From "Barbara Howar, whose hit memoir dished on D.C. society, dies at 89/Initially known as a Georgetown hostess, she became a best-selling author with her candid 1973 memoir, 'Laughing All the Way.' She later interviewed celebrities for 'Entertainment Tonight'" (WaPo)(free access link).
Howar launched her writing career with a 1968 Ladies’ Home Journal story called "Why LBJ Dropped Me." Looking (unsuccessfully) for a copy of "Why LBJ Dropped Me," I stumbled into this cool photograph, "Singer Bobby Darin sits with his girlfriend, Barbara Howar." I love her shoe. Grommets — so 60s! Ah, well, the 60s are long gone, and here I am, a creature of the 60s, entertained by obituaries, saying goodbye to everyone who was tormented by LBJ and danced the frug.
You don't see the phrase "enfant terrible" so much anymore. The OED says it's "A child who embarrasses his or her elders by untimely remarks; transferred a person who compromises his or her associates or his or her party by unorthodox or ill-considered speech or behaviour; loosely, one who acts unconventionally." We used to celebrate the enfants terribles. Didn't we? Do we still? Answer without saying "Trump" or you are too boring to wear pajamas to an embassy gala and drive an orange motorcycle through a Georgetown park.
Posts
33 comments:
Wearing pajamas to an embassy gala used to get you noticed.
Now they're cornholing dudes on the Senate floor and can't get arrested.
How funny - I just made an LBJ-themed comment on the Trump as Fiction Writer post. Months, even years, can go by without my giving a moment's thought to LBJ.
This version of "Dancing the frug" is a little more fung https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paH6QDIHZsM
Who's we, do you have a mouse in your pocket? If you see me at a Washington gala, someone probably smuggled a flamethrower past the security. The press has lionized useless celebs like Jackie O, but Washington has been degenerating morally for years while also becoming ugly and boring.
Not the kind of party I would go to unarmed.
I had to explain terms like 'enfant terrible,' "bete noir," and "primus inter pares' to my history classes. At a university, not junior high. Then again, some of them didn't understand their native tongue either.
I refuse to be shamed into not naming Trump.
What were all those baby balloons if not a recognition of him as an enfant terrible?
The opening scene with jump cuts during the conversation is so 1960s. And was parodied so well by Laugh In, that I am not entirely certain that it was meant as a parody. Sock It To Me?
Nice video I watched the whole thing. The women in the 60s are sexy. Smoking was cool. The dance was spectacular. I am old though 70, so maybe my judgement clouded.
Barron
I guess Henry liked fast cars and faster women. You go girl, I mean go, jump!
Babe has legs all the way up to her ass. Sorry. My Boomer 60s came out
It's up at ebay
$4.50
Why LBJ Dropped Me
It’s so hard to be outrageous now. Almost impossible.
I've never seen Sweet Charity. Co-written by Fellini! Looks super cool. Just ordered it.
Anyone else notice that Ann bounces from topic to topic in a way very similar to Trump?
I assumed she was long gone and already in the Great Beyond with Secretary of the Treasury Henry Fowler who danced the frug with Carol Channing that year.
The Fellini first version 1957 was "Nights of Cabria" starring Guilietta Masina (his wife)
So she was a groupie? That's what it sounds like.
"We used to celebrate the enfants terribles. Didn't we? Do we still?"
No, they were just weird these days since the counter-culture Progressives of the 1960s became the powers that be. Fearful of any who think differently.
"Children began to be the tyrants, not the slaves, of their households. They no longer rose from their seats when an elder entered the room; they contradicted their parents, chattered before company, gobbled up the dainties at table, and committed various offences against Hellenic tastes, such as crossing their legs. They tyrannised over the paidagogoi and schoolmasters."
Kenneth John Freeman, for his Cambridge dissertation published in 1907. Freeman did not claim that the passage under analysis was a direct quotation of anyone; instead, he was presenting his own summary of the complaints directed against young people in ancient times.
Was that a "white dude for Kamala"?
I remember Bobby Darin as an enfant terrible. In terms of the 50's, of course. Then came the British invasion and everything changed.
Ha! I just watched "Sweet Charity" on the Criterion Channel. It was lots of fun, and Shirley MacLaine was wonderful. Criterion is featuring a whole series of movies with MacLaine, and they're well worth your time.
thanks J2! I didn't realize it was a remake. That makes more sense.
There's little scope to be an enfant terrible these days. To paraphrase, when you try to be outrageous, eventually you just become rageous.
Love the Bob Fosse.
If you're still looking, it's on p. 91 of the April 1968 issue. Or p. 475 of this 6 month archive.
Archive
Ahem. One doesn't "drive" a motorcycle. A motorcycle is ridden.
tcrosse said...
There's little scope to be an enfant terrible these days. To paraphrase, when you try to be outrageous, eventually you just become rageous.
Or to paraphrase someone whose name I cannot recall, eventually avant- garde simply becomes garde.
I remember my mother reading her book. She was from a small town 30 miles north of Barbara's but 8 years older.
That's the most angular dancing I've ever seen. I guess it's partly the tight pants and bare legs. Several of the guys are balding!
Cigarello holders held by men.
Wouldn't life be more interesting if we stopped transgressing at that moment?
Post a Comment