Oddball Films and curator Kat Shuchter present The Reel Housewives of Yesteryear, a program of rare vintage 16mm cartoons, commercials, soundies, promotional films, silent slapstick and other cinematic oddities about the old social mores of a woman's place within the family and society. Generally made by men and often misogynistic and downright offensive, these cinematic slices of life remind us just how far the modern woman has come. One housewife can't contain herself once she discovers RIT fabric dye in the swingin' Color for Joy (1962). In Merrie Melodies - Wild Wife (1954), the legendary Robert McKimson animates the "average" mid-century housewife's harried day as well as her unsympathetic husband. Mabel Normand's got a problem, her husband (played by Charlie Chaplin) is a drunk and a wimp in the Mack Sennett Keystone Comedy Mabel's Married Life (1914). One teenaged boy's mom has a lot of men over to the house while his dad's away in the philandering soundie The Man That Comes Around (1940) from the Music with Spice series. Mrs. John Barrymore gives us a lesson in how to keep your hubby happy in the tantalizing How to Undress In Front of Your Husband (1937). One mother is doing everything wrong by feeding her family poisons in the form of food products, but one creepy British gentleman is stalking around her kitchen to give her proper nutrition information in an excerpt from Mystery in the Kitchen (1958). And while we're in the kitchen, learn how to not make brainless mistakes like the silly woman you are with Cooking: Kitchen Safety (1949). Then, it's time to take off the pounds for your man with the ridiculous Battle of the Bulge (1950). Plus tons of commercials, snippets and other surprises!
Admission: $10.00, Limited Seating, RSVP to: 415-558-8117 or RSVP@oddballfilm.com
Color For Joy (Color, 1962)
A housewife dances and prances around the house, dyeing everything in sight with RIT fabric dye in this odd promotional film. Stars Patricia Harty, who played Blondie in the late 1960s sitcom, in perhaps her first “dramatic” role. Makes a nice companion piece to Oddball favorite Match My Mood. No housewife has ever been this peppy- not without a handful of leapers!
Music with Spice - The Man that Comes Around (B+W, 1940s)
A teenage boy sings about all the men that come over to the house after his father leaves for work, while his philandering mother preens herself in the mirror in this scandalous soundie.
Cooking: Kitchen Safety (B+W, 1949)
Poor Eleanor; she slipped off her ladder in the kitchen and ended up in the hospital. What a careless woman! Don't you too be just another dumb injured housewife, learn how to cut things without cutting off a finger and other important lessons for us simple women.
Battle of the Bulge (B+W, 1950)
Part of the Variety View segment, this antiquated and offensive short aims to keep women in their place by joking about their rotundness and their men's displeasure. The narrator follows several women who are overweight and offers various advice and instructions on how to thin down for your ungrateful husband!
