Audioland
Mark Sullivan, director of the Secret Service, announced on Friday that he is retiring. That brought this song to mind. It's from the musical, Mr. President, which was the last show ever written by Irving Berlin, in 1962. It starred film actor Robert Ryan and, as the First Lady, Nanette Fabray. This particular song, "The Secret Service," is sung by the character of their daughter, played by a young Anita Gillette.
Anita Gillette went on to have a long career, that's still going, most notably in a few episodes of 30 Rock as Liz Lemon's mother. She had a successful career on Broadway, even getting a Tony nomination in Neil Simon's Chapter Two. (Though she wasn't in the original casts, she appeared in the Broadway companies of Cabaret and They're Playing Our Song.) She also did a ton of TV, that included a semi-regular role on Quincy, ME and lot of games shows. (She was on The New $25,000 Pyramid 53 times) And when they made a series out of the film, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, she starred as 'Alice.'
Mr. President opened in October, 1962. It wasn't a significant success, though it ran for 265 performances. The show is a bit old-fashioned, as Broadway was slowly beginning to change (that was the year of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Stop the World - I Want to Get Off), but it has quite a few enjoyable songs, including this one.
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