OLIVER! (the movie musical)- Page 3

[mikey2573]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 9:42pm

One more interesting (maybe) OLIVER! fact; Onna White's daughter (Jeanne Douglas I think) used to post in the rec.arts.theatre.musicals newsgroup back when newsgroups were the big thing. I remember her saying how much she enjoyed being in England while filming and how the kids from Fagin's gang used to come over to their rented flat and smoke and drink and stuff. I bet she could write a book! I bet if you went to Google groups you could pull up some of her posts.

[mikey2573]

Posted: 8/14/11 at 10:04pm

So, I went to Google groups and pulled up some of her posts. One of the interesting thins she says about Shani Wallis was she was apparently married to a real S.O.B. who almost got her kicked off the film due to his "power antics". They even had a replacement all set up; Shirley Bassey!! Eventually he was barred from the set.
Here is some more via the cut and paste tool:
"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
That was a fun evening. I hadn't seen Shani in ages. I was 16 when they
were making the movie (at the very height of the British Invasion, so
you can imagine how I loved being in London for 7 months). I had what a
British friend of mine told me was a pash for Shani (a pash is a kind of
a non-sexual crush by a girl on an older girl/woman); I absolutely
adored her.
I also had a crush on Oliver Reed and kind of threw myself at him at
Mom's parties, but he had enough sense to leave me alone and treat me
with respect and the kind of affection you always hope an older man
would show for naive young teenage girls (how much of that was because
he was shagging one of Mom's dancers and how much was knowing that Mom
would have killed him I have no idea).
And remembering back, the timeline Mom talked about was wrong. The day I
arrived in London I was taken directly to the studio (Shepperton) from
the airport and they were finishing up "Consider Yourself". It was
_after_ that that they did "Who Will Buy?". And what Mom didn't mention
was how much say she had in the filming schedule and how smart she was
in doing so--she scheduled all the biggest production numbers first and
then moved on to the smaller numbers. Brilliant because delays are more
likely (and more expensive) in the biggest numbers, so best to get them
out of the way first. The final number they did was "Where is Love?".
And it wasn't only my brother (who was 13) that hung out with the Fagin
Boys; I did, too. In fact, we pretty much spent every weekend running
around town with them, going to movies and getting into mischief. I
especially remember we all went to see "The Alamo" (the John Wayne one).
I was sitting with one of the more mature boys in a row in front of my
brother and the other 4 or 5 guys. The bunch behind us got so rowdy that
they got thrown out of the theatre; Robert and I sank down in our seats
and pretended we didn't know them.
And Mom was definitely right about locking up the liquor and the
cigarettes. I know that's when I started smoking (I finally quit at 27),
though my brother had more sense than that.
The house they provided Mom with was a fabulous old 3-story house in
Kensington, that has since been torn down and turned into council flats.
It was right on a bus line so, armed with my "A to Z", I managed to
travel all over London all by myself and had a great time. I even
remember running into one of my 6th grade teachers at the Tower. I'd had
a pen pal, who lived in Blackburn who came down to London for a visit.
He was a jerk (even back then, no man was going to order me around), but
I did get to go to Parliament and meet his M.P., who just happened to be
the Transportation Minister at the time, someone I think you've all
heard of--Margaret Thatcher. We sat out on that open area of the
building (don't know if it's actually called a balcony, but that's how I
think of it) and had a lovely chat, not that I remember what was talked
about, just that she was very nice to a couple of teenagers.
The house had a huge garden, but when we moved in it was basically a
jungle. Mom was an enthusiastic gardener (she had the green thumb, mine
is black) and by the middle of summer she had turned it into a beautiful
garden again.
I spent 1 semester at the American School in London, which was across
the street from the Regent Park Zoo. My brother couldn't get in (he was
smart, but much too hyper to ever get good grades), and I don't remember
what they did about his schooling, but I do remember that he went back
to the States long before I did. There was one bad (I guess) effect--my
school in New Jersey did trig the semester I was in London, and the
school in London was scheduled to do it after I left, so I completely
missed out on trigonometry."