Lauren Bacall in “Applause” telecast

Forgot to post link

Was the telecast sponsored by High Point coffee?

Full show on YouTube

I remember seeing this - honestly, I didn't like it. But then, I was pretty young. I had already seen and loved All About Eve, though. I often wonder how Lauren Bacall, who had no musical talent and very little acting talent, headlined several Broadway plays/shows.

Why does TV from that era always look so technically bad now? It wasn't, then. How has it deteriorated so much? I wonder if young people think it really looked/sounded like that?

An animated Bacall...

[Quote] Why does TV from that era always look so technically bad now? It wasn't, then. How has it deteriorated so much? I wonder if young people think it really looked/sounded like that?

Someone with an early VCR probably taped it off the TV and it has been copied many times over, with the associated deterioration expected of such a practice.

That's just a bad copy, r4. There used to be a good one on Youtube.

I remember reading that this was the London cast but nobody was bringing Ed O'Neill across the ocean, surely.

I remember that most of Duane's role was severely cut.

"I feel groggy and weary and tragic,

punchy and bleary and fresh out of magic,

but alive, but alive, but ALIIIIIIVE!"

Had they used the song from Applause in her High Point commercials, the world would be a happier, gayer place now.

Dusty Springfield used it as her opening number in concert for a time.

It interesting to hear a real singer do Bacall's numbers.

Comden and Green really went downhill in the 70s, didn't they? Oh wait, never mind, I see here they only wrote the book, not the lyrics. Didn't sound like them.

Did anyone here see Applause or Woman of The Year on Broadway?

Woman of the Year, but with Raquel Welch.

R15 how was Raquel?

Busty

Was Bacall really that big of a bitch in person?

Flavah!

Jesus Christ R1 if you'd waited five seconds after that clip ended you'd have a better one.

An animated Bonnie Franklin

R11 Wow, that's a nice rarity, thanks.

I was impressed with Bacall's dancing, she was light on her feet.

What I have heard about Lauren Bacall is that she was not at all inept as an actress, but was inflexible.....meaning, that no matter what the other actors did or what the audience did, her performance never varied - every cue, everything that was blocked was performed in exactly the same way at exactly the same time. In some ways, that's admirable. In other ways, that would be horrible. Imagine having practiced waiting for the audience to laugh and if it didn't, still waiting 5 beats to say your next line. I think she relied upon her very distinct voice, her very distinct diction, and her very chiseled looks to achieve a fair degree of success, but she probably didn't have the "true" actor's excitement about interaction with costars and with the audience energy.

Can someone please post the full show "Never Say Never"?

R24, unfortunately the full show of Never Say Never isn’t available on YouTube, just select clips:

Let's give Miss Fuller her due...

OP / R1 That was actually fun

Sharts, Not Diamonds

Bette Davis visited Bacall backstage to congratulate her on her performance in Applause. Davis told Bacall, "You're the only one who could have played the part.”

That Baxter dame...

R2 she seems over=caffeinated

I've always been so happy that the original show was preserved in some form but the TV version didn't touch how good and how much fun it was in the theater. A few observations:

It's abridged and it hurts.

Larry Hagman was OK but not more than that.

The show itself is much more different from the film than what its creators intended. They started writing it assuming they could get the stage rights to the film but Fox turned them down. Instead they had to settle for the rights to the magazine story the film was based on which is somewhat different. Anything that was unique to the film version, new characters, dialog, etc. was off limits. That's why there's no Birdie but a new character, gay Duane, for example. Finally, just 3 or 4 weeks before the Broadway opening, they did acquire the rights to the screenplay, but it was too late to make major changes to the show. It only allowed them to insert some of the film's famous one liners like "Fasten your seatbelts...."

I think I had a bigger point to make but I'm falling asleep. Sorry. Good night.

^ Oh. one more quick thing. Onstage, as soon as they entered the gay bar, you saw "GAY POWER" spelled out in separate letters on the back wall. It was pretty daring at the time. On TV, shot to shot, you saw individual letters but you never saw them all together at the same time.

R32, I noticed the letters in the tv version but they didn’t seem coherent. That’s pretty cool that the letters spelled out what it did for the stage show though

Where does Ed O'Neill fit into all of this?

He's in the gay bar scene.

R30 Was Anne Baxter any better than Bacall in that role? Hopefully, some eldergays can answer that question.

R37 I can’t imagine anyone else but Bacall in the role

I could imagine Dolores Gray in the role, though I doubt she'd have consented to carry a chorus boy.

Which guy, R36? The leatherman?

Yes.

3:14.

It was hard to see his face but that's who I thought it was. Thx.

Every time I see this word I read it as Applesauce, but I have dyslexic tendencies.

R44 = Hank "Hey Now!" Kingsley

Remember when she murdered the beautiful Michael Biehn?

R11 I adore Dusty's cover, her voice and phrasing is just wonderful. Worth a listen if only for the spot-on Ethel Merman impression tucked in there, along with references to Princess Margaret, Larry Grayson, Ann Miller, and being "gay as Godzilla."

R18, "Was Bacall really that big of a bitch in person?"

Yes.

There was a famous story that went around about Bacall at the time. In one version, she enters the elevator that took her to her dressing room and scrawled on the back wall is "The Beast of Broadway." In the other, she enters her dressing room and it's written on her mirror.

Baxter's Welcome...

I did not know Baxter played the part. That’s some great stunt casting.

I wanted to see Meredith Baxter Birney do APPLAUSE!

R52 hey now! I like it!

Anybody see Stef?

Zimbalist?

Powers?

It's on the photo.

Graf?

R20 Sad. All those sweet boys, in real life they’d have been dead in about 10 years, in real life, they probably were.

OMG, that really is Ed O'Neill! I did a couple of plays with him in 1980 and 1984, before Married With Children and he was a big great big sexy lug. Much sexier than he looks here in that awful black wig.

Does he have "I lifted Bacall" on his resume, r60?

One of the few nice things I've read about her was in Marion Ross's autobiography - she was playing a maid in the live TV version of Blithe Spirit that Bacall was in with Noel Coward and Claudette Colbert. They rehearsed at Bogart & Bacall's home, and MR said Bacall was quite nice and friendly to her, but Colbert wasn't.

Baxter and Fuller look great together. Any pics of Ma Apple in the role?

Bernadette forever won my heart with this...

^oops

Who is Steve Martin with these days?

R66 I’m assuming Selena Gomez?

[quote]I often wonder how Lauren Bacall, who had no musical talent and very little acting talent, headlined several Broadway plays/shows.

She actually got better with practice and could be quite good when she chose to be. She also had a great deal of charisma and knew how to make an entrance or just stand there so the audience could look at her.

I saw "Woman of the Year", once in previews and once months later. The first time she was pretty dazzling. The second time she had gained about fifteen pounds and sort of marked the show, but was still entertaining.

[quote]knew how to make an entrance or just stand there so the audience could look at her.

But is it acting?

[quote]But is it acting?

No, it was Broadway.

R70 I probably haven't seen as many Broadway shows as you but I still prefer talent to posing.

R71, et al, I hate to sound like Norma Desmond, but we had stars on Broadway then. Stars had an energy that went from the footlights to the back row of the top balcony. I think the university training system has killed this. Bacall commanded not just the stage, but the entire theater. Yes, she was not much of a singer or dancer, and her acting range was limited, but when she was on stage, you could not take your eyes off her.

Oddly, the last person that I saw who had this quality was Joanne Worely. I saw her in the awful "Prince of Central Park". The play sucked but she lit up the stage.

Not all old-timers have this quality, Liza and Raquel Welch do not.

[Quote] But is it acting?

No, it's bone structure.

Having the right bone structure can really hold up a face for life.

Jo Anne Worley

I was at Gary Owens’s memorial a few years ago and Joanne was there. She looked exactly the same as I remember her when I was a kid in the 60s.

Jo Ann Worley has more stage presence than Liza Minnelli?

R77, yes. I have seen Liza on stage several times. She is great performer in a Las Vegas kind of way, but she does not have the charisma of some of the stars. I never saw her, but I bet Judy Garland had it. Seriously, it could be that Liza's energy comes from coke, not from within. You really have to experience it to understand it.

R39, that's Sammy Williams in Bacall's arms.

I'm picturing Sammy as Ed O'Neill, r79.

I love the fantasy that some are selling here that Ed O'Neill left football and within a year became a broadway chorus boy.

Betty Lynn gained a Broadway contract within a day of arriving in New York.

Christopher Walken was a Broadway chorus boy.

R82 She had contacts before she arrived.

Tom Cruise became a movie star mighty quick...

I don't know if this is how it was on Broadway, but the letters actually spell "AgY Power" with the "G" between the "A" and the "Y", far enough above the "A" and the "Y" to be out of the shot most of the time. Also the "G" is half the size of the "A" and the "Y" I suspect it like the Gay couples in the movie "Last Dance". Gays would see what they wanted to see and straights would be oblivious.

[quote] I have seen Liza on stage several times. She is great performer in a Las Vegas kind of way, but she does not have the charisma of some of the stars. I never saw her, but I bet Judy Garland had it. Seriously, it could be that Liza's energy comes from coke, not from within.

Oh, R78....

[quote]Not all old-timers have this quality, Liza and Raquel Welch do not.

Ann-Margret does, R72. I saw her perform as Miss Mona to Gary Sandy's Sheriff what's his face in a revival of Best Little Whorehouse around 1995. She lit up the stage.

Didn't poor Ann-Margret have to be led around the stage. She had memory issues.

No R89, she was spectacular.

There was definitely reports of her being out of it. This says 2002, so perhaps a different production to the one you saw.

That could very well be the tour R91 but like I said, she was spectacular. You could tell the years had caught up with her but she still had star power.

R91 I saw that 2002 production and, yeah, saying she was "out of it" is being generous as one would have a hard time imagining there was ever an "it" that she was in.

Backstage Babble...

Would present day Lauren Bacall shill for an all chicken salad ladies restaurant?

Pay her in cash, r95, you bet your ass.

By the time they filmed Applause for tv Betty had been playing it for at least 3-4 years between broadway, tour and London. They even shot this in London. That’s, presumably, why her performance is so um ‘theatrical.’ She fucked Cariou during broadway run. Saw the revival with Powers and it was awful. That production was intended for Raquel Welch but she wisely backed out. Maybe she didn’t want to do another Bacall role. Rita Hayworth never made it past rehearsals because she was having memory issues. Arlene Dahl lasted one month before it closed. Ma Apple actually toured in several productions. From what I’ve heard she wasn’t bad she just was t strong enough to play opposite Bacall. That’s all I know.

[quotw]Ma Apple actually toured in several productions.

I think you are referring to Diane McAfee, Fiona's mother. She was originally cast as Eve but was fired out of town and replaced by Penny Fuller. She later appeared in the third national tour, which was a cheap bus and truck affair, starring former operatic soprano Patrice Munsel and several members of that cast also appeared in regional productions.

Munsel was legendarily bad in the part and her performance has been discussed and vilified in earlier threads.

I saw the bus and truck and McAfee was OK. Munsel was beyond awful. The audience favorite by far was the girl in the Bonnie Franklin part, this tiny, tiny girl with a huge, huge voice. Her name was Pia Zadora and she was fabulous.

[quote]I often wonder how Lauren Bacall, who had no musical talent and very little acting talent, headlined several Broadway plays/shows.

Much of the audience seeing those B'way shows in the 60s and 70s knew her since her film debut in the 1940s. The "matinee ladies" (a breed long gone) wanted to see the stars of their youth. And how they were holding up.

Bacall's marriage to Bogart gave her a pop icon status, her fashion model looks, the haughty deep voice...there was an allure about her. She was unique. People wanted to see her.

Bacall was also fiercely committed to whatever show she was in and never missed a performance. That’s rare these days where actors sign three month contracts and are out more than they’re in.

Lauren was the Diana Rigg of her day, of course now that Diana’s gone we need a new one of her too?

R99 Thanks, that was a good summary. I remember the matinee ladies because I went to matinees - when I was a young kid. I remember they used to unwrap candy a lot during the matinees!

I guess I meant - I was the poster - she seems an odd actress to have ended up as a theater star - not summer stock or touring productions, but major Broadway star - and in musicals, when she was not a musical talent at all. If she was (like Rex Harrison, for ex.) a great actor, but not a musical performer, I could understand it more. I liked her and thought she was good in her old Warner Bros movies - but you couldn't predict from those films that she would be a big star of Broadway musicals years later. She was not even much of a box office draw in movies. Even young, at WB, she was no Doris Day in terms of her box office appeal, and Warners' attempt to market her as a sex symbol wasn't that successful.

But it seems she always thought she was something special, and because she was married to Bogart she could afford to turn down a lot of dreck other young stars had to do. And as someone else said, she worked very hard as a stage performer - and the stage was always her dream, anyway, not films.

That’s impressive, that she was such a hard worker.

Yes, r103...

Patrice's Carlotta...

Betty was no Helen Lawson

[Quote] major Broadway star - and in musicals, when she was not a musical talent at all.

Beats me, honky.

R107 Haha. But what else was Carol Channing but a musical-comedy star? That was her professional identity. It wasn't Bacall's.

It's called reinvention, r108. It's not that hard a concept to grasp.

R104 Fun. She did have a marvelous head of hair.

The Kenley Players hired several actors from that tour mentioned above to repeat their parts a year later but Munsel was replaced by Alexis Smith. The weird John Kenley owned several summer stock theaters in Ohio and nearby and would cast a production and tour it to the four or five theaters he hired. McAfee played Eve in the that production. The straw hat circuit.

Below, McAfee as Eve in the bus and truck tour, for the poster above who requested it.

Thanks, r111. Those are some spider lashes.

Betty and Diane.

Diane and Patrice, who could have used some bangs.

Len Carious was never a looker, was he.

John Kenley was very well liked and respected but he was indeed weird. During the summer when he ran his summer stock circuit, he lived his life as a man. But during the off season he retired to his Florida condo and lived as a woman.

Penny Fuller was kind about McAfee.

Classy of Betty to be there when Diane was let go.

R109 It's not a hard concept for me to grasp. just doesn't always work, and I was trying to figure our why it worked for Bacall. Sorry if I was going over your head.

I never went to Kenley show, but I remember the ads. Alexis Smith was a favorite of his. He had all the usual touring has-beens like Barbara Eden and oddities like Anna Maria Alberghetti. He would "abridge" some shows to reduce the running time. He did dramas in the beginning but only occasionally in the 70s and 80s--Joe Namath did "picnic". My aunts would drag my uncles to those shows and to "Musicarnival" which was one of those summer tent places.

You still see matinee ladies but not for everything---bus loads came to see Denzel when he was in Raisin in the Sun. Carrie Fisher's one woman show had lots of bridge and tunnel types. They were almost as funny as Fisher, chatting about Liz and Eddie Fisher.

Len Cariou was not good-looking by Hollywood standards but he was masculine and had sex appeal.

Y&R former star Janice Lynde played Eve opposite Anne Baxter.

I think I saw Lynde on tour with Parker, r121.

R98 Was that production performed in the attic?

Is was going swimmingly, r123, until the gay bar number.

Applause with Bacall was the first Broadway show I saw, so it will always hold a place in my heart.

Your first always does, r125.

Herschel Bernadi doing "Applause"....

For some reason have been attracted to Herschel Bernadi since seeing him in reruns of Peter Gunn.

Mr. Bernadi is not best of singers, and this "Applause" recording shows again what actors can do if they try.

I think Janice Lynde stepped into the tour for another Eve who needed to be replaced.

Diane was pretty. The idea of a very young, modern-looking (for the time) Eve with long dark hair is interesting.

Maybe it was sign of times (2009) but John Kenley's obit uses male pronouns.

Now I know...

"However, his career was always overshadowed by the fact that he is a registered hermaphrodite. He is one of the few people in the United States registered with legal identification as both a male and a female. Rumor has it that he lived the summer in Ohio producing shows as John, and spent the winters in Florida living as a woman named Joan. The two identities rarely intersected with mutual friends."

[quote]Rumor has it that he lived the summer in Ohio producing shows as John, and spent the winters in Florida living as a woman named Joan. The two identities rarely intersected with mutual friends."

Does anyone else see a potential musical comedy in this?

Should "Kenley" be a countertenor?

Somehow it went from Lauren Bacall in Applause on TV to some hermaphrodite I never heard of.

Was he a Gemini?

[quote]Does anyone else see a potential musical comedy in this?

R136 Well, do you?

[quote]Does anyone else see a potential musical comedy in this?

Yes!

Rodgers and Hammerstein probably don't.

I could see Imelda in Applause.

[quote]Len Cariou was not good-looking by Hollywood standards but he was masculine and had sex appeal.

I'd always see him in the sauna and showers at the 63rd street YMCA. (1970s and no nothing was going on there). He did not have an appealing body that's for sure. Really not very good-looking at all.

But but it did work costumed and on stage.

Betty loves her leading men. First Len then Harry Guardino who she saved from getting fired from WOTY.

I assume you're referring to Helen's, r140.

Just to be clear, hermaphrodites are not trans people. Hermaphrodites are the rare human beings who have fully formed genitalia of both sexes from birth.

[Quote] Betty loves her leading men. First Len then Harry Guardino who she saved from getting fired from WOTY.

See also: James Garner.

Betty was hated by the entire company of Waiting in the Wings and the rest of the cast was filled with polished professional pros. She must have been unbearable.

If she was that unbearable why did she work constantly? Something doesn't add up.

Wings...

I've read accounts of how Betty treated her cast members in Waiting in the Wings and most of them weren't pleased. On thing she did was constantly remind everyone that she had been a personal friend of Noel Coward. Rosemary Harris finally shut her up by telling her that most of them knew Sir Noel and a few of them knew him much better than she did.

Sounds to me, r149 that Betty was feeling a bit insecure.

[quote]Sounds to me, R149 that Betty was feeling a bit insecure.

She was probably also feeling twitchy and bitchy and manic.

I think it would take a lot to piss off Rosemary Harris. Diana Rigg would have slapped the shit out of her.

Coward would have slapped the shit out of her.

On the Tony Awards when Bacall got her Tony for Applause, she said (I think a couple of times) it was her first award, or prize. A while later, Noel Coward was introduced by Cary Grant. His first words were, "This is my first award, so please be kind" (A take off on the song, This Is My First Affair). It seemed to be an improvised reference to Bacall's speech, and when I saw it (it's on YouTube) I laughed out loud.

She was always the Star of the show until then, r152. Also the other women were *not* lightweights.

Betty plays better with boys...

Not really.

I'm clearly not seeing why all y'all are bonering up about Bacall's scene. It's as schlocky as this.

Lauren brought so much star power to the table... besides being a former model, she was also Bogart's widow (and Jason Robards's-ex wife), so she could offer that. Keep in mind too that her two big musicals ("Applause" and "Woman of the Year") really made no vocal demands of her, and she got to do what she did best: swan about in glamorous clothes. And she could dance okay. I've been told by many people she brought nothing of the complexity that Bette Davis brought to the role of Margo Channing--the panic, the loneliness, the wittiness--and just seemed fabulous, and then threatened (but still fabulous).

She was not a singer and just rasped her lyrics out. But like Audrey Hepburn in "Funny Face," she had so much star power and was so clearly enjoying herself, that despite her ugly tone, you really couldn't dislike her singing. (Although I can completely believe the story about Ethel Merman shouting out "JESUS CHRIST!" from the audience when she first heard Bacall sing in "Applause").

The funny thing is how poor her frame is when dancing. You'd expect a model to as least hold themselves upright well enough but Betty's body collapses inwards as she does the moves.

She should have switched to caffeinated coffee.

You may not like her sound and the limited range of notes...but she hits them.

[quote]I can completely believe the story about Ethel Merman shouting out "JESUS CHRIST!" from the audience when she first heard Bacall sing in "Applause")0

I think the show was Woman of the Year (it may have been Applause, open to correction) but opening night Bacall was wavering wildly trying to hold a long note and Ethel, sitting in the center orchestra said loudly "For Christ's sake, Betty, pick a note!!"

Lee Roy Reams tells the story in one of those Broadway Golden Age videos. The comments suggest that the dates don't add up. Reams mentions some parade that didn't line up with opening night of "Woman of the Year."

[quote] She should have switched to caffeinated coffee.

***scoffing chuckle***

I'm active enough, thank you!

I've read several versions of the Ethel/Bacall story but the "Betty, pick a note" is the version I've read most often.

Lee Roy Reams (a ghurl who can tell a story), in his own words what happened with Ethel Merman and Lauren Bacall.

Applause opening night was on March 30, 1970, at the Palace Theatre. So either Mr. Lee Roy Reams is misinformed, or his is slipping.

Isn't there another story about Marilyn Cooper being the breakout performer of Woman of the Year and Bacall not taking it well?

Cooper said in interviews that Betty was very supportive and she loved working with her. If BB was unhappy Cooper would have been gone after Boston.

[Quote] Applause opening night was on March 30, 1970, at the Palace Theatre. So either Mr. Lee Roy Reams is misinformed, or his is slipping.

Isn't Reams talking about attending with Merman? Lee Roy Ream was IN "Applause" on its opening night. I haven't rewatched the video but surely he's talking about "Woman of the Year."

My bad, clip says clearly Reams was going on about opening night of Woman of the Year.

Sorry, and carry on.....

There is another bit of theatre gossip that goes Ethel Merman swept uninvited and unannounced into Ms. Bacall's dressing room on opening night of Applause during intermission. Former helped herself to a nice stiff drink, turned around and walked right back out without uttering a word of congrats (or anything else) to Lauren Bacall.

Fuck off, Benay.