A doll, a doll, William wants a doll!

[+ FreshFluff]

Did any of you watch the movie Free to be, You and Me when you were kids? The movie, featuring Marlo Thomas, Michael Jackson, and others, came out in 1975 and was largely focused on challenging gender roles. I was born after the Free to Be generation, but a neighbor had the tapes, so we often listened to the songs.

 

One of the best known is William Wants a Doll, sung by Alan Alda and Marlo Thomas (in a lower register). It describes William, aged five, and his attempt to get his very own doll to love. It's kind of amusing.

 

 

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I remember being pissed off by this one, even as a kid. I think the end is pretty disgusting: "And so she was, and mighty tasty too." William gets his doll, but feminine girls deserve to be caricatured, tied up, cooked, and eaten by tigers.

 

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[justaguy]

I didn't see any of these when they first aired. How many are there?

[bostonman]

And the "William's Doll" song was written by no less than composer Mary Rodgers (Richard's daughter, who recently passed away) and lyricist Sheldon Harnick (Fiddler On The Roof).

 

I always thought the point of "Ladies First" wasn't so much that she was feminine, more that she was a class-A asshole, because she thought being a "lady" made her automatically entitled. The moral is about attitude, not gender.

 

Justaguy - Free To Be, You And Me started as a record album and book, then was made into a TV special. Groundbreaking for its time, and it became insanely popular. Much more info here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_to_Be..._You_and_Me

[+ FreshFluff]

And the "William's Doll" song was written by no less than composer Mary Rodgers (Richard's daughter, who recently passed away) and lyricist Sheldon Harnick (Fiddler On The Roof).

 

Interesting! I would never have guessed. Definitely groundbreaking for its time, but it would probably be called heteronormative today.

 

I always thought the point of "Ladies First" wasn't so much that she was feminine, more that she was a class-A asshole, because she thought being a "lady" made her automatically entitled. The moral is about attitude, not gender.

 

That's definitely the focus. But notice that of the girls shown in the cartoon, she's the only one wearing a dress. She's even wearing a dress on the hiking trip. It's as if they're saying that feminine girls are inevitably entitled bitches/assholes--and stupid too. (BTW, I was a tomboy for part of my own childhood.)

[+ FreshFluff]

This one, with two babies trying to discover their gender, is hilarious. Can anyone recognize the voice of the male baby? Hint: Famous director.

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[gallahadesquire]

He sounds a little like Mel Brooks?

[+ FreshFluff]

Nice going, Gallahad. It is Brooks!

 

So did any guy here want a doll when he was a kid?

[bostonman]

Nice going, Gallahad. It is Brooks!

 

So did any guy here want a doll when he was a kid?

 

Nope - never did, lol.

 

I remember doing 2 stage productions of Free To Be (both probably without express permission, but I wasn't in charge of that) - when I was a kid, I played the Mel Brooks "baby boy" role (we did it with simple puppets) - when I was in college, I was musical director for a short summer production that I seem to remember we also "toured" to a few summer schools/camps etc. That 2nd production would have been in the mid-80's, and I remember the material still holding up very well, though I do think some of the "messages" do seem a little dated now. (Though a lot of it is certainly still universal - I think the tone of the pieces just seem a bit "1970's" in feel.)

 

I remember that for the production where I played the baby boy, we got one of the local school principals to sing "It's All Right To Cry" (originally done by football star Rosie Grier). I remember he was a bit of a ham - probably moreso than any of the kids in the production, lol, but it was fun to have him as the "adult guest star" lol.

 

And speaking of adults - here's Roberta Flack pretending to be a kid (with a teenaged Michael Jackson) doing one of the catchier songs from the TV special:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFQbKCMKNP4