Naked or nude? That is the question

Feb 2
Bill, Lynne, Ray, Ian, Bob, Steve L, Jeanette, Andy, Will, Jim, Ben

Although there were eleven of us at Conrads on Monday night, there were never more than eight at any one time because Will and Bob left early while Jim, Ben and (of course) Andy arrived late.
Ian, who was sporting another Band-Aid on his nose from shutting the back door of his car, was again worrying about the recession.
'Why are all the restaurants I go to so busy? I don't think there's a recession,' he said. 'It's not just here - Cantalini's is the same.'
I pointed out that high-end venues - even higher-end than Cantalini's - were suffering first, places like Parkway Grill. It's like in retail: Neiman Marcus is well down while Wal-Mart is up. We'll know the recession is really biting when people stay at home rather than go to even the cheap places. But, we pledged, Monday nights at Conrads will go on, come what may?
That may be more than can be said for the Mayflower Club, which Ray was promoting as a home-from-home for British expats. Its numbers are down, too - not surprisingly, judging from the menu.
Bob got us talking about his great expertise, old movie stars, he is lecturing at the Barn next week on two of them, Francis Ford and Grace Cunard. By little or no coincidence, one of Bob's favorite film, How Green Was My Valley, was directed by Francis Ford's younger brother, John. Pressed by Lynne, though, he admitted that his absolute favorite was Orson Welles's The Magnificent Ambersons. Lots of people seem to rate How Green as among their top films, but it is of course immediately disqualified as far as I am concerned as it is all about Welsh folk. Still, I suppose they seem quite charming from this distance.
Via a diversion onto films noir - the annual Egyptian season isn't far off - we somehow got talking about WC Fields and Charlie Chaplin. Ian, the great defender of British music hall, insisted that Fields had got his act and overall style from Harry Tate (1872-1940), the Scottish comedian - who, ironically in view of later history, was born Ronald McDonald. Now why would you give up a name like that in favor of Harry Tate, unless someone in showbiz already owned it?
This gave Ian the excuse he needed to have a go at another icon, Chaplin, and how he had pinched his stage mannerisms from the lesser British comedians in Fred Karno's Army, the group that brought him to America.
Another member of the Karno troup was Arthur Jefferson, later Stan Laurel who, as Jim remarked, was nothing until he was teamed up with Oliver Hardy by Hal Roach in 1920 - as with all the other famous double acts, they were nothing on their own and breakaways were rarely successful, right up to and including Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.
Bob had, like Bill and Lynne, been to see Minsky's at the Ahmanson Theatre, which got us onto the history and origin of burlesque and how it was eclipsed by striptease - and now, so I am told, by lap dancing.
Minsky's, we agreed, is a rattling good evening in the old tradition - nothing original, but what it does it does well.
The nearest to burlesque in London was the Windmill Theatre where, thanks to the iron rule of the Lord Chamberlain* in those days, the women could be naked but could not move or speak. The only speech came from the comedians who had the thankless task of keeping the almost entirely male audience amused between scene changes.
While the girls were naked they were always referred to as nudes. The two words mean the same: so what's the difference? It turns out that nude is Latin while naked is Old English and therefore considered more vulgar.

*The Lord Chamberlain licensed every show, and had to be sent every script before a show could be staged, until the law was changed in 1968.

CAUGHT ON THE BREEZE
If that man comes he'll never stop talking
What do you care what I'm having? Are you going to eat it? I don't think so!
Drapes don't wear out - just wash them
I've always loved WC Fields
What you've got to do is get your head out of the way, then you won't hit your nose
There are ten million stories in a naked city, but no nudes is good nudes
I'm going to enjoy life without drink, I really am