Hahaaa! We have a friend who is an actor in Canada with lots of celebrity stories. Evidently Yvonne De Carlo was quite a sport when she played Lily Munster, and was very down to earth and not at all snobby. But in her youth she was really considered a glamor girl.
It is fun to watch the evolving roles of actors, and actresses, over the years. Angela Lansbury of Murder She Wrote was quite a different gal in National Velvet. Well Elizabeth Taylor changed some, herself!😊
“But Not For Me” is one of my favorite Gershwin melodies. Linda Rondstadt sang it well, also, on her album of old standards that was made with Nelson Riddle.
Kathleen, she did indeed. I actually chose her version first, and had added it to the post. Then as I began to write, I decided on Judy Garland's version, from the film of the same name, and in a contemporaneous performance. Yvonne De Carlo I added for fun. I love Linda Rondstadt, and she and Nelson Riddle made a fabulous album of the standards.
It's a sad commentary on musicals ever since "A Chorus Line" that overtures have been almost entirely dropped from American musical theater. Turn the hands of the clock back to the days of the Gershwins, and Vaudeville had been transformed by the addition of classical musical elements such as the overture, which quickly came to be regarded not as fluff at all, but as an essential element of just about every musical made for the rest of the 20th Century. I wouldn't know what to DO at a musical with no overture. What a loss! I recall how much as a child I enjoyed the overtures to the big film musicals my father took me to see, particularly "The Sound of Music" and "Oliver." Ah, to go to the theater and see Gershwin conduct his own pit orchestra!!!!
All the "stars" really did align in that era for music and other popular entertainment, but for music in particular. What a loss that Gershwin died so young!
It is humorous, in a wry sort of way. Ira was a lyric genius, and even his sad songs are witty. And often we need to fall back on humor most when we are sad, don't you find?
You bet! I was blessed to have a father whose sense of humor was wry, mischievous, and enduring. When diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease he called it "death by inches," and was able to keep his sense of humor to the very end.
Good for him -- and I am sure he helped ease the pain for the family that way, too. I always told my college students that I regard the sense of humor as a strong indicator of intelligence. "And so," I'd say, "If you want me to know how smart you are, laugh at my jokes." And immediately three or four students would laugh, and then I KNEW who the smartest students in the class were! Hahaa!
When my father-in-law was living with the brain cancer which would soon take his life, a hospice worker asked him "How do you pass the time?". To which Charlie answered, "I swallow my watch."🥰
When asked, “How do you feel?”, my neighbor always answered, “With my hands”. Apropos of your Dad’s joke, this same neighbor once asked me if I’d ever heard about the cannibal who passed his friend in the forest”.
In one way the song is simply simple: it spans only a single octave. But somehow the sung version sounds vastly more difficult than that, doesn't it? In listening to Yvonne De Carlo's low voice, I noted that even starting that low, she had to "fake" the high notes. And yet she pulled it off. Sometimes the least "showy" tunes are the most elegant.
I have a CD of Gershwin overtures conducted by the late John McGlinn. McGlinn had a passion for this music and communicated that to the orchestra...they're obviously having a blast. I recognize this melody from the overture to Girl Crazy - thanks so much for the post.
Debra: Add to your list, the overtures to South Pacific, Music Man, and Oklahoma. Stunning synopses to set the mood and to anticipate.
All of the above, Jack. Only I didn't get see these with my dad, just on the TV screen.
Speaking of lilies! I see what you did there.🤣
Hahaaa! We have a friend who is an actor in Canada with lots of celebrity stories. Evidently Yvonne De Carlo was quite a sport when she played Lily Munster, and was very down to earth and not at all snobby. But in her youth she was really considered a glamor girl.
It is fun to watch the evolving roles of actors, and actresses, over the years. Angela Lansbury of Murder She Wrote was quite a different gal in National Velvet. Well Elizabeth Taylor changed some, herself!😊
“But Not For Me” is one of my favorite Gershwin melodies. Linda Rondstadt sang it well, also, on her album of old standards that was made with Nelson Riddle.
Kathleen, she did indeed. I actually chose her version first, and had added it to the post. Then as I began to write, I decided on Judy Garland's version, from the film of the same name, and in a contemporaneous performance. Yvonne De Carlo I added for fun. I love Linda Rondstadt, and she and Nelson Riddle made a fabulous album of the standards.
"Imagine being at the Alvin Theater......"
Debra: I did. Thank you.
And, with a smile on my face, I read through your list of incomparable artists who blossomed in the US during the '30s.
A memorable mix of Gershwin tunes was a highlight of the movie Mr. Holland's Opus.
It's a sad commentary on musicals ever since "A Chorus Line" that overtures have been almost entirely dropped from American musical theater. Turn the hands of the clock back to the days of the Gershwins, and Vaudeville had been transformed by the addition of classical musical elements such as the overture, which quickly came to be regarded not as fluff at all, but as an essential element of just about every musical made for the rest of the 20th Century. I wouldn't know what to DO at a musical with no overture. What a loss! I recall how much as a child I enjoyed the overtures to the big film musicals my father took me to see, particularly "The Sound of Music" and "Oliver." Ah, to go to the theater and see Gershwin conduct his own pit orchestra!!!!
All the "stars" really did align in that era for music and other popular entertainment, but for music in particular. What a loss that Gershwin died so young!
George and Ira were truly a match made in heaven. I can't think of any song of theirs that I don't love.
This particular song, even though it is melancholy, always puts just a hint of a smile on my face with the lines:
With love to lead the way
I found more skies of gray
Than any Russian play could guarantee.
I find this humorous:)
It is humorous, in a wry sort of way. Ira was a lyric genius, and even his sad songs are witty. And often we need to fall back on humor most when we are sad, don't you find?
You bet! I was blessed to have a father whose sense of humor was wry, mischievous, and enduring. When diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease he called it "death by inches," and was able to keep his sense of humor to the very end.
Good for him -- and I am sure he helped ease the pain for the family that way, too. I always told my college students that I regard the sense of humor as a strong indicator of intelligence. "And so," I'd say, "If you want me to know how smart you are, laugh at my jokes." And immediately three or four students would laugh, and then I KNEW who the smartest students in the class were! Hahaa!
When my father-in-law was living with the brain cancer which would soon take his life, a hospice worker asked him "How do you pass the time?". To which Charlie answered, "I swallow my watch."🥰
When asked, “How do you feel?”, my neighbor always answered, “With my hands”. Apropos of your Dad’s joke, this same neighbor once asked me if I’d ever heard about the cannibal who passed his friend in the forest”.
😂 People are SOMETHING!
Oh my goodness! My father and your father-in-law would have gotten along famously...or perhaps infamously would be the way to put it!! Hahahaha!
Debra, your descriptive phrase “elegantly simple” pays perfect tribute to this fine Gershwin song.
In one way the song is simply simple: it spans only a single octave. But somehow the sung version sounds vastly more difficult than that, doesn't it? In listening to Yvonne De Carlo's low voice, I noted that even starting that low, she had to "fake" the high notes. And yet she pulled it off. Sometimes the least "showy" tunes are the most elegant.
I have a CD of Gershwin overtures conducted by the late John McGlinn. McGlinn had a passion for this music and communicated that to the orchestra...they're obviously having a blast. I recognize this melody from the overture to Girl Crazy - thanks so much for the post.