R&H's "Cinderella" with Julie Andrews

Just watched this again on disk and find so many great elements in it. Julie is gorgeous, and in incredible voice. She was still doing "My Fair Lady" in Broadway at the time. Jon Cypher (later of "Hill Street Blues") is very hot as the Prince. Check out his butt in the ballroom number. Very tight pants and a bubble butt! DL favorites Kay Ballard and Alice Ghostley are divine as bitchy step-sisters Portia and Joy. Dorothy Stickney and Howard Lindsey are cute together as the Queen and King. I guess they did "Life with Father" on Broadway for a long time and were much beloved. Check out the male supporting cast. Not a str8 guy in the bunch. They must've got all available Broadway chorus boys to appear. And in those tight pants, you can see quite a few baskets. Daring for 1957! It is so much better than the 1965 remake with Leslie Anne Warren, and let's not even discuss the Whitney-Brandy disasterous 2nd remake! Can't believe the the R&H estate wouldn't release this for so many years. The quality isn't the best, but the performances more than make up for it!

• I can't believe they allowed the Whitney version. It was awful.

• It's really a shame that it wasn't filmed properly and in color.

• Like Angela Lansbury and Rosemary Clooney, Julie had a rather matronly look to her even though she was quite young. Isn't Cinderella supposed to be like sixteen?

• They used to show the Leslie Ann Warren one over and over, well into the 1970s.

• There's a big article on it over at BroadwayWorld today.

  http://broadwayworld.com/article/FLASH-SPECIAL-In-Her-Own-Little-Corner-A-CINDERELLA-Celebration-20130302

  Brandy

• r2, it was telecast in color. But because there was broadcast live, there was no way to preserve it except for kinescope, which was in black and white.

• I was 7 when they first broadcast the Leslie Ann Warren version. sigh The supporting cast was sensational: Jo Van Fleet as the stepmother, Celeste Holm as the Fairy Godmother, Walter Pidgeon and Ginger Rogers were the king and queen. I think soap opera actor Stuart Damon was the prince and Pat Carroll may have played one of the stepsisters. I do think that CBS broadcast it every year until the mid-70s. Leslie Ann Warren looks great for her age. That woman probably has a great tell-all to right

• There was no color TV in 1957. This is my favorite version, the colors in the LAW version are vulgar. I don't actually mind the Brandy version though Whitney Houston looks ghastly. The prince made up for it. Woof.

• You don't know what you're talking about, r8. The first national color broadcast was the Tournament of Roses parade on Jan 1, 1954. Color TVs were not the norm in the mid-late 50s, but they existed, and big spectaculars like Cinderella were often broadcast in color.

• "Not the norm" is putting it mildly. There were 9 color TV sets in America in 1954. Look it up!

• Of all the stepsisters, no one can touch Kaye Ballard and Alice Ghostley. They weren't wicked, just kind of bitchy. And after Cinderella got the Prince, they were content to be in-laws to the royal family. Better than getting their eyes pecked out by birds in the original fairy tale! But Alice and Kaye are so wonderfully campy, especially Kaye as Portia, the mantrap! And Alice's wig as Joy has a life of its own!

• It's perfectly fine, but as for being so much better than the Lesley Ann Warren remake, bite your tongue!

• Check out the DVD extras with interviews with Kaye Ballard and Jon Cypher.

• The Lesley Ann Warren remake is pitiful.

  Jon%20Peters

• The Julie Andrews version is my favorite though the scenery looks like it was rented from a nearby high school production. And special mention to Edith (Edie) Adams as The Fairy Godmother!

• Did Edie have to wear antennae?

  Vicky%20Clark

• It's interesting that the casting of the R&H Fairy Godmother has always been a glamour girl rather than a motherly character actress. What does the character look like in the Disney cartoon? I can't rememeber. Did Verna Felton do the voice?

• Celeste Holm was rather matronly in the remake. And yes Verna Felton voiced the FG in Disney 1950 film.

• Edith Adams was a glam FG. And she twirled that wand like a drum majorette!

• And of course, the current Fairy Godmother defines the word "matronly."

  Kelli%20O%27Hara

• Big gay boy in the wedding finale. Big smile until Kaye Ballard hits on him and he has this "oh no, dear" face. Cute.

• [R21] Big old gay boy on right

  http://i48.tinypic.com/34zm7p3.jpg[/IMG]

  Joy

• [R22] That's my Uncle Joey, the one we weren't supposed to talk about!