So I will give a week to see if anyone can answer this one.
The Beatles' film "A Hard Day's Night", directed by Richard Lester, begins with the lads taking the train from Liverpool to London to film a TV show, with Paul's "very clean" grandfather in tow, played in the film by the wonderful Wilfrid Brambell,. On the train there is a scene where the groups handlers Shake and Norm are sitting on the train, not aware that they have just mislaid Paul's grandfather. The character of Shake is based upon The Beatles' road manager Mal Evans, played in the film by John Junkin; The character of Norm is based (very loosely) upon The Beatle's manager Brian Epstein, played in the film by Norman Rossington.
In the scene, Shake is reading Willam M. Gaines’ "Son of MAD", one of the series of MAD paperbacks. Here is a still from that scene.
Here is the trivia question. Why doesn't this image make any sense at all?
For extra credit…what is the connection between Wilfrid Brambell and Redd Foxx, and the relevance of this to why the character of Paul's grandfather is always referred to as "very clean"?
I'm stumped, but I do know the extra credit. Brambell had a long career playing tramps and drunks, including the "dirty old man" in Steptoe & Son (which Sanford & Son is based on).
ReplyDeleteDanny Thompson
Correct...the running joke in Hard Day's Night that Paul's grandfather was "very clean" was that the catch phrase from "Steptoe and Son" was that his son would always call his father "you dirty old man". We will wait to see if any one gets the correct answer to the main quiz during the week!
ReplyDeleteWell. Mad magazine paperbacks were printed sideways so he is holfing the book the wrong way. Barmbell as above was the dirty old man in Steptoe and his character was played by Red Foxx in the American TV version Sanford and son.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog, I'll put a link to it on mine.
Paul
Make that "holding"
ReplyDeletePaul YOU ARE CORRECT SIR! I presume that he is holding the book upright because it reads better on camera...but YOU CANNOT READ THE COMIC IF YOU HOLD IT THIS WAY! Brilliant!
ReplyDelete