Footnotes to the TV series
RORY: So when do you guys leave for Martha’s Vineyard?
RICHARD: Ah, we’re not going to Martha’s Vineyard this year.
Martha’s Vineyard, often known as The Vineyard, is an island off Cape Code in Massachusetts, known for being an affluent summer colony. More than half the island’s homes are occupied only seasonally, and the population of around 16 000 can rise to over 100 000 in the summer.
Notice how cleverly the dialogue goes from wine, to wine making, to The Vineyard.
LORELAI: It’s [the wine’s] got a nice smell: earthy, vibrant. I can taste the Italians’ feet.
RICHARD: It’s a Bordeaux. It’s French.
A Bordeaux is any wine which comes from the Bordeaux region of south-eastern France, centred around the city of Bordeaux. It is the largest wine-growing region in France, and most Bordeaux wines are red. They can range in quality from ordinary table wine to some of the most expensive in the world. Richard and Emily probably have something from the higher end.
When the scene cuts to the exterior of Jess and Sean’s apartment building, sharp-eyed viewers will notice it is the same one used for Monica’s apartment building in the sit-com Friends. In real life, this building is at 90 Bedford Street, on the corner of Grove Street in Greenwich Village, and two college students could only live there thanks to rent control – just like Monica and Rachel.
Madeline tells Rory and Paris that she and Louise have been asked to a party “on the corner of Waverly and First” by Jess and Sean, the boys they picked up at the concert. This is apparently just around the corner from the concert venue.
Waverly Place is in Greenwich Village, not far from New York University, suggesting that Jess and Sean are students there. In real life, there is no point where Waverly Place crosses with First Avenue, although it does cross with Fifth and Sixth. It is very possibly a deliberate error.
[Miss Patty’s standing in front of big drums.]
MISS PATTY: I danced on these drums at the Copacabana in 1969.
LORELAI: Wow.
MISS PATTY: Yeah, it was a great act. I wore bananas.
The Copacabana is a famous nightclub in New York City, first opening in 1940 at 10 East 60th Street; many top entertainers have performed there. The club had a Brazilian decor and Latin-themed orchestra, and their showgirls wore bananas on their heads in the style of Carmen Miranda (who appeared in the 1947 film Copacabana). It seems Miss Patty was one of the famed “Copa Girls”.
The Bangles concert takes place at the Pastorella Theatre in New York City, a fictional entertainment venue. In Italian, pastorela means “shepherdess”, and a pastorella can mean any musical or literary work with a pastoral theme, a church composition for the Christmas season, or a medieval poem or song involving love for a shepherdess. The Pastorella Theatre therefore has a name connected with music.
In real life, The Bangles appeared at the Irving Plaza at 17 Irving Place in Union Square, Manhattan when they played in New York during their reunion tour; the date was October 2 2000. For the concert venue in this episode, the exterior shots are from the Warner Bros. Theater in Burbank, while the interior shots are from The Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles.
RORY: Your mom’s really mad huh?
LANE: The words “convent” and “Siberia” were both used several times and at least once as a combo.
It’s not clear why Mrs. Kim, a practicing and devout Seventh Day Adventist, would send her daughter to a convent, which are generally Catholic, Anglican, or Orthodox. I’m guessing either Lane is exaggerating, or Mrs. Kim was babbling threatening nonsense in a terrified (and terrifying) rage.
However, if Mrs. Kim was determined to send Lane to a convent in Siberia, there is a small one in the city of Omsk, Siberia – the Beatas Olimpia y Laurencia. It is highly unlikely that they would accept Lane though.
LORELAI: Maybe you could do them [the Baked Alaskas] in the actual shape of Alaska.
SOOKIE: Interesting.
LORELAI: Or you could do little baked Alaskas and Hawaiis.
SOOKIE: Because they joined the union last.
It would be very difficult to make Baked Alaska in the shape of Alaska and Hawaii as Alaska has a multitude of islands around its coastline, and Hawaii is a group of islands. I’m sure it can be done, with some artistic licence. Lorelai is joking though.
Alaska was purchased by America from Russia in 1867, and became a US territory in 1912. It was admitted as the 49th state of the US in January 1959.
The Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown during a coup d’état in 1893, and the country was annexed by the US in 1898, becoming one of its territories. In August 1959 Hawaii was admitted to the union, becoming the 50th state of the US.
Hawaii is the state where Lauren Graham (who plays Lorelai Gilmore) was born, which might be why it is mentioned here. It also happens to be where Keiko Agena (Lane Kim) was born.
Lorelai is drawn to a dog named Buttercup who was found on Highway 26. There are several Highway 26s in the US, but none of them are even remotely near Connecticut.
There was a Highway 26 to the east of Hartford in the 19th century, but that is most likely just a coincidence.
EMILY: If she doesn’t want to go it must be because of something you said.
LORELAI: Mom, I promise. All I ever said to her about dances is that you go, you dance, you have punch, you eat, you take a picture, and then you get auctioned off to a biker gang from Sausalito.
Sausalito is a town in the Bay Area of San Francisco, on the north side of Golden Gate Bridge. It’s big claim to fame is that it is “the dock of the bay” in the song by Otis Redding, who once lived there. It’s also mentioned in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road as being a little fishing village full of Italians.
Lorelai’s joking explanation for Rory’s fear of dances sounds suspiciously similar to the plot of the 1967 film The Born Losers, where teenage girls are kidnapped, raped, and beaten by the Born Losers motorcycle gang in a small Californian town. We learn later that it is one of Lorelai and Rory’s favourite films. The story was based on a real life incident in Monterey, California, involving the Hells Angels, which was the impetus for Hunter S. Thompson’s first book: Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (1966). Could this have been the book that Dean lent to Rory?
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 