This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] ♪ Musical number: "My Favorite Things" — performed by Unknown artist ♪

[0:17] Robert W Schneider: Hi, I'm Robert W Schneider.

[0:18] Kevin David Thomas: And I'm Kevin David Thomas.

[0:20] Robert W Schneider: And this is our favorite thing.

[0:22] Kevin David Thomas: Huh?

[0:23] Robert W Schneider: Oh, you and your royal proclamations.

[0:25] Kevin David Thomas: Well, you know why I have royal proclamations?

[0:28] Robert W Schneider: Because I went to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Fair.

[0:31] Kevin David Thomas: You did what?

[0:33] Robert W Schneider: Sutton and I have gone now two years in a row to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Fair.

[0:39] Kevin David Thomas: Now, Rob, I'm serious. This is a place you go, and Sutton gets fully dressed up. I do not, I'm like embarrassed that I don't get dressed up. That's how intense it is.

[0:47] Robert W Schneider: But when you go and you like are there, everyone's like, Good morrow! Fare thee well, pray thee, what speakest thou today? Like they love to speak in like the Renfair, you know, shit jargon. And I just kind of go along for the ride, and it's fun, and but I like I do like to say things like huzzah!

[1:09] Kevin David Thomas: The king arriveth, and the king totally called me out because Sutton was like bowing to him and he was walking offset with his cause they literally walk around with like an entourage and they act like he is the king, King Henry, you know. And so, and he was like and I'm nice of you yesterday working at Dwayne Reedis. But he was like, Sutton's like bowing to him, and I'm like, oh honey, and he's like, he goes to me, look, cause they're all actors. He's looks right at me, he's like, There's no fourth wall here. And he totally called me out.

[1:37] Kevin David Thomas: Jeez king. And then when in front of everyone during the jousting, the royal jousting, because they have full-on jousting, and he they a whole crowd is there, they're all presented to the king, and I go, God save the king. And he's like, Oh, you're catching on. Like he's very funny, but like they're very I have to say, these actors who I mean they only do it on the weekends, they live there, but I don't know what their life is like during the week. Amazing.

[1:59] Robert W Schneider: But it was, I have to say, they are they're always all in. They are always improving the entire time. I love it. They are having a good time, and they are and it I listen. I'm sure there's listeners out there who have gone to a rent fair. I grew up going to them when I was a kid. We never got dressed up. Well, now I'm a little like I'm kind of digging it. I'm kind of into it.

[2:17] Kevin David Thomas: I have to ask, do you do you have a couple of drinks in you before you go?

[2:20] Robert W Schneider: During the whole time. Are you kidding me? Oh, well, so the one in Pennsylvania, it's about a three-hour drive. Uh I know because I know there's one 45 minutes uh right outside New York here. But we go to the one in Pennsylvania. There, it's on a vineyard and a brewery. So they have so you have like a cup and you just like booze and cruise the whole time. It's awesome.

[2:37] Kevin David Thomas: That's really perfect. But it's really beautifully well done. You really feel like it's like it feels like Disney World in a way, because everything is everything's about the details, and it's a permanent place. So there's all these buildings there, and it's all it's cool, and they have shows, live entertainment. In fact, there's this guy that does a whip thing, um, Don Juan and Miguel, like these two guys, they've been doing it for so long that I saw them when I was 12, and I'm 36, and so that's how long they've been doing these.

[3:03] Robert W Schneider: Oh oh yeah, they make a living doing it. We bought their DVD, which is good, but slightly sad. Or no, you know what I mean? Like, when you see Don Juan like you know, packing up his stuff, and this is like this like 58-year-old man, like you're like, wow, that's good job. You know, Don Juan and Miguel. There were no cameras in the Renaissance. So what is it, like like oil portraits, and you just like flip through it, and it's like really fast. So it looks like a cartoon. Look at Don and Miguel. Ninety seven years old, but God bless them. You have to respect and honor that they've they've managed to and they travel all over the country, by the bottom.

[3:40] Kevin David Thomas: But they does, he'll put Miguel puts walker.

[3:45] Robert W Schneider: That is incredible. It is amazing. And they've they've made a living doing this for the last, you know, like a matchstick in his mouth, and he whips it. Do you think if you were living in the Renaissance, you would be surviving?

[3:52] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah, we'd be entertainers.

[3:53] Robert W Schneider: We'd be court jesters.

[3:55] Kevin David Thomas: Would we really?

[3:56] Robert W Schneider: I think we would be.

[3:56] Kevin David Thomas: Could I wear the hat with the bells?

[3:58] Robert W Schneider: Oh, I would love to see you in that.

[3:59] Kevin David Thomas: Well, come over tomorrow. I've already ordered mine from X.

[4:04] Robert W Schneider: That's a throwback to a few other episodes.

[4:07] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah, I could I could totally do that. Wow. How are you doing?

[4:11] Robert W Schneider: Huzzah.

[4:11] Kevin David Thomas: Huzzah.

[4:12] Robert W Schneider: Grant, I kind of want to go with you guys now to a Renaissance fair.

[4:15] Kevin David Thomas: We'll bring you in Daniel. It'll be fun.

[4:16] Robert W Schneider: That would oh my God. He would love that.

[4:18] Kevin David Thomas: He would love that.

[4:19] Robert W Schneider: I like that you said he would love that. Would you?

[4:21] Kevin David Thomas: I don't know.

[4:22] Robert W Schneider: Oh, I'm going to.

[4:23] Kevin David Thomas: Okay, good. I'm going to go to the show.

[4:24] Robert W Schneider: I thought you drop your kids off and then go see a movie or something.

[4:27] Kevin David Thomas: You can call me when you're ready to get picked up from the mall.

[4:30] Robert W Schneider: Huzzah.

[4:31] Kevin David Thomas: Oh gosh. My children wanted me to pick them up. Huzzah.

[4:36] Robert W Schneider: Oh my God. I'd be drinking.

[4:38] Kevin David Thomas: Okay. So, first of all, speaking of huzzah, a big thank you to some of our listeners who are responding again in droves with what their hashtag skip song is.

[4:50] Robert W Schneider: So once again, as Kevin said a couple of weeks ago, hashtag skip song does not mean that the song is bad. It doesn't mean that writing is bad. We love the songs. We love all show tunes. We are just sometimes we like others more than others.

[5:02] Kevin David Thomas: Absolutely.

[5:03] Robert W Schneider: Absolutely. So we'll throw out a couple of things. You might remember our previous guest Brian Hobgood, uh, who came on and talked about the Tony Awards with us. Brian said I could do a 90 minute podcast about this alone. Where to even begin. Uh good buddy Will Thomason uh said Spring awakening, and then there were none. He said because it's awesome in the show, just not on the morning commute.

[5:23] Kevin David Thomas: Oh.

[5:23] Robert W Schneider: So there's a reason why we skipped the song.

[5:25] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah, totally. My mother, when we were talking, I was talking to my mother about this, and this kills me. I was like, We were talking about skip songs of my mom immediately, immediately. She's like, Oh, when I listen to little night music, ugh, always, always liaisons. And that's nothing against Angela, but she just she doesn't do it.

[5:42] Robert W Schneider: A lot of people don't love the liaisons, though. I have to say a lot of people. I'm not surprised by that, to be honest. A lot of people aren't aren't fans of liaisons.

[5:48] Kevin David Thomas: Um Steven Carl McCasland, who's doing some great stuff over at uh Feinstein's 54 Below, A Man's Gotta Do from Bright Star. You know what? I can actually I understand I love Bright Star.

[5:56] Robert W Schneider: Me too.

[5:57] Kevin David Thomas: I love Bright Star. It's like one of the best recordings I've heard in a long time. But that's a song that I can understand skipping. Our good buddy Casey Graham, um, who he's doing double duty. Casey's the associate director on the tours of Dirty Dancing and Phantom of the Opera.

[6:15] Robert W Schneider: My goodness, Casey. Don't get those two shows mixed up.

[6:19] Kevin David Thomas: Nobody puts Christina in a corner.

[6:22] Robert W Schneider: It's very odd at the end where Christine runs and the phantom lifts her up and correls her around.

[6:29] Kevin David Thomas: That was good. He did um the bottom line from Newsies and Let Love Grow from nine to five.

[6:35] Robert W Schneider: Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. Uh on Twitter we had uh this one I gotta agree with, and we've had a lot of people come in. Uh Beck Anderson and Sidney Stopper from on Twitter, they both said contact from Rent.

[6:45] Kevin David Thomas: And I I gotta say, yeah, you guys know that one where they're like I don't even I can't even remember. They're like they I say all the words and they're all like throwing themselves against the gray, and then you find out Angel's dead, and then you're like, oh that sucks.

[6:58] Robert W Schneider: That sucks, right?

[6:59] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah, and then they get to like the greatest song in it, which is um uh without you, right? They go with that, yeah.

[7:05] Robert W Schneider: That when I was when I first saw Rent and I was like a teenage, maybe I was like 20 or something, I I was the first time I ever saw that sequence where the because remember there are three tables, yeah, and when they each picks sobbing, like just crying my eyes out.

[7:19] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah.

[7:19] Robert W Schneider: They got me on uh one on one song glory right at the beginning.

[7:22] Kevin David Thomas: Oh, really?

[7:23] Robert W Schneider: Those first opening chords.

[7:24] Kevin David Thomas: Oh wow.

[7:25] Robert W Schneider: I was like, this is gonna be something so special.

[7:27] Kevin David Thomas: At Ricky Condos, say no to this from Hamilton.

[7:31] Robert W Schneider: Oh, Ricky Condos, but good for you, Ricky, you stand strong.

[7:36] Kevin David Thomas: Tim McDonald says my house for Matilda simply because Miss Honey is the worst.

[7:44] Robert W Schneider: My house.

[7:46] Kevin David Thomas: Oh my god. We will we'll send some more your way, but you guys are doing laugh. You guys are doing so good with some of these. I love them so much.

[7:52] Robert W Schneider: Oh, my favorite though. Well good what? This actor's name is David Groschup.

[7:58] Kevin David Thomas: David Grosha said from The Little Mermaid, Les Poissons, which is ironic because I saw David in this production this summer and he played the chef.

[8:05] Robert W Schneider: So he didn't so I don't know if it's oh my god, that's good. They keep sending them our way. We're so happy.

[8:13] Kevin David Thomas: Oh my god. And we're gonna send some favorite things your way right now. Some more obscure shows or websites or books.

[8:21] Robert W Schneider: That's right. Who shall go first? Who won the coin toss?

[8:24] Kevin David Thomas: Oh, I don't know. I'll go first.

[8:26] Robert W Schneider: You gonna go first?

[8:27] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah.

[8:31] Robert W Schneider: So one of my favorite things is this um it's not really the show, it's it's it's a recording of uh uh what was thought to be a long lost show. Uh you know, PS Classics is is a is a um a recording, I wouldn't say company. I mean, they're a non-for-profit group. Uh Tommy Kresker and Philip Chaffin. Uh, they they oftentimes will record shows that need to be heard again.

[8:54] Kevin David Thomas: Um, like Girl Crazy, they really I think they released that. But this is a this is a show in honor of Hillary Clinton being ostensibly our one of our could be our first female president.

[9:04] Robert W Schneider: Uh, this was written by a woman who some thought this was the first score, a book, you know, a book musical that was written by a woman. Turns out it really technically isn't. There was someone before her, but she's often cons people think that this is the first one. This let's just say this is the first really good one.

[9:19] Kevin David Thomas: And she wrote the score to this.

[9:22] Robert W Schneider: It's a woman who wrote a score in uh 1930, and she wrote the score to this with her husband.

[9:31] Kevin David Thomas: On top of it all, she had an over 10 year love affair with George Gershwin, who encouraged her to write this musical with her husband to help.

[9:43] Robert W Schneider: So her grandchild said some people have a child to stay together. Well, they wrote a musical. They didn't stay together.

[9:48] Kevin David Thomas: Is it Dorothy Fields?

[9:50] Robert W Schneider: I wish it was. No, oh my gosh. Her name is Kay Swift.

[9:56] Kevin David Thomas: And Kay Swift wrote Fine and Dandy.

[9:59] Robert W Schneider: Oh my god. I know, here we go. So that's the name Kevin. That's the name of the musical.

[10:03] Kevin David Thomas: The musical was called Fine and Dandy, which she wrote with her husband, Paul James.

[10:08] Robert W Schneider: That's a nom de plume. His name is something else, but he was a banker, and that was it wasn't considered kosher to be writing a musical if you're a banker. The crazy thing about all of this is that she they were filthy rich. They were in their young, they met when she was like a piano player at a party, and he met her at like 17, and they like hit it off, so they like got together and they got married and they had three kids.

[10:27] Kevin David Thomas: And and they were filthy rich. Like just they were and they were young, so they would like have parties in the roaring twenties, and like, you know, blah, blah, blah. Well, she always played the piano. She was a classically trained pianist, and she was a very good piano player.

[10:40] Robert W Schneider: Well, in invited to one of the parties is one George Gershwin, who was famous, a famous bachelor. Like he was very much a playa, and he had a lot of fun at the time because he was so talented, but also a bachelor.

[10:50] Kevin David Thomas: Well, they fall in love at one of these parties. Well, he recognizes her talent, and he's like, oh my gosh, like you should write a musical.

[10:59] Robert W Schneider: Well, their marriage, her marriage wasn't doing so well. And he's like, hey, your husband used to write poetry. You guys should write a musical together.

[11:06] Kevin David Thomas: So George Gershwin encourages her to write this musical called Fine and Dandy.

[11:10] Robert W Schneider: Uh and it was, it was very much of its era. So it was like, not I mean, a book musical, yes, there was a loose plot. I don't even I couldn't even tell you what the plot is right now, but but it was but there was a comedian in it, and so a lot of was a lot of sketches that he did.

[11:23] Kevin David Thomas: But the songs, the songs are actually shockingly amazing. She was a very good songwriter.

[11:27] Robert W Schneider: Like, what are some of the songs that we were doing? So in this album, so in this album, uh the the song is um Fine and Dandy is one of the big ones. But but so it let me just say that in 2004, PS Classics found, you know, they got they acquired this score.

[11:43] Kevin David Thomas: They someone sent it to them, and they were like, Okay, all right, we'll listen to it. And they were like, Oh my gosh, this is actually this is pretty good. This is really good.

[11:50] Robert W Schneider: So they got Carly Carmelo, they got Mark Lynn Baker, they got Gavin Creel, they got Andrea Burns, they got Mario Cantoni, they got a bunch of people to record the songs. They had it reorchestrated because all of Hans Spialic's uh he's he was a great old musician for the 20s and 30s and did a lot of great charts uh and and scores uh over the orchestrations, they're all gone.

[12:08] Robert W Schneider: So they had to hire Larry Moore, whom we interviewed a couple weeks back. He was an orchestrator that they re, you know, he's very good at reproducing it. They had Larry Moore do it with a guy named Aaron Grady, and then this other man named Russell Warner worked with Kay Swift, who lived to be like 96 or something.

[12:27] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah, I remember that she lived in the middle of the day.

[12:28] Robert W Schneider: Oh, yeah, she lived all the way up to the 90s. She was born in like 1897, I want to say. Uh, and she lived to like 1993 or so. I have it written down here somewhere. But um, so this gentleman worked with her on to try to remember what her old melodies were. Um, and so they have this someone some of the songs you might want to listen to. I love the song that Gavin Creel sings called Starting at the Bottom. Really sweet song. They're catchy, they're toe-tapping songs. Um, Andrea Burns sings I Met a New High, uh, Let's Go Eat Worms in the Garden, which it sounds silly, but when you hear it, you're kinda like, hey, that's kind of fun. I like these. It's very much in the style of like Gershwin shows, like Girl Crazy.

And then we so the interesting thing is you can see the influence that Gershwin had on Kay Swift. K Swift never really wrote another big musical after this. She wrote one show in 1950 called Paris 90 or something like that. It was like a sort of like an Otis Skinner thing. Um, but she never really wrote a big musical, but she did she divorced in like a couple years after this came out, like 1934, still stayed close with Gershwin, still had this thing. You it makes you wonder, did she perhaps she had an influence on him? Because he famously would get inspiration from other writers.

[13:42] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah, you know what I mean?

[13:43] Robert W Schneider: Like Poor Game Best and all that. I mean, he would go uptown to listen to some of the musicians in Harlem and then be like, oh well, I'm gonna write I'm gonna use that. So I read an article that was basically saying that maybe she had a bigger influence than people think because she was such a strong musician. So yeah, so PS Classics released this album. Um and I just I don't know, I think it's really cool that this in a time when only men did music and created scores. That and here is this, and she wasn't just like some lady who like needed to work, like she were very well off. Uh, Gershwin got her a job in 1927 for a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court. So he got her the job as a rehearsal pianist for that. So you can imagine this woman like in her furs going down to like this, you know, to rehearse in like be the rehearsal pianist for this show. It sounds like there's a movie, right? Fascinating, huh?

[14:36] Kevin David Thomas: And I'm sure they but this the whole story, what's interesting is that every article I read is always about her, her husband, and Gershwin and this sort of like weird and they all went to the same therapist. Not at the same time, but they all were on the same couch at different times. But therapist had something. He was like a famous therapist, I forget who it was, but yeah, no, there's definitely something there.

[14:58] Robert W Schneider: But what I what I like about it is that the score, yes, it is of its time. And yes, you definitely hear that these are sweet little tunes, but I when I first heard it and I was like 23, 24, I couldn't stop listening to it. I really was captivated by the singing and the style of it. And um it's fun, it's just nice nice old throwback. So if you like, you know, fascinating rhythm and you know, embraceable you and those kinds of things, you're gonna like this kind of score. So they're nice old standards.

[15:25] Kevin David Thomas: Fine and dandy.

[15:26] Robert W Schneider: Fine and dandy.

[15:28] Kevin David Thomas: Oh my god.

[15:28] Robert W Schneider: Well, I'm gonna go listen to it. And the album is great because they have there's all these articles in it, there's all these essays written by so many people about them, about this, you know, how it was made and all this, that it's nice. It's a nice little piece. It's like a little historical nugget.

[15:42] Kevin David Thomas: Oh my gosh.

[15:43] Robert W Schneider: Yeah.

[15:43] Kevin David Thomas: And what a good cast, too.

[15:44] Robert W Schneider: Oh, yeah.

[15:45] Kevin David Thomas: Oh, oh totally, totally. Mine is also very much of its time. And I feel in a lot of ways, like what you were saying is the story behind the show is actually might be more interesting than the show itself.

[15:57] Robert W Schneider: Okay.

[15:58] Kevin David Thomas: Um, 1956.

[16:01] Robert W Schneider: Oh.

[16:01] Kevin David Thomas: 1956.

[16:03] Robert W Schneider: Big musical comedy star, making her return back to the Broadway after four years away.

[16:09] Kevin David Thomas: Four years old.

[16:10] Robert W Schneider: Against her will. She doesn't want to do it to begin with.

[16:13] Kevin David Thomas: Really?

[16:14] Robert W Schneider: But she has to.

[16:15] Kevin David Thomas: It's not bells are ringing.

[16:16] Robert W Schneider: It's not bells are ringing.

[16:17] Kevin David Thomas: Same year though.

[16:17] Robert W Schneider: Bells are comes out in the same year. I'm like drawing a blank on what else came out that year.

[16:23] Kevin David Thomas: Um, Ethel Merman.

[16:25] Robert W Schneider: Uh, Happy Hunting.

[16:26] Kevin David Thomas: Happy Hunting.

[16:27] Robert W Schneider: Yeah. Famous, famous, like Happy Hunting. What are they like? There's like they're like, what is that famous?

[16:33] Kevin David Thomas: You're probably gonna tell us the famous quote.

[16:35] Robert W Schneider: We got a couple of famous quotes from this one. I don't want to ruin it.

[16:37] Kevin David Thomas: No, no, for those of you who don't know, Happy Hunting is a 1956 musical. Book is by Lindsay and Krause, do Sound of Music.

[16:45] Robert W Schneider: Uh, the score is by Matt Duby and Harold Carr.

[16:48] Kevin David Thomas: Not exactly a household name.

[16:50] Robert W Schneider: Probably claiming per chance for a reason.

[16:52] Kevin David Thomas: That's pretty much it, yeah.

[16:54] Robert W Schneider: There, there's score. Although I will say this the score to Happy Hunting, I feel it's very breezy, very charming, very much 1950s of its period, with some really good songs in it, including uh, Gee, but it's good to be here.

[17:07] Kevin David Thomas: That's the one.

[17:09] Robert W Schneider: Exactly. That's her big like Ethel Merman, like here I come song.

[17:13] Kevin David Thomas: Mutual Admiration Society.

[17:15] Robert W Schneider: Which is if you heard it, you'd be like, Yeah, I totally know it.

[17:18] Kevin David Thomas: Uh, this is what I call love.

[17:20] Robert W Schneider: There's a lot of good material in here.

[17:23] Kevin David Thomas: Right.

[17:23] Robert W Schneider: The book is not good. Let me I'll tell you the plot very quickly.

[17:26] Kevin David Thomas: Oh, good.

[17:27] Robert W Schneider: Then we'll talk about all the backstage stuff that happened on this. And they were like, if you can't write Ethel Merman.

[17:31] Kevin David Thomas: Oh, oh is that what one of the people?

[17:32] Robert W Schneider: No, no, no. But they're the famous. I always thought the famous quote was like if you can't write Ethel Merman a show stopping number, then you got a problem.

[17:38] Kevin David Thomas: And they were like, they didn't have one.

[17:40] Robert W Schneider: They did not have one. But I don't know the story, actually. So, okay, so the plot is it's a it's it's making fun of a big historical event at the time. A couple of years prior to the musical opening, Grace Kelly married the prince, Prince Rainier of Monaco.

[17:55] Kevin David Thomas: And so this was like the big news story.

[17:57] Robert W Schneider: So what happens is in the show, Ethel Merman plays Liz Livingstone, and her she has a daughter named Beth, and they arrive in Monaco for the wedding of Princess Grace or Grace and the Prince Rainier.

[18:09] Kevin David Thomas: And so they actually use the historical names.

[18:11] Robert W Schneider: They actually used, oh yeah. There wasn't like, oh, you know, this is like Princess, yeah, Princess Trace. And I don't know. And Prince Reindeer of Conaco. Um, no, they don't do that. They actually they were playing up exactly on the historical significance of it. And they don't have an invitation to the wedding.

[18:28] Kevin David Thomas: And so Ethel Merman gets pissed, and she goes, Well, to hell with that. I'm gonna get my daughter married to a prince, and it's gonna be ten times bigger than your wedding, Grace Kelly.

[18:36] Robert W Schneider: And that's honestly the plot of Happy Hunting.

[18:39] Kevin David Thomas: Wow.

[18:40] Robert W Schneider: So what happens is she finds a prince. The prince is this like disposed Spanish prince played by Fernando Lamas.

[18:47] Kevin David Thomas: Oh, the sexy suave Fernando Lamas.

[18:49] Robert W Schneider: Fernando Lamas. Um, and uh what happens is is Ethel Merman realizes she's actually in love with Fernando Lamas, and the daughter's cool with that because the daughter's in love with somebody else. So it's just one of those like really silly golden age musicals where everything works out happily in the end. But it's not as big as Annie Get Your Gun, it's not as big as Gypsy, it's not as big as anything. This was a very, very small blip in the radar for her. It doesn't mean that she's not brilliant on the cast recording.

[19:14] Kevin David Thomas: Now, what happens off stage is 10 times more than that.

[19:17] Robert W Schneider: Well, I like you where we're going now.

[19:19] Kevin David Thomas: Ethel Merman. Because you know I love some Ethel Merman stories.

[19:21] Robert W Schneider: Oh, here we go. So Ethel Merman was live, she got married to this guy, and his name was Bob Six. That was literally his name, Bob Six.

[19:28] Kevin David Thomas: Yes.

[19:28] Robert W Schneider: Right. And he was an executive with Continental Airlines. You know what's crazy? I gotta I but so I listen to this podcast. I listen to this podcast called The Mystery Show.

[19:39] Kevin David Thomas: Okay.

[19:39] Robert W Schneider: And it was by it's great, it's a great like NPR type thing, and where this person goes on this journey to like find, you know, like these the answer to these mysteries. And one of them is a belt buckle, and the answer to it is Bob Six.

[19:49] Kevin David Thomas: Oh my god!

[19:50] Robert W Schneider: Because the belt buckle is inscribed with his name. And so they find out that he was this famous Continental guy, and he the it was ultimately about the chef that had the belt buckle. How about incredible?

[20:00] Kevin David Thomas: So yeah, so anyway, that was I just can't believe that the name is coming up again.

[20:03] Robert W Schneider: Welcome back, Bob Six. So Bob Six was a big thing. So he was a very uppity up monkey month. Marries Ethel Merman, and Ethel Merman goes, thank God. Like no more Broadway shows.

[20:14] Kevin David Thomas: Right.

[20:14] Robert W Schneider: We're gonna be married, we're gonna have kids, and I'm gonna get off the road, and all I'm gonna do is I'm gonna move with him to Denver.

[20:19] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah, and I'm gonna be a housewife.

[20:21] Robert W Schneider: So after like a couple of months of that, he goes, Why are you here?

[20:24] Kevin David Thomas: Like, why are you at home?

[20:26] Robert W Schneider: Because he was like, I thought I was just gonna be free and like married. No, what he really wanted, you found out was he thought that by putting her out in the spotlight and being attached to her, it would promote Continental Airlines.

[20:37] Kevin David Thomas: Shit.

[20:37] Robert W Schneider: So he was using her. And he's like, Well, you need to do a show.

[20:41] Kevin David Thomas: Oh my god.

[20:42] Robert W Schneider: And she was like, I don't want to do a show, I want to be a housewife. And he goes, You're gonna do a show, you're going to New York City.

[20:48] Kevin David Thomas: And so the first thing they came across was this happy hunting show.

[20:51] Robert W Schneider: And so clearly the first thing they came across. So she begrudgingly goes in and says, Fine, I'll do happy hunting if that'll make you happy.

[21:02] Kevin David Thomas: Um, on like the second day of rehearsal, the composer gives her a vocal note because she was adding like a vocalization that he didn't like and goes, You can't do that.

[21:10] Robert W Schneider: Can't imagine.

[21:11] Kevin David Thomas: And she nodded and she called over the director, and she goes, She points to the composer, and lyrics and she goes, they will never speak to me again.

[21:17] Robert W Schneider: And the composer lyricist never communicated with her for the entire run. But the real story, the stories you probably know, are with Fernando Lamas.

[21:25] Kevin David Thomas: So Fernando Lamas was this like Latin lover. He was a Madine idol that all the women love.

[21:31] Robert W Schneider: Swap and sick. And she's gonna be the love interest opposite Ethel Merman. Um, they did not get along because this was a this was really bizarre to me. He went on a television show, he went on the Mike Wallace show, and they Mike Wallace asked him, he goes, So what's it like working with Ethel Merman?

[21:46] Kevin David Thomas: And he said, Kissing her is like kissing your uncle in a Sherman tank.

[21:51] Robert W Schneider: Oh my gosh. Like that's so specific and rude.

[21:55] Kevin David Thomas: I know it's horrible.

[21:57] Robert W Schneider: Oh my god. And the show is running?

[21:59] Kevin David Thomas: They were running.

[22:00] Robert W Schneider: Oh my god. And they were like, what's it like kissing Ethel Merman? He's like, it's like kissing a Sherman tank in your uncle.

[22:05] Kevin David Thomas: And I'm like, what an asshole.

[22:07] Robert W Schneider: Now here's the really interesting story. People said that he was trying to get out of his contract with her because he was up for the lead role in the South Pacific movie.

[22:19] Kevin David Thomas: Oh and they thought that maybe some of this bad behavior was like, she'll hate me so much, she'll release me.

[22:25] Robert W Schneider: She knew this. And when he came time to say, I want to go do the South Pacific movie, he was like, she was like, Nope, not getting released from your contract. Sorry.

[22:34] Kevin David Thomas: And so because South Pacific Rosen of Music, South Pacific.

[22:34] Robert W Schneider: South Pacific.

[22:38] Kevin David Thomas: Wow.

[22:40] Robert W Schneider: So the off stage tensions seem more interesting.

[22:43] Kevin David Thomas: Oh, yeah.

[22:45] Robert W Schneider: I said, if you read it, it's so silly. There's a horse. Ethel Merman literally plays a couple of things. The album cover, the album cover, she's riding a horse, isn't she?

[22:52] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah, but there's a they actually brought a live horse on stage, and she did a scene.

[22:56] Robert W Schneider: Yes.

[22:56] Kevin David Thomas: Yeah, so one of her last scene partners was a horse.

[22:59] Robert W Schneider: Oh.

[22:59] Kevin David Thomas: And I cannot believe this. I actually have seen a production of Happy Hunting in my life.

[23:03] Robert W Schneider: No way.

[23:05] Kevin David Thomas: There was an all-girls school next to where I grew up. They did Happy Hunting.

[23:10] Robert W Schneider: And they couldn't bring a horse on stage.

[23:12] Kevin David Thomas: Uh-huh.

[23:12] Robert W Schneider: So they literally.

[23:14] Kevin David Thomas: No, they filmed a horse, and the actress that played the Ethel Merman role looked at the projection screen and would talk, and then you would see the little play triangle come up.

[23:22] Robert W Schneider: And the horse would like move its head.

[23:24] Kevin David Thomas: You know what?

[23:24] Robert W Schneider: And then I'll go back.

[23:25] Kevin David Thomas: Bless that teacher for being like, let's do Happy Hunting.

[23:30] Robert W Schneider: Oh, I do. Do you know what I mean? Like good for you.

[23:32] Kevin David Thomas: Like good for you.

[23:34] Robert W Schneider: You know, like what's it gonna be next year?

[23:38] Kevin David Thomas: Next year.

[23:39] Robert W Schneider: Grass harp.

[23:40] Kevin David Thomas: I don't know.

[23:41] Robert W Schneider: Next year's plain and fancy.

[23:42] Kevin David Thomas: I mean seriously.

[23:43] Robert W Schneider: That's a that's a that's hats off to any hats off to all the theater teachers out there.

[23:48] Kevin David Thomas: Absolutely working against hoping against hope.

[23:51] Robert W Schneider: Seriously. Doing Happy Hunting.

[23:56] Kevin David Thomas: So please take a listen to Happy Hunting and take a listen to Fine and Dandy.

[24:00] Robert W Schneider: We will see you next time.

[24:01] Kevin David Thomas: Bye everyone.

[24:01] Robert W Schneider: Adios.