College Widow: Difference between revisions

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[[File:Collegewidow.jpg|thumb|350px|You know it was once a prominent trope when it was used as a brand name for ''cigars''.]]

{{quote|''In my day a college widow stood for something... in fact, she stood for plenty!''~~|'''Groucho Marx''' in ''[[Horse Feathers]]''}}~~

{{quote|''In my day a college widow stood for something... in fact, she stood for plenty!''

|'''Groucho Marx''' in ''[[Horse Feathers]]''}}

A character type dating to at least the early 20th century (there was a 1904 Broadway production entitled ''The College Widow''), but now a [[Forgotten Trope]]: a single woman living in a college town who attracts, encourages and enjoys the attention of the young men from the local school. Often she is the younger wife of a deceased faculty member or college president, but in any case she is barely older than the students she courts. As a genuine widow, she came upon a healthy taste (and talent) for sexual relations ''legitimately'', but her youth left her with her wifely desires still burning hot; she thus turns to the school's handy supply of strapping young men to fill them. Her house, just off the campus, is usually the home to at least one [[Wild Teen Party]] a week if not more, and during Prohibition it's all but a speakeasy.

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== [[Film]] ==

* Thelma "Hot Toddy" Todd (Connie Bailey) in the 1932 [[Marx Brothers]] movie ''[[Horse Feathers]]''.

* ''Horse Feathers'' was in fact mostly a spoof of a 1927 film called simply ''The College Widow'' featuring Delores Costello as the title character, Jane Witherspoon. The daughter of a professor, Jane was technically a bit young to be considered a true college widow but filled the role anyway. This itself was a remake of a 1915 silent film of the same name, in which Jane was played by Ethel Clayton.

* ''Horse Feathers'' was in fact mostly a spoof of a 1927 film called simply ''[[The College Widow]]'' featuring Delores Costello as the title character, Jane Witherspoon. The daughter of a professor, Jane was technically a bit young to be considered a true college widow but filled the role anyway. This itself was a remake of a 1915 silent film of the same name, in which Jane was played by Ethel Clayton.

* Possibly playing on the 1915 film was a 1916 production called ''Dad's College Widow,'' but little is known about the story.

* Vivien Leigh plays a variation on the college widow in ''A Yank at Oxford'', the variation being that she's not really a widow, just the neglected wife of a much older husband.

* Vivien Leigh plays a variation on the college widow in ''[[A Yank at Oxford]]'', the variation being that she's not really a widow, just the neglected wife of a much older husband.

* The coach's wife in ''Tea and Sympathy'' wasn't exactly a widow, although her husband didn't pay much attention to her, which is why she turned her attention to the young man whom his more 'hearty' classmates thought was gay, although he wasn't.

* The coach's wife in ''[[Tea and Sympathy]]'' wasn't exactly a widow, although her husband didn't pay much attention to her, which is why she turned her attention to the young man whom his more 'hearty' classmates thought was gay, although he wasn't.

* The wife of the dean in ''[[Animal House]]''. Although her husband is still living, he doesn't pay too much attention to her (preferring instead to use her as arm candy), and she finds him stuffy and boring. So she turns to the frat boys and their [[Wacky Fratboy Hijinks]]...successfully.

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* The 1904 play ''College Widow'' by George Ade, which may have been the ultimate inspiration for several of the early film scripts mentioned above.

* ''[[Leave It to Jane]]'' was a two-act musical based on Ade's play, co-written by [[P. G. Wodehouse]] of all people; it reached Broadway in 1917.

* Beulah in [[Rodgers and Hammerstein]]'s ''Allegro'' is something like this.

* Beulah in [[Rodgers and Hammerstein]]'s ''[[Allegro]]'' is something like this.

== [[Video Games]] ==

* In ''Spellcasting 201: The Sorcerer's Appliance'', Hillary Tickingclock becomes one when her husband dies. {{spoiler|This status ends when her husband is brought back from the dead at the end of the story}}. Of course, she had been regularly screwing the students (and anyone else who dropped by) before the professor died, {{spoiler|and continued doing so after he came back to life}}.

* In ''[[Spellcasting (series)|Spellcasting 201: The Sorcerer's Appliance]]'', Hillary Tickingclock becomes one when her husband dies. {{spoiler|This status ends when her husband is brought back from the dead at the end of the story}}. Of course, she had been regularly screwing the students (and anyone else who dropped by) before the professor died, {{spoiler|and continued doing so after he came back to life}}.

== Other ==