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Decent Quality Since 1847

Look What Happened, It's Mabel

11/21/2017

2 Comments

 
One of the videos I've searched for years (and no, don't have it here) is Bernadette Peters singing the charming and adorably fun song, "Look What Happened to Mabel" from Jerry Herman's musical Mack & Mabel, about famed silent movie director Mack Sennett who made legions of comedies and star Mabel Normand.  The closest I've come is 15-seconds here of behind-the-scenes footage from a documentary on Herman, and this montage of songs from the show done on a British TV show when the musical was being performed after many years in London, with Caroline O'Connor as Mabel.

Yesterday, Mark Evanier tells a bit about the show and has a wonderful video of the number from the 2000 Reprise! version in Los Angeles, sort of a semi-stated production.  It starred Jane Krakowski, who's very talented, but I tend to find a bit cloying to make sure you know you're watching Jane Krakowski.  But she does a wonderful job here, and even sort of channels her inner-Bernadette Peters, using an accent that sounds a bit like her, complete with the full production.  It's not the Bernadette Peters footage, but a solid replacement.  You can it here on Mark's site.

It's a wonderful song, as neophyte Mabel Normand sees herself for the first time on the Big Screen.  And one note:  there's a phrase that gets repeated a few times in the song (first coming in around the 2:15 mark) that I could never understand through all the years of listening to the number.  Finally, I tracked down the lyrics.  If you can't make it out either, it's, "So, rattle me beads -- look what happened to Mabel."  I have to believe that's an expression of the times.  Or Jerry Herman just made it up from thin air."
2 Comments
Donald Casali
11/24/2017 05:00:17 am

It also took me years to figure out the "rattle me beads" lyric from "Look What Happened to Mabel". Due to the religious references in the song ('jumpin' St. Jude', 'Mary and Joseph, what happened to Mabel', 'Oh, Saint Aloysius' - rhymed with 'knishes'-loved it!) Mabel has to be referring to her Rosary Beads. My Irish grandmother's response to any problem or complaint was "go say your beads" though she never once mentioned rattling them.

I have loved Bernadette Peters performance of this song for over four decades, only wish I had seen the show. Looking forward to seeing Ms. Peters in "Hello, Dolly!" next year. She should be wonderful.

Reply
Robert Elisberg
11/27/2017 07:32:11 am

Donald, thanks for your note. It's good to know I wasn't alone with not being about to understand that line -- though I'm not surprised. If you actually figured it out (rather than waving the white flag, like me, and researching the lyrics), hat's off! But either way, it was hitting a road bump with them.

As I wrote, if you ever see the PBS documentary on Jerry Herman, called "Words and Music," there's about 10 seconds of video for this song in it -- not much, but maybe that means the full video exists and may show up one day... (If one is interested, the documentary is available on Amazon at -- http://amzn.to/2hVtnTm )

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    Author

    Robert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 

    Elisberg is a two-time recipient of the Lucille Ball Award for comedy screenwriting. He's written for film, TV, the stage, and two best-selling novels, is a regular columnist for the Writers Guild of America and was for
    the Huffington Post.  Among his other writing, he has a long-time column on technology (which he sometimes understands), and co-wrote a book on world travel.  As a lyricist, he is a member of ASCAP, and has contributed to numerous publications.



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