Figure 1.--Here we Senate page boys taking their places on the steps of the Senate rostrum in the 1941 movie, "Adventure in Washington."
|
Figure 1.--Here we Senate page boys taking their places on the steps of the Senate rostrum in the 1941 movie, "Adventure in Washington." |
This Columbia production builds a comedy around the Congressional page program, in this case the Senate pages. The program is a wonderful experience for the boys, at the time girls were not allowed to participate. It would have been considered highly inappropriate at the time for girls to be exposed to rough Congressional ways. (Congress in 1941 was still at the time almost a strictly all-male institution.) Of course Hollywood always looks on real life as too dull, so they concocted an absurd tale that a big-city political boss inflicts a young hoodlum on the state's senator. Of course the boys chosen are almost all students serious about their studies and from affluent families. The film depicts hazing ceremonies and boyish pranks. Marty Driscoll, the young hoodlum, has no time for the other pages and poor Senator Coleridge and almost causes a scandal until in true Hollywood fashion he comes to see the error of his ways. The boys are younger teenagers which was common at the time. In viewing the film the point is that a senator needed to be protected from unrully pages. Of course the problem has been more how to protect the participants from lecherous Congressmen. The program now has older boys and girls, juniors in high school. I'm sure the older youths get more out of the program and apparently are more able to deal with the situation. Also supervision of the participants was tightened. Part of the reason the change was made was because of incidents which lead Congress to conclude that the younger participants were not safe. It is really rather disgraceful to think that young people are not safe with Congressmen, but as the 2006 Folley scandal shows, the program has to be run very carefully.
This Columbia production builds a comedy around the Congressional page program, in this case the Senate pages. Columbia saved some money by using sets leftover rrom the notable Capra film."Mr. Smith Goes to Washington".
The program is a wonderful experience for the boys, at the time girls were not allowed to participate. It would have been considered highly inappropriate at the time for girls to be exposed to rough Congressional ways. (Congress in 1941 was still at the time almost a strictly all-male institution.) Of course Hollywood always looks on real life as too dull, so they concocted an absurd tale that a big-city political boss inflicts a young hoodlum on the state's senator. Of course the boys actually chosen are almost all students serious about their studies and from affluent families. The participants are in fact more carefully chosen than the Congressmen.
Pne of the most well known former page was Lyndon Johnson's protige--Bobby Baker.
In viewing the film the point is that a senator needed to be protected from unrully pages. Of course the problem has been more how to protect the participants from lecherous Congressmen. The boys in the film are are younger teenagers which was common at the time. The program now has older boys and girls, juniors in high school. I'm sure the older youths get more out of the program and apparently are more able to deal with the situation. Also supervision of the participants was tightened. Part of the reason the change was made was because of incidents which lead Congress to conclude that the younger participants were not safe. It is really rather disgraceful to think that young people are not safe with Congressmen, but as the 2006 Folley scandal shows, the program has to be run very carefully.
Senator John Coleridge was played by Herbert Marshal, a strange choice with his British accent.
The young hoodlum Marty Driscoll was played by Gene Reynolds. Other pages were
Bundy (Vaughan Glaser), Collins (Charles Smith), Abbott (Dickie Jones), Frank Conroy (Pierre Watkin).
Jim O'Brien (J. M. Kerrigan), Peewee Haynes (Tommy Bond), Chubby Wells (Billy Dawson), and Lenny Root (Charles Lind). Dickie Jones and Pierre Watkinplayed similar roles in "Mr Smith Goes to Washington".
The film depicts hazing ceremonies and boyish pranks. Marty Driscoll, the young hoodlum, has no time for the other pages and poor Senator Coleridge. He almost causes a scandal damaging the senator by selling top-secret information to the press. Kind-hearted Senator, Coleridge refuses to take action. So the other page boys form a jury to try him. In the end in true Hollywood fashion he comes to see the error of his ways.
The Sentage pages are costumed in dark knicker suits. This is an accurate depiction. In fact it was a bine of contention among the actul Senate pages at the time because the House pages were llowed to wear long panys suits.
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to the Main "Aa-Al" movie page]
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Theatricals]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[Essays]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Satellites]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]