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Daily Mail
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Iris Mountbatten broke all the rules and called herself 'the black sheep of the royal family' writes CHRISTOPHER WILSON
Once 13th in line to the throne, Iris Mountbatten broke all the rules. She called herself 'the black sheep of the Royal Family ' – and no wonder. She married a Catholic and was booted out of the line of succession. She quit Britain for a new life in America, but got deported for bouncing a cheque. She wheedled her way back into the States but high society turned its back and she married a jazz musician. She became close to all the great jazz artists of the day, including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Count Basie - so close, in fact, that people claimed she preferred black men in her bed. And so, despite being born the great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria and growing up in Kensington Palace, Iris Mountbatten ended up scraping a living in New York and California as a film publicist, sales girl, dancer, model, and briefly TV host. She had the looks, the personality – but she couldn't stick at anything. 'A problem child,' was how one family friend described Iris. But then Iris barely ever saw her parents – she was ushered in by her nanny at teatime to be inspected, then taken away again. So by the time she was a teenager, she'd 'gone to the dogs and [was] completely hopeless', according to the friend. 'She wanted to be royal, but at the same time mix with ordinary folk,' explained another friend. Nobody within the tight-knit royal circle could understand that. Iris's father, known as Prince Alexander of Battenberg until the First World War forced him to ditch his German title and call himself the Marquess of Carisbrooke, was an 'irritating, nervous' man who preferred the company of men and was besotted with a promiscuous man called Simon Fleet. Her mother, the former Irene Denison, daughter of the Earl of Londesborough, was no better – she ignored Iris, despite the girl being her only child. However, Iris initially remained part of the tight royal circle, and at the age of 14 she was bridesmaid to Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark at her wedding to Prince George, the Duke of Kent. Three years later, at the 1937 Coronation, she was one of six train-bearers to Queen Elizabeth, wife of King George VI. She went on to be a famous and much-photographed debutante – and hoped to find in marriage the family life she'd so sadly lacked at home. In 1941, at the age of 21, she married Hamilton Keyes O'Malley, an Irish Guards officer. It was a disastrous mistake. First, O'Malley was a Roman Catholic – which meant that, though Iris had been in line to the throne, she was removed from the order of succession under the terms of the 1772 Royal Marriages Act. Later, she stated she did not mind this loss of prestige, adding: 'A plague would have had to hit the f***ing Palace before I'd become Queen!' But early on in her marriage, she discovered her husband was a bully and a wife-beater. 'It was a total disaster, a nightmare,' she recalled later. 'I could never tell a divorce court all the horrible, ugly things that happened – things I still refuse to tell.' And so, instead of Iris bringing a court action to end the marriage, her husband divorced her. It was a scandalous thing to happen to such a high-born woman, since the custom of the day in their elevated circle was that the husband would always take the blame. That scandal – and the huge fuss created when Iris renounced her right to the throne – made her a marked woman, no longer acceptable in high society. Because of her divorce, she was banned from attending her grandmother Princess Beatrice's funeral. She fled to the United States. Newly arrived and not understanding how US banks worked, she wrote a cheque which bounced – and was arrested. She was then ignominiously ordered to leave the country – and her title of 'royal black sheep' was born. With no place to call home in Britain – her parents had washed their hands of her – Iris managed to get herself back into the US as a tourist. Tossing aside her privileged background she went to work, doing anything to earn a dollar. She became an actress and model, appeared as a hostess for a live TV children's programme Versatile Varieties: Junior Edition, and also featured in TV ads endorsing Pond's Creams and Warren's Mint Cocktail Gum. For a time it looked as though she'd made a success of her escape from the royal circle. She married a jazz guitarist, Mike Bryan, who'd played with Benny Goodman's band - but the marriage lasted just months. Drawn into this world, she came to know many of the jazz greats of the 1940s and 1950s – Duke Ellington, in his last concert appearance, dedicated one of his songs to 'Iris Mountbatten, that satin doll'. But the quirky good looks and cheeky glamour for which she was so famed as a debutante started to fade early on, and Iris took to the bottle. 'Sex with jazz players? These are my buddies, buddies, BUDDIES,' she blurted out to one journalist. 'There are always these insinuations that I keep hopping in and out of bed with them. Why do people think, because I love them, it has to mean sex?' 'Not quite like the home life of our own dear Queen,' commented the columnist sourly. She moved to Toronto, and started a new life with actor and announcer William Kemp – but, again, it didn't last. As a thrice-divorced royal, she waited in vain for an invitation to Charles and Diana's 1981 wedding. And when the Queen Mother paid a visit to Canada, her suggestion that they should meet was cold-shouldered by courtiers. The black sheep had become an outcast. Low on cash and happier in the company of those who drank a great deal, Iris Mountbatten died a sad death at the age of 62 from a brain tumour. Her ashes were brought home to the Isle of Wight for interment in the Battenberg Chapel, in St Mildred's Church at Whippingham. The Royal Family sent no representative to visit her resting place.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Yahoo
National Trust says one-time Michigan hotel is among 'most endangered' sites. Here's why
A one-time northern Michigan oasis that attracted Black performers and vacationers alike, the Hotel Casa Blanca in Idlewild has been named one of America's Most Endangered Historic Places. The long-vacant Hotel Casa Blanca hasn't been used since it housed a day care center 30 years ago, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In 1979, the hotel was designated as part of the historical district of Idlewild by the Michigan State Preservation Historic Office and the National Register for its significance during the Civil Rights era, 1st Neighbor said on its website. In 2024, it was acknowledged as an African American Civil Rights Network location by the United States Park Service. It's the oldest structure where African Americans could stay and exercise their rights, marking its importance in American history, the National Trust said. During its heyday in the 1950s and '60s, the hotel attracted Black musicians, including African American artists like Louis Armstrong, Count Basie and Aretha Franklin. Designed and built by Black architect Woolsey Coombs in 1949, Hotel Casa Blanca served as a premier lodging site for African American travelers, entertainers, entrepreneurs and thought leaders during segregation, and was included in The Negro Motorist Green Book, the Trust said. After integration, like many formerly segregated Black resorts, Idlewild experienced lower visitation and economic disinvestment. Today, the historic resort community off U.S. 10 near Baldwin has a population of about 700 residents, and Hotel Casa Blanca has been vacant and deteriorating for more than 30 years. What to know about Hotel Casa Blanca and the list. Now in its 38th year, the National Trust's annual list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places has "proven to be a highly effective tool for shining a light on the threats facing our nation's greatest treasures." The Trust and its supporters, have "galvanized public support behind more than 350 sites to date with only a handful lost." This year's list "exemplifies how preservation is about creating something new, spotlighting efforts to repurpose historic buildings and activate them to serve their communities in new ways." The collection of places on this list also helps illustrate how resilience and recovery are intertwined with preservation and emphasizes the economic benefits that come with revitalization." The current owner of the building needs to raise money to move ahead with rehabilitation efforts. The previous owner of Hotel Casa Blanca sold it to 1st Neighbor LLC, a Black woman-led nonprofit. 1st Neighbor hopes to rehabilitate the hotel into a bed-and-breakfast including overnight suites, meeting spaces, and a heritage and learning center, and has taken crucial steps towards restoration, including removal of hazardous material and developing architectural plans for reuse, the National Trust said. Grants from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund of the National Trust and others have provided seed funding, but an additional $5 million is needed to complete the $6.3 million rehabilitation. 'It's history — musical history, African American history, American history," Roni McGregory, project manager for 1st Neighbor, a nonprofit working to restore the hotel, told USA TODAY. 'There's a lot of stories in that building that need to be preserved.' The windows of the brick building are boarded up. Asbestos was recently removed and electricity restored. 'That building holds a lot of history and for it to be demolished or not be able to be rehabbed would be a shame,'' McGregory said. 'It's got good bones. (But) there's a lot of work that needs to be done to bring it back.'' The National Trust, chartered by Congress in 1949, spends about a year selecting sites to include on its endangered list, considering factors such as its importance to the community, whether there's a strong partnership to support preservation and what impact the site might have once it's protected. The latest list comes as President Donald Trump has led an effort to shift the national conversation on U.S. history. 'In a time of division and polarization, I think preservation is more important than ever,'' said Carol Quillen, president and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a privately funded nonprofit organization. 'These projects bring together unlikely coalitions across the country, which form specifically around a meaningful place.'' The listings began in 1988. The recognition doesn't come with funding, but often garners attention and support for the sites. Over the years of compiling the list, the National Trust has highlighted several Michigan locations, including: 1992 - Tiger Stadium 1996 - Petoskey, Michigan 1998 - Historic lighthouses, including DeTour Reef 2004 - Madison-Lenox Hotel, Detroit 2005 - Historic downtown Detroit buildings 2010 - Saugutuck Dunes 2021 - Sarah E. Ray House, Detroit The National Trust for Historic Preservation's 2025 list of endangered historic places also includes: Virginia, : The Pamunkey Indian Reservation in the Tidewater region of Virginia has been hard hit by climate issues, including sinking land, flooding and erosion along the Pamunkey River, Spivey said. Los Angeles, California: Two buildings of a Japanese American fishing village that boosted the tuna industry there more than 80 years ago. The project known as the Terminal Island Japanese American Tuna Street Buildings aims to preserve the vacant buildings and possibly use them for a cultural center or a general store as there was in the 1940s. Another part of Terminal Island was included on the National Trust's 2012 list. Cedar Key, Florida, a cluster of small islands off the west coast of Florida that is representative of 'Old Florida," but increasingly threatened by rising sea levels and severe storms. French Broad and Swannanoa River Corridors, Western North Carolina, including the city of Asheville and other communities damaged by Hurricane Helene in late September 2024. May Hicks Curtis House, Flagstaff, Arizona, which commemorates May Hicks Curtis, who sewed the first Arizona state flag in 1911. The house where she lived and worked for decades must be relocated and the City of Flagstaff is working to restore it for community use. Mystery Castle, Phoenix, Arizona, constructed between 1934 and 1945 by Boyce Luther Gulley, who built the complex by hand for his daughter Mary Lou without plans, permits, or formal architectural or engineering training. Mary Lou and her mother Frances transformed the castle into a nationally known tourist attraction from the 1950s-2000s, but it is now in a state of disrepair. Oregon Caves Chateau, Caves Junction, Oregon, closed in 2018 because of its need for extensive repairs, served an important economic role in its rural region for 91 years and could again if revitalized. San Juan Hotel, San Juan, Texas, built in 1920, has long been one of the area's most recognizable landmarks. The Turtle, Niagara Falls, New York, completed in 1981 by Arapaho architect Dennis Sun Rhodes, the building, which has been vacant for three decades, stands as a powerful symbol of Indigenous heritage. The Wellington, Pine Hill, New York, one of few surviving large-scale wood-frame resorts built in the Catskills in the late 1800s. Community members have purchased the building to serve as a food market, cafe, and affordable housing, but needs additional funding to bring it to reality. This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Idlewild's Hotel Casa Blance is among 'most endangered' sites. What's planned
Chicago Tribune
07-02-2025
- Climate
- Chicago Tribune
Today in Chicago History: ‘The circus begins.' Michael Jordan signs a baseball contract with the White Sox.
Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Feb. 7, according to the Tribune's archives. Is an important event missing from this date? Email us. Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago) High temperature: 59 degrees (1925) Low temperature: Minus 10 degrees (1875) Precipitation: 1.34 inches (1881) Snowfall: 8.6 inches (1933) 1865: Gov. Richard J. Oglesby signed a bill repealing Illinois' 1853 'Black Law' that prohibited Black people from coming into the state. The animal died of pneumonia the following year. It is now part of the Field Museum's taxidermy collection. 1968: Nine people, including four firefighters, were killed when a series of late-afternoon explosions ripped through the general offices of Mickelberry Food Products Co. on the South Side. The fire started when a gasoline tanker truck making a delivery in the alley behind the plant started leaking. The gas flowed through a doorway and into the basement, where the building's boiler was located. 1969: Led Zeppelin's Chicago debut at Kinetic Playground came less than two months after its first American gig and three weeks after its first U.S. show as a sole headliner that, of all places, happened in Iowa City, Iowa, when the band stepped up after Count Basie canceled his date at the students' union. The two February performances at Kinetic Playground marked the first of eight the band played in 1969 alone at the venue that stood at 4812 N. Clark St. Sandwiched in the middle of a lineup that featured headliner Vanilla Fudge and opener Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin drew positive reviews from the Tribune in its 'The Sound' column, branded 'music and radio: for young listeners.' 1987: Michael Jordan soared to his first of back-to-back slam dunk-contest victories at the NBA All-Star Weekend in Seattle. 1994: Jordan signed a minor-league deal with the Chicago White Sox four months after he retired from professional basketball. Want more vintage Chicago?
