Okay, I mentioned to you that I was middle-aged, so some stuff I bring up may be dated to the toddlers out there but relevant to theatre, TV and movie buffs of the bygone 20th century.
I love film noir. Those folks knew how to smoke. There was an aplomb to it. Bette Davis had it down pat—a gorgeous smoker. Claudette Colbert had the best American diction I had ever heard and Greer Garson just oozed class. But a big inspiration for “A Whistling Girl And A Crowing Hen Always Come To No Good End” was seeing the film “Once Is Not Enough” based on the Jacqueline Susann novel. The film was released in 1975 and I was a teenager. It was a double bill with Diana Ross in “Mahogany”. These were the first R-rated films I had ever seen, yet not 17 years old. I wasn’t all that intrigued by the minimal gay content in “Mahogany” but when Alexis Smith and Melina Mercouri (draped in towels) were lesbian lovers in “Once Is Not Enough” I flipped my teenage pituitary glands. My body felt nuts! But it wasn’t the first and last time I felt that way. I can’t tell you about the first time yet. I’m thinly veiling that in fiction in my next book.
That feeling re-emerged during many visits to the movies, thereafter. I’ll tell you in time. But I must sneak in “The Great Lie” with Bette Davis and Mary Astor (1941). George Brent could have stayed missing and dead in the jungle. “Who every heard of an ounce of brandy!” That “Once Is Not Enough” movie feeling lingered on and on. Now you’re thinking, I’m another sorry sister who lives her life through movies. Not so. I don’t have any cats and even though I don’t date anymore (as you already know from previous entries) I have crazy, wild memories that people love to hear about when I chat around the fireside on the net. After all is said and done, you’ll be saying to yourself Paisley’s had a full life and not be wondering why I don’t date. I had to come up for air sometime. Plus, I participated in sports—yikes but not the college revelation sexual brouhaha. I was hip to my feelings long before that, but wasn’t conflicted by it. For the record I was never conflicted; nature took it's course and I did what I did as nature called me.
I went to the prom in high school with a guy and it was fine. We were an interracial couple. His father and stepmother were an interracial couple. I had a boyfriend in kindergarten. We were an interracial couple and would kiss in the police booth on the corner. We were too short and small to be seen. As it stands now, I have no connection to people of my past. I’m a realist—the masquerade is over and so is love. (Guess that song lyric…)
Do you every wonder what it would have been like to have Lana Turner as your woman?
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
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