#project1952 day 2

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Day Two- TV and Radio 

TV: 

I Love Lucy, season 1, episode 13, “The Benefit.” Jan 7th 

The Today Show, very first opening segment and weather report. Jan 14th. 

Radio:  

Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch, Jan 5th. “Twelfth Anniversary Show.” 

The Big Show, episode 42, Jan 6th.  

Tallulah Bankhead is one of my favorite humans. Brash, outrageous, and smart as a whip with an impressive collection of witticisms to her name. She was also brazenly open about her bisexuality throughout her career, spanning the 1920s-1950s.  

She hosted The Big Show on NBC, a radio show meant to compete with the exploding growth of television. It was a lavish variety show overflowing with stars and music. At the start of the each show, she was accurately introduced as “the glamourous unpredictable, Tallulah Bankhead!” I heard once that some queer women of the day would gather and listen to the show together. I love imagining that!

Some of my favorite Tallulah quotes:  

“My father warned me about men and booze, but he never said a word about women and cocaine!”

“I’m as pure as the driven slush.”  

“I’ve tried several varieties of sex. The conventional position makes me claustrophobic, and the others either give me a stiff neck or lockjaw.” Legend. 

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"Ok, Cigarette Girl, look at William here with girlish charm and adoration... uh... Really? That’s what you got?”

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Wait- you wanna know what, now?

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Motion Picture and Television Magazine, January 1952. Actress Jane Powell has the best parenting advice! "Babies are people!"

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Day Two- Film: The Greatest Show on Earth 

Release date: January 10th, 1952 

Studio: Paramount 

Genre: Drama 

Director: Cecil B. DeMille 

Producer: Cecil B. DeMille 

Actors: Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, Charlton Heston, James Stewart 

Plot Summary: A circus is losing money and must shorten its season if it cannot bring in a profit. When legendary trapeze artist The Great Sebastian (Wilde) agrees to join, the season is saved. A dramatic triangle plays out between Sebastian, circus boss Brad (Heston), and trapeze artist Holly (Hutton).

My Rating (out of five stars): ***½  

Trigger warnings: Clowns. Lots and lots of creepy clowns. Also, lines of dialogue like, “A girl may say no, but the woman in her means yes.” Oh, and the most horrifying train crash you can image, which gets even worse when you realize that already exploited and abused circus animals are injured or killed or trapped in the wreckage. So there’s that... 

This is the kind of film Hollywood made in the 1950s to desperately try to pull audiences away from their television sets. It’s epic and splashy, but it ends up being more style than substance. To use a circus metaphor, it’s like eating a big bag of candy- fun to gorge on in the moment, but afterwards you get a sugar hangover and don’t really remember much about what it tasted like. 

The color was gorgeous, and the acrobatics were impressive. Betty Hutton learned to do quite a bit of trapeze work, so mad props to her. Mad props also to the person who decided to put Cornel Wilde in skin-tight leotard leggings with a bare chest. The plot was rather predictable, unfortunately, and the structure and pacing were questionable. The long scenes of circus acts that appeared throughout helped distract from that, though.  

A running monologue of my thoughts during the film: 

“Oh god, not another creepy clown!” 

“I really want popcorn now. Why don’t we have any popcorn?” 

“I think that’s basically sexual harassment, there.” 

“Don’t think about animals being abused... don’t think about animals being abused...” 

“Cornel, get into your leotard again!” 

“That is the Worst-est Rear-Projection on Earth!” 

“You already warned us about how deadly flying without a net is. Ten times already!” 

“No! Don’t drink from that mug, it’s got lead in it!” 

"I’m really mad we don’t have any popcorn in this freaking house!” 

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Day Two- “Now we’re cooking with Gas!” 

50s slang of the day: “Boy, that guy’s a real pigeon!” (I think it means gullible?) 

Best/Worst quote: “A girl may say no, but the woman in her means yes.” OHMYGOD 

Song of the day: “Comes-a-Long-a-Love" by Kay Starr. This song effin’ SLAPS! Starr sang a mixture of jazz and pop- her voice is fantastic and equally perfect for jazzy numbers or ballads. She only released 4 singles in 1952- I’ll damn well check out her other years once I can leave 1952. 

Highlights: 

The glamourous Tallulah Bankhead extolling the virtues of cooking with Reynolds Wrap to avoid “oven shrinkage," darling! 

A story on The Today Show about exploding Rayon sweaters that are being recalled 

The GOAT of all GOATs in sitcoms, I Love Lucy 

Cornel Wilde wearing skin-tight leotard bottoms

This exchange from The Greatest Show on Earth:

Woman #1 (while washing her hair): Why is it whenever he’s around I’m always wet? 

Woman #2:  In more ways than one! 

What ways?! This is a 1952 Hollywood film, so I know it can’t be what I’m thinking! 

Lowlights: 

Clowns 

Traumatizing train crashes in movies that force you to repeat to yourself, “This is just a movie! This is just a movie! It’s not real!”