Sunday, August 18, 2019

Pygmalion - 1983 - Alan Cooke



OK, it's  a TV movie, but I liked it. Margot Kidder and Peter O'Toole star in George Bernard Shaw's thought-experiment: can you socially elevate someone just through various external trappings like improving one's grammar, clothing and attitude? Is it worth it to even do this? Is there some more meaningful transformation that might be possible?

Well, this brings to mind the case of "Clark Rockefeller" to me. There was once a German guy who had no real formal education and who had overstayed his visa in the USA. He began calling himself Clark Rockefeller and telling folks he was from the famous Rockefeller family. He perfected his English by imitating a character from an American TV series and he began reading widely so as to be able to convince folks he had a Ivy education.

It worked. Soon he was married to a highly-educated woman of wealth who supported him and his friends included the rich and famous, including many American power-brokers.

You can read about him here: https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2009/01/fake_rockefeller200901

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