THE KING AND I: Featuring Machiko Iseri

I've been to Thailand more than 25 times, and the royalty of the country has long fascinated me.

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  In the early 1860s, Anna Leonowens (right) became governess to the children of King Mongkut (below), or Rama IV, of Siam.  
• He was trying to modernize the country.  
• Mongkut had 82 children from 32 wives, and lived to the age of 64.  
• The real story of Anna is not exactly as portrayed, for it is believed that she was born in India of mixed parentage, and came to Thailand from Malaysia.  She had a daughter, who was sent to England, and went to Bangkok only with her son.

A

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  One of his sons, most prominent in the book/play/film, was Chulalongkorn.
• He became the next king, Rama V, married four of his half sisters,  had 143 concubines, 32 sons and 44 daughters.  
• It was he who modernized his country, and died at the age of 43 from a kidney disease.  
• Chulalongkorn University ranks #1 in Thailand.

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  The country was early on called the Kingdom of Ayutthaya.
• By the late 1700s, Siam became commonly used. 
• The capital was moved by Rama 1 from Thonburi to what today is Bangkok.  

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  The Grand Palace was built in 1782.  The other photo is the Grand Palace today, a truly grand place to visit.
• Rama IV's reign began in 1851.

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  Rama VI in 1910 studied law and history at the University of Oxford.
• Through wisdom and luck, Siam was never colonized.

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  Sided with the British against Germany in World War I.
• Declared neutrality in World War II, but was invaded by Japan on 8December1941, and essentially became a puppet.  Again, perhaps wisdom, as after the war they largely escaped takeover and punishment at the same time.
• While all that was going on, Siam was changed to Thailand in 1939, returned to Siam from 1944 to 1946, and then finalized to Thailand since then.

With that background, the memoirs of Anna became a book by Margaret Landon in 1944.  Soon following came the film, Anna and the King of Siam in 1946, starring Rex Harrison as the king and Irene Dunne as Anna.   Won two Oscars.  Got an 89 rating by Rotten Tomatoes reviewers, but only 69 by audiences.

The film is not on Tubi, but I kept searching, and You Tube has the entire 2 hour 3 minute movie.  Black and white, of course, and no songs, but a worthy effort.

In 1951, in their fifth musical, Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein wrote The King and I for Broadway, showing in the St. James Theater.  Ran for nearly three years, unusual for those days.  Starred Gertrude Lawrence as Anna.  They couldn't get Rex Harrison, so settled on a young actor, Yul Brynner.  Won Tony Awards for Best Actress (Lawrence) and Best Actor (Brynner).  However, she died of cancer a year and a half into the run, and was replaced by a series of actresses. In this production, King Mongkut was about 57 years old, and the year was 1861.

Then the 1956 film with Brynner (who won the Academy Award for Best Actor).  The movie was nominated for 9 Oscars and won 5, including for Best Sound and Best Score.  Deborah Kerr was nominated, but did not win, same for director Walter Lang.

A dance consultant for the original Broadway show was Machiki Iseri.  She left the Heart Mountain Japanese containment site in 1944, and went to Broadway.  First, her dance class at Heart Mountain.

You can read about her, but she went on to fashion a fabulous life in dancing.  All films related to The King and I are banned in Thailand.  Thus, another story, with her in Bangkok in 1956:

• Prince Bhanubandhu Yugala, a cousin of King Bhumibol, came by to see her, and mentioned that when he was next in Hong Kong, he would go see The King and I.
• After he returned, he asked her, who dressed you in that blue coolie costume?  He said you were a princess and said that Thai laborers wore the color blue.
• He arranged for Michiko to learn about the Thai temple dance.

Here is Machiko on her 100th birthday.

 

Michiko helped pave the way for Asian American dancers and performers on Broadway, but most today do not even know her name.

The most recent major production was a 1999 film, Anna and the King, with Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-fat.  This production ran afoul of Thai government attitudes, as they deemed it historically inaccurate and insulting to the royal family.  As such, the movie was filmed in Malaysia with no Thai actors, and also has never been shown in Thailand.  Rotten Tomatoes gave 52/64 scores.

There have been innumerable tours and revivals, and one featured Daniel Dae Kim as King Mongkut, here with Marin Mazzie in Shall We Dance.

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FEMALE LEADERS OF MAJOR COUNTRIES

Claudia Sheinbaum was elected Mexico's first female president.  When all is counted, she will get around 60% of the votes cast.  Sheinbaum was former mayor of Mexico City and will serve one six-year term beginning on October 1.  She is closely aligned with outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and will continue the favorable relationship with the U.S.

Sheinbaum:

• Is 61 years old, and was born in Mexico City.  
• Her paternal Ashkenazi grandparents emigrated from Lithuania in the 1920's, while her maternal Sephardic grandparents came from Sofia, Bulgaria in the early 140's to escape the Holocaust.  

• Her mother is a biologist, while her father is a chemical engineer, like me.  Her brother Julio is a physicist.
• Her husband, Carlos Imaz, was a tenured Stanford University professor, but they separated in 2016 with a daughter.
• She will soon marry Jesús Maria Tarriba Unger.
• Has a PhD in energy engineering, and, as an academic, has authored over 100 articles, publishing two books on energy, the environment and sustainable development.  Sounds like me.
• Contributed to the International Panel on Climate Change.
• Is Jewish, contributing to less than 1% of the Mexican population of 128 million.

• The U.S. never has had a Jewish president.  
• However, Doug Emhoff, husband of Veep Kamala Harris, is one.  There have been eight Jewish Supreme Court justices. 

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  Did you know that 37 candidates running for office in Mexico this year WERE ASSASSINATED???

There are only 13 female heads of states today of the 193 member United Nations countries.

Of course, the U.S. has never had a female President.  Also, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Egypt, and many more.

Some add China to this list, but way back from 624-705, Empress Wu Zetian is an exception.  Same for Japan, as Hojo Masako was a almost a female Shogun.  Actually, called the Nun Shogun, her infant great-grandson was the puppet shogun, but she only dominated the government and did not officially get the Shogun title.  She was the wife of Minamoto no Yoritomo, the first shogun, and her sons became the second and third shoguns.

If you happened to spot check the value of your stocks today, and your shares of Berkshire Hathaway Class A suddenly dropped to almost zero (down 99.97%), not to worry.  Warren Buffet, who will be all of 94 in August, is fine.  Sure, the stock sunk to $185.10, but is now back up to $631,110.

If you had an automated system to catch this drop-- for it only lasted for a minute, where there were a dozen trades--and bought a few shares, sorry, the New York Stock Exchange won't honor your good fortune.  A year ago (actually June 5, 2023, since June 3 was a Saturday) the price was 498,927, so the gain after a year just for one share is $132,183.  If you bought one share on 11April1980 when it was first made available, this $260/share price has jumped by a factor of 2427, and you would have made $630,850.  

There were 40 other symbols also affected, including Abbot Chipotle Mexican Grill and Gamestop. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped $115 to 38,571, still, $5008 higher than a year ago, of $33, 563.

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