To refresh your memory, the purpose of “didja ever notice” is to find out just how well you pay attention to the tiny seemingly obscure details when you’re watching movies. If TCM is on all the time in your home (like mine) then, in addition to learning the names and faces of dozens of unique character actors, you’ve probably noticed other minutia that’s not catalogued anywhere else except this MovieMorlocks.com blog. If you google the keywords didja ever notice, you’ll find that this series has made the front page (e.g. it’s within the first 10 responses)!

For those of you who are new (or relatively new) to our blog, here is a list (with links) to the first nine entries in the series (in chronological order):

1. Didja ever notice – “runs on the bank” in film?

2. Didja ever notice – “milk trucks” in film?

3. Didja ever notice – “hiding out in a small town” in film?

4. Didja ever notice – “train wreck” in film?

5. Didja ever notice – “an exclamation point” in film (titles)?

6. Didja ever notice – “marriages with delayed consummation” in film?

7. Didja ever notice – “Taxes or I.R.S. issues” in film?

8. Didja ever notice – “prescience” – in film?

9. Didja ever notice – “movies that mix black-and-white with color” in film?

Feel free to respond to any of the above and/or this month’s challenge:

Didja ever notice – “picnic basket raffles” (otherwise known as “box socials”) – in film?

I could only think of three; can you add any others?

The Busher (1919) – premiered on TCM last October 14th (actually, the wee hours of the 15th for those of us who were in EDT); it’s a silent sports drama featuring Charles Ray in the title role. He’s the baseball star of a small rural town. He’s also smitten with Colleen Moore, but so is John Gilbert, who has more money but is also something of a jerk. Ray gets a chance to shine when the St. Paul Pink Sox get stranded in their small town. Later, the men must bid for what they hope is their sweetheart’s picnic basket, because the winning (e.g. highest) bidder gets to share the prepared meal with the basket’s owner. What’s unique about the raffle in this film is that the ladies appear behind a screen – all the men can see (e.g. to bid on) is a silhouette.

One Sunday Afternoon (1933) – I finally got around to watching this original which was remade twice by director Raoul Walsh: as The Strawberry Blonde (1941) with James Cagney, Olivia de Havilland, Rita Hayworth (in the title role), and Jack Carson (among others) and the Technicolor musical One Sunday Afternoon (1948) with Dennis Morgan, Janis Paige, Don DeFore, and Dorothy Malone. I don’t remember a picnic basket raffle in the former, and I haven’t seen the latter, but this one contains a scene in which Gary Cooper (as future dentist Biff Grimes) tries to win Virginia Brush’s (Fay Wray) favors by outbidding all others (including Neil Hamilton as Hugo Barnstead) for her basket with a telltale ribbon, as Amy Lind (Frances Fuller) watches.

Oklahoma! (1955) – contains perhaps the most famous (and drawn out) box social sequence in all of cinema, and director Zinnemann milks it for all it’s worth. Aunt Eller (Charlotte Greenwood’s best role?) starts and runs the proceedings at Skidmore’s farm with gavel in hand, hoping the event will raise enough money to finish the community’s schoolhouse. Ali Hakim (Eddie Albert) would rather not marry Ado Annie (Gloria Grahame) but her daddy’s (James Whitmore) shotgun makes it inevitable unless Will Parker (Gene Nelson) can come up with $50; so Ali buys Will’s gifts from Kansas City to make it so. Unfortunately, Will is too dim-witted to hold on to the bounty, and he bids the entire amount for his sweetheart’s basket, forcing Ali to outbid him and overpay for a three day bellyache. Then, both Curly (Gordon MacRae) and Jud Fry (Rod Steiger) want to win Laurey’s (Shirley Jones) basket. Jud tops every man’s bid adding “and two bits” until Curly enters the picture. The exchange gets quite heated and both men end up bidding all that they own in the world before it ends.

What other classic movies can YOU think of which feature a “picnic basket raffle”?