Roz Russell On Singing Momma Rose...(I find this interesting)

[ljay889]

Posted: 7/28/05 at 11:54pm

Okay, I just started reading Russell's autobiography (no, not the average book someone my age is reading lol) So I decided too skip to the sections I'm most interested in. Once I got to where she speaks about Gypsy.. I found this REALLY interesting.

We know most of Roz's singing was dubbed by Lisa Kirk. But we hear Roz on MR GOLDSTONE, ROSE'S TURN, and SMALL WORLD (Reprise.) But from Roz says in her book, is a little different. Let me give some quotes.

At first I was only to act the part; Rose's singing was dubbed by a professional with a big trained voice. When I heard it, I got sick. "It isn't me", I said. "I'm bad but I can't stand to hear that. Everybody knows I don't sing operatically, it throws the balance off." Warner Brothers agreed and rescored the picture, and I sang my own part. People still say I didn't, but that's Roz and nobody else as Rose on the soundtrack of GYPSY.

Now this is just wow too me. We know Roz got to sing her own tracks, we have the outtakes. But in the movie we know those aren't Roz's outtakes. So why is she insisting we hear her in the movie on everything? We hear her on a few songs, but not the whole score. So why does she claim she sing the whole movie?

I found this amusing. Any comments from Roz/Gypsy experts?




Updated On: 7/29/05 at 11:54 PM

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 7/29/05 at 12:16am

Let's just say that Roz took MANY liberties in the telling of her life story. If you listen to her she practically wrote MAME all by herself. I love her dearly, but don't believe everything she wrote.

[ljay889]

Posted: 7/29/05 at 12:29am

Thank you for the reply. I haven't read the whole thing yet. So I found this GYPSY singing part shocking. So based on what you say - I take it she enhances some things.

I still love this woman though.

[wildcat]

Posted: 7/29/05 at 12:35am

You mean...Roz wasn't REALLY Sister Kenny? And here am I thinking Auntie Mame invented that treatment for polio...

[WOSQ]

Posted: 7/29/05 at 9:36am

Roz's memoir was also published after she died. Freddy Brisson, her husband/manager who had his detractors and was nicknamed 'The Lizard of Roz', over-saw the final text. Everything in it has to be taken with a grain of salt.

[Glebb]

Posted: 7/29/05 at 9:40am

LOL! I read "Life is a Banquet" many years ago, when I was teenager and I forgot about this. Gosh, it sounds so horrible I believed it was Roz singing. Don't get me wrong, I adore the movie nevertheless.

PS - Loved the stuff about Haley Mills and Roz.

Posted: 7/29/05 at 10:57am

It's wonderful to read Roz's book, then compare her tales with the other ones out there. Her version of Gypsy is contrary to tales told by Arthur Laurents, Stephen Sondheim, Lisa Kirk, even Ethel Merman (Who, obviously, also needs to be taken with a shaker full of salt.)

The "Auntie Mame" stuff is even better, considering that she claims to have added lines, business and characters to the Play of Auntie Mame that were actually taken from the Book Auntie Mame.

In one Merman bio I read, they claimed that Ethel had been given Roz's original recordings for the movie of Gypsy and liked to play them at parties, to raucus laughter all around.

[WonderBoy]

Posted: 7/29/05 at 11:15am

Excuse while I take a brief detour and threadjack for a moment. After watching AUNTIE MAME the other night for the 100th time (love that film) I questioned why the play had not been revived. I then thought to myself who would make a fabulous Auntie Mame and Jean Smart popped in my head. Anyone else agree?

No back to our regularly scheduled program...

Posted: 7/29/05 at 11:37am

It is a wonderful play, but monstrously expensive to produce: HUGE cast, hundreds of costumes, a dozen big sets. And seeing as how Plays never can do the kind of business that a musical can, I think it's natural to look to "Mame" for a revival instead.

[South Fl Marc]

Posted: 7/29/05 at 11:45am

The play is so much better than the book to the musical.
I was hoping that Charles Busch's production that went to a few summer theatres last year would play New York , but it never happened.

[roquat]

Posted: 7/29/05 at 12:56pm

Roz was dubbed by Lisa Kirk and another singer. That's why the soundtrack is like "The Three Faces of Momma Rose."

[ljay889]

Posted: 7/29/05 at 12:59pm

Hmm. That's odd. I've never heard of another singer also dubbing Roz.

The two singers that get CREDIT for Rose's songs are Lisa and Roz.

This is interesting.

[Glebb]

Posted: 7/29/05 at 1:23pm

JoeKv99: Thanks for the Merman playing the soundtrack at parties story. I can just picture it and then I chuckle out loud (at the office). :)

[QueenS]

Posted: 7/29/05 at 1:24pm

I adore that book. I'm pretty sure that after she read "Auntie Mame," she then read "Little Me" and modeled her bio on that one. But I have to say, in most instances, it seemed to me that she really believed what she was saying.

My take on Gypsy was that they did do the full Lisa Kirk version and then told Roz they were going to use her and went to the Kirk/Roz remix without telling her. I'd pretty much believe that she would hear that and think it was just her.

I'd hate to use the word "delusional," but...

I also love that she owned up to being sick "out by the pool" until she got correct billing for "The Women."

[Glebb]

Posted: 7/29/05 at 1:28pm

I could very well be all wet on this but do you think many of the stars of her day held on to their mythological biographies and denied the truth to the public, thinking it would work?

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 7/29/05 at 1:31pm

saw the charles busch AUNTIE MAME last summer in the hamptons and it wasn't so hot--imo. the costumes were SUPERB but no one else in the show was up to charles' madcap intensity. he needed julie halston as vera. charles had the clothes and the pose but not the insides. it was labored. i felt exhausted afterward.

[justme2]

Posted: 7/29/05 at 1:53pm

yes, Glebb, I think the stars did indeed do that. I've read hundreds of biographies of the silent and golden age stars, and I swear some of the stories match word for word what was written in those "fan" magazines of the 1930's!

The most disturbing biography story I ever read was Gloria Swanson's - she had written this volume in the 1960's I believe. The disturbing part?

She was a die hard follower of Gaylord Hauser's health and diet techniques. Not too bad, until she wrote about an illness she had in the 1920's following the birth of her daughter. She and Hauser believed sunlight was an energy healer. Follwoing the birth, she had some...uh.....trouble down south. She claims she healed herself by going into the backyard daily, having her legs ..uh....held asunder and tied apart and the sun....uh.....shone where it usually didn't shine. She claims she was healed in days, instead of dying as the doctor told her she was going to.

I cannot watch any of her films without that vision in my head and that is just wrong.

[QueenS]

Posted: 7/29/05 at 2:32pm

Oh. My. God.

Forget just Swanson's films. I won't even be able to watch Glenn Close as Norma without thinking of that.

I need a drink.

[Glebb]

Posted: 7/29/05 at 9:58pm

Geez!
I love Gloria Swanson.
Nothing will get in the way.
Funny story though.
Remember her on The Beverly Hillbillies?

[ljay889]

Posted: 7/29/05 at 10:01pm

I think it's a little cruel Merman would play Roz's outtakes at parties. If you listen to the outtakes - you hear a woman trying her hardest with songs way out of her range. You can't help to chuckle a little when you hear her trying to hit the notes in "Some People." I mean chuckle in a good way. Roz is good fast tempos, the faster parts of "Everything's Coming Up Roses" - she handles quite well.

Anyway, Roz made it a very clear she thought Merman should've had the role in the film. But Roz was classy, and didn't talk bad about Merman.

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 7/29/05 at 10:14pm

Thank you all for posting. You have just inspired me to watch the movie, GYPSY.

[Glebb]

Posted: 7/29/05 at 10:18pm

I just might watch it too!

[VIETgrlTerifa]

Posted: 7/29/05 at 10:32pm

That story makes Ethel sound bitter towards Roz because she got to play her in the movie. Maybe Roz should've shown clips of some of Ethel's movies to get people laughing at parties. Ethel might be a powerhouse on stage, but she couldn't act worth a damn. Yes yes, throw tomatoes at me for that comment, but I've seen "There's No Business Like Show Business." I wish I could say otherwise.

[Glebb]

Posted: 7/29/05 at 10:34pm

Come on guys. It's a funny story. I'm sure Roz was not hurt one bit by being laughed at. She would have probably thought it funny too.

[VIETgrlTerifa]

Posted: 7/29/05 at 10:45pm

Well, from the sounds of this thread, Roz sounds like she has a very high opinion of herself.