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Post by MiketheMechanic on Jun 9, 2017 14:22:10 GMT
Ever notice the following?
Films made in the 1930's that featured breakfast scenes with families gathered around the table, each with an orange or grapefruit over ice in an elegant cup. Is that still in fashion today?
Forget which film it was but it was in the early 30's and a scene showed someone going into a cafe for breakfast and the camera panned over the menu and among the delicacies was an order for eggs and brains. Was that popular back in the day?
Films made in the 1940's and beyond almost always featured a ready section in the living room with liquor and an ice bucket that had ice cubes that never seemed to melt.
Others?
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Post by mikef6 on Jun 9, 2017 14:52:44 GMT
Speaking of movie drinking, I have two words: seltzer bottle. The bottle of carbonated water which can be squirted into an alcohol drink by means of a nozzle affixed to the top of the bottle. Clarabelle the Clown had one but only used it to run people out of Doodyville by drenching them with the water. I have never, in all my days, actually seen on in action on a highball (and there is another archaic word form the ‘30s and ‘40s – “highball”).
Also, I have never been to a party where wait staff wanders among the guests carrying trays of drinks to be plucked off and consumed for free. I think the last time I saw that in a movie was Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut.”
Much has been made of the old cliché of people never eating an ordered meal at a restaurant. Something always happens to cause the movie character to jump up, throw a few dollars on the table and run out. I always liked the way David Hemmings ordered his lunch before running out in “Blow Up.” As a waitress passes his table carrying a large tray of plates, he stops her, looks over the dishes, points to one, then points to himself. She nods and continues on.
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Post by teleadm on Jun 9, 2017 14:53:19 GMT
That may explain why there was a grapefruit on the table in The Public Enemy 1931, it was natural in the 1930s. Though James Cagney used the grapefruit totally differrent in that movie when he squezzed it.
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Post by london777 on Jun 9, 2017 22:15:23 GMT
1. The bottle of carbonated water which can be squirted into an alcohol drink by means of a nozzle affixed to the top of the bottle. 2. I always liked the way David Hemmings ordered his lunch before running out in “Blow Up.” As a waitress passes his table carrying a large tray of plates, he stops her, looks over the dishes, points to one, then points to himself. She nods and continues on. 1. Are you talking about a soda syphon? 2. He probably already knew she was Polish and did not speak a word of English. |
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Post by london777 on Jun 9, 2017 22:29:18 GMT
Related topic which has always bugged me since I was a child in the 1940s.
Characters open the refrigerator and then leave the door open while talking or telephoning. I cannot concentrate on the film but am muttering "Shit the friggin' fridge door!"
This horrified me as a child. We were the only family in our street to have a 'fridge (not much larger than a TV set) and it was treated like a holy shrine, hence my phobia.
Nothing to do with films but where I now live in the Caribbean the locals will not open the fridge while cooking or soon after coming in out of the blazing sun as they think the contrast between hot and cold would be too much for your heart and shorten your life. I have heard that even from relatively educated/sophisticated people.
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Post by manfromplanetx on Jun 9, 2017 23:18:03 GMT
Elegant breakfast with Gilda (Hopkins) and Tom (March) Design For Living (1933)  |
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Post by mikef6 on Jun 10, 2017 0:41:20 GMT
1. Are you talking about a soda syphon? Something like this: (I couldn't get the image to post so here is a link to follow) Seltzer bottle |
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Post by Doghouse6 on Jun 10, 2017 0:48:50 GMT
Elegant breakfast with Gilda (Hopkins) and Tom (March) Design For Living (1933) Egg cups: another relic of an elegant past. Never in my life have I seen someone actually order a three-minute egg. There must have been an art to delicately chipping off the end of the shell without bits falling in. |
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Post by BATouttaheck on Jun 10, 2017 1:05:42 GMT
Doghouse6Egg cups: another relic of an elegant past. Never in my life have I seen someone actually order a three-minute egg. There must have been an art to delicately chipping off the end of the shell without bits falling in.My sisters ex-husband insisted in a full breakfast every morning complete with eggs in egg cups (not sure of the timing but probably 3 minute as they were "runny".) He had a little scissorlike thinga-ma-boddy that fit over the skinnier end of the egg and sliced the shell off. Everyone had their own special egg cups with extra for company. There also had to be grapefruit but not in separate bowl suspended over ice. Toast (from homemade bread, naturally) served in a holder that kept the slices apart. Some sort of meat, ham-bacon-sausage. Coffee from fresh ground beans. EVERY MORNING and during the week, in time for the kids to get off to school. This was not all that long ago, either. Certainly not in the 40's or even the 50's. Not a high-falutting or wealthy type family Did I mention that he is now the "ex-husband'? Lordy May, was eating there an uncomfortable ritual. Toast and coffee and let me go !
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Post by MiketheMechanic on Jun 10, 2017 1:08:46 GMT
Speaking of movie drinking, I have two words: seltzer bottle. The bottle of carbonated water which can be squirted into an alcohol drink by means of a nozzle affixed to the top of the bottle. Clarabelle the Clown had one but only used it to run people out of Doodyville by drenching them with the water. I have never, in all my days, actually seen on in action on a highball (and there is another archaic word form the ‘30s and ‘40s – “highball”). Also, I have never been to a party where wait staff wanders among the guests carrying trays of drinks to be plucked off and consumed for free. I think the last time I saw that in a movie was Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut.” Much has been made of the old cliché of people never eating an ordered meal at a restaurant. Something always happens to cause the movie character to jump up, throw a few dollars on the table and run out. I always liked the way David Hemmings ordered his lunch before running out in “Blow Up.” As a waitress passes his table carrying a large tray of plates, he stops her, looks over the dishes, points to one, then points to himself. She nods and continues on. Oh yes, that good old staple, the carbonated water bottle! I've never seen one in action either and I would love to be invited to a party where the wait staff carries trays of drinks! Don't think that happens much anymore. What's bugged me the most about restaurant scenes in classic films is, when they actually order the food and it arrives they never eat it! |
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Post by BATouttaheck on Jun 10, 2017 1:09:15 GMT
mikef6A Little Song A Little Dance A Little Seltzer Down yer pants. ...Chuckles the Clown (may he Rest in Peace ) 
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Post by MiketheMechanic on Jun 10, 2017 1:09:53 GMT
That may explain why there was a grapefruit on the table in The Public Enemy 1931, it was natural in the 1930s. Though James Cagney used the grapefruit totally differrent in that movie when he squezzed it. Good thing it wasn't a watermelon! |
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Post by MiketheMechanic on Jun 10, 2017 1:15:58 GMT
Related topic which has always bugged me since I was a child in the 1940s. Characters open the refrigerator and then leave the door open while talking or telephoning. I cannot concentrate on the film but am muttering "Shit the friggin' fridge door!" This horrified me as a child. We were the only family in our street to have a 'fridge (not much larger than a TV set) and it was treated like a holy shrine, hence my phobia. Nothing to do with films but where I now live in the Caribbean the locals will not open the fridge while cooking or soon after coming in out of the blazing sun as they think the contrast between hot and cold would be too much for your heart and shorten your life. I have heard that even from relatively educated/sophisticated people. Nothing to do with films either but refrigerator related. As a child I would open the refrigerator door and stare at the bulb for minutes at a time, fascinated that it wouldn't go out until I closed the door. Of course, once I closed the door I saw nothing but light specks and eventually it became something of a habit to open and close the door and wait for the light specks. What a weird childhood. |
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Post by MiketheMechanic on Jun 10, 2017 1:18:55 GMT
Elegant breakfast with Gilda (Hopkins) and Tom (March) Design For Living (1933) Egg cups: another relic of an elegant past. Never in my life have I seen someone actually order a three-minute egg. There must have been an art to delicately chipping off the end of the shell without bits falling in. Oh yes, the elegant egg cup with the three minute egg!  |
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Post by MiketheMechanic on Jun 10, 2017 1:24:45 GMT
Doghouse6 Egg cups: another relic of an elegant past. Never in my life have I seen someone actually order a three-minute egg. There must have been an art to delicately chipping off the end of the shell without bits falling in.My sisters ex-husband insisted in a full breakfast every morning complete with eggs in egg cups (not sure of the timing but probably 3 minute as they were "runny".) He had a little scissorlike thinga-ma-boddy that fit over the skinnier end of the egg and sliced the shell off. Everyone had their own special egg cups with extra for company. There also had to be grapefruit but not in separate bowl suspended over ice. Toast (from homemade bread, naturally) served in a holder that kept the slices apart. Some sort of meat, ham-bacon-sausage. Coffee from fresh ground beans. EVERY MORNING and during the week, in time for the kids to get off to school. This was not all that long ago, either. Certainly not in the 40's or even the 50's. Not a high-falutting or wealthy type family Did I mention that he is now the "ex-husband'? Lordy May, was eating there an uncomfortable ritual. Toast and coffee and let me go ! That sounds like the ideal homemade breakfast! |
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Post by MiketheMechanic on Jun 10, 2017 1:33:59 GMT
More:
Home-made bread that looked like a brick with thickly cut slices.
Milk delivered door-to-door in glass jars. I remember our family getting our milk delivered that way through the mid-70's. Milk hasn't tasted the same since.
Penny candy sold from an authentic candy shop. Grab a bunch of fresh licorice for only a penny. The good old days!
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Post by MiketheMechanic on Jun 10, 2017 1:36:54 GMT
Doghouse6 Egg cups: another relic of an elegant past. Never in my life have I seen someone actually order a three-minute egg. There must have been an art to delicately chipping off the end of the shell without bits falling in.My sisters ex-husband insisted in a full breakfast every morning complete with eggs in egg cups (not sure of the timing but probably 3 minute as they were "runny".) He had a little scissorlike thinga-ma-boddy that fit over the skinnier end of the egg and sliced the shell off. Everyone had their own special egg cups with extra for company. There also had to be grapefruit but not in separate bowl suspended over ice. Toast (from homemade bread, naturally) served in a holder that kept the slices apart. Some sort of meat, ham-bacon-sausage. Coffee from fresh ground beans. EVERY MORNING and during the week, in time for the kids to get off to school. This was not all that long ago, either. Certainly not in the 40's or even the 50's. Not a high-falutting or wealthy type family Did I mention that he is now the "ex-husband'? Lordy May, was eating there an uncomfortable ritual. Toast and coffee and let me go ! Save for a more comfortable setting, that sounds like an ideal homemade breakfast. |
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Post by london777 on Jun 10, 2017 4:04:03 GMT
1. Are you talking about a soda syphon? Something like this: (I couldn't get the image to post so here is a link to follow) Seltzer bottleYep, that's a soda syphon in the UK. Even modest homes for minimal drinkers would have had one in the 1950s and 1960s. The hardware was obviously far more costly than the fizzy water so there was a sizable deposit on the syphon. From your post it sounds as if they have gone out of fashion. Shows how often I visit bars. |
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Post by Doghouse6 on Jun 10, 2017 4:28:25 GMT
Doghouse6 Egg cups: another relic of an elegant past. Never in my life have I seen someone actually order a three-minute egg. There must have been an art to delicately chipping off the end of the shell without bits falling in.My sisters ex-husband insisted in a full breakfast every morning complete with eggs in egg cups (not sure of the timing but probably 3 minute as they were "runny".) He had a little scissorlike thinga-ma-boddy that fit over the skinnier end of the egg and sliced the shell off. Everyone had their own special egg cups with extra for company. There also had to be grapefruit but not in separate bowl suspended over ice. Toast (from homemade bread, naturally) served in a holder that kept the slices apart. Some sort of meat, ham-bacon-sausage. Coffee from fresh ground beans. EVERY MORNING and during the week, in time for the kids to get off to school. This was not all that long ago, either. Certainly not in the 40's or even the 50's. Not a high-falutting or wealthy type family Did I mention that he is now the "ex-husband'? Lordy May, was eating there an uncomfortable ritual. Toast and coffee and let me go ! It's somehow reassuring at least to know that it was commonplace in someone's family, somewhere. I don't think I've ever seen the thinga-ma-boddy, though; only Fredrick March - or Clifton Webb or Melvyn Douglas or Connie Bennett or whomever - deftly tapping a knife around the shell in preparation for removing the little "lid." But come to think of it, there always seemed to be a cut to something else - a breakfast companion, the butler coming in - during the removal operation. I never saw how that was accomplished (with the knife; with the fingers?). I have seen and used those toast holders (in hotels: I adore room service, especially in the morning). |
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Post by Doghouse6 on Jun 10, 2017 4:47:07 GMT
More: Home-made bread that looked like a brick with thickly cut slices. Milk delivered door-to-door in glass jars. I remember our family getting our milk delivered that way through the mid-70's. Milk hasn't tasted the same since. Penny candy sold from an authentic candy shop. Grab a bunch of fresh licorice for only a penny. The good old days! We had the milk deliveries 'til the end of the '60s, I think. The bottles had those thin cardboard stoppers/caps. Most of the houses in the Glendale, CA neighborhood in which I lived for 20 years were built between WWI and the Depression, and many had a little iron door of maybe a foot square next to the side or rear entrance for a compartment into which the milkman would stash your order, which was retrieved from a corresponding opening inside. Some featured the word "MILK" as part of the cast-iron design. And when I think of the hundreds of little hands - mine among them - thrust into the containers of penny licorice to grab our handfuls...well, it's probably no surprise I caught colds and flu as often as I did. |
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