One of my favorite movies is BRINGING UP BABY. I first remember renting it as a VHS Beta movie when my kids were small. We didn't have much money and for long winter evenings and weekends we would prowl the $1 a night Video-store for the latest fare. Kids today have no idea of what I am talking about.
After it appeared that we had seen all the movies I thought fit for my 6 and 2 year old to see, we had to start going back in time. Always a Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn fan, I checked out, among others, BABY!
You can imagine the shock of the kids having to watch a black and white film but soon they settled down. It started with a chuckle, then a laugh and soon we were literally rolling on the floor with laughter. It was silly of course but had not a dirty word, with only slight sexual innuendos an adult would understand. Probably PG today. We laughed at screamingly funny scenes as they wrestled with first "Baby" and finally a wild "Baby" who escaped from the circus. After it was done we were so weak with laughter they begged to see it again. And in truth we had missed dialogue through the gales of laughter. It became a family favorite.
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| As you can see "Baby" is no baby! |
Now, many years later I again have been drawn to movies from the 30's and 40's. It just seems to be such a simpler time. After watching the nightly news you are weak from incredulity. When you meet up with friends and even hint at talking about the daily debacle they hold up their hands and change the subject.
Anyway, after months of looking I finally found BABY in a collection of romantic comedies. Sitting in my lounge chair, popcorn and lemonade in hand, I prepared to "see" if BABY was as funny, as compelling 40 years later. It was.
It started with a chuckle, then a laugh and soon I was gasping for air as I laughed. It IS silly and maybe predictable only when it isn't. They made a great team and again, I fell in love with it all over again.
However, I would be remiss if I also didn't note that besides the silliness of the film, the fantasy of their lives. Few people had a home like her aunts or lived in an apartment like hers. That wouldn't happen until the Golden 50's. It was a vision of what was to be but that most might never see.
Doing some fact finding I found out the facts of what life was like during the last 1930's:
YEAR UNEMPLOYMENT GDP
1937 14.3% 5.1%
1938 19.0% -3.3%
1939 17.2% 8.0%
1940 14.6% 8.8%
Not a pretty picture, or, at least as pretty as this film. I guess we have to remember films in that era were trying to take people's minds off the economy and tickets were 25¢ or so and you could smoke! There were even prizes to lure patrons in. Cheap carnival glass was collected by all.
On the other side of the DVD was THE PHILADELPHIA STORY that was even more illuminating. Again it chronicles the rich and "their ways." It begins with a scene of a husband and wife battling each other. She gives him his golf clubs taking one and dropping the bag before he can grab it. Then she takes the club and breaks it in half over her knee. He in turn puts his hand over her entire face and pushes her back through the front doorway. Definitely not PC but it got laughs in its day.
You soon learn they are now divorced, something rare in that era but seemingly normal with the rich. Also, the father has a mistress in town and everyone knows and not much is said. There are many shenanigans and soon a reporter played by James Stewart (who won an Oscar for this role) and a photographer played by Ruth Hussey appear to "cover" the upcoming wedding. There is a house less than 1% of the American people could afford let alone visit at the time and you learn the Hussey's role also had been divorced, something Stewart didn't know.
There is a pre-bridal party the night before the wedding and the bride has several dressing downs about her attitude from her father and ex. She drowns her sorrows by getting too drunk. Stewart brings her home, they swim and as they go to bed the groom and ex-husband spot them.
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| After the swim and off to bed. |
Late the next morning the bride wakes up, most of the cast is there as she reads a note from her groom. In reading that aloud and then in the grooms presence, he is shocked she would read it to them and yet in the wording you realize the differences of the values of the rich and middle class. The groom was convinced Stewart had seduced his bride but nothing happened. I paused it as I remembered a lecture of my sociology professor in college. He told us the values of the very rich and very poor are quite similar, primarily because the rich spent little time with their children and their children were raised by poor maids, nannies and such. Societies norms are created and upheld by the middle classes. The groom raised poor had worked hard to move up in the world but his family values were still in place and middle class.
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| The letter! |
Cultures and societies are designed one way or another. There have always been a servant, plebeian class strikingly shown in Ancient Rome. The kings and queens of Europe, Emperors in Asia and the Emirs of the Middle East all had classes. The America's were not immune either. England's may have been the most rigid though I also learned that class was alive and well in Germany today.
Today we face great turmoil between the haves and have-nots. Much of our economy, not only here but in Europe and Asia is controlled by a very few, the very few you will see in these films and a new one not yet seen but clearly understood, CRAZY RICH ASIANS.
If there is anything I've taken from these films, besides some laughter, is that the grim cycle of the 30's is being repeated again in our era. The only thing we don't know, though maybe we do, is what happens next. I repeat Edmund Burkes 1795 statement, "For evil to persist, good men need do nothing." The disparity between the classes around the world is growing and the only question is for how much longer?
Thank you for reading my blog. I invite you to take the time to read earlier blogs where my emphasis is to explore the ways art and design affects our daily lives ... and always has. I share with you what inspires me with the hope that it will inspire you as well. Comments are always welcomed!
Be sure to check my ETSY store ... KrugsStudio.etsy.com. I am adding many new and exciting, collectible birdhouses and craft items. Many of the items talked about here will be for sale there!
Check out some new painted quilt designs and pieces embracing some natural items found in nature.
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