Tag Archives: producers

Fish-Faced Enemy of the People Has Passed On

While everyone else is talking “Young Frankenstein,” “Blazing Saddles,” and “Willy Wonka,” we must not ever forget the beauty of Gene Wilder’s Blue Blanket Freakout.

NOTE: TCM hates us and the WordPress embed isn’t working. So click here for A Minor Compulsion.

I’m sad. But he lived a full life, and had Alzheimer’s, a cruel disease. And rather than sinking into a 48-hour funk of sadness, I fully plan to laugh my ass off well into the night tonight.

We’ll miss you, Leo Bloom. I hope you’re dancing around a fountain with Zero and Gilda right now.

Mel Brooks: The Gift that Keeps on Giving

For roughly the umpteenth thousandth time, I pulled out “The Producers” on Saturday for an afternoon viewing; my husband bemoaned that I ALWAYS do that, but I told him I’d turn it off as soon as the Gene Wilder scene was over.

This, I believe is the first time I’ve watched it since we got a giant flatscreen TV, and given that I know most of the lines, what does one do but begin looking closer at the sets? At one point “Hold Me, Touch Me,” is cowering from Bialystock, and there’s a clear shot of one of his many playbills, this one for a show called “Baby Wants A Kiss,” and featuring a parrot with lip-eyes in the graphic.

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This is where I jumped off the couch and reached for my phone. Why? Because the runaway smash Broadway hit “Baby Want a Kiss” starred none other than that epic Hollywood couple, Baol NewmanF and Ooane Moodward.

baoul

The supporting cast seems to be a few afterthoughts of tape, possibly named “Bob Gunk”?

In any case, Frank Corsaro’s name is clear enough, so one quick Google search later, and a visit to the Internet Broadway Database later, and there it is: Baby Want a Kiss,which ran for 148 performances in 1964, and starred two other schleps named Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.

I wonder if Baol and Ooane know about them. Paul and Joanne don’t seem too bothered by it.

Paul-Newman-Joanne-Woodward-kiss

 

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