Tag: Places

Guys and Dolls in Beantown

MISS PATTY: I was a chorus girl in a bus-and-truck tour of Guys and Dolls. Beantown, I love that town. And there I was, me and the girls backstage after the show, and in she comes. And who does [Bette Davis] walk right up to, but little old me. And she sized me up, exhaled some smoke from that regal mouth of hers, and said, “Doll, you don’t got the high notes but you sure got the gams.” I’ll always treasure that moment with Bette and I wanna dedicate this song to her.

Guys and Dolls, a 1950 Broadway musical, with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on several short stories of the 1920s and ’30s by Damon Runyon.

The musical received overwhelming critical acclaim, and praise for its faithfulness to Runyon’s stories. It won several Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and had multiple Broadway and London revivals, as well as a 1955 film adaptation starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, and Frank Sinatra. In 1998, the original cast was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. It is considered one of the most significant musicals of all time.

Beantown, a nickname for Boston.

Lorelai Arrives at the Hospital

When Rory phones Lorelai in distress, Lorelai is still eating dinner with Emily, as if it’s 7.30-8 pm. Impossible! It must have been around 10 pm by then. Gilmore Girls rarely seemed able to get a plausible timeline in place.

It is a two hour drive to Boston from Hartford, meaning it would be around midnight before Lorelai got there, and Rory would have been left alone for hours. The show always made it seem as if Boston was about 40 minutes away.

However ridiculously this occurs, Rory is naturally overjoyed to see her mother, who immediately takes charge of the situation, and stops Sherry from exploiting Rory. Lorelai’s protective mothering really gets a chance to shine here.

C&H Pure Cane Sugar Dancers

LORELAI: The C&H Pure Cane Sugar dancers?
EMILY: Lorelai, please, we don’t have a buffer here tonight.

Lorelai refers to the popular television commercials for the California and Hawaiian Sugar Company (C&H Sugar), which processed sugar cane from Hawaii at their plant in San Francisco until 2016.

In the 1960s, the commercial depicted happy Hawaiian children singing and dancing to the company’s jingle in a very cute and innocent way while they suck on big sticks of sugar.

Honolulu

LORELAI: Leilani, huh? Very exotic name.
EMILY: She’s from Honolulu.

Honolulu, the capital and largest city of the state of Hawaii. Honolulu’s tropical climate, natural scenery, and extensive beaches make it a popular destination for tourists.

Leilani is a popular Hawaiian name (technically unisex, but nearly always given to girls) which can be translated as either “heavenly flowers” or “royal child”.

Lauren Graham was born in Honolulu, and this is yet another reference to her home state on Gilmore Girls.

Berlin Wall

LORELAI: Wow, these will be an enormous help in planning our trip. Hey, you wanna go see the Berlin Wall?
RORY: Sounds great.

The Berlin Wall, a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany. It included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, accompanied by a wide area (later known as the “death strip”) that contained anti-vehicle trenches, beds of nails and other defenses.

You can actually see the Berlin Wall today – at least part of it. The remains of the wall have been left up as an exhibition, and it is one of Berlin’s top tourist sites.

Glory of Easter

RORY: I got the flags and . . . he changed his mind again.
LANE: He’s worse than my mother at the Glory of Easter T-shirt stand.

Glory of Easter, an annual evangelical drama which begun in 1984 and went on until 2012. It took place at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California [pictured, now a Catholic church], suggesting that the Kim family went to it at least once, where Mrs Kim could not decide between all the tee-shirts available for sale.

I think this is the first time we’ve seen Lane working at the Independence Inn to help prepare for a function. Perhaps Mrs Kim is allowing her more freedom, or perhaps now she’s eighteen she can be employed at the inn without any worry about labour laws. In either case, this is another possible income stream for Lane.

Loma Linda University

MRS. KIM: Young Chui works for his father who builds Adventist hospitals. Young Chui will go to college at Loma Linda University. Then he will return to work for his father building Adventist hospitals.

Loma Linda University, private Seventh-day Adventist health sciences university in Loma Linda, California, near San Bernardino. It was founded in 1906, gained university status in 1961, and has about 7000 students.