Destination Subconscious: Cary Grant and LSD
March 23, 2010 2:43 PM Subscribe
Cary Grant was the first mainstream celebrity to espouse the virtues of psychedelic drugs. (previously)
Yet another reason that Cary Grant was one of the four or five greatest film actors ever.
posted by blucevalo at 2:53 PM on March 23, 2010
posted by blucevalo at 2:53 PM on March 23, 2010
You know, we are all unconsciously holding our anus. In one LSD dream...I imagined myself as a giant penis launching off from earth like a spaceship.
I...uh...I'm never clicking on a FPP link involving Gregory Peck.
posted by sallybrown at 2:53 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
I...uh...I'm never clicking on a FPP link involving Gregory Peck.
posted by sallybrown at 2:53 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
only slightly related, Cary Grant was also the first actor in film history to use the word gay to connote homosexuality, in Bringing Up Baby. It was an ad-lib.
posted by shmegegge at 3:01 PM on March 23, 2010 [6 favorites]
posted by shmegegge at 3:01 PM on March 23, 2010 [6 favorites]
Yet another reason that Cary Grant was one of the four or five greatest film actors ever.
He only needed one -- People Will Talk -- one of the best movies ever...
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 3:13 PM on March 23, 2010
Metafilter: we are all unconsciously holding our anus.
posted by turgid dahlia at 3:15 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by turgid dahlia at 3:15 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
His verdict on the Alice Cooper gig is priceless.
posted by The Mouthchew at 3:18 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by The Mouthchew at 3:18 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
When Debbie Reynolds found out her daughter Carrie Fischer was poppin' pills, she enlisted Cary Grant to give the drug talk to Carrie. Carrie got two drugs are bad mmmkay talks from Cary Grant. I think that would probably be the highlight of anyone's life.
posted by ExitPursuedByBear at 3:19 PM on March 23, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by ExitPursuedByBear at 3:19 PM on March 23, 2010 [3 favorites]
While on the subject of this, I must mention Skidoo, one of the most insane movies ever.
Imagine, Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Frankie Avalon, Groucho Marx, Mickey Rooney, Slim Pickens, Burgess Meredith, Peter Lawford, Frank Gorshin, Cesar Romero, and the Orange County Ramblers as the Green Bay Packers in an Otto Preminger directed picture about mobsters, molls and everyone taking LSD as the central theme of the movie. You gotta see it.
posted by Ironmouth at 3:22 PM on March 23, 2010 [5 favorites]
Imagine, Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Frankie Avalon, Groucho Marx, Mickey Rooney, Slim Pickens, Burgess Meredith, Peter Lawford, Frank Gorshin, Cesar Romero, and the Orange County Ramblers as the Green Bay Packers in an Otto Preminger directed picture about mobsters, molls and everyone taking LSD as the central theme of the movie. You gotta see it.
posted by Ironmouth at 3:22 PM on March 23, 2010 [5 favorites]
Yes, yes, very interesting, but what about the really important questions like: was Randolph Scott just Grant's live-in wingman or was there something more going on there?
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 3:22 PM on March 23, 2010
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 3:22 PM on March 23, 2010
I love that Betsy Drake is the wife that introduced Cary to LSD... she's the same wife that said she never had time to give thought to the gay rumors because they were "too busy fucking".
posted by palomar at 3:30 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by palomar at 3:30 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
In one LSD dream...I imagined myself as a giant penis launching off from earth like a spaceship.
I'm so not telling my wife this. Well maybe if we have a big argument about how Cary Grant would never go to X dressed like Y again.
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:32 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
I'm so not telling my wife this. Well maybe if we have a big argument about how Cary Grant would never go to X dressed like Y again.
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:32 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
peeedro: High or not, Cary Grant is just plain dreamy.
blucevalo: Yet another reason that Cary Grant was one of the four or five greatest film actors ever.
http://www.metafilter.com/user/103870
Both so true. I've always thought that doing acid with Cary Grant in the Hollywood past would be just about the most awesome use of a TARDIS.
I'm also afraid that if I'd been born in a different time, I'd feel the same way about music as he did.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 3:33 PM on March 23, 2010
blucevalo: Yet another reason that Cary Grant was one of the four or five greatest film actors ever.
http://www.metafilter.com/user/103870
Both so true. I've always thought that doing acid with Cary Grant in the Hollywood past would be just about the most awesome use of a TARDIS.
I'm also afraid that if I'd been born in a different time, I'd feel the same way about music as he did.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 3:33 PM on March 23, 2010
This is just too weird. I was going to make this post last night after finishing Cary Grant's autobiography. I love what Grant had to say about LSD and for a man who was a star the autobiography exposes just how dark his life was at times, and how LSD greatly helped him.
Crazy stuff.
posted by deacon_blues at 3:37 PM on March 23, 2010
Crazy stuff.
posted by deacon_blues at 3:37 PM on March 23, 2010
[I asked Cary] 'You really hated [the Alice Cooper concert], didn't you?' 'It's...' he said, struggling for words, 'you know what it's like? Remember I told you about the time I took LSD in my doctor's office and shat all over his rug and floor?' 'Yes,' I said. 'Well now I know how that poor doctor felt."
posted by nosila at 3:43 PM on March 23, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by nosila at 3:43 PM on March 23, 2010 [4 favorites]
we are all unconsciously holding our anus
Excuse fingers.
posted by biffa at 3:52 PM on March 23, 2010
Excuse fingers.
posted by biffa at 3:52 PM on March 23, 2010
"Everyone wants to be Cary Grant on acid. Even I want to be Cary Grant on acid."
Well, you wouldn't want to be Archibald Leach.
Cary Grant was fucking awesome.
posted by Artw at 3:54 PM on March 23, 2010
Well, you wouldn't want to be Archibald Leach.
Cary Grant was fucking awesome.
posted by Artw at 3:54 PM on March 23, 2010
Everyone wants to be Cary Grant on acid.
Or would you rather be Bea Arthur on grass? Or Rock Hudson on coke?
posted by hangashore at 4:10 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
Or would you rather be Bea Arthur on grass? Or Rock Hudson on coke?
posted by hangashore at 4:10 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
Thanks for posting this. Loved it when I read it the other day but I'm trying not to post any more links from the WFMU blog :\
posted by jtron at 4:19 PM on March 23, 2010
posted by jtron at 4:19 PM on March 23, 2010
> Yet another reason that Cary Grant was one of the four or five greatest film actors ever.
Dude needed to lay off the tanning a bit, though. I watched To Catch A Thief a few weeks ago; great movie, but he looked like an old bronze statue of Cary Grant.
posted by The Card Cheat at 4:30 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
Dude needed to lay off the tanning a bit, though. I watched To Catch A Thief a few weeks ago; great movie, but he looked like an old bronze statue of Cary Grant.
posted by The Card Cheat at 4:30 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
Cary Grant was also the first actor in film history to use the word gay to connote homosexuality
Fun fact, the villians in North By Northwest? Yeah, Hitchcock got a memo telling him to tone them down a bit cause they where waaaay too obviously a couple. Oddly enough Rope slipped right past them.
Cary Grant is probably one of the few people who will turn up in the Future's terrible holo-movies about The Mid 20th Century. He was neat.
posted by The Whelk at 4:34 PM on March 23, 2010
Fun fact, the villians in North By Northwest? Yeah, Hitchcock got a memo telling him to tone them down a bit cause they where waaaay too obviously a couple. Oddly enough Rope slipped right past them.
Cary Grant is probably one of the few people who will turn up in the Future's terrible holo-movies about The Mid 20th Century. He was neat.
posted by The Whelk at 4:34 PM on March 23, 2010
an old bronze statue of Cary Grant
Recent photo of Grant, post-tan.
posted by deacon_blues at 4:36 PM on March 23, 2010 [2 favorites]
Recent photo of Grant, post-tan.
posted by deacon_blues at 4:36 PM on March 23, 2010 [2 favorites]
It was only 3 or 4 years ago that I watched NxNW and I don't remember the villians at all. I remember a Cary Grant in a hotel, in a cornfield and at Mt Rushmore and that's it.
posted by DU at 4:38 PM on March 23, 2010
posted by DU at 4:38 PM on March 23, 2010
Not even the train dialogue? Or the Plaze sequence?
We notice many different things.
posted by The Whelk at 4:40 PM on March 23, 2010
We notice many different things.
posted by The Whelk at 4:40 PM on March 23, 2010
NxNW is basically The Big Lebowski with nicer clothes and a hero in a better station in life.
posted by The Whelk at 4:42 PM on March 23, 2010 [8 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 4:42 PM on March 23, 2010 [8 favorites]
Oh yeah, the Plaza. But no, not the train dialogue. Although I do remember there BEING a train.
posted by DU at 4:49 PM on March 23, 2010
posted by DU at 4:49 PM on March 23, 2010
tlllllll;drrrrrr ... plus, the article isn't in English, but this weird, melty, cyrillic-hindi type of script that keeps changing. And my hands are kinda falling into the keyboard, and wow, this room is big. And now my hands are big, really big, and my computer is tiny, and my glass of orange juice keeps refilling itself.
posted by not_on_display at 5:34 PM on March 23, 2010 [7 favorites]
posted by not_on_display at 5:34 PM on March 23, 2010 [7 favorites]
Cary Grant apparently talked to Carrie Fisher about her acid problem.
posted by mmmbacon at 5:38 PM on March 23, 2010
posted by mmmbacon at 5:38 PM on March 23, 2010
A new wave Hollywood - where everybody's good, but not great
posted by porn in the woods at 6:05 PM on March 23, 2010
posted by porn in the woods at 6:05 PM on March 23, 2010
"Explaining one of the things he learned on LSD to Ladies Home Journal[...]"
what
posted by Sys Rq at 6:26 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
what
posted by Sys Rq at 6:26 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
Everyone wants to be Cary Grant on acid.
Or would you rather be Bea Arthur on grass? Or Rock Hudson on coke?
Lawrence Welk on airplane glue.
posted by jonmc at 6:35 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
Or would you rather be Bea Arthur on grass? Or Rock Hudson on coke?
Lawrence Welk on airplane glue.
posted by jonmc at 6:35 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
Bing Crosby smoking a doobie and crooning a timeless classic. That's what I want to be.
posted by Rarebit Fiend at 6:45 PM on March 23, 2010
posted by Rarebit Fiend at 6:45 PM on March 23, 2010
Pretty much all of MGM was on speed for decades.
Pretty much all of the damned country was on speed and barbiturates for decades. Seconal was handed out like candy, amphetamine inhalers and colorful Dexedrine pills were literally mothers little helper for millions upon millions of mothers, and codeine cough syrup was over the counter until the ingenious idea to replace it with a dissociative hallucinogen. Ah, the good ol' days!
posted by deacon_blues at 6:59 PM on March 23, 2010
Pretty much all of the damned country was on speed and barbiturates for decades. Seconal was handed out like candy, amphetamine inhalers and colorful Dexedrine pills were literally mothers little helper for millions upon millions of mothers, and codeine cough syrup was over the counter until the ingenious idea to replace it with a dissociative hallucinogen. Ah, the good ol' days!
posted by deacon_blues at 6:59 PM on March 23, 2010
something left out of most history books : People of the past! Largely on drugs, drank beer-milk for breakfast.
posted by The Whelk at 7:09 PM on March 23, 2010
posted by The Whelk at 7:09 PM on March 23, 2010
Ree also patent medicines and cures which allowed "respectable" ladies to get their 40% proof and also opium-laced cocktail every morning without being improper.
posted by The Whelk at 7:11 PM on March 23, 2010
posted by The Whelk at 7:11 PM on March 23, 2010
One thing which I do not get is the expression "acid problem". I have known thousands of druggies and drunks and only one single instance of a person with an acid "problem". I believe he was bullshitting us. The one salient feature of that particular drug is after you finish doing it you have no desire to repeat the experience for a real long time. LSD is not addictive. There is not one reliably documented instance of LSD addiction in the history of humanity, I am pretty sure. Everybody's very first subsequent sober conscious thought I ever talked to is "maybe I should not do that shit ever again".
There's a lot of folks with a lot of drug problems. I am skeptical that the person exists who has an LSD problem.
Oh yeah the Cary Grant case is very interesting. The most interesting thing I ever read was (diga might have some inside info) Ginsberg in the collected interviews railing on Leary for being such an attention whore asshole and spoiling a great thing for everybody else.
posted by bukvich at 7:27 PM on March 23, 2010
There's a lot of folks with a lot of drug problems. I am skeptical that the person exists who has an LSD problem.
Oh yeah the Cary Grant case is very interesting. The most interesting thing I ever read was (diga might have some inside info) Ginsberg in the collected interviews railing on Leary for being such an attention whore asshole and spoiling a great thing for everybody else.
posted by bukvich at 7:27 PM on March 23, 2010
I was always told the story was Debbie Reynolds called Cary in a panic that she thought Carrie was all mixed up with drugs and addicted to LSD and then Carry said, calmly
"But, Debbie ...you can't get addicted to LSD"
But of course Debbie would have none of it and yes..Carrie was more than alittle mixed up, so he came over and gave her a little chat about responsibility and...such.
Carrie Fisher has related the story more than once and there are other accounts, but ...maybe it's cause it's the version I heard first from an old interior designer (in a pink! fucking! Cadillac!) but it made the most sense. Whatever- these things always go according to what makes a better story. I like this one.
oh! And Carrie Fisher's show was great, if a bit rambling. She's a national treasure.
posted by The Whelk at 8:04 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
"But, Debbie ...you can't get addicted to LSD"
But of course Debbie would have none of it and yes..Carrie was more than alittle mixed up, so he came over and gave her a little chat about responsibility and...such.
Carrie Fisher has related the story more than once and there are other accounts, but ...maybe it's cause it's the version I heard first from an old interior designer (in a pink! fucking! Cadillac!) but it made the most sense. Whatever- these things always go according to what makes a better story. I like this one.
oh! And Carrie Fisher's show was great, if a bit rambling. She's a national treasure.
posted by The Whelk at 8:04 PM on March 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
But I have gotten on the other side of a trip and gone "well, that might be nice to again!" Of course, then I always had to have a day of nice ...quiet ..ness.
posted by The Whelk at 8:06 PM on March 23, 2010
posted by The Whelk at 8:06 PM on March 23, 2010
i'm imagining a psychedelic remake of TOPPER where Cary Grant and his wife return as acid-addled ghosts that shit on your carpet
posted by Hammond Rye at 10:00 PM on March 23, 2010
posted by Hammond Rye at 10:00 PM on March 23, 2010
Fun fact, the villians in North By Northwest? Yeah, Hitchcock got a memo telling him to tone them down a bit cause they where waaaay too obviously a couple. Oddly enough Rope slipped right past them.
Just realized that Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd from Diamonds are Forever are total copies of this. Huh.
posted by Ironmouth at 10:01 PM on March 23, 2010
Just realized that Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd from Diamonds are Forever are total copies of this. Huh.
posted by Ironmouth at 10:01 PM on March 23, 2010
now I have this image in my head, it's "Cary after the dentist" and he's in the back seat of a car being video taped going "I have two fingers," and "will this last forever?" etc...
maybe you have to be here, but it's hysterical.
posted by shmegegge at 10:09 PM on March 23, 2010
maybe you have to be here, but it's hysterical.
posted by shmegegge at 10:09 PM on March 23, 2010
Fun fact, the villians in North By Northwest? Yeah, Hitchcock got a memo telling him to tone them down a bit cause they where waaaay too obviously a couple.
Thornhill: "Say, what is this, some kind of joke?"
Villian1: "A joke, yes. We will laugh in the car."
posted by toodleydoodley at 9:10 AM on March 24, 2010
Thornhill: "Say, what is this, some kind of joke?"
Villian1: "A joke, yes. We will laugh in the car."
posted by toodleydoodley at 9:10 AM on March 24, 2010
Not even the train dialogue? Or the Plaza sequence?
We notice many different things.
posted by The Whelk at 7:40 PM on March 23 [+] [!]
How about James Mason? Please tell me you remember James Mason.
posted by toodleydoodley at 9:13 AM on March 24, 2010
We notice many different things.
posted by The Whelk at 7:40 PM on March 23 [+] [!]
How about James Mason? Please tell me you remember James Mason.
posted by toodleydoodley at 9:13 AM on March 24, 2010
« Older "Because they are able to bypass death, the number... | Zipping to School Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
— Cary Grant (on acid)
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:47 PM on March 23, 2010 [7 favorites]