#romanoffs

[mamapriest]

1954 / Photos by Sam Shaw

To celebrate the end of the shooting of "The Seven Year Itch", Charles Feldman organizes a reception at the "Romanoff's" restaurant in Beverly Hills in honor of Marilyn Monroe. She is accompanied by photographer Sam Shaw, who does most of the photos. Among others of the 80 distinguished guests, there are Billy Wilder, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Claudette Colbert, William Holden, James Stewart, Doris Day, Susan Hayward, Gary Cooper, Loretta Young, George Burns, Clifton Webb, Clark Gable, Darryl Zanuck, Jack Warner, Sam Goldwyn, Tom Ewell and Sidney Skolsky; all compliment her.

Marilyn is finally accepted into Hollywood. But it is not only a friendly and generous gesture on the part of Charles Feldman: the first reason is that this evening is the answer to recriminations, which only get worse with time, of Zanuck against Marilyn, her absences, her delays and her stammering which forced the technical team to make many takes of the same scene. For Feldman, these criticisms were ridiculous. The very day she finished "There's No Business Like Show Business" she left for New York to shoot "The Seven Year Itch".

*Source: skyrock.com

[the-fact-site]

A rumor spread at a banquet for Czar Nicholas II's coronation that there would not be enough beer and pretzels for everyone in attendance. The resulting crowd crush killed almost 1400 people. #FACT

[theholymartyrs]

Rare picture of Maria

[perfectlymarilynmonroe]

Marilyn Monroe photographed at Romanoff’s restaurant in 1954.

[countvonreutern]

A day after the Russian Imperial family was murdered, the Bolsheviks decided to murder other members of the family, who had been sent to Alapayevsk​. These included the Tsarina’s sister, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna​ of Russia; wife of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich​ of Russia,  who was the fifth son of Emperor Alexander II of Russia​ and Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine​ (Tsarina Maria Alexandrovna​ of Russia). Born Princess Elisabeth Alexandra Luise Alix of Hesse and by Rhine, Elizabeth is also a maternal great-aunt of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh​, the consort of Queen Elizabeth II​ and granddaughter of Queen Victoria.

In 1905 The Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich had been targeted by the  Social Revolutionary Combat Organization, he was assassinated by a terrorist bomb at the Kremlin. Following this tragedy, the Grand Duchess showed extraordinary mercy and publicly forgave her husband’s murderer, even petitioning for his release from prison.

Having sold all her jewellery and possessions, Elizabeth used the proceeds to open the Convent of Saints Martha and Mary in Moscow in 1909, herself becoming the abbess. On her marriage, she had converted from Lutheranism to Orthodoxy becoming Elizabeth Feodorovna, later convincing her sister Alexandra to do the same for Tsar Nicholas II​, and was known for her piety and devotion as well as beauty. The Grand Duchess and her nuns worked tirelessly amongst the poor and sick of Moscow’s slums, living a life completely contrary to the image that is often portrayed of the Romanovs.

Despite her plethora of good works, in 1918 Lenin ordered the Cheka to arrest the Grand Duchess and she was sent to Perm and then on to her death. Along with other members of the Romanov family, she was beaten and thrown down a mine shaft. Grenades were then thrown down but the Grand Duchess could be heard singing the Cherubic Hymn​ and so a fire was started by the Bolsheviks in the shaft. Afterwards, it was discovered the victims had, in fact, died from starvation or their wounds. Before her death the Grand Duchess had managed to bind the wound of one of her relatives with her wimple; to the end, she was a model of Christian love and forgiveness. She was later canonized by Russian Orthodox Church as the Holy Martyr Elizabeth Feodorovna.

Lenin welcomed Elisabeth's death, with the words, "virtue with the crown on it is a greater enemy to the world revolution than a hundred tyrant tsars." Evil personified.

Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia is Count's 11th cousin four times removed and wife of his 10th cousin four times removed, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia.

[our-ordinary-world]

Oh my!

[myrish-lace-love]

I don't know your name. 

Finn’s new name is a gift, a blessing, a breath of the humanity he’s always felt inside granted back to him. Poe Dameron helped him give birth to it in a rush of gunfire, explosions, and the wild free-fall of escape. That escape was quickly followed by another, as he raced towards the safety of a ship hand-in-hand with her – this strong and lithe and lovely woman before him now. She’s the first person who knows nothing of his identity as a stormtrooper. After the matter of Poe's jacket was resolved, she gave him another gift – a new beginning. She looked at him with respect, and something more, something that has his insides fluttering even now with a mix of nervousness and excitement. He knows the admiration shining in her eyes is founded on quicksand. He’s not Resistance. He's a former member of the forces that tried to knock the two of them out of the sky, the ones she just avoided with grace, fluidity and speed. So when she asks him for his name, with a trace of shyness, he skips quickly over Finn, despite how much it means to him.  He rushes on, to ask her what he can call her, the woman he’s already blissfully fallen for. 

Finn. What’s yours? 

Rey’s name is tinged with sadness. She hears it reverberate in dreams of the family that left her behind. She jolts awake at night in tears, shedding water she can’t spare, mourning the loss of faces already fading from her memory. So she doesn’t offer her name freely on Jakku. Nor does she need to. She’s known as a scavenger, a trader, someone who can handle herself in a brawl, and that suits her fine. Now, though, she’s met and fought with this beautiful, open and honest man, a Resistance fighter who’s part of a broader world. He treats legends like Luke Skywalker as plain facts, and seems to have an unerring instinct to shield her from harm, even after she’s wrongfully run him down for stealing. He asks for her name in a way that’s almost tender, and she finds herself offering it up. Her answer comes out rusty and a little tentative, but she can’t keep a small smile from escaping her lips. The gesture is a risk, an opening, a form of vulnerability. But she doesn’t fear Finn. She trusts him. Here’s a man, she thinks, who deserves the privilege of knowing.  

I’m Rey.

Gifs courtesy of @romanoffs