Bye Bye Dick Gautier

Over on his website, Mark Evanier has a very nice profile and personal story here on Dick Gautier who passed away the other day at age 85.  Gautier was best-recognized for playing 'Hymie the Robot' on the Get Smart series, and starred as 'Robin Hood' in another Mel Brooks series, When Things Were Rotten.  But what's little known is that he created the role of 'Conrad Birdie' in the original production of of the Broadway musical, Bye Bye Birdie.

I was listening to the cast recording the other day, so I thought I'd post him singing, along with Susan Watson, one of the show's big hits, "A Lot of Livin' to Do."

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Better still, here's a full, 14-minute clip of the show when it appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.  Dick Gautier comes in around the 4:25 mark.  It's introduced by Dick Van Dyke (who later sings the big hit from the show, "Put On a Happy Face"), and features a lot of Paul Lynde.  Why did the musical get such an incredibly long amount of time on the TV show?  Well, if you know Bye Bye Birdie, you probably have a really good guess.  The answer of which is included in this scene -- the song "Hymn for a Sunday Evening"...about appearing on ​The Ed Sullivan Show.