Today before my workout I decided to watch It Should Happen To You. I dig old movies and it was short; I figured I'd watch something light-hearted before a grueling yoga session. First and foremost, I have to say that the title character made my skin crawl. It wasn't her looks, but her personality. Gladys Glover (Judy Holliday, pictured above) is some strange bird from upstate New York who wants to be famous. Her angle? absolutely nothing. She just wants her name known. The scene above is when she meets the love interest, Pete Shepherd (Jack Lemmon) in Central Park.
After their chance meeting, she sees a blank billboard in Columbus Circle and gets the fabulous idea to advertise herself there. The sign is simple; there's nothing on it but her name (business acumen: +1, though adding a ph# or contact info would've been more effective) Problem? a soap company wants the space and they're willing to do just about anything to get it.
After a few rounds of negotiation, she gives up the space in exchange for six signs across town (business acumen +2) and one is electric (+3). All of a sudden she's the buzz of the city.. "Just who is Gladys Glover?" She goes from being Jane Doe from Podunk, U.S.A to being the spokesmodel for the very soap company that bought her out.
This of course leads to other deals, like for the diet pill she's plugging above.
This scene is not part of the movie, I just thought the picture was cool.
What initially started out as a light Sunday morning movie turned into so much more. Immediately I thought of the slew of other people that exist in this world that are famous, and got famous, for absolutely nothing:
Angelyne (who flat out took this idea and ran with it)
Tila Tequila
The White House Crashers
EVERYONE on a reality TV show
The Balloon Boy Family... the list could go on and on.
What is it about fame? What is it in your life that's missing? Are you really so unique and cool that you think the world needs to know you? What kind of impact do you have on the world, and what impact will you leave when you die? I just don't get it.
It almost seems hypocritical for me to write about this given that I have a public blog, but I value my anonymity. You guys might never see a picture of me. I haven't decided if I want to reveal myself just yet.. if ever.
I won't lie though, I think it'd be an interesting experiment to test this out and rent a spot in the city with my name. Maybe I'll call some places. I know some prime locations that are blank right now...
In the movie, Gladys loses Pete because of her quest for fame. He's not so much against her being famous, he's against the fact that it's for nothing. I am too. If you want your name known, do something worthy of attention. I know plenty of people that act the way these reality show kids do that don't have the benefit of a film crew capturing it all... and are possibly the better for it.
It's nice how everything wraps up in a neat package.
No comments:
Post a Comment