CLARK GABLE AND UNDERSHIRTS, JFK AND HATS, AND PIERRE POILIEVRE AND BATTLE RIVER-CROWFOOT

In this edition, your veteran correspondent relates how Clark Gable maybe killed the undershirt industry, how Jack Kennedy maybe did the same for hats, and Pierre Poilievre might do the same for his prospects of winning in Alberta.

Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert share a motel room in a screencap from 'It Happened One Night.' The most shocking part? Clark was sans undershirt.

UNDERSHIRTS, HATS, DODO

My father used to tell this story about famed movie actor Clark Gable. Back in 1934, Gable starred with Claudette Colbert in a movie titled It Happened One Night. If you watch old movies, you’ve probably seen it. The storyline involves Gable and Colbert being on the road together—I will spare you the plot points—and one night find themselves sharing a motel room. Pretty racy for 1934, am I right?

Well, that’s not the part that set movie audiences a-chattering.

When the time comes to get ready for bed, Gable begins undressing, off comes his shirt and—gasp!—he’s bare-chested. No undershirt. What man in 1930s North America doesn’t wear an undershirt? Well, Clark Gable for one.

As my dad told the story, men everywhere (Dad was 18 when the movie came out, so he fit the demographic) started asking themselves this question: “'Why do I have to wear an undershirt if Clark Gable doesn’t wear an undershirt?”

According to Dad, legend had it that sales of undershirts plummeted after that, but this is strictly anecdotal. Sales figures were never forthcoming. Then the Second World War came along, t-shirts came into vogue because sailors wore them, and the whole point became moot.

So where are we going with this? Where else but hats.

The other night, my wife and I were watching one of those English crime procedurals you always find on PBS, and one of the lead characters was given a trilby hat of the sort worn by Frank Sinatra in his younger years. He looked utterly ridiculous in it.

This was a period piece from the late 1950s, so that got me to thinking about whatever happened to hats. If you ever watched the TV show Mad Men, which took place in the early ‘60s, fedoras were part of the male uniform. But then there was President Kennedy who, like the character in the British show, looked silly in a hat. “Hatless Jack” as he was known in some circles famously took his off when he delivered his inaugural address in 1961 and suddenly, the hatmakers in the States started taking a hit. After a century of hat-wearing men, bared heads became the norm. Like Gable before him, Kennedy took the blame.

I mentioned all this—Gable and undershirts, JFK and hats—to my wife and even shared the story of the time Kennedy met his predecessor, President Eisenhower, and how Ike was wearing his homberg and Jack was, um, not. She just gave me one of those looks that always seems to beg the question, “Why again did I marry this guy?” and took the clicker away.

_______________________

CAREER-DEFINING STUFF 

Drive into Camrose, Alberta—home of the Big Valley Jamboree—from the east, cruise along 48th Avenue and there, on the right just past Mirror Lake Park, is the election campaign headquarters of one Pierre Poilievre, late of Ottawa and prior to that Calgary.

You can’t miss it. PP’s HQ is in a strip mall just a few doors down from Boston Pizza and straight across the street from the A&W. It doesn’t get much more Canadian than that.

That the Conservative leader—at least for now—is running for a seat in what is probably the safest riding in Canada is something we’ve written about before (‘Our Own Breaking News,’ May 4). The riding is Battle River-Crowfoot, won by Tory incumbent Damien Kurek with nearly 83 per cent of popular vote in the April 28 election. A mere four days later, Kurek resigned his seat so PP, who had lost his own Ottawa seat in said election, had a spot to attempt a soft electoral landing. If this seems to you a colossal waste of public funds, well, let’s say you’re not alone. Still, it’s not the first time such a thing has happened.

So the race is on. The vote is skedded for August 18 and by last count, PP is facing approximately 180 opponents on the ballot. This is more than double the number who ran against him in the Ottawa riding of Carleton in April—an election, let’s not forget, he lost.

For a lot of these candidates, though, it’s a tough row to hoe. One of the 180, Sarah Spainer, has received death threats while door-knocking in the riding. She has decided to restrict her campaigning to all-candidate meetings and lawn signs.

It’s another candidate that’s attracting the most attention, however. Her name is Bonnie Critchley. A resident of nearby Tofield, a rancher, and a veteran—she served in Afghanistan—she is getting some traction with her opinions. Like Spainer, Critchley is a fan of Kurek. (Well, who isn’t? I’ve met the guy and took an instant liking to him. Some people, you just know.) Unlike Kurek, though, PP is seen by a lot of folks as an angry sort and, frankly, a bit of a weasel. Critchley gives voice to such sentiments.

“Eighty-two per cent of voters voted for Damien, they didn’t necessarily vote for the Conservative Party,” Critchley told CTV News Edmonton. “They voted for the local guy who showed up for them.” Now, she says, Kurek is “saying we should vote for the angry guy in Ottawa.” In a word, “no.”

She told popular Edmonton podcaster Ryan Jespersen that party loyalties disappeared when Kurek resigned. PP has not been all that visible in the riding, she says, and that matters to voters there. “If he beats me,” she told Jespersen, “it won’t be by much.”

Why does the margin matter? As another guest on Jespersen’s show put it, if Poilievre as a national leader can’t improve on what Kurek managed as a backbencher, then he’s toast politically. A leadership review is due in January. 

Pierre Poilievre’s campaign headquarters in Camrose. If PP gets peckish, an A&W is across the street.

_______________________

MORE OTTAWA DRAMA

“I’m reading Paul Martin’s autobiography right now. It reminds me that there’s no good reason to listen to anything Jean Chrétien has to say.”

— Something I posted back in our California days when musing on the state of Canadian politics in the 1990s

_______________________

FROM THE ‘DEAR TERRY’ MAILBAG

Re ‘They Did What?’ July 20 et al. This one prompted some thoughts, Terry. On arrival from Ottawa as an Edmonton newbie (and suddenly and always an Albertan!) in 1989, my reaction to a magpie was: “Look at that exotic bird!" Lol. Like an Albertan seeing a real red maple leaf, I suppose.

As for the Golan and all that, my father did two two-year stints with the UN forces in early 1960s, “peacekeeping” in what they called the Gaza strip and environs. As I used to say to him: “How did that work out?” Dad was a Grade 8 grad from Cape Breton, a coal miner from age 14 who joined the army seeking a better life for his then family of Mom and four kids (eventually eight.) He was a well-read Renaissance type. Returned with tales of meeting Holocaust survivors and friendly Palestinians who would talk casually of how Jews drank their babies’ blood. As for T-rump as Superman, sigh ... at least they gave him a little paunch. LOL. Murdoch Davis, Valparaiso, Indiana

Terry, your story of the holy water in the Sea of Galilee is magnificent. Makes me think of all the scammers that sold holy relics of the saints—pieces of the shroud of Turin and bones from fingers of saints. As a kid in St. Paul, Alberta, we’d line up during holy week and kiss pieces of “the cross” Jesus had been crucified on, so-called relics circulating in Catholic churches in Alberta. Adèle Fontaine, Edmonton, Alberta

If you want to drop me a note (and risk me publishing it here), just reply to this email or, if you prefer send it to mysundayreader@gmail.com.

_______________________

Mid-Century Modern stars Linda Lavin and Nathan Lane. Both are delightful.

MAYBE-SEE TV

We don’t often recommend TV shows worthy of your consideration—OK, this is the first time—but it needs be said the half-hour comedy Mid-Century Modern deserves a look-see. Vicki called it an updated version of Golden Girls, and I don’t disagree, and it takes place in Palm Springs,  a place we called home for many years so that for us was a plus. Stars include Nathan Lane and the late Linda Lavin, and you will find it on Disney+ under the “Stars” label.