Me + Judy's Dress

I was going through some old photos and came across a major life event that I almost forgot about!

Back in 2019, the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis acquired Judy Garland's red velvet dress from Meet Me in St. Louis and added it as a very temporary feature in their World's Fair exhibit. 

Lucky for me, my in-laws live in southern Illinois and we often make a detour over to St. Louis on our way down to visit them after Christmas. Obviously, we couldn't miss Judy's dress!

It was pretty cool to see it up close and in person. As expected it was tiny to fit on a tiny Judy. It showed its age but it was still beautiful!

My daughter was super excited, as you can see.

I basically fit in it as long as I'm standing 3 feet behind it!

Even without the dress, we really enjoyed our visit to this museum. It's worth checking out if you're ever in the area. The World's Fair exhibit is very cool with some hands-on stuff for the kids!

Old Movies With Kids: Oklahoma!

After celebrating Shirley Jones on her birthday the other day, I was in the mood for a Shirley movie. The Music Man is always a favorite, but it had been so long since I'd watched Oklahoma, it was time for a viewing. Also nobody else in my family had seen it before!

Guys, I enjoyed this movie so much. Maybe it's just because I haven't been watching musicals at the rate I once did pre-kids, but it made me so happy. The songs are all winners, the characters are entertaining, and it's just a good time!

You know what this movie loves? Sexual innuendo! Good thing my kids are too young to pick up on any of it. In a movie that could feel so old fashioned and traditional, it's refreshing that the women have moments of both strength and weakness and don’t always fill traditional female roles.

I especially loved the line at the end when Laurey is lamenting her traumatic wedding night and Aunt Eller wisely tells her, "Oh, lots of things happen to folks." So simple and so true!

But you know what's super weird? When Curly suggests that Judd kill himself and sings a song about it. I mean...what? Is this something people do? I get it that Judd is a creep but this very unveiled attempt to convince him to hang himself is a little excessive. I'd probably try to stab Curly with my naughty girly knife toy too.

Why you tryna kill me?

From the kids

Unfortunately, my kids weren't super into this movie. I'm not sure they knew half of what was going on which might be a good thing.

10 year old girl - 3.5 stars

8 year old boy - 0 stars. Too much kissing

5 year old girl - 3 stars

The girls liked the songs and especially loved the wedding, but that was about all any of them seemed to get out of it! My 10 year old and I very much enjoyed the sing-a-long feature on the DVD. 

Sooo this might not be one that we watch again for awhile, but I think we are going to be watching musicals for our next few films because they’re just the best! My son will be thrilled.

Old Movies With Kids: 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

Over the weekend we showed the kids the classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I hadn't seen this one before and I wasn't particularly excited about it, but I'm happy to say I think we finally found one that my son likes!

This is the first Kirk Douglas movie I've ever seen, but I think we can all agree that Peter Lorre is the best part of this movie. I mean, isn't he the best part of any movie he's in? Yes. Nonetheless, all the characters were interesting and the story was exciting and kept everyone's attention.

Also, this is basically the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie. There's a boozy, kind of obnoxious sailor with a theme song, an island with cannibals, and, most importantly, a rockin' captain who clearly has deeply buried emotional issues and dramatically plays the organ instead of expressing his feelings. (My husband would like me to mention that the organ from this movie is currently in the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland. So ... there ya go.)

From the kids

3 stars - It was a little weird. Not my favorite movie. Not enough girls in it. - 10 year old girl

3 stars - 5 year old girl

4 stars. Good. - 8 year old boy

Kids' favorite moments:

The giant squid fight was a favorite across the board!

Explosions and fighting, specifically when Peter Lorre and Kirk Douglas were punching each other in the face. Hilarious!

Kirk Douglas's turtle guitar, especially when he stuffed jewelry in it. I have no recollection of this part!

New Rear Window Board Game Coming This Summer!

We play a lot of games in our house. As previously mentioned, we've really been enjoying this Willy Wonka Golden Ticket game with the kids. My husband is more into games than I am, BUT I got pretty excited when I heard that there's going to be a new game based on Rear Window coming out this summer!

We have a number of movie-based games, but this is the first one based on a really good classic film and it looks awesome. Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly are even on the front of the box! It's a cooperative game where you play as the characters in the film to solve a possible murder. Here's the official description:

Experience Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece Rear Window in this game of deduction and suspense. Carefully observe strange clues and ominous patterns in the things going on in the apartments across the way. There are parties, knives, a saw, bickering, laughing, music ... and a mysterious trunk. Do you detect a murder? Or is the secret, private world of the neighbors planting frightening ideas in your mind?

Everyone needs to buy this so that they keep making more!

Here are some of the other movie-based games we like:

Ravensburger Universal Back to The Future Game Strategy Game. My husband loves Back to The Future and I suppose it's getting close to classic movie status. I really enjoy this game. It's a little harder for our younger kids. There is another Back to The Future game, but we haven't tried that one.

Villianous. We kind of love this game even though it's probably more complicated than it needs to be. Pick a villian and do your worst. There are a bunch of expansions so you really have many options. Ursula is my favorite but I played as Cruelle DeVille the other day and she was pretty great too!

The Haunted Mansion - Call of The Spirits. Ok, maybe this isn't based on a movie, but it's a good one so I'm including it!

Happy gaming!

 

 

My Top 5 Spirit Characters

After watching Yours, Mine, and Ours last week and relating a little too closely to incessantly hungry Susan Beardsley, it got me thinking about my other spirit characters. Spoiler alert: they are not the leading ladies. I'm just not leading lady material.

Here are my top 5, though I'm sure there are many more!

1. Eulalie Mackechnie Shinn in The Music Man - The first time I laid eyes on this woman I knew she was everything I wanted to be in life. Honorable mention for Mayor Shinn who I also can't help but love. I mean,

Mrs. Shinn: Now, George!

Mayor Shinn: Not one poop out of you, Madame!

Mrs. Shinn: I think he means "peep"

Mayor Shinn: Yes!

2. Susan Beardsley from Yours, Mine, and Ours - As the inspiration for this list, it's only right that she's at the top. This girl does not miss an opportunity to stuff her face full of food. She's the best.

3. Miss Torso in Rear Window - 

    Ways she is NOT like me: She's fit enough to prance around baring her torso. She has an entourage of men courting her.

    Ways she IS like me: She's eating in every scene she's in. She ends up with the nice, nerdy fellow.

4. Agnes Smith from Meet Me In St. Louis - This is the often-overlooked second youngest daughter in the Smith family. She has a taste for chaos but nobody notices because they're too focused on Tootie being a drama queen.

5. Marjorie Main in Judy Garland movies (The Harvey Girls, Summer Stock, Meet Me in St. Louis) - I'm grouping these together since they're basically all the same character. She's a no-nonsense lady who accepts the fact that she's always a servant and likes to mess with everyone.

Who are your spirit characters?

Old Movies With Kids: Yours, Mine, and Ours - A.K.A. The Girl Who Ate Too Much

This week I subjected my children to one of my childhood favorites, Yours, Mine and Ours. I haven't watched this movie since I was a kid so I was pretty excited to watch it with them.

You know how sometimes you watch a movie that you haven't seen since you were a kid, and you realize there were a bunch of sex jokes that went over your head? Yeah, that happened. I suppose I can't call them sex jokes--maybe just innuendo. Very mild innuendo, but innuendo nonetheless. Mostly delivered by Van Johnson's character who's constantly trying to convince his widower buddy Frank (Henry Fonda) that he needs some lovin'. His hard work and determination pay off when Frank meets Helen (Lucille Ball) and they quickly get married and merge their two very large families.

The reason I liked this movie as a kid was primarily because of my love for Lucy who is, of course, delightful and funny while still delivering some touching moments with her kids and husband. The kids got a kick out of her slapstick moments--drunk Lucy never disappoints!

One of the unexpectedly best parts of this movie was my spirit character, Susan Beardsley, who makes sure to eat at every opportunity. I truly appreciate how vigilant they were with continuing this gag throughout the movie. This girl does not stop eating--even the rice she was supposed to be throwing at her father's wedding isn't safe from her insatiable appetite. She's amazing.

From the Kids

4 out of 5 stars - 10 year old girl

4.5 out of 5 stars - 5 year old girl (docked a half star because she took a break to play Monopoly Jr. with her brother and missed some parts of the movie.)

2.5 out of 5 stars - 8 year old boy

Kids' favorites moments:

When Lucy got drunk. I had to do a bit of explaining about alcohol and its effects and how much the kids were putting into her drink, but once it got going the kids all thought it was very funny.

When they got married.

The 10 year old like the drama of the daughter and her boyfriend fighting in the living room at the end. I don't know what this means for her teenage years.

The girls liked when they had the baby at the end and suggested that we have another baby. (NO)

Classic Movie History Lesson: How the West Was Won

I've been isolating in the house due to a bout with COVID and everyone else took all the streaming devices so I'm stuck watching broadcast television. Luckily, my cheap little antenna picks up the Movies! network where they're constantly showing good, but not too good old movies. Today I watched a film I hadn't seen before: How the West Was Won.

This isn't the kind of movie I would typically watch. I like musicals and comedies and dreamy leading men. But I was drawn in by the cast featuring Jimmy Stewart, Debbie Reynolds, Gregory Peck and many others. It's another one in that special genre where they packed in as many stars as humanly possible, leading to a very long movie in an effort to give everyone an appropriate amount of screen time.

It follows a family, and maybe some random other unrelated people, through the ups and downs of life in the west throughout the generations--finding husbands, the civil war, building railroads, finding husbands, fighting Indians, digging for gold, finding more husbands--all of the drama I'm sure actually came with life in the wild west.

Thelma Ritter appears for a hot second and, as one would expect, steals the show. Her and Debbie Reynold's usual spunky self make for a lot of fun as they travel west and look for husbands and money. I'm still a little upset that Debbie Reynolds did not choose to marry Robert Preston. He was clearly the more stable choice over gambling Gregory Peck!

As you can see, the quasi-romance provided the most entertainment for me. To be honest, I kind of stopped paying attention to the parts with wars and fighting Indians and trains and fighting on trains which made up the last half of the movie.

All in all if you like westerns, lots of random movie stars, and movies that attempt to teach you some history, this is a great option!