And you're gonna finish on top!

A view up my back passage. [click to embiggen]

Groo. Another weekend just whooshed by...

By good fortune, it would have been the ground-breaking lyricist Dorothy Fields' birthday today - the woman who broke the "glass ceiling" back in the early 20th century, writing dozens of songs with the likes of Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hammerstein and Cy Coleman for musicals ranging from the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers era to Annie Get Your Gun to Sweet Charity.

On this Tacky Music Monday, what better way to wake us all up than a bit of tap-dancing, courtesy of the lovely, leggy Tommy Tune - and one of Miss Fields' splendidly upbeat numbers?!

Tommy Tune - It's Not Where You Start

Have a good week, dear reader.

Tallest ten-time Tony winner taps

"My idea of gambling was walking through Central Park, whistling show tunes."

"As a joke I often say that I am 5'18½" tall."

The very lovely dancing legend Mr Tommy Tune - possessor of the longest (ahem) legs in the business; they go all the way up, apparently - was (remarkably) 80 years old last week! As a young man, he was quite the stylish (and sexy) young thing...

On his experience at his very first Tony Awards ceremony in 1974: "...we were told to only come to the show with a girl on our arm. And my partner at the time had been so supportive that I just went, 'This is not right.' So I defied the law. And we came together and they put him on one side of the post in the last seat of the Shubert Theatre and I was on the other side, so you couldn't tell the two boys were together.... Then when they said 'The nominees are...' and the picture would come on of one nominee and then another and when they said 'Tommy Tune for Seesaw.' They didn't put the camera on me because of my date. So, that was interesting. And I've never forgotten that because now it's... life is so much freer."

Although he has been tappin' his tits off on stage since 1965, it was for his film appearance alongside Dame Twiggy in The Boy Friend in 1971 that he is indelibly remembered - see here for a performance of one of their numbers.



Facts:

• Mr Tune won nine actor, choreography and directing Tony Awards, and gained the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015; he was also awarded the US National Medal of Arts, and has his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• His dance tutor when he was learning his art was Patrick's mother Patsy Swayze.
• He once worked as assistant choreographer on TV's The Dean Martin Show.
• He's a fan of Christine Ebersole, Antonio Carlos Jobim and - erm - professional wrestling!
• He was still on tour across the US of A even last year (some shows in partnership with fellow veteran hoofer Chita Rivera, some solo).

Here are those legs in full swing...

Tommy Tune - Puttin' on the Ritz

...and here he is with the much-missed Carol Channing, his lifetime friend and mentor:

Carol Channing and Tommy Tune - That's How Young I Feel

Many happy returns, Thomas James "Tommy" Tune (born 28th February 1939)

Arise...

...Dame TWIGGY!

Alongside such luminaries as Companion of Honour Margaret Atwood; Sir Michael Palin (former member of Monty Python and natural history documentary maker), Sir Bill Beaumont (former England Rugby captain and broadcaster), Sir John Redwood MP, Sir Philip Pullman (author, His Dark Materials) and Sir Alastair Cook (former England cricket captain); Commanders of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) film director Christopher Nolan, violinist Nicola Benedetti, musician Nitin Sawhney, author of The Gruffalo Julia Donaldson and TV presenter and conservationist Chris Packham; Officers of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) actor Jim Carter ("Carson" in Downton Abbey),England football manager Gareth Southgate, cyclist and Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas and actress Thandie Newton; Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) England footballer Harry Kane, guitarist Gordon Giltrap, pop singer and vocal coach David Grant and professional darts player John Lowe; in a list of 1,148 people in HM The Queen's New Year's Honours list, the former Miss Lesley Hornby becomes a DBE for services to fashion, the arts and charity.

Congratulations, every one. And here's the Dame herself...

Twiggy with Tommy Tune - S'wonderful (from The Boy Friend)

S'wonderful, indeed!

I feel like peckin' and bunny huggin'

Yesterday was the 85th birthday of that immensely talented Great Man of Showbiz, Mr Jerry Herman! He has a special place in our hearts here at Dolores Delargo Towers, being the creator of such faboo musicals as Hello Dolly!, La Cage Aux Folles, Dear World, Mack and Mabel and Mame.

On this Tacky Music Monday, to brighten up the start to another no doubt godawful week in the stuffy office, here's a song from the latter. Usually known for the version by Angela Lansbury, here's not one, but two renditions of That's How Young I Feel - first an unexpected one from Miss Ginger Rogers and her "safety gays":

Ginger Rogers - That's How Young I Feel

...outdone and outshone (of course) by this bizarre version, featuring the combination of Miss Carol Channing and Mr Tommy Tune!

Carol Channing and Tommy Tune - That's How Young I Feel

I wonder if Mr Herman's singing this to himself?

Jerry Herman (born 10th July 1931)

Tap Your Troubles Away

Happy 70th birthday today to the multi-talented, multi award-winning Tommy Tune.

And what talents! A six-foot-six dancer, singer, choreographer and director, in his four-decade career Tommy has appeared on stage in such spectacular musical productions as SeeSaw, Irma La Douce, My One And Only and Bye Bye Birdie, and his own revues. His big screen credits include Hello Dolly with MegaBabs and, most impressively, The Boyfriend starring alongside Twiggy. He also masterminded the revival of Grease as a stage production, which went on to international success.

Tommy Tune is open about his sexuality, and in his autobiography "Footnotes" he talks about the men in his life, losing friends and lovers to AIDS, and the difficulties of growing up gay in Texas.

And yes, that is his real name - evidently he was destined to go into showbiz...

Ann Reinking and Tommy Tune

Tommy Tune and Twiggy - My One And Onlytrailer

Tommy Tune - It's Not Where You Start

Tommy Tune biography in the GLBTQ Encyclopedia