This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Kevin David Thomas: They were absolutely out of this world, stopping the show, people laughing. Shoshana Bean, who's what is and so funny. Who knew? I mean, I know she can sing, but my goodness, she's such a funny actress. Um, and then Jason Robert Brown himself came out and accompanied, um, which I thought was a very smart idea, not the flashiest song of the evening. Oh no, the quietest song of the evening. He came out and played "Christmas Lullaby" with just a piano accompaniment. Uh, and the audience, of course, lost it when he came out, and it was a really nice, a well-deserved ovation for the writer himself. Uh, and then, um, the orchestration was beefed up as well, so we got to hear you could definitely hear more of a, uh, let's just say, uh, "Bridges of Madison County" influence on his writing with the strings and everything.

It's definitely, um, not what you're used to hearing in the original cast, um, in a much better way. And so I really hope that they release this as a, uh, recording, a cast recording of the concert, because I think it deserves another recording with this sort of updated sound. And yes, there are riffs, but they work. So it was a really special evening, Rob. I know you love a good riff.

[1:12] Robert W Schneider: Well, uh, a sensible, so acting-supported riff. I don't like you just riffing just to riff for riff's sake. Nobody wants to hear that kind of riffing. But literally, Shoshana V came out for her first solo in the opening song, and she riffed. But the audience started laughing, like laughing because we expect that from Shoshana, and it was appropriate, and she did make sense of all of them, and I supported them. So what was really cool is that it made the sound of the songs all contemporary sounding, but not in a forced way, just in a very natural way that, you know, these songs just breathed new life into these songs that I was just completely blown away by. In the audience, you could feel the energy in the room. It was a really special evening. So, um, "Songs from a New World" for the win. Amazing. And for the record, I would just like to say I am not a fan of riffing, but I am a huge fan of Bernardoing.

[2:12] Kevin David Thomas: How dare you? I was like, where is he going with this? Oh, right. Yes. That is. Well, yes, Rob, I know about you. Yes, I know you are. That's what we call a gay dad joke.

[2:24] Robert W Schneider: Gay dad joke. Thank you for that. Rob, you are in the midst of quite a week, aren't you? Last night was your opening night for "Wonderful Town" out in Cape Cod. How did that go?

[2:36] Kevin David Thomas: It went incredibly well. I, you know, I've mentioned this like 90 times. I just have to keep mentioning it because it's such a unique thing that they do up here. Once again, um, if you're in the Boston or the Massachusetts area, the company is called College Light Opera Company. They're celebrating their 50th year. Lots of great people have gone through its doors, like John Lee Beatty and Dan Connectus and Will Chase and Nancy Anderson, Jeff Blumencrantz, Mo Rocka. The list goes on and on and on. Uh, but they are America's premier college, uh, training ground for people that want to do, uh, opera and musical theater, and it's really, really fantastic. These kids do nine shows in nine weeks. There's 32 cast members, there's, uh, 22 orchestra members.

Uh, right now we just opened "Wonderful Town," but they are rehearsing for "Thoroughly Modern Millie," and then on Friday they audition for "Pippin" and "Paracole." Um, and if you love old musical theater the way Kevin and I do, I would encourage you to check out their season because in some of their most recent seasons, they've done such shows as "Louisiana Purchase," "Call Me Madam," "I Married an Angel," "The Obscure Robert and Elizabeth," which I know Kevin David Thomas can choice.

[3:47] Kevin David Thomas: Oh, yes.

[3:49] Robert W Schneider: So if you get the chance, check out College Light Opera Company in West Falmouth. It's amazing. And in honor of keeping the tradition of great musical theater, the whole show is done without mics. There are no mics anywhere to be seen or to be heard. So it is the pure natural sound with the original Broadway orchestrations. So, and it's incredible, Rob. They run a really fantastic operation up here. So I encourage you, if you're ever in the area over the summer, go check out their work because what they are able to, I mean, the fact that we started our first rehearsal last week, last Tuesday, and then yesterday, Tuesday, the curtain went up, is just astounding to me. So please, please, please, if you're in the area, come around. I forgot to also tell you, Kevin, a couple of weeks ago, and I don't think we talked about this on the podcast, I was able to go to ART and see "Jagged Little Pill," the Alanis Morissette musical.

[4:41] Kevin David Thomas: Oh, what did you think of that?

[4:43] Robert W Schneider: That was like the hottest ticket in Boston for a while. It is brilliant. I have nothing else to tell you except that it is brilliant and amazing and wonderful, and it is, uh, everyone says it's the most woke musical. It tackles, I think, just about every single issue that we are dealing with right now. Uh, and I'm sure as time goes on and the show moves on, they'll probably focus it a little bit more. But this is in brilliant, absolutely wonderful shape. Uh, Diane Paulus is a genius. And what was so nice was I went with a cast member of mine, uh, who's 21, he's 21. So he said as we sat down, he goes, I don't know who Alanis Morissette is, and he goes, I haven't heard any of her songs. And I said, Oh, well, you know the song "Ironic."

And he goes, No, I've never heard that. And so at the end of the show, he was incredibly moved, so which made me so happy because for somebody who knows her work like we do, it's wonderful, and for somebody who doesn't know her work, it feels so integral and organic to the story, so it's a really happy medium on all ends.

[5:44] Kevin David Thomas: Oh yeah, oh, that is special. That's really wonderful. I was curious, Rob, if you were familiar with that album. I know that was like right in our generation growing up, and I wasn't a big listener to the album. Of course, I knew all of the songs, but were you a big listener of the album or were you kind of going into the musical, you know, familiar with the songs but not necessarily knowing every single word?

[6:05] Robert W Schneider: I went in familiar with the songs but not a diehard fan by any means whatsoever. And I think she's a brilliant, brilliant artist, and I've always loved her work. Uh, but no, I wasn't a diehard fan. There were diehard fans there who loved every second of it, and there were people there like my friend who had no idea who she was and couldn't tell you one song of hers, and he loved it as well. So I think it's gonna reach across to, uh, all generations, and I'm excited to see it come to Broadway.

[6:31] Kevin David Thomas: You think it'll move?

[6:31] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, that's exciting. It has, I would, if it doesn't, that's a huge mistake on somebody's end if it does not move to Broadway.

[6:39] Kevin David Thomas: Okay, great. Yeah, wow. So not a jukebox musical in the traditional sense, this is a book-driven musical that just happened to use some of the songs from "Jagged Little Pill," the album that Alanis Morissette came out with in like 1996 or something.

[6:54] Robert W Schneider: Yes, it's, um, it is a book-driven musical, and the music fits the story incredibly well. And Diane Paulus's direction on it is fabulous. I cannot remember the name of the choreographer, but their work is exemplary as well. So this is really wonderful. I don't, it's closed, but I'm assuming you're gonna be seeing it somewhat soon. So make sure to go see "Jagged Little Pill" when it comes out.

[7:16] Kevin David Thomas: All right. That's it.

[7:18] Robert W Schneider: Excellent. I have nothing more to say. And you had a good birthday? You went to Benihana?

[7:24] Kevin David Thomas: Yes. My birthday was June 28th, uh, as we mentioned. And I did. My mother was in town last week, and we, uh, I love that stupid little teppanyaki place so much. And oh, I saw the videos. It was exactly, yes, you did see a video. It was exactly what I thought it was going to be. I was not disappointed. Um, and we had a fantastic time. My mother had such a great visit. She got to, um, she got to come to see the reading of, uh, the presentation of "Bloody Bloody Jessica Fletcher," which was nice because she actually got to see me not as an actor, which she usually has seen me do, but to be a music director, uh, and with that hat on, and so that was really, it was a very, very, very nice week. Um, and now we're just gonna, it's the, we're recording today on the fourth, and so we're just gonna relax for the fourth of July. Sutton's family's coming out, so we're gonna have a nice little picnic outside.

[8:11] Robert W Schneider: That's so beautiful. Oh my gosh. It is so hot.

[8:13] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah, I have seen through every single piece of clothing I wear. Like I literally, I put on a shirt, I leave, I'm in rehearsal for an hour, and I am drenched, and I don't do anything, I just sit there and go louder, faster, funnier. Um, and somehow I'm sweating like I'm in a Russian, you know, steam bath or Turkish steam bath. I don't know why it had to be Russian.

[8:35] Robert W Schneider: No, he's specific. I like it.

[8:39] Kevin David Thomas: Um, that's what I'm gonna get in acting class. Oh, wait a minute. I have to tell you something. Um, and I don't know if you're gonna be happy about it, but I'm gonna tell you anyway. So I told you, I've told you this over text, but I don't think our listeners have heard. So when I came up here to start working on, uh, "Wonderful Town," uh, there's an associate conductor who said to me, I just have to tell you, I love the podcast, I think it's wonderful, blah blah blah. And I was like, Oh my god, that's so sweet. It's always nice when we find out people listen to us. Um, but his, he texted his friend and said, Hey, guess who's doing "Wonderful Town"? And the friend texted him back and said, in all capitals, "Freddie Martinez lives. Can we get more Freddie?"

[9:21] Robert W Schneider: Oh my gosh.

[9:25] Kevin David Thomas: I'm just telling you, Kevin, I know you're not a fan of Mr. Martinez.

[9:27] Robert W Schneider: He doesn't need to be encouraged, you guys.

[9:31] Kevin David Thomas: Don't we just got, we've gotten like four months with no long impersonations, and then this happens.

[9:38] Robert W Schneider: You gotta go off and do some summer thing somewhere in Cape Cod, and then Freddie Martinez lives all of a sudden.

[9:45] Kevin David Thomas: Please stop enabling me. Please stop enabling me.

[9:50] Robert W Schneider: Oh Rob, that's funny. I love it. I know Freddie Martinez is not a favorite thing of yours, but what is a favorite thing?

[9:55] Kevin David Thomas: No, no, no. Um, but in lieu of that, I will transition to my favorite thing. Great. Speaking of, uh, you know, actually, the better transition would be that my favorite thing today is both a, uh, a musical and a cast recording that will go along with that musical. But this is a musical that would be done by the theater that you're working at. It is a, you know, in the spirit of older shows that need to be heard. In fact, it's part of the controversy, not controversy, but the, what, you know, when this musical was put back together to try to get what it sounded like in its original state, it was hard to do that because shows of the 1920s and 30s, uh, the orchestrations weren't precious. So much of these songs were pop songs, and so what was important was the arrangement for each individual star who sang the show, uh, of the song.

So oftentimes, if a star was going into a show, they'd bring their arrangement of the song into the show, you know. And a lot of times the orchestra of these shows had really famous band leaders because, um, the popular song of the day were show tunes. So this was a show that was a big old hit in 1930. It was adapted into a musical in the 90s. Um, it changed the plot a little bit, kept some songs, added some other songs, and it is still being workshopped for a revival right now. But I want to talk about the original production from 1930. It ran for about 272 performances, and it introduced a lot of people to the business that we would have never had, or at least not the way we know them if it weren't for this show. It was written by George Gershwin and Ira. Um, you got it. Do you know what it is?

[11:34] Robert W Schneider: I have a feeling you probably do.

[11:35] Kevin David Thomas: I'm pretty sure it's "Girl Crazy."

[11:38] Robert W Schneider: "Girl Crazy!" That's right, of course you know what it is. Um, "Girl Crazy" um was this amazing. I mean, if I run down the songs that are from the show, I would say to you, "Embraceable You," "But Not for Me," "I Got Rhythm," "Samson and Delilah," "Biding My Time." Uh, all of those songs, if I were to play for them, you would be like, oh yeah, yeah, I know that song. I can't even imagine a show with five big ol' hits in it. Um, it introduced to the world Ethel Merman in her, in a more sexy role, which is a little something we weren't used to nowadays. But we think back in 1930, yeah, she played like the real, like sort of vixen. She was a very, uh, quite a sensation when she sang "Samson and Delilah."

They waited almost the entire act to give her a song. So people thought it was just like a pay, uh, you know, a speaking role, and then all of a sudden she comes and sings this sexy song. People lost it. People completely lost it. In "I Got Rhythm," she holds a note for 16 measures. Basically, a whole chorus, she holds the note out. So, like, I got rhythm, I got music. A whole chorus holds it out. Audience didn't know what to do with themselves. They never heard anybody sing like that before on Broadway. Also, fun fact, introduced Ginger Rodgers that made her a star in this musical. She played like the more love interest role. Um, the orchestra, we've a lot of people have talked about this before, but, um, orchestras, uh, in the 30s and the 20s, they, uh, were house bands in that an orchestra was, uh, tied to a specific theater, like, oh, we play the palace.

Okay, that's the house band. So in this house band, first of all, opening night, George Gershwin conducted the musical. Benny Goodman was in the band, Glenn Miller was in the band. Glenn Miller actually arranged "I Got Rhythm" for opening night. Jimmy Dorsey was in the band, a bunch of other band leaders that we don't remember their names as much, but of the time they were big, big, big-time players, all playing in the orchestra of this show. Um, I'm just fascinated that we're in the middle of George Gershwin's writing period. Um, he died way too soon. But this is, you know, before "Porgy and Bess" and all of that, but you can see, you can hear how they're attempting to sync up the acting and the singing with what the story is going on and the characterization.

They're not quite there yet, but you have to remember in this time, and I don't have to tell you this, Rob, because you literally teach musical theater history, but you know, that the time it was all about hit, you know, writing a pop tune that was popular and getting the hit. But to have characters come out of these songs and for them to actually reflect the drama that's going on in the scene, that was a very new thing. And George Gershwin was definitely, definitely trying to capture that with these songs and still make them popular at the same time.

[14:26] Robert W Schneider: The plot of the show is, of course, very silly. It's like a guy, you know, has to go to a ranch in Arizona and he's trying to get away from, you know, booze and women. And what does he do? He turns the ranch into a dude ranch and gets a bunch of booze and women, um, including Ethel Merman. And so, and that's it. I mean, really. I mean, it's—and Crazy for You sort of takes that and makes it—Crazy for You is the adaptation of the musical, I should say, and they add more songs, change the plot around. There's been movies made of it as well, of course. Um, and then just I know I'm talking for a while, but I will finish up by saying if you would like to hear a recording of this, um, unfortunately there's no original cast recording because original cast recordings weren't made in 1930.

Um, you could hear Ethel Merman singing a couple of the songs, but as the original cast, no one got together until the 1940s to actually make a commercial product that was the cast recording. However, um, you can get a 1951 studio album with Mary Martin. She just sings all of the songs, just in a typical studio sense. If there was a song that was for Ethel Merman or Ginger Rodgers, Mary Martin just sings them all on the album. So you get a nice album of Mary Martin. Interestingly enough, Rob, and I'm curious if you've ever heard this, another studio album. It's only on LP. I don't think it's on CD or on Spotify or anything. It's Helen Gallagher and Lisa Kirk in a recording from 1953. I've never seen this cast recording.

I mean, this studio recording, but um, it exists. Listeners, if you're diehard fans, have you guys listened to it? Have you heard it? Um, but the most important recording, uh, studio recording of the show is an entire recording done of every single piece of music done in 1990. So we're talking 60 years later. They have the original Robert Russell Bennett orchestrations. John, now help me out here, Rob, Mar Malserry, Mal M-A-U-C-E-R-I. I'm so embarrassed. He's still conductor. He's a classic conductor who crosses over into this. I think it's Mo Seri. Um, and the Nonesuch did a recording of the studio album with my favorite David Carroll, Judy Blazer, David Garrison, and our previous guest, Eddie Korbich.

Uh, and Lorna Luft plays the Ethel Merman role in that. So I would highly recommend getting that 1990 cast album, uh, studio album of Girl Crazy to just to hear what the world was like and how these songs are so present, how they changed the face of musical theater. Um, and yes, it was Oklahoma that did it in 1943, but Girl Crazy—Oklahoma never would have been there if Girl Crazy didn't come along in 1930. So my favorite thing this week is the original production of Girl Crazy in 1930 and the 1990 cast album, uh, studio album made by Nonesuch Records.

[17:19] Kevin David Thomas: That is fantastic. I was thinking when, okay, I'm gonna be a little sacrilegious here for a second. I'm sure we're gonna get responses about this. When you were talking about um the fact about original orchestrations, blah blah blah. I thought you were gonna talk about the Show Boat recording that John McGlynn made in the 80s, uh, which I finally listened to it. Um, remember that John McGlynn did the like the Show Boat album where it was like every single song? Of course, and uh, I believe Larry Moore helped out on that. I believe. Yes, um, I thought that's what you were gonna talk about at first, and but I'm happy you're gonna be.

[17:57] Robert W Schneider: Oh no, I dug deeper. I dug deeper. You went with Girl Crazy. Um, it's so interesting that you actually mentioned Ginger Rodgers because Ginger Rodgers actually has something to do with my favorite thing this week. You look, I love when we can, you know, have a little connective tissue between us. And you're so far away too, Rob. You're so far away, but yet you're so close. I can almost feel like you're here with me right now.

[18:26] Kevin David Thomas: All right, Little Women. Some things were meant to be. Oh, that'd be sweet if we sang that together, Rob, when we do a 54 Below concert of my favorite things and Behind the Curtain, probably as Living Legends. We'll just tell you something, Ranger. Bring it down. We'll just—if we do a My Favorite Things, I don't think Little Women is ever gonna be on that list.

[18:44] Robert W Schneider: Okay, fair enough. Just throwing that out there. Not nothing. I will tell you though, if nothing else, I will tell you why I like Little Women. It did give us hundreds upon hundreds of BFA girls' showcases screaming Christopher Columbus. It's one of my favorite things in musical theater history.

[19:04] Kevin David Thomas: That video, you know what you're not—yes, that you uh we're talking about the same thing, right? Where the person has gone through and they've just grabbed that two seconds of over 50 clips of girls singing that, where they're like Christopher Columbus, and then they splice it all together. Oh, I love it.

[19:19] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, that's—I mean, because you're like, what is she? What is happening in this moment? And the fact that the word astonishing, where it's being held out, is a little bit weird. You know what? I'm not gonna get into it. No, uh, but it's good. That's good.

[19:31] Kevin David Thomas: So I'm happy that we got to—what's—I love the song on the beach. I'm sorry, I've got to go back now to Ginger Rodgers. Your favorite thing.

[19:41] Robert W Schneider: Okay, my favorite thing, like I had mentioned last week. Um, I've been doing a lot of reading uh because uh internet, as you know here, is spotty, and I don't have a TV or a DVD player. But we have heard that a lot of the listeners have heard as well.

[19:53] Kevin David Thomas: Yes, yes, yes. Just so you're aware.

[19:57] Robert W Schneider: Um, lots of good books have come out lately, and I think they're gonna be so many of them that, like I said, in the next few weeks that are favorite things. But this one got published this year. It is by our good friend, um, and God, we want him on the podcast. So if anyone can help us, that would be great. Ethan Morden.

[20:15] Kevin David Thomas: And Ethan Morden just wrote a book called All That Jazz, The Life and Times of the Musical Chicago.

[20:24] Robert W Schneider: Oh, wow. Right? Um, this—if so, first of all, if you don't like the musical Chicago, this book is probably not for you. So we'll start, we'll start, we'll start off like that. Um, and what he does in this book, bec—and also, you know, if you don't like Chicago, that's okay. I love Chicago. I happen to really like Chicago. Um, you can't admit its power. The fact that it's, you know, it's um, I think it was very, very—what's the word I'm looking for? Not prescient, that's not the word that I'm looking for. Um, it could predict the future. I think Chicago, the musical really predicted the American's obsession with celebrity and with crime and making criminals into celebrities. And then in the 90s, it became—it, you know, had this amazing revival, which is still running today.

It's America's longest running musical. And then the movie version of it pretty much brought back movie musicals into the national consciousness. So, well, if you don't like the story of Chicago, you cannot deny the story's power in the rest of the world. So Ethan Morden has written this great book, which chronicles uh not only from the musical, but the city of Chicago, how the city of Chicago came to be, what the 1920s was like, and then the play by Maureen Dallas Watkins, then the movie, then how um another chapter on how satire came into musical theater, and Ginger Rodgers was in one of the movies where she played Roxy Hart. Um, and uh, and then how the musical itself got developed with Bob Fosse, and then how it got revived.

It's incredible. And then how it became a movie. It's a really—it’s a really fantastic book. I had no idea. You know, we've talked—yeah, it came out just this year. I think it came out in March. And if you know from our previous episodes, or you probably know his series, Ethan Morden writes these fabulous books on the decades of musical of each decade of the American musical, starting with the 20s and going up all the way until um the 2000s or so. So this book I found it really fun. And if you know, he's got a very unique writing style. He's very—well, he tries to stay factual, he's very opinionated. Very opinionated. Um, and it's just—it's also interesting to explore how this story um had evolved into the musical because I think people forget there was a play, and there was a couple of movies, non-musical movies before the musical ever came out.

So, and the fact that it's written by a female playwright, which was not really the thing back in the 20s. You know what I mean? So there's a lot of really cool things about the book, and it's a nice uh, it's a really nice introduction into the history of the musical. And I want to applaud him because I thought he was just gonna start like one day, Bob Fosse said blah blah blah. But he gives you in the first chapter this really fascinating history of how the city of Chicago came to be, and his chapter on satiric musicals, because Chicago is a satire, how that evolved and when it got started in the American musical theater. Um, it's a really quick read, and it's my favorite thing for the week. It's Ethan Morden's book, All That Jazz, The Life and Times of the Musical Chicago.

[23:22] Kevin David Thomas: Fantastic. And I, you know, it sounds—you reminded me a little bit of uh Michael Riedel's book in Razzle Dazzle, how I thought it was gonna be one thing, and then these authors of this niche art form that we love so much are finding ways of writing in a way that makes it universal, so you don't have to just be a fan of musical theater to read the book, but it is interesting in its own right.

[23:43] Kevin David Thomas: Uh, I hope I'm not projecting too much onto the book, but I have a feeling it's a very similar thing that it is going to appeal to, you know, people that aren't, that don't already know every single fact about Chicago.

[23:55] Robert W Schneider: Um, it sounds like a real interesting story.

[23:58] Robert W Schneider: Absolutely. So I would encourage you to pick up a book, and I'm sure you're probably aware of this, listeners. Maybe you're not. Somebody has just posted on YouTube some really fabulous footage of the original production of Chicago. Um, that they took like, I think on a, you know, an old 16mm, eight millimeter camera. Um, in their tryouts, though. So you see uh David Rounds, who played the agent character that got cut on the road. You see um them doing a different finale than what was originally what originally ended up on Broadway. Um, it's really great, and it's also very striking uh on how the visual sense of Bob Fosse's Chicago is so different than the visual sense of our contemporary Chicago, which we think of as very black, you know, black clothing scaled down, etc. etc. So that's mine. So pick up a copy of All That Jazz, The Life and Times of the Musical Chicago, read about Ginger Rodgers' turn as Roxy Hart, and then listen to Girl Crazy.

[24:52] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah. Which introduced Ginger Rodgers to the world.

[24:54] Robert W Schneider: Well, and the sexy sounds of Ethel Merman.

[24:57] Kevin David Thomas: Oh, the sexy, sultry sounds of Merman.

[25:00] Robert W Schneider: No one ever says.

[25:02] Kevin David Thomas: I'm a vixen.

[25:05] Robert W Schneider: My milkshake brings the boys to the yard.

[25:08] Kevin David Thomas: So subtle.

[25:12] Robert W Schneider: Am I too romantic?

[25:17] Kevin David Thomas: I don't know.

[25:17] Robert W Schneider: I love you.

[25:18] Kevin David Thomas: That was a really good Merman, though.

[25:19] Robert W Schneider: That was good.

[25:20] Kevin David Thomas: No, it isn't.

[25:22] Robert W Schneider: And listeners, I uh just so you know, I won't do Freddie Martinez as long as Kevin brings in some of his great impressions, because he's kind of genius at them.

[25:30] Kevin David Thomas: No, I so—but he hides them from the world.

[25:34] Robert W Schneider: You know what? We—they always work better when we're back in person. So when we get back together, when we're in person, then it'll happen, I'm sure, Rob.

[25:42] Kevin David Thomas: Like Clea Blackhurst sings in The Nutty Professor, come out of your shell.

[25:47] Robert W Schneider: Oh, that's so specific.

[25:49] Kevin David Thomas: Thank you.

[25:51] Robert W Schneider: I like a niche joke.

[25:53] Kevin David Thomas: Oh, me too. If I can make just one person giggle, and not a thousand people, just one.

[25:59] Robert W Schneider: That's—that's good.

[26:00] Kevin David Thomas: That's a thing from Title of Show.

[26:01] Robert W Schneider: I'd rather be nine people's favorite thing than a hundred people's ninth favorite thing.

[26:06] Kevin David Thomas: Yes, yes, yes. And it's—I get, and I actually deeply agree with because there are things that I love so deeply that I'm like, I know I'm the only person that cries this hard at the end of Violet, but I don't care. I'm—I am that guy, and that's fine. I'm one of nine people, and I'm proud of it.

[26:25] Robert W Schneider: So yeah, no, I'm happy about that.

[26:29] Kevin David Thomas: I'm happy you're happy.

[26:31] Robert W Schneider: Oh, you know what? It's not a favorite thing, but can I throw it out there for our listeners to take a look at really quickly? So in my Wonderful Town research, um, first of all, they made it into a television movie with Rosalind Russell in 1958, and the whole thing's online.

[26:47] Kevin David Thomas: Wait, of Wonderful Town?

[26:49] Robert W Schneider: The TV—yeah, they made a TV movie with Rosalind.

[26:51] Kevin David Thomas: This is amazing.

[26:52] Robert W Schneider: Whoever is the person out there who A had that for all these years and decided to put it on there, or stole it out of some sort of museum. Thank you.

[27:00] Kevin David Thomas: Uh Rob, that's so incredible. I had no idea that that was on there.

[27:05] Robert W Schneider: Yeah, take a look at that, but even more importantly, I have to share this. Um, there is a clip of actually two of our former guests. It's Jason Gras and Howard McGillan, and they're dancing conga at some sort of Boston Pops concert.

[27:22] Kevin David Thomas: And guess who's playing Ruth Sherwood in the Conga number?

[27:26] Robert W Schneider: If you say Helen Gallagher.

[27:28] Kevin David Thomas: No.

[27:29] Robert W Schneider: Okay.

[27:29] Kevin David Thomas: I was hoping.

[27:31] Robert W Schneider: I love her more than Helen Gallagher if at all possible.

[27:33] Kevin David Thomas: Who is it?

[27:34] Robert W Schneider: Who is it, Rob?

[27:35] Kevin David Thomas: She's a golden girl.

[27:37] Robert W Schneider: If it is Bea Arthur.

[27:38] Kevin David Thomas: It's Bea Arthur singing conga.

[27:43] Robert W Schneider: Rob, you must have—when you found that clip, you must have lost your—you must have lost it completely.

[27:49] Kevin David Thomas: Oh, yes, but luckily the paramedics came in time to revive me.

[27:55] Robert W Schneider: Oh, I love ya. But it's Bea Arthur doing like this tiny little conga while everyone's dancing around.

[28:02] Kevin David Thomas: That's—I take—take a look at this, everybody. Take a look at Bea Arthur doing conga. There's your homework.

[28:08] Robert W Schneider: All right, till next time. Bye, everybody.