Surprise!
I’m sorry, but I have always found this to be very, very funny.
I bet Bette laughed herself sick as soon as she was out the room, too. And the more you think about it, the richer it gets: imagine the grown adults who sat around and discussed this idea.
“It’s a tricky concept to put across. It could seem, well, almost cruel, you know? We need to get somebody the audience instinctively trusts. Someone maternal and obviously kind.”
“I’ve got it — just the person!”
Merry Christmas!
Later today — The Christmas Intertitle!
December 25, 2011 at 11:49 am
“And in the meantime, I’ll be shagging your husbands stupid at the Hollywood Canteen.”
December 25, 2011 at 12:45 pm
Fabulous!
December 25, 2011 at 2:37 pm
Over at MGM, they do things differently –
December 25, 2011 at 2:51 pm
Who are these children and whatever became of them?
December 25, 2011 at 4:46 pm
Poor Jackie. He was smart enough to offload talking to Mayer onto Norma, but he still had to listen to that pealing little laugh of hers.
December 25, 2011 at 5:25 pm
No, she was a true believer in this. While she probably found this camp and cornball, she believed in supporting the war effort and she did many more live and radio broadcasts of a similar nature. She was also very aggressive in endorsing FDR and Truman on radio too. Face it, she was no saint. But she was active for many causes, causes that would be unpopular four years later in the witch hunt period. Right wingers in 1948 would have agreed with this appraisal of the clip. And remember, in 1943, in an entirely different world from now, Bette was a queen on the screen and women would listen to her. They didn’t know about the affairs or the caustic real life comments. The unholy Baby Jane feud was twenty years away. In those days she was the female Bogart. Let’s give the lady some slack. She tried.
That said, Merry Christmas.
December 25, 2011 at 8:43 pm
I think that’s one of Norma’s best performances, though — in general, the movie is full of little glimpses of actual human behaviour, either from the kids themselves or else triggered by them. Lord know what happened to the kids — I guess Louis B had them shipped back to the salt mines. Except for the poor fat one who probably exploded from all that milk.
December 25, 2011 at 10:06 pm
how extraordinary did MGM do that just for publicity ? did those kids really get a xmas lunch and how were they chosen?
December 25, 2011 at 10:07 pm
re the top on many people react the same way when told they are getting a ‘goat’ for xmas
December 26, 2011 at 12:14 am
MGM loved to boost their family values image… Those are all staged scenes, so who knows whether the kids got fed? At least they got to be in a movie with movie stars.
December 26, 2011 at 3:34 am
Those former kids are all living like kings on the proceeds of their WAR BONDS. Thanks, Bette.
December 26, 2011 at 4:01 am
Not likely. This is what MGM did with people.
December 26, 2011 at 2:57 pm
David E yikkes! but makes sense all those that protest so much about family are usually Up To No Good
December 26, 2011 at 4:10 pm
That’s a fantastic documentary, David. We just saw it recently and were aghast and agog.
December 26, 2011 at 9:42 pm
It’s a genuine eye-opener. MGM chewed people up and tossed them away. If they made money they made sure to get every last dime out of them by any means necessary. That’s how Judy Garland became drug addict. “Protecting” their “properties” was paramount to L.B. Van Johnson was a huge star during the war. After it Mayer decreed that Van get married. He said the only woman he’d consider marrying was his lover Keenan Wynn’s wife. So the Wynns were divorced and “Uncle Van” married the ex-wife.
You can read the whole story in Tracy Keenan Wynn’s memoir “We Have Always Live in Beverly Hills”
December 26, 2011 at 9:43 pm
December 26, 2011 at 9:47 pm
December 27, 2011 at 1:00 am
What an obliging woman Mrs Wynn/Johnson must have been!