The cast sure seemed to be down on Philadelphia, P.A. What was the cause of this? (I think that one chorus girl said something like "And on Sundays, it's Philadelphia, P-U!"). Why was everybody dissing Philly?
"A little old lady got mutilated late last night… Werewolves of London again."
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Hmm, interesting. So I take it Philly wasn't everybody's first pick of a city in which to open a new 'Broadway' musical!
"A little old lady got mutilated late last night… Werewolves of London again."
Broadway shows would usually preview in Philly or Boston.
As for Sunday, Philadelphia, along with the rest of Pennsylvania, had so-called "blue laws", which forbade many activities on the Christian Sabbath. From Wikipedia:
* Aside from restaurants (or bars whose food business exceeded a certain percentage of sales) with a special permit, the sale of alcohol on Sundays was prohibited until 2003. Since 2005, hours of sales of malt and brewed beverages on Sundays depends on whether beer distributors have obtained a Sunday sales permit from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. For beer distributors without a Sunday sales permit, sales and delivery of malt or brewed beverages can occur from noon until 5:00 p.m. Some wine and spirits stores, which are operated by the state, are selectively open on Sundays.
* To this day, hunting is prohibited on Sundays.
* Car dealerships are also prohibited from being open on Sundays.
That "chorus girl" was the incomparable Ginger Rogers!
W. C. Fields said: one year I only had one week's vacation. I took it in Philadelphia to make it seem like two.
shareI'm still not sure what the problem was the girls had with Philadelphia. Was it all because of the Sunday alcohol ban? I may be wrong, but you could buy bottles of beer or whisky at the store in those days, so why couldn't they just buy a few bottles on Saturday and they'd have enough to get them through til Monday. There must've been another reason that wasn't mentioned besides that that they hated Philly.
shareTheoretically, Prohibition was in effect and you couldn't buy alcohol anytime anywhere. Was Prohibition enforced only on Sunday?
shareLubin-freddy was mentioning a ban on alcohol on Sundays in Philadelphia all the way until 2003. It was a blue law, and they went back a long way, all the way back to before the 1930s. Una Merkel also says in the film "Philadelphia P.A., on Sundays, it's Philadelphia P.U.", implying something wrong with Philly on Sundays. I keep forgetting that "42nd street" may have been made before prohibition was lifted in 1933. But even so, any alcohol lovers during prohibition usually went to speakeasies. And speakeasies didn't follow any Sunday law since they weren't exactly legal themselves. Didn't Philly have speakeasies?
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