Margaret Houlihan
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| M*A*S*H character | |
| Loretta Swit as Major Margaret Houlihan | |
| "Hot Lips" Houlihan | |
|---|---|
| Rank | Major |
| Gender | Female |
| Hair color | Blonde |
| Eye color | Green |
| Home city | Fort Ord, California, USA |
| Film portrayer | Sally Kellerman |
| Television portrayer | Loretta Swit |
| First appearance | M*A*S*H: A Novel About Three Army Doctors |
| Last appearance | "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" |
Major Margaret J. "Hot Lips" Houlihan is a fictional nurse who always drinks, never smokes, first created in the book M*A*S*H: A Novel About Three Army Doctors by Richard Hooker. Actress Sally Kellerman portrayed the character in the Robert Altman film adaptation (with her surname changed to O'Houlihan). Like many of the M*A*S*H* characters, "Hot Lips" is probably best known from the television series, where she was played by Loretta Swit. Having the advantage of an 11-year run on television, Swit's Houlihan became a significantly more developed character than originally portrayed in the film by Kellerman; in many ways demonstrating characteristics that would have been almost antithetical to the cinematic "Hot Lips".
The character of "Hotlips Houlihan" was inspired by real-life Korean War MASH head nurse "Hotlips Hammerly," also a very attractive blonde, of the same disposition, and also from El Paso, Texas.[1]
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[edit] Position
Major Houlihan is a member of the Army Nurse Corps and in charge of all the nurses at the MASH 4077 unit. She is devoted to her Army career, having been born into the tradition. Her father, Colonel Alvin "Howitzer Al" Houlihan, was her role model for her career. Little is said about her parents' marriage, except two different episodes tell that on their wedding night, each gave gifts to each other--her mother received a whiskey flask and her father received a pistol about as big as a cigarette lighter. Both parents are divorced and the mother is an alcoholic/kleptomaniac. In one episode Margaret states she has a younger sister who--engaged to be married--was only a "Captain". As an army brat, she was born in an Army hospital and grew up on Army bases, most notably Fort Ord. In episode 10.12, stranded with Klinger on her birthday, she confesses that she envies Klinger for having something she never had-a hometown. In 4.3, she has been in the service 10 years, and thus, presumably, was in World War II. She is also a hidden alcoholic (3.9) and not only became roaring drunk on three occasions, but showed up in the operating room drunk as well. In episode 9.15, however, when she tried to console a friend with alcohol problems, she presumably recognized her own problem. She does have a gift for learning to speak the Korean Language. Despite the fact that all three of her MASH relationships with men end in disaster--Frank Burns, Donald Penobscot, Jack Scully--she does confess to Hawkeye that one day she hopes to find the right man to stay with (8.14). She can be kind and considerate to children and dogs, is lucky at Bingo games and winning at Baby "gambling" pools, has a fear of loud noises, her favorite song is The Army Goes Rolling Along, and is an expert bowler. (In a late season Sherman Potter's latent chauvinism towards Houlihan of bowling against men nearly results in MASH 4077 having a Charlie Brown "record of losing" every competition game against the USMC!)
[edit] Relationship with others
Margaret can be very strict and deplores anyone who does not live up to her standard of military discipline, but she also displays her passionate side, especially in the early days of the series in her relationship with Frank Burns. This eventually ran its course (there were hints that she really wasn't happy with Frank and knew he wasn't the man they both liked to think he was), and Margaret became engaged to, and later married, Lieutenant Colonel Donald Penobscot (which precipitated Frank's nervous breakdown and departure). Colonel Potter, and even Hawkeye and BJ feared she was making a mistake, caught up in the euphoria of being too happy and of being in love with the idea of being in love. In the end, they were right as the marriage did not last very long, as Donald mistreated and cheated on her.
After her divorce from Penobscot Margaret had occasional affairs with other men including a U.N. representative from Sweden, a reporter from Stars & Stripes who had come to camp to do a story on Major Winchester, and more notably two brief encounters with Sergeant (later Private) Jack Scully, but that did not last very long either with his increasingly obvious dismissal of her rank, and her worth as a woman. In early seasons of the television show, it was shown that Margaret had a crush on Captain Trapper John McIntyre, professing how attractive she found his crooked smile and sturdy frame. She also had a brief relationship with Hawkeye Pierce, whose talent for kissing often left her speechless. In the show's final episode, Houlihan and Pierce bid farewell to each other with a prolonged, open-mouthed kiss.
Hot Lips spent the early part of the series battling Hawkeye and Trapper alongside Frank and, additionally, criticizing Lt. Col. Henry Blake for his lack of authority when she wasn't busy going over his head, filing formal complaints. Many early jokes on the show were at her expense, such as when she said the oxymoronic description of Hawkeye and Trapper: "They're ruining this war, for all of us!" While she didn't seem to hate Henry as an individual, she once described him as a "golf playing figurehead" and later, a "fly-fishing impostor". She also referred to him as "Col. Bubble-Head." Henry generally let her criticisms roll off his back, but at one point, he mocked Hot Lips by saying that she'd gone over his head so many times she'd given him "athlete's scalp". Even so, she and Frank both wept for Henry when they heard of his death. By contrast, she got along exceptionally well with Blake's replacement, Colonel Sherman T. Potter, who became something of a father figure to her.
[edit] Changes
Over the run of the show, Margaret mellowed from a completely "by-the-book" head nurse (who was also not above using her romantic contacts with superior officers to attempt to get her way), to a more relaxed member of the cast who tempered her authority with humanity. Key episodes in this development were "The Nurses", which Margaret had an emotional tirade to her nurses about how their disdain of her hurt her and thus stuns them, and "Comrades In Arms", where Hawkeye and Margaret make peace once and for all while lost in the wilderness. When the show ended, Margaret was on her way back to the US to take up a position in an Army hospital. Not coincidentally, the change for her character came when Linda Bloodworth-Thomason joined the show's writing team.
Some fans regretted the change of heart in Hot Lips' character. While some loved how she became a kinder, gentler person, others felt that she worked better as strict, no-nonsense antagonist with a slight problem regarding her passion, though even at her worst she was generally allowed more humanity than her fellow antagonist, Frank Burns. There have also been criticisms that the then contemporary second-wave feminist views she held in latter seasons were a glaring anachronism in the show's early 1950s setting.[1][2] Of course, it could conceivably be argued that Margaret just happened to develop these views independently.
[edit] Subsequent development
In the series of novels co-written with (or ghosted by) William E. Butterworth, Houlihan reappears as the twice-widowed Margaret Houlihan Wachauf Wilson, both husbands having expired untimely on the nuptial couch through over-strain caused by excessive indulgence in her still-outstanding physical charms. Her career has taken a new direction as the Reverend head of the "God Is Love In All Forms Christian Church, Incorporated", a cult or sect with the unusual distinction that its entire congregation consists of homosexual men. Most of these are extremely flamboyant and the Reverend Mother herself is conspicuously glitzy and glittery. However, it appears that Margaret genuinely cares for her flock and is not merely shaking them down in pursuit of material gain.
[edit] Name
The name "Hot Lips" originates from an infamous scene in M*A*S*H, the movie, in which Margaret Houlihan is played by Sally Kellerman. During sex with Frank Burns, Margaret is initially unaware that the public address microphone has been planted beneath their cot, broadcasting graphic details of their rendezvous throughout the camp on its public address system. Other members of the camp overhear her asking Frank to "kiss her hot lips".
In the pilot episode, a visiting general spots Margaret, and happily exclaims, "Hot Lips!", leading Trapper and Hawkeye to glance at each other, and go, "Hot Lips?!?!?" This nickname was used in the earlier seasons of the TV series, but less and less as time went on due to the growing respect for her in the eyes of the audience.
[edit] Decorations
Several times throughout the series, the awards that Major Houlihan had earned during her service in the Army could be seen on her uniform. She had earned the:
National Defense Service Medal
{As a World War II veteran she would also have the American Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal}.
[edit] Trivia goofs
- One third season episode has mention of Houlihan's younger sister who is a Captain engaged to be married. The sister is never mentioned again. In the same episode, Houlihan claims she has to spend all her salary on her mother, who, when she is not being dried out as an alcoholic, is also being arrested as a kleptomanic.
- When Burns steals the "antique cavalry" .45 pistol, Houlihan proclaims that it's one like her father had. An Artilleryman would have had a G.I. .45 automatic pistol, not a cavalry handgun, although she does sometimes mention that her father was in the cavalry. Furthermore this episode implies that the gun is a Colt Single Action Army-an "antique Cavalry pistol" from the 1870s; in fact it is a Colt New Service Model from the 1920s.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Finest-Kind.net - M*A*S*H website with character profile
- Best Care Anywhere - M*A*S*H website with character profile
- Paramount M*A*S*H trivia
| Preceded by Frank Burns | Second-in-command of MASH 4077th (TV series) 1975 (interim) | Succeeded by Frank Burns |
| M*A*S*H Portal |
M*A*S*H | |
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| Film: | MASH · Differences between book, film and TV versions of M*A*S*H · "Suicide Is Painless" |
| TV series: | M*A*S*H (episodes: Season 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11; finale; guest stars) · Trapper John, M.D. · AfterMASH · W*A*L*T*E*R |
| Characters: | Hawkeye Pierce · Trapper John McIntyre · Duke Forrest · B.J. Hunnicutt · Henry Blake · Sherman T. Potter · Frank Burns · Margaret Houlihan · Charles Winchester · Radar O'Reilly · Father Mulcahy · Maxwell Klinger · Nurse Kellye · Igor Straminsky · Luther Rizzo · Sidney Freedman · Col. Flagg · Spearchucker Jones · Ugly John · Walter Koskiusko Waldowski · Ho-Jon · Nurse Bigelow · Lieutenant Dish · Donald Penobscot · Zelmo Zale · Staff Sgt. Vollmer |
| Books: | MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors · M*A*S*H Goes to Maine |
pl:Margaret Hotlips Houlihan
