Table of contents for No. 49 in All About History

“Russia’s greatest love machine,” went the Boney M hit song, Rasputin. In an uncanny coincidence, the band’s frontman Bobby Farrell died on the same date and in the same town as the ‘Mad Monk’ himself, back in 2010. Suffice to say, it was under very different circumstances. Poisoned, shot, beaten and drowned, Rasputin was murdered for meddling in imperial affairs. To the Russian people, he pulled the strings of the tsar and tsarina like a master puppeteer, having reportedly healed their only son and heir of his life-threatening illness. But while the tsar was away during WWI, Rasputin’s relationship with his wife was called into question. Over the years, his story has become fodder for legend, movies and the aforementioned 1978 record, but what role did the holy man play…

1878 EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE’S ZOOPRAXISCOPE Photographer Eadweard Muybridge uses trip wires to shoot pictures of each step of a horse in motion. The zoopraxiscope allows these images to be viewed in sequence creating the first ‘film’. 1891 INVENTING THE KINETOSCOPE Thomas Edison and William Kennedy Dickson use new technologies, including emulsion-coated celluloid developed by John Carbutt, and continuous film strips, to create the first practical motion picture camera, called the kinetoscope. 1892 THE FIRST FILM STUDIO Thomas Edison constructs the Black Maria, the first dedicated film studio. It has a retractable roof and is built on a turntable, so it can always face the sunlight when filming. 1894 FIRST KINETOSCOPE PARLOUR, NEW YORK 10 KINETOSCOPES in the parlour each machine cost $250 50 CENTS A ticket costs approx. $16…

With the growth of television and the weakening of the old Hollywood studio system, a new generation of young independent filmmakers rose to prominence in the late 1960s. These so-called ‘Movie Brats’, including George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, revolutionised the industry, ensuring artistic control was in the hands of the director, not the studio. This New Hollywood movement saw more experimental narratives and creative filmmaking techniques reach the big screen, drawing in younger and more affluent audiences. As a result, the era spawned several big-budget blockbusters with mass appeal, including Jaws and Star Wars. GO TO FILM SCHOOL Many of the Movie Brats of the 1970s had studied filmmaking at universities such as UCLA and NYU, and were then given an opportunity to cut their…

EDWOOD 1924-1978, LA, USA The man behind Plan 9 From Outer Space loved films but he couldn’t make a good one to save his life. Watch Tim Burton’s excellent all-star biopic. ROGER CORMAN 1926-PRESENT, LA, USA The ultimate B-movie king. Corman’s thrifty tactics are legendary, and he plucked some great directors from obscurity. WILLIAM CASTLE 1914-1977, LA, USA No one sold a film like William Castle. He was the master of gimmicks, from buzzers in seats to a skeleton on a wire. LLOYD KAUFMAN 1945-PRESENT, NYC, USA Kaufman’s Troma Entertainment is an institution unto itself, creating low-budget shlock with a family branding. Films include the epic Surf Nazis Must Die.…

Felix Yusupov Coming from an extremely wealthy family – richer than the Romanovs – Felix was the oldest surviving male heir to the huge fortune. Although he was clever and quick-witted, he faced criticism for avoiding service during World War I. As the husband of Alexander Romanov’s niece, Princess Irina of Russia, he disliked the influence that Rasputin held over the family, and became a key player in the plot to bring about his downfall. Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich Dmitri was grandson of Alexander II of Russia and after his primary carer, his uncle, was killed by a revolutionary attack, he went to live with the Romanovs. He was known to be something of a playboy and these actions likely ruined plans for him to marry the eldest Romanov daughter,…

When Rasputin abandoned his life of crime to become a holy man, horse thievery was not the only thing he left behind. He also said goodbye to his wife and three children: Dmitri, Maria and Varvara. It must have been peculiar for the children when their father returned as he had undergone a startling transformation, from vagabond to holy man. Maria recorded all her memories of her father in her diaries as she grew up, even complaining about his strict rules and long hours of prayer, “for which everything, anniversaries or penitences, served as an excuse.” Maria eventually followed her father to the hallowed halls of St Petersburg in order to be trained to become a proper lady. She quickly became friends with the imperial family, but as we know,…

For hundreds of years, male rulers have been viewed as preferable to females. In France, a male ruler was not only preferable but compulsory, as the Salic Law banned a woman from inheriting the throne. There were many reasons that a male ruler was perceived to be the better choice, including the long-standing belief that women were inferior to men, and were not capable of governing effectively. It was not until the reign of Elizabeth I in England – a reign that was generally believed to have been successful – that this idea began to be challenged. Unlike Elizabeth however, there were many princesses before her who were not given the opportunity to rule. ELIZABETH OF YORK (1466-1503) History may have run a very different course, had the mother of…

We all know the stories of the Brothers Grimm. The tales they collected have gradually brightened over the centuries. The witches became a little less wicked, the woods became a little less dark, and the teeth became a little less sharp. We’ve seen them brought to life in films, cartoons and plays, but the true Grimms’ tales are pure folklore, passed down from generation to generation and, like all the best stories, they were spoken. It was that oral tradition of storytelling that first drew the brothers to these classics. Jacob and Wilhelm were tremendously proud of their national heritage, and collecting fairy tales was an opportunity to preserve and celebrate a popular German tradition. The enduring image of the Grimms is of two travelling scholars, journeying far and wide…

A historian named Eckhard Sander suggested that the story was based on Margaretha von Waldeck, the daughter of Philip IV of Waldeck, who died due to possible poisoning after falling in love with Prince Phillip of Spain. As for the dwarves? They were King Phillip’s copper miners, who had stunted growth due to their working conditions. The theory that Snow White is based on Maria Sophia von Erthal, the daughter of a Bavarian landowner, has very similar characteristics, although here the poison apple could be an interpretation of the region’s deadly nightshade.…

6 FEBRUARY 1840 The Treaty of Waitangi is signed by more than 500 Maori chiefs, placing all of New Zealand under British sovereign rule. 17 JUNE 1843 The New Zealand Company illegally begins surveying land at Wairu, despite the Maoris refusing to sell. 22 British and four Maoris are killed in clashes. 8 JULY 1844 The British flagpole at Maiki Hill is cut down by Chief Te Haratua, sparking nine months of fighting called the Flagstaff War. 17 MARCH 1860 Governor Thomas Gore Browne deliberately provokes the First Taranaki War by accepting dubious land sale contracts. The fighting ends in a messy cease-fire. 9 NOVEMBER 1868 Te Kooti massacres more than 50 European and Maori settlers at Poverty Bay, then escapes to the hills to wage a four-year guerrilla war.…

Britain’s first Secret Service Bureau was established in 1909 and following the outbreak of World War I, had split into Directorate of Military Intelligence Section 5 (MI5) and Military Intelligence, Section 6 (MI6). Head of MI5 was Captain Vernon Kell, and he and his team of agents pursued the many German spies who were operating in Britain. In total they captured 65 of the 120 agents sent to the UK by Germany and little important intelligence was sent back to Berlin. Such was the extent of MI5’s counter-espionage work during WWI that their staff increased to over 800 agents, several of whom were women. MI5’s suspicions about Mata Hari led to her subsequent arrest in France and few in Britain had much sympathy for her. Germany had shot a British…

TROOPS 29,000 SAILORS 40,000 CANNON 1,800 WARSHIPS 212 DON JUAN OF AUSTRIA LEADER Don Juan was a proven military commander on land, experienced beyond his years by Lepanto. Strengths Don Juan maintained a tenuous coalition and unity of command. Weakness Although a veteran warrior, Don Juan lacked naval combat experience. HOLY LEAGUE INFANTRYMEN KEY UNIT The infantrymen aboard the Holy League vessels at Lepanto performed admirably, particularly elite Spanish arquebusiers aboard Don Juan’s flagship. Strengths Holy League infantry demonstrated expertise with the muzzleloading arquebus firearm. Weakness On unstable shipboard platforms, infantrymen were vulnerable to Ottoman archers. ARQUEBUS KEY WEAPON The arquebus was an early muzzleloading smoothbore matchlock firearm. Strengths The arquebus offered firepower, sometimes concentrated, against somewhat distant enemies. Weakness The arquebus was cumbersome to operate, particularly at close range.…

In the currently divided America of Donald Trump, fond memories of Ronald Reagan are one of the only things on which Democrats and Republicans agree. Reagan’s tenure from 1981 to 1989 is often recalled as an era of renewed optimism, a revived economy, and a favourable end game of the Cold War. Yet during his presidency, Reagan was a divisive and often unpopular public figure, sometimes criticised as reckless, ignorant and, as ‘Ronnie Raygun’, posing a danger to global security. Born in the small town of Tampico, Illinois, in 1911, Reagan began his career as a sports radio announcer before becoming a Hollywood actor. Although he starred in several films, he was even more successful off-screen. He became a union representative for the Screen Actors Guild, and then, in 1947,…

Author Harry Borden Publisher Cassell Price £20.40 Released Out now The most insidious ally of the denier is scale. So often the sheer enormity of the Holocaust and its six million Jewish victims can be difficult to comprehend and in that uncomprehending fog the dangerous lie can grow and thrive. It’s partly as a reaction to this vastness that Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl (1947) has endured, providing a face onto which its young readers can project their own experiences and through this understand the implications of state-sponsored slaughter. Survivor, a project by award-winning photographer Harry Borden, which has collected portraits of over 100 survivors along with a handwritten message (their biographies can be found at the back of the book), proves similarly affecting. These faces, lined…

Author Margaret MacMillan Publisher Profile Books Price £8.99 Released Out now History is full of iconic personalities and it’s these characters that have moulded the world we live in. At least that’s the view of acclaimed author Margaret MacMillan. History’s People investigates the lives of individuals rather than events, groups or entire civilisations. The book is packed full of alternate history and digs deep into key turning points. Would Al Gore have gone to war with Iraq if he’d been president rather than George W Bush? Would Germany have been unified if it weren’t for Bismarck? MacMillan also sheds light on important yet lesser-known figures. There’s Michel de Montaigne, a French philosopher who was the first to question what it is to be human, and William Lyon Mackenzie King, a…

Author Hannah Holman Publisher Amberley Price £9.99 Released Out now With a collection of recipes sourced directly from the War Office and the Red Cross, this book is perfect for anyone who is keen to find out what Napoleon really meant when he said: “an army marches on its stomach.” With content reprinted from original publications, it’s very easy when reading Hannah Holman’s book, to imagine a military cook in the field kitchen, holding the original well-thumbed pamphlet in their hands – preparing for the momentous task of feeding hundreds of hungry soldiers. Accompanying the well-known trench-tea and bully beef stew (the war truly was powered by spam, and you can find an authentic stew recipe on page 89 of this issue to give you a taste of trench delicacies).…

The wrong drugs Aspirin was in use at the time and it is likely it was administered to the heir to help reduce his pain. Rasputin may have rejected the use of this drug, and by doing so unintentionally helped the boy, as aspirin thins the blood and would have worsened Alexei’s condition. Calming presence As a holy man it is not out of the question to assume that Rasputin brought a calm, tranquil air to both Alexandra and her son. This reduced stress may have helped the bleeding to gradually slow and stop. Drugging A popular theory at the time was that Rasputin was drugging Alexei with Tibetan herbs. This theory was fuelled by the disconnect people felt towards the imperial family. Good timing Others believed Rasputin to be…

Alexandra had never really been a popular woman; the granddaughter of Queen Victoria, she was an immensely traditional person, and it was these beliefs that led the imperial family to leave St Petersburg. This disconnect from her own people was fated to be a constant aspect of her life, as she lived in seclusion with her husband and children. As family became her whole life, she leapt at the chance, any chance, to save her only son. The moment Rasputin’s apparent powers bore fruit, she made him a key member of the royal entourage. When Nicholas made the disastrous decision to assume supreme command of the Russian army, the country was essentially run by Alexandra and in turn Rasputin, as her most trusted advisor. She proceeded to dismiss ministers and…

History is riddled with ‘what ifs’, and with the benefit of hindsight, it is easy for those of us living in the 21st century to speculate what could have been. Nowhere is this more true than in the case of the monarchy: when kings and queens have died, been displaced, killed or otherwise, we are often left wondering what might have happened if things had turned out differently. This is also the case with royal heirs – the sons, daughters, nephews, nieces and so on who could, and often should, have become king or queen, but through a cruel twist of circumstance had their inheritance snatched away. In 17th century England, for example, the population eagerly anticipated the succession of James I’s heir, the cultured Prince Henry. Unfortunately the prince…

“Dee had a fluctuating career and he never achieved the level of patronage that he felt was his due” The London-born John Dee was actually of Welsh descent, his family having made a place for themselves in the capital after the accession of a fellow Welshman, Henry VII, to the English throne. Over the years, the young and ambitious Dee invented a lineage that was far grander than his true humble beginnings, claiming a family connection with various Welsh princes, and even suggesting descent from the fabled King Arthur himself. Dee gained his Bachelor’s degree in 1545 from Cambridge. During his time at university, he had his first brush with the occult, in the form of alchemical studies, and came across the mathematical concepts that would become the basis of…

The story of Cinderella, or at least the basis of it, predates the Brothers Grimm by quite some time. The earliest known version of it is the tale of Rhodopis, a courtesan in Ancient Egypt who has one of her shoes snatched by an eagle while she is bathing. The eagle drops the shoe in the lap of the Pharaoh, and we all know how it goes from there. There is a mention of a courtesan named Rhodopis in Herodotus’ Histories, as a fellow slave of Aesop, and she is liberated by the wealthy Charaxus.…

Awakened in her Paris prison cell, Mata Hari pulled on her stockings, high-heeled slippers, long black velvet cloak and announced, “I am ready.” She cut a striking figure, a woman who moved with the cool confidence of one accustomed to admiring glances. To a passerby, she could have been on her way to just another performance, but this would be her last. Flanked by an army officer, her lawyer and two nuns, she was escorted to meet the firing squad. It was not quite 6am when the car stopped and Mata Hari stepped out, pulling her coat tight to keep out the chill autumnal air. She glanced at the 13 soldiers with what one eyewitness described as “disdain”, and calmly walked towards a large wooden stake in front of a…

Bird’s eye view A German doctor invented ‘pigeon cam’ in 1908, creating a harness and breastplate to secure the camera to the pigeon. During WWI pigeons flew over British lines and the camera would take photographs using a pneumatic system time delay. Tree trickery Observation post trees were used by Germany and Britain on the Western Front to spy on each other. Built using iron and canvas, the hollow tree stumps could accommodate a man whose job it was to observe enemy activity during the day and report back at night. Naughty 40 Room 40 was the name given to the team of British code-breakers based in the Admiralty Old Building, who, using a captured German code book, successfully decoded some 15,000 of the enemy’s secret communications during WWI. Telephone…

TROOPS 31,000 SAILORS 50,000 CANNON 750 WARSHIPS 250 PASHA ALI MONIZINDADE LEADER Killed at the Battle of Lepanto, Ali Pasha also lost the ‘Grand banner of the Caliphs’, a treasured Islamic flag. Strengths Bold and daring, Ali Pasha was confident, inspiring his forces. Weakness Impetuous Ali Pasha, a poor tactician, lost force cohesion at Lepanto. JANISSARIES KEY UNIT Elite infantrymen of the Ottoman Empire, the Janissaries were originally formed as the sultan’s bodyguard or household troops. Strengths Willing to forfeit their lives, Janissaries were particularly effective shock troops. Weakness Early Janissaries were expert archers but were also vulnerable to enemy gunfire. OTTOMAN BOW AND ARROW KEY WEAPON Although Ottoman infantrymen carried firearms at Lepanto, many archers were also present. Strengths The sturdy composite bow provided an excellent rate of fire.…

On 29 May 1453 Sultan Mehmed II, the leader of the Ottoman Empire, achieved the dream of generations of Muslim leaders by conquering Constantinople, once the greatest Christian city in the world. The last Byzantine Emperor, Constantine XI, died fighting to defend his city against the Turks. Mehmed followed up his victory by waging vigorous wars against Christian powers in the Balkans and the Aegean, finally extending his empire to the Adriatic Sea. In 1481 he began his invasion of Italy at Otranto, but died before he could carry it out. But what would have happened if a war fleet dispatched from Venice to defend Constantinople had not been delayed, but had instead made it in time to save the city? With the Venetian fleet occupying Constantinople’s secure harbour, Mehmed…

Author Teresa Cole Publisher Amberley Price £20 Released Out now With the battle’s 950th anniversary having just passed, readers would be forgiven for expecting author Teresa Cole to start at Hastings. Instead, half of her book concerns what happened before William the Conqueror was even born. She describes particularly well the turbulence of Anglo-Saxon England, with periods of peace under half-forgotten kings like Cnut interspersed with war, famine and multiple treacheries. England itself was barely a nation so much as an agglomeration of rival kingdoms – Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia, Northumbria and the Danelaw – under seemingly constant attack from each other and Scandinavia. As a result, no king sat securely on the English throne. The scene thus set, Cole comes to the conquest – and her argument there is…

PROP GUN A BANG WITH NO BULLET Chaotic and noisy gunfights were achieved using real guns loaded with blank cartridges. These cartridges contained gunpowder, resulting in a flash and a loud bang when triggered. However, they didn’t fire a shell so the victim would remain unharmed. FAKE BLOOD A GRUESOME SPLATTER Once a fake gunshot had been fired, the camera would cut to the victim just as a small explosive device called a squib was detonated electronically. Located inside their jacket, and backed by a sheet of metal to protect their torso, it would tear through a capsule of fake blood to simulate a gruesome gunshot wound. LASSO RIDE ‘EM COWBOY Many stunt performers on western movies were real-life cowboys, taking advantage of the work while the ranching industry was…

No B-movie king truly loved the movies as much as Edward D Wood Jr, but it would be decades before anybody really appreciated his work. In his own lifetime, before ‘so bad it’s good’ was something to aspire to, Wood was regarded as a simply awful filmmaker, and his crown jewel of disaster was Plan 9 From Outer Space. It was a trainwreck that somehow kept on moving. Wood’s dear friend Bela Lugosi died shortly after filming began and, rather than cut his scenes, Wood used every frame (including scenes not shot for this film) and hired Tom Mason, his wife’s chiropractor, to double for him. The eclectic cast included Maila Nurmi (best known as Vampira), the infamous psychic Criswell, pro wrestler Tor Johnson, and members of the Baptist Church…

In 1952 Ray Harryhausen created Dynamation, the process of combining stop-motion animation with live-action backgrounds GEORGES MÉLIÈS FRENCH 1861-1938 At the Lumière brothers’ unveiling of their Cinématographe, Georges Méliès was spellbound. He tried to buy it and was refused, so he built his own and began creating movies. While shooting a street scene, the camera jumped, and when he processed the film, he saw an object disappear and reappear; this was the first special effect and led to many more, including double exposures and split screen. “Everything about my being is creating characters that tell stories in films”Stan Winston STAN WINSTON AMERICAN 1946-2008 While waiting for his big break as an actor, Stan Winston began working as an apprentice makeup artist for Disney, and soon rediscovered his childhood passion for…

Douglas Smith is an award-winning historian and translator. He is the author of five books on Russia, including, most recently, Rasputin. He lives in Seattle with his family. To learn more, visit www.douglassmith.info Just how widespread was the Russian upper-class fascination with mysticism? The turn of the century was a period of intense spiritual searching in Russia. During what became known as Russia’s Silver Age, from roughly 1890 to 1914, the country’s educated classes exhibited a fascination for mysticism and the occult and all manner of the supernatural, from table turning, hypnotism, and chiromancy, to Rosicrucianism, fortune-telling, telepathy, and Theosophy. Hypnotism was more popular in early 20th century Russia than in Western Europe and was a particularly common practice among St Petersburg psychiatrists. The best-known psychiatrist-hypnotist at the time was…

1 Stabbing A former prostitute stabbed Rasputin in the gut so violently that his entrails fell from his stomach. She also screamed, “I’ve killed the antichrist!” However, he survived after surgery. 2 Poison Fuelled by the country’s hate, a group of conspirators lured Rasputin to their home and encouraged him to dine on wine and cyanide-laced cakes. Despite consuming enough poison to kill several men, he was nevertheless unaffected. 3 Shooting After Rasputin failed to be affected by the poison, one of the conspirators rushed upstairs then returned with a revolver. Rasputin was shot through the chest. The bullet went clean through his body, but he still wasn’t dead. 4 Beating After falling to the floor having been shot, Rasputin tried to escape through the yard. The conspirators chased after…

BE SEEN For anyone with a claim to the throne who hoped to inherit, it was important that the subjects of the realm see him or her. Regular public appearances helped to boost popularity – after all, when Lady Jane Grey succeeded, nobody cheered because few people knew who she was. LOOK THE PART Image was everything: if you were going to rule, it was important that you looked like royalty. Clothes and jewels were an essential part of this, and did much to project an image of majesty – the Tudors and Stuarts were particularly fond of using jewels to impress. CHOOSE FRIENDS (AND ENEMIES) WISELY It was useful to have friends in high places at court who were placed to pass on information, and to guide you when…

Wicked mothers, sad fathers, exiled children… the origins of Hansel and Gretel are the sad reality of famine. Rural communities suffering from a lack of food were often forced to make harsh choices, and this ravenous hunger fuelled the ghoulish stories that formed the basis of this classic fairy tale. The Great Famine of 1315-1321 saw parents reduced to abandoning their children, or worse. It’s no coincidence that the children are lured by the witch with the promise of something sweet to eat.…

Espionage has been a military weapon for at least 1,000 years. It was said that King Harold employed spies during his short-lived reign as king of England but it wasn’t for another 600 years until intelligence became an organised branch of a monarch’s army. The man responsible was John Thurloe, the spymaster for Oliver Cromwell in the years after King Charles I and his forces had been defeated in the Civil War. Thurloe planted spies in the most unlikely of places, including the mathematical genius John Wallis, who became arguably the world’s first code-breaker, deciphering messages sent between Royalist dissidents. If some spies relied on brains, others deployed bravado or beauty. In the American Civil War, Rose O’Neal Greenhow spied for the Rebel Confederates, using her charm and good looks…

• A new castle on the Bosphorus Sultan Mehmed II builds Rumeli Hisar, a massive fortification that commands the Bosphorus strait and the heights just north of Constantinople. More than 100,000 soldiers begin their march to Constantinople. April 1452 • Help on the way The Senate in Venice sends a squadron of war vessels under the command of Captain General Giacomo Loredan to Constantinople to assist with its defence. In addition, they send envoys to the courts of Europe urging that reinforcements be sent to support the threatened city. February 1453 • The Turks retreat, again The third major Turkish siege of Constantinople fails after Venetian vessels cut off supplies to the besiegers making their way from the north. Mehmed II retreats to his capital at Edirne, where he plots…

“Porter’s work amply demonstrates that London was a raucous society in a state of flux” Author Stephen Porter Publisher Amberley Price £20 Released Out now The Tudor age conjures up many images: mighty monarchs, elaborate clothes, timber-framed houses and the blossoming of English literature. It was a period of rapid change and no other location defines the era quite so vividly as London. During the 16th century it was by far England’s largest city and was the central hub of cultural and political life. Stephen Porter, who is an acknowledged expert on the Tudor capital, has assembled this new work that aims to cover all aspects of London life. In some ways this follows a familiar path featuring the famous and magnificent such as Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Thomas Cromwell,…

Author: Tom Neil Price: £16.99 Publisher: Amberley Press With a touching introduction by the historian James Holland, Scramble! is a remarkably vivid work and benefits greatly from being written over a long number of years. Consequently Neil has produced a work that is high in detail and stylistically entertaining. His fighting wartime career reads like a high adventure story but he never loses sight of the human cost involved. As Neil himself poignantly remarks, “the few” survivors from the Battle of Britain are dwindling rapidly but at more than 600 pages, he has produced (in his mid-nineties) a definitive history of his war for the 21st century to remind us how much of our freedom we owe to a small band of brave young airmen.…

986 • Louis V crowned The last Carolingian King of West Frankia is crowned at the age of 20, when his father King Lothair dies suddenly. Louis will only last another year before dying in a hunting accident. 1657 • Great Fire of Meireki In a blaze that lasts three days, two-thirds of the Japanese city of Edo (now Tokyo) burns down. The fire was supposedly started by a priest who was burning a cursed kimono. 1791 • Semaphore debut In France, the Chappe brothers send the message “If you succeed, you will soon bask in glory” over 16km, by semaphore. Within two years there are 556 semaphore stations across France. 1807 • International slave trade abolished President Thomas Jefferson signs a federal law that prohibits the importation of slaves…