Threaded Order Chronological Order
| re: Watching Music Man on TCM, inspired checking out the original data | |
| Posted by: portenopete 10:47 pm EST 02/13/22 | |
| In reply to: Watching Music Man on TCM, inspired checking out the original data - Delvino 08:46 pm EST 02/13/22 | |
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| I'm fascinated by Forrest Tucker having played the entire national tour for four years (according to Ovrtur). Is this true? I see that Harry Hicox left Charlie Cowell in December 1961 but he's not listed as having taken over his understudy so I'm assuming Tucker played the entire tour (presumably Hicox subbed during Tucker's vacation). Tucker must have logged more performances than Preston at approx. 1500-1600? |
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| re: Forrest Tucker | |
| Posted by: NewtonUK 09:59 am EST 02/14/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Watching Music Man on TCM, inspired checking out the original data - portenopete 10:47 pm EST 02/13/22 | |
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| I saw Preston do it, and also saw the National Tour with Forrest Tucker and Joan Weldon. Tucker was cut from very similar cloth as Preston, and gave an almost equally terrific performance. | |
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| Interesting..... | |
| Posted by: portenopete 07:00 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Forrest Tucker - NewtonUK 09:59 am EST 02/14/22 | |
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| Forrest Tucker always seemed like such a gruff barfly, perpetually either sozzled or emerging from a hangover (I believe he may have had issues with drink but I don't know much about his life or lifestyle). I'd've thought he offered a very different Harold Hill than Preston, who always led with dash and handsomeness under which the sly fox could lay his trap. I'm envious that you got to see both of them! I'd also love to have seen Harry Hicox and Van Johnson (in London), not to mention Tony Randall and Dick Van Dyke! I did catch Eric McCormack when he took over after Bierko left and provided more star power, Will and Grace being at the height of its popularity. He was a natural Harold Hill, but needed a director to steer him away from constant glances and winks at the audience, which seems to be what Jackman is doing in the current revival. |
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| I would think Eddie Albert would have been very fine | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 01:50 am EST 02/15/22 | |
| In reply to: Interesting..... - portenopete 07:00 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
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| who really was an incredibly versatile performer and a really good singer, certainly good enough to star in the original Rodgers & Hart "Boys from Syracuse" and Irving Berlin's "Miss Liberty". He sounds lovely on the OCR of the latter. He was definitely not just the nice funny stuffed shirt lawyer from "Green Acres", which is how most folks remember him. | |
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| re: Interesting..... | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 12:03 am EST 02/15/22 | |
| In reply to: Interesting..... - portenopete 07:00 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
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| Forrest Tucker is really charming and good-looking in the film "Auntie Mame". I'd agree with your description from perhaps his most famous role in the tv "F Troop", but his Beauregarde is quite a gent and different from Sergeant O'Rourke. | |
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| re: Here's Forrest Tucker singing -- | |
| Posted by: Guillaume 12:31 am EST 02/16/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Interesting..... - PlayWiz 12:03 am EST 02/15/22 | |
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| I tried to find a clip of him singing and only could find this clip of him -- it's not in Music Man, but you can see his lady's man confidence, his ease at being on stage, his vocal phrasing, lightness on his feet, twinkle in the eye and approachable masculinity would have made him a very strong Harold Hill indeed. He must have been wonderful! | |
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| re: Here's Forrest Tucker singing -- | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 01:40 pm EST 02/16/22 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 01:38 pm EST 02/16/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Here's Forrest Tucker singing -- - Guillaume 12:31 am EST 02/16/22 | |
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| Thanks for that! Yeah, I agree that he looks like he would have been an excellent Harold Hill, - moving well, very at ease on stage, good rhythm, confident among other qualities that serve the role. I think that's Janet Leigh at the start, and he's joined at the end by his "F Troop" co-stars Larry Storch and Ken Berry. | |
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| re: Interesting..... | |
| Posted by: portenopete 10:25 am EST 02/15/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Interesting..... - PlayWiz 12:03 am EST 02/15/22 | |
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| You've hit the nail on the head. I know him mainly from F Troop and I have never seen Auntie Male (my bad). Funny that Preston took that role from him in the musical Mame film. | |
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| Forrest Tucker | |
| Last Edit: BroadwayTonyJ 07:20 am EST 02/15/22 | |
| Posted by: BroadwayTonyJ 07:19 am EST 02/15/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Interesting..... - PlayWiz 12:03 am EST 02/15/22 | |
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| Tucker had a long career in films, beginning in 1940, that lasted at least 45 years. He generally played featured roles in tons of "B" movies, but occasionally in "A" films like The Westerner, Keeper of the Flame, The Yearling, Sands of Iwo Jima, Three Violent People, and others. He often was cast as a big, strapping, really good-looking guy, (which he was). | |
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| re: Forrest Tucker | |
| Posted by: Pokernight 11:18 am EST 02/15/22 | |
| In reply to: Forrest Tucker - BroadwayTonyJ 07:19 am EST 02/15/22 | |
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| Tucker also did a short-lived series, DUSTY'S TRAIL, where it was noted that he was fun and professional and drank a full bottle of brandy every day. | |
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| I wonder if that was Dusty's treasure trail | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 11:21 am EST 02/15/22 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 11:21 am EST 02/15/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Forrest Tucker - Pokernight 11:18 am EST 02/15/22 | |
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| Tucker did start to get, um, noticed by going to George Cukor's rather notorious pool parties when he was starting out in Hollywood. :) | |
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| re: Forrest Tucker | |
| Posted by: portenopete 10:28 am EST 02/15/22 | |
| In reply to: Forrest Tucker - BroadwayTonyJ 07:19 am EST 02/15/22 | |
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| I guess it's personal taste. I haven't seen the movies and shows that might have made me think of him as a looker. Not that Harold Hill needs to be handsome necessarily. But I've always thought the plot is basically the same as The Heiress: shy, plain spinster wooed by morally suspect charmer and the audience is left worrying how badly she will be hurt. | |
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| re: Forrest Tucker | |
| Posted by: larry13 12:11 pm EST 02/15/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Forrest Tucker - portenopete 10:28 am EST 02/15/22 | |
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| The female lead being a "shy, plain spinster wooed by a morally suspect charmer"(and is Marian necessarily plain?)may be common to both but "the plot is basically the same as The Heiress" is NOT correct. There is a father in the Henry James story and a very different outcome to the spinster's life. | |
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| re: Forrest Tucker | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 02:44 pm EST 02/15/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Forrest Tucker - larry13 12:11 pm EST 02/15/22 | |
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| It might be more akin to THE RAINMAKER/110 IN THE SHADE, although in that story, the spinster taken with the handsome drifter, certainly makes different choices than Marian does. | |
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| re: Forrest Tucker | |
| Posted by: BroadwayTonyJ 12:35 pm EST 02/15/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Forrest Tucker - larry13 12:11 pm EST 02/15/22 | |
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| Also, in at least the '49 film version of The Heiress, Catherine wears her hair and dresses in a way that makes her look plain and dowdy. However, after her father dies and she gains confidence, she reveals herself to be quite handsome, which wasn't too difficult since Olivia de Havilland was a breathtakingly beautiful woman. | |
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| re: Forrest Tucker | |
| Posted by: peter3053 05:37 pm EST 02/15/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Forrest Tucker - BroadwayTonyJ 12:35 pm EST 02/15/22 | |
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| Learning that he played Harold Hill is not so surprising, when one thinks that, later, O'Rourke in F Troop was a supreme con man too - and had Agarn for his Marcellus. | |
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| re: Watching Music Man on TCM, inspired checking out the original data | |
| Last Edit: AlanScott 12:40 am EST 02/14/22 | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 12:38 am EST 02/14/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Watching Music Man on TCM, inspired checking out the original data - portenopete 10:47 pm EST 02/13/22 | |
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| Forrest Tucker did play the whole three years and seven months of the tour, except vacations. A friend saw Hickox. Hickox left to play Charlie Cowell in the movie. The Music Man film has at least two tour cast members (Hickox and Susan Luckey), and at least one Broadway replacement (Paul Ford). In 1964, Luckey married Larry Douglas, Broadway Harold Hill standby for a good deal of the run. He did play vacations and, of course, when a Hill was sick. And later he played Hill in stock. And then he was the district attorney in Here's Love and Fred Gaily understudy. Luckey and Douglas were still married when he died in 1996. Not only did Tucker play more performances as Hill than Preston, he probably played more performances than Preston, Eddie Albert and Bert Parks put together played during the Broadway run. The only reason I hedge is because I can't know how much vacation time Tucker took and how many performances he may have missed for other reasons. And ditto, although to a lesser degree, for the Broadway guys. Tucker was not only the tour cast member to play the whole tour. So did Cliff Hall (Mayor Shinn), Lucie Lancaster (Mrs. Paroo), Benny Baker (Marcellus) and three of the four quartet guys. If you scroll down on the ovrtur tour page, we have a note on this. (I know people often miss those notes. If I do say so myself, sometimes there is fascinating info in those notes. And sometimes there is dull info that is nonetheless important in some way.) Of course, there are plenty of people in other shows who played even longer full runs, including on tours, which you might think would just get too tiring. But we all know why an actor might make that choice. |
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| re: Watching Music Man on TCM, inspired checking out the original data | |
| Posted by: WaymanWong 12:32 pm EST 02/15/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Watching Music Man on TCM, inspired checking out the original data - AlanScott 12:38 am EST 02/14/22 | |
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| Alan, your encyclopedic knowledge of showbiz never fails to dazzle. You really oughta audition for ''Jeopardy!'' and give Matt Amodio and Amy Schneider a run for their money! ;) |
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| re: Watching Music Man on TCM, inspired checking out the original data | |
| Posted by: portenopete 07:14 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Watching Music Man on TCM, inspired checking out the original data - AlanScott 12:38 am EST 02/14/22 | |
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| I marvel at your acumen and the invaluable addition that Ovrtur is to my life :). I don't think any detail is too obscure for inclusion! That must have been a very happy company to be in if so many principles stayed with it for so long. I would imagine Tucker would have been a big part of that, since it can't be much fun sharing a stage with an unhappy star. I always forget Davey Burns was the original Mayor Shinn, since Paul Ford is such an indelible presence in the movie. Did Ford never play Horace Vandergelder? It seems such a perfect fit! I guess he was busy with Never Too Late when Dolly! was being prepped but he was a fixture on broadway through the early 1970s and even replaced John McGiver as The Mayor at the end of the run of that very starry Robert Ryan/Bert Convy The Front Page (when the replacements are Dody Goodman, Butterfly McQueen, Maureen O'Sullivan and Molly Picon, that's a show I'd want to see again). |
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| re: Watching Music Man on TCM, inspired checking out the original data | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 07:41 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Watching Music Man on TCM, inspired checking out the original data - portenopete 07:14 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
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| Paul Ford, hopefully you are aware, played Horace in the film "The Matchmaker"opposite Shirley Booth. They're both great. | |
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| re: Watching Music Man on TCM, inspired checking out the original data | |
| Posted by: portenopete 09:02 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Watching Music Man on TCM, inspired checking out the original data - PlayWiz 07:41 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
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| You might be hopeful, but I had forgotten. (I've never actually seen it.) | |
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| re: Watching Music Man on TCM, inspired checking out the original data | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 11:51 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Watching Music Man on TCM, inspired checking out the original data - portenopete 09:02 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
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| You're also missing Anthony Perkins and Shirley MacLaine at their most charming, as Cornelius and Irene. Plus Robert Morse is adorable in his stage role of Barnaby. | |
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| re: Watching Music Man on TCM, inspired checking out the original data | |
| Posted by: portenopete 10:33 am EST 02/15/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Watching Music Man on TCM, inspired checking out the original data - PlayWiz 11:51 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
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| Stop making me feel so guilty! LOL I wish I had TCM..... |
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| My mistake, you mentioned the movie! Sorry. nm | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 08:07 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
| In reply to: re: Watching Music Man on TCM, inspired checking out the original data - PlayWiz 07:41 pm EST 02/14/22 | |
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| nm | |
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