FOLLIES 1971 Video Footage (and some Merrily 1981)

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/13/11 at 2:25pm

Here are working links for the existing video footage of the original 1971 production of Follies. The quality is collectors-interest level only: They were made from incomplete silent footage of the original New York production, which was then dubbed with audio from the soundboard. There is also sound footage from a rehearsal during the Boston run.

After that is a 90-minute David Frost program with Sondheim, Prince, Alexis Smith, Dorothy Collins (who sings "Losing My Mind") and Yvonne DeCarlo (who sings "I'm Still Here"). The show also includes Sondheim performing "Boy, Can That Boy Foxtrot" and the original Young Buddy/Sally/Ben/Phyllis performing "You're Gonna Love Tomorrow"/"Love Will See Us Through." There is a separate link with just that number.

I will also link the various YouTube links that were either pulled from the top three or feature the original cast performing the material on later occasions.

And I will link the the BWW thread in which Reginald Tresilian and I tell the story behind the Follies in Miniature.

Without any further ado, hats off, here it comes, that beautiful show:

===

FOLLIES IN MINIATURE (13:24):

Watch:
http://www.megavideo.com/?d=M23T9W3A
Download:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=M23T9W3A


FOLLIES DUBBED ORIGINAL CAST (29:23):

Watch:
http://www.megavideo.com/?d=3KYAU3J4
Download:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=86EMLTJZ


FOLLIES BOSTON SOUND (28:35):

Watch:
http://www.megavideo.com/?d=RUY9WFWG
Download
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=RUY9WFWG


FOLLIES CAST ON THE DAVID FROST SHOW (1:27:29)

Watch:
http://www.megavideo.com/?d=B220H5BO
Download:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=B220H5BO


"You're Gonna Love Tomorrow"/"Love Will See Us Through" (from The David Frost Show) (4:46)

Watch:
http://www.megavideo.com/?d=7D5P4ZZQ
Download:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7D5P4ZZQ


Stephen Sondheim Performing "Can That Boy Foxtrot?" from the David Frost Show:

http://www.bluegobo.com/index.php?var=10517


Dorothy Collins performing "Losing My Mind" from the David Frost Show:

http://youtu.be/ZU9CE6N_Dck


Yvonne DeCarlo performing "I'm Still Here" from the David Frost Show:

http://youtu.be/-A3anRERgD4


Yvonne DeCarlo performing "I'm Still Here" at the Hollywood Bowl:

http://youtu.be/TLmYEuoHPWM


Alexis Smith performing "Could I Leave You" from the 1982 broadcast "That's Singing: The Best of Broadway":

http://youtu.be/g_Jj0ZLyHQA


Alexis Smith performing "The Story of Lucy and Jessie" on the 1975 Tonys:

http://www.bluegobo.com/index.php?var=10495


Alexis Smith performing "The Story of Lucy and Jessie," extracted from FOLLIES DUBBED ORIGINAL CAST (above):

http://youtu.be/6TxLGIdv85I


Mary McCarty and the Company performing "Who's That Woman?" extracted from FOLLIES DUBBED ORIGINAL CAST (above):

http://youtu.be/nhQeVQ6677A


Gene Nelson performing "The Right Girl," extracted from FOLLIES DUBBED ORIGINAL CAST (above):

http://youtu.be/RFxygAHcNGM


"Loveland," extracted from FOLLIES DUBBED ORIGINAL CAST (above):

http://youtu.be/pJgWd_m8-us

Updated On: 8/29/11 at 02:25 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/13/11 at 3:22pm

And the discussion about the provenance of these videos can be found in this thread, starting on page 3.
Follies 1987 London Production (and general Follies thread =] )

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/13/11 at 3:26pm

Thanks Joey, the quality of the clip of WHO'S THAT WOMAN makes it even more ghostlike, it took to me right back to the Winter Garden the first night I saw it there, what a magical night it was. The brilliance of Michael Bennett is staggering and brings tears that we lost him so young, just imagining what theatre he had left in him...
Love Mary running and dancing about and after all that belting out those last notes. Are all the older actresses in that number gone?

[castlestreet]

Posted: 5/13/11 at 4:55pm

It is 90 degrees out and I have chills! This literally just made my week- what I wouldn't have given to have been around for this show- my favorite Sondheim show- everything about it!

Thank you soooooooo much for posting this!

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/13/11 at 5:17pm

Dorothy Collins 1926-1994
Alexis Smith 1921-1993
Ethel Barrymore Colt 1912-1977
Yvonne DeCarlo 1922-2007
Helen Blount (no info, but I think she passed)
Shelia Smith 1933- (still with us?)

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/13/11 at 5:48pm

And what about Mary McCarty?

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/13/11 at 7:25pm

I've never seen the full David Frost show, just clips, so it's great to see (I only recently saw the Gonna Love Tomorrow bit--great to see it in costumes and with choreography). And I thought I had all the Follies clips, but when you posted a link in that other thread I realized I didn't have one of them--absolutely amazing to see. Thanks so much!

For anyone who wants to see the full (well almost full--there's one small change) original Who's That Woman number in a bit clearer quality, even if the performances aren't quite as memorable, this is a link to the London cast doing the original choreography as recreated by Bob Avian at the Olivier Awards http://www.bluegobo.com/includes/video_incl.php?var=10005 (the same site has a blurry video of their completely different Loveland too for those who want to compare the transformations from both).

Again--thanks!

[castlestreet]

Posted: 5/13/11 at 8:54pm

PalJoey- Mary McCarty died in 1980 after doing the revival of Irene, OBC of Chicago (Mama Morton) and Anna Christie-

I have read several times the book "Everything Was Possible"- most of the leads didn't have much of a theatrical career after Follies- to my knowledge, John McMartin is the only original lead still working (and alive)

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 5/13/11 at 9:27pm

Just an FYI: Being a Canadian, I am please to say that 4 of the "main" women in the original company of Follies were from the Great White North:

Alexis Smith (Phyllis): from Vancouver, BC.
Dorothy Collins (Sally): from Windsor, ON.
Yvonne De Carlo (Carlotta): from Vancouver, BC.
Fifi D'Orsay (Solange): from Montreal, QC.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/13/11 at 9:47pm

And three of them from my two hometowns (well kinda) :)

[mamaleh]

Posted: 5/14/11 at 9:11am

Thanks for much for the links, PalJoey. Boy, does that footage of the show bring back student-days memories of happily attending four performances by the never-equaled original cast at the Winter Garden. I also remember watching that David Frost Show. And unless I'm hallucinating, I could have sworn the cast was also on the Merv Griffin show once, where John McMartin seemed even more shy than usual. Very endearing.

Thanks again.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/14/11 at 11:23am

Mameleh--you're one of the reasons I started this thread. You PM'd me about the links and when I went to PM you back, I got the message THIS USER DOES NOT ACCEPT PRIVATE MESSAGES, which was annoying. You can go into "Your Settings" in the left-gand column towards the bottom and change that setting.

At any rate, I'm glad I posted them.

I found this mention in the Sondheim Review of the Merv Griffin Show but I've never seen even pieces of it online. I'd love to see if Yvonne finally got the words right:

===

The Merv Griffin Show. Syndicated, July 24, 1972. Griffin hosted a salute to Follies with original Broadway cast members. They sang "Waiting for the Girls Upstairs," Yvonne De Carlo sang "I'm Still Here" and Dorothy Collins sang "Losing My Mind."

===

And this person's blog lists the Griffin show as if video footage exists:

http://sites.google.com/site/lesson8/follies

Updated On: 5/14/11 at 11:23 AM

[C is for Company]

Posted: 5/15/11 at 5:29am

Sheila Smith is indeed still alive- and lively! A real hoot and ardent about her Follies days.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/18/11 at 12:34am

PJ, without trying to be argumentative, two big time Follies fans on the Sondheim forum have said that the Boston Sound footage is actually the original cast performing in LA--anyone know for sure?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 5/18/11 at 12:38am

Even Sondheim isn't sure where it's from. Trust me on this one.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/18/11 at 8:27am

I have heard that too, but I also hear people insist there was no footage from the New York company.

I didn't get the "Boston Sound" footage from the Crazed Collector back in the 1980s. It came from a former BWW poster a few years ago and was identified only as "Boston Sound." So I won't go out on a limb and say where it's from. I just don't know.

The only thing I know is that the "Follies in Miniature" and the "Follies Dubbed Original Cast" are both the New York company.

There is one BWW member who has a relative who was in the LA production, Perhaps this poster could ask that relative if it looks familiar...

[mamaleh]

Posted: 5/18/11 at 8:45am

PalJoey, I never realized I couldn't accept private messages. Thanks for the heads-up; I have now corrected that.

Everybody talks about the Frost show but never the Griffin one, which is likely why I was beginning to doubt my memory. Thanks for that related link, too.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 5/18/11 at 9:13am

That footage is definitely from a tech/dress rehearsal in Los Angeles at the Shubert Theatre. I know somebody who was a swing/understudy on that production and she was sitting in the audience next to the camera man while they filmed this. The footage was apparently filmed to be used on a local television show.

[lizabombs]

Posted: 5/18/11 at 9:15am

What's the change in the London "Who's that woman?" choreography?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 5/18/11 at 9:17am

The thing with this particular video is that while nobody knows exactly where it was shot, we have an idea of why it was shot. The best guess we have so far is that it was shot for a TV special (most probably 60 MINUTES profiling Sondheim since there WAS a segment done on him at that time) and what exists is unedited footage from that. So, was it shot in Boston before it came to Broadway or during the Broadway run to advertise the show, or even in LA to talk about how it's living on after it closed in New York? The episode of 60 MINUTES was never found so all we have is people who "think" they remember seeing something about it on TV 40 something years ago. But really, do YOU remember news segments from 40 years ago?
Updated On: 5/18/11 at 09:17 AM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 5/18/11 at 9:21am

MB - There are also a few people who swear they were in Boston when it was filmed.
*shrugs*

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 5/18/11 at 9:26am

Jordan -- I promise - I swear on my mother this is Los Angeles. If you look closely you can even see Jan Clayton coming down the staircase and Suzanne Rogers as Young Phyllis (behind Alexis Smith in her first scene with John McMartin. There are also a few costume changes from New York and quirks in the performances that didn't come until much later in the run. If this had been filmed during tech rehearsals in Boston it would have looked much much different than this -- particularly the prologue and the Broadway Baby montage.
Updated On: 5/18/11 at 09:26 AM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 5/18/11 at 9:33am

But from what (very in the know) people have said looking at it is they swear it was from Broadway and remember the 60 MINUTES crew being there to film it for the show. If it is from L.A., I think that's fantastic to know for sure. It's just been a debate for so long now. lol

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 5/18/11 at 9:36am

A 60 Minutes Crew might have also filmed something, but its not this footage.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 5/18/11 at 9:38am

Why do you say that?