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ArchivesRe: Brick & Hud.
in reply to a message by Jörmungandr
I don't know why it was chosen for the particularly character, but Hud as in Hudson was originally a medieval English nickname, usually for Hugh but sometimes also for Richard.
As for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: Brick's brother is called either Gooper or Brother Man in the play and film; his father is Big Daddy and his mother is Big Mama. I don't think that Tennessee Williams meant people to think that any of those were actual birth certificate names. I think he meant viewers to assume that this is a family where everyone is normally called by a familiar nickname which has no relationship to their given name. So I think Brick was chosen as being a good nickname for a character who is presented as at least trying to be muscular and masculine.
P.S. Brick is a rare English surname, but Gooper is not. I suppose you might have to be raised in American culture to understand this, but Gooper is the sort of nickname that would naturally end up being given to guys who were considered silly, stupid, and/or clueless in the American South when Williams wrote the play.
As for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: Brick's brother is called either Gooper or Brother Man in the play and film; his father is Big Daddy and his mother is Big Mama. I don't think that Tennessee Williams meant people to think that any of those were actual birth certificate names. I think he meant viewers to assume that this is a family where everyone is normally called by a familiar nickname which has no relationship to their given name. So I think Brick was chosen as being a good nickname for a character who is presented as at least trying to be muscular and masculine.
P.S. Brick is a rare English surname, but Gooper is not. I suppose you might have to be raised in American culture to understand this, but Gooper is the sort of nickname that would naturally end up being given to guys who were considered silly, stupid, and/or clueless in the American South when Williams wrote the play.
This message was edited 10/19/2007, 2:34 PM
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Replies
Similarly, I remember as a child a very silly comic in the weekend supplements called Brick Bradford ... the eponymous Brick was the captain of a craft called the Time Top which resembled the orangey-brown bulb of an enema syringe and in which he could travel the universe, revisit Earth in the age of the dinosaurs (which always tried to eat the Time Top) etc. And, yeah, nothing if not muscular and masculine!
This would be early to middle 1950s. It was an American production, clearly syndicated, so could have appeared earlier over there. All hail to the Zeitgeist!
This would be early to middle 1950s. It was an American production, clearly syndicated, so could have appeared earlier over there. All hail to the Zeitgeist!
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