[Dixielandjazz] Why was the BG Movie so vapid?

[Stephen G Barbone]

Consider the social climate of the era in which this movie was  
released.  1955. The comfortable years of the Eisenhower  
administration. Don't worry, be happy everything is great. The older  
folks on this list remember those idealistic and somewhat naive times.

The USA was living in a dreamworld of mom and apple pie. The real  
Alice Hammond Dickworth, now Alice Goodman, fit neither the mom, nor  
the apple pie, mold.

She divorced her first husband George Duckworth (with whom she had 4  
children)  in January 1942. She married BG in March 1942. Back in  
1955, if portrayed accurately, it would have harmed Mr. & Mrs.  
Goodman's image and been a detriment to the success of the movie.  
Things like that just weren't publicly done back then, in polite  
society. And after all, she was the great grand daughter of Cornelius  
Vanderbilt and the niece of Ogden Hammond, the former ambassador to  
Spain. (BTW, she was 4 years older than Benny)

Much nicer to create a storybook, love at first sight, romance between  
them, that would play well in Peoria..

She was also, in brother John's words, the black sheep of the family.  
She did what she pleased, etc. Back then she would have been called a  
"pushy" broad rather than in today's world, an independent woman.

But then isn't Hollywood all about fiction, even in historical movies?  
They constantly use artistic license to either make propaganda points,  
or to make the story line more appealing to the mass audience.

It is only recently, as Hollywood pushes the censorship limits, that  
we've come to accept real sex, graphic violence, complete freedom of  
speech, the "F" word etc., etc., etc. in movies.

We live in a very different world of 2010 as compared with that of  
1955. Musically as well as in the visual art of movies.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband