*CANDIDS*

[charliechaplinfan]

I love that picture of Sammy Davis Jnr and Marilyn, I've never seen it before but recognise that Marilyn is dressed in a costume from The Seven Year Itch. My son's favorite song is Sammy Davis Jnr's version of The Candyman, I've heard it so many times and it's the best version of that well recorded song. Who else could be the Candyman apart from Sammy?

Alison, don't forget to give a nod along that line to your countryman Anthony Newly, a man whom I've always felt to be one of the most dreadfully overlooked major theatrical/musical geniuses of the late 20th Century.
Talk about Renaissance men - here was a singer/songwriter/composer/playwright/actor, whose range took him from penning the entire soundtracks for Dr. Doolittle, and Willy Wonka (which include "Candy Man" & "Pure Imagination" {the use of which in a current iPad commercial brought tears to my eye}), to showstopping standards like "What Kind of Fool Am I", & "Feelin' Good", to such uncredited gems as the lyrics for the Goldfinger theme!
Hmmmm . . maybe I should move these thoughts over to the Record Party!

Anthony Newley was a great talent, apparently he hated the version of Candyman that went into the Willie Wonka movie with Gene Wilder, so he recorded it himself and it's a very good version just not quite up to Sammy's, it is very similar though. Anthony Newley isn't known that much in this country which is a great shame, his biggest fame here is being married to Joan Collins, that kind of thing eclipses talent.

[mongoII]

MAY 19th. BIRTHDAYS


JAMES FOX is 71 today


NANCY KWAN is 71 today


BARBARA WHITING
(1931 - 2004)


BRUCE BENNETT (1906 - 2007)

[klondike]

Yo, Bert Pierce, put that nancy-boy kerchief back in Mildred's dresser drawer . . 'cause if you wear it into the office, Wally Fay's gonna razz ya about it all day long !
Leave that metrosexual stuff to Monte Beragon, 'kay?
(Oh, and btw, the Sons of the Pioneers called - they want that shirt back!)

[mongoII]

It's my pleasure, Kingrat.

[mongoII]

Dorothy Lamour and her pal mull over the next scene in 1938.

[mongoII]

Brian Aherne with wife Joan Fontaine and her sister Olivia de Havilland in happier times in 1942.

[klondike]

That has to be one of the best candids of Lamour I have ever seen; I'm now nearly convinced that she's one of those rare gals who was even lovelier when she pouted than when she smiled!

[feaito]

That has to be one of the best candids of Lamour I have ever seen; I'm now nearly convinced that she's one of those rare gals who was even lovelier when she pouted than when she smiled!

I agree completely Klondike!

[mongoII]

MAY 20th. BIRTHDAYS


ANTHONY ZERBE is 74 today


CONSTANCE TOWERS is 77 today


DAVID HEDISON is 83 today


EDITH FELLOWS is 87 today


PATRICIA ELLIS (1916 - 1970)


JAMES STEWART (1908 - 1997)


RUSSELL HARDIE (1904 - 1973)

[pvitari]

I saw Constance Towers play Anna in a revival of The King and I on Broadway back in -- in-- I have to look it up!

Thank goodness for ibdb.com (internet Broadway database)

It was either 1977 or 1978.

Yul Brynner played the King of Siam, of course.

[jdb1]

And yet another of our Unsung Characters - Anthony Zerbe. If you watched TV in the 60s and 70s, you couldn't get away from the guy -- he was everywhere. I think his earliest roles were as the sneaky little guy, then he got more gravitas and went on to military men (with sweaty smalltime hoods and nasty cowboys in between), and in recent years I've seen him more often than not playing a judge. IMBd lists 110 screen appearances for him, but I'll bet he's done even more than that.

Now, David (born Alvin) Hedison -- that's another story altogether. How I longed to Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea with him when I was a young teen. As far as TV crushes go, it was a three-way tie for me: Michael Landon/Richard Chamberlain/ David Hedison. [Sigh.]

[mongoII]

Henry Fonda chewing the fat with Randolph Scott at a party in 1938.

[rudyfan]

David Hedison is 83?!

[mongoII]

Yes! And he looks swell.