I just realized recently that all three actors in the original Broadway lyrics to Grease’s “Look At Me, I’m Sandra Dee” (Troy Donahue, Rock Hudson and Sal Mineo) were gay (and closeted at the time that Grease was supposed to be set (and for at least one of them, at the time that Grease was written and produced)). I’m pretty sure that was intentional, given that one of the writer/composers of the show was gay. Otherwise, it’s a pretty incredible coincidence.
(The movie substituted Elvis for Sal Mineo, which completely breaks the concept…I’m guessing some executive at Paramount was a lot quicker on the uptake than I was.)
I don’t think it’s a stretch – there are more unlikely links, after all. As it happens, that isn’t actually the origin of Tom and Jerry, though.
The original Tom and Jerry were the heroes of Life in London or, the Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn, esq., and his elegant friend, Corinthian Tom, accompanied by Bob Logic, the Oxonian, in their rambles and Sprees through the Metropolis* by Pierce Egan who were hugely popular characters in stories and plays on both sides of the Atlantic from the 1820s on.
Their fame may have faded by the 1940s, but the cocktail was still well-enough known to make Tom and Jerry obvious names for a pair of characters.
Popularly shortened to “Tom and Jerry”, and no wonder.
Watching part of 1970s “The Pallisers” miniseries last night for the 3rd or 4th time made me realize something about “Brideshead Revisited,” which I’ve seen/read dozens of times.
In the Pallisers series, Plantagenet’s and Glencora’s eldest son is also named Plantagenet after his father. When the father becomes a Duke, the son becomes the Earl of Silverbridge, and his parents, brother, and sister all call him “Silverbridge” thereafter.*
It’s only just occurred to me that it’s the same thing with Bridey in “Brideshead Revisited”–he’s the Earl of Brideshead; “Bridey” is a nickname his family call him based on his title, and not his actual name. We never do learn his real name.
*In the miniseries, Silverbridge is played by Anthony Andrews, and his chum from Oxford whom he goes to Venice with is Jeremy Irons, which never ceases to amuse me.
Large numbers of the characters are named after flowers. Even some that aren’t thought to be, are: Remus’s last name is Lupin, which means a kind of flower as well as wolf. Lupin’s name also resonates with Arsene Lupin, one of the earliest (if not the earliest) gentleman thief characters.
[hijack]
And don’t forget…
Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore
Riding through the night
Soon every lupin in the land
Will be in his mighty hand
He steals them from the rich
And gives them to the poor
Mr. Moore, Lupin donor, Extraordinare
[/hijack]
“He steals from the poor and gives to the rich - stupid bitch!”
Speaking of Monty Python, I had seen “Holy Grail” about a million times before I noticed just what kind of “scientific experiment” that Sir Bedimere was performing at the start of the witch burning scene. (It’s a running in-joke in the movie.)
I was reminded the other day of how long it took me to realize that when Richie Aprille on The Sopranos talks about Nigerians, he is, in his own droll way, being polite.
And of course, that same scene has been referenced repeatedly in Marvel, specifically X-Men comics, when characters who were thought dead make a reappearance:
I didn’t realize till I read this post that not only did Billy Joel get the people and events mentioned in We Didn’t Start the Fire to rhyme and line up with the music, but he did it in chronological order. I don’t see how that is even possible.
I had to look up Quahog to even know that it wasn’t just a made up name.
The hard clam (Mercenaria mercenaria), also known as a quahog (or quahaug), round clam, or hard-shell (or hard-shelled) clam, is an edible marine bivalve mollusk which is native to the eastern shores of North America,
As you note, this scene showed that the three characters had been seeking something that they already had. They just needed to realize they had what they wanted.
The fourth character was Dorothy. She wanted to go home. But as the final scene of the movie showed, she already was home - she just needed to wake up and realize it.
The Wizard was Dorothy’s sub-conscious trying to tell her that Oz wasn’t real.
Well, maybe, but this isn’t “obvious” and is open to interpretation. It’s possible that the celebration of Christmas as a winter gift-giving holiday is due to Muggle influence, and that it has no religious or historic significance for wizards. All we really hear about is Christmas parties and gifts. This makes sense, as regardless of the reasons behind the holiday that’s what kids (both the characters and the core audience for the books) would be interested in, but we’re not given enough information to know what if any deeper significance Christmas holds for wizards.
While it may seem odd to suggest that a culture would celebrate the birth of a religious or historic figure who isn’t important to them, this is basically the way Christmas is celebrated in Japan. I used to live in Japan, and it was kind of weird to go shopping and see Christmas decorations and hear the Beatles singing “Christmas Time is Here Again” when this holiday is of no religious significance to the vast majority of the Japanese population (Japan is maybe 1% Christian) and has no traditional cultural significance there either. Kids get a present from Santa, and adults may go to a party or out on a date kind of like for New Year’s Eve in the US, and that’s about it.
Didn’t the Potterverse of Magic separate from the regular universe sometime in the Middle Ages? A quick look at the Potter Wikia, says that in 1692, the “International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy was laid down by the International Confederation of Wizards to safeguard the wizarding community from Muggles, and hide their presence from the world at large.” That’s why their “technology” is Middle Age based but with advances not influenced by regular “muggle” science. While most of what we consider “Christmas traditions” only date back a few centuries, Christmas has been celebrated in one form or another for much longer.
