What’s In A Name?

Mrs. Publicist: Past time for What’s In A Name, where Pete talks about a character name. How about Fairbanks, the gator who roams the little Florida lake that Mrs. Plansky’s condo overlooks. Last week, Pete, you quoted this passage from Mrs. Plansky Goes Rogue that explains how Fairbanks got his name from inside the story, so to speak: “Like many gators in the ponds, lakes, springs, and backwaters of Florida, Fairbanks had been given a harmless-sounding name by the locals, in his—or possibly her—case by Ms. Pietsch of condo #9, a retired professor of film history who’d been the first to encounter Fairbanks on a morning kayak paddle some months before and sold out soon after.” But outside the story, how did you come up with it?

Pete: Well, Douglas Fairbanks was a swashbuckling star from a remote period in film history – the silent era, and the combination of silence and gators is a bit unsettling. Then there’s the bank part, like river bank, so a fair bank is exactly what we don’t have outside the condos. So there it is: Fairbanks, larger than life, a silent co-star of the very physical type.

Mrs. P: Thanks, Pete! See you next month for more of What’s In A Name! And may I remind the readers of how much we welcome preorders of Mrs. Plansky Goes Rogue? Coming July 15 but how nice to know a copy – hardcover, digital, audio – will show up at your place that morning!

4 Comments on “What’s In A Name?”

  3. Who couldn’t think of Douglas when seeing Fairbanks? Nice to have an explanation.

    DF Jr was in talkies. He was in one of the versions of Prisoner of Zenda, a favorite of mine. I like both the Ronald Coleman and the Stewart Granger versions. Also The Great Race. Hard to get the joke if you are unfamiliar with the original. Then there is Get Smart, Dave and so many more. I’ve read the original Anthony Hope book more than once but didn’t care for Rupert of Henzau. Too sad.

    It is International Polar Bear day. (Another great scene in The Great Race.)

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