Showing posts with label Frank Morgan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frank Morgan. Show all posts

October 29, 2020

20,000 vinyl LPs 248: Fanny Brice ~ Baby Snooks & Daddy

~       
Fanny Brice ~ Baby Snooks & Daddy
vinyl LP front cover 
photo: September 25, 1945
photo of record cover by Styrous®


Today is the birthday of Fanny Brice who was born Fania Borach in 1891, in Manhattan, New York City. She was an American comedienne, illustrated song model that was was a popular form of entertainment in the early 20th century in the United States, singer, theater and film actress who made many stage, radio, and film appearances. She is known as the creator and star of the top-rated radio comedy series The Baby Snooks Show.             
 
 
Fanny Brice ~ Baby Snooks & Daddy
vinyl LP front cover detail 
photo: September 25, 1945
photo: film still 
detail photo of record cover by Styrous®


This album does not have music, it consists of eight radio episodes of Baby Snooks & Daddy performed and recorded live before a studio audience from 1948 to 1950.   


Fanny Brice ~ Baby Snooks & Daddy
vinyl LP back cover details
detail photos of record cover by Styrous® 

 
Brice's first radio show was the Philco Hour in February 1930. From the 1930s until her death in 1951, she made a radio presence as a bratty toddler named Snooks, a role she premiered in a Follies skit co-written by playwright Moss Hart. Baby Snooks premiered in The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air in February 1936 on CBS, with Alan Reed playing Lancelot Higgins, her beleaguered "Daddy". Brice moved to NBC in December 1937, performing the Snooks routines as part of the Good News show, then back to CBS on Maxwell House Coffee Time, with the half-hour divided between the Snooks sketches and actor Frank Morgan.        
 
 
Fanny Brice ~ Baby Snooks & Daddy
vinyl LP back cover 
photo: film still 
photo of record cover by Styrous®
 
 
Brice was so meticulous about the program and the title character that she was known to perform in costume as a toddler girl even though seen only by the radio studio audience. She was 45 years old when the character began her long radio life.                   
 
 
Fanny Brice as Baby Snooks - 1940 
photographer unknown
 
 
Thirteen years after her death, Brice was portrayed on the Broadway stage by Barbra Streisand in the 1964 musical Funny Girl; Streisand also starred in its 1968 film adaptation, for which she won an Oscar, and in the 1975 sequel, Funny Lady.      


 
 
Fanny Brice ~ Baby Snooks & Daddy
vinyl LP back cover details
detail photos of record cover by Styrous®
 

 
 
She told biographer Norman Katkov: 
"Snooks is just the kid I used to be. She's my kind of youngster, the type I like. She has imagination. She's eager. She's alive. With all her deviltry, she is still a good kid, never vicious or mean. I love Snooks, and when I play her I do it as seriously as if she were real. I am Snooks. For 20 minutes or so, Fanny Brice ceases to exist."        
  
Fanny Brice & Bob Hope - 1936 
photo by Murray Korman

 
On screen, Brice portrayed Baby Snooks in the 1938 film Everybody Sing in a scene with Judy Garland as Little Lord Fauntleroy.             
 
 
 
Fanny Brice ~ Baby Snooks & Daddy
vinyl LP back cover detail
detail photo by Styrous®
 
 
Though Brice reportedly spoke no Yiddish, she played into the popularity of ethnic comedy by adopting stereotypical mannerisms and the accent. In 1910 she began her association with Florenz Ziegfeld, headlining his Ziegfeld Follies in 1910 and 1911. She was hired again in 1921 and performed in the Follies into the 1930s. In the 1921 Follies, she was featured singing My Man, which became both a big hit and her signature song. She made a popular recording of it for the Victor Talking Machine Company. The second song most associated with Brice is Second Hand Rose, which she also introduced in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1921.          
    

 
Fanny Brice ~ Baby Snooks & Daddy
vinyl LP record sleeve, side 1 
photo by Styrous®
    
 
 
 
 
 

 
Fanny Brice ~ Baby Snooks & Daddy
vinyl LP record sleeve, side 2 
photo by Styrous®
 
   
  
Tracklist:

Side 1:

A1 - The Cat-Man's Revenge    
A2 - Abnormal Psychology    
A3 - The Man Who Came To Dinner    
A4 - The Trial    

Side 2:

B1 - The World's Most Patient Father    
B2 - At The Doctor's...    
B3 - To Bee Or Not To Bee    
B4 - Snooks And Tallulah

Fanny Brice, Hanley Stafford ‎– Baby Snooks & Daddy
Label: Radiola ‎– MR-1039
Series: Comedy Series – No. 15
Format: Vinyl, LP
Country: USA, Canada & UK
Released: 1974
Genre: Non-Music    
       
         
Viewfinder links:        
        
Fanny Brice           
Bob Hope         
Barbra Streisand               
        
Net links:        
        
Jewish Women's Archive ~ Fanny Brice's Ziegfeld Follies debut   
LA Times ~ Norman Katkov dies at 91         
Musicals 101~ Funny Girl Debunked: Fanny Brice Facts        
PBS ~ Fanny Brice         
Publisher's Weekly ~ Books by Norman Katkov & Reviews        
        
YouTube links:        
        
        
        
        
        
       
       
       
Fanny Brice as Baby Snooks - 1950
illustration by David Stone Martin
 
         
 
"I lived the way I wanted to live and 
never did what people said I should do."    
                          ~ Fanny Brice
 
        
        
        
Styrous® ~ Thrusday, October 29, 2020       














    
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August 15, 2018

1,001 LaserDiscs 5: The Wizard of Oz

           
On August 15, 1939, The Wizard of Oz premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.            


photo by Carol Highsmith

The film made Judy Garland a megastar when she sang the movie's song, Over the Rainbow, and as they say, the rest is history. 

I first saw Oz on the 1949 re-release of the film. I was a little kid and had seen the ads about the "Glorious" color of the film. I remember being incredibly excited about going to see the film then watching the film start and being bitterly disappointed and mad that it was not in color. I felt cheated; that's what had been promised!!!!! (link below)             


"Metro-Goldwyn Mayer's TECHNICOLOR TRIUMPH!"


Then Dorothy opens the door and this flood of color overwhelmed me like a tsunami and I remember the feeling of the hackles on my neck rising. It WAS Glorious and I've been hooked ever since!

All of the Oz sequences were filmed in Three-strip Technicolor. The opening and closing credits, as well as the Kansas sequences, were filmed in black and white and colored in a sepia-tone process. Sepia-toned film was also used in the scene where Aunt Em appears in the Wicked Witch's crystal ball.   

     
LaserDisc front cover 
photo of cover by Styrous®


Originally a book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, was named by him from a library shelf labled "O to Z". The film is one of the towering film greats of Hollywood. It was released near the end of the Great Depression and may have helped people survive it.

The original producers thought that a 1939 audience was too sophisticated to accept Oz as a straight-ahead fantasy; therefore, it was re-conceived as a lengthy, elaborate dream sequence.   


LaserDisc back cover 
photo of cover by Styrous®


The Wizard of Oz is legendary for its use of Technicolor, fantasy storytelling, musical score, and memorable characters (link below), it has become an icon of American popular culture. This edition of the film is a gatefold album so there are more images from the film.         


photo of cover by Styrous®


The songs were written by Edgar "Yip" Harburg (lyrics) and Harold Arlen (music). The musical score and incidental music were composed by Herbert Stothart.

Because of a perceived need to attract a youthful audience through appealing to modern fads and styles, the score had featured a song called The Jitterbug (link below). The tune was sung by Dorothy, together with the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion; it was a jazzy development of the plot and a nod to the then-popular bobby-soxer dance craze. However, the segment was cut from the film.

The only film footage of the segment that exists is a grainy home movie shot by the film's composer Harold Arlen, taken during dress rehearsal from behind the scenes. The actual footage for the film was destroyed. The Arlen footage is included in this LaserDisc edition.      
 

    
The Wicked Witch of the West makes reference to this number in the finished film, telling the leader of the monkeys that she had sent "a little insect on ahead to take the fight out of them", a line that is perhaps the most obvious continuity error in the film.     

A recording of the song was featured as the B-side of the original 78 RPM 1939 single, Over the Rainbow, released by Decca.

      
LaserDisc gatefold album interior
photo by Styrous®


One of my favorite songs from the film, Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead, is joyously performed by the Munchkins, denizens of Munchkinland (link below) after her sister, the Wicked Witch of the East, has been squashed when the house, with Dorothy in it, lands on her. Klaus Nomi (link below) did a fantastic new wave/disco cover of the song (link below) in the early eighties.     

The Wicked Witch of the West receives her just rewards when Dorothy accidentally splashes water on her and she melts (link below). I remember hearing the kids in the audience whooping and cheering when it happens.    

 
back cover detail
detail photo of cover by Styrous®


The songs by each of Dorothy's conpanions are a joy to watch. There is the Scarecrow, portrayed by Ray Bolger, who sings, If I Only Had a Brain (link below).           

Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow
 

There is Jack Haley in the role of the Tin Woodman who sings the same song except he desires to have a heart so he can feel emotions but especially love (link below).    


Jack Haley as the Tin Man


And, last but not least, the adorable, Bert Lahr, who is the Cowardly Lion and wishes more than anything to have courage, If I Only Had the Nerve. His version is my favorite of the three. Later he sings, If I Were King of the Forest and the ending is hysterical (link below).   


Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion


Of course, when they all finally get their wishes it turns out each of them had want they wanted in the first place.  

The double roles of Miss Almira Gulch and the Wicked Witch of the West, are delightfully, wickedly portrayed by Margaret Hamilton, and is one of the stellar performances of the film. She and Darth Vader are two of the gods at the top of my Pantheon of villians.     


LaserDisc album back cover detail
detail photo of back cover by Styrous®


 


The film was considered a critical success when released in August 1939 but failed to make a profit for MGM until the 1949 re-release, earning only $3,017,000 on a $2,777,000 budget, not including promotional costs, which made it MGM's most expensive production to that time.      

The 1956 television broadcast premiere of the film on the CBS network reintroduced the film to the public; watching it became an annual tradition and, according to the Library of Congress, it is the most seen film in movie history. It was among the first 25 films that inaugurated the National Film Registry list in 1989. It is also one of the few films on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. The film is among the top ten in the BFI list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14.

Not that there is any connection nor resemblance to the movie, Oz is an American television drama series created by Tom Fontana, who also wrote or co-wrote all 56 of the series episodes. It was the first one-hour dramatic television series to be produced by the premium cable network HBO. Oz premiered on July 12, 1997 and ran for six seasons; the series finale aired February 23, 2003. The series catapulted Christopher Meloni to stardom and reenforced the already impressive career of Rita Moreno.    

Oz TV series logo


There have been two stage musical versions of the movie, The Wiz, released in 1974, and Wicked, released on May 28, 2003, at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. I saw both; The Wiz was brilliant; I especially loved the Tornado Dance. A ballerina came out pirouetting on pointe in a black body suit that completely covered her from head to toe. Her headdress was an enormous black fabric that was anchord to the Fly system over the stage; as she pirouetted around the stage the fabric twisted and flared out at the top. It was extremely effective!     

Wicked didn't make it for me!        
   
    

front cover detail
detail photo of cover by Styrous®


The American musical adventure fantasy film The Wiz, based on the stage play rather than  the  1939 movie. produced by Universal Pictures and Motown Productions, was released by Universal Pictures on October 24, 1978.    

It featured an entirely African-American cast which starred Diana Ross (Dorothy), Michael Jackson (Scarecrow), Nipsey Russell (Tin Man), Ted Ross (Cowardly Lion), Richard Pryor (The Wiz), Lena Horne (Glinda the Good Witch), and many more wonderful performers.          

The interpretatons of the songs were brilliant, such as, Follow the Yellow Brick Road became Ease On Down the Road (links below).      
    
  


In January 1938, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer bought the rights to the L. Frank Baum novel from Samuel Goldwyn, who had toyed with the idea of making the film as a vehicle for Eddie Cantor, who was under contract to the Goldwyn studios and whom Goldwyn wanted to cast as the Scarecrow.     


back cover detail
detail photo of cover by Styrous®


The novel by Baum was first made into a movie in the twenties, released on April 13, 1925. One of the actors in the film was Oliver Hardy, of Laurel and Hardy fame. It was filmed again in Canada and released in 1933.        

In the fifties, there was a half-hour television adaptation with puppets directed by Burr Tillstrom, famous for creating the TV show Kukla, Fran and Ollie.

An anime feature film version from Japan, directed by Fumihiko Takayama, was released on October 6, 1982. In the 1980s, a re-edited version of the Takayama film was released in Czechoslovakia. The film was dubbed into the Slovak language except for the songs, which were performed by Japanese singers (from the original Japanese music version). Some other foreign dubs, such as the Italian and Greek versions, had this premise edit as well. The complete Italian version is on YouTube (link below).   

In the ninties, there was a Wizard of Oz (TV series), which premiered on ABC, starting on September 8, 1990. The series also aired on YTV from 1990 to 1995 in Canada. Reruns aired on Toon Disney from 1998 to 2002.    

In 1993, a Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game which is loosely based on the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. It was developed by Manley & Associates and published by SETA Corporation on October 5, 1993. The object in the game is to defeat the Wicked Witch of the West that is trying to take Dorothy's ruby slippers so that Dorothy can return to Kansas.     


LaserDisc gatefold album interior detail
detail photo by Styrous®


One of my favorite scenes from the film is, "Who Rang That Bell?" uttered by the doorman at the gate of Oz (link below).
  


LaserDisc gatefold album interior detail
detail photo by Styrous®


The Wizard of Oz was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but lost to the other film great produced that year, Gone with the Wind. Oz won two categories, Best Original Song for Over the Rainbow and Best Original Score by Stothart.          

In the field of human–computer interaction, a Wizard of Oz experiment is a research experiment in which subjects interact with a computer system that subjects believe to be autonomous, but which is actually being operated or partially operated by an unseen human being. 

The phrase Wizard of Oz (originally OZ Paradigm) has come into common usage in the fields of experimental psychology, human factors, ergonomics, linguistics, and usability engineering to describe a testing or iterative design methodology wherein an experimenter (the “wizard”), in a laboratory setting, simulates the behavior of a theoretical intelligent computer application (often by going into another room and intercepting all communications between participant and system). Sometimes this is done with the participant’s a-priori knowledge and sometimes it is a low-level deceit employed to manage the participant’s expectations and encourage natural behaviors.    





LaserDisc gatefold album interior details
detail photos by Styrous®













LaserDisc sleeve
photos by Styrous®



     
             
             
               
Viewfinder links:         
             
Judy Garland            
Harold Arlen          
Darth Vader              
Lena Horne       
Michael Jackson           
Rita Moreno      
Klaus Nomi     
Richard Pryor        
         
Net links:         
             
The Wizard of Oz ~           
     Plot         
     Cast  
     Music
       
YouTube links:         
                  
The Wizard of Oz ~             
                    ~ Somewhere Over the Rainbow   
                    ~ Dorothy entering Technicolor
                    ~ Munchkin Welcome      
                    ~ The Jitterbug [outtake]     
                    ~ If I Only Had a Brain           
                    ~ If I Only Had a Heart           
                    ~ If I Were King of the Forest   
                    ~ Follow the Yellow Brick Road    
                    ~ I'm Melting!       
                    ~ Wizard of Oz Outtake     
                    ~ "Who Rang That Bell?"
Klaus Nomi ~ Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead
The Wiz ~ Ease On Down the Road                
History of The Wizard of Oz                  
Bizarre Things That Happened On The Set Of The Wizard Of Oz   
Behind The Scenes       
Angelica e o Magico de Oz - (The Wizard of Oz) (1982)
                    
          
front cover detail
detail photo of cover by Styrous®

  
             
Styrous® ~ Wednesday, August 15, 2018       






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