Arabella & Co. salutes the city of New Orleans
….a grand old lady now tattered and torn but still young at heart.
She just needs a hand up. *

When the sun comes up.....

...and when the sun goes down!

St. Louis Cathedral before Katrina

New Orleans was founded by the French in 1718 but burned down in the Great Fire of 1788 and again in 1795. But she came back in all her glory. The city was ceded to Spain briefly before the United States got her back as part of the Louisiana Purchase. Andrew Jackson saved it again with a victory over the British in 1815. Some of the 18 th century buildings still survive even after Hurricane Katrina. One of them is the St. Louis Cathedral

But New Orleans remains multicultural. The Spanish Plaza was the location chosen for scenes in “The Pelican Brief” (1993).

Spanish Plaza before Katrina

Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington in "The Pelican Brief"

Elijah wood at the 2005 Mardi Gras

The first movie ever made in New Orleans was also the first film the American Mutoscope Company ever made south of the Mason Dixon line! It was a documentary called “Mardi Gras Carnival” in 1898! Today the Mardi Gras on Bourbon Street looks like this.

Leatrice Joy

In 1915 the Nola Film Company was founded in the city and lasted only long enough to release two feature films….”His Turning Point” (1915) and “The Folly of Revenge” (1916). They both starred Leatrice Joy who went on to make 77 more movies in Hollywood.

Basin Street saw the birth of the blues……

Basin Street at the turn of the century

…and “Pretty Baby” Brooke Shields in a film dealing with its colorful history.

"Pretty Baby" 1978

…..And the music plays on with these past and present virtuosos born with the music in their souls!

Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton

Louis Armstrong

Al Hirt

Wynton Marsalis

Harry Connick, Jr.

This railroad station played a part in the 1951 hit “A Streetcar Named Desire” based on a novel written by another famous New Orleanian, Tennessee Williams! However it was torn down in 1952.

Texas & Pacific Railroad Station 1951

Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando in  "A Streetcar Named Desire"

Ashley Judd and Tommy Lee Jones took us into this cemetery in the 1999 film “Double Jeopardy”.

Lafayette Cemetery

Ashley Judd with Benjamin Weir who plays her son in  "Double Jeopardy"

Down on the levee! But the levees let NOLA down when Katrina came to call. Hopefully they will soon be back in business.

Working on the levee	Waitin' on the levee
Flooded levees after Katrina

Harry Connick, Jr.

*The pictures shown here have been mostly pre-Katrina. We used them to show what New Orleans was and can be again. Harry Connick, Jr. is pleading for help to make his home town whole again. We join him in that call for aid. Just go to the link below and find out what you can do.

http://www.habitat.org

Arabella Asks….

….. for a star on the Walk of Fame for Princess Red Wing!

Princess Red Wing Listen

Lillian St. Cyr (Princess Red Wing) was our first Native American movie star! Married to actor/director/writer James Young Deer, she was Hollywood’s first critically acclaimed featured actress in the first full length film (“The Squaw Man” 1913) and they were Hollywood’s first “power couple”. But to date, she has been forgotten on the Walk of Fame.

Born in Nebraska on February 13 th, 1883 on the Winnebago Indian Reservation, she was supposedly the inspiration for the song “Red Wing” written by Thurland Chattaway and Kerry Mills in 1907 and sang the song publicly at New York’s Hippodrome Theater in 1914. She made 38 films before retiring on the advent of sound. But Red Wing was an active advocate for the rights of Native Americans. She died at the age of 101 in New York.

“Ask Arabella” will be back in the next issue.