Several years ago, my wife and I drove cross-country for the first time to visit my daughter in Washington State. Along the way, we bought postcards to send to friends and family.
Since this is the 21st century, anyone who was interested in our trip was following on Instagram, so postcard updates seemed redundant. Also a lot of the postcards we bought was of stuff we didn’t see.
I decided I’d write ridiculous or oblique messages on the postcards instead. I had so much fun I couldn’t stop.
I just sent one to my brother. It was a photograph of an old Maria von Trapp dressed in traditional garb at the family’s Vermont resort.
On the back I wrote this:
“I was Goddamn royalty!
Fuckin’ Nazis!”
It’s turned into a minor hobby and now. If I can buy postcards for 25 cents or less, I stock up.
Sometimes I send them to businesses, other times to strangers. On our trip back east, we addressed postcards to random addresses in towns we drove through, thanking them for a nice visit. Those are the most fun because I just imagine how baffling it must be to get a friendly postcard and have no idea who sent it.
Although I toyed with sending postcards saying, “I know what you did!” it made more sense to only send innocuous postcards. As amusing as the picture of a person agonizing over a message like that is, I would feel horrible if someone did something rash based on a random postcard.
Recently, I started researching all the places on the postcards I’ve purchased, the more obscure the better. As I go though them, when I find something fun, I’ll share it here.
I found something fun.
Most of us of a certain age learned classical music from Looney Tunes but recently I picked up a little culinary history as well.
I will not make excuses for not knowing Antoine’s of New Orleans was a real place, and you don’t need an excuse either. I am going to say there are some things I’m supposed to know and that Antoine’s Restaurant is, like, “The” place in New Orleans is one of them.
What separates mid-20th century Looney Tunes (and particularly Bugs Bunny) from all other children’s television drivel is we grow into them.
Looney Tunes are singular works of art created for adults, marketed to children. They appeal to kids without treating them like drooling idiots, something even the best in animation struggles with now.
Of course, that isn’t what they were trying to do at Warner Brothers, which is why it worked. They were just making stuff. I think you’ll find that’s when the best stuff is made. Once they started “targeting” audiences, the creative well was poisoned. Bugs Bunny was a perfect gift that somehow survived.
When I say we “grew into” Bugs Bunny, I’m talking mostly to people who grew up before Space Jam. I’ve never seen the movie and I’m sure it’s fine, but the film came out was after Bugs Bunny became self-aware. They think they have to deliver on tropes now rather than just let the zany characters zane.
For many of us, there was a moment of Bugs Bunny realization. Maybe it was the first time we watched the VHS of Apocalypse Now, or maybe it was when we were on a “cultural improvement” class trip, but eventually, most people of a certain age heard “Ride of the Valkyries” out of context and thought, “Hey! It’s ‘Kill the Wabbit!’”
I was in college when I finally understood the line from the iconic “gremlin” episode.
It reads, “It ain’t Wendell Willkie!” but the gremlin says, “It ain’t Vendell Villkie!”
Willkie ran in opposition to FDR in 1940 so the German pronunciation is no accident (there have been reams written about Hollywood’s ‘war’ propaganda).
The kooky thing is, Willkie left the Democrats and accepted the Republican nomination because he thought FDR wasn’t liberal enough. Here’s his Wikipedia entry.
Ignorance may be bliss, but discovery is orgasmic.
I was filled with joy when I came across the Antoine’s postcard and practically threw it at my wife (who apparently watched a lot less Bugs Bunny than me) saying, “I don’t mean Antoine of Flatbush!”
I was fairly giddy. She was just confused.
If you don’t recall or didn’t take the time to watch the above cartoon, Bugs, who has been captured and is about to be cooked by rival French chefs, hints that he knows the recipe for Louisiana Back-bay Bayou Bunny Bordelaise, a la Antoine.
Amazed, the cartoonishly French chef says, “Ze Antoine?!? Of New Orleans?!?”
You get the rest.
About two-thirds of the restaurants I have postcards for are closed. Antoine’s is not one of them. You can dine there tonight if you have the money and influence. You can dine there next year if you only have the money. It’s been owned by the Alciatore family since 1840, even surviving Katrina.
According to Wikipedia, Antoine’s was spending $10,000 per week to replenish its storied wine cellar after the hurricane caused a total loss. That means there was someone whose full-time job was shopping for (likely bidding for) the best wines in the world. The auction house would probably be abuzz when the Antoine’s rep showed up.
Roy Alciatore, Antoine’s grandson, was the proprietor when my postcard debuted. He ran the restaurant from 1934 to 1975. The lithograph from which it was copied is circa 1940, the cartoon was 1951.
The Bugs Bunny episode, “French Rarebit” made their Wikipedia page, so they must know about it. I’d like to think Roy went out of his way to see the cartoon when it came out. Maybe people told him. The one disappointment is that Louisiana Back-bay Bayou Bunny Bordelaise still isn’t on the menu.
Of course, one of the ingredients is “bay rum” according to Bugs.
I wonder if people try and order it. I don’t think I could keep myself from asking the server if they’ve even heard of it even though it’s either a question they get 10 times per day or not at all. I feel like it’s probably the latter, which is too bad.
Keep the Faith,
Tony
PostScript
In slagging off modern kids shows, I typed the first two words in Children’s Television Workshop, so let’s officially exclude Sesame Street which is just honest and interesting and never treats kids like they’re stupid.
Here’s another “Note” you may have missed. I want to make another pitch for joining Substack. It’s free and it’s a great social media space with mostly thoughtful conversations about all sorts of stuff.
Here’s one that was fun.
I’ll be away next weekend covering a mummy’s funeral as a follow-up to a story I wrote for work.