Kiss Me Kate

Spankings from Stage (not Movies or TV) and Prose
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daneldorado
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KMK photo unseen?

Post by daneldorado »

Like all the rest of you, I have collected dozens and dozens of pictures of the spanking scene from "Kiss Me Kate." But never have I found this one on line.

I was at this performance, back in 1989, at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium... which is how I happen to have the original program. The players here are Terry Lester and Leslie Easterbrook. Some of you may recall Ms. Easterbrook from the final two seasons of "Laverne and Shirley" on TV. She was also in the "Police Academy" movies.

Cheers,
Dan


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Kiss Me Kate

Post by web-ed »

Rather oddly, we don't seem to have started a KMK thread on this board, and since Dan just came up with a new photo this would seem a good time to start one. I moved Dan's post over from "Miscellaneous Spanking" and this thread should serve us for most commentary on stage versions of this most-important-to-spankos of musicals. :)

Good find, Dan - this Kate was extremely attractive. Would have enjoyed playing Fred opposite her! :lol:
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daneldorado
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Re: Kiss Me Kate

Post by daneldorado »

Here is what I think is an astounding photo of the famous "Kiss Me Kate" spanking scene. The players are Brent Barrett and the ravishingly beautiful Rachel York.


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Neither the Chicago Spanking Review nor I claim copyright ownership of this image.


Cheers,
Dan
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overbarrel49
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Re: Kiss Me Kate

Post by overbarrel49 »

Hi Dan,

That's a really good still :D . I notice that the onlookers are mostly men but I thought the reactions of the 2 women were the most interesting. The one on the right appears to be laughing heartily and it gave me the impression that she was wondering how long it would be before someone spanked this naughty girl :lol: . The girl on the left seems to be suitably shocked and perhaps a bit terrified by the whole thing :lol: . Personally, I like to think that both of these ladies are feeling a whole range of emotions as they watch the spanking and probably some interesting physical sensations too 8-) . Thanks, Phil
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Re: Kiss Me Kate

Post by web-ed »

overbarrel49 wrote:Hi Dan,

That's a really good still :D . I notice that the onlookers are mostly men but I thought the reactions of the 2 women were the most interesting. The one on the right appears to be laughing heartily and it gave me the impression that she was wondering how long it would be before someone spanked this naughty girl :lol: . The girl on the left seems to be suitably shocked and perhaps a bit terrified by the whole thing :lol: . Personally, I like to think that both of these ladies are feeling a whole range of emotions as they watch the spanking and probably some interesting physical sensations too 8-) . Thanks, Phil
I agree this is an excellent still that Dan came up with. Although most comic-book spanking scenes do not have a lot of witnesses ringed around the spanker and spankee, this photo reminded me a little of Mr. Lodge spanking Veronica in that they're surrounded by onlookers who have a wide range of expressions:

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daneldorado
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Re: Kiss Me Kate

Post by daneldorado »

Here is yet another photo of the spanking scene from "Kiss Me Kate."

Reportedly, the actor who plays Fred Graham is named Lief Norby, and here he is spanking Meredith Kaye Clarke in a 2011 production. The reviewer also tells us that this was Meredith's favorite scene in the play, and that she always looked forward to playing it. Somehow, that does not seem unlikely. :D


Image


Neither I nor the Chicago Spanking Review claim copyright ownership of this image. It is presented here under the "fair use" provisions of the law.

Cheers,
Dan
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Re: Kiss Me Kate

Post by web-ed »

Another good one, Dan - thanks for posting it! I like the costumes here, and the viewing angle we get is better than most, allowing us to see Katherine's rear really getting smacked! :lol:
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Sweetspot
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Re: Kiss Me Kate 70th Anniversary

Post by Sweetspot »

The musical Kiss Me, Kate was inspired by the on-stage/off-stage battling of husband-and-wife actors Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne during their 1935 production of The Taming of The Shrew, as witnessed by future Broadway producer Arnold Saint-Subber, the stage manager of the 1935 show. Saint-Subber wrote the initial treatment for the KMK story [at the insistence of his good friend actor Montgomery Clift]. In 1947 he asked the Spewacks (Sam and Bella, undergoing their own marital woes at the time) to write the script; Bella Spewack in turn enlisted Cole Porter to write the music and lyrics. Bella tried writing the book on her own but Sam became more prominent in the writing process in order to polish up the product. Sam Spewack was not the director of the original Broadway run which premiered in December 1948 but was the director for the first London run in 1951.

So 2017 brings us to the 70th anniversary of the creation of the hit and beloved musical Kiss Me, Kate. As good a reason as any to start sharing some of my 50+ "spanking scene" finds that come straight out of the newspapers of the day. Kiss Me, Kate - as is noted elsewhere in the CSR - has had a remarkable long and usually successful run of national, regional, local and school productions. From early on the "spanking scene" was the go-to publicity shot for local newspapers publicizing an upcoming run of the show - not the only scene snapped by any means but an action photo that seemed to be very appealing to photographers and primary cast members alike. As the decades rolled on and feminists objected, Fred/Petruchio spanking Lilli/Kate became less popular as the signature scene for publicizing the musical. Reviewers in this century seem to forget that the spanking is less about taming than it is about retaliation and that Lilli gave out, by way of slapping, punching, biting and kicking more than what she received in return.

Today's offering highlights the 1980s. I collected these photos through my newspaper archive by scanning for certain key words combined with Kiss Me, Kate or sometimes just Kiss Me, Kate. I did not retain the worse reproductions. Perhaps some of these images can be found elsewhere on the web but I don't know if that is the case or not and frankly I don't care since I found all these images through my own concerted effort. For further images and in particular photos not taken from the newspapers consult Harry's work at Vanilla/Mainstream Spankings and of course the Chross Collection [assuming you can still get to it]. Elsewhere in the CSR Forum nice contributions to the KMK photo collection or history by Dan, Boom and Web-Ed can be found.
KissMeKate#30September19,1982PalmBeachFL.jpg
KissMeKate#30September19,1982PalmBeachFL.jpg (58.11 KiB) Viewed 4484 times
KissMeKate#32July20,1984Burlington,VT.jpg
KissMeKate#32July20,1984Burlington,VT.jpg (64.43 KiB) Viewed 4484 times
KissMeKate#31Appleton,WIJune10,1984.jpg
KissMeKate#31Appleton,WIJune10,1984.jpg (48.27 KiB) Viewed 4484 times
Last edited by Sweetspot on Fri Nov 03, 2017 9:15 pm, edited 7 times in total.
Sweetspot
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Re: Kiss Me Kate 70th Anniversary [the 80s

Post by Sweetspot »

By the 1980s the numbers of spanking related Kiss Me, Kate "spanking scene" photos had decreased but the quality of reproduction had, for the most part, increased for the images that are available.
KissMeKate#33May301986SiouxFallsSD.jpg
KissMeKate#33May301986SiouxFallsSD.jpg (42.16 KiB) Viewed 4484 times
KissMeKate#34Camden,NJJan9,1987.jpg
KissMeKate#34Camden,NJJan9,1987.jpg (69.63 KiB) Viewed 4484 times
Some of the KMK images I found were unusable due to poor preservation and/or reproduction. Surprisingly this image from November 15, 1988 from The Baltimore Sun is very poor considering the prominence of The Sun. They needed to put more energy into preserving their history but I place it here as an example of poor quality. You might note that I didn't always include the photo's caption I did so only when I found it to be interesting.
KissMeKate#35BaltimoreSunNovember15,1988_LI.jpg
KissMeKate#35BaltimoreSunNovember15,1988_LI.jpg (1.06 MiB) Viewed 4484 times
Sweetspot
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Re: Kiss Me Kate 70th Anniversary [the 80s

Post by Sweetspot »

In the late-1980s the "spanking scene" remained a prominent part of a productions advertisement/publicity campaign.
KissMeKate#36Rochester,NYApril30,1989_LI.jpg
KissMeKate#36Rochester,NYApril30,1989_LI.jpg (911.52 KiB) Viewed 4484 times
KissMeKate#37DetroitFreePressJune4,1989.jpg
KissMeKate#37DetroitFreePressJune4,1989.jpg (74.96 KiB) Viewed 4484 times
KissMeKate#38September21,1989Fremont,Ohio.jpg
KissMeKate#38September21,1989Fremont,Ohio.jpg (48.97 KiB) Viewed 4484 times
web-ed
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Re: Kiss Me Kate

Post by web-ed »

All good finds, Phil :D - thanks for posting them! I find the first one particularly intriguing as Kate is bent over Petruchio's leg but a table is used for additional support - a classic paddling position! It won't be long before the cultural Left tries to boycott or even ban future productions of KMK, but this is a battle in the culture wars worth fighting.

I'll just mention as an aficionado of stage musicals that KMK is the only Cole Porter show you're likely to see produced today even though he had many successes during the 30's. Why? Once Rodgers & Hammerstein had broken the mold with Oklahoma! in 1943, the old joke-joke-song format of the musical revues before that time became obsolete, although there have been some recent attempts at revivals. And then again, it's the only Cole Porter show with a spanking... :lol:

Interestingly, Porter follows what we might call the "Rodgers plan" in dealing with the minor mode in "So In Love" sung by Lilli and Fred (as a duet in the movie, but separately on stage) which is quite different from how he handled it earlier (mainly by mutating into the parallel major), but a thorough discussion would take us too far into music theory for a spanking site. :)

By the way, I have a unique KMK spanking photo that Mike clipped out of a Milwaukee newspaper many years ago where the players are rehearing the spanking scene outdoors and in street clothes! I think we'll present it when we get around to our series featuring your many other newspaper spanking discoveries.
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