I have a reason for asking this: I’m in a production of You Can’t Take It With You, which was written and set in 1934. Two of the characters, rather stereotypical when they were written, were a “sassy colored maid” (that’s how she’s described in the Dramatis Personæ) and her husband, and at one point the mother of the family says “They make such a cute couple… just like Porgy and Bess!”
This doesn’t work for two reasons in our production: first, it’s a tad racist, and second, they’re both played by white actors. (Both are 20 something, she is very tall and stout and speaks with a sort of Bronx accent and he is shorter, good looking [sorta Gary Sinise-ish] and speaks with a stupid displaced redneck accent.)
I originally suggested a change to Gable & Lombarde, but they weren’t wed until 1939; Rhett & Scarlett didn’t appear until 1936. Astaire & Rogers first movie was in 1933 but they weren’t really a huge “Fred & Ginger” team yet, and the director was afraid nobody would recognized “Fairbanks & Pickford” or “McDonald & Eddie” (which I can’t imagine them not recognizing Pickfair especially, but be that as it may). Thinking of other well known couplings of the time I suggested “They make such a cute couple… just like Charlie Chaplin and a fifteen year old bimbo!”, but that was tossed right out as well.
So, can you think of any twosomes that most Americans in 1934 would have thought of as an item and most Americans in 2004 would still recognize? It can be from movies, books, musicals, etc., but preferably not from anything high-brow (i.e. no Romeo & Juliet or Tristan & Isolde).
Oh, man…you have got to go with “Laurel and Hardy.” It’ll bring down the house.
“A laugh is nothing to be sneezed at.” – Greenberg, To Be Or Not To Be (1942)
How about Nick and Nora Charles? The Thin Man was released in 1934 (in late June), and was a big hit. Nick and Nora are probably better known today than William Powell and Myrna Loy.
Thanks for all these. I’m really going to push for Laurel & Hardy because, among other reasons, Oliver Hardy grew up in the town where this production is being staged. (Ollie is also my dog’s name because he was born on the street where Hardy lived.) If that’s a no-go, my favorites are Lunt/Fontanne & Nick/Nora.
If Laurel and Hardy doesn’t fly, I think Nick & Nora would be the best. Maybe it’s just my experience, but they are, again, IME, more recognizable than Fontaine & Lunt.
I personally think this would be hilarious. Probably because I’m imagining my grandma making a bestiality joke. “Oh, but,” she says, as she sets aside her church bulletin, “they make such a cute couple! Just like Tom Mix and his horse!” And everyone knows grandmas don’t have senses of humor . . . they just make cookies and give you cash on your birthday.
When I directed the play a few years ago, I had the same problem. I changed the couple to Irish (Patrick and Bridget) and I had the Mother saying “Romeo and Juliet” for the simile about the couple and then I had Grandpa say something to the effect of “…and that ended so well.”
I was in a production of Arsenic & Old Lace last year and changed several lines because most of the audience didn’t have a clue who the references were too. At one point Mortimer tells his aunts “take off those black dresses- you look like Judith Anderson” (dead silence on the first two nights) and says of a bad play “It’s as if Strindberg had written Hellzapoppin!” (cricket…cricket… cricket…). They got a slightly better response when I changed them to “you look like Queen Victoria!” and “It’s as if Edgar Allen Poe had written 42nd Street”.
By far my favorite part of that production were the family photos, all of which were in-jokes. The book calls for assorted family photos and portraits of early Brewster ancestors which are referred to in the play, while several times one of the leads is said to resemble Boris Karloff (an in-joke as he played the role originally). The portraits I hung on the set were all a rogues gallery including the poisoner Lucrezia Borgia (as a Brewster ancestress). Rev. Samuel Parris (the Salem Witch Trials villain), Teddy Roosevelt with his daughter Alice on her wedding day (TR wasn’t a villain but he’s important in the play and from the audience it just looks like a vague b/w wedding photo of the sort you’d see in any old home), a portrait of Lizzie Borden & her sister which looked amazingly like younger versions of the actresses playing Abbie and Martha, and the pizza de resistance: a grainy portrait of a bearded Boris Karloff in a doctor’s robe as the sisters’s father (a doctor) and for their mother a picture of Karloff in drag (can be seen here) used with the very gracious e-mailed permission of Karloff’s daughter Sara (as a librarian I’m anal about the “only use artworks in the public domain or secure the permission of the owner” thing). The audience didn’t know what they were of course, but I had fun with it and the set looked great.
