Saturday, November 11, 2006

Willkommen - Welcome - Bienvenue

Greetings to those of you who have been directed here from Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy! The aforementioned Clark and McCullough Database can be found at this link, and endless thanks to Mr. Maltin both for the kind write-up and the shocking revelation that Bobby Clark's final film appearance wasn't in The Goldwyn Follies after all, but in There's No Business Like Show Business in 1954! Indeed, director Walter Lang gives Bobby a very nice, and quite showy, cameo towards the end of the picture, being greeted by star Ethel Merman in a backstage scene. As you can see in the frames below, Bobby is perfectly recognizable in his greasepaint eyeglasses and is even wearing his late partner Paul McCullough's famous coat (said to be dogskin in contemporary news clippings). Clark had taken to wearing the coat by the late 40s, an affectionate gesture, no doubt, but one also tinged with some strange symbolic undertones. I also like the idea that Bobby just wandered around dressed like this in public. Interestingly, castmember Mitzi Gaynor had co-starred with Bobby in the off-Broadway production Jollyanna two years prior, and may have had some role in securing his appearance. I have yet more remarkable news about Clark and McCullough coming, so stay tuned folks!

Labels: , , , , ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home