Thanks to fellow blogger and commenter, Tallulah Morehead for jogging my memory and taking me back to the fabulous 60’s when the big musical theater fad in Los Angeles was theater-in-the-round. Who needed Broadway when Angelinos could be treated to smash hit musicals with knock-off casts, no sets, and no piece of scenery taller than their ankles? In the LA area there were three venues – the Melodyland Theater in Anaheim (an empty gin bottle’s throw from Disneyland), the Valley Music Theater in Woodland Hills (later to become the home of the Jehovah’s Witnesses), and the Carousel Theater in glamorous West Covina (gateway to the Inland Empire). The productions would bicycle around between these, usually for two-week runs.I was an usher at the Valley Music Theater and could not wait for each new show to bring jaw dropping performances by miscast actors, and if I was really lucky, there would be one or two who couldn’t sing. Dance numbers tended not to be very elaborate since the stage was the size of a conference table. If it was today and they were doing THE LORD OF THE DANCE they would use three guys.
So join me as I stagger down memory lane. If some of these names are not familiar just substitute “Regis Philbin” or “Melissa Rivers” and you’ll have a pretty good picture of what I mean. Among the productions I can recall without sodium pentothal:
MR. ROBERTS – with Hugh O’Brien (TV’s Wyatt Earp) in the Henry Fonda role. Mr. O’Brien is maybe the most wooden actor of all time and it always amuses me that there is an acting award at UCLA in his honor.
BYE BYE BIRDIE – with Barbara Eden (TV’s Jeannie, as in “I dream of”). I don’t remember whether she could sing. All I do remember is that they were real and they were spectacular.
WHAT MAKES SAMMY RUN – starring Frank Gorshin. To prove he was a serious actor he did not wear his Riddler costume from Batman.
FLOWER DRUM SONG – starring original cast member, Pat Suzuki. Except Ms. Suzuki – granted, a spectacular singer – had put on a pound or twenty since her Great White Way days and was slightly less convincing as the red hot hooker. She was stuffed into her flimsy costume like a sausage.
IT’S NEVER TOO LATE – featuring Ozzie & Harriet. ‘Nuff said there.
BRIGADOON – with Dennis Day. In fairness, he might’ve been perfect. I just hate Brigadoon.
FUNNY GIRL – with Carol Lawrence in the Streisand role. There was a lot of rain on that parade.
SOUTH PACIFIC – with Betsy Palmer (pictured) as Mary Martin. You’re probably saying – Betsy Palmer? Who?? People were saying that then. Ms Palmer was best known as a game show panelist with short blond hair and knife wielding crazy in FRIDAY the 13th: PART TWO. (Watch: I get 5,000 comments from irate Betsy Palmer fans.)
And Jane Powell starred in everything else.
Thanks to Ms. Morehead, here are a couple of the shows that played in Anaheim’s Melodyland Theater-in-the-round. I didn’t see these but wish I did.
THE KING AND I with Darrin McGavin in the Yul Brynner part. I think just seeing that playbill is what killed Oscar Hammerstein.
And finally – this one will NEVER be topped…
DAMN YANKEES with Sandy Koufax. Yes, you read that right. Sandy Koufax. Singing and dancing in a musical. I guess Cy Young Awards weren’t enough. Sandy wanted a Tony. I
wonder how many stage door theater uh…“enthusiasts” have his autograph and have no idea who he is.
I can recall Barbara Eden singing when she co-hosted the Mike Douglas show around 1967; I don't recall if she was any good. Fortunately, she was (and is) a splendid comedic actress, so she never had to rely too much on her musical ability.
ReplyDeleteAnd Ken, here in the Washington area someone who's starred in two of your three fields (in this case, top 40 radio and sportscasting) has spent several decades in local theater -- Johnny Holliday, top 40 jock in the '60s (Cleveland, New York, San Francisco, D.C.) and voice of University of Maryland athletics since the late '70s. (He does a great "Trouble" from "The Music Man.")
If memory serves, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale were to do a movie while they were in there hold out. However the Dodgers came up with a satifactory offer and the movie was either scrubbed or recast.
ReplyDeleteAnother great post, Ken. Once again I find myself wishing I could travel back to the L.A. of the sixties. I was a little kid then, and my sister and I used to come to L.A. to visit our father, who at the time worked for ABC at Vine and Fountain. In those days, Hollywood to us was alternately weird, fascinating, and scary.
ReplyDeleteTallulah Morehead strikes me as a great stage name for a drag performer. I think someone should compile a list... the best I've heard is Tequila Mockingbird, but there must be others...
In 2001-2002, I worked on a tour of the female version of "The Odd Couple" starring Barbara Eden. I was 23 and she was like, a billion, but those things were still amazing.
ReplyDelete"Barbara Eden... All I do remember is that they were real and they were spectacular."
ReplyDeleteI saw her up close at the 2005 TV Land Awards and I can report that she has held up very well. (Barbara Feldon too)
By the way if you happen to watch Andy Griffith Show reruns there's a 1962 episode where Eden played a manicurist and looks really uh... nice.
I'm surprised Sandy Koufax would agree to do a play. I have always had the impression he preferred to stay out of the lime light. I wonder if any of the reviewers at the time were able resist describing his performance as a wild pitch or simply declared he struck out.
And thank YOU, my darling, for the shout-out.
ReplyDeleteMy fatigable scribe, Little Dougie, bought tickets to see that DAMN YANKEES production because Bert Lahr was announced to play Mr. Applegate, but Lahr had a heart attack before the show opened, and was replaced by Eddie Bracken.
Sandy Koufax and "Playboy" Bo Belinsky were both playing for the Angels at nearby, just-opened Angel Stadium, so they were cast as ball players, singing in "You Gotta Have Heart" & "The Game", to tie-in to the new team, for all those musical theater-baseball fans. That would be just you. Also, instead of being The Washington Senators, in that production they made the team the Anaheim Angels. The manager of the team was played by the guy who played Marlo Thomas's father on "That Girl".
Later, Dougie bought tickets to see Cyril Ritchard in THE ROAR OF THE GREASEPAINT, THE SMELL OF THE CROWD, but again a heart attack felled the star, and some unknown replaced him, but the Tony Newly role was taken by a then-nobody newcomer named Joel Grey, and he was TERRIFIC! The guy who later played Jaws in the James Bond movies was in that production also.
But they also did "Searing" drama: Ruth Roman & Wendell Corey in WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF.
And for those who were wondering, Darrin McGavin did NOT shave his head, nor do any Asian make-up. He played the King of Siam pretty much as Kolchak.
Melodyland also became a church. It was still standing the last time I went by there, which was maybe ten years ago.
Ian darling, please don't stir up those never-ending rumors that I am really a man. I've been plagued by them ever since I made my transvestite farce "The Lady Steve" back in 1942. I'm not a man. I'm just a really fine actress.
Thank you again for the plug, Ken darling. I owe you one. Drop by Morehead Heights anytime, and I'll give you one.
Cheers darlings.
Oh, one other searing Melodyland drama: SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH with Shelley Winters. Yikes!
ReplyDeleteCheers.
My pleasure Tallulah. Email me. We can compare the cast members of SUGAR BABIES that we both know.
ReplyDeleteOne slight correction in Ms. Morehead's description. Koufax played for the Dodgers. But highballs at midnight can play tricks with one's memory so Ms. M is certainly forgiven.
Speaking of the Hugh O'Brian Acting award (Is it an ironic award, like a Razzie?), I was watching "Bond Girls Are Forever" on the just-released DVD of CASINO ROYALE, and it showed Lois Chiles TEACHING ACTING at a university in Texas!!! One of the worst actresses ever to befoul movie & TV screens, and she's teaching acting to impressionable college students! I wonder if she has exercises to increase nasal whining? Well, when you've played Dr. Holly Goodhead (No relation to the ever-youthful Tallulah Morehead), what's left but a master class?
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I loved about the movie of DEATH ON THE NILE was that, because of the murder-flashback structure, you got to see Lois Chiles shot in the head again and again and again. That's entertainment!
I bow to your superior baseball knowledge, as you are a big baseball fan, and I've never actually seen a game. I'd say I stand corrected, but I am always comfier reclining, so I lie corrected.
ReplyDeleteI suppose I should make it clear that Sandy Koufax did not play Joe Hardy, nor Lola, though that certainly would have been a showstopper! Joe Hardy was Allen Case, a now-forgotten - and dead - actor who then had starred as "Clay McCord" on a western TV series called "The Deputy". If memory serves, and as you accurately pointed out, my late-night, early-morning, mid-day and all other times vodka martinis don't aid my memory much, he had also co-starred with John Russell on "The Lawman".
ReplyDeleteLittle Sandy was just one of the baseball players on the team. Few lines of dialogue, but solo lines in the two songs he was in. He & Bo were stuffed in just for the publicity, and it may well have been the year he retired from baseball. It somehow did not snowball into a new career for him.
Cheers
"The Tequila Mockingbird" was an episode of Get Smart, parodying "The Maltese Falcon." One of Mel Brooks's many contributions to drag culture, I guess.
ReplyDeleteOh... and not to dwell on Barbara Eden (although she certainly is worth dwelling on), but apparently her 'real' name is Barbara Jean Moorhead, perhaps a distant relative, or at least a kindred spirit of Tallulah?
ReplyDeleteSo little Babs Eden is a cousin from the Moorish side of my family? It makes sense. She lived in a bottle, and I live for the bottle!
ReplyDeleteAnd little Brian, you are right about Jerry Lester starring in the forerunner of The Tonight Show.
Betsy Palmer had a healthy career in (live) television and theater in NYC back in the days when a person could earn fame that way. But I'm not irate about your neglect, since you spelled her name correctly (violating Rabney's Rule).
ReplyDeleteAs a kid growing up in the suburbs of Washington, DC, I remember being taken to a revival of the Music Man starring Bobby Van. This was before he died of a heart attack, or shortly after. I remember that there was a competing version of the same show with Tony Randall as Harold Hill. My parents chose Bobby Van over Tony Randall. It figures.
ReplyDeleteSome day I hope to see Jamie Farr in "Oklahoma." He keeps showing up in summer stock as the rug peddler, when he's not busy playing Mr. Applegate in "Damn Yankees" (minus Sandy Koufax)
IIRC, Sandy Koufax is married to Richard Widmark's daughter.
ReplyDeleteAnd for the person who brought up Jerry Lester, the TV show he hosted circa 1950 was called "Broadway Open House," best known for unleashing Dagmar (a statuesque, buxom blonde, sort of a deadpan Anna Nicole Smith without the scandals) on the world.
And Dagmar appeared at Melodyland Theater in a production of "The Women" with Pamela Mason, Joan Caulfield, Margaret O'Brian & "Miss Beverly Hills". Oh, this is getting SPOOKY!
ReplyDeleteI realized I have something else in common with Cousin Babs Eden: She wasn't allowed to show her navel, and I was declared off-limits to the United States Navy!
I lived in Canoga Park when I was out in LA and used to drive by the Valley Music Theatre on a regular basis, which by that time had become, as you said, Ken, a Jehovah's Witnesses meeting hall. Maybe you can confirm this: I'd heard that it had also been the venue for some top-flight rock concerts in the 60's such as the Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, etc.; and from what I understand about Melodyland, right across the street from Disneyland, if it's still standing, it has become the home of traveling church revival meetings and miracle services over the last 20 years or so (maybe the second happiest place on earth? -- or at least in Anaheim)...
ReplyDeleteAs for Hugh O'Brien, I won't knock a fellow native Rochesterian for his thespian abilities... But if they ever erect a statue to him here in his home town, people may see it and mistake it for him actually trying to do HAMLET... And give it a standing ovation...
I was once in a summer stock production of South Pacific starring Ricardo Montalban. The first music rehearsal we all gathered around the piano muttering "I didn't know Ricardo Montalban sang!"
ReplyDeleteWell ... he didn't. He ACTED it. The old ladies loved it! But after three months of hearing Some Enchanted Evening being sung-spoke ... well I was glad to see September!
Tallulah,
ReplyDeleteEmail me please. Would love to get a hold of you. bossjock@adelphia.net. I have so many questions about Adolph Monjou.
I still get big laughs out of my story of seeing Darren McGavin in THE KING AND I at the New York State Theater in Lincoln Center. He wore a crewcut, and looked like an air force recruiter.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of your most original posts...I hope you share more stories of your boyhood in the golden days of Los Angeles. And speaking of the Melodyland Theater, how about this production, circa 1964...BELLS ARE RINGING, starring Gordon and Sheila MacRae? I know this because I collect old game shows, and tickets to their opening night were among the cavalcade of prizes given to the lucky winner on an episode of QUEEN FOR A DAY--a woman who needed a housekeeper to take care of her seven kids during a two-week recouperation from an operation. And before the show, she was treated to dinner at the Rib Room of the Charter House Hotel, "Anaheim's finest restaurant".
ReplyDelete(and that same respect for game shows does make me chide you for your remarks about Betsy Palmer--as for Hugh O'Brien, I knew someone whose parents made her attend a early 80s performance of GUYS AND DOLLS, where he was teamed with Kathryn Crosby, and she attested to the fact it would rank right up there with your offerings)
Ken,
ReplyDeleteFirst, belated condolences.
Second, one can still enjoy the dinner theater experience in Orange County. The Curtain Call In Tustin (no longer "Elisabeth Howard's Curtain Call"... apparently she got the call) is currently featuring Oklahoma! Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat and Annie are to follow. No jokes, it speaks for itself.
http://www.curtaincalltheater.com/
Having never attended suach a performance, my vision comes from a scene in "Soapdish" in which Kevin Klein, exiled to a Florida dinner theater, stays in character as Willy Lohman while serving coffee to beligerent elderly guests.
Don't know about the Valley Music Theater as a regular venue for rock acts -- it may well havce been -- but I remember driving down from Ventura to see a show somehow benefitting something having to do with the Sunset Strip riots.
ReplyDeleteThe acts included the Byrds (with Hugh Masakela sitting in for Rock and Roll Star); Buffalo Springfield; and Peter, Paul & Mary (with Peter Yarrow borrowing Neil Young's electric guitar for I Dig Rock and Roll Music).
After that, I don't know that I ever needed to see a rock and roll show again. And tickets were probably something like $5.
MR. ROBERTS – with Hugh O’Brien (TV’s Wyatt Earp) in the Henry Fonda role. Mr. O’Brien is maybe the most wooden actor of all time and it always amuses me that there is an acting award at UCLA in his honor.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it was his brilliant performance in Ten Little Indians? *g*
In related news:
ReplyDeleteLOS ANGELES - Jury selection began Monday in the murder trial of legendary music producer Phil Spector — four years after an actress who starred in a cult movie was shot to death in the foyer of his castle-like home.
Jurors will be asked to decide if Spector was responsible for the death of Lana Clarkson, who was shot in the face Feb. 3, 2003.
They will consider conflicting evidence about what happened before police found Clarkson, 40, slumped dead in a chair, her teeth blown out by a gunshot to her mouth, and her head bludgeoned by repeated blows from a tambourine and an overdubbed horn section.
My friend, TV writer Jayne Hamil ("The Nanny", "Still Standing", others) wrote to me with:
ReplyDelete"My favorite evening at Melodyland was seeing the late-great Betty
Hutton in "Annie Get Your Gun" live-on-stage. She was a bit past
Annie's prime (but so was Ethel). However she was well into the sauce and/or drugs. She lurched around the stage and at one point couldn't remember anything and stopped the show cold (in the middle of a song) to apologize to the audience in a slurry monologue about how she was fighting pneumonia or something.
It was the best thing I ever saw at Melodyland.
JH
p.s. Did you see Alan Ludden in "Brigadoon" there?"
And Ken thought Dennis Day was bad in it. The Password is "Scottish"
Melodyland was never a dinner theater, which is just as well. The shows were indigestable enough, but all three venues were also used as concert venues. I saw Jim Croce opening for Woody Allen at the Valley Music Theater, and the Smothers Brothers, with Jack Jones opening for them, at Melodyland.
ReplyDeleteI know that Valley Music Theater was also used as a boxing venue (For which it was better designed than for theater) as I was part of a boxing-related stunt there with Sweet Dick Whittington & Art Aragon once.
I remember reading years ago; someone asked why every 70’s TV movie starred Ms. Eden. The answer was that studio research found she was the only female listed in the top five in all male demographics. Basically, all men between puberty and death really liked her.
ReplyDeleteI remember the boxing cards at the Valley Music Theatre but never attended any of them. I did usher a closed circuit TV broadcast of an Indy 500 that began at 8 AM with a full bar going. USC football players were the bartenders.
ReplyDeleteThere were rock concerts there as well. I missed the Doors and Byrds/Buffalo Springfield, but did see Gary Lewis & the Playboys, also the Association, Harper's Bizarre, and the West Coast Pop Art Experimental band. I also ushered a Guy Lombardo concert with his opening act Edger Bergan & Charlie McCarthy. I wonder if Candice was there???
Interesting that you didn't get blasted by hordes of Betsy Palmer fans...
ReplyDeleteBut here is one thing (since you mentioned Mr. Roberts on your own): She was in the movie version of Mister Roberts.
Darren McGavin actually played the King in the '60s in a Lincoln Center production supervised by Richard Rodgers (with the over-the-hill Met opera mezzo Rise Stevens as Anna). So the casting isn't as weird as it sounds.
ReplyDeleteI just hate Brigadoon.
Ah, that warms the heart. I like the score, but the premise of the show just pisses me off -- you've got this town of people essentially being held hostage, the guy who tries to leave for civilization gets his head crushed in, and you just know that the hero will be pining for New York after one miserable day in that miserable town.
Hey I just want to thank all of you, you're cracking me up with these tales! Clearly Ken knows and loves all things kitsch - see previous post on Hollywood Christmas Parade. And SANDY K - say it ain't so! Haha!
ReplyDeleteDennis James had to be on one of those Playbills.
ReplyDeleteI saw Darren McGavin play the King at Melodyland, opposite Celeste Holm. The casting was as weird as it sounds, Richard Rogers notwithsatnding.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that got me about the premise of Brigadoon was the one day every century. It seemed to me that, about one week into their "Blessing" ,they'd wake up in a lifeless, radioactive world. Or, at best, wake up and find Brigadoon was now in the middle of a city.
But ALLEN LUDDEN???
I have a theater program I inherited from my mother from 1959, before Melodyland and these others were built, that was Edgar Bergan & Charlie McCarthy, opening for Nelson Eddy singing with the above-named Rise Stevens. It was Mother's most prized possession, as it is signed by Nelson Eddy, my mother's lifelong heart-throb.
ReplyDeleteMom had horrible taste.
I decided to check out my other episode of QUEEN FOR A DAY, from 1960. Nothing one can snicker at...the winner (a woman seeking a wheelchair and special bicycle for her cerebal palsy stricken 13-year-old son) attended a private preview screening of SPARTACUS and a nightclub performance by Bob Newhart.
ReplyDeleteHey all Brigadoon haters, the movie of Brigadoon is on TCM tonight! Tune in and snark out. Will Gene Kelly measure up to Allen Ludden? Try imagining that, insted of sets, you're seeing an audience staring back at you through the performers's legs, and you'll have The Melodyland Experience.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, Barbara Eden can sing. She's no Streisand, but she can carry a tune and has a pleasant-enough voice. NBC tried for twenty years to find her a follow-up to "Jeannie", but never found one that clicked. She did do plenty of TV movies for them, though.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to see a very young Barbara, keep your eye out for a 1957 episode of "I Love Lucy", where Ricky and Fred drool over her.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteFor the record, Barbara Eden can sing. She's no Streisand, but she can carry a tune and has a pleasant-enough voice. NBC tried for twenty years to find her a follow-up to "Jeannie", but never found one that clicked. She did do plenty of TV movies for them, though.
If you want to see a very young Barbara, keep your eye out for a 1957 episode of "I Love Lucy", where Ricky and Fred drool over her.
In 1957, Barbara was already experienced in television, having starred in the TV series "How To Marry A Millionaire," playing the character Marilyn Monroe portrayed on the big screen. So when "Jeannie" debuted in 1965, she was no neophyte to viewers.
Barbara indeed did a lot of made-for-TV movies in the seventies, as did Elizabeth Montgomery. If the made-for-TV movie genre makes a comeback, expect Melissa Joan Hart to get plenty of work.
I only went to Melodyland once, but got to see Jimmy Durante do his show. I was enchanted, but then I was only about eight and hadn't yet caught on to how annoying Durante could be.
ReplyDeleteAnd I too saw Jim Croce open for Woody Allen at the Valley Music Theatre. The bonus attraction the night I went, though, was Allen introducing Groucho in the audience. Groucho stood up and as he took a bow, he removed his cigar and there was a long string of spittle stretching from his mouth to the stogie.
Thirty years later, and the memory lingers.
Ah, good times.
There was one of those theatres in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, too--the Melody Top.
ReplyDeleteI remember two of the shows and the stars being talented and well-matched: Lucie Arnaz in BYE BYE BIRDIE and JoAnne Worley in GYPSY.
Much more were as ill-cast as the ones mentioned here, though!
For the record, Betsy Palmer had the distinction of being the killer in Friday the 13th, the original, not the sequel. Which may be a little like pointing out that this dung pile was there before that dung pile, but there ya are.
ReplyDeleteYou were an usher at Valley Music Theater? These photos were taken recently. Were those lamps always there? What about the umbrellas over the stage?
ReplyDeleteFor Tom Quiqley:
ReplyDeleteYes in the mid-to-late sixties, I saw bands like the Doors, Iron Butterfly (a year before their first album), and Three Dog Night at the Valley Music Theatre, where my girlfriend Lori was an usher just like Ken Levine. It was obviously uncomfortable to play going round and round, but the seats were all very close, so there wasn't a bad seat in the house.......
I grew up in the SF Valley and spent some quality time in the Valley Music Theater...Peter, Paul and Mary among others. But my most well-remembered show was Jim Croce opening for Woody Allen in 1973. I was invited by a high school buddy (I was in grad school)who worked for Croce's management company. Woody seemed uncomfortable and anxious to head for the door.
ReplyDeleteNonetheless, I am grateful to have seen his stand up routine.
Finally, Ken...during my years in Seattle (1990-2001) I was a huge Mariners' fan. You were a great addition to the broadcast team.
Regarding Damn Yankees and Allen Case, he starred on Broadway in Damn Yankees in 1955. He also played Sir Harry on Broadway with Carol Burnett in Once Upon a Matress, in the Tony Award Winning Hallelujah Baby, Kiss Me Kate and others. Later he toured nationally with several musical productions including Sondheim's, Company.
ReplyDeleteOn television, as was noted, he starred in The Deputy that ran for 2 seasons in 1959-61 (then close to 80 episodes) and also starred in The Legend of Jesse James series a as well as guest roles on many other Westerns.
During the 70's and 80's he filmed several pilots was a frequent guest star on a variety of drama series, most notably, however, on The Bob Newhart Show where he played the white collar ex-con, Copelson.
Case died in 1986 in California.
In San Diego we had Circle Arts Theatre (in the round)Peter Palmer (original Abner) in LI'L ABNER; Jayne Mansfield in GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES; Janet Blair in BELLS ARE RINGING & SOUTH PACIFIC; Martha Raye in WILDCAT; Jack Carson in TAKE ME ALONG; Carla Alberghetti in WEST SIDE STORY; Thin Pat Suzuki in FLOWER DRUM SONG; Frankie Avalon in WISH YOU WERE HERE; Frankie Laine in PAINT YOUR WAGON; ETC. I'll send more, if you like. Kurt Kittleson, San Diego, CA
ReplyDeleteKPBS is showing South Pacific today, and it brought back memories of seeing it with my folks in the round theatre. A trip go Google landed me here! I distinctly remember seeing Eddie Albert in Music Man, also in the round. Wasn't it the same theatre? Ring any bells with anyone else??
ReplyDeleteSandy Koufax never played for the Angels. And when I saw the Damn Yankees production at Melodyland, it was Bo Belinsky and Dean Chance - not Koufax - who appeared as guest celebrities.
ReplyDeleteI'm a little late to this party so no one will read this since it's seven years later - but what a smart ass bunch of people. Valley Music Theater also played host to Judith Anderson in Medea (with Marian Seldes) and Ethel Merman and Russell Nype in Call Me Madam. So, no, while Mr. Levine likes to crack wise (and not so amusingly here), some pretty great people played there. It's easy to make fun of these things to be cute, but the fact is they did some terrific productions at every theater in the round. Why is Gordon and Sheila MacCrae doing Bells Are Ringing a joke? She understudied Judy Holiday on B'way. Tammy Grimes reprised her role as Molly Brown at Melodyland, Joel Grey was hardly a newcomer (his first movie was in 1949 and he'd already had an excellent stage career and had made recordings for Columbia - and in West Covina at the Carousel, I saw one of the greatest stage productions ever - Robert Weede and Art Lund in The Most Happy Fella.
ReplyDelete