I found it shocking when I was folding laundry and Claire asked, in an innocent inquisitive voice, "where did Cole get the wife-beater shirt?" WHAT? As it turns out, that is the accepted vernacular for a sleeveless undershirt - you know, the kind made famous in the mid-40s, or when Marlon Brando made Stanley Kowalski's character in the brilliant Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named Desire, famous.
Famous to me, and maybe to you.
Cole was clueless.
Which really bothered me.
I am failing my children, at least cinematically. I remember spending many a Saturday watching old black and white movies on television. Do you remember Elwy Yost? He certainly provided context with stories of what was going on in the world at the time the movie was filmed, what the studios were doing to drive the casting, all of the backstory for all the movies. It really drove my early interest. I wish there were shows like that on television for my kids.
Anyway ...
Then I remembered, I first saw Marlon Brando as the creepy colonel in Apocalypse Now, he was not someone I was interested in getting to know. He was old ... and creepy. Then, a little while later I realized that this same person was Stanley Kowalski and Terry Malloy in On The Waterfront, for which he won an Academy Award. It's all in the context.
So, I've rented for Cole three great movies to watch: A Streetcar Named Desire; On The Waterfront and Guys and Dolls in which Brando played Sky Masterson. I will have to be Elwy Yost for my kids :)
And, because no entry is complete without a photo, here is proof of the channelling:
I really hope he enjoys the old movies and maybe find a love of cinema.
