Subject: Shirley & Louise
From: Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Date: Mon Mar 13 2000 - 03:41:27 EST
My apologies for dragging in Grim Greene yet again
but it's triggered by Louise's reference to Shirley Temple.
All I can personally remember of the little darling
(with whom I share the same birth year) was my astounded
delight when the screen suddenly turned to colour & there
she was - singing & dancing 'On the Good Ship Lollipop.'
For some months afterwards my great ambition was to be
a tap dancer & would, from time to time, humiliate my mother
by insisting on performing my leaden footed version for
the benefit of whichever neighbour I could persuade
to watch. (An embarrassment from the earliest years.)
There was obviously a lot of kinky identification going
on in my young head but, around the same time, Greene
was getting into much worse trouble. He was then reviewing
films for The Spectator & had written a piece in which
he suggested Shirley's roguish twinkles & flashing little limbs
were actually intended as an incitement to lustful thoughts
in the males of the audience. The most terrible lawsuit
ensued where Louis B. Mayer deployed the wealth of the studio
to crush this filthy minded little Limey. I'm not sure what
the outcome was - I suspect the magazine had to close for a bit.
Or perhaps it was all soon drowned out by the start
of World War Two.
By casting my mind back, I can sort of - kind of - see what
Greene meant. But I don't think Esme is in the same category.
She could never conceivably be seen as a prick tease.
Esme's the kind of passionate, & compassionate, woman
we would all wish eventually to marry.
Scottie B.
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