It's actually about real-life sharpshooter Annie Oakley (1860-1926), who joins Buffalo Bill's traveling Wild West Show in the 1880s and competes with the star, Frank Butler.
There's something to be said for a big, tough, rastlin' backwoods gal who can shoot guns, but why make her so all-fired eager to give it all up for a man?
I'm quick on the trigger with targets not much bigger than a pin point, I'm number one.
But my score with a feller is lower than a cellar- Oh you can't get a man with a gun.
Wait -- I know the answer. Heteronormativity.
My tiny baby brother, who's never read a book, knows one sex from the other --
All he had to do was look!
And the object of her affection is rather a cad, leaving a chain of seductions wherever he goes:
There's a girl in Tennessee who's sorry she met up with me
I can't go back to Tennessee -- I'm a bad, bad man!
The kicker: Annie is a better shot than Frank, but in the big match, she deliberately loses, so he will like her. What kind of message is that for young heterosexual girls? Squash your talents in order to get a man!
There is a small gay subtext in the relationship between Buffalo Bill and his manager, Charlie Davenport.
Notable Franks have included Bruce Yarnell, John Raitt, Harve Presnell, Tom Wopat, and Patrick Cassidy,
See also: The Sound of Music; The Pajama Game.
The 1950 MGM movie is the best with the singing hunk Howard Keel as Frank Butler. MGM knew Keel was a sex symbol- he often shirtless in movies or wears very tight pants in "Kiss Me Kate"
ReplyDeleteLong-haired dude in the 2nd pic reminds me of Booboo Stewart, he's also Native American/Hawaiian-looking... and fit 🙂
ReplyDeleteI think he's a member of the chorus from the "I'm an Indian" number, so he'd be hard to track down.
DeleteHe's just half Chinese or something. Yeah, the fake Indians in Hollywood are now a diverse lot instead of all being white dudes in bronze. White liberals everywhere are celebrating,
DeleteBut you know, they're Indians too, a Sioux, ooh ooh, a Sioux, ooh ooh.
I remember Tom W. as Frank B. when the traveling Broadway series brought the show to Nashville. I was amazed at how well Wopat could sing. He was great! Marilu Henner was Annie. This was in the year 2000 (I think).
ReplyDeleteOf course they gave the story the Hollywood treatment, but in real life Annie Oakley married Frank Butler at age 16, and the marriage lasted 50 years until the end of their lives. Annie died first, and Frank died a few weeks later, supposedly from grief. All this from Wikipedia.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe the one about the girl who murders her incestuous father? (Janie's Got a Gun)
ReplyDeleteAt the time, "doin what comes naturally" was bicoastal provincialism: "Look at us! We're proud of being illiterate!" "Knows one sex from the other, all he had to do was look" was a reference to how Depression-era country boys, when the weather was agreeable, often went without clothes when they didn't have to leave home, so as not to risk ripping them, and the practice of farm boys learning about sex from watching animals, and the practice of communal (opposite-sex) bathing...
Seriously, this movie is dated.
There was a very successful Broadway revival and the show has a great score I imagine these "woke" days the book would have to be re-written
ReplyDeleteI think they changed the book so that Annie doesn't lose, and omitted the "I'm an Indian" song.
ReplyDeleteFunny thing: 1491s used it when mocking wannabes. Just make the voice more obnoxious.
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