Incendiary Blonde, indeed

Another centenary today, dear reader - that of the unstoppable Miss Betty Hutton!

From one of my previous tributes over at my other blog Give 'em the old Razzle Dazzle:

Betty was never a conventional singer/actress, having been born into a bit of a wild family, always on the run from police. Eventually her powerful singing voice and comedic acting talents, which had been honed since early childhood from performing in a number of speakeasies and other low dives, were "discovered" in the 1930s by bandleader Vincent Lopez, with whom she sang briefly.

With the support of the eventual co-founder of Capitol Records Buddy DeSylva, she hit the heights of Broadway in Cole Porter's Panama Hattie, and from there was soon propelled to stardom in a number of Hollywood films alongside the likes of Dorothy Lamour, Bob Hope and Mary Martin (usually playing "kooky" off-beat characters). By 1945 she was a top-billing star, outshining Miss Lamour, and her triumphal role as the ballsy Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun made her an international hit.

However, Miss Hutton's star was not destined to shine for long. Known for being "difficult", she crossed swords with the infamous Hollywood "studio system" once too often, and by the early 1950s her film career was effectively over. Ventures into television, even with the backing of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez, failed spectacularly, and despite myriad concert appearances including Las Vegas her health began to suffer. Dependent on alcohol and prescribed drugs, she had a nervous breakdown and attempted suicide after losing her voice in 1970.

Eventually, with the support of former Hollywood colleagues she made a recovery but did not return to the stage until 1980, and then only briefly. She died in 2007, but her eternal legacy lives on in our memories...

...and in our record collection! [We do indeed have a copy of this one:]

So, without further ado, a reminder of her comic genius:

Betty Hutton - Oh, By Jingo [from Incendiary Blonde]

Splendid stuff.

Betty Hutton (born Elizabeth June Thornburg, 26th February 1921 – 12th March 2007)

Are your outfits shameless, smart, quaint or ridiculous?

click to embiggen

The other day, over at my daily blog Give 'em the old Razzle Dazzle I posted a typically gaudy and OTT snippet from the (rare for a Dame Julie Andrews film) massive commercial flop Star! - the biography of the legendary Gertrude Lawrence - featuring the song The Physician.

On investigation I discovered that this number was originally from an otherwise forgotten West End musical in which Miss Lawrence starred, titled Nymph Errant - a bizarre comedy-of-errors about a girl returning to her finishing school, who went astray along the way and ended up in a Turkish harem. Unsurprisingly, The Physician is possibly the only thing associated with that production that was ever revived.

The musical was in turn based on a best selling novel of the same name by one James Laver - a fascinating character in his own right. An erudite and scholarly curator at the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A), he had the good fortune to be appointed the first head of the institution's embryonic Theatre Collection - and developed a lifelong passion for costume and the study of fashion and its history. Somewhere along the way, he also became a central character in the "society party set" in 1920s and 30s London [whether that was because he ever wore, or allowed friends to wear, any costumes from the collection remains undocumented].

Scholarly or no, I just adore his simple analysis of "taste" and fashion trends and how attitudes towards them change with time - otherwise known as "Laver's Law":

Indecent	10 years before its time
Shameless	5 years before its time
Outré (Daring)	1 year before its time
Smart	'Current Fashion'
Dowdy	1 year after its time
Hideous	10 years after its time
Ridiculous	20 years after its time
Amusing	30 years after its time
Quaint	50 years after its time
Charming	70 years after its time
Romantic	100 years after its time
Beautiful	150 years after its time

Faboo!

And so true.

On the Jukebox this weekend at Dolores Delargo Towers

A spark to pierce the dark

Sharing her birthday with another odd assortment of names that includes Dame Patricia Routledge, Gene Pitney, Barry Humphries (Dame Edna Everage), Lola Montez, Ed Sheeran, Rory Kinnear, Ron Goodwin, Ruth Rendell, Brenda Fricker, Karl Jenkins, Nicholas Ridley, Rene Russo, Dame Angela Eagle, Michael Jordan and - erm - Paris Hilton, the very lovely Miss Julia McKenzie is (gulp) 80 years old today!

Seemingly a "permanent fixture" on our screens since the late 1970s (particularly considering the endless repeats of her stolid performance as the most recent incarnation of Miss Marple), the not-yet-a-Dame Julia began her career in the theatre, winning awards for her performances as "Miss Adelaide" in Guys and Dolls and as "Mrs Lovett" in Sweeney Todd, as well as for her more serious role in Alan Ayckbourn's Woman in Mind ("about an emotionally neglected middle-aged woman's descent into madness").

Indeed, despite her success in television series such as Fresh Fields/French Fields, Blott on the Landscape, Cranford and the aforementioned Marple, and big-screen roles in Shirley Valentine, Bright Young Things and Notes on a Scandal, it is for her enduring and hugely successful relationship with the works of the great Stephen Sondheim we love her the most!

Performances such as these...

Julia McKenzie - Broadway Baby

Millicent Martin, Julia McKenzie and David Kernan - You Could Drive A Person Crazy

Kit & The Widow - People Who Like Sondheim (part 2)

Facts:

• Miss McKenzie went to school a mere stone's throw away from Dolores Delargo Towers #4, in what is now known as Woodside High School, Wood Green.
• When Ned Sherrin's revue Side by Side by Sondheim transferred from the West End to Broadway in 1977 it was a massive hit, and she received a Tony Award nomination for her part in it.
• As Patron of the Society, she is a member of the judging panel for the annual Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year competition.
• It was Miss McKenzie who doubled for Her Maj in various scenes in the famous "HM-The-Queen-meets-James-Bond-and-jumps-from-a-helicopter" segment from the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Many happy returns, Julia Kathleen Nancy McKenzie, CBE (born 17th February 1941)!

It's a lovely day for saying it's a lovely day

Another centenary today - the magnificent big-screen dance sensation of the 1950s Vera-Ellen, star of On The Town (with Gene Kelly), The Belle of New York (with Fred Astaire), Call Me Madam (with Donald O'Connor) and White Christmas (with Danny Kaye).

Somewhat overlooked in the "hoofer" stakes in comparison to the likes of Cyd Charisse and Ann Miller, nevertheless several of the mere sixteen movies she made are nowadays recognised as "classics".

Facts:

• Because she was so thin, for her entire life she was dogged by (untrue) rumours of an eating disorder.
• Simliar rumours abounded that Barbie dolls were modelled on her leggy figure; their creator actually based them on a similar German doll called "Bild Lilli".
• Vera-Ellen was not a singer, so all her musical roles were dubbed by others - and in the Sisters duet, both parts were actually sung by Rosemary Clooney!
• Such was her skill and training, she was one of the few Hollywood dancers whose on-screen routines were filmed in one take.
• She married twice, the second time to millionaire Victor Rothschild (which ended in divorce); when they lost their only child to cot death, she retired from public life.

Here's just s small sample of the lovely lady's talents...

Donald O' Connor and Vera Ellen - It's A Lovely Day Today

Vera-Ellen (born Vera-Ellen Westmeier Rohe, 16th February 1921 – 30th August 1981)

Weekend reading

Overacting? Moi?

It's the centenary today of the unequivocal Queen of Melodrama, Miss Lana Turner (8th February 1921 - 29th June 1995)!

His Imperial Majesty

From the faboo website of the trust established in his name:

On 17th September 1859, the following Proclamation was published in the San Francisco Evening Bulletin:

At the peremptory request of a large majority of the citizens of these United States, I, Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and now for the last nine years and ten months past of San Francisco, California, declare and proclaim myself Emperor of these U.S., and in virtue of the authority thereby in me vested do hereby order and direct the representatives of the different States of the Union to assemble in Musical Hall of this city, on the 1st day of February next, then and there to make such alterations in the existing laws of the Union as may ameliorate the evils under which the country is laboring, and thereby cause confidence to exist, both at home and abroad, in our stability and integrity.

It was signed: “Norton I, Emperor of the United States.” In 1863, when Napoleon III invaded Mexico, he added the title “Protector of Mexico.”

Over the course of a 20-plus-year “reign” that ended with his death in January 1880, Emperor Norton continued to urge those political reforms that he felt were necessary to secure the general welfare and, as he put it, to “save the nation from utter ruin.” Proclamations [were issued] calling for the abolition of Congress and the dissolution of the two-party system...[and] for the survey and construction of a great bridge linking Oakland and San Francisco via Goat Island (today called Yerba Buena Island).

...Despite the Emperor's meagre living arrangements, he had a strong sense of imperial style and decorum. He wore a regimental uniform - sometimes Union, sometimes Confederate; often a well-worn “hand me down” donated by the U.S. Army base at the Presidio - and carried a great gnarled walking stick. For formal occasions, he embellished his basic ensemble with oversized gold epaulets, a sword and a beaver hat with an ostrich plume. In his lapel, he wore a carnation - usually a gift of a day-old blossom, too withered to sell, given him by a sympathetic florist.

To supplement charitable contributions of money, food, rent and personal effects - which, to preserve his dignity, he called “taxes” - the Emperor eventually took to printing and selling his own scrip, in denominations of 50 cents to 10 dollars. The scrip - promissory notes payable at 7 percent interest in 1880 - routinely was honored in San Francisco.

The fact that the city humoured such an eccentricity says much about Emperor Norton and much about San Francisco. But the Emperor wasn’t just humoured. He was beloved. Theatres reserved some of their best seats for the Emperor on opening nights. When the Emperor’s uniform and hat became tattered, San Francisco’s city government - the Board of Supervisors - bought him new ones...[When he was arrested by a member of a private security corps] the police chief released the Emperor and apologised. The Emperor, for his part, issued an imperial pardon for the errant "special." And, thereafter, police officers saluted the Emperor when he passed them on the street.

...[and when he collapsed and died in the street] at least 10,000 people came to view the Emperor’s body in state.

What a story. What a legend!

Emperor Norton (born Joshua Abraham Norton, 4th February 1818 – 8th January 1880)

Everything was beautiful at the ballet

Jean Babilée (3rd February 1923 – 30th January 2014)

Sparklies of the day

Bollywood superstar Helen (Helen Ann Richardson Khan) in Prince (1969).