I think for me the real fault was Ashley Judd, I didn't believe her for a minute. Kevin Kline is infinitely more macho (and tall!) than Cole Porter was but I loved his performance anyway.
For any one who wants to read more about the Murphys, see the Tomkins book mentioned above (it's a very slim volume) or for more, read Vaill's 'Everybody Was So Young'. It puts the Murphys in context of Paris in the 1920s and they seemingly knew everyone: Picasso, Hemingway, Dorothy Parker, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, the Cole Porters, etc etc. They were also the first to attract the rich fashionable set to the French Riviera.
They had both a charmed and tragic life together.
Dec 16th, 2004, 01:56 PM
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Dec 16th, 2004, 01:58 PM
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Dec 16th, 2004, 03:26 PM
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for anyone else who cares, according to BC's virtual tourist info, the Murphys lived at #23 Quai des Grands-Augustins.
BC, I forgot to connect your question about 'Delovely' with the Murphys.
The film eliminated one of the family tragedies, understandable since they weren't the primary focus of the film.
Also, I hadn't really thought before that the Murphys and the Porters were such bosom buddies as to be so often together.
I'm going to look for the Expatriate Paris book, thanks.
BC, I forgot to connect your question about 'Delovely' with the Murphys.
The film eliminated one of the family tragedies, understandable since they weren't the primary focus of the film.
Also, I hadn't really thought before that the Murphys and the Porters were such bosom buddies as to be so often together.
I'm going to look for the Expatriate Paris book, thanks.
Dec 16th, 2004, 06:58 PM
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Yes, thanks Elaine, I forgot to mention their connection in the movie. For anyone who didn't see the movie, it portrayed the Cole Porters & the Murphys as being great friends.
I knew the Hemingways & the Murphys as well as the Fitzgeralds & the Murphys as being great friends but I didn't know too much about the Porters prior to the film.
Even the book I have barely glances on Cole Porter and hardly mentions his wife, Linda. Not much on the web about her, either. I tried to google photos of her but only came up with publicity stills of Ashley Judd.
I can't help it. I love Ashley Judd, she's from KY, what I can I say! Before she was ever famous, before she ever acted, she attended UK. This was while I lived in Lexington & while my best friend was attending UK for art history (which I believe Ashley got her degree in also); I used to meet my friend on campus for lunch & we'd try to scope out Ashley Judd having lunch in the student center. At that time she was only known as the daughter of & sister to the Judds.
Elaine, the actress who played Sara Murphy did a fine job but she didn't really look like the real Sara Murphy who I thought looked the quintessence of a Gibson Girl gone flapper.
Mimi, you are always forgiven for your typos, chica!! With your bad arthritis I'm surprised at how well you do type! I am equally fascinated by the Crosbys. The Expatriate book mentions Caresse Crosby's fanciful memoirs and her assertion that she, wearing a swimsuit, used to row Harry in a boat to his job at the bank every morning from their apt. on the Quai d'Orleans on the Ile St-Louis. The book mentions Harry's suicide but it was only in the last couple of weeks that I found out how he did it. Apparently, he was quite the lady's man & had numerous suicide pacts with many women. I guess one day he just followed thru on it; the young lady in question was a newlywed. As my dear departed Nanny would say "he had little to do"!
I knew the Hemingways & the Murphys as well as the Fitzgeralds & the Murphys as being great friends but I didn't know too much about the Porters prior to the film.
Even the book I have barely glances on Cole Porter and hardly mentions his wife, Linda. Not much on the web about her, either. I tried to google photos of her but only came up with publicity stills of Ashley Judd.
I can't help it. I love Ashley Judd, she's from KY, what I can I say! Before she was ever famous, before she ever acted, she attended UK. This was while I lived in Lexington & while my best friend was attending UK for art history (which I believe Ashley got her degree in also); I used to meet my friend on campus for lunch & we'd try to scope out Ashley Judd having lunch in the student center. At that time she was only known as the daughter of & sister to the Judds.
Elaine, the actress who played Sara Murphy did a fine job but she didn't really look like the real Sara Murphy who I thought looked the quintessence of a Gibson Girl gone flapper.
Mimi, you are always forgiven for your typos, chica!! With your bad arthritis I'm surprised at how well you do type! I am equally fascinated by the Crosbys. The Expatriate book mentions Caresse Crosby's fanciful memoirs and her assertion that she, wearing a swimsuit, used to row Harry in a boat to his job at the bank every morning from their apt. on the Quai d'Orleans on the Ile St-Louis. The book mentions Harry's suicide but it was only in the last couple of weeks that I found out how he did it. Apparently, he was quite the lady's man & had numerous suicide pacts with many women. I guess one day he just followed thru on it; the young lady in question was a newlywed. As my dear departed Nanny would say "he had little to do"!
Dec 16th, 2004, 07:03 PM
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Oh yes, hopingtotravel, they do! I'm sorry, I just now saw your question. In my off the beaten path tips at VT I have pics of 3 places with plaques:
*Hemingway on the rue Cardinal-Lemoine
Oscar Wilde at the Hôtel du Quai *Voltaire (where Grasshopper stayed with her daughter one year during NYE)
*Van Gogh on rue Lepic in Montmartre
You'll see more of that sort of thing in my off the beaten path tips; places where different writers & artists lived, one about Ben Franklin & Thomas Jefferson staying at the Hôtel d'Angleterre (and also Hadley & Ernest Hemingway when they 1st came to Paris). Yep, looks like your pages/papers WILL increase!
*Hemingway on the rue Cardinal-Lemoine
Oscar Wilde at the Hôtel du Quai *Voltaire (where Grasshopper stayed with her daughter one year during NYE)
*Van Gogh on rue Lepic in Montmartre
You'll see more of that sort of thing in my off the beaten path tips; places where different writers & artists lived, one about Ben Franklin & Thomas Jefferson staying at the Hôtel d'Angleterre (and also Hadley & Ernest Hemingway when they 1st came to Paris). Yep, looks like your pages/papers WILL increase!
Dec 17th, 2004, 09:04 AM
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There's also more about the Murphys in biographies of F Scott Fitzgerald and of Hemingway. Dick Diver in "Tender is the Night" was supposed to be based on Gerald Murphy. Didn't Hemingway have some reference to them as 'pilot fish'?
