The Iceman Cometh

               
                     Eugene O'Neill at rehearsal for The Iceman Cometh in 1946

English 3332 students:

This week we will not have a written assignment for the blog because Friday, March 25, is a school holiday. But at home or wherever you can access the Internet over this long weekend, you should put aside the time to watch the 1960 film production of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh, starring Jason Robards and Robert Redford.

The running time of the video is a bit more than three hours, and you might want to divide your viewing time unless you have that stretch of time available in one sitting. But please keep in mind that you should watch the last hour (or more, if possible) in one sitting so that you will understand the suspense and intensity in the play's climactic conclusion.

Instructions for watching the film in the ASU library's streaming video collection:

1. Click on this:  ASU library link for The Iceman Cometh

2. Type in your ASU username and password.

3. When the web page for the video opens, click on the triangle play icon.

4. Enjoy!

In the play, you will find unfamiliar slang from the New York City area that was used a century ago. Here is a list of terms and definitions that you should review carefully before you watch the film:

1. the iceman: a delivery man who supplied people with blocks of ice for their iceboxes (old fashioned refrigerators that were large coolers needing a steady supply of ice blocks). The jokes about a wife having an affair with the iceman, made by several characters in the play, would be similar today to jokes about a wife having an affair with a UPS delivery man or a cable guy.

2. to croak: to die or to kill

3. a tart: a promiscuous woman (in today's slang, a slut)

4. a ball: a shot of liquor

5. a soak, souse, stew bum, or tank: an alcoholic

6. pie-eyed, paralyzed, oreyed, or stinko: drunk

7. a nail: a sexually transmitted disease

8. a pipe dream: an impossible fantasy (alluding to the hallucinations of opium users, who smoke opium with a pipe.)

9. bughouse: crazy

10. a yap: a stupid person or a mouth

11. a periodical: a drinking binge

12. a grifter: a petty criminal, con artist

13. a bazoo: mouth

14. a drummer: a salesman

15. bejees: short for "By Jesus;" today, this slang expression is shortened to "jeez" or "gee"

16. the Movement: an anarchist group of terrorists who kill innocent people with bombs to send a message to society at large.

Have a great three-day weekend,

Dr. K