Cora Gordon: A 1940 illustrated talk on "Misadventures with a Donkey in Spain"

In 2009 the descendants of the godson of Jan Gordon followed the route of the Spanish journey undertaken by Jan and Cora Gordon, with their gear in a cart pulled by Colonel Geraldine the donkey. The original story was published in "Misadventures with a Donkey in Spain" (1924) and the story of the 2009 journey is illustrated here.

Colonel Geraldine in full song

I have just seen a remembrance of a talk given by Cora Gordon on this trip, which was accompanied by lantern illustrations. She gave the talk during wartime, on January 18th 1940 at the Bishopsgate Institute, London.

Announcement for Cora Gordon's 1940 talk 
(modified from an image on the Bishopsgate Institute's Facebook page)

I would guess that the lantern images would have included photographs, paintings and etchings like these shown below.

Rambla by Cora Gordon from the "Misadventures" journey.

Paco, the chief of police, plays guitar at José’s in Puerto Lumbreras. “Pepe Macho perched on a superior packing-case high above us”. “some wandering sign-painter had depicted clumsily enough the figure of a semi-nude woman running with a bottle in her hands, her body wrapped round with a flag to advertise some popular brand of anisado.”  See also this and this. 

It is interesting that Cora Gordon was giving talks on this journey so very long after the fact, but I could imagine the presentation being a pleasant temporary escape from wartime worries.




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