Pearl Bailey

[NYC4Life]

Posted: 6/14/06 at 5:49pm

Pearl Bailey was an amazing artist and a very intreasting woman. I think a movie or show about her life would be an amazing treat. I was watching Her and Carol Channings special and could not stop thinking of how amazing Queen Latifah would be at bringing the spirit of this wonderful woman back. Even a one woman show would be excellent. Anyone agree?

[JackiesBroJoe]

Posted: 6/14/06 at 5:57pm

by using "amazing" 3 times in that post, you have negated everything you have said to nothing.

However, Pearl Bailey was quite magnificent.

[CurtainUp]

Posted: 6/14/06 at 6:00pm

As someone too young to have seen Channing or Bailey live, I loved the telecast they both did. What magnificent presences!

[NYC4Life]

Posted: 6/14/06 at 6:01pm

Remarkable*
extraordinary*

Does that help you?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/14/06 at 6:58pm

There are so many great stories about her. During her "Dolly" run, she used to perform onstage after the matinee.

[RagtimeRay]

Posted: 6/14/06 at 8:33pm

I had the pleasure of seeing Pearl Bailey and Cab Calloway in Hello, Dolly! Their version infused life into a show that could easily have closed, were it not for the creative casting. She was with Dolly for nearly two years. During her run with the show, they did "Act III" in which she chatted with the audience and she and Cab Calloway would sing. At one performance I attended a woman in the audience was taking pictures during the curtain calls. Gesturing to the cast behind her, Pearl quipped, "If they had known there was a camera we might never have gotten the show underway." When Pearl circled the Dolly runway during curtain calls, she always shook hands - kissed babies - a real love fest.

She also had a reputation as temperamental. She agreed to extend in Dolly after doing the show a year, on the condition that she be given two weeks off. David Merrick (the Producer) opted to close the show for those two weeks, figuring that an understudy would not draw an audience. When the cast learned of the two week layoff, they held a meeting to air their complaints [this was all reported in Variety]. Pearly Mae learned of the meeting... went to it, and reportedly said, "If you want to do the show without me, go right ahead." She refused to go on... her stand-by began the show... but by the time Dolly arrived in Yonkers, NY... Ms. Bailey had been convinced to go on.

She had a wonderful television program, and I think the clips referenced of her and Ms. Channing were from that show.

[jimnysf]

Posted: 6/14/06 at 8:42pm

I saw Pearl as Dolly in Boston. During the "Hello, Dolly!" number, someone took a flash picture and she stopped the show then and there to yell at the person in the audience. Imagine if she were alive today and had to deal with cell phones!

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 6/14/06 at 8:44pm

That's awesome!

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/14/06 at 9:22pm

"I think the clips referenced of her and Ms. Channing were from that show."

No, they are talking about the tv special that both of them did together which is now on DVD.
Carol & Pearl

[alterego]

Posted: 6/14/06 at 9:52pm

This thread is "intreasting" and "amazing". Oh pay no heed to me I'm being sarcastic and rude.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 6/14/06 at 10:02pm

I saw Pearl Bailey's DOLLY! about 8 times. She was absolutely marvelous in the role. After the show, she and her leading man (Cab Calloway, then Billy Daniels in the revival) would perform "Act Three". They'd banter with the audience and perform songs they made famous.

My sister and I knew exactly what time "Act Three" would start and if we were in town for another show, we'd climb the fire escape outside the St. James Theater and walk in the balcony door to see this part of the show.

I was at the last concert that Pearlie Mae gave. It was at Avery Fisher Hall and was part of the Newport Jazz Festival. Pearl Sang "Before The Parade Passes By" and "So Long Dearie!" and was absolutely glorious. A month later she was gone.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 6/14/06 at 10:07pm

That post gave me chills DollyPop. Thanks for sharing the great memories.

[alterego]

Posted: 6/14/06 at 10:08pm

I envy you Dollypop seeing all these Dollies.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/14/06 at 10:19pm

she also wrote a few different volumes of her autobiography, with all kinds of gossipy stories, love advice, recipes, etc!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/14/06 at 10:35pm

I had the pleasure of seeing Pearl Bailey perform 3 times. The first was an Actor Fund Benefit performance of House of Flowers. Those Sunday night performances given a few weeks after a show's opening were very special and the house was usually full of actors on their nights off. Even a mediocre show got a great reception from the performer's peers. Bailey was wonderful and did a lot of ad-libbing during House of Flowers and just imagine also seeing Diahann Carroll in her Broadway debut and Geoffrey (The Un-Cola Man) Holder and Alvin Ailey, all in one show. The next I saw Bailey was at the Chez Paree nightclub in Chicago. She was appearing with her husband, Louis Bellson, leading the band. She did all the usual special material that she recorded on 78rpm records. The last time I saw her perform was at The Apollo Theatre in Harlem. I was living in NYC at the time and dragged my room-mate uptown without telling him where we were going or who we were going to see. I think we were the only white people in the audience that Sunday afternoon. Bailey did a lot of audience participation and I was *sure* that she was going to pull my friend and I up on the stage to dance with her as we must have stuck out like sore thumbs in the audience. While she wasn't performing I observed her coming out the stage door after a performance of Dolly. She was barely moving and I imagine that was one of the times she was hospitalized overnight after a performance. I read about that happening. I would love to see a musical or a one-woman show based on her life and material but I wonder if enough people remember her to make it worthwhile.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/14/06 at 10:39pm

Pearl Bailey on youtube

[hushpuppy]

Posted: 6/15/06 at 2:02am

The year I graduated high school in San Francisco (1975), Pearl Bailey brought HELLO, DOLLY! to the Shubert in Los Angeles. I had to take the greyhound bus and sleep on a friend's floor in a UCLA dorm room but I got to see the marvelous Pearl Bailey live on stage. I've often said that I don't remember what I had for lunch yesterday but I remember every minute of that show. I think someone like Lilias White doing a one-woman tribute to Pearl Bailey would be great.

[sondwisenheimer]

Posted: 6/15/06 at 2:23am

I would most definitely pay to see Lilias White do a tribute to Pearl Bailey.