Noble Invitation

Sorry for the long lapse in posting, but after a few hours of shooting today, I have enough to create a few more posts until my next block of "free" time can be found. Today's model is Cocoa Crisp Gene, wearing the richly brocaded Noble Invitation. Released in 2001 as an FAO Schwarz exclusive, this circa 1954 design was created by Jim Howard. It is very reminiscent of a robe that Vivien Leigh wore in "Gone With The Wind."

From the story card:

It had been five years since an American had been awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature, and now, in 1954, the honor had been bestowed on that fine American writer Ernest Hemingway.



Gene was thrilled that Mr. Hemingway had taken the Prize. Only a year before, she had done an interview in the Hemingway Bar in Paris, hoping to get a glimpse of the rowdy writer. But now, Gene had reason to be even more thrilled: she'd been invited as an honored guest to the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm. On the transatlantic flight, Gene reread the little book that had clinched Hemingway's Nobel nod: The Old Man and the Sea. Dozing to the drone of the plane's engines, she imagined herself as Santiago, fighting the magnificent marlin…what a story—and what a great movie it would make! If it had only been The Young Woman and the Sea!



In Stockholm, Gene was fated, once again, not to meet Hemingway: illness kept him away and Ambassador John C. Cabot read Hemingway's moving acceptance speech. The rest of the night was filled with toasts and tributes to the absent author.

The party Gene attended was all abuzz: rumor had it that Gustav VI Adolf, King of Sweden, might attend with his wife, Queen Louise. Gene, dressed in regal loveliness, felt her heart beat a little faster when, suddenly, a hush fell over the room, and the crowd parted as…



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