Dolly Shot

DOLLEY MADISON was the wife of the fourth U. S. president, James Madison. Mr. Madison, often called the “Father of the Constitution,” married the widowed Dolley in 1794, after being introduced by Aaron Burr. During the administration of Thomas Jefferson, Madison was the Secretary of State, and Dolley served as hostess for the White House. When Madison was elected to the presidency in 1808, Dolley became the model of the society-minded First Lady, holding court over a vibrant social scene in the new nation’s capital. During the War of 1812, while Madison was out of town with the army, a British force overwhelmed Washington and torched the White House. Dolley grabbed as many things of value as she could and escaped, making her a national hero.

Dolley Madison entertained political dignitaries in the 19th century, and the musical play Hello, Dolly! entertained American audiences for the second half of the 20th century. In 1964 CAROL CHANNING starred on Broadway as Dolly Gallagher Levi, a matchmaker trying to find herself a husband. Channing won a Tony Award that year, beating out BARBRA STREISAND, who had been nominated for Funny Girl. When the movie version of Hello, Dolly! came out in 1969, Channing was passed over and the part went to Streisand, who had just won an Oscar for the film version ofFunny Girl (1968). In the end, the movie version of Hello, Dolly! was a dud, and Channing performed the part on stage for the rest of her career.

Entertainer DOLLY PARTON started writing songs when she was a kid, which led to singing on the radio and moving to Nashville to start a career in country music. A regular on Porter Waggoner’s syndicated television show, Dolly started having hit records in the 1960s. On her own in the 1970s, she had a string of country and pop hits, including “Jolene” and “Here You Come Again.” Then Parton proved herself in the movies, making her debut in 1980’s 9 to 5 and appearing in 1989’s Steel Magnolias. Her main career has always been music, however, and she continues to release records of country, pop and bluegrass. Nobody’s fool, Dolly also owns Dollywood, a theme park in her native Tennessee.

To some people, the idea of good country-western music is as alien as the ideas of the surrealist painters of the early 20th century. SALVADOR DALI is probably the most famous of the surrealists, in spite of the fact that he split from its adherents before World War II. Dali’s flamboyance was as famous as his paintings, and he seemed to celebrate celebrity itself. By the time of his death in 1989, he was one of the most recognized painters in the world, his face as familiar as his paintings.

In Tibetan Buddhism the spirit of Avalokitesvara, the Buddha of Compassion, occupies the body of a chosen individual called the DALAI LAMA. The current Dalai Lama is the fourteenth incarnation of Avalokitesvara, and is the spiritual and political leader of Tibet. But since 1959, when the Chinese invaded and occupied Tibet, the Dalai Lama has been a leader in exile. He travels the world and speaks out for human rights, rubbing elbows with celebrities and politicians alike.

The first mammal successfully cloned from fully developed cells was DOLLY THE SHEEP, born in July 1996. In February of the following year, PPL Therapeutics and the Roslin Institute of Edinburgh, Scotland officially announced the existence of Dolly, whose genetic source was a six year-old sheep. Previous successful cloning involved unspecified embryonic cells, but Dolly was cloned from fully developed, mature cells. Subsequent test revealed that Dolly’s genetic code matched that of her source. She was euthanized in 2003, when she was just 6 years old, when it was determined she had a progressive lung disease.

(Photo by Toni Barros)