Who cares if there's a plot or not

Dames

What do you go for,
Go see a show for?
Tell the truth
You go to see those beautiful dames...

 

DOES IT ADVANCE THE PLOT to take time to show a romantic interlude or wax ecstatic on the beauty of women? Some say you need to tie it to the arc of the hero and heroine. Some would say you don't need a reason, people love love scenes or the like. Certainly erotica sometimes has this feature. Some just love women but most romance readers are women.

 

Last week I wrote about how prejudices diminish over societal years.

For instance:

How the young feel about anybody older than them.

This week: the song Dames doesn't mind focusing on half the audience (men). The writer of the song, might not have even thought about it. Yet shows like that which the Rockettes put on are still popular to both sexes. Women watch or read the hero and enjoy the story and probably live vicariously through those beautiful Dames.The women who originally watched Dames probably also enjoyed the genius and artistry of Busby Berkley and the looks and voice of Dick Powell (the hero).

 

I told the writer in my critique group with girl problems to write-on. Some others disagreed.

 

I couldn't find the movie clip in which Dick Powell tries to persuade the producers and backers of the show that writing about and hiring Dames is the way to go. It's great. He, through his secretary, refuses to see George Gershwin and other luminaries but lets all the girls into his office and then, still singing, tells them not to be tardy for the rehearsal. If I ever find it, I'll insert it below, but for now know that some of the lyrics below will not show up in the clip I present and some of the lyrics are missing in the much shorter version below. You'd have to watch the movie.

Verse: Who writes the words and music for all the girly shows? No one cares, and no one knows. Who is the handsome hero some villain always frames? But who cares if there's a plot or not, when they've got a lot of dames!

Chorus: What do you go for, Go see a show for? Tell the truth, you go to see those beautiful dames. You spend your dough for Bouquets that grow for All those cute and cunning, young and beautiful dames. Oh, dames are temporary flames to you, Dames, you don't recall their names, do you? But their caresses And home addresses, Linger in your mem'ry of those beautiful dames.

I know I've been on a Busby Berkley kick. Maybe next week I'll get I'll take my time machine back to the 21st century as long as you, my dear, are with me.

Dames, 1934, written by Harry Warren (music) & Al Dubin (lyrics) song by Dick Powell and a chorus of beautiful dames (7 minutes):

EXTRA credit: do women prefer to watch men or a man in a movie or read about one or many in a book? Are women fundamentally different than men on this issue? My personal preference is to follow the heroine's story with great interest but to enjoy the chorus and in the case of Busby Berkley become engrossed in his artistry.

Validation

Easily missed while writing the hero and heroine is a technique I call validation, the one key ingredient to true love (and not obsession or carrying a torch which is an incomplete love). It isn’t that scene where one or both say “I love you” or the current upgrade, “I’m in love with you.” It’s not that scene where he gets down on one knee. It’s not even, “I do.”

There comes a moment when you realize somebody compatible is crazy about you and it is almost always in internal thoughts. Then you realize what you have been feeling isn’t wasted because he/she feels the same way you do. Then the couple just knows, whether they said any words of love, before, during or after their knowing. There’s not a greater feeling on this planet than the realization that you are loved and you have someone to love back. Forever, is now part of the fabric of complete surrender.

Miss this subtlety and, IMO, you have not written a complete romance.

Dick Powell sings, Busby Berkley directs the musical number from Dames, 1934, I Only Have Eyes For You.