The casts of the Nickelodeon TV shows “iCarly” and “Victorious” visited my workplace, Graceland, today, and I found it fascinating to watch the kids reactions to celebrities. No doubt many of the photos they took will end up being posted in the current online version of a scrapbook.
Cast members from Nickelodeon’s “iCarly” and “Victorious,” including Miranda Cosgrove, Victoria Justice, Jennette McCurdy, Ariana Grande, Elizabeth Gillies, Matt Bennett, Daniella Monet, Leon Thomas III, Nathan Kress, Avan Jogia, Jerry Trainor and Noah Munck, visit Graceland in Memphis in 2011 during a St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital benefit trip.
That made me think about the scrapbook that belonged to my grandmother, Virginia Brantley Lovelace, (1917-2007) which includes photos of celebrities she must have liked as a girl. I never saw the scrapbook until after she died, so I never had the chance to ask her about it. She saved many items for obvious reasons, but a few still surprise me.
As I thumbed through this particular scrapbook recently, I noticed that she collected and pasted most of the items around 1934, when my grandmother would have been 17 and a junior at Haywood County High School. The pages reveal pieces of her life in 1934, but they also offer a glimpse into the popular culture embraced by a young girl in rural Tennessee during that time.
I never once attended a movie with my grandmother, but at 17, she liked movies enough to cut out the ads and save them. Most people know Shirley Temple and the movie “Baby Take a Bow,” but “Stand Up and Cheer!” was new to me. I had to look it up and discovered that the Depression-era film focused on an effort to boost national morale. It featured vaudeville acts, musical numbers and Shirley Temple.
It also made me wonder: Is that why my mother, Shirley, has the name she has?
I still do not know why my grandmother held on to an ad for a pencil with “strong lead” or the small piece of fabric she tucked into the scrapbook.
My grandmother also saved her class schedule: economics first period, study hall second period, home room third period, study hall fourth period, English fifth period, study hall sixth period and history seventh period.
On the same page, she saved a promotional card for Bette Davis in “Housewife,” a train ticket, a business card for Mrs. Erbon Jackson from Nathan’s, a clothing store in Jackson, Tennessee, and the Haywood County High School football team’s home-game schedule.
My grandmother also saved a picture of “Russ” from “Vic and Sade,” although the character’s name was Rush. Maybe Rush was the Justin Bieber of 1934.
“Vic and Sade” aired on radio from 1932 to 1944 and became one of the most popular radio series of its era. Most people have never heard of it today. Many of the original recordings disappeared over time. About 330 episodes survive, and you can download and listen to some of them at VicandSade.net.
I listened to a few and, while I cant say I am now a fan, it was ineresting to listen to something my grandmother must have liked when she was a girl.
Bill Idelson played Rush. Years later, I watched him as Sally’s boyfriend on “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” I probably also watched shows he helped write, since his credits include episodes of “The Twilight Zone,” “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.,” “The Andy Griffith Show,” “Get Smart,” “The Odd Couple,” “MAS*H” and “Happy Days.” That list covers a good part of my 1970s television education.
My grandmother also saved a program from the 23rd contest of the Phi Gamma and Delta Sigma societies at Haywood High School. The program included a debate over whether “the powers of the president,” Franklin D. Roosevelt, “should be substantially increased as settled policy.”
They even had cheerleaders, which I find hard to imagine at a debate.Click to enlarge
Finally, my grandmother saved a photo of a radio or television family whose identity I still have not figured out. Of all the actors pictured, only the little girl has a Wikipedia page. Marilyn Erskine appeared on radio and television throughout her life, and her final credited role came in 1972 on “Ironside.” The other actors show up in a few places with small credits, but I have not found anything that identifies the show or program this photo promoted.
I have often thought future generations will benefit from reading our tweets and Facebook posts because they will know what we were doing, watching and thinking. In many ways, my grandmother’s scrapbook feels like a year of a young girl’s social media posts from 1934.
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