Today's quiz, we hope, comes in on the early side. So, for all of you
worm-lovers, here's one for your beak:
Director Otto Preminger became legendary in his career for challenging
the repressive Hays code -- for example, refusing to cut "offensive"
language from the film adaptation of The Moon is Blue in 1953. In 1971
he revealed that his refusal to be bound by convention had extended
beyond celluloid, as he acknowledged his (illegitimate) paternity of
26-year old Erik Kirkland. Kirkland's mother (who had died that year)
was considerably more famous than Preminger. Her fame spread beyond her death, through a popular fictionalized version of her life story.
Who was Erik Kirkland's mother? Bonus question: what two words (not
precisely opposites, but very nearly so), was Preminger condemned by
the Catholic League for using in The Moon is Blue?
First correct answer posted to comments wins a National Poetry Month
"Poets Do It In that Corner of the Bookstore Behind the Biographies"
t-shirt. No Googling or going on one of those live chats with Elvis
Mitchell or whoever. One guess per comment, but you may comment as
frequently as you wish.
Dorothy Dandridge, "fornication peddler"
Posted by: teenidol on April 23, 2004 09:57 AMI bet one of the words is "pregnant."
As for Erik's mom. . . erm. . .
Posted by: Scott on April 23, 2004 10:20 AMI see Scott's pregnant and raise him abortion.
Actual question: Frances Farmer.
Martha Costco
pulchritudinous
hoser
Joan Crawford
Posted by: Sara on April 23, 2004 11:23 AMScott did get 1/2 of the bonus correctly with "pregnant." Nobody's got the main event, though.
Posted by: BT on April 23, 2004 11:24 AMGretta Garbo and pregnant virgin
Posted by: teenidol on April 23, 2004 11:34 AMIngrid Bergman.
Posted by: LAURA on April 23, 2004 11:58 AMMs. Kirkland
Posted by: teenidol on April 23, 2004 12:00 PMJayne Mansfield
Posted by: teenidol on April 23, 2004 12:20 PMNancy Reagan
Posted by: Jonathan on April 23, 2004 12:23 PMPatsy Cline.
Paul(a) McCartney. Not only dead, but a woman who was of childbearing age during World War II. You heard it here first.
Posted by: Scott on April 23, 2004 12:59 PMHmmm. Not Dorothy Dandridge. How about Billie Holliday?
Posted by: KF on April 23, 2004 01:05 PMTeenidol completes the bonus with "pregnant virgin" -- but no one's yet hit the main question.
One hint: "Mrs. Kirkland" was a star performer at the 1939 World's Fair.
Posted by: BT on April 23, 2004 01:06 PMNellie the Wonder Horse.
Posted by: Scott on April 23, 2004 01:10 PMJudy Garland
Marlene Deitrich?
Posted by: LAURA on April 23, 2004 02:42 PMDietrich is a good guess, but not the answer.
Nothing right yet...our woman made her performing debut in Kansas City, but she was spotted as a rising talent and brought as a headliner to New York City. While in New York she became the toast of the town while working at the Irving Place Theater, eventually working her way uptown, and was later the star of Michael Todd's movie "Streets of Paris." In a fictionalized version of her life, she was played by Natalie Wood on film (and yes, you should steer clear of IMDB and that copy of Video Retriever if you're still playing).
Posted by: BT on April 23, 2004 02:56 PMGypsy Rose Lee
Posted by: teenidol on April 23, 2004 03:06 PMWell, there you go – teenidol knows his strippers, everyone! Louise Rose Hovik, born in 1912 in Seattle, not only became the nation's foremost practitioner of terpsichorean ecydaism (once famously telling the Chicago police that she had never been naked on stage: "I was entirely covered by a blue spot."), she also wrote The G-String Murders and Mother Found a Body (although there are allegations that these were ghostwritten). Lastly, like the biological father of her son Erik, she one appeared on the television show Batman. Although Preminger's role (as the second incarnation of The Iceman) was larger, Lee's was a superbly sly cameo, as she played a newswoman interviewing Catwoman.
Posted by: BT on April 23, 2004 03:14 PM'scuse me: terpsichorean ecdysiasm
Posted by: BT on April 23, 2004 03:19 PMI knew that porn class I took in college would pay off some day.
Posted by: teenidol on April 23, 2004 03:30 PM