About this project

Kay Kemble (1911-1989) is a character invented for this project. Kay sang on radio commercials as a child and went on to lead Big Bands and swing ensembles in the 30's and 40's. She worked at Scott Air Field as a WAAC enlistee and a civilian. She produced war bond rallies, and her all-female band promoted a popular shampoo brand. In the 80's there was renewed interest in Kay's musical career.

Kay informally adopted the orphaned niece and nephew of her partner Wilmetta "Teeny" Stockton, and in the early 70's the family moved from St. Louis to New Orleans. After Kay and Teeny's deaths, family members remained in New Orleans until displaced by Hurricane Katrina. In 2014, I arranged to archive, organize, and restore Kay's memorabilia. Most items were damaged due to age, hurried packing , and lack of funds for formal archiving.

I've "become" Kay in reproduction radio broadcasts, and created artifacts to represent damaged or destroyed items in the collection.



Sunday, August 22, 2021

Belgian humor at the Germans' expense

 The Kay Kemble project has stretched me in various ways, including learning about history, culture, and geography. I'm afraid my knowledge of Belgium used to be fancy horses, good beer, Jacques Brel, and Hercule Poirot, the last of whom wasn't even a real person.

But a while back I made a note to myself to look up the history of the Belgian newspaper Le Soir. The paper was taken over in 1940 by collaborationists who accepted the German occupation. In 1943, a resistance group published a parody of Nazi-positive version of Le Soir, which came to be known as the Faux Soir. 



 

In the 1950s, a comedy film called "Un Soir de Joie:" depicted the Faux Soir being created and distributed. My French is both limited and terrible but this video clip gave me the basic idea of the 1954 film, which apparently was re-released in 1959.

 


This Wikipedia article gives a good summation of what was in the parody, how it reached the public, and the story of what happened afterward.










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