Connections: From Scott of the Antarctic to Joe Dimaggio
Wednesday, 21. October 2009, 21:41:09
I remember watching several episodes of the classic 1970s science series "Connections". James Burke demonstrated how topics and ideas and inventions from different centuries, places, and environments were connected by unexpected links. Kind of an intellectual "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon."I like to do the same sort of thing, except with cultural figures from history and social gossip. For example, I can link tragic hero Captain Scott of Antarctic with baseball legend "Joltin' Joe" DiMaggio in just seven "connections." It's really quite easy.
Captain Robert Scott (1868-1912) died with four of his comrades on his ill-fated second Antarctic expedition. He was the father of Sir Peter Scott (1909-1989), British ornithologist and conservationalist, and winner of a bronze medal in sailing at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Sir Peter was the first husband of English novelist and beauty Elizabeth Jane Howard.(born in 1923). 
Howard's third husband was Kingsley Amis, but that's not the connection I'm following. For several years in the late 1940s, Howard was the lover of Irish-born poet Cecil Day Lewis (1904-1972).
Cecil Day Lewis was of course the father of double Oscar-winning actor Daniel Day Lewis. (born 1957)
Daniel, meanwhile, is married to the screenwriter and director Rebecca Miller (born 1962), who is the daughter of "All My Son"/"The Crucible" playwright Arthur Miller (1915-2005).
Arthur's second wife was the legendary Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) - it was her third marriage. Number two for Marilyn was slugger Joe DiMaggio (1914-1999). 
And that's how to get from Scott of the Antarctic to Joe DiMaggio in seven steps.
WIDGETIZE
Anonymous # 22. October 2009, 16:05
Working backwards, one moves with remarkable ease from violinist ANNE-SOPHIE MUTTER to CHICO MARX. Anne-Sophie Mutter was married until recently to ANDRE PREVIN. Previn was married to MIA FARROW (the Marilyn Monroe-like linchpin here), who was married to FRANK SINATRA. Sinatra, somewhat late in life, married a Kansas City-raised former Las Vegas showgirl named BARBARA BLAKELEY, who was previously married to ZEPPO MARX, who was famously the brother of Groucho, Harpo, and CHICO.
I tried to think of other good linchpins. Helena Bonham-Carter might get a person from Tim Burton (that director beloved of Linda Hall types) back to the Norman Conquest. But I will leave it to you to make those connections on your next research trip to Great Britain.
My brother informs me that on an upcoming business trip to London he will take a client to dinner at Rules. I have a thousand literary associations with Rules, but at the moment can't think of a single one.
Anonymous # 22. October 2009, 20:34
Nicely done!
yooperprof # 23. October 2009, 01:35
Anonymous # 23. October 2009, 19:03
Intriguing. When I cast my mind about Hemingway's life, I see a lot of dead ends. You're a better man than I.
For my part, I'm embarrassed to say that it has taken me eight steps to get from Benito "Il Duce" Mussolini to actress Glenn "Fatal Attraction" Close. I thought it would be easier to move from the annexation of Dalmatia to "101 Dalmatians." But here goes:
Mussolini's youngest son, ROMANO MUSSOLINI, went on to become a well-regarded jazz pianist, heading the Romano Mussolini All-Stars. (After a stint backing Chet Baker in Milan, the band became known for a "cool West Coast style," of all things. Later, when Romano turned to traditional jazz, a critic gave him the compliment--somewhat faint, perhaps--that he "made the refrains run on time.") In the early sixties, Romano married ANNA MARIA SCICOLONE, Naples-born sister of SOPHIA LOREN. It is now well known that CARY GRANT fell in love with Sophia Loren when they first worked together. What he considered the "greatest romance of [his] life" ended when they were working on the movie "Houseboat" and she married Carlo Ponti by proxy. Grant and Loren still had one more scene to film--a wedding scene.
Anyway, Cary Grant was married to BARBARA HUTTON, heiress to the Woolworth fortune, who spent her inheritance at a rate even faster than my retired parents are spending mine. Barbara Hutton was a niece of cereal heiress MARJORIE MERRIWEATHER POST, whose mansion here in Washington, D.C., is now a museum that houses Russian artworks that Stalin unloaded on her. Her first marriage was to an investment banker named EDWARD CLOSE, who, by his second marriage, became the grandfather of GLENN CLOSE.
And there you have it. An unimpressive steps. But perhaps, for Glenn, too "close" for comfort.