Trivial Pursuit #131

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 5/10/05 at 11:48am

After CALL ME MADAM, Ethel Merman "retired" from Show Business to be the "corporate wife" of Robert Stix, the President of Continental Airlines.

"The Merm" moved to Colorado and bid her Broadway Career "Adieu".

Well, after six years in the Rocky Mountain Area AND no audience applause--Merman was goin' freakin' CRAZY!!!

In 1956, She divorced Stix and announced she was ready to return to Broadway.

Her friends--the writing team of Lindsay & Crouse (they had written the Books of ANYTHING GOES and CALL ME MADAM for her) approached her about doing a new musical for which they had written the Book--HAPPY HUNTING.

Merman was so anxious to return to Broadway that she agreed without reading the script or hearing the score.

AFTER signing, she learned to her frustration that the score had been written by a BRAND NEW song-writing team--Harold Karr (Music) and Matt Dubey (Lyrics).

Can you imagine what Merman's dismay must have been when she found what Karr's occupation TRULY was?

[He was working at it WHILE he wrote the score for HAPPY HUNTING!]


Well, after that long discourse, -- can somebody please tell us what Karr's "real" occupation was?


GOOD LUCK, Everybody!!!

[Broadwayboobs]

Posted: 5/10/05 at 11:51am

Gigilo? (sp?)

[joeybiltmore1]

Posted: 5/10/05 at 11:52am

Wasn't he a dentist?

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 5/10/05 at 11:52am

Well, NO, Boobs, although that was QUITE an--"interesting" guess...


Hint #1: Jimmy Carter.

[joeyjoe]

Posted: 5/10/05 at 11:52am

boobs, it's "gigolo"...

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 5/10/05 at 11:53am

joeyjoe--are you the "spelling troll" today?


Hint #2: Brushes.

[joeyjoe]

Posted: 5/10/05 at 11:53am

peanut farmer???

[SonofMammaMiaSam]

Posted: 5/10/05 at 11:54am

door to door sales

[Broadwayboobs]

Posted: 5/10/05 at 11:54am

Door to door salesman?

thanks for the spelling correction Joey.

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 5/10/05 at 11:55am

joeyjoe AND SOMMS, AND Boobs--GOOD Guesses--ALL of you, but "no cigar" just yet...


Hint #3: Plaque.

Updated On: 5/10/05 at 11:55 AM

[joeyjoe]

Posted: 5/10/05 at 11:58am

dentist!!!

[SonofMammaMiaSam]

Posted: 5/10/05 at 11:59am

scroll up to Joeybiltmore's guess, ME

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 5/10/05 at 12:03pm

Wait a minute.

JoeyBiltmore--I just saw your post. I am SO SORRY that I overlooked it before.

YES, JoeyBiltmore--you are 100% Correct--Harold Karr was a Park Avenue Dentist who wrote songs on the side when he got drafted to write the music for HAPPY HUNTING!

(The Dentist/Composer Character in BELLS ARE RINGING is a direct takeoff on him.)

CONGRATULATIONS, JoeyBiltmore--and welcome to the Trivial Pursuit Winner's Circle!!!


Now for your bonus points:


What hit song (some say the only "singable" song from that turgid Karr-Dubey score) emerged from HAPPY HUNTING?

[joeybiltmore1]

Posted: 5/10/05 at 12:05pm

Thanks SonofMMSam.

Now I'm wondering: was the character of Dr. Kitchell, the songwriting dentist in "Bells Are Ringing" a spoof of Karr? Or was that before Happy Hunting?

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 5/10/05 at 12:05pm

THANKS for keeping me in line, SOMMS...

[joeybiltmore1]

Posted: 5/10/05 at 12:06pm

Mutual Admiration Society. But I am partial to "Mr. Livingston".

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 5/10/05 at 12:12pm

joeybiltmore, ONCE AGAIN, you are 100% Correct!!!


YES, of course, it was "Mutual Admiration Society" that rocked the jukeboxes in 1956 and was a BIG HIT all over again for Teresa Brewer in the 1970s.

PLUS, one of your beloved fellow posters uses part of it as his signature when he posts.


And joeybiltmore, do I have a prize for YOU:


You're upset because you weren't invited to the wedding of Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier! SO, you decide to upstage them and marry your daughter off to some hoity-toity "fake" Spanish King! But there's TROUBLE AHEAD--your daughter really loves this nice boy from Philadelphia and YOU fall for that "fake" King yourself!!!


Enjoy the rest of your day, everyone!

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 5/10/05 at 12:16pm

"Mutual Admiration Society": ['Liz' is Mother; 'Beth' is her daughter]


Both:
We belong to a mutual admiration society

Liz:
(My baby and me)

Both:
We belong to a mutual admiration society

Liz:
She thinks I'm handsome and I'm smart

Beth:
I think that she's a work of art

Liz:
She says that I'm not an also-ran

Beth:
And likewise I'm her biggest fan

Liz:
I say her kisses are like wine

Beth:
She says there're not as good as mine

Both:
And that's the way we pass the time of day

Liz:
(My baby and me)

Both: Oh we belong to a mutual admiration society

Liz: (my baby and me)

Both: We belong to a mutual admiration society

Liz: She says oh you're the sweetest one

Beth: I say no you're the sweetest one

Liz: She claims that I'm a nat'ral wit

Beth:I say it's just the opposite

Both: The only fightin' that we do

Is just who loves who more than who

And we go on like that from night 'til dawn

Liz: (My baby and me)

Both: Oh, we belong to a Mutual Admiration Society

Liz: Now I do not exaggerate

I think she's nothing short of great

Beth: She says that kind of flattery
Will get you anyplace with me

Both:The way we carry on it tends
To embarrass all our friends

And that is how we'll still be years from now

Liz: (My baby and me)

Both: My baby and me!


Music: Harold Karr
Lyrics: Matt Dubey


Copyright © ASCAP. All rights reserved.

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 5/10/05 at 12:18pm

BTW, the songwriting team of Karr and Dubey attempted Broadway one more time--in 1962, WE TAKE THE TOWN--it starred Robert Preston and was based on the life of Mexican Bandit Pancho Villa.


It closed out of town and NO MORE was heard from Karr and Dubey (at least, as songwriters) ever again.

[joeybiltmore1]

Posted: 5/10/05 at 12:47pm

Thank you Mary Schwartz and Ethel Hotchkiss.
You made my day. Now guess what song I (happily) can't get out of my head?

"My baby and me..."

Joey

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 5/10/05 at 12:56pm

AH, Joey, we can get over it together--shopping at Klein's...

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 5/10/05 at 1:09pm

ONE LAST FINAL NOTE: [Promise!]


Merman's next show after HAPPY HUNTING was GYPSY. In the planning stages of GYPSY, BOTH Jerome Robbins and Arthur Laurents wanted Stephen Sondheim to write both Music AND Lyrics.

Merman's response? Well, paraphrased, it went something like: "NO WAY! I just got burned by an unknown Composer [Karr], and it ain't gonna happen Again! This kid Sondheim is perfectly FINE for the LYRICS, but I want a NAME COMPOSER for the Music!"

Enter Jule Styne...

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 5/10/05 at 3:34pm

JUST. ONE. LAST. THING.


HAPPY HUNTING was the ONLY musical with Ethel Merman that did NOT recoup its investment.