To this day, I roll on the floor at the shy little Nun that has to take the girls to buy undergarments or "Binders". The kids are going wild over these far out bras and corsets. The Nun is just appalled and ready to faint until Mother Superior comes in and says "2 dozen plain white". This one can still bend me over with laughter. The little Nun says, "Binders"? Just like Mitt Romney.
shareAnd don't forget Mother Superior telling her: "brassieres Sister, brassieres."
shareThat part is definitely hilarious.
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Jim Hutton: talented gorgeous hot hunk; adorable as ElleryQueen; SEXIEST ACTOR EVER
LOL "binders full of women"!
Siri
Don't Make Me Have to Release the Flying Monkeys!
When the nun said "I don't know anything about binders", I thought ... geez, don't nuns wear bras?
shareI thought the same thing when I re watched the movie last night (for the umpteenth time). Although the scene with the girls going nuts over the flashy underwear was cute, the fact that a full grown woman would know nothing about bras was very unrealistic. And most nuns have seen the very sordidness of life and would not shirk or act overly modest about such things.
shareAccording to Wikipedia, large-scale commercial production of bras did not occur until the 1930s. Since this was a 1966 movie with several nuns in their 40s or older, it's possible many of them weren't familiar with bras when they entered the convent.
Still, it's hard to believe that in running a school for teenage girls in the 1960s they wouldn't have gotten familiar.
They had never had "willows" training before this! The girls had been in uniforms or gym outfits. They all were leaping and swaying in bodysuits/tights. So, for the first time, the nuns were conscious of the need for support~or binding.
Girls in the Twenties and Thirties did bind their breasts. My maternal grandmother used to reminisce about her sisters and her taking turns wrapping a cloth around several times because they all were bosomy but wanted the Flapper look. Earlier, she said, girls would wear corsets for tiny waists, tying the strings to a bed post then walking as far as they could stand it. To me, the more painful procedure would be binding bosoms, especially if a girl was "cursed".
So, "binders" would be a likely word for women who likely wouldn't wear that sort of undergarment. How odd that, in the Sixties, "Burn the bra!" and the braless look became popular; however, embarrassingly at times, the girls definitely were avoiding "binders" or any other form of support.
BTW: Those white, cotton bras certainly brought back memories! There was NO other choice for the average girl. Sometimes, the maker night add a tiny pink or blue bow as if to "prettify" that uncomfortable, plain undergarment.
(W)hat are we without our dreams?
Making sure our fantasies
Do not overpower our realities. ~ RC
Although I can't help but wonder why the parents weren't responsible for buying "binders" for their daughters. And why it would have been so shocking for the nun....wouldn't she have taken the former students shopping as well?
Still, it's a very amusing part of the movie. I'm glad they included it!
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π JimHutton (1934-79) and ElleryQueen π
Trahey wrote about her experiences going to school in the 1930s, though, even though the film was set in the 1960s. Girls used to develop at an older age then; most girls didn't get their period until they were 15 or 16, so their breasts wouldn't have developed much, either. Also, with an undershirt on and plain uniforms over them, if they were pretty much all small-breasted (and most of the cast were), they might not have noticed the need for bras until they started moving around.
Also, sometimes a mom is the last to notice that "her baby" is growing up. My own mother didn't notice I needed a bra until my godmother told her so, and I was a B cup by then!
True, but what about the girls who were maybe a year or two older than these main characters? The made it sound like this was the first time that they would have to go bra shopping with the girls, but wouldn't they have gone the year before? Two years?
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π JimHutton (1934-79) and ElleryQueen π
"Two dozen of these" but what size for twenty-four teen girls?
*The Manitou is in and will take your calls now.
π ξ ξ
They would have had to be measured first, of course. Why would they only be getting one bra each?
And why would the parents expect the nuns to buy bras for the girls, anyway? They should have been doing their own shopping.
Very amusing part of the film, but not too realistic.
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π JimHutton (1934-79) and ElleryQueen π
The bra she chose was a training bra, they don't usually run in cup sizes like adult bras do. Back then most girls of that age were very similar in size (more active lives, less junk food and hormones in food), and the bras will have had 4 or 5 rows of hooks on the back strap in order to fit almost everyone.
The mirror... it's broken.
Yes, I know. I like it that way. Makes me look the way I feel.
Yep...when Reverend Mother held up that one bra, it was definitely the standard one back in that time period. They were so stiff!
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