12 Brides: Auctions and Movie Inspiration

Where did the inspiration for one of my scenes in The Sunbonnet Bride come from?

One of my favorite movie musicals: Oklahoma.

In the movie, the townspeople indulged in a favorite money-raiser in frontier towns: the box luncheon auction.

Plenty of variation on the theme are out there and I used a pie auction in place of a lunch–though the auctioned item was in a decorated box.

The idea was a woman made a pie, wrapped it up in a special wrapping and brought it to the auction.

Interested bidders could browse the boxes, try to guess what type of pie was inside but, in the case of would-be suitors, figure out who made the pie in the first place.

Whoever won the bidding also won the pie maker–for, in the case of the lunch box social, the amount of time it took the couple to eat lunch.

With a pie–well, however long was necessary.

My inspiration for the pie auction was from the movie but also from other movie musicals like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers–where again, young men were competing for the attention of the available young women in town.

At the time, if you were a young woman with an eye on a young man, you might signal to him which box was yours.

Some men tried the direct approach, like Lena’s father:

“What kind of pie did you make for me?” Pa asked Lena.

She batted her lashes. “You’ll find your favorite on the table.”

Or, perhaps a friend would drop a hint, as happened in The Sunbonnet Bride:

“They were baking pies when I went by the boarding house,” Ewan said. “Lena was pitting cherries on the front porch.”

Sport returned with his stick and Malcolm scratched the dog’s ears. “Thanks.”

Since box socials traditionally were used to collect money or build a church–in The Sunbonnet Bride the funds were used for victims of a tornado–the auctioneer ran the bidding as high as he could.

You might say, auctioneers took advantage of young men in love.

Malcolm hurried to the auction and egged on by the auctioneer as well as his wealthier rival emptied his pockets trying to win Sally’s pie.

The same thing happened to Curly in Oklahoma.

But did it?

Young women were well aware of the temptation to pass signals.

Some did.

Some didn’t.

And some found inspiration from the Biblical story of Rachel and Leah‘s father.

You’ll have to read the book to learn if the best man won the young lady’s heart.

In the meantime, here’s a clip from a dramatic production of the auction scene in Oklahoma:

 

 

 

Tweetables

Box socials, flirting and pie. Click to tweet

The movie Oklahoma inspires a Sunbonnet Bride. Click to Tweet

A pie social auction for romance or revenge? Click to Tweet