Baby, Take a Bow

Today is a very happy day, although it is laced with a little bit of sadness with the news that Shirley Temple Black died yesterday (see obituary HERE). At the same time, though, I'm glad that today gives people an opportunity to celebrate Shirley Temple's life. Her cheerful disposition was welcomed into a lot of homes and hearts, including mine.

The other reason that today is happy is that we learned we are expecting a girl! We had an ultrasound appointment this morning, and we even let Sam skip the first part of school so he could come as well. As I watched this Shirley Temple clip later this afternoon, after the appointment, I couldn't help but think about how it will be fun to have a darling girl (who may or may not wear frilly dresses with poofy slips, just like some of her S family aunts did when they were little). And I'm especially excited to have a girl who loves her daddy as much as I love J. I want to teach her the following song, so she can call J her "big old handsome Romeo." This song, "Baby, Take a Bow" is from the movie Stand Up and Cheer (see Shirley Temple's entrance at 3:22):



And now, here's our own little baby, undoubtedly with her own little bunch of personality. "I'm presenting her right now: Baby, take a bow!"

"Bedknobs and Broomsticks" and "The Little Princess"

I have had two songs stuck in my head over the past few days: "Eglantine" and "Old Kent Road." Both of these songs come from movies that I watched a lot as a little girl: Bedknobs and Broomsticks and The Little Princess. I watched both of these movies relatively recently, which I guess explains why I am thinking about these songs. It's been fun to rewatch these films and remember the things that I loved about them as a child. I also made some new connections that I didn't realize before. For example, I didn't realize that the opening credits for Bedknobs and Broomsticks was inspired by the imagery from the Bayeux Tapestry!

The chorus of "Eglantine" from Bedknobs and Broomsticks has been stuck in my head ever since this weekend (although I should note that the version of this song that my family knows is much shorter, I think because our copy of the film was taped off of the TV):


I have also had the "Old Kent Road" song stuck in my head from The Little Princess. This song is played twice in the movie, one when Shirley Temple ("Sara") is living at a private school, and later when she performs the number in the hospital for wounded soldiers. My mom would always point out to me that Sara decided to perform for the soldiers and cheer them up, "even though she didn't feel like it." Perhaps I often said that I "didn't feel like [doing things]" as a young girl?

First scene:


Second scene:


These are the lyrics to "Knocked 'Em in the Old Kent Road":

Last week down our alley came a toff
Nice old geezer with a nasty cough
Sees my missus, takes his topper off
In a very gentlemanly way

"Wot cher!" all the neighbors cried
"Who yer gonna meet, Bill
Have yer bought the street, Bill"?
Laugh! I thought I should've died
Knocked 'em in the Old Kent Road

Every evenin' at the stroke of five
Me and the missus takes a little drive
You'd say, "Wonderful they're still alive"
If you saw that little donkey go

When we starts the blessed donkey stops
He won't move, so out I quickly lops
Pals start whackin' him, when down he drops
Someone says he wasn't made to go

"Wot cher!" all the neighbors cried
"Who yer gonna meet, Bill
Have yer bought the street, Bill"?
Laugh! I thought I should've died
Knocked 'em in the Old Kent Road

When I showed The Little Princess to J a few weeks ago, I also made an interesting connection with the Sara's dream sequence. Part of that dream involves a ballet number, in which the ballerinas come together in a circle and wave their arms (like flower petals). Then, a little ballerina (Shirley Temple) is "born" out of this "flower." You can see this segment at about 5:55 in the clip:



When I watched this sequence recently, I immediately thought of these "ballet classes" that I used to hold for my little sister C and two neighborhood girls. I was probably about eleven or twelve at the time. I didn't really know much about ballet (I had a year of lessons when I was probably seven or eight), but I checked out a whole bunch of books from the library and thought that I knew enough to be an instructor. I would have C and her friends come and practice a routine that I choreographed for "The Waltz of the Flowers" (from The Nutcracker). About thirty seconds into the song, there is a little harp flourish which I envisioned as a time for the dancers to create a similar type of circular "flower" (from which one of the dancers would emerge). At the time, though, I don't think that I realized that I had pulled inspiration from my choreography directly from The Little Princess. That movie was so engrained into my life that I didn't even realize I was referencing it.

A lot of the movies that I watched as a girl were either made in the early-to-mid 20th century. And, for that matter, a lot of the books that I read were from the 19th and early-to-mid 20th centuries. I suppose my mom predisposed me to become an art historian without realizing it: by exposing me to older forms of language and visual culture, I grew to have an affinity for the past and nostalgia (even if it the nostalgia isn't for something I actually experienced).

Movies from My Childhood

For the past week or so, Sam has asked to watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory every day. I'm much happier that he watch this show than some of the superhero shows that are available on Netflix. I've enjoyed having him watch this show anyway, since it feeds my own nostalgia. I remember watching this show as a kid (along with The Wizard of Oz and lots of the old musicals), whenever we visited my Grandpa T and Grandma J. Since we weren't allowed to eat very much sugar in my house, my siblings and I especially liked watching the opening credits. All of that chocolate!

As a result of this new Willy Wonka phase, I've been reminded of the other shows that I liked to watch as a kid. Whenever I associate movies with my childhood, I usually think of these:

• Mary Poppins (When we used to live in Los Angeles, I remember watching the a scene of this movie when an earthquake happened. I remember feeling the ground rumble at a point in the movie when there was a close-up of Julie Andrew's face when she was clad in the white hat).
• The Ten Commandments (I could probably quote this movie verbatim. This movie, along with the next four ones in the list, were some of the only things that we were able to watch on Sundays.)
• The Genesis Series (This is from "The New Media Bible" which came out in 1979. The Book of Luke was also filmed by this same director, John Heyman, and the footage eventually became the Jesus movie from 1979).
• Jesus of Nazareth
• The animated videos by "Living Scriptures"
• Saturday's Warrior
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
• Bedknobs and Broomsticks
• Pollyanna (I don't think that we ever owned this movie, but we rented it enough - and watched it at my grandma's house - that I still associate it with my childhood.)
• The Parent Trap, with Hayley Mills
• Freaky Friday, with Jodie Foster (The opening credits and this "body swap" scene are so familiar!)
• Candleshoe, with Jodie Foster (This scene with David Niven is quite fun!)
• The Shirley Temple Collection (Really, any Shirley Temple movie reminds me of my childhood. I remember that we had one VHS tape that highlighted a couple short films, including "Kid 'In Africa" and "War Babies." I also really loved the film The Little Princess.)
• The Buttercream Gang
• Split Infinity
• Girl of the Limberlost
• The Incredible Mr. Limpet
• Anne of Green Gables
• The Narnia series by Wonderworks (The trailer for "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" is available online.)
• The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe cartoon (1979)
  

What movies do you remember from growing up? J has a completely different list than mine; I never even watched his favorite movie, The Karate Kid, until I was in college.

Shirley Temple and Me

When I was young, I loved to watch Shirley Temple movies. My family owned several VHS tapes of Shirley Temple films, and my favorites included The Bluebird (which FOX created to compete with MGM's film The Wizard of Oz) and The Little Princess. As I got older, I felt a special connection with Shirley Temple, because of a letter that I got from my mother.

I don't know exactly why, but I was reminded of this letter today when I was driving in the car. When I got home, I pulled out the letter to read it again. My mom wrote this letter when I was at camp as a young teenager, sometime in the mid-1990s. Here's an excerpt:

"When I see old Shirley Temple movies and see Shirley Temple being extra grown up and mature and cheerful for her age - I think, 'M is like that.' Even though you have had some less cheerful times (on the surface or on your face expression) usually you are cheerful again soon. I see you use wisdom at a young age to be a leader to yourself to pull yourself out of gloominess. Of course we all have good reasons to be gloomy but I have seen you bring yourself back to cheerfulness even when the reason to be gloomy still exists..."

The letter continues with my mom saying that she hopes I don't get any headaches while I am at camp (which is ironic, because I'm typing this post while fending off a slight headache).

Although I don't feel much like Shirley Temple, I've always liked that my mom saw a similarity between me and the charming little child actress. And even more, I like that my mom believed that I have the ability to "pull [myself] out of gloominess." Sometimes I don't feel like I use the right coping mechanisms to deal with gloominess; I'd rather ignore problems and pull myself out of a grumpy mood through denial (something I am trying to correct).

But I do want to be a cheerful person, and I'm glad that my mom recognized that desire in me.