A ? About HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING

[Palmerin]

Robert Morse discovers that one of the executives of Rudy Vallee's company is a graduate of an university of which RV does not approve. When the latter is informed, he makes a big deal out of the fact that he has always tried to hire graduates from ALL colleges and universities.

If this is a joke, it goes way over my head. Was that a big civil rights issue in the 1960's: discrimination against the graduates of certain colleges and universities?

And speaking of the 1960s, when I see those three men in black in the A SECRETARY IS NOT A TOY number, I know that eventually their tight unspeakably uncomfortable Ivy League coats and pants will split open, exactly as happened to me more than once.

[Richard Kimble]

Robert Morse discovers that one of the executives of Rudy Vallee's company is a graduate of an university of which RV does not approve. When the latter is informed, he makes a big deal out of the fact that he has always tried to hire graduates from ALL colleges and universities.

If this is a joke, it goes way over my head. Was that a big civil rights issue in the 1960's: discrimination against the graduates of certain colleges and universities?

 

It's simply a lampoon of Harvard men and their rivalry with Yale (also seen on Gilligan's Island with Thurston Howell III). No need to make any more out of it than that.

[TopBilled]

It's simply a lampoon of Harvard men and their rivalry with Yale (also seen on Gilligan's Island with Thurston Howell III). No need to make any more out of it than that.

 

I agree. There's no need to over-think it.

 

I did my undergraduate studies at USC and then graduate work at UCLA. These two are cross-town rivals. It's usually done in jest...for someone like me, it's hard to pick one over the other!

[EricJ]

It's simply a lampoon of Harvard men and their rivalry with Yale (also seen on Gilligan's Island with Thurston Howell III). No need to make any more out of it than that.

 

It's the same lampoon idea in the musical as when we see the bosses still having their Ivy League rivalries from their college-boy days.  ("Groundhogs!"  "Chipmunks!")  

In the real upper circles, Yale men were usually Skull & Bones men, and knew how to keep their old-boy networks.

 

(And Jim Backus's Thurston Howell may have been a Yale man, but Quincy Magoo was a Rutgers man, ho-ho, by George.)

[Richard Kimble]

Jim Backus's Thurston Howell may have been a Yale man

 

Puh-leez! Hahvahd.

 

[DownGoesFrazier]

It's simply a lampoon of Harvard men and their rivalry with Yale (also seen on Gilligan's Island with Thurston Howell III). No need to make any more out of it than that.

In pre-1970 films, there were only 3 colleges that rich or successful film characters went to, Harvard, Yale, or Princeton.

[Swithin]

How to Succeed... is a great film. I saw it at Radio City Music Hall. It gave Ruth Kobart, who played Miss Jones, the opportunity to reprise the role she originated on Broadway. She has a great solo in "The Brotherhood of Man" number.

 

Regarding Yale, a couple of movies that touch on Yale nicely include Ah! Wilderness!, and Roughly Speaking.

 

 

[JamesJazGuitar]

In pre-1970 films, there were only 3 colleges that rich or successful film characters went to, Harvard, Yale, or Princeton.

 

Like with sports there was a east-coast bias in that great colleges like Stanford were consider to be second rate.

[Palmerin]

It's simply a lampoon of Harvard men and their rivalry with Yale (also seen on Gilligan's Island with Thurston Howell III). No need to make any more out of it than that.

Could it also be an expose of Mr. Biggley as an hypocrite who pretends to respect all universities, but who in actual fact would prefer to hire only fellow alumni from his Dear Old Ivy?

[Princess of Tap]

In pre-1970 films, there were only 3 colleges that rich or successful film characters went to, Harvard, Yale, or Princeton.

That's true for the most part that's why I was so surprised when I heard Spencer Tracy say in Father's Little Dividend that he'd gone to Darmouth.

 

BTW-- Tracy went to a place called Ripon College, Class of '24-- a Wisconsin liberal arts school.

[Richard Kimble]

In pre-1970 films, there were only 3 colleges that rich or successful film characters went to, Harvard, Yale, or Princeton.

 

A few exceptions off the top of my head:

 

Fitzwilly - Dick Van Dyke went to Williams

 

In Love And War -- Bradford Dillman strolls the campus of his alma mater Stanford

 

Compulsion -- the college Dean Stockwell and Bradford Dillman (again) attend is never named, but it clearly represents the University of Chicago

 

The Young Philadelphians - Paul Newman attends Princeton for undergrad, but goes to Penn Law School

 

And perhaps my favorite example: in My Forbidden Past Robert Mitchum plays a Tulane professor!

[MovieMadness]

At least he didn't complain he inherited some money from his father too. No wonder some people love death taxes.

[RoyCronin]

Miss Caswell was a graduate of  the Copacabana School of Dramatic Arts.

[Princess of Tap]

Robert Morse discovers that one of the executives of Rudy Vallee's company is a graduate of an university of which RV does not approve. When the latter is informed, he makes a big deal out of the fact that he has always tried to hire graduates from ALL colleges and universities.

If this is a joke, it goes way over my head. Was that a big civil rights issue in the 1960's: discrimination against the graduates of certain colleges and universities?

And speaking of the 1960s, when I see those three men in black in the A SECRETARY IS NOT A TOY number, I know that eventually their tight unspeakably uncomfortable Ivy League coats and pants will split open, exactly as happened to me more than once.

I can recall watching Route 66 and people making a big deal over the fact that Marty Milner who played Todd Styles went to Yale.

 

Of course, George Maharis, Buz Murdock Was not college educated, but he would brag about coming from a place called Hell's Kitchen.

[Sepiatone]

I too, saw the movie as a lampoon on how "big business" operates.  That Morse's character can rise to the top despite not having the same background and connections, but by "shuck 'n' jive" and playing on management's facades and such. 

 

Sepiatone

[jtishere]

I enjoy How To Succeed... and I played Frump once in a local production of the original stage musical. It's really quite a funny story, but if my memory serves correctly, the film adaptation loses a bit of the bite of the stage version in the translation to creating a big wide-screen roadshow type film.

[DownGoesFrazier]

I can recall watching Route 66 and people making a big deal over the fact that Marty Milner who played Todd Styles went to Yale.

 

Of course, George Maharis, Buz Murdock Was not college educated, but he would brag about coming from a place called Hell's Kitchen.

I assume there were a lot of mens' rooms in Hell's Kitchen.   (I believe Jimmy Cagney and maybe George Raft were from Hell's Kitchen) (west '20s and '30s in Manhattan---Swithin could confirm this)

[DownGoesFrazier]

That's true for the most part that's why I was so surprised when I heard Spencer Tracy say in Father's Little Dividend that he'd gone to Darmouth.

 

BTW-- Tracy went to a place called Ripon College, Class of '24-- a Wisconsin liberal arts school.

Probably the fourth most prestigious Ivy League school--actually, Dartmouth.

[Swithin]

I assume there were a lot of mens' rooms in Hell's Kitchen.   (I believe Jimmy Cagney and maybe George Raft were from Hell's Kitchen) (west '20s and '30s in Manhattan---Swithin could confirm this)

 

Hell's Kitchen is actually is little north of that -- it's West 40s, 50s, around 9th/10th Avenues, west and slightly north of Times Square. Alice Faye grew up there. Not James Cagney -- he was from the Lower East Side, then moving north on the East Side. Not sure about George Raft.  Hell's Kitchen is sometimes now called "Clinton," after an early Governor of New York, DeWitt Clinton, who built the Erie Canal.

[DownGoesFrazier]

Hell's Kitchen is actually is little north of that -- it's West 40s, 50s, around 9th/10th Avenues, west and slightly north of Times Square. Alice Faye grew up there. Not James Cagney -- he was from the Lower East Side, then moving north on the East Side. Not sure about George Raft.  Hell's Kitchen is sometimes now called "Clinton," after an early Governor of New York, DeWitt Clinton, who built the Erie Canal.

After I posted ";20s and '30s", I realized that it was farther north. When I lived in NYC circa 1980, there was a club called La Mouche which was around 45th and 10th Avenue, which would put it squarely in Hell's Kitchen. The '20s and '30s would be Chelsea.