Today I remembered yet another album my mother had. It was the musical score from The King and I.
I have heroes and models in literature and other places. My two female models in real life are Eleanor Roosevelt and Jackie Kennedy. The two are nothing alike, I realize. I look up to them for a standard set for our country in different ways.
But one of my favorite characters from plays and movies is Anna in The King and I. I learned that there really was a woman named Anna Leonowens who journeyed to Siam to be tutor to the king’s many children. Probably her book has little to do what the play and movie became. However, as a woman I admire her. My imagination never stops working. Sometimes I wish it would!
I adore the music from this. My favorite song from the movie and one of my all time favorite show songs is “Hello, Young Lovers.” It’s lyrical, full of passion for love, yet dignified. That’s why I like Anna; she sings it after looking at a picture of her deceased husband, Tom–
When I think of Tom, I think about a night
When the earth smelled of summer, and the sky was streaked with white
And the cool mist of England was sleeping on a hill
I remember this, and I always will.
There are new lovers now on the same silent hill
Looking at the deep blue sea
And I know Tom and I are a part of them all
And they’re all a part of Tom–and me…
When I’m extremely happy I sing this song at the top of my lungs.
So she’s lost her husband, has a little boy to raise, and journeys to Siam to find work in a completely new environment. She’s noble, female rather than feminine, strong, tough but–in her heart she’s always going to remember her husband. What a wonderful mother, woman, and presence in the King’s household.
Of course, the King–played by Yul Brynner–has his opportunities to become larger than life, thanks to Rogers and Hammerstein. But other than Anna and her song about young lovers, there’s the song called “Something Wonderful.” It’s sung by the woman who plays the head wife–yes, this king had a whole harem all to himself. It’s about loving and protecting a man who needs you, even when he’s wrong about something and can be bullying at times. Ah well…different aspects of women’s lives. Yes, just like the other albums, I lay on the floor, reading the back of the album cover, over and over.
lgmwriting 