Sunday, February 29, 2004

The bad weather has kept many of us housebound.

When we are housebound, what do we do? We read, we eat, we watch television.

I have become a major fan of Turner Classic Movies. Recently, the feature was "The Courtship of Andy Hardy."

I was 12 or 13 when I first saw it in a theater in 1942.

Truth? I was a kid watching it again some 62 years later.

Are you laughing at me or with me?

After the movie, I dug through some drawers to find a piece of sheet music a college friend, Marie Peterson, sent me some time ago.

The song was "I'm Nobody's Baby." It was featured in the ninth of the series, "Andy Hardy Meets Debutante," in 1940.

A very young Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney (she was Betsy Booth, he was Andy Hardy) are on the cover.

As we get ready tonight for yet another Oscar night, the 76th, I wonder how many people know this series of films received a special Academy Award in 1943.

It was "for its achievement in representing the American way of life."

The series was born after a 1937 film, "A Family Affair," based on a play called "Skidding," proved to be so popular. Another movie with the Hardy clan was made in 1938, then another and another, 14 in all, not counting the 1937 original.

Young Andy and his teenage adventures became the focus of the story lines by the fourth episode.

The series ended with "Love Laughs at Andy Hardy" in 1946, but a reunion film, "Andy Hardy Comes Home" was made in 1958.

Time moved on. You knew because Rooney by that time had a son, Teddy, in real life, who played Andy Jr.

Garland, Lana Turner, Donna Reed, and Esther Williams -- a few of Andy's many girlfriends in the series -- had gone on to become stars.

I still find the Hardy films appealing for the very reasons cited by the Academy.

Even though we were at war in the '40s, these were more innocent times for family life. They were times I wish this generation had experienced. We will never be there again.

The American way of life as most of my generation knew it was in every frame. That was its appeal.

The reigning theme of all the Hardy movies was family. It was probably too perfect, but it taught small lessons.

We tell our children how it was, but they will never really know.

Of course it is dated. Remember ...

When rooms had crisscross sheer curtains?

When houses had front porches, often with a swing?

When girls had long, wavy hair and boys and men wore hair neat and trimmed?

When women always wore dresses? Twin sweater sets, skirts and saddle shoes were for daughters, not mothers.

When rooms had wallpaper, not paint? It was not unusual for families to have a relative living with them. Aunt Milly lived with the Hardys.

When doors to various rooms were often closed when occupied, and family members knocked on the door to enter?

When women's bathrobe of choice was a wool wrap style with piping trim in another color, right out of a Best & Co. ad?

When men wore hats and pocket squares with their suits? Both Andy, his school friends and Judge Hardy wore suits almost every day.

It's little wonder I warmed to these classic movies. In many ways it was my life, and possibly yours as well.

Andy Hardy's house was my house, except for the white picket fence. His mother was my mother, who, with her hair pulled back in a chignon, seemed older than her years, and she was always in the kitchen, wearing an apron.

We ate most of our dinners in the dining room, too, not just on Sundays. My father carved the roast. He wore a suit, often with a vest.

Wallpaper cleaners came each spring. I wore twin sweaters, pearls and saddle shoes. I had that piped bathrobe from Best & Co. My hair was to my shoulders. So was everybody else's in my 1947 high school yearbook.

And how is this for a tsk-tsk moment?

In one scene, Judge Hardy helps his wife balance her checkbook. He notes that she has a $45 balance.

"What are you going to do with all that money?" he asks.

He's dead serious.

The Andy Hardy films were low-budget, but they were among MGM's highest-grossing films. I am not ashamed that I find hem so appealing.

And yes, maybe you had to be there.

Barbara Cloud can be reached at bcloud@post-gazette.com.

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