[Tidbits] The ticket

The wonderful thing about a title such as the one above that’s
couched in blatant obscurity is the expectation that near the end of
this Tidbits there will be a sudden burst of blinding clarity such as
had never been seen before. It has been said that we (I’m using the
royal we here) that we are occasionally prone to exaggeration. Pish
posh, I say. T’aint true. T’warn’t never true. T’will never be true.

She was born A. K. Ruston in 1929 in Ixelles, a district of
Brussels, in Belgium. the land of my birth. She was
multi-lingual–having traveled about quite a bit as a child–and was
fluent in English, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, and German. In
Amsterdam she studied ballet with Marie Rambert and–after having
moved to London–performed as a chorus girl in West End musical
productions. She was. as they are occasionally prone to say over
there. a smasher.

Her father, Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston fancied
himself–inaccurately I might add–to be a descendent of the third
husband of Mary, Queen of Scots–James Hepburn. And so he
double-barreled his surname to Hepburn-Ruston and became Joseph
Victor Anthony Hepburn-Ruston. His daughter–A. K. Ruston was in
actuality Audrey Katherine Ruston and became Audrey Katherine Hepburn
and eventually Audrey Hepburn.

Her life was not always easy and an explanation of one event might
help to clarify just what it was in her life that motivated her to
ultimately work for UNICEF to help some of the most disadvantaged
people of the world. I will tell you a tale I suspect very few of you
know.

World War II. The trains are carrying Jews to the concentration
camps. Audrey Hepburn was a child back then. She was at a railroad
station watching the frightened faces of the deportees peering over
the top of wagons. There was a little boy standing with his parents
on the platform awaiting his fate. He was pale. very blond… wearing
a coat much too big for him. And he stepped up onto the train. She
was a child she said, observing a child. And she never forgot it. It
was her wartime experiences that sparked her interest in humanitarian
efforts. Of course. you all know the rest of the story.

Gigi. Roman Holiday. Ondine. Sabrina. Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Charade. And. My Fair Lady. Ah. that was the killer performance. How
many of you remember all the songs? With A Little Bit of Luck, by her
father. Alfred P. Doolittle. Or. Just You Wait Mr. Higgins and The
Rain In Spain and I Could Have Danced All Night.

Audrey Hepburn’s accomplishments are far too numerous and staggering
for this little Tidbits thing. But the impact of My Fair Lady
stretched into jewelry. I have a pair of My Fair Lady figural costume
jewelry cufflinks depicting opening-night ticket stubs. They fit
together. as if torn. and they’re signed 1957 CBS. The text on the
tickets says March 21, 1957, Orchestra, $8.05, 1st row, Seat 1.
Original Retail price for these cufflinks was $2.00. Today they’re
over $125.00 or more.

Think for a second about those days. A theatre ticket to My Fair Lady
for the exorbitant price of $8.05. Atavism. thy name is Jealousy. Thy
name is Envy. Thy name is Benjamin

So. nostalgia anyone. I have an image of those tickets. You want to
see? You know where. Look. Enjoy. Home page.
http://www.tyler-adam.com. Scroll down. Left side. [Tidbits]. Click.

And there ya have it. That’s it for this week folks.
Catch you all next week.
Benjamin Mark

Think for a second about those days. A theatre ticket to My Fair
Lady for the exorbitant price of $8.05. 

Since the date on these links is 1957, they would be tickets to the
Broadway production of “My Fair Lady,” which ran from May 1956 -
Sept. 1962. It was Julie Andrews who created the role of Eliza
Doolittle on the stage.

The film, with Audrey Hepburn, was release in 1964. Also, she did
not do her own singing. Her songs were voiced by the wonderful Marni
Nixon. Ms. Nixon also sang for Deborah Kerr in both “An Affair to
Remember” and “The King and I,” for Natalie Wood in the film of “West
Side Story,” and even for Ilene Woods in Disney’s “Cinderella.”

Elliot Nesterman
ajoure.net