Spin & Marty
Dec. 12th, 2023 08:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amado1I was reading "Tinker Belles and Evil Queens" yesterday when it veered away from animated camp (a long analysis on Maleficent and Cruella de Vil) into live-action TV in the 50s.
I didn't grow up in the 50s -- actually I didn't have TV at home until 2007, at which point I started voraciously catching up on re-runs. I was obsessed with Gilligan's Island, Gomer Pyle, Petticoat Junction, The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock... but there were never any Disney re-runs on! Maybe we just didn't get the Disney channel when we got cable -- I know we didn't have it BEFORE cable. Or maybe Disney just never did reruns that old. Anyway, I've never seen any of the Mouseketeers or classic Disney films like The Parent Trap or Escape From Witch Mountain, so when the book started delving into those, I was VERY interested.
The ones that really caught my eye were Spin & Marty and Annette. For Annette, it describes a demure young lady who becomes close friends with a tomboy at school named Jet. But I haven't watched that one yet. Here's the book's description of Spin & Marty:
When Michael Nava and Robert Dawidoff, the authors of Created Equal: Why Gay Rights Matter to America, spoke to a group of employees at the Walt Disney Company in 1994, they chuckled aloud about the importance of "Spin and Marty" in their lives. This comment elicited knowing chuckles from a number of people in the room. Similarly, at one point in Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City books, the main gay character Michael (nicknamed Mouse, at least in part because his family is from Orlando, Florida, home of Walt Disney World) commiserates with his lover Jon Fielding about "Spin and Marty":
"The Micky Mouse Club turned you queer?"
"Well...You either got off on Annette's tits or you didn't. If you did, you were straight. If you didn't, you had only one alternative. Spin and Marty. God, I used to agonize over that show!"
"I'd almost forgotten about that."
"That's because you identified with Spin. Those of us who identified with Marty will never, ever, forget it."
The Adventures of Spin and Marty was a continuing serial that was broadcast as part of The Mickey Mouse Club television show in 1955. Based on the novel Martin Markham, the serial told the story of city-bred Martin Markham's summer at a dude ranch. As the summer progresses, he learns to drop the chip from his shoulder and become "a regular guy" -- Marty instead of Martin. The serial increased the role of Spin, another boy at the ranch who most of the kids acknowledge as the most "regular" guy at the Triple R Ranch. The relationship between Spin and Marty develops from guarded antagonism on Marty's part to minor jealousy on Spin's part as Marty learns the ropes (somewhat outshining Spin) to eventual close friendship.
The increased role of Spin makes sense when looking at Marty's persona in the early stages of the narrative. Before Marty even arrives at the Triple R Ranch, the ranch hands discuss him. Logan, the head of the ranch, tells his assistant, Bill Burnette, "I wanted a chance to talk to you about him -- but I really don't know myself ... yet..." When Bill asks what it is that Logan "doesn't know," Logan responds, "Well, he's a little different from the rest of 'em. Might be some sort of a problem for you." It is just at this point that Marty is driven up by his English valet, Perkins. Marty steps out in a suit and bow tie with a fedora on his head. When Bill greets him with "Hi, Marty," the boy responds in very precise diction, "Excuse me, sir -- but my name is Martin."
Possibly worried that young male viewers would have hard time identifying with someone so clipped and cultured, Spin was provided as a "butch" alternate figure. A natural athlete and a minor star at the ranch, Spin represents the ideal boy that Martin needs to become. The main narrative focuses on "masculinizing" Marty. In fact, Burnette declares as his mission, "I'll straighten that boy out if it takes all summer!" Throughout the early episodes of the serial, veiled references to Marty's "sissy" persona constantly crop up. It is revealed that he is afraid of horses, that (to quote Marty himself) "I don't know much about stuff like Spin there -- sports, I mean," and that he has been raised by a stern grandmother with the implication that this is the source of his "problem." (In the 1950s, controlling mother figures were commonly blamed for turning their sons into homosexuals.)
Just like Maupin's character Michael, many adult gay men who were kids during the 1950s did strongly identify with Martin's persona and predicament. Since the serial eventually aims to makeover Martin into Marty, the early episodes work to make the viewer feel for Martin, even as the viewer dislikes the airs he puts on. In one dinner sequence, Martin is asked to stand up and introduce himself. As the other boys whisper somewhat audibly words like "drip" and mutter nasty jokes, Marty tries to gain some respect by claiming to play polo. This gambit only works somewhat. One boy comments, "He looks like the kind of guy who plays polo." Spin responds, "Yeah, maybe that's what's wrong with him." And, when Bill confronts Martin privately about the boast, the boy stresses the reason for such a lie: "I just didn't want the guys to think..." The rest of the sentence is too overwhelming to be spoken, and the pain and psychological motivation for this sequence probably resonated in the minds of a number of young proto-queer boys.
Amusingly, this attempt to "butch" up the story and shift the focus slightly away from the manners of Martin during the early stages of the narrative causes its own problems -- or delights, depending on who's doing the reading. For, with the emphasis on the relationship between Spin and Marty, proto-queer boys were capable of reading a prepubescent romance between the two. The feelings that each character calls up in the other certainly makes the relationship more intense than most boy-boy relationships represented in children's media. Throughout the narrative, the two are constantly watching each other. First, Martin envies Spin's natural athleticism and popularity. Although obviously thinking Martin a little odd, Spin unaccountably starts to defend him to the other guys -- but always outside of earshot of Martin. When Marty starts to gain confidence on his horse, and win over some of the kids at the ranch, Spin watches with admiration but also a little fear that his position as "star" of the ranch is in jeopardy. At a certain point in the later half of the serial, places are somewhat switched, as Marty rescues a little boy on a runaway horse and Spin injures a horse accidentally while trying to play hero. When Spin falls from his pedastal a bit, Marty feels safe enough to make friendly contact with him at last. After watching Spin in secret for a bit, Marty approaches him saying, "I never thought a guy could make a mess of things like I always do." Marty actually is willing to sacrifice winning a prize at the rodeo just so Spin can win -- but Spin calls Marty on his sacrifice and makes him do his best. Both end up winning prizes and the two are shown at the end of the series lovingly brushing down their horses in adjoining stalls and smiling at each other -- obviously having become "fast friends." The intensity of the friendship was made even more explicit in the sequel to the serial. The popularity of "The Adventures of Spin and Marty" necessitated "The New Adventures of Spin and Marty" -- and, this time, the slightly older boys would meet girls from the all-girl dude ranch across the lake. Marty enjoyed the girls' company, and Spin's desire to leave the girls could easily be read as jealousy over the potential competition for Marty's attention.
*******
When I got home last night I put on "Spin and Marty" and to my delight it was even queerer than this synopsis makes it sound. The boys' inflection and movements sometimes calls to mind modern-day sassy queens. There's an over-abundance of physicality, groping, and hands on inner thighs in just the first episode ... although, that's between Spin and an adult ranch hand. The sinister undertones between Spin/Olly and Marty/Bill Burnette really struck me and my roommate. The narrative presents Bill and Olly as friendly, caring mentors; the framing and suggestiveness of their interactions makes it seem like they have a more lurid interest in the boys. It's an interesting combination.
Spin is likable from the start: a show-off, reckless, impulsive, but with a core of basic decency that shows him standing up for Marty right from the start and expressing a desire to be a doctor when he grows up -- something that makes the other boys laugh, maybe because of Spin's lower-class background. Spin comes off as peculiarly well-mannered and considerate for the super-athletic "star of the ranch." It's clear that fame hasn't gone to his head. But at the same time he's still a kid and we get to see him follow his nastier impulses from time to time, like when he leads the new boys on a snipe hunt or teases Marty by singing at him through his bathroom window at night--
--wait, er, um--
Anyway. Marty is my favorite type of child protagonist: a little shit! Right from the start, he's a spoiled, entitled brat, with a highly cultured persona that does NOT extend to treating his servants well, or strangers with politeness. Marty is insufferably rude to the other boys, especially Spin. He's an orphan living with an overprotective grandma and he's angry in the extreme, always lashing out and searching for a fight. Early on, Marty gets his chance when Spin and the other boys put a live frog in his bed. Marty starts swinging wildly, attacking Spin with surprising ferocity -- but Bill Burnette holds Marty back. Meanwhile, Spin stands just out of reach, surprised, and not even attempting to fight back or rise to the bait.
Bill tells the boys that if they want to fight, it'll have to be with boxing gloves. Here, Marty starts to falter. Not because he's afraid to fight, but because he knows none of the other boys will be in his corner. He hides in the stable when the time comes, and another boy -- sweet, lazy Ambitious (the name is ironic) -- comes to find him. Ambitious is achingly tender with Marty. He's affectionate and, although they're the same age, paternalistic. He teaches Marty how to box; he calls him "slugger". When Marty boxes Spin, Ambitious is the only kid in his corner. So now there's an additional homoerotic proto-queer relationship in the mix.
The boxing match really boosts Marty's character. Untrained, he swings wildly and ferociously at Skip right from the start and never stops. Very few of his blows land. Spin, more experienced, holds back and guards his face, rarely swinging back at Marty, and never in the face. By round three, though, Spin is exhausted and Marty, fueled by his anger, is still raring to go. When the boys both collapse, the adults call an end to it. Privately, they think that if it kept going, Marty would have won -- and at this stage, when he's so heavily disliked, that might just make the other boys hate him more.
I watched a good 17 episodes of Season 1 last night. My roommate adored it, and I was totally sucked in too. The writing was surprisingly solid and the characters surprisingly real and likable. I couldn't help but compare Spin and Marty to characters in popular kids' shows today, including kids I like -- Steven Universe is an obvious one. I love Steven Universe, but I struggle to list any of Steven's flaws, and when it comes to that show, it's not Steven I'm actually interested in. I like Pearl, Garnet, and Amethyst -- they DO have readily listable flaws and it's much more fun to watch them change over time.
I loved the juxtaposition of someone who's basically decent and kind (Spin) coming up against someone who is unabashedly rude, nasty, and yet very vulnerable and lonely (Marty). The added layer, where Spin is the popular boy and Marty is the outsider, makes it more delicious -- because as the popular boy, Spin is given ample opportunity to tease or bully Marty, and despite his misgivings, he often takes part. The boys who instigate this bullying never really deal with the consequences. But Spin, whose conscience/maturity is more developed, DOES -- he has to deal with Marty's reaction, with the counselors' disapproval, and his own shame, and quickly, we see him switch from bullying (for the most part) to defending Marty. But, as the book says, only when Marty's not around to hear.
It's an intensely fun little show. I just noticed I changed Spin's name to "Skip" while writing, so I went back and edited that XD
I didn't grow up in the 50s -- actually I didn't have TV at home until 2007, at which point I started voraciously catching up on re-runs. I was obsessed with Gilligan's Island, Gomer Pyle, Petticoat Junction, The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock... but there were never any Disney re-runs on! Maybe we just didn't get the Disney channel when we got cable -- I know we didn't have it BEFORE cable. Or maybe Disney just never did reruns that old. Anyway, I've never seen any of the Mouseketeers or classic Disney films like The Parent Trap or Escape From Witch Mountain, so when the book started delving into those, I was VERY interested.
The ones that really caught my eye were Spin & Marty and Annette. For Annette, it describes a demure young lady who becomes close friends with a tomboy at school named Jet. But I haven't watched that one yet. Here's the book's description of Spin & Marty:
When Michael Nava and Robert Dawidoff, the authors of Created Equal: Why Gay Rights Matter to America, spoke to a group of employees at the Walt Disney Company in 1994, they chuckled aloud about the importance of "Spin and Marty" in their lives. This comment elicited knowing chuckles from a number of people in the room. Similarly, at one point in Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City books, the main gay character Michael (nicknamed Mouse, at least in part because his family is from Orlando, Florida, home of Walt Disney World) commiserates with his lover Jon Fielding about "Spin and Marty":
"The Micky Mouse Club turned you queer?"
"Well...You either got off on Annette's tits or you didn't. If you did, you were straight. If you didn't, you had only one alternative. Spin and Marty. God, I used to agonize over that show!"
"I'd almost forgotten about that."
"That's because you identified with Spin. Those of us who identified with Marty will never, ever, forget it."
The Adventures of Spin and Marty was a continuing serial that was broadcast as part of The Mickey Mouse Club television show in 1955. Based on the novel Martin Markham, the serial told the story of city-bred Martin Markham's summer at a dude ranch. As the summer progresses, he learns to drop the chip from his shoulder and become "a regular guy" -- Marty instead of Martin. The serial increased the role of Spin, another boy at the ranch who most of the kids acknowledge as the most "regular" guy at the Triple R Ranch. The relationship between Spin and Marty develops from guarded antagonism on Marty's part to minor jealousy on Spin's part as Marty learns the ropes (somewhat outshining Spin) to eventual close friendship.
The increased role of Spin makes sense when looking at Marty's persona in the early stages of the narrative. Before Marty even arrives at the Triple R Ranch, the ranch hands discuss him. Logan, the head of the ranch, tells his assistant, Bill Burnette, "I wanted a chance to talk to you about him -- but I really don't know myself ... yet..." When Bill asks what it is that Logan "doesn't know," Logan responds, "Well, he's a little different from the rest of 'em. Might be some sort of a problem for you." It is just at this point that Marty is driven up by his English valet, Perkins. Marty steps out in a suit and bow tie with a fedora on his head. When Bill greets him with "Hi, Marty," the boy responds in very precise diction, "Excuse me, sir -- but my name is Martin."
Possibly worried that young male viewers would have hard time identifying with someone so clipped and cultured, Spin was provided as a "butch" alternate figure. A natural athlete and a minor star at the ranch, Spin represents the ideal boy that Martin needs to become. The main narrative focuses on "masculinizing" Marty. In fact, Burnette declares as his mission, "I'll straighten that boy out if it takes all summer!" Throughout the early episodes of the serial, veiled references to Marty's "sissy" persona constantly crop up. It is revealed that he is afraid of horses, that (to quote Marty himself) "I don't know much about stuff like Spin there -- sports, I mean," and that he has been raised by a stern grandmother with the implication that this is the source of his "problem." (In the 1950s, controlling mother figures were commonly blamed for turning their sons into homosexuals.)
Just like Maupin's character Michael, many adult gay men who were kids during the 1950s did strongly identify with Martin's persona and predicament. Since the serial eventually aims to makeover Martin into Marty, the early episodes work to make the viewer feel for Martin, even as the viewer dislikes the airs he puts on. In one dinner sequence, Martin is asked to stand up and introduce himself. As the other boys whisper somewhat audibly words like "drip" and mutter nasty jokes, Marty tries to gain some respect by claiming to play polo. This gambit only works somewhat. One boy comments, "He looks like the kind of guy who plays polo." Spin responds, "Yeah, maybe that's what's wrong with him." And, when Bill confronts Martin privately about the boast, the boy stresses the reason for such a lie: "I just didn't want the guys to think..." The rest of the sentence is too overwhelming to be spoken, and the pain and psychological motivation for this sequence probably resonated in the minds of a number of young proto-queer boys.
Amusingly, this attempt to "butch" up the story and shift the focus slightly away from the manners of Martin during the early stages of the narrative causes its own problems -- or delights, depending on who's doing the reading. For, with the emphasis on the relationship between Spin and Marty, proto-queer boys were capable of reading a prepubescent romance between the two. The feelings that each character calls up in the other certainly makes the relationship more intense than most boy-boy relationships represented in children's media. Throughout the narrative, the two are constantly watching each other. First, Martin envies Spin's natural athleticism and popularity. Although obviously thinking Martin a little odd, Spin unaccountably starts to defend him to the other guys -- but always outside of earshot of Martin. When Marty starts to gain confidence on his horse, and win over some of the kids at the ranch, Spin watches with admiration but also a little fear that his position as "star" of the ranch is in jeopardy. At a certain point in the later half of the serial, places are somewhat switched, as Marty rescues a little boy on a runaway horse and Spin injures a horse accidentally while trying to play hero. When Spin falls from his pedastal a bit, Marty feels safe enough to make friendly contact with him at last. After watching Spin in secret for a bit, Marty approaches him saying, "I never thought a guy could make a mess of things like I always do." Marty actually is willing to sacrifice winning a prize at the rodeo just so Spin can win -- but Spin calls Marty on his sacrifice and makes him do his best. Both end up winning prizes and the two are shown at the end of the series lovingly brushing down their horses in adjoining stalls and smiling at each other -- obviously having become "fast friends." The intensity of the friendship was made even more explicit in the sequel to the serial. The popularity of "The Adventures of Spin and Marty" necessitated "The New Adventures of Spin and Marty" -- and, this time, the slightly older boys would meet girls from the all-girl dude ranch across the lake. Marty enjoyed the girls' company, and Spin's desire to leave the girls could easily be read as jealousy over the potential competition for Marty's attention.
*******
When I got home last night I put on "Spin and Marty" and to my delight it was even queerer than this synopsis makes it sound. The boys' inflection and movements sometimes calls to mind modern-day sassy queens. There's an over-abundance of physicality, groping, and hands on inner thighs in just the first episode ... although, that's between Spin and an adult ranch hand. The sinister undertones between Spin/Olly and Marty/Bill Burnette really struck me and my roommate. The narrative presents Bill and Olly as friendly, caring mentors; the framing and suggestiveness of their interactions makes it seem like they have a more lurid interest in the boys. It's an interesting combination.
Spin is likable from the start: a show-off, reckless, impulsive, but with a core of basic decency that shows him standing up for Marty right from the start and expressing a desire to be a doctor when he grows up -- something that makes the other boys laugh, maybe because of Spin's lower-class background. Spin comes off as peculiarly well-mannered and considerate for the super-athletic "star of the ranch." It's clear that fame hasn't gone to his head. But at the same time he's still a kid and we get to see him follow his nastier impulses from time to time, like when he leads the new boys on a snipe hunt or teases Marty by singing at him through his bathroom window at night--
--wait, er, um--
Anyway. Marty is my favorite type of child protagonist: a little shit! Right from the start, he's a spoiled, entitled brat, with a highly cultured persona that does NOT extend to treating his servants well, or strangers with politeness. Marty is insufferably rude to the other boys, especially Spin. He's an orphan living with an overprotective grandma and he's angry in the extreme, always lashing out and searching for a fight. Early on, Marty gets his chance when Spin and the other boys put a live frog in his bed. Marty starts swinging wildly, attacking Spin with surprising ferocity -- but Bill Burnette holds Marty back. Meanwhile, Spin stands just out of reach, surprised, and not even attempting to fight back or rise to the bait.
Bill tells the boys that if they want to fight, it'll have to be with boxing gloves. Here, Marty starts to falter. Not because he's afraid to fight, but because he knows none of the other boys will be in his corner. He hides in the stable when the time comes, and another boy -- sweet, lazy Ambitious (the name is ironic) -- comes to find him. Ambitious is achingly tender with Marty. He's affectionate and, although they're the same age, paternalistic. He teaches Marty how to box; he calls him "slugger". When Marty boxes Spin, Ambitious is the only kid in his corner. So now there's an additional homoerotic proto-queer relationship in the mix.
The boxing match really boosts Marty's character. Untrained, he swings wildly and ferociously at Skip right from the start and never stops. Very few of his blows land. Spin, more experienced, holds back and guards his face, rarely swinging back at Marty, and never in the face. By round three, though, Spin is exhausted and Marty, fueled by his anger, is still raring to go. When the boys both collapse, the adults call an end to it. Privately, they think that if it kept going, Marty would have won -- and at this stage, when he's so heavily disliked, that might just make the other boys hate him more.
I watched a good 17 episodes of Season 1 last night. My roommate adored it, and I was totally sucked in too. The writing was surprisingly solid and the characters surprisingly real and likable. I couldn't help but compare Spin and Marty to characters in popular kids' shows today, including kids I like -- Steven Universe is an obvious one. I love Steven Universe, but I struggle to list any of Steven's flaws, and when it comes to that show, it's not Steven I'm actually interested in. I like Pearl, Garnet, and Amethyst -- they DO have readily listable flaws and it's much more fun to watch them change over time.
I loved the juxtaposition of someone who's basically decent and kind (Spin) coming up against someone who is unabashedly rude, nasty, and yet very vulnerable and lonely (Marty). The added layer, where Spin is the popular boy and Marty is the outsider, makes it more delicious -- because as the popular boy, Spin is given ample opportunity to tease or bully Marty, and despite his misgivings, he often takes part. The boys who instigate this bullying never really deal with the consequences. But Spin, whose conscience/maturity is more developed, DOES -- he has to deal with Marty's reaction, with the counselors' disapproval, and his own shame, and quickly, we see him switch from bullying (for the most part) to defending Marty. But, as the book says, only when Marty's not around to hear.
It's an intensely fun little show. I just noticed I changed Spin's name to "Skip" while writing, so I went back and edited that XD
