Yes, Yes, Nanette
Last week, I wrote a long piece on Burr Tillstrom, Kukla and Ollie, about an article on Tillstrom's life with a video of a TV special they participated in that was a dance number choreographed by Jerome Robbins. I mentioned that the dance may have been inspired by the Bathing Beauty Ballet he choreographed for the musical High Button Shoes.
Which brings us the connection to this.
It's an appearance by Nanette Fabray on The Ed Sullivan Show around 1950 is my guess. She sings songs from two Broadway musicals she starred in. The first is from Love Life, written in 1948 by Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner before teaming up with Frederick Loewe. It had a short, but respectable run of 225 performances, about half a year.
The other song comes in around the 2:30 mark, from that above-mentioned High Button Shoes. It's the big hit number from the show, "Papa, Won't You Dance With Me?" The show was written the year before, in 1947, and had a long run of almost two years, with 727 performances.
This second number stands out for another reason, which will become clear, and makes it even more surprisingly fun than it already is.
By the way, for those who don't know Nanette Fabray, she had a long and very successful career, mostly on stage on television. She passed away only two years ago at the age of 97. But if you don't know her, you might know her niece, Shelly Fabares, who played Christine, the wife of Craig T. Nelson the sitcom, Coach. And in about four episodes, Nanette Fabray appeared as her real-life niece's mother.
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