Thursday, July 17, 2014
ELAINE STRITCH, 1925-2014.
She was great. (In this clip, wait'll she warms up! She begins a tad pro-forma, as if she doesn't like filling in for Merman nor the giant image orthicon cameras pointed at her -- that discomfiture is fun to observe, too -- but soon she shakes it off, and by the encore it's as if she's spotted a friend in the audience and is showing off.)
Now maybe I'll download her children's album.
UPDATE. Guess we should have this, especially if you've never seen it:
Not many people in history could be called definitive interpreters of Sondheim and Noel Coward.
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Uh-oh. Charles CW Cooke is not gonna like that language. (Or he'll imply he's okay with it, he's just mad that you're okay with it? I'm fuzzy on this point -- but I do know there's room for outrage.)
ReplyDeleteDamn. And Johnny Winter just yesterday.
ReplyDeleteAll you have to do is say, 'I'm going home,' and you're the most popular girl at the party.
-Elaine Stritch
On the right, outrage is like Jell-O. There's always room for it.
ReplyDeletePoutrage.
ReplyDeleteIt's always on the menu!
~
I really didn't know her outside of 30 Rock, so thank you for including the "in case you haven't seen it" clip, Roy.
ReplyDeleteGood comment.
ReplyDeleteUmbrage - it's what's for dinner!
ReplyDeleteI first encountered her through Two's Company, an ITV sitcom that was airing on Canadian TV when I was up to visit my grandmother. She seemed funny in a different way from most women on TV, although I didn't see many episodes. That's followed through with her more recent appearances as Colleen Donaghy on 30 Rock too.
ReplyDeleteLoved her Sondheim interpretations too, largely because she put so much of herself in the songs. She'll be missed.
Damn, you beat me to it.
ReplyDeleteHere's to the wingnuts who lunch.
ReplyDeleteCame across the story of Stritch being arrested and fined a dollar for wearing a halter top in Central Park while she was Merman's understudy. Her response was exquisite.
ReplyDeleteWill have to check out the children's album. IMO the leading cause of mental regression in parents—based upon my current experience of having a 15-month-old—is getting children's songs stuck in my head.
(Currently my brain is a rotating jukebox of the "Hot Diggety Dog" song from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, a couple of the songs from her various toys ["pizza pie, pizza pie / let's cook a pizza pie / sauce, cheese and crust, oh my!"], and a recording of an unreleased Margaret Wise Brown lullabye That last book & CD is actually really good, but if I had my druthers I'd just as soon have Drive Like Jehu on brain repeat.)
You need to cozy up to The
ReplyDeleteBonzos, especially their music while performing as the
house band on a show called, Do
Not Adjust Your Set.
Here’s a taste, called Mickey’s Son and Daughter. Jollity Farm and Mrs. Slater’s Parrot are two others kids love.
Absurd, subversive and just plain eccentric, this band was miles ahead of its time.
I'll second this comment.
ReplyDelete