Live Video Presentations
“Cemetery Crawl: Unearthing Parisian Legends”–Presentation on Bonjour Paris on October 30, 2024.
“Remembering D-Day: Operation Double Cross”–Video available on France Today.
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“Walking History: In the Footsteps of Marie Atoinette”–Video available on Bonjour Paris.
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Presentation Topics
These topics are available for presentation. If you are interested, please contact Stew at Stew.ross@yooperpublications.com. If you have a topic request, please contact Stew.
“Cemetery Crawl: Unearthing Parisian Legends”
DON’T ATTEND THIS PRESENTATION unless you want to meet and learn about people with very interesting life stories. They are all buried in various Paris cemeteries and for the most part, have been lost to time. In their day, they were celebrities, entertainers, courtesans, and the infamous. You will be introduced to the builder of the Suez Canal, the man who reshaped Paris, the infamous revolutionary painter who sketched Marie Antoinette on her way to the guillotine, the inventor of the scandalous Can-Can dance, the first Jewish American senator, and a six-generational family of French executioners.
“Operation Double Cross”
This is the story of the five double agents ⏤ three men and two women ⏤ who successfully tricked Hitler and his generals into thinking Pas de Calais would be the landing site for the cross-channel Allied invasion. Separately, each agent developed their own system of hoodwinking the Nazis and their individual German spy-handler. You’ll learn about Tricyle, the flamboyant double agent who served as the model for Ian Fleming’s character, James Bond. One of the double agents, Garbo, was awarded the Iron Cross by Hitler for developing a large network of spies working for him and providing valuable information that was passed on to the Nazis. There was only one problem ⏤ all of his sub-agents were fictional. The most prominent double agent, Brutus, was an SOE agent who was betrayed by his right hand operative, La Chatte (The Cat), before volunteering to be a Nazi spy. Recently declassified documents only now shed light on the entire story of how these five men and women were responsible for saving the lives of thousands of Allied men who participated in the D-Day invasion on 6 June 1944.
“Amazing Women of the French Resistance”
We will visit with some of the most heroic members of the French Resistance and learn how they defied the Nazis during the four years of occupation. They are the women who slipped through the initial grasp of the Gestapo because the Germans never believed women could perform resistance activities like their male counterparts. That is, until so many were betrayed and the Nazis came to realize women were playing a huge role alongside the men. You will meet the women of the British-led Special Operations Executive, a French woman who singlehandedly saved thousands of artworks from falling into the hands of Göring and other high-ranking Nazis, and the White Mouse. These women were Americans, French, British, Belgium, and other nationalities—all of whom knew what the ultimate price would be if caught.
“Charles de Gaulle’s Myths & Legacies: The French Resistance”
General Charles de Gaulle left many legacies. If you have ever visited France and Paris in particular, you’ve likely been a “victim” of at least one legacy (Ha ha, but no, I’m really not kidding). Today, we’ll visit several of those legacies which focus on the French Resistance efforts during the German occupation of France between 14 June 1940 and 25 August 1944. At the end of our discussion, you’ll learn why the de Gaulle legacy you personally experienced no longer exists.
“Coco Chanel: Nazi Spy or Collaborator?”
Was Coco Chanel a Nazi spy or was she merely one of many French collaborators during the German occupation of Paris and France? Learn about Coco’s wartime exploits as well as other prominent French collaborators. We’ll discuss a famous French soccer player who joined the French Gestapo. The French/Vichy prime minister was once Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year” but after the Liberation, he was executed as one of the principle collaborators. Meet Henri Lafont who emptied the French prisons of hardened criminals to form the Bonny-Lafont gang, commonly known as the “French Gestapo.” The famous international athlete and French traitor, Violet Morris, was a frequent visitor to the Parisian lesbian club called Le Monocle. She died in an ambush by a group of résistants.
“The Destruction of Nineteenth Century Paris”
Following its first major building period during the seventeenth century, Paris essentially remained a medieval city up until the mid-1800s when Napoleon III hired Baron Haussmann to shed the city’s medieval cloak and transform it into what we see today: the wide boulevards, roundabouts, parks, and “Haussmannian” buildings. Haussmann literally destroyed much of the city and over a seventeen-year period reconfigured the streets, set the city’s architectural style, and improved the fundamental infrastructure which is still used today. Learn about the lingering controversy surrounding the creation of Paris as we now see it.
“Jacques the Ripper and Other Paris Evils”
Meet four of the most prolific Paris serial killers and the sites where they drew their final breath. During the 14th-century, the Parisian Sweeney Todd sold his scrumptious pâtes and meat pies to everyone in the neighborhood including King Charles VI. Three hundred years later, it became painfully clear to the king and his “favorite” that La Voisin or Catherine Monvoisin had studied the poison recipes of Lucrezia Borgia. By the twentieth-century, two serial killers would grab French headlines. The French Bluebeard built his net worth on the inheritances of his dead wives and girlfriends. Finally, Jacques the Ripper invited his “clients” to his apartment basement right under the nose of the Gestapo during the German occupation of Paris. All of these monsters died either on the Place de Gréve, the Gibet de Montfaucon, or lying down on the guillotine’s plank.
“Marie Antoinette’s Last Ride”
This is the story of the last days of Marie Antoinette and the events that led to her execution. We will take you on a walking tour along the exact route the queen’s cart took to the Place de la Révolution (today it’s known as the Place de la Concorde). Starting in her cell at the Conciergerie, we’ll stop along the way at Robespierre’s apartment, the pharmacy where her alleged lover bought his invisible ink to write love letters to her, and the site where Jacques-Louis David sat and sketched his famous picture of her in the cart. You’ll learn how to distinguish between buildings that were pre-Revolution and post-Revolution. Your tour ends at the exact spot where the guillotine was set-up—it was not in the same spot where her husband was executed ten months earlier.
“Rendezvous with the Gestapo”
This is the story of Sgt. Hilton Hilliard, top turret gunner on a B-17 which was shot down over northern France in 1943. Hilliard was ultimately captured and turned over to the Gestapo in Paris where he was likely tortured, interrogated and imprisoned. Sgt. Hilliard was captured while dressed in civilian clothes. He was lucky not to be executed as a spy. He spent four months in solitary confinement while a “guest” of the Gestapo. He was later sent to a POW camp and remained there for two years. As the Soviet army was advancing west towards the POW camp, the Nazis marched the POWs west where they finally abandoned the prisoners who were picked up by Patton’s Third Army. Sgt. Hilliard was repatriated to the United States where he found employment, married, and raised a family. Unfortunately, Mr. Hilliard suffered from PTSD the rest of his life. He died at the young age of 65.
“The Mindset of Networking®”
The Mindset of Networking® is a proven process which results in increased business for the professional service provider or anyone looking to broaden their base of meaningful contacts. There are specific strategies and tactics to achieve these goals and we will discuss each one. We will also address how to construct an effective “elevator speech” which leads to people actively seeking you out for a meeting. For the professional networker, there are definite networking protocols, and these will be discussed. Be prepared to take your “game” to the next level.
21 January 2019–Article in the Charlotte Sun newspaper. Stew was interviewed by Rick Ramos.
6 January 2019–Article in the Cape Life Section of the Fort Myers News-Press newspaper. Stew was interviewed by Laura Tichy-Smith
Copyright © 2019 – 2024 Stew Ross
