Noël Coward’s melodramatic 1949 film, now reportedly a cult-favorite, recently screened in a weekend of films at Lincoln Center as part of the Coward in New York festivities. My musings inspired by the event’s hosts (fab) and the movie itself.
Broadway standbys are a rare and wondrous breed. I attended a screening of The Standbys by Stephanie Riggs at the Paley Center in Manhattan on May 12, 2012 and mused about it.
“One evening the king will say, ‘Oh, Liza, old thing — I want all of England your praises to sing. Next week on the twentieth of May, I proclaim Liza Doolittle Day.”
Marvelous Mort Lindsey (1923-2012) passed away Friday May 4, 2012. His long career touched many performers.
My primary associations with Mort are his conducting and arranging for Judy Garland for stage concerts, for television (including her 1963-64 CBS television series), and on screen in 1963’s I Could Go On Singing. I only once had the privilege of seeing him conduct in person — the Garland Carnegie Hall concert overture in Carnegie Hall during each of two nights of tribute concerts in June 1998 hosted by Lorna Luft and Robert Stack. Lindsey in that storied hall conducting the concert overture to which I been listening for several decades on the never-out-of-print recording. It was quite a thrill.
This image is my crop of a fan’s audience picture of Mr. Lindsey deep in adoration mode, during Garland inter-song patter on May 6, 1961 at Chicago’s Civic Opera House. Judy Garland is presenting her “Carnegie Hall” concert here as part of her multi-city tour leading up to and after April 23, 1961’s momentous concert at Carnegie Hall.
Original image taken by friend and fellow fan Mike VanFossen.
Maurice Sendak (1928-2012). My favorites are his illustrations for the books What Do You Do Dear? and What Do You Say Dear? and, as I was just reminded, the book I also often gift the young people in my life — Little Bear. (I’m not so much about the monsters and wild things, but I appreciate that so many people are.) And now, in his own words, this lovely gift.
Internet’s over, people. Maurice Sendak just won.
David Kenney’s “Everything Old is New Again” radio program had a special feature Sunday April 29, 2012 with Jonathan Summers, producer of FirstHand Records 2011 Judy Garland two cd release The London Studio Recordings 1957-1964 (cover pictured here). A stunning compilation of alternate takes, never-released takes, all lusciously prepared and presented.
The Summers interview show (about 30 minutes into the program) is available via the WBAI archive until May 8th. Look for the edition for Sunday, April 29th @ http://archive.wbai.org/show1.php?showid=eoinagain
May 1, 1928. May Day at Bryn Mawr. Senior girl Katharine Hepburn poses.
End of the Rainbow marquee 29 March 2012. Image by Martha Wade Steketee.
My musings on viewing the play that evening, posted on the date of its formal opening on Broadway 2 April 2012. Let me be clear: the closest one gets to any semblance of Garland in this production, in my view, is her name in lights outside the theatre.
In July 2011 I viewed a book jacket mock-up for a volume set to be published the next month. I snapped the photo that you see here. Judy: A Legendary Film Career (2011), by John Fricke.
March 1, 2012 I attended a midday talk on a book on Garland by Fricke himself, one of the most outspoken, articulate, knowledgeable, generous historians of her career ever. John Fricke shared reflections, humor, and a few carefully selected film clips to talk about Garland and her legacy.
