Art Buchwald on Wife-Spanking

In 1968 Cary Grant's fourth wife, the actress Dyan Cannon, sued him for divorce. Part of her case against him was that he used to put her across his knee and spank her. This evidently amused the great American humorous columnist Art Buchwald, and on April 2 that year he ran a column headed: "Watch Out, Wives - Here's Spanking News For Hubby".

Here's the link: http://www.spankingblog.com/2014/04/03/art-buchwald-on-wife-spanking/ I particularly love Art's final sentence....

I read about it at the time. There is more, he felt she was bitchy to the servants. He spanked her in front of all of them.

I love that he did not deny spanking her but that his defence (at least according to Art Buchwald) was that he had 'reasonable and adequate causes'. How times have changed.

Loved the article PhilK. It was new to me. Very funny.

There is a statue of him in his home town of Bristol, I am surprised the local feminists haven't pulled it down like they did Edward Colston's? Maybe they are scared Grant's ghost will spank them?

Brosse6
Satirists throughout the ages (from Swift, to Twain, to Buchwald) are the frequent targets of criticism for "supporting" positions they are lampooning. There is no doubt that Buchwald is laughing at the notion, proposed by Grant's attorney, of there being "reasonable and adequate causes" for spanking one's wife, simply by the absurdity of the examples he attributes to his own (fictional) attorney.

Of course, in today's humorless times, it's dangerous to criticize something by making fun if it, because so many issues are simply "too serious" for laughter. For that reason Buchwald's article could never get published today. Regrettably, the truth is that the most effective way of stripping the power from a person or idea is to laugh at him/it.

njrick

I totally agree njrick.

Lampooning has always been the best weapon against tyrants. Unfortunately the mainstream media and entertainment industry have been recently taken over by humourless political zealots.

Oh, I wish it were. But anyone trying a little lampooning in Minsk right now will most likely wind up in jail having the shit kicked out of them. Ditto Istanbul, Damascus, Beijing, etc, etc.

PhilK
No one would suggest doing it other than anonymously in such places/curcumstances, but the reaction of those in power to such lampooning shows that THEY understand the impact of being laughed at.

PhilK

The best lampooning and most dangerous to the tyrant, is always below the radar.

The irony of course was that Spitting Image admitted that the more they lampooned Maggie, the stronger she got, whereas they destroyed other UK politician's careers. Clearly proves she wasn't a tyrant.