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Post by Richard on Apr 18, 2006 18:12:51 GMT -5
If you had a time machine but had to choose going into the past or the future, which one would you choose?
...and feel free to explain why.
I choose past because I want to experience first hand what it is like to live during the early Hollywood years. Imagine being in California in the 1930s, '40s, '50s, '60s. Also, of course, I want to meet Katharine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Vivien Leigh, Ginger Rogers, Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, Ingrid Bergman, Myrna Loy, Janet Leigh, Steve McQueen, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne, Spencer Tracy, James Stewart, Clark Gable, Orson Welles, Gregory Peck, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, etc...
And I'm sure if I had access to a time machine you'd never see or hear from me again.
The future simply doesn't interest me as much as the past does. It's too dangerous to know too much about your own future, anyway.
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Post by Sherry on Apr 18, 2006 20:49:27 GMT -5
Wow - Richard -- this is a challenge!
How 'bout a time machine that would allow me to hop around a bit? :-)
First rule -- I'd be rich and upper class or nobility in whatever time period I was in -- I ain't no dummy!
First stop -- Elizabethan England -- I'd want to meet Queen Elizabeth I, see the first production of one of Shakespeare's plays, and meet him. I'd also like a little foray to Scotland to meet Mary Stuart.
Next stop -- Philadelphia 1776 -- in order to meet Thomas Jefferson and all of the rest of the men who were here hammering out the Declaration of Independence. I'd want to hear the conversations both public and private of these amazingly brilliant people.
Then on to the 1930's and 40's -- naturally -- I'd want to know Katharine Hepburn. It's not enough to meet her, I want to play golf and tennis with her and go to a dinner at George Cukor's house when he had Kate, Spencer, Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon there. Course, I want to spend time at MGM during the heyday of the studio. Ideal job -- scriptwriter or director -- anything to get me on those sets so that I could watch them "make magic". I want to meet Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg, too. Plus, I want the opportunity to go into a movie theatre and see the movies as they were intended to be seen -- on huge screens, in beautiful surroundings. Perfection.
Then -- off to New York so that I could meet Cole Porter and the Gershwins and see every fabulous musical and straight play on Broadway.
Then a trip to Washington and a chance to meet President Franklin Roosevelt and Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt. Would love to go sailing with the President and sit and discuss world events with the First Lady.
The Fifties I lived through -- BORING. The Sixties -- the best of times, the worst of times. All of the hope ushered in with JFK's election just crashed when he was assassinated and then the assassinations of RFK and Martin Luther King just ripped the guts out of us young Baby Boomers.
I'd take one brief ride into the future -- to the year 2100 -- I'd like to know that the United States did survive the dreadful period in history that we are now stuck in. I'd like to think that we came out of this mess a stronger nation and a better, smarter people. The Time Machine would allow me to see how it all turned out.
Sorry I went on so long but you asked the question. :-)
Sherry
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Post by Richard on Apr 18, 2006 22:40:03 GMT -5
Course, I want to spend time at MGM during the heyday of the studio. How can I forget something like that? It should be the very first thing I do when I venture into the Golden era. Your thorough and exact destinations, Sherry, has prompt me to do the same. I'll now have to be more specific...some other time, of course, it's getting rather late for me.  |
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Post by isis on Apr 19, 2006 10:04:18 GMT -5
Hard question ! But I would probably choose the past if I could choose the period and who I would be, few possibilities : - a woman of Boadicée's clan during the war versus Romans - an egyptian or greek prietress in antiquity - a fighter for women rights in France during the middle of twentieth century - and naturally an actress in America during kate's epoch just a dream or possible in future ? maybe it would be, if we believe Einstein : when we will go as fast as lightspeed we could turn back time so why not ? |
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Post by Shaun on Apr 19, 2006 15:11:39 GMT -5
You have no idea how much I've thought about this. I would definitely go into the past...that's right during the 30s and 40s! I would shoehorn my way into one of the movie studios, probably MGM--RKO if I were in the 30s for obvious reasons.  After working with the stars, I'd go see em on a big screen. Heaven! |
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Post by HollywoodHepcat on Apr 19, 2006 21:52:36 GMT -5
Heh..well, we all know I dig the past dahlings. And for the reasons everybody pretty much already stated. I think just about everyone on here is going to say past -- we have taste. But for my two cents I'd just like to say that women in the 30s-40s were just so chic. Everything about them -- the sophistication, their feisty streaks, the FASHION (fur coats, JUNGLE RED NAILPOLISH AND LIPS, open-toed pumps, tasteful shoulder padded skirt suits -- how can I put it? Being female back then must have been a delicious feeling. It was a time of crossroads for them. You could have had the independence if you wanted it (the Hepburn type), or you could have been a housewife, and people didn't call you a reactionary or a baby-making slave for it. Just... *sigh* I wish I had been born back then SO MUCH sometimes I go crazy. Oh well. Can't really complain about being an old soul... |
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Post by isis on Apr 20, 2006 2:00:29 GMT -5
sometimes I feel too that I wasn't born in the right epoch ...
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kathfan88
Full Member
Kate Hepburn... nuff said.
Posts: 238
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Post by kathfan88 on Apr 22, 2006 17:27:29 GMT -5
Tell me about it! I sometimes think I was skipped over for the 30's and 40's. But I'm pretty sure I would have fit right in there. Too bad. Oh well, just convert my friends to the old days. Or grit my teeth and make the best of it. (haha! Cary Grant line!)
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Post by Cate on Apr 23, 2006 16:58:31 GMT -5
Oh man, if I could have been born in the teens so I could have enjoyed the thirties (or even earlier for the roaring twenties), that would have been awesome. I'm not sure though about how conservative everyone was (or maybe it just appears that way in movies). I'm pretty sure though that women were looked at as inferior (moreso than now anyway). Maybe I could have rebelled & joined Margaret Sanger and the first KH ;D But wait, that would mean I'd have to live through the depression . . . but then again, if we can invent a time machine I guess I can just take my money with me. Oh wait, no I couldn't ! How would I explain bills with a 2000-something mint date? lol Definitely go to Bryn Mawr and search for Kate. . . See Edith Piaf in Paris. . . Many things. I'll have to think more on this one!
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Post by isis on Apr 23, 2006 17:56:45 GMT -5
I wish have seen too Edith Piaf, when she sang l'hymne à l'amour in a concert : when somebody annouced her that her boyfriend Marcel Cerdan died in a plane crash, she sang this song as she never sang and she fainted.
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Post by HollywoodHepcat on Apr 23, 2006 21:45:56 GMT -5
AW poor Edith P! I love her, too. My French teacher was able to find about four of her cds and she gave them to me to burn. So I have about 300 EP songs on my ipod now haha.
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Post by isis on Apr 24, 2006 3:22:42 GMT -5
my favourites are Mylors, la Foule, Non rien de rien and of course L'hymne à l'amour
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Post by HollywoodHepcat on Apr 24, 2006 21:18:57 GMT -5
Oh I love love Adieu Mon Coeur, J'ai Danse Avec L'Amour, Je M'en Fous Pas Mal, and of course Le Vie En Rose. Yay Edith Piaf!
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Post by Cate on Apr 25, 2006 0:32:50 GMT -5
I love La foule! That and Ne me quitte pas are my favorites. I've been playing Edith a lot lately. . . Also like Rien de rien, La vie en rose, Milord, Tu me fais tourner la tete.
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Post by isis on Apr 25, 2006 1:15:00 GMT -5
ne me quittes pas is great but it's Jacques Brel's song
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After working with the stars, I'd go see em on a big screen. Heaven!
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