Melodrama
Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2024 1:01 am
Douglas Mercer
November 16 2024
The boys finally emerge wearing black glasses and carrying flight bags but they too are part of the tease and no sooner do they appear than they disappear as they continue to do until the next to closing spot. Here they make their debut as pantomime artists by doing a sketched based on the old Vaudevillian melodramas about mustachio twirling villains and maidens in distress. Sir Jasper, top hat on head, bullwhip in hand, with menacing mien, is played naturally by John Lennon himself. Irmine Trood, a kerchief on her golden locks, is impersonated by George. Valiant Paul, the signalman, is costumed in a railroaders cap, with a red and black scarf and his trousers held up by a string. Ringo is Snow, appearing in black tights with a newsboy bag over his shoulder, from which he scoops handfuls of white confetti, which he sprinkles about the stage and over the principals. The action is mercifully brief. Irmine presents Jasper with her bundle crying “This is yours!” “Nonsense” roars the villain. “To the railway lines with you my girl!” Tying her to the tracks as the piano thunders out panic music and the screen shows a flickering shots of an archaic locomotive coming head on—Sir Jasper is confronted suddenly by Valiant Paul who gives the villain two of his best—dropping him to the ground—as Ringo sprinkles him delicately with snow. When Valiant Paul releases Irmine from her bonds she cries “My hero!” and hands him the bundle which when opened reveals a huge green apple. Blackout!
***
Notes:
The green apple became in later years the logo of the Beatles record company, Apple Corps, but the image was actually suggested by the well-known painting of a green apple by Margritte which hung in Paul’s parlor.
The Son Of Man is a 1964 painting by the Belgian surrealist painter Rene Magritte, it is self-portrait which consists of a man in an overcoat and a bowler hat standing in front of a low wall, beyond which are the sea and a cloudy sky. The man's face is largely obscured by a hovering green apple (see Conceptual Art, White Biocentrism, October 6 2024).
November 16 2024
The boys finally emerge wearing black glasses and carrying flight bags but they too are part of the tease and no sooner do they appear than they disappear as they continue to do until the next to closing spot. Here they make their debut as pantomime artists by doing a sketched based on the old Vaudevillian melodramas about mustachio twirling villains and maidens in distress. Sir Jasper, top hat on head, bullwhip in hand, with menacing mien, is played naturally by John Lennon himself. Irmine Trood, a kerchief on her golden locks, is impersonated by George. Valiant Paul, the signalman, is costumed in a railroaders cap, with a red and black scarf and his trousers held up by a string. Ringo is Snow, appearing in black tights with a newsboy bag over his shoulder, from which he scoops handfuls of white confetti, which he sprinkles about the stage and over the principals. The action is mercifully brief. Irmine presents Jasper with her bundle crying “This is yours!” “Nonsense” roars the villain. “To the railway lines with you my girl!” Tying her to the tracks as the piano thunders out panic music and the screen shows a flickering shots of an archaic locomotive coming head on—Sir Jasper is confronted suddenly by Valiant Paul who gives the villain two of his best—dropping him to the ground—as Ringo sprinkles him delicately with snow. When Valiant Paul releases Irmine from her bonds she cries “My hero!” and hands him the bundle which when opened reveals a huge green apple. Blackout!
***
Notes:
The green apple became in later years the logo of the Beatles record company, Apple Corps, but the image was actually suggested by the well-known painting of a green apple by Margritte which hung in Paul’s parlor.
The Son Of Man is a 1964 painting by the Belgian surrealist painter Rene Magritte, it is self-portrait which consists of a man in an overcoat and a bowler hat standing in front of a low wall, beyond which are the sea and a cloudy sky. The man's face is largely obscured by a hovering green apple (see Conceptual Art, White Biocentrism, October 6 2024).
