When I went to see the 1958 movie “Teacher’s Pet” with my high school buddy Paul I had no idea that I would pursue a career in news writing. Paul and I were drawn to Spokane’s Fox Theater by the promise of Mamie Van Doren, “the girl who invented rock and roll.” We had recently seen her in “High School Confidential” where she was Russ Tamblyn’s almost incestuous loving aunt.
Upon revisiting this comedy last night, I think it has a lot of merit as a whimsical look at newspaper reporting. (Apparently TV news was not taken seriously in 1958.)
Doris Day promotes the five W’s in the college classroom and Clark Gable plays the cynical city editor who is convinced that academia has no business in journalism. By the last reel, he comes to appreciate the benefits of a liberal arts education.
Ms. Van Doren plays the platinum bombshell girl friend of Gable and Gig Young is an inebriated psychology professor. Both higher education and news reporting are lampooned in “Teacher’s Pet.”
Mamie matriculated to a PhD in Allied Artists’ “Sex Kittens Go to College” wherein she lectured on math and psychology. This begs the question: why not a grand reunion of Ms. Van Doren and Ms. Day in “Teacher’s Pet on the Internet.” They both are alive and kicking!
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