Saturday, April 27, 2013

Mad Man

If People Were Talking About Robert Morse, then this is the photo they should have run:

Carl Van Vechten, 1958

But they didn't.



People Are Whispering About in Small Print  . . . "Starmarked Robert Morse, as the seventeen-year-old who sings "I Would Die" in Take Me Along. . ."

I could find no trace of Take Me Along on YouTube.  RapidResearch reveals it was a musical based on Ah, Wilderness,  a 1930s play written by Eugene O'Neill, and not Thornton Wilder, as I thought - both of whom have a local angle.  (Thornton Wilder - Berkeley High, Class of  1915; Eugene O'Neill once lived in Danville  (National Historical Place or something), of all places.)  Jackie Gleason starred in the musical, Valerie Harper had a small role.  I can't make hide nor hair of what it's about, except the cast album makes it look Olde Timey.


I suppose there's a way to make Spotify play here, but having learned to Tweet, then Tweet I shall.  If you would like to hear Robert Morse sing, do be sure to visit the aviary annex.

I do remember Robert Morse popping up everywhere on television.  He was the guy who looked like Jerry Lewis, but wasn't as obnoxious.  I had a strange sense of deja vu in seeing the next clip:  (You can see it directly on YouTube, but not embedding properly here.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-96xnap1GGQ



I just watched this for the first time, and for the first time appreciated the brilliance of casting Robert Morse in Mad Men.  Every one of those characters would have seen Robert Morse on Broadway in How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, which opened two years from "now," in 1961.  (The movie's from 1967, and by now (MM Season Six), everyone will have seen that, too.  It must be a little eerie for Mr. Morse.



For years, my favorite book was The Loved One.  I saw the movie whenever it was on television, but it never occurred to me to track it down on Netflix.  I hadn't realized that Robert Morse, with an English accent, played the lead.


Go over to YouTube proper and look up "Robert Morse" "Loved One" caskets.  He's really quite handsome.  Oh - Jonathan Winters! Who wasn't Mr. Joy Boy - that was Rod Steiger.  Odd.

Next:  slogging on with James Michener. But first - How To Succeed in Business will be disappearing from Netflix streaming May 1.  First 10 minutes very charming . . .

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