When they first showed Little Harris, Harry, I wondered why they named a girl, HARRY. Harry had long hair and long curls around the head and I thought Harry was a girl. Did I confuse two different characters or were long curls a fashion for little boys in 1856 Kentucky?
shareLittle boys and long hair were the fashion up to the 20th century. If you were to see photographs of people like Franklin Roosevelt at that age, their hair was as long as Harry's.
shareI had this same confusion. I just saw the film for the first time on TCM a few minutes ago.
I kept asking why were they calling that girl "Harry?" Early in the movie, it did appear to be a girl, but at the end when the family is reunited, it was clear that it was a boy.
Only relatively recently did young children, pre-school age, participate in public life. So there was no need for gender specific clothing until they got school age. It was a rite of passage for young boys to get their curls cut off, wear short pants (instead of dresses) and go to school.
There are lots of books on the subject if you want to research further and find out specifics.
Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.
I fully understand your explanation, but it's interesting that they cast a girl to play Little Harris.
shareI just watched this last night. I had to go back and forth to see if the kid was a boy or a girl. Did the filmakers consciously do this, did they not realize that a little girl with long curls, portraying a little boy with curls would not confuse the audience. I simply cannot understand why they did this.
And one more thing. In the first scene where we meet Harry, there is a crib in the room. Who is the crib for? Harry is twice the size as the crib. And she kept referring to Harry as "her baby". Good Lord!!
............Harry was played by Lassie Lou Ahem who was born in 1920 which would have made her seven at the time and a bit large for a standard crib. She appeared in many lesser known movies during the twenties and returned to acting between 1973 and 1975 in TV series like "Love American Style" and "The Odd Couple". She's apparently still alive. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was her only cross gender performance...................As others have noted long hair was common of young males to have long hair. Harry's character in novel was probably described as having curly hair, a suggestion of African ancestry perhaps, and whoever did the casting tought Lassie Ahem's hair was perfect for the role even though she was a girl. Maybey they didn't think anyone would notice even though it's hard not to.
True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.
The long hair on Harry I can deal with but it's VERY clear "he" is played by a girl! Then, at the end, he's played by a boy. I have no idea why this was done but it got very confusing.
shareYeah and not to mention she/he is wearing a dress when she/he is being called Jim Crow and dancing for her/his new owner.
“Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain’t heard nothin’ yet!”
Lassie Lou said she got the role because she could remember the lines and cry on cue. She was possibly the first gender changing role in Hollywood.
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