Thanksgiving brought out some weird impulses from Hollywood studio publicity departments. We often see among classic film blogs examples of this "art" this time of year. Here is a gallery of examples below -- and I am inevitably reminded of the prescient wisdom of young Teresa Wright, who had stipulated in her contract that she should not be required to pose in a publicity photo, "... looking insinuatingly at a turkey for Thanksgiving." We discussed her unique contract in this previous post.
And now, for a Thanksgiving roll call:
Judy Garland as a male Pilgrim. She looks like she is befriending this bird, rather than stalking it.
Bette Davis as a female Pilgrim, who appears to be employing this turkey as a draft animal to pull the kiddie wagon full of bounty from the fields. Or the prop department.
Barbara Bates, as a sexy Pilgrim who appears to be dressing up the turkey because they are going out on a date to have Thanksgiving dinner at the Mocambo.
Marilyn Monroe as a cutie pie sexy Pilgrim who does not appear particularly threatening to that turkey.
Doris Day, with no cutie pie Pilgrim nonsense, appears ready to get down to business. I can't think of a more grim publicity photo for Thanksgiving, and I suppose for that reason it just makes me laugh more than the others. It's as if Alfred Hitchcock directed the photo shoot.
Ann Blyth managed to get a more dignified and pleasant-looking Thanksgiving photo shoot here at my other bog.
Though there could have been an ax hidden somewhere among the props, I suppose.
Recently, I had to stop my car only about a mile from my home to let a flock of wild turkeys half-fly, half-stumble across the road. Doris Day was not chasing them, so I'm pretty sure they got away.
To all our American readers: Happy Thanksgiving.
