Posted: 7/8/15 at 12:54pm
Here are two new sets of private footage of the two composers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqsojfuOoB0 - Sondheim's father and stepmother, 1950s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_CNqo0x2pM - Jerry Herman's 40th birthday party, 1971. (Also includes Dame Angela Lansbury in a bikini!)
Updated On: 7/8/15 at 12:54 PM
Posted: 7/8/15 at 1:10pm
One of my favorite Bea Arthur quotes- "It was originally a musical called VERA. But Jerry couldn't find a word to rhyme with Vera. *pause* Sondheim could have rhymed it."
Posted: 7/8/15 at 1:11pm
Yes, she says it in this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sOoFgZ6hn8
She was such a funny person!
Posted: 7/8/15 at 1:11pm
I'm glad Mr. Herman cleared up that "rumor that the simple, hummable show tune (isn't) dead on Broadway."
Oh how I wish the director of the Tony Awards had switched the camera to Sondheim in his seat at that point!
I once encountered Jerry Herman at a West Hollywood bar called Numbers in 1997. I told him that I'd just seen Love! Valor! Compassion! and that the Mame cast album was featured. He told me that Angela Lansbury was doing "Mrs. Clause" for television for him. And he commented to my "companion" that I seemed like an "enchanting young man" HA!
Posted: 7/8/15 at 1:15pm
^Too lucky!! I've heard rumours that Sondheim laughed at it. And Mrs. Santa Clause is a really lovely movie too.
Posted: 7/8/15 at 1:17pm
Like comparing apples & oranges.
Posted: 7/8/15 at 1:24pm
Some other clips too (I didn't feel like starting a new thread):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSYUgwiI_Fg - The Magic Show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rcnyMurr3M - The Grand Tour (starring Joel Grey)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_hM2bMhywI - Breakfast at Tiffany's
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnw_mip1dWQ - Porgy and Bess (1935)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs-z9AnPSIg - Gene Kelly in Pal Joey
Posted: 7/8/15 at 2:03pm
"I'm glad Mr. Herman cleared up that "rumor that the simple, hummable show tune (isn't) dead on Broadway."
Oh how I wish the director of the Tony Awards had switched the camera to Sondheim in his seat at that point!
I once encountered Jerry Herman at a West Hollywood bar called Numbers in 1997. I told him that I'd just seen Love! Valor! Compassion! and that the Mame cast album was featured. He told me that Angela Lansbury was doing "Mrs. Clause" for television for him. And he commented to my "companion" that I seemed like an "enchanting young man"
Re: the Tony awards comment. Maybe he meant that, maybe he didn't. He's insisted in interviews that he was not referring to Sondheim, but to the fact that - in general - he thought Broadway had moved on from the type of musical he wrote and that he was considered 'old hat' and was genuinely surprised and moved to have received another Tony at that stage in his career. He's also described Sondheim as a genius (pretty sure in some Broadway.com interview), so whether he's painting a rosier picture of the past or not, I think that in the present, he's handled this supposed controversy with a great deal of grace and that's probably all that matters now.
Posted: 7/8/15 at 3:05pm
It's just that La Cage was up against Sunday in the Park. That must have been on his mind.
Posted: 7/8/15 at 3:10pm
OMG ANGELA LANSBURY IN A BIKINI
Posted: 7/8/15 at 4:31pm
There are home movies of me and my sister as infants sitting on Jerry Herman's lap. He was a young man - perhaps in his teens - back then.
His mother was really good friends with my grandmother.
Years later, at La Cage aux Folles, I mentioned this to him. He wasn't amused.
Posted: 7/8/15 at 8:10pm
The PORGY AND BESS footage is amazing. I've never seen it before but I question whether it was from the original 1935 production or from the Broadway '42/'43 revivals. Unfortunately I can't tell if Sportin' Life is being played by John Bubbles (1935) or Avon Long (forties revival). I'm only familiar with what Bubbles looked like in his later years.
Posted: 7/8/15 at 9:52pm
Updated On: 7/9/15 at 09:52 PM
Posted: 7/9/15 at 3:44am
Your very welcome! I have also come across some new, very good quality footage, so I'll upload it soon! Keep checking!
As for the Porgy and Bess footage, I believe it is the 1935 production because of the sets which dan be seen. As far as I know Sportin' Life is being sung by John Bubbles.
