Let's Have a Big Hand for...MISS PATTY DUKE!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/29/08 at 8:59am

"Say Something Funny"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1mOpSzrFpM

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 3/29/08 at 9:16am

That's some hardcore choreography they've got going on in the background.

[Mamie]

Posted: 3/29/08 at 9:20am

I just love her. Does anybody remember seeing her in "Me, Natalie"? I LOVED that film so much. I wanted to be her and live in a ridiculously huge apartment in Greenwich Village with fellow 'love children' and toot around town on a motorcycle.... I still think of it whenever I'm wandering around the Village.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/29/08 at 9:24am

I loved "Me, Natalie?" so much I think I WAS Me Natalie.

[Mamie]

Posted: 3/29/08 at 9:38am

I wish they would release this gem on DVD. I managed to get hold of a VHS copy from someone that is watchable but it does suffer from some generational loss. Still it's nice to pull out and watch now and then. Nancy Marchand is a gem and that Henry Mancini music immediately transports me back in time!

(I started playing it after reading this thread and just saw Al Pacino's big film debut. Gads but he was pretty!)

Updated On: 3/29/08 at 09:38 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 3/29/08 at 10:14am

I'm so jealous! I always wanted three pilgrim women singing backup for me.

[singingbackup]

Posted: 3/29/08 at 10:33am

How about me dressed as three pilgrim women?

[RetroBoy]

Posted: 3/29/08 at 4:35pm

Me, Natalie at Must Have Films.com

[RetroBoy]

Posted: 3/29/08 at 4:39pm

I wonder who convinced Miss Patty Duke that she could even carry a tune? Were people deaf in the 1960s?

[RetroBoy]

Posted: 3/29/08 at 4:43pm

(I dare you to) Hear her sing Peter, Paul and Mary's "The Cruel War"...
Patty Duke sings The Cruel War on Merv Griffin (1966)

[RetroBoy]

Posted: 3/29/08 at 4:45pm

Here she's Nancy to Mike Douglas' Frank while they sing "Something Stupid"
Mike Douglas and Miss Patty Duke sing "Something Stupid"

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/29/08 at 4:46pm

Read "Call Me Anna" and you'll learn that no one ever convinced her of it. She thought it was ridiculous then and still to this day thinks it's ridiculous that anyone ever wanted to hear her sing.

Updated On: 3/29/08 at 04:46 PM

[RetroBoy]

Posted: 3/29/08 at 4:47pm

Actually I have to take back what I originally posted. She could carry a tune given the right material. That first song that PJ posted was not suited for her voice. She does sound pleasant enough on the "Something Stupid" duet with Mike Douglas and she's not half bad on the Peter, Paul and Mary folk song.

[RetroBoy]

Posted: 3/29/08 at 4:50pm

Here she is Patty-A-Go-Go doing England Swings on The Perry Como Show. Check out that ga-roovy sixties choreography and her go-go boots!!!
Patty sings England Swings on The Perry Como Show

[RetroBoy]

Posted: 3/29/08 at 4:53pm

She may have thought it was ridiculous then but she went ahead and did it anyway. C'mon Rath it wasn't like the Rosses were putting a gun to her head were they? She did it and took the money and ran. She was getting payed after all and it only gave her more and more publicity after all regardless if she was good or bad.

And I've read CALL ME ANNA, three times. In hindsight she may feel it was ridiculous but I don't believe she thought so at the time or else she wouldn't have done it in the first place.




Updated On: 3/29/08 at 04:53 PM

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/29/08 at 4:54pm

"C'mon Rath it wasn't like the Rosses were putting a gun to her head were they?"

You're kidding, right?

[RetroBoy]

Posted: 3/29/08 at 4:58pm

No I'm not.

In hindsight she may feel it was ridiculous but I don't believe she thought so at the time or else she wouldn't have done it in the first place.

[RetroBoy]

Posted: 3/29/08 at 5:00pm

They probably brainwashed her enough at the time to make her think she really was a talented singer.

[RetroBoy]

Posted: 3/29/08 at 5:12pm

Wow! For someone who didn't think so much of her own singing she sure made a lot of singing appearance on television variety shows! Here she is singing in Japanese on THE MIKE DOUGLAS SHOW in 1967. I believe she was already married on not being managed by The Ross' at the time she did this
Patty sing in Japanese

[best12bars]

Posted: 3/29/08 at 5:19pm

Then they went and dubbed her in "Valley of the Dolls."

My favorite EVER.

Especially the "wardrobe malfunction" near the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFFsCWk4Gs8&feature=related

[RetroBoy]

Posted: 3/29/08 at 5:36pm

Oh, that wardrobe malfuncion involving the beaded necklace is one great example of the many unintentional happenings surrounding the film.

Oh, here she is singing "And We Were Strangers" on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1968 a year after VALLEY OF THE DOLLS. She was no longer being manipulated/managed by The Ross at this time, yet for someone who claims they couldn't sing and didn't want to but was "obligated" to she continued to do it anyway? She was 21 at the time this was filmed.


Patty Duke - And We Were Strangers Updated On: 3/29/08 at 05:36 PM

[DG]

Posted: 3/29/08 at 5:39pm

"She does sound pleasant enough on the "Something Stupid" duet with Mike Douglas and she's not half bad on the Peter, Paul and Mary folk song."

Retro - if you yourself made the above statement, what exactly IS your point about Ms. Duke? You make taking payment for getting a gig sound like something she should be embarrassed about. I don't get it.

[RetroBoy]

Posted: 3/29/08 at 5:48pm

No she shouldn't be embarrased for taking payment for a gig.

My point about Miss Duke is this: She claims she never thought of herself as much of a singer and was basically doing it under contractual obligations forced upon her by her managers/svengalis at the time, The Ross' but then she continued to do so even after they were no longer her managers and she no longer had a recording contract with United Artists Records. If she hated her voice so much and hated singing and was embarrased by it why did she continue subjecting herself to it?

[RetroBoy]

Posted: 3/29/08 at 6:04pm

I wonder if she ever tackled "Blame it on th Bossa Nova"? Something tells me she could have done a decent version of this song.

Don't get me wrong guys, I love Patty Duke. I really do I just don't totally buy her "I was forced into singing, I was so young and manipulated" bit. I honestly think a lot of the material she was given did not suit her voice but she does do a nice job with "Something Stupid" and even with the "And We Were Strangers" song on the Sullivan show.

I loved her so much when I was young and her performance in VALLEY that when I ran across her VALLEY album and the VALLEY soundtrack at a used record store in the Village in the late 80s I opted to buy her album over the soundtrack because I figured she sang the songs in the film anyway and by gettng her album as opposed to the soundtrack album of the film I would not only be getting her songs but additional songs as well. Imagine my HORROR when I got home and played that record only to discover she did not sing her songs in the film! I was crushed! The next day I ran over to that store and purchased the VALLEY soundtrack. Yes it was traumatizing but I love you anyway Patty!!!!

[nygrl23]

Posted: 3/29/08 at 9:02pm

They made her sing and Elvis act.