A REPOST from TOB
============================================================================================Ennis named after a baseball player?
by stonewall_gunther (Tue Nov 28 2006 10:19:00 ) I was wondering if anyone knew if Ennis was named after the 50's baseball player, Del Ennis?
Delmer Ennis played from 1946 to 1959, and had 7 100 RBI seasons so was a star player though not quite Hall of Fame caliber.
He played mostly in Philadelphia, and St. Louis at the end.
The name seems a bit too close to be coincidental. Was the writer of Brokeback a Phillies fan?
Or is there some other significance to the name Delmar Ennis, and perhaps both coincedentally were named for this other reason?
Re: Ennis named after a baseball player?
by True_Oracle_of_Phoenix (Tue Nov 28 2006 10:23:27 ) UPDATED Tue Nov 28 2006 10:33:42
Don't know the answer, but just thought I'd add this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del_Ennis Re: Ennis named after a baseball player?
by loreleib (Tue Nov 28 2006 14:27:30 ) I don't know is just a coincidence or not, but there are two towns named Ennis and Alma about ten minutes away from each other in east Texas. Maybe the author had been there before?
*I love that the movies I like get horrible reviews. It makes them come out on DVD earlier.*
Re: Ennis named after a baseball player?
by greylocke5 (Tue Nov 28 2006 14:50:49 ) "Ennis" is taken from the Scottish word "innis", which means "island."
del mar - is Spanish - it means "of or in the sea."
Ennis del Mar = island in the sea.
Hence, the name fits the character.
Re: Ennis named after a baseball player?
by loreleib (Tue Nov 28 2006 14:57:59 ) I knew that. For some reason this post just reminded me of that. I've driven through Ennis, Texas plenty of times and just a little while after seeing this movie for the first time, I realized there was a town named Alma near it. I didn't know before because Alma isn't right off the the interstate. I wonder if Annie Proulx knew about those two towns.
*I love that the movies I like get horrible reviews. It makes them come out on DVD earlier.*
Re: Ennis named after a baseball player?
by JPJenny (Tue Nov 28 2006 15:30:36 ) UPDATED Tue Nov 28 2006 15:32:58
Hi, stonewall_gunther,
Interesting!
Annie Proulx graduated university in Maine around 1950 so maybe she knew.
This may not be relevant but Annie said the following in an interview:
“For me, metaphors come in sheets of three or four at once, in floods, and so metaphor use often concerns selection rather than construction. There are private layers of meaning in metaphor that may be obscure to the reader but which have—beyond the general accepted meanings of the words—resonance for the writer through personal associations of language, ideas, impressions. So the writer may be using metaphor to guide the reader and deepen the story, for subtle effects but also for sheer personal pleasure in word play.
So I think it’s possible. No?
Another thing that came to my mind:
In the film Jack says “I doubt there’s a filly that can throw me.”
But he gets thrown (fall in love) by a Phillie, Delmar Ennis = Ennis Delmar.
I know a filly is a young female horse and this line is only in the film (i.e. not written by Annie) but this pun is my “sheer personal pleasure.”
Thanks for sharing your finding.
Re: Ennis named after a baseball player?
by stonewall_gunther (Wed Nov 29 2006 10:21:47 ) I didn't see any other baseball players named Ennis, I myself can't recall anyone with the first name of Ennis. Is it a Scottish name?
The more I think about it, the more it seems he must have been named after the player.
