MAME

[Brock]

I’m on my way to an Auntie Mame screening in Toronto this afternoon — dressed for the resistance. 

[Mot Morenzi]

2 hours ago, Brock said:

I’m on my way to an Auntie Mame screening in Toronto this afternoon — dressed for the resistance. 

#ImWithHer?

[Neil]

Decades TV channel has a show called "Hollywood Remembers" where they pick a year and highlight films released.  It's pretty cheaply produced (using trailer footage) and does not look new.  Last night it was 1974,   While "Mame" is not one of the movies given its own segment, a brief shot is seen in the opening montage of movies from that year.   AND during the "Lenny" segment they include Gary Morton advising Lenny Bruce "Work clean, Lenny.  Don't resort to using dirt". 

[Freddie2]

I listened to Joyce Van Patten’s fairly recent appearance on Gilbert Gottfried’s podcast. She said that Lucy really enjoyed filming with her, and that she got the impression Lucy was lonely and looking for a friend. When Joyce didn’t exactly reciprocate on those feelings, Lucy became cold towards her

Another interesting tidbit she shared is that even in 1974 Lucy wouldn’t stop talking about Desi. Joyce described Lucy’s second marriage favorably, but in the “companionship” context that so many people frequently use. She called Gary “a very good valet”

[HarryCarter]

Thanks. I've been wanting to listen to this. 

[Mr. Wilson]

She never should have married Gary.  He ruined her career after Here's Lucy ended.  He kept a lot of her old friends away and was that forced her to do Life With Lucy.  He was so money mad and fake.  I know she claims he made her happy but I wonder.  

[Luvsbway]

I got the Mame blu ray for my birthday and finally got around to watching it last night. It looks great. With the rest of the shots so crisp and clear, the soft focus closeups really stand out much more than they did on DVD. I wasn’t really looking for them but just analyzing the picture quality over all and I noticed right away in that first shot on the piano top. But the shots pulled back Lucy still looks fine so I really wish they just would have shot the thing less gauzy. I wonder if this was that noticeable in cinemas in the 70s.

[Neil]

I don't know what to make of this, an online posting about Mame:

" In 1979/80 at CSUN, Lucy did a lecture class for the media students (she and Gary Morton were close friends w/the department chair). First day, packed lecture hall, in she walks, 5 minute standing ovation. She finally gets us to settle down, and, first gravelly words out of her mouth: "I want to apologize for 'Mame.'" Pandemonium ensued."

[Mot Morenzi]

14 hours ago, Neil said:

I don't know what to make of this, an online posting about Mame:

" In 1979/80 at CSUN, Lucy did a lecture class for the media students (she and Gary Morton were close friends w/the department chair). First day, packed lecture hall, in she walks, 5 minute standing ovation. She finally gets us to settle down, and, first gravelly words out of her mouth: "I want to apologize for 'Mame.'" Pandemonium ensued."

Hmmm. Given how proud she was of the film, I can't necessarily see her apologising for it. However, I know the reviews did hurt her, so maybe she did regret it later on. 

[Luvsbway]

19 hours ago, Neil said:

I don't know what to make of this, an online posting about Mame:

" In 1979/80 at CSUN, Lucy did a lecture class for the media students (she and Gary Morton were close friends w/the department chair). First day, packed lecture hall, in she walks, 5 minute standing ovation. She finally gets us to settle down, and, first gravelly words out of her mouth: "I want to apologize for 'Mame.'" Pandemonium ensued."

I'm not buying it. As mentioned Lucy was very proud of Mame. The only film I ever really heard her put down was Critic's Choice. And I'm sure a crowd packed to take a class from Lucy would have lots of fans of the movie. It wasn't that terrible that a crowd would leap to its feet cheering that she acknowledged a horrible movie.

[HarryCarter]

On 5/27/2019 at 0:18 PM, Luvsbway said:

I'm not buying it. As mentioned Lucy was very proud of Mame. The only film I ever really heard her put down was Critic's Choice. And I'm sure a crowd packed to take a class from Lucy would have lots of fans of the movie. It wasn't that terrible that a crowd would leap to its feet cheering that she acknowledged a horrible movie.

I find this tale very hard to believe as well.

At Lucy's Museum of Broadcasting seminar, she was asked what her favorite movies were and she listed The Big Street, The Facts of Life, Yours, Mine & Ours. Audience members shouted out "Mame!" and Lucy said, "Oh, I made Mame! That's right!" Lucy then talked about how much she loved Mame.

There were clearly some movies she did not care for: Critic's Choice, as you mentioned, The Magic Carpet (of course), Forever Darling, Two Smart People, and The Dark Corner. It's likely she never even saw The Dark Corner, but the experience of making it made it one of her least favorites.

[Luvsbway]

I found this in a clipping about Dark Corner.

Dark Corner. “I’m going to see it on the screen because I couldn’t tell you what it was about when I was making it. And the man who made it. (Director Henry Hathaway). Hate him! In CAPTIAL LETTERS!” -Lucy 1946 

[Mot Morenzi]

I'd be more inclined to believe the Mame story if it was about Bea Arthur. I've never heard her say a single nice thing about it. 

[Will]

I am thinking this is wrong.   Wikipedia can be edited which I am not good at and it says Mame had 12 million budget and only made 6.5 million see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mame_(film)

[HarryCarter]

From the Wikipedia page of Gloria Wood (“Tiny”), who appeared in a string of fifth season Here’s Lucy episodes:

Quote

She appears in Gabysinging "Where or When," and sang for one of the twins in The Parent Trap, Ladyfish in The Incredible Mr. Limpetand Lucille Ball's young nephew in Mame.

The source for this was an article about Gloria from BING Magazine (Gloria worked with Bing Crosby a lot). I never heard Kirby Furlong was dubbed. If there was dubbing, I would think she just filled in certain notes or perhaps this was a Lisa Kirk-type rumor. 

[Neil]

5 hours ago, HarryCarter said:

From the Wikipedia page of Gloria Wood (“Tiny”), who appeared in a string of fifth season Here’s Lucy episodes:

The source for this was an article about Gloria from BING Magazine (Gloria worked with Bing Crosby a lot). I never heard Kirby Furlong was dubbed. If there was dubbing, I would think she just filled in certain notes or perhaps this was a Lisa Kirk-type rumor. 

I find that hard to believe.

---" Wikipedia says Mame had 12 million budget and only made 6.5 million ..."---

That number represents its domestic gross. I don't know if that means gross box office receipts or money collected by the studio.   $6.5M doesn't count foreign revenue and the big bucks they must have gotten from NBC for TV rights.   As far as budget goes, I've heard 8, 10 and 12M.  Warners paid a staggering $3M for the movie rights, 2nd to only My Fair Lady up to that time, so that was a big percentage of the budget no matter what it was.   Lucy once claimed "despite what you have heard "Mame" made money".  Maybe, but not near the blockbuster total they hoped for.  

 

[Freddie2]

For the first time, I recently had the privilege of experiencing William Castle's Strait Jacket. It sent me down a minor Joan Crawford Rabbit Hole and I watched a video from her "final public appearance" at the Rainbow Room in the 70s, where she and Rosalind Russell co-hosted a book launching party or something. While speaking with Ms. Russell, the interviewer said something along the lines of "If only you could have been in the movie version of Mame, I would've liked it much more." Roz didn't comment, bless her heart. Really, would she have been that much better than Lucy? I think absolutely not. With almost every other person the journalist talked to, he made sure to mention Crawford, which kind of leads me to believe that he was the one who uploaded the video to YouTube (on the channel "The Concluding Chapter of Crawford"). 1974 Rosalind Russell wasn't in particularly good health, and I can't really imagine her pulling off a better job than Lucy did in Mame, certainly in comparison to Roz's great portrayal in 1958. 

[Luvsbway]

I'm reading a book on the Warner Brother's backlot and found this bit of info. A few exteriors in Mame were shot on the Warner Brother's backlot on what is called Wimpole Street. These sets were built for My Fair Lady on WB's largest soundstage. They were eventually moved onto the backlot after that filming wrapped.  Apparently the sets were not really made for outdoors and got shabby over time as they were rarely used. 

[Neil]

3 hours ago, Luvsbway said:

I'm reading a book on the Warner Brother's backlot and found this bit of info. A few exteriors in Mame were shot on the Warner Brother's backlot on what is called Wimpole Street. These sets were built for My Fair Lady on WB's largest soundstage. They were eventually moved onto the backlot after that filming wrapped.  Apparently the sets were not really made for outdoors and got shabby over time as they were rarely used. 

Do we know what scene in which they were used in My Fair Lady?  The only street footage I can remember is Patrick riding the horse in "Open a New Window" (but that looked like a matte shot), Lucy skating home and the snowy "Christmas" reprise. 

And by the way, there's a Facebook Mame Group that has some interesting stuff posted.  Official name "Mame Starring Lucille Ball".  It's a "closed" group.  

[Luvsbway]

48 minutes ago, Neil said:

Do we know what scene in which they were used in My Fair Lady?  The only street footage I can remember is Patrick riding the horse in "Open a New Window" (but that looked like a matte shot), Lucy skating home and the snowy "Christmas" reprise. 

And by the way, there's a Facebook Mame Group that has some interesting stuff posted.  Official name "Mame Starring Lucille Ball".  It's a "closed" group.  

I'm a member of that group over on Facebook. Great group. I put up a video of the snow scene and the roller skating home scene over there. The book used the photo of Lucy skating to illustrate the shooting on that street.

I've never seen My Fair Lady. I did google around for a few shots and found some that had the same feeling as the Mame sidewalk and buildings but not enough to do a one for one match up.

 

 

[Mot Morenzi]

10 hours ago, Luvsbway said:

I've never seen My Fair Lady. 

Any particular reason?

[Luvsbway]

8 hours ago, Mot Morenzi said:

Any particular reason?

I’ve concluded that I really don’t like this musical. It’s something about the songs that I just don’t find them appealing. Maybe one or two are fine and it’s better with Julie Andrews singing. But I’m not a fan of Audrey Hepburn, so it’s just a bad combination.

[Mot Morenzi]

20 minutes ago, Luvsbway said:

I’ve concluded that I really don’t like this musical. It’s something about the songs that I just don’t find them appealing. Maybe one or two are fine and it’s better with Julie Andrews singing. But I’m not a fan of Audrey Hepburn, so it’s just a bad combination.

That's fair. I do enjoy it, but I've never found it to be the "be all, end all" of musicals the way so many do. I'm very selective when it comes to musicals - only a small handful truly excite me. 

[Neil]

I don't know if anyone finds this interesting but sometimes I think about and find fascinating how fleeting time is and how close things were relative to the current year--when they seemed like ages apart, if that makes sense:  (my math may need a little fact checking).

If "Mame" was in production today, Lucille "too OLD for the role" Ball would have been born in 1958, the same year as Megan Mullaly, Bebe Neuwirth, Annette Benning, Ellen DeGeneres, Michelle Pfeiffer,  Holly Hunter, Jamie Lee Curtis AND EVE PLUMB!!---any one of which seems age-appropriate now. 

If "Life with Lucy" was airing this season, Here's Lucy would have ended its run in 2007,  I Love Lucy would have premiered in 1983 and the Ernie Kovacs Comedy Hour would have aired in 1992.   Lucy would have been born in 1944.  Marriage to Gary: 1994.  Wildcat: 1993-4. 

Today, the rustic old days of "Wildcat"'s Centavo City: 1970  

[Neil]

"Fritzy-Boy-2" posted an analysis of my  fav "The Late Show" and referenced the same blogger's views on Mame, which he said had been posted before.  I missed the post the first time around so in case anyone else did, it's worth a read:   

https://lecinemadreams.blogspot.com/search?q=mame

I have to say his (her? for brevity's sake I'll call him/her "him") analysis is pretty spot-on.  He points out things that I hadn't thought about and I've watched this movie so much, I can no longer be objective about it.  I want it to be a better movie than it is, for Lucy's sake.  I want to smack the next person who says Lucy was too old for the part.  When I meshed the number from the movie, Angela's revival and Ginger's London run,  the difference in the ages of the three women was only 4 years (Angela: 57, Ginger: 58, Lucy: 61 (her age in January of 1973).  Writer does point out the perfection of the Mame number and echos what I've always thought: Alas, if the rest of the movie had been this good.....  It was nice to get a little shout-out for a couple of my Mame videos at the end of the article.  I didn't think anyone--outside my fan base of 6-- was watching.  Unfortunately Youtube won't allow me to upload my favorite: the Mame number with the OBC soundtrack substituted.