I'm going to Chicago and Boston in five weeks' time (squeee!) and, when I told a workmate this the other day, he suggested that I go to a baseball game while I'm there. At first I was dismissive but then he carried on to tell me that both cities have lovely old baseball fields (which got me more interested) and it's just such a uniquely all-American experience. In our conversation, I did comment, 'well, I love A League of Their Own...' and now, the more I think about it, the more I want to go to a game. Naturally, I will pretend to be going to the baseball in another era and be suitably attired for that fantasy, rather than the modern day.
The conversation also got me reminiscing about A League of Their Own and I ended up having to watch it this weekend. If you don't know of it, it tells a fictional story about some of the young women who were recruited for the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which was established during World War II to keep baseball running while the boys went off to war. They're the Rosie Riverters of the sports world, basically.
When I was young, my sister and I used to pop our favourite films in the VCR and act them out in front of the telly. This one got the treatment many a time. It was released when I was about nine years old and I couldn't tell you exactly what it was that appealled to me about it then. I'm sure I probably enjoyed seeing the girls kicking butt and matching the boys at their own game, even before I really had any idea about feminism:
Though I must confess I did like the uniforms, even if the girls in the film are outraged when they are first revealed:
I'm sure I liked the feminine, pretty dresses:
I seem to recall I particularly liked Dottie's elegant style, and do to this day (even though Dottie's old-fashioned decisions on life somewhat bother me):
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| Check out that awesome monogramme on her cardigan! |
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| Even her farm-girl clothes are impossibly elegant (and check out the kitchen decor while you're there) |
And I definitely liked the dancing:
But really, when you think about it, what's not to love about this film?
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| Classic wartime-look advertising |
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| Road trips, old school buses, cardigans and lovely prints... |
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| Trains, cars and dapper men with suitcases |
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| Commentators in hats, mid-century microphones, telephones and binoculars |
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| Kissing the sailor boys |
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| More lovely clothes and beautiful old luggage (like you just don't get these days) |
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| Bedtime routines with pin curls, silky slips, etc |
If you've not seen it, I can't recommend it highly enough. As this post is already damn long enough already with squillions of pictures, I hope to come back with a post to tell you a bit more about what I've been reading about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. But until then...
Love this film, I remember skiving off school with my best friend to go and see this film at the cinema (my one and only act of teenage rebellion, and I think I was only 11 at the time:) My mum still doesn't know) and loved it, bizarrely I've only seen it once since, I really must remedy that! xx
ReplyDeleteHa ha! You were more rebellious than me - I never skived off school! But you absolutely must watch it again - you'll absolutely love it more than ever as an adult, I assure you.
ReplyDeleteHmmm... you've got me interest to re-watch the film too. All the vintage things are so appealing. I recall it being fun too and with pathos, not silly. Hah hah! Love the tag line on the bus. Into my mind has come the lyric "Take me out to the ballgame, take me out to the ball". Is this accurate? It occurred to me as I began to write 'ballgame', that it is very different from the girls going to a 'ball' - but then look how I recalled the rest of the lyric.
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