Just a quick question...

[Hollis]

Good morning,

I'm watching "Scandal at Scourie" on TCM this morning starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon. It's the first time I've ever seen Ms Garson other than in B&W and she appears as an Irish woman who has emigrated to Canada and has the beautiful red hair that the Irish are known for. Does anyone know if this is her natural hair color? I always pictured her with light brown hair, as she seemed to have in "Mrs Miniver." Thanks all.

I sincerely hope that everyone is feeling well and is generally happy. As for me, I've dealt with my share of trials and tribulations over the last two weeks, but I'm still kickin'. My best to you all.

As always,

Hollis

[Metry_Road]

Hello Hollis, nice to talk to you again.

I googled for Greer Garson and all the color pictures of her do indeed show her with red hair.

The belief that Irish people are generally red haired is a bit of a Hollywood myth. In Ireland – and the British isles in general – only about 5% to 10% of the population has red hair (certainly a high percentage compared to the rest of the world). There are higher percentages of black/brown/blond haired people. Maybe only red-headed Irish emigrated to America and caused this tradition to be established (very unlikely).

Red hair does look beautiful in Technicolor. For example Moira Shearer in ‘The Red Shoes’ or Deborah Kerr in ‘Black Narcissus’ or Maureen O’Hara in ‘The Quiet Man’.

Red hair runs (it practically gallops) in my family. My mother has red hair, as does my eldest daughter. The downside of red hair I suppose is freckles and inadequate UV protection.

Regards

[movieman1957]

The downside of red hair I suppose is freckles and inadequate UV protection.

Regards

I lead the league in freckles. When I was a kid I used to get sunburned at little league games that started at 6:15pm.

Of course my hair has gone from red to strawberry blonde to kind of a light brown to mostly gray. The best thing is that I still have most all of it.

[knitwit45]

once upon a time I was a red head. Not that glorious color of Greer Garson or Maureen O'Hara, but more along the lines of Lucille Ball now, it's whatever gets pulled off the shelf at the hair salon . At least I missed most of the freckles! I inherited my red hair from my Scots/Irish grandmother, and her nickname her entire life was "Speck", for all her freckles.

[Metry_Road]

Dear knitwit45, you sound like my youngest daughter. She inherited her straight brown hair from me, and she hates it. She now considers her hair simply as a canvas for her imagination. Over the past year or so she has turned up with her hair dyed in various colors, anything from jet black to flourescent green. She came home one day with her hair dyed midnight black with purple streaks. I told her she looked like 'Lily' from 'The Munsters'. She liked that

Regards

[knitwit45]

Flatterer!

[jdb1]

I think we might take it as a given that red-haired women were extra-gorgeous in Technicolor or its equivalent. Every time I see Lucille Ball in a color movie, I'm struck by how much more radiant she looks than in her TV show, and she looks pretty good in that.

It's a very interesting phenomenon: I was born with very dark brown, almost black hair. But lately, every six weeks or so, my hair seems to be getting lighter brown, and now has a definite reddish cast to it. Funny thing -- I seem to notice it the most the day after I visit my hairdresser. Wonder what it could be . . . . . . . . ?

Is it the "Middle-Aged Italian Woman's Hair Color Progression?" i.e., black, to brown, to red to blonde to silver. If so, I'm making good progress.

[Hollis]

My dad's family was Scotch-Irish, my mom's hailed from Lithuania (generally speaking) and both were as brunette as could be. Me? What does it tell you that growing up they called me "carrot top?" Over the years it's gone (and slowly continues to leave me) from that orange-red hue to a mix of strawberry blond and gray. The strawberry does a pretty fair job of camouflaging the gray everywhere but in my beard, which is predominately gray. Go figure!

As always,

Hollis

[melwalton]

I've always thought of the Irish as two distinct types,
One the florid, ruddy red haired
The other, Jet black hair and a milky white complexion. Both with blue eyes,
My mother had brown hair and eyes and an olive complexion but all her siblings were the second type.
She waa beautiful
, Of course, I'm the 'spittin image' of my father,.
I like the strawberry blond look.

My wife is now a blond .... mel

[jdb1]

I've always thought of the Irish as two distinct types,
One the florid, ruddy red haired
The other, Jet black hair and a milky white complexion. Both with blue eyes,
My mother had brown hair and eyes and an olive complexion but all her siblings were the second type.
She waa beautiful
, Of course, I'm the 'spittin image' of my father,.
I like the strawberry blond look.

My wife is now a blond .... mel

Say, Mel, it sounds like your mother's family must have had a 16th Century Spanish survivor of the Armada shipwrecks in the family.

And Hollis, there are a lot of Lithuanians in Brooklyn, and a significant majority of those I've ever come across are red-haired, or at least reddish-brown-haired. Certainly all the Lithuanian-Americans I've ever met here, including several former students of mine, were redheads of varying shades. Metry suggested that there may have been a preponderance of red-haired Irish immigrants to this country, and I don't think that idea is particularly far-fetched for any immigrant group. Members of one extended Lithuanian family may have settled in Brooklyn and passed down their red-hair genes to their descendants.

Have you heard of the Blue Men of Ringwood (New Jersey)? No, it's not the ancestors of the Blue Man Group, it's a group of people who have a peculiar tint to their complexions, and that bluish hue has been passed down for years, although I think by this time it's probably been highly diluted by intermarriage.

[klondike]

The belief that Irish people are generally red haired is a bit of a Hollywood myth. In Ireland – and the British isles in general – only about 5% to 10% of the population has red hair (certainly a high percentage compared to the rest of the world). There are higher percentages of black/brown/blond haired people. Maybe only red-headed Irish emigrated to America and caused this tradition to be established (very unlikely).
The downside of red hair I suppose is freckles and inadequate UV protection.

Well, MR, ol' buddy, I need to disagree with you a tad, here & there.
On the one hand, though Hollywood certainly did bend backwards to stereotype, and ultimately mythologize, dozens of occasional or percentile Irish traits, as with most "myths" they were rooted in some considerable substantia; your percentages, I believe, according to the fifty or so people I've known who've emigrated from the modern Irish Free State, are are 5 - 8% lower than are generally factual; also one needs to bear in mind that the numbers can differ appreciably depending on where in Ireland you are: counties like Wicklow, Fermanagh, Dublin & Waterford likely reflect numbers similar to what you've quoted, but traipse on over to County Sligo, or up to Donegal, and on most days you can spot up to twice as many redheads than you would on holiday in Dingle.
As for red hair being prevalent among 19th Century immigrants to North America, I agree that it would've been insupportably coincidental at best; my maternal grandmother's dad emigrated with his folks on a famine ship out of the Port of Claddagh in 1848, but his own red hair was inconsequential to the desperation of his family's hunger.
As for redheads always being freckled and/or sun-sensitive, that also is not entirely factual - in my own family line, two out of every five of us are red-haired, none of us are freckled, and most of us tan right up browner'n walnuts!

[Metry_Road]

Hey! Hold on a minute Klondike. Don’t come in here throwing facts, statistics and historical context around like confetti, especially since I don’t have any to throw back, that’s just dirty pool.

My grandfather on my mothers side was from County Mayo. My grandmother was from Armagh (pre partition). They were both dark haired. Of their eight children, only my mother was a red-head. And that is the full extent of my knowledge of this subject.

The figure of ‘5% to 10%’ was from Wikipedia.

Anyway Klondike its nice to hear from you, even if you do play dirty.

Best wishes

[knitwit45]

M.R., a word of advice: never EVER mess with the ol' Klonnie when it's ANYTHING Celtic!!!!!

[klondike]

Hey! Hold on a minute Klondike. Don’t come in here throwing facts, statistics and historical context around like confetti, especially since I don’t have any to throw back, that’s just dirty pool.

My grandfather on my mothers side was from County Mayo. My grandmother was from Armagh (pre partition). They were both dark haired. Of their eight children, only my mother was a red-head. And that is the full extent of my knowledge of this subject.

The figure of ‘5% to 10%’ was from Wikipedia.

Anyway Klondike its nice to hear from you, even if you do play dirty.

Best wishes

Ah, Metry, me boyo, 'tis relieved I am to be sportin' yer teethmarks on my bahookie; for a moment or three, there, I was worried you'd just roll your eyes, pick up your Guinness, and move down the bar to talk to some reasonable people!
Bless your gran'pap for being from County Mayo (would seem you're a generation closer to Eire than am I); my own great-gramps was a Connaughtsman, too, from just acrost the River Moy, town o' Inishcrone in County Sligo.
My uncle Hollis (not the author of this thread) used to say there was no greater honorment 'tween Irishmen than a friendly cuff on the ear, now & again, so I guess that's my best defense here.
But rest assured I'm not really playin' dirty; were I meanin' to do that, I'd inquire what color hair was had by the milkmen in Mayo . . . !