Joan of Arc, Heath Ledger, and Snoop Dogg

Thirteen people died in a fire late Friday [August 5, 2016] night in northern France when fire broke out in a bar full of patrons celebrating someone's birthday, according to reports. The fire was started by an accidental explosion in a bar known as Au Cuba Libre in the town of Rouen in Normandy.

The number of dead climbed to 13 on early Saturday, according to Paris-Normandie, a local news website.

At least six people were wounded, according to reports.

The bar was full of young people celebrating someone's birthday, officials said. (We are waiting for the release of the victims' names and will update this info.)

Tom Mellet shared the following:

This explosion at the Cuba Libre bar in Rouen, France is quite sympropinquitous because its location is exactly 4.00 miles NNW of the Church of Saint Etienne du Rouvray where the Catholic priest was murdered at Mass 10 days ago.
Both the church and the bar are very close to the left bank of the Seine River which really snakes through that area of France.
The name of the bar Le Cuba Libre is not a political sentiment, but rather the name of a drink, the one that we in the USA call a “Rum and Coke.” It was invented in 1901 in Havana by American sailors during the Spanish-American War
The bar was located on Avenue Jacques Cartier, named for the great 16th C French explorer who claimed what is now Canada for France.
The 13 fatalities were all young people between the ages of 18 and 25 who were celebrating a Reunion-themed birthday party in the basement.

Joan of Arc was executed in Rouen in 1431. (h/t to Andrew B.)

A new update on the cause of the fire and more from Tom Mellet:

There was no explosion. Birthday candles on a cake started the fire.
Report from a French official:

 . . . the fire was completely accidental. There was no explosion . . . Candles on a birthday cake started the fire after the person who carried it tripped on the stairs leading to the basement” . . . sound-insulating material on the basement's walls quickly ignited and party guests had no time to escape from the basement.

All 13 fatalities were young people between the ages of 18 and 25. They probably all died from smoke inhalation, not burns, as did a 19 year old woman named Joan on May 30, 1431 at a location in Rouen across the Seine River exactly one-half mile!!! north of the Cuba Libre bar at a place called Vieux Marché (the Old Marketplace). 

This proximity is such a tight sympropinquity that I will now measure distance in yards, not miles.

From the Cuba Libre bar, walk 220 yards North on Jacques Cartier Ave. to arrive at the left bank of the Seine River where you cross the Joan of Arc Bridge for 150 yards to reach the right bank where the name becomes Joan of Arc Street. Proceed 500 yards north, make a left on Rue Rollon for 220 yards and you arrive at the spot of Le bûcher the stake where Joan met her fate.

Eyewitnesses described the scene of the execution by burning on 30 May 1431. Tied to a tall pillar at the Vieux-Marché in Rouen, she asked two of the clergy, Fr Martin Ladvenu and Fr Isambart de la Pierre, to hold a crucifix before her. An English soldier also constructed a small cross that she put in the front of her dress. After she died, the English raked back the coals to expose her charred body so that no one could claim she had escaped alive. They then burned the body twice more, to reduce it to ashes and prevent any collection of relics, and cast her remains into the Seine River. The executioner, Geoffroy Thérage, later stated that he "greatly feared to be damned.” Source.

Where have we seen a “tall pillar” before? And in relation to the French? Yes, the tall red pole pictured on Loren's post here from July 17 that represents the discovery by the French explorers in 1699 which gave the name to the capital city of Louisiana: Baton Rouge.

Au Cuba Libre is close to a bakery, as we can see in one of the photographs from the incident. (h/t JP)

Rouen (Latin: Rotomagus) is a city on the River Seine in the north of France. It is the capital of the region of Normandy. Formerly one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe, Rouen was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandyduring the Middle Ages. It was one of the capitals of the Anglo-Norman dynasties, which ruled both England and large parts of modern France from the 11th to the 15th centuries.

In the 2001 movie A Knight's Tale, the protagonist William Thatcher (played by Heath Ledger) poses as a noble and competes in his first jousting tournament at Rouen.

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On the Facebook page, The Kitchen Sync, Eddie Lin wrote:

David Patrick and I were discussing Leto and LEDGEr / joker earlier...
"The incident in Camden on Friday night sent fans over the LEDGE"
I was writing 'Hanging over the LEDGE' comparing Leto Joker's tattoo and Bale's Machinist drawing - the Hangman

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Camden's Ledge

Snoop Dog, a/k/a Snoop Lion was born Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Jr.

At least 42 people were injured when a fence collapsed during rapper Snoop Dogg’s concert in New Jersey Friday night, authorities said.

The incident in Camden on Friday night (August 5, 2016) sent fans over the ledge at the outdoor BB&T Pavilion around 10:25 p.m. ET, fire officials said.

Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa were performing at the time.

Joan of Arc fought under a flag with a lion on it; Heath was in a 1997 tv series Roar; Snoop now goes by Snoop Lion (after Lion of Judah). ~ Johnny Walsh

Peyton Place Copycat Effect

I investigate and try to understand the links between the modeling of suicidal behavior in popular culture and media, such as in movies, and self-deaths that come later. History - in fiction and fact - based on contagion theory - appears to repeat itself.

The suicide cluster of teenagers in the Camden-Rockport-Rockland, Maine, area, during the 1970s and 2000s - often due to death by hanging in their closets - has been of great concern to me for several years. The high suicide rate for Camden's Knox County is likewise troubling.

In 2006, I made a disturbing "coincidental" discovery regarding Peyton Place. The method and location of the suicide depicted in the movie is chilling and significant. The most graphic suicide to be included in a modern American movie up to that time occurred in Peyton Place, a film that changed the subject matter parameters of moviemaking forever. In the plot of the film, the character Nellie hangs herself in her "friend" Connie's teenager daughter Allison's closet.

The motion picture Peyton Place (released December 13, 1957) was filmed in Camden, Maine, and the surrounding New England countryside. References to Maine, such as having the prosecutor (played by Lorne Greene) being sent from Portland, are throughout the film. (Ironically, this is a technical mistake; the prosecutor would have come from Augusta.)

Filming of a scene on Main Street

opposite the Camden Public Library

Photo by E. Hamilton Hall

The movie was directed by Mark Robson, based on the novel of the same title written by Grace Metalious. The top-billed actors were Lana Turner ("Constance 'Connie' MacKenzie"), Lee Philips ("Michael Rossi"), Arthur Kennedy ("Lucas Cross"), Hope Lange ("Selena Cross"), Diane Varsi (Allison MacKenzie), and Betty Field ("Nellie Cross").

Peyton Place is a story about the lives and loves of the residents of a small New England town in the years immediately preceding and following World War II. Behind the town's tranquil façade hides scandal, homicide, suicide, sexual deviance, and moral hypocrisy.

Peyton Place specifically follows the story of Allison MacKenzie, a teenager with dreams of becoming a successful novelist, and her mother Constance "Connie" MacKenzie. Connie has been harboring the secret for years that Allison was born illegitimate from an affair Connie had with a married businessman, and her greatest fear is that Allison will find out the truth about her parentage. Allison's best friend is Selena Cross, who was sexually and physically abused by her stepfather Lucas.

Allison is attracted to Rodney Harrington, the only son of the richest man in town. However, Rodney becomes involved with "good-time girl" Betty Anderson, who becomes pregnant by him; Rodney is eventually killed in a car crash. Selena becomes involved with Ted Carter, but tragedy strikes her: she is raped multiple times by her stepfather Lucas and eventually becomes pregnant. Selena's mother, Nellie Cross, dies by suicide in Connie MacKenzie's house, and her body is discovered by Connie's daughter Allison, traumatizing her.

Those are some of the initial events in the story, according to various summaries easily found online.

A major box office hit, Peyton Place was the second highest grossing film of 1958.

The "real" Peyton Place is not Camden, Maine (the filmsite) or Gilmanton, New Hampshire, where Grace Metalious lived when she wrote the novel. Peyton Place apparently, instead, is a fictional composite of the nearby towns of Laconia, New Hampshire (where Grace Metalious allegedly did most of her drinking), Belmont, Gilmanton and other nearby villages.

Camden, Maine still celebrates its role as the location for the film. For example, the promotional material for the Blackberry Inn notes it hosted the Peyton Place cast party after the filming ended. Other locations around the town are likewise highlighted in printed and online references.

The firstl Camden Film Festival appears to have developed out of the local Chamber of Commerce's interest in celebrating the links Camden has to the original Peyton Place motion picture, when they invited various stars to town. For example, during a more recent Camden Film Festival, held on May 4-7, 2000, several Peyton Place-related lectures and screenings were presented. Also an informative Peyton Place bus tour to locations used in the film was conducted.

Visiting Camden you will be able to locate helpful people who know about the film sites, as well as local resources to assist you.

The Camden Area History Center has maps online (here, here) specifically related to the filmed sites for Peyton Place.


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The above, since edited, was first published on 9/13/2006.

The Copycat Effect

(NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004)