Those Were the Days!

When the story begins, an elderly man reminsces about Petey Simmons' days in college. The rest of the film is a lengthy flashback about this time period.

Petey is inexplicably the most popular freshman at Siwash College and all the fraternities want him to pledge. However, over the course of his time at the frat house, he has shown himself to be a self-absorbed fathead. His roommate eventually tells him this...and how his classmates are tiring of him.

A bit later, Petey gets into trouble and he assumes the judge will just give him a slap on the wrist. After all, this is what's happened in the past since he's a fraternity brother. But the new judge turns out to be tough and is tired of all the college hijinx...and Petey doesn't make it any better by his conduct in court. But Petey DOES get a continuance and the conniving jerk begins dating the judge's daughter (Bonita Granville)...a girl he wronged earlier in the movie. What is going to happen when she and the judge discover the truth? And, what will Petey do as the judge is about to unleash the full extent of his wrath on this jerky freshman?

Like most college films of the 1930s-40s, the students never seem to go to classes and instead spend all their time partying and chasing girls.

So is it any good? Well, it is mildly enjoyable but I also think they made Petey a bit too unlikable. I think toning it back a bit could have resulted in a film that is better than just a time-passer.

This is a fine movie revealing what dating and fraternity/sorority life was like in the early "Victorian" 1900's.

"Those Were the Days", was based on the "Old Siwash" stories written by George Fitch (Knox 1897). Fitch wrote of the "rascally" goings on at a small college, similar to Knox, back in the early part of the 20th century. It is from Mr. Fitch's stories that Knox took on the much-loved nickname "Old Siwash" over 80 years ago. Although Fitch refused to state that Knox was actually "Old Siwash," his books and this movie make it appear that way.

The movie was filmed partly at Knox College in Galesburg, IL, and completed in Hollywood. Its premiere was at the Orpheum Theater in Galesburg with the stars attending. It was a big deal in Galesburg! Many of the young people who appear as "extras" in the film were Knox students.

You will note many references to places at and around Knox including, Old Main, Twin Oaks, the statue of Mother Bickerdyke in the park, and the old cannon facing Whiting Hall (called Browning Hall in Fitch's books and in the movie). Notice how the judge in the story mispronounces Mother Bickerdyke's name.

Along with William Holden (in the first fraternity house scene) are other budding actors including Alan Ladd, Richard Denning (from many later TV roles) and Jimmy Dodd, later one of the adults on TV's MICKEY MOUSE CLUB. The waiter in the ice cream parlor is cowboy star Rod Cameron. The "bum" in the jail is William Frawley - Fred Mertz from I LOVE LUCY. Holden's co-stars include Ezra Stone (his roommate) who played HENRY ALDRICH on the radio (recognize his voice) and Bonita Granville (his girl) who played NANCY DREW in four movies made in '38 and '39.

One scene requires analysis. After causing the Courthouse bells to ring insanely, Holden's character hijacks a streetcar near midnight to get away , crashing it and causing a big fire. He emerges from the wreck covered in soot. Police are out in force looking for him. Holden notices his face is covered in soot looking in a mirror, and attempts to sneak away from police staring at him, limping away while singing "Way Down Upon the Swanee River" (police were not fooled). There is no evidence this was intended to be racial insult. It was a gag -- perhaps in bad taste to some viewers. This is not unusual. We commonly see gags and jokes in comedy and movies working in gray areas that would not be funny if performed straight-up.

"Those Were the Days" combines several plot elements from George Fitch's Siwash stories. Those stories are included in two books -AT GOOD OLD SIWASH and PETEY SIMMONS AT SIWASH -which may be found in the Knox College Library and also on the internet. One of his short stories published singly, THE BIG STRIKE AT SIWASH, is available for $3.00 plus $2.00 shipping. It can be purchased from Western Books, PO Box 1, Woodston, Kansas 67675, and serves well as an introduction to his work. The same source sells a biography of George Fitch by Martin Litvin, called I'M GOING TO BE SOMEBODY, for $5.00 plus $2.00 shipping.

Fitch, a nationally-recognized young author, died suddenly in August 1915 of a burst appendix at the age of 38. His stories live on as does the great school he attended which lovingly took on the nickname, "Old Siwash.".

As to the controversy concerning the name Siwash that began in the early 1970's, let me say there are 5 different meanings for Siwash in various dictionaries. One apparently once meant "savage" in the Chinook 'jargon," a "language" used by English and French traders in trading with the Native American First Nations people in the early years of our country. One of the other 4 meanings is ours: "Siwash: Any small, provincial college (often preceded by a/d)." That is the school we attended and the one we know and love.)

THOSE WERE THE DAYS (Paramount, 1940) directed by Jay Theodore Reed, is a light comedy-drama set mostly on a college campus based on the famous Siwash stories by George Fitch. Starring the then up-and-coming William Holden in one of his early screen credits, having made an impression in his first major role pf Clifford Odet's GOLDEN BOY (Columbia, 1939) starring Barbara Stanwyck, followed by his work opposite George Raft and Humphrey Bogart in INVISIBLE STRIPES (Warner Brothers, 1939), and appearing in Thornton Wilder's screen adaptation to his stage success of OUR TOWN (United Artists, 1940), Holden gets his opportunity for a leading part of a minor film with those were the days nostalgic feel to it.

The story opens at a banquet of the 35th wedding anniversary of Petey J. (William Holden) and Martha Simmons (Bonita Granville) hosted by her father, Judge Malachi Scroogs (Vaughn Glaser) and granting them the deed to Twin Oaks as his gift to them. For a union that almost didn't happen, Scroggs tells his version of the story on how Petey and Martha got together. In flashback dating back to 1904, the story introduces Petey of Siwash College playing part of the shenanigans by his upper classmen. Petey is roommate friends to Alexander "Allie" Bangs (Ezra Stone) who both pick out names out of a hat that will cast the girl to become their dates for the upcoming freshman party. Petey gets Martha Scroggs while Allie gets Mirabel Allstairs (Judith Barrett). At first Martha likes Peter until she finds his arrogance in dancing with the other girls and ignoring her hard to endure. Landing himself in trouble by moving all the clocks on campus a half hour early to make Professor Sillicocks (Lucien Littlefield) late for class and accidentally driving a streetcar full of people off the tracks and into a building, Petey is brought to court facing a judge with intentions of giving him a very strict sentence. After learning the judge to be Martha's father, Petey plans on getting on the good graces which gets him into further trouble.

Other members of the cast include Richard Denning, Phillip Terry, Douglas Kennedy and Aldrich Bowker. Look quickly for future leading man Alan Ladd in a small role as Keg Rearick. While Ladd is credited in the cast listing, it's surprising that William Frawley, with a long list of credited movies behind him seen briefly as a complaining jail prisoner, is not.

Somewhat reminiscent to those latter "Henry Aldrich" film series starring Jimmy Lydon (1941-1944), THOSE WERE THE DAYS does feature the original Henry Aldrich (Ezra Stone) from the stage version of "What a Life" where Vaughan Glaser, as the judge here, played the high school principal in both stage and screen version to WHAT A LIFE (Paramount, 1939) starring Jackie Cooper as Aldridge, and subsequent installments with Lydon replacing Cooper as Henry Aldrich. Though Ezra Stone (who makes one think of William Tracy and speaks like Eddie Bracken), later became a movie and television director, it's interesting in seeing this former stage actor and Henry Aldrich character on radio in a very rare screen appearance. With the youthful presence of William Holden years before his superstardom decade of the 1950s would be one of the sole reasons for viewing this seldom televised and hard to find movie edition of THOSE WERE THE DAYS.

Unseen on commercial television since the early 1970s, and to date never shown in cable television, THOSE WERE THE DAYS can be seen on YOUTUBE or found on DVD from a private collector. Quaint little 74-minute presentation with costumes and sets close to accurate 1904 with playback background songs from that era giving that nostalgic feel that would make this one worth discovering. (**1/2)

Those Were The Days marked William Holden's fourth film since Golden Boy and his first starring role in a Paramount picture. As they were the studio that discovered him, Paramount was finally getting a return on the money they invested in him. Holden had one of the more unusual contract agreements in Hollywood, he was split down the middle between Paramount and Columbia, the price he paid for Columbia using him as a complete unknown in his first starring film Golden Boy.

The film is narrated by another cast member who is given aged makeup as is Holden and leading lady Bonita Granville. The story of their meeting and courtship is told when both were students at a most progressive university in 1904, Siwash College which was daringly coed.

From his first moment on campus, Bill Holden sees himself as a big man on it. He's quite the campus cutup at Siwash, but a real bad bit of business culminating with him stealing an electric streetcar and running it off the tracks and crashing it into a building. He gets before the stern town judge Vaughn Glaser and now what to do before Glaser curtails his academic career.

Answer, start putting the moves on Bonita Granville the judge's daughter who goes to Siwash and who Holden barely gave a passing glance before. I think you know where this is going and you'd be right, especially since the film is told in flashback.

Paramount did a good job in recreating the college atmosphere of the Teddy Roosevelt era. I was waiting for Frank Merriwell to show up with tales of his athletic exploits that seemed all that was missing.

Radio's Henry Aldrich, Ezra Stone plays Holden's roommate and only real friend on the campus and there's a nice subplot involving Stone with coed Judith Barrett who has taken fraternity pins from several young men including him. And she wears them proudly like a decorated war hero. As this was the beginning of the last century I'm sure what she did to earn them was G-rated.

Paramount cast several of their young players as fraternity boys, those who did and didn't give their pins to Ms. Barrett. Among them are Richard Denning and Douglas Kennedy who would have some fair careers. But if you're not alert you'll miss Alan Ladd whose breakthrough would be coming in two years with This Gun For Hire at Paramount. If only someone had the presence of mind to give him some real screen time with William Holden with whom I'm he vied for roles at the White Mountain studio.

Those Were The Days is a pleasant nostalgic comedy/romance of a bygone era that did give Bill Holden's career a nice boost at the time.

This is an old-fashioned curiosity, a charming comedy for those who do not mind rather corny comedies set in 1904 and dealing with social situations so far removed from our own days that they border on the incomprehensible. It could therefore be called 'an antiquarian piece'. It is entertaining for viewers who are not demanding and like nostalgia which is so far back that no one alive today could possibly remember it. (Such nostalgia might be called 'imagined nostalgia'.) But, as the film was made in 1940, only 36 years after the story's supposed setting, we can be confident that much of it was realistically portrayed, because it was easy to remember that far back then. The film features lead performances by the 22 year-old William Holden (his third credited appearance on screen) and the 17 year-old Bonita Granville, who the previous year had completed the last of her Nancy Drew movies. The film also features the 27 year-old Alan Ladd in a bit part, though he is barely glimpsed early on in the film in a university fraternity house, and he has no lines. He does stand out, however, and just by being there he exudes 'presence', especially with his body language. He is instantly recognisable. The original title of this film was THOSE WERE THE DAYS, but as that was probably viewed as being too vague, the film was retitled to emphasize that it was about university life. The film is based upon a series of stories published in 1911 by George Fitch (1877-1915, died prematurely of complications following appendicitis) about a fictitious university which he called Siwash (pronounced in the film 'sigh-wash'), but which was based on Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, which he had attended. Probably there are elements of truth in the tales. It is interesting that Fitch's time at university was really considerably earlier than 1904, and that explains the distinctly 'Gay Nineties' flavour to the stories, since they are really set in the 1890s, and moving the film forward to 1904 was evidently an attempt at modernisation! The charm of Bonita Granville sparkles throughout this film, and anyone interested in her film performances will enjoy this one. I found William Holden only partially convincing. He also does not at this stage really look like William Holden, and in fact he looks rather uninteresting, and his makeup seems to have been laid on too thick, as his face looks unnaturally pasty. He blusters his way through the part of a rather wild and unruly freshman, has numerous adventures and vicissitudes, and learns to be less callous towards others. It is not a brilliant performance, but is acceptable. Vaughan Glaser as Bonita's father over-acts, but as the whole film is a bit over the top, that seems appropriate in the circumstances. Ezra Stone is somewhat amusing as Holden's nerdy roommate. People who do not come from America or who have no familiarity with university fraternities and sororities (other than the sorority portrayed in LEGALLY BLONDE) will be puzzled by the setting of the film. The university itself gets very little attention, as everything is focused on the fraternities, which are independent student houses (to which the students pay fees to become 'brothers' or 'sisters' and live in the houses) known as 'frat houses'. Fraternities have names based on Greek letters, and members are given 'fraternity pins'. They then bestow these upon the girls of their choice, and such a girl is said to be 'pinned'. In this film, the couple are thus said to be 'engaged', but by the 1960s this sort of thing had softened within the Ivy League to 'going steady'. Jokes, which in 1940 were still considered funny, were made about one girl who was 'pinned' by a boy from every frat house. This is so anachronistic now that it raises no laughs, but that is not the film's fault, it is the fault of Old Father Time. When freshmen arrived on campus, they were 'rushed' by the fraternities who rushed to recruit them and strove against one another to gain the new recruits. Freshmen in this film are often called 'freshers'. You have to know the lingo and understand the background concerning how that all works in order to make any sense of the film at all. I suppose this film therefore has value as a social document for the history of education in America, and people interested in what a university was like in the 1890s should see it for that reason. It is a co-ed university. The girls are all demurely dressed in their Gay Nineties dresses down to their ankles, and wear their hats in the chemistry lab. The naivete and innocence of all the students on matters of 'life and love' may seem incredible to us today, but is certainly accurate. As for the story itself, it portrays the outrageous antics of Holden and elevates university 'pranks' to an art form. As I once participated in some pretty wild and woolly 'pranks' or 'stunts' myself at university, I can assure viewers that nothing is impossible in that department, as the audacity of a prank is limited only by the imagination of the perpetrator, and one just has to hope that nobody gets hurt. (Holden really goes too far in crashing a street trolley into a house with a little old lady aboard. Tsk. Tsk.) What fun it all is being young and crazy. Alas, sober imaginative stunts at university seem to have given way nowadays to shootings by maniacs and drug-induced comas. Such lack of taste and such tawdry decadence! I would thus have to agree with the original title of this film and say of what I myself remember: 'those were the days'.