Donald O'Connor

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/1/10 at 8:55pm

Last weekend, I watched "Call Me Madam". And the question came up: why did the Golden Age of Broadway musicals pass over Donald O'Connor? Why did he never do Broadway in the 40s or 50s?

[Craig]

Posted: 11/1/10 at 9:14pm

I'm guessing because he had a very busy film career.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/1/10 at 9:30pm

You know, that talking mule was really racist.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/1/10 at 10:25pm

That's what I don't understand. Why do all those mule movies when he could have been doing something "South Pacific" "Kiss Me Kate" or "Bells Are Ringing"

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/1/10 at 10:38pm

He was under contract to do one a year. He had to drop out of White Christmas because he caught something from the mule. Allegedly.

[Disneyland Magic Man]

Posted: 11/2/10 at 12:03pm

Because he was waiting for Bring Back Birdie as his Broadway bow. And to be unprofessional and yell to the conductor to finish one of his songs because he forgot it one night.

I think we were very fortunate we never experienced him on a Broadway stage until the 80s. Regardless of how bad a show is, that's inexcusable.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/2/10 at 2:09pm

At least he only yelled at the conductor.

Patti LuPone yelled at the audience, at stage managers, at other actors, at directors, at composors, has refused to appear, turned off her sound system and missed cues and a host of other shenanigans.

[juliethejarhead]

Posted: 11/2/10 at 3:28pm

Yes, but she is above reproach -- at least on this web site and message board.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/2/10 at 5:01pm

Oh, shut up, all of you.

Except Craig.

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/2/10 at 5:17pm

Movie stars were under 7-year contracts to the studios back then. It was very difficult for them to negotiate any time away from Hollywood for a play, even for a few months. A few of them were successful, but plenty weren't. For example, and old friend of our family who was a star at Warner Bros. was offered the part of Roxanne in the Broadway production of Cyrano opposite Jose Ferrer. Jose handpicked her for the part. But Jack Warner wouldn't let her out of her contract to do it. She even told Jack he could add the time away onto the end of her contract as an extension, but it didn't work.

That kind of thing happened all the time.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 11/2/10 at 10:50pm

Some (most?) movie stars do not have the stamina nor discipline to play 8-shows a week for a year or more. Most of them are ready to quit once the reviews are filed and grudgingly stay because they have a contract.

O'Connor had a very successful film career at Universal in the 40's and at M-g-M, Fox and and Paramount in the '50s. He made good money and enjoyed popularity on TV during his down time. He was also, sadly, an alcoholic. His drinking ended his first marriage and created problems with his second. He also became unstable and ultimately unemployable. True he got some dud vehicles: The remake of ANYTHING GOES (although he is quite good and charming in his sidekick role) and a deadly dull film inspired by the life of Buster Keaton.

He may have had problems with BRING BACK BIRDIE, but he did quite well in a revival of SHOW BOAT in 1983. In ,later years he did smaller club dates and enjoyed the nostalgia wave of the 70's/80's.

Updated On: 11/3/10 at 10:50 PM