say, what?!

Watching Holiday Inn, it was weird, because suddenly had deja vu...

in my childhood there was a Christmas-time tradition in my family (an extremely informal tradition)where a person opens a gift and holds it up and says, "Wonderful! Just what I always wanted!...What is it?" -- my dad's joke, and people would echo it. ...

and in this film I like to watch at Christmas time, I just caught up with a scene last night where Bing Crosby goes back to NYC to visit Fred Astaire & the agent, and tell them about "Holiday Inn," the nightclub that's open only on holidays...Crosby's character has homemade peach preserves for all his friends, made down on the old farm in Connecticut. He says, "Oh I almost forgot, I have a little Christmas remembrance for everybody..." and he hands Fred Astaire a jar of preserves.

Fred Astaire turns the jar a little in his hands and goes:
(smile): "Gee, this is swell!"
(curious look): "What is it?"
!! - I had to go back into the bedroom and replay that part -- it's the same joke!

My dad probably adapted it from the movie. The film came out in 1942; that year my father would have been 19. He probably went out to see that, before leaving for World War II. (Good to have some singing, dancing, and witty repartee before heading out to tussle with crazed foreign dictators...)

-30-