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Historial Figures and the Dining Thereof
Dekabal
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
As a final senior project, my teacher is having us do a Historical Dinner Party where we dress up and act as a figure from World War 1 up until the end of the Cold War. The problem is, i'm not sure who to pick. I was thinking Douglas Macarthur but I wanted to get some feedback. Who are some crazy, eccentric, or interesting figures from the Cold War who would be fun to act as? They don't have to be incredibly prominent but I still do need to be able to get a decent bit of information on them.
*Edit*: My teacher revised the assignment to allow a figure from any point in history to be used. I'm looking to steal the show on this project so to speak so give me what you've got : )
*Edit*: My teacher revised the assignment to allow a figure from any point in history to be used. I'm looking to steal the show on this project so to speak so give me what you've got : )
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Accuse everyone at the table of being a card-carrying communist.
But stealing the show when you could be anyone from any point in history? That's going to be tricky. Do you want someone that's obscure? How exactly do you want to steal the show?
Edit: For Kafka inspiration, watch "Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTMHUIN6ciM I think it won a grammy for best short film. Also it's hilarious
Double Edit: I put the wrong movie at first
Some entertaining choices:
The bad guys
Stalin
Mussolini
Himmler
Hess (this one could be really interesting)
Hitler
McCarthy
Castro (meh guy if you aren't American)
The meh guys
Haig
De Gaulle
Mackenzie King
Nixon
MacArthur
Chamberlain
von Schlieffen
Lenin
The good guys
Montgomery
Patton
Truman (meh guy if you aren't American)
Eisenhower
That's a start anyway....
Edit: If your characters need not be leaders / of that era might I suggest some of the more entertaining architects or artists of the 20th century. Guys like Salvador Dali, Frank Lloyd Wright, or Pablo Picasso would be great to play. Dali would be money in the bank providing you can get a very long waxed mustache on short notice.
One of the crazy Roman emperors like Nero or Caligula? Gives you license to yell things like "Bring me twenty roast geese and a live horse, I'm hungry AND I want to screw something!"
My first thought was Calvin Coolidge, notorious for saying very little, especially at White House social events. But that's not really a show stealer.
Forget the big names!
Good god he sounds like the living incarnation of badass (confirmed on wikipedia). It would be awesome to do him but getting his costume together would be a little tricky in less than a week (bagpipes, longbow, etc.). Right now i'm thinking of either going as Douglas MacArthur (bomber shades, high pants, corn cob pipe) or Joseph McCarthy (I would walk around accusing everyone of being a card carrying communist and period slip "Communist Cards" into their pockets). I'm still open to suggestions though.
It would certainly be memorable.
Could do Reagan, Just act like you have Alzheimers.
Brush up on your 20s-60s historical figures so you can compare people to them/make fun of them. Feel free to bring a duck.
I would really suggest Groucho since he's recognizable, fun to imitate, covers a wide swath of history and is a cool guy. But for other ideas here are some random people/ideas:
Interwar peoples:
Ernst Lehmann - Zeppelin pilot
George Clarence "Bugs" Moran - invented the drive-by (or try any other Prohibition-era gangster, like Capone)
Less prominent WW2-era people:
Italo Balbo - Italian Marshall of the Air Force killed in "accidental" friendly fire incidient
Claus von Stauffenburg - nearly successful plot to assassinate Hitler and usurp command of Germany in the hopes of saving it.
Alfred Naujocks - guy who led the group posing as Polish soldiers that attacked Gleiwitz radio station to provide cause for Germany to invade Poland...also other spy-ish things.
Post-War people:
Consider some various astronauts (or cosmonauts, Gagarin could be interesting)?
Che Guevara - if you don't want to go for the obvious Castro choice
Any of the US Presidents/Secretaries of State/General Staff
People will either get pissed about you either showing how pro-fascism he was or about how you glossed over it.
Also, given the high school setting, and seeing as the OP wants a showstealer, the two most showstealing things about Churchill (and the things that would make him the most fun to portray at a meal) might be frowned upon: Alcohol and sexism.
Personally, I think McCarthy would be a good showstealer. Guy was an all around jackass. Remember that if challenged for proof, demonstrate that there's no conclusive evidence they're NOT communists, and any counter argument doesn't really prove anything, or "Sounds like Communist talk to me"/"Sounds like you have something to hide"/"Sounds like you're trying to make up for something." Try to divide the class against itself - you know who the good guys are, and it would be a shame if you had to go looking into their pasts too much.
Do you have the balls to do Truman in drag? I'd play him like JJ Jameson.
Yay, I got 2nd place!
Have fun, should be an interesting event.