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poliphilo ([personal profile] poliphilo) wrote2006-04-18 09:53 am
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The Fifties

The Frankie and Benny's chain has a 1950s New York theme.

We ate our meal under the gaze of a gallery of entertainment and sports stars. I thought, "This'll be fun; bet I can identify them all..."

I couldn't. I got Sinatra, Durante, DiMaggio and Jackie Mason. Ailz added Rudy Vallee and Mario Lanza. And that was it.

Who were the big palooka with the broken nose and the tiny dame with the corkscrew curls? Looks like they were in love. Beauty and the Beast.

They'll both be dead by now.

I thought I was an expert on mid century pop culture. Seems not.

All those wiseguys with their shiny hair and shiny eyes and shiny teeth. Repellent.

And that got me thinking about Doris Day.

The way you do.

How that unmoving blonde helmet- later made infamous by Mrs T- has to be nastiest hairstyle ever.

Cute little actor, accomplished comedienne, utterly unsexy.

Though I love Que Sera, Sera.

This is the decade I was born into. It couldn't be more alien.
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[identity profile] idahoswede.livejournal.com 2006-04-18 04:48 am (UTC)(link)
Funnily enough, in real life, Doris apparently was no virginal type, although she did pick on men that tended to either beat her up physically or financially.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2006-04-18 07:23 am (UTC)(link)
But few Hollywood stars were very much like their screen selves.

John Wayne dodged active service in WWII

Cary Grant was hopelessly mixed up

and so it goes....

[identity profile] halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com 2006-04-18 11:38 am (UTC)(link)
Yes but - Doris was a true friend. When it was revealed that Rock Hudson had AIDS, Doris stood by him. He made the announcement with her at his side.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2006-04-18 12:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Well done, Doris.

[identity profile] currawong.livejournal.com 2006-04-18 06:35 am (UTC)(link)
My favourite Doris movie is an early one in which she stars with Jack Carson and Dennis Morgan( a greasily handsome Irish tenor). It's called "It's a Great Feeling".

Doris is trying to break into movies, but her talents are so irritatingly awful and the inane way she flutters her eyelids so weird, that she makes a botch of it. Throughout the film she continually threatens to return to Mc Gurkey's Corners and marry the dull, unattractive boy next door. So complete is her failure that she does just that. He turns out to be Errol Flynn, and as she marries him, her eyelids flutter obscenely. I'ts a minor hoot.

I also like the one where Rock PRETENDS to be gay. What was it called?

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2006-04-18 07:26 am (UTC)(link)
Errol Flynn as the boy next door....

Rock pretending to be gay....

I've missed out on some treats!

My favourite (I have to admit I haven't seen many) is That Touch of Mink. It amused me so much I taped it.

[identity profile] halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com 2006-04-18 06:52 am (UTC)(link)
Well, you and I are the same age. And as for Doris Day, she became famous as a singer. And she isn't one of my favorites, but I feel you are very unkind - she didn't ALWAYS wear her hair in the blonde helmet. And she was in a Hitchcock movie, opposite Jimmy Stewart, and she wasn't so bad.

The big palooka with the broken nose - maybe Joe DiMaggio and his one and only true love? (Surely you know who that was.)

the 50's are remembered as a great deal of fun. Not so much, I think.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2006-04-18 07:29 am (UTC)(link)
No, she was fine in The Man Who Knew Too Much- that's the one where she gets to sing Que Sera.

Actually I admire her acting. It's just that I don't remotely fancy her.

No, the palooka wasn't Joe. I know what Joe looks like. And the woman with him was a brunette.
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