How to Have a Quiet Afternoon

For the first time in nearly a week, it was sunny and hot when I got up in the morning...and stayed that way all day. Turned on the American Top 40 as I opened the windows. I was four months old in August 1979, when today's Top 40 was new. Among the songs to hit the charts in the last summer of the 70s were "Mama Can't Buy You Love" by Elton John, "Let Me In" by Maxine Nightingale, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" by the Charlie Daniels Band, the title song from the movie The Main Event by Barbara Streisand, and "Bad Girls" by Donna Summer.

I ran the usual farm market-yard sale errands after the Top 40 ended. Stopped at the bank really quick before riding over to Collingswood. The Farm Market was packed, as usual. Blackberries and cucumbers are gone, but we're at the height of the summer harvest, and there were plenty of other tasty fruits and vegetables to be found. I ended up with tiny, sweet green grapes, peaches, Gala apples, golden beets (tastes like regular red beets, but a lot less messy!), garlic, an ear of corn, a tomato, and a jar of pear butter.

Along with the Farm Market, Collingswood is having their annual August Craft Show. The Craft Show is basically a less elaborate version of the May Fair, with the emphasis on the craft booths. There's food and music, but no midway or rides or classic cars. I didn't see anything I liked there and moved on.

Alas, for the first time in weeks, I had no luck at all with the yard sales. I hit two in Collingswood and three in Audubon and saw absolutely nothing of interest anywhere. I ended up riding home a bit early, around noon.

Spent the rest of the afternoon doing things around my place and watching movies. Ran The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band while making fish and ratatouille for lunch. This underrated Disney musical concerns the title family orchestra, who move to the Dakota Territory in 1888 from Iowa when their eldest daughter's beau convinces them that the rich land will be worth it. What he didn't tell them is the Dakotas at that time were generally Republican...and Grandpa (Walter Brennan) is a huge Democrat who has no problems stirring up trouble. Will the infamous contested Cleveland/Harrison election of 1888 come between the members of the Family Band?

Yes...this is a musical about an election. It's really a very strange plot for a musical, and the "family band" itself does occasionally get lost amid the political wrangling. At the very least, you can't say it isn't original. (It also seems to be a true story - based after the memoirs of youngest daughter Laura, according to the Internet Movie Database.) Critics have always been harsh on this one, but I love the Sherman Brothers' charming score (including the rousing "Ten Feet Off the Ground"). Lesley Ann Warren has a lot of fun as daughter Alice. John Davidson is her Republican suitor. Walter Brennan is the lovable, cantankerous Democrat grandpa; Buddy Ebsen gets a rare later-day musical role as the head of the family. Look for Goldie Hawn as a chorus girl during the "West O' the Wide Missouri" number and Kurt Russell as the oldest son. (The two met while doing this film.)

Went straight into dubbing How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying after Family Band ended. Like Family Band, this is a mid-late 60s musical. Otherwise, it's about as different as can be - a film adaptation of a modern, urban-set hit Broadway show that won a Pulitzer Prize for its biting satire. Here, we spoof the 60s corporate culture as J. Pierpont Finch (Robert Morse) rises from washing windows to being Chairman of the Board and wins the love of pretty, sensible secretary Rosemary (Michelle Lee), all in less than a week.

While many things about office life have changed since the 1960s (rampant sexism, every executive smoking like chimneys, the secretaries' crazy hair and makeup), others - like brown-nosing, nepotism, and fear of anyone who may have anything resembling an original idea - sure haven't.

I agree with several people at the IMDb who comment on how refreshingly modest this is compared with other big-budget stage musical adaptations of the 60s. It helps that the director and producer, David Swift, mostly worked in television. In fact, the movie feels more like a very long episode of a TV sitcom from this era than a typical musical from this era, and even features performers like Maureen Arthur (the curvaceous Hedy LaRue) who were better known for their TV appearances.

Work ended up being pretty quiet, too. It was mildly steady when I came in. By 9PM, it was so dead, I spent a lot of the night doing returns and shelving candy.