• Lizzie Borden The Rock Musical

    September 23, 2010 /

    This just in from Andy Propst via Theatermania.com for all those wondering about Lizzie Borden, the rock musical which is included as part of  new theatre projects during the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s Festival of New Musicals in Manhattan this fall.

    The annual Festival of New Musicals will held in New York City on Thursday, October 21 and Friday, October 22, 2010 for a select audience of NAMT members, producers and other musical theatre industry professionals

    http://www.namt.org/

    “Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer, Alan Stevens Hewitt and Tim Maner’s musical about murderess Lizzie Borden will feature Carrie Cimma in the title role, along with Jenny Fellner, Marie France Arcilla and Beth Malone. The piece will be staged by Victoria Bussert, with music direction by Matt Hinkley.”  The production website is at   http://lizziebordentheshow.com/index.php/axe/about/ for more.

    For a sampling of some of the musical selections  http://lizziebordentheshow.com/index.php/axe/media/

    “A rock roadshow retelling of the bloody legend of America’s first and favorite axe-wielding double-murderess and Victorian hometown girl
    by Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer, Tim Maner, and Alan Stevens Hewitt.”

    Most recently the show ran for six weeks in fall 2009 at the Living Theatre in New York as a full-length original rock musical, produced by Took An Axe Productions.

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  • After the Axe

    September 21, 2010 /

    (photo by Beau Allulli) “Nance O’Neil”: Rachel Brown (standing) and Jonna McElrath in this play at Access Theater

    Reviews still coming in for the new production by the Blue Coyote Group.  Much praise has been lavished on the costume designer, and word has leaked that a “theory” about the crime is suggested in the production.   The interaction between Lizzie and her sister Emma is praised by critics  as a strong element in the play, and the play in general is receiving positive reviews. Get down to the Access theatre soon , for the play closes October 9th!

    David Rooney’s review: http://theater.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/theater/reviews/21nance.html

     

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  • Did you miss this one?

    September 14, 2010 /

    (photo from Amazon.com)

    (photo from Amazon.com)

    Published in 2003 by Trina Robbins and Max Allan Collins, this one is still available on Kindle or paperback through Amazon.  It is a smorgasboard of ladykillers, thoughtfully organized under sections such as “They Did it For Love”,  “They Did it For Money”, “Bandit Queens and Gun Molls”, “Fabled Femmes Fatales”, ” and  “Shoots Like a Girl- Women Who Missed”,  here’s a cozy read for a cold autumn’s night! 

    For preview pages (some containing great cartoon graphics of Lizzie Borden with other femmes fatales), visit this Amazon link to preview and order now!

    http://www.amazon.com/Tender-Murderers-Women-Who-Kill/dp/1573248215/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1284516190&sr=1-1#reader_1573248215

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  • New Play Makes a Debut

    September 11, 2010 /

    The Huntsville Times- by Sara Cure  Dateline: September 9, 2010

    “HUNTSVILLE, AL. – A new play written by Wayne Miller called “The Ax” will debut at the Renaissance Theatre, 1214 Meridian St., this weekend. Performances will be Friday and Saturday, both at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

    Although the play’s title conjures up morbid images, Miller said it’s really a farce.

    Based on the Lizzie Borden case, an ax belonging to a famous serial killer in the early 1900s basically has a life of its own. It’s soon in the possession of a man who has a weird interest in collecting serial-killer memorabilia.

    The man’s wife is a stereotypical repressed housewife who is not satisfied with her place in life. To make matters worse, her husband is cheating on her. She then starts to hear the ax communicate with her and it offers a solution to all of her problems through violence.

    “Even though it sounds grim, it will be a fun and humorous experience,” Miller said.”

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  • The Sisters of Abby Borden now online

    September 7, 2010 /

    The latest in the series of “Mutton Eater” short articles is available for the month of September.  It is a tale of sisters-  Abby Borden and her two siblings Priscilla and Bertie in one corner versus the Borden sisters Emma and Lizzie in another!  As in most lives, the Gray girls had their share of tragedy, hard work and joy, but they, unlike Emma and Lizzie enjoyed motherhood and grandchildren.  In the Borden case, where nearly all the main players are women, here are two more stories to add to the potent mix which ended in the events of August 4th 1892.

    Graves of George and Priscilla Gray Fish in Hartford, CT

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  • Chad Mitchell Trio to visit Lizzie Borden house

    September 6, 2010 /

    You Can’t Chop Your Poppa Up in Massachusetts was a hit for the popular 1960’s folk group, and second only to “Lizzie Borden Took an Axe” as Borden -related tune most people know.  Made popular in a Broadway production, Leonard Sillman’s New Faces of 1952 as the Fall River Hoedown, the single was released by the Chad Mitchell Trio in 1961. The trio will be visiting the Lizzie Borden house this week- should be great fun for everyone. Hopefully they will sing a chorus in the parlor where a copy of the sheet music has been on the piano since the house opened as a museum in 1996.

    http://www.chadmitchelltrio.com/

    Lyrics by Michael Brown

    Yesterday in old Fall River, Mr. Andrew Borden died
    And they got his daughter Lizzie on a charge of homicide
    Some folks say she didn’t do it, and others say of course she did
    But they all agree Miss Lizzie B. was a problem kind of kid

       ‘Cause you can’t chop your papa up in Massachusetts
       Not even if it’s planned as a surprise
       No, you can’t chop your papa up in Massachusetts
       You know how neighbors love to criticize

    She got him on the sofa where he’d gone to take a snooze
    And I hope he went to heaven ’cause he wasn’t wearing shoes
    Lizzie kinda rearranged him with a hatchet so they say
    Then she got her mother in that same old-fashioned way!

       But you can’t chop your mama up in Massachusetts
       Not even if you’re tired of her cuisine
       No, you can’t chop your mama up in Massachusetts
       You know it’s almost sure to cause a scene

    Well, they really kept her hoppin’ on that busy afternoon
    With both down- and up-stairs chopping while she hummed a ragtime tune
    They really made her hustle and when all was said and done
    She’d removed her mother’s bustle when she wasn’t wearing one

       Oh, you can’t chop your mama up in Massachusetts
       And then blame all the damage on the mice
       No, you can’t chop your mama up in Massachusetts
       That kind of thing just isn’t very nice

    Now, it wasn’t done for pleasure and it wasn’t done for spite
    And it wasn’t done because the lady wasn’t very bright
    She’d always done the slightest thing that mom and papa bid
    They said, “Lizzie, cut it out,” so that’s exactly what she did

       But you can’t chop your papa up in Massachusetts
       And then get dressed and go out for a walk
       No, you can’t chop your papa up in Massachusetts
       Massachusetts is a far cry from New York

       No, you can’t chop your papa up in Massachusetts
          Shut the door, and lock and latch it, here comes Lizzie with a brand new hatchet
       Can’t chop your papa up in Massachusetts
          Such a snob, I’ve heard it said, she met her pa and cut him dead
       You can’t chop your papa up in Massachusetts
          Jump like a fish, jump like a porpoise, all join hands and habeas corpus
       Can’t chop your papa up in Massachusetts
       Massachusetts is a far cry from New York

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  • Lizzie Borden: Now A Halloween Fixture

    September 1, 2010 /

    With Halloween soon upon us, haunted houses, haunted hayrides and other ghoulish attractions are busily preparing costumes and features.  In recent years Lizzie Borden has become a fixture at many of these horror attractions.  She is usually portrayed in black and red clothing with a large bloody axe swinging wildly, and covered in gore.  Poor Lizzie. You can imagine what she would think of this portrayal. The Taunton Gazette, the publication from the city of her 10 month incarceration has published an article on Lakeville’s entry for Halloween 2010. http://www.tauntongazette.com/lifestyle/lifestyle_calendar/x861574152/Lakeville-Haunted-House-preparations-underway

    Here are a few options available this year, this one titled a Lizzie Borden Wedding Dress from Amazon.com-and with a KNIFE.

    Here’s a better -looking version available at http://www.retroscopefashions.com/lolita1.html

    And here are a couple of Halloween Lizzies from 2009 (sorry the credits are unavailable)

    To see this live-action Halloween prop, visit Dave and Tracy’s photobucket video of this tombstone’s “special feature”. http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v630/DaveNTracy/Lizzie%20Borden%20Tombstone/?action=view&current=012-1.flv

    There will be more.

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  • Lizzie Borden Perfume?

    August 28, 2010 /

     

    Just when you think everything has been done that can be done with the Borden case, along comes a new twist.  We have Lizzie dolls, pins, magnets, teeshirts, bracelets, earrings, coffee mugs and shot glasses.  There are books galore with more coming soon, paperdolls, collector cards, toy hatchets, and even Cat’s Meow has put out a wooden replica of the murder house on Second Street.  And now- from ETSY, an online crafter’s catalogue, we have a Lizzie Borden perfume oil, in a limited edition, available only until November 2010.  Have a look at the newest entry on the Lizzie market. Wonder what’s next?

    This “eau de murder” is described as:

    “A waft of Mother’s garden blooms, Father’s unlit pipe, tiny roses on the parlor wallpaper, and a dusty wooden axe handle.”

    http://www.etsy.com/listing/52051486/lizzie-inspired-perfume-oil-halloween

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  • Mississippi’s Lizzie Borden

    August 24, 2010 /

    The Legs Murder Scandal

     

    Apparently the practice of chopping up bodies with sharp instruments can be found outside the city of Fall River.  A new book on another grisly murder is out, this time the ladykiller, Ouida Keeton could say, unlike Lizzie,  “She is not my stepmother- she is my mother!”

    Here is a blurb from the dustjacket:

    The Legs Murder Scandal
    by Hunter Cole
    Jackson: University Press of Mississippi (2010).
    First Edition. Signed. $30.00
    “In Laurel, Mississippi, in 1935, one daughter of a wealthy and troubled family stood accused of murdering her mother. On her testimony, authorities suspected an equally prominent and well-to-do businessman, her reputed lover, of assisting. Ouida Keeton apparently shot her mother, chopped her up, and disposed of most of her body parts down the toilet and in the fireplace, burning all but the pelvic region, the thighs, and the legs. Attempting to dispose of these remains on a narrow, one-lane, isolated road, Ouida left a trail of evidence that ended in her arrest. People had seen her driving to the road. Within hours, a hunter and his dogs found the cloth in which she had wrapped her mother’s legs.Touted as the most sensational crime in Mississippi history at the time, the Legs Murder of 1935 is almost entirely forgotten today. The controversial outcome, decided by an unsophisticated jury, has been left muddled by ambiguity. With “The Legs Murder Scandal, ” Hunter Cole presents an intricately detailed description of the separate trials of Ouida Keeton and W.M. Carter. Having researched trial transcripts, courthouse records, medical files, and vast newspaper coverage, the author reveals new facts previously distorted by hearsay, hushed reports, and misinformation. Cole pursues many unanswered questions such as what, really, did Ouida Keeton do with the rest of her mother? “The Legs Murder Scandal” attempts to provide the reader with clarity in this story, which is outlandish, harrowing, and intriguing, all at once.”

    Preview at http://www.amazon.com/Legs-Murder-Scandal-Hunter-Cole/dp/1604737220#reader_1604737220

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  • Lizzie Borden & The Marion Connection

    August 18, 2010 /

    As posted earlier:  The public is cordially invited to attend a presentation of “Lizzie Borden: The Mystery Continues,” sponsored by the Sippican Historical Society Thursday, Aug. 19 at 7 p.m. at Marion’s Music Hall.

    The speaker will be Mr. Christopher Daley in a one hour retelling of the famous double homicide. Mr. Daley is a history teacher in the Silver Lake Regional School System in Kingston.  If you get to Marion earlier, there are many things to enjoy, not the least of which is the scenery.

    The Sippican Historical Society has a treasure trove of things to see including the Mary Celeste room,

    and many beautiful paintings and sketches by Charles Dana Gibson, creator of the Gibson Girl.

    It’s no wonder Lizzie wanted to go fishing in Marion with Dr. Handy’s cottage so close to the fishing pier.  The photo below is the site of Dr. Handy’s cottage, but not the original building.  The water is a moment’s walk away.

    Borden case prosecutor, Hosea Knowlton enjoyed a summer rental in Marion, died there and had his ashes scattered over water there. The photo below is of his summer rental house, shown with the Second St. Irregulars on Front St.

    Knowlton had built a beautiful summer home  in 1900, but sadly died before he could enjoy many summers in it, He died in 1902. It is now a dormitory for Tabor Academy.

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