Jean Kerr's "When I Was Queen of the May" (with bonus Cher!) -- Garbo
In this series of posts, I've been exploring humor writers whose work I discovered while I was a teenager in the early 1970s, browsing the Dewey Decimal 810 to 820 books at the Indianapolis Public Library.
Today, I present the autobiographical sketch "When I Was Queen of the May" by Jean Kerr, which appeared as a chapter in the collection The Snake Has All the Lines. In next week's post, I'll look at the life and work of Jean Kerr, but I'm going to start by sharing one of my favorites.
Before the funny story, I'll give you a tiny bit of cultural detail, which will not only explain the question Kerr's young son asks her but help you get a feel for the era in which Kerr did her writing.
If you've ever seen the musical "On The Town," a tale of three sailors (Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, and Jules Munshin) on shore leave, you remember that Gene Kelly's character Gabey has fallen in love with the current Miss Turnstiles (movie version of Miss Subways), whose image he's seen on a poster.
(This blog, from which I took the above image, has the history of the Miss Subways contest, which is still going on or was when the blog post was written, anyway.)
\The Miss Subways contest began in the 1940s and grew out of a mash-up of the fair-queen model (Miss Sweet Corn, Russet Potato, Miss Rutabaga) and the advertising trope of associating something unlovely (the subway, for instance) with a pretty young woman. And the voting for the current Miss Whoever was the forerunner of television competitions like "American Idol."
Miss Subways, and the upcoming crop of potential new Miss Subways, appeared on posters on city walls and of course on the trains. Miss Rheingold, the "face" of a beer manufactured in New York rather than Milwaukee --
-- was featured in the pages of national magazines.
(Here's the blog where I found the image above -- it's good reading.)
Now you have some context for the question at the start of "When I Was Queen of the May."
Good stuff, right?
To finish for today, here's some relevant Cher.
Next week, more about Jean Kerr's life and career.
Today, I present the autobiographical sketch "When I Was Queen of the May" by Jean Kerr, which appeared as a chapter in the collection The Snake Has All the Lines. In next week's post, I'll look at the life and work of Jean Kerr, but I'm going to start by sharing one of my favorites.
Before the funny story, I'll give you a tiny bit of cultural detail, which will not only explain the question Kerr's young son asks her but help you get a feel for the era in which Kerr did her writing.
If you've ever seen the musical "On The Town," a tale of three sailors (Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, and Jules Munshin) on shore leave, you remember that Gene Kelly's character Gabey has fallen in love with the current Miss Turnstiles (movie version of Miss Subways), whose image he's seen on a poster.
(This blog, from which I took the above image, has the history of the Miss Subways contest, which is still going on or was when the blog post was written, anyway.)
\The Miss Subways contest began in the 1940s and grew out of a mash-up of the fair-queen model (Miss Sweet Corn, Russet Potato, Miss Rutabaga) and the advertising trope of associating something unlovely (the subway, for instance) with a pretty young woman. And the voting for the current Miss Whoever was the forerunner of television competitions like "American Idol."
Miss Subways, and the upcoming crop of potential new Miss Subways, appeared on posters on city walls and of course on the trains. Miss Rheingold, the "face" of a beer manufactured in New York rather than Milwaukee --
 |
| "Say what???" -- Laverne & Shirley |
-- was featured in the pages of national magazines.
(Here's the blog where I found the image above -- it's good reading.)
Now you have some context for the question at the start of "When I Was Queen of the May."
Good stuff, right?
To finish for today, here's some relevant Cher.
Next week, more about Jean Kerr's life and career.
 |
| Garbo |
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