Betty Hutton Gypsy

[alxscrz2]

Posted: 10/10/09 at 11:56pm

Are their any video or audio recording of this production ? Also did anyone get a chance to see the show when she was in it? How was it ?

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 12:05am

I think its pretty unlikely considering that she did a summer tour in 1962...This might be a question for All That Chat. There might be some 'ol timers' over there who saw her.

[alxscrz2]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 12:18am

I saw the movie of Annie get your gun, the other night. I thought her voice and acting were very powerful. I wonder her Rose's turn and everythings coming up roses were.
Updated On: 10/11/09 at 12:18 AM

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 12:54am

Sorry, the thought of Betty Hutton doing Mama Rose is nauseating to me. UGH!!!!!

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 1:00am

Betty Hutton was a loud singer but not a very nuanced one. I can't imagine that she sang Rose particularly well. There is footage of her as Miss Hannigan in ANNIE which was probably a role better suited to her, but she wasn't great in it.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 1:31am

"Betty Hutton was a loud singer but not a very nuanced one."

Gypsy was written for Ethel Merman, the queen of loud but not very nuanced.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 1:34am

Let me rephrase that. Hutton's voice was loud but not very musical.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 2:58am

Betty Hutton did GYPSY in 1962. Home/portable video camcorders didn't become the norm until the early 1980's (they were the size of large shoe boxes). This is why you don't hear about bootleg 'video' footage of shows from the 1950's, 1960's or the 1970's. The first 'home' camcorder bootleg videos starting popping up in the very, very late 1970's.

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 4:03am

Was Sweeney Todd the first Broadway show ever bootlegged?

[ljay889]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 4:27am

What about the silent GYPSY (Merman) and FOLLIES (the silent footage, not the rehearsal) footage? And Lansbury's Gypsy footage?

Were those done by people involved with the show?

[alterego]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 7:00am

And I bet she was still better than Peters.

[Gypsy9]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 8:34am

I agree with Ed Mottershead. The thought of that obnoxious Betty Hutton playing Rose in GYPSY is truly nauseating. Ethel Merman's voice, while certainly loud at times, was always right on pitch and her diction was perfect. Both George Gershwin and Cole Porter loved writing music for her and actually said that she was their favorite singer.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 11:27am

What about the silent GYPSY (Merman)

It is less than 10 seconds and was shot from the audience with an 8mm home movie camera. Don't know the source but could it could have been by a cast member.

FOLLIES (the silent footage, not the rehearsal) footage?

Shot on silent 8mm film by cast member.

And Lansbury's Gypsy footage?

Those long extended clips are/were part of the Press Reel/B-Roll used for media purposes.

When we mean bootleg footage we're talking about the entire show or large portions of it -- not short clips.

I believe the first home VHS camcorder full show bootlegs ever made (by an audience member) is either the original Broadway cast of SWEENEY TODD (with Angelea Lansbury AND Len Cariou) or the original Broadway cast of EVITA (LuPone, Gunton & Patinkin). Both of these were shot in 1980.

SWEENEY TODD:


EVITA:

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 1:02pm

There is footage of the George White Scandals in 1939 and extended silent clips of musicals from the 50s -70s (Striesand in FUNNY GIRL, Channing in DOLLY, Lansbury in GYPSY) etc, that were filmed from the audience (i.e. bootlegged) largely by one person and than somehow Miles Krueger ended up with them in Los Angeles.

The FOLLIES clips were filmed by somebody involved with the production.

I think Ken Mandelbaum was one of the first to start bootlegging entire productions with a VHS camcorder. He taped PETER PAN with Sandy Duncan in 1979 along with the revivals of OKLAHOMA and the other videos Brody mentions.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 1:43pm

Those numerous silent 8mm home movies of Streisand in FUNNY GIRL were shot/filmed by one of the show's dancers. He shot the clips of Streisand's entrance; clip of "I'm the Greatest Star", clip of "His Loves Makes Me Beautiful", clip of "Henry Street" finale' from the mezzanine and shot the clips of "People" from the wings. He made them available to Barbra-Archives.com and all the clips were once viewable on that site, but unfortunately the site owner recently retired the site.

Also, the 1979 Broadway revival of OKLAHOMA! was professionally archived/filmed so a camcorder bootleg is redundant as a fabulous copy of the production exists and can be obtained easily.

Here are some of the footage that exists of Streisand in FUNNY GIRL. As mentioned above, the original footage is silent so someone did the honors of trying to sync audio from a bootleg 'live' audio recording to the footage:

Winter Garden marquee for FUNNY GIRL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k1aEDW61ms

End of Overture/Barbra's entrance/Mrs. Brice and ladies entrance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySLunzvF2gE

Clip of "If a Girl Isn't Pretty" (Reprise)/ending of "The Greatest Star": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7Agwq_TkJ4

Unfortunately, there are more short clips that were not posted. This montage video (set to "The Music That Makes Me Dance") includes ALL of the existing 'home movie' clips/footage... but alas, you only see the footage without the synced-in audio for the clips:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBz2sUhoREg

You're welcome.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 1:57pm

The Rose I am most interest in hearing is the one and only Kaye Ballard. There's supposedly audio of it, but I've never found it.

[binau]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 6:34pm

"And I bet she was still better than Peters."


BERNADETTE WAS ROBBED!11!

[alxscrz2]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 7:10pm

I agree with qolbinau, Bernadette was robbed. She deserved it more than the hairspray chick

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 8:54pm

She deserved it more than the hairspray chick

That HAIRSPRAY chick has a name: Marissa Jaret Winokur.

Live it.
Learn it.
Love it.

[wildcatsmathers]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 10:42pm

Unfortunately, there isn't any audio of Betty's performances in "Gypsy" and, as someone mentioned earlier, I don't suspect that video would exist given the time period.

I haven't found pictures or reviews from this production. All I know is that this was a difficult time in Betty's personal life. Her mother had just been burned to death in a house fire a month before the opening and Betty had just given birth to her third child three weeks prior to the opening. Bernadette Peters was actually in this same production as Betty, playing Dainty June. Last year, Bernadette recalled that time in an interview with the Cleveland Free Times: "The poor woman just wasn't up to it, and because of the demands of summer stock, she didn't even have time to memorize her lines." I suspect she didn't have much rehearsal time after just having a baby. Still, I think this may have been one of Betty's favorite roles. Several years later, around 1978, she was interviewed on television and she was asked who she would like to play her if a movie were made about her life. She said Bernadette Peters and talked about how great she was and how she had good memories of her. Also, when Betty did "Annie" on Broadway in 1980, there was an article in the New York Times saying how she warmed up in her hotel room to "Everything's Coming Up Roses" and sounded fabulous.

I know I'm rambling, but as you probably can tell, I'm a big Betty Hutton fan. I actually run a website about her: http://www.satinsandspurs.com/

[alxscrz2]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 11:55pm

Wildcatsmather, thanks for that information, It was very interesting. Also I couldn't find anything online on that production of Gypsy, either.

[alxscrz2]

Posted: 10/12/09 at 12:17am

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/14/10 at 9:12pm

An old thread, but I'm resurrecting it, since I'm watching Betty Hutton in "Red, Hot and Blue' on TCM right now.

For those of you who claim she's not "nuanced" as a singer, you need to watch more of her films. And you're dead wrong, my opinion of course.

She just sang a ballad that broke my heart. Merman has never done that, as good as she was.

Betty Hutton was a Big Band ballad singer (as was her sister Marion Hutton with the Glenn Miller Orchestra) before she made the climb to movie stardom.

Granted, Hutton could be (and usually was) way over the top with her unique comedic musical performances. And that's what put her on the map, and it's what she is best remembered for. But she could "dial it down" better than Merman ever could. Complete subtly and a gorgeous soft voice ... when she wanted to, that is.

Time to get educated, peeps.

Updated On: 5/15/10 at 09:12 PM

Posted: 5/14/10 at 11:04pm

There was (is?) a great Capitol Records compilation of Betty Hutton- it might be called Great Ladies of Song. No one can listen to that and say she was too loud or un-nuanced. She was wonderful.

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/15/10 at 12:20am

Here she is with a beautiful Frank Loesser ballad from "Red, Hot, and Blue."

Hardly loud, and definitely nuanced. The defense rests.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd6LVAIx1qc