Like most of you, I fantasize about the “good old days.” Ladies fashions, hair and make-up were so gorgeous in the 1940s ad 50s, I long to live back then. Most men I’ve known wish they’d lived either in the Wild, Wild West or in the 1920s with a flask of hooch in the pocket of their snappy pinstripe suit.
Oh, I know the peace and all-togetherness the past projects never really existed. Yesteryear was harsh and uncomfortable (girdles!) with plenty of its own scandals, poverty and wars. There were narcissists back then too, but it’s still fascinating to watch “How You Should Live” films from the 1950s. There are films about good habits, politeness, dating, marriage, cleanliness, hair care, make-up and how to have a good family life.
In the first Family Life film, what jumped off the screen and slapped me upside-the-head was how the children were equals in the family. Part of the core, the nucleus, not merely valance electrons circling sadly, outside and excluded. But I laughed it off. Maybe it was a fluke. After all, we’ve been told how disgustingly patriarchal and misogynistic the 1950s were.
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The writer of this piece seems to have assumed that the "instructional" films are a portrayal of real life.
They aren't, they really aren't.
BUT when you get over the sickly sweetness there are nuggets of gold to be found.
Warning to my UK readers (which is most of you):
Thee films are American, extremely American if you get my meaning.
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