One For The Ages

Mrs. BeeLine and I recently watched the classic film, The Philadelphia Story.

The movie was released in 1941 and starred Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart. This is how Google describes the film.

This classic romantic comedy focuses on Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn), a Philadelphia socialite who has split from her husband, C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant), due both to his drinking and to her overly demanding nature. As Tracy prepares to wed the wealthy George Kittredge (John Howard), she crosses paths with both Dexter and prying reporter Macaulay Connor (James Stewart). Unclear about her feelings for all three men, Tracy must decide whom she truly loves.

The movie was based on a popular Broadway play that Hepburn had starred in. At the time, Hepburn's Hollywood career was in tatters. She had had several film flops and was considered "box office poison" at the time by a a number of theatre owners. In order to reinvigorate her career she purchased the film rights to the play and agreed to perform for no salary taking a percentage of the gross as her compensation.

It proved to be a good decision for Hepburn as The Philadelphia Story turned out to be the 5th highest grossing film of 1941 with a global box office of $3.3 million. In today's dollars that would be about $60 million.

In addition, Jimmy Stewart won the Academy Award for the best actor for his role in the movie.

Two things always strike me when I watch an old film.

1. How thin the people are.

2. How mature they seem to look compared to their actual age.

The Philadelphia Story is no exception. Hepburn looked to have a waist no bigger than a 12 year old girl would today. I found this site that suggests it was 22 inches. That is a on a height of 5ft 7.5 in.

Of course, that is gigantic compared to the rumored 20 inch waist that Vivien Leigh had in Gone With The Wind in which she played Scarlett who had a 17 inch waist in the book. Leigh reportedly was squeezed into a 16 inch corset during filming. I am sure that made for some long days on the set.

You get an idea of how small waisted Leigh was by looking at the picture of Leigh and Clark Gable from the film. Notice the size of Gable's hands in relation to Leigh's waist. Gable was about 6' tall according to most reports.

I think we understand why everyone was much thinner in those days.

What about their ages?

The actor that got me thinking about this in The Philadelphia Story was Katharine Hepburn's fiancee played by an actor named John Howard. When he was first introduced in the film I thought he was much older than Hepburn.

How old does he look to you? Howard is the man on the far right. In the movie, it is stated he is 32 years old. Stewart's character is 30 and I did not pick up any ages for the characters that Hepburn and Grant played.

Howard's actual age when he made the movie was 27. To me, in the movie he looked to be much older than Hepburn. He looked to be at least 40 to me.

Stewart was 32 when he made the film.

Hepburn was 33.

Grant was 36.

By the way, Clark Gable was only 38 when he filmed Gone With The Wind.

Perhaps all of this is just me showing my age since these actors are generally younger when they did these parts than the age of my kids today.

However, I think it is more than that.

The generation in those old movies grew up in tough times. They were children during World War I and they also all lived and had to survive the Great Depression. It made you grow up quicker and it also undoubtedly made you look and act more mature.

I made the same point several years ago when I compared the lives of Barack Obama and U.S. Grant.

Most people are shocked to discover that U.S. Grant became President at a younger age than Barack Obama. Grant was also younger when he took office than Paul Ryan is today.

U.S. Grant, March,1869
46 years old

Barack Obama, Janaury, 2009
47 years old

Paul Ryan, June, 2018
48 years old

That is pretty incredible when you think about it. One of the reasons that Grant seems like he was so much older is that he had effectively lived four lifetimes before he ever became President. Grant had literally seen it all in both his personal experiences and in the decisions he had to make as a leader.

Comparing the life experiences of a Paul Ryan or Obama to Grant would be like comparing a 6-year playing T-Ball to Mike Trout.

It seems that in this day and age life experience is heavily discounted compared to educational background and political experience. I think that is a big reason why the Deep State and the Mainstream Media despises and underestimates Donald Trump so much. How can Trump know anything? He doesn't have a law degree from Harvard, a Master in Foreign Relations from Georgetown and he hasn't lived in Washington for 20 years.

However, stop a minute and consider how much life experience Donald Trump had before he became President. Thousands of hours interacting with all sorts of people in his real estate business---union leaders. politicians, lawyers, contractors, construction workers. Nearly 50 years of interfacing with the media. More than a decade headlining a top-rated television show. Being on the A-list and being invited and interacting with almost every celebrity you could imagine for at least 30 years.

It all adds up and it compounds into providing Trump with perspectives in understanding and analyzing people and situations in ways that those with less life experience simply cannot fathom.

Trump has a lot of flaws. He is not immune from foibles. However, too many discount the life experience he has that is almost unparalleled by any other human alive today. He has seen a lot and done a lot. He has packed a lot into 72 years and he seems to have the energy of someone half his age. Some might think he does not act his age but you are making a mistake if you ignore the life experience that he has attained over the years.

Who would think that I would be able to write a blog post from watching an old movie on TCM? That ability also comes from life experience.

It is surely one for the ages.