The Sex Life of the Polyp (1928) - full transcript

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Doctor, how are you today?

[CHATTER]

How's the doctor?

[CHATTER]

Do you prepare your lectures
in advance, Doctor,

or do you just get
up and say anything

that comes into your mind?

Well, I usually try
to be in a specific--

I seriously have taken much
more interest in nature, Doctor,



since you've began
your lectures.

[LAUGHING] It's funny,
but I don't know.

[LAUGHING]

Yes, indeed.

What are you speaking on
this afternoon, Doctor?

On the sex life of the polyp.

[GIGGLING]

I think they're all
ready, Dr. Benchley.

Thank you, Mrs. Pratt.

I'll be right there.

Will you pardon me, please.

Certainly, Doctor, certainly.

[WOMEN CHATTER]

Ladies, Dr. Benchley.



[APPLAUSE]

[LADIES GIGGLING]

I wonder if you would
take that, please.

Thank you very much.

There you go, Doctor.

Now let's see, what have we uh--

oh, here.

[CLEARS THROAT]

You'll remember in
our last lecture

we took up the subject
of emotional crises

in sponge life.

And we saw how wonderfully
nature takes care

of the thousand and
one things which

a sponge must think of before
it can reproduce other sponges.

We also saw, if you remember,
that a positive sponge,

if mated with a negative sponge,
with reproduce positive sponges

and vise versa.

We also saw that this is
known as Lipscomb's Law,

so-called after
Professor Lipscomb,

who discovered it quite
by accident one day

in the bathtub.

Now this afternoon
we will take up certain phases

of the emotional and physical
reactions of the polyp

as expressed in its sex life,
if you can call it a sex life.

The polyp, as you know,
is that tiny organism

which grows under the sea
and which looks something like a--

well, you've see the snail.

It isn't exactly like a snail,
it is smaller than a snail.

Well, a small dog
isn't it either.

Well, I've brought some
of the little creatures

here, which we've been
using in the laboratory.

And they may serve to
show what the Irishman

called the nature of the beast.

Well, I don't seem to
have got it after all.

Well, never mind.

I have some pictures here
which I'm going to show

you later in the afternoon.

Now the only way in which
your polyp resembles other animals

at all is that at certain
periods during its growth

it does display a
sentimental interest

in polyps of the opposite sex.

Now this presents
a very complicated

situation, as the polyp
has no definite sex itself.

That is it's neither
one thing or another.

By that I mean, the same polyp
may be either a boy or a girl

according to what or
how it happens to feel

Like [CLEARS THROAT] being.

As Dr.-- as Dr. Hasenholz says
in his valuable book [GERMAN]----

[SPEAKING GERMAN]

And this, mark you, to a man
who has given his whole life

to a study of the subject.

Now this tendency to change sex
at any moment, while it does

save the polyp a great deal
of time and expense,

never the less makes difficult
any definite analysis

of its sex behavior.

However, Dr.
Rasmussen and I made

some interesting
experiments along this line.

And it is the result
of these experiments

that I wish to bring
before you this afternoon.

I think I'll lower the
screen now, Mrs. Pratt.

[LADIES LAUGHING]

Well, that's more like it.

In order to study the polyp
at close range, which

is about the only way
you can study a polyp,

after all, we took one of
the tiny creatures home

with us to live.

It was, at the
time, a girl polyp,

so we called her Mary,
after Ethel Barrymore.

She was at first naturally shy,
but soon grew

accustomed to our mannish ways
and became more like a child

of our own then like a polyp.

Although, of course,
she looked more like a polyp than

like a child of our own.

It was in this way that we were
able to tell the difference.

Uh, lights out,
please, Mr. Cassidy.

[BUZZING]

That's fine.

Thank you, Mr. Cassidy.

Now here is a picture of
Mary taken when she had

been with us only a few weeks.

It really isn't very good of us,
taken, as it was,

when the light was poor and
magnified about 100 times.

But it may serve to
give you some idea

of her personality and charm.

What fun it was
to watch her grow

and to feel that we were having
a share, however small, in her

develop.

[BUZZING]

Along about May we
decided that it was

time to make our experiment.

Now having the female,
it was naturally necessary

for us to provide a male.

[CLEARS THROAT]

And to this end, we went
to Bermuda for a few weeks,

Bermuda being a great
hangout for polyps.

Now here we were
fortunate enough

to locate a colony of the
little fellows who seemed to be

in good physical condition.

[BUZZING]

Here is the picture
that we were able to get

of a group of the little fellows
out for a good time.

You may be sure that
the lazy rogues have

their fun, as who does not.

It was from this aggregation
that we decided

to select a husband for Mary.

And after a careful examination
under the microscope,

we decided to choose the one
which you will see the third

from the left in this picture.

No, now he's the fourth.

Now he's the fifth, the
fifth from the left.

This little chap up here in
the corner tried to get away,

but the camera was
too quick for him.

Now having the necessary
male for our experiment,

we placed the two
polyps in an open space

behind the Princess Hotel and
proceeded to await development.

Here is picture taken just
before the gong sounded.

The one on the right is the male
and on the left, the female,

unless I'm mistaken.

Yes, I am mistaken.

The one on the right
is the male, female,

and on the left, the male.

What a mistake.

[BUZZING]

One unusual thing about
the polyp's courtship

is its restraint.

A polyp is only a
polyp, after all,

and has his little weaknesses
like the rest of us.

I, for one, would not
have it otherwise.

But even so, the
entire courtship

is carried on with an open space
between the male

and female of perhaps 50
paces, a polyp measure.

Which, in a way,
makes it difficult for the male

to be anything much
more than just a pal.

The male has a rather unusual
way of attracting the attention

of the opposite sex, female.

It was Dr. Rasmussen
who discovered that

during the courting season--

the courting season begin son
the 10th of March

and extends on through
the following February.

Leaving about 10 days
for general overhauling

and repairs.

During the courting season--

[BUZZING]

--the male gives forth a strange,
phosphorescent glow,

something like a
diamond scarf pin.

Now this glow is supposed to be
very attractive to the female.

And it is by dazzling her with
his appearance of elegance

that the male is able
to bring the lady around

to his point of view.

In order to test the powers
of observation of the male

during these maneuvers,
we played a rather mean trick

on the little fellow.

We took away the original female
for whom he was so frantically

flashing his gleamer,
and put in her place another,

but less attractive female.

This seemed to
make no difference

at all to the male who continued
to flash on just the same.

We then took away the second female
and put in her place

a small button,
something the color of a polyp,

following this with
a crumb of cornbread.

Now so far as we
were able to detect,

this change in personnel made
no difference at all

to the male who continued
to exert himself,

still under the impression that
he was making a conquest, even

with the crumb of cornbread.

[BUZZING]

Now this little ruse of
ours, while it proved

that the male polyp is
not particularly clear

as to just what
it is he's after,

rather put an end to our
experiment as a whole.

While the male,
evidently disgusted at his inability

to excite the button or
the crumb of cornbread,

suddenly gave up the
whole thing as a bad job

and turned into a female.

Now this left us
practically where

we were in the first place
with no male at all.

So Dr. Rasmussen and
I, after a finding

a good home in Bermuda for what
were now our two girl polyps,

returned to America,
still marveling at nature's

wonderful accomplishment sin
the realm of sex.

But rather inclined to
complete our experiments

with some animal
which takes its sex

life a little more seriously.