Recently I watched the film "Curly Top" (a 1935 vehicle for Shirley Temple). Temple's character has an older sister Mary, who is the romantic partner with the male lead, Edward, a wealthy lawyer, They are drawn together by a mutual love of music, and at one point Edward tells how he once studied music in the Austrian town of Brunn (with much fustian about how the simple Austrian townsfolk love music).
The point is that Brunn, after 1918, was the _Czechoslovakian_ city of _Brno_.
I think it is interesting that as late as 1935, there was still a popular perception of Brno/Brunn as as being "Austrian". And as noted, it wasn't just asserted in passing, but stated at some length.
> Recently I watched the film "Curly Top" (a 1935 > vehicle for Shirley Temple) . . . a mutual > love of music, and at one point Edward tells how > he once studied music in the Austrian town of > Brunn (with much fustian about how the simple > Austrian townsfolk love music).
> The point is that Brunn, after 1918, was the > _Czechoslovakian_ city of _Brno_.
> I think it is interesting that as late as 1935, there > was still a popular perception of Brno/Brunn as > as being "Austrian". And as noted, it wasn't just > asserted in passing, but stated at some length.
Data at www.imdb.com suggests the screenplay was (remotely) adapted from Daddy Long Legs, a book by Jean Webster, successfully presented on Broadway in 1914. Bruenn/Brno was the capital of German-speaking Moravia and "the Austrian Manchester" (the Encyclopedia Britannica of 1911 tells us) as the main centre of the Austrian textile industry. Even a fictional character who had studied there before WW1 might very plausibly use its German name. -- Don Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada)
-- Don Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada)
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