That's on my agenda for tonight. I still haven't been through the many DVDs I have purchased of these 1940s and 50s tales of people living in the shadows. You can read all you want about Film Noir and single malt Scotch after an easy search. All I want to do is share an observation:
I noticed that almost everyone in these films stores their liquor in a glass or crystal decanter. The decanter is in a convenient spot complete with clean glasses and an ice bucket. Drinks are served before people are offered a seat. Is this the way things were back then or is this just in these kind of films? I don't know. I was raised in beer culture. Beer was taken right from the bottle. If there were spirits - they were taken in a shot glass direct from the bottle in the kitchen cabinet.
Does the decanter of booze in these films indicate sophistication or alcoholism? I guess that the decanter was used to not define what the "drink" actually was. Kids could be told it was iced tea . I just don't see automatically pouring all the folks in the room 3 or 4 ounces of booze (from a decanter) as a tenet of real world etiquette of the 50s.
1 comment:
I think the hard alcohol being readily available had to do with times to some degree. I totally admit I could be wrong as my history is not to strong,but I'm guessing with the limited refrigeration and the huge difference in the beverage distrubition methods of then versus now is why alcohol would be sitting out in most homes. It can be served at room temp. It does not special storage to be germ free. I was probably one of the staple purchases of every shopping trip. Plus the choices of drinks back then were what? Water/Tea/lemonade/scotch
Beer was at the pub on tab not in bottles. Soda was at the ice cream parlor/soda fountain not cans.
I totally submit that I could be way off, but that was my thought. :-)
Post a Comment