More on Actress Curigwen Lewis: Connections to the Past

(Curigwen Lewis as Desdamona, in what appears to be a very dire predicament.)

Our regularly-scheduled "Treasure Box Wednesday" post will be Thursday of this week, because I'm excited to share two very special notes I'd received-- and I think you'll enjoy them!

Many of you might remember a post I did about a month ago regarding vintage postcards featuring actresses from the early half of the 20th century. One of whom was that of a lovely little Alice in Wonderland, as played by a young actress named Curigwen Lewis.


Well, last week, I had the unique pleasure of hearing from Curigwen Lewis' granddaughter-- artist Blue MacAskill-- who came across the post regarding her beloved grandmother and contacted me. That is the amazing power of the Internet for you! I'm not over-stating it when I say it absolutely made my day.

And just as wonderful, Ms. MacAskill has kindly given me permission to share with you the information she shared with me. So here I will reproduce her two delightful emails.

I've also included them in the comments section of the original post (so any future readers can enjoy them, too), and have enhanced that post with her great extra information.

Okay, here we go...


Email One:

My name is Blue MacAskill, I tried to write on your blog, but I am no Google emailer.

My granny is that fantastic young women you have playing Alice in Wonderland, around 1936 in Bristol and then on tour.

She was completely brilliant in every way, and I miss her loads. Born in Wales in 1905, she went to RADA [Royal Academy of Dramatic Art] when she was 16, and went on to great things.

I am an artist and am working as artist-in-residence at The National Library of Wales, near to where she was brought up in Llandrindod Wells.

Hope you find this interesting, we loved your site.

Best Wishes
Curigwen's grand daughter
Blue MacAskill
Artist
www.bluemacaskill.com

Email Two:

...She told a fab story about being Alice. It goes like this.....

"When I was doing Alice on stage and it came to the scene when I had to fall down the hole, I started saying my lines, 'Ahhh, I'm falling!!....'

"And one night, one of the stage hands must have stopped concentrating for
a second, because he yelled across stage, 'It's alright, Miss Lewis, we've got you!'

She would hoot with laughter, and I think when she gave up acting, she really missed it. And when she told us her stories, you could she was there re-living the whole play, night after night...

I am sitting at my little desk, researching an article I am writing with the paper about my work and finding an article about my granny in the collection here. It is a great resource: http://www.llgc.org.uk/

All the best and hope you continue to have a great day!

B

You know, even though I work in online marketing for my real job, it still seems just beautiful and remarkable to me how a single post on something a blogger's cares about can start at one machine and wing its way around the world to connect to others-- even to those directly related to the subject matter.

The world has gotten smaller, my friends... And thanks much for being a part of mine. :)

• In case you missed Sunday's post of The Future's So Bright: Inside the 1950s Total Electric Home, click here.
• And if you're in the "neighborhood" tomorrow, I hope you'll pop by and see what's in the Thursday Treasure Box.