Bobby Gentry said she never told anyone ("not even my mother") what it was, even though she said she had something very specific in mind when she wrote the song. She says she wanted people to focus less on the backstory and more on the family's callousness. But what do YOU think it was?
What did Billie Joe throw off the Tallahatchee Bridge with the narrator of the song?
by Anonymous | reply 47 | June 5, 2023 3:22 PM |
A used condom.
by Anonymous | reply 1 | June 3, 2023 6:56 PM |
His MAGA hat.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | June 3, 2023 6:57 PM |
Haven’t you seen the movie? He gets fucked by his male boss one drunken night at the town fair.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | June 3, 2023 6:59 PM |
If I hadn't seen the movie, r3, then why do you think I would have listed "A ragdoll (like in the Robby Benson movie based on the song)" as one of the options?
Try to read the original post through next time.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | June 3, 2023 7:01 PM |
Celine Dion, hopefully.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | June 3, 2023 7:05 PM |
Billie Joe's dildo.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | June 3, 2023 7:17 PM |
^ It's hinted at throughout the song with so many words and phrases that rhyme with dildo:
Billie Joe
Tupelo
Carroll County Picture Show
by Anonymous | reply 7 | June 3, 2023 7:23 PM |
a gun
by Anonymous | reply 8 | June 3, 2023 7:26 PM |
Boo Radley
by Anonymous | reply 9 | June 3, 2023 7:26 PM |
Guido
by Anonymous | reply 10 | June 3, 2023 7:26 PM |
Mike Pence
by Anonymous | reply 11 | June 3, 2023 9:26 PM |
Meghan Markle. Unfortunately, she could swim.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | June 3, 2023 9:56 PM |
The remains of a drifter left over from their thrill-kill spree.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | June 3, 2023 9:58 PM |
I think it was just a dry run for his jump.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | June 3, 2023 11:08 PM |
His underwear stained with another guy's cum.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | June 3, 2023 11:26 PM |
Marlo Thomas.
by Anonymous | reply 16 | June 4, 2023 12:38 AM |
R14, interesting guess, but the song says someone was with him when he threw something off, so I'm thinking not.
by Anonymous | reply 17 | June 4, 2023 12:46 AM |
Well whatever he threw off, he jumped off today (June 3) according to the song.
by Anonymous | reply 18 | June 4, 2023 1:00 AM |
The movie premiered June 3, 1976. I remember seeing it in the movie theater when it played the second-run theater in my neighborhood. Seeing Robby Benson on screen, made this 12 year old realize he was gay. Something in my underwear got hard as a rock and would go down until the credits rolled.
by Anonymous | reply 19 | June 4, 2023 1:02 AM |
Copious amounts of pot, silly!
by Anonymous | reply 20 | June 4, 2023 1:09 AM |
Jeff Thomas
by Anonymous | reply 21 | June 4, 2023 1:11 AM |
Common sense.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | June 4, 2023 1:14 AM |
Robby Benson's career.
by Anonymous | reply 24 | June 4, 2023 1:16 AM |
Weird film, though it did make money. Have no idea why they chose a gay plot. There must have been a lot of pearl-clutching when locals saw the fonal cut:
"Made for $1.1 million, the film grossed $27 million at the box office, plus earnings in excess of $2.65 million in the foreign market, $4.75 million from television, and $2.5 million from video. However, reviews were mostly negative.
Gentry's song recounts the day when Billie Joe McAllister committed suicide by jumping off the Tallahatchie Bridge on Choctaw Ridge, Mississippi. When Gentry discussed the screenplay with Raucher, she explained she did not know why the real person who inspired the character of Billie Joe had killed himself. Raucher thus had a free hand to pick a reason. His novelization of the story, published the year of the film's release as a movie tie-in, used the same rationale for the suicide.
The June 12, 1975 issue of The Hollywood Reporter announced the completion of a $3.5 million deal between Max Baer, Jr. and Warner Bros. Pictures for a film based on Bobbie Gentry's hit song, “Ode To Billie Joe.” Baer offered Gentry and her publisher a large percentage of the film's receipts, and paid Herman Raucher $250,000 and a share of the profits to write the screenplay. Raucher was chosen because he had written the hit film Summer of '42. Baer had intended to cast unknown actors in the lead roles of “Bobbie Lee Hartley” and “Billy Joe McAllister,” eventually picking Glynnis O'Connor and Robby Benson, who had previously starred together in the teen film Jeremy."
by Anonymous | reply 25 | June 4, 2023 1:18 AM |
Oh brother I’m glad I didn’t see the movie. I’m so sick of the plot device ‘gay commits suicide because he is gay’.
But I always thought the family had no idea the daughter was involved with Billie Jo and that is why they were so unconcerned. It would not be cruelty if they didn’t know.
But did they know?
by Anonymous | reply 26 | June 4, 2023 1:33 AM |
I wanted Robby Benson to kiss me under the bleachers.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | June 4, 2023 1:35 AM |
Yes, in the movie & the Raucher novel, Bobbie Lee's favorite rag doll, Benjamin gets accidentally tossed in the river. Benjamin is sort of an imaginary friend/confidant to Bobbie Lee. R26, in the novel, it's hinted that the parents knew, & the James (the brother definitely knew that Bobbie Lee had a beau without her parent's permission.
I think an aborted or miscarried fetus ended up in the river.
by Anonymous | reply 28 | June 4, 2023 1:44 AM |
He threw chitlins, fried green tomatoes, sweet potato pie Crisco, some bootlegger moonshine, a Confederate flag, a mint julep, an Ernest Tubb record, a cotton bale, a half-ate possum and a mason jar of sweet tea of the blah blah bridge.
by Anonymous | reply 29 | June 4, 2023 2:14 AM |
*off the
by Anonymous | reply 30 | June 4, 2023 2:14 AM |
Directed by Jethro Clampett
by Anonymous | reply 31 | June 4, 2023 4:01 AM |
by Anonymous | reply 32 | June 4, 2023 4:14 AM |
R29 “a half ate possum”
Hahahaa!
by Anonymous | reply 33 | June 4, 2023 4:20 AM |
R26 I think he threw himself off the bridge because he was raped by his boss not because he’s gay per se
by Anonymous | reply 34 | June 4, 2023 4:21 AM |
R31 And he’s still alive !
by Anonymous | reply 35 | June 4, 2023 1:39 PM |
Agree that the Tragic Gay Hookup storyline is beyond tedious.
by Anonymous | reply 36 | June 4, 2023 2:13 PM |
OMG! How stupid of me. It was Jethro BODINE.
by Anonymous | reply 37 | June 4, 2023 2:31 PM |
R36
I still can't hit the 'words and wisdome' button and get it to work for me. I don't know why this is but I so agree with you.
by Anonymous | reply 38 | June 4, 2023 2:37 PM |
R34 Right. Yeah. I read that was it but still an overdone plot.
by Anonymous | reply 39 | June 4, 2023 3:27 PM |
Oh dear. I spelled 'wisdom' 'wisdome'.
by Anonymous | reply 40 | June 4, 2023 4:07 PM |
Is the movie streaming anywhere these days ? How about 'Jeremy' ?
by Anonymous | reply 41 | June 4, 2023 5:29 PM |
She threw Crissy Metz snack purse off the Tallahachee Bridge. Thus causing a tsunami which drowned 34 people.
by Anonymous | reply 42 | June 5, 2023 12:25 AM |
The tsunami was caused 30 seconds later when, Ms Metz did her swan dive to try and retrieve it.
by Anonymous | reply 43 | June 5, 2023 12:41 AM |
[quote]The narrator's baby (but why did no one know she was pregnant?)
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And drop them into the bloody water off the Tallahatchie Bridge
by Anonymous | reply 44 | June 5, 2023 1:58 AM |
R40 and worse you typed "I so agree"
by Anonymous | reply 45 | June 5, 2023 2:01 AM |
Right. Yeah. R39
by Anonymous | reply 46 | June 5, 2023 2:02 AM |
R45 Incorrect?
by Anonymous | reply 47 | June 5, 2023 3:22 PM |