British comic actress Carol Cleveland was born this day, 1942 in London, England.
I bet almost everyone recognizes her solely as the main female actress in the Monty Python's Flying Circus series (1969-1974), and she was also referred to by the cast members themselves as the unofficial "Seventh Python" (when they didn't call her "Carol Cleavage"). She appeared in 30 of their 45 episodes, often as a parody of the typical blonde bombshell.
I thought I could honor her birthday with three of her most famous sketches (at least a couple of my own favorites):
Sketch: "Marriage Guidance Counselor" from Season 1, Episode 2: Sex and Violence (1969).
Cast: Eric Idle (Marriage Counselor), Michael Palin (Arthur Pewtey), John Cleese (Southerner) and Carol Cleveland (Deirdre).
Sketch: "Seduced Milkmen" from Season 1, Episode 3: How to Recognise Different Types of Tree from Quite a Long Way Away (1969).
Cast: Michael Palin (Milkman) and Carol Cleveland (Milkman Seducer).
Sketch: "Mattress Skit" from Season 1, Episode 8: Full Frontal Nudity (1969).
Cast: Graham Chapman (Mr. Lambert), Eric Idle (Mr. Verity), Terry Jones (Groom), John Cleese (Store Manager) and Carol Cleveland (Bride).
I love the British... Here's a couple of photographs of Miss Cleavage:
I inclination not agree on it. I assume warm-hearted post. Particularly the appellation attracted me to read the sound story.
ReplyDeleteBingo !
ReplyDeleteThe british had a knack to find this beautiful, happy-go-lucky looking girls...Do you remember the actress in The Avengers series ? or the supporting girls in Benny Hill ?
They all look smarter then they pretend or seem to be - don't quite know how to explain, something about very acute feminility.
Guess Jamie Lee Curtis tried a little of that in A fish called Wanda...
I've been lurking forever but I finally decided to post on your blog- I was trying to wait until I start my own blog to comment but i have serious writers' block right now- but anyway, I've been wanting to say how awesome your blog is. for me, it's rare to see/find another girl who likes the Marx Bros. and Monty Python which are my two favorite past time.
ReplyDeleteAnd I really like the birthday features with the photos of the stars are they were then, it's really cool.
A fitting tribute. Your post inspired me to look around for more information on Miss Cleveland. She has a website here. She's still active and bills herself as a "glamor gran." As a film buff, you should be aware, Lo, that she appeared in multiple Python films. To me, her most memorable film role was as Zoot in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
ReplyDeleteJoão:
ReplyDeleteThat's right! I can't remember how many times I've seen A Fish Called Wanda, I grew up with it ;) I thought she did well as a female compliment to Cleese and Palin!
Tiffany:
Well well well! I agree, not too many women who adore Monty Python and the Marx Brothers! I'm glad you left a comment!
Thank you for your kind words! Let me know when your writer's block is over and you start a blog of your own :)
David C:
I'm a real Monty Python nerd, so of course I remember Zoot! I found her website while googling around, but I didn't like it. Just the website of course, she still seems like a swell person
Hmm, "Lo" was a new nickname :)
Naughty, naughty Zoot!
ReplyDeleteI love python but the fact that Cleavland was always marginalized and never really billed properly always bugged me. It's a fine line between making fun of sexist conventions and actually perpetuating them. I'm not sure MP were always on the right side of that line.
Bravo Lolita for finally giving Carol her due.
Jennythenipper, That always bothered me about MPFC too. Which is why I'm determined to found an all female troupe that turns the tables. *evil laugh*
ReplyDeleteBut, to be fair all the Pythons speak very highly of Carol and point out her intelligence as one reason they choose her over the many models thrown at them in the 1st series. But their use of women was highly sexist (Hazel Pethig remarked that she was always "strapping tits up"), I never saw the satire in that part. The woman in the Milkman sketch isn't Carol, I don't think.
Lolita- Will do! ^__^
I agree that the women in the milkman sketch isn't Carol. That is the version of the sketch from the tv show, she did appear in the version of the sketch that was included in the movie 'And Now For Something Completely Sifferent'.
ReplyDeleteThe 'milkman seductress' was actually Thelma Taylor - one of two Benny Hill alumni from his BBC years to have appeared in Python that first season (the other being Donna Reading who was miscredited in this role). That, plus a 1977 Casanova sketch Hill did, led to an urban legend that Cleveland herself had been on The Benny Hill Show; turns out the lass in that sketch was Ellie Reece-Knight who in some spots almost resembled Ms. Cleveland. But I thought the milkman sketch was a thinly-veiled dig at Hill as well, given that earlier in his life he was a milkman in actuality.
ReplyDeleteBut I would agree with 'Jennythenipper's' points about Python's sexism, and the fact that Ms. Cleveland, by her own accounts, was never allowed to contribute so much as a punctuation mark (let alone a letter) of dialogue to any of their sketches. Hill, despite the reputation his shows accrued (especially those of the 1980's), was relatively more progressive, behind-the-scenes; one of his more celebrated sketches (about a lady who is obsessed with watching her figure, but after marrying she pigs out at the ceremony and becomes progressively fatter) was conceived by a by-then former cast member, Cherri Gilham; and I'm wondering whether some of the sketches in his first two Thames series (1969-70) had been actually written and/or conceived by actress and writer Jan Butlin who'd appeared in some of his sketches in that same period. In his last BBC years, women actually introduced some of his sketches (mostly Patricia Hayes, but sometimes others who were on for a show in question, such as Rosemarie Dunham or Sue McIntosh), and on his third Thames show, he had a woman (Nicole Shelby) handle the on-camera opening show intro in what was a first and last in both instances.
And there's another thing. While, in the "Sex and Violence" episode, their "Marriage Advice Counsellor" sketch seemed to anticipate the direction Hill's show would later take, Benny himself, on his very first show for Thames, did a sketch that would have been more apropos for Python - about a newlywed couple whose honeymoon was ruined after their bedroom was split down the middle into American and Russian zones, and how Cold War politics of the time even ruined something as personal as a honeymoon.