...and Mr. Merrill

 Bob Merrill, born May 17, 1921,

grew up in Philadelphia, but hitchhiked away to NYC

when he was 17, finding work changing titles on movie marquees.

Then he hitched to Hollywood,

played some bit parts in pictures

(The GI Joe Story, for one)

and then found work in radio, writing scripts and songs.

After a few attempts, he scored with hits like

 "If I Knew You Were Coming, I'd've Baked a Cake,"

"Mambo Italiano,"

and "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?"

Seventeen hits in just 3 years.

 Merrill's first shot at Broadway was

New Girl In Town, 1957 (above with Thelma Ritter who starred)

for which he wrote both the music and lyrics.

In 1959, it was Take Me Along,

below with Jackie Gleason.

Both shows (and Carnival! as well, in 1961)

were nominated for Best Musical,

but no win for Merrill...

 

 In 1964, it was time for Funny Girl,

which Bob collaborated with Jule Styne on

(above at the piano, with Babs and Bob).

So yes, it's his lyrics to the classics "People" 

and "Don't Rain On My Parade."

During this time, Merrill also assisted Jerry Herman on Hello, Dolly!,

writing both "Elegance" and "Motherhood."

 Bob wrote both the music and lyrics for 

the ill-fated Breakfast At Tiffany's,

above with Mary Tyler Moore and RIchard Chamberlain,

who look pretty ready to STAR!

David Merrick and his grandstanding shot all of their work down,

cancelling the opening at the last minute.

 

 Sugar came in 1972,

and another collaboration with Jule Styne.

Despite some lousy reviews,

its score was called "the last of the Golden Age of Broadway."

(Above Robert Morse, Elaine Joyce, and Tony Roberts.)

 Merrill never learned to read music.

''I'm no Tchaikovsky," he said.

"I can't read or write a note. 

I compose all my songs on this

 toy xylophone I bought at the five-and-ten for $1.98."

His work was simple, direct, filled with cliches,

and damned memorable.

 

 Bob turned to screenplays in later years,

including Mahogany with Diana Ross,

as well as the music for Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol.

He took his own life in 1974,

suffering from depression and other health issues.

He never received a Tony for his Broadway accomplishments. 

Mr. Berlin

 Irving Berlin was born Israel Isidore Beilin, on May 11, 1888, 

in Siberia, one of eight children of 

Moses and Lena Lipkin Beilin. 

They came to America when Irving was 5,

after watching their home burn to the ground 

after an assault by Cossacks. 

Perhaps that was the "inspiration" that brought 

about the creation of America's greatest songwriter of the day.

 (And yes, he joined the fight in the WWI, above, at the age of 30...

where the army knew just what to do with him:

write patriotic songs!)

His father passed away when Irving was 13,

so he took to the streets to help support his family.

He became a newspaper hawker, 

then started singing songs as he sold his papers.

Next stop...plugging songs and writing them,

and dubbed the Yiddishe Yankee Doodle.

From there, he became a Tin Pan Alley songwriter.

"Alexander's Ragtime Band," written in 1911,

became his first big break, and incited a national dance craze.

Above with Irving's second wife,

(his first, Dorothy Goetz, had died just 6 months after their marriage,

of typhoid fever),

Above, Ellin Mackay, an heiress, 

with a father dead-set against the marriage,

and Irving, just back from their honeymoon.

(Well, Irving at least is smiling!)

Ellin and Irving married in 1925 and remained together

until her death in 1988.

 

Above with Ginger and Fred, and below with 

Judy Garland and Louis B. Mayer,

having created Top Hat, Blue Skies, Holiday Inn,

White Christmas, Easter Parade, and more

for the screen.

His song "God Bless America"

was (according to his daughter)

a personal tribute to a country that allowed him to become

a successful songwriter.

It was written in 1918,

for a revue called "Yip Yip Yaphank!"

and was immortalized when recorded in 1938 by Kate Smith.

Above, he leads a phalanx of seamen in a chorus.

A trio you would NOT want to sit in judgement on your audition!

Rodgers, Berlin, and Hammerstein.
Yikes!

Ethel adored and trusted him.

When Jerome Kern passed away suddenly,

in the midst of writing Annie, Get Your Gun,

Irving came out of retirement to write the score.

It was 1946, he was 58; no time to retire, Irv!

A great shot of Irving, always it seems at the piano,

but backed here by Ginger Rodgers, Rosalind Russell, Dinah Shore,

and Yvette Mimieux.

Irving lived to be 101 years old. 

Son of a cantor,

immigrant resident of Cherry Street,

driven to become the composer/lyricist of 

large parts of the American Songbook.

Playlist for Sunday, May 15, 2016: For They're (Most) Jolly Good Fellas!

Birthday boys: Israel Isadore Beilin, Frederick Austerlitz, and Henry Robert Merrill Levan!  Wow. Let's hear it, in other words, for Irving Berlin, Fred Astaire, and Bob Merrill!  (Well, wouldn't YOU change your name if it could get you on a marquee? Hmmm...) Anyway, that's who were celebrating this Sunday. Irving, writer of over 1500 songs (words AND music), 19 Broadway shows, and a passel of Hollywood musicals. Fred, well, come on! He's Fred...though sister Adele was supposedly the talented one. (One can only imagine!) And Bob Merrill, who began writing popular songs, like "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?" ...and who thankfully graduated from those novelty ditties to music and lyrics for Broadway (New Girl In Town, the lyrics for Sugar, Take Me Along, Funny Girl, leaving the "doggies" forever). So there'll be cake and ice cream and noise makers (figuratively...I wonder how figurative cake tastes) on Sunday for these natal celebrators.

'Course we gotta throw in some Frank Loesser and his overlooked Most Happy Fella...(My Fair Lady playing "down the block" and sucking up audiences like some creature for some black lagoon made for that "overlooking") and some West Side (not UPPAH...LOWWA) Story and my favorite (how many does she have?) Women on the Verge. I identify.

But bring some birthday candles, okay? These Broadway Joes have been around for awhile, and we need hundreds. I'll take the battery outta the smoke detector.  :)
 

Overture (Instrumental, Annie Get Your Gun)
You Can't Get A Man With A Gun (Betty Hutton, Annie Get Your Gun)
They Say It's Wonderful (Judy Garland, Howard Keele, Annie Get Your Gun)
Blue Skies (Al Jolson, The Jazz Singer)
Sisters (Rosemary Clooney, White Christmas)
A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody (Ensemble, The Great Ziegfeld)
Isn't This A Lovely Day? (Fred Astaire, Top Hat)
We're A Couple Of Swells (Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Easter Parade)
I Guess I'll Have To Change My Plan (Jack Buchanan, Fred Astaire, The Band
        Wagon)
Got A Bran' New Suit (Nanette Fabray, Fred Astaire, The Band Wagon)
How Can You Believe Me When I Said I Love You When You Know I've Been A
        Liar All My Life (Jane Powell, Fred Astaire, Royal Wedding)
Penniless Bums (Robert Morse, Tony Roberts, Sugar)
Nothing Is New In New York (Ensemble, Breakfast At Tiffany's)
Quiet Coffee (Sally Kellerman, Breakfast At Tiffany's)
Yer My Friend, Ain't Cha? (Thelma Ritter, Cameron Prud'homme, New Girl In
        Town)
When You Meet A Man In Chicago (Sheila Smith, Ensemble, Sugar)
Take Me Along (Walter Pigeon, Jackie Gleason, Take Me Along)
Nine O'Clock (Robert Morse, Take Me Along)
But Yours (Jackie Gleason, Eileen Herlie, Take Me Along)
Sadie, Sadie (Barbra Streisand, Funny Girl)
I Want To Be Seen With You (Sydney Chaplin, Barbra Streisand, Funny Girl)
People (Barbra Streisand, Funny Girl)
The Jet Song (Michael Callan, Ensemble, West Side Story)
I Feel Pretty (Carol Lawrence, Ensemble, West Side Story)
Tonight (Larry Kert, Carol Lawrence, West Side Story)
The Most Happy Fella (Robert Weede, Ensemble, The Most Happy Fella)
I Like Ev'rybody (Shorty Long, Susan Johnson, The Most Happy Fella)
My Heart Is So Full Of You (Robert Weede, Jo Sullivan, The Most Happy Fella)
Abbondanza (Arthur Rubin, Rico Froehlick, John Henson, The Most Happy
         Fella)
Lovesick (Sherie Rene Scott, Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown)
Invisible (Patti Lupone, Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown)
Model Behavior (Laurie Benanti, Women On The verge Of A Nervous
         Breakdown)

And Along With Mom...

 Babs was 19...and received a Tony nom for her Broadway debut

in I Can Get It For You Wholesale.

Miss Marmelstein X 4! 

 Stubby Kaye and the whole town of Dogpatch

in Lil Abner...

Below William Lanteau as Available Jones,

"Edith" Adams as Daisy Mae and 

Charlotte Rae as Mamie Yokum.
Reviewers called the show a weird combination
of clever, satiric lyrics (a nod to Johnny Mercer)
 coming out of the mouths
of characters who weren't supposed to be all that clever.
Michael Kidd's direction and dances got most of the praise.
 

 I know Rochester native, John Lithgow,

is tall, but is Norbert Leo Butz really that short?

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, from 2004,
adapted from the 1988 movie
with Michael Caine and Steve Martin.

 Above Gregory Jbara, who played Andre (Lawrence's bodyguard)
in "Dirty"and Joanna Gleason, as Muriel...
 We'll hear Gregory's "Chimp In A Suit"

and "Oklahoma?"
sung by Sara Gettlefinger (below)
as Jolene.
(*Interesting side note: Sara played "Little Edie"
in the off-Broadway start up of Grey Gardens,
but was replaced by Erin Davie prior to the Broadway move!)

"The More We Dance"

with "Ruprecht" in a chair,

while John and Sherie Rene Scott (America's Soap Queen")

take to the dance floor.

Panned by reviewers

("vulgar"..."hokey"..."silly, but not in a good way")

but they loved it in London, and it's keeping a lot of actors at work

in touring companies.

Sunday (Broadway) Moms

 Our Salute to Moms this Sunday will include:

an outtake from Yankee Doodle Dandy, 1942,

sung by Jimmy Cagney (above with Joan Leslie),

"You Remind Me Of My Mother."

 From Minnie's Boys:

Daniel Fortus at left as Harpo,

and Shelley Winters as Minnie,

"Mama, A Rainbow" 

(the only song to "come out of" the show,

later recorded by Steve Lawrence and Jim Nabors).

 Elliot Gould and Lillian Roth 

in I Can Get It For You Wholesale...

2 wonderful mom songs here:
"Momma Momma Momma"

and

"Eat A Little Something."

 Ethel Merman

does the iconic Broadway MOM song,

"Rose's Turn" from Gypsy,

and "My Mother Would Love You"

from Panama Hattie.

 Carol Channing, Eileen Brennan,

and Sondra Lee (wearing the best socks? boots? in the world)

at the evidently very COLD recording session for Hello Dolly,

We'll here "Motherhood" 

sung by this trio.

 "Confession To A Park Avenue Mother"

is from Parade, an early Jerry Herman revue.

That's him on the left with Charles Nelson Reilly,

who appeared in several Herman shows.

 Marissa Jaret Winokur and Harvey Fierstein

in Hairpray!

"Mama, I'm A Big Girl Now."

A reclining Christine Ebersole 

and Mary Louise Wilson

in Grey Gardens.

A mom and daughter relationship for you and your shrink to discuss!

We'll hear "Will You?", "Peas In A Pod," and

"Around The World."

Playlist for Sunday, May 8, 2016: Be Good To Mama

It's Mother's Day, folks. Yup, coming up this Sunday...perfect timing for a 2 on the Aisle Salute to all those Broadway Moms out there. Broadway does a range of Moms: Staunch, Cloying, Jewish, Irish, Cross-Dressing, Over Bearing, and sometimes even Wonderful. We won't spend the entire show on Mom, and I'll feel appropriately guilty not doing that, but anymore and it would become TOO Mom. But if you are a Mom, or you have/had a Mom, or if you know a Mom, first CALL her, and then listen to the show. :)

We have also have a request for Lil Abner. Left to my own devices, I would probably never play or listen to Lil Abner ever again. I would try to burn it. But I TAKE REQUESTS, see? I listen when you talk, see? And I will play 3 numbers from that Gene DePaul/Johnny Mercer bagel...I mean, show, on Sunday, see? I can put on my big girl Broadway pants anytime I want!

Also littering this show is a fun little flop (Dirty Rotten), a few esoteric Sondheims (or it wouldn't be MY SHOW!)(Evening Primrose, Anyone Can Whistle), drinks on the house and the morning after those drinks on the house (The Wild Party, Take Me Along, Pump Boys), and my super favorite (Grey Gardens, just one more messed up mom/daughter relationship in case you needed something to talk to your shrink about).

So in the words of Baby June, "Send a dozen gardenias to your mother." Even if it's complicated.


When You're Good To Mama (Queen Latifah, Chicago)
Jubilation T. Cornpone (Stubby Kaye, Ensemble, Lil Abner)
Namely You (Edith Adams, Peter Palmer, Lil Abner)
The Country's In The Very Best Of Hands (Stubby Kaye, Peter Palmer, Lil
        Abner)
Motherhood (Carol Channing, Eileen Brennan, Hello Dolly)
Mama, A Rainbow (Daniel Fortus, Minnie's Boys)
My Mother Would Love You (Ethel Merman, Panama Hattie)
Rose's Turn (Ethel Merman, Gypsy)
Do I Hear A Waltz? (Elizabeth Allen, Do I Hear A Waltz?)
Everybody Says Don't (Harry Guardino, Anyone Can Whistle)
We're Gonna Be Alright (Stuart Damon, Do I Hear A Waltz?)
If You Can Find Me, I'm Here (Tony Perkins, Evening Primrose)
Tomorrow's Mother's Day (Sami Gayle, Emma Rowley, Gypsy)
Confession To A Park Avenue Mother (Charles Nelson Reilly, Parade)
Mama, I'm A Big Girl Now (Marissa Jaret Winokur, Harvey Fierstein,
        Hairspray)
Look Over There (Gene Barry, La Cage Aux Folles)
Momma, Momma, Momma (Elliot Gould, Lillian Roth, I Can Get It For You
        Wholesale)
You Remind Me Of My Mother (Jimmy Cagney, Yankee Doodle Dandy)
Will You? (Christine Ebersole, Grey Gardens)
Peas In A Pod (Christine Ebersole, Erin Davie, Grey Gardens)
Around The World (Christine Ebersole, Grey Gardens)
He's Not a Well Man (Barbra Streisand, Jack Kruschen, I Can Get It For You
        Wholesale)
The Way Things Are (Elliot Gould, I Can Get It For You Wholesale)
Eat A Little Something (Lillian Roth, I Can Get It For You Wholesale)
Miss Marmelstein (Barbra Streisand, I Can Get It For You Wholesale)
Drinkin' Shoes (Ensemble, Pump Boys And Dinettes)
Dry (Ensemble, The Wild Party)
Well, Did You Evah? (Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, High Society)
Little Green Snake (Jackie Gleason, Take Me Along)
The Movin' Uptown Blues (Adam Grupper, Stuart Zagnit, The Wild Party)
All About Ruprecht (John Lithgow, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels)
Oklahoma? (Sara Gettlefinger, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels)
Chimp In A Suit (Gregory Jbara, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels)
The More We Dance (John Lithgow, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels)

Our Broadway Blender...having blended, moves on.

 Fred Astaire and Leroy Daniels and A Shine On My Shoes...

an Arthur Schwartz/Howard Dietz tune lifted from

Flying Colors, a musical revue from 1932,

and placed in The Band Wagon, 1953.

Comden and Green wrote the screenplay,

and were the role models for 2 of the characters:

Lily and Lester Martin, played by Nanette Fabray and Oscar Levant. 

 It was all Mary's idea.

"Hey, what if I wash my hair 

ON STAGE EVERY NIGHT 

when I sing this Rodgers and Hammerstein song?"

Well, okay, if you REALLY want to, Mary.

South Pacific...2 thousand performances...and a lot of Breck.

 The 2008 revival of Gypsy...

rave reviews for Laura Benanti as Louise,

Patti LuPone as Mama Rose,

and Boyd Gaines as Herbie.

Laura turned out to be a hell of Gypsy Rose Lee.

 Rene Auberjonois and Gregg Edelman

in City Of Angels.

Buddy Fiddler, producer-director-tyrant, 

"guiding" our hero to screenplay success.

"Trust me, I've been thru de Mille!"

Betty Comden and Adolph Green

wrote the screenplay for Singin' In The Rain,

which had music from shows of the 1930s,

like Broadway Melody of 1936 and Sadie McKee.

But Comden and Green teamed up with Roger Edens

to write "Moses Supposes."

Cosmo Brown and Don Lockwood!