Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Usual Suspects
The Fay Wray Screaming Contest
The Usual Suspects Film Society of The Culinary University
played two classics for party backgrounds, Casablanca,
and King Kong.
As a result, students knew every line of dialog spoken by Bogart,
Bergman, and Rains, and would often spout one or two,
applicable or not, in various situations.
King Kong was honored by The Fay Wray Screaming Contest,
first instituted during the 4 AM dregs of a keg party.
Never really a contest, since Misty always won going away.
As slim a blonde as Fay, but even more of a belter, a sustained
C over C proved no strain.
When Rets took a job as Pastry Chef at The Mutiny Hotel in Miami, Misty tagged along to help run the front of the house, and they soon developed a circle of young friends.
Thus was held the first Fay Wray Screaming Contest
in Coconut Grove.
Misty again would have won, but elderly neighbors called police.
“We thought it was a murder!” they explained later to Lt Boris Haskell, with all gathered in the courtyard to sort things out.
The complainants in pajamas and robes, the elderly male
went on: "It goes through you! It goes right through you!"
Rets told the puzzled pair, "This looks like the start of a
beautiful friendship."
Misty, when signing the police report, whispered to
the woman, “The Germans wore gray, you wore blue.”
Added Rets, “I’m no good at being noble, but it doesn’t take
much to see that the problems of four little people don’t
amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you
two’ll understand that.”
Later in the apartment, Misty got upset anyway. "Don't worry
about it,” consoled Rets, "they're just Jews."
Labels: Bergman, Bogart, Casablanca, cuisine, Fay Wray, King Kong, Miami, Rains
