Happy School Musicals-

 

Ok, yesterday I was so against school, today it’s all about how happy kids are where they find their true love and break out into song. We’ve all been there, right? I know, when I was bullied, I started to break out into song, sing about my right to be me and start to dance where every bullied student starts dancing in unison, ending in a fireworks light show. Too much? Ok, without further adieu, here are my 3…

1. STRIKE UP THE BAND-1940

Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland star in this fun musical with the exuberant, ADHD high school student, Mickey trying to get his band to Chicago to win a best band trophy sponsored by Paul Whitman( who plays himself). First, he and Judy put on a show and make enough money to buy the instruments for their high school but now he must get his band and female vocalist to Chicago, and after many faux pas’s, they make it and put on a big show. This is fun, energetic with great singing and dancing led by the young leads of Looney er , I mean, Rooney and Garland. I love the one scene with animated fruit in an orchestra..yup, you heard me…animated fruit.

2. GOOD NEWS-1947

This high school musical stars Peter Lawford and June Allyson as high school students who deal with all the angst associated with high schoolers….love and football. Basically, Lawford thinks he is in love with a popular gal and asks the gal who works in the library what to do. Of course, she is played by Allyson who falls for Lawford even though he’s an idiot. You have a subplot with, well, the same thing, one gal loves an idiot who loves another. In the end, everyone falls for the right person and they break out in an exuberant sing and dance number. It’s another fun flick and the one dance number, “ Pass the Peace Pipe” is so much fun, led by the tragic Joan McCracken( she was a gifted, although odd, dancer and singer who died young from diabetes). Today, this song would never pass muster just the title alone, can tell you why, but you would lose a great scene and one I wish, did exist in real life.

3. GREASE-1978

We should all know about Grease that stars John Travolta and Olivia Newton John as 2 high school students who meet and fall in love, before high school starts. Travolta is in some beach town for a family vacation where he meets Olivia and they have dreamy days and nights before he leaves. Now high school starts and she is a new student who is sweet and innocent and does not quite fit in with the tough gals in high school. She reunites with Travolta and is confused because he is not the sweet boy from summer vacation, but a leather-clad Rock’N Roller who is not the type of boy you bring home to meet dad. In between you have a lot of singing and dancing especially the high school dance. I love some of the staff, like Eve Arden, Sid Caesar and Joan Blondell that adds to this movie’s success. The happy ending shows Olivia giving up who she is as a person for the love of John wearing a slutty outfit so tight that Newton John had to be sewn into those pants. Mind you, she does look good and many young guys had the hots for Olivia but I just hate this ending. She conforms to what her boyfriend wants her to be leaving her own identity in the dust. What a crock!

So, any high school musicals you can think of? Did you ever break out into song? I bet you did😁

End of Summer= Back to School= Yuck!

 

I am 62 years old and, when I see and hear back to school commercials, I still get the heebie-jeebies. When my mom would say how much she could not wait to go back to school, I just looked to her as if she was some freak. So, I wondered if there are any songs about the he’ll of going back to school. I wish there was one that came close to my feeling of dreck, but I came up with these 3 and joined the wonderful Monday Music Moves Me, on Wednesday.

1. ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL BY PINK FLOYD-1979

This is a great song about the harsh way teachers and administrators dealt with kids. The worst I got was having to stand in the corner, I think I was in grade 2…My hubby was one who would get the strap or the ruler but he knew what to do. Pull out a hair from your head and place it on your palm of your hand. When the ruler, or strap, came down, it would cut and blood would show and the disciplinarians would have to stop. Ahhh, school. 

2. SCHOOL DAYS BY CHUCK BERRY-1957

This is just a fun song that I love and thought it was quite right….i hoped I would pass. Chuck was cool.

3.  HIGHWAY TO HELL BY AC/DC-1979

This doesn’t have anything to do with school, but I always thought about it when I knew I had to go back. I do believe, strongly, in education but I hated the system, the constant bullying and some teachers were horrible but typical teachers for the day. In my day, we had teachers who would look down the girls’ tops and the “popular” girls knew so they unbuttoned their tops and, yes, they got As. We had teachers who believed in  Hitler and would walk up and down the aisle with the  big ruler smoking it down on any kids’  desk. Oh and the ones who would throw the chalk or eraser at you if they felt you were talking. 

Yeah, I guess I’m a bit jaded:) Wht songs can you think of about your school years?

Star Of The Month: Trevor Howard

TREVOR HOWARD

BORN: September 29, 1913

DIED: January 7, 1988

AGED: 74 years

DIED FROM: Cirrhosis of the Liver from years of acute alcoholism 

MARRIED: Once to Helen Cherry…bless her soul

CHILDREN: None

AFFAIRS: numerous affairs most notably with actress Anouk Aimee

OSCAR WINS: None

OSCAR NOMINATIONS: 1..Sons and Lovers-1960

FAMOUS FRIENDS: Kenneth More, Jack Hawkins and Rex Harrison

TALENT: His incredible acting talent who was always on time, knew his lines and delivered what was needed plus so much more. He hated Marlon Brando because of Brando’s eccentricity, being late and feeling superior to others. 

KNOWN FOR: his love of Cricket. His legendary drinking, carousing, and keeping his private life, private.

When I saw “Brief Encounter”, I fell for Trevor Howard and thought he was so gentle, romantic, gentlemanly….the. I saw him in a later movie and thought..”What The Hell?” His soft features were gone and the cutting angular edges took hold. I had no idea that he was a raving alcoholic and, more than likely, a sex-addict. He was known to have numerous affairs and could drink and drink and drink. His wife stood by him, loyal, until he died…she deserved a medal! He and his sister lived with their parents in Ceylon before their mom took them on a long trip, first to California where Mary Pickford overheard the child, Trevor, speak about Father Christmas and was enchanted by him. Apparently, he was in a couple of her films, but this enchantment was short-lived as they travelled to Canada and stayed for a long time while his mom visited her family. When they returned to England he was sent to a boarding school. This must have traumatized him since he travelled and was with his family and now, 8 yrs old, he is all alone in a strict school which he hated. It was here that he started to play Cricket. He LOVED cricket making sure that he would see his beloved Cricket even when making a movie. He had it added in his contract that he would be off work during cricket matches! Brief Encounter put him on the map even though the character, a gentleman who longed for Celia Johnson, kissing her..he never understood the character because why have all this longing just get it done. In one of his movies, he shared the longest kiss, for that era, ending up in the Guinness Book of World Records! I still have to see that movie.

He was in the army and was credited for his valour as a paratrooper, seeing action and awarded the Military Cross. These were all lies! He was in the army but never saw any combat and was discharged for his mental instability and his psychopathic personality. The latter imprint was due to incessant lying about his childhood and school days. He was discharged, with the lies formulated by the studios and Trevor not denying it. His drinking escalated after his discharge and, when he was awarded the CBE by the Queen, he declined it. He was intensely private, loving his local pub, talking with the men in the pub rather than schmoozing with the film people, and watching cricket. He was a complex man who seemed a gentleman yet was moody and could throw things across the room, have a few DUIs where he lost his license for 8 years culminating in his death from cirrhosis of the liver. A sad end to a man who really was a great actor.

FILMS-( films I have seen with a couple I have not which is why they are near the bottom)

1. Brief Encounter-1945

2. The Third Man-1949

3. Von Ryan’s Express-1965

4. The Battle of Britain-1969

5. The Sea Wolves-1980

6. Mutiny on the Bounty-1962

7. Ryan’s Daughter-1970

8. Gandhi-1982

9. Charge of the Light Brigade-1968

10. Outcast of the Islands-1951