Alexis Smith - Could I Leave You?

[romantico]

Posted: 4/4/08 at 10:21pm

My God, she is great. I fell in love with her when I saw 'Gentleman Jim' and have loved her ever since. She looks stunning here. Does anyone know from what this is from and the year? I'm guessing early 1970's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycsNMrO49Tw

Updated On: 4/4/08 at 10:21 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/4/08 at 10:42pm

1982. A PBS special directed by Rob Iscove, who directed Sandy Duncan's Peter Pan. It was narrated by Tom Bosley and featured a bunch of Broadway performers and the American Dance Machine, a group founded by Lee Theodore (West Side Story's original Anybodys) to reconstruct classic Broadway dance numbers.

1. Everything's Coming Up Roses--Ethel Merman (Gypsy)
2. Quadrille--the American Dance Machine (Can-Can)
3. Get Some Cash for Your Trash--Nell Carter (Ain't Misbehaving)
4. You Could Drive a Person Crazy--Donna McKechnie, Pamela Myers, Susan Browning (Company)
5. You Made Me Love You--Debbie Reynolds (Irene)
6. Try to Remember--Jerry Orbach (The Fantastics)
7. Shriner's Dance--Chita Rivera and the American Dance Machine (Bye Bye Birdie)
8. Summer Loving--Barry Bostwick and Carol Demas (Grease)
9. Sleeping Bee--Diahann Carroll (House of Flowers)
10. Never Will I Marry--Anthony Perkins (Greenwillow)
11. All for the Best--Stephen Nathan and David Haskell (Godspell)
12. Mean to Me--Nell Carter (Ain't Misbehaving)
13. I Believe in You--Robert Morse (How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying)
14. Could I Leave You--Alexis Smith (Follies)
15. Charlie's Place--Donna McKechnie, Wayne Cilento, and the American Dance Machine (Over Here)
16. Little One New York--Chita Rivera and the American Dance Machine (Tenderloin)
17. Pretty Woman--Len Cariou (Sweeney Todd)
18. Send in the Clowns--Glynis Johns and Len Cariou (A Little Night Music)
19. Those Were the Good Old Days--Ray Walston (Damn Yankees)
20. They Say It's Wonderful--Ethel Merman (Annie Get Your Gun)
21. Lullaby of Broadway--Jerry Orbach and the entire company

It was released on VHS and laserdisc (I still have mine--and it works!) as That's Singing: The Best of Broadway: A Celebration of American Musical Comedy.

The two highlights (for me) were the Alexis Smith clip you linked and this one: Len Cariou and Glynis Johns performing the scene and song of Send in the Clowns.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAl-EawVobY

Any requests?

Updated On: 4/4/08 at 10:42 PM

[Mamie]

Posted: 4/4/08 at 10:51pm

I forgot how much I love this DVD. (Of course I'm still a little in love with Jerry O - so the ending is perfect!)

[romantico]

Posted: 4/5/08 at 9:48am

Thanks Pal Joey! 1982, WOW I thought it was earlier. She looked good! Is this on dvd yet? Sounds like a great show.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/5/08 at 10:56am

Mamie says it did but I thought it only came out on VHS and laserdisc.

I'll be happy to scan any of the numbers from my laserdisc and post them on YouTube, like I did with the Glynis Johns.

The You Could Drive a Person Crazy (with the original 3), the Ethel numbers, the Jerry Orbach numbers and the Debbie Reynolds are great. I'm not a huge fan of the American Dance Machine numbers, which I always felt guilty about, because I had a bf who was heavily involved in the Dance Machine.

Alexis Smith was beyond dazzling. She redefined dazzling.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/5/08 at 11:00am

Okay, it DID come out from Warner Home Video on DVD but went out of print.

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/5/08 at 11:31am

I remember this on TV when it aired back in the '80s! I was a poor starving actor living in NYC back then.

Ah, the good ol' days...

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 4/5/08 at 12:05pm

PalJoey, any way you could scan the "You Could Drive a Person Crazy" clip? I'd love to see it.
Alexis Smith is dreamy, even in that dress I kept looking at her famous legs. Love her, can't get enough of her.

[fflagg]

Posted: 4/5/08 at 3:06pm

The high point has to be "Send in the Clowns" with the dialogue that frames the scene.

No way could Glenn Close pull this off.

Ann-Margret could.

[BigFatBlonde]

Posted: 4/5/08 at 3:10pm

I think it was filmed at the Pasadena Auditorium.

I remember catching it on NBC and LOVING IT!

Doesn't Diahann Carroll have a mini wardrobe malfunction?

[theaterkid1015]

Posted: 4/5/08 at 5:01pm

PJ, if you posted "Drive A Person Crazy", you would officially enter my book of heros. You're essentially there already, but it would solidify you.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/5/08 at 11:20pm

Here ya go Ray and TheaterKid:

You Could Drive a Person Crazy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGkbZ54-VU0

Have I solidified?

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 4/6/08 at 1:21am

Oh God, thank you for that, PalJoey.
The three are fantastic together but I couldn't take my eyes off Donna McKechnie.
How I wish Susan Browning had done more Broadway shows, I am a big fan of her performances in the COMPANY cast recording and the GOODTIME, CHARLEY album.

Updated On: 4/6/08 at 01:21 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/6/08 at 12:21pm

I saw Susan on Broadway a few years later when she played the Widow Douglas in Big River. I met her backstage a few times. She was very nice!

Thanks for posting that new one, PJ. They seem... a tad (okay a LOT) under-rehearsed for this, both with the steps and the notes. I'd forgotten how "rough" it was. Guess it had been a while. But they might have scheduled one or two more rehearsals be for this taping, ya think?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/6/08 at 5:07pm

It was the first time they had seen each other in 12 years.

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 4/9/08 at 12:49am

I need to start searching for this on Ebay. I kept meaning to buy the videotape, but never did.

As for Alexis Smith, I think that she was the epitome of Hollywood glamour. She was never called upon to act much back then, but she was good. If you want to see her enjoying herself in a movie, watch "Here Comes the Groom" with Bing Crosby and Jane Wyman. She gets to cut loose in a comedy and seems to be having a ball doing so.

I was very sad when she died. I dreamed of getting her to sign my "Follies" poster. (And before I'm set upon by hundreds show queens, it wasn't a window card. It was the poster that didn't have the credits on it.)

[romantico]

Posted: 4/9/08 at 8:18am

Alexis Smith's final film was Martin Scorsese's "The Age Of Innocence". She played along with with the incredible Michael Gough (is he still alive?)It was way to short a part for her but even then, back in 1993, she still looked great.

[romantico]

Posted: 7/5/08 at 9:58pm

I am bumping this because I just watched MGM's 50th anniversary from my THATS ENTERTAINMENT set and when she came out my heart just started beating so fast. What a knockout! They don't make em like this anymore people.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 7/5/08 at 11:40pm

PJ, could you post Chita Rivera's Shriner's dance?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/6/08 at 6:49am

Someone did already:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZldWwNZMmc

[nmartin]

Posted: 7/6/08 at 9:21am

I remember this. I loved Little Old New York.