Showing posts with label Jerome Robbins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jerome Robbins. Show all posts

January 16, 2019

20,000 vinyl LPs 165: Ford 50th Anniversary Television Show

~  
10" vinyl LP
album cover photographer unknown 
photo of album by Styrous®


This is a recording of the 1953 television special celebrating the Ford Motor Company's 50th anniversary which brought together two of the greatest leading ladies Broadway has ever known Ethyl Merman (link below) and Mary Martin (link below). The highlight of the program is Merman and Martin's 13-minute duet medley, where they sing the songs that made them famous. Martin performs a brilliantly comic routine about changes in fashion over the first half of the 20th century; it was staged by director Jerome Robbins (link below).           


10" vinyl LP detail
album cover photographer unknown 
detail photo of album by Styrous®


The TV Special was broadcast on June 15, 1953, and featured a stunning array of music and movie talent: Marian Anderson, Wally Cox (Mr. Peepers), Bing Crosby, Eddie Fisher, Oscar Hammerstein II, Anna Held, Edward R. Murrow, Frank Sinatra, Lowell Thomas, Rudy Vallee, and many other stars!      


10" vinyl LP detail
detail photo of album by Styrous®


The recording is listed in the United States Library of Congress (link below) as an historical recording in the Performing Arts Encyclopedia as part of the Show Music on Record category. The original film was screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City on May 3 & 4 of 1963 (link below).     


10" vinyl LP detail
album cover photographer unknown 
detail photo of album by Styrous®


Merman sings “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” and “Mademoiselle from Armetières” and Martin & Merman perform a Vaudeville Pantomime, “ Your Folks and My Folks” by (Fields, Hall; Carlin America) which was recorded in 1925 by Billy Jones and Ernest Hare (“The Happiness Boys”).      

Together, Martin & Merman perform a medley:  

1. There’s No Business Like Show Business (Berlin)
2. A Wonderful Guy (Rodgers & Hammerstein)
3. By the Light of the Silvery Moon (Edwards, Madden)
4. Wait ‘Till the Sun Shines Nellie (Sterling, Von Tilzer)
5. I’m the Sheik of Araby (Smith, Snyder, Wheeler)
6. When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin’ Along (Woods)
7. Melancholy Baby (Burnett, Norton)
8. You Made Me Love You (McCarthy, Monaco)
9. Mississippi Mud (Barris, Cavanaugh)
10. I Cried For You (Arnheim, Freed, Lyman)
11. I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles (Kenbrovin, Kellette)
12. I’m Always Chasing Rainbows (Mc Carthy, Carroll)
13. I’m in the Mood for Love (Fields, McHugh)
14. I Love a Parade (Arlen, Kohler)
15. I’d Climb the Highest Mountain (Clare, Brown)
16. I’m Sitting on Top of the World (Henderson, Lewis, Young)
17. I Got a Feeling You’re Fooling (Brown)
18. I Can’t Give You Anything But Love (Fields, McHugh)
19. I’ll Get By (Turk, Ahlert)
20. You’re Just in Love (Berlin)
21. I’m Gonna Wash that Man Right Outa My Hair (Rodgers & Hammerstein)
22. I Get a Kick Out of You (Porter)
23. I’ve Got You Under My Skin (Porter)
24. My Heart Belongs to Daddy (Porter)
25. I Got Rhythm (Gershwin)
26. Indian Love Call (Friml)
27. Tea For Two (Caesar, Youmans)
28. Stormy Weather (Arlen, Koehler)
29. Isn’t it Romantic? (Rodgers & Hart)
30. I Got Rhythm (Gershwin)
31. There’s No Business Like Show Business     




10" vinyl LP label, side 2
photo by Styrous®     
     
   
Tracklist:

Side 1:

A – Ethel Merman And Mary Martin - The Actual Recording Of The Duet From The Ford 50th Anniversary Television Show, Conductor, Arranged By [Orchestra] – Jay Blackton, Producer – Leland Hayward, Stage Manager [Staged By] – Jerome Robbins

Side 2:
   
B1 – Mary Martin - Mountain High, Valley Low, Directed By [Orchestra] – Raymond Scott, written by Bernard Hanighen*, Raymond Scott
   
B2 – Ethel Merman - Eadie Was A Lady, Directed By [Orchestra] – Jay Blackton, written by B. G. De Sylva, R. Whiting, written by Herb B. Nacio*
   
B3 – Mary Martin - I’ll Walk Alone, Directed By [Orchestra] – Camarata*, written by Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn
   
Notes:

A - Recorded During Telecast

Ethel Merman And Mary Martin ‎– The Actual Recording Of The Duet From The Ford 50th Anniversary Television Show
Label: Decca ‎– DL 7027
Format: Vinyl, 10", LP
Country: US
Released: 1953
Genre: Pop, Stage & Screen
Style: Music Hall, Soundtrack, Vocal



Viewfinder links:
   
Bing Crosby            
Mary Martin     
Ethel Merman       
Jerome Robbins     
Raymond Scott     
Frank Sinatra          
    
   
Net links:
      
MOMA screening       
   
YouTube links:              
    
Ford 50th Anniversary Television Show  
     Mary Martin & Ethel Merman Medley (11 min., 30 sec.)   
     Mary Martin & Ethel Merman Medley (3 min. video)   
     Mary Martin - Fashion Show (6 min. 40 sec. video)     
     1953 Ford 50th Anniversary - original commercial        



Styrous® ~  Wednesday, January 16. 2019   


           






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September 26, 2017

20,000 Vinyl LPs 110: West Side Story ~ Maria, Tony, Bimbo's & Leo Friedman

                                 
West Side Story 
vinyl LP album cover
album cover photo by Leo Friedman 
photo of album cover by Styrous®


Sixty years ago today, September 26, 1957, the Broadway musical, West Side Story, burst onto the theater world and changed the form and character of musicals forever.      

The original cast album with its iconic image of Maria and Tony running down a street in New York is one of the most famous photos used on a record album; it, the album, has been an integral part of my life in many ways. In 1958-59 West Side Story was the soundtrack for my life.          
        

West Side Story 
vinyl LP album cover detail
album cover photo by Leo Friedman 
photo of album cover detail by Styrous®


The songs were uplifting, inspiring and new. The dance at the gym with its jazzy mambo completely knocked me out! And, of course, Maria is just . . . well, it's just! I still begin to tear up when I hear it and I think of Ann. Somewhere was "our" song. We were so in love and I remember taking her to see the first touring production when it came to San Francisco. By the time it got here Larry Kert, as Tony, was the only member of the original cast in the 1959 US Tour.


West Side Story playbill 
September 14, 1959 
photo by Styrous®
(click HERE to see 1959 souvenir program)



We went to Bimbo's afterward and had dinner; it was an upscale supper club with entertainment but I don't remember who was performing. I do remember I had Chicken á la King because it was the cheapest thing on the menu; I was 19, living on my own, working my way through college and didn't have a whole lot of money.        


Bimbo's 365 Club 
December 5, 2008 
San Francisco, CA 


There is a story behind the photograph used on the cover of the album. It looks very spontaneous but it was carefully staged by photographer Leo Friedman. The “West Side Story” shot, which became the cover of the cast album, was the result of attempts by Friedman after having tried several settings around New York City and ending up along a row of tenements on West 56th Street.   


West Side Story 
vinyl LP album cover
album cover photo by Leo Friedman 
photo of album cover by Styrous®

“I made a mark on the street, and I said to Carol: ‘I want Larry chasing you up the street. When you hit that mark, don’t look at me down here, look up, with your head up,” Friedman recalled, “And that’s what I took.”

And so, after what the weary actress, Carol Lawrence, remembered as 300 tries, the shot Friedman wanted was finally captured and, as they say, the rest is history. Actually, there is more history; he got a pretty raw deal in the end. (link to Friedman info below).   


West Side Story 
vinyl LP album cover detail
album cover photo by Leo Friedman 
photo of album cover detail by Styrous®


  

The score for West Side Story was written by Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. It was orchestrated by Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal following detailed instructions from Bernstein, who then wrote revisions on their manuscript (the original, heavily annotated by Ramin, Kostal and Bernstein himself is in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library at Columbia University). Ramin, Kostal, and Bernstein are billed as orchestrators for the show. The orchestra consisted of 31 players: a large Broadway pit orchestra enhanced to include 5 percussionists, a guitarist and a piano/celesta player.    


West Side Story 
vinyl LP album back cover 
photo by Styrous®

The dark theme of the story (based on Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare), sophisticated music, extended dance scenes, and focus on social problems marked a turning point in American musical theatre. Then there is the Bernstein score for the musical which includes Something's Coming, Maria, America, Somewhere, Tonight, Jet Song, I Feel Pretty, A Boy Like That, One Hand, One Heart, Gee, Officer Krupke, and Cool (links below to all on YouTube).      



West Side Story 
vinyl LP album back cover detail
detail photo by Styrous®


The original 1957 Broadway production, directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins and produced by Robert E. Griffith and Harold Prince, marked Sondheim's Broadway debut. It ran for 732 performances before going on tour. The production was nominated for six Tony Awards including Best Musical in 1957. However, the award went to The Music Man by Meredith Willson. Robbins won the Tony Awards for his choreography and Oliver Smith won for his scenic designs.  
 


West Side Story 
vinyl LP album back cover detail
detail photo by Styrous®



The creators' innovations in dance, music and theatrical style resulted in strong reactions from the critics. Walter Kerr wrote in the New York Herald Tribune on September 27, 1957:  
"The radioactive fallout from West Side Story must still be descending on Broadway this morning. Director, choreographer, and idea-man Jerome Robbins has put together, and then blasted apart, the most savage, restless, electrifying dance patterns we've been exposed to in a dozen seasons ...."     
John Chapman's review in the New York Daily News on September 27, 1957, headed: "West Side Story a Splendid and Super-Modern Musical Drama":   
"The American theatre took a venturesome forward step when the firm of Griffith & Prince presented West Side Story at the Winter Garden last evening. This is a bold new kind of musical theatre – a juke-box Manhattan opera."      
Time magazine found the dance and gang warfare more compelling than the love story and noted that the show's "putting choreography foremost, may prove a milestone in musical-drama history ...  
"While critics speculated about the comic-tragic darkness of the musical, audiences were captivated. The story appealed to society's undercurrent of rebellion from authority that surfaced in 1950s films like Rebel Without a Cause. West Side Story took this one step further by combining the classic and the hip."    


West Side Story 
vinyl LP album back cover detail
detail photo by Styrous®


In 1961, West Side Story was made into a film; directed by Robert Wise, it starred Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, and George Chakiris.    

That same year, Stan Kenton recorded Kenton's West Side Story (a jazz version) that received a 1962 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance – Large Group (Instrumental) (More on this in a future article).    


West Side Story 
vinyl LP album back cover detail
detail photo by Styrous®





 
West Side Story 
vinyl LP, side 1
photo by Styrous®



West Side Story 
vinyl LP label, side 1
photo by Styrous®











West Side Story 
vinyl LP, side 2
photo by Styrous®


West Side Story 
vinyl LP label, side 2
photo by Styrous®


     

Act 1

Act 2 

  • "I Feel Pretty" – Maria, Rosalia, Estella, & Consuelo
  • "Somewhere" – Consuelo, danced by Company
  • "Gee, Officer Krupke" – Action, Snowboy & Jets
  • "A Boy Like That" – Anita & Maria
  • "I Have a Love" – Anita & Maria
  • "Taunting" – Anita & Jets
  • "Finale" – Company    


Credits:

Notes:  

Six-Eye Stereophonic release without "360°-Sound" (see Images)
US-Two Eye Repress: Leonard Bernstein - West Side Story - Original Broadway Cast
US-Half Dozen Repress: Leonard Bernstein - West Side Story - Original Broadway Cast

West Side Story opened in New York at the Winter Garden Theatre September 26th, 1957, following engagements in Washington and Philadelphia.


Barcode and Other Identifiers
  • Matrix / Runout (Side 1 on Label): XSM 41521
  • Matrix / Runout (Side 2 on Label): XSM 41522
  • Barcode (Stamped Side 1): XXSM41521-1E
  • Barcode (Stamped Side 2): XSM41522-1B

Label: Columbia Masterworks ‎– OS 2001
Format: Vinyl, LP, Stereo
Country: US
Released: Oct 1957
Genre: Pop, Classical, Stage & Screen
Style: Musical, Modern
             

        
Viewfinder links:         
          
West Side Story ~ 1959 souvenir program     
Leo Friedman ~ Broadway's Photographer      
      
Net links:         
          
West Side Story ~    
            Synopsis        
            Characters
            Principal cast       
            Musical numbers              
            Recordings      
            Awards and nominations   
            West Side Story (film) website         
       
YouTube links:         
          
            Jet Song          
           Something's Coming  
           The Dance at the Gym      
            Maria
            Tonight  
           America  
           Cool   
           One Hand, One Heart    
           Tonight (Quintet & Chorus)   
           I Feel Pretty
           Somewhere      
           Gee, Officer Krupke        
           I Have a Love        
           Finale
West Side Story (the film)                
        West Side Story Reunion 
        Making of a classic        
        The Making of West Side Story  (1 hr. 20 min.)        
          
         
        
       
"There's a Place For Us . . . " 
       ~ Somewhere
         
           
Styrous® ~ Monday, September 26, 2017      




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May 13, 2017

20,000 Vinyl LPs 87: The Pajama Game ~ the musical

                  
                    The Pajama Game ~ the musical
                          vinyl LP, front cover detail
                                           detail photo by Styrous®      


The Pajama Game is a musical based on the 1953 novel 7½ Cents by Richard Bissell. The book for the musical is by George Abbott and Richard Bissell; the music and lyrics are by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. The story deals with labor troubles in a pajama factory, where workers' demands for a seven-and-a-half cent raise are going unheeded. In the midst of this ordeal, love blossoms between Babe, the grievance committee head, and Sid, the new factory superintendent.    

The original Broadway production opened at the St. James Theatre on May 13, 1954, and closed on November 24, 1956, after 1,063 performances. It was directed by George Abbott and Jerome Robbins and featured choreography by Bob Fosse. The original cast included John Raitt, Janis Paige, Eddie Foy, Jr., Carol Haney, and Stanley Prager.     

Produced by Frederick Brisson, Robert E. Griffith and Harold S. Prince, The Pajama Game won a Tony Award for Best Musical.          




 
       The Pajama Game ~ the musical
vinyl LP, front cover 
photo by Styrous®



There are many songs from the production that became "Hits". Hey There, Hernando's Hideaway, Steam Heat and I'm Not At All In Love were the biggies.  Carol Haney is delightful as the temptress on Hideaway.

Steam Heat is a la mode 50's; a jazzy feeling with orchestra punctuated with high hats that are joined by a hot trio of sensational singers that have a sonic ballet with the high hats. It's just unreal!   





 
The Pajama Game ~ the musical
vinyl LP, back cover
photo by Styrous®
 

Although I liked those songs, my favorites were the "off" ones. Seven-And-A-Half Cents is at the top of my list. It a rollicking, bouncy and joyous tune that also describes, in the common worker's terms, the feeling of the hardship of earning a wage and what a minor raise means. However, their examples of the luxuries the raise will bring is hilarious!

The next one on my list is out-'n-out Broadway Schmaltz. I'll Never Be Jealous Again Sung by Eddie Foy, Jr. and Reta Shaw is a walking tune with fast, complicated singing at times, typical of that period: a gentle stroll and sweet! I know!      

Corny!



 The Pajama Game ~ the musical
vinyl LP, back cover detail
detail photo by Styrous®

Carol Haney was born on December 24, 1924, in New Bedford, Massachusetts. She was an American dancer and actress. In 1949, Haney was hired by Gene Kelly to be his assistant choreographer on several M-G-M musical films, and she aided Kelly in some of his best work, including On the Town (1949), Summer Stock (1950), An American in Paris (1951), Singin' in the Rain (1952), as well as Kelly's dream project, Invitation to the Dance (1956). She won a Tony Award for her role in Broadway's The Pajama Game. She then shifted to primarily Broadway choreography, being nominated for three more Tonys for her work.    

Haney died in Saddle River, New Jersey in 1964, at age 39, six weeks after the opening of Funny Girl, which she choreographed. The cause of death was pneumonia, complicated by diabetes and alcoholism.       






John Raitt is best known for his stage roles in the musicals Carousel, Oklahoma!, The Pajama Game  and A Joyful Noise, in which he set the standard for virile, handsome, strong-voiced leading men during the golden age of the Broadway musical. His only leading film role was in the 1957 movie version of The Pajama Game opposite Doris Day. He died on February 20, 2005, at his home in Pacific Palisades, California, from complications due to pneumonia, he was 88 years old.     
     



 



Eddie Foy, Jr. was born on February 4, 1905, in New Rochelle, New York, the son of vaudevillian Eddie Foy and his third wife, Madeline Morando. He was one of the "Seven Little Foys" immortalized in the 1955 film of the same name. Of the seven, he had the longest performing career, and the only one in movies (though six Foys appeared in two short films directed by his elder brother Bryan Foy).      

Foy died of pancreatic cancer in Woodland Hills, California on July 15, 1983. He is buried alongside his father and siblings in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in New Rochelle, New York.    







Reta Shaw was born on September 13, 1912. She was an American character actress known for playing authoritarian women, housekeepers, and domineering wives. She appeared on Broadway in her comic role as Mabel in the original production of The Pajama Game in 1954, as well as in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Picnic, and Annie Get Your Gun, the last on tour with Mary Martin. She died of emphysema in Encino, California on January 8, 1982. She was 69 years old.  


  



    The Pajama Game ~ the musical
vinyl LP, side 1
photo by Styrous®


    The Pajama Game ~ the musical
vinyl LP, label detail, side 1
detail photo by Styrous®



Bob Fosse was born Robert Louis "Bob" Fosse in Chicago, Illinois on June 23, 1927. He was an American dancer, musical theatre choreographer, director, screenwriter, film director and actor.      

In 1979, Fosse co-wrote and directed a semi-autobiographical film All That Jazz (1979), which portrayed the life of a womanizing, drug-addicted choreographer-director in the midst of triumph and failure. All That Jazz won four Academy Awards, earning Fosse his third Oscar nomination for Best Director. It also won the Palme d'Or at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival.    

He won eight Tony Awards for choreography, more than anyone else, as well as one for direction. He was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning for his direction of Cabaret. He died on  September 23, 1987.       
 



    The Pajama Game ~ the musical
vinyl LP, side 2
photo by Styrous®


    The Pajama Game ~ the musical
vinyl LP, label detail, side 1
detail photo by Styrous®


Jerome Robbins was born on October 11, 1918, in the Jewish Maternity Hospital at 270 East Broadway on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. He was an American choreographer, director, dancer, and theater producer who worked in classical ballet, on Broadway, and in films and television. Among his numerous stage productions he worked on were On the Town, Peter Pan, High Button Shoes, The King And I, The Pajama Game, Bells Are Ringing, West Side Story, Gypsy: A Musical Fable, and Fiddler on the Roof; Robbins was a five time Tony award winner and a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors. He received two Academy Awards, including the 1961 Academy Award for Best Director with Robert Wise for West Side Story.    

Robbins suffered a stroke in July 1998, two months after the premiere of his re-staging of Les Noces. He died at his home in New York on July 29, 1998. On the evening of his death, the lights of Broadway were dimmed for a moment in tribute. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered on the Atlantic Ocean.          

In 1957, The Pajama Game was adapted to film. The lead roles were filled by members of the original Broadway cast members with the exception of Janis Paige, whose role is played by Doris Day, and Stanley Prager, whose role is played by Jack Straw.           


Tracklist:
Side 1:

A1     Overture   
A2     The Pajama Game; Racing With The Clock   
A3     A New Town Is A Blue Town   
A4     I'm Not At All In Love   
A5     I'll Never Be Jealous Again   
A6     Hey There   
A7     Her Is   
A8     Once-A-Year-Day!   

Side 1:

B1     Small Talk   
B2     There Once Was A Man   
B3     Steam Heat   
B4     Think Of The Time I Save   
B5     Hernando's Hideaway   
B6     Seven-And-A-Half Cents   
B7     Finale   

Credits:

    Conductor – Hal Hastings*
    Liner Notes – Mort Goode
    Orchestrated By – Don Walker (3)
    Producer [For Records] – Goddard Lieberson
    Written-By – Jerry Ross (2), Richard Adler

Notes:

1960's two-eye reissue
Barcode and Other Identifiers

    Matrix / Runout (Side A): x"Lp"31707
    Matrix / Runout (Side B): x"Lp"31708             
              
              
        
Net links:              
                  
The Pajama Game Plot              
Reta Shaw Filmography          
Eddie Foy Jr. Filmography            
New York Times ~ Jerome Robbins obit              
         
         
YouTube links:                 
               
The Pajama Game songs:            
Hey There!        
Hernando's Hideaway           
I'm Not At All In Love        
Seven-and-a-Half Cents        
I'll Never Be Jealous Again           
               
         
Styrous® ~ Saturday, May 13, 2017     
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