Here's a perfect illustration of the iconography of freedom. Marilyn Monroe displays a picture of Abraham Lincoln, The Great Emancipator, in a sleek convertible with the open road beckoning.
As noted in my last post about Hollywood stars and their cars, automobiles represent freedom. You climb into a car and go whenever and wherever you want.
The car is modern man’s most potent path and symbol of liberty.
Contrast cars with trains.
Trains and subways are an expression of the collective. Individual identity is erased. You are at the mercy of a state run system that turns the citizen into a small cog manipulated by unmotivated, inefficient government bureaucrats.
That’s why Progressives-Liberals-Leftists are obsessed with high-speeed rail. The freedom of the road is repellent to statists who want to regulate/control diet, education, light bulbs, health care, your very geography.
Need I mention that Nazis just adored trains AKA cattle cars. And hey, the Italians boasted that Mussolini made the trains run on time.
At a certain point, one must acknowledge the convergence of philosophy between post-modern liberalism and iron-fist facism. Both ideologies assert the power of the state as the final arbiter of human affairs. Hence, the government replaces G-d and family as the center of man’s universe. It’s no surprise that the Nazi party’s formal title was The National Socialist German Workers’ Party.
Anyhoo.
Hollywood produced great stars who proudly posed with their autos, symbols of glamour, affluence, and freedom.
Rita Hayworth, b. Margarita Carmen Cansino, presents a distinctly unglamorous but fetching vision of the girl next door as she poses with her 1941 Lincoln Continental. When Hayworth first came to Hollywood she was painfully shy, could not look strangers in the eye and barely spoke above a whisper. Gossip columnist Louella Parsons confidently predicted that Hayworth would never make it in the movies.
Tasmanian-born Errol Flynn was expelled from school for fighting and seducing a school laundress. Flynn loved America, became a citizen and attempted to enlist at the start of World War II. An enlarged heart, malaria, reliance on morphine for chronic back pain, and venereal disease firmly classified him as 4-F. Known for his swashbuckler image and party-hard lifestyle, Flynn looks ready to cruise Sunset Strip in his seriously cool Auburn Speedster.
Robert Montgomery was born to privilege, but his father committed suicide by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge leaving the family penniless. Montgomery was, no doubt, relieved to be able to afford this Cadillac Sport-Phaeton. An active Republican Montgomery was outspoken against Communist influence in Hollywood.
Jimmy Stewart was best when playing the everyman American. His 1938 Plymouth reflects this unpretentious personae. Stewart flew as a command pilot in a B-24 on numerous missions deep into Nazi-occupied Europe. Back in civilian life, he refused to publicize his heroic war record in order to garner publicity.
Director Josef von Sternberg, b. Jonas Sternberg, gave Marlene Dietrich this 1931 forest green Rolls Royce as a gift. Her chauffer, Briggs—perfect name—carried a set of revolvers to protect his famous employer. When Dietrich traveled to Europe, she sent her Rolls and Briggs in advance. David Niven notes in his excellent autobiography, “The Moon's a Balloon” that Dietrich supplied Briggs with a mink trimmed uniform, which, I suppose, qualifies Briggs as Hollywood's first metrosexual chauffer-bodyguard.
Ariel Chaim Avrech, ZT'L, May His Righteous Memory be a Blessing.
22 Comments
And hey, the Italians boasted that Mussolini made the trains run on time.
People who travelled in Mussolini’s Italy say he DIDN’T.
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I can totally envision you and Karen driving around LA in a Morgan 4/4. Forest Green with tan leather interior…. definitely! You know there’s a Morgan West dealership on Pico Blvd in Santa Monica, right?
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ProphetJoe:
You are totally a prophet. The 4/4, forest green, tan interior, exactly what I wanted/want. Ah, the Morgan dealership, far better than any art gallery in the known universe.
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Robert – for a guy who claims he knows next to nothing about cars, you have jumped right into the deep end. You know, of course, that they build Morgans just as they did in the 30s, with a wooden frame if I am not mistaken. But with those leather straps holding the hood, er bonnet, you will be a beacon of automotive fashion.
If you really want the ying and yang of sports car ownership, I would recommend a 1964 Lotus Elan. That’s the car the Japanese based their original Miata on, only the Japanese version runs reliably for 100s of thousands of miles.
The Lotus is nirvana when it is running well, which is seldom.
But then Colin Chapman, like Dr Porsche and the 356, achieved his performance though lightness not power.
Next thing you know I’ll hear about you blasting down the 405 in an Ariel Atom, with Jay Leno trying to catch you and talk to you.
Talk about lightness and performance.
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Chauffeur/bodyguard in a mink-lined uniform with two revolvers sounds like something from a Japanese comic book (was Briggs’ first name Sebastian?). Still, you can’t fault Dietrich for style.
I actually really like trains—America’s freight-rail is the equal of any in the world, by the bye, and without it our economy would shrivel up and blow away—but high-speed commuter rail anywhere but the East Coast is stupid. It makes sense in Europe and Asia, but those places have been highly urbanized for 3000 years, and their population centers are close enough for rail-service to make more sense. I could see if the governors of the East Coast states got together to install high-speed rail there, since the population-density is roughly European, but using federal funds might well require doing it for everyone, and it makes no sense in the West.
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Pax:
I grew up in Brooklyn and used the subways all the time. A total nightmare of sweaty bodies, angry commuters, and the distinct feeling that I was trapped in hell on earth. I hate the subway. Karen and I once took the train to Seattle from LA. Another nightmare. It’s no wonder most Hollywood movies that take place on trains are tales of murder and conspiracy.
“Runaway Train,” with the great Jon Voight is, to my mind, the greatest of all terror train movies.
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Judging public transport, or any other field of human endeavor, by the example of New York and the West Coast, is like judging the concept of leadership by the example of Stalin. Everyone I know who’s been to New York, no matter what other cities they’ve lived in, was shocked by how disgusting everything is, and by the behavior of the people. My aunt had lived in Tucson and San Francisco, and been to Paris, London, and Prague several times, but it’s only in New York that she’s witnessed public masturbation.
Public transportation can work, I’ve seen it—I’ve got family in Boston and Somerville, and the Massachusetts subways are clean, efficient, and not usually too crowded. If anyone needed another reason to hate New Yorkers (the main one being that they expect to be hailed as sophisticates by people who never have to see strangers’ bodily fluids), there’s one: they’re actually worse at managing a public service than Massachusetts is. That’s harakiri-level shameful, right there.
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On NYC – I saw Manhattan for the first time 5 years ago, and an acquaintance who lived there showed me around with some astute observations.
1. Usually the people who dislike NY the most are the natives, while the ones who love it are the transplants.
Don’t think that is completely true as who can afford to live there but a place where you can get from one end to the other in 30 minutes or less – for next to nothing, is an extraordinary place.
Add 300 museums from of course the Metropolitan to a museum of TV (where supposedly you can look at virtually any program ever made) – well, Manhattan is quite a place.
I stayed right in the middle at a hotel that was old but clean – run by some Catholic nuns who swore me to secrecy
(They want people from around the world; not locals who find it cheaper than an apt 
)
Second, he said that new Yorkers aren’t usually rude but when asking directions you must not waste their time by not really knowing what you want.
New Yorkers appreciate directness.
I remember asking a rather aristocratic woman (suitably attired) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for some directions and she couldn’t have been nicer. Be polite and direct.
Third, when crossing intersections there is safety in numbers.
That process seemed to remind me of a school of fish – you know – there may be 100s of them but they all turn at the same time and move in the same directions;-)
Well, time to turn it. Up at 5.
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“Another great piece, Robert. I have to ask though… what was the context of the Monroe picture —”
Does a blonde need a reason ? Especially that blonde ?
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That’s kind of my point, Jackie. Why in the world would you add a picture of Abe to a classic Norma Jean photo? Surely, it’s distracting at best!
There must have been some reason…
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Jackie:
MM loved Lincoln and asked her photographer to take this shot. That’s all I know.
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To paraphrase Mr. Churchill, cars are the worst form of transportation except for all others. Unless they put a train stop in my front yard a car will always be more convenient than other ways to get around, especially for short hops.
When I was little few families in our neighborhood had two cars. Mom went shopping on Saturdays because that’s when the car wasn’t being used by dad. We took the bus or walked to school. We didn’t live in Manhattan where you can get by with cabs and subways. When we got a second car my mom could go to my brother’s basketball games after school even though they were across town or shop when it was more convenient for her. I’m sure my parents never thought of the car as a symbol of American freedom but they lived it.
And the car capital of the U.S. was not Detroit but Los Angeles with all the blondes driving convertibles around the huge freeway system. It seems the demonization of the automobile in the last 20 years coincides with the tarnishing of Los Angeles’s glamour.
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Johnny:
I love the car culture of LA.
I’ve never used the LA rail and don’t know one operson who has. From what I’ve heard, it’s basically empty. It was just another political payoff from corrupt Dems to labor unions. Shocking, truly shocking.
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Hal David wrote put a hundred down and buy a car. In a week, maybe two, they’ll make you a star.
Try to create that image with light rail. We need the Hal David California, not some fancy souped-up 19th Century technological California that statists want to push off on us.
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Here’s a site with great pictures of many of the cars used in Hollywood films:
http://www.jayohrberg.com/Movie_cars.html
Here’s one devoted especially to the James Bond cars:
http://www.klast.net/bond/cars.html
(my favorite one is the Aston Martin used in Goldfinger,
)
I think it should be a Nefesh-B’Nefesh option for anyone making Aliya into one of the Settlements
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Exdem:
Thanks for the links. Great stuff. When the kids were young we used to take them to the location of the Bat Cave in the Hollywood Hills.
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Another great piece, Robert. I have to ask though… what was the context of the Monroe picture — why would she be posing in a convertible holding a picture of Illinois’ most famous president (as opposed to Illinois’ infamous president — BHO
I’d take any of these cars in original condition, but Stewart’s ’38 Plymouth would be the one I’d want to make into a hot rod. It looks fast just sitting there. I’d also like Flynn’s Speedster too , but if I had to choose, I’d go with the Plymouth.
Many years ago I read The Moon’s a Balloon. Loved it. Saw a side to David Niven that I never knew (like his army service in WW II), and that he roomed with Flynn (if I remember correctly). Didn’t Flynn have a rumored cocaine habit in addition to his issues with morphine?
And if you include more Marilyn Monroe pictures in the future — use the kind you used above. She was a natural beauty when she looked like the girl next door. Unfortunately, celebrity made her into something overtly sexual (such as when she sang happy birthday to JFK) that it smacked of a meat-market mentality.
PJ
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Prophet Joe:
David Niven’s autobiography “The Moon’s a Balloon” is one of the best Hollywood memoirs I’ve ever read. His affair with the young prostitute is a movie in itself. His time in the army is amazing, and falling in love with his wife Primmie at first sight and her tragic death at age 25 moved me to tears. A beautifully written book that I recommend to everyone who’s interested in Hollywood.
I have a weakness for the British Morgan. Almost bought one years ago but came to my senses and bought a Lexus instead. Decided I dind’t want to spend all my time and money repairing the very finicky Morgan.
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On the Icons interview with Niven’s son, among the many things he talks about was his military service, which was impressive. And while names weren’t named, he was very disdainful about some British expats who chose to stay in Hollywood rather than heed their country’s call.
Icons Radio, which lasted all but a year or so, has 50 interviews from people like Cass Warner to Patrick Wayne to Jean Simmons.
Have you heard of A.C. Lyles?
What an interview.
If you have an ipod I am told you can download them for free.
I have the whole series on my computer. They are a treasure trove of little known Hollywood information.
For example, I learned that George Raft almost made the career of Humphrey Bogart, rejecting roles in movies (that Bogart took) that later became classics.
He rejected the role in the Maltese Falcon ostensibly because his contract with Warner Brothers stipulated that he could reject doing remakes, which I am told this was, but the real reason was there was a neophyte director doing his first movie, and while he was a successful screen writer, he had never directed.
Raft didn’t want to trust his career to this new guy – whose name was John Huston, of course.
Well, I am rambling again.
I get up at 5:00 to check your website but alas, you haven’t updated it yet
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Bill,
I’d be interested in the interviews you mentioned, but when I google “Icon Radio” I get an (apparently) outdated web site for Ben Ferguson… and there were no links for any interviews. I don’t have an ipod, but I’d love to hear them on my computer. Can you give me some directions on where to look?
Thanks,
PJ
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Here’s the link Joe – if the system truncates it I’ll go to tinyurl (don’t think I have a delete option) – apparently it is starting up again without Steven Bogart –
http://www.modaentertainment.com/MODA-Productions-Radio.html
Out of the 50 interviews there are only 3 or so that didn’t interest me – like “politics in Hollywood” – particularly memorable – the interviews about John Huston, Jean Simmons, Richard Burton, Charlton Heston, Frank Sinatra, AC Lyles (at 90 was the longest working Paramount executive – - get the idea?
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Bill:
Yes, I know A.c. Lyles. Legendary producer, mostly westerns. A real pro. I have to hear these interviews you keep referencing.
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