Winged Victory for Nurse Kerry

by Patricia Libby (1965)

Was romance for her linked with peril?

When Kerry came to Hartford Memorial Hospital, she wanted to forget the past, with its nightmare of the airplane crash, and Johnny… She did not want to risk love again.

Yet Dr. Garth Hamilton, handsome and rich, offered her a new kind of love, a love that protected without demands or challenges. Kerry knew she would be safe with him.

But there was another doctor, a young man with stormy eyes who reminded her of the lost Johnny…and the spark of his courtship threatened to kindle a flame in her that would push security away in a renewed memory of peril and ecstasy.

I feel quite strongly that “winged” should always be pronounced as two syllables: wing·ed.

See also: blessed/bless·ed, striped/stripe·ed, and pantsed/pants·ed. (e.g. “If while in junior high school gym class you should pants·ed be, make haste to the room of lockers.”)

Nurse Madeline of Eden Grove

by Marjorie Norell (1965)

With Miss Eden’s gift, Madeline was able to help Surgeon Michael Foley realize his dream — a new nursing home. Only, somehow, the nearer it got to completion, the more convinced Madeline became that her efforts were on behalf of the wrong man.

Nurse in the Clouds

by Beatrice Warren (1986)

Nurse Tracy Nichols should have been the happiest woman on earth. She and handsome Dr. Clifford Sampson had worked hard to build and operate the Centerville Community Health Clinic, which had become a resounding success. And they’d grown very fond of each other in the past four years.

Now Cliff wanted to move to a big city and start a lucrative private practice. Best of all, he wanted Tracy to be part of his new life. Any other girl would have jumped at the chance to marry the charming doctor and share his secure future. Yet Tracy found herself yearning for Andy Carlton, the playful, unpredictable helicopter pilot who could offer her nothing but risk and struggle.

Take away the top hat and you’ve got my 4th grade school picture.

Amy Marsh, TV Nurse

by Sarah Nichols (1972)

A nursing job at a television studio wasn’t just another nursing job — and producer Judah Raymond discovered Amy wasn’t just another nurse…

What was it that was different about producer Judah Raymond so that when he kissed her, Amy felt shaken and moved in a way she never felt before?

Young, eligible Bill Hendricks had been left behind along with Summerville when Amy decided to come to New York. And her new job as a staff nurse at Universal Television had plunged her into a life of excitement and confusion. She thought she’d left her problems behind her — only now she had some she never dreamed of…

Who does producer Judah Raymond remind you of? I can’t quite place him.

He’s like equal parts Burt Reynolds and John Astin, with a little Jack Cassidy circa The Eiger Sanction.

He also looks like about 90% of the guys who Danno booked. Maria is our resident Hawaii Five-O scholar. Maybe she can help.

Nora Was a Nurse

by Peggy Gaddis (1953)

She thought of herself only as a dedicated nurse until she learned she was also a woman.

“Your reasons for coming to Shellville are your own affair and I have no desire to know them,” Nurse Nora Courtney told the new young doctor — but she knew she lied both to him and to herself. Everything about Doctor Owen Baird interested her for she knew she was hopelessly and passionately in love with him.

And when beautiful Lillian Halstead set her cap for the young doctor, Nora realized she must make him see her as a desirable woman as well as an efficient nurse.

How Nora achieved her purpose and what these three handsome young people made of their lives is thrilling reading, growing to an unexpected and satisfying climax.

Oh, man! They gave away the ending!

One of the things I love about career romance fiction is that you never know how things are going to turn out.

• Will Nurse Nora find fulfillment in her health services career?

• Will she listen to her heart and be swept up in a whirlwind workplace romance with Dr. Baird that may or may not violate the terms and conditions of her employment and certainly runs contrary to the latest guidelines on sexual harassment laid out by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission?

• Will Dr. Baird be able to see through the superficial facade of Lillian Halstead’s beauty and see the woman of sub-standard occupational yield underneath? (Desirable and efficient. That’s the killer combination, ladies.)

Normally, there would be no possible way for you to know the answers to those questions until the very last pages of the book, and it is that delicious unpredictability that elevates career romance fiction above other so-called literary works.

So, how can this book claim to “grow to an unexpected and satisfying climax” [emphasis mine] when the synposis clearly states that Nurse Nora “achieve[s] her purpose” in the end? Did they not have SPOILER ALERTs in 1953?

As for…

She thought of herself only as a dedicated nurse until she learned she was also a woman.

…I would have thought the bust was a dead giveaway. Did she not notice that her stethoscope didn’t hang straight?

Editor’s Note: The scanned image is an accurate representation of the book cover itself. If the type appears to be slightly askew, that’s because it is. It is not the fault of the scanning hardware or its operator (this time).

One With The Wind

by Mary Hunton (1962)

Hilary wondered which was the real John Kirkall–the ambitious, apparently unfeeling surgeon who plagued her during working hours, or the hesitant man who showed occasional signs of having a heart.

Not that she was ever likely to find out. She knew that her place in his esteem had hit rock bottom.

Originally published as Surgeons at Arms.

Dr. Kirkall also showed occasional signs of wearing mascara.

And you just know those two in the background are going to be nothing but trouble.

Single Dad, Nurse Bride

by Lynne Marshall (2007)

Wanted: Mother for young twin girls!

Dangerously handsome Dr. Dane Hendricks certainly isn’t nurse Rikki Johansen’s usual type. For one thing, she thinks he’s arrogant and overbearing, and for another, he assumed she was scatterbrained and incapable of making good decisions. So why is he so adamant about taking her on a date?

Rikki soon discovers that Dr. Dane is actually a kind and sensitive dad, and, like her, he’s one of life’s survivors. A foster mother herself, Rikki knows she can bring Dane’s adorable twin girls — and their gorgeous dad — the happiness they deserve.

I know the words. I just haven’t had any time lately to write them down…

Pride and Prejudice: A Musical

August 19-22, 2008
de Jong Concert Hall
Brigham Young University
Buy Tickets

The Gerrit de Jong, Jr., Concert Hall is used for concerts of the major choral and instrumental organizations, musical theatre productions of the opera workshop, special lyceums, and official meetings of the college or University. It is also used for high-quality recordings and live film and television productions of musical events.

The de Jong Concert Hall is beautifully designed, aesthetically and acoustically. Its seats are arranged in continental seating style with no center aisles. The stage is 94 feet across and 47 feet deep, with a tip that adds 10 feet for a total depth of 57 feet. A functional, handsome facility, it seats 1,268.

Source: BYU Arts Venues

The hall is so central to the school of musics [sic] operations that studies aimed at getting ideal sound quality in the hall have been published by the Audio Engineering Society.

The de Jong hall was designed by Harvey Fletcher (the “Father of Sterophonic Sound“).

Source: Wikipedia

So, the show opens this Friday. It plays August 1-16, every night but Wednesday and Sunday. Then we pack everything up and take it to the De Jong Concert Hall at BYU for four performances during Education Week.

It’s going to be interesting to see what kind of an opening night crowd we’ll have. I know the “We ♥ Wickham Fan Club / Support Group” is caravanning in from Deluth, but other than that, we’re in totally uncharted territory. It’s an unfamiliar adaption of one of the most familiar books in the world. Do those two things cancel each other out?

Anyway, before things get too hectic this week, I wanted to introduce a few of the cast members to you.

Brittni Bills Smith

The girl can’t take a bad picture. I’ve taken hundreds of pictures of the cast over the course of the past few weeks, and in every one of them she looks just as fresh-faced and adorable and charming and <insert your own synonym for “perky”> as she does here.

I never fully appreciated just how much of the story Lizzie carries on her shoulders. She’s in nearly every scene and has four times as many lines as anyone else in the show. I don’t know how she does it. I’m having a hard enough time keeping my three-and-ten lines straight.

She and David Smith (who is playing Mr. Darcy) starred opposite each other as Ado Annie and Will Parker in our 2004 production of Oklahoma. (They’re standing center stage in the photo.) The girls and I also had the pleasure of seeing them star opposite each other in BYU’s recent production of The Foreigner. (Which was HI-larious.)

Now they’re married. Apparently, if you fall in love with someone every night for weeks on end, it eventually takes.

David Smith

I hate him.

No, really. I hate him.

He’s tall. He’s handsome. He’s got a great voice. He’s got that tousled blond hair that women seem to favor. He’s got a jaw of granite. (I purposely chose a photo that over-accentuates his jaw, just to spite him.) He’s the nicest guy in the world. And every night he’s going to get up there on stage and portray every woman’s ideal and in the process make life infinitely more difficult for the non-Darcys of the world.

So, I take great pleasure in pointing out that he does possess at least one negative quality: he frightens small children.

My niece Abby mentioned the other day that she found it odd that he’s so friendly and funny offstage. “But when he’s playing Mr. Darcy,” she said, “he scares me a little.”

Jenni and Curtis Goodman

Jenni has a beautiful, classically-trained voice that is perfect for Jane, and I would have cast Curtis for his hair alone. (Is that not “Mr. Bingley hair?”) The fact that they’re charming actors is a total bonus.

And I hate to mention it because the last thing I want to do is make them self-conscious, but when Jane and Mr. Bingley are reunited at last, the music swells and they burst into a Nelson Eddy/Jeanette MacDonald-ish reprise…

Love’s spell has captured me,
it takes me by surprise.
Love’s spell enraptures me;
I’ve found it in your eyes.

It’s a touching, joyous, transcendent moment…which, for whatever reason, I find hysterically funny. It’s not supposed to be funny, but it’s so touching and so joyous and so transcendent and so absolutely perfect for those characters at that moment that I can’t help it. I’m usually laughing so hard, I have to excuse myself.

We suggested that the scene would only be enhanced by the addition of paper hearts falling from the heavens and small cherubs flying out on strings, but so far the director has failed to incorporate our suggestions into the number.

Matt Christensen

Yes, this is the man who stole my part. What makes it especially irritating is that he’s much better than I would have been. (My “Don Knotts with Tourettes” interpretation would have grown tiresome rather quickly.)

When I described David Bamber’s performance in the 1995 BBC version of the Pride and Prejudice, I said…

The word that always comes to mind when I see David Bamber’s Mr. Collins is “obsequious.” I’m not even sure if that’s the right word, but that’s the word.

Jenny and I tried to find the right word (or words) for our Mr. Collins and I think the closest we came was “excruciatingly earnest,” but that’s still not quite right. I’ll let you know when we figure it out.

Samantha Frisby

Samantha is our 16-year-old Lydia. She has a lovely voice, is a beautiful dancer (when I’m not treading on her feet), and I can tell she’s doing a great job as Lydia because every time I’m on stage with her, I want to slap her.

That’s pretty much the benchmark for any actress playing Lydia, isn’t it? If, by the end of the show, the audience wants to grab you by the shoulders and shake you until you gain some sense, you nailed it.

Kiersten Honaker, Eric Harper, Jennifer Rasmussen

The Three Brusque-eteers. I spent last rehearsal just watching (and laughing heartily at) their facial expressions. You could cut the disdain with a knife.

Yes, that’s my sister, Jenny, on the right, playing Mrs. Hurst. And, yes, she’s much funnier than I am.

In addition to the pictures above, I’ve posted two new sets of rehearsal photos on Flickr.]]> http://tinypineapple.com/theater/the-proud-and-the-prejudiced/feed/ 19 http://tinypineapple.com/film/compare-and-contrast-mr-collins-arrival/ http://tinypineapple.com/film/compare-and-contrast-mr-collins-arrival/#comments Tue, 22 Jul 2008 05:45:24 +0000 Grettir http://tinypineapple.com/stuff-nonsense/compare-and-contrast-mr-collins-arrival/ …and there’s something about that first line at the dinner table:

“What a superbly featured room and and what excellent boiled potatoes. Many years since I’ve had such an exemplary vegetable.”

I start cracking up at the pronunciation of “po-ta-toes” and by the time he gets to “exemplary vegetable” I’m doing involuntary spit takes.

He also gets extra points for “rectory” and “abuts.”

Melville Cooper

Pride and Prejudice, 1940

According to IMDb:

Phil Silvers was asked to screen test for a role as a vicar despite having a strong New York accent. It turned out to be a cruel prank by studio executives who passed the screen test around Hollywood. In his autobiography, Silvers says “These three minutes were perhaps the funniest I’ve ever done.”

Source: IMDb

It doesn’t specifically say that the screen test was for the role of Mr. Collins, but I can’t think of another “vicar” they could be referring to.

This clip gives you a good look at the infamously non-period women’s costumes:

According to Edward Maeder, Adrian, the costume designer, asked director Robert Z. Leonard to place the film in a later time period than that of the novel so that the costumes might be more opulent than those of Jane Austen’s time.

Source: IMDb

Also:

Many costumes designed by Walter Plunkett for Gone with the Wind (1939) were used again the following year in this film for some of the large crowd scenes, although Adrian created the gowns for the principals in this film. A modest budget partially explains why the costumes are not at all accurate for the assumed period of the film and reusing Plunkett’s elaborate fashions saved MGM money in making this film.

Source: IMDb

And costumes weren’t the only things MGM wanted to recycle from Gone with the Wind. MGM’s first choice for Darcy and Elizabeth? Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh.

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Malcolm Rennie

Pride and Prejudice, 1980

It’s a difficult to know what to do with this “teleplay” of Pride and Prejudice, produced in 1980 by the BBC as part of a series of Jane Austen’s works.

On the one hand, as a “teleplay,” it can’t really be held to the same technical and aesthetic standards as a true “film.” On the other hand, when held up to other video productions of the same time period…well, let’s just say that Three’s Company looks positively lush in comparison.

Speaking of Three’s Company, every time the Bennet sisters look at each other knowingly I feel like there’s something missing, so I’ve made an attempt to remedy that here:

And the history of costume recycling continues here:

• The pink walking-dress worn by Miss Bingley at Netherfield is the same one worn by Emma in the BBC version of Emma (1972) (Emma wears it during the strawberry-picking-party at Donwell).

• The beige and pink floral print muslin gown Clare Higgins (Kitty Bennet) wears at Longbourn was previously worn by Constance Chapman (Miss Bates) in Emma (1972).

• The pale blue gown with gold-flowered bodice and sleeves Jennifer Granville as Mrs. Hurst wears to dinner on Elizabeth’s first evening at Netherfield is the same gown Doran Godwin as Emma wears to the Christmas party at Randalls in Emma (1972).

• The white floral-print muslin gown with cut-out sleeves Sabina Franklyn (Jane Bennet) wears at Longbourn following the Meryton Assembly ball is the same costume Doran Godwin (Emma Woodhouse) wears at Hartfield in Emma (1972) while discussing Jane Fairfax’s “reserve” with Mr. Knightley.

• The brown and burgundy pelisse with embroidered bodice and matching bonnet Sabina Franklyn (Jane Bennet) wears on the walk to Meryton with Mr. Collins is the same costume Doran Godwin (Emma) wears to visit the poor in Emma (1972).

• The yellow-checked dress Tessa Peake-Jones (Mary Bennet) wears in the scenes before and after the Meryton Assembly ball is the same costume Debbie Bowen (Harriet Smith) wears at the Box Hill Picnic in Emma (1972).

• The green gown and overdress with scalloped neckline worn by Jennifer Granville (Mrs. Hurst) at the Netherfield Ball is the same costume Fiona Walker (Mrs. Elton) wears to dine at Hartfield in Emma (1972).

• The deep blue military-style coat Elizabeth Garvie wears in the scenes of Elizabeth Bennet arriving at Hunsford and at Pemberley is the same costume Ania Marson as Jane Fairfax wears in Emma (1972) during the scene in which Jane visits Mrs. Elton at the parsonage to discuss the party Emma is throwing for Mrs. Elton.

Source: IMDb

As for Mr. Rennie’s performance, since this is the version with which people are probably least familiar, I’d be interested in hearing people’s first impressions based on this clip.

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David Bamber

Pride and Prejudice, 1995

The word that always comes to mind when I see David Bamber’s Mr. Collins is “obsequious.” I’m not even sure if that’s the right word, but that’s the word.

And I’ve started practicing that look he gives Jane across the table. It has that perfect combination of ardor and affectation that women find irresistible.

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Tom Hollander

Pride and Prejudice, 2005

Tom Hollander is still my favorite Mr. Collins. His approach is quite different than the other three, who are essentially just doing variations on the same buffoonish theme. And he isn’t just another exhibit in the British Museum of the “Comedy of Embarrassment.”

I’m sure we all know someone like this Mr. Collins. The kind of guy whose inappropriate actions are born out the kind of social awkwardness that self-improvement efforts only seem to amplify. With every self-help book he reads, the farther he gets from anything approaching naturalistic behavior; the harder he tries to say and do the right thing, the more mannered and stilted his speech and actions become.

You just feel so sorry for the poor fellow because he is so obviously ill-suited to the life and position he has mapped out for himself.

And there’s something about that first line at the dinner table:

“What a superbly featured room and and what excellent boiled potatoes. Many years since I’ve had such an exemplary vegetable.”

I start cracking up at the pronunciation of “po-ta-toes” and by the time he gets to “exemplary vegetable” I’m doing involuntary spit takes.

He also gets extra points for “rectory” and “abuts.”

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