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| re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle | |
| Posted by: champagnesalesman 04:06 pm EDT 07/31/20 | |
| In reply to: The 'Wildcat' Debacle - Clancy 01:06 pm EDT 07/31/20 | |
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| I was excited about a new biography of Lucille Ball, until I read the "mix of fact and fiction" part....is there any point in reading it? I can just watch HOLLYWOOD again..... WILDCAT is not "largely forgotten" by Lucy fans or by Cy Coleman fans. It yielded a popular song "Hey, Look Me Over"..and had numerous summer stock productions starring such diverse talents as Martha Raye and Margaret Whiting....NY has only seen an ill advised production w Luba Mason and a miscast segment at ENCORES... It was also NOT Lucy's first foray into theatre...she toured in DREAM GIRL in the 40's and also appeared in a pre-Broadway tryout of HEY DIDDLE DIDDLE in the 30's(!) I think someone like Charles Busch could make a go of it today |
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| The temporary popularity of Wildcat in stock | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 01:46 pm EDT 08/01/20 | |
| In reply to: re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle - champagnesalesman 04:06 pm EDT 07/31/20 | |
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| It's true that for two years Wildcat was, for some reason, popular in stock. In addition to the two you mention, there were productions with Peggy Cass, Gale Storm, Carmel Quinn and Norma Doggett, and perhaps some others. Was it the popularity of "Hey, Look Me Over"? Was it just that it was a big leading role for a woman who did not necessarily have to be especially young or sing especially well (even though a few of those women certainly did sing well)? | |
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| re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle | |
| Last Edit: Delvino 10:13 am EDT 08/01/20 | |
| Posted by: Delvino 10:10 am EDT 08/01/20 | |
| In reply to: re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle - champagnesalesman 04:06 pm EDT 07/31/20 | |
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| There are a fair number of C&W stars who might be charming in it, if we still had the stock we once had. (Remember when everybody had a go at Miss Mona? Even Barbi Benton. Google her, younguns.) I can imagine, say, a 2nd string Reba doing a Wildcat tour even 15 years ago, to re-try stage legs in a win-win venue. But I'm riffing. Shows in that mid-range of hits used to routinely return to life with stars. I grew up attending the east coast circuit (Wesburty - Shady Grove in DC area). We saw all kinds of packages -- Jan Pierce in The Rothschilds, Eva Gabor in Applause -- and that was part of the fun, knowing it was, well, just for fun. | |
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| re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle | |
| Posted by: larry13 01:16 pm EDT 08/01/20 | |
| In reply to: re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle - Delvino 10:10 am EDT 08/01/20 | |
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| Why only a "2nd string Reba doing a Wildcat tour even 15 years ago?" What about Reba herself? | |
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| re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle | |
| Posted by: JohnDunlop 07:56 pm EDT 07/31/20 | |
| In reply to: re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle - champagnesalesman 04:06 pm EDT 07/31/20 | |
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| Lucille Ball sang "Hey Look Me Over" on The Ed Sullivan Show. I remember watching that night. | |
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| Ed Sullivan re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle | |
| Last Edit: Marlo*Manners 08:20 pm EDT 07/31/20 | |
| Posted by: Marlo*Manners 08:06 pm EDT 07/31/20 | |
| In reply to: re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle - JohnDunlop 07:56 pm EDT 07/31/20 | |
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| Yes she was on Ed Sullivan. Her voice is what it is but Lucy has star energy and a big theatrical personality. She could have done the show as long as she wanted to and it would have eventually paid back its investment. I think Lucy got tired of doing it night after night. Also, the weird thing is that Lucy started as a chorus girl in early movie musicals - a "Goldwyn Girl" so maybe more of a showgirl. She should have had some dance experience. Also, she did lots of musicals - the film versions of "Best Foot Forward","Too Many Girls", "Fancy Pants" and "Dubarry was a Lady" - but she was dubbed by Trudy Erwin, Martha Mears and Annette Warren et al. And after the supposed "Wildcat" 'debacle', Lucy went on to purchase the film rights to "Mame" and insisted on doing her own singing despite rumors that Lisa Kirk was going to dub her. Also, 171 performances is not that bad a run in 1960. Musicals didn't have to run for years to make back their money in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. |
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| Link | Lucy and Paula Stewart on the Ed Sullivan Show |
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| How long was she signed for? Today, 6 months might be a full contract. | |
| Posted by: Delvino 10:18 am EDT 08/01/20 | |
| In reply to: Ed Sullivan re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle - Marlo*Manners 08:06 pm EDT 07/31/20 | |
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| Road try-out plus six months on B'way wouldn't be odd today, though with the assumption of a successful recast (Well, Josh Groban was to be replaced by a star, or maybe wasn't, but we'll leave that for another ethread). Was Ball signed for a year? Would she have left in August without health problems? | |
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| re: How long was she signed for? Today, 6 months might be a full contract. | |
| Posted by: FleetStreetBarber 10:56 am EDT 08/01/20 | |
| In reply to: How long was she signed for? Today, 6 months might be a full contract. - Delvino 10:18 am EDT 08/01/20 | |
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| I think I recall reading that she planned to do the show for 18 months and had signed a 5-year lease on her UES apartment. | |
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| re: How long was she signed for? Today, 6 months might be a full contract. | |
| Posted by: BroadwayTonyJ 10:48 am EDT 08/01/20 | |
| In reply to: How long was she signed for? Today, 6 months might be a full contract. - Delvino 10:18 am EDT 08/01/20 | |
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| Wildcat sold out performances when Ball was in the show. However, she wasn't able to consistently do 8 shows a week. According to every source I know of, Ball was the sole producer and she alone decided to close the show after 171 performances before the show was able to recoup. | |
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| re: How long was she signed for? Today, 6 months might be a full contract. | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 04:09 pm EDT 08/03/20 | |
| In reply to: re: How long was she signed for? Today, 6 months might be a full contract. - BroadwayTonyJ 10:48 am EDT 08/01/20 | |
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| It's kind of a shame that HELLO, DOLLY! didn't come along a few years earlier. I'm sure that David Merrick would have taken Ball as a replacement Dolly for however long she wanted to do it or could commit to do it between seasons of television sitcoms. And that show surely wouldn't have taxed Ball as a singer or dancer as much as WILDCAT might have done. Going in as a replacement for 3-6 months would have been ample time for Ball to discover that she would get bored (if that's the case) or figure out that an 8 performance week was not something she was either capable of or interested in doing. If FOLLIES had run longer, she might have been an interesting replacement Carlotta had that been something she was interested in at the time. |
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| re: Ed Sullivan re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle | |
| Posted by: FleetStreetBarber 10:04 am EDT 08/01/20 | |
| In reply to: Ed Sullivan re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle - Marlo*Manners 08:06 pm EDT 07/31/20 | |
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| I think it was more than mere boredom. Lucy was a shrewd businesswoman, and as co-owner of Desilu, which reportedly was the sole investor in the show, I doubt that she would have run out on the production if it weren't for the fact that she didn't have the health and stamina required for eight shows a week. Her performance on The Ed Sullivan Show came on the night before she was due to return to the show after a two-week vacation. She had collapsed on stage in the middle of Act II at a Saturday evening performance in February of 1961 and Sheilah Hackett, Michael Kidd's assistant and later his wife, stepped in and finished the show as Wildcat Jackson. (On the original unedited Ed Sullivan Show clip, you could hear Lucy cough during the chit-chat with Sullivan after "Hey, Look Me Over.") Then, a few months later, another hiatus was announced, this one to last nine weeks to give the star more time to recover, but alas a few days later the decision was made to close the show for good. | |
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| re: Ed Sullivan re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle | |
| Posted by: larry13 01:11 pm EDT 08/01/20 | |
| In reply to: re: Ed Sullivan re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle - FleetStreetBarber 10:04 am EDT 08/01/20 | |
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| Shelah Hackett, assistant choreographer for WILDCAT, did marry Kidd(1969 to his death in 2007)but first married Keith Andes, Lucy's leading man, a couple months into the run. As far as I know, she is still alive. | |
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| re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 07:40 pm EDT 07/31/20 | |
| In reply to: re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle - champagnesalesman 04:06 pm EDT 07/31/20 | |
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| It yielded a popular song "Hey, Look Me Over" It did. And unfortunately it's one of a very very few Coleman songs I honestly can't stand. I don't really know why, except that maybe it comes from hearing too many people audition with it (badly) when I was just starting out playing auditions lol. But, so it goes...;-) It's a shame though, because generally I revere Coleman. |
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| re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 08:05 pm EDT 07/31/20 | |
| In reply to: re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle - Chromolume 07:40 pm EDT 07/31/20 | |
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| And then a few years later, he and Carolyn Leigh seemed to try to come up with a similar song when they wrote "Pass Me By." Not sure if they specifically wrote it for Father Goose or it just ended up there, but it did achieve some popularity. | |
| Link | Father Goose opening credits with Pass Me By |
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| re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle | |
| Posted by: JohnDunlop 05:00 pm EDT 07/31/20 | |
| In reply to: re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle - champagnesalesman 04:06 pm EDT 07/31/20 | |
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| I remember Lucy talking to Jack Paar about "Wildcat' around Christmas of 1960. She seemed a bit enthusiastic then. Was it her first television interview? |
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| re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle | |
| Posted by: FleetStreetBarber 06:24 pm EDT 07/31/20 | |
| In reply to: re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle - JohnDunlop 05:00 pm EDT 07/31/20 | |
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| I remember Lucy being interviewed by Paar around that time. She was also promoting "The Facts of Life," which premiered about a month before "Wildcat." Eventually the conversation turned to the upcoming show and Paar asked Lucy whether she'd be singing. She replied, somewhat apologetically, "Yeah, I have to." | |
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| re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle | |
| Posted by: champagnesalesman 10:24 pm EDT 07/31/20 | |
| In reply to: re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle - FleetStreetBarber 06:24 pm EDT 07/31/20 | |
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| Lucy does her own singing in a terrific 1940 film called DANCE, GIRL DANCE..and she sounds pretty good she sang one of the songs in DUBARRY WAS A LADY...and sings a bit..not Lucy Ricardo-esqe.... in THE LONG LONG TRAILER. Her voice had changed by WILDCAT but she's not bad. MAME was filmed only a dozen years later(but probably 10,000 cigarettes later)but I think she still has some nice musical moments in it like My Best Girl |
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| re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle | |
| Last Edit: Chromolume 12:08 am EDT 08/01/20 | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 12:07 am EDT 08/01/20 | |
| In reply to: re: The 'Wildcat' Debacle - champagnesalesman 10:24 pm EDT 07/31/20 | |
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| I've always felt that the problem with the film of Mame wasn't so much her singing - just that the film falls flat in general. | |
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