I recently saw the 1935 film version of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy starring Greta Garbo. Besides a tragic love story that left me crying, I found something particularly fascinating, something I had never seen. I was so taken with this, I called Bruce, my husband, in to take a look. (He was reading the newspaper whilst I wept.) In it the butler lights just one candle of a round chandelier. The flame bursts forth then instantly travels along a horizontal ring of wicking that leads to the next candle in succession in the chandelier, thereby lighting all the candles with but one flame. It seemed an ingenious way of lighting all the candles using a connecting ringed wick.
David O. Selznick produced this film as he did Gone With The Wind (GWTW) in 1936. I'm sure he used the same great efforts to make it historically correct for the 1870s as he did for GWTW. Odds are this clever candle lighting was the real deal.
If anyone out there has more info on such a system of candle lighting, please let me know, comment here or email me at graciousjanemarie.com, and I'll spread the word. Wow, a great love story and a fascinating question to boot!
Here is the Amazon.com link to the DVD of Anna Karenina - http://www.amazon.com/Anna-Karenina-Greta-Garbo/dp/B0009S4IIS/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1276461629&sr=1-8
Vivien Leigh also made a version of this film, playing the title role of Anna. It, too, is a wonderful adaptation but I don't remember anyone lighting candles in this fashion.
TATTTCMM! - short for These Are The Things That Clog My Mind! (pronounced Tat-Cum). It can be our secret code for: No wonder Jane Marie is so silly, fascinating and sometimes quite peculiar. :-)
Jane Marie
GraciousJaneMarie.com
graciousjanemarie.com
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