The Art Of Being Frida She loved Trotsky and Diego, and now Madonna loves her. ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR Bold and Beautiful Hand Made Diamond 14K Gold Bracelets. Fine Jewelers ri/ (r N.. Est. 1919 illre 1919 30400 Telegraph Rd. Suite 134, Bingham Farms • 642-5575 BORDERS ® pace seatisi Created in Our Own Image: Jewish Self-Image in Film & Television THURSDAY, AUGUST 1 0 - 7 PM Join us for a special program with Rabbi Aaron and Ruth Bergman, exploring the ways Jews have been portrayed in various media, starting with hundreds of years ago in Shakespeare's writings and tracing the way up through the birth of Hollywood and present-day film and television. Please call to reserve your seat or sign up at our main information desk. fir We look forward to seeing you! I BORDERS® ' BOOKS• MUSIC •CAFE Farmington Hills 30995 Orchard Lake Road at 14 Mile Books (810) 737-0110 Music (810) 737-2225 Often, her works showed herself and her family, while her diary is filled with crayon, ink and pen- cil drawings of strange creatures. Kahlo's other pas- sion was politics, and she was a devoted communist who had a love affair with Leon Trotsky. (Other friends included Hen- ry Ford, Paulette Goddard, Sergei Eisenstein, Georgia O'Keefe and Juan Miro.) Kahlo, who was baptized and raised in the Catholic church, spent time in Detroit while her husband was paint- ing the murals at the Detroit Institute of Frida Kahlo self-portrait: Yes to art and communism, Arts (DIA) depicting no to Detroit. modern industry. The Detroit News re- Q: Is it true that Madonna's fa- ported that when she arrived, vorite artist is Jewish? Kahlo was wearing a black silk A: Frida Kahlo, whose works dress and a long, green silk decorate the home of the Mate- shawl, amber beads and a jade rial Girl, was the daughter of a necklace. Jewish father and a Catholic The couple stayed at the mother. Wardell Hotel at 15 Kirby, across She was born in 1907 in Mex- the street from the DIA, though ico City in a home built by her not before Rivera made a de- father, Guillermo. His name at mand. Learning the hotel was birth was Wilhelm, and he was restricted, he announced, "But the son of Hungarian Jews, Hen- Frida and I have Jewish blood!" riette Kaufmann and Jakob The hotel offered to lower the Heinrich Kahlo. He had come to famed artist's rates, but he Mexico, alone, in 1891 when he vowed to leave if Jews were not was 19 years old. Wilhelm be- permitted as guests. The regu- came Guillermo and found work lations were changed. as a salesman, and later as a Frida had little positive to say photographer. about the city. "The industrial Matilde Calderon was Guiller- part of Detroit is really most in- mo's second wife (his first died teresting," she said. 'The rest is, during childbirth). When they as in all of the United States, married, she was 24 and he was ugly and stupid." (But this also 26, "intelligent, hard-working, may have had to do with the mis- and rather handsome, in spite of carriage she suffered while here, his protruding ears," according which signaled an end to any to Frida: A Biography of Frida chance she had of becoming Kahlo by Hayden Herrera. pregnant.) The couple's third daughter, Kahlo was 47 when she died, Magdalena Carmen Frida, was in 1954, after contracting pneu- born at 8:30 a.m. July 6. monia. There remains specula- One of the most definitive mo- tion that she committed suicide, ments of her life occurred when though the official cause of her Frida was 18. A bus accident left death was listed as a pulmonary her pelvis crushed and ulti- embolism. mately unable to have children. She was embalmed, and a It caused Frida endless physical wreath of red carnations placed and emotional pain. about her head. The Communist The third wife of artist Diego Internationale was played at her Rivera, Kahlo was a painter of funeral. renown in her own right. Kahlo was later cremated, and "I paint my own reality," she her ashes are now in an urn at a said. museum that bears her name. Q: My girlfriend's birthday is next month and I would like to get her an autographed photo of the Three Stooges. Is that the height of romance and thoughtfulness or what? I mean, she's going to fall all over me when she sees it! I can hardly wait. But I need some idea of how much this is going to cost. Can Tell Me Why help me out? A: Curly, Moe and Larry — autographed. Wow! Just know- ing that guys like you are out there gives me hope for mankind. Anyway, you are going to have to start saving, buddy, be- cause according to Richard Donley's Everything Has Its Price (Firestone), your little gift is going to cost more than $3,700. The book notes that a photo of the three sold in 1993 for $3,750 at an auction in New York City. Other fun facts from Every- thing Has Its Price you might want to know: * A pair of Levis cost $1.12 a pair when they were intro- duced in 1874. * Velvet kipot cost, on aver- age, $18 a dozen. * A pair of Joan Rivers' shoes sold for $1,000 at an AIDS ben- efit held in New York. * A pair of ears Leonard Ni- moy wore in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock sold for $1,100 (including an auto- graphed photo of the Spockster himself). Leonard Nimoy * The minimum price for an Albert Einstein autograph is $800. Send questions to "Tell Me Why" c o The Jewish News, 27676 Franklin Rd., Southfield, MI 48034 or send fax to 354-6069.