Since we're playing Gypsy
(for the 100th time...but it's the MAMA of all musicals!),
we needed to salute Ethel and Sandra Church above,
and Patti Lupone, with Laura Benanti and Leigh Ann Larkin,
below in the 2008 revival.
Heads up: In the recording of Some People
(Ethel's original),
the voice that says "88 bucks? You ain't gettin' 88 cents from me, Rose!"
is that of Stephen Sondheim.
Can you imagine performing in front of a quintet like this?
Jerome Robbins, Stephen Sondheim, (the real, the actual)
Gypsy Rose Lee,
Arthur Laurents (book writer, overall book writing genius)
and Jules Styne.
Ethel did, and she probably ordered them around.
In 1973,
Angela Lansbury
with Zan Charisse (yes, Cyd Charisse's niece) and Rex Robbins
took a turn as Rose,
to pretty sublime reviews.
Jean Hagen as Lina Lamont
(Debbie Reynolds singing for her...yet in truth Debbie was dubbed!)
in Singin' in the Rain.
Jean's first successes were on radio shows
and Broadway (Swan Song, Another Part of the Forest, Ghosts),
but her film debut was in Adam's Rib, 1949,
with Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn.
Below...with Judy Holliday and Tom Ewell.
Jean's first starring role came a year later
in Asphalt Jungle with Sterling Hayden.
A 1952 flick with Jimmy Stewart,
Carbine Williams...
...and 3 seasons on the sitcom,
Make Room For Daddy.
Jean was nominated thrice for an Emmy for this show.
She left when she grew tired of the "same ole",
which incensed Danny Thomas so much,
he killed off the character!
Two seasons later (with ratings in the tank)
he "remarried"...Marjorie Lord.
Best known of course for her "tah tay tee toe too" performance
in Singin' In The Rain (an Academy Award nomination),
Jean died in 1977, at the age of 54,
from esophageal cancer.
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