This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Say the words "Johnny Lingo" to Mormons of a certain age, and the response will either be a nostalgic smile or severe eye-rolling.
The 1969 short film, produced by Brigham Young University and a staple of seminary classes for decades, is now posted on YouTube - on The Mormon Channel, run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
The 24-minute film tells of the Polynesian trader Johnny Lingo (Blaizdel MaKee), who comes to an island to bargain a dowry for a wife. The woman he chooses is Mahana (Naomi Kahoilua), who is badmouthed by the villagers and her father as stupid and unattractive. (Her nickname in the village is "Mahana, You Ugly.") So the village is shocked when Lingo offers to pay the exorbitant sum of eight cows for Mahana's hand.
The village is even more shocked when, after the honeymoon, Lingo and Mahana return to the island - and Mahana is beautiful. Lingo explains to Mr. Harris (Francis L. Urry), the island's colonial storekeeper, that it was his plan to raise Mahana's self-esteem by making her an "eight-cow woman."
"Many things can happen to make a woman beautiful. The thing that matters most is how she thinks of herself," Lingo explains. "Now she knows she is worth more than any other woman on the island."
The moral lesson taught in LDS Seminary classes is that building up one's self-worth can make you beautiful. The message often received by LDS girls is that a woman is valuable only if a man says so.
No matter the message, "Johnny Lingo" (which was remade in 2003, transformed in part into an infomercial for Tahitian Noni) has become something of a camp classic in LDS circles - and watching it today may generate more laughs than the best sitcom.
(H/T Ben Winslow, Fox 13 News, via Twitter)