Guys and Dolls – Only doing it for some doll
Love this song. As part of the joys of parenting, when I was playing this for my ten, eight and five year olds, I had to explain what was a flat, a mug, platinum fol-de-rol, a jug, not to mention Vitalis and Barbasol. I also had to explain gambling to them. Showtunes are quite an education.
My question is, the dame who sashays across the screen at around 2.17 in this clip, glittering and glamorous — am I the only guy who envies that Joe carrying her packages and lighting her smokes? I think she is drop-dead gorgeous, and well worth walking behind. Which sort of cuts against the whole point of the song, if you see my point. Especially if you get to tickle her pink on Saturday night.
Is glamor still in fashion? I see any number of actresses or models who are attractive, or sensual, but almost none who have that air of glamor that was once the sine qua non of the stage and screen.
This song delights my old-fashioned curmudgeonly heart, of course, since it is on the same theme as Dante and Beatrice: an ode to the redemptive power of feminine love to get a jerk to get a job.
Do women still provoke their menfolk to make something of themselves out there in the great unwashed postmodern wilderness of America? Or is that notion been dismissed as non-progressive?
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
