Season 6: Episode 298 - AMERICA GOES DARK: Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Cafe (F.Flagg/1991)

Book:  Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle

            Stop Café

            By Fannie Flagg

 

Film:  Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle

           Stop Café (1991)

 

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is a 1987 novel by American author Fannie Flagg. Set in Alabama, it weaves together the past and the present through the blossoming friendship between Evelyn Couch, a middle-aged housewife, and Ninny Threadgoode, an elderly woman who lives in a nursing home. Every week Evelyn visits Ninny, who recounts stories of her youth in Whistle Stop, Alabama, where her sister-in-law, Idgie, and her friend, Ruth, ran a café. These stories, along with Ninny's friendship, enable Evelyn to begin a new, satisfying life while allowing the people and stories of Ninny's youth to live on. The book explores themes of family, aging, lesbianism, and the dehumanizing effects of racism on both black and white people.

 

Fried Green Tomatoes is a 1991 American comedy-drama film directed by Jon Avnet and based on Fannie Flagg's 1987 novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. Written by Flagg and Carol Sobieski, and starring Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker and Cicely Tyson, the film tells the story of a housewife who, unhappy with her life, befriends an elderly lady in a nursing home and is enthralled by the tales she tells of people she used to know.  The film was released in theaters in the United States on December 27, 1991, garnered positive reviews from critics and was a box office hit, grossing $119.4 million on a $11 million budget. It was nominated for two Oscars at the 64th Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress (Tandy) and Best Adapted Screenplay.

 

Opening Credits; Introduction (2.29); Background History (11.59); Plot Synopsis (13.19); Book Thoughts(17.57); Let's Rate (1:06.57); Amazing Design Advertisement (16.47); Introducing a Film (1:17.57); Film Trailer (1:18.47); Lights, Camera, Action (1:21.14); How Many Stars (1:59.03); End Credits (2:09.17); Closing Credits (2:11.19)

 

Opening Credits– Epidemic Sound – copyright 2021. All rights reserved

 

Closing Credits:  Count On Me by Bruno Mars.  Taken from the album Doo-Wops and Hooligans.  Copyright 2011 Atlantic/Warner Music.

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Original Music copyrighted 2020 Dan Hughes Music and the Literary License Podcast. 

 

All rights reserved.  Used with Kind Permission.

 

All songs available through Amazon Music.