Sloper Miscellany

What it means to be named Sloper

"Nobody who pronounces their name that way lives here"

Since it's a comparatively small and scattered family in the United States and elsewhere, it usually means being the only Sloper in your school, the only family with the name Sloper in the local telephone book and the victim of a frequently mispronounced last name. The correct pronunciation is to say slope, like the gentle slope of a hill, with an r at the end.

One of the experiences of all Slopers is to have our name mispronounced. The common ones are:

• Slop' - per
• Slooper
• and even with a French accent: Slopier'

Some of us have learned to turn this into a positive in life, because when our household gets an unsolicited telephone call (usually at dinner or some other inconvenient time) and the person asks for Mr. Slop' per, we quickly comment that there is no one here by that name and hang up. This saves all sorts of time and trouble. 

So far our reunions have been friendly, peaceful affairs. But if some hapless Pizza delivery person has the misfortune of coming upon a large group of Slopers at a reunion and asking if a Slop' per is present, I can't predict the results. 

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A Famous Book about the Rich Sloper Family - obviously it's fiction

"Washington Square" by the celebrated writer, Henry James, was published in book form as a novel in 1881. Among his most popular works, it tells the story of Catherine Sloper, the plain, obedient daughter of the widowed, well-to-do Dr. Austin Sloper of Washington Square in New York City. When a handsome, feckless man-about-town proposes to Catherine, her father forbids the marriage because he believes the man is after Catherine's fortune and future inheritance. The conflict between father, daughter and suitor provokes consequences in the lives of all three, that make this story one of James's most piercingly memorable.

As you may know, Washington Square is located in Manhattan, and at one time, the well to do had homes facing the square. There are two motion pictures based on the novel that you may find interesting, one a classic, the other less successful: 

The Heiress, directed by William Wyler, stars Olivia De Havilland as Catherine Sloper, the only daughter of the wealthy Dr. Austin Sloper (played by Sir Ralph Richardson). Montgomery Clift plays the role of Morris Townsend, Catherine's fiancé. The movie, which is in black and white, was made in 1949 and is considered a movie classic.

Washington Square stars Albert Finney as the wealthy Dr. Sloper with Jennifer Jason Leigh cast as Catherine Sloper and Ben Chaplin as the fiancé. The movie had a limited released in 1997.

• Your editor hates to admit it, but I had never heard of the novel or the movies until 2003 when I was backstage at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles as a volunteer with the Los Angeles Conservancy's summer series of cinema classics, with the assignment to meet the actress that was to be interviewed before the show, get her to her dressing room, and make sure she appeared on stage on cue. The evening's feature was On The Town, a 1949 musical with a stellar case, including Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly. After taking Betty Garrett, who played Frank Sinatra's girl friend in the movie, to her dressing room, the film critic who was going to interview her before the movie appeared and introduced himself. When he heard my name was Sloper, he said I must really enjoy seeing The Heiress. Fortunately, before I could speak up and embarrass myself, Mrs. Gene Kelly interrupted and said that she often told Olivia that it was her finest movie. Ah, the trials and tribulations of living in the Los Angeles area.

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Fascinating Book about Squire Sloper

Other interesting Sloper WEB sites

www.cnonline.net/~jasloper/soapwagon.htm - a hand crafted soap made in Colorado by John Sloper

http://www.cnonline.net/~jasloper/santa.htm - a Sloper who rents himself out as Santa Claus - a very seasonal business

http://www.sbslopers.org/ - a Santa Barbara, CA organization devoted to flying model airplanes. Presumably, the slopers part of the name occurs because the most favorable winds for flying are on slopes of hills, which produce an updraft.

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Slopers at War