" 'Mame,' Life Is A Banquet"

"Mame" came from a popular mid 1950s novel, "Auntie Mame," written by Edward Tanner, who used the name "Patrick Dennis" for his published works. The story was based upon his real life aunt, Marion Tanner, his father's sister. Note that the story was "based" upon her life, and was not truly biographical in every detail. The success of the book spawned a Broadway hit, with actress Rosalind Russell playing the title character, a role she also landed for a film version a couple of years later. The 1960s saw a musical version of story on Broadway, written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee, with music by Jerry Herman. This musical starred Angela Lansbury (later of NBC's "Murder, She Wrote" series) as Mame, with Beatrice Arthur as Mame's hard drinking friend Vera Charles. Beatrice Arthur was then unknown to the general public, but her performance in "Mame" boosted her career, and she later played liberal character "Maude," opposite conservative "Archie Bunker" in a couple of episodes of CBS's "All In The Family," before carrying on with that character in the CBS comedy series, "Maude." Later still she played Dorothy in NBC's "The Golden Girls" for many seasons beginning in the mid 1980s. The Broadway musical version ran for about four years, by which time a film version of the musical was under consideration. Big television star Lucille Ball was given the role of Mame, and Beatrice Arthur was signed to again play Vera Charles, and the movie was released in 1974.

The basic story was this: in the late 1920s, Mame's brother died and his son Patrick (of about ten, played by Kirby Furlong) goes to live with his only known relative, his Auntie Mame, who lives in a luxurious Manhattan building, where she is famous for throwing parties. The child arrives, accompanied by his nanny, Agnes Gooch (played by Jane Connell, who also played the same role in the Broadway version), during one of his aunt's big parties, which has lots of booze and lots of "making out" by some of the guests. The audience already gets the message that this will not be any standard guardian and child relationship. Mame and her nephew hit it off immediately and Mame exposes the boy to her form of a liberal arts education by enrolling him in a school that is anything but conservative (the headmaster wears no clothes and the kids are nearly that way too, and where running around and pranks like dropping water filled balloons from the window onto unsuspecting heads below are commonplace). She also teaches the boy tolerance, taking him to both Christian churches, but also to Jewish temples. The boy's highly conservative and stuffy trustee walks into the school one day and takes the boy with him to keep Mame from anymore influence over her nephew.

The stock market crashes and the Great Depression begins with Mame broke, but far more brokenhearted over the loss of her nephew, who has now been sent off to a conservative school by the trustee. The boy gets to visit on occasion, but that's all. Mame gets a job in a play starring her friend Vera, but she messes up the relatively minor role so badly, she and Vera have a falling out of sorts. She gets a job in a department store, where she meets customer Beauregard Burnside (played by long time actor Robert Preston), of Georgia. The two fall in love and marry, and as he is financially well off, her money problems are over. Meanwhile, Mame's nephew has grown up (played by Bruce Davison) and is attending college, where he has become quite a ladies' man, including another student from an upscale background, whom he wants to marry. Mame had had money in her earlier years, but she never looked down on other people who were less well off. When she regained her financial security through her marriage, after going broke during the Depression, she did not change. Her husband, Beauregard, is killed in an avalanche in Europe and Mame and Vera patch things up, only to collaborate in turning Patrick's former shy nanny, Agnes, who dresses like someone ready for a nursing home, into a sexy, hot to trot, woman. Mame's philosophy was summed up by her statement, "Life is a banquet, but most poor son of bitches are starving to death."* After Agnes' makeover, she goes off to experience the banquet, only to return months later looking "very" pregnant.        

Patrick wants his aunt to meet his future wife's family, and off Mame goes to their home, where she  finds the parents to be snooty, intolerant bigots. She and Patrick later have words about the whole matter, but they reconcile just in time for Mame to invite the parents to her home, where unwed, pregnant Agnes is to be kept out of sight. Of course, Mame delivers an evening totally opposite of the one she experienced at the parents' home, accompanied by a main course of "baked monkey," and a visit by Vera, who proposes a toast to Patrick and his fiancee, but Vera mistakes Mame's attractive new maid as Patrick's fiancee, adding some insult to the whole thing for the snooty family. Agnes makes an appearance and her obvious condition is also later supplemented by the revelation that she is not married (gasp!). This later leads to Mame's announcement that she has bought a piece of property right next door to the parents' home, where she will have a home for unwed mothers built. Need I tell you, the parents have more than some ruffled feathers, rather more like singed and plucked.

Patrick ends up realizing his mistake and he marries the MAID! When their son is born, guess who takes a hand in exposing him to life's banquet? He will not be like "most poor son of a bitches, or souls!"

The real aunt of the author lived well into her 90s, surviving her nephew, who unfortunately died when only in his 50s. The aunt was well known for her generosity (some might say, "over generosity") to those in need, and she literally gave until it hurt, often depriving herself of a comfortable lifestyle.

Way back in the 1960s when the Broadway version about Mame was popular, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass did their own version of the lead song for the show. I loved that song so much, I sort of became known for it with my closest friends, who would mock the way I got into the song and danced and sang along with the music. I can't put that Tijuana Brass song on without thinking of those times back then. There were many other great songs from the musical, likely best known are "We Need A Little Christmas," "My Best Girl" and "Open A New Window."

I'm going to do a brief (I intend it to be brief, at this time) follow up about the movie next.   

* I did not see the movie when it was released in theaters, but only when it was on television a few years later. If my memory is correct, it was on a two part NBC movie presentation. Anyway, television did not allow "most poor son of a bitches," and I believe it was replaced with "most poor souls." Since there did not seem to be any dubbing used for this, the scenes where the expression was used may well have been originally filmed with both versions, but that is just my guess.
 
The picture is from the 2007 Warner Home Video DVD version

WORD HISTORY:
Oft/Often-This word goes back to Old Germanic "ufta/ofta," which meant "often, a number of times," but how Germanic got it is uncertain. The Old Germanic form gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "oft," which expanded to "often" in the 1300s, and indeed eventually replaced "oft" in the 1500s as the primary word to express the frequency of something.^ "Oft" is still around, but it tends to be rather quaint and is used in expressions like "oft stated," "oft repeated," etc. The other Germanic languages have: German and Low German Saxon "oft," Dutch "oft" (now archaic), Danish and Norwegian "ofte," Swedish "ofta," and Icelandic "oft." A form of the word apparently died out in Frisian. 

^ The addition of the "en" to "oft" to form "often" seems to come from its antonym, "selden," (the old form of "seldom"). Interestingly, some of the other Germanic languages used similar forms to English "selden," German for instance has "selten," but they did not follow suit with English "often," as they kept the shorter form similar to English "oft." By the way, the "t" was pronounced in "often," but the sound later died out, at least for most people, although some are criticized today for still pronouncing the "t," but I guess you could say, in fact, they are correct, more "ofTen," than not.     .