Whitehall (a.k.a. uHf's Soapbox)

Because on this site, I AM the admiral...

Isn't that always the way?  You let a person have a little bit of web space and it goes straight to her head.  But don't worry, most of what I say here will be related to Horatio in one way or another so my opinions (when I proffer them) shouldn't be too hard to swallow.  And if they are, tough.  This isn't an exercise in the First Amendment.  Shell out the bucks for your own site.

10/14/07 - Wrong, wrong, wrong...SO wrong! I have been ecstatic over the arrival of my 'captures' from the Hornblower Prop Auction (thanks again, LeadLine!).  I have also been busy scanning said captures into the ScaryFanGallery so that others can see them (be sure to check out those and other submissions from other auction winners)!  However, I was most displeased with one discovery in particular...THEY WERE GOING TO MAKE A REFERENCE TO HORNBLOWER'S TONEDEAFNESS AND CUT IT!!!  Jeez, Grieve, I understand the whole "new viewers might get confused by it" thing but you could have at least thrown book fans a bone since you basically remade Hotspur in your own image!  Sigh.  I despair, I really do...

That said, it's still exciting to see all the behind the scenes stuff from a beloved show.  I'm looking forward to seeing what other discoveries are made as other submissions come in!

10/5/07 - Holy Guh, Batman.  Well, the Hornblower Prop Auction has come and gone and, happily, there have been many fans (including yours truly!) who have come away with Hornblower memorabilia.  I'm looking forward to posting some pictures from the auction, courtesy of those who were able to be in attendance, and some of the treasures that they were able to get.  Hopefully, we'll be able to have quite a collection here on Scaryfangirl of photos and shooting scripts (including all sorts of juicy scenes that were eliminated from the final film).  If you were fortunate enough to have snagged something at the auction and would like to very generously share a photo/scan of same with fellow fans who were not so fortunate, please e-mail me at scaryfangirl@scaryfangirl.com and I will post them to the gallery (with full credit!).

Some of the larger ship models were won by museums or other public attractions.  The Indefatigable frigate model has found a home at the Eyemouth Maritime Centre in Scotland, which also picked up the interior set of the Hotspur's great cabin, the Justinian's wheel, and the Renown's stove and capstan.  All of these items will supposedly be on display soon.  Apparently the three large Indefatigable models will be headed to Devon where their new owner has plans to use the largest one to provide trips around the harbour in Bideford.  We'll see how that works out!  Another maritime museum, this one in Southampton, won the Justinian, Hotspur, Julia (which played the Marie Gallante and the Caroline) and the USS Essex-based black and white frigate model.  The plan there is to convert them to remote control to be used in a tank.

I will post further details and news as I get them!

8/31/07 - Just in time for back to school! It was with pleasure last night that I happened across a link to this site.  The Eclectic Homeschool Online is featuring a unit on Mr. Midshipman Hornblower and included Scaryfangirl.com (though, understandably, under the title "Addicted to Hornblower?") as one of its Hornblower resources.  Huzzah! to being an 'educational' site (and welcome, homeschoolers!).  More than the link, though, I'm absolutely thrilled to see Hornblower being used in the classroom.  I can only imagine how much scarier I'd be right now if I had had my introduction to Our Hero in grade school...

7/26/07 - *Snicker*  And you wondered why they chose Virginia Mayo to play Lady Barbara...  Paul Welsh has just written a story for the Borehamwood Times in the UK where he talks about some old letters he had found.  One of the letters was from Virginia Mayo, a.k.a. "Lady Barbara" in Captain Horatio Hornblower.  Mayo wrote:

"I made six musicals for Warner Bros, and it dubbed my singing voice on all of them.

"Then I got a call telling me I was going to Elstree Studios in 1950 to appear with Greg Peck in Captain Horatio Hornblower.

"I later found out they had originally cast an English actress, Margaret Leighton, but when the Head of Warner Bros, Jack Warner, saw her screen test, he said, She's no good, we need a leading lady with big boobs so cast Mayo!'"

Well, it figgers, don't it?  Not that I have any problem with Greg Peck getting cast with a chesty lady or anything (if one considers Virginia Mayo to be "chesty", that is...).  Actually, what I found most interesting is that the original actress's name was Margaret Leighton.  Very appropriate!  I wonder if she was CSF's choice to play Barbara.  For those of you who, like me, have no clue what Margaret Leighton looked like:

It would have been interesting to see how she had done the role (though I'm sure she would have been afforded just as many hideous dresses... ;) )

7/22/07 - Why, o why, do you mock us, A&E? - It truly saddens me to know that a network that apparently has not a care at all for a particular TV show which earned it an Emmy award and, by coincidence, happens to be featured heavily on this website, has so little respect for its fans that it refuses to share goodies with us.  I'm not so obsessed with Hornblower that I expect A&E to actually promote a show which it has no intention of producing again but it would be REALLY nice if they had at least been willing to pass along what they seem to consider to be junk to said series' loyal fans.  A friend of mine recently pointed out to me that REX Features, an entertainment photo site, had pictures of Paul McGann in his Hornblower costume.  Pictures, moreover, that she (a fan of the venerable Mr. Bush) had never seen before.  In looking at the website, I plugged "Hornblower" into its search engine and discovered 5-plus pages worth of Hornblower pics, many of which were new to me (it was also new to me that someone might mistake the actor who played "Cleveland" for Jamie Bamber, but it would seem by the captions that such a thing is possible...).  Now why, I ask, would any marketing department have neglected to offer these pictures up for fan delectation?!  Particularly with some of the ones which are available of Mr. Gruffudd (can you say FLOPCON5?!?)?  If anyone has an account with REX features and would be willing to share hi-res versions of these pictures with yours truly, I would be very grateful.  Of course, I understand that I wouldn't be able to post them on the site, but, if you were so moved to gift me with them, the gushing fangirl in me would love you forever.

7/4/07 - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HORATIO! Today marks the 231st birthday of our hero according to Forester.  And, accordingly, the USA, at least, is celebrating with a day off from work, cookouts and fireworks. ;)

For anyone looking for a laugh, I ran across a show called "Geek Nights" in which the subject for the bulk of the discussion is none other than Horatio Hornblower.  The hosts talk about both the books and movies but they focus more on the movies.  I was particularly amused by their summary of the books and lines such as "If I were ever to be gay for a man, it would be Captain Pellew."  Oh, and they really liked the ending for The Duel.  You can download the episode here.   (Warning: there is some strong language and mild spoilers...and the discussion on Hornblower doesn't start until about halfway through the audio.)

6/4/07 - Well, look at us... I never thought I'd see the day when the term "Gaping Frilly Shirtage" was used in an article.  Not a blog, mind you, but a real, live, genuine published story for a professional media outlet.  And now, thanks to the Brisbane Times, I have.  The writer, Garry Maddox, not only refers to GFS--a term which he could have only gotten through the Hornblower fandom in this context-- in his piece on Ioan Gruffudd but he uses the name "Welshcake" as well.  Someone's been doing his research!  In addition to offering People Who Say 'What?' a glimpse of the language of the fangirl, Mr. Maddox also offers us yet another bit of confirmation that Ioan hasn't forgotten the sea captain who put him on the map.  It gives a gal a warm, fuzzy feeling inside...or, to put it in fangirl terms, SQUEE!

5/19/07 - Interesting welcoming ceremony, Mr. Hornblower... Apparently, a buyer still hasn't been found for the Grand Turk because her builder, Michael Turk, has just posted an article in the Daily Mail in which he announces that she's up for grabs because he's retiring. £3 million would definitely be a good start for the ol' retirement fund, wouldn't it?  What is most interesting about this article, however, is that he talks a little about what he went through to get her built on time for the start of the filming of Hornblower, one of the best stories being how she was 'christened':

"But our [Turkish] workforce still had one surprise up their sleeves. The Grand Turk could go nowhere, we were told, until a bull was brought to the shipyard and castrated. The blood then had to be daubed on the ship from the bow to the stern using the bull's penis to imbue her with the strength of the dead animal.

At first I forbade it but when I was told the ship would be cursed, I reluctantly gave in and allowed the ceremony to take place. The ship was launched a day later."

A far cry from the usual champagne bottle to the bow but it seems to have worked.  Here's hoping that luck will continue to favor her (or, rather, her fans) and her buyer won't keep her to him- or herself.

4/1/07 - Just in time for Hornblower Appreciation Week: the Hornblower novels and how they pertain to the British hostage-taking by Iran... Ya gotta love when Hornblower references find their way into current events.  I've already run across one commentator asking "Where is Horatio Hornblower when you need him?" over the current situation with the British seamen being held by Iran and now another pundit has referenced Hornblower and the Crisis as being all the Iranians needed to read in order to discover how to have made a more believable forged document.  It's a sad, sad turn of events and heaven knows I hope that it's resolved in a manner that doesn't end in tears, but you've got to admit that it's kind of cool to be 'in the know' as far as the Hornblower references go.

In other news, today marks the start of Hornblower Appreciation Week!  I'm planning on putting up a daily post in my LiveJournal all this week, so stop by if you feel so moved.  Also, many thanks go out to all the folks who participated in the HAW Contest this year!  The winners will be announced shortly and all the entries will be posted on the HAW Contest page by April 5.

3/26/07 - Something very nice and something not so much.  First, the nice.  At the end of last week, my wonderful child came up to me with a big grin and a paper hidden inexpertly behind his back.  "Mom," he said, presenting his gift, "I drew the Hotspur for you!" (Except he said something that sounded more like "Haught-spuh".  Bless him, my little American boy has been so raised in the shadow of Hornblower, there are certain things he's unaware he's pronouncing with a British accent.  I seriously don't know how to convince him that we don't say 'lef-tenant' on this side of the Pond...)  Anyway, if you care to look at my boy's masterpiece, you can find it here. :)  Feel free to tell me what an awesome artist is my kid.

On the not so nice front, I discovered by chance that there was a Garbage Pail Kid which used the name Horatio Hornblower.  I don't know if you people remember Garbage Pail Kids but they were trading cards of 'dolls' which were based, in looks, on Cabbage Patch Kids, but whose primary purpose was to gross you out and make you snicker with abandon at their names.  You may have found them funny if you were a pre-teen in the late 1980s.  [sarcasm] Really classy stuff. [/sarcasm]  I wonder what the Forester estate would have thought of that...

3/21/07 - How insane am I for considering this...?  I'm not a distributor.  I'm not set up to sell anything and, really, I don't want to deal with the hassle of setting up to sell anything.  But browsing eBay, I came across A&E...selling off a lot of 50 HH2 DVDs.  And the price appealed to me.  Hmmmm...says I to myself...if I could score those at that price, I could make a killing if I could find folks to buy them even if I sold 'em for peanuts.  Heh.  But I can also imagine my husband's reaction: You bought HOW MANY of WHAT?!?  *snerk*  Even the scariest of fangirls have their limit, I guess...

3/9/07 -  I have seen Captain Horatio Hornblower in digital clarity.  And it is good.  Better than good, actually.  I could see the stitches on the patches on the elbows of Hornblower's ratty undress uniform.  Lady Barbara's dress fabrics were exposed as being even more hideous than previously thought.  Even El Supremo seemed more flamboyant (if such a thing were possible).  Definitely run out and get classic Horatio on DVD if you haven't already.  The clarity alone is worth the ridiculously reasonable price.  Plus, you get Bugs Bunny in "Captain Hareblower" (which you can see--far less clearly--on the cast board of this site), the Lux Radio theater adaptation of the movie, and--my favorite--the delightfully over the top theatrical trailer for the movie.  To say nothing of the nifty box art.  It's been a long time coming, Warner Brothers, and this fangirl thanks you for finally delivering!

3/2/07 - Late...sooooo late... *wipes dust from hands and looks around*  Well, there ya have it...a nice new shiny Scaryfangirl.com.  Don't know if it's an improvement or not, but it's different (...she says, suddenly recalling Hornblower's belief that "the besetting sin of womankind" was "approving of change merely because it was change"...).  Anyway, I hope that you like it.  I'm certainly glad that I have the update behind me.  I've only been talking about it now for about five months. *rolls eyes at self*  This year's HAW Contest rules will follow shortly--but probably not until after I have enjoyed my new Captain Horatio Hornblower DVD which should be in my hot little hands in four days!

2/20/07 - Somebody pinch me.  Okay, so I haven't updated this part of the site in a while--today brought ample reason to get my butt back to Whitehall.  According to ContactMusic.com, Ioan Gruffudd would like to get Hornblower on the big screen.  If true, this is a very, very exciting thing for the Hornblower fandom.  (If not, it is a very, very cruel joke on the part of its initiators.)  Of course, the squeely fangirlly side of me is doing flips like nobody's business right now and was mumbling not so nice words at the computer at work (dial-up.  Oy.) because I was itching to get back to ScaryFangirl HQ and discuss this.  The rational part of me is trying to remind herself that Ioan still may be lacking the clout in Hollywood to pull such an idea off right now.  The pessimistic part of me wonders if a screenwriter of enough ability can be found to do justice to the beloved Trilogy and knows a Hornblower flop at the movie theaters is too horrible to contemplate.  And yet, the squeely fangirl takes over once more, rejoicing in the fact that we in the Hornblower fandom actually have news again...something to look forward to again.

Oh, yes...And Ioan, if you're looking for a Lady Barbara, my e-mail address is scaryfangirl@scaryfangirl.com...

Click here for Whitehall entries from 2005 and 2006!