Since it's been getting quite hot up here in the Rogue Valley of Oregon, what we in the Northern Hemispheres call "Summer", I've thinking quite a lot about going the 120 miles or so out to the Coast where my wife and I could escape the 100 degree heat for a spell. It's just not possible right now. But, at work recently, this song came on the radio and I've decided this is my official Summer Song. My apologies to Fred and all other Jimmy Buffett fans from "Margaritaville". Here's the Max Steiner composition from the 1959 film that was arranged into a major hit by Percy Faith the following year.
And here's a clip from the movie, featuring Richard Egan and Sandra Dee as father and daughter, which illustrates how far American mainstream culture about sex and romantic love have come in fifty years. (Mostly for the better I'd say, although a little innocence now and then is a relief.)
ReplyDeleteThis song actually brings back more memories from Animal House than A Summer Place for me.
ReplyDeleteCome to NZ - you will find it easy to get cooled down here. lmao. Nice music, I will leave this page open so that I can hear it while I trawl through other more contentious posts hehe
ReplyDeleteHa! I forgot about that very funny scene from that movie, Fred. One of the funniest films about American higher education ever made!
ReplyDeleteYes, Iri Ani, I didn't want to make it seem like the hot weather was a big problem everywhere. Glad you like the music; we all need a break from controversy.
ReplyDeleteThis definitely brings to mind summer nights in Cali when it would finally cool off -- it was part of my young adulthood and always makes me smile. I always loved the lyrics, too.
ReplyDeleteThis definitely brings to mind summer nights in Cali when it would finally cool off -- it was part of my young adulthood and always makes me smile. I always loved the lyrics, too.
ReplyDeleteIt was the first rated R movie I ever saw. It is definitely a classic.
ReplyDeleteWhile the rating-system didn't apply in 1959 (it wasn't "R-rated"), it remains memorable for this, the theme, and the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed beach-house.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this. Memories aplenty, here....
Mine too, Christy. The breezes from the ocean would travel over the Santa Cruz mountains into the valley I lived in as a teenager.
ReplyDeleteThe music also brings to mind the great ocean vistas that California is rightly famous for. (Parts of the movie were shot around beautiful Monterey Bay and Carmel, although the movie was set it Maine ;-)
My friend Fred was referring to "Animal House" (1978), which is certainly a "R" rated comedy classic and has a decidedly different look at young love than 'A Summer Place". The latter film contains no food fights in college dining areas, no drunken "Louie Louie" singing, no randy wife of a college dean seducing undergrads, nor a finale with John Belushi swinging about from a rope in pirate garb and a giant floral parade float with the words "Eat Me" emboldened on its sides.
ReplyDeleteBut "Animal House" didn't have Sandra Dee, so there's a balance ;-)
You're welcome Astra. I vividly recall that introduction to the FLW house--one of the most amazing homes ever! Great ocean vistas abound in that film.
ReplyDeleteA great melody, I love it...thanks for posting another tune that reminds me of radio from a long time ago.
ReplyDeleteActually I thought the scene is quite daring myself. It seems highly unlikely that any contemporary British film would have a father and daughter talking about sex and love in close physical contact like this, it would now be seen as beyond the pale I think. Then again the social realities of today would probably mean that the daughter would be doing the advising and the father the one who is confused.
ReplyDeleteNor an American film, AA. At least as far as mainstream culture, it was a more innocent time. I suspect general movie-goers would read things into the father-daughter scenes now--myself included--that audiences fifty years ago might have let pass.
ReplyDeleteAnd a heart-to-heart between an older teen daughter and her father would likely be a learning experience for dad, lol.
Of course, the year 1959--which saw the release of the now mild romantics of "A Summer Place"-- also saw the triumphant return of Allen Ginsburg to Columbia University in New York, where the poet gave a reading before 1,400 fans of the type of frank material that got him expelled from that school a few years earlier.
It was also the year that Barney Ross and Grove Press published an unexpurgated version of "Lady Chatterley's Lover" after the court ban was lifted after a famous litigation case. The book, once condemned as "filth" by many a puritan judge, sold only 2 million copies once it was readily available.
It was also the year Lenny Bruce appeared on national television, introduced by talk-show host Steve Allen as "the most shocking comedian of our time."*
Interesting that the fissures of American culture were already growing wider and wider even before the Sixties had officially arrived.
Thanks for your comments!
*"Sex, Jazz and Datsuns," New York Magazine, June 8, 2009.