Klarinet Archive - Posting 000514.txt from 2003/09

From: Robert Howe <arehow@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Re: Is Paris Burning? Did LeBlanc? Did Chicago? Did London
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 07:30:07 -0400

The book you want is Larry Collins, Dominique LaPierre, "Is Paris Burning?".
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1965; reprint by Castle Books, 2000) This
was in August 1944. It's a great read.

The LeBlanc factory (in Mantes-la-Ville) burned down in 2002.

Chicago, San Francisco, London, Moscow, and many other cities have also
burned to the ground. Sebastopol and Rotterdam were burned by General
Dietrich von Choltitz, who was assigned to Paris for this very reason.
Paris nearly burned to the ground circa 1300 in the Disney cartoon version
of Victor Hugo's "Hunchback of Notre Dame", but I have no reason to believe
a specific historical precedent. Does anyone recall, did not the original
performance of the Handel Fireworks Music, with fireworks, set off a major
conflagration in London?

Curiously, the original title of Hugo's novel was "Notre Dame de Paris", and
did not mention the hunchback.

Enough of an old man's doddering mutters,

Robert Howe

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