# Re-watching My Fair Lady **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [October 9, 2023, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-watching-my-fair-lady/991329 "2023-10-09T20:23:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-watching-my-fair-lady/991329/1 "2023-10-09T20:23:02Z")
Just how rich is Prof Higgins? 2 male and 6 female servants that I counted. Next, Higgins uses “blaggard” several times, which is slang for Blackguard, hmm, isn’t that the sorta thing he hates? I notice that Col Pickering did not wear medals at the ball, but of course he was a Col, and of course had medals he would be expected to wear. And the ending is unsatisfactory. Is Eliza gonna be his helper/friend without pay for the rest of his life? ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-watching-my-fair-lady/991329/2 "2023-10-09T20:55:04Z")
As for the last, anything for love, I suppose. It would have been more satisfying had the end been, “Where are my slippers— ow!” as she pegs one at his head. “Din’t ‘cher learn ennythin’ ya big numpty!” ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-watching-my-fair-lady/991329/3 "2023-10-09T21:03:35Z")
I think “blaggard” is/was the Accepted Pronunciation of “blackguard” rather than a slang term. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-watching-my-fair-lady/991329/4 "2023-10-09T21:07:58Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Is Eliza gonna be his helper/friend without pay for the rest of his life? Of course not. This is a musical. Eliza and Higgins will marry and live happily ever after, until the much older Higgins dies first and Eliza marries Freddy. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-watching-my-fair-lady/991329/5 "2023-10-09T21:21:02Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Next, Higgins uses “blaggard” several times, which is slang for Blackguard, hmm, isn’t that the sorta thing he hates? No, _blaggard_ (ˈblæg ɑrd, -ərd) is the correct pronunciation of _blackguard_. See pronunciation guide at [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com) [BLACKGUARD Definition & Usage Examples | Dictionary.com](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/blackguard) ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-watching-my-fair-lady/991329/6 "2023-10-09T22:55:53Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > And the ending is unsatisfactory. Is Eliza gonna be his helper/friend without pay for the rest of his life? You would probably be much more satisfied with [Pygmalion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_(1938_film)) (1938) with Wendy Hiller as Eliza and Leslie Howard as Higgins. The ending is much more ambiguous as to what the outcome between them will be. Apparently, G.B. Shaw’s play was even more anti-happy ending and Shaw fought against the notion of Higgins and Eliza ending up together. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-watching-my-fair-lady/991329/7 "2023-10-09T23:50:05Z")
A couple o’ notes. When _My Fair Lady_ won a bunch of Oscars in 1957, one of them went to G. B. Shaw for "Best Original Work adapted into a Movie\* or suchlike. At the ceremony, he received the award and said, in effect: “To accept this award means that I understand that the people of the United States have no appreciation or understanding of my work. I accept this award.” Last year I read _Pygmalion_. At the end of the play was a sequel (actually just a few pages of exposition) written by Shaw because so many people wanted to know what happened next. (I’ll try to find my copy and get the publication data for all of you.) So, at the end of the play, everyone has arrived at Higgins’ residence one way or another, and they all leave to attend the wedding of Eliza’s parents. Except Higgins. His mother won’t allow him to come because he always corrects the minister’s speech. Fade out on Higgins alone in his bachelor quarters. Shaw says that: Eliza married Freddy. Freddy’s folks are actually broke themselves, and hoped she had money. They struggle a bit, then the happy couple move in with Higgins and the Colonel. Higgins has been very irritable, because when Eliza left his affairs became disarrayed. So, he’s happy to have them stay. The Colonel makes a gift of a flower shop to Eliza, who manages to run it profitably, with Freddy making the deliveries. All ends much more serenely than one might expect from a Shaw play. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2023, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-watching-my-fair-lady/991329/8 "2023-10-09T23:59:50Z")
Interesting, thank you for that. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-watching-my-fair-lady/991329/9 "2023-10-10T00:07:29Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > When _My Fair Lady_ won a bunch of Oscars in 1957, one of them went to G. B. Shaw for "Best Original Work adapted into a Movie\* or suchlike. At the ceremony, he received the award… Considering that the movie came out in 1964, and Shaw died in 1950, this does not seem very likely. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-watching-my-fair-lady/991329/10 "2023-10-10T00:18:16Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Considering that the movie came out in 1964, and Shaw died in 1950, this does not seem very likely. The prof kinda had it right- In 1938 G.B Shaw provided the screenplay for a filmed version of _Pygmalion_ for which he received an Academy award in 1939 for best adapted screenplay. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-watching-my-fair-lady/991329/11 "2023-10-10T00:35:34Z")
Yeah, I got it mostly wrong, but Wiki has: > [George Bernard Shaw](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bernard_Shaw), [Cecil Lewis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Arthur_Lewis), [Ian Dalrymple](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Dalrymple), and W. P. Lipscomb[[4]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_(1938_film)#cite_note-4) won the [1938 Academy Award for Writing (Adapted Screenplay)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Writing_(Adapted_Screenplay)). The film also received nominations for [Best Picture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Picture), [Best Actor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Actor) (Howard) and [Best Actress](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Actress) (Hiller). Shaw’s reaction to his award was: “It’s an insult for them to offer me any honour, as if they had never heard of me before – and it’s very likely they never have. They might as well send some honour to [George](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_VI) for being King of England.” However, his friend [Mary Pickford](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Pickford) later reported seeing the award on display in his home. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-watching-my-fair-lady/991329/12 "2023-10-10T01:46:40Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Eliza and Higgins will marry and live happily ever after, until the much older Higgins dies first and Eliza marries Freddy. I thought Higgins was supposed to be gay, what with the proudly calling himself a “confirmed bachelor” and spending all his time with another unmarried man his age who he wishes women were more like and what not. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-watching-my-fair-lady/991329/13 "2023-10-10T02:14:51Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > The prof kinda had it right- In 1938 G.B Shaw provided the screenplay for a filmed version of _Pygmalion_ for which he received an Academy award in 1939 for best adapted screenplay. For a long time, Shaw was unique for having both an Academy Award and the Nobel Prize. (Bob Dylan since matched the feat.) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-watching-my-fair-lady/991329/14 "2023-10-10T02:56:47Z")
I am a proud “confirmed bachelor,” and I can assure you it does not necessarily mean a man is gay. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-watching-my-fair-lady/991329/15 "2023-10-10T03:10:31Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I thought Higgins was supposed to be gay, what with the proudly calling himself a “confirmed bachelor” and spending all his time with another unmarried man his age who he wishes women were more like and what not. Higgins might have affairs with women, but only if they had their own place and didn’t try to become part of the main part of his life. Listen to the lyrics of “Let a woman in your life” and tell me this is a man with no experience of women (experience of a certain kind, that is). He was, in other words, compartmentalized, because he couldn’t handle true intimacy. He was willing to be friends with a woman who, he felt, matched him intellectually and in strength, and that’s the feeling he eventually developed for Eliza. Also, I think Pickering was supposed to be about a generation older (Rex Harrison was really too old for the part, Leslie Howard was a better fit, I think, in the 1936 version of Pygmalion.) I would also argue that the man that he wished women would be more like was mostly himself. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-watching-my-fair-lady/991329/16 "2023-10-10T03:22:38Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Just how rich is Prof Higgins? He apparently inherited a lot of money. He got money from his teaching. He got money from his books. Servants were less well paid back then. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-watching-my-fair-lady/991329/17 "2023-10-10T03:37:21Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > I would also argue that the man that he wished women would be more like was mostly himself. That’s the final line to the song: > Why can’t a woman be like me? ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-watching-my-fair-lady/991329/18 "2023-10-10T05:19:38Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I am a proud “confirmed bachelor,” and I can assure you it does not necessarily mean a man is gay. 75 years ago it pretty much did. Today, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-watching-my-fair-lady/991329/19 "2023-10-10T06:49:10Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Listen to the lyrics of “Let a woman in your life” and tell me this is a man with no experience of women (experience of a certain kind, that is). It’s been awhile since I watched it as an assignment in my senior year of high school, but the impression I got was that he’d had a few short and unsatisfying relationships in his youth before he figured some things out about himself, and I didn’t interpret the end as him falling for Eliza so much as realizing he thinks of her as a friend but still being too stubborn to admit it. I did put in the report I wrote about it that Higgins was gay and I got a passing grade, so the teacher apparently didn’t think I was wrong enough to correct me (or maybe she just skimmed it). > [@terentii](#): > > I am a proud “confirmed bachelor,” and I can assure you it does not necessarily mean a man is gay. FWIW, if you look up “confirmed bachelor” on Wikipedia, it redirects to this; > **[He never married](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He_never_married)** > > "He never married" was a phrase used by British obituary writers as a euphemism for the deceased having been homosexual. Its use has been dated to the second half of the 20th century, and it may be found in coded and uncoded forms, such as when the subject never married but was not homosexual. A similar phrase is "confirmed bachelor". > Conventional obituaries concluded with a summary of the members of the immediate family of the deceased, typically the spouse, if surviving, and children. The phr... ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-watching-my-fair-lady/991329/20 "2023-10-10T07:47:52Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > …I didn’t interpret the end as him falling for Eliza so much as realizing he thinks of her as a friend but still being too stubborn to admit it. I’ve noticed that some people tend to misquote the final line of _My Fair Lady_. I’ve seen people quote it as “Eliza, fetch me my slippers”, but that’s not it. Higgins says “Eliza, where the devil are my slippers?” It may not be a huge difference, but I think it’s notable distinction. The first is an order to a subordinate. The real closing line is almost a confession of Higgins’s helplessness without Eliza. It’s interesting to read the description upthread of Shaw’s epilog to the original story, with Higgins’s life becoming disordered after Eliza left. Higgins has come to rely on Eliza, which may be as close to love as he’s capable. It’s still not a hearts-and-flowers, happily-ever-after ending, but it’s not the misery for Eliza that some people make it out to be, either. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-watching-my-fair-lady/991329.md?page=2)