And the Tom Courtenay and Julie Christie movie before it.
42, read “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” in high school English class. I also read “The Thurber Carnival” and particularly enjoyed the story about the dog that bit people, as well as “The Night the Bed Fell.”
I watched that when it was on. Bait for your average Doper: it stars Commodore Decker as the Thurber character.
I need to rewatch them, since I was too young to get all the nuances the first time. Him walking through his cartoon wife’s mouth in your clip is so Thurber.
I knew him, of course, but thanks to the influence of my mother I read widely of lots of comic writers of the time - not just Thurber but Benchley, Leacock, and my favorite to this day, S. J. Perelman. And eventually Finlay Peter Dunne’s Mr. Dooley pieces. And I’ve know who Walter Mitty is as long as I can recall.
If I ever read any Thurber I forgot able it long ago. I have seen parts of the Danny Kaye movie years ago. But I thought Walter Mitty as a concept was widely known. I’m 46.
I believe the British military calls military posers and embellishers “Walt” but from the same source.
I don’t know anything about the Danny Kaye movie, but I’m surprised you don’t know the short story. We have nearly identical educational backgrounds, and I could swear I was subjected to that boring piece of dreck multiple times before graduating high school. It was often in the same section as good ol’ J Alfred Prufrock and A Rose For Emily. Snoozeville.
(39, educated in suburban public schools outside of Chicago)
I was a Creative Director, in Advertising. I felt relevant because I was part of the coveted 18-49 year old American Male demographic. I knew how to make ads that appealed to ME, and that’s what mattered. Until suddenly I was in my 50s…
BTW, I was (and still am) a HUGE Thurber fan. But reading this thread, I don’t mind that they grafted the W. Mitty name onto a movie, if it doesn’t mean that much to the potential audience.
I just saw the DVD in Walmart yesterday. Apparently it was released earlier this month.
I’m a 31 year old American and I’ve never heard of Walter Mitty, James Thurber, or Danny Kaye.
You’re probably conflating him with Frank Nitti.
- Don’t recall it’s ever being assigned reading in school, but I’m pretty sure I read it before I reached junior high.
We did Rose for Emily, but not Prufrock in high school (that I did in college in an Eliott class.)
Well, the hole isn’t as big as I thought it would be, so I’m filing it under “small perforation in my cultural knowledge.”
Then you don’t know that the pellet with the poison’s in the vessel with the pestle and the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true?
I’ve never been in the military; gather, though, that on the whole, folk in that line despise behaviour of the kind mentioned here – in the main, the more truly heroic military types have been, the less they’re inclined to talk about it.
From your name on the board, though; do I guess rightly, that you’re a fan of Harry Turtledove’s “Darkness” novel series?
Awesome! Thanks!
Nope, I was a big pot head when I joined the board, hence the name. I don’t really smoke anymore though, so it might be time for a change.
I’m a 53 year old American and I envy anyone who didn’t have his childhood TV viewing stunk up by Danny Kaye.
52 - I’m a Thurber fan and a Danny Kaye fan and would’ve expected almost everyone on the Dope to know who Walter Mitty was. Just common knowledge.
StG