Hi All,
I found an interesting bit of information which relates to the names for that Cowardly Lion, Williams Jennings Bryant. In the movie "Inherent the Wind" Williams Jennings Bryant is named Matthew Harrison Brady. It is well known that Matthew Brady is the famous civil war photographer. However Matthew Brady was also the name of the notorious Los Angeles District Attorney who tried the murder case against Roscoe Arbuckle in 1921-22. Brady thought that the conviction of Arbuckle would help him win the governorship of California. The jury at the third trial (the first two were hung) after five minutes deliberation, unanimously agreed that Arbuckle was entirely innocent and there was not a shred of real evidence against him. Williams Jennings Bryant chimed in after the final verdict, saying that he still believed Arbuckle was morally guilty even after he had been acquitted.
By giving him the name Matthew Harrison Brady, the play writers were able to show their disgust at both Bryant and district attorney Brady at the same time.
Warmly,
Jay Raskin
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhilosopherJay
Hi stephen Huller,
Excellent points about how meanings of material are transformed and lost. Meanings and associations operating when something gets created may not be the same when something later gets transformed into a new medium or re-edited, shown or published for a later generation.
The note that Williams Jennings Bryant was the model/reference for the Cowardly Lion is really interesting. Bryant later appeared for the prosecution in the Scopes Monkey trial in 1925. The 1955 play and 1960 movie "Inherit the Wind" portrayed Bryant as a demagogue and Anti-Evolutionist religious fanatic.
It is also interesting to look at the movie today from the point of view of acting. The movie contained two fantastic performances by two of the greatest actors of the 20th century, Spencer Tracy and Frederic March. Spencer's performance of Bulldog Drummond based on Clarence Darrow is a tour- de-force. I do not think that an agnostic/atheist character has ever been portrayed so heroically He starred in a number of great movies after this one, "Its a Mad, Mad, Mad World" and "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner". On the other hand, this was really the last great performance for Frederic March as Matthew Harrison Brady based on Williams Jennings Bryant. For years, I thought March was simply expressing his own personality as Brady/Jennings so I could not see the greatness of his performance. I saw him several times in "A Star is Born" where he plays a care-free, alcoholic movie star, I never connected that the two roles were played by the same actor. I simply thought there were two different actors by the name of Frederic March.
The face, the voice inflections and body movements seemed completely different. March became Brady/Bryant so completely, that I didn't see the acting.
Another irony is that Frederic March played the lead in Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde in the 1931 movie and Spenser Tracy played the part in the 1941 movie version.
Again, the lesson here is that meanings and references attach and detach easily from narratives and elements of narratives.
Warmly,
Jay Raskin
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12-11-2012, 10:40 PM
