Being Steve McQueen
For most of high school life in London, Ontario, I wanted to look and behave like Steve McQueen…
But I thoroughly resembled Piggy from Lord of the Flies.
I was basically a Clark Kent without a phone booth.
Back in the 1950s and 60s, my hometown of Georgetown did not have a movie theatre, so I didn’t see a feature film on the big screen until 1964, after our family moved to London. The story of this first cinema experience, of love at first sight, can be read by clicking here:
Good Neighbor Sam – Robert McBryde
In London, I more than made up for such a slow start by spending inordinate hours huddled at the movie theatre, alone or with friends. The city had a number of enticing locations to offer in those halcyon days, including the Odeon, the Capitol, and so many more.
By 1964-65, I began attending Elvis films like Viva Las Vegas, and developed a serial infatuation with Bond, James Bond.
Of course, there were the Beatles movies (Help and A Hard Day’s Night), during which teeny boppers would scream orgiastically, sublimated sexuality unleashed before the silver screen, not unlike such unseemly demonstrations on The Ed Sullivan Show.
But far and away my favourite film, which I watched, mesmerized, over and over again, was the The Great Escape featuring Steve McQueen. This film, which first appeared in 1963, graced London screens during 1964 and 1965 and determined my early adolescent inner landscape.
The Great Escape, and particularly Steve McQueen, would invariably move London audiences to unbridled clapping and cheering as Steve outwitted the nefarious, but plodding Nazis and unflinchingly embraced his stints in the “cooler,” trusty baseball glove in hand, defying all authority in order to fight and escape another day.
I pined for my own theme music and longed to vault the barbed wire of family and scholastic constraints on a growling motorcycle, insouciant and undefeated by the prison camp of school and home.
Your friend,
Robert
Robert McBryde – robertmcbrydeauthor.com
