[Ads-l] The "Gay" Line in "Bringing Up Baby"

[Barretts Mail]

FWIW, here’s the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQDbDIz1Y0E <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQDbDIz1Y0E>

The first line is at 2:05. BB

> On 25 Sep 2022, at 06:50, Andy Bach <afbach at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> I tried to find a clip of the scene but failed. I did find a couple of
> posts that make the same argument
> https://moviechat.org/tt0029947/Bringing-Up-Baby/58c701c14e1cf308b932fb12/More-on-the-gay-joke-WITH-EVIDENCE
> 
> https://worldofwonder.net/the-historical-significance-of-cary-grant-suddenly-going-gay-in-bringing-up-baby/
> 
> But no mention of the 42nd street line for an exhaustive and entertaining
> review and backstory
> http://back-to-golden-days.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-animals-in-film-blogathon-bringing.html?m=1
> 
> Which says a great deal of the dialogue was ad-libbed by Hepburn and Grant
> and “ Oddly enough, the PCA paid no attention whatsoever to the film's two
> most outrageous: Grant's proclamation of going gay and Hepburn's reference
> to George's "bodily functions." When David asks Susan where George is apt
> to go, she responds that he is apt to "go" anywhere, a remark that she
> follows with a giggle, surely to underline the double entendre.
> Similarly, all the bone jokes got through undetected, including the one in
> the opening scene in which David, pondering the erect-looking dinosaur bone
> he holds in his hand, innocently remarks, "This must belong in the tail."
> 
> 
> 
> On Sun, Sep 25, 2022 at 8:14 AM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
> 
>> I am thinking of writing an article about my discoveries of early uses of
>> the term "gay" meaning "homosexual."  There is one point I am puzzling
>> over, and perhaps people on this list can help me.
>> 
>> Cary Grant's line (in the 1938 movie "Bringing Up Baby") about going "gay"
>> all of a sudden, ad-libbed for a scene in which he is asked why he is
>> wearing women's clothing, is often said to be an early, or the earliest,
>> use of "gay" to mean "homosexual."  Some commentators, including the
>> linguist Ronald Butters, have denied that this ad-lib could, as an
>> "in-group" reference, have made it into a mainstream film and been uttered
>> by someone Butters describes as a deeply closeted homosexual who might have
>> been endangering his career with the utterance.
>> 
>> My puzzlement has to do with character David Huxley's second line in the
>> film dialogue:
>> 
>> 
>> Mrs. Random <https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0733480/?ref_=tt_ch> : But why
>> are you wearing *these* clothes?
>> 
>> David Huxley <https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000026/?ref_=tt_ch> : Because
>> I just went *GAY* all of a sudden!
>> 
>> Mrs. Random <https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0733480/?ref_=tt_ch> : Now see
>> here young man, stop this nonsense. What are you doing?
>> 
>> David Huxley <https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000026/?ref_=tt_ch> : I'm
>> sitting in the middle of 42nd Street waiting for a bus.
>> 
>> 
>> 42nd Street was a well-known locale for homosexual assignations.  I
>> understand how commentators who deny this as a usage of the modern sense of
>> "gay" might regard it instead as an example of an older usage of "to go
>> gay" meaning "uninhibited, wild, crazy, flamboyant."  But how do such
>> commentators deny the implications of the "42nd Street waiting for a bus"
>> line?
>> 


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