Stanley Donen, who was still alive, is dead to me

He was fabulous in 1963's "Charade" where he played "Man in Elevator"

But he was even better in "Love is Better Than Ever" where he played "Man seated at table"

^ He was fucking Elizabeth Taylor then. He was director of some pretty iconic classic films.

He wasn't a bad looking guy when he was young.

Despite the quality of his films, he's still the guy who made that godawful gay film Staircase back in the late '60s.

From [italic]Singin’ in the Rain[/italic] to [italic]Blame it on Rio [/italic] in less than four decades. What a fall from grace.

Do not blame Stanley for [italic]Staircase[/italic]. Blame the source material.

Lol, R1.

I was surprised to find out the old cunt was still alive!

Does he get in memorium at the OSCARS, or do they wait until next year?

He could actually get the final shot.

R8 They generally do the memoriam for those who died in the year the Oscars are honoring, so they should actually wait until 2020 to do Donen's. However, I've noticed that if it's a really big name, they'll make an exception and do the tribute sooner. Donen may make the cut for this year's memoriam.

Was there rectally-inserted meth involved? It seems to be the way to go these days.

Stanley Donen receiving an honorary Oscar from Martin Scorsese.

Cher lived with his son Joshua Donen for a couple of years.

That’s a shame.™

[quote] Does he get in memorium at the OSCARS, or do they wait until next year?

That's you first response to this?

No R14. First I threw myself on my bed and sobbed as I hammered the pillows with my clenched fists.

Has Yvette Mimieux commented yet?

One of his former wives was actress Marion Marshall, who was also married to Robert Wagner between his marriages to Natalie Wood.

R5

The Broadway production directed by Barry Morse opened on January 10, 1968 at the Biltmore Theatre, where it played for 12 previews and 61 performances. It starred Eli Wallach and Milo O'Shea. O'Shea was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play.

His longtime companion at the time of his death was Elaine May.

He looks a little dubious here.

I liked Arabesque.

R.I.P.

He and Gene made such a hot couple. Projecting the thought of them together having more than just a creative and professional relationship.

Who’s that ugly cunt in the picture with Donen, Elaine May and Phil Donahue? I don’t know her.

Was there rectally-inserted meth involved? It seems to be the way to go these days.

—Anonymous reply 10

Meth wasn't involved, but he was found dead with Subway Tuna Sub in his hand. He may have died the other newly popular way.

I really enjoyed his movies.

Donen was obviously talented but i find his mid-career-and-on movies a bit crass and often unnecessarily coarse and a bit crude.

Lol, much better title than the other thread. Singin' in the Rain is one of my all time favorites. RIP.

"Charade" and "Two For the Road" are two of my favorite films.

R19, Elaine will now have to find another date for the Tony Awards in June.

I always confuse him with Sidney Lumet.

He croaked after reading the Audrey Hepburn thread concerning her wardrobe and hairstylng...

I always confuse him with Dory Schary. Don't know why.

Dore Schary

r31 So do I. Wasn't I married to him?

From Singing in the Rain to Blame it on Rio. Quite a range of films.

[quote] His longtime companion at the time of his death was Elaine May.

I did not know that.

At least Gene Kelly is still alive.

Elaine is now guaranteed the Tony

Was Stanley a homosexual?

Was I ever mean to him in my column?

What was his reputation like in Hollywood?

No one outside of Datalounge knows this guy.

R41, untrue. He was a legend.

But he didn't make the Oscar cut this year

R41 Anyone who knows about the golden age, knows who he is....he is legendary

Extraordinary that he was never nominated for a Best Director Oscar, not even for Singin' in the Rain, which is still considered the best film musical ever made.

Funny Face was cute.

I thank him for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

You know he hit Gene's bubblebutt at least once.

Was just reading some of Donen's comments on Kelly. That was definitely an odd relationship.

His musicals tended to be great, his non-musicals could be hit and miss. And like a lot of golden era directors who survived the 60s, he went out on some real clunkers - Saturn 3 as well as Blame It on Rio

I already knew, so fuck OP's "dead to me" bs.

Gene and Stanley despising each other to such a degree seems to be the outcome of a failed intense love affair. I assume it started during the Broadway run of the original production of Pal Joey. You can also see in photos Van Johnson in the chorus. What happened among these three can only be imagined. If only there had been a Broadway sex thread at the time.

Johnson is pretty snotty about Kelly without naming him in a Charlie Rose interview. You can also see Cyd Charisse at the table looking embarrassed.

I'd love to see that Charlie Rose interview, r52. Is it available anywhere?

R50 Blame It on Rio may not have been great but it exposed me to the airplane dancing scene in Flying Down to Rio

He was Jewish.

R53, why bother. If it's Rose, it'll be a mass of interruptions.

So Donen was married from 1948 - 51 to Jeanne Coyne, a dancer and choreographer who worked in some of his early films. In 1960 she married Kelly, with whom she had two kids. She died at 50 of cancer, in 1973.

whom?

Him whom

The late Albert Finney was in Donen's Two For The Road.

“For a time, Donen epitomized Hollywood style,” Tad Friend wrote in The New Yorker in 2003. Mr. Donen, he wrote, “made the world of champagne fountains and pillbox hats look enchanting, which is much harder than it sounds.”

Yeah, I was reading yesterday that the rift between Donen & Kelly stemmed from Kelly stealing Don's wife.

I didn't see Rose often when he was on PBS so it must have been a segment I came across on you tube. (Sometimes you happen upon them and it's not so easy to find them again.) Unusual for Rose there were a number of people talking about MGM. As I said it was just a segment so it wasn't the whole thing. Johnson was talking about the making of Brigadoon. I was kind of surprised by his attitude as he and Kelly went way back to Broadway together in the late 30s/early 40s and then both became big MGM stars. No affection whatsoever.

Kind of like when O'Conner talked about making Singing in the Rain and at one point threatening Kelly in front of the entire cast and crew to kick him in the balls if he continued to be such a jerk.

O'Connor was underrated. When he danced duets with Kelly, you watched him. From some angles he was really cute, imo.

Donald O'Connor was a chronic alcoholic. Debbie Reynolds wrote about it in her book.

I remember that Esther Williams savaged him in her book.

R65, Don't believe a word that bitch says.

Yes, R64. I have a feeling he was a very sensitive guy. Didn't he start as a kid in vaudeville?

But, Jeff R66, Esther was right. You WERE too big for polka dots.

R67, Yes he did, with Frances Gumm.

Here’s the Charlie Rose interview with Van Johnson, Cyd Charisse, Ann Miller and Skitch Henderson referred to above. Van's anecdote starts at around 17:12.

Thanks, R69, great recording. All deceased, except Charlie.

Charlie was very cute,,,

When young he was a handsome guys. Why attractive powerful men have to harass women must be nothing more than getting off on the abuse. Like wealthy people exploiting others to make more money they have no use for except to look at in their portfolios.

I wonder if Cyd got a glimpse of Charlie in his untethered robe.

I got to utter that fantastic line, "It's so quiet here that you could hear a fish fart!" in the one movie we did together.

Wasn’t there some sort of rumor about Donen and Gene Kelly rubbing sausages? Was it true, or was it just one of those intense bromance thing when two extremely talented people work together?

Anybody who knew the answer has taken it to the grave.

Such a great interview with Charlie Rose! It really doesn't even get going properly until Van's anecdote. Thanks for posting, r69.

Saturn 3!

Wiki says that Kelly might have been screwing Coyne when she was still married to Donen. Also that Donen was in love with Betsy Blair, who was Kelly's first wife. And that Donen felt Kelly was condescending to him. Oy.

I think Kelly himself termed what was going on as incestuous. Still think he's great though some find him insufferable on screen.

Boy, a lot of cheesy trash-talking about a brilliant, marvelously talented man who directed great movies. Pretty embarrassing, fellow homos.

He directed a few great movie but lost his way in the 60s. 'Bedazzled' starred a few comedians from British TV.

A lot of cheesy trash-talking should be added to pointless bitchery.

Cyd Charisse was Fred Astaire to Ann Miller's Gene Kelly.

We had a post without cheesy trash talking therefore I'd like to say that Gore Vidal slept with Fred Astaire, Noel Coward slept with James Cagney and Adele Astaire said that George Gershwin was not a heterosexual. ('If he was I would have known.')

B.S.

R69, thanks. Really enjoyed.

R86 you might want to read a few biographies instead of doing nothing but reading DL. Now if the authors are lying that's another thing.

Lay off the Darwin Porter, Blanche.

Funny that the day after he died, many people attending the Oscars wore pink.

Ha! These did not come from Darwin Porter but a bit more respectable biographers. I believe nothing Porter says though it would be fun to.

There is an apparently very reputable bio of Donen called DANCING ON THE CEILING, STANLEY DONEN AND HIS MOVIES by Stephen M. Silverman, published in 1996. It appears to have been done with Donen's approval and participation, as well as with his friends' and colleagues' input. Introduction by Audrey Hepburn! Can't remember if this would have been after Gene Kelly's death.

I haven't read it since it first appeared but I've pulled it out of the bookcase and maybe I'l have another look now.

I like Darwin Porter's books because they are so entertaining. I am currently reading his one on Kate Hepburn.

Darwin Porter? I know where I'd like to stick those damn calla lilies!

His book on her came out the year after she died, but he has a new book coming out on Kirk Douglas who is still alive, so I guess his claims will be more careful.

I have been able to find the day of his actual funeral. Anyone know?

Well....you do.....

[quote] I remember that Esther Williams savaged him in her book.

Oh Esther's just bitter because Fernando Lamas stretched out her pussy with his Argentian horsecock and then up and died on her

R92 Thanks. I'll have to track it down.

Raquel Welch Pays Tribute to Director Stanley Donen: "Are You Kidding? He's Legendary!"

Esther felt Stanley, Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra all ganged up on her when they filmed Take Me Out to the Ball Game. She couldn't keep up with the dancing, was too tall for her leading men and there was no swimming to rationalize her casting.

To think he once was actually hot enough to attract a young Elizabeth Taylor...

She's brutal on Gene Kelly in her book. She seems to have disliked him intensely. She makes it out that he and Donen really looked down on her because she had no talent except to swim.

She 's better than that. She's a charming actress and beautiful with enormous charisma. Very strong willed even in the lightest of her roles. I enjoy her a lot. I also saw her at the last MGM tribute at Carnegie just before all the last musical stars started dying off. At least enough to make a full length evening out of it. She was last and she brought down the house. Really great.

And what's really ironic is that Kelly introduces clips of her in I think the second That's Entertainment film and he positively gushes about how wonderful she was. She must have been fuming when she saw it.

R95, Will he mention my rape?

TCM Schedules Stanley Donen Tribute Night: Five Movies & Vintage Robert Osborne Interview Special

R95, Will he mention me?

The showqueen talking heads on the DVD of IT'S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER concur that Donen and Kelly fell out during the making of the movie, which was filmed late 54-early 55.

The movie is actually about war buddies who realize they despise each other after 10 years.

I like a lot of Donen movies but The Little Prince was really terrible. I wonder if it's as bad as I remember.

Well, we all have our share of clinkers--whether in our professional or our personal lives...

One of the aspects of that Charlie Rose interview at r69 that I find fascinating, and which is evidenced there, was how the MGM stars seemingly made a sort of non-disclosure pact when they signed their contracts long ago never to speak ill of the studio, its members and its product in public. They rarely seem to disagree about anything and always put on a positive attitude. They're like a secret society!

Of course, there's always the exception and, obviously, you can tell Van Johnson was pretty much over it all by then. I assume the others there knew he was gay?

[quote]You know he hit Gene's bubblebutt at least once.

Can't imagine Gene bottoming for anyone.

R111 He bottomed for me!

R84 needs some help constructing analogies.

Her SATs in 1962 probably suffered a bit.

Maybe the publishers think Kirk will croak this year, and are just waiting. He is 102, after all.

When I saw Donen introduce clips of his films during the Dance on Film series at the Walter Reade he might have mentioned Kelly once or twice during the entire evening though there were a number of clips of him dancing. It was pretty amazing. Like Kelly had nothing to do with his life except to appear in a few of his movies.

Lena Horne also loathed Kelly. Arthur Laurents mentions it in his autobiography but he doesn't give her reason why.

Kelly also treated Dan Dailey like shit during the making of IT'S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER.

Interesting that they despised Kelly but accepted invitations to his weekly parties. I guess it was important to be seen there no matter how they felt.

Did Gene realize how many people disliked him?

Has anyone checked on our dear Livvie? He's been dead for almost a week and haven't heard a peep from her.

Also, has Susan Dey commented yet?

I remember Esther's comments about Donen and Kelly. They were really nasty to her during the filming of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". She told the story about how she had just bought a new car and the 2 guys ran outside, running around the car "Ooooh LOOK. It's a new car!!" Trivial, juvenile nasty shit.

I may like many of Donen's movies, but every time I see his name mentioned, I remember that story and see him as a jerk.

As for talking about MGM, I remember seeing Esther on a panel with other MGM female stars and June Allyson was going on about "Papa" Mayer and Esther interrupted and said, "Oh, June, those guys were just like gangsters. Only with better suits."

No bullshit from Esther on that topic.

Does anyone know the reason Esther refused to take part in any of the publicity surrounding the original That's Entertainment?

Can't remember the details but obviously she held onto a lot of anger about MGM after she left the studio and never soft-peddled it. Maybe there's no further answer to my question than that.

[quote]Does anyone know the reason Esther refused to take part in any of the publicity surrounding the original That's Entertainment?

"She was ... embroiled in a fight with the studio, believing she should be paid extra for the scenes inserted into That's Entertainment."

James Bawden, You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet: Interviews with Stars from Hollywood's Golden Era

R110, By 1997, Van Johnson was extremely deaf and headed toward blindness. On a Sally Jessy Raphael Show that paid tribute to Ginger Rogers in 1991, Van was on and made a nuisance, having to have every question repeated and shouted and trailing off topic. Sally finally had him removed during a commercial break.

R123, I'm sure she was being urged to do so at home by Fernando.

R119, Gene received a dose of Karma near the end when his much younger wife regularly visited him in the hospital accompanied by her new boyfriend.

And a dose of chlamydia.

R113 "Dolores Gray's" real name was Sylvia Finkelstein.

Who is this Florida woman?

Andre Previn in the same month.

Except for Jane Powell and Ann Blyth(both born in the 20s) those who contributed so much to the MGM musicals are all gone.

Prick Donen did everything he could to undermine and excise Michael Kidd's contributions to IT'S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER (55).

I'm still here!

And me!!!!

Abba dabba honeymooooooon........

I stand corrected! And if you want to add the very wonderful Tommy Rall I guess that's ok though he was horribly underused and a far better dancer than Fosse.

And there's always Angela Lansbury who co-starred in a few MGM musicals, including The Harvey Girls .

And Marsha Hunt who's the only surviving star of MGM's famous 20th anniversary group photo though I'm not sure if she ever appeared in any of their musicals.

I always thought it was Kelly who undermined Kidd in IAFW.

Debbie Reynolds had unkind things to say about Donen in her interview with Osborne. And in Williams' book Esther talks about being in a meeting with Dory Scary who had taken MGM from Mayer to discuss the director for her upcoming film and when he suggested Donen who wanted to do it very much(her films were an assured success) she gave an adamant no. Turns out Donen had been hiding behind curtains in the room and came from behind them and tried to convince her. She was understandably appalled. Shameless ambition.

When Donen lived in London people who knew him joked that the changing of the staff was more frequent than the changing of the Buckingham Palace guards.

Patricia Kelly having an affair I believe- but with a man? That dyke has been in more pussies than a case of cat food.

Kelly's first wife Btsy Blair rips Kelly's last wife a big one in her autobio accusing her of using a feeble old man to steal his money and Blair's and Kelly's daughter of her rightful inheritance.

R138, His last wife was openly fucking her new boyfriend while Kelly was bedridden and dying.

Bacall did likewise with Sinatra while a dying Bogart was bedridden at home.

R139 that stuff is hard to read. They play the widows so well.

Patricia Ward is a cunt. Her Evening With Gene show is nothing but bullshit.

Wasn't Fred Astaire's last wife also an awful cunt?

What's with these hoofers and their desperate attempts at a happy marriage?

R142, Fred's wife Phyllis never allowed him to kiss Ginger on film.

I've read a lot about Hollywood, and I STILL don't know: WAS Fred Astaire gay? He was certainly a sexless heterosexual in his many movie roles (and I know he was married to a woman and had kids, blah-blah-blah)...I once read that he sighed that he was now "just an old queen" when filming "Funny Face." But is there PROOF? Data Lounge, SPILL!!!!

Fred is one of many geriatric leading men that studios hired to make Audrey seem younger and more waif-like in comparison on screen.

No, no, R145 It was Edward Everett Horton and Jack Buchanan that the studios hired to make Astaire seem less geriatric and more masculine.

When Astaire took up with that young jockey his sister Adele to whom he was very close and who was known as a wildcat in the halcyon 20s was appalled and never quite got over it. I guess she saw that he was being a desperate old fool and her relationship with him would never be the same again. These young partners do what they can to cut off old ties to get as much of the estate as possible. And the elderly people needing someone to take care of not only their physical but their emotional needs as well let them. It's a case of use me if you want and take my money, I've got nothing else left.

R136 - I think Esther was making that up about Donen hiding behind a curtain. It sounds like Hamlet! Plus Dore Schary wouldn't have curtains in his office as that would be too bourgeois.

But I could be wrong.

Another Dore pic.

Why would anyone think Schary's office wouldn't have curtains? They were pretty customary back then in any sort of luxurious, well-appointed room.

A lot in Williams book seems made up but this is Hollywood after all so who knows?

R69 That 4 way conversation was interesting but also a bit of a mess (I suspect that all of them were myopic but were told NOT to wear their glasses).

Ann Miller says (at 15) that Donen was innovative in that he used 3 cameras simultaneously on the dance numbers.

And Van Johnson must have been blind because the host (at 17.18) say I will "hit you when I want you to speak.

Van Johnson was hard of hearing, and despite hearing aids, still had trouble hearing. I think that’s why he didn’t engage much in the back and forth with the others, and spoke loudly when he was given a chance.

I hate those stupid interviews when they precede it with lots of film clips. Get on with it! If I'm watching an interview with Ann Miller, Cyd Charisse and Van Johnson, I saw as hell know the M-G-M musicals.

In terms of using 3 cameras to film a dance number, I would think that would have been more of a financial decision than an artistic innovation. Surely someone would have thought of trying this years before Stanley Donen did?

Does anyone here know?

Didn't Busby Berkeley use multiple cameras, especially overheads?

R122 because she knew that in comparison to real entertainers like Garland, Astaire, Charisse and Kelly, she looked like shit.

R148 Esther was a notorious liar.

She took part in TE lll as did Lena Horne. The two of them seemed bitter towards their days at the studio and finally were persuaded to take part. Interesting all the people who were still alive but were never included. And yet Peter Lawford was in the first one. Charming and handsome in the few he did but in no way a MGM musical star. I never like the first one because the internal cuts of the numbers were done so poorly yet no one seemed to notice including the critics and it was a huge success.

Anyone remember if Astaire's Limehouse Blues fan dance, with Lucille Bremer, is in any TE? It would have to be trimmed, at about 12 minutes. It's amazing.

The whole point of TE was that that the numbers were presented complete in the correct aspect ratio.

Even the "cut" numbers like Judy's "Mr. Monotony" in EASTER PARADE were trimmed in TE III. It was very frustrating.

Last night I watched Donen's "Movie Movie" (1978), which I hadn't seen in decades. It's hit or miss, but there are some cute bits, and Harry Hamlin is drop-dead beautiful.

No in the first the numbers were badly chopped up. But you are right about the aspect ratio. It was amazing that since the film was shown in wide screen even the cinemascope clips which were wider than the contemporary wide screen were shown in correct ratio with bars at the top and bottom of the screen. You saw twice as much of what you would have seen on TV at the time.

I had always assumed that Donen was gay-adjacent or closeted because of 'Staircase'.

But isn't there any more to back up that assumption?

You can't be straight and direct a movie with gay content?

No, but it helps.

I did OK.

I assumed he was gay because all the men in the Freed unit were except for Freed. Like David Merrick he wanted gays working for him.

How can you direct Seven Brides and Funny Face without being gay? Mary! films if there ever were any.

Does anyone know if that wonderful sequence from TE III exists online.....it begins with Tony Martin singing "You Stepped Out of a Dream" with Lana, Hedy and Judy from Ziegfeld Girl but moves into a beautiful montage of all of MGM's leading ladies (even the non-musical stars)?

I've always loved it but can't find it anywhere.

Peter Lawford may not have had much musical talent but he nevertheless starred in some of MGM's biggest musical hits, including Good News, Easter Parade, Royal Wedding, It Happened in Brooklyn, On an Island with You and a couple of others. And I thought he did a perfectly nice job as one of the hosts of TE I.

I agree with all you've said and Good News is one of my favorite films. Very handsome and a real charmer as a singer and dancer. Still there were many MGM stars around in the early 70s who had a stronger tie to MGM musicals.

R69, R153 That interview was difficult to watch because the participants were losing their faculties but also the interviewer seemed so inept.

The interviewer was painfully inept trying to last a whole hour with Dame Maggie.

You can see she's bored, embarrassed and disdainful of his gushing, cliched, over-emotional, American ignorance.

Charlid Rose is one of the guys who lost their shows due to harrassment allegations. Always interrupted guests

R171 I think if you search for the song title, and "Ziegfeld girl," you'll find it on YouTube. I love that number too. That song plus Hedy's face is stunning. At the very end, when the camera pulls back, Hedy shifts position and makes a little wobble.

Charlie didn't know who Hermes Pan was. Outrageous!

Philistine!

R176 The transcript interview refers to 'Arthur Fried' (sic).

Well, Arthur WAS known to tipple.

Thanks, r175 but searches for You Stepped Out of a Dream always lead to the number from Ziegfeld Girl not the montage that was done for it in TE III.

But I'm not great on the internet so I'd be the first to admit my searching capabilities are sub-par.

He didn't know Hermes Pan? He never saw Ross Hunter's Lost Horizon?

Charlie Rose was a very well respected PBS interviewer for many years who always had interesting guests. I don't know why really as has been noted he interrupted his guests a lot and I found no matter who he had on he became tiresome very fast. Then he was also on some major network morning news/entertainment show.

I have to say though his downfall was a real crash and burn and I was very surprised.

Gene, Light in the Loafers Kelly.

Donen hired homosexual actors Noel Coward and Bobby Flemyng as well as camp comedienne Kay Kendall.

There must be others I don't know about. Half of those dancing chorus boys must have been gay.

Gay chorus boys?

In that interview Van Johnson appears to be signalling that he is gay when he talks about going home to his wife.

R186 I didn't get that signal. In fact I never had an inkling that this person might be gay until I came to DL.

I can now see that Wiki includes some anecdotes but did he ever do ANYTHING gay-ish on screen?

My mother would have been so disappointed to learn Van Johnson was gay; she had a crush on him as a teenager. He's the one with the red socks, right?

On YouTube I came across an interview he did with Letterman when appearing in Cage aux Folles. Queen for a Day, red socks, set on promoting his show. Davd was a bit nonplussed.

Yes for some reason he used red socks as a trademark. He was never my type but he could be charming. He's sensational in his one musical number with Lucille Bremer(I'd go straight for her...) in Till the Crowds Roll By. Boy do I want that in bluray. A great string of Kern songs wonderfully done in gorgeous 40s Technicolor.

Waaaaaay back in 1970 I was a young apprentice at a summer stock theater in New England and Van came in for a week to do the play Boeing, Boeing. He chatted me up backstage a lot (no doubt recognizing a kindred spirit) but was always sweet and polite. And he wore red socks every day.

He's also not bad in The Last Time I Saw Paris one of those Liz at her most beautiful 50s movies.

He spoke warmly of Liz on Letterman. Said she made lots of anonymous donations.

R190 she really was a damn good dancer. Some claimed her affair with Freed got her parts, but she could move. You've probably seen her with Astaire in Limehouse Blues, which imo is underknown.

Van had known Liz since she was a tween at MGM. Theirs was a lifelong friendship.

In the late 1980s

Yes to Limehouse Blues and I love the way over the top Tony Duquette designed This Heart of Mine. She dances beautifully in that as well and it has great choreography utilizing the revolving disc and moving walkways. A wonderful talent. So what if she was Freed's mistress? She had the goods. Garland's snotty comments (and I love Judy)were probably because Bremer was such a beauty. And they work extremely well together in the two movies they did.

Coffee Time from Yolanda and the Thief is one of the great MGM musical numbers and never made it into any of the TE films. The yellow dress should be iconic but few people know the number. I think it was Sharaff.

Van spent his final days in a nursing home, blind and deaf.

That's so sad.

Van was a friend of Joan Crawford and memorably described Christina as "that viper".

YELLOW was a favorite color on MGM's Freed Unit ladies.

Check out Judy singing Who? in 'Til the Clouds Roll By, directed by hubby Vincente Minnelli and 3 months pregnant with baby Liza.

FWIW, [italic]Till the Clouds Roll By[/italic] is currently included with Amazon Prime. I have it on now. I avoided it because I loathe June Allyson, but this thread has me nostalgic for musicals.

June Allyson was a nymphomaniac.

Well I do like the 2 numbers she's in. Cleopaterer is a funny Broadway song. But she's easy to avoid, you just skip her two number. One she doesn't sing in and you get the cute Ray McDonald. The story is a trial but the musical numbers are superb. And god help me though most people think it's a joke I love Sinatra's Old Man River with that amazing ending pullback of the entire set as some sort of MGM heaven as a Minnelli/Freed wet dream.

Have you seen Stanley's Private Screenings interview? He claims he was a not a good dancer but if so how could he get hired by M-G-M then as one?

Till the Clouds Roll By and Words and Music are both unwatchable except for the incredible musical numbers.

I love Perry Como singing Mountain Greenery in Words and Music. Was he ever seriously considered an MGM star?

His Blue Room is so beautiful. The way he sustains that gorgeous slowly unfolding Rodgers melody is stunning.He seems to have concentrated on recordings, radio and television. He needed to be goosed but I guess he became so big nobody dared to. The SCTV parody is spot on. Too bad because he could have been one of the greats.

When you see him dance briefly in Best Foot Forward he's so bad it's a very good question. I would assume it was Kelly dragging him everywhere that allowed him to hold on until he came into his own. Had he not had Kelly as his champion he might not have been able to keep at it. Through bad luck and limited opportunities so many talented people are lost along the way.

Did Donen come to Hollywood originally with the hope of performing? I just assumed he was always interested in behind the camera work and followed Kelly to Hollywood with that in mind.

He said he went to M-G-M as a dancer, and his first chance of directing was when Kelly went to Columbia for Cover Girl where Donen staged the Alter Ego dance. sequence,

R208 in the DL thread about handsome/talented male singers, someone posted a 1943 film clip of Perry singing with a band for a radio show. Quite a voice and face. Did he have a nose job?

In Words and Music, a fiction film that I quite enjoy, Perry starts out in the role of a friend of Rodgers and Hart. Then at the end, at the tribute, he's announced as Perry Como. Some kind of fourth-wall breaking, imo.

Allyson is terrific in Thou Swell.

Perry starts out as Eddie Lorrison Anders!

I hate the ending of Words and Music. Como starts singing beautifully With a Song in My Heart. Then they break into it with a montage of clips from musical numbers we've already seen destroying it. I'm sure he recorded it in its entirety but I've never seen or heard it anywhere so I guess it was tossed. It would have been so more effective and moving an ending if they had allowed him to sing the whole thing. He was a looker with a voice of gold.

For R214.

With A Song in My Heart - Perry Como

Thanks for that Garland clip, r201, in that 1948 arrangement of a 1925 Jerome Kern/Otto Harbach/Oscar Hammerstein song.

As usual, she is mesmerizing, and she wan't kidding that Metro worked her ass off, even pregnant.

"Who, stole my heart away

Who, makes me dream all day

Dreams I know can never come true

Seems as though I'll ever be blue..."

I'm not at all a Tony Martin fan yet even he's mesmerizing in All the Things You Are. I don't even think there's one cut. The camera just shoots him straight on with little movement. And then it's followed up by two more slow songs shot straight on. Could you imagine a general audience sitting through that today? Unbelievable.

Funny about Tony Martin that he was never developed into much of a leading man at MGM for their musicals, in spite of the fact that he was a great singer and quite the looker. There was a gap there in the 1940s between Nelson Eddy and Howard Keel that was never quite filled.

Same with Perry Como, though I wonder if in his case, he just wasn't interested in acting.

It was as if MGM had just been waiting for Keel. Martin got shut out of Showboat along with Horne though Grayson seems to have passed her Till the Clouds Roll By audition. He started getting larger roles just when the MGM musical cycle of that period was ending in Easy to Love and Hit the Deck.

I love Ann Sothern's Where's That Rainbow in WAM, starting with the garish color. Anyone else notice that strange break in the music toward the end of her number when there's a cut to Rooney watching the show at the back of the theater? A very abrupt and rushed transition to the number's ending.

Isn't Ann Sothern in another one of those MGM bright yellow dresses in that great number, r220?

I love it, too, btw.

R218, Perry Como was finished at MGM when he sang a version of Bye, Bye Blackbird to Louis B. Mayer at an event, with anti-Semitic lyrics.

Perry Como is one of the most underrated singers of the 20th century. He made a three films for Fox before going to MGM for "Words And Music". He really wasn't interested in acting.

Tony Martin started out at Fox in the late '30s. He had a brief marriage to Alice Faye and didn't make much of an impression in the films he was cast in, and was dropped by the studio (and Faye), then made a "B" at Columbia with a pre-stardom Rita Hayworth before going to MGM in 1941.

r222: Liz Taylor claims that Perry was out at MGM (and got briefly blacklisted) after he attended one of L.B. Mayer's birthday parties and singing "Happy Birthday L.B. and FUCK YOU".

Actually, he sang Bye, Bye Jewbird to LBM.

[quote]June Allyson was a nymphomaniac.

No wonder she ended up in diapers.

Fascinating about Perry Como. I had no idea! He was such a HUGE TV star in the 1950s and I'd watch him as a little kid with my grandma who just loved him.

Is there a good bio about him?

Esther Williams selected the girls in her musical numbers on the basis of their reactions to her submarine cunnilingus.

As I said watch the SCTV take off of Como on youtube. He started out with a great voice with some energy and then slid into a Lawrence Welk easy listening groove. He got too comfortable and lazy. No matter what you thought of Sinatra he was often challenging himself and giving 100% to the end of his career. He went on too long but that sometimes happens.

I love Como's voice and he was a handsome man but as an artist there was a lot to be desired. Too bad because he had so much to give.

That's an extremely astute observation , r229.

One thing I've always liked about Como is he was very private about his off-stage life. He married his high-school sweetheart and had a bunch of kids but you never heard anything about them. He started out as a barber and always said if he ever got tired of singing he could always go back to cutting hair.

I agree about Como great voice, but did he ever really sing challenging material? Most of his big hits verged on 1950s novelty songs like Hot Diggety Dog Ziggety, Catch a Falling Star, Papa Loves Mambo, Magic Moments, Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes, etc.

He was kind of the male version of Patti Page, no?

Eugene Levy was so good as somnolent Perry in the SCTV spoof.

Before he entered show business, Perry Como was a professional barber.

As was Frankie Valli.

When Burt Reynolds was on the Tonight Show talking about his then very young son, he mentioned Perry Como giving his son his first haircut.

Perry Como had some later hits as well: "It's Impossible" in 1970; and "And I Love You So" in 1973.

And "Seattle," the theme song from "Here Come the Brides," which made the Top 40.

I love that Perry Como is discussed on DL.

Tony Martin lived to be 98!

TCM and is showing the Robert Osborne interview with Stanley Donen is on now, for anyone interested.

R240 Please tell us if he says anything new.

Well maybe this time Osborne will pursue Donen's relationship with Kelly further. Were the two really Broadway lovers and Gene wanted Stanley with him in LA? Did personal ambition destroy their love? Were all those wives merely red carpet wives?

^ Yes, I still hold on to my secret assertion that Stanley was a closet.

I think he was a chiffonier.

I think he was a Chesterfield.

He was a Tallboy.

Well, they're both in coffins now...

Their work lives on. At least with the over 80 crowd.

How could someone who had such good taste become so degraded in his latter years? He did that foul, teenage-minded sex-comedy called 'Blame it on Rio' with ugly Morris Micklewhite and some unknown females showing their boobies.

When you've made your masterpieces, get back to us.