“A kiss is just a kiss,” asserted composer Herman Hupfeld in 1931 when he wrote “As Time Goes By,” the song that years later would so enhance the iconic film Casablanca.
Not to quibble with the talented Mr. Hupfeld, but events down the generations have shown that a smackeroo can be much more than “just” a kiss.
Only last month, one brought down the president of the Spanish Soccer Federation, after he planted it on the unwelcoming lips of a player for his national women’s team.
Kisses have played memorable roles in history, the arts, and even the Bible – not to mention the one made famous by a Newport-born sailor.
The late George Mendonsa, who lived most of his 95 years in Middletown, was generally accepted as the unidentified swabee kissing a stranger, a uniformed dental assistant, in Times Square after the announcement in 1945 that World War II was over.
Recorded by famous photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt – who didn’t take names – the kiss is ranked among the most famous in history, although some today say it was intrusive. Still, it stands as an embodiment of the exuberance Americans felt at the time.
Accounts of other famous kisses have endured through the ages. At least two references are Biblical – the kiss a dying Moses received from God, and the kiss of betrayal that Judas gave Jesus.
The latter validates that a kiss need not reflect romance. Who can forget the scene in The Godfather, Part II, when mob boss Michael Corleone, aware of his brother’s perfidy, kisses him on the lips and declares, “I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart.”
La Cosa Nostra employed such kisses as signs the recipients would be whacked – and we know what happened to Fredo.
But kisses have also been credited for inspiration. A TV kiss in 1968 was said to have significant social impact. It came from William Shatner, playing Star Trek’s white Capt. James T. Kirk. The recipient was Black starship officer Nyota Uhura, played by Nichelle Nichols. Their kiss sent a powerful message of acceptance just a year after the U.S. Supreme Court declared interracial marriage legal.
Many have written about the power and pleasure of kissing, but in 1882 French sculptor Auguste Rodin captured it in marble with his rendition of a nude couple embracing as their lips are about to touch. “The Kiss,” which exudes passion from both the man and the woman, was once considered scandalous – so much so that in 1893, a bronze replica at a Chicago art exhibition was relegated to a private area and could be viewed only by special request.
So with kisses running both hot and cold through history, you might want to know that a day has been set aside when we can celebrate them: Oct. 19 is “National Kiss Your Crush Day.”
Where this came from is anyone’s guess, but one explanatory website says, “This day reminds us to be bold and embrace our feelings with full attention. We should take this opportunity to get closer to our crushes and confess our feelings with a kiss (of course, with consent).”
In our age of bad news and division, especially over the disturbing past several days, it’s good to know we can still appreciate the sweetness of a kiss – and who better to weigh in on that than the co-star of Casablanca herself, Ingrid Bergman? She once observed, “A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.”
I give much more than lip service to her sentiments, and offer this suggestion for how best to enjoy a fulfilling October 19th:
Pucker up.
Gerry Goldstein (gerryg76@verizon.net), a frequent contributor, is a retired Providence Journal editor and columnist.