TV version of Lauren Bacall in "Applause" 1973

Here's my breakdown of the great Joseph Mankiewicz original, "All About Eve," with Bette Davis and company!

I saw it when it was first broadcasted (saw it on Bway too). COULD NOT STAND the bad lip syncing in this TV version. The 1970s shows became famous for bad lip syncing, unlike the 1960s which were 80% LIVE.

Penny Fuller steals it.

Yes, I thought Penny Fuller was quite good as Eve. Glad Larry Hagman was not in it much. Bacall has a ball swanning around, but she ain't no Bette!

[quote]Penny Fuller steals it.

yep

They needed to bring in Ethel Merman as an audience member.

[quote]Don was conducting Lauren in her second musical, Woman Of The Year, and who was sitting right behind his conductor's podium in the audience but Broadway’s premier belter, Ethel Merman. Don remembers Lauren coming center stage and singing her first bass notes. Immediately, Ethel Merman's distinctive voice rang out, "Jesus Christ!"

(OK, so it was "Woman of the Year" and not "Applause," but I'm sure Ethel would have reacted the same at both.

Eve as Margo

I always thought the tv version of Lauren Bacall was Kay Ballard

R8 Fun fact: Eve Arden played Margo in Applause in Australia. Big flop.

What a shame that Bacall didn't do a musical version of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" "What a dump! What a dump! I'm the earth mother and you're a bunch of chumps!"

[quote]Bette Davis who told Betty Bacall, "I never saw this as a musical."

"Of course, you didn't, but then you never could carry a tune, dear."

'That doesn't seem to have stopped you, dear...'

Mistuh Conductor, if you please...

What Bette Davis movies would have made good movies?

Weirdly, they only play one of the show's only fun numbers, "Backstage Babble," softly in the background for the early scene at the backstage afterparty opening night.

Well, heebie deebie dee, r15!

Well, r15, here's Mainland Regional High School at your service...

Where's our "Mildred Pierce" musical?

I worked on this opera version of The Postman Always Rings Twice in '98, r18.

Did they lip sync Hagman with Mary Martin’s voice—they were both baritones.

Well, here ya go, r18.

[quote]Featuring a book and lyrics by Texas Christian University professor Richard Allen

And there's Johnny Guitar...

Bacall played Gabby in a live 1955 TV broadcast of Robert Sherwood's play "The Petrified Forest," co-starring Humphrey Bogart and Henry Fonda; Davis had played Gabby in the Warners movie from 1936, which also featured Bogart. In 1968 Leland Hayward announced he planned to produce a musical adaptation with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Sammy Cahn, but the project quickly petrified. Frankly, I never saw this play, which I like, as a musical.

Lest we forget...

A shame Bacall did a cover of "I've Written a Letter to Bogie!"

DIDN'T!

Did Bacall have better songs to work with a decade later in the musical version of "Woman of the Year?"

"Betty, I never saw Woman of the Year as a musical."

I can’t stand Larry Hagman.

rehearsing...

I tried and found this unwatchable. I even skipped around to try different acts. BAD.

It was of its time. But it was tailored for one star and one star only.

I liked Lauren Bacall but never thought she had any signing talent. IMO, the woman had no business near a musical or any part requiring her to sign. The Applause video, the Woman of the Year rehearsal video, the singing scenes in the movie "The Fan" ---- In every one of them, Bacall is horrible and painful to watch. I thought Bacall was very attractive and had great presence but, when it came to singing, she sounded like a cat stuck in a clothes dryer. She should have known the limits of her talents and stayed away from Applause and all other musicals.

I am aware that Bacall was a Tony award for Applause and Woman of the Year. I still think she was bad and unwatchable.

I suppose Betty thought she could put it over in an Elaine Stritch style but she couldn't.

Bacall toured in Wonderful Town in 1977.

Here she is performing Ruth’s big number, but why so fast?

Bacall performing “Ohio”.

Fancy Feast! Good taste is easy to recognize.

I recall reading in Betty's autobio that she shared that Noel Coward once told her she had a "musical personality!" I wonder if Noel told Lucy that she owed it to the world to do "Mame!"

Love Betty in these musicals, croaks and all

[quote]Did Bacall have better songs to work with a decade later in the musical version of "Woman of the Year?"

NO, it was awful. I saw the Bacall version circa 1983, Raquel Welch somehow took over the role and got good reviews because critics were surprised.

R40, Fellow Dakota resident Rex Reed panned Woman of the Year unmercifully which angered Bacall and she stopped speaking to him for a while.

Who was worse: Lauren or LucyMAME?

I can't stand Bacall but I would have loved to see Nefretiri as Margo.

[quote] I liked Lauren Bacall but never thought she had any signing talent.

Which is why they never invited her to Gallaudet University.

Lauren already had taken a pass at Woman of the Year, which had been loosely made as Designing Woman with Betty and Gregory Peck. But I'm glad Bacall stopped with "Woman" as far as doing musical remakes of movie classics starring actresses greater than herself...

Can’t believe this woman won two Tonys. While her speaking voice is distinctive and iconic, she was never a great actress and her “singing” was non-existent.

Watching Bacall in her "acting" moments in "Applause" made me appreciate Bette even more in "All About Eve." In case anybody doesn't feel like scrolling back up...

I’d rather see a musical version of “All About Eve” OR “Mildred Pierce” than “Back to the Fucking Future.”

Can anyone see "The Fan" as a musical, retitled "Hearts Not Diamonds"?

This guy had Bacall's piss-elegant, pitchy baritone down perfectly!

Bacall and Reed's feud goes way back, probably when they became neighbors.

The second Tony for WOTY would not have happened had Linda Ronstadt not been so adamant about not attending the nominations or ceremonies. If she had, she likely would have won for Pirates of Penzance, not because she was so great but because everyone hated Bacall.

[quote]Who was worse: Lauren or LucyMAME?

LucyMAME was worse. In "Applause," Bacall had star quality to spare, which helped to make for her severe limitations as a singer. Nothing, including being shot through linoleum, could save Lucy from embarrassing herself as a thoroughly miscast Mame.

R51, Bacall was livid with Rex Reed when the morning after John Lennon was killed at the Dakota in December of 1980, he went on GMA and informed everyone that Bacall was also a resident there.

She freaked out and confronted him. He couldn’t understand why she was so upset since she’d revealed in her autobiography that she lived at the Dakota.

Bacall’s comeback was “People who watch television do not read books”.

Several months later, Woman of the Year opened on Broadway and Rex savaged it in his print review.

Here’s Rex and Betty apparently getting along in 2009.

Looks to me like they are tolerating each other.

Thanks R50.

I was there the night that was filmed.

R53, Rex's comeback to "People who watch TV don't read books" was "if that's true, why did you go on every TV talk show to try to sell your book?"

Here’s the Rex Reed/GMA interview @ 6:55 that enraged Miss Bacall.

Reply 56, How cool was that? Brilliant performance.

I'm not a big drag queen fan but the Lauren Bacall impersonator is excellent. He has her look and nails the voice.

Here's a High Point coffee commercial I'd never seen before.

I love the bit as it begins, with Lauren chuckling as she listens to the earphones...

This is funny but tough on her.

Do we have an opinion of Julie Harris in Skyscraper?

Bacall wasn't a great singer and a so so actress but she was a star. You couldn't take your eyes off her. She also had a work ethic that's unheard of today. Three long runs on Broadway (and a few shorter runs) and never missed a ,performance aside from brief vacations. Toured in both Applause and WOTY. Gave 100% and demanded everyone else do the same.

(Reply 64) Perfect assessment. Loved the shoutout to Harry Guardino, who offered personal contributions to Bacall that cannot be overestimated!

Hurry Back

Which one of you posted the first review here on IMDb? I want to be invited to one of your Applause viewing parties.

That poster illustration for "Applause" is so bizarre. I guess it's supposed to be Margot Channing bowing, but it looks instead like she's presenting.

Re Harry Guardino. It was between him and George Peppard. Bacall wanted Guardino who had a bit of a drinking problem. He was a mess during the early tryout and producers wanted him replaced. Bacall worked with him and helped him pull himself together and he was great in the role. I also give credit to Bacall for being present when the original Eve was terminated. She had nothing to do with the decision and she didn't have to be there but she was for support. I think she may have been an insecure difficult person but she wasn't a monster.

"JESUS CHRIST!!!"

--Ethel Merman hearing Lauren Bacall sing in a Broadway theater

That was Diane McAfee replaced during out of town tryouts.

behind the scenes footage with lauren learning a dance and being interviewed.

That better be High Point in the coffee cup she's holding!

R71, Diane had a relationship with castmate Brandon Maggart and they had two children together, but never married.

Brandon played Karen’s husband, Buzz, in Applause.

Related

Diane's parents were Millicent Greene, a dancer with the George White's Scandals, a series of 1920s musical revues similar to the Ziegfeld Follies, and Johnny McAfee, a multi-reedist and vocalist of the big band era.

R69. George Peppard would have been a mistake. Both Patricia Neal and Audrey Hepburn found him difficult to work with and former wife Elizabeth Ashley has nothing good to say about him.

Joan Collins hated Peppard, too, if that means anything! He was the blonde Laurence Harvey!

[quote]and former wife Elizabeth Ashley has nothing good to say about him.

I remember her talking about what a big ol' hunk o' man he was. Otherwise she had nothing good to say.

r70, see r6, and try to keep up.

r74 Those two children grew up to be Fiona Apple and Maude Maggart.

Peppard played Captain Von Trapp at The Muny. I would love to have seen that. Maybe he mellowed in later years?

I'm trying to find out who is the handsome Hispanic fellow in the photo with Bacall.

R83, Which photo?

Here’s Peppard’s infamous rant against NBC on “Password Plus” in 1979 that never aired.

[quote]Joan Collins hated Peppard, too, if that means anything!

I hated Joan Collins, if that means anything.

R86, Burn in hell, Charlotte Lubotsky.

You're joining me very soon, Wig Woman.

Ethel Merman criticizing someone else's singing gives me a chuckle. In the 1930s she had a great singing voice but then it deteriorated into caterwauling with that hiccup effect that I can't listen to.

Pick a note Betty. Any note.

R90, Eat me, Mrs. Borgnine.

NYT: Theater: Lauren Bacall in ‘Applause’

WHATEVER it is Miss Lauren Bacall possesses she throws it around most beautifully, most exquisitely and most excitingly in a musical called “Applause” (it's really all about someone called Eve), which last night reclaimed the Palace Theater once more from the always invidious threat of moving pictures.

R92, In her autobiography, Bacall wrote that Walter Kerr’s laudatory review of her performance in Applause made her blush.

What really surprised me about this filmed version of "Applause," aside from Larry Hagman's absurdly dubbed singing, was how model thin the always slim Bacall was at the time...

The review I found in NYT was Clive Barnes.

Mel Gussow on Anne Baxter

It was a canny stroke of casting — the most inspired Broadway replacement since Pearl Bailey played “Hello, Dolly.”

Miss Baxter is not Miss Bacall, but she was Eve, and now she is Margo. A little less brittle and less stylish than Miss Bacall, she is first of all, as one remembers from her many movies, quite a good actress and especially gifted at playieg an actress. What one does not remember—because she did not often have a chance to show it in those movies—is that she can be glamourous. “Applause” brings out a new side in Miss Baxter, and I think she brings out the best in “Applause.”

R95, Walter Kerr reviewed Applause for the NYT.

Clive Barnes review is March 31.

Clive Barnes was a nobody in 1970.

Walter Kerr was the primary NYT theatre critic for 17 years(1966-1983).

Well, I got along with George Peppard jus' fine!

Poor Betty wanted Dina Merrill to replace her in WOTY but they instead got Raquel Welch. You think the producers wanted to bitch slap her?

R99 Wiki seems to think more of Clive Barnes

Clive Alexander Barnes CBE (13 May 1927 – 19 November 2008) was an English writer and critic. From 1965 to 1977, he was the dance and theater critic for The New York Times, and, from 1978 until his death, The New York Post. Barnes had significant influence in reviewing new Broadway productions and evaluating the international dancers who often perform in New York City.

R102, Well, Wiki is wrong. Any serious theatre buff knows that Walter Kerr was iconic.

Why don’t you?

R103, Kerr was less important commercially than Barnes. Barnes wrote the opening night review.

Kerr was the Sunday critic. Because he had more time to write, he had a higher literary content. But he had less impact on the box office.

It's Jason Robards heavenly birthday! Like many of Bacall's men, he liked the booze. But here he's enjoying a fully-caffeinated Lauren Bacall!

R104 is so uninformed it’s ridiculous. I’m embarrassed for you.

Poor Penny Fuller isn't even mentioned by Clive.

“Her theatre work has been successful. Cactus Flower (1965), a Broadway musical at the Royale Theatre, where she once worked as an usher, was sold out for two years. "I never missed a single performance." Of Applause (1970), a musical reworking of All About Eve in which she played the Bette Davis part, the influential critic Walter Kerr wrote: "With this thundering performance, Bacall ceases being a former movie star and becomes a star of the stage." "Applause took up five years of my life in all," she says. "Very happy years."“

At one point Joe Namath was offered the male lead in WOTY with the intention of casting a lesser known actress as Tess. They should have just closed it when Welch left.

R109, Excuse me?

[quote] [R104] is so uninformed it’s ridiculous. I’m embarrassed for you.

Oh Mary, get over it!

Go back to jerking off to your gay porn, R111.

Lashing out bitterly at everyone? SOMEONE'S not had her morning cup of High Point, I see...

[quote]“Her theatre work has been successful. Cactus Flower (1965), a Broadway musical at the Royale Theatre, where she once worked as an usher, was sold out for two years

Wrong

It's not a good score, and updating the book made it seem paradoxically even more outdated. And Bacall couldn't really sing or dance.

Even so it was a hit because the material has so much appeal to Broadway queens. It's a celebration of the glamour of the theater, and what Bacall could in fact really bring to the production was tons and tons of glamour.

Both Applause and MAME were star vehicles of their time. They were built for Bacall and Angie, respectively. There's a reason they haven't gotten a Broadway revival.

Remember Ann Reinking tried an Applause revival with Stephanie Powers! It was so bad it closed before they got out of Paper Mill. Reinking was said to be devastated.

I assume that Bonnie Franklin was mentioned in both reviews for Applause! I mean it was a career making performance.

...and you don't see a lot of "Woman of the Year" revivals, either.

Nor "The Act" revivals.

I made do with Eleanor Parker, Janice Lynde, and Candy Brown.

Funny Girl, Wonderful Town and Bells are Ringing...their luster is lacking without their original stars.

R119, Oh really?

An especially memorable "Applause" pairing was Wayland & Madame as Bill & Margo at the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theater!

Barnes chose to overlook Bonnie entirely in his review, but Kerr was quite giddy about her showstopping charms:

Bonnie Franklin turns up whenever the principals turn Villageward, and she really has nothing to do with the show but to stop it. Shaggily red‐headed, with a smile like the one they sometimes paint on lollipops, slapping her chaps and tossing her necker chief to the apparently high winds, she needs only to be turned loose to take over. Larceny is the word for it (and that's an irony, in a show that is about a coming up youngster stealing a march on the stars; do the authors and director really mean to say it's beginning to happen all again, right here?).

CACTUS FLOWER was not a musical.

Betty B was in a flop Broadway play preceding that one called GOODBYE, CHARLIE which was made into a flop film starring Debbie Reynolds.

Was Betty B devastated when dear old chum Ingrid Bergman won her role in the film version of CACTUS FLOWER? Did they have words on the set of MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS?

R126, Of course Bacall was upset when Ingrid was cast in the film, but Applause came along the following year.

She and Ingrid had a cordial friendship.

Was Ingrid a much bigger name in Hollywood than Betty when Cactus Flower was cast?

Ingrid had won two Academy Awards compared to Betty's....oh, wait.

Interesting trivia: the classic children's book From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler was filmed twice. The first time with Bergman as the title character, and the remake with Bacall. Bogie would have been proud!

At the time Cactus Flower was filmed, Ingrid had one measly Oscar.

Actually Kate, she had two, and the third one was just around the corner.

[quote] Funny Girl, Wonderful Town and Bells are Ringing...their luster is lacking without their original stars.

The recent Funny Girl revival was a hit once Lea Michele stepped into it, as appalling as a human being as she is.

All three of those shows are star vehicles and really require outsized personalities and talents for them. And none of them involve the best scores of their respective composers (Styne and Bernstein), although there are genuine gems in the scores of all three. the biggest problem is how dated all three are, although I think you could do a successful modest revival of Wonderful Town if you just had a superlative star at the level of Roz Russell as Ruth Sherwood (Brooke Shields was said to be charming in the part, but the role needs someone much bigger and funnier).

I may have been one of a lucky minority to see Donna Murphy in WONERFUL TOWN, but she was truly spectacular in it. As big a star as you could possibly require these days.

I'd like to see Mario Cantone play Margo Channing in "Applause."

R128, “Cactus Flower” marked Ingrid’s return to filmmaking in Hollywood after being ostracized for her affair and child with Rossellini while still married.

The role Franklin played was named Bonnie although they changed the name to the first name of the other actresses playing the role, including Pia Zadora. After the run, the character was permanently known as Bonnie.

No, R136 Anastasia marked Inngrid Bergman's return to Hollywood and that was released in 1956. The Academy Award Bergman won for Best Actress for the film was viewed as Hollywood's way of saying, 'Welcome Back!'

[quote]Poor Penny Fuller isn't even mentioned by Clive.

Maybe he thought it was Anita Gillette.

Clive had no business being a theatre critic.

[quote]As big a star as you could possibly require these days.

Wrong.

Whenever I see a clip of this ole cunt trying to sing and dance I flash back to..

Wasn’t Anastasia (1956) Ingrid’s return to Hollywood?

R138, Wrong. "Anastasia" was completely filmed in Europe. "Cactus Flower" was the first film Ingrid had made in Hollywood in many years.

You really should do some research before posting incorrect information.

But Anastasia was a Hollywood film made by 20th Century Fox.

They should have cast me

Hollywood welcomed her back with an Oscar for Anastasia, r144, Cactus Flower notwithstanding.

R147, She was not there that evening and would not set foot on California soil for years to come.

Barnes was a crappy writer.

I appreciate Bacall, but Betty was never a bigger star than Bergman...

[quote]She was not there that evening and would not set foot on California soil for years to come.

So?

The Inn of The Sixth Happiness was in 1958. It wasn’t filmed in America but it was a big budget 20th Century Fox film directed by Mark Robson. Does that still not count as a Hollywood picture?

Walter Kerr had a Broadway theatre named after him.

Did Clive Barnes?

Uh, no.

R151, The point is “Cactus Flower” was the first movie Ingrid actually made IN Hollywood in many years.

The media at the time made a big deal about it marking her return to a Hollywood soundstage.

This is not that difficult to comprehend.

IN HOLLYWOOD, IN HOLLYWOOD, IN HOLLYWOOD

OP Thank you for the link. That is indeed a very good quality transfer. I have a shitty bootleg dvd I bought from Footlight Records in NYC.

155, it just came up recently on YouTube, and I wanted to share!

[quote]Was Ingrid a much bigger name in Hollywood than Betty when Cactus Flower was cast?

Ingrid Bergman was always a much bigger name in Hollywood than Lauren Bacall.

I'm not a fan of the dead cunt Bacall, and I don't see this story as a musical, either. Just give me the film, & I'm good. I can appreciate that they expiremented artistically, but this never even sounded like a good idea.

Pick a note Betty. Any note.

I really hope the stories of Ethel saying that to Betty are true. It's my all time favorite Hollywood quote.

[quote]but this never even sounded like a good idea.

Lol, r158, it was a smash and made Bacall a Broadway STAR.

[quote] 'Lol, [R158], it was a smash and made Bacall a Broadway STAR."

And now...she's dead.

Jokes aside, while commercial success is important, it doesn't always indicate an artistic one.

During her major cuntdom days (as if there was anything else), she was so obnoxious at a party at Gloria Vanderbilt's house that a group of guys were going to dump her into the pool. Gloria got wind of it and stopped the group before they did the deed.

Bogie. At a certain point in her career every other word out of her mouth was "Bogie". Like we'd forget she committed adultery with him? Lover her movies. She did an incredibility under-rated one with Paul Newman. Can't remember the name. I think it's on YouTube or Tube. Usually I love a cunting whore, but outside her movies I can't stand her. She really did deserve the Oscar for The Mirror Has Two Faces. Too bad everyone hated her.

[quote]Pick a note Betty. Any note.

[quote]I really hope the stories of Ethel saying that to Betty are true. It's my all time favorite Hollywood quote.

No truth to it whatsoever, no matter how many times it gets repeated on DL, where it gets more embroidered in the retelling, like the old game of "telephone." What Ethel said, according to Lee Roy Reams, who was with her, was "Jesus!" That is all.

R163, “Harper”.

Was her "Jesus" a compliment? I hope not.

[quote]Jokes aside, while commercial success is important, it doesn't always indicate an artistic one.

*Nobody* ever said it did, r161. You wrote "but this never even sounded like a good idea" doesn't hold water as it was a smash hit.

[quote] "*Nobody* ever said it did, [R161]. You wrote "but this never even sounded like a good idea" doesn't hold water as it was a smash hit."

I DON'T believe it was a good idea artistically. Regardless of its financial success. Or at the time...its financial potential. But I'm an idealist. Which is my REAL mistake.

Does anyone know why Bonnie and Len didn't do this TV version? I know Hagman was a much bigger name vs the unknown-to-middle-America Cariou, but it would have been a better show...

The Stef Powers aborted road tour of Applause was dreadful. Annie's Fosse moves were so out of place. But she really was devastated they closed early and, being the wonderful human she was, cast the first road company of Chicago with many of the Applause ensemble who were out of work.

[quote] I know Hagman was a much bigger name vs the unknown-to-middle-America Cariou, but it would have been a better show...

I think you answered your own question. No one outside of the theater world really knew (or cared) who Len Cariou was--before this show his work was mostly confined to Broadway and the Guthrie.

R171, The television version of Applause was recorded in London. Len Cariou was on Broadway in A Little Night Music at the time.

Ann was so likable and talented; she needed a better manager.

And by then Len was on to Glynis Johns.......

I thought the story was that Ann pulled the dancers out of Chicago and then after Applause did a fast fade, she found work for some of them.

R174, No Len was on to Victoria before she went on to Mark.

“No Len was on to Victoria before she went on to Mark.“

He hadn’t met me yet.

Enough with the tawdry assignations!

Lens was in Applause?

[quote]Was her "Jesus" a compliment? I hope not.

It certainly wasn't a compliment, but I suspect that Ethel's outburst was unintentional. The "Pick a note, Betty. Any note!!" story has always been asinine and clearly never happened, whether it was a DL invention or not. Whatever Ethel thought of Lauren Bacall's singing voice, I highly doubt she would have been sitting in the audience and heckling Bacall on her opening night.

Whoever thought of the line is hysterical. I choose to go on believing it's true.

Have yourself a field day, R180.

When actually *sung*...

The thing about APPLAUSE though was it really re-invented ALL ABOUT EVE in a new medium, even if it was inferior to the source material. It wasn't just a mimeographed rehash of the movie like we get nowadays with these film-to-musical crap disasters.

I saw the show several times when I was young and first moved to NY, both with Bacall and Baxter. Loved it, even knowing it wasn't first-rate Broadway. But it was entertainingly mindless like SEE SAW and OVER HERE with the Andrews Sisters and other sweet shows of the era.

R175. Applause tour opened before Chicago went into rehearsal and closed while Chicago was in previews. The Chicago tour opened about six months later and Ann used many of the Applause ensemble members including Belle Callaway, Deirdre Goodwin and Sharon Moore. Denis Jones went into the Broadway cast as a swing.

Was Ann the one who sang that song at the Oscars?

Weren’t Fosse, Gwen and Ann a throuple?

But ALIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!

[quote] Poor Betty wanted Dina Merrill to replace her in WOTY but they instead got Raquel Welch. You think the producers wanted to bitch slap her?

No, they just wanted to make money.