Sunday, April 5, 2020

The Greer Garson Blogathon is HERE!!!


It’s here!! The Greer Garson Blogathon is here!

Musings of an Introvert kicks things off with the classic The Winsome Qualities of Greer Garson in the 1940 Pride and Prejudice.

Taking Up Room discusses Garson’s most famous role as Mrs. Miniver (1942).

Movies Meet Their Match watches Garson for the first time in Sunrise at Campobello (1960).

The Wonderful World of Cinema discusses Greer Garson’s Elegant Entrance: Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939).

Hope this Blogathon was a welcome distraction from the world! Don’t worry if your post is late. I’ll happily accept them all week. Hope all of you stay healthy and thanks so much for participating!!

15 comments:

  1. Sorry to back out at this late a date. A real downer of a week. Not sick, but I just couldn't get motivated to do anything. Hope I can still be allowed in next time.

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    1. Totally understand. Hope this next week is better for you :)

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  2. Hi! Here's my post for Pride and Prejudice. :)

    http://cabdriversandcoffeepots.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-winsome-qualities-of-greer-garson.html

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  3. Hi, Phyl! Hope this isn't too late. https://takinguproom.wordpress.com/2020/04/06/mrs-miniver/

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  4. Hey, Phyl! Mine's here. Still the 6th here in Mountain Time. ;)
    https://moviesmeetmatch.blogspot.com/2020/04/movie-review-sunrise-at-campobello-1960.html

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  5. Hi, Phyl, I just wanted to invite you to participate in my Lucille Ball Blogathon that I'm hosting in August. Hope you can join! ❤

    http://cabdriversandcoffeepots.blogspot.com/2020/04/we-love-lucy-blogathon-lucille-ball.html

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  6. I love this! I met Greer Garson in the most unexpected way when I was about 12 or 13. I was in Dallas, where she lived at the time, for a soccer tournament (I'm from Houston, so Dallas was a pretty regular tournament site). I had gotten pretty roughed up in a game and my dad had taken me to Walgreens between matches for some peroxide and Band-Aids to patch me up (in those days, they wouldn't let you play on the field with an uncovered wound because of fear of HIV/AIDS--no idea if those rules are still in place). There was a limousine outside the store, which made us both go "that's weird but whatever" as we beelined for the first aid section. As we were checking out, this very elegant older woman with a British accent said to me, "You look like you've been through the wars!" I was in my soccer uniform, with my shin guards bouncing against my legs and my cleats traded for a pair of Adidas slides; my hair was falling out of my ponytail, I was covered in red dirt (Texas soccer fields always seem like they're made of Georgia clay), and I had blood running down my knee. And I weighed maybe all of 85 pounds. "Did you at least win?" she asked with a twinkle.

    Now I was a Baptist kid who wasn't allowed to watch much of my own generation's pop culture because my folks were pretty strict, so I actually LOVED Greer Garson because old movies were one of the few things they'd let me watch, but I didn't recognize her (she was in her 80s at this point, 1989/1990 I think, and I was distracted). So I just talked to her like I'd talk to anyone--"yes ma'am, we won 4-2 and we have the semifinals this evening. I had a goal and an assist." "So you're the heroine of the match!" she exclaimed. She left (and was mercifully spared the sight of me being an absolute brat about the peroxide burning) and only after she was gone did my dad say "well, kid, Greer Garson just wished you good luck in your game. Your grandmother is going to be over the moon." I was simultaneously delirious and also mortified--I looked a mess (like, a legit mess by any standard, not just the oversensitive 13-year-old standard) and I hadn't even known it was her! What she must have thought of me! My dad saved the day by saying gently, "old people like to see little girls being little girls. I don't imagine she thought anything except that it was a nice to see a child who's playing outside instead of wearing makeup and acting older than she is."

    Anyway I never get to tell this story because no one knows who she is, so thanks for letting me reminisce on your page! My memory of her was that she was elegant, charming, still had the exact same sparkling smile, and graciously took the time to take interest in a kid.

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    1. Wow!! What a fantastic story!!! Thank you so much for sharing!! Garson is one of my favorite actresses. Love her in Mr. Chips and Random Harvest. Oh and Madame Curie!! She seems like she was a fun lady. How lucky you were able to meet her :D

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    2. Sorry I'm just seeing this! She's one of my favorite, as well. I was so mad at my dad for not telling me who she was in the moment, but in retrospect I'm glad--it would have been a very different dynamic if I'd been a fan and she'd been the gracious star. As it was, it was just a very human moment. She was really lovely and kind and we chatted for a couple of minutes. Three decades on, I see it as almost symbolic: a generation about to pass from the scene giving a welcome to the one just entering.

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    3. I read a book last month that was set during the Blitz and Dunkirk, so of course I had to rewatch Mrs. Miniver this past weekend :) I only have a few movies of hers left to watch - mostly TV movies.

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    4. I saw her TV production of Little Foxes from the mid-1950s and enjoyed it, but felt like her British accent kept slipping out. The British and Southern accents are cousins so perhaps she found it hard to keep them straight, but as a native Texan living in Georgia with family roots in Arkansas and Mississippi, I reserve the right to be judgmental. Ironically I have probably seen her episode of the Love Boat though I have no memory of it. My childhood Saturday night routine entailed my mom washing and setting my hair in curlers for church on Sunday while I watched Fantasy Island and Love Boat--how's that for an 80s moment?

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