Born On This Day- July 1st... Deborah Ann Harry

Summer 1979, I am living in the historic Browne’s Addition of Spokane. After spending the mid-1970s living in NYC, I have moved back to the city where I grew up, trying to re-group & decide what to do next. I immediately got work in the theatre. I never would have believed when I left Spokane in 1972, on the day I graduated from high school, I would find myself wanting to a be a big fish in a tiny pond, instead of the tiniest minnow in the very biggest pond & so I return to my hometown.

I spot this girl in an aisle at the supermarket. She is wearing cat glasses & a leopard skin coat over a tiny black jumper & a skirt of tropical fruit themed oil cloth, paired with cowboy boots. I had only seen this type of female in NYC & certainly not in tried & true, conservative Spokane. I cruised her for a bit, before getting up the nerve. ME: “Excuse me, but I just need to tell you how fabulous your look. You can’t possibly be from Spokane. You are really putting it out there? SHE: “Well, I’m not from here, but I am here now. I know I look fabulous; that’s what I do, & you look like a pud. But, I think I like you sweetie. Wanna come to a party with me?”

I go to this party with my new friend. There are boys kissing boys, boys kissing girls, girls kissing girls. I drink something handed to me & I smoke something passed to me, I snort something on the coffee table, & I was really loving the music. I was loving the music a great deal. It was my first time hearing Blondie & the song was named- Heart Of Glass & I am crazy for it. I dance for hours.

I bought the album- Parallel Lines with the songs like One Way Or Another & Sunday Girl. I am zany for Blondie, but I stayed with Debbie Harry after the breakup of Blondie & I have never strayed far away.

Rapture was my first rap song. I have had several firsts with Debbie Harry.*

I am crazy for her solo albums & her work with Jazz Passengers.  As the face & sound behind one of new wave's most influential bands to emerge during the punk heyday of the 1970s, Harry was the ultimate diva. She was the Blondie front-woman, a vixen with hypnotically wild stage moves & an edgy cool voice. A killer sneer matched her signature blonde hair & made her a star. I love her. She is a goddess to me. Debbie Harry is my muse. Debbie Harry is a Gay Icon.

Not enough to be an influential musician, her acting career spans over 30 film roles & numerous TV appearances. She looks & sounds astoundingly hot at 67 years old. Today is her birthday.

*Sordid footnote: I did mushrooms with the husband, circa 1980, & I had a sequence of time during that experience, where I went “into” The Husband’s medieval Flemish tapestry. I was walking the candle lit hallways of a castle, wearing stunning Aramini clothing. The soundtrack from this debauched adventure was Call Meby Blondie.

Considering Harry Nilsson On His Birthday

His name was Dodge & he seemed to be impossibly old, maybe even 24 years old. He looked like James Taylor & he lived in bohemian digs in Browne’s Addition, the closest thing Spokane had to a gay neighborhood. Dodge’s sitting room, draped in Indian print bedspreads, was a turret in a Queen Anne style mansion that had been broken up in to small apartments.  I never saw his bedroom, try as I might.

Dodge was my pot dealer from 1969-1972, & I loved him for his long limbed, gangly body & sweet hippy disposition & of course, for the plant materials he provided for sale. During that epoch, Mary Jane was sold by the “lid” & was measured by finger widths. I would buy a “3 finger lid” for $15 from Dodge & lounge around the turret room after the transaction, listening to music, getting stoned & trying to seduce Dodge.

Dodge introduced me to the amazing music of Harry Nillson. It was the album- Harry in 1969, Nilsson Schmilsson & The Point in 1971, & Son of Schmilsson just 8 months later. Singers from that era sometimes released more than one album a year. Nilsson’s songs would receive plenty of listening by me for the next 40+ years. His music spoke to me with the unique blend of 2 genres that I hold dear- Tin Pan Alley & Rock n’ Roll.

In October of 1979, I declared my romantic inclinations to a married, impossibly beautiful set designer, who would eventually become my husband, as A Little Touch of Schmilsson In The Night played on the stereo in the background. Nilsson’s version of Irving Berlin’s What’ll I Do? would become “our song”. 30 years later I would weep while playing Without You on repeat when I assumed that we were about to divorce.

Nilsson deserves to be grouped with Gershwin, Cole Porter, Berlin, & Lennon/McCartney as the great songwriters of 20th century standards. He was considered a peer by all 4 members of the Beatles, who all called him a 5th Beatle, & one on the same wavelength as themselves.

Nilsson refused to tour, so Baby Boomers don't remember him, & those born after his apex are unaware of who he was. This is tragic. Everyone should have the opportunity to be exposed to this wonderful talent.

Nilsson spent the last 15 years of his relatively short life with a vocation for self-destruction. He died at 52, overweight & dissipated, of heart disease, after a decades long rampage of non-stop overindulgence in alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, cocaine, hard partying, & flagrant misuse of his special vocal instrument.

Yet he had perhaps the most gifted pop singing ability of his generation; he was financially & artistically successful, was held with industry acclaim, won a Grammy, an Oscar, an unusually good recording contract with a top label, & recorded at least 2 perfect  albums - Nilsson Schmilsson, all originals, & A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night, all standards recorded with a live studio orchestra.

Brooklyn born Nilsson’s bestselling song was his rendition of Fred Neil's Everybody's Talkin', featured in the film Midnight Cowboy.  His own submission for the film’s title song, the rejected- I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City is one of my favorite songs about my favorite city.

Nilsson's produced & wrote a charming & captivating animated film- The Point!, broadcast on ABC in February,1971, as an ABC Movie of the Week. Nilsson's self-produced album of songs from The Point!includes the enchanting single, Me & My Arrow, my favorite song about dogs.

Nilsson chose producer Richard Perry to record his very best album- Nilsson Schmilsson, yielded 3 very stylistically different hit singles. The first was a cover of Badfinger's song Without You, by Pete Ham & Tom Evans, featuring a highly emotional arrangement & soaring vocals, recorded, according to Perry, in a single take. This song still stirs my senses.

The second single is Coconut, a favorite of my father, which makes me love it more. Coconut is a novelty number with a calypso beat featuring 4 characters: a narrator, a brother, a sister, & the doctor) all sung in different voices by Nilsson. The song is remembered for using just a single chord- C 7th & for the chorus lyric, "Put de lime in de coconut, & drink 'em both up." The third single- Jump into the Fire, is raucous, ranting Rock n’ Roll.

Nilsson’s music has informed my life for the past 4 decades. I still discover tracks that sound as if they could be listened to fresh today. I have recently re-discovered the off-beat charm of his songs & score for Robert Altman's musical film- Popeye. I am listening to him as I compose this post. Nilsson would have been celebrating his 71st birthday with his pal John Lennon today, if they had both made it.

Born On This Day- May 28th... Party Animal Allen Carr

I have a certain amount of camp sensibilities; I am zany for a really good bad movie: Valley Of The Dolls, Battlefield Earth, Roadhouse, Terror In Tiny Town, Ishtar, The Oscar, Mommy Dearest. Showgirls is my #1 Good Bad Movie, but Can’t Stop The Music is right behind it, nipping at it’s ass.

The 1980 musical epic was the only time The Village People starred in a film, proof that it takes a village. He cast it with a lot of ex-boyfriends, but on the set they got out of hand & Allan Carr issued an edict: “Anyone caught having sex on the set will be fired!”

Nothing says 1970s hedonism like an Allan Carr production. But then there was nothing else like very ostentacious, obese, ornate caftan-wearing Allan Carr.

Carr produced & promoted the films Grease, Grease 2, Where The Boys Are ’84, Tommy, & Broadway’s La Cage aux Folles. Carr kept was also busy hosting exclusive & extravagant events with guest lists that included most show biz legends & those that loved them. The invitations to the gatherings at his opulent mansion, with bars, a disco, & plenty of private rooms where guests could indulge in cocaine & sex, were highly coveted. Even in homophobic Hollywood of the 1970s.

He titled his parties like movies: the Roman Polanski Rolodex Party, the Rudolph Nureyev Mattress Party, the Mick Jagger Cycle Sluts Party, the Truman Capote Jailhouse Party. He invited rock stars & Hollywood royalty. You could rub up to Elton John, Groucho Marx, or the pool boy. To promote the movie Tommy, he held the opening-night party in the New York subway.

Carr’s fall from grace was as dramatic as his rise to the top. He was banned from the Academy Awards after producing what is remembered as the worst Oscar broadcast of all time, with a tone deaf Rob Lowe & Snow White singing Proud Mary. Stars like Gregory Peck, Julie Andrews & Paul Newman signed a petition banning Carr from the Oscars. Disney sued the Oscars for copyright infringement of their Snow White character. The Breakout Superstars of Tomorrow segment in the program’s second half featured 12 minutes of young actors like Christian Slater & Patrick Dempsey writhing around a giant Oscar as if it was the golden calf.

Soon after, the Hollywood establishment shunned the sizzling scandals, sex & sordid lifestyle of the flamboyantly gay Allan Carr. Grease may have been the word, but nothing lubed Carr like pretty parties, pretty caftans, pretty drugs & pretty boys.

In 1999, Carr died of Liver Cancer. His ashes were scattered in the Pacific by Ann Margret in front of his former Diamond Head Estate in Oahu, Hawaii.

The Last Dance Never Ends...

When asked about the potentially limiting moniker of "Queen of Disco," the late Donna Summer shrugged and quipped, "It's nice to be the queen of something!"

And while Summer -- who won four Grammys in the R&B, Rock and Gospel categories before her fifth and final win for Dance -- undoubtedly felt that her creativity was sometimes stifled by the public's refusal to let her put her boogie woogie dancing shoes to bed, her undisputed reign over an entire genre of music must have been as gratifying as it was frustrating.

Stretching out from the disco to the speakeasy: Donna Summer's famous "My Man Medley"

Even distilling Summer's catalog to only her five year disco heyday of 1975 to 1980 reveals a surprising depth and versatility: the chocolate box sex-and-soul epic, "Love to Love You Baby"; the still-stunning, revolutionary, mother of all house, techno and electronica to follow, "I Feel Love"; the Broadway-esque sweep of "Last Dance"; the ingenious expansion of "MacArthur Park" from baroque pop to disco suite; the strutting funk of "Bad Girls"; the groundbreaking rock-disco mashup that is still "Hot Stuff"; the pop perfection of "On the Radio"; the New Wave-meets-rockabilly slickness of "The Wanderer."

When disco imploded overnight, Summer was one of the few artists inextricably tied to it who escaped relatively unscathed, at least initially. However, the next decade was dodgier in terms of commercial success, partially due to, and partially resulting in, Summer's startling left turns and defiance of expectations. The biggest hits -- "She Works Hard for the Money" (1983) and "This Time I Know it's for Real" (1989) -- both recalled her glory days under the disco ball, but Summer's more interesting experiments encompassed everything from world music influences (a stirring cover of Vangelis' "State of Independence") and Caribbean rhythms ("Unconditional Love") to full-on, Springsteen-endorsed rock and roll ("Protection"), slick electro-funk ("Eyes"), and Quiet Storm balladry ("Fascination"). She also revealed her Broadway bent with the inclusion of such material as "Don't Cry for Me Argentina," "Send in the Clowns" and "The Impossible Dream" in her live act; and in 1984, Summer even made a bow at the Oscars at Barbra Streisand's behest, singing her former duet partner's nominated song from Yentl, "Papa, Can You Hear Me."

By the dawn of the 1990's, Donna Summer was still a familiar name, but not necessarily a viable chart contender. But a funny thing happened on the way to the nostalgia circuit: disco, long declared dead, suddenly became hip. And if Summer never quite regained her status as a bona fide hitmaker, she earned something even more important: respect. It became okay to like -- heck, love -- Donna Summer, and not as a guilty pleasure, either; but to actually appreciate the power and elasticity of her voice (which, astonishingly, grew instead of diminishing with age), her unheralded songwriting abilities (including many of her biggest hits, as well as Dolly Parton's #1 country hit, "Starting Over Again"), and the genius of her very best recordings.

She writes the (country) songs: "Dim All the Lights" and "Starting Over Again"

For a few golden moments, Donna Summer was the biggest female pop star on the planet, and she rode the inevitable ebb and flow which followed with admirable grace. We saw Summer in concert a half-dozen times during the 1990's and early 00's, and we were continually impressed by her absolutely pitch-perfect vocals, her surprisingly dry and quirky humor, and her appreciation for her fans. She provided the soundtrack for an entire generation, and then some -- a regal legacy, indeed.

DONNA SUMMER

January 31, 1948 - May 17, 2012

Born On This Day- April 23rd... Halston

Roy Halston Frowick, or Halston was an iconic clothing designer of the 1970s & 1980s & a friend to Jackie O, Bianca Jagger, Liza Minnelli, Anjelica Huston, Lauren Bacall & Elizabeth Taylor, but he always ignored me at Studio 54.

Halston on far left... at Studio 54 with some of our friends

A Midwesterner, he began his career as a milliner, designing the pillbox hat Jacqueline Kennedy to the1961 Presidential inauguration. Halston then moved to designing women's wear. Newsweek named Halston “the premier fashion designer of the USA”. Halston was the first international fashion superstar & possibly the best designer America has ever had.

He was the first American designer to perceive the potential of licensing himself. His influence went beyond style to reshape the business of fashion. Through his licensing agreement with USA retailer JC Penney, his designs were accessible to women at a variety of income levels. Although this practice is common today, it was a controversial move at the time & cost him couture customers.

Although he enjoyed enormous success, his drug use deepened, & a failure to meet deadline undermined his progress & profit. In 1984 he was fired from his own company & lost the right to design & sell clothes under his own name.

Halston was diagnosed with HIV in 1988. He died of AIDS-related lung cancer in San Francisco, California on March 26, 1990.

In the Sister Sledge disco hit- He's The Greatest Dancer, Halston is memorably mentioned in a description of a well-dressed man: “Halston, Gucci, Fiorucci - he looks like a still, the man is dressed to kill'. Halston has been mentioned in other songs, films & TV shows - usually as the criterion for a certain kind of cultured, cosmopolitan style.

No, Darlings, it's Not Another Hiatus...

...we're just utterly swamped at work, and loathe as we are to admit it, we are no longer young enough to multi-task!

We'll be back shortly with reportage on Marilyn Maye's upcoming run at Feinstein's, as well as some thoughts on the current Broadway show about Judy Garland, End of the Rainbow. (Hmmm.)

Sequins, Shags and Safety Gays

These are a few of our favorite Dusty things!

DUSTY SPRINGFIELD
April 16, 1939 - March 2, 1999

Higher and Higher

Nearer my God to thee.

Jerry's Girls

Doing their trade in stock.

Born On This Day- April 8th... Fred Ebb

"One thing I know, & I've always known is I am my own best friend"
Chicago (1977)


You readers know by now that I have a passion for the lyrics that go with the music. Fred Ebb was a real master of the the musical theatre & the popular song. His work has had a huge influence on me & I had the privilege of performing his songs when I played Herr Shultz in Cabaret in Seattle in 1990. His lyrics have touched me, entertained & amazed me for over 5 decades.

He is dead now, bu his last show on Broadway opened after he was gone - The Scottsboro Boys... now that is prolific! As a writer, lyricist, composer & director, Fred Ebb made incalculable contributions to the theatre & popular song. Ebb is a Tony, Grammy, Emmy, Olivier & Kennedy Center Honors Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Ebb's first professional songwriting assignment came in 1953 when he was hired by Columbia Records to write a song for Judy Garland called Heartbroken. Ebb was introduced to composer John Kander in 1964 by music publisher Tommy Valando & they became one of the most legendary songwriting teams in American Theatre history. Their first successful collaboration was the song My Coloring Book recorded by Barbra Streisand.


Their second theatrical collaboration, Flora, the Red Menace, created a star out of Liza Minnelli in her Tony Award winning Broadway debut. In 1966, Cabaret, opened & received 7 Tony Awards including Best Musical & Best Score. A 1972 movie version of Cabaret starring Liza Minnelli was nominated for 10 Academy Awards & won 8, & was nominated for 9 Golden Globe Awards & won 3 including Best Picture Musical or Comedy. The same year, the songwriting team wrote a number of songs for Minnelli's television special Liza With a Z, directed by Bob Fosse which received an Emmy Award. In 1975, the pair wrote the Broadway musical Chicago, directed by Bob Fosse & starring Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera & Jerry Orbach.


That musical was successfully revived 20 years later at City Center ENCORES! & subsequently transferred to Broadway where it is currently the longest running revival in Broadway history. In 1977, the team collaborated with Martin Scorsese on the movie New York, New York; the title song was introduced by Liza Minnelli & later recorded by Frank Sinatra, becoming the unofficial theme song of New York City. The Minnelli Broadway vehicle The Act also opened that year. After a 4 year absence, Ebb & Kander returned with Woman of the Year (1981), The Rink (1984), Kiss of the Spiderwoman (1985) & Steel Pier (1997). The 2002 feature film Chicago was nominated for 13 Academy Awards & won 6, including Best Picture & was nominated for 8 Golden Globe Awards & won 3, including Best Picture, Musical or Comedy.


2 of his "flops" Zorba (1968) & 70 Girls 70 (1971) are 2 of my favorite scores.


For most of his professional life, Ebb lived & worked in an apartment overlooking New York's Central Park. It had a terrific view. His apartment was decorated with theatre memorabilia & German Expressionist paintings & drawings, & he collected record albums as a hobby. Ebb died on September 11, 2004.

Its good, isn't it?

Grand, isn't it?

Great, isn't it?

Swell, isn't it?

Fun, isn't it?

Nowadays

There's men, everywhere

Jazz, everywhere

Booze, everywhere

Life, everywhere

Joy, everywhere

Nowadays

You can like the life you're living

You can live the life you like

You can even marry Harry

But mess around with Ike

& that's good, isn't it?

Grand, isn't it?

Great, isn't it?

Swell, isn't it?

Fun, isn't it?

But nothing stays

In 50 years or so

It's gonna change, you know

But, oh, it's heaven

Nowadays

Nancy, Dru

Florence, Knight...and Gale

Olivia, Newton, Johns

Maye Will Be a Little Early This Year

...courtesy of the divine, delectable, de-lovely ohbutyes!

Black Out

Jane Russell, 1971

Jennifer Jones in Tender is the Night (1962, 20th Century Fox)

Ava Gardner in Earthquake (1974, Universal)

Back to the Bleach

Mae West in Myra Breckenridge (1970, 20th Century Fox)

Lana Turner at the "Legendary Ladies" series at New York's Town Hall, 1976

Ginger Rogers, 1976

Love, Ann Miller Style

E.J. Peaker and Ann Miller in the Love, American Style episode "Love and the Christmas Punch" (originally aired November 17, 1972)

Between the hair, the marabou and the jewelry, one wonders if there was any room on the set for actual furniture?

About Town

Seen tonight at a preview performance of the brilliant new production of Gore Vidal's The Best Man: Liza Minnelli. We can report that Liza looked terrific in a canary yellow coat, graciously signed autograph after autograph for the fans who flocked around her, and when she hit the refreshment bar, she ordered Twizzlers with a Z.

Bead and Feather 'Em

How can they sing with sequins in their eyes?

Miss Peggy Lee

Diamonds, furs, falls, and a Vaseline-covered lens are a girl's best friend.