horseless carriage
Well-known Member
What a kind compliment, thank you. Let me show you a photo of a Hollywood actor who wears a suit and hat with such panache that he was not only adored by the ladies, he was something of a gay icon too.
His name is Spangler Arlington Brugh. Not the sort of name that trips off the tongue, MGM came up with: "Robert Taylor."
My mother's generation were all movie mad, but it was more the actors, so much so that when a new film was released instead of saying: what's it about? Mother, like the rest of her generation would say, whose in it?
Our family name is Taylor, my father, who lost his own father during WW2, wanted to honour his Dad by calling me Herbert, my grandfather's name. But my mother had a better idea. "Herbert?" she said, "it's so Victorian." "Well what did you have in mind?" My father asked her. "Something fresh like Robin," mother replied. "Robin?" Dad said, "he'll be teased with a name like Robin."
At the time there was a lady TV presenter with the name Robyn, and although most families didn't have a TV, her fame went far beyond the TV studios, she was that well known. Mother looked suitably crestfallen. My Dad just didn't see the trap, he adored his wife. "Look," my Dad suggested, "let's compromise." "Compromise?" Mother replied, "Yes," Dad answered. "We can go for a hybrid name. We will call him Rob as in Robin and Bert as in Herbert," "You mean call him Robert?" Said my delighted mother, throwing her arms around her husband's neck.
So now you all know my name, but just one thing, I refuse to answer to, Spangler. I'm not exactly of Mr. Brugh's appearance, but I did turn one young lady's head fifty four years ago, how lucky am I?
I even have a picture of him riding an exercise bike in his suit and tie.
