Tuesdays With Tammy: Five Questions I Had Watching Tammy and the Bachelor
Tammy and the Bachelor is probably a top ten movie for me. It's one that I wish I could watch over and over again for the first time just to fall in love with it anew.
I've written about my love of Tammy and the Bachelor before, so instead of totally rehashing the film one more time, instead I'm going to focus on five main questions I have after watching it (again).
1. Was Tammy and the Bachelor based on any previous works?
It was, actually. Tammy and the Bachelor is based on the novel Tammy Out of Time by Cid Ricketts Sumner, a novelist whose earlier work inspired the 1949 movie Pinky, about a light-skinned Black woman who could pass.
Tammy Out of Time followed the storyline adapted into Tammy and the Bachelor quite closely, and Sumner followed up on Tammy's life with Tammy Tell Me True, published in 1959, and Tammy in Rome, published in 1965 (one wonders if Sumner was trying to capitalize on the Gidget Goes to Rome-style of movie).
Sumner continued writing both works of fiction and nonfiction before retiring and moving to the New England area. She was sadly murdered in 1970, bludgeoned to death at the age of 80, reportedly by her 16-year-old grandson.
2. Tell me about the title song?
'Tammy', the title song to Tammy and the Bachelor, became a certified hit for Debbie Reynolds, and earned the film an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song (it lost to 'All the Way' from The Joker is Wild).
According to Debbie herself, though the movie received mixed reviews, one thing everyone could agree on was how wonderful the title song was. She said, "My recording wasn't released until after the movie had come out, but unlike the picture, it took off right away," and noted that Universal, the studio behind Tammy and the Bachelor, pulled the film from theatres until the song flew up the charts. It would later hit the top of the Billboard charts.
'Tammy' first charted in July 1957 and peaked at number one, staying at the top for five weeks, and charting for 23 weeks in total. The song was written by Jay Livingston, with lyrics by Ray Evans. At the Oscars the following year, Debbie performed the song live. In her memoir, Unsinkable, she wrote about the frenzy of Oscar night and how, to fit in her dress, her father stepped on her ribcage in order to zip her into it. Imagine!
According to an article on TCM, Debbie Reynolds became the first female artist to have a hit song in the United States between the period of July 28, 1956 and December 1, 1958, all thanks to 'Tammy.'
Watch a performance of 'Tammy' here:
3. Who plays Aunt Renie and why do I keep seeing her in midcentury movies?
gif by me
That, my dears, is Mildred Natwick, and she's perhaps—next to Jessie Royce Landis—my favourite character actor of the period.
Beginning her career on the stage, Mildred made the transition to film and carved out a role as the stately spinster aunt, or otherwise formidable female character in many classic films. Some of my favourites: Tammy and the Bachelor, If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium, The Enchanted Cottage, and Yolanda and the Thief.
She also worked with the period's great directors, John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock, in films like She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Quiet Man, The Trouble With Harry... She earned her only Oscar nomination as Jane Fonda's lively mother in 1967's Barefoot in the Park.
In Tammy and the Bachelor, she plays the rich, cat-obsessed aunt to Peter, who takes Tammy under her wing and encourages her to be herself despite the stuffy environs of Brentwood Manor.
screencap by me
Yes, that's a cat gown.
Anyways! Mildred continued to act on television and film throughout the '70s and '80s, making her final film appearance in 1988's Dangerous Liaisons. She died of cancer on October 25, 1994, at the age of 89.
4. How hard is it to grow a new tomato variant?
One of the main plot points of Tammy and the Bachelor is that Peter is trying to grow a new tomato variant in order to make Brentwood Manor a self-sustaining farm once again. By the time Tammy shows up, he's already on Brentwood #6. So how hard is it to grow a new tomato variant?
Turns out, it takes a while. According to this article, anywhere from five to seven years for a new variant to succeed after cross-pollination. The farmer quoted says, "To cross two tomato varieties you place pollen from one variety onto the female structure of another. Specifically, you remove a pollen-producing anther from one plant and dust pollen from that anther onto the pistil of another plant. The pistil is a structure connected to the ovary, which becomes the fruit. The ovary/fruit produces the embryos, which are contained in the seeds."
No wonder Peter went nuts the night of the rainstorm that ruined the rest of the Brentwood #6s...
5. Did Debbie Reynolds and Leslie Nielsen get along during filming?
What I love so much about Tammy and the Bachelor is the chemistry between Debbie and Leslie as they bring the naïve yet willful Tammy and the wise and serious Peter to life. Imagine my disappointment when I found out that it wasn't all that rosy behind the scenes.
According to Debbie, in her Unsinkable memoir, Leslie fancied himself an acteur: "Leslie was very gifted. But [he] fancied himself a Method actor," she wrote. "The fact is, most of the time Leslie was a pill to work with." She then went on to say that she had better rapport with Nan the goat than Leslie.
In the interest of presenting both sides, Leslie hadn't yet achieved the kind of career stardom he was searching for. He kept missing out on roles he wanted to be cast in, and derided the studio as "a Tiffany, which had forgotten how to make silver," and left MGM after he lost a key role in Ben-Hur.
Though Debbie's career continued to flourish throughout the '50s and '60s, it wasn't until later in his career that Leslie got the kind of recognition he'd wanted, through iconic roles in Airplane! and Naked Gun. Who among us hasn't used the classic line "I am serious. And don't call me Shirley" at least once!
Leslie Nielsen died on November 28, 2010 at the age of 84. Debbie Reynolds passed away a few days after her daughter's death, leaving us on December 28, 2016 at the age of 84.
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Come back next Tuesday for a Tuesdays with Tammy post about Tammy Tell Me True!
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