Sunday Diva/Three From The Hip: Maureen McGovern

Sunday Diva/Three From The Hip: 

Maureen McGovern

In my own personal big gay church there is a special wing dedicated to The Working Girls. These are ladies whom have had long careers spanning decades with great chart success. They've hosted shows, appeared on variety shows, championed causes and had their ups and downs. 

But they kept working.

Enter stage right: Maureen McGovern

Never say never with this diva. 

Blessed with a vocal range the envy of many, she started out working the lounges of Holiday Inns, where it was just a matter of time before someone recognized what a talent she was. 

Theme songs seemed to be her bread and butter - four Oscar-nominated yielding three winners! With one of them snagging the #1 spot on the Top 40.

Yes... things looked good for this sure winner.

So, how is it she faded from the limelight and became 'Glenda Schwartz'?

Well, that would have to do with finances. You see, giving your manager 40% of the take and keeping a band on full-salary whether you're touring or not? That gets expensive. So the lady had to exit stage left... but not for long.

Yet another theme song resurrected her career and even though it was ineligible for an Oscar, it still had a huge impact regarding the demand for her services. More theme songs followed and then...

Broadway! Yes, she answered the call and the curtain calls quickly followed.

Through it all? That voice remained. And remains in demand still today.

The gospel according to her?

Well, here are three from the hip, dropping from her lips.

The topic? Her-story.

"As a kid, all I wanted to be was a pop singer. I was extremely shy. People kept telling me you’ve got such a big voice, you have to go into theatre. But, I was very, very shy as a child and a slow reader. But, even in my early days of performing, I could sing in front of anybody, but then I would go quickly into the next song, and said as minimal amount of words as possible. I never entertained the idea of going into theatre, although my idols were Judy Garland, Streisand, along with Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Tormé, and Cleo Laine, and Judy Collins, and Joni Mitchell and Dusty Springfield. So, I had a wide cross-section of people that I greatly admired. But theatre was not something I was really interested in."

"I’d only been working professionally since June of 1972. I was performing in Cleveland. My then manager had me performing in all the Holiday Inns and Ramada Inns across the great mid-west here, doing endless Top 40. The diva with the lounge band. I grew up in northeastern Ohio, Youngstown, Ohio. My producer was from Cleveland. His barber had come to hear me at a Ramada Inn on the outskirts of Cleveland, and went to him and said you’ve got to hear this young woman. He took a tape of mine around which essentially was just our lounge set. All of the record companies turned me down except for Twentieth Century Records, and Russ Regan who was head of Twentieth Century Records at the time, heard something in my voice and literally signed me sight unseen. He said, ‘We’ll look for something', and The Morning After was the very first thing they sent me to record. I thought, being a totally unknown artist, that by all indications, this movie was going to be huge; The Poseidon Adventure. So, they had me record it."

"I was working in Canada at the time and flew into Cleveland. I had a cold and it took awhile to make it not sound like 'The Borning After'. Maybe I should get a cold every time I record a million-seller. That was in November 1972, and the song was released along with the movie in December 1972. The movie took off. It was huge, a blockbuster. The song did absolutely nothing, and the record co. dropped it. So then in the Spring of ’73, it was nominated for an Oscar and a lot of radio stations started playing the song, as one of the nominees. Then, when it subsequently won the Oscar, more stations started playing it, and there was this huge groundswell of phone requests from California to New York. It forced the record company to rerelease the song and by August of’73, it was a gold record."

"So it took a full nine months for that song to happen. Even in December of ’72 when it was first released, I auditioned for the Mike Douglas Show with that song and they turned me down. So then in August of’73, I went on his show. For years, he was a very sweet man, made a joke about it, my brilliant staff…"

"At the end of the 70’s, when my records in the States weren’t selling, and I was without a record co. I went back to being a secretary... out here in California, in the marina for a P.R. firm and a publishing company in the valley. My mother always said have something you can fall back on, and she was right. But, I decided I didn’t want to chase that three minute and ten second record and that there was more to me than that. It was even suggested to me in the late 70’s to change my name, because it was easier to launch a new artist than someone who was deemed a one-hit artist. So, I just decided I was going to record things that meant something to me, and I walked away from the recording business until I could do it on my own terms. I didn’t record a solo album until 1986. I started writing children’s music and working in theatre. I just started working in the charity work I wanted. In the 70’s it was the grind of trying to find a hit record, and there’s more to life than that."

The Morning After - Maureen McGovern

Theme from The Poseidon Adventure 

Different Worlds - Maureen McGovern

Theme from Angie

Can Read My Mind - Maureen McGovern

Theme from Superman

And one last parting shot...

"I’ve done three Broadway shows, and one off Broadway, and a lot of regional and some stock. I did Pirates of Penzance. I replaced Linda Ronstadt, in 1981. I loved that show. I had never even done a high school play. Just three weeks prior to being signed to do Pirates I was on my way to Pittsburgh to do one week of summer stock with The Sound of Music and Joe Papp had asked me to come to New York and audition, and they hired me on the spot. I was coming from California with enough clothes in my suitcase for two weeks, and went right after that to New York, and stayed for the next 17 years. I just recently moved back to California."

"When I went to New York and did Sound of Music, that one week of summer stock, I’d found a real home on Broadway. Opening on Broadway three weeks later was one of the most daunting things in my life. Theatre actually ground me as a performer, much more than the years and years of concerts that I’d done before that."

Wonderland Burlesque's Let's Go To The Movies: An Absolute Disaster Edition, Part II

Wonderland Burlesque's

Let's Go To The Movies:

An Absolute Disaster Edition, Part II

Last week's Let's Go To The Movies was all about various modes of transportation and the terrible things that could happen. 

This week it's the elements and mother nature having their way.

Ah, there's nothing like the fury of a woman scorned.

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The Towering Inferno

"One tiny spark becomes a night of blazing suspense."

"The tallest building in the world is on fire. You are there with 294 other guests. There is no way down. There is no way out."

(My favorite disaster film.)

(Adore those big name head shots. That's glamor!)

(Look at that cast! Susan Blakely was gorgeous. Fred Astaire did a lovely turn as a con man who falls in love with an intended mark, he ends up with her cat. And, despite all the testosterone, Faye Dunaway steals the damn show merely being eye candy. As for Richard Chamberlain? Oh, you despise him by the end. One of his best performances.)

(As a kid, I adored this film. I actually saw it in the theatre. It was the glamor of the occasion. I fell in love with Faye Dunaway and her terrible synthetic gown. I bought the novelization of the movie and reenacted scenes from this one in the basement for years.)

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City On Fire

(Featuring disaster specialists Susan Clark, Shelly Winters, and Henry Fonda, who always had his name added last for some reason.)

"What happened to them, could happen to you... in any city, anywhere."

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Fire

"Another burning sensation from the producer of The Towering Inferno"

(Another burning sensation! Oh, no. Where, now? That doctor promised me that salve would take care of it!)

(Ernest Borgnine is on board this television movie disaster, along with Vera Miles, Patty Duke, and Donna Mills. )

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Earthquake 

"An event..."

(As opposed, to say... a movie?)

(Disaster heavyweights Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, George Kennedy.)

(This was a huge success - in Sensurround - but the cracks in the formula were already starting to show.)

(The only other films to utilize Sensurround? Midway, Rollercoaster, a Star Wars documentary and several Battlestar Galactica offerings.)

--- ---

Avalanche

"A winter wonderland becomes a nightmare of destruction."

(Poor Mia Farrow climbed onto the bandwagon a little late in the game and with Roger Corman, no less. By the time she made her disaster debut, the genre was on the wane. Well, at least she had Rock Hudson on hand to shoulder some of the blame. This movie was panned like a trout.)

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Tidal Wave

"The ultimate disaster."

"Earthquakes shatter the nation. Cities become raging firestorms. But the worst is yet to come!"

(That description sells this film short. This is actually the very worst.)

(So this film, like a couple of the Godzilla movies, is actually a Japanese film with scenes of disaster specialist Lorne Greene spliced into it make it look as if he's part of the film. A terrible, cheap ass way of making a film, Roger Corman. But that logo? Nice ripoff job.)

"When this wave hits, millions will die!"

(Of boredom?)

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Flood

Sudden! Overpowering! Terrifying!

(Another Irwin Allen television program. He was slated to deliver six such features. 

This one has Robert Culp, Barbara Hershey, Carol Lynley and Roddy McDowell.)

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Hurricane

"An overwhelming passion that not even nature could destroy"

(This is Mia Farrow's other contribution to the genre. By the time it hit the theatres, the disaster film craze was dead. So....)

(...the marketing department quickly shifted gears and began pushing this as the new Blue Lagoon/Endless Love. Does that poster look familiar? Does it scream disaster film to you?)

--- ---

 

When Time Ran Out

"Caught in a game of power. Playing time: 24 hours. Prizes: untold wealth. Rules: none."

(Paul Newman and William Holden are back with The Deep's Jacqueline Bisset.)

(Expect Holden to pace about a room ramming his fist on a desk demanding stuff urgently.)

(Yes, time did indeed run out... for this genre.)

(Ernest Borgnine is also on board. Someone get that man a real job.)

(I think the stars fared better on this foreign market poster.)

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Meteor

"It's five miles wide... its coming at 30,000 m.p.h.... and there's no place on earth to hide!"

(Shades of movies to come (Armageddon, Deep Impact,) Natalie Wood and Sean Connery jump on board the bandwagon to little effect. Henry Fonda is also in there... added last, again.)

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The Swarm

"...is coming."

(And this, my dears, was the nail in the coffin that sealed this genre's fate... for a time. The notion of killer bees were all the rage, but by the time this bloated extravaganza zoomed into theatres, they were more myth than fact. The buzz on this one? It was a dud, D.O.A., despite an all-star cast that included disaster regulars Michael Caine, Patty Duke, and Lee Grant with a slumming Katherine Ross and Olivia De Haviland taking great umbrage.)

(See! Ripped from the previous year's headlines!)

(Poor Richard Chamberlain. I guess not even his closet could protect him from the swarm.)

(But don't worry. I hear he's used to having all sorts of things on his face.)

(I can't tell if Olivia is terrified of the bees or horrified that she's in this movie.)

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And that's all for today.

Tune in next week...

Same time, same channel.

Intermission Time!

TMI Questions: It’s the Apocalypse!

I have long loved disaster movies.  Irwin Allen was a master chef and I ate at his table frequently. Just the thought, the thrill, the drama.  So, this week's TMI Questions are right up my alley.

TMI QUESTIONS

Questions designed to reveal Too Much Information

Link: http://tmiquestions.blogspot.com/

It’s the Apocalypse!

Have you lived through a natural disaster?

Tornadoes in North Minneapolis, May 22^nd, 2011 - Devastated many neighborhoods.  My LLC owns eight homes in North Minneapolis and not a single bit of damage on any of them!  Huge trees toppled right next door to them. Homes were demolished, many rendered unlivable.  But ours scathed through untouched.  A giant mystery to me; I was very, very fortunate.  

What did I do during the storm?  Unbelievably, I slept.  Had no idea until the next day.

And more recently the horrendous storms, June 22^nd:  tons of trees down.  Again, my corner of the world spared while a block away, trees were ripped out of the ground, causing lots of damage. I hope my luck holds.  I think, with global warming, or perhaps, this time in the evolution of the earth, we can expect a lot more bizarre, deadly weather.

I survived the Halloween Blizzard of 1991.  It was so cool.  I was living in this mostly empty three story house, where I would hold rehearsals and throw crazy parties.  I had friends who came for a visit.  They owned a Yugo!  They ended up having to stay overnight and the next morning the Yugo was completely buried in snow.  We had to dig down to find it.  It was surreal.

And the biggest natural (as far as we know) disaster that I ever survived was the AIDS crisis: Fuck you, Ronald Regan and George Bush, and all the others that stood in the way, or turned a blind eye as thousands perished.   You were all cowards and should have been brought up on charges of genocide.   Your inaction was criminal and despicable.

Which natural disasters could occur where you live?

Tornados and Blizzards.

And zombies.  I live quite close to a huge cemetery.  (What?  Zombies could rise due to natural elements.  At least, it would seem very natural to me.)

Space invasions.

Viruses.

Oh, and if the sun dies or a giant meteor started coming toward earth.

And Tom Emmer taking Michele Bachmann’s seat in the House of Representatives – very scary, Mary.

Which natural disaster would scare you the most?

Wildfires. 

Fire scares me (I am Frankenstein), as it is so unpredictable.   The idea of dying in a fire breaks my heart.  I would just pray that the carbon monoxide would knock me out first, so that I wouldn’t know what was happening and wouldn’t feel any pain. 

Also, the idea of my dogs being trapped or me being unable to rescue them terrifies me.  If that happened, and they perished, I’d be one of those people who would either clam up and never speak another word or one of those that howl it out like a banshee.

That said, ‘The Towering Inferno’ is one of my all-time favorite bad movies.  All those rich, rich people, in bad tuxes and polyester evening wear burning up.  Delicious fun.  Also the original ‘Poseidon Adventure’.   Nothing makes a disaster more elegant than the right 1970’s evening gown.

What kind of preparations have you taken to survive the next one?

I live in a house with a steel beam.  It was built in 1952, probably as a bunker.  Yes, I already know exactly where to hide when the zombies come (no, I am not telling you).

I have tons of bottled water in the trunk of my car.

I have a well-stocked pantry, which I actually monitor from time to time with the thought of survival in mind.

I like the idea of surviving, but in practical terms, I would probably wuss out and swallow a handful of Ambien (after my dogs were gone).  Rather that, than risk being eaten by a zombie or controlled by Ted Nugent.

Which disaster, natural or manmade, do you fear the most?

Theatre.  Musical Theatre, in particular.  Oh, the horror.

I have survived two such self-made manmade disasters.  Both on a scale of epic ego-inflated, delusional grandeur. 

First was a production of ‘Piaf’ in the mid-haties, which I managed to squeeze all the humor out of by inflating it to a three hour production – complete with a ‘mourning bride’ who danced about supplying the little sparrow with heroin, lots of white pancake, a set constructed from shipping crates and lots of weird ‘Bob Fosse’ moments, a la ‘All That Jazz’.  As if that were not enough, I also felt that Piaf’s own music was not enough and added a bunch of Elton John songs (‘We All Fall In Love Sometimes’, ‘Idol’, and ‘Cage the Songbird’) because… I wanted to! (WTF?)

Needless to say, the actress playing Piaf had a breakdown during dress rehearsals and I had to toss out a number of her songs to relieve some pressure.  She got RAVE reviews and my direction got the stink-eye.  The run went on for what seemed like forever.  By the final week, the cast was starting to have way too much fun on-stage at the production’s expense, as I sat in the light booth staring at the stage mumbling, “Die already.  Why won’t you die?”

The second? A musical I wrote. I decided I would take the high road and hire everybody to do everything and just play producer. Ticket sales were great.  I was promoting the hell out of the thing. But the production proved to be a complete and utter disaster: four actresses who fought viciously with one another throughout, a director who did NOTHING, a musical director with a tin ear and a thing for marching tempos, a music producer who wasted a thousand dollars of studio time producing absolutely nothing I could use, and a costumer who could not sew and eventually just pulled things from people’s closets.  The set however was fabulous – giant martini glass graphics, lots of neon, backlit multi-colored liquor bottles – very clever stuff.  

I died a million deaths throughout final dress rehearsals.  Then I made the mistake of giving the preview audiences comment cards.  Let’s just say ‘worst musical ever written’ came up a lot, seconded by ‘you suck Marvin Hamlisch’s balls’. In other words, I got off easy.  My bank account and reputation?  Not so much.

The other manmade disaster I fear?  The world according to Ted Nugent  or ‘DoucheWorld’ as it shall hereby be known.  The only hunting I am in favor of is that of nutbag celebrities (looking in your direction Victoria Jackson).

Which manmade apocalypse do you think is most likely?

Nukes – Kaboom! 

It will come in the form of a nuclear meltdown at some plant in Florida or Russia (You know, those neglected, poorly-managed places).   Or in the form of nuclear warheads at the hand of some crazed dictator (looking in your direction, Korea).  We will all die painfully, with our skin sliding off.  Especially Ted Nugent.

Zombies, aliens, asteroids, plague, ice age or ‘?’  Survival is possible: What will you do?

I’m not a joiner.  So I will be keeping as low a profile as possible. Mostly hiding in my basement.  Though I may go work/volunteer at an animal shelter.    

I will steal everything in sight.  I am a natural scavenger.  Born with it.  Can’t help it. Actually enjoy it.  But I am a scavenger - not a survivalist, not a hunter.  So, unless there is something left to live off of, I will probably die.   (And good riddance!) 

Ever see ‘Night of the Comet’?  If you haven’t, do.  That’s what I would do.

Describe the apocalypse, natural or manmade, real or fictional, you'd choose to end all life as we know it.

A virus that causes terminal silliness. 

The first afflicted would be all the financial barons of the world, those blowhards of the Christian Right, all politicians, and all news pundits.   I would love to see what new heights of silliness could be achieved.  I would like to think that silliness could save the world. 

I would like to live and die in a world where Russell Brand is rendered redundant.    

In one month the world will end.  How do you spend it?

Dancing.  Alone in my living room.  Mostly to Peggy Lee singing ‘Is That All There Is?’ and ‘Dancing in the Dark’ from ‘Bandwagon’

I’d listen to music constantly.  Playing all my favorite songs one last time.

I’d want to walk in the woods, unless that wasn’t possible.

If we could be outside, without fear of zombies, or melting, or being eaten, then I would go to the prairie and lie naked in the grass and stare at the sky.   I’d take a picnic.

If the end were certain, I would stay off the internet, stop taking calls, stop watching television.

I would play the piano – but things others have written.

I’d walk the dogs and cherish them and give them all the treats they wanted.

I might visit the Walker Art Center, ponder the art, and wonder what it all meant.

I might travel to Simi Valley, California and take a giant dump on Ronald Regan’s grave.

And on that final day… I’d consider taking a couple of sleeping pills to let it all happen without me, but most likely I would wait to see if it was really all over, so I would know how it really ends.  As much as I dislike endings, I also think they are an essential part of living and, especially in this case, dying.  

Bonus

Have you ever had a sexual experience that you'd classify as the end of world? Was it a good end or bad?

It was the end of the world as I knew it. 

I didn’t always recognize it as such at the time.  But the last time you make love to someone that you truly care about and then that relationship comes to an end?   In hindsight, that moment becomes the last breath. 

There have been only two relationships that I did not want to end, to the point that I put them on life support for a full six months.  Needless to say, they didn’t make it.

The rest? 

I smothered with a pillow and never looked back.

And now: here’s some timeless, haunting songs - ones that I would be playing more than once before the end of days.

Videos for the End of the World

End of the World by Matt Alber

Is That All There Is by Peggy Lee

Dancing In the Dark from ‘Bandwagon’

Let’s Go Out Tonight by Craig Armstrong

Lullaby by Billie Joel

 

Lost by Annie Lennox

 End of the World by Skeeter Davis