Top Ten Demonstrations of Love
The inventor, the celebrity and the royal highness couldn’t resist the draw of making a grand gesture to the love of their life
- By Abigail Tucker
- Smithsonian.com, February 10, 2012
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(Hulton Archive / Getty Images)
Wake up, Mrs. Wagner
On Christmas morning in 1870, composer Richard Wagner secretly assembled 17 musicians on the stairs leading to the bedroom of his wife, Cosima. As she slept, they started to play (with Wagner conducting) a piece he had written just for her, inspired in part by the birth of their son, Siegfried, and incorporating details of their domestic life.
The composition (today known as “Siegfried’s Idyll”) was never meant for outside ears, but a few years later cash-strapped Wagner had no choice but to sell it. Cosima wrote in her diary that she wept.
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Comments (10)
Lucy and Desi divorced because Desi was a heavy drinker and a womanizer.
Posted by cindy on April 22,2012 | 05:16 PM
I always thought Richard Denning was really hot looking. Lucy made a mistake.
Posted by Becky on April 15,2012 | 01:05 AM
Ellis, that is the mutton-leg sleeves Ida is wearing, very fashionable around the turn of the 20th century; check out the Gibson girls for more of that weird little haute couture aberration.
Posted by Caroline Abreu on February 25,2012 | 11:36 PM
Ida's dress has leg o' mutton sleeves. Her left arm is extended across her lap.
Posted by Erin on February 25,2012 | 10:42 AM
Re: the question about the photo of Pres. McKinley and his wife
ellis, look at the photo again carefully. Ida's hands are in her lap. Her sleeves have big puffs on the upper part of her arm, then the sleeve is tight down to her wrist.
Posted by Karen H. on February 25,2012 | 09:02 AM
"When the network proposed a television pilot, Lucy refused—unless her actual husband, Cuban pop band leader Desi Arnaz, was cast as her TV spouse, allowing the couple to spend more time together."
You didn't finish the story - some of your younger readers might not realize that sometimes couples can spend too much time together, as Lucy and Desi apparently did, since they divorced in 1960.
Posted by Karen H. on February 25,2012 | 08:55 AM
They didn't divorce, but they didn't live happily ever after. Wallis wanted to marry the King. When Edward didn't become king, she wanted out. They had very public fights over the rest of their very public lives. It didn't help that Edward was a Nazi sympathizer.
Posted by rainbow on February 19,2012 | 12:48 PM
Am I [not] seeing things, or what? Why does Ida appear not to have arms or hands in that photograph? lsj
Posted by ellis jard on February 17,2012 | 09:51 PM
And then they divorced.
Posted by Nathan on February 14,2012 | 01:01 PM
I am so glad I read these top ten.I,m sure you could find dozens more.McKinley,s story brought tears to my eye,s.Thank you.
Posted by Mary Haas on February 11,2012 | 06:19 AM