38: Go Eagles!
Amy Archer is an incredibly quick witted person. As she enters Norville Barnes’s office for the first time, telling her fake sob story about how much of a poor waif she is, she plays up her own pseudo-small-town-innocence by claiming “these were the values that were instilled in me while I was growing up in a little town you've probably never heard of: Muncie, Indiana”. Amy makes a calculated move, she wishes to present herself as the kind of unsophisticate that Norville clearly is, and knows that specificity is the soul of narrative. She knows that her character needs to come from a small town but that simply saying “I was born in a small town” isn’t going to cut it*, she needs to name a small town in order to seem adequately convincing. In 1958 the population of the United States was 174.9 million people. The population of Muncie, Indiana was 58 thousand people. If there was an even chance that meeting a stranger in New York would be from anywhere in the country, the odds of meeting a Muncian would be about one in three thousand. The odds that two strangers in New York would both be from Muncie, Indiana would be about one in nine million, making it 1/6th as likely as a modern American dying while taking a selfie (average of 2 recorded deaths per year out of an average of 3 million recorded deaths per year in the US during the 2010s). Thus when Norville Barnes reacts to her stating those magical words “Muncie, Indiana” and launches into the Muncie High fight song, it would have been entirely appropriate for her to not sing along, announce afterwards “I’m sorry, I didn’t expect that particular gambit would result in you actually being from Muncie, Indiana. I cannot convincingly carry on with this ruse, goodbye” and walk away, possibly to walk into the ocean from embarrassment.** Amy Archer does not do this, within seconds she realizes what he is doing and without knowing the words or melody opts to sing along with the Muncie High fight song. Amy has a spectacular wit.
The Muncie High fight song is a simple little melody. It has no rhythms more complex than the occasional dotted quarter note to eighth note transition, its range is under one octave, and features stretches of straight ahead quarter notes repeating the same note for a measure at a time. It’s a fight song, it’s built so that anyone can sing it easily after hearing it once and is there to rouse crowds to action, it’s not high art.
High school fight songs exist for two reasons: first is as a simple melody that can be easily played by by young amateur musicians in a marching band as a rudimentary introduction to performed music, and second is to be a catchy melody for students to express pride in their school at sports games and pep rallies. There are thousands of high schools across the United States, many with their own unique fight songs, and yet despite their technically independent and unique words and melodies, they may as well be one singular form for how little they vary between each other. Muncie High’s fictitious fight song is no different. Much like the Newsreel segment later in the film, it would almost seem to be absurd enough to be a spoof or satire, but for the fact that real high school and college fight songs are as silly as Norville’s performance. Even the rhythmic lunges and squawks that start the song are not far off from the fight song of one of the most prestigious universities in the nation: Yale***.
Given the simplicity of fight songs it would be unremarkable then if Amy Archer were able to hear the song once and replicate it easily, but what Amy does instead is use an innate sense of musical theory and composition to sing the song along with Norville as she hears it for the first time, and it is a remarkable thing to behold.
Amy clearly has no idea what is happening as Norville begins lunging, grunting and screeching as the introduction to the Muncie High fight song. Her deer-in-the-headlights look as the camera cuts from Norville to her face indicates both a desire to remain stony faced and not outwardly panic but also betrays that something has gone seriously wrong with her plan.
Amy even manages to use this nonsense to her advantage, as the grunts and squawks are happening rhythmically, establishing a tempo for the song. As Norville kneels on the couch and starts pumping his fist while singing, Amy understands that a singalong is happening in a remarkable 2 notes. She has no sense of a key, (and Norville isn’t giving her much of one) so she more speaks than sings the words “fight on” but still she knows where the notes will land rhythmically and pumps her fist with Norville while trying desperately not to betray her own inward panic.
Once she hits “dear old Muncie” she has caught the key and is singing with Norville just behind the beat as she hears each new word come out of his mouth. On the second syllable of “Muncie” she recognizes it as the end of a musical phrase where the note might be hung onto for a second, and so sings it with a little bit of vibrato. She immediately knows that the next lyrics of the song will again be “fight on” as in the miniscule few seconds this has been happening that this is a high school fight song. Fight songs are uncomplicated and both short and repetitive, and so she innately both knows that the next lyric will be “fight on” and that the next note will be one step down in the scale from the opening notes of the song, and so remarkably, six notes after she catches onto what is happening she is singing the first two notes of the third measure with Norville rather than immediately after. She loses the song immediately after however with “hoist the gold and blue”, once again opting to follow Norville quickly rather than trying to anticipate the next notes. By the end of the phrase “hoist the gold and blue” however Amy’s look of panic is gone from her face, as she points and smiles at him on “blue”, no longer communicating “I’m desperately afraid as to what is about to happen” but rather “ah yes, blue! I had merely forgotten for a second what my high school colors were, you got it just before I could remember!”.
On “you’ll be tattered, torn, and hurtin’” she moves from smiling with recognition to pantomiming the lyrics with gusto, pretending to be swept away with emotion from her school pride. Her true moment of brilliance in thinking on her feet however comes in the final few lyrics, as she realizes the song is coming to a close, and successfully both anticipates both the words and melody of “done with you”, even coming in early (and a little sharp, but correcting herself) on the final “you” as she’s successfully found the song’s key and understands that it will end on its tonic note.
Once Norville Barnes has begin grunting and lunging before breaking out into song, there is no longer any time to plan what to do. A less clever person than she would have sat slack jawed as Norville sang his fight song and unconvincingly lied about why they couldn’t sing it with him, and as a result would have lost his trust. Amy however is so quick witted that she’s able to process that this madman whose bird squawks were reverberating through his giant office moments ago is singing a fight song. She is quick witted enough to realize his excitement over her saying “Muncie, Indiana” and his subsequent launch into the song means that this is a Muncie fight song, and she is quick witted enough to realize that fight songs all sound the same, and therefore that despite never having heard this song she is able to still sing along and save face. All of this was decided upon and acted upon in less time than it takes to sneeze. Going with one’s guts can be a risky move. Sometimes our guts don’t have much in the way of brains. Amy Archer’s guts however apparently deserve a Nobel Prize.
Go Eagles!
*Yes, this was fully intended as shade cast upon John “Cougar” Mellencamp.
** A case could be made fo Amy choosing Muncie on purpose for her helpless waif act after having done research on Norville and deciding to be “from” the same small town as he, but this is unlikely for two reasons. One is exactly the kind of trouble that Amy immediately finds herself in. If they’re both from the same small town she would be expected to have a shared vocabulary, expected to know about the same ice cream shop and the same places where teens go to “hold hands”, and of course, would have attended the same high school and know the same fight song. The sharp Amy Archer would not take such a risk. The second reason is that in the subsequent scene while talking with Smitty the two of them express surprise that not only did the small town waif act work, but that “The chump [Norville] really likes [her], a Muncie girl!” While the dialog serves primarily to move the plot forward, it also expresses as subtext that Amy thought briefly her scheme was in trouble, but that against all odds, Muncie, Indiana was the correct choice.
*** Remember kiddos, no matter how prestigious the term might sound, “Ivy League” ultimately denotes nothing more than a football league.