What was I'll Plant My Own Tree about?

It was about the double headed dildo I hadda use to LAND that part!

If it has to be explained to you, then the profundity will escape you.

I fear that your tree is just one is a row.

Does anyone remember the name of that show Helen was in when she sang that. I keep wanting to say "Aged in Oak", but I know that' wrong.

That freaky hanging thing was by—

R3 if I’m not mistaken the musical was Hit The Sky, I think? I’ll have to check my OBC recording OP to find out what the context of the song is.

Aged In Oak starred Margo Channing

Is that dress second-hand?

Why hasn't some elder-gay sought out the lyrics for us?

A Parody? How DARE you?

You can expect to hear from my attorneys.

R5, that sounds right. She just lit New Haven up that night.

The song 'I'll Plant My Own Tree' is a modern version of one of the Shaker Songs (also used by Aaron Copland).

It's a bad song, but Helen made it good. She's done it many times in her career. That's why we love her. Well, that and her insatiable libido and taste for vodka.

It's a variation of "Make Our Garden Grow" from Bernstein's 'Candide'.

Country Cunt was here

Why drink vodka when you can have Helenesque? It’s a fragrance and an intoxicant.

Not strictly legal, but available if you know where to ask.

Polygamy.

When Judy was to play HL, of course she needed a big number, but not sure why they kept it in for Hayward. Someone outta'd tied a can to that song's ass!

[quote] Someone outta'd tied a can to that song's ass!

What does that mean?

I dunno, I think Helen makes the song work. That ballad "My Un-plowed Field" in "Hard Rhoda Ho" was a turkey, too -- but Helen put it over, even with the silly premise that her husband had just been impaled by a fork and killed. She somehow made it sad and yearning and sexy and defiant all at once. You knew Rhoda was gonna pull through in the end: manage that farm, raise those kids, and get herself more dick.

Off stage I hate it. On stage I’m madly in love with it.

I thought it was the official theme for Arbor Day.

Actually, Judy’s version exists and it’s marvelous. Here’s Susan Hayward dubbed with Judy’s voice:

I think it's akin to "People", in that it's about reaching out for connection to others. Though Helen herself seems kinda anti-social.

Maybe that was the ironic point: here's this broad singing about togetherness and she was a ball-breaking bitch. What a phony!

Have u heard Patty Duke's version? Oh Lord!

Thank God she's not alive to sing Norma!

Off fact: even though Susan Hayward had a good singing voice when she was younger (she did all her own singing in "I'll Cry Tomorrow"), she did not feel she had what it took to carry off "I'll Plant My own tree," and even though she lipsynched beautifully to Jane Froman in "A Song in My heart," she was also insecure about her ability to lipsynch convincingly for this number. So she was the one who suggested they have something distracting on stage to draw attention away from her lipsynching , which is why there's the giant Plexiglas mobile dangling over her during that number.

Apparently nobody thought to wipe down the mobile before they filmed the number, so it is absolutely covered with greasy fingerprints and handprints, which is all i can pay attention to during that part of the movie.

R25. I agree!

"Hit the Sky" is the name of the show and the number takes place on its run in New Haven (it's in the Variety headline at the beginning of the clip). This is one of those songs absolutely written with a belter like Judy Garland in mind. This song actually sounds like "Lose That Long Face" from A Star is Born to me. There were all sorts of declarative songs like this, meant to show the heroine's indomitable spirit: I Ain't Down Yet (Unsinkable Molly Brown), I'm the Greatest Star and Don't Rain on My Parade (Funny Girl), That's How Young I Feel (Mame) -- you get the picture.

These songs were meant to be song by pros who knew how to sell a number, not necessarily by actresses who could carry a tune.

[quote]Is that dress second-hand?

No. As Garland was several inches shorter than Hayward, Travilla made another for Susan. Second photo in this article about the film has Sharon Tate wearing the outfit.

You're gonna hear from me, r28.

I know it’s trite to say it again, but threads like this are one of the main reasons I come to data lounge

R4 It drives me nuts that the mobile is obviously covered in hand/fingerprints. They could've taken some glass cleaner to that thing between takes.

[quote] "Aged In Oak starred Margo Channing"

That's "Aged In Wood", R6.

[quote] "You can expect to hear from my attorneys."

Oh, dear Helen @R9.

I always thought the grit 'n' determination part of the song didn't really mesh with the "brother, if you're a stranger, so am I" peace 'n' brotherhood part of the song.

It's SO ridiculous how she puts her hand over her head and bends over, like a tree, at the end of the song.

Let's talk...

It doesn't look like a musical. It looks like she's on Ed Sullivan or doing a telethon. It should have had a huge production number.

[quote] Someone outta'd

What the fuck does this even mean?

The point is there is no point other than becoming hypnotized by Helen Lawson surrounded by that glorious mobile.. I want a home large enough that I can commit an entire room dedicated to a mobile of that size.

Another mesmerizing scene is the one I've posted. Just watch the interaction between that necklace and Neely's bosom.

Stop overthinking things, OP.

In Hit The Sky, La Lawson essayed the role of a young widow, searching for love, while running a boarding house frequented by vaudevillians and raising her daughter Neely, who was going through her own adolescent romantic pangs, while dreaming of hitting the Broadway stage.

"I'll Plant My Own Tree" was a declaration to the new man on her horizon that she wouldn't compromise herself for the sake of being "Part Of A Pair" (as another hit song in the show alludes to) as well as showing her offspring that must ALWAYS rely on herself, not on the cute gas station attendant with big muscles whom she's enamored with.

Jennifer North played the role of the small-town's B-girl, a gorgeous young gal who gets all the wrong kind of attention, from the right kind of men! For a while, she and Helen are at loggerheads over the (slightly) younger woman's lousy reputation, due to all the rumors about her ensnaring every man she meets, but eventually Helen realizes that, like she herself and her 14 year old daughter Neely, Jen's just looking for the love of a good man.

It all ends happily when Helen finally marries her new swain, then discovers love-hungry Neely's been dallying with him, and Helen fires a rifle at her wayward daughter, only to miss and kill her new husband, who's revealed to have been a millionaire. Helen's found guilty of murder and sentenced to the electric chair, Neely inherits all the $$$, Jennifer still kills herself for some inexplicable reason and in the finale as they drag Helen to her doom she sings the immortal ballad:

"I want to LIVE, I want to GIVE, that little bitch such a slap! Give her what FOR, that little WHORE, before I take a dirt nap!

She'll lose her MAN, and will end UP, in an alley crawling with maggots! And her OFFSPRING, will be ORPHANED, and they'll still be little twin faggots!"

R17, R18, R37

[quote] Someone outta'd tied a can to that song's ass!

That should read 'Someone ought to have tied a 'can' or a copyright infringement on the use of that song'. No 'ass' is required.

They asked me to be the standby and I said no fucking way. Then they asked me to take over when that cunt Lawson left, and I said no again. Hell, they wanted me to play Vera to her Mame, and I threatened to beat them with one of Mame's champagne bottles.

I was fantastic in the production in the West End. As we all said then, Helen who?

There's only one Helen in a Broadway show, and it's me baby!

R38, that show really was the best number in the whole stinkin' show. Neely was right about that. But Helen has the killer instinct and does what's best for Helen, and that usually means what is best for the show.

And when it doesn't well ... I have to earn my oats.

erm, that SONG

The costume is classic. You could wear that dress today.

Though I suppose more people could wear that dress today than at any time in history.

R22 it's funny how, with Judy's version, the comments from the audience make sense. They make zero sense with Hayward's other dubbed version.

Nor is Neely's performance at the telethon any great shakes. They're all acting like they've just seen Esther Blodgett sing The Man That Got Away.

Ms Susann was like a 50s housewife thrust into a culture she did not grasp. She was just so disconnected from the 60s zeitgeist in the book and they stuck with that theme for the movie. Tony is a gawd damned LOUNGE SINGER when Monterey Pop and Woodstock were about to happen! JS had Broadway dreams and wanted her starlets ON STAGE! Big numbahs! Their names in lights!

The big hair bizzarro world skew of the 60s from JS's vantage point is one of the weirdest and best parts encapsulated in this movie.

I sang that song at midnight 1/1/00. We partied, it was 1999, and it was epic.

Helen had already left the party with two of my neighbors' husbands, so I stole her song.

The book's time span is different, r48.

Jacqueline Susann said that if she knew Joan Crawford, while writing Valley of the Dolls, Helen Lawson would’ve been a monster.

the beads

Susan Hayward insisted that Judy Garland was paid before she accepted the Helen Lawson role.

Helen Lawson would’ve been Judy’s first “bitch” role. She would’ve been brilliant, but her fans might have been less accepting. Ultimately, she was still the sweet, innocent Dorothy Gale in Oz.

Garland was starting to look like a corpse at that time. Even if she could manage the part it would have looked ghoulish.

Judy looked quite glamorous in the costume fittings. I'm sure she was probably a mess, but she looked good!

She looked frail, r56, not good. She absolutely swims in the white gown.

I think the fashions were designed to make her look larger than she was, because she was so tiny by then that even on screen she looked underweight and fragile. The beaded pantsuit, the flowy caftan, the drop waist on the white gown and red skirt set all seem to be specifically designed to give her body some bulk.

Per Patty Duke, somehow Judy got the beaded pantsuit after she was fired from Valley of the Dolls. She wore it in her concerts.

If Joan Crawford had played Helen Lawson, that damned mobile would have been spotless!

And she probably would have scrubbed the toilet once the wig was in anyway.

Nobody PLAYS me, Baby. They pay homage.

Here's a great VOTD mashup, with Matthew Martin killin' it as Helen Lawson!

Bette Davis wanted the Helen Lawson role. That would’ve been interesting!

R63 the guy doing Helen there is wonderful

I guess I'm the only one fascinated by the fact that singing legend Margaret Whiting ended up performing the version that made the film. No one ever seems to mention her when we have these "IPMOT" threads. And as far as I know, Margaret never discussed her involvement in the film in any of her interviews.

And for the record, Miss Whiting was a Helen Lawson-type Drag Queen if ever there was one!

She was a sturdy woman, r66.

Lena Horne took a crack at it too during the time the movie was first released.....

Hilarious at 1:55, R38.

[quote]And as far as I know, Margaret never discussed her involvement in the film in any of her interviews.

Can you blame her?

Margaret had her tree alright, Jack Wrangler!

Man, that really is one pitiful song. Even Lena, trying her damnedest, can’t make anything of it—though this is proof that, no matter how bad the material, Lena is always scintillating.

Though changing a thing about "Valley of the Dolls" would be like the butterfly effect, I did a blog post once about different possible "Dolls." Had fun picking the pix for this one. And I was amazed at how many possible Helen Lawsons there could have been!

Judy was well out of this one. I love hearing her sing the song, though. Her singing by this time had that slurry quality that was either from downers/drinking or bad dentures. Though she didn't wear dentures.

R68, are those trees surrounding her repurposed props from The Wizard Of Oz?

Watching that tribute at R63 just reminds me of how endlessly entertaining the movie is, and how wrong-headed and clumsy in every element from costumes to dialogue to songs…. What a treasure trove.

What's weird is the first 20 min. of the film are not too bad. Then it get's tacky, cheap and wobbly. I don't know if the scenes were filmed sequentially, but it's as if everyone got tired and bored and lost interest as the filming progressed.

What happened to Garland's teeth in her later years? They shifted - a lot. Old people's will, but chronologically she was only, what, 47, when she died?

Theatre-A-Go-Go's...

I never thought of it before but it is hysterical that Valley of the Dolls seems to take place in a alternate universe where Buddy Holly, Elvis, Chuck Berry, The Beatles and Motown never existed. It was like the popular culture my grandparents grew up in in the 40s never changed. Well, changed in that it became stale and soulless, given the music we hear in the movie

I also love, given how Neely is supposed to be based on Judy Garland, that the girl who replaces her in the show is dressed up and has her hair like Barbra Streisand. What a hoot.

The book begins in 1945, r80. They had to keep the basic plot line, but it all seems to take place in 1966.

R81 Right yeah. I remember when I was a kid in the 70s, my grandparents listened to WNEW-AM which played Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, and big band hits of the '40s. They were too old by the time rock and roll came around to ever embrace it. So Valley of the Dolls is sort of the world they lived in in the '60s. Where the music they were into was just passe and cheesy.

[quote]I never thought of it before but it is hysterical that Valley of the Dolls seems to take place in a alternate universe where Buddy Holly, Elvis, Chuck Berry, The Beatles and Motown never existed. It was like the popular culture my grandparents grew up in in the 40s never changed. Well, changed in that it became stale and soulless, given the music we hear in the movie.

I grew up in the 60s and 70s, and my folks never listened to that kind of music. Neither did the parents of any of my friends, or any of my aunts and uncles. Even though my parents were still in their 20s for a good part of the 50s, they didn't have any Elvis or Chuck Berry records. What they had was Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Broadway shows, Mitch Miller, etc. Later on my mom listened to some stuff like Dionne Warwick, Sammy Davis Jr, Ann Murray, even Billy Joel - but they never listened to that Motown or 50s sound, Elvis, or the Beatles.

* Nearly forgot my mom's favorites - Sinatra and Nat King Cole. Mostly, only teenagers listened to popular rock, and the characters in Valley Of The Dolls weren't teenagers.

Susann was really writing about the 40s and 50s. The film obviously was pretty anachronistic when it was released.

R85 Yeah it was strange to transpose a story to basically 15 years later, especially when the culture had shifted so much. 1952 was worlds apart from 1967 in terms of popular music, style, movies, ect. Whoever adapted the screenplay just didn't deal with that at all, really. The movie still took place in a world where Broadway shows produced hit songs.

What kind of tree would you plant, Helen?

R86 Broadway shows of the 60s produced a lot of hit songs. Hello, Dolly, People, Make Someone Happy, Put On A Happy Face, Try To Remember, If He Walked Into My Life, Mame, Promises Promises, I'll Never Fall In Love Again, Aquarrius, Good Morning Starshine, I Believe In You, etc.

I think peope forget life was pretty square even in the mid-to-late 60s.

R63 I have to say- when he says "Don't worry about me! I've had it ROUGH before!" it's almost transcendent. The way he says it, and the way the audience reacts, makes me think it's about our struggle. How we'd always used camp and humor to deal with bigotry and ignorance and rejection. It's fierce and defiant. And hysterically funny.

I'm glad today that many gay kids don't have to deal with what some of us dealt with. But that little moment reminded me of something we've lost- a sense of community. Say what you will about the gays of that era, but let me tell you something. Many of us KNOW why the CAGED BIRD sings. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

It was about Man's Inhumanity to Man, OP!

R90 Yes. Yes it was.

the trailer

That's touching and terribly sweet, R89. I'd like to watch VOTD with you and have a few laughs. Failing that, I'd like to suck your dick.

backstory

R94 Thank you so much for that

R94 Barbara Perkins' face-lift at 12.30 minute has made her unrecognisable.

[quote]"Don't worry about me! I've had it ROUGH before!"

Silly me, I thought he was talking about getting fucked.

One of the many reasons why the movie is such a campfest is because the writers took a storyline from the novel that occurs over 20 years and compressed it into a about a year or two.

As for Broadway and nightclub world, it was still a thing in the mid 60s. The Copa was still booking big acts. Berry Gordy and Motown aspired to having their acts like The Supremes headline the Copa and The Supremes and Temptations even did a TV special doing Broadway songs (GIT on Broadway). Now looking back it was obvious that show biz world was fading away and having such cross over ambition was a form of selling out or pandering to an older white audience, but there was money still to be made from such venues.

R98: Nightclubs and Broadway were no longer central to the culture or to the movie going public which was skewing younger in those days. Even the Motown acts began to retool toward the end of the 60s---people like Marvin Gaye understood where the world was going before Barry Gordy.

OP- a better question is what ISN'T it about?

It’s one of the weaknesses of the film. It sounds nothing like a musical theatre song of the era, it’s staged nothing like it, and the whole thing is ridiculous.

If they had kept Judy it would have made sense because it would have been reminiscent of a Judy Garland performance, so even though it wasn't staged accurately, the audience wouldn't notice because it would just look like Judy on stage being Judy.

Once Judy was out of the equation, they either had to get someone else who was known for singing solo on stage, or rewrite the scene. The did neither, hence the Mobile Madness we see today.

What do giant size guitar picks have to do with trees? This number is lousy. Are there really hand and finger prints on the giant guitar picks?

Merman once said "I saw Gwen Verdon in a show the other night. She said 'I gotta pee.' What he hell is that? That ain't Broadway. Not MY Broadway."

The smudges on the mobile are really one of the most unforgivable things ever in a big budget, studio movie. SOMEONE had to have alerted the director to them. And he made the conscious decision to let them be. Ten minutes with a towel and bottle of windex would've solved the problem.

[quote]Ten minutes with a towel and bottle of windex would've solved the problem.

Certainly if Crawford [italic]had [/italic] gotten the part.

Gotta say I like the tree. So 60s.

It's somewhat less lousy than other Andre Previn songs. But it should have been sung/played by Lauren Bacall, now there was a voice for the ages.

what is as bizarre as the songs words is Susan Hayward's physicality. Was is she doing?!

Have you ever wondered how it would sound if sung by a guy? Well, wonder no more!

Did Dory ever sing it?

R109 they actually seem similar to Patty Duke Astin's "moves" in her big telethon scene. I assume the choreographer thought those were good moves for non dancers. He thought wrong.

I love how, at the telethon, Joey Bishop looks up from his phone call as if an explosive new talent has just revealed itself to him.

I wonder how Frank, Dean and Sammy felt having to wait to go on after Neely wowed everyone at the telethon and Joey asked her to stay on to do another number (some sort of dance it appears)?

Garland actually sells the song, but that also tells you that it it and the rest of story was out of place by the time the film was made. Yes, annoying metaphoric songs were popular back then (...."someone left the cake out in the rain"...) but they were part of a dying breed.

[quote]how wrong-headed and clumsy in every element from costumes

Fuck you, R76.

Dory should have used these lyrics...

Oh lord R110 was awful.

She is better than i thought she would be.

"My tree will offer shade as strangers go by. If you're a stranger brother, well, so am I."

I'm hard pressed to remember any lyrics that are as completely inane as that one. Like, ever.

k.d.

[quote] Merman once said "I saw Gwen Verdon in a show the other night. She said 'I gotta pee.' What he hell is that? That ain't Broadway. Not MY Broadway."

Gwen announced it loudly right in the middle of the entr'acte to "Can-Can"!

No wonder The Merm was so shocked!

[quote]Garland actually sells the song, but that also tells you that it it and the rest of story was out of place by the time the film was made.

R114 No idea what this means.

Patty on Judy