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Post by scubalawyer on Jun 19, 2020 6:34:24 GMT -8
Wow, that is interesting! I am continually amazed at the stuff DRW comes up with! Keep it up! Mark
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Post by SeaRat on Jun 19, 2020 10:40:46 GMT -8
Okay, David, it's official. The goggles and mask preceded Fins. It looks like the snorkel also preceded Fins.
Wonderful story.
John
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Jun 19, 2020 12:02:12 GMT -8
Thanks, Mark and John! I found what I think are the full names of the four Pulvénis brothers on a genealogical site: Marie Félix Raymond Pulvenis de Seligny Villemont. Born 22 February 1905. Port. Louis. Isla de Mauricio. Marie Antoine Roger Pulvenis de Seligny Villemont. Born 1906. Pierre Edmond Pulvenis de Seligny Villemont. Born 29 April 1908. Mauricio. Isla de Mauricio. Paul Pulvenis de Seligny Villemont. The "de Seligny Villemont" additional surnames come from the father's surname and the mother's maiden name. Brother "Paul Pulvenis de Seligny Villemont" played only a minor part in the spearfishing story, but he seems to have been a bit of a charismatic character if he is indeed the same person as is mentioned in this Baltimore Sun article below from 27 May 1971: DRW
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Jun 20, 2020 6:05:34 GMT -8
I turned my attention to Pulvenis brother "Pierre Edmond Pulvenis de Seligny Villemont", only to find out that using the latter as a Google search term brought up the following book: The title translates roughly to "True and extraordinary adventures of Pierre-Edmond Pulvénis de Séligny amongst sorcerers of Mauritius". Not your average set of siblings, therefore. I must try and focus on the two principal actors in the spearfishing saga, however, namely Roger and Raymond. I suspect that Raymond had the academic training to write "La chasse aux poissons", having published a treatise on rabbit syphilis in 1934, while his wife had the drawing skills to illustrate his work. Roger had the manual dexterity to devise and fabricate the basic implements of underwater hunting, specifically the mask, snorkel and speargun, and he had the perseverance to bring products from the ideas stage to manufacture and distribution. We'll see when those two books I ordered finally land on my doormat. DRW
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Post by SeaRat on Jun 20, 2020 9:15:22 GMT -8
Wow, that article on the Riviera Rasputin was interesting. Who knows, but interesting reading. I couldn't really read it yesterday, as I only had my iPad and phone to read by. Today, I finally got into the article. It shows that we all have lives outside diving.
John
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Post by nikeajax on Jun 21, 2020 9:15:33 GMT -8
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Jun 23, 2020 6:32:35 GMT -8
Another little tidbit from the research. The French word for "snorkel" is "tuba", a term first used in Raymond Pulvénis's La Chasse Aux Poissons (1940), considered to be the world's first spearfishing book in French: Why "tuba"? Patrick Mouton explains (my translation): "One day, while watching a movie starring a young newcomer named Gary Cooper, the Pulvénis brothers took advantage of the intermission to chat about this “tube” with the unflattering name that might be called, say, 'tuba'… and why not? This is exactly where this little word came from, familiar to all today’s hunters and divers." It has just dawned on me why they called the snorkel a "tuba" after watching a Gary Cooper film. The movie must have been Mr Deeds Goes To Town. Made in 1936, the film's premise (from Wikipedia) is as follows: During the Great Depression, Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper), the co-owner of a tallow works, part-time greeting card poet, and tuba-playing inhabitant of the (fictional) hamlet of Mandrake Falls, Vermont, inherits 20 million dollars (equivalent to US$368 million in 2019) from his late uncle.So Frank Capra's Mr Deeds Goes to Town appears to be the reason why the French call a snorkel "un tuba". As Michael Caine might have said, but didn't, "Not a lot of people know that." DRW
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Post by SeaRat on Jun 23, 2020 8:29:49 GMT -8
"That's what the two policemen said, Sir."
What a hoot! You never know where one thing will influence something totally unrelated.
John
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Post by nikeajax on Jun 23, 2020 9:20:37 GMT -8
DRW, that reminds me of a Turkish film called "Kedi" (kitty) that we saw: Istanbul is know for its cats, as there are so, so many of them there. In one scene a man is taking about how he and his brother loved to watch American movies, and they were so inspired by a Clint Eastwood film with a grave yard in it they decided to make a grave yard for all the dead cats. Each of the cat's graves was marked with a cross, they just thought it was way, way too cool not to recreate for themselves--oh the glory of it all! So when their father came home he flipped out, "Have you converted to Christianity!" "No, Dad, we saw it in a movie..." JB
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