Just Plain Lizzie
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Salem Witch?
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?????????Salem is rumored to be the new hot spot for weekending for the Boston crowd but who would have thought it might become a venue for Lizzie Borden during the annual Salem Haunted Happening Madness in October. Word has it that the Essex Street Newmarket Gallery will be the hot spot for Lizzie to be hanging out come October 2008. What would a Fall River girl have to say to all of this?
http://www.thesaleminsider.com/2008/04/07/nightlife-in-salem/
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New photo joins other “Lizzies”
The recently-found photograph of a young Lizzie in a straw hat has joined the other known photos on the bookshelf in the sitting room at the Borden house. The room also contains the most famous one of Lizzie in Newport after the acquittal posed standing behind a chair- the only photo where she looks directly out at the photographer.
Some say she looks like the cat that swallowed the canary. The Swansea Historical Society houses the new photo of little Lizzie, which is the youngest photo of Lizzie found to date.
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If Bridget had gone shopping. . .
What remains of Sargent’s store today on North Main Street
Much has been made about Lizzie Borden’s sudden mention of a sale of dress goods at Sargent’s store to the maid just before the murder of her father that Thursday morning. Bridget Sullivan, weary from washing the windows and doing chores all morning, paused to consider the news about the sale, and voiced the statement she hoped to get herself some of the dress yard goods. But with her morning nausea, and weariness from chores, she opted to rest upstairs on the third floor instead. It is about a ten minute walk to Sargent’s at average pace, so the maid would have been gone about 40 minutes, allowing time to travel back and forth, shop, and get back in time to begin the noonday meal had she gone to Sargent’s. Lizzie would have been left alone with her father. Did Lizzie suggest the sale to get the maid out of the house? The story may have ended very differently had Bridget stayed downstairs.
Original ad for the dress goods sale on August 4th
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Lizzie Live Triumphs After All
LIZZIE BORDEN LIVE IS BACK ON!!!
Lizzie “takes care of business”! No steel girders can stop her!
This Sunday, March 9th @ 3 pm.
78th Street Theatre Lab
236 West 78th Street
(bet. B’wy & Amsterdam – next door to Stand-up New York)
(#1 subway to 79th Street stop)Tickets $20 at the door.
Mention ‘pears’ for $5 offDon’t forget daylight savings time.
If you made a reservation you are still reserved.
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Lizzie Borden Live Postponed
LIZZIE BORDEN LIVE HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES.
The 78th Street Theatre Lab must be vacated on March 8th, 9th and 10th (the show dates). They are currently in the midst of an enormous construction project, which will eventually encompass 236 West 78th Street completely.The contractors have chosen this weekend to hoist steel girders over
the building, requiring the top two floors to be empty. This is a
safety issue and the city is requiring them to empty the building. Up
until today the theatre had been assured all construction activities
would be over by 6pm at the latest on any given day, and they would not be working at all on the weekends.The apparatus used to raise the steel requires blocking off the entire
street, and because of traffic it can only happen over a weekend.THEREFORE, LIZZIE BORDEN LIVE, is being postponed.
It looks like the new date is Sunday, April 20th @ 3 pm
LIZZIE BORDEN LIVE has also been selected as part of the Six Figures Theatre Company’s 6th Annual Artists of Tomorrow Festival with two performances:
Friday, May 2nd @ 9 pm
Sunday, May 4th @ 3 pmThe West End Theatre
(Church of St. Paul & St. Andrew)
263 West 86th Street
(bet. B’wy & West End Ave.) -
Channel 5 Boston Interviews
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/15310981/detail.html
The link for the interviews and film footage from Friday, February 15 can be found above. Some footage of the Second Street house, a live interview with Borden case author, Leonard Rebello, and an audio interview with Hatchet editor, Stefani Koorey are featured.
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New Lizzie Image Makes a Splash!
All across the region today newspapers and television stations were buzzing with the news of the great find in Swansea. Providence Channels 10 and 12 carried the story as well as FOX 25 and Boston Channel 5. It was the talk at the corner Walgreen’s and over breakfast counters around Fall River this morning. Yesterday’s Herald News devoted three-quarters of the front page to the story and the Boston Globe ran it today on section B front page. Now how can they top this one!?? Click on thumbnails for larger image.
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New Lizzie Borden Photo found in Swansea !
HOLY COW!!!It’s been a long, long time since a new photo of Lizzie has been published and the cover of the newly released Hatchet must qualify as a Stop the Press spectacular! Kudos to Hatchet editor Stefani Koorey and Borden historian Leonard Rebello for some great detecting. Other Borden photos and mementos were also located at the Swansea Museum just before Christmas 2007. It’s big news in Borden land tonight! For a subscription and a look at the cover, visit the link below. The Hatchet has also changed its title and content scope to include Victoriana , mystery and murder.
http://lizzieandrewborden.com/MondoLizzie/
The image of Lizzie at about nine years of age in a charming straw hat has been published with the permission and knowledge of the Swansea Historical Society on the site above. Internet copyright laws do apply and the permission to copy in the current issue of The Hatchet, and on The Hatchet-linked blog , Mondo Lizzie Borden, was obtained for one-time usage legally by the editor.
Any cropped, altered, or grayscaled “bootleg” reproductions which may appear elsewhere and are being circulated, are without the knowledge or permission of the Swansea Historical Society and have been cropped from the copyrighted cover of the latest edition of The Hatchet. For those who object to their personal photos appearing without permission on the Internet: propagating, harvesting, and disseminating copyrighted images amounts, in essence, to image theft. Any benefit which might have been afforded the institution to which the image belongs through print and product reproduction is compromised. Sadly, historical societies and museums are those institutions which most need the revenue.
Some worthwhile reading – http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/copyright-internet.htm
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Website “Lizzie Borden Live”- goes live!
A new website has gone up on the web today promoting LIZZIE BORDEN LIVE, a one-woman show, written and performed by Jill Dalton, directed by Jack McCullough with incidental music by Larry Hochman. It is set in 1905, Fall River, MA, thirteen years after the unsolved murders of Andrew Borden. It’s a good-looking, user-friendly site, with notes about the actress, production and performance schedule. Don’t forget to click on the My Space link which features some intriguing slide shows of Maplecroft exteriors and Oak Grove Cemetery.
http://www.lizziebordenlive.com/
Abby and Lizzie on the front stairs at Second Street
Shelley Dziedzic and Jill Dalton
photo by Richard Behrens
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A new Garden Bay Lizzie Mini released
A second in the series of Lizzie Borden mini documentaries has been released today from Garden Bay Films. Author Len Rebello (Lizzie Borden Past and Present) gives a tour of the Borden cellar, pointing out where the hatchets and axes were found, and details of Lizzie’s two trips to the cellar on the night of the murders. The third mini should be released in about three weeks.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on_-jMcBs-8
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Lizzie’s passport reveals she’s no redhead!
The passport applications filed in Boston, June 4, 1890 for Lizzie and her three traveling companions, Anna H. Borden, Carrie L. Borden (distant cousins) and Ellen Marion Shove have been located and published on the Lizzie Andrew Borden Virtual Library document website at this link below:
http://www.lizzieandrewborden.com/NewResearch/NewResearchArticles/Dziedzic.htm
It is most interesting to note that Lizzie’s hair color is “Light brown” and her eyes are gray. The gray eyes had been noted in the police arrest book, but for many years, popular Lizzie authors have eagerly parroted the notion that Lizzie was a redhead- no doubt perpetuating the idea that redheaded women had a temper! Lizzie’s trip to Europe aboard the Cunarder Scythia will be the focus of an upcoming article for The Hatchet, a magazine devoted to Borden studies.
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Remembering Guy Verhille
Guy Verhille awards: Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design : The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975) Tied with Margaret Furse for Love Among the Ruins (1975).
On permanent loan, The Lizzie Borden House, Fall River Set design and costuming as well as casting, can make or break a film. For those who have seen the 1975 Legend of Lizzie Borden starring Bewitched’s beautiful Elizabeth Montgomery, getting the house and costumes just right were very important. The famous house had been photographed and blueprints of the layout have been well- known since the murders in 1892. Lizzie herself is frozen in time in those leg o’ mutton sleeves. The house owners received Lizzie’s famous acquittal dress from Paramount Film Studio, and it is currently on display in the room where Abby Borden met her violent end. It is a popular item for visitors spending the night at the house on Second Street. Miss Montgomery was a size 4 when she wore this dress, which is actually a gray nubby-textured wool blend with a capelet with accordian-pleated long lappets which hang down the front and tuck into a belt at the waist. The very full accordian-pleated wide sleeves give the impression of the popular leg o’ mutton sleeve which was growing ever-larger in 1892. The back of the cape is finished off with heavy metallic bead fringe. Sadly, guests at the house have purloined some of these fringes as souvenirs (see photo).
The late Guy Verhille, veteran costumer of many large screen and television productions won an Emmy, as did the set designer, in 1975 for his work in The Legend of Lizzie Borden. The hat to this ensemble was unfortunately thrown away. It featured a strong vertical embellishment as seen in the photo below, which was exactly correct for the era.
With budget constraints, this was the only copy of the dress made for the television movie, and how lucky that Mr. Verhille’s great design has survived. To see more of Mr. Verhille’s credits, visit the Internet Movie Data Base http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0894181/
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A portal to freedom
On the day Lizzie was acquitted, the crowds had gathered in numbers to see her walk out the front door to freedom at last. In a clever maneuver to thwart the Press and the masses, arrangements were made to take Lizzie out by the back door to a waiting carriage. The side door to the old court house on County Street did not exist in 1893 and so the back door was the only other way to make an exit.
“Behind the original building [New Bedford Courthouse, 1828), where architect Nat C. Smith’s 1899 addition is now, there were stables for visiting attorney’s to use. During the weeks of this sensation trial [Borden Trial] they were outfitted as telegraph stations …” SOURCE: Brink, Robert J. Courthouses of the Commonwealth. University of Massachusetts Press: Boston. 1984. 95. Several steps now go down from the original building to the ground level of the addition. The archway in the photo below is said to be the opening of the old back exit, now used as the transition place into the addition and framed out with matching finish carpentry and moldings.
Newspaper sketch from: Flynn, Robert. Lizzie Borden Sourcebook.Flynn Publishing: Portland, ME: Sketch appeared on (page 5, of the Boston Globe of 6/21/1893 probably drawn by Bert Poole or an artist with the last name of Grant).
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Lizzie Borden: Still Haunting the Court?
A recent trip to the New Bedford courthouse where Lizzie was acquitted in June of 1893 revealed the old court room to be much the same as it was during her famous trial there. Tables, benches, light fixtures remain the same, and just perhaps Lizzie herself still walks up and down the wooden staircase where she once tread with anxiety and trepidation! A digital photo of the prisoner’s staircase to the second floor of the building where the court room is located revealed a very large pale orb floating up the staircase. To the left of the judge’s bench is a handsome portrait of the prosecutor, Hosea Knowlton who seems destined to haunt the place, even if Lizzie does make a return trip from time to time!
Lizzie in court in June 1893
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A Pressing Matter
With Bridget, the Borden’s Irish maid doing all of the heavy laundry duties down in the cellar: heating water up in the cauldron, washing clothes on a zinc washboard, pressing water out through a mangle, and lifting heavy baskets to the clothes line under the pear trees on Monday and Tuesday, Lizzie only had to press her fine hankies on Thursday morning. Even this small task seemed to take an unusually long amount of time, if one believes Lizzie about when she said she commenced to iron, when her “flats” got cold, and if the fire had really gone out in the kitchen woodstove so the flats could not be reheated.
Electric irons had been invented in 1880 but were dangerous to use, as they were not grounded. Just imagine if Lizzie had had electricity and one of those new irons! Her story about going out to the barn to look for metal for fishing sinkers was prompted by the fact her irons had gone cold. While she was out there, the villain managed to sneak in and commit the homicide of her father. Was the “cold iron” a more important clue than is generally thought? Lizzie had to fabricate a reason for going outside to the barn, and not only came up with the looking for a bit of tin or “tea lead” but also embellished the alibi with a great deal of pear-eating, turning over boards, etc. Still she managed to appear “Immaculate-as if she had just washed her hands” to neighbor Addie Churchill minutes later after Lizzie re-entered the house and found her father dead on the sofa.
One wonders what the story might have been if one believes Lizzie was innocent and her flats had not gone cold. She would have been still ironing in the line of sight of a homicidal maniac, 6 feet away from the head of the sofa where Andrew’s head would soon be pulverized with a sharp blade. Lizzie’s own body may have been found by Bridget a few minutes later (when the maid came back downstairs from the third floor), stretched out on the dining room floor.
Flat irons, sometimes called sadirons (a contraction of solid iron) must have been tediously heavy and unwieldy to use. They might make a great blunt instrument, but could not have made the sharp-edged cuts upon the heads of either victim.
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Elections 1892
While Lizzie was cooling her heels in Taunton jail, candidates Harrison and Cleveland, (republican and democrat nominees elected on the first ballot) were coming down the home stretch to election day. The election campaign was dominated by the issue of tariffs with Cleveland running against the increase in tariffs that Harrison had brought about. There was no campaigning by either candidate. Harrison’s wife was gravely ill and he did not even hold porch speeches. Cleveland, out of deference to Harrison did not either. Imagine THAT today!
Cleveland won the election with nearly 75% pf eligible voters going to the polls.Lizzie lived during the terms of the 15 presidents listed below, Lincoln, Garfield ( for whom Andrew Borden’s patent medicine tea was named), and McKinley (last Civil War vet to be elected) were all assassinated. In August 26, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution became law, and women could vote in the fall elections, including in the Presidential election. Lizzie could have voted in 1920 for:
Warren G. Harding18
James M. Cox
Eugene V. DebsRepublican
Democratic
Socialistor in 1924 for
Calvin Coolidge
John W. Davis
Robert M. LaFolletteRepublican
Democratic
Progressive, SocialistShe would die before the 1928 elections when Herbert Hoover took office.
Buchanan to Coolidge 
James Buchanan
Abraham Lincoln
Andrew Johnson
Ulysees S. Grant
Rutherford B. Hayes
James Garfield
Chester A. Arthur
Grover Cleveland
Benjamin Harrison
William McKinley
Teddy Roosevelt
William Taft
Woodrow Wilson
Warren Harding
Calvin Coolidge
Maybe Mr. Terry drove Lizzie to the polls!
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Lizzie Rides Home in Style
There may not have been stretch limos in 1893 to bring Lizzie back to Fall River in style, but the vehicle which bore her away in triumph was the aristocrat of all carriages- a barouche. This elegant conveyance sported a half roof which could collapse convertible-style if the weather was fair. The photo below is of a two-horse 1890 barouche although a larger barouche-landau might have a matched double set of smart-looking horses, heads held high with a checking rein. The landau model had a full roof and complete enclosure for passengers.
After some clever diversionary tactics to throw off the throngs waiting for her exit from court, a party consisting of Lizzie’s attorney, former governor George Robinson, sister Emma, Lizzie and Mr. and Mrs. Charles Holmes entered the barouche and left for a welcome home party on Pine Street, Fall River in Lizzie’s honor at the home of Mr. & Mrs. Holmes. Lizzie acknowledged the well-wishers with a wave of her white hanky. One might recall the pile of unironed hankies Lizzie was ironing on the diningroom table on the day of the murders!
As she sped away, the rented hack carriage which had brought her back and forth from jail pulled to the front, the same faithful old sorrel in harness. But the crowd gathered at the curb was disappointed, for Lizzie had outfoxed them in a move worthy of a modern day Britney Spears!
A sorrel horse, a shade of chestnut with lighter chestnut mane and tail.
Most probably a larger barouche, passengers facing each other, was needed to accommodate the large Borden party of 5 in comfort.
(source reference, Boston Globe June 21, 1893)
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Truth or Myth?
Along with the pear motif found all over #92 Second Street at the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast, are black cats. They are in the guest room, in the parlor, in the Borden’s room, in the kitchen and gift shop. The “Phantom Kitty” has taken on a life of its own as guests in Abby and Andrew’s bedroom swear they hear a cat meowing plaintively in the walls or jumping up at dawn on the foot of the old Renaissance Revival bed and “treading” and purring loudly. When unnerved guests dare to have a look- there is nothing there! Some guests even leave catnip mice or balls for the Phantom Feline in hopes of being favored with a nocturnal visit.
All of this seems to stem from the story that Lizzie had either chloroformed or decapitated Abby’s kitten many years ago. Naturally black cats are unlucky as the legend goes, so Abby’s cat has now become the black kitten. True or false? Hard to know, except that Lizzie loved animals and left a great deal of money for their care in her will. Still- it makes a great Halloween story!
