R.I.P. Darren 'D.H.' Peligro. 1959-2022.

Today marks the 35th anniversary of THE MORTON DOWNEY JR. SHOW (1987) making its TV debut. [The air date -- Oct 19 -- was particularly ominous for it would come to be known as 'Black Monday' due to the stock market causing considerable panic when it fell over 500 points]. Growling Morton Downey Jr. was shock/trash TV before Jerry Springer, and his combative schtick would be to bully & shout. Pandering to his live audience of acolytes & sheep, he typically responded with sarcastic abusive insults to his guests whenever they presented their POV. The very first episode of the talk show had loudmouth opinionated host MDJ covering porn & its accused damaging effects on American society. The pro-adult film industry panel consisted of Seka, Candida Royalle, and Gloria Leonard. During a commercial break, Seka famously walked off the stage after MDJ kept verbally running her down. She was a class act and held her self-respect for the entirety but was clearly sick of his crap and had enough. She did not return. In May 1988, MDJ went national. Viewership was almost exclusively about tuning in for his coarse & disparaging behaviour but widespread critically panned, the show was cancelled in Jul 1989. A lifelong heavy chainsmoker, in Jul 1996 he first had a tumor and then his right lung removed due to cancer which led him to become a staunch anti-tobacco activist. He died in Mar 2001.

105yrs ago today, sex, power and war culminated in the execution of Mata Hari in France, having been found guilty of spying for Germany during WWI. Born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, in Holland, She spent a few years in the Dutch East Indies which resulted in a broken marriage that did produce 2 children. She became an exotic dancer and later courtesan, who took the stage name "Mata Hari" meaning 'eye of the day' (an expression for the sun) in Malaysian. As oriental culture was the popular rage of the early 1900's and with her reputation preceding her, she was the toast of cosmopolitan Europe for her provocative routine (nude yet allowable for being artistic within the law) as a Javanese temple dancer reinventing herself along the way. As she dazzled the elites of high society with her striptease, she equally earned the scorn of many among them with one famous criticism that came from a ballerina who said, “she is as much an Indian dancer as I'm a Chinese waiter.” Accused of espionage and suspected of being a double agent, she was first recruited in Sept 1916 by the French (codenamed H21) to pass on military information to the government, that had been obtained from her lovers. With her frequent traveling across international borders made easy by her neutrality, and her bevy of wealthy male suitors (mostly high-ranking officers & diplomats from opposing sides of the war) who were willing to provide her financial support in exchange for her company, this caused several of those bedding her to question her activities. British Intelligence placed her on a watch list eventually leading to her being interrogated by Scotland Yard. Followed by surveillance teams and charged with duplicity, the French arrested her in February 1917 (after the Germans had deemed her services ineffective and deliberately leaked a coded message outing her, intending for it to be intercepted). After a short trial riddled with bias in front of a military court held in private (and with her Russian fiancé denouncing her after denying their engagement), she was found guilty and sentenced to death. On Oct 15, 1917 she was shot by firing squad (having refused a blindfold) in Vincennes, near Paris. She was 41. To this day, Mata Hari’s guilt is widely contested and the nature & extent of just how much damage (if even at all) she is responsible for remains uncertain. With hardly any proof or any damning material to sustain the leveled crimes that cost her life, in 1930 the German government publicly exonerated her. In 1947, 30yrs after her death, one of her prosecutors stated unapologetically in an interview, “there wasn’t enough evidence to flog a cat.” In all likelihood and tragically, the French were only too willing to frame her as an exaggerated scapegoat to divert attention away from their Army's abysmal losses and recent mutinies. The mystery surrounding her life and alleged treachery continues to pique curiosity, having elevated her to a mythic status. The very notion of a seductress extracting secrets; a sultry harlot swirling in betrayal has eclipsed the real person. The dangerous ensnaring vamp has long become the now-automatic portrayal. Mata Hari has spawned numerous biographies, several movie depictions (with Greta Garbo the most famous), TV series, pop culture spoofs galore, songs, musicals, and museum exhibits -- all further popularizing her legend. In 2017, a century after her death, France released declassified documents reportedly indicating her innocence.