Tuesday, June 23, 2009

One Bad Mother


Our dear readers know their steely old battleaxes; Gladys Cooper's identity posed no problem to you. MC, that clarion of elan and style, was the first to correctly name her.

A great beauty in her youth, Ms. Cooper was criticized in her early stage career for being too stiff; by the time she made her mark in Hollywood, that stiffness had transformed into a gloriously venomous archness. Ms. Cooper's best known role, of course, was that of Bette Davis's gorgon of a mother in Now, Voyager (1942) - it's a remarkable, finely etched performance which manages to be terrifying, maddening, and extremely funny.

In 1967, Gladys Cooper was named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE); she passed away four years later, at age 82, after a bout with pneumonia.

MC wins a collection of good, solid books; sensible shoes; and freedom henceforth from any diets - all things which would meet with Ms. Cooper's approval.

4 comments:

  1. My best prize yet! I'd like to thank the members of the Hollywood Foreign Press.

    "Clarion" is defined as either "an ancient trumpet with a curved shape" or "a medieval trumpet with a shrill tone." Either is unfortunately apt.

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  2. I wouldn't have known what to do with sensible shoes anyway.

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  3. LOL! It was a mangled use of the word as noun on my part; in my head, though, it made sense, since I think of you as a clarion call to glamour and fabulousness!

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  4. Mistress MJ - On you, Choos and Viviers are sensible choices.

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