PHOTO FLASH!: Original 1959 Broadway GYPSY (with Merman)

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 11/17/08 at 12:56am

[WishingOnlyWounds2]

Posted: 11/17/08 at 1:02am

oh wow. (good wow)

Updated On: 11/17/08 at 01:02 AM

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 11/17/08 at 2:11am

This may sound like a stupid question, but was "Gypsy" considered risque in its day?

[BittenByAZebra]

Posted: 11/17/08 at 3:12am

Thanks for sharing! I earned my "gay card" by getting to play a farm boy in a community theatre production when I was in high school... I wish I could have seen the original!
Bitten By A Zebra Photography

[Unknown User]

Posted: 11/17/08 at 7:43am

When did they change the Christmas Tree to the Garden of Eden?

[BroadwayBelle2]

Posted: 11/17/08 at 8:42am

Great photos!

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 11/17/08 at 9:06am

Tessie, Electra and Mazeppa don't really look broken down in that pic.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 11/17/08 at 9:08am

There was a great article about the switch from the Tree to the garden of Eden.

Apparently, Laurents HATED the tree and never waned it, but Robbins was demanding it and would not cave, so the original production featured the Christmas Tree tableaux.. including, I believe, 7 women who hired and used ONLY to fill out the tree. Part way through the run, those 7 women were fired and the tree finished out the run with that 'good trim', so to speak. All subsequent productions after that have featured the Garden of Eden, as Laurents, and not Robbins, wanted the show.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 11/17/08 at 9:15am

I shoulda known it was Laurents Thanks for that! It's bugged me ever since I was 12 or 13 when the TV one came out which seemed so faithful to the original production/choreography, and then we got a different tableaux (I knew the Christmas tree tableaux well because it was a uge picture in Gottfried's Broadway Musicals coffee table book which was a bible for me growing up, I think I had that book constantly checked out of the library). Kinda funny that Laurents hated it THAT much, though it sounds like Robbins to hire extra girls just for it.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 11/17/08 at 9:20am

Yes, it was an interesting read.. a good six pages or so, and included interviews with several of the women. I'm not sure if it is still the current issue,or the last issue, but if you can track down the Sondheim review, you'd find it a great, I am sure!

[jv92]

Posted: 11/17/08 at 9:20am

Why would Robbins want to hire extra girls?

[Unknown User]

Posted: 11/17/08 at 9:30am

Cuz money was no issue if it gave him the look he wanted

Ah I'll look for the Sondheim review--I had a subscription it's first four years but have lost track...

[Unknown User]

Posted: 11/17/08 at 9:32am

WOOT it pays to look! Thanks again so much for answering this obscure, but long on my mind, question!

So Sondheim Review's website apparantly has a sample article for each current issue and guess what it was this time--I assume the full article (though without pics)

http://www.sondheimreview.com/currentissue.htm#sample !

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 11/17/08 at 9:37am

No problem! Glad I could help and direct a bit.

I only skimmed, but that seems to be most of the article, if not all. It want on to talk about the creation of the Tessie character and her involvement as part of the tree, etc.

As far as pictures, they had the color still of the tree and then just a few pics of what some of the girls looked like at the time of the production.

[BNN]

Posted: 11/17/08 at 10:04am

In the book Broadway Musicals by someone Gotteried, there's a great close-up picture in color of the Minsky's Christmas tree.
(Just noticed someone else mentioned the book, its worth mentioning again. I stole it from my school's library to avoid that whole checking out process.)

Very cool pictures, thank you for posting!

Updated On: 11/17/08 at 10:04 AM

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 11/17/08 at 10:12am

Those farm boys are all gay.

I wonder where they are today.

[BNN]

Posted: 11/17/08 at 10:20am

The farm boy to the right of Merman in the birthday cake went on to play A-Rab in the West Side Story movie, and was Baby John in the original production.

[NGeorgiaBwayFan]

Posted: 11/17/08 at 10:59am

Thank you very much for posting those, Brody.

I've only seen two productions of Gypsy (Tyne Daly & Patti.
I love how some of these pix are just so familiar looking (costumes, set, etc.) compared to the current production and past ones, too. Particularly the Uncle Jocko picture.

Thanks again for sharing these treasures.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 11/17/08 at 11:15am

those pants that Baby Louise is wearing are ridiculous.

and NGeorgiaBwayFan, I was thinking the same thing: how familiar looking the pictures are. although I can't help but think Ethel's coat in the Uncle Jocko picture looks like the blanket coats Rose, June and Louise have in this production.

[philcrosby]

Posted: 11/17/08 at 11:19am

I now am going to pull out the live recording and revel in how perfect the Merm was in this.

[BNN]

Posted: 11/17/08 at 11:25am

Did Electra do the whole lighting up of certain body parts in the original production? Looking at the costume I can't really tell.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 11/17/08 at 11:41am

Absolutely. The dark sections of her bra is where the lights would light up. She also lit up in the crotch area and her rear end, just like in all productions. You can't see her arms in the photo because she is wearing full black gloves which conceal the wires which powered the 'lights'.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 11/17/08 at 12:48pm

WannaBe, I don't know about all the Farmboys but David Winters is not gay.
But those pajamas sure are.

[jv92]

Posted: 11/17/08 at 1:01pm

Even if Patti and Angela were better in the role, after listening to audios of Mary Martin in Sound of Music and Ethel in Gypsy, it's mindblowing how The Merm lost the Tony. Mary was charming and very good, but Merman was dynamic. Oh, well. In the words of the great lady herself, "How can you buck a nun?"

[BNN]

Posted: 11/17/08 at 1:10pm

OK, bear with me here. Yonkers is listed as Michael Parks in the OBC of Gypsy. I started to think, could this be the Michael Parks that I've seen in movies? (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0662981/)

On his imdb page he's listed as being in a show called Compulsion at the age of 18, which means he would have had to have been a replacement since the show opened in 1957, and he was born in 1940. Thus when the show ended he would have still been in New York and able to audition and rehearse for Gypsy, If it is the same person, he could have been in the original production of Gypsy, which is odd.

There could be more than one Michael Parks though.