Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Hyde Park on Hudson (Series No. 3): The movie may have exploited “Our Hill” theme/scene

Based on Daisy’s diary, her relationship with FDR might reach a turning point one day in September 1935. That day FDR took Daisy for a long drive through the winding beautiful country road along Hudson River, stopping at the peak that Daisy had named Our Hill.

Nobody knows or will ever know what happened in the car parked on the hilltop that afternoon, but, I think, the movie takes advantage of it, making a scene that makes the movie an R rating (children under 17 require accompanying adult).  The exchanged letters and her diaries became more intimate.  FDR called it the beginning of “a voyage” 3 years later.


Daisy clipped a poem (Eros—god of love in Greek mythology) from the newspaper and pasted in her diary that day.

That same day FDR tried to persuade Daisy to take a train across the country to dedicate Boulder Dam (now Hoover Dam, nears Las Vegas).  Daisy reluctantly turned him down.  But, then she wrote FDR a letter, saying,

“Do you realize the amount of will-power that was necessary to refuse a certain invitation this past week? A slightly righteous feeling, I find, give no satisfaction whatever — only irritation! . . . After much deep thought, I have come to the very definite conclusion that OUR HILL is, quite without exception, the nicest Hill in Dutchess County! The only problem remaining is as to how it should be spelled.  Just plain OUR-HILL, or OURHILL, or Owahill, or even OW-WA-HILL!”

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