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Wednesday, July 8, 2009

The Other Hermione...


...about whom La Gingold would acidly remark, when the two were mixed up by uninformed reporters and fans, "No, dear, she's the fat one." Hermione Baddeley, who was our last Mystery Guest, and Hermione Gingold both were ribald, funny dames; but where Gingold had a certain piss elegance, Baddeley was...well, bawdier.

Interestingly, the distinctively Cockney Ms. Baddeley originated the role of Sissy Goforth, the doomed multimillionairess in Tennessee Williams' cult play, The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore (1963). She was nominated for a Best Actress Tony, despite the play's lukewarm reception; the role was later played by Tallulah Bankhead, in a revised restaging of the play, and Elizabeth Taylor, in the infamous 1968 film adaptation Boom! - as unlikely a diva triumvirate as there ever was.

Our darling Toby Worthington was the first to guess correctly; in honor of Ms. Baddeley's Oscar-nominated three minutes' worth of screen time in A Room at the Top (1959), we hereby proclaim that, for three minutes today, Mr. Worthington is ruler of all he surveys, and can do anything he damn well pleases.

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