Search This Blog

Popular Posts

Labels

Sunday, July 4, 2021

Where To See The Grave Of Grimaldi The Clown in London, England

The blue plaque giving Grimaldi's dates, 1778 to 1837.






 The grave of Grimaldi the clown is in a park in Islington. 

The name Grimaldi is Italian. The Monaco dynasty has the name Grimaldi.

Grimaldi was on the stage from childhood. from the age of two. He acted in pantomime as a monkey or fairy and all sorts of other characters.

 His first wife and newborn died in childbirth. To forget and recover, he performed on stage twice a night.

On stage he danced, like his dancer mother, who was in many productions with him. He was an acrobat, did sword fights. 

He was a great actor. He walked through the streets of London to observe characters to copy.

When he shot himself in the foot, his concerned mother engaged a young lady from the entertainment world to look after him and she became his second wife and mother of his son.

He was extremely popular. Two of his catchphrases have survived. "Here we are again." And, "Shall I?" was his phrase which involved the audience who shouted, "Yes!"

 His son also performed on stage with him.

What legacy did he leave us? When he started on stage the clown wore rags as a village idiot. He whitened his face and drew a big smile in red lipstick, the traditional clown face. He added to his costume circles and then triangles, in bright attention getting contrasting black and white, which have become the traditional harlequin costume.

He died in 1837 and Dickens re-edited Grimaldi's memoirs. Dickens was surprised that this work sold successfully. 

Grimaldi was remembered by those who had seen him and those who were born later. On the anniversary of Grimaldi's death each year all the clowns of London and afar gathered to remember him, wearing their clown costumes reminiscent of him, and do so until this day. When the church went out of service, the event moved to another church.

What can you see and do?

1 If you go to London you can see his grave in a pleasant little park in Islington,  Joseph Grimaldi Park.

2 The plaque on the house where he lived. Islington.

3 You can buy clown costumes from party shops and online from fancy dress suppliers. 

Useful Websites

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6531280/joseph-grimaldi

wikipedia

Joseph Grimaldi - Wikipedia

Joseph Grimaldi Park - Wikipedia


About the Author

Angela Lansbury, is a semi-retired travel writer still researching bucket list countries and seeking out the special, unusual, people, places,  landmarks, hotels, museums and trails, fabulous foods, recipes, clothes and online souvenir shopping.

Angela Lansbury is a member of Toastmasters International.

About the Author Angela Lansbury

The Author - Quick Quotations

Angela Lansbury B A Hons  is the author of ten books by regular publishers plus another ten self-published books. 

About Angela The Speaker & Trainer

Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and other languages to Toastmasters clubs and businesses.

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Vice President  Public Relations, Immediate Past President. VPPR
Former Area Director S3. Club Coach for Nee Soon South Toastmasters Club.
Also Member of: TCA Toastmasters Club; Singapore Online Dynamic; Harrovians UK

BHA
Past meetings have included Garen Tee on using story telling in business, on 
bha.learncool.sg/meet/bha . 

Recent meetings of BHA included an educational session on using Powerpoint for posters.
Next BHA meetings, always first Wednesday evening, 7 pm Singapore time. Next meeting is  the third Saturday afternoon, June 19th 2pm Singapore time.  Inauguration of the new committee was by the incoming Director of S, plus a lively speech on teamwork.

Next meetings will be on these dates (unless a national holiday in Singapore or worldwide)
Themes and word of the day are tentative

2021
JULY - JUBILANT JULY
Theme/WOD Jubilant
WORKSHOPS & EDUCATIONAL SESSIONS (based on level one of Pathways)
1 Your first speech or role EASY ENGLISH LANGUAGE (Articles A and The, Plurals, Tenses, Pronunciation, Singlish)
2 CHOOSE YOUR PATH
Wed July 7th 
Saturday 17th
July 4rh American Independence Day.

2021 AUGUST - AWESOME AUGUST
1 Pathway Level 1 Introductory Speeches
2 Evaluations
Wed 4th
Sat 21

2021 SEPT - SUPER SEPTEMBER
Wed 1st
Sat 18th SPEECH CONTESTS
Humorous Speech Contest
Table Topics Contest

2021 OCT - ODD OCTOBER
Wed 6th
Sat 16th

2021 NOV - NOVELTY NOVEMBER
Wed 3rd
Sat 20th Wed
Diwali Hindu Festival of lights Nov 4th.
Nov 25th American Thanksgiving.
Hanukah starts 28 Dec 8 days until Dec 6. Jewish Festival of lights, celebrated by Jesus.

2021 DEC - DARLING DECEMBER
Wed  1st (Hanukah if not previous month. Festival foods.)
Sat 18th
Speech on 

JAN 2022 - JOYFUL JANUARY
Wed Jan 5th New beginning - forget the past
Sat 15 Long-term plans = for the future/Chinese New Year (CNY for short)

2022 FEB FUN FEBRUARY
Theme Love and romance - Chinese New Year
Feb 1st and 2nd are holidays - do we move this Feb 2nd meeting date?)

Wed 2nd (Valentine's Day Mon Feb 14)
Sat 19th

2022 MAR - MARVELLOUS MARCH
Theme
Wed 2nd
Sat 19
March 1st is Christian Pancake day. 

2022 APR - APRIL'S AIMS
Wed 6th
Sat 16th
Muslim Ramadan 1-30 April.
Jewish Passover (Seder meal=Last supper) April
 16

2022 MAY - MODERNISING MAY
Wed 4th
Sat 21

2022 JUN - JUBILANT JUNE
Wed 1st
Sat 18th

Jul 6, Jul 16, Aug 3, Aug 20, Sept 7, Sept 17, Oct 5, Oct 15, Nov 2, Nov 19, Dec 7, Dec 17.
Angela The Blogger 

Angela has several blogs speeches, comedy and song writing and organizing, writing intermittently, but writes almost daily on these three:

See many varied posts such as the post on sculptor Tom Harvey.

Please share links to your favourite posts. 


No comments: