Weirdos Wasting Our Time - 25

Miscellaneous Videos - 46

Skin-Care Recommendations for the Women of "Dirty Dancing"

The Rouge 18 website has published two articles, written by cosmetics expert Amber Katz, recommending skin-care products for the movie's five main female characters -- Baby, Lisa and Marjorie Houseman, Penny Johnson and Vivian Pressman. Below are Katz's recommendations for Penny and Vivian.

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Ah, Penny. WHO, praytell, in any movie, is more glamorous than Penny? With her coral-nude dress, her sunny blonde hair, her rough and tough accent, her low tolerance for Baby’s dadditude (i.e., calling her dad to rescue/pay for/abort when necessary), she’s no-nonsense. My friends Lauren, Jaime and Roberta and I all talk about how we originally thought she got STABBED when we initially saw the movie in ’87. She’s a performer who really needs to protect and prime that canvas. Here’s what I imagine is in her fictional medicine cabinet.

Recommended skin-care products for Penny Johnson

Urban Decay Pore Perfecting Complexion Primer
Most of Penny’s time is spent swirling on stages in major makeup under bright lights, so an even skin texture and tone is paramount. Urban Decay’s new primer is perfect for her: It provides an flawless canvas on which to bring out her delicate features via makeup. The silky texture is to DIE and it glides on like Robbie probably did into her life (and unfortunately, her pants).

Physicians Formula Skin Concern Aging: Dark Spot Corrector and Skin Brightener
A winner whether you’re subsisting on Jujubes or women are stuffing diamonds into your pockets, a polarizing dynamic Penny’s BFF Johnny most famously witnessed. Its luxurious texture belies its price tag – under $20 at drugstore.com. I like that it imparts instant radiance and is fragrance-free.

Elizabeth Arden Visible Difference Peel And Reveal Revitalizing Mask
This one’s a skin care item I’ve been using nearly since I ORIGINALLY saw DD. The spa-inspired mask exfoliates and retexturizes skin in just 20 minutes. Peel and reveal smoother, brighter, glowing skin.

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Ah, Vivian Pressman, the original cougar, who lived her life between Sunday night and Friday, when Moe came back up to the Katzskills. She’s a bungalow bunny who can’t be tamed. Here are the skin care items she’d no doubt hoard in her bungalow.

Recommended skin-care products for Vivian Pressman

Skindinavia Makeup Finishing Spray 
How ELSE will she get her makeup to stay on during an all-night sweat sesh with Robbie the creep? Spritz on after your makeup application and it’ll be there until you wash it off at night.

Yves Rocher Hydra Vegetal Moisturizing Gel Cream 
Bungalow bunnies have to keep their visages well hydrated, especially when they’re filling their agendas with endless poolside drinks, golf and tennis.

Rodin Olio Lusso Lip Balm 
To keep that pucker prepped for various and sundry smooches.

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You can read Katz's skin-care recommendations for Baby, Lisa and Marjorie at the Rouge 18 webpage.

Take that stuff off your face before your mother sees you.

Jake Houseman has provided first aid to Penny and now angrily is taking his daughter Baby back to the family's cabin. He says to her:

I don't want you to have anything to do with those people. Nothing! You're to have nothing to do with them ever again!

I won't tell your mother about this. Right now I'm going to bed.

And take that stuff off your face before your mother sees you.

The "stuff" on Baby's face is makeup.

Neither parent -- Jake or Marjorie -- objected to Baby's wearing makeup. Both would notice immediately, however, if she were doing so, because Baby never wore makeup.

Jake was worried that Marjorie might wonder to him to him about why Baby was wearing makeup, and then he might feel morally obligated to tell her what had happened at Penny's cabin.

Baby's father told her to take this stuff off her face.

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Although Baby went with her father back to their cabin, she simply waited until he went to bed, and then she snuck out and went to Johnny Castle's cabin. There she still was wearing her makeup.

Baby made an exception to her no-makeup practice
when she went to Johnny's cabin to seduce him.

Imagine the surprise of Baby's mother if she had seen
Baby wearing so much makeup that night.

Although Baby did not normally wear makeup, she did so on this special occasion when she intended to sexually seduce Johnny. If wearing makeup might help her to do so, then she would wear makeup.

Whenever dopey girls make YouTube tutorials about how to look like Baby Houseman, they teach this look, even though Baby normally did not wear makeup.

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On the following morning at breakfast, the normal contrast between no-makeup Baby and much-makeup Lisa could be seen.

Two sisters -- one without makeup and one with makeup

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On the following afternoon, it was raining and so the the Houseman family was sitting in the cabin. As normal, Baby is not wearing makeup.

Baby not wearing makeup on a rainy afternoon in the family's cabin.
(Click on the image to enlarge it.)

Suddenly Baby's older sister Lisa remarks that she cannot find her beige iridescent lipstick.

Lisa Houseman
Where is my beige iridescent lipstick? I know I put it in this drawer.

Marjorie Houseman
Baby, where are you going in this weather?

Baby Houseman
Uh, they're having charades in the west lobby.

Lisa Houseman
Quite the little joiner, aren't we?

Lisa notices that her beige iridescent lipstick is missing.

Baby's mother and sister have no idea that the lipstick-thief might be Baby. Perhaps Baby's father realized that Baby was the thief, but he remained silent.

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At the Rouge 18 website, makeup expert Amber Katz reveals to her readers her five favorite beige iridescent lipsticks.

E.L.F. Essential Lipstick in Nostalgic

Esteee Lauder Pure Color Lipstick in Beige

L'Oreal Paris Colour Riche Stars
Lipcolour Lipstick Aishwarya's Beige

Sephora Collection Rouge Shine Lipstick
No. 2 Golden Girl Shimmer

Urban Decay Midnight Cowboy Lipstick

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Lisa made a special point of mentioning that her missing lipstick was iridescent, because this lipstick feature was rather novel in 1963. The Cosmetics and Skin website has published an article titled Max Factor (post 1945) that summarizes (with the below illustration) the development of iridescent cosmetics in the late 1950s and early 1960s (emphasis added).

A 1959 Max Factor ad introducing its new product line --
Iridescent Magic Lipstick in seven shades:
Petal Frost, Flamingo Pearl, Orchid Pearl, Desert Pearl,
Essence of Pearl, Apricot Frost, Golden Frost. 

.... when the American Lipstick Wars of the 1950s started, the company [Max Factor] felt it was necessary to release yet another one called Color-Fast (1952). By then Max Factor had embraced more marketable shade names so this lipstick was produced in in eight shades: Party Pink, Golden Flame, Wild Orchid, Coral Spray, Cheery Cherry, Red Red Rose, Clearly Red and Brighter Red. The Hi-Fi lipstick range (1955) was also made with a long-lasting formulation.

As the fashion for indelibles waned, Max Factor introduced Hi-Society Lipstick in a cream formulation in 1958, then added Iridescent Magic Lipstick (1959) using the same cream formulation but now in pearlescent shades: Essence of Pearl, Golden Frost, Petal Frost, Flamingo Pearl, Apricot Frost, Orchid Pearl and Desert Pearl shades. Essence of Pearl was colourless so could be used under or over other lipsticks to add iridescence to any lipstick colour. ....

Hi-Fi Eye Make-Up came in a much wider range of colours than its pre-war counterparts. By 1959, Hi-Fi Eyeshadow came in cream, iridescent and pastel shades with names like Azure Blue, Blue-Green, Blue, Iridescent Blue, Blue Mist, Iridescent Silver, Iridescent Gray, Iridescent Brown, Iridescent Frost, True White, Lilac Mist, Iridescent Lavender, Lavender, Green Mist, Green and Iridescent Green.

Hi-Fi Eye Shadow Stick, a lipstick-like eye shadow was added in 1958 and Hi-Fi Powder Eye Shadow with a matte finish was added in 1962. Customers could also purchase Hi-Fi Fluid Eye Liner in Black, Brownish Black, Brown, Iridescent Silver, Lilac, Iridescent Gold, True Green, Iridescent Green, Green Mist, Blue Green, True Blue, Blue Mist, and Iridescent Blue shades and a self sharpening Automatic Eye Pencil to outline their eyebrows in shades of Brown, Gray, Black, True Green, Light Brown, True Blue and Auburn. ...

Te increased emphasis on matching them [nail enamels] with lipsticks ... meant that the colour range of its nail enamels needed to be expanded in order to ensure sales of its other make-up lines. The Nail Satin Nail Enamel range (1961) came in twenty shades – many of which were duplicated in iridescent finishes – with colours that matched Max Factor lipsticks. Fashion Matt Nail Satin colours were released later in the year to match Sun Pastel Lipsticks.

Thereafter, new shades were released in gloss, matte and iridescent forms concurrently with new lipstick colours.

So, in 1963, having iridescent lipstick was something that Lisa might brag about.

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See also my previous posts titled The 30th Anniversary Dirty Dancing Makeup Palette and Beauty News About the "Dirty Dancing" Eye-Shadow Palette.

Dancing "Time of My Life" in a Mini-Dress - 12

Weirdos Wasting Our Time - 24

Baby Houseman's Heroic Journey -- Part 2

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Continued in Part 3.

Baby Houseman's Heroic Journey -- Part 1

This article follows up a previous article that is titled Heroism in Dirty Dancing. There I quoted passages from a superb essay by Daniel Wikey, who had earned a university degree with a major in Anthropology and Religious Studies. Wikey argued that the Dirty Dancing story portrays Baby Houseman as following "almost precisely the ten-step heroic initiation process".

By comparing Baby’s tale with Greek myth, we learn that, far from simply being a movie about achieving one’s dreams, Dirty Dancing is a primal tale of an arduous and difficult journey from sexual ignorance to enlightenment, filled with symbols representing Baby’s metamorphosis into a sexually awakened adult. ...

All heroes must voyage to the underworld and come to terms with their own mortality; although in Baby’s case she does not physically travel to the land of death, she experiences how death could potentially affect her — namely, how being a woman means that one has to come into contact with death and return to survive. Penny returns from the abortion weak and trembling, seemingly on the verge of death. ...

Baby does not die or become immortal to achieve apotheosis, but she does achieve a god-like status by being lifted into the air by Johnny during the movie’s final dance. He slowly lifts her up, a spotlight illuminating her head, as the music swells .... showing the triumph she has achieved from making it through the liminality of her journey’s trials — gaining knowledge of what is means to be mature — before becoming the adult she is now. She is literally looked up upon by the audience — having made it through her journey, she is raised into the sky, symbolically representing her now semi-divine status from achieving her transformation. ...

The subject of adolescents and their journey to maturity fascinates human society, for it is a transition every functioning adult has made, and every child will have to make. Baby herself ends the film having learned more about her own nature, about both good things that come with maturity (romance, responsibility) and the bad (the downsides of romance and responsibility).

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Now I will put my own spin onto that comparison between Dirty Dancing and mythological stories of heroic journeys.

I do not think that Eleanor Bergstein consciously used the Heroic Journey genre as a model for Dirty Dancing  Rather, I think that the Heroic Journey comparison provides a thought-provoking way to think about the Dirty Dancing story.

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Ancient society was an aristocratic society, in which elite status was mostly inherited by birth. In order to demonstrate that elite status was also deserved by merit -- not merely inherited by birth -- stories were told in which a young aristocrat traveled far away and excelled in an environment where he and his family were not known. There, using his own wit and strength, the young aristocrat accomplished great feats. Eventually the young aristocrat returned home, more experienced, wiser, and ready to assume his governing position within his aristocratic family.

The Wikipedia article about the Hero's Journey begins as follows.

In narratology and comparative mythology, ... the hero's journey is the common template of a broad category of tales that involve a hero who goes on an adventure, and in a decisive crisis wins a victory, and then comes home changed or transformed.

The study of hero myth narratives started in 1871 with anthropologist Edward Taylor's observations of common patterns in plots of hero's journeys. Later on, others introduced various theories on hero myth narratives such as Otto Rank and his Freudian psychoanalytic approach to myth, Lord Raglan's unification of myth and rituals, and eventually hero myth pattern studies were popularized by Joseph Campbell, who was influenced by Carl Jung's view of myth. In his 1949 work The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell described the basic narrative pattern as follows:

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.

Campbell and other scholars, such as Erich Neumann, describe narratives of Gautama Buddha, Moses, and Christ in terms of the monomyth. While others, such as Otto Rank and Lord Raglan, describe hero narrative patterns in terms of Freudian psychoanalysis and ritualistic senses. ....

Image from the Wikipedia article

The Wikipedia article argues that the Heroic Journey genre comprises three main parts -- Departure, Initiation and Return. Each such part typically comprises various subparts, which Wikipedia lists as follows.

Departure

The Call to Adventure

The hero begins in a situation of normality, from which some information is received that acts as a call to head off into the unknown.

Refusal of the Call

Often when the call is given, the future hero first refuses to heed it. This may be from a sense of duty or obligation, fear, insecurity, a sense of inadequacy, or any of a range of reasons that work to hold the person in his or her current circumstances.

Supernatural Aid

Once the hero has committed to the quest, consciously or unconsciously, his guide and magical helper appears or becomes known. More often than not, this supernatural mentor will present the hero with one or more talismans or artifacts that will aid him later in his quest.

Crossing the First Threshold

This is the point where the person actually crosses into the field of adventure, leaving the known limits of his or her world and venturing into an unknown and dangerous realm where the rules and limits are unknown.

Belly of the Whale

The belly of the whale represents the final separation from the hero's known world and self. By entering this stage, the person shows willingness to undergo a metamorphosis. When First entering the stage the hero may encounter a minor danger or set back.

Initiation

The Road of Trials

The road of trials is a series of tests that the person must undergo to begin the transformation. Often the person fails one or more of these tests, which often occur in threes.

The Meeting with the Goddess

This is where the hero gains items given to him that will help him in the future.

The Woman As Temptress

In this step, the hero faces those temptations, often of a physical or pleasurable nature, that may lead him or her to abandon or stray from his or her quest, which does not necessarily have to be represented by a woman. Woman is a metaphor for the physical or material temptations of life, since the hero-knight was often tempted by lust from his spiritual journey.

Atonement with the Father

In this step the person must confront and be initiated by whatever holds the ultimate power in his or her life. In many myths and stories this is the father, or a father figure who has life and death power. This is the center point of the journey. All the previous steps have been moving into this place, all that follow will move out from it. Although this step is most frequently symbolized by an encounter with a male entity, it does not have to be a male; just someone or thing with incredible power.

Apotheosis

This is the point of realization in which a greater understanding is achieved. Armed with this new knowledge and perception, the hero is resolved and ready for the more difficult part of the adventure

The Ultimate Boon

The ultimate boon is the achievement of the goal of the quest. It is what the person went on the journey to get. All the previous steps serve to prepare and purify the person for this step, since in many myths the boon is something transcendent like the elixir of life itself, or a plant that supplies immortality, or the Holy Grail.

Return

Refusal of the Return

Having found bliss and enlightenment in the other world, the hero may not want to return to the ordinary world to bestow the boon onto his fellow man.

The Magic Flight

Sometimes the hero must escape with the boon, if it is something that the gods have been jealously guarding. It can be just as adventurous and dangerous returning from the journey as it was to go on it.

Rescue from Without

Just as the hero may need guides and assistants to set out on the quest, often he or she must have powerful guides and rescuers to bring them back to everyday life, especially if the person has been wounded or weakened by the experience.

The Crossing of the Return Threshold

The trick in returning is to retain the wisdom gained on the quest, to integrate that wisdom into a human life, and then maybe figure out how to share the wisdom with the rest of the world.

Master of Two Worlds

This step is usually represented by a transcendental hero like Jesus or Gautama Buddha. For a human hero, it may mean achieving a balance between the material and spiritual. The person has become comfortable and competent in both the inner and outer worlds.

Freedom to Live

Mastery leads to freedom from the fear of death, which in turn is the freedom to live. This is sometimes referred to as living in the moment, neither anticipating the future nor regretting the past.

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A major difference between the Heroic Journey genre and Dirty Dancing story is that the latter's main character is a female. Therefore I will switch the word Hero to Heroine and Goddess to God.

The Meeting with the God

This is where the heroine gains items given to her that will help her in the future.

The Man As Tempter

In this step, the heroine faces those temptations, often of a physical or pleasurable nature, that may lead her to abandon or stray from her quest, which does not necessarily have to be represented by a man. Man is a metaphor for the physical or material temptations of life, since the heroine was often tempted by lust from her spiritual journey.

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The ThoughtCo website has published an article titled The Hero's Journey, written by Deb Peterson, a learning and development consultant who also teaches creative writing. Her article begins as follows:

Understanding the hero's journey can make creative writing class, literature class, any English class, easier to ace. Even better, chances are you'll enjoy the class immeasurably more when you understand why the hero's journey structure makes for satisfying stories.

When I teach the hero's journey, I use Christopher Vogler's book The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. Vogler draws from the depth psychology of Carl Jung and the mythic studies of Joseph Campbell, two excellent and admirable sources.

Jung suggested that the archetypes that appear in all myths and dreams represent the universal aspects of the human mind. Campbell's life work was devoted to sharing the life principles embedded in the structure of stories. He discovered that world hero myths are all basically the same story told in infinitely different ways. That's right, one story. Study the hero's journey, and you will see its elements in the greatest stories, which are usually the oldest stories. There is a good reason they stand the test of time.

As nontraditional students, or students of any kind really, we can use their remarkable theories to understand why stories like The Wizard of Oz, E.T., and Star Wars are so beloved and so satisfying to watch or read over and over. Vogler knows because he is a longtime consultant to the movie industry and, specifically, to Disney.

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In my following posts, I will largely use the Wikipedia article and Peterson's article as a guide to my own comparison between the Heroic Journey genre and the Dirty Dancing story.

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Continued in Part 2.

Conan O'Brien and Dirty Dancing

List of Cities for the Stage Musical

In October 2017, I listed the cities where the Dirty Dancing stage musical would be performed. More cities have been added, so I am updating the list.

To obtain more details and to order tickets, go to that webpage.

Red Bank, NJ -- March 27 - 29, 2018

Richmond, VA -- March 30 - Apr 1

Wilmington, DE -- Apr 3 - 8

Erie, PA -- April 9

Evansville, IN -- Apr 11

Schenectady, NY -- April 13 - 14

Binghamton, NY -- Apr 15

Butte, MT -- Apr 22

Idaho Falls, ID -- Apr 23

Missoula, MT -- Apr 24

Kennewick, WA -- Apr 25

Spokane, WA -- Apr 26 - 29

Victoria, BC -- May 1

Abbotsford, BC -- May 3

Kelowna, BC -- May 4

Kamloops, BC -- May 5

Prince George, BC -- May 6

Grande Prairie, AB -- May 7

Saskatoon, SK -- May 9

Regina, SK -- May 10

Lethbridge, AB -- May 11

Syracuse, NY -- May 15 - 20

Halifax, NS -- May 22

Saint John, NB -- May 23

Quebec, QC -- May 25

Ottawa, ON -- May 26

Kingston, ON -- May 27

Chicago, IL -- May 29 - June 3

Kansas City, MO -- June 5 - 10

Boston, MA -- June 12 - 17

Portland, ME -- June 18 - 19

Easton, PA -- June 21 - 22

Morristown, NJ -- June 23 - 24

Atlantic City, NJ -- June 26 - July 1

Miscellaneous Videos - 45

Working as a Go-Go Dancer in the 1960s -- 6

This series began on that webpage.

Working as a Go-Go Dancer in the 1960s -- 5

This series began on that webpage.

Continued on the following post.

Working as a Go-Go Dancer in the 1960s -- 4

This series began on that webpage.

Continued on the following post.

Working as a Go-Go Dancer in the 1960s -- 3

This series began on that webpage..

Continued on the following post.

Working as a Go-Go Dancer in the 1960s -- 2

This series began on that webpage.

Continued on the following post.

Working as a Go-Go Dancer in the 1960s -- 1

When Penny Johnson was not performing as a ballroom dancer at a place like Kellerman's, she might have earned her money as a go-go dancer in the years following 1963. The Wikipedia article about Go-Go Dancing includes the following passages.

Go-go dancers are dancers who are employed to entertain crowds at nightclubs or other venues where music is played. Go-go dancing originated in the early 1960s, by some accounts when women at the Peppermint Lounge in New York City began to get up on tables and dance the twist. Some claim that go-go dancing originated at, and was named after, the very popular Los Angeles rock club Whisky a Go Go which opened in January 1964, but the opposite may be true – the club chose the name to reflect the already popular craze of go-go dancing.

 Many 1960s-era clubgoers wore miniskirts and knee-high, high-heeled boots, which eventually came to be called go-go boots. Night club promoters in the mid‑1960s then conceived the idea of hiring women dressed in these outfits to entertain patrons.

The term go-go derives from the phrase go-go-go for a high-energy person, and was influenced by the French expression à gogo, meaning "in abundance, galore", which is in turn derived from the ancient French word la gogue for "joy, happiness". ...

Go-go dancers began to be hired on a regular basis at the Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood in the Los Angeles area in July 1965. The Whisky a Go Go was also the first go-go club to have go-go cages suspended from the ceiling (they were there from the very beginning in 1965), and thus the profession of cage dancer was born. ...

Hullabaloo was a musical variety series that ran on NBC from 12 January 1965 – 29 August 1966. The Hullabaloo Dancers — a team of four men and six women — appeared on a regular basis. Another female dancer, model/actress Lada Edmund, Jr., was best known as the caged "go-go girl" dancer in the "Hullabaloo A-Go-Go" segment near the closing sequence of the show.

Other dance TV shows during this period such as ABC's Shindig! (16 September 1964 – 8 January 1966) also featured go-go dancers in cages. Sometimes these cages were made of clear plastic with lights strung inside of them; sometimes the lights were synchronized to go on and off with the music.

Shivaree (syndicated, 1965-1966), another music show, usually put go-go dancers on scaffolding and on a platform behind the band which was performing. Each show of the period had a particular method of bringing the go-go dancers into camera view. ...

American shows of the 1960s featured dancers highly trained in the various choreography used in each show ....

The following YouTube videos show go-go dancers working in the 1960s.

Continued on the following post.

The 1963 Movie "Hootenanny Hoot"

The movie Hootenanny Hoot was released to the movie theaters in August 1963, the same month when the Houseman family vacationed at Kellerman's Mountain House. The IMDb website summarizes the plot as follows:

The marriage of television director Ted Glover and television producer A.G. Bannister has gone on the rocks because she has permitted her career to take precedence over romance. The horror of it all!

Complications also arise because of a romance between Ted's agent, Steve Laughlin and a performer, Billy-Joe Henley, with a touring Hootenanny group.

The resolvement comes when A.G. realizes that love is more important than a career ...

... Guest stars The Brothers Four, Sheb Wooley, Johnny Cash, The Gateway Trio, Judy Henske, George Hamilton IV, Joe and Eddie, Cathie Taylor and (Bob's boy) Chris Crosby work up a sweatin' storm trying to create a craze for "Hootenanny".

The website includes reader reviews that provide more details.

Enterprising New York producer Peter Breck (as Ted Grover) discovers the combination of folk and country music is taking the Midwest by storm, so he goes to Missouri for a "Hootenanny Hoot!" There, college-aged crowds groove to several music acts. Aiming to sign some of the popular singers, Mr. Breck summons chum Joby Baker (as Steve Laughlin) to assist. Breck watches Mr. Baker to pursue a romance with shapely blonde Pam Austin (as Billie Jo Henley) while he tries to get over leggy ex-wife Ruta Lee (as A.G. Bannister). The "Hootenanny" TV series was on the air before the movie premiered; some musical guests appeared in both.

At the time, the biggest act appearing in this cast was arguably folk favorites The Brothers Four, who sing their hit version of the novelty song "Frogg" (from 1961). In hindsight, the enduring star is certainly a gauntly appearing Johnny Cash, reaching back for his version of "Frankie's Man Johnny" (from 1959). The biggest hit from the time of this film's release was George Hamilton IV's pretty pop version of John D. Loudermilk's "Abilene" (a #15 pop hit for him, in August 1963). The Brothers Four had a "Hootenanny" hit (from the then airing ABC-TV folk music variety show), but Sheb Wooley does it here, helped by some attractive young dancers.

Gospel duo Joe (Gilbert) and Eddie (Brown) do a rousing "There's a Meeting Here Tonight" and the humorous "The Frozen Logger" is sung by Cathie Taylor. It's unfortunate to see The Gateway Trio singing "Foolish Questions" on a trampoline, and downright embarrassing that Gary Crosby and Judy Henske were asked to perform in their bathing suits. Mr. Crosby's "Sweet Love" is more like recent Rick Nelson recordings. By the way, Ms. Henske singing "Wade in the Water" may make you wonder why you haven't heard her fine voice more often. The movie is truly mediocre, but director Gene Nelson allows his dancers to strut their stuff.

The movie featured folk music, which was very popular among Caucasian college students at that time. See my previous article titled The American Folk Music Revival in 1963.

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Vintage posters for the movie follow (click on an image to enlarge it).

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The following videos are from YouTube.

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The Wikipedia article about the word Hootenanny includes the following passages.

Hootenanny is an Appalachian colloquialism that was used in early twentieth century America as a placeholder name to refer to things whose names were forgotten or unknown. In this usage it was synonymous with thingamajig or whatchamacallit, as in: "Hand me that hootenanny."

Hootenanny was also an old country word for "party". Nowadays the word most commonly refers to a folk music party with an open mic, at which different performers are welcome to get up and play in front of an audience. ...

According to Pete Seeger, in various interviews, he first heard the word hootenanny in Seattle, Washington in the late 1930s. It was used by Hugh DeLacy’s New Deal political club to describe their monthly music fund raisers. After some debate the club voted in hootenanny, which narrowly beat out wingding.

Seeger, Woody Guthrie and other members of the Almanac Singers later used the word in New York City to describe their weekly rent parties, which featured many notable folksingers of the time. In a 1962 interview in Time, Joan Baez made the analogy that a hootenanny is to folk singing what a jam session is to jazz.

During the early 1960s at the height of the American folk music revival, the club Gerdes Folk City in Greenwich Village started the folk music hootenanny tradition every Monday night, that featured an open mic and welcomed performers known and unknown, young and old. ....

Several different television shows are named and styled after it, including:

* Hootenanny, an early 1960s [1963-1964] musical variety show broadcast on ABC in the United States. ...

* In 1963 and 1964, a BBC 1 show The Hoot'nanny Show, recorded in Edinburgh ....

Dirty Saxophoning

Eleanor Bergstein and Sylvia Plath -- Part 9

This post continues from Part 1,  Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7 and Part 8.

You can select all articles at once by clicking on the Sylvia Plath label (tag) in this blog's right margin.

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In Part 8, I argued that Baby Houseman displayed the following indications of suffering from manic-depressive (aka bipolar) disorder, Type 2.

* Her parents perceived that she was a danger to herself.

* She was perceived as intending "to change the world".

* She intended to read a lot of thick, serious books during her vacation.

* Her appetite was sometimes voracious.

* She remained mostly alone during her vacation's first week.

* She chased after Johnny Castle in an bold manner.

I wrote that Part 8 two months ago. Before I wrote this concluding Part 9, I wanted to develop the idea that Baby's conduct in the movie Dirty Dancing is largely unethical. Today I completed a two-part series (Part 1, Part 2) on that subject, and so now I will use that idea to elaborate my argument about Baby's disorder.

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In my Part 6 about Sylvia Plath, I provided the following video explanation done by Dr. Manuel Astruc, a psychiatrist specializing in mood disorders. Watching this video explanation again would be a good preparation for your reading my following discussion.

Manic-depressive disorder commonly develops at about Baby's age, which is 17 years old. At around this same age, normal adolescents begin to rebel against social conventions and parental controls and also to act more sexually. Therefore it's difficult to distinguish the disorder from normal adolescent development.

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One good indication of the disorder is the recurrence of depressive episodes. In the movie Dirty Dancing we never see Baby suffering from depression. If we study the story's chronology, however, we can determine that the story has a blank gap from Sunday, August 11, through Saturday, August 17. On the evening of Sunday, August 18, Baby is walking alone through a woods. She sees Johnny Castle and follows him boldly. In order to continue following Johnny, Baby boldly grabs a watermelon out of Billy Kostecki's hands.

The fact that Baby was walking alone on that Sunday indicates that she has been generally alone during the previous days and perhaps has been suffering a depressive episode.

On Sunday evening, however, this alone young woman is acting quite boldly. The contrast between several days of depression and an evening of bold action indicates that the movie is showing her mood swing up into a manic episode, which will continue through the following days that we see in the movie,

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Although adolescents' behavior changes as they become more independent during their late teens, each individual maintains his or her normal personality. For example, an individual who was extroverted at age 13 will still be about as extroverted at age 19 -- or introverted or risky or careful or funny or serious or whatever other personality trait might be considered.

When an adolescent develops a mood disorder, however, there are episodes when that particular person's behavior goes outside his or her normal range.

Baby's normal behavior is sedentary, self-controlled and bookish. People who knew her for many years would be surprised to see her acting in the energetic, spontaneous and emotional manner that is displayed in the "Wipe Out" scene.

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Baby was perceived to be a reliably honest person, but in the following (largely deleted) scene, she acts uncharacteristically in a deceitful, manipulative manner.

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For me, however, the most important indication of Baby's mood disorder is her unethical behavior in her sexual seduction of Johnny Castle.

Adolescents rebelling normally will criticize, for example, their parents for supposedly being hypocrites. When Baby criticizes her father in the following scene, she is acting like a normal, bratty, nonsensical, 17-year-old girl who is rebelling from her father.

When she sexually seduced Johnny, however, she was potentially causing him a lot of trouble in order to enjoy personal benefits. Her reckless, selfish exploitation of Johnny was outside her normal character, which was to be thoughtful, ethical and self-sacrificing in relation to other people.

Whereas Baby's rebellion against her father was motivated largely by a normal drive to become independent from his parental control, she had no such need to cause turmoil in her relationship with Johnny, who intended to terminate his relationship with her after the Sheldrake performance.

Of course, Baby was motivated by her sexual desire for Johnny, but I nevertheless judge that the deceitfulness, recklessness and selfishness of her actions went far beyond her normal character.

Baby was in a manic phase from the evening of Sunday, August 18 (the watermelon scene), through the morning of Saturday, August 31 (the "Love is Strange" scene).

Then Baby was in a rather normal mood phase until the end of the movie.

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Sylvia Plath -- in her novel The Bell Jar -- described how she herself (the novel's heroine Esther Greenwood) had changed from a prim, scholarship-winning student into a sexually reckless, self-sabotaging fool during one summer of her late teens.

I speculate that Plath's personal life and novel interested Eleanor Bergstein from the early 1970s. Baby Houseman is not derived directly from Esther Greenwood, nor is Dirty Dancing derived directly from The Bell Jar. However, I think that Plath planted some literary seeds into Bergstein's mind.

Esther and Baby both are bookish young women -- about seventeen years old -- who go uncharacteristically crazy during a few summer weeks away from home. This is a story that is told often by many writers, but I think that Bergstein was influenced somewhat specifically by Plath.

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This post concludes my series about Sylvia Plath.

Baby's sexual seduction of Johnny was unethical - Part 2

This article follows up Part 1.

There I argued that when Baby Houseman seduced Johnny Castle, she ignored the following ethical considerations.

* The Kellermans' rules for the dancers

* Her father's relationship with Max Kellerman

* Her own relationship with Neil Kellerman

* Her father's recent favors to her

* Penny and Johnny owed money to her

* Penny's precarious condition

* Her age difference with Johnny

In this Part 2, I will point out several more ignored considerations.

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Baby's Receiving More Free Dance Lessons

Certainly Baby wanted Johnny to enjoy mutual sexual pleasure with her, but she also was motivated by several prospects that would benefit mostly herself while costing Johnny time and trouble.

The free dance lessons that Baby had received from Johnny ended when she had performed at the Sheldrake Hotel. She would receive more free lessons, however, if she involved him in a sexual relationship.

Baby might have calculated that her getting free dance lessons would be fair compensation for his getting all the orgasms in their sexual relationship.

Johnny earned his livelihood as a professional dance teacher, and generally deserved payment for his lessons. The time he spent giving free lessons to Baby was time he could not spend giving lessons to paying customers.

Baby surely gave Johnny much sexual pleasure, but she was an inexperienced and clumsy amateur. Furthermore, she was a less beautiful female than he was a beautiful male -- even though she as the female was supposed to be more beautiful. The quality of sexual experience that she provided to him was vastly inferior to the quality of dancing experience that he provided to her.

Furthermore, her lack of orgasms was largely irrelevant to the calculation of fair compensation for the free dance lessons. Sure, his sexual experience with her would have been somewhat better if he had seen her having orgasms, but he did see her enjoying great and genuine pleasure even without superfluous female orgasms.

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Baby's Rivalry With Lisa

Baby was constantly involved in a rivalry with her older sister Lisa. Baby sniped publicly at Lisa for being egocentric, superficial and materialistic. However, Lisa clearly surpassed Baby in romantic achievements and prospects. Lisa surely would marry a successful man and enjoy a happy family life, whereas Baby well might end up as an old maid.

However, Baby's sexual seduction of Johnny gave her a rare opportunity to surpass Lisa. Although Baby initially kept her relationship with Johnny secret, eventually she would fall to the temptation to show it off to Lisa. Baby would let Lisa know that she herself was having sex with a professional dance teacher, the boss of the resort hotel's Entertainment Staff, whereas Lisa was merely flirting with the hotel's waiters.

Baby's ultimate humiliation of Lisa would be to perform a spectacular dance with Johnny at the talent show, where Lisa would perform just a dopey hula song.

Although Baby would enjoy tremendous emotional pleasure from surpassing and humiliating Lisa, this sibling rivalry did not interest Johnny in the least. He was essentially just a prop that Baby would wave triumphantly in Lisa's face.

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Johnny's Inability to Resist Sexual Opportunity

Males enjoy some advantages over females in the battle of the sexes. Males are larger and stronger. Usually the male is older and more experienced. In 1963, males usually earned more money and were more independent.

Females risk pregnancy and worse consequences from venereal disease. Females' reputations are damaged more by sexual activities. Females feel the emotional pains of sexual relationships more acutely.

Such imbalances are considered in the ethical evaluations of sexual relations. For example, when a movie producer makes romantic advances on an aspiring actress, his own perception that she complies willingly is treated skeptically. She might go along with him sexually only because she expects that he might promote or ruin her actress career. Society and the movie business might condemn his conduct ethically because he exploits his own professional advantages in relation to actresses' disadvantages in order to obtain sexual compliance that is not really willing.

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One major disadvantage for males is that their resistance to sexual temptation is much weaker. Male sex drives are faster and stronger. Males jump at sexual opportunities without pausing to consider alternatives and consequences.

Johnny had controlled himself and refrained from making any romantic advances toward Baby. After he returned her from the Sheldrake Hotel to Kellerman's Hotel, he indicated to her that their relationship was ending.

Just a short while later that same  night, however, she was able to come to his cabin and quickly seduce him by merely asking him to dance with her there. Sure, he took the first overt action by removing her blouse, but he simply was not able to resist the sexual opportunity that she offered to him -- despite several potential consequences for himself.

Baby as a female took advantage of Johnny's inherently weak male resistance.

Keep in mind that Johnny had not wanted to involve himself sexually with her, and she knew that he had not wanted to do so. That is the major consideration in evaluating the ethics of her actions.

All societies teach females wisely that they should not exploit males' inability to resist sexual opportunities. Females are supposed to wait passively for males to initiate romantic relationships and to escalate them sexually. Females are supposed to behave modestly and respond reluctantly, because female sexual initiative causes many social problems.

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This post concludes my series about Baby's seduction of Johnny being unethical.

Home-Made Dirty Dancing - 17

More Video Tutorials on Looking Like Baby

Following up Video Tutorials on Looking Like Baby Houseman

Miscellaneous Videos - 44

Baby and Neil raising money for cancer research

The 1964 Movie "Young Lovers"

This post follows up my previous post The 1959 movie Blue Denim. In that movie, a young couple considers an abortion but ultimately decides to get married. They go to live with an aunt in another city until the child is born.

In the 1964 movie The Young Lovers, the young woman decides to get an abortion, In the abortion room, however, she decides at the last moment that abortion is murder. She and her mother decide to move to another city during the remaining pregnancy. Her boyfriend says he will marry her, and it seems at the movie's end that he will do so.

The movie teaches that pre-marital sex is a mistake and that abortion is wrong. If pre-marital sex causes pregnancy, then the couple should marry.

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I recently recorded The Young Lovers from the TCM television channel and watched it twice. I appreciated the movie's depiction of college students in 1964 -- their conduct, attitudes, clothing, music, dancing and romantic relationships. College students generally shared society's opinion that abortion was dangerous and wicked and so the proper solution to a pregnancy was to get married. In this regard, The Young Lovers contrasts with Dirty Dancing, which takes place in 1963 and which presents abortion as a valid option.

Another aspect of the movie that I appreciated was its portrayal of a young man who preferred to become an artist -- despite that occupation's lower earnings -- rather than pursue a conventional career. I felt that The Young Lovers supported my earlier article titled My Sociological Criticism of Dirty Dancing.

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Two young men -- Eddie Slocum (played by Peter Fonda) and William "Tarragoo" Scoonmaker (played by Nick Adams) -- share an apartment as they attend college. Eddie is a senior, and Tarragoo seems to be in a younger class. Both are unambitious students. Eddie's favorite class is drawing, and Tarragoo's favorite class is art appreciation.

When the story begins, Tarragoo has a girlfriend, Debbie (played by Deborah Walley), who is determined to remain a virgin until she marries. She is a college student, but her academic interests are not mentioned.

Tarragoo and Debbie in a publicity photograph

Tarragoo and Debbie in a scene from "Young Lovers"

Tarragoo continually tries to talk Debbie into becoming sexual with him, but she stands her ground. Her mother's love life was troubled -- married three times -- and so Debbie desires one, life-long marriage.

Toward the movie's end, however, Debbie changes her mind about pre-marital sex when Tarragoo receives a notification that he will be drafted into the Army and so will be away for the next two years.

After Debbie and Tarragoo have sex together, however, he is rejected from military service because of his flat feet and so will not be away after all. Debbie and Tarragoo become engaged to marry. She will continue to study while he goes to work in his father's used-car business.

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At the beginning of the story, Eddie begins a romance with Pam Burns, a prim young woman who is studying to become an elementary-school teacher.

Eddie picks up Pam at the movie's beginning

Eddie and Pam dance a tango in his apartment

Eddie and Pam gradually become sexual with each other, but it's not clear when in the story they begin to have sexual intercourse. Eventually she becomes pregnant. Because she perceives that Eddie wants to delay marriage in his life, she considers an illegal abortion. When she is two months pregnant she goes to a doctor who, she knows, does abortions. The doctor tells her she must think some more about her decision before he will agree.

Then Pam informs Eddie that she is pregnant. He is upset because he does not want to get married now, and he thinks that abortion is wrong. Tarragoo too learns about Pam's pregnancy. Tarragoo too thinks that abortion is wrong, and he insists that Eddie marry Pam. Eddie and Tarragoo get into a physical fight about the issues of abortion and marriage.

Pam thinks some more about the abortion and then decides to do it. She goes back to the doctor and is taken into the abortion room. There, however, she decides that abortion is murder. Then she and her (divorced? widowed?) mother decide that she will drop out of school and they will move together to another city, where they will raise the child without a father.

Eventually Eddie decides that, because abortion is wrong, he must marry Pam, whom he does love. At the end of the movie, it seems that Eddie and Pam probably will marry.

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Although Eddie is quite intelligent, he has a bad attitude about his college studies. He feels guilty that his parents, not rich, are paying his expenses. He is interested only in his drawing class. His art teacher promises to get him a one-year scholarship on the condition that he pass all his other classes.

Eddie admires his art teacher although he recognizes that the teacher is frustrated and poor. It's obvious that Eddie is thinking about becoming an artist himself despite that occupation's relatively poor prospects.

Eddie's hesitancy to marry is caused largely by his desire to pursue an artist's career. If he has to get married and raise a family, then he will become trapped into a conventional occupation.

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The entire movie Young Lovers can be watched on YouTube.

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If you do not want to watch the entire movie, then I recommend that you look at the following segments:

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6:05 - 7:02

Throughout the movie, an attractive, flirtatious blonde, named Karen (played by Jennifer Billingsley), makes romantic advances toward Eddie, but he brushes her off. He apparently prefers prim young women such as Pam. I think Eddie fears that a romantic relationship with Karen would be dominated too much by Karen.

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10:43 - 11:30

In a foreshadowing dialogue, Pam tells Eddie she would like to be a beautiful lady with lots of secrets and one big tragedy in her life.

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15:40 - 16:42

Tarragoo tries unsuccessfully to talk Debbie into becoming sexual.

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16:43 - 20:55

Eddie dances a tango with Debbie in his room, but she leaves because she has become too aroused.

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21:55 - 23:45

A professor catches Eddie drawing a picture of Pam in an ancient-history class. Eddie displays his bad attitude, mentioning that college professors had to sell apples on the street during the Great Depression. The professor expels Eddie from the class.

Notice how well the other students are dressed.

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52:30 - 55:45

Pam's mother discovers that Eddie has slept overnight in Pam's room.

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1:05:10 - 1:07:45

Eddie's art teacher talks about the frustrations of trying to make a living as an artist.

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1:12:35 - 1:21:50

Thinking that he soon will depart for the Army, Tarragoo throws himself a farewell party.

The party has interrupted Pam's plan to tell Eddie that she is pregnant.

During the party, Debbie decides to become sexual with Tarragoo.

Karen hints to Debbie that Debbie can make Eddie marry her by getting pregnant.

Pam hints to Eddie that she might be pregnant, but he thinks she is just making a drunken joke.

Pam leaves the party, and Eddie dances and walks off with Karen.

Tarragoo and Debbie dance a waltz in anticipation of having sex.

Notice the clothing, hairstyles, music and dancing.

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1:21:50 - 1:25:00

Pam goes to a doctor to arrange an abortion. The doctor tells her she must think some more about her decision.

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1:25:00 - 1:28:00

Tarragoo and Eddie argue and fight about the issues of abortion and marriage.

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1:29:10 - 1:31:00

Pam and Eddie discuss her pregnancy. She hints that she should get an abortion, but he thinks it's too dangerous. He says he will marry her if she's pregnant. She is disappointed by his reluctance.

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1:35:05 - 1:35:26

Pam goes into the abortion room.

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1:37:45  - 1:39:45

Pam tells Eddie what happened in the abortion room.

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1:45:20 - 1:47:20

The movie's denouement. Various situations are explained.

I expect that Eddie and Pam will marry.

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The movie The Young Lovers shows what American society -- in particular college students -- commonly thought about romance, pre-marital sex, pregnancy and marriage in 1964. Society thought that pre-marital sex was a mistake and that abortion was dangerous and murderous. Young women resisted having sexual intercourse until they were at least engaged to be married. If a young woman became pregnant, then the best solution was that her boyfriend marry her.

The movie shows also how college students dressed and groomed their hair in 1964 -- which was not like what you see in the following screenshot.

This 1964 college girl needs sensible clothes and a perm.

Also, Caucasian college students having a party in 1964 did not play Negro music and do "dirty dancing". Rather, they listened to folk and pop music and did dances like the tango, twist and waltz.

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During Tarragoo's farewell party, there were a couple of mentions that the party should be a hootenanny, which is a party that features folk music. Following are a couple of video clips from the television show Hootenanny, which was broadcast during 1963-1964. This was college students' idea of great entertainment.