The voice of a Psycho killer
QUESTION Who provided the voice of Norman Bates’s mother in the Psycho films?
Psycho was Alfred hitchcock’s disturbing 1960 adaptation of Robert Bloch’s novel about multiple personality disorder.
We watch in horror as the identity of mild-mannered Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) slips and merges with that of his mother, Norma, whose mummified corpse is in the fruit cellar.
Three actors provided the voice of Norma Bates. Virginia Gregg appeared in just about every major TV series you can think of in the 1950s, 1960s and into the 1970s. often playing the part of a detestable witch or sneaky neighbour, she said that casting agents would only send for her ‘whenever they needed a woman who looked like the wrath of God’.
Painter and illustrator Paul Jasmin, who amused his friends by putting on a shrill, shrewish voice and pretending to be an old woman, was recommended to hitchcock by Perkins.
Jeanette Nolan made her film debut as Lady Macbeth in orson Welles’s 1948 film before making more than 300 TV appearances in shows such as columbo, Perry Mason and Dr Kildare. her real-life husband John McIntire also appeared in Psycho, playing sheriff chambers.
The voices of Gregg, Jasmin and Nolan were mixed together to create the disturbing, shifting sound of Mrs Bates. however, Norma’s chilling final speech was Virginia Gregg alone.
Ian MacDonald, Billericay, Essex.
QUESTION What is the oldest card game?
The earliest game for which we know the rules is the 15th-century German game Karnoffel, but historians believe cards are far older.
Those who favour a chinese origin point to su e’s description of Princess Tong cheng playing the Leaf Game with her husband’s family, the Wei clan, in AD 868.
Modern scholars suggest this was more like a board game where the cards acted as counters, which were moved in response to dice throws.
cards probably arrived in Italy and spain in 1370 via egypt and quickly spread throughout europe.
In 1377, Dominican friar John of Rheinfelden wrote the earliest description of playing cards.
he described a deck as consisting of four suits with 13 ranks, with the top three (corresponding with modern court cards) depicting a seated king (Konig), an upper marshal (ober), who holds his suit symbol up, and an under-marshal (Under), who holds his symbol down.
Karnoffel was first played in Nordlingen,
Bavaria, in 1426. It was a trick-taking game played by four players using a deck of 48 cards, where aces had been removed in the swiss and German fashion.
German- suited cards at the time consisted of acorns, leaves, hearts and hawk bells.
Players were dealt five cards each and a suit was elected trumps. The hierarchy of trick-taking power began with the unter trump (the Karnoffel), followed by the seven trump, known as the devil; six trump, the pope; and two trump, the high king.
The origin of the name Karnoffel is uncertain. It may be related to the Persian game Kanjifeh ( kanj means treasure), although this isn’t referenced until the 1450s.
Simon Knight, Ludlow, Shropshire.