Black List by George Hernandez

A collection of entities, concepts, and such that I'm mildly protesting or otherwise black listing.

Julie Andrews versus Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady
Shirley Temple versus Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz
KLM Dutch Royal Airlines Slaughtered Squirrels
Curtiss Candy Names the Baby Ruth Candy Bar

Julie Andrews versus Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady

In the movie My Fair Lady (1964, directed by George Cukor) the role of Eliza Doolittle should have been played by Julie Andrews. Why?

Ms. Andrews had played the part beautifully on stage for years. Ms. Hepburn had not.
Ms. Andrews could sing for herself. Ms. Hepburn had the voice of Marni Nixon dubbed in.
Ms. Andrews was British. Ms. Andrews was not.

Shirley Temple versus Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz

In the movie The Wizard of Oz (1939, directed by Victor Fleming) the role of Dorothy should have been played by 10 year old Shirley Temple instead of 16 year old Judy Garland.

Ms. Temple was probably the greatest child movie actress ever but she never got a role in a great movie. Since Ms. Temple was about to retire as a child actress, she should have gotten that role as a grand finale.

Mind you:

Ms. Garland did a phenomenal job and has the better voice.
Ms. Temple was under contract with Fox and Fox/Temple wanted more money than MGM wanted to pay.
It is possible that Ms. Temple would have been too saccharin for the part and would have dominated the movie.

Nevertheless, when I watch the movie, I can't help but picture Ms. Temple in the role.

KLM Dutch Royal Airlines Slaughtered Squirrels

This is based on a little article I saw in the June 27, 2000 issue of the Detroit Free Press:

Squirrel Slaughter

Prosecutors in the Netherlands are taking KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to court for grinding up 440 live squirrels from China in an industrial meat-processing machine, officials said Monday. The incident happened in April 1999, but public outrage is still strong. The government made its decision to prosecute Monday and will take several weeks to interview witnesses.

KLM apologized for the deaths of the squirrels and said it deserved criticism. The squirrels were killed after they arrived from China without import documents or proper cages.

This is unacceptable. If you found rats, you might fumigate them, but you wouldn't grind them up live. I'm keeping my head up for a resolution on this.

Curtiss Candy Names the Baby Ruth Candy Bar

Lies! Lies! Here are the alleged lies:

Curtis Candy Company claims the bar was named after first-born daughter of President Grover Cleveland: "Baby" Ruth Cleveland.
Curtis Candy Company claims Ruth Cleveland visited the plant at the company's formation and influenced the owner's founder.
Curtis Candy Company claims the bar made its appearance years before George Herman "Babe" Ruth (the baseball player) became famous.

Here are the facts:

1892 "Baby" Ruth Cleveland was born.
1904 "Baby" Ruth Cleveland died of diphtheria.
1916 Otto Schnering founds the Curtis Candy Company in Chicago. He used his mother's maiden name to sound more American.
1919 Babe Ruth pitched for the Boston Red Sox.
1920 Babe Ruth was sold to the New York Yankees and became an outfield star and national hero.
1921 Babe Ruth made more headlines than President Harding.
1921 the "Baby Ruth" candy bar, a long bar with a caramel and peanuts center covered with chocolate, was introduced.

Therefore:

It's far fetched to name a bar after someone who died 17 years prior.
Ruth Cleveland could not have visited the plant.
Babe Ruth was certainly famous when the bar was introduced.

Most likely Curtis Candy Company named the bar close to Babe Ruth, the ball player, for marketing purposes and then brazenly denied the whole thing!

Page Modified: (Hand noted: 2007-10-30 02:54:58Z) (Auto noted: 2007-11-17 06:10:19Z)