Many living rooms (parlors) were strictly off-limits - especially to children (who were told to go play outside).
Posted on 04/15/2018 1:49:03 AM PDT by iowamark
As I wrote a few days ago, I had minimal expectations of Chappaquiddick The Movie, which opened last week despite the best efforts of the Kennedy family and their various retainers and enablers. I have always been revolted by the fact that Ted, after killing Mary Jo Kopechne, did not have the decency to do a John Profumo and retire from public life for the rest of his days - and I was even more revolted by the way Massachusetts voters did not have the decency to impose that choice upon him...
That combination of outsiders and neophytes may be one reason why this film is considerably more gripping and potent than a cookie-cutter limousine-liberal yawnfest like The Post...
This is a more sophisticated and blackly comic view of the nature of politics than, say, George Clooney's Ides of March. The acidic glamour of power corrodes even Mary Jo's fellow Boiler Room Girls. No sooner are they informed that their friend is dead than one of them steps forward to volunteer: "What can we do to help the Senator?" The ladies themselves, having kept their silence for half-a-century, are said to deny this version of events, and the words themselves are put in the mouth of a fictional Boiler Roomer created for the movie: "Rachel" (Olivia Thirlby). But, whatever their motivations, the actions of almost everyone in this tale facilitate the replacement of one victim by another: Edward M Kennedy.
Chappaquiddick is an excellent film that deserves to find an audience...
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
“Sonny Montgomery “
One of my dad’s friends. I recall them corresponding over the years. Dad having been career Army, Sonny valued his opinion on military issues. Same home town. Sonny two years behind him at Starkville.
Why would you think that he wasn’t driving the car? Why would he tell Markham and Gargan, and everyone else, that he was driving if he wasn’t?
In 1986, I rented a bicycle and rode out to the site. There were heavy piles along both sides of the bridge so that no car could ever again drive off and heavy chains across the approaches so that no car could get onto the bridge. I came to the same conclusion about Fat Boy that you did.
The best scenes were with the dying patriarch (Joe Sr.) who is unable to speak more than a word at a time but radiates nothing but contempt for his only remaining son. In real life, he would die a few months later, a miserable broken man. Of course, Joe Sr. was the worst of the bunch and relied on his sons to rehabilitate his image.
The closing scene was striking, where people on the street were interviewed about the Chappaquiddick affair. Not sure if that was part of the movie or an actual film clip from that time. But you had the giddy women almost unanimously declaring that they would gladly vote for Teddy again, no matter what he did including an old woman who declared that the Kennedys could do no wrong in her eyes.
Having grown up in Massachusetts, I saw firsthand that totally undeserved devotion to that family. Almost everybody in my neighborhood had a black and white photo of JFK in their parlors (which is what they called a living room back then). Those "parlors" are a recurring childhood memory of mine. Housewives would cover all the furniture with plastic and had "doilies" on all the tables. Children were never allowed in them except for very formal occasions. An unused piano would usually be in the corner and that is where they would typically hand the photo of JFK.
Back in those days, the Kennedy mystique was such that incumbent Democrats would have a "ringer" named Kennedy run in the primary. The "Kennedy" was usually some drunken barfly but he'd draw enough votes from the old biddies to split the vote of the challengers, keeping the incumbent in place.
Once said about JFK,"I should have had him gelded at an early age." How true.
“-—— Those “parlors” are a recurring childhood memory of mine. Housewives would cover all the furniture with plastic and had “doilies” on all the tables. Children were never allowed in them except for very formal occasions.”
Sorry,but that’s utter nonsense———and I”ve lived in MA my entire life.
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100% true. I grew up in East Boston and pretty much everybody on my street had a photo of JFK in their parlor.
I drove out there around 2005 or earlier. I believe it was before they had rails and cars could still cross to the other side where there was an air pump to refill "flattened" tires so cars could drive on the sand. It was clear what happened, quite obvious in fact. A drunk drove off the narrow wooden bridge in the dark, perhaps distracted by "play" with the blond as he eagerly attempted to get to the beach for sex.
East Boston was hardly representative of the entire state of Massachusetts———I never saw even ONE picture of JFK in a home——and also never saw plastic covers on furniture.
Both would have been considered incredibly tacky.
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That sounds more like a movie than real life. I grew up in Western MA, but lived in the east for a few years. All the people I knew had too many kids to ever have a part of the house closed off except for formal occasions. That is laughable.
I had my kids in the 60s,5 of them,and in my neighborhood if anyone asked how many kids I had I would say,”Just five.”
The living rooms(not parlors) were full of kids all the time.
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Many living rooms (parlors) were strictly off-limits - especially to children (who were told to go play outside).
Maybe so,but not where I lived-———and kids used the living rooms too——that’s where the TV was.
No woman I know had time for the soaps in the 60s.
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Maybe it was an Irish-Catholic thing.
I’m Irish Catholic-——I think we’ve run this topic to the ground.:-)
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At least maybe we got a few people to check out the Chappaquiddick movie on Netflix. I think that's how this thread started.
By the way,right after I saw your first post I went on Netflix and watched “Chappaquiddick” which I didn’t know was available-——thanks for the heads up on that.
Great movie———and no surprises for me——especially the depiction of the evil Old Joe K.
What an evil family.
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