Last week I posted a home video of Lin-Manuel Miranda's wedding to his wife Vanessa, a rousing surprise production of the song, "To Life," from Fiddler on the Roof.  Here's another Miranda Family home movie, of sorts.

This is listed as a "home movie," and it sort of is.  But it looks more like a little production made in conjunction with the Ellen show, designed for posting on YouTube under the heading of "EllenTube."  The extended Miranda clan was on a European holiday, and as part of that trip, they apparently took the popular "Sound of Music Tour," visiting sites popularized in the Oscar-winning film.  And while doing that, the family performed the song "Do Re Mi" edited together, with father Luis (a political consultant) handling the lead.

Whether or not this should "officially" count as a home movie is a matter of perception, perhaps.  But it's nonetheless a lot of fun, however you want to define it.

The other day, I posted a video of Lin-Manuel Miranda singing a duet with Lea Salonga outside the theater of Hamilton to entertain the waiting crowd.  I thought it would be appropriate to veer off in the Miranda direction after a few days in Salonga Land.

I've posted this video a while back, and even if you missed it there, you may way have seen it elsewhere.  It's made the rounds -- because it's so wonderful.  But I've watched it numerous time, so I figure even if you've seen it, it'll still be a joy seeing it again.

You may recall in the Miranda-Salonga video, she surprises him with a song that he had once written for a former girlfriend (who it turns out is now friends with Salonga).  He appropriately is mortified, in part I assume because he's now married.

Which brings us to this video.

It's from his wedding that begins with a toast by his father-in-law.  I'll say nothing more than that.  Other than -- it's a joy.

​This is a rare "Not My Job" segment of the NPR quiz show, Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me! because the host is more intriguing than the guest contestant.  And that's saying a lot because the contestant is Olympic Gold Medal-winner, gymnast Simone Biles.  But the host here is a guest this week -- Tom Hanks!  Regular and observant readers of these pages know that this is from an old broadcast when Hanks filled in for regular host Peter Sagal.  Rather than re-post the whole thing here, I decided to just use the quiz.  But for those who want to hear the entire show with Tom Hanks as host, you can listen to it here.)

A couple weeks back, we had a yowza of a video here -- the 1960 Tony Awards, when it was still just a local broadcast, and included most-memorably a special award and wonderful acceptance speech by James Thurber.  Today, we have a worthy companion piece.  It doesn't have anything quite at the level of a Thurber (or the legendary George Abbott), but it's still pretty impressive on its own -- the very next year, the 1961 Tonys.

Again, this is still just a local New York broadcast.  And similarly, there's no entertainment, just speeches, many winners who today are little know to the public, and a pretty dry broadcast overall, so this is really for major theater buffs and theater historians to watch all the way through.  But -- not to fear!  For all others, it's still a remarkable treat to scroll through and watch for appearances.

Oddly, perhaps the most-memorable thing here is not who won, but who comes up on stage to deliver acceptance speeches for winners who couldn't be there that night.  Today, awards shows have gotten out of the habit of using time to let someone else accept an award "on behalf of" the winner who isn't in attendance, but this is before that time.  And usually, that's was an understandable disappoint for viewers to not get to see the winner but merely "someone else," whoever they were.  But here -- the "accepting on behalf of..." is almost preferable, because we get such acclaimed subordinates as Lilian Gish, Julie Andrews, Richard Burton (this is the year of Camelot, as you might have guessed) and the rarely seen on film legend, Beatrice Lilly.  Again, these are people who did not win the awards they're accepting!  Just willing to get up on behalf of others.  

(All are identified by the announcer, except for some reason Lilian Gish.  So, I can't be 100% that's her, but I'm 95% certain.)

This year is notable also for being a terrific example of the strange Tony rule for who is eligible in what acting categories, the result of which meant for decades (until it was finally changed) that stars of shows often weren't eligible for the 'Leading" award, but would get nominated as Best Featured performer instead.  (To be a leading actor, your name had to be either above the title or if below, specially set off by the words "Starring,")  That meant, for instance, that if a cast was presented as an ensemble below the show's title, the star could only be nominated in a Featured category.  One of the turning points for changing the rule came after William Daniels famously took his name out of contention for being nominated as Best Featured Actor in 1776 for his role as 'John Adams.'

There are several such instances in this year's awards, but the most interesting is Dick Van Dyke in Bye, Bye Birdie getting nominated as Best Featured Actor in a Musical, when it was the starring role that launched his career.  And though it's disappointing that he too is among those "unable to attend," what's fun is seeing that his award is accepted by his understudy -- a very young Charles Nelson Reilly.  And how young is he?  He's introduced as "Charles Reilly."

There are some other notable moments.  One is an award to the legendary producer David Merrick, who was unlikable enough even back then to get humorously-chided by host Phil Silvers.  (Hey, just having Phil Silvers as the show's host is pretty good on its own...)  And also intriguing is the category of Best Leading Actor in a Musical, since not only is one of the nominees Richard Burton for Camelot, but also -- Phil Silvers himself, for Do Re Mi.  And when Burton wins (hey, I'm not giving much away -- this is Richard Burton in Camelot, after all.  And it was 57 years ago!), it's fascinating to see how gracious he is to host Silvers, and how Silvers handles it all when he has to go back out to host after not winning.

(By the way, it was by all accounts a wonderful performance that Phil Silvers gave in Do Re Mi, including his memorable "11 o'clock" soul-searching number, "All of My Life,"  I wrote about the show and embedded that song here, if you want to hear it and know more, along with the final with Silvers joining in on the show's most famous song, "Make Someone Happy.")

All that aside, here's the 1961 Tonys.
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There was a bit of attention given to a clever promotion by the Royal Caribbean cruise line where they hired Bonnie Tyler to sing her big hit, "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (written by Jim Steinman) today -- during the total eclipse, of course -- aboard one of their ships.

Here's footage of that.  It's not all that great a video, editing a bunch of things together, but it's still a fun-enough idea to see.  The song comes along about 40-seconds in.
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For Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me! this week, we expands things a bit, and jump into another of their "Best of..." programs.  And this one is a treat.  We have a rebroadcast of host Peter Sagal's interviews with Stephen Colbert, Alan Cumming, Daniel Radcliffe, and Governor John Hickenlooper -- all of which include the "Not My Job" quiz. These are all very entertaining, but the Colbert quiz is particularly fun.  That's because the show's scheduled guest was supposed to be Lena Dunham who couldn't make it, so Colbert filled in at the last minute -- and though Peter Sagal does a nice interview with him...he also asks him the questions (and quiz question) he had prepared for Ms. Dunham.)  And oh, for extra measure, we'll toss in a bunch of fun moments with the panelists, as well.
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The first line in Mark Evanier's piece on the passing of Jerry Lewis includes mention of a friend writing him, "When I saw the headline..."  I had my own "When I saw the headline" moment, but it was a completely different one.  When I saw the headline, my first thought was -- "I wonder what Mark Evanier wrote about it?"

Mark has written extensively and insightfully about Jerry Lewis over the years, and crossed paths a few times.  I was not remotely surprised that what he wrote was so insightful.  And good.

My only remaining question was that, given that Jerry Lewis was 91, had he prepared this in advance, like newspapers do for celebrities.

You can read it here.

We head back On the Road with Charles Kuralt, this time crossing the Mississippi River from Illinois into Missouri and head into Hannibal to celebrate Tom Sawyer Days.  Oddly, though this would seen heaven-made for Kuralt to do a story on, it's a bit more meandering and pastoral than a focused tale, but still full of charm.
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This is a video that a Dutch radio station posted yesterday.  It came during a performance by the British metal band Architects, which they were giving at the Lowlands Festival in Biddinghuizen, the Netherlands.  After finishing a song, lead singer Sam Carter stops the show and notes that he was undecided whether to say something about what he saw in the crowd during the previous number -- and then makes abundantly clear that he will say something.

What follows is Carter angrily reaming out a fan for sexual assault against a young woman that he saw while she was "crowd surfing."  His passionate is furious, and even more wonderfully, he repeatedly gets huge cheers from the crowd.

The video has gotten a lot of attention, and Carter a lot of praise.