Life With Father (also Delmonico's)

[scotrace]

I saw a really really bad print of this film the other day and was reminded again how great it is. William Powell was nearing the end of a brilliant career, but was an absolute standout. His famous precise enunciation (from which today's many mumblers could get a CLUE) was made to order for the role.

I was surprised to learn that the film is based on a true story, the autobiographical book by Clarence Day, Jr. (1935). The stage version still holds the record for Broadway's longest-running no-musical.

Also a surprise: Delmonico's restaurant, a key element of the story, is operating, though it was out of business for decades. Have any of our New Yorker friends been there?

 

[Josephine]

oh! This is the one where the boy wanted a new suit because he couldn't court a girl (Liz Taylor!) in Father's, and the wife was horrified to find out Father wasn't bap-tized! I always chuckled when she said it, with the little pause between syllables. And the pug, and how she couldn't understand about returning it and having to pay for the boy's suit...

 

[Fletch]

Haven't patronized the latest incarnation, but it opened in 1998 in the 2 South William St. location that they claim has been home to one Delmonico's or another since 1837.

The Delmonico family, Swiss by origin, supposedly opened the first true restaurant in the US - in the French a la carte tradition - in New York in 1830. They eventually had a string of places around the city, the last of them closing in 1923.

There were counterfeit Delmonico's off and on thru the years. One of them in the mid 30s was really a supper club, featuring the excellent Gene Kardos band.

 

[scotrace]

I am hereby coining a new word: Wikigurgitator.

 

[AmateisGal]

I've always loved this movie - it's so endearing.

I think the father says "Gad!" a lot, too, doesn't he?

 

[Fletch]

I am hereby coining a new word: Wikigurgitator.

No fair harshing my google-fu, dude! :eusa_doh:
Besides, I did visit a couple other sites to knock that together, plus my own offline, paper memory.

Crafting blurbiage is part of my day gig - of course it's more fun when nobody's asking!