Just couldn't resist that subject line here.

Anyway, Robert Morse was awesome.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/robert-morse-dead-mad-men-tony-winner-1235133283/

Diner <bwaystars@gmail.com> wrote:

>Just couldn't resist that subject line here.

>Anyway, Robert Morse was awesome.

>https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/robert-morse-dead-mad-men-tony-winner-1235133283/

Robert Morse, Two-Time Tony Winner and 'Mad Men' Star, Dies at 90
Before he played Bert Cooper on the AMC drama, he had a career-defining
role in the musical 'How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.'
April 21, 2022 2:26am

That headline is obnoxious. He wasn't the star of Mad Men; he was a
recurring player. They're trying to make it sound like Man Men was the
pinnacle of his career, rather than something he did at the very end of
his career that pleased an audience that remembered him fondly but
didn't require him to spend all week on set each production week, which
would have been way too taxing.

I'm glad to hear he died at home after a short illness.

I was one of the handful of kids who caught every edition of the short-lived "That's Life" on ABC, starring the late Morse and the still-living E.J. Peake as tuneful young marrieds. Sure the songs were mostly quite weak, hardly of Broadway calibre--but that was surely because the writers penned wrote new numbers for Morse, Peake and their guest stars every week.

Meanwhile, the ONLY reason I was impelled to even ever catch a single "That's Life" is because two marvelous plays, "Funny Girl" and "How To Succeed in Business (Without Really Trying)", introduced and in turn quickly addicted me to the Broadway musical genre.

Though as a suburban St. Louis hick* my introduction was second-hand, first circa 1964 via performance-recorded album for "Funny Girl" (showcasing young Streisand's extraordinary talent of course but also the underrated vocals of Sydney Chaplin and Danny Meehan) and then in turn in 1967 through the cinematic iteration of "How to Succeed" (with the late Morse's charmingly-earnest-if-weak vocals but loads of terrific warbling by Depression Era darling Rudy Vallee and the obscure-but-multitalented Sammy Smith).

From there, it was non-stop into the cast albums of "Man of La Mancha", "Oklahoma!", "It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's Superman" and all the rest, with little interruption. Well, that is until 1969, when I suddenly realized I really HAD witnessed vital modern history by catching all three of the consecutive Sullivan appearances by The Beatles in February 1964...so consequently sometimes-ragged rock & roll instantly got way more turntable time from me than all those melodic musicals. Yep, almost overnight I traded gracefully-played string interludes and lovely horn sections for killer guitar riffs, thumping bass lines and pounded drums.

But back in elementary and middle school, I was mostly listening to Streisand, Judy Garland, et al., not Del Shannon, The Animals, et al. Of course, there WAS a serious downside that 10-year-old's (latest) newfound passion for Broadway musicals. It surely reinforced [quite-erroneous!] neighborhood and school talk behind my (ever-naive) back that indeed that sissy Brian** kid IS gay***.

BRYAN STYBLE/Florida
_________________________
* As opposed to being a suburban Long Island hick--and therefore within parents-coaxing distance to actually trundle all the way into to Manhattan's theatre district, brave the tourist crowds and cover the compared-to-cinema-quite-expensive tix.
** Spelled it that way back then.
*** Of course I realize that that post-modern term wasn't in currency back in 1965 when I started telling pretty much every student on the recess playground how great this Streisand woman is. But as you may remember, it was in fact way back in 1938 in "Bringing Up Baby" when Cary Grant unwittingly started a language fashion when, his character temporarily clad in co-star Katharine Hepburn's wardrobe, he declared "I just went all gay on you!"

Yikes! I dropped an important R there. That is, it's E.J. Peaker, not E.J. Peake.

You could be forgiven for wondering why a kid who took the trouble to read the opening AND closing credits of "That's Life" each week would not have recalled that. Even in his old age.

STYBLE/Florida

In article <3c56506d-bfd8-4cf4-9b91-06db041dab0an@googlegroups.com>,
<"radioacti...@gmail.com"> wrote:

> But as you may remember, it was in fact way back in 1938 in "Bringing Up
> Baby" when Cary Grant unwittingly started a language fashion when, his
> character temporarily clad in co-star Katharine Hepburn's wardrobe, he
> declared "I just went all gay on you!"

"Because I just went *gay*! All of a sudden!" Funnier.

https://youtu.be/EQDbDIz1Y0E?t=102

In article <3c56506d-bfd8-4cf4-9b91-06db041dab0an@googlegroups.com>,
<"radioacti...@gmail.com"> wrote:

> I was one of the handful of kids who caught every edition of the short-lived
> "That's Life" on ABC, starring the late Morse and the still-living E.J. Peake
> as tuneful young marrieds.

E.J. Peaker. Ran into her once in NYC. Absolutely lovely.

In article <a34ea938-1955-4cff-8b6c-6a9ec3903415n@googlegroups.com>,
<"radioacti...@gmail.com"> wrote:

> Yikes! I dropped an important R there. That is, it's E.J. Peaker, not E.J.
> Peake.

Whoops. Never mind.

Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
> Diner <bwaystars@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>Just couldn't resist that subject line here.
>
>>Anyway, Robert Morse was awesome.
>
>>https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/robert-morse-dead-mad-men-tony-winner-1235133283/
>
> Robert Morse, Two-Time Tony Winner and 'Mad Men' Star, Dies at 90
> Before he played Bert Cooper on the AMC drama, he had a career-defining
> role in the musical 'How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.'
> April 21, 2022 2:26am
>
> That headline is obnoxious. He wasn't the star of Mad Men; he was a
> recurring player. They're trying to make it sound like Man Men was the
> pinnacle of his career, rather than something he did at the very end of
> his career that pleased an audience that remembered him fondly but
> didn't require him to spend all week on set each production week, which
> would have been way too taxing.
>
> I'm glad to hear he died at home after a short illness.

A shame he couldn't succeed in business without really dying,though.

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.