THE CHAPERONE PBS MOVIE
THE CHAPERONE PBS FREE

Joseph sees right through her, and invites her to have tea with him instead. Taking a page from Louise’s book, she tries to charm Joseph into helping her access her adoption records. Norma returns to the orphanage, intentionally arriving during mass when the nuns will be otherwise engaged. Louise loves flirting, an impulse Norma tries to curtail.

THE CHAPERONE PBS FREE

Louise thinks Norma should use her feminine wiles to get free stuff like she does. Later, Norma is passing the ice cream parlor – Louise is inside, flirting with Floyd behind the counter. Her new Dutch bob haircut is very becoming, and Ted Shawn has singled her out for special attention. That night, Louise notices that Norma is in a somber mood. Norma arrives home unexpectedly during the day and catches Alan in the bedroom, doing…we don’t know. …Flash back to a few months earlier, in Wichita. Sister Dolores asks Norma about her marriage, observing that she looks “prosperous and comfortable” and she should consider herself lucky. Later, she asks the head of the orphanage, Sister Dolores, for information about her birth parents, but is told it is confidential. When she arrives during mass, a friendly German handyman, Joseph Schmidt, kindly fetches her a chair. Meanwhile, Norma hits the local ice cream parlor and meets young soda jerk Floyd Smithers, who helpfully gives her directions to the New York Home for Friendless Girls, the Catholic orphanage where she grew up. Louise is cynical at first, but she is drawn in as the dance class progresses. Denis and her husband Ted Shawn, who outline the very strict moral standards to which they expect their students to adhere. The next morning, Louise arrives at Denishawn and meets its founders, the pretentious real-life dancers Ruth St. At their flat, Louise wants to go sightseeing, but Norma begs off, and Louise is forbidden to go out alone after dark. Upon arrival, Louise is instantly besotted with New York, turning on the charm with a reluctant cab driver. Louise asks Norma if she is happy with Alan – there was clearly tension between them. Later that night, we learn that Norma grew up in a New York orphanage she was one of many children farmed out across the country on trains, and was adopted on sight by a Kansas farmer and his wife, who died when she was young, leading to her marriage to Alan at 16. Having found Louise holding forth in the dining car in the company of two admiring men, Norma primly explains that “men don’t like candy that’s been unwrapped.” Louise’s derisive response is a bad sign. Once aboard the train, Norma realizes that she will have her work cut out for her: Louise attracts men like honey attracts flies, and is not exactly a respecter of authority. The next day, Norma seals the deal with Myra and an excited Louise, who tells her, “I think we’re going to have a wonderful time.” That night, as they retire to their separate beds, Alan expresses concern about the trip, hoping Norma won’t go “digging around.” Norma replies that she will do as she likes. After the performance, Norma approaches Myra and Louise, and, to Alan’s confusion, offers to accompany Louise to New York. The young and beautiful Louise performs a graceful modern dance that clearly scandalizes some in the audience (one of whom just told Norma that she and her husband have joined the Ku Klux Klan), but Norma is mesmerized. Alan looks uncomfortable and Norma’s reaction is frosty. As Norma and Alan take their seats in the audience, a young man, Raymond, approaches them to say hello. But she can’t go without a chaperone, and nobody is available. As Norma eavesdrops, the “well-known Wichita pianist” Myra Brooks reveals to friends that her teenaged daughter Louise, performing that evening, has been accepted at Denishawn, a prestigious dance school in New York. As a four-piece band plays a jaunty tune and partygoers mingle, a much-younger Norma enters on the arm of her husband Alan. A dance recital to benefit the Wichita Children’s Home. “It’s Norma Carlisle.” The door opens, and before we can see who is inside, we instantly flash back to… Reaching the top, the woman knocks on a door.

THE CHAPERONE PBS MOVIE

An attractive woman in her early sixties is climbing a staircase lined with 1920s-era movie stills and posters of a glamorous young woman sporting a black Dutch bob hairstyle.

The chaperone pbs