Men are Like Streetcars

[daneldorado]

Like all of you -- well, like most of you -- I have a file in my computer dedicated to photos gleaned from various pics of the spanking scene from "Men Are Like Streetcars," the Christopher Sergel play from the 1950s. Apparently this compilation of photos was made from posts generousy provided by you, the spankos of the world, and brought to these pages so that we could download them.

Thankfully, all of the pictures show the lovely OTK position, and they all seem to show it off to its best advantage. The one "fly in the ointment" is that many of them show the spanker -- a character named "Jerry" -- spanking his "victim" with a rolled-up magazine or newspaper, instead of the more proper -- and infinitely more delightful -- implement of the open palm of his hand.

Sure enough, Sergel's script does specify "he grabs up a magazine from the sofa and starts spanking her with it." So, most companies that tackle "Men Are Like Streetcars" follow the script faithfully, although in real life a rolled-up newspaper is something one should use on a dog rather than on a pretty girl's bottom.

Thankfully again, many of the spankers in these mostly high school productions eschew the rolled-up periodical in favor of their open palm, thus creating the gleeful look of a good, over-the-knee male/female spanking the way it ought to be: his hand, landing repeatedly on her bottom. Now, THAT's the way a good spanking should look.

So, I've just done the proper thing and deleted all the "Magazine/newspaper" pictures from my "Men Are Like Streetcars" folder -- there were 21 of them -- leaving only the good ol' hand-to-bottom pics. Very fortunately, there are a good many of them.

And, although I have said this is mainly a 1950s' play performed by high school casts, it seems to have stayed popular, right up until 1973, which has the last performance that I know of. Spankings in plays and movies almost disappeared in the last two decades of the 20th century, but now in the 21st century some TV shows -- and at least three movies -- have reintroduced the form. Who knows, plays like "Streetcars" may return to American high schools. We can always hope.

Cheers,
Dan

P.S.: Oops, there are no more streetcars in real life. Maybe we should call them "Ubers."

D.

[web-ed]

Hi Dan - I hope you don't mind, but I moved your post over here to create a new topic "Men are Like Streetcars" under the Literature and Drama forum since this is a play.

I'm not sure, but it's possible that more productions of Men are Like Streetcars were mounted in the 20th century than any other drama containing a spanking except Kiss Me Kate. As you say, there are many fine photos from these productions, and I have a few of them in my personal collection although I've never posted any. Richard Windsor has the most extensive collection I know of. Perhaps I'll re-post his some day; I think the reason I never have is that I figured most everyone must have seen them by now.

[Sweetspot]

I just now looked through my Men Are Like Streetcars inventory and surprised myself by the larger than expected number of photos I've taken from Richard Windsor, Mainstream Spanking and perhaps Chross. Here's a couple of my favorites the first one being a rehearsal scene or perhaps a photo shoot for the school's yearbook. Since a decent yearbook or local/school newspaper photo would actually show the faces of the participants - for the benefit of the parents and the rest of the family. A lot of photos showing spanking would not be optimal since the girl's face is hidden [for obvious reasons]. But I like the look of this picture because of the girl's clothing including her early '70s bellbottoms and the overall positioning of the spanking. Of course, as you say Dan, in this case the lack of the folded magazine is a bonus.

streetcars-1973-piqua-hs.jpg (101.98 KiB) Viewed 17562 times

The next two photo shows my favorite among the many young ladies who have been spanked in Men Are Like Streetcars. These two photos are discussed at great length by Harry, Richard Windsor and jimc here - http://richardwindsor.com/streetcars/st ... undays-50/

1956a.jpg (79.42 KiB) Viewed 17562 times

Whitney-Point-53-fromRichardWindsorMRLS#50.jpg (125.4 KiB) Viewed 17540 times

[jimc]

it is always great to see shots from the past. I love the ones that Sweetspot has posted as i enjoy the otk positioning the best and these pictures just seemed to capture it the best. I like the 2nd one, but for different reasons than i do the 1st one and i guess seeing the 1st reminded me of my own high school days as bell-bottoms , miniskirts and hip-hugger jeans were really a spankers dream as they reallu did accent the bottoms greatly and you could just imagine them getting spanked by their parents or their boyfriends. Thanks for the great finds and have a great day.
Jim

[web-ed]

Some nice examples, Phil. Perhaps I'll get a copy of the play and reprint the dialogue that went along with the spanking some time.

[butch46163@yahoo.com]

WOW!! GREAT Photos Read a back story on some Web site talking about the spanking in Bat Masterson Brunette Bombshell and the reason the spanking was off camera even though you could see Mr. Barry`s hand crashing down now the reason was according to Mr. Barry was they was both married people and he didn`t think it was right to spank another man`s wife he also stated how Mrs. Well was a brat on set and needed a good spanking but he felt it wasn`t his place! to me isn`t this acting and I bet there was plenty of actresses who was married getting a spanking in a movie! But Hey this is how they felt what do any of you think?

[Sweetspot]

Thank you Butch That's great information concerning the spanking of Rebecca Welles in the Brunette Bombshell episode of Bat Masterson.

rebecca_welles_and_gene_barry_1959_by_slr1238-d7bs42o.jpg (16.75 KiB) Viewed 17516 times

I know that Endart drew a picture of this scene a few years before he retired his web-site but since I came upon it before I knew what I was looking at I was nonchalant about the image and let it go without saving it. Even though Spanking Minnesota had posts a few years back showing every known, to him, Endart drawing taken from a TV show it didn't include the Mat Masterson picture. I promise you I'm not imagining this since it was pretty obvious just by looking at it [once I realized what I had seen] he even reproduced the bundled "sticks" that were scrapped on the jail cell wall! I sure would like to find that particular image. I've looked through any and all Endart pictures I could find but no luck.

Web-Ed has a nice loop of the pertinent part of the episode and also more information in his video section of CSR. Gary Cooper was another actor who found it unseemly to spank an actress, that's why his spanking of Claudette Colbert in Blackbeard's Eighth Wife is almost entirely off-camera.

zz 4-29-1938.png (115.09 KiB) Viewed 17520 times

zz 4-29-38.png (444.54 KiB) Viewed 17520 times

[daneldorado]

There is oh so much garbage written into these "Behind the Scenes" stories about movies, things that are put into an otherwise coherent story just to attract audiences to the theaters. This story, about Gary Cooper "flatly refusing" to be a party to such violence as putting Claudette Colbert over his knee and giving her a spanking on camera... now, really!!

In the final released print of their film, "Bluebeard's Eighth Wife" (1938), we see Cooper actually grabbing Ms. Colbert and putting her over his knee... but then, immediately there is a "cut" and all we get to see is Cooper, alone, going through the motions of giving a spanking but without Ms. Colbert in the frame. So one might assume that he never did spank her... at all.

But there is, in existence, a trailer advertising the movie to prospective customers, and in that trailer we can see the entire scene... and waddaya know, we get to see TWO Cooper swats actually landing on Claudette's derriere! Yes, those two swats were excised for the final print; but in fact, she did get at least two smacks in that "spanking." And maybe more.

The story about Gene Barry refusing to spank Rebecca Welles in "Bat Masterson" (1959) because both actors happened to be married to other people, is highly suspect, if not an outright lie. We have seen dozens, maybe hundreds, of spanking scenes involving actors who are married. If anyone wants to pay me enough to research the names of all the spankees and their husbands, I'll be glad to do that; but I doubt there will be any takers. Just use your common sense and know that the "marriage excuse" is totally bogus.

Cheers,
Dan

[jimc]

It is always hard to imaine as a spanko why a spanking scene was omitted or shown off screen or whatever. Sometimes an implausable story makes sense while the truth does not. I don't think that Gary Cooper would have refused to spank an actress after all he did threaten Barbara Stanwyck and i think he did threaten some others as well, but i do not have your extensive knowledge of films, stars and their relationships so while i know of several movies that did have spankings and he was a bystander watching them (NORTHWEST MOUNTED POLICE) or spanker (BLUEBEARDS EIGHTH WIFE) it is hard to imagine them not doing a scene although it does make for good fiction to some of the fans of the star. Thanks to Phil for sharing the real picture of Brunette Bombshell. i thought it was very well done as Gene Barry did seem to spank off screen (BURKE'S LAW (WHO KILLED LENORE) and BAT MASTERSON) but he is a very able spanker. Thanks for sharing and have a great day.
Jim

[hugob00m]

The story about Gene Barry refusing to spank Rebecca Welles in "Bat Masterson" (1959) because both actors happened to be married to other people, is highly suspect, if not an outright lie. We have seen dozens, maybe hundreds, of spanking scenes involving actors who are married. If anyone wants to pay me enough to research the names of all the spankees and their husbands, I'll be glad to do that; but I doubt there will be any takers. Just use your common sense and know that the "marriage excuse" is totally bogus.

I'm not as inclined to automatically disbelieve this story. Perhaps Mr. Barry might have been sensitive to the possibility of his wife, or Ms. Welles's husband feeling jealous if he were to touch her bottom with the palm of his hand.

[web-ed]

Claudette Colbert deserves our respect for insisting on the integrity of the script and taking her spanking ! One of the reasons I hate Hollywood so much is that it has no respect for the writer or his work, and it's too bad that Cooper - who would seem to have the makings of a good spanker - should have conflated spanking with "beating" (as so many others have done over the years, alas).

As to the excellent Gene Barry / Rebecca Welles scene from Bat Masterson (one of the very best on-screen spankings), based on what we actually see in the clip (available right here in the CSR Video section where I posted it 6 years ago), I have to agree with Dan - the story is bogus. I don't believe there was any "cut" in between the time we see Welles go over Barry's lap and the first swat lands - and we do see it land on her bottom - which means she really got smacked !

[butch46163@yahoo.com]

Sometime it hard to believe some of those back story about spankings in movies and tv shows but they are very interesting such as the Actress who starred in The Cisco Kid Beauty And The Bandit wanting a second spanking written into the script and how actresses had to do takes and retakes of spanking scenes and the actress in the film Our Wife had real tears in her eyes when it was over these are very good stories and so call interviews from the actors and actresses of these films and I had to when they stated Actress Brenda Joyce from the movie Public deb no. 1 was called the most spanked actress in hollywood Good reading from these sites on back stories

[hugob00m]

Hi, Butch.

Sometime it hard to believe some of those back story about spankings in movies and tv shows but they are very interesting

Yeah. I don't believe all of them I've ever read, but some of those behind the scenes stories are fun anyway.

One movie spanking scene that I've always been curious about, but haven't seen anything written about, is the one in McLintock! Did they have to do any re-takes of Maureen O'Hara getting her cute Irish arse paddled? How many times did they rehearse it before they began rolling the cameras? All I've ever heard was a Maureen O'Hara interview years later. She said that nothing was faked and that she was black and blue after the Duke got done spanking her. Did she possibly get more than the six swats we saw on screen?

I know that they had to have done a separate shooting session for the still photos. And how do I know? Well, most of the stills are black and white, but the only one I've ever seen that's in color...

McLintock book cover photo.jpg (88.42 KiB) Viewed 17516 times

...shows Maureen O'Hara wearing a different corset than the one she wore in the movie. The trim is purple instead of green! Did Wayne give her any smacks during the still photo session, just to get the right expression on her face?

[web-ed]

Good photo, B00m!

I wonder about the trim on Maureen O'Hara's corset - could have been that they just had trouble getting the color right? I've head that the studios often had trouble with the color process they used, even though many films had what we think of as gorgeous color, although this doesn't appear to be a still-frame extract. But as I'm sure you remember in the days before digital photography, it was sometimes difficult to get color photographs to come out right. The developer would use a color analyzer and adjust the colors from the negative when making the prints. I had one large-size blow-up made where they got the color wrong, probably because they didn't realize I had it right in my negative.

[hugob00m]

Sometimes colors that look great for Technicolor filming don't have enough contrast for black-and-white stills. That might have been the reason.

[Sweetspot]

Here are five "Men Are Like Streetcars" photos that I took directly from their original sources using a commercial newspaper archive. I looked through the three most prominent collections of MALS pictures and as far I know they've never been offered on a blog or forum before today.

MenAreLikeStreetCarsMarch25,1951_LI.jpg (741.07 KiB) Viewed 17426 times

MenAreLikeStreetCarsMarch13,1952_LI.jpg (765.69 KiB) Viewed 17426 times

MenAreLikeStreetCarsApril26,1952_LI.jpg (888.48 KiB) Viewed 17426 times

[Sweetspot]

MenAreLikeStreetCarsDecember8,1857_LI.jpg (639.98 KiB) Viewed 17426 times

MenAreLikeStreetCarsNovember18,1958_LI.jpg (948.63 KiB) Viewed 17426 times

[butch46163@yahoo.com]

look like the guy in the first picture is showing the other guy how to give good spanking to a pretty girl THANKS