It's a Diva Day!

Two of our favourite old broads celebrate their birthdays today - Miss Shirley MacLaine and Miss Barbra Streisand. Imagine what kind of birthday party that would be!

Shirley MacLaine - Gee, But It's Good to be Here

Barbra Streisand - Don't Rain On My Parade

Many happy returns, Shirley (born Shirley MacLean Beaty, 24th April 1934) and MegaBabs (born Barbara Joan Streisand, 24th April 1942)!

The Dolly Sisters?

It's "Double-Diva Day" again! As I said back in 2013...

...when we have two of our Patron Saints sharing a birthday, what can one do but try and make a connection?

There are probably myriad connections, personally and professionally. However there is one notable work that provides the link today between our birthday girls Barbra Streisand and Shirley MacLaine - Thornton Wilder's finest moment, his play The Matchmaker!

For indeed, Miss MacLaine starred in the original 1958 screen adaptation of Mr Wilder's play - as the romantic lead, milliner Irene Molloy:

The Matchmaker movie trailer

And of course, in 1969 Miss Streisand took the eponymous "Matchmaker" role in the Ernest Lehman/Gene Kelly adaptation of the Jerry Herman musical based upon that same play, Hello Dolly!:

Hello Dolly! movie trailer

Happy birthday, ladies!

Mega-Babs aka Barbra Streisand (born 24th April 1942)

Shirl (born Shirley MacLean Beaty, 24th April 1934)

Got up and got out

And so, farewell then, Miss Paula Kelly.

Who? I hear some people ask...



Miss Kelly may not have been a huge household name - indeed, much of her on-screen career was spent in supporting roles in Blacksploitation movies and US telly shows such as Police Woman - but it is for one memorable screen appearance we love her the most: that of the sassy "Helene" in Sweet Charity, more than holding her own alongside the estimable talents of Shirley MacLaine and Chita Rivera in my favourite movie musical number, ever!

Chita Rivera, Paula Kelly & Shirley MacLaine - There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This

Here's the lady herself in a bizarre clip from the Oscars [yes, them again!], in the company of the great Miss Bergman and Mr Poitier...

Ingrid Bergman, Sidney Poitier, Paula Kelly and the UCLA Marching Band - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

...and again, with Miss Verdon, Miss McKechnie and Miss Gallagher at the 1973 Tony Awards [did they only ever drag her out for awards ceremonies?]:

Gwen Verdon, Donna McKechnie, Paula Kelly, Helen Gallagher - Dance Medley

A sad loss.

RIP, Paula Kelly (21st October 1943 – 9th February 2020)

Hit me with those laser beams, yeah!

Another day, another Patron Saint celebrates a landmark birthday. Today [sharing the day as she does with other luminaries such as "MegaBabs" Barbra Streisand, Bowie producer Tony Visconti, founder member of The Damned Captain Sensible, fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier, the late actress Jill Ireland, the tragic former Mrs Geldof Paula Yates and lauded Victorian author Anthony Trollope, among many others] the fantabulosa Miss Shirley Maclaine blows out 85 candles on her cake!

Here she is, in more innocent times, performing a mind-boggling dance routine all based upon - ahem - new-fangled laser technology. Baffling, but brilliant!

Shirley MacLaine - Lasers

Many happy returns, Shirley MacLean Beaty aka Shirley MacLaine (born 24th April 1934)

It's been said she knocks 'em dead when she lands in town

Oh, nooooooooooo!

After an absolutely lovely sunny week off, spent almost entirely in the garden, it's time to wake up to reality again. It's back to work time...

Let's leave it to today's birthday girl, our Patron Saint of high-kicks Miss Shirley MacLaine to give her best shot on this Tacky Music Monday at cheering the situation up - with a jazzy, all-action dance version of Sweet Georgia Brown!

Shirley MacLaine - Sweet Georgia Brown

Have a good week, peeps. Think of me.

Lord knows, I love it

Today's birthdays include Cromwell, Marconi, trans pioneer April Ashley, society hostess Elsa Maxwell, William Roache ("Ken Barlow" in Coronation Street), Björn from Abba and Ella Fitzgerald - but, on this Tacky Music Monday, it is to yesterday's clutch of celebrants we turn for our glittering entrée to a new week. Famously, two purveyors of "our kind of music" blew their candles out on the same day - MegaBabs and Shirley MacLaine.

Of the two it is, inevitably, Miss MacLaine who provides our traditional "wake-up call"; a performer who can always be relied upon to put a bit of va-va-voom into any number... As she says - I Love It!

Shirley MacLaine - I Love It

Have a good week, dear reader.

I deserve this

Bessie Sparrowbrush. Princess Aouda. Simone Pistache. Martha Dobie. Irma La Douce. Sister Sara. Charity Hope Valentine. Aurora Greenway. Ouiser Boudreaux. Doris Mann. Martha Levinson. Just some of the characters for whose existence we owe a debt of gratitude to our birthday girl (and Patron Saint) - the adorable Miss Shirley MacLaine, who is (remarkably) 80 years old today!

"I don't care what birthday you're on. It's all about how you feel. There are days when I feel like 30. The oldest I go is 50 in my mind. The number doesn't matter. But I do have a sense that I have some wisdom now. It's good to be wise. It sure beats being young and clueless."

Amen to that!

I have featured Miss MacLaine here many times before (and as an "exhibit" in the Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp, of course). I think it is safe to say we adore her!

Shirley MacLaine is a phenomenon and an inspiration to us all - even if (or possibly because) she is completely mad as a hatter. As long-serving showbiz legends go, there are very few who can touch her...

To celebrate the great lady, here are just a few musical choices. First up, her triumphal solo moment from Sweet Charity:

Shirley MacLaine - If They Could See Me Now

Gypsy in My Soul at the 1977 Royal Variety Performance:

Shirley MacLaine - Gypsy in My Soul

Closing the Irving Berlin Centenary celebrations with There's No Business Like Show Business:

[2019 UPDATE: gone from the interwebs, unfortunately]

And my personal favourite, once again from Sweet Charity (and highly appropriate given the current restructure/threat of redundancies at work):

Chita Rivera, Paula Kelly & Shirley MacLaine - There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This

Facts about Miss MacLaine:

• She got her big break on Broadway when lead Carol Haney sprained her ankle during a production of The Pajama Game. As her stand-in, MacLaine went on in her place and captured the interest of movie producer Hal Wallis and Alfred Hitchcock, who cast her in her first film The Trouble With Harry.
• It was her suggestion that Bob Fosse, whose musical Pajama Game gave her her first big break, direct her movie Sweet Charity.
• Allegedly during the filming of The Children's Hour, the co-stars made a deal: Audrey Hepburn would teach Shirley how to dress if Shirley would teach her how to swear.
• Shirley has co-starred with many of the greatest names in Hollywood including Paul Newman, Dean Martin, Elizabeth Taylor, Yves Montand, Jeanne Moreau, Jack Lemmon, Chita Rivera, Peter Sellers, Meryl Streep, Robert Mitchum, Anne Bancroft, Louis Jourdan, Jack Nicholson, Clint Eastwood and Olympia Dukakis, and was notoriously the only female member of the "Rat Pack"; she went on tour with longtime friend Frank Sinatra in 1992.
• Miss MacLaine has has been nominated for six Academy Awards, and when she finally won the Oscar for Best Actress in 1983 for Terms of Endearment, she became the first actor to say "I deserve this" during an acceptance speech.
• She has also been nominated for six Emmys (winning once) and 19 Golden Globes (winning four, as well as "Most Promising Newcomer" in 1955, "Most Versatile Actress" in 1959, and the Cecil B. DeMille award in 1998).
• Barbra Streisand and Shirley, who share a birthday, apparently celebrate it together every year.

"Possessions have never meant that much to me... I've never erected a lifestyle that would put possessions in a position of controlling me."

"All you really need in life is some fresh water, a good hat, and a really good pair of shoes."

Shirley Maclaine (born Shirley MacLean Beaty, 24th April 1934)

Make me a match

I know I have featured this strange coincidence before, but when we have two of our Patron Saints sharing a birthday, what can one do but try and make a connection?

There are probably myriad connections, personally and professionally. However there is one notable work that provides the link today between our birthday girls Barbra Streisand (71) and Shirley MacLaine (79) - Thornton Wilder's finest moment, his play The Matchmaker!

For indeed, Miss MacLaine starred in the original 1958 screen adaptation of Mr Wilder's play - as the romantic lead, milliner Irene Molloy:

The Matchmaker movie trailer

And of course, in 1969 Miss Streisand took the eponymous "Matchmaker" role in the Ernest Lehman/Gene Kelly adaptation of the Jerry Herman musical based upon that same play, Hello Dolly!:

Hello Dolly! movie trailer

Happy birthday, ladies!

Mega-Babs

Shirl

Anybody here seen Kelly? K-E-double-L-Y

We have a centenary to celebrate today - Mr Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly!

Mr K was never my absolute favourite male hoofer (that was of course Mr Astaire), and in my opinion many of his films are not as good as the sum of their parts (such as Singin' in the Rain or If You Feel Like Singing/Summer Stock (as it was known in the US)). Maybe it's just the fact he was so hefty that put me off a bit?

However, there is absolutely no doubt at all that when he hauled that non-dancer-like body into action, the man was a tremendously talented terpsichorean, and brought some of the most energetic and exhausting routines in Hollywood history into glorious being!

"If I was black and blue, it was Gene. If I didn't have a scratch it was Fred." - Cyd Charisse on how her husband would know with whom she had danced.

Here's just one - with our Patron Saint Miss Shirley MacLaine, possibly the only female dancer who could really give Mr K a run for his money...

Gene Kelly & Shirley MacLaine - What A Way To Go

What a Way to Go, indeed.

Facts about Gene Kelly:

• His father was Al Jolson's road manager in the 1920s.
• MGM had promised him the starring role in Teahouse of The August Moon but cast Marlon Brando instead. This was the last straw for Kelly who left MGM soon after.
• He apparently had a fever of 103 degrees while filming the famous rain scene in Singin' in the Rain
• He famously danced on roller skates with Olivia Newton-John in Xanadu.
• Gene Kelly was dance consultant for Madonna's 1993 "Girlie Show" tour, and of course was name-checked by her in Vogue.

Gene Kelly (23rd August 1912 - 2nd February 1996)

Old Broads

Just back from a fabulosa weekend in sunny Brighton (via Halfway to Heaven of course), but two things come to mind - firstly, despite interruptions of service, it is still Tacky Music Monday. Secondly, today would have been Dame Elizabeth Taylor's 80th birthday!

I am aware that Miss Taylor did not sing (despite her efforts in the movie version of A Little Night Music), so let us today feature a magnificent number from one of the last movies in which she appeared, albeit as an observer to the main number as performed by three other magnificent divas Miss Shirley MacLaine, Miss Debbie Reynolds and Miss Joan Collins!

These Old Broads

How much more camp can you get?!

These Old Broads - the movie

Another glittering Dowager

Exciting news!

From the BBC:

Oscar-winning US actress Shirley MacLaine is to join the cast of Downton Abbey for its third series as the mother of Lady Grantham.

MacLaine - whose character is named Martha Levinson - will begin filming with the rest of the cast next month.

"It is so exciting to have an actress of Shirley MacLaine's stature joining our brilliant Downton Abbey cast," said Laura Mackie, ITV's director of drama.

"It is a tribute to the show's success on both sides of the Atlantic."

"Julian [Fellowes] has written another brilliant character in Martha Levinson, who will be a wonderful combatant for Maggie Smith's Dowager Countess," said Gareth Neame of Downton producer Carnival Films.

Here is a very short clip of Miss MacLaine playing another fearsome early 20th century character Coco Chanel - a taster for what is to come?

Shirley MacLaine - Coco Chanel

Downton Abbey website

There is only one Shirley MacLaine

Congratulations today to one of our icons here at Dolores Delargo Towers!

From the BBC website:

Shirley MacLaine is to be honoured with a lifetime achievement award by the American Film Institute (AFI).

The actress will be presented with the prize at a gala tribute in Los Angeles on 7 June next year.

"Shirley MacLaine is a powerhouse of personality that has illuminated screens large and small," said AFI chair Howard Stringer.

MacLaine has starred in more than 50 Hollywood movies during her career, and won an Oscar for Terms of Endearment.

She has been nominated for a further five Academy Awards, and recently received France's most prestigious cultural award, the Legion of Honour.

She made her professional debut dancing in a Broadway revival of Oklahoma! in the 1950s.

Her first film appearance was in Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble With Harry, which earned her a Golden Globe award for most promising female newcomer in 1955.

Her other credits include The Children's Hour opposite Audrey Hepburn, The Apartment, co-starring Jack Lemmon, Steel Magnolias and Postcards from the Edge.

She can next be seen in Richard Linklater's comedy Bernie - due out in March in the US - alongside Jack Black and Matthew McConaughey.

"There is only one Shirley MacLaine, and it is AFI's honour to present her with its 40th lifetime achievement award," said Mr Stringer.

Other recipients of the AFI lifetime achievement award have included Orson Welles, Bette Davis, Gene Kelly, Kirk Douglas, Elizabeth Taylor, Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas and Sean Connery.

Funny they don't mention her biggest movie Sweet Charity, but never mind. Here's a sample of the lady's breathtaking showbiz talents...

Shirley MacLaine - Sweet Georgia Brown

Shirley MacLaine website

They Love Lucy!

It's a centenary today - Miss Lucille Ball!

Apparently to mark this occasion, more than 900 red-lipsticked, red-headed women - and men - gathered in the grande dame of screwball comedy's home town of Jamestown, New York State and achieved a world record for most Lucy look-alikes!



There was, of course, only one Lucille Désirée Ball, and here she is, showing that young whipper-snapper Shirley MacLaine a thing or two about showbiz...

Lucille Ball & Shirley MacLaine - Gypsy in my Soul TV special

Lucille Ball official website

Now THAT's how it's done!

It's summer at last (with 30 degrees predicted this weekend!), we're off to the magnificence of Kew Gardens, we may have found a house to move to when the landlady sells this one, and it is just one week to Gay Xmas (Pride)!

What better way to celebrate than with a collaboration between two of the most vivacious all-round entertainers ever? Put your hands together for Miss Ball and Miss MacLaine!

Lucille Ball and Shirley MacLaine

Birthdays, like the corners of my mind

Two of our favourite old broads celebrate their birthdays today - Miss Shirley MacLaine and Miss Barbra Streisand. Imagine what kind of birthday party that would be!

Shirley MacLaine - Gee, But It's Good to be Here

Barbra Streisand - Don't Rain On My Parade

Nobody does it like...

Today would have been the 80th birthday of the fabulous composer, songwriter, and jazz pianist Cy Coleman.

In a career that spanned eight decades (from his debut as a child piano prodigy), Cy wrote dozens of songs and shows for some of the greats, including Lucille Ball, Frank Sinatra, Gwen Verdon, Shirley MacLaine and Tony Bennett. Among the standards Cy wrote were such wonderful songs as Witchcraft, The Best Is Yet To Come, Nobody Does It Like Me and Hey, Look Me Over.

But it was his partnership with the magnificent grande dame of American theatre Dorothy Fields that produced the masterpiece for which he is most remembered (and one of my favourite musicals ever) - Sweet Charity. Although he continued to write, produce and perform right up until his unexpected death in 2004, he could never quite match the eternal success of this classic!

Here are a few samples of the prodigious musical talent of Cy Coleman...

Sweet Charity (trailer)

Shirley MacLaine, Chita Rivera and Paula Kelly - There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This

Linda Clifford - If My Friends Could See Me Now

Dame Shirley Bassey - Nobody Does It Like Me

Tony Bennett - The Best Is Yet To Come

Read Cy Coleman's entry in the Internet Broadway Database

Good times and bad times, I've seen them all, and my dear...

“I've made so many movies playing a hooker that they don't pay me in the regular way anymore. They leave it on the dresser.”

As a little tribute to the very lovely multi-talented nut-job Shirley MacLaine, whose 75th birthday it is today, here is just a little sample of the lady's talents...

Shirley MacLaine - Sweet Georgia Brown

Shirley MacLaine - Irma La Deuce and If They Could See Me Now

Shirley MacLaine and Dean Martin

And she most definitely is - still here!

Shirley MacLaine - I'm Still Here (from Postcards From The Edge)

Shirley MacLaine website

Three cheers and dammit!

With the "risk of redundancy" situation in work getting even more difficult, and my employers telling me I am not "matched" to a job I already do, I'm with Shirley MacLaine on this one...

Shirley MacLaine - I'm Still Here

I've run the gamut, A to Z;
Three cheers and dammit, C'est la vie.
I got through all of last year, and I'm here!
Lord knows, at least I was there, and I'm here!
Look who's here! I'm still here!!

If they could see me now

"I've made so many movies playing a hooker that they don't pay me in the regular way any more. They leave it on the dresser."

Another of our favourite Shirleys was 73 yesterday! One of the great all-rounders, singer, dancer, Oscar-winning actress, author and total eccentric Shirley Maclaine still looks wonderful today...

Star of such classics as "The Apartment", "Can-Can", "Irma La Douce", "Steel Magnolias", "Postcards from the Edge", and of course one of my all time favourite musicals "Sweet Charity", the world would be a lot less fun without our Shirley!

If they could see me now
That little gang of mine
I'm eatin' fancy chow and drinkin' fancy wine
I'd like those stumble bums
To see for a fact
The kind of top-drawer, first-rate chums I attract
All I can say is "Wow-ee!"
Look-a where I am
Tonight I landed, POW!
Right in a pot of jam
What a setup, holy cow!
They'd never believe it
If my friends could see me now!

If they could see me now
My little dusty group
Traipsin' round this million dollar chicken coop
I'd hear those thrift shop cats say, "Brother get her!
Draped on a bedspread made from three kinds of fur!"
All I can say is "Wow!"
Wait till the riff and raff
See just exactly how
He signed his autograph
What a build up, holy cow!
They'd never believe it
If my friends could see me now!