Quote of the Day (“Tea and Sympathy”)

“Years from now when you talk about this - and you will - be kind.”—Laura Reynolds (played by Deborah Kerr), to Tom Robinson Lee (played by John Kerr), in Tea and Sympathy, written by Robert Anderson

(Premiering on this date on Broadway in 1953, this drama broke down taboos of the day in its consideration of homophobia. Tom, a sensitive teenager, gets bullied by schoolmates—as well as the housemaster of his boarding school—for his interest in classical music, poetry and folk songs—all regarded in the mores of the time as “sissy” pursuits. In an attempt to prove them wrong, Tom visits a brothel, only to flee in revulsion from the tawdry environment. Part of the problem is that he is in love with the housemaster’s wife, Laura. The famous denouement of the play—the line above—features what would today be, to say the least, an eyebrow-raiser: an older woman making love to a teenage boy, albeit in a tender attempt to show that he can, in fact, love a woman.

Due to Hollywood censors, the subsequent film—also featuring Kerr and Kerr—no relation, incidentally—comes off as unintentionally camp, particularly in its tacked-on ending. Those compromises must have particularly galled film director Vincente Minnelli, who carefully hid his homosexuality from the public—including through a marriage to Judy Garland. Anyone wanting to understand the value of this consideration of sexual mores is best advised to read or see the play itself.)