Before "the Marias": Part I

CBC's How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? is putting the spotlight on homegrown talent. One young lady will win a dream role, but all are receiving welcome exposure to a country-wide audience.

Here in Caftan Woman's corner of the blogosphere I'm going to turn my spotlight on Canadian talent who made their mark in the show business of yesteryear when success for many meant travelling south of the 49th parallel. This is not merely a nostalgic exercise as these talents are garnering 21st century fans discerning enough to exercise their entertainment options.

BOBBY BREEN

Bobby Breen was born November 4, 1927 in Toronto, the son of William Breen, manager of the Royal Alexandra Theatre in the 1930s. Bobby was a naturally talented kid - an outstanding boy soprano who sang in English, French, Italian and Spanish. He received at home training and was managed by his elder sister, Sally, also a singer. From the age of 7 he was appearing on stage and in 1936 made a name for himself on Eddie Cantor's radio program. He was signed by RKO studios that year. Along with an extraordinarily fine voice, young Bobby possessed an assured and pleasant screen personality. No "dead end kid", but no sentimental sap either, though many of his films could be accused of leaning toward the schmaltzy side.

Until recently I had only heard Bobby on record/radio, but thanks to the miracle of DVDs and Turner Classic Movies I've been able to see and enjoy his entertaining features.

Let's Sing Again (1936), co-starred Henry Armetta
Rainbow on the River (1937), co-starred May Robson and Charles Butterworth
Make a Wish (1937), co-starred Basil Rathbone, Donald Meek and received an Oscar nomination for Best Score for Hugo Riesenfeld
Hawaii Calls (1936), co-starred Ned Sparks
Breaking the Ice (1938), co-starred Charle Ruggles and Victor Young was nominated for the Best Score Oscar
Fisherman's Wharf (1939), co-starred Leo Carrillo and Lee Patrick
Way Down South (1939), co-starred Clarence Muse and Alan Mowbray and, once again, Victor Young was up for the Best Score Oscar
Escape to Paradise (1939), co-starred Kent Taylor with "paradise" being the South American setting
Johnny Doughboy (1942), was a Jane Withers movie that featured child actors at that awkward age who had outgrown their usefulness to the studios including Breen, "Alfalfa" Switzer and Baby Sandy.

This link is to a performance from 1939s Way Down South. Bobby solos with the legendary Hall Johnson Choir. On the platform with 12-year-old Bobby is Clarence Muse - actor, writer, producer, director, compose and lawyer, who co-write this film with Langston Hughes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGMZ1dN7eT8

When Bobby's film career faded, he attended UCLA then continued to tour and record as a vocalist. He was also guest pianist for the NBC Symphony Orchestra and in his later years ran a talent agency. The latest information I can find is that the 80 year old Breen and his wife, Audrey, are enjoying retirement in Florida and those who have met him speak of a "cool guy" and a "nice gentleman".

How about a spot on Canada's Walk of Fame for Bobby Breen? Perhaps a spot could be found by the Royal Alex where his dad worked in administration from 1910 - 1939.

What are you watching?

He: What are you watching?
Me: It's called Greatest American Dog. I'm not really watching it. I thought Password was on.
He: What's it all about?
Me: It's some sort of competition with these people and their dogs. They give them different challenges and the last dog...
He: Gets to be Maria!

I've been watching CBC's How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? Of course I have. I'm a music theatre gal from way back. If need be, a look at my record collection or YouTube searches would verify the same. I met my husband doing community theatre. My wedding featured music by Irving Berlin and Lerner & Loewe. My children listened to Jerome Kern while in the womb. When such things were affordable, I never missed a show. I have Richard Kiley's autograph!

I love watching talented musical theatre performers and seeing fresh new faces. If a television talent show seems like an odd way to cast the lead in Mirvish's upcoming production of The Sound of Music - well, odder things have happened. Like any audition process it has had its highs and lows.

Pleasures: The fast pace of the program. The imagination in putting it together and talent of the contestants.

Disappointments: Allie was gone too quickly. Donna, whose performances stayed with me from show to show (therefore, the one I would most want to see) is gone.

Oddball song choices/missed opportunity: A Canadiana night with no Gordon Lightfoot? Ah, how cheerful my life would be if I were never to hear Black Velvet again. I had successfully erased Bang, Bang from my memory bank. (Sugar Town was about to join it, but I suppose that's just a dream now.) The prevalence of pop tunes distresses me. There are plenty of venues for that sort of thing on television. If the intent was to appeal to a broader audience, I think perhaps the title of the program is enough to keep them tuned out.

The radio in the hospital lab advertised the closing of "Mamma Mia" at the Royal Alexandra. The nurse turned to me and said: "I wanted to see "Mamma Mia", but my husband hates that Andrew Lloyd Webber".

Here is a show about putting on a show. What a wonderful opportunity to celebrate musical theatre. You can't tell me that from Victor Herbert to Stephen Sondheim there aren't enough wonderful songs to showcase and challenge the contestants. If a geezer like me can enjoy Defying Gravity then some youngster would certainly be impressed with The Man I Love. Why, the music of Richard Rodgers alone would give you so many "colours" you'd have to come up with new names for them.

I'll be tuning in next week with hope in my heart. Hoping that Marissa keeps sparkling. Hoping to hear something pretty from Janna. Hoping to catch Jayme fever. Hoping against hope that the judges don't get a sudden nostalgic yen for the Leo Sayer Songbook.

Will I be voting? Ah, that's The 64,000 Question.

It's Raining, It's Pouring

My boy, Gavin, loves the thunder-rain. Anticipating last evening's downpour, he wandered the front yard singing his favourite rain song - Will the Sun Ever Shine Again from Disney's Home on the Range. The rain started, he wandered and sang. The rain continued, he wandered and sang. The wind blew, the rain pounded, he came on the stoop and sang. He started to go back down the stoop and the water smashed him. He looked at it, betrayed, shut the door and watched the storm from the couch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6m2vmtN2f4

Hi Aunt Tracey. Remember, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

George M. Cohan Said It

1905 was quite a year for 27 year old George M. Cohan. It was the year of his third successive Broadway hit. George Washington Jr. followed in the wake of Little Johnny Jones and 45 Minutes from Broadway.

George Washington Jr. came about a little differently than George's other shows. It was his habit to write the book and then compose the songs. In the case of this show, it was the song that came first - a song. A song that was inspired when the young man rode in the funeral procession for a Civil War veteran. George was riding with a veteran who told the young man of his experiences at Gettysburg and of the ideals for which he and his comrades fought. "And it was all for this," the old soldier said, stroking the folded, tattered flag in his lap. "She's a grand old rag."

Inspired, George wrote:

You're a grand old rag, you're a high-flying flag,

And forever, in peace, may you wave;

You're the emblem of the land I love,

The home of the free and the brave.

Ev'ry heart beats true, under Red, White and Blue;

Where there's never a boast or brag;

But, should auld acquaintance be forgot,

Keep your eye on the grand old rag.

The song was an immediate sensation in the show, but raised a controversy in the newspapers as critics objected to Cohan's relegating the flag to the dustbin. Are critics deliberately obtuse? George M. Cohan, the most patriotic of performers? Well, George lost a bit of the poignant drama of his song by bowing to controversy and changing "rag" to "flag", but his exuberant song lives on.

Happy Independence Day to all you Sons of Yankee Doodles!

Canada Day

Happy Canada Day, one and all. It's a day for relaxing, reflecting and enjoying fireworks. It may also be a day for reading. It's never too early to give children an interest in their country's history and there are many, many books to help.

Rebecca L. Grambe's "Digging Canadian History" is for the 3-6 year old age group, and might educate a few of the adults sharing it.

Scholastic Canada publishes the "Dear Canada" series for older children. Each book is written as a diary by a fictional girl living through historical times from the expulsion of the Acadians to WWI.

Vicki Cameron's "Shillings" features Colonel By's children involved in a mystery during the building of the Rideau Canal. Jean Rae Baxter's "The Way Lies North" concerns a family of Loyalists in the 1700s.

Why not consider starting a new Canada Day tradition and share history with the youngsters in your life?

Lena Horne

Happy 91st birthday to the lovely Lena Horne.

Pictured is Lena with Eddie Anderson in Vincente Minnelli's 1943 movie "Cabin in the Sky". Lena is an absolutely delight as Georgia Brown, a girl who likes a good time. It is the movie going public's loss that more major roles didn't fall to that talented lady.

Here is another treat. From 1960 sharing the television screen with that gentleman of song, Perry Como.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4Atn0arjkk

Favourite movies: The Devil's Brother (1933)

Do you like operettas? I do. Star-crossed lovers, happy peasants, soldiers in taverns raising tankards and voices, funny schtick and lovely music sung by lovely voices. French composer Daniel Aubert's greatest success and most revived work was his 1830 operetta "Fra Diavolo" (The Devil's Brother). The name, at least, was taken from an actual Italian highwayman. I can't vouch for the exploits.

Producer Hal Roach was a fan of "Fra Diavolo" (by which title his movie is often known) and a fan of the fact that it was in public domain. Jeanie Macpherson adapted the play with ample opportunity for Roach's most popular stars, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy to strut their stuff.

Dennis King (1897 - 1971) portrays the title character, a ruthless bandit who is the scourge of the countryside. As Fra Diavolo he robs wealthy men of their gold, but as the Marquis de San Marco he steals the hearts of lovely ladies. Mr. King's movie career was brief with highlights including The Vagabond King (1930) with Jeanette MacDonald and the shy minister in Between Two Worlds (1944). Broadway was his stomping ground appearing in 39 plays from 1921 to 1969, including Rose Marie, I Married an Angel, Show Boat, A Doll's House, Billy Budd and a Tony Award in 1970 for John Osbourne's A Patriot for Me in 1970.

Lady Pamela Rocburg (Thelma Todd) and the Marquis de San Marco (Dennis King)

Roach players James Finlayson is the rich and suspicious Lord Rocburg and lovely Thelma Todd is Lady Pamela who finds the Marquis so intriguing. Henry Armetta is a bombastic Innkeeper and Lucile Brown his pretty daughter. Her lover, a poor but honest soldier is played by Arthur Pierson and Matt McHugh is her rich fiance, Francesco. True love never runs smooth in an operetta. It's a rule.

Life with a capital "L" has kicked our boys, Stanlio and Ollio, to the gutter. They decide that crime is their only way out. After all, Ollio opines, it doesn't take any brains to be a bandit. Our boys are ill-equipped for the career change. They are immediate failures and run afoul of Fra Diavolo himself! However, in his Marquis disguise the bandit requiers a retinue to follow the wealthy Rocburg's into the Inn to retrieve the 500,000 francs he knows the lord possesses. Stanlio and Ollio are his reluctant servants with two intentions, to please their master and to escape their master. Can you imagine the fun and trouble caused by sedan chairs, simple second story break-ins and mistaken identities? A trip to the wine cellar leads Stan to one of the funniest drunk scenes in all filmdom.

If you use your movies to escape the day-to-day, this very funny and quaint film may make your favourite movie list too.

Note: kneesey-earsey-nosey is not as easy as it looks.