Look At Daddy With The Camera And Do That Thing Uncle Eddie Taught You

[poliphilo]

When I was seven I was constantly giving the nazi salute. It was 1958 and the nazis were just about the funniest people on (or off) the planet. Put your forefinger under your nose, extend your right arm and shout "Seig Heil"- it got you a laugh every time. (See the collected works of Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Mel Brooks and other funny men of that generation.)

Whether the then Duchess of York thought she was having a laugh teaching her seven year old daughter to give the nazi salute in 1933 is less certain. The nazis were definitely not as funny then. Or were they? I suppose it depends on who you were and where you were standing. In this case the two Elizabeths were standing next to the then Prince of Wales, who was- famously- a great admirer of little Dolphie.

Edward Prince of Wales was a miserable twerp. We're allowed to say that because the establishment cast him out and might very well- if he'd have been a person of lesser stature- have had him shot as a traitor. Quite what the Queen Mother was is still shrouded in clouds of gin-perfumed mystery. Who the present Queen is we shan't know until years after her death.

Have we the right to see the footage? Hell, yes. These are the people we reward handsomely for graciously reigning over us and I don't see why we shouldn't know what we're getting for our money.

Comments

[lora-diary.livejournal.com]

It's so interesting to read your notes. Thank you. It induce me to think. But unfortunately, I haven't got enought knowledge to understand everything. But I'll do it.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)

[howlin-wolf-66.livejournal.com]

You still don't know what you're getting for your money, though. She was only 7. It has nothing to do with her current reign, at all.

[howlin-wolf-66.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. I can't and won't deny that. :-)

[glitzfrau.livejournal.com]

It's an interesting spin the Sun's put on it. The queen and her mum are innocent, but Edward's a dastard. Apparently Murdoch is agitating for an Australian Republic, hence the anti monarchical stories. This way he remains deferential to the queen, while warning the world that the males of the breed can be a bit rum.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Republicanism is one of the few tastes I share with Murdoch.

The clip could be of great historical significance or just a picture of a group of people arseing about. Either way it gives us a glimpse of something real....

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

I'm a historian and I have one word for what's apparently going on here- context.

The Nazis were not as far on is 1933-Hitler has only just become Chancellor.

Murdoch's a republican and a spiteful little git- I suspect this may well backfire when it hits John Sun reader's incipient royalism.

[howlin-wolf-66.livejournal.com]

Hello. I can't reply to your intro post at your journal because it's currently locked to me... but we have many mutual friends and I always read your comments with interest... I was wondering if you'd like to be friends? I shall add you just in case, if that's OK. :-)

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Hi!
My blog's F-locked and LJ's latest idiocy is to prevent leaving the sticky post open.

Thanks for friending- I've friended back and you should now be able to access! :o)

[howlin-wolf-66.livejournal.com]

Thankyou! :-)

Hope to get to know you better, as we go.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Same name on DW if you use the site.

[howlin-wolf-66.livejournal.com]

I don't. I am exclusively here. :-)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't suppose I care that much about Murdoch's agenda. I'd be very happy for Australia to become a republic- and Britain, too though that is less likely in my lifetime. And if his readers take against Murdoch for what he's told them about their royal family, well, that's a plus too.

Murdoch and the Royal Family, they're both ghastly; but which is ghastlier? There's only one way to find out- Fight!

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree- I'm a republican too and have no time for the royal family but I'd still like some context.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

I recall a Fawlty Towers and John Cleese doing a turn with the Nazi salute. Didn't think it was very funny....but hey, our senses of humor are different.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That episode was about the British obsession with WWII. The hotel has German guests and Fawlty goes round telling the staff not to mention the war but can't help doing it himself. For a Brit brought up on war movies and war comics and war documentaries it rang a lot of bells.

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

I thought it was hilarious.

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

They were still reasonably hilarious in 1933. Unless you lived in Germany.  This story reminds me of one I read recently.  It seems that in the 1940's in the US there were Nazi summer camps for children.  And were apparently quite popular.  These days everyone tries to pretend no one was down with the fascists.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The 1930s was a decade of warring ideologies. You had the fascists and the bolsheviks and, well, I suppose, it all got sorted out in the war. The British Royal family- including the future George VI and Queen Elizabeth- rather favoured the fascists. It's understandable. After all bolshevism was hostile to monarchy and fascism wasn't.

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

Joseph Kennedy (father of President Kennedy), and Lindbergh of course were also quite enamored with them.