Tag: Backstage

“A hundred clowns crammed into a Volkswagen”

LORELAI: I just need space.
MAX: Well I don’t. In fact I want as little space as possible. A hundred clowns crammed into a Volkswagen. That’s the kind of non-space I’m talking about.

An popular clown sight gag is for a number of clowns to be crammed into a small car, and then come out, making it seem as if the car is much bigger than it appears. The trick requires the car to be modified so that there is nothing inside it (no seats etc), and for the clowns to be very flexible and pretty uncomfortable. It was first used in the Coles Brothers Circus in the 1950s.

The number of clowns involved is usually around 14-21, but the record number of people jammed into a small car is 28 gymnasts into a Mini. Obviously gymnasts are extremely limber and aren’t wearing baggy costumes and holding props, so this number wouldn’t be feasible for clowns. A Volkswagen Beetle would be a classic vehicle to use as the car, as they are small, and sort of cute and comical looking anyway.

This comment from Max is something of an in-joke. Scott Cohen, who plays Max Medina, first began his career in the entertainment industry through taking a course in clowning at university – his teacher encouraged him to audition for a theatre company. One of Cohen’s early screen roles was a flirtatious driver in a 1999 Volkswagen Passat television commercial.

Swann’s Way

This is the book that Max loans Lorelai after she said she always wanted to read Proust.

It is the first volume of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, and begins with the narrator’s childhood, centred on his family’s country house in the village of Combray. M. Swann is a neighbour of the family, with one of their favourite country walks being past his house – Swann’s Way. M. Swann will end up being a major character in the novel, and the narrator greatly attracted to his daughter, Gilberte Swann.

We learn later that it took Rory ages to read the book, having to renew it at the library ten times (if she’s not exaggerating, she may have taken 4-5 months to read it, depending on how long the library allows books to be checked out).

Lorelai tells Rory she only read the first sentence of Swann’s Way, which is: “For a long time I used to go to bed early”. That seems rather soon to give up, but later she tells Max she read the first twenty pages, which she exaggerates as all one sentence. The first twenty pages or so are the “Overture”, all of which are involved with that first going to bed.

Lorelai defends herself by saying she is too busy to begin reading the “longest book known to man”. Presumably she means the entire seven volumes, which are over 4000 pages long as a whole. It is indeed the longest novel in the world according to the Guiness World Book of Records.

Lorelai is not alone. Many readers have abandoned their attempt to read Swann’s Way, which has a beautiful style, but very lengthy, dense paragraphs with meticulous observations, and a plot so painfully slow, discursive, and ambiguous that it sometimes seems not to have one at all.

Those who complete it may take years to do so, and just managing to finish the book, let alone enjoy or understand it, is often considered a rare feat in itself.

(I don’t know whether one of the original titles for Gilmore Girls, The Gilmore Way, was an allusion to this book).

Stairmaster

RORY: You just wanna hold a grudge.
LORELAI: Yes, it burns more calories.
RORY: That’s not true.
LORELAI: Yes it is, how do you think your grandma got those legs of hers? She’s not exactly a StairMaster gal.

StairMaster is an American company which makes exercise equipment, founded in 1983. Their first piece of equipment was a stair climbing machine.

Kelly Bishop, who plays Emily, got “those legs” of hers training in ballet, and working as a chorus line dancer for many years. We learn in the next season that Emily does in fact follow an exercise regimen to stay in shape.

German measles

LORELAI: I had the German measles in the fifth grade, I still had to show up to the Christmas party … My polka dot dress matched my face and still I had to sit through twelve courses.

German measles, also known as rubella, is an infection caused by the Rubella virus. It is often mild in children, and symptoms include low-grade fever, sore throat, fatigue, and a rash. The disease can be considerably more severe if an adult catches it, and worst of all for women in the early stages of pregnancy – it increases the chance of miscarriage, and there is a high chance of the baby being born with disabilities such as blindness, deafness, mental retardation, and heart defects.

A vaccine against the virus was developed in 1969 and it was added to the MMR vaccine in 1971, so it was possible for Lorelai to be vaccinated against German measles. In 1977 (when Lorelai was 8-9) the US developed a nationwide childhood immunisation initiative – children are usually 10-11 in fifth grade, so Lorelai should theoretically have been vaccinated by then. This does fit in with Amy Sherman-Palladino’s age though, as she is two years older than Lorelai and would have been in 5th grade around 1977 – maybe just too late to avoid getting the disease.

In any case, Emily was irresponsible and selfish to force Lorelai to attend a party with German measles. The disease is highly infectious, and any female of child-bearing age would be at risk, as you don’t usually know you are pregnant in the early stages.

There is no excuse for ignorance either, as there was a rubella epidemic in the US in 1964-65, not that long before Lorelai’s birth, leading to about 16 000 children being born disabled, as well as 2000 neonatal deaths, and 11 000 abortions and miscarriages due to the disease.

The Portable Dorothy Parker

DEAN: So, uh, what are you reading?
RORY: The Portable Dorothy Parker.

Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) was an American poet, short story writer, newspaper critic, and satirist, famous for her acerbic wit and her membership of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of writers known for their hard-drinking, wisecracking ways.

The Portable Dorothy Parker, a collection of her poems, stories, and journalism pieces, was first published in 1944. It was first revised in 1973, with an introduction by Brendan Gill, a critic for The New Yorker born in Hartford, and educated at Yale. I believe Rory is reading the 1976 Penguin edition.

Rory greatly admires Parker’s wit, and we know Amy Sherman-Palladino does too, because her production company is named Dorothy Parker Drank Here – the logo can be seen at the end of every Gilmore Girls episode.

The fact that Rory takes a book everywhere, even to a dance with her boyfriend, may indicate that although her love of reading is perfectly genuine, she is using books as a coping mechanism in social situations, possibly using them to keep others at a distance.

Baccarat candlesticks

Emily is horrified to discover that the Baccarat candlesticks she bought Lorelai for Christmas in 1999 were exchanged for a lamp decorated with “leering” monkeys holding coconuts.

Baccarat is a French manufacturer of fine crystal glassware, located in the town of Baccarat. The glassworks were founded in 1764 by King Louis XV. An American subsidiary of the company was created in New York City in 1948.

Emily may have bought the candlesticks from Lux Bond and Green, a jewellery store in West Hartford authorised to sell Baccarat products. A classic pair of Baccarat candlesticks (like the ones in the picture) will set you back around $500, but a fancier double candlestick holder would be over $6000.

I doubt that the same store that sells Baccarat also sells the novelty monkey lamp so there probably wasn’t an actual exchange of goods – Lorelai may have simply made a cash exchange, meaning that she pocketed a tidy profit after purchasing the monkey lamp somewhere else.

(The monkey lamp may have been partly inspired by Daniel Palladino’s first gift to Amy Sherman-Palladino when they were courting – the toy game Barrel of Monkeys, a barrel filled with plastic monkeys that can be interlinked together).

“I heard this place is beautiful”

RORY: I heard this place is beautiful though – old and historic.

The scenes at the school dance were filmed at the Wilshire Ebell Women’s Club in Los Angeles. There is a beautiful and historic private women’s club in Hartford too – the Town and County Club, which is in a 19th century mansion. A number of its rooms can be hired out for functions, including the ballroom. It has the gracious staircase which Sookie believes is necessary for Rory.

Emily Post

EMILY: Young man, come in here please.
LORELAI: Hey, Dean, meet my mother, Emily Post.

Emily Post (1872-1960) was a famous expert on etiquette. Her 1922 book Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home became an instant best-seller, was popular for decades, and made her name. She went on to write newspaper columns on etiquette, and founded the Emily Post Institute in 1946, which carries on her work.

It’s interesting to wonder if Emily Gilmore is named after her.

Coke

RORY: I’m gonna go get another Coke.

Coca-Cola, a fizzy soft drink made by the Coca-Cola company since 1886. The name comes from two original ingredients: kola nuts (for caffeine), and coca leaves (for cocaine). The current formula is a trade secret, but the coca leaves now have most of the cocaine removed from them, and there wasn’t really much to start with. But don’t worry, there’s still plenty of caffeine.

Coke was the go-to soda on Gilmore Girls, and apparently Alex Bledel’s coffee cup had Coke in it, since she doesn’t drink coffee. However any time I saw them drink coffee the cups looked empty, so I’m not sure how much actual liquid ever got drunk.