Althouse: "Now, I know why Amy Klobuchar can't be President... because if she's the President, then Fred MacMurray will get in all kinds of trouble."

February 23, 2020

"Now, I know why Amy Klobuchar can't be President... because if she's the President, then Fred MacMurray will get in all kinds of trouble."

Overheard at Meadhouse.

37 comments:

Quaestor said...: I don't see any resemblance.

Amy ain't hot. Not enough to kill for.; 2/23/20, 6:00 AM
Quaestor said...: Fred was always the anti-hero type. That is until he invented flubber.; 2/23/20, 6:02 AM
Amexpat said...: Fred was always the anti-hero type. That is until he invented flubber.

I knew him from My Three Sons. That and Bonanza had the three sons with a wise widowed father. Not sure what the appeal of that scenario was, but they both were very popular.; 2/23/20, 6:19 AM
Mr. O. Possum said...: McMurray played the president's wife in the 1964 movie "Kisses for My President" that starred Polly Bergen.; 2/23/20, 6:23 AM
Mr. O. Possum said...: I also see from Wiki that President Polly gets pregnant and resigns so she can better care for her family.; 2/23/20, 6:24 AM
Darrell said...: Fred made himself the highest paid actor in Hollywood during The golden Age. Hillary did the same through more cunning means. America still has some strategic reserves left. Let's hope the Democrats stay out of power.; 2/23/20, 6:24 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "McMurray played the president's wife in the 1964 movie "Kisses for My President" that starred Polly Bergen."

Yeah, that was on cable TV last night, and Meade stopped there and watched.; 2/23/20, 6:30 AM
AJ Ford said...: For a second I thought this was a reference to The Apartment where Fred plays to “me, too” boss and Shirley Maclaine plays the elevator operator, Fran Kubelik.; 2/23/20, 6:36 AM
Curious George said...: "Unknown said...
McMurray played the president's wife in the 1964 movie "Kisses for My President" that starred Polly Bergen."

You mean husband, right? I mean even Chasten gets to be called husband.; 2/23/20, 7:02 AM
Ann Althouse said...: MacMurray is referred to as "the First Lady" repeatedly and he uses that term for himself.

1960s fun was different. The year was 1964, and Boomers hadn't taken over the culture yet... hadn't "fixed" everything. The romcoms of the time were Doris Day and Jack Lemmon things. The top grossing romcom of that year starred Cary Grant.; 2/23/20, 7:07 AM
Ann Althouse said...: From Wikipedia:

"MacMurray was married twice. He married Lillian Lamont... on June 20, 1936, and the couple adopted two children, Susan (born 1940) and Robert (born 1946). After Lamont died of cancer on June 22, 1953, he married actress June Haver the following year. The couple subsequently adopted two more children—twins born in 1956—Katherine and Laurie. MacMurray and Haver's marriage lasted 37 years, until Fred's death. In 1941, MacMurray purchased land in the Russian River Valley in Northern California and established MacMurray Ranch. At the 1,750-acre ranch he raised prize-winning Aberdeen Angus cattle, cultivated prunes, apples, alfalfa, and other crops, and enjoyed watercolor painting, fly fishing, and skeet shooting.... He was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party. He joined Bob Hope and James Stewart to campaign for Richard Nixon in 1968. In 1980, he campaigned alongside Charlton Heston and Dean Martin for Ronald Reagan.... In 1939, artist C. C. Beck used MacMurray as the initial model for the superhero character who became Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel."; 2/23/20, 7:12 AM
Quaestor said...: In 1939, artist C. C. Beck used MacMurray as the initial model for the superhero character who became Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel.

And Captain Marvel has now transitioned from lantern-jawed masculinity to crotch-kicking feminazism. Was "Kisses for My President" a bit of Jungian foreshadowing? Shazam!; 2/23/20, 7:22 AM
Quaestor said...: MacMurray's performances in "Double Indemnity" and "The Caine Mutiny" are topnotch. It's a rare actor who can stand out on the same screen as Bogart.; 2/23/20, 7:27 AM
Quaestor said...: From consulting the invaluable James Lilek's substantial online opus I have learned that Captain Marvel was the feature character of a publication called Whiz Comics.

Whiz. Did that mean then what it means now?; 2/23/20, 7:35 AM
Darrell said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/23/20, 7:52 AM
Kai Akker said...: Barbara Stanwyck is to Amy Klobuchar as Cary Grant is to Bernie Sanders.; 2/23/20, 7:52 AM
Darrell said...: Math Whiz.
Blogging Whiz (Althouse.)
I bet it had a drier meaning.; 2/23/20, 7:53 AM
Phil 314 said...: Fred MacMurray plays bad guy well. Or maybe it seems that way because of growing up with Steven Douglas.; 2/23/20, 8:02 AM
Wilbur said...: Fred had written into his contract for My Three Sons that he would show up for just a few weeks and shoot an entire season of M3S. The crew and cast would shoot his scenes only, out of order, i.e., not in episodic order. The other actors hated it and found it difficult.

That Fred ... what a kooky guy.; 2/23/20, 8:19 AM
Big Mike said...: It would be really useful if you dropped gender politics — and all identity group thinking — from your thought processes entirely, Professor. That way you would save yourself from the embarrassment of writing posts like the one where you suggested that women would voluntarily give up athletics because they were conditioned to be nice. Women are individuals who really do think for themselves, as do Hispanics and most blacks.; 2/23/20, 8:49 AM
Sam L. said...: Say...WHAT??????????????????????????????????????????????????; 2/23/20, 8:56 AM
rcocean said...: Fred MacMurray didn't want to work 26 weeks a year on a TV set. That's why he had all his scenes shot first. Brando did the same thing on Missouri Breaks and Apocalypse Now. All his scenes were shot first, so he could leave after 1 month.

I remember seeing that movie with MacMurray as 1st Lady as a kid on TV. I don't think I made it to the end. Mr. Thatcher seemed OK with being the spouse of a Prime Minister, but then the British PM isn't head of state.; 2/23/20, 9:49 AM
rcocean said...: Absurdly, MacMurray was Wilder's 2nd Choice for The Apartment, and Double Indemnity. Wilder wanted John Garfield for DI, and Paul Douglas for the Apartment. Both terrible choices. Other leading men didn't want to play a murderer. Even MacMurray had to be convinced. According to Wilder, Fred told him he couldn't do what the part required - act.; 2/23/20, 9:54 AM
rcocean said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/23/20, 9:54 AM
Maillard Reactionary said...: Darrell-- And Cheese Whiz. Let's not forget Cheese Whiz.

I learn from Winkiepedia that Cheese Whiz is 68 years old this year.

I have always lived in a world with Cheese Whiz. That will be my thought for the day.; 2/23/20, 10:01 AM
Mark said...: MacMurray's performances in "Double Indemnity" and "The Caine Mutiny" are topnotch.

He also had that Mayor Pete sweaty upper lip thing down pat.; 2/23/20, 10:05 AM
Darrell said...: The British dish called Welsh rarebit is made using a difficult-to-make cheese sauce. Kraft searched for a simpler solution. In 1952, Cheez Whiz was born, introduced solely to the British market. In 1953, Cheez Whiz made its way across the pond to the United States.; 2/23/20, 10:11 AM
Thuglawlibrarian said...: He was fantastic in The Caine Mutiny.; 2/23/20, 10:37 AM
Charlie Currie said...: Ha! Watched that movie yesterday...well, sorta half watched. Very stereotypical Hollywood racists towards our south of the border brethren. But, Polly Bergen was very beautiful lecturing her counterpart.

Also, a lot of quid pro quo over foreign aid going on. Shifty is probably chomping at the bit to do the rewrite where the first husband colludes with the righteous committee chairman to impeach her.; 2/23/20, 10:59 AM
Wince said...: If it was My Three Sons, Klobuchar would be dead, replace by a cantankerous old mansplainer in an apron, Uncle Charley.

In other words, the best possible outcome.; 2/23/20, 11:38 AM
Yancey Ward said...: I also first saw MacMurray in "My Three Sons" which was in heavy syndication when I was between the ages of 6 and 12. He is the star of one of my top ten favorite movies, "Double Indemnity". Seen that movie 4 or 5 times over the years, and again just a couple of months ago.; 2/23/20, 1:41 PM
Rosalyn C. said...: No one talks about it now, and I've never thought about it, but that movie from 1964 does bring up the issue of whether a woman president would stay in office if she became pregnant.; 2/23/20, 2:01 PM
Martin L. Shoemaker said...: Quaestor said...
And Captain Marvel has now transitioned from lantern-jawed masculinity to crotch-kicking feminazism. Was "Kisses for My President" a bit of Jungian foreshadowing? Shazam!

That's a different Captain Marvel from a different company (Marvel). The original, Fred MacMurray Captain Marvel from Fawcett (later purchased by DC) started as a tongue-in-cheek Superman. After decades of confusion, DC finally surrendered the name to Marvel, rechristening their character as Shazam.; 2/23/20, 2:48 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: Did you get me my Cheez Whiz boy?; 2/23/20, 6:10 PM
gpm said...: C'mon already (can't do a Bide "Come On"), KfMP wasn't "on cable" yesterday, it was on TCM (yeah, TCM is cable, but calling it just "cable," no).

TCM has been showing one of its vignettes (I think it goes back a while but they've been showing it a lot recently) about MacMurray by his daughter. She says he gave up the villain roles and just stuck to good guy stuff after an encounter with a random women (maybe at Disneyland or the like) who slapped him in public because she brought her kid to see The Apartment because he was in it and didn't appreciate what she got.

>>Wilder wanted John Garfield for DI, and Paul Douglas for the Apartment. Both terrible choices.

I'd have to think a bit about John Garfield but, yeah, Paul Douglas wouldn't have been right for the Apartment and, if nothing else, was probably too old. Douglas was OK in The Mating Game and Executive Suite (and an interesting performance in When in Rome), but his best role was probably in A Letter to Three Wives (subject of a Slate podcast today, but I don't do podcasts and maybe it's one of those premium Slate thingies that I ain't going to be paying for).

>> a cantankerous old mansplainer in an apron, Uncle Charley

William Demarest, aka Uncle Charley, was a mainstay in the movies by the marvelous Preston Sturges back in the 40s (The Lady Eve, The Palm Beach Story, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, Christmas in July, The Great McGinty, Sullivan's Travels, Hail the Conquering Hero). He replaced William Frawley/grandfather "Bub" in MTS (very different character, as far as I can recall after fifty years) after Frawley's death and, as I look at IMDB, actually appeared in more seasons than Frawley did.

--gpm; 2/23/20, 10:18 PM
gpm said...: And Demarest had one of the greatest final lines in a move in The Lady Eve: "Positively the same dame." Right up there with Joe E. Brown in Some Like It Hot: "Nobody's Perfect."

--gpm; 2/23/20, 10:22 PM
Bilwick said...: Is that line about Fred MacMurray a joke? If so, can sometone please explain?; 2/24/20, 1:58 PM