Yogis for Kerry

Despite the outfit, it still took some time for Brando to ramp up to the actual recording, says Tobias. “We talked about everything from Reagan’s funeral to world politics to his activism over the years, certain comments he had made. After an hour and a half, he was ready.”

In his autobiography, Songs My Mother Taught Me, Brando wrote, “In acting, everything comes out of what you are or some aspect of who you are. Everything is part of your experience.” Now that he belongs to the ages, we’ll never know what inner sensation the insightful actor drew upon to create Mrs. Sour, the widowed owner of a large candy concern, but the female attire was, perhaps, the handmaiden to his performance, part of a rich heritage Brando bequeathed to us all.

“It was remarkable,” says Tobias. “He didn’t camp it up, he wasn’t a queen, he wasn’t doing any of the cliché stuff. He became her.”

Mrs. Sour, we hardly knew you.

—Peter Gilstrap