Nanette Fabray and the Faux Focus Lens

[Freddie2]

In a brief clip from the Archive of American Television, Nanette Fabray tells a story about her work on Happy Anniversary and Goodbye. I've never heard this before, but I believe it. Anybody know if it's true?

[Neil]

Perhaps, just perhaps Nannette's assessment of her performance was her own.  I've never thought of Lucy as Big Chief Hog-It-All when it came to who else would make a scene good.

[LittleRickyII]

In a brief clip from the Archive of American Television, Nanette Fabray tells a story about her work on Happy Anniversary and Goodbye. I've never heard this before, but I believe it. Anybody know if it's true?

 

I just posted the same topic!  I didn't notice you had already posted this.  Sorry!  Anyway, I would recommend checking out the other portions of her interview. I watched the last hour or so and she came across to me as really full of herself.  For example, she talks about her guest appearance on Maude and goes on and on about what a great job she did, and how Norman Lear "was so fabulously impressed" with her.  And she says she has a theory that Norman Lear forgot to submit her name for an Emmy nomination for that episode; otherwise, she says "I probably would have had a fourth Emmy."  That came across to me as rather presumptuous that she would think she would have automatically won over everyone else nominated if only her name had been submitted.  And towards the end of the interview, she says "I've won practically every award you can win, except the Oscar.  I've had all kinds of citations."  She just seems completely full of herself.  And being of that frame of mind with such a high opinion of herself, I can see her imagining that the reason they wanted her scene re-shot was because she was so much funnier than Lucy.

[Brock]

For example, she talks about her guest appearance on Maude and goes on and on about what a great job she did, and how Norman Lear "was so fabulously impressed" with her.  And she says she has a theory that Norman Lear forgot to submit her name for an Emmy nomination for that episode; otherwise, she says "I probably would have had a fourth Emmy."  That came across to me as rather presumptuous that she would think she would have automatically won over everyone else nominated if only her name had been submitted. 

 

Someone needs to tell Nannette that singing "Sonny Boy" out of one side of her mouth does not an Emmy earn.

[JoeySanJoaquin]

Someone needs to tell Nannette that singing "Sonny Boy" out of one side of her mouth does not an Emmy earn.

Amen! Mr. Lear's "forgetfulness" was not why she didn't "earn" (ahem) that 4th Emmy!

[LittleRickyII]

Someone needs to tell Nannette that singing "Sonny Boy" out of one side of her mouth does not an Emmy earn.

 

LOL!  So true.  I don't know if I could stomach listening to her full interview.  I listened to about a half hour and it was just brag, brag, brag.  Among the other comments she made was something about a drum scene on One Day at a Time with her niece, Shelley Fabares, that she described as one of the funniest scenes ever on television.  (Strange, then, that I never heard of this scene!)  And she said her niece was one of the "greatest comedic actresses of all time."  (A little over the top, don't you think?)  Practically everything she's been involved in she talks like it's gold. And listen to how she talks about herself in this short clip:  " I was very, very funny"; "I was creative and funny and wonderful"; "I was equally funny with Lucy." The one exception from what I've heard in the interview was The Mary Tyler Moore Show, when asked why she only made two appearances.  For that, she said she didn't think she clicked onscreen with Mary.  Of course, she did get in a dig that Mary insisted she do some crying schtick with her in one scene, that Nanette claims she told Mary she didn't think would work.  But Mary insisted, so she did it, and according to Nanette, the scene didn't work.  So it was Mary's fault, not Nanette's.

 

She also made sort a snide remark about Bea Arthur, saying Bea would burden her with "her problems."  She saying this while claiming Bea is her friend.  Bea was alive at the time of this interview, so I'm thinking, why would you make a public comment like that about someone who is supposedly your friend?  (With friends like Nanette, who needs . . .?)

 

Towards the end of the interview, she says she worries whether she will be remembered and then gives an anecdote about how one of her grandchildren came to visit and she was playing Bing Crosby.  The grandchild asked who the singer was and said he'd never heard of Crosby.  I was wondering, is Nanette suggesting her celebrity stature is equal to that of Bing Crosby?

[LittleRickyII]

This is in the trivia section of Nanette's imdb.com bio:  "She is a staunch conservative Republican."  This also is not helping my impression of her. 

[Brock]

"She is a staunch conservative Republican."

It figures. I wonder if she became a hardcore Republican after absentminded, liberal Lear ruined her life.

[JoeySanJoaquin]

Perhaps, just perhaps Nannette's assessment of her performance was her own.  I've never thought of Lucy as Big Chief Hog-It-All when it came to who else would make a scene good.

Quite the opposite from everything I've ever heard -- until now!

[Freddie2]

WOW had no idea Nanette is such a beyotch. I don't mind her being a republican (even though it makes sense) and her Maude performance was pretty on point. We have a lady in our town who's in her 50s and had a stroke and it's strikingly similar to the character on the show, although she's not in a wheelchair. Although, for as decent a job as Fabray did, that part could have been played by literally anyone else with decent acting skills. The guy asking the questions for this interview must have been constantly eye rolling.

And yes, singing Sonny Boy with a lisp out of the side of your mouth is nothing to write home about.

[LittleRickyII]

It figures. I wonder if she became a hardcore Republican after absentminded, liberal Lear ruined her life.

 

LOL!  You make me laugh. 

[LittleRickyII]

Quite the opposite from everything I've ever heard -- until now!

 

Yep!  I've always heard the contrary as well.  And you can see it on so many of Lucy's shows where she gives the stage to her guest star.

[LittleRickyII]

WOW had no idea Nanette is such a beyotch. I don't mind her being a republican (even though it makes sense) and her Maude performance was pretty on point. We have a lady in our town who's in her 50s and had a stroke and it's strikingly similar to the character on the show, although she's not in a wheelchair. Although, for as decent a job as Fabray did, that part could have been played by literally anyone else with decent acting skills. The guy asking the questions for this interview must have been constantly eye rolling.

And yes, singing Sonny Boy with a lisp out of the side of your mouth is nothing to write home about.

 

I had no idea, either, until I watched that interview a couple weeks ago and my jaw dropped.

 

I haven't seen that Maude episode in years, so I'll take your word for it that she did well.  I guess I'll have to take Nanette's word, too, because Nanette said she did such a fantastic job that people thought she had really had a stroke.

 

From what I've gathered listening to the small portion I heard of Nanette's interview, her performance on The Mary Tyler Moore Show wasn't as good as it should have been because Mary made her do something she didn't want to do (it's Mary's fault); her performance on the Lucy special would have been better except Lucy intervened to make sure she wasn't as funny as she could have been (it's Lucy's fault); and Norman Lear was lazy and failed to submit her name as a nominee for an Emmy she deserved and definitely would have won (it's Norman's fault).  But she's not bitter because she's "won practically every award you can win, except the Oscar."

[Brock]

 I guess I'll have to take Nanette's word, too, because Nanette said she did such a fantastic job that...

 

HAHA!

 

"When the audience thought Nanette's motor conked out, their motors conked out right along with her. That's acting. Real, real acting!"

[Irene Kampen Tripp]

Nanette Fabray and Rudy Vallee ought to start their own "I love me so much" club!!  They can walk around with a mirror so they can see their favorite person 24/7.

[LittleRickyII]

Nanette Fabray and Rudy Vallee ought to start their own "I love me so much" club!!  They can walk around with a mirror so they can see their favorite person 24/7.

 

LOL!  Lucy tended to clash with people who had over-sized opinions of themselves, so I'm surprised she got along with Nanette.  Or at least I assume she got along with her as I've never heard any stories about any problems; that is, until this interview.  But back to Nanette's claim, something else struck me as strange.  We all know that Lucy rehearsed everything endlessly so that by the time the cameras started rolling, she knew, and everybody knew, exactly what they were supposed to do.  So if Nanette had been doing something in rehearsal that Lucy didn't like, Lucy would not wait until the night they were filming in front of a studio audience to let Nanette know she wanted her to make a change.  That would have all been worked out in rehearsals.  So either 1) Nanette was performing her scene differently than she had been during rehearsals, and Lucy wanted her to do over again as rehearsed; or 2) Nanette completely misconstrued why she was being asked to re-shoot her scene (i.e, it really was for technical reasons); or 3) she's just flat out lying about the whole thing.

[Neil]

I do not dislike Nanette, but have never been wild about her.   I find her "Anniversary and Good-by" story a little hard to believe.  The preponderance of evidence is that Lucy was much more  generous to other performers than many big stars were.   I don't like Nanette's performance in the special: no subtlety at all.  Nor do I like fellow-Lucy-grumbler Peter Marshall's acting.  Both of them: strange casting when there are so many others who could have done better. 

But in the tit-for-tat category, here's a story about Nanette from the book "Show and Tell: Broadway Anecdotes"  "In "Mr. President", Nanette kept insisting the costume designer change Anita Gillette's costume for the song "Laugh It Up". Nan felt that Anita was "pulling focus".  It took 5 costume changes before Fabray approved the final costume."

[HarryCarter]

On the Behind the Curtain podcast, Broadway stalwarts Helen Gallagher and Lee Roy Reams both tell stories about Nanette complaining that they were pulling focus from her on stage and Nanette making sure she got her own way. 

I never heard a co-star flat out say they disliked Nanette, but the common thread in all these stories is Nanette was the difficult one who always had to be the center of attention.

 

[Freddie2]

She's certainly talented, but it's kind of inexplicable that she racked up three Emmys. TWO in 1956, beating out Audrey Meadows' Alice Kramden in the Supporting Actress category, and then the overall "Best Comedienne" award, beating Eve Arden, Gracie Allen, Ann Sothern and Lucy (who won Best Actress that year). The next year in "Continuing Performance- Comedienne" she again beat Lucy, Ann, and Gracie, plus Edie Adams for Ernie Kovacs' show. 

[Mot Morenzi]

55 minutes ago, Freddie2 said:

She's certainly talented, but it's kind of inexplicable that she racked up three Emmys. TWO in 1956, beating out Audrey Meadows' Alice Kramden in the Supporting Actress category, and then the overall "Best Comedienne" award, beating Eve Arden, Gracie Allen, Ann Sothern and Lucy (who won Best Actress that year). The next year in "Continuing Performance- Comedienne" she again beat Lucy, Ann, and Gracie, plus Edie Adams for Ernie Kovacs' show. 

I can see the episode now - "Nanette's Home Town" (AKA "No, No, Nanette")

Ms. Fabray, en route to Hollywood from New York to star in a widescreen color spectacle (super 70, and still barely big enough to capture her ego on camera), is motoring to the coast with "friends" Lucy, Eve, Gracie, Ann and Kaye (Ballard). Nanette's faux modesty charade, always flimsy at best, finally crumbles in her hometown of San Diego, where she plans a solo recital of songs and boastful monologues, mostly chronicling the struggle of what it's like being the greatest entertainer ever to live. Furious, the girls vow revenge, and plan a series of acts to upstage Nanette's recital:

- Ann walking back and forth eating progressively larger slices of cake.
- Lucy reenacting all her most famous TV comedy bits, including stomping grapes with Gracie and wrapping chocolates with Eve.
- Eve and Kaye donning the Greta and Goldie grasshopper costumes while performing their Bette Davis impressions.

This all culminates with the curtain being pulled back revealing a glittering crescent moon, where Lucy reprises her "Man in the Moon" routine from Mame. That's when Nanette finally turns around and sees what's been happening. Undeterred, and with unmitigated gall, she informs the audience that their shenanigans only serve to highlight how much more talented she is by comparison.

Before Nanette can get any further, the others unceremoniously shove her into the orchestra pit, right into the mouth of the tuba. When Nanette can't get the tuba off her head, the others proceed to "accidentally" lose her on the subway en route to the silversmith.

[Luvsbway]

51 minutes ago, Mot Morenzi said:

I can see the episode now - "Nanette's Home Town" (AKA "No, No, Nanette")

Ms. Fabray, en route to Hollywood from New York to star in a widescreen color spectacle (super 70, and still barely big enough to capture her ego on camera), is motoring to the coast with "friends" Lucy, Eve, Gracie, Ann and Kaye (Ballard). Nanette's faux modesty charade, always flimsy at best, finally crumbles in her hometown of San Diego, where she plans a solo recital of songs and boastful monologues, mostly chronicling the struggle of what it's like being the greatest entertainer ever to live. Furious, the girls vow revenge, and plan a series of acts to upstage Nanette's recital:

- Ann walking back and forth eating progressively larger slices of cake.
- Lucy reenacting all her most famous TV comedy bits, including stomping grapes with Gracie and wrapping chocolates with Eve.
- Eve and Kaye donning the Greta and Goldie grasshopper costumes while performing their Bette Davis impressions.

This all culminates with the curtain being pulled back revealing a glittering crescent moon, where Lucy reprises her "Man in the Moon" routine from Mame. That's when Nanette finally turns around and sees what's been happening. Undeterred, and with unmitigated gall, she informs the audience that their shenanigans only serve to highlight how much more talented she is by comparison.

Before Nanette can get any further, the others unceremoniously shove her into the orchestra pit, right into the mouth of the tuba. When Nanette can't get the tuba off her head, the others proceed to "accidentally" lose her on the subway en route to the silversmith.

LOVE IT!!!!!! Love the Man In The Moon bit. 

[Freddie2]

2 hours ago, Mot Morenzi said:

I can see the episode now - "Nanette's Home Town" (AKA "No, No, Nanette")

Ms. Fabray, en route to Hollywood from New York to star in a widescreen color spectacle (super 70, and still barely big enough to capture her ego on camera), is motoring to the coast with "friends" Lucy, Eve, Gracie, Ann and Kaye (Ballard). Nanette's faux modesty charade, always flimsy at best, finally crumbles in her hometown of San Diego, where she plans a solo recital of songs and boastful monologues, mostly chronicling the struggle of what it's like being the greatest entertainer ever to live. Furious, the girls vow revenge, and plan a series of acts to upstage Nanette's recital:

- Ann walking back and forth eating progressively larger slices of cake.
- Lucy reenacting all her most famous TV comedy bits, including stomping grapes with Gracie and wrapping chocolates with Eve.
- Eve and Kaye donning the Greta and Goldie grasshopper costumes while performing their Bette Davis impressions.

This all culminates with the curtain being pulled back revealing a glittering crescent moon, where Lucy reprises her "Man in the Moon" routine from Mame. That's when Nanette finally turns around and sees what's been happening. Undeterred, and with unmitigated gall, she informs the audience that their shenanigans only serve to highlight how much more talented she is by comparison.

Before Nanette can get any further, the others unceremoniously shove her into the orchestra pit, right into the mouth of the tuba. When Nanette can't get the tuba off her head, the others proceed to "accidentally" lose her on the subway en route to the silversmith.

Made me literally laugh out loud!

[Neil]

On 2/6/2019 at 3:13 PM, Freddie2 said:

Made me literally laugh out loud!

Me too....especially Ann walking back and forth with pieces of cake.  (no one does plots like Mot's)

Nan's 1956 Emmy was particularly galling.  This is when they were still giving Emmys for the calendar year instead of the season.  By the time Nan accepted this Emmy she hadn't been on the show for at least a year!  "Caesar's Hour" was never the hit "Your Show of Shows" was, though those who were around say "Hour" was a great show.    It won an Emmy for Best Series-One hour or More, which is a strange category in that it's based solely on running time; as did Sid as Best Performance by a comedian in a series.  It never cracked the top 30.  For its first 2 years it ran opposite  the higher-rated "Burns and Allen" and "Godfrey's Talent Scouts" Mondays from 8 to 9.   By the time I was paying attention, Sid's peak years had passed.  I only knew him from "Mad Mad World" and his Lucy Show. 

Re: Nan.  I was going to say 'let's not speak ill of the recently departed.  I'm TOO LATE!!... but it's her own fault!!  Nan's on-Broadway career ended with Irving Berlin's embarrassing swan song "Mr. President" in 1962.  Her series "Westing-gouse Presents Yes, Yes Nannette" had a short run in 1961.  Renewal?  The network said "No, No".  After that it was mostly guest shots and game shows and probably regional theater.  She may have been one of the MANY who did "Wildcat"!

[Mot Morenzi]

3 hours ago, Neil said:

Me too....especially Ann walking back and forth with pieces of cake.  (no one does plots like Mot's)

You're not too shabby at plots yourself! You've come up with ideas I never would've thought of.

[Freddie2]

The recently-premiered third season of One Day at a Time coupled with this recent discussion has me wanting to sample more of the original series. I’ve probably seen a couple of episodes, but to my recollection, none that featured Fabray’s character, who appeared exponentially as the series went on. Rita Moreno is such a powerhouse in the role, I’d like to see what “Nanny” did with it.