One magic moment

Once again, Mothering Sunday (Mothers' Day over here in the UK) is upon us. Quite appropriate, really, that today's birthday girl is the "Great Earth Mother" of The Partridge Family, Miss Shirley Jones, who is 85 years old today!

Here is the lady herself, in her absolute prime, with a faboo version of a Gershwin classic...

Shirley Jones - Love Walked In

Many happy returns, Shirley Mae Jones (born 31st March 1934).

Mother Love

Three important celebrations today.

It's Mothering Sunday here in the UK.

Our clocks have gone forward, so it's officially British Summer Time - yay!

And Miss Shirley Jones - whose career took her from grieving ingénue in Carousel to matriarch of The Partridge Family - will be 80 years old tomorrow.

Here is a rare piece that suits the "Sunday mood" - Miss Jones' magnificent version of The Sound of Music:

Shirley Jones - The Sound of Music

And here is a clip of Miss Jones (playing second fiddle again to the gorgeous David Cassidy) with The Partridge Family, and an appropriate number for today:

Partridge Family - Summer Days

We were privileged back in 2010 to see Shirley Jones in her one-woman show - read all about it - and we were pleased to note her voice was still a force to be reckoned with.

Shirley Mae Jones (born 31st March 1934)

Shhhhhhhhhhh!

As we welcome the news that Europe's largest public library is about to open in Birmingham, our friend and fellow Polari-ite, author Helen Smith has drawn my attention recently to a new kind of "superhero", if one hardly likely to be portrayed by the likes of Famke Janssen in Lycra - a librarian who is so lauded she has her own action figure!

Miss Nancy Pearl is indeed some kind of "hero". In this world of trendy, ten-second-memory, instant commentary, instant self-publishing, she has taken on the challenge of championing the far more gratifying world of books - to an American audience ostensibly more obsessed with reality TV and making complaints about nipples on telly than reading.



Starting with her native Seattle, where she became something of a local celebrity on radio and in the papers for her campaigns, she really caught the attention of the wider public with her advisory guides to good reading, snappily-titled Book Lust. Such was the attention she garnered by her dogged championing of often out-of-print titles that none other than the world-conquering Amazon agreed to re-publish six novels from her lists every year, in print and electronic formats!

As a former librarian myself, I applaud the lady's efforts in support of the (printed) written word. Too many libraries have tried to turn themselves into "one-stop-shops" for web-based information sourcing and research (glorified "internet cafés"), while running down their actual physical book collections. Miss Pearl speaks out - loudly - about redressing the balance in favour of the book itself as something to enjoy.

"The role of a librarian is to make sense of the world of information. If that's not a qualification for superhero-dom, what is?" - Nancy Pearl

Here's a most appropriate number as a tribute to the plucky Miss Pearl - what else but Marian The Librarian from The Music Man?

Robert Preston - Marian the Librarian

Nancy Pearl official website

Spring fever?

"I feel so gay in a melancholy way, that it might as well be spring"

The daffodils are out in the gardens of Dolores Delargo Towers!

Shirley Jones - It Might As Well Be Spring

Our favourite season is just around the corner...

The sweet silver song of the lark

I managed to get free tickets to see a unique show last night. It's not every day that you get an opportunity to see a real Hollywood legend live on stage...

Shirley Jones (for it is she) has had a seven decade career in film, stage and TV. She was a child prodigy back in Pennsylvania, was lauded by Rodgers and Hammerstein - appearing on stage in South Pacific, and, most famously, on film in both Oklahoma and Carousel - and has played Vegas and Broadway but bizarrely, never London. She is of course more famous to the wider audience as the mother of the divine David Cassidy (her real life step-son) in The Partridge Family. All this, and more, Miss Jones included in the charming anecdotes with which she peppered the performance.

And what a performance! Opening with a video vignette of excerpts from her finest screen moments, including her Oscar-winning performance in Elmer Gantry, the lady herself appeared looking very well preserved and starry in her sparkly showbiz outfit. Admittedly her voice is not as polished nor as strong as it used to be (but then again, she is 76 years old after all), and on occasions she wobbled around the mellow notes and the quieter end of the register - but bejeezus can she still belt out the semi-operatic high notes! And belt them she did - a marvellous repertoire of songs from her films and shows, including You'll Never Walk Alone, People Will Say We're in Love, If I Loved You, 76 Trombones and much more, plus a well-aimed tribute to Sondheim (on the occasion of his 80th).

This was very much a show about the Cassidy family as well as Miss Jones' career - veering dangerously close to mawkishness on occasion, with tributes to her late husband Jack Cassidy and her sons. All this without a mention of Jack's numerous affairs with men, their divorce way back in the 1970s nor his unfortunate death in a house fire that may have been caused by a drunkenly dropped cigarette or a pan catching fire...

But we forgive her that. Her asides to the audience - particularly about on-screen kisses with a galaxy of Hollywood's greatest leading men, and her regret at never having had an affair with any of them - were delightful.

Speaking of her family, she was ably supported in the show by her lesser-known (but nonetheless very cute) son Patrick. His was a slightly more comedic and occasionally surreal turn, especially when he performed a "duet" with a cardboard mask of his older yet smaller brother David. However his take on his dad's brilliant song My Fortune Is My Face, and his masterful version of Robert Preston's classic Ya Got Trouble (a very complicated patter song from The Music Man that I have never heard anyone else do) more than made up for that.

In a show of almost two hours duration, the time flew by. Yes there are faults - the format is slightly stilted, the backing musicians (particularly the drums) almost drowned out the ageing diva, and the set is bizarrely cluttered - and I don't think I would have been happy to pay £42.50 for the top tickets. However, in all this was a joyful and memorable evening, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Here are a couple of classic moments from Miss Jones' career:

Shirley Jones - Till There Was You [The Music Man]

Shirley Jones & Claramae Turner - You'll Never Walk Alone [Carousel]

And here's that song from The Music Man (again):

Robert Preston - Ya Got Trouble

Shirley Jones website