Today offers an extraordinary array of birthdays, but I can't think of anyone I'd like to think about more than this gentleman, whom I think might have been one of the formative influences of my slightly twisted childhood, the very amply proportioned Mr. Sebastian Cabot.Family Affair clearly furthered my development as a rootless cosmopolite. Who was more dapper than Mr. French? What prospect could be brighter than having ones inconvenient parents swept away, and your own personal version of Terre Haute (why do I remember that?) replaced by a swish (in several senses of the word) Manhattan penthouse?
And the gentleman himself? Apparently, against all odds, quite different from his most famous role as an urbane bachelor of aesthetic tastes - a married family man who used his TV earnings to settle down in bucolic British Columbia. Go figure.
He shares his natal day with a motley crew that takes in swimmer Annette Kellerman and idol Della Reese, shower diva Janet Leigh and permanent sidekick Burt Ward, thrush Phyllis Hyman, comedy queen Jennifer Saunders, steroidocious Sylvester Stallone, and the Dalai Lama. Oh, and, of all people, Nancy Davis Reagan and Merv Griffin - do you suppose they ever had joint birthday parties?
But still - with the possible exception of Miss Della - it's Sebastian (or my childhood image of him) that I'd most like to share a cocktail with...
Darling, think of going out with Jennifer Saunders and Della Reese AND Sebatian Cabot for cocktails and gorgeous nibbly bits. The mind reels.
ReplyDeleteI just loved Family Affair as a child. And as I got older and was myslef, for quite some time, a Bachelor Uncle named Bill, it all started to make even more sense.
ReplyDeleteAnd the drinks, I'm there with Miss Saunders. I do hope Ms. French shows up to join us. Alas Ms. Lumley would be too much to hope for.